YouTube Channel Profile Series: skam705's Channel

It's now time for our last monthly feature post of the first half of 2021, namely this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This recurring feature looks at 1-3 YouTube channels that are randomly selected from our subscriptions, in order to promote them and their content for fans and potential subscribers, and to be considered for the series, all must have at least half of their content devoted to local metal, hard rock, and/or punk artists and/or concerts. This month's selection is a doozy, but an extensive doozy for local punk music & extreme sports fans, so here's what you should know!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

skam705's channel (http://youtube.com/skam705)

Owner: 705 Video Magazine founder Fred Kember

Channel Timeline: Launched on August 31st, 2006; Videos posted from the beginning of 2007 until July 1st, 2011

Channel Summary: The official YouTube channel for local concert/extreme sports video diary series The 705 Video Magazine, it features a whopping 122 videos uploaded over a 4½ year period, mostly devoted to live punk & alternative concert footage filmed both locally and in Southern Ontario. Local bands like DDPBB, Downshift, Fuller, The Hangdowns, and Strictly Classified can be seen here, among many others. The majority of the other videos relate to outdoor sports, but local music can be found as backing music, and some other related content was uploaded here, like interviews and B-roll involving familiar acts.
 
Why You Should Watch: If you are at all interested in the local punk scene from the 2000s, the (VII/O/V) channel is absolutely a must watch, capturing dozens of videos from local concerts of the era, even including archival videos that weren't newly shot at the time, though it is daunting to go through all of these unless you were a diehard contemporary concertgoer. Fred deserves all the kudos in the world for the work he put in with his camera during the 705VM heyday, including via the sports videos, and while they haven't put out a new volume since #5 in 2011, visit their Facebook page for new content! Note that this channel does include videos from a number of Toronto-area events (look for videos mentioning 102.1 The Edge or SceneFest, for example), and be advised that no new standalone concert videos were uploaded after the spring of 2009, though clips and backing music from Soo talent were still used in conjunction with sports footage.

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

Guttermouth; Cram It Up Your Ass: Easily the most popular local concert (by views) on skam705's channel is when infamous California punk quartet Guttermouth headlined at the former Canadian Nightclub back in 2005, though the videos weren't uploaded there until 2007. Fred uploaded eleven videos from their set, plus a pre-show interview with Guttermouth, and a video of a fan sharing a beer with frontman Mark Atkins, but did not post any of openers Pulley or The Inner City Surfers. I'm not going to get into Guttermouth's divisive lyrics & viewpoints here, but fans are definitely into their lively skate punk sound in these clips, both via original songs & select covers, and while the camera quality hasn't aged well in 16 years, this is suitably raw for a classic punk show! All thirteen Guttermouth videos are easily viewable through the above links, though "Cram It Up Your Ass" is the channel's only video so far to have been viewed over 10,000 times.

 

Don't Talk: No local band was filmed more for the (VII/O/V) channel than 2000s punk cover supergroup Bin Hawdon & The Taliband, who star in 20 videos that Fred shot. With the exception of a Descendents cover at The Oddfellows Hall, these videos all come from their set at the former Foggy Notions (now Coch's Corner) in December 2006, and you can see Mikey, Lucas, Mark, and Aaron covering everyone from The Misfits and NOFX to Operation Ivy and fellow locals The Hangdowns, with their rendition of GG Allin's "Don't Talk To Me" featured here. The quality of these videos is similarly limited in hindsight, not helped by dark lighting, but Bin Hawdon & The Taliband's eclectic setlist, on-stage attire, and sensibilities are on full display across all of these videos, and if you want to see a largely complete set of theirs, skam705 had you covered!

 

 

(705)VM Volume 5 - Nebraska Arms: One of the more obviously local music-related videos from the lead-up to volume 5 of the 705 Video Magazine is this video featuring defunct local indie punk quartet Nebraska Arms playing their original song "I Was A Runner" at The Grand Theatre when they opened for SNFU & EndProgram here in May 2009, though the video proper didn't go up until July 2011, about a year after Nebraska Arms fell inactive. Filmed from a corner angle from The Grand Theatre's balcony, the video feed alternates between the band proper and footage of Josh Kunanec & Jake Trumble snowboarding and skiing. Fitting soundtrack, and Guy (R.I.P.), Wayne, Dave, and Adam sound strong and up-tempo on this familiar original performance! Just a shame that there weren't more fans on the floor. Numerous videos of both SNFU & EndProgram's sets can be seen on this channel as well, but Nepean punk band Snatchback and fellow local openers The Scary Uncles & Operation: Killdozer are nowhere to be found.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! Next month in this series, our random selection has given us the channel of YouTube user RezThrasher, featuring 8 videos from defunct local hard rock quartet Garden of Bedlam, so look for that on or around July 26th, and stay tuned for a new news post of some kind by Monday! Thanks everyone!

A New Video From Mike Haggith & Much More Recent News & Notes!!

(Updated at 6:12 PM) Before we begin, I wanted to give our belated condolences to the family & friends of Soo Profile Magazine founder and publisher James Mancuso, who passed away on August 20th of last year at the age of 58. You can read his obituary at this link, as well as The Sault Star's article about him, and he was survived by his wife Pon, his mother, two brothers, and other extended family. The Soo Profile was published from July 2009 until July 2019, and was available to read for free at various local businesses. Covering local history and culture in a way other publications weren't doing in the 2010s (especially post-Townies), the magazine occasionally intersected with The Sault Metal Scene, notably via late 2010s cover stories on local musicians like Greg Simpson, Ric Datson, and Tammy Hill. In it's early years, I even sent in concert listings for them to include in issues, for which I thank James for the early exposure!

Beyond the Soo Profile, James lived a full life, including a stint as an English & art teacher in Taiwan, establishing the Mancuso School of Fine Arts locally, and working in news video production in Halifax. Sadly, The Soo Profile has not continued production under a new publisher, and their website's domain name has expired, but you can still see covers and issue fragments from their decade-long run on their Facebook page. I didn't know James well, but he was a kind and talented person in multiple avenues, and he is definitely missed by those that met and worked with him. R.I.P. James!

Now, today's post features new videos from two familiar sights & some more news, but we'll start with local/Thompson, Manitoba solo musician Mike Haggith's fourth #LockdownLive after-show, which live-streamed on his Facebook page on Sunday night! As teased in this video to promote what to expect for this episode, the 33 minute video starts with us meeting Mike's cat Artemis, before discussing what went down in #LockdownLive X the previous day, and addressing the share contest where whoever shared yesterday's live-stream the most would pick a song that Mike has to cover on #LockdownLive XI on Saturday. This time, the video was shared 593 times, and the winner with 181 shares was Re:Born frontwoman Elly McWatters for a second straight week! Mike called her to announce the winner again, and she nominated "Sugar Daddy" from the musical Hedwig & The Angry Inch, specifically mentioning the Neil Patrick Harris version at the Tony Awards.

The amusing discussion about how Mike will approach this cover is worth a listen alone, so we'll have to see how things look on Saturday! Mike also lets Elly pick a song from "If Ever Comes The Day" to perform to help end the video, and she chose "Take Back The Moon", but commenters also requested "2145", so he ended up playing both, before wrapping the video and teasing the next #LockdownLive and possible changes to the share contest. Entertaining and informative video all around, so give it a look below, and stay tuned #LockdownLive XI on Saturday night!



Speaking of Re:Born, I was contacted via e-mail recently by that band's original lead singer Robert Nevitt, asking if I'd be interested in featuring some recent videos that he's posted on his personal Facebook page. These haven't been publically shared elsewhere, but as Robert asked, that's appropriate consent to feature them here! Since we last saw him on stage with the now defunct Big Mistake (their Facebook page was taken down, in any event), he has posted three videos of him covering songs for 45+ minutes, karaoke style, which you can watch here, here, and embedded below. I won't give these a blow-by-blow recap given how they were uploaded, but it's great to see Robert staying busy and keeping his solid vocals sharp! In the video below, you can hear him cover The Tragically Hip, The Barenaked Ladies, Rehab, Otis Redding, The Isley Brothers, Elvis Presley, Seven Mary Three, AC/DC, and Lynyrd Skynyrd, among many others there and above.

Unless you saw one of his few live appearances with his old bands or at The Soo's Got Talent 2018, you may not be familiar with his vocal style, but he has a nice melodic tone and good grit when need be, and he definitely has a diverse range of material that he can do, so his karaoke videos at home are definitely worth checking out above and below!



Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist or company name:

• Sault Michigan hard rock band Tarnished did not play a live-streamed concert on Facebook at all last week due to Alex and Josh moving their at-home live-stream setup to their regular recording studio, as per their Facebook page on Thursday. They plan to announce more details this week, which will reportedly involve full-band live-streams of some kind, so if you've been curious to see Nathan and Gary take part too, keep the above information in mind!
• I have deleted local recording sudio Scholomance Studio from our "Other Sault Michigan Metal Links" due to the closure of it's Facebook group, and there are no equivalent pages to replace it with. Launched by Werehold Records founder Jason Mills back in 2014 towards releases by label acts, the studio was primarily active through 2015, and was one of the presumed casualties of Werehold's closure in 2018. Look for new music from Jason in his current project X's & Y's soon, hopefully!
• I have deleted Sault Ontario live event sound company Twin City Sound & Entertainment from our "Other Sault Ontario Metal Links" section due to the deletion of their Facebook (and only online) page. Led by then-Mourning Wood bandmates Terry Eaton & Steven Flint, Twin City Sound worked assorted concerts from at 2014-2016, including the 2016 Speak Easy Battle of the Bands, but updates were slim to none in the late 2010s, even before Steven left Soundcheck. Hopefully we hear more from both guys soon! 

That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

Toystock VII Fallout, News Coverage, And Videos!!

As you may know, the seventh annual Toystock charity concert went down this past Sunday at The Northern Grand Gardens, and it was another hit for both attendees and Christmas Cheer donations alike, so let's devote an entire post to fallout from that day! Among this year's news coverage was this SooToday article by Darren Taylor, which features quotes from co-organizer Kerry Simpson, details on the then-still-ongoing concert, and two photos each from The Algo Rhythms' and Case's Music students' sets, plus one of donated toys. Good promotion for Toystock VII, and hopefully it encouraged some late attendees to head down there! A linked photo album courtesy of attendee Sandi Wheeler also includes more photos from early in the day, though aside from a video of Brendan Hodgson's set, it's focused on the donations and vendors. Sault This Week's Allana Plaunt was also on hand for Toystock last week, covering the event and interviewing Kerry again for this Wednesday's front page story. It's a brief article with no large focus on the musicians, but again, the positive promotion is great to see!

Sault Online's Megan Pounder was also in attendance for this article on Toystock, and it's a longer piece with more reflections on the concert aspect, including remarks from Kerry's husband and co-organizer Greg Simpson, plus local radio DJ Jeff McNiece, who played on Sunday with The Jeff & Jeff Show. This article has a few minor spelling notes, but it's great to see some more in-depth local news coverage! There are a few photos there too, but again, not of the bands. And much to my surprise, CTV News Northern Ontario were also on hand, with journalist Lincoln Louttit filing this report in both video and text formats on Monday, so if you watched the MCTV News that day, this will be old hat! In this case, both the video piece and text article feature remarks from both Greg and Kerry, as well as three attending fans, while you do get brief footage of The Bearded Lounge and The Jeff & Jeff Show's opening sets. It's great to see CTV stop in to cover Toystock, it's proof the event is growing bigger and bigger!

Regarding videos, let's first touch on some clips of local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck, courtesy of drummer Glen Thomas' YouTube channel on Wednesday! There are more clips on personal Facebook pages from Sunday night, not to mention more non-Toystock videos we haven't addressed yet on Glen's channel, but we'll focus on his two public Toystock videos today. One is of his annual drumkit giveaway to a lucky child in attendance, with two more being donated for the cause that night as well. Glen's been donating personally refurbished drumkits for Christmas Cheer over the past two decades, and it's great to see him continue giving back at this time of year, so give that video a look! As for Soundcheck proper, Glen shared this video of them playing a 13 minute-long medley, including versions of David Wilcox's "Riverboat Fantasy", Journey's "Don't Stop Believing", Metallica's "Enter Sandman", Boston's "Foreplay/Long Time", ...

...Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer", and Van Halen's "Jamie's Cryin'", before ending with a reprise of "Riverboat Fantasy". For reference, singer/guitarists Travis Sharpe and Terry Eaton split lead vocal duties on the individual songs (Travis did Journey, Boston, and Bon Jovi, Terry did the rest, and they did backing vocals for each other.) Despite some attendee heads getting in the way, Soundcheck sound in fine form here, and they handle these classic rock hits (with a dash of metal) with their usual professional yet lively manner! Give Soundcheck's Toystock medley a look below, and don't miss them at Reggie's West TONIGHT!

Finally for today, here's one more video from Toystock VII, courtesy of one more local news service that stopped by the event, namely Soo Profile Magazine! This follows the magazine's cover feature on Toystock co-organizer and Bone Yard/Bearded Lounge frontman Greg Simpson in their current issue, which goes into nice detail on his musical career and recent country work. Admittedly, I'd have liked to have seen a little more detail on his old hard rock bands Stiffler's Mom and That's Chester, but this is still a must read for fans of Greg's extensive musical resume in the Soo! As for that Toystock video, it's of local acoustic hard rock trio The Wyld Stallyns, as live streamed by attendee Marcy Catherine and shared to Soo Profile's Facebook page shortly thereafter.  The video features the Elements side project covering Prince's "Kiss" in a folksy acoustic style, but the focus of the video could arguably go to Mr. Bon Soo himself, who came to meet the kids in attendance on Sunday.

Everyone looks like they're having fun, and The Wyld Stallyns handle this somewhat out-of-left-field cover pretty well, so give this video a look below, stay tuned for more from The Wyld Stallyns soon, and look for copies of The Soo Profile Magazine at select local businesses!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post next! Thanks everyone!