Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Operation: Killdozer & Batteries Not Included

For this month's installment of our Defunct Local Band Profile Series, we're looking at 2 bands for the eighth time in the past nine months due to the first selected band having a limited amount of surviving information. Also, as we're straddling the end and beginning of two of our cycles for which city to cover in the series (1-1-1-1-1), we're looking at two Sault Ontario bands in the same month for the first time since 2010, but there's some solid talent within this month's bands, and a lot of familiar faces, so read on below to check out these new profiles!
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Operation: Killdozer

Genre: Extreme/Hardcore Metal

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Members:  (Members not in their last full lineup in italics. This information may be incorrect. Message me at robertfigures@outlook.com if you have any additions or corrections!)

Jason Bourcier (Winkstinger, Fitswitch), vocals
Jesse Cook (Jack Spades, The Elements), guitar
Ryan Disano? (Caveman Morrison, Winkstinger), bass
Jonas Gasperas (Winkstinger, Soldiers of Misfortune), drums
Justin Lam (The Bear Hunters, Jack Spades), bass 

Info/Analysis: A short lived metal band that was active in the spring of 2009, Operation: Killdozer united alumni of Soldiers of Misfortune, Fitswitch, and D.O.T.H. for their debut at the YMCA Battle of the Bands at The Grand Theater on March 20th, 2009, where they placed fourth out of seven bands. After the departure of bassist Justin Lam, Killdozer played one last live concert on May 5th at The Grand when they opened for hardcore punk legends SNFU. The band is presumed to have disbanded that summer, while the band's instrumental members formed Winkstinger the following year, even retaining some Killdozer originals with new lyrics. Amusingly limiting Facebook group posts to self-deprecating insults, Operation: Killdozer had a lot of brutal promise and talent from their only live dates, and Jason's vocals fit nicely, but they didn't last long enough to see how far they really could have went. At least Winkstinger's early 2010s run kept the same style and intensity going, but check out Killdozer's only surviving public video below, which is of their original "Pieces of You" at the battle, which became Winkstinger's "Where'd We Go Wrong"!


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Batteries Not Included

Genre: Hard/Classic Rock

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Members:

Ian Connell, guitar/vocals
Keith Gagnon (Free Beer), guitar/vocals
Ryan Gray (Free Beer), bass/vocals
T.J. Case (Asylum Country, Jack Spades), drums

Audio/Video: No media of Batteries Not Included is known to exist online in a publically viewable form, and while their website features pages for media and setlist links, all have expired or were never updated. It should be noted that a SooToday article by David Helwig said that that the band covered Metallica, AC/DC, and Ozzy Osbourne at a July 2004 date at the Bellevue Park Bandshell, but that's our only direct material hint. For reference sake, Keith and Ryan's mid-2000s metal band Sindicate likely shared the most similarities with B.N.A. out of the members' later projects. 

Info/Analysis: Batteries Not Included were a young hard rock band that formed in late 2003, and they were likely active through early 2005. Primarily playing outdoor events in 2004 at venues like The Roberta Bondar Pavilion & at Bellevue Park (though their site teased a Foggy Notions appearance), activity stalled after their last website updates that August. I can't really judge Batteries Not Included given the lack of media, and I'm not familiar with Ian musically, but the rest of the band has proved their talent since, and much like Garage Inc., they expanded on that into far more successful (and mainly lighter) projects in the coming decade, so be sure to follow their more recent music work!
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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! We'll have yet another two band installment next month due to the first randomly selected band having minimal surviving information, but we'll kick things off back in Sault Michigan, so who's next in this series? Defunct Sault Michiagn hard rock band Riot! By Night (featuring Absolute, Oddfellow, and Elipzis alumni) and the short lived Sault Ontario metal project Face First, whose members co-formed Changing Waves a few months after their run! Watch out for these profiles on or around May 10th, and stay tuned for weekend concert previews shortly! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Caveman Morrison), Lion Ride's Newest Song, And Much More!!

Yes, we have more David Gold tribute concert fallout to get to (including new videos and updates from both the Toronto event last Thursday and the local concert on Saturday), but I wanted to squeeze in some more assorted news and notes from the last while tonight so it didn't get pushed back further. The new bands post from this morning (check it out below this post) also didn't help for these stories, but we've got a lot of notable stories tonight, including LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, a new page from a formerly local band, a defunct quintet's newest song, early updates on a local concert festival, and lots of assorted news and notes, so here's what you need to know!

Three weeks after their current lineup debuted at The Nicolet Tavern, popular local metal trio Caveman Morrison will return to the Albert Street venue next weekend for two more concerts! These come one week after their next shows this weekend at The Roosevelt Hotel, and it's good to see Tym and company staying busy! Note that the Friday show next weekend conflicts with drummer Johnny Belanger's scheduled appearance at the Sault Humane Society Battle of the Bands with The Bear Hunters, though I assume he could play at both if The Bear Hunters' set was early enough that day. If I hear any updates or changes to the status of either band or Johnny's involvement next Friday, I'll let you guys know! Admission should be free for both of Caveman Morrison's shows on April 20th & 21st, you must be 19 to attend, and they both have likely 10:00 PM start times. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! It's good to see Caveman Morrison bringing their hard rock and metal covers to some more gigs this spring, and hopefully this trend keeps up! Stay tuned for more updates!

Next up, here's a newly posted Lion Ride song! No, they haven't reunited following their February breakup, but on Monday, a studio version of their Pointer Sisters cover "I'm So Excited" was posted onto their reactivated YouTube channel! It's cool to see a new video posted there after almost three years, but it's even cooler to hear a new song from the prominent local metal quintet, even if posthumous! A frequent addition in their later concert setlists, I assume this is the fourth song that they recorded at BWC Studios in Toronto in 2010 towards their unfinished second CD (joining "Stick It In", "Snail Trail", and the yet-to-be-released "Bang Bang, Bye Bye"), though this could be a bonus cover for all we know. It's good to hear this in full studio quality, and it sounds nice and energetic like I expected, though hopefully the remaining material from their 2010 sessions are posted online soon as well! Check out Lion Ride's cover of "I'm So Excited" below, and I never noticed that Jessie Spano was a Lion Ride fan before! Maybe I should watch more Saved By The Bell.



Thirdly, a formerly local metal band has finally launched a Facebook page, that being Sue Inside! The band best known for their duo appearances at local battles of the bands in 2008 & 2009 have mostly kept their online presences to just CBC Radio 3 & YouTube since relocating to Southern Ontario, but it's good to see them launch what I assume will be an outlet for more frequent band news! Now credited as also being from London (drummer Jeff Vogel's current home), their new Facebook page mentions that their music is "for the mind", and that they're working on music to start gigging, something they've done rarely at best since moving from the Soo. Lots of photos of both their current & older lineups (including bassist Adam Veen) are posted there, along with links to their new SoundCloud page, featuring two new original recordings! Both aren't brand new, but they include their acoustic instrumental "Hermit" and their groove metal track "Caligula", both of which are good for their respective genres! "Hermit" is closer to their most recent work from frontman Shane Fraser's YouTube channel, but "Caligula" has a solid catchy metal sound that I'd love to hear more of, and their current incarnation sounds good here! Solid work, so check out the latest from Sue Inside at the above links, and I'll have more as it comes in!

Also in the news, are you guys curious about helping out or participating in this year's LemmaFest? After the successful debut for the Michael Lemma memorial concert festival last summer, a second installment is scheduled for June 23rd outside of Dondee Lanes, and updates are coming in via their official Facebook page. That said, a meeting will be held TOMORROW NIGHT at the Dondee at around 8:00 PM, and Gary Hatch from Grooves Music will be on hand to answer questions relating to the bands and what will be provided. Organizers are hoping that band members interested in participating will come to voice their opinions and ask questions, so if you wanna be a part, I'd say come to the Dondee tomorrow night at 8:00 PM! As for the lineup as it currently stands, only two bands have been 100% confirmed, those being Brimley metal quartet Half A Man and local cover rock band Chump Change, both of which feature alumni from last year's LemmaFest (Infathom's Dillion Semasky and Bucksaw's Jason VanLuven.) As well, former local musician David Waite (From The Ashes of Angels) has voiced interest in coming home to play at LemmaFest this year with his Colorado acoustic project Jibber N' The Beanie, but they have not been confirmed by organizers yet.

Hopefully LemmaFest gets another solid lineup of Michigan talent this year, so that this year's event can be bigger & better like they're striving for! As a point of reference, last year's LemmaFest featured 10 bands, and they included heavier acts like the aforementioned Infathom, the since-disbanded Swayze Train & Great Bodily Harm, and the still-active Powerslug & Scofflaw. Will we see some of the above performers back this year? Time will tell, but as more LemmaFest updates roll in, I'll absolutely have them here!

And finally for today, here's some assorted stories from the last little while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by band name:

• Former Banned bassist Alex Schrovenwever rejoined his former band on guest guitar & vocals at their most recent "job" on March 17th at The Bird in Sault Michigan, as cited from their Facebook page. As far as I can tell, this was a one-off appearance for this concert, but at least it seems to indicate that Alex's departure from Banned last fall was amicable. Stay tuned for more Banned updates as they come in!
• Kincheloe metal band Chained Memories have announced the addition of Mikaela White as their new bassist, replacing Sean Roush, who has since replaced drummer Mike Rynberg as their primary singer. The news was confirmed last week on their Facebook page. I'm not familiar with Mikaela musically, but hopefully she'll add to the all of the talented female musicians in the Sault Michigan area!
• I've edited our YMCA Battle of the Bands profile to note some more things about 4th place finishers Operation: Killdozer, notably that their guitarist was Winkstinger's Jesse Cook, and that half of their lineup moved on to Winkstinger the following year. I also added a link to a video of Operation: Killdozer playing their original "Pieces of You" at that March 2009 battle. It's not new, but I only recently found the link again. The quality isn't great, but note that the song sounds very similar to Winkstinger's original "Where'd We Go Wrong", which doesn't seem to be a coincidence!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more David Gold memorial concert fallout and weekend concert previews shortly! Thanks everyone!

Battle Of The Bands Rewind Mini-Series: The YMCA Battle Of The Bands

It's time for our third entry in our Battle of the Bands Rewind Mini-Series, and as we inch closer and closer to the next Sault Ontario battle of the bands on April 20th, we've got another recent area battle to profile! This week's comes from almost three years ago in one of 2009's first local battles, and we're gonna look at who performed, what happened, where the bands are now, and other assorted information and media from that night! So read on below for our third of 7 profiles in this special battle of the bands profile mini-series at the SMS, and of course, e-mail me at robertfigures@hotmail.com if there's anything missing or incorrect! (Updated on February 8th, 2016)
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The YMCA Battle of the Bands (March 20th, 2009)

Background: Local theater group YMCA Rocks held this battle of the bands on March 20th, 2009 at the then-Lock City Grand Theater as a companion to their rock opera "Nothing To Do In Sault Ste. Marie", about three boys who defeat a horde of zombies. Admission was by donation to YMCA Strong Kids, and despite early fears of low attendance to the removal of alcohol sales from the event, a good crowd turned out to support the young local bands, most of which were relatively new on the local music scene. Each band received 20 minutes to perform (and take down instruments), and original material was encouraged. Though the planned awards were to go to the best original song, stage presence, and overall performance, awards instead went to the top 4 bands overall out of the 7 who competed.

Prizes: Recording time at Green Room Productions went to first place, while they and the other top bands won various prizes from Stereo Soul Studios, the YMCA, local music stores Case's Music, The Music Depot, Northland Music, and the Thomas Walls School of Music, and former local CD store CD Plus. Specifics for who won what prizes were announced at the event, but aren't available on surviving pages.

Competitors: Eight bands were selected to compete at this battle, and though only seven ended up participating, a good selection of newer local bands gathered to compete at this event. Metal was the most prominent genre of the night, including new local metal bands Operation: Killdozer and The Undead Warriors, and Skid Row battle alums Sue Inside. Indie rock was also well represented at this event by newer local indie rock outfits Train Junky and Waterslide, with the lineup rounded out by glam/punk quartet Dirty Virgin and blues rockers The Glass Statues.

Results: The Undead Warriors burst onto the local scene with a first place victory at this battle of the bands, despite lineup shuffling due to drummer Joey Graham's absence. Dirty Virgin's glam and punk sounds carried them to second place, while The Glass Statues took home the bronze for their entertaining set. Operation: Killdozer rounded out the award winners in fourth place, and rankings for the remaining three bands were not publicized.

Aftermath: The Undead Warriors (later best known as Bring the Fallen) rode the wave of their battle victory to a further two battle wins in three tries over the next 14 months. They also opened for notable bands like Upheaval of an Exorcist & Broadcast Zero during their local run, and recorded material towards an unreleased debut EP in the winter of 2009, before disbanding in the spring of 2011 following numerous rumours of their demise, though they held a one-off reunion in July 2013. Dirty Virgin continued to play sporadically through the end of 2009, after which the band went inactive, though they would reunite for one-off shows in the spring of 2011 & 2012. The Glass Statues played notable gigs in the Algoma District through the summer of 2009 before disbanding after guitarist Ben Kemp-Reynolds moved to British Columbia. Operation: Killdozer went inactive in mid-2009, but they did play one further concert after the battle, opening for punk legends SNFU at the Grand that May with an altered lineup. Half of their YMCA Battle lineup notably launched the extreme metal band Winkstinger the following year. Train Junky & Waterslide both presumably went inactive shortly after the battle, and online details about their history and other concerts under those names are very hard to source. Like the Skid Row battle, Sue Inside were the last continuously active band to play at this battle, having last updated online pages from their final home of Oil Springs in April 2012.

Some Notable Performers' Newer Bands (Metal/hard rock in italics):
The Bear Hunters (Justin Lam from Operation: Killdozer & Josh Stephney from The Undead Warriors)
Debt To The Heirless (Dan Souliere from The Undead Warriors)
The Elements (Jesse Cook from Operation: Killdozer) 
Giwakwa (Josh Stephney* & Nolan Rainville from The Undead Warriors)
Jack Spades (Jesse Cook & Justin Lam from Operation: Killdozer)
Late & Loud (Benn Garside & Josh Hatherley from The Glass Statues)
No Arrow (Jason Bourcier from Operation: Killdozer)
Rebel Priest (Ben Kemp-Reynolds from from The Glass Statues; Based out of Vancouver)
Riverin (Matt Hicks from Dirty Virgin)
Winkstinger (Jason Bourcier*, Jesse Cook, and Jonas Gasperas from Operation: Killdozer)

Trivia:

• The eighth band scheduled for this battle of the bands would have been local indie rock quintet The Outside Lights, who featured 3/5ths of the Stillbroke lineup that took 1st place at the previous year's Case's Music Battle. However, the band quietly pulled out of the event for unknown reasons.
• Undead Warriors frontman Josh Stephney filled in for the absent Joey Graham (who had sprained his wrist) on drums for their set at this battle. leaving guitarist (and former AtrophiA singer) Dan Souliere to handle vocals. Similarly to their shorthanded debut at this battle, they were missing a member for their final battle win in May 2010, as bassist Nolan Rainville was absent from Bring The Fallen's Downtown Showdown appearance.
• The Undead Warriors (then known as Necropolis) used the recording time won at this battle to record the songs for their 5 song EP "Stand Before" that summer with producer Brad Griffith, though Travis St. Amour (ex-Fountain of Betrayal) replaced Joey Graham on drums beforehand. Financial concerns & their 2011 breakup shelved the release for 4 years, but who we now know as Bring The Fallen finally released "Stand Before" during their one-off reunion show at Oddzfest 2013 Metal Mash-Up on July 26th, 2013.
• After The Undead Warriors' name change to Bring The Fallen and their drummer switch, they would win a further two local battles of the bands out of three entered in 2009 & 2010, including the Algoma Univeristy Battle on December 1st, 2009. They only fell short at the Kiss Battle of the Bands Semifinals later that same day.
• Operation: Killdozer's original song "Pieces of You" (which was filmed at this battle & posted on YouTube) didn't die with the band when they went inactive that summer. Their successors Winkstinger resurrected the track with new lyrics after their 2010 formation, under the new name "Where'd We Go Wrong".
• Sue Inside repeated their results from the Skid Row Battle of the Bands the previous year at this battle, finishing outside of the top 4 out of 7 bands once again. Despite their low finishes at local battles of the bands, Sue Inside are the only band of the 13 acts that played at the Skid Row & YMCA battles to remain consistently alive through 2012.
• Following their runner-up position at this battle, Dirty Virgin were among the participants at the Kiss Battle of the Bands opening round at The Canadian Nightclub on November 30th, 2009, though they were disqualified for attempting to play an extra song. As well, drummer Matt Hicks left the band before their Kiss battle set, with Dickie Blackstock handling drums until the end of their active run in 2010.
• Battle organizer Brad Griffith later took a stab at battle of the bands the following year as a competitor, finishing fourth at the Downtown Showdown battle at The Oddfellows Hall in May 2010 with his experimental hard rock trio SBD.
• A number of alumni from this battle performed at the Sault Humane Society Battle of the Bands at The Grand Theater on April 20th, 2012, where Glass Statues bandmates Benn Garside & Josh Hatherley scored a razor thin first place victory with Late & Loud, along with picking up the "Best Ensemble" trophy. Undead Warriors frontman Josh Stephney & Operation: Killdozer bassist Justin Lam also competed at the battle with their current band The Bear Hunters, and though they fell just a point short of tying for third place, Justin did win the "Best Bassist" award.
• The aforementioned performers that played at both the YMCA & Humane Society battles would also compete at the Rockstar Bar Battle of the Bands in April 2013, where Late & Loud and The Bear Hunters placed fourth & fifth in the final round on April 24th. As well, The Undead Warriors' Josh Stephney fronted his new death metal band Giwakwa in the third semifinal on April 17th, where they placed second of that day's 3 bands, though out of finals contention.
• Operation: Killdozer's similar sounding successor band Winkstinger (featuring common members Jesse Cook & Jonas Gasperas) would take first place at the Battle For The Blood in June 2012 at The Roosevelt Hotel, earning them the right to open for 3 Inches of Blood the following month. This victory continued Jesse & Jonas' battle success, having won at least one battle in the mid-2000s with their old band Soldiers of Misfortune. Killdozer frontman Jason Bourcier would later join Winkstinger in his own right in 2013, albeit on bass.
• After two previous tries with The Bear Hunters came up short, Operation: Killdozer bassist Justin Lam finally won a battle of the bands with them on November 13th, 2013, winning the fan-voted Viva La Battle at The Canadian Nightclub that night, and earning the right to open for Bam Margera's band Fuckface Unstoppable the following month. Though Josh Stephney moved out of town prior to that battle, he came home to play with them at the F.F.U. concert.
• Justin Lam also saw battle success at 2015's Speak Easy and VM Radio Battles of the Bands, where The Bear Hunters finished in third and second respectively, though Josh Stephney was absent from both events. Newer indie rock band Honest Job also competed at the latter battle, where they played a song named "Waterslide" after the prior local trio, but it's unclear if the two bands share members based on currently available media.

Videos:
Two videos from The Undead Warriors' set
Three videos from Dirty Virgin's set
Three videos from The Glass Statues' set
Operation: Killdozer's original song "Pieces of You"




Sources/More Information:
Coverage & photos from SooToday
The Facebook event page
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Hopefully you guys liked this month's entry in this special mini-series! Barring the addition of a new battle (I'm open for info to warrant additions), we'll mark the halfway point of the seven week run next Friday, and we'll do it with the biggest battle of them all! Next up in this series is a look back at the Kiss Battle of the Bands from November 30th-December 2nd, 2009, where 20 local bands gathered for the right to open for Kiss at The Essar Center! This should be well worth checking out come next week, so stay tuned for that, and much more news in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

News From Sense Of Truth, Operation: Killdozer, The Bird, And More!!

Today's news post should be interesting, because all of the stories today relate to stuff from the past we've either missed or hoped to find! So today, we have some link updates, the discovery of pages (finally) for a local concert venue, a defunct local band's page, and this week's classic video, but first, here's some big news from Sense of Truth!

We're now 11 months removed from Sense of Truth's most recent local concert, and through that time, the rumours of their debut EP's eventual release have been ongoing. We know that there's been holdups due to band member work commitments, the issues related to the album artwork, and now, their guitarist search, and over that span, the most we've publically heard are some scattered radio airplay and the samples on their MySpace page. With that said, I was browsing the newly redesigned website of Stereo Soul Studios, where they recorded their EP with Miguel Gauthier in February before he moved to Los Angeles. Since the last time I've been there, I found some interesting stuff on the recording studio page: Two full songs from the EP and it's apparent artwork! The songs posted are "Push & Pull" (a current preview track on MySpace) and one new track unavailable on other pages, "Vicious Cycle"! Nice to see that on the EP, I was thinking it'd make the cut! This reminds me of when Woods of Ypres' "Our Union (In Limbo)" was posted by Miguel in 2009 before the band acknowledged it. I won't give detailed thoughts on either "Push & Pull" or "Vicious Cycle" yet, as I am waiting to review the full EP, but they're solid tracks, click here to listen! (third band down.)

Oh, and the artwork? Kinda plain, but it works well! As you can see by the picture, it's likely a self-titled release, and I still love their ambigram wordmark! Odd that this type of album cover could be so problematic, but really, I don't know much concerning album packaging. Nice stuff though, I'll keep you all posted!

Next up, here's a new band to add to the SMS listings! Well, not really "new", they broke up in 2009, but the page was only just added. Do you guys remember Operation: Killdozer? They were the local metal group from the spring of 2009 that featured notable local musicians like former Fitswitch bassist Jason Bourcier on vocals, WinkStinger drummer Jonas Gasperas, and Bear Hunters bassist Justin Lam, among others. I believe they only played two shows, the YMCA Battle of the Bands and at that year's SNFU concert, both taking place at The Grand Theater. I enjoyed them, but they didn't last too long, and for almost two years, I had no page for them.... until now! They in fact did have a Facebook group, which Jonas started, but the thing that threw me off was the self-deprecating tone of it, that featured fans and band members alike trashing Operation: Killdozer on levels that made the group look like it was anti-band. Well, it's in fact Operation: Killdozer's page, and it has some photos, amusing statements, and not a whole lot else. Still, there's enough to include them on the SMS, so click here to check out their Facebook group! If you wanna hear them, click here to check out a video of the band playing a song named "Pieces Of You"! Quality aside, it wasn't a bad performance!

Thirdly, here's some notes on a popular Sault Michigan bar/concert spot. Since we started covering Sault Michigan bands and shows in the summer of 2007, The Bird on East Portage Avenue have been a recurring sight when discussing local shows. However, we've never had an internet page for them... until now! As it turns out, they've had a MySpace page since at least April 2009, but it's not in use anymore. That's not all though, as they have no less than two Facebook pages! This one is a standard "fan page", while you can check out their page formatted like a normal Facebook account by clicking here. The latter page has been around since December, while the fan page was launched in February. What do they tell us about The Bird? Well, for one, that's not even technically it's name. Their official name is Golanka's Bar, a reference to the owner, but nowhere do people seem to call it that officially, as The Bird seems to be the casual use name for the bar (a'la The Rosie & The Frog.) Neither page has much in the way of concert news, though a past Splitshot concert weekend had a connected event page for it. Still, check the above links for photos, drink special news, and more! If anything metal concert-related pops up on a Bird page, I'll let you all know!

Now, here's some assorted updates to some of the links in our "Other Local Metal Links" section, where we store metal-relevant links that don't fit in other categories on the site. Firstly, I switched links for the defunct Northern Ontario music publication Northern Rocks Magazine, as their website has now expired, presumably due to a failure to renew the domain name. Shame, it was a good site, and the back issues were fun reads! I replaced it with their inactive Facebook group, so we didn't have to remove it! I did have to delete the MySpace page for Woods of Ypres' defunct independent label Krankenhaus Records, as it has no relevant information anymore, and the new MySpace layout crippled it's theme. Odd that there's no page for it's successor Practical Art Records yet, I'll let you know if I find one! Also, I deleted the link for SooNews.ca, which is now completely dead with all old archive news also shut down. I replaced it with it's successor site, LOCAL2, which is bound to have metal news eventually! Two more pages were deleted, those being the inactive local music forum The 705 Music Scene (which had all of it's threads taken down in lieu of it's replacement, the 705 Video Magazine) and the defunct concert venue Arcadia Coffeehouse, whose website was made private, so we can't view it anymore without an invite. For more, check the above links!

And finally, here's this week's classic video! I actually had two reasons for picking this one: A. The band in question is playing this weekend, and B. This video is being deleted from it's original site on April 29th. What do I mean? Well, Google recently announced that they're planning to delete all of the videos hosted on their old Google Video service, which basically became obsolete when they purchased YouTube. As such, this would cause the permanent deletion of all videos originally uploaded onto Google Video, unless you transfer them to YouTube or physically download them and re-post them elsewhere. I contemplated doing a miniseries of local metal-relevant videos from there on the SMS, but aside from the Gates of Winter videos that are now completely on YouTube, there's little there that would fit on the SMS. However, I did find one classic video on there, and it's a live video of As It Stands from before their initial breakup! This is of the band playing an original song (name unknown) at what I believe is the March 31st, 2007 Oddfellows Hall show where they opened for Dead & Divine the first time around! The band's current lineup is intact here, and the band sound good, but the audio's fairly scratchy. Despite the quality, you can tell their sound's really evolved since then, but it's still a good performance!

Uploaded by an uncredited Google Video user in April 2007, this video can be viewed through April 29th at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3172072824223605483, when it (and all other Google Video uploads) will be deleted. So I ripped it from there to post on the SMS' YouTube channel, and NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED! This video would be gone from the internet next week if I didn't grab it anyway, so give it a look below, and make sure to check out the much improved As It Stands TONIGHT at The Rosie!



That's all for today, but I will see you guys at The Rosie TONIGHT! Thanks everyone!