Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Andrew Angelic & The Pisstanks

After a quiet weekend, we are back with this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles on this Monday morning! This ongoing monthly feature series looks at 1 or 2 defunct or inactive metal, hard rock, or punk acts from the area, in order to spotlight them and their run for current readers, with bands being randomly selected from our links the previous month! As the first selected project has minimal public information, we randomly chose a second band with no media to round things out, and as we're starting a new 2-1-3-1-2-1 rotation between the Twin Saults this month, both are from Sault Ontario. Here's what you should know on both acts!
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Andrew Angelic

Genre: Metal (though "Crunk/Pop" was jokingly listed upon his MySpace page's launch)

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Members:

Andrew Angelic (Tortured Saint, Rattlesnake Hotel, Sativa Rose), all instruments

Info/Analysis: A familiar presence in the local metal scene with bands like Chillum, Talk Shit, and The Valentine's Day Massacre, Andrew launched his short-lived solo project in June 2011, late in his then-band Sativa Rose's local run. Activity was limited to a single untitled instrumental track before quietly closing his solo work, with Andrew focusing on his local bands until moving to London the following year. Andrew's sole original was a nicely flowing (albeit slower) original that showed his guitar abilities nicely, in spite of the softer tone and mixed audio quality, and while it's a shame his solo work didn't last longer, don't miss him in his current London band Tortured Saint!

(MySpace's audio player didn't work at press time to rip Andrew's song for embedding in this profile, despite the player appearing to load correctly. When the song is known to be streamable, or we otherwise obtain the file, we will include it here. This appears to be an issue with other MySpace pages, and not an isolated case. Apologies for any inconvenience!)
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The Pisstanks

Genre: Metal/Rockabilly

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Members:

Justin "Frenchie" Langlois (Redundant, The Scary Uncles, Fitswitch), vocals/guitar
Rick "Styles" White (Redundant, Fitswitch, Frightlight), guitar
Charles "Krazy Karl" Gibson (Fingerbone, The White Knights), bass
Glenn Lavoie (Nikkfitt), drums

Audio/Video: None to speak of, possibly due to the closure of their Geocities site, though they described their sound as if "Nirvana, Johnny Cash, Led Zeppelin and Green Day got into a fight". Justin and Rick's collaborative work in their current punk band Redundant will likely give the most plentiful source of media to compare, especially the Green Day end of things, but punk was only a partial inspiration for The Pisstanks. Multiple band members were also seen in related contemporary groups like The White Knights, Scattered, and The Quims, but none have surviving public media either.

Info/Analysis: A short-lived band that was only visibly active in the fall of 2007, The Pisstanks promoted themselves with many references to alcohol & drinking, even taking their name from a comedic Facebook group launched by Rick earlier that same year. While jam sessions were well documented on their MySpace page, their brand of "drunk rock" never made the public stage before disbanding by 2008, though Justin & Rick would collaborate more prominently with Redundant, and previously in Fitswitch. The talent & humorous gimmick were there, and while not much publically came of The Pisstanks, hopefully everyone stays musically active!
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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! For the first time in over four years, we will be profiling two bands for a third straight month, as our first randomly selected band has minimal surviving public information, so we've added a second band in a similar state to round things out. As such, we'll be looking early 2000s Sault Michigan-area death metal band Bludgeoned and 1990s Sault Ontario hard rock band Foothill Road next month. Look for these on or around October 10th, and stay tuned for more news this week! Thanks everyone!

YouTube Channel Profile Series: Rick Styles

On this 22nd of the month, here's our newest YouTube Channel Profile, our last before we formally include channels in our random selection that have a high ratio of local punk videos! This month's selection in our monthly look at YouTube channel(s) with a majorty of SMS-relevant clips takes us to a channel that's been a steady source of metal & punk action since the mid-2000s, and is owned by a very familiar face, so read on below for this month's YouTube Channel Profile!
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Rick Styles (http://www.youtube.com/fitswitch)

Owner: Frightlight guitarist Rick "Styles" White, also known as the drummer for Redundant, T-Rex Manning, and The Thrill Junkies, and for past work with bands like Fitswitch, Caveman Morrison, Browbeat, The Pisstanks, Fist Fighting Stephen Hawking, Chronic Demonic, and The Northern Mudsliders, among others

Channel Timeline: Launched on February 16th, 2006; Videos posted from that day through March 2014

Channel Summary: Originally the official YouTube channel for Rick White's popular mid-2000s punk/metal band Fitswitch, Rick began expanding the channel to include other bands & videos in December 2006, later including an early No Arrow performance and two clips referring to his old band The Pisstanks, though neither features the band playing a song. After his last Fitswitch video from one of their reunion concerts went up in the spring of 2009, later uploads would revolve around Rick's newer bands, focusing on Frightlight & Redundant through 2012, and Fist Fighting Stephen Hawking in early 2014, with his most recent video being a solo guitar cover of The Kittens' song "Great Dane".

Why Should You Watch: Rick's channel is worth checking out if you've ever been a fan of any of his more prominent bands, as it's got some solid concert footage spanning over 8 years, and the talent and live energy is present on these whether you're a punk or metal fan! Note that the quality of the videos can be sporadic (especially the older Fitswitch clips), and aside from the Redundant videos, there's no footage relating to bands that he drummed for. For reference, note that while Rick did post videos on his channel earlier this year, it's not uncommon to go months without new postings there.

Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

Suicide Girl - Fitswitch: Though Rick's most viewed video is actually of a pool party, it's not connected musically to any of his bands, so we won't embed it here. Instead, here's his second most viewed video, of Fitswitch playing their song "Suicide Girl" at a basement jam session circa September 2006, late in their original run together. Their lineup at the time featured Rick on lead guitar alongside Frightlight bandmates J.D. Pearce & Chris Thompson on vocals & drums, plus his Redundant bandmate Justin Langlois on rhythm guitar, and ex-Sense of Truth bassist Curtis Beauchamp, though with the band wearing what appear to be Jason masks, it's hard to tell without the end credits. The video is very dark too, and the colour filters don't necessarily help, but it's a strong performance musically, with a neat ambiance, and J.D.'s melodic vocals fit well throughout! Give more of Rick's Fitswitch videos from the late 2000s a look above!



Fright Light - Dead town (live): Rick uploaded two videos of his recent punk/metal band (and Fitswitch successors) Frightlight onto his channel from a concert at the old Coch's Corner on June 16th, 2010, which was the famed "secret show" that still has never been publically detailed in it's entirety as to what happened that night. All I'll say is that the events of their Toronto tour date vlog from 2012 (also from Rick's channel) bear a large common element. As for the videos, an attendee filmed Frightlight's then lineup (Rick, J.D. as "Johnny Pints", bassist Mike "Eddie Fright" Gingras, and drummer Jeff "Shrek Ogre" Richards) playing their originals "Fright Night" & "Dead Town Anywhere" that night, though the audio can be tinny through this camera, and the absence of a second guitarist is noticeable. Still, this was a solid early performance from the guys on a big night... you had to be there!



Redundant Live Halloween Show 2011 at Feedback: Running for 41 minutes, Rick's longest video comes from his current punk trio Redundant's Halloween night concert in 2011 at the former Foggy Notions (then in it's brief run as Feedback, now the current Coch's Corner.) The video features Redundant (also featuring frontman Justin Langlois & Rick's brother James on bass) in Green Day costumes playing an all-cover set, including covers of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" (with usual Metallica intro), Green Day's "Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?", Screeching Weasel's "Cool Kids", Weezer's "El Scorcho" (with usual TLC interlude), Del Shannon's "Runaway", Metallica's "Enter Sandman", Blink-182's "Dammit" (with Fitswitch alum Larry Mousseau on guest drums), Green Day's "When I Come Around" (with "Friends" theme intro), part of Tool's "Sober", and NOFX's "Bob", before a noise complaint and a police visit called the show short. Strong energetic set, and well filmed at stationary and moving angles from near the stage, so fans will enjoy the fun yet attitude fueled covers on display!


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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! Next month in this series, we'll profile a channel picked from our deepest pool yet of local channels due to the punk expansion (217 and counting!), but what channel got picked this time? Through 100% random selection, we've chosen Bad Back drummer Nathan Sauve's old YouTube channel, which features videos of him with Bad Back, Lion Ride, Fuller, and more, so there's a wide array of sounds for fans to enjoy there! Look for that on or around August 22nd, and stay tuned for more news and notes this week! Thanks everyone!