Defunct Local Band Profile Series: 20 Pack Of Marshmallows

It's now time for our latest monthly Defunct Local Band Profile, as we shine another spotlight on a local metal, hard rock, or punk band from the past, as randomly selected from our band links! This month's choice coincidentally features the former bassist of last month's profiled group (Acention), and while they didn't become concert staples outside of high school functions, they did plant seeds for big things to come from some of their members, so here's what you should know on them!

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

20 Pack Of Marshmallows (also known as Manganese, Warning, Wanko Twist, The Curtis J. McKenzie Project, and Restricted Illusions)

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Genre: Hard Rock/Grunge/Metal

Lineup: (Members not in their last full lineup are in italics. This information may be incomplete. Let us know if you can add any former band members!)

Curtis McKenzie (Haggith, Project 421), guitar/vocals
Daniel Horton (Spades GT, Haggith, Eclipse), guitar
Mikey Cachagee (Acention), bass
Daylan Dorricott, drums

Travis McKenzie, vocals/guitar
Darren Vlassoff, drums

Audio/Video: The best surviving place to hear songs from 20 Pack Of Marshmallows/The Curtis J. McKenzie Project is via Curt's old YouTube channel, which has old Dunnplugged concert videos of them playing covers, plus some early original songs. Now-deleted performances by the McKenzie brothers are linked on this page from their Wanko Twist-era Tripod site that confirm more song titles, along with Judas Priest covers. Notably, this prior project is where later Haggith originals like "Wanko", "Loverbeam", and "The Married Massacre" were first written and performed, and they were once planning to record an album named "Battle Royale" featuring their original material. Here is (as they were known then) Restricted Illusions playing "Kiss Me Goodbye" at Sir James Dunn Collegiate circa February 2010!

Info/Analysis: One of the final rock bands to come out of the Dunnplugged program before the Sir James Dunn/Bawating merger in 2010, 20 Pack Of Marshmallows (among its other names) continually featured Curtis McKenzie and Mikey Cachagee in their public lineups. Surviving material 15+ years on isn't plentiful beyond YouTube videos and what's left of their Tripod page, but Curt's 2008-2010 band work is very notable in hindsight for presaging the band Haggith, whose 2012-2016 run (including songs carried over from 2.P.O.M.) largely also featured Daniel alongside Mikey's brother Caleb, and continued the same grunge/hard rock path. Obviously, the guys were in high school then, so the quality of both the performances and the videos compared to what (especially) Curt & Dan have gotten up to since will be noticeably lesser, but the promise was definitely there, and it's worth looking up what they did then to see how they've evolved!

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

I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! Next month in this series, we're heading a few years ahead in the timeline to look at a very prominent local act from the 2010s, namely 2012-2019 doom/stoner metal trio AlgomA! Look for that on or around July 10th, and for more news and notes on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

Gates Of Winter Are BACK!!! Plus News On Stillbroke, Half Past, And More!!

Huge news here to kick off today's post, this has me VERY excited, but let's see what you guys think! Some other news stories after this, but you'll find this very intriguing! Do you miss Gates of Winter? Then check this out:



They're baaaaaaaaaack! This is, in case you couldn't tell without clicking, a short 2010 demo clip for a NEW GATES OF WINTER SONG! It's called "The Stars Call My True Name", and it was just uploaded to frontman Lee Maines' new Youtube account this morning! It appears to have essentially the same lineup they've always had, save for the drums, which sound programmed (just like on their first E.P.) The song sounds really cool, well, what we hear of it! Lee's definitely gotten better at death growling and the rest of the guys are playing some really heavy stuff! Just listen to it, it's 86 seconds of promising awesome stuff! What a way to open my morning, I was NOT expecting this at all! At the end it just says "Coming Soon", I wonder how soon? After their 2009 hiatus, it's great to see them back, even if it is just in-studio, but I have no clue. I'll keep you guys posted!

Continuing with the big news concerning local bands, here's something that should affect fans of Stillbroke. The band have announced the departure of drummer Jenny Hooper, apparently to "move on to her own endeavours." Well that was unexpected! I liked her drumming, and she gave the band a unique quality too! But hey, there must have been a reason, hopefully she'll get into a new band down the road! Replacing her behind the drumkit is existing rhythm guitarist Sam DeDominicis! Never heard him on drums before, I wonder how he'll do? And of course, with his instrument change, the band have a new guitarist replacing Sam, and his name is Chris Villeneuve! (That's him on the left of the picture.) I don't recall him from any other local bands, we'll have to see how he sounds! All of this was announced on the band's Facebook page, so there's my source. I wonder when the new look Stillbroke lineup will be back live, I'll wanna check them out!

Next up, I have recently been in contact with Yes FM DJ John Gilbert on Facebook, and he tells me he's back on the air with 97.9 Classic Rock: The Bear! Not sure how that works when he's a Sovereign employee, but hey, I'll take any sign of life there is for The Bear! He told me he doesn't know what they're going to do, but if bringing a DJ back is any sign, there might be hope for saving the station yet! I had wrote on the wall of the Boycott Yes FM group (now with 1,848 members) before John messaged me, to bring up The Bear as an issue to be concerned about, amidst the furor of the Yes FM DJ firings. Throughout all this, The Bear has indeed been a lesser focus. Yes FM may lose DJs wrongfully, but us classic rock/Bob & Tom/Alice Cooper fans could lose a whole station! Fingers crossed that things work out for both stations! Melissa and Jason from Bad Side & the rest of them don't deserve this, join the Facebook group to show your support for bringing them back!

Alright, now do you guys remember when I talked about newer young local band The Curtis J. McKenzie Project? Looks like Curtis is keeping that for his softer material, as he's transferred all the heavier songs to a new band, entitled Restricted Illusions! Both projects share the same website, so the link for the new band isn't wrong. Same lineup as The Curtis J. McKenzie Project, except for Daylan Dorricott in place of drummer Darren Vlassoff. So songs like "Happy Trails" and "The Married Massacre" will now be songs performed by Restricted Illusions! With that in mind, I've swapped the two bands in the band links on your left! So here's a live Restricted Illusions performance from a recent Dunnplugged concert at Sir James Dunn Collegiate, of the song "Kiss Me Goodbye"! Definitely heavier, I'd love to hear it with clearer audio though. Check it out, and thanks to Curtis for uploading this!



And finally, Half Past drummer Chris Thompson has uploaded a handful of new live clips onto YouTube from the band's recent weekend sets at Foggy Notions! Among the clips are covers of Shinedown, Tool, System of a Down, Helmet, and this clip, of Half Past covering the Godsmack song "Keep Away"! Nice cover, check it out below, and the rest of the clips at this location!



That's all for now, hopefully we'll have news on the rest of the Algoma Hope4Haiti lineup and much more very soon! Hope the Who Made Who show went well, homework got the better of me last night. And, for those of you who celebrate, have a great Valentines Day! I'll be watching the Daytona 500 instead! Cheers everyone, lots more stuff in the near future!