Chase Wigmore's Last 4 EPs Of Christmas (At Last!!)

Before I head to The Algonquin Pub for TONIGHT'S Joni Radford memorial concerts, here's a special spotlight post where we are finally looking at the last four entries in local experimental/metal solo musician Chase Wigmore's "12 EPs of Christmas" series! Over three months after beginning the run of free streaming EP uploads on his Facebook page, and after an admitted break due to concerns of overposting & turning off casual fans, he has finally concluded the series on Wednesday and Thursday with the last four EPs, but there was a slight change of content. Two of the previously teased EPs are not among the February postings, namely the one entitled "How To Totally Sell Out & Still Not Make Any Fucking Money", and an Awokest EP named "The Mostest Awokest", though I can't confirm if it became the paid compilation release "Into The Nightlands" or not. No word on why Chase dropped these EPs from the series, but hopefully it was for the right reasons!

The ninth EP of Christmas is the previously announced revival of his old comedic extreme metal solo project Squirrelboy & The Smiling Giraffes, courtesy of this 13 minute EP "The Smiling Giraffes Have Their Revenge"! Possibly heavier and more distorted than Chase's prior work under this banner, the brutal noise metal attack and occasional humour flourishes come through well, and of course, the guitar work is a highlight! For the record, I'm not moving The Smiling Giraffes to our active band links at the moment, just in case this is a belated archival release, but that may change if Chase records more visibly new material. Give Squirrelboy & company a listen!



Next is the tenth EP of the series, namely the self-titled release by Chase & The Bastards, the band moniker Chase tied to his recent teasers of forming a full band that would be a greater focus in 2019. I don't know if that's still the plan, but the music on display here is definitely distinct from his Awokest or Smiling Giraffes output, harbouring more of a folk/punk sound akin to his past solo shows under how own name. The songs are are largely entertaining, and the band chemistry (assuming it's not just Chase) is cohesive, though if you prefer his extreme metal stuff, proceed with caution. Solid overall, so check out Chase & The Bastards below!



The last two EPs of Christmas are the two replacement EPs not credited in November as being part of the series. Eleventh is now his jazz instrumental sequel release "Stray Dog and the Son of the Holy Mother of Chaos Church Band", which is the longest yet of the last four EPs. In it's own eclectic way, this is jazzier in spirit than it's predecessor, if losing some of it's ethnic flair, and Chase is clearly having fun noodling on the guitar and experimenting with sounds on this EP. Casual fans may not appreciate the musicianship and free-flowing music, but give Stray Dog's encore a listen below as well!



The 12 EPs of Christmas series belatedly closes with a seventh free EP from Chase's techno/electronic solo project The Black Lodge Masters, entitled "The Chaotic Demise of Black Lodge Masters". Does the name truly hint that this is Chase's last release under this name? I couldn't glean anything blatant, but cryptic spoken word and sampling are very much present. This EP ranges from dark techno instrumental work to soft, deliberate, and almost ambient in tone, and it gets the point across well for fans of this side of Chase's musical oeuvre, so give it a listen below!



That's all for tonight, but stay tuned for more from Chase, and for our review of TONIGHT'S Joni Radford memorial concert next! Thanks everyone!

Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Blind Baby & Squirrelboy And The Smiling Giraffes

Before we get our review of the Dayglo Abortions concert on here, we have this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! This monthly series looks at 1-2 defunct or inactive local bands (as randomly selected from our band links), so we can profile them and jog memories on their run, material, and successes for interested readers! This month marks our first two-band profile since May (as the first band didn't have enough surviving information), so we randomly picked another band, with both covering each side of the Soo border, so read on below for this month's profiles!
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Blind Baby

Genre: Modern Hard Rock

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan

Members:

Tadd "Booze" Gravelle, vocals
Darian Causley (River Witch), guitar
Bill Ogston (Dirtbag In A Dress), guitar
Chris "Crib Bisque" Leask (Power Slug, Kilacel, River Witch), bass
Ivan Schliska (Scofflaw, River Witch), drums 

Info/Analysis: Originally named Stone Circle, Blind Baby were a short lived hard rock band that was active in the Eastern U.P. circa late 2009-mid 2010. Frequently seen at local bars on weekends (including The Rapids Lounge & The Bird, among others), Blind Baby played a mix of covers & varying originals during their run, but they quietly dissolved circa July 2010. Their members (sans Tadd Gravelle & Bill Ogston) formed the similar new band River Witch the following month, and took on existing Blind Baby bookings in the process, before they evolved into Power Slug (with only Chris Leask remaining) in late 2011. Though surviving online information on Blind Baby is minimal, they have 8 original songs on their Reverbnation page that I recently posted on our YouTube channel, and they show a diverse gritty sound that has a lot of softer & mellower moments! Tadd's vocals remind me of Erik Rintamaki's, and they're an interesting contrast on ballads like "Someday", but there's a lot of visible talent, and on heavier tracks like "2 Blind 2 C", they show a solid groove that hopefully carried over to their successor bands! I've embedded one of my favourites "In Spite Of You" below, but stream more at the above links!


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Squirrelboy & The Smiling Giraffes

Genre: Experimental/Industrial Metal

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Members: (E-mail me at robertfigures@outlook.com if you have any additions or corrections!)

Chase James Wigmore, all instruments

(Note that the band's MySpace page credited "Squirrelboy", "Chase Cox", and "Neuroma Fay" as their respective singer, guitarist, and programmer, but this was very likely a solo project.)

Info/Analysis: Squirrelboy & The Smiling Giraffes was a rather unique solo project maintained by local solo musician Chase Wigmore from 2007-2009, operating under a creative alias & theme, which included describing themselves as "the infectious & pointless waste of human flesh" and comparing their sound to "Yoko Ono, if she was a squirrel". Their 6 MySpace songs (which are also now on our YouTube channel) include frequent use of effects, samples, sped-up "squirrel" vocals, extreme metal screaming, and solid guitar work, to create a sound that's honestly hard to describe in text. There's a lot of originality & humourous moments, but I have a feeling The Smiling Giraffes won't be everyone's cup of tea, so it depends on if you like the included elements. Myself, I appreciate what Chase did, but some songs are better than others ("Pretty Baby" stands out, for example.) Hopefully he keeps up his talents in his current solo work (which does feature & acknowledge some Squirrelboy material), and here's one of their more popular songs "Mr. Chik'n"!



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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! So, who's up for October in this series? After random selection, we'll again be looking at two bands on each side of the border, as the first band I picked definitely doesn't have enough surviving information. With that said, next month's bands will be inactive Sault Michigan hard rock trio Elements of Madness & the former Sault Ontario comedy metal band No More Landmines, so watch out for them on or around October 10th! That's all for now, but stay tuned for our Dayglo Abortions concert review later today! Thanks everyone!