Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Starlit Sins & Glunk!

And now, here's this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles, but be sure to check out a stacked new news post from this afternoon below! This monthly feature series takes a look at one or two defunct or inactive local metal, hard rock, or punk bands (all randomly selected), in order to profile their run, media, and successes before dissolving, and point out what members have been up to since. As the first band today had minimal surviving info, we added a second band (conveniently, active at the same time period) to fill things out, and who's also kicking off our first in our restored 2-1-3-1-2-1 rotation between bands from each side of the border. Now, give this month's Defunct Profiles a look below, and let me know if something's missing!
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Starlit Sins

Genre: Pop Punk/Alternative

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Members:

Simon Shearsby (K.I.C.K.), vocals
Wes Greco (2 Minute Warning), guitar
Andrew "Pooch" Pucci (2 Minute Warning), guitar
Dustin Supak (2 Minute Warning), bass
Justin Marandola (Cherry Crush, 2 Minute Warning), drums 

Audio/Video: No public media or setlist examples from Starlit Sins are known to exist online, nor of their predecessors 2 Minute Warning, whose lineup was the same aside from the lead singer. Guitarist Andrew Pucci's solo material and singer Simon Shearsby's work with K.I.C.K. may harbour some similarities with Startit Sins' sound, but those later projects take more of an acoustic vein than their earlier band work would have.

Info/Analysis: Formed circa 2005, Starlit Sins were the direct successors to the similar earlier pop punk band 2 Minute Warning, with all members carrying over save for singer Ben Tulloch, who was replaced in the new band by Simon Shearsby. Together, they would play a handful of local gigs through 2006, including an outdoor show that August at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion, though updates on them are minimal to nonexistent after that, and the band is presumed to have dissolved in 2007. With no videos or songs to go off of, it's hard to comment on Starlit Sins, but given members' successful later band work, it's hard to imagine them being bad, so hopefully we hear some material from them down the road!
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Glunk!

Genre: Alternative/Hard Rock

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

 
Members:  

Angelo Tremonte, vocals/guitar
Andrew MacDonald (Fitswitch), bass
Andrew Keachie, drums

Info/Analysis: Briefly active from just 2005-2006, Glunk! released a debut EP very shortly into their run and soon began playing live concerts, including a notable show with The Regal Beagle at Madison's Pub (now The Harp) in January 2006. Surviving information on the band is very limited, and Glunk! likely broke up by 2007, though Andrew MacDonald has been seen since with bands like The Scary Uncles and Nikkfitt. Four songs (all from their EP?) can be streamed at their MySpace page, which show a grungy garage rock sound for the most part, albeit with some faster punk touches, and while the production quality is mixed, the guys had a good sound that may have been ahead of it's time to an extent given the recent alt/hard rock boom! The Andrews had a good rhythm, and Angelo showed solid guitar riffing throughout, so give their songs a listen above, and here's Glunk!'s longest original "Knowheart" via a new YouTube upload!


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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! So, what band(s) are next for our last installment of this series in 2014? Through random selection, we've chosen defunct Sault Ontario hard rock band Half Past to close out the year with, and in case you're curious, we will kick off 2015 in this series with a Sault Michigan band, as they'll be next in the rotation for January! For the sake of clarity, their profile will not include any references to the recent legal issues of one member in particular, which is irrelevant to the band's local run and successes, and good or bad, we don't cover musicians' personal lives on here. Look out for this profile on or around December 10th, and stay tuned for more news and previews this week! Thanks everyone!

Meet The (Inactive) Local Punk Bands!! Part 4

After a longer than expected delay, here's our fourth feature to roll in defunct and inactive local punk bands into our links and coverage on the SMS! We're 100% focusing on bands with surviving primary pages on PureVolume today, mainly as Bandmine turned out to be (more or less) an automated aggregator of bands rather than a proper band page host, while MySpace (a logical spot for some surviving pages) is extremely hard to navigate for local bands now due to their layout overhauls. We'll approach MySpace soon though! Now, here's 4 of our punk band discoveries from PureVolume!

First today are two linked mid-2000s punk projects, those being 2 Minute Warning (pictured) and Starlit Sins! Their lineups both featured guitarists Wes Greco & Andrew "Pooch" Pucci (who has some solo material), bassist Dustin Supak, and original Cherry Crush drummer Justin Marandola, while Ben Tulloch was 2 Minute Warning's singer, and current K.I.C.K. frontman Simon Shearsby replaced him with Starlit Sins. Both bands had live experience, with 2.M.W. (who launched in 2004) playing shows at venues like The Canadian Nightclub, while Starlit Sins played a memorable Roberta Bondar Pavilion set in August 2006 (their only publically active year.) No surviving material of either band is online to our knowledge, though 2 Minute Warning did record a 3 song demo of some type that, though visibly available to listen to on their page, doesn't work for one reason or another. For what it's worth, Starlit Sins' more detailed bio describes a negative fan response to Ben's vocals with 2.M.W., but take that with a grain of salt until/unless media becomes available.

It'd be interesting to find some working media of either 2 Minute Warning or Starlit Sins, especially to see what kind of talents the guys had, of whom largely are not currently active in local bands (Simon being the biggest exception.) If we ever come across music or videos of either, we'll let you guys know, but read their biographies and check out concert photos from both projects at the above links!

Next to add is Oceania, another punk band from around the same time period, roughly running from 2004-2005. Their lineup featured a singer & guitarist named Lawrence (unsure if that was his first or last name, but he was nicknamed "LaR") alongside bassist Nick "Dilbert" DiLabio and Northern Rocks Magazine/Laris Records founder Chris Rancourt on drums. Basically successors to Lawrence and Chris' 2003 project Slow Motion Theatre, the members of what became Oceania formed the band after joking about playing a Green Day tribute show, and got their first bookings on that basis, but soon added original material. Oceania (whose name came from the book "1984") played at least two shows at The Oddfellows Hall in 2005, including a set opening for Take One For The Team that July, though aside from efforts to win the Ernie Ball Battle Of The Bands, no public updates are known to have followed. Like 2 Minute Warning above, Oceania's three songs on their PureVolume page don't work, but there is still a song of theirs around to give a listen to!

As uploaded to their BandSpace page, a live acoustic version of their song "Picture, No Sound" is streamable there, and while it's not indicative of the full band's sound, Lawrence has a nice sound and tone, though his clean vocals often sound a bit too reserved. At least we have a taste of how Oceania sounded, but hopefully more media from their run turns up at some point, so be sure to check them out as well above!

Finally for today's defunct punk feature is Portable Glory, whose page doesn't tell us much, but were recently brought to fans attention when current punk trio The Northern Tragedy revealed on their Facebook page on May 8th that two members of their lineup were in that band! I'm thinking the two common members are singer/drummer Terrence Gomes and guitarist Mike Ivany based on the similar vocals and lack of audible bass, but if I'm wrong, I'll correct this for sure! I'm unsure when exactly Portable Glory were together, but they weren't around very long, and I assume they predated Terrence's larger work with bands like Good Morning Gorilla and Changing Waves, so I'd guess the mid-late 2000s. Four working demos (intended for an album named "Sock Puppets & Knuckle Heads") can be heard on their PureVolume page, and while the recording quality isn't great, and their lineup definitely needed to be filled out, I wouldn't hold it against fans to think these were Northern Tragedy demos, as they have similar sounds and melodies! Unrefined, but give Portable Glory a listen above!

I hope you guys liked this newest punk band feature, and I hope our next one (which will cover remaining PureVolume punk bands like Fuller, and perhaps more) will be up later this week! That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's CD review and more in the coming days! Thanks everyone!