Glen Thomas' "Glen Yaps" Video On Soundcheck!!

If you're familiar with veteran local rock drummer Glen Thomas, then you may be aware of his series of "Glen Yaps" videos on his YouTube channel, where he talks about anything that comes to mind, typically relating to music and drumming. His newest "Glen Yaps" video will be of SMS interest beyond those interested in drumming technique and equipment, as it's a 70 minutes long reflection on his recently dissolved local classic/hard rock cover band Soundcheck! Glen does note at the start that he was in Soundcheck and their predecessors/brief sister band Mourning Wood for 10-11 years (according to our old coverage of those bands, he replaced T.J. Case in Mourning Wood in August 2015, left prior to that band's final two gigs in April 2017, then replaced Scott McLurg on drums in Soundcheck over a year later). Next, Glen addresses their breakup, saying that the band was "going through the motions" towards the end, but they had a good run.

Glen next looks at the high points of his runs in both Mourning Wood and Soundcheck, highlighting the professionalism of the lineups, especially the 2018-2019 Soundcheck lineup (featuring singer/guitarists Terry Eaton & Travis Sharpe and bassist Paul Belair), while also acknowledging the drama and internal conflicts that all bands go through, and the shifts in audience response when lineup changes happened, primarily hinting towards when Cameron Oliver replaced Travis in late 2019. He also reflected on their frequent fill-in musicians (often bassists) over the years, and how their experience as musicians allowed them to easily ad lib and adapt on the fly, let alone perform with a massive multi-genre playlist, despite not practicing very regularly. After reflecting on some of the individual members (including their most prominent fill-in bassist Rob Gilmar), Glen looks at the downsides of the band to him.

He starts by reflecting on how he actually wanted to leave Soundcheck two years ago, and desired some more musical variety and setlist input, and how he wanted Soundcheck to change up their set with newer songs in general to retain audience investment. While that was a struggle for him, Glen stuck it out and they found some new fans and fun gigs in the last few years. Glen also noted that he dislikes playing weddings or stags & does, events that often have a large audience that isn't there for a rock band, and he felt that he couldn't express musical freedom at such bookings. In the music business, Glen wants to play music first and foremost, especially nowadays. Reflecting on the ultimate end of Soundcheck, they mainly broke up due to Terry wanting a break from live music, but that lined up anyway with Glen having issues with the band's increasingly loud sound in concert aggravating his existing vertigo.

Glen next mentions how Cameron has a rough go of things when he joined Soundcheck, as some existing fans really didn't like change/Travis leaving, but he praised Cameron's professionalism and talents as he grew into the role. Apparently, Terry & Jim are going to keep performing together in a new band of some type, while Cameron continues to perform as a solo country musician. While Glen is currently working as a fill-in drummer where needed, he is tentatively working on new projects named Drones Over Jersey and Bing Bang Boom, as well as a mystery unlaunched project that he seemed to really want to get going, but could not. Next, Glen thanks the venues who booked Soundcheck and the fans who saw them over the years, while also crediting bandmates' talents again (especially Terry), and noting that commitment to your band is important.

After the camera died and Glen replaced his battery, he recapped everything and thanked all of his Soundcheck/Mourning Wood bandmates and predecessors. It's rare when you get such a long (and public) retrospective on a local band, especially in video format, and while this is just Glen's take on Soundcheck for good and for bad, it's interesting to hear how he assessed the group over the years! The back half does increasingly have him reiterating earlier points, but he's an easy talker in this format, and it's nice to get some public reasoning into why Soundcheck disbanded on New Year's Day. Check out the full "Glen Yaps" video below, and stay tuned for more news & notes soon! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Banned), Glen Yaps On The Local Scene, And New Guitar Covers!!

The news keeps strolling in, so for this Wednesday afternoon, we have new guitar covers from a Sault Michigan musician, some very interesting new videos from a prominent musician on the local scene, and first, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT! Here's what you need to know!

Kinross, Michigan classic hard rockers Banned have announced a return to Dan's Place in Rudyard for one night only on Friday, November 1st! This was announced on their Facebook page last night, along with noting a private party that they're playing this Saturday, and reiterating their shows in Hessel and Sault Michigan next month that were previously announced. This will be Banned's first stop in Rudyard (roughly a half hour from both the Soo and St. Ignace) in over three months, and barring any interim announcements, it will be their first public show in four weeks, so just in case, keep it in mind to see Alex and company rock out with their diverse originals and covers! A 9:00 PM start time and 21+ age limit are to be expected, and there's no announced cover charge. For more details, check the above links! This should be another fun concert from this prolific regional band (even if a Halloween weekend show isn't in the cards this year), so don't miss out at Dan's Place on November 1st, and stay tuned for updates!

Next up, I thought this might be an interesting discussion point, so I thought I'd share it here.Yesterday, Flat Stanley drummer (and former local metal band member) Glen Thomas posted four videos in his ongoing "Glen Yaps" series onto his YouTube channel that, unlike his past videos on recording and gear, talk about the Sault Ontario music scene as a whole. The four videos run for over an hour combined, but if you have the time, they're an interesting listen, as Glen talks about what's good and bad about the local music scene as it currently stands, including the metal angle of things. I won't spoil it all, because I won't do it justice summing it up, but he does mention that metal bands need a reliable location dedicated to the genre, they need their own space during Rotaryfest to get their music out to fans, and they should be more vocal on websites and forums like this one to discuss and promote artists. While he did take some shots at local news media, the lack of a Canadian rock radio station in the area, and some venues, his opinions are noticeably not as vibrant as they have been on his Freq's Music Planet forum, where he has been known to be more vocal in his criticisms.

I agree with a lot of what Glen said, and I think that if local news media was more open in it's coverage of local bands, and if there was more venues (or at least more genre-specific ones), it would help things. He was also very gracious when complimenting the SMS and my work here, and while I will agree that it'd be nice to get more comments on our posts, you can't force the issue, and many of the few we do get are only to correct errors, so it is what it is. I would have been curious to hear him praise or critique individual bands, but given the nature of these thoughts, maybe this was a conscious decision to avoid any controversy or bias that's already happened on his forum with certain bands, especially from certain events in late 2009. The local scene (regardless of genre) always changes and always has room for improvement (i.e. the lack of well used local music sites/forums), but he gave credit where it was due, including to home recording studios and other "do it yourself" methods of promotion, and venues that do well promoting one genre of music only, but opinions of listeners will be subjective.

I like Glen's honest opinions, and I often check his forum to see what he has to say on various issues (I miss his rumour mill posts, for example), but hopefully these new "Glen Yaps" videos gain some attention and create some discussion about the presented topics in their own ways! I've embedded part 1 below, but check out parts 2, 3, and 4 by following those links, and stay tuned in case Glen shares any other opinions like this online!



Finally for today, here's a local guitarist's YouTube channel that I recently discovered, and it's courtesy of former Intrepid guitarist Nick Pavlat, who has uploaded 13 solo guitar cover videos there in the last 4 months! The channel includes three Deftones covers and two Alter Bridge covers, but the other 8 cover a wide array, from Black Label Society & Chelsea Grin songs to Franz Ferdinand & Modest Mouse tracks, but check the above links to give them all a look! Some of the covers start a bit messily, but Nick does seem to know everything pretty well, and he has diverse influences, so hopefully he keeps at it and posts some more videos soon! I've embedded his cover of Hellyeah's "Stand or Walk Away" below, but see more above!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles and weekend concert previews tomorrow! Thanks everyone!