Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Local Punk Video Showcase (Part 5)

It's been far too long since our last one of these, so let's finally get a new local punk video showcase up on the site, our fifth in total! Like before, this will take a look at four punk videos from local artists and concerts, and though we're sticking with similar bands from past installments to balance things out, there's some very solid videos to share today! Including live concert footage, studio material, and a jam session clip, read on below for this newest showcase!

We'll start with a trio of videos from veteran local punk musician Mikey Hawdon's YouTube channel, specifically of his very successful punk quartet The Inner City Surfers! Though two of them (both uploaded in August 2006) are credited to this band, they're just of Mikey jokingly singing along with The Fresh Prince of Bel Air's theme song and Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al", and they're a fun light view from this channel's early days! Featured below though is (surprisingly) the only Surfers concert video that I could find on Mikey's channel, which comes from their last headlining gig at Foggy Notions (now Coch's Corner) on March 15th, 2008. The show was notable as one of the last concerts held at Foggy's during it's original run (then-owner Patrick Casey closed shop at month's end), and though the venue returned the next year under it's first of three new owners, the Surfers never returned for a show there to my knowledge.

The video itself is of The Inner City Surfers playing their song "Never Ender Bender" as filmed on a tape camcorder from a high side-stage angle, and though the video quality isn't fantastic, it does capture a great crowd and a nice energetic rendition of one of their classic originals! The Surfers were a frequent band at Foggy's on both Bay & Queen Street through 2008, and though I was 2 months away from legal drinking age when the original era ended, you can feel the energy of the old run even here, and I bet fans miss those days! Give this video a look below!



Next for this all-video post, we'll take a look at Mikey and Surfers bandmate Dustin Jones' current band, the Celtic punk favourites Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide! Uploaded by YouTube user KelFable on November 3rd, 2011, these are presumably from the Maritimes leg of their tour dates that fall (if these were uploaded shortly after the show), though I can't verify the exact location. Her videos are mostly of covers, including The Tide putting their own spin on The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" & House of Pain's "Jump Around", plus a snippet of their own self-titled original "Rising Tide", though all of these videos are incomplete (the latter running at just 23 seconds.) Embedded below though is Kel's longest video, a cover of Ben E. King's "Stand By Me", and while these covers are all against type for their genres, they're well done and effectively converted to their existing sound without much issue!

Aside from being mostly incomplete, these videos suffer most visually, as the lighting is poor and honestly makes it hard to make out the guys at points, but it's definitely Dustin and The Tide. The audio's solid though, so give these D.J.R.T. videos a look above and below, and remember not to miss their local return next month!



Third for this video showcase is a jam session clip from YouTube user Jamie Penno's channel, and this will be of particular note for fans of the defunct local punk band Bankshot, as it features that band's guitarists Christian Pasiak & Lucas Schmiedendorf! Uploaded in January 2007 and apparently filmed in a church, this features the guys jamming an acoustic punk song that appears to be an original song about a girlfriend always on one's mind, but I can't place the name or original band. The lighting is awful, but the audio quality is good, if you can get past the background talking, so give this solid jam clip from Bankshot's guitarists a look below!



We'll close this post with local/Toronto indie punk favourites Treble Charger, and I knew when we started these punk showcases that we'd have to at least address YouTube copies of their studio albums. I won't ignite any debates about buying music here, but fans should know that all of Treble Charger's albums are easily available online, and pretty much all of their studio albums can be streamed on YouTube, so if you're on the free side of the issue, you're covered! If you actively stream songs there, the best channel for Treble Charger albums is that of Fletcher Holland, who has uploaded four of their five studio albums (1995's "Self Title", 1997's "Maybe It's Me", 2000's "Wide Awake Bored", and 2002's "Detox") there, though their 1994 debut "nc17" isn't featured, and none of the albums there are grouped into playlists. I highly encourage buying these albums to support Treble Charger's work, but give YouTube a whirl if you want a free stream, and here's the first song from "Self Title", that being "Morale"!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

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