Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Hoist The Sails & The 12 Gauge Ready

After a day's delay to verify lineup information for one band in particular, here's this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! Our monthly look at 1 or 2 randomly selected inactive local metal, hard rock, or punk bands takes us across both sides of the border today, uniquely and ironically both being bands whose main lineup each had six members in it! As the first band didn't have substantial information, we randomly selected the second band (similarly lacking for surviving details) to fill things out. With that said, read on below for this month's Defunt Local Band Profiles!
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Hoist the Sails

Genre: Metalcore/Progressive

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan

Members: (Members not in their last full lineup in italics)

Lucas Falkowski, harsh vocals
Travis Theel (The Highest of Fives), clean vocals
Nathan Switzer (Highway 63, Analog Defiency) guitar
Cody Reed (Analog Deficiency, The Eleventh Hour), guitar
Mitch Goetz (415E, The Highest of Fives), bass/guitar/clean vocals
Marcel Grengs (The Highest of Fives, Analog Deficiency), drums
Joe Niemi (Analog Deficiency), bass

Info/Analysis: Successors to the defunct Analog Defiency, the six-piece Hoist the Sails publically debuted in December 2011, and are one of the more recent visible attempts at an extreme metal band in Sault Michigan. Public activity was limited to studio work towards an unreleased debut EP, two preview videos of songs being tracked (here & here), this clip of Travis Theel jokingly recording vocals, and the departure of founding bassist Joe Niemi, resulting in Mitch Goetz moving to guitar & Cody Reed joining in his place. Only one song from the sessions ("Mind Over Matter") was officially unveiled in February 2012, and band activity slowed down after that April, with Travis, Mitch, and Marcel Grengs later joining forces in The Highest of Fives. Though Hoist the Sails never played live, they showed promise with their technical hardcore sound, powered with strong guitar work by Nathan and complimentary vocals by Luke & Travis, and it would have been very interesting to see where Hoist the Sails could have went! Give one of their tracking videos a look below!

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The 12 Gauge Ready

Genre: Ska Punk

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Members: (Members not in their last full lineup in italics)

Adam Hayward, vocals
Lucas "Dr. Sal Velinus" Schmiedendorf (Bankshot), guitar/vocals
Dave "Beano" Barrett, bass
Clint "Clinto" Wilson (Late Shift, Bankshot), drums/keyboard
Scotty "Lamar" Hill, keyboard/drums
"DJ Frosty" Jesef Monty Frost, turntables
Michael Wright, drums
David George, saxophone

Info/Analysis: Active from 2002-2006, The 12 Gauge Ready are arguably the biggest local ska punk band to come out of Sault Ste. Marie, and were a frequent, fan favourite sight at local concerts during the mid-2000s. Though information on their run is now minimal (to the point where surviving band pages don't even feature a band photo), they played many high profile headlining & opening sets at venues like Foggy Notions (opening for the likes of The Planet Smashers there), plus an appearance at Hempfest 2003, though the band broke up by the end of 2006. Their run in the local scene was largely before I became a concert regular, but I have heard many good things about The 12 Gauge Ready's live show, and their posted songs (5 across their CBC & PureVolume pages) showcase a fun, reggae-infused punk sound with catchy guitar work from Lucas & nice melodic vocals from Adam, so be sure to check out their material above & their track "Made In Canada" below!


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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! We will return to Sault Ontario for next month's random selection, and that is Punch, the recent but short lived hard rock quartet featuring members of Project 421 and The Suicide Kings! They'll have enough for a solo profile, especially thanks to the songs that Haggith and Project 421 later re-appropriated as their own after the fact, so look for that profile on or around August 10th, and stay tuned for more news soon! Thanks everyone!