Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Oceania & Nathan Switzer

Here's this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles, our monthly spotlight of one or two inactive or defunct local metal, hard rock, or punk bands, in order to showcase and feature them and their accomplishments for current readers! Our final 2017 installment is on two bands for the first time since March due to the first randomly chosen band not having enough surviving material so sustain a solo profile, so one more was added to fill things out. There's some familiar faces in this month's bands, so here's what you should know!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oceania

Genre: Punk

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Members:

Lawrence "LaR Noxous" Davies (Black Like My Heart), vocals/guitar
Nick "Dilbert" DiLabio, bass
Chris Rancourt (Slow Motion Theater), drums

Info/Analysis: Succeeding LaR and Chris' old band Slow Motion Theater, Oceania were active briefly from 2004-2005 as a jokingly-formed Green Day tribute band, though they would add original material to their set shortly after. The band played live a few times in 2005, primarily at The Oddfellows Hall (opening for Take One For The Team that July), but few surviving updates followed, aside from LaR's reposting of Oceania's acoustic song "Picture, No Sound" on his YouTube channel in the 2013 (plus a posthumous full band cover), while Chris would later find notability as the head of Laris Records and Northern Rocks Magazine. I can't judge Oceania themselves based on surviving media (especially with their PureVolume page's songs still not working), but if the acoustic song below is any indication, they had an accessible punk sound, and LaR's performance is solid, if still a little reserved vocally! Check out more of his later solo music above, and hopefully some more Oceania material turns up at some point!


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nathan Switzer

Genre: Progressive Metal/Techno

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan

Members:

Nathan Switzer (Highway 63), all instruments

Info/Analysis: Active only briefly in late 2010 and early 2011, this solo project was the mastermind of former Analog Deficiency & Traces guitarist Nathan Switzer, prior to him joining his father Henry's classic/hard rock cover groups Monkey's Uncle & Highway 63. Nathan was aiming to self-record and release an EP called "Life" in 2011, but no updates followed there, and assorted demo recordings posted to his Soundcloud page through 2013 did not receive any public follow-up elsewhere tying them to his 2010 work. His only current song posted before 2011 ("The Beginning", embedded below) has an aggressive and proficient sound with solid production, as did the now-deleted "The End", while his later postings ranged from brutal metal (as in his "new guitar tone test") to some techno originals that show some good variety, including on the comedic "I'm Cool Too" featuring Half Stupid alum Matt Williams. Nathan's a very talented guitarist, and it's be interesting to see him resurrect his original material at some point in the future!


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! Next month (and year), we'll kick off 2018 with a randomly selected Sault Ontario band to commence another 2-1-3-1-2-1 cycle between the Twin Saults, and the band in question will be defunct local death metal quartet Crimson Crusade! Watch for that on or around January 10th, and stay tuned for more news and notes this week! Thanks everyone!