Sunday, May 26, 2019

YouTube Channel Profile Series: Tattoos and Scars & 3 Day Millionaires

It's now time for this month's YouTube Channel Profiles, as we continue our monthly spotlighting of YouTube channels whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, and punk artists and/or concerts! As usual, this month's channels were randomly selected, and due to the first only having two distinct kinds of videos, I picked one more channel randomly with only one distinct video type to round things out with. We have a solid subsection of hard rock covers to focus on this month from two bands not seen as of late, so here's what you should know!
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Tattoos and Scars (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3SK_ofDsQH408Qfsy0fy5Q/)

Owner: Halfway Loaded/Tattoos & Scars guitarist Shane Biron

Channel Timeline: Launched on December 23rd, 2015; Videos posted from that day through May 2017

Channel Summary: This is (was?) the official YouTube channel for local hard rock band Halfway Loaded, and it features 8 videos of their in-studio jam sessions, six in a sit-down casual format and two in more of a full band presentation. Despite being launched under Halfway Loaded's name, and only featuring videos of that band, it has since been renamed to Tattoos & Scars, reflecting their acoustic side project duo that has seen more recent activity.

Why You Should Watch: As Halfway Loaded have only played private gigs and open mic nights to date, this is one of the few extant public sources to check out fuller versions of this band on video, and there is promising stuff here from this talented group that deserve a more active and prominent shot! While the "Tattoos and Scars" channel name is a misnomer at present, you can check out videos of Shane & Justin in an acoustic setting via pre-launch videos on Halfway Loaded's Facebook page.

Our Recommended Videos To Check Out

Simple man-Lynard Skynard/shinedown (cover): Six of Halfway Loaded's videos (all but one from late 2015-early 2016) feature Shane, singer Justin Grayson, and rhythm guitarist Ryan Mazzapica jamming hard rock covers in a laid back acoustic setting. These include renditions of Thriving Ivory's  "Angels on the Moon", Slipknot's "Snuff", Theory of a Deadman's "Santa Monica", Seether's "Broken", and Saving Abel's "The Sex Is Good", but featured here is their first & most popular video, a cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man", in what was allegedly just their second time playing together. Despite an unideal camera placement (admittedly improved on later videos), this southern rock ballad is well handled across the board, and their comfort and talent was expanded on in the covers linked above!



Monster truck - Dont tell me how to live (cover): The other two videos from March 2017 are of Halfway Loaded covering Seven Mary Three's "Cumbersome" and, as embedded below, Monster Truck's "Don't Tell Me How To Live". In these videos, Halfway Loaded are represented by Justin & Shane alongside ex-bassist Jesse Gottwald and former Mustang Sally drummer Dylan Newman, with Ryan absent on both. The covers are faithful, solid, and nicely fleshed out, but Ryan's absence is noted, and the camera placement isn't great again, with Justin's back to the camera, Dylan largely obscured, and lighting sometimes being a detriment to the view. Hopefully Highway Loaded resurface in the near future, there's something here!


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 Day Millionaires (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj2loBcCI2TPi317M3QffkA/)

Owner: A member of 2016-2018 local classic/hard rock cover quartet The 3 Day Millionaires, specific identity unclear

Channel Timeline: Launched on May 3rd, 2017; All videos posted that same day

Channel Summary: The 3 Day Millionaires' channel solely features videos from a Rockstar Bar concert of theirs from November 2016, featuring singer/bassist Steve Dowding (Boxcar Junction), guitarists Jeremey Salatuk (Wishbone) & the recently debuted Bill Brouillard (Sneaky Pete), and drummer Scott McLurg (Turner Up.) The videos feature The Millionaires covering Alice In Chains' "Man In The Box", Don Henley's "Boys of Summer", Radiohead's "Creep", Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game", and in one lengthy 3-song video, Candlebox's "Far Behind", Oasis' "Cigarettes & Alcohol", and The Romantics' "Talking In Your Sleep" (with Scott on vocals.) Featured here is their most popular video, a cover of The Flys' "Got You Where I Want You". These are well performed covers from a good stationary angle, if suffering a bit in vocal clarity, so fans of The 3 Day Millionares 2+ year run should be right at home with these clips, and hopefully they resurface down the road!
 
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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series will return on or around June 26th when we spotlight one randomly selected channel for a change, namely The Canadian, the slightly incorrectly named channel launched by Live705 featuring some 2016 videos from early concerts of theirs!  Look for that then, and for more news and this month's CD review on the site this week! Thanks everyone!

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