New Archive Video Uploads Of No Arrow & Faithless Sin!!

Just a heads up, this post is the first on the SMS that I've had to make using Blogger's new editor interface which was rolled out earlier this year. I am not an immediate fan of it, and I have already had to check online help forums to answer questions about where certain things are, so if anything looks amiss, that's why. Hopefully things are sorted out soon!

Today's post is devoted to archive videos from prolific local rock musician Joe Falco's YouTube channel, which we alluded to in a post on the site three weeks ago, as Joe was in the late stages of a massive upload streak of videos from his run in live bands in the mid-late 2000s. Let's start with the biggest of his past groups, namely 2005-2011 grunge/alternative rock trio No Arrow (née Murder Playground), who are the subject of 25 of his videos in the last few months! These include a now-band official upload of all 12 songs from their unreleased studio album "Souls For Sale" and a few videos that were previously uploaded on frontman Dann Pichette's YouTube channel. Joe's uploads, brand new or otherwise, include three videos from a weekend at The Canadian Nightclub in April 2007, two from a Sault Area Wrestling event at The Elks Lodge that fall, two from The Speak Easy at Algoma University, three from Madison's Pub (now The Harp Bar & Grill), a rehearsal jam of "One On The Line", and a Fitswitch parody under their original name.

Embedded below is 62 minutes of an early No Arrow set at Madison's Pub in November 2006, though it doesn't capture the entire performance due to tape limitations. Featuring Dann and Joe alongside original bassist Jason Bourcier (more on him in a bit), this concert took place on Jason's birthday, and it features 17 songs, though only 5 are originals at this stage. In order, you can see the guys play Local H's "All Right, Oh Yeah", Helmet's "Unsung", The Melvins' "Revolve", their original "Bleed Your Hate", Nirvana's "Stain", The Beastie Boys' "Sabotage", their unreleased album's title track "Souls For Sale", Local H's "Cool Magnet", their own "Genocyde Revealing", The Melvins' "Youth of America", part of Mudhoney's "Touch Me I'm Sick" with a guest guitarist, their original "Delayed Reaction", Local H's "Bound For The Floor", Motorhead's "Ace of Spades", their own "One On The Line", and two final Local H songs (part of "Everyone Alive" and "All The Kids Are Right".)

It's awesome seeing a lengthy No Arrow video like this, albeit 14 years later, and while the VHS camcorder quality isn't ideal (smartphones weren't ubiquitous yet), the raw intensity is on full display!  Of course, any fans of Local H will want to give this a special look, especially as you don't hear them covered often nowadays. Give this video a watch below, and check out much more from No Arrow's mid-late 2000s heyday at the above links!

Speaking of bands that Jason and Joe were in together, let's now look at another old band that Joe has uploaded content from, namely their old 2005-2007 thrash metal band Faithless Sin! Here featuring Jason on vocals (a'la Operation: Killdozer) and Joe on guitar, this band also features guitarist Frank LaTassa (Quite Frankly), bassist Ryan Gratton (Chronic Demonic) and drummer Mark Parent in their lone video, but Mike DiPasquale preceded Frank in the band, and Gates of Winter alum Jonathan Harvey drummed in their brief 2010 reunion. Faithless Sin never got far off the ground, and have no known public concerts to their name, but some members did more collectively in their successor band Time of Ruin from 2007-2008. Joe has uploaded four videos representing Faithless Sin, including two crude audio copies of originals ("Chaos Reigns" & "River Flows Cold"), plus a better quality recording of two Slayer covers. Embedded below is Faithless Sin's only surviving video!

Also filmed via that VHS camcorder, this is very much a jam session recording, and Joe is very forthcoming in the video description if a song was a jam or rough, plus what he wishes the video would have captured from their setlist at the time. In order, the guys can be seen playing Slayer's "War Ensemble" as a soundcheck, Megadeth's "She-Wolf", In Flames' "Behind Space 99", Sepultura's "Refuse/Refist", their combined version of Slayer's "Die By The Sword" & "Black Magic", a jam of Pantera's "Fucking Hostile" from a different camera angle, another loose jam of Metallica's "My Friend of Misery" with Joe on vocals, two separate run-throughs of their original "Chaos Reigns" (a first-time jam and a proper performance), and finally, Metallica's "Blackened". Camera aside, this raw and brutal rehearsal captures a promising band that I'd have liked to have seen go further locally! Our view of Faithless Sin is only optimal on the Pantera cover though.

On songs that Joe doesn't give a disclaimer for, everyone sounds tight and dialed in, and Jay's groove-influenced growl adds the extra bark (that's a good comparison), and given that Frank had just joined the band, he fit right in on certain songs! Give Faithless Sin's archive videos a watch above and below, and stay tuned for more from Joe's channel in the coming days!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!