Saturday, January 27, 2024

YouTube Channel Profile Series: Brendan Garlick

It's now time for our first YouTube Channel Profile of 2024! This monthly feature series is back for another year of shining a spotlight on YouTube channels whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, and/or punk musicians/concerts, and this time, we've randomly selected a bountiful channel for fans of the indie rock scene of a decade or so ago. Here's what you should know for this month!

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Brendan Garlick (http://www.youtube.com/@brendangarlick43)

Owner: Former Gnaeus/These Magnificent Tentacles drummer Brendan Garlick, currently known as the owner of local concert promotion agency Sault Noir

Channel Timeline: Launched on July 30th, 2013; Videos uploaded from December 2014 until August 2015

Channel Summary: Brendan's channel is almost entirely devoted to fifteen videos shot at the first two Lopstock concerts that he co-promoted at LopLops Lounge in 2014 & 2015, including the full set of every band from Lopstock II (except that year's opening band Id Iota), and videos from four acts that played at this "bohemian conclave" the previous year. Brendan's last (and sole non-Lopstock) video is still from a LopLops concert, this time featuring inactive indie rock band Great Chamberlain in mid-2015. 

Why You Should Watch: This channel is a great watch for fans of the local indie music scene in the mid-2010s, with some heavier flourish among them, and while none of these bands had staying power into 2024, there's a lot of talent and familiar faces to be had, as well as the featured sets by two touring acts (The Galacticats and Kirby) at Lopstock in 2015! Despite its ample usage at the time, Brendan has not visibly used this channel since 2015, roughly coinciding with his departure from Gnaeus and eventual spell living out of town. The revived Lopstock III from last year had ample video coverage as well, but via SooToday and not on Brendan's own accounts.

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

The Pixo Control - Reasons (Live): In a few respects, defunct local grunge/hard rock trio The Pixo Control were the stars of Brendan's channel, garnering the longest full-set video from Lopstock II and three of the seven videos from Lopstock I, with two of those being his most watched videos period. Of them, his first video (of them playing "Reasons") is by far the most popular video on offer. Filmed by Jason Lloyd (as with the other videos posted from 2014), The Pixo Control were represented here by singer/guitarist Michael Mikus, future Skinbox frontman Steve Edwards, and drummer Keeghan Rosso. The camera-work is excellent with nice quality audio of this very grungy and hard hitting original, so it's easy to see why this video caught on at the time, and it's a shame that The Pixo Control didn't last longer! Watch for edited in bits of LopLops' interior and some attendees in the middle of the video.


Caroline Divine - Lopstock II: One of the heavier bands at Lopstock II in June 2015 was the recently debuted Caroline Divine, a hard rock/power pop band featuring Frasiers alumni Anthony Marcello, Brenden Fitzgerald, and Devin Williamson, all later of Jesse Merineau's live band. Caroline Divine proper only graced local stages in 2015 (gigs with Jesse aside), with Brendan Garlick's 40 minutes long full-set video being the best extant video from their local run in terms of audio. The stationary angles used for the bands on this night were largely the victim of obscured vantage points due to fans on the floor, which is unfortunate, but Caroline Divine had a tight and energetic sound on their original material, and it'd have been nice to see them exist on their own in 2016 and beyond!


Gnaeus - Lopstock II: Brendan's sole channel appearance as a member of a band comes via his set with defunct post-punk quartet Gnaeus at Lopstock II, where he was joined by singer/guitarist Aaron Alessandrini, future Far From Fine bassist Matt Fronzi, and synth player Brad Irwin (now also of Skinbox). Their 45 minute set includes their songs "Lovers", "Exercise In Self Awareness", "Fire", "Crave", "Mountains", "Circles", their cover of The Cold War Kids' "Hang Me Out To Dry", "The Edge", "Lacking", "When You're Gone" , and "The Sound". This included every song from their 2016 album "Mediatations" except "Calling Out", plus the non-album cuts "Crave" & "Lacking". Attendee heads remain a liability towards actually seeing Gnaeus in full, but this is a strong performance from the peak of Gnaeus' local run, and they got a deservedly strong reception from the fans!


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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! Our next randomly selected channel in this series will be that of YouTube user justfrenchie, which primarily features old Scary Uncles videos, so look for that on or around February 26th, and for more news and notes on the site in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

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