It's now time for this month's YouTube Channel profiles, now that our most recent weekend concert previews are wrapped up! This monthly feature post looks at a randomly selected YouTube channel whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, or punk musicians/concerts, in order to spotlight it and its content for current readers! This month gives us a dormant but familiar local punk band's offerings on major streaming services like YouTube (Music), so here's what you should know on it!
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Vanity First - Topic (http://youtube.com/channel/UCpYvTCkSYOmy61FJuDJ2x2g)
Owner: If anyone, an unidentified member of local punk band Vanity First, though the channel is auto-generated to facilitate the band's catalogue being available on YouTube Music
Channel Timeline: Launched on March 15th, 2022; Videos uploaded from that day until April 2024
Channel Summary: The official YouTube Music channel for Vanity First, it features their 2024 studio album "Identity Crisis", two pre-release single uploads from the same album, and "single versions" of two other songs later included on that album.
Why You Should Watch: If you enjoy Vanity First's studio material, this channel will be well worth your time, though of course, these songs are also on other major streaming services if you'd rather hear "Identity Crisis" somewhere else. While comprehensive for their post-name change material, their February 2022 self-titled demo "Vanity" was not re-uploaded to YouTube Music, though all of its songs (save for the ballad "Breathe") were re-recorded for "Identity Crisis", and the original demo remains available to stream on the band's official YouTube channel, which also has videos and non-album material. Note that this channel hasn't been updated since "Identity Crisis" came out, and the band hasn't played live in six months, possibly due to Mikhal and Keeghan's focus on Ha!ls as of late.
Get Out (Single Version): The other "single version" predating the "Identity Crisis" release is the August 2022 re-recording of "Get Out", an Andrew-sung number that is one of Vanity First's heaviest originals. About 10 seconds shorter than the final 2024 version (cornfield banter at the start aside), the 2022 version differs primarily from the 2024 one by its more reserved, punk-leaning vocals that remind me somewhat of Pennywise's "Bro Hymn", whereas Andrew more screamed the verses for the "Identity Crisis" sessions. Strong track that was one of my favourites from Vanity First's catalogue, regardless of version, though the recording is again definitely louder with less dynamics than what we got a couple of years later.
Habitual Vanity: In terms of songs from "Identity Crisis" itself, I wanted to highlight one of the newer songs recorded for the album that hadn't debuted as a "single version" or on the 2022 demo. I went with their partially eponymous song "Habitual Vanity", which was released to YouTube Music twice, first as an advance single and then re-uploaded with the full album. This Andrew-sung number is darker than a lot of their earlier punk originals and has a nice melodic structure with ominous elements that help showcase the diversity in sounds that they were exploring! Hopefully we haven't heard the absolute last from Vanity First, but follow what Mikhal and Keeghan are up to with Hails in the interim!
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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! Next month in this series, we'll get back to YouTube channels actually ran and controlled by the band apart from the YouTube Music format, this time by way of Bullet Train - Canada, featuring the local hard rock band's original songs so far! Look for that on or around April 26th, and for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!
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