YouTube Channel Profile Series: 62ndChamberMedia's Channel

A day early, but here's this month's YouTube Channel Profile, our monthly spotlight of a randomly selected YouTube channel whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, or punk artists/concerts! This month's pick gives us some prominent extreme metal content from the local scene eight years back, so here's what you should know!

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62ndChamberMedia's channel (http://youtube.com/62ndchambermedia)

Owner: 62nd Chamber Productions owner Boyd Rendell (a.k.a. Darby Wigwaus), who is also known for his work as a vocalist and guitarist in extreme metal projects like AlgomA, BeeFMouTH, and Molten Imp

Channel Timeline: Launched on April 11th, 2013; Videos posted from May 31st of that year until June 8th, 2014

Channel Summary: The official YouTube channel for Boyd's inactive film production company, it's contents are primarily devoted to local musicians (mostly metal ones) that were active in 2013, which he either worked with or hosted shows featuring. While primarily of live concert footage, uploaded videos also include two interviews, a jam session clip of a private BeeFMouTH reunion, and teaser commercials for two AlgomA concerts.
 
Why You Should Watch: Local metal fans will be most interested in 62nd Chamber Productions' channel, and it captures a lot of the highlights of the scene from eight years ago! Hard to believe it's been that long since these were filmed. However, the channel has not been visibly used since 2014, preceding 62nd Chamber's website being taken down in 2016. As well, the channel does not include 62nd Chamber's short film work from the early 2010s, most notably their short film "The Last Strand".

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

GIWAKWA - Iron Lung --- from a LXII bootleg currently in production: The first concert video here is of inactive local death/doom metal quartet Giwakwa playing their original song "Iron Lung" when they opened for Sleep When You're Dead at The Oddfellows Hall in May 2013. The video title hints that this was from a "bootleg currently in production", but whatever that was alluding to never got publically released. Despite a green post-production filter and a low frame-rate, this video captures Josh, Chris, Nolan, and Chris at their usual brutality during this brief run, and hopefully the personal teasers about a Giwakwa reunion of some kind do come to fruition!

 

 

Sabrina Strange interviews The Bear Hunters: The most popular videos on 62nd Chamber Prouctions' channel are two interviews conducted by late local metal musician Sabrina Pelchat (a.k.a. Sabrina Strange), specifically with AlgomA and (as featured here) The Bear Hunters, a video which garnered over 1,200 views. Posted in October 2013 in advance of their set at The Big Loonie Bus Show, Sabrina asks the band (minus Josh) about their musical influences, songwriting, album release plans, experiences on the road, among other topics, before closing with a jam room performance of their song "Servitude". Both the interview and song are well done, despite some abrupt cuts, and this is a must-watch for Bear Hunters fans! Note that Sabrina's first public interview (with The Cretin from The Dayglo Abortions) was not posted on this channel, and has since been taken down anyway.

DESTROILET live @ Bark at the Loon I: Four videos on the 62nd Chamber channel come from The Big Loonie Bus Show, a special one-off concert held at La Cucina (underneath Bucci's Place) in Echo Bay by AlgomA's promotion company Oh! Right Arm Promotions, with a bus being rented to get fans unable/unwilling to take the 40 minute drive there and back. With the exception of AlgomA (presumably as band members were the ones manning the camera), every band was filmed across multiple songs, including The Bear Hunters, Crimson Crusade, mystery act Telephone & Address, and as featured here, hardcore punk quintet Destroilet, whose black & white video captures 37 minutes of their usual fury. It's always been hard for me to identify individual songs in Destroilet sets, but lots of familiar originals and covers can be seen here, and everyone puts in a blistering performance!

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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! Next month in this series, our random selection has given us YouTube user skam705's channel, featuring dozens of local punk concert videos from the early-mid 2000s and the old (705)VideoMagazine. That should be a good one, so look for it on or around June 26th, and stay tuned for more news and notes on the site by month's end! Thanks everyone!

YouTube Channel Profile Series: AlgomA62

This month's YouTube Channel Profile is finally here on the site, as we kick off another year at the SMS with this ongoing spotlight feature of 1-3 YouTube channels whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, or punk bands and/or concerts. This month's randomly selected installment brings us to a single channel, and it's from one of the most prominent local metal bands of recent years, so here's what you should know!
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AlgomA62 (http://www.youtube.com/algoma62) 

Owner: A member of local doom/sludge metal trio AlgomA (identity not firmly stated, but I'd guess that it's guitarist Boyd Rendell)

Channel Timeline: Launched on March 27th, 2013; videos posted from the next day until September 2017

Channel Summary: The official YouTube channel for AlgomA, this channel was launched shortly after their public concert debut, and transitioned from a live video source early in their run to primary usage re-posting their studio material. The channel features 9 live performance clips (video or audio), a commercial for their Echo Bay concert in October 2013, and 10 studio tracks from their first three physical releases. (FYI, the "62" in their YouTube account's name references Boyd's film production company 62nd Chamber Productions, who handled most of the concert clips here.)

Why You Should Watch: This is a must watch channel for fans of AlgomA's brutal studio releases and live concerts, and as their official channel, more material is bound to turn up there when activity picks up! The fact that none of their videos exceed 450 views at press time is very surprising, but hopefully more and more fans find these clips soon! However, note that no public concert videos have been posted on AlgomA's channel since 2015, and the channel has played host to unlisted videos in the past, some of which still being online and publically linked elsewhere.

Our Recommended Videos To Check Out

AlgomA - Live @ 180 Projects (03-24-2013): The first & most viewed video on AlgomA's channel is of their full half hour set from their debut concert on March 24th, 2013 at 180 Projects, where they opened for Soul Killing Female. The band was then and now comprised of ex-Beefmouth bandmates Kevin Campbell & Boyd Rendell (then a.k.a. "Marty Chase" & "Darby Wigwaas") on vocals/bass and guitar/vocals, plus future Bad Back frontman Jamie "J.V." Vincent on drums. That night's set featured their forthcoming debut CD "Reclaimed By The Forest" in full order (save the opening track "Bedsores"), including  "Fell Down A Well", the title track, "Tertiary Syphillis", "Go On, Git!", and "Extinct Volcanoes". The video is suitably aggressive and sludgy, well edited, and an intriguing early look at one of the biggest local metal acts of the mid-2010s long before they got any worldwide notice, but their lack of crowd engagement was noticeable, even if it was intentional at the time.



AlgomA - Fell Down a Well (Faust): A common sight at AlgomA's increasingly rare concerts at 180 Projects is a video projector that has been used during performances for visual effects and ambiance, with or without specially edited footage. AlgomA embraced the concept and featured this video during the above performance of "Fell Down A Well", featuring clips from the 1926 silent movie Faust, based on the eponymous German legend about a man selling his soul to the Devil for pleasure and knowledge. The song doesn't really connect to the story, but the dark and gothic visuals set the mood very well, and the early jam room version of the song is raw and brutal itself!



AlgomA - Reclaimed by the Forest [2014]: With the exception of their half of last year's "Trading Faces" split tape, all of AlgomA's physically released studio material can be streamed for free on their YouTube channel, including "Failed Stunt Fatality" from their split single with Hooded Menace, and both songs from their split EP with Chronobot. However, these postings began in March 2016 when AlgomA posted their October 2014 EP "Reclaimed By The Forest", in two forms: Each song in an individual upload, and the whole EP in one 42 minute video. Recorded locally at "Das Bunker" and released through Malaysian label Deadbeat Media, the EP features their songs "Bedsores", "Fell Down A Well", the title track, "Tertiary Syphillis", "Go On, Git!", and "Extinct Volcanoes", and is an aggressive, fully realized slice of Northern Ontario doom metal that fans definiely took to upon it's release! Here's hoping for a full length follow-up in the future!


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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! Next month in this series, we'll be looking at two randomly chosen channels, as the first one that we selected only has videos from two distinct concerts, so I'll add a single video channel to round thing's out. That said, next month's profiles will be on the YouTube channels of former Polly Pocket's Melting In A Microwave bassist Jamie Whalen's channel (featuring four videos of that band from the early 2000s), and former RedD Monkey drummer Joe Bumbacco's channel (featuring one video from their local heyday.) Look for those on or around February 26th, and stay tuned for our first CD review of the year in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

Danger Cats Concert Preview & New Video Interviews With Local Metal Bands!!

Today's news post at the SMS is mostly devoted to some neat new video interviews with local metal bands in advance of an upcoming concert that they're on, but we've also got a special concert preview for tomorrow, so what's going down on a Monday night that you should take notice of? Read on below to find out!

Local all-female hard rock quartet The Danger Cats will play their third full concert set TOMORROW NIGHT when they make their Roosevelt Hotel debut as openers for Montreal ska punk quintet K'Man & The 45s! A popular and fun band who recently released a Ramones tribute album (hence references to "The Skamones"), fans of ska-punk and reggae rock should be right at home with K'Man & The 45s tomorrow during their current tour, and you shouldn't be disappointed! As for The Danger Cats (who are oddly the only announced openers), tomorrow's show comes just days after they played a few surprise songs at Docks Riverfront Grill during the Stiffler's Mom show on Saturday (awesome opportunity!), and the girls have hyped a pin-up clothing theme for tomorrow night, so keep that in mind! Their Facebook page also confirms that this will be their only full show of the month, but they'll be back in November, so don't miss out if you don't want to wait for their return! Tomorrow's concert (which is promoted by Frightlight/Jack Spades frontman J.D. Pearce) has a 9:00 PM start time, $7 cover charge, and 19+ age limit.

For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! Interesting contrast to have The Danger Cats' hard rock and punk covers open for a ska band, but the girls do cover The Ramones, so there will be a link there, and hopefully their musical growth continues with what should be a solid audience! Don't miss out, and for a preview, here's The Danger Cats' Hole cover at The Algonquin Pub last month!



Next up, remember how ex-Chronic Demonic singer Sabrina Lavoie (a.k.a. Sabrina Strange) recently interviewed The Cretin from The Dayglo Abortions at their most recent local concert? Well, she's further honing her interview chops with new videos interviewing a pair of local metal bands, both of which are playing this coming Saturday in Echo Bay for The Big Loonie Bus Show! Posted onto Boyd Rendell's 62nd Chamber Productions' YouTube channel yesterday, one of the interviews is with local death metal band The Bear Hunters from their jam room (courtesy of two camera angles, one black & white), so what's discussed?

The guys talk about their inspiration with writing new songs, their musical influences and songwriting process, how the band formed (including some illusions to Justin & Johnny's past bands), their upcoming CD and it's release timeframe, guitarist Mitch Sirie's fear of bears and how it led to their name, bassist Justin Lam's hat, how Nik Deubel got into death growling, Johnny Belanger's drumming roles in other bands, their on-the-road experiences, messages to the fans, and the absence of rhythm guitarist Josh Stephney. In terms of new items of interest, we do find out The Bear Hunters' name came from a song Mitch wrote with Lorax when he was in that band, they already have songs written for a second album (the first is projected for a release within a year), and they confirmed that they're not replacing Josh Stephney on guitar unless he specifically asks to leave the group, which is admirable of them! The video closes with a jam room performance of "Servitude" (apparently planned to be on their second album, source here), which is well done & heavy, before closing with plugs for The Big Loonie Bus Show.

Well done overall (despite some jarring cuts between cameras and edited clips), and Sabrina's gaining confidence as an interviewer, so fans of The Bear Hunters will definitely wanna check this out! Give it a look below, and we're not done quite yet!

The other Sabrina Strange interview is with the announced headliners of The Big Loonie Bus Show, local stoner/sludge metal trio AlgomA! This time, it's completely an interview with no live performance, but in the video, the members (all credited under their stage names only) discuss their influences, their songwriting process, how the band formed and met (including the earlier band BeeFMouTH), the inspiration behind the AlgomA name, the members' starts in music, their current album plans (including confirmation that local punk/metal veteran Mark Rand is mixing the tracks), their relationships with other local bands, messages for fans, and plugs for The Big Loonie Bus Show. We don't get as much new information compared to The Bear Hunters' interview, but it's a laid back and relaxed interview that tells us a lot about AlgomA and their work! I have heard that there are hopes to interview Crimson Crusade & Destroilet in a similar manner before the show on the 12th, but these are solid and informative interviews, and hopefully Sabrina & 62nd Chamber Productions do more of them!

Get your tickets for The Big Loonie Bus Show A.S.A.P. for $10 (the more that are bought, the more likely a bus will drive you there and back, which is an awesome idea!), stay tuned for updates, and like Sabrina Strange Productions on Facebook at this link to get up to speed on her new entertainment production company, which has aspirations of promoting shows down the road! Hopefully everything takes off, and her company's now in our Other Sault Ontario Metal Links section! Check out her full interview with AlgomA below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for a new post of some type tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

A New Local Band, New Airbourne Concert Videos, And Much More!!

After a couple of news-free days at the SMS, we're back with some big updates for this Monday morning, so what's on tap? A lot of assorted shorter recent updates, but first, we have a few more Airbourne concert videos and (leading off) a new addition to our band links, so read on below for what you need to know!

We have a new local hard rock band to add to our Sault Ontario band links, as The Thrill Junkies have finally launched their own Facebook page! Originally plugged on the SMS in March, they're essentially the successors to both Turner Up & Havadder, with all but two members of their last lineups forming this new act earlier this year. Their lineup includes singer Travis Sharpe (formerly Turner Up & Havadder's bassist), guitarists Jason Nisbet (Havadder only) and Robert Brown, drummer Scott McLurg, and new bassist Justin Langlois (Redundant), who replaced Jamie Cameron in the band earlier this summer. Described as "five guys who love to party & bring the rock", they'll cover everyone from Alice In Chains & The Foo Fighters to Slash & Volbeat, but they'll also apparently be working on original material, something that their predecessor bands weren't known for. While their first public local show has yet to be announced, they debuted in Spanish at the battle of the bands in April to find openers for this year's Rock 'N Roar Festival, and after following in Havadder's 2012 footsteps with a 5th place run, they opened for Loverboy & Lee Aaron at said festival last weekend!

Note that the cover photo on their Facebook page features former Turner Up singer Krista Marshall along with the band during their Rock 'N Roar set, but she's not credited on the page, so I assume she was a guest performer. I'm very curious to hear some media or local shows from The Thrill Junkies finally, especially with Travis singing in a local band again and the core of Turner Up living on for this new project, so stay tuned for updates on their local debut and upcoming news!

Next up, here's some more new videos from last week's Airbourne concert at The Canadian Nightclub! Filmed by attendee/local guitarist Neno Jovanovic and uploaded to his YouTube channel on Thursday, they're of Airbourne playing their songs "Diamond in the Rough", "Runnin' Wild", and (as embedded below) "Live It Up", so click each link to check them out! Neno had a great first row angle of the Australian hard rock standouts in action, but all but the "Live It Up" video are noticeably abbreviated, and the "Runnin' Wild" video was filmed on a sideways angle for some reason (but we get good footage of Joel O'Keeffe smashing a beer can into his head and spraying it on the front rows!) The audio on each is hit & miss, with heavier stretches often sounding choppy, but the angle and closeness to the action is very welcome, so give Neno's Airbourne concert videos a look above, and here's "Live It Up"!



Finally for today, here's six assorted shorter stories from the last little while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist, event, or company name:

• Local film company 62nd Chamber Productions (ran by AlgomA's Boyd Rendell) revealed on their Facebook page last week that they filmed Giwakwa & Shit Liver's full sets at last month's Oddzfest 2013 Metal Mash-Up on multiple camera angles, but the audio quality was described as "a farty nightmare", so it will instead be re-purposed for stills in upcoming projects. I was wondering what happened to those videos, but I trust their judgement, and hopefully we'll get to see new videos soon!
• Among some other event pages for upcoming punk-headlined concerts, local promoter J.D. Pearce launched one for his eighth annual Halloween Party yesterday (making it's Roosevelt Hotel debut on October 26th), and while full public details are minimal, the previously announced Ripcordz are still headlining, and he confirmed that there will be at least 3 other bands, so the larger post-Coch's lineup will be back. Stay tuned as more updates come in!
• Local bassist Jason Lang (who recently posted on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group looking for a new band) is now in a new "rock & hard rock" project with a guitarist & female vocalist, but now they need a drummer. Like before, this is just a bar cover band for the fun of it with no tour plans, and for age range, all he said was that the current members are "older working players". If you're interested in trying out on drums, message Jason at this link or at the Facebook group linked above!
• Former Valentine's Day Massacre/Chillum drummer Kyle Umgeher is again looking for a new local music project on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group, but this time, he's preferably looking for a funk band with a jam space. Funk could have heavier applications, but either way, this could be a unique addition to the scene, so message Kyle at this location or at the group above if you're interested!
• Sault Ontario acid jam/hard rockers Mike Haggith & The Din have officially added talented local solo musician James "Delusionair Lionhair" Watterworth to their lineup as (believe it or not) a saxophone player, making them a quartet. My source is Mike's solo Facebook page on Thursday, and James already contributed at their last couple of live dates. This should be an interesting addition for a heavier band, so stay tuned for more as we hear it!
• Wondered why we haven't covered local recording studio The Smoke & Oak Room much over the summer? As it turns out, owner Dave Pihlaja moved to Toronto with the studio in May (as per postings on their Facebook page), which is disappointing, but hopefully Dave succeeds further down south, and at least we got some quality work from Crimson Crusade & Late and Loud there beforehand!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile on Cross Dog in our next post, either tonight or tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

Tantrum Updates, New Live Videos, And A 3D Local Concert Video!!

The news keeps on rolling in, and today, we've got plenty of videos to go along with them, so here's what's on tap! Today, we've got a new dimension on local concert videos, our first live concert glimpse of a new band, and some cool new footage from a major recent show, but first, here's a bunch of updates on a prominent area band!

Firstly, here's the latest news from the young Sault Michigan hard rock band once known as Abstract! As you may know, they changed their name to Tantrum earlier this year, but in the last couple of months, they quietly changed their name once again to Tantrym Tyme. A reason for the name change hasn't been announced, but I figure Tantrum by itself is already used by existing bands, so this might be for the best, but are the gratuitous Ys needed? Regardless, I've updated our band links on your right to reflect the new name! As well, the band have finally returned to being a quartet, as they've quietly added Quinton Jacobson as their new second guitarist/bassist, replacing Kyle Burton. As far as I can tell, Quinton (who's in the middle in this picture) was added to Tantrym Tyme's lineup in the spring, and given their ages, he fits in well with the guys so far from what I've noticed! Their concerts are still very hard to source and count given the lack of notice and the settings of the ones that do happen, but alongside a pile of new photos from a July performance on their Facebook page, they do have some new video footage from a recent performance! Uploaded to YouTube user The37533's channel on June 2nd, it's of what was then still Tantrum covering Iron Maiden's "The Trooper" and Pantera's "Cowboys From Hell" at an outdoor concert of some type!

On these covers, Tantrym Tyme definitely seem to be growing as musicians, and the heavier material than the old Abstract videos is helping them, especially for Jacob Hotlen's singing, as he sounds much better for harsher vocals than he does clean yet (I wonder how he'll sound when his voice deepens though?) Note that Quinton's not on their Iron Maiden cover, but it's good to hear a fuller lineup for their Pantera rendition, and given their ages, they tackle both of these songs pretty well! It'll be interesting to see their development in the coming years, but for now, check out Tantrym Time's newest videos below!



Next up, here's another new video from the Anvil concert at The Canadian Nightclub on Wednesday, this time of local horror punk/metal quintet Frightlight's co-headlining set! 62nd Chamber Productions head/former local musician Boyd Rendell has uploaded a video that he and his crew filmed at the show onto his Vimeo page yesterday (though it's curiously not on his YouTube channel yet), and it's of Frightlight playing their original song "She Screams"! Featuring their full lineup (as Rick Styles was on guitar for this part of their set), the multiple camera angles help things for the quality, but the audio is somewhat scratchy, which Boyd blames on the lack of a mixer recording. Solid stuff though, and hopefully there's more to come, so check out this new Frightlight video below, and stay tuned later in the post for more of Boyd's work!



Thirdly today, here's our first live concert footage of new local grunge trio Haggith! Though an official proper live concert for them hasn't took place yet, and a bass player has yet to be obtained, the guys played two outdoor concert sets at a private party in Goulais River over the Canada Day weekend, and a video from the second day's performances is now online! Uploaded by YouTube user paperclipprojectX on Thursday, it's of Haggith playing their song "Yesterday's Frustrations" and it sounds pretty good! The camera work is solid and clear, and there's a nice grungier sound here, plus the guys seem to have a nice stage presence! This is a promising glimpse at what's to come from Haggith for sure, though I have to ask: Until they find a bassist, why can't Daniel Horton play bass? For now, check out Haggith's newest video below, and stay tuned for another new song of theirs in an upcoming post!



Finally for today, here's a special video that I recently came across! We've mentioned it on here before, but never like this. Back in December, I shared some videos by the former local hardcore band Barred 4 Life (featuring future Destroilet alumni) on the site, as uploaded (and likely filmed) by the aforementioned Boyd Rendell on his YouTube channel. Well, when I was browsing there to see if he posted the Frightlight video there too, I found this re-upload of Barred For Life's cover of The Dwarves' "Backseat of My Car" in 3D! That's right, a 3D local concert video, as it looks like Boyd Rendell converted the original video into 3D for a later upload in January of this year. It's in anaglyph 3D, so you'll need the red/blue 3D glasses to get the full experience (which I do have), and I have to say, he did a good job converting this! You can tell it's a conversion, but there's clear depth, and it gives this video a unique feel compared to the majority of other local concert videos out there. Almost makes me wanna get a 3D camera for SMS purposes (it's a future possibility), but huge kudos to Boyd for the work he did to give this old concert video an extra dimension! Check out The Dwarves (and guest singer Dave Stokes) in 3D below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for our Theatre of Night album review and more shortly! Thanks everyone!