More New Videos, Plus An Inactive Band Note!!

Hopefully everyone survived that cold snap in the Soo area over the last few days! Hopefully this will help warm everyone up, as we have another SMS post to check out today as this month moves along at a glacial pace. We mostly have some new videos to put the spotlight on, but there is a band moved to our inactive band links within, so here's what you should know!

Here's an interesting find, namely a clip of inactive local/Toronto indie/punk band Treble Charger playing "Sick Friend Called" on the CBC variety show Rita & Friends circa 1996! This was uploaded in October by YouTube user Uncool Dispatch, who previously posted this video of Greig & Trevor being interviewed on MuchMusic in 1997. If you're too young to remember it, Rita & Friends was hosted by the late country singer Rita MacNeil from 1994-1997, and while it is odd to see her introducing Treble Charger, it does show that she wanted to spotlight a wide array of music! The video quality is very rough (was this making the tape trading rounds?), but the audio's alright, and it's neat seeing an early video like this, especially given that Greig's on lead vocals for an indie-era song.

If you can get past the visual quality, this is a prime early performance from Treble Charger that surely gave them some much needed exposure to a national TV audience! Give it a look below, and do check out Uncool Dispatch's channel for much more videos of Canadian TV appearances from 1990s rock and alternative musicians, as there's a lot to see there!

Next up, I have moved local hardcore punk quintet Destroilet to our inactive band links due to a year's inactivity. The band's last public update (a picture on their Facebook page) went up one year ago yesterday, and while the pandemic is acknowledged, Destroilet updates had dramatically slowed down in the late 2010s, with the band playing just two public sets in the past six years, most recently at the Joni Radford memorial concert in March 2019. One of the most enduring original local punk bands of the new millennium, Destroilet launched in 2009, uniting five scene veterans into a fast & blistering old school package that fans will have seen open for the likes of Random Killing, The Rebel Spell, and The Dayglo Abortions at concerts through 2015, as well as releasing a self-titled EP in 2011, expanded into a full length CD in 2012, and participating in 2015's "Fed Up!" split alongside The Ripcordz and Jack Spades.

Jam space renovations, members' personal lives, and the pandemic haven't helped Destroilet's concert frequency since the mid-2010s, but given their sporadic usage of social media to post band photos and sell t-shirts, hopefully they're not 100% done and that we'll see the guys tear up the stage once again when things return to normal! Best of luck to Mike, John, Christian, Adam, Matt, and Brent in the interim, they've all been missed!

Also, let's belatedly cover some more of local/Thompson, Manitoba alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith's recent appearances/reviews in Thomas Christ's YouTube series You Rock!, where the host reviews songs by independent musicians in a 2+ hour live stream, Studio Live Today style! Mike debuted in the series with song reviews in episodes #11, #12, and #13 late last year, but he also popped up in episode #14 at the 57:44 mark, with Thomas checking out "Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost" from "Bridges", positively complimenting the song for it's professionalism, slow burn, and overall talent, even plugging Mike's interview with Pete Johns. As it turns out, former Bizotic frontman Brad Griffith (a.k.a. Gortium85) recommended Mike submit songs for Thomas to feature on air, which seems to have worked out! Embedded below is episode #15 from last month. 

In Mike's fifth straight appearance, his song reviewed was "The Best You Never Had", this time from 2020's "If Ever Comes The Day", and you can check that out 1:16:07 into the lengthy video. Thomas also liked this song for it's 1980s/modern hybrid sound and production, though you can tell that Thomas has his limits as a critic, as he didn't know who Michael Hutchence (INXS' late frontman) was when a viewer complimented Mike's vocals. Solid work all around, so give both episodes a watch, and look for local indie band Man Feelings in episode #15 as well! We'll have more from Mike soon!

Finally, here's a surprise upload of an old song by former No Arrow frontman Dann Pichette's inactive solo project! Posted to his YouTube channel last month, this is The Dann Pichette Multi-Track Recording Extravaganza's song "Swass", which has been up on their Soundclick page since 2012 or so (given that this isn't a new recording, I won't move the Extravaganza to our active links unless we hear that Dann's working on new material). As I thought last year when Dann first linked me to these songs, "Swass" reminds me of a Primus demo, albeit one that cascades into chaos, and it's a silly but well performed number for what it is! Give it a listen below!

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

A New Solo Project Discovery, New Videos, And Much More!!

Today's post is almost going to run us dry for new content on the site, so good thing tomorrow's post has been ready to go for a bit, as we have some time to build up material for Wednesday! Below, you will find some assorted shorter stories, some new-ish solo content from a former local frontman, and a couple of videos, so let's get things rolling!

We have a new-ish solo project to add to our band links on the site, and this is The Dann Pichette Multi-Track Recording Extravaganza! Launched by the former No Arrow/SBD frontman back in 2012, this project isn't active anymore, but he linked me to his old solo material for something to cover on the site, and goodness knows, we sure need that right now! Ten songs are posted there, though only four exceed a minute in length, and there are (censored) expletives in many of the longer song names. The music on offer here is definitely more experimental compared to his old local bands, but if you miss No Arrow, "Always Tryin' To F*** With Me" will be the closest in spirit for grunge fans, and "Shut Up, You Stupid B***" will also have similarities there, albeit with sleepier vocals. Beyond that, "Wanna Be Like Dann" has more of a 1980s pop rock sound, and "Swass" sounds like a Primus demo, among other tracks. No song sounds like the others, which is good!

These don't have clean, professional recording quality, but they definitely showcase Dann's irreverent musical sensibilities, though given the solo angle, I'm surprised he didn't pay as much homage to early Pink Floyd as you may remember him doing in the SBD era. Dann moved out of town a few years ago, but if you were a fan of his local music work in the 2000s and early 2010s like I was, his Multi-Track Recording Extravaganza is worth a listen, which you can do above! Hopefully we hear more new music from him down the road!

Next up, here' the latest from prolific local folk punk/extreme metal solo musician Chase Wigmore, who has uploaded his entire discography to Google Drive for you to stream for free! This is totally official, Chase put this up all 22 albums for fans to have something to listen to during the pandemic, and it includes material released under his own name, plus Awokest, This Is Your Band On Drugs, The Black Lodge Masters, his splits with C.T.W., and any other project name you can think of. Not all of his back catalog is on Bandcamp and YouTube, so if you love Chase's diverse original music, you'll want to take advantage at the above links! As well, he did do a live-streamed performance on his Facebook page yesterday, which sees him cover a section of "Viral Counterpoint of the Coronavirus Spike Protein", an experimental classical piece by musician Markus J. Buehler, which attempts to turn the amino acid sequence of COVID-19 into a rather lengthy musical composition.

The video quality itself is oddly choppy for a live-stream, which may or not be helped by the filtered monochrome visuals, but musically, it's definitely something different! Very intricate playing, this as an oddly soothing essence, albeit one far from his usual sounds, so give it a watch below!



Also, here's one more new video from local/Elliot Lake punk solo project Ashoka at the Show, as uploaded on the 184Films YouTube channel yesterday, where frontman Darren MacDonald discusses what he's been up to since his originally lost access to this channel, how he got back into using this channel, and he promised to continue uploading "songs to quarantine to" daily while all of this is going on. You don't see too many videos like this where a YouTube channel owner apologizes for a hiatus, but it's good to keep fans updated, and hopefully we hear more of Ashoka at the Show soon!



Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:

• If you are wondering why we never covered local rap/metal trio The Apocalypse Afterparty's announced set at The Borderline's SMAC-19 live-streamed benefit concert earlier this month, it's because they quietly withdrew from the lineup for unannounced reasons. Hopefully nothing bad happened, but visit the Mike's Lunch Music Facebook group to see the other performances by a wide array of talented local musicians! You may have to dig for them, as they've been sharing a lot of Facebook performance videos there since.
• Northern Superior Brewing Co.'s "Songs & A Six-Pack" live-streamed concert series on Fridays did return last week, but it's actually not intended to be a one-artist showcase, so Greg Callaghan did not host the second installment (I apologize, wording from that week was ambiguous.) Instead, Rising Tide fiddle player Sheldon Jaaskelainen hosted, and you can see his episode, complete with Northern Superior plugs, at this link. Sheldon's vocal/acoustic guitar set contains no punk songs, but his talent is fully on display, including Boot Hill Crooners and Wild Turkeys renditions!
• In their first post since the cancellation of their March concerts, local folk-punk solo project Slumshine revealed on their Facebook page that they were helping pass the time by making up a run of CD copies of their debut album "SLMSHN", which was originally exclusive to cassette tapes in it's initial physical release last summer. The sleeves are perfectly in line with Brent's art style, but given social distancing, when and how will these be available to buy? Stay tuned!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for part 4 of our WLS0 9O.1 FM retrospective series on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!