YouTube Channel Profile Series: skam705's Channel

It's now time for our last monthly feature post of the first half of 2021, namely this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This recurring feature looks at 1-3 YouTube channels that are randomly selected from our subscriptions, in order to promote them and their content for fans and potential subscribers, and to be considered for the series, all must have at least half of their content devoted to local metal, hard rock, and/or punk artists and/or concerts. This month's selection is a doozy, but an extensive doozy for local punk music & extreme sports fans, so here's what you should know!

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skam705's channel (http://youtube.com/skam705)

Owner: 705 Video Magazine founder Fred Kember

Channel Timeline: Launched on August 31st, 2006; Videos posted from the beginning of 2007 until July 1st, 2011

Channel Summary: The official YouTube channel for local concert/extreme sports video diary series The 705 Video Magazine, it features a whopping 122 videos uploaded over a 4½ year period, mostly devoted to live punk & alternative concert footage filmed both locally and in Southern Ontario. Local bands like DDPBB, Downshift, Fuller, The Hangdowns, and Strictly Classified can be seen here, among many others. The majority of the other videos relate to outdoor sports, but local music can be found as backing music, and some other related content was uploaded here, like interviews and B-roll involving familiar acts.
 
Why You Should Watch: If you are at all interested in the local punk scene from the 2000s, the (VII/O/V) channel is absolutely a must watch, capturing dozens of videos from local concerts of the era, even including archival videos that weren't newly shot at the time, though it is daunting to go through all of these unless you were a diehard contemporary concertgoer. Fred deserves all the kudos in the world for the work he put in with his camera during the 705VM heyday, including via the sports videos, and while they haven't put out a new volume since #5 in 2011, visit their Facebook page for new content! Note that this channel does include videos from a number of Toronto-area events (look for videos mentioning 102.1 The Edge or SceneFest, for example), and be advised that no new standalone concert videos were uploaded after the spring of 2009, though clips and backing music from Soo talent were still used in conjunction with sports footage.

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

Guttermouth; Cram It Up Your Ass: Easily the most popular local concert (by views) on skam705's channel is when infamous California punk quartet Guttermouth headlined at the former Canadian Nightclub back in 2005, though the videos weren't uploaded there until 2007. Fred uploaded eleven videos from their set, plus a pre-show interview with Guttermouth, and a video of a fan sharing a beer with frontman Mark Atkins, but did not post any of openers Pulley or The Inner City Surfers. I'm not going to get into Guttermouth's divisive lyrics & viewpoints here, but fans are definitely into their lively skate punk sound in these clips, both via original songs & select covers, and while the camera quality hasn't aged well in 16 years, this is suitably raw for a classic punk show! All thirteen Guttermouth videos are easily viewable through the above links, though "Cram It Up Your Ass" is the channel's only video so far to have been viewed over 10,000 times.

 

Don't Talk: No local band was filmed more for the (VII/O/V) channel than 2000s punk cover supergroup Bin Hawdon & The Taliband, who star in 20 videos that Fred shot. With the exception of a Descendents cover at The Oddfellows Hall, these videos all come from their set at the former Foggy Notions (now Coch's Corner) in December 2006, and you can see Mikey, Lucas, Mark, and Aaron covering everyone from The Misfits and NOFX to Operation Ivy and fellow locals The Hangdowns, with their rendition of GG Allin's "Don't Talk To Me" featured here. The quality of these videos is similarly limited in hindsight, not helped by dark lighting, but Bin Hawdon & The Taliband's eclectic setlist, on-stage attire, and sensibilities are on full display across all of these videos, and if you want to see a largely complete set of theirs, skam705 had you covered!

 

 

(705)VM Volume 5 - Nebraska Arms: One of the more obviously local music-related videos from the lead-up to volume 5 of the 705 Video Magazine is this video featuring defunct local indie punk quartet Nebraska Arms playing their original song "I Was A Runner" at The Grand Theatre when they opened for SNFU & EndProgram here in May 2009, though the video proper didn't go up until July 2011, about a year after Nebraska Arms fell inactive. Filmed from a corner angle from The Grand Theatre's balcony, the video feed alternates between the band proper and footage of Josh Kunanec & Jake Trumble snowboarding and skiing. Fitting soundtrack, and Guy (R.I.P.), Wayne, Dave, and Adam sound strong and up-tempo on this familiar original performance! Just a shame that there weren't more fans on the floor. Numerous videos of both SNFU & EndProgram's sets can be seen on this channel as well, but Nepean punk band Snatchback and fellow local openers The Scary Uncles & Operation: Killdozer are nowhere to be found.

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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 the channel of YouTube user RezThrasher, featuring 8 videos from defunct local hard rock quartet Garden of Bedlam, so look for that on or around July 26th, and stay tuned for a new news post of some kind by Monday! Thanks everyone!

SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (As It Stands), New Videos, And Woods Of Ypres Updates!!

News time at the SMS, as we post what is probably our last news post until our review of "Lux Aeterna" tomorrow. I have some good stories though, including some Woods of Ypres articles, a classic concert video featuring a hard rock cover, and a video recently returned to the internet, but first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!!

The 26th Roosevelt Hotel metal night goes down tomorrow, and for the fourth time in eight weeks, just two bands are making the trip to The Rosie for the festivities, including local metalcore quintet As It Stands in their record 12th Thursday night appearance! Nice to see them back at The Rosie, they'll be sure to deliver a hard hitting set of original hardcore songs for their wide local fanbase! However, the announced headlining band will be (in their metal night debut) the band formerly known as Motion Carried, who are still together and now called Redundant! This will be the local punk trio's first Rosie appearance since their name change earlier this month, which came shortly after they replaced bassist Jamie Whalen with drummer Rick White's brother James (ex-Browbeat.) This does reunite the lineup of The Quims from late last year, but don't expect a sound change from that, as this is a different band, so get ready for some solid punk rock covers from Redundant at metal night! Interesting choice for the show, but hey, the whole band has metal chops from their past local repetoires, so remember that! Admission is free with a 19+ age limit and no cover charge, as can be expected. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page!

Sounds like a fun concert with some varying styles, so head down to The Rosie on Thursday for As It Stands and Redundant! Dismembertainment have a lot of cool stuff in the pipeline for metal nights and beyond that we'll announce as official word is made!

Also, I just wanted to add that I've returned a Dismembertainment-relevant video to the internet! As I mentioned earlier this month, Shaw TV's Christian Lemay did a piece on Dismembertainment at the June 26th metal night, featuring an interview with owner Rich Moreland & performance clips from Winkstinger & Unleash The Blackened Sky. After a week's rotation on TV and a stay on Shaw TV's website this month, it was finally pulled by Shaw in lieu of newer videos, removing it from the internet... until now! I saved the interview to upload on our YouTube channel after it's removal from Shaw TV's page, and you can now check it out below! NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED! This is a very nice interview that gives Rich, Dismembertainment, The Rosie, and both featured bands some great exposure, and it deserves a continued audience! I hope there's no issues uploading this, cause I only have good intent in doing so! With that said, check out Shaw TV's piece on Dismembertainment below!



On the subject of new videos, here's a new find of a hard rock cover from a band you wouldn't expect! This video comes from YouTube user Fred Kember of the 705 Video Magazine, who has uploaded tons of concert videos from the 2000s onto his YouTube channel (along with many extreme sports videos and so forth) for 705VM purposes. Now, the vast majority of the posted videos are older videos from punk shows (the most recent being the SNFU-headlined 2009 show at The Grand Theater), but there's a lot of cool gems there from bands like Bin Hawdon & The Taliband, Downshift, and Strictly Classified, along with out of town bands like The Endprogram, Far From Heroes, and the band we're focusing on today, Guttermouth! The California punk mainstays rocked The Canadian Nightclub on March 10th, 2005 with The Planet Smashers & Ghosts of Modern Man, and one of the songs they played that night was a cover of Kiss' "Detroit Rock City"! Oh yes, a punk version of a Kiss classic, but how does it sound? Marc Adkins' vocals don't fit the song at all, but the band admirably puts their own spin on this hard rock classic, though it is noticeably condensed. Nice to see some more bands throwing some heavier stuff in their sets, so give Guttermouth's take on Kiss a look below, and check the above links for much more from this concert (and many others) thanks to Fred's awesome YouTube channel!



And finally for today, here's three assorted Woods of Ypres updates from the last little while. As all deal with the same band, we'll go in alphabetical order by the name of the site with the Woods article:

• On June 21st, "merginator" of the blog Headbang or GTFO posted a short Woods of Ypres article where they were referred to as "the best thing to come out of Canada", heaping concise praise for their "dynamic & powerful" sound. Nice read, but short, click here to check it out!
• Yesterday, "bkrasman" from Meat Mead Metal gave Woods of Ypres some nice attention in his article on three recent standout bands signed to Earache Records. He says they "absolutely soar" at times, and called them a tremendous signing following a short review of "Woods IV: The Green Album". Nice writeup, and I like that he gave former guitarist Bryan Belleau some credit for his guitar work, an aspect many reviewers didn't mention. Check out this article at this link, as well as some plugs for two other Earache acts!
• On March 17th, Viktorya Kaufholz from Musique Machine gave "Woods IV" a mixed review of 2 stars out of 5, praising three standout tracks but criticizing it's length, occasional monotony, and what she called a "lack of passion". Disappointing, but she backs up her thoughts well, which I appreciate. Click here to see her review!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for my review of Gates of Winter's first full length LP "Lux Aeterna" tomorrow, and weekend concert previews very soon as well! Thanks everyone!