YouTube Channel Profile Series: rubbs001's Channel

It's now time for this month's YouTube Channel Profile, posted a day early to make room for weekend concert previews, especially given the returning Northern Vibe Festival. This monthly feature series looks at 1-3 randomly selected YouTube channels from our subscriptions, in order to spotlight them and their public content for potential viewers and subscribers, and as usual, channels must have at least half of their public videos devoted to local metal, hard rock, or punk artists/concerts. Our channel pick for this month lets us take a trip over a decade back to one of the biggest hard rock bands to come out of the E.U.P. (and their singer solo), so here's what you should know!

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rubbs001's channel (http://youtube.com/rubbs001)

Owner: A relative or close friend of former Nixxon Dixxon/current Rhythm & Brews singer Brandon Carr (the channel is focused around him but the descriptions lead me to believe he didn't run it)

Channel Timeline: Launched on December 18th, 2006; Videos uploaded from March 19th, 2009 until April 2nd, 2011

Channel Summary: All of the videos on rubbos001's channel star Sault Michigan hard rock singer Brandon Carr in some fashion, mostly via videos from concerts at The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino by his most prominent band, late-2000s hard rock quartet Nixxon Dixxon. Other videos include a comical lip sync of Billy Idol's "Dancing With Myself", a solo acoustic cover of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face", Brandon performing "Dentist!" in Sault High's 2010 production of Little Shop Of Horrors, and two takes of him singing at that year's International Idol competition.
 
Why You Should Watch: This is definitely worth a watch for fans of Brandon's local music work, especially during Nixxon Dixxon's late-era peak, and you also get a good look at what he was up to artistically beyond the band at the turn of the 2010s! However, there are other sources for full-band & better quality Nixxon Dixxon videos of this era, like YouTube user myangels1266's channel. Also, note that no videos are featured here from Nixxon Dixxon's pre-2009 activities, despite the 2006 launch date.

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

155 pop evil: With one exception, all of rubbs001's Nixxon Dixxon videos are of acoustic performances at The Northern Pines Lounge, with Brandon performing alongside bassist Kyle Beaumont (later of The London Gentlemen and Trail's End) on acoustic guitar. One is of Brandon & Kyle covering Seether's "Broken", Daughtry's "Going Home", and Puddle of Mudd's "Drift & Die" (the latter with Jake on drums) in March 2009, while a June 2010 set yielded videos of Shinedown's "The Crow & The Butterfly" (uploaded twice), Godsmack's "Touché", and in this channel's most popular hard rock video, Pop Evil's "100 In A 55". Dark lighting on the 2009 clip isn't helpful, but Brandon and Kyle are a good unplugged match on these rock radio covers, and Brandon's strong melodic voice gets a lot of good use throughout!

Blood Pollution: The only video of Nixxon Dixxon performing a full electric song with the whole band here is also from the June 2010 St. Ignace show, where they covered Steel Dragon's "Blood Pollution" from the movie Rock Star. Also featuring 415E/Rhythm & Brews guitarist Chris Hubbard and London Gentlemen alum Jake LaLonde (now of the Nashville country rock band Miller Holler), it's nice seeing Nixxon Dixxon again, even if the video is a little grainy, and seeing as they disbanded a couple of months later, it's even nicer to have this online! Very talented young group, they deserved more!

 

Simpleman: In June 2010, Brandon was one of 29 local singers who competed in the third annual International Idol vocal talent competition at The Soo Theatre, with the winner of the 14-and-over division getting to open for Meat Loaf on the closing night at Kewadin Casino's 25th Anniversary Summer Festival the following month. Brandon lost to local singer Kellan Perron (read more about the winners at this link), though Nixxon Dixxon played that day on the second stage anyway, as well as on the main stage on night #1. Uploaded twice to rubbs001's channel at different lengths, Brandon was filmed covering Shinedown's version of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man", with Brandon matching the vocal tone of the cover, if not Brent Smith's range. Solidly done and well filmed for the time, and hopefully we'll hear more from Brandon musically soon with one band or another!

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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 a doozy of a channel to spotlight, namely Mike Haggith Music, the official channel for the prolific local alt-rock musician, which has a LOT of ground to cover from the past decade, so look for this on or around September 26th, and for weekend concert previews on the site next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (The Wyld Stallyns), A New Video, And Much More!!

Here's a new news post for your Saturday evening, and it includes some assorted recent updates, a new solo performance video, and leading off, a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT and related news about said band's new look for a new year! Here's what you should know

Local cover hard rock band The Wyld Stallyns will rock Reggie's Place TONIGHT, after previously playing there last night! I profusely apologize for the short notice, we only heard about these dates yesterday via singer/guitarist Rob Speers' own advertising on Facebook, though I did completely miss the venue's Facebook page plugging the dates on Tuesday. I did plug both on our Facebook page yesterday to try and get some of the word out, but I didn't have quite enough topics to rush a post last night, hence why I am half late to the party today. Again, my apologies, I'd have plugged both on Thursday had I seen Reggie's own post about them! These dates are The Wyld Stallyns' first since Rotaryfest last month, and first at an indoor venue since they kicked off The Rockstar Bar's brief return of live concerts in August 2020. However, if you missed them at Rotaryfest, The Stallyns will look a little different.

 

For one, the group has quietly transformed from an acoustic band into an electric one, perhaps to make up for their plugged-in sister band The Elements' continued inactivity over the past 18 months. Going electric means they'll need a bassist, and The Wyld Stallyns debuted former Gully Yodelers bassist Ben Garcia as their fifth member at Rotaryfest. Bit of a surprise not seeing James White (the only Elements member not in The Stallyns) on bass, but don't miss him with Dealing Without when they finally make their live debut! Ben wasn't on The Gully Yodelers' "Innocence & Allegory" CD, but he was on their song from "Local Steel", and he is a talented bassist who should fill this role well with The Wyld Stallyns, so don't miss his third show with them TONIGHT! This show (and yesterday's) are/were 9:00 PM events with 19+ age limits and no cover charge, as usual for recent Reggie's concerts.

 

And as recently usual, please respect and honour any social distancing and mask mandates at the downtown Reggie's to ensure the safety of yourself and everyone else in attendance. Despite the late notice, hopefully The Wyld Stallyns had a great show last night, and hopefully Christina, Rob, Jesse, Ben, and Jonas have more of the same TONIGHT! Visit the above links for more details, and here's The Stallyns live and unplugged!

 

Next up, here's a new video of former Garden of Bedlam singer Erik "Buzz" Boissineau covering The Foo Fighters' "Times Like These", as uploaded to his YouTube channel last night! An acoustic vocal/guitar cover as usual for his recent videos, this is strongly performed as you'd expect given Buzz's vocal abilities and talent level, and it fits in line with The Foos' own acoustic version of this song! Give it a watch below!

 

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

 

• Prolific local extreme metal/folk punk musician Chase Wigmore has released twelve back catalog albums of his onto his Bandcamp page! Nothing is brand new, but these include prior albums under his own name plus Awokest, The Black Lodge Masters, and The Coyote Speedfreaks, and Chase did hint on his Facebook page last week that he was uploading "all of my albums" there. Does this mean that his increasingly large number of free-to-YouTube albums are going on sale at some point? Stay tuned!
• It looks like The Rednecks Saloon (formerly The Nicolet Tavern) closed at some point last year, despite their social media accounts never announcing it online. The 304 Albert Street West nightclub hasn't updated their social media accounts since 2017, we last reported on a show there when Chase Wigmore held a single release concert in September 2019, and Google lists the bar as "permanently closed". If true, it is sad to lose a familiar downtown venue like this, and Rednecks did host some strong concerts after it's 2013 rebranding. Hopefully the old staff is doing well nowadays!
• Young local garage/hard rock quartet The Uncanny Valley are the only heavier local band on the schedule for this year's virtual Fringe North International Theatre Festival over the August 19th weekend! It's being held on YouTube due to pandemic-related travel restrictions, given the event's heavy usage of buskers and performers from out of town. Click here to see the current performer lineup, and there are a few other identifiable local names. Even virtually, this should be strong exposure for The Uncanny Valley, so stay tuned for updates on how to watch their set!
  

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

Summer Concert Festival Postponements, Mike Haggith Updates, And New Videos!!

Day #33 of consecutive posts on the SMS sees a little more in the way of news for a change, but we do have a bunch of videos to look at from some familiar local faces, including a live-stream, a single release, and a two man acoustic jam. Here's what you should know!

The summer concert season will be taking a major hit this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, as both Rotaryfest in July and the Fringe North International Theatre Festival in August have been postponed. Sault Ontario's summer festival (which hosts two music stages at Clergue Park) announced the news on their Facebook page this morning "out of concern for our wonderful community", and they will be monitoring Algoma Public Health and provincial government guidelines before announcing plans for the next installment. Fringe North had taken place in tandem with the Up The Arts music stage in the last couple of years, hence why that event is relevant for the SMS. Their SooToday press release is more up front about the challenges and reasons behind cancelling this year's festival, but they are committed to bringing it back for 2021. Sadly, there are probably more shoes to drop for the summer concert calendar locally, so what should you keep an eye on in this regard?

Other big concert festivals this summer that could very well be cancelled or postponed include The Northern Vibe Festival in Ophir, the Go North Music Festival in Richards Landing, The Sugar Island Music Festival, and the Rudyard Musicians Festival, and that's not even counting smaller events and traditional concerts expected in the months ahead. Time will tell what happens, but if Rotaryfest isn't happening this year, you know this is serious. When more details come to light, we'll keep you posted!

Next up, local/Thompson, Manitoba alt-hard rock solo musician Mike Haggith has unveiled the third and final advance single for his forthcoming studio album "If Ever Comes The Day", as you can now hear "MorningStar" in it's full studio splendour, courtesy of his YouTube channel this morning! Of course, I'll hold comment on the song pending our review of the CD (which may hit the site sooner than you expect), but I will say that there's more to this version than you've heard in Mike's acoustic videos. In a bit of a scoop, Mike asked me earlier today if I could reveal the rescheduled date for his planned "If Ever Comes The Day" release concert at LopLops Lounge on the site, so you heard it here first: Assuming that provincial health guidelines allow it, the show will now take place on Friday, November 6th, which also happens to be Mike's 29th birthday! If anything changes re: the venue, album, Mike's backing band, or admission, we'll let you know.

There is a long time to go before we know if concerts as we know them can go forward, let alone at nightclubs, but hopefully the curve will be flattened sufficiently by the fall. At least Mike has a backup plan in motion, and it'd be quite a way for him to celebrate his birthday, so fingers crossed everything works out! For now, give "MorningStar" a listen below, and look for his third live-streamed "#LockdownLive" concert tomorrow!



Also today, local hard rock solo musician Tym Morrison performed his fifth live-streamed acoustic concert (and second on his YouTube channel) last night! The set proper begins about 8½ minutes in, and in performance order, Tym plays Chicago's "Hard To Say I'm Sorry", Eric Clapton's "Tears In Heaven", Kansas' "Dust In The Wind", and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama", before pausing briefly to respond to Facebook messages. Afterwards, he tackles The Eagles' "Hotel California", Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead Or Alive", Alan Jackson's "Chattahoochee", White Lion's "When The Children Cry", Tom Petty's "Free Falling", Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'", Night Ranger's "Sister Christian", The Beatles' "Blackbird", Fleetwood Mac's "Never Going Back Again", Days Of The New's "Shelf In The Room", Billy Joel's "Piano Man", Richard Marx's "Hold On To The Nights", The Tragically Hip's "New Orleans Is Sinking", ...

...The Animals' "House of the Rising Sun", Collective Soul's "Shine", The Travelling Wilburys' "Handle With Care", his own original song "Say That You Care", and finally, Extreme's "Hole Hearted". While Tym was using the lyric book from his first two Twitch live-streams here, the set is almost entirely different from what he played on Tuesday, so the variety is definitely welcomed, and his performances are as strong and musically varied as ever! Give Tym's new home concert a watch below, and stay tuned for the likely next installments on YouTube on Tuesday and Thursday!



Finally for today, here's a new video from local indie/punk band Northwest's Facebook page, and it's a social distance-friendly acoustic rendition of their original "Sorry Sunday" featuring frontman Wayne Watkins and guitarist Mike Yakasovich! After Wayne posted a couple of solo covers there, it's great to see one of their originals brought back for a video during the pandemic, though I have to be honest, his vocals seem a little overdone for an unplugged jam like this. Still a well done collaboration, and hopefully we hear more like this soon! Give it a look below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for last month's poll results and our new poll on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tym Morrison), A New Din Video, And Much More!!

With Valentine's Day fast approaching, let's get a new news post up on the SMS on this Monday afternoon! Below, you'll find some assorted recent updates, a new concert video, and a nice archival discovery, but first, here's a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!

Local acoustic hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison will play a special Valentine's Day matinee concert TOMORROW at Gliss Steak & Seafood! Apologies for the short notice, the show was only announced on Thursday night via it's Facebook event page. This is unusual for Tym's long-term arrangement at The Quality Inn's house restaurant, as it's not on a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, and Tym didn't play February 14th last year, but his unplugged covers and classics should provide a nice soundtrack for attendees TOMORROW, and given the Valentine's Day theme, can we expect a higher amount of romance songs and/or ballads? Despite the seasonal theme, this show is otherwise formatted similarly to his regular Gliss dates (he'll be back there on FRIDAY & SATURDAY), so expect no cover charge, a 6:00 PM start time, and no age limit, but again, this is a sit-down restaurant. Check the above links for more details, and here's Tym live!



Next up, here's another new video from local alternative/hard rock trio The Din's YouTube channel, also from their LopLops Lounge headlining show last month! No word yet on the rest of the extensive footage that The Din have teased, but this video is of their newer original "High Park", which sounds good and lively, but I'm still not a fan of the "ooooooh" choruses (they still feel like a placeholder for lyrics not yet written.) Well filmed and performed as usual, so give The Din's newest video a look below!

Also today, here's a surprise find from a crawl of old Angelfire pages with local music ties: The website for former local punk concert promoters Friendly Giant Productions! Ran by David Hugill, F.G.P. was active primarily in 1999 & 2000, making this one of the oldest surviving local music pages that I've ever seen. Their website notes that Friendly Giant promoted shows at the turn of the millennium with bands like Bankshot, Choke, The Mad Caddies, SNFU, and Strung Out (among others), with the July 2000 show featuring AFI, Choke, and AlgomA predecessors BeefFMoutH at Club Princess being their final listed concert there. At the label's peak, they had their own affiliated radio show on WLSO 90.1 FM at Lake State too, which would have been interesting to hear at the time! Surviving links on the Angelfire page include news updates for shows and planned events in early-mid 2000, photos from Oddfellows Hall concerts, tons of links and touring band write-ups, select concert flyers, and even the remnants of a dating service(?!)

Friendly Giant Productions predates the Sault Metal Scene's launch by 8 or so years, but this is a nice time capsule of the scene as it was 17 years ago, back when The Knights of Columbus Hall and Club Princess were viable and frequent sights for punk concerts, and back when AFI still played punk! David Hugill has since moved on to bigger and better things out of town as a researcher and journalist, but if you recall his days in local concert promotion, this will be a fun flashback, so check out more from Friendly Giant Productions at the above links, and they're now linked on the SMS!

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

• Local rap/metal project The Apocalypse Afterparty are holding a contest where you could win $50 or the first release USB drive copy of their debut EP "Bufflesnort", but what's involved?  To enter, you must invite Facebook friends to like the band, and with the band able to tell who invited whom, the person that invites the most new fans will either desired prize (the money can be available as an e-mail transfer too.) No word yet on when to expect the actual paid release of "Bufflesnort", but if you want the EP (or $50), click "Invite Friends to Like this Page" above!
• Sudbury-based promoters CS International Ontario are planning a "big concert announcement" this coming Sunday for a concert on March 30th at The Machine Shop at Mill Square. There are teases on the Facebook event page that this will feature a "rock and roll" headliner, and while there are no bigger hints that yet, Din frontman Mike Haggith seems optimistic in postings, for what that's worth. If this show indeed fits for SMS coverage, we'll let you know, but see above to check if you can decipher any clues beforehand!
• Local musician Jason Morbin is looking for a bassist for his new local band project, who play "a lot of rock" with "some blues & punk influence", and aspire to play covers & originals on stage. For what it's worth, Jason had been linked to a band project last year where the bassist would have been ex-Haggith frontman Curtis McKenzie, but it's not clear if this is the same intended band. If you're interested in trying out, message Jason at this link or via his Musicians Wanted Facebook group post from last week!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

A Big New Outdoor Concert's Band Search, A Notable Band's Likely Status, And Much More!!

Here's some more news for this Sunday morning, and there's some notable stuff to address and cover! Today, we've got updates to one of our monthly feature series, a bunch of assorted news and notes, videos of a local metal guitarist, and the likely status of a local metal band, but first, here's some information on a planned major concert event that YOU can apply to play on!

Are you or your band interested in playing at a multi-band outdoor concert in the Sault Ontario area next summer? Applications are being taken right now for some sort of concert event to be held in June 2013, as per postings by organizer Rita Slater on our Facebook page, and a related "Sault Ste. Marie Outdoor Concert" Facebook page that she's launched. Rita is the general manager of Laird International Raceway and the organizer of the relaunched Hot Rides Cornfest that was held there this month & last August, and from what I can gather, this event (which may also be a festival) would likely take place in Laird as well, though it's not planned to be country music-centric like Cornfest is. Details are otherwise scant on this planned event, but headlining bands will apparently be announced later this year, and she's hoping to find 10-12 local acts to perform. If you or your band are interested in playing this outdoor concert event in Laird next June, e-mail Rita A.S.A.P. at theboomboomshow@hotmail.ca! I know the new Cornfest has been successful, but a new music festival in the area with rock integration (and hopefully some metal) would be neat, especially in June rather than later months where it'd have more competition. I'd say take Rita up on this offer to apply for this event, you never know how big it could be, so send your e-mails A.S.A.P., and stay tuned for updates on this event!

Next up, I wanted to note a band that we're regrettably moving to the inactive band links on the SMS, that being local classic metal quintet Sativa Rose. Though we're not at the one year-inactivity threshold for them (they were last visibly active in December via some concert video uploads), an immediate future for Sativa Rose is unlikely due to members Andrew Angelic & Adam Veale's planned move to London for college early next month. Nothing official has ever came out regarding Sativa Rose's status, but with Andrew & Adam focusing on the also-moving Valentine's Day Massacre, guitarist Anthony Orazietti now in Winkstinger, and drummer Alex Palmer living out of town himself right now (I think), the writing seems to be on the wall. It's disappointing to see Sativa Rose fall into inactivity, especially knowing their musical talent and the unrealized potential that their final lineup (including singer Marisa Valois) had following that lineup's first & last show in November. No matter what, they gave us a lot of great shows and originals from their summer 2010 debut through last fall, and classic metal fans had a lot to like and headbang with! Best of luck to Marisa, Andrew, Anthony, Adam, and Alex in the future, and maybe Sativa Rose will pop up again in some form down the road!

Thirdly today, remember how we shared videos from new Sault Ontario thrash metal band Pillory and their 2011 predecessors Roadkill on Thursday? Well, guitarist Robert Sartini has posted 10 solo thrash covers aside from his recent band work on his YouTube channel as well! With one exception, these were all filmed last year, and they include covers of Metallica's "Jump In The Fire" and the solo from "Disposable Heroes", and Viking's "Case of the Stubborns", but the rest are all Megadeth, including versions of "In My Darkest Hour", "Set The World Afire", "Victory", "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due", and the solo from it in a separate video, so click each link to see Robert in action! He has skill at metal guitar work for sure, but his guitar is tuned a bit weirdly on some of the videos, and there are some rough patches. He does have talent though, and I'm curious to hear more from Robert in Pillory or solo uploads, so check out his cover of "Holy Wars" below, and see more at the above links!



Fourthly, here's three assorted shorter news stories from the last little while, and as always, these are in alphabetical order by band or musician name:

• Local classic metal quartet Late & Loud have quietly uploaded their entire upcoming debut EP to their Reverbnation page! It's good to hear all of these songs in full, but as always, I'll hold on full thoughts until it's hopeful release. Check all five tracks out at the above links, and stay tuned for their long awaited return at the end of the month when they open for Skull Fist!
  
• Former Bear Hunters/Skull After Betrayl guitarist Mike Vincent is looking for a hardcore/metalcore vocalist for his new project, which will apparently cover bands like August Burns Red and Whitechapel. This could be interesting if it gets to the level of Mike's older bands, but I don't know a whole lot on them yet. If you're interested, message Mike at this location or find his post on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group from August 6th!
• Also new on the Musicians Wanted group, local hardcore band With Blood Builds Character are officially looking for a drummer (they had temporarily enlisted Travis St. Amour for their debut show.) Frontman Jeremy Hannah indicated in a post late last month on the group that they're hoping to tour in January, so make note of that. If you're a technical metal drummer and are interested in joining W.B.B.C., message Jeremy at this location or read more at the above links!
  

And finally for today, here's some updates to our YouTube Channel Profiles, to make that monthly feature series more accurate and current! On the profile of YouTube user AshTraynor's channel (which is centric towards Kinross hard rockers Banned), I updated references to their current lineup (namely the return of Alex Schrovenwever as their new second guitarist), and made lineup adjustments accordingly, along with some date fixing. On the StateOfMisery2011 channel profile, I updated it to reflect State of Misery's latest breakup from earlier this summer, and finally, I edited the GardenofBedlamBand channel profile to note the current amount and usage of newer band channels, as it's been replaced twice over in the last 3 years. That's all for that latest batch of updates, but as more updates come up relating to our monthly feature series, I'll let you guys know so you don't miss anything that's added, removed, or switched! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes shortly, including our next YouTube Channel Profiles and our Dead & Divine concert preview in a few days! Thanks everyone!