YouTube Channel Profile Series: Joe Bedlam

For our last monthly feature post of the month, our newest YouTube Channel Profile is here, and it again features a 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 selection is an official channel for a late lamented band who accomplished a lot and put out some really solid music in their heyday, so here's what you should know!

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Joe Bedlam (http://youtube.com/videosofbedlam)

Owner: A member or representative of 2008-2015 local hard rock quartet Garden of Bedlam, exact identity unclear (though note that no band member was named Joe) 

Channel Timeline: Launched on September 12th, 2010; Videos uploaded from July 2012 through January 2013

Channel Summary: An official YouTube channel for Garden of Bedlam from a six month stretch of the latter half of their active run (succeeding this earlier channel), fans can watch two live performance videos, a rehearsal clip, and a slideshow set to one of their studio tracks here.

Why You Should Watch: While not the largest source of Garden of Bedlam content on YouTube, this channel does feature some good content from shortly before their activity began winding down in the mid-2010s, and fans of theirs should take to the content on offer! I mean, as of this writing, they haven't played live in over a decade, which is hard enough to believe! 

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

Garden Of Bedlam - Your Disgrace (live July 21, 2012): The first two uploads here come from Garden of Bedlam's headlining set at Rotaryfest's Second Stage in July 2012, in its penultimate year on a closed off section of Queen Street East before its 2014 hiatus and relocation to Clergue Park. As usual, the band is represented here by ex-Barfly/Changing Lanes frontman Erik "Buzz" Boissineau, guitarist Josh Belleau, bassist Evan Belleau, and future Wyld Stallyns/Even Flow drummer Derek Turner. The guys were filmed here playing two cuts from their 2011 album "Everything Will Die", including the title track and (featured here) "Your Disgrace". Camera work is a little shaky, but the performances are sound, and I miss hearing Buzz's powerful melodic vocals on stage! The Queen Street locale was more unique visually too than how Stage 2 looks now, but your mileage may vary.

 

Garden Of Bedlam - Everything Will Die (drum can rehersal): To help promote their Rad Zone birthday concert on Devil's Night 2012 at The Rockstar Bar, this channel uploaded a rehearsal video of Garden of Bedlam jamming "Everything Will Die" focusing on Derek. Interestingly, this isn't your typical "drum cam" video, as someone (Joe?) was actively filming Derek while holding the camera, not relying on a tripod or stationary placement, so it's quite jittery. The focus on Derek does let us see how solid of a drummer he is (I'm glad that he still performs live in different projects), though you only see part of Josh in frame for the rest of the band. The fan who shows up 30 seconds in sure got a good view of everything!

Garden of Bedlam Around the Bend: The final and most popular "video of bedlam" here is a slideshow set to their ballad "Around The Bend" (also from "Everything Will Die"), featuring ample photos of or related to the band's 2008-2012 activity, including live performance shots, promotional photos, band logos, and album covers. I do like my Garden of Bedlam heavier than this, but the song shows off Buzz's soft pure singing voice really well, and the slideshow gives a nice glimpse at the majority of their run together!

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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series will return on or around Boxing Day for one more installment in 2025, and next month, we'll be looking at multiple channels, as the first randomly selected channel only has one video period, so I picked one more channel that had only two distinct SMS-relevant video to fill things out with. As such, we're ending the year with YouTube users kekeitba (featuring a Woods of Ypres song upload) and ChrisHubbard415E (featuring two solo guitar performance videos). Stay tuned for those then, and for weekend concert previews on the SMS next! Thanks everyone!

Kraken Mara's New Playthrough Upload, More New Videos, And Assorted Updates!!

News is predictably slow due to the current lockdown, but I have cobbled together enough content for a post on this Saturday morning, including some assorted shorter news and notes, and some new videos from some familiar faces. Here's what you should know!

As promised, local progressive metal duo Kraken Mara's newest playthrough video for their upcoming EP "Press Start" went public on their YouTube channel yesterday morning at 10:00 AM! Again, they went the "uploaded in advance for a scheduled premiere date" route. This video is for their song "The Woodward", and after sitting out their last two playthrough videos, guitarist Brendan Christie is back on camera for this one, playing alongside Jake here, albeit with the brothers-in-law filmed separately. Once again, I'll hold comment pending our review of the EP. As for it's remaining track ("Stratus"), that had a playthrough video shot in 2017 that was filmed outside of the former St. Mary's Paper building, and it's description has been edited to reflect the 2021 EP plans. "Stratus" does not appear to have been re-recorded, so I would not be expecting a new playthrough video for it.

Also, just to clear up any earlier discrepancies, their previously announced song "Moon's Haunted" appears to have renamed "Miscreant" for unannounced reasons. Now that all five songs are on YouTube and their website to stream, how soon will "Press Start" go on sale? Kraken Mara's website says that it is "now available for purchase", but that looks like a placeholder, as the band has not officially announced anything about a release. We'll let you know when more comes out, but check out Brendan & Jake playing through "The Woodward" below for some more metal action!

Next up, here's the newest videos from former No Arrow drummer/Faithless Sin guitarist Joe Falco's YouTube channel! After a three month hiatus, Joe returned last month to post eight new videos, all but one being acoustic covers. These include Pink Floyd's "Echoes", The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band's "Blue On Black", Alice In Chains' "Don't Follow", Oasis' "Stand By Me", Poison's "Every Rose Has It's Thorn", The Jeff Healey Band's "Angel Eyes", and as embedded below, Poison's "Something To Believe In". I went with that song because Joe also posted a short blooper reel video from his attempts at filming that particular cover, so give that a look if you want a laugh! Despite his self deprecating tone in the description, this rendition is solid, and as all of these covers are unplugged, his voice isn't as drowned out as on his earlier covers! You definitely hear more of his range in these.

Joe also posted an hour-long video on Tuesday of him working on his Aria Pro II STG-004 Series Stratocaster, if you're itching to see him fix and play an electric guitar. These videos are all worth checking out to see some well performed acoustic rock covers and more, so give Joe's newest uploads a look above and below, and stay tuned for more when we hear it!

 

Also today, here's a new original song collaboration from Inner City Surfers/ex-Role Models bandmates Brad "Example" Lacell & Dave Bahun! Posted to Brad's YouTube channel on Monday, this is entitled "The Nightmare's Real", and it's a gritty yet folksy number that fits more in line with Brad's modern solo work, complete with his raspy vocals (is it wrong to get a bit of an Everlast vibe from this?) Not a traditional punk number, but well done, and you can hear it for yourself below!

 

 

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

 

• The second annual (and final?) Coronafest live-streamed concert takes place tonight at 6:30 PM, with all relevant links and information to be found on the Facebook event page. While Coronafest is not originating locally, Saultites Kyla Becker & Jacob Baillie will play the second set, while ex-Sykotyk Rampage bassist Brian Cattapan is a co-organizer of the event, and he will perform at 9:00 PM with his current Sudbury-based band The Rhythm Section. Check it out if you need some Saturday night entertainment!
• I have removed former local concert promotion agency Dismembertainment from our "Other Local Metal Links" section due to the deletion of it's Facebook (and only known surviving) page at some point in the past year. The banner under which ex-Time of Ruin guitarist Rich Moreland promoted local metal concerts in 2011 & 2012, and for a time afterwards in his current Alberta homebase, Rich has since switched primarily to work in concert photography, at least until the pandemic. Hopefully he's doing well out west!
• Sault Michigan hard rock quartet Tarnished took a surprising trip downstate to play at the Hotel Royal Oak outside of Detroit this past Saturday! It was only announced on four days notice, oddly, but click here for details about the show. Hopefully the road trip was a blast, especially as social distance-limited concerts can still take place in Michigan! Also, note that on the Facebook event page linked above, their bassist and drummer were credited as Donny Wayne and Josh Tyler, omitting their last names.
  

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

New Videos From The Last Week Or So!!

After taking a few personal days off from the SMS (read our post from Sunday for more information), let's try to get back into a normal-ish schedule for posts on the site, or as normal as the ongoing pandemic will allow. Today's post is devoted to recent video uploads, including new solo performance videos, a live concert clip, and leading off, a lengthy look at a prominent metal band's Canadian tour from four years back!

Local/St. Catharine's grindcore trio Shit Liver have resurfaced with their long-belated second concert tour documentary! Entitled "Totally Fucked: The Lost Shit Liver Tour Tapes", this 38 minute video was uploaded to their YouTube channel on Friday, and it documents the happenings of their (and sister bluegrass band Dirtfight's) Number Two Tour that took place from April-June 2016 across all of the non-Atlantic provinces. Given the success of their 2015 tour documentary "A Long & Grinding Road", I'm surprised that the guys never compiled this footage in a similarly timely fashion, but perhaps the pandemic and lockdowns finally afforded them the chance (though the intro and this Facebook trailer imply that "the tapes were lost"). While this was a longer tour, the resulting documentary shorter than 2015's was, but there is still a lot to see! At the beginning, you will see Shit Liver setting up their trailer for the road, drying their new shirts, and clips from their tour kick-off party (with quite an irreverent pinata), and their Sudbury concert.

After some more on-the-road footage (including the return of screaming across bridges), Saultites will want to check out the 5:08 mark to see brief clips from their Oddfellows Hall stop on April 30th when they opened for Calgary hardcore punk band The Motherfuckers (read our review here.) You will get to see performance footage of the reunited Winkstinger and the headliners, plus some post-show content with a dalmatian, and a cameo from Jack Spades drummer Johnny Belanger. After gassing up, the tour heads west, and without spoiling anything, you'll see footage of the guys driving, enjoying the sights on the road, camping, eating, skateboarding, making use of a green-screen of sorts, playing games, setting off fireworks, witnessing a police shutdown in Saskatoon, and experiencing nature, with lots of clips of bands performing at the tour dates along the way. Shit Liver and company head back east for the final 13 minutes, with a lot more of the same content en route, plus vehicle repair issues, ...

...a lot of sandwiches, passing through home in St. Catharine's, and their tour finale in Quebec, before ending with an acoustic song summing up the tour. This is an entertaining look at Shit Liver's second D.I.Y. national tour, and there's certainly a lot of amusing shenanigans to take in, but be warned that actual clips of them performing are minimal (who do you think shot most of the videos?) The YouTube description says that "it is yet to be decided if Shit Liver will ever tour again" (they last played live in May of last year), but hopefully we'll see the guys back in some form or another post-pandemic! Give their new documentary a watch below!

Next up, here's a new video of local southern hard rock quintet Fort Creek's concert at Reggie's West this past Saturday! Live-streamed on their Facebook page, this is another rendition of the guys covering Blackberry Smoke's "Like I Am", which was previously seen being covered by Fort Creek in this fan-shot video from the original Reggie's. Musically, this version of "Like I Am" is sound, but the video was shot from the bar, which understandably restricts the view of the stage. At least the Reggievelt was as packed as current regulations allow, and give things a look below!

 

We'll close today with new videos from former No Arrow drummer Joe Falco's YouTube channel from the past week! One is a tribute video to the late great Eddie Van Halen where Joe shredded a number of Van Halen tunes from memory, and while he admitted to making errors, it was a nice gesture to honour such an influential musician. The other two videos are lengthy, including one where Joe shows his restoration job on a 2000 Ibanez RG350DX guitar, complete with a solid jam session and his commentary and thoughts on the guitar. Embedded below is the newest of these uploads, which just features Joe jamming on the aforementioned Ibanex RG350DX, which serves as fun playthrough for his birthday while also testing some of his patches. Strong and loose performances overall, and it's clear that Joe enjoyed restoring and playing this guitar, so these videos give it a solid platform. Give everything a watch above and below!

 

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

New Archive Video Uploads Of No Arrow & Faithless Sin!!

Just a heads up, this post is the first on the SMS that I've had to make using Blogger's new editor interface which was rolled out earlier this year. I am not an immediate fan of it, and I have already had to check online help forums to answer questions about where certain things are, so if anything looks amiss, that's why. Hopefully things are sorted out soon!

Today's post is devoted to archive videos from prolific local rock musician Joe Falco's YouTube channel, which we alluded to in a post on the site three weeks ago, as Joe was in the late stages of a massive upload streak of videos from his run in live bands in the mid-late 2000s. Let's start with the biggest of his past groups, namely 2005-2011 grunge/alternative rock trio No Arrow (née Murder Playground), who are the subject of 25 of his videos in the last few months! These include a now-band official upload of all 12 songs from their unreleased studio album "Souls For Sale" and a few videos that were previously uploaded on frontman Dann Pichette's YouTube channel. Joe's uploads, brand new or otherwise, include three videos from a weekend at The Canadian Nightclub in April 2007, two from a Sault Area Wrestling event at The Elks Lodge that fall, two from The Speak Easy at Algoma University, three from Madison's Pub (now The Harp Bar & Grill), a rehearsal jam of "One On The Line", and a Fitswitch parody under their original name.

Embedded below is 62 minutes of an early No Arrow set at Madison's Pub in November 2006, though it doesn't capture the entire performance due to tape limitations. Featuring Dann and Joe alongside original bassist Jason Bourcier (more on him in a bit), this concert took place on Jason's birthday, and it features 17 songs, though only 5 are originals at this stage. In order, you can see the guys play Local H's "All Right, Oh Yeah", Helmet's "Unsung", The Melvins' "Revolve", their original "Bleed Your Hate", Nirvana's "Stain", The Beastie Boys' "Sabotage", their unreleased album's title track "Souls For Sale", Local H's "Cool Magnet", their own "Genocyde Revealing", The Melvins' "Youth of America", part of Mudhoney's "Touch Me I'm Sick" with a guest guitarist, their original "Delayed Reaction", Local H's "Bound For The Floor", Motorhead's "Ace of Spades", their own "One On The Line", and two final Local H songs (part of "Everyone Alive" and "All The Kids Are Right".)

It's awesome seeing a lengthy No Arrow video like this, albeit 14 years later, and while the VHS camcorder quality isn't ideal (smartphones weren't ubiquitous yet), the raw intensity is on full display!  Of course, any fans of Local H will want to give this a special look, especially as you don't hear them covered often nowadays. Give this video a watch below, and check out much more from No Arrow's mid-late 2000s heyday at the above links!

Speaking of bands that Jason and Joe were in together, let's now look at another old band that Joe has uploaded content from, namely their old 2005-2007 thrash metal band Faithless Sin! Here featuring Jason on vocals (a'la Operation: Killdozer) and Joe on guitar, this band also features guitarist Frank LaTassa (Quite Frankly), bassist Ryan Gratton (Chronic Demonic) and drummer Mark Parent in their lone video, but Mike DiPasquale preceded Frank in the band, and Gates of Winter alum Jonathan Harvey drummed in their brief 2010 reunion. Faithless Sin never got far off the ground, and have no known public concerts to their name, but some members did more collectively in their successor band Time of Ruin from 2007-2008. Joe has uploaded four videos representing Faithless Sin, including two crude audio copies of originals ("Chaos Reigns" & "River Flows Cold"), plus a better quality recording of two Slayer covers. Embedded below is Faithless Sin's only surviving video!

Also filmed via that VHS camcorder, this is very much a jam session recording, and Joe is very forthcoming in the video description if a song was a jam or rough, plus what he wishes the video would have captured from their setlist at the time. In order, the guys can be seen playing Slayer's "War Ensemble" as a soundcheck, Megadeth's "She-Wolf", In Flames' "Behind Space 99", Sepultura's "Refuse/Refist", their combined version of Slayer's "Die By The Sword" & "Black Magic", a jam of Pantera's "Fucking Hostile" from a different camera angle, another loose jam of Metallica's "My Friend of Misery" with Joe on vocals, two separate run-throughs of their original "Chaos Reigns" (a first-time jam and a proper performance), and finally, Metallica's "Blackened". Camera aside, this raw and brutal rehearsal captures a promising band that I'd have liked to have seen go further locally! Our view of Faithless Sin is only optimal on the Pantera cover though.

On songs that Joe doesn't give a disclaimer for, everyone sounds tight and dialed in, and Jay's groove-influenced growl adds the extra bark (that's a good comparison), and given that Frank had just joined the band, he fit right in on certain songs! Give Faithless Sin's archive videos a watch above and below, and stay tuned for more from Joe's channel in the coming days!

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Fort Creek & Tym Morrison) And A Local Musician's Return!!

I like to ensure that there is a new post of some kind at least every 3 days, even with news at a crawl, and we're keeping that up tonight with LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (one on short notice) and lots of info on a former mainstay behind the drumkit and his return to active music uploading. With all of that said, here's what you should know!

Local classic/hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison will return to The Motley Market on Gore Street for two more Saturday evening gigs THIS SATURDAY and next weekend! Apologies for the short notice on the former date, Tym only announced both shows on their Facebook event page yesterday. Note that the event page lists this booking as one show as taking place for one week + 3 hours, but that appears to be just a way to encompass both dates, and this does go along with his regular Saturday schedule at the Market in September. No word yet on if he will be playing there next month, let alone on a similar weekly basis, but don't miss out on his unplugged hard and classic rock covers there on SATURDAY and next week! For what it's worth, Tym did not live-stream his Motley Market gig this past Saturday for unannounced reasons, so the jury's out on if he will do so in two nights. Hopefully he hasn't given up on the live-streams, they were a fun regular sight for his fans during the pandemic!

As recently usual for his Motley Market bookings, THIS SATURDAY and next Saturday's shows have 6:00 PM start times, no announced cover charges, and no age limits, but be respectful of the venue, which is a non-traditional locale for concerts and hosts other vendors (and of course, use common sense re: social distancing). Visit the above links for more details, and here's Tym live at the Motley Market earlier this month!



Next up, local southern hard rock quintet Fort Creek have announced their second and third public concert dates (open mic/jam nights aside), and both are next month, so fans have time to prepare! The first one will see the guys return to the newly re-opened Reggie's Place for one night only on Saturday, October 3rd (the band says they are back by popular demand), so if you didn't see their live debut or want to check out the downtown Reggies anew, keep this date in mind! The other new date is a week later on Saturday, October 10th, when the Halfway Loaded successors make their debut appearance at The Rockstar Bar, and it will be great to see Fort Creek rock a new venue (for them) as the fall season winds along! Both shows have an 8:00 PM start time, 19+ age limit, and no announced cover are in effect for both shows, but of course, mind the social distancing regulations and limited seating. Visit the Reggie's show's official Facebook event page and the above links for more details, and stay tuned for updates!

We'll close today with some new videos from local hard rock musician Joe Falco's YouTube channel! Though we haven't seen Joe on a local stage in a long while, he has been staying busy in the past 4 months with new solo videos with him on vocals and guitar, albeit not branded as "The Joe Falco Experience" anymore. Here, he uses the handle JoeJitsuMusic, partially referencing his Brazilian jiu jitsu pursuits that the channel documented from last year onward, and you can support his music and BJJ work by backing him on Patreon. There is a lot of ground to cover here, which old fans of his drum work with No Arrow and Faithless Sin will definitely want to explore, and we will cover those bands' uploads in a future post. For now, let's start with Joe's solo videos, which include many diverse covers and even some demonstrative videos to showcase his gear, including his beautiful Kerry King Warlock guitar, plus some a handful of jam and improv videos.

From the past 4 months, you can see or hear Joe cover The Counting Crows, Willie Nelson, The Goo Goo Dolls, Evanescence, Seether, The Meat Puppets, Creed, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Incubus, Radiohead, Marcy Playground, Eric Clapton, and even Bubbles & The Shitrockers!? Don't think that Joe is just doing covers though, as he has posted at least two original (non-improv) compositions, including "Teary Blue Eyes" (a softer ballad with full instrumentation) and "Dancing In Summer's Rain" (a classical piece). Joe tackles a wide array of influences here, which won't surprise fans of his old classic rock band Flashback, and if you're more familiar with him as a drummer, you may be surprised to see some very solid guitar performances on his channel, especially after 9 years of not playing! Vocally, he has a good melody that is very adaptable, but on many of his covers, the singing is drowned out under his electric guitar (a microphone would be very handy in this regard.)

Joe last posted a solo cover two weeks ago, but will more arrive on his channel in the near future? To embed here, I wanted to pick one of Joe's solo videos that showcased his talent beyond just one song, so I settled on this black and white video from August, where he improvised over 50's G major progression with some solos and teaser covers, though you have to identify them yourselves. It is great to see Joe working on new music again, so give everything solo a look above, and stay tuned for his archive videos soon!



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

YouTube Channel Profile Series: JoeNiemi17's Channel & Alex Hemy

Here is our last monthly feature post of the summer months, namely our latest YouTube Channel Profiles! This series looks at 1-3 YouTube channels featuring content at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, or punk bands or concerts, in order to spotlight them for modern day readers and hopefully encourage views and subscriptions. This month's randomly selected channel only had two distinct kinds of videos (4 total that are relevant to the SMS), so I randomly picked a channel with only one surviving video to round things out with, and as such, each channel deals with a local solo musician from each side of the Twin Saults! Here's what you should know!
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JoeNiemi17's Channel (http://www.youtube.com/joeniemi17)
 
Owner: Former Analog Deficiency & Hoist The Sails bassist Joe Niemi

Channel Timeline: Launched on July 14th, 2010; Videos uploaded in October of that year

Channel Summary: Joe's channel features five videos, including two of him in solo bass performances and two videos a major Kewadin Casino concert. His last upload is of a pipe flooding at his then-school, which is his most viewed video, but has no music content.
 
Why You Should Watch: Give this channel a watch to see some of Joe's guitar skill from a decade ago, plus live footage of 10 Years' local set! The last video will primarily concern fans of fail videos or students who remembered the pipe incident. Note that this channel has not visibly been used since 2011, in case that changes your mind on subscribing.

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out: 

Analog riff: Joe's main usage of his channel came late in his progressive metal band Analog Deficiency's 2009-2010 life span, and accordingly, one of his two performance videos is of a riff for a planned original song, as filmed to test his new iPod. It sounds promising, and Joe was a solid bassist, though both Analog Deficency and their successors Hoist The Sails struggled to break out of the Sault Michigan market, which hasn't been easy for extreme metal acts in the past decade. Joe's other performance clip is of him covering Lamb of God's "Laid To Rest" (and pretty well, I might add!)

Waste land - 10 years: This channel's two concert videos are from the Sevendust-headlined show at The Dreammakers Theatre at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino on October 18th, 2010, but Joe did not film them or openers Since October & Anew Revolution. Rather, he filmed co-headlining Knoxville, Tennessee hard rock band 10 Years playing a minute of "Shoot It Out", and in his most popular music upload, their biggest hit "Wasteland". The quality and angle aren't bad for these ironically 10 year old videos, and the vertical resolution isn't too bad given where he was in the crowd! See more videos of 10 Years from their 2018 show here with Seether at this link.

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Alex Hemy (http://www.youtube.com/alexsguitarcovers)
 
Owner: Former Ashes To Dust guitarist Alex Hemy

Channel Timeline: Launched on May 20th, 2012; Only surviving video uploaded in April 2020

Channel Summary: Alex created this channel to feature his solo guitar covers, which initially were in a hard rock/classic metal realm before increasingly getting softer, albeit better produced with backing tracks, and even featuring vocals on occasion. Unfortunately, Alex has deleted or privatized all of his old videos, which is a shame, as he is a very talented musician! His only video left is his new cover of "Driving Rain" by Slash featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators (with the original song as backing), and it's well handled and heavier than we were seeing from him in the videos previous to this one! I'd have used the alternate camera angle well before the 3:37 mark though. Hopefully new (or old) covers of Alex's surface down the line!


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 I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profiles! Next month in this series, our random selection has given us a channel that can stand alone, namely defunct local classic metal band Project 421's official channel! Look for that on or around September 26th, and for a new news post tomorrow! Thanks everyone!