Thursday, November 22, 2012

YouTube Channel Profile Series: Bango/Skank (((o & mikel2971's Channel

Happy American Thanksgiving! I hope all of our Yooper fans are having an awesome day, and don't get too stuffed with turkey, as you might get too tired to check out both of today's SMS posts! After a couple days off due to minimal news, we're back first with this month's YouTube Channel Profiles! As always, this monthly feature series profiles 1-3 YouTube channels with at least a 50% concentration of local metal videos, and as the first video we randomly picked last month only had one video, I randomly chose one more that could fill out this post. So, what should you know about this month's selected YouTube channels, users, and videos? Read on below to find out! (Edited on October 16th, 2013)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bango/Skank (((o (http://www.youtube.com/user/bangoskank666)

Owner: YouTube user & British Columbia resident Mike Vipond

Channel Timeline: Launched on March 15th, 2008; Only video posted on December 2nd, 2008

Channel Summary: Though not a Sault Ste. Marie resident, one of Mike's favourite songs is/was "Winter Flight" from local progressive death metal standouts Gates of Winter's 2008 CD "Lux Aeterna", and he uploaded it to YouTube that December, as it wasn't on YouTube otherwise at the time. Posted in the tail end of their original active period, this is one of Gates of Winter's better melodic early originals, and Mike even added a photo slideshow with lyrics to the video itself, helping add to this upload, which is still a quality track even compared to newer material! Note however that this is Mike's only upload to his channel, despite still being used for personal needs to this day.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mikel2971's channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/mikel2971)

Owner: Sault College graduate & former local guitarist Mike Laprade

Channel Timeline: Launched on February 5th, 2009; Videos posted from September 2009 through August 2011

Channel Summary: This is the official YouTube channel for Mike Laprade, who some of you may recognize as a Sault College aviation student in the late 2000s, before he moved to North Bay circa mid-2010. His posted videos mainly come from his last year at Sault College, including two live concert videos & a solo performance, all of which were of covers of projects that have featured Zakk Wylde (fittingly, Mike played a Zakk Wylde bullseye Gibson Les Paul in each video!) I don't believe Mike was in any full local bands while in town, and since moving from the area, his only YouTube upload is this mid-2011 video of him (I assume) landing an airplane in Coniston, Ontario in 2011.

Why Should You Watch: I'd give Mike's channel a look for some solid guitar performances from before he moved from the Soo, as he (and the other guitarist in two of the videos) did have clear talent! Mike was nice in the few conversations we had back then, and hopefully he's still musically active out east! As for the airplane video, I can't accurately comment on it, but it looks like he landed well! If you're debating subscribing though, keep in mind that Mike hasn't used his YouTube channel in over a year.

Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:


Tyler Yuke Memorial - Blackened Waters by Black Label Society Cover: The most viewed video on Mike's channel is of him and a fellow Sault College student (name unclear, but his YouTube handle is myapplecore) covering Black Label Society's "Blackened Waters" at that year's Tyler Yuke Memorial Night! Held at Sault College's former campus pub The Outback on March 20th, 2010, Mike & his friend were among numerous open mic performers, and this was among two videos shot by an attendee that day, including their cover of Ozzy Osbourne's "Mama, I'm Coming Home". I saw this set live, and they were solid, but there was guitar feedback & tone issues that didn't highlight their skills well. The quality of the videos is mixed too, with flickering lights, a muffled sound, and very quiet singing, but Mike & myapplecore both show guitar skill, particularly for the guitar solos!



Farewell Ballad: Mike's first video & only other musical clip is of him covering Zakk Wylde's "Farewell Ballad" in September 2009, and this really shows his guitar talents well thanks to better camera quality and a closer angle of his fingering! Sure, there's a couple mistakes, but even he described it as a "mild attempt". His appreciation of Zakk Wylde is clear, and as mentioned above, hopefully he's still in music in some form!


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hope you guys like this month's YouTube Channel Profiles! Next month, we're looking at 2 channels for the third straight month, as the first channel I randomly selected didn't have enough suitably unique videos to warrant a full post. That said, the channels I chose include those ran by YouTube user vflindall (featuring a full Detroit concert set from 2009) and sisuunicorn705 (featuring a video of Sebastian Bach singing karaoke in the Soo while he was in town for the Swearnet film shoot!) Watch out for it on or around December 22nd, and stay tuned for weekend concert previews in our next post! Thanks everyone!

No comments: