LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Half Stupid), A New Woods Of Ypres Song, Two New Local Bands, And More!!!

Bit of a wait for a new post, but it's all worth it, cause I have lots of stuff to share today! And what better way to start than with a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT?!

Sault Michigan grunge rockers Half Stupid are back on the local concert scene! They will be among the performers at a September Music Festival taking place on September 18th at The Big Bear Arena! Half Stupid will join local solo artist Amanda Rairigh and a band to be named later for this show! Tickets will be just $5, and Half Stupid are schedules to take the stage at 6:30 PM! It's great to see Half Stupid back playing shows, they're a really good band! Check them out on MySpace to find out more about these guys, and visit this link right here to check out their original song "The Pit And The Pendulum", since they don't have songs to check out on their MySpace at the moment! Also, thanks to their recent show bookings there, I've also added contact details for The Big Bear Arena into the Sault Michigan Concert Venue Info to your right!

Next up, I should start by saying this: I've really gotta pay more attention to message boards. I don't check them often enough. Particularly the official message board for Woods of Ypres, which gave me a huge story today that I wouldn't have heard about otherwise! Woods of Ypres frontman David Gold was interviewed last week on the newest episode of the Canadian comedy/metal podcast The Governor's Ball! Topics handled in the interview include why Woods of Ypres don't sign with outside labels, the themes of "Woods IV: The Green Album", if their current lineup will be more permanent than it has been in the past, and how Woods will deal with satisfying their fans while silencing haters at the same time. David also announces plans for an American tour next summer, which should be interesting!

But, the best is yet to come: Following the interview, A BRAND NEW WOODS OF YPRES SONG was broadcast on The Governor's Ball! Entitled "Everything I Touch Turns To Gold...Then To Cold", it sounds really good, very doom-metal like, and it gives me some great hopes for the new album! But, as is standard, I'll hold from detailed opinions until it comes out! Following that, they also played "The Northern Cold" and "Your Ontario Town Is A Burial Ground", which are two excellent songs in their own right! It's a good interview, and pretty funny at parts too, The Governor sounds like a horror movie villain and has some humorous lines & jokes, it's worth listening to the interview as well!

Now, how can you check out The Governor's Ball and hear this new song? Simple, visit The Governor's Ball's official website, and download Part 1 of the episode "Gojira & Woods of Ypres"! Woods of Ypres discussion begins around 22 minutes in and runs til close to the end of the file. The new song begins around 37 minutes in. Trust me, this is worth checking out! And sorry I'm late mentioning it, but I will make sure to pay more attention to Woods' forum from here on out!

Alright, now we have new local bands to add to the Local Metal Band Links, and I've bypassed them for waaaay too long. Until last night, I had no idea these guys played anything metal (the listed genres on their MySpace were rock and punk), but now I know they do, so here they are! The band is Unleashed, from Sault Michigan, and they are a young hard rock band who played with 7/47 at The Soo Theater on August 18th! They're one of the successful products from The Guitar Studio's Summer Rock Camp, and they definitely show some promise! There's a lot of really talented young bands in Sault Michigan, and they're no exception!

There's no songs on their MySpace page yet, but two live videos featuring Unleashed have been uploaded to YouTube! One features the band covering Pop Evil's "Somebody Like You", while the other, as seen below, is a cover of Judas Priest's "Breaking The Law"! Check it out!



Speaking of that August 18th show, there's more from that to mention! The show also came together with the help of Joey and Amy Beairl and Mike Vollman from Shift, who all do work and instructing at The Guitar Studio! Three bands were featured: Unleashed, 7/47, and another local band named Intrepid. I haven't talked about these guys too much because I don't have a page for them anywhere, but guitarist Donnie Hank has uploaded a bunch of live videos to his YouTube channel, many of which are from a New Year's show at The Essar Centre! How about that? Covers ranging from Ozzy Osbourne to System of a Down are featured there, which don't sound too bad! I now have Intrepid listed in the Local Metal Band Links (the YouTube account will do for now!), and check out their cover of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" immediately below!



Also, I have The Soo Theater and The Essar Centre listed in the Concert Venue Info sections. They have hosted metal bands in the last year, so it makes perfect sense to put them there! Now, for some smaller news items: On October 13th, Sault natives Detroit will be playing a FREE show at The Bovine Sex Club in Toronto! More news forthcoming, I assume, cause I haven't heard much else. And finally, three Facebook event pages have been posted for three different shows next week that I somehow haven't mentioned on the SMS. So click on each of these links to visit and confirm your attendance at each show: Lion Ride at Coch's Corner on August 28th, Garden of Bedlam at Hempfest on August 28th, and Lion Ride at Hempfest on August 29th!

That's all I have for today, stay tuned cause there's a bunch of stuff planned next week, including Old Roger and Lion Ride's shows at Coch's Corner, Hempfest, and hopefully some more exciting updates! Also, various websites indicated to me that we may know when Kiss' show in Sault Ontario is at some point next week. Stay tuned, and if you have any news, updates, or links to share, let me know! Thanks everyone!