Thursday, December 29, 2011

Bret Michaels, David Gold, Woods Of Ypres, And Winkstinger News!!

Well, I'm back from Detroit, and I have a new news post to show for it as we inch into a busy stretch at the SMS, including our year end and beginning special posts, our Garden of Bedlam CD review, weekend concert previews, and likely more! Notice the Garden of Bedlam "Everything Will Die" banner, as we hype it's release on Monday, but for today's news, we have the latest on David Gold & Woods of Ypres, the first video from a recent major concert, and a surprising departure from a local band, so here's what you need to know!

The first video from Tuesday night's Bret Michaels concert at The Dreammaker's Theater at Kewadin Casino is now online! This comes from YouTube user jcpeck76, who previously uploaded two videos from August's Whitesnake concert at Kewadin Casino onto their YouTube channel. This time however, the video in question is of Bret Michaels covering Poison's "Look What The Cat Dragged In", as posted after the show on Tuesday, and how's the video? They got very close to the stage, which is awesome for video clarity, but the audio is staticy, especially compared to jcpeck76's Whitesnake videos. A bit of a tradeoff, but Poison/Bret Michaels fans should enjoy this video regardless, and from what I can tell, they do the original song justice, though I'm admittedly not a huge Bret Michaels fan. If you want a taste of Tuesday's Bret Michaels concert, then view more below, and stay tuned for more fallout from the last major local hard rock show of 2011 if it comes in!



Next up, let's get to the latest David Gold/Woods of Ypres updates. First off, from what I heard, yesterday's funeral was very moving & emotional, and the get together afterwards at The Water Tower Inn was also a success. I still wish I could have been there, but we were just hitting the road back to town after 3:00 PM, so I couldn't get there in time. I do wanna visit the cemetery to see David in the near future and pay my respects, as it's better late than never! That said, I've heard nothing new concerning the accident outside of Barrie, but I know there's unanswered questions about how it happened, and hopefully we'll hear more soon to help fill in some of the blanks. Also, in Woods of Ypres-centric news, the cover art for the band's final recorded album "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light" has been released through Earache Records' Twitter account, and it was included in the original tweet that linked fans to the advance free copy of the album (my apologies for not hearing about this until now!) It's on your left, and it's the first Woods of Ypres album cover since the original pressing of "Against The Seasons" to not feature their official logo, which helps it come full circle in a way. It has a handmade etching feel which is unique, and hopefully when/if "Woods V" officially comes out, there's more interesting artwork in the booklet for fans to check out!

My final notes today on the Woods of Ypres front relate to new videos, as fans have been posting some old Woods of Ypres videos online in memoriam of David, so here's what you should know! A great new Facebook page called David Gold's Legacy saw four video uploads of Woods of Ypres' Robin Cross-fronted lineup from 2003, back when David was still the band's live drummer, and you can check out all four of the videos at this location! The videos, which were posted last night & came from Montreal's Obey The Flame festival in May 2003, saw the band play each song from the "Against The Seasons" EP except "Awaiting The Inevitable", and the audio's not bad at all, though the video quality is very fuzzy. Still, these are nice early videos of Woods of Ypres, so check the above links to give them a look! Also new are four videos from Woods of Ypres' concert on May 23rd at El Corazon in Seattle during their last "Pain & Piss" North American tour, which were uploaded yesterday by YouTube user cerrakin. These include their performances of "Suicide Cargoload (Drag That Weight)" & "Halves and Quarters", the first chunk of "The Sun Was In My Eyes (Part 1)", "By The Time You Read This (I Will Already Be Dead)", and "Wet Leather", so click each of the above links to see the new videos!

The video quality is pretty good, and cerrakin was close to the action, but the audio can be a bit quieter than I think it really was. You also can't really see Evan Madden at this angle, but the last full live lineup of Woods of Ypres are on fire here! It's still surprising how depressing some of these lyrics are knowing what actually happened to David though. Kudos to cerrakin for uploading these, and hopefully we see some more soon from more older Woods of Ypres shows! Some footage from their likely last concert in Virginia on June 9th would be cool to see. Check the above links for more, and here's Woods of Ypres' "W4" two song medley in Seattle below!



And finally for today, here's some surprising news, as Sault Ontario extreme metal quintet Winkstinger have parted ways with singer Alan Wells. The band cited "circumstances beyond their control" for why Alan left on their Facebook page, though what that could entail wasn't publicized. Alan had sang for Winkstinger since their inception last year, appearing with them at numerous local concerts between their live debut in October 2010 and their most recent show last month. This is disappointing news to hear, as Alan was definitely one of the most unique of the harsher local metal singers, and his vocals really helped set Winkstinger apart over the past year. Hopefully the split was amicable though, and best of luck to Alan in whatever comes next, musically or otherwise! That said, Winkstinger have officially launched a search to find a new singer, so here's what you should know on that front. The band are looking for someone with the ability to write original lyrics, and they're aiming for someone different, and that doesn't necessarily imply that you have to scream to try out. Uniquely, plans are to hold singer auditions at Feedback early next year, which is definitely interesting and gives a big show feel to everything, but details are still up in the air on this process.

For now, if you're interested, contact the band at the above links, and stay tuned for updates on Winkstinger's singer search! That's all for now, but I've got much more in store to send 2011 out with a bang, so stay tuned over the next couple of days! Thanks everyone!

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