Saturday, February 26, 2011

Hempfest & Woods Of Ypres Updates, And More!!

Hey everyone, I'm still in Detroit, but I do have some more local metal news to share today! This is mostly a compliation of recent stories that I haven't reported on lately, but some newer stories are in the queue for at least one more post before I return home, hopefully. So for today, we have the latest news from Woods of Ypres and an upcoming hard rock concert, and some more assorted stories, but first, here's the latest updates on a major upcoming concert festival!

This year's edition of Hempfest has a new timeframe for when it will take place. The bad news is it was pushed back two weeks, but the good news is it's now gonna be A FULL WEEK long! The festival will now take place from August 8th to 15th at it's familiar location in nearby Ophir, Ontario. The reason for the change is due to issues securing a sound man for the original dates. Hopefully the lengthening of the festival will counteract that! According to the e-mail that organizer Robert Neron sent to Facebook attendees on Wednesday night, the festival will now consist of 3 ½ days of camping, and 3 ½ days of partying, which likely implies that entertainment will take place from 12:00 PM on August 11th through the end of Hempfest this year. As such, the new ticket price for the festival will be $15 a day or $100 for the full week, which will be a $5 savings from buying 7 individual tickets. The on-sale date of June 3rd doesn't appear to have changed. As for the scheduled bands and performers, as of right now, their schedules and days to perform are unchanged save for being moved two weeks earlier. I imagine alterations could be made if the new dates conflict with prior engagements, but we'll likely hear about this as it comes. In the off chance a performer sees this and didn't hear the news, contact Robert Neron at this location to confirm what you need to confirm!

For full current details, visit the official Facebook event page. Hopefully this date change doesn't throw too many people off, but hey, it had to be if they wanted a good sound guy! At least now, it's a longer festival, and I can safely say that Robert's putting a ton of work into this, so you know it will come together well! Stay tuned for Hempfest updates as I hear them, especially concerning the metal and hard rock bands announced for this year!

Secondly today, here's the latest news on a notable hard rock band's local debut next month! Once only advertised on Reverbnation with information to be announced, the March 4th concert headlined by Kitchener hard rockers The Saigon Hookers now has full details to share! For one, the opening band has been announced, and it is Brad Example & The Role Models! This is the band fronted by Inner City Surfers bassist Brad Lacell (a.k.a. Brad Example), and I assume they play punk, I'm not entirely sure. Though the Facebook event page says that this is their first show, I have located evidence that a band of the exact same name played at Foggy Notions on December 30th, 2006 (source here), so if nothing else, they haven't played a show recently! The house rules that I previously assumed appear to be the same, so expect a 19+ age limit, no cover charge, and a 9:00 PM start time (likely later though). And yes, this is the show poster on your left, not too bad! Sounds like a fun time, hopefully I can make it out! Also, notice all the Lion Ride connections with this show? Lion Ride bassist Carmine Romano was a long time member of The Saigon Hookers before leaving last month, and frontman Mikey Hawdon drums for The Inner City Surfers with Brad Example, so this show should feel familiar in a few ways! Stay tuned for updates if they come in!

Thirdly today, here's some new Woods of Ypres news! Firstly, the band's Facebook page now features some new t-shirt designs to soon be sold, including a girl's baby doll t-shirt and a normal style shirt, both of which are indeed black! These aren't available to order or pre-order yet, but if you want to pre-order anything from Woods of Ypres' new merchandise, click here! Secondly, the band have announced five new out of town concert dates for shows in Ottawa, Fredericton, Kelowna, San Antonio, and Seattle! Check out their official forum for details, and yes, these shows are now in our out of town concert listings on your right! Also on the Woods of Ypres docket for tonight, here's some of the latest reviews of the "Woods IV: The Green Album" re-issue! Dejon Turner from The Aquarian Weekly gave the album a B, describing it in one word: Arboreal. He praised it's beauty but found it hard to get into, which I can agree with. Click here to see the full review! New York-based music blog Brooklyn Rocks gave "W4" an overall positive review, but it seems to be more of a description of it's sound than a critique of what the author thought. Still, he sums it up well, check it out at this location!

Finally, though not a full review, Vince Neilstein from the amusing metal blog Metal Sucks posted a short article about Woods of Ypres on there on February 9th! Despite an uncertainty of how to pronounce Ypres (it's ee-pray, but he settled with "Woods of Awesome"), Vince highly praises Woods of Ypres, referring to their sound as "Type O Negative at their darkest, doomiest, slowest, and saddest". I'd agree for "W4", but I don't think he's heard their earlier albums much. Still, it's great press, so check it out (and more from this awesome site) at this location!

Let's close today's post with three shorter stories, in alphabetical order by name:
  • Local hardcore quintet As It Stands will headline a metal concert in Windsor, Ontario on March 26th! They'll be back at The Coach & Horses with area metal and punk bands, and you can get full details on this show at this location! Sounds good, nice to see them spread their sound further, but remember to check them out at The Rosie on March 3rd as well!
  • Metallurgy, the solo metal project from local guitarist Neno Jovanovich, has posted a new 20 second clip of some riffs he wrote onto his Reverbnation page! I have to say, it sounds really promising in a groove metal sort of way, but I'd like to see it expanded on for more of a song! Still, click the above links for that and more!
  • I've added the inactive local recording studio Swallows Nest Productions to the "Other Local Metal Links" at the bottom left. Active in the spring of 2010, it was a home-based record studio that would have brought "professionalism to the working musician". Local concert promoter & bassist Nathan Bouliane worked as a production designer with Swallows Nest during their brief run, which seemed to dry up in May. It'd have been interesting to see this succeed! Still, if you wanna check it out, the link's above!

That's all for today, in all likelihood, but I should have more news by Tuesday, so stay tuned! Thanks everyone, and go to some concerts tonight!

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