YouTube Channel Profile Series: jonasgasperas

Here is our last post of this exceedingly quiet month, namely our (delayed) newest YouTube Channel Profile! This monthly feature looks at the content on 1-3 randomly selected YouTube channels whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, or punk artists and/or concerts, in order to spotlight their videos for current readers and encourage subscriptions.  This month's randomly selected channel has lots of footage of a late lamented local metal band, so here's what you should know!

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jonasgasperas (http://www.youtube.com/jonasgasperas)

Owner: Elements/Wyld Stallyns drummer Jonas Gasperas, also known from his prior work in bands like Winkstinger, Soldiers of Misfortune, Operation: Killdozer, and The Soo Fighters

Channel Timeline: Launched on July 27th, 2009; Videos uploaded from January 30th, 2010 until May 23rd, 2012

Channel Summary: Jonas' channel features 9 videos relating to his old extreme metal band Winkstinger during their original run in the early 2010s, including seven from live concerts (two of which edited as music videos) and two early jam session clips. Though the concert videos were all posted in early 2012, only one was a brand new upload coinciding with a then-recent set. His last upload is a short video of a truck that Jonas called "the Winkstinger-Mobile", a.k.a. "Gertrude", but it's not otherwise musical.
 
Why You Should Watch: This channel is absolutely worth watching for fans of Winkstinger's classic original era and their best known quintet lineup,  and the videos on offer capture their loose fury well! That said, Jonas has not actively used his channel since 2012, so it does not feature content from Winkstinger shows through their first hiatus in 2013, nor their reunions with different lead singers from 2015-2018. While ostensibly a personal use channel, it doesn't feature any videos of Jonas' other bands.

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

WINKSTINGER ...chuddnugget: After the demise of their 2009 band Operation: Killdozer, core members and long-time bandmates Jesse Cook & Jonas Gasperas launched Winkstinger, who first made a public presence in January 2010 via two jam session videos of them rehearsing original material, including live standby "Chudnugget" and two yet-unnamed tracks that you can see at this link. Also featuring singer Alan Wells (ex-Issues) and rhythm guitarist Jason Ladouceur (they were sans bassist at this point), these are promising glimpses at the live favourites that Winkstinger would become in the next few years! However, the dark lighting and poor framing do not help at all, especially with only Jesse not obscured from view and/or facing the camera (you can't even see Jason mid-song!)

 

winkstinger -feel all my hate: The only one of Jonas' Winkstinger concert videos to not come from The Rosie, this one was filmed during their set opening for Garden of Bedlam at the former Foggy Notions (now Coch's Corner) on December 18th, 2010 for Foggy's one year anniversary since their 2009 re-opening. Now featuring Ryan Sherman on bass, this was filmed by an attendee who shot at least one other video from Winkstinger's set for personal Facebook usage. The raw intensity of their original song "Feel All My Hate" comes through nicely here, and the contrast between the well lit stage and the largely darkened band members is effective!



Winkstinger - Where'd We Go Wrong - THE VIDEO.wmv: Jonas' most popular videos are two pseudo-music videos that were edited (at least in part) by Paul Boyer, combining concert footage that I shot during concerts at The Roosevelt Hotel (now Reggie's West) with post-production filters, pictures, and clips from outside sources. One is just called "Winkstinger - The Video", and features footage from multiple concerts and many Batman cartoon excerpts, but features here is the more viewed video for "Where'd We Go Wrong", featuring the studio recording of the song from their unreleased album set to their Rosie set opening for Garden of Bedlam again in July 2011. Well edited, if a little out there from the non-sequitors of outside clips used, but it accurately spotlights the irreverence and humour Winkstinger were known for back in the day! Watch for Dragon Ball, Richard Simmons, and South Park, among other offbeat clips sprinkled throughout!


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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! Next month in this series, we'll end the year by looking at multiple channels again, due to the first randomly selected only having four relevant videos, 3 being from the same jam session. I'll source two to feature from that, and include a single channel video to fill it out. As such, we'll be looking at Marco Pedalino's channel (featuring footage of Airbourne and The Wing-Its) and Soufiane El's channel (featuring a Woods of Ypres lyric video.) Watch for these on or around Boxing Day, and for more news and notes on the site this week, hopefully at a quicker pace than this month! Thanks everyone!

Another Local Metal Video Showcase!!

With Super Bowl Sunday behind us, let's get back into the swing of things with some new local metal news and updates in the form of some new videos! Today, we have some cool press and new video footage from a local band's recent out of town show, new material from a formerly local metal act, some new jam footage related to a local band, and a cool new cover song, so let's get things rolling!

I'm having trouble trying to order these videos by content, so let's go in alphabetical order instead, starting with the newest video footage of Frightlight! The Toronto horror/music web series Tomb TV & their host Tomb Dragomir were on hand for The Misfits' headlining concert at The Phoenix Theater in Toronto on October 26th, which notably featured Frightlight (and debuting drummer Chris FreaknStein) as an opening band, and footage from said concert made it into their newest episode on Friday! At 2:06 into the video below, about a minute of footage cut from assorted Frightlight live videos and some horror movie segments is set to their song "Fright Night" from their "It's Alive" EP, and it includes new shots from their Toronto performance! Not a long amount though, with much of the included clips being taken from local concert videos (including one I shot, but I'm not complaining!) The audio's not completely synched with the video footage either, but hey, small press is better than none, and it's cool to see Frightlight making new fans in Southern Ontario! Check out Frightlight's appearance on Tomb T.V. below, as well as footage from The Misfits' and Juicehead's sets that night, and assorted other clips, cartoons, and segments!



Also for new videos is a pair of new audio recordings posted by Brimley metal quartet Half A Man onto their YouTube channel last week! We've already covered both songs on the SMS from their earlier postings on other pages (both of which featured their Erik Rintamaki-fronted lineup), but they're new to YouTube, so it makes sense to mention them again! One is their original song "Die In Disgrace", while the other is a cover of Black Sabbath's "Sweet Leaf", and that's posted below to check out as it has more to look at (thanks to an included sideshow of 3/4ths of their current lineup.) Both are very heavy, and though I appreciate how they adapted "Sweet Leaf" to their grittier sound, I probably prefer "Die In Disgrace" for it's groove and intensity, but check both out at the above links! Give their "Sweet Leaf" video a look below though, and stay tuned for more Half A Man news as it comes in!



Thirdly today, here's the first video footage in 6 months from the formerly local extreme metal band Sue Inside! As you may remember, they were based out of Sault Ontario in the late 2000s, and are surprisingly the only surviving band to have competed in either the Skid Row or YMCA Battles of the Bands from 2008 & 2009. Since their mid-2009 relocation to Oil Springs, band material has occasionally popped up online, and yesterday, frontman Shane Lipsit-Fraser uploaded two new solo performance videos under the Sue Inside name to his YouTube channel! Like much of their recent material, these are acoustic originals, though both are instrumentals, and they're of songs named "Let Us Out" and "Falling". Both are well performed, and I like the more varied guitar work on "Let Us Out", but it'd be cool to see some new plugged-in stuff like in the local days from Sue Inside. Still, it's awesome to see Shane and Sue Inside still making new music, and hopefully there's more to come! Check out "Let Us Out" below and more at the above links!



And finally, here's some new video footage of local extreme metal band Winkstinger! This video comes courtesy of drummer Jonas Gasperas, who posted this onto his YouTube channel yesterday, and it's an 8:30 long video of "new garbage"! More specifically, it's of Winkstinger members jamming two newer original songs (including Jonas on his old Soldiers of Misfortune kit), although the camera is only pointed at him, and it's partially behind a wall for some reason. Now, if you were hoping this would give clues as to who's replacing Alan Wells on vocals for the band, this video won't help, as the songs are instrumentals at the moment, but they're promising and very heavy! I just wish the camera was set-up better, as almost a third of the video is blocked off. Check out Winkstinger's new jam session footage below, go see them next Thursday at the 42nd Roosevelt Hotel metal night, and stay tuned for possible word on their new singer!



That's probably all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes later this week, along with this month's Defunct Local Band Profile on Shift on Friday! Thanks everyone!

Lots Of New Local Metal Videos!!!

The posts just keep on coming, and today, we'll go a bit lighter in some respects. Why, you ask? Just videos today, that's why! Two relate to a certain new band, one to a classic local band, and kicking things off, some newly uploaded video from a major local concert!

It's hard to believe that it's been three and a half days since Ronnie James Dio died, isn't it? It still doesn't seem right. Well, since the news was announced on Sunday, I've had a hunch that at some point, someone would upload a new video from Heaven and Hell's March 2007 show at the then-Steelback Centre onto YouTube or a similar site. And my hunch has proven correct! YouTube user exyurock (the same user who uploaded the video from Megadeth's set at that show on May 2nd) has uploaded a video from the show of Heaven and Hell playing the Black Sabbath classic "Lady Evil", which you can check out below! Decent quality, same camera and angle from the Megadeth video, but it turns out better audio-wise! Now I'm not inflating my opinions of the concert and song due to Dio's death, but man, he sounded good! For a then-64 year old, his voice was still incredible! I just wish the video was closer to the stage, it's hard to make out the band. Not the best Black Sabbath/Heaven and Hell song from the Dio era, but it's still great, and check this clip out! Hopefully more video from this show comes online soon, now's a perfect time! Oh, and once again, R.I.P. Dio!



Next up, a double shot of WinkStinger-related videos to share with you all on this Wednesday evening! Keeping with their influx of YouTube demos, the band have uploaded a new track onto joeyvelcro's YouTube channel, entitled "Where'd We Go Wrong"! Well, in my opinion, they haven't went wrong at all, this song is pretty good! Nice and fast and heavy, these guys have tons of promise! Harsh face ripping vocals, good instrumentation, and I really like the guitar solo! These guys have music tailor-made to get some moshpits going, and I have no doubt they will! Click here to check out this song, and six others, or you can listen to "Where'd We Go Wrong" right here too!



The second WinkStinger-related video I have today may not feature the exact same group as in the same as the clips we've seen over the last while, but there is a definite link! Drummer Jonas Gasperas (also formerly of Soldiers of Misfortune) has his own YouTube channel, where he has two videos up from jam sessions with a band of some type. No indication if it's the same as WinkStinger or not, but for what it's worth, the videos were uploaded in January. One is called "chuddnugget", which is a 4:12 rough jam of a new song with no bass guitar. Doesn't sound too bad, fast and heavy, though it needs some polish. The other video is over 9 minutes long, encompassing two unnamed songs! Still no bass, but they sound good for what we get a taste of! One major problem I have is the videos are incredibly dark, I can't make out a ton. But from what I can see and hear, Jonas' drumming is at top form! WinkStinger or not, I like what I'm hearing! Click here to check out both videos, and for your convenience, here's "Songs 3 & 4" for you all to give a listen!



And finally for tonight, I have one more local album upload onto YouTube to share with you guys! And this is the third and final album from defunct local hard rockers Foothill Road! Entitled "Live: End Of The Road", it was released in 2005 to help bring some closure to the band's run. Produced by guitarist Mario Carlucci (huge thanks to him for sending me this and the rest of the band's back catalog), it includes live performances and some recording session outtakes from Foothill Road's 1990s heyday! This includes live versions of four tracks from their debut "Seventy", two jam clips, the unreleased song "Where's My Hat", and a cover of Rush's classic song "Working Man"! Good stuff, though again, I'll hold detailed criticism and compliments for an eventual review. Hopefully I can get to a "Seventy" review this year at some point, cause I'll 100% start with that first. And as was the case with their two prior albums, this is out of print, and I'm uploading this to The Sault Metal Scene's YouTube channel to share these songs with the world like they deserve! NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED! With that in mind, check out track one from "Live: End Of The Road", which is a live rendition of "Centerpiece", but click here to check out the rest of Foothill Road's last CD!



There, I think we're caught up for videos, for the most part! Tomorrow could be one of three things: A new news post, my review of "Castle Stories", or my next profiles of out of town bands with local members! Which will it be? Stay tuned to find out, but all will be covered by Monday!