Grave Party Concert Videos, Plus New Guitar Covers!!

We're back on this Wednesday morning with a new news post, and it's devoted to new videos from local metal and punk artists, including a solo video and to kick things off, new concert video postings! These come from Monday night's Grave Party-headlined concert at The New American Pub, as filmed by attendee Chris Downey for his personal Facebook page, but shared on the show's Facebook event page yesterday. He filmed most of the night's acts, albeit all on the vertical cell phone camera angle, and while they are solidly filmed otherwise, you do get the sense that there wasn't a great turnout on Monday. To start, Chris filmed two videos of headlining Winnipeg punk trio Grave Party,including this 40 second clip of their song "Skate or Die" (complete with mosh pit footage), and as embedded below, this longer video containing a full song, albeit one whose title I can't confirm. It's nice to find a live video of Grave Party of any kind, and they sound pretty good with healthy enthusiasm, so check out their videos above & below!



Chris also filmed local goregrind duo Rotopsy from their co-headlining set playing a newer original (one of the ones where Dylan Taylor used clean vocals), and the guys are rocking out fine here with their minimalist attack, and no, there are no shoes to be seen! Actually, the vertical camera angle fits here given the band's size and placement. Give this new Rotopsy video a look below, and stay tuned for more from their camp!



As for Chris' other videos, he posted three videos of rappers that performed on Monday, including two from Mikey Thomas' set (here & here), and this one of Mike "Reeder" Reid-Lecuyer (Miracle Man's set wasn't filmed at all.) Both have good flow and intensity, so check them out above if you love hip-hop! The other videos come from acoustic folk opener Shit Creek Survivor's set, including his original "Starry Nights", and as embedded below, part of his cover of Sublime's "What I Got", a rare ska/punk cover from Jacob Quarrell's solo project. A little shaky, but lively and well done overall, so give Jacob's videos from Monday night a look above & below!



Finally, I wanted to acknowledge some (largely overdue) solo performance cover videos from Jack Spades guitarist Tiffany Stocco's YouTube channel! We last touched on her solo guitar clips in 2011, so our apologies for the delay in getting these on the site! Posted since October 12th, Tiffany's newest covers include Pennywise's "Fuck Authority", The Ramones' "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue", Blink-182's "Aliens Exist", a pair of songs that Tiffany plays with Jack Spades (SNFU's "Drunk on a Bike" & Turbonegro's "All My Friends Are Dead"), and a trio of Volbeat songs, including "Pools of Booze", their version of Dusty Springfield's "I Only Wanna Be With You", and as embedded below, "Heaven Nor Hell". The audio quality can be inconsistent, but Tiffany shows off her strong guitar ability in these videos, with a nice close angle at her playing in general, so give her newest covers a look above & below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews and more next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Go Skateboarding Day), Grave Party Concert Preview, And More!!

Here's a new news post for your Sunday evening, and with an unusual amount of early-week concert previews to touch on (including a big SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT), we'll lead off there, before closing with some assorted recent notes. Now, here's what you should know!

Local bands will again hit the skatepark at Queen Elizabeth Park outside of The John Rhodes Centre for this year's Go Skateboarding Day festivities THIS TUESDAY! Apologies for the short notice, the event was only announced on Wednesday, similarly to the late announcement of last year's band lineup. Hosted by Tidal Records and primarily sponsored by SooToday, this is the fourth straight year for a local hosting of Go Skate Day, but it's just the second with a major live music component, and it's even bigger & better than ever! Skateboarding competitions, lessons, and demonstrations will be freely offered during the day on TUESDAY, with prizes, giveaways, refreshments, and more also on hand, so be sure to visit the official Facebook event page for full details! As for the bands, an increased and stacked lineup is on hand for this year, and aside from DJ Seith spinning his turntable mixes, it's entirely different from last year's, so who all is playing?

Listed acts include local punk/metal quintet Jack Spades,  post-punk/garage quartet Gnaeus, DJ Seith, alternative/hard rock trio The Din, VM Radio Battle-winning indie rockers K.I.C.K., and rapper Conika, who had to drop out of last year's Go Skateboarding Day activities due to illness. Will she be rapping alongside DJ Seith again? Be at the skatepark TUESDAY to find out! The event page also lists "...and more!" to cap off the band lineup, which implies at least one surprise or special guest, and if there is any public announcements to that effect, we'll let you know (for reference, last year's Go Skate Day featured DJ Seith alongside the inactive Garden of Bedlam, the on-break Pixo Control, and the dormant Caroline Divine.) This year's Go Skateboarding Day is FREE and ALL AGES as usual, and while set times for the bands aren't listed, the event is advertised to run from 3:00 to 9:00 PM, with the skateboarding competition starting at 4:30 PM.

It's great to see Go Skateboarding Day expanding it's local presence in 2016, with a huge band lineup and lots of skate action in store for boarding and music fans alike! You could call this a preview of Rotaryfest's Stage 2 also, as Gnaeus, The Din, and K.I.C.K. are all on that event's lineup next month, plus DJ Seith & Conika played last year (no word yet for this year though, but we'll keep you posted!) Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's a new online commercial for the event from SooToday, featuring brief performance footage of last year's bands! Good promotion for this year's festivities, so make it out to Queen Elizabeth Park on TUESDAY!



Next up, here's one more concert preview for a special Monday nighter taking place TOMORROW NIGHT, as Winnipeg punk trio Grave Party will make their local concert debut with a headlining set at The New American Pub! Rocking out with new songs from their EP "For Dummies" in tow, Grave Party's hard hitting modern punk sound should get fans going at The New A tomorrow, so welcome them east with open arms for what should be a fun show! A wildly varied and slightly condensed local opening lineup will see local goregrind duo Rotopsy co-headlining, as preceded by a trifecta of local rappers, including Mikey Thomas, Miracle Man, and Mike Reed-Lecuyer, a.k.a. Reeder (replacing Phat Boii), who is new to our coverage and not on the poster, but has performed at recent rap events with Mikey. Also, Jacob "Shit Creek Survivor" Quarrell will open the show with some acoustic folk numbers, so come early to check him out too!

Note that sets by Coyote Speedfreaks mainman Chase Wigmore and local death metal duo Brutally Fatal have quietly been removed in the past couple of months for unannounced reasons, but unlike Phat Boii, these acts weren't replaced on the bill. Hopefully the remaining artists fill things out well, including Brutally Fatal members with Rotopsy & Miracle Man! Promoted by Tyler Gibson & Blood Shed Productions, this 19+ show has a $5 cover charge, and will start at 9:00 PM. Visit the official Facebook event page for more on tomorrow's very diverse show, and in lieu of a Grave Party video (I honestly can't find any, they're fairly new), here's Rotopsy live!



Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist or company name:

• Troubled Mind drummer Mike Vincent has posted three more original songs ("Systematical Satan", "Soulless Sanctuary", and "Screaming Serenity") to his Bandcamp page, and re-recorded his first three to boot! Notably having the letter S first in every word of every title, Mike has confirmed in personal Facebook postings that he is planning to release a debut solo EP, and is working on lyrics for each song, so we'll hold comment on the new songs until release as a result. Give Mike's six studio instrumentals a listen above!
• We have removed former local record store Mister Disc from our "Other Local Metal Links" due to the quiet deletion of it's Facebook page at some point in the past year. The Todd Gordon-owned establishment was open from 1988-1999, with Todd maintaining a posthumous Facebook page in recent years featuring reminisces of the store and daily song dedications, though it's not clear why the page was taken down. Though the store is long gone, it's disappointing to see the Facebook page go, but continued luck to Todd in his screenwriting career!
• Barring a sudden burst of activity, we'll move local post punk/grunge duo The Red & Black to our inactive band links on Tuesday due to a year's inactivity. The project from Telephone & Address' Chris Shoust and busker Damjan "Spider Fingerz" Binda hasn't posted on their Facebook page since June 21st of last year to remark on their last minute debut at the IRN-headlined New American show the previous day. Chris & Damjan are talented and creative, and hopefully The Red & Black re-emerge down the road!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates as the week rolls along! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Blessed, Grave Party, And Mourning Wood), And More Weekend Concert Previews!!

Today's post will see the last of our weekend concert previews, barring any late notice confirmations, but first, we have some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (including SHORT NOTICE ones), so here's what you need to know!

Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Mourning Wood will return to The Esquire Club for a pair of headlining concerts TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, the band only just announced these shows yesterday via their Facebook event page. Last seen at The Rednecks Saloon two weeks, ago, this will be the first concert weekend for this veteran fan favourite band at The Esquire Club since early February, so keep these shows in mind if you've missed this union of Hollow, Suicide Kings, Rainhorses, and Flat Stanley alumni at the Second Line West venue lately! As usual for Mourning Wood's local concerts, there are 9:30 PM start times in effect, no announced cover charges, and 19+ age limits. For more details, visit the above links, and here's Mourning Wood live earlier this year!

Next up, here's a pair of newly announced shows with lots of advance notice, both at The New American Pub, starting with the local concert debut of Vancouver post punk quartet Blessed on Saturday, May 21st! Fans of Northwest or Gnaeus should dig this band, whose indie-tinged punk originals have taken them to a strong following in recent years, and with a new EP in tow, don't miss out when they hit The New A next month! Local openers will include Brash Gash, a newer local band who you may recognize from a set at the Fishbowl Festival at The Gore Street Cafe. Honest Job's Drew Armstrong is in their lineup, and you may remember them as the band with the elaborate fish mask, but we don't have any other details on their lineup or sound as of this writing. We'll let you know when/if anything is announced! The opening act will be local acoustic punk/grunge solo project Telephone & Address, and Chris should have some strong unplugged originals in store in three weeks' time!

A presentation of Six, Two, Oh. (whose next punk rock bingo installment will be covered in our next news post), this 19+ show has a $5 cover charge, 19+ age limit, and 9:00 PM start time. This should be a fun time for indie and punk fans, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and stay tuned for more from Six, Two, Oh. soon!

Also, one of the two recently teased Blood Shed Productions-promoted metal shows has officially had it's venue confirmed, as Winnipeg punk trio Grave Party will make their local concert debut on Monday, June 20th at The New American Pub! This skate punk trio have a lot of fun songs that should attract a good audience at The New A next month with originals from their newest EP "For Dummies", so be sure to give them a listen to see what Grave Party have to offer! Though they are the nominal headliners, Coyote Speedfreaks mainman Chase Wigmore is listed to play after them in a solo set, marking his long awaited return to the stage, and it'll be good to see him back in June! Blood Shed co-founder Tyler Gibson's two local grind/death duos (Rotopsy & Brutally Fatal) lead the opening lineup, with the latter playing their first announced concert of the year in the process, while rap sets from Mikey Thomas and (jointly) Phat Boii and Miracle Man will precede them.

The show will be opened by Jacob "Shit Creek Survivor" Quarrell with a set of folk/indie rock numbers, so come early for his set too! A $4 cover charge is in effect for this 19+ concert (a rarity for a Blood Shed-presented concert event, which are usually all ages), and a 9:00 PM start time is in effect at The New A on June 20th. This should be a fun concert for fans of Blood Shed's goregrind, rap, and alternative acts, with Grave Party delivering some solid skate punk as well, so visit the official Facebook event page for full details!

Finally, here's our last announced concert preview for this weekend, as Calgary hardcore punk quartet The Motherfuckers will make their local concert debut TOMORROW NIGHT with a headlining set at The Oddfellows Hall! This veteran outfit should lay waste to the stage with their fast paces, attitude fueled punk attack during this stop on their Classless Society Tour, so don't miss out tomorrow! The Motherfuckers are on at 10:00 PM, while local punk/metal quintet Jack Spades will return to the stage as co-headliners at 9:30 PM (just a half hour?), as they continue to jack the planet! Local/St. Catharines' grindcore trio Shit Liver will come back home for their first local concert appearance of 2016 when they rock The Oddfellows Hall for the first time in about two years, as they continue the early stretch of their Number Two Tour, so be sure to welcome the guys home in time for their 8:30 PM set! Reunited local extreme metal quartet Winkstinger will play their first show in almost three years tomorrow night with a set at 7:45 PM, which will also see the debuts of new singer Keith Gagnon and new bassist Andrew MacDonald, so don't be late so you can welcome Winkstinger back!

The planned late openers were to be new local death metal quintet Kaepora Gaebora, but they were quietly removed from the Facebook event page on Wednesday for unannounced reasons. Hopefully nothing bad happened, as they sound very promising! They've been replaced by the aforementioned Rotopsy in their first Oddfellows set in over a year, so be ready for their goregrind attack tomorrow! Moved from The Algonquin Pub due to ongoing renovations there, this now-ALL AGES event starts at 7:00 PM, and it has a $10 cover charge. This should be a great show, so check the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's The Motherfuckers live!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for our review of AlgomA & Chronobot's vinyl split EP next! Thanks everyone!