As of today, our new online merch booth is open for business.  Now you can go online and get Winhara merch shipped right to your door.  The launch features our new Deer Head T-Shirt design (pictured at left) with more merch items on the way.

Check out the goods at www.winhara.com/shop.

If you would like to know when new items are available sign up for our newsletter.  Newsletter members get all the latest information direct to their inbox.

(Payments for the Winhara shop are made via PayPal’s secure site).

This weekend we’re teaming up with old friends (and awesome bands) Tamarack and Union City at the Red Dog Tavern in Peterborough, Ontario.

We open the night off starting at 10:00 so if you’re in town make sure you get there early and clear yourself a circle on the dance floor!

For all the info visit the shows page on our website:  www.winhara.com/shows.html.

A couple years ago now we covered Precious by Depeche Mode on battery powered instruments, shot a video and posted it on YouTube. Since then it’s been, by far, our most popular video, climbing to over 3000 hits (I know, I know, not Beiber numbers but what can you do). It’s also been re-posted and discussed in a couple Depeche Mode fan forums.

So we thought we’d follow it up.

We decided to cover Joy Division‘s haunting tune Love Will Tear Us Apart. We found a cool location (climbed into an archway under a bridge by Mount Pleasant), set up our un-plugged instruments (yes, Steve is supplying the air for the Hohner Melodica keyboard) and went to work. We did it in one take – mainly because Kent couldn’t feel his hands by mid song – got some shots of the surroundings and headed home to warm up.

We sincerely hope you like it!

For the month of January we are streaming Hold Back Light Show in the music section of winhara.com.

Hold Back Light Show was our debut album, recorded over the span of 2 years with Byron Kent Wong, and released in October of 2008.  (Some of you may remember our release party at The Rivoli in Toronto).

The tracking, mixing and mastering of this album took us to many strange and wonderful places (Shogun Labs, Homework Studio, Canterbury Music Co., Jao Carvahlo Mastering) and introduced us to equally wonderful people.

If you would like to get a copy of this record for your very own you can do so in a couple of ways.  Hold Back Light Show is being sold at Soundscapes in Toronto.

To download a digital copy or order a CD online use these links:

Enjoy!

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack frost nipping at your nose.  We’re getting further into December and we figured it was time to get into the Christmas spirit!  So we covered a popular christmas song (The Christmas Song) and filmed an accompanying holiday video!

Catch the video on our youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD0fmRHJC-I

And, even better, you can download the MP3 for free at winhara.com!  That way you can add it to your holiday playlist and show all the people at your Christmas party that you’re indie-cool all year round!

Thank you to everyone for your patience regarding our mailing list.  (Because we have exceeded a certain number of members our server couldn’t handle the outgoing emails).  The new list server is up and running like a dream. 

People can joing our mailing list by visiting www.winhara.com and entering their e-mail address at the bottom of the page.

We sat down with Graeme of OntheGOinTo, an excellent Toronto entertainment blog, to talk about everything from writing to releasing new songs to the state of the music biz.

Click this link to see Winhara’s chat with excellent entertainment blog, OntheGOinTO.

Free Download:

Come On Over – Download

Or visit: winhara.com

Behind the Scenes Video:

Lyrics:

In 2008 we released an album entitled Hold Back Light Show.  We want to know which of these songs are your favourites so that we can make sure to keep them in the live set!  Thanks for taking the time give us some feedback!

These songs can be streamed on our MySpace page.

Hold Back Light Show is available on iTunes.

Tom Thomson's famous painting The Jack Pine. Oil on canvas. 1916.

It’s the stuff of Canadian legend.  Artist and avid outdoorsman, Tom Thomson, paddles out into Canoe Lake just as he has done countless times before.  This time he disappears.  After days of searching, his body – bloated and bruised – surfaces.  It doesn’t make any sense.

More on the extraordinary story after these extras we’ve put together for you.

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Official Version:

Download the full studio version of Tom Thomson at www.winhara.com.

Additional Blog:

After researching the painter’s mysterious death I had to see the locations for myself.  Click here to read about my solo trip on Canoe Lake along with pictures of Tom Thomson’s Algonquin park (including the cairn and totem pole that are now standing at his favourite camping spot).

Behind the scenes video:

Acoustic version:

Lyrics:

While the official coroner’s report claims that Thomson’s death was accidental there are many conspiracy theories – and for good reason.  Tom was a strong swimmer and experienced outdoorsman, he even had a license to guide in Algonquin.  It seems quite unlikely that he just fell out of his canoe and drowned on a clear day.  In addition he had a bruise on his temple and there was a piece of fishing line wrapped around his ankle no less than seventeen times!  There also wasn’t any water in his lungs, an indication that he died before he drowned.  These facts, and many others, have raised questions surrounding his death.

Tom was just entering his prime as a painter and was starting to get recognition for his work.  He grew up in Owen Sound but had moved to Toronto to pursue his career.  He spent his summers in Algonquin park doing small oil sketches that he would transfer into larger works at his studio in the section of Toronto now known as Rosedale.

The best site I found for research is Death On A Painted Lake if you’d like to do some of your own digging.  For a more entertaining read you can check out ‘Canoe Lake‘ by Roy MacGregor.

Go to winhara.com