STRAPPING YOUNG LAD Film 'Zen' Video, Prepare To Hit The Road

STRAPPING YOUNG LAD drummer Gene Hoglan has posted the following message on the group's official web site:

"First off, all of us in the extended STRAPPING family would like to wish Jed [Simon, guitar] and his lovely bride, Susanna, congratulations on their recent nuptials. They were married in New Jersey on Sunday, October 2, in an absolutely fantastic ceremony, and poor Jed pretty much had to hop a plane immediately afterward! At least the hotel party was attended by our bus driver, Sean Sitka, who drove for 18 hours straight, as well as some of the MESHUGGAH men!

"And now, since we're all back in Vancouver, we just filmed a new video this past weekend. The song selection was bandied aboot for awhile, until finally, in a brilliant eleventh-hour decision, we chose 'Zen'. Everyone on the forum had such stellar ideas for the video, we thank you all for taking the initiative with your creativity, but due to the tight budget (and definite time constraints) we probably aren't going to be able to use a single one! Filmed in Vancouver by Marcus Rogers and Cinestir Productions (who brought you our 'For Those Aboot to Rock' DVD),it's nothin' too fancy, but a great representation of STRAPPING onstage. Lemme say this; The MVP award for the day went to Dev and Jed. A pair of AMAZING performances! Jed, THE master of every cool rock move, and Dev, in all his glorious fuckin' GLORY! Righteous, indeed! Byron looked mighty, I looked liked Jabba/Cousin Itt, and we've even got Willy the Keyboard Guy in there! We wanted to have a shot of all of us SMASHIN' that retarded Terminator-lookin' thingy from the 'Relentless' video, but, dummy me forgot to pack it! The video should be debuting sometime during the upcoming tour, so keep yer eyes peeled.

"And, on the subject of the upcoming tour, we're all real excited to be hittin' the road with our buds in FEAR FACTORY, SOILWORK and DARKANE, so we're rehearsing our balls off at Heathen Choppers. Didja know we rehearse at a chopper shop? How cool is THAT? That tour commences on October 28th, in Lawrence KS, and finishes right here in Vancouver, on December 5. And, directly after, we head on over to England for a handful of shows with our pals in ARCH ENEMY. We are planning the full-on European tour in January/February, too!

"STRAPPING will have a couple new t-shirt designs coming as well, as a matter of fact, we got one of our ideas right off the message board. So thanks again guys, for comin' through. Also available soon will be a specialized, online-only StrappingYoungLad.com t-shirt. Cool, eh? We're also planning some giveaways on the site, too! We've spoken with ESP guitars about giving away a guitar or two on the site, so definitely look alive on that one. There will also be some cymbal, stick and assorted other giveaways as well in the coming weeks.

"Look for a feature on Dev and Jed in the latest issue of Guitar Player magazine, it's in the 'Buzz' section. Byron has also just done an interview with Bass Player mag that should be out in the coming weeks, and, in the current issue of Revolver, there's a cool little giveaway of some personalized drumsticks from me, brought to you by the friendly folks at Revolver, and the righteous Kevin Radomski at Pro-Mark sticks.

"On an unrelated note, both Byron and myself have appeared on the debut Ani Kyd record, 'Evil Needs Candy, Too'. Produced by Jello Biafra and recently released on Alternative Tentacles, it's worth a listen. You can also check us out at anikyd.com.

"Well, I guess that's aboot it for now, everybody! Enjoy! See ya on the road..."