Scott Weinrich

Robert Scott Weinrich[1] (born September 29, 1961[2]), known as Wino, is an American rock singer, guitarist and songwriter.

Scott Weinrich
Weinrich playing a guitar, 2010
Background information
Birth name	Robert Scott Weinrich
Also known as	Wino
Born	(1961-09-29) September 29, 1961
Origin	Rockville, Maryland
Genres	Heavy metal, doom metal, stoner rock, acoustic rock
Instruments	Guitar, vocals
Years active	1976–present
Associated acts	War Horse The Obsessed Mentors Saint Vitus Lost Breed Spirit Caravan Place of Skulls The Hidden Hand Shrinebuilder Probot Premonition 13 Royale Daemons
Website	scottweinrich.com

Active since 1976, when he started his first band War Horse, he is best known for being the frontman and guitarist for The Obsessed and Saint Vitus. Weinrich is also a solo artist, having released three studio albums since 2009.

He has been highly influential in helping develop and codify doom metal's trademark sound,[3] and is also considered an influential figure in the stoner rock and punk rock genres.[4]

Biography

Early years

Weinrich approached rock music at early age. His early influences were the Monkees and the Beatles, the latter inspired him to play guitar,[5] and later Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix and Black Sabbath. He saw Black Sabbath during the Paranoid tour and described the gig as life-changing.[6] He also cited punk bands like the Stooges, the Dictators and the Saints as big influences.[7]

Early career

Weinrich's musical career started out at Thomas Sprigg Wootton High School in Rockville, MD when he started his first band, War Horse. He went on to form the Obsessed in the late 70s. This version of the Obsessed would release a 7" entitled Sodden Jackal in 1983 on Invictus Records and have a track featured on Metal Blade Records's Metal Massacre VI. They also recorded an album entitled "Live at the Wax Museum" in 1982. In the mid 80s he disbanded The Obsessed and moved to California to sing for Saint Vitus. During this time Weinrich also briefly played bass anonymously for the Mentors[8] and filled in on vocals for L.A. hard rock outfit Lost Breed.

In Saint Vitus he covered vocal duties as well as additional guitar work on some tracks. The band released three studio albums with Weinrich: Born Too Late (1986), Mournful Cries (1988) and V (1990), a live album (Live (1990)), and the Thirsty and Miserable EP (1987). After Saint Vitus signed to Hellhound Records, Hellhound put out The Obsessed (1990), a collection of archived Obsessed recordings. This prompted Weinrich to leave Vitus and reform The Obsessed (in between a stint with Maryland's Lost Breed), who now had a record deal with Hellhound Records.

Mid career

This incarnation of the Obsessed released some 7"s and two more albums: Lunar Womb (1991) and The Church Within (1994) (the latter was picked up by Columbia Records) before calling it quits in 1994. They also released a documentary video that year, featuring several musicians of the punk and metal scenes such as Henry Rollins, Ian McKaye, Phil Anselmo, Pepper Keenan and Lee Dorrian. Weinrich then formed Shine which released a single 7" with two songs. The band later became Spirit Caravan with ex-Wretched (another Hellhound act) vocalist Dave Sherman on bass. Spirit Caravan put out two albums Jug Fulla Sun (1999) and Elusive Truth (2001) and the Dreamwheel EP (1999) before disbanding in 2002. Weinrich joined ex-Pentagram guitarist Victor Griffin in his outfit, Place of Skulls, for one album, With Vision (2003) before leaving to start his most recent band, The Hidden Hand. The Hidden Hand released a 7", three studio albums, one DVD/CDEP, and a split 12" with Wooly Mammoth before he disbanded the group in August 2007.

Weinrich performing with Saint Vitus, 2011

He was a member of a project called Shrinebuilder featuring Al Cisneros (Om and Sleep), Scott Kelly of Neurosis and Dale Crover (Melvins and Altamont) and during 2008 recorded an album of solo material entitled Punctuated Equilibrium featuring Jean-Paul Gaster of Clutch (drums) and Jon Blank of Rezin (bass guitar), which was released in January 2009 on Southern Lord records.[9][10]

Weinrich contributed vocals and guitars on the track "The Emerald Law" for Dave Grohl's project, Probot. He can be seen playing guitar in the Probot video for "Shake Your Blood," which features Lemmy on bass and vocals. He has also collaborated with ex-Death SS guitarist Paul Chain for some of his solo work. Weinrich was also the frontman for Lost Breed for a short time, a collection of recordings of this line-up has since been released, titled 'Wino Daze'. Weinrich worked with Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler, Sabbath drummer Bill Ward, Fight guitarist Brian Tilse and Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford in the band Bullring Brummies, who are featured on the Nativity in Black Black Sabbath tribute album. He also played guitar on a demo for the band "Gypsy Moth" and can be found singing and playing on the Mystick Krewe of Clearlight split CD with Acid King. Both The Obsessed and Spirit Caravan have released anthology-type albums featuring rare tracks, Incarnate (1999) and The Last Embrace (2004) respectively.

Recent activities

Since 2009, Weinrich has been touring with the reunited Saint Vitus. It was confirmed that the band would go on to record a new album in early 2011, for a release that year.[11] Once released, it will be Saint Vitus' first since 1995's Die Healing and its first release with Weinrich since 1990's V. However, this plan fell through ever since, but the band plans to regroup to make the album sometime in summer 2011, after the band finishes their tour with Helmet and Crowbar.[12] In 2010, Weinrich also formed Premonition 13 with guitarist Jim "Sparky" Karow. Premonition 13 released their first LP in July 2011. In a Guitar World Interview he stated that his signature sounds comes from a Gibson Les Paul guitar with DiMarzio Super Distortion Pickups plugged into a Sunn model T amp. He also changes the pre and power tubes of his amps with EH and JJ ones because "It's like a fuzz box built into the amp".

In 2009, Wino released via Southern Lord records his first solo album under the name Punctuated Equilibrium. From 2010 onwards, Wino's solo material consists exclusively of acoustic material. Having released two acoustic albums so far, Adrift in 2010 and Heavy Kingdom (a collaboration with Conny Ochs) in 2012, Wino toured extensively Europe and North America as a solo artist. In 2016 he reformed The Obsessed and released Sacred the following year.

Solo discography

• Punctuated Equilibrium CD/LP+10" (Southern Lord, 2009)
• Live at Roadburn 2009 CD/LP (Roadburn Records, 2010)
• Adrift CD/LP (Exile On Mainstream Records in Europe, Volcom Entertainnment in United States, 2010)
• Manifesto / The Field That Surrounds Me (Split-Single with Scott Kelly) 7" (Volcom Entertainment, 2010)
• Heavy Kingdom (with Conny Ochs) CD/LP (Exile On Mainstream Records, 2012)
• Labour Of Love (With Conny Ochs) CD/12" (Southern Records – Latitudes Release, 2012)
• Songs Of Townes Van Zandt (With Scott Kelly and Steve Von Till) CD/12" (Neurot Recordings, 2012)
• Freedom Conspiracy (with Conny Ochs) CD/LP (Exile On Mainstream Records, 2015)
• Forever Gone CD/LP (Ripple Music, RIPLP128, 2020)

Bands

• War Horse (1976–1977) – guitar & vocals
• The Obsessed (1977–1986, 1990–1995, 2012 – 2013, 2016–present) – guitar & vocals
• The Mentors (1986) – bass
• Saint Vitus (1986–1990, 2003, 2008–2014) – lead vocals
• Bullring Brummies (1994) – guitar
• Spirit Caravan (1996–2002, 2014–2016) – guitar & vocals
• The Hidden Hand (2002–2007) – guitar & vocals
• Place of Skulls (2003) – guitar & vocals
• Probot (2004) – vocals & guitar
• Shrinebuilder (2008–2012) – guitar & vocals
• Wino (2009–present) – guitar & vocals
• Premonition 13 (2010–2012) – guitar & vocals

Contributions

• Probot – guitar & vocals on "Emerald Law" on their self-titled album, guitar on "My Tortured Soul (live)" on MTV2 Headbangers Ball, Vol. 2, and guitar in the video for "Shake Your Blood"
• Solace – guitar & vocals on "Common Cause" on their album 13
• The Mystick Krewe of Clearlight – vocals & E-Bow on The Father, the Son and the Holy Smoke (split CD with Acid King)
• Paul Chain – vocals on "Bloodwing" and "Nibiru Dawn" on Unreleased Vol. 2
• Bullring Brummies – guitar on "The Wizard" on Nativity in Black
• Wooly Mammoth – guitar on "Mammoth Bones" on The Temporary Nature
• Sixty Watt Shaman – guitar on "All Things Come to Pass" on Reason to Live
• Victor Griffin – backing vocals on "Late for an Early Grave," guitar & backing vocals on "The Pusher/Iron Horse" and guitar & vocals on "Haywire" on Late for an Early Grave
• Shepherd – guitar on "Thursday" and "Saturday", vocals and guitar on "Sunday" on The Coldest Day
• Lost Breed – vocals on "Nation's Song," "False Glory," "Lost Breed," "Soul Chariot" and "Coffin Cheater" on Wino Daze EP
• Wall of Sleep – guitar on "From the Bottom of These Days" on Sun Faced Apostles
• Joe Lally – guitar on "The Resigned" and "Billiards" on There to Here
• Clutch – guitar solo on "Red Horse Rainbow" (left channel), guitars on "Brazenhead"
• Cor – guitar solo on "Sägeln" from the album Snack Platt orrer stirb (2012).

References

1. : RockMyMonkey.com-P.O. Box 828 Olympia, WA 98507 [phone] Archived December 4, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
2. MusicBrainz
3. Wino: Maryland's doom-metal godfather had a pretty good year-for once | Baltimore City Paper
4. "Wino Weinrich has never fit in, but his rock music is the stuff of legends". Chicago Tribune. July 15, 2001. Retrieved May 8, 2016.
5. "Interview with Scott "Wino" Weinrich". orangefactory.be. Retrieved March 31, 2016.
6. "Interview with Scott "Wino" Weinrich". metal-temple.com. Retrieved March 31, 2016.
7. "Interview with Scott "Wino" Weinrich (The hidden hand)". orangefactory.be. July 7, 2004. Retrieved May 29, 2016.
8. Rock Detector Archived September 30, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
9. Weinrich's page on Southern Lord Records Website Archived January 31, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
10. Scott Weinrich's MySpace Page Archived December 2, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
11. Saint Vitus' Dave Chandler Discusses Reunion, Relationship with Wino, Possibility of New Album | The Obelisk
12. BLABBERMOUTH.NET – WINO Says SAINT VITUS Will Enter Studio This Summer