Having just wrapped a stretch of European touring that found them keeping company with Stoned Jesus, Bordeaux heavy psych progressives Mars Red Sky today reveal the US stint leading to their previously-announced appearance at this September’s Ripplefest Texas, stopping at Crucial Fest along the way. They go on the back of this past December’s Dawn of the Dusk (review here), and with support from Nashville uptempo melodymakers Howling Giant, who issued their second album, Glass Future (review here), in October, that’s two of 2023’s very best records paired up for in-person delivery. Such efficiency brooks no argument.
The Obelisk has presented Mars Red Sky tours in the past, and I’m especially proud to have it do so again in light of the LP they’re heralding to the US audience. In addition to the basic routing here, the tour also answers the question in my mind of whether they would appear at Desertfest NYC with a decisive no — they’ll be in Boise, Salt Lake City and Vegas at the time — but if you’re in New York and worried about missing out, the tour starts Aug. 29 in Brooklyn, so don’t sweat it. More dates are TBA as well.
From the PR wire:
MARS RED SKY US tour announced with special guest HOWLING GIANT
Psych/prog trio MARS RED SKY is getting ready to cross the Atlantic Ocean to join Nashville’s heavy psych quartet HOWLING GIANT on a North American adventure. Their USA tour will kick off this August 29th in New York to end up with RippleFest Texas in Austin on September 21st. All dates and info below.
Brought up on bands like Sonic Youth, The Jesus Lizard or My Bloody Valentine, Bordeaux-based outfit MARS RED SKY had no idea that they were about to become French stoner scene cornerstones when they founded the band in 2007. Julien Pras’ ethereal and melodic voice emerges from a thick and complex rhythm, carried by sci-fi literature’s lyricism. Almost cinematic, MARS RED SKY’s sounding has a peculiar and unique flavour, standing out within the heavy rock scene.
New album ‘Dawn Of The Dusk’ – out on December 2023 on Vicious Circle & Mrs Red Sound – is a genuine conceptual piece of work skillfully exploring progressive and post-metal territories with boundless inspiration. The eight-track album is packed with the band’s overflowing inspiration that has made their reputation in France and around the World over the last decade.
Hailing from Nashville, Tennessee, HOWLING GIANT blast forth a cosmic convergence of pulpy sci-fi themes and blistering psych-prog songcraft. Across a variety of recorded and live experiences since 2014, have become an essential act of the US forward-thinking heavy rock scene.
8/29 Thu – Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right 8/30 Fri – Cambridge – Boston, MA – Middle East 8/31 Sat – Philadelphia, PA – Milk Boy 9/1 Sun – Baltimore, MD – Metro Gallery 9/2 Mon – Detroit, MI – Sanctuary 9/3 Tue – Chicago, IL – Reggies / Music Joint 9/4 Wed – Milwaukee, WI – X-Ray Arcade 9/5 Thu – Minneapolis, MN – 7th St Entry 9/6 Fri – Sioux Falls, SD – Remedy Brewing 9/7 Sat – Rapid City, SD – Fairground 9/8 Sun – Denver, CO – Hi-Dive 9/10 Tue – Portland, OR – The High Water Mark 9/11 Wed – Seattle, WA – Substation 9/12 Thu – Boise, ID – The Shredder 9/13 Fri – Salt Lake City, UT – CRUCIAL FEST 9/14 Sat – Las Vegas, NV – Sinwave 9/15 Sun – San Francisco, CA – Bottom Of The Hill 9/16 Mon – Sacramento, CA – Cafe Colonial 9/17 Tue – Los Angeles, CA – Residen 9/18 Wed – Tempe, AZ – Yucca Tap Room 9/19 Thu – Albuquerque, NM – Launchpad 9/20 Fri – El Paso, TX – The Rosewood 9/21 Sat – Austin, TX – RippleFest Texas
The anticipated sophomore full-length from big-swing Austin, Texas, heavy rockers High Desert Queen, Palm Reader, is set to release May 31 through Magnetic Eye Records. And as the follow-up to 2021’s well-received Secrets of the Black Moon (review here) and the four-piece’s 2023 split with Albuquerque’s Blue Heron, Turned to Stone Ch. 8: The Wake (review here) — both on Ripple Music — it answers the high expectations placed on it with organic craft and a focus on largesse that would seem to put the ‘Texas’ in the self-applied tag ‘Texas desert rock.’
That is to say, with Palm Reader, High Desert Queen are all in. There’s no sneering irony or pretense in the seven included cuts, and as heavy as they are, the vibe is positive even in the mellow first half of the penultimate “Tuesday Night Blues,” which is about as close to a comedown as the band — vocalist Ryan Garney (also of Lick of My Spoon Productions and the ‘head honcho’ of Ripplefest Texas), guitarist Rusty Miller, bassist Morgan Miller, drummer Phil Hook — get, and the collective pursuit of bigger riffs and nods comes through fluidly with an engrossing and reportedly live-performance-centered production by Casey Johns at Yellow Dog Studios in Wimberley, TX, and the subsequent mix/master at Tri-Lamb in Sweden by Karl Daniel Lidén (Greenleaf, Dozer, Katatonia, on and on) highlighting space and impact alike.
With “Ancient Aliens” and “Death Perception” — the latter featuring a duet with guest vocalist Emma Näslund of Gaupa, whom the band met in Stockholm at Truckfighters Fuzz Fest in late-2022 (review here) — at the outset, Palm Reader welcomes the listener into the set, digs in for the first of two nine-minute jammers without losing sight of the hook in “Head Honcho,” and never diverts from its central goals of conveying the band’s onstage energy and penchant for turning choice riffs into good times. If you come out the other side of the massive, increasingly-shoving chug that closes the album in “Solar Rain” — the other nine-minute jam — and say to yourself that High Desert Queen are a band you need to see live, then Palm Reader will likely have fulfilled the band’s mission for it.
It’s not that they’re reinventing their genre or enacting some kind of stylistic insurgency, but High Desert Queen came out of the gate knowing what they were about, and Palm Reader refines their songwriting while staying true to the core purpose. They’re not fixing what wasn’t broken, and the album isn’t just a succession of comfortably-paced lumbering nods and catchy rhymes — as the centerpiece title-track demonstrates with its funkier strut to finish side A with a kick of momentum picking up from the scorching last chorus of “Head Honcho” — but while their material is more about audience-communion than trying to convince anyone within earshot how clever or progressive or even original they are, the sincerity of their delivery and the natural flow that emerges within and between the songs make long-established methods feel fresh, vibrant.
Secrets of the Black Moon did this as well, and the difference might just be the result of High Desert Queen having spent so much of the time between their two-to-date LPs on various stages in various countries, but whether it’s the still-grounded, semi-psych delve in the build toward that climax in “Head Honcho” or the drums setting the start-stop-and-twist pattern for the thickened boogie of “Time Waster” at the start of side B, the songs come across as thoughtful without being overwrought and arranged in such a way as to carry the listener from one end to the other with an overarching movement that doesn’t undercut the impact of the individual pieces comprising it. There’s a sweet-spot for this in heavy rock and roll. High Desert Queen follow the riff to get to it and reside there for the duration.
And nothing they do throughout, from their most mountainous stretches to the screams capping “Solar Rain,” from the declarative nod and post-C.O.C. burl of “Ancient Aliens” to the way “Palm Reader” provides enough of a shift in method that they don’t need an interlude to break up the proceedings, takes away from the heart behind it. I wasn’t kidding above when I said “all in.” Whatever else it might accomplish in songwriting, performance or reach, Palm Reader sounds like nothing so much as a band giving everything they have to each moment of its making. That’s evident in Garney‘s echoing bellows and Miller‘s deceptively-classy soloing on “Time Waster” as well as the point where “Tuesday Night Blues” kicks in from its quieter, spoken-word-topped intro to set its course of fluid loud/quiet trades in motion, and comes to feel like no less of a priority than the heaviest of riffs at the album’s foundation. While certainly self-aware in the sense of knowing what it’s doing, where it’s going and how it’s getting there, Palm Reader is most of all driven by passion.
Of course, chemistry also helps, and even putting aside the fact that Rusty and MorganMiller are related by blood, High Desert Queen have plenty of it on offer as they align around this or that movement, shifting smoothly whether it’s from the verse to the chorus of “Ancient Aliens” or bringing the midsection cacophony of “Solar Rain” to a stop to let the guitar lay down the riff anchoring the mounting intensity of the record’s finish. Front to back, High Desert Queen neither overshoot nor undersell their marks, and Palm Reader is the kind of outing you could play for someone with no prior familiarity or association with underground heavy music as ready argument in favor of conversion. It’s kind of a party, and without seeming like dumbed-down-for-accessibility caricature, it works on its own level to assure that all who might hear it invited. Give it the proper volume and you might just end up making friends.
The e’er-crucial preorder link, live dates and more info follow the premiere of the lyric video for “Death Perception” in the embed below, courtesy of the PR wire.
Please enjoy:
High Desert Queen, “Death Perception” (feat. Emma Näslund) lyric video premiere
HIGH DESERT QUEEN’s sophomore full-length “Palm Reader” is bursting with raw energy and radiates the feeling of 666 diesel horses thundering loud. The album is crammed with cool vibes, ripping leads, and a ton of desert fuzz with a focus on great songs rather than trying to stay confined within a corral of a particular style.
HIGH DESERT QUEEN had what it takes to kick the scene into gear again. Their vast musical influences ranging from grunge to funk, old school metal to doom and much more provide an ideal foundation for new ideas and a rejuvenating approach to the genre. Their thunderous, fuzz-drenched anthems are delivered with a healthy dose of groove and catchy melodies, and get a massive boost from an emotional intelligence in their music that’s hard to find. The newly-minted sound is linked to the rich heritage of their environs, inspiring the style tag ‘Texas desert rock’.
Answering the exponentially multiplying requests for new material from their steadily growing following, HIGH DESERT QUEEN flanked their live activities with the “Turned to Stone Ch. 8” split release with BLUE HERON, and contributed a track to “Best of Soundgarden Redux”, the latest instalment of the bestselling Magnetic Eye Records Redux series.
With “Palm Reader”, HIGH DESERT QUEEN have made a quantum leap in their evolution as the Texans found the perfect balance between the well-loved legacy of the desert rock genre and carving out their very own path. Fueled by the power and spirit of live music, this album rocks as hard and honest as can be done.
HIGH DESERT QUEEN live: 24 MAY 2024 Lafayette, LA (US) Freetown Boom Boom Room 25 MAY 2024 Houston, TX (US) White Oak Music Hall 26 MAY 2024 Arlington, TX (US) Division Brewery 30 MAY 2024 Austin, TX (US) The Far Out Lounge 31 MAY 2024 Bryan, TX (US) The 101 01 JUN 2024 San Antonio, TX (US) The Amp Room 02 JUN 2024 New Braunfels, TX (US) Guadalupe Brewery 13 JUL 2024 Erfurt (DE) Stoned from the Underground Festival 26 JUL 2024 Neuensee (DE) Rock im Wald Festival 21 SEP 2024 Austin, TX (US) Far Out Lounge, RippleFest Texas
Line-up Ryan Garney – vocals Phil Hook – drums Morgan Miller – bass Rusty Miller – guitar
High Desert Queen, “Ancient Aliens” official video
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 30th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
I’m never going to claim to be an expert on the visual arts, whether it’s a question of aesthetic or technique. But I know when I see something awesome, and the three-eyed ribbitdragon adorning the poster below for Trieste, Italy’s StonerKras Fest 2024 this July for sure qualifies. The art is by Mirkow Gastow, who’s done other posters and graphics in and around the operating sphere of Heavy Psych Sounds, whose flagship outfit Black Rainbows feature in the third edition of StonerKras‘ lineup, assuring the all-dayer’s cosmic-party quotient will be met before German heavy psychedelic forebears Colour Haze headline as part of their ongoing 30th anniversary celebration in 2024.
Last July’s StonerKras had seven bands on the bill — among them 1000mods and Nick Oliveri‘s Mondo Generator — and Black Mamba Rock Explosion, Savanah and Britof round out the stated-as-full lineup of five for this year, but I wouldn’t be surprised if maybe part of that is to allow for longer set times or changeovers, or just to let the crowd take in some of the merch stands or, you know, get a massage. I can’t remember ever seeing a massage therapist on-grounds at a festival before, but speaking as a human living in a body that’s not getting any younger, I get it. Not all considerations are as timeless or ethereally rad as a three-eyed ribbitdragon. Sometimes your back hurts.
Cool to see this one growing and finding its niche over the last few years. Here’s the announcement:
STONERKRAS FEST 2024 – III edition
– 13.07.2024 – Prosek-Prosecco (Trieste, ITA) –
FULL LINEUP + TICKETS PRESALE ANNOUNCEMENT
StonerKras is a psychedelic music gathering based on stoner, doom and heavy psych music. The festival has an international footprint but with the aim of enhancing the local heavy scene (both Slovenian and Italian) while attracting spectators from the region but also from neighboring countries. Youth aggregation and cultural exchange accompanied by good music.
The festival will be taking place on Saturday, July 13th in the gorgeous village Prosek-Prosecco near Trieste (Italy).
Today Rocket Panda Management in collaboration with Never In has announced the FULL LINEUP and TICKETS PRESALE for the StonerKras Fest III edition !!!
COLOUR HAZE (psychedelic heavy rock, DE) BLACK RAINBOWS (heavy psych/fuzz rock, ITA – exclusive show for north Italy/Slovenia/Croatia in 2024) BLACK MAMBA ROCK EXPLOSION (hard rock’n’roll, ITA) SAVANAH (progressive stoner, AT) BRITOF (doom/sludge, SLO) + AFTERPARTY DJ SET
** FOOD & DRINKS ** ** MARKET STANDS ** ** RELAX/MASSAGE AREA ** ** PSYCHEDELIC LIGHT SHOW ** ** FREE AFTERPARTY DJ-SET *** *** CHILDREN FRIENDLY ***
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 30th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
As casual as the arrival of Herba Mate‘s new two-tracker 7″, Boogie Mouse/Sì è Lei, and the accompanying video for its A-side has been, one might almost think it wasn’t the Italian trio’s most substantive outing in a decade. They dropped a single in 2016 as well, but the Faenza-based rockers shared their Early Shapes (review here) split LP with Fatso Jetson in 2014, and, well, that was 10 years ago. Welcome back, Herba Mate.
“Boogie Mouse” brings a willfully choppy garage rock groove and leaves room for the sax at the end, while the organ-laced “Sì è Lei” fuzzes up a 1966 original by Italy’s The Blackmen, reminiscent of its era in its chorus while not diverging from the fullness of its production. As heralds of a new full-length, Bolide, reportedly in the works for later this year, I find both cuts to be a fitting reminder of why they were such an easy band to dig to start with.
It’s probably a no-brainer if you remember their debut, 2009’s The Jellyfish is Dead and the Hurricane is Coming (review here), and something of a re-introduction for the rest, plus righteous, attention-grabbing artwork for the platter and video. So maybe a no-brainer across the board, then. Fair enough.
Full stream from Bandcamp at the bottom, this from the PR wire:
We have released for Record Store Day Italia a 7″ printed in 300 numbered copies (lim.edt.), published by EDIG, a beat label born in 1960, together with Casa Del Disco, a long-time running record store based in Faenza (RA).
The 7″ features 2 songs: the hit single Boogie Mouse which will be included in the upcoming album “Bolide” (planned for autumn/winter) and “Sì è Lei”, a song written by the cult beat band The Blackmen and released in 1966 by Edig.
“Boogie Mouse”, on side A, is an uplifting rock song, “that could have been released by an imaginary band with member of Queens of the Stone Age, Black Keys and Royal Blood.”
“Sì è Lei” (reading “C.L.A”, “Yes, She is”) on side B, is Herba Mate version of a song by the cult band The Blackmen, published by the Italian beat label EDIG in 1966. Here you can get the energy of MC5, feel a psychedelic atmosphere like Tame Impala, reminding of Procol Harum thanks to the keyboards Farfisa and Hammond played by the well-known Nicola Peruch.
The songs were recorded at the studio “L’Amore Mio Non Muore” in Forlì with sound engineer Franco Naddei, and were mastered by Giovanni Versari “La Maestà”.
Posted in Reviews on April 29th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Albums like Marten happen neither every year nor for every band. For Brume, it is their third full-length behind 2019’s Billy Anderson-produced Rabbits (review here) and 2017’s Rooster (review here), their second release through Magnetic Eye Records, and their first outing since the three-piece of vocalist/bassist/keyboardist Susie McMullan, guitarist/vocalist Jamie McCathie (ex-Gurt) and drummer Jordan Perkins Lewis welcomed cellist/vocalist Jackie Perez Gratz (Grayceon, Giant Squid, Amber Asylum, etc.) to an expanded lineup. Gratz had appeared on Rabbitsas well, doing a cello guest spot (as will happen) for that record’s centerpiece, “Blue Jay,” which was both shorter than everything that surrounded it, but able to breathe in its own way with the melodic textures of its arrangement, also including keys and harmonized vocals.
It’s not impossible to read “Blue Jay” as the model Brume are following on Marten, which takes its name from the small, weasel-ish animal taxidermied on the fancy chair of its cover, and which finds the band working with producer Sonny DiPerri (Mizmor, Emma Ruth Rundle, Lord Huron, etc.) and directed in sound more toward atmosphere and breadth than directness of impact, though there’s plenty of that too. Fluid in its storytelling lyric, opening track “Jimmy” unfolds mournfully with soft guitar and cello at its start before the bass and drums join, McMullan immediately putting the listener in the narrative’s place, time and mental state with the lines, “Jimmy rise from the basement/Jimmy rise from the grave,” at the start of the first verse while Lewis slowly cycles through tom thuds and punctuating snare, giving some hint of the sweeping chorus to come, McCathie and Gratz joining on vocals as the corresponding wall of tone and crash-laden roll takes hold, “You raise your glass to freedom/You raise your glass to family/Now you’re fast, too fast, to leave us/My wrath will not be well contained.”
This all takes place before the first three minutes of the first song on a 48-minute eight-tracker LP are done, and not one second of what follows is less graceful or purposeful in its delivery, arrangement and performance, less cognizant of mood, or dynamic. Marten in some ways redefines the course of Brume‘s growth as it builds on what the band has accomplished up to now, but there’s also an engagement with pop in the lyrical voices throughout “New Sadder You,” “Faux Savior” and “How Rude,” taking on subjects like grief, joining a cult and the climate crisis, respectively, in language that feels pointedly not-inflated, conversational and modern. Where another given outfit might get lost in grandiosity, particularly to accompany the melancholic drift of later pieces like “Run Your Mouth” or “The Yearn,” which comprise the closing salvo, Brume resonate all the more for the humanity and specifically at times for the femininity of this perspective. And so the forlorn love poetry of “The Yearn” is presented not as quotes from Greek philosophy or whatever, but in clear, efficient and down-to-earth lines like, “Drowning here/Heart is for real.”
One might say the same of how “New Sadder You” is framed. The chorus, “I invite you to greet new sadder you/Because you take pain with you/With you till the end/When your memories are through/Mix joy and despair, anger fast on the move,” is a standout among songs that, while varied enough in structure and atmosphere to not all be about their choruses, have nonetheless been thoughtfully crafted, and as one of Marten‘s most soaring moments, the conversation is grounded and the same point of view that borders on sarcasm in “Faux Savior” as it namedrops a celebrity spiritual advisor and pines for “A proper fraud with fortitude and frost” — the alliteration’s burn in the direction of toxic YouTube-guru influencer masculinity — uses the melody to sweeten the threat on male ego fragility in “Run Your Mouth”: “Words won’t save you/I’ve got all night,” and gives Mother Earth the name Drucilla on “How Rude” as Laurie Sue Shanaman (Ludicra, Ails) adds raw-throated backing screams to the apex-bound build, feeling worlds away from three gentler-but-not-entirely-undoomed nod and bright three-part vocal harmonies of “Otto’s Song,” ending side A with a lullaby just a track prior.
Shanaman returns on the subsequent “Heed Me” as well, lending aural claw to the lines “Can you hear my memories?” and “What can you do for me?” at the ends of the last verses in harsh complement to the melody, but well positioned at the start of side B, which is on average less voluminous than “Jimmy,” “New Sadder You” or the gospel-spiritual plod of “Faux Savior” earlier, and enough of a surprise when they kick in with the first-stage surge of “How Rude” at 4:16 — the second stage hits at 4:44 with “We scream, the earth cracks” — that the listener has less of an idea of what’s coming as they move into “Heed Me,” “Run Your Mouth” and “The Yearn,” the last of which completes Marten on a flowing roll of crash and airy post-metallic lead guitar taking off from the last chorus, in which the cello plays rhythm the bass, gradually moving into its echoing fade. Not that one imagines throatrippers arising from that last gorgeous wash of tone and swaying motion, but you never know and shifting expectation is part of the point, along with emotive expression no less weighted than whichever of the most lumbering riffs you might want to set it beside.
And that heft of emotion extends to the ambience of pieces like “Run Your Mouth” or “New Sadder You” as well, whether it’s McMullan or McCathie doing lead vocals or trading as they do between the final verse and chorus of “New Sadder You,” Gratz lending her significant reach to the ending of “How Rude,” or the lush safe-space created in “Otto’s Song” even after the bass and drums join in to nudge it into a forward march. Across the span of Marten, Brume declare themselves as many things in terms of sound, most but not all of them leaning toward a darkness or somberness of mood, but they’re more assured than ever of who they are as a band working in new sonic dimensions of length, width, height and depth, and ‘The Yearn” indeed makes you believe the heart behind it all is for real. That’s an achievement in itself, but still only a fraction of what puts Marten so much on its own level, both for Brume and in whichever microgenre tag might ultimately fail to encapsulate their work here.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 29th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Greek traditionalist heavy outfit Bus — aka Bus the Unknown Secretary — have signed to Sound Effect Records for the June 21 release of their third full-length, We Are the Night. It’s the band’s first LP since 2019’s Never Decide (review here), which came out through RidingEasy, and while it keeps the semi-retro spirit that the band have proffered since their 2016 Twin Earth debut, The Unknown Secretary (review here), lead single “Under My Skin” pulls back on the boogie and garage aspect of that in favor of a rawer, more Motörheaded charge.
If you found yourself swept up in the fist-in-the-air NWOBHM-gone-raw force of Danava‘s Nothing but Nothing in 2023, “Under My Skin” should have little trouble getting where the title says it’s headed. With punches of bass behind its proto-thrash solo, a hooky chorus and infectious physical shove, it accounts for some of the darker mood Bus presented on their 2022 EP, Black Magic Bus, and couples that with an urgency that speaks to its having been recorded live in the studio.
As to whether or not “Under My Skin” represents everything Bus are doing on We Are the Night, I’d suspect not based on their past work, but frankly, the lead single already indicates a clear pivot from that foundation, so the door is open wide enough that it’s not worth speculating. It is worth looking forward to finding out, though, so I’m rolling with that.
Sound Effect sent the following down the PR wire:
BUS – “We Are the Night”
Bus the Unknown Secretary, collectively known as BUS, sign with Sound Effect Records and announce third album “We Are the Night”! Recorded live in the studio in just 3 days, “We Are the Night” is a solid rock/metal album, an “all killer, no filler” proposition and a must for all metal devotees across the globe. “We Are the Night” is due out on June 21st on vinyl and CD! Pre-sale shall be announced soon.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 29th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
A couple raw stats here to start. Greenleaf‘s ninth LP, The Head and the Habit, is out June 21 on Magnetic Eye. Slomosa‘s second album, the title of which I don’t think is public yet, is scheduled to arrive later this year (presumably before this tour) through Stickman Records. And Psychlona, who also signed to Magnetic Eye at the end of 2023, reportedly just finished tracking their own upcoming album this past week.
Three killer bands touring with new music, is the upshot. It’s emblematic of the continued ascent of Norwegian four-piece Slomosa to the forefront of the European heavy underground that they’re co-headlining with a band who’ve been around for about 25 years, but as the single “Cabin Fever” (video premiered here) makes plain, their intent is to continue the significant momentum behind them at this point, and no doubt this Fall tour — hitting Into the Void in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, Up in Smoke in Switzerland, and Keep it Low in Germany on the Sound of Liberation October festival circuit — will help them do that.
For Greenleaf, the tour announcement comes coupled with the unveiling of “Avalanche,” the duly-tumbling-of-groove second single from The Head and the Habit, which seems nestled into its hook for the duration until… well, I won’t spoil it. But if you think maybe they named the song after the riff, I’ll agree that it’s a definite possibility. At very least, they’d have been well justified in doing so.
Who’s first on the poster depends on whose poster you’re seeing — note the two below — but ‘Habit of the Tundra’ starts Sept. 30 either way. The below is from multiple PR wire sources, so maybe reads a bit choppy, but if you find the dates and the music, you’ll get the idea anyhow. Have at it:
Swedish heavy rockers GREENLEAF reveal a sparkling lyric video for the groovy ten-ton track ‘Avalanche’ as the next single from their forthcoming full-length “The Head & The Habit”, which is scheduled for release on June 21, 2024 via Magnetic Eye Records! In support of “The Head & The Habit”, GREENLEAF have just announced European live dates of the “Habit of the Tundra Tour” with Norwegian desert rockers SLOMOSA and support from PSYCHLONA for autumn 2024.
Following first, previously-released new singles, “Cabin Fever” as well as “Rice”, taken off their forthcoming studio album, Norwegian desert rock upstarters SLOMOSA have confirmed a European Tour with Swedish heavy groove rockers GREENLEAF, who are currently gearing up for the release of their new album “The Head & The Habit” (June 21st via Magnetic Eye Records)! Make sure to catch this killer tour package live at the dates below:
GREENLEAF & SLOMOSA w/ PSYCHLONA 30 SEP 2024 Leipzig (DE) Werk2 01 OCT 2024 Berlin (DE) Lido 02 OCT 2024 (DE) Hamburg (DE) Gruenspan 03 OCT 2024 Köln (DE) Club Volta 04 OCT 2024 Bielefeld (DE) Forum 05 OCT 2024 Leeuwarden (NL) Into the Void 06 OCT 2024 Pratteln (CH) Up in Smoke 07 OCT 2024 Innsbruck (AT) PMK 09 OCT 2024 Wien (AT) Arena 10 OCT 2024 Zagreb (HR) Vintage Industrial Bar 11 OCT 2024 Graz (AT) PPC 12 OCT 2024 München (DE) Keep It Low
GREENLEAF is: Arvid Hällagård – vocals Tommi Holappa – guitars Sebastian Olsson – drums Hans Fröhlich – bass
SLOMOSA are: Benjamin Berdous – Vocals/guitar Marie Moe – Vocals/bass Tor Erik Bye – Guitar Jard Hole – Drums
The earliest hours of 2024 found Japanese heavy psych heads Blasting Rod traveling from their hometown of Nagoya to make their North American live debut on Jan. 6 in Los Angeles. I don’t know how long the trip ultimately was, but I’m assuming that the recordings for their new album — the forthcoming Mojave Green out June 21 on Low&Slow.Disk — were done as part of the same flyover, with Dan Joeright (Yawning Man, Big Scenic Nowhere, the Live in the Mojave Desertseries, etc.) at the helm in Gatos Trail Studio. At very least, if that were the case it would save the cost/hassle of traveling back.
Blasting Rod will celebrate and feature the release at Tokyo Doom Fest on May 11, playing alongside Hebi Katana, a solo set by Okazaki Yukito of the esteemed Eternal Elysium and others, and Mojave Green follows 2022’s Of Wild Hazel (review here) with suitably desert-hued vibing, its almost-10-minute title-track (edited for the video at the bottom of this post) veering between loose, hypnotic jamming and fuzzier, riffier push, as opener “YEA 24M (Cosmic Bash)” resolves with Sabbathian groove before the cymbal-wash finish, “Bowl of Shala” brings a more meditative aspect and “Grandon the Stone Cutter (OG Version)” closes with a funky groove led by the guitar that feels specifically in conversation with Brant Bjork.
Is it then desert rock homage made in the desert? There’s definitely that side to it, but Blasting Rod dig further into experimental noisemaking in the extended “Yao Tsu (Infinity Landing)” and are not so single-minded and are more immersive than such a supposition might imply. Perhaps homage in the sense of taking past ideas and reshaping them to suit their own exploratory purposes.
Info follows, video’s at the bottom. Deep breath before you dive in:
BLASTING ROD – ‘Mojave Green’
Releases June 21, 2024, on Low&Slow.Disk cassette tape, CD, and a limited edition of 100 on black Japanese audiophile vinyl at fine independent record dealers near you in Europe, from Dutch-based Shiny Beast mail-order, via the Blasting Rod Bandcamp site from Japan and the US, and streaming worldwide on every digital platform known to man. Some editions will include hand-printed blacklight artwork.
Recorded by Daniel Joeright at Gatos Trail Studio, Yucca Valley, California Assisted by Aaron Farinelli Mixed and Mastered by S. Shah at The Nest, Nagoya, Japan Vinyl and other editions mastered by Dave Polster at Well Made Music
‘Mojave Green’ tracklisting 1. YEA 24M (Cosmic Bash) 05:13 2. Yao Tsu (Infinity Landing) 16:24 3. Mojave Green 09:54 4. Bowl of Shala 06:05 5. Grandon the Stone Cutter (OG ver.) 07:33
S. Shah also played guitar, made other funny noises, visual art and additional recordings, conjured riffs, and scribbled words and voiced them.
Chihiro played drums and other percussion, and generally called the shots as executive producer.
Yoshihiro Yasui played whatever he wanted on bass guitar, and inspired with cause for pause.
Special thanks to Yukito Okazaki at Studio Zen, Japan・Zoe Joeright・Buddy Donner・Tom Frankot・and most importantly to our intrepid road manager, Nancy Bukowski
Video Director: Chihiro Second Unit: Yohei Yamamoto
