When last we heard from Hackman guitarist Darryl Shepard, he was rejoicing that departed bassist Jase had rejoined the band. Now apparently they’re done. Bummer. They were one of the first interviews done for this site and a quality group all around. If you haven’t checked out their second and apparently final album, Enterprises, it’s definitely worth your time.

Of course, Shepard will be reuniting with his old Milligram band mates at the Small Stone Records showcase in?Boston this September 26 (more info here), and if anything in music is worth knowing it’s that almost never does “never” mean never. In the meantime though, it’s a shame to see a band like Hackman bite the dust. Here’s what Shepard had to say about it on the StonerRock.com message board:

Finished. Kaput. Over. No more. We had a couple of shows coming up, we have canceled for both of them. No more shows. Totally done. We just recorded three final songs at Mad Oak, we’re gonna finish those up and then that will be it. Thanks to everyone who dug the band and came out to shows and supported us in any way. Over and out.

There are many reasons, but to sum it all up it just became more of a hassle than it was worth. The band was making absolutely no money at all, even at shows, so we’ve been paying for everything right out of our own pocket, and we just can’t do that anymore. Plus everyone’s different schedules made planning anything, including rehearsals, a huge pain in the ass. We don’t hate each other or anything, but it’s just time for it to end before we do hate each other. The band has basically just run its course, and I personally feel like we’ve said all we need to say as a band, musically.

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Mania by Swedish rockers Truckfighters — number three on this site’s recent list of the Top Five of the First Half of 2009 — is an album that by now nothing more needs to be said about around here. After posting the video, reviewing the disc and tracing singer/bassist Ozo back to Greenleaf more times than I care to count, it’s been covered in just about every way possible — except an interview.

So clearly it was time for an interview.

Ozo and guitarist Dango (now joined by new drummer Pedro) took some time out to field questions for the following emailer. The fuzzmasters discuss the growth of the band over the course of their three albums — Mania, Phi (2007) and Gravity X (2005), Dango reveals his guitar setup, the band’s plans for the future and even what it would take to get them over to the States for some shows. Q&A is after the infamous jump.

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Any fans of King Crimson‘s earliest days and/or the modern mellotron antics of Steven Wilson-era Opeth or Belgian rockers Hypnos 69‘s extra-proggy last record, The Eclectic Measure, will want to catch up with San Diego retro prog (henceforth to be referred to as “reprog” in these pages) containment unit Astra. Their shroomy Rise Above Records debut, The Weirding is a sweetly melodic, intricately-arranged excursion into the ’70s when the ’70s were young and the excesses arena rock had yet to take hold. There are some heavier moments peppered in the longer tracks, mostly arriving after sizeable buildups, but even so, it’s countryside prog all the way.

The five-piece (I can’t even remember the last time I wrote about a band with that many people in it on this site) outfit capture a specific moment in the development of their genre, when certain among the set of acid rockers decided that simply wasn’t smart enough for them, made a left turn and landed square in the midst of technically proficient psychedelic self-indulgence. Guitarists Richard Vaughan (also vocals, mellotron and echoplex), Conor Riley (also vocals, mellotron, “arp odyssey” and organ) and Brian Ellis (also vocals and moog) don’t go overly tech in their six-string work, but Astra, with their abundance of synth atmosphere and encompassing, engaging sound, could easily fall into the category of a kitchen-sink kind of band.

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Fact: if Sollubi are at war with it, I’m on their side. Even if it’s an intangible concept. I’d advise anyone who didn’t want to get their skull crushed under the force of high-grade disaffected sludge to align his or herself accordingly, because the Pennsylvania/Ohio four-piece belch a 50+ minute, three song hatefest on their full-length debut, At War with Decency (Choking Hazard Records). Stark, drugged and clearly suffering some level of emotional trauma, Sollubi craft songs that, while long, retain their root anger, rather than lose their edge by making some lame attempt at being epic. Combined Eyehategod and Yob? Maybe, if the latter were less cosmic and the former much, much slower.

More than a darkened atmosphere, that on At War with Decency is dirty. Dirty and tired, and the music is an exhausted collapse after some epic relationship-killing argument. Emotionally unfulfilled. Pissed the fuck off. You hear it right away with guitarist Griff‘s frantic work on “In Violation,” which opens the record and is both the fastest and shortest track at 4:34. If “sludge” hadn’t been chosen to describe this kind of music, I’d cast my vote for “grime.” It sounds like there’s a film on my speakers, like grease-covered windows.

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The Obelisk has received word from confidential sources (okay, it was Kevin Bacon) that famed The Tonight Show sidekick and host of Star Search, Ed McMahon‘s death may in fact have been the result of foul play and not the long-reported decline in health previously attributed by the press at large. Our news bureau — against the wishes of The New York Times and the McMahon family — and in the name of the free internet press, is ready to announce that Ed McMahon was actually murdered at the hands of secret underground martial arts organizations.

Ninjas.

McMahon was known for decades to have developed an affinity for the martial arts during his time as a fighter pilot in the Marines serving in Korea. In his second book, For Laughing Out Loud: My Life and Good Times (Warner Books, 1998), the man behind the “Heyo!” call still so popular today recounts learning the Korean martial art Tae Kwon Do under the instruction of a fiery prostitute named Candice. From there it is assumed his decades-spanding descent into the brutal underground fighting scene began.

When Bruce Lee was a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1973 to promote Enter the Dragon, McMahon, in a drunken stupor but flailing his fists at lightning speed and with great precision nonetheless, is reported to have challenged the Jeet Kune Do master to a fight to the death in the name of avenging a fallen warrior he alleged Lee to have killed in Hong Kong. Neither Carson nor Tonight Show representatives would respond to our news desk’s calls, but Carson is known to have for years told the story at cocktail parties of the day?McMahon “kicked Lee‘s wiry ass.”

To follow 2007’s When Television Was Young, McMahon was working on a new book exposing the secret martial arts clans of the world, to be called Seoul to Hollywood: My Life with the Ninjas. Once again, The Obelisk‘s sources claim that once the actors behind what The Nation journalist William Hahn first dubbed “The International Ninja Conspiracy” were alerted to the ongoing progress of McMahon‘s work, they began to hatch their plot to end his life. By making him old. And sick.

The ninjas, of course, could not be reached for comment.

Acclaimed NYC visual artist and illustrator Arik Roper‘s work has become an essential part of the aesthetic to underground heavy (that’s not to say “stoner”) rock and doom. Posters, album covers, shirt designs for the likes of Sleep (both Jerusalem and Dopesmoker), Southern Lord Recordings, Rise Above Records, StonerRock.com, Buzzov*en, Eyehategod, High on Fire, Boris, Ancestors, Mammatus and countless others have made Roper‘s trademark epic and highly detailed style a visual staple every bit as important as Orange amps blasting out Sabbath riffs. There are many albums that just wouldn’t be the same without it.

With one book — Mushroom Magick: A Visionary Field Guide — already under his belt and ever-more praise and exposure being heaped upon his work, Roper‘s growing reputation has him high in the running for one of this generation’s most recognizable artists in or out of the metal underground. His pieces maintain signature elements, like common wavelengths running through them, while subject matter and inspiration vary widely. Adaptable and distinctive, he shows not only the technical development attained from his time at New York‘s School of the Visual Arts, but a natural talent which can come only with time, practice and innate ability.

Roper was kind enough recently to take some time out and discuss via email his artistic process and evolution, how he got started drawing and which piece of classic cover art he most wishes had been his own. Interview is after the jump. Enjoy.

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Usually when an allegedly limited edition reissue comes out and it’s packing a bonus DVD, it’s a completely skip worthy live set shot on one or two cameras with crappy sound that’s boring as hell. That, or like in the case of Earache‘s tackling last year of Cathedral‘s 1995 classic, The Carnival Bizarre, it’s all previously released. Review-wise, the second disc obliges a mention and little else. For their remaster of the seminal UK doomers’ 1991 debut, Forest of Equilibrium, however, the label has included a new 40-minute interview with the band about their career and making this album. Previously unreleased and relevant.

Granted, it’s shot mostly on one camera — other footage is spliced in — and it requires serious attention paid to dig words out of those Coventry accents, but it was enough for me to at least check it out before doing the review, hoping I’d learn something. I learned the “Ebony Tears” video (also included) kicks ass.

The audio portion of the release includes 1992’s Soul Sacrifice EP as another bonus and is a landmark in doom. Vocalist Lee Dorrian (blah blah Napalm Death, blah blah Rise Above Records), guitarists Gaz Jennings and Adam Lehan, bassist Mark Griffiths and drummer Mike Smail created a seven-track classic that’s morose by any standard you want to apply — even in comparing it to what was happening doom-wise in the UK at the time with My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost and Anathema. Put it next to Cathedral‘s last release, 2005’s The Garden of Unearthly Delights, and it almost sounds like a completely different band (Lehan, Griffiths and Smail being long gone might also have something to do with that).

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Here I’ve been kicking myself for days trying to come up with some kind of vaguely apt descriptor for what’s going on with Small Stone‘s new Northwest Mind Meld release, and it’s right there in the title the whole time. Is it a compilation? Is it a six-way split? Nope, it’s a melding of the minds; a coming together of various acts and outfits linked in one way or another — if nothing else by geography — for a singular rocking purpose. A putting together of the heads, so to speak.

Gathered by none other than VALIS guitarist/vocalist Van Conner, Northwest Mind Meld features not only his band, but other Washington luminaries Mos Generator and Golden Pig Electric Blues Band alongside newcomers like Skullbot, The Valley (a name I can appreciate) and All Time High. Each band gets two tracks divided up over the course of the CD in a mixed order, like a compilation where half the bands didn’t show up and the rest just filled in the time.

One has to wonder about that. For a region so fertile when it comes to creative music — stoner or otherwise — it seems a little strange to only have a half-dozen bands melding their minds. Was this all Conner could find, or was it just a matter of who he thought fit with what the others were doing? In any case, the six present and accounted for each give solid showings, the two VALIS and Mos Generator cuts being particular highlights, as well as Golden Pig Electric Blues Band‘s “Pentagram” living up to its name.

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