https://www.high-endrolex.com/18

Brian Posehn Speaks for the Heavy on Fart and Wiener Jokes

Posted in Reviews on March 30th, 2010 by JJ Koczan

Anyone wondering what comedian Brian Posehn has to do with either stoner culture or heavy music need only listen to a given 30 seconds of his material for their answer. The veteran of Mr. Show and The Comedians of Comedy can currently be found on Comedy Central’s The Sarah Silverman Program, but with his second album of live-recorded standup, Fart and Wiener Jokes (Relapse), Posehn shows the wit and self-deprecation that has carried him along a steady stream of successes since the ‘90s (and I’m sure it was that simple, all the time).

He might just as easily have called it Pot and Metal Jokes, but his title is catchier. The album is a collection of more recent wares (his last Comedy Central special had at least some of it), and as a follow-up to the hilarious Live in: Nerd Rage, fans of Posehn’s work should basically know what to expect by now. His timing and dry delivery do more for him even than what he’s saying; stories about cuddling with his wife, leading, naturally, to a wiener-centric punchline, and hitting people in the face because they use the phrase “Party like a rockstar” would probably fall flat in the hands of a less capable comedian, but Posehn deftly navigates a realm of comedic misanthropy that has as much charm to it as the title of the record would lead you to believe.

Read more »

Tags: , , ,

Earthless to Tour Europe with Russian Circles

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 30th, 2010 by JJ Koczan

My theory on San Diego/Tee Pee Records epic instrumental rockers Earthless is they play the parts of the ’70s live jam everyone liked best. You know the part where “the song” was like half an hour ago and the band has gone totally apeshit on one guitar solo for like 15 minutes, Dio has left the stage and Ritchie Blackmore looks like the muse just gave him brain damage? Yeah, that’s where Earthless live pretty much all the time. Only thing is the song never kicks back in and Earthless just keep jamming. Forever. That’s how they do, and apparently, they’re about to head over and do it in Europe. Quoth the PR wire:

Earthless are set to kick off a two week tour with Russian Circles! The band will also be performing at the Roadburn festival in Tilburg, Holland.

Earthless w/ Russian Circles
Apr 6  HafenklangHamburg, Germany
Apr 7  PatronaatHaarlem, Holland
Apr 8  TheklaBristol, UK
Apr 9  BrudenellLeeds, UK
Apr 10 Captain’s RestGlasgow, UK
Apr 11 Islington MillManchester, UK
Apr 12 Rock City BasementNottingham, UK
Apr 13 UnderworldLondon, UK
Apr 15 Roadburn FestivalTilburg, NL
Apr 16 Impetus Days FestivalLausanne, Switzerland
Apr 17 SidecarBarcelona, Spain

Tags: , , ,

High on Fire Interview with Matt Pike: Oh, How Dark We Pray

Posted in Features on March 29th, 2010 by JJ Koczan

They are the most potent power trio in metal. Oakland, California thrashers High on Fire seem to accomplish a career’s worth of heavy with each album they put out, and 2010’s Snakes for the Divine (the band’s first release on E1 Music) in no different. The guitar playing of Matt Pike (ex-Sleep), accompanied by the ferocious rhythms of drummer Des Kensel and bassist Jeff Matz (ex-Zeke), has been responsible for some of this century’s most furious riffs and solos, and has almost single-handedly proven that it’s possible to shred in this day and age without sound like a total ProTools jerkoff.

Simply put, they made guitar metal cool again.

Snakes for the Divine introduces a new side of High on Fire. With cleaner production courtesy of Greg Fidelman (Slayer, Metallica), Pike, Kensel and Matz have a crispness to their attack that was never there before. Songs like “Frost Hammer” and “Fire, Flood and Plague” have all the power and drive of the best work on preceding albums Death is This Communion (2007), Blessed Black Wings (2005), Surrounded by Thieves (2002) and The Art of Self-Defense (2000), but with the added clarity and improved vocal technique from Pike, they move High on Fire into a different echelon of heavy metal bands. They are quickly becoming a more influential act, and in the years to come, don’t be surprised how much you see their name tossed around in interviews with other bands. The level of their impact is only beginning to reveal itself.

So, as we embark on yet another era of High on Fire, as rife as ever with battle axes and epic tales of death and war, Matt Pike was kind enough to check in from Florida for a phone interview. Despite a craptacular connection (the reasons behind which are a story for another time), the guitarist opened up on the band’s developing processes, working with Fidelman and what makes touring today different than it was five years ago. Q&A is after the jump. Please enjoy.

Read more »

Tags: , , ,

Triptykon: 72 Minutes to Destroy Your Soul

Posted in Reviews on March 29th, 2010 by JJ Koczan

From the day it was announced that acclaimed guitarist/vocalist Tom Gabriel Warrior was leaving Swiss black metal innovators Celtic Frost following their fucking awesome reunion album Monotheist, it was clear that whatever he did next was going to be a tricky proposition. After all, this isn’t the first time Celtic Frost broke up, and considering it took them about half a decade to get Monotheist together, was it really such a surprise to see the band come apart? The upside was that when Triptykon, Warrior’s new band, was revealed, he more or less said his plan was to make it sound like Celtic Frost, and to that end, he was taking the parts he was going to use for songs on the next Celtic Frost record and turn it into Triptykon’s first album, Eparistera Daimones.

Century Media, to whom Monotheist was also licensed for release back in 2006 (time does fly), sent over some mp3s of Eparistera Daimones for review, but I knew that, as with Monotheist, if I wanted to really get a sense of what this album was about, I needed the real deal. So I bought it. Whether or not that makes me morally superior to anyone who by now has downloaded this blackened metallic beast is a debate for another time (but we all know it does); the point is that, with the expository liner notes, with H.R. Giger’s explicit cover art — covered in the CD packaging by a strategically placed promo sticker – with the production info, with the lyrics, I feel like it’s possible to get a more fully realized notion of what Eparistera Daimones is trying to accomplish. In a word, that is “iconoclasm.”

How else to explain the vicious turns, unexpected twists and occasionally unleashed, unhinged aggression of Triptykon’s debut? Clearly this is an album that, while knowing of the expectations pinned on it and the revitalized reputation it’s going to be responsible for upholding, doesn’t give a shit and is going to do what it’s going to do. Joining Warrior on the release are drummer Norman Lonhard, bassist Vanja Slajh, numerous guests, and former Celtic Frost live guitarist V. Santura, whose modern black metal vocals contrast with Warrior’s own to great effect on early cuts “Goetia,” “Abyess Within My Soul” and blistering centerpiece “A Thousand Lies.” If there’s one single factor that separates Triptykon from Celtic Frost (the absence of Martin Eric Ain being obvious to the point of not really needing to be said), it’s Santura’s contributions. Plus, as a co-producer with Warrior, his affect on the overall sound of Eparistera Daimones is even broader, and judging from the outcome, it’s much to the album’s benefit.

Read more »

Tags: , , , ,

Frydee Earthride

Posted in Bootleg Theater on March 26th, 2010 by JJ Koczan

I’m this close to heading out for the weekend, but wanted to stop in one more time real quick to say thanks to everyone who checked out the site this week. I’m not going to give away any numbers until the month’s over, but March has me blown away already, and that’s just not possible without you reading and coming back, so thank you, thank you, thank you.

I decided to close this week with Earthride, because they’re pure groove, and with Spring coming on like it is in the valley, that’s where my head is 100 percent. They’re doing “Fighting the Devil’s Inside You” from the second 20 Buck Spin festival. Sherman = doom. It’s pretty much as simple as that.

One last note: If you haven’t yet, make sure to download the March podcast, because this week is last licks for it before we move on to April. Big things next month, but I’ll save that for next week. Meantime, cheers, stay safe and enjoy the next couple days.

Tags: , ,

Buried Treasure and the Fine Art of Rockit Science

Posted in Buried Treasure on March 26th, 2010 by JJ Koczan

It was a recent Monday night in NYC and I was in town for a Precious Metal show at Lit Lounge, but having some time to spare, figured I’d hike over to St. Mark’s and see what was doing in the used CD bins at Kim’s Video, which was nothing, since Kim’s Video has apparently closed shop since the last time I was there. That’ll show me to not leave the house but twice a year.

Consolation came from Rockit Scientist Records right down the block across the street. The step-down-to-enter hole in the wall has long been a source of obscure psychedelic/proto-prog wonders, and among the assorted treasures — I’m looking at you, Popul Vuh remasters — I found the 1971 solo offering from Japanese guitarist Shinki Chen (hailed as the Hendrix of the rising sun), called simply Shinki Chen and His Friends, with a sticker on the front reading “Early 70’s Japanese Heavy Psych Jams.” Sold.

I’ve been on a kick for some old man rock lately, and digging into the early tape loops and King Crimson mid-“Moonchild” nosies of Shinki Chen and His Friends opener “The Dark Sea Dream” was right in line with what I was looking for, but the real deal surprise was the kick of fuzzier cuts like “Requiem of Confusion,” “Freedom of a Mad Paper Lantern,” the organ-diced “Gloomy Reflections,” and the hard-panned “Farewell to Hypocrites.” There’s an untenable current of weird running throughout — the drums are so far away that sometimes you forget they’re there at all — and man, it’s clear to see who’s got a remastering hyper-budget and who doesn’t, but I’m digging the hell out of the disc and thought I’d pass along the word to anyone else who might be interested (I don’t know if Rockit Scientist has another copy, but it might be worth hitting them up, since true independent record stores in Manhattan are getting fewer and father between). Hopefully that’s you.

After this album — the version of which I have is a 2005 Korean reissue distributed by World PsychedeliaShinki Chen joined the trio Speed, Glue and Shinki, which as you might imagine didn’t last long. They put out one album and sort of another after breaking up, and that’s allegedly when Mr. Shinki decided he vastly preferred not recording to recording and stopped making albums. Shinki Chen and His Friends is still out there though for anyone willing to stumble on it, and although I’m still very much in the process of getting to know the album and the guitarist (and his friends, for that matter), I’d definitely suggest you figure out a way to do so.

Tags: , , ,

Obelisk Shirts Coming Soon — I Have the Design Sketch to Prove It

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 26th, 2010 by JJ Koczan

Of course, it needs to be finalized (and yes, in the finished version the wizard will have a beard), but below you can check out the basic design sketch of what will hopefully sooner than later become The Obelisk‘s first t-shirt. As promised, it features a wizard fighting a grizzly bear. If there is anything cooler in the world that can go on a t-shirt, I’d love to hear what it is.

There will be an Obelisk logo atop the image like the one in the header of this page, and of course it will all be inked and finished looking and whatnot, but that’s the basic idea. Note the obelisk sticking up in the background at the top left. Fucking awesome. Special thanks to Ryan Lesser of the band Megasus (review, interview) for the design work. Life is awesome sometimes.

Tags:

Motherboar Stream Whole New Album on Facebook

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 26th, 2010 by JJ Koczan

And yes, that title is meant in both ways: The album, called The Beast Becomes the Servant, is entirely new and Motherboar are streaming all of it. Now, I don’t have one of these fancy, newfangled books of face — mostly because I don’t want to talk to anyone I went to high school with other than The Patient Mrs. — but rumor has it it’s the bee’s knees among the kids these days, and Motherboar are apparently way more hip to the times. So good for them.

For those unfamiliar and thus suspect (it’s human nature to fear what you don’t know; you don’ t have to be ashamed), the Boston five-piece play a balls-out heavy metal that’s equal parts crash and crush. Definitely of Generation Masto, but less concerned with showing off how many incongruous parts they can fit into a song than with kicking your ass — which, if you’re not paying attention, is the way it should be. Plus, they have a song called “Camel Puncher,” and if I didn’t know any better, I’d think they meant it.

Click here to check out the record. Anyone who wants to catch Motherboar live can do so at the Middle East Downstairs in Cambridge (everyone knows Downstairs is better) on April 16, but be warned, since it’s Massachusetts, they’re playing with a bunch of metalcore bands. And Diecast. Nice to know a decade later Diecast is still on every show in that state. They’ve been going to the same party for 12 years, and in no way is that depressing.

Tags: , , ,