The Long Morrow is striking in the nuance of its sound and process alike. It is the second full-length from West Coasterly conglomeration Big Scenic Nowhere, the project founded by guitarists Bob Balch (Fu Manchu) and Gary Arce (Yawning Man) that quickly came to include multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Tony Reed (keys, bass, guitar, synth, Mellotron, etc.) of Mos Generator and Yawning Man drummer Bill Stinson, as well, initially, as a range of guests. That was true of their early-2020 debut LP, Vision Beyond Horizon (review here), which brought contributions from members of The Well, Monolord and acknowledged keymaster Per Wiberg (Kamchatka, King Hobo, Candlemass, Opeth, Switchblade, on and on forever).

Comprised of five tracks running 36 minutes — a substantial portion of which are dedicated to closer “The Long Morrow” (19:45) itself — The Long Morrow pulls back on that inclusionary mission somewhat. Wiberg makes a return appearance on synth, and guitarist Reeves Gabrels (David Bowie, The Cure, many others) does likewise, both on the title-track, but beyond that, The Long Morrow is Arce, Balch, Reed and Stinson, and it proves handily that the band — and yes, they are a band — doesn’t need anything else.

In Oct. 2020, Big Scenic Nowhere issued their Lavender Blues EP (review here), and with it came more understanding about how their songs are made, and when. The core four-piece have gotten together all of once, jamming for a stretch of three apparently-quite-productive days in Nov. 2019. And everything they’ve released since, across Vision Beyond Horizon, Lavender Blues and now The Long Morrow, has been culled from those sessions. But it’s what’s behind that culling. With Reed in Washington and Stinson, Arce and Balch in California (which doesn’t necessarily make them neighbors, by the way), the band has worked remotely.

It’s been a good time to do so, of course. But even without the plague, The Long Morrow finds Balch and Reed passing the initial jams and improvisations back and forth to each other, trading ideas and gradually sculpting songs out of pieces set to loops, with Balch finding common tunings and melodic expressions and parts that might set well next to each other to build cuts like “Defector (of Future Days)” while Reed fleshes out structures with verses, sundry keys, some acoustic guitar on “Murder Klipp” and the grand finale.

This work, which one imagines is both deeply tedious and deeply satisfying when it works — like a jigsaw puzzle that can be any shape; Balch talks about it here — can and sometimes does result in open-ended, longer-form material. Such was the case on the band’s first release, which was the 2019 proof-of-concept PostWax EP, Dying on the Mountain EP (discussed here). Likewise, the title-track of Lavender Blues easily reached over 13 minutes, and the aforementioned “The Long Morrow” nearly hits 20, so Big Scenic Nowhere want now and have wanted nothing for showcasing their jammy roots. At the same time, The Long Morrow feels like the most directly song-based work they’ve yet done.

Part of that clarity might perhaps stem from the relative hunkering-down of the lineup involved in those original jams implied through inviting fewer outside participants, but through “Defector (of Future Days),” “Murder Klipp” “Lavender Bleu” — which is a five-minute stretch constructed from the same foundation as the lengthier “Lavender Blues,” and admirably finds its own direction — the quicker, more intense “LeDü” and even in “The Long Morrow,” the band consciously carve progressive heavy psychedelic rock, lush in melody and aware of its own aural impact, from the sonic ether of those jams.

“Defector (of Future Days)” begins the proceedings with a purposeful crunch and angularity to its central riff. It feels written traditionally, a verse/chorus structure bringing the first of the Reed-delivered hooks as Arce‘s inimitable guitar tone adds post-rocking float to the winding rhythm from Balch (who swaps with Reed, playing bass on the track) and Stinson, whose reliability as a drummer isn’t to be understated. As “Murder Klipp” adds Mellotron and acoustic guitar to its dramatic second half and “Lavender Bleu” (premiered here) begins its serene unfolding with Arce‘s quiet dream-desert noodling at the front before the more direct fuzz of its chorus hits, Stinson‘s drums never seem to miss a moment or a turn. Even a cut-and-paste situation, where one wouldn’t necessarily expect to find ‘mistakes’ such as they are, he brings a fluidity to the songs that reminds of just how essential his work is to Yawning Man as well.

It’s all the more crucial, though, in a band with three guitarists, each with his own personality in Arce, Balch and Reed — the last of whom, yes, plays bass on most of the material, but adds acoustic to “Murder Clip” and “The Long Morrow,” as noted, and is very much a melodic presence on vocals and synth/Mellotron as well — even before they bring in someone like Reeves Gabrels, who’s presumably the party responsible (in part at least) for the shredfest that starts shortly after the nine-minute mark in the closer. The underlying point is that Big Scenic Nowhere come across in The Long Morrow more like a band than a project, and each member is essential to that, whether it’s Reed tossing in lyrical themes of one’s place in passing time and arrangement elements like the soft electric piano in the beginning verses of “The Long Morrow” or the layered vocal in “LeDü,” Arce spacing out the atmospherics, Balch finding the groove for a riff and piecing the songs together or Stinson serving as the baseline (not bassline) from which the material is crafted.

Finding a narrative of progression from one release to the next is an impulse on the part of the listener — what are they doing here as opposed to last time? — but despite pulling their songs from the same three-day stretch of show-up-with-nothing-and-see-what-happens jamming that resulted in the first album and subsequent EP, The Long Morrow indeed demonstrates growth in what’s being made from that raw material, and the deeper Big Scenic Nowhere go into the ground they’re working from, the more what they unearth seems to be their own. The Long Morrow affirms Big Scenic Nowhere‘s prog-hued vision of desert psychedelia, heavy without being held down by its weight, and able to drift or land hard at will. It is cohesive like an ecosystem.

Big Scenic Nowhere, The Long Morrow (2022)

Big Scenic Nowhere on Facebook

Big Scenic Nowhere on Instagram

Big Scenic Nowhere on Bandcamp

Heavy Psych Sounds on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

Heavy Psych Sounds on Bandcamp

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Tony Reed of Mos Generator & Big Scenic Nowhere

—

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

“Make Music Daily” are the words I live by and it’s very rare day when I don’t live up to this. I’ve very fortunate and blessed in my life to always have the support of people around me who have recognized and believed in my passion for music. It started with my parents and grandparents from a very early age. I’ve made a living at it for most of my adult life thanks to very hard work and the wonderful people that support what I do.

Describe your first musical memory.

Some of my memories aren’t really my memories. They are stories that my mom has told me about my obsession with the record player and stealing a “Nights in White Satin” 45 from K-Mart when I was 4. My first real musical turn on that I can remember was the album Rock Power. It was a compilation album released by Ronco in 1974. An amazing compilation and very diverse. I still listen to it regularly.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

I’ve done a lot of very cool things with music in my life but what I think what I enjoy most is watching my son play. He is a very talented multi-instrumentalist with a great amount of passion. I’m satisfied by the pride I feel when I go see him play. I know that is not one musical memory but it is something I hold dear.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

When I refused to shake the hand of a person whose belief system was something I strongly disagreed with. This caused me a few years of “watching my back.”

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

I only know that I’m getting better with age and that is something I would have never imagined when I was in my twenties or even thirties. I’m learning not only how to become a better musician and songwriter but I’m also learning how to convey certain emotions in my music. Emotions that I barely understand myself but need to exorcize them through lyrics and music. As I get older I feel that this is becoming more important to me. The music I am working on now is the most honest music I’ve ever made.

How do you define success?

When I was young success meant making records and playing in stadiums. Tour buses, lots of amps and guitars, etc. Over the years I’ve found that all I want now is an honest connection with the listener. I want people to take the time to understand what I’ve been through. I’m sure that most of the people listening can relate to the feeling and emotions inside the music and lyrics.

That being said, I feel like the people that listen to the music I make do take the time to look deeper into what’s there. When I get messages about how my music has had an impact on somebody, that is the payoff. I have made quite a few records and done a lot of touring over the years so I can say that I have achieved a bit of my teenage definition of success but I’ve also succeeded in building something that is just as satisfying as all of the “Rock Star” stuff.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Some of my own actions that have hurt others.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

A soul-funk album.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

To me art/music is true freedom. It is escapism for some and for others it is life. For me it is about leaving a legacy. My work will be around long after I’m dead and I hope will continue to be recognized long after I’m gone. This is not a new or original concept at all but the older I get, the more I realize that this is my line of thinking and that kind of thinking fuels my creative process.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Driving. I’m driving down to play a show with Big Scenic Nowhere in Yucca Valley in November and I’m looking forward to taking all of the old highways to get there. I like the back roads.

http://www.facebook.com/MosGenerator
https://www.instagram.com/mos_generator
http://www.mosgenerator.bandcamp.com
https://heavyheadsuperstore.storenvy.com/

https://www.facebook.com/bigscenicnowhere/
https://www.instagram.com/bigscenicnowhere/
https://bigscenicnowhere.bandcamp.com/releases
https://bigscenicnowherestore.bigcartel.com/

Various Artists, Ronco Rock Power (1974)

Big Scenic Nowhere, The Long Morrow (2022)

Tony Reed Interview, Nov. 9, 2021

Tony Reed is relentless. Every day, he gets up, sometimes before six in the morning, and goes into his studio and works on music. The result of his ethic can be seen in his constantly expanding discography. Whether he’s recording, mixing and/or mastering someone else’s release or working with one of his own bands — Mos Generator are his main outlet at this point, but Big Scenic Nowhere have a new record on the way too and are soon to play their first live show, and I hear Constance Tomb might do more, sometimes Hot Spring Water happens, and in addition to his solo stuff, there’s always new projects lurking on the horizon — his prolific nature doesn’t at all undercut the quality of his work. He is undeterred from his purpose in a way that I find deeply admirable and inspiring, and I told him as much in this interview.

He hit me up last week and wanted to talk about the next Mos Generator release. Obviously I’m down for that. I’d seen social media posts from Reed talking about a different direction for the material coming together for the first new Mos Generator proper studio album since 2018’s Shadowlands (review here) — though of course copious other outings have followed that LP, whether it’s live albums, remastered works, EPs, splits, singles or tribute contributions from Mos Generator, the entire advent of Big Scenic Nowhere, Reed‘s first solo LP under his own name, the Constance Tomb album, and more that I know I’m leaving out — and I was curious how “different” things were going to get. Ahead of our conversation, I got to hear demos for three new songs — “The Lime Before the Law,” “(Don’t) Wait Until Tomorrow” and “Only Yesterday” — and based on those alone, there was plenty to discuss.

Mos Generator in recent years, with bassist Sean Booth and drummer Jono Garrett alongside Reed as the sole founder and principal architect of the band, have not been shy about showcasing a progressive rock influence. The new songs are, to put it simply, even less shy. Reed‘s demos, which are of better sound quality than any number of records I might review in a given week, are rife with layers of acoustic and electric guitar, vocal harmonies and rhythmic intricacy. With Garrett living between Boston and Texas — neither particularly close to Reed in Port Orchard, Washington — two fly-in writing sessions this past summer resulted in 80-plus minutes of new material, and as Reed takes the basic tracks and fleshes them out into what will eventually be workable, final form, he’s not wrong in noting the reshuffled sonic priorities on display. I don’t know that Mos Generator have ever sounded so intricate.

I’m going to leave the rest to you. Dive in. This is by no means the first time I’ve spoken with Reed, but it was great to hear his excitement about what’s coming. A Mos Generator triple LP? Maybe…

Enjoy:

Tony Reed Interview, Nov. 9, 2021

Mos Generator last month released the Strange Powers compilation LP, collecting tracks from studio albums released through Listenable Records between 2014-2018. It’s available through Mos Generator’s Bandcamp, along with a ton of other offerings new and old. More info at the links.

Mos Generator on Facebook

Mos Generator on Instagram

Mos Generator on Bandcamp

HeavyHead webstore

When I interviewed guitarist Bob Balch earlier this year and he talked about the second Big Scenic Nowhere full-length, The Long Morrow, coming out in September, well, it seemed ambitious at the time. As anybody who’s tried to press, distribute or buy a record in the time since probably already knows, the manufacturing delays and materials shortages born of the Covid-19 pandemic have hardly lessened. Latest I’m hearing is that if you want a vinyl record made, it’s about an eight-month wait. Compare that to three or four weeks for a CD. Brutal.

The Long Morrow is slated to arrive Jan. 14, and to be honest, I’m somewhat relieved. I’ve already started thinking about my best of 2021 list and that thing is packed, with more still to come. One more killer release on the pile and my brain might just melt. Let this be a bit of warmth to look forward to in the dead of winter. Let it go on 2022’s list, which, yes, I’ve already started keeping notes for, because I am a sad, sad man.

On a decidedly-less-pathetic note, preorders for The Long Morrow — I love that cover art; I want a signed LP, just to have an excuse to hang it on my wall — are open now. Maybe I’ll see if Tony Reed wants to have a chat about the record sometime soon and follow up on the other interview. In any case, we’ve got some time, and Balch has copious background on the songs below.

The PR wire brought it all straight to your eyeballs:

Heavy Psych Sounds to announce BIG SCENIC NOWHERE sophomore album THE LONG MORROW – presale starts TODAY

sophomore album of the “super-band” featuring members of Fu Manchu, Yawning Man, Mos Generator, Spiritual Beggars and Reeves Gabrels from The Cure/David Bowie

Today we are extremely proud to start the presale of the BIG SCENIC NOWHERE sophomore album THE LONG MORROW !!

ALBUM PRESALE: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS200

USA PRESALE: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop-usa.htm#HPS200

RELEASED IN
20 ULTRA LTD TEST PRESS VINYL
150 ULTRA LTD TRANSPARENT GREEN SOLID CORNETTO VINYL
450 LTD SIDE A – SIDE B GREEN/PURPLE/YELLOW VINYL
BLACK VINYL
DIGIPAK

“THE LONG MORROW” BUNDLE:
1x ULTRA LTD CORNETTO VINYL
1x DIGIPAK
1x T-SHIRT
1x SHOPPER
1x POSTER

DISCOGRAPHY BUNDLE:
1x “VISION BEYOND HORIZON” BLACK VINYL + DIGIPAK
1x “LAVENDER BLUES” BLACK VINYL + DIGIPAK
1x “THE LONG MORROW” BLACK VINYL + DIGIPAK
1x T-SHIRT
1x SHOPPER
1x POSTER

RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 14th, 2022

TRACKLIST:
1. Defector (of Future Days)
2. Murder Klipp
3. Lavender Bleu
4. LeDü
5. The Long Morrow

Album background:

Bob Balch here. Wanted to let you know about “The Long Morrow.”

We released the E.P “Lavender Blues” back in October of 2020. “Lavender Blues” and “The Long Morrow” are both the result of a three day jam session back in November of 2019. The players were myself, Gary Arce (Yawning Man), Bill Stinson (Yawning Man) and Tony Reed (Mos Generator). We left that session with hours of stuff to choose from. We still have tons to release!

Once 2020 hit, we started digging into what would become “Lavender Blues” with the intention to make it an EP and save the main chunk of the material for the LP which would become “The Long Morrow.” Once we released “Lavender Blues” Tony Reed and I began digging into the tunes.

All of the songs were jams at first, just two or three parts and lots of improvisation. Tony started chopping them up into arranged songs and added lyrics and a few changes. That’s where we got songs like “Murder Klipp” “Defector” “LeDu” and “Lavender Bleu.” I did a few guitar overdubs on them as well to flesh out the parts, but for the most part they are all live takes. I’m surprised that “Murder Klipp” came together so easiely that early in the morning. That time signature is bonkers, Bill Stinson had no trouble coming up with a beat that complemented it. I had to take notes and increase my caffeine intake for that one. “Lavender Bleu” is a second take for “Lavender Blues” hence the title similarity. They were both jams but “Lavender Bleu” became a structured song and the second half of it became “Labyrinths Fade” from the EP. I got to play bass on “Defector” and Tony switched to guitar. “LeDu” is inspired by Husker Du and Led Zeppelin. Gary Arce (Yawning Man) planted the main riff ideas for all of those songs on Side One. The dude is a riff machine.

“The Long Morrow” takes up Side Two. Clocking in at a little under 20 mins, “The Long Morrow” was the very first jam we did during the session. Took us about 30 seconds to fall into a groove and we didn’t surface for 30 mins.

I went home and re-recorded all of my guitar parts throughout 2020. I kept the original ideas in place but embellished them a little. After editing it down and changing guitar parts around it was sent to Reeves Gabrels (THE CURE/DAVID BOWIE) and Per Wiberg (OPETH, SPIRITUAL BEGGARS) to add guitars and synth. Then it was sent to Tony Reed (MOS GENERATOR) for vocals, overdubs and structure changes.

Mixed and Mastered by the very talented Tony Reed. I couldn’t ask for a better production. Sounds just as I wanted to hear it.

We are super proud of this album, and look ahead into the future as this is only the beginning. If we can create stuff like this the first time jamming together we can only imagine that it’s gonna get better and better! More soon!

https://www.facebook.com/bigscenicnowhere/
https://www.instagram.com/bigscenicnowhere/
https://bigscenicnowhere.bandcamp.com/releases
https://bigscenicnowherestore.bigcartel.com/

Big Scenic Nowhere, “Lavender Bleu”

Big Scenic Nowhere, The Long Morrow Interview with Bob Balch, May 10, 2021

Hard to talk about Big Scenic Nowhere and not use the term ‘supergroup.’ The band, which made their first release through Blues Funeral Recordings‘ ‘PostWax’ subscription series and followed that 2019 proof-of-concept Dying on the Mountain EP (discussed here) quickly by signing to Heavy Psych Sounds to issue a debut album, Vision Beyond Horizon (review here) and a subsequent EP, Lavender Blues (review here), both in 2020. Founded with the collaboration between guitarists Gary Arce (Yawning Man) and Bob Balch (Fu Manchu) at its core, the band quickly came to include Tony Reed (Mos Generator) on vocals, bass and various keys, drummer Bill Stinson (Yawning Man), and a range of guests that has continued to expand even as the lineup solidified.

As Bob Balch talked about in his interview here last month, the four-piece got together in Nov. 2019 for a few days of jamming and they’re still going through the resultant material to piece together songs. Their second album, The Long Morrow, is set to see release this Fall through Heavy Psych Sounds, and its songs are being issued piecemeal, one at a time, ahead of the full LP’s arrival. Premiering today, “Lavender Bleu” is the third cut to make its way to public ears behind the more straightforward driving “LeDü” and the weighted-riff-into-harmonies-and-dream-build of “Murder Klipp,” and like each of the preceding songs, it finds Big Scenic Nowhere with a different look. Across just over five minutes, it centers around trademark Arce noodling and the more grounded impulses of Balch setting a path for Stinson‘s drums, while Reed‘s vocals enter gentle, not quite foreshadowing the pickup to come at around 1:40 in.

Though “Lavender Bleu” — which reworks themes from the prior EP as Balch explains below — gets heavier, it never pushes too far away from the classic prog rock spirit one finds at its beginning, and instead trades back and forth before a Mellotron-inclusive ending offers duly resonant culmination. It is prog-of-old filtered through desert ambience with a heavy rock underpinning, and for many bands, this song would be more than enough of a stylistic blueprint to serve as a career arc. That is to say, there are bands who put out albums less rich than this one track and do just fine. Yet one would not call “Lavender Bleu” overbaked or overthought. Sculpted around improvisation, it nonetheless retains that air of spontaneity no matter how many layers are situated atop the basic tracks.

It’s fascinating on a process level to hear Balch talk about how the material for The Long Morrow is coming together — if you didn’t watch that interview, your loss — but “Lavender Bleu” brings more fluidity than the sum of the parts making it, and the textures it speaks to only herald further depth of exploration still to come. I can’t wait to hear this record.

Each member of Big Scenic Nowhere offers some comment below, I think in a manner that represents personae well. Arce talks about the improv, Balch the chord progression, Stinson the overall vibe of the finished product and Reed the reference point from which the lyrics emerged and the melody of the vocals. You can also stream the other two songs near the bottom of this post.

Enjoy the track and stay tuned for more on The Long Morrow:

Big Scenic Nowhere, “Lavender Bleu” official track premiere

LAVENDER BLEU is the new BIG SCENIC NOWHERE single. The track is taken from the band’s upcoming new album THE LONG MORROW, to be released this fall on Heavy Psych Sounds.

Bob Balch on “Lavender Bleu”:

“Lavender Bleu” is actually a combination of two songs from our “Lavender Blues” EP. When we recorded back in November of 2019, we would play two riffs a few times back and forth and then just jam out on one of the riffs. Think
(riff A, riff B, riff A, riff B, jam out on riff A)
(riff A, riff B, riff A, riff B, jam out on riff B)
So the jams became “Lavender Blues” and “Labyrinths Fade” from our last EP. Now with “Lavender Bleu” you get to hear how those are actually sections of the same song.
I really like how this tune turned out. Can’t really think of another band that sounds like this. Everybody killed it on this one.

Tony Reed on “Lavender Bleu”:

“Lavender Bleu” was the first song I worked on after the November 2019 recording sessions. I had Dan (Joeright) set up a microphone during the sessions so I could sing Ideas that were happening when we were recording the jams. I think this was the only song where the vocal melody came to me as we were recording. This is my favorite song of all the material we’ve done together. I’m a huge fan of melody and this has tons of it. It has a melancholy / romantic feel that I find pleasing as well. “Bleu” is spelled this way after one of my all time favorite songs. A song called “Butterfly Bleu” by Iron Butterfly. The lyrics seem to be about taking a harder path. Making sacrifices in life to follow passion and calling rather than falling into a routine where, as you get older, you’re constantly saying “I wish I….”

Gary Arce on “Lavender Bleu”:

“Lavender Bleu” started with a mellow riff I was messing with for a awhile. We had been been jamming for a few hours and I wanted to slow it down and do something more open and spacious. So I started playing the main riff and everyone just kinda fell into place quietly and patiently. The second heavier part just happened naturally during the jam. It’s one of my favorite songs we’ve done so far. Tony kills it on vocals on this song.

Bill Stinson on “Lavender Bleu”:

This song really pulls you in different directions… melancholy and weaving a story through the music.

Big Scenic Nowhere, The Long Morrow (2021)

Big Scenic Nowhere on Facebook

Big Scenic Nowhere on Instagram

Big Scenic Nowhere on Bandcamp

Heavy Psych Sounds on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

Heavy Psych Sounds on Bandcamp

There’s a point somewhere after 12 minutes in that Bob Balch reaches with both hands to his right and in a completely fluid motion, pulls a guitar in front of him, where it remains for the rest of the interview. And honestly, from that point on, he looks more comfortable too. This is a guy who spends a goodly portion of every day living just like this: in that chair, thinking, working, teaching, learning the craft of guitar. I don’t even know how many times he calls himself a nerd throughout the conversation, but it’s several. And awesome. He lives and breathes it.

Known for his work as well in Fu Manchu, whose 30th anniversary tour and release plans were scuttled in 2020, Balch has of late been overseeing the construction and release of the second Big Scenic Nowhere full-length, titled The Long Morrow. The group — legit “super,” with Balch joined by Mos Generator‘s Tony Reed and guitarist Gary Arce and drummer Bill Stinson, both of Yawning Man — have two songs released as of this post. Both of them come from a stockpile of jams the four-piece (and some friends, like Masters of Reality‘s Chris Goss) put together over the course of three days in 2019 — the same sessions from which their 2020 debut, Vision Beyond Horizon (review here), and the follow-up EP, Lavender Blues (review here), were carved.

That process, taking jams, finding tones and rhythms that coincide, and building songs from them, would seem to be how Balch spent much of a 2020 that otherwise would’ve been on the road, but as of now, work is still being done on The Long Morrow ahead of its coming out sometime hopefully this Fall. Balch talks about guest appearances to come, the project’s origins in wanting to jam with Arce and Reed and some of the material’s birth in his own Sun and Sail Club outfit — also the hilarious circumstances of how that more frenetic project was born, which I didn’t know previously — recording and release plans for Fu Manchu, who’ll look to get back on tour next year across multiple continents and follow-up the early-2020 Fu30 Pt. 1 EP with more originals and covers. If you’re wondering Fu Manchu practices on Thursdays. That’s Fu day.

Given the chance, I also wanted to talk about Balch‘s work in guitar instruction — he gives lessons and runs PlayThisRiff.com with videos and interviews with guitarists — his recent return to taking lessons rather than just giving them, and more general guitar stuff that’s piqued his interest of late. There was a lot of ground to cover, and it was a cool chat.

As always, I hope you enjoy:

Big Scenic Nowhere, The Long Morrow Interview with Bob Balch, May 10, 2021

Big Scenic Nowhere‘s The Long Morrow is being released as singles ahead of a full-LP arrival later this year on Heavy Psych Sounds. Fu Manchu‘s anniversary tour plans for 2022 are coming soon. More info at the links.

Big Scenic Nowhere, The Long Morrow (2021)

Fu Manchu, Fu30 Pt. 1 EP (2020)

PlayThisRiff website

PlayThisRiff on Facebook

Big Scenic Nowhere on Facebook

Big Scenic Nowhere on Instagram

Big Scenic Nowhere on Bandcamp

Heavy Psych Sounds on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

Heavy Psych Sounds on Bandcamp

Fu Manchu on Facebook

Fu Manchu on Instagram

Fu Manchu on Twitter

At the Dojo Records website

Tomorrow, Bandcamp Friday, May 7, marks the digital release of Glory or Death Records‘ Deep Purple tribute, Bow to Your Masters Vol. 2. With a 2LP edition set to follow in November, the release brings together an assortment of established and new names — and stuff like Mothership-offshoot Topsy Kretts, Big Scenic Nowhere and Destroyer of Light-offshoot (also Mothership-offshoot) Temple of Love, which is new names from established names — as well as Mos Generator, Worshipper, Steak, frickin’ YOB and groups from the Glory or Death family tree including Red Wizard, KOOK, Gygax, RedWitch Johnny, and collaborations like High Reeper with Ruby the Hatchet‘s Jillian Taylor, Steak with Vodun‘s Chantal Brown, Francis Roberts of Old Man Wizard sitting in with Great Electric Quest, on and on and on and oh hell you can see the tracklisting below — just go look at it and tell me you don’t want to hear this thing. If you’ve ever EITHER heard Deep Purple OR heard any of these bands who’ve contributed to the comp, then yes, this is probably something that should pique your interest.

And yeah, YOB doing “Perfect Strangers” is a major draw, and as well it should be. It closes out the 15-song/78-minute offering with a duly flowing rendition of the title-track of the 1984 album that brought Blackmore and Gillan back together, albeit temporarily. But there’s more than just YOB going on here. Asphodel Wine‘s “Child in Time,” KOOK‘s “Space Truckin’,” RedWitch Johnny‘s “Maybe I’m a Leo” — also once covered by The Atomic Bitchwax — and Big Scenic Nowhere‘s “Demon’s Eye” are all killer, and from the boogie of “Black Night” as interpreted by Topsy Kretts to the sprawl of Worshipper taking on “Pictures from Home” — perfect band for that song, and they nail it — Bow to Your Masters Vol. 2 is jammed with what should be considered essentials. I know the sphere of heavy isn’t lacking in tributes these days, between Magnetic Eye‘s ever-expanding ‘Redux’ series and Ripple and others getting on board, but hell’s bells, how on earth are you going to deny Great Electric Quest‘s “Highway Star?” The simply answer is you’re not, and you shouldn’t bother to try.

I’ll make it simple. There’s a lot to like here.

The full thing is out tomorrow, and you can get your vinyl preorders in I assume when you do the Bandcamp thing or through BigCartel or however you go. Whatever it is that gets you on board though — whichever name is your pull — or even if its just the artwork by David Paul Seymour and Carin Hazmat that grabs you, don’t be surprised if you hear one track and wind up on board for a whole bunch more. Whether it’s Gygax boldly daring “Speed King” or Saturn doing “Into the Fire” or Steak taking one of the most iconic riffs ever and admirably making it their own, there’s plenty of fodder for a deep-dive.

That kind of makes the six-minute teaser premiering below excruciating, if I’m honest. Because while it features each song on the outing, it’s just enough of it to get hooked and want to hear the whole thing. A true tease, somewhat brutal. Fortunately a bunch of songs from the thing have already been posted and you can find them on the Bandcamp player nearer the bottom of the post.

The order link is down below as well, and the aforementioned tracklisting, which is substantial. I hesitate to call it a premiere for a teaser, but that’s what it is just the same.

Enjoy:

Bow to Your Masters Vol. 2 teaser premiere

FULL DIGITAL RELEASE is 5/7/21, but we have 6 minutes of pure bliss, a snippet of each song on the release in album order! There are a mix of incredibly faithful covers, cheeky tweaks, and full re-imaginings by 15 of the best bands making heavy music today!

ORDER YOUR COPY: https://gloryordeathrecords.bandcamp.com/

Big Scenic Nowhere – Demon’s Eye
Gygax – Speed King
RedWitch Johnny – Maybe I’m A Leo (Ft. Matthew Putman)
Topsy Kretts – Black Night
Saturn – Into the Fire
High Reeper – Burn (Ft. Jillian Taylor of Ruby The Hatchet)
Great Electric Quest – Highway Star (Ft. Francis Roberts)
Steak – Smoke (Ft. Chantal Brown)
Mos Generator – Love Child
Asphodel Wine – Child in Time
Temple of Love – Gettin’ Tighter (Ft. Anton Pukshansky)
Red Wizard – Fireball
KOOK – Space Truckin’
Worshipper – Pictures of Home
Yob – Perfect Strangers

Cover art by Carin Hazmat and David Paul Seymour
Mastered by James Page at Emerald Age Studios

Various Artists, Bow to Your Masters Vol. 2: Deep Purple (2021)

Glory or Death Records on Thee Facebooks

Glory or Death Records store

Glory or Death Records on Bandcamp

I was putting the show together the other day — like everything else in the last two weeks, I had to push off doing so owing to family stuff — and when I was picking tracks, it just kind of occurred to me that I might as well do a whole show of Heavy Psych Sounds stuff. It was like, “Oh, I’ll play Bongzilla and those new Hippie Death Cult and Acid’s Trip tracks,” and then it was “Well I haven’t played any of the new Sonic Flower yet and that’s Tatsu from Church of Misery so that’s cool,” and then from there filling out an entire two hours’ worth of Heavy Psych Sounds stuff was shockingly easy.

New 16, 1782, Cosmic Reaper, Acid Mammoth, on and on, and some other awesome stuff that’s come out in the last couple years, and two hours later, it still only barely scratches the surface of what the Italian label has done. To wit, the catalog reissues from Doze and Nebula and Brant Bjork go unrepresented here. As does the last Yawning Man or the upcoming Yawning Sons, both of which I’ve played recently on the show. But yeah, there’s so much stuff to go through, I simply didn’t have room for it all, especially knowing that I wanted to end with the 19-minute track from Orgöne because that record is so weird and out there even in comparison to other stuff the label does.

I talk a bit here, mostly just to be like, “Duh that was awesome” about one song or another. Despite my verbal bumbling and constant “uh”-ness, I hope you enjoy the show.

Thanks for listening and/or reading.

The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at http://gimmemetal.com

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 03.19.21

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is April 2 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

Gimme Metal website

The Obelisk on Thee Facebooks