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

Black Rainbows to Release New Album This Spring

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 14th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Among the reasons I’m looking forward to a new full-length from Black Rainbows is because at some point as we get closer to the release date — presumably next week on March 21 with the opening of preorders and the first track reveal — we’re gonna find out what it’s called. Remember, this is the band who released Cosmic Ritual Supertrip (review here) in 2020 and have a history of righteous titles including 2018’s Pandaemonium (review here), 2015’s Hawkdope (review here), and so on. Last year, the three-piece offered Live at Desertfest Belgium (review here) as their first live album and that was a hoot in addition to serving the function of keeping release momentum on their side heading into this next release. Wins all around.

They’ll be back on the road throughout this year, as confirmations that they’ll appear at Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in Italy, Stoned From the Underground in Germany and SonicBlast in Portugal have already come through for Spring and Summer, and they’re also set for Høstsabbat this October in Oslo. One expects more to come (and probably more already announced in terms of fests; who can keep up?) in the next few months. Let’s see, Bongzilla was announced yesterday from Heavy Psych Sounds and that’s a June 2 release. Maybe June 9 for Black Rainbows? We’ll find out next week, I guess. All they’re saying at this point is “Spring,” which seems far away as I watch the snow fall outside my window, even though I know it isn’t actually.

Here’s looking forward:

black rainbows hps

Heavy Psych Sounds Records&Booking is really proud to present a new band signing *** BLACK RAINBOWS ***

NEW ALBUM PRESALE + FIRST TRACK PREMIERE MARCH 21st

HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS RECORDS is stoked to announce that the stoner fuzz riffers BLACK RAINBOWS are coming back with a brand new studio album since 2020 !!!

SAYS THE BAND:

“We’re so excited to announce we are finally back with a new album after 3 years, again on Heavy Psych Sounds Records… two entities which cooperated in the last decade to bring the band’s name and sound all over the world !!”

BIOGRAPHY

Black Rainbows are now established among the best Heavy Psych Stoner Space bands hailing from Europe, spreading the word of Fuzz since 2007!

Their sound has morphed between classic ‘90s-style stoner fuzz and deep-cosmos psychedelia, drawing on the best of hard-driving space rock to conjure a vibe that is totally tripped-out.

The band is a solid stone on the Heavy Psych-Stoner-Doom scene these days, constantly touring and playing festivals in Europe and US.

The trio is ready to release their 9th album in spring 2023 !!

http://www.theblackrainbows.com/
https://www.facebook.com/BLACKRAINBOWSROCK/
http://blackrainbows.bandcamp.com/

heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/
https://www.instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/

Black Rainbows, Cosmic Ritual Supertrip (2020)

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Høstsabbat 2023 Adds Black Rainbows to Lineup

Posted in Whathaveyou on February 3rd, 2023 by JJ Koczan

It is my sincere hope and intention to be back in Oslo this coming October for the 2023 edition of Høstsabbat. Following up on Green Lung, Bongripper (who’ll headline one of the two nights), Witch Club Satan, Cult Member and Alastor being previously announced over the last two weeks, the Norwegian festival today unveils Black Rainbows as next to join its already weighty bill. By the time Fall rolls around, hopefully the Roman three-piece’s next album will be out on Heavy Psych Sounds, the label founded by guitarist/vocalist Gabriele Fiori, and this announcement follows confirmations for them at festivals earlier in the year like Heavy Psych Sounds‘ own two fests in Italy in April, Stoned From the Underground in Germany this July, SonicBlast in Portugal this August, among others I’m sure.

I guess Høstsabbat are doing an announcement per week, if the pattern of the last three is anything to go by. Going to do my best to keep up (I’m already behind, so take that as you will), so here’s what they have to say today with the promise of more to come:

Høstsabbat 2023 Black Rainbows

HØSTSABBAT 2023 – BLACK RAINBOWS (IT)

Today’s announcement are no rookies to our scene. Black Rainbows has been around for over a decade, slinging quintessential, blues-laden, heavy psych riffs with the greatest of ease.

A true powerhouse trio out of Italy, making the riffs roll like there’s no tomorrow. Good music comes from heartfelt passion and a will to deliver and share this exact passion. Black Rainbows has pole position when comes to doing just that. These three Romans are a good reminder to most of us why we got into these dirt-dripping grooves in the first place. Pure joy, pure riffs, pure everything.

So, Sabbathians; When in Rome..

Please welcome the riff mastery of Black Rainbows to Høstsabbat 2023!

TICKETS
https://bit.ly/HS-festivalticket23

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST
https://spoti.fi/3tkuMZl

NEWSLETTER
https://bit.ly/HostsabbatNews

https://www.facebook.com/hostsabbat/
https://www.instagram.com/hostsabbat/
http://hostsabbat.no/

Høstsabbat Spotify Playlist

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Stoned From the Underground 2023 Makes First Lineup Announcement

Posted in Whathaveyou on January 19th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

You’ve got the forerunners of Greek heavy rock in 1000mods as a headliner and Black Rainbows who should have a new record in the can by then, Dutch out-there-searchers Temple Fang and burly Osnabrückian sludge metallers Iron Walrus, Gnome who are frickin’ everywhere right now, Acid Mammoth who crush and I hope have a new LP out this year, Mother Engine, dreamy Darmstadt instrumentalists Lucid Void, plus the eternally weird Beehoover and DŸSE, and did I miss anybody? I don’t think so. In any case, this is pretty strong first announcement from the venerable and long-running Stoned From the Underground Festival in Germany. Set to take place July 13-15, it’s always a spot on the summer’s heavy circuit and an event I’ve admired from afar for a long time even if I haven’t always necessarily covered it. I don’t have an excuse, I’m only one person and I think more than 20 years on from when they started out, the fest needs me to write words about it not in the slightest. They are an institution.

In any case, it’s already a solid assemblage and obviously there’s more to come. Earlybird tickets seem to be on sale now, so if you know you’re going to be in the neighborhood or if you’re putting yourself there for the festival, traveling, etc., you might as well get the bargain. For the rest of us, a bit of daydream fodder:

Stoned from the Underground first announce

Dear Stoned community,

So far we’ve been holding back on band announcements, but now we’re really getting started. Enjoy with us:

1000mods
BLACK RAINBOWS
Temple Fang
Acid Mammoth
Mother Engine
DŸSE
Gnome
Beehoover
IRON WALRUS
Swan Valley Heights
Lucid Void
…and more

Daniela Uhlig is already working at full steam on our new artwork for 2023, which will follow in the next few days – stay tuned!

Stoned from the Underground 2023 (Onlineticket): https://events.design-erfurt.de/produkt/sftu-2023/

https://www.facebook.com/stonedfromtheundergroundfestival
https://www.instagram.com/stonedfromtheunderground
http://www.sftu.de/

1000mods, Live on Rockpalast 2022

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SonicBlast Fest 2023 Makes First Lineup Announcement

Posted in Whathaveyou on December 16th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Portugal’s SonicBlast Fest will mark its 11th go in 2023 with a massive, still-more-to-be-announced lineup that spans styles and geographies, from Norway to Greece to Japan and New Orleans to San Diego, Poland and Los Angeles and New York and sludge to psych-jazz and on from there into however many ethers of prog and rock. It’s easy to admire even from across an ocean what SonicBlast has built over its years, and the photos that emerge from each edition — just a bunch of awesome bands playing in paradise, no big deal — are enviable to say the least, and while I don’t want to be engaging too deeply in promo speak or trying to tap anyone’s FOMO, if you’re thinking of making the trip, however far it may or may not be, it’ll probably sell out.

Check out OFF! hitting the heavy fests, huh? Not quite what I’d expect there, but cool to see Acid King getting out, and good to know Naxatras will be back on the road as well next summer along with a host of others. Over the last couple weeks, a lot of the Spring and Summer 2023 festival season in Europe has taken shape, and with the promise of so much more to come, it looks like it’s gonna be a good one. Call it revelry well earned, and let’s all appreciate it whether or not we can actually be there.

To wit:

sonicblast fest 2023 cassette poster

We’re so psyched to announce the first bands to join us at SonicBlast Fest’s 11th edition: OFF!, Acid King, A Place To Bury Strangers, Earthless, KADAVAR, Elder, EYEHATEGOD, Death Valley Girls, Church of Misery, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, Weedpecker, Mondo Generator, Naxatras, Kanaan, BLACK RAINBOWS, Acid Mammoth, Monarch, Spirit Mother and El Altar Del Holocausto!

*** many more to be announced soon ***

Full festival tickets are already on sale at BOL (https://garboyl.bol.pt/Comprar/Bilhetes/114471-sonicblast_fest_2023-garboyl_lives/Sessoes) and at masqueticket.com

Artwork by Branca Studio

https://www.facebook.com/sonicblastmoledo/
https://www.instagram.com/sonicblast_fest
https://sonicblastfestival.com/

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Heavy Psych Sounds Fest 2023 Announces Lineups for Italy

Posted in Whathaveyou on December 14th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Do not expect this to be the last Heavy Psych Sounds Fest announcement. The Italian label/booking empire gas over the last several years turned its various festivals into celebrations that each even beyond its own significant associated roster, and in this first reveal for Bologna and Torino fests, we see that happening exactly. Look for tours to emerge around this and other HPS fests to come in Europe (maybe US too), as end-of-April/beginning-of-May is kind of the culmination of the Spring festival season over there.

As someone born, raised and living in the US, I can only marvel at such a thing. I came up in the days of Lollapalooza roaming around bringing bands from town to town in a big traveling festival, but imagine multiple separate tours converging and separating across state lines in one spot, then roving around for club shows until the next one. What an amazing course of live performance and art and craft that is. I know we’re talking about rock shows and that’s generally considered lowbrow fare, but god damn, isn’t that how culture happens? These two dates encapsulate some of that same idea, and Heavy Psych Sounds did similar in California earlier in 2022, so maybe someday they’ll get there. I don’t know, but they make it easy to dig in the meantime.

Lineups follow:

Heavy Psych Sounds Fest Italy 2023

HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST ITALY 2023

BOLOGNA & TORINO

Heavy Psych Sounds Records & Booking is proud to announce *** HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST ITALY 2023 – BOLOGNA & TORINO ***

first bands announcement

Heavy Psych Sounds Records & Booking will smash Bologna and Torino with their highly acclaimed mini festival-series, the HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST!

In cooperation with Freakout Club, Mkno, Blah Blah and Last One To Die, today Heavy Psych Sounds has revealed the first bands for the upcoming HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST ITALY !!!

The HPS Fest Italy will be taking place 29th and 30th of April 2023 at the TPO Club in Bologna and Last One To Die in Caramagna Piemonte (Torino) !!!

BOLOGNA TICKETS PRESALE:
https://www.musicglue.com/freakoutclub/events/2023-04-29-heavy-psych-sounds-fest-at-tpo-freakout-club

TORINO TICKETS PRESALE:
https://www.musicglue.com/last-one-to-die-1/events/2023-04-29-heavy-psych-sounds-fest-italy-impianti-sportivi-caramagna-piemonte

STAY TUNED FOR MORE INFO COMING SOON…

Stoned Jesus
Conan
BelzebonG
BLACK RAINBOWS
MESSA
TONS
Giöbia
OREYEON
Isaak

heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/

Stoned Jesus, “Porcelain” official video

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Friday Full-Length: Black Rainbows, Holy Moon

Posted in Bootleg Theater on November 18th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

I’ve always felt a little bad about not reviewing Black RainbowsHoly Moon EP. It’s one of the things I most associate them with in my mind, actually. That “Oh yeah I gotta review that” feeling never goes away for me sometimes. And the Rome-based three-piece are currently in the studio cracking out a follow-up to 2020’s Cosmic Ritual Supertrip (review here), so they’ve been in my head and it’s time to exorcise this particular riffy demon.

First of all, nine years after its first release in 2013, I’m still not sure why Holy Moon isn’t a full-length album. It’s 38 minutes long. It’s got six songs, and even if the title-track is a sample-laced instrumental and the closer is a 12-minute take on MC5‘s “Black to Comm,” so what? Holy Moon followed behind 2012’s Supermothafuzzalicious!! (review here) and preceded 2015’s still-the-best-album-title-ever Hawkdope (review here). It’s actually a pretty crucial moment for the band and in the riotous opener “The Hunter,” you can hear shades of the band they were becoming — ditto that the Core-via-TheAtomicBitchwaxy riff (so yes it sounds like “Kiss the Sun”) at root in “Monster of the Highway.”

Meanwhile, “Chakra Temple” digs into more meditative heavy psych in a way that feels genuinely experimental — it’s got throat-singing! — coming from Black Rainbows in the sense that I can’t necessarily think of when they’d done it prior, running nearly nine minutes in the process, “Holy Moon” itself earns its place with its riff and adds a bit of a respectable ‘fuck it’ vibe to the proceedings that has the effect, inadvertently or otherwise, of broadening the listener’s expectation, so that yeah, they can go wherever they want, including to “Chakra Temple” and the penultimate “If I Was a Bird,” which finds the band’s guitarist/vocalist and Heavy Psych Sounds honcho Gabriele Fiori digging into acoustic psychedelia in a way that he’d go on to do a few years later in his side-project The Pilgrim, which put out two records between 2019-2020. Granted, the band — at this point Fiori, bassist Dario Iocca and drummer Alberto Croce — had been toying with acoustics instrumentally since their 2007 debut, Twilight in the Desert, but that still makes “If I Was a Bird” part of the process.

And when they get around to it, they absolutely rip into “Black to Comm.” Like hungry animals feeding on that riff. Then solos start punching in and they absolutely take off on a righteous space rock jam, patterned after MC5 but with their own spin and fuzz and growing mellow and hypnotic before The Riff comes back in at 9:43. That’s right. From about 1:59 to 9:43? Black Rainbows pretty much hang up a sign that says ‘No Squares Allowed’ and take “Black to Comm” out for a walk. Were they the first to do so? No, obviously not. The song’s a cover. But especially for the three-piece at the time, it’s a bold take, and it declares a kind of sonic freedom that still resonates in their work today, now 17 years past their founding in 2005.

No doubt these things are easier to see in hindsight, but Holy Moon accomplished a few things for Black Rainbows in terms of moving them from Supamothafuzzalicious!! to Hawkdope, and that’s a pretty sizable jump. It’s the BLACK RAINBOWS HOLY MOONnot-at-all-missing link between them. Black Rainbows‘ first three records, which along with a 2012 split with Farflung were first issued through Longfellow Deeds — that’s 2007’s Twilight in the Desert, 2010’s Carmina Diabolo and Supermothafuzzalicious!! in 2012; all of which have been reissued by Heavy Psych Sounds along the way, as has Holy Moon — set out as more straight-ahead desert-style stoner rock. Twilight in the Desert was Cali worship outright, done particularly well but not representative necessarily of the individual sonic personality the band would begin to manifest already in Carmina Diabolo, which, by the way, had the acoustic interlude “Carmen Diabolo” and the seven-minute heavy psych finisher “Space Kingdom.” So they were on their way. As a whole, Supermothafuzzalicious!! was tighter and more streamlined in terms of structure, and by the time they got to Hawkdope in 2015, their freakery had fully manifested in cuts like “Killer Killer Fuzz” and the still-glorious “The Cosmic Picker.”

They had found themselves. One tends to think of Fiori as the driving force in Black Rainbows — he’s the sole remaining founder, often credited as songwriter along with guitar, vocals, lyrics, various keys, etc., and certainly seems to be the root of their aesthetic — but Holy Moon feels like a whole-band progression from where they were to where they were going. And as a listening experience, what might at the time have seemed like throwaway material or half-a-song in the case of the title-track, issued to keep momentum going between proper studio albums — an ethic the band followed earlier this year when they put out Live at Desertfest Belgium (review here) ahead of the album they’re making now for release in 2023 — actually captures the transitional moment that was in progress for them. For “Holy Moon” alone, never mind the range between “Chakra Temple” into “If I Was a Bird” into “Black to Comm” back-to-back-to-back, the let’s-get-weird spirit of the Holy Moon EP might make it their most purely stoner rock offering. That’s not something they’ve always wanted to be, and it’s not necessarily what they’ve become, though there’s material on Cosmic Ritual Supertrip that argues otherwise, including the sample-laced closer “Fire Breather,” but it’s territory to which they laid claim on Holy Moon in a way they hadn’t before.

Also, there’s something inspiring about a band just putting a thing out there and letting it be what it is. Maybe Black Rainbows didn’t want to push Holy Moon as a full-length. Okay. Their LPs are reliably north of 40 minutes and this is less than that, with the no-lyrics title-track and the extended cover, so yeah, it might not feel complete. But the fact that they let it be what it is, recognized its worth on its own level, and issued it with what might’ve been perceived as rough edges demonstrates a self-awareness that many bands never develop, never mind in the span of five or six years past their debut.

It’s a ripper. I’m not going to say I’m glad I never reviewed it then so that I could appreciate it now — I did post about it; see here, here, here and here ; it’s not like this is the first time it’s ever been covered in this space — since it’s nagged at me for so long, but I am happy to have the occasion both to dig into it (sort of) properly in a spirit of looking forward to their next release. If you haven’t checked it out, maybe you’ll also dig where they’re coming from.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.

So, last Thursday, not yesterday, I had arthroscopic surgery on my torn meniscus. They took out about 20 percent of it, apparently, which seems like plenty. It was a evidently a pretty bad tear, had flipped back on itself, blah blah. This happened, again, while getting up from sitting on the floor of the Kulturkirken Jakob in Oslo at Høstsabbat, because life is ridiculous. Could’ve happened anywhere, right? Had to be while I’m standing up to take pictures of a band. Fine. If that’s going to be my experience of middle age, at least the music is still good if I’m not.

Last weekend I was in some serious fucking pain. Starting about Friday night through let’s say Tuesday morning, could barely put weight on it. I thought I did something to screw it up, because Thursday after the operation I was veritably hopping around, but when I went back on Monday to have it checked the surgeon was like, “Nah dude toughen up everything’s cool.” Already it was getting steadily better, Sunday to Monday (last Saturday and Sunday were pretty bad, and I note that so that if I see this years later I can remember it), but this past Monday was also my follow-up with the neurologist I met with (virtually) a month ago.

I was on my own this time, which is never a good thing, since my wife was at work. I was supposed to have blood drawn before the appointment. Didn’t. Just got lost between everything with the knee. And there was a questionnaire that I was supposed to fill out that, because it came to my email with a bunch of other attachments instead of coming through the patient portal site (American healthcare is a fucking nightmare with digital integration; it’s like all these infinite-dollar companies decided to let their nephews make their websites), I most certainly didn’t do either. So it was a short, frustrating, humiliating appointment as the doctor reminded me repeatedly of the ADHD diagnosis she brought out last time and that the reason I felt overwhelmed all the time is my abby-normal brain goes from zero to fight-or-flight with almost nothing in between. I have a follow-up Dec. 14. Have had the blood drawn (seven fucking vials of it) and will do that questionnaire as well (it’s an uneditable pdf, so need to figure out quite how to do it), but yeah, it was an embarrassing, shitty-feeling day on the whole, and to be frank, it defined a good portion of the week. As awful.

After the surgery, they gave me Tramadol, which is an opiate that I kind of read as half-assed vicodin? I don’t know, and I honestly haven’t been curious enough to look it up. The only real relief I’ve gotten is from THC. I’ve also noticed that being stoned is kind of the only time I can shut my brain the fuck up and perhaps quell some of that crushing feeling that dominates much of my day-to-day. Disposable vapes on sale up the road have served well but are expensive, and money is as tight as sympathy is low. Clearly if I feel like I need a chemical comedown to get through my afternoon, that’s gonna be on me. My neurologist prescribed 75mg of Bupoprion, better known as Wellbutrin, which is an antidepressant. Back on meds I go. I guess that particular experiment stopping the Citalopram, better known as Celexa, a few months back that I had been on for years was not a success. Maybe I should seek ADHD meds as well, but given The Patient Mrs.’ experience in this regard, I’m not inspired. Ritalin, which I understand is both highly addictive — not a minor concern, as I am often habit-forming — and effective, is not forthcoming. Also I worry that if I don’t feel compelled to pick up everything on the floor and do dishes and laundry all the time, the house will go to shit since that kind of thing is very much my responsibility.

Perhaps the summary here is that shit is complicated.

Also busy. On Monday, the three of us in our first bit of whole-family air travel since the start of the pandemic will fly to the Mexican West Coast for a wedding of good friends on Tuesday. We fly out Monday AM, will return Thursday because flights actually on Thanksgiving are cheaper. That gives us Friday to get ready because Saturday we’re hosting my family from up the road and likely The Patient Mrs.’ family from Connecticut as well for turkey, etc., dinner, I think partially out of guilt for not being around on the day itself.

In any case, the rush continues as we move into December. The first weekend is the Alabama Thunderpussy reunion in Richmond, Virginia, that The Obelisk is presenting and that I’m driving to. The week after that is Truckfighters Fuzz Festival in Stockholm and I’m traveling with the Kings Destroy guys. I honestly don’t even know when I’m flying out or back. None of this stuff is anything to complain about — with the exception perhaps of the daunting prospect of eight waking hours Mexico and back on a plane with The Pecan, who is going to need to have explained to him multiple times why he can’t go in the cockpit and actually fly the thing; we rented a Switch at our local library-of-things, but still — between family time, The Patient Mrs. wrapping up her semester, flying to Mexico and back, driving to Richmond (five and a half hours; doable but takes some time, certainly) and back, flying to Sweden and back, covering these shows — I think I might want to go see Freedom Hawk in Brooklyn on Dec. 19 as well — the impending neurology follow-up and then pretty much right into the holidays and The Pecan’s break from school, I feel somewhat justified in being overwhelmed. While we’re here with the established backdrop of malfunctioning equipment that is my mind, I’ll add that I’ve also put on weight and am actively, by-the-minute engaged in hating myself for it even as I continue to both restrict and binge food. What a waste of my time that feels like. But it’s always there.

I go to the orthopedist again later this morning (it’s 6:30AM, was up at four to write today, as usual) to have the stitches taken out of my knee. If he tells me I need physical therapy — my mobility is limited and given the pain I only really started doing the prescribed stretches again yesterday, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility — I might just start to cry. It doesn’t seem take much these days in that regard.

So next week, with the travel, I have nothing scheduled for review. That’s a first in a few years at least. Monday I’ll either have a writeup for Candlemass or 16 — I’m going to listen to both today and decide what I’m feeling more to write up over the weekend — and I’m sure I’ll past one or two things along the way during the week between Tues., Wed., and Thanksgiving, before closing out the week on Friday (we’re home late Thursday night, so I don’t expect to have much ready to go ahead of time), and I need to do the next Gimme Metal show before we leave on Monday so it can air on Friday as well, oof, but even having nothing planned bothers me. It’s a big emotional drag that’s part of my whole compulsion to write, compulsion to create content here thing that has me horrified that if I stop for a few days, I won’t be able to start again. This is actually something I worry about.

So now that I’ve unloaded all of this on you — sorry about that, by the way; surely you have your own shit going on and if you’re still reading, thanks for not leaving to do the probably better things you have to do as part of your day — I’m going to literally and figuratively limp into the ending of this week in utter terror of what lays ahead.

As always, I hope you have a great and safe weekend and I thank you for reading. Don’t forget to hydrate, watch your head, and so on.

New merch coming soon, I hear.

FRM.

The Obelisk Collective on Facebook

The Obelisk Radio

The Obelisk merch

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Heavy Psych Sounds Announces Fest Lineups for Berlin and Dresden

Posted in Whathaveyou on August 9th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

In a manner not dissimilar from how its California fests took largely the same expansive lineup from San Francisco to Los Angeles and Los Angeles to San Francisco, Heavy Psych Sounds is bringing a circus to Berlin and Dresden on Oct. 21 and 22. In association with Greyzone and ElbSludgeBooking, the label has assembled a lineup that includes HPS bands and others like 1000mods and Gozu, and that sense of community outreach isn’t to be understated. The synergy between booking and releasing is a big part of what has allowed Heavy Psych Sounds to become the underground nexus it is, able to do more for bands than many other outlets. The festivals in cities across Europe and now in the US as well are another extension of that.

That’s not really an insight as to the lineup here or the label’s ethic or taste — also choice — but the fact is this is Heavy Psych Sounds doing what it does. More power to them, and so on.

From the PR wire:

Heavy psych Sounds Berlin dresden 2022

HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST BERLIN & DRESDEN full lineup announcement

Heavy Psych Sounds Records & Booking will smash Berlin and Dresden with their highly acclaimed mini festival-series, the HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST!

In cooperation with Greyzone Concerts and ElbSludgeBooking, Heavy Psych Sounds has revealed the full lineup for the upcoming HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST BERLIN & DRESDEN !!!

The HPS Fest Berlin & Dresden will be taking place 21st and 22nd of October, 2022 at the Festsaal Kreuzberg and Urban Spree in Berlin and Chemiefabrik in Dresden !!!

HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST – BERLIN & DRESDEN
@ Festsaal Kreuzberg / Urban Spree, Berlin
@ Chemiefabrik, Dresden
October 21st and 22nd 2022

feat.
1000 MODS
NICK OLIVERI
BELZEBONG
BLACK RAINBOWS
ACID MAMMOTH
THE LORDS OF ALTAMONT
HIGH REEPER
SLEEPWULF
TONS
HIPPIE DEATH CULT
GOZU
OREYEON
WEDGE
MOTHER ENGINE

BERLIN TICKETS PRESALE:
https://www.greyzone-tickets.de/produkte/602

BERLIN FB OFFICIAL EVENT:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1358860387859773/

DRESDEN TICKETS LINK:
https://www.konzertkasse-dresden.de/event/heavy-psych-sounds-fest-dresden-dresden-chemiefabrik-2022-tickets-54749.html

DRESDEN FB OFFICIAL EVENT:
https://www.facebook.com/events/554544359334945

heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/
https://www.instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/

1000mods, Youth of Dissent (2020)

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Bear Stone Festival Announces Inaugural Lineup

Posted in Whathaveyou on May 5th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

bear stone festival banner

With what they’re calling the ‘Year Zero’ edition, the new Croatian two-dayer Bear Stone Festival unveils a lineup with immediately international ambitions, with Mars Red SkyBlack RainbowsMother Vulture and Acid Mammoth up on top of the poster. It sounds like a pretty genuine outdoor experience, with free-but-limited-to-1,000 entry and free camping on-site, and they say there’s more to come in the lineup, which I’m inclined to believe since although the 12 acts announced would be just fine to fill a two-day bill with six per, there’s also a jam-stage to work out, DJs and other artists reportedly taking part, so yeah, one way or the other, it seems like there will be space for announcements after this.

But it looks like a cool happening if you’re in the area or up for a bit of travel. I can think of worse ways to spend a weekend than by a riverside in Croatia listening to rock and roll and experiencing art of various stripes. I can feel the vibe from here, and it’s not even long enough for everybody to get super-smelly, which is also a win.

Best of luck to Bear Stone Festival on Year Zero, and many happy returns:

bear stone festival poster

Welcome to Bear Stone Festival – Year Zero, the first of its kind

Welcome to Bear Stone Festival, the first of its kind!

This year’s edition of the festival titled #YearZeroEdition will start off Bear Stone Festival as a special preview. Year Zero Edition will be a free admission festival with free camping and an attendance limited to 1.000 visitors. Tickets can be purchased online in digital form via this link –> https://www.entrio.hr/event/bear-stone-festival-year-zero-11209

An audio-visual experience, international gathering of travelers and tribes in the Croatian outback. Two days of psychedelic, stoner, desert, fuzz, heavy rock, electronic and experimental music accompanied by live bands, DJ sets and Jam stage. Stunning landscapes, fantastic psychedelic art installations and projections will shape a unique festival experience and make you reexamine reality.

BLACK RAINBOWS // MARS RED SKY // MOTHER VULTURE // ACID MAMMOTH // SHE LOVES PABLO // STONEBRIDE // DALIBOROVO GRANJE // JASTREB // ACHACHAK // WIZARD OF STONE MOUNTAIN // ARISES // POMELO CHESS SOCIETY //

Slunj, Donje Primišlje, Croatia // 1 & 2 July, 2022 //

MAIN STAGE // JAM STAGE // DJs // CAMPING // FOOD VENDORS // BARS // RAFTING // SWIMMIMG // NATURE and more!

The festival is held in Donje Primišlje (Croatia) on a breathtaking location, on the banks of the river Mrežnica, which with its distinctive emerald color is known as one of the most pristine rivers in Croatia. The location of Bear Stone Festival is also the centre stage for the world famous trance electronic music festival Mo:Dem (Momento Demento).

The Bear Stone Festival is located in the canyon of Mrežnica and is completely surrounded by forest. Both the forest and the river are what make the festival site a part of nature in its most basic and pristine form. The festival site is a 15-minute drive from the towns of Slunj and Ogulin on each side, a 45-minute drive from the world-famous Plitvice Lakes National Park, an hour’s drive from the capital Zagreb and an hour and a half from the Adriatic Sea.

More information at –> www.bearstonefestival.com

https://www.facebook.com/events/2142426915922580
https://www.instagram.com/bearstonefestival
https://www.facebook.com/bearstonefestival
http://www.bearstonefestival.com

Black Rainbows, “Supernova & Asteroid/Fire in the Sky” live at Desertfest Belgium 2021

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