Fuckin’ “L.A. Connection.” This song rules, man. This was one of three videos Blabbermouth posted that were put up by former Rainbow/Ozzy bassist Bob Daisley, and damned if I could find anything better to close out the week. It doesn’t get much better than ’70s Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio kicking out a ridiculous hard rock song that has nothing to do with anything.

There’s a new podcast coming this weekend. Do you know what the theme will be? I do. I guess you’ll just have to stay on this page and click “Refresh” until it’s actually posted so you can find out.

Next week we wrap up August, and I promise I’ll finally have that Yawning Man feature up. I’m also slated to do two more interviews, and I’ve got conversations with Man’s Gin and Masters of Reality already in the can, so we should be well stocked. Next week also starts the semester, which is terrifying but a reality I was going to have to face sooner or later. Can I work, go to school and manage the most kickass stoner blog in the known multiverse? Probably not, but it’ll be fun anyway.

You know we’re celebrating when “Sabbra Cadabra” comes out, and when it’s the extended version Sabbath played on the now-famous Asbury Park 1975 bootleg, we must be celebrating something big. And so we are. Yesterday my sister gave birth to her second son, making me a third-time uncle. Kid was nine pounds and looks like an old man. Makes noise like a door creaking.

Hopefully that goes toward explaining the relative lack of posts today and yesterday. I’m gonna head back over to the hospital and gaze adoringly for a while. If you’re in Philly tonight, I’ll be at the Clamfight show at the Millcreek Tavern, which, if you look below, just also happens to be where the Small Stone showcase is next month. Marvelous coincidence, that.

Next week is gonna be a little haphazard because I start work on Monday (Eek! A job!), but I’ll do my best to keep things regular around here. Stay tuned for a Yawning Man interview and reviews of Riotgod, The Kings of Frog Island and more. Meantime, be safe and enjoy the weekend.

Modern psychedelia would not be what it is without Hawkwind. In fact, it’s debatable whether it would be at all. The UK outfit, now in its 41st year of interstellar sonic exploration, so much embody the genre of space rock that their name is practically interchangeable with it. You do not have space rock without Hawkwind. It is that simple. Everyone who’s come since has been influenced by them, and they all know it.

Blood of the Earth (on Plastic Head; review here) is the first Hawkwind studio release in half a decade. Kind of a big deal. The band, centered around lone original member Dave Brock on vocals, guitar and keyboards, consists of drummer Richard Chadwick, bassist/vocalist Mr. Dibs, guitarist/bassist Nial Hone and keyboardist Tim Blake replacing Jason Stuart, who died of a sudden brain hemorrhage in 2008. On Blood of the Earth, their will to push deeper into rock and roll’s uncharted galaxies remains strong, and it was a thrill and an honor to be able to discuss the band, the album and how Hawkwind has changed over the years with Dave Brock.

After the jump, please find the ensuing Brock Q&A. Special thanks to Jon Freeman for making this happen, and, you know, to Hawkwind for kicking ass lo these many years.

Amidst barking dogs, shoddy international lines and a newly rebuilt home studio, we find Brock in jovial spirits, eager to share a laugh…

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Well, it’s not the first time it’s happened, and I’m sure it won’t be the last, but Scott “Wino” Weinrich has just made my day. The legendary doom guitarist/vocalist of The Obsessed, Saint Vitus, Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand, his Wino solo outfit and most recently the epic supergroup Shrinebuilder (sometimes it’s just fun to list the bands) has announced that he’ll be releasing his first-ever acoustic album in the Fall via Germany‘s Exile on Mainstream, who are now streaming the track “Hold on Love” at their MySpace.

The album is called Adrift and the first pressing comes in a limited-edition wood box. Life doesn’t get much cooler than that. Here’s the news from the label, as submitted to me by none other than doom brother Mike Hanson, aka Zodiac Lung:

Following fan’s requests and advice from friends Wino has now recorded his first ever acoustic record called Adrift to be released on Exile on Mainstream in September 2010. About time you say? Fair enough. More news will follow soon!

Wino will be presenting the material that for sure is his most personal and intense to date live in a very intimate atmosphere in Fall 2010.

If I were to sit you down and tell you Hawkwind’s latest studio album, Blood of the Earth (Plastic Head) is an uncharted journey into synthed out psych-osis, would you be the least bit surprised? Not if you were aware that the Dave Brock-led band has been bringing listeners on similar journeys for over 40 years now, having started in 1969 and never looked back as they sped through the cosmos, endlessly trading in members, endlessly documenting their course through studio albums, live records and archival releases, resulting in a discography well past 75 entries and showing no signs of slowing and an influence nearly as far reaching as the Milky Way itself. To be blunt: if Zeus, God of Gods, were a band, he’d probably be Hawkwind.

Joining Brock who vocals, guitar and more on Hawkwind’s first studio album in half a decade is longtime drummer Richard Chadwick, bassist/vocalist Mr. Dibs, keyboardist/vocalist Tim Blake and guitarist/keyboardist Niall Hone. Dibs, Blake and Hone represent a newer contingent in Hawkwind, the latter two brought aboard in 2008 to help fill the void of Jason Stuart, who died that year following a brain hemorrhage but appears recorded on Blood of the Earth nonetheless. The band sound dynamic and lively across the 10 tracks of the album, songs loaded with synth flourishes and psychedelia but still brought occasionally to earth with solid riffs and vocal structures, and though it’s clear Brock is leading the expedition, each member contributes ably to the material. As for what it sounds like, well, it’s Hawkwind, isn’t it?

And by that I mean Hawkwind is space rock, by definition. Very nearly every act in the genre who has come since them has worshipped – some more plagiaristically than others – at their altar. From the sweet classical keyboard and lead guitar melodies of “Green Machine” to the ambient noise of the title track and tripnotic freak out of “Wraith” or the vaguely Eastern vibe of highlight cut “Prometheus,” on which the vocals seem to be standing in triumph over both the music and our minds, Blood of the Earth is essential, elemental Hawkwind. It’s true their days of hard-line innovation are most likely behind them, but listening to the interplay between what’s commonly regarded as electronica and synth washes on “Inner Visions,” it’s clear the spirit to create and influence is still as prevalent in Hawkwind as it ever was.

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I’ve been on a real Black Sabbath kick lately, which is about as close as I come to religion. You know how it is, you come and go with those records. You know them front and back, and it’s almost like you don’t have to put them on to hear them in your head. Well, lately I’ve been putting them on anyway, so when I stepped into one of Jersey‘s premiere indie stores (I’m not going to name which), the first place I went was the Sabbath section to see if there were any good looking bootlegs.

There were. I guess since Ronnie James Dio died last month the market has called for an upswing in material with him on it, because I was able to grab two discs from the 1980 Heaven and Hell tour. Yeah, it’s a little crass, but I had the demand before they had supply, so I don’t really feel all that bad feeding the machine on this one. Both Angel and Demon (live in Tokyo, Nov. 18, 1980) and We Blind the Sky (live in Sydney, Nov. 27, 1980) are CDR/inkjet jobs, but the covers are quality prints, the recordings are soundboards and they were only $15 a pop. I’ll pay that. $20′s pushing it, but I’ll go $15.

The setlists on Angel and Demon and We Blind the Sky (a bootleg formerly known as Burning the Cross because of a stage gimmick you can hear on the disc) are identical save for replacing “Lady Evil” on the former with “Die Young” on the latter, which also ends with “Paranoid” instead of “Iron Man,” and the mix sounds better on Angel and Demon, but you really can’t beat having Dio forget the words to the end of “Children of the Sea” as he does on We Blind the Sky. Other highlights include the sundry vocal effects that crop up and Geezer Butler‘s bass tone. Yes, on everything.

I know I’ve had some issues in the past with buying Black Sabbath bootlegs, so it seemed only fair to report an experience as positive as this one has proven to be. I also got Deep Purple, Made in Japan, and the 2CD version of the new Karma to Burn, the former used and the latter John Garcia-fied. All in all, chalk up a win, and for bonus points I’ll note they were playing Goatsnake when I walked into the store. Good things are bound to happen when you stumble on that.

If you’re looking for info on Sabbath bootlegs, there’s only one place to go: black-sabbath.de. They’re helpful in the way only true obsessives can be and they make the rest of us fanboys look like lightweights.

You’ll notice I specified “studio album” in the above headline, because I’m pretty sure space rock progenitors Hawkwind — whose career spans 40 years and whose discography could, when placed end to end, circle the Earth twice — will have at least three live records out by then.

Yes, my friends, gather ’round and hear tales from the PR wire of Blood of the Earth (as opposed to Blood of the Sun, who are a different topic entirely), the first non-live Hawkwind album in five years. Or gather round and read, anyway. And it’s pretty much only one tale. Oh forget it, here’s the press release:

Plastic Head North America confirms August 10 as the North American release date for Blood of the Earth, the new studio album from Hawkwind. The album contains 11 songs and features special appearances from violinist Jon Sevink (The Levellers), BBC personality Matthew Wright, and a posthumous performance from the band’s late keyboardist Jason Stuart. It is the band’s first new album in five years.

Among Blood of the Earth‘s new selections, the album includes re-recordings of songs “You’d Better Believe It” (originally appearing on 1974′s Hall of the Mountain Grill), and “Sweet Obsession” (originally released on Dave Brock‘s 1984 solo album Earthed to the Ground). Guitarist Niall Hone recalls, “The creative process behind this album was an explosive concoction of technology and sheer human endeavor resonating in the mould of space rock legend.”

The band’s current lineup features vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Dave Brock, drummer Richard Chadwick, with guitarist Hone, bassist Dibs and keyboardist Tim Blake.

Confirmed track listing for Blood of the Earth is:

1.) Seahawks
2.) Blood of the Earth
3.) Wraith
4.) Green Machine
5.) Inner Visions
6.) Sweet Obsession
7.) Comfey Chair
8.) Prometheus
9.) You’d Better Believe It
10.) Sentinel
11.) Starshine

Blood of the Earth will be available for North American fans on CD and limited-edition 180-gram clear double-LP that includes a vinyl-only bonus track. Hawkwind are planning to tour later this year in support of Blood of the Earth.

Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.

Seriously. Oh my god.

Legendary stoner rock band Sleep split in 1997 after two hugely influential albums. Members went on to form underground heroes OM and High on Fire, and more recently metal supergroup Shrinebuilder. This Fall, original members Al Cisneros and Matt Pike will be joined by drummer Jason Roeder of Neurosis to perform the seminal Sleep’s Holy Mountain album as well as selections from Dopesmoker and more.

Sleep debuted with 1991′s Volume One album, recorded for San Francisco label Tupelo. Earache Records received the band’s next recordings in the mail as a demo. The label — impressed by Sleep‘s single-mindedness and unique vision – immediately signed the band and released the tape exactly as it was received. Record stores worldwide stocked Sleep’s Holy Mountain from November 1992 to this day.

The band then signed to London Records. Their debut album for the major took the form of one mammoth 63-minute leviathan of a track titled “Jerusalem.” The band resisted the label’s attempts at radio edits and bringing in their own engineer to remix the album in view of “marketability.” London balked at the prospect of promoting what probably still is the most extreme music ever recorded for a major label, so shelved the recording and dropped the band.

SLEEP 2010 US tour
9/03/2010 All Tomorrow’s Parties – Monticello, NY
9/07/2010 Starlight Ballroom – Philadelphia, PA
9/08/2010 Brooklyn Masonic Temple – New York, NY w/ Lichens
9/09/2010 Logan Square Auditorium – Chicago, IL w/ Lichens
9/10/2010 Mohawk – Austin, TX w/ Sub Oslo
9/11/2010 Roseland Theater/Music Fest NW – Portland, OR w/ Scott Kelly, YOB
9/12/2010 Regency Ballroom – San Francisco, CA

It’s only appropriate to end this week with Dio. I chose a clip for the song “I” from Black Sabbath‘s Dehumanizer tour, probably 1992 or somewhere thereabouts. Great song, and one I didn’t include in the Dio-cast, and not a bad video in that classic bootleggy kind of way, so enjoy and remember.

At least we have good music, right? When all else fails, at least there’s that.

Wherever you are, if the libations and timing are appropriate tonight, raise a toast to Ronnie James Dio, and please be safe. We’ll see you back here next week.

I just finished watching the new DVD in the Classic Albums series (if you vet VH1 Classic, chances are you’ve seen or scrolled past it on your program guide), which is essentially a documentary about Black Sabbath‘s Paranoid put out by Eagle Vision with interviews from all four original members of the band and input from critics, Roger Bain, who produced, and, I guess just because he likes the record, Henry Rollins, who I think might have more face-time on the disc than Geezer Butler. If not, it’s pretty close.

Let’s try and put the junk-strokery of Paranoid aside (all praise be upon it), if for no other reason than I have nothing to add to the already generations-long line of lauding it has received — Black Sabbath are the best band ever and we all know it. The simple truth is there wasn’t much of a story to how Paranoid was made. Sabbath were starting to get popular and they needed to put out a new album to capitalize on that burgeoning popularity, so they just so happened to release Paranoid (not my favorite of their albums, but godly nonetheless), and well, you know the rest. “Hand of Doom,” “Electric Funeral,” “Fairies Wear Boots,” “Iron Man,” “Planet Caravan,” “War Pigs” — these songs are essentially the foundation upon which the ensuing 40 years of heavy music have been built. Like I said, best ever.

As far as the DVD goes, it’s interesting to hear the members, who all appear in separate interviews, talking about how they came up with the material, but what it boils down to is, “Tony Iommi wrote an amazing riff and we turned it into a song.” That’s apparently how it went. Not quite as action-packed as Deep Purple‘s Classic Albums installment for Machine Head, which had burning buildings, band members climbing out of windows and recording in hallways, but of course the circumstances were different, and if I had to choose between the two records, well fuck it, Machine Head wouldn’t stand a chance.

But the mundane circumstances that may have birthed it aside — drugs, working class misery, an already well-documented partially-severed finger — Paranoid is still about as close as humans can come to divinity, so for that, it’s well worth seeing the Classic Albums DVD. There’s some archival performance footage and the song-by-song format really lets Iommi, Geezer, Ozzy and Bill Ward get in-depth about the tracks; a fair tradeoff for seeing people like the dude who edits Mojo and Kerrang! talk about how much the record rules, which presumably you already know if you’re watching.

And yeah, there is a lot of Rollins. He likes him some Sabbath, and though it might have been interesting to hear from some other musicians, maybe who were in later incarnations of Black Sabbath either in the Dio years or after, I guess Rollins picked up the phone when they called, so there you go.

All told, it’s probably not much Sab-obsessives didn’t already know, but if being sick of heaping acclaim onto Paranoid is something that can happen to a person, I certainly wouldn’t know about it. And you do get to see Tony Iommi play the opening of “Fairies Wear Boots” on solo guitar, and that pretty much rules, so no complaints. I’ll probably only watch it 700 more times.

Black Sabbath’s Website

Eagle Vision

If I could, I’d pay good money to see Victor Griffin playing guitar in Pentagram tonight. Unfortunately, I don’t live anywhere near Raleigh, North Carolina, so it’s a big no dice. One can only imagine the doom to take place on this latest Pentagram tour — one of these days, they’re gonna have to put out a record if they want to keep playing all these shows — but stuck here in Jersey, that’s a long way away. Maybe next time.

If you’re below the Mason/Dixon, you’ll probably want to pay attention to these tour dates from the PR wire:

Legendary doom band Pentagram have just announced the Southern US tour dates with Relapse recording artist Black Tusk. This tour will kick-off in Raleigh, NC and finish at the Maryland Deathfest. A listing of confirmed tour dates and cities can be found below.

May tour will feature the following band members:

Victor Griffin – guitar
Greg Turley – bass
Gary Isom – drums
Bobby Liebling – the madman on the mic

Pentagram Tour Dates:
May 21 Raleigh, NC Volume 11 Tavern
May 22 Savannah, GA The Jinx
May 23 Orlando, FL The Backbooth
May 25 Houston, TX Walter’s On Washington
May 26 Austin, TX Emo’s
May 27 New Orleans, LA The Hanger
May 28 Nashville, TN The End
May 29 Newport, KY Southgate House
May 30 Baltimore, MD Maryland Deathfest VIII

NOTE: This post is going to stay here for a little bit. New ones will appear underneath.

Look. I didn’t know what else to do. I’ll still have a regular May podcast either this week or next, but in honor of the life and career of Ronnie James Dio, I made this too. I didn’t number it because it’s not a regular podcast, and I just thought maybe some of you would get some comfort in listening. It’s 25 songs, two hours long. You can get the file here, click the image above, or stream it below:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

There are some cuts you don’t get on the “greatest hits” stuff that I hope other fans will dig as much as I do. I know this isn’t the kind of thing The Obelisk usually covers, but Dio‘s work meant a lot to me over the years, and if you’re complaining, you’re an asshole.

Apologies for the downtime today and yesterday. Yahoo is fucked, but everything should be back to normal now (if not, please let me know). I’ll do my best to pick up with regular posting tomorrow, but no promises.

Track list for the Dio-cast is after the jump. I hope you enjoy it.

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There were rumors floating around some last night, but Wendy Dio has now confirmed via Blabbermouth that her husband, LEGENDARY metal vocalist Ronnie James Dio has died of the stomach cancer he’d been battling since winter. As a longtime fan of Dio‘s work, I on behalf of this dinkly little website The Obelisk send condolences to Wendy and others who knew Ronnie in either a personal or professional capacity.

I don’t know what to think and I’d feel dirty editorializing. He was my hero. We knew he was sick and we could extrapolate if we wanted to that it wasn’t going well when Heaven and Hell canceled their touring plans. I didn’t want to extrapolate. I wanted to think he’d beat cancer like it was a giant rubber dragon in 1983 and be back putting out Magica II and III in no time.

Mourning later. Music now.

Live at the 9:30 isn’t the first live Clutch release, but it might be the most comprehensive, what with the full-length documentary about the band on the road and all that. And if there’s one thing Clutch fans enjoy unto perpetuity, without end, it’s watching them play live, so it gives me joy to present the PR wire news that Live at the 9:30 is out today via the band’s own Weathermaker Music imprint (yeah, I’ll get a review going asap). Dig it:

Veteran rock band Clutch have issued the dual DVD set “Live at the 9:30″ through their own music label Weathermaker Music, today, Tuesday May 11th. This fan friendly $19.98 priced DVD set features a 90 minute concert DVD as well as a two hour road movie called Fortune Tellers Make a Killing Nowadays which includes classic Clutch footage from 1991/1992, never before seen band interviews, and unreleased music.

“Our fans have been longing for something like this for over a decade!” exclaims Weathermaker label manager Jon Nardachone. “Our director/producer Agent Ogden captured the band performing a 19-song set which includes a molten-hot version of the entire self-titled release! He then subsequently produced the quintessential Clutch road movie, which we wrapped up in one mega-DVD set!”

Clutch, along with their jazz-rock instrumentalist alter-ego, The Bakerton Group, will take to the road in June and July in support of the internationally released DVD and the Strange Cousins from the West CD. The 22-date tour will take both Clutch and The Bakerton Group through the US, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Greece, Italy, and the UK.

Clutch Live:
USA
6/04 Huntington, WV @ V Club
6/05 Lexington, KY @ Buster’s Billiards & Backroom
6/06 Toledo, OH @ Headliner’s
6/07 Urbana, IL @ Canopy Club
6/09 Oklahoma City, OK @ Diamond Ballroom
6/10 Little Rock, AR @ The Village
6/11 Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo as The Bakerton Group
6/12 Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo as Clutch
6/13 Montgomery, AL @ Strange Days
6/14 Houma, LA @ The City Club of Houma
6/15 Beaumont, TX @ Whiskey River
6/17 Greenville, SC @ The Handlebar
6/18 Norfolk, VA @ Norva
6/19 Allentown, PA @ Crocodile Rock
Europe
7/16/10 Tönsberg, Norway Slottsfjell Festival
7/17/10 Tromso, Norway Bukta Festival
7/19/10 Goteborg, Sweden Sticky Fingers, Top Floor
7/21/10 Athens, Greece AN Club
7/22/10 Milan, Italy Magnolia
7/23/10 Pinerella Di Cevia, Italy Rock Planet
7/25/10 London, England High Voltage Festival

I don’t know what this does to the release schedule for the new Place of Skulls album, but it’s been announced that legendary guitarist Victor Griffin (also of Death Row) has rejoined Pentagram for their tour dates later this month leading to their performance at the Maryland Deathfest at the Sonar in Baltimore. Hey, at least he’ll know the songs, which, from what I understand, will put him miles ahead of the replacement the band had for the departed Russ Strahan on their last string of shows.

By a bit of luck, I caught Griffin with Pentagram when he joined them on stage at last year’s Planet Caravan festival in North Carolina, and it fucking ruled, so I would think with a week-long tour’s worth of tightness behind the performance it could only get better. Support for the shows comes courtesy of the oh-so-hot-right-now Black Tusk. The announcement kind of flew under the radar, but here it is, courtesy of The Pentagram Archives‘ MySpace page:

Pentagram in association with Barley & Hops Management, The Pantheon Agency, and The Pentagram Archives announce:

The May 2010 Spring Tour of Pentagram will feature the following musicians performing:

Bobby Liebling: Vocals
Victor Griffin: Guitars
Greg Turley: Bass
Gary Isom: Drums