As previously announced, Brant Bjork will release a new album this Fall. As not previously announced, the record is called Bougainvillea Suite and it’ll be out Oct. 28 along with reissues of his second and third solo releases, 2002’s Brant Bjork & The Operators and 2003’s Keep Your Cool, all three of which are available to preorder.

Also not previously unveiled: the new album artwork, the tracklisting, the pressing info, and most importantly, the new song “Trip on the Wine,” with a telltale mellow groove and melody in the vocals to go with its start-stop riff, organ backing, funktuational (that’s funky punctuation, of course) snare hits and catchy hook. There’s a fair amount of open space in the recording, but its three-minute sans-nonsense to-do is a good time and intrigues in terms of how Bjork might be using the studio this time around. Plus it’s got a song called “Ya Dig” on it and I’m interested to know if there are any other lyrics to it. If anyone could pull off an entire track of saying nothing but “ya dig,” I think we all know who that person is.

The PR wire mic dropped this in my inbox like 20 minutes ago, so have at it.

Heavy Psych Sounds to announce BRANT BJORK new album BOUGAINVILLEA SUITE + TWO REISSUES – presale starts TODAY

Today we are stoked to start the presale of the desert rock Legend BRANT BJORK upcoming brand new album BOUGAINVILLEA SUITE and 2 REISSUES: KEEP YOUR COOL and BRANT BJORK & THE OPERATORS !!!

RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 28th

ALBUMs PRESALE:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/index.html

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

HPS240

*** BRANT BJORK – Bougainvillea Suite ***

– BRAND NEW album of the desert rock Legend –

RELEASED IN

15 ULTRA LTD TEST PRESS VINYL
100 ULTRA LTD COLOR IN COLOR TRANSPARENT BACK. PINK/SPLATTER PURPLE VINYL
100 ULTRA LTD SIDE A-SIDE B PINK/WHITE/GREEN VINYL
250 LTD HALF-HALF BLACK/ORANGE/SPLATTER BLACK VINYL
MUSTARD VINYL
BLACK VINYL
DIGIPAK
DIGITAL

RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 28th

TRACKLIST
Trip On The Wine
Good Bones
So They Say
Broke That Spell
Bread For Butter
Ya’ Dig
Let’s Forget
Who Do You Love

ALBUM DESCRIPTION

Once again Brant Bjork is back with a wonderful new album “Bougainvillea Suite” !!

He’s never missed a shot in the last 20 years. His discography is connected by an imaginary line which crosses different sounds and melodies, but always with the same attitude. In the background you can imagine the Mojave desert where everything started many years ago, but his last record sounds fresh as his debut Jalamanta! Brant says about this album: “This is a bitter sweet record for me. So much change in my life. Some stuff more positive than others. But it’s always a blessing to be able to make a record and get the music out and to the fans. This is the last record to be recorded in my Joshua Tree studio. I’m saying good bye to an era and looking down the road toward new beginnings”

“Bougainvillea Suite” is composed by 8 songs. Produced by Yosef Sanborn and Brant Bjork. Recorded at The Rad Cabin, Joshua Tree, CA.

Engineered and mixed by Yosef Sanborn.

—

HPS239

*** BRANT BJORK – And The Operators ***

– 20th Anniversary REISSUE of the BRANT BJORK sophomore album with new cover and coloured vinyls –

RELEASED IN
15 ULTRA LTD TEST PRESS VINYL
150 ULTRA LTD 3 COLORED STRIPE YELLOW/ORANGE/RED VINYL
400 LTD HALF-HALF BLACK/WHITE VINYL
BLACK VINYL
DIGIPAK
DIGITAL

RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 28th

TRACKLIST

Hinda 65 – 5:05
Smarty Pants – 4:02
My Ghettoblaster – 4:48
Electric Lalli Land – 5:11
From The Ground Up (We Just Stay The Same) – 3:41
Cheap Wine – 4:09
Cocoa Butter – 3:13
Joey’s Radio – 4:01
Captain Lovestar – 6:33
Hinda 65 (Return Flight) – 4:57

ALBUM DESCRIPTION

Brant Bjork and the Operators is the second solo album by desert rocker Brant Bjork. Although titled Brant Bjork and the Operators, Bjork sings and plays most instruments on the album. He is joined by friends Mathias Schneeberger and Mario Lalli to lend guitar and vocals.

After 20 years Heavy Psych Sounds is reissuing this sweat gem with a brand new cover and new coloured vinyl versions !!!

—

HPS098V2

*** BRANT BJORK – Keep Your Cool ***

– REPRESS of the BRANT BJORK legendary album with new cover and coloured vinyls –

RELEASED IN
15 ULTRA LTD TEST PRESS VINYL
100 ULTRA LTD HALF-HALF BLACK/ORANGE/SPLATTER BLACK VINYL
350 LTD TRANSPARENT YELLOW VINYL
BLACK VINYL
DIGIPAK
DIGITAL

RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 28th

TRACKLIST
Hey, Monkey Boy
Johnny Called
Rock-N-Rol’e
I Miss My Chick
Keep Your Cool
Gonna Make the Scene
Searchin
My Soul

ALBUM DESCRIPTION

‘Keep Your Cool’ is the third solo album by the Kyuss- and Fu Manchu-legend, originally released back in 2003 with Duna Records. Full of the soul and funky laid-back grooves BRANT BJORK is known and loved for, tongue-in-cheek lyrics and sweet guitar licks oozing from the great 70’s era vibes, ‘Keep Your Cool’ is still considered as one of BRANT BJORK’s accessible and catchiest records to date. Tracks such as ‘Hey, Monkey Boy’, ‘Johnny Called’ or ‘Gonna Make The Scene’ became classics in the stoner rock scene, taken from an album that belongs to every well-sorted BRANT BJORK record collection.

Heavy Psych Sounds is now giving new life to this gem with a brand new cover and coloured vinyls !!

https://www.facebook.com/BrantBjorkOfficial
https://www.instagram.com/brant_bjork
http://www.brantbjork.com

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

Brant Bjork, “Trip on the Wine”

Today brings word that desert rock progenitor Brant Bjork will release a new album this Fall in continued collaboration with Heavy Psych Sounds, as well as two more reissues in the label’s ongoing series thereof. Particulars are light, as happens, but Bjork has been touring with his band Stöner since basically the minute touring started up again and so the switch to solo work is a noteworthy shift. As says the man himself, so much change in life.

The last Brant Bjork solo record was 2020’s Brant Bjork (review here), for which the bio I wrote appears below. Nice that it’s getting used. Since that time, Bjork, as noted, has been keeping busy with the trio Stöner alongside fellow-former Kyuss bandmate Nick Oliveri (also Mondo Generator, Dwarves, etc.) and drummer Ryan Güt, who also plays in Bjork‘s touring solo band. Stöner‘s second LP, Totally… (review here), came out this Spring, following behind last year’s Stoners Rule (review here) and their first release, the nearly concurrent live album Live in the Mojave Desert Vol. 4 (review here).

I have no idea what Bjork doing Brant Bjork material again means for Stöner, but it seems unlikely he would put out an album at this point and not tour, and as he leaves behind his studio setup in Joshua Tree, one wonders at what might be next for one of the architects of fuzz as we know it.

New song and more details next week. For now, this from the PR wire:

Heavy Psych Sounds to announce the coming back of desert legend BRANT BJORK – new album presale + first track premiere July 19th

Heavy Psych Sounds Records&Booking is really proud to announce the signing of the desert rock legend BRANT BJORK !!!

Mr. Bjork is coming back with a brand new album + 2 REISSUES
released this autumn via Heavy Psych Sounds.

NEW ALBUM PRESALE + FIRST TRACK PREMIERE:
JULY 19th

SAYS THE ARTIST:

“This is a bitter sweet record for me. So much change in my life. Some stuff more positive than others. But it’s always a blessing to be able to make a record and get the music out and to the fans. This is the last record to be recorded in my Joshua Tree studio. I’m saying good bye to an era and looking down the road toward new beginnings.” BB

BIOGRAPHY

Brant Bjork has spent over a quarter-century at the epicenter of Californian desert rock. From cutting his teeth alongside Fatso Jetson’s Mario Lalli in hardcore punkers De-Con to drumming and composing on Kyuss’ landmark early albums, to propelling the seminal fuzz of Fu Manchu from 1994-2001 while producing other bands, putting together offshoot projects like Ché, embarking on his solo career as a singer, guitarist and bandleader, founding his own record label and more, his history is a winding narrative of relentless, unflinching creativity.

For someone so outwardly laid back, he’s never really taken a break. And while Bjork has shown different sides of himself on albums like his funk-laden 1999 solo debut, Jalamanta, the mellow Local Angel (2004), 2007’s mostly-acoustic Tres Dias, and heavier rockers Somera Sól (2007), Gods & Goddesses (2010) and the two most recent outings with The Low Desert Punk Band, he’s maintained a natural representation of himself in his material, whether that’s coming across in the Thin Lizzy-isms of the faux-full-band 2002 release Brant Bjork and the Operators (actually just Bjork playing mostly by himself) or the weedy, in-the-jam-room spirit of “Dave’s War” from Tao of the Devil. When you’re listening to Brant Bjork, you know it, because there’s no one else who sounds quite like him.

That fact and years of hard touring have positioned Brant Bjork as an ambassador for the Southern California desert and the musical movement birthed there in the late ’80s and early ’90s. As underground interest has surged in recent years, Bjork has been a pivotal figurehead, realigning with his former Kyuss bandmate John Garcia to drum and write in Kyuss Lives!/Vista Chino, celebrating and building on that legacy while giving a new generation of fans the chance to see it happen in real-time.

Having told his story in films like Kate McCabe’s Sabbia (2006) and the documentaries Such Hawks Such Hounds (2008) and Lo Sound Desert (2015), he’s represented desert rock at home and abroad with no less honesty than that which he poured into the music helping to create it. The same impulse led to the founding of his Desert Generator in 2016, an annual festival held in Pioneertown, CA, with an international reach capturing the intimacy and timeless aura of the desert culture, including music, a van show, the Stoned & Dusted pre-show in a secret desert location, and an evolution that looks to continue into the foreseeable future.

Bjork’s work, with any project, has always had a rebellious sensibility. He’s always walked his own path. But more, his career through Kyuss, Fu Manchu, Ché, Vista Chino, and his crucial solo work has been about freedom through rock and roll, attained by the truest representation of the person and the place as art. This, along with a whole lot of groove, is what has helped Brant Bjork define desert rock as a worldwide phenomenon, and whatever comes next, it is what will continue to make him its most indispensable practitioner.

(JJ Koczan)

https://www.facebook.com/BrantBjorkOfficial
https://www.instagram.com/brant_bjork
http://www.brantbjork.com

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

Brant Bjork & the Bros., Somera Sól (2007)

I’ll admit I’m intrigued. I posted this video in The Obelisk Collective group on Facebook the other day, asking for thoughts either way on it. And some were positive, for others it was too poppy, which I get, but more than that, opinions were had. It didn’t just fall flat, where any number of unknown acts might. Sometimes you post a thing and get no response whatsoever. That Wizard Tree — also stylized all-lowercase with a cross for a ‘t’: wizard †ree — managed to elicit a reaction at all tells me something.

The sound does brazenly blur the line between pop sensibilities and heavier fare, and in a newer-school way than the band’s being from Joshua Tree might lead you to believe. That is, no, they don’t sound like Queens of the Stone Age, which if I’m honest is kind of a relief at this point. The hats-over-faces pose-outs are a bit much, and running a bass through a guitar amp with a foot switch — well, I was gonna say it isn’t magic, but yeah, it basically is — but they’re a new band clearly trying to pique the interest of an audience. As schtick goes, I’ve encountered far less subtle this and every other week.

I don’t know who they are, either. Or who their “famous drummer” is on their upcoming debut EP. Or even who might be on charts to compare them to. Jonas Brothers? Are they still famous? Maybe I’ll find out, maybe not. Maybe they’ll drop the mystique thing, or maybe not. They wouldn’t be the first band to try to bring a pop mindset to heavy rock, or to try to bring heavy rock to a pop audience. But weirder things has happened.

You see? This is one track that’s not even three and a half minutes long and look at all I’ve already said about it. You might find “The Lake” gets you talking as well. I hope so. Comments around here have been d-e-a-d dead lately.

From the PR wire:

Meet the mysterious Joshua Tree duo wizard tree; Stream The New Song/Visualizer “The Lake”

The Pair’s distinct sound features “the wizard stick” (a modified bass guitar that sends multiple signals to multiple amplifiers) and fuzzy, warm, lead guitar, Combining the power and deep grooves of hard rock and dubstep with the riffs of classic metal and the upfront, layered vocals of pop and soul.

Planted in the rocky and dusty desert of Joshua Tree, California, wizard tree is a new twist of rock and pop created by two of the scene’s commanding producers. Whilst maintaining anonymity for this project, these two (along with the debut EP’s famous drummer) have graced some of the world’s largest stages and have even seen the top of the charts for projects in 2021 already.

A new and interesting sound created by what the duo have called “the wizard stick” (a modified bass guitar that sends multiple signals to multiple amplifiers) and fuzzy, warm, lead guitar, they’ve combined the power and deep grooves of hard rock and dubstep with the riffs of classic metal and the upfront, layered vocals of pop and soul. A truly unique sound in a day where it seems everything has been done. Diving into the lyrical content you get a sense of societal and ecological awareness, as the two are deeply concerned about the planet but it’s presented in its own wizardly and eerie way that in itself creates the mysterious wizard tree vibe.

A debut single and visualizer, “The Lake” has dropped on YouTube and already completed is a second single and video, “Visions † Prophecies” as well as a full EP to be released in the very near future. A few select shows and festivals for 2022 have been booked and will be announced in the coming weeks.

https://www.facebook.com/wizardtreeofficial/
https://www.instagram.com/wizardtreeofficial/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/68qnAfzxwoDi1IHlZB1sVE?si=rg_5fXGsStqRtQIZ5mMhSQ

Wizard Tree, “The Lake” official video

Everybody come through day one intact? I know it got pretty weird there for a minute, but I felt like sense was ultimately made. Maybe not in all cases, but definitely most. Today also gets fairly wild, and some of this stuff has been covered before in some fashion and some of it not so much, but hell, you’ve been through this before, as have I, so you know what to expect when you’re expecting. Blood might be spilled. Bruises left. Or bliss. Or both sometimes. Hell’s bells. Let’s go already.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Kal-El, Dark Majesty

With their fifth full-length, Dark Majesty, Norwegian heavy rockers and sci-fi-themed cleavage aficionados Kal-El make a willful play toward the epic. Their first 2LP and their first album for Majestic Mountain Records, the eight-song offering tops 65 minutes and splits into four two-song sides, each one seeming to grow bigger until the last of them, with the closing duo “Kala Mishaa” and “Vimana,” draws the proceedings to a massive close. Along the way, Kal-El not only offer their most melodically rich and spacious fare to-date — opening with their longest track in the 11:39 “Temple” (immediate points) — but blast Kyuss into the cosmos on the four-minute “Spiral,” and give Dozer a run for their money on “Comêta.” Gargantuan fuzz shines through on “Hyperion” in a near-maddening cacophony, but it might be the title-track that’s the greatest highlight in the end, marking the band’s accomplishment in heft, blending riffs and atmosphere to a broad and engaging degree. It is a triumph and it sounds like one.

Kal-El on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records webstore

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The Ugly Kings, Strange, Strange Times

One would not accuse Melbourne’s The Ugly Kings of inaccuracy in titling their second album Strange, Strange Times, and though they launch with the post-Queens of the Stone Age title-track and the now-tinged cynicism of “Technodrone” and “Do You Feel Like You’re Paranoid?,” it’s in even moodier stretches like “Last Man Left Alive” they cast their lot toward individualism. Songs vary in intention but remain consistent in the quality of their construction and look-at-the-world-around-you theme, with “Lawman” leaning toward darker country blues, “Mr. Hyde” asking what would happen if Clutch and Ruff Majik ever crossed paths and the finale “Another Fucking Day” offering a deceptively immersive unfurling. I can’t help but wonder if The Ugly Kings feel surrounded in their home city by much, much druggier neo-psych acts in the heavy underground scene, but the clarity of purpose they bring to their songwriting would make them a standout one way or the other.

The Ugly Kings on Facebook

Napalm Records website

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Guhts, Blood Feather

Atmospheric and seething in kind, Guhts brings together members of New Yorkers Witchkiss and North Carolina’s Black Mountain Hunger for a pandemic-era debut release that in style explores the restlessness and the overwhelming nature of the age. With Amber Burns (interview here) on vocals, the drums programmed behind Scott Prater and Dan Shaneyfelt guitars/synths and the bass of Jesse Van Note, and a purpose wrought in immersion, the band distinguishes itself in its apropos grimness and in the potential for future exploration of the ideas laid out here, bordering in “The Mirror” on goth only after “Handless Maiden” offers raging, post-metallic lumber. One wonders how Blood Feather will sound five years from now, but more to the point, one wonders what Guhts might conjure in the meantime when/if they press forward. Either way, expect to see this on the list of 2021’s best short releases.

Guhts on Facebook

Guhts on Bandcamp

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Anunnaki, Martyr of Alexandria

Hey there, psych fans and experts on tragedies of the classic world, British Columbia two-piece Anunnaki have the psychedelic instrumental blowout themed around the murder of Hypatia you’ve been waiting for! Never heard of Hypatia? It doesn’t matter. Samples will provide some context and if they said the whole thing was about going shoe shopping, it wouldn’t be any less righteously far out. With “Golden Gate of the Sun” at the outset, the duo of Dave Read (guitar/bass) and Arlen Thompson (drums/synth) prime a bit of space-boogie, but the subsequent “Cyril, the Fanatic” shoves the freakery to the fore with wailing guitar and drones and seemingly whatever else they thought might work and does. The 15-minute finale, “The Cries of Hypatia,” dives deeper into drone, holding back the drums for about seven minutes while obscure speech and the titular cries unfold. Read and Thompson build it to a full, suitably deathly wash, and take the time to end minimal. Literary, arthouse, but not at all stale for that.

Anunnaki on Facebook

Cardinal Fuzz webstore

NoiseAgonyMayhem website

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Bill Fisher, Hallucinations of a Higher Truth

A departure even from his departure, Church of the Cosmic Skull bandleader Bill Fisher‘s second solo offering, Hallucinations of a Higher Truth, follows the darker progressive rock of 2020’s Mass Hypnosis and the Dark Triad (review here) with 40-plus minutes of piano-led singer-songwriter fare, taking a stated influence from the lyrics-as-everyday-musings of Randy Newman on songs like “Better Than You” and “Off to Work,” while revamping his main outfit’s “Answers in Your Soul” and “Evil in Your Eye” to suit the arrangement theme. As Fisher has engaged plenty with classic forms in his work, Hallucinations of a Higher Truth feels by no means beyond his creative reach, and he’s an accomplished enough songwriter and performer to pull it off, thereby demonstrating that if you can craft a song you can make it do whatever the hell you want, and that “you” in this case is him. This isn’t going to be everybody’s thing, but Fisher carries it ably.

Bill Fisher webstore

Church of the Cosmic Skull website

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Seum, Live From the Seum-Cave

Montreal low-end filthmongers Seum return to follow-up earlier 2021’s Winterized EP (review here) with Live From the Seum-Cave, basking in an even rawer incarnation of their guitars-need-not-apply drum/bass/vocals attack. “Sea Sick Six” is even nastier here than it was on the last EP, and the eponymous opener “Seum” is an anthem of disaffection that finds its lyrical answer in “Life Grinder” and “Blueberry Cash” alike — the why-do-I-even-have-this-shit-job point of view as unmistakable as the throat-singing that pops up in the aforementioned “Sea Sick Six.” The trio are beastly on “Winter of Seum,” and they make a special highlight of “Super Tanker” from 2020’s Summer of Seum EP, working tempo shifts into the punishing march that are less than predictable and yet totally over the top in their extremity. This is a good band who genuinely sound like they don’t give a fuck. That’s a hard thing to make believable. I hope they never put out a record and do EPs forever.

Seum on Facebook

Seum on Bandcamp

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Spirit Adrift, Forge Your Future

Spirit Adrift have broken out from the doomly mire to proffer clear-headed, soaring traditional heavy metal. The unit, led as ever by guitarist/bassist/vocalist Nate Garrett with Marcus Bryant on drums, offer three new tracks on Forge Your Future in the title-track, “Wake Up” and “Invisible Enemy,” channeling Randy Rhoads even through more denser tonality and the nodding groove of the last. Echo behind Garrett‘s vocals reminds here and there of Brian “Butch” Balich of Penance/Argus, but Spirit Adrift‘s path across four full-lengths and companion short releases like this one over the last six years has been its own, and the emergence of Garrett as a singer has been a crucial part of making these songs the concise epics they are. Crisp in craft and confident in delivery, Spirit Adrift only sound like masters of their domain here, and so they are. Heavy metal that loves heavy metal.

Spirit Adrift on Facebook

Century Media Records website

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Mutha Trucka, Mutha Trucka

The Chicago-based three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Eric Ervin, bassist/vocalist Dana “Erv” Ervin and drummer/backing vocalist Ted Sciaky plunge deep with their self-titled debut into the ’90s era of heavy rock, with vibes running between C.O.C., Monster Magnet, Clutch and Kyuss, among others, but there’s a might-throw-elbows spirit that comes through even in willfully spacious pieces like “I’m Free” (some Lemmy influence there too) and “Wizards & Gods” that adds aggro spirit to the bulk of the nine-song/39-minute affair, a piece like “D.B. Blues” — which stands for “Dirty Bitch Blues” — as unpretentious in its overarching style as it is politically incorrect. “Fogginess” hits near eight minutes and moves toward the trippier end of grunge, with one of the outing’s many layered solos playing out amid the solid groove beneath, the band refusing to compromise their abiding lack of pretense even in the face of that which would otherwise be psychedelic. Not much time for that nonsense — there’s crunch to be had.

Mutha Trucka on Facebook

Mutha Trucka on Bandcamp

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3rd Ear Experience, Danny Frankel’s 3rd Ear Experience

Who’s Danny Frankel? Long story short, he was Lou Reed‘s drummer, but in fact he’s got a session-player career that’s found him performing with a staggering array of artists and bands. He puts his stamp on his very own 3rd Ear Experience alongside the group’s founding guitarist Robbi Robb as well as a host of others including fellow founder AmritaKripa, synthesist Scott “Dr. Space” Heller and more besides. The resulting journey is six tracks and 63 minutes of psychedelic gloryscaping, desert-born but galaxy-bred, with longform works like “What Are Their Names” (18:18), “Weep No More, My Friend” (14:49) and closer “Timelessness Pt. 2” (12:03) expanding across exploratory and fluid movements offset by shorter stretches like the suitably percussive “Cosmos Glazed Elephant.” In opener “A Beautiful Questions,” the drums hardly feature, but the lead-in for “What Are Their Names” feels no less intentional than when the penultimate “Timelessness Pt. 1” gives way to silence ahead of the beginning of the finale. I’d say more, but I seem to have lost my train of hyperbole-laden praise. Wonderfully so.

3rd Ear Experience on Facebook

Space Rock Productions website

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Solarius, Universal Trial

Originally recorded in 2006, Solarius‘s heretofore unreleased four-song EP, Universal Trial, is notable for predating the self-titled Graveyard album, as guitarist/vocalist Jonatan Ramm would end up joining that band in 2008, seeming after Solarius dissolved. The 21-minute release arrives now with the considerable backing of Heavy Psych Sounds in no small part because of that nifty bit of context, and the classic-style boogie wrought in “Sky of Mine” is enough to make it a prescient-feeling footnote in the storied history of Swedish retroism, let alone the brooding-into-surging, organ-laced “Into the Sun,” which if it was issued by a new band this week would be an excuse unto itself for Bandcamp Friday. Wrapped in the shuffling title-track at the start and the harmonized, patiently-drawn “Mother Nature Mind” at the end, Universal Trial feels like a lesson in the essential role of producer Don Alsterberg (Graveyard, Blues Pills, Spiders, etc.) in defining the style as well as in what might’ve been if Solarius had put this out at the time.

Heavy Psych Sounds on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

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I’ve heard this. It’s bliss. If you know what 3rd Ear Experience get up to as regards desert-weirdo jams, then yeah, you probably have a decent foundation upon which to look forward, but Danny Frankel — who I’m guessing has done time as a session guy and is therefore insanely talented — brings a percussive A-game and everybody else likewise steps up. Folky, but exploratory, jazzy but tripped out; the sense of adventure is palpable, and while it was the worst of times as they made it, they made the best of the worst times.

Space Rock Productions — whose Scott “Dr. Space” Heller has been in alignment with the Robbi Robb-led outfit for some time and who also appears on this record — has the release and it’s out Oct. 1. I’ve already put in a request to line up a stream. Hopefully that comes together and, of course, I’ll keep you posted either way.

Album art and preliminaries follow:

3rd Ear Experience – Danny Frankel’s 3rd Ear Experience – Oct. 1

3rd Ear Experience are excited to announce the release of our 9th album on Oct 1st. 2021 on Space Rock Productions.

The new album is a collaboration with legendary drummer Danny Frankel (Lou Reed, John Cale, Nels Cline, Laurie Anderson, Marianne Faithful, Beck, a.o.)

Recorded during lock-down in 2020 the year of 6 feet apart, the music is a diverse and innovative psychedelic rock experience, totally 3rd Ear Experience but with fresh new faces!!

Danny Frankel’s 3rd Ear experience.
Label: Space Rock Productions
cat. no.: SRP074CD
release date: 1st October 2021
formats: 1CD
CD / ltd. edt: 300 copies

November 11th, 2020 the year of six feet apart, a brutal summer behind us, the desert haboob’s dust long settled, the big lying brat in the white house won’t let go, an icy wind blowing soft and low, vaxxers and anti vaxxers, masked bandits and shopping carts, all the stages gone dark, all eyes wide open and shut six feet apart.

On a cool but sunny winters day we gathered at the FurstWurld Gallery, each in his own bubble reflecting, dreams six feet apart, Hutch from Joshua Tree setup the studio with great mics and methods of placements, you see, Hutch was Kyuss’s live sound man since the beginning.

This was Danny Frankel’s first time having a 3rd Ear Experience. We had ideas, but no maps, we brought in Trevor Madison who had never played keys before, never played in a rock band, we counted in the first jam, not in numbers, but in colors, and so began the collaboration with Danny, and the ghosts of Covid roamed far from the haunted house, and we, warmly safe and sealed in by the desert, filled the great silver quonset hut of the world with music, far from the madding crowd, six feet apart. – go!

Cover Art: James Hammons
Music Mixed by Eric Ryan
Recorded by Hutch of Joshua Tree
Mastered by Mark Fuller

3rd Ear Experience was formed by AmritaKripa and Robbi Robb as a means of sharing their experimental psychedelic space jams held at various locations in the Mojave Desert, featuring different players, friends and musicians of like mind.

The players:
Jorge Bassman Carrillo – Bass
Danny Frankel – Drums and Percussion
Scott Heller – Spacey Synths
Becca Byram – B3 Organ
Troy Page _ Didgeridoo
Trevor Madison – Keys
Teddy Quinn – Lead Vox

https://www.facebook.com/3rdearexperience/
https://3rdearexperience.bandcamp.com/
http://www.robbirobb.com/
https://www.facebook.com/spacerockproductions.dk/
www.spacerockproductions.com/

3rd Ear Experience, Danny Frankel’s 3rd Ear Experience teaser

New stuff from all-lowercase anything-goes-let’s-try-it desert rock weirdos earthlings? should inherently be thought of as a specialty item. It isn’t for everyone, and it doesn’t happen all the time, and when it does, it’s to be thought of as something special. It’s been four years since the band released their third album, Muddafudda on Last Hurrah Records — it’s streaming below — and with Dave Catching and Pete Stahl at the core, they’re back with a new untitled two-songer through the same label that’s available now for ordering. I’m not trying to spend your money on five different versions of the same release or anything, but for those of you who might NOT have it, let me explain the collector’s mindset: Every copy of this earthlings? 7″ I get is one copy no one else owns.

You see what I’m saying?

I haven’t found the tracks streaming anywhere, and there are 500 copies of the single available. If you’re listening to Muddafudda and thinking you might like to get yourself a piece of that action, the vinyl’s long gone. That’s kind of how it goes with this stuff. Word to the wise and all that.

Here’s the release info for the single:

– NOW AVAILABLE – earthlings? Untitled 7-inch

Last Hurrah Records is proud to announce the release of earthlings? brand new Untitled 7-inch, featuring artwork by “Bad” Otis Link. A limited edition of 500 records, the vinyl is available in five different colors:
SAND (translucent brown),
SKY(translucent magenta),
VEGETATION (neon green),
ASTRONAUT (translucent blue),
and SOLID BLACK.

The 7-inch record contains two unreleased tracks – the lumbering juggernaut “The Clapper” and the slightly more light-hearted “Off My Nut”.

For this interplanetary escapade, the earthlings? are co-piloted by David Catching (Mojave Lords) and Pete Stahl (Goatsnake, Scream) above the star-filled sky over Rancho De La Luna in Joshua Tree, California. Also present during blast-off are drummer Adam Maples, the multi-talented Matthias Schneeberger, and bassist Molly McGuire.

https://www.facebook.com/earthlingsJTree/
https://earthlings1.bandcamp.com/
http://www.earthlingsinfo.com/
http://lasthurrahrecords.com/

earthlings?, Muddafudda (2016)

Any sort of activity on the part of Masters of Reality is nothing but welcome news, as far as I’m concerned, and as the band have already been confirmed for Desertfest in London and Berlin, Sonic Whip in the Netherlands and Kristonfest in Spain, it’s maybe not such a surprise that they’re announcing tour dates to tie those appearances together, but still, I’ll take it. Do I think it’s going to lead to a full surge of activity on the part of Chris Goss and company, new album blah blah blah? I don’t know. It’s been over a decade now since the last Masters of Reality LP, 2009’s Pine/Cross Dover (review here), and though there have been reissues since then and Goss posted some songs circa 2018, I’m not exactly holding my breath for the album if you know what I mean. 2021 will mark 40 years of existence in one form or another for the band. I’ll take what I can get at this point.

And not that I’ll be fortunate enough to see these shows, or that I’ve ever seen Goss perform, much to my chagrin, but I’m glad they’re happening, and yeah, I hope there are more to come, and a record, and all that stuff. Would be awfully nice.

The PR wire takes it:

MASTERS OF REALITY return with a full European tour and festival appearances this May

The legendary desert rock project driven by the unique creative force of guitarist and vocalist Chris Goss, MASTERS OF REALITY, return strong in the spring of 2020 with a series of European shows including festival appearances.

Chris Goss formed MASTERS OF REALITY with Tim Harrington as a two-piece in Syracuse, New York in 1981. He is also widely known for being the cornerstone producer of many behemoths of the Palm Desert scene, including Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, Mark Lanegan, Mondo Generator and the Desert Sessions.

The band has released six studio albums and two live albums between 1988 and 2009, punctuated by countless tours across Europe and North America. However, their name has remained a landmark of the Heavy Rock age, this is why MASTERS OF REALITY have decided to return to Europe to blow fans’ minds again this spring, with a series of shows including headlining performances at Desertfest London and Berlin, Kristonfest and Sonic Whip Festival.

MASTERS OF REALITY European Tour 2020:
01.05.20 – LONDON (UK) Electric Ballroom
02.05.20 – NIJMEGEN (NL) Sonic Whip Festival
03.05.20 – BERLIN (De) Desertfest Berlin – Arena
05.05.20 – ASCHAFFENBURG (De) Colos Saal
06.05.20 – MUNICH (De) Strom
07.05.20 – DÜDINGEN (Ch) Bad Bonn
09.05.20 – MADRID (Sp) Kristonfest – La Riviera
10.05.20 – VITORIA (Sp) Jimmy Jazz
12.05.20 – PARIS (Fr) La Maroquinerie
13.05.20 – COLOGNE (De) Art Theater
15.05.20 – SINT-NIKLAAS (Be) De Casino
16.05.20 – LEUVEN (Be) Depot
17.05.20 – KORTRIJK (Be) De Kreun

https://www.facebook.com/mastersofreality/
http://www.mastersofreality.com/

Masters of Reality, “John Brown”

The 11 tracks of earthings? 1998 self-titled debut are a stirring reminder that sometimes the best thing one can be is weird. Among the core lineup of Dave Catching (who’s contributed one way or the other to Queens of the Stone Age, Mojave Lords, Eagles of Death Metal, Goon Moon, Masters of Reality, and many others), Fred Drake (Mark Lanegan, Queens of the Stone Age, and a host of others in various roles), and Pete Stahl (Goatsnake, Scream, Wool, Orquesta del Desierto), is the name of the Rancho de la Luna studio itself where earthlings? was recorded for eventual release through Crippled Dick Hot Wax and Man’s Ruin Records. The studio itself plays a massive role in the ultimate personality of the record, as songs become willfully bizarre explanations of drones or keys like the otherwise straightforward “Reaper (Don’t Fear This Child)” or seem built of Wonka-esque psychotronic experimentation like “Conversing Among Misfits,” which, by the way, is the centerpiece of the album, because of course it is.

In these pieces as well as in opener “Nothing” and the desert-Velvet Underground take of “Saving up for My Spaceship/Illuminate,” and even the QOTSA-adjacent riff-style of “Stungun” — with Scott Reeder on bass, no less — the feel becomes not unlike another hidden edition of Desert Sessions, with Stahl‘s malleable vocals, Drake‘s keys/vocals/sometimes-drums and Catching‘s guitar/keys/bass/whatever emerging as having been born of a similar sonic adventurism. No doubt tales of, “let’s get everyone in the studio for a few days, do drugs and make records,” have been exaggerated, but it’s worth noting that all three members of earthlings? were indeed involved in Desert Sessions at one point or another, and the vibe of the self-titled bears that out in “The Dreaded Lovelies” and the same goes for the subsequent ambience of “The Icy Halls of Sobriety (I Dare Not Tread)” and the chill finish in closer “Triumphant March of the Buffoons,” which rounds out a farewell salvo like the band blew out its songwriting apparatus on “Stungun” and decided to just roll with the anti-consciousness impulse. Sometimes the best thing one can be is weird.

Drake and Stahl share vocal duties on the punkish “Cavalry” while Adam Maples (Legal Weapon, Boneclub, Orquesta del Desierto) steps in on drums, and the pattern of offsetting more straight-ahead moments with bizarre fare continues as the impressionist “Happiest Day of My Life” arrives based around a piano line and interweaving vocals and keyboard, carrying forth a wistfulness that continues into an ending of traffic sounds and the arrival of the bouncing anythingism of “Conversing Among Misfits,” each song a departure from the one before it much as “Nothing” at the outset stands as a departure from reality. What ties them all together, such as they’re intended to be tied together at all, is the sense of freedom behind their making. The tracks on earthlings?‘s self-titled by and large are not smoothed-over, structured pieces intended to land a hook. Their sense of expression is on a different trip.

In hindsight, the post-rocking drift in the guitar of “Nothing” feels somewhat prescient, even with the launch-countdown over top, but what it conveys most of all is that earthlings? were not formed as a band with limits placed on their sound. They were not going to be “this” kind of band or “that” kind of band. They were going to see what happened. True, they inevitably are lumped into the sphere of Californian desert rock in no small part because of their many associations therewith, but that’s not a limit on what they do. With a first album that appeared shortly after Kyuss disbanded, they showed a different side of the desert, less aggressive and more embodying a kind of we-moved-to-the-middle-of-nowhere-for-a-reason aesthetic libertarianism, unwilling to follow dictates other than those of their own creativity. That would turn out to be plenty, of course, as “Saving up for My Spaceship/Illuminate” tops seven minutes of percussion-addled sand psych before giving way to the return of the drum kit on “Reaper (Don’t Fear This Child),” on which Drake‘s sneering vocal approach should recall for anyone who’s heard it that of Zach Huskey of Dali’s Llama, also long underappreciated.

And maybe that middle finger to convention is part of the desert ideal as well, though it’s hard to assess such things from (1:) across the country and (2:) two decades after the fact without indulging the peculiar gonzo romanticism of American counterculture. I’ll save my breath, if that’s cool, and just note that whatever accidents it might produce, the kind of stylistic individuality one hears on earthlings? is never itself anything but willful, and whatever the album might share in common with other outfits to which Stahl or Drake or Catching played in the years since seems much more born of the fact that it’s the same personality being taken along with them on the way. Those personae, in combination with each other and with Rancho de la Luna itself, produced something in this first earthlings? record that inherently could not be reproduced — the capture of a singular moment in time.

Of course, the self-titled isn’t the only thing earthlings? ever put out. They followed it with Human Beans, which featured an even broader range of guests, including Mark Lanegan, Barrett Martin, Josh Homme and Petra Hayden, as well as a drum spot from Dave Grohl, in 2000, members continuing to contribute to Desert Sessions in between. The death of Drake from cancer in 2002 came shortly after the band released their Disco Marching Craft EP, on which he did not appear, and over the years that followed, earthlings? would release sporadic short offerings like 2005’s Individual Sky Cruiser Theory or 2008’s Humalien EPs, bringing Mathias Schneeberger and a swath of other players into the lineup along the way. It wasn’t until 2016’s Mudda Fudda limited vinyl on Last Hurrah Records that earthlings? issued a third full-length, and I wouldn’t profess to know anything about future plans or anything like that. Still, their work remains delightfully strange and rife with the kind of indulgence one wants to indulge because it’s so much fun to follow along, and 21 years after the fact, earthlings? continues to stand resoundingly alone.

As always, I hope you enjoy.

—

New episode of The Obelisk Show on Gimme Radio today at 1PM Eastern. I’m doing a special on the Kyuss family tree, the research for which I’ll admit also had me digging into this earthlings? record earlier this week. If you get to check that out, it would surely be appreciated.

Listen at: http://gimmeradio.com

And thanks.

It’s very nearly 4AM now. The Patient Mrs. and I had friends over last night. I turned in around 10 and fell asleep immediately, so don’t even know when she came to bed, but I woke up at 1:30 and never got back to sleep. That’s not going to make my day any easier, I think, but “making my day easier” has never been among my specialties.

This week was a fucking mess. The Esogenesi track that went up earlier I actually reviewed back on like Tuesday because I wanted to review the Orange Goblin show Wednesday morning and still be ahead, so wound up doing Esogenesi on Tuesday to go up today so that yesterday I could just do PH and have that go up immediately. Why does it make a difference? I’m not sure. Would it matter if the Orange Goblin review had gone up the next day? To me, maybe. Which I guess is how that dumb crap happens in the first place.

Ah, now it’s 4AM. The alarm on my phone just went off.

If you saw that Orange Goblin review, thanks. I was pretty thrilled with it. I bought a new lens last week as a moving-house present to myself and took it to that show and C.O.C. in Jersey in order to break it in. It’s fun. I’m pleased with it. It’s not a magic bullet to make me a better photographer or anything, but it’s pro-level even if I’m not. There are a few other shows coming up in the next several weeks, so I’m looking forward to getting to know it more.

This weekend? Yeah, I don’t know. The Patient Mrs. is gone at a conference in Washington, D.C., that will mark the longest time she’s been away from The Pecan. I think she’s nervous about that, but fortunately there’s plenty of distraction. The kid yesterday, man. Oof. What a day. Hitting and yelling and whining and pouting and smacking himself in the face and just crying for nothing. Made me want to check him for new teeth. “Bro, what the hell?” and so on. He can have some pretty intense moments, in the true spirit of a toddler. Splatter my brains on the fucking wall. He’ll be two in October. Not there yet.

It’s okay though. I hear it gets much easier from here and all the concerns go away and you just all of a sudden have a person you love a bunch and can talk to about baseballs and various kinds of gouda cheese and heavy metal and it’s all good and then they take care of you until you die. Pretty sure I read that somewhere.

I signed on to do a bio for WarHorse. It was an honor to be asked. I don’t know when they need it or anything, but I’ll probably post it here when the time comes. In the meantime, I’m interviewing Lori from Acid King next week for a streaming chat — those are getting me back on the phone/Skype with people and I like that; transcription had been keeping me away, and I hate setting up email interviews, which is why Six Dumb Questions only has six questions — and I’m supposed to email questions to the guys from a certain bud-loving British band for liner notes for a reissue they’re doing of a landmark album that I haven’t done yet, and I’m supposed to talk to Peder from Lowrider this weekend about their upcoming PostWax release for liner notes for that. I am, in a word, over-fucking-whelmed. But I do these things to myself. I like being asked to do things. I like being a part of things. I appreciate the fact that someone might give enough of a shit about what I say to print it with their record or to send it out as their statement of who they are as a band. Is the weekend when I’m on my own with the kid the time to be thinking about getting anything at all done? Yeah, no. Am I doing so anyway? Clearly.

What a dope.

I guess I’ll leave on that happy note. A few good premieres next week, and the audio of my interview with Jesse Bartz from L0-Pan that I recorded at their show in Jersey, so keep an eye out for those. It’ll be fun.

Alright. Have a great and safe weekend. Please check out the forum and radio stream and merch at Dropout.

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