There’s some stuff here that was recently premiered — Moura, King Buffalo, the Thunderbird Divine track that went up today — but I’m also bringing in a few things from the Quarterly Review that I’ve got slated for next week. That’s stuff I haven’t had the chance to write about yet like Mindcrawler and Lemurian Folk Songs, Ritual King and Dystopian Future Movies. I know I’m biased here and I always say this — if you dig back through the old podcasts, I used to say it about those too, but I think it’s a pretty good show.
It was a little weird cutting voice tracks for it yesterday though, I’ll say that. Yeah, it’s awesome new music and that’s always great to be excited about, but it feels a little lightweight to be stoked on cool songs when there’s a pandemic on and obviously bigger issues at play. The way I look at it is music is ultimately that escape that people need and if I can maybe give someone something they haven’t heard before and might dig, then I guess that’s not nothing. It ain’t driving a truck for Meals on Wheels when it comes to lending a hand — I should be doing that shit, as should we all, all the time — but it’s what I’ve got, anyhow.
Thanks for listening if you do, and if you see this and don’t listen, then thanks just for reading.
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Radio airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is April 3 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 25th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Albuquerque-based imprint Desert Records would seem to be working on the Ripple Music model in terms of embarking on a new series of splits, which it has opted to call Legends of the Desert, and you might note that the first installment of the series — which isn’t to be confused with that of the same name run by H42 Records to coincide with Desertfest London and Berlin — comes with a definitive end date in mind as well. Given production schedules and the fact that this isn’t all Desert Records is planning to put out in that time, seven vinyl releases of any sort over two years is an ambitious undertaking, as I think PostWax could probably confirm if Ripple can’t, but they’ve got their modus in the right place with the first pairing, which brings together Austin’s Lord Buffalo and Denver’s Palehorse/Palerider and is due out June 12.
You ever have one of those bands you avoided listening to because you knew you’d dig it and you kind of felt like maybe you didn’t have the energy to spare for the emotional commitment of actually undertaken a considered listen of their work? That’s me and Palehorse/Palerider. I knew I’d be into it, but I hadn’t actually listened to them for the first time until putting this post together. And you know what? I dig it. Not a surprise.
Desert Records sent the announcement down the PR wire. For what it’s worth, I heart-emoji Sister Bar, should you happen to be in the neighborhood:
“Legends of the Desert” new album series by Desert Records
Desert Records is excited to announce a new compilation series called “Legends of the Desert”. The series kicks off on June 12th with the release featuring the split with Lord Buffalo (Austin, TX) and Palehorse/Palerider (Denver, CO). Spanning seven albums total over the course of two years, the series will include legendary Desert Rock bands (to be announced) mixed in with new and upcoming bands.
“Legends of the Desert” meaning is a double entendre, with the most obvious referring to the legendary Desert Rock bands that will be featured throughout the series. The second meaning is “musical tales or legends of the desert”, reflected in the songs from all the bands.
The artist for the series will Joshua Mathus (Phoenix, AZ) , the creator of the comic Sherbet Lock and stunning album covers for bands over the years.
The albums will be released on limited edition 12″ Vinyl LP, deluxe CD, and on all digital platforms worldwide via Desert Records.
Each album release will be accompanied by the “Legends of the Desert release shows in each of the band’s cities.
Lord Buffalo / Palehorse/Palerider “Legends of the Desert” upcoming shows June 26th – Albuquerque, NM – Sister Bar June 27th – Denver, CO – High Dive
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 24th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
This is a record I dig, and while I’m fairly certain the news of the March 13 release date isn’t new, I realized that the last time I posted about Lord Buffalo was in December, when they signed to Blues Funeral Recordings and premiered the title-track of their impending second album, Tohu Wa Bohu. Clerical error. Not my first.
So yes, March 13. The band will tour to support it — pretty sure that news is newer, if it helps — and they have a second single streaming through a YouTube channel that isn’t the one that caused the kerfuffle last week but you’ll pardon me anyhow if I’m more gunshy than usual on posting from such sources. If you want to search it out, the song is “Halle Berry” and it’s my favorite on the record for more than just the title. I assume it’ll be on Bandcamp eventually, so I’ve included the album’s embed below to be ready for when it might show up there. See? I can be ahead of the game even as I’m behind it.
As Ronnie James Dio once said, “magic.”
To the PR wire:
Austin’s LORD BUFFALO Embrace Dark Folk and Psychedelic Americana on TOHU WA BOHU
Atmospheric quartet capture western skies and unsettling prairie on Blues Funeral Recordings debut
America’s vast ocean of rolling prairie, brutal in its rhythmic repetition and sameness, can be unsettling to take in. The plains force a communion with the open sky, the endless landscape turning the eyes inward.
LORD BUFFALO’s second LP is just that: the outward gaze forced inward, where the unknowable treads the blurred borders between land, sky and mind.
On March 13, Blues Funeral Recordings will release Tohu Wa Bohu, the new album from Austin’s Lord Buffalo, a band whose dark folk and Gothic Americana sees them chasing the same storm-threatening horizon sky as All Them Witches, Woven Hand, Nick Cave and Dead Meadow.
With their spacious soft/loud dynamics and violin drone, Lord Buffalo is often the loudest band on folk night and the softest on a metal bill, never failing to hold their own and make the dichotomy feel effortless.
An unsettling ride through open plains and melancholic Midwestern imagery, Tohu Wa Bohu is thick with captivating intensity and brooding heaviness of the soul. With its haunted themes and spacious soundscapes, the record plays across genres, taking cues equally from Morricone and Badalementi as well as Sabbath and Swans.
Tohu Wa Bohu will be released on digital, CD and LP from Blues Funeral Recordings on March 13th.
LORD BUFFALO is on tour in March and will perform at this year’s Psycho Las Vegas festival (August 2020).
Live Dates: Fri 3/6/20 Austin, TX— The Lost Well Wed 3/11/20 El Paso, TX — Rockhouse Thu 3/12/20 Bisbee, AZ — The Quarry Bisbee Fri 3/13/20 Tempe, AZ — Yucca taproom Sat 3/14/20 Los Angeles, CA — 5 Star Bar Sun 3/15/20 Spring Valley, Ca — Bancroft Tue 3/17/20 Salt Lake City, UT — Loading Dock Wed 3/18/20 Denver, CO — Cervantes Thu 3/19/20 Albuquerque, NM — Sister Bar Sat 3/21/20 Arlington, TX — Division Brewing Thu 4/30/20 Austin, TV — Waterloo Records (in-store performance) August 2020 Las Vegas, NV — Psycho Las Vegas Festival
LORD BUFFALO: Daniel Pruitt – Vocals, Guitar Garrett Hellman – Guitar, Organs Patrick Patterson – Violin Yamal Said – Percussion
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 30th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Danzig doing the Lucifuge record, plus Emperor and Mercyful Fate on US exclusives. In the age of spectacle, Psycho Las Vegas stands apart from its otherwise-might-be peers. There’s a method to all this madness. A plan in action. These people aren’t stupid — this isn’t a stupid lineup, unless you mean “stupid” in an emphatic sense. That’s what Psycho Las Vegas is: emphasis realized. The chaos is the mission. How could there be a more suitable complement to this year, this moment in human history? This is happening at a fucking casino. In Las Vegas. Do you understand what I’m telling you? Do you understand you surreal that is? Repulsion are playing a god damned casino. On a bill with The Flaming Lips and Katatonia. This is your brain on… fire, I guess?
A couple weeks ago — days ago? hours? I have no idea what day it is or why I should be expected to know; I’ve actually set an alarm to post this at the right time in an effort not to screw it up which I probably will anyhow — I happened to have some quick email correspondence with the souls behind the genre-consuming beast of a festival that is Psycho Las Vegas 2020 and I made my BIG PITCH for coverage. Want to know what it was? What it basically boiled down to was, “How about you guys bring me out to the festival and put me up for four days, I take a bunch of mushrooms, maybe go see some bands and write whatever the hell I want?”
Their answer was yes, so that’s my plan. I think Psycho deserves nothing less than me ranting about I don’t know probably cultural decay, self-hate manifest as pretentious judgmentalism, and not eating for four days? Yeah, that sounds good. I’ll go with that.
The schedule isn’t out yet, but it’s clearly a choose-your-adventure festival. For those seeing HOT TIPS from an internet influencer, you’re on the wrong goddamn site. I’m the guy who spent half his morning cleaning up animal piss at his mom’s house. I’ll say though that along with the gargantuan proportion of the headliners — come on, Danzig doing Danzig II is brilliant and you know it — and all the indie, emo and post-hardcore stuff that, yeah okay, I get it, the aughts were a thing for some people (not for me; was too drunk to remember any of it), it’s righteous to see such a huge event in addition to telling Coachella to suck its ass continuing to commit to the heavy underground. My chosen adventure will include but not be limited to placing priority on Lord Buffalo, Blackwater Holylight, Fatso Jetson (of course), Mothership (the context is too good to pass up), Hippie Death Cult and… yes… Katatonia. Because they’re the wintriest band ever and it’ll be 100 degrees. The most Psycho move ever would be to put them on the pool stage. Keeping my fingers crossed that’s how it works out. Shit, put Mayhem out there while we’re at it.
That’s all provided I’m not too out of my mind to leave the hotel room.
Here’s a poster and words in blue. See you there, sort of:
PSYCHO LAS VEGAS 2020 – COMPLETE LINEUP
DANZIG (Celebrating 30 years of “Lucifuge”) MERCYFUL FATE (2020 USA Exclusive) EMPEROR (2020 USA Exclusive) THE FLAMING LIPS BLUE OYSTER CULT DOWN (Celebrating 25 years of “Nola”) BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB TY SEGALL WARPAINT MAYHEM SATYRICON WATAIN BLONDE REDHEAD HEALTH OBITUARY ULVER (2020 USA Exclusive) KATATONIA AT THE GATES POISON THE WELL TSOL CROWBAR EXHORDER WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM THURSDAY PINBACK ZOLA JESUS DRAB MAJESTY BORIS KING DUDE PAUL CAUTHEN AMIGO THE DEVIL EYEHATEGOD PIG DESTROYER REPULSION IMMOLATION MIDNIGHT MGLA WINDHAND CURSIVE BRUTUS PROFANATICA LOWER DENS BLACK JOE LEWIS INTRONAUT BOYSETSFIRE DEATH BY STEREO CURL UP AND DIE ADAMANTIUM THIS WILL DESTROY YOU KHEMMIS MOTHERSHIP GUANTANAMO BAYWATCH DENGUE FEVER KAELAN MIKLA BLACKWATER HOLYLIGHT FATSO JETSON WINO (ACOUSTIC) CREEPING DEATH MEPHISTOFELES FRANKIE AND THE WITCH FINGERS TOKE FOIE GRAS FLAVOR CRYSTALS SILVERTOMB LORD BUFFALO WARISH ALMS BOMBERS GLACIAL TOMB RELAXER HIPPIE DEATH CULT VAELMYST MOTHER MERCURY DJ SCOTT SELTZER
Psycho Entertainment & MGM Entertainment present PSYCHO SWIM
Lineup: OLD MAN GLOOM ELDER THE SKULL DEATH VALLEY GIRLS BLACKWATER HOLYLIGHT HERE LIES MAN POLYRHYTHMICS DJ SCOTT SELTZER
Tickets for PSYCHO LAS VEGAS as well as the PSYCHO SWIM pre-party, which requires a separate ticket from the main festival pass, are on sale now!
Tickets for all PSYCHO LAS VEGAS events can be purchased at VivaPsycho.com or AXS.com.
Austin, Texas, heavy Americana psych/post-rockers (vague enough for you?) Lord Buffalo will release their sophomore album, Tohu Wa Bohu, through Blues Funeral Recordings sometime in the early going of 2020. Though the four-piece will likely draw immediate comparisons to Rochester, NY, trio King Buffalo, if only for the similarity of their monikers, the 40-minute eight-tracker shows a diversity of influence from All Them Witches brooding, bluesy moon-howling atmospherics in its early going on “Raziel” or “Halle Berry” to some of Young Hunter‘s sneaky guitar bounce and nuance in the title-track and flourish of piano and strings prefaced in “Dog Head” that finds realization across the final trio of “Kenosis,” the relatively brief “Heart of the Snake” and closer “Llano Estacado No. 2,” executed with a build and airy fluidity of presence that reminds of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds tripping on Wovenhand‘s often-severe point of view.
It is a heft of ambience as much as tone, but there’s no shortage of rhythmic impact as well, as even the lumber of “Dog Head” shows, vocals and violin sweeping up in a melodic wash punctuated by a thick-sounding snare that brings its crescendo down and locks in the more immediate thump-on-a-can of “Tohu Wa Bohu” itself, the title-track manifesting the highway-at-night vibe that the single’s accompanying cover also portrays. Lord Buffalo are no less comfortable in stark reaches than they are in their moments of fuller arrangement, and “Tohu Wa Bohu” transitions from one to the other with a hypnotic flow that would seem to lead off the immersion of side B of the vinyl, which of course only runs deeper as the subsequent tracks play out, culminating in “Llano Estacado No. 2,” with its repetitive string line and post-apex plays toward abrasion on a long fade capping. The standout line of the record and certainly of the song itself belongs to the title-track’s “Come show me how to feel,” which is delivered with due implore, but at no point is Tohu Wa Bohu cloying. Its songs are patient and often beautifully constructed, and whatever elements exist that might invite comparisons to the work of others, they’re used in such a way as to hone a persona belonging to the album itself.
Those who want to take the drive will find “Tohu Wa Bohu” premiering below, followed by comment from Lord Buffalo, as well as Blues Funeral, and the signing and release announcement. It’s a lot to pack into one post, but I have faith you’re up for it.
Please enjoy:
Vocalist/guitarist Daniel Pruitt on “Tohu Wa Bohu”:
As a band, we get booked on all kinds of bills. We’re often the loud band on a quiet bill or the quietest band on a heavy bill, and we can do both. We like a lot of different music, but it’s all pretty dark, and that has been our guiding light.
“Tohu Wa Bohu” is the title-track from our new record, and it’s a good example of what we’re going for, starting tight and sparse and building into something large and wide open. We wanted to try to use the rhythmic elements as the drone. It’s this pulsing, repetitive wave of bass and drums that makes a bed for the guitar and violin and builds into a huge vocal chant.
Jadd Shickler of Blues Funeral Recordings on the signing:
Lord Buffalo is a departure from our more familiar stoner/doom output, but we have broad tastes and know our listeners do, too. We’ve been fans of bands like 16 Horsepower, Son Volt and Godspeed You! Black Emperor for decades, and Lord Buffalo’s atmospheric ghost-town Americana captivates us in much the same way that those bands do. We saw them at the inaugural Monolith on the Mesa festival, where they absolutely decimated on a bill alongside tons of traditionally heavy bands. We’ve got no doubt that they’ll land for fans of bands like Dead Meadow, WovenHand, and Calexico, and can’t wait to release their new record.
Album Release Info:
America’s vast ocean of rolling prairie, brutal in its rhythmic repetition and sameness, can be unsettling to take in. The plains force a communion with the open sky, the endless landscape turning one’s eye inward.
Lord Buffalo’s second LP, Tohu Wa Bohu, is just that: the outward gaze forced inward, where the unknowable lingers on the blurred horizon between land, sky and mind.
In the Torah, “tohu wa bohu” refers to the formless void; the shape of things before the act of creation.
In thinking about writing the album, Lord Buffalo wanted to embrace unformed space and resist the instinct to control the process.
With only some basic arrangements in place, they entered Good Danny’s studio in Lockhart, Texas. As the tape rolled, they aimed to catch moments of new creation, the spirit hovering over the surface of the deep.
The end result is an elusive animal, equally at home under yellow street lights and purple desert skies. Tohu Wa Bohu is a heavy/quiet record that plays across genres, taking cues equally from Morricone and Badalementi as Sabbath and Swans. In sum, its thirty-nine minutes play more as a continuous movement than a collection of songs, a ride through open plains and melancholic midwestern imagery under a storm-threatening sky.
Tohu Wa Bohu will be available worldwide on LP, CD, and digital via Blues Funeral Recordings in early 2020.
Lord Buffalo are: G.J. Hellman P.J. Patterson Yamal Said D.J. Pruitt
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 25th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
So, uh, you wanna go get weird in the desert for a weekend? Sure, we all do. And if you’re up for making it the trip of a lifetime, Monolith on the Mesa has a bunch of decked-out vintage trailers available for you to hide from the New Mexico sun while you wait for the show to start. From the pre-party to The Obsessed headlining the second day, the inaugural edition of Monolith on the Mesa looks like the stuff of pilgrimage dreams. Om and Dead Meadow? Wovenhand? Tia Carrera jamming in a brewery? Duel? It’s an obviously curated lineup very purposefully put together with the setting in mind, and whether it’s the indoor or outdoor stage, it’s easy to see where it has the potential to be an incredible time. I’ve gone on at some length about the growth of US festival culture over the course of this decade. Look no further if you need an example of the fruit that would seem to be bearing.
If you make it down, congratulations on your life. You pretty much win.
Lineup and ticket links as per the social medias:
Monolith on the Mesa: A High Desert Rock & Art Experience
Join Us On May 16th, 17th, & 18th In Taos New Mexico At Taos Mesa Brewing Mothership For Monolith on the Mesa A High Desert Rock Experience Like Non Other! A Music Festival with Art Visuals & Installations from Local NM Artists. And Of Course Some Of The Worlds Finest Dark, Psych, Stoner, Doom & Heavy Rock from All Over the Globe and SW Region! Browse Our Websitemonolithonthemesa.comFor VIP And check out our Vintage Trailer Packages!!
MotherShip Outside Stage: Featuring Visuals By Mad Alchemist Liquid Light Show * Day 1: OM * Dead Meadow * Wovenhand * True Widow * EYE * Green Druid * Spirit Mother** Day 2: The Obsessed * Pinkish Black * Castle * The Well * Crypt Trip * WEEED * Cloud Catcher * The Munsens
Taos Mesa Worshipper Inside Stage: Day 1: * Tia Carrera * Wino (Acoustic) * Lord Buffalo * Pharlee * SuperGiant * YOU * Via Vengence * Deep Cross** Day 2 Duel * Stone Deaf * In The Company Of Serpents * Pale Horse\Pale Rider * Communion * Oryx * Sorex * Dysphotic * Devil’s Throne