They were kids having fun, and they sound like it. Before you dive into the stream above of Greenleaf‘s 2000 self-titled debut EP, you should note that the version above is the 2015 remaster by Karl Daniel Lidén, who played drums on the original 10″ and was also in Demon Cleaner at the time. His since-then production/mixing credits at his own Tri-Lamb Studios and elsewhere are myriad: Switchblade, Dozer, yes, Greenleaf, Yodok, Draconian, A Swarm of the Sun, Crippled Black Phoenix, Katatonia, Lowrider, on and on and on. While it was bassist Bengt Bäcke who originally engineered, one could hardly think of someone more appropriate to handle the updated version.

I put up a brag post to this effect the other day, but this record has been a holy grail release for me to own on vinyl; I said as much as recently as last month when I reviewed Greenleaf‘s new album, Echoes From a Mass (review here). It exists, you can chase it down, but only 500 copies of the original pressing were made through Molten Universe, and especially one in good shape is should-be-in-a-museum-under-glass-surrounded-by-lasers kind of stuff. I was gifted a copy by a good friend who told it was from his collection. I have my doubts, but welled up with tears just the same at the gesture of someone-who-actually-knows-you affection.

Timeline-wise, Greenleaf‘s Greenleaf is contemporary to Dozer‘s 2000 debut, In the Tail of a Comet (featured here; discussed here), which came out through Man’s Ruin Records, and considering the way founding guitarist and lone-remaining original member Tommi Holappa talked about the origins of the group in the video interview that went up earlier this week — I know, lots of Greenleaf around here lately; please address all complaints to my butt — where he said it was a side-project, kind of a toss-off without being a toss-off, a way to pay tribute to the heavy ’70s, that vibe comes across more in the five songs/24 minutes of the 10″ than even in the band’s subsequent 2001 debut album, Revolution Rock (discussed here).

With Holappa on guitar, Bäcke on bass, and Lidén drumming, vocals were handled by Lowrider‘s Peder Bergstrand and Dozer‘s own Fredrik Nordin, the latter joining Bergstrand on second cut “Sold My Lady (Out the Back of an Oldsmobile)” and fronting side B opener “Smell the Green” on his own. The influences of Sweden’s November and bands like Leaf Hound are rampant through the swinging “Kvinna Du Ger Mig Ingen Kärlek” (on which Bergstrand also plays guitar and bass) and the more brash opener “Get Your Love Outta Here,” which sounds like they wrote it on the spot even 21 years after the fact. And I wouldn’t doubt it. It’s a righteous jam and a two-minute speedster, and while I’m not about to defend the sexual politics of the record — dudes writin’ about ladies on side A, even in Swedish — side B, with “Smell the Green,” the seven-minute highlight “Land of Lincoln” and the half-psych, more Queens of the Stone Age than Budgie “Status: Hallucinogenic” show that even in their infancy, Greenleaf showed sonic aspirations beyond homage, or at very least a take of their own on what they were putting into their ears.

By their own admission, Greenleaf had no idea what they were setting in motion with this EP, but it says a lot about the nature of their work that even as their lineup would continue to shift for a decade and a half afterward, they maintained a consistent quality of songwriting and managed to push forward, gradually making their way toward prominence as more than a side-project, as the main vehicle for Holappa‘s songwriting, and as one of Swedish heavy’s foremost purveyors. It says something that listening to Greenleaf, one song into the next, produces that kind of vague nostalgia and carefree sense that the photo on the cover art has as well, though that picture could’ve been decades old at the time. Greenleaf, in trying to capture that spirit on their own, now convey that same feeling these decades later. Simpler times.

Greenleaf would operate opposite Dozer for the better part of 10 years after this. Their first LP showed up the same year as Dozer‘s second, and even as Dozer hit the road as a full-on touring band, Greenleaf produced albums on the semi-regular, with 2003’s Secret Alphabets (discussed here) following behind Revolution Rock and beginning an alliance with Small Stone Records that would see Greenleaf through their next three LPs: 2007’s Agents of Ahriman (vinyl reissue review here), 2012’s Nest of Vipers (review here) and 2014’s Trails and Passes (review here), the first two of which were fronted by Oskar Cedermalm of Truckfighters and the latter which introduced Arvid Hällagård on vocals.

Following in the significant footsteps of Bergstrand, Nordin, and Cedermalm is no easy task, but now with four records under his belt, Hällagård is the longest-tenured Greenleaf singer and has brought his own melodic stamp to the band. That’s not to take away from the others, of course, but from Trails and Passes on through 2016’s Rise Above the Meadow (review here), 2018’s Hear the Rivers (review here) and last month’s Echoes From a Mass, one can follow a clear progression of his collaboration with Holappa, and the two have as much chemistry together as, say, Holappa and Nordin ever did in Dozer to-date. Understand, that is not a statement I make lightly.

But of course, all of that would be years and adulthoods away from the band Greenleaf were when they made this EP, and I consider myself not only fortunate to have the vinyl and the chance to hear it as it was first pressed, but on a more basic level the excuse to revisit it in the context of who and what Greenleaf have become. These songs are loose, unbridled, charming in their way and crafted feeling almost in spite of themselves. It’s the kind of collection that, were you to hear it now for the first time, might sound like a band that had some potential to make cool things happen. Go figure.

As always, I hope you enjoy.

—

I’m apparently a mess today, which, you know, fair enough. Desertfest London doing their lineup announcement kind of threw me off — knew it was coming but forgot at the same time because I exist in a semi-conscious haze of permanent distraction brought on by lack of sleep, toddler motion and feeling overwhelmed by tasks basic and complex — and then the whole thing yesterday with Will Mecum from Karma to Burn having died and then not, because the internet and social media and someone said he was dead and then I’m still seeing posts that he’s dead but as of me writing this, 9:12AM on Friday, April 30, I have it on good authority he’s still on life support. But yeah, that whole thing took off — no thanks to me, I shared a RIP post from Instagram as well, soon enough took it down — and I feel like I’ve been thrown ever since.

My email is brutal. I have so much shit I need to get back to people on. I’m sorry if that’s you. I’ve been pretty burnt the last couple weeks. I guess I got thrown off this week too earlier on, because the Cool Thing that I said was gonna happen this past Monday did, but I was forbidden from discussing same. And the band’s rationale makes sense. I’ll post about it probably later in June, and that’s a while to sit on a Cool Thing, but in context it’s reasonable. I’m not about to be a dick and undercut someone’s promo plan because I’m excited about a thing. Professionalism is a joke, but that’s just being an asshole.

See? I just put up the Wax Mekanix questionnaire and got pulled away from sharing it by a new At the Gates single. This is my life.

Sounds pretty good.

I wonder if I can go shower and get back in time to put up the Severant premiere that needs posting at 10AM. Gives me about half an hour. I bet I can do it.

Made it, plenty of time. Not sure if that’s gonna make the ultimate difference one way or the other on my day, but it never hurts to get cleaned up. I’ve got a pretty decent nearly-every-day streak going, which is much better than where I was a year ago at this time when it was “if I get in the shower this kid is gonna stab me I better just sit on the couch and be afraid to leave the house.”

Whatever. I could go on. I won’t. New Gimme show at 5PM. Please listen. Please like the tracks. Tell them I’m good. Thanks.

Great and safe weekend. Hydrate. Watch your head. Stay safe. Get some time outside if you can. Back Monday.

FRM.

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Man’s Ruin Records, which put out the first two Dozer albums in 2000’s In the Tail of a Comet (discussed here) and Madre de Dios (discussed here), had folded. At the same time, the Swedish four-piece — still working with the lineup of guitarists Tommi Holappa and Fredrik Nordin (the latter also vocals), bassist Johan Rockner and drummer Erik Bäckwall — had well earned momentum on their side both from the quality of the two records they’d put out and the tours they’d done to support. They’d done vinyl releases before through their own Molten Universe imprint, including the LP version of Madre de Dios, so when it came time to unveil 2002’s third album, Call it Conspiracy (also discussed here), rather than take the time to chase down another label, they simply pressed the album themselves.

That choice is important in understanding where the band were at stylistically at the time as well. Call it Conspiracy is an urgent 13-track shove, more crisp in its production and more assured in its drive, less distinctly desert rock than either of its predecessors, and it therefore marks a turning point in Dozer‘s sound. They could hardly be said to have been lacking in identity before it, but even though it had only been a year, there’s a marked shift that takes place between Madre de Dios and its follow-up, though the band’s songwriting — on display right from the start with the essential opening one-two punch of “The Hills Have Eyes” and “Rising” — was more resilient than ever, and Call it Conspiracy remains a fan favorite even some 18 years after its initial release. They’re the kinds of songs a promoter might ask to hear twice and then the DJ would play through the P.A. afterwards anyhow, but I suppose the same could be said of the entire Dozer catalog.

After Call it Conspiracy, Dozer signed to Detroit-based Small Stone Records and offered up 2005’s Through the Eyes of Heathens (discussed here) and 2008’s Beyond Colossal (discussed here). By 2005, Bäckwall was out of the band. He and Rockner can currently be found in moody atmospheric rockers Besvärjelsen. In the meantime, around 2007, Tommi Holappa‘s long-established side-project Greenleaf began an ascent to the forefront that, as Dozer receded following the 2008 offering, would only continue to shift the balance between the two groups. A succession of albums and tours that in some ways answers the stylistic progression that Dozer left behind, but with its own, bluesier sensibility as well, took shape, and even now awaits its next installment, as Greenleaf recently announced they were writing their next full-length for release on Napalm Records.

As Call it Conspiracy is the third in the trilogy of Dozer releases being reissued through Heavy Psych Sounds, and this is the last of the full-album-streams/interviews to coincide, I’d like to send my thanks to the label, to Purple Sage PR and of course to Tommi Holappa for allowing me to host the records and do the Q&As. These records have meant a lot to me over the years and I’m glad they’re getting back out there again. The more who hear them, the merrier.

Thanks for reading. Please enjoy:

Call it Conspiracy Q&A with Tommi Holappa

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Call it Conspiracy marked a shift in Dozer’s sound away from desert-style heavy rock. How purposeful was that progression? Was there a reason behind it, or was it just the way your sound evolved?

When we started writing songs for C.I.C. we could early on hear that we were going in a different direction on some of the songs, which I think was just natural growth of the band, new influences and maybe not wanting to do the same album over and over again. We still wanted to have a fat heavy sound but maybe it didn’t have to be the fattest and fuzziest sound in the world, this is when we decided to tune up our guitars half a step to make everything sound a little bit clearer.

The biggest change was definitely that we hired a producer for this album. All the earlier albums and demos were recorded by Bengt Bäcke (Greenleaf) at the Rockhouse studio in Borlänge. This studio was a simple demo studio but it worked just fine for the first albums. We thought it was time to try something new and see what happens so we hired Chips Kiesby, he had produced High Visibility with The Hellacopters which was an album we all loved. So a producer and a “professional” studio (Music-a-matic in Gothenburg) was the biggest change.

It was only a year’s space between In the Tail of a Comet, Madre de Dios and Call it Conspiracy, but the band seemed to go through so much growth. How do you feel your songwriting process changed over that time? What was it like being in Dozer in 2002 as opposed to 1999 or 2000?

Well it was a year between the releases but in the end I think it took a year for Man’s Ruin to release In the Tail of a Comet so when it came out I think we already had most of Madre de Dios written. But yeah we were growing fast, we didn’t want to be stuck in one place and write the same song over and over again. The more albums we put out the more time we put into trying to write better songs.

Of course, Call it Conspiracy also helped set up the progression across Through the Eyes of Heathens and Beyond Colossal. How do you feel about the thread of Dozer’s work overall?

If you listen to the albums from first to last you can really hear a band that keeps growing the whole time. The first and last albums are almost like two completely different bands but you can still hear that it is Dozer and that is the most important thing.

Anything in particular you’d like to add about Call it Conspiracy? Any other standout memories to share about this time in the band?

This was a crazy and fun time for us! We toured a lot! We did support act tours with Clutch and Mastodon in Europe, we did shows in US, Canada and Australia for the first time.

Also Karl Daniel Lidén joined the band to replace Erik Bäckwall on drums. With Daniel’s energy, heaviness and kick in our asses we started the writing for Through the Eyes of Heathens, but that’s another story.

Will there ever be another Dozer album?

There are no plans at the moment for an album or anything but It would be fun to at least try to write a song together with the guys and see how it would turn out. It’s been 12-13 years since we last wrote together so it would definitely be interesting.

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Dozer‘s second album, Madre de Dios, will see reissue this Friday on Heavy Psych Sounds, and if the arrival just a week after In the Tail of a Comet (streamed/discussed here) feels quick, consider that in reality the sophomore LP came out just a year after the debut — so it was quick then as well. Born in 2001, Madre de Dios was pressed to vinyl through the band’s own Molten Universe imprint and to CD through Man’s Ruin Records, with different artwork for each, and despite the speedy turnaround from its predecessor, already one could hear growth in the sound of the Borlänge, Sweden, four-piece, who were beginning to take the desert rock style that had typified the first album and their earlier demos and splits and reshape it to their aesthetic will, consciously or not, through the seemingly simple act of honest songwriting.

With the returning lineup of guitarist Tommi Holappa, guitarist/vocalist Fredrik Nordin, bassist Johan Rockner and drummer Erik Bäckwall, songs like “Freeloader,” “Octanoid,” “Soulshigh,” the spacey “TX-9” and indeed, opener “Let the Shit Roll” — about which Holappa shares a good story below — showcased a fast progression on the part of the band, who were beginning to reach for a faster, sometimes more aggressive, sound that, ultimately, was more their own. In hindsight, it’s easy to look at Madre de Dios as a turning point from who Dozer were in their nascent days to who they’d become as they began to mature as a group, but the same could be said more or less of every album up to the last, since once it got underway, their progression never really stopped bringing their sound to new and exciting places in terms of craft.

But in 2001, fuzz was still king in Dozer‘s sound, and Madre de Dios‘ 10-track/39-minute run is as righteous a conglomeration of hairy riffs as one could ever hope to encounter. Propelled by the gallop in Bäckwall‘s snare and the emergence of Nordin as a frontman, from the moment the shit starts to roll, right down to the aptly-titled closer “Thunderbolt” — which even in its reissue form keeps the stretch of effects noise at the end — the record is sharp in its execution and still somehow laid back in its groove, as though Dozer were pushing that defining line of heavy rock and roll as far as it could go, testing those boundaries while actively working to find their place in (and/or out) of them. As a band, at this point they were on the road, and as part of the post-Kyuss movement of “stoner rock,” Dozer were helping to shape what we know today as the heavy underground. Their influence and their songs continue to resonate.

By which I mean Madre de Dios still kicks ass. Hear for yourself above. Holappa talks about it below.

Please enjoy:

Madre de Dios Q&A with Tommi Holappa

—

Tell me about being in the studio for Madre de Dios. What do you remember your attitude was coming off of the first record, and was there anything in particular you wanted to do differently with the second one?

After the first album was released we wanted more, bigger and better! Releasing albums and touring was fun! So we couldn’t wait to go back into the studio and record another album.

I´m pretty sure the attitude was that we just wanted to write the best songs we could and record an album that sounded fat as hell!

To be honest I can’t remember much of the recording session of this album, only some bits and pieces, it has nothing to do with drinking too much in the studio or anything it’s just that it’s so damn long ago hahaha! I remember that I got my Russian Big Muff and my Gibson SG just before this album so those two were used a lot.

The original CD and LP wound up with different covers. Was that a choice on the part of the band, or maybe Man’s Ruin? Do you feel that one or the other better represents the album?

The story is that Man’s Ruin didn’t want to release it on vinyl so we asked them if we could release it ourselves via Molten Universe. They were okay and we said cool, then we release it with different artwork and put a bonus track on it. I personally prefer the vinyl artwork and the song “Rings of Saturn” is on it, one of my favorite early tracks.

What was the reception like in Sweden specifically to the band at this point?

It was ok but nothing compared to Germany and some other central European countries. So most of the touring was done outside of Sweden where people actually showed up to see us hahaha!

How hard was Dozer touring at this point? What was the reception like to this material live? Are there any memories that stand out from the Madre de Dios era that you can share?

At this point we had started touring quiet a lot. Reception was good, outside of Sweden of course hahaha. “Let the Shit Roll” was a song that usually got the crowd going nuts and I have actually one pretty funny story about that song.

We were in Zurich/Switzerland and the DJ at the club started playing “Let the Shit Roll” just before we were about to go on stage, fuck! Why do they that song now!? What do we do? Should we just skip the song from the set or?! Fuck it let’s just play it!

Anyway we did our set and played “Let the Shit Roll” and I don’t think anyone cared that they heard it twice. We went off stage and the crowd was screaming for more so just when we were about to go on stage again to play the encores the promoter came up to us and asked if we can play “Let the Shit Roll.” We told him that we already played it and we will play a couple of other songs instead but he really kept going on and on about how much he wants to hear it, so he offered us one more case of beer if we would play it.

We went up on stage and of course we had to play it again! It’s free beer! And free beer is good beer! Hahaha! So we played “Let the Shit Roll” a second time and a couple of more tracks. When we were done we go off stage and guess what song the DJ starts playing? “LET THE SHIT ROLL!”

Anything else in particular you’d like to say about Madre de Dios?

I got the idea for the album title from an episode of The Simpsons.

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Demon Cleaner, The Freeflight (2000)

Something of a lost classic of its era now, Demon Cleaner‘s 2000 debut, The Freeflight isn’t actually all that lost. Molten Universe, the label that put it out 16 years ago along with early releases by related Swedish acts Dozer and Greenleaf, still has copies available. So maybe not lost, but in the pantheon of the beginnings of Europe’s stoner rock boom of the late ’90s and early ’00s, Demon Cleaner deserve consideration alongside Dozer and Lowrider, among others, and their name is often left off that list. Part of that I think is owed to timing. If the early-Fu Manchu fuzz of “Head Honcho” or “Megawheel” dropped today, it would come accompanied by a video of somebody skateboarding in slow motion and would be hailed for its post-grunge authenticity of tone and live feel. Because it was 2000 — a time when discovering music on the internet was something done largely through surfing somebody’s Napster offerings or the odd message board — the process was different and not nearly so widespread, and unlike Lowrider, who had US distribution through MeteorCity, or Dozer, who kept putting out records, Demon Cleaner called it quits after 2002’s self-titled follow-up (also on Molten Universe), with members moving onto Stonewall Noise Orchestra and drummer Karl Daniel Lidén joining Dozer and Greenleaf before embarking on solo material and a successful career as an engineer — he did the latest Katatonia, for example — so there hasn’t been the same kind of sustained legacy for Demon Cleaner as some of their peers.

That, of course, does nothing to diminish the “Spit blood and gasoline/Chrome and steel/Megawheel” appeal of that track or the nodding roll of “Up in Smoke,” or the push of a song like “Mothertrucker,” in which one can hear the roots of a brand of fuzz rock that countrymen acts like Truckfighters would continue to progress years later. Tone is a huge part of the appeal, as closer “Heading Home” successfully emphasizes, but there’s a rawness in the vocals, a dryness, where so much of what came afterwards was and has been drenched in reverb. It gives the delivery of guitarist Daniel Söderholm — joined at this point by Lidén, guitarist Kimmo Holappa and bassist/vocalist Martin Stangefelt — a punkish feel that’s ultimately much truer to the bulk of what came out of the Californian desert scene, whether it was Kyuss or heavy rock compatriots like the aforementioned Fu Manchu. Listening back to The Freeflight now, one can hear the aesthetic of pre-retro European heavy rock taking shape, and while Demon Cleaner may always be noted for having issued a trio of early splits alongside Dozer before their records dropped, linking those two acts and that scene, their albums deliver something from which even Dozer was operating on a different wavelength, and while of their time, I think these tracks still hold up all these years later.

If you’re worried about investing the time in checking it out, The Freeflight has a long break after “Heading Home” before a hidden cut, so it’s not actually 55 minutes long. I guess it was the Lowrider news earlier today got me thinking about these guys, but either way, I hope you enjoy.

—

If you’re at Desertfest this weekend in either Berlin or London, I hope you have an absolute blast. I’ll admit to being more than a little jealous. Maybe next year I’ll get to Berlin finally or make a triumphant return to Camden Town. I’ll go anywhere that’ll have me, basically.

Rough week at work but who cares? Dragged down by bullshit. Hate letting it get to me. Hate that it does at all. The list goes on. Screw it. Got a couple days not to think about it, so I’m gonna hold tight to that.

Next week: Monday, track stream from Bright Curse and an in-studio report about the new Scissorfight being tracked at the new Mad Oak. Tuesday (right now), Crypt Sermon interview. Wednesday, track stream from Wo Fat. Thursday and Friday I don’t know yet, but probably something will come along, and there are also videos for Kadavar, Limestone Whale, Spiritual Beggars and Drive by Wire that have all dropped in like the last day, so a bit of a backlog there, but I’ll do my best to get on top of that as well. We’re getting into May already. Amazing how quick this year is going.

Before I go — much as I’m ever “gone,” what with writing on the weekends and all — I want to say thanks for the tremendous amount of support I’ve gotten for the book release, for the All-Dayer in August, and for this year’s Roadburn coverage. It’s all hugely appreciated. Because I work full-time in addition to doing this, I don’t always have the chance to be as communicative as I should, because quite literally the choice I make every day is to write or to do everything else and if it’s one or the other I’m writing every time, but please know that if you’ve reached out to me over the last few weeks, thank you. And if you haven’t and you’re reading this, thank you anyway.

Please have a great and safe weekend, and please check out the forum and the radio stream.

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I’ve beaten a hasty retreat to Connecticut for the night in the hope that a quick rest-cure by the sea will be just the thing to help me vanquish once and for all a cold that’s had me down for more than a week now. Yes, more travel. That’s the answer. I’ll do that.

Rest assured, I won’t be here too long, though, what with the Kings Destroy/The Nolan Gate/Choirs of Titan show The Obelisk is presenting tomorrow night in Hoboken at 123 Harrison St. (see flyer below). It’s gonna be a killer time, and if you want to look for me, I’ll be the bearded dude with long hair probably spouting off at too loud a volume about how the rest of the city of Hoboken can kiss his ass. Good times, people!

If you’re not in the area, I hope you enjoy whatever it is you’re doing, and if you are in the area, I hope to see you there. Either way, enjoy the weekend. Here’s that flier:

This may not be the biggest news of 2010, and I have complete faith that a lot of you could have easily discovered this on your own, but Obelisk attendee “cheesesoda” checked in to let me know Swedish label Molten Universe has a new home on the intertubes and I figured I’d pass along the information.

Not even so much that cheesesoda sent an email or something like that, but he or she (I’ll allow for the possibility there could be a woman calling herself cheesesoda in the world) left a comment on one of this site’s earliest posts, letting me know that should I still need to do so, I can get a copy of Greenleaf‘s Revolution Rock directly from the label. I don’t still need to do so — having long since ordered Revolution Rock from Freebird Records in The Netherlands — but the effort on the part of cheesesoda was genuinely appreciated.

So, in the event that someone else might be looking for some Molten Universe goodness (no, they don’t have the old Dozer/Demon Cleaner splits; a lot of stuff is sold out for good), you can click here to go to their new website.

Back in December, when I had income I could at least vaguely argue was disposable (kind of hard to justify spending your unemployment check on stoner rock CDs to your wife, in case you’ve never tried), I treated myself to buying an album which I’d been trying to track down for some time; Greenleaf’s Revolution Rock on Molten Universe, released in 2001 and featuring members of Swedish stoner legends Dozer and Demon Cleaner.

It was a hard fight to even find it. I scoured websites the world over and even then, it was only on Amazon.de that I found it, not even Amazon.com. After watching the price bobble up and down for a couple days because of the exchange rates, I decided the time was now. It cost over $40 US.

The other day I got this in my email:

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