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

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Tyler Vaillant of Mountainwolf

Posted in Questionnaire on December 5th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Tyler Vaillant of Mountainwolf

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Tyler Vaillant of Mountainwolf

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I’ve created and maintained a very confined space in which I can create and express exactly what I want to do. A decade plus of diligently procrastinating but always moving the stone forward, assembling a team of the greatest and most patient people I know. We play with electricity. Finding new notes and sounds. Creating a song in the moment that can never be played note for note ever again. Screaming “WE’LL BE A BAND FOREVER” at the end of every show. I think I fell into it. I’ve had a band ever since middle school and I don’t know what I’d do without one, I’ve never pictured that scenario.

Describe your first musical memory.

Playing an open E on my mother’s classical guitar. I had just heard Nirvana on the radio. That’s the first time I made my own music (noise). Prior to that I had a cassette tape with a bunch of cowboy songs on it. My neighbor Mikey and I would wear our underwear and cowboy hats and re-create the songs for our mothers. I purchased Will Smith Big Willy Style and Black Sabbath’s Paranoid at a Sam Goody. I would ride a train to South Carolina to visit my grandparents and listen to those albums on compact disks. I was so confused how the solo to War Pigs had two guitars when there was only one guitar player. I heard Kashmir on the radio driving with my Dad to his business in a white pickup truck. It was heavy. My mother signed all of my cousins up for guitar lessons and I wanted nothing to do with it. I was 9. I regretted it 4 years later and signed up for my own. Been hooked ever since. I saw my cousins highs cool band when I was very young, blew me away. He taught me how to play Deliverance on the guitar, just the first couple notes, the “famous lick”. All these kind of mesh into one.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Seeing TOOL was pretty cool. Getting puddled at an Umphreys McGee show was not cool but very psychedelic at the same time. Playing our first sold out show was awesome. Having my grandmother see Mountainwolf live and saying, “That was very sexual darling” was wild. My Mom meeting Lorenza at one of our shows was wild. Playing our first shows in my living room in downtown Annapolis and seeing people crowd surf over my couches was insane. Playing The Whiskey on mushrooms and smashing a guitar was way too psychedelic. Bass amps and PA’s catching on fire was nuts. Losing my shoes and then sifting through a sea of them at an Odd Future show ruled. Almost losing my teeth at Trapped Under Ice sucked. Playing a residency once a week for a month in Baltimore was tite. Recording an entire improvised album and learning how to mix it was stressful but extremely rewarding. Looking over at Tom and Chris when we are dialed in is the best. Playing New Years Eve 2023 surrounded by my favorite people on the planet was electric.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

We’ve always done everything ourselves. For a couple year period we transferred that power to other people. While we got a lot accomplished (and for that I’m ever grateful) a lot of bullshit came along and truly tested the three of ours relationship. Our bond was almost fucked. We’ve kept it contained ever since.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Towards something bigger than ourselves. Something that is constantly being worked on but never truly finished. Hopefully being improved upon and if not, thats’s ok, there’s always the next time. Eventually a sense of Zen where you look back and around and say, I’m proud of this, I hope it lasts as long as I do.

How do you define success?

When I look back and around and say, I’m proud of this, I hope it lasts as long as I do. This is a current feeling.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Pain Olympics. Gore.com. Goatse. Lemon Party. A video of a girl throwing puppies into a river. The early days of the internet were fucked up for a young boi. I hate seeing videos of bad things happen to animals. Beheading videos. Texts on people’s phones I shouldn’t have looked at. Waking up to a person that wasn’t the person I loved at the time. How much money was taken from this band. How much money I’ve spent on this band. An open casket funeral when I was 10. My grandfather shortly after he passed away. Lorenza’s (my fiance) father withering away. Shitty emails from a toxic boss. Dismantling my father’s business in my 20s. Waking up one morning to see our first YouTube channel deleted. Realizing I lost the first five years of content I created for Mountainwolf. The look of disappointment because of something I’ve done. Angry, dead eyes. Sinister, conniving eyes. But mainly that video of the girl with the puppies, absolutely dreadful. I think I lost my innocence that day.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

All our future albums that live in my head. Graphic novels. I wrote a book that I’d like to see published. A youtube fishing channel (work in progress). A warehouse my best friends can come to and create everyday. A vinyl pressing plant. A cheap, shitty light beer that I can drink everyday. Children.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

To get the anger out. To get the love out. To get the pain out. To create a cathartic experience that can be enjoyed over, and over, and over et al.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Getting married. The next fish I catch. Sleeping with my puppy. Beer that doesn’t make you hungover. Gambling on bowling with my bois. Getting together with family. The first snowfall in Maryland (if any). Buying my first home (if ever). Getting back into Texas Holdem. Seeing my puppy (Rudy) play with other dogs. Peace, love, and understanding.

http://facebook.com/mountainwolfmd
https://www.instagram.com/mountainwolfmusic
https://mountainwolf.bandcamp.com/
http://mountainwolfmusic.com/

Mountainwolf, Part 1: Thunder Honey (2023)

Tags: , , , ,

Grim Reefer Fest 2019 Announces Full Lineup with Ruby the Hatchet, Heavy Temple, Horseburner and More

Posted in Whathaveyou on November 28th, 2018 by JJ Koczan

Don’t look now, but here’s another fucking awesome festival to boggle your mind and melt your ears. Grim Reefer Fest 2019 will be held at The Ottobar in Baltimore and feature the likes of Philly heavy psych forerunners Ruby the Hatchet as well as return performances from Heavy Temple and fest-organizers Haze Mage as the event solidifies under the Grim Reefer banner after taking shape earlier this year as Stoned to Death. By any other name, it’s a kickass lineup for the all-dayer-style happening, with HorseburnerMountainwolfBook of WyrmsYatra and Tombtoker filling out the Chesapeake Watershed-minded bill, highlighting  a range of styles from the region and some up and coming as well as more established acts. If you didn’t already have plans for that Saturday, well, you do now.

For a quick side-note: I’ve got a post in the works with an update from Heavy Temple for later this week. Maybe tomorrow, maybe Thursday, depending on how it all comes together. Keep an eye out either way. It’s good news.

Here’s the Grim Reefer announcement, culled from the social medias:

grim reefer fest 2019

Grim Reefer Fest 420 / 2019

Saturday, April 20th, 2019 the Ottobar shall be engulfed by a heavy cloud of groove, gloom, and DOOM. Emerging from the fog a smokey specter materializes, the Grim Reefer. His bloodshot gaze beckoning you forth to test your mettle against a tidal wave of earth-shattering, skull shaking, sonic fuzz that flattens the land. Come forth oh warriors of metal, see if you can traverse the Grim Reefers miasma of crushing metal mayhem and celebrate the holy day of smoke.

Featuring

Ruby the Hatchet (PA) Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Psych-doom
Heavy Temple (PA) – Groovy, moody, fuzzy doom
Haze Mage (MD) – Sword and sorcery stoner metal
Horseburner (WVA) – Pure, pounding stoner rock n’ roll
Mountainwolf (MD) – Hard Rock Psychedelia
Book of Wyrms (VA) – Appalachian stoner rock
YATRA (MD) – Heavy, mountainous riffage
Tombtoker (MD) – Risen, undead doom/metal

$20 ADV – Ticket link: http://www.theottobar.com/event/1794968

https://www.facebook.com/events/726623521049970/
http://www.theottobar.com/event/1794968
https://www.facebook.com/hazemage/

Heavy Temple, Live at Muddy Roots Music Festival 2018

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Moving the Earth Fest III Set for June 6 with Borracho, Mos Generator and More

Posted in Whathaveyou on May 6th, 2015 by JJ Koczan

The same tour that’s bringing Mos Generator and Wounded Giant east for the Eye of the Stoned Goat out on Long Island will also make a stop at Moving the Earth III in Baltimore. The West Coast acts will top the bill, which is rounded out by a who’s-who of Baltimore and nearby bringers of heavy, including Philly’s Wizard Eye and Delaware’s Wasted Theory. I’m expecting news any minute now about the new Foghound record, and they just played Sludgement Day in MD as well and will also be at the Maryland Doom Fest. I’d paint it as different festivals vying for supremacy — I haven’t mentioned Autumn Screams Doom or Vultures of Volume yet — but I think it’s more just that there’s a ton of killer heavy shit from Baltimore and the surrounding area, so getting together a bill of seven or 15 or 30 righteous acts makes more sense than not. Hell, if I lived there, I’d probably do it too. Plus, the door’s dirt cheap, so what the hell?

Lineup for Moving the Earth III and poster by Bill Kole of Ol’ Time Moonshine follows, yanked from the Thee Facebooks event page:

moving the earth iii

Moving The Earth Fest 3!!!

Saturday, June 6
The Sidebar
218 E Lexington St, Baltimore, Maryland 21202

Moving The Earth Fest’s 3rd edition features 2 kickass bands on tour from the great northwest in MOS GENERATOR and WOUNDED GIANT!!!

Moving The Earth Fest 3 headliners MOS GENERATOR ( Ripple Music/ Small Stone Records) are coming all the way from the Great Northwest to rock your face off!

Joining them on this edition are…
DC sonic bulldozers, *BORRACHO*
Delaware’s riff slinging sons-a-bitches *WASTED THEORY*
Bmores own heavy/fuzz/riff-rock destruction machine, *FOGHOUND*
Philly heavy/stoner rock spellcasters, *WIZARD EYE*
Annapolis heavy/psych mountain movers *MOUTAINWOLF*
And last but not least… Charm City’s *PEARLY GOATS* kick things off in smokin’ style!

DJ EL SUPRIMO
will also be spinning killer vinyl all night long between sets!

Kickass event poster by Bill Kole!

Come early, stay late! All killer, no filler!

Doors at 6pm + $13 ( cheap!)

https://www.facebook.com/events/100217793646871/
https://www.facebook.com/MovingTheEarthFestival

Borracho, “I’ve Come for it All”

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,