Posted in Features on February 28th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
[To enter giveaway: Leave a comment on this post with the name of the city where you want to see the show. Make sure your email is in the form provided so I can contact you if you win.]
So here’s the deal: All Them Witches start a tour tomorrow of the Midwest and Eastern Seaboard, ranging as far as Minneapolis and Milwaukee, Burlington and Montreal, and Atlanta and Durham. It’s 23 days of total roadtime, as the now-trio continue to support last year’s ATW (review here). I’ve been given the chance to give away a pair of tickets to any of the shows on this tour — they’re all listed below, but obviously, as the tour starts March 1 — aka tomorrow — it’s gotta be done on the quick.
Thus, a rush. If you can go see All Them Witches sometime in the next three-plus weeks, just leave a comment on this post and let me know what city. If you win, I’ll email you and let you know. I’m going to pick a winner as soon as possible this weekend, but if you’re in Atlanta or Charlotte, North Carolina, it might be tricky. I’m not saying don’t enter, but I’m not saying cancel grandpa’s birthday on account of the surefire evening plans either.
Pretty simple deal, all told. Here are the tour dates:
All Them Witches w/ Plague Vendor: Mar 1 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West Mar 2 – Charlotte, NC @ Visulite Theatre Mar 5 – Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar Mar 6 – Indianapolis, IN @ Hi-Fi Mar 7 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall Mar 8 – Milwaukee, WI @ The Back Room at Colectivo Coffee Mar 9 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Cafe Mar 10 – Madison, WI @ High Noon Mar 12 – Grand Rapids, MI @ The Stache Mar 13 – Ferndale, MI @ Magic Bag Mar 14 – Cleveland Heights, OH @ Grog Shop Mar 15 – Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk Place Mar 16 – Toronto, ON @ Opera House Mar 17 – Montreal, QC @ L’Astral Mar 19 – South Burlington, VT @ Showcase Lounge Mar 20 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair Mar 21 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom Mar 22 – Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church Mar 23 – Washington, DC @ Rock & Roll Hotel Mar 24 – Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall
As ever, I keep no emails, I sell no emails. I have no interest in or knowledge of such things. The only reason I want your email address is to tell you if you win. Thanks for reading and for your support. Good luck to all who enter.
[To enter giveaway: Leave a comment on this post with the name of the city where you want to see the show. Make sure your email is in the form provided so I can contact you if you win.]
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 21st, 2019 by JJ Koczan
I wrote a bio this past weekend for Howling Giant that, at least I hope, will be of some use as they move toward the completion and release of their debut full-length later this year. That’ll be nifty. In the meantime, to tide over we plebes, the Nashville trio are set to issue a remastered vinyl version of their 2015 self-titled debut four-song EP through Blues Funeral Recordings, and as the PR wire notes below, they’ll also take part in Ripple Music‘s upcoming successor to the The Second Coming of Heavy split series, called Turn to Stone, and Magnetic Eye‘s Alice in Chains homage, Dirt [Redux]. Do you wonder what song they’re doing? I do.
Because this is what happens when a band is so utterly restless, they’ll also head out on tour. Next month they’ll hit up the SX Stoner Jam along with the rest of the planet except for me because I’m not cool enough, and then in April it’s off to Psycho Smoke Out in L.A., which I’m also not cool enough for. Points to me for consistency and points to the band for not being able to sit still. Gotta go, gotta go.
I’ll hope to post that bio here sooner or later, but the PR wire sums up all their doings thusly:
HOWLING GIANT Announce Spring US Tour with Stops at SXSW Stoner Jam and Psycho Smokeout
Cosmic psych-metallers drop much-demanded vinyl EP and break in their new bassist on the road; full album due this summer.
If ever there was a band who seemed to be following a treasure map from humble origins to future psych-metal stardom, it’s Howling Giant. And 2019 is shaping up to be their biggest year yet.
First, the interplanetary riff-rockers will see their self-titled debut EP get an official release from Blues Funeral Recordings.
Featuring EC Comics-inspired artwork by Darren Merinuk and all tracks fully remastered by Dave Shirk (Mastodon, The Obsessed), the March 22nd release of this glorious slab on digital and wax marks the band’s first-ever vinyl offering, giving longtime supporters the chance (at last) to bring home a tangible piece of Howling Giant heaviness after watching them tear up yet another stage.
And speaking of tearing up stages, the band is just starting to gear up for a huge year on the road, with a clutch of dates in March leading straight into an almost month-long tour in April/May.
Featuring a string of shows with Indiana’s Archarus, the back-to-back tours include slots at the ever-popular South by Southwest Stoner Jam as well as the fest you’re guaranteed to forget (or you’re doing it wrong), the Psycho Smokeout (from the folks who bring you Psycho Las Vegas).
Full tour dates for Howling Giant Spring 2019 are: 3/12/19: Lafayette, LA – Freetown Boom Boom Room * 3/13/19: Houston, TX – Dan Electros * 3/14/19: Austin, TX – SXSW Stoner Jam (feat. Howling Giant, Riff Lord, Backwoods Payback, Duel, Heavy Temple, Mountain Tamer, Hazytones, ZED and more) * 3/15/19: Arlington, TX – Division Brewing * 3/16/19: Texarkana, AR – Broadway Sports Bar and Billiards * 4/12/19: Memphis, TN – Hi Tone 4/13/19: Little Rock, AR – Vino’s 4/15/19: Oklahoma City, OK – 89th st. OKC 4/16/19: San Antonio,TX – Lime Light 4/17/19: Albuquerque, NM – Sister Bar 4/19/19: San Diego, CA – The Salty Frog 4/20/19: Los Angeles, LA – Psycho Smokeout (feat. Elder, Monolord, Goya, R.I.P., Electric Citizen and more) 4/21/19: San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill 4/23/19: Seattle, WA – Highline 4/24/19: Bend, OR – Third Street Pub 4/25/19: Portland, OR – Tonic 4/27/19: Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court 4/28/19: Denver, CO – Hi-Dive 5/01/19: Indianapolis, IN – Black Circle brewing 5/02/19: Chicago, IL – Reggies Music Room 5/03/19: Canton, OH – Buzzbin 5/04/19: Lexington, KY – Green Lantern * Dates with Archarus
As if that wasn’t enough, Howling Giant are hard at work on their first-ever full-length album, which they’ll be sending to all ends of the cosmos later this summer in conjunction with, you guessed it, more touring.
Furthermore, the band are rumored to be one of the first bands tapped to appear on Ripple Music’s forthcoming Turn to Stone series of split releases, as well as having confirmed a coveted spot on Magnetic Eye Records’ next anxiously-awaited curated homage, Dirt [Redux].
Fortunately, there’s no such thing as too much Howling Giant in this world… or any other.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 29th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Well, every All Them Witches record has been different from the one before it, and no matter what else happens, that’s bound to be the case with their next one as well. In an announcement posted over the weekend, the Nashville heavy-psych blues forerunners made public the departure of keyboardist Jonathan Draper. Draper was, of course, their second organist, taking the place of founding member Allan Van Cleave, who left the band prior to the recording of their latest album, ATW (review here). The stated intention is to carry on as the core three-piece, though if you have Rhodes and will travel, I wouldn’t not hit them up, since as bassist/vocalist Charles Michael Parks, Jr. says in the statement below, it’s an “indefinite” change. That hardly means forever.
Parks, guitarist Ben McLeod and drummer Robby Staebler certainly want for nothing as regards chemistry between them, so while that dynamic will inherently change without a fourth member, one expects they’ll come through. It might be an album or two getting settled, but the fact that they tour so hard invariably means that if there’s something to figure out musically or in terms of their presentation, they’ll have plenty of opportunity to do so. These guys have earned a good amount of trust in my book at this point.
Here’s what Parks had to say:
Hi there, time to talk about change!
Robby, Ben and I have been making music together for 6 years, and since then we have had an insane array of friends and family come and go through our musical life. We love all of them, we cherish all of them and their time, and talent. We want to celebrate the time we have spent together. Since our formation, the one goal I have had for this band is to be open, vulnerable, and willing to love and adapt to change as it presents itself.
That being said, we have decided to proceed in our musical experience as a 3 piece band, indefinitely. The power trio has been a huge part of rock tradition, and we are happy to join the ranks. I know this may be disappointing to some of you who have known us for awhile, and I fully understand the hesitation when the “known” becomes “unknown.” But what I want to say is, we love music, and there would be no reason for us to go on the road or endure what we endure if not for the transformative power of music. It is an ancient pull, and I don’t know exactly where it comes from, but we are knee deep and wading out.
Sincerely, thank you for supporting and trusting us. We have all rooted ourselves into the lives of each other, us to you, and in kind, you to us. There is no way to describe sharing the band/fan connection every night, but we are overjoyed to experience it with you.
Posted in Reviews on September 18th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
It’s been a quick turnaround to get All Them Witches to their fifth album. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, the four-piece have barely held still since the release of their 2012 debut, Our Mother Electricity (review here), issuing what would become a landmark in their second album, 2013’s Lightning at the Door (review here), and then becoming a touring band, signing to New West Records and continuing to press forward to bigger rooms, longer tours and an ever-present slew of digital one-off EP — the latest of which, the Lost and Found EP (review here), arrived earlier this year — singles, live recordings, and so on. Following up 2015’s predominantly mellow and melancholy Dying Surfer Meets His Maker (review here), the band broke with their LP-per-year tradition and released their fourth full-length in last year’s Sleeping Through the War (review here). Though signature elements have been retained — the restless drumming of Robby Staebler, the bluesy jams led by guitarist Ben McLeod, the strong use of Rhodes piano and other keys, the creative basslines and increasingly confident vocals of Charles Michael Parks, Jr. — no two All Them Witches records have sounded alike, and Sleeping Through the War was again a departure.
Produced by Dave Cobb, it was an elaborate production involving background singers, guest instrumentation, and a broader scope than anything the band had yet produced. In their fifth long-player, the 56-minute ATW, they have offered a willful contradiction. McLeod takes the helm as producer — Grant Husselman recorded and Rob Schnapf mixed — and the eight resultant tracks are a distinct pivot toward a more stripped-down, naturalist approach. They eschew choral vibes in favor of the raw boogie of “Fishbelly 86 Onions,” launching the album with a couple telling seconds of show’s-about-to-start noise before kicking into the song itself. Indeed, most of what follows, from the winding turns of “1st vs. 2nd” into the dreamy and jammy reaches of the closing salvo “Harvest Feast,” “HTJC” and “Rob’s Dream,” feels built for the stage, whether it’s uptempo and relatively straightforward like “Half-Tongue” or the memorable and Western-slide-tinged second track “Workhorse,” All Them Witches still manage to cast a varied atmospheric impression while pulling the arrangements back to ground.
No doubt at least a portion of the credit — a fourth, maybe? — for that goes to new keyboardist Jonathan Draper, who here steps into the role formerly occupied by Allan Van Cleave. Those are not minor shoes to fill. In addition to having been a founding member, Van Cleave‘s Rhodes melodies added to the dreamy psychedelic stretches of All Them Witches‘ jams and made their blues all the more resonant. Even more to his credit, Draper lives up to the task, and from the wildman organ in “Fishbelly 86 Onions” and the subtle background tone of “Workhorse,” he makes his presence felt as an essential component alongside Parks, McLeod and Staebler in a fashion that makes the familiar aspect his own. The personality in his playing can be heard in “Half-Tongue” and the post-midsection sprawl of “Harvest Feast,” which tops 11 minutes and follows the moody highlight “Diamond” in order to lead into the back end of the record, and though there’s a sense of his integration still being in-process — that is, one gets the feeling that he’ll have even more to say in the arrangements next time around — he steps into a collection of tracks that stand on the strength of their songwriting and performance and plays a crucial role in letting them do just that.
From everyone in the band, there’s a gleeful sense of defiance here. All Them Witches have always enjoyed contradiction — Lightning at the Door was heavy, so Dying Surfer Meets His Maker wasn’t, etc. — but ATW might be their most purposeful one to-date. It is the band reclaiming their identity. No coincidence McLeod is producer on it. After their more elaborate production to-date, they’re keeping it in-house, holding firm to the approach that’s gotten them to where they are and, through these songs, making a statement of what they want to be as a band and how they want their material to function. Granted, that’s an awful lot of narrative to read into it, and it’s not like they have a song called “We’re All Them Witches and You Can Kiss Our Collective Ass” or anything like that, but through the focus on their performance and the sheer will with which they execute “1st vs. 2nd,” “Diamond,” the experimental-feeling “HTJC” — which for much of its run is just Parks‘ vocals in folkish form backed by bass and a gradual, acoustic-laced build — it’s not a stretch to hear that All Them Witches, either consciously or not, are doing the work of regrounding themselves, reaffirming their methods and their desire to play not just in a certain style or styles, but however they want, whenever they want, wherever they want.
In the interest of full disclosure, I was hired to write the bio for the album and spoke to Parks as a part of that process about the songwriting and recording process. But even so, in listening, I keep going back to “Fishbelly 86 Onions.” It’s not like anything else the band brings to ATW, and inarguably their most active moment on the record. As the opener, it’s also an outlier, but in the howl leading into Draper‘s organ solo before the song hits the two-minute mark, there’s so much revelry in the spirit of the track that it’s almost like a breaking out. They’ve busted through whatever confines they were in and are running full sprint toward, what, themselves? I don’t know, but hearing Parks count from one to 20 as part of the lyrics, the fuzz in McLeod‘s guitar and the jazzy swing in Staebler‘s cymbals, there’s a torrential feeling of chaosmaking that’s just so much fun-as-a-statement that it affects everything that follows. The rim-ticks of “Workhorse,” the aggression at root in “1st vs. 2nd,” the storytelling in “Half-Tongue,” the progressive tension in “Diamond,” bluesy range of “Harvest Feast,” glorious wash in the payoff of “HTJC” and meld of psychedelia and classic heavy rocking starts and stops in “Rob’s Dream” — they all seem to draw from the plentiful energetic well of “Fishbelly 86 Onions,” and there’s enough left by the final moments of “Rob’s Dream” that All Them Witches jam their way through an upbeat payoff that finds all four members of the band at the height of their powers, still not overstated, but playing through with the deceptive class and chemistry that, as much as anything else, has become a hallmark of their sound.
Even unto its title, ATW is indicative of the intent on the part of the band to stake their claim on who they are. And it’s not even a full self-titled. It’s the acronym. Nothing extra, nothing more than it wants to be. Of course, they’re still a deeply nuanced band as they’ve always been, and there’s growth in their craft and in their performance, as there’s always been, but that’s all part of what makes All Them Witches who they are. I don’t know whether McLeod will produce their sixth offering or if they’ll once again look to someone outside themselves, if that record will expand on what’s here or draw even further back. One thing it’s never been safe to do is predict where All Them Witches will end up, because while they’ve never stopped moving forward, that “forward” is a path that seems likewise to veer in multiple directions at once. The passion that drives them is not only evident in ATW but key to the album’s overall success, and it’s refreshing to hear a band who, five records deep into their tenure, can sound both mature as a unit and like they’re still only beginning their exploration.
Posted in Features on August 1st, 2018 by JJ Koczan
A couple months back, I had the distinct pleasure of being asked to write the bio for the next All Them Witches album. Titled simply ATW, it’s a marked shift in approach from the preceding Sleeping Through the War (review here) not only in that it marks the introduction of Jonathan Draper on keys, but also in terms of overall production. Helmed by guitarist Ben McLeod, it’s the first time the Nashville four-piece have recorded themselves for a full-length offering. It pulls back on some of its predecessor’s more elaborate, “produced” feel and instead captures the natural interplay between the four members of the band. In short, it’s a more live-sounding, stage-ready album. And obviously I jumped at the chance to write the bio for it.
ATW is out Sept. 28 on New West Records. You can stream the opening track “Fishbelly 86 Onions” at the bottom of this post, and thanks for reading:
All Them Witches – ATW
By most bands’ fifth LP, the sound is pretty set. Parameters established. Refinement dissipated in favor of formulaic execution of what’s worked in the past. Fair enough. All Them Witches take a harder route.
In 2017, the Nashville four-piece offered what might’ve otherwise become their own template in their fourth album, Sleeping Through The War. Their second for New West Records following 2015’s mellow-vibing Dying Surfer Meets His Maker, Sleeping brought larger production value to dug-in heavy psych blues jamming with oversight from producer Dave Cobb (Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson).
After exploring new ground on 2013’s Lightning At The Door and 2012’s Our Mother Electricity as well as Dying Surfer, with Sleeping the band had arrived at something new, something sprawling, and grander-feeling than anything before it.
So naturally, in a year’s time they’ve thrown that all to the Appalachian wind, turned the process completely on its head and reversed paths: recording in a cabin in Kingston Springs, about 20 miles outside of Nashville on I-40, with guitarist Ben McLeod at the helm. Take that, expectation.
The result, mixed by Rob Schnapf (Beck, Elliott Smith, Kurt Vile), is the most intimate, human-sounding album All Them Witches have ever recorded and another redefinition of the band. Introducing keyboardist/percussionist Jonathan Draper to the fold with McLeod, bassist/vocalist Charles Michael Parks, Jr., and drummer/graphic artist Robby Staebler, the new eponymous record isn’t self-titled by mistake. It’s the band confirming and continuing to develop their approach, in the shuffle of “Fishbelly 86 Onions,” the organ-laced groove of “Half-Tongue,” the tense build of “HJTC” and the fluid jam in closer “Rob’s Dream.”
It’s a reaction to being a “bigger” band. To playing bigger shows, bigger tours, etc. From the sustained consonants in Parks’ vocals to McLeod’s commanding slide in “Workhorse” and drifting melancholy at the outset of “Harvest Feast,” All Them Witches is there laying claim to the essential facets of their identity. And the urgency of these tracks – fast pushers and sleepy jams alike – is among their greatest strengths.
It’s a rawer delivery, as stage-ready as the band itself, and as ever, it captures All Them Witches in this moment. Is it who they’ll be tomorrow? Who the hell knows? Check back in and we’ll all find out together. That’s the whole idea.
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 31st, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Let’s face it, August pretty much belongs to Psycho Las Vegas. There’s other stuff going on, as there always is, but the festival is something of an epicenter around which the rest of the month revolves, and an awful lot of tour routings, album releases, etc., are geared toward supporting what’s happening there. For good reason. What’s happening is arguably the biggest heavy underground fest in the States, and accordingly it’s all the more fitting that bands like Howling Giant should get out and tour as a part of making the trip. The Nashville progressive heavy rockers also toured up the East Coast earlier this year supporting their 2017 EP, Black Hole Space Wizard: Part 2 (review here), and they’re streaming now their contribution to Magnetic Eye Records‘ impending two-part Pink Floyd tribute compilation.
The PR wire invites you to dig it:
Psych-Metal Road Dogs HOWLING GIANT to Tour Southwest En Route to August Psycho Las Vegas Appearance
Nashville trio preps for a quick string of blistering dates before and after their set at the massive Vegas festival next month, also leads off the upcoming Best of Pink Floyd release from Magnetic Eye Records.
Interplanetary riff-rockin’ powerhouse HOWLING GIANT hits the road again this August for a run of shows leading them to and from a coveted slot at that annual maelstrom of stoner/doom/psych bliss, Psycho Las Vegas.
Their “Arcane Ritual” tour includes the following stops: Aug 15: Wichita Falls, TX – Iron Horse Pub Aug 16: El Paso, TX – RCBG Aug 17-19: Psycho Las Vegas Aug 20: Scottsdale, AZ – Rogue Bar Aug 21: Albuquerque, NM – Launch Pad Aug 22: Las Cruces, NM – The Warehouse Aug 23: San Antonio – The Mix Aug 24: Lafayette, LA – Freetown Boom Boom Room Aug 25: New Orleans, LA – Santos Aug 26: Birmingham, AL – The Nick 42nd Street Tavern Howling Giant are also confirmed as the album-opener to the much-awaited Best of Pink Floyd LP, Magnetic Eye Records’ companion album to its massively-anticipated The Wall [Redux] release. Both albums land this November and can be pre-ordered here.
Formed by self-proclaimed nerds, Howling Giant is a perfect marriage between pulpy sci-fi themes and blistering riff-psych. Fans of Mastodon’s Crack the Skye, early Baroness, Summoner and The Sword will immediately latch onto Howling Giant’s spaced-out, cosmically-informed songcraft and lyrics that span sea voyages to space flight to androids with a bloodlust for camels.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 16th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
In less than a month’s time, All Them Witches will head out on their summer tour supporting Primus and Mastodon. The time crunch would seem to be on for the Nashville four-piece to put the finishing touches on their next album for New West Records by then — you know, little things like mixing and mastering, etc. — but the band has announced that they’ve completed the basic tracking process for the record, which is untitled as of now, and moved on at least to the mixing stage. I don’t know the timing on the release, so whether it gets out around September or sometime early next year, I suppose it could go either way, but after last year’s spectacular Sleeping Through the War (review here), you can bet I’m keeping an eye out.
That said, one never really knows what to expect from All Them Witches, and if you heard Sleeping Through the War and the preceding 2015 LP, Dying Surfer Meets His Maker (review here), back to back, I’m sure you know what I mean. So while I wouldn’t try to predict what’s coming in terms of sound or vibe, the fact that All Them Witches are coming up on their fifth full-length and the fact that no matter what they’ve done so far they haven’t delivered a clunker yet makes me inclined to believe the band when they say, “Have a feeling you guys will like this one” in their brief announcement that the recording is complete.
Find that below, followed by the upcoming tour dates, because one likes to be thorough:
new album is tracked and headed to mixing! Have a feeling you guys will like this one…stand by
ALL THEM WITCHES Tour Dates: MAY 3 • Rose Music Hall • COLUMBIA, MO MAY 4 • Slowdown • OMAHA, NE MAY 6 • Red Rocks Amphitheater • MORRISON, CO ^ MAY 8 • The Criterion • OKLAHOMA CITY, OK ^ MAY 10 • South Side Ballroom • DALLAS, TX ^ MAY 11 • Austin 360 Amphitheatre • DEL VALLE, TX ^ MAY 12 • Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion • ROGERS, AR ^ MAY 14 • BJCC Concert Hall • BIRMINGHAM, AL ^ MAY 15 • Nashville Municipal Auditorium • NASHVILLE, TN ^ MAY 16 • Fox Theatre • ATLANTA, GA ^ MAY 18 • Portsmouth Pavilion • PORTSMOUTH, VA ^ MAY 19 • Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheater • CHARLOTTE, NC ^ MAY 20 • Red Hat Amphitheater • RALEIGH, NC ^ MAY 22 • Diamond Credit Union Theatre • READING, PA ^ MAY 23 • Artpark Amphitheater • LEWISTON, NY ^ MAY 25 • Cool Insuring Arena • GLENS FALLS, NY ^ MAY 26 • Bold Point Park • EAST PROVIDENCE, RI ^ MAY 27 • Maine State Pier • PORTLAND, ME ^ MAY 29 • Blue Hills Bank Pavilion • BOSTON, MA ^ MAY 30 • Penn’s Landing – Festival Pier • PHILADELPHIA, PA ^ JUN 1 • Stone Pony Summerstage • ASBURY PARK, NJ ^ JUN 2 • Pier Six Pavilion • BALTIMORE, MD ^ JUN 3 • Ford Amphitheater at Coney Island Boardwalk • BROOKLYN, NY ^ ^ w/ Primus and Mastodon
All Them Witches is: Charles Michael Parks, Jr. – Vocals, Bass, Guitar, Mellotron, Percussion Ben McLeod – Guitar, Bass, Mellotron, Percussion Robby Staebler – Drums, Percussion Allan Van Cleave – Rhodes, Organ, Piano, Mellotron
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 12th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
As they prepare to take the stage this August at Psycho Las Vegas, Nashville progressive heavy rockers Howling Giant have announced a round of tour dates for May supporting their 2017 release, Black Hole Space Wizard: Part 2 (review here). What was, of course, a sequel to 2016’s Black Hole Space Wizard: Part 1 (review here) and also followed 2015 self-titled helped the trio further their case for a more expansive sound. Still reveling in the occasional forward groove and off-kilter moment, the songs showed a growing sense of sonic persona that, contrary to what one might expect, did not make the sequel seem weak in comparison to the original.
Will there be a third installment of Black Hole Space Wizard, and if so, when? How the hell should I know. Why don’t you go to one of these gigs and ask the band yourself? Sheesh.
Tour details from the PR wire:
HOWLING GIANT Hit the Road
Nashville riff-psych trio take their DIY sci-fi heaviness on northeast US tour in May, debut new Pink Floyd homage in advance of release alongside Melvins, Pallbearer, ASG, Mark Lanegan.
This May, Howling Giant heads back on tour in support of their latest self-released record, Black Hole Space Wizard Part 2 (August 2017), with stops throughout the northeast and a coveted slot at Psycho Las Vegas to close out the summer.
To launch this run of dates with due fanfare, Howling Giant will preview their futuristic update of early Pink Floyd obscurity Matilda Mother, which Magnetic Eye Records will include as part of its colossal The Wall [Redux] / Best of Pink Floyd release extravaganza that has been building in scope and anticipation since early 2017 and features a range of new scenesters and established heavyweights.
Formed by three self-proclaimed nerds, Howling Giant is a perfect marriage between pulpy sci-fi themes and blistering riff-prog. Fans of Mastodon’s Crack the Skye, early Baroness and Summoner will immediately latch on to Howling Giant’s spaced-out, cosmically-informed songcraft, with lyrics spanning sea voyages to space flight, not to mention androids with a bloodlust for camels (because, again, why not?).
Howling Giant on tour in May:
5.10 – Chicago IL @ Reggies 5.11 – Cincinnati OH @ Cameleon Pizza 5.12 – Pittsburgh PA @ Howler’s 5.13 – Buffalo NY @ Mohawk Place 5.14 – Off 5.15 – TBA 5.16 – Easthampton MA @The Ohm 5.17 – TBA 5.18 – Philadelphia PA @ Kung Fu Necktie 5.19 – York PA @ The Depot 5.20 – Frederick MD @ Guido’s 5.21 – Off 5.22 – Baltimore @ The Depot 5.23 – Washington DC @ Atlas Brew Works 5.24 – Raleigh NC @ Slim’s 5.25 – Wilmington VA @Reggies 42nd Street Tavern 5.26 – Asheville NC @ Sly Grog August 17-19 – Psycho Last Vegas
