New Hampshire heavy punks Black Hatch released their third full-length, One More Bite, late last month through King Pizza Records. The record is the follow-up to 2016’s Kill the Buzz Kill and their 2015 self-titled, and if you want to chart the growth of the band, an easy way to go is to take a look at the places you can’t rock. To wit, on the debut, it was “Can’t Rock in School.” On the second record, “Can’t Rock in Church.” On the new album, it’s “Can’t Rock on the Clock,” i.e., at work. So here we are. Are Black Hatch more mature as a unit than they were six years ago? Inevitably, yes, but that doesn’t mean they’re not still driving through One More Bite‘s 11 tracks with full-on punker brashness and a willingness to, say throw around a bunch of junk food, to make their point.
In the video for album opener “Salty/Sweet,” they do precisely that, and in doing so, they bring to mind the addictive nature of corporate “big food,” and the engineering that’s gone into addicting America to things like potato chips and other well-branded stuffs — read Michael Moss — but of course the cravings the band is describing are applicable to more than just eating, and so is addiction, so make of it what you will. Throughout songs like “Old Blood Road,” the dare-to-slow-down-a-little “Doomed” and “Fear and Hate,’ they rage and rage and gnash, but there’s a control to what’s happening as well, a plan that comes through in rhythmic changes, the structural foundations of the material and the intertwining of leads and riffs, evoking chaos but not giving in to it wholly and having the whole thing fall apart.
As one would hope and expect, the record’s a hoot and the vibe is go. “Salty/Sweet,” a deadly and perpetually tempting combination tricking our lizard brains into survival mode, puts it more succinctly than that, and is to be commended for it. I wouldn’t know personally, but there’s much to be said for just getting to the point of the thing, and Black Hatch do that well.
So here goes. Enjoy:
Black Hatch, “Salty/Sweet” official video premiere
Black Hatch on “Salty/Sweet”:
“Salty/Sweet is about always needing one more bite and being run by your cravings. While shown in a comedic light here, it was/is a true vice. Special guest appearance from Bella the cat. The amount spent on food used in this vid was matched a few times over and donated to a local charity. Hope everyone is doing okay out there!”
You’re smoked up and down to that last little bit and you just need ONE MORE BITE. Well, Black Hatch is here to give it to ya! Stoned but not alone, get all your buds together for a dip into this house show in cassette form. Pass it around and dig into the thick, thick fuzz. You can’t shake it off, so don’t even try.
Limited ed. of 100 black (hatch) cassettes. Comes w/ digital download.
[Click play above to stream ‘Where Eagles Drink’ from Scissorfight’s new album, Doomus Abruptus Vol. 1. Album is out Dec. 6 through Salt of the Earth Records with preorders here.]
From some bands, a line like, “Shut up and watch the flame get higher,” might be a pithy social commentary or a statement of humanity’s inaction to avert climate catastrophe. In Scissorfight‘s “Caveman Television,” rest assured, it’s about people who talk too much around a campfire. Doomus Abruptus Vol. 1 is the seventh full-length from the just-came-from-the-forest-already-drunk-and-looking-to-fight New Hampshire four-piece, and a landmark for the simple fact of its existence.
It arrives some 13 years after their last album, Jaggernaut, and some 18 after their arguable pinnacle in 2001’s Mantrapping for Sport and Profit (discussed here) — there were several short releases between those two as well, including splits with Cave In and Pelican and three other EPs: Potential New Agent for Unconventional Warfare (2002), Deathchants, Breakdowns and Military Waltzes Vol. 2 (2003) and Victory over Horseshit (2005) — and follows a 2016 revamping of the band that included founding bassist Paul Jarvis and founding guitarist Jay Fortin extending the group’s by-then-legendary fuckall-and-fuck-off attitude to recruiting a new vocalist and drummer to round out the lineup.
Issued through Salt of the Earth Records, the 2016 comeback EP, Chaos County (review here), tested the waters and found them mercifully free of giardia (look it up), and the band’s positive response extended to the live arena as well, with Doug Aubin‘s formidable presence as a frontman and Rick Orcutt‘s work behind the kit helping propel them to Europe as well as through regional shows around New England — their long-established stomping ground.
Particularly after Chaos County, a full-length was an inevitable next step, and Doomus Abruptus Vol. 1 (also on Salt of the Earth) brings the Aubin, Fortin, Jarvis, and Orcutt incarnation of Scissorfight to a new level in reestablishing the band’s approach. It’s got nine tracks and an LP-ready 39-minute run. Its songs are tight in structure and swing like a right arm throwing a suckerpunch, and they’re heavy like, well, like fucking Scissorfight are heavy. There’s no mistaking that sound.
In some ways, it’ll be the next album that tells the tale of their return as a working band rather than one making a comeback, but if I call Doomus Abruptus Vol. 1 business as usual for Scissorfight, I only mean it as a compliment. Whether it’s the woodsy sounds starting “Caveman Television” at the outset, or the anthemic “Rock and/or Die” playing off the Granite State motto “Live free or die,” or centerpiece “Where Eagles Drink” entering direct conversation with “Blizzards Buzzards Bastards” and “New Hampshire’s Alright if You Like Fighting” from the aforementioned 2001 album while laying the band’s ethic out in admirably plain language for the chorus: “Born on a mountain/Raised in a cave/Drinkin’ and fightin’/All I crave.”
Theirs is a battery of downtuned stomp and aggro burl, and they’ve always done it at their own level. Subtly clever and unsubtle in shoving you down a rhythmic flight of stairs, tying itself to the wooded northern Appalachians of their home with New England’s we-get-two-weeks-of-summer high altitude bad attitude, Scissorfight willfully and defiantly retain their core elements on Doomus Abruptus Vol. 1. That is, while the EP proved it could be done, this is the point at which Scissorfight say with no equivocation they are Scissorfight and, true to character, they don’t give a shit if you’re along for it, the ride’s going either way.
The all-out headspin of second cut “Dumpfight” is a raw punk-derived slammer in its first half, and when it breaks at about two minutes in, Aubin warns of the riff that follows, “Oh shit. Here it comes.” Thanks for the heads up. The image of collecting a swollen jaw is inescapable as the salvo that began with “Caveman Television” continues through “Dumpfight” and into “Coagulus” and “Rock and/or Die” as the record heads through a midsection that would be a beer gut were it not still so able to move.
While there’s little loss of momentum as “Coagulus” makes a grower hook of the line, “All in the name of the hunt” and its title in telling tales of bear traps and other foresty threats, “Rock and/or Die” is singularly catchy and outdone only by the subsequent “Where Eagles Drink,” with its made-for-the-stage call and response in the verse — not the only one on the record, but still a standout — though even “Piss in the Wind”‘s chorus is a masterclass in how to craft fare for drunken singalongs.
The back third of Doomus Abruptus Vol. 1 — let’s just call it the “ass-end” to keep with the mood of the release — is comprised of three final songs between five and six minutes long. With acoustic twang, “The Battle of (Mudhole Mountain)” leads off this final turn, followed by the fuzz-bass led post-industrial ode to the Merrimack Valley “Lead Venom” and closer “Whatcha Get,” which actually pulls back on some of the immediacy that’s been so prevalent throughout Doomus Abruptus Vol. 1 at its outset, but is soon enough given over to the sharpest-edged riff of the album and a chorus that feels especially pointed in remarking “That’s whatcha get for saying ‘never again’.”
And I guess that’s really the core of what the album is all about. From a certain distance, one has to chuckle at the ballsiness in a band releasing their first record in over a decade and including “abrupt” in the name of it, but ballsy is what Scissorfight do and, to one degree or another, have always done, so it’s fitting in that regard if no other. They end with more noise from the woods to leave off with a sense of completion, and while inevitably the conversation around Doomus Abruptus Vol. 1 is still the fact that their lineup has changed, that feeling of being complete is no minor consideration, and it extends to the band itself.
Once again in keeping with the spirit of the album and Scissorfight generally, I’ll say it as plain as I can: I was a fan of Scissorfight with Iron Lung up front. Like, a big fan. Those old records are earthshakers and I wouldn’t tell you otherwise. I don’t know what the impact of Doomus Abruptus Vol. 1 will be, how far it will reach or what the overall reception will be, but if you’ve ever been on board with Scissorfight, and you can’t get on board with this, it isn’t their fault.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 16th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Welp, if fuckin’ Scissorfight are doing anything, you know there’s gonna be trouble. The fabled Granite State Destroyers have titled their new album, Doomus Abruptus Vol. 1, and you know, seeing as it’s their first full-length in 13 years, calling it ‘Vol. 1′ — as if to imply there’s a follow-up coming any minute now — feels pretty ambitious. Being somewhat familiar with fuckin’ Scissorfight, however, I’m inclined to think that’s the joke. Either way, Salt of the Earth Records has the release out Dec. 6 and preorders have been up for the better part of a month, but frankly, I was waiting to write about it until I actually heard the thing — I can be kind of a stickler that way sometimes — and now that I have, well, let’s just say I’m gonna have a hard time ever writing the word band’s name without the word “fuckin'” in front of it again.
Because fuckin’ Scissorfight.
I’ve locked in a premiere for the opening track sometime in I guess the next month and a half, so stay tuned for that, and if you’re in the band’s native New England region, which they stalk like the low-toned collective mountain skunk ape that they are, they’ll play Stoned to Death 4 next weekend in Vermont and they’ve got release shows in New Hampshire and a gig in Maine. If you live south of Massachusetts, basically you’re fucked. I bet they could tour Europe though if they wanted. Just saying.
No music from Doomus Abruptus Vol. 1 yet, but like I said, keep an eye out. Fuckin’ Scissorfight. Apparently this is their first album on vinyl. Who the hell knew?
Here’s info from the band and Salt of the Earth:
IT IS FINALLY TIME. Decades in the making… The FIRST Scissorfight album to be released on vinyl is upon us!
Track Listing: Caveman Television Dumpfight Coagulus Rock And/Or Die Where Eagles Drink Piss In The Wind The Battle Of (Mudhole Mountain) Lead Venom Whatcha Get
Produced, Recorded, and Mixed by Benny Grotto At Mad Oak Studio (Allston MA). Mastered By Alan Douches West West Side Music.
Scissorfight live: Sat Oct 26th, The Stone Church, Brattleboro VT (Stoned to Death 4) Wed Oct 30th, Dover Brickhouse, Dover NH Sat Nov 9th, Genos Rock Club, Portland ME – Tickets Fri and Sat Dec 6 and 7, The Shaskeen, Manchester NH
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 9th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Recent veterans of the New England Stoner and Doom Fest, Troy, New Hampshire’s Scuzzy Yeti have been snagged by Salt of the Earth Records for the impending release of their second album, Ruined. Not to put too fine a point on it, but we’re more than halfway through 2019 already and they’re still working on the album, so I think it might be 2020 before this one gets out — because delays happen, like life — but the five-piece’s earthy grooves as displayed on their 2017 self-titled debut (review here) make them a solid fit for the label, and I’ve little doubt that when it’s delivered, the new album will likewise deliver. I give them bonus points right out of the gate for calling it Ruined. Suits the self-aware humor of the band well.
They were in the studio at Sonelab in Easthampton, MA, doing vocals, and I’m not sure if there are overdubs or what for after, but if it’s vocals being done, then it’s a safe bet that at least the basic tracks are already down. Progress is being made, is what I’m getting at.
Here’s announcement from Salt of the Earth via the PR wire:
SCUZZY YETI signs with SALT OF THE EARTH RECORDS!
SALT OF THE EARTH RECORDS is proud as all hell to announce the addition of stoned to the bejeezus heavy ass fuzzrockers, SCUZZY YETI to the family! SCUZZY YETI plays heavy handed mountain rock that nods to 70s progressive riffing, tripped out psychedelia and hard hitting blues. And they do it with unrivaled passion. The band is currently hard at work on songs for their Salt Of The Earth Records debut, “Ruined”, Set for a fall/winter 2019 release on vinyl / CD / digital formats.
SCUZZY YETI played a mind blowing set at this years New England Stoner and Doom Festival, making many fans, and foreshadowing tracks from their upcoming release.
“We are SO stoked to be joining this family of high heaters, and riff worshipers! This is where we belong” – Joshua Wyatt Trumbull (Drums)
“We are psyched and honored to be working with Scott and SALT OF THE EARTH RECORDS on our debut album. The bands on their roster are unique and heavy as Hell. We think it will be a perfect match.” – Jason Lawrence (Guitar)
“Wait till you hear, see, and feel what these guys are creating! Unbelievable!! These guys are truly the Scuzz Of The Earth.” – Scott Harrington (Guy @ Label)
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 14th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
You had me at the bassline, which, since the bassline (plus some hi-hat) is the first thing you hear in the track means you pretty much had me immediately. New Hampshire newcomers Dust Prophet have made public their second single following up on this past Fall’s “The Big Lie” (posted here), and “Revolutionary Suicide” touches on cultish themes via lyrics delivered through catchy rhythm and rampant melody that seems only to indicate their readiness to take on a broader release, be it a debut EP or album. The production on “Revolutionary Suicide” is clean to a point almost asking for some muck for its doomly vibe to wallow in, but I wouldn’t hold a band being clear in their delivery against them, especially on a self-released single — let alone their second — and the song remains rooted in the quality of the band’s performance, which wants for nothing.
Likewise too their social media presence. They’re all over the place. I always have to admire that kind of thing, because I suck at it so very, very much — duh, here’s a picture of my baby; duh, here’s a review I posted; duh — but Dust Prophet have it down when it comes to engaging their audience, and as I think you can hear in the track below, that extends to their songwriting. Good to hit ’em on multiple levels.
Dig it:
Dust Prophet is proud to release: Revolutionary Suicide
We are very proud to bring you our newest single, Revolutionary Suicide. You have a few different options for listening and downloading it:
You can listen & download Revolutionary Suicide for FREE by one of the following options:
By using our Bandcamp page. In addition to downloading Revolutionary Suicide can also subscribe to our Bandcamp page and stay up-to-date on our new releases and newsworthy events.
(Although it’s a free download, you can choose to pay $1 or so if you want to support us by using the “Name Your Own Price” option).
You can also stream Revolutionary Suicide on our YouTube channel. You can access that by going HERE. Please “Like” the video and feel free to subscribe to our channel, as we’ll be adding much more content and music in the upcoming weeks.
Dust Prophet is: Heather Lynn- Vocals. Otto Kinzel- Guitar. Sarah Wappler- Bass; Keyboards. Marc Brennan- Drums.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on December 12th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
This week, New Hampshire heavy post-rock instrumentalists KYOTY will release the new live album, Live at 3S, through Deafening Assembly. The six-track outing captures a show the three-piece played on Aug. 3, 2018, at the 3S Artspace in I-guess-gentrifying downtown Portsmouth, NH, and the accompanying video was shot by Treebeard Media. The screen comes down behind Nathaniel Parker Raymond, Nick Filth and Rob Brown quickly as they begin their half-hour set, and the sense of atmosphere and range is almost immediate from those initial crashes, but as “L” from their 2017 split with SEA (discussed here) and as the forceful strums of “Via” and punctuated exploration “Carcer” from 2015’s Geomancy I take hold, they only begin to flesh out further the textures and progressive ambience of the set’s beginning. A wash of effects surges forward intermittently as intensity picks up and recedes, but even the quiet moments are given a sustained tension through the adrenaline surge one can easily see in the clip below, despite the dim lighting.
Those inclined to suss out influences will find Russian Circles comparisons well enough met by “Carcer” — if not by the actual band, whose moniker is an acronym for Keep Your Opinions to Yourself — and before they close with the resonant tones of “14,” which opened their 2012 debut, Undiscovered Country of Old Death and Strange Years in the Frightful Past — which was remixed, rearranged and remastered last year into Remanufactured Realm of Ancient Annihilation (get it?) — they unfurl “Populus,” which its anxious starts and stops and an ensuing buildup toward a massive payoff. By then, a telltale Sunn crackle can be heard from the amps, but the drift into “14” is clean and they hold down the end of the set with vitality that undercuts the notion of such atmospheric material being in any way staid or overly academic in its execution. They may not have a frontman out there plugging the t-shirts at the merch table, but KYOTY obviously have no trouble making arguments in their own favor regardless.
Their Bandcamp page is a trove of churning progginess ripe for digging in, and I won’t tell you not to do that, but on the occasion of the release Friday of Live at 3S, I’m happy to be able to host the video shot by Treebeard of the entire set — i.e., the visual accompaniment of the entire live record. With the audio mixed by Filth and the level of performance taking place, I think you’ll agree it’s worth sticking around for the whole gig. I’ve been through it five or six times at this point and no regrets.
Some comment from the band follows.
Please enjoy:
KYOTY, Live at 3S Artspace, Portsmouth, NH 08.03.18
KYOTY on Live at 3S:
We decided to make the video when we realized that a lot of the live footage of us online was either outdated or not great quality (probably because we tend to play in the dark, haha). We figured it was worth setting up something for ourselves to share a better vision of our live performance. Having toured with SEA, we were friendly with Steve and were fans of his video work so it seemed only natural that we work with him and Treebeard.
Initially it was going to just be a live video for which Nick Filth (our guitarist) was going to mix the audio. But we were all so happy with the performance and the tracks provided by Adam Preston Cissell that it seemed worth releasing in its own right. I think we all felt it was such a good, honest portrayal of our sound as a band that we had to put it out. Nick Filth mixed and mastered the audio for the final release.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 23rd, 2018 by JJ Koczan
I live in New England. I’ve lived in New England for just over half a decade. I can’t claim to be a lifer and I don’t think I’ll stay there forever, or at least not where I am now. It’s not perfect. People care way more about sports than they do about art. The food isn’t great. The weather sucks. Blah blah blah. I give New England a lot of flack, but I’ll give it one thing. When it comes to an anti-religious standpoint, as the epicenter of the Catholic priest child abuse scandal in the US, New England as a legitimate gripe. That’s not to say anyone else doesn’t — rest assured, they all fucking do, apparently all the way around the planet — but yeah.
Obviously I don’t know the history of anyone in Manchester, New Hampshire’s Dust Prophet in that regard, and I wouldn’t speculate, but even as a general attitude, I get it. You don’t have to have been raped by a priest to say fuck those rapey priests. So when they come along with their debut single “The Big Lie” and lyrics like “Your god’s an empty song/Every right is a wrong,” the position seems to me well justified.
As regards the song though — it’s the first thing Dust Prophets have put out and dig the arrangement on the vocals and the inclusion of keys in the melody. I’m not one to bet on direction given one track, but they seem to have an idea of where they want to be sound-wise, and a pro-shop recording to showcase that. “The Big Lie” is streaming at the bottom of this post. Here’s info culled from social media and the PR wire:
DUST PROPHET – “THE BIG LIE”
Escape the haze and enter the reality…
Dust Prophet are a 4 piece Stoner-rock/Progressive/Psychedelic-Rock band based in Manchester, New Hampshire. The band consists of Heather Lynn (Vocals); Otto Kinzel (guitar); Sarah Wappler (bass & organ); & Marc Brennan (drums). Our debut single, The Big Lie, is out NOW.
The Big Lie is the first track released by NH based stoner-rock band Dust Prophet. Heavy riffs; Haunting vocals; Fuzzy tones; Weird sounds; Monstrous beats.Take our hand and walk through the smoke…
Mixed by Glenn Smith at Amps vs. Ohms Mastered by Nicholas Zampiello at New Alliance East.
Dust Prophet is: Heather Lynn- Vocals. Otto Kinzel- Guitar. Sarah Wappler- Bass; Keyboards. Marc Brennan- Drums.
They’ve made it clear they ain’t leavin’. They’ve warned of the dangers of drinking downstream from where the beavers live. They’ve reminisced about how much better the ’70s were. They’ve even had the devil’s shingle — and I have no idea what that means nor desire to know. Now, with their new single, reactivated New Hampshire plunderers Scissorfight call out their “Unfinished Business.” As to what that business might be, it’s something of a mystery, because frontman Doug Aubin gets pretty growly sometimes, but if I had to guess, I’d say it probably involves riffs, beer, kicking ass and, I don’t know, more riffs? Dudes have plenty of riffs to go around.
“Unfinished Business” is one of several songs the Granite State Destroyers laid down at Converse Rubber Tracks‘ studio last year. “Devil’s Shingle” was another, and they’re being put out one at a time in order to keep momentum up between the band’s holy-shit-Scissorfight-are-back 2016 return EP, Chaos County (review here), and their next full-length, which they’ll reportedly get to recording in May. That will mark the first new Scissorfight long-player in 12 years since 2006’s Jaggernaut — not to mention their first with Aubin on the mic and Rick Orcutt on drums alongside original members guitarist Jay Fortin and bassist Paul Jarvis. If the four-piece have shown anything about themselves in the last two-plus years that they’ve been around again, however, it’s that they haven’t forgotten how to kick ass. Their stomp remains incredibly, incredibly mean.
I’m not sure whether “Unfinished Business” will end up on the next Scissorfight record or not — that would make its own business unfinished — but its video is charming and raises some interesting points. Consider that when Scissorfight faded out circa ’06, the “hipster” thing was just really getting started. That generation was just beginning to turn over. Now, “those people” have been going to shows for over a decade — is it really fair to think of them as tourists at this point? They’re the ones buying shirts. Just something to keep in mind as you see the cartoon version of the band — adorable — chase down PBR-snagging fashionistas in a giant, antler-laden monster truck that should be well familiar to any longtime fan. Hell’s bells, maybe they just wanted to start a conversation.
Either way, bonus points for the use of the theme song to Welcome Back, Kotter. Gabe Kaplan. Boom-Boom Washington. Classic.
The single is out tomorrow, March 23. Enjoy the video below, followed by a few words from the band:
Scissorfight, “Unfinished Business” official video premiere
Scissorfight on “Unfinished Business”:
These singles we are releasing are kinda one-offs that we recorded at the Converse Rubber Tracks studio last year. Right now we are working out the songs for our next full-length which we go into the studio in May. The video idea has been thrown around for a long time and I finally had some time to pull it off.
