Posted in Whathaveyou on April 24th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
This is one of those lists of tour dates that should read like homework of bands to check out. Whether it’s Red Beard Wall, Stone Machine Electric, Book of Wyrms, Doomsday Profit, WyndRider, Silent Monolith, Seahag and Mammoth Caravan or Psychotic Reaction, on and on, Albuquerque trio Red Mesa will be keeping good company as they make their way to and from this year’s Maryland Doom Fest in June, and that’s before you account for their being on the road with Doomstress out of Texas.
It’s a solid 14-day run and it comes as Red Mesa are fresh off recording their third full-length for release next year. That will make it the follow-up for 2022’s single “Forest Cathedral” (review here) and 2020’s The Path to the Deathless (review here), their debut having been 2018’s The Devil and the Desert (review here), and it was recorded by Matthew Tobias at Empty House Studio, as were the other two LPs.
More on that likely to come, I’ll note as well that in addition to Maryland Doom Fest, Red Mesa have been added to Burque Rock City Festival and RippleFest Texas, so the next few months should be busy. They sent the following down the PR wire:
RED MESA – Desert Moon Tour 2023
Albuquerque, NM’s high desert rockers Red Mesa are finishing up their new full-length “Partial Distortions” set for a 2024 release on Desert Records. In June of 2023, they will be embarking on a 17 day tour, joining up with Houston’s Doomstress for the initial journey out east, both bands ending up at The Maryland Doom Fest in Frederick, MD.
Here’s the dates: FRIDAY JUNE 16 SAN ANTONIO, TX LIGHTHOUSE LOUNGE w/ Cortege, Red Beard Wall, Doomstress SATURDAY JUNE 17 HOUSTON, TX BLACK MAGIC SOCIAL CLUB w/ Doomstress SUNDAY JUNE 18 ARLINGTON, TX DIVISION BREWING w/ Doomstress, Stone Machine Electric, Pathos and Logos MONDAY JUNE 19 MEMPHIS, TN THE HI TONE w/ Doomstress, Deaf Revival WEDNESDAY JUNE 21 ASHEVILLES, NC THE ODD BAR w/ Doomstress, Bonedozer THURSDAY JUNE 22 FREDERICK, MD MARYLAND DOOM FEST SATURDAY JUNE 24 RICHMOND, VA THE FUZZY CACTUS w/ Book of Wyrms, Plaguefever SUNDAY JUNE 25 RALEIGH, NC THE POUR HOUSE w/ Doomsday Profit, Lie Heavy TUESDAY JUNE 27 KNOXVILLE, TN THE BRICKYARD w/ Wyndrider, Shockwolf, Sun Mantra WEDNESDAY JUNE 28 NASHVILLE, TN SPRINGWATER SUPPER CLUB w/ Rift, Silent Monolith THURSDAY JUNE 29 LITTLE ROCK, AR WHITEWATER w/ Seahag, Mammoth Caravan FRIDAY JUNE 30 OKLAHOMA CITY, OK GRAND ROYAL w/ Psychotic Reaction, BugNog, Sedona Crystal Bitch
For the three Texas dates, Hunter Dawson with Extra Meat (@_huntdawson), who has filmed two videos for the band, will be providing a visual experience into Red Mesa’s set.
Red Mesa is also slated to play two other festivals so far this year; BURQUE ROCK CITY in Albuquerque, NM, and RIPPLEFEST in Austin, TX.
Poster by Josh Schneider.
Red Mesa is: Brad Frye of Desert Records on Guitar/Lead Vocals Roman Barham of Monolith on the Mesa on Drums/Backing Vocals Alex Cantwell: Bass/Backing Vocals
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 21st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
If you’re unfamiliar — and if you are, that’s fine; I’m not trying to be out here keeping a gate or some bullshit — Ripple Music‘s Turned to Stone split series began after the success of the Cali label’s The Second Coming of Heavy 10-parter and has featured more than a few killers in its time, usually working on a loose theme either curated by Ripple itself or some underground denizen close to their heart. This time around, the two bands are Austin rockers High Desert Queen — about whom I’ve ended up writing pretty much daily for one reason or another the last couple weeks — and Albuquerque’s Blue Heron, who are fronted by Jadd Shickler of Magnetic Eye Records and Blues Funeral Recordings (he also co-founded MeteorCity and the All That is Heavy store before the century turned).
Both bands are awesome, so you’ll pardon if I treat this one as a total no-brainer. May 26 release. Preorders up. Fine. Blue Heron get first-single honors, and you can hear their “Able Baker” (is that you, Richard Scarry?) at the bottom of this post as a herald of more to come. I’ve done a few premieres for the last editions of Turned to Stone, and this press release just came in, so I haven’t made a request yet, but I think that might be where I head after I finish up here, which as it turns out, I just did.
From the PR wire:
US stoner rock units HIGH DESERT QUEEN and BLUE HERON to release ‘Turned To Stone Chapter 8’ split album on Ripple Music this May!
Ripple Music announces the release of “Turned To Stone Chapter 8: The Wake”, the new split record featuring Southwestern heavy and stoner rock merchants HIGH DESERT QUEEN and BLUE HERON, to be issued on May 26th, 2023. Listen to Blue Heron’s debut single “Able Baker” now!
About joining forces with High Desert Queen, Blue Heron frontman Jadd Shickler says: “We dig High Desert Queen as musicians and as people. We invited them to Albuquerque to play the release party for our first single, which I think was their first-ever out-of-town gig. They returned the favor by having us play with them at Ripplefest Texas last summer, and I think all of us in Blue Heron are pretty impressed by their go-getter attitude. Along with all that, several of us are actual friends outside of band stuff, so it just felt like a natural pairing that Todd at Ripple was on board with. We’re stoked that it worked out, and with luck, we’ll be playing some shows with them to promote the record later this year!”
Pairing up two highly esteemed bands of the Southwest underground scene, “Turned To Stone Chapter 8” is a gigantic masterclass of heavy rock, with six tracks that will take you on a riff-fueled journey with no further ado! Between HIGH DESERT QUEEN’s versatile and massive-sounding heavy and BLUE HERON’s raucous and desert-shaped songcraft, it is no understatement to say that we are in presence of true forces of nature, an alliance between two up-and-coming greats of the US stoner and desert rock scene.
“Turned To Stone Chapter 8” will be available on May 26th in various vinyl formats as well as digitally, with preorders available now on Ripple Music. The artwork was created by award-winning comic and poster artist Johnny Dombrowski.
TRACKLIST: 1. High Desert Queen – Black Moon 2. High Desert Queen – Drift Into The Sun 3. High Desert Queen – Roll The Dice 4. Blue Heron – Able Baker 5. Blue Heron – Day Of The Comet 6. Blue Heron – Superposition
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 20th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
If I’d had a soul, it would’ve wept bitter soul-tears last September at my being unable to attend Monolith on the Mesa 2022 (lineup here, if you’d like a refresher) in Taos, New Mexico. Now, I don’t know what Roman Barham, also of heavy trio Red Mesa, has in store for the first-and-maybe-only installment of Burque Rock City Fest, which moves the proceedings from Taos to Albuquerque and is set to have its inaugural edition take place in early August, but I’m more than willing to trust that by the time he and his crew have their shit together and know what they’re doing, based on past evidence as well as the already well-on-its-way lineup they’ve unveiled for Burque Rock City Fest 2023, highlighted by Belzebong coming over from Poland, Weedeater at the top of the bill (unclear if they’re headlining or just there for now), Matt Pike‘s solo-project, Early Moods, High Desert Queen, Sorcia and Thunder Horse alongside Prism Bitch and Coma Recovery.
It’s two days — Monolith was three last year — and will happen across two venues, neither of which I know anything about more than their name from lists of tour dates. But again, it’s a new fest but familiar parties behind it, so also not a worry. Barham notes in the quote below that Monolith on the Mesa will be back in Taos in 2024, so it’s unclear whether Burque Rock City Fest is a one-time-only placeholder or will be an ongoing second festival. I wouldn’t attempt to guess, but as it’s worth keeping an eye on, that’s what I’m doing. Will continue to do so as the lineup takes shape.
For now, the first announcement and early-bird ticket links, as per the PR wire:
Monolith On The Mesa Presents: Burque Rock City Fest
August 4th & 5th 2023
The Historic El Rey Theater & Insideout Bar in Downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The first round of bands has been announced…
Weedeater * Pike Vs The Automaton * Belzebong * Early Moods * High Desert Queen * ThunderHorse * Sorcia * Prism Bitch * Coma Recovery
Roman Barham, co-founder of Monolith on the Mesa has been quietly working on Burque Rock City Fest.
Barham says:
“Monolith On The Mesa crew would love to thank everyone who helped make Monolith 2022 an awesome fest. Huge thanks from The Taos Mesa Brewery crew, the Hotel Luna Mystica crew and to all the very respectful patrons that came out and made Monolith On The Mesa 2022 an amazing tribute to our fallen brother Dano Sanchez (deceased Monolith co-founder).
We have decided to take a year off from Monolith and bring it back in 2024 to Taos Mesa Brewery.
Branching south from the Monolith On The Mesa tree is Burque Rock City Fest in Albuquerque, NM At The Historic El Rey Theater & Insideout Bar On Friday August 4th & Saturday August 5th 2023.
More band announcements & more exciting info soon.
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 23rd, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Monolith on theMesa isn’t screwing around. The 2022 edition of the Taos, New Mexico, festival features a welcome-back-to-this-thing lineup that’s as desert as the sands on which it’ll take place and more besides. Ever wonder what Eyehategod and Yawning Man might sound like going back-to-back? Here’s where you’ll find out.
Those two, as well as import acts like Mars Red Sky (from France) and Belzebong (from Poland) will feature, alongside The Obsessed, Nebula, The Freeks, Red Mesa, Stöner, Ruby the Hatchet, Ecstatic Vision and others. This being the first Monolith on the Mesa since the untimely passing of festival co-founder Dano Sanchez, it’s a bittersweet occasion, but there’s no question looking at the lineup that it’s being executed in a spirit of celebration, both of that life and of the music itself. If you’d dare ask more than that, well, Eagle Twin are playing. Fucking bonus.
Info came down the PR wire, as well as the nifty poster art by Nick Filth:
MONOLITH ON THE MESA ANNOUNCES FULL LINE-UP, REVEALS POSTER ARTWORK BY NICK FILTH, AND FESTIVAL SPONSORS
Artists include Mars Red Sky, The Obsessed, Nebula, Eyehategod, Ruby The Hatchet, Stöner, The Freeks, Mondo Generator, Yawning Man and others
Monolith on the Mesa reveals final poster artwork by Nick Filth and full festival line-up in conjunction with summer solstice. The festival returns to Taos Mesa Brewing The Mothership on September 16th, 17th, 18th, 2022 for three days filled with music, art, and community. Tickets are on sale now HERE. Artists include internationally acclaimed acts such as Mars Red Sky, The Obsessed, Nebula, Eyehategod, Ruby The Hatchet, Stöner, The Freeks, Mondo Generator, Yawning Man and Red Mesa. In the words of belated festival visionary Dano Sanchez fans should get ready for a “weekend of live music heaviness blasting onto the high desert mesa in full view of the Sangre de Christo mountains.”
Roman Barham, festival co-founder and talent buyer says: “I am really excited to have Monolith on the Mesa back! This year’s line-up is a roll over from both 2020 and 2021. We had bands confirmed and then COVID happened. It was cool that so many bands were still down to be a part of Monolith once we got back. What’s really intense about the line-up is how it fits the surrounding high desert environment. With bands like Yawning Man, Stöner, Nebula, Mondo Generator — so many legends of the desert will be jamming. I know Dano would be really proud of the line-up for 2022. Summer solstice connects us deeply with Dano and how he saw the cosmos and life and how they coincide. Out here, we follow the astrological interpretations of the seasons and change.”
“The Mothership will have the same intent,” Jayson Wylie, Taos Mesa Brewing President/Director of Brewing Operations says, “but with a little different feel post reconstruction after the devastating fire we had. We still have two stages, both of them outside. We have transitioned our indoor space to accommodate more beverage production. Customers will notice an enhanced amphitheater with state of the art house PA and lighting. Out here on the mesa, summer solstice signifies a transition to shorter days and hopefully more rain.”
Festival producer Ashley Sanchez says “The summer solstice is the time of year when you start to see the fruits of your labor – financially, agriculturally, in relationships, or otherwise. The solstice reveals if we’re still living in alignment with the goals we set at the beginning of the year. Dano and I worked to live in sync with nature and it’s still very much something I hold in my own center. In honor of this cornerstone of our relationship together and how our family shows up in the world, we chose the summer solstice to announce the complete lineup for the 2022 Monolith on the Mesa festival.”
Monolith on the Mesa is an open air festival focused around the “earthship” amphitheatre which holds 1,500 people. The festival sits at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains and at the edge of the Rio Grande gorge minutes from Taos Pueblo and the Gorge Bridge. Activities in the vicinity include rafting, hiking in the desert or in the mountains, mountain biking, soaking in the natural hot springs, as well as strolling the beautiful and historic streets and plazas of Taos. In founder Dano Sanchez’s words: “It is truly a magical place and combined with awesome music and art it’s like no other music festival.”
DATES AND TIMES September 16th, 17th, 18th, 2022 Doors at 12 noon daily.
TICKET INFORMATION Monolith on the Mesa will honor tickets and other arrangements purchased in 2020 and 2021. Tickets will be rolled over to this year’s Will Call list.
Single Day Pass $60 ticket HERE: https://holdmyticket.com/event/358415
Two Day Pass $100 ticket HERE: https://holdmyticket.com/event/358428
Three Day Pass $150 ticket HERE: https://holdmyticket.com/event/344139
Rain or shine event!
FESTIVAL LINE-UP
Friday, September 16th, 2022 Doors at 12:00 pm Mesa Stage-1:00-1:45/ Greenbeard Mesa Stage-2:00-2:45/ Blue Heron Mesa Stage-3:00-3:45/ Caustic Casanova Mesa Stage-4:00-4:45/ Red Mesa Mothership Stage-5:00-5:45/ Owl Mesa Stage-6:00-6:45/ The Atomic Bitchwax Mothership Stage-7:00-7:45/ Daikajiu Mesa Stage-8:00-9:00/ Eagle Twin Mothership Stage-9:00-10:00/ Belzebong Mesa Stage-10:00-11:00/ The Obsessed Mothership Stage-11:00-12:00/ Mars Red Sky
Saturday, September 17th, 2022 Doors at 12:00 pm Mesa Stage-12:15-12:45/ Via Vengeance Mesa Stage-1:00-1:45/ Terra Damnata Mesa Stage-2:00-2:45/ Heretical Sect Mesa Stage-3:00-3:45/ Love Gang Mesa Stage-4:00-4:45/ Heavy Temple Mothership Stage-5:00-5:45/ Year of The Cobra Mesa Stage-6:00-6:45/ The Otolith Mothership Stage-7:00-7:45/ Nebula Mesa Stage-8:00-9:00/ Warhorse Mothership Stage-9:00-10:00/ REZN Mesa Stage-10:00-11:00/ Ruby The Hatchet Mothership Stage-11:00-12:00/ Stöner
Sunday, September 18th, 2022 Doors at 12:00 pm Mesa Stage-12:15-12:45/ Fever Dog Mesa Stage-1:00-1:45/ Heave Mesa Stage-2:00-2:45/ Lilith Mesa Stage-3:00-3:45/ Communion Mesa Stage-4:00-4:45/ The Freeks Mothership Stage-5:00-5:45/ Duel Mesa Stage-6:00-6:45/ Tabernacle Mothership Stage-7:00-7:45/ El Perro Mesa Stage-8:00-9:00/ Mondo Generator Mothership Stage-9:00-10:00/ Ecstatic Vision Mesa Stage-10:00-11:00/ Eyehategod Mothership Stage-11:00-12:00/ Yawning Man
After sundown every evening visual magicians, Mad Alchemy Liquid Light Show, illuminate the night sky.
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 3rd, 2022 by JJ Koczan
I guess this is the part where I say it’s been 10 years since Om released Advaitic Songs (review here), and though rumors have persisted of an album being this or that in some stage of done or not, I’ve yet to see anything manifest in concrete, confirmed fashion since 2019’s excellent BBC Radio 1 (review here) live record. And at this point, maybe it’s unreasonable to expect another one to come, right? Maybe in your life you get to make one album like that if you’re lucky enough, and maybe that kind of scope and realization isn’t something that could happen twice. Lightning meet bottle, etc. I don’t know. If it’s a question of their having set a standard by releasing one of the best records of the 2010s — and one that, despite being issued so early in the decade, actually held up for the rest of it — I’d be happy just to hear Al Cisernos‘ Rickenbacker mellow out for 35 or so minutes on some songs. Anything past that is gravy, really.
Om have Fall tour dates announced with Zombi. They’ll be doing the Midwest and West Coast, some shows in Canada. I’d love to see this band again, as I’ve missed chance after chance and it’s been a while by now, but maybe next time. And of course if I hear/see/smell anything about a new full-length, I’ll probably post faster than I can even type, so apologies in advance when everything is spelled wrong.
Dates from socials:
OM Tour
All shows with Zombi
09.08 Oklahoma City OK 89th St. OKC 09.09 Lawrence KS The Bottleneck 09.10 Omaha NE Slowdown 09.12 Des Moines IA Wooly’s 09.15 Chicago IL Thalia Hall 09.16 Milwaukee WI Cactus Club 09.17 Minneapolis MN Fine Line 09.20 Winnipeg MB Canada Pyramid Cabaret 09.22 Saskatoon SK Canada Amigos Cantina 09.23 Edmonton AB Canada The Starlite Room 09.24 Calgary AB Canada Dickens 09.27 Vancouver BC Canada Rickshaw Theatre 09.28 Seattle WA The Crocodile 09.29 Bellingham WA Wild Buffalo 09.30 Tacoma WA Alma Mater 10.01 Portland OR Aladdin Theater 10.03 Berkeley CA The UC Theater 10.04 Felton CA The Felton Music Hall 10.05 Los Angeles CA Lodge Room 10.06 Los Angeles CA Lodge Room 10.07 Solana Beach CA Belly Up Tavern 10.10 Mesa AZ The Nile 10.11 Las Vegas NV Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas 10.12 Salt Lake City UT Metro Music Hall 10.13 Englewood CO The Gothic Theatre 10.15 Albuquerque NM Sister Bar
[Click play above to stream Blue Heron’s Ephemeral in full. Album is out Friday on Kozmik Artifactz and Seeing Red Records.]
True, the blue heron is not a desert bird. They live in wetlands. One imagines that Albuquerque, New Mexico’s Blue Heron — who include the line, “without water we’ll drink the sand,” in the song “Futurola” which opens their debut album, Ephemeral — chose it because in some Native American traditions, to see a blue heron is a positive omen for a fishing trip, or a sign of growth and evolution more generally. One doubts the four-piece get much fishing done in Albuquerque, so perhaps it’s safe to assume their nod is to the latter.
Such would seem to be borne out across the 47 minutes and eight songs of Ephemeral, which sees issue through Seeing Red Records and Kozmik Artifactz and follows only a couple of compilation/tribute appearances and the band’s late-2021 two-songer Black Blood of the Earth / A Sunken Place (review here), the video that accompanied same accomplishing much in terms of establishing the band’s persona as they rocked a barroom venue with drummer Ricardo Sanchez turning in a full-body performance behind the kit. One very much gets the sense that he’s doing the same on the rest of the tracks here, and whether it’s the heavy-but-laid-back classic desert rock unfurling of “Futurola,” the lumbering-into-freakout-into-space-out-jam in the midsection of the subsequent 13-minute viber “Sayonara” or the later march of “The Buck” that sets out into the sandy wastes with a backpack made of highlight fuzz, rhythm is very much at the heart of Ephemeral.
Can’t groove without it, and it’s the groove that ties the scream-sludgy payoff of “Push the Sky” to the angular turns prior, the crunching, gruff rush early in “Black Blood of the Earth” to its willfully meandering, spoken-word-topped second half, like a post-grunge noise solution to the problem of ‘how do we get lost on purpose.’ That’s not to minimize the contributions of bassist Steve Schmidlapp, or guitarist Mike Chavez and vocalist Jadd Shickler, the latter two of whom also played together in Spiritu, whose self-titled debut was issued in 2002 and of whom Blue Heron might be considered a spiritual successor in terms of their general approach.
Shickler — who’s invariably more known for having also co-founded MeteorCity, today runs Blues Funeral Recordings and contributes to Ripple Music, Magnetic Eye Records, the PostWax vinyl subscription service (for which I do liner notes; full disclosure), and so on — and Chavez dig into older-school heavy/desert vibes throughout, and the ability and readiness to break out a more aggressive stance across Ephemeral is part of that, though at the same time, they offer the Chavez-solo drifting interlude “Infiniton Field” and the acoustic/pedal steel-laced Americana expanse of the penultimate two-minute instrumental “Where One Went Together,” and those are decidedly drawn from newer influences; a bit of Lord Buffalo to go with the underlying Dozer, at least in the case of “Where One Went Together.” It’s only fair to read this as Blue Heron‘s omen of evolving coming to fruition in the songs themselves, which is arguably the ideal for the band, particularly on their first full-length.
The broad scope they set is likewise realized among the shifts in tonality and meter, though certainly the heart of Ephemeral is in the fuzz of Chavez‘s guitar, which shoves the listener into the first verse of “Futurola” like Kyuss pushing over “Gardenia.” Pairing that song and the more purposefully vast “Sayonara” — which opens like “War Pigs” at the wrong (right) speed — as the record’s initial salvo has a lasting effect on the atmosphere of what follows, and even when “The Buck” leads into “Black Blood of the Earth,” which is the pairing of two tracks that are the most similar in their intention throughout, those two songs have distinctive resonances. Elsewhere, the shout-topped payoff of “Sayonara” gives way to the comparatively stripped down, backing vocal-inclusive melodic highlight “Push the Sky,” from which they set off into the “Infiniton Field” before the steady, righteously-stoner-rock drawn-out intro of “The Buck” establishes the beginning of a subtle and effective linear build unto its final rumble.
That’s one from which the tense noise at the outset of “Black Blood of the Earth” looses its initial tom-fueled intensity, which seems to be maintained even through the more open-sounding midsection until at last the song lets go of your lungs and turns at about five minutes in to its heavy psych-style exploration, which caps with fingers sliding on strings as one imagines pedals are clicked off and gives over to the acoustic strums of “Where One Went Together” and, ultimately, to the finale “Salvage,” which answers the layering of “Push the Sky,” the head-down force of “Black Blood of the Earth” and reaffirms the threat that at any point Blue Heron can and just might bring forward their sludgier impulses, which they do as the track’s seems to break apart at the conclusion of the album before it turns around for one final clearheaded chorus.
This movement of one into the next into the next is more than about run-on sentences. It’s the flow of Ephemeral as an entirety, and though as a 47-minute LP it’s pushing the limits of that format in terms of runtime, there is not a song in which the overarching fluidity of the whole work is sacrificed.
I am not impartial here, on multiple fronts. First, no one’s ever truly impartial about anything. Ever. Second, and in the interest of further full-disclosure, I’ve known Shickler for about 20 years now since his MeteorCity days, and we communicate on the regular for PostWax, other bands, and more besides. I consider him a friend and often a monumental pain in the ass (which is how you know I really mean that “friend” part). Accordingly, even if I didn’t dig Ephemeral, I probably wouldn’t say so. However, if I didn’t dig Ephemeral, I also wouldn’t be streaming it or reviewing it in this manner, or even telling you this. One way or the other, Ephemeral sets its goals clearly in its songs and meets them front to back.
In terms of my actual listening experience, there are parts where I can pick out nuances from acts Shickler has long associated with, be it the aforementioned Dozer, or Lowrider, or Unida, but even for a listener not coming into Blue Heron‘s debut with my personal context, its melding together of cross-generational sounds is not to be overlooked. The songs are considered and developed, but full of life, and they offer forward glimpses as well as potent nostalgia. As a record, Ephemeral is folkloric in that way, even if the title imagines things coming and going in the passage of time.
Blue Heron, “Black Blood of the Earth” official video
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 21st, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Whether or not you know Jadd Shickler personally — and he’s an outgoing guy, so you just might — the greater possibility is you know his work. One of the original founders of the MeteorCity label and the perennially-missed All That’s Heavy webstore, he’s currently involved to some degree or other in Blues Funeral, Magnetic Eye Records and Ripple Music, in addition to having conceived and launched the PostWax vinyl subscription series.
That this lifelong passion for heavy rock and roll should extend itself to performing should be no surprise whatsoever. Blue Heron will release their debut album, Ephemeral, on May 27 — the news actually came in a bit ago and slipped through the rather large cracks in my PR wire system these days — and they’ve got a video up for the new single “Futurola.” That, of course, is not to be confused with Futurama, which I hear is coming back, and the song and the album it heralds will follow-up on the initial two-songer (review here) that the Albuquerque-based four-piece put out late last year.
Older heads will recall Shickler (in the blue shirt above and presumably the designated driver of the photoshoot since he’s the only one without a drink) as well from his time in the underrated Spiritu, whose lone, Jack Endino-produced self-titled full-length was released in 2002. Twenty years after the fact — and keeping plenty busy in the meantime — to have Blue Heron arrive with their own album only emphasizes the point. I don’t use the word “lifer” often, but sometimes nothing else will do.
Looking forward to the album:
Desert Rockers BLUE HERON Prepare to Release First Full Album Ephemeral
New Mexico stoner metal outfit to issue new LP via Seeing Red Records and Kozmik Artifactz on May 27th, with first single “Futurola” now streaming
New Mexico desert rockers Blue Heron will release their first full-length album, Ephemeral, via Seeing Red Records (US) and Kozmik Artifactz (Germany) on May 27th, 2022. The album’s first single, “Futurola” is now streaming on digital services, along with an interpretive animated video.
Ephemeral is an 8-track, 47-minute exploration of heavy rock at its fullest. Excavating the far reaches and connected strata of stoner rock, sludge, doom, heavy psych and post-metal, Blue Heron transmute years of engagement with rock and metal’s profuse branches into a singular, sand-scorching epic. With lyrical threads ranging from mortality and failed civilizations to mythic fables and cinematic re-imaginations, Ephemeral is stylistically diverse, thematically ambitious and unassailably relentless in its raw, desert power.
Ephemeral arrives May 27th, 2022 on limited edition vinyl from Seeing Red Records in North America and Kozmik Artifactz in Europe and on all digital services.
Preorders are available now via the labels and the Blue Heron Bandcamp.
Blue Heron will perform at Ripplefest Texas this July alongside scene heavyweights including Crowbar, Big Business, The Sword, Heavy Temple, Howling Giant and Eagles of Death Metal.
Blue Heron is: Mike Chavez – Guitar Ricardo Sanchez – Drums Steve Schmidlapp – Bass Jadd Shickler – Vocals
Ephemeral was recorded at Third Eye Studios by David McRae, except: “Infiniton Field” recorded by Mike Chavez “Where One Went Together” recorded at Tru-Art Media by Jose Martinez
Mastered by J.T. Schmidlapp Produced by Blue Heron, David McRae and Lee Sillery Art and layout by Mirkow Gastow
Well then, here we are. Day two of the Spring 2022 Quarterly Review brings a few records that I really, really like, personally, and I hope that you listen and feel similar. What you’ll find throughout is a pretty wide swath of styles, but these are the days of expanded-definition heavy, so let’s not squabble about this or that. Still a lot of week to go, folks. Gotta keep it friendly.
Deep breath in, and…
Quarterly Review #11-20:
Arð, Take Up My Bones
Hard to know at what point Winterfylleth‘s Mark Deeks decided to send his historically-minded solo-project Arð to Prophecy Productions for release consideration, but damned if the six-song Take Up My Bones doesn’t feel quintessential. Graceful lines of piano and strings give way to massively-constructed lumbering funeralia, vocals adding to the atmosphere overall as the story of St. Cuthbert’s bones is recounted through song, in mood perhaps more than folk balladeering. Whatever your familiarity with that narrative or willingness to engage it, Deeks‘ arrangements are lush and wondrously patient, the sound of “Boughs of Trees” at the outset of side B building smoothly toward its deathly sprawl but unrelentingly melodic. The longer “Raise Then the Incorrupt Body” and “Only Three Shall Know” come across as more directly dramatic with their chants and so on, but Arð‘s beauty-through-darkness melancholy is the center around which the album is built and the end result is suitably consuming. While not incomplete by any means, I find myself wondering when it’s over what other stories Deeks may have to tell.
Oh, Seremonia. How I missed you. These long six years after Pahuuden Äänet (review here), the Finnish troupe return to rescue their cult listenership from any and all mundane realities, psych and garage-fuzz potent enough to come with a warning label (which so far as I know it doesn’t) on “Neonlusifer” and the prior opener “Väärä valinta” with the all-the-way-out flute-laced swirl of “Raskatta vettä,” and if you don’t know what to make of all those vowel sounds, good luck with the cosmic rock of “Kaivon pohjalla” and “Unohduksen kidassa,” on which vocalist Noora Federley relinquishes the lead spot to new recruit Teemu Markkula (also Death Hawks), who also adds guitar, synth, organ and flute alongside the guitar/synth/vocals of Ville Pirinen, the drums/guitar/flute/vocals of Erno Taipale and bass/synth/vocals of Ilkka Vekka. This is a band who reside — permanently, it seems — on a wavelength of their own, and Neonlusifer is more than welcome after their time out of time. May it herald more glorious oddness to come from the noisy mist that ends “Maailmanlopun aamuna” and the album as a whole.
Swedish heavy rockers The Quill mark 30 years of existence in 2022 (actually they go back further), and while Live, New, Borrowed, Blue isn’t quite an anniversary release, it does collect material from a pretty broad span of years. Live? “Keep it Together” and an especially engaging take on “Hole in My Head” that closes. New? The extended version of “Keep on Moving” from 2021’s Earthrise (review here), “Burning Tree” and “Children of the Sun.” Borrowed? Iron Maiden‘s “Where Eagles Dare,” November‘s “Mount Everest,” Aerosmith‘s “S.O.S.” and Captain Beyond‘s “Frozen Over.” Blue? Certainly “Burning Tree,” and all of it, if you’re talking about bluesy riffs, which, if you’re talking about The Quill, you are. In the narrative of Sverige heavy rock, they remain undersung, and this compilation, in addition to being a handy-dandy fan-piece coming off their last record en route to the inevitable next one, is further evidence to support that claim. Either you know or you don’t. Three decades on, The Quill are gonna be The Quill either way.
Though it’s just 20 minutes long, the six-song debut from Ohio’s Dark Worship offers dark industrial heft and a grim psychedelic otherworldliness in more than enough measure to constitute a full-length. At the center of the storm — though not the eye of it, because it’s quiet there — is J. Meyers, also of Axioma, who conjures the spaces of “Culling Song” and “We’ve Always Been Here” as a bed for a selection of guest vocalists, including Nathan Opposition of Ancient VVisdom/Vessel of Light, Axioma‘s Aaron Dallison, and Joe Reed (To Dust, Exorcisme). No matter who’s fronting a given track — Reed gets the lion’s share, Dallison the title-track and Opposition the penultimate “Destroy Forever (Death of Ra)” — the vibe is biting and dark in kind, with Meyers providing backing vocals, guitar, and of course the software-born electronic beats and melodies that are the core of the project. Maybe hindsight will make this nascent-feeling, but in terms of world construction, Flesh of a Saint is punishing in its immersion, right up to the howling feedback and ambience of “Well of Light” at the finish. Conceptually destructive.
More Experience, Electric Laboratory of High Space Experience
Nature sounds feature throughout More Experience‘s 2021 third album, Electric Laboratory of High Space Experience, with birdsong and other naturalist atmospheres in opener “The Twilight,” “Beezlebufo,” closer “At the Gates of Dawn,” and so on. Interspersed between them is the Polish troupe’s ’60s-worship psych. Drawing on sonic references from the earliest space rock and post-garage psychedelics — think Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, King Crimson’s “Epitaph” is almost remade here as the penultimate title-track — band founder Piotr Dudzikowski (credited with guitars, organs, synthesizers, backing vocals, harmonium, tambura, and cobuz) gets by with a little help from his friends, which means in part that the vocals of extended early highlight “The Dream” are pulled back for a grain-of-salt spoken word on “The Trip” and the later “Fairy Tale.” The synthy “The Mind” runs over nine minutes and between that, “The Dream” and the title-track (9:56), I feel like I’m digging the longer-form, more dug-in songs, but I’m not going to take away from the ambient and more experimental stuff either, since that’s how this music was invented in the first place.
Young Indonesian riffers Jawless get right to the heart of heavy on their debut album, Warrizer, with a raw take on doom rock that’s dead-on heavy and classic in its mindset. There’s nothing fancy happening here other than some flourish of semi-psych guitar, but the self-produced four-piece from Bandung kill it with a reverence of course indebted to but not beholden to Sabbathian blues licks, and their swing on “Deceptive Events” alone is enough proof-of-concept for me. I’m on board. It’s not about progressive this or that. It’s not about trying to find a genre niche no one’s thought of yet. This is players in a room rocking the fuck out. And they might have a bleak point of view in cuts like “War is Come,” and one does not have to look too far to get the reference in “The Throne of Tramp,” but that sense of judgment is part and parcel to originalist doom. At 50 minutes, it’s long for an LP, but as “Restrained” pays off the earlier psychedelic hints, “Metaphorical Speech” boogie-jams and “G.O.D.” rears back with each measure to spit its next line, I wouldn’t lose any of it.
Adding a guest guitar solo from Earthless‘ Isaiah Mitchell wasn’t going to hurt the cause of Indianapolis duo The Heavy Co., and sure enough it doesn’t. Issued digitally in 2020 and premiered here, “Shelter” runs a quick three minutes of psych-blues rock perfectly suited to the 7″ treatment Rock Freaks Records gives it and the earlier digi-single “Phoenix” (posted here), which had been the group’s first offering after a six-year break. “Phoenix,” which is mellower and more molten in its tempo throughout its six minutes, might be the better song of the two, but the twang in “Shelter” pairs well with that bluesy riff from guitarist/vocalist Ian Daniel, and Jeff Kaleth holds it down on drums. More to come? Maybe. There’s interesting ground here to explore in this next phase of The Heavy Co.‘s tenure.
All that “Witch Boogie” is missing is John Lee Hooker going “boom boom boom” over that riff, and even when opener “Strange Fruit” or “Dreamin'” is indebted to the Rolling Stones, it’s the bluesier side of their sound. No problem there, but Freiburg, Germany, four-piece Sound of Smoke bring a swagger and atmosphere to “Soft Soaper” that almost ’70s-style Scorpions in its beginning before the shuffling verse starts, tambourine and all, and there’s plenty of pastoral psych in “Indian Summer” and 10-minute “Human Salvation,” the more weighted surges of which feel almost metallic in their root — like someone between vocalist/keyboardist Isabelle Bapté, guitarist Jens Stöver, bassist Florian Kiefer and drummer Johannes Braunstein once played in a harder-focused project. Still, as their debut LP after just a 2017 EP, the seven-song/43-minute Tales shows a looser rumble in “Devil’s Voice” behind Bapté, and there’s a persona and perspective taking shape in the songs. It’ll be hard work for them to stand out, but given what I hear in these tracks, both their psych edge and that sharper underpinning will be assets in their favor along with the sense of performance they bring.
Coming off their 2020 full-length, The Path to the Deathless (review here), Albuquerque-based trio Red Mesa — guitarist/vocalist Brad Frye, bassist/vocalist Alex Cantwell, who alternates here with Frye, and drummer/backing vocalist Roman Barham, who may or may not also join in on the song’s willfully lumbering midsection — take a stated turn toward doom with the 5:50 Forest Cathedral single. The grittier groove suits them, and the increasing sharing of vocals (which includes backing), makes them a more complex act overall, but there’s not necessarily anything in “Forest Cathedral” to make one think it’s some radical shift in another direction, which there was enough of on The Path to the Deathless to warrant a guest appearance from Dave Sherman of Earthride. Still, they continue to do it well, and honing in on this particular sound, whether something they do periodically to change it up, never touch again after this, or see as a new way to go all-in, I’m content to follow along and see where it goes.
In keeping with the tradition of over-the-top weed-doom band names, Margarita Witch Cult crawl forth from the birthplace of sonic weight, Birmingham, UK, with their debut two-songer cassingle-looking CD/DL Witchfinder. That’s not the only tradition they’re keeping. See also the classic riffer doom they capture in their practice space on the not-tape and the resulting rawness of “The Witchfinder Comes” and “Aradia,” bot nodders preaching Iommic truths. There’s a bit more scorch in the solo on “Aradia,” but that could honestly mean the microphone moved, and either way, they also keep the tradition of many such UK acts with goofball monikers in actually being pretty right on. Of course, they’re in one of the most crowded heavy undergrounds anywhere in the world, but there’s a lot to be said for taking doom rock and stripping it bare as they do on these tracks, the very least of which is that it would probably work really well on tape. If I was at the gig and I saw it on the merch table, I’d snag and look forward to more. I’ll do the same with the Bandcamp.
