Posted in Whathaveyou on October 7th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
To be headlined by Jack Harlon & the Dead Crows with the likes of Khan, Planet of the 8s and Moana near the top of the bill, Spliffs ‘n’ Riffs 2023 is presented by Sandgroper Music — fine as long as the sand is cool with it — and boasts 20 acts playing in Perth on March 5, which is the day before Australian Labor Day. One might consider trying to catch 20 bands in a single afternoon/evening/night a good reason in itself not to go to work the next day, but in this case at least it’s not a worry. I have no doubt it’ll be a party.
The Australian underground is as vital as Europe, the US or South America, more than many individual countries to be sure, and widely varied, so that you could pull 20 bands together for an all-dayer and only have to get five from out of town doesn’t really surprise, even though Perth — on the West Coast — doesn’t have quite the same hotbed reputation as, say, Melbourne in the Southeast and from whence Jack Harlon and the Dead Crows, Khan, and Planet of the 8s hail. Still, I like the fact that I’ve never heard of some of these bands — gonna go check out Mossy Fogg based on their name alone, and might dig into King Zog afterward just to complete the rhyme — and am glad for the chance to listen to something new to me even if it’s not actually new. Looking at you, Magic Chicken Fudgetoe.
Hail Oz heavy:
SPLIFFS n RIFFS [PERTH] 2023 LINE-UP IS HERE!!
Over stages of HELL on Sunday March 5th (Labor Day Eve), Spliffs n Riffs will include some of Australia’s best Stoner/Rock/Punk bands!
LINE-UP: Jack harlon & The Dead Crows [VIC] Khan [VIC] Planet Of The 8’s [VIC] Moana Suneater Vulgurite Giant Dwarf Mage Death By Carrot [QLD] Mossy Fogg Ratsalad [Geraldton] The Wedges Injured Ninja Twin Serpents King Zog Witchcliff Chickspit Lamentia Unicorn Magic Chicken Fudge Toe
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 11th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
The blurb below, toward the bottom, just above the links, I lifted from Ripple Music‘s Bandcamp. Something about it seemed awfully familiar. I’d soon enough realize that’s because I wrote it in my review of the label’s new Turned to Stone Chapter 5 (review here) split between Planet of the 8s and Duneeater, which is of course what the two bands will be promoting on this upcoming run through their jointly native Australia. That split, organized in executive-producer fashion by Las Vegas-based promoter and general dude-who-knows-stuff-about-heavy-music John Gist of Vegas Rock Revolution (obviously of greater reach than those city limits), is the best argument for itself, so you’ll find it streaming at the bottom of this post, each act a complement for the other without all that exhausting competition.
I don’t have data for how this site does in Australia, and honestly I’d probably rather not know, but Aus heavy is some of the finest in the world, and these bands both rock, so if you happen to be seeing this and in the part of the world where they’ll be, do you really need me to tell you to show up and support, maybe pick up a vinyl? No, I don’t think you do.
From social media:
Planet of the 8s & Duneeater – Turned to Stone Tour
TOUR ANNOUNCEMENT! We’re hitting the road with Duneeater to promote our split 12″ LP ‘Turned To Stone – Chapter V’ out now on Ripple Music. Save $$ with a presale ticket on sale here: https://linktr.ee/ttstour
— More dates TBA —
Fri 30 Sept – The Basement, Canberra Fri 1 Oct – The Stag & Hunter, Newcastle Sun 2 Oct – Frankie’s, Sydney – FREE ENTRY Sat 15 Oct – Enigma Bar, Adelaide Fri 21 Oct – The Evelyn, Melbourne
Ripple Music‘s split series continues, pairing Australian heavy rockers Duneeater and Planet of the 8s. And while many splits set themselves up as a blank-vs.-blank scenario, like a (usually friendly) competition between the bands involved, the Victoria and Melbourne, respectively, outfits make sure everyone knows they’re both playing for Team Riff, setting up the tracklisting between the two so that the bands not only share the release, but indeed some of the music that makes it up. And that goes to underline the sheer listenability of Turned to Stone Chapter 5. It is the converted offering a righteous preach to the choir, and each side has a bit of sermon to it as well. If you’d worship an altar of fuzz, they’ve built one here.
Ripple Music‘s split series continues Aug. 5 with Turned to Stone Chapter 5, pairing Australian heavy rockers Duneeater and Planet of the 8s. And while many splits set themselves up as a blank-vs.-blank scenario, like a (usually friendly) competition between the bands involved, the Victoria and Melbourne, respectively, outfits make sure everyone knows they’re both playing for Team Riff, setting up the tracklisting between the two so that the bands not only share the release, but indeed some of the music that makes it up. Duneeater, who released their No Gas No Good debut LP in 2019, begin side A with “Dusk Part 2.” Planet of the 8s, whose Lagrange Point Vol. 1 (review here) came out last year, end side B with “Dusk Part 1.” So immediately the vinyl has a wraparound effect from these two riff-led interludes.
They do something similar with the middle. Duneeater‘s “Devil Dodgers (Dawn Part 1)” caps their five-song portion by dedicating its last 50 seconds and fadeout to pulling off a quietly complex rhythmic turn into the riff that will also serve as the fading-in foundation of Planet of the 8s‘ minute-long “Dawn Part 2” — they also work some fun stops into the end of it before digging into their two main songs, which are longer than the two between which they’re sandwiched. There are stylistic similarities and differences between the bands. Duneeater are more straightforward, back to the roots of heavy, fuzzy, desert-style rock as shades of Kyuss, Fu Manchu, Mondo Generator, “Twin Voyager” nodding directly at the Californian desert while “Pleather Sex” (video premiering below) echoes Sungrazer‘s “Common Believer” in its riff and pairs that with a Valley of the Sun-style grit and Songs for the Deaf-style crunch that would make Ruff Majik blush.
Familiar terrain? Maybe, but Duneeater do well with it and know the style they’re playing toward. It might be splitting hairs to liken “C.O.B.R.A.” to Hermano for its mellower tempo and general tonal fullness, but they still have plenty of brashness to work with and “Devil Dodgers (Dawn Part 1)” jams more uptempo calling back to early Fu Manchu in its backing vocals and almost punkish approach to its own fuzz. One wonders a bit about the decision to keep “Dawn Part 1” in “Devil Dodgers” itself, rather than list it as its own track, but if you’re listening to the vinyl it doesn’t matter. Planet of the 8s fade in playing the same progression, putting their own spin on it while introducing the shift in production that side B brings, the tones hitting a little fuller than the pivot-ready desert looseness of Duneeater.
As they launch into “Raised by Night” and “Gravity,” it’s worth noting that neither Lagrange Point Vol. 1 or their prior two LPs only had one track over seven minutes long, which both of these are. Coming from the 2021 release, Planet of the 8s still embark on a fuzz-led journey including guest spots, but where on Lagrange Point Vol. 1 there was a different singer on each song — which were arranged around an intro and outro; not dissimilar from Turned to Stone Chapter 5 — the cuts here are inherently less disjointed in their presentation, and even more than 2019’s Tourist Season album, they seem to use their relatively extended length for more progressive shove, the melodies of “Raised by Night” met by fervent hits and a building tension as they move into the song’s back half, some of Elder‘s nuance meeting with a Forming the Void-ish nod. Tourist Season had some glimpses of Wo Fat influence as well, and that’s not necessarily absent from “Gravity,” but there’s more prog happening, more angularity, and the layered vocals add to that individual edge.
But here’s the thing: “Gravity” is still heavy, fuzzed, desert rock, it’s just got a different bent, so however much you want to dig into Turned to Stone Chapter 5, Duneeater and Planet of the 8s are ready for it. Ripple‘s series has felt decidedly curated in the past and does here as well in this pairing of countryman units by John Gist of Vegas Rock Revolution, as their complementary mission is brightly successful as “Gravity” prog-psych-embiggens its way into the count-in and bassy boogie of “Dusk Part 1,” which fades out hypnotically to let the rawer instrumental bite of Duneeater pick up with “Dusk Part 2” on the next spin. Before you know it, you’re back to “Twin Voyager.”
And that goes to underline the sheer listenability of Turned to Stone Chapter 5. It is the converted offering a righteous preach to the choir, and each side has a bit of sermon to it as well. If you’d worship an altar of fuzz, they’ve built one here.
The video for “Pleather Sex” is suitably sleazed-out, but Mr. Pleather gets his in the end to some extent, though he still spent the whole day getting laid, which I’m officially old enough to watch and think that seems exhausting. Alas, the things we do for riffs.
Enjoy:
Duneeater, “Pleather Sex” official video
Duneeater on “Pleather Sex”:
Pleather Sex is all about men and woman alike who love their muscle cars and rootin’ in the back of them. Mike Foxall was approached to do the animation for the clip (after seeing the work he’d done for Grindhouse, we knew he was the dude!)
The brief was, capture our passion for old School Aussie classic cars, take the piss, keep it humorous and throw the band and our own personal cars in the clip. Mike came up with the concept of Pleather man – a goofy 70s stud type, a mixture of Alvin Purple, Ron Jeremy, and Denis Lillie, who runs rampant like he’s back in the days of the sexual revolution. But it’s not just about blokes having all the fun. Collectively we came up with a way to make sure the ladies got their fix too.
Pleather Sex almost never happened, sitting on the cutting room floor for a long time. It was written before we had the full band line up, after a few jams it wasn’t working and therefore shelved. The years pass, Covid comes along and our time to work on new material is limited. So we start dredging through the DE vaults and stumble upon Pleather Sex. This time we had the vibe of the whole band. With Josh now on drums and Robs on lead guitar adding their flare, the song’s groove hit another level and… Voilà! Pleather Sex hits the streets, restored and ready to roll.
“Turned to Stone Chapter 5: Planet of the 8s & Duneeater” out August 5th on Ripple Music. Preorder: https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
Tracklisting:
1. Duneeater – Dusk Part 2 2. Duneeater – Twin Voyager 3. Duneeater – Pleather Sex 4. Duneeater – C.O.B.R.A. 5. Duneeater – Devil Dodgers (Dawn Part 1) 6. Planet Of The 8s – Dawn Part 2 7. Planet Of The 8s – Raised By Night 8. Planet Of The 8s – Gravity 9. Planet Of The 8s – Dusk Part 1
Posted in Reviews on September 27th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Not really much to say about it, is there? You know the deal. I know the deal. This time we go to 70. 10 records every day between today and next Tuesday. It seems insurmountable as usual right now, but as history has shown throughout the last seven or however many years I’ve been doing this kind of thing, it’ll work out. Time is utterly irrelevant when there’s distortion to be had. Wavelengths intersecting, dissolution of hours. You make an extra cup of coffee, I’ll burn from the inside out.
The Fall 2021 Quarterly Review begins today. Let’s boogie.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
Delco Detention, From the Basement
The essential bit of narrative here is that Tyler Pomerantz, founding guitarist of Delco Detention, is about 10 years old. Kid can fuzz. With his father, Adam, on drums, the ambitious young man has put together a wholly professional heavy rock record with a who’s who of collaborators, including Clutch‘s Neil Fallon on “The Joy of Home Schooling” (a video for which went viral last year), Jared Collins of Mississippi Bones, Earthless‘ Isaiah Mitchell, Bob Balch of Fu Manchu on the instrumental “The Action is Delco,” Erik Caplan of Thunderbird Divine on the highlight “Gods Surround,” as well as members of Hippie Death Cult, Kingsnake, The Age of Truth and others across the 15 tracks. The result is inherently diverse given the swath of personnel, tones, etc., but From the Basement plays thematically at points around the experience of being a young rocker — “All Ages Show,” “Digital Animal,” the title-track and “The Joy of Home Schooling” — but isn’t limited to that, and though there are some moodier stretches as there inevitably would be, Tyler holds his own among this esteemed company and the record’s an unabashed good time.
A fourth album arriving some eight years after the third, Fuzzy Lights‘ Burials doesn’t necessarily surprise with its patience, but its sense of world-building is immaculate and immersive. The Cambridge, UK, five-piece of violinist/vocalist Rachel Watkins, guitarist/electronicist Xavier Watkins, guitarist Chris Rogers, bassist Daniel Carney and drummer Mark Blay offer classic Britfolk melody tinged with heavy post-rock atmospherics and foreboding rhythmic push on the 10-minute “Songbird,” with the snare drum building tension for the payoff to come. Elsewhere, opener “Maiden’s Call” and “Haraldskær Woman” drift into darker vibes, while “Under the Waves” dares more uptempo psychedelic rock ahead of the highlight “Sirens” and closer “The Gathering Storm,” which offers bombast so smoothly executed one is surrounded by it almost before noticing. “Songbird,” “Maiden’s Call” and “The Graveyard Song” have their roots in a 2019 solo outing from Rachel Watkins called Collectanea, but however long this material may or may not have been around, it sounds refreshingly individual, natural, full, warm and still boldly forward thinking.
One with greater knowledge of such things than I might be able to sit and analyze and tell you what loops and effects guitarist Darryl Shepard (Kind, Hackman, Milligram, etc.) is using to make these noises, but that ain’t me. I’m happy to accept the mystery of his new two-songer/23-minute EP, (In) Control / Tired of Dying, which slowly unfolds the psych-drone of its 14-minute leadoff cut over its first several minutes before evening out into a mellow, drifting one-man guitar jam, replete with a solo that subtly builds in energy before entering its minute-long fadeout, as if Shepard were to say he wouldn’t want things to get too out of hand. “Tired of Dying” follows with immediately more threatening tone, deep, distorted, lumbering, sludgy, with space for drums behind that never come. That’s not Blackwolfgoat‘s thing. As much as “(In) Control” hypnotized with its sweeter, unassuming rollout, “Tired of Dying” is consumption on a headphone-destroyer level, nine and a half minutes of low wash that’s exploratory just the same. These pieces were recorded live, and it hasn’t been that long since Shepard‘s 2020 Blackwolfgoat full-length, Giving Up Feels So Good (review here), but each cut digs in in its own way and the isolated feel is nothing if not relevant.
From the outset with the stomps later in “Day 1 – The Beginning,” Italian fuzzers Carcaňo reveal some of the rawness in the production of their second full-length, By Order of the Green Goddess, but that doesn’t stop either their tones or the melodies floating over them from being lush across the album’s eight-song/40-minute run, whether that’s happening in the massive “Day 2 – Riding Space Elephants” (aren’t we all?) or the howling leadwork that tops the languid Sabbath/earlier-Mars Red Sky-gone-dark lumber of “Day 6 – I Don’t Belong Here.” They make it move on the cosmic chaos shuffle-and-push of “Day 4 – The Birth” and tap blatant Queens of the Stone Age up-strum riffing and wood block on “Day 5 – The Son of the Sun,” but it’s in spacious freakouts like “Day 3 – Green Grace” and the righteously drawn out “Day 7 – Wasted Land” that By Order of the Green Goddess most seems to set its course, with room for the acoustic experimentalism of “Day 8 – Running Back Home” at the end, familiar in concept but delightfully weird and ethereal in its execution.
Paeans to space and the desert, riffs on riffs on riffs, grit hither and yon — Melbourne’s Planet of the 8s are preaching to the converted on Lagrange Point Vol. 1, and they go so far in the opening “Lagrange Point” to explain in a Twilight Zone-esque monologue what the phenomenon actually is before “Holy Fire” unfurls its procession with the first of four included guest vocalists. King Carrot of Death by Carrot would seem to know of which he speaks there, while Diesel Doleman (Duneater) tops “Exit Planet” for an effect wholly akin to Astrosoniq at max thrust, while Georgie Cosson of Kitchen Witch joins Planet of the 8s‘ own bassist Michael “Sullo” Sullivan on “X-Ray,” and Jimi Coelli (Sheriff) takes on the early QOTSA-style riffing of “The Unofficial History of Babe Wolf,” which would also seem to be the subject of the cover art. They wrap all these comings and going with “The Three Body Problem,” a jazzy minute-long instrumental that’s there and gone before you’ve even caught your breath from the preceding songs. 21 minutes, huh? That 21 minutes is packed.
Debut albums with their stylistic ducks so much in a row are rare, but with the declaration “I am the mountain/You are the quake,” the chugging boogie in the post-Trouble “Did She?,” the opening hook of “Heads Will Roll,” the duly-open, semi-progressive tinge of “Skyscraper,” and the we-saved-extra-heavy-just-for-this finish of “Bury the Queen,” Austin’s High Desert Queen indeed show themselves as schooled with Secrets of the Black Moon. It is an encapsulation of modern stoner heavy idolatry, riff-led but not necessarily riff-dependent in its entirety, and both the good-vibes fuzz of “As We Roam” and the aptly-titled penultimate roller “The Wheel” manage to boast soaring vocal melodies that put the band in another league. They’re not necessarily starting a revolution in terms of style, but they bring together lush and crush effectively and when a band has so much of a clear idea of what they’re going for and the songwriting to back them up, first record or not, they rule the day. Don’t lose them among the swaths either of three-word-moniker heavy newcomers or the flood of Texan acts out there.
Heavy and ritualized enough to earn its release on 50 neon green tapes — CDs too — the second full-length from Russia’s Megalith Levitation, Void Psalms tops 53 minutes of beastly lurch, with opener “Phantasmagoric Journey” (13:08) playing like half-speed Celtic Frost while the back-to-back two-parters “Datura Revelations/Lysergic Phantoms” (12:47) and “Temple of Silence/Pillars of Creation” (19:45) bridge cult-heavy worship with experimental fuckall, never quite dipping entirely into dark psychedelia, but certainly refusing lucidity outright. I don’t know what’s up with the punch of bass in the back end of “Temple of Silence/Pillars of Creation,” but that froggy sound is gloriously weirdo in its affect, and makes the whole jam for me. They cap with “Last Vision,” an admirably massive riffer that only spans seven and a half minutes but in that time still finds a way to drone the shit out of its nod. Cheers to Chelyabinsk as Megalith Levitation (who are not to be confused with Megaton Leviathan) offer intentionally putrid fruit on which to feast.
There is death, and there is sludge. Do doomers mosh in Texas? “Devil’s Due” might provide an occasion to find out, as the second EP, The Pit of Suffering, from Austin extremist slingers Forebode follows 2019’s self-titled short release (review here) with plenty of slow-motion plunder, “Metal Slug” opening in grim praise of weed before the rest of what follows moves from shortest to longest in an onslaught that grows correspondingly more vicious. Rest your head on that bit of twang at the start of “Pit of Suffering” if you want, that’s only going to make it easier for the band to crush your skull in the stretch before it returns at the end. And oh, “Bane of Hammers.” You build in speed and get so brutal, and then you do, you do, you do slam on the brakes and finish out as heavy as possible, an ultimate eat-all-in-its-path tonality that would be off-putting were it not so outright gleeful in its disgusting nature. What fun they’re having making these terrible sounds. Love it.
Yeah, you think you can hang. You’re like, “Whatever, I like weird psych stuff.” Then Codex Serafini start in with the cave echo wails and the drones and the artsy experimentalism and you’re like, “Well, maybe I’m just gonna go back to Squaresville after all. Work in the morning, you know.” The Brighton, UK, fivesome have four tracks on Invisible Landscape, and I promise you no one of them is more real than the other. In fact, the entire thing is pretend. It doesn’t exist. Neither do you. You thought you did, then the sax started blowing and you realized you were just some kind of semi-sentient wisp swirling around in reverb and what the hell were we talking about okay yeah planets and stuff whatever it doesn’t matter just quick, put this on and be ready for the splatter when “Time, Change & Become” starts. You’re not gonna want to miss it, but there’s no way that stain is ever coming out of that shirt. Kablooie is how the cosmos dies.
Killers is the third full-length from Colorado fuzz rockers Stone Deaf, and they continue to have a chorus for every occasion, in this case going so far as to import “Gone Daddy Gone” from your teenage remembrance of Violent Femmes and actually talk about burning witches in the “Burn the Witch”-esque “Tightrope.” Queens of the Stone Age has been and continues to be a defining influence here, but from the electronics in “Cloven Hoof” to the harder edges of closing duo “Silverking” and “San Pedro Winter,” the band refuse to be identified by anything so much as their songcraft, which is tight and sharply produced across the 44 minutes of Killers, their punk rock having grown up but not having dulled so much as found a direction in which to point its angst. A collection of individual tracks, there’s nonetheless a build of momentum that starts early and carries through the entirety of the outing. I’ll leave to you to make the clever remark about there being “no fillers.” Enjoy that.
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 25th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
In case you’ve forgotten how the world works, reality isn’t polite enough to wait for one global crisis to end before the next one begins, and though the media cycle spotlight worldwide may have moved on to brighter, shinier travesties, the fallout from Australia’s wildfires earlier this year is still being felt and will be for many years to come. Ecosystem damage like that doesn’t disappear in a day. Particularly when humans are involved. We suck at that stuff. Good destroyers, bad rebuilders.
Anyhoo, there are those who do what they can, and among them stand organizations like WIRES and the Australian Red Cross, who are the beneficiaries of Copper Feast Records‘ new compilation out March 27, titled Hidden Noise. Australia’s one-of-a-kind environment and wildlife can’t be replaced, or cloned by futures usses, and the planet needs that ecosystem and those animals now. And not to mention the cost to humanity too in lost homes, livelihoods and lives. If a comp with killer tracks by killer bands gets any dollars — Australian or otherwise — to those causes, then that’s only a good thing.
So here’s the info:
Copper Feast Records – ‘Hidden Noise’ Charity Compilation
The world is on fire. Australia is on fire. Things will not get better until things change.
In late 2019 and early 2020, Australia was ravaged by bushfires which have destroyed vast expanses of its unique natural environment, pushing some species to the verge of extinction and causing the loss of many lives, livelihoods and homes. As our way of giving back, 100% of the profits from ‘Hidden Noise’ will be going to charity.
‘Hidden Noise’, a compilation from Copper Feast Records, showcases unreleased tracks from some of the best ‘hidden’ psych rock and stoner rock bands that Australia has to offer. In addition, a small number of previously released tracks from even more amazing bands completes the compilation.
Some of the artists that have contributed brand new songs include Planet of the 8s, Turtle Skull and The Black Heart Death Cult. We also have new mixes of existing tracks from the likes of Sleeping Giant and Narla.
The compilation title ‘Hidden Noise’ takes on a variety of different meanings in relation to this project. These are all Australian bands that are massively deserving of a greater following than they currently receive. Their music may be somewhat hidden for now, but I urge you to explore them all further. Albums, singles and even demos can be found on each band’s own Bandcamp page with links provided below.
‘Hidden Noise’ also references how at-risk persons and families have found their voice lost when requiring assistance before and after the bushfire crisis affecting the country. This is in addition to the vast number of wildlife voices that go unheard at this time as humans exploit their habitats causing their destruction.
Last but not least, the compilation title is in reference to the media obstruction and government inaction all over the world regarding climate change and the crisis affecting not only Australia, but every country in the world as a result of this.
We need change. Please enjoy the music and be a part of it.
Thank you to all the artists above for their contribution and support to this project. Thank you to Carl Saff for ensuring such a broad-ranging sound compiled into one record sounds cohesive. Thank you to you, the listener, for your support.
