The 2024 Up in Smoke Festival came out swinging big in its first announcement last month, with names like Greenleaf, Monolord, Lowrider, Truckfighters, Messa and Gnome among others, and the second announcement below makes a fitting follow-up with the promise of a doesn’t-happen-all-the-time-see-them-when-you-can stopover from Monster Magnet, as well as up and coming atmospheric doomers Daevar, the e’er-a-riot Valley of the Sun, the reunited Scorpion Child and veteran heavy rockers Samavayo set to play. It’s the 10th anniversary for the Swiss festival held each Fall in Pratteln as part of what’s become an international family of festivals backed or semi-backed by Sound of Liberation — see also Keep it Low, Desertfest Belgium, etc. — and they’re only right to do it up accordingly.

From Pentagram to Slomosa, the span of generations and sounds here is broader than the monikers alone can convey, but the celebratory feel of how the lineup is taking shape remains strong. There’s a lot to like about it, in other words, and while I’ve never been lucky enough to attend, I do know enough to know that running a successful fest for a decade — never mind surviving the odd bit of pandemic interruption of same — is no minor feat. Congratulations to Up in Smoke on the anniversary, and I look forward to when the rest of the bill is announced, say, mid-April?

From the PR wire:

UP IN SMOKE FESTIVAL confirms MONSTER MAGNET & many more new band names for its 2024 edition!

UP IN SMOKE FESTIVAL has announced new names for their upcoming, 10th anniversary edition, and confirms spacelords MONSTER MAGNET, high-voltage desert rockers VALLEY OF THE SUN, Berlin’s finest SAMAVAYO, stoner doomsters DAEVAR, US rock act SCORPION CHILD & many more!

They will join the already eclectic line-up featuring mighty PENTAGRAM, who will play their last Swiss show ever(!), TRUCKFIGHTERS, MONOLORD, GREENLEAF, LOWRIDER, SLOMOSA and more high class live acts. Further band names will be revealed soon.

UP IN SMOKE FESTIVAL will take place between October 4 – 6, 2024 at Konzertfabrik Z7 in Pratteln, Switzerland, Hard tickets are available via https://sol-records.com/products/up-in-smoke-2024-festival-hardticket, to grab your online ticket, visit: https://www.sol-tickets.com/produkte

https://www.facebook.com/upinsmokefestivalswitzerland
https://www.instagram.com/up_in_smoke_festival

https://www.facebook.com/Soundofliberation/
https://www.instagram.com/soundofliberation/
https://www.soundofliberation.com/

Daevar, “Amber Eyes” official video

Valley of the Sun, The Chariot (2022)

With Pentagram at the top of its thus-far bill playing what will reportedly be their final Swiss show ever on a retirement tour that will also stop through Desertfest Berlin 2024 this Spring, the Sound of Liberation-associated Up in Smoke Festival has made the first lineup announcement for its 10th anniversary edition. Set for Oct. 4-6, it is at the spearhead of what will almost certainly be a busy month on the European underground touring circuit. And as one expects news to follow shortly from other October festivals throughout Western Europe — Keep it Low in Munich, Desertfest Belgium in Antwerp, Høstsabbat in Norway that I’ve been fortunate enough to go to a couple times, and so on — knowing that the likes of Truckfighters, Monolord, Lowrider, Greenleaf and Slomosa will be out on the road, at least the latter two of them behind new records, warms the heart in February’s drear. Will I be there? Probably not, barring a miracle or some kind of grant that doesn’t exist, but someone will be, and that’s rad enough of a thought to get me through the end of this sentence, so I’ll take it.

Wonder if we’ll see new stuff from Gnome this year, and I think Messa were beginning the process this winter of their next LP. October is far enough away that just about anything can happen between now and then, and I guess that’s part of the fun in posting these things in the first place. Thanks for talking that one through with me.

And while we’re here, happy 10th anniversary to Up in Smoke, and many happy returns.

Here’s the latest:

⚡️UP IN SMOKE FESTIVAL 2024 – FIRST BAND ANNOUNCEMENT⚡️

Hey Smokers,

Today, we are thrilled to announce the first bunch of amazing bands for the 10th-anniversary of our beloved Up In Smoke Festival!🖤

None other than Bobby Liebling and his crew in Pentagram will be joining us to celebrate their last show in Switzerland ever! 🔥

So great to see our Scandinavian friends Truckfighters, Monolord, Slomosa, Greenleaf and Lowrider joining the madness with exclusive Switzerland shows.

In addition to this, we are introducing the dark, haunting sounds of the female-fronted doom outfits Messa and Wolvennest, along with the experimental rockers Djinn, Belgium’s one and only Gnome, and the UK riffmasters Psychlona.

Up in Smoke takes place near Basel and Switzerland offers some excellent bands as well! Check out Tar Pond, Preamp Disaster, Norna, No Mute and Glue.🇨🇭

Make no mistake, this was just the beginning!👀

Up in Smoke 2024 will be a massive heavy rockin’ birthday bash and the stoner party of the year!🪩

Line Up:

Pentagram *last Swiss show ever*
Truckfighters
Monolord
Lowrider
Greenleaf
Slomosa
Messa
Wolvennest
Gnome
Psychlona
Djiin
Tar Pond
Preamp Disaster
Norna
No Mute
Glue
& many more

🎫Online-Tickets: www.sol-tickets.com
(link in bio)
& www.z-7.ch

🎫Hardtickets: www.sol-records.com

🌐Website: www.upinsmoke.de

Up In Smoke Festival
10th Anniversary
🗓️04. – 06. October 2024
📍Z7 Konzertfabrik
Pratteln, Switzerland

Cheers,
Your UIS-Crew

https://www.facebook.com/upinsmokefestivalswitzerland
https://www.instagram.com/up_in_smoke_festival

https://www.facebook.com/Soundofliberation/
https://www.instagram.com/soundofliberation/
https://www.soundofliberation.com/

Lowrider, Live at Hellfest 2022

Admittedly, I’m a few days behind on this. I don’t know how many — I didn’t want to look — but it’s times like this I like to remind mostly myself that I’m doing the best I can here with the time and energy I have on any particular day. Up in Smoke 2023 is set for Sept. 29-Oct. 1 in Pratteln, Switzerland, the location same as ever, and seems to be the kickoff point for the Fall heavy touring and festival season in Europe. As much as there even are seasons anymore and tours and fests aren’t just happening all the time — by which I mean they are, the dead of winter kinda notwithstanding, for now — but still, moving out of summer brings a new round of beginnings and offerings coming out.

Seeing Nebula and Heavy Temple and Howling Giant together here after also being added to Desertfest Belgium in Antwerp, which takes place nearly a month later means that’s going to be some significant touring for the three American acts. I’m hoping they’re going together — love a package tour — but I have no info or confirmation that that’s what’s happening. At very least, they’ll be meeting up along the way.

Basel’s own Sons of Morpheus round out the new announcement, and as their last release was 2019’s The Wooden House Session (review here), the inevitable curiosity is piqued as to whether they might have a new release in the works for Fall. We’ll see, I guess, and in the meantime, they strengthen an already strong lineup of acts oldschool and new that still has more to come. Good fun.

From social media:

UP IN SMOKE – NEW BANDS ADDED

Hey friends,

We’re more than happy to present you today the new bands for our beloved Up In Smoke Festival!

Please give a very warm welcome to:
NEBULA
SONS OF MORPHEUS
HEAVY TEMPLE
HOWLING GIANT

This is just a small update – there are many more bands to come!

Stay tuned!

29. Sep – 01. Oct 2023

Konzertfabrik Z7
Pratteln (Basel, CH)

Get ready for three full days of finest heavy rock music!

Tickets (3 Day Passes and Sleepover Tickets) are on sale -> https://www.sol-tickets.com/produkte

Poster by Brookesia Estudio

https://www.facebook.com/upinsmokefestivalswitzerland
https://www.instagram.com/up_in_smoke_festival

https://www.facebook.com/Soundofliberation/
https://www.instagram.com/soundofliberation/
https://www.soundofliberation.com/

Nebula, “To the Center/Come Down” live in North Carolina, March 2023

Some pretty good inferences one might make looking at the first lineup announcement for Up in Smoke 2023, the annual Sound of Liberation festival held each year in Pratteln, Switzerland. It says The Obsessed will be on tour in Europe this Fall, which I’m pretty sure they’ve said anyway, but it might also be a clue as to the release of their next album. On the other hand, they might just be fucking touring because they’re The Obsessed and that’s what they do. Also it’s further expansion of Alabama Thunderpussy‘s reunion and since this festival is Sep. 29 to Oct. 1 and their prior confirmation was Keep it Low from Oct. 6 to 7, they’ll likely be on the road in Europe for the better part of at least two weeks. That’s not nothing.

Consider also Yawning Man heading abroad in Fall for their new album, announced yesterday. And did you hear that Dirty Sound Magnet record? I didn’t until now but it’s a ripper. New school oldschool blues heavy. Rad. And Eyehategod getting back at it too. It’s a cool bill, mix of newer acts and recognizable with Zeal & Ardor on top nothing to complain about.

Of course, there’s more to come here, but hell, I’d go to this. You? Festival in Switzerland in October? Why on earth would you say no to that?

Also note there’s a new Facebook page for the fest. From the PR wire:

UP IN SMOKE 2023 – ZEAL & ARDOR, GRAVEYARD, THE OBSESSED & MANY MORE ANNOUNCED

Hey Smokers, the long awaited day has come. We’re stoked to finally reveal the first names for our 2023 edition. We hope you like it as much as we do!

Get ready for three days of finest heavy rock music… this is just the beginning.

Artwork: Brookesia Estudio

Festival info:
Up In Smoke Festival
29. Sep – 01. Oct 2023
@ Konzertfabrik Z7 // Pratteln (CH)

Tickets: www.sol-tickets.com

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1511229892691120/

https://www.facebook.com/upinsmokefestivalswitzerland
https://www.instagram.com/up_in_smoke_festival

https://www.facebook.com/Soundofliberation/
https://www.instagram.com/soundofliberation/
https://www.soundofliberation.com/

Dirty Sound Magnet, DSM-III (2022)

A few different tours coming together here, right? Stoned Jesus, Greenleaf and Somali Yacht Club on the road together. Elder, Pallbearer and Irist. Hippie Death Cult out there on their own now that their would’ve-been-tourmates High Reeper dropped off. Naxatras making the rounds. Sasquatch doing like they do on a stretch with Orange Goblin before continuing a longer European run (you should always stretch first; ain’t nobody getting younger). Electric Citizen out with Fu Manchu. All of this is organized, mapped out ahead of time, and a lot of it is starting this weekend at Up in Smoke 2022 in Pratteln, Switzerland, as though to save you the time, money and effort necessary to hit up all these individual tours, which may or may not be routed everywhere to start with.

You can see the final lineup below with Fu Manchu, Orange Goblin and Elder getting top billing, and as the first of Sound of Liberation‘s Fall festivals in Europe — Keep it Low in Munich and Desertfest Belgium will follow in the coming weeks, and there’s a bunch of others besides — Up in Smoke is distinguished by vibe even more than timing. I’ve always been curious what it would feel like to sleep in the venue after a show. Indoor camping. Are there showers? Could be a pretty smelly affair by the third day; Up in Stink Lines, if you will. But more about the mindset. Are you so locked into the experience at that point that you wake up, find breakfast and are ready to roll as a part of the thing? I’m not sure I’d ever actually be brave enough to do it — not exactly the camping type in any context — but it could be interesting. Sound of Liberation has also posted the time-table, if you’d like to know more about what time to wake up.

The lineup below is final final final, and the day splits make it look like one hell of a festival. If you’re going to be there, I hope it’s a blast. I’d love to hear about it:

UP IN SMOKE 2022 – DAY SPLIT & DAY TICKETS – UP IN SMOKE FESTIVAL Z7 Pratteln 2022

Hey Friends,

we are getting closer and closer!

Check out the festival line up day split below!

Day Tickets are available from now on!

(#127915#)Day Tickets & 3 Day Passes:
www.sol-tickets.com

(#127915#)Day Tickets & 3 Day Passes with sleep over possibility in the venue:
www.z-7.ch

Friday, September 30th:

Fu Manchu
monkey3
Mother Engine
Temple Fang
Electric Citizen
ECHOLOT

Saturday, October 1st:

Orange Goblin
Elder
Sasquatch
Slomosa
Pallbearer
Irist
CARSON
Midnight Deadbeats

Sunday, October 2nd:

Stoned Jesus
Mars Red Sky
Greenleaf
Naxatras
Somali Yacht Club
HALF Gramme of SOMA
Hippie Death Cult

Cheers,
Your SOL-Crew

https://www.facebook.com/events/598002655273695/
https://www.facebook.com/Soundofliberation/
https://www.instagram.com/soundofliberation/
https://www.sol-tickets.com/
http://www.z-7.ch/
https://www.upinsmoke.de

Orange Goblin, Live at Hellfest 2022

True, most of the lineup for Up in Smoke 2022 — set for Sept. 30 through Oct. 2 in, as ever, Pratteln, Switzerland — was previously announced, and some of it goes back to what the fest would’ve been in 2020, but I’ve got two reasons for posting it now. First, it’s a new announcement and the festival’s social media has fallen into some kind of digital chasm I don’t and couldn’t hope to understand, and second, that lineup is perfect.

Seriously, they say there are more bands coming. Don’t on my account. This’ll be just fine. There was one band on this poster with whom I was not immediately familiar by name, and that was Midnight Deadbeats, who released their debut album, Moonshine Carnival, in late 2020 on Sixteentimes Music. You can stream it below. To me it sounds like earliest Dozer and if you think I’m about to complain about that you’re out of your mind. And everybody that surrounds on this bill is someone I’d like to see, whether I’ve seen them before or not. Fu Manchu and Slomosa. Irist and Orange Goblin. Naxatras and Echolot. Stoned Jesus and Sasquatch and Mars Red Sky and The Heavy Eyes. Greenleaf. Somali Yacht Club, High Reeper and Hippie Death Cult. Fucking a.

I won’t get there — these Fall fests are perennially out of my reach — but god damn what a show this weekend will be. Sound of Liberation is handling the promotion and that’s where to go for social media at this point. They just made the announcement that follows:

UP IN SMOKE FESTIVAL: LINE-UP ANNOUNCEMENT

Hey friends,

Today we’re absolutely stoked to present you the majority of bands for our beloved Up In Smoke Festival!

Get ready for three days of heavy psychedelic, stoner rock and doom at the Z7 Fabrik in Pratteln, Switzerland!

Already (re-)confirmed for 2022:

FU MANCHU – ORANGE GOBLIN – ELDER – STONED JESUS – PALLBEARER – GREENLEAF – SASQUATCH – NAXATRAS – MARS RED SKY – SOMALI YACHT CLUB – ELECTRIC CITIZEN – SLOMOSA – MOTHER ENGINE – IRIST – HIPPIE DEATH CULT – HIGH REEPER – THE HEAVY EYES – CARSON – ECHOLOT – MIDNIGHT DEADBEATS

More bands to be announced!

Tickets: https://www.sol-tickets.com

Tickets + 3 Day Sleepover Ticket: http://www.z-7.ch

FB & Insta: @soundofliberation

Cheers,

Your SOL-Crew

https://www.facebook.com/events/598002655273695/
https://www.facebook.com/Soundofliberation/
https://www.instagram.com/soundofliberation/
https://www.sol-tickets.com/
http://www.z-7.ch/
https://www.upinsmoke.de

Midnight Deadbeats, Moonshine Carnival (2020)

Fu Manchu, Live at Freak Valley Festival 2022

Well, we knew Elder and Pallbearer were going to be on tour this Fall, and we knew the same of Truckfighters and Greenleaf. Doesn’t seem unreasonable Fu Manchu and Electric Citizen might keep company on the road in Europe, but of course I don’t know that. Either way, the former was slated to play in 2020 for their 30th anniversary, so it’s nice to think that delayed party will go ahead, and having Naxatras, Irist and Echolot rounding out the first lineup announcement certainly does nothing to hurt Up in Smoke.

There will be more adds, of course. With Keep it Low in Munich and the now-two Desertfest Belgiums in Antwerp and Ghent, Into the Void 2022 in the Netherlands a week after this, and sundry other festivals taking place this Fall, it will be packed (hopefully) and those bands on tour — listed here and otherwise, like Hippie Death Cult, High Reeper, Mothership, and Sasquatch from the US, who’ll all be in Europe for at least part of the season — will have plenty of stops to anchor their runs. It’s a good system. Nice to see it back.

Up in Smoke‘s Spring counterpart, A Day in Smoke, took place in Pratteln this past weekend, and the fest-proper — helmed by Sound of Liberation — had this to say:

UP IN SMOKE 2022 // ARTWORK & FIRST BANDS

Right in time for our single day event ~ A Day In Smoke Festival ~ in Pratteln TOMORROW, we are super happy to share with you the artwork and first bands for its big sibling end of this year:

UP IN SMOKE FESTIVAL
30. September – 02. October 2022
@ Konzertfabrik Z7 – Pratteln

ALREADY CONFIRMED
Fu Manchu, Truckfighters, Elder, Pallbearer, Greenleaf, Naxatras, Electric Citizen, Irist, ECHOLOT

TICKETS
Available on side at our A Day In Smoke Festival tomorrow
E-Tickets available at www-sol-tickets.com

Killer artwork by Brookesia Estudio

Mark your calendars, get your tickets and hopefully see you all tomorrow already!

Cheers,
Your Up In Smoke Crew

https://www.sol-tickets.com/
http://www.z-7.ch/
https://www.facebook.com/UpInSmokeIndoorFestivalInZ7/
https://www.facebook.com/events/545324436300685/
https://www.upinsmoke.de

Fu Manchu, “My Wave”

Sound of Liberation will host its first-ever A Day in Smoke mini-festival on April 30 in Pratteln, Switzerland. The venue, Z7, should be familiar if you’ve heard of the Up in Smoke fest that takes place there annually each Fall. A Day in Smoke, then, is an all-dayer that’s got names that will be likewise familiar if you’ve heard of either that fest or others in the Sound of Liberation booking sphere. Let me put it this way. If you’ve made it this far into the post without putting down your phone, I’m going to trust that you know what I’m talking about here.

A Day in Smoke was originally set for this past December but then blah blah. It’s April 30, and that seems like a right-now-likely-to-happen kind of thing. The first lineup announcement has a couple heavy-hitters in 1000mods, Colour Haze and Villagers of Ionnina City and with more to come, I know No Mute but I’m curious to check out Velvet Two Stripes and Meloi. Maybe you’ll be too.

Announcement was made this morning on social media:

A Day In Smoke – 30. April 2022

Venue: Z7
City: Pratteln, Switzerland

Friends, it looks like there’s finally some light at the end of the tunnel. We’re stoked to re-announce our „A Day In Smoke“ event and are beyond happy to reconfirm so many great bands already!

Line-Up:
1000mods
Colour Haze
Villagers of Ioannina City
Velvet Two Stripes
No Mute
MELOI

+ two more bands to be announced

Date:
Saturday, 30. April 2022
Konzertfabrik Z7 – Pratteln
Pratteln, Switzerland

Tickets:
Tickets from 2021 stay valid automatically or can be returned if you can not attend the new date.
Still need to get yours? Be fast! Here you go: http://www.sol-tickets.com

We can’t wait to celebrate a full day of heavy rock’n’roll with all of you. See you soon!

https://www.facebook.com/Soundofliberation/
https://www.instagram.com/soundofliberation/
https://www.soundofliberation.com/

Colour Haze, Live at Salzburg Rockhouse, Sept. 19, 2021