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In honor of the label’s upcoming showcase in Philadelphia (info here) later in September, I’ve decided this month’s audiObelisk transmission should highlight some of the best contributions from Detroit‘s Small Stone Records. The biggest challenge in making this installment wasn’t deciding what to include in terms of bands, but where to stop. It’s about three hours long, and I probably could have gone another easily.

I wanted to include some of Small Stone‘s classic output, from bands like Acid King, The Men of Porn and Five Horse Johnson, and I had to make sure the current and new faces were represented as well: Gozu, Skanska Mord, House of Broken Promises. And just when I thought I was all set to go, I realized I’d forgotten to include Sasquatch. Don’t even ask me how. I was all converted, uploaded, labeled and live, and the next thing I knew I broke out III and ripped the opener, reconverted, re-uploaded, so on and so forth. I don’t know if that’s dedicated or dumb.

Either way, it’s worth being both, given all that Small Stone has done for the genre over the course of the last decade-plus. We start off with some love for Jersey, which the label has always been ready to show. Halfway to Gone, doing “Great American Scumbag.” It’s a song I think sums up a lot of what it means to be into this kind of music in this day and age. As always, I hope you dig it and the rest of the transmission, which is the longest yet at over three hours and featuring 35 bands. This one’s easily my favorite so far.

And if you’re wondering what the image is above, it’s the Detroit airport.

You know the drill: Full tracklist after the jump, stream the file above or download it here. As requested, I included time stamps for when each song starts.

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Red Giant’s first album in six years finds the Cleveland four-piece come down to earth. Where 2004’s Devil Child Blues — and even more so their earlier albums, Ultra Magnetic Glowing Sound and Psychoblaster and the Misuse of Power – was spacier, looser, more open, the newer output on Dysfunctional Majesty (their second offering through Small Stone) is tight, rigid, professional-sounding. The tracks are not given to exploration, but rather, follow the guitars right through to the kind of straightforward heavy groove rock that has become synonymous with Small Stone’s name the last several years.

You wouldn’t know it by their level of output, but Red Giant mark two decades of existence in 2010. On Dysfunctional Majesty, guitarist/vocalists Alex Perekrest and Damien Perry and bassist Brian Skinner (all three original members) are joined on drums by Eric Matthews (ex-Pro-Pain), and while it’s been a while since we’ve heard anything from Red Giant, the maturity of the band still shines through in contrast to Devil Child Blues. Nothing against that album – it rocked plenty hard and plenty fast – but Dysfunctional Majesty is a different level entirely. The ease with which Red Giant channels labelmates Dixie Witch on “Million Point Buck” and “It Doesn’t Seem Right” speaks to the level of consciousness in the songwriting. The woman-as-car metaphor on “Season of the Bitch” may be overdone and cliché, but at least Red Giant do it well and know it’s the riffs that really matter in driving the song home.

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I’m in Connecticut for the weekend and wanted to wait until I got up here before I posted the ceremonial Frydee video. Ah my friends, what a week it has been. I could go into it, but frankly, I haven’t got the energy. Instead, I’ll just sludge out to the Axehandle clip above and enjoy the night beach-side, moon reflected on water and all that. Maybe find a beer. Can’t really lose.

A hearty congrats to our amigo Mike “ZodiacLung” Hanson, who is getting married this weekend. Our best to him and his bride on the nuptials, a lifetime of happiness and so forth. Marriage gets a bad reputation, but I’m a fan, more power to the happy couple.

Being back at work has proven more challenging than I could have imagined, but it’ll settle down. Just in time for school to start, I’m sure. What a mess. At several intervals this week I thought to myself, “You know, I used to sit in my underwear all day and review doom records.” I suppose the difference now is I wear pants and do six other things at the same time. Guess what, here’s life.

Wish you a safe and enjoyable weekend. Thanks for all the responses on the Italy Where to Start post. Any requests for others, let me know in the comments.

…And true to form, they do so after 11 and a half years. The Glasspack, from Louisville, KY, have always been a band to revel in their ultra-dirty rock sound, so it’s only fitting with the theme of “wow, what a mess,” that they’d have a 10th anniversary show a year and a half late. Killer. You know that show’s gonna be a good time.

Vocalist/guitarist Dirty Dave gave this update to StonerRock.com:

We are having a party to celebrate 10 years of existence, though it has actually been 11.5. Everyone is invited and The Glasspack set will be nearly two hours long, guests will include Adam Neal (The Hookers, Brothers of Conquest), Peter Searcy (Solo, Squirrel Bait), and Mark Abromavage (Kinghorse, ARCH). Hope to see you there and buy our new orange 7” vinyl record split-side with the Trophy Wives that will be released at the show. It will come with a FREE download card with nearly 15 FREE tracks from The Glasspack and TrophyWives. It will also be available worldwide at LouisvilleNoise.com for $5 plus shipping. Thanks to everyone who has supported The Glasspack, we love you all.
Sincerely,
Dirty & The Glasspack

PS- We have new material we are working out for a new album.

These’ll be for sale at the show at the Millcreek Tavern on Sept. 24-25. Artwork by the venerable Brian Mercer. Click the image for the full size.

The word that usually gets tossed around for the kind of music Denver, Colorado’s Black Sleep of Kali play is “apocalyptic,” and true enough, the first lyrics that show up on their Small Stone Records debut, Our Slow Decay, are “there is nothing to make it all better.” The crunching riffage and progressive angularity of the opening track, “There is Nothing” sets the tone to follow, and though we can all throw back our heads and exclaim how tired we are of post-metal, Black Sleep of Kali inject enough melody into their songwriting, particularly in the vocals of guitarist Taylor Williams, who founded the band after moving to Denver from Salt Lake City, to come out of it without sounding overly redundant.

If the phrases you picked out of that last paragraph were “Salt Lake City” and “Small Stone Records,” then you’re probably thinking of the band Iota, and indeed there is a connection. Andy Patterson from Iota recorded Our Slow Decay (he also recorded Iota’s excellent Small Stone debut, Tales), and Iota’s Joey Toscano donates a guitar solo to the Black Sleep of Kali cause. Joining Williams in the band are drummer Gordon Koch, heavy of hit, fleet of foot and large of sound, guitarist/backing vocalist Patrick Alberts, thick of tone, and bassist Austin Michel, lost of mix. Or lost in mix, rather. The guitars of Williams and Alberts, run though Orange heads, are practically a low end in and of themselves. As the bassist said when mixing, “More bass, please.”

Unlike a lot of today’s Orange-hued recordings, each twist and turn in the playing of Williams and Alberts is audible in the guitar, which makes me wonder just how much Patterson or Mad Oak Studios’ Benny Grotto, who mixed, had to compress them to make that possible. Nonetheless, the material on Our Slow Decay doesn’t sound unnatural, or at least anymore than it should for being what it is musically. For those looking for a comparison point within the label’s roster, Obiat is closer than Iota, though Black Sleep of Kali forgo any of Obiat’s quirky tendencies to keep their songs straightforward in a post-metal kind of way, the aforementioned vocal melody showing up quick in the style of Torche on “There is Nothing” and continuing through the album, making that track as well as “Eulogy” and “Big Sky” among the highlights of Our Slow Decay, although admittedly, the latter is much helped as well by a guitar solo rested on top of insistent Mastodon-type riffing that is a welcome change of pace late in the set.

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It goes without saying that this show was at Ace of Clubs. Nowhere else in Manhattan has the gumption to put on a gig like this on a Saturday night. And even if they did, it wouldn’t be nearly as good without the cornbread upstairs, so there you go.

In thinking about writing this review, I looked up the last time I saw Devil to Pay at Ace of Clubs, and wow, I must have been in a shit mood that day. Tried to remember what would have had my panties all up my butt, but can’t think of any lasting traumas from November. As ever, I’m sure it was something trivial and there was nothing I could do about it. That’s usually what does it.

This time around, Devil to Pay sounded pretty killer. They’re kind of right in the heavy rock middle ground; not quite just stoner, not quite just doom, not entirely Southern but every now and then belting out a guitar lick that’d make Pepper Keenan smile. Some of their material is frustrating in that, standing there in front of the stage, I want the four-piece to really kick into it, bust out a balls-heavy groove and just ride it for five or six minutes, but that’s not their thing. The Indianapolis outfit is more focused on structure, on streamlined songwriting, and since they’re good at it, I’m not about to hold that against them. They had a good crowd for their set and everyone, myself included, was much pleased at the rock that ensued. I’d love to hear an album from them with a really vibrant, raw production. Take away some of the class from what they do, dirty it up a bit, and see how it comes out.

Lo-Pan, who followed immediately, are fast becoming one of my favorite bands. I’ve seen them three times now in the last four months (once in Michigan, twice at Ace of Clubs), and with every set they’ve delivered solid heavy American stoner rock, unabashed in its fuzzy glory, killer in its rhythms and topped with soulful vocals. They’re the real deal, and I get the feeling if all goes well, their next album might just be the best Small Stone Records debut since Sasquatch (though, admittedly, Lo-Pan have an advantage in this since it wouldn’t actually be their first album). I recorded video of one of their songs — a new one, I think — which you can view below.

I don’t know why I didn’t buy a Lo-Pan shirt last time I saw them, but needless to say, I rectified the oversight at Ace of Clubs.

The last band of the evening’s total four was local metal outfit Ikillya, who organized the show. Why a band so outwardly metal would want to play with stoner acts is beyond me, but although they were the odd men out on the bill — maybe they like it that way; it certainly has its appeal — they gave an admirable showing. There’s a lot of performance in what they do. They even have a banner to play in front of. But they back that performance with a level of metallic tightness that I’m just not used to seeing anymore. There are metalcore elements, but they’re more like a crunchier Shadows Fall than a Killswitch Engage, if you understand the difference. If you don’t, I’m sure you’ll survive. Either way, their sound might not have been in line with what else was happening that night, but their energy and dynamism would have made them stand out no matter who was on the bill, and yes, I do mean that as a compliment.

It was a good night. I saw some good friends, some good bands, and didn’t even get embarrassingly trashed doing it. I’ll be back at Ace of Clubs on August 7 to catch Earthride, Valkyrie, Alkahest and several others I can’t recall at the moment, so expect to hear more about how much ass the venue kicks. Devil to Pay and Lo-Pan are still touring. Check out the rest of the dates here.

While Takashi Miike‘s Gozu, the Japanese film from which the Boston band take their name, has a reputation for being purposely confusing and thrusting its audience into a state of disorientation, those who experience Gozu or their Small Stone debut, Locust Season, will most likely find themselves right at home amidst the well-structured and composed riff rock. The songs are catchy and the riffs range from killer to more-killer, but Gozu also have a defined sense of melody that comes out across tracks like “Jan-Michael Vincent” or the album opener “Meth Cowboy,” and that winds up being one of their most memorable assets.

Gozu has only been together for two years, and Small Stone signed them on the strength of a two-song demo and a recommendation from Roadsaw‘s Craig Riggs. If it seems like they came out of nowhere, that’s not exactly the case, but it is awfully sudden. Nonetheless, Locust Season sounds firm in its aesthetic and fully realized, thanks in part to the production of Benny Grotto at Mad Oak Studios in Allston, but also because Gozu know what they’re doing and aren’t afraid to show it.

Discussing the album and Gozu‘s origins with guitarist/vocalist Marc Gaffney only underscored my opinion of the natural feel of both the album and the band. Grotto‘s production is modern for sure, but Gaffney, fellow guitarist Doug Sherman, drummer Barry Spillberg and bassist Jay Cannava show a great deal of personality in their playing — something a more sterile album wouldn’t have let them do. In what’s already a banner year for Small Stone with releases by Sasquatch and The Brought Low, these newcomers serve only to make it even better.

After the jump, please find enclosed my Q&A with Gaffney, and enjoy.

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It’s the weekend of my wedding anniversary, but man, the lineup for Small Stone‘s Philadelphia showcase is pretty badass. True, I’ve seen most of these bands, but I don’t imagine House of Broken Promises are going to make a habit of being on the East Coast, Backwoods Payback are buddies, Solace kill every time, Red Giant‘s got a new album coming, I’d really, really like to hear some of the material from Sasquatch‘s third record live, and the Millcreek Tavern has their own home brew. Looks like it could be another test of The Patient Mrs. living up to her name.

Here’s the news from Small Stone:

Small Stone is pleased to announce that we will be doing two back-to-back showcases at The Philadelphia Film & Music Festival in September. Our events will be taking place at the Millcreek Tavern which is located at 4200 Chester Avenue, University City, Philadelphia (215-222-1255). And, now for the lineup:

Friday September 24th: Dixie Witch, The Brought Low, Throttlerod, Lo-Pan, Sun Gods in Exile, Backwoods Payback

Saturday September 25th: Solace, Roadsaw, Sasquatch, House of Broken Promises, Gozu, Red Giant

Being an entirely solo instrumental guitar venture, it’s clear right off the bat that Blackwolfgoat is never going to be for everyone, never going to be the band you put on to get the party going, not the drive fast, blast-it-out-your-window-on-an-open-highway American chronicle. Darryl Shepard, previously of notable Boston outfits like Milligram and Hackman (both also on Small Stone), helms and comprises Blackwolfgoat, and on his full-length debut, Dragonwizardsleeve, he reminds that loops, drones and noise aren’t necessarily relegated as tools only for hipster art students or freakout psychedelics. Somehow, this drone rocks.

Understand that’s a relative statement, but as Dragonwizardsleeve’s opening cut, “Risk and Return,” slowly fades itself out, one comes to understand in listening to it that the track does have structure, a gradual build, more like something off a King Crimson solo album than ambient drone. “Death of a Lifer” brings in distortion and a Neurosis Given to the Rising-type feel (the track I’m thinking of is “Origin”), but never seems settled on itself, even as the same riff cycles through the track with noises added on top of it. There’s an urgency here; a kind of hectic and unsettled feeling. The guitars (Shepard provides a couple) feel on-edge and are huge sonically where on any number of other ambient albums an understated minimalism seems to be the goal. Hearing the cabinet speakers rumble at the end of the track, that’s clearly not the goal for Blackwolfgoat.

The pun-titled “Tinnitus the Night” follows and keeps much the same atmosphere as “Death of a Lifer,” albeit with a somewhat busier execution. It is another distortion build that distorts even unto itself, and though the song is among the shorter on Dragonwizardsleeve at 4:18, it carries an atmosphere much heavier than its runtime. Notable that it fades on both ends, in and out, so that it seems to creep up on you as you listen. Blackwolfgoat is a sneaky project in that it injects complexity into these songs without seeming to do so, but some of the material itself also sneaks up on you.

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It just occurred to me that, along with Fatso Jetson‘s Archaic Volumes, Solace‘s A.D. is the second album on this list to have taken seven years to complete. Sure, Solace had the The Black Black EP in between, but for studio full-lengths, 13 came out in 2003. It’s hard to believe A.D. is only Solace‘s third album. Seems like at this point they have more DVDs out than CDs.

Nevertheless, the New Jersey natives have, at long last, released the album, and it’s some of the best recorded doom and roll I’ve witnessed in a long time. In February, when I joined guitarists Tommy Southard and Justin Daniels for the mixing session at Mad Oak Studios in Allston, Massachusetts, and I first got to hear the tracks, I was blown away by how powerful the material sounded. Yes, it was recorded over a span of years at different sessions, but at no point does A.D. sound hodgepodge or like it’s the product of one big cut and paste.

Those who were waiting for A.D. know now it was worth the time. I still get a chill up my spine whenever I listen to “From Below,” and cuts like “Six Year Trainwreck” and “Za Gamman” are great examples of why Solace have made such a name for themselves in the doom underground. Yeah, they’re from Jersey and so am I, so there’s a regional loyalty there, but I defy you to listen to A.D. and find me a better doom album that’s come out this year. It doesn’t exist.

The only reason it’s not number one on this list is it hasn’t been out as long as my number one pick and I factor in listens over time so as to offset the novelty of the more recent releases (it’s a very complex system). Without that, A.D. would be my number one for sure, as Solace have made a defining point of an album that I’ve no doubt will prove a landmark in years to come. And it’s good, too.

Because I’ve just woken up from a nap and feel barely conscious yet with a mind racing at a million miles an hour, I’ve chosen to cap off this week with VALIS, who know all about altered states of mentality. For me, it’s just lack of sleep last night, but them, it’s the title track of 2004′s Head Full of Pills. Not much mystery what that song’s about, but it’s a cool video anyway.

I’m headed out in a bit to catch Kings Destroy and Droids Attack in Brooklyn. If you’re in the area, the show is at The Charleston. If you’re not in the area, Droids Attack are on tour, so maybe they’re coming by you. Feel free to have a look.

Stick around for next week. In the interview can are chats with T. Dallas Reed of Stone Axe and Buzz Osborne of The Melvins, but I think the next to go up will be the talk with Mario Lalli of Fatso Jetson, which was an interesting conversation to be sure, as it happened around midnight as he stole a couple free minutes from working at his restaurant. I’m looking forward to seeing how it comes out and I hope you are too.

Enjoy the weekend.

Gozu, man. Seems like they came out of nowhere, and no, that’s not a slag on Boston. I just mean it seems like the four-piece formed in 2008 and got signed to Small Stone almost right off the bat. Now they’re finally giving the public a taste of their riffily metallic wares with Locust Season, offering a bit of East Coast aggressive crunch with the swaggering rock. It’s their first full-length, obviously, and as an introduction, it is driven with some surprisingly individual flourishes that add character to the songs and an overall nuanced feel only heightened by song titles like “Kam Fong as Chin Ho,” “Regal Beagle” and “Jan-Michael Vincent.”

They aren’t shy about toying with pop sounds and quirky guitar lines, and that has earned them comparisons to Queens of the Stone Age, but Gozu are far more heavily toned guitar-wise than the Josh Homme outfit, whatever similarities of playing style might crop up. The vocals of guitarist Marc Gaffney are a point of commonality, however, and huge part of what sets Gozu apart from the pack. He is both soulful and well-enunciated, not losing sight of the fact that early Locust Season cut “Mr. Riddle” is a rock song even as he adds a second accent layer of higher-pitched vocals behind his straight-up track. He’d done the same thing on the catchy but wordless chorus of opener “Meth Cowboy,” and it appears at several other intervals, but as each track on Locust Season seems to have something to distinguish it from the others, that’s what does it there.

“Jan-Michael Vincent” is perhaps the poppiest of the songs on Locust Season, at least in the radio-friendly sense of the word. It has some competition for catchiest track, especially from “Regal Beagle,” but at just under four minutes, the atmosphere is less weighty than in the chugging verses of that song, which is propelled almost frenetically forward by the rhythm section of bassist Jay Canava and drummer Barry Spillberg. “Kam Fong as Chin Ho” works some keys in with Gaffney’s and Doug Sherman’s guitars, perhaps appropriately evoking a television theme song while treading close on the edge of a misstep to derail the song and not quite crossing over. The organs on “Jan-Michael Vincent,” liberal ooohs and aaaahs throughout and spells of quirky bounce have already shown that Gozu can get away with plenty when they feel like veering from the norm.

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A heartfelt congratulations goes out to Ohio rockers L0-Pan, who have signed with Detroit‘s Small Stone Records for their upcoming album. For anyone who missed it, Lo-Pan‘s 2009 release, Sasquanaut, is essential listening. I spent probably too much time yesterday trying to find my review of it from when the album came out, but apparently I didn’t write one. Well, long story short, it kicks ass and if you haven’t heard it, you should. They also tour pretty regularly, so you might want to get in on that as well. Here’s the announcement from Small Stone courtesy of the PR wire, followed by other also-excellent label news:

Please welcome Colombus, OH‘s Lo-Pan to the Small Stone roster! We got a taste of their newest release and thought that they would make a mighty fine addition. The Lo-Pan band will be recording their Small Stone debut sometime this coming Fall and we will be releasing it sometime in 2011… Oh yeah, their band name also rules, (remember the classic film Big Trouble in Little China?

Boston‘s Roadsaw are about to start recording their new and yet-to-be-titled full-length at Mad Oak Studios. The Roadsaw boys have been working on new material for the past few months, and they have now completed their pre-production phase of the game. The album should be completed by the end of June, and we are planning to drop it on October 26th of this year.

The debut album Locust Season from Gozu is now mastered and is days away from heading to the plant. Locust Season will be available on iTunes sometime in June, and the CD version will be available in July. The Gozu band is rather busy planning their record release party in Boston, and if you live on the Eastern Seaboard, you can expect Gozu to be heading to your town (or damn close to it) in the Fall. We will go out on a limb and tell you this way ahead of time, Gozu‘s Locust Season is a must have, and has our vote for album of the year! The songs are stellar, the production is badass, and the band delivered the goods and then some on this album.

Benny Grotto is busy mixing the new album from Denver‘s Black Sleep of Kali. Their Small Stone debut is now titled Our Slow Decay is due out around the end of August…. Just wait till you hear what these boys have laid down, it is epic!

In other production related news, Red Giant are plugging away on the remainder of their tracks, and their new album Dysfunctional Majesty will be rolling out by year’s end. Also, Ironweed, Suplecs, and Dixie Witch are all scheduled to enter Mad Oak in July, August, and September (respectively) to lay down new full-lengths for us.

It’s 10PM and I’m due awake in six hours to begin a drive to Michigan. In case you didn’t know I sing in a band (I usually make a point not to talk about it, but we’re called Maegashira, and we fucking rule) and in addition to playing two shows while we’re out there — one in Lansing, one in Detroit — we’re hopefully going to be recording a new album (our second) completely live. We’ll see how it goes. In the meantime, I’m about to pick discs off the shelf to bring along on the road trip, so enjoy the above Los Natas video while I figure that out.

Sorry about the site downtime today. I don’t really know what happened, but I’m glad I was able to bring it back without really losing anything and I’m glad the internet didn’t totally succeed in its seemingly ongoing mission to eat The Obelisk. We live yet another day, my friends. Let’s be thankful while we can.

Next week we’ll close out April and I’ll give the numbers and post an interview with Primordial‘s Alan Averill, as well as the usual bunch of reviews and so forth. T-shirt news is coming soon, I promise, and Roareth are hitting the studio this weekend as well, so we should have more on that forthcoming as well. I say this all the time, but it remains true nonetheless: good things ahead, so stay tuned.