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audiObelisk Transmission 055

Posted in Podcasts on December 14th, 2015 by JJ Koczan

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Before we get to all the tracks and this and that, I have to say, this double-size year-end podcast was an absolute pleasure to put together. Fun. Actual fun. I don’t know if it was the preponderance of excellent songs to work from that came out in 2015 or what, but I had a really good time making my way through the near-four-hour run, and I hope you feel that way too as you listen.

It should go without mentioning, but I’ll give the disclaimer anyway that this is in no way, shape or form a complete rundown of everything awesome produced this year. My own Top 10 has bands on it who aren’t represented here, so if you don’t see something you think belongs in the mix below — looking at you, Baroness fans — please keep in mind that it’s not my intent to offer anything more than a partial summary. Otherwise, I’d have to make it a year long.

Thanks for listening if you get the chance to do so, and if there’s something here you haven’t yet checked out, I hope you dig it. The flow is pretty easy front to back, but we get into some more extreme stuff in the third hour for a bit before going grand with Elder and the “Digestive Raga” from Øresund Space Collective, which seemed an appropriate way to end off giving everyone a chance to process what’s just been heard. Please enjoy.

Track details follow:

First Hour:
0:00:00 Acid King, “Red River” from Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere
0:08:24 Clutch, “Firebirds” from Psychic Warfare
0:11:23 Bloodcow, “Crystals and Lasers” from Crystals and Lasers
0:14:28 Stoned Jesus, “Rituals of the Sun” from The Harvest
0:21:25 Ufomammut, “Plouton” from Ecate
0:24:33 Geezer, “So Tired” from The Second Coming of Heavy: Chapter One Split w/ Borracho
0:32:36 Wizard Eye, “Thunderbird Divine” from Wizard Eye
0:37:40 Mondo Drag, “Crystal Visions Open Eye” from Mondo Drag
0:42:08 Fogg, “Seasons” from High Testament
0:48:26 Goatsnake, “Grandpa Jones” from Black Age Blues
0:53:02 Snail, “Thou Art That” from Feral

Second Hour:
1:03:17 Sergio Ch., “Las Piedras” from 1974
1:06:40 All Them Witches, “Blood and Sand – Milk and Endless Waters” from Dying Surfer Meets His Maker
1:13:54 Death Hawks, “Ripe Fruits” from Sun Future Moon
1:18:45 Colour Haze, “Call” from To the Highest Gods We Know
1:26:46 Kadavar, “Last Living Dinosaur” from Berlin
1:30:50 Spidergawd, “Fixing to Die Blues” from Spidergawd II
1:35:02 The Machine, “Dry End” from Offblast!
1:38:01 The Midnight Ghost Train, “Straight to the North” from Cold was the Ground
1:42:00 Kind, “Pastrami Blaster” from Rocket Science
1:48:29 Valley, “Dream Shooter, Golden!” from Sunburst
1:54:22 Graveyard, “From a Hole in the Wall” from Innocence and Decadence
1:58:09 Demon Head, “Book of Changes” from Ride the Wilderness

Third Hour:
2:02:50 Egypt, “Endless Flight” from Endless Flight
2:12:29 Brothers of the Sonic Cloth, “Empires of Dust” from Brothers of the Sonic Cloth
2:20:09 With the Dead, “I am Your Virus” from With the Dead
2:25:45 Ahab, “Red Foam (The Great Storm)” from The Boats of the Glen Carrig
2:32:08 Kings Destroy, “Mr. O” from Kings Destroy
2:36:37 Sun and Sail Club, “Dresden Firebird Freakout” from The Great White Dope
2:38:33 Sunder, “Wings of the Sun” from Sunder
2:42:41 Weedpecker, “Into the Woods” from Weedpecker II
2:50:50 Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, “Pusher Man” from The Night Creeper
2:56:26 Eggnogg, “Slugworth” from Sludgy Erna Bastard split w/ Borracho

Fourth Hour:
3:02:48 Golden Void, “Astral Plane” from Berkana
3:09:34 Elder, “Lore” from Lore
3:25:24 Øresund Space Collective, “Digestive Raga” from Different Creatures

Total running time: 3:55:26

 

Thank you for listening.

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Sun and Sail Club Premiere “Krokodil Dental Plan” from The Great White Dope

Posted in audiObelisk on April 30th, 2015 by JJ Koczan

sun-and-sail-club

Tony Adolescent makes a good X-factor. The lead singer of long-running Cali punkers The Adolescents — aka Tony Cadena — brings not only a distinct personality to Sun and Sail Club‘s second album, The Great White Dope (out May 12), and what seems to be a genuine love of wordplay, but his approach meshes well with the speedier material conjured this time around by guitarist Bob Balch and drummer Scott Reeder (both Fu Manchu) and bassist Scott Thomas Reeder (also Fireball MinistryThe ObsessedKyuss, etc.). As with Sun and Sail Club‘s 2013 debut, Mannequin (discussed here), it’s Balch‘s guitar and songwriting as the driving force behind the project, which here makes its way efficiently through a 27-minute full-length, but ultimately, it’s how they spend that time that has shifted. Mannequin had no shortage of tight rhythmic turns, but was more progressively styled, and Balch‘s vocoder vocals gave an otherworldly aspect to the instrumentals they topped. Here, Cadena‘s voice acts as ringleader for a forward charge that blends raw punk and heavy rock tonal sensibilities, and the result is an album intense and weighted in kind.

It has an anchor at the end of each side in longer, groovier cuts “Fever Blister and the Great White Dope” and album-closer “Cypherpunk Roulette,” but even those have a sharpness to their charge that melds smoothly with the short bursts of “Full Tilt Panic,” “Inside Traitor Outside View,” “Dresden Fireball Freakout Flight,” and opener “Krokodil Dental Plan.” One barely has time to blink before the first three tracks of The Great White Dope have passed, or at least that’s how it seems going by tempo, but for all the rush, Sun and Sail Club are still writing songs, and where the first record carried an exploratory sensibility as it unfolded, this time around the material is executed with a greater sense of command and purpose. Maybe that’s a result of Balch writing in more of a comfort zone — Fu Manchu certainlysun and sail club the great white dope has its punk side, and there are moments here amid the hooks of “Baba Yaga Bastard Patrol” (a bit of a vocoder return at the end is a nice touch to nod at Mannequin) and “Alien Rant Factory” that bring that to mind — or maybe it’s just a function of the band being more comfortable working together in the studio. Either way, it works to The Great White Dope‘s advantage, and as “Migraine with a Chainsaw” recalls Black Flag‘s penchant for playing effective slowdowns against energetic thrust, Sun and Sail Club‘s fluidity manages to express itself in barely over a minute’s time.

They wouldn’t be the first tight-knit punk band in the universe, but that’s the point. What ultimately brings together Mannequin and The Great White Dope is the precision with which the second album follows up on the first. The handclaps and stomping chorus of “Level up and Shut it Down,” the near-bombtone chug of “Fever Blister and the Great White Dope” and “Cypherpunk Roulette”‘s slower moments — as well as the almost Alice in Chainsian melodicism of the latter and its delving in its second half into vocoder speech and emergent feedback drone and airy guitar noodling on a long fade to end the album — have such a sense of purpose as relates to the album as a whole, that it highlights the notion that Sun and Sail Club has become something more than a way for Balch to explore different guitar techniques. Even if they do a third record and it’s completely different than The Great White Dope, it’s the album itself here that’s the experiment, and that’s a considerable step in progression for Sun and Sail Club as a band. And to be blunt about it, they sound like they’re having a complete blast playing this stuff — even as tight and precise as it is — and that energy is infectious as The Great White Dope plays out its 10 tracks, whatever speed they might be moving at a given stretch.

At 2:01, opener “Krokodil Dental Plan” is a slamming head-turner of a punkish sprint, but with Cadena‘s teasing “Let me see/See your smile” for a chorus, the song definitely leaves an impression as it runs past. It’s my pleasure to be able to host the premiere of the song for streaming (and apparently also download, for those who’d make it their own), to be followed in the coming weeks by an interview with Balch about the evolution of the project. More info on the record after the track, which is on the player below.

Hope you enjoy:

“The Great White Dope” is the followup to 2013’s critically acclaimed “Mannequin” LP, and boasts a lineup consisting of members Bob Balch (Fu Manchu), Scott Reeder (Fu Manchu / Smile), Scott Thomas Reeder (Kyuss / The Obsessed) and now introducing Tony Adolescent of legendary punk band The Adolescents on vocals.

“The Great White Dope” raises the bar from the band’s previous release, to create one of the most aggressive and mind-blowing albums of the past decade.

Sun & Sail Club is:
Bob Balch (Guitars / Fu Manchu)
Scott Reeder (Drums / Fu Manchu, Smile)
Scott Thomas Reeder (Bass / Kyuss, Fireball Ministry, The Obsessed)
Tony Adolescent (Vocals / The Adolescents)

“The Great White Dope” Track List:
1. Krokodil Dental Plan
2. Dresden Fireball Freakout Flight
3. Baba Yaga Bastard Patrol
4. Migraine With A Chainsaw Reduction
5. Level Up & Shut It Down
6. Fever Blister & The Great White Dope
7. Full Tilt Panic
8. Alien Rant Factory
9. Inside Traitor Outside View
10. Cypherpunk Roulette

Sun and Sail Club on Thee Facebooks

Sun and Sail Club preorders

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audiObelisk Transmission 047

Posted in Podcasts on April 22nd, 2015 by JJ Koczan

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If you listen to these podcasts on the regular, you might notice this one is a little different than other recent editions have been. I was all set to start it off at a raging clip as per usual and then that Bison Machine track stood out to me with that warm bassline and I just decided that was the way to go, start off languid with that and My Sleeping Karma and ease into the rawer and meaner stuff from there. There are a couple jarring moments here and there, but that’s kind of the idea too, and I think overall across the board it flows well across the two hours, the second of which builds across All Them Witches’ jams and Ichabod’s sludge rock right into the atmospheric doom extremity of Bell Witch. Three songs in about 55 minutes. Awesome.

You might also notice the tracklist below has time stamps. Listed is the start time for each song, so if you get lost along the way, that should hopefully provide some point of reference. In case there was any doubt I pay attention to the stuff people say in comments to these podcast posts.

As always, hope you enjoy:

First Hour:
0:00:00 Bison Machine, “Gamekeeper’s Thumb” from Hoarfrost
0:07:12 My Sleeping Karma, “Prithvi” from Moksha
0:13:39 Weedeater, “Claw of the South” from Goliathan
0:19:00 Sinister Haze, “Betrayed by Time” from Betrayed by Time EP
0:24:15 Sun and Sail Club, “Dresden Fireball Freakout Flight” from The Great White Dope
0:26:11 Lasers from Atlantis, “Protectress” from Lasers from Atlantis
0:33:29 Arenna, “Drums for Sitting Bull” from Given to Emptiness
0:39:40 Mirror Queen, “Scaffolds of the Sky” from Scaffolds of the Sky
0:45:47 Les Discrets, “La Nuit Muette” from Live at Roadburn
0:51:02 Cigale, “Harvest Begun” from Cigale
0:54:49 Black Mare, “A Low Crimes” from Black Mare/Lycia Split

Second Hour:
1:00:03 All Them Witches, “It Moved We Moved/Almost There/A Spider’s Gift” from A Sweet Release
1:24:09 Ichabod, “Squall” from Merrimack
1:33:39 Bell Witch, “Suffocation, a Burial I – Awoken (Breathing Teeth)” from Four Phantoms

Total running time: 1:55:50

 

Thank you for listening.

Download audiObelisk Transmission 047

 

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Sun and Sail Club Post Drum Cam in-Studio Footage

Posted in Bootleg Theater on April 21st, 2015 by JJ Koczan

sun and sail club

The second Sun and Sail Club record, The Great White Dope, is due out on May 12. Adding further supergroup clout to the four-piece is vocalist Tony Adolescent of The Adolescents, who came aboard to front the faster collection of material following 2013’s Mannequin (discussed here) at the behest of guitarist/principle songwriter Bob Balch. Not that they were exactly lacking supergroup clout before. Balch and drummer Scott Reeder‘s positions in Fu Manchu, bassist Scott Reeder‘s pedigree in Kyuss and The Obsessed (he’s also currently in Fireball Ministry) and Tony Adolescent‘s, as noted, in The Adolescents, are bound to (continue to) bring some built-in interest from fuzz heads, but the Sun and Sail Club material — experimental and progressive last time, faster and more straightforward on The Great White Dope — stands on its own as well. Then it runs around a lot. Must be that dope.

Preorders are being taken for the album now, and the band has posted some footage from the studio of the album’s making. Balch is no stranger to instruction, running PlayThisRiff.com and working with members of Black CobraFatso JetsonDead MeadowC.O.C.Orange Goblin and countless more in that capacity, but the clip below of “Dresden Fireball Freakout Flight” is a little different, centered around Reeder‘s drums as we watch him lay down the track that will eventually make the final cut. A quick song and a video worth watching until the end for anyone who ever underappreciated heavy rock drumming — who would do such a thing? — the amount of laughter before and after the track is done, particularly as Reeder trips over his drum throne, really just emphasizes the good time these guys are clearly having in the studio. Of course, that’s what it’s all about.

Enjoy:

Sun and Sail Club, “Dresden Fireball Freakout Flight” in-Studio Footage

Sun & Sail Club Premiere DRUM CAM/STUDIO FOOTAGE for Upcoming LP “The Great White Dope” Available May 12th

Following the premiere of the first new song from their upcoming sophomore LP, Dresden Fireball Freakout Flight, Southern California stoner-thrash super group SUN & SAIL CLUB have premiered new drum cam/studio footage for their upcoming album, titled “The Great White Dope” available starting May 12th.

“The Great White Dope” is the followup to 2013’s critically acclaimed “Mannequin” LP, and boasts a lineup consisting of members Bob Balch (Fu Manchu), Scott Reeder (Fu Manchu / Smile), Scott Thomas Reeder (Kyuss / The Obsessed) and now introducing Tony Adolescent of legendary punk bandThe Adolescents on vocals.

“The Great White Dope” raises the bar from the band’s previous release, to create one of the most aggressive and mind-blowing albums of the past decade.

Sun & Sail Club is:
Bob Balch (Guitars / Fu Manchu)
Scott Reeder (Drums / Fu Manchu, Smile)
Scott Thomas Reeder (Bass / Kyuss, Fireball Ministry, The Obsessed)
Tony Adolescent (Vocals / The Adolescents)

“The Great White Dope” Track List:
1. Krokodil Dental Plan
2. Dresden Fireball Freakout Flight
3. Baba Yaga Bastard Patrol
4. Migraine With A Chainsaw Reduction
5. Level Up & Shut It Down
6. Fever Blister & The Great White Dope
7. Full Tilt Panic
8. Alien Rant Factory
9. Inside Traitor Outside View
10. Cypherpunk Roulette

Sun and Sail Club on Thee Facebooks

Sun and Sail Club preorders

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Sun and Sail Club to Release The Great White Dope in May

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 25th, 2015 by JJ Koczan

sun and sail club

Following up on the project’s 2013 debut, Mannequin (discussed here), Sun and Sail Club will issue their sophomore outing, The Great White Dope, in May, and as you can hear in the teaser clip below, there are some major changes in store. Foremost, where they were formerly a mostly-instrumental trio with some vocoder work by guitarist/project-spearhead Bob Balch — joined in the band by his Fu Manchu bandmate, drummer Scott Reeder, as well as bassist Scott Reeder of Kyuss/The Obsessed/Fireball Ministry fame; living the dream of an all-Scott Reeder rhythm section — they’ve now brought aboard vocalist Tony Cadena, aka Tony Adolescent of The Adolescents, and adopted a suitably punkish mentality.

All in good fun, of course. The idea behind Sun and Sail Club was experimental from the very beginning, so it seems reasonable that would extend to the range of style the band actually plays. Balch offers some comment on the new album in the below info, hoisted from the PR wire:

sun and sail club the great white dope

Sun & Sail Club Announce New Album “The Great White Dope” out May 2015

Sophomore LP features members of Fu Manchu, Kyuss, The Obsessed and Tony Adolescent!

SUN AND SAIL CLUB is a band that features Bob Balch on guitar (FU MANCHU), Scott Reeder on drums (FU MANCHU, SMILE), Scott Thomas Reeder on bass (KYUSS, FIREBALL MINISTRY, THE OBSESSED) AND NOW punk legend Tony Adolescent (THE ADOLESCENTS) on vocals.

When asked how Tony became part of the equation Balch replies…

“On the last record ‘Mannequin’ I recorded all the vocals using my guitar and a vocoder. I’m a big fan on Kraftwerk and Black Moth Super Rainbow and that album reflects that 100%. On this record I wanted to hear a singer. My first idea was Tony from THE ADOLESCENTS. I grew up listening to them. FU MANCHU covered their song “Things Start Moving” and he came up and sang it with us in Orange County. I watched that footage and was way into his voice with our sound. Not to mention his lyrics too! He rules.”

“I had a few riffs floating around, nowhere near a full record. I contacted Tony and he agreed to sing on the record. He hadn’t even heard one note! Once I read that response I was super pumped and wrote almost the entire record in 3 hours with his vocals in mind. The end result is a record that is super inspired and aggressive with songs that get right to the point.”

On the recording process Balch reveals…

“I always wanted to make a record that was punk influenced with big drums and fuzzy guitars. Like ‘What if the BAD BRAINS had to play a set on FU MANCHU’s gear?'”

“I sent the tunes to Reeder (drummer) and then drove up to Orange County to demo them. We jammed once and then we were in the studio the following week to track drums and rhythm guitars. We went with our buddy Andrew Giacumakis’ studio to record drums and rhythm guitars. We got him to mix too. His ears are impeccable. He plays in a band named MOAB and we love the tones he gets. He recorded drums, bass and mixed the last FU MANCHU record “Gigantoid” as well. Then we had Carl Saff at Saff Mastering master the record. He mastered the MOAB stuff and that stuff sounds massive!”

“From there I went to “The Racket Room” to get some vocals with Tony Adolescent and Jim Monroe at the board. Jim recorded guitars on the last FU MANCHU record and recorded the ADOLESCENTS a bunch of times so that decision made perfect sense.”

“Then I headed out to the desert to record leads and bass at Scott Reeder’s “Sanctuary.” It was always my intention and always will be my intention to record there. Not only because Reeder gets the best guitar, bass and drum tones ever, but also that way he can watch me fumble through the tracks on bass then annihilate my tracks by recording some of his own.”

The end result is a record that sounds massive and inspired. How could it not, given the members involved?

SUN AND SAIL CLUB “The Great White Dope” will be released May, 2015.

* Album layout by Peder Bergstrand (Lowrider, I Are Droid), Artwork by Helen Green

Pre-order “The Great White Dope” here!

“The Great White Dope” Track List:
1. Krokodil Dental Plan
2. Dresden Fireball Freakout Flight
3. Baba Yaga Bastard Patrol
4. Migraine With A Chainsaw Reduction
5. Level Up & Shut It Down
6. Fever Blister & The Great White Dope
7. Full Tilt Panic
8. Alien Rant Factory
9. Inside Traitor Outside View
10. Cypherpunk Roulette

For more information, visit:
http://sunandsailclub.bigcartel.com/product/sun-and-sail-club-the-great-white-dope-cd-and-vinyl
facebook.com/SunAndSailClub

Sun and Sail Club, Album Teaser #2

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Sun and Sail Club Interview with Bob Balch: Construction of Planets

Posted in Features on September 30th, 2013 by JJ Koczan

Whatever your expectations might be for the new trio Sun and Sail Club — which is comprised of guitarist/vocalist Bob Balch (Fu Manchu), drummer Scott Reeder (also Fu Manchu) and bassist/recording engineer Scott Thomas Reeder (Kyuss/The Obsessed) — chances are the finished product of their debut album, Mannequin, will offer some level of surprise when it’s released early in November. The 31-minute first outing from the Balch-led outfit was constructed over a period of at least two years, as riffs began to pile up as a result of Balch taking inspiration from his work with PlayThisRiff.com, interviewing the likes of Death Angel and The Red Chord and beginning to reach beyond the sphere of what might even at their most expansive fit with Fu Manchu, whose riff-grooving aesthetic leaves room for periods of showing off their SoCal punk roots, but has essentially been set over the course of their 25-plus years.

And whether it’s the progressive ambience of “I’m Not Upside Down,” which is marked by Reeder‘s starts and stops on bass and atmospheric vocals, or on the more metallic “Whites of Your Eyes,” Mannequin immediately demonstrates that it’s well justified sonically as being separate from Balch‘s main group. What began as experiments in guitar technique and a drive on Balch‘s part to explore his instrument even as he continued to teach others how to better their own playing and interview other players for PlayThisRiff leaves a much different impression, parts like the opening “Lagrimas de Dios,” centerpiece “La Muerte de un Planeta” and closing “La Risa de Satanas” honing on solo-jazz composition while the use of vocoder on all vocals save for Reeder‘s on “I’m Not Upside Down” lends an experimental air to the album overall, also serving as a major uniting factor for the otherwise richly diverse material, ranging from thrash to more intricate and precise heavy metal.

It had been Balch‘s intent to hire out vocals for Sun and Sail Club initially — he likens the original idea to what Dave Grohl did with Probot, sending it out to different singers — but after laying down the original vocoder ideas in the studio with Reeder, who was not yet in the band, which was just the duo of Balch and the drumming Reeder (I know it’s confusing; there are two Scott Reeders, one on drums, one on bass; imagine how they feel), the decision was made to keep the vocoder parts. After the guitar and drums were on tape at Reeder‘s The Sanctuary studio, Reeder asked Balch who was playing bass and wound up taking the job himself, chipping away at the material over a series of months and sending the finished tracks to Balch in a process that the guitarist says made every week “like Christmas.”

In the interview that follows — the first for the new project — Balch discusses that recording situation and how Sun and Sail Club came to be from the ether of unplaced riffs exchanged between himself and his drummer, the possibility of doing live shows, how Sun and Sail Club, Fu Manchu and PlayThisRiff all tie together for him, a potential vinyl release for Mannequin and much more. The album is expected in early November through Satin Records.

The complete Q&A with Balch follows the jump. Please enjoy:

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