Presented by BrooklynVegan in conjunction with The Obelisk, three of Small Stone Records‘ finest will lay waste to Union Pool in Brooklyn this evening. Doors open at 9PM. Hope to see you there.
Fresh off their third Dude Locker fest in their native Columbus, Ohio, fuzz rock champions Lo-Pan are set to kick off their latest tour tomorrow, Sept. 15. In case you’ve forgotten, this run of shows will not only take them through both upcoming Small Stone Records showcases (Philly and then Chicago), but also will find them hitting the Sept. 20 show at Union Pool in Brooklyn with labelmates Suplecs and The Brought Low that’s being presented by BrooklynVegan and The Obelisk together.
More info on that show — which I hope you’ll attend — is here. The event page on Thee Facebooks is here, and please, consider yourself invited for a throwdown like none you’ll see this or any other year.
Joining Lo-Pan for most of the tour will be regular tour/labelmates Backwoods Payback, who also do more than their fair share of ass kicking. Here’s the info:
There’s no rest for the Ohio road dogs known as Lo-Pan. Having recently completed the successful Let Freedom Ding tour (allegedly named for the many bells that mysteriously occupy the dashboard of the band’s van), the band will set out on another trek through the Northeast and Midwest alongside Small Stone labelmates Suplecs and Backwoods Payback. The journey will include two separate Small Stone showcases in Philadelphia on Sept. 23 and Chicago on Oct. 1.
Lo-Pan Fall Tour 2011:
09/15 The Empty Glass Charleston, WV
09/16 The Jewish Mother Virginia Beach, VA w/ Freedom Hawk, Crimson Electric
09/17 DIVEBar Raleigh, NC w/ Suplecs
09/18 The Velvet Lounge Washington, DC w/ Suplecs, Weed is Weed, Nitroseed
09/19 Mojo 13 Wilmington, DE w/ Suplecs
09/20 Union Pool Brooklyn, NY *BrooklynVegan and The Obelisk Present* w/ Suplecs, The Brought Low
09/21 AS220 Providence, RI
09/22 Church Boston, MA w/ Gozu, Gunslinger, Planetoid
09/23 The M-Room Philadelphia, PA Small Stone Showcase w/ Suplecs, Backwoods Payback, Freedom Hawk, Infernal Overdrive
09/24 31st Street Pub Pittsburgh, PA w/ Suplecs, Backwoods Payback
09/25 Ace of Cups Columbus, OH w/ Suplecs, Backwoods Payback, Freedom Hawk
09/26 The Mockbee Cincinnati, OH w/ Suplecs, Backwoods Payback
09/27 Now That’s Class Cleveland, OH w/ Suplecs, Backwoods Payback
09/28 Mac’s Lansing, MI w/ Supecs, Backwoods Payback
09/29 Corktown Tavern Detroit, MI w/ Suplecs, Backwoods Payback, Freedom Hawk
09/30 The Intersection Grand Rapids, MI Prospecto Showcase
10/01 Double Door Chicago, IL Small Stone Showcase w/ Sasquatch, Suplecs, Gozu, Backwoods Payback, Freedom Hawk
10/02 Fubar St. Louis, MO w/ Suplecs, Backwoods Payback
10/03 Hi-Tone Memphis, TN w/ Suplecs, Backwoods Payback
10/04 TBA Nashville, TN w/ Backwoods Payback
10/05 TBA Lexington, KY w/ Backwoods Payback
10/06 V Club Huntington, WV w/ Backwoods Payback
10/07 The Bluestone Columbus, OH *Columbus Alive Rocktober Show*
10/08 The Stone Tavern Kent, OH w/ Backwoods Payback
That weekend is the huge, two-day Small Stone Records showcase in Philly, so I’m thinking of this show on Tuesday, Sept. 20 — featuring three of the most rocking bands on the label — as a kind of pre-party. Just a sampling of the debauched, rocking madness to come that weekend. Suplecs, in New York for the first time in who the hell knows how long, team up with natives The Brought Low and Ohioan fuzz mavens Lo-Pan (you may have read about them on this site once or twice) for a gig at Union Pool in Brooklyn.
I’m excited to be teamed with BrooklynVegan on this show, and am so pretty much only through their graciousness, so thanks much to them. It’s going to be a killer night — if you’ve never been to Union Pool, the taco cart is fantastic — with three righteous, bullshit-free bands for the low price of $10. It’s the kind of show I’d be happy just to go to, let alone have this site’s name on the flier:
Speaking of, here’s that flier:
Any spreading the news around or buying of advanced tickets you’d like to do is certainly appreciated. Hope to see you at the show.
It was a long road that finally brought New Orleans trio Suplecs to Small Stone Records and the 2011 release of their fourth album, Mad Oak Redoux. After putting out their debut, 2000’s Wrestlin’ with My Lady Friend, and second album, 2002’s Sad Songs… Better Days, Man’s Ruin Records collapsed. A negative experience that apparently continues to this day with This Dark Reign Recordings soured Suplecs‘ reissue of the latter, and although tours alongside Clutch helped get their name out to the stoner rock underground, they never were quite able to capitalize on it the way some other acts were.
All this, of course, pales in comparison to the devastation Hurricane Katrina wrought on their hometown in August 2005. After retreating to Austin, Texas, for a time and still living out of a FEMA trailer upon his return, bassist/vocalist Danny Nick oversaw the release of the third Suplecs album, the Pepper Keenan-produced Powtin’ on the Outside, Pawty on the Inside through local Nola imprint Nocturnal Records that same year. This too would prove a less than satisfactory situation for the band, although obviously they had much bigger things on their mind at the time.
Following more personal trials, in 2008, they recorded their fourth album again through Nocturnal, but work, real life and other such considerations got in the way, and when Suplecs finally approached Small Stone about a deal the next year, label honcho Scott Hamilton sent them northward to Mad Oak Studios to re-record their latest batch of material with engineer Benny Grotto. The resulting and appropriately-titled Mad Oak Redoux (review here), is a crowning achievement for the simple fact that it finally got released. For a while there, it was looking kind of grim.
The songs on Mad Oak Redoux contain the sort of cathartic release one would have to expect. Tracks like “FEMA Man” deal with the aftermath of Katrina, while “Tried to Build an Engine” tackles some of the more human elements that can bring a person down. If nothing else, Mad Oak Redoux is a triumph for Suplecs on the level of the persistence it took to realize it. More importantly, though, it rocks.
Danny Nick — joined in Suplecs by guitarist/vocalist Durel Yates and drummer Andy Preen — took time out for a phoner before the band’s trip to this year’s South by Southwest in Austin. We discussed what they and what he personally had been through in the six years since the release of the third album, everything it took to get the new one out, the band’s Mardi Gras rock and roll drive-bys, signing to Small Stone, and much more.
Complete 4,800-word Q&A is after the jump. Please enjoy. Special thanks to Larry Stern for the photos from SXSW.
While some other New Orleans bands took to the skies and fled to gallivant drunkenly on European tours in the devastated aftermath of Hurricane Katrina — maybe even going so far as to document it on recently-released DVDs; as if to flaunt how quick they were, when shit got rough, to abandon the town after which they may or may not have, say, named their first album — Suplecs, never as commercially viable, never as dominant in the press, never selling out big halls, were right fucking in it. Having their shit stolen. Having the walls of their practice space come down. Having to deal with it not as a band, but as people. Wondering where each other were. Not wanting to, but having to leave.
I remember interviewing Suplecs bassist/vocalist Danny Nick late in 2005 when they put out Powtin’ on the Outside Pawty on the Inside on Nocturnal Records, and the trauma was palpable. If that album was just trying to cope with what happened to the band and its individual members, then their new offering on Small Stone, Mad Oak Redoux, is a look at their experience from some distance and perspective. There’s some anger — “FEMA Man,” “World’s on Fire” — some disappointment — “Try to Build an Engine” — and an almost defiant spirit of strength, which comes out right away in opener “Stand Alone.” On that track and the later “Stepped On,” Suplecs lets their punk roots through, “Stand Alone” offering the title line in the chorus for one of Mad Oak Redoux’s most memorable and urgent excerpts. Hearing it from these guys, I believe it, just like I believe it when either Nick or guitarist Durel Yates — who also handles vocals — confesses “I just thank the good lord above I got good friends in Austin, Texas” on “FEMA Man.”
New Orleans trio Suplecs are back playing shows in their hometown, but the status of their fourth album, which they said they were recording in 2008, remains unknown. The band was among the population devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and for a time, they lived in Arizona, so what the status is of that is anyone’s best guess. Here’s hoping the record materializes soon. Their MySpace had this nifty Katrina-related video on it, which I thought you might enjoy. Have a great weekend.
It’s been raining in the valley for what feels like the last month and a half. No summer this year, just a wet season. So we left for the weekend and have managed to squeeze in some sunshine up in CT. I’ll take what I can get. Somehow feeling like I should be listening to Winter in a Jersey June just doesn’t make sense to me.
In the spirit of less troubling climes and launching a hopefully pleasant weekend, I gladly offer this video from embattled New Orleans sludge stoners Suplecs, filmed at Emo’s in Austin, TX, on New Year’s Day in 2008. They’re covering The Beatles‘ “I Want You (She’s so Heavy)” as they secretly do on their second record, Sad Songs, Better Days. Not the best sound, but good enough so you get a sense of how much they rule.
Whatever the weather is by you, have a great weekend.
