Posted in Whathaveyou on June 10th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
SonicBlast Fest announced its 2021 edition was being postponed at the end of the month, and already they’re turning around and making a first announcement for 2022. That’s kind of comforting. Some of these acts — looking at you, Psychlona — have been waiting to play the Portugal-based festival since being announced for 2020 — but barring disaster, there’s a reasonable expectation that 2022 might be a return year, so in addition to them, SonicBlast Fest 2022 is rolling out the formidable likes of Green Lung, Electric Wizard, Pentagram, Weedeater, 1000mods, The Machine, Samavayo, The Devil and the Almighty Blues, Tia Carrera, Slift, and a ton of others with more to come. If you’re going to do a thing, get in there and do it.
Tickets are on sale now, or if you’ve already got them either for 2020 or 2021, they’ll carry over. 2020 was supposed to be my year to hit this fest, as well as a whole bunch of others. So it goes. If you make it to Âncora for the three-dayer next August, you go with my respect and admiration, and no shortage of jealousy.
Lineup info follows here, as per socials:
Come fanatics, come to the sabbath
We’re totally psyched to announce Electric Wizard, Weedeater, Pentagram (official), 1000mods, W.I.T.C.H We Intend To Cause Havoc, Night Beats, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Meatbodies, SLIFT, The Devil And The Almighty Blues, BALA, Mythic Sunship, GREEN LUNG, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, Psychlona, Toxic Shock, The Machine, Tia Carrera, The Goners, Samavayo, Rosy Finch, We Hunt Buffalo and 24/7 DIVA HEAVEN to SonicBlast Fest 2022.
*** more to be announced soon***
SonicBlast Fest 2022 11, 12 and 13th August Praia da Duna dos Caldeirões Âncora, Portugal
Tickets bought for the 2021 edition are automatically valid for 2022.
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 16th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
The final two acts announced for Esbjerg Fuzztival 2020 are The Goners, the new Salem’s Pot offshoot, and Captain Caravan. From Sweden and Norway, respectively, they’ll head to Denmark in early May to play the two-day festival, which will also be preceded the day before by a free pre-party, at which Australia’s Khan and Sweden’s Stew will accompany a screening of the heavy rock documentary Such Hawks, Such Hounds, which, somewhat oddly, I’ve never seen, aside from the bonus scene with Wino talking about his pepper garden and knowing that Sleep‘s telling of the story of Dopesmoker in the film essentially helped revive their career. But yeah, never seen it. Go figure. I hear good things.
Speaking of good things, the lineup for Esbjerg Fuzztival 2020 in its full-packed-with-band-itude can be seen on the posters below (click to enlarge and then click to shrink again), and the fest put out word that it’s still a go as of now despite current restrictions on travel and some such. Whether there will be any changes ultimately of course depends on the ongoing pandemic, but what the hell doesn’t at this point.
Here’s what they had to say about all of it:
We are thrilled to announce THE GONERS at Fuzztival ’20!
A new fuzz’n’roll band from Sweden with their debut album out in March on the famous RidingEasy Records, Fuzztival is looking to be the band’s first festival appearance. At least we think so! You will probably recognise the unique vocals from the famous Salem’s Pot as well as the approach to songwriting, and we can’t wait to see this band in action!
The temperature are rising in Norway, and we’re positive it’s largely because of the scorching desert riffs of CAPTAIN CARAVAN!
Signed to Cursed Tongue these desert rockers are sure to satiate your thirst for the riff!
Just when you thought it couldn’t get more badass, we go right ahead and do a free pre-party the day before — just because we think you deserve it! Adding Khan and STEW to play as well as screening ‘Such Hawks Such Hounds’ during the day! We’ll have plenty of our Fuzz IPAs on tab as well as a selection of other beer!
Are you psyched yet?!
—
We just wanted to reach out once more to assure everyone: Fuzztival is going ahead as scheduled!
While the next 4 weeks are going to suck for so many bands, fests, and events, right now we have nothing that should indicate that Fuzztival would have to be cancelled.
We get why you ask us, and we get why you’re nervous. We are reaching out to say: Please don’t hesitate buying a ticket. While the pandemic is bad enough, not selling tickets would be so much worse for a small DIY fest as ours.
Stay safe & wash your hands. That apply in general as well. /Thomas & Bo
Posted in audiObelisk on December 5th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
What do we know about The Goners? Well, what do we really know about anything? In an age of malleable truths, alternative facts and flat earths, suddenly not being 100 percent on the origins of a band seems only too appropriate, but in some measure — I believe at least in the case of Nate Gone — The Goners are born out of Swedish alt rockers Yvonne and the apparent demise of the riffly Salem’s Pot, and in relation to the semi-costumed witchy ’70s horror/sexploitation doom of that outfit, they present a marked turn of aesthetic. Not just in the lack of fancy dress — though while we’re generalizing, aren’t we all just wearing costumes all the time? are we all not impostors of ourselves? — but in terms of sound as well, The Goners cast off Salem’s Pot‘s lumbering riffage in favor of a rawer approach on their debut release, Good Mourning, out in March on RidingEasy Records.
Think ’60s more than ’70s, garage and surf more than doom, and reverb more than fuzz and you’re probably on your way to wherever it is The Goners are headed — the answer, seemingly, is to “gone.” Good Mourning comprises 10 tracks, the last of which is the Dead Moon cover “Dead in the Saddle,” and though there’s a bit of residual Electric Wizardry in “Evil (Is Not Enough),” but “Good Ol’ Death” offers immediate counterargument, reminding of some of Kadavar‘s more recent wistful Western meanderings, and the bulk of Good Mourning in general is on a more stripped trip, with opener “Are You Gone Yet?” asking the essential question like some lost Death Alley demo reminding of a day when every single from an album was released as a 45RPM and played with a never-changed needle that seemed to be digging its own grooves because it was.
Cuts like the slower second inclusion “High, Low and in Between” and the subsequent Thin Lizzy swaggerer “World of Decay,” seem to find even footing in establishing some diversity of approach, but later on, The Goners seem to take extra delight in the brash two-minute squibbly-laced distortion blast that is “The Sickening,” and the subsequent “Down and Out” echoes out some maybe-horns at the start of its second half, just to throw a wrench into the gears of expectation. So it goes, goes, gone. “You Better Run” is noteworthy for its proto-riffly nod backing synth weirdness — too earthy to be space, but delightfully weird — and the last of the originals, “The Little Blue,” feels like a side B’er with a bit of flash in the guitar betraying Good Mourning‘s modern origins without necessarily contradicting the proceedings as a whole. And a reverby, handclap-inclusive Dead Moon cover on top of all that? Yeah, go ahead and count me in on the fun.
GoodMourningby The Goners is out in March through RidingEasy. It’s a standout on the record in terms of style, but “World of Decay” is a damn good time, and you can stream the premiere on the player below.
Have at it and enjoy:
Rock bottom. A place you have to throw yourself over the edge and burn all your bridges to reach. A place where the devil is laughing as a constant reminder of everything that went to shit. A place where you owe.
As the echoes of the past get louder and the forget-me-now’s no longer work, you have to pick up the remaining pieces and try to make them fit. You can only wake up in an unknown bed with aching intestines and a throbbing noise inside your skull, still craving more, so many times until you realize that your life didn’t quite turn out to be what you expected it to be. The killing floor is crowded and when the smoke starts to clear you start to notice just how bad you’ve been letting yourself go. It’s Monday. You are on your own now.
And even as you start to do the right, start paying your dues and bills, doing the 9 to 5 and saying your sorries, you’re still standing there like a sack of dead meat in a stinkin’ world of decay where nobody cares. Gone but still aware. Ain’t that something! Ain’t that grand!
There’s no remedy, no working cure but at least you got loud guitars, thumping bass and bashing cymbals to ease the pain. And as you stumble into your thirties, scorched earth policy-style, you can at least smile at the fact that you finished first. At last you succeeded in something. Now you can just lay back, back where the sun doesn’t shine and ask everybody else ”aren’t YOU gone yet?”.
Don’t worry, you soon will see that Gone is just a four-letter word. We’re all heading south and again, no one really gives a fuck.
It’s Sunday. Join us.
Tracklisting: 01. Are You Gone Yet? 02. High, Low and Never In Between 03. World of Decay 04. Evil (Is Not Enough) 05. Good Ol’ Death 06. The Sickening 07.. Down & Out 08. You Better Run 09. The Little Blue 10. Dead In The Saddle (Dead Moon)
The Goners are: Mick Dagger Nate Gone Vic Odin Timo Tinto Grave Dave
