Posted in Whathaveyou on August 24th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
It’s fitting that even a breakup announcement from long-running Bristol psych heads The Heads — wait, what? — should be nebulous. These shows were announced some time ago, but I saw the following posted on the band’s social media, and even as they’re set Sept. 9 to release a 20th anniversary edition of 2002’s Under Sided, preceded by a limited 7″ with a May Blitz cover from Small Stone‘s well-ahead-of-its-time Sucking the ’70s compilation and an edit of “Born to Go” — both out through Rooster Rock — they’re putting out word that these will be the last shows the four-piece play.
Well you’ll have to pardon me, but that’s a pretty big fucking deal. The Heads are more than 30 years into one of heavy psych’s trailblazing tenures, and in the world of fuzz, psychedelic rock, acid jams and shoegaze, you’d have a hard time finding a band of that era whose legacy is so well earned. Everybody knows they, in fact, got somewhere.
I reached out to Hugo Owen Morgan and asked if this was really it. Honestly, I know playing with Mudhoney is cool and all, but I can’t bring myself to imagine a final The Heads show happening somewhere other than Roadburn in the Netherlands, however far that venerated festival has removed itself from its psychedelic and heavy foundations. Some bands you figure get on the bill no matter what.
Morgan was willing to say in so many words that the “final ever” might be as definitive as the “world tour” portion of the same sentence. I don’t know, but if you’d begrudge The Heads wanting to pick and choose their appearances from here on out and feel like they don’t need to be doing anything if they don’t want to, well, that’s true. This isn’t some pissant psych rock upstart with a TikTok and the same manager as insert-impressive-namedrop-here. This is The Heads. They’ve only ever done the thing for real. And if these do end up being their last shows ever, then they’re going out on the same terms under which they’ve always operated: their own and no one else’s.
But I do hope they keep going, at least to some degree. They want to take seven or 10 years, just put out limited reissues, archival live albums, various collections and the odd bit of jams, fine, but I’ll go on record saying I think The Heads have another album in them. I don’t have a god damned clue what that might sound like, but I would sure like to find out. Maybe we’ll get there maybe not. Life is long and weird.
Their announcement and links for the shows follow, as per the aforementioned social media:
Our final ever world tour is fast approaching.
Will be great to see some old familiar faces.
Sept 9th – Bristol Exchange Sept 10th – London Electric Ballroom,with Mudhoney
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 3rd, 2021 by JJ Koczan
A quarter-century later, The Heads are still too much vibe for the planet. Come back in another 25 years and maybe humanity will be caught up to the Bristol lords o’ space, but frankly, I don’t think we’re there yet as a species. Relaxing With… (discussed here) was indeed released before the turn of the century, and it continues to resound with past-as-future, out-of-time relevance, too weird for its day and so continually timeless. In any case, it’s more than earned the 25th anniversary release it’s being given on June 25 through Rooster Records, paired with the band’s of-the-era Peel Session — I walked by that studio in Maida Vale last time I was in London; it’s in a very posh neighborhood — as well as some other BBC odds and ends from ’95/’96. My freshman year of high school. I was nowhere near cool enough to be listening to The Heads. I’m still not, but one has aspirations.
The PR wire sent this along, doing the thing it does:
Announcing 25th Anniversary Silver Jubilee Vinyl Edition of THE HEADS Debut Album Relaxing With… on Rooster Records
IT’S 25 YEARS (THIS MONTH) Since the first Heads album was released.. .so.. for 2021..Rooster has decided to get the album back in print on vinyl.. but changing the artwork. With some silver foiling and bordering, the single sleeve has been boosted to a sweet gatefold, Rooster also got the Radio 1 sessions from the time remastered, and re-cut along with the huge b-side to their Television 7″ “Jellystoned Park”.
So there you have it, a double vinyl silver jubilee reissue of a fantastic debut album!
Tracklist
LP 1 Original Album: Silver Vinyl Pressing Side A: 1. Quad 2. Don’t Know Yet 3. Chipped 4. Slow Down 5. U33 Side B: 1. Television 2. Woke Up 3. Widowmaker 4. Taken Too Much 5. Coogan’s Bluff
LP 2 Radio Sessions & 7″ B-side Side C: First John Peel Sessions: 1. Chipped (Peel Session, Maida Vale 10/11/95) 2. Widowmaker (Peel Session, Maida Vale 10/11/95) 3. Theme (Peel Session, Maida Vale 10/11/95) 4. Woke Up (Peel Session, Maida Vale 10/11/95) 5. Spliff Riff (Peel Session, Maida Vale 10/11/95)
Side D: More Radio 1 Sessions / B-side: 1. Quad (Live BBC Radio 1 Rock Show, Glasgow 31/03/96) 2. U33 (Live Mark Radcliffe BBC Radio 1, Manchester 02/05/96) 3. Television (Live Mark Radcliffe BBC Radio 1, Manchester 02/05/96) 4. Jellystoned Park ( b-side of Television 7″)
From the original reissue sales notes: “The Heads had self-released a couple of 7″‘, and then Cargo Uk’s inhouse label Headhunter UK got to release a further 7″, and then the Debut album in 1996. Amidst a world suffocating in Britpop smarm, the Heads cut a timely swathe with their unkempt rock psychedelique. The album contained 10 tracks of guitar driven, amp destroying rock, with cues taken straight from the US underground, Stooges, MC5, Mudhoney, Pussy Galore, early Monster Magnet too but with a disitinctly British stamp, some of the drone and fuzz from Loop / Spacemen 3, some of the attitude of the Fall, Pink Fairies and Walking Seeds and overlaid with the spaced rock of early Hawkwind. It was obvious that the four members of the Heads were music obsessives. The debut album was recorded at Foel studios (owned by Dave Anderson from Hawkwind) and engineered by Corin Dingley, it was mastered by John Dent at LOUD.”
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 27th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Is it a full tour? Nope. Week of UK dates? Nope. One might in Manchester and one night in London? Yuppers. Still, it’s The Heads, so when they announce a weekender like the one below, Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, two nights only, it’s news as far as I’m concerned. Anytime The Heads do just about anything, it’s good for the universe in general, so while I won’t get to see them, I’m still glad they’re getting out. They’re touring in support of the 2CD/3LP compilation RKT! on their own Rooster Rock imprint and are promising more reissues to come, which is fine by me. I wouldn’t mind a new album either, but sometimes people have real lives and that’s a thing that happens instead of recording sessions. For anyone who hasn’t had the pleasure, The Heads are easily among the best live psychedelic acts I’ve ever seen, and should you happen to be in their path for either of these shows, consider yourself lucky.
Dates follow from the PR wire:
THE HEADS announce two new UK shows!!
Bristol’s Heads set up a brace of UK shows at the end of the year… following on from well received appearances at this years Roadburn, Bristol Psych Fest and others already this year, its time to do a couple of club shows, a first time at the 100 Club and a welcome return to Manchester.
This year also saw the release of the 3LP/2CD set RKT!, which compiled the band’s late 90’s / early 2000 releases for the then fledgling label Rocket Recordings, many of which now fetch ridiculous amounts on various record trading sites. The Heads are a mainstay of outsider psychedelic rock, they have been together since the early 90s, and constantly buck trends by ploughing their own path.. Britpop tried to thwart them, Stoner rock tried to adopt them.. they just kept turning up their amps and digging deep into a library of obscure kraut rock and early 70’s heavy rock to inspire their riffs and playing.
The four members, Paul Allen, Wayne Maskell, H O Morgan, Simon Price continue playing as the Heads alongside their day jobs, and other band commitments (Anthroprophh, Loop, Kandodo, Karen, etc ). They have taken back control of all of their catalogue and have been working to remaster it all and reissue it on their own label Rooster. In their 25th year together with this line up, it seems the Heads will keep rolling……
Various Artists, Burn One Up: Music for Stoners (1997)
21 years ago, Roadrunner Records gathered together 15 bands on one compact disc, slapped a picture of an 18-wheeler truck in the desert on the front of it, and called it Burn One Up: Music for Stoners. It’s not easy to find a copy of it these days — I looked for a while before finally getting it in London in 2010 — but with bands like Queen of the Stone Age, Karma to Burn, Sleep, The Heads, Cathedral and Fu Manchu on board, it’s worth the search. Dig the full tracklisting:
1. Queens of the Stone Age, 18 A.D.
2. Karma to Burn, Ma Petit Mort
3. Fu Manchu, Asphalt Risin’
4. The Heads, GNU
5. Spiritual Beggars, Monster Astronauts
6. Floodgate, Feel You Burn
7. Slaprocket, Holy Mother Sunshine
8. Leadfoot, Soul Full of Lies
9. Celestial Season, Wallaroo
10. Cathedral, You Know
11. Acrimony, Bud Song
12. Blind Dog, Lose
13. Sleep, Aquarian
14. Hideous Sun Demons, Icarus Dream
15. Beaver, Green
It’s easy to argue that, as far as “stoner rock” goes, these are some of the bands who would most shape it. Yeah, Slaprocket never got an album out, but the New Jersey-based outfit divided into Solace and The Atomic Bitchwax, and both of them continue to make their mark to this day. Europe is represented through Dutch outfits Celestial Season, Hideous Sun Demons and Beaver, Sweden’s Spiritual Beggars and Blind Dog, and the UK shows off some of its best in The Heads, Cathedral and Acrimony. The aforementioned Slaprocket speak for the Northeast, while Floodgate hail from Louisiana, Karma to Burn from West Virginia and Leadfoot from North Carolina, so the Southeast is accounted for as well.
And of course we wouldn’t even be talking about the genre if it weren’t for California, which brings Fu Manchu, Sleep and an early incarnation of Josh Homme‘s then-new, on-the-rebound-from-Kyuss outfit, Queens of the Stone Age, which featured a frontman known only as “The Kid”. That’s a particular point of fascination unto itself, but with a first-album-era vocalized Karma to Burn as well and an off-album track from Cathedral, there’s plenty of fodder to make Burn One Up worth seeking for anyone who’d do so, but while the comp wouldn’t serve as a debut for Cathedral, or Celestial Season — who followed a similar path from doom to stoner rock and didn’t stick around long enough to make the turn back before reuniting in 2011 — or Acrimony or Sleep, etc., it’s still amazing to look at it and think of the legacy many of these bands cast. Shit, Sleep just put out their first record in 15 years and took over the world. Would instrumental heavy rock be where it is today without Karma to Burn? And Slaprocket through their already noted ties and Floodgate‘s vocalist, Kyle Thomas (also Exhorder) is currently fronting a little band called Troublem so you know, not exactly minor shakes there.
Blind Dog put out two records through MeteorCity before splitting up, closers Beaver would soon have a split out with openers Queens of the Stone Age via Man’s Ruin Records, and this would be the final appearance for Hideous Sun Demons, who released their only album, Twisted, in 1995. Spiritual Beggars gave an early look at their third album 1998’s Mantra III, with “Monster Astronauts,” while The Heads showcased how far out aural weedism could go with “GNU,” inarguably the trippiest cut on the release.
And The Heads are just one of the several bands who continue to make an impact. Fu Manchu. QOTSA. Karma to Burn. Sleep. Spiritual Beggars. One could argue the only dude missing here is Wino, and he would’ve been coming off The Obsessed and just getting going with Shine — later Spirit Caravan — so that could just as easily be a question of timing as anything else. Okay, maybe a bit of Orange Goblin and Electric Wizard would’ve been cool. You can’t have everything.
As with most compilations, the sound is somewhat disjointed, as the material was recorded by different players in different studios often enough in different countries, but Burn One Up gives an amazing summary of where the genre was in the wake of Kyuss‘ breakup and as it looked forward to developing in the 21st century into the multi-headed beast it is now. You can hear the crunching influence of grunge in Beaver, Floodgate and Slaprocket, but clearly these bands and the rest were on their own wavelength already, and whether new or old, whether they went on to lead the aesthetic or folded soon after — that reminds me, I need to break out those old Leadfoot discs — Burn One Up: Music for Stoners shows an admirable prescience in its picks and is a true piece of treasure for anyone who’d seek it out in its summary of what heavy rock and roll was at the time and what it would go on to be.
As always, I hope you enjoy.
—
Went to bed last night around 8PM. I’d been up since one in the morning, so somehow it made sense, plus The Patient Mrs. was having trouble getting The Pecan to go to sleep and she had half a cocktail to finish, so it seemed only fair to tag in. I’d woken up early on account of said Pecan as well, his sort of nighttime mumblings varying between actual fuss, crying and a kind of sleepy coo, and decided to spend the extra hours organizing stuff on my new laptop, which I’ve dubbed The Silver Fox. Because it’s silver, you see. Yes, we’re all very clever over here.
Anyhoozle, kind of another rough night with the baby last night had me up at three. He was in the bed — something I swore up and down I wouldn’t let happen and then of course did — and had rolled toward me in such a way that I was against the wall pretty much pinned. By a kid who, at seven months, weighs about 18.5 pounds. Life does funny things to you. I woke up, enjoyed the snuggle-time for a bit, and then got up to work on the above post. Circa 5:30, The Patient Mrs. came out of the bedroom carrying the again-complaining baby — whose diaper I’d already changed at some point — and kind of at a loss for what to do. I went back to bed with both of them and sort of rocked him while standing up, a gentle bounce with his head on my shoulder and swayed back and forth until he was falling asleep, then got into bed while holding him basically the same way and he went out. We all caught a solid two hours of rest in that position and it’s early yet to call it (a little after 8 as I type this), but I think that might be the difference-maker on the day.
We’ll get in the car soon enough and head south from Connecticut, where we drove to yesterday for two magical hours of screaming-baby-in-the-car fun, to New Jersey, where once again we’re basically setting up shop for the summer. We’ll be back and forth between there and CT to hit the beach probably on weekends and/or various other times, and there’s still stuff that will need tending to in Massachusetts — The Patient Mrs.’ work commitments and the like — but it’ll be a lot of good family time over the summer with my people and her people and I’m looking forward to being in the New York area for probably the greatest amount of time in the half-decade since we moved away.
Around here, things will likely proceed as normal, if there is such a thing. Notes for next week look like this currently, but these things can and do change as you well know by now:
Mon: Demande a la Poussiere review/track premiere; Dust Lovers video premiere maybe.
Tue. Oresund Space collective review; Kal-El live video.
Wed. Orange Goblin review.
Thu.: Currently open. Maybe Astrosoniq review.
Fri.: King Heavy review/album stream.
Plus plenty of news and whatever else happens my way.
Ups and downs this week as ever, but I’m getting through. That’s the story from here.
I hope you have a great and safe weekend. Thanks for reading and stick around as there’s more good stuff to come. All the best. Forum and Radio.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 23rd, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Some day, in some universe, some kind soul will put together a comprehensive discography for The Heads. It will feature all the UK heavy psychedelic pioneers’ releases — albums, splits, EPs, singles, live records, etc. — in the order of their original release, and note the labels, the different versions, the limited editions, the subsequent reissues, and so on, as well as some comment from the band itself on each offering. I expect this would be a book-length project for whatever kind soul took it on, and no doubt it would require a substantial government grant of some sort to happen. And perhaps a team of interns working in shifts.
Until we get to that magical day in that magical universe, we can enjoy The Heads‘ discography for the wonderfully confusing thing it is and perhaps even draw a parallel between their otherworldly and molten sounds and the impenetrable murk that is their catalog. They have a new reissue out this Friday. And the thing about The Heads? They’re amazing.
No, really. Amazing.
From the PR wire:
THE HEADS latest reissue release “rkt!” on Rooster Records is out next Friday (25th May).
Latest volume in the long running Rooster reissue series, “rkt!” is a timely reissue of the first 3 releases The Heads put out on the ROCKET label.
OUT NEXT FRIDAY (May 25th) in the UK (June 1st in USA) on Limited 3LP format (2CD delayed..sorry..) The Heads – RKT! …(all the stuff they released on Rocket Recordings in the late 90s, in unedited form / one handy package!) And on the digital “sites” for the first time too… Remastered by Simon Price and Shawn Joseph (Optimum Mastering) for sonic dissonance of the highest order…this is bucketbonged sike at its rawest and most enrapturing…
To celebrate that, they have unleashed a “studio” version of live staple “KRT” in its glorious repeato-tripped out 46 minute plus glory…on all the digi places…check it out on the Spotify below…yes, a “Spotify” single from the Heads…tuck in…
Tracklist: 1. Spliff Riff (Conga’d Out) 2. Neu75! 3. Disappear Into Concrete And Meat 4. Filler 5. Jellystoned Loop 6. Planet Suite 7. Longest Gone 8. krt (all of it)
Latest in the long running Rooster (The Heads own label) reissue series, the latest volume is a timely reissue of the first 3 releases The Heads put out on the ROCKET label, from their first split 7” release (with Lilydamwhite) in 1998 to their much lauded SESSIONS 2 freakout 12” from 2002, all long sold out and highly collectable releases in their own rights.
Compiled here by Simon Price and remastered by Shawn Joseph…this release finds the band in fully relaxed glory; The Heads we quite prolific back in the late 90s / early 00’s, and in between the Everybody Knows We Got Nowhere album and Undersided album they released their jams and raw rehearsals via the burgeoning ROCKET Label.
Compiled here with extensive sleeve notes from Rocket founder Simon Healey, this limited 3LP (1000 copies) and 2CD (1000 copies) set captures the band at their most laconic and free…psychedelic sprawling morass of sound and aural distortion grooves akin drawing from their wide influences…also from simply plugging in and letting go…
A little post-Roadburn worship for The Heads, and well earned. Some 22 years after making their debut via Relaxing With…, the UK psych lords remain thoroughly untamed — their sound rife with searing freakouts and a sense of what might’ve happened if the UK had put garage rock on the Voyager probe and then had it return to earth warped by the very fabric of the universe. To listen to the wah attack of “Woke Up” or the bit of ’60s-style boogie thrown into “U33,” it’s clear The Heads — guitarist/vocalist Simon Price, bassist Hugo Owen Morgan, guitarist Paul Allen and drummer Wayne Maskell — at least had some sense of what they were doing at the outset. That’s not to intimate the opposite applies to “Chipped” or “Slow Down” or “Widowmaker,” but just that there’s a decent amount of Relaxing With… that seems to have been purposefully left to chance and that exploration of sound has always been a crucial element of who they are as a band. Don’t believe me? “Coogan’s Bluff.”
Perhaps with the exception of the grungey “Taken too Much,” which is placed right before the closer, almost none of Relaxing With… sounds any more dated than it wants to, and rather than simply adopt the stylistic tenets of space rock, or psychedelia, or heavy rock, or garage, etc., The Heads took all these things and made them their own in a potent sonic brew running a brisk 44 minutes of tripped out, freaked out thrust, like the pent-up energy of a collapsing star about to go nova — one great big “pop” in the galaxy emitting gravity waves that continue to ripple. With Price‘s yeah-I’m-stoned-what’s-the-problem vocals adding a persistent laid back factor over Maskell‘s thud and push and Morgan‘s low end fuzz adding weight to the outward thrust of Price and Allen‘s guitars, The Heads were even in their beginning stages a complete band, each member complementing the others’ work in effort to create a more consuming whole.
That effort pays off all across Relaxing With…, from the wash of noisy swirl that starts opener “Quad” to the switched-on bizarro vibes that persist from there. Was this the birth of what people seem so eager now to dub “neo-psych,” as if psychedelia ever went away? Rest assured, I have no idea, but more than two decades on, The Heads‘ initial salvo of “Quad,” “Don’t Know Yet” and the somewhat thicker “Chipped” still hits like a rogue asteroid in the Russian wilderness. “Slow Down,” appropriately enough, eases on the throttle and brings Price‘s vocals forward but holds onto a threat of explosion in its post-midsection thud, even if what materializes is another verse and some backwards guitar before a couple shouts and the winding final measure of guitar solo arrive. Morgan‘s bass begins “U33” and makes a highlight of it, and at just over two minutes, “Television” scorches out garage fuzz with a punkish intensity and basks in its hookish vocal pattern.
The dirt-poetry of the lyrics is punctuated by the drum stomp, and as the song opened with a “Wow!,” so too does it close with one, a quick sample leading to the freakout of “Woke Up,” which is no less all-go than the preceding cut, but stretches a minute further and takes more of a traditional rock feel, and “Widowmaker” holds to it, despite feeling more molten even in its moments of blasting-forward intensity, which come and go but seem alway to be purking thanks to the tension in Maskell‘s cymbal work. “Widowmaker” is a highlight of the record, paying off in assaulting volume before a long-fadeout toy-piano sample leads into the strum and jangle that starts “Taken too Much,” moving quickly into more drastic quiet/loud tradeoffs marked by the post-Nirvana feel in the low end and the particularly druggy lyrical thematic. Maybe it’s with a bit of irony that “Taken too Much” is positioned right ahead of the “You only pass through this life once, jack, you don’t come back for an encore,” sample that begins “Coogan’s Bluff,” but whatever the intent was, it works.
One of the aspects of Relaxing With… that works so well is that the album happens in quick shots. While modern psych is given to these long, sometimes indulgent excursions, only two of the album’s first nine tracks pass four minutes in length. That makes “Coogan’s Bluff,” which uses every second of its 11:35, all the more a standout. The jam feels all the more massive for the tightness of the songwriting preceding, and as The Heads shove their way through solo after solo, groove on top of groove, they stand tall as new warriors on the edge of time, breathing life into a genre that, again, was thought dead when it never actually was. The dynamic between Allen, Maskell, Morgan and Price is by then long established but perhaps not displayed anywhere else as clearly as it is on “Coogan’s Bluff,” as the band moves ahead into vast reaches yet uncharted and delivers a gradual comedown, hitting the apex in another shit-hot lead that ends in the second half and gives way to consistent toms and noise that lets the listener make their way slowly back to reality, such as it is.
I’m not sure it’s possible for a band to be massively influential, critically lauded, have a consistent loyal fanbase and a number of offshoot projects while still being underrated, but if it is, The Heads are. I’ll say they’re not really a band I got until I saw them on stage and felt the full force of their delivery and volume, how they not only play this music, but execute it on a physical level. I don’t mean they’re thrashing around or anything, just that there are four members of The Heads and the sound they make when they come together is enough of a presence to be counted as a fifth. To think of Relaxing With… as their debut and to imagine hearing it for the first time when it was released before the turn of the century, it’s no wonder they’ve become who they are. Thankfully, that spirit of outward-directed exploration and ongoing creative development has never left them, and they still sound keen to try something new each time, as their hyper-populated and nearly impossible to track discography proves. That only makes them all the more special, and as Relaxing With… was the nexus of that ongoing process, it’s a moment well worth celebrating.
As always, I hope you enjoy.
—
Interesting week, coming back and coming down from the aforementioned Roadburn fest in the Netherlands — to see all the coverage of Roadburn 2018, click here — and returning to whatever it is that passes for normalcy these days. I’ve had some good baby-time with The Pecan, so that’s been excellent. Six months on, he’s just starting to crawl and getting to the point where he’s more than a glob of human need, so playing has become more than basically showing him things and having him not be able to hold them. I’ve been singing him SubRosa, Anathema and Alice in Chains songs. He can sit up. He’s getting a bit of personality. Seems only a matter of time before he calls me a prick for something or other.
Busy week though. I apparently completely screwed up the scheduling this week on some stuff. That only makes life more difficult for me — also The Patient Mrs., so also me again — but it means I’m doubled up Monday and while I want to take a few days next week and get caught up on reviews I’ve been meaning to write, there’s still a lot going on that needs covering. I’m still getting caught up on news from being away and from before I went away, so I hope you’ll bear with me on that. Here’s what’s in the notes for next week, tentative as ever:
Mon.: Trevor’s Head full stream, Tusmørke track premiere.
Tue.: Sleep review.
Wed.: Grayceon review.
Thu.: Abramis Brama review.
Fri.: Track premiere/announcement from Cursed Tongue Records.
Some stuff still needs to be filled in, but again, I’m way behind on news and I think Amorphis put out another video. I might review that record next Friday and keep with the week’s apparent theme of things I think kick ass, but we’ll see how it goes, how much time there is and whatnot.
Speaking of, I’m pretty limited on time at the moment as the baby has a doctor’s checkup this morning and needs a bath before so he doesn’t show up like a crustpunk, and I still have another news post to put together for today — the one about Yawning Man signing to Heavy Psych Sounds — so I better wrap on the quick, but before I do, I just want to say thanks again if you got to check out any of the Roadburn coverage.
It was a little weird being there this year and missing the baby, and even weirder feeling like I was holding back from talking about that in the posts — what does it mean when I don’t feel comfortable having an open and fully honest conversation in the space that’s supposed to be my sole outlet for such a thing? — but you have to believe me when I say I understand how unbelievably lucky I was to be there in the first place and that it was a gift, as always. I have no doubt that, at the end of 2018, Roadburn will once again have been the center of it.
On that note, I’m out. I have two bios to write this weekend — an update for Kings Destroy and one for Small Stone’s next release that I’m woefully late on — and two reviews to write for Monday as noted above, so yeah, I’ll be around. In the meantime, thanks for reading as always and have a great and safe weekend.
Posted in Features, Reviews on April 21st, 2018 by JJ Koczan
04.21.18 – 11:31PM CET – Saturday night – Hotel Mercure Rm. 224
A text came in this morning from The Patient Mrs., who told me she wanted me to be kinder to myself in how I described moving through the world around me. I saw this right when I woke up this morning, so had no idea what she was talking about. It was all the “galumphing” and “lumbering” and “waddling” and whatnot I’ve been doing the last few days. I told her it’s a running gag and that in describing my every movement from place to place today, I would use the word “farting” exclusively.
It was a busy day. I did a lot of farting back and forth. We did not set a new land-speed record in getting the Weirdo Canyon Dispatch to the press, but we did still manage to get it out on time like the pros that we are. It was a good thing, too, because Roadburn 2018 day three started extra early with Bell Witch at Koepelhal, and it was not to be missed. Clearly there would be no time for farting around.
The Seattle-based duo play here tomorrow as well, but today they were performing last year’s brilliant and affecting Mirror Reaper (review here) in its entirety, with six-string bassist Dylan Desmond and drummer Jesse Shreibman joined by Erik Moggridge, also known as the solo-performer Aerial Ruin, to contribute guest vocals as he does on the album, which was written in memory of former drummer Adrian Guerra, who passed away in 2016. The piece, an 80-minute single-song full-length, was to be rendered in its complete form, with all the crushing tones and searing emotional resonance brought to life.
I’ll be honest with you, it felt a little voyeuristic to watch. I’ve seen tribute sets at Roadburn before — one recalls the Selim Lemouchi tribute in 2014, and even as Bell Witch were playing today at Koepelhal, back at Het Patronaat, Stephen Brodsky and Adam McGrath of Cave In were paying homage to their late former bandmate, Caleb Scofield, who died in a car accident last month. But still. Maybe it’s just because it was so heavy coming from Bell Witch, or maybe it was the way Shreibman started out with his head down on his snare, or how he, Desmond and Moggridge all came together on vocals, but there was something so raw about the grief on display that it would’ve been next to impossible not to be affected by it. Powerful. Moving. One only hopes there some measure of catharsis derived from the process, because they managed to turn the darkest of feelings and sounds into something beautiful.
Somewhat dazed, I dragged my oafish, unworthy, hideous fucking carcass out of the Koeplhal — where in the merch area they couldn’t even find a Sacri Monti t-shirt big enough to wrap around my bloated fucking form (shit just got tragic; dial it back) — and over to the Hall of Fame where even-younger-than-I-thought-they-were-and-I-thought-they-were-pretty-young boogie rockers Supersonic Blues were getting set to go on. Hall of Fame is the smallest of Roadburn 2018’s venues, and I hadn’t been inside yet other then to pop in on Petyr playing heavy ’70s covers yesterday, so this was my first real set there. Supersonic Blues also did a set of covers at some point in the last two days, and they worked a UFO song into this set of originals as well, I suspect because they just don’t have that much original material yet. They were allotted 50 minutes, and they’ve only released one two-song single (review here), so yeah. Maybe they just ran out of songs.
As happens in some fortunate occasions with young acts who aren’t arrogant as hell, Supersonic Blues are a better band than they know. They were somewhat timid on stage, or at least subdued, but their boogie, their tones and their swing were all right on, and their material was warm and classic feeling in a way that fit with some of the San Diego Takeover groups — Petyr, Arctic, Sacri Monti, etc. — but laid back enough to still be its own vibe. I was already looking forward to their next release and am only more so after seeing them play.
My next move was something of a debate. In the Green Room, Minami Deutsch and Damo Suzuki were doing a set together, which sounds like, yes, something you want to stand in front of for as long as you can. On the Main Stage, however, Panopticon were doing a full-on full-hour, and well, I watched both Minami Deutsch and Damo Suzuki yesterday — albeit in different contexts — and I’ve never seen Panopticon, so the Minnesota-based, folk-infused American black metallers won out. Not a phrase I say often. Led by guitarist/vocalist Austin Lunn, who also owns and operates Hammerheart Brewing in Minnesota, which smells delightfully like fresh-cut and/or burning wood when you go there, Panopticon absolutely packed out the Main Hall, and with family members to the side of front of the crowd, they unleashed a torrent of USBM intensity that made no bones about its intent to scorch.
For a band who doesn’t tour nine months out of the year, their ownership of the big stage was complete and unflinching, and as they have a brand new record out in the form of The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness I and II on Bindrune, their energy level was no less ferocious than the material itself, though there was plenty of dynamic to be had as well. I knew I wanted to be back in the Green Room for Volcano, so I hopscotched out of the Main Hall and downstairs to grab a quick bite to eat. Some vegan meatballs and seasoned mystery (actual-)meat later, I lubbered up to the front of the Green Room and there planted myself to wait for Volcano to hit it.
And I mean hit it. Led by the keys of Harsh Toke‘s Gabe Messer and the guitar of Joy‘s Zach Oakley, with Red Octopus‘ Billy Ellsworth on bass, I don’t even know who on drums, Sacri Monti and Joy drummer Thomas Dibenedetto on percussive sticks and Earthless‘ own Mario Rubalcaba sitting in on bongos and other percussion, Volcano were an Afrobeat-inspired melee of psychedelic funk, starting out their set with a song called “Naked Prey” and ending with their previously-posted single, “10,000 Screaming Souls” (discussed here), and in between, they were an absolute blast of rhythm, vibe and motion. “No Evil No Demon” invited shouting sing-alongs, and as my understanding is that their record is already done and they’re already signed to Tee Pee for the release — hardly a surprise given the personnel involved — I was thinking of their set as something of a preview of what’s to come when the album lands, but they were already crazy tight, locked in, and looking and sounding like they were having a total blast.
It was their second show. Two. I’d sat next to Ellsworth on the bus ride from the airport to Tilburg the other day and he told me the band figured they might as well get one under their belt before playing Roadburn. Their second show. In the Green Room. And they totally killed it.
They are a band about which you will no doubt hear more in the months, maybe years, to come, and they made an excellent lead-in for the psychedelic masterclass that long-running UK cosmotrodders The Heads delivered in the same space. I’ve seen The Heads at Roadburn before — they played the Main Stage in 2015 (review here) and subsequently released it as the live album, Burning up With… (review here) — and their history with the festival and with Walter goes back much farther than that, and as he worked the live video mixing projected behind them once again in the Green Room, the swirl was unmistakable and irresistible. Before they went on, I had been reading a news story about diamonds found in a meteorite that were supposed to be leftover from a planetary collision 4.7 billion years go or something like that.
Could there possibly be a better analog to what The Heads bring to the stage? Diamonds from space? Shit, as I watched them conjure a gravity well with “Coogans Bluff” and “Widowmaker,” all I could think about was a giant rock slamming with a couple billion years’ worth of momentum into the earth and Paul Allen, Wayne Maskell, Hugo Morgan and Simon Price popping out of the thing like a presidential birthday cake and jamming a swirl hot enough to melt crucial elements into new molecules. Heavy. Psychedelic. Perfection. I don’t think there’s really any other option when The Heads play except to stand there with your mouth agape and just try to retain as much of it as humanly possible. The only challenge is not snapping back to reality when they’re done and realizing you’ve lost time, like on an old episode of X-Files.
Oh, and by the way, The Heads are really, really, really fucking good.
I did not at all envy Sacri Monti the task of following them up, but the San Diego five-piece represented the Takeover well, with a contingent of their clique on hand to watch as guitarist/vocalist Brendan Dellar, guitarist Dylan Donavon, organist Evan Wenskay, bassist Anthony Meier (also of Radio Moscow) and Dibenedettoon drums tore into songs from their 2015 self-titled debut (review here) and some new material from the follow-up that that first album is due. I’ve no idea what the state of their next record is, but what they played sounded right on and though they were less spaced-out than The Heads, one could still get a sense of the intended continuity in the Green Room as they played, which started with Petyr and Minami Deutsch with Damo Suzuki, got far out with Volcano and The Heads and came back to the boogie via Sacri Monti before Sweden’s Maggot Heart closed out the room for the night with more of a post-punk vibe.
After poking my laughably-gargantuan cranium into the Main Hall to take a peak at Godspeed You! Black Emperor, whose second set of the weekend I’ll watch tomorrow, I poor-coordinationed my way over to Het Patronaat to close out my night with a blast of Japanese sludge from Greenmachine, who were performing their 1997 debut, D.A.M.N., in its entirety. Their onslaught was immediate save for a small technical issue with one of the amps, and they delivered a pummel worthy of the underground influence they’ve had in their home country and beyond. I was digging the hell out of it, but have no problem admitting I was done before they were. When it’s time to go back to the hotel and write, there’s really nothing else to be done except that.
With the banana I’d found earlier in the day backstage still in the side pocket of my cosmic backpack, I knuckledragged back to the hotel through a Weirdo Canyon that looked like some kind of clash of civilizations, with dance clubs open and beardo metallers sitting out in cafes red-eyed and addled from a long day of whathaveyou. The anthropologist in me — and no, there isn’t an anthropologist in me — wanted to start interviewing members of different subcultures to see how they could possibly exist in the same space at the same time, but, well, there’s still Day Four of Roadburn 2018 to go tomorrow, and plenty enough already to keep me busy in the meantime.
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You know what I did tonight? I introduced myself toEster Segarra. Zero chance you remember, but a couple months back, I posted about how incredibly talented a photographer she is (and she is) and the collection she had coming out via Season of Mist and I said that in all the years I’d seen her in the photo pit at Roadburn, I’d never been brave enough to introduce myself. Well, as I was on my way from Sacri Monti to Greenmachine, she was walking the opposite direction in the front hallway of the 013 and I stopped her, shook her hand and said who I was. It might’ve been the bravest thing I’ve done this weekend up to this point, and to be frank, I don’t really see myself trying to top it tomorrow. But hey, I said hi to Ester Segarra. And she didn’t even tell me to go fuck myself. She was super-nice. Bonus.
More of my nowhere-near-as-good-as-Ester-Segarra’s photography after the jump, if you’re up for it. Thanks for reading.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 21st, 2017 by JJ Koczan
Today begins Roadburn season — the hap-happiest season of all. The Netherlands-based festival begins the run toward Roadburn 2018 by announcing Godspeed You! Black Emperor will headline two nights, Jacob Bannon of Converge will curate as his band returns for two more full-album sets, Panopticon will play twice, Ivar Bjørnson of Enslaved and Einar Selvik of Wardruna will follow-up their performance of Skuggsjá in 2015 with Hugsjá, which sounds even cuddlier, UK psychedelic gurus The Heads will return, Bell Witch will play an album in full that, as of today, isn’t even out yet, and many, many more have been added.
In other words, Roadburn 2018 is a Roadburn. Tickets go on sale on Oct. 19 and will no doubt be gone if not immediately than shortly thereafter. It is my sincere hope, as always, to be at Roadburn come April. This would be my 10th time in Tilburg for the fest and it already looks like the kind of maddeningly complex avant-garde art-project gathering that has made past years so special.
More to come, of course. In the meantime, if you get to check it out, I wrote the announcement for The Heads, which was a lot of fun. Here’s that along with everything else for Roadburn 2018 so far:
Roadburn 2018 first confirmations; includes festival headliners, curator and poster artist.
GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR will perform two different sets as Saturday and Sunday headliners
JACOB BANNON confirmed as the 2018 curator
CONVERGE will perform two shows, including a You Fail Me set
Einar Selvik & Ivar Bjørnson will present HUGSJÁ for the first time outside of Norway
BELL WITCH will perform two sets including new album Mirror Reaper in full
PANOPTICON to make their Roadburn debut playing two different sets.
Roadburn’s official poster artist for 2018 is RICHEY BECKETT
Tickets will go on sale on October 19.
Roadburn Festival is proud to announce the first artists for the 2018 line up, which will take place at the 013 venue, Tilburg, The Netherlands between April 19-22.
Artistic Director, Walter Hoeijmakers commented:”At Roadburn, we’re always looking to push the envelope when it comes to working with creative and diverse artists; we’ll never settle for toeing the line. These first artists should give you an idea of the direction that Roadburn will be taking in 2018, but as ever, don’t assume you have us sussed – we always have more up our sleeve!”
GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR
Godspeed You! Black Emperor have slid smoothly into our collective consciousness, picked apart the very notion of what it means to be a band and teetered on the precipice between serenity and all out chaos. The diversity of their output and their ability to always keep us guessing is a big part of why having them perform two headlining sets at Roadburn feels like a natural fit.
Their varied back catalogue makes for rich pickings, should they choose to cycle back through previous representations of the band; should they opt to look forward, into the unknown, we await with baited breath to see what is delivered during their two separate performances. Their live shows are renowned for being all-encompassing, immersive experiences, where even the visual aspect is overwhelming, usually including film projection performances that gain as much impact to the overall event as the music itself, the two interwoven as one. No doubt their Roadburn performances will be ones for the history books.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor will perform at the 013 venue on Saturday, 21 April and Sunday, 22 April. Read more here.
2018 CURATOR: JACOB BANNON
When Converge performed two groundbreaking sets at Roadburn 2016, followed by Jacob’s Wear Your Wounds set at Roadburn 2017, we knew we’d found a kindred spirit. Known not only for his audio output, but also for his visual art and founding role in Deathwish Inc; Bannon’s influence is broad and his Roadburn wish list is very much in tune with our own visions.
Jacob commented: “It is an honor to be working as the curator for Roadburn Festival 2018. The festival is unlike any other, showcasing the most forward thinking artists and musicians of the heavy music world. As this year’s curator I will reach across its sub-genres to bring together an array incredible bands/musicians; expanding the reach of the festival while celebrating the world of extreme music that we all love.”
Jacob Bannon will curate the main stage at the 013 venue on Friday, 20 April, and Het Patronaat on Saturday, 21 April. Read more here.
CONVERGE
The aforementioned Converge sets in 2016 were something truly special to behold. The Blood Moon set – which featured Chelsea Wolfe, Steve Von Till and Stephen Brodsky – will go down in Roadburn history, and the one-off Jane Doe set has already been committed to record such was the impact of the performance.
The relationship between Converge and Roadburn is far from over, and we’re thrilled that these four incredible musicians will return to the Roadburn stage for two essential sets in 2018.
Jacob Bannon elaborates on the performances: “In 2016, we played our Jane Doe album in its entirety at Roadburn Festival. For our 2018 return, we will perform our album You Fail Me in its entirety. Originally released in 2004, this album marked a turning point for our band internally and in many ways it is considered the beginning of the modern era of our band. This performance will be a one time only event, exclusive to Roadburn.”
“It took our band nearly five years to cut and shape our most recent album The Dusk In Us. Scheduled for release on November 3rd through Epitaph and Deathwish, it is a very emotional album for the band. All four of us went through a lot of trials and tribulations in those years and it is reflected in those songs, connecting with our lives ways hard to put into words. It will be an honor to play this material in its entirety for the Roadburn audience. We hope it will be as special for you as it will be for us.”
Converge will play The Dusk In Us on Thursday, 19 April, and You Fail Me on Friday, 20 April at the 013 venue, Tilburg, The Netherlands. Read more here.
HUGSJÁ
This new collaborative musical piece is designed by former Roadburn curators, Ivar Bjørnson and Einar Selvik, combining indigenous and contemporary music with Norse and Norwegian poetry, accompanied by instruments from the Stone Age through to the present day. It’s set to be a monumental follow up to Skuggjá’s international premiere at Roadburn 2015.
A series of concerts named Nordvegen (‘the northern road’ – an ancient shipping route connecting Norway to the rest of the world for some 3000 years), was performed in four harbors along the west coast of Norway in late May and early June of 2017. The audience was taken on a spectacular journey along this route in a musical declaration of love to Norwegian coastal culture and Norse history. The concerts were inspired by local history in each of these places. The Nordvegen concerts created an acoustic and intimate basis for the grandiose commissioned work, Hugsjá, which received its world premiere in Bergen concert hall Grieghallen on May 31st. Originally commissioned by and performed at Bergen International Festival, the piece will now sail southwards to Roadburn 2018.
Einar & Ivar will also be taking part in a “guided tour” of Hugsjá; explaining more about the origins of the composition, and taking questions from the audience.
Hugsjá will be performed on Saturday, 21 April at the 013 venue. Read more here.
BELL WITCH
Although it’s not yet released, the upcoming 83-minute album from Bell Witch, titled Mirror Reaper, is already making waves on Planet Roadburn. Recreating the record in all it’s crushingly exquisite glory requires the input of Erik Moggridge (Aerial Ruin), who we are delighted to welcome to Roadburn to complete the performance of Mirror Reaper.
As Moggridge has appeared on all Bell Witch releases to date in some capacity, we are thrilled that Bell Witch have agreed to perform a second set of music with him. Expect his fragile yet evocative vocal style to lend an even more ghastly and ethereal quality to Bell Witch’s already otherworldly sound.
Bell Witch will perform on Saturday 21 April at the 013 venue and Sunday, 22 April at Het Patronaat. Read more here.
PANOPTICON
For the past decade, Austin Lunn has created some of the most evocative and personal American black metal in relative isolation. With only a few shows under their belt, the band has astounded and delighted with each appearance in their short live tenure. To make this Roadburn appearance even more special, we’ll be treated to two separate sets during the festival.
Panopticon will perform selected songs from a new double album entitled The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness during one set, and a career spanning selection of tracks will be performed during the other. From the rawer, vicious material compiled on the early …On the Subject of Mortality collection to the groundbreaking bluegrass-heavy Kentucky to the shimmering melody and majesty of recent releases Roads to the North and Autumn Eternal – this is a rare treat and we can’t wait to feel the soot and smoke in our hearts and heads as Panopticon levels the venue.
Panopticon will perform at Het Patronaat on Friday, 19 April, and the 013 venue on Saturday, 20 April. Read more here.
EX EYE
When word got out that master saxophonist Colin Stetson had put a new metal band together called Ex Eye, excitement levels were high. The relentlessness of the band’s assault, the enormity of its scope and the unbound energy they exhale means that they make music that might skip your brain altogether and activate your nervous extremities all by itself. Just seeing a legendary figure like Colin on stage playing metal would be satisfying enough; that he’s recruited people like Liturgy’s Greg Fox on drums, bassist Shahzad Ismaily (who’s played with the mighty Secret Chiefs 3) and guitarist/composer Toby Summerfield to complete this stellar line-up is just icing on the cake.
Ex Eye will perform at the 013 venue on Thursday, 19 April. Read more here.
THE HEADS
The Heads have a special place in the history of Roadburn. Not just because the UK psych lords have made multiple visits over the years – 2006, 2008, artists-in-residence in 2015 – but for the transformative effect their sets have had on the crowds, the vibe, the very fest itself. Nobody takes Roadburn to where The Heads take Roadburn.
“Roadburn is the best festival The Heads have played,” enthuses guitarist/vocalist Simon Price. “The vibes, the crowds, the bands, the organisation; it’s the whole package. Roadburn always delivers. Playing on stage or just wandering around, it makes me grin. It is The Heads’ spiritual home. We can’t wait to bring it on again in 2018.”
The Heads will perform at the 013 venue on Saturday, 21 April. Read more here.
IGORRR
The brainchild of French composer and multi-instrumentist Gautier Serre, IGORRR is genuinely disorienting. One of the most excitingly unpredictable acts in any genre you might want to try and shove them into, its wild character and fearless will to experiment are the staples of the sort of creativity we fiercely stand behind at Roadburn. What choice did we have but to bring this wrecking ball of delirious creativity to Roadburn and see and hear for ourselves how it all translates to the stage with a full band playing it?
Igorrr will perform on Friday, April 20 at the 013 venue. Read more here.
AERIAL RUIN
Aerial Ruin – AKA Erik Moggridge – may be best known to many on the basis of his frequent appearances on albums by the mighty Bell Witch, but his own project displays a remarkable sense of texture and delicacy that is equal in its melancholy yet entirely independent. Aerial Ruin’s recently released Nameless Sun beautifully follows the tradition set forth on its predecessor Ash of Your Cares in offering up eerie acoustic confessionals that can raise the hairs on the back of your neck. Moggridge plays guitar with the precision of a spider slowly building its web; everything falls into place delicately yet with a brilliant and focused grace.
Aerial Ruin will perform on Saturday, April 21 at the 013 venue. Read more here.
SANGRE DE MUERDAGO
Led by Pablo C. Ursusson, a musician and lyricist who has also done work in painting and sculpture, Sangre de Muerdago is deeply connected to the very earth of their Galicia homeland. With a background in Spanish punk and other kinds of countercultural movements, the band is the vehicle through which these musicians leave the harshness and aggression aside and channel the folk tales of Galicia through traditional instruments and gentle, haunting, ancient-sounding singing.
Sangre de Muerdago will perform at Het Patronaat on Friday, 20 April. Read more here.
RICHEY BECKETT
Having made a dent in the Roadburn psyche earlier this year when he took part in the Full Bleed art exhibition at the 2017 edition of the festival, Richey Beckett will be returning next year. This time he will be our official poster artist, creating the artwork that will adorn our posters and merchandise for the 2018 edition.
Based in South Wales, Beckett is a highly talented artist with his roots firmly planted in the natural world, where he draws much of his inspiration from.
Beckett comments: “Being invited to create visual artwork for this year’s Roadburn is a tremendous honour. Roadburn isn’t just another heavy music festival, it’s something that over the years has evolved into a pilgrimage of a worldwide community; a celebration of music, the creative spirit and camaraderie.” Read more about Richey Beckett here.
TICKET ONSALE DATE
Roadburn 2018 tickets will go on sale on October 19. They will be available to purchase in person from the 013 box office from 18.30- 20.30 local time, and online worldwide from 21.00 CEST. Ahead of the tickets going onsale, we will be able to confirm more details of the line up, plus camping options in Tilburg during the festival.
