A while back, I did a Buried Treasure piece on the second album by Toner Low, appropriately dubbed II, and the near-universal response I got was, “You think that’s some shit, you need to get their first record.” Well, I’m basically a slave to peer pressure anyway, so I figured the recommendations of those who took the time to make them could only be steering me in the proper direction.

There’s a line in a Nine Inch Nails song from The Fragile (their last album worth a damn) that goes something like, “I listened to everyone, now I know everyone was right.” That fits very well here.

As massive as II was — and it was — Toner Low’s Toner Low has the dubious honor of being the first album I’ve ever run through my computer speakers that vibrated the mouse as I moved it. I could feel the vibrations of the bass in my hand while “Praying for Murphy’s Law to Arise” was on, and that only made me want to play the record even louder. So I did.

I promised myself I wasn’t going to get hyperbolic as I wrote this, because I’m still going on first impressions, but god damn, if you haven’t heard this record yet, you should seriously get on that as soon as possible. My suggestion is you do what I did following the advice of Obelisk attendee and commenter Bufftbone: get in touch with guitarist/vocalist Daan via the band’s MySpace to begin the purchasing process. Thanks to Bufftbone and everyone else who prodded me to do so.

Man, it was late when Japanese stoner doom legends — now in their 15th year of operation — took the stage at Roadburn 2009 at the 013 Popcentrum in Tilburg. Over on the main stage, Colour Haze was noodling out, and it was so packed in the side room that I could barely move, let alone get a look at vocal madman Yoshiaki Negishi as he plunged ever further into the sinister recesses of the human psyche. They’re going to be back there in 2010, and as a way to maybe bridge the gap one to the next, Roadburn Records/Burning World has issued their set from last year. As someone whose ears rang from it the next day and the day after, I can safely say it was the right move.

This is Church of Misery’s first live record, and it’s fitting that it would be from Roadburn, an environment in which the band is as appreciated as they’ll ever be, preaching not only to the converted, or to the choir, but to an entire order of boozed-up cult followers, gone mad on European weed and stoner riffs. For an unhinged act like Church of Misery — who take the riff-riff-riff formula so many stoner bands emulate to no end and actually make it sound dangerous — it was the perfect setting. They did tracks from their split with Sourvein (closer “For Madmen Only”), and from their Master of Brutality, The Second Coming and Houses of the Unholy albums. Even “Taste the Pain,” which can be found on a 1998 EP of the same name — or the Early Works compilation, for those who’d like the easy way out — makes an appearance.

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If you’d prefer to think of them as 13eaver, that’s fine too, it’s all the same band. They formed in the late ’80s in Amsterdam, put out a couple records on various labels — among them Man’s Ruin — and following the collapse of that imprint, weren’t heard from again. Their website is still up for anyone who wants more info or to buy merch.

It was a hell of a week around The Obelisk, what with celebrating the first year, the Dave Chandler interview and whatnot. I don’t know what your plans are, but I just got a package in from the All That is Heavy webstore on StonerRock.com and lent my car to The Patient Mrs. for the evening, so I’m about to spend a relaxing Friday night waiting for the snow that’s supposedly coming to start, drinking a couple beers, listening to good music and, who knows, maybe even reading a book. If that sounds boring to you, I humbly beg you to reevaluate your ideas about excitement.

Enjoy your weekend. Next week is going to rule, so stay tuned.

Of course, we all know that Kyuss vocalist John Garcia (also of Hermano, Slo Burn, Unida, and so on) is doing a set at Roadburn 2010 of his legendary band’s classic songs. And short of a full Kyuss reunion, that’s about as nifty as it’s gonna get. Thing is, when they announced that Garcia would be doing this, the rest of the band was never revealed.

Blah, blah, blah, speculation later, it turns out that joining Garcia for what has now been dubbed Garcia Plays Kyuss (GPK) are a few European rock types seemingly plucked from obscurity. I’m willing to wager the number of people who immediately recognize the name Jacques de Haard is relatively low, but he and drummer Rob Snijders were once in Dutch rockers Celestial Season, and are currently the rhythm section of Agua de Annique. See, don’t you feel a little better?

Guitarist Bruno Fevery, on the other hand (why do these all sound like porno names?) comes from the Belgian band Arsenal, who as near as I can tell are a kind of synth pop/electronica act. A bit more mysterious, but needless to say the pressure’s on all these dudes, Garcia included. Even more so, because now they’re taking Garcia Plays Kyuss on the road. Here are the tour dates:

28.05.10  DUBLIN   Andrews Theatre
29.05.10  GENT    Vooruit
30.05.10  AMSTERDAM Melkweg
01.06.10  KÖLN    Underground
02.06.10  LUZERN  Schuur
03.06.10  ARAU    Kiff
04.06.10  BOLOGNA   Estragon
05.06.10  MÜNCHEN   Feierwerk
06.06-10  WIEN    Arena
08.06.10  BERLIN   Festsaal Kreuzberg
09.06.10  KOBENHAVN   Loppen
10.06.10  HAMBURG   Übel & Gefährlich
11.06.10  FRANKFURT Batchkapp

Sometimes you want something rippingly complicated, and sometimes you just want to rock. For the latter, Eindhoven’s 7Zuma7 are always a safe bet. Straightforward, Kyuss-style rock and roll without too much worry for flash or technical wizardry. The track “Mirrorman” was the opener of their only full-length, 2000’s Deep Inside, and it’s a win all around. Enjoy and have a great weekend.

After this, we’re done with 2009, but before January gets here and we all step one day closer to armageddoom, there are a couple experiences I want to share/rehash one more time, since they turned out to be defining moments of the year. There were a bunch of great shows and festivals, good times were had, but there was little that compared with Roadburn and Planet Caravan.

Flying to The Netherlands for the first time was cool enough in itself, but going with a purpose — specifically to see the Saint Vitus reunion — made it all the better. And bearing witness to acts like Ufomammut, Colour Haze (for the second time), Cathedral, Church of Misery, Wino, Firebird, Neurosis and about a million others only added to the excitement. But really, it was the communion with the gods that motivated me to get off my ass and finally get over there, and I can honestly say that Roadburn 2009 was the pinnacle of the year. I’ve mentioned it more times than I can even think of in reviews and interviews with bands, and it has shaped every opinion of shows I’ve been to since — usually to their detriment. Even seeing Vitus in Brooklyn, as killer as it was, didn’t stack up to seeing them at 013 in Tilburg.

By contrast, I drove 10 hours solid to get to Asheville, North Carolina, for Planet Caravan. The vibe was much more American, even though the bands weren’t necessarily — Orange Goblin being a notable import for the occasion — and although it couldn’t really compare to Roadburn in its inaugural state, there were no shortage of incredible acts to check out: Zoroaster, Clutch, Burst, Wino again, Kylesa and Pentagram all ruled, but it was YOB who, like Vitus, got me off the couch. Admittedly, a close second was catching the legendary awesomeness of Pentagram for the first time (I’d missed those shows they did in NYC), and knowing it was probably the only time I’d ever get the chance to see Burst made that all the more special. But true enough to what I expected going into it, YOB destroyed all in their path. Worth pulling out the earplugs for, worth the hearing loss residual.

I’ll stop short of waxing poetic or intellectual about the meaningful nature of these sets since, as Devin Townsend reminds us, “It’s just entertainment, folks,” but there’s something to be said about what you do with your time and the memories you make as you go along. Actually, there’s a lot to be said about it, but I think it’s mostly implied. In any case, of all the places I managed to put myself in 2009 — grad school, this chair (a lot), numerous record stores, etc. — I know as long as I remember anything, I’ll remember Planet Caravan and especially Roadburn.

I don’t even know what to say about this one. Fuckin’ Roadburn is kicking my ass all over the place. What I really want to know is who’s going to be in his backing band, but whoever it is, the fact that it’s going to be John Garcia up front singing Kyuss songs is enough to make me wish even harder I could afford airfare to The Netherlands next spring. Here’s the news from Blabbermouth:

John Garcia (Kyuss, Unida, Hermano) will perform an entire set of Kyuss songs at next year’s Roadburn festival, which will be held at the 013 venue and Midi Theatre in Tilburg, Holland from Thursday, April 15 through Sunday, April 18, 2010.

The incredible emotional content of Kyuss is due in large part to the vocals of Garcia. Deeply rooted in blues and baked solid by the searing desert sun, his powerful contributions to the classic Kyuss records Blues for the Red Sun, Kyuss (a.k.a. Welcome to Sky Valley) and …And the Circus Leaves Town cast the mold for a legion of imitators.

Roadburn festival 2010, including Tom Gabriel Warrior’s Only Death is Real, a Goatsnake reunion, Candlemass 25th-anniversary show and Enslaved as “artists in residence,” will run for three days. There will be an additional Afterburner event on Sunday, April 18, 2010.

Today is the last day of class in my first semester back in school. I’m taking tomorrow (Thursday) off to celebrate. In the meantime though, I have an ass-load of work I’ve been plugging through, and still more to go. Not that I’m out there in the rain/snow/mist/whatever the hell it’s doing that has visibility in the valley about down to nothing, working with my hands in some pit — still in front of the same ol’ keyboard — but somehow Roadsaw seemed appropriate for hard work, and this video of them from their European tour earlier this year in Den Bosch was too good to let slide. Enjoy.

Sometimes I run into bands I don’t want to check out just because they’re so highly recommended they can’t possibly live up to the hype. Case in point: Toner Low from The Netherlands. Everything I’d ever heard about them rounded out to, “Oh my god this is the best shit ever you need to hear it right now why are you still standing here go listen to it it’s as good as Sleep,” with emphasis on that last part. As good as Sleep? Come on, man. Your name better be John Garcia if you’re gonna talk that kind of crap.

But, because it was bound to happen eventually, I recently snagged a copy of Toner Low’s aptly-named second full-length, II, from a certain interwebby shop I probably don’t even need to name at this point (hint: it was All that is Heavy). Even after it came, I sat and stared at it for a long while before putting it on. “Oh yeah, think you’re so good?” Holding the hype against the band when the band had literally nothing to do with the hype isn’t exactly fair, but neither is life, so screw it. Alright, Toner Low. Bring it on.

And they did. For a solid hour of Sunn and Orange-amped stonerly psych drone doom with, yes, a Sleep influence, but stretched into four Goastsnake-thick numbers-only tracks all over 13 minutes long. Parts reminded me of Ufomammut’s take on heavy and sprawling psychedelia, but II was less outwardly experimental and more bent on riff worship and dooming out. I’ll say this for it: it was fucking s l o w — and yes, that is absolutely meant as a compliment. So many bands out there think they’re playing slow just because they’re not Slayer-speed thrash. No dice. Toner Low is the slow’s slow. They’re slow like continental shifts. Slower than those days at school where the clock moves backwards. Really, really slow.

And they’re slow too.

As it happened at the time I was listening, I needed a good dose of slow, so it was perfect. I don’t know if it’s as good as Sleep, since that’s like saying Sleep is as good as Sabbath, but I’ve no doubt II is in line for many return trips. Now just to track down a copy of their 2005 self-titled and I’ll be good to go for Toner Low. Obscure European distros here I come.

You might but probably don’t remember several months ago when, after returning from The Netherlands, I posted an entry about the CDs I picked up at this year’s Roadburn. Well, I thought it was worth mentioning now that I’ve finally managed to listen to all of them, and the very last one to make it into my player was Money for Soul by Baby Woodrose.

It was a record I hadn’t even intended to buy, but in order to pick up TAB4 by The Atomic Bitchwax in the new Tee Pee Records digipak, I needed to break a 10 Euro mark and no one could do it for me in the merch area except for the girl who was selling stuff for Saviours, and she wouldn’t unless I bought something. I told her I already have all the Saviours records, which isn’t a lie, and she said she was also selling a stack of CDs to her left.

Baby Woodrose was the name that stuck out to me most from what was there assembled. I knew I owned Blows Your Mind! — despite having just now to turn around and look at the CD rack to refresh my memory of what it was called. Mostly what I remembered about it was the anatomically-centric artwork, the songs themselves being long gone from my head. But, since it was five Euros and the only way I could buy that Bitchwax, I figured what the hell, and Money for Soul it was.

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Whether you choose to call them 35007 or Loose (which is their numerical moniker flipped upside down), the Dutch psych rockers went underrated in their time together — which, according to their MySpace, is finished. I haven’t managed to get a copy of their final offering, Phase V, yet, but its predecessor, 2002’s Liquid EP is just right for unwinding on a quiet, rainy Friday evening in the valley. As such, I thought I’d share. Here’s “Tsunami,” the opening cut from Liquid, in all its YouTube-ular glory:

Veterans of the Doom Shall Rise festival and named for the plates shifting continents beneath the surface of the earth, Dutch doomers Tekhton come on broadcasting their heaviness before the music is even played. On their Doom Dealer/The Church Within debut, Summon the Core, the five-piece roots into a mineshaft under Sleep’s Holy Mountain and emerges covered in the sooty rhythms of bassist Jurgen and drummer Marcore, raw riffs from Dirk and Ralph and the throaty, young-Cisernosian vocals of Bert-Ren? (last names need not apply). Like The Deep Blue, this is pure Heavy, “Dragonaut”-worship, that unlike a lot of followers, actually manages to capture the oft-forgotten spontaneous aesthetic that was a big part of what made Sleep so influential in the first place.

Soft, acoustic tones permeate the cryptically titled centerpiece track “031045″ (which some quick Wikipedia research reveals is the day America firebombed Tokyo during WWII, using the US month/day/year — if they’re going with the European day/month/year, it’s the start of the Tigers/Cubs World Series), but that respite and some other atmospheric movements like that ending side B cut “There be Giants” aside, Summon the Core is bent on weathering monuments to dust and forging in their place a landscape pockmarked with huge three-toed footprints. Boldly opening with the longest tracks, “Oxen of the Sun,” Tekhton set out a stoner metal challenge: dare you to make it through this. A test of their audience. Very doom.

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