As the week draws to a close and I make ready to head out to Connecticut for the next two days — Redscroll Records in Wallingford, I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon — I can only leave you this holiday?weekend (Happy Passover and Easter, whatever your version of the pagan equinox celebration might be) with the below killer video shot in France. It’s heavy psych legends Nebula doing “Long Day” in Paris last year. Enjoy and have a great weekend.

Ballsy Kansas metallers Gulch (who in the interest of full disclosure are publicly related by Scott Alisoglu of Clawhammer PR, who also reviews discs for Blabbermouth and was a contributor to my former place of employment) sound like they’re doing a commercial for Marine recruitment musically on their third album, Uphill Both Ways (Gulchworks Enterprises), but they do so with lyrics dealing with topics from domestic abuse on “Lifehog” to losing your loved ones to the ravages of drugs on “Watching Old Friends Die” and “Tweak.” The songs are mostly anger and testosterone driven, and they make reference to the commercially masculine modern headbanger bands you’d expect: Black Label Society, Down, Pantera, C.O.C., etc. You’ve probably heard these riffs before.

Most of the songs sit comfortably in the four-minute range and rely on a straightforward pop formula. That’s not necessarily a bad thing at all — shit, Black Sabbath songs have choruses too — but the changes on a track like “Edge” are so predictable that even on my first listen I was able to call them out ahead of time. Four cycles of this, change, four cycles of that, chorus, back to the verse, bridge, chorus and so forth. There’s a fine line between familiar-sounding and unoriginal, although I will herald the anti-drug stance of vocalist/guitarist Dean Book — who along with his brother, drummer Duane, had an album out on Century Media back in the day that’s now namedropped in the third sentence of their bio — because given the number of dedications on this album, someone in this band certainly knows something about loss. The Book brothers soldier on, their workman-like metal doing well to earn them the opening slot for whichever radio metal act is making their way through on tour that month.

Read more »

So because I’m definitely not stalking Argentina‘s Los Natas on MySpace or anything like that, I just happened upon the page for Sergio Chotsourian side-project Santoro not too long ago. Those of the remembering type will recall their self-titled album put out by People Like You Records in 2001. I picked it up a while back, and since as anyone who’s checked this site more than once since it’s been up knows I’ve been on something of a Los Natas kick lately, I was interested to see what the Santoro dudes were up to nowadays.

Turns out Santoro vocalist Topo Armetta and Chotsourian have a new band going called Venosidad. Their MySpace page only has two songs up, and Armetta plays bass in addition to singing, but from what I can tell it’s a bit more metal than what Santoro was doing — something like desert rock meets Neurosis. Bluesy post-metal. Just thought I’d point them out in case I wasn’t the only one interested. Hopefully we’ll get a full demo from them sooner than later.

Spanish space rock trio B?iruth coincidentally came to my attention only a few short days after I happened upon a copy of Fooz‘s Space is Dark…it is so Endless at El Suprimo Records in Baltimore. I note the coincidence because two-thirds of B?iruth — namely bassist Jes?s Arn?iz and guitarist Juan ?ngel G?mez — cut their teeth in the underground folkish stoner outfit. By comparison one to the other, B?iruth is far more eager to shirk convention, as the instrumental band’s debut, Horizonte de Sucesos (Alone Records), clearly demonstrates.

Broken up into four individual pieces, three of which circle around 20 minutes and the shorter “Alamut,” which is a synth-driven — both Arn?iz and G?mez, as well as drummer Carlos “Charlie” Segura, contribute synths — interlude that follows opener “Penumbra Difusa,” the album shows that not only are B?iruth looking to stand out from the poppy retro psychers of the day, but also that their sound owes much to the European eletronica breeding ground that was the Krautrock scene. Though “Alamut” is the most synthesized of the four tracks, there is no shortage of noise and ambience in the other three. There’d almost have to be or they’d fall flat on postured minimalism and parts of Horizonte de Sucesos would have no sound at all.

Read more »

StonerRock.com has the brief but welcome news about Cherry Choke, the new garage rock project of Mat Bethancourt, formerly of Josiah and recent Obelisk interviewee about his The Kings of Frog Island project. You might recall Mr. Bethancourt informing about the interplanetary struggle between the worlds of Satanica and Amphibia. If not, I highly suggest you read that interview right away. In the meantime, the new Cherry Choke record is available through the Elektrohasch website.

Elektrohasch proudly present the debut full length release of Mat Bethancourt‘s (Josiah/The Kings of Frog Island) new acid rock power trio Cherry Choke.

“Imagine Hendrix brawling with Blue Cheer in the local boozer after The Pretty Things spiked everybody’s drinks.”

Available on CD and limited edition LP.

Cherry Choke on MySpace

MeteorCity put it out in a limited edition of 1,000 copies last year, but according to the PR wire, Tee Pee Records — the band’s home when they put out 1999’s I and 2000’s II — has signed on to reissue TAB 4, the latest offering from New Jersey mainstays The Atomic Bitchwax.

Cool news one way or the other, even if the album was a bit too poppy for a lot of fans. I thought it had its moments. It looks like the label is focusing on the track “Revival,” which is a good move. It’s probably the best example of the new, “mature” Bitchwax the band is putting forward on the record. Here’s the press release:

Chris Kosnik (Bass & Vocals) Bob Pantella (Drums, also from Monster Magnet) and Finn Ryan (Guitar & vocals) are back again combining the best of their Rush-like riff mazes and the dueling Kosnik/Ryan vocal harmonies creating the wall of sound and precision TAB fans have come to expect.

In 2008, the Jersey Shore power trio The Atomic Bitchwax set out to record their latest 11 high energy Riff-Rock tunes on the appropriately titled TAB 4. Recorded by the band themselves and mixed by Eric Rachel at the famed NJ Trax-East Studios, this time around finds the band shifting gears over and over from the pulsing groove of the title track “Revival” to the inhuman face melting speed of the instrumental “Super Computer” will leave listeners and players alike wanting more.

For more than 10 years the band has climbed up and out from the basements of NJ to play nearly 1,000 live shows in over 20 countries, currently on tour in Europe. This is no three chord bullshit…this is the Bitchwax.

It’s a good time to be in the major markets when Zoroaster, The Gates of Slumber and SerpentCult team up for the North America is Doomed Tour. Here are the dates as were just announced:

August 1???? Chicago, IL – The Metal Shaker
August 2???? Lansing, MI – Mac?s Bar
August 3???? Toronto, ONT – Wreck Room
August 4???? Ottawa, ONT – Rainbow Bistro
August 5???? Montreal, QC – Katacombes
August 6???? Danbury, CT – Billy Baloney?s
August 7???? Boston, MA – O?Brien?s
August 8???? Baltimore, MD – Talking Head Club
August 9???? New York, NY – The Studio at Webster Hall
August 10?? Philadelphia, PA – Kung Fu Necktie
August 11?? Pittsburgh, PA – Howler?s Caf?
August 12?? Cleveland, OH – Peabody?s
August 13?? Columbus, OH – Ravari Room
August 14?? Indianapolis, IN – Emerson Theatre

See you at the New York show, man.

It might be the all-time stoner metal classic. Not only was it judged as one of the five essential Man’s Ruin releases by this site, but StonerRock.com also rates it as one of the best albums of the last century. Acid King‘s Busse Woods — now 10 years old — is so potent that by the time you finish listening to opener “Electric Machine,” your eyes are bloodshot.

Busse Woods is that rare occasion where everything on an album works — the songwriting, the riffs, Billy Anderson‘s production, the vocals, the thickness of the bass, the art: all of it comes together to create a memorable, lasting, timeless impression. The obsession with killer Ricky Masso and the account of his ritualistic murders, Say You Love Satan, achieves a genuine aura of doom and ’70s biker horror chaos, and is the very essence of what this music is all about from start to finish.

At the time, San Francisco-based Acid King was comprised of guitarist/vocalist Lori S., bassist Brian Hill, who quit the band shortly after the record was done, and drummer Joey Osbourne (these days Mark Lamb and Black Cobra‘s Rafael Martinez share the bass slot), and the phrase “power trio” was perhaps never more appropriately applied. Every moment of Busse Woods is amped to the fullest and even the quiet intro to “Drive Fast, Take Chances” feels like it could explode at any moment. You can feel the air being pushed out by the speakers. It is thick and moist and dank. The Heavy.

Busse Woods takes its name from Lori‘s teenage hangout on the northwest side of Cook County, Illinois‘ forest preserve, and in crafting it, she managed to capture the recklessness of druggie youth. When Small Stone did their 2004 reissue with bonus Hawkwind and Bachman-Turner Overdrive covers, the record’s legacy was cemented. Simply put, it is among the highest points of its genre.

Lori took some time out to talk about Busse Woods, making the album, its legacy and when we might see Acid King issue the much-anticipated follow-up to 2005’s III. Interview is after the jump.

Read more »