If you heard Static Tensions, then in all likelihood you’re already excited about the forthcoming Spiral Shadow, which is Kylesa‘s first album for new label home Season of Mist, which is due out Oct. 26. If you didn’t hear Static Tensions, well, there’s still time before the new one comes out, and no one has to be the wiser.

Kylesa is about to tour a month-plus with Torche and High on Fire. The PR wire has this:

Kylesa, the psych-rock co-ed Georgians, have revealed the cover art (illustrated by Santos) and track list for the anticipated new album Spiral Shadow.

The band, who recently wrapped up a European tour with Converge, recorded the new album at the Jam Room in Columbia, SC, earlier this summer with band member and renowned producer Phillip Cope (Baroness, Withered) once again at the helm. 

Upon Spiral Shadow‘s release (Oct. 26, Season of Mist), the album will have a limited edition digipak version with 3D cover art packaged with a bonus DVD.

Kylesa is currently working on a video for “Tired Climb” and will return to the road on Sept. 11 with a performance at Raleigh‘s Hopscotch Festival before joining High on Fire and Torche for a five-week US trek.

Spiral Shadow tracklist:
1. Tired Climb
2. Cheating Synergy
3. Drop Out
4. Crowded Road
5. Don’t Look Back
6. Distance Closing In
7. To Forget
8. Forsaken
9. Spiral Shadow
10. Back and Forth
11. Dust

Red Giant’s first album in six years finds the Cleveland four-piece come down to earth. Where 2004’s Devil Child Blues — and even more so their earlier albums, Ultra Magnetic Glowing Sound and Psychoblaster and the Misuse of Power – was spacier, looser, more open, the newer output on Dysfunctional Majesty (their second offering through Small Stone) is tight, rigid, professional-sounding. The tracks are not given to exploration, but rather, follow the guitars right through to the kind of straightforward heavy groove rock that has become synonymous with Small Stone’s name the last several years.

You wouldn’t know it by their level of output, but Red Giant mark two decades of existence in 2010. On Dysfunctional Majesty, guitarist/vocalists Alex Perekrest and Damien Perry and bassist Brian Skinner (all three original members) are joined on drums by Eric Matthews (ex-Pro-Pain), and while it’s been a while since we’ve heard anything from Red Giant, the maturity of the band still shines through in contrast to Devil Child Blues. Nothing against that album – it rocked plenty hard and plenty fast – but Dysfunctional Majesty is a different level entirely. The ease with which Red Giant channels labelmates Dixie Witch on “Million Point Buck” and “It Doesn’t Seem Right” speaks to the level of consciousness in the songwriting. The woman-as-car metaphor on “Season of the Bitch” may be overdone and cliché, but at least Red Giant do it well and know it’s the riffs that really matter in driving the song home.

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It would be literal nonsense — in that it wouldn’t make any sense at all — for me to review Hawk, the new collaboration record between Isobel Campbell (formerly of Belle and Sebastian) and Mark Lanegan (ex-Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age, etc.), but I got it today and some of it is pretty killer in a moody pop kind of way. I don’t know what it’s doing out by you, but “Snake Song” is perfect for the gray humidity inflicting itself on the valley this evening. Enjoy:

One month ago today (total coincidence), I posted a review of the new Giraffes live album, Show, on Crustacean Records. In case you’re too lazy to click that link, the gist of it was, “Hot damn, I really need to hear the last Giraffes studio album.” Well now I have, and I was right. I did need to hear this record.

Prime Motivator has more in common with Queens of the Stone Age‘s Songs for the Deaf than the color red and production from Dave Catching at Rancho de la Luna in California. The Brooklyn-based Giraffes (and I’ll say again I don’t know what the hell they’re doing in Brooklyn) affect a similar kind of playfulness in their songs. Thinking of a track like “Allergic to Magnets” or the more stoner-ized “Honest Men,” the band is notably tight, but there’s a looseness, an off-the-cuff feel to the songs that just can’t be faked. Vocalist Aaron Lazar‘s croon doesn’t hurt either, either for the comparison or in general.

The absolute highlight, though, is “Medicaid Benefit Appliqué,” track six of the total 13. At just under seven minutes, it’s the longest song on Prime Motivator, but man, if you’ve ever enjoyed the chorus of any song ever, you need to hear this track. It’s immaculate. It slows the pace of the record just when it needs it, has verses that seem to be built around Andrew Totolos crash cymbal, and adds some rock crunch at precisely the right time. If sat down and mapped out the entirety of Prime Motivator and tried to recreate the feel of the song, you wouldn’t be able to do it. This shit needs to just happen. Gorgeous.

But again, get this band out of Brooklyn. Their unabashed affection for what they do runs directly in contrast to the hipper-than-thou indie/irono cock rock that seems to seep from that borough, and their willingness to be heavy, catchy (beyond belief) and still pop-oriented and accessible makes them a better fit for an anything goes town like Chicago or even the muck of Los Angeles, which I’ve no doubt that if they were given the proper opportunity, The Giraffes would be able to rise above. Prime Motivator isn’t even necessarily stoner, it’s just a killer rock record that listening to now, I regret the nearly two full years I haven’t had with it. No time like this time to make up for lost time.

I just got back from the post office, sending out the latest three packages of sold Roareth CDs to New York, Illinois and France, so if you ordered it and live in one of those places, keep your eye on the mail. If you haven’t yet bought a copy of Roareth‘s Acts I-VI on The Obelisk‘s house label, The Maple Forum, I highly suggest you do so, both because it rules and because I’ve only got four copies left. Four copies and then they’re gone. You can see why I’d consider it an urgent matter.

Thanks to everyone who’s bought and told me they enjoyed the record. I know the band is stoked on it and so am I. Guitarist Aaron Edge sent me an email today actually with a few pics from their set at the wedding of Tad (who recorded Acts I-VI) and Peggy Doyle, both of Brothers of the Sonic Cloth. It certainly looks like drummer/vocalist Ben McIsaac had a good time, as I’m sure did all who were in attendance. Lesbian and Mico de Noche also played.

In case you missed it, I recently posted all of Acts I-VI for your streaming pleasure. Here it is again, complete with the link to buy the record. Once more, I hope you dig it as much as I do:

Roareth Acts I-VI

With Earthride, those who know already know what they’re going to get. Hell, it’s the bands slogan: “Pure Maryland doom for the brotherhood of music,” and if there’s a more accurate for the style in which the four-piece traffics, I’ve yet to hear it. On their third album in eight years, Something Wicked (released through their own Earth Brain Records), Earthride reaffirms their status as one of the most positively toxic stoner doom bands the US has to offer. Led by charismatic frontman Dave Sherman (ex-Spirit Caravan, Wretched), they leave a mark that is unmistakably their own, as though the songs were branding a backpatch onto your forehead.

Groove is central on Something Wicked. In many ways it’s the whole core of Earthride’s sound. Guitarist Kyle Van Steinburg has a tone so Orange you can’t rhyme with it, and the rhythm section of drummer Eric Little and bassist Rob Hampshire (Nitroseed) do an excellent job rounding out the material and evoking an even thicker, more viscous sound on tracks like opener “Something Wicked” and “Hacksaw Eyeball.” This is nothing new, but not everything is business as usual for Earthride, as Something Wicked finds Sherman trying out some new approaches vocally – growling occasionally and seeming to collapse into a melodic kind of yowl not too distant from Wino or Phil Anselmo’s on the last Down album, but frankly, more suited to what Earthride are doing song-wise.

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Click here or on the Facebook logo to go to The Obelisk‘s new page over there. I’m hoping that posts that appear here will be able to show up on the Facebook page, but who knows if that’s actually going to work. Honestly, I’m way out of my league in dealing with this technology. I can’t even handle real-life socializing, let alone internet-type interaction, but I’ll do my best and we’ll all see how it works out.

I still also have the MySpace page, but I don’t really check that either, so now I’ll have two social networking sites to ignore. Maybe if I can get up the gumption I’ll start a Twitter page and complete the unholy trinity.

I’m in Connecticut for the weekend and wanted to wait until I got up here before I posted the ceremonial Frydee video. Ah my friends, what a week it has been. I could go into it, but frankly, I haven’t got the energy. Instead, I’ll just sludge out to the Axehandle clip above and enjoy the night beach-side, moon reflected on water and all that. Maybe find a beer. Can’t really lose.

A hearty congrats to our amigo Mike “ZodiacLung” Hanson, who is getting married this weekend. Our best to him and his bride on the nuptials, a lifetime of happiness and so forth. Marriage gets a bad reputation, but I’m a fan, more power to the happy couple.

Being back at work has proven more challenging than I could have imagined, but it’ll settle down. Just in time for school to start, I’m sure. What a mess. At several intervals this week I thought to myself, “You know, I used to sit in my underwear all day and review doom records.” I suppose the difference now is I wear pants and do six other things at the same time. Guess what, here’s life.

Wish you a safe and enjoyable weekend. Thanks for all the responses on the Italy Where to Start post. Any requests for others, let me know in the comments.