I know it’s Sunday, but some news just won’t wait for the weekend to end. This from the Roadburn website:

Roadburn is elated to announce that Birmingham’s seminal post-punk/industrial behemoths, Godflesh, will perform their seminal debut full-length album, 1989’s Streetcleaner, in its entirety at the 2011 Roadburn Festival, Thursday, April 14th at the 013 venue in Tilburg, Holland. Not only will founding members Justin Broadrick and Benny Green play Streetcleaner in full and in track order, they will be playing the Tiny Tears EP, which was conceived as part of the overall Streetcleaner vision, in full as well.

Stupid Yankees. Bunch of jerks.

As I at long last wrap up this arduous Friday, looking forward to an equally if not more arduous weekend, I thought maybe some Count Raven would be appropriate for a mood as thoroughly doomed as mine. I was all set to roll with a clip of theirs, then I saw this VHS upload from them before they changed their name from Stormwarning, and there was no contest. This shit rules.

If all goes according to my evil plan, I’ll be swinging by BrooklynVegan‘s CMJ showcase at Union Pool tomorrow night to see Cough and maybe The Body after going to a reading for school at the KGB Bar. On the other hand, Amplified Heat is playing Philly tomorrow, and that’s bound to be amazing. Hard to figure this stuff sometimes. Good to know that either way I play it, it will involve at least three hours in the car.

Good for the Texas Rangers. They deserve it more. Not like those Yankees, who, as previously mentioned, are a bunch of jerks. Fitting too that it would be A-Rod struck out looking to end the game. That’s your whole friggin’ season, right there. Jerks.

To answer your next question: Yes, I am a Yankee fan.

I’m gonna go refill my wine glass and call it a night. You enjoy your weekend. Whatever you do, don’t spend the whole thing doing homework or writing columns that no one cares about. Be safe and we’ll see you back here Monday.

It’s fitting, in a way. Electric Wizard more or less refuses to tour in the US, so the US gets its own Electric Wizard. That’ll show ‘em! Not that I seriously believe being a Stateside Electric Wizard was the goal or intent of Richmond, Virginia, outfit Cough when they formed in 2005 (though if it was, who could blame them for having such noble aims?), but with their second full-length album and Relapse Records debut, Ritual Abuse, it’s kind of where they’ve ended up. Opening with two massive 12-plus minute tracks — they also close with one — the record is a dirge-laden take on excessively drugged doom, in parts sounding like dark psychedelia that broke into the pharmacy after it was closed and at times so seethingly hateful it’s nearly black metal in its ambience.

In following their 2008 first offering, Sigillum Luciferi, Cough do much of the work growing into their sound through a riffing, crashing and wailing approach that will be welcome and familiar to experienced doomers. Again, Electric Wizard is the central point of reference for the four-piece, with the guitars of David Cisco offering similar plod. Cisco and bassist Parker Chandler split the vocal duties, and as much as the screams on “A Year in Suffering” set them apart, the cleaner approach that shows up throughout Ritual Abuse is so much in line with what Jus Oborn has done on the last couple Electric Wizard discs that it’s uncanny. And don’t for one second think that’s a complaint. Far from it, it sounds awesome to my ears, and the bass tone that comes out of “Crooked Spine” later in the record is so righteously doomed that I’m hard pressed to think of another American band better at this kind of musical lumbering, but original it ain’t.

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I think for most 14 year olds, the thought of getting together a band and jamming on guitar while your dad plays bass is probably high on the list of “never gonna happen” scenarios, but then, when your last name is Lalli, you’ve kind of got a leg up. Comprised of guitarist Dino Lalli (age 14), drummer Benny Macias (age 16) and bassist Mario Lalli (age undisclosed) — the latter of Fatso Jetson, Yawning Man, et al — Auto Modown offers surprisingly accomplished riffy jams despite the deficit in years of its composers.

In the tradition of Lalli offshoot acts like Ten East, Auto Modown is completely instrumental, and all I’ve heard of them is the music contained in the one video below. I don’t know if they have songs written or just these jams, or if they’re planning to release an album (their Facebook page shows them playing in Downey, California, on Oct. 29, but is short on other info as to when exactly they got started or what they’re working on), but screw it, it’s Mario Lalli jamming with his kid, and aside from being adorable, it’s pretty good. Sign me up.

In transcribing the interview you’re (hopefully) about to read, I tried very hard to capture the rhythm and exuberance in Monster Magnet frontman Dave Wyndorf‘s speaking voice. To quote South Park, “It’s a Jersey thing.” Oftentimes, the venerable vocalist would begin a thought, pause, and pursue it from a different direction. I did my best to keep some of that and still make it read naturally. It’s always a balance with these things.

Monster Magnet‘s Mastermind, their first album for Napalm Records and eighth overall, will see release next week in the US and Europe. It’s an album I have mixed feelings about (review here), but there’s absolutely no getting around the fact that heavy rock would not be what it is today without the stalwart New Jersey act, and more specifically, without Wyndorf as its driving force. Over the course of their 20-year career, Monster Magnet has influenced bands who don’t even know they’ve been influenced by them. Their broad reach has taken them around the world, and their workmanlike approach to making albums and touring has secured a lifelong fanbase that’s always eager to see what they’re going to do next.

That, specifically, was something I wanted to ask Wyndorf about, and as you’ll — again, hopefully — see, he was forthcoming with his thoughts. Below, he discusses working with the current incarnation of the band — guitarists Ed Mundell and Phil Caivano, bassist Jim Baglino and drummer Bob Pantella — writing Mastermind and recording it with Matt Hyde, the differences in the American and European rock scenes, the fine line between what Monster Magnet does and heavy metal, and lots, lots more. The interview was over 40 minutes long and the transcription turned out to be well over 5,800 words. The dude’s a talker and there was a lot of ground to cover. If you have to take it in pieces, I understand. It’ll still be here later when you come back.

Please find the complete Q&A after the jump, and enjoy.

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Well how do you like that? Looks like Giddy Up! Records has picked up none other than the mighty Place of Skulls for their roster. This is killer news not just for the band, who’ve secured a US release date for their new album, As a Dog Returns (review here), but also for the label, because Victor Griffin is a fucking legend. Congratulations to all parties involved.

Here’s how the PR wire tells it:

Giddy Up! Records is pleased to announce the addition of Tennessee doomers Place of Skulls to their expanding artist roster, which currently includes Moth Eater, Black Water Rising and Demonica. The New York City-based indie imprint will release Place of Skulls‘ fourth full-length, As a Dog Returns, in North America on Nov. 9, 2010.

Says Giddy Up! label head Steve Seabury: “To me, Victor Griffin is a legend in the doom scene. I am like a little kid at the doom store. It’s an absolute honor and privilege to have Place of Skulls join the Giddy Up! Records family. This record is just amazing. I love it.”

In related news, the band will kick off a two-week European tour with Eternal Elysium this Saturday. As a special bonus, Place of Skulls fans in or around Berlin are eligible for a free pass to Hammer of Doom 4 in Wurzburg and a free copy of As a Dog Returns. Contact placeofskulls@msn.com for more info!

Place of Skulls European Tour 2010
w/Eternal Elysium
10/23 Posthalle, Hammer of Doom 4 Festival – Würzburg, GER
10/24 Gebäude 9 – Köln, GER
10/25 Le Klub – Paris, FR
10/26 Little Devil – Tilburg, NL
10/28 Loppen – Kopenhagen, DK
10/29 Rockefeller/ John Dee – Oslo, NOR w/Orange Goblin
10/30 Tribute Sandnes, Stavanger, NOR w/Orange Goblin
10/31 TBA
11/02 Hafenklang – Hamburg, GER
11/03 Mau – Rostock, GER
11/04 White Trash – Berlin, GER
11/05 Falkendom – Bielefeld, GER
11/06 JH De Lochtink – Eeklo, BEL
11/07 Baroeg, Dutch Doom Days 9 – Rotterdam, NL
11/08 Rosenkeller – Jena, GER

Small Stone’s first release of 2011 — “Baby New Year,” if you will — is a reworking of Ohio rockers Lo-Pan’s much-revered 2009 second offering, Sasquanaut. What was one of the best riff-rock releases of its original year of issue is bound to stand up also to whatever the rest of 2011 brings, as the album has been completely remixed by Benny Grotto at Mad Oak Studios in Massachusetts and remastered by Chris Goosman. I never really thought of the fidelity of the original Sasquanaut as a problem, but hearing this new version — which has the exact same tracklist in the exact same order — there really is a palpable difference, most notably in the guitar of Brian Fristoe.

Where Fristoe was somewhat held back in the mix of the original Sasquanaut, Grotto brings him front and center on the Small Stone version, still allowing Jeff Martin’s soulful vocals to cut through, but definitely beefing up the tone and giving cuts like “Kurtz” and “Dragline” a feel much closer to what Lo-Pan sounds like live than they had before. The same holds true for the bass of Skot Thompson, which is fuller and more natural sounding, and while J. Bartz’s drum sounds were a big part of what made Sasquanaut so killer in the first place, they too have been given a working over, to their benefit. There’s more separation in the instruments all around, and as the groove “Vega” is maintained, there’s no way it was going to come out a loss for anyone who, like me, already dug the album before.

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I actually bought this CD the same day I picked up the previously-typed-about Desert Sessions Vol. I & II, but didn’t want to write about them in the same space since they were two such momentous purchases. Really. On a personal level. Momentous.

Sometimes my nerditude embarrasses even me.

But whatever. It’s the original Welcome to MeteorCity compilation on eBay for $15 — you’re god damn right I’m not letting it go. I grabbed it and waited for the mail like a kid about to take his X-ray specs to the girls’ locker room, throwing on its 17-track glory as soon as I could rip open the package it was shipped in. I was ecstatic to find the condition as advertised — “Like New” is open to interpretation sometimes — and though most of the lineup is well familiar to me with bands like Sixty Watt Shaman, Fatso Jetson, Goatsnake, The Atomic Bitchwax, Roadsaw, Dozer and Natas, it’s the first thing MeteorCity ever put out! MCY-001. Doesn’t get much cooler than that, as far as I’m concerned.

No doubt the highlight is the closer, an acoustic cut by John Garcia (and two guitarists) performing under the moniker J.M.J. called “To Believe,” but seriously, the only things Welcome to MeteorCity is missing are Wino and Orange Goblin and it would just about be a complete document of everything stoner rock should be. Rotors to Rust‘s “The Only One” proved to be much more stonerly than their All That’s Heavy album, which was a pleasant surprise, and Lowrider‘s awesome “Texas Parts 1 & 2” was a great reminder of how incredible that band was in their time. I don’t know much about User or Drag Pack, so I got a little homework out of it, and any day on which I hear “Supersoul” by Dozer I count as a good day, this one included.

Of course, MeteorCity has grown and changed hands since Welcome to MeteorCity was released — the label put out a follow-up this year called Welcome Back to MeteorCity featuring current artists — and stoner rock has expanded in almost every direction possible as a genre despite everyone’s denial that they play it, but like the best of compilations, this captures not only a great group of bands, but also a genuine moment in the timeline of the style. I was lucky to find it so cheap and it’s already right up there with Roadrunner‘s Burn One Up comp as the best of the “various artists” section on my shelf. This is one instance where fantasy met reality and came out of it no worse for the wear.