Good for them. I wasn’t a huge fan of Western Sky Ride, but I liked their debut, and they’ve apparently put out no fewer than five records in the last three years, so what the hell. Way to go, Across Tundras. May it be a long and fruitful relationship between you and Neurot Recordings, and may your first child be a masculine child (I’m on a Godfather kick lately). Here’s looking forward to whatever comes next.

The PR wire has this:

Creating unique moonshine-soaked organic rock in the hills of Tennessee, Across Tundras seamlessly meld classic rock, folk, country, psychedelia, and doom into an original, organic style of rock that defies classification and bleeds true Americana. In true nomadic style Across Tundras have previously set-up camp on multiple labels including Crucial Blast and Forgotten Empire, have now found a home with Neurot Recordings.

Stated Neurot/Neurosis‘ Steve Von Till on the signing: “It is with great honor that Neurot Recordings welcomes Across Tundras to our home. Their past releases have shown immense dedication to spirit and commitment to growth and sonic evolution. Those are traits that we admire and look for when declaring kinship among those also on the quest for emotional release through sound.”

Across Tundras‘ Tanner Olson this week also made a statement on their induction into Neurot‘s family: “The opportunity to stand alongside such a talented and driven group of artists and musicians is something we have been working along time for. Neurot Recordings releases the most inspired and original music out there, and its a huge compliment that they see us as kindred musical spirits. Eternal gratitude to the Neurot family for believing in us and giving a proper home to our nomadic sounds.”

More details on the recently completed new Across Tundras album will be announced shortly. Stay tuned for tour announcements and more through the coming months as well.

They booze, they bruise, and depraved Hoosiers that they are, Bulletwolf do it all with charm on their side on their second, self-released full-length, As Fast as My Home Town. I don’t know how fast Indianapolis actually moves, but if the eight tracks on the record are any indicator, it’s a fairly good clip most of the time and includes a bit of Melvins for good measure (they cover “Honey Bucket” from Houdini). Like the best of their two prior releases, the 2009 album, Double Shots of Rock ‘n’ Roll and the preceding 2008 demo, Demolanolin, As Fast as My Home Town has plenty of nasty, punishing heavy rock, the four-piece going all out in terms of both alcohol intake and volume on “6,” “Cabernet Jay” and burly opener “(Way Too Young, To) Party Serious,” which shows more than a little punk influence brought to the fore by the production job of “Iron” Bob Fouts (Apostle of Solitude, ex-The Gates of Slumber), who handles whatever the material throws at him in good fashion, leading the mix with the two guitars and letting bassist Worm’s vocals cut through as they should without being overbearing.

Rest assured that As Fast as My Home Town is heavy as balls, but there’s more to Bulletwolf’s attack than just riffs, and when they play fast, they really play fast. Guitarists “Chris” and TJ rip through the 1:12 of “Cabernet Jay” with blinding dexterity, echoing the start of the album but pushing themselves further, playing harder. But still, they’re not entirely the focus. Worm’s bass and the drums of Don E. are consistently in lockstep with the guitars, the latter especially serving to affect many of the changes in the songs. On the Neanderthal-inspired “Quest for Fire,” Bulletwolf remind of Beaten Back to Pure or the heavier end of dirt rock more than some of their punkish turns, but they’re no less believable on the motoring “Right on (Ride on),” which along with “Honey Bucket” and “Quest for Fire” is in the minority of songs on As Fast as My Home Town that don’t explicitly mention alcohol one way or another. Call it a singularity of focus, and any way you want to take it, go ahead. It comes in cans and bottles, draft if you’re lucky.

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I never closed out last week. I’ll admit, at first it was just because I hit the wine Friday night, but then I thought I’d use that as an excuse to try something different. Certainly I did nothing on Saturday except sit on my ass and not work on that thesis I’m supposed to be writing, but even so, I decided we’d open this week with a Mundee video instead of close the last with a Frydee one. Doesn’t even make a difference in terms of where the post appears, but what the hell. I take my changes where I can get ’em.

Good stuff to come over the next five days, in any case. I went and saw Monster Magnet last night at Starland Ballroom and I’ll have a review and photos up before today’s out, and before this week is over (and also before Friday at 5PM, which is a terrible time to post anything) I’ll have a new interview posted with acclaimed visual artist Brian Mercer and Six Dumb Questions with NJ rockers Boss 302, whose album was reviewed last week. Reviews on tap from Bulletwolf (that’s today), Evoken, Curse the Son and Graveyard, and the usual bunch of On the Radars, Buried Treasures and Whathaveyous.

It’s a snow day here in the valley, but I still have to get to class later, and I have some homework to do before that. I’ll get there. In any case, I hope you had a great weekend, hope you have a great week going forward, and hope you enjoy the Dozer above. “Man of Fire” from their excellent Through the Eyes of Heathens album. I thought a little something energetic would be good to start the week off right. Like eggs in the morning.

Mmm… eggs. Looks like I just added another line to the to-do list.

At one point during our conversation, “Dixie” Dave Collins — bassist, vocalist and central figure behind North Carolinian slingers Weedeater — walked outside the bar he was talking to me from to take a piss on the side of the building. This, my friends, is what sludge is all about.

Collins — along with guitarist Dave “Shep” Shepherd and drummer Keith “Keko” Kirkum — is about to release Jason… the Dragon, the fourth album in 10 years from Weedeater, which formed after the dissolution of his prior outfit, the recently-reunited Buzzov*en. Along with expanding on some of the ideas first presented on 2007’s God Luck and Good Speed (also issued on Southern Lord), Jason… the Dragon finds the trio trying out some genuinely new ideas on tracks like “Palms of Opium” and “Homecoming,” flirting with acid blues and (dare I say it?) accessible songwriting in ways they never have before.

More than stylistic twists though, what Jason… the Dragon represents is remarkable persistence on the part of the band. They tour like bastards. I mean it. Weedeater is always on the road, and before they finally got down to recording this album at Electrical Audio in Chicago with Steve Albini, they had to get through Kirkum tearing his meniscus, Shepherd breaking a finger and Collins — not to be outdone — blowing off one of his toes while cleaning his favorite shotgun.

No word on whether or not it’s still his favorite.

After all that, one might be tempted to say “fuck it” and begin a whole new lifestyle, let alone leave one’s band. But not Weedeater. They stuck it out, and the result they got in the form of Jason… the Dragon is not only a couple killer stories, but probably the best album of their career. There will always be purists and first-album-worshipers, but screw it, these guys are writing songs better now than they ever have before, and captured live by Albini, they sound thick, nasty and baked just right.

The topics of conversation should be pretty obvious given all the band put up with to get Jason… the Dragon together, but suffice it to say that there’s a reason why among all the sludge bands who’ve come along in the last decade-plus, there’s only been and only could be one Weedeater. Read on and I think you’ll get a good idea of at least part of why that is.

Unabridged Q&A after the jump. Please enjoy.

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If you’re in the area, you can catch Stone Axe tomorrow night at Voodoo Lounge in the band’s native Port Orchard, Washington. It might not be an album-release show, but the band has plenty to celebrate all the same. As the press release below shows, they’re about to head over to Europe for the first time for a batch of shows in the UK alongside the likes of Stubb, Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight, Grifter and Groan, then they’ll hit the continent-proper en route to Roadburn, heralding the Ripple Music deluxe CD/DVD reissue of their first album and a split with Sun Gods in Exile, Mighty High and Grifter.

So yeah, they might be in good spirits at the Voodoo Lounge.

Said deluxe CD/DVD reissue also features a liner notes bio written by yours truly, and it’s available for pre-orders starting today. Hit that up here, and check out the news and tour dates below. I have nothing but respect for these guys:

Classic rock preservationists Stone Axe have officially announced that they’re hitting the road through the UK, parts of Europe, and wrapping up the tour with a night at the illustrious Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, Holland! Starting on April 8 in Oxford, England and running through April 16, this will mark the third time that the band has ventured to foreign soil with the aim of converting new ears to their sonic-brand of classic rock, but this time they’ll be doing it in support of their first CD/DVD package.

Scheduled for release on April 5 and in time for the tour, Stone Axe has put together a deluxe edition of their self-titled debut album. The CD portion of the package features eight bonus live tracks, while the DVD portion features more than 70 minutes of videos, interviews, and live footage! Released through Ripple Music, Stone Axe – Expanded Edition CD/DVD will be available for pre-order beginning Feb. 18, 2011 on the label’s website.

Tour Dates:
04/08 The Wheatsheaf, Oxford (with Stubb, Trippy Wicked, Desert Storm)
04/09 The Unicorn, Camden, London, UK (with Stubb, Trippy Wicked, Grifter)
04/10 The Earl, Sheffield, UK (with Stubb, Trippy Wicked, Groan)
04/11 The Captains Rest, Glasgow (with Stubb, Trippy Wicked, Low Sonic Drift)
04/12 Asylum 2, Birmingham (with Stubb, Trippy Wicked, Alunah)
04/14 The Vortex, Siegen, Germany (with Stubb)
04/15 MTC, Cologne, Germany (with Stubb and more)
04/16 Roadburn Festival, Tilburg, Holland

Stone Axe has also contributed a song to the Heavy Ripples double vinyl 7” compilation that will also feature tracks from UK blues-based bike rockers Grifter, Brooklyn-based stoner-fied punks Mighty High, and New England’s southern-rock-tinged Sun Gods in Exile (on loan from incomparable Small Stone Records). The record will be officially released on April 19 to a worldwide audience!

Back in December, I placed an order at the Alone Records online distro. They were (and still are) offering a list of CDs, from which you, the loyal customer, could pick 10 for 59.90 Euro. Seemed like a pretty good deal to me, so I hit it up and made my list — who doesn’t love making lists of records they want to buy? — and filled the shopping cart. 10 albums from the list, no problem. Even with the exchange rate and shipping, I made out about right.

End of January, I started to get nervous that perhaps my local post office had either lost or decided “fuck it” and tossed the package, because it still hadn’t come. Of course, I’ve had dealings with Alone before for the site (and before that as well), so the thought that the label was pulling a fast one never entered my mind. Sure enough, it turned out just to be delays. Weather delays, laziness delays, who the hell knows. The box showed up at my house, postmarked from way back when. Knowing that I’d gotten the last copies of a few of the items contained therein, I was glad to see it.

Here’s what I got, presented alphabetically in the spirit of last week’s Buried Treasure:

Abramis Brama, När Tystnaden Lagt Sig…
Duster 69, Ride the Silver Horses
Lucifer Was, Blues from Hellah
Mangrove, Endless Skies
Mississippi Sludge, Biscuits and Slavery
Negative Reaction, Everything You Need for Galactic Battle Adventures
Ridge, A Countrydelic and Fuzzed Experience in a Colombian Supremo
The Soulbreaker Company, The Pink Alchemist
Sunnshine, No More Forever
Warchetype, Goat Goddess Supremacy

Only the Warchetype and the Soulbreaker Company discs are actually on Alone Records proper, and I bought them because I reviewed (here and here) and enjoyed albums from both bands in the past couple months. There were a couple names I remember from a while ago — Mississippi Sludge, Ridge, Duster 69 — that I figured I’d get just for the hell of it. The Ridge was cool in a Fu Manchu vein, the Mississippi Sludge didn’t match the awesomeness of its cover at all, and Duster 69 was heaviest perhaps in its accent, so I guess that batch kind of had its ups and downs.

The Negative Reaction I’ve owned for years. I’m pretty sure the version I have I bought from the band the first time I saw them at the New Jersey Metalfest in 2003, but it’s in a slimline, and I hadn’t heard it in a while, so I thought a full copy would be a good way to revisit. And man, I had forgotten, but that album is killer. The riffs, Ken-E Bones‘ screaming, the samples, the timing of it, everything just works. Definitely under-mentioned when it comes to the high points of abrasive sludge. They still play a lot of these songs live, and for good reason.

Mangrove‘s album was more generic than I remembered from reviewing it back in 2009. I think I had it mixed up in my mind with either Tekhton or The Deep Blue on The Church Within, but either way, Endless Skies wasn’t helped at all by the fact that I listened to it right after the Abramis Brama, which was essentially a better version of the same kind of post-Soundgarden classic rock ideas. But then, Abramis Brama are one of the best bands in Sweden at that kind of thing, so I probably shouldn’t hold it against their countrymen in Mangrove for not measuring up. Just about nobody does.

So there’s a couple I’ll probably put away and a few I’ll revisit again — Lucifer Was‘ prog strangeness, the Negative Reaction, Warchetype, Abramis Brama, etc. — but on the whole it’s a bunch of music that I hadn’t heard before that I’ve heard now, so no matter what, I came out of it on the plus side. And seriously, if you haven’t dug into Warchetype, you should look them up in the immediate. Goat Goddess Supremacy more than lives up to its name.

I had been looking forward to hearing the self-titled debut from Dutch rockers Sungrazer for a while before it showed up. The album, which was originally released by the band before they got picked up for CD/vinyl issue through Germany’s Elektrohasch Schallplatten, is comprised of six tracks of warm, heady and definitively European psychedelia, given to regular jams among the three members and an overwhelming natural flow. They work in a few stoner rock elements – the occasional catchy chorus or heavy riff section – but Sungrazer, who formed in 2009 and are already at work on the follow up to Sungrazer stay true to the bright colors of the album art with rich, encompassing sounds, like the layered harmony vocals of “Somo” or the sax-laden explorations of “Intermezzo.”

They open with the laid back “If,” setting the tone for Sungrazer immediately with the soothing vocals of guitarist Rutger Smeets and bassist Sander Haagmans. The album inevitably falls under the heading “mostly instrumental” for its extended jam sections, but it’s worth noting that when there are vocals, as on “If” and “Somo” and the later “Zero Zero,” they come on with structure behind – actual verses and choruses, in other words. Sungrazer don’t feel by any means tied to a formula, and drummer Hans Mulders has his work cut out for him keeping the jams tied to the ground throughout the album. To his credit, he does, and even at these songs’ farthest out, there’s something for listeners to hold onto. It’s part of the overall balance that Sungrazer seem to have a natural hold of, between stoner rock, jam and psych. As “If” gives way to “Intermezzo” – which wasn’t included on the original CD issue of the album and features guest sax from Conny Schneider – the transition is smooth enough to run your hand over, and likewise “Intermezzo” into “Somo.” The sax goes away, but it’s so easy to get lost in the vibe of the album, you might miss the change from one song to the other.

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The only question I have is where the hell is Solace when you need them? Every winter, Orange Goblin treat the UK to a booze-fest like none other with Solace in tow, and now they’re finally coming Stateside and their partners in crime are nowhere to be found. Not even on the New York show? I like The Gates of Slumber and Naam as much as the next guy, but come on.

Nonetheless, this will rule, because that’s what Orange Goblin do. Quoth the PR wire:

Orange Goblin, the heavy-hitting British metal band that has inspired a generation of up-and-coming rock acts has announced a US headlining tour. The spring trek will kick off on May 28 in New York City and will also see the band perform as part of the 2011 Maryland Death Fest. Support on the tour will be provided by The Gates of Slumber and Naam.

Special guests on the Orange Goblin tour include Indianapolis doom metal heroes The Gates of Slumber (who will also be touring in support of their forthcoming album) and Brooklyn‘s Naam, who have turned heads with their unique bass-heavy brand of psych rock. The routing for the Orange Goblin 15^th Anniversary US Tour is shaping up as follows:

05/28 New York, NY Santos Party House
05/29 Baltimore, MD Sonar (Maryland Death Fest)
05/31 Charlotte, NC Tremont Music Hall
06/01 Atlanta, GA The Earl
06/02 New Orleans, LA One Eyed Jack’s
06/03 Austin, TX The Scott Inn
06/04 Albuquerque, NM The Launchpad
06/05 Tempe, AZ The Clubhouse
06/06 Hollywood, CA The Troubadour
06/07 San Francisco, CA Bottom of the Hill
06/09 Portland, OR Dante’s
06/10 Seattle, WA Studio Seven
06/11 Chicago, IL Double Door (Orange Goblin only)