Somewhere along the line I got the silly idea that it would be an early show. Wednesday night at the Saint Vitus bar in Brooklyn, Wino & Conny Ochs, with Sean Ragon from Cult of Youth and Kevin Hufnagel from Dysrhythmia opening — three acts, I figured an 8:30 start, Wino/Ochs on around 10, and then call it a night, everybody gets up and goes to work the next morning. Since I mentioned it, it’s probably fairly obvious that’s not the way it worked out, but since I’m still alive to mention it in the first place, also fairly obvious that I lived to tell the tale.

The tale? Pretty familiar by now, I expect. Traffic, more traffic, Brooklyn. Dark room, Vitus brew, Earthride over the P.A. I hadn’t been to the Saint Vitus bar in a couple weeks, but I’ll be back there come Monday for Eggnogg, so it was what it was. After catching them at Roadburn in April, I knew what to expect from Wino & Conny Ochs, but that did nothing to lessen my excitement at the prospect of seeing them again. As previously reported, there’s new material to be heard.

And being long since familiar with Dysrhythmia‘s ultra-tech approach, I was interested as well to see how guitarist Kevin Hufnagel fared in a solo context. Apparently he’s done noise-type solo work before, but this set was more stripped down; just him on stage with a couple pedals and what I’m fairly certain was a baritone ukulele that he ran through them. A little delay here, a little looping there, and through it all, a current of blinding finger-picking. Dysrhythmia have never wanted on the level of technical proficiency, but in this sphere, even the scales and on-a-dime turns had a natural feel.

Playing seated and rocking back and forth, Hufnagel impressed though, and not just in technique. One rarely thinks of a ukulele as a tool of atmospherics, but as he stuck an emery board between the strings to add a fuzzy sound to the finish of his set, he’d conveyed a richer sense of mood than the string resonance of his instrument might immediately indicate. He was followed not promptly by Sean Ragon, who seemed dead set on not starting until he got some reverb on his vocals that I don’t think ever came, but nonetheless unleashed a burst of post-Joe Strummer acoustic aggression once he got going.

It wasn’t as drastic a change as if Dying Fetus went on after Hufnagel or something like that, but the vibe was notably different, and not being familiar with Ragon‘s work in Cult of Youth or out of it, I didn’t know what to expect from his set. The crowd — incrementally making its way from the back room to the front — was more into it than I was. Ragon had his thing on lockdown, but my head was in another space entirely, so I extricated myself to the front barroom and enjoyed the second of the evening’s standard three beers. There was a growing host of familiar faces, and had I not been rank, I might have doled out some quality fat-guy hugs, but I worried about offending both myself and others.

Just as I was dealing with that and about halfway through my beer, Ragon came out from the back room. He wasn’t bolting exactly, but clearly a man walking with purpose. I guess Kevin Hufnagel had the long set and he had the short one, or maybe that’s his thing — play loud, fast, angry acoustic songs for 15-20 minutes and then split off the stage like you broke it. A pretty respectable ethic, to be honest. It’d still be another 45 minutes or so before Wino & Conny Ochs went on just past 11PM, but the Saint Vitus bar offers no shortage of other entertainments. I already mentioned Earthride on the P.A., and after that, it was Hour of 13.

Word had been shooting around the venue as well that both Scott “Wino” Weinrich and Ochs had gotten tour tattoos in the basement earlier in the night. I didn’t even know that was a thing, though I guess it makes sense. Within the first 30 seconds of their set, it was readily apparent that these two dudes were super-tight, musically and personally. In April, they’d filled the old church Het Patronaat with righteous bluesy harmonies, and they did the same for Saint Vitus bar’s unrepentant dinge, opening with “Somewhere Nowhere” and “Labour of Love” to cover beginning and finish of their debut collaboration, Heavy Kingdom right off the bat.

They’d already been on the road together for more than two weeks, so they played the set like it was a given, Ochs in a flowing white linen shirt that screamed “I get ladies” fairly loudly and Wino in a sleeves-gone black t with the word “heavy” on it, as if to emphasize the improbability of their pairing and the improbability that it would work as well as it does. Ochs had a bandage on his arm, Wino showed raw skin with that freshly-peeled look that’s always a marker of new ink. They played most of the Heavy Kingdom record — and at one point between songs, Wino named the two of them as a band called Heavy Kingdom; whether or not subsequent releases will come out under that name, I don’t know — and threw in a cover of Joy Division’s “Isolation,” which was spirited and well met in equal measure, and the title-track from Wino‘s solo acoustic debut, Adrift.

“Adrift” was a surprise, but a welcome one, and it sat well alongside Heavy Kingdom highlights like the swaggering “Dust” and “Dark Ravine.” New song “Crystal Madonna” was dark and quiet in comparison to much of the set, and seemed to be the dividing point between those who were sticking it out to the end of the show and those not, but if there was a shift in mood, it was hardly unprecedented in Wino & Conny Ochs‘ sound, and in any case, the Ochs-led “Here Comes the Siren” was even bleaker. I was glad for the chance to see that song in-person, though, and whether the duo release their next album under the Wino & Conny Ochs moniker or Heavy Kingdom, “Crystal Madonna” — she turned out to be plastic — that song is sure to be a standout. At the end of it, Wino said it was a true story.

No less true seemed the post-divorce balladry of “Old & Alone,” Weinrich‘s sneering vitriol and latent anger coming through as clearly as the fuzz he’d hooked up to his acoustic guitar for periodic solos, Ochs stomping his foot on a bass drum to keep effectively minimal time that nonetheless underscored a groove inherent in the songs. Following a short, on-stage break after their “last song,” they tore through “Manifesto” from Wino‘s 2011 split 7″ with Scott Kelly, topped it with a mostly a capella “Find the Cost of Freedom,” a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young cover that can also be found on their Heavy Kingdom-concurrent  Labour of Love Latitudes session, and built the ending to a raucous rock finish with Ochs speeding up his guitar and drum stomp just to the brink of losing control before cutting it off.

I cut out on the quick, the prospect of an hour-plus post-midnight drive staring me down (that was before I accounted for construction on Rt. 3 in Jersey), but though the evening had its ups and downs, there were good people and good times had, and seeing Wino & Conny Ochs as firmly unified as they were — you might say they got tattoos together in the basement of the venue before playing (only the most sterile of environments will do) — bodes well for the prospect of a quick follow-up to Heavy Kingdom, and that’s something to look forward to, whenever it might arrive.

A couple extra pics after the jump. Thanks for reading.

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There is a lot that Tuscon, Arizona, heavy psych rockers Young Hunter do right on their self-released 2012 debut full-length, Stone Tools. Foremost, tone. The seven-piece band nail glowing-tube tonal warmth in their guitars and bass — and rightfully so to go along with open, laid back grooves, perfect for the post-Cisneros folk-harmony vocals that only add to the classic vibing and airy atmospherics. For a comparison point, Across Tundras revel in a similar big-sky ritualism, but Young Hunter let you hear more of the vibrating cones in their cabs and the material feels more specifically of its desert home for it. Arbouretum also covered some of this hard ground on their underrated 2011 outing, The Gathering.

Stone Tools opens strong with “The Harbinger.” Aside from earning immediate points for being the longest track on the album, Young Hunter‘s leadoff introduces the multi-singer vocals and I don’t even know how many layers of guitar. Info on personnel is vague at best (they’re on Thee Facebooks here), but the sound is full enough to make seven players believable, and even as the subsequent “Young Leaves on Ancient Branches” and “Cities of Black Mesa” get more aggressive — the latter’s opening riff could easily pass for black metal as much as anything Wolves in the Throne Room did on their first album, though they soon bring in a smoked-out psych blues coo — Young Hunter hold to a sense of pastoral bliss. It’s the desert at night, echoing canyons, an infinity of stars, lonely, but the dirt on the ground is still hot on the bottoms of your bare feet.

So what’s the holdup on my overly image-based slathering of appreciation? Mostly the mix. The vocals initially come through too high and while obviously the organic recording adds to the effectiveness of Stone Tools overall and by the time “Black Candles” comes on I’ve forgotten these and several other woes in favor of Young Hunter‘s sweet ritualizing, there are still some pieces of the songs that pull you out of the overarching hypnotic effect in ways that don’t seem purposeful.

That said, Stone Tools follows a 2011 tape release called Children of a Hungry World and is Young Hunter‘s first record, so that they’d give the impression of still getting their bearings isn’t really all that surprising. More to the point, I dig Stone Tools as it is and thought I’d post it here in case you might do the same. The band have a couple shows coming up in Tuscon and I don’t know what their plans are after that, if they’ll get to work on a follow-up to Stone Tools or what, but the kind of desert reverie they put into “Drought,” I can’t imagine it’ll be too long before they answer back with another release. In the meantime, Stone Tools is available on the dirt cheap from their Bandcamp page in a screenprinted sleeve that comes with an awesome-looking poster, as seen above.

Here’s the full stream of the album:

Semi-Swedish foursome Blues Pills are the latest band added to Roadburn 2013. As ever, Roadburn is introducing new bands as much as it’s celebrating those already established in the underground. Blues Pills released their debut EP, Bliss, earlier this year following Cory Berry and Zack Anderson‘s unceremonious exodus from Iowan rippers Radio Moscow.

The PR wire has it, as ever:

The Best Blues Medicine Comes from Sweden! Blues Pills Confirmed for Roadburn 2013!

We’re very pleased to announce that Sweden’s Blues Pills will be making their appearance at Roadburn Festival 2013 on Thursday, April 18 at the 013 venue in Tilburg, Holland.

After their abrupt departure from Radio Moscow, drummer Cory Berry and bass player Zack Anderson grouped with classical-trained Swedish lead singer Elin Larsson and French guitar player Dorian Sorriaux to form Blues Pills, a dynamic hybrid between blues rock of the 60s and the heavy 70s. Think heavy, driving bass lines, colossal drums and ferocious, riff based, soul-penetrating guitar work, tied together by the incredible soulful voice of Larsson, sometimes singing in her mother tongue, and whose timbre, range and power is reminiscent of Susan Tedeschi and Janis Joplin.

Blues Pills‘ sound is very diverse as shown on Bliss, their 4-track debut for Crusher Records. The band has put lots of emphasis on both dynamics and emotion by bringing out beautiful harmonics, escaping the the typical 12-bar form for Peter Green‘s Fleetwood Mac-inspired melodies and a more progressive Zeppelin-like structure.

With our fondness for Swedish rock (we have invited the likes of Witchcraft, Graveyard, Dead Man, Horisont, Troubled Horse, Spiders et al to previous festivals) it’s not surprising that Blues Pills are appearing at Roadburn 2013 and not just because they are Swedish…but because they bring out the best heavy 70s inspired rock we have heard in a long time.

Hard to believe, but this week marks the one-year anniversary of the very first Wino Wednesday post. It was a Premonition 13 video for the song “La Hechicera de la Jeringa,” and I said when I put it up that I’d probably be able to get a year’s worth of clips out of it easily, since Scott “Wino” Weinrich always had so much going on. Well, in that time, The Obsessed reunited, Wino put out a collaboration acoustic album with Conny Ochs, a Townes Van Zandt tribute with Steve Von Till and the recently-interviewed Scott Kelly, the first Saint Vitus album with him in the band in 22 years, also hitting Roadburn and Maryland Deathfest, and touring both Europe and the US. As a matter of awesome coincidence, I’m going to see him play tonight in Brooklyn.

It’s been a lot of fun bringing you these Wino Wednesday posts, and to celebrate the first birthday of this weekly landmark, I thought we’d turn to one of the most pivotal of all Saint Vitus‘ tracks: “Angry Man” from 1990’s V. Arguably it was the 2004 Southern Lord reissue of V that kicked off Vitus‘ resurgence — kind of a chicken and the egg thing there, I guess — but either way, “Angry Man” boasts one of the best Mark Adams basslines ever and the kind of stripped down Dave Chandler lyric that’s anthemic almost in spite of itself. To wit, the chorus:

All I want it to live my life
Easy and free
I don’t need
No human bullshit
Prejudice, down on me

Doesn’t get much more Vitus than that. “Angry Man” gets kind of overshadowed by the likes of “Born too Late” and the title-track of their 1984 self-titled debut, but its sensibility is among the band’s most vitriolic. Freedom through doom, doom through freedom. Fucking a right.

Happy Wino Wednesday, and here’s to the next year to come:

Not to be confused with the early ‘70s occult folk outfit of the same name, the metal band Coven formed in Detroit in 1985. Soon after the release of their 1987 debut album, Worship New Gods, the foursome would be contacted by the Jinx Dawson-fronted unit who once reminded us that witchcraft destroys minds and reaps souls, and forced to change their name to Coven 13, but for the first record, which came to enjoy a kind of limited cult appeal over the years since its initial issue, they were still Coven, and so it is on the new Shadow Kingdom Records repress of Worship New Gods. The new version is billed as a 25th anniversary celebration release, but it’s not bloated with special bonus tracks, interviews or anything like that, instead just focusing on the album itself. Frankly, that’s treat enough. Shadow Kingdom have spent the last few years paying direct homage to the NWOBHM and classic metal, but Coven are a bit harder to place stylistically, aligning themselves to fantasy metal on songs like “Riddle of Steel” and the Camelot-themed “Wicked Day,” a sort of non-industrial proto-goth on “Kiss Me with Blood” and keep a semi-pagan sensibility in their use of runes on the album cover and in the memorable finale, “Loki.” Whatever else it has going for it, Worship New Gods bleeds personality. The vocals of David Landrum are more swaggering than one might expect for something so stylistically varied and roughly produced (the album sounds both of its era and of its budget), and bassist/keyboardist Roger Cyrkiel, who also recorded, adds a flourish of melody and atmosphere that goes beyond the traditional metal  songwriting. A song like “Ruler” may have gang-chant-esque backing vocals in its chorus, but “Threshold of the New,” despite having a near-Misfits punkish forward drive in Brian McGuckin’s drums, is as atmospheric as it is abrupt, Landrum’s vocals holding to a sub-swirl of compression and echo and guitarist Todd Kreda offering surprising shred in his solo.

It’s pretty easy to see why Worship New Gods earned its reissue. Apart from the fact that Coven have reunited as Coven 13 with second guitarist Richie Karacynski and reportedly begun work on a new album to be released on Shadow Kingdom, this nine-track/39-minute collection seems to feed off its blend, and while in the years since its initial release, some of the elements at work across this material have broken off into their own styles – goth, doom, pagan metal, etc. – these songs arguably capture a crossroads moment in the growth of metal as a whole. Apart from that, it sounds cool. More to the point, it sounds Old, and mysterious, and obscure, which no doubt accounts for a good portion of its appeal. That said, Coven had a surprising grasp on their aesthetic, multifaceted as it was, and songs like “Burial Ground,” “Wicked Day,” “Ruler,” and “Threshold of the New” sound dated here, but not at all irrelevant. “General’s Eyes” is memorable in more than just its commonality of progression with Metallica’s “Four Horsemen” (and, by extension, Megadeth’s “Mechanix”), and whether the foursome is thrashing out as they are early in that track or working in the more open, plodding style of “Loki,” they maintain a strong undercurrent of craft and pop hooks that works to tie Worship New Gods together as a cohesive whole. Landrum’s vocals are rough in some places – on the closer he seems to be struggling to keep up with the chorus – and his over-the-top approach probably isn’t going to sit well in all ears, but he effectively caps the atmosphere in “Riddle of Steel” and “Kiss Me with Blood,” and despite only being three tracks apart, the stylistic gap between those songs is much wider. I don’t know if Coven set out to make an album so varied – it’s hard to listen to a reissue like this and divorce hindsight from what actually went into making it a quarter-century ago – but the nuances they bring to their approach make Worship New Gods a richer listen than one might initially think on the first or second time through.

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Underrated Long Island dirt rockers John Wilkes Booth are the latest addition to this year’s Stoner Hands of Doom fest, set to take place next Thursday-Sunday at the El ‘n’ Gee in New London, CT. It’s been a while since the last time I saw the Booth boys, and apparently they’ve been working on a new EP, as this busy marker board clearly demonstrates. Inside word has it that the release will have seven songs — JWB have always been quick and to the point — and be called Useless Lucy. Right on.

And all the better to catch the band playing new material. SHoD XII advance tickets are still on sale, though that’s ending as of Friday. If you want to get in on it, go here: http://www.cherylsweb.com/shod/tickets.html

John Wilkes Booth will be playing Friday night with the likes of Lord Fowl, Earthride, When the Deadbolt Breaks and Pilgrim. It’s gonna be good times.

Check out the SHoD lineup on the poster below and the video flyer under that. For still more details and the complete day-by-day breakdown of the bands, hit up the Stoner Hands of Doom website.

Today, heavy desert rockers Blaak Heat Shujaa continue the up-to-the-minute coverage of the recording of their new album. In the second episode of their docu-series, the three-piece continue their recording process with Scott Reeder at the helm and prepare for a California tour with Ron Whitehead.

If you missed the first episode, check it out here. Here’s part two, and more to come:

It’s a considerable lineup, and by that I mean it has me considering plane tickets. The inaugural Southwest Terror Fest — helmed by the dudely dudes of Godhunter — is set to take place this Oct. 19-20 at The Rock in Tuscon, Arizona, and will feature a slew of luminaries across the various subgenres of the damned.

The roster of bands speaks for itself, and the PR wire speaks for us all:

First Annual SOUTHWEST TERROR FEST Will Torch Tucson This October

Extreme music fans rejoice, for there’s a brutal new festival coming to US soil this Fall. Today, details on the debut of the SOUTHWEST TERROR FEST have been disclosed to the public, the first installment of the now annual meeting of intense acts confirmed to invade Tucson, Arizona in October.

Set to occupy The Rock club on October 19th and 20th, the main/headlining acts for the maiden voyage of SOUTHWEST TERROR FEST will include -16-, HULL, SONS OF TONATIUH, DISEASED REASON, PIGEONWING, NORTH, LADYBIRD, GODHUNTER and more. Entrance fee for the event is only $15 per person, for both days, so you can save the rest of your money for merch and booze!

A fully DIY undertaking booked by musicians, for musicians, the SOUTHWEST TERROR FEST is a low-priced, two-day event featuring an intense conglomeration of acts; its goal, to draw extreme music fans from all ages from the Southwest US and beyond. The event was conceived and booked by Tucson act GODHUNTER, with Metalifestyle.com sponsoring the second stage and Earsplit PR sponsoring the main stage. Additional sponsorship support is coming from Zia Records, Sticks n’ Strings Music Center, Acid Reflux Records and Axe Of Contrition.

Tickets are available now via Zia Records, Sticks n’ Strings Music Center, and The Rock’s Ticketleap location RIGHT HERE.

SOUTHWEST TERROR FEST 2012 Lineup:

Friday, October 19th [doors at 6pm]

Earsplit PR Stage:
7:00 – Thorncaster
8:00 – Enirva
9:00 – Cave Dweller
10:00 – Twingiant
11:00 – TOAD
12:00 – Diseased Reason

Metalifestyle.com Stage:
6:30 – Yeti Ender
7:30 – Powered Wig Machine
8:30 – Methra
9:30 – Territory
10:30 – Anakim
11:30 – Hell Follows

Saturday, October 20th [doors at 2pm]

Earsplit PR Stage:
2:30 – Blighter
3:30 – Swampwolf
4:30 – Godawfulnoise
5:30 – Sorrower
6:30 – Seas Will Rise
7:30 – Rise Of The Willing
8:30 – Ladybird
9:30 – Pigeonwing
10:30 – Sons Of Tonatiuh
11:30 – Hull
12:30 – -16-

Metalifestyle.com Stage:
3:00 – Why Bother?
4:00 – Blister Unit
5:00 – Bloody Corpse Dismemberment
6:00 – Lago
7:00 – Flying Donkey Punch
8:00 – Our Daily Trespasses
9:00 – Vanish Twin
10:00 – Godhunter
11:00 – North

https://www.facebook.com/southwestterrorfest
http://www.facebook.com/godhuntertucson666