Friday Long-Player: Wheelfall, Interzone
We end this week off with French stoner rockers Wheelfall, whose new album, Interzone, is out next month via their own Sunruin Records imprint. They made a decent introductory impression with their 2010 EP, From the Blazing Sky at Dusk (review here) and if the bevvy of press quotes they’ve included on their Bandcamp page are anything to go by, the new record’s already been pretty well received. Good for the band. Listening through now, so far I dig the extreme elements vocally on “Holy Sky,” and as I’ve said too many times to count, unpretentious riffing is always welcome by me. Same applies almost universally to desert fuzz.
Today was my birthday. I celebrated with The Patient Mrs. this evening by eating popcorn, drinking wine, and watching season three of Arrested Development, which — outside of the opportunity to stay up late blogging about stoner rock on a Friday night — is about all I can ask for out of life. The day was tiring, and I kind of rushed my way through the live review of the Heavy Planet CMJ show, but if you skimmed through and thought it looked like a good time, you got the point. Next week offers no letup in shows. Thursday, Elder hit Brooklyn with Reign of Zaius and Thinning the Herd and Pants Exploder (about whom I hear good things) and Friday, Hour of 13 play the St. Vitus bar, and I don’t want to miss that. I hear Fistula are coming through on Tuesday as well, and that could be fun. I haven’t seen a really abrasive show in a while, and if Fistula are going to provide anything, it’s that.
I also failed to get that Neurosis interview up this week. I tried, but just didn’t have time to transcribe it. Wednesday, there was a Clutch thing that I took 2,000-plus pictures at (five or six of which I’ll hopefully be allowed to post here at some point), and then Thursday was that show, and today I left the office early to sit in three and a half hours of traffic on I-95 up to Connecticut, where I’ll be for the weekend. It’s supposed to be warm, but we’ll see. This place isn’t insulated, so when it’s cold, you know it. Right now, the rain on the roof is louder than Wheelfall, but other than that, no complaints.
So anyway. Look for that Neurosis this week. I’ll also have an interview with Ice Dragon in which they reveal their five favorite cult horror flicks — note to self: Ask Ron from Ice Dragon if he wants to start a horror column — and that’ll come packaged with two brand new, never-before-heard tracks from a new single they’ve put together that I think are really going to surprise a lot of people. Very ethereal stuff, in a different vein even from what they did on the Dream Dragon full-length. It’s very cool and I’m already stoked to be able to bring it to you. That’ll be Tuesday with the Steve Von Till piece to follow later in the week. Any of the aforementioned shows I go to, I’ll be reviewing, and I have a couple other things in the works there as well.
As always, I hope you have a great and safe weekend. If you’re around, I’ll be checking in on the forum, and maybe at some point tomorrow or Sunday with a news story or two I didn’t get the chance to put up today. In any case, thanks as always for reading.
Tags: France, Nancy, Sunruin Records, Wheelfall, Wheelfall Interzone
Do you have a love/hate relationship with going out to shows, too? Most nights, I’d rather get drunk with the wife on the couch-the ol’ “pizza, booze, telly” bit…but the power of the riff compels us. Have a good weekend, man, looking forward to the Neurosis piece and Clutch shit.
Depends on the night and the show, I guess. Sometimes it’s more of a social anxiety thing. Most shows I go to these days I’ll either know someone there or meet somebody I’ve spoken to before online or something like that. That’s not to toot my own horn in any way, it just happens. I stress out about that from time to time — sometimes severely, sometimes not — because I’m far more awkward in person than I am in writing, and I tend to think in words and phrases, which translates better to a written sentence than a conversation. But usually if it’s something I actually want to or feel like I should see, either for myself or to cover it, I’ll force myself out. Like you say, the power of the riff compels us, but that coupled with the fact that I live in Jersey and everything happens in Brooklyn these days means I don’t get out as much as I’d like.
And you too dude. Enjoy the weekend. Gotta figure out what’s up with those Clutch shots. I got some good ones and it was a cool time I’d like to write about. We’ll see what they say. Neurosis thing should be good too if I can ever find a minute to transcribe it.
Hey just a heads up Hour of 13 is not playing at Saint Vitus. Its cancelled. All US show are not happening. I asked Chad about it. Their name should be taken off the Saint Vitus site.