Posted in Whathaveyou on May 31st, 2013 by JJ Koczan
It’s not quite the debut album, as the PR wire headline below indicates. Memphis-based The Dirty Streets issued Movements (review here) in 2011 and had one before that as well, but the news is good anyway, and the forthcoming Blades of Grasswill certainly mark a new era for the band, who make their label debut on Alive Naturalsound on July 9.
The trio have made the new song “Stay Thirsty” available to stream and download for free, and you’ll find that under the news below:
ALIVE NATURALSOUND RECORDS TO RELEASE DIRTY STREETS’ DEBUT BLADES OF GRASS ALBUM JULY 9TH
MEMPHIS-BASED ROCKERS OFFER THEIR NEW SINGLE “STAY THIRSTY” AS A FREE MP3
Formed by Thomas Storz (bass, percussion), Justin Toland (vocals, guitar, percussion) and Andrew Denham (drums, percussion), and originally from Mississippi, the power trio Dirty Streets now calls Memphis home. That’s where they recorded their new album Blades Of Grass, at the legendary Ardent studio, under the guidance of sound engineer Adam Hill. The core trio also enlisted the talents of Lucero’s Rick Steff on keys for this effort. Blades Of Grass is an old school rock’n’roll record with nods to the sounds of Humble Pie, Jeff Beck Group and others. It’s heavy music bathed in blues, folk and psychedelia, with chops to spare and a working class point of view. The band already has two independent releases under their belt, including an album with renown Memphis producer Doug Easley, and has toured extensively in the Southeast, with a couple of East Coast runs, and an eight week U.S. tour with Radio Moscow. Summer 2013 U.S. tour dates to be announced soon.
Dirty Streets’ Blades of Grass will be available in all formats on July 9th. Limited Edition Color Vinyl exclusive toBomp-mailorder.
BLADES OF GRASS TRACK LISTING: 1. Stay Thirsty 2. Talk 3. No Need To Rest 4. Movements #2 5. Try Harder 6. Blades Of Grass 7. Keep An Eye Out 8. Heart Of The Sky 9. Truth 10. Twice 11. I Believe I Found Myself (bonus track exclusive to CD and digital download)
The self-titled debut from Brooklyn’s Black Black Black arrived with minimal fanfare. There was no hype machine at work to herald its coming or viral video campaign to tease song snippets. First there wasn’t an album and then there was.
By the account of vocalist Jason Alexander Byers, this follows suit with the general ethic at the heart of the band to be as bullshit-free as possible at all times. His telling of how Black Black Black got together — he moved to Brooklyn from Ohio, knew guitarist Jacob Cox from their shared tenure in Disengage and they started the band with bassist Johnathan Swafford and drummer Jeff Ottenbacher — and his recollections of the three-month songwriting process for the album’s 12 tracks and the two-week recording with Andrew Schneider are the epitome of sans drama. They wanted to make these things happen, and they happened.
For that being the case, however, Black Black Black‘s Black Black Black— you’ll never guess what color the cover is — charts a surprisingly diverse course across its span, from the vaguely ritualized overtones of the “Seance for a Sucker” intro and the noise rock boogie of “Pentagram On,” to which Unsane‘s Dave Curran contributes guest screams, on through the blistering punk intensity of “Redeath” and the dreamy ’90s-style alt melodies of “Lexipro Devil.” Through all this runs a thread of heavy tones captured at their most crisp by Schneider‘s production and a still-lighthearted attitude that comes through in clever titles like “Light Light Light” and “Drum 0))))” even as Byers‘ graphic contributions to the album — a 40-page artbook released with the vinyl through Aqualamb Records, detailed here — leave grim, lasting impressions.
Byers‘ explanation? “You don’t want to do a steady 4/4 all the time. It gets boring.”
Fair enough. Black Black Black will be joining the likes of Lo-Pan, Gozu, Borracho and Supermachine at the Eye of the Stoned Goat 3 fest at The Acheron in Brooklyn on July 27 (more info here) and a follow-up to the self-titled is already in the works. In the interview that follows, Byers gives the background on the band’s origins and some of his theories on how the visual and aural sides tie together.
Complete interview is after the jump. Please enjoy:
Four years between albums seems like a long time. But in the span since Naam released their self-titled debut LP on Tee Pee Records in 2009, the Brooklyn-based outfit have issued a 7″ of Nirvana covers, two reissues of their debut Kingdom EP (review here) — the latest of which is a vinyl out through Italy’s Heavy Psych Sounds earlier this year — and 2012’s The Ballad of the Starchild EP (track stream here), which introduced keyboardist/organist John Weingarten, who’d already been playing with Naam live for some time by then and since has been made the permanent fourth member of the band alongside guitarist/vocalist Ryan Hamilton, bassist/vocalist John Preston Bundy and drummer Eli Pizzuto. Naam did all this, plus toured in the US and Europe, so when it comes to a question of whether or not there was a delay in crafting Vow, their new sophomore full-length, the more appropriate line of query seems to be if they weren’t so busy they just forgot to make it. Either way, the highly-varied 12-track collection shows a considerable amount of growth from the heavy psych of the self-titled, and with Weingarten on board, Naam have nearly perfected a slowed-down version of Hawkwind‘s space rush that at some of its most satisfying moments nestles into thick rolling grooves and still presents a feel open enough so that neither periodic ambient freakouts like “In and Thru” nor the moody shoegazing of “Skyscraper” are out of place alongside the swaggering rhythm of “Midnight Glow” or “Pardoned Pleasure” and the rousing culmination the penultimate “Beyond” provides.
In its totality, Vow is a flowing conceptual work best taken on as a whole, stylistically ambitious but without the so-often-corresponding pretense, and at a vinyl-ready 37 minutes, it’s best taken as a whole. Naam recorded with Jeff Berner at Galuminum Foil, who also handled The Ballad of the Starchild and the Nirvana covers single 7″, and the pairing suits them well, since for all of the effects and organ swirling around the songs, Hamilton‘s vocals and the backing support that Bundy and Weingarten supply sound natural and are well balanced within the multi-tiered mix. Songs vary in approach on an almost per-track basis, and while those who caught wind of Kingdom or Naam might think of cuts like “Vow,” “Of the Hour,” “Midnight Glow” and “Beyond” as anchors, anyone who caught wind of The Ballad of the Starchild is better prepared for the atmospherics, context and diversity the other songs on Vow provide, be it the space-country rambling of “Laid to Rest” or the sweetly echoing keys of closer “Adagio,” which is just one of several instances throughout on which Weingarten is put in the role of driving the material. That was the case with “Exit Theme,” which rounded out The Ballad of the Starchild in (very) similar fashion, but here, the synth and organ plays a central part in Naam attaining the textures even of a guitar-driven cut like “Vow,” Hamilton, Bundy and Pizzuto following the forward motion of the progression while Weingarten gives the song its swirl without distraction from the rhythmic push, striking a hard balance in a manner that sounds so natural it’s almost obvious.
Of course, Naam‘s penchant for effects and pedal work hasn’t changed, and that only adds to the fluidity as “Vow” leads the way out of the synth-heavy opener “A Call” and into the transitional drum echoes of “In and Thru,” which in turn moves back to the molten space rock of “Pardoned Pleasure,” Weingarten adding a late ’60s organ sound to the song’s already memorable verse descent and chorus while Hamilton‘s vocals come to the fore atop airy guitar, solid bass and impressive tom runs from Pizzuto. There’s a lot going on, and some of the vocal patterning seems rushed, but they cool down in the midsection before another freakout ensues, subsides and the acoustic/synth exploration “Laid to Rest” offers a brief 1:49 glimpse at alternate-reality Americana. That may be where side A of the vinyl ends — it would make sense with the swell of synth tying everything together and the organ that starts up the intro-sounding “Brightest Sight” at the start of side B, but I don’t actually know — but the tracklisting actually splits in half following the relatively raucous “Of the Hour,” which picks up from its quiet, flowing intro to a formidable stomp, moody vocals from Hamilton and Vow‘s richest groove and most memorable hook, Bundy backing Hamilton in the chorus, which has a cadence that in its last two lines that keeps reminding me of Talking Heads, though that’s almost certainly not its intent. Howls and shouts pervade the next verse before the chorus interrupts and Pizzuto adds momentum to the kick drum in the second half of the song to fill out an already righteous progression as an instrumental outro leads the way toward the quiet contemplations of “Skyscrapper.”
Posted in audiObelisk on May 31st, 2013 by JJ Koczan
Today marks the release of Idolize, the sophomore full-length from French noisemakers Sofy Major. The album is out on Solar Flare Records in Europe and No List Records in the US, and it finds the Clermont-Ferrand three-piece beating out a stirring blend of crunchy noise rock and heavier fuzz riffing, somewhere between Kyuss Big Muff fuzz (see “Comment”) and modern Unsane‘s sense of churning chaos, with — and why not? — a touch of Melvins tossed in for good measure on the jagged, frenetically-drummed “Coffee Hammam” and some melodies peaking through in the punkish back half of “Bbbbreak,” the swaying verses of “UMPKK Pt. 2” and the lead guitar finale of closer “Golden Curtain.” Comprised of bassist/vocalist Mathieu Moulin, drummer/backing vocalist Mathieu Desternes and guitarist Sébastien Fournet, the band is more ambitious even than it might first appear in listening to the album’s 11 tracks.
For example, after having the venerable Andrew Schneider mix their 2010 debut, Permission to Engage, the trio decided it was worth their time and effort to travel from France to Brooklyn and actually record Idolize with Schneider at his Translator Audio studio. A tour was booked for afterwards and the trek was made. Only snag was that Sofy Major came through New York the same time as Hurricane Sandy, which unfortunately claimed Translator Audio as one of its victims, and with little warning, Fournet, Moulin and Desternes had to find a new place to record, and quickly.
Who should step up but Dave Curran of Unsane and Pigs. Curran not only gave Sofy Major a spot to record, but even donated guest vocals to “Steven the Slow,” one of the highlights of the tracklist. But while Curran may be the hero of Idolize, he’s hardly the star of the show, and in their moments of manic assault — the beginning of “Golden Curtain” comes to mind — Sofy Major hit like a stripped-down, ultra-immediate High on Fire, talking heavy elements from a variety of spheres, thrash, stoner, hardcore, and effectively turning them into something of their own.
Check out Idolize in its entirety (even including the Euro and US bonus tracks) on the player below and feed your need for information with the fruits of the PR wire that follow:
Sofy Major, Idolize (2013)
Out of the bowels of the post-industrial badlands of Clermont-Ferrand, France comes SOFY MAJOR, a metallic noiserock trio highly motivated in intoxicating the listener with their energetic and off-kilter attack, than kick your liver in while your hangover is at its worst.
With barely-harnessed off-kilter riffery and white-knuckled percussion, the members of SOFY MAJOR have battered audiences since their 2007 manifestation, having released their debut album Permission To Engage in the fall of 2010. The band has shared the stage with Jello Biafra & The Guantanamo School of Medicine, Baroness, Electric Wizard, Boris, Shrinebuilder, These Arms Are Snakes, Kylesa and countless others. In the past two years alone the band racked up over one hundred fifty gigs in twenty countries across two continents, all part of the diabolical construction of their sophomore LP, Idolize.
In the Autumn of 2012 SOFY MAJOR transports to the Northeastern North American quadrant, bent on hammering out their new opus at renowned Brooklyn-based studio Translator Audio with producer Andrew Schneider (Unsane, Keelhaul, Cave In, etc.) as well as to embark on their first US tour. As luck would have it, they arrived in town at the same time Hurricane Sandy moved in. The loss is 100% — the entire studio flooded beyond repair, and all equipment in the studio including the band’s gear left swimming. The trio bummed around the borough for a few days, hooking up with cohort and labelmate Dave Curran (Unsane, Pigs), who helped set up the sessions they crossed the globe to carry out. The band eventually recorded with Schneider at Brooklyn-based Seaside Lounge and Spaceman Sound studios, and had it mastered by Carl Saff at Saff Mastering, the band then immediately taking to the road on a delayed but steadfast American tour.
Like a demented mesh of the Melvins slamming into High On Fire with undeniable noise/metal influences instigated by the likes of Unsane, Quicksand and Deadguy, Idolize encapsulates SOFY MAJOR’s intoxicating concoction of sludge riffage, stale beer, shattered dreams and perseverance. The album is set for worldwide release on May 31st via Solar Flare Records in Europe (Pigs, American Heritage) and No List Records in North America (Ken Mode, The Great Sabatini), the album to be delivered as a limited vinyl boxset, (three 12” LPs in three colors), digipack CD, cassette and digital download.
Kind of an interesting turn here as regards Swedish retro trio Vidunder, whose self-titled debut was released this week on Crusher Records, since the heavy classic rockers not only take influence from the usual heavy ’70s suspects — your earliest Pentagram, Sabbath, Blue Cheer and Budgie — but also from the league of European bands who’ve already come up under that influence. Most particularly in Vidunder‘s case, it’s Graveyard and Kadavar.
They’re not the first act to come along with a flair for the modern end of the retro aesthetic, but it’s fascinating to see that happening across the last year or so as more bands crop up in this vein. Invariably, this will lead to the continued evolution of the sound — I think last year’s Legend already proves Witchcraft were bored of ’70s vintage-isms — as the forebears of the style search out new modes of expression, while newcomers like Vidunder here help affirm the notion of classic heavy as a modern subgenre and not just a couple acts who have a thing for bellbottoms.
Whether or not that’s how it plays out, I guess we’ll have to wait and see, but I’ll take some catchy Graveyard-style rock in the interim, and Vidunder certainly have that going on. It’s going to be a sad day when disco comes to Örebro:
So, funny story. Early last month, I picked up a copy of Michigan heavier-than-what-you-think-of-as-really-heavy duo Beast in the Field‘s second album, 2009’s Lechuguilla, with a few other assorted goodies, and as I’m wont to do, put up a post about it. In that post, I said I hoped it wouldn’t be too long before Beast in the Field had a follow-up out to their fourth album, 2011’s Lucifer, Bearer ofLight.
You can see where this is going. Turns out that just weeks before, Beast in the Field had released The Sacred Above, the Sacred Below on Saw Her Ghost Records. If I had taken two seconds and hit up the band’s Thee Facebooks page, I would’ve probably seen that the record was out and been able to include that information, but actually, I remember putting that first post together and barely being able to keep my eyes open, so yeah. Sometimes what seems like it would’ve been really easy in hindsight is super-fucking-difficult at the time.
Needless to say, an order was promptly placed for The Sacred Above, the Sacred Below— like, the same day — and I’ve been having my brains bashed in by its 71 minutes of tectonic crush ever since. Guitarist Jordan Pries and drummer Jamie Jahr seem to have transitioned out of the Satanic themes that drove their last outing into a more nature-minded sphere, though the music itself on the album’s nine tracks shows little of the Americana influence that one might expect as a result. No more than one could read into it before, anyway.
Rather, The Sacred Above, the Sacred Belowcontinues Beast in the Field‘s aural dominance in a manner so astoundingly fucking heavy that whatever ideas they want to put to it, I’m on board. Specifically this time, the artwork and song titles like, “Great Watcher of the Sky,” “Wakan Tanka” and “The Great Spirit of Light” abound with a Native American sensibility, as only the briefest moments of respite peak through the duo’s onslaught. Seriously, Jahr‘s snare drum is heavier sounding than most bands, and whether it’s on a shorter track like “Wakan Tanka” (5:24) or the propulsive subsequent basher “There Once Were Mountains of Ice,” Beast in the Field retain their brutal sensibility all the way to and through the 22:19 album apex of “Oncoming Avalanche.”
It’s nothing if not aptly named, enacting a massive build with hypnotic riff repetition and pounding kick drum at its center while Jahr and Pries march forward subtly toward a satisfyingly planetary crumbling. They could’ve put “Oncoming Avalanche” out as an EP easily, but here, it’s part of an overwhelming mash of riff punishment, seeing the chaos of the earlier “Hollow Horn” and the frenetic sway of “Altar Made of Red Earth” come to fruition across a vast plain of threatening chugging that gets torn apart to feedback as the guitars move out ahead of the drums backed by what sounds like and may or may not be a tower of amplifiers, pushing enough air out of the low end as they hit their noisy apex (after the slowdown; we’re talking 17-minutes in) to make the 12-minute title-track that follows seem like an afterthought.
Take that as an indication of the sort of largesse Beast in the Field are working with — that as “The Sacred Above, the Sacred Below” gets underway with Pries‘ guitar playing a riff that in most contexts would still bend knees the wrong way, the 11:15 that ensue, a bluesy lead fleshing out the midsection, feel like epilogue. If it seems like I’m overemphasizing how unbelievably fucking heavy The Sacred Above, the Sacred Belowis, it’s for the simple reason that I think more people should know who Beast in the Field are than currently do. No question the album is long at 71 minutes — the 9:14 “Covered by Clouds, Eaten by Snakes” follows the title cut — but it works in the band’s favor at least on the CD version to let the listener get lost in the pummel only to be jarred out of it here and there by what’s essentially more pummel from a different angle.
Complete with liner notes putting a narrative thread to the course of the tracks, The Sacred Above, the Sacred Belowis one of the most satisfying listens I’ve had this year, and I couldn’t have been gladder to have been alerted to its existence. I try to make outright recommendations sparingly, as little as possible, but with the Dead Man atmospherics of “Covered by Clouds Eaten by Snakes” and all the bludgeoning severity preceding, Beast in the Field more than earn it: Recommended.
Beast in the Field, “Hollow Horn,” “Altar Made of Red Earth” & “Wakan Tanka” Live, Sept. 30, 2012
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 30th, 2013 by JJ Koczan
San Francisco duo Black Cobra‘s forever tour continues. The two-piece are still out in support of 2011’s Invernal, traveling overseas once more to join forces with Bison B.C. — who seem to have finished their contract with Metal Blade after three albums — and Norwegian punk noisemakers Arabrot. They’ll start in France tomorrow, and Black Cobra will wrap the tour there as well, their final date of the Euro/UK trek being as part of the Hellfest in Clisson, where they’ll share a stage called “The Valley” (wonder where you got that idea, Hellfest) with Neurosis, Sleep and BlackPyramid,among others.
Wild times as always, but that seems to be Black Cobra‘s specialty. Here’s the latest from the PR wire:
BLACK COBRA EU/UK TOUR WITH BISON BC AND ARABROT KICKS OFF THIS WEEK
San Francisco-based sludge-mangling duo BLACK COBRA will uncoil across the UK/EU taking part in a summer tour with Bison BC and Arabrot, the shows kick off this week in Paris and culminate in the massive annual three day Hellfest extravaganza in Clisson, France. Running from June 21st through 23rd, this year’s festival includes bands as massive as Kiss, ZZ Top, Danzig and Twisted Sister, with Black Cobra playing on the first day in “The Valley” joining Neurosis, Sleep, High On Fire, Pallbearer, labelmates Black Breath and Eagle Twin and more on one massive bill.
Here are the full dates:
31/05/2013 Glazart, Paris – France 01/06/2013 Saint Des Seins, Toulouse – France 02/06/2013 TBA – France 03/06/2013 Borderline, London 04/06/2013 TBA – UK 05/06/2013 Ivory Blacks, Glasgow 06/06/2013 Exchange, Bristol 07/06/2013 Patronaat, Haarlem – Netherlands 08/06/2013 Magasin 4, Brussels – Belgium 09/06/2013 Festsaal Kreuzberg, Berlin – Germany 10/06/2013 Bastard Club, Osnabruck – Germany 11/06/2013 Chemiefabrik, Dresden – Germany 12/06/2013 Juha West, Stuttgart – Germany 13/06/2013 L’Usine, Geneva – Switzerland 14/06/2013 Les Caves du Manoir, Martignv – Switzerland 15/06/2013 Freakout Club, Bologna – Italy 16/06/2013 Lo-Fi Club, Milano – Italy 17/06/2013 Arena, Vienna – Austria 18/06/2013 Feierwerk, Munchen – Germany 19/06/2013 Schalchthof, Wiesbaden – Germany 20/06/2013 L’Entrepot, Arlon – Belgium 21/06/2013 Hellfest, Clisson – France
Released in October 2011 via Southern Lord, BLACK COBRA‘s fourth LPInvernalwas one of the most critically acclaimed releases to emerge from the metal/sludge scene that year. Recorded at Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou’s God City Studio and mastered by John Golden (Neurosis, Melvins, Weedeater), the album propelled the most diversified and matured songwriting from the duo to date forward with incredibly thunderous production, the theme to the entire record based on a post-apocalyptic trek to a nuclear infested and mutated Antarctica, inspired in part by the treks of English researcher Ernest Shackleton. The band perpetually toured through the year surpassing their 600th show mark in 2012 since the release of their debut LP Bestial in 2006.
Chances are, when you tell the dudes in Philly-based four-piece Kingsnake they sound like Clutch, they’re going to agree. The groove-heavy rockers follow-up their 2010 Book of Promise debut with One Eyed King of the Blind, a nine-track/41-minute outing that underscores the influence in funk-derived starts and stops and the vocals of rhythm guitarist Bill Jenkins. Working in this sphere is also nothing new for the outfit, who in the last decade released two full-lengths, 2003’s Hell or High Waterand 2004’s American Rickshaw, and 2005’s Locomotive EP under the moniker Sugar Daddie before switching banners to Kingsnake in 2006. American Rickshawwas produced by Clutch drummer Jean-Paul Gaster, who also is prominently thanked in the liner notes of One Eyed King of the Blind and was in Book of Promiseas well, and Kingsnake supported Clutch at the Philly stop on their most recent tour, so the connection is legit on more than one level. And it’s not one Kingsnake make an attempt to shirk throughout these songs, whether it’s the cowbell showing up at the end of “Too Little, too Late,” the “Mr. Shiny Cadillackness”-esque swell of guitar beginning “Fang of the Cobra,” the organ on that song and “Whispering Eye” or the acoustic blues treatment in the first movement of “Know the Way Down.” It becomes a “they know it, you know it, we all know it” kind of situation as the penultimate “Mercy” introduces listeners to a “black-haired whiskey mama” whose proportions are no doubt as thick as bassist Matt Kahn‘s tone, and the idea seems to be that if they don’t try to pull a fast one like they just made all this stuff up right now, it won’t matter and we can all throw back a few beverages, party down and have a good time.
Whether or not a given listener is going to be able to make that leap depends entirely on that listener, but it’s worth mentioning that Jenkins, Kahn, lead guitarist Brian Merritt and drummer Matt Farnan have been together well over a decade and that however much it may sonically owe to the aforementioned Maryland outfit, One Eyed King of the Blindalso presents Kingsnake as a band with formidable chemistry and the ability to make difficult rhythm changes sound fluid and natural. That is to say, a lot of bands sound like Clutch, but they don’t all do it this well. Also in Kingsnake‘s corner is their complete lack of pretense and straightforward songwriting mentality. Tracks vary in the impressions they leave, but songs like “Fang of the Cobra,” the subsequent “Mountain Girl” and the shorter “Mala Suerte” prove memorable even in spite of their immediate familiarity of tonal smoothness in the guitar and Jenkins‘ gruff, Fallon-style bluesy delivery and cadence. There’s boogie momentum right from the start of “Bullets and Kisses,” which launches One Eyed King of the Blind, and the foursome only letup on the throttle when they find some advantage in doing so. Interestingly, as Clutch has grown bluesier over time, so have Kingsnake, and where Sugar Daddie were once brash enough to see American Rickshawreleased through hardcore-minded Thorp Records, these songs present a mature course in their mid-paced stomp, “Bullets and Kisses” opening wide to a fervent Blast Tyrant-style groove that finds complement in the immediate rush of “Too Little, too Late” setting the stage à la Robot Hive/Exodusfor the arrival of the organ on “Fang of the Cobra.” By then, even if you’ve never encountered Kingsnake before, they’ve made their intent clear. And again, whether you come along for the ride on One Eyed King of the Blindis up to you. To borrow a phrase, “the party boat is here.”
