Posted in Whathaveyou on August 27th, 2014 by JJ Koczan
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all on board with desert rock legends Yawning Man going over to Europe for a round of dates. Would I rather they were playing the East Coast or, say, my back yard for myself, The Patient Mrs. and a handful of close friends? Yes. But failing that, a European tour’s as good as anything (except maybe a new album) in that at least they’re getting out. The only crucial bit of information missing is who’s in the band at this point.
Of course Gary Arce is on guitar. It’s his band. And it seems reasonable to expect Mario Lalli (see also: Fatso Jetson) will be on bass, but I’m not sure if Alfredo Hernandez (see also: Kyuss) is still with Yawning Man, and even if he is, people kind of come and go depending on who Arce is jamming with at the time, so there’s no real guarantee he’ll be along for the trip. I guess either way it’s worth showing up — hell, if it was Arce and his pedalboard alone, it’d be worth showing up — but I’d be more interested to know if Hernandez is going because that might give some tip on where the trio are at with making their next record, about which it’s been a while since we’ve had an update.
Maybe if you’re in Europe and you go to one of these shows, you can ask Gary yourself what’s up on that front:
YAWNING MAN SUNSET SUMMER TOUR
Yawning Man will be bringing our unique, surreal sounds to Holland, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland August/early September. Our shows are limited this time around, so please, pack your friends up in your vehicle and make a road trip to come see us. We look forward to seeing you all!
29.08.14 Deventer, NETHERLANDS ~ DE HIP 30.08.14 Hummelo, NETHERLANDS ~ Mañana Mañana Festival 01.09.14 Vienna, AUSTRIA ~ THE ARENA 02.09.14 Berlin, Germany ~ Wild At Heart 03.09.14 Dresden, GERMANY ~ Ostpol 04.09.14 Jena, GERMANY ~ KULTURBAHNHOF 05.09.14 Frankfurt, GERMANY ~ DAS BETT Sky High Festival 06.09.14 Zurich, SWITZERLAND ~ Kinski Klub
Please contact the venues for ticket prices, times, etc.
Posted in audiObelisk on August 26th, 2014 by JJ Koczan
The bell of the ride counts out a measure and soon enough the guitar starts in on “Witch,” the opening track from Wolf Blood‘s self-titled debut. Right away, something just seems bent. It’s like the sound is contorted somehow. It’s an otherworldly sensation and it continues throughout the Duluth, Minnesota, four-piece’s six-track offering, which follows through with a loosely cultish approach but is more geared toward general darkness and tonal space than trying to win you over to Team Lucifer. Driven by the riffs of guitarists Mike Messina and Mindy Johnson (the latter also vocals), “Witch” is the slowest of Wolf Blood‘s tracks until its complementary 12-minute closer “Procession of the Witch,” and it also provides one of the album’s signature hooks, so while it may not represent the High on Fire thrashy sensibility of “Exile,” Messina, Johnson, bassist Brian Wells and drummer/vocalist Jake Paulsrude are definitely putting their best foot forward, and they’re swinging it hard right at their audience.
Grooves and big riffs abound, but that’s nothing new to the converted, and where Wolf Blood really distinguish themselves is in the oddity of their aggression. Blending clean vocals, spoken parts and screams, they play off both metallic and heavy rock styles and craft something fluid and malevolent from them. There’s a sense of theatricality in side A finale “Dancing on Your Grave,” where much of the album’s second half seems to be more about pummel, but there’s an emerging personality at work across the board, and Wolf Blood emerge after “Procession of the Witch” unscathed by their own strangeness, having tread hard on a couple fine lines between subgenres. Ultimately, Wolf Bloodis as satisfying for its brashness as it is for its density of groove.
The band released it earlier this year on two separate, sold-out tape pressings and the whole record is available to stream on the band’s Bandcamp in that original form, but Burning World Records and Outer Battery Records will have a vinyl out in October remixed and remastered by James Plotkin, and you can hear the new version of “Witch” on the player below. Please enjoy:
Wolf Blood‘s Wolf Blood is out in October through Burning World Records (EU preorder here) and Outer Battery Records (US preorder here). The band will tour beginning on Sept. 25 in support of the vinyl.
Wolf Blood Midwest Fall Tour Dates: 9/25- Duluth, MN @ The Red Star 9/26- Eau Claire, WI @ House of Rock 9/27- Dubuque, IA @ Eronel 9/28- TBA 9/29- Iowa City, IA @ TBA 9/30- Madison, WI @ The Wisco 10/1- Madison, WI @ Dragonfly Lounge 10/2- Milwaukee, WI @ Quarters 10/3- Chicago, IL @ TBA 10/4- St. Louis, MO @ TBA 10/5- Colombia, MO @ TBA 10/6- Kansas City, MO @ Vandals 10/7- Lawrence, KS @ TBA 10/8- Des moine, IA @ Vaudville Mews 10/9- Minneapolis, MN @ House show
This one’s a couple minutes shorter than the last few have been, but lacks nothing for substance, and particularly after YOB‘s “Marrow,” anything I put at the end would’ve just been filler to meet some imaginary obligation on my part. If you feel like you’re lacking the four minutes, give me a call and we’ll chat about records for the rest of that time. It’ll be a hoot. In any case, I think there’s plenty here to sink into — stuff that for a lot of people, myself included, will be on year-end lists and albums for which 2014 will be remembered when all is said and done. Two of my four current contenders for Album of the Year are featured, first and last.
Parts of this podcast are gorgeous, parts are ugly, but I think everything here holds up in terms of quality and listening back, I like the way this one gets immersive with a mix of longer tracks and shorter ones, slower and faster, etc. As always, I hope you enjoy, and I thank you sincerely for taking the time to check it out.
First Hour:
Lo-Pan, “Regulus” from Colossus (2014)
Steak, “Liquid Gold” from Slab City (2014)
The Well, “Mortal Bones” from Samsara (2014)
Orange Goblin, “The Devil’s Whip” from Back from the Abyss (2014)
Kvlthammer, “Hesh Trip” from Kvlthammer (2014)
Snailking, “To Wonder” from Storm (2014)
Earth, “From the Zodiacal Light” from Primitive and Deadly (2014)
Pallbearer, “Watcher in the Dark” from Foundations of Burden (2014)
Sorxe, “Her Majesty” from Surrounded by Shadows (2014)
Second Hour:
Humo del Cairo, “Tres” from Preludio EP (2014)
Joy, “Miles Away” from Under the Spell Of… (2014)
Megaton Leviathan, “Past 21” from Past 21: Beyond the Arctic Cell (2014)
Bong, “Blue at Noon” from Haikai No Ku – Ultra High Dimensionality LP (2014)
YOB, “Marrow” from Clearing the Path to Ascend (2014)
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 25th, 2014 by JJ Koczan
Italian astral plane enthusiasts L’Ira del Baccano have announced a September release for their debut studio album, Terra 42, through Subsound Records. The reason I make the distinction “studio” is because when the Rome four-piece issued their first full-length, Si Non Sedes Is…, it was live. That record came out in 2008, and while L’Ira del Baccano put out a split in 2010 and have been playing shows in and around Italy — they recently supported Church of Misery — their debut is awaited and arrives in suitably deluxe fashion, splatter vinyl, foldout poster and all.
The PR wire has details:
L´IRA DEL BACCANO “TERRA 42” – NEW ALBUM, DETAILS & COVERT ART
L´IRA DEL BACCANO “TERRA 42” – NEW ALBUM, DETAILS & COVERT ART The new album by the instrumental doomdelic rockers L´Ira Del Baccano “Terra 42” is set to be released by Subsound Records in September 2014. Distributed in Italy by Goodfellas and worldwide by Code 7/ Phd
The album will be available in digipak CD with a 25×27 cm poster inside, and double gatefold vinyl with 3 different colours to choose from.
L´IRA DEL BACCANO “Terra 42” tracklist:
Phase I – The Infinite Improbability Drive Part 1-2-3 (32:05 min)
Phase II – Sussurri…Nel Bosco di Diana (11:20 min)
Phase III – Volcano x13 (14:34 min)
“If we were to describe a concept behind this album it would be the freedom to play in different ways and with different approaches. That´s what we explored..our ways to communicate with each other through our instruments and within different song structures; from a breathless trip that never repeats itself during almost 33 minutes (The Infinite Improbability Drive, inspired by Douglas Adams “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”), to a song in which we play around the same theme, yet always change the rhythmic perception and divisions (Volcano x13). In the middle (Sussurri…Nel Bosco Di Diana), a song with the first “static” part, and is followed by a progression of riffs”. [Taken from the credits of “Terra 42”]
Produced by guitarist and founder member Alessandro Drughito Santori. “Terra 42” has been recorded, mixed and mastered byMatteo Gabbianellii at Kutso Noise Home. All the artwork, concept and realization, is created by the Italian artist Fabio Listrani.
Posted in Reviews on August 25th, 2014 by JJ Koczan
“There ain’t no saints allowed in here,” informed All Them Witches bassist/vocalist Michael Parks, Jr. between songs in response to some half-heard banter from the crowd, who were referencing Anchorman. “If you’re a saint, you have to leave.”
Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, is a cool little town. And I’m not condescending; that’s what it is. A little town. It’s not a big place in the center, though homes range out into the hills around — my father lived there years ago — but there are bars and restaurants and in the vein of a lot of post-industrial centers, it’s been the artists left to revive it. When I parked, a folk duo were playing on a stage in an alleyway nearby. I hit Main St. Jukebox before heading over to see All Them Witches, King Buffalo and King Dead at the Sherman Theater Living Room, and was thrilled to find a CD copy of Demon Fuzz‘s Afreaka(the YouTube of which I’m just going to link here because that’s how much I think you should hear it). The venue was right down the road, and when I got to The Living Room, I found All Them Witches drummer Robby Staebler climbing a tree outside.
That’s something he’s licensed to do, and he had a harness on and whatnot, but clearly I was early. King Dead would start the show in about an hour, the local bass/bass/drum trio playing tracks off their debut demo (track stream here), which also happened to be recorded in that room. They were in their element, and cuts like “Length of Rope” and the particularly notable “God Makes a Lot of Fucking Promises” stood out well, the arrangement of the area of the floor on which they played such that they were almost sideways to the back of the venue. Well-worn easychairs and loveseats lined the other side, and were put to use, and all three bands played in front of local art. King Dead‘s atmospheric explorations carried through four-stringer KevinVanderhoof,six-stringer Will McGrath and drummer Steve Truglio to a crowd familiar with what they do, and despite a false start early on, they gave a solid showing as the audience started to trickle in.
People would continue to show up throughout the night. Next door, at the Sherman Theater proper, there was a metal show, so some spilled over from that to mix with those who’d actually come to see these bands. King Dead were a switched-on start, and after a short break so cameras could be set up to film the next two acts for Truglio‘s “My Show” web series, Rochester, NY’s King Buffalo rolled out spacious heaviness backed by flashing rope lights around their amps, playing not only the three tracks from their 2013 debut demo (review here) — “Pocket Full of Knife,” “In Dim Light” and the sprawling jam “Providence Eye” — but more from their impending STB Records debut LP, which should be out next year. Bassist Dan Reynolds had on an STB shirt, and as on the recording, he subtly loosed low-end righteousness in form and tone throughout the duration, giving sunglass’ed guitarist/vocalist Sean McVay room to trip out in his solos and a moving foundation for drummer/vocalist Scott Donaldson to match pace. They’re a relatively new trio, and McVay, suffering a migraine, had a garbage can next to him while he played as a precaution for nausea, but god damn did they kill.
I was a fan as well of Donaldson‘s prior outfit, the now-defunct Velvet Elvis, but King Buffalo tap into prime heavy psych fluidity while keeping enough of a base in classic rock songwriting to still have structures to work around. They were exciting to watch, in their individual play and together, and I felt more than somewhat vindicated in how much I’d been looking forward to seeing them. With more than a touch of blues as well, they were also an exceptional match and lead-in for Nashville’s All Them Witches, who would follow shortly, setting up a visually impressive Fender Rhodes for Allan Van Cleave to go with Parks‘ bass, Staebler‘s drums and Ben McLeod‘s guitar, which even from back in the corner of the room, was plenty loud enough to make an impression. I knew going into the night that I was going to see something special — this band at this moment — and I don’t want to oversell it, but something special was precisely what I got.
Most of what they played was recognizable from their soon-to-be-properly-issued sophomore full-length, Lightning at the Door(discussed here), including the opener “Funeral for a Great
Drunken Bird,” which immediately distinguished Van Cleave‘s contributions to the richness of All Them Witches‘ sound in a way I hadn’t previously appreciated. Don’t get me wrong, all four players are essential to what the band does, whether it’sMcLeod‘s slide work, Staebler‘s percussive swing — his drums out flat in front of him, almost like little tables he gets to smash, with minimal cymbal accompaniment — or Parks‘ deep tone and psych-blues echo vocals, but I guess just listening to Lightning at the Doorand the preceding Our Mother Electricity(review here), I didn’t understand the dynamic as well as I did actually watching them play “The Marriage of Coyote Woman,” a wide-open highlight of the evening along with the chugging “Swallowed by the Sea” and “Mountain,” the album’s alternately contemplative and riotous closer.
It was “Charles William” that finished out All Them Witches‘ set, and I don’t think I could’ve asked more from it than was delivered, the crashing apex and bounce of the thing infectious enough that it would remain stuck in my head the rest of the night. Parks‘ vocals, less compressed live, were all the more engaging — one can hear the soul and frontman’s confidence beginning to surface there — and the noise that capped was well earned and more than justified. To get to the point, I was really fucking glad to have been there to see it.
It was about five hours of road time for me to get to this show, so I feel somewhat compelled to explain why I was there. Both King Buffalo and All Them Witches were bands I knew I wanted to see this year. I could’ve waited. All Them Witches are touring with Windhand next month and coming much closer to where I live than Stroudsburg, and I’m sure I’d catch up with King Buffalo sooner or later, but I felt like this was the right show at the right time in the right place, all the more with King Dead opening, so I had to make the trip. To get to see King Buffalo and All Them Witches together, it just seemed like a chance to experience a moment before it was gone, and I knew it was one I wanted to witness. Not to toot my own horn or call myself Captain Foresight or anything, but I was absolutely right in that decision. Well worth the trip and then some.
Owing to a complicated scenario of mutual plans not really worth going into, I met The Patient Mrs. in New Jersey after the show. King Dead rounded out the night at The Living Room with a second set jamming out, but I knew I had a drive ahead, so I picked up The Patient Mrs. and we made our way back north into Connecticut, arriving at three in the morning to crash out and pick up in the morning back to Massachusetts. Sleep would play the next night in Boston, and much like this gig, I knew there was no way I was going to miss it.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 25th, 2014 by JJ Koczan
Leeds aggro sludgers BongCauldron, who made their debut with a blistering EP earlier this year on Superhot Records — speaking of things I should’ve reviewed a long time ago… — will hit the road next month alongside Nomad from Manchester in what’s sure to be a feedback-drenched, tube-blowing showcase of lumbering riffery. The stint is five shows, and the pair are playing with some cool other bands as well — nice to see the name Obiat again, as it’s been a minute — and both will be touring on relatively new material.
In the case of Nomad, who I’m just going to assume take their name from the planet-destroying malfunctioned probe from the original Star Trek, their The House is DeadEP came out in May. BongCauldron themselves have a new song called “Bigfoot Reigns” (what else?) that was released a few days ago and which you can hear below.
Info and links and such, off the PR wire:
BONG CAULDRON – NOMAD UK TOUR
Leeds sludge trio BONG CAULDRON are joining forces with Manchester’s very own worshippers of the riff NOMAD for a 5 date tour of the UK this September.
Bong Cauldron are a 3 piece Doom/sludge band from Leeds. Their debut E.P. Us out now via Superhot Records and was met with critical acclaim. They have had the opportunity to play alongside such bands as, Corrosion of Conformity, Windhand and Desert Storm.
Nomad are a four piece sludge band from Manchester and have just released their debut E.P. “The House is Dead” Via When Planets Collide. Over the past year they have shared the stage with genre giants Church Of Misery, Bongripper and Conan amongst others.
The tour will see them bring their brand of depravity and chaos to the following cities.
September 10th The Fenton – Leeds (W/ OMSQ + Mausoleion) 11th Banshee labyrinth – Edinburgh (W/ Dune) 12th Scruffy Murphys – Birmingham (W/ General and Obiat) 13th Moonclub – Cardiff (W/ Sea Bastard + Hogslayer) 14th Maguire’s Pizza Bar – Liverpool (W/ Wort + Berserkowitz)
Samsara Blues Experiment, Waiting for the Flood (2013)
There was a lot I liked about Samsara Blues Experiment‘s third album, Waiting for the Flood (review here), but nothing quite so much as the surprise factor. After their second full-length, Revelation and Mystery(review here), came out in 2011, I felt like I had the Berlin outfit more or less figured out. They had shifted away from the jamminess of the preceding 2009 debut, Long Distance Trip(review here), and I assumed they’d continue along in that direction, toward a straightforward heavy rock vibe, maybe still with some psychedelic elements, but more or less working in traditional structures toward traditional ends.
Well, along comes Waiting for the Flood. Four tracks, not a one of them under 10 minutes long. Just these huge, sprawling, cosmically gorgeous jams, deeply progressive but still swinging and loose, and everything I had expected from the band went right out the window. I loved it last fall when I first heard the record, and revisiting it today, my reaction is much the same. I’ve gone back to the album periodically since it came out — some records I review and they never get put on again; that’s not the case here — so I’m not at all flying blind, but I still feel a sense of spontaneity coming from the extended instrumental sections, the then-foursome letting various movements flesh out and go where they will, and I’m still enthralled with how well Samsara Blues Experiment are able to give the tracks hooks and definite verses and choruses amidst all this space-groove meandering. Trying to predict where these guys might go in their progression isn’t a mistake I’ll make again, particularly now that they’re pared down to a single-guitar trio, but if they wanted to use Waiting for the Floodas a foundation from which to continue to build stylistically, they gave themselves a lot work with.
More than that, though, I really like the album. It’s one I put on when I just want to drift out for a bit and it hasn’t failed me yet in that regard, up to and including the last 10 minutes, which I apparently just spent staring at the screen while opener “Shringara” moved into the title-track. Rock and bliss.
—
Tonight, I’m driving to Connecticut. Tomorrow, I’m driving to Pennsylvania to see King Dead, King Buffalo and All Them Witches, which is something I’m very much looking forward to. I haven’t been to Stroudsberg in years, and I expect it will be a good time. I’m driving back to Connecticut immediately after the show (I think?) in order to maximize the efficiency of getting back to the Boston area in time on Sunday to go see Sleep at the House of Blues with Earthless/Heavy Blanket opening. I have no doubt this will be one of the best weekends of shows of the year, and I can’t wait to hit the road and make it happen. I’ll have reviews and whatnot next week of both.
Also think I’ll probably review that Earth record, since that’s pretty well ingrained in my consciousness, and maybe Pallbearer, since that seems to have struck such a nerve with the entire planet. We’ll see. I’ve listened to that a couple times through already and it’s good, but I’m not sure I’m on board with the holy-fuck-this-is-the-best-thing-ever crowd. I wasn’t last time either, but so it goes. That band works hard. I don’t begrudge them what mainstream acceptance they’ve garnered along the way.
I was going to do a round of Radio Adds today, but every sentence I wrote in the earlier part of the day felt like pulling teeth — nothing against what I was writing about; it’s me, not you — so I just decided to have some fun and do that Earth guest singer thing instead. It was the right decision. Sometimes I get so bogged down in the little routines I make for myself that I forget that the reason The Obelisk is what gets me out of bed most mornings is because I enjoy it, not because I’m obligated to it. If you know what I’m talking about, you know that’s a huge difference.
Anyway, I gotta go pack so that when The Patient Mrs. gets home from whatever joyful social obligation it is that she’s out meeting we can hit the road south once again. Good times ahead.
Hope you have a wonderful, disaster-free weekend. Thanks to everyone who donated to the Small Stone fundraiser this week. I know a lot of you already gave, but it would be amazing if we could knock our way up to 10 grand in the next week or so, just because the dude needs the money to get his office cleaned up sooner rather than later. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check that link or just scroll to the top of the frontpage.
And when you’re done donating, please check out the forum and radio stream.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 22nd, 2014 by JJ Koczan
UK purveyors of aged and crawling miseries Moss have announced a new EP due out on Halloween. Carmilla (Marcilla)/Spectral Visionswill be the first Moss outing since last year’s Horrible Nightfull-length (review here), and it is set to emerge via Stone Tapes, an imprint helmed by the band born out of their own Buried and Forgotten Productions, through which they’ve periodically issued offerings every couple years or so. The last one was the Never Say Livetape in 2010.
Carmilla (Marcilla)/Spectral Visionsearns further distinction by being the first vinyl Moss has self-released on their own label, whatever that label might be called. I don’t know if this portends future LPs coming from the band’s own hands, but it’s a noteworthy jump one way or another.
They sent the following down the PR wire:
NEW MOSS 10″ EP, preview streaming now
UK doom metal veterans MOSS return with a new EP released on the 31st of October on 10″ vinyl and digital, via their own label Stone Tapes.
Consisting of two tombstone classics, Carmilla (Marcilla)/Spectral Visions is nearly 20 minutes of pure, horror-obsessed doom metal, dragging the endless atmospheres found on 2013’s ‘Horrible Night’ even deeper and further down into unfathomable depths.
A 100% DIY release in the truest sense and coming on gimmick-free black 10″ vinyl limited to 500 copies, Carmilla (Marcilla)/Spectral Visions is available to pre-order now from MOSS’s official bandcamp pagehttp://www.mossdoom.bandcamp.com
Since they emerged from Hampshire’s catacombs in late 2000, MOSS have tirelessly dragged intimidating amplification and metaphysical malignance down a murky and overgrown path to oblivion. Whilst their sound has morphed slowly from lengthy and devastating exorcisms of psychic horror to a comparatively traditional form of sermonising, the last decade and a half has only seen them draw closer to a motherlode of ceremonial ambience and otherworldly dread. Fuelled by classic doom metal and British horror yet in thrall to no-one but their own wayward co-ordinates, these three seers have created a formidable collection of audial documents that bear testimony to an unflinching fascination with the ghastly and esoteric.
However, Hallowe’en 2014 sees the triuvirate encroaching on territory anew. Having released an album on Aurora Borealis and two more on Rise Above alongside untold EPs, live recordings and split releases, they now embark on their first release for their own imprint, Stone Tapes, having chosen not to renew their association with Rise Above after the release of 2013’s ‘MOSS’s Horrible Night’. A 10” double A-side EP limited to 500 copies, it sees the band in splendid isolation, expanding on the gruesome Grand Guignol atmosphere of their last opus in suitably monomaniacal fashion, and deploying grimly earthen guitar tone, death-knell battery and stentorian oratory to conjure otherworldly malice from beyond with deadly fortitude.
These two tracks draw on a sphere of influence that includes classic horror fiction, arrive swathed in unearthly feedback, and volley forth at a funereal pace. Yet they manage to effortlessly waylay both the preponderance of humdrum cliches and the needless barrage of volume and excess that frequently hold sway in contemporary doom-laden circles. Always a band out of time, the trio operate impervious to fashion or most any outside influence bar certain personal pecadiloes and the demons lurking in their own subconscious. These twenty minutes of tumult, recorded at the Cro’s Nest in Purley, by Sam Thredder, only underline the uncompromising and bloody-minded attitude that have rendered MOSS a primal force that transcends trappings of genre and scene.
The dawning of a new chapter in an uncanny saga, ‘Carmilla (Marcilla)’ and ‘Spectral Visions’ function as both an imtimdating document in their own right and as portents of all manner of unimaginable entities lurking in the furthermost reaches of everyday perception. Yet as MOSS’s power grows stronger, one can only wonder aghast at the consequences for all…
