Seattle four-piece Terminal Fuzz Terror pretty clearly have a thing for severe statements. The experimental heavy rockers made their full-length debut in March on Robotic Empire with Vol. 0: In the Shadow of the Mountain (not sure if it’s the one they’re talking about, but I hear Rainier is lovely), and that too had its sharpened edges, the Tad Doyle-recorded tracks quick to turn riffy convention on its head to suit punkishly defiant purposes. In their new video for “Senseless Boogie,” one again finds Terminal Fuzz Terror pushing toward the edge of abrasion for the sake of going against the norm.

It’s an admirable goal, but I’d hardly call the boogie senseless. The boogie is its own excuse for being.

Nonetheless, it’s a killer track and anyone trying to be a wrench in the apparently-ceaseless gears of genre tropes is cool by me. News of its arrival and the video itself follow, courtesy of the PR wire:

MOTOSONIC PSYCH-ROCKERS TERMINAL FUZZ TERROR RELEASE NEW VIDEO ONLINE

The video for “Senseless Boogie”, the newest single from Terminal Fuzz Terror’s Robotic Empre debut, Vol.0: In the Shadow of the Mountain, is now streaming online.

Combining live footage with esoteric drag racing carnage, the video for “Senseless Boogie” is just as chaotic, unhinged, and groovy as the music itself. The Video was filmed by Seattle Photographer/Director Chris Mighton and marks his first collaboration with the band.

ABOUT THE BAND: Terminal Fuzz Terror is a Seattle based Motosonic Rock band comprised of D. Rodriguez (guitar, vocals), D. Nelson (guitar, vocals), A. Crawshaw (drums) and J. Kleine (bass) who unleash a raw fury of rock n’ roll drifted through the filters of punk, psychedelia and blues on their vinyl debut, Vol. 0: In The Shadow Of The Mountain. Pummelling percussion and wailing riffs accompany a vocal delivery that channels an obliterated Jim Morrison at the height of religious revelry! The magnanimous 17-minute title track B-side closes the album with a long form, slow burning mind melter.

Vol. 0: In The Shadow Of The Mountain was recorded at Witch Ape Studio, engineered and mixed by Tad Doyle (TAD) and mastered by James Plotkin. Vinyl edition comes housed in a silk screened jacket printed by drummer A. Crawshaw at Broken Press in Seattle, WA and is limited to 300 copies.

https://roboticempire.bandcamp.com/album/terminal-fuzz-terror-vol-0-in-the-shadow-of-the-mountain
https://terminalfuzzterror.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/terminalfuzzterror
https://www.facebook.com/roboticempire

Terminal Fuzz Terror, “Senseless Boogie” official video

For those unfamiliar, a jackalope is essentially a mythical jackrabbit with antlers. Why German heavy rock four-piece Plainride might’ve chosen a jackalope as there mascot, where that jackalope might have gone and what might have led it to come back, I couldn’t really say, but if Return of the Jackalope, the raucous Cologne outfit’s debut album, proves anything, it’s that when the jackalope came back, he brought the party with him. Primo high-energy fuzz delivery in the spirit of Truckfighters ensues throughout the record’s 13-count-’em-13 tracks, delivered via Beerfuzz Records, and neither in its approach nor its 71-minute runtime is the album shy about going completely over the top to make its point. Led by guitarist/vocalist Max Rebel, and with Fabe van Fuzz on guitar, Leo on bass and Damian the Brute on drums (the presumably less brutish Andrew plays on the record), they show little interest in letting up and instead take a desert-cruising forward drive that varies in its burl and brashness but rarely steps away from beer-drenched riffery in its extended course.

To call it single-minded might be missing the point. Return of the Jackalope should come with a warning not to operate heavy machinery under its influence, the rush at its fiercest is bound to lead at least to some poor decision-making. To that end, I’m happy today to present “Devil at Your Heels,” a top-speed later cut from Plainride that’s buried deep in the reaches of Return of the Jackalope but a standout nonetheless for anyone who might take it on. More throttled than “Return of the Jackalope” itself or “(The Beards upon) Mt. Rushmore,” it precedes closer “Warpdrive” and is one of several boots to the ass the band delivers along the way. Return of the Jackalope is a lot to experience in one sitting. It’s entirely possible that Plainride will exhaust you long before they run out of breath — spoiler alert: they don’t — but while they packed two albums’ worth of album into their debut, there’s something about the sheer willpower in so doing that makes it hard not to admire. Anyone can put out a 35-minute record. Plainride are about to put out two and call it one. Take that, convention.

Return of the Jackalope is out July 24 on Beerfuzz — preorders are available now — and no doubt will be followed by a due bit of road-dogging riotousness. More on that as I hear it, but for now, catch a glimpse of the otherworldly beast with the clip Plainride put together for “Devil at Your Heels” below, and please enjoy:

Plainride, “Devil at Your Heels”

Imagine a pack of rabid tumbleweeds sweeping across the hot desert sand of Mojave set on fire by the nearby explosion of a Dodge Challenger ’69 driven into a fuel soaked pile of Orange Half-Stacks by four whole-body bearded lumberjacks dressed in bearskin.

You still follow? Good.

Now what if I tell you said lumberjacks use guitar strings as dental floss and consider alligator-wrestling the most innocent part of their childhood? There you go.

Inspired by Stoner Rock legends like Clutch as well as European Half-Gods Planet Of Zeus and Stoner Train, we here at PLAINRIDE practice what we consider one of the finest Genres ever to emerge from the sacred ashes of the 70’s.

Earth Rockin’ Drums, A beard growth inducing Bass, Fuzzomental Guitars, the Roar of a Wolfman and a whole lotta beer. Ah yeah – and we got those nasty lil’ Jackalopes all over the place. They’re like… F*cking everywhere. What’s up with that, man?

Plainride on Thee Facebooks

Plainride on Instagram

Plainride on Bandcamp

Preorder at Lo-Fi Merchandise

Preorder at Ozium Records

By way of confession, I don’t know much about Nashville-based four-piece Aave (also stylized all-lowercase), but I took a listen to the song “This Evil Comes” from their last record and dug it, so I thought someone else might too. Aave‘s new album, There’s Nothing, will be released digitally by Villain Place on Aug. 14 in apparent cooperation with Rock Ridge Music (a label I can’t even say the name of without hearing Harvey Korman say “splendid!” after it à la Blazing Saddles). Info is abundant however, so if you’re also up for getting introduced, there’s an opportunity to do that.

Not that you need to be introduced. You’re probably already hip to these guys. I’m always lagging on the uptake. Anyway, if you haven’t heard it or if you have, hope you dig.

To the PR wire:

aave to release There’s Nothing on August 14th in digital format

Album coming via Villain Place/Rock Ridge Music

Nashville-based post-rock quartet aave will be releasing its debut full-length, There’s Nothing, via Villain Place/Rock Ridge Music on August 14, 2015 (in the digital format only). The creative collective specializes in sprawling psychedelic soundscapes and hypnotic musicality that evokes both bleakness and bliss, and music that is brimming with intricate ambient patterns, intriguing drum sounds, rubbery basslines, and celestial lead vocals. aave has been favorably compared to the Flaming Lips, Pink Floyd, Interpol, Warpaint, Tame Impala, and Blonde Redhead. The album’s recently-released first single, “Going Nowhere,” has already been embraced by media. Villain Place will release the album, with label services and support provided by Rock Ridge Music.

Says aave guitarist Lloyd Aur Norman about the partnership with Rock Ridge Music: “We feel very fortunate to work with Rock Ridge Music. [CEO] Tom Derr and [President] Cynthia Cochrane bring years of high-level industry experience and deep knowledge of the music industry, which is invaluable for us. We’re thrilled at the opportunity.”

Says Rock Ridge Music CEO Tom Derr about working with aave and Villain Place: “Having worked with Lloyd and Kyle [Kelly, vocals/guitar] with great expectations and rewards over the past few years on various projects, if it ain’t broke, it was obvious to work with them on this project as well.”

“We’re four people just trying to express ourselves authentically, collaboratively, and communicate our feelings to others,” says Norman about the music he makes with bandmates Kelly (vocals/guitar), Parrish (bass), and Peter Teselsky (drums). From the beginning, aave was conceptualized to be an outlet for many levels of expression. One example of this is the band’s name, which is Finnish for ghost, and conjures the haunting and otherworldly qualities of aave’s music. Another layer is that lead singer and visual artist Kelly creates stunning visual images to accompany each track, and his breathtaking artwork is also utilized in band videos and sometimes in live shows where the band plays to projected images. “We want to be more than just a traditional live performance band,” says Parrish, “We want to take our audience places emotionally by engaging both aural and visual senses.”

There’s Nothing was written, tracked, and produced by the band at its studio, Villain Place in Nashville. Self-producing was integral to the writing process as it allowed the band to take their time building soundscapes and track when inspiration hit. Many of the lyrics on the album were conceived as Kelly recorded them, adding to the subconscious psychedelic feel of the album. For mixing and mastering, aave welcomed the talents of Jon Stinson (Kings of Leon / The Features) and Doug Van Sloun (First Aid Kit / Tokyo Police Club) to mix and master respectively.

aave is planning some tour dates around the album release which will be announced soon.

Release date: August 14, 2015.

http://aaveaaveaave.com/
https://www.facebook.com/aaveaaveaave
https://instagram.com/aaveaaveaave/
https://twitter.com/aaveaaveaave
http://www.rockridgemusic.com/
http://villainplace.com/

Aave, “This Evil Comes”

I dig stuff like this. I’ve always been a fan of bootlegs, and that’s not quite what dronemasters SunnO))) are calling this raw, uncut, unmixed, unmastered, as-they-are series of live releases, but it works out to be the same anyway. They don’t seem to care about era, or recording quality, or anything of that sort and that’s just fucking awesome, particularly since you can listen to something before you shell out the $5 on Bandcamp to download. A lot of bands start out projects like this with good intentions and fall off after a while because it’s so much to keep up with. Hopefully by outsourcing the recording process to their fans, SunnO))) will be able to make it sustainable.

They’re heading to Europe in July to play a slurry of fests, and Southern Lord has some vinyl repressings out now, as the PR wire informs:

SUNN O))) RELEASE LIVE ARCHIVES OF UNMIXED AND UNMASTERED TAPER & FAN RECORDINGS ON BANDCAMP, SUMMER TOUR SCHEDULE APPROACHING & VINYL REPRESSES AVAILABLE

It is a great pleasure to announce that the cathartic reverberations of SUNN O))) have been documented and can now be accessed via their live bandcamp page. Compiled of taper and fan recordings, spanning from their 2002 show at the Blackbird in Portland up to their recent headlining show at Temples Festival 2015, these documents are presented in their raw and unedited beauty.

SUNN O))) invite you to contribute to this sonic archive…

“SUNN O))) live archives. Unmixed, unmastered raw footage grabbed by underground tapers which we now present to you. We would like to invite you to also submit your own recordings of any of our concerts (even ones already posted) to this archive. If you have photos and visuals from the posted shows, please send them too.
Hail to our great fans!”

Having already announced a number of key festival appearances this summer, these offer an ample opportunity to add to this archive. Such appearances include the recently announced Le Guess Who? Festival whereby Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson will showcase their similar, adventurous musical inclinations with a very special four-day program titled SUNN O))) presents at Le Guess Who? Festival 2015. The program will include a performance by the legendary Annette Peacock, who will return to The Netherlands for the first time in over twenty tears. SUNN O)))’s full live listings can be found below:

SUNN O))) EUROPEAN LIVE SHOWS
17/07/2015 BE, Dour – Dour Festival
19/07/2015 FI, Joensuu – Ilosaarirock Festival
06/08/2015 CZ, Josefov – Brutal Assault festival
07/08/2015 PL, Katowice – OFF festival
09/08/2015 DE, Berlin – Heimathafen Neukolln
11/08/2015 RU, Moscow – PIPL (with Phurpa)
13/08/2015 NO, Oslo – Øya festival
14/08/2015 SE, Gothenburg – Way Out West
15/08/2015 DK, Copenhagen – Koncerthuset
16/08/2015 DE, Hamburg – Kampnagel
18/08/2015 UK, London – Southbank Centre, David Byrne’s Meltdown (with Phurpa)
19/11 – 22/11/2015 NE, Utrecht – Le Guess Who? Festival

Additionally, Southern Lord are repressing the following SUNN O))) titles; Black One in limited edition Clear vinyl,
øø Void in limited edition Green vinyl and SUNN O)))/Ulver, Terrestrials in Black vinyl. These are now available on the SUNN O))) store sunn.southernlord.com.

sunn-live.bandcamp.com
https://sunn.southernlord.com/
https://sunn.bandcamp.com/
www.southernlord.com

SunnO))), Live at Southwest Terror Fest, Oct. 19, 2014

Not sure I’m the person to make this kind of declaration, but Mothership are about as much a candidate as Ripple Music has for being a “flagship band.” They rock, first and foremost. They break their collective ass putting in work on the road, and their reach only seems to be expanding as they grow creatively. They’re as representative an act for what appeals most about Ripple as I can think of, and that’s not to take away from anyone else on the label at all, just to say that in the wake of their 2014 sophomore outing, Mothership II (review here), there’s an awful lot the Dallas trio are doing right.

To wit, they’ll release the new live album Live over Freak Valley in Nov., and they’ve just announced yet another US tour, this time with Crobot and Wilson. The PR wire has it like this:

Mothership to release Mothership Live Over Freak Valley this November | Announce US dates for The Drunk As Sh*t Tour with Crobot and Wilson

After the rerelease of their momentous second album and a storming start to 2015, Mothership – the hard rocking supersonic/intergalactic Texan trio – are pleased to announce the arrival of Mothership Live Over Freak Valley this coming November on Ripple Music.

Recorded at their debut European appearance at the iconic German rock festival, brothers Kyle and Kelly Juett along with Judge Smith have captured their steaming hot stew of UFO and Iron Maiden inspired metal; southern Molly Hatchet and ZZ Top swagger, and deathly Sabbathian doom. A concoction that should by all accounts prove too heavy to handle on record, but as fans will soon discover, Mothership Live Over Freak Valley will deliver the filth and fury of the full Mothership live experience.

Since 2013 the band has travelled non-stop, playing live across the USA, Canada, United Kingdom and Europe; taking to festival stages, nightclubs, and under the sun at whatever motorcycle parties they could find. They are for all intents and purposes a heavy rock juggernaut that has only just begun to tear a hole in the cosmos. And guess what? They have no plans of slowing down for anyone.

Over the coming months Mothership also embark on The Drunk As Sh*t Tour with fellow rockers Crobot and Wilson where the band will have CDs of Mothership Live Over Freak Valley on sale ahead of its official vinyl release on Ripple Music at the end of the year. To catch them live and for the full list of dates see below.

Mothership Live:
10th July – Blue Fox Billiards, Winchester, VA
11th July – Ziggy’s By The Sea, Wilmington, NC
14th July – Trick Shot Billiards, Clifton Park, NY
15th July – The Studio at Webster Hall, New York, NY
17th July – Chameleon Club, Lancaster, PA
18th July – The Met, Pawtucket, RI
19th July – The Lost Horizon, Syracuse, NY
21st July – The Outpost, Kent, OH
23rd July – Frankie’s Inner-City, Toledo, OH
24th July – Cheers Pub – South Bend, IN
25th July – The Stache @ The Intersection, Grand Rapids, MI
26th July – Alrosa Villa, Columbus, OH
28th July – Venue 3405, Joplin, MO
31st July – Q&Z Expo Center, Ringle, WI
1st August – Pov’s 65, Spring Lake Park, MN
7th August – Bourbon Theatre, Lincoln, NE**
8th August – Black Sheep, Colorado Springs, CO**
9th August – The Bluebird Theater, Denver, CO**
18th August – Rockbar Theater, San Jose, CA**
** w. Crobot only

Mothership is Kelley Juett (guitars/vocals), Kyle Juett (bass/vocals) and Judge Smith (drums).

http://www.mothershiphaslanded.com/
https://www.facebook.com/mothershipusa
https://twitter.com/mothershipusa
https://www.youtube.com/user/MOTHERSHIPUSA

Mothership, “Serpents Throne” from Live over Freak Valley

When picking out which track on your album you’re going to call “Abso-Fuckin’-Lutely,” take a page out of French heavy classic rockers DoctoR DooM‘s book, and make it move. Boogie runs rampant throughout the Pamiers four-piece’s debut long-player, This Seed We Have Sown, and true to form, “Abso-Fuckin’-Lutely” has all the swing and ’70s vibe one could ask in this post-Graveyard era. The album is out July 24 on Ripple Music CD and will have vinyl to follow in Sept. from STB Records, and in following-up a 2015 7″, a live outing and their 2012 DoomO EP (review here), it presents a steady flow across its nine tracks, beginning with “The Sun” and ending with the quiet guitar of “To be Continued,” which I wouldn’t be surprised to find echoed at the start of their sophomore outing whenever it might arrive.

Between those two and in the meat of This Seed We Have Sown, the lineup of guitarist/vocalist Jean-Laurent Pasquet, guitarist/backing vocalist Jérémie Delattre, bassist/keyboardist Sébastien Boutin Blomfield and drummer/drummer Michel Marcq proffer natural tones and upbeat swing, touching here and there on classic Pentagram stylizations and a not unexpected touch of Sabbath on “So Jinxed” or side B’s “At War with Myself,” which is the longest inclusion at 7:14 and the precursor to “Truth in the Dark,” the particularly proto-metallic de facto closer before “To be Continued” finishes the album. Strong instrumental chemistry throughout and songwriting to match gives the tracks a personality of their own despite whatever genre familiarity they present, and though it has its morose stretches, the prevailing vibe is is more given to motion, and that brings us back to where we started.

“Abso-Fuckin’-Lutely” follows “The Sun,” and while it’s one of the “brighter” cuts on This Seed We Have Sown, its shuffle and groove, especially in Marcq‘s performance, show off DoctoR DooM‘s momentum at one of its most irresistible points on the record. They’re not necessarily pushing forward all the time, but definitely side to side, the songs almost dancing to themselves in pure heavy rock revelry. We’re a month out from the (first) release, but you can find “Abso-Fuckin’-Lutely” on the player below, followed by some more info on the album courtesy of the PR wire.

Please enjoy:

DoctoR DooM was formed in the French town of Ariège in the Midi-Pyrénées by guitarists Jean-Laurent Pasquet and Jérémie Delattre. Having come together out of a shared appreciation for forgotten 60s and 70s music, it didn’t take long for the duo to find kindred spirits in drummer Michel Marcq and bass player Sébastien Boutin Blomfield as they sought to pull together the rhythm section required to knock out a monumentally heavy live set. Initially performing covers of Coven, Thin Lizzy and Deep Purple, out of the riffs and drum rolls of old grew new, original numbers that would later surface fully formed on their 2012 debut DoomO EP on STB Records.

This Seed We Have Sown by DoctoR DooM will be released worldwide on 24th July 2015 on Ripple Music, with a limited vinyl released on STB Records out toward the end of June.

DoctoR DooM:
Jean-Laurent Pasquet (Vocal, Guitar)
Jérémie Delattre (Guitar)
Sébastien Boutin Blomfield (Bass, Keys)
Michel Marcq (Drums)

DoctoR DooM on Thee Facebooks

DoctoR DooM on Bandcamp

STB Records

Ripple Music

Fresh off completing the second of consecutive June weekenders heading out from their home base in West Chester, Pennsylvania, grit rock trio Backwoods Payback have announced they’ll make their inaugural incursion to European shores in July. Quite a jump from one to the other, but the band promised a return to activity when those weekenders were first posted, teasing the possibility of a new album to be recorded that would serve as the follow-up to their 2011 Small Stone debut, Momantha (review here), the arrival of their new drummer Pierson Roe and so on, and touring in the UK and Europe certainly counts as a return to activity, so they’re nothing if not keeping their word.

Operating as the trio of guitarist/vocalist Mike Cummings, bassist Jessica Baker and the aforementioned Roe — who, since it’s an acoustic run, I’m not even sure will be making the trip — Backwoods Payback will begin in London on July 9 and work their way from there into Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France, finishing with two nights in Paris. Kind of curious that they’d make their first tour abroad unplugged, but then, I guess that’s less amps to cart around and/or a cheaper backline. Hard not to admire the pick-up-your-guitar-and-go ideal under which they seem to be working, if nothing else.

And if you happen to be in that part of the world and free one of these nights from what I’ve no doubt is a busy schedule, tell them I said hi.

Tour announcement follows:

Next month JULY 2015 we hit Europe for the first time ever. Acoustic shows throughout the land. Can’t wait to meet everyone across the pond!!

07/09 London UK Bowler Pub
07/10 Kingston UK Wiloughby Arms
07/12 Berlin DE Schokoladen
07/13 Berlin DE Arconoa
07/14 Amsterdam NL Backstage Hotel
07/15 Amsterdam NL Muzieke Cafe
07/16 Cologne DE Tankstelle
07/17 Liege BE Le Surlet
07/19 Paris FR The Pop In
07/20 Paris FR Le Tennessee

https://www.facebook.com/backwoodspayback
https://twitter.com/BckwoodsPayback
http://backwoodspayback.bandcamp.com/
https://instagram.com/backwoodspayback/

Backwoods Payback, In the Ditch (2014)

If you heard the album, you’ll probably recognize the joyful build of “Man Changing the Atoms” from German heavy progressive rockers Carpet‘s 2013 sophomore outing, Elysian Pleasures. Released by Elektrohasch, that album was a reminder of how warm classic prog could readily be and updated what’s all too often a staid presentation with a penchant for exploration and if not spontaneity — because no doubt the Augsburg five-piece were working from a master plan — than at least a plotted sensibility that seemed as exciting to the listener as it might’ve been for the band. The soundscape “Man Changing the Atoms” constructed with its flourish of horns and weighted build made it a highlight of the record, and two years later the song shines on its own as well.

That two years might seem late for Carpet to drop a video for one of the album’s songs, but that’s not quite what’s happening here. The performance of “Man Changing the Atoms” is live, recorded at Ghost City Recordings in Röttenbach by Marius Roos, Philipp Roth and Benjamin Roth and that’s really only surprising for how smoothly the song is executed by the band, expanded from their root four-piece — guitarist/vocalist Maximilian Stephan, bassist Hubert Steiner, key specialist Sigmud Perner and drummer Jakob Mader — to a seven-piece lineup complete with flügelhorn, trumpet, more guitar and percussion, the result suitably intricate. For all its involved players, however, “Man Changing the Atoms” still sounds like the work of a band rather than an orchestra, and the humanity at its root becomes even more of the appeal as they push the song further outward.

And spoiler alert to anyone not familiar with the record: It winds up pretty far out. The video itself is pretty dark for the most part, but it should be easy enough to make out who’s doing what, and even if not, the idea is the whole experience anyway, so have at it and enjoy:

Carpet, “Man Changing the Atoms”

CARPET performing “Man Changing the Atoms”
Captured live at Ghost City Recordings Studio A

Filmed by Marius Roos, Philipp Roth & Benjamin Roth
Edited by Alec Barth

Recorded & mixed by Jan Kerscher

The Carpet Septet presents: “Man Changing the Atoms.” at Ghost City Recordings .
Jakob Mader: drums
Hubert Steiner: bass
Sigi Perner: rhodes and juno
Maximilian Stephan: guitar and the singing
Bruno Polaris: percussion
Benni Benson: guitar
Martin Lehmann: flügelhorn and trumpet

Thanks very much to Jan Kerscher and all people involved!

Carpet on Thee Facebooks

Carpet’s website

Ghost City Recordings

Elektrohasch Schallplatten