Posted in Whathaveyou on February 25th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Austin heavy rockers Honky released their last album, 421, in 2012, but they’ve linked up with Housecore Records for the follow-up, Corduroy, which is due out this spring, and to herald the new release, they’ll be heading over to the UK to tour with Desert Storm, who as previously announced have a new 7″ split out in April with Suns of Thunder via H42 Records. Last I saw Honky was with Fu Manchu in New York nearly half a decade ago (review here), but they certainly kicked ass then, and having also seen him play before, I have severe doubts the addition of Dixie Witch drummer Trinidad Leal to the lineup will have done anything to diminish that.
Leal is one of a number of guests joining founder JD Pinkus (Butthole Surfers) and bassist Bobby Ed Landgraf (Down) on the record, as the info below details:
Honky proudly carries the torch held by the likes of Bloodrock, Pantera, ZZ Top and the red-headed stranger himself, Mr. Willie Nelson.
This Austin Superboogie trio was founded in 1996 by long time Butthole Surfer, part time MELVINS bassist JD Pinkus, Bobby Ed Landgraf (DOWN, Skrew) on guitar, and rounded out by Trinidad Leal (Dixie Witch) on them skins.
Honky dishes out an appetite pleasin’ Superboogie servin’ that’ll keep ya’ comin’ back for more. Austin’s favorite sons have released some of the best stripped down, butt shakin’, rock ever cut to Wax, Tape, or CD, and have toured with the likes of Nashville Pussy, the Reverend Horton Heat, Fu Manchu, Melvins, Peter Pan Speedrock, Down, and David Allan Coe.
Honky’s newest release, Corduroy, is another feast of down and dirty rock, rollin’ across the finish line late this Spring on Philip Anselmo’s Housecore Records. Thick enough to eat with a fork but you’ll wanna keep a spoon handy so ya don’t miss out on that gravy… Drum duties are handled by a more then qualified group of drummers, Trinidad Leal (Dixie Witch), Michael ‘Night Train’ Brueggen (Blackula, Syrup, Supagroup), Dale Crover (Melvins), and even Original Honky drummer, Lance Farley, makin’ the grooves proper… Guest appearances by Mark ‘Speedy’ Gonzales and the Fantasma Horns, as well as, our favorite Honkette, Rae Comeau, add to the tastees thrown y’alls’ way.
Honky/Desert Storm UK Tour July/Aug 2016: 07.26 Cambridge Portland Arms 07.27 Exeter The Cavern 07.28 London The Underworld 07.29 Oxford The Bullingdon 07.30 Cardiff Red Sun Festival 07.31 Milton Keynes Craufurd Arms 08.01 Bristol Exchange 08.02 Evesham The Iron Road 08.03 Coventry The Arches 08.04 Bournemouth The Anvil
I said last month that I wanted to start presenting more shows this year, and on April 16, I’m glad to say The Obelisk will present the record release gig for King Dead‘s debut album, Woe and Judgment (review here). Initially released digitally last fall, the atmospheric sludgers’ first outing is being pressed to vinyl supported by funds from preorders, and to mark the occasion of its impending arrival, King Dead will be joined at The Living Room in Stroudsberg, Pennsylvania, by upstate New York heavy psych rockers King Buffalo and hometown newcomers Dead Men.
King Dead‘s lurching malevolence is writ large over the three-song Woe and Judgment, evocative in its instrumental lurch and consuming in its tones. I can speak to experience on having seen them share the stage with Rochester’s King Buffalo at The Living Room, and they made a fitting one-two. King Buffalo head to PA in advance of the arrival of their own debut LP, Orion, which was being mastered as of last week and is likely done by now or close to it. Of course, they’ll also be playing The Obelisk All-Dayer in August, and if you want to consider their live show doubly endorsed by me, that’s certainly cool on my end.
Opening for the two kingly acts will be Dead Men, a trio who released their first demo track in December in a song called “Unclear.” Heavy punk has a hold in their style, but their tones are more weighted and should lead well into King Buffalo‘s classic, somewhat more pastoral style en route to King Dead‘s bleaker spaciousness. Nothing like a night that flows well, and I hear King Dead have been working on new material and in fact may or may not have started recording a follow-up for Woe and Judgment by the time the show comes around, so all the better. Bottom line is I’m thrilled to be able to highlight this one, and hope that if you’re in the area on April 16 you’ll be able to make it out:
Posted in Reviews on February 25th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Now on the other side of the 20-year mark, Tokyo-based doom traffickers Church of Misery seem only to be getting more and more volatile. This suits their long-established murder fetishization, as bassist/founder Tatsu Mikami has become as unpredictable in where he’ll take the band next as he’s been reliable to be obsessed with serial killers when he gets there. Issued through Rise Above, Church of Misery‘s fifth (or sixth, depending on what you count) full-length, And Then There Were None, follows only three years behind 2013’s Thy Kingdom Scum (review here), and yet it has brought about a complete revision of who the band are and what they do. Mikami, as ever, is at the center. He’s seen players come and go all along, but the new seven-track/42-minute collection might be the most radical revamp to-date.
Traveling to the heart of American doom’s underground — Maryland — Mikami assembled a Church of Misery lineup as an in-the-know supergroup, hand-picking Dave “Depraved” Szulkin of Blood Farmers for guitar and Earthride and ex-Internal Void drummer Eric Little, and grabbing Repulsion frontman Scott Carlson (based in Los Angeles) for the vocalist role. No one has ever accused Mikami of having bad taste in anything except perhaps subject matter, and one sincerely doubts And Then There Were None will change that. Perhaps as notable a shift as that of the lineup is the fact that Mikami didn’t write the lyrics for the album, Carlson did, and while “Doctor Death (Harold Shipman),” “Make Them Die Slowly (John George Haigh),” “Murderfreak Blues (Tommy Lynn Sells),” etc. are still working on a theme and keeping to the direct parenthetical references to mass murderers that has become a staple of Church of Misery‘s approach, the fact that it’s someone else doing the job is a major departure for the band.
It is one of few. Though Mikami has chosen the company he’s keeping exceedingly well, the core of what makes Church of Misery who they are — their running lyrical theme and ultra-loyalist Sabbathian doom rock — remains righteously intact on And Then There Were None, as the lurching opener “The Hell Benders (The Bender Family)” sets out to immediately prove. It begins with sampled violence; something metal hitting with a thud, someone yelling. Carlson, who also played bass in Cathedral, seems to be taking some cues from that band’s frontman, Lee Dorrian (also the head of Rise Above) in adding a spoken layer under his guttural verses, and he adds considerable presence both to the opening track and to the album as a whole, though the same could be said of Szulkin‘s spaced-out guitar solo and Little‘s stomping drums at the end of the song as well. That same airy lead tone from Szulkin makes an appearance on the subsequent “Make Them Die Slowly (John George Haigh)” and returns for closer “Murderfreak Blues (Tommy Lynn Sells),” while “Doctor Death (Harold Shipman)” (at least its second solo) and centerpiece “River Demon (Arthur Shawcross)” offer earthier fare.
In either context, Szulkin meets the occasion no less head-on than Carlson or Little as “Make Them Die Slowly” offers the strongest hook of And Then There Were None, all swing and well-justified cowbell in its post-sample final chorus before a British news report about Harold Shipman starts “Doctor Death” with start-stop riffing and tom rolls leading to a standout “yeah” from Carlson and satisfyingly nodding groove. They break in the midsection and seem to be starting over with the news report, but the second half of the track is faster and gives the vocals a fitting showcase. Mikami‘s bass feels all the more central in complementing the initial lead of “River Demon,” and Little‘s snare matches step before a sample of Shawcross himself describes a strangulation before the first verse starts. He’ll return again before the finish to recount filling a dead body with C4 before some organ is added to the song’s finish, but most of all, “River Demon” is about Mikami, Szulkin and Little locking into that pivotal rhythm, and as such, it’s all the more fitting as the centerpiece of the record.
That remains true as “Confessions of an Embittered Soul (Leonarda Cianciulli)” repurposes the central riff of Sabbath‘s “Wicked World” into an even more lurking vibe, the guitar reminding a bit of Beelzefuzz‘s organ-style tonality but moving fluidly into and out of solos between Carlson‘s verses before the pace picks up with Iommic layered leads in the midsection — Mikami‘s fuzz crucial — before an ending that does likeminded justice to “Into the Void.” Before “Murderfreak Blues” rounds out, the interlude “Suicide Journey (Heaven’s Gate Cult)” very subtly expands Church of Misery‘s context from serial killers to cults over airy guitar work from Szulkin via more sampled news reports about the Heaven’s Gate group in San Diego, CA, whose 39 members committed suicide in 1997 in order to be transported to the passing comet Hale-Bopp and thus freed from the destruction the arriving millennium would bring. It’s under two minutes long, and definitely an interlude leading to the closer, but it does mark an expansion on the band’s theme, even if it’s not the first time they’ve focused on a cult leader. Fuzzy bass and lumbering guitar start “Murderfreak Blues,” which might as well be a mission statement for Church of Misery, along with an eight-minute bookend with “The Hell Benders,” for its tale of abuse and murder, thoroughly doomed style and unabashed riff-led modus.
As noted, Szulkin provides a highlight lead, but the finale is more about reaffirming how well this incarnation of Church of Misery has worked all throughout And Then There Were None, which it does more than ably. A final jam crashes out with some last sampling and they rumble to a finish no less methodical than was the beginning of “The Hell Benders.” Perhaps more than ever, it’s easy to see Church of Misery as the work of a single mastermind — Mikami — but that shouldn’t lead one to discount the contributions of Little, Szulkin or Carlson here, since Church of Misery sound very much like both and full band and are recognizable as themselves across these songs, both of which are a testament to the new lineup and the songwriting process at root. Hard to imagine And Then There Were None won’t be their best-received album in the States, but beyond that, it demonstrates Mikami‘s unflinching will to take his band’s style to new places and new directions while still holding firm to what’s made it such a landmark all along. Church of Misery remain essential doom, even as they’re subject to seemingly unending flux and less predictable than ever in what they might do next.
Church of Misery, And Then There Were None album trailer
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 25th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Bushfire‘s addition to the lineup for Freak Valley 2016 continues a years-running relationship between the band and the festival, and their slot this year places them among the headliners for a special set to be accompanied by live fire dancing. Sounds like absolute madness? I agree, but they’re making it happen nonetheless. Bushfire released their most recent single, “Glossolalia,” in 2013 as a concurrent follow-up to their Heal Thy Self LP (review here), and have lacked nothing all along for a sense of adventurousness. Glad to know the last several years have not seen that diminish.
You know the drill by now. Freak Valley 2016 announced Bushfire as follows:
Way back in 2011, the Vortex Surfer Musikclub and Rock Freaks crew booked a band that soon would grow into the hearts and minds of the Siegen family.
After their first show, Jens inquired the band to play at a newly founded festival he and his team were preparing. So 2012 was a big year, as the first edition of their festival came into being.
The organizers knew one band, even though not locals, that has definitely been part of the family ever since their first show in Siegen. Every year, the band takes on new challenges with pride and honor, from a perfect stage time, to opening the festival, to creating a new stage to represent their own local scene and those who still belong, to an uber-packed festival, to dedicating their past show as a wedding gift for one of the Rock Freaks crew. Bushfire has always been present, in front of the stage rocking, and in the back, behind the scenes, helping.
This year, BUSHFIRE take on the newest, heaviest, and hottest challenge to celebrate the five year running FREAK VALLEY FESTIVAL. Saturday night, between the headliners, BUSHFIRE will light up the evening with a very special event on the small stage, as requested by the band itself. Joining up with a fire team, Dancing Flames – The Fire Sensation, BUSHFIRE will perform an unforgettable show for all of us to celebrate with!
Line-up 2016: GRAVEYARD [SW] – Vintage Rock DEAD MEADOW [US] – Psychedelic Stonerrock SPIDERGAWD [NO] – Post-Boogie WHITE HILLS [US] – Fuzzed Out Motorik Psychedelic THE SHRINE [US] – Psychedelic Violence Rock and Roll BABY WOODROSE [DK]- Psychedelic Garagerock LONELY KAMEL [NO]- Heavy Blues, Hardrock & Stoner ROTOR [D] – Instrumental StonerRock/Psychedelic MONOLORD [SW] – Doom/Sludge MANTAR [D] – Death Metal Doom Punk TOUNDRA [SP] – Postrock FARFLUNG [US] – Spacerock for 21st Century Heads BLACK RAINBOWS [IT] – Heavy Psych THE GOLDEN GRASS [US]- Heavy/Funk//Psych/Freakbeat SPIDERS [SW] – Hard/Glam Rock LÉ BETRE [SW] – Bluesy Hardrock GIÖBIA [IT] – Acid Rock THE DEVIL AND THE ALMIGHTY BLUES [NO] – HeavyBluesRock THE SONIC DAWN [DK] – Psychedelic Rock
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 24th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
As of this post, there’s been no official word from the band directly on the subject, but it appears that Portland, Oregon, heavy rockers Sons of Huns are calling it quits, at least for the time being. An upcoming European tour that included a slot at Freak Valley 2016 has been nixed, and while they have a show next Friday, March 4, at The Know in Portland with Cloud Catcher and Pushy, they’ve apparently set March 28 as the end of their tenure — again, at least for now.
One never wants to say never in these situations, because six months or four years from now who knows what might come, but even if their exit is temporary, Sons of Huns make it at the sacrifice of considerable momentum. While also sharing guitarist/vocalist Pete Hughes with Danava, the band — Hughes, Aaron Powell on bass/vocals and Ryan Northrop on drums — made a stir in their own right, their second album, While Sleeping Stay Awake (review here), having landed from RidingEasy Records as one of 2015’s highlight riffers and a worthy follow-up to their 2013 debut, Banishment Ritual. Even in the crowded Pacific Northwest, Sons of Huns seemed able to reach an audience.
Cool band, glad I got to see them. Their final offering was made last month in the form of a collaboration beer/single with Gigantic Brewing called Kiss the Goat (posted here), and Freak Valley festival posted the announcement from the band:
Sons of Huns canceled their European tour including the show @ FVF. Here’s their official statement:
“Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, Sons of Huns has to cancel their European Tour for May 2016. We are truly sorry to our fans and folks counting on us being there. We hope to make it up to you one day. Thank you for understanding. There’s been some items of business that we’ve had to figure out as a band, and it has caused us to go on indefinite hiatus after March 28th, 2016.”
Posted in Bootleg Theater on February 24th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Louisiana atmospheric metallers Forming the Void issued their debut album, Skyward, last fall. The brooding, lurching Lafayette four-piece have a new video for the track “Three Eyed Gazelle” from the outing, and it captures the kind of understated intensity that lies beneath the outwardly (mostly) calm waters of the song’s surroundings, Forming the Void taking cues from progressive metal as much as if not more than doom, resulting in a persistent sense of tightness to their rhythms and melodies and a style more forward thinking than one usually finds on an album the cover for which features a goat-inclusive ritual of some sort or other. Not to generalize, but if you’re reading this, you know what I’m talking about.
There’s plenty of ritual in the video itself, admittedly. The part of the gazelle? Why it’s played by a pretty lady in antlers, of course. She bellydances in front of a bonfire at night as the footage is sped up and slowed down to match the band’s rhythm, her third eye prevalent in her forehead and just a bit on the other side of creepy. The song’s blend of sludge and teeth-clenched metal calls to mind the likes of a less abrasive Beastwars from New Zealand or maybe Cultura Tres from Venezuela, so Forming the Void are nothing if not worldly. Might be a little clean for some listeners, in accordance with that whole “prog” thing, but has a darker vibe as well to go with all that fire and nighttime and those robes that show up later on.
The album — I’ve also seen it called an EP, so you know, don’t go quoting me or anything — is streaming now on Bandcamp, where the CD’s also available on the cheap. Links and other info after the video below. Enjoy:
Forming the Void, “Three Eyed Gazelle” official video
FORMING THE VOID – “Three Eyed Gazelle” from the album “Skyward”
Directed by David Rabalais from Randy Diddly studios randydiddly.com
FORMING THE VOID is a rock band based out of Lafayette, Louisiana. The band has been performing regularly since October of 2013 and released their second album, “SKYWARD” in August 2015. Their unique blend of atmospheric and stoner rock with a metal influence places a heavy emphasis on textures and layers.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 24th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Progressive heavy rock duo Cave of Swimmers head out on a Southern tour the day after tomorrow, supporting their 2015 release, Reflection, and playing their first live dates of the year. Listening to Reflection, it’s kind of hard to imagine how Cave of Swimmers can manage to conjure such a full-band vibe on stage — actually, my first question is whether or not that process involves a laptop — but they’ve been at it a few years now, having gotten their start with a self-titled EP/LP in 2013 that was later picked up for a pressing through The Path Less Traveled Records, so it seems reasonable to assume that one way or another they’ve got it figured out.
And while we’re on the subject, if they do have a laptop with them, I acknowledge that for some that’s an issue or a strike against, but I do not feel that way. Rock and roll by any and all means necessary. Only time I might be bummed out is if someone stopped a show to check their email. Then it might be overboard. Unless it’s an art-piece, like, part of the show in a Tony Clifton kind of way or something like that. Then it would be brilliant. Context is everything.
What was I saying?
Oh yeah, tour dates. Here they are:
Miami duo Cave of Swimmers is going on tour this Friday. They are known to put on a live show like no other. They are out of control and full of raw energy that is infectious. They have gained recognition throughout the country and have been invited all over Florida to open for national acts. Their most recent show took place in Gainesville on December 18 and opened for thrashers High On Fire and Crowbar. They’re also playing Psycho Las Vegas Music Festival 2016 in August.
Reflection Winter Tour Feb 26 St Petersburg, FL @ The Bends Feb 27 Gainesville, FL @ The Atlantic Feb 29 Nashville, TN @ Springwater Mar 1 Memphis, TN @ Hi Tone Mar 2 Tulsa, OK @ Soundpony Mar 4 Ft. Worth, TX @ The Grotto Mar 5 San Antonio, TX @ Faust Tavern Mar 6 Houston, TX @ Super Happy Fun Land Mar 10 New Orleans, LA @ Siberia Mar 11 Metairie, LA @ The Babylon Mar 12 Sarasota, FL @ Cabana Inn
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 24th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
This Friday and Saturday, Tucson, Arizona, plays host to Borderland Fuzz Fiesta 2016. It’s a two-night, 16-band desert rager, essentially, and if you missed the notice that went up with the mixtape last week, I’m going to be there to cover it. I’m expecting primo good times and you should too.
Originally, I was supposed to fly out with two-thirds of Massachusetts trio Elder, who were set to headline the Saturday night, but apparently those guys are so sick of hearing me drone on about how awesome their 2015 album, Lore (review here), was that guitarist/vocalist Nick DiSalvo went ahead and busted up his fret hand in such a way that it won’t be healed by the time the weekend rolls around. And since in my limited understanding of the instrument, one needs fingers to work the fret of a guitar, Elder has sadly dropped off the bill of Borderland Fuzz Fiesta 2016. I apologize to everyone for being a completely awful seat-mate on the airplane. Please address all “fuck off”s to the comments below, and in all seriousness, get well soon, Nick.
Now, faced with the unenviable task of finding someone to fill in that space, Borderland Fuzz Fiesta 2016 has pulled out its biggest desert rocking guns and announced that Fatso Jetson will be playing. No minor addition, that. Between Yawning Man playing Saturday and Fatso Jetson stepping up for Friday, as well as the inclusion of others like Blaak Heat, Waxy, Dandy Brown and 3rd Ear Experience, it’s a full-on desert extravaganza. And as a bonus, the father/son duo of Mario and Dino Lalli will sit in with Yawning Man for a mega-jam, making the whole thing even more special.
Here are the final poster and lineup. If you’re going, I’ll see you in Tucson:
Hey everyone we have some bad news. Elder won’t be playing at BFF this year. Nick broke his finger earlier this month. We all were hoping for a healthy recovery, but yesterday the doc didn’t give him the green light. We all our pretty bummed out, the band included. We do have a replacement though. Fatso Jetson will be taking the place of Yawning Man on Fri, and Mario And his son will be rejoining Yawning Man for a very special set for the Sat night.
