Posted in Whathaveyou on April 30th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Bible of the Devil, you say? Coming east, you say? Well, that might be the kind of thing to make a reclusive-type individual get off his fat ass and head to the Bowery Electric on a Sunday night. The Chicago outfit don’t get out of the Midwest that often — they note below the last time they hit the Eastern Seaboard was 2011; a distant memory of a simpler age, despite all that war and whatnot — and I think it’s been even longer than that since I last saw them play, so yeah, I’ve put this one on the calendar. They’ll be at Grub, Sweat & Beers in Boston, but as I’ll be south at that point in NJ or at least CT, it seems like Manhattan is the way to go. Can’t even remember the last show I saw in Manhattan proper. Couldn’t tell you. Could probably look it up. Not going to.
Presumably somewhere along the line either before or after this run — or maybe during? that would be the other option — Bible of the Devil will have their new album out, which I remain dying to hear. Hopefully sooner rather than later, but either way I’m sure when it lands it’ll kick ass and (fingers crossed) have at least one song about the night, which is awesome.
Here’s the latest word from the band:
Bible of the Devil Spring/Summer Update 2018
Greetings BOTD fans! We’ve been moving right along and have survived yet another winter here in Chicago. We have a barrage of awesome coming at you this spring and summer so get ready. New album is just about there and we look forward to delivering it to your hands later in the year. In the meantime, come see us at our upcoming shows.
BOTD’s “Street Heat” tour covers a much needed return to the east coast where they haven’t been since 2011 and finishes back in Chicago for Alehorn of Power X. These are some amazing shows to be a part of so if you are in the area, please come out and rock with us.
“Street Heat” Summer Tour 2018 July 20th Fri. Pittsburgh, PA @ Cattivo’s w/ Argus, Horehound July 21st Sat. Allston, MA @ O’Brien’s Grub, Sweat, n Beers Fest w/ Hey Zeus July 22nd Sun. New York City, NY @ Bowery Electric w/ Hey Zeus July 23rd Mon. Richmond, VA @ Strange Matter w/ Twisted Tower Dire, Desert Altar July 24th Tues. Wilmington, NC @ Reggie’s 42nd Street Tavern w/ All Night High, Children of the Reptile July 25th Wed. Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle Back Room w/ Mega Colossus, Demon Eye, Witch Mountain July 26th Thurs. Columbus, OH @ Ace of Cups w/ Mega Colossus, Beggars July 27th Fri. Detroit, MI @ Small’s w/ Mega Colossus, Kommander July 28th Sat. Chicago, IL @ Reggie’s Live Alehorn of Power X w/ High Spirits, Mega Colossus, Ignitor, Owl, Stagecoach Inferno, Zuul
Bible of the Devil is: Nathan Perry: Vocals, Guitars Greg Spalding: Drums, Loathing Darren Amaya: Bass, Vocals Chris Grubbs: Guitars
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 30th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
UK garage doom forerunners Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats spent much of 2016 on the road touring the crap out of their 2015 fourth album, The Night Creeper (review here), which was by far their grimeiest yet. It’s important to add the ‘yet’ there because the band are set to have a new album out this Fall through Rise Above Records, which also reissued their long-lost 2010 debut, Vol. 1 (review here), late last year.
The band were relatively quiet in 2017 apart from that reissue, so one imagines the new record has been through a wringer of a writing process, and in addition to, you know, actually hearing it, I’ll be interested to find out who recorded/is recording the thing, since so much of the band’s approach comes down to sonic aesthetics and capturing that grainy, classic and threatening sound.
One more to get excited about, and from the looks of the announced European and UK tours, they’ll once again be doing some considerable road time.
From Rise Above‘s social medias:
UK’s scuzziest ambassadors of blood-curdling fuzz, UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS, prepare to hit the roads of mainland Europe and Scandinavia this November/December in support of their much anticipated fifth album, due out this autumn.
Support will come from the mistresses of reverb-soaked garage rock, L.A. WITCH, who will be returning to Europe after their own successful headline tour this March/April.
Uncle Acid and the deadbeats UK tour dates announced. Supported by Blood Ceremony!
Begin: transmission
“These will be our first European shows in two years and we’re hungry to get back out and lay waste to many of our favourite cities. You will enjoy the show experiencing the latest PsychoVision screen technologies with piles of cranked up, ear splitting valve amplification to melt your minds. The nightmare shall resume!”
The specially commissioned artwork for the tour is by legendary Italian poster artist Enzo Sciotti (Fulci, Argento, Romero).
Stay tuned for further tour dates and album release info.
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats live w/ L.A. Witch: 15.11 BE Brussels AB 16.11 NL Amsterdam Paradiso Noord 17.11 DE Hamburg Knust 19.11 SE Gothenburg Pustervik 20.11 NO Oslo Rockefeller 21.11 SE Stockholm Nalen 23.11 FI Helsinki Tavastia 25.11 DK Copenhagen Gra Hall 26.11 DE Berlin SO36 27.11 PL Warsaw Hybrydy 28.11 DE Dresden Beatpol 29.11 AT Vienna Arena 01.12 DE Munich Strom 02.12 IT Milan Legend 03.12 FR Villeurbanne Transbordeur 04.12 CH Zurich Dynamo 06.12 DE Karlsruhe Substage 07.12 DE Osnabruck Rosenhof 08.12 DE Koln Luxor 09.12 FR Paris La Maroquinerie
Uncle Acid live w/ Blood Ceremony: 16.01 Leeds Brudenell 17.01 Newcastle O2 Academy 2 18.01 Glasgow G2 19.01 Belfast Limelight 2 20.01 Dublin Academy Green Room 22.01 Manchester Gorilla 23.01 Birmingham O2 Institute 2 24.01 Cardiff The Globe 25.01 London Koko
Norwegian ultraprogger weirdos Tusmørke release their sixth album, Fjernsyn i Farver, May 4 via Karisma Records. The temptation is going to be to try to keep up with where the Oslo-based five-piece go on the follow-up/companion-piece to 2017’s Hinsides, but I’m not sure that’s either the way to go when it actually comes to listening or what the band intends for the listening experience. With strong currents of flute and various organs and keys, New Wave-style rhythms, bilingual lyrics and enough turns of mood and sound to be legitimately dizzying, I think Tusmørke on these six tracks are happy doing their own thing. They are way, way out there. Way gone.
Mind you, I’m not saying that an attempt to hold pace with Tusmørke on the six-track/43-minute outing isn’t worthwhile, and if you’re the type to keep tabs literally or figuratively on every move a band makes on a given record, then you should at least know that songs like the opening title-track, its proclamation-laced eight-minute compatriot “Kniven i Kurven” — the similar title construction of which to the track preceding and the album itself hardly feels coincidental — will keep you busy for some time to come. There’s a plan at work, and these songs are crafted rather than kitchen-sinked — elements like flute and Wurlitzer aren’t just thrown in. They serve no less purpose to the overall proceedings than vocals, guitar, bass or drums, and as the band careens between genres and a chiaroscuro thematic, they mostly depart the serene and classic progressive feel of Hinsides — the three-minute “Borgerlig Tussmørke” notwithstanding — in favor of a late-’70s, semi-electronic spirit that’s alt-universe danceable on “Kniven i Kurven” and given more to spacey swirl and Magma/Amon Düül II-ish headspinning on “3001,” which arrives ahead of the English-language “Death Czar,” the penultimate inclusion, on which declarations about the cosmic egg from which the universe hatched and other such ideas are laid bare.
The title Fjernsyn i Farver translates to “color television,” and while I’m not entirely sure how that plays into the ideas explored about reflected light — also, my ignorant American ass speaks not a lick of Norwegian beyond a few choice words picked up from repeated exposure in black metal: “skog,” “svart,” etc. — the depths of the arrangements throughout the title-track, “3001” the percussively insistent “Death Czar” and the sense of reconciliation in the prog-boogie of closer “Tøyens Hemmellighet” give the record as a whole a richness of character that the utter hack in me almost can’t stop himself from calling “colorful.” Nonetheless, the sonic variety and diverse personality that Tusmørke adopt for this album and the ease with which they prove malleable to that intent, can only be considered a win on the whole. And while the exploratory complexity of the material is a central factor to the listening experience, neither is Fjernsyn i Farver without a sense of songwriting and craft at work. I alluded to it somewhere above, but this isn’t a happenstance collection, and the chorus of the title-track proves it as much as the obvious consideration put into the flowing instrumental grace and far-away echoes that bring “Tøyens Hemmellighet” to its end.
Rather, opaque though it might be especially for those of limited linguistic skills such as myself, Fjernsyn i Farver brims with purpose in its execution, and each element at work is a part of it. The active nature of their rhythm, the clarity of thought put into each track and the variety they present throughout may be difficult to trace step by step, but taken in its entirety, the sweeping breadth that ensues is both immersive and affecting in any language.
I have the pleasure today of hosting the full premiere of Fjernsyn i Farver below ahead of the release later this week. You’ll find it on the player here, followed by the best band quote I’ve gotten in a while to go with one of these streams, which actually goes a long way toward explaining what Tusmørke are up to conceptually here. There’s also more background from the PR wire, which includes what I assume is a complete list of the instruments used on these tracks.
Please enjoy:
Benediktator on Fjernsyn i Farver:
Fjernsyn i Farver is a companion piece to our last album Hinsides. All the songs came about in roughly the same mindframe and spacetime. We then sorted the songs into two categories, Death and Space. Hinsides was thus the death album (“death” is pronounced “dess” in Norwegian), while this is the space album, both sci-fi-wise and psychedelically.
Don’t expect the sound of ’67, though; we are more inspired by Goblin, Norwegian new wavers Kjøtt, Norwegian hardrockers Høst and bird watching. How come? Well, space is full of horror, hardness, rocks and waves. Also, Benediktator and Krizla are keen ornithologists. The world was hatched from the cosmic egg, laid by the bird of paradise. The yolk of our existence is still surrounded by the white, the blinding light that blocks our true sight. The question isn’t: Where do visions come from? The question is: Where do they go? The answer is, unfortunately, in Norwegian.
“Fjernsyn i farver” (“Colour Television”) is Tusmørke’s sixth full length album, loosely based on two concepts of light, time and reality. How everything we see is a reflection made by light from the sun hitting an object – The reflected light is registered by our eyes, but the reflection is also sent out in all other possible directions, travelling at the speed of light. The unobstructed reflections would travel forever onwards into space. If we could devise a means to move faster than light, we could overtake these reflections and view them again, seeing history backwards.
The second idea is that light is not seen as anything until it hits something and is reflected back, creating an image in colour for the human eye. So if there were no physical objects to reflect the light, there would be an eternal totality, a darkness of sorts, since light would not be seen.
With artwork by Linn Solveig Halvorsrød and design by Tom Korsvold, tracklisting on the album us as follows:
1. Fjernsyn i farver (Colour Television) 2. Kniven i kurven (The Knife in the Basket) 3. Borgerlig tussmørke (Civil Twilight) 4. 3001 5. Death Czar 6. Tøyens hemmelighet (The Secret of Tøyen)
Featuring members of WOBBLER, JORDSJØ and ALWANZATAR, TUSMØRKE’s lineup fields an almost dizzying variety of instruments, and is comprised of Benediktator on Bass, vocals, Glockenspiel and percussion, Krizla on Flute, vocals, electronics and percussion, The Phenomenon Marxo Solinas on Minimoog Model D, Korg CX3, William de Blaise on harpsichord, Steinway & Sons Grand Piano, Hohner Clavinet D6, Mellotron M400, Hammond C3, Wurlitzer 200 and Solina String Ensemble, and HlewagastiR on Drums and percussion.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 30th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
I’ll be honest with you, I don’t care if the new Candlemass is inspired by Parcheesi. It’s new Candlemass. That’s what matters. The Swedish legends of doom metal led by bassist Leif Edling present four new songs on their upcoming House of Doom EP, which takes its name from, yeah, a video game, and will be released by Napalm on May 25 ahead of a reported new full-length due this autumn. More new Candlemass? Mark it a win. Some things just make the universe a better place.
They’ve got a lyric video up for the House of Doom title-track that you can see at the bottom of this post, and yes, it kicks ass. Doom doesn’t get much more doom than Candlemass. They pretty much built this ‘House.’
From the PR wire:
CANDLEMASS TO RELEASE NEW EP ‘HOUSE OF DOOM’ ON MAY 25th!
It only takes a few short bars of the title track “House Of Doom” to feel that familiar sensation again: yes, Leif Edling aka the undisputed king of minor key songwriting has returned. With him, he brings frenzied riffing, melancholy made sound and warm Hammond organ tapestries that form the pillars of every CANDLEMASS classic!
Mats Levén on the EP:
“We in Candlemass are proud to present 4 new songs to the world on the new EP ‘House of Doom’! The title track is inspired by the House of Doom game from Hyperfrost. We’re also very happy that our label Napalm Records are with us all the way – 2018 will be a big year for Candlemass!”
The Swedish pioneers of doom managed once again to distill the essence of epic doom metal – and at the same time they make waiting for the next long player (to be released in fall 2018) even harder…
Track Listing: 01. House of Doom 02. Flowers of Deception 03. Fortuneteller 04. Dolls On A Wall
Lineup: Leif Edling: Bass Mats “Mappe” Björkman: Guitars Jan Lindh: Drums Lars “Lasse” Johansson: Guitars Mats Levén: Vocals
In addition to the regular EP there will be 10″ etched vinyl with an exclusive 9,5 minutes long version of the song ‘The House Of Doom’. This 10″ will be available to win from April 27th.
The vinyl cannot be bought, it can only be obtained by playing the game HOUSE OF DOOM.
To win the contest users need to sign up to a selected casino through the houseofdoom.com website.
Winners of the contest will be selected at random. Supply is limited so this will be a very rare and collectible item. You can win other exclusive merchandise by playing the game, including signed t-shirts and more.
[Click play above to stream Soma Holiday by Trevor’s Head in its entirety. Album is out today, April 30, on APF Records.]
Breathing and lush synth begins Soma Holiday by UK trio Trevor’s Head, and from the dug-in post-Kyuss thrust-into-richer-psychedelic-hypnosis of “Sleepstate” through the secret track about fucking chickens — way to take Alabama down a peg, guys — the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Roger Atkins, bassist/vocalist Aaron Strachan and drummer/vocalist/keyboardist/flutist Matt Ainsworth (all also contribute percussion) — I wouldn’t exactly call the record progressive front to back, but it has those tendencies and is definitely varied and thoughtful in its way, in addition to being most definitely the product of children of the 1990s.
Discernible influences tell the tale from the aforementioned Kyuss, to Orange Goblin on “I Can’t Believe it’s Not Better,” Tool and System of a Down on “Bomb,” and more mellow grunge in the verses of centerpiece “Clerical Error” that meet with quirky starts and stops maybe derived from Queens of the Stone Age or maybe just the result of meshing all the rest with a bit of the UK’s modern heavy boom. Swapping out vocalists adds to the sonic diversity as Trevor’s Head, for whom Soma Holiday marks their third album and debut on APF Records, but even punker cuts like “Billion $ Fart” and the 38-second “Writer’s Block” bear the hallmarks of a ’90s stylization, especially when paired next to the inventive basslines and proggy melody of “Ghost” in the case of the former or the riff-forward motion of the aforementioned “Clerical Error” in the case of the latter.
Ultimately though, if Soma Holiday is progressive at all amid the occasional fart joke and “Verbal Hygiene,” which seems to take a stance on political correctness one way or the other, it’s progressive in a metallic sense. Recorded at Foel Studios by Mike Bew, Gazz Rogers and Tom Wild (the latter of whom also mixed and mastered), the guitar tone of Atkins has more crunch than fuzz, which leaves room for Strachan‘s low end to shine throughout — as behind the guitar solo on “Verbal Hygiene,” just for one example — and as “Harvest Ritual” moves from Primus-style storytelling its quick intro into more straight-ahead desert sprinting, the thickness of the riffing remains a tie to both the punkish cuts and broader-reaching atmospheric pieces like “Ghost” just before and the acoustic, percussion-laced “Departed” later on, though admittedly that track is a standout either way in its surroundings near the end of the record, with “Boomeranxiety,” “Bomb” and closer “Welcome (The Unburdening)” behind it offering some of Soma Holiday‘s proggiest stretches, though again, those are more than a little undercut by that secret track.
“Boomeranxiety” asks the very British question, “Chips or crisps?” amid a suitably frenetic riff and drum progression and willfully weird vocal approach before turning into bass-led semi-ska bounce and finishing out with a return to its central riff, and “Bomb” references Slayer in the lyrics while building a memorable hook before a scream-laced bridge that turns to the post-Helmet start-stopping “Welcome (The Unburdening),” which ties together much of the album almost in spite of itself — that is, I don’t think it was written or placed in order to do so specifically, but there’s something about closing the album with “Welcome” and starting it with “Sleepstate” that seems to be purposefully backwards in a way Trevor’s Head might very much enjoy on a conceptual level.
A word of warning to those who’d take it on: Soma Holiday most definitely has its tongue-in-cheek moments, and some of those might lead one to think that even its more serious side is facetious on some level. I’m not sure in the end if it is or if the whole thing is one big joke to the band, but either way, that concern should be secondary to the actual scope Trevor’s Head bring to the album’s 53-minute span. There are jarring moments among all the changes, but these don’t feel like accidents either, and it seems more like Ainsworth, Atkins and Strachan want the listener to meet them on their own level rather than have the band make overtures to accessibility in order to engage as many people as possible.
That lack of compromise ends up being a strength, and as Soma Holiday is Trevor’s Head‘s second album as a three-piece behind 2016’s Tricolossus, it’s easy to hear in the growth from one record to the next that they’re in the process of becoming the band they want to be and have set about refining and expanding the parameters of their sound to make it happen. Not everyone’s going to get it. Not everyone’s going to want to get it. But for a select few, Soma Holiday is going to feel oddly like home in its attitude and style, and in accomplishing that, it would seem to meet precisely the band’s goals in its making.
A little post-Roadburn worship for The Heads, and well earned. Some 22 years after making their debut via Relaxing With…, the UK psych lords remain thoroughly untamed — their sound rife with searing freakouts and a sense of what might’ve happened if the UK had put garage rock on the Voyager probe and then had it return to earth warped by the very fabric of the universe. To listen to the wah attack of “Woke Up” or the bit of ’60s-style boogie thrown into “U33,” it’s clear The Heads — guitarist/vocalist Simon Price, bassist Hugo Owen Morgan, guitarist Paul Allen and drummer Wayne Maskell — at least had some sense of what they were doing at the outset. That’s not to intimate the opposite applies to “Chipped” or “Slow Down” or “Widowmaker,” but just that there’s a decent amount of Relaxing With… that seems to have been purposefully left to chance and that exploration of sound has always been a crucial element of who they are as a band. Don’t believe me? “Coogan’s Bluff.”
Perhaps with the exception of the grungey “Taken too Much,” which is placed right before the closer, almost none of Relaxing With… sounds any more dated than it wants to, and rather than simply adopt the stylistic tenets of space rock, or psychedelia, or heavy rock, or garage, etc., The Heads took all these things and made them their own in a potent sonic brew running a brisk 44 minutes of tripped out, freaked out thrust, like the pent-up energy of a collapsing star about to go nova — one great big “pop” in the galaxy emitting gravity waves that continue to ripple. With Price‘s yeah-I’m-stoned-what’s-the-problem vocals adding a persistent laid back factor over Maskell‘s thud and push and Morgan‘s low end fuzz adding weight to the outward thrust of Price and Allen‘s guitars, The Heads were even in their beginning stages a complete band, each member complementing the others’ work in effort to create a more consuming whole.
That effort pays off all across Relaxing With…, from the wash of noisy swirl that starts opener “Quad” to the switched-on bizarro vibes that persist from there. Was this the birth of what people seem so eager now to dub “neo-psych,” as if psychedelia ever went away? Rest assured, I have no idea, but more than two decades on, The Heads‘ initial salvo of “Quad,” “Don’t Know Yet” and the somewhat thicker “Chipped” still hits like a rogue asteroid in the Russian wilderness. “Slow Down,” appropriately enough, eases on the throttle and brings Price‘s vocals forward but holds onto a threat of explosion in its post-midsection thud, even if what materializes is another verse and some backwards guitar before a couple shouts and the winding final measure of guitar solo arrive. Morgan‘s bass begins “U33” and makes a highlight of it, and at just over two minutes, “Television” scorches out garage fuzz with a punkish intensity and basks in its hookish vocal pattern.
The dirt-poetry of the lyrics is punctuated by the drum stomp, and as the song opened with a “Wow!,” so too does it close with one, a quick sample leading to the freakout of “Woke Up,” which is no less all-go than the preceding cut, but stretches a minute further and takes more of a traditional rock feel, and “Widowmaker” holds to it, despite feeling more molten even in its moments of blasting-forward intensity, which come and go but seem alway to be purking thanks to the tension in Maskell‘s cymbal work. “Widowmaker” is a highlight of the record, paying off in assaulting volume before a long-fadeout toy-piano sample leads into the strum and jangle that starts “Taken too Much,” moving quickly into more drastic quiet/loud tradeoffs marked by the post-Nirvana feel in the low end and the particularly druggy lyrical thematic. Maybe it’s with a bit of irony that “Taken too Much” is positioned right ahead of the “You only pass through this life once, jack, you don’t come back for an encore,” sample that begins “Coogan’s Bluff,” but whatever the intent was, it works.
One of the aspects of Relaxing With… that works so well is that the album happens in quick shots. While modern psych is given to these long, sometimes indulgent excursions, only two of the album’s first nine tracks pass four minutes in length. That makes “Coogan’s Bluff,” which uses every second of its 11:35, all the more a standout. The jam feels all the more massive for the tightness of the songwriting preceding, and as The Heads shove their way through solo after solo, groove on top of groove, they stand tall as new warriors on the edge of time, breathing life into a genre that, again, was thought dead when it never actually was. The dynamic between Allen, Maskell, Morgan and Price is by then long established but perhaps not displayed anywhere else as clearly as it is on “Coogan’s Bluff,” as the band moves ahead into vast reaches yet uncharted and delivers a gradual comedown, hitting the apex in another shit-hot lead that ends in the second half and gives way to consistent toms and noise that lets the listener make their way slowly back to reality, such as it is.
I’m not sure it’s possible for a band to be massively influential, critically lauded, have a consistent loyal fanbase and a number of offshoot projects while still being underrated, but if it is, The Heads are. I’ll say they’re not really a band I got until I saw them on stage and felt the full force of their delivery and volume, how they not only play this music, but execute it on a physical level. I don’t mean they’re thrashing around or anything, just that there are four members of The Heads and the sound they make when they come together is enough of a presence to be counted as a fifth. To think of Relaxing With… as their debut and to imagine hearing it for the first time when it was released before the turn of the century, it’s no wonder they’ve become who they are. Thankfully, that spirit of outward-directed exploration and ongoing creative development has never left them, and they still sound keen to try something new each time, as their hyper-populated and nearly impossible to track discography proves. That only makes them all the more special, and as Relaxing With… was the nexus of that ongoing process, it’s a moment well worth celebrating.
As always, I hope you enjoy.
—
Interesting week, coming back and coming down from the aforementioned Roadburn fest in the Netherlands — to see all the coverage of Roadburn 2018, click here — and returning to whatever it is that passes for normalcy these days. I’ve had some good baby-time with The Pecan, so that’s been excellent. Six months on, he’s just starting to crawl and getting to the point where he’s more than a glob of human need, so playing has become more than basically showing him things and having him not be able to hold them. I’ve been singing him SubRosa, Anathema and Alice in Chains songs. He can sit up. He’s getting a bit of personality. Seems only a matter of time before he calls me a prick for something or other.
Busy week though. I apparently completely screwed up the scheduling this week on some stuff. That only makes life more difficult for me — also The Patient Mrs., so also me again — but it means I’m doubled up Monday and while I want to take a few days next week and get caught up on reviews I’ve been meaning to write, there’s still a lot going on that needs covering. I’m still getting caught up on news from being away and from before I went away, so I hope you’ll bear with me on that. Here’s what’s in the notes for next week, tentative as ever:
Mon.: Trevor’s Head full stream, Tusmørke track premiere.
Tue.: Sleep review.
Wed.: Grayceon review.
Thu.: Abramis Brama review.
Fri.: Track premiere/announcement from Cursed Tongue Records.
Some stuff still needs to be filled in, but again, I’m way behind on news and I think Amorphis put out another video. I might review that record next Friday and keep with the week’s apparent theme of things I think kick ass, but we’ll see how it goes, how much time there is and whatnot.
Speaking of, I’m pretty limited on time at the moment as the baby has a doctor’s checkup this morning and needs a bath before so he doesn’t show up like a crustpunk, and I still have another news post to put together for today — the one about Yawning Man signing to Heavy Psych Sounds — so I better wrap on the quick, but before I do, I just want to say thanks again if you got to check out any of the Roadburn coverage.
It was a little weird being there this year and missing the baby, and even weirder feeling like I was holding back from talking about that in the posts — what does it mean when I don’t feel comfortable having an open and fully honest conversation in the space that’s supposed to be my sole outlet for such a thing? — but you have to believe me when I say I understand how unbelievably lucky I was to be there in the first place and that it was a gift, as always. I have no doubt that, at the end of 2018, Roadburn will once again have been the center of it.
On that note, I’m out. I have two bios to write this weekend — an update for Kings Destroy and one for Small Stone’s next release that I’m woefully late on — and two reviews to write for Monday as noted above, so yeah, I’ll be around. In the meantime, thanks for reading as always and have a great and safe weekend.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 27th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Denver-based Electric Funeral Fest III has completed its lineup for 2018. The last couple adds to the bill are pretty significant as well, with Eagle Twin and speedmasters Zeke leading the charge, along with Crud, Twingiant, Communion, Roast and Echo Beds to round things out. It’s a righteous bill, even if The Midnight Ghost Train — seen in the poster below — won’t be playing due to their disbanding. This one has grown quickly over the last couple years, and I’d say at this point it’s a significant presence in the Midwest and Denver’s increasingly vibrant underground.
I’ll readily admit I’m way behind on this news. This one came down the PR wire an embarrassingly long time ago, and between being backed up on stuff and travel, well, today’s the day. Feels good to get it off my chest, to be honest.
So everybody exhale with me. And here you go:
ELECTRIC FUNERAL FEST III Confirms Final Lineup With The Addition Of Eagle Twin, Zeke, Crud, Communion, Twingiant, Echo Beds, And Roast; Tickets On Sale NOW
The third edition of Dust Present’s ELECTRIC FUNERAL FEST will return to Denver, Colorado on June 29th-30th, 2018.
The annual South Broadway festival will be grander than ever in its third iteration, expanding to include a third stage inside the Mutiny Information Cafe, a spot known city-wide for its welcoming atmosphere and promotion of DIY events of all types. Located across the street from Hi Dive and just one block north of 3 Kings Tavern – the two hosting venues of last year’s festival – the Mutiny stage will be the first all-ages stage offered at ELECTRIC FUNERAL FEST and its central location will bolster the street festival environment cultivated over the last two years that’s become an integral part of the Electric Funeral’s attraction.
The final lineup of the event has been confirmed with the addition of Salt Lake City avant-doom duo Eagle Twin, Seattle punk icons Zeke, Floridian death doom cult Crud, Austin funeral doom trio Communion, Arizona behemoths Twingiant, Denver industrial post punk unit Echo Beds, and California heavy psyche rockers Roast! See the full lineup below.
ELECTRIC FUNERAL FEST III Lineup (alphabetically): Alone Amplified Heat Aseethe Augur Bandits Cloud Catcher Communion Crud Duel Eagle Twin Echo Beds Forming The Void Green Druid Grey Gallows Keef Duster Loom Love Gang Necropanther R.I.P. Roast Smokey Mirror Smolder & Burn Space in Time Speedwolf Spirit Adrift Still Valley The Munsens Twingiant Urn Vexing Weedeater Primitive Man White Dog Wizzerd Zeke
Venues: Hi Dive (21+), 3 Kings Tavern (21+), Mutiny Information Cafe (all ages) [event link]
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 27th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Connecticut’s leading purveyors of lurching sonic malevolence When the Deadbolt Breaks have announced a deal to release their next album through Sliptrick Records sometime in 2018. The long-player has been given the ellipsis-inclusive title Angels are Weeping… God has Abandoned… and finds founding guitarist/vocalist/fetish photographer Aaron Lewis joined by bassist/backing vocalist Mike Parkyn and drummer Randall Dumas. The band’s last full-length was early 2015’s double-album Drifting Towards the Edge of the Earth (discussed here), which had been years in the making, and I’d assume the situation with Angels are Weeping… God has Abandoned…. Good nightmares take time.
I’ve been a Deadbolt fan for a long time and always think of them as being persistently underrated for their drone, atmosphere, tonal weight and intensity. Will this be the record that finally gets them their due recognition? I guess we’ll find out when we get there.
Sliptrick Records announced the signing thusly via the PR wire:
Sliptrick Welcome Psychedelic Doom Rockers WHEN THE DEADBOLT BREAKS
Joining the ranks at Sliptrick Records this week are US group When The Deadbolt Breaks. Of special note, the band played The New England Stoner & Doom Festival this weekend which is an absolute must for fans of the genre.
Established in the winter of 2004, When The Deadbolt Breaks is a psychedelic doom band from the backwoods of eastern Connecticut. The music they produce invokes the feeling of fearful suspense brought on by an intense horror film… begging the question, what happens when the deadbolt breaks?? Aaron Lewis, Mike Parkyn, and Randall Dumas create a psychedelic, down-tuned, fuzzed-out wall of doom-laden riffs that transport the listener to another space.
14 years and 5 albums later, When The Deadbolt Breaks is set to release their 6th record on Sliptrick Records later in 2018.
Angels Are Weeping… God Has Abandoned… | Released TBA, 2018 on Sliptrick Records
When The Deadbolt Breaks are: Aaron Lewis – Guitars/Vocals | Mike Parkyn – Bass/Backing vocals | Randall Dumas – Drums
