Posted in Whathaveyou on May 31st, 2018 by JJ Koczan
With a July 16 ship date, preorders are up for the awaited full-length debut from Portland, Oregon, classic heavy rockers Pushy. Dubbed Hard Wish in apparent homage to just how much I’d like my seven-month-old son to take his morning nap right now, the album follows a 2016 split with Germany’s Ragged Barracudas (review here), as well as an earlier 2015 two-songer, If I Cried, named in apparent — and prescient! — homage to that same seven-month-old’s question that if he just screams for 45 solid minutes, will it be enough to make me go upstairs and end his apparent torture. In answer: no.
Anyhoozle, I’ve been waiting for Pushy‘s debut since I heard their demo (discussed here) in 2014, and the group sound like they’ve got their boogie in fine working order on the first public audio to come from Hard Wish, which is second track “Nasty Bag,” which you’ll find streaming at the bottom of this post, along with the preorder link preceded by a snazzy bio.
From the PR wire:
Pushy – Hard Wish
Have you ever watched the 1977 video of Ram Jam playing “Black Betty” in somebody’s front yard and asked yourself, “Why don’t we have bands who party like that anymore?” And after the very first time you witnessed a young bellbottomed James Gang set up their gear in the Mexicali desert and riff through “Laguna Salada” during the opening credits to the 1971 film Zachariah, did you ask yourself, “Are there even any bands this good today?” Or what about that time you laid virgin eyes upon the gatefold to ZZ Top’s Tres Hombres and took in a panoramic photograph that could only be described as a taqueria orgy? Did you ask, “Why can’t a newer style band make me feel this special?”
The answer to all these questions lives and pulses within the four musicians who comprise the Portland, Oregon based hard rock quartet, Pushy. If your ears have yet to be seduced by the God-hammered choogle of Pushy, it’s not too late for you. Their debut album Hard Wish has been captured in the band’s natural element and then released into the wild by the good people of Who Can You Trust? Records – a label that knows how and where to mine the rich ore of timeless rock ‘n’ roll. If the hot buttered distortion of the opening song “Fanny’s” (with its saucy boogie and howling guitar leads) doesn’t put an electric strut in your butt, there’s a pretty good chance that rock ‘n’ roll may be none of your business.
John Fogerty once sang that the people on the river are happy to give. But if you listen closely to the hard and heavy stomp of “Nasty Bag,” it sounds like the people on the river are waiting to kill you. Pushy have the power of rock surging through their veins and sometimes this power channels stories and spirits to help move you into parallel dimensions. Take “El Hongo” for instance – between Ron Wesley coaxing a gold top Les Paul to scream and wail through a tweed Victoria Bassman, and Adam Burke crooning for us to take it easy and close our eyes, there could never exist a reason why we would ever want to not keep on chooglin’. And when Travis Clow and Neal Munson kick off the album’s bookend jam “Lay of the Land” with their callused hands working a well-oiled rhythm section, you can almost smell the grease burning on the gears as the bass and drums pump out a loose and juicy groove that’s just begging for the guitars to rain riffs like there’s a storm in hell and we’re all invited to hang out and drink their beer.”
New York-based heavy rockers Mick’s Jaguar make their debut on RidingEasy Records June 22 with Fame and Fortune. It’s not the first time the L.A. imprint has extended its hand to the other side of the country to pick up a band, but something here feels different. While unsurprisingly given both the snark in the band’s moniker — they started out playing Rolling Stones covers — and the blood-and-sex rawness of the album art, it’s safe to say attitude plays a large role in their approach, the brand of heavy rock and roll (with emphasis on both the rock and the roll) is nigh on definitively of New York. The myth is that New York rock died. It didn’t. It just got priced out of Manhattan, like everything else that wasn’t J.P. Morgan or owned by the president or a racist coffee chain. But to be a band “from New York” is to invite immediate suspicion. You say you’re from New York? Prove it. Like someone wants to see your birth certificate or something.
To wit, the first line in Fame and Fortune opener “The Real Boss” is, “I was born in New York City,” and then, as if to prove the ultimate New York perspective, there follows, “What a horrible, smelly town.” Love New York, defend it vigorously to outsiders, and then despise it. To be fair, Manhattan in summertime, no matter how much of a billionaire playground it has become since Rudy Giuliani had the homeless secretly killed — don’t worry, 15-plus years of returning veterans has made sure there’s plenty more homeless to replace them — smells like urine, but New York’s love/hate relationship with itself is an essential facet of its culture, and Mick’s Jaguar, who present a clean, classic-feeling 10 tracks in the 38-minute stretch of their first album, are smart to put it front and center. That theme of intelligence continues throughout the six-piece’s lyrics, which contain several Stones and other references — “sticky fingers,” paraphrasing the Stooges with “street-walking jaguars,” shouting out Miles Davis, etc. — amid shifts in sound from heavy rock to early metal of “Here Comes the Night” the aggro-boogie of “Where We Go” to the crash-led “Country & Punk,” which in the span of 1:49 gracefully manages to be neither.
Apart from its attitude, what draws the album together throughout these twists and turns of style is a consistent sans-frills production and a penchant for big hooks in cuts like opener “The Real Boss” and its side B counterpart, “Hellride,” as well as “Pay to Play,” “Hellride,” the twin-guitar-led “Blood on the Snow,” and so on. Songwriting, in other words. It’s one of those records that seems to come across like vinyl no matter the actual format being played, and the visceral sound of the recording is a benefit as much to the actual impact of the material as to the aesthetic statement being made, but without that core of craft beneath the recording would have nothing to stand on. The movement from the ’70s-chugging “Here Comes the Night” — who doesn’t love a good song about “the night?” — the barroom twin leads of “Blood on the Snow” and the hard rocking cynicism of “Hellride” would simply fall flat. As the album progressed, I’ll admit I was a little sad when “Damnation” wasn’t an Opeth cover, but its lyrical journey tying together the late ’60s/early ’70s and the early ’90s is fairly emblematic of the roots of heavy rock and the roots from which Mick’s Jaguar are ultimately working. Then, naturally, they throw a wrench in the gears with “Country & Punk,” because screw you for thinking you know what you’re getting.
If Mick’s Jaguar are a New York band, as the narrative — blessings and peace upon it — argues fervently they are and I tend to agree when it comes to their style and specific grit-coated swagger, then it’s only fitting they should be as self-aware as they are. From the start of the record through the harmonica-laced closer “New Orleans Blues,” with its lap-steel-gone-psychedelic and anchoring drum progression, they’re telling their own story both lyrically and instrumentally. Their style ultimately has more reach than many will give it credit for, and they move through Fame and Fortune with a fluidity that belies this being their first album; I don’t actually know this, but if you were forcing me to guess I’d say some of these songs have been around a while, as they sound like they’ve been chopped down to their most essential pieces. Whether Mick’s Jaguar can bring the same intelligent confrontationalism to their work and still manage to develop stylistically over the longer term of course will remain to be seen, but what they bring to Fame and Fortune isn’t to be undervalued as a statement of their purpose and a declaration of their penchant for mining classic elements and reshaping them to suit their needs.
I have the pleasure today of hosting a track from Fame and Fortune as a premiere that you’ll find on the player below, followed by more info from the PR wire. Once again, the album is out June 22 on RidingEasy Records.
Please enjoy:
Rock and roll is dead in New York City. Long live New York City rock and roll. Mick’s Jaguar is bringing noisy, wild, unafraid big rock back to NYC. Crazy rents, corporatized venues, and kids listening to DJ’s: it’s hard being a band in this town.
This isn’t LA and Mick’s Jaguar is a product of their environment: a windowless dungeon practice space 20 feet below the trash covered sidewalk of the Lower East Side. Rats, grime, the sounds of the city; Mick’s Jaguar gleefully pillages the history of rock music to create thoroughly modern, but classic rock and roll. Not quite punk, but not metal either, this is hard rock and roll that’s been put through the brain blenders of 6 musicians who pair their Judas Priest shirts with Steely Dan hats. They claim no musical lineage to New York – they just live there. If you need to compare them to something, the night AC/DC played CBGB’s would be about as close as you can get.
The group formed as a drunken Rolling Stones cover band, and after a few years of mainlining Stones songs and playing sporadic shows marred by violence and sprayed by beer, they started writing originals that attracted the attention of RidingEasy Records. And their new album, Fame and Fortune, sounds absolutely nothing like the Stones. The three guitarists — yes three guitars — open the album with a riff of buzzsaw intensity that would make a Ramone proud. But then like Jim Morrison sashaying into a wine shop, it drunkenly careens into a big sounding rock and roll album somewhere in between Van Halen and Tres Hombres. Guitar solos abound, Thin Lizzy harmonies soar, the bass and drums make a groove that will shake the asses on the dance floor and put a rumble in your loins. Songs about life, death, cars, blood, murder, sex, drugs and booze are the world of Mick’s Jaguar. Don’t forget – this is what rock and roll is all about. Listen close and you’ll hear hat tips to your bands, Mick’s Jag knows their history and likes to rip it apart.
Recorded in Brooklyn at Figure 8 Recording by engineering wizard Philip Weinrobe, and fueled by a steady diet of Allen’s Coffee Brandy, the Fame And Fortune sessions resulted in only one hospital visit and it just might be your favorite album of 1978, 1988, or 2018. This is music that’s made for listening to while driving fast in your car, and while relaxing at the local strip club. It’s okay to have fun. Cute indie bands make everyone puke. That shit stops now. Let there be rock.
Fame and Fortune will be available on LP, CD and download on June 22nd, 2018 via RidingEasy Records. Preorders are available at ridingeasyrecs.com
MICK’S JAGUAR LIVE: 06/19 Brooklyn, NY @ Saint Vitus
Artist: Mick’s Jaguar Album: Fame and Fortune Label: RidingEasy Records Release Date: June 22, 2018
01. The Real Boss 02. Pay to Play 03. Where We Go 04. Here Comes the Night 05. Blood On the Snow 06. Hellride 07. Damnation 08. Country & Punk 09. Call the Guy 10. New Orleans Blues
Many doings in the camp of Montreal’s Vision Éternel. Like, a whole bunch. You might recall in April when the one-man ambient outfit co-hosted a contest here to giveaway a copy of the newly issued An Anthology of Past Misfortunes boxed set. The set is ultra-comprehensive, entries were emailed direct to Alexandre Julien, and a winner picked to receive the five EPs the band has done to-date, the demos/rarities tape, as well as a shirt, flyers, the liner notes and other sundry goodies. Like I said, it’s a comprehensive set.
Never content to rest on his recent laurels or, apparently, ever, Julien has now announced that he’s working on a sixth EP for his outfit, and that in addition to that, he’s given away a digital discount to everyone who entered the contest, and gone out to the woods — because, yes, the woods — to make a bit of a documentary talking about how the boxed set came together, what’s included, and so on. Looks like he found a nice spot for the chat, and as he opens up number 001 of the limited release, he talks about the timing of the EPs, when they came together and how, as well as some of the aesthetic development of the project, the designers he’s worked with and more.
The video is six minutes and in that time, Julien gives a clear sense of the heart that’s gone into the project and into this particular aspect of it. That seems to be what’s at the core of Vision Éternel and just about everything Julien does with the band. It’s a deeply personal work and the thought and emotion put into it is plain to both see and hear in the output.
Clip and news follow. Please enjoy:
Vision Éternel, An Introduction to An Anthology of Past Misfortunes Boxed Set
On May 24th, Vision Éternel undertook an excursion in the Laurentian Mountains forest to film a new documentative video. Luckily, it was a beautiful sunny day, and despite the bugs enjoying the weather as much as we were, we had a lot of fun. We found a nice clearing in the middle of the woods where we set up the shot with cinematographer Rain Frances.
The new footage was filmed to showcase and discuss the band’s newest release, the “An Anthology Of Past Misfortunes” boxed set, released through Abridged Pause Recordings last month. Vision Éternel founder Alexandre Julien made himself comfortable in the woods and explained how the boxed set was conceptualized and went over all of the contents of the package.
Contest Winner
On April 11th of 2018, Vision Éternel announced a giveaway contest in promotion of the band’s new retrospective boxed set, “An Anthology Of Past Misfortunes”. Contestants had a full month to enter the drawing by sending an email to the band with their favourite Vision Éternel t-shirt color and size. Vision Éternel, Abridged Pause Recordings and The Obelisk would like to thank all the wonderful people and fans of the band who participated in this contest.
Today, the band is proud to announce a lucky winner who will not only receive a full boxed set, which in itself holds five compact discs, one cassette, two stickers, six business card flyers and a two-page postcard insert, but in addition to that, two sold-out posters, a t-shirt and the band’s entire remastered digital discography. The boxed set is autographed and personalized to the winner.
The winner is: Randy Blood! Congratulations!
But wait! There’s more!
The band is so appreciative of everyone who participated in the giveaway that everyone will be receiving consolation prizes. No one leaves empty-handed. All participants have been emailed a free download of Vision Éternel’s entire 2017-remastered digital discography and a 15% discount coupon code valid on any and all items at Vision Éternel’s web store (even the boxed set). This will be arriving in a separate email so look for it!
New EP?
For the last eight years, Vision Éternel founder Alexandre Julien has been working on the retrospective boxed set “An Anthology Of Past Misfortunes” to give a proper physical home to the band’s previous releases (2007-2015). Now that it’s out, the band is eager to move forward with new material. Vision Éternel is now actively writing and demoing new songs for a planned sixth extended play.
A handful of new Vision Éternel songs were demoed at Mortified Studios in the summer of 2017 while the band celebrated its ten-year anniversary. It is unknown if any of these ideas will evolve into material for the planned sixth EP. A few more songs have already been demoed in 2018. The band hopes to complete the extended play by the end of the year and is aiming for an early 2019 release. Graphic illustrator Costin Chioreanu has already been secured to design the concept album’s artwork.
In addition to the forthcoming extended play and the previously announced impending music video for “Sometimes In Longing Narcosis”, Vision Éternel is also considering putting out a single and a cover song in 2018.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 31st, 2018 by JJ Koczan
I have said on multiple occasions over the years that of all the European autumntime festivals that have emerged, Keep it Low in Munich is the one I’d most care to attend. Not a year passes that the lineup isn’t stellar and digging right to the heart of heavy rock and doom — plus Colour Haze is there pretty much annually — and not a year goes by that I don’t imagine myself hopping on a plane to Germany for a kickass weekend among awesome bands and awesome people. They call them “Keepers,” which is pretty clever if you think about it.
The lineup this year? Already excellent, with Wo Fat, the aforementioned Colour Haze, Acid King, Sasquatch, Child and so on, but certainly tossing Elder into that mix doesn’t hurt either. They’re the latest adds along with Texan riffmarchers The Well and Munich’s own Dune Pilot, who, if it needs to be said, play desert rock.
Sound of Liberation, which presents the fest, announced them as follows:
Keepers!
We are glad to unveil 3 more bands for Keep It Low Festival 2018 (the fantastic Elder, the entoxicating The Well & the vigorous DUNE PILOT) as well as the daysplit! More bands will be announced later, but as our 2-day passes are sold-out, we wanted to release the day tickets as soon as possible, and give you the infos to make your choice :)
Elder is the definition of a work in progress, as the group continues to meld the familiar sounds of Sleep‘s colossal riffage with their ever-evolving vision of soaring melodies and sonic soundscapes. Listeners will find themselves locked into the trio’s lengthy epics, which toe the line between the chasms of classic stoner metal and mindblowing psychedelia.
Austin-based power trio The Well redefine heavy rock by merging massive riffs with sophisticated melodies. Their progressive sound stems from a nostalgic desire to blend different musical styles as diversified as Joy Division to Blue Cheer. At a time when rock music is fading among the masses, The Well inject an intoxicating dose of raw adrenaline into a fatigued genre. Their nostalgic reverence, simple structure and modern expression put them at the forefront of today’s heavy rock.
The Munich based band DUNE PILOT is celebrating desert rock just like the founding fathers of this genre would have imagined it. Certainly with beards, fuzz and plenty of low tones but also with groove, riffs and a sound that would bring tears of joy to the eyes of Josh Homme or Dave Wyndorf. However, they did not earn their reputation of being one of the most authentic German stoner bands through just their recordings. On stage, they are also one of the most vigorous stoner-bulldozers.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 31st, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Finnish heavy psychedelic progressives Kaleidobolt have been working on new material and reportedly have — quoting now — ‘a ton and a half’ of new material to sift through in the making of their next record, which will be the follow-up to 2016’s sub-radar stunner The Zenith Cracks (review here). One imagines their upcoming tour which, hey how about that, starts tonight, will be a major factor in that sifting process, as the band have said they’ll look into recording afterwards, no doubt trying to capture some of their residual stage energy and focus into a studio setting. A noble endeavor to be sure, and with a handful of shows booked in Finland for August, they might even have a timeline on getting the new record done before they head out again. Of course that’s speculation, but it’ll be worth keeping an eye on.
If you missed The Zenith Cracks, it’s streaming at the bottom of this post and well worth the time to dig into. Shows on the current tour are presented by Sound of Liberation, and the following comes from the PR wire:
KALEIDOBOLT SPRING TOUR 2018
31.05 COPENHAGEN BETA2300 01.06 HAMBURG Hafenklang 02.06 NETPHEN DEUTZ Freak Valley Festival 2018 03.06 COLOGNE Helios37 04.06 NIJMEGEN De Onderbroek 05.06 LE HAVRE Mc Daid’s 06.06 LONDON The Dev 07.06 PARIS Espace B Paris 09.06 OLTEN Coq d’Or 10.06 FREIBURG Slow Club Freiburg 11.06 MUNICH Feierwerk 12.06 DRESDEN Ostpol 13.06 OSNABRÜCK Jugendzentrum Westwerk 14.06 BERLIN Urban Spree 15.06 ROSTOCK Kulturkombinat e.V.
Kaleidobolt Finland tour: 22.8 OULU 45 Special 23.8 HELSINKI Bar Loose 24.8 TAMPERE 24.8. Manse Psych Fest 2018 / Klubi & Pakkahuone, Tampere 25.8 TURKU @Gong
Tour arranged by Sound of Liberation Poster design by The Impossible Machine & Andrés Gamiochipi.
Kaleidobolt is a power trio that came together in early 2014 in Helsinki. In the short time they’ve been together, they’ve gained the reputation of being one of the most exciting live bands around. Their music is a dizzying maelstrom of progressive song structures, crushing riffs and loose psychedelic soundscapes, delivered with joy and ferociousness. Their first self titled album was released 2015 and brought the guys a huge success all over the world. In between two European Tours Kaleidobolt recorded 8 new tracks which came out on their second album The Zenith Cracks on 01st of July 2016.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 30th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Whatever else happens in 2018, I’m pretty sure I’ve just encountered the best usage of the phrase ‘cheeseburgers for satan’ that I’m going to find before December 31. Kudos then, to Bay Area skate rockers Hot Lunch, whose new single, Haul of Meat, is available to preorder now with a July 16 ship date from Who Can You Trust? Records and whose summer European tour is being presented by Heavy Psych Sounds. The run starts on June 29, and I assume they’ll have Haul of Meatwith them on the road, its cautionary tale of, I guess, biting it, being spread far and wide as they make their way to the long-running Stoned from the Underground festival in Germany.
Release info and tour dates follow, both courtesy of the PR wire:
Heavy Psych Sounds Records & Booking is really stoked to announce the *** HOT LUNCH EUROPEAN SUMMER TOUR 2018 ***
Three years since their 2015 Slappy Sunday EP, Hot Lunch has returned from El Studio with a piping hot new single. Yes, “Haul of Meat” is another song inspired by skateboarding. But this isn’t a love letter. If you were expecting them to articulate how falling and getting back up is a metaphor for persistence, you’ve made a wrong turn. Go back. Rebate. And no, this is not one of those inspirational anthems about how pain is just “the feeling of fear leaving your body.” Upon close listen to “Haul Of Meat,” it sounds like the band is trying to warn you that your next case of road rash could wind up as Satan’s ground beef.
Ergo, the members of Hot Lunch are not ambassadors of skateboarding. They are harbingers of hamburgers. “Haul of Meat” is a skatanic and cautionary canticle that rolls like an avalanche of high-voltage, overdriven fuzz across rumbling rhythms birthed by broken tectonic plates beneath Earthquake City. When asked to explain the caustic lyrics of this urethane-and-wood musing, the band replied, “You know when sometimes you slam so hard that your scabs become cheeseburgers for Satan and the tail of your deck turns into the devil’s spatula?” When further pressed to clarify, they added, “We have a holographic memory. Satan!”
Edition of 500 copies on black vinyl. Free ‘Sacrificial Blood’ sticker included with a limited number of copies! (Only 100 made… Choose your path, but do it wisely!)
HOT LUNCH European Summer Tour 2018: 29.06.2018 CH Frauenfeld-Kaff 30.06.2018 DE Siegen-Vortex 01.07.2018 DE Augsburg-City Club 02.07.2018 DE Mannheim-7er 03.07.2018 DE Leipzig-So&So 04.07.2018 DE Berlin-Urban Spree 05.07.2018 DE Dresden-Chemiefabrik 06.07.2018 CH Olten-Coq D’ Or 07.07.2018 IT Bozen-Mountain Sessions 08.07.2018 IT Sabbioneta-Sabbio Summer Fest 09.07.2018 IT Zerobranco-Altroquando 10.07.2018 IT Torino-Blah Blah 11.07.2018 IT Bologna-Mikasa 12.07.2018 DE Stuttgart-Keller Klub 13.07.2018 CH St Gallen-Rumpeltum 14.07.2018 DE Stoned from the Underground – Festival
Hot Lunch is a punk ‘n’ roll band from the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area that specializes in getting loud, getting weird and getting rad. The quartet’s unique blend of brown-acid skate-rock and wah-fuzz proto-metal was born in the bowels of skatanic rituals, biker beer busts and wizard staff meetings. With a head-bludgeoning sound that refuses to take sides (and showers), Hot Lunch are on a hell-bent mission to create the best party soundtrack in the history of all music. Their self-titled debut album was recorded by Tim Green at Louder Studios and is available on all formats by Who Can You Trust? Records (EU), Tee Pee Records and Burger Records (US).
HOT LUNCH are Eric Shea – Vocals Aaron Nudelman – Guitars Rob Alper – Drums Charlie Karr – Bass
[Click play above to stream ‘Taking the Blame’ from Here Lies Man’s You Will Know Nothing. Album is out June 15 via RidingEasy Records.]
This is a band ahead of their time. And like their foreboding moniker, Here Lies Man are waiting. They’re waiting for you, me and everybody else to catch on to what they’re doing, taking elements out of ’70s Afrobeat and repurposing them in a heavy psychedelic context. One hesitates to call them “neopsych” for the shoegazing that seems so prevalent in that movement, and because the Los Angeles-based core duo of drummer Geoff Mann (ex-Antibalas) and vocalist, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Marcos Garcia (also Antibalas) keep such a sense of tension even in the quiet spaces. Others have started to take note on both coasts. Philadelphia’s Ecstatic Vision — who’ve been around longer — have begun working Afrobeat rhythms into their sound, and San Diego’s Volcano will make their debut later this year with essentially a party version of what Here Lies Man did on their 2017 self-titled (review here) and continue to develop on their sophomore outing, You Will Know Nothing.
Also their second for RidingEasy Records, it finds Garcia and Mann delving further into rhythmic complexity and holding to a tonally weighted sonic architecture while conducting mathy sonic experiments and stomping away along a path that, for the time being, is almost entirely their own, opening with the hooky “Animal Noises,” digging into heavy riffs on songs like “Fighting” and just about everywhere bringing to bear a percussion-centric, keyboard-laced thrust and shuffle; music intended to move. Self-recorded, its 11-track/39-minute run is both manageable and visionary. They write their own “Planet Caravan” in “Floating on Water,” and spend much of the proceedings toying with the balance to one side or the other of their sound, aided by percussionists Richard Panta and Reinaldo DeJesus on congas and Victor Axelrod (ex-Antibalas) on keys.
In a song like the thickened “Blindness” or even the spacious, relatively minimal centerpiece “Voices at the Window,” Here Lies Man own their aesthetic and bring it to bear with complexity manifest in subtle, low-mixed layers of keys and synth. The whole album is executed with a deceptive vibe. It’s possible to listen to it, be carried along by the bounce of “Summon Fire” and “Taking the Blame” and the two-minute boogie of the penultimate “Memory Games,” but the deeper one digs into the mix, the more one finds to find, whether its a quiet swirl, an extra layer of guitar, whatever. Especially for an album so bent on forward rhythmic motion, that builds such a sense of momentum as it careens from one song to the next — again, even in its quiet moments — it is especially satisfying to also find it so nuanced. The dream drone in closer “You Ought to Know” that seems to have been there all along but makes itself known as the band picks up with the central linear build.
The departure of the keys from the main riff in the intro to “Hell (Wooly Tail),” and the layers of voices that emerge from there, echoing from someplace further down amid the fuzzy low end. Even “Animal Noises” refuses to let You Will Know Nothing‘s outset pass without a dive into multi-layered keys and congas, starting off the record with a fervent momentum that cuts in its final third to ringing guitar notes worthy of cult folk backed by Echoplex-style swirl. Where did we just go? How the hell did we get there? No time to think about it because “Summon Fire” is off and running immediately. It’s that kind of twisting and turning that Here Lies Man pull off so brilliantly, and whatever experimental aspects these songs may have, the band hasn’t lost sight of the basic roots of their construction. “Summon Fire” is catchy as hell, and likewise “Blindness,” and “Fighting” and the swinging “Taking the Blame” that like the side A opener it would seem to mirror at the start of side B, turns to strange and quiet keys before the shove of “Fighting” takes hold.
“Fighting” is pretty straightforward in its fuzz, keys and forward drive, and it makes a gang-shout-worthy hook out of the line “Shut your fucking mouth,” but the three subsequent tracks — the closing salvo of “Floating on Water,” “Memory Games” and “You Ought to Know” — comprise a showcase of Here Lies Man‘s sonic adventurousness. They go farther and farther out. As noted, “Floating on Water” is quieter, with keys and soft drums in the lead position, while “Memory Games,” in terms of sheer tone, might be the heaviest piece on You Will Know Nothing, though it still maintains the funk of chunkier earlier cuts like “Blindness,” “Hell (Wooly Tail)” and “Taking the Blame.” As they round out with “You Ought to Know,” there seems to be an arrival at some point of sonic serenity, and where in rounding out the album’s first half, “Voices at the Window” kept some tension beneath its surface, the finale is more genuinely interested in setting a peaceful atmosphere. Instrumental, it does embark on a subtle build, but there’s no overblown finish. A fuzzy solo arrives and leads the way out on a slow fade while the central key figure plays alongside, and they cap with echoing, far back guitar.
I flat out refuse to predict the course of a band’s career or what the arc of their influence will be. They could break up tomorrow and nix the whole thing. Still, Here Lies Man have already had an effect on the underground around them and that’s noteworthy, and they’ve now put out two outstanding — style-wise and achievement-wise — LPs in two years, but to say what they’ll do over the course of a full tenure or what their ultimate reach will be, to even pretend to guess, is irresponsible hyperbole. What I know is that Here Lies Man are on their own trip. In their blend of influences and their execution of the balances between them, they’re offering something that no one else is at this point, and for those open-minded and willing to make the journey along with them, walking that path is an absolute blast. Perhaps most encouraging of all is the sense of willful growth that permeates so much of You Will Know Nothing, since it assures that as ahead of their time as Here Lies Man are, their interest is in staying that way.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 30th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Last heard from with their 2016 sophomore outing, The Violent Mystical Sukuma (discussed here), Parisian heavy psychedelic three-or-four-piece Domadora have set a June 29 issue date for their new album, Lacuna. No audio from it as yet, but one imagines that can’t be far off, and given the sonic adventurousness that showed itself through their material their last time out, I’d expect the forthcoming four-track long-player to do a healthy bit of wandering. One would hope so, at least.
The PR wire has art and details and whatnots for the digging, so have at it:
DOMADORA announce the release of their third album “Lacuna” this June 29th.
France’s premium psychedelic jammers DOMADORA return with their long-awaited third full-length “Lacuna” this June 29th.
“Lacuna” commonly refers to the “empty space” or “void” from which everything takes shape. The void is at the beginning of everything: matter and time, light, sound and art. It is the starting point of the artwork. It just takes the scratching a match of creativity inside the void to generate an idea, a note, a melody… and feelings as well as emotions are born. So how is an idea born? Where does it come from? A Big Bang. Music is a way to reach mind elevation. DOMADORA’s music intends to put the willing listener into a state of trance and reach a state of elevation.
“Lacuna” is different from DOMADORA’s two previous albums and recorded far from the auditoriums of “Tibetan Monk” (2013) and “The Violent Mystical Sukuma” (2016). Domadora is convinced that context directly influences the intuitions and colours of improvised music. That’s the reason why the band has made the choice to record this album on an isolated farm in western France. Therefore, a very strong human experience and geographical isolation are on the list of ingredients of this album.
“Lacuna” was recorded and mixed by Brice Chandler, and mastered by Kent Stump in Crystal Clear Sound Wo Fat studios in Dallas, Texas.
TRACK LISTING: 1. Lacuna Jam 2. Gengis Khan 3. Vacuum Density 4. Tierra Last Homage
Artwork by Antoine d’Agata
The influences of Domadora are more in musical trends : free, uninhibited and daring to make music. Of course, you’re gonna easily think rock of the late 60’s and top 70 – but also to proto punk, the freedom of the area, or the heavy rock jam born in the desert. You can also find an influence in some classic pieces including the way to live a journey through successive wave intensities – from Pink Floyd to Fatso Jetson passing Led Zeppelin and Beethoven.
DOMADORA is Organ – Angel Hidalgo Paterna Drums – Karim Bouazza Bass – Gui Omm Guitars – Belwil
