Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 28th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
We’re getting into November this week, which as far as I’m concerned means two things. 1: The holidays are coming, and man, fuck the holidays. 2: It’s getting to be year-end list time. For your consideration, Austin dark heavy psych three-piece The Well humbly submit the clarity of a 4K ultra-high-def video for the track “Raven” from their 2019 album, Death and Consolation (review here). Released this past April in a continuing alliance with RidingEasy Records as the band’s third full-length, it was yet another argument for them as an underrated outfit, the dual vocals of guitarist Ian Graham and bassist Lisa Alley — the three-piece completed by drummer Jason Sullivan — growing as an ever-more-prevalent standout factor of their approach. They’ve done no shortage of road time since their 2014 debut, Samsara (review here), and are currently touring the Eastern Seaboard with a stop in Puerto Rico before heading home to play Levitation Fest early next month. In the New Year, it’ll be the UK & EU — whatever configuration they might be in at that point; the nation-states, not the band — followed by the West Coast in February and March, so yes, they’re keeping plenty busy.
But as we get down to the nitty-gritty end-of-year business around these parts, The Well are a band who clearly deserve some manner of recognition, and if you want to hear/see why, they’re basically presenting their case in the clearest manner available in the “Raven” video. If you can watch the clip in 4K, you should, because it looks cool and is almost too real in its smoothness, but however you check it out, it’s easily worth the four minutes of your time, with its stonerly riff engaging a classic heavy rock nodder mindset even as their vaguely cultish leanings come through in the vocal melody. It’s never been about reinventing the wheel with The Well, but their radness is pervasive and multifaceted, and their approach has grown with each offering they’ve made. Death and Consolation is the kind of record you can put on regardless of mood and get into it. No pretense, quality craft, deep mix to lose your head in, and a heavy groove to march you right to oblivion. The only thing it asks is you take a little time to dig it.
So dig it:
The Well, “Raven” official video
Austin trio The Well share a new video from their recently released album, Death and Consolation (RidingEasy Records). Watch & share the 4K UHD video for album track “Raven” which was directed, shot and edited by William Orendorff HERE.
The band has spent much of the year on tour, and continue the trek now into November. Early in the new year, The Well return to headline shows in the EU & UK, followed by West Coast dates with labelmates Zig-Zags in February 2020. Please see all dates below.
Death and Consolation is available on LP, CD and download as of April 26th, 2019 via RidingEasy Records. Orders are available HERE.
THE WELL TOUR 2019: (remaining dates) 10/28 – Atlanta, GA – 529 10/29 – Gainesville, FL – Hardback Cafe 10/30 – St Petersburg, FL – The Bends 11/01 – Puerto Rico – Club 77 11/03 – Austin, TX @ COTA F1 Races 11/09 – Austin, TX – Levitation Festival – RidingEasy stage
THE WELL TOUR 2020: EU/UK – January/February (dates TBA) 02/19 – El Paso, TX 02/20 – Phoenix, AZ 02/22 – Oceanside, CA * 02/23 – Los Angeles, CA * 02/25 – San Francisco, CA * 02/26 – Arcata, CA * 02/27 – Portland, OR * 02/28 – Seattle, WA * 02/29 – Vancouver, BC * 03/02 – Kalispell, MT * 03/03 – Missoula, MT 03/04 – Boise, ID * 03/05 – Salt Lake City, UT * 03/06 – Denver, CO * 03/07 – Albuquerque, NM * * w/ Zig-Zags
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 28th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
The new Queen Elephantine album, Gorgon, is out Nov. 8 through Argonauta Records and Atypeek Music, and the night before, they’ll begin a Northeastern run to support the release, playing Philly and Baltimore and Richmond before turning back north to Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island, closing out in scenic Montclair, New Jersey. The Connecticut show is particularly notable since I think it’s their first time there and they’ll share the stage with local largesse-bringers Sea of Bones which, well, if you ever had a mind to have your entire being swallowed by tone at a gig, that might just be the night to make it happen. Also nifty that Matt Couto of Elder and Kind is sitting in on percussion (he also plays synth on the record, so there’s that) for the run alongside founding guitarist/vocalist Indrayudh Shome and a seemingly expansive cast of cohorts.
An entirely underrated band whose work genuinely deserves more attention than it’s ever gotten to this point. They should tour more, but hey, maybe this is a start.
They posted the dates on thee social medias as follows:
In two weeks we hit the road to celebrate the release of our new album GORGON, which drops November 8th on Argonauta Records and Atypeek Music.
We’re playing with amazing artists throughout including Brian Chase of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs doing a solo “Drums & Drones” set in Brooklyn, our cosmic friends darsombra, the ten-ton thunder of Sea of Bones, Azonic (mems of Khanate and Blind Idiot God), Baltimore heavies BLACK LUNG, noise rockers tile and Hex Machine, and in Providence the dirt royalty of The Hammer Party, and the otherworldly drone violence of Rectrix (Pippi Zornoza) and Gyna Bootleg (Steph Nieves).
The core lineup will be Indrayudh Shome (guitar/vocal), Nathanael Totushek (drums), Camden Healy (bass), Brett Zweiman (synth), Matthew Couto (percussion), with appearances from Samer Ghadry, Ian Sims, Matthew Becker, Derek Fukumori, and Srinivas Reddy.
NOVEMBER 2019 7 – Philadelphia PA (Century) 8 – Baltimore MD (The Crown) 9 – Richmond VA (Wonderland) 10 – Harrisburg PA (JB Lovedraft’s) 14 – Brooklyn NY (Sunnyvale) 15 – Hamden CT (The Cellar on Treadwell) 16 – Providence RI (AS220) 17 – Montclair NJ (The Meatlocker)
Posted in Reviews on October 28th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Five records into a career as one of the most influential European heavy bands to come along this decade, Kadavar would seem to be returning to their roots. For the Dead Travel Fast is indeed the fifth long-player from the Berlin-based trio — fourth for Nuclear Blast — and in following up the modern sheen of their last two albums, 2017’s Rough Times (review here) and 2015’s Berlin (review here), the band would seem to have sought some middle ground in aesthetic conversation with their earlier work on 2013’s Abra Kadavar (review here) and their landmark released-in-2012-but-perpetually-reissued self-titled debut (discussed here), digging into an organic production style mirrored in the gritty sepia and severe contrast of the photo on their cover art.
If they’ve proven anything over the course of the last seven-plus years, it’s their ability as songwriters, and they’ve only grown more complex and more expressive in that regard, with guitarist/vocalist Christoph “Lupus” Lindemann emerging as a genuine frontman presence, drummer Christoph “Tiger” Bartelt functioning as the proverbial madman behind the kit and bassist Simon “Dragon” Bouteloup the quieter presence but ever more responsible for the band’s weight of impact. For the Dead Travels Fast leans on that weight more than did Rough Times, but it takes some cues from that album just the same, with the darker themes that pervaded there in songs like “Die Baby Die” and “Words of Evil,” “Skeleton Blues” and “Vampires” showing up in the ready-for-Halloween pieces “Children of the Night” — a highlight here — “The Devil’s Master,” “Evil Forces,” “Dancing with the Dead,” “Poison” and “Demons in My Mind.” Despite something of a shift on the most basic sonic level from one style to another — i.e., the re-adoption of a more vintage mindset — this continuity feels natural from the brooding opening of “The End” as an intro to “The Devil’s Master” onward.
By the time they get through the cavernous side B dark-psychedelia echoes of “Demons in My Mind” and into the closing duo of “Saturnales,” an organ-laced minimalia with hypnotic guitar and duly obscure lyrics, and the 7:49 capper build of “Long Forgotten Song,” mood becomes a central feature of For the Dead Travel Fast and where Rough Times did more than flirt with horror rock and a grimmer outlook, the newer work unquestionably pushes further. Songs are more patient in their execution and unfold in brooding fashion at least where they want to, and even a rocker like the proto-metallic “Evil Forces” finds room for a section of cackling, howling laughter at its conclusion, moving into the starts, stops, stomps and hooks of “Children of the Night” with a smoothness that signals the intent that always seems to be lurking beneath the surface of Kadavar‘s work. That is to say, they know what they’re doing here, as they always do.
Kadavar are not a haphazard band, at least in their finished product (I can’t really speak to the process that brings that product about), and For the Dead Travel Fast shows yet again that their will is to have more than just a stylistic impact, but to back that up with a quality of craft and delivery that they’ve at this point put in years of work to hone on tour and in the studio. Frankly, it shows. I don’t think one could listen to “Dancing with the Dead” and say they sound tired, because they don’t, but there’s a maturity at play throughout their fifth record that suits them and their material well. They’re not the brash ’70s rockers anymore. They’re a band who’ve toured the world, headlined festivals and done gigs on multiple continents, and whose fanbase has grown to encompass not just listeners, but other bands who’ve taken up their influence. Again, there are few in Europe or anywhere else who’ve had more of an effect on the course of this particular branch of classic-minded heavy rock this decade than Kadavar, and they round out the 2010s in prime fashion on For the Dead Travel Fast, claiming their place not quite as statesmen of the underground, but as a band who never wanted to be a fluke and went on to prove it in the most righteous manner possible.
I’ll stop short of calling For the Dead Travel Fast a victory lap for that notion, mostly because I don’t think that’s what the band intended it to be, and because the characterization doesn’t really suit the mood of most of the material — which, again, is more grim even in its uptempo moments on “The Devil’s Master,” “Evil Forces” or the echoing thrust of “Demons in My Mind” — but it ends up being a powerful argument in favor of the idea just the same. Across a clean nine-track/45-minute run, Kadavar demonstrate their utter mastery of their form, hard won but ultimately uncompromised, and as much as one might be tempted to think of the sound of For the Dead Travel Fast as a “return to form” or something like that — and maybe that’s not entirely wrong — it’s also important to consider the ways in which the three-piece continue to push themselves forward, as on “Saturnales” or even the atmospheric beginning “The End” provides the record as it moves into the alternatingly broadly spaced and pushing “The Devil’s Master,” that dynamic persisting throughout nearly everything that follows.
Principally, Kadavar write memorable songs, as they always have. Whatever form that takes, whatever turns of aesthetic they might bring to that, they never seem to lose that foundation beneath them, and much as Bouteloup‘s bassline underscores Lindemann‘s scorcher solo in “Evil Forces,” it’s always right where it needs to be at the structural root of their material. They’ve made themselves harder to predict with For the Dead Travel Fast, which is refreshing. After the outright sheen of Berlin and the harder-edged modern sound of Rough Times, one might have expected Kadavar to stay on that path, but by shifting their production style, they’ve elbowed their way through whatever preconceptions might’ve existed of where they were headed and instead decided to chart their own course in the manner befitting a mature outfit of their stature. They’ve never sounded so much in command of their songs.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 28th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
I’m not entirely sure what Italian sludgers Zolfo are going for in titling their album Delusion of Negation, in terms of what that means or is intended to signify, but hey, I like phonetics, so what the hell. The full-length will serve as their debut, and it’s been newly announced that countryman imprint Spikerot Records will stand behind the release. That’s a good vote of confidence for the five-piece, who issued the Phosphene/Floaters two-tracker in 2017 that you can hear below and with it offered no shortage of brutalist riffing. It won’t take you long to get where they’re coming from, but that hardly makes the experience less enjoyable, you know, as much as it’s meant to be enjoyable in the first place.
Pummel pummel pummel and whatnot.
No real details on the record yet, but the announcement of the January release through Spikerot arrived thusly from the PR wire:
Doom Metal unit ZOLFO sign to Spikerot Records!
New album “Delusion Of Negation” to be released in January 2020
Italy’s Doom underworld is somewhat fervent environment lately and ZOLFO has rightfully earned a place in such realm.
Spikerot Records is stoked to announce the signing of the Apulian Sludge/Doom-mongers for the release of their debut album ‘Delusion Of Negation’, due in January 2020. As the monicker suggests – it’s the Italian for “Sulfur” – the band evokes a smoking creature that will utterly please fans of Ufomammut, Yob and Bongzilla alike. Huge riffs and loud amps proceed hand in hand with the slow-paced yet unmerciful drumming while the vocal delivery is harsh as hell, non-human at times.
The band has stated: “Our firstborn represents for us an essential point of balance between the many artistic and musical entities that dwell within the band’s core, brought into our sound by each member’s previous experiences. ‘Delusion Of Negation’ is a warning for the future that urges us to experiment and evolve what we are. It’s not everyday you find insiders with the same passion and dedication as our friends at Spikerot Records, and for this reason releasing our first work with them is going to be truly gratifying.”
While waiting for this beast of an album, you can listen to a couple of older songs on their Bandcamp profile, a great foretaste of what’s to come!
ZOLFO is: Dave – Vocals Nicolò – Guitars Fabrizio – Guitars Saverio – Bass Piero – Drums
Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 25th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Based in Harrisonburg, Virginia, Valkyrie came up around the same time as a kind of underground next-generation local boom in the Virginia/Maryland scene. Bands like Ol’ Scratch, VOG (with whom Valkyrie released a split in 2005), Admiral Browning, Lord, and a host of others seemed to solidify if not simultaneously then at least concurrently, and though their sounds varied from extreme sludge and thrash to instrumental progressive heavy rock to Valkyrie‘s earthy take on neo-classic dual guitar-ism, there was the sort of camaraderie between them that can only emerge when it’s a group of bands who’ve played shows basically for each other. That entire scene was and remains undervalued, and though most of those bands are gone and/or morphed into other acts like Foehammer, Spiral Grave, Earthling, the last incarnation of Akris, etc., and Valkyrie were put on the proverbial backburner for years following their second album, Man of Two Visions (discussed here), being picked up by MeteorCity in 2010 after its initial release in 2008 on Noble Origins (Kreation Records also put it out on vinyl in 2009), the quality of their 2006 self-titled still remains in its unpretentious melodies, proto-progressive groove and the weighted tones of its brotherly team of guitarist/vocalists, Jake and Pete Adams.
It’s arguable that among their cohort, Valkyrie had the most potential. Their sound was different from everyone else’s, and as heavy rock consciousness was filled with two-guitar antics and fleet rhythmic turns thanks to the ascent of Mastodon, Valkyrie came across as not-uninformed of that, but able to be a tie between that style, heavy Southern rock, the classic doom of Pentagram, and even a touch of Spirit Caravan — whose drummer Gary Isom, would join them at some point around the second record. They were an immediate standout, in other words, and the material on Valkyrie‘s Valkyrie — released by Twin Earth after that VOG split and a couple of demos — was much the same, with Jake and Pete effectively trading vocals atop winding riffs and a welcoming sense of overarching groove to the bass of Nick Crabill and Nic McInturff‘s drumming. At eight tracks and 40 minutes, the release feels prescient of the vinyl boom to come, and though it’s fair to call its Chris Kozlowski production organic, it’s still rich enough to properly convey the surge of energy with the solo in finale “Lost in the Darkness,” which is perhaps the most singularly Wino-derived moment as it moves back into its The Obsessed-style central riff heading toward the midpoint of the song.
Of course, that’s hardly the first uptempo kick on Valkyrie. Beginning with “Withered Tree” at the outset, the four-piece construct a heavy rolling fluidity that allows for as much nuance as is warranted without taking away from impact at the most basic level. Witness the stop and subsequent intertwining of guitars in the second half of the opener. There’s a gracefulness to the execution of that build that undercuts the idea of the self-titled being the band’s first record — no doubt the fact that the guitarists were brothers helped — and as they moved through the hazier riffs of “Sunlight Shines” and the full-on thrust of pace that emerges there, it becomes clear just how central to the proceedings the musical conversation between the Adams brothers truly is. Not to take away from Crabill or McInturff in the rhythm section — though both would be gone by the time the follow-up came along — but Valkyrie were always a guitar-minded outfit, and they earned that through their stage presence and technique alike, tapping into epic heavy rock elements on “Endless Crusade” ahead of the acoustic interlude “Wolf Hollow” and the push into the second half of the tracklisting via “Secrets of the Mind.”
The hooky fuzz there seems to straighten out some of the more winding aspects of earlier cuts, but in truth it’s no less complex than anything before, and much the same applies to “Heralds of the Dawn,” which follows. Perhaps most of all the songs on Valkyrie feels made for the stage. Ready to dominate at Krug’s Place in Frederick or some other Chesapeake-region outlet on a bill maybe with Earthride and cheap beer spilled as much on the floor as down the gullets of patrons who somehow are drunk anyway. On such a guitar-centric record, it might be Jake Adams‘ best vocal performance, and it successfully blends the progressive and proto-metal aspects of the earlier songs with a fuller-sounding distorted roll all the while executing an efficient structure. If you want an example of the potential at root in their sound, that’s where you go. They follow it with longest cut “Eternally There,” which brings in Internal Void‘s Kelly Carmichael for a guest solo — I love the thought at the Adams brothers listened to anything on this record and were like, “You know, I think this could use another guitar”; it’s like the most guitarist thought ever — and prefaces the galloping last build in “Lost in the Darkness” with its own energetic thrust.
They end, as noted, by riding off at top speed into the sunset, which is a fair enough way to go out and certainly earned by the prior proceedings. I’ve always thought of Man of Two Visions as a superior record in that it took a lot of what Valkyrie established as their sound and pushed it forward, opened up the production some and further integrated the natural vibe into the songwriting, but going back and revisiting the self-titled is a refresher of how strong this band was at the outset. No mystery as to “what happened” to them. Jake Adams started a family and in 2008 Pete joined Baroness, where he’d remain until 2017. He currently plays in Samhain and Razors in the Night. In the meantime, Valkyrie released a third LP, Shadows (review here), through Relapse in 2015 and have done periodic shows and fest appearances to support it, remaining underrated all the while.
That release came as a surprise but was certainly welcome, and whatever, whenever Valkyrie do next, if anything, it’ll be much the same. They may not have gotten in the last 15-plus years the recognition they’ve deserved, but the sonic conversation happening between the Adamses remains something special and any outlet it finds is worth hearing.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
—
The Pecan turns two today. Toddlerian. Human Hurricane. “Daddy is not for kicking.” “We don’t bite.” “We don’t hit.” “If you hit me again, I’m leaving. Okay, good night. I love you. See you in the morning.”
Two years ago, I watched as, after, what, 38? hours of labor they pulled him out of my wife’s belly in an emergency C-section. Her guts, blue, on a table that I wasn’t supposed to see but saw anyway before they stuffed them back into her and closed her up with all the barbarity of human medicine at its most basic. The kind of thing the future will judge us for, provided, you know, a future.
While we’re here: Sorry about that, Pecan.
But anyway, Duder is two. And awake. And probably with a dirty diaper from the sound of him, so yeah, I better head upstairs and get the day started. It’s 6AM. Yesterday, his nap got cut short by like an hour I think because my wife and I used the bathroom one after the other and the sound of the running water was enough to wake him — he has a white noise machine but turns it off after we leave him and it plugs in so we can’t move it out of his reach; it’s a whole fucking complicated thing — and he was miserable, but eventually I gave him some of the wheat crackers he likes and he chilled out. But that was my afternoon, pretty much. I got to finish the posts for today, this one aside, and read half a section of a chapter of the Star Trek book I’m working through, and that was it. Back to daddy-time.
I’d say something about pretending to have a real life, but I think probably the proper thing to do is consider daddy-time as real life. There are arguments to be made on either side of that, I guess, and various cruel narratives that play out in my head on any given day as I watch the minutes slowly tick by until I can sit with The Patient Mrs., have dinner, watch the end of News Hour or more Trek and maybe chat for a minute over dessert before I complete the futz ritual — prepare coffee for the morning, etc. — pop half a container of sugar-free Rolaids and go to bed somewhere around 8-8:30, depending on how miserably tired I am. Real life. Maybe I’ll go back to bed this morning.
Yeah.
This post is long enough anyway. I’m gonna go grab him, change him, deliver him to my wife for morning nursing, saying happy birthday and properly doting in special you’re-gonna-have-ice-cream-today fashion, then crash out for a little bit. I’ll put up another post first though, because if I don’t, I won’t sleep. It’s like that.
How about those Astros though, huh?
Next week? I don’t know. It’s Halloween, but I don’t much care except it means the holidays are encroaching and I frickin’ hate the holidays. I think I’m going to put up a poll though for the best albums of the decade next week and that should be fun. I’m interested to see what people pick. And with my plans for 2020 in Sweden having fallen through, I’ve floated an Obelisk All-Dayer in Brazil in July 2021 maybe. That’s a ways off, but we’ll see. Would be fun.
Oh and there’ll be premieres and reviews and other stuff. It’s all in my notes, which frankly I’m too tired to look at at just this moment.
Have a great and safe weekend. Rock and roll and all that. We’re having a big party for The Pecan tomorrow with family and a few close friends. If you’re in the neighborhood, we’d love to have you come by. Email me for the address. We’ll have a bouncy house, so bring the kids. I’m completely serious.
Posted in Reviews on October 25th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
With Drowners’ Wives, their second album, Austin, Texas’ Monte Luna not only make their debut on Argonauta Records but show a clear sense of having learned a few crucial lessons from their first about their overall direction and what they’re looking to accomplish as a band. At roughly 34 minutes long, Drowners’ Wives takes its central lyrical inspiration from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with Drowners being a kind of monster one encounters that eats corpses. Fun. Despite this cohesion of theme, its shortened runtime is a bit over half the length of that 71-minute 2017 self-titled (review here), but with both albums carrying six component tracks, the change comes from writing shorter songs rather than simply including less of them. The longest cut on Drowners’ Wives, for example, is the 8:30 closer “Scenes from a Marriage,” with its deep-mixed organ, atmospheric vocal swirl in the second half, and scathing screams in its later apex capping the record. Time well spent, to be sure, and not an insignificant length by most measures. In relation to the debut, apart from the four-minute “The Burning of Elohim,” which was more or less an intro (if one with vocals), “Scenes from a Marriage” would be more than a minute shorter than the next shortest track, which itself was something of an aberration for being under 12 minutes long.
Clearly a change in intent on the part of bassist/guitarist/vocalist James Clarke and drummer/effects-specialist Phil Hook, and one that, honestly works to the benefit of allowing the material on Drowners’ Wives to shine and giving each song a better chance of being digested by the average listener. That’s not to decry a long album generally or to take anything away from Monte Luna‘s first outing, which was a grower and a righteous one at that, just to note that in this case, the approach they take is to the benefit of highlighting a more diverse sound. It is one bolstered as well by a few guest appearances throughout. Jaime Ramirez handles the aforementioned organ on “Scenes from a Marriage” and also “Man of Glass,” while Tommy Munter plays bass on the speedy-shuffling side A closer “Night of Long Fangs,” Jeff Klien guitar on chug-fuzzed second cut “The Butcher of Blaviken” and Steve Colca of Destroyer of Light on opener “The Water Hag,” which builds its riff from the ground up at the outset of the record and engages a call and response vocally during the verse between Clarke and Colca that is an effective initial hook in itself while still providing one of Drowners’ Wives‘ heaviest and most lumbering riffs. Perhaps unsurprisingly there’s stiff competition in that regard, but if anything, Monte Luna emphasize this time out that they’re not just interested in unipolarity as a band. They’re here to do more than bludgeon with tone and crash, and the manner in which they realize that assertion in these six songs suits them remarkably well, and while any record that features a list of guests that’s longer than the list of actual members runs the risk of seeing the core band’s identity subsumed, Monte Luna run into no such trouble. By the time they’re through “The Butcher of Blaviken,” it’s clear who they are. They’re the ones doing whatever the hell they want and pulling it off.
To wit, the later reaches of “The Butcher of Blaviken” devolve the emergent plod into an outward-bound instrumental jam that seems to churn itself to pieces as it works toward its eventual end. There’s a memorable lead line included there, but still. That makes “Night of Long Fangs” all the more a punch to the face when it starts its immediately and brash sub-four-minute pummel, with early High on Fire‘s marauding sensibility given more stylistic breadth and malleable vocals. As it invariably would, the uptick of speed leads to a slowdown in the back half of “Night of Long Fangs” — about, of course, a vampire hunt — and the thicker riff that takes hold soon enough cedes ground to a drone and Hook‘s drumming on “Wild Hunt,” which, whether it’s considered an interlude on a linear format or an intro to side B of the vinyl is a well-positioned momentary breather that nonetheless expands the reach of Drowners’ Wives as a whole through its tribalism and ambient aspects, setting up a dug-in closing duo in “Man of Glass” and “Scenes from a Marriage” that feels all the more urgent upon arrival and thus all the more effective. There’s a down-to-sludge-rock-business feel that pervades the beginnings of both songs that’s enough to make me wonder if they were written first, but they’re well paired either way, both moving into harsher vocals even as the otherwise massively-toned guitars prove expansive and Clarke‘s voice presents a gamut of influences from Bongzilla to Queens of the Stone Age, depending on what the song calls for at the time.
That last part is perhaps the key to understanding where Monte Luna are coming from on Drowners’ Wives. While they’ve based the album’s theme around Witcher lore and have at least at one or two points they use samples direct from the game itself, the chief accomplishment of the album is how much the two-piece make the sound their own. It might seem counterintuitive, with itinerant company coming through even unto the organ in “Scenes from a Marriage,” but none of the contributions feels superfluous in terms of the material’s impact, which remains the central concern no matter where an individual piece might go, be it “The Water Hag” with its swinging catchiness or the intensity that crowns the finale. Monte Luna thrives in each scenario they present here not just because they add elements to arrangements of their own guitar, bass, drums and/or vocals, but because those additions make the songs a richer listening experience. It seems like a simple idea, but it’s not always so easy when it comes to execution, and having shorter tracks is a part of it as well. I won’t profess to know what they might do their next time out, but for the sense of themselves and the will toward individualism they so strongly declare across Drowners’ Wives, it’ll be all the more exciting to find out.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 25th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
At this point, Baltimorean extreme-ish sludge three-piece Yatra tour with a frequency that makes one only hope they really get along as human beings in addition to, you know, being a good band. Otherwise, that’s an awful lot of time to spend together. With a new album in some stage of completion — mixed? mastered? in the can? at the press? promo just came down the PR wire? wouldn’t that be a fun coincidence of timing if it were true (it isn’t)? — and recently signed to STB Records for its release, the trio just wrapped a European stint that included stops at Desertfest Belgium, Into the Void, and Høstsabbat (review here), where both they and their tourmates in Polish prog-heavies Sunnata properly killed.
Not a group to rest on laurels or rest, period, Yatra will embark next week on a new round of touring, this time playing dates with — among others — Stonecutters, Destroyer of Light and Black Tusk as they cut a pretty broad swath across the Midwest and Southeast. The tour isn’t actually all that long by the standard of some they’ve done, but looks like a pretty fair bit of geographical ground to cover in less than two weeks of every-night shows — a Nov. 4 TBD notwithstanding; someone better call Vegas Rock Revolution and get them on the case — while still saying South-centric. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were back out in January either, or if they snuck in a couple shows around the coming holidays. Because that’s how they do.
Hoping for actual release news soon about their record, but till then, here are the dates:
Alright ‘merica we are back inside you!…..
This lil U.S. tour starts next week! Playing with some rad bands in awesome places! Stoked to get back in the van again!
YATRA needs to fill one date on this tour! November 4th! Somewhere between SLC and Pheonix (thinking Vegas or Flagstaff)! Any booking help or info on shows we could hop on would be rad! Thanx!
Check it…..!
YATRA live: 10/31 Louisville KY Magbar 11/01 Witchita KS Barleycorns 11/02 Denver CO 7th Circle 11/03 Salt Lake City UH Urban Lounge 11/04 TBD 11/05 Phoenix AZ Yucca Tap Room 11/06 Taos NM Taos Mesa Brewery 11/07 Austin TX The Lost Well 11/08 Memphis TN B-Sides 11/09 Greenville SC Gottrocks 11/10 Baltimore MD Metro Gallery
YATRA: Dana Helmuth – guitars/vocals Maria Geisbert – bass Mike Tull – drums
Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 25th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Philly’s primo spacedudes Ecstatic Vision are presently embroiled in the nebular mists of a European tour supporting their righteous 2019 offering, For the Masses (review here). You hear it yet? I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that yeah, you did. If you’re reading this, that doesn’t seem too rash. Kudos to you on keeping up, or something. I have no doubt you’re better at it than I am, as I know I’ve said many times before.
Anyhoo, as the four-piece bullhorn-preach Jupiterian mushroom insight across the Old World — they’re in Amsterdam tonight — they also bring forth a new video. The track is “Shut up and Drive,” and in it we see frontman Doug Sabolik wander lost in the desert, only to find he’s really just passed out on his lawn. Subsequently evicted by a cop he calls dickhead (played by bassist Michael Field Connor) he eats some mushrooms with his dog guitarist/saxophonist/occasional-flutist Kevin Nickles, appearing in the style of the tv show Wilfred) then goes to audition for a band and runs into more cops (Connor and drummer Ricky Kulp) and then from there, there’s the audition, some more getting high, and general shenanigans that ensue. Is watching it front to back worth seven minutes out of your precious day? Speaking from personal experience, oh most definitely.
And after that’s over, because the track also rules, I’ve also included the full stream of For the Masses at the bottom of the post because you’ll probably want to dig into that again. That’s me, looking out for you, but I guess you can send your thank-you card to Heavy Psych Sounds, which handled the release, hosts the record on Bandcamp and put the band on tour. Credit where it’s due, after all.
Enjoy:
Ecstatic Vision, “Shut up and Drive” official video
Philadelphia’s acid rockers ECSTATIC VISION present their butt-kicking and exhilarating new video for “Shut Up And Drive.” The band is touring Europe right now to present their new studio album ‘For The Masses’ released this fall on Heavy Psych Sounds.
ECSTATIC VISION have tapped into something that expands heavy rock’s vocabulary and moves into a far-out sonic galaxy where there is music in the spheres, but the spheres vibrate on previously untold frequencies. ‘For the Masses’ is Ecstatic Vision at its most spacey, most tripped-out, most avant-garde, and most rock and roll, somehow all at once.
Frontman Doug Sabolik says: “We were toying with the idea of a more digestible record but at the end of the day we had to keep it real and the result was our most psychedelic, head-trip style record to date. This record mixes expansions of the elements we have touched on in the past and with the help of producer Tim Green (Melvins, Earthless) we have delivered a streamlined, clear version of our unique blend of Neanderthal, Catatonic, Semi-Articulate, Cro-Magnon Rock.”
ECSTATIC VISION on tour: 25/10/2019 NL Amsterdam – OCCII 26/10/2019 UK London – The Dev 28/10/2019 UK Bristol -The Lanes 29/10/2019 BE Bruxelles – Le Bunker 30/10/2019 NL Groningen – Vera 31/10/2019 DE Dresden – Chemienfabrik 01/11/2019 AT Wien – Weberknecht 02/11/2019 AT Innsbruck – Heavy Psych Sounds Fest 03/11/2019 SK Bratislava – Protokultura 04/11/2019 CZ Prague – Cafe v Lese 05/11/2019 DE Leipzig – Naumanns 06/11/2019 PL Wroclaw – DK Luksus 07/11/2019 PL Gdansk – Drizzly Grizzly 09/11/2019 DE Berlin – Headz Up Fest 13/11/2019 IS Reykkjavik – Gaukurinn 15/11/2019 SE Helsingborg- Favela 16/11/2019 SE Stockholm – Southside Cavern
ECSTATIC VISION is Doug Sabolik – guitar, organ, vocals Michael Field Connor – bass Kevin Nickles – saxophone, flute, guitar Ricky Kulp – drums
