The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: DJ Howard of Partholón, The Magnapinna & Paranoid Beast Promotions

—

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I’m a musician and artist and it’s difficult to articulate what that even means.

Compulsion comes to mind. It’s the rattling of some sort of primordial instinct to create and share. For me, music and performing were never escapism. It feels far more like a visceral connection to reality. Art is the same, connecting to things and stepping back to experience it all through the eyes of another.

In terms of how I came to do it, I was probably led towards music by my father. He was a musician doing it the hard way in hard times before he had kids and things got harder. He was always banging out tunes at parties and I was hyper-aware of how people reacted. My oldest sister guided me a bit later on. I’d get home an hour before her after school and listen to Prince cassettes on her hifi. I was fascinated with her obsession with one musical act, I didn’t know you could “follow” an artist back then. She started dating an older guy when I was a teenager, and his musical taste really really influenced me towards the heavier side of music. I owe them both a lot of gratitude. She took me to my first proper arena show, Metallica in ’96. There was no going back.

Art came naturally, I just saw drawing as a thing you did and went from there.

Describe your first musical memory.

I got a small alarm clock radio as a young kid and I’d sit by it for hours turning the plastic dial looking for guitar music. We had no money for records at the time and a TV with two channels, so music through the media was very difficult to come by. Having that radio opened up a big world to me. I remember hearing “Jailbreak” by Thin Lizzy for the second time and just losing my mind in the excitement of recognizing a tune. I was probably 5 or 6 years of age.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Memories are such a fluid thing, it’d be impossible to single out one moment in particular. The best of my memories are in the people I’ve met through playing shows. When I think of stand out shows or moments, it always centres around an individual or group of people. There’s a sadness in that at times, but I’m lucky to have amazing memories with some of the best people through music.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

I don’t feel like I carry any firmly held beliefs with me in general. I grew up in a very religious setting, particularly with regards to education, so firmly held beliefs were achieved through intimidation, manipulation and fear. I try to keep an open mind through reason and logic as best I can and let any firmly held beliefs wear themselves out.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

I have no idea, but I’m all in to find out.

How do you define success?

Success is the death of endeavour and I’m very much in the endeavour phase of success. Long may it last.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Catholic education in the ’80s was a covertly brutal place for any child. There’s a residual ignorance and discomfort in Irish society even today when it comes to addressing it. I made it through by the skin of my teeth but I saw enough to give me sleepless nights into adulthood. I already know I’ll be pressed on this answer should anyone local encounter it. It usually comes with the prefix “be very careful” or “the dead can’t defend themselves.” The irony is fucking lost on them.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I’m currently working on a portrait for a friend. It’s very important and personal to her and her partner and I’m battling with myself to produce something worthy for them. I’m working on it right now while answering these questions and contemplating starting it over. I’d really like to create a way of just getting it done.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

I went to Art college straight out of high school. I was young and out of my depth, but I had talent. This question was asked and answered a lot in my time there with increasingly hyperbolic sentiment. I’m not sure that you can boil Art down into any essential function. It’s everything and nothing and a little bit of what you’re having yourself.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

I have a couple of art pieces on the horizon that are going to be challenging. It’s going to require some time away from my dayjob and a brief retreat from the world, but I’m looking forward to figuring it all out.

https://www.facebook.com/paranoidbeastpromotions/
https://theparanoidbeast.bandcamp.com/

http://www.facebook.com/themagnapinna
https://twitter.com/themagnapinna
https://themagnapinna.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/partholonian/
https://partholonian.bandcamp.com/

The Magnapinna, “Werewolves of London”

Partholón, Follow Me Through Body (2016)

If you don’t have room in your heart for the psychedelic bliss of Electric Moon, I humbly submit you don’t have a heart at all. You might want to have a doctor check that out. For the rest of the hearted, the since-2009 German cosmic rockers founded by guitarist/effects-specialist/sometimes-keyboardist Dave “Sula Bassana” Schmidt and bassist/sometimes-vocalist/noisemaker/graphic-artist “Komet Lulu” Neudeck — both of whom now have their own record labels in Sulatron Records and Worst Bassist Records; these are industrious hippies — have been reaching for the galactic barrier via sound, and the 2LP collection Phase gathers a curated smattering of work from their first decade together.

Out through Neudeck‘s Worst Bassist imprint — for what it’s worth, I’ve seen Electric Moon live more than once and she more than holds her own on bass — in limited double-vinyl and double-CD editions, Phase checks in at about two hours long when the bonus tracks (for the CD or DL, the latter of which is included with the LP) are considered, and features no fewer than four different drummers, including Sula Bassana himself, the founding-and-current-returned Bernhard “Pablo Carneval” Fasching, the UK-based Michael “Bongolious Maximus” Orloff, and Marcus Schnitzler, now of The Spacelords.

These are not the only drummers Electric Moon has had — there was also Alexander Simon circa 2011-2012, and I’ll note here just to note somewhere that as of 2020, they’ve added a second guitarist in Johannes “Joe Muff” Schaffer — but obviously plenty nonetheless. If the band had so chosen, Phase probably could have been broken into different volumes, perhaps with some other tracks from splits or album releases added along with what serves as the bonus tracks here, and turned into at least four single-LP offerings, but there’s something to be said for the method Electric Moon employ in delivering these remastered pieces to their loyalist cult fanbase. When they do something, they go all-in.

So it has been throughout the 12-plus years since their coming together. Particularly in their extended cuts, they are a head-first dive into spaced and spacious heavy psychedelia, drawing on classic jams, psych and krautrock ideologies — it is not a coincidence that Phase opens with covers of Tangerine Dream‘s “Madrigal Meridian” and The Beatles‘ “Tomorrow Never Knows” — and the invitation they extend toward the listener to be immersed in wash and open stretches alike is singular even among mostly-instrumental, improv/spontaneity-based groups.

The chemistry between Schmidt and Neudeck and will to experiment, the sense of playfulness they bring to works like the 17-minute “D-Tune” that serves as the bulk of side C of Phase, aren’t to be understated. Rather, they are a ready blueprint that others have followed in their wake, and along with demonstrating the band’s ability to mold itself around the personalities of different players in and out as the memorable “The Loop” from 2017’s Stardust Rituals (review here) gives way to “Your Own Truth” from 2013’s You Can See the Sound Of… EP (reissue review here), Phase highlights their work in crafting material fluid in either long- or short-form modes.

By the time they get down to “Moon Love” from their debut album, Lunatics, which takes up the whole of side D at nearly 23 minutes, that particular point has been well made, but it’s also worth pointing out that Phase emphasizes the vocalized material from throughout the band’s tenure. Neudeck has rarely been a singer of the frontperson type, and the vocals in these remastered versions hold to that ethic. Vocals are atmospheric, sometimes spoken, usually coated in effects — part of the overarching experience of the song — yet her delivery of the verses in “Tomorrow Never Knows” in a kind of proto-New Wave declarative voice are righteous, and the same holds for “Stardust Service” when they get down to the bonus tracks.

In the context of the group’s discography, she is a somewhat reticent presence singing, but that human voice proves pivotal to the material here. As colorful as they make it, space is still huge and easy to get lost in. Sometimes a few lines are enough to remind the listener they’re still there. That function, of course, isn’t always what Electric Moon are going for, but it serves Phase well as regards the 13-minute “Spaceman” from 2011’s The Doomsday Machine (review here) and casts their work in a different (moon)light overall, serving as a clear purpose behind the collection’s existence in the first place.

Perhaps these are more phases than a singular phase, ultimately, since even the bonus tracks cover a span of years between The Doomsday Machine‘s “Stardust Service” (19:44) and “Stardust (The Picture)” (10:14) from Stardust Rituals, but one way or the other, Electric Moon bring together these songs, long or short, jammed or structured, adventurous or grounded, original or cover, in a spirit of celebration not only for what they’ve accomplished over their first 10 years, but a kind of rediscovery of the path they’ve walked.

As though, looking behind them at their footprints, they have some more sense of where they were headed on that decade of willful meander. As a fan of the band, which I am, my hearing of it is much the same, despite being aware of the fact that they could easily do a Next Phase 2LP follow-up that includes nothing but four extended, side-swallowing instrumental pieces and thereby tell a completely different story. That’s a part of who they are as a group, multi-faceted within the liquefied parameters stretching to one rounded corner or another of heavy psych, space and krautrock.

The simple truth is that if Phase makes you feel anything in listening, as it inevitably will, then on an artistic and expressive level, Electric Moon have already won, but the way they go about it, the underlying narrative being created about who Electric Moon are and what they do and can do in their music, is something distinct to this release. It makes Phase more than just a ‘best of’ — or what Neudeck might more likely call a ‘worst of’ if the pattern holds — and it enriches the story of Electric Moon as a project, which one hopes will only continue to be told.

Electric Moon, Phase (2021)

Electric Moon on Facebook

Electric Moon on Bandcamp

Electric Moon website

Worst Bassist Records on Facebook

Worst Bassist Records on Instagram

Worst Bassist Records on Bandcamp

Something perhaps of niche appeal here, but I consider myself part of the niche, so whatever. Duncan Patterson, original bassist of Anathema whose catalog also includes work as a founding member of Antimatter and Alternative 4 and Íon, has a new solo album due in March through Strangelight Records. His last solo offering was 2016’s The Eternity Suite, which built out arrangements from Anathema‘s 1996 landmark, Eternity, into atmospheric orchestral interpretations, and the upcoming Grace Road feels immediately more traditionally song-based — at least if the first song is anything to go by.

“The Amber Line” was posted on Xmas and puts Patterson in collaboration with vocalist Enas Al-Said. Certainly one can hear the keyboard choral and sparse guitar that were an integral part of The Eternity Suite, but the presence of two singers signals a change of approach, though of course how much “The Amber Line” speaks for the rest of the record is a mystery. An intriguing one, at that. All the more since the selected single is one of only five inclusions on the full-length, from which one might extrapolate that there’s some longer-form work being done than even across the six minutes here. For those unfamiliar with Alternative 4 or Patterson‘s storied past in general — first of all, please take this post as encouragement to go exploring — and second, you’ll find the melancholy on display here is a hallmark of his craft.

I’m curious to see Strangelight releasing and not Prophecy Productions, which has handled plenty of Patterson-inclusive fare in the past, but we live in a new age, and weirder things have definitely happened than someone putting out a record on another label than the one I immediately and probably needlessly associate them with in my head.

Info from social media, audio from Bandcamp:

DUNCAN PATTERSON – Grace Road

Liverpool born songwriter Duncan Patterson returns after a five year absence. The new album, titled ‘Grace Road’, is scheduled for a March release through Strangelight Records. The first track ‘The Amber Line’, featuring vocalist Enas Al-Said, will be available for free/name your price via Bandcamp on December 25th. Grace Road is Patterson’s second solo album, following The Eternity Suite in 2016.

https://duncanpatterson.bandcamp.com/

Duncan Patterson – Grace Road (Strangelight Records – DUBH008)

Absolut Absolutum
The Quiet Light
Walking Between Worlds
The Amber Line
Grace Road

http://www.facebook.com/duncanpatterson.music
http://www.instagram.com/duncanpattersonmusic
https://duncanpatterson.bandcamp.com/

Duncan Patterson, “The Amber Line”

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Scott Brenner of Haze Mage

—

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I’m a web developer, bassist (Haze Mage), amateur photographer, and occasional local show booker/promoter. Most of that has just come naturally from my life experiences, personal hobbies, and desire to help support our vast local scene. My band exists because John made a Facebook post saying “I want to drum for a stoner metal band” we responded, started meeting shortly after that and have been playing together ever since! This band has solidified my already long standing appreciation for the vast Baltimore music scene and it’s why we do everything to showcase the local talent with our shows & annual event, Grim Reefer Fest.

Describe your first musical memory.

HFStival ‘99 was the first real concert I remember attending. It was wild for my first show to be a stadium event with a ton of my favorite bands of the time. Experiencing the sights, sounds, and smells of a large show for the first time was an eye opening moment for me. I’ve been hooked on concerts ever since.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Until recently I would have said opening for Acid King, who is one of my all time favorite bands but we just played our first show in almost two years with some of our favorite bands to a huge crowd and the emotions from that experience are completely unrivaled to anything I’ve experienced. I didn’t truly realize the size of the void in my heart from not seeing or playing shows for so long. We all needed it. It was almost a bit overwhelming to see so many people that we’ve missed for so long and to play for them. Everything about that night was perfect and won’t be forgotten anytime soon.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

I’m extremely non-religious and pretty much always have been. About 11 years ago I had a pituitary tumor diagnosis and needed to have that removed from my head (really not a fun experience, I don’t recommend it). There was a period before surgery where I contemplated death, God, etc., and perhaps looking for help from some sort of greater space deity but I didn’t and still don’t believe in that and never went down that path. I know that the only things getting me through that situation was the science, trusted doctors, and the will of my own body.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

I would say artistic progression leads to exploration and challenging yourself. It’s an important thing to drive yourself to push your own limits, to find your next sound or motif or piece of inspiration, and not just rely on what you’ve already done.

How do you define success?

Setting a goal and achieving it, it’s as simple as that. There will always be things I wish I could’ve done better or differently but that doesn’t make the things I’ve done any less of a success. Even as a musician, playing a show that’s smaller than maybe we would’ve hoped for I would still call it a success because if I’m out there playing for anyone other than myself and if one person is there and enjoyed it then that’s all that matters.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

I’ve seen a pig eat a man. In fact, I’ve seen many pigs eat many men. It was a bloodbath.

In all seriousness though I’ve given this one probably more thought than I should admit and nothing specific really comes to mind. I’ve seen so much good and bad, joyful and sad, and I don’t regret seeing any of it because it’s all helped me become who I am today.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I would like to create a platform for artists to share their shows, music, art, event photos, and live streams that doesn’t suppress everything the way some of the bigger platforms do these days. We should all do more to build our local scenes and keep them thriving.

Also I have a dream about turning the lore and story we’ve written into all of our music into a D&D campaign, because we’re that type of nerds.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

To be enjoyed. Not everything has to be inspirational or have deep meaning (sometimes a song about a witch seeing the future in her magic bong doesn’t have that many layers to it) but as long as somebody out there enjoys it, even if it’s just yourself, is all that matters in the end.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

There’s this bridge between my house and my main route into the city that’s being rebuilt and has been closed for three years now that’s finally going to reopen soon and that’s such a grown-up answer to this question but it’s been a giant pain in the ass and I cannot wait.

Additionally, I’m looking forward to the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, more tattoos, the return of the Rattlesnake burrito, and Adam Page winning the AEW World Championship.

https://www.instagram.com/hazemage
https://www.facebook.com/hazemage
https://hazemage.bandcamp.com
http://www.grimoirerecords.com
http://grimoirerecords.bandcamp.com
http://www.facebook.com/GrimoireRecords
https://twitter.com/grimoiremetal

Haze Mage & Tombtoker, Split (2020)

Fair to say that a Kurokuma full-length has been in the works for some time. The band has been together for not quite a decade, but, you know, sometimes this shit takes a while. Some bands, they form and have a record out six months later. That’s fine too, don’t get me wrong — at least depending on the band — but I also kind of respect the approach of an act taking their time, workshopping their sound across shorter releases for however long and getting to where they want to be sound-wise before putting together an entire album. I guess you might feel more pressure that way, letting it build up over time rather than getting it over with, but listening to the first single from Kurokuma‘s upcoming Born of Obsidian, they certainly at least seem to have their shit together and know what they’re going for.

I’ve dug into various stuff they’ve put out over the years, though, looking back, most of what I’ve posted about them has been tour dates, so given that they have done a respectable amount of road work, I’ll look forward to hearing how it all comes through in the material. Also fascinating that they brought Sanford Parker to record, but I guess when you’ve waited so long, you do it right.

Feb. 4 is the release date, and the copious background below came down the PR wire:

KUROKUMA ANNOUNCE DEBUT ALBUM ‘BORN OF OBSIDIAN’

RELEASED 4TH FEBRUARY / LISTEN TO ‘JAGUAR’ NOW

Equal parts primitive brutality and mind-bending psychedelia, Kurokuma will bring a fresh dose of exotic heaviness to the extreme music scene in 2022 with their debut album ‘Born of Obsidian’, set for release on 4th February.

Recorded in London with Sanford Parker (YOB, Eyehategod, Indian) at Narcissus Studio, the Sheffield-based psychedelic sludge trio have been sharpening their mantra-like songwriting since forming in late 2013, finally culminating in a debut album that melds their expansive ideas and abrasive influences together perfectly. The band comment,

“After years of silent gestation, our first full length will finally emerge into the blinding light of corporeal existence. The five songs that make up this album stand both unified and distinct, creating an edifice that transcends the moment and speaks to the raw nature of the universe. So turn your back on the madness; seek this column of unseen truth and elevate yourself from the primordial chaos in which you dwell.”

Always ones to avoid the traditional tropes of the doom and sludge metal scene, Kurokuma have often embraced different elements into their ‘heavy’ sound. This includes the worlds of Latin rhythm, kraut-rock and electronica, most recently evident in 2019 when they became the first artist to put out a metal release on legendary underground electronic music label, Off Me Nut with an EP titled, ‘‘Sheffield’s Best Metal Bands Vol.1’.

‘Born of Obsidian’ traverses various subgenres of metal while maintaining a unified atmosphere all of its own. Thematically it digs deep into the ancient history of major Mesoamerican civilisations; concepts range from Aztec deities, such as Tezcatlipoca and human sacrifice to the god of sun, Huitzilopochtli, to priests’ use of seeds and mushrooms in divine religious ceremonies. Tracks like lead single ‘Jaguar’ also reference the Olmec culture, which preceded the Aztecs, with the band adding,

“This one was written as more of an incantation than a standard song. The jaguar was the most powerful creature for the Olmecs. There were Olmec shamans who, it was believed, could transform into a jaguar, and this piece is meant to provide the soundtrack for such a ceremony.”

Listen to ‘Jaguar’ now – https://kurokumauk.bandcamp.com/track/jaguar

Obsidian itself is a naturally occurring volcanic glass which these civilisations used to create tools, ornaments, scrying mirrors and other instruments of dark magic. ‘Born of Obsidian’ is Kurokuma’s heavy metal-inspired take on bygone Mesoamerican eras, breathing life into these ancient cultures that treasured this igneous rock as an integral resource.

The trio was formed in late 2013 by guitarist/vocalist Jacob Mazlum and drummer Joe Allen in Sheffield, England. George Ionita was soon brought into the mix following the departure of their original bassist, and the die was cast.

The band spent a year crafting their nascent sound before releasing a self-titled demo in the Autumn of 2014, quickly garnering them attention and earning support slots with the likes of KEN mode, Samothrace and Skeletonwitch. Their first EP, ‘Advorsus’ followed in September 2016 on Medusa Crush Records.

Grinding their way through 2017 and starring in the indie documentary film ‘The Doom Doc’, Kurokuma hit 2018 hard with a tour of Japan supporting Conan, followed by a 4/20 show in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Summer 2018 saw the release of the much-anticipated ‘Dope Rider’ concept EP, along with an Eastern European tour over which the band played eight countries and appeared at the notorious Brutal Assault festival in the Czech Republic. Successful UK tours with Friendship from Japan and Boss Keloid finished 2018 for them.

Their 2019 EP was quickly followed up by an appearance at Desertfest London, and while COVID slowed things down in 2020, Kurokuma became the first metal band in the world to launch their own cannabis seed after partnering with NemeSeeds on KuroKush.

Originally scheduled to fly out to Chicago to record their debut album at Sanford Parker’s studio, the pandemic caused these plans to be amended, and towards the end of the year Parker agreed to fly out to London instead, making this the first record he has ever produced in the UK.

Kurokuma returned to the live circuit in 2021 with a crushing performance at Bloodstock Festival and more live shows planned for 2022.

‘Born of Obsidian’ is released digitally and on CD/tape on 4th February with vinyl to follow later in the year. Pre-order now: https://kurokumauk.bandcamp.com/album/born-of-obsidian

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https://www.instagram.com/kurokumauk/
https://kurokumauk.bandcamp.com/

Kurokuma, Born of Obsidian (2022)

One has to imagine that at some point in the last two-plus years, founding guitarist/vocalist Piotr Wyroslaw “Wyro” Dobry had to decide whether the music he and his band were putting together was still Weedpecker. Obviously, the answer was yes, but listening to the band’s fourth album, IV: The Stream of Forgotten Thoughts, issued by the venerable Stickman Records, the question feels legitimate. After all, Dobry in the three years since III (featured here) has overseen a complete revamping of the group’s lineup, including the shifting of his brother/fellow founding member Bartek Dobry to more of a producer’s role, contributing to arrangements and even a few riffs here and there but not necessarily participating in the day-to-day writing or shows.

As the lone remaining original member, Piotr Dobry has recast Weedpecker as nothing less than a supergroup of Polish heavy, bringing in Piotr “Seru” Sadza, also known as “Cheesy Dude” in Belzebong, as the band’s first full-time keyboardist, as well as Major Kong‘s Dominik “Domel” Stachyra on bass and Tankograd drummer Tomasz Walczak (also ex-Dopelord) to complete the band.

And in many ways, Weedpecker are the same band, and IV: The Stream of Forgotten Thoughts is an outgrowth of the more rock progresywny direction undertaken on the last album. But there’s no denying the sonic shifts happening across its eight-song/39-minute span either, and given that they open with the careening, twisting and winding movements of “No Heartbeat Collective” — also the longest track (immediate points) at 6:11 — denial is about as far from the intention as they could get. Embrace, more like, and fair enough.

Like any good stream, it flows. And like any good dream, IV: The Stream of Forgotten Thoughts begins and ends with clarity, the initial chug of “No Heartbeat Collective” establishing the ground from which to launch before its suitably motorik takeoff, and closer “Symbiotic Nova” seeming to answer with its own final measures of driving riffs. There are similar moments peppered throughout, and the Elder influence that has been a part of them since their outset remains intact despite never having before been so richly surrounded or individually interpreted, but Weedpecker are less of a ‘riff band’ than they’ve ever been in these songs, the focus instead on shimmering melodies and complexity of composition.

For having cut back to one guitar, I’m not sure if they’ve ever had so much happening in their material as even the three-minute interlude “The Trip Treatment” works in layers of wash and turns, let alone songs like “Fire Far Away” and “The Stream of Forgotten Thoughts,” which balance between serenity of atmosphere and cascading layers of motion. The word is “busy,” but Weedpecker don’t seem to be without purpose in having so much going on in the material, and it’s more than just throwing everything into everything so that the quiet stretch at the outset of “The Stream of Forgotten Thoughts” and the harder-hitting outset of “Big Brain Monsters” can stand out.

Across the span, to varying degrees, Dobry‘s vocals are buried beneath the instruments and subject to an effects treatment, and while like many of the elements put to use across IV: The Stream of Forgotten Thoughts, this is something Weedpecker have done before, it’s never been done in quite this way and to quite this degree. The band, then, have pushed further beyond the early accomplishments of their 2013 self-titled debut (review here) and the course set by II (review here) in 2015, toward a less-charted heavy space rock aesthetic that is resonant in melody and atmosphere and able to both overwhelm and soothe at will.

This, honestly, would probably be enough of an accomplishment to call the record a victory for Dobry and the band he’s remade, but it still doesn’t account for the boogie that emerges in “Big Brain Monsters” or the float-into-submersion that unfolds in “Endless Extensions of Good Vibrations,” its five minutes shifting from stillness to gallop skillfully punctuated by Walczak‘s drums as the guitar soars and shreds in kind ahead of the key-led drift of the first half of the penultimate “Unusual Perceptions,” which follows and soon finds its own, almost jazzy, pushes and pulls in a fitting summary of the various sides of Weedpecker on aural display throughout the record.

The quiet and loud, the fast and the slow, sure, but that’s a simplification. Superficial. It’s more about the elements at play — very much playing — at any given moment and the ambience they create either by working in accord or crashing one into the other in Large Hadron fashion. Willful contrast and cohesion. Science! Theories tested, observations recorded, preserved for posterity and to be used as a basis for future discovery and, hopefully, progress of thought.

“Symbiotic Nova” feels suitably like a conclusion — a point of arrival for the journey the four-piece have undertaken together. Vocals still occur from a distance, and the intensity of the beginning moment gives way to a moment of more subdued fluidity before the final stretch begins; a last intake of air before the last exhalation to come. At 3:35 into the total 5:02, a march is established and offset by a sweeping figure on guitar that itself moves into a lead line, and the ending is duly announced. The whole of Weedpecker ride that groove to an ending no less atmospheric than anything that’s come before it but still able to cast itself as, as previously noted, something utterly clearheaded and meant to be.

Invariably, the same is true of IV: The Stream of Forgotten Thoughts as a whole, and while the abiding brew they craft is heady to be sure, there’s no less heart at work in their exploration. This is only consistent with Weedpecker as they’ve always been, and while they’ve undertaken a mission different from that with which they set out nearly a decade ago, their readiness to embrace new ideas and methods assures that their work will not be so easily forgotten, even as their travels into the sonic unknown of their own making continue.

Weedpecker, IV: The Stream of Forgotten Thoughts (2021)

Weedpecker on Facebook

Weedpecker on Bandcamp

Weedpecker BigCartel store

Weedpecker at 8merch

Stickman Records website

Stickman Records on Facebook

Stickman Records on Twitter

Congratulations to Swedish three-piece Grandier on signing to Majestic Mountain Records for the impending release of their debut album, The Scorn and Grace of Crows. As yet, the band have only one song streaming through their Bandcamp — or if there was more, they took it down; the fluidity of what’s out there and what isn’t is a brave new world these days — and that’s the 2017 demo “Butterfly in Flames.” No, it doesn’t sound like Smashing Pumpkins, though with a title like that it would be well within its right to do so — the brave new world… is a vampire, and so on — but its fuzz is right on, however much it might have to do with The Scorn and Grace of Crows in terms of style remaining to be seen.

The band posted a screenshot of at least a partial tracklisting for their first LP as they were sending it off to be mastered, and from that I typed out the five songs below. Maybe that’s the whole record, maybe not. I don’t expect anybody’s going to come banging my door down to tell me one way or the other, but hey, if you’re reading this and you’re in Grandier or at MMR and want me to take that down to correct it, fucking a. I’m not looking to make trouble, just trying to put the most complete info that I can. No real press release for this one yet, just an announcement from social media that you’ll see below in blue.

And for those of you who keep tabs on all-things-Sverige, note the band photo of the Norrköping three-piece below was taken by Robert Lamu, who’s also in Skraeckoedlan. It’s nice to have friends. So I hear, anyhow.

Ding dong who’s there it’s riffs:

Majestic Mountain Records are proud to announce the signing of Grandier!

The new album “The Scorn and Grace of Crows” drops in 2022!

“Grandier is proud to now be a part of Majestic Mountain Records’ roster of bands, with our upcoming debut album The Scorn and Grace of Crows.

The album, the band and the signing with MMR are the product of a long time of hard work. We are really pleased and eagerly awaiting this opportunity to reach the company’s many fantastic followers.”

Tracklisting:
1. Church of Let it All Go
2. Soul Burner
3. Crows
4. Viper Soul
5. Sin World

Band photo by Robert Lamu

https://www.facebook.com/grandierofficial
https://www.instagram.com/grandierofficial/
https://grandierofficial.bandcamp.com/
http://majesticmountainrecords.bigcartel.com
http://facebook.com/majesticmountainrecords
http://instagram.com/majesticmountainrecords

Grandier, “Butterfly in Flames” (2017)

It’s been probably well over a decade since the last time I actually listened to Alice in Chains‘ Unplugged album, and if there’s a reason I stress ‘actually’ there, it’s because most of the time I don’t have to turn it on to hear it. It’s just imprinted on my brain. Still, details like the oddly popping snare on “No Excuses,” the oddball opener “Nutshell,” the slightly-off-and-where’s-Ann–Wilson harmonies of “Brother,” all feel like coming home to a certain degree. Recorded in Brooklyn in May 1996, it was aired on MTV and released on CD that October, and I remember watching it on my mother’s tv upstairs in her room because it was the biggest screen in the house other than the one in the family room downstairs, which my father used exclusively for watching old nuns talking about the apocalypse and war documentaries. My parents split up about a month later, maybe? Funny to think of these things in context like that. I’m honestly not sure I have the year right.

So I guess I’ll beg your indulgence on the nostalgia trip as much as I can indulge it myself. ‘Tis the season, and so on. But it’s been probably since Unplugged was reissued in 2007 that I listened to it straight through. They hadn’t played a gig in like two years, which I suppose makes the set I saw them do at Lollapalooza ’93 — I was 11 at the time — almost relevant in their touring schedule, and with their self-titled third album (discussed here) having come out in ’95, Unplugged has ended up an encapsulation of what the Seattle-based grunge forerunners did during their first incarnation, prior to fizzling out, losing frontman Layne Staley in 2002 to a heroin addiction that in ’96 was already visibly and audibly ripping him to shreds and eventually regrouping in the mid-aughts with William DuVall on guitar/vocals alongside founding guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell, bassist Mike Inez and drummer Sean Kinney.

That third full-length features well on Unplugged with “Sludge Factory,” “Heaven Beside You,” “Frogs” (which didn’t air on the original broadcast) and “Over Now,” and their 1992 commercial breakout, Dirt (discussed here) does likewise, with “Down in a Hole” (with some switched up lyrics in the second chorus), “Angry Chair” (which also apparently didn’t air though damned if I don’t remember it doing so), “Rooster” and “Would?” included alongside EP cuts like “Brother” and “Got Me Wrong” from 1992’s Sap (discussed here) and “Nutshell” and “No Excuses” from 1994’s Jar of Flies, which one imagines were easy enough to translate to their Unplugged arrangements, being largely acoustic-based to start with.

Some songs work better than others. The brooding harmonies between Staley and Cantrell come through on “Angry Chair,” but of course part of what makes that track such a highlight of Dirt is its harder impact, and that’s willfully given up here. Points for trying. “Down in a Hole” is better here than on Dirt. And it’s strange to think of a release that was mixed by Toby Wright, broadcast on MTV and released by Columbia Records as being “raw,” but the largely dry treatment on the vocals and instruments that was such a part of the series’ aesthetic does still lend an organic feel. “Sludge Factory,” after its false start, “Heaven Beside You,” the suitably croaking “Frogs” and “No Excuses” fare exceedingly well, and I might say the same of “Rooster,” “Heaven Beside You” and “Would?,” the latter a track that I’d burnt out on years ago as a radio single but in my recent kick have gone back to repeatedly, the lyric “Am I wrong?” often followed by a “yes” in my brain as a kind of running gag.

I’ll spare you the “rock ain’t what it was” spiel, since that entire perspective is even more tired than I find myself having woken up shortly after four this morning with these songs running through my head. The harsh reality is rock isn’t what it was; it’s better. Yes, their was pivotal groundwork being laid at the time by bands like this, but especially thinking of the best of 2021 list that went up this week, I don’t think I’d trade what’s being made now for what was being made then, as much as you couldn’t have the other without the one. Stuff like Alice in Chains just happened to hit me at the right moment in my own life. I know people who feel the same about Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, The Beatles. The art you engage with in formative years should be important to you, but if you neglect the present in service to it, it’s your loss.

My view, anyhow. Idolization of the past — and your own inherently subjective experience of it — is a trap to be avoided. Your best days are ahead of you; a thing to be worked toward, however old you are.

Alice in Chains gave glimpses of what might’ve been after their self-titled, here and elsewhere. “Killer is Me” rounds out as an encore here with Scott Olson on bass while Inez moves to guitar. That track, as well as songs like “Get Born Again” and “Died” that were recorded in 1998 for the Music Bank box set, comprise the bulk of the band’s final work with Staley, which is sadder in light of their prior accomplishments.

With DuVall as a co-frontman with Cantrell, the band has progressed across three full-lengths. The most recent of them, 2018’s Rainier Fog (discussed here), continues to get semi-regular spins. More than this record, come to think of it. I skipped 2013’s The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here after not digging the return LP, 2009’s Black Gives Way to Blue, but finally put in the time to listen — substantial time, at that — and don’t regret it. I’ll probably cap a week with it sooner or later.

But the bottom line here is some albums and some bands stay with you, year in and year out, even if you don’t actually listen to them all the time. That’s me and Unplugged. I’m way more inclined to put on Sap or the self-titled or Jar of Flies on a given day, or even Dirt or 1991’s Facelift if that’s where my head is at, but neither do I regret having this one on this morning. As always, I hope you enjoy.

Thanks for reading.

—

My original plan for this week had been to post the two in-studio pieces I wrote last weekend on Monday and Tuesday. I probably should’ve run that plan by the label involved, admittedly. I did not, and their preference was to hold off until closer to the album hype, which will start in like two months. Meanwhile, every minute I could give to anything Monday and Tuesday was going to the year-end stuff, so there was neither time nor headspace to write about anything else. I do my best, but I’m only one person, despite the still-weekly “hey dudes” emails and messages I receive.

Anyhow, Happy Xmas if that’s your thing. I did a news dump yesterday in an effort to get caught up — ongoing — but will have a proper review up Monday, either Weedpecker or Spaceslug, though I seem to recall Spaceslug are doing a video premiere elsewhere and I don’t want to conflict with that. So maybe Weedpecker first. I plan to get to both, in any case.

And I’ve planned the Quarterly Review to continue the week after though I may delay it.

I know these things are low stakes. I know they matter most to me, but they do matter to me, so I like to work it out ahead of time. To know what I’m doing.

In any case, I’ll be back on Monday to the best of my ability. The Pecan is off from school next week and he loses his shit when he sees me on the laptop, so I’m basically at the mercy of The Patient Mrs.’ indulgence and whatever I can get done in the mornings. I’m sure I’ve survived worse with reasonable productivity intact.

Then it’ll be New Year’s, which I suppose is also a thing.

I’m gonna punch out and close my eyes on the couch. Been writing this on my phone — see “loses his shit” above — and it’s time to stop. If you’re celebrating today or tomorrow, or if you’re not, all my best to you and yours.

Thanks for reading, have a great and safe weekend, hydrate and watch your head. Back on Monday.

FRM.

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