Posted in Whathaveyou on January 31st, 2024 by JJ Koczan
In addition to announcing this tour, Los Angeles doom metallers Early Moods have also specifically named the hometown date at Permanent Records Roadhouse as the release show for their impending sophomore full-length following-up their 2022 self-titled debut (review here), which was also on RidingEasy. An April 20-ish release, then? They wouldn’t be the only ones out there laying claim to Friday, April 19, but I’m more concerned with the what rather than the when of their next offering, since that’s invariably the part one would be hearing.
I’m not sure what I want from a second Early Moods full-length. I’d be cool if they had some radical jump in sound, like they did the first album, toured, and figured out what they wanted to be, or a continuation of the thread from the first. They were nothing if not purposeful there; I’m not sure what might lead them to some kind of redirect, let alone how they might actually pull that off. That is, I’ll take it as it comes, when it comes, and be glad I got the chance to hear it.
This won’t be the last tour they announce. I’m hoping they do Europe in the Fall and knock everyone on their ass:
[NOTE: I had the album release as April in the header and RidingEasy corrected me to say it would be March, so now it’s March. The release show is still April 20 as per the band. Fair enough.]
EARLY MOODS – Tour Announcement!
We’ll be hitting the road this March/April in support of our new album! Select dates with our friends in @morbikon Tickets are on sale now:https://linktr.ee/earlymoods
Sat 3/16 – Ojai, CA @ Deer Lodge Sun 3/17 – Phoenix, AZ @ Yucca Tap Mon 3/18 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sister Bar Tue 3/19 – El Paso, TX @ Rosewood Fri 3/22 – Houston, TX @ Hell’s Heroes Tue 3/26 – Savannah, GA @ Wormhole* Wed 3/27 – Wilmington, NC @ Reggies* Thu 3/28 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro* Fri 3/29 – Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie (early) Sat 3/30 – Brooklyn, NY @ Saint Vitus* Sun 3/31 – Boston, MA @ Middle East* Tue 4/1 – Albany, NY @ Fuze Box* Wed 4/03 – Youngstown, OH @ West Side Bowl*# Thu 4/04 – Columbus, OH @ Ace Of Cups* Fri 4/05 – Detroit, MI @ Sanctuary* Sat 4/06 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Pyramid* Sun 4/07 – Indianapolis, IN @ Black Circle (matinee)* Mon 4/08 – Chicago, IL @ Live Wire* Tue 4/09 – Cudahy, WI @ X-Ray Arcade* Thu 4/11 – Lawrence, KS @ Bottleneck Fri 4/12 – Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive Sat 4/13 – Salt Lake City @ Aces High Sat 4/20 – Los Angeles, CA @ Permanent Records Fri 4/26 – Oxnard, CA @ Mrs. Olson’s
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 31st, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Anybody remember November? Yeah, me neither. It’s the end of January, the start of February this week, so November might as well have been 1922 it was so long ago. That said, there was something distinctly familiar about the list of tour dates from L’Ira del Baccano as the Italian Subsound Records denizens set forth to promote their ’23 LP, Cosmic Evoked Potentials (review here), and indeed, some of them were announced last Fall. I didn’t figure anybody would be yelling at me for getting them up again — some of the TBD dates have filled in, which is nice to see — and perhaps snag an ear or two who missed the album when that came through because, well, it might make your day better. Ain’t no mystery to what we’re doing here these days.
Maybe they’ll announce a summer tour next week and I can post that and then do it again in June, just keep a thread going. Would you notice? Of course not.
Dates from social media:
L’IRA DEL BACCANO official artworks for our Tour created by Michele Carnielli a.k.a. @visione444 . See you on the road!!
(SEARCHING 4TH BETWEEN WÜRZBURG & WEIMAR,HELP US!!)
L’IRA DEL BACCANO Feb/March Tour 2024 17-02 Rome Defrag 27-02 Verona Fine Di Mondo 28-02 Bolzano @pippostage 29-02 Altotting Plattenzimmer e.V. 01-03 Nuremberg Kunstverein Hintere-Cramergasse e.V. with @j.ø.t.u. 02.03 Schmalkalden Kulturverein Villa K with GODDYS 03-03 Würzburg Immerhin Würzburg 04-03 NEED..BOOK US!! 05-03 Weimar C.Keller & Galerie Markt 21 e. V. 06-03 Dresden Chemiefabrik Dresden (Chemo) with Methadone Skies 07-03 Prague @klubmodravopice Těžká psychedelika 08-03 Bayreuth Glashaus Bayreuth 09-03 Heidelberg Yolo Hof 10-03 Salzburg Rockhouse Bar with Humulus
L’IRA DEL BACCANO “COSMIC EVOKED POTENTIALS” order:
Friday, Feb. 2, marks the awaited release for Troy the Band‘s first album, Cataclysm, through Swedish imprint Bonebag Records. The six-song/41-minute offering follows behind 2022’s debut EP, The Blissful Unknown (review here), and is weighted and spacious in kind, the London-based four-piece immersed in a sound that’s part heavygaze, but fuzz-grunge and almost universally molten. Opening with its title-track, Cataclysmlumbers with large-snail-creature presence but isn’t so unipolar in its approach as the overarching wash might make it seem, whether it’s the boogie in the second half of “Cataclysm” itself or the crash-laden shove of “IHOD,” on which vocalist Craig Newman is at his most reminiscent of Facelift-era Layne Staley, or “Only Violence” just before which seems to be working under the influence of earlier Mars Red Sky or the Sabbath-via-Sleep stonerized Declaration of Riff in “Flesh Wound,” bolstered by the production of Wayne Adams at Bear Bites Horse, who you probably already know because he also helmed your album. Or at least mixed it.
Most of the record though resides in the spaces between Dead Meadow‘s languid ethereality and the more grounded ends of modern riff worship. That is to say it’s a current sound but not ready to settle into being one thing or the other and, particularly on this first long-player, that much stronger for the flashes of doom that show up amid the hot pinks and psychedelic yellows in the wah-drenched reaches of “Flesh Wound,” which is also the longest song at 8:53 and a roller that seems to lose none of its impact for all the float surrounding, perhaps best encapsulating the meld of styles Troy the Band are crafting, if not necessarily telling the entire story on its own either in their melodic penchant, the post-punk goth dance party at the start of “The Void” or closer “Fauna” casting its urban-concrete bass tone against a ranging vocal and an outbound final push speaking one way or another to an escapist sensibility maybe also behind the title. They go, have gone, are gone, and when they decide it’s time to vibe on some Earth-y drone repetition, they’re dug no less into that than they are into the expanse in the hook of “Cataclysm” that teaches the listener so much about the album that follows.
And repetition is part of the methodology here, but again, not necessary all of it, as a big part of what ultimately makes Troy the Band an exciting listen — this was true of the EP as well, but is more fleshed out on the longer release, as well as the band being more sonically developed generally — is that the songs are coherent and purposeful but don’t draw from any single source so much as to be readily placed in this or that niche. Yeah, I’ve namedropped a few bands in the course of this review, and I stand by those comparisons — none of them feels outlandish; that riff in “Only Violence” really does sound like second-LP Mars Red Sky, even if it’s been buried in other effects — but that’s just it: Troy the Band have a sound that seems aware of its influences but unwilling to be limited by them. This is something that, inherently, can’t be confirmed by one full-length alone since it’s a measure of a band’s progression over time, but in coming across more like themselves than anyone else in the genre, Troy the Band seem to have a leg up on their own growth. Or maybe I’m just spaced out on that jam halfway through “Flesh Wound.” I don’t know, but it all feels very consuming and light — not like bright colors but like light itself; the mixed wavelengths of raw sunlight — right now, and I think that means it’s working.
The big question is how much Troy the Band will do in a live setting to support it. In 2023, they played both Masters of the Riff II and Desertfest London, and certainly those are by no means the only festivals in the UK, but they’re two good ones to have in your pocket as a band putting out your first LP. But if I mention touring for an act who haven’t been out for months at a time up to this point in their still-perhaps-nascent tenure, it’s not to point out something they haven’t done up to now so much to to highlight their sound as being strong enough in its identity to stand up to the task if they wanted to take it on the road. Plenty of time for such things, though. For now, the spaces conjured and conquered throughout Cataclysm stand as testament to the efforts put in by Troy the Band performance-wise and in terms of composition, but also that potential for what they might accomplish moving on from here.
Cataclysmstreams in full below, followed by more info from the PR wire.
Please enjoy:
Cataclysm, the debut full-length album from London-based Doom-gaze four-piece Troy The Band, will be released on Sweden’s Bonebag Records on February 2nd 2024. Since the release of their debut EP, The Blissful Unknown, Troy The Band have become mainstays in the London heavy music scene, with a list of accolades in 2023 that includes appearances at Desertfest London, Masters of the Riff, and Stoomfest, as well as a craft beer collaboration with East London’s Old Street Brewery.
With Cataclysm the band have taken the most unique elements of their debut EP and forged them into an album that blends elements of Stoner-Doom, Post Rock, Shoegaze and Heavy Psych. Cataclysm is dark, heavy, and identifiably their own.
For this album the band went back to work with Wayne Adams at Bear Bites Horse studio in East London. From the band’s point of view, this was a no-brainer: “We knew we wanted to work with Wayne again on this album. He’s great to work with and he had an important hand in shaping the sound of our EP. We knew he would get what we were trying to do with this album, and we really couldn’t be happier with how it has turned out.”
Each track is built from a sturdy foundation of Sean Durbin’s bass riffs which are then overlaid with Sean Burn’s distinctive guitar playing and Craig Newman’s unique and ethereal vocal style, adding layers of harmonic complexity and tension that is a defining feature of their sound.
The album title is derived from the name the band gave the initial demo of the title track, driven by its musically jarring feel rather than its lyrical content. It was then self-consciously adopted as the album title to reflect their aim of causing a musical upheaval in the heavy music scene. We believe it will.
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 31st, 2024 by JJ Koczan
I’ve been trying to post this for like a week. This happens to me now. I’ll be sitting on the couch at like 7PM or some such — well past what I consider ‘Obelisk time’ in my feeble brainclock — and see some relevant item on my phone. I haven’t covered Krach am Bach much in years past, so I probably said something like, “Oh shit right on, I can post about something new,” and started to put the thing together. I don’t remember if I squared the poster image or the fest did — probably them. But then I get in the actual back end of the site and there are like 50 other things and then I’m already late and blah blah fucking blah here I am with another festival lineup post. I’m sure by now the lineup has been completed and the festival — which is set for Aug. 2-3 — has already taken place. Because time would bend over backwards just to screw me up, and I say that as the voice of experience.
But the lineup. Seems likely The Devil and the Almighty Blues will be out on tour, ditto A Place to Bury Strangers, Wine Lips, Deathchant, El Perro. You’ll notice Elder-offshoot Delving among the confirmations, which might mean another studio offering from that project is on the way, and I’ll go to bat for each of Karkara, Humulus, Travo and Black Helium being worth your time based solely on my experience with their recorded output. There’s more to come here, but I’m not sure how much more you really need.
Check it:
+++ First announcements || Tickets available +++
In case you’re wondering about some news for the 29. Krach am Bach Festival, we’ve got the finest selection for a ride through heavy, fuzz-drowned and hypnotic space trips.
Orange Goblin |UK A Place To Bury Strangers |US The Devil And The Almighty Blues |Norway Wine Lips |Canada Tuber |Greece Deathchant |US El Perro |US Madmess |Portugal delving |US Verstärker |US KARKARA |France Humulus |Italy TRAVO |Portugal Black Helium |UK ᴉGeRaldᴉ |France
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 30th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
If you were hanging around these parts earlier this month, you already knew Iota would return this year with their first album since 2008’s epic-and-I-don’t-always-call-things-epic debut, Tales (discussed here and here). That’s news to me, I don’t know about you. Good news. If you dug what guitarist Joey Toscano brought to the two Dwellers full-lengths on Small Stone in terms of melody and emotion, that melds gorgeously on Pentasomnia with a style of bluesy desertism that even Tales, broad as it was, only half defined.
Yeah, I’ve heard the record. The bio I wrote for it, which is what’s linked above, also came in with the PR wire confirmation of the March 22 release for Pentasomnia and the track stream for “The Returner.” Which you should hear. Here, let me stop talking so you can get on that.
Go go go listen listen listen and then probably preorder or something:
IOTA: Salt Lake City Cult Psychedelic Rock Trio To Release Pentasomnia Full-Length March 22nd On Small Stone Recordings; New Track Streaming + Preorders Available
Cult psychedelic heavy rock trio IOTA will release their long-awaited Pentasomnia full-length on March 22nd via Small Stone Recordings!
It’s been nearly sixteen years since Salt Lake City’s IOTA carved a place for themselves in the heavy underground with their debut album, Tales. Released by Small Stone Recordings, it was recorded by drummer Andy Patterson (The Otolith, ex-SubRosa), with founding guitarist/vocalist Joey Toscano (who’d form Dwellers later), and bassist Oz Inglorious (ex-Bird Eater, Suffocater) and drew heavy rock impulses across space in a way that was innovative and engrossing. Marked by the twenty-minute “Dimensional Orbiter” that was the first song the band ever wrote, it showed huge potential for IOTA, who moved onto other outfits while the cult of those in the know steadily grew.
Pentasomnia, an album of five dreams, marks a return for a project begun by Toscano circa 2001, a band that has been intermittently lived with, shelved, pushed, pulled, stretched, and twisted, but whose sound shimmers with atmosphere and the resonant, bluesy emotionalism of Toscano’s vocals. Rather than some slapdash decade-and-a-half-later follow-up to a record on its way to being a niche-classic, Pentasomnia is cohesive, and as much an unexpected step forward as an unexpected return. IOTA — Toscano, Inglorious, and Patterson — revel in the groove and sway of these five songs, from the boozy head-hang of opener “The Intruder” into the ambient push of “The Returner,” which feels like a manifestation of the meld between cosmic and desert rock that was so much the heart of the band during their first run; the very essence of what they do, given new life and perspective.
“Pentasomnia is an amalgamation,” says Toscano, “roughly translating to ‘five dreams.’ Each song is told from the perspective of a different mental state. Challenging the ideas of traditional norms about identity and our place within the world; questioning the very idea of a self. A cathartic acknowledgement of our infinitesimally small place in a vast musical landscape. Live shows will unveil the album’s essence, offering glimpses into our musical journey’s dark comedy and complexity. Enjoy these songs as snapshots of a fever dream.”
IOTA’s sophomore full-length was written and recorded live over a series of sessions between 2018 and 2019 and completed in the tumultuous years after with family health emergencies, other projects and recordings, the pandemic, work, and all the stuff of life happening all at once. And yet somehow, in and perhaps from all of that, the three-piece have managed to come back together, find each other and renew their sound, and to let the intervening time underscore how crucial their collaboration genuinely is. There are going to be a lot of heavy rock records released in 2024. You sleep on IOTA at your own risk.
In advance of the release, today the band debuts first single, “The Returner.” Toscano further notes, “Pentasomnia, is centered around dreams. With each song narrating a first-person account of an acute mind state, ‘The Returner’ — the album’s third track — attempts to describe the character’s experience of waking from the dream of life, encountering their now unrestrained hallucinations in the in-between, and then returning to yet another dream. Interpretation, divine.”
Lie Heavy will issue their debut album, Burn to the Moon, through Heavy Psych Sounds on April 19. The well-pedigreed North Carolinian outfit comprised of guitarist Graham Fry (ex-Confessor), vocalist Karl Agell (The Skull/Legions of Doom, Patriarchs in Black, Leadfoot, Blind-era Corrosion of Conformity), drummer Jeff “JD” Dennis (Hank Sinatra and the Backsliders) and bassist TR Gwynne self-released the 12-song bangerfest last year and will now see it issued through Europe’s foremost heavy purveyor in its first physical editions.
An interesting passage-of-time aspect to how Lie Heavy are presented, since around the time Agell was were in Leadfoot (you’ll know it’s them because they drink for free) there was little talk of “throwbacks to another era” or this kind of dudely, straight-hitting sound as primal, with the implication of course that more complex ideas have come along since. That happens to be true. You can’t deny that heavy music has developed in the last two decades and that Lie Heavy are intentional in sticking to their guns updating their own versions of ‘the classics’ while themselves being cast with a classic sound.
This is a good thing, distinguishing among generations. You and I will live to see the first generation who made rock and roll die out. It is uncharted territory for the art form, and the narratives of the history of heavy will be made not by those who were there when the first riff was strummed but those who look back after and decide what was ‘classic’ or otherwise worthwhile in terms of influence. If Lie Heavy are a voice from the past stylistically, fine — heavy’s all about speaking to its own beginnings — but let’s also keep in mind that two decades (-plus) will has happened to Agell and company as well, and Lie Heavy are a stronger, fresher band for that.
Their video for “Burn to the Moon” — not a terrible-sounding idea — premieres below to coincide with the opening of preorders for the album from Heavy Psych Sounds. Info below comes from the PR wire.
Please enjoy:
Lie Heavy, “Burn to the Moon” video premiere
US heavy rock supergroup LIE HEAVY: Debut album “Burn To The Moon” out April 19th on Heavy Psych Sounds
Raleigh, North Carolina’s Lie Heavy is one of the few, true throwbacks to another era. They feature the vocals of Karl Agell, best known for Corrosion of Conformity’s BLiND album and Leadfoot. Heavy, heavy-ass blues that would have fit on the Man’s Ruin label back in the 90s, around the time that Orange Goblin was making waves. This is primal stuff: not quite Stoner, not quite Metal, and not quite giving a shit.
1. Nothing To Steal 2. In The Shadow 3. Burn To The Moon 4. Drag The World 5. The Long March 6. Lie Heavy 7. When The Universe Cries 8. Chunkadelic 0. Pontius Pilate 10. Unbeliever 11. Diabolik 12. End the World
Karl Agell – Lead Vocals Jeff JD Dennis – Drums & Percussions / Vocals TR Gwynne – Bass / Vocals / Acoustic Guitar Graham Fry – Guitars / Vocals
Roman instrumentalist trio The Black Flamingo will release An-nûr through Subsound Records on Feb. 2, which, if you’re playing along at home, is this Friday. The six-song collection follows behind 2018’s Mictlan EP and shows an early penchant for atmosphere at the start of opener “Selk’nam,” which soon unfurls its central motion in a running bassline and corresponding drum pattern, the guitar stepping into the forward position as the piece begins to take shape. Over the course of the full-length, guitarist/synthesist Mattia Lolli, drummer Tiziano Giammichele and bassist Matteo Nuccetelli build and expand on the palette they set forth in the leadoff, but at about three minutes in when “Selk’nam” locks into that payoff groove, that’s most of what you actually need to know right there.
Samples at the outset of “An-nûr” places the record in the current Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people — sorry to call it what it is; genocide happened to Jews too and security is important, but that doesn’t make it right — and the three-piece allow for some meditative moments after to digest the obviously-clueless/obviously-white interviewer talking to some representative of Palestine and asking horrible, racist questions like, “Why don’t you just stop fighting?” I assume as a tank rolls over the guy’s grandmother in the background or some shit and the world pretends to care in only the most tsk-tsk’ing of fashions. The title-track moves in its second half to a breakout of noisier crashing, as it should, and thereby hints at some of the prog-metal aspects of songs like “Tredici” still to come, the samples there leading into a linear build resolved by Tool-circa-’98-ish start-stops.
Between those, “Due” lets loose with a more ruffled-sounding distortion — it’s not so much fuzzier as hairier — and shifts into its own purposeful ending as a payoff for what came before. Ambient transitions, the samples, etc., build character around “Tredici,” but it’s the percussion at the start of the penultimate “Solaris” that fades in to set the mood. Synth, or keyboard, lend a science-fiction drone to coincide melodically with the rhythmic pattern being laid out, but the jump to dreamier guitar brings a different spirit, something more serene if still otherworldly. It’s not the last rug pull, as The Black Flamingo turn shortly after three minutes into the song’s total six to a fuzzier riff that’s both twisting and more grounded than the place from which the band just came, and that sets “Solaris” on its own building course, hints of post-metal in the intensity of the wash still not giving up their heavy rock foundations.
The culmination of “Solaris” leaves only 13-minute closer “Ayahuasca,” which offers another multi-tiered build and takes the time to work from the ground up in making it. Samples throughout unite “Ayahuasca” with “Tredici” or “Selk’nam” at the outset, but The Black Flamingo are also clearly playing to the ‘big finish’ as an element of genre as well and listening to the actual unfolding of “Ayahuasca” — which, golly, I’d love to try, though I hear it very definitely makes you puke before it melts your brain — which gets heavier so that you go, “okay that’s the payoff” like three times before they’re actually there, it makes sense on the album where it is as an encapsulation of what’s been accomplished across the preceding span, which is to establish the tones, atmospheres and methods along whose lines The Black Flamingo will likely look to develop their sound going forward (some more drastic revamp notwithstanding; one never knows), speaking to something essential in groove now and informing any and all among the converted who’d take them on of their potential for more. This is, as regards hearing them, only good news.
Album stream for An-nûr follows here with more info underneath from the PR wire.
Tell two friends:
‘An-nûr’, ‘light’ in arabic language, is The Black Flamingo’s first LP. Six tracks that go across obsessive rithms, lysergic journey and stoner blows. ‘An-nûr’ is also the title of the single, a long trip of black holes and solidarity with Palestinian people. The LP has been recorded in Rome, in the ‘Cinque Quarti’ studio, under the patient supervision of Lorenzo Amato (Max Carnage), that took care of mixing and mastering. The vinyl mastering has been done by Lorenzo Stecconi (Lento).
Subsound Records will release ‘An-nûr’ on LP and digital on February 2nd, 2024.
TRACKLIST 1. Selk’nam 2. An-nûr 3. Due 4. Tredici 5. Solaris 6. Ayahuasca
BIOGRAPHY
The Black Flamingo is a stoner-psych instrumental trio, which vibes among space and desert, with a rotten attitude. The band is formed in Rome, literally in the spaces of 30 Formiche club, by Erio Destratis (guru and housekeeper), Tiziano Giammichele (Camion, Cielo Drive) and Mattia Lolli (the Whirlings). Erio soon leaves for a nomad life and his bass is taken by Matteo Nuccetelli (Mad Roller).
The Black Flamingo are: Tiziano Giammichele – Drums Matteo Nuccetelli – Bass Mattia Lolli – Guitar, Synth
Posted in Features on January 29th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
I must feel ways about The Obelisk turning 15, because I’m having a hard time starting this post. Of course, it’s also five in the morning, so falling asleep is a factor. I’ve spent years at this point nodding off in front of the laptop. You wake up and there’s a string of 10,000 spaces since your last quarter-of-a-sentence. Laying out images and links for news posts. Trying and generally failing to slate a review by the release date, screwing up lineups, release years, cropping press shots, on and on. You’ll know it’s not my favorite part of the experience when I tell you it’s a snoozefest.
The actual writing — what I consider the ‘work’ to which all the other labor is building toward — is why and how you wake up, though you be exhausted of spirit and middle-aged of body. I have said for years now that the simple fact of The Obelisk is I need it, and especially after this recent winter break, I think that’s still the case. I took a couple actual days off around Xmas, including the 26th, which I’ll admit felt brazen, and had a taste of what life would be without this site, but it turns out this site is a lot of my connection to the outside world.
The Obelisk has become a huge piece of my life. Not just dividing 42 by 15 and realizing I’ve spent more than a third of my time on earth doing this by now, and there are times when I don’t know where I end and it starts. I probably feel ways about that too, I guess. But I do need it. I don’t know where to put myself otherwise.
Thank you for your time, your attention at any single and all points in the last decade and a half. Thank you for reading, for being here and for making doing this at all worthwhile. I promise you this site wouldn’t still be going without your support. You are why it exists as it does, so if you like it, good work. And thank you.
Thank you to The Patient Mrs. for respecting what I do here even though it’s ridiculous. Also for staying married to me even though every two weeks I’m asking how much it would be to fly to some other festival. Thanks for driving me into the city to see Elder last week or whatever day that was.
Thank you to Slevin for helping me 15 years ago launch this site, for the year-end poll and for pretending to be impressed with my recent Zelda accomplishments. Thank you to Behrang Alavi for hosting the site. It is a load off my mind to know I can send a message 24 hours a day and any issue that arises as they inevitably do will be addressed quickly and professionally, and most important of all, by someone I trust. I do not take that lightly at all.
Thank you to Dave and crew at Made in Brooklyn Silkscreeners, and because I feel like maybe he’d (rightly) roll his eyes if I didn’t share it, here’s the link to Obelisk merch: https://mibk.bigcartel.com/
You should be aware that I don’t do crap for that. In almost all instances, Dave chases down the art (Steven Yoyoda!), does the printing, the shipping. I get half of the money; the only difference is he earns it. I won’t say I’ve never embezzled to pay a late fee or buy weed, but proceeds from merch for The Obelisk are specifically allocated in my mind as buy-music money. That goes back to the bands because it’s the bands that bring it in. Ain’t nobody sticking around here to see how long I’m gonna make the next sentence. They’re here for music. That’s as it should be, and MiBK Dave makes it easier/possible for me to have merchandise to sell in the first place, and I am eternally grateful for that. He makes the site real, and my mom wears the shirts. That alone. Thanks to my mom (and entire family) for wearing the shirts.
—
“He peaked a decade ago.” — Me, on me. Probably said a decade ago.
—
I don’t know yet what this year will bring. I have a couple festivals lined up — Freak Valley, Bear Stone — but I’m doing other traveling with my wife and daughter this year as well, to see national parks with my wife’s mother, and to spend a month in Budapest, Hungary, over the summer, so there will be more beyond the normal routine happening around here and I’m curious to see how it goes and how I handle that. Hopefully by then I have a new laptop to replace my recently busted one that was the best ever. I should put “replace” in quotes there.
So that’s it. 15 years and back to work. I had big plans. I wanted to do an all-dayer on the West Coast. I was going to ask Sandrider to headline, see if I could get Grayceon, Snail (yes, again), Brume, and a few others, but it didn’t happen and I only have so much capacity and that’s pretty low in general. So no, no anniversary party except in my head. I couldn’t even manage to get to Vegas this past weekend, and Spaceslug were there.
I know nobody reads blogs anymore. This is an outdated medium. I should be running a substack and begging everyone for a dollar. And you know what? Maybe if I did that, I’d have enough dollars to have booked that flight, or some other one, or maybe I’d have some kind of capitalism-bred feeling of validation that I don’t have now bringing in some kind of salary from this work. Or maybe I’d resent it as a job and stop and have ruined this thing that I’ve apparently now worked for 15 years to build.
Okay. So here’s my last chance to say something about The Obelisk turning 15. I’m glad people get something from this site. If that’s you, please know you have my entire heart’s appreciation. Every now and then, somebody on the internet says something very nice either to me or about me or about what I do here and it’s incredible. For a sphere that can be so incredibly terrible (i.e. the internet/social media), that I should feel so much a part of anything and so supported in this is astonishing and a better outcome than I could have hoped for in that 33-plus percent of my to-date lifetime.
Thank you. The Obelisk will not last forever. Nothing does. I might decide it’s too much or it’s been too long, drop the whole thing and never write another word, or I might get hit by a bus. One of these years I’m gonna pull the plug on this whole thing and go write like three reviews a year for Lee at The Sleeping Shaman. I tell him sometimes he’s my retirement plan. Honestly I’d be lucky if he’d have me.
Lucky if anyone would, which is kind of the hazard when you get as dug into a thing as I seemingly am here. But I’ve seen outlets come and go in the time that I’ve been writing The Obelisk, and I’m still here and I still stand by everything I write in this space — notwithstanding the plentiful typos, lineup screwups, etc. — and if I died tomorrow, I would just want you to know that to my very, very core, I value your support to a degree I can only call existential. Thank you.
15 more years? That would be absolutely insane. So maybe.
