Posted in Whathaveyou on August 20th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Well would you look at the time. Europe’s busy Fall festival season hasn’t yet gotten underway — that’ll be later in September through October into November — but Roadburn has always kept its own calendar anyhow. And as the venerated Tilburg, Netherlands, festival unveils the first three acts for its 2025 lineup as a Kylesa reunion, Chat Pile and Altın Gün, their multi-pronged focus of underground futurism that honors past and present would seem to be embodied. Take your pick as to which is which there, I guess.
I’m stoked on the prospect of Kylesa coming back, of course. Laura Pleasants has had her post-punk project The Discussion, and that aspect was there in Kylesa as well, but in a pastiche that included sludge and noise too at its most vicious and went on to become more melodic and progressive by the time of their final-to-date LP, Exhausting Fire (discussed here), which — how about that — turns 10 next year. How many drummers do you think they’ll have?
Joining them are Chat Pile, whose new album Cool World is out Oct. 11 on The Flenser, and Altın Gün, who bring Turkish roots and Dutch progressive indie together and will play a set focused on their more psychedelic-leaning early material. Something special, something ultra cool and something I haven’t heard before. Behold Roadburn, roadburning.
More to come (duh). Here’s what I’ve got for today:
Chat Pile, Kylesa and Altın Gün announced for Roadburn 2025
Roadburn has announced the first three names for the 2025 edition of the festival, which will take place between April 17-20 next year. Noise rock champs Chat Pile will return to Tilburg, and be joined by reunited sludge heroes Kylesa. Altın Gün will bring their psychedelic folk to Roadburn for the first time. Weekend tickets for the festival are on sale now.
Roadburn’s artistic director, Walter Hoeijmakers, comments:
“With this announcement comes a first glimpse of what the Roadburn universe will be like in 2025. For this edition, we will look to the horizon of the underground and beyond, exploring the present and discovering the future along the way, while always honouring the past as well.
“The idea of redefining heaviness remains at the heart of Roadburn, and we will keep striving to galvanise our entire community, from artists to attendees, staff and everyone in between.”
Chat Pile have today announced a new single taken from their upcoming sophomore album, Cool World. Amidst continuously growing enthusiasm for the Oklahoma four piece, their return to Roadburn will mark their first show in Europe following the release of Cool World.
Nine years after announcing an indefinite hiatus, Georgia’s Kylesa will return to the live arena, and Roadburn will host their return to European soil. Led by Laura Pleasants and Phillip Cope, the influential sludge band will no doubt be welcomed with open arms by the Roadburn community.
Altın Gün are set to make their Roadburn debut with a tailor-made set that focuses on the darkest, most psychedelic seam of their work. The Grammy-nominated group have dazzled audiences around the world and now they’ll bring their contemporary Turkish folk to Roadburn.
More bands for the 2025 edition of Roadburn are due to be announced in the coming weeks.
Weekend tickets are on sale now, with further ticketing and accommodation options to follow. For all information including tickets, please visitwww.roadburn.com
Posted in Features on August 20th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
I remember standing in the room some years after the Saint Vitus Bar’s reputation had been established, talking with somebody from out of town who’d heard that Black Sabbath played there in the ’70s. That wasn’t true, but it was emblematic of the kind of place Saint Vitus Bar was. New York has had probably more than its fair share of legendary clubs — from Studio 54 to C.B.G.B.’s to The Continental, which I still miss — but as it was tucked away in Brooklyn’s then-decisively-less-cool-than-Williamsburg Greenpoint neighborhood, and as it spoke and catered specifically to an underground audience in metal and all things heavy, it became more than just the place where the stoner rock shows went. It was a home.
Earlier this year, Saint Vitus Bar was shut down mid-show by the city of New York on account of some violation or other. The story emerged that some conservative headbanger with an axe to grind because Vitus had a rainbow somewhere or something decided to assassinate the gift horse by reporting whatever it was. By then, Saint Vitus Bar was nearing 13 full years of operation, having opened in August 2011 — the first show I saw there was Totimoshi and Pigs on Aug. 20 (review here) — which is more lifetime than many clubs and venues get before being eaten up by New York’s ever-present drive toward renewal.
Greenpoint had changed since 2011, too. Yeah, the bodega across the way still looked run-down, but just down the way from that is a luxury grocery store underneath about four floors of also-luxury condos, and there’s a wine store right next to where the venue (now) was. When I went there to see YOB in Feb. 2022 (review here) as my first show “back” from the pandemic — one of six times I saw the band there — I imagined the bottles rumbling off the shelves as the riffs shook the walls. Gentrification might not have actually killed Saint Vitus Bar, but only because some other asshole got in there first. This past weekend, after months of behind-the-scenes wrangling, the bar finally announced they were closed for good.
I have amazing memories of time and people there. Meeting friends. The way the sound in the room swallowed you. All the times I saw Kings Destroy. That release show they did with Apostle of Solitude. That time I got on stage to do vocals with Clamfight. Hell, in 2014 when I started kicking around the idea of The Obelisk All-Dayer, there was nowhere else I even thought of doing it. If I couldn’t have the date at Saint Vitus Bar, well, I’d find a different date. In the end, having Mars Red Sky, Death Alley, King Buffalo, Snail, Eye, Heavy Temple and the aforementioned Kings Destroy play, having Walter from Roadburn come just to hang out, was a landmark in my life, and I’ll never forget that Vitus hosted.
T-shirts in the back or the corridor right across from the bathrooms, between the barroom and the venue space. The booth seating they eventually had to take out so people could use that room to stand. The way they redid the front. It still felt like home the last time I was there. You’d see Frank Huang setting up a camera — a polite nod to the man responsible for filming so much of what went on; documentation that will prove all the more essential in the years to come in separating between the true and apocryphal — or maybe George Souleidis would be behind the bar or David Castillo would be in the crowd. You could say hi. Sure, they hosted the closest thing to a Nirvana reunion that’s ever happened, but, still, they weren’t jerks or anything. A lot of people would’ve been.
Saint Vitus Bar became New York’s “of course” venue. Of course that tour was going to hit Vitus. Acid King coming east for like two shows? Of course it’s at Vitus. Saint Vitus at Saint Vitus? Of course. I could go on here, but what it boils down to is that Souleidis, Castillo, Arty Shepherd and the myriad others behind the scenes in ownership and operation cared about what they were doing, about the music and the audience they were catering to. It wasn’t just a box with a P.A. It was the kind of place you tell stories about. The kind of place where you buy the shirt. An icon.
Thank you for everything, Saint Vitus Bar. You were bottled lightning. Something special. And of all the rooms I’ve stood in and watched bands — more than I can or have any interest in counting — you were far and away the most welcoming. I might miss that feeling most of all.
There’s talk of reopening in another space (move to Jersey!), and that worked well enough for Knitting Factory going from Manhattan to Brooklyn, so it’s not impossible that the brand could live on and a win could be pulled from the rubble of this loss. I don’t know the future, but if there’s a spark of hope in that regard I’ll hold onto it just to make the loss easier.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 19th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Hell yes I’m down for some new Mirror Queen, and the concept gets even more enticing as initial single “Closing in the Gap” accounts for the various sides of the long-running NYC troupe’s sound in classic boogie and progressive rock melodies, and even some NWOBHM-isms as it answers the initial chug by riding its circa-’75 solo into the fade. The record is called Dying Days and its slated Sept. 27 release comes a mere two years behind the band’s Inviolate (review here). That outing followed similar principles, and I’d expect Kenny and company to keep the balance of elements as fluid as ever, as they’ve long since proven able to lean into one aspect or another of their approach in order to suit the needs of the material and a full-album flow. If you need further demonstration of that, the single is at the bottom of this post.
I’d love to tell you more about the LP, but I haven’t heard it yet. The announcement below is light on details in terms of the who-what-where-when stuff of the recording — expecting a press release five minutes after this post goes live today — but it’s got the preorder link and the song and I guess the rest speaks for itself. At least for now.
Cover art and sundry from social media:
NEW RELEASE /// NYC’s hard psych quartet Mirror Queen return with new album and single on Tee Pee Records
Due for release this fall, Dying Days offers a heady mix of psych, prog, and NWOBHM-isms and counts UFO, Wishbone Ash, and Iron Maiden amongst its influences. Their primary intent is to shoot their audience through a cannon of volume, hooks, and timeless riffs as frontman Kenny Kreisor explains:
“With Dying Days we’ve explored more progressive and melodic aspects of the band, without losing any of that Marshall crunch and metallic sheen. As always, our aim is to craft songs that can be cranked where it matters; live and in your headphones!” 🎧
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 19th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
With just a confirmation for the final evening’s headliner to go, I feel pretty comfortable putting Planet Desert Rock Weekend V squarely in “sick lineup” territory. There’s a great mix of old and new bands, and with eight international acts, it’s not the same show you see everywhere else or just the usual-suspect bands who happen to be on tour. It’s curated, and pieced together to be exactly what it is, and whether it’s bringing Omega Sun from Slovenia for a return appearance, pulling from one side of the US with Mos Generator or the other with Solace, the blend of styles around a heavy rock foundation is no less striking than the geography. I’d go in a heartbeat.
Unida are the second headliner to be announced behind Fireball Ministry. There’s one more to go, and as organizer John Gist unveils below, there’s a five-band Sunday show that I assume will serve as kind of the comedown day, help people transition back to real life, and so on. Interested to see who’s playing that, but either way, if this doesn’t already have you looking at flights, it should.
Vegas Rock Revolution is fired up to have Unida as part of Planet Desert Rock Weekend V! Unida recently have rejoined together without John Garcia who has given his blessing to play live shows again. VRR has witnessed first hand on 2 VRR shows the amazing vocal prowess of Mark Sunshine who has played not only with Patriarchs in Black but also with Riotgod who featured Bob Pantella and Garrett Sweeny of Monster Magnet/ Atomic Bitchwax. These classic desert rock songs deserve to be played live and Arthur Seay on guitar always brings the riffs and energy. Arthur and Mike Cancino’s other band House of Broken Promises not only played VRR’s first show ever but have also played PDRW v2. On bass is a beast of a rocker Collyn McCoy from The Ultra Electric Mega Galactic and others. He performed at PDRW v2 with Sasquatch as well.
Unida will be headlining open night of PDRW V on January 30, 2025 at world famous Count’s Vamp’d which is owned by TV personality Danny Koker of the History Channel show “Counting Cars’ as well as vocalist for Count’s 77. We have one remaining band to announce for PDRW V and it will be the headliner for Night 3. In addition be on the lookout for a Sunday show that weekend that will be aptly named “Last Call”. We will have five carefully selected bands for this evening which will be held in a venue in The Arts District of Las Vegas. Most of the bands have been decided and one will be a very outside the box band that is sure to excite the well versed VRR PDRW crowd! More on that soon! That will be a separate ticket.
We also have got more great news as Joey Ruddell will be doing posters and shirts for PDRW V. If you didn’t snag shirts for PDRW IV here is the link to snag one of these badass designs:https://5b9ac2-77.myshopify.com/
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 19th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Especially as it’s only been about a month since I was writing about Träden, aka Träd, Gräs och Stenar, I’m a little wistful looking at the latest round of adds to Høstsabbat 2024 knowing I won’t be there to see the show. I’ll confess I’m not familiar with Jaqueline or their 2006 record, Reaping Machines, but at this point I know enough to take the Oslo-based Fall fest at their word and follow their recommendations. I’ve got the album on now because it’s the future and the tradeoff for deregulated capitalist hell is we can do that. I don’t expect digging it will make me any less bummed not to make it to Høstsabbat this year.
Scheduling conflict. It’s my daughter’s birthday that weekend; same deal as last year. Yes, it’s true that the last time I was there I needed knee surgery afterward, but I still love Høstsabbat, Jens and Ole and their ultra-diligent, ultra-creative crew bringing the fest to life. Bringing in Witchthroat Serpent and Barren Womb too emphasizes the stylistic breadth of the fest as they are now — confident, established, ready and able to take risks and united by an idea of heaviness that, at its core, remains likewise amorphous and resonant. I could go on saying nice things about my experiences over the years at Høstsabbat, the bands who play or the people who staff it, the place it happens or the fact that there’s often an empty seat next to me on the flight to or from Oslo, but you get the point and I’m only bumming myself out. If you can get to this one, you should seriously consider doing so.
The Jaqueline record sounds pretty killer, by the way. Of course it does. Mid-aughts moody Scandinavian heavy rock, you say? Don’t mind if I do.
From social media:
It’s great to feel the winds of cold again, making path in our souls for the darker, grimmer, angrier and of course heavy AF acts that will come to our church of riffs in October.
Todays bouquet is as diverse as it is awesome.
The feeling of having Swedish prog legends 𝗧𝗥Ä𝗗, 𝗚𝗥Ä𝗦 𝗢𝗖𝗛 𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗡𝗔𝗥 come to church feels almost unreal (Not the Roxette-song). The original lineup started back in 1969, and the band’s cvlt status can hardly be argued. Joined by guitar-virtuoso Reine Fiske in 2008, the band has revitalized their lineup as age always takes its toll.
What a treat it will be to see this legendary band grace The Chapel stage.
Another absolute highlight is the return to stage for Norwegian monster three piece 𝗝𝗔𝗤𝗨𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗘.
Hardly any band as heavy as these guys have harvested more «sixes on the dice” from our national press. Ever.
Their masterpeice «Reaping Machines» from 2006 is a record as heavy as a ten ton Chevy, and led the way of combining songwriting finesse with pure, jaw dropping heaviness. What an album.
«Reaping Machines» will be performed in its entirety at Høstsabbat.
We Can Not Wait.
𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗖𝗛𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗢𝗔𝗧 𝗦𝗘𝗥𝗣𝗘𝗡𝗧 is the second French band on our lineup this year.
Although showcasing a completely different sound than their fellow countrymen in Ni, they are just as much a perfect fit for Høstsabbat with their ultra slow and heavy riff worship.
This bunch of axemen knows how to tickle your belly with their low end debauchery.
𝗕𝗔𝗥𝗥𝗘𝗡 𝗪𝗢𝗠𝗕. Yes, they are coming back!
Timo and Tony laid completely waste to Verkstedet closing out the festival, when we first introduced the stage in 2019. They have been doing so ever since, and before, for that matter. Barren Womb is one of those bands we should cherish to the bone here in Norway.
They turn every single live show into a chaotic fest of emotion, energy and twisted originality(?). Their blend of hardcore and whatnot is so unique, in its weird catchy way.
How do they get the complexity to feel this accessible?
[Click play above to stream International Space Station Vol. 2 in full. The split is out Aug. 20 on Worst Bassist, Weird Beard and Echodelick Records.]
In addition to being the most expensive thing ever built, the International Space Station is the most resounding proof ever manifest of the potential for what humanity can accomplish when we, in even momentary or compartmentalized fashion, put aside our differences and genuinely collaborate. Human potential, circling the planet above our heads every 90 minutes or so. Worst Bassist Records (Germany/EU), working in conjunction with Weird Beard Records (UK) and Echodelick Records (US), offers the second installment of its split series, International Space Station Vol. 2, both in tribute and in some of the same cooperative spirit. Like its 2022 predecessor, International Space Station Vol. 1 (review here), the assemblage features four bands, including the Americans Verstärker, from Kentucky, as well as Kombynat Robotron (from Germany), Speck (from Austria) and Sarkh (from Germany). It’s not quite the same as Europe, Russia, Canada and America spending billions of dollars to construct the ISS itself, module by module, but as one would hope, each band brings something of their own to the overarching scope of International Space Station Vol. 2, while keeping to the abiding space rock theme, in essence if not necessarily genre tropes. It’s cosmic one way or the other, to be sure.
As with Vol. 1, each band on Vol. 2 is given a side to work with to make a full 72-minute 2LP. Verstärker lead off and bring the first of the split’s delves into krautrock across “Weltraumtraum” (12:16) and “Kvant” (5:46), the latter of which is an immersive, multi-tiered drone that gradually emerges from the second half of “Weltraumtraum.” The two are likewise exploratory, if in different ways, as the first cut starts out with a more urgent gallop on drums and a bassline that keeps it cool but still moves, guitar feeling out the spaces in the swirl. A boogie takes hold until about four and a half minutes in, where the change marked by a stop of drums leads to a heavier outbound thrust. About force more than escape velocity, the next two minutes of push give over to mellower bassy jamming and guitar effects floating overhead, a little ghostly, but there. The drums keep the tension so that when “Weltraumtraum” starts to build back up it makes sense, and even after the crescendo, until just about 10 minutes in, the drums hold out amid the residual synth and guitar echoes. Once they go, it’s the sci-fi drone of “Kvant” all the way — an initial and not at all last hypnotic stretch as International Space Station Vol. 2 broadens its reach.
Kombynat Robotron bring a reset at the start of their lone inclusion “Montan” (15:31) and answer the proggy flow of Verstärker‘s longer piece with an easy movement of their own. Shimmering guitar over a krautrock groove probably shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone familiar with the band, this split series, or the style more generally, but Kombynat Robotron bring a Yawning–Man-in-space sensibility to the guitar work and subtle gotta-go of the rhythm. A crash and stop at five minutes in marks the divergence from where they’ve been to where they’re going, which is to a more actively swirling solo section, with crash cymbal adding to the build as they move further into the maybe-improvised unknown. Howls and wails circa 8:20 preface a pickup in the toms, and the Kiel trio carry their procession in willfully, increasingly noisy style across its back half, such that when it ends with a feedbackscape, it makes sense, feeling all the more vibrant and nebular in their fusing of elements. As the only band with one song here — everyone else does a long one and a short one, like Verstärker — Kombynat Robotron still use their time well to emphasize performance as well as exploration. “Montan” is duly massive as a result.
The immediate impression when Speck set forth with “Flaniergang” (16:03), with “Bes, So Bes” (4:29) following, is cleaner in tone, but it’s the urging motion of the drums that is most consuming. Accompanied by a bassline one might be tempted to call “solid” were it not so utterly liquefied, the drums mark out the path the song will take and give everybody — yes, including you — the chance to get on board before the real takeoff. That comes shortly after three minutes in as the guitar comes forward and the groove opens up with chugging interstellar build. Hints of heavy psych melodicism persist in the guitar, and that’ll do quite nicely, thank you, but Speck bring the proceedings back down for a quick refueling ahead of the next launch, which comes in short order. It’s not the last either — they sneak in a third redirect in the last two minutes that makes “Flaniergang” even more exciting, capping with feedback that leads directly into the cymbal wash of “Bes, So Bes,” a slow-rolling improv-feeling jaunt into low gravity that isn’t shapeless but which is clear in its less-rigid structure, and at this point in the split, calling something “less rigid” is really saying something.
Given the unenviable task of rounding out the final of the 2LP’s four sides, Sarkh flip the script and put the shorter song first, topping “Helios” (6:17) with a sample in its early going and sweeping in with heavier tones and some of the post-metallic expanse they’ve established as well within their reach. By the time they’re three minutes in, “Helios” is crushing and sprawling in kind, and they continue to set airy post-rock guitar against what in context sounds downright pummeling as the song churns to its purposeful ending, a stretch of low hum making the transition between “Helios” and the concluding “Cape Wrath” (11:37). Terrestrial, if not cavernous in its sound, and once again, remarkably heavy, “Cape Wrath” turns from the patterned riff that begins it, drops the drums and resets for a breath around ambient guitar, and thereby sets out on one big, last build, the payoff of which is your explanation for why Sarkh appear last on International Space Station Vol. 2 — once you go in the black hole, there’s no getting back out. It’s okay though, because as gravitational as they get, Sarkh retain enough presence and intentionality to bring “Cape Wrath” to a close with a change to sparse standalone guitar, not unlike that which set out that build to begin with.
And really, who knows where or when that was. On the cosmic-web-defined, impossible-to-comprehend-by-our-bacteria-brains scales of time and space in the universe, International Space Station and the structure that inspired the series in the first are — like everything else human beings have ever done and likely will ever do — small achievements, but they share that aspect of realized potential, and like the different sections of the ISS being assembled in orbit some 255 miles above the surface of the planet, each band’s material adds to the complexity of what’s portrayed by the whole, which is a fresh, multidimensional space rock that speaks no less to an optimistic future. The eons-long course of civilization’s history has wrought little that is more worth celebrating, and International Space Station Vol. 2 feels suitably reverent.
Much of the time, EPs are bullshit. Haphazardly strewn together off-album tracks, leftovers and filler live material, one-off experiments that weren’t good enough to make the album, and so on. Can’t do anything else with it, so throw it on a 10-inch. New Hampshire’s Scissorfight, on the other hand, have always known the true value of the get-in-kick-ass-get-out style of releasing. I remember buying the CD of 2002’s Potential New Agent for Unconventional Warfare the day it came out at Compact Disc World on Rt. 10 in East Hanover — same place I bought the preceding album, 2001’s Mantrapping for Sport and Profit (discussed here); both were released on Hydra Head-offshoot Tortuga Recordings — and yeah, I was a little bummed it wasn’t another full-length. Until I put it on.
Comprised of five songs that run a combined 13 minutes, Potential New Agent for Unconventional Warfare barely feels as long as its title, but each track shines, from the thick snare hits that lead into the rush of the sub-two-minute “Hex,” which feels willfully annoying with its chorus line of “Sun reflecting in a flying crow’s eye” repeated in a hurry over and over as the riff comes through thick enough to make you forget it’s a punk song, or the woodsy stomp of “Riverhorse,” which remains one of the most memorable tracks Scissorfight have ever produced, be it during their initial run from 1995-2006 or the incarnation of the band that reunited in 2016 to release another EP, Chaos County (review here) and the 2019 full-length, Doomus Abruptus Vol. 1 (review here). I won’t deny the appeal of their rougher-in-production early work on albums like 1996’s Guaranteed Kill, 1998’s Balls Deep, or 2000’s New Hampshire, but Mantrapping for Sport and Profit saw a marked uptick in the level of production even as the band had already been working with engineer Andrew Schneider previously.
Whatever it was that turned out to be the difference, you can hear it in the songs. “Hex” is clear even as it’s kind of a mess (and knows it) — not as much as “Running the Risk of Raining Buffalo” a short time later, but still — and “Riverhorse,” “Maritime Disasters” and “Harvester” give this same era of Clutch a run for their money as regards songwriting while keeping a more aggressive attitude and you-might-get-punched threat level, with vocalist Chris “Ironlung” Shurtleff playing the role of deepwoods madman with guitarist Jay Fortin (aka Geezum H. Crow, aka Fuck You, etc.), bassist Paul Jarvis and drummer Kevin J. Shurtleff, as well as Craig Riggs (then of Roadsaw) and others backing. The band were never light on burl, be it in the vocals, riffs or anything else, but Ironlung‘s obscure pop culture references and sneering self-awareness gave another level of consideration to the absurdity.
And Scissorfight in this incarnation were that rare band who could not only pull off being hyper-dudely and still laugh at themselves for it — which is like the temporal paradox of masculinity — but the material they wrote had more to it than just attitude. “Blood on the road/And the road is on fire” is the chorus of “Riverhorse,” and as they sneak a harmonized backing line into that swinging delivery, the four-minute tune becomes an anthem in favor of recklessness. It and the “I am a lighthouse” declarations of “Maritime Disasters” and the rings-in-my-head-anytime-someone-mentions-the-word-“harvest” repetitions of “Harvester/Harvester/Harvester/Unconventional harvester” in “Harvester” put the emphasis right where it needs to be — on no-bullshit heavy crunch, likewise laced with acid and fuckall — and in 13 minutes’ time, they steamroll an album’s worth of everything like it turned out the magic secret of EPs all along was that you needed to make them good. Who knew?
Actually, by then, Scissorfight knew, and maybe the knowledge is part of what makes Potential New Agent for Unconventional Warfare work so well — Scissorfight at this point had four or five LPs under their collective belt depending on what you count and could fuck around without losing the plot — as each song feels like it has room to breathe and something to offer apart from the others while still being packed in enough so that the five of them are done in less than 15 minutes, not close to a full-length release and not trying to be one, but still fluid in the procession from “Hex” into “Riverhorse,” through “Maritime Disasters,” “Running the Risk of Raining Buffalo” and “Harvester.” They could sound like they were flipping off the entire world — because they were — and convince the listener that not only were they genuine in that, but that it was the only logical response for an existence gone mad. They occupied their own place in heavy, right on the line between rock and metal, Southern and… unleaded? I don’t know, but you get the idea. And they owned the EP format.
That began with Piscataqua in 2000, though that was mostly covers, and would continue splits with Cave In and Pelican and two more standalone EPs, 2003’s Deathchants, Breakdowns and Military Waltzes Vol. 2 — there was no Vol. 1, mind you — and 2005’s Victory Over Horseshit before they got around to issuing the final album of their initial run, 2006’s Jaggernaut, which took the slickness of the 2001 full-length and refined it further while sticking to the essentials of Scissorfight‘s efficient, in-your-face craft. I don’t know what led to their breakup — legend has it Ironlung did too much acid and disappeared; I like to imagine he finished his Ph.D. and is Dr. Shurtleff to a bunch of university students somewhere who have no clue he used to “Outmotherfucker the Man” on the regular — but when they came back with Doug Aubin on vocals and Rick Orcutt on drums, Scissorfight held onto a lot of what had worked so well about their original run while emphasizing the heft of tone one can hear on Potential New Agent for Unconventional Warfare even as they make it move in “Running the Risk of Raining Buffalo.”
Like a lot of their catalog, this EP is begging for reissue, but if you can get the original CD, there’s a recording of Ironlung trying out the vocal pronunciations for the German-language version of “New Hampshire’s Alright if You Like Fighting” (from Mantrapping), and that’s pretty golden as well. I’m still glad to have my copy.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
—
Today is the last day of ice skating camp for The Pecan. I know, another camp. She hasn’t gotten kicked out, or even needed to be picked up early, though, which has been pretty huge for us, in addition to being the reason I was able to give four records a full review this week. Next week is all mapped out, but not quite so ambitious. I do what I can when I can. Half-day skate camp has been a win and hopefully she can pull that through to the last day as well, despite the inevitable big feelings as a result of it being that same last day. Fingers crossed.
We’re basically settled back into New Jersey from being away a decent portion of the summer between June and July. The Patient Mrs. is getting ready for the Fall semester at work, The Pecan starts school the day after Labor Day, we’ve agreed to host Thanksgiving again, so yeah, preparing for a busy next season, still tired from the last, but moving forward. My mother came for dinner last night. Today’s a big Costco trip and maybe the Parsippany farmer’s market. Tomorrow is family birthday stuff. Sunday, recovery and maybe some swimming if we can.
Yesterday we went and saw the Holmdel Horn, which if you want to look it up was the radio telescope that confirmed the existence of the cosmic microwave background, essentially proving the Big Bang in the early 1960s. There was a fight because someone wanted to turn it into condos. The town of Holmdel — about 50 minutes from where we live — agreed to turn it into a park instead, since it’s a national landmark. But that hasn’t happened yet, so taking The Pecan and her massive current interest in all things astrophysics to see it involved a bit of light-trespassing. No regrets. It was an impressive sight, and when we saw it in the book we were reading while she ate breakfast this morning, she got excited because we’d been there. Nobody got arrested. Totally worth it. We’ll go back when/if the park opens.
Beyond that, it’s been plugging away at work, trying to catch up at stuff from while we were in Budapest. I need to vacuum, do laundry, but these are pretty constant. The routine I guess has a comfort level about it.
Whatever you’re up to this weekend, I hope it’s fun and that you stay safe and hydrate. Waning summer is still summer, but we’re coming into my favorite time of year here, once the humidity goes. In any case, thanks for reading and I’ll be back on Monday with more these-type shenanigans.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 16th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
The video at the bottom of this post of Alain Johannes (Eleven, Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures, solo work, recording work, etc.) playing the song “Endless Eyes” from his 2010 LP, Spark (discussed here), was filmed — credit to Jenia Goldshtein on YouTube, I assume, since that’s who posted it — from the side of the room at The Underworld in London, by that little balcony, on the final date of Johannes‘ UK run supported by Earl of Hell. That tour followed a 2023 stint in Europe that found him in the company of and collaborating with Iron Jinn. So far as I’m aware, the US shows announced below will be Johannes‘ first time on the Eastern Seaboard since his album Hum (review here) came out in 2021.
A Sept. 15 stop in NYC is quite literally the night after Desertfest ends, so rough timing there unless you actually live a block away, but that he’s making the trek over at all is an event. Doesn’t seem like there will be a backing band this time — both Earl of Hell and Iron Jinn played that role — but take what you can get since it’s not a show that happens every day. The dates were posted on social media as follows:
😎🎶 @north.shore.artists @kartess
Sun 9/1/24 @ Eastside Bowl Nashville,TN w/ Patrick Johnson of PJ and the Bear
Tue 9/3/24 @ Minibar Kansas City, MO w/ The Imaginaries
Wed 9/4/24 @ Turf Club St Paul, MN w/ The Imaginaries
Thur 9/5/24 @ Appleton Beer Factory Appleton, WI w/ Tom Thiel
Fri 9/6/24 @ Reggie’s Music Joint Chicago, IL w/ Sammy Boller & Joey Lopo/Jacky Legs of Alabaster
Sun 9/8/24 @ The Coterie Kokomo, IN w/ Sammy Boller
Mon 9/9/24 @ Sanctuary Hamtramck, MI w/ Pharaohs
Wed 9/11/24 @ Club cafe Pittsburgh, PA w/ Sammy Boller
Thur 9/12/24 @ Colony Woodstock, NY w/ Sammy Boller
Fri 9/13/24 @ Taffeta Music Hall Boston, MA w/ Sammy Boller
Sun 9/15/24 @ The Iridium in New York City, NY
Wed 9/18/24 @ 118N Wayne, PA w/ Great Dying
Sat 9/21/24 @ Radio Artifact Cincinnati, OH w/ Ricky Liontones
