Blue Heron Post “Marigold”; Emulations EP Coming Oct. 10
Well, “The House that Peterbilt” is a Clutch song, and their version of “Marigold,” if it’s a cover, isn’t the Dave Grohl-sung Nirvana B-side, so I’m guessing that’s original. I don’t know who “Grey” or “Find Away” might be by, but Floor had a tune on Oblation that shared the latter’s title, but I don’t know if Blue Heron are Floor fans. I guess we’ll find out sooner or later who they’re actually covering on this half-covers/half-session release, tracked earlier this year in the studio and at a college radio performance. [Edit 08/28: Indeed, it’s Floor, Clutch and Fudge Tunnel for the covers.]
As announced a couple weeks ago, Blue Heron have their first-ever European tour dates happening this October, and Emulations will follow 2024’s Everything Fades (review here) as the cause they’re heralding. Those dates are below, as well as the preorders for the new outing, which lands the same day the tour starts: Oct. 10.
And I’ll say too that I stopped covering Redux releases because it got to be too much, but I am looking forward to hearing Blue Heron‘s take on “Head Like a Hole,” Author & Punisher doing “Reptile,” and several others. Come to think of it, the self-titled Clutch (from whence “The House that Peterbilt,” again, featured here, comes) seems like another classic waiting to be reinterpreted. Just saying.
From the PR wire:
US desert metallers BLUE HERON debut new single “Marigold” taken from upcoming new release “Emulations” on Blues Funeral Recordings!
US desert rockers BLUE HERON announce the release of their new record “Emulations” on October 10th through Blues Funeral Recordings, to coincide with the beginning of their first-ever European tour. Listen to the first single “Marigold” on all streaming services now!
“Emulations” is an interim release, blending new studio recordings with live-in-the-studio performances captured during a session at Albuquerque’s KUNM college radio station last February. The project was conceived in early 2025, as Blue Heron prepared to record their rendition of the Nine Inch Nails classic “Head Like a Hole” for the forthcoming Magnetic Eye Records compilation, Best of NIN Redux: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/magneticeye/the-downward-spiral-redux-and-best-of-nine-inch-nails-redux
Blue Heron singer Jadd Shickler on the new record: “We’re on a streak of putting out something new every year since 2021, so knowing we were going in to record the Nine Inch Nails tune, we talked about what else we could do to get the most of our studio time. We’d gotten the invite to do KUNM and decided to see if we could pull a few things together and add them to whatever might come out of the in-studio session, and maybe we’d have something unique and cool ahead of our European tour.” The result is four new studio tracks (including three covers) along with four live recordings from the radio session, the latter inspiring the release’s title. “The name Emulations came from a lyric in one of the covers, and it fit the concept of a record that’s either us doing other bands’ songs or live versions of our own songs,” Shickler adds.
Blue Heron will bring their blistering desert rock to European stages for the first time this October, including two key scene festivals and nine shows total alongside the likes of Gnome, Mephistofeles and High Desert Queen:
Blue Heron European tour 2025
Oct 10 – Karlsruhe (DE) Alte Hackerei w/ High Desert Queen
Oct 11 – Munich (DE) Keep It Low Festival
Oct 12 – Arnstadt (DE) Rockjungfer
Oct 13 – Bamberg (DE) Live Club w/ Submarin On Mars
Oct 14 – Hagen (DE) Werkhof Hohenlimburg w/ Stargo
Oct 15 – Rotterdam (NL) Roodkapje w/ Mephistofeles, High Desert Queen
Oct 16 – Tilburg (NL) Little Devil w/ Gnome, Tankzilla
Oct 17 – Trier (DE) Rothaus
Oct 19 – Antwerp (BE) Desertfest Belgium
BLUE HERON ‘Emulations”
Out October 10th on Blues Funeral Recordings (cassette/CD/digital)
Bandcamp preorder: https://blueheronabq.bandcamp.com/
Label preorder: https://bluesfuneralrecordings.bandcamp.com/
TRACKLIST:
1. Grey
2. Marigold
3. The House That Peterbilt
4. Find Away
5. Everything Fades (Live at KUNM)
6. Day of the Comet (Live at KUNM)
7. Futurola (Live at KUNM)
8. Swansong (Live at KUNM)
BLUE HERON is
Mike Chavez – Guitars
Ricardo Sanchez – Drums
Steve Schmidlapp – Bass
Jadd Shickler – Vocals
https://blueheronabq.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/blueheronabq/
https://www.facebook.com/blueheronabq
bluesfuneral.com
https://bluesfuneralrecordings.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/blues.funeral/
https://www.facebook.com/bluesfuneral/
My money is on Grey being a Fudge Tunnel cover.