Desertfest Belgium 2025: First Lineup Announcement

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 11th, 2025 by JJ Koczan

Perhaps some extra interest in seeing how the lineup for Desertfest Belgium 2025 takes shape over the next few months considering how heartwrenching the bill for 2024 was. They have not gone small to answer that question in this first reveal — you can see the names for yourself on the poster below — which covers a range of styles and has an according geographic reach. Note New Mexico’s Blue Heron taking part, supporting their rightfully-well-received 2024 LP, Everything Fades (review here), and note Lowrider because it’s notable anytime they play anywhere. Go them both, along with the rest, if you can.

As regards “the rest,” the names are their own best argument, I guess. Desertfest Belgium has become an integral part of the Fall underground touring circuit, a nexus point where various individual tours converge and split off again, so I’ll be interested to see, say, who The Obsessed will be out with, or how many times in your life you might be able to say you saw Colour Haze and Lowrider on a bill together in 2025. Just for examples.

So yeah, good start. Take their word for it in the “much more to be announced” part too. From socials:

Desertfest Belgium 2025 first poster sq

FIRST NAMES! GRAVEYARD, BONGRIPPER, MASTERS OF REALITY & MORE!

Hi Desertfans,

Are you ready to rip it up? Here are the first names for Desertfest Antwerp 2025!

We’re very excited to welcome this divine & dangerous bunch to our stages:

Graveyard 🌑 BONGRIPPER 🌑 Masters Of Reality 🌑 Oranssi Pazuzu 🌑 The Obsessed 🌑 Bongzilla 🌑 monkey3 🌑 Lowrider 🌑 Colour Haze 🌑 Mars Red Sky 🌑 Psychlona 🌑 NEGATIVE BLAST 🌑 Alber Jupiter 🌑 Hedonist 🌑 Blue Heron

If you are as delighted as we are then head over to our ticket page below and grab a weekend pass for a guaranteed three days of sonic delirium 🪐

https://www.desertfest.be/antwerp/information/ticketing/

Hasta la vista!
The Desertfest Belgium team

http://www.desertfest.be/
https://www.facebook.com/desertfestbelgium/
https://www.instagram.com/desertfest_belgium/

Bongripper, Empty (2024)

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Quarterly Review: Gnome, Hermano, Stahv, Space Shepherds, King Botfly, Last Band, Dream Circuit, Okkoto, Trappist Afterland, Big Muff Brigade

Posted in Reviews on December 9th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

THE-OBELISK-FALL-2020-QUARTERLY-REVIEW

Welcome to the Quarterly Review. Oh, you were here last time? Me too. All door prizes will be mailed to winning parties upon completion of, uh, everything, I guess?

Anywhazzle, the good news is this week is gonna have 50 releases covered between now — the 10 below — and the final batch of 10 this Friday. I’m trying to sneak in a bunch of stuff ahead of year-end coverage, yes, but let the urgency of my doing so stand as testament to the quality of the music contained in this particular Quarterly Review. If I didn’t feel strongly about it, surely I’d find some other way to spend my time.

That said, let’s not waste time. You know the drill, I know the drill. Just don’t be surprised when some of the stuff you see here, today, tomorrow, and throughout the week, ends up in the Best of 2024 when the time comes. I have no idea what just yet, but for sure some of it.

We go.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Gnome, Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome

Gnome vestiges of Verumex Visidrome

Some bands write songs for emotional catharsis. Some do it to make a political statement. Gnome‘s songs feel specifically — and expertly — crafted to engage an audience, and their third full-length, Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome, underscores the point. Hooks like “Old Soul” and “Duke of Disgrace” offer a self-effacing charm, where elsewhere the Antwerp trio burn through hot-shit riffing and impact-minded slam metal with a quirk that, if you’ve caught wind of the likes of Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol or Howling Giant in recent years, should fit nicely among them while finding its own sonic niche in being able to, say, throw a long sax solo on second cut “The Ogre” or veer into death growls for the title line of “Rotten Tongue” and others. They make ‘party riff metal’ sound much easier to manifest than it probably is, and the reason their reputation precedes them at this point goes right back to the songwriting. They hit hard, they get in, get out, it’s efficient when it wants to be but can still throw a curve with the stop and pivot in “Rotten Tongue,” running a line between punk and stoner, rock and metal, your face and the floor. It might actually be too enjoyable for some, but the funk they bring here is infectious. They make the riffs dance, and everything goes from there.

Gnome on Instagram

Polder Records website

Hermano, When the Moon Was High…

hermano when the moon was high

The lone studio track “Breathe” serves as the reasoning behind Hermano‘s first new release since 2007’s …Into the Exam Room (discussed here), and actually predates that still-latest long-player by some years. Does it matter? Yeah, sort of. As regards John Garcia‘s post-Kyuss career, Hermano both got fleshed out more than most (thinking bands like Unida and Slo Burn, even Vista Chino, that didn’t get to release three full-lengths in their time), and still seemed to fade out when there was so much potential ahead of them. If “Breathe” doesn’t argue in favor of this band giving it the proverbial “one more go,” perhaps the live version of “Brother Bjork” (maybe the same one featured on 2005’s Live at W2?) and a trio of cuts captured at Hellfest in 2016 should do the trick nicely. They’re on fire through “Senor Moreno’s Plan,” “Love” and “Manager’s Special,” with GarciaDandy BrownDavid Angstrom, Chris Leathers and Mike Callahan treating Clisson to a reminder of why they’re the kind of band who might get to build an entire EP around a leftover studio track — because that studio track, and the band more broadly, righteously kick their own kind of ass. What would a new album be like?

Ripple Music on Facebook

Ripple Music website

Stahv, Sentiens Eklektikos

STAHV Sentiens Eklektikos

Almost on a per-song basis, Stahv — the mostly-solo brainchild of multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Solomon Arye Rosenschein, here collaborating on production with John Getze of Ako-Lite Records — skewers and melds genres to create something new from their gooey remnants. On the opening title-track, maybe that’s a post-industrial Phil Collins set to dreamtime keyboard and backed by fuzzy drone. On “Lunar Haze,” it’s all goth ’80s keyboard handclaps until the chorus melody shines through the fog machine like The Beatles circa ’64. Yeah that’s right. And on “Bossa Supernova,” you bet your ass it’s bossa nova. “The Calling” reveals a rocker’s soul, where “Plainview” earlier on has a swing that might draw from The Birthday Party at its root (it also might not) but has its own sleek vibe just the same with a far-back, lo-fi buzz that somehow makes the melody sound better. “Aaskew” (sic) takes a hard-funkier stance musically but its outsider perspective in the lyrics is similar. The 1960s come back around in the later for “Circuit Crash” — it would have to be a song about the future — and “Leaving Light” seems to make fun of/celebrate (it can be both) that moment in the ’80s when everything became tropical. There’s worlds here waiting for ears adventurous enough to hear them.

Stahv on Facebook

Ako-Lite Records on Bandcamp

Space Shepherds, Cycler

Space Shepherds Cycler

I mean, look. The central question you really have to ask yourself is how mellow do you want to get? Do you think you can handle 12 minutes of “Transmigration?” Do you think you can be present in yourself through that cool-as-fuck, ultra-smooth psychedelic twist Space Shepherds pull off, barely three minutes into the the beginning of this seven-track, 71-minute pacifier to quiet the bad voices in your (definitely not my) brain. What’s up with that keyboard shuffle in “Celestial Rose” later on? I don’t know, but it rules. And when they blow it out in “Got Caught Dreaming?” Yeah, hell yeah, wake up! “Free Return” is a 15-minute drifter jam that gets funky in the back half (a phrase I’d like on a shirt) and you don’t wanna miss it! At the risk of spoiling it, I’ll tell you that the title-track, which closes, is absolutely the payoff it’s all asking for. If you’ve got the time to sit with it, and you can just sort of go where it’s going, Cycler is a trip begging to be taken.

Space Shepherds on Facebook

Space Shepherds on Bandcamp

King Botfly, All Hail

king botfly all hail

It is all very big. All very grand, sweeping and poised musically, very modern and progressive and such — and immediately it has something if that’s what you’re looking for, which is super-doper, thanks — but if you dig into King Botfly‘s vocals, there’s a vulnerability there as well that adds an intimacy to all that sweep and plunges down the depths of the spacious mix’s low end. And I’m not knocking that part of it either. The Portsmouth, UK-based three-piece of guitarist/vocalist George Bell, bassist Luke Andrew and drummer Darren Draper, take on a monumental task in terms of largesse, and they hit hard when they want to, but there’s dynamic in it too, and both has an edge and doesn’t seem to go anywhere it does without a reason, which is a hard balance to strike. They sound like a band who will and maybe already have learned from this and will use that knowledge to move forward in an ongoing creative pursuit. So yes, progressive. Also tectonically heavy. And with heart. I think you got it. They’ll be at Desertfest London next May, and they sound ready for it.

King Botfly on Facebook

King Botfly on Bandcamp

Last Band, The Sacrament in Accidents

last band the sacrament in accidents

Are Last Band a band? They sure sound like one. Founded by guitarists Pat Paul and Matt LeGrow (the latter also of Admiral Browning) upwards of 15 years ago, when they were less of an actual band, the Maryland-based outfit offer 13 songs of heavy alternative rock on The Sacrament in Accidents, with some classic metal roots shining through amid the harmonies of “Saffire Alice” and a denser thrust in “Season of Outrage,” a rush in the penultimate “Forty-Four to the Floor,” and so on, where the title-track is more of an open sway and “Lidocaine” is duly placid, and while the production is by no means expansive, the band convey their songs with intent. Most cuts are in the three-to-four-minute range, but “Blown Out” dips into psychedelic-gaze wash as the longest at 5:32 offset by comparatively grounded, far-off Queens of the Stone Age-style vocalizing in the last minute, which is an effective culmination. The material has range and feels worked on, and while The Sacrament in Accidents sounds raw, it hones a reach that feels true to a songwriting methodology evolved over time.

Last Band on Bandcamp

Dream Circuit, Pennies for Your Life

Dream Circuit Pennies for Your Life

Debuting earlier this decade as a solo-project of Andrew Cox, Seattle’s Dream Circuit have built out to a four-piece for with Pennies for Your Life, which throughout its six-track/36-minute run sets a contemplative emotionalist landscape. Now completed by Anthony Timm, Cody Albers and Ian Etheridge, the band are able to move from atmospheric stretches of classically-inspired-but-modern-sounding verses into heavier tonality on a song like “Rosy” with fluidity that seems to save its sweep for when it counts. The title-track dares some shouts, giving some hint of a metallic underpinning, but that still rests well in context next to the sitar sounds of “Let Go,” which opens at 4:10 into its own organ-laced crush, emotionally satisfying. Imagine a post-heavy rock that’s still pretty heavy, and a dynamic that stretches across microgenres, and maybe that will give some starting idea. The last two tracks argue for efficiency in craft, but wherever Dream Circuit go on this sophomore release, they take their own route to get there.

Dream Circuit on Facebook

Dream Circuit on Bandcamp

Okkoto, All is Light

okkoto all is light

“All is Light” is the first single from New Paltz bliss-drone meditationalist solo outfit Okkoto since 2022’s stellar and affirming Climb the Antlers and Reach the Stars (review here), and its seven minutes carry a similar scope to what one found on that album. To be clear, that’s a compliment. Interwoven threads of synth over methodical timekeeping drum sounds, wisps of airy guitar drawn together with other lead lines, keys or strings, create a flowing world around the vocals added by Michael Lutomski, also (formerly?) of heavy psych rockers It’s Not Night: It’s Space, the sole proprietor of the expanse. A lot of a given listener’s experience of Okkoto experience will depend on their own headspace, but if you have the time and attention — seven-plus minutes of active-but-not-too-active hearing recommended — but “All is Light” showcases the rare restorative aspects of Okkoto in a way that, if you can get to it, can make you believe, or at least escape for a little while.

Okkoto on Instagram

Okkoto on Bandcamp

Trappist Afterland, Evergreen: Walk to Paradise Garden

Trappist Afterland Evergreen Walk to Paradise Garden

Underscored with a earth-rooted folkish fragility in the voice of Adam Geoffrey Cole (also guitar, cittern, tanpura, oud, synth, xylophone and something called a ‘dulcitar’), Melbourne’s Trappist Afterland are comfortably adventurous on this 10th full-length, Evergreen: Walk to Paradise Garden, which digs deeper into psych-drone on longest track “Cruciform/The Reincarnation of Kelly-Anne (Parts 1-3)” (7:55) while elsewhere digs into fare more Eastern-influenced-Western-traditional, largely based around guitar composition. With an assortment of collaborators coming and going, even this is enough for Cole and his seemingly itinerant company to create a sense of variety — the violin in centerpiece “Barefoot in Thistles” does a lot of work in that regard; ditto the squeezebox of opener “The Squall” — and while the arrangements don’t lack for flourish, the human expression is paramount, and the nine songs are serene unto the group vocal that caps in “You Are Evergreen,” which would seem to be placed to highlight its resonance, and reasonably so. As it’s Trappist Afterland‘s 10th album by their own count, it’s hardly a surprise they know what they’re about, but they do anyway.

Trappist Afterland on Facebook

Trappist Afterland on Bandcamp

Big Muff Brigade, Pi

big muff brigade pi

For a band who went so far as to name themselves after a fuzz pedal, Spain’s Big Muff Brigade have more in common with traditional desert rock than the kind of tonal worship one might expect them to deliver. That landscape doesn’t account for their naming a song “Terre Haute,” seemingly after the town in Indiana — I’ve been there; not a desert — but fair enough for the shove of that track, which on Pi arrives just ahead of closer “Seasonal Affective Disorder,” which builds to a nonetheless-mellow payoff before its fadeout. Elsewhere, the seven-minute “Pierced by the Spear” drops Sleepy (and thus Sabbathian) references in the guitar ahead of creating a duly stonerly lumber before they even unfurl the first verse — a little more in keeping with the kind of riff celebration one might expect going in — but even there, the band maintain a thread of purposeful songcraft that can only continue to serve them as they move past this Argonauta-delivered debut and continued to grow. There is a notable sense of outreach here, though, and in writing to genre, Big Muff Brigade show both their love of what they do and a will to connect with likeminded audiences.

Big Muff Brigade on Facebook

Argonauta Records website

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Gnome: Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome Available to Preorder; Out Sept. 13

Posted in Whathaveyou on September 2nd, 2024 by JJ Koczan

Chapeaux-clad Belgian troublemakers Gnome are set to release their new album, Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome, in less than two weeks. Polderrecords has preorders up now. I haven’t heard the record yet, but I hope I get to, especially after seeing the band play live at the second day of this summer’s Bear Stone Festival (review here) in Croatia. They were, in short, a hoot, and I’m pretty sure “Golden Fool” — the latest single from their third LP to come — was in the setlist. I had been hesitant in approaching the trio’s second album, 2022’s King (review here), because some of the hype around it turned me off, but after taking that on it was easy to be won over.

“Golden Fool” was preceded by the first streaming track “Old Soul” that was posted in June. Both cuts from Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome, and King for good measure, are streaming below. If you haven’t caught onto these cats yet, it might be a good time. Info from socials:

Gnome vestiges of Verumex Visidrome

Pre-order Gnome – Vestiges Of Verumex Visidrome online now

Preorder link: https://polderrecords.be/product-category/gnome/

The Antwerp powertrio Gnome piles riff upon riff on their third release Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome. These normal sized Belgians rip, bang and rumble through a landscape of stoner, prog and heavy metal, inhabited by mythical creatures and full of unexpected twists.

Recorded and mixed at Bear Bites Horse studio in London by the brilliant Wayne Adams, and seasoned to perfection by Larsson Mastering, this album showcases Gnome sounding larger and greasier than ever, all while dripping in a unique blend of silliness and tongue-in-cheek vibes.

Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome is a must for anyone who loves their rock with a sense of humor, but mostly with heroic passion in the quest for the golden riff. Set to drop on Friday, September 13th, 2024, via Polderrecords!

Release show: September 19th at De Studio, Antwerp (BE)

Tickets: https://www.destudio.com/nl/project/gnome

http://www.facebook.com/officialgnomeband/
https://www.instagram.com/gnomeverse/
https://gnome.bandcamp.com/
https://fanlink.to/PR033-Gnome

https://www.facebook.com/polderrecords
https://www.instagram.com/polderrecords/
http://www.polderrecords.be

Gnome, “Golden Fool”

Gnome, “Old Soul”

Gnome, King (2022)

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Desertfest Belgium 2024 Lineup Complete; Conan, Causa Sui, Ruff Majik & More Added

Posted in Whathaveyou on June 5th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

I mean, it’s not like the 2024 lineup for Desertfest Antwerp — aka Desertfest Belgium — wasn’t already stunning, but go ahead and throw ConanCausa SuiRuff Majik, Birds in Row, Valley of the SunDelvingDaevarCoilguns, and the others below into the mix and that definitely doesn’t hurt. The headliners speak for themselves — Monster Magnet are a call to show up, Fu Manchu will be supporting their new record, which is out this month, and Russian Circles are Russian Circles — but as you dig into each line of the poster below, you can see there isn’t really a point where the hits stop coming. I won’t claim to be familiar with the likes of Tangled HornsGiac TaylorThroatsnapper or Divided, who are also newly tacked onto the bill, but as they join the likes of SpaceslugStoned JesusMessaChild, and others on my personal hope-I-see-before-I-die list, it’s striking both how broad and how rad this lineup is on the whole.

And yes, that’s the extent of the insight. This looks killer. I’ve only been through Belgium once, and it was to change trains. I was there just long enough to try and fail at ordering coffee in French, but if there ever was a reason to want to head back and give that another shot likely to the same result, this would likely be it. Rezn and Seedy Jeezus and Mondo Drag? In the parlance of our times: “let’s go.”

Ticket link and the relatively brief final announcement from the fest follow here, emojis intact, as seen on social media:

Desertfest Belgium 2024 final lineup

Hold fast for the 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐀𝐧𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐩 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 lineup is complete! ⚡ Forged in blood and sweat, we present you with the final additions to the bill:

Conan / Birds in Row / Causa Sui / Valley of the Sun / Coilguns / delving / Ruff Majik / Red Scalp / Tangled Horns / Divided / Throatsnapper / Giac Taylor / Daevar

Now with that sweet cherry on top there’s no reason not to get a ticket 🍒: https://www.desertfest.be/antwerp/information/ticketing/

Spread the word, share the post and see you later in Antwerp!

http://www.desertfest.be/
https://www.facebook.com/desertfestbelgium/
https://www.instagram.com/desertfest_belgium/

Ruff Majik, “Swine Tooth Grin” live in Nürnberg, Germany, 05.29.24

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Desertfest Belgium 2024 Announces Initial Lineup

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 18th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

Set for the weekend of Oct. 18-20 and (I think?) celebrating the 10th anniversary of the first Desertfest Belgium, which was held in 2014, the 2024 edition of the Antwerp-based Desertfest has made its first lineup announcement, anchored by Fu Manchu and Russian Circles and featuring a host of others ranging in both geography and style. From the fluid textures of REZN and classic melodic prog rock of Mondo Drag to the reunited Scorpion ChildBongzilla‘s singularly stoned crust and the expansive riffery of Stoned Jesus, whose Mother Dark complement to early-2023’s Father Light (review here) is awaited, it’s a well-rounded bill even before you account for heavy psych rockers Seedy Jeezus and bluesy ’70s traditionalists Child making the trip from Australia, the latter on the heels of Heavy Psych Sounds reissuing their catalog, the expansive sounds of Messa, and so on.

That it looks like a cool time isn’t really a surprise. Desertfest Belgium has developed a character of its own as the flagship Fall Desertfest in Europe, and while I’ve never been, I always look forward to seeing what it brings to the seasonal cohort of heavy festivals. Already we know REZN will be on tour with Russian Circles, as that was announced last week too, but it’s likely more tours will come from Mondo DragRitual King and others below that haven’t been revealed yet if they’re even at this point finalized. In addition to the usual daydreaming-about-travel, I find thinking about these things and imagining tours and who might have new records out by the time October gets here to be a particular kind of nerdy joy.

The announcement, as per social media:

Desertfest Belgium 2024 starter

It’s that time of year again! It’s with great pride and excitement that we announce the first names for DF24! 👁️

Confirmed for Desertfest ANTWERP are:
Fu Manchu Russian Circles Stoned Jesus Bongzilla Scorpion Child MESSA Wolvennest Mondo Drag Seedy Jeezus CHILD REZN Ritual King The Abbey Lethvm RRRags Crouch Kara Delik

Three days of delirium and heavy delight are surely awaiting us all in Antwerp!

https://www.desertfest.be/antwerp/information/ticketing/

We’ll be back with more names very soon…🤘

http://www.desertfest.be/
https://www.facebook.com/desertfestbelgium/
https://www.instagram.com/desertfest_belgium/

Mondo Drag, Through the Hourglass (2023)

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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Rob Zim of Rrrags

Posted in Questionnaire on November 14th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Rob Zim of Rrrags

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: Rob Zim of Rrrags

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

I play the bass. As a teenager the only videotape I had was the Who’s Tommy (apart from some porn of course). I must have seen it at least 100 times. Entwistle’s enchantingly playful and creative bass lines made me play the bass. I remember every single note, I wish I had half his talent.

Ron from Rrrags has been a long time friend and I played in several bands with him before. We always went to the Roadburn Festival and stayed over at our friend Bidi, who is unfortunately not with us anymore, through whom we met Rob Martin. We decided to jam together and the satisfying outcome was the base for Rrrags. It is fun to play with Rrrags since there is a lot of space for improvisation and every concert is an adventure.

Describe your first musical memory.

Roger Glover’s ‘All you Need is Love and Understanding’ was, I believe, the first animated videoclip in the early/mid seventies when I was about three years old. When it was on television I pushed my face to the screen and immersed in the music and visuals. There was a singing frog, I loved it so much. Only 30 years later I found out the singer was Ronnie James Dio, which was also the first metal concert I went to as a teenager. That was weird.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

As a musician, playing Hellfest for 10.000 people was cool. But playing an improvised 75 minute Kraut/jazz/psychedelic jam session for a few hundred people on the Roadburn 2022 festival with my friend Ron from Rrrags and Ingvald and Ask from Kanaan was a highlight in my career. We had played two nights with Rrrags already and I was already home and all my gear loaded out when they phoned me to come back and do the gig. The audience was pretty baked from three days Roadburn and it went down very well, a full house was really digging what we did. Of course we did not record it, even though we were prompted by Roadburn’s house recording technician Marcel van der Vondervoort. We still forgot and maybe it is better like this, probably in the memory it’s better than the reality haha.

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

I have hardly any principles and and can relativize almost anything but my belief in evolving intelligence is tested on a daily basis.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

I don’t think art progresses to a higher level. Rather it meanders parallel to life and changes and reshapes accordingly. I have the feeling that art is quite immersed in daily life at the moment. Advertisement videos are weirder than video art 30 years ago and a lot of street art is more exiting than modern art in galleries. It is easy to express yourself, due to software like GarageBand and photoshop/illustrator and AI filters and apps on the smartphone. Art is utilitarian and not idealistic. It doesn’t lead to a better life or something.

How do you define success?

I think to be successful is to get recognition, for being good at doing what you are passionate about. This can start already on a tiny scale, with few people.

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

Anything of U2. I have an allergy.

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

I explored all of the arts I am interested in quite extensively already and kind of did what I wanted to do. That is quite a relaxing situation to be in. No Ambition, No Frustration is my motto. I just want to make and play music but that is nothing I did not do yet.

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

For me the Only function of art is to levitate one’s mind somewhere where there is no troubles and challenges, only ecstasy. Art does that, it can make you forget about all your problems. Especially music since it hits you unconditionally, it needs no explanation or context. For me music is the highest form of art.

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

I look forward to my next voyage. Don’t know yet whereto it will be but I love travelling.

https://www.facebook.com/rrragspower
https://www.instagram.com/rrrags/
https://rrrags.bandcamp.com/
https://www.rrragsrock.com/

https://laybarerecordings.com/
https://www.facebook.com/laybarerecordings/
https://www.instagram.com/laybarerecordings/
https://laybarerecordings.bandcamp.com/

Rrrags, Mundi (2023)

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Gnome Announce First-Ever US Tour Dates

Posted in Whathaveyou on August 21st, 2023 by JJ Koczan

gnome alcatraz open air 2023

Antwerp, Belgium’s Gnome made a convincing enough argument with their 2022 album, King (review here), that the year-plus since its release has seen them snatched up by a broad swath of European festivals, among them Desertfest in London and Berlin, Stoned From the Underground in Germany, Down the Hill, Masters of the Riff, and the impending Lazy Bones in Hamburg after this first US tour that continues their forward momentum. Yes, my fellow Americans, it’s like your “Come to [insert town here]!” reaction comments were heard, processed as visa applications and put to the best use, as Gnome will bring their blend of sick riffs and silly hats to the West Coast starting on Sept. 22.

Bookended by festivals, the tour puts Gnome on the road through the Midwest before hitting Oregon and Sacramento, CA, to finish out. There are a couple shows in here that might be rougher — I don’t know how Omaha rocks on a Tuesday night — but with Louder Than Life on one end and AfterShock Music Festival on the other, this initial incursion is both careful in not taking on too much expense and still positioning the band to do well on the whole. Safe travels to Gnome. Hope to see them along the way somewhere, if not this tour (and not, since it’s on the other side of the country from me), then maybe the next one.

From social media:

gnome us blasphemy tour

With great pleasure doth we announce our 2023 US BLASPHEMY TOUR!!! (#127482#)(#127480#) See you there, little gnomies from the other side! We’ll be sharing some of these stages with the lovely BoneHawk !

Much love and kudos to Bradley Raffenaud at Madison House for making this tour possible!!! (#129395#)

Cheerios muchachos

GNOME 2023 US Blasphemy Tour

09.22 Louder Than Life Fest Louisville KY
09.24 Revival Music Hall Peoria IL
09.25 The Bottleneck Lawrence KS
09.26 Reverb Lounge Omaha NE
09.29 Nortons Brewing Co. Wichita KS
09.30 Vultures Colorado Springs CO
10.01 Globe Hall Denver CO
10.04 Volcanic Theatre Pub Bend OR
10.05 Dante’s Portland OR
10.08 AfterShock Music Festival Sacramento CA

http://www.facebook.com/officialgnomeband/
https://www.instagram.com/gnomeverse/
https://gnome.bandcamp.com/
https://fanlink.to/PR033-Gnome

https://www.facebook.com/polderrecords
https://www.instagram.com/polderrecords/
http://www.polderrecords.be

Gnome, King (2022)

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Desertfest Belgium 2023 Completes Lineup (Almost)

Posted in Whathaveyou on July 28th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Man this looks like a wild time. Desertfest Belgium 2023 has just about finalized its lineup, bringing Enslaved, Quicksand, Black Mirrors, Khan, Iron Jinn, Bushfire and a host of others to the bill and teasing that there’s still one more to add. Belgian native. A surprise. You’ll note below that it says “artist” instead of “band.” Could it be a solo act? Curious.

Whoever it is, they’ll join a packed bill that stands out even among the crowded European Fall festival circuit. You can see the list of names below and I sincerely doubt you need me to tell you how badass an assemblage it is, so I won’t. I will point out that it’s a great mix of European and American acts with representatives from Australia in Khan and South Africa in Ruff Majik. If you’re keeping score at home, that’s four continents accounted for across the three days of the fest. Not too shabby.

The latest from the fest is below, as per social media:

Desertfest Belgium 2023 final-ish poster

We are excited to announce the following final bands. Some are big, some badass, some barbaric, some boisterous, and some all of the above! (#129304#) We are talking about:

Enslaved – Quicksand – Kid Congo and The Pink Monkey Birds – Khan – Black Mirrors – LA MUERTE – Fire Down Below – BUSHFIRE – Red Sun Atacama – Iron Jinn – Astodan – Witch Piss

Unfortunately REZN’s European tour was cancelled, so they won’t make it to this year’s Desertfest. We sure hope to welcome them back somewhere in the near future.

On the bright side, we have one final, very talented Belgian surprise artist tugged away in our sleeve! The project is so secret that we can’t say much more just yet, but we will be lifting a corner of the veil pretty soon…

So, why wait?

Satisfy your thirst for the desert and get your Reduced Three Days Combi Ticket or your Day Ticket at our Ticket Page!
https://www.desertfest.be/antwerp/information/ticketing/

Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1634817843606240/

Rock out as you rock on! (#129304#)

http://www.desertfest.be/
https://www.facebook.com/desertfestbelgium/
https://www.instagram.com/desertfest_belgium/

Enslaved, Heimdal (2023)

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