Seriously, this whole afternoon, and to be perfectly honest, I’m not even sure it’s done right.

What you’ll find enclosed in the following two YouTube clips is the interview I conducted this past weekend at the Planet Caravan Festival with UK doom lords Orange Goblin. It was with the whole band and we all sat in the backstage area at The Orange Peel while Taddy Porter‘s set came through the walls. Sorry about the background noise. You can kick me in the jimmy when next we meet and hopefully that’ll make up for it.

My initial plan for today was to sit down with the recorded interview (actually it was the plan for Tuesday, but that’s a different story entirely) and transcribe it all out, but I’m sure once you listen to 30 seconds of the first half of the interview and then stop it out of impatience you’ll understand why that didn’t work out. Not the best quality ever. Mostly I blame Taddy Porter. Then myself. In that order.

But it was my goal to have a beer with Orange Goblin, and I accomplished that. Planet Caravan being their only US show this year and their new album not due until 2010 — which is the future! — basically we just shot the shit for a little while about what it’s like to be in Orange Goblin, what they’ve got in store going forward and how Planet Caravan compares to Roadburn and the dearly-missed Emissions from the Monolith.

Enjoy. Oh, and any Solace fans might want to start with pt. 2, wherein Ben Ward calls them fucking scumbags. Classic.

Woke up not half an hour ago realizing I never said a word about the shops I hit while in Asheville last weekend. An egregious error to be immediately remedied. It was 10:30AM, probably time to get up anyway, but surely I wouldn’t have been able to fall asleep again without this task completed. Maybe I’ll take a nap this afternoon.

There were three shops amidst the list of important addresses The Patient Mrs. compiled for me before I left the valley, and they were, in order, those of Static Age Records, Harvest Records and Voltage Records. Both Static Age and Voltage were on N. Lexington — about three doors down from each other; which should say something about the town itself — so I figured I’d hit them simultaneously.

Nice thought, and one complicated by the overarching hippieness of Asheville. Static Age‘s listed opening time of 11:00AM was more like 1:30PM. Since they were the shop with a Caltrop show listed on their website, they’d been the one I was most looking forward to checking out, but I hit Voltage first instead. No Holy Grails there, but I’d have probably been more into it if I was buying vinyl, since that’s mostly what they had to offer. Some cool Beatles records, “imports,” but nothing I could afford given my liquor budget.

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I feel compelled to do a wrap of the last day of Planet Caravan in this space, though the longer review will be posted sooner or later over at Brooklyn Vegan and that pretty much covers it. Even so, I humbly offer this quick rundown of the night for anyone interested. Thanks for tolerating the lack of photos here and updates these last several weeks as there’s been a major shift in the amount of available time I have to devote to reviews, interviews and whathaveyou. Rest assured I’m in no way finished with this experiment.

So, Saturday, Sept. 19, Asheville, NC:

The Pentagram Interview: Never happened. Kind of a shitter, but after hearing Bobby Liebling talking on the stage later in the night, maybe it’s for the best.

The Orange Goblin Interview: Did happen. I walked in and found Ben Hogg having a beer with them before any of the bands started. Ben Hogg is a Southern drinker, and I say that with the utmost respect. Interview was with the whole band, and it took a little time to get going, but was good and once I mentioned I knew the dudes from Solace, things were friendly. I should have it up around here one of these days.

Orchid: It’s saying something when even a room full of drunken doomers is laughing because of how blatantly you’ve ripped off Black Sabbath.

Taddy Porter: I missed most of them because of the Orange Goblin interview, but they were crazy young and all kinds of bluesy. They were on at The Orange Peel while Batillus played Mo Daddy’s next door. I don’t know who drew more people because, again, I was otherwise occupied.

Astra: A big bowl of noodles. Also the skinniest band of the festival. San Francisco hipster prog that was disappointing live after somewhat digging the record. I was back and forth between them and Salome and neither really did it for me.

Salome: Had expensive amplifiers, a heavily bearded drummer and a little blond girl doing death growls on vocals. No bass. Needless to say they’ll probably be the biggest thing in the world come two weeks from now.

YOB: Are the reason I made the trip. After waiting for more than half a decade to see them live, I can honestly say it was worth it by the time they were halfway through set-opener “Quantum Mystic.” Everything else was cake. Easily the highlight of the weekend. It was the first time I’d stood up front for a band because I actually liked them in a long while. Also met Mike Scheidt after the set (for not the first time) and he was a super-cool guy.

The Gates of Slumber: They played Mo Daddy’s and I watched from outside in the rain because the entire crowd who had been watching YOB ran over to catch the last 15 minutes of their set. Was worth it to see Karl Simon soloing.

Orange Goblin: Don’t know how to do anything other than kick ass, so that’s what they did. Covered “Into the Void” and still didn’t sound as much like Sabbath as Orchid did. Ben Ward is a monster who eats the souls of children.

Hull: Had a tough slot opposite Orange Goblin, but did their best and were helped by their time on the road. Congrats to guitarist Nick Palmirotto on his newfound sobriety as well. After this weekend I’m considering a dose of that for myself.

Pentagram: Were exciting more in theory than practice, though Bobby Liebling is a madman and Gary Isom killed it on drums. Was a sight to see when Victor Griffin came out and played on the encore of “When the Screams Come.” “Forever My Queen” kicked ass as well, and Liebling announced a new album called Last Rites to be released next year. Should be interesting.

That’s it. The entirety of Sunday was spent driving home nursing some serious heartburn after ouevos rancheros at The Laughing Seed, a vegetarian restaurant in Asheville. I guess now I know what that seed finds so damn funny. I missed the SunnO)))/Eagle Twin show in Philly owing to timing, and will sadly miss them again in Brooklyn tonight due to prior commitments. Bummer all around. Yesterday I spent recovering, doing class work and at my orthopedist. In many ways, I still feel like I’m traveling even though I’m back in the valley at long last and for most of the day today.

Thanks for reading.

Day One of the Planet Caravan fest was last night, and a fest it was indeed, though I could see why they cut ticket prices as the go date drew closer. Even as the evening wore on and it got more crowded, there was still plenty of milling-about room. The bands ruled: highlights were Burst‘s set (despite technical problems), Bison B.C. doing “These are My Dress Clothes” over at Mo Daddy’s next to The Orange Peel, Clutch (of course) and Kylesa riffing out “Running Red” and sounding more massive than I’ve ever heard them. Last time I caught a set of theirs was in Austin, TX, a couple years ago and their two drummers played on an open trailer while the rest of the band stood on a back yard. That was cool, this was better.

Sourvein canceled, which was a shitter since they were kind of the sludge representatives for the day. Zoroaster are doomy, don’t get me wrong, but I was looking forward to seeing T-Roy and Co. tear it up in their native habitat. My sorrows I drowned in beer. Finally met Ben Hogg, who didn’t realize he knew me, toasted Ben Ward from Orange Goblin, whom I’m supposed to be interviewing in a scant couple hours, and fists with the guitarist from Zoroaster, whose set I missed entirely. Classy.

The plan for today: Shower shortly, go back to the Early Girl Eatery for another black bean and cheddar cheese omelet (holy shit that was good), kill a couple hours by any means necessary, then meet up with the Pentagram dudes for a sitdown interview. Then a beer with Ben Orange Goblin and probably finish with that in time to catch Taddy Porter about whom I know absolutely nothing. My mission for the show tonight is to make it through Pentagram‘s set. Hardly lofty aspirations, but I’m old and lame. Need better pacing on the hooch intake. First night’s always the roughest.