In their enduring dedication to that which is as aurally fucked as possible, collaborative outfit The Body & Braveyoung have announced a run on the East Coast for the early part of February. After seeing The Body the last time they came through Brooklyn at the Saint Vitus bar, I can safely say if you like volume, you’ll probably want to catch them if they’re headed out by you. Nothing Passes was also one of 2011’s most unrepentantly creepy records.

The PR wire speaks to YOU — do you listen???

Following a myriad of regional touring together, as well as their recently released fully collaborative full-length Nothing Passes, apocalyptic doom duo The Body and orchestral/drone rock outfit Braveyoung have just confirmed another stint of shows together.

The new Braveyoung & The Body tour will tangle with eight East Coast cities in early February, which will see both acts performing individual sets, in addition to an additional collaborative set with both bands simultaneously performing material from their Nothing Passes album on several of the dates. Braveyoung are on their way to Providence to record new material during this special tour, which immediately follows the current West Coast tour The Body are embarked on with Thou — including the band’s first-ever shows in Mexico this week.

The Body West Coast Tour w/ Thou (remaining dates):
01/13 Burial Grounds Salem, OR
01/14 924 Gilman Street Berkeley, CA w/ Brainoil
01/15 Submission San Francisco, CA w/ Brainoil
01/16 Pioneer Santa Cruz, CA
01/17 The Smell Los Angeles, CA
01/18 Bica Tijuana, Mexico
01/19 house show Rosarito, Mexico
01/20 Che Cafe San Diego, CA
01/21 The Trunkspace Phoenix, AZ
01/22 The Train Yard Las Cruces, NM
01/23 Sons of Hermann Hall Dallas, TX
01/24 Zeitgeist New Orleans, LA

*NEW – The Body & Braveyoung Collaborative East Coast Tour:
02/04 Bull City Metal Fest Durham, NC
02/05 The Courthouse Downtown Rock Hill, NC
02/06 Drunken Unicorn Atlanta, GA
02/07 The Milestone Charlotte, NC
02/08 Floristree Baltimore, MD
02/09 Saint Vitus Brooklyn, NY
02/10 Dad City Amherst, MA
02/13 AS220 Providence, RI

That Totimoshi guitarist/vocalist Anthony Aguilar was on the road when we spoke was no big surprise. The principal songwriter behind the Los Angeles (by way of Oakland) outfit’s six albums spends most of his time touring, whether it’s with his own band, or as guitar tech for the Melvins or tour manager for Neurosis, Shrinebuilder or Sleep. Many of the skeletal parts of the latest Totimoshi outing, Avenger, were written in transit — and maybe that’s behind some of the energy the songs just can’t seem to shake.

Avenger (review here) marks Totimoshi‘s first studio outing since departing from Volcom Entertainment, the imprint on which their last two installments — 2006’s Ladrón and 2008’s Milagrosa — were released, and while the 10 tracks continue the complex melodic development that songs from those records like “Dance of Snakes” and “Gnat” first began to demonstrate, there is an undeniable noise rock crunch in Aguilar‘s guitar as well that comes across right from the bluesy swagger of “Mainline” down through the grandiose epic “Waning Divine,” which features guest appearances from Mastodon‘s Brent Hinds and Scott Kelly of Neurosis. It’s a sound fit for the oft-groundbreaking At a Loss Recordings.

The drummer for the Melvins, Dale Crover, also shows up in the intro and elsewhere, but Avenger is much more than Totimoshi showing off the fact that they have cool friends. The chemistry between Aguilar and bassist/vocalist Meg Castellanos is pivotal to the album’s success, as is the input of drummer/vocalist Chris Fugitt, whose versatility in no small part allows the band to roam in the varied and genre-defying directions they do on a cut like “Rose,” which is just as exciting for its melodic apex as for its stylized heaviness. Having also been fortunate enough to see Totimoshi live supporting Avenger, and earlier in the band’s career, it’s apparent that they’ve hit new levels of creativity, confidence and mastery of their craft.

Totimoshi are, and always have been, beholden to themselves. That comes across as important to Aguilar in the following interview, and that he takes the time to consider his band’s place in the overall sphere is no great surprise considering the effort that goes into actually making the songs. In our phone conversation, he discussed the touring lifestyle, the tribulations surrounding the 2002 album, Monoli, working with Melvins producer Toshi Kasai on Avenger instead of Helmet‘s Page Hamilton (who helmed Ladrón and Milagrosa), the differences between headlining a tour and playing in a support slot, potential future directions, and much more.

Please find the complete Q&A after the jump, and enjoy.

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As they approach 15 years of existence in 2012, hard-touring Los Angeles trio Totimoshi return to the heavy crunch of their earlier albums on their sixth full-length, Avenger. 2008’s Milagrosa – produced by Helmet’s Page Hamilton and Toshi Kasai (the Melvins, Shrinebuilder) and released on Volcom – found Totimoshi heading in a more melodic direction, and while Avenger, which is out on forward-thinking underground imprint At a Loss Recordings, keeps some of that complexity, guitarist/vocalist Tony Aguilar’s tone is beefier and the three extra years of road-time he and bassist/backing vocalist Meg Castellanos have put in with drummer Chris Fugitt (who debuted with the band on Milagrosa) shows in the fluidity of their arrangements. Much of Avenger, which was produced by Kasai alone, traffics in the thoughtful and rhythmic melancholy for which Totimoshi have become most known, but the band are adventurous as ever as well, pushing forward into more open-toned sprawl here and there and going as far as to include guest appearances from Dale Crover (the Melvins, Shrinebuilder), Brent Hinds (Mastodon), and Scott Kelly (Neurosis).

The latter two show up on the stylistically out-there closer “Waning Divine,” which is Totimoshi’s most experimental excursion to date, trading in the comparatively straightforward and almost punkish drive of earlier cuts like the opening title-track (which follows a brief intro) or its chorus-centric follow up, “The Foot,” for a solid six-and-a-half-minute build capped by a solo from Hinds that’s well placed as the payoff for the whole of Avenger. All told, the record is just 42 minutes, but in that time, Totimoshi manage to work in a variety of moods. The aforementioned “Avenger” is about as pure as Melvins-worship can get (the two bands have toured together extensively over the years, and Aguilar techs for Buzz Osborne, so it’s an influence they come by honestly), and as Aguilar delivers the lines, “I have punch/I have kick/I will slash and wear your skin/I will teach you not to look at me” and threatens a feast of hemlock tea and strychnine meat in his characteristic snarl, the aggression is well met by his guitar work, Castellanos’ bass and Fugitt’s drumming. Immediately, Avenger presents the intensity of Totimoshi at their best – which is perhaps the element most absent from Milagrosa and the source of any comparison to the band’s older material – and from there, the band is able to capitalize on that momentum however they see fit.

Over the years, Aguilar has managed to turn his aforementioned snarl into a bona fide melodic approach, and one of the most effective aspects of Avenger is the balance it strikes between songwriting and its wheels-about-to-come-off feel. Fugitt is most at home in that element of Totimoshi’s sound – his fills on “The Fool” feel as though they could completely undo the song at any moment, but he’s never out of control. That song also shows the band’s grown capacity for melody and structure both in and out of its layered chorus, which sets up the punkish cabaret stomp of “Mainline” all the more effectively. Commencing with Avenger’s dirtiest riff and drunken bluesy sway, it moves into a solo to match, but then Fugitt steps it up on the drums and the half-minute delivers the title line with handclaps and one of Avenger’s most memorable flashes. “Calling all Curs” begins with Castellanos’ considerably-toned lead in and jams out a solid riff as the album’s only instrumental, but in the context of the record as a whole, it’s hard to see it as more than a cool groove and a stepping stone to side A closer “Rose.”

It’s among the shorter tracks at 3:52 (only the intro and “Calling all Curs” take less time), and “Waning Divine” has the high-profile guest spots, but there’s no question that “Rose” is Avenger’s crowning achievement. Aguilar has said it’s “about fucking,” and sure enough, it’s sex in the classic Hendrixian fashion, finding its climax in its last minute build, the interplay of Aguilar and Castellanos on vocals brilliantly backed by Fugitt’s snare making the scenario complete. It’s a hallmark of Totimoshi’s catalog that each album has a definitive standout, and “Rose” is it for Avenger, but as the record is only half over, Totimoshi use the space on side B to get more adventurous, beginning with the freakout guitar work on the heavily-percussed “Opus” (I think that’s where the Crover guest appearance is, but don’t have confirmation of that at this point). They’re toying with desert rock’s echoes here, transitioning from a call and response between the drums and guitar in the chorus to the extended solo that feels as though it could consume the whole rest of the track but ultimately doesn’t, giving way to melodic vocals that transition smoothly into the more subdued “Leaves.” Totimoshi have always borrowed from the dirtier end of ‘90s noise, and “Leaves” maintains that, but the reverb on the guitar early in the song and the laid back vocals adds a chic moodiness that Avenger has thus far left untouched, flowing into a more angular second half that reminds of the opening duo and sounds like it could’ve been on a more realized version of 2002’s excellent Monoli.

“Snag” creeps open with a near-waltz guitar-led rhythm and unfolds into an engaging chorus. Like many of Avenger’s tracks, it’s about playing one side of Totimoshi’s sound off another. Songs do this, then they do that, but there’s always movement within them, and so sometimes it’s harder to get a handle on what the band is trying to accomplish on a first listen. With “Snag,” it’s not so much a dip in quality – because there isn’t one – as it is a shift in methodology. Fugitt is charged with keeping the song grounded, and he does so well, punctuating Aguilar’s noisy solo with consistent bass drumming that subtly both opens and closes. There are about 30 seconds of silence before “Waning Divine” starts, which is a surprising move given how much emphasis Totimoshi put on momentum otherwise on Avenger, but once the track actually begins – instant swirl – it’s clear why they would want it separate and standing apart from the other material. Both in terms of its structure and execution, it’s different from everything else on the album, Aguilar and Scott Kelly’s vocals meshing together following a chugging instrumental build that only gets larger as the verses play out. If “Waning Divine” has anything in common with the rest of Avenger, it’s that the guitar lead acts as the apex of the song, only this time it’s Brent Hinds providing the fleetness of finger, concluding the album with a performance that’s equal parts surprising and stellar.

The temptation with a band like Totimoshi, who seem to release album after album of high-quality songs and tour ceaselessly to support them, is to hope loudly that this is the record that “gets them their due,” whatever that means. That’s not to say Avenger isn’t a more than respectable outing or that Totimoshi, over the course of their studio work and extensive touring, haven’t grown into one of the heavy underground’s most individual bands, just that when you accomplish all that and earn a position near the fore of your creative generation, the admiration of your peers, critics and fans – however underappreciated your records still might be in relation to how good they are – I’m not sure what’s left. Headlining, I guess, and Avenger is already letting Totimoshi do that too on their latest tour, so there you go. They’ve always been a band rooted in appealing to a certain kind of listener, and Avenger is no different in its marriage of contradictions. It’s dissonant but melodic, dirty and clean, noisy but engaging, structured but open. If there’s a word to encompass the existence these varied ideas within a singular space that’s better fitting than the name of the band, I don’t know what it is, so I’ll just say that. It’s Totimoshi.

Totimoshi on Thee Facebooks

At a Loss Recordings

Avenger, due out Aug. 16 on the influential At a Loss Recordings, is the sixth studio album by Totimoshi. Produced by Toshi Kasai (Melvins, Shrinebuilder), it follows in line with the Los Angeles trio’s recent excursions — 2008’s Milagrosa and 2006’s Ladrón — in expanding their already considerable melodic reach, but at the same time, harkens back to the rawer, heavier guitar-driven feel of their earlier work on 2003’s ¿Mysterioso?, 2002’s Monoli and the formative 1999 self-titled. It’s a shift many longtime followers (myself included) will welcome.

Years of persistent touring with the likes of the Melvins and Helmet has tightened the chemistry between founding guitarist/vocalist Tony Aguilar and bassist Meg Castellanos — drummer Chris Fugitt came aboard in 2008 — and Avenger boasts both an individualized tonality and a distinctive crunch as a result. There are times where Totimoshi drive a riff so hard it’s like they’re trying to bury it, and they complement that ethic with a certain social awareness in their lyrics, adding contemplative heft to the fervor.

Totimoshi are long-underrated, and one hopes that with Avenger, they begin to get their due for the hard work they’ve put in. The album boasts guest appearances by Dale Crover (Melvins), Scott Kelly (Neurosis) and Brent Hinds (Mastodon), and should have no trouble winning favor from fans of those players. I was lucky enough to get permission to stream epically psychedelic Avenger closer “Waning Divine,” which features Kelly and Hinds both. You can check it out on the player below, followed by the dates for Totimoshi‘s upcoming North American run. Please enjoy:

[mp3player width=460 height=120 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=totimoshi.xml]

Totimoshi North American tour dates:
08/04 Scottsdale, AZ Chaser’s w/ Greenhaven
08/05 Santa Fe, NM The Due Return
08/06 Denver, CO 3 Kings Tavern w/Ume, Self Service
08/07 Lincoln, NE Duffy’s
08/08 Dubuque, IA Off Minor
08/09 Milwaukee, WI Garibalid’s w/ Sleestak, Like Like the Death Deaths
08/10 Madison, WI The Frequency
08/11 Chicago, IL Ultra Lounge
08/12 Lansing, MI Mac’s Bar
08/13 Kent, OH Stone Tavern w/Rebreather, The Unclean
08/14 Toronto, ON Hard Luck
08/15 Montreal, QC TBA
08/16 Milford, CT Daniel St
08/17 Cambridge, MA O’Brien’s
08/19 Providence, RI TBA
08/20 Brooklyn, NY Saint Vitus
08/21 Baltimore, MD Golden West
08/22 Richmond, VA Strange Matter
08/26 Charlotte, NC Milestone w / Music Hates You
08/27 Atlanta, GA Drunken Unicorn w/ Zoroaster
08/28 Memphis, TN HiTone Cafe
08/29 New Orleans, LA Siberia
08/30 Houston, TX The Mink
08/31 Austin, TX Scoot Inn w/Vaz, Pygmie Shrews
09/01 San Antonio, TX Korova Basement
09/03 Tucson, AZ Vaudeville

I didn’t even know Totimoshi had a new record in the works, and the next thing I know, here’s this news down the PR wire that the damn thing’s out in about a month. Go figure. Having been a fan of the band since their Monoli days, I’m stoked to get to know Avenger better, but even just listening to it for the first time as I write this, anyone who was missing the heavier guitars on their last couple records will be much pleased at what the trio’s concocted this time around.

More to come on this one for sure, but here’s the preliminaries:

California heavy desert deathrock enigmas, Totimoshi, are pleased to announce the release of their long-awaited new full-length, Avenger, later this summer. Set for release on Aug. 16, 2011 via At a Loss Recordings, Avenger was produced by Toshi Kasai (Melvins, Shrinebuilder, Tool), mastered by John Golden (Melvins, Mike Watt, OM) and includes appearances by Dale Crover (Altamont, The Melvins, Shrinebuilder), Brent Hinds (Mastodon) and Scott Kelly (Neurosis, Shrinebuilder).

Avenger Track Listing:
01. Intro
02. Avenger
03. The Fool
04. Mainline
05. Calling All Curs
06. Rose
07. Opus
08. Leaves
09. Snag
10. Waning Divine

For the past 14 years, Totimoshi — guitarist/vocalist Antonio Aguilar and bassist/vocalist Meg Castellanos — have been pounding out its own brand of acid induced rhythmic Hendrix-meets-Dick Dale rock. Born in the high desert of Southern California just 30 minutes from the hometown of Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart, Aguilar, the band’s principle songwriter, definitely shares said composers’ love for adventure in music. Joined by drummer Chris Fugitt in 2008, the trio have carved out a sound all their own. A busy 2010 saw the band tour Europe with Mastodon and Eyehategod and the US with the Melvins and 2011 has already seen the band shake the west coast with Floor.

I guess you could call Del Rey‘s Immemorial a “sleeper” since it wasn’t the biggest release in the world, but I still really dug it (review here), and it looks like the Chicago outfit are continuing their streak of doing cool stuff by providing an instrumental score to the 1973 animated masterpiece, Fantastic Planet. Not too much of a stylistic stretch for them, but a nifty idea anyhow, and I’m sure it’ll be a good time for anyone lucky enough to be there next week to catch it.

Info comes courtesy of the PR wire:

Psychedelic post-rockers Del Rey perform a live score to the animated sci-fi classic Fantastic Planet at Lincoln Hall on Thursday, May 5. They’ll be joined on the bill by drone merchants White/Light, who will provide accompaniment to a film by Chicago experimental filmmaker Alexander Stewart.

Since their inception in 1997 in the attic of a three-flat in Ukrainian Village, Del Rey has been keeping Chicago’s instrumental rock torch aflame, purveying their brand of sonic lyricism and rhythmic textuality from countless stages and speakers. In 2010, they released their fourth full-length, Immemorial, in North America via At A Loss Recordings (in Europe via Golden Antenna), which fused the punishing grace of the band’s riff- and percussion-driven sound to a more evocative, melodic sensibility.

The beautiful and surreal imagery of Fantastic Planet (1973) may be the perfect cinematic complement for Del Rey‘s cosmic soundscapes and epic odysseys. In the film, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes, humans are kept as pets by blue humanoid alien giants called Traags. Said to be based on the Soviet occupation of the Czech Republic, the story centers on a human named Terr, who escapes the Traags and incites other humans to revolt. Del Rey will also be performing the score in Spain later in May as part of a tour based around their upcoming show at the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona.

Lincoln Hall will provide an ideal setting for the screenings – the club is a converted movie theater.

Rhode Island duo The Body, who made a splash last year with the avant weirdness of their At a Loss debut, All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood, have announced a quick run over the next week-plus that has them playing with the likes of Thou and haarp. The tour started last night in New Orleans and hits Baton Rouge this evening, and the PR wire has the rest of the dates below.

Providence‘s punishers The Body are back on the road early in the New Year, set to kick off a Southeastern US mini-tour today. The duo will devastate cities in Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina and Maryland over the coming days, appearing alongside Thou, haarp and more over the short onslaught. These dates all build up to The Body’s appearance later this month where they are scheduled to provide support for reunited hardcore icons The Universal Order of Armageddon in New York City.

The Body January 2011 Tour:

01/04 Tupac’s Bungalow Baton Rouge, LA w/ Thou, Haarp
01/05 Sluggo’s Pensacola, FL
01/06 Farside Tallahassee, FL
01/07 Wayward Council Gainesville, FL w/ Civilization
01/08 Lomax Lounge Jacksonville, FL w/ Civilization
01/10 Legitimate Business Greensboro, NC
01/11 some warehouse space Baltimore, MD
01/21 The Cake Shop New York, NY w/ Universal Order of Armageddon, Orphan

Thanks to all who commented for your podcast suggestions. I kind of like the one about the new Southern stuff, but I’d have to find out if I actually have enough material for it. We’ll see. In the meantime, we close out this week with Dark Castle, in honor of that idea.

This weekend is Halloween, and I’m going as “The Guy Who Spent His Whole Weekend Doing Homework.” Seriously, it feels like every week I do all this homework and then another week comes and there’s just more. What the hell is that about? Enough already.

I’m going to try to make it out to Brooklyn tomorrow night to catch Moth Eater, The Resurrection Sorrow, King Giant and Solace. More info on that show here. It’s getting awfully exhausting driving into Brooklyn for shows every weekend for what feels like and might actually be the past month, but I guess until anyone in Jersey starts giving a shit about good music, I’m stuck. Stupid lack of convenience.

Whatever your plans are, I wish you well. Have a happy and safe whathaveyou and we’ll see you back here next week to wrap up October’s numbers, get that new podcast up and — if I’m feeling fancy and have time to transcribe an hour-long phone conversation — maybe even my interview with Chris Goss from Masters of Reality. Either way, stay tuned. More fun to come.