Los Angeles four-piece Professional freelance business writers deliver professional Texting And Driving Essays and copy editing services, plain language business writing, and Kesem release their debut album, Company That Writes Business Plans - Entrust your assignment to us and we will do our best for you Entrust your paper to professional scholars working in Post-Terra, this week on Buy Essay Writing: Readily Available Assignment Solutions for Cheap. Are you struggling with any of your academic essays? Search no further! We offer the best Homework Guide For Parents writing services that you can never compare with any other company. We also have editing, formatting and proofreading services for any document of your choice. Buy our services now for cheap, and you will never search any Sentient Recordings. And since it turns out the only problem with ‘some saying the world will end in fire and some saying in ice,’ etc., is that it didn’t include an all-of-the-above-and-more option, the nine-song heavy prog outing, peppered with arrangement nuance, melodic shifts and rhythmic urgency, is nothing if not a record for the times. The narrative — blessings and peace upon it — has it that, inspired by the wrench-to-the-face clusterfuck that has been recent existence, the band comprised of vocalist/keyboardist  �I can attest that Susan is one of the most capable and talented Dissertation En Droit Plans around, Ben Daniel (also percussion and horns), bassist dissertations to buy Sociology Research Paper Example how to write an admission appeal letter college journey essay Josh Austin (also vocals and 12-string), guitarist Enjoy professional writing options offered at our Do Homework Ne Demek 24/7. Order your paper now or use one of the samples offered for free. Jay Howard (also synth and samples) and drummer  Before I pay Analytical Chemistry Phd Thesis, I must first take note of the fact that the chances of ending up with a top essay are largely underpinned by the Scott Werren (also djembe) collectively envision a scenario whereby humans simply leave earth in search of another home somewhere out in the stars. Evacuation in a stolen rocket.

They’re not the first to posit some form of humankind finding a Second Earth found out in the stars, but they certainly make it rock, without fully making it a rock-opera. In our universe, it would become political. An ideological question. Not everyone would go. People would argue; possibly violently. And if you don’t think so, ask yourself if god exists on other planets. I’m sure you’d get enough of a representative sample of human genetics willing to build a new population — several thousand? one ship? — but aside from the logistical nightmare of organizing such an escape, subsequently colonizing a presumably otherwise unpopulated world, and framing new systems and institutions for that group, doesn’t it kind of feel like getting away with something to be able to totally trash the planet and then just leave in search of another. Would humanity ever have been more the locust devouring the living everything? Or do we just accept that eventually we’ll destroy this new planet too and sweep it under the rug while celebrating the achievement of getting there in the first place?

That sounds like the humanity I know.

It says something perhaps about the provocative nature of the question that  If you http://www.duesseldorf-inside.com/?write-essay-on-honesty-is-the-best-policy or thesis from our highly educated and competent professionals who have completed a great number of unique theses and dissertations for thousands and thousands of students worldwide, our highly trusted and respected company ensures a high-quality, unique and creative piece of writing written from scratch exclusively for you in accordance with all the indicated Post-Terra asks that one’s mind might head down such a sci-fi rabbit hole. Our actual future — as in, the one in which we live — is markedly sadder. “No Future” opens  Doctoral Resume. You get all the advantages, you only can get � and all you have to do is fill in the application and buy an essay! Post-Terra and makes immediate use of its complexity to convey its idea. Guitars are twisting and turning, synth and keys bring atmosphere. The first thing you hear on the record is a sample that says, “If you listen carefully, we will prove our ability to transfer our thoughts to you.” No minor ambition, and the nine-track/40-minute outing meets it face-first. “No Future,” “We Will Be Ready” and “Let Go” would seem to be taking the listener through the launch process. They balance structured songcraft and noise experimentalism as a part of this process, and the lead sample is by no means the last. “We Will Be Ready” starts punk and ends rumbling and cosmic, while “Let Go” — instrumental and the longest track at 6:54 — builds from an initial piano line and balances prog rock coursing lead guitar with more languid groove until the keys freak out at the end and shift into “When the Stars Cave In,” which would seem to cap side A in what I’ll hesitate to call a more grounded manner only because it would be so inappropriate to the theme.

For any kind of offering, let alone a debut,  Welcome to Dissertation Services Uk Databases Kenya, the leading Kenyan custom writing company based in Nairobi with years of experience on the market. With a team of Post-Terra is poised in its presentation. That’s not to say it’s staid — because it isn’t, at all; songs vary in mood, arrangement, purpose and structure; there are moments when it’s dizzying — but that even its most experimentalist aspects are there to serve the overarching purpose. On a record of this type, it cannot possibly be a coincidence that “Headfirst Into the Void” is the centerpiece. It is not only a highlight of  Kaplan Essay Help Tips and Advise Before you begin writing your dissertation, you need to check on what is required. This might be about factors such as the word-count, i.e., maximum and minimum words. Another factor can be the chapters to be included and their order of inclusion. Kesem‘s work here, but the beginning of side B. It matches “No Future” by beginning with a sample, and then with its insistently tapping snare drum, it builds on the progressive aspects of the opening salvo while manifesting the rawer urgency as well. Laced with horns, it recalls  Novel Editing Servicess - Instead of spending time in unproductive attempts, receive qualified help here Compose a timed custom research paper with King Crimson and  Psychology Extended Essay Help - professional writers, top-notch services, timely delivery and other benefits can be found in our academy writing help get a Slift at the same time, crashing into psychedelic noise only to turn and run again, making the momentary breather of the acoustic-led interlude “Starbirth” all the more necessary.

“The Tyrant” follows and is suitably mournful if surprisingly not-angry considering the subject matter, and “Drifting Through Time” boasts a particularly impressive performance from  We get you Critical Analysis Paper writing services from the writers from your own field. Presently, 964 writers work with us, and all of them are from different fields of science. We knowingly recruited them from distinct fields so that we would be able to get our clients subject experts to write their dissertations. How to Order Cheap Dissertation Writing at This Site . The whole process can be Werren as the foundation of a synth-laced fuzzwinder just over three minutes long that manages to stay on the rails while sounding like those rails occupy multiple dimensions. One does not envy “The Light From Distant Moons” its apparent task of summarizing the course of  Are you looking for Reference Ask An Expert Homework Help? Our expert Dissertation writers of UK are ready to help you by providing top quality dissertation writing Post-Terra leading up to it, but in this too,  Kesem are prepared for the occasion, melding various genres into a sometimes deceptively cohesive and individualistic intent, making complicated ideas sound easy, and flowing across however many star systems’ worth of portrayed bumps along the way.

Do we make it? Do we survive? Not to say it couldn’t happen — and I haven’t had the benefit of a lyric sheet — but Post-Terra at least in the listening process seems to leave things open for a sequel. Whether Kesem continue to explore along this plotline or their journey takes them elsewhere, they go forward bolstered by the significant display of potential here.

Full album is streaming below, followed by some comment from the band and PR wire basics.

Enjoy:

Kesem on Post-Terra:

During lockdown in 2020, we put all our emotions from what we were going through, from being in lockdown, to anger from political insanity, to hope that any moment we would be free. We took all of that and put it into writing and recording our first full length album. Post-Terra is about stealing a spaceship and leaving this world to find a new place to start over in the stars.

Hailing from Los Angeles, Kesem, originally formed in 2018. Meaning “magic” in Hebrew, the band’s name aptly summarises their sound. Inspired by the progressive and psychedelic, with some added punk rock influences, the resulting soundscape delivers a captivating effect. Their new album, ‘Post-Terra’, follows the release of their self-titled EP in April 2020.

‘Post-Terra’, Kesem’s first full-length album, was born with the help of the legendary L.A. punk icon Paul Rossler (Screamers/45 Grave/ DC3) to produce and engineer. The writing process for this album was fuelled by frustrations about racial injustice, the 1% ruling all, and the Trump administration.

Kesem are:
Josh Austin – Bass, Vocals, 12 String Acoustic Guitar
Ben Daniel – Keys, Trumpet, Vocals, Mellophone, Bells, Woodblock
Jay Howard – Guitar, Sampler, Synth
Scott Werren – Drums, Djembe

Kesem on Facebook

Kesem on Instagram

Kesem on Twitter

Kesem on Bandcamp

Sentient Recordings on Bandcamp

Sentient Recordings website

Two reasons for posting this video, right out of the gate. One, it gives me an excuse to put on the second All Souls album, 2020’s Songs for the End of the World (review here). Two, it gives me an excuse to send the band a message and say in my not so subtle way, hey-where’s-the-next-one?, which, yes, I did this morning.

There’s progress on that front, as according to bassist/backing vocalist Meg Castellanos, the band — she, guitarist/vocalist Antonio Aguilar, drummer Tony Tornay and guitarist Matt Price (Behold! the Monolith), who’ll make his debut with them on their next outing — have finished writing their third full-length and next week will begin pre-production with Alain Johannes helming. The band played the new song “Who Holds the Answer” in June as part of their ‘Virtual Volumes’ live stream (review here) with Fatso Jetson, with whom they share Tornay, and though that was actually Price‘s first public performance with the group, one could hear the interplay of his and Aguilar‘s guitars on what was the set-opener and it was only encouraging as to where the All Souls dynamic might be headed, particularly with the complexity of the melody involved.

It’s easy to daydream and consider what Johannes might bring to All Souls as a producer in terms of a fullness of sound and highlighting their more melodic side, which of course showed up plenty on Songs for the End of the World as well, but for now it’s pretty much daydreams, and that’s fair. New album next year. Maybe they’ll be able to tour for it. Maybe I’ll get to see All Souls in 2022. That’d be good, and hey, weirder things have happened.

So a found-footage video is welcome by me, and maybe as they think about embarking on their next outing, this is their way of bidding farewell to Songs for the End of the World. Like so many killer albums issued over the last 18-months, it hasn’t gotten a fair shake in the way it normally would — i.e. with the band touring to support it — but all you can do is move forward in the most productive way possible, and clearly that’s what All Souls are doing. Can’t wait to hear more of their new stuff.

For now, enjoy:

All Souls, “Death Becomes Us” official video

Meg made a video for our song “Death Becomes Us” using found footage. This song is off our album Songs for the End of the World.

Get your copy at:
www.allsoulsband.bigcartel.com!!!

All Souls, Orange Jam/Jam in the Van

All Souls, Songs for the End of the World (2020)

All Souls on Facebook

All Souls on Twitter

All Souls on Instagram

All Souls on Bandcamp

All Souls website

UK four-piece Sons of Alpha Centauri are that rare band who are more comfortable outside their comfort zone. Released last week through Exile on Mainstream, their new album, Push, sees the Swale-based outfit’s to-this-point-instrumental approach cast off in favor of working with San Diego-based vocalist Jonah Matranga, whose career spans three decades in bands like Far and Onelinedrawing in the vast realm of post-hardcore and emo/indie. They also, as founding bassist Nick Hannon describes in the interview below, saw drummer Stevie B. decide to sit out the record owing to creative differences on the direction of the songs, which are weighted but indeed in more of a post-hardcore vein, certainly than the band’s 2019 Buried Memories (review here) 12″ EP/remix (which found the band collaborating with Justin Broadrick of Jesu/Godflesh) or the prior 2018 album, Continuum (review here), let alone their 2008 self-titled debut or work alongside Karma to Burn (discussed here) and Treasure Cat and their eventual collaboration with guitarist Will Mecum (R.I.P. 2021) in Alpha Cat, or their work alongside Yawning Man guitarist Gary Arce as Yawning Sons, who earlier this year issued an awaited sophomore full-length, Sky Island (review here), through Ripple Music in answer to that project’s 2009 debut, Ceremony to the Sunset (review here, reissue review here). It is, as Hannon tells it, a manifestation of another part of what makes Sons of Alpha Centauri the band they are.

Sitting in with Hannon, founding guitarist Marlon King, singly-named soundscaper Blake and Matranga is drummer Mitch Wheeler, who has been in Will Haven for the better part of 20 years and also played with The Abominable Iron Sloth. Together, this incarnation of Sons of Alpha Centauri — and it’s worth underscoring the choice to release Push under their own name in terms of how they’re thinking about it stemming from their own earliest ’90s influences — offer nine tracks of crunch riffs that still bear a hallmark atmosphere drawn from their prior work on songs like “Saturn” or maybe the lumbering closer “Own,” but are simply in another direction from what one might’ve expected them to do after Buried Memories or Continuum. I’m sure they could have and may yet produce another LP of instrumental atmospheric and exploratory heavy progressive rock, but as is noted in the conversation that follows, they don’t make it easy on themselves. Whether it’s reconstructing the band and a significant portion of their methodology for Push or the logistical nightmare of bringing in guest vocalists like Dandy Brown, Wendy Rae Fowler, Scott Reeder and Mario Lalli to perform on Yawning Sons tracks when Marlon King both can (and does!) sing on the second record, the Sons of Alpha Centauri guys don’t really seem to be into an idea if they can’t somehow make it what at very least seems like it would be a pain in their own ass.

If it needs to be said I’ll be blunt in saying it: Push isn’t really my thing. It’s not where I come from musically, I’ve never been a huge fan of Matranga‘s vocal style. I do, however, deeply admire the band’s willingness to completely throw a wrench in the gears of expectation, to be honest about their own sonic origins, and to realize those in the way they do throughout the songs. One way or the other, this was an album I wanted to talk about, and while we’re telling truths, Hannon and I have been talking for most of this year about setting up a video chat, first for Yawning Sons and then as we got closer to the announcement for the new Sons of Alpha Centauri as well. The unexpected and tragic April 29 passing of the aforementioned Will Mecum provided a third major topic of discussion, as Hannon pays homage to someone who was obviously a close friend over many years. As he tells it, Mecum gifted him with the statue that appeared on the self-titled Karma to Burn album cover. It’s true. I’ve seen a picture to prove it, and hearing Hannon talk about what that record has meant to him over time and how Mecum‘s gonna-do-what-I-want-no-matter-what attitude toward creativity has influenced Sons of Alpha Centauri gives another context in which to engage with Push and the band’s work in general, their openness to collaboration with artists they admire, and their efforts in doing what it takes to make that happen.

Long in the making, this was a good talk, and I thank Hannon for taking the time.

Please enjoy:

Sons of Alpha Centauri & Yawning Sons Interview with Nick Hannon, Aug. 26, 2021

Sons of Alpha Centauri‘s Push and Yawning Sons‘ Sky Island are both out now through Exile on Mainstream and Ripple Music, respectively. More info at the links.

Sons of Alpha Centauri, Push (2021)

Yawning Sons, Sky Island (2021)

Sons of Alpha Centauri on Facebook

Sons of Alpha Centauri on Bandcamp

Sons of Alpha Centauri website

Exile on Mainstream Records website

Yawning Sons on Facebook

Yawning Sons on Bandcamp

Yawning Sons website

Ripple Music website

Ripple Music on Bandcamp

Ripple Music on Facebook

I’ve heard this. It’s bliss. If you know what 3rd Ear Experience get up to as regards desert-weirdo jams, then yeah, you probably have a decent foundation upon which to look forward, but Danny Frankel — who I’m guessing has done time as a session guy and is therefore insanely talented — brings a percussive A-game and everybody else likewise steps up. Folky, but exploratory, jazzy but tripped out; the sense of adventure is palpable, and while it was the worst of times as they made it, they made the best of the worst times.

Space Rock Productions — whose Scott “Dr. Space” Heller has been in alignment with the Robbi Robb-led outfit for some time and who also appears on this record — has the release and it’s out Oct. 1. I’ve already put in a request to line up a stream. Hopefully that comes together and, of course, I’ll keep you posted either way.

Album art and preliminaries follow:

3rd Ear Experience – Danny Frankel’s 3rd Ear Experience – Oct. 1

3rd Ear Experience are excited to announce the release of our 9th album on Oct 1st. 2021 on Space Rock Productions.

The new album is a collaboration with legendary drummer Danny Frankel (Lou Reed, John Cale, Nels Cline, Laurie Anderson, Marianne Faithful, Beck, a.o.)

Recorded during lock-down in 2020 the year of 6 feet apart, the music is a diverse and innovative psychedelic rock experience, totally 3rd Ear Experience but with fresh new faces!!

Danny Frankel’s 3rd Ear experience.
Label: Space Rock Productions
cat. no.: SRP074CD
release date: 1st October 2021
formats: 1CD
CD / ltd. edt: 300 copies

November 11th, 2020 the year of six feet apart, a brutal summer behind us, the desert haboob’s dust long settled, the big lying brat in the white house won’t let go, an icy wind blowing soft and low, vaxxers and anti vaxxers, masked bandits and shopping carts, all the stages gone dark, all eyes wide open and shut six feet apart.

On a cool but sunny winters day we gathered at the FurstWurld Gallery, each in his own bubble reflecting, dreams six feet apart, Hutch from Joshua Tree setup the studio with great mics and methods of placements, you see, Hutch was Kyuss’s live sound man since the beginning.

This was Danny Frankel’s first time having a 3rd Ear Experience. We had ideas, but no maps, we brought in Trevor Madison who had never played keys before, never played in a rock band, we counted in the first jam, not in numbers, but in colors, and so began the collaboration with Danny, and the ghosts of Covid roamed far from the haunted house, and we, warmly safe and sealed in by the desert, filled the great silver quonset hut of the world with music, far from the madding crowd, six feet apart. – go!

Cover Art: James Hammons
Music Mixed by Eric Ryan
Recorded by Hutch of Joshua Tree
Mastered by Mark Fuller

3rd Ear Experience was formed by AmritaKripa and Robbi Robb as a means of sharing their experimental psychedelic space jams held at various locations in the Mojave Desert, featuring different players, friends and musicians of like mind.

The players:
Jorge Bassman Carrillo – Bass
Danny Frankel – Drums and Percussion
Scott Heller – Spacey Synths
Becca Byram – B3 Organ
Troy Page _ Didgeridoo
Trevor Madison – Keys
Teddy Quinn – Lead Vox

https://www.facebook.com/3rdearexperience/
https://3rdearexperience.bandcamp.com/
http://www.robbirobb.com/
https://www.facebook.com/spacerockproductions.dk/
www.spacerockproductions.com/

3rd Ear Experience, Danny Frankel’s 3rd Ear Experience teaser

[Click play above to stream ‘God is Your Friend’ from Old Man Wizard’s Kill Your Servants Quietly. Album is available for preorder here.]

Francis Roberts on “God is Your Friend”:

This song went through a ton of iterations before I settled on the version you’re hearing today. It was almost an acoustic song! I’m glad we switched directions and ended up with whatever the doom metal dance party that’s on the album is. Here are some fun facts about it:

-This song has my favorite guitar “sound effect” just before the second chorus.

-I think this song might have more chord changes than anything else we’ve released.

-The band is tracked live.

-The bass guitar is doubled with a minimoog throughout most of the song.

-The third verse was originally going to have clean “funk” guitar but the tone we recorded with ended up reminding me of early Ozzy tracks and I really liked it so we kept it.

San Diego prog-heavy, heavy prog — or some other combination of those words and probably others — Old Man Wizard will self-release their third and reportedly final full-length, Kill Your Servants Quietly, on Nov. 5. With 100 copies pressed each on LP (due early next year) and CD and 60 tapes, it would be a quiet drawdown to the three-piece’s near-decade together but for the quality of the work itself, which divides into 10 tracks each with a purpose and personality of its own that together create the whole-album impression of a band grown comfortable in a variety of sonic contexts and able to draw together seemingly disparate moods, tempos and progressions with an overarching smoothness of production and performance. Recorded mostly live with just “Your Life (As a Problem)” and “Live Forever” — closers for sides A and B, respectively — made during pandemic isolation, Kill Your Servants Quietly answers 2018’s Blame it All on Sorcery (discussed here) and 2013’s Unfavorable (review here) with a fitting does-what-it-wants realization of who Old Man Wizard are and will have been as a group.

Guitarist, lead vocalist, synthesist, producer and principal songwriter Francis Roberts (also of King Gorm and solo work) remains distinctive in voice and production style, and Kill Your Servants Quietly is defined in no small part by the lush melodies across its 46-minute span, which breaks indeed into two halves neatly, its first five tracks shifting back and forth between slower and faster tempos, beginning with the six-minute gradual build of “I Prayed.” Bassist Andre Beller (also violin), drummer Kris Calabio, as well as Mark Calabio, Drew Peters and Reece Miller provide backing vocals at various points throughout. On theme, “I Prayed” begins a four-song anti-religious — catholic-specific with a mention of tithing along the way — lyrical screed defined by lines like, “Prayed instead of thinking” from that song, “Your love of god is a narcissistic fraud” from the hook of the subsequent semi-title track “Kill Your Servants,” the fetish-hued “Father, please save me!/Enslave me and punish me!” from “God is Your Friend” (premiering above) and “When you look at death’s face/Hope you appreciate/The punishment that you face/Knowing that god is fake” from “I Wanna Know” before “Your Life (As a Problem)” caps with the narrative of hearing a voice that says, “I don’t see your life as a problem/I don’t think it matters either way.”

This could be framed as anything from a coming-out story to being Jewish or atheist, politically left-wing or any number of other things — there’s so much hate to go around — but the rest of Kill Your Servants Quietly moves forward from there, and “Today,” which opens side B, feels purposefully chosen for its sense of freedom from the prior existential drag, replacing the lumber of “God is Your Friend,” the galloping offset of “Kill Your Servants,” and the hairpin-turn chug of “I Wanna Know” with a willfully danceable and thoughtfully executed pop. Heavy rock of the disco era is a tough pull, but Old Man Wizard strut out a bassline under a howling guitar and by the time the hi-hat and the layer of cleaner-toned strummy guitar come in to hammer the point home, there’s no question what they’re up to as a group. Various keys and synth effects add to the build late, but the way elements are added one by one emphasizes the push toward pop even if the catchy payoff hook doesn’t — it does — and they wind their way out on a guitar solo to let the quick drums and harder fuzz, peppered with a quick “ough” to bring back a rock mindset, as if to say ‘enough of that feeling alright about yourself stuff; here’s a song about dying alone in the snow.’

So it goes. “Soldier’s Winter,” self-contained in its storyline isn’t necessarily the heaviest song on Kill Your Servants Quietly, with “God is Your Friend” and “I Wanna Know” earlier on, but the turn to tonal thickness takes the place of some of side A’s tempo trades and presents a new aspect for where the second half of the record goes. The blatant social commentary of “Parasite” is of its era without naming names and feels cathartic while remaining straight-ahead in structure. It is the shortest inclusion at just over three minutes but fits a well-plotted solo and backing spoken layers into that time, a moment of relative intensity that makes its point and gets out before “Falling Star” and “Live Forever” wrap, the former the longest song at 6:28 positioned well as the most progressive and almost exploratory of the proceedings, an extended solo section giving way to a linear build in the middle third that moves back to the verse in the last minute, feeling like it holds off just long enough to make the listener wonder if they’ll get there before they do. That return and the subsequent last chorus crash out, leaving “Live Forever” to stand on its own in a final underscoring of intent.

Though it moves into roll-credits cinematics instrumentally and finds Roberts in a single layer belting out the lyrics, “And I missed out on the whole world according to you/But that’s okay/I’m not ashamed to be myself,” the closer begins and ends folkish in its vocals, with a phrasing that (and this isn’t a dig at all) reminds of “Rainbow Connection” from 1979’s The Muppet Movie, the arrangement behind bringing up synthesizer and strings or string sounds to swell before a return repetition of the quoted lines and those that wrap, one last stir before the and album fade out together. The elements that have made Old Man Wizard a standout band during their tenure are all present throughout Kill Your Servants Quietly. Their engaging of different eras of heavy rock and metal of the ’70s and ’80s. Considered, progressive and unflinching melody and rhythm. The style that finds inevitable comparison points in the likes of Opeth and Ghost while managing to be directly relatable to neither. These are all in the tracks, and more besides, with the interwoven layers of keys and guitar and vocals throughout, but it’s ultimately the less tangible feeling of completeness, the sheer resolution of it, that makes Kill Your Servants Quietly so satisfying. If indeed it’s Old Man Wizard‘s last offering, they go out with their best.

Old Man Wizard, “Kill Your Servants” official video

Old Man Wizard, Kill Your Servants Quietly (2021)

Old Man Wizard on Facebook

Old Man Wizard on Instagram

Old Man Wizard on Twitter

Old Man Wizard on YouTube

Old Man Wizard on Bandcamp

Was there at any point in history another band called Fuzz? Probably, I don’t know. But from the minute the Los Angeles trio released their self-titled debut in 2013 through In the Red Recordings — RidingEasy, then known as EasyRider, had the tape — there was no doubt as to who the mountain of hype was talking about. Having the already-an-indie-darling Ty Segall on drums/vocals certainly didn’t hurt them in that regard, allowing for an otherwise unlikely audience crossover, but the salivating critics, the hyperbole, the wax poetry of the response to Fuzz‘s Fuzz was enough to turn me right off. I don’t think I even really listened to it until they put out the follow-up in 2015. And even that I didn’t really cover.

No, I don’t think that makes me cool. I think it makes me a dope, no different than if I’d just blindly followed along with the mass of other reviewers, bloggers — there were more of those then — and whoever else in immediate and what I thought of as unthinking worship. It’s not cool to miss out on good records because someone else said nice things about them. It’s dumb, and it’s a habit I’ve worked hard and continue to work hard to break. “Oh that’s too cool for me.” This record rips and it’s nothing if not inviting. Not to veer too far into pop-psychology, but if I couldn’t bring myself to dig into something because it made me feel insecure that other people were there before me and were super into it, that’s my loss on every level.

So it was. Segall, guitarist Charles Mootheart and then-bassist Roland Cosio offered up this eight-song/36-minute collection just as mobile social media word of mouth was taking hold as a true generational shift, and kaboom, were everywhere. And I won’t take away from the mellower unfolding of “Earthen Gate” at the outset or the way-memorable grunge-that-isn’t hook of “What’s in My Head?,” or even “Loose Sutures” since it manages both to stop the song already in progress to vibe out on a drum solo and then bring it back in explosive fashion, but an all-go blaster like “Preacher,” or “Sleigh Ride” earlier on, or even the more shuffling “Raise,” where Mootheart and Segall trade vocals and the whole thing ends in a wailing cacophony of guitar — that’s where it’s at for me.

The structure of the album is such that each side starts and ends with a longer track. That’s four out of eight songs over five minutes long (three of those near six). Sandwiched between those longer pieces is a short song and a still-short-but-slightly-longer song.

Consider side A:

Earthen Gate (5:01)
Sleigh Ride (3:12)
What’s in My Head? (3:55)
HazeMaze (5:51)

And side B:

Loose Sutures (6:13)
Preacher (2:21)
Raise (3:43)
One (6:06)

Both sides follow the same pattern, though it’s more stark on side B with “Preacher” under three minutes and the bookends over six. Make no mistake, Fuzz‘s tracks go where they want anyway. It’s not like everything long has to be slow or psychedelic and everything short has to be fast — here I’ll cite “What’s in My Head?” and its sun-baked repetitions with a willful sense of drag, as well as the furious instrumental scorch they bring to bear on “One” to close out; Vincebus Eruptum reborn — but from the beginning swell of “Earthen Gate,” Fuzz makes each turn count and the band’s presentation remains thoughtful despite keeping an organic-above-everything vibe. For the first 90 seconds? They are a serene strum, languid groove. Then the first push begins and barely stops, especially with “Sleigh Ride” immediately backing it. The key difference, then, between the five-minute “Earthen Gate” and “Sleigh Ride” — at least in terms of how the band is spending their time; I’m not trying to accuse the songs of sounding the same, which despite consistent production they don’t — is that intro. But it’s positioned perfectly to set the tone of a record less predictable than it would otherwise be, and the rawness of what ensues becomes pure Californian acid rock, conveying volume, heft and, when it chooses, melody, in varied dosages like it’s feeding it to the listener from a dropper. Here, try this.

“What’s in My Head?” is an outlier, but a welcome one. Slower, hookier, it swells and recedes in a way that nothing else on Fuzz quite attempts, and it makes the mid-paced “HazeMaze,” which follows, seem fast by comparison. I don’t know the origin of the song, but its position as a standout is, if nothing else, a demonstration of Fuzz doing whatever the hell they wanted from the outset, and one could say the same of Mootheart‘s meandering guitar in the midsection of “HazeMaze” ahead of the purposeful dive into chaos — or what sounds an awful lot like it — at the finish. “Loose Sutures” isn’t shy about a melody either at the start — that is, before the drum solo and the burning-of-barns that ensues after — but “What’s in My Head?” has the clearest verse/chorus trades Fuzz make on their debut. And if you want to look for the next closest example, the place to go is the mirror spot on side B, “Raise,” where the interplay of vocals between Mootheart in the lead and Segall backing is a novelty compared to the rest of the offering — a standout, again; the spot to change things up — but still also a clearly executed, finished song.

And of course they follow that with a six-minute instrumental tear-a-whole-in-the-cosmic-fabric jam to round out. So it goes. Fuzz have had a steady stream of releases across the eight years since their self-titled. As noted, II followed in 2015, but by then they’d done a handful of singles and Live in San Francisco in 2013. They swapped out Cosio with Chad Ubovich, and last Fall issued III (review here) to general aplomb. They’ve got a Levitation Sessions tape out — affiliated of course with Levitation Festival in Austin, Texas; see also Dead Meadow, Ty Segall & Freedom Band, Slift, Windhand, etc. — this year with what looks to have been a killer set. Golden age for live records, we’re in. You could eat for a week on that irony.

I’m still not sure I’m cool enough for Fuzz, to be honest with you, but I’m trying real hard not to give a shit.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.

—

I’ve been waking up at 4:30 for most of this week. That puts me an hour earlier than I was before. The idea is that I’m trying to transition to a workable 4AM alarm in time for the break between daycamp and school starting up after Labor Day. The Patient Mrs.’ semester starts before The Pecan’s school does, and those first weeks are always a clusterfuck before you really get in a rhythm, so yeah, I’m anticipating a bumpier ride starting in about a week and a half. Getting up early will not help my state of being — since it’s not like I’m trading off by going to sleep at 7PM to account for the difference — but it will help me get writing done, and that will.

Next weekend is Psycho Las Vegas. I posted on Facebook earlier this week that I didn’t know I was invited but then heard from the crew out there that I was, and was I going? Well, I’m not going, sad to say. I thought about it long and hard and talked with The Patient Mrs. who was very diplomatic about not applying pressure either way, and when it came to saying yes or no on the deadline, I had to say no. I’m vaccinated, and so is she, but the shot isn’t approved for three year olds yet, so The Pecan isn’t and likely won’t be until the start of next year. A club show? Maybe. A mostly-indoor festival with however many thousand people kicking around in a hotel/casino setting? I wanted to. I did. I still do.

Next year.

Next year Desertfest London. Next year Freak Valley. Next year Roadburn. Next year Psycho. Next year Høstsabbat. Next year everything.

What do you think next year will look like?

I have no idea.

I’m still undecided on Maryland Doom Fest in October. As heavy fests go, that’s not the same scale as Psycho, obviously — what is? — but yeah. I’d like to go to that. Gotta get back into it at some point if I’m ever going to.

Or maybe I’m not going to. Maybe that’s what life is now. Maybe I’m done with live music?

Nah, I still haven’t seen Blackwater Holylight. Or My Sleeping Karma. Not done yet. Okay.

But the bottom line is I’ll regret missing Psycho Las Vegas this year. I know the Euro bands were having visa issues or whatever and some had to drop off. Whatever. Still a packed bill and they added even more to it. If it was just The Patient Mrs. and I in the house, I’d be there. With the kid, and plague variants looming, yeah.

I need to take at least a day off at some point from doing a review of any sort and get PostWax liner notes done. I think that’s what it’s gonna take. Mammoth Volume and The Otolith need doing. My head aches at the thought.

No Gimme show tonight. Next week. Need to do that playlist too.

At least next week I get to write about Lammping. That’ll be awesome. Record is great.

That’s all I got. Thanks for reading, and please have a great and safe weekend. Watch your head, and for the love of anything, please hydrate. Hotter out there all the time.

FRM.

The Obelisk Forum

The Obelisk Radio

The Obelisk merch

As summer soundtracks go, Alain Johannes‘ 2020 album, Hum (review here), makes for pretty melancholy fare, but the truth is that it’s become one of those records I fall back on regardless of season. Amid a regular flux of things in and out, it hasn’t left my phone and I often find myself putting it on in the car in those moments where it’s what-do-I-listen-to-can’t-think-too-hard-in-a-hurry-well-okay-it’s-Hum-again-because-that’s-awesome. It is a reliable listening experience for me. I’m not going to put it on and at any point regret it.

The album came out last July on Ipecac, and I’m sad to say I still don’t have the CD. On my last trips to Vintage Vinyl here in New Jersey before it closed, that’s what I went to find, and no dice. I looked at my other local shop as well, and nuh-uh. True, I could order from Amazon, but you know, support your stores and all that. It’s not even in Johannes‘ own webstore, where the preceding 2014 outing, Fragments and Wholes, Vol. 1, is also sold out on the old-style compact disc, though available on vinyl, along with Hum and his 2010’s solo debut, Spark (discussed here), LP sold out, CD available with an autograph, which is nice. I’m just shopping, don’t mind me.

But if one might be tempted to go down a virtual retail rabbit hole through Johannes‘ merch, let that stand as a testament to the quality of his work. “Here in the Silence,” with a new, animated video below, is a gorgeous song that comes from a beautiful record. If you don’t get snagged by it, I’m not sure what to tell you. It’s the frickin’ fifth video they’ve put out from the album — a regular media blitz — and that’s in addition to streaming the entire record on Bandcamp (aha! found my CD!), so it’s not like ample opportunity to dip toe isn’t being provided even for those who won’t dive headfirst. If I haven’t made it clear by this time, I support that headfirst dive. There are five videos and an album stream with this post that I hope demonstrate that.

Alain Johannes has a show in Los Angeles coming up Sept. 11 at Highland Park Bowl with Big Pig (feat. Dino Von Lalli from Fatso Jetson) and All Souls, who also recently announced they’d be working with him as producer for their next album, citing of course Johannes‘ litany of credits including Chris Cornell‘s Euphoria Mourning solo LP. Being a nerd for All Souls, I look forward to what that collaboration will do for their sound. Info on the show is here if you happen to be in L.A.: https://www.facebook.com/events/361081742034953/

Enjoy. All of it:

Alain Johannes, “Here in the Silence” official video

Celebrating the one year anniversary of Alain Johannes’ album, Hum, with a beautiful new video for the song “Here In The Silence”. Pick up a copy of the album at: https://lnkfi.re/AJHum

Directed and illustrated by Kartess – https://www.instagram.com/kartess/

Animation by Rodolfo Sanhueza – https://www.instagram.com/rodolfo_sanhueza_ch/

Made in Chile

Alain Johannes, Hum (2020)

Alain Johannes, “If Morning Comes” official video

Alain Johannes, “Hallowed Bones” official video

Alain Johannes, “Free” official video

Alain Johannes, “Hum” official video

Alain Johannes website

Alain Johannes on Facebook

Alain Johannes on Bandcamp

Alain Johannes on Instagram

Ipecac Recordings webstore

El Perro will release their debut album, Hair Of, early next year on Alive Records. Details on the record are pretty scarce at this point, which is fair since it’s August, but a lead single, “Black Days,” is streaming now, and there are West Coast tour dates already in progress. For those who’ve been keeping up, the band formed in 2019 by Radio Moscow guitarist/vocalist Parker Griggs were all set to head to Europe last Spring to make their debut there, playing alongside the likes of Colour Haze and doing festivals and blah blah pandemic. This is their first tour — and they’re out with Spirit Mother, who are awesome — though they’ve done shows here and there on the way.

I was fortunate enough to hear a few demos from the band and to interview Griggs to talk about starting the project — at that point I was happy just to learn who else was in the band — and the boogie runs deep, the fuzz runs hot and the funk am delic. “Black Days” would seem to represent the different sides of the band well, and if this is a ‘Single Edit,’ one can imagine where they space it out amid the expected classic-style shred.

Info and what may or may not be the Hair Of cover art came down the PR wire:

EL PERRO – debut single available now for streaming everywhere!

Debut album “Hair Of” due early 2022.

EL PERRO is a brand new band led by guitarist/vocalist/songwriter/producer Parker Griggs. The band’s sound contains elements that fans of his band Radio Moscow will recognize, but this is rock music with a new, fresh spin and feel. El Perro takes heavy psychedelic rock as a starting point and adds the additional instrumentation of a second guitar and a percussionist, pushing the music into more syncopated territory, spiced with Latin rhythms and hints of Funkadelic-style grooves. You could say that El Perro plays psychedelic funk rock, and you wouldn’t be wrong.

In late 2019, hungry to do something fresh, Parker Griggs decided to put together a five piece band, with members including former Radio Moscow drummer Lonnie Blanton, bassist Shawn Davis, and guitarist Holland Redd. With the addition of a percussionist the El Perro sound and style coalesced.

EL PERRO USA Summer Tour with Spirit Mother:
• August 10 @ 7th St. Entry — Minneapolis, MN
• August 12 @ Reggies — Chicago, IL
• August 13 @ The Cooperage — Milwaukee, WI
• August 14 @ The Washington — Burlington, IA
• August 15 @ The East Room — Nashville, TN
• August 18 @ The Whittier Bar — Tulsa, OK
• August 19 @ Deep Ellum Art Co. — Dallas, TX
• August 20 @ Eighteen Ten Ojeman — Houston, TX
• August 21 @ The Far Out Lounge & Stage — Austin, TX
• August 24 @ Launchpad — Albuquerque, NM

El Perro is:
Parker Griggs – Guitar/vocals
Holland Redd – Guitar
Shawn Davis – Bass
Lonnie Blanton – Drums
Blake Armstrong – Percussion

https://www.facebook.com/elperrotheband
https://www.facebook.com/AliveNaturalsoundRecords/

El Perro, “Black Days”

El Perro, “The Mould”