Posted in Whathaveyou on April 25th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
As you can see below, drummer Garry Naples does not come to the lineup of Chicago doom legends Trouble without a pedigree of his own. His work as a member of Novembers Doom is of course notable, but from Without Waves to Wizzo, The Kahless Clone (whose CD I almost bought on principle alone for the reference in their moniker) and Bear Mace, he’s explored a range of styles and aural niches in a swath of outfits. At this point in the band’s storied 46-year history, Naples certainly isn’t the first lineup change they’ve had, but if you’ve heard or seen them in the decade-plus since Rob Hultz (ex-Solace) joined on bass, it’s an addition to the rhythm section that makes the prospect of their next album all the more intriguing.
For more on that — the album, that is — you can also see below, but it doesn’t come out to much beyond being a 2025 release through Hammerheart Records. Trouble have been talking about their 10th full-length in similar terms since at least 2022 as their label has undertaken a series of respect-where-it’s-due catalog reissues and Metal Blade offered re-released 1987’s Run to the Light last June. Their last album was 2013’s The Distortion Field (review here).
From the PR wire:
TROUBLE ANNOUNCE NEW DRUMMER
Doom metal legends Trouble are revealing Garry Naples as the new drummer for the group. Naples has already begun rehearsals, and will be recording drums for the band’s upcoming studio album, the details of which are still pending and will be announced separately.
Says Naples: “I wanted to send a big THANK YOU out to all the Trouble fans for their warm welcome and encouragement! I appreciate the response and am very excited about the future of the band. The new Trouble songs are sounding amazing and I can’t wait to get into the studio to get the drums recorded for our new record. On top of that, I’ve been learning a lot of the older songs and I’m sure we will have some really cool set lists planned for upcoming shows. Stay tuned and see you on the road soon! Cheers!”
Naples, a Chicago-based drummer, has been playing in metal and rock bands for over 20 years. After joining his first band at the age of 15, Garry joined Prophecy Productions recording artist Novembers Doom in 2011. He has since recorded three full length albums with them, and has performed in Europe, North America, and South America. Garry co-founded the band Without Waves in 2010. After signing to Prosthetic Records in 2016, the band released two albums under that label, and has done several US tours. Additionally, Garry has toured and recorded with several other bands including Wolvhammer, Chrome Waves, and Bear Mace.
Trouble founder and guitarist Rick Wartell stated, “The band is very excited to have Garry join us as a permanent member. He’s an accomplished musician, with extensive recording and touring experience, and his playing style is a perfect fit for Trouble. We’re scheduled to head into the studio to work with him, and eager to have him lend his talents and creativity on our upcoming album. We’re also looking forward to bringing this line-up out live for some shows, and then on tour in support of the new record when the time comes.”
Naples had occasion to share the stage with Trouble back in October 2023, playing with Novembers Doom as one of the acts on the opening night of the inaugural launch of Heavy Chicago Fest, a three day event hosted at Avondale Music Hall. The new music festival featured Trouble as the headliner, and also showcased Acid King and Bongzilla.
Trouble has released nine studio albums to date, and is in the process of recording their tenth, which will be released on Hammerheart Records in 2025.
Trouble is: Kyle Thomas : vocals Bruce Franklin : guitar Rick Wartell : guitar Rob Hultz : bass Garry Naples : drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 4th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Shit man. New Rezn coming. That’s really good news. I don’t know how much more of this my heart can take. And guess what? The fucking single rules. A little meaner in the tone on first impression, but not so much as to give up the atmosphere, and I know you know vibe is everything here. The record is called Burden. It’s coming out through Sargent House on June 14. I hope it turns out I’m cool enough to hear it before then. Pretty much anytime after I finish typing this sentence would work.
Anything?
No?
Moving on.
Rezn — who I was lucky enough to see live on stage in Norway that one time, and whose 2023 album, Solace (review here), I still feel like I’m just getting to know, let alone be somehow over — will hit the road alongside Pallbearer and frickin’ The Keening, because if you’re going to do a tour, I guess make it a landmark. That’s a good-ass show. New Pallbearer also smokes, and The Keening is heavy regardless of volume. Killer. Then Europe in Fall with Russian Circles. Gracious me.
Info, links and whatnot headed your way.
Have a great whatever:
REZN – Burden
Our new album ‘Burden’ is out June 14 via Sargent House. The first single “Chasm” is streaming now alongside the official video release. Prepare for the descent. rezn.band/burden
Recorded in August of 2021 at Earth Analog in Tolono, IL Engineered, mixed, produced, and reduced by Matt Russell Mastered by Zach Weeks at God City Studio in Salem, MA
Mike Sullivan: guitar solo on “Chasm”
Album art by Adam Burke / Nightjar Illustration Layout design by Spencer Ouellette and Future Wisdom
In honor of their new album ‘Mind Burns Alive’, we will be joining @pallbearerdoom on select dates of their upcoming US tour.
May 11 – Oslo, NO @ Desertfest Oslo
With @pallbearerdoom Jun 11 – Durham, NC @ The Fruit Jun 12 – Asheville, NC @ Eulogy Jun 13 – Virginia Beach, VA @ The Bunker Brewpub Jun 14 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro Baltimore Jun 15 – Lancaster, PA @ Tellus360 Jun 16 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts Jun 18 – Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom Jun 20 – Brooklyn , NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg Jun 21 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair Jun 22 – Montreal, QC @ Theatre Fairmount Jun 23 – Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground Jun 25 – Milwaukee, WI @ Vivarium Jun 26 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall Jun 27 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club Jun 28 – Lawrence, KS @ Bottleneck Jun 29 – Little Rock, AR @ The Hall
Jul 26 – Indianapolis, IN @ Post Festival
With @russiancircles Oct 9 – Berlin, DE @ Astra Oct 10 – Koln, DE @ Kantine Oct 11 – Munich, DE @ Keep It Low Festival Oct 12 – Prague, CZ @ Archa Oct 14 – Vienna, AT @ Arena Oct 15 – Bologna, IT @ Estragon Oct 17 – Metz, FR @ La Bam Oct 18 – Antwerp, BE @ Desertfest Oct 20 – Gothenburg, SE @ Monument Oct 21 – Oslo, NO @ Parkteatret Oct 22 – Stockholm, SE @ Slaktkyrkan Oct 24 – Copenhagen, DK @ Vega Oct 25 – Aalborg, DK @ Lasher Fest Oct 26 – Hamburg, DE @ Uebel & Gefaehrlich Oct 29 – Birmingham, UK @ O2 Institute2 Oct 30 – Glasgow, UK @ Slay Oct 31 – Belfast, N-IRE @ Limelight 2 Nov 1 – Dublin, IRE @ Button Factory Nov 2 – Manchester, UK @ Damnation Fest Nov 3 – London, UK @ EartH Nov 5 – Paris, FR @ Le Trianon Nov 6 – Rennes, FR @ L’Antipode Nov 7 – Bordeaux, FR @ Krakatoa Nov 10 – Madrid, ES @ Nazca Nov 11 – Barcelona, ES @ Salamandra
REZN: Rob McWilliams: guitar and vocals Phil Cangelosi: bass and rainstick Patrick Dunn: drums and percussion Spencer Ouellette: synths, sax, lapsteel, flute, and piano
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 28th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
If you think I’m about to start complaining about a new two-songer from Pelican, you’ve got the wrong place. The long-running Chicago (mostly-) instrumentalists helped pioneer a take on heavy informed by post-rock, post-punk, emo and shoegaze, and considering that kind of thing is everywhere now, I’d say history has proven them right, whereas one recalls in their earlier going the message-board kerfuffle the airier elements of their styles caused. Dudes were pissed. But in the parlance of that same internet, Pelican did nothing wrong. Wasn’t their fault, being skinny and playing heavy.
Yeah, there’s probably a bit of the power of suggestion with the first on-studio-recording appearance of guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec since he rejoined the band — you’ll recall Dallas Thomas (Asschapel, The Swan King, etc.) held the position for the intervening years — but I do hear some aspects of Pelican‘s earlier work in Adrift/Tending the Embers, which carries all the poise one might expect from Pelican as a veteran act but seems as well to be exploring and questioning what it is that makes Pelican who they are. Was it a willingness to be heavy without metal’s chestbeating toxicity? That bit of float amid all the surrounding crunch?
I don’t have the answers to these questions, but as many have been following the band on the trail they’ve marched lo these last two-plus decades, as many have taken on their influence and as forward as the band has always looked, I’m sure glad there’s new music happening alongside the reissues and covers that came out last year. Whatever this leads to or doesn’t as regards a full-length, I’ll take what I can get. If you want to hear it before it’s out on Friday, there’s a listening party on Bandcamp tomorrow you can get on board for. Info follows as per the band’s email list:
Dear friends – we are thrilled to announce that we have launched pre-orders for our new ‘Adrift / Tending the Embers’ EP, which is out this Friday. These are our first new songs since 2019 and the first material written with founding guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec since 2012.
Laurent joined us on our 2022 Summer tour and the reunion proved so inspiring that we began writing a new album early last year. The ideas were flowing so quickly that it soon became clear that there was more than an album’s worth of material in the works. Late last year we booked studio time with our longtime collaborator Sanford Parker to document a pair of the earliest compositions in order to present them to our supporters sooner than later.
The result is ‘Adrift / Tending the Embers’ – digital preorders are up right now and a limited cassette version (first press is 200 copies) will be coming on Friday. We’ve also launched preorders for a limited long sleeve shirt based on Christian Degn’s hand illustrated EP artwork- we will only be accepting orders for this until March 6, so jump on it sooner than later if you’re interested.
If you’re interested in hearing the EP early we will be hosting a Bandcamp listening party tomorrow at 2pm EST / 11am PST. Please join us!
We can’t thank you enough for you support and your patience. We’re still writing the album, so it may be a little wait for that still, but we are so excited by the direction of the new material and are thrilled for you all to hear it when the time comes.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 26th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
The microgenre of ultra-thick sludge worship now called ‘bong metal’ has emerged largely in the six years since Chicago instrumental crushers Bongripper issued their most recent LP, 2018’s Terminal (review here), so a return from them with the impending Empty has some contextual differentiation in this not-yet-half-over decade, but beyond that, one kind of expects and looks forward to not much radical change on the part of the band, whose crushing ethic has united their output all along. I’m not saying they can’t grow or shouldn’t, haven’t, etc. (I haven’t even heard the thing), but if they were suddenly going to go ska they probably would mention it at some point and if it’s business as usual as they lower killer riffs with prejudice upon the skulls of the willing, would that really be a thing to complain about? Whatever new ideas they may or may not bring to their new material, it’s not like their core approach was ever broken.
Are Bongripper bong metal? Are Bongzilla? Are you? It would be in celebration of their uncompromising fuckall if they came to be viewed as figureheads, but ultimately it’s academic as relates to the record itself — something dudes like me think about likely much more than the band actually does, and fair enough — which will be out April 18 with a hometown release show booked for May 3 ahead of a lot at Desertfest London.
Preliminaries are below — read the tracklisting as a sentence and you almost get a sense of hope — and were offered with a suitable amount of flourish via socials. Behold:
BONGRIPPER – “Empty” 2LP/CD/Digital – 4/19/24
1. Nothing 2. Remains 3. Forever 4. Empty
Recorded at Comatose Studio. Artwork by Sam Alcarez.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 12th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Sometimes it’s kind of funny to write a band’s bio — in this specific case it’s also a frickin’ honor — and then not know when it’s going to be used and be surprised to see it come back down the PR wire. You do a thing, send it off, and a little while later, it comes back to you. I thank Liz Ciavarella, who has only been supporting my efforts and making me a better writer AS WELL AS giving me stuff to write about for the last, oh, 18 years or thereabouts, for putting my name out for bio writing stuff. Sometimes I get a little Paypal money for Bandcamp, sometimes it’s just a cool thing to do, but it’s always appreciated and if someone thinks enough of my work in general to ask, well, that’s a push to do a thing right there.
But to get to the point, Legions of Doom are recording this month their debut album. They’re in kind of a fluid situation, sort of transitioning out of The Skull but still keeping that band — whose frontman Eric Wagner passed away in 2021 — in reserve for special slots at festivals and such, and moving ahead with Legions of Doom as a next phase for bassist Ron Holzner, guitarist Lothar Keller and drummer Henry Vasquez. That that core trio are working with vocalists Scott Reagers (original frontman of Saint Vitus) and Karl Agell (Lie Heavy, ex-Leadfoot, C.O.C. Blind, Kinghitter) tells you the size of the gap left by Wagner‘s absence and also shows a readiness to explore new ideas. Guitarist Scott Little, also formerly of Leadfoot, will be a part of both Legions of Doom and The Skull, at least as I understood it.
Interested as always to hear what Sanford Parker, who will engineer the impending session leading toward a Fall release, gets from the band, especially working in Electrical Audio, which will make it a good day to be Vasquez for drum sounds. The bio I wrote appears in blue text below, as served up by the PR wire. Note they’ll be at Ripplefest Texas in September as I also hope very much to be:
LEGIONS OF DOOM: Doom Metal Supergroup Featuring Vocalist Duo Karl Agell And Scott Reagers To Enter Studio This Month
Banded together out of mutual respect, admiration, history, and a strong desire to move ever forward, LEGIONS OF DOOM brings together split-duty lead singers Scott Reagers (Saint Vitus) and Karl Agell (Lie Heavy, Karl Agell’s Blind, Leadfoot), bassist Ron Holzner (The Skull, Trouble, Earthen Grave), guitarists Lothar Keller (The Skull, Sacred Dawn), and Scott Little (Leadfoot), and drummer Henry Vasquez (The Skull, Saint Vitus, Blood Of The Sun), and was born as a project following the death of The Skull vocalist Eric Wagner (also ex-Trouble) in 2021. Initial The Skull/LEGIONS OF DOOM shows in tribute to Wagner were held in 2023, and in 2024, LEGIONS OF DOOM will record both the album that The Skull would have made and a new collection of original material that’s been worked on since.
Plans to record at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio with engineer Sanford Parker (YOB, Wovenhand, Eyehategod) will lead to a first release this Fall on Tee Pee Records, and in the interim, LEGIONS OF DOOM will again take to the stage. Fall/Winter European and US touring is being discussed, with a just announced appearance in September of this year at Ripplefest in Austin, Texas. While LEGIONS OF DOOM will step forward as the priority, Holzner assures The Skull isn’t fading completely.
“The Skull, featuring me, Lothar, Henry, Scott Little, and Karl singing, will continue in a limited capacity doing occasional shows,” informs Holzner. “The Skull shows will consist of 90-95 percent The Skull music. LEGIONS OF DOOM shows consist of all our combined history: Blind-era Corrosion Of Conformity, Trouble, Leadfoot, The Skull, Saint Vitus, and LEGIONS OF DOOM material, too.”
Adds Karl Agell, “When Ron asked me to join him in carrying on the doom metal tradition that he was part of and established first with Trouble and then The Skull, there was only one path forward. I truly look forward to performing songs from the massive legacy of all the members of LEGIONS OF DOOM.”
Having already appeared at Hellfest in France, Graspop Metal Meeting in Belgium, and Legions Of Metal in Chicago, expect LEGIONS OF DOOM to continue to roll out confirmations as they move toward the album release, because with these guys, it’s never just about what’s been done in the past, but adding to that legacy as well. Just as The Skull built on the foundations Trouble laid at the core of the doom metal genre, look for LEGIONS OF DOOM to push to new ground along that familiar path. [words by JJ Koczan]
LEGION OF DOOM: Ron Holzner – bass Lothar Keller – guitars Scott Little – guitars Henry Vasquez – drums Karl Agell – vocals Scott Reagers – vocals
Posted in Bootleg Theater on December 22nd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
This was a PostWax release. The vinyl subscription service put forth by Blues Funeral Recordings has produced a string of stellar, genuinely special records in its second volume — Acid King were my pick for album of the year this year, and Dozer and Dopelord, which were in my top 10, both came out in PostWax editions; deluxe vinyl, exclusive tracks, artwork and layout that’s so gorgeous I don’t even want to touch it with my greasy fingers, etc. — and as with all of them, I was fortunate enough to do liner notes for this special collaboration between Chicago fog rockers REZN and Mexico City conceptual plodders Vinnum Sabbathi, titled Silent Future.
I always feel a little weird when it comes to covering PostWax stuff here on the site, and that’s precisely because I also work behind the scenes (in a limited but capacity, of course) on the releases as well, and I was compensated monetarily for doing that writing. I say so every time, but even with full disclosure I’m not trying to give an impression I’m doing promo. It’s not my job to sell you records. But the stuff is undeniable at this point, and what, I’m going to let 2023 end without talking about the exploratory textures of Silent Future, the album’s narrative foundation and the meld of climate anxiety, cosmic pulse and futurism that makes it such a hypnotically immersive listening experience? Come on.
REZN also had their fourth long-player, Solace (review here), out this year, but Silent Future is its own thing and has its own intention. For the four-piece of guitarist/vocalist Rob McWilliams (also lyrics), synthesist/saxophonist/flutist Spencer Ouellette, bassist Phil Cangelosi and drummer Patrick Dunn (who also had the monumental task of mixing), it was a self-recorded affair, done late in 2021 DIY in their own spot, and their basic tracks were sent to Vinnum Sabbathi — the lineup of guitarist/synthesist Juan Tamayo, effects specialist Roman Tamayo, bassist Samuel Lopez and Gerardo Arias on drums and lead guitar, with more guitar from Victor “KB” Velazquez — who also wrote the script for the storytelling monologue in intro “Born into Catatonia” and the likewise keyboardy side B complement, “Clusters,” delivered by the voice of Manuel Wohlrab, also of Yanos and Zone Six in Germany.
So, multinational, multicontinental collaboration across seven songs and a somehow-digestible 32 minutes of progressive, soulful, and at times very, very heavy music. While the record is patient in the subdued flow it sets up as “Born into Catatonia” shifts into “Unknown Ancestor” (the continuing monologue also helps), the sense of texture is immediate and is a luminescent drone that hints at a feeling of discovery. On some level, that’s what’s happening throughout Silent Future as Vinnum Sabbathi and REZN reveal to themselves and to their respective audiences alike — and let’s assume there’s crossover there, because genre — what happens when they fuse their methodologies. I talked to both bands about this release (granted it was a while ago) to do the liner notes, and I’m still not sure anyone knew going into it what would come out, or how they possibly could, but that adventurous spirit is to be commended and I honestly believe the world is a better place with the crushing roll that emerges in “Unknown Ancestor” than without it, never mind the rest of the slow-swirling and entrancing sway that surrounds, periodically channeling high impact in low gravity.
If you’re a synthesist or keyboardist in a heavy band, there’s plenty to learn here in the work of Ouellette and the Tamayo brothers (who I met this year in Germany and are sweethearts), from the New Age-y throb in behind the deceptively catchy hook of “The Cultigen” meditating lyrically as it does on a black chrysanthemum before the lumber-chuck of centerpiece “Hypersurreal” brings back Wohlrab with talk about multisensory alien contact and a verse that’s quiet but tense in its rhythm in no small part because of the riff that just receded. It comes back, that riff, of course, as McWilliams swaps to a more projected voice for another memorable, this-time-belted-out chorus, “Parallel universe/Parallel universe/The eye reflects itself/Into another realm/Am I the writer or the character?” before the verse repeats in a building cycle.
And when that cycle hits its payoff, the synth/effects are right there as well, and so even at its apex-heaviest, Silent Future remains true to its mood. “Clusters” fades in from silence as a reset, but both “Morphing” and the finale “Obliterating Mists” dig into the procession, and whether or not it was intentional, the two become a representative mini-monolith for the LP as a whole, with earworms revealed through multiple visits to their temporal dimension and a culmination in the latter that rises and ebbs with a fluidity and poise that emphasizes the consciousness at the center of the haze. There’s an episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series where the cartoon-Enterprise gets trapped in a giant thinking cloud. Listening to Silent Future kind of feels like that, or at least one imagines.
But either angle you want to take it from — whether it’s the creative bravery and ego-eschew of the collaboration in the first place or the righteousness of the end result in the material itself — Silent Futureis a standout release for 2023 (and beyond) and I didn’t want to let the year end without some proper recognition of that. It’s not the kind of offering every band or pairing of bands could make, and it’s not a pairing that is immediately intuitive because Vinnum Sabbathi and REZN have so much in common in sound, but what they do share is an openness to new ideas and ways of working, and the success of that in these songs I think is inarguable once you hear it.
Which I hope you do. Thanks for reading, and thanks to Jadd Shickler of Blues Funeral, Magnetic Eye Records, for making me a footnote part of the PostWax thing in the first place. Dude had the year of a lifetime between those two labels, and it was only because he made it happen.
Please enjoy, and once again, thank you for reading. I appreciate your time and attention. If you can go with this one, do. I admit it’s not the most intuitive of releases, but that’s also part of what makes it special. Might take a couple listens to sink in, but trust, and let it do its thing, and you’ll be set. Safe travels, wherever it takes you.
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Monday is Xmas. Happy Xmas if you celebrate. We do, in our pointedly secular fashion, and accordingly I’m taking Monday (which is the weekend’s writing) and Tuesday (which is Monday’s writing) off. I’m going to do my damnedest not to post at all in that time, but if there’s something I feel warrants immediacy — and anything can happen, of course — I’ll roll with it. Let us not forget that Lemmy was born on Dec. 24, died Dec. 27 and that he, more than the favorite fanfic of hateful/genocidal psychopaths and state-sponsored rape cabals, is the true reason for the season.
When I pick up Wednesday, it’ll probably also be pretty mellow. The Pecan is off from school next week and I’m sure that’ll be busy because, well, yes. We’re about to undertake the process of remaking bedtime — current system’s effectiveness has expired; a necessary pivot — and I expect that will result in a few bumpy nights. Almost always the case when transitioning from one thing to the other. Certainly was the story of my summer and fall.
To that. While I am not thrilled to know that my six-year-old goes to school every day on medication, I cannot deny the clear shift said meds have wrought in her day-to-day. I would not call her ‘easy’ or ‘easygoing’ as a personality-type — there is much she has learned from me, including how to be a prick, and there are times where she’s a few grades ahead of kindergarten in that regard — but from what I think everybody who observes her has seen, and that’s the rest of our family, her teacher, aide, other aide at school and therapist, we’ve had movement in a better direction. Between the wreck that was this summer’s kicked-out-of-camp marathon, the stress of her transition (which also has allowed a flourishing not to be denied; I’ve heard reports of another trans kindergartener on the planet, but The Patient Mrs. and I are already joking about the book we’ll write some day), and getting her to a point of being able to get through a school day without hurting someone else or herself is progress visible even in the trenches. By which I mean her mother and I can see it. She remains willful, just flat out ignores me when I ask her to do something most of the time and is ready with an argument for why one should fuck off on a daily if not hourly basis — less when she’s hungry — but she’s growing and she’s strong, which is a thing she is going to very much need to be.
That progress doesn’t mean I didn’t basically chase her back to bed at 10PM last night, but as I said, different methods are being put in place. She might get to sleep with the puppy. We’ll see. The Patient Mrs. is the spearhead of that project; I’ll confess reticence and a general lack of desire to clean up dog piss in my kid’s bed, on her floor, or really anywhere else. We’ve got a good thing going with the crate at night, and the dog is only six months old. I could go on and logic logic logic myself through this. Build reasoned arguments to never say out loud. Lay out a grand case. Clutch once told us “you can’t stop progress,” and so here I am, rolling with it to the limited extent I am able, even as my brain has that catch-fire feeling thinking about getting up at 5AM or earlier, going upstairs to get the dog out of her room, waking her up and then having to both deal with the dog needing to go out and the kid who just might want to tag along with as little light on as possible, as quiet as possible, and then try to sit down and write. A million ways to go wrong, fewer to go right.
Whatever you’re feeling anxious about, I wish you relief. I hope you have a great and safe weekend, and I’ll be back on Wednesday (I can hold off! I can do it!) with maybe a Dr. Space review or something else fun and more of the ol’ blah blah blah. Thanks for reading it.
Posted in Questionnaire on July 28th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
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: Liam Shanley of Bin Chicken, Meleyahnsali & The Mausoliam
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I play guitar and a few of the other instruments one could expect to encounter in a rock setting. I also record myself and others. Lastly I make electronic music as Meleyahnsali. I’ve been fortunate enough to try these things out enough times to have gotten alright at them.
Describe your first musical memory.
Listening to classic rock and Irish music at the house or in my mom’s car.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
Putting out my band Bin Chicken’s first album.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
I like to think I’m capable of achieving my loftiest ambitions but I’ve had collaborations end up being disappointing despite my best efforts.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Hopefully towards something truly unique and original. But in a less literal sense, to a great understanding of life and one’s place in it.
How do you define success?
Finishing and releasing a project is the hard part. Anything that happens after that is icing on the cake.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
An opossum that had recently been run over but wasn’t dead yet lying on the street, hissing.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
I haven’t yet put something out on vinyl. I’d also like to release an album in the zeuhl style.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
A work of art should capture something meaningful or beautiful about life so that you can experience and ponder that thing through the given work of art.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 26th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Perhaps it’s the Grace Slick-style stateliness in the delivery of Dead Feathers vocalist Marissa Welu on the title-cut of their forthcoming second LP, Full Circle, but it’s incredible to me how much past and present can intertwine in a heavy context. What I mean by that is, hearing “Full Circle,” with its almost Americana guitar in the midsection and abiding psychedelic fervor, the melodies in the aforementioned vocals and the structure of the seven-minute piece itself, one could very easily trace it back to influences modern or older.
’60s, ’70s, ’90s, ’10s — a span of decades finds an engaging summary in a single expression, and in its jammier stretch, “Full Circle” hints at more vital groove to come when the album arrives on Sept. 22 through Ripple Music, which if you’ll recall also released Dead Feathers‘ debut, All is Lost (review here), in 2019.
If you live according to such organization — and I say that from an admiring standpoint — preorder links are below, along with a whole bunch of PR wire info.
Have at it:
Chicago psychedelic rockers DEAD FEATHERS to release new album “Full Circle” on Ripple Music this fall; preorders and first single available!
Chicago’s up-and-coming psychedelic blues rockers DEAD FEATHERS announce the release of their sophomore album “Full Circle” this September 22nd on Ripple Music, and release the title track on all streaming platforms today!
The new single from the Chicagoans is a soulful and compelling 7-minute rocker that brilliantly invokes the five-piece’s 60s and 70s rock influences while showcasing their finely chiseled songcraft and Marissa Welu’s powerhouse vocals. Psych-tinged dual guitars and grooves burst at an inextinguishable pace, never letting go of the listener that will be instantly hooked and left wanting for more.
Based out of Chicago, IL, Dead Feathers has proven to be a band with exceeding potential and lasting appeal since day one. Building off of the success of their 2019 debut album “All is Lost” on Ripple Music, Dead Feathers has been gaining a growing fan base across North America and overseas through ambitious touring and supporting acts like Kikagaku Moyo, All them Witches, SLIFT, and many more in their home city. During that time, they established their name and carved a debut full-length album that gained enthusiastic reviews from the international press.
Their live shows, filled with sensual and thunderous energy on stage, have put concertgoers under their spell. Brought on by the soulful and emotional vocals from Marissa Allen combined with the fuzz and reverb-backed guitars, ever-flowing bass lines, and booming drums, Dead Feathers sets a mood that has been crafted with the skill and artistry they’ve come to be known for. While Dead Feathers has been compared to various classic bands such as Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother & the Holding Company, and Frumpy, along with modern acts like Blues Pills, Black Mountain and Graveyard, they bring a style and songwriting that is exclusively their own.
