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Hippie Death Cult Add Dates to Summer Tour

Posted in Whathaveyou on June 22nd, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Pardon some housekeeping here, as I’m not sure precisely when the shows with Spirit Mother got added to the front end of Hippie Death Cult‘s upcoming summer tour with Sasquatch, but I posted about those shows (twice, actually; a post per band), and maybe posting about the tour once again gives me a chance to say I’m stoked to see the band for what will be the first time.

Got that Brooklyn show on the calendar, and I’m all the more intrigued as they’ve become a three-piece since issuing their latest LP, 2021’s Circle of Days (review here), on Heavy Psych Sounds, a shift that brings bassist Laura Phillips into more of a fronting role, for which I suspect their “old” material, such as it is, and new songs are well suited. It’ll be good to confirm (or deny, I guess, though one suspects that if it wasn’t working they’d have figured something else out by now) that on what’s sure to be a warm night in New York this August.

Oh yeah, and if you can’t make that, they’ll also be at Ripplefest Texas and Psycho Las Vegas, so just at this moment, opportunities abound. One might consider taking advantage of that.

From social media:

Gonna remind you just about every damn day that we are on tour across the states (and a lil Canada) THIS SUMMER! Let’s get these suckers sold out! Ticket links in bio. If you would like to join our street team and help promoting in your town, shoot us a dm for details. Can’t wait to rock with you all.

Summer Tour Dates :
W/ Spirit Mother
7/15 Bend, OR – Volcanic Theater
7/16 Redding, CA – The Dip
7/17 San Jose – S27 Ale House
7/19 Phoenix, AZ – Pub Rock
7/20 Albuquerque, NM – Launchpad
W/ Sasquatch
7/22 Austin, TX – Ripplefest
7/23 Arlington, TX – Division Brewing *
7/25 Houston, TX – Black Magic SocialClub
7/26 Lafayette, LA – Freetown Boom Boom Room
7/27 New Orleans, LA – Santos Bar
7/28 Gainesville, FL – Loosey’s Downtown
7/29 Orlando, FL – Will’s Pub
7/30 Savannah, GA – The Wormhole Neighborhood Pub
7/31 Atlanta, GA – Boggs Social & Supply
8/2 Summerville, SC – Trolley Pub
8/3 Frederick, MD – Cafe 611 Restaurant
8/4 Jewett City, CT- Prost Bier And Music Hall
8/5 Brooklyn, NY – Saint Vitus Bar
8/6 Cambridge, MA – Middle East Upstairs
8/7 Montréal, QC – Piranha Bar
8/9 Ottawa, ON – Brass Monkey
8/10 Toronto, ON – Hard Luck Bar
8/11 Youngstown, OH – Westside Bowl
8/12 Columbus, OH – Ace of Cups
8/13 Chicago, IL- Reggies Chicago
8/14 Green Bay, WI – Sun Lyric Room
8/15 Minneapolis, MN – 7th St. Entry
8/16 Lincoln, Ne – Cosmic Eye Brewing
8/17 Colorado Springs, CO – Vulture’s
8/18 Salt Lake City, UT – Aces High Saloon
8/19 Las Vegas, NV – Psycho Las Vegas
8/20 Palmdale, CA – Transplants Brewing
8/21 San Diego, CA – Brick By Brick
8/23 San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill *
8/27 Portland, OR – Bossanova Ballroom *

* HDC only
** Sasquatch only

HIPPIE DEATH CULT is
Ryan Moore – Drums
Eddie Brnabic – Guitar
Laura Phillips – Bass

https://hippiedeathcult.bandcamp.com/
https://instagram.com/hippiedeathcultband/
https://www.facebook.com/hippiedeathcultband/
https://soundcloud.com/hippie-death-cult
https://www.hippiedeathcultband.com/

heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/

Hippie Death Cult, Circle of Days (2021)

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Hippie Death Cult Announce Tour Dates with Sasquatch

Posted in Whathaveyou on May 6th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

You might be scratching your head here going, wait a second, didn’t these tour dates just go up with a post about preorders for the Sasquatch album? Yes, yes they did. So why the double-post? To emphasize the point of just how killer both the bands are on this tour. I’ve done this before a couple times over the years, but especially in light of Hippie Death Cult having restructured their lineup last Fall as a three-piece and seemingly not missed a beat, it’s worth it to me to highlight the road work they’re undertaking both to support last year’s Circle of Days (review here) and push themselves forward into the inevitable next thing.

If you saw the other post, you’ve seen the dates already, so don’t let me keep you, but I wanted to give special mention to Hippie Death Cult here because, well, they’re awesome and that’s all the reason I need. My site, my rules.

Dig:

hippie death cult

Summer 2022 US/Canada Tour Dates (w/Hippie Death Cult)
7.23.22 – Austin, TX | Far Out Club (RippleFest Texas)
7.25.22 – Houston, TX | Black Magic Social Club
7.26.22 – Lafayette, LA | Freetown Boom Boom Room
7.27.22 – New Orleans, LA | Santos Bar
7.29.22 – Orlando, FL | Will’s Pub
7.30.22 – Savannah, GA | The Wormhole
7.31.22 – Atlanta, GA | Boggs Social & Supply
8.02.22 – Summerville, SC | Trolley Pub
8.03.22 – Frederick, MD | Cafe 611
8.04.22 – Griswold, CT | Prost Bier and Music Hall
8.05.22 – Brooklyn, NY | Saint Vitus Bar
8.06.22 – Boston, MA | Middle East Upstairs
8.07.22 – Montréal, ON | Piranha Bar
8.09.22 – Ottawa, ON | Brass Monkey
8.11.22 – Youngstown, OH | Westside Bowl
8.12.22 – Columbus, OH | Ace of Cups
8.13.22 – Chicago, IL | Reggie’s
8.14.22 – Green Bay, WI | Lyric Room
8.15.22 – Minneapolis, MN | 7th Street Entry
8.18.22 – Salt Lake City, UT | Aces High Saloon
8.19.22 – Las Vegas, NV | Resorts World LV (Psycho Las Vegas)
8.20.22 – Palmdale, CA | Transplants Brewing Co.
8.21.22 – San Diego, CA | Brick by Brick

More dates to be announced in the coming weeks!!! Get tickets at:
www.sasquatchrock.com and www.hippiedeathcultband.com.

HIPPIE DEATH CULT is
Ryan Moore – Drums
Eddie Brnabic – Guitar
Laura Phillips – Bass

https://hippiedeathcult.bandcamp.com/
https://instagram.com/hippiedeathcultband/
https://www.facebook.com/hippiedeathcultband/
https://soundcloud.com/hippie-death-cult
https://www.hippiedeathcultband.com/

heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/

Hippie Death Cult, Circle of Days (2021)

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Hippie Death Cult Part Ways with Vocalist Ben Jackson

Posted in Whathaveyou on September 6th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

Portland, Oregon, heavy rockers Hippie Death Cult announce they’ve split with singer/keyboardist Ben Jackson. As a four-piece, the band released their second album, Circle of Days (review here), this past Spring through Heavy Psych Sounds, and if you’re currently hearing that album’s title in your head as Jackson sang it in the song, you already know it’s a significant change to the band to have him depart. That’s before you get to keys.

Bassist Laura Phillips also provided vocals on the record and if you want to guess, I’d figure she’ll probably step into the lead singer role for their upcoming tour dates, but I don’t know that for sure so don’t go quoting it or anything. Hippie Death Cult are looking for a vocalist, so if you’re in Portland or I guess willing to be, that’s a pretty good gig. Maybe you send a tape, try out. I don’t know. Life’s short, you got nothing to lose.

Seems like an amicable-enough split, which is always good to see. Word came down the PR wire:

Hippie Death Cult

Hippie Death Cult and vocalist Ben Jackson have parted ways. While the decision for this break is mutual, HDC wishes for Ben happiness in future endeavors. The core of the band will forge on as a three piece through this transition, while exploring all options.

We are not canceling any of our upcoming shows and will be performing as a 3 piece through the transition period.

Current tour dates are as follows:

9/19 Lola’s Room – Portland, OR
09/22 Resident – Los Angeles, CA
09/23 The Wayfarer – Costa Mesa, CA
09/24 Brick By Brick – San Diego, CA
9/25 The Quarry – Bisbee, AZ
09/29 Hi-Tones – San Antonio, TX
09/30 The Swan Dive – Austin TX*
10/01 Dan Electro’s – Houston, TX*
10/02 Division Brewing – Arlington, TX*
10/07 Triple Nickel – Colorado Springs*
10/08 Aces High Saloon – Salt Lake City, UT*
10/09 TBA – Missoula, MT
10/15 Star Theater – Portland, OR
*w/ Holy Death Trio

HIPPIE DEATH CULT is
Ryan Moore – Drums
Eddie Brnabic – Guitar
Laura Phillips – Bass

https://hippiedeathcult.bandcamp.com/
https://instagram.com/hippiedeathcultband/
https://www.facebook.com/hippiedeathcultband/
https://soundcloud.com/hippie-death-cult
https://www.hippiedeathcultband.com/
heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/

Hippie Death Cult, Circle of Days (2021)

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Video Interview: Eddie Brnabic of Hippie Death Cult

Posted in Bootleg Theater, Features on July 30th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

hippie death cult

We’re more than halfway through 2021 by now and nothing else has come down the line to vibe in quite the same way as Hippie Death Cult‘s Circle of Days (review here). Released in May through Heavy Psych Sounds as the follow-up to 2019’s 111 (review here), the components the Portland, Oregon, four-piece put to use are familiar enough — warm tones in the guitar of Eddie Brnabic and the bass of Laura Phillips, steady groove from drummer Ryan Moore, vocal melodies in increasingly complex arrangements from organist/keyboardist Ben Jackson and Phillips, fluid songwriting, etc. — but there’s something intangible about what they conjure on the five-track outing that’s distinct in mood and presentation alike.

Accordingly, since Brnabic (pronounced “brenn-a-bic”) has helmed all the band’s recordings and is the principle songwriter, he seemed likeHippie Death Cult Circle of Days the cat to hit up for a discussion about making Circle of Days both as a producer and an artist involved in the baseline creative process. Turned out he was. The conversation was initially mired in technical difficulties — it’s amazing that “crappy connection” has continued to be a theme throughout decades and generations of communication technologies, from “Mabel can you put me through to Klondike-609” to “Let me send you a new Zoom link, hang on,” but here we are — but Brnabic‘s personality actually mirrors the style of Hippie Death Cult in its subdued engagement. Neither performer nor group is a full-on blowout, but both offer an assurance of purpose and a subtlety. With the songs of Circle of Days, even the drift feels heavy.

Brnabic discusses digging deep into the tracks during the writing, digging deep into tones during the recording under pandemic lockdown, and puts that against the process of making 111, which as he tells it was essentially the band’s demo cuts put together as an album. Fair enough. One way or the other, the work done in making Circle of Days what it is shows a dedication to craft that is both structural and atmospheric, audience-considerate while in search of its own breadth and progressive boundaries yet to be discovered. Hippie Death Cult are already jamming new songs even as they look to embark on a West Coast tour supporting the current album, their release show for which was canceled in May, resulting in their playing a last-minute rooftop set at their practice space instead.

Well of course I wanted to talk about that too.

Interview follows here. Please enjoy:

Hippie Death Cult, Circle of Days Interview with Eddie Brnabic, July 27, 2021

Hippie Death Cult‘s Circle of Days is available to order through Heavy Psych Sounds. West Coast tour dates follow, including Psycho Las Vegas and Crucialfest X. More info and whatnot at the links.

Hippie Death Cult West Coast tour:
8/14 Portland, OR – Star Theater
8/17 Nevada City, CA – The Brick Venue
8/18 San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill
8/20 Psycho Las Vegas , NV – Mandalay Bay
8/23 Tempe, AZ – Yucca Tap Room
8/24 Albuquerque, NM – @monolithonthemesa
8/25 Denver, CO – Hi-Dive Denver
8/27 Salt Lake City, UT – Crucialfest 10
8/28 Boise, ID – Neurolux

Hippie Death Cult, Rooftop Show in Portland, OR, May 22, 2021

Hippie Death Cult, Circle of Days (2021)

Hippie Death Cult on Bandcamp

Hippie Death Cult on Instagram

Hippie Death Cult on Facebook

Hippie Death Cult on Soundcloud

Hippie Death Cult website

Heavy Psych Sounds on Bandcamp

Heavy Psych Sounds on Instagram

Heavy Psych Sounds on Facebook

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Hippie Death Cult Premiere “Hornet Party”; Circle of Days out May 21

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on April 14th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

HIPPIE DEATH CULT

Portland, Oregon’s Hippie Death Cult will release their second album, Circle of Days, May 21 through Heavy Psych Sounds. Comprised of five songs, it runs a tidy 37 minutes and uses its time to unfold a melting pot of an aesthetic, bringing together ideas born of classic heavy rock and roll, psychedelia, cult rock and outlying elements like post-rock drift (in the bass of the title-track, of all places) and organic-ized Ministry-style gallop/echo vocals — quick but there — on “Hornet Party” (premiering below), and a creeping Americana paranoia in closer “Eye in the Sky.” After the four-piece’s impressive 2019 debut, 111 (review here), they push past genre lines and are more atmospheric, dynamic and, from the opening organ-style keys of “Red Meat Tricks,” able to pursue dramatic ideas and vibes without falling into a trap of sounding like a silly put-on. Guitarist Eddie Brnabic, vocalist/keyboardist Ben Jackson (also Hundred Eyes, ex-Sioux), bassist Laura Phillips and drummer Ryan Moore (ex-Nether Regions), riding solid grooves into esoteric territories varied of spirit but unified by the fullness of the underlying performance. These songs still sound like there are humans playing them, in other words.

What comes through clearest, however, is that the humans in question are pushing themselves on the level of craft. “Red Meat Tricks,” “Hornet Party” and “Walk Within” are the first half of the LP, and the latter seems to hint toward Annie Lennox‘s “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” in its opening guitar line but follows its own course led by piano and a duel vocal from Jackson and Phillips. Despite the clearly intentional breaking of Circle of Days into vinyl-ready form, putting the just-under-10-minute title-track and closer “Eye in the Sky” together in semi-monolithic fashion on side B, “Walk Within” makes a telling centerpiece in terms of the band’s priority toward melody and a move past some of the more pointedly grunge-derived aspects of their debut. In literalHippie Death Cult Circle of Days terms of the tracklisting, they are putting their progression at the center of the record for all to behold, following the assuring fuzzy roll of “Red Meat Tricks” and the outbound melding and toying with tempo of “Hornet Party” — not to mention the shred later — with something that pushes them to places in sound they haven’t yet been while also setting up the final pair of songs with its soft lead-out.

“Circle of Days” starts out relatively straightforward, but at 9:55 there’s plenty of room to flesh out and it takes advantage. Patient in its execution and solid in its construction, the immediate impression is that Hippie Death Cult have a plan, and they do. A scream and some muted crashes lead toward a pre-chorus making subtle use of janga-janga-janga stoner riffing before the title-line is finally delivered, giving the album its signature hook before rolling back to the verse. After cycling through again, they slow it down to back a guitar solo with organ flourish, and that’s how they end it, with the guitar reaching past the song and cutting before the fade-in ambience of “Eye in the Sky.” Like “Hornet Party,” the feel in its lyrics is a chronicle of our times, and as heavy rock overcomes its stigma against social critique — or at least acknowledgement in more than monster-laced metaphor — Jackson‘s vocals are a worthy method of delivery for the band’s ideas. “Eye in the Sky” is less readily verse/chorus than the song before it, but complements “Walk Within” in its atmosphere — even with drums — and in its build over most of its first half, it helps draw the diverse notions on which the album is based into a unified focus. Riffs are still there, and might be the foundation from which the song is based, but like the bulk of Circle of Days, “Eye in the Sky” spreads out in multiple directions, capping with matched-note leads from the keys and guitar and the residual echoes of a final crash.

Among its accomplishments of songwriting and style, Circle of Days establishes Hippie Death Cult as a more complex band on the whole. The melodic breadth they demonstrate, the periodic intensity of rhythm and the manner in which that’s offset by the overarching flow of the pieces that make up the entirety of the album speaks to their engaging with their material at its conceptual heart, thinking not only about what they’re saying in the bigger picture, but the instrumental and verbal language alike with which they’re saying it. For anyone who dug 111 or who might be encountering them for the first time with these tracks, this is invariably good news. They have added to, rather than subtracted from, their approach.

Circle of Days is up for preorder now ahead of the already-noted May 21 release. You’ll find those links under the player below, where you can hear “Hornet Party” premiering, and read some comment from Brnabic about the song.

Please enjoy:

Hippie Death Cult, “Hornet Party” official track premiere

Eddie Brnabic on “Hornet Party”:

“Choosing singles to premiere for this new album has been a bit of a challenge for us. Each song (as well as each song on the Doom Sessions split) feels really unique from one another and its tough to say that one really defines the album more than another. I kind of view us as more of an album band rather than a singles band. That being said, “Hornet Party” is the second song on the record following “Red Meat Tricks” so we are going chronologically for this one. I think it might be the shortest song on the album and it’s a total rager both musically and lyrically. It’s probably the most physically demanding song for each of us to perform on the album, but it’s our way of kind of holding up some sort of artistic mirror to the current climate that we live in. Extreme times call for extreme art, so…”

HORNET PARTY is the second single taken from the Hippie Death Cult brand new album Circle Of Days. The release will see the light May 21st via Heavy Psych Sounds.

GRAB YOUR COPY HERE:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS170?

USA SHOP:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop-usa.htm

HIPPIE DEATH CULT is
Ryan Moore – Drums
Ben Jackson – Vocals/Keys
Eddie Brnabic – Guitar
Laura Phillips – Bass

Hippie Death Cult, Circle of Days (2021)

Hippie Death Cult on Bandcamp

Hippie Death Cult on Instagram

Hippie Death Cult on Facebook

Hippie Death Cult on Soundcloud

Hippie Death Cult website

Heavy Psych Sounds on Bandcamp

Heavy Psych Sounds on Instagram

Heavy Psych Sounds on Facebook

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