https://www.high-endrolex.com/18

Corrosion of Conformity Announce West Coast Tour with Bl’ast and Brant Bjork

Posted in Whathaveyou on June 30th, 2014 by JJ Koczan

Now, if you read the interview that went up last Tuesday with C.O.C. bassist/vocalist Mike Dean, or at least took a look at the comments, you probably figured out it was Bl’ast and Brant Bjork that Corrosion of Conformity would be touring with on the West Coast, but it’s always nice to have confirmation anyway, and as the PR wire informs, Portland death-sludgers Lord Dying will be opening for the trek. C.O.C.‘s new album, IX (short review here), is out tomorrow on Candlelight after a manufacturing delay pushed  back the original June 25 release date.

The legendary North Carolinian trio also head to Australia and New Zealand in July. All dates and info below:

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY: North Carolina Crossover Icons Announce North American Live Assault

With the official release of their new full-length, fittingly titled IX, now just days away, North Carolina crossover icons, CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, are very pleased to announce their first North American live assaults in support of the offering. The near two-week run will commence on August 20th in Spokane, and come to a close in Vancouver on September 1st. The band will be joined by Bl’ast!, Brant Bjork & The Low Desert Punk Band and Lord Dying!

The trek follows the band’s live takeovers next month in New Zealand and Australia. “We are really fired up to bring COC back to New Zealand and Australia for the first time in over a decade,” says vocalist/bassist Mike Dean. “I’ve been with Vista Chino and had a great experience on Soundwave and the shows on the side. Our set is shaping up to include songs from IX, Deliverance, the self-titled, and Animosity.”

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY:
7/18/2014 Kings Arms – Auckland, NZ
7/19/2014 Valhalla – Wellington, NZ
7/20/2014 Churchills – NZ
7/24/2014 Crowbar – Brisbane, AUS
7/25/2014 NSC – Sydney AUS
7/26/2014 Reverence Hotel – Melbourne AUS
7/27/2014 Enigma Bar – Adelaide AUS

w/ Bl’ast!, Brant Bjork & The Low Desert Punk Band, Lord Dying
8/20/2014 The Hop – Spokane, WA
8/21/2014 In The Venue – Salt Lake City, UT
8/22/2014 Summit Music Hall – Denver, CO
8/23/2014 Sister – Albuquerque, NM
8/24/2014 Club Red – Mesa, AZ
8/26/2014 Brick By Brick – San Diego, CA
8/27/2014 The Roxy – Los Angeles, CA
8/28/2014 DNA – San Francisco, CA
8/29/2014 Catalyst – Santa Cruz CA
8/30/2014 Dante’s – Portland, OR
8/31/2014 El Corazon – Seattle, WA
9/01/2014 The Rickshaw Theater – Vancouver, BC

Captured by the band alongside long-time friend and colleague John Custer, writing for IX commenced in the early months of 2013 with demoing and recording starting by Summer’s end. Completed in January, IX clocks in at nearly forty-five minutes. Sludge, doom, punk… it’s all in the grooves that fans have come to expect from CORROSION OF CONFORMITY.

The planned June 24th release date of IX was moved to July 1st with the 180-gram vinyl pressing expected later in the month. Fans that preordered the CD directly from Candlelight should be finding their copy in post boxes now as the eleven-song digipak continues to garner glowing reviews critics nationally.

http://www.coc.com
http://www.facebook.com/corrosionofconformity
http://www.candlelightrecordsusa.com

Corrosion of Conformity, “On Your Way” from IX (2014)

Tags: , , , , ,

Corrosion of Conformity Interview with Mike Dean: The Power of Expression

Posted in Features on June 24th, 2014 by JJ Koczan

Next Tuesday, July 1, is the release date for Corrosion of Conformity‘s aptly-titled ninth album, IX, which also serves as the band’s second full-length through Candlelight Records since their reboot with the trio lineup of bassist/vocalist Mike Dean, guitarist Woody Weatherman and drummer/vocalist Reed Mullin, following on the heels of their 2012 self-titled (review here) and subsequent, Scion A/V-sponsored Megalodon EP. The latter, which was also released in 2012, seemed to solidify many of the ideas of the former, and helped to affirm the grooves and the varied approach that C.O.C., now 30 years on from their first album, Eye for an Eye, would present. IX (short review here), is consistent in progressing this roughness of sound and steady, rolling feel, but as cuts like “Denmark Vesey” and “Tarquinius Superbus” show, C.O.C. never completely let go of their roots in hardcore punk. Knowing that at any point they could immediately take off at top speed adds an element of danger to the proceedings, and Dean, Weatherman and Mullin sound only too happy to revel in it.

The latter track, which appears deep into IX‘s side B sandwiched between the high-grade Southern heavy rock of “The Hanged Man” and “Who You Need to Blame,” is particularly interesting for how directly it plays one side off the other, its five-and-a-half-minute runtime split between raging forward motion and righteous nod. It serves to summarize what C.O.C. have done best since coming back as a trio, which is to foster an approach simple enough in its elements but based around a quality of songwriting that speaks to the band’s legacy both in albums like 1985’s Animosity and 1996’s Wiseblood while still forming something new from them. In both their style and how they’re developing within it, Corrosion of Conformity circa 2014 are geared toward a natural sound and focused on capturing a live feel in their recordings. As an album, IX not only succeeds in this, but shows the band sounding more comfortable and confident in their approach as well.

We were on a bit of a rough line in terms of connection, but in the interview that follows, Dean discusses how they’ve arrived where they are, including their longtime collaboration with producer John Custer, with whom Dean worked on this album as an audio engineer, the progression they’ve undertaken since the self-titled was put together, touring, and how finalizing material in the studio as it’s being recorded can help give a record a sense of spontaneity. Also discussed at the end is Dean‘s time in Kyuss-offshoot Vista Chino and what the future might hold there. After some drama with the booking, Corrosion of Conformity will head to Australia this summer, and they have plans in the works for a West Coast tour this fall and will no doubt continue to support IX for the foreseeable future, keeping their momentum going at a clip to match their speediest riffing.

Full Q&A is after the jump. Please enjoy.

Read more »

Tags: , , , , ,

The Obelisk Radio Adds: Buzz Osborne, Corrosion of Conformity, Blackout, Pale Horseman, Dwell

Posted in Radio on May 23rd, 2014 by JJ Koczan

Click here to listen.

A couple big names making their way onto the playlist this week, with Melvins guitarist/vocalist Buzz Osborne‘s first solo album and the new record, IX, from the Animosity-era lineup of C.O.C.. Some other cool stuff as well from Blackout, Dwell and Pale Horseman, so if you get to check any of it out, it’s worth digging further than what you might already recognize. But that’s almost always the case. Here we go.

Adds for May 23, 2014:

Buzz Osborne, This Machine Kills Artists

If you were to sit down and draw up a blueprint for what an acoustic solo record from Melvins frontman Buzz Osborne might sound like, This Machine Kills Artists would probably be it. Especially if your blueprint just had the words, “Like the Melvins, but acoustic,” on it. For someone who’s long since been the master of his sonic domain to step out in any fashion from the formula is interesting — and Buzzo makes a habit of doing so, usually in the company of Dale Crover — but on his own, the 17-track collection he’s produced is mostly predictable if also largely inoffensive. Songs like “Everything’s Easy for You,” “Laid Back Walking” and “The Blithering Idiot” are easy enough to imagine as Melvins tunes, and I had to check twice to make sure “The Ripping Driving” wasn’t one, but nothing overstays its welcome, and if Osborne is beginning a creative exploration branching off from his main outfit, it doesn’t seem fair to begrudge him starting from the root. The constant critical suckoff of anything Melvins-related notwithstanding, This Machine Kills Artists could be the start of an intriguing progression of Buzzo as a solo artist, or it could be a whim dabbled in and left to rust. Melvins fans will be on its junk either way, so I doubt it matters. On Thee Facebooks, Ipecac Recordings.

Corrosion of Conformity, IX


There was a news story the other day floating around the interwebs where Pepper Keenan said the name Corrosion of Conformity or something and people started getting all gooey about the possibility of a reunion. Uh huh. In the meantime, the actual band C.O.C. have put together a second full-length of unmitigated kickassery sans-Keenan following their 2012 self-titled (review here) and subsequent Scion A/V-sponsored Megalodon EP, and while I get the loyalty to one lineup or another for any band, to discount the quality of what Mike Dean, Woody Weatherman and Reed Mullin are doing right now — right this second — is just fucking stupid. IX, released by Candlelight, is more cohesive, more grooved out than was the self-titled, but songs like “Denmark Vasey” and “Tarquinius Superbus” still retain their crossover hardcore edge. Elsewhere, “The Hanged Man,” “The Nectar” (which gets a reprise as the album’s leadout), and opener “Brand New Sleep” touch off high order Sabbathian sludge rock and make fools of those pining for records that dropped 20 years ago. This band is vital, this record a triumph. On thee Facebooks, Candlelight Records.

Blackout, Converse EP


So apparently Converse have access to a studio in BBQ aficionados Blackout‘s native Brooklyn, which makes sense in this brave new world of corporate patronage of underground heavy, and they invited the three-piece down to record a couple cuts last week. Yup, last week. And the EP’s out now. Welcome to the future. Three tracks capture Blackout in raw, pretty live form, more fuckall tossoff than was their 2013 We are Here debut (review here), but doubtless that owes to the circumstances. Tones are huge all the same. They begin with the insistent push of an eponymous song, a heavy roller that’s short at 3:34 compared to the farther-ranging “Tannered,” which follows in likewise thickened Melvinsian form, some screams and growls thrown in for good measure lead to a plodding slowdown at the end, and for a sendoff, Blackout offer a take on Fleetwood Mac‘s “The Chain” that’s probably less ironic than it seems on the surface. Kind of a stopgap release, but it’s a free download and heavy as hell, so you’ll get no complaints out of me when it comes to Blackout‘s bacon-wrapped riffage. On Thee Facebooks, on Bandcamp.

Pale Horseman, Mourn the Black Lotus

Mourn the Black Lotus, the second long-player from Chicago bruiser rockers Pale Horseman comes topped with a Godfleshy Justin K. Broadrick remix of the song “Fork in the Road” from their 2013 self-titled debut. Not exactly representative of the burl in earlier cuts like “Running for the Caves” or “Conquistador,” both of which have riffs that seem retooled from ’90s-style hardcore, but a neato ending anyway, and it does provide some different context for the echoes on the throaty vocals throughout. Pale Horseman aren’t light on groove or really anything else, and the bulk of Mourn the Black Lotus is given to pummeling weight, though it’s not without atmospheric moments as well in lead sections. A clicky kick-drum aside, the album has a clean, crisp, metallized sound, but the groove in “Grudgulence” belies some crustier heritage. This is consistent with their first outing, which was also put to tape with Bongripper guitarist Dennis Pleckham at Comatose Studios, though there’s some progression in their aggro-sludge push. On Thee Facebooks, on Bandcamp.

Dwell, Far Dark Helm


Slow, as dark as its cover would indicate and straddling the line between post-metal angularity and doomed atmospherics, Far Dark Helm from Oakland, CA, trio Dwell — likely not named for the interior design magazine — periodically shift from the nod of “To Scry on Lamentations” into blastbeaten extremity. It doesn’t last too long, and if you’re previously hypnotized by that track’s repetitions, you might miss it, but it’s there and the changes add depth to the band’s approach. Far Dark Helm is comprised of four tracks, all between nine and 10 minutes long, and the remaining three make up installments of a title-track that don’t necessarily bleed into each other directly, but flow well nonetheless. Samples strewn about a rough production give Dwell‘s second full-length a sludgy edge, but the three-piece seem most in there element when exploring a grueling churn like that which rounds out the second “Far Dark Helm” leading to the sharp turns of the third. Including the opener seems to draw away from the theme of the record, but the ambience is consistent. On Thee Facebooks, on Bandcamp.

Also added this week were records by Harsh Toke, The Cult of Dom Keller and Begravningsentreprenörerna. For the complete list of updates, click here.

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,