I mean, it’s free to stream, but it’s also a cover of the band Free. Corrosion of Conformity — operating as the four-piece of guitarist/vocalist Pepper Keenan, guitarist/backing vocalist Woodroe Weatherman, bassist Bobby Landgraf and drummer Stanton Moore — have posted a take on Free‘s “Fire and Water” as a herald for something called ‘Riffissippi Studio Jam Sessions.’ Keenan gives some of the preliminaries below, but the gist is that the cover is separate from the band’s awaited next album, which as of last month was a 2LP coming next year on Nuclear Blast, and is apparently one of a series. Note in the cover art/promotional image below the part where it says “Vol. 1.” Obviously the implication is there’s more.

So be it. If that becomes a pressed-to-CD covers EP or LP over the next however-many months either to precede or follow the actual record of original songs, what, I’m gonna complain? And if it’s just videos of the band jamming to keep content algorithms happy and their name in the forebrain of their fanbase for when said record starts its promo cycle? Not arguing with that either. Ain’t none of us getting any younger. The more the merrier.

Video’s at the bottom of the post. Here’s what Nuclear Blast had to say about it, plus the dates of the band’s current tour with Judas Priest and Alice Cooper from the PR wire:

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY – “Fire and Water”

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY are back with a special rendition of ‘Fire And Water’ by English rock band, Free! The classic track was originally released in 1970 on the album of the same name. CORROSION OF CONFORMITY’s version came spontaneously in the studio during some downtime while recording their forthcoming new full-length, set for release next year, and serves as the first of the Riffissippi Studio Jam Sessions, a special collection of jammed out interpretations of songs by some of the band’s favorite artists.

https://coccabal.bfan.link/fire-and-water.ist

Comments guitarist/vocalist Pepper Keenan, “When we were tracking this record, we had a very cool space set up where we would essentially hang in the large room with everything mic’d and everything we needed, including a turntable and a bunch of our favorite records, which we would play and chill out between takes. We were hanging together, and I pulled out a Free album and ‘Fire And Water’ popped up. [Drummer] Stanton [Moore] jumped up immediately and said, ‘Who the fuck is that!?.’ He had never heard it before. We were baffled, but it was awesome to us that he had never heard it. He said, ‘let’s cut that!’ I said, ‘man, that’s friggin’ Free and kind of like holy ground that you don’t fuck with.’ But we started thinking about it and damn Stanton charted it out like the drum wizard he is. I said, ‘I can’t sing like that, man. He’s the king.’ Someone in the room said, ‘just sing it like you,’ so we went for it and had a blast doing it. It was a nice fun break from the recording. It’s nothing too serious, just a bunch of fellas leaning into it, loving the rock. It’s an exercise in restraint. Hope y’all dig it.”

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY w/ Judas Priest, Alice Cooper:
9/23/2025 Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater – Bridgeport, CT
9/24/2025 Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater – Virginia Beach, VA
9/25/2025 The Golden Pony – Harrisonburg, VA **
9/26/2025 PNC Bank Arts Center – Holmdel, NJ
9/27/2025 Broadview Stage at SPAC – Saratoga Springs, NY
9/29/2025 Budweiser Stage – Toronto, ON
9/30/2025 Stan’s Room at Piere’s – Ft. Wayne, IN **
10/01/2025 The Pavilion At Star Lake – Burgettstown, PA
10/02/2025 Pine Knob Music Theatre – Clarkston, MI
10/04/2025 Riverbend Music Center – Cincinnati, OH
10/05/2025 Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre – Tinley Park, IL
10/06/2025 Wooly’s – Des Moines, IA **
10/08/2025 Intrust Bank Arena – Wichita, KS
10/09/2025 Warehouse on Broadway – Kansas City, MO **
10/10/2025 Broadmoor World Arena – Colorado Springs, CO
10/12/2025 Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre – Salt Lake City, UT
10/14/2025 Shoreline Amphitheatre – Mountain View, CA
10/15/2025 Toyota Amphitheatre – Wheatland, CA
10/17/2025 The Usual Place – Las Vegas, NV **
10/18/2025 North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre – Chula Vista, CA
10/19/2025 Kia Forum – Inglewood, CA
10/21/2025 Rockhouse Bar & Grill – El Paso, TX **
10/22/2025 Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre – Phoenix, AZ
10/23/2025 Isleta Amphitheater – Albuquerque, NM
10/25/2025 Germania Insurance Amphitheater – Austin, TX
10/26/2025 The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion – Houston, TX

End Tour
11/08-09/2025 Damnation Fest @ BEC Arena – Manchester, UK
1/10/2026 Foro Alicia – Mexico City, MX
1/12/2026 Sala Métronomo – Santiago, CL
1/14/2026 Club Paraguay – Córdoba, AR
** CORROSION OF CONFORMITY headlining date

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Corrosion of Conformity, “Fire and Water” (Free cover) official video

The first Corrosion of Conformity album in 20 years to feature Stanton Moore on drums. The first C.O.C. album in 34 years, just one of two in their catalog, without bassist Mike Dean in the lineup. And, to boot, a double-LP following up on 2018’s No Cross No Crown (review here), which ran nearly an hour long and also took place over two 12″ platters.

I’m intrigued. A little worried about it, if we’re honest, but in my view C.O.C. don’t have a bad record. The early hardcore stuff isn’t my thing, but it’s not bad, and from there, well, they were one of the first rock bands I ever really took to. I was a little baby no-bloggy boy. The internet was barely in houses. So I’ve got nerd-fan’s certain amount of trust in how it’ll pan out, despite the oh-no-it’s-different situation 2025 finds the band in with Woodroe Weatherman as the lone remaining founding member and Pepper Keenan likely in the driver’s seat in terms of songwriting. Curiouser and curiouser.

They’re touring with Judas Priest and Alice Cooper this Fall. I don’t know that I could get a photo pass for that, but I want to badly. We’ll see.

On to mixing the record goes. I’m assuming it’s an early ’26 release, also assuming that it’s through Nuclear Blast. This was posted on socials:

For all the freethinkers and beer drinkers….

Woody and Pepper have just finished tracking one of the most meaningful and powerful records we have ever been a part of. This would not have been possible without the skills of all those that have joined this caravan, that is still in hot pursuit. Stanton Moore, Bobby Rock and Mr. Warren Riker between the speakers and never telling us to turn down…now he’s off to mixland..There’s many others that this would have not been possible without and whom will not be forgotten .This is what was in our head for three years and today we can say it is no longer ours.

Thank you all …see you on the horizon

oh yeah ..

It’s a double album.

FOREVER AMPLIFIED
COC

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Corrosion of Conformity, Live at Sonic Temple, Columbus, OH, May 11, 2025

Twenty years ago this month, Corrosion of Conformity issued this 64-minute beast of a seventh album. It was an unexpected tour de force, released through Sanctuary Records, which had made its name picking up major label and bigger metal refugee acts either whose contracts had ended or whose companies had moved on. C.O.C. had done a run of three full-lengths and countless CD singles (it was the era of ‘let’s make $10 off three songs’; things other than weed used to be worth money sometimes instead of just costing a lot) through Columbia Records and before this 2005 wallop, their prior release was 2000’s America’s Volume Dealer, also on Sanctuary.

Now, among C.O.C. fans, America’s Volume Dealer kind of gets crapped on unfairly for the smoothness of its production and the accessibility of its sound. And to be fair, it’s a long, long, long way from the hardcore punk of 1985’s Animosity and/or the Southern-heavy epic that was 1994’s Deliverance — arguably their two pillars by which to measure — but I’ll go to bat for America’s Volume Dealer on the song level every time. “Double-Wide,” “Over Me,” “Congratulations Song,” “Take What You Want,” etc. These are killer tunes, and so when In the Arms of God was coming out, I was looking forward to it as a fan more than perhaps some others.

Two decades later, apparently I’m still patting myself on the back for it because In the Arms of God kicks unmitigated ass. But by the time they had toured for America’s Volume Dealer, drummer Reed Mullin (R.I.P. 2020) was no longer in the band — Jimmy Bower (Eyehategod) plays drums on 2001’s Live Volume — and they needed to find somebody. Not only this, but guitarist/vocalist Pepper Keenan had reignited the mid-’90s Southern heavy supergroup Down, with Bower and Kirk Windstein from Crowbar and others, which continues to this day, and so would be splitting his time between projects, one of which was very definitely at this point in history making more money than the other. So between a prior album that got early-internet panned and a distracted frontman, expectations weren’t high going into In the Arms of God.

But from “Stone Breaker” and “Paranoid Opioid” through the acoustic “Crown of Thorns” and the seven-minute jam-inclusive finale title-track, In the Arms of God is all-go and the band sound duly charged. Hooks abound through “It Is That Way” and “Dirty Hands Empty Pockets (Already Gone)” — one of the best breakouts in this band’s entire history in its later reaches — carrying its momentum into the Zeppelin-unplugged strum of “Rise River Rise” and the expansive-but-cohesive “Never Turns to More” dividing the first and second halves with an eight-minute runtime not at all shy about it’s we’re-off-a-major-label-now-so-here’s-a-jam ethic. Founding bassist/vocalist Mike Dean would take this further as Keenan went off with down to front an updated version of the oldschool trio incarnation of the band for two LPs and an EP between 2010 and 2014.

As with their Deliverance-lineup 2018 comeback, No Cross No Crown (review here) — still their most recent LP — the structure of the album is essential to the listening process. In the Arms of God essentially resets after “Never Turns to More,” with guitarist Woodroe Weatherman and Dean contributing vocals alongside Keenan in “Infinite War,” which remains unfortunately relevant. But while the first six songs are on-the-beat bangers, there’s an effort to space out in the Soundgardeny “So Much Left Behind” that works well before “The Backslider” regrounds between burl and sleek effects, and “World on Fire” declares itself in a nodding groove and one more hook before “Crown of Thorns” and “In the Arms of God” — the later of which should be taught as an example of how to do Southern metal without sounding like a cartoon character — round out.

It was the very tail end of the CD era, and the rock radio success that C.O.C. found in the ’90s had been capitalismed into oblivion. Keenan, Weatherman and Dean, in the absence of Mullin, turned to drummer Stanton Moore of the New Orleans jam band Galactic to fill the role, and with no disrespect to the memory of Mullin or what he contributed to C.O.C. up to and through No Cross No Crown, the drums on In the Arms of God are just of a different kind of character. On some level, it’s the difference between punk and heavy jazz, but Moore not only made the position his own, he owned it. However, he also had his own successful group he was part of, so couldn’t really be the full-time drummer C.O.C. wanted.

I don’t know if that’s changed or not, but Corrosion of Conformity have been in the studio — John Custer producing, as always; I didn’t mention it before now because it’s a given — throughout the last couple months, piecing together their next full-length. They’ve been doing so without Dean, who announced last Fall he was leaving the band — their new bassist is Bobby Landgraf, known for his work in Honky and for sharing guitar duties with Keenan in Down — for the first time since 1991’s Blind (discussed here), and with Stanton Moore once again stepping into the drummer position, 20 years later.

As to what the Keenan/Weatherman/Landgraf/Moore incarnation of Corrosion of Conformity might conjure in terms of craft, Keenan‘s songwriting is a long-since proven consideration, though as a fan, one worries about not having Dean‘s punk-rooted voice as part of the craft. But the underlying message they gave 20 years ago was that C.O.C. were going to find a way forward, and through Dean‘s version of the band to bringing back the four-piece for No Cross No Crown — the major complaint with which that I heard was that it was too long; eight years and zero records later, I don’t mind the “extra” — and the years of touring they’ve done since, I don’t doubt they’ll still find a way forward. “It is that way because it is,” and such. I have to think if C.O.C. could be undone as a concept, an entity, etc., the band would have been put to rest a long time ago. I think it’s too much in their blood for that.

And I’m glad.

In a spirit of looking forward to new things and new ideas while treasuring what the past has already brought us, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.

—

What did I learn at this year’s Roadburn? That I’m unpleasant. I learned that people don’t really like talking to me, even some of my friends, and that when I walk away, it’s a relief. So I tried to walk away quickly and at least not obligate people to, I don’t know, look at me or have some kind of conversation. I also have basically nothing to say that isn’t “hi I’m terrified of life,” so I’ll 100 percent cop to my own role in making myself unbearable to be around. Anybody want to hear my middle-aged ass complain? No. Indeed not.

It’s a good thing I have a blog. Ha.

It felt good to come home this past Monday. I got a big hug from The Pecan, who very quickly remembered she doesn’t care for me all that much either and really only wants to talk to me when she needs something or her mom isn’t around. It do be like that, I’m told. My wife being legit wonderful, I try not to take the constant outright rejection personally, but as you may have guessed, fail outright just about every time. I go to bed most nights feeling like garbage. She’s been having a hard time at school — I will be genuinely surprised if I get through today without a call to come pick her up; it would be the second of this week and she didn’t go yesterday — and doesn’t have a lot of friends because she loses it and yells and wants to control everything and is autistic as fuck but hell no I’m not getting her diagnosed when some moron is out there talking about how people on the spectrum don’t pay taxes so maybe we just put them in these camps over here or whatever wacky horrifying bullshit came out of his bloated face last week while I was in the Netherlands. Fuck that.

But it’s a hard time, mostly for her, but definitely also for everyone around her. She’s got a couple dickhead boys in her class who’re gonna be giving her shit through high school. You can already see which kids it is. Normal-little-fucker whiteboys. I refuse to tell my kid not to defend herself. She’s going to need to.

Up and down week, I guess. Feel good but tired coming home from Roadburn and the energy-comedown is always a shift to make. But this isn’t my first time at the dance either and I set up this week purposefully so that it was the Buzzard video, the Dead Shrine premiere and today’s Conan review in a row basically as a favor to myself — those are all projects I enjoy and am interested in writing about, and in the case of the latter two, there’s a back catalog for context and I enjoy exploring that as well, if you couldn’t tell in the part about In the Arms of God above.

Zelda update: I just last night finished the Tower of Gods and let The Pecan pull the Master Sword from sunken Hyrule Castle in The Wind Waker. I never played it when it came out because I didn’t have a GameCube and thought it looked stupid, but it’s a pretty great game and my head was up my drunk ass in my 20s in just about everything except getting married and listening to stoner rock. I’m running an emulator on my computer with a couple quality of life mods and it’s been great.

Hope you have a great and safe weekend. Thanks for reading, for giving me space to vent without getting shit for it. I value that more than I can say. Next week is full. There’s news to catch up on (always) and premieres slated for Slow Draw (full album, Monday) and Burning Sister (video, Tuesday), as well as a review of the new Hippie Death Cult live LP and so on. It’ll be a good time, and thanks if you tune in for it.

Don’t forget to hydrate. It’s getting hot out there. And watch your head as you go. Listen to the new Turtle Skull.

PS – Thanks to everyone who bought merch in this round. It’s down now, but I appreciate the support and got about $450 in off of that that goes to paying bills and buying coffee. Helps keep me afloat and feel like I’ve contributed to the house this month, so yes, thank you.

FRM.

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Granted it wasn’t the first time in Corrosion of Conformity‘s more than four decades that they did so, but it was a surprise nonetheless in September when the band bid farewell to founding bassist/vocalist Mike Dean, announcing they’d be continuing on with someone new. The someone has turned out to be Bobby Landgraf, who solidifies the lineup around guitarist/vocalist Pepper Keenan, guitarist/backing vocalist Woodroe Weatherman, and onstage drummer (I think it’s still) John Green.

The band didn’t make an announcement as such — it was the holidays, you know how it is — but Landgraf posted the photo-collage and brief confirmation on his socials. If you’re not familiar, his pedigree includes shenanigans-laced heavy rockers Honky, playing guitar alongside Keenan, fronting Snakes of Central Texas, teching for Pantera and a bunch of others, and so on. And of course, there’s video of him doing the thing filmed at Headbangers Boat a few weeks back (the photos below would seem to have originated there as well). It’s bootleg sound, but it’s also “Albatross,” so even if they weren’t showing off a revamped dynamic, really it’s its own excuse for being.

Last I heard, C.O.C. were still in-progress on the follow-up to their 2018 album, No Cross No Crown (review here), working with drummer Stanton Moore (who last appeared on the band’s 2005 outing, In the Arms of God) in the studio with Warren Riker producing. Videos go up periodically of this or that being recorded, but you wouldn’t accuse them of rushing it, and fair enough. No doubt the proceedings will be different without Dean there, but change is the order of the universe, so there you go.

2025 release? Surprise album and tour drop sometime in Spring? That’d rule. I, of course, know nothing. Ever. About anything. You get used to it after a while. A stupid kind of zen.

From socials:

Absolutely Thrilled to be in Corrosion of Conformity. Onwards and Upwards

Pics by Kevin RC Wilson

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C.O.C., “Albatross” Live on Headbanger’s Boat

An architect and driving force behind one of the most successful heavy rock bands in the history of the style, bassist/vocalist Mike Dean will step away from the band he co-founded, Corrosion of Conformity. The band’s announcement today comes as something of a shock, and lands even as the long-tenured C.O.C. look to release a new album next year following-up 2018’s No Cross No Crown (review here), which reunited the group with guitarist/vocalist Pepper Keenan, also of Down.

The band notes below that those recordings are in progress, and this seems to be a fresh enough advent that there’s no word of who will replace Dean in handling the crucial bottom end of C.O.C.‘s sound, but at the very least, it means the next C.O.C. record will be just the second in the band’s 42-years-and-counting tenure not to feature Dean, who fronted both early and later incarnations, on bass. That leaves guitarist/backing vocalist Woody Weatherman as the lone remaining founding member, with Keenan having first come aboard for the other Dean-less LP, 1991’s Blind (discussed here), before stepping into the lead vocalist role on 1994’s commercial breakthrough, Deliverance (discussed here), for which Dean also made a return.

You can see his reasons listed below, among them the 2020 passing of drummer Reed Mullin, but whatever drove the decision, there’s no question that seeing the band onstage without him will be a big change, even if it’s not the first time such a thing has happened. And as Dean has a number of other projects and outlets, there’s a certain comfort in knowing it probably won’t be long before the next thing comes up.

Just saw this on socials, so here it is:

This is from our brother, Mike Dean:

“Recently I made a decision to step away from Corrosion Of Conformity, a band started 40 odd years ago by Reed Mullin, Woody Weatherman, and myself.

I’m extremely proud of everything we’ve done together, and look forward to hearing more from the band going forward.

When I rejoined COC for the finishing touches of the “Deliverance” album, I moved back to Raleigh, NC for an all-in creative campaign, but time, distance and side projects and life in general has changed all of that.

Ever since Reed drifted away from the band and then passed way, it’s been difficult for me to collaborate on new material with bandmates who live hundreds of miles away.

I look forward to putting together a new Raleigh based outlet to create new music with more alacrity and with more of an emphasis on my own ideas than in recent times.

Also, I look forward to continuing to record and produce other artists.

All the best to Woodroe, Pepper, and COC crew, and most importantly, many big thanks to the fans of all iterations of the band, who have made this real for all of these years.

Salute!

Mike Dean

PS Stay tuned here for links and more information”

We, Woodroe and Pepper, are in full support of Dean’s future endeavors and wish him all the best in the quest. Thankful for the music made and (R)evolutionary paths created.

That being said, this book of Corrosion is not finished, nor will the train stop. The opportunity to play music and create is something that we don’t take lightly, and we will not waver. New COC recording is well underway and will be released in 2025.

Much love and respect to all the free thinkin’ beer drinkin’ friends and fans worldwide, looking to making more. Without you, we are just growing deaf in a garage.

See you on the horizon.

Stay tuned, stay heavy.

Always,
Corrosion of Conformity

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C.O.C., “Your Tomorrow”

I heard “Dance of the Dead” on the radio this week — that’s right, FM radio; thanks WSOU — and it prompted this revisit. Corrosion of Conformity‘s Blind came out in 1991 on Relativity Records with a follow-up release in 1995 through Columbia during the Raleigh, North Carolina-based outfit’s major label era, and to this day, it occupies a singular place in their history and discography. Running a ’90s-style 52 minutes and 13 songs, it was the first time they worked with producer John Custer, who has helmed everything they’ve done since, the only album they’ve ever done as a five-piece, the first that featured guitarist Pepper Keenan, who after this record would take over as their primary singer, and to my knowledge the only studio release they’ve had without founding bassist/sometimes-vocalist Mike Dean in the lineup.

Dean would be back in the band in time for 1994’s Deliverance (discussed here) as part of the definitive lineup with Keenan and fellow founders Woody Weatherman (guitar) and Reed Mullin (drums; R.I.P. 2020), but for Blind, bass was handled by Phil Swisher, while Karl Agell served as standalone frontman. Those two would play together in Leadfoot afterward, and Agell currently sings for both Lie Heavy and Legions of Doom, the latter of which is the post-Eric Wagner offshoot of The Skull, but during their time in C.O.C., they were part of the transitional moment between the raw punk and hardcore that defined their first two LPs, 1984’s Eye for an Eye, 1985’s Animosity, as well as 1987’s Technocracy EP, etc., and the Southern heavy rock they would in no small part help to shape over the rest of the 1990s.

You should know this isn’t an album I can pretend to be impartial about, let alone the band or the fact that human objectivity is a myth to begin with. Blind was one of the first CDs I ever owned, having unceremoniously swiped my older sister’s copy along with Master of Puppets, Rollins Band‘s Weight, Suicidal Tendencies‘ The Art of Rebellion, Alice in Chains‘ Sap and a couple others at around 10 years old, probably sometime in 1992 if I had to guess. “Damned for All Time” and the aforementioned “Dance of the Dead” — the one-two punch of charged riffing and crunching groove that follows the creeper-feedback-into-march of the intro “These Shrouded Temples…” — were on just about every mixtape I made for probably the next three years, the metal band connecting the over-ear headphones of my off-brand Walkman from the Caldor on Rt. 10 pulling my disaffected pubescent sadboy hair out with every tiny adjustment. I remember plotzing through the neighborhood on long walks with nowhere to put myself, sitting by the pond down the road, doing what I’d already been warned was irreparable damage to my hearing.

I’ll admit it’s been years since I actively engaged with it, but it’s always been there. The sinewy delivery of Agell in the chorus of “Mine Are the Eyes of God,” or the swaggering riff in “Painted Smiling Face,” the MTV-ready hooks and a sound that was in conversation with a classic heavy rock I’d yet to encounter; it was all new for me at that point, and I won’t say it’s the dragon of heavy I’ve been chasing all along for the last three-plus decades, but it spoke to me in a way that ‘regular’ rock and roll didn’t and helped me find my path into heavier and more metallic listening. Put simply, it changed my life.

Hearing it now, Blind is striking in its political theme. Even aside from “Vote with a Bullet,” which brought Keenan to lead vocals for the first time and is still a staple of C.O.C. live sets, its declarations of intended violence landing in something of a different context than when it first came out, cuts like the anti-white-supremacist “White Noise,” the envisioning a new world in “Great Purification” and more general anti-authority lines like “If the system had one neck/You know I’d gladly break it” in “Dance of the Dead,” and so on, land with a disaffection to coincide with the conversant-with-metal thrust behind the shred in “Painted Smiling Face,” and do so with a directness that one rarely if ever encounters in heavy rock now. It wasn’t the first or last time C.O.C. talked about social issues — lest we forget that the 2018 return LP from the Keenan, Dean, Weatherman and Mullin lineup was called No Cross No Crown (review here), or, you know, that the band’s name is Corrosion of Conformity — but while the language used and rhetoric have changed in the last 30 years, Blind taps American-style anti-governmentalism in a way that, coming off the Reagan years and as George Bush took the country to war in the Middle East in a preface to decades of moral and fiscal bankrupting, still resonates from its place in time.

Obviously, these weren’t cues I was picking up at 11 years old, but I understood wanting to break out, to not be told what to do, and internalized a lot of that from these songs, especially the singles. What I didn’t appreciate at the time was the connection via riffing to Black Sabbath in the starts and stops of “Buried” or the brooding, slower-rolling finale “Echoes in the Well” before the bookending outro “…Remain,” but that’s all over Blind in a way that not much I would’ve heard on the radio at the time would have captured. The idea of ‘heavy rock’ as something separate from metal didn’t really exist in the commercial sphere, but it’s inarguably here, and with the backdrop of what Corrosion of Conformity would accomplish in Deliverance, 1996’s Wiseblood (discussed here) and 2000’s more smoothly produced and undervalued America’s Volume Dealer, it feels both like the sore thumb standing out of their catalog and the root from which they grew into the band they wanted to be.

As noted, Agell is now in Lie Heavy and Legions of Doom, both of which one might consider actively active. Meanwhile, C.O.C. were last year beginning the process of putting together their next LP to follow No Cross No Crown, with Dean, Keenan and Weatherman collaborating with Galactic drummer Stanton Moore, who’d previously appeared on 2005’s In the Arms of God. I don’t know if that’ll be out this year, next year, or ever, but here’s hoping. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading.

—

I don’t have much time here. It’s coming on eight in the morning and The Patient Mrs. and The Pecan will soon be finished playing games on the iPad and ready to start a morning that, whatever shape it takes, will require direct participation from me. Off-laptop, in other words.

This week was my daughter’s spring break from school. It started last Friday ahead of Easter, and she goes back Monday unless we decide to abscond to Pittsburgh to watch the solar eclipse. Depends on the weather, partially. It hasn’t been the easiest of weeks — it rained and was cold and miserable from Monday through yesterday morning — but she had a half-day camp thing and ice skating lessons to keep her busy. But stuck-in-the-house, tv-off boredom might be a piece of why there’s been an uptick in attitude and more punches thrown. The other day I ended up carrying her screaming and kicking from the rink after she unloaded on The Patient Mrs. for trying to stop her from skating through the next lesson taking place on the ice. I held her down to get her skates off because I didn’t think she was in control enough to stop herself from hurting either of us. It was an especially shitty moment to be alive.

I got hit last night too, for missing a button combo in Super Mario RPG and some other infraction I can’t remember. It’s a lot of “you can’t tell me what to do” and “you have to do what I say” from her as she, I guess, works on figuring out her place in the world. It has not been pleasant, but neither was the week unipolar in awfulness. We snuggled and watched Bluey yesterday evening as The Patient Mrs. was out at dinner with a friend. Last weekend we went to Connecticut with family to color eggs. She had a nice Easter, kept it together well at brunch, and we beat Link’s Awakening on the Switch. The lows are low, but the lows aren’t everything, is what I’m saying.

We’ll see how today goes. As regards the arguments, the opposition, the way I think of it is like this: It’s never everything, but it could be anything, and it’s almost always something. I just remembered that the other thing I got hit for last night was that I didn’t anticipate she’d want the Chromecast (which hadn’t been used in a year before The Patient Mrs. and I moved it to our bedroom) to watch the “Dad Baby” episode of Bluey, which isn’t on Disney-Plus. So yeah. I’ll be honest and say I’ve had a hard time looking forward to the last couple days. Another mantra, “things will not always be as they are now.”

Two sides to that, of course. Like everything.

Next week is slammed front-to-back and I’m already behind on news, so whatever. I’ll do my best to write as much as I can and that’s that. I hope you have a great and safe weekend, whatever you’re up to. If you get to see the eclipse, don’t look at it. Otherwise, hydrate, move your body a bit, watch your head, and I’ll be back on Monday with more of whatever you call this at this point.

FRM.

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I mean, what can you say to this other than ‘can I come?’ I’ve known this festival was capable of some real-deal shit over the last decade, but this is absolutely epic, which is a word I do my best to avoid. And they end it by saying there’s more to come. God damn. Really. God damn.

Wow.

Here:

Desertfest London announce over 40 bands for 2023

Friday 5th May – Sunday 7th May 2023 | Weekend Tickets on sale now

BUY TICKETS HERE: https://www.desertfest.co.uk/

Desertfest London is rounding off the year with an ear-shattering bang, announcing a mammoth 43 artists to their 2023 line-up. Joining the likes of Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats, Graveyard, Kadavar and Church of Misery, the Camden-based festival also welcomes back Corrosion of Conformity as headliners.

Pioneers of a groove-laden sound that is undeniably their own, Corrosion of Conformity have not been back on UK soil since 2018 so expect big, loud and memorable things from their appearance at Desertfest next year. Corrosion of Conformity have been due to play the event since 2020 – making their return one of the most widely requested in the event’s history.

Japan’s own avant-garde maestros of down-tuned psychedelia Boris leap over to London alongside the crushingly loud tones of NOLA’s own Crowbar. One of the most exciting bands in recent memory King Buffalo, make their long-awaited debut plus Desertfest favourites, Weedeater are back after five long years of chugging whiskey lord-knows-where.

The pace moves up a notch with New York City’s noise-rock guru’s Unsane and British punk-legends Discharge, all of whom bring a detour from the slow’n’low sounds the festival is best recognised for. Montreal’s Big | Brave will play the festival for the first time showcasing their experimental and minimalist take on the notion of ‘heavy’, whilst the doors to the Church of The Cosmic Skull are open, as they ask Desertfest revellers to join them in a union unlike any other.

Desertfest also warmly welcomes noise from STAKE, British anti-fascist black metallers Dawn Ray’d and London’s loudest duo Tuskar as well as some of the best recent stoner acts in the form of Telekinetic Yeti, Weedpecker & Great Electric Quest. Elsewhere the weekend will also see Wren, The Necromancers, Dommengang, Samavayo, Morass of Molasses, Sum of R & GNOB offer up unique live performances.

Rounding off this beast of an announcement are Acid Mammoth, Deatchant, Zetra, Trevor’s Head, Our Man in The Bronze Age, Wyatt E., Iron Jinn, Mr Bison, Troy The Band, Oreyeon, Warren Schoenbright, Early Moods, Longheads, Terror Cosmico, Thunder Horse, TONS, Vinnum Sabbathi, Bloodswamp, The Age of Truth, Earl of Hell and Black Groove.

Weekend Tickets for Desertfest London 2023 are on-sale now via www.desertfest.co.uk
with more acts still to be announced.

Day splits and day tickets will be on sale from January.

Full Line-Up for Desertfest London 2023:
UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS | GRAVEYARD | CORROSION OF CONFORMITY | KADAVAR | BORIS | CROWBAR | CHURCH OF MISERY | WEEDEATER | KING BUFFALO | BLOOD CEREMONY | DISCHARGE | SOMALI YACHT CLUB | UNSANE | BIG|BRAVE | INTER ARMA | CHURCH OF THE COSMIC SKULL | VALLEY OF THE SUN | STAKE | MARS RED SKY | SPACESLUG | GRAVE LINES | GAUPA | TUSKAR | TELEKINETIC YETI | WEEDPECKER | DAWN RAY’D | WREN | GREAT ELECTRIC QUEST | THE NECROMANCERS | DOMMENGANG | ECSTATIC VISION | SAMAVAYO | MORASS OF MOLASSES | SUM OF R | HIGH DESERT QUEEN | GNOB | EVEREST QUEEN | ACID MAMMOTH | DEATHCHANT | ZETRA | CELESTIAL SANCTUARY | TREVOR’S HEAD | OUR MAN IN THE BRONZE AGE | WYATT E. | MR BISON | TROY THE BAND | PLAINRIDE | IRON JINN | OREYEON | WARREN SCHOENBRIGHT | EARLY MOODS | LONGHEADS | TERROR COSMICO | THUNDER HORSE | TONS | VINNUM SABBATHI | BLOODSWAMP | VENOMWOLF | THE AGE OF TRUTH | EARL OF HELL | BLACK GROOVE | MARGARITA WITCH CULT

http://www.desertscene.co.uk/support
https://www.facebook.com/DesertfestLondon
https://www.instagram.com/desertfest_london/
https://twitter.com/DesertFest
https://www.desertfest.co.uk/

No lack of substance as Desertfest Berlin 2023 moves forward this morning (afternoon CET) with its second announcement for next May, adding the likes of Corrosion of Conformity, Bongzilla, Monolord, Slift, Minami Deutsch, Valley of the Sun, Dommengang, Kanaan, Mother Engine, and Gnome to what was already a packed bill. Accordingly, the European underground’s touring sphere — of which this fest is a significant part in the Spring season — is also starting to take shape, and if you’re paying attention, you can start to connect some of the dots for who will be on the road when and where, as well as speculate who will be out with whom, and so on. These are things I enjoy thinking about.

I’ve never been to this fest, would love to go. I imagine it’ll be a little different this year with a shift in venue, but my understanding is the vibe is where it’s at in Berlin, and after so many years, I have no trouble thinking Desertfest Berlin feels like home to many who will attend, no matter where it’s actually taking place. I mean, as long as it’s in Berlin. Would be weird if they decided to run Desertfest Berlin in Copenhagen one year or something (though an extension of the festival brand in that Danish city would likely be ace in its own right).

Here’s the latest, courtesy of the fest:

DESERTFEST BERLIN — NEW BANDS ADDED TO THE 2023 LINE-UP

Desertfest Berlin is happy to add to the line-up of the 2023 edition (May 19-21, 2023):

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY
MONOLORD
SLIFT
BONGZILLA
MINAMI DEUTSCH
MOTHER ENGINE
VALLEY OF THE SUN
DOMMENGANG
KANAAN
GNOME

Along with:
UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS
THE OBSESSED
KING BUFFALO
CHURCH OF MISERY
DOZER
BLOOD CEREMONY
L.A. WITCH
SOMALI YACHT CLUB
GNOD
ECSTATIC VISION
DAILY THOMPSON
GAUPA
PSYCHLONA
+ much more TBA

Weekend tickets for Desertfest Berlin 2023 are on sale NOW via the link in our bio or www.desertfest.de

The new venues for the 2023 edition will be Columbiahalle and Columbia Theater Berlin (with additional outdoor space & stage).
Address: Columbiadamm 13-21, 10965 Berlin.

Desertfest Berlin May 19th – 21st 2023 will take place at Columbiahalle and Columbia Theater (with additional outdoor space & stage) this year.

Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1324621551683513/

www.desertfest.de
www.facebook.com/DesertfestBerlin
www.instagram.com/desertfest_berlin

Slift, Live at Desert Daze Festival, 0ct. 1, 2022