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Dali’s Llama Announce Star Resistant – Thirty Songs for Thirty Years Compilation

Posted in Whathaveyou on November 24th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

As one inevitably might, you get a solid mix of styles across the 30 tracks included on Dali’s Llama‘s new anniversary compilation, Star Resistant – Thirty Songs for Thirty Years. True to the title’s dropped hint, it runs the gamut from the band’s 1993 debut, Pre Post Now and the swinging grunge-informed rock of Creative Space (1994) and Being (1995), while reaffirming their root in raw-recorded noise ahead of the digging into heavier rock and the influence of their native Californian desert for records like 2007’s Sweet Sludge and 2008’s Full on Dunes (review here), which was where I got on board.

That was plenty enough time to catch their 20th anniversary comp, Twenty Years Underground (review here), which came out on vinyl in late 2013. I don’t know if there are physical editions planned for Star Resistance, but from a band who’ve only ever worn their collective heart on their sleeve — founding members Zach Huskey and Erica Huskey making an essential core duo — clearly they continue to live by that ethic. They also continue to be wildly undervalued.

Accordingly, if you don’t know the band, think of this one as a no-charge opportunity to explore their work and get a sampling of their growth over the last three decades and a whole lot of material that, by rights, you should probably be paying for. You know I like getting away with something. Here’s what came down the PR wire:

dali's llama star resistant

DALI’S LLAMA – Star Resistant – Thirty Songs for Thirty Years

Some of these are kind of rare and some are more well known. This is going to be a Bandcamp download-only release and it will be free (or pay what you can) from December 2 – December 31 (for the last 30 days of the year). We hope you dig it!

There are no songs off of the “Legends of the Desert Vol. 3” split we just did with Fatso Jetson because those songs were released on Desert Records. However, that split and two of our other past albums “Dying In The Sun” and “Full On Dunes” are now available on limited edition cassette through Northern Haze in Canada.

Also, there are no songs on this release that were on our vinyl anthology released ten years ago, “Twenty Years Underground”.

Anyway, this release at 2 hours and 21 minutes is a lotta Llama!

Dali’s Llama
Star Resistant – Thirty Songs For Thirty Years
1. Pre Post Now (Pre Post Now)
2. Creative Space (Creative Space)
3. On It (Creative Space)
4. Sleeping (Creative Space)
5. Longevity (Being)
6. Aboriginal Man Contemplating the Universe Under the Night Sky (The Color of Apples)
7. Beauty Contest (Chordata)
8. Earth Mother Spin (Sweet Sludge)
9. Orca (Sweet Sludge)
10. Love Is Mammoth (Sweet Sludge)
11. Can’t Catch Me (Full On Dunes)
12. Cheap and Portable (Full On Dunes)
13. Floating (Full On Dunes)
14. Theocracy (Raw Is Real)
15. Syphilization (Raw Is Real)
16. Always (Raw Is Real)
17. Flustrated (Howl Do You Do?)
18. I’m The Trouble (Howl Do You Do?)
19. Howl Do You Do? (Howl Do You Do?)
20. Plaid Rainbow (Howl Do You Do?)
21. Nostalgia (Autumn Woods)
22. O.K. Freak Out (Autumn Woods)
23. Claustrophobic Blues (Dying In The Sun)
24. Hocus Pocus (Dying In The Sun)
25. V.O.E ‘73 (Dying In The Sun)
26. Dying In The Sun (Dying In The Sun)
27. Longtime Woman (The Blossom E.P.))
28. Weary (Mercury Sea)
29. Choking On The Same (Mercury Sea)
30. Merricat Blackwood (Dune Lung E.P.)

http://www.facebook.com/dalisllama
https://dalisllama.bandcamp.com/
http://www.dalisllamarecords.com/

Fatso Jetson & Dali’s Llama, Legends of the Desert Vol. 3 (2023)

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Review & Track Premiere: Fatso Jetson and Dali’s Llama, Legends of the Desert Vol. 3 Split LP

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on March 16th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

legends of the desert vol 3 fatso jetson dali's llama

[Click play above to stream the premiere of Fatso Jetson’s ‘Night of the Living Amends’ from the Legends of the Desert Vol. 3 split with Dali’s Llama, out March 24 through Desert Records. Preorder available on Bandcamp here.]

New Mexico imprint Desert Records launched its ‘Legends of the Desert’ split series in 2020 by bringing together Palehorse/Palerider and Lord Buffalo (discussed here and here), and Legends of the Desert Vol. 2 (review here) followed, with The Penitent Man and Cortége resting side-by-side in furthering the stated objective of honoring a new generational interpretation of who and what ‘legends’ means and the notion that ‘desert’ as applies to music doesn’t just have to mean ‘sounds like Kyuss.’ With Cali desert scene co-progenitors Fatso Jetson and perpetually undervalued grit rockers Dali’s Llama on Legends of the Desert Vol. 3, the series pivots toward two different kinds of legends.

Fatso Jetson arrive after releasing Live From Total Annihilation (review here) last year through Ripple Music in collaboration with All Souls, marking a noteworthy return with their first new material since 2016’s Idle Hands (review here), having played live shows and toured all the while, conditions permitting. They are legends in an underground sense and a band around whom the ‘generator party’ narrative of off-grid punk birthing a new generational interpretation of heavy has rightly coalesced, with guitarist/vocalist Mario Lalli — also of Yawning Man and lately the improvisational unit Mario Lalli and the Rubber Snake Charmers — as ambassador for band and scene alike, surrounded by family with cousin Larry Lalli on bass as always, son Dino Von Lalli on guitar and the not-actually-related-but-might-as-well-be-at-this-point Tony Tornay (also of All Souls) on drums. As a unit, they are largely unfuckwithable and have been for some time.

The perpetually DIY Dali’s Llama formed more or less concurrently to Fatso Jetson in 1993, and have over the years approached desert rock from alternately bluesy, country, punk and gothic angles (among others), the founding duo of guitarist/vocalist Zach Huskey and bassist Erica Huskey likewise unpredictable conceptually and reliable in terms of songwriting and performance across a wide discography, the last installment of which was 2021’s Dune Lung EP (review here), which was itself a follow-up to 2019’s umpteenth full-length, Mercury Sea (review here). Here as on those two releases and others prior, the band operates as a four-piece, with Joe Dillon on guitar and backing vocals and Craig Brown on drums, presenting four songs in complement to Fatso Jetson‘s own and showcasing some of the aural diversity — looking at you, banjo-as-sitar on “Rarified” — that’s part of what makes them so recognizable.

Dali’s Llama get the longer side, as their four cuts weigh in at 22 minutes. Fatso Jetson‘s four are shorter on average — 17 minutes total — but they go first, with Mathias Schneeberger on keys and the instrumental “Night of the Living Amends” as the opener and longest piece of side A nestling comfortably into a signature Fatso Jetson groove; part surf rockabilly, part punk, smoothly toned and loosely exploratory, finding the place where solid ground and psychedelia meet. On the subsequent “Angels Flight,” they bring in vocalist Sean Wheeler (also Throw Rag and a regular with The Rubber Snake Charmers) to join Mario on vocals, but the hypnotic and immersive effect of “Night of the Living Amends” remains even as the first verse starts. Almost before you realize it, they’ve pulled you into the proceedings with them and are underway.

fatso jetson

Dali's Llama

“Angels Flight” feels like a semi-revisit to/fleshing-out-of a progression from “Jolting Tales of Tension” off of 2010’s Archaic Volumes (review here, discussed here), with lyrics from Wheeler overlaid and pedal steel from Gar Robertson for a differentiated wistfulness. Gentle in its delivery compared to some of the band’s output, it’s a highlight melody for Legends of the Desert Vol. 3 and precedes the forward shove of Tornay‘s kick drum on “Todas Petrol Blues,” another smoothly executed instrumental picking up from its fading-in guitars with a burst of energy sustained through a winding sans-vocal chorus and rumbling to a finish before the three-minute “One of Seven” digs into a more traditional hook, the mellow verse giving over to the rousingly catchy lines “One of seven days/I let the hammer swing/I let the hammer swing.” If you’re thinking that’s a tune about being in a band that practices once a week, you might be onto something.

That song’s straight-ahead rocker vibe, still fleshed out with Fatso Jetson‘s interplay of guitar, gives Dali’s Llama a suitable lead-in as they launch side B with “Coyotes in the Graveyard.” Zach and Erica Huskey, Dillon and Brown set out with a fuzzy roller of a riff and Zach‘s bluesy vocal delivery, immediately set to their task of craft. Heavy and laid back in kind, “Coyotes in the Graveyard” is traditional in structure and somewhat darker in atmosphere, but that’s a wheelhouse for Dali’s Llama, and “Lizards” highlights an even thicker tone in the guitars and bass, while the chorus, “Where I’m from there are no wizards/Where I’m from there’s only lizards,” positions them decisively in the desert. They get their point across in paying homage to the landscape itself, and the line transitioning to the hook, “Here the water is the king,” seems to call back to “King Platypus” from 2008’s Full On Dunes (review here) while of course crowning another creature. Long live the lizard.

The previously-mentioned “Rarified” is next, with more of a swing amid its central chug and the start-stop riff behind the chorus before the noted banjo-inclusive break, unexpected and welcome as it is with a comparatively minimal feel during that stretch before a cymbal wash and drumroll brings a solo and chorus return that feels all the more forceful for the subdued place the song has just been. The longest inclusion on the split at 6:22, “Rarified” uses its time well, and gives over to the readily Sabbathian stonerism of “Hypnotic Wind,” with a more forward vocal from Zach and languid movement into its more open chorus. Like much of what Dali’s Llama do, it’s a manipulation of style with a solid structural foundation beneath, accounting for the doomier elements of “Coyotes in the Graveyard” and tying together their side as an EP unto itself with a late push and cowbell-on-board big rock ending.

Geography aside, what Fatso Jetson and Dali’s Llama most have in common is their lack of pretense about who they are. In a true spirit of rugged individualism, these acts of long-standing come together for Legends of the Desert Vol. 3 not necessarily to celebrate their prior accomplishments, but to demonstrate to anyone who might encounter the release the self-determined attitude that got them where they are. In a genre that is underrated as a whole, they deliver arguments in favor of this through their efforts, and like mystical tales known to a select few, their respective legends continue to grow. Maybe there are wizards out there after all.

Fatso Jetson on Facebook

Fatso Jetson on Instagram

Fatso Jetson on Bandcamp

Fatso Jetson website

Dali’s Llama on Facebook

Dali’s Llama on Bandcamp

Dali’s Llama website

Desert Records on Facebook

Desert Records on Instagram

Desert Records on Bandcamp

Desert Records store

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Fatso Jetson and Dali’s Llama Pair for Legends of the Desert Vol. 3 Split

Posted in Whathaveyou on December 9th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Desert Records‘ split series Legends of the Desert has never seemed more aptly named with Fatso Jetson and Dali’s Llama on this third volume. I’ve heard none of it, but the former outfit are progenitors of the Californian desert rock style and an influence to more bands than you or I can count, and the latter are longtime practitioners of the sand-hued arts, persistently underrated in their expansion around the core desert sound and tonality to vibes bluesy, goth rocking and beyond. Both proven entities in my mind.

The label has launched a Kickstarter as of today that’s serving as preorders for the various editions to come, and below they present the respective backgrounds of the bands as probably the best case for supporting the project. Legit. There’s a video below that features new music snippets, but honestly, if you’re not already on board based on the personnel alone — both acts who’ve long since established trust and a series that’s proven its mettle across two to-date volumes — I’m not sure what to tell you. The argument makes itself.

I’ll hope to have more to come as we get closer to the release. For now, this comes from the PR wire:

legends of the desert vol 3 fatso jetson dali's llama

Legends of the Desert: Vol. 3

The third volume features two old school veterans of desert rock, Fatso Jetson & Dali’s Llama. After kicking off the first two volumes with new bands, it was due time to work with veterans of the Palm Desert scene.

The artwork is done by artist Joshua Mathus of Phoenix, AZ. He is commissioned to do all the album artwork (front and back covers) for the entire series.

Fatso Jetson is an American desert rock band from Palm Desert, California, formed in 1994 by Yawning Man and The Sort of Quartet members Mario Lalli and Larry Lalli, along with Tony Tornay, and Dino Von Lalli (son of Mario). Fatso Jetson have remained an active force in underground rock for almost 25 years. They are often credited as originators of the desert strain of stoner rock made most famous by their younger neighbors Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age. While musically similar to some of their stoner brethren, Fatso Jetson incorporates a variety of musical influences that includes punk, art rock, blues and psychedelic hard rock.

Dali’s Llama is a desert rock band from the Palm Springs/Palm Desert area of Southern California. Dali’s Llama was formed in 1993 and released their first album that same year. The band, started by the husband and wife team of Zach and Erica Huskey, have remained the only two original members from the beginning. Zach is the guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter, and Erica is the bass player. Dali’s Llama has released 15 albums so far. Their music is in five films, including being featured in the desert rock documentary “Lo Sound Desert”. They have performed and/or toured throughout the southwestern United States, including the ‘Stoner Hands of Doom’ and ‘Doom In June’ fests.

KICKSTARTER – LEGENDS of the DESERT: Vol. 3: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/desertrecords/legends-of-the-desert-vol-3

The kickstarter campaign launches on Friday, Dec 9th…and offers 4 stunning vinyl variants. Other rewards include the “Desert Rat” guitar pedal, test pressings, custom print/poster, and vinyl bundles.

SUPPORT THIS PROJECT!!! There are many exciting rewards.

Four (4) stunning vinyl LP variants.
Test pressings of the LP
Desert Rat guitar pedal from Fowl Sounds
Custom screen-print poster 12×12
CD’s
Bundles of the rewards (save $)

SIDE A: Fatso Jetson
Night of the Living Amends 4:54
Angels Flight (feat. Sean Wheeler) 4:45
Todas Petrol Blues 4:21
One of Seven 3:03

SIDE B: Dali’s Llama
Coyotes in the Graveyard 4:21
Lizards 6:09
Rarified 6:19
Hypnotic Wind 5:19

The music in the video features sound clips of 3 of the 8 songs on the album.
The first sound clip is “Coyotes in the Graveyard” by Dali’s Llama.
The second sound clip is “Angel’s Flight” (feat. Sean Wheeler) by Fatso Jetson.
The third sound clip is “Lizards” by Dali’s Llama.

This is the soundtrack to the New Wild West. The focus of the Legends of the Desert series is to provide a modern perspective to the antiquated ‘Wild West’ we have etched in our brains. These songs and tales are not told by the same ol’ perspective of the white male Cowboy. These are narratives told by those who never got their stories heard. We will hear from musicians, artists, Natives, outlaws, desert rats, desert dwellers, cactuses and mesas, ravens and roadrunners, snakes and endless skies.

The bands are curated by label owner, Brad Frye. The requirements for bands to appear on the Legends series must hit certain criteria (besides making original & amazing desert rock music. Bands must be located geographically in the American Southwest. The states within this boundary include: California (southern part), Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas. The bands have to be currently active. They also are in line with the Legends series ethos of offering an updated perspecitve of Wild West. Fuck John Wayne and all the outdated Wild West bullshit that we have been fed by movies and media.

Desert Records has already released Legends of the Desert Vol: 1 & 2. Both releases were successful and were met with great excitement.

https://www.facebook.com/fatsojetson/
https://instagram.com/fatsojetsonband
https://twitter.com/fatsojetsonband
http://fatsojetson.com/

https://www.facebook.com/dalisllama
https://dalisllama.bandcamp.com/
http://www.dalisllamarecords.com/

https://www.facebook.com/desertrecordslabel/
https://desertrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://desertrecords.bigcartel.com/

Fatso Jetson & Dali’s Llama, Legends of the Desert Vol. 3 promo

Fatso Jetson & All Souls, Virtual Volumes Split (2022)

Dali’s Llama, Dune Lung EP (2021)

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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Zach Huskey of Dali’s Llama

Posted in Questionnaire on January 7th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Zach Huskey of Dali's Llama

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: Zach Huskey of Dali’s Llama

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

Well, I’m basically a songwriter first. I’m also a guitarist and singer (vocalist). I started playing guitar when I was around 11 years old. About two years later I was playing in bands. The music scene that I grew up in was all about punk rock or at least the punk ethic of writing and playing original music. This was around the (early ’80s) in the Palm Springs / Palm Desert area. Early on I noticed that there were a ton of guitar players but not a lot of guitarists who could sing and write songs, so that’s what I worked on getting better at.

Describe your first musical memory.

As a little kid I remember listening to Elvis Presley and Hank Williams records. As a teenager there were a few things that blew my mind. First, I listened to The Who’s Live at Leeds album (AMAZING). The second thing was watching that old show on TV called Night Flight and they played the Neil Young with Crazy Horse concert film Rust Never Sleeps. I thought the guitar on “Hey Hey My My” was the heaviest thing I’d ever heard. Finally, my first concert I went to when I was about 14 or 15 was The Plasmatics at Perkins Palace in L.A. The energy and the sex, man that was it for me. I was hooked!

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Opening for White Zombie or Robin Trower. Also, the tour we did a couple years ago of the Southwest was a blast! Maybe it’s just when I write a song, show it to the band and then playing it live and people come up and say they dig it. Maybe that’s the best of all.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

Like most people I have trouble processing acts of senseless cruelty and violence.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Art should make us feel, and feeling anything at all means we’re alive, and that alone should make us happy. It’s better than the alternative.

How do you define success?

Finding something positive you really enjoy and then doing it to the best of your ability.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Sammy Hagar.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I’d like to write a soundtrack for a film and I would like to “create” a Dali’s Llama tour in Europe.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

To create some kind of emotion in the listener, reader, viewer, etc.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Retiring from the library and eventually getting a house in the woods, next to a lake. My wife and I have lived in the desert for most of our lives.

http://www.facebook.com/dalisllama
https://dalisllama.bandcamp.com/
http://www.dalisllamarecords.com/

Dali’s Llama, Dune Lung EP (2021)

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Quarterly Review: Wolvennest, Lammping, Lykantropi, Mainliner, DayGlo Mourning, Chamán, Sonic Demon, Sow Discord, Cerbère, Dali’s Llama

Posted in Reviews on March 29th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

quarterly-review-spring-2019

The Spring 2021 Quarterly Review begins here, and as our long winter of plague-addled discontent is made glorious spring by this son of York Beach, I can hardly wait to dig in. You know the drill. 50 records between now and Friday, 10 per day. It’s a lot. It’s always a lot. That’s the point.

Words on the page. If I have a writing philosophy, that’s it. Head down, keep working. And that’s the challenge here. Can you get over your own crap and say what you need to say about 10 records every day for five days straight out? I’ll be exhausted by the end of the week for sure. I’ll let you know when we get there if it feels any different. Till then, let’s roll.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Wolvennest, Temple

Wolvennest Temple

The second full-length offering — and I mean that: ‘offering’ — from Belgium’s Wolvennest is an expansive and immersive follow-up to their 2018 debut, Void, as the Brussels six-piece offers next-stage extreme cult rock. Across 77 willfully-unmanageable and mind-altering minutes, the troupe caroms between (actual) psychedelic black metal and sheer sonic ritualism, and the intent is made plain from 12:26 opener/longest track (immediate points) “Mantra” onward. Wolvennest are enacting a ceremony and it’s up to the listener to be willing to engage with the material on that level. Their command is unwavering as the the heft and wash of “Alecto” and the ethereal swirl and dual vocal arrangement of “All that Black” show, but while King Dude himself shows up on “Succubus,” and that’s fun, especially followed by the penultimate downward march of “Disappear,” the greatest consumption is saved for “Souffle de Mort” (“breath of death,” in English; it’s not about eggs). In that 10-minute finale, marked out by the French-language declarations of Shazzula Vultura, Wolvennest not only make it plain just how far they’ve brought you, but that they intend to leave you there as well.

Wolvennest on Thee Facebooks

Ván Records website

 

Lammping, New Jaws EP

lammping new jaws

A 15-minute playful jaunt into the funk-grooving max-fuzzed whatever-works garage headtrip if Toronto’s Lammping is right on the money. The four-piece start channel-spanning and mellow with “Jaws of Life” — which is a righteous preach, even though I don’t know the lyrics — and follow with the complementary vibe of “The Funkiest,” which would seem to be titled in honor of its bassline and conjures out-there’est Masters of Reality in its face-painted BlueBoy lysergics over roughly traditional songwriting. Is “Neverbeen” weirder? You know it. Dreamily so, and it’s followed by the genuinely-experimental 40 seconds of “Big Time the Big Boss” and the closer “Other Shoe,” which if it doesn’t make you look forward to the next Lammping album, I’m sorry to say it, but you might be dead. Sorry for your loss. Of you. This shit is killer and deserves all the ears it can get with its early ’90s weirdness that’s somehow also from the late ’60s and still the future too because what is time anyway and screw it we’re all lost let’s ride.

Lammping on Instagram

Nasoni Records website

 

Lykantropi, Tales to Be Told

Lykantropi Tales To Be Told

Tales to Be Told is the late-2020 third long-player from Swedish classicists Lykantropi, following 2019’s Spirituosa (review here) with a warmth of tone that’s derived from ’70s folk rock and vaguely retro in its tones and drum sounds, but remains modern in its hookmaking and it’s not exactly like they’re trying to hide where they’re coming from when they break out the flute sounds. Harmonies in “Mother of Envy” make that song a passionate highlight, while the respective side-endings in “Kom Ta Mig Ut” and “Världen Går Vidare” add to the exploratory and roots-proggy listening experience, the album’s finale dropping its drums before the three-minute mark to allow for a drifting midsection en route to a class finish that answers the choruses of “Spell of Me” and “Axis of Margaret” earlier with due spaciousness. Clean and clear and wanting nothing aesthetically or emotionally, Tales to Be Told is very much a third album in how realized it feels.

Lykantropi on Thee Facebooks

Despotz Records website

 

Mainliner, Dual Myths

Mainliner Dual Myths

Japanese trio Mainliner — comprised of guitarist Kawabata Makoto (Acid Mothers Temple), bassist/vocalist Kawabe Taigen (Bo Ningen) and drummer Koji Shimura (Acid Mothers Temple) — are gentle at the outset of Dual Myths but don’t wait all that long before unveiling their true freak-psych intention in the obliterating 20 minutes of “Blasphemy Hunter,” the opener/longest track (immediate points) that’s followed by the likewise side-consuming left-the-air-lock-behind-and-found-antimatter-was-made-of-feedback “Hibernator’s Dream” (18:38), the noisier, harsher fuckall spread of “Silver Guck” (19:28) and the gut-riffed/duly scorched jazz shredder “Dunamist Zero” (20:08), which culminates the 2LP beast about as well as anything could, earning the gatefold with sheer force of intent to be and to harness the far-out into some loosely tangible thing. Stare into the face of the void and the void doesn’t so much stare back as turn your lungs into party balloons.

Mainliner on Thee Facebooks

Riot Season Records website

 

DayGlo Mourning, Dead Star

DayGlo Mourning Dead Star

On a certain level, what you see is what you get with the Orion slavegirl warriors, alien mushrooms and caithan beast that adorn DayGlo Mourning‘s debut album, the six-song/35-minute Dead Star, in that they’re suitably nestled into the sonic paraphernalia of stoner-doom as well as the visual. With bassist Jerimy McNeil and guitarist Joseph Mills sharing vocal duties over Ray Miner‘s drums, variety of melody and throatier shouts are added to the deep-toned largesse of riff, and the Atlanta trio most assuredly have their heads on when it comes to knowing what they want to do sound-wise. The hard-hit hi-hat of “Faithful Demise” comes with some open spaces after the fuzzy lumber that caps “Bloodghast,” and as “Ashwhore” and “Witch’s Ladder” remind a bit of the misogyny inherent in witchy folklore — at the end of the day it was all about killing pretty girls — the grooves remain fervent and the forward potential on the part of the band likewise. It’s a sound big enough that there isn’t really any room left for bullshit.

DayGlo Mourning on Thee Facebooks

Black Doomba Records webstore

 

Chamán, Maleza

Chamán maleza

Issued in the waning hours of Dec. 2020, Chamán‘s 70-minute, six-song debut album, Maleza, is a psicodelico cornucopia of organic-toned delights, from the more forward-fuzz of “Poliforme” — which is a mere six and a half minutes long but squeezes in a drum solo — to the 13-plus-minute out-there salvo that is “Malezo,” “Concreto” and “Temazcal,” gorgeously trippy and drifting and building on what the Mendozza, Argentina, three-piece conjure early in the proceedings with “Despierta” and “Ganesh,” each over 10 minutes as well. Even in Maleza‘s most lucid moments, the spirit of improv and live recording remains vibrant, and however these songs were built out to their current form, I’m just glad they were. Whether you put it on headphones and bliss out for 70 minutes or you end up using it as a backdrop for whatever your day might bring, Chamán‘s sprawling and melted soundscapes are ready to embrace and enfold you.

Chamán on The Facebooks

Chamán on Bandcamp

 

Sonic Demon, Vendetta

sonic demon vendetta

Italian duo Sonic Demon bring a lethal dose of post-Electric Wizard grit fuzz and druggy echoed snarl to their debut full-length, Vendetta, hitting a particularly nasty low end vibe early on “Black Smoke” and proving willing to ride that out for the duration with bouts of spacier fare in “Fire Meteorite” and side A capper “Cosmic Eyes” before the second half of the 40-minute outing renews the buzz with “FreakTrip.” Deep-mixed drums make the guitar and bass sound even bigger, and such is the morass Sonic Demon make that even their faster material seems slow; that means “Hxxxn” must be extra crawling to feel as nodded-out as it does. Closing duo “Blood and Fire” and “Serpent Witch” don’t have much to say that hasn’t already been said, style-wise, but they feel no less purposeful in sealing the hypnosis cast by the songs before them. If you can’t hang with repetition, you can’t hang, and the filth in the speedier-ish last section of “Serpent Witch” isn’t enough to stop it from being catchy.

Sonic Demon on Thee Facebooks

The Swamp Records on Bandcamp

Forbidden Place Records website

 

Sow Discord, Quiet Earth

sow discord quiet earth

Sow Discord is the solo industrial doom/experimentalist project of David Coen, also known for his work in Whitehorse, and the bleak feel that pervades his debut full-length under the moniker, Quiet Earth, is resonant and affecting. Channeling blowout beats and speaker-throbbing crush on “Ruler,” Coen elsewhere welcomes Many Blessings (aka Ethan Lee McCarthy, also of Primitive Man) and The Body as guests for purposefully disturbing conjurations. Cuts like “Desalination” and “Functionally Extinct” churn with an atmosphere that feels born of a modern real-world apocalypse, and it’s hard to tell ultimately whether closer “The World Looks on with Pity and Scorn” is offering condolence or condemnation, but either way you go, the bitter harshness that carries over is the thread that weaves all this punishment together, and as industrial music pushes toward new extremes, even “Everything Has Been Exhausted” manages to feel fresh in its pummel.

David Coen on Instagram

AR53 Productions on Bandcamp

Tartarus Records on Bandcamp

 

Cerbère, Cerbère

cerbere cerbere

Formed by members of Lord Humungus, Frank Sabbath and Carpet Burns, Cerbère offer three tracks of buried-alive extreme sludge on their self-titled debut EP, recorded live in the band’s native Paris during a pandemic summer when it was illegal to leave the house. Someone left the house, anyhow, and the resultant three cuts are absolutely unabashed in their grating approach, enough so to warrant in-league status with masters of misanthropy like Grief or Khanate, even if Cerbère move more throughout the 15-minute closing title-track, and dare to add some trippy guitar later on. The two prior cuts, “Julia” — the sample at the beginning feels especially relevant in light of the ongoing Notre Dame rebuild — and “Aliéné” are no less brutal if perhaps more compact. I can’t be sure, because I just can’t, but it’s entirely possible “Aliéné” is the only word in the song that bears its name. That wouldn’t work in every context. Here it feels earned, along with the doomier lead that follows.

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Dali’s Llama, Dune Lung

dalis llama dune lung

They’ve cooled down a bit from the tear they were on for a few years there, but Dali’s Llama‘s new Dune Lung EP is no less welcome for that. The desert-dwelling four-piece founded by guitarist/vocalist Zach and bassist Erica Huskey bring a laid back roll to the nonetheless palpably heavy “Nothing Special,” backing the opener with the fuzzy sneer of “Complete Animal,” the broader-soundscape soloing of “Merricat Blackwood,” and the more severe groove of “STD (Suits),” all of which hit with a fullness of sound that feels natural while giving the band their due as a studio unit. Dali’s Llama have been and continue to be significantly undervalued when it comes to desert rock, and Dune Lung is another example of why that is and how characteristic they are in sound and execution. Good band, and they’re edging ever closer to the 30-year mark. Seems like as good a time as any to be appreciated for the work they’ve done and do.

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Quarterly Review: Torche, Spillage, Pharlee, Dali’s Llama, Speedealer, Mt. Echo, Monocluster, Picaporters, Beaten by Hippies, Luna Sol

Posted in Reviews on July 3rd, 2019 by JJ Koczan

quarterly-review

We meet again. The Summer 2019 Quarterly Review. It’s four in the morning and I’m getting ready to start the day. I haven’t even managed to pour myself coffee yet, which even as I type it out feels like a crime against humanity, such as it is. I’ll get there though.

Wednesday in the Quarterly Review marks the halfway point of the week, and as we’ll hit 30 reviews at the end, it’s half of the total 60 as well, so yeah. Feeling alright so far. As always, good music helps. I’ve added a couple things for consideration to my ongoing best-of-the-year list for December, so that’s something. And I think I’ll probably be doing so again today, so let’s get to it.

Quarterly Review #21-30:

Torche, Admission

torche admission

15 years later and Torche‘s sound is still expanding. To that point, it’s never sounded quite as expansive as it does on Admission, their fifth album and second for Relapse behind 2015’s Restarter (review here). There are still plenty of straight-ahead heavy riffs on cuts like “Reminder” or “Slide” or the bomb-tone-laden “Infierno,” but in the title-track, in “Times Missing,” the closer “Changes Come,” “Slide” and even the 1:30-long “What Was,” there’s a sense of spaciousness and float to the guitars to contrast all that crunch, and it effectively takes the place of some of the manic feel of their earlier work. It’s consistent with the brightness of their melodies in songs like “Extremes of Consciousness” and the early pusher “Submission,” and it adds to their style rather than takes away, building on the mid-paced feel of the last album in such a way as to demonstrate the band’s continued growth long after they’d be well within their rights to rest on their laurels. Sharp, consistent in its level of songwriting, mature and engaging across its 36-minute entirety, Admission is everything one might ask of Torche‘s fifth album.

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Relapse Records website

 

Spillage, Blood of Angels

spillage blood of angels

If you, like me, believe doom to be the guardian style of classic heavy metal — you could also argue power metal there, but that’s why it’s an argument — Chicago’s Spillage might be the band to help make your case. With their own Ronnie James Dio in Elvin Rodriguez (not a comparison I make lightly) and a connection to the Trouble family tree via founding guitarist Tony Spillman, who also played in Earthen Grave, the band unfurl trad-metal poise throughout their 53-minute second album, Blood of Angels, hitting touchstones like Sabbath, Priest, and indeed Trouble on a chugger like “Free Man,” a liberal dose of organ on “Rough Grooved Surface” adding to the classic feel — Rainbow, maybe? — and even the grandiose ballad “Voice of Reason” that appears before the closing Sabbath cover “Dirty Women” staying loyal to the cause. I can’t and won’t fault them for that, as in both their originals and in the cover, their hearts are obviously in it all the way and the sound is right on, the sleek swing in the second half of “Evil Doers” punctuated by squealing guitar just as it should be. Mark it a win for the forces of metal, maybe less so for the angels.

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Pharlee, Pharlee

pharlee pharlee

San Diego strikes again with Pharlee‘s self-titled debut on Tee Pee Records, a 29-minute boogie rock shove that’s marked out by the significant pipes of Macarena Rivera up front, the shuffling snare work of Zack Oakley (also guitar in JOY and Volcano) and the organ work of Garret Lekas throughout, winding around and accentuating the riffs of Justin “Figgy” Figueroa and the air-push bass of Dylan Donovan. It’s a proven formula by now, but Pharlee‘s Pharlee is like the band who comes on stage in the middle of the festival and surprises everyone and reminds them why they’re there in the first place. The energy of “Darkest Hour” is infectious, and the bluesier take on Freddie King‘s “Going Down” highlights a stoner shred in Figueroa‘s guitar that fits superbly ahead of the fuzz freakout, all-go closer “Sunward,” and whatever stylistic elements (and personnel, for that matter) might be consistent with their hometown’s well-populated underground, Pharlee take that radness and make it their own.

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Tee Pee Records website

 

Dali’s Llama, Mercury Sea

dalis llama mercury sea

Long-running desert rockers Dali’s Llama return with Mercury Sea, their first release since 2017’s The Blossom EP (review here) and their first full-length since 2016’s Dying in the Sun (review here), sounding reinvigorated in rockers like opener “Weary” and the subsequent grunge-vibing “Choking on the Same,” “When Ember Laughs” and the garage-style “She’s Not Here.” Persistently underappreciated, their albums always have a distinct feel, and Mercury Sea is no different, finding a place for itself between the laid-back desert blues and punkier fare on a cut like “Someday, Someday,” even delving into psychedelic folk for a while in the 6:54 longest track “Goblin Fruit,” and a bit of lead guitar scorch bringing it all together on closer “All My Fault,” highlighting the theme of love that’s been playing out all the while. The sincerity behind that and everything Dali’s Llama does is palpable as ever in these 11 tracks, an more than 25 years on from their inception, they continue to deliver memorable songs in wholly unpretentious fashion. That’s just what they do.

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Speedealer, Blue Days Black Nights

speedealer blue days black nights

Speedealer ride again! And just about at top speed, too. The Dallas, Texas, outfit were last heard from circa 2003, and their turnabout is marked with the self-release of Blue Days Black Nights, a fury-driven 10-tracker that takes the best of their heavy-rock-via-punk delivery and beefs up tones to suit another decade and a half’s worth of hard living and accumulated disaffection. The Dallas four-piece blaze through songs like “Never Knew,” the hardcore-punk “Losing My Shit,” the more metallic “Nothing Left to Say,” and the careening aggro-swagger of “Rheumatism,” but there’s still some variety to be had throughout, as highlight “Sold Out,” “War Nicht Genung” and “Shut Up” find the band no less effective working at a somewhat scaled-back pace. However fast they’re going, though the attitude remains much the same, and it’s “fuck you fuck this” fuckall all the way. Those familiar with their past work would expect no less, and time has clearly not repaired the chip on Speedealer‘s shoulder. Their anger is our gain.

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Mt. Echo, Cirrus

mt echo cirrus

Based in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, the instrumentalist four-piece Mt. Echo present a somewhat noisier take on Russian Circles-style heavy post-rock with their nine-song/46-minute debut, Cirrus. Not at all shy about incorporating a noise rock riff or a more weighted groove, the dual-guitar outfit nonetheless spend significant time patiently engaged in the work of atmosphere-building, so that their material develops a genuine ebb and flow as songs tie one into the next to give the entire affair a whole-album feel. It is their first outing, but all the more striking for that in terms of how much of a grip they seem to have on their approach and what they want to be doing in a song like “Lighthouse at the End of Time” with airy lead and chugging rhythm guitars intertwining and meeting head-on for post-YOB crashes and an eventual turn into a harder-pushing progression. Ambience comes (mostly) to the fore in the seven-minute “Monsters and the Men Who Made Them,” but wherever they go on Cirrus, Mt. Echo bring that atmospheric density along with them. The proverbial ‘band to watch.’

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Monocluster, Ocean

Monocluster Ocean

Over the course of five longform tracks on Ocean, Germany’s Monocluster build fluidly on the accomplishments of their 2015 self-titled debut (review here), greatly expanding on the heft and general reach of their sound while, as opener “Ocean in Our Bones” demonstrates, still holding onto the ability to affect a killer hook when they need one. Ocean is not a minor undertaking at 56 minutes, but it dedicates its time to constructing a world in cuts like “Leviathan” and “A Place Beyond,” the giant wall of fuzzed low end becoming the backdrop for the three-part story being told that ends with the 11:43 “Home” standing alone, as graceful and progressive as it is brash and noisy — a mirror in that regard to the nine-minute centerpiece “Guns and Greed” and a fitting summation of Ocean‘s course. They keep this up for very long and people are going to start to notice. The album is a marked step forward from where Monocluster were a few years ago, and sets up the expectation of continued growth their next time out while keeping a focus on the essential elements of songwriting as well. If we’re looking for highlights, I’d pick “Leviathan,” but honestly, it’s anyone’s game.

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Picaporters, XXIII

picaporters xxiii

The third full-length from Argentine trio Picaporters marks another level of achievement for them as a band. XXIII arrives three years after El Horror Oculto (review here) and is unquestionably their broadest-cast spectrum to-date. The album comes bookended by eight-minute opener “La Soga de los Muertos” and “M.I.,” an 18-minute finale jam that would give a Deep Purple live record reason to blush. Soulful guitar stretches out over a vast rhythmic landscape, and all this after “Jinetes del Universo” motorpunks out and “Vencida” pulls together Floydian melo-prog, “Numero 5” precedes the closer with acoustic interplay and the early “Despertar” offers a little bit of everything and a lot of what-the-hell-just-happened. These guys started out on solid footing with their 2013 debut, Elefantes (review here), but neither that nor El Horror Oculto really hinted at the scope they’d make sound so natural throughout XXIII, which is the kind of record that leaves you no choice but to call it progressive.

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Beaten by Hippies, Beaten by Hippies

beaten by hippies beaten by hippies

As their moniker hints, there’s some edge of danger to Belgium’s Beaten by Hippies‘ self-titled debut (on Polderrecords), but the album ultimately resolves itself more toward songwriting and hooks in the spirit of a meaner-sounding Queens of the Stone Age in songs like “Space Tail” and “More is More,” finding common ground with the energy of Truckfighters though never quite delving so far into fuzzy tones. That’s not at all to the band’s detriment — rather, it helps the four-piece begin to cast their identity as they do in this material, whether that’s happening in the volatile sudden volume trades in “Dust” or the mission statement “Rock ‘n’ Roll,” which feels geared a bit to the anthemic but would probably work just as well in whatever pub they happen to be terrorizing on a given evening. Their delivery skirts the line between heavy and hard rock as only that vaguely commercially viable European-style can, but the songs are right there waiting to take the stage at whatever festival is this weekend and blow the roof — or the sky, I guess, if it’s outdoors — off the place.

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Polderrecords website

 

Luna Sol, Below the Deep

luna sol below the deep

Guitarist/vocalist Dave Angstrom may be best known in heavy rock circles for his work alongside John Garcia in Hermano, but in leading the four-piece Luna Sol through their 12-song/50-minute sophomore outing, Below the Deep (on Slush Fund Recordings), he proves a capable frontman as well as songwriter. Sharing vocal duties with bassist Shannon Fahnestock while David Burke handles guitar and Justin Baier drums, Angstrom is a steady presence at the fore through the well-constructed ’90s-flavored heavy rock of “Below the Deep” and “Along the Road” early, the later “Garden of the Gods” playing toward a more complex arrangement after the strutting “The Dying Conglomerate” paints a suitably grim State of the Union and ahead of the fuzz-rich ending in “Home,” which keeps its melodic purpose even as it crashes out to its languid finish. Whether it’s the charged “Man’s Worth Killin'” or the winding fuzz of “Mammoth Cave,” one can definitely hear some Hermano at work, but Luna Sol distinguish themselves just the same.

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Dali’s Llama, The Blossom: Cast in Sand

Posted in Reviews on June 1st, 2017 by JJ Koczan

dali's llama the blossom

Its cover art might be purple, but the heart of the new Dali’s Llama EP, The Blossom, is all blue. As in, the blues, and the having of them. It’s virtually impossible for me to listen to the band or even see their name without the word “underappreciated” coming to mind, so let’s get that out of the way first — they’re underappreciated — and having said that, they here offer three songs and 18 minutes of new material through their own Dali’s Llama Records and push even further into DIY with guitarist/vocalist Zach Huskey sharing in the recording duties as well.

That’s a departure in itself from last year’s grimly-titled Dying in the Sun (review here), which like the bulk of Dali’s Llama‘s prolific string of releases was helmed by Scott Reeder (KyussThe ObsessedFireball Ministry). Reeder plays a role on The Blossom as well, sharing a recording credit with Huskey for closer “Bacteria,” while Huskey and Mike Jacobson recorded opener “Longtime Woman” (video here) and middle track “Like I Do,” which is probably as close to a general mission statement as Dali’s Llama have ever come. To wit, the lines, “Don’t wanna hear about your trips around the world/I don’t have your money, fame, or dozens of girls/But that don’t mean I lose/I just wanna live like I do,” sum up the general attitude with which the band would seem to approach the world around them; a fervent individuality very much indicative of their home in the Californian desert. Dali’s Llama, in other words, know who they are, and they know why.

Granted, with The Blossom as their 13th release, that should be the case. They’re nothing if not experienced when it comes to songwriting and being in the studio, but it says something about the creative will of Huskey — joined in the band by bassist/vocalist Erica Huskey, guitarist Joe Wangler and drummer Craig Brown — that they continue to try new things as well, like stepping into the recording process. While 2007-2012 found them releasing a new album about every year, Dying in the Sun followed four years after 2012’s Autumn Woods (review here), and with a quick turnaround, it leads one to speculate if The Blossom signals a boost in productivity to come.

dali's llama

Either way, it’s a relatively quick listen that, in addition to being bluesy, emphasizes the low-key vibe that has persistently worked so well in Dali’s Llama‘s material. Zach retains some light punker root in his vocals, but the groove is all laid back in “Longtime Woman” and “Like I Do,” which feel very much of a pair, with the former rolling out a groove not unlike some that pervaded the band’s Halloween-party-esque 2010 outing, Howl Do You Do? (review here), while the latter steps forth its un-aggro righteousness in a riff-led, barroom-ready shuffle early before giving into solo-topped lumbering for the bulk of its second half. Each of the first two songs has a hook to offer and finds Dali’s Llama locked into a jammy spirit, hitting on either side of the seven-minute mark — “Longtime Woman” in addition to opening is the longest track at 7:06 (immediate points), while “Like I Do” checks in at 6:43 — and working fluidly one into the next to set up the turn of approach that arrives with “Bacteria” (4:44) rounding out.

While “Bacteria” is by no means Dali’s Llama‘s first acoustic-centered track — Autumn Woods finished with the mostly-unplugged desert grunge of “Resolved” as well — the mood is particularly intimate, with the lyrics, “I’m getting older/No one wants to look at me anymore/Bacteria/They just go and wash their hands of me,” cloaking perhaps a bit of introspection in some clever wordplay. The shift from “Longtime Woman” and “Like I Do” is immediate, with the downward-sloping bounce of the centerpiece giving way to plucked notes that make it easy to imagine Huskey and Reeder working alone in dim lighting at the latter’s The Sanctuary studio. Some reverb on Huskey‘s vocals adds presence, but the underlying impression is still one of rawer emotionalism, and where “Resolved” incorporated a late electrified solo, it’s worth noting that “Bacteria” stays quiet for its duration, some backing percussion deep in the mix as it moves toward ending on its title line, capping The Blossom on a resonant and somewhat surprising note.

A band 13 releases in and offering the unexpected? One more reason I can’t say their name without the immediate word-association of “underappreciated” springing to mind. Dali’s Llama may remain the desert’s best kept secret when it comes to songwriting, but like they do, they’ll keep moving forward anyway, and while parts of “Longtime Woman” and “Like I Do” feel like they’re playing to the band’s strengths, the jammier feel also shows the chemistry the four-piece have developed over their time with this lineup around Zach and Erica, and while that may or may not be a path they’ll continue to walk — they’ve been known every now and again to veer into experimental outings like the aforementioned Howl do You Do? — it makes for an engaging short release that, like the many offerings surrounding it in Dali’s Llama‘s catalog, is a treasure waiting to be discovered.

Dali’s Llama, The Blossom (2017)

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Dali’s Llama Premiere “Longtime Woman” Video

Posted in Bootleg Theater on March 20th, 2017 by JJ Koczan

dali's llama

Prolific and perennially underappreciated desert rockers Dali’s Llama will have a new EP out on April 29. Dubbed The Blossom, it follows behind last year’s Dying in the Sun (review here) and a long string of offerings that, at this point, goes back nearly a quarter-century around the work of guitarist/vocalist Zach Huskey and bassist Erica Huskey. The band have been ones for pretense, and their sound, while varied from release to release, seems to be resting on its core of warm-sunned heavy blues rock in the track “Longtime Woman,” for which you can see the video premiering below. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they went out to the desert to make it.

For my money — and mind you, it’s not like Dali’s Llama are charging per view on “Longtime Woman” or anything — the most telling moment of the entire clip is at the very end. The dreadlocked desert hippie lady has disappeared, and the band has stopped playing. No more shenanigans. The song is over. The final shot of the clip is Zach and Erica, taking a nap on a blanket laying on the ground. That, my friends, would seem to be what it’s all about — in terms of this song, the band as a whole and, you know, life. Who could ask for anything more than that out of existence?

I’m going to look forward to hearing the rest of The Blossom as I always do to hearing from Dali’s Llama. If you haven’t seen it, make sure you check out Joerg Steineck‘s Lo Sound Desert documentary (review here), in which they feature considerably. I’ve said in the past that they deserve to have their own doc telling their story, and maybe they’ll get there, but in the meantime, Lo Sound Desert gives a good overview. For sure it’s worth digging into when you’re done with the premiere of “Longtime Woman” below.

One more time, Dali’s Llama release The Blossom on April 29.

Enjoy:

Dali’s Llama, “Longtime Woman” official video

Video for “Longtime Woman”, a new song off of our forthcoming release “The Blossom EP”. Filmed out in a remote part of our desert. Twenty-four years and still DIY. Hope you dig it!

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