Posted in Whathaveyou on May 31st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Party in the desert, right? Certainly looks that way as the inaugural and maybe-one-time-only Burque Rock City Fest adds Dead Meadow, Greenbeard, Abrams, SuperGiant, Violet Rising and THC Worm to complete its lineup. SuperGiant are local to Albuquerque — which is the ‘Burque’ in ‘Burque City,’ where the fest is happening — this Aug. 4-5, and the first three names are familiar, but I admit I can’t find any info on Violet Rising and as this is my first time hearing/hearing of THC Worm, I’ve included the Bandcamp stream of their Dec. 2022 debut, Dead Horse Incubator, in case you’d also like to be introduced. As one might expect, it’s pretty over the top.
In the end — and I’ll note that there’s still two months to go before the festival actually takes place, so ‘end’ is relative — the lineup here is pretty solid for a lower-key take on what the same crew normally puts together for Monolith on the Mesa. A representative showing set in a different context. If this is a pivot to building something new, they certainly have the contacts, infrastructure and reach to do so, but if it’s a placeholder until 2024, it’s a badass one just the same. If you headed out, I think you probably know what’s coming, and if not, please see the first sentence above.
From the PR wire:
BURQUE ROCK CITY ANNOUNCE FINAL LINEUP!
Burque Rock City Is Happy To Announce The Full Lineup Of Bands For August 4th & 5th Downtown ABQ At The Historic El Rey Theater & Insideout Bar
Burque Rock City Would Love to Welcome: Dead Meadow * Greenbeard * Abrams * Supergiant * Violet Rising * THC Worm
Completing the Amazing Lineup with Previously Announced Bands:
Weedeater * Pike Vs The Automaton * Belzebong * Early Moods * High Desert Queen * Thunder Horse * Sorcia * Prism Bitch * Coma Revovery * Brant Bjork * Yawning Balch * Year of the Cobra * Fatso Jetson * Electric Citizen * Tenderizor * Street Tombs * Red Mesa * Ojo Malo * Nomestomper
Roman Barham, co-founder of Monolith on the Mesa, has been quietly working on Burque Rock City Fest.
Barham says:
“Monolith On The Mesa crew would love to thank everyone who helped make Monolith 2022 an awesome fest. Huge thanks from The Taos Mesa Brewery crew, the Hotel Luna Mystica crew and to all the very respectful patrons that came out and made Monolith On The Mesa 2022 an amazing tribute to our fallen brother Dano Sanchez (deceased Monolith co-founder).
We have decided to take a year off from Monolith and bring it back in 2024 to Taos Mesa Brewery.
Branching south from the Monolith On The Mesa tree is Burque Rock City Fest in Albuquerque, NM At The Historic El Rey Theater & Insideout Bar On Friday August 4th & Saturday August 5th 2023.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 17th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
The title tells you what’s happening here. Dead Meadow are taking formed, coherent riffs and progressions, and pushing them into unbounded places. Some of that means jamming and some of it means psychedelic melancholy, but either way, Force Form Free is not exactly a standard album so much as a kind of outsider collection that invariably shares aspects with their other studio work while carving its own place in their discography. It’s not quite the Dead Meadow you’re used to, but then again, what’s that mean anyhow?
Force Form Free was/is an installment in PostWax Vol. II, for which I did the liner notes, and arrives to the broader public on Dec. 9. They’ve got a video up now for “The Left Hand Path,” and it gives a suitable showcase for some of the record’s more out-there aspects. You’ll like it. It’ll be fine.
DEAD MEADOW to release new album “Force Form Free” on Blues Funeral Recordings; first track and preorder available!
US psychedelic rock luminaries DEAD MEADOW unveil all details for their new album “Force Form Free” to be issued first as part of Blues Funeral Recordings’ revered PostWax series, and then as a worldwide standalone release on December 9th. First track “The Left Hand Path” and preorders are available now!
Formed in the fall of 1998, DEAD MEADOW emerged from the Washington, D.C. indie/punk scene to fuse their love of early ’70s hard rock and ’60s psychedelics into a unique marriage of dreamy guitar-fuzz bliss and stoney riffs. Over the course of seven studio albums, three live records and a Peel Session, they incorporated darker eastern influences and increasingly dense and hypnotic layering as they toured such far-reaching places as Russia and Australia and performed at renowned festivals including Roadburn and Levitation fest. They’ve become an inarguable pillar of the modern heavy psych movement alongside contemporaries like Black Mountain, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard and the Black Angels.
In 2021, they began work on a collection of jams and experiments for Blues Funeral Recordings’ PostWax series, working up a disparate yet cohesive group of songs that placed new works alongside the culmination of ideas they’d been tinkering with since the band’s genesis. The result of these efforts is “Force Form Free”, a spacey and dreamy record at times, grimly propulsive at others, and which captures Dead Meadow continuing their effortless exploration of the transporting, astral-gazing form they’ve spent their entire existence pushing forward.
Watch Dead Meadow’s trippy new video “The Left Hand Path.”
About the song, guitarist and vocalist Jason Simon comments: “The Left Hand Path starts out ‘Force Form Free’ and in fact, it was written with this in mind. It serves as a statement of purpose of sorts for this unhurried and exploratory record. I find it reminiscent of the long guitar-driven drones of “Shivering King and Others”. There’s something cleansing and soothing in the swirling sea of fuzz and the repetitive dirge-like nature of the song. We want to clear a space in the listener’s head for their mind to wander and create, for the listener to paint their own mental pictures influenced by the sounds and the songs. The title itself refers to the less traveled often-maligned spiritual path that favors self-willed action and creativity over traditional dogma and belief, though in this case, it also serves as a symbol of the road less traveled, which I’ve often found to be the far more interesting route to take.”
New album “Force Form Free” will be available worldwide on December 9th, 2022 (with the ultra-limited PostWax edition shipping this October to PostWax Vol. II subscribers) on various vinyl formats and limited digipack CD. Preorder on
It was raining last night when I left the Knockdown Center. Pouring, actually. I had parked in the venue’s lot, which I may or may not be allowed to do, but no one said no, so there it is. Two cars were parked in tight formation behind me and on either side.
Got that picture? Looking at it from above, you had two cards that were like the top of a Y, but straight, and I was the bottom. I walked out behind two dudes and asked them for the massive favor of guiding me out of that spot, which they did, in the rain. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. Completely above and beyond. They stood there in the rain and made sure I got out without hitting either of the other cars. If it was you, and you’re reading this, get in touch, because I can’t even tell you how much that meant to me. Nothing says community more than shit like that.
Slept an extra hour or so this morning, though my body still thinks 6:30 is sleeping in even though it was nearly 2AM by the time I went to bed. Coffee, shower, shave the nascent neckbeard, water, protein bar, try to feel human. As refreshing as it’s been to live music for a couple full days, I don’t feel out of line saying I’m exhausted and will appreciate the earlier finish tonight. I finished the macadamia butter yesterday, but ground up a bunch of hazelnuts and brought that in some tupperware for the car, had a few bites on the way in. Life-giving. No salt, no nothing. Just dry roasted nuts, smoother than not — enough to bring out the oil — but still with a bit of natural texture. Beautiful.
It’s summer today. Sun’s out, it’s hot, and I’m sitting outside at the Knockdown Center by the food trucks, kind of half in the shade. I managed yesterday to hydrate really well. Today that will be even more important. I woke up this morning with a sorer throat than I expected, gave myself two covid home tests, both decidedly negative. Nice to know for sure.
Doors in about 20 minutes, first band an hour after that.
Greenbeard
This might be the perfect weather for a Greenbeard show. Sun’s out, it’s warm and humid enough to sweat but not totally overbearing, and up from Austin, the four-piece were an immediate rager. Their new record has a good mix of melodic and harder-driving stuff, riff-led but branching out in the way of desert-style heavy and soul, and they brought some of that to what was a pretty quick set, but along the way had time to list “some of their favorite things” in “Don’t Get Too Desperate,” including queso in a list that would do “Feel Good Hit of the Summer” proud. The party vibe was immediate, really even before they went on, but when they hit it, there was no warmup, no give-it-a-minute-and-see-where-it-goes. Greenbeard play heavy rock and roll like it’s this crazy new thing they just made up and you need to hear it right now. And it felt good to recognize songs from their new album, Variant, even if they were considerably rawer live.
—
Left Lane Cruiser
Other than a few basic factoids like they’re signed to Alive Records and they’re from Indiana and having seen their name around a bunch, I knew very little going into Left Lane Cruiser’s set. I expected bluesy, given the chair on stage and the low drums. Washboard, slide guitar, dude rambling between songs most unintelligible. So yes, bluesy, in a hard-boogie kind of way. Fiery energy, light on frills but with a marked lean into cultural appropriation. Maybe just not my thing, but I felt like guitarist/vocalist Fredrick “Joe” Evans IV laid on the Bayou banter a little thick. Wabba dabba baggle clabby. They hit it though, and I’ll give respect to both the energy and the washboard, which was soon enough used to crash through cymbals on the drum kit. It was what it was, and maybe I’ve got race on my mind because of that terrorist shooting in Buffalo, but for as much as they burned, I was left kind of cold. It’s a packed weekend. They aren’t all going to resonate.
—
Mother Iron Horse
These guys jumped from Electric Valley Records to Ripple Music for last year’s ‘Under the Blood Moon,’ and very much compatriot to Leather Lung in my mind perhaps because I saw the two together in 2019 at the much-missed Ode to Doom in Manhattan. Maybe they’re friends. Maybe they hang out on weekends, I don’t know. Even their soundcheck drew people in though, and that crowd did not dissipate when the actual set started. The band plays both kind of music, sludge and rock, and they’re unrepentant in their aggression. They made it easy though to get down with that in the side room, which grew more and more crowded as the set went on, until, finally, the heat reminded me that I very much needed to refill my water bottle. They introduced themselves though by saying, “We’re Mother Iron Horse and a woman’s body is her own fucking business.” Both true, even if the latter was less immediately relevant to the set. I have to think Samuel Alito probably wouldn’t get it had he shown up for Desertfest, but fuck him anyway. Good to know where Mother Iron Horse stand though, and more heavy bands need to be unafraid to say shit like that.
—
Big Business
On the other hand, Big Business started their set by asking who was ready for a pizza party. Duh, everyone. A very West Coast foreshadow of Red Fang to come. I couldn’t tell you the last time I saw Big Business live, but it was probably a Melvins show, if that gives you a general idea. Jared and Coady — which I call them because they’re buds; we talk sometimes, and no that is not at all true — have their thing, and they’re veterans, and they played like it. I was dragging ass, admittedly, but I don’t think I’ve heard Big Business in the last decade and not felt like I need to listen to them more. Today is no different, and thinking of bands who came up around the same time in the early to mid ’00s, they’ve held up better than many and remained true to their ethic. You got an awesome bassist and an awesome drummer and if the central thesis is that’s all you need, well, there are probably a few two-guitar acts in this lineup who’d argue, but I wouldn’t, especially not after watching them play. Good band. Maybe a bit taken for granted, but they’ve only busted their ass for the last 20 years.
—
Stinking Lizaveta
The band I was most looking forward to today. Knew what I was getting, have seen them on multiple prior occasions, and was still astonished. They played as a four-piece with Paul Webb on second guitar, which let Yanni Papadopoulos shred and bounce and move wherever the very precise plan that’s in a language no one else quite understands called for him to go. They’re instrumental, but he, bassist Alexi Papadopoulos and drummer Cheshire Agusta all got on mic at some point between songs. Beyond that, the only vocals were through Yanni’s pickups and various woops and shouts while they played, and they were unreal. Radiating joy all the while, they proceeded to shred common concepts like what’s a song and which way is up and who’s rock and roll anyhow like they were so much fog from the smoke machine, each of them a genuine hero on their instrument and so tight together and so dynamic that each change brought new wonders. The word is unfuckwithable, and that is what they are. Not a single second was misspent, and they were so fucking good and their energy was so infectious that by the time they were done I wasn’t even tired anymore.
—
Dead Meadow
Feels wrong to think of Dead Meadow as the kings of mellow psych, if only because I doubt mellow psych is a monarchy. Whatever system of government the genre might be and whether you tag them as shoegaze or heavy psych or drift psych or anything else that might apply to a given languid measure, they’re masters of it. They eased their way into the proceedings with a jam and had some sound issues — bass cut out early, was fixed quickly — but they got into it with their trademark style, a kind of fascinated serenity set to groove. It’s still daylight, which feels weird somehow, and the weather remains gorgeous, but the crowd filed in once they got going and it was dead quiet in between the songs (after the applause, etc.) as those in front of the stage eagerly awaited the next dose of sweet fuzz that would emanate from it. Another act who’ve stood time’s test by understanding who they are and what they want to do in stage and in their songwriting. Mostly they want you to chill the hell out. And to aid in that cause, Dead Meadow are totally willing to close with “Sleepy Silver Door,” which is only right and proper. A band you always expect to be kind of a wreck based on how they sound but who are sneaky reliable. And oh, that jam…
—
High Reeper
If the phrase “fucking a” was a band, it’d be High Reeper. My first time seeing them live, and they were nastier than on their records but that’s certainly not a problem at this point in the weekend. A good kick in the ass is certainly justified. Crazy one two three to this part of the day, with Stinking Lizaveta, Dead Meadow and High Reeper, who play heavy rock but have a metal middle finger in the air just the same. Hot and humid in that room even with the door open and that suited High Reeper well, as one of my earplugs came partway out and the result was immediately painful. They’re of a whole cohort on Heavy Psych Sounds — see also: Duel, maybe Hippie Death Cult who signed around the same time — and you can hear their point of view taking shape in their sound. That is to say, it has taken shape and while “refine” isn’t the right word for something so brazen, after seeing them I’m left with no doubt they’ll continue to push themselves deeper into the emergent definition of their approach. If Greenbeard were the party — and they were — then High Reeper were the fight that breaks out after everyone is smashed.
—
Red Fang
Two and a half pandemic years later, you can still set your watch by Red Fang’s ability to kick ass. They launched their set with a barrage from across multiple albums and even when they “settled” into it they were explosive. Like Torche, High on Fire still to come, like Big Business earlier, this is an established act, professional, and they put on a professional show. They played “Number Thirteen,” which even with “Wires” and the requisite closer “Prehistoric Dog” would’ve been enough for me on its own, and the place went off. Of course it did. Not at all a surprise, but a definite reaffirmation of their place, which has always been on a stage. I don’t mind telling you that on an existential level, I am very much feeling the early finish tonight, but even so, having Red Fang on right before High on Fire on the main stage makes sense in a way the world hasn’t made sense in what feels like even longer than it actually has been. They’re a band that indoctrinated people into this sound in the first place, and as veterans, they reminded me at least of what a force they can be at their best.
—
Telekinetic Yeti
Oh my. You like tone? Telekinetic Yeti has some tone, and I’m fairly certain it was coming through three Orange full stacks. Statistically significant weight in those riffs. Obviously that’s the idea, and the Midwestern duo, who had an ugly split after their first record that seems to have abated with the addition of a new drummer, play it chunky style. They’re signed to Tee Pee, so there’s a New York connection, and they brought flood lights to counter the encroaching night. I’ve heard a lot of heavy shit this weekend — a lot — but beyond Torche’s bomb string, I’m not sure there’s much to stand up to Telekinetic Yeti in terms of sheer heft. Gonna need a forklift for those riffs, bro. New album in July will be one to dig into. If they managed to capture half of what they used to fill that side room for their headlining spot, it’ll be the kind of thing that’ll blow your speakers. “Stoned & Feathered,” man. Frickin’ “Abominable.” Goodness.
—
High on Fire
There is likely no hyperbole left that has not been said at some point in their more-than-20-year career. They are a juggernaut, they are marauders, they are both the unstoppable force and the immovable object. They are the single axe swing that takes your head off clean, first time. Speaking of first time, I’d yet to see them with Coady Willis on drums. I was always a Des Kensel fan. Dude had a style of play that was all his own. Willis, though, is a fucking monster. He not only handles the older parts but owns them, makes them his own, and executes the material with a vitality that pushes into aerobics. He and Jeff Matz as a rhythm section are well matched and crushing in kind. And what of Matt “For President” Pike? He is the master of ceremonies at the Red Wedding. High on Fire were so intense they were in a league completely of their own. Genre doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. Their volume was consuming — loudest of the day, I think, which may be by design — and their ferocity unmatched. As extreme as Desertfest got with some of the more death metal-style stuff, I feel like High on Fire added extra blast to their attack tonight and it was every bit as glorious as one could hope. The perfect ending in that nothing could hope to follow it.
—
Other Random Observations:
– Good music makes life better. Great music makes life great.
– The Yankees have been away all weekend and I suspect that’s made the drives in from NJ easier. Fortunate.
– Lunar eclipse tonight. Feels about right.
– I think I might end everything I ever write about Dead Meadow from here on out with an ellipses.
– Counted no fewer than four Obelisk shirts today, including one on Yanni from Stinking Lizaveta, which was truly humbling. Sleeveless, no less.
– Thanks for reading.
I did get to watch some of that eclipse on my way home. Imagine that for a second. Incredible. More pics after the jump.
Gadzooks! You’d almost think I planned these things out in advance. Please rest assured that this 84th episode of The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal is as conceptually haphazard as usual — I’d say it’s as haphazard in execution as well, but Dean Rispler does a banger job putting it all together, editing, etc. — so it’s really just my end that’s a wreck. In any case, today begins Desertfest New York 2022 proper at the Knockdown Center in Brooklyn, and I’m thrilled to have this playlist as a selection from among the bands playing it.
Some are New York or area natives — Geezer, King Buffalo from Upstate, Somnuri from Brooklyn itself — but whether it’s WarHorse coming down from Boston to play or High on Fire, Brume, Red Fang, Dead Meadow, Sasquatch and others coming from the other side of the country to Orange Goblin making the trip from the UK, it’s a rager. The playlist is killer because the fest is killer. Simple as that.
I won’t be in the chat this time because, well, I’ll be at the fest, but I’ll check in if I can. Thanks if you listen, and thanks for reading.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at: http://gimmemetal.com.
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 05.13.22
Corrosion of Conformity
Deliverance
Deliverance
Torche
Mentor
Torche
High on Fire
Hung, Drawn & Quartered
Surrounded by Thieves
VT1
John Garcia
Chicken Delight
John Garcia & The Band of Gold
Sasquatch
It Lies Beyond the Bay
Fever Fantasy
Dead Meadow
Sleepy Silver Door
Live at Roadburn 2011
Brume
Despondence
Rabbits
Red Fang
Number Thirteen
Murder the Mountains
Somnuri
Watch the Lights Go Out
Nefarious Wave
King Buffalo
The Knocks
The Burden of Restlessness
Orange Goblin
They Come Back (Harvest of Skulls)
Healing Through Fire
VT2
Inter Arma
A Waxen Sea
Sulphur English
WarHorse
Lysergic Communion
As Heaven Turns to Ash
Yatra
Terminate by the Sword
Born Into Chaos
Valley of the Sun
The Chariot
The Chariot
Druids
Path to R
Shadow Work
High Reeper
Plague Hag
Higher Reeper
Greenbeard
Diamond in the Devil’s Grinder
Variant
VT3
Geezer
Atomic Moronic
Stoned Blues Machine
Howling Giant
Nomad
The Space Between Worlds
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is May 27 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 14th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
You don’t need much more here than the list of bands, which is its own excuse for being. Italian label Heavy Psych Sounds returns to the States at the end of next month with Heavy Psych Sounds Fests in Los Angeles and San Francisco. With the day-splits announced, you get a little more sense of how the two nights in two cities will function (it’s not an insignificant drive from one to the other, mind you) and share bands, but any way you go, you don’t lose, whether you’re looking at Dead Meadow and Weedeater headlining, the appearances of long-running acts like 16 and Danava and Nebula, or relative newcomers in Kadabra or Mountain Tamer and others from the label’s ever-expanding roster of talent.
It’s a fucking solid two day lineup. Doesn’t look completely overwhelming. Looks like a party, which is exactly what I expect it will be for those fortunate enough to be in attendance. Maybe that’s you. If so, cheers. I hear Bongzilla like it if you bring them weed.
From the PR wire:
HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST CALIFORNIA 2022 – DAY SPLITS LINE UP
– feat. DEAD MEADOW, WEEDEATER, THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX, BONGZILLA, NEBULA, DANAVA and many more –
HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS in cooperation with SUBLIMINAL SF and SOS BOOKING present:
HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST CALIFORNIA 2022
28 & 29 May
(Memorial Day weekend)
LOS ANGELES @ 1720 Club
SATURDAY, MAY 28th
DEAD MEADOW DANAVA NEBULA HIPPIE DEATH CULT 16 KADABRA MOUNTAIN TAMER
SUNDAY, MAY 29th
WEEDEATER BONGZILLA THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX HIGH REEPER WARLUNG THE FREEKS JD PINKUS HIGH TON SON OF A BITCH
SAN FRANCISCO @ Openair at Thee Parkside
SATURDAY, MAY 28th
WEEDEATER BONGZILLA THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX HOT LUNCH HIGH REEPER WARLUNG JD PINKUS HIGH TON SON OF A BITCH
SUNDAY, MAY 29th
DEAD MEADOW DANAVA NEBULA HIPPIE DEATH CULT 16 KADABRA MOUNTAIN TAMER DISASTROID
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 12th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
God damn, Desertfest.
Importing Stoned Jesus, Green Lung, Planet of Zeus and Orange Goblin (as much as the latter count as an import; they’ve certainly been here before) to play alongside Baroness, High on Fire and Monster Magnet, Red Fang, C.O.C. and Torche?
That’s a big frickin’ deal.
If Desertfest NYC 2019 was a testing of waters to see if such a think could succeed and be feasible over a longer term, Desertfest NYC 2022 is an immediate play to become the preeminent heavy festival on the Eastern Seaboard of the US. To be a genuine Desertfest, in other words, of no less scale than Berlin, London, or Belgium. I’m glad to see Sasquatch and Fatso Jetson will be coming from the West Coast — I’d expect Fatso Jetson will be touring with Planet of Zeus, as that was supposed to happen in the long-long ago — and Somnuri are sure to represent NYC well and Stinking Lizaveta and High Reeper likewise for Philly, while The Atomic Bitchwax headlining the Vitus Bar pre-show warms my Garden Stater heart no end.
There are more to be announced (I have a couple picks of my own, not that anyone asked), but already this is the best heavy fest lineup for New York City in recent memory. It will be something special to behold. I hope there’s a photo pit at the Knockdown Center.
Behold Arik Roper‘s gorgeous poster art below, followed by the announcement:
Desertfest New York announces Baroness, High on Fire, Monster Magnet, Red Fang + more for second edition in 2022
Europe’s leading stoner rock collective Desertfest returns to New York in 2022.
Taking place in the unique arts space of the Knockdown Center from May 13th – May 15th, with an exclusive pre-party at Saint Vitus Bar on May 12th. Desertfest are firmly planting their feet back into New York’s underbelly with a mammoth line-up celebrating the very best of heavy music.
Welcoming home-grown talent such as BARONESS, MONSTER MAGNET, CORROSION OF CONFORMITY & TORCHE alongside acts from across the pond like Ukraine’s STONED JESUS, Greek groovers PLANET OF ZEUS & a debut US performance for English doom maestros GREEN LUNG, Desertfest NYC are pushing their second edition to new levels.
Saint Vitus kicks off proceedings as THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX, PLANET OF ZEUS, FATSO JETSON & DRUID warm up the engine for the weekend ahead. Followed by 3 monumental days as Knockdown Center hosts the likes of Grammy-award winning trio HIGH ON FIRE, British heavy metal icons ORANGE GOBLIN, a rock’n’roll bacchanal from RED FANG, insanity from INTER ARMA and much, much more.
4-day passes (includes access to Saint Vitus pre-party on Thursday 12th May) & 3-day passes (Knockdown Center only) are on sale now via the following link –https://desertfest.eventbrite.com
With more to be announced, including day splits, Desertfest are most certainly back with a bang. We highly recommend getting your tickets ASAP, don’t say we didn’t warn you…
Full Line-Up Knockdown Center May 13th – May 15th 2022 Baroness | High on Fire | Monster Magnet | Red Fang | Corrosion of Conformity | Torche | Orange Goblin | Dead Meadow | Inter Arma | Big Business | Green Lung | Stoned Jesus | Left Lane Cruiser | Sasquatch | Silvertomb | Telekentic Yeti | Stinking Lizaveta | High Reeper | Holy Death Trio | Yatra | Somnuri | Leather Lung
Saint Vitus Bar May 12th 2022 The Atomic Bitchwax | Planet of Zeus | Fatso Jetson | Druids
As clarions go, the opening riff of “Sleepy Silver Door” is as much a call to the converted as it is a call to convert. The lead track of Dead Meadow‘s 2000 self-titled debut, released by Joe Lally of Fugazi‘s Tolotta Records, has become a staple of the then-Washington D.C./now-L.A. outfit’s live work, and it was apparently enough in their heads that it received a reprise on their fourth album, Feathers, in 2005. It is a landmark riff, languid in rhythm, fuzzed to the nines and in a matter of seconds, it tells you much of what you need to know about the band.
As the microgenre of stoner rock was beginning to shape itself in the wake of Sleep and Kyuss‘ demise, the advent of Queens of the Stone Age and rise of Nebula and Fu Manchu out west (let alone what was happening in Europe or South America at the time), Dead Meadow managed to outdo the vast majority of their West Coast counterparts in terms of crafting a sound that was both mellow and heavy, and with Jason Simon‘s floating voice over the proceedings, they were as much shoegaze as psychedelic rock, as much indie as stoner. They made Dead Meadow in their practice space, and for the sounds they were making, anywhere else wouldn’t have worked the same.
There are few who can roll a groove as they do, and “Sleepy Silver Door” demonstrates that in its first minute as it moves into that willfully repetitive note of the verse. There are twists and turns to be had, but that root is always there, and with Steve Kille‘s bass and Mark Laughlin‘s popping snare and dirty hi-hat, the jammy feel is resonant but still so righteously heavy as the track takes off into its solo — long, jammed, eventually falling apart because who cares anyway man. “Indian Bones” picks up at a more immediate run and answers some of the opener’s repetition, but is more active and freak-crashes in its second half for a minute before getting its head back together, a formative janga-janga riff that’s still mellow with the push behind it.
The beginning pair make up about 14 minutes of the album’s total 44-minute runtime, so a not insignificant portion — “Sleepy Silver Door” is 7:31, and the only longer track is side B’s “Beyond the Fields We Know,” at 9:31 — but the dreamy, drifting vibe of “Dragonfly” that follows is a pointed chill kept together by the drums, like the sunshiniest of grunge but distinct in its purpose from what the ’90s had on offer a few years before, even at its most psychedelic. The bass, the drums. It’s a heavy tune, and fades out on a march to “Lady,” which rounds out the record’s first half like the reason wah pedals were invented.
Seriously, it’s dizzying. Eventually the track evens out, such as it is, and shuffles a bit in its second half, but the earlier stretch still comes across like the bastard son “Electric Funeral” never knew it had. In comparison, “GreenSky GreenLake” is positively clear-eyed, opening with a stretch of quiet guitar before unveiling its Hendrix-at-wrong-(or-right?)-RPM central figure, pausing before the bass and drums enter, keeping an exploratory feel as it plays out in linear, instrumentalist fashion. I don’t know if we’re ending up underwater or out in space there — what planet that lake is on, etc. — but I remain ready to submit a resume to work for their tourism board.
On the sundry vinyl editions that have shown up over the years — Planaria Records in 2001, the band’s own Xemu Records in 2013 and 2015, and so on — “GreenSky GreenLake” opens the second side, and on whatever format, it’s all the more notable for leading into the utter hypnosis that is “Beyond the Fields We Know,” which even 21 years later feels like someone did to time what Mad Alchemy does to lightshows. Loose enough to make “Sleepy Silver Door” sound like punk rock. And they, they get it going with the tambourine and the push and all that, but by the time they’re five minutes in and you’re hanging out there with Kille‘s bassline for company before Simon‘s guitar comes back and you’re wondering like what the hell happened I thought we were cool, it’s Dead Meadow‘s go-wherever jam getting one over again, because where they’re headed is back to the verse — a masterful turn that contradicts earlier departures from structure and reinforces the craft underlying all of the album’s songwriting elements. Maybe there has been a plan all along.
Like the shorter pairing of “Dragonfly” and “Lady,” on side A, Dead Meadow rounds out with “At the Edge of the Wood” and “Rocky Mountain High,” the former three and a half minutes of unashamed acid folk, acoustic strum and voice put to tape with a spirit that, if it wasn’t done live, is as much of an approximation of same as one could ask it to be, and the latter just over four minutes of tambourine-laced wah victory lapping, pushing vocals below weightier fuzz and pitting roll against boogie until the wash of melodic tonality takes us all into the wormhole off to who knows where. Find me a more fitting end to this record, I dare you.
In the context of when it came out — now some 21 years ago — Dead Meadow‘s Dead Meadow offered something different from much of the heavy rock of its time, and it, as well as 2001’s Howls From the Hills and 2003’s Shivering King and Others are essential documents of stand-apart turn of the century heavy. The band of course continue to deliver. They’ve got a new release coming out through PostWax, and their latest album was 2018’s The Nothing They Need (review here), a win to be sure, even as Simon has split time with solo work and other projects like Old Mexico. With steady reissues along the way — CD and tape in addition the vinyl already noted — Dead Meadow remains that relevant clarion it started as being, and maybe it ultimately feels so timeless because it is.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
—
Rough week with the kid home from school and still healing in the leg culminated yesterday with me getting pissed off and throwing a Lightning McQueen toy. The Pecan was adamant that I didn’t put his shorts on — yet he won’t go nap without them — and mommy do it mommy do it and I’d said I was doing it and so I was on the hook and when I put them on him he scratched and hit and kicked and even bit me which he hadn’t done in a while and then when he ran over to The Patient Mrs. after and pulled his shorts back off, I just lost it. Threw the toy, scared the kid, got his shorts back on and sent him upstairs to nap where he was consoled by his mother for 40 minutes before being left to go to sleep under his blanket. The dynamic in this house sucks right now and I think we all know it.
He and The Patient Mrs. are going to Connecticut for tonight and maybe part of tomorrow. I think I’m staying home to try and catch my head. Honestly, I’m hoping for a carbon monoxide leak or something like that so I can maybe just kind of pass out on the couch and not wake up and everyone can move forward for the better. Probably with a new couch.
I’m doing my best and it’s just not good enough. Ever. For anyone. Oh, and then DYFS or whatever they’re called now came back to the house to close out the case they opened because it was his second fracture in so short a time and I had to cancel the Monster Magnet interview I’d slated because I didn’t know when the case worker was coming. She showed up later anyhow. What a fucking trench of an existence this is.
He’s home next week too then starts camp. I took a xanax this morning and hope to spend as much of today as possible in bed. Make myself a protein shake and try to chill the fuck out. He has a follow-up x-ray at 9:15 on the leg. Still limps a bit, but is out of the boot. We see the orthopedist on Monday. I don’t know anything.
Fuck it. He’s up so I’m out. New Gimme show today at 5. You’re not gonna listen. It’s okay, I get it. Don’t feel bad. The world is not short on internet radio. But I feel obliged to give a plug because the Gimme crew is very tolerant of me.
And thanks if you’ve bought merch. More coming.
Great and safe weekend. Drink water. Wear a helmet. All that shit. Next week, more.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 4th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Okay, count with me. Dead Meadow, Acid King w/ Jason Landrian, Rezn & Vinnum Sabbathi, Lowrider & Elephant Tree, Josiah, Mammoth Volume, Dopelord, The Otolith. That’s eight.
As Blues Funeral Recordings wrapped the well-over-its-goal by crowdfunding this past week for PostWax Vol. II, and as this announcement of Dead Meadow‘s The Unhounded Now is reported to be the final one by the label’s own social media posting, I can’t help but notice that somebody’s missing. I know I’m the guy who does the liner notes for PostWax, but I tell you now I have no idea who the ninth act is.
The PR wire below acknowledges one more to come, so I guess we’ll see soon enough. Here’s looking forward, also to Dead Meadow getting weird and jamming out for this:
DEAD MEADOW to issue special project as part of PostWax Vol.II vinyl series on Blues Funeral Recordings.
Washington-based modern psych rock luminaries DEAD MEADOW are set to release a special concept record as part of Blues Funeral Recordings upcoming PostWax Vol. II vinyl series. Also confirmed to take part in the series are Acid King, Lowrider, Elephant Tree, Mammoth Volume, Josiah, REZN and Vinnum Sabbathi.
Emerging in Washington, D.C. in the late 90s, DEAD MEADOW reached critical mass in the mid-2000s, creating a dreamy, universe-expanding blend of classic and forward-thinking psychedelic rock that puts them at the top of modern psych-rock tinged with post-metal, carving out a space somewhere between the Black Angels and Explosions in the Sky.
On the heels of a sublime Levitation Sessions performance at The Pillars of the Gods earlier this year, the band set to work creating a special release for PostWax Vol. II. They were encouraged to push even further into the cosmos, and for a band like this, who knows what far-reaching dimensions that might take them to? Of their forthcoming PostWax recordings, singer and guitarist Jason Simon says: “Dead Meadow present ‘The Unhounded Now’, a mostly instrumental outing of fuzzed-out drone, otherworldly melody, and eastern tinged celebration.”
Announcing a total of nine releases for their upcoming PostWax Vol. II series, Blues Funeral Recordings have already confirmed the participation of Acid King, Mammoth Volume, Josiah, as well as one-off collaborative albums between Lowrider / Elephant Tree, and REZN / Vinnum Sabbathi. The final band to join the series will be announced soon; don’t forget to head over their Kickstarter page to sign up for the series before it ends on Friday 30th April. The purpose of Postwax Vol. II is to create a curated series of releases that stand alone yet also connect, both through art elements and a musical throughline, in the form of next level collectible records for all heavy rock fans worldwide.
