Darsombra released their plague-chronicle 2LP Dumesday Book (review here) last August — Crucial Blast has a double-tape out as of March — and, well, maybe it’s time to start thinking of the go-forth-from-Maryland two-piece as more of a longform art project than a band. If they were more pretentious, less inclined to roam and had more money, they’d probably be able to cast themselves as ‘arthouse,’ but the fact is their work isn’t really meant for gallery walls or any other kind. It’s too open in itself to be so contained. Free-drone.
From the sirens of “Call the Doctor (Pandemonium Mix)” and the chants of “Everything is Canceled,” from the drumless guitar prog and oddball vocals repeating the title of “Gibbet Lore” as it comes to a head to the serene reaches where the near-18 minutes of “Azimuth” end up, there’s not much that feels off limits to the duo of Ann Everton and Brian Daniloski. Synthesized, organic, programmed or pulsed, the material is defined in part by the whims it chooses to follow, and while that can at times lead to a kind of willful disjointedness — because not everything connects and not everything is supposed to; you’re not in an ’80s sitcom — Dumesday Book is an encompassing memoir of a time that at least many would rather forget than learn from. They’re not much for percussion and never have been, but neither do pieces like the empty-space strum and blown-out preach of “Plague Times” or the foreboding reprise “Still Canceled” lack movement. As they do, Darsombra are just tracing the patterns of their own math.
I won’t lie to you and say it isn’t helpful having a stated and discernible theme to latch onto in listening to Dumesday Book — the tracks themselves more ‘of the time’ than ‘about’ it — but their keys-and-guitar-based explorations have rarely been unwelcoming in the past, at least to those able to let go of expecting things like verses and choruses in their music. As regards the video premiering below for opening track “Shelter in Place,” the visual fluidity of movement of wind through the dark fabric that becomes ghostly, cosmic, colorized, and so on, is somewhat ironic given the title’s inherent stillness, but I’m not sure that isn’t the idea or that the spectral figure reminiscent of Death itself isn’t the story of the covid pandemic arriving at the shores of humanity’s collective helplessness at the outset of this downhill decade. And you know what? It’s Darsombra, so it’s also okay to not be sure. Not like they’re judging.
Everton and Daniloski begin their next European tour at Roadburn 2024 this Friday, and they’ll hook up with Stinking Lizaveta for the UK portion of the run to hit Desertfest London after playing the anniversary party for Exile on Mainstream in Germany. They’re abroad through the end of May and into June, and it likely won’t be long before they announce the next month-plus tour after this one because that’s how it goes with Darsombra‘s have-noise-will-travel nomadic tendencies. No coincidence that comes paired with such a resonant sense of sonic adventurousness.
“Shelter in Place,” at just three minutes, is the opening to the world portrayed throughout Dumesday Book. On its own, it provides a sample of Darsombra‘s aural dimensionality without necessarily encapsulating the whole. It leads you in, in other words.
Please enjoy:
Darsombra, “Shelter in Place” video premiere
Music by Darsombra Video directed and edited by Ann Everton Camera work by Brian Daniloski
“Shelter In Place” is the first track on Darsombra’s 2023 double album, “Dumesday Book”, available atdarsombra.com.
Shot on location at Assateague Island, USA. No ponies were harmed in the making of this film.
The latest video from Dumesday Book arrives with “Shelter In Place,” the album’s opening track. “Shelter In Place” is an ominous, majestic introduction to the album’s uncertain journey of the deep range of human emotions characteristic during plague times. The track is quaking, vast, and full of portent; the video, filmed and edited by Everton, gives the tsunami of precarious fear a doleful, baleful visage. Welcome to the trip.
Dumesday Book is available on CD, 2xLP, and digitally on DARSOMBRA’s Pnictogen Records. Physical formats include a twelve-page booklet, a sticker, and a download code with access to bonus material.
This week, DARSOMBRA will make their return to the Roadburn Festival alongside The Jesus And Mary Chain, Chelsea Wolfe, Khanate, Blood Incantation, and dozens more. Roadburn is followed by shows across Germany, Poland, Holland, and Belgium, on their way to play Exile On Mainstream 25 Festival dates in both Berlin and Leipzig – the 25th anniversary of the diverse label for which DARSOMBRA is an alumni act – with Ostinato, A Whisper In The Noise, Caspar Brötzmann Massaker, Conny Ochs, and many others also on the four-day/two-city bill.
In the wake of EOM25, they’ll join up with their allies Stinking Lizaveta for shows across the UK, including Desertfest London with Godflesh, Suicidal Tendencies, Ufomammut, Bongripper, Acid King, Monolord, and many more. DARSOMBRA will then make their live debut in Ireland, playing three shows across the country. See all confirmed dates below and watch for additional tour dates for the Summer and Fall months to be announced.
DARSOMBRA Tour Dates: 4/19/2024 Roadburn Festival – Tilburg, NL 4/24/2024 Kunstverein Hintere Cramergasse e.V – Nuremberg, DE 4/25/2024 Kalambur – Wroclaw, PL 4/26/2024 Lot Chmiela – Poznan, PL 4/27/2024 Awaria – Krakow, PL 4/28/2024 Mlodsza Siostra – Warsaw, PL 5/03/2024 Het Alternatief – Nijmegen, NL 5/05/2024 De Loft – Herent, BE 5/09/2024 Exile On Mainstream 25 Fest – Berlin, DE 5/10/2024 Exile On Mainstream 25 Fest – Leipzig, DE 5/14/2024 The Gryphon – Bristol, UK w/ Stinking Lizaveta 5/16/2024 Puzzle Hall Inn – Sowerby Bridge, UK w/ Stinking Lizaveta 5/17/2024 The Cellar – Cardigan, UK w/ Stinking Lizaveta 5/19/2024 Desertfest – London, UK w/ Stinking Lizaveta 5/22/2024 The Lubber Fiend – Newcastle, UK w/ Stinking Lizaveta 5/23/2024 BLOC – Glasgow, UK w/ Stinking Lizaveta 5/24/2024 St. Vincent’s Chapel – Edinburgh, UK w/ Stinking Lizaveta 5/25/2024 Tooth & Claw – Inverness, UK w/ Stinking Lizaveta 5/30/2024 Coughlan’s – Cork, IE 5/31/2024 Kasbah/Dolan’s – Limerick, IE 6/01/2024 Saturday Anseo – Dublin, IE
Posted in Reviews on October 5th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Welcome to Thursday of the Fall 202 Quarterly Review. It’s been a good run so far. three days and 30 records, about to be four and 40. I’ve got enough on my desktop and there’s enough stuff coming out this month that I could probably do a second Fall QR in November, and maybe stave off needing to do a double-one in December as I had been planning in the back of my head. Whatever, I’ll figure it out.
I hope you’ve been able to find something you dig. I definitely have, but that’s how it generally goes. These things are always a lot of work, and somehow I seem to plan them on the busiest weeks — today we’re volunteering at the grade school book fair; I think I’ll dig out my old Slayer God Hates Us All shirt from 20 years ago and see if it still fits. Sadly, I think we all know how that experiment will work out.
Anyway, busy times, good music, blah blah, let’s roll.
Quarterly Review #31-40:
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Darsombra, Dumesday Book
Forever touring and avant garde to their very marrow, ostensibly-Baltimorean duo Darsombra — Ann Everton on keys, vocals, live visuals, and who the hell knows what else, Brian Daniloski on guitar, a living-room pedal board, and engineering at the band’s home studio — unveil Dumesday Book as a 75-minute collection not only of works like “Call the Doctor” (posted here) or “Call the Doctor” (posted here), which appear as remixes, but their first proper album of this troubled decade after 2019’s Transmission (review here) saw them reach so far out into the cosmic thread to harness their bizarre stretches of bleeps and boops, manipulated vocals, drones, noise and suitably distraught collage in “Everything is Canceled” — which they answer later with “Still Canceled,” because charm — but the reassurance here is in the continuation of Daniloski and Everton‘s audio adventures, and their commitment to what should probably at this point in space-time be classified as free jazz remains unflinching. Squares need not apply, and if you’re into stuff like structure, there’s some of that, but all Darsombra ever need to get gone is a direction in which to head — literally or figuratively — so why not pick them all?
Cavernous in its echo and with a grit of tone that is the aural equivalent of the feeling of pull in your hand when you make a doom claw, The Banishing is the second full-length from Italian doom rockers Bottomless. Working as the trio of vocalist/guitarist Giorgio Trombino (ex-Elevators to the Grateful Sky, etc.), drummer David Lucido (Assumption, among a slew of others) and bassist Sara Bianchin — the latter also of Messa and recently replaced in Bottomless by Laura Nardelli (Ponte del Diavolo, etc.) — the band follow their 2021 self-titled debut (review here) with an eight-track collection that comes across as its own vision of garage doom. It’s not about progressive flourish or elaborate production, but about digging into the raw creeper groove of “Guardians of Silence” or the righteous post-Pentagram chug-and-nod of “Let Them Burn.” It is not solely intended as worship for what’s come before. Doom-of-eld, the NWOBHM, ’70s proto splurges all abound, but in the vocal and guitar melody of “By the Sword of the Archangel” and the dramatic rolling finish of “Dark Waters” after the acoustic-led interlude “Drawn Into Yesterday,” in the gruel of “Illusion Sun,” they channel these elements through themselves and come out with an album that, for as dark and grim as it would likely sound to more than 99 percent of the general human population, is pure heart.
The Death Wheelers, Chaos and the Art of Motorcycle Madness
Look. I don’t know The Death Wheelers personally at all. We don’t hang out on weekends. But the sample-laced (“We wanna be free to ride our machines without being hassled by the Man — and we wanna get loaded!” etc.), motorcycle-themed Québecois instrumental outfit sound on their second LP, the 12-track/40-minute riff-pusher Chaos and the Art of Motorcycle Madness, like they’re onto something. And again, I don’t know these cats at all. I don’t know what they do for work, what their lives are like, any of it. But if The Death Wheelers want to get out and give this record the support it deserves, the place they need to be is Europe. Yeah, I know there was The Picturebooks, but they were clean-chrome and The Death Wheelers just cracked a smile and showed you the fly that got splattered on their front tooth while they were riding — sonically speaking. The dust boogie of “Lucifer’s Bend,” the duly stoned “Interquaalude” ahead of the capper duo of “Sissy Bar Strut (Nymphony 69)” and “Cycling for Satan Part II” and the blowout roll in “Ride into the Röt (Everything Lewder Than Everything Else)” — this is a band who should bypass America completely for touring and focus entirely on Europe. Because the US will come around, to be sure, but not for another three or four month-long Euro stints get the point across. I don’t know that that’ll happen or it won’t, but they sound ready.
The career arc of guitarist Phil Caivano — and of course he does other stuff as well, including vocals on his self-titled solo-project’s debut, Caivano, but some people seem to have been born to hold a guitar in their hands and he’s one of those; see also Bob Balch — is both longer and broader than his quarter-century as guitarist and songwriting contributor to Monster Magnet, but the NJ heavy rock stalwarts will nonetheless be the closest comparison point to these 10 tracks and 33 minutes, a kind of signature sleazy roll in “Talk to the Dead,” the time-to-get-off-your-ass push of “Come and Get Me” at the start or the punkier “Verge of Yesterday” — touch of Motörhead there seeming well earned — a cosmic ripper on a space backbeat in “Fun & Games,” but all of this is within a tonal and production context that’s consistent across the span, malleable in style, unshakable in structure. Closer “Face the Music” is the longest cut at 5:04 and is a drumless spacey experiment with vocals and a guitar figure wrapped around a central drone, and that adds yet more character to the proceedings. I’d wonder how long some of these songs or parts have been around or if Caivano is going to put a group together — could be interesting — and make a go of it apart from his ‘main band,’ but he’s long since established himself as an exceptional player, and listening to some of this material highlights contributions of style and substance to shaping Monster Magnet as well. Phil Caivano: songwriter.
Together for nearly a decade, richly informed by the progressive and space rock(s) of the 1970s, prone to headspinning feats of lead guitar like that in the back end of second cut “Dysania,” Entropía offer their second full-length in Eclipses, a five-track/40-minute excursion of organ-inclusive cosmic prog that reminds of Hypnos 69 in the warm serenity at the start of “Tarbes,” threatens the epic on seven-minute opener “Thesan” and delivers readily throughout; a work of scope that runs deep in the pairing of “Tarbes” and “Caleidoscopia” — both of which top nine minutes long — but it’s there that Entropía reveal the full spectrum of light they’re working with, whether it’s that tonal largesse that rears up in the latter or the jazzy kosmiche shove in the payoff of the former. And the drums come forward to start closer “Polaris,” which follows, as Entropía nestle into one more groovy submersion, finding heavy shuffle in the drums — hell yeah — and holding that tension until it’s time for the multi-tiered finish and only-necessary peaceful comedown. It’s inevitable that some records in a Quarterly Review get written about and I never listen to them again. I’ll be back to this one.
God damn, Ghorot, leave some nasty for the rest of the class. The Boise, Idaho, three-piece — vocalist/bassist Carson Russell (also Ealdor Bealu), guitarist/vocalist Chad Remains (ex-Uzala) and drummer/vocalist Brandon Walker — launch their second LP, Wound, with the gloriously screamed, righteously-coated-in-filth, choking-on-mud extreme sludge they appropriately titled “Dredge.” And fuck if it doesn’t get meaner from there as Ghorot — working with esteemed producer Andy Patterson (The Otolith, etc.) and releasing through Lay Bare Recordings and King of the Monsters Records — take the measure of your days and issue summary judgment in the negative through the mellow-harshing bite of “In Asentia,” the least brutal part of which kind of sounds like High on Fire and the death/black metal in centerpiece “Corsican Leather.” All of which is only on side A. On side B, “Canyon Lands” imagines a heavy Western meditation — shades of Ealdor Bealu in the guitar — that retains its old-wizard vocal gurgle, and capper “Neanderskull” finally pushes the entire affair off of whatever high desert cliffside from which it’s been proclaiming all this uberdeath and into a waiting abyss of willfully knuckledragging blower deconstruction. The really scary shit is these guys’ll probably do another record after this one. Yikes.
With the self-release of Outward, heavy progressive psych instrumentalists Moozoonsii complete a duology of pandemic-constructed outings that began with last year’s (of course) Inward, and to do so, the trio based in Nantes, France, continue to foster a methodology somewhere between metal and rock, finding ground in precision riffing in the 10-minute “Nova” or in the bumps and crashes after eight minutes into the 13-minute “Far Waste,” but they’re just as prone to jazzy skronk-outs like in the midsection solo of “Lugubris,” and the entire release is informed by the unfolding psychedelic meditationscape of “Stryge” at the start, so by no, no, no means at all are they doing one thing for the duration. “Toxic Lunar Vibration,” which splits the two noted extended tracks, brings the sides together as if to emphasize this point, not so much fitting those pointed angles together as delighting in the ways in which they do and don’t fit at certain times as part of their creative expression. Pairing that impulse with the kind of heavy-as-your-face-if-your-face-had-a-big-boulder-on-it fuzz in “Tauredunum” is a hell of a place to wind up. The unpredictable character of the material that surrounds only makes that ending sweeter and more satisfying.
An initial two tracks from UK trio Death Wvrm, both instrumental, surfaced earlier this year, one in Spring around the time of their appearance at Desertfest London — quiet a coup for a seemingly nascent band; but listening to them I get it — and after. “Enter” was first, “The Endless” second, and the two of them tell a story unto themselves; narrative seeming to be part of the group’s mission from this point of outset, as each single comes with a few sentences of accompanying scene-setting. Certainly not going to complain about the story, and the band have some other surprises in store in these initial cuts, be it the bright, mid-period Beatles-y tone in the guitar for “The Endless” (it’s actually only about four and a half minutes) or the driving fuzz that takes hold after the snap of snare at 2:59, or the complementary layer of guitar in “Enter” that speaks to broader ambitions sound-wise almost immediately on the part of the band. “Enter” and “The Endless” both start quiet and get louder — the scorch in “Enter” isn’t to be discounted — but they do so in differing ways, and so while one listens to the first two cuts a band is putting out and expects growth in complexity and method, that’s actually just fine, because it’s exactly also what one is left wanting after the two songs are done: more. I’m not saying show up at their house or anything, but maybe give a follow on Bandcamp and keep an eye.
Safe to assume some level of self-awareness on the part of Brazilian trio Mudness who, after unveiling their first single “R.I.P.” in 2020 make their self-titled full-length debut with seven songs of hard-burned wizard riffing, the plod of “Gone” (also an advance single, if not by three years) and guitarist Renan Casarin‘s Obornian moans underscoring the disaffected stoner idolatry. Joined by Fernando Dal Bó, whose bass work is crucial to the success of the entire release — can’t roll it if it ain’t heavy — and drummer Pedro Silvano, who adds malevolent swing to the slow march forward of “This End Body,” the centerpiece of the seven-song/35-minute long player. There’s an interlude, “Lamuria,” that could probably have shown up earlier, but one should keep in mind that the sense of onslaught between the likes of “Evil Roots” and “Yellow Imp” is part of the point, and likewise that they’re saving an extra layer of aural grime for “Final Breeze,” where they answer the more individual take of “This End Body” with a reach into melodicism and mark their appeal both in what they might bring to their sound moving forward and the planet-sucked-anyhow despondent crush of this collection. Putting it on the list for the best debuts of 2023. It’s not innovative, or trying to be, but that doesn’t stop it from accomplishing its aims in slow, mostly miserable stride.
I’m not generally one to tell you how to spend your money, but if you take a look over at The Space Huns‘ Bandcamp page (linked below), you’ll see that the Hungarian psych jammers’ entire digital discography is €3.50. Again, not trying to tell you how to live your life, but Legends of the Ancient Tribes, the Szeged-based trio’s new hour-long album, has a song on it called “Goats on a Discount Private Space Shuttle Voyage,” and from where I sit that entitles the three-piece of guitarist Csaba Szőke, bassist Tamás Tikvicki and drummer Mátyás Mozsár to that cash and perhaps more. I could just as easily note “Sgt. Taurus on Coke” at the start of the outing or “The Melancholic Stag Beetle Who Got Inspired by Corporate Motivational Coaches” — or the essential fact that in addition to the best song titles I’ve seen all year (again, and perhaps more), the jams are ace. Chemistry to spare, patience when it’s called for but malleable enough to boogie or nod and sound no less natural doing either, while keeping an exploratory if not improvisational — and it might be that too — character to the material. It’s not a minor undertaking at 59 minutes, but between the added charm of the track names and the grin-inducing nod of “Cosmic Cities of the Giant Snail Kingdom,” they make it easy.
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 6th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
You know how Darsombra do. Even when the Baltimorean experimentalist drone/video duo don’t have a new record either coming out or just released to support, they’re still prone to taking a month or two and hitting the road to play, well, everywhere in the US and Canada in stints usually carved out by region. As they make ready for the Aug. 25 arrival of their new album, Dumesday Book, this tour — which starts Aug. 31 though they also have shows before that — hits up Canada and covers parts of the Pacific and East Coasts, with spots hit in between as well. It is more touring on its own than some bands — most — ever accomplsh. For Darsombra, it is a way of life.
And there will most likely be more to come as we head toward 2024, so keep an eye out. From the PR wire:
DARSOMBRA: Baltimore-Based Psychedelic Audiovisual Duo Announces Extensive Run Of North American Tour Dates As Dumesday Book 2xLP Nears August Release
Having just returned from several weeks of touring around the Great Lakes, Baltimore, Maryland-based audiovisual/psychedelic post-rock duo DARSOMBRA today announces their next venture – a massive run of North American tour dates for the Summer and Fall months – supporting the August release of their long-awaited new album, Dumesday Book.
With shows confirmed from August through October, DARSOMBRA’s Dumesday Book Tour leads off with their performance at the off-the-grid Voice Of The Valley Festival in Fairview, West Virginia on August 5th. Then on August 25th, the day Dumesday Book sees release, the band will set out across the country once again, leading with a hometown record release show. Nearly three-dozen performances later, the tour will come to a finale at the Shadow Woods Reunion in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania with Panopticon and more. See the current itinerary below and stand by as the band continues to book new excursions into the Fall and Winter months.
Dumesday Book delivers seventy-five minutes of sonic revelry, to delight and confound both seasoned DARSOMBRA listeners and unwitting new ears alike. The album was recorded and mixed by Brian Daniloski at the band’s home studio, Whale Manor, and mastered by Jon Smulyan, while Ann Everton handled the cover art, photography, and videography. The record includes a twelve-page booklet illustrating each track, and all physical formats also include a sticker exclusive to the work and a Bandcamp download code with access to additional bonus material. Besides the standard 2xLP and CD versions, the album will also be available in a number of limited bundle packages, which include a handmade bismuth crystal and/or limited edition t-shirt.
Watch for new videos and additional updates on the album to post over the weeks ahead.
DARSOMBRA Tour Dates: 8/05/2023 Voice Of The Valley – Fairview, WV 8/25/2023 Current Space – Baltimore, MD * Record Release Show w/ Moth Broth, Quattracenta 8/31/2023 Melody Inn – Indianapolis, IN w/ Stuporwaffles, Mycota 9/01/2023 Village Theatre – Davenport, IA 9/02/2023 Gabe’s – Iowa City, IA w/ Aseethe, Louisiana Drifter, OSO 9/03/2023 White Squirrel – St. Paul, MN 9/04/2023 The Aquarium – Fargo, ND 9/06/2023 Handsome Daughter – Winnipeg, MB w/ Mahogany Frog, Cantor Dust 9/07/2023 The Exchange – Regina, SK w/ Psst Shh, DIG.IT.ALL 9/08/2023 Amigo’s – Saskatoon, SK 9/09/2023 Palomino – Calgary, AB 9/10/2023 Kaffa – Edmonton, AB 9/14/2023 Red Gate – Vancouver, BC w/ Organoizes 9/15/2023 Crace Mountain – Nanaimo, BC 9/16/2023 Beacon House – Protection Island, BC 9/19/2023 Cryptatropa – Olympia, WA w/ Humming Amps, Hearse Mechanic, Avola 9/21/2023 Clock–Out – Seattle, WA w/ Fungal Abyss, Authentic Luxury 9/22/2023 High Water Mark – Portland, OR w/ Thrones, Mnemonic Pulse 9/23/2023 BAD Room – Salem, OR 9/26/2023 The Shredder – Boise, ID w/ Rodeo Screams, Shadow and Claw, Scram Signal 9/28/2023 ZACC – Missoula, MT w/ Swamp Ritual, Nightwitch 9/29/2023 Filling Station – Bozeman, MT 9/30/2023 Black Hills Psych Fest @ Aby’s – Rapid City, SD w/ The Savage Blush, Diaphane, Thought Patrol 10/02/2023 Vinyl–ly Alive – Soldier Creek, SD 10/03/2023 2SMOO – Lincoln, NE w/ Our Last Atlas 10/04/2023 TBA – Peoria, IL w/ Sanddance 10/05/2023 Blind Bob’s – Dayton, OH 10/06/2023 Art Party – Morgantown, WV w/ Grey Harbinger, The Long Hunt 10/07/2023 Mushroom City Art Fest – Baltimore, MD w/ Miles Gannett, Dave Heumann, Marian McLaughlin 10/11/2023 Mama Tried – Brooklyn, NY w/ Ala Muerte, Sally Gates/Zoh Amba/Brian Chase Trio 10/12/2023 Cold Spring Hollow – Belchertown, MA 10/13/2023 Geno’s – Portland, ME 10/14/2023 Loading Dock – Littleton, NH w/ Ari Bopp 10/19/2023 O’Brien’s – Allston, MA w/ Dyr Faser, The O–Zones, FEEP 10/20/2023 The Century – Philadelphia, PA w/ Stinking Lizaveta 10/21/2023 Shadow Woods Reunion @ Lovedraft’s Brewing – Mechanicsburg, PA w/ Panopticon, A Sound Of Thunder, IATT
Originally conceived as a surreal take on a pop album to contrast with their ominously prescient monolithic 2019 release, Transmission, Dumesday Book is a ten-song survey of sentiment and human experience in the pandemic, from initial lockdown to vaccinated re-emergence and beyond – which, in the DARSOMBRA microcosm, means from cancelled tours to returning to the road.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 17th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
In a couple days — on April 20, as it happens — Baltimore psychic energy transfer specialists Darsombra will air a new installment of what they call ‘Darsombra TV,’ which in this case is a video of a 2017 performance in Wyoming in the path of totality of a solar eclipse plus resultant shenanigans, because frickin’ of course it is. This news came out last week — Quarterly Review takes its toll in the timeliness of everything else — but it’s not too late to set a reminder for that clip, and not too late to check out the June tour the band has announced that features a stop at Mutants of the Monster in Arkansas and a support slot for YOB and Cave In at The Ottobar that makes that night that much more of a winner, as well as shows with Lark’s Tongue and a merry cast of others throughout the Midwest, where they’ll spend most of the month.
The duo have also announced their next album will be called Dumesday Book and issued sometime later in 2023 either on their own or through some label TBA. The more the merrier, and it’s been a bit, as their last full-length was 2019’s Transmission (review here), though the years since have found them touring as much and as often as possible, and they’ve had various live and studio offerings in that time, all consistent in their on-own-wavelength weirdo art-drone purposes, all different and vibrant and exploratory as Darsombra always manage to be. I don’t know if you’re looking forward to their next record, but I am.
From the PR wire:
DARSOMBRA: Baltimore Psychedelic Galaxy Rock Duo Announces North American Great Lakes Tour Dates; New Album To See Release This Year
Maryland’s psychedelic tour machine DARSOMBRA has just announced their next excursion, confirming a month-long late-Spring/early-Summer tour, as they complete their new album for release later this year.
Initially planned for 2020, the DARSOMBRA duo has rescheduled their tour through the Central, Midwest, and Eastern US and Canada encircling the Great Lakes from May 31st to June 25th. The tour includes a performance at Mutants Of The Monster Fest in Little Rock, Arkansas running from June 1st through 4th with with Yob, Cave In, Deadird, Pallbearer, Thou, -16-, and more, and a set supporting Yob and Cave In on June 8th in DARSOMBRA’s hometown of Baltimore. See all confirmed dates below and watch for new tour dates for later Summer and Fall to post over shortly as well.
Preceding the tour, DARSOMBRA will be releasing the third episode of Darsombra TV on 4/20, a thirty-minute show documenting the band’s outdoor generator show livestream in Lost Springs, Wyoming, in the path of totality during a total solar eclipse in 2017, and all the coolness/weirdness involved in it and the aftermath. Join the band in the digital realm to watch Darsombra TV’s “The Eclipse Show,” premiering live on Thursday, April 20th (or 21st if you’re in the Eastern Hemisphere), at 8:40 pm EDT, at THIS LOCATION:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb9iFMVqnso
The band writes, “Greetings From DARSOMBRA! We’ve been hermiting in the DARSOMBRA Mothership (a.k.a. Whale Manor) here in Baltimore since November of last year, so we’ve got some really great things on the horizon for you — a North American tour and another episode of Darsombra TV. Also, keep an eye out for our new album Dumesday Book, to be released later this year!”
Watch for details on the new album to post over the months ahead.
DARSOMBRA Tour Dates: 5/31/2023 Hideaway – Johnson City, TN w/ Cosmicosis 6/01/2023 Corner Lounge – Knoxville, TN w/ Leslie Walker & Dark Mountain Orchid 6/02/2023 Mutants of the Monster Fest – Little Rock, AR 6/04/2023 Black Lodge – Memphis, TN w/ General Labor 6/06/2023 Northside Tavern – Cincinnati, OH w/ Hemlock Branch, Sharp Toys, Cold Stereo 6/07/2023 Westside Bowl – Youngstown, OH 6/08/2023 Ottobar – Baltimore, MD w/ Yob, Cave In 6/09/2023 Music on Main – Bridgeport, WV w/ The Long Hunt, Grey Harbinger 6/10/2023 RHAD – Detroit, MI w/ Botanical Fortress, Oscillating Fan Club 6/11/2023 The Burlington – Chicago, IL w/ Lark’s Tongue, Sanford Parker, Plague Of Carcosa 6/13/2023 Cactus Club – Milwaukee, WI w/ Powerwagon, Spidora 6/15/2023 The Crib – Marquette, MI 6/16/2023 Witches Tower – Minneapolis, MN w/ Comets Ov Cupid, PLVS VLTRA 6/17/2023 RT Quinlan’s – Duluth, MN w/ Aural Paradox, The Nevins 6/18/2023 Cumberland Cinema 5 Indoor Skatepark – Thunder Bay, ON w/ Jake & The Town, Ukkon3n 6/21/2023 Bellevue Park – Sault Ste Marie, ON w/ Chase James Wigmore 6/22/2023 Zig’s – Sudbury, ON w/ Mark Howitt 6/23/2023 Tranzac – Southern Cross Room – Toronto, ON w/ Alia Synesthesia 6/24/2023 Rosen Krown – Rochester, NY 6/25/2023 Mohawk – Buffalo, NY w/ Cult Mother
