Posted in Whathaveyou on April 12th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
After a compelling first announcement two weeks ago that put Washington heavy rock institution Mos Generator atop a bill with six other outfits curated from among Europe and the UK’s ever-crowded underground — JIRM, Samavayo, Sergeant Thunderhoof, Omega Sun, and Fire Down Below — the Las Vegas-based festival Planet Desert Rock Weekend V offers four new names today with a similarly curated feel. California’s Fireball Ministry, Ohio’s Valley of the Sun (returning), Canadian upstarts Sons of Arrakis and Italian cosmic rockers MR.BISON (also returning) are the new additions to the lineup, and each brings something specific of their own to the mix for the three-dayer set for Jan. 30-Feb. 1, 2025.
And yeah, that’s a ways off, but if you, like me, don’t actually live in Vegas, it’s an opportunity to make your travel plans early. As the city has never been a ‘scene’ hotbed for heavy fare — of course there are good bands who’ve come from there; that’s true of most of the planet — there’s no question Planet Desert Rock Weekend is positioning itself as a destination festival, and letting you book a flight before they’re even more outlandish than they are now is part of that. Not that I was just looking at airfare prices or anything, mind you. Because I absolutely was.
There were eight bands left after the first reveal, and this, as noted, adds four, so I count four more names to come, give or take, sometime between now and next January. I’m not sure how much more one could reasonably ask beyond what’s already being served here, but golly it’s fun to daydream.
Vegas Rock Revolution and Planet Desert Rock Weekend are proud to announce the next 4 bands for PDRW V. We bring back two alumni bands in Valley of the Sun and Mr. Bison, a longtime legacy band Fireball Ministry and rising star with Sons of Arrakis coming to Vegas for a fun filled weekend of heavy rock, friends and a cool environment that is comfortable. PDRW is designed to give you your mornings and afternoons to enjoy Vegas!
Fireball Ministry/ Los Angeles
Rising from quietly smoldering for a number of years we are honored to have Fireball Ministry be a part of PDRW. This is a pure legacy band that has been rocking the scene since 1999 and have shared the stage with the likes of Alice Cooper, Blue Oyster Cult, Judas Priest, Slayer, Danzig, Anthrax, Motörhead and many others. Recently it was announced Ripple Music will be reissuing their catalog.
Valley of the Sun/ Cincinnati
Super pumped to have Valley of the Sun return to Planet Desert Rock Weekend after performing at the inaugural one. Led by frontman Ryan Ferrier they deliver straight heavy rocking desert rock tinged stuff that sticks in your head. Their recently released album on Ripple Music landed close to the top of Vegas Rock Revolution’s top albums of the year.
Mr. Bison/ Italy
Mr. Bison has been one busy band since appearing at Planet Desert Rock Weekend II. Their latest album “Echoes of the Universe” has made an amazing splash in 2024 including landing #2 on the Doom Charts for February. Mr. Bison have continued to evolve and challenge themselves including adding a new member who is a multi instrumentalist. We can’t wait to have them back and hear the new stuff live! Mr. Bison is part of the Heavy Psych Sounds label.
Sons of Arrakis/ Montreal
Early on Vegas Rock Revolution has been touting and working with Sons of Arrakis and after hoping to have them as part of PDRW IV, we are excited to have them for 2025! Their sound is an outstanding blend of heavy rock/ heavy psych/ progressive/ stoner with a backdrop of being a Dune themed band. Their debut album ended #2 for 2022 on the VRR end of the year list right behind PDRW alumni Freedom Hawk (2). Their album landed #1 on Doom Charts for July 2022 and #8 overall for the year. SOA is currently finishing up their 2nd album which will be released on Black Throne Productions.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 10th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Some new Fireball Ministry would be just fine, thank you very much. The long-running Cali heavy rockers join the roster of Ripple Music some six years after the release of their what’s still their latest LP, 2017’s Remember the Story (review here), which came out through Cleopatra Records, and just a day after the label announced the beginning of a new series called ‘Beneath the Desert Floor,’ focusing on reissues for albums from the pre-social media era of the late ’90s and aughts. So I guess some old Fireball Ministry would be just fine too, since that seems to be what’s up here.
Led by guitarist/vocalist Jim Rota, with Emily Burton on guitar, some dude named Scott Friggin’ Reeder That’s Who on bass and John Oreshnick on drums, the current incarnation of Fireball Ministry appeared at Psycho Las Vegas (review here) in 2018 to support the 2017 album, and though I was fresh off the plane as they were on stage, they still killed it. They’ve never been the highest profile unit, but they’ve likewise never been anything but solid in their delivery and songwriting, and if there is another studio record in the offing, Ripple will be a good home for introducing it to a listener base who might not have realized how much they were waiting to hear it.
Fingers crossed we get there. Ripple made it official in short-and-sweet style on the socials:
FIREBALL MINISTRY sign to Ripple Music for upcoming reissues
Los Angeles heavy rock heavyweights FIREBALL MINISTRY join the Ripple Music roster for the reissue of their most iconic albums as part of the label’s new “Beneath The Desert Floor” series.
Says the band: “Fireball Ministry is thrilled to join forces with Ripple Music to release some of our classic albums on vinyl, and share our music with new ears through the ‘Beneath The Desert Floor’ series.”
Founded by by James A. Rota II (The Company Band, Dream Widow), Emily J. Burton (Black Sabbitch), Scott Reeder (ex-Kyuss, The Obsessed) and John Oreshnick, Fireball Ministry has truth and rock n’ roll valor imprinted in their DNA, with a mixture of East Coast and Midwestern roots stirred into their California melting pot. From the outset, the band has aggressively steered clear of pretension. They move ever forward with a clear focus on bottom-heavy tunes, channeling timeless hard rock without falling into the traps of mere imitation or novelty. As such, they have earned the respect of many fellow artists, and a legion of dedicated fans has built in their wake.
Following on from the recent launch of its “Beneath The Desert Floor” series, Californian label Ripple Music is happy to welcome Fireball Ministry to its roster for the upcoming reissue of some of the band’s iconic records…
Fireball Ministry is: James A. Rota II – Vocals/Guitar Emily J. Burton – Guitar/Backing Vocals Scott Reeder – Bass John Oreshnick – Drums
Posted in Bootleg Theater on December 27th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
The enduring legacy of Blue Cheer — who did no less than shepherd the transition between the ’60s rock and the heavy ’70s, setting a significant blueprint for the latter in terms of tone and bluesy approach — need not be recounted here. Along with the likes of Cream, Jimi Hendrix, and others who took a more volatile turn on the era’s psychedelia and volume push, they were a pivotal act and the work they did in their original run from 1966-1972, as well as in various periods thereafter, continues to resonate, with 1968’s Vincebus Eruptum and 1969’s OutsideInside (discussed here) rightly considered landmarks in the aforementioned temporal and stylistic shift. In a word, they were “important.” They mattered.
There have been plenty of Blue Cheer covers along the way, from artists across the globe, but as regards tribute albums, 1999’s Blue Explosion: A Tribute to Blue Cheer (also discussed here) stands in singular testament to the band’s affect on underground heavy rock and roll and doom. Issued by Italy’s Black Widow Records, it was 16 songs from 15 separate artists, totaling about 78 minutes of material with the following tracklisting:
1. Pentagram, “Doctor Please”
2. Internal Void, “Parchment Farm”
3. Hogwash, “Magnolia Caboose Babyfinger”
4. Thumlock, “Out of Focus”
5. Natas, “Ride with Me”
6. Fireball Ministry, “Fortunes”
7. Norrsken, “Pilot”
8. Garybaldi, “Fresh Fruit & Iceburgs”
9. Rise and Shine, “Sun Cycle”
10. Wicked Minds, “Just a Little Bit”
11. Standarte, “Sandwich”
12. Space Probe Taurus, “Second Time Around”
13. Drag Pack, “Come and Get It”
14. Vortice Cremisi, “I’m the Light”
15. Ufomammut, “Peace of Mind”
16. Pentagram, “Feathers From Your Tree”
Obviously a few immediate standout names in there. First (and last) is Pentagram, who open and close the proceedings with “Doctor Please” and “Feathers From Your Tree” — two choice cuts as regards the Blue Cheer catalog. It ain’t “Summertime Blues,” which is probably Blue Cheer‘s most known single, but you’ll notice no one takes that on, and that seems like a purposeful decision on the part of the label in terms of staying away from the obvious move. Either way, as regards Pentagram, it’s important to consider the timing. This isn’t Pentagram in 1985 or even in 2009. Victor Griffin is nowhere to be found. This is many years before Sean “Pellet” Pelletier would take over as frontman Bobby Liebling‘s manager/caretaker, and despite the best and noble efforts of Joe Hasselvander handling drums, guitar and bass, Liebling sounds like a human being in the throes of a well-documented heroin addiction. Pentagram were signed to Black Widow at the time, and in 1999 they issued Review Your Choices, which was followed in 2001 by Sub-Basement, and if you know those records, they sound like rough years. You can hear that here too.
Highlights, however, include early-Ufomammut‘s psychedelic rendition of “Peace of Mind,” Internal Void paying simultaneous tribute to Blue Cheer and Cactus with “Parchment Farm,” the shimmering proto-proto-metal of Sweden’s Norrsken — the predecessor that birthed both Witchcraft and Graveyard — doing “Pilot” from 1970’s The Original Human Being, Fireball Ministry‘s “Fortunes” and Rise and Shine‘s “Sun Cycle.” Add to that list Argentina’s Natas, who would soon enough be known as Los Natas, doing a rare song in English with “Ride with Me,” since as far as I’m concerned the guitar tone there is worth whatever price of admission the secondary market might be charging for the disc. If you ever question why I’ll listen to anything Sergio Ch. ever puts out, ever, ever, ever and forever, just listen to that guitar and you’ll have your answer as to how that loyalty was earned.
Further, the fuzz blast of Wicked Minds‘ “Just a Little Bit” and the rawness of Drag Pack‘s “Come and Get It” offer good times to fill out the second half of the disc. These, along with the ’90s post-grunge doom roll of Vortice Cremisi‘s “I’m the Light” and the sure tone of Thumlock earlier on, mean that more than just the bigger names on Blue Explosionhave something to offer. There’s a lot to dig, and yeah, some of it is pretty uneven in terms of relative volume and production-style changes from one band to the next — going from Wicked Minds to Standarte is notable, as is Thumlock to Natas, but if you take it as a collection of artists coming together on their own terms to celebrate the legacy of one of heavy rock and roll’s formative acts — i.e., if you take it for what it is — Blue Explosion is both a solid listen and worthy mission.
In my mind, it’s always paired with the 1999 Freedoom Records tribute to Trouble, Bastards Will Pay (discussed here), which I bought around the same time, and which also features Rise and Shine and Norrsken. The latter of course are of particular note because of the paucity of material they actually released — a few demos between 1996 and 1997 and a single in 1999 — and the legacy they cast across Sweden and the rest of Europe in the members’ igniting the continent’s vintage-rock movement. That is an influence that continues to spread, and while Blue Explosion might feature still-active and still-influential bands like Pentagram and Ufomammut and Fireball Ministry, as well as others, the opportunity to chase down output from Norrsken is itself an appeal for the disc as a whole.
I was fortunate enough to see Blue Cheer on what would be their final run as they supported their 2007 release, What Doesn’t Kill You…, which was the same era captured on their 2009 DVD Rocks Europe (review here) — I think the Rockpalast performance is on YouTube at this point, but get the DVD for the bonus interviews with Dickie Peterson, as his stories about Janis Joplin and Grateful Dead are nothing short of amazing — and though of course it wouldn’t have been the same as seeing them some 40 years earlier, it was a chance to relish in and pay homage to the legacy of a crucial band. They were, I can say without reservation, loud as hell. Everything The Rolling Stones were never brave enough to do more than hint at being.
Blue Explosion: A Tribute to BlueCheer isn’t the same kind of experience, of course, but it’s the same impulse, paying homage to the legacy. Whether you dig in for the academic appeal, curiosity, or just to hear some unfamiliar takes on familiar riffs, I hope you enjoy.
Thanks for reading.
—
Xmas wasn’t bad. The Pecan learned the word “presents” and how to open same, and he liked the stuffed Pete the Cat and Little Blue Truck and various other such and sundry things — mostly trucks — we and others in my and The Patient Mrs.’ respective family branches got him, so that’s a win. Dude has plenty, plenty, plenty to keep him occupied. The Patient Mrs.’ sister and mother, as well as our niece and nephew on that side, stayed an extra day as well, and my sister’s oldest son came back yesterday to play video games — ace call on my part to tell the CT branch of the family to bring the Nintendo Switch — and my mother, sister, her husband and other nephew came over last night for pizza and leftovers, and it was great having everyone around. There’s a room in this house — the room I’m in now, as it happens — that’s pretty much made for hosting, and I like hosting. And I think The Patient Mrs. does too. So it works out. I dread the holidays. I really do. Got off relatively light, and got a new coffee grinder and mug to boot. So yeah.
New Year’s is next, which means nothing to me except getting used to writing 2020 instead of 2019, which usually takes at least a month, then The Patient Mrs. is going away to a conference in Puerto Rico for a couple days in January — though she’ll be working, I suspect she’ll find the relative change in climate somewhat restorative; at least that’s my hope — and I’ll be on solo duty with Pecan: Toddlerian. Dude and I spent plenty of days on our own this semester as his mom settled into her new job, so I’m not really nervous about it or anything. I’ll be tired. Big change.
I’m gonna punch out in a minute, but a couple quick things:
— The Quarterly Review was originally going to be next week. I’m pushing it back a week. It’ll start Jan. 6.
— There may be a new Gimme Radio show next Friday? I’m not sure yet.
— Going to see Clutch at Starland Ballroom on Monday. That’ll be good.
Thanks for your support in the Best of 2019, Song of the Decade and Album of the Decade posts this week. You warmed my heart, really, and I promise you, promise you, promise you, I don’t take that support for granted. Thank you.
Hope everyone who celebrated Xmas had a good ‘un, and if New Year’s is a party for you, have fun and please be safe. If you need a ride, get one.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 1st, 2019 by JJ Koczan
I went back and looked, and on the posters for Desertfest Belgium 2018, every band’s logo appeared. It looked pretty crowded by the time their full lineup was announced, but that’s how it was. This year, it’s the second announcement for 2019, and already they’re showing some names written out in regular, non-logo letters. What does this tell you? Well, it might mean they’re going to add even more bands than last year. It might mean they want to highlight some of the bigger names, like Sleep, Eyehategod, Bongripper, Nebula, and so on. Or it might just be that they got someone new in to do the graphic design and that’s how they wanted to do it. Always possible to be reading too much into anything. Or everything, as it were. Hi. I look at a lot of festival posters. One tends to notice these things.
Anyway, six new bands added to Desertfest Belgium 2019 and nary a clunker to be found in the bunch. Info came down the PR wire:
DFBE’19 NEW NAMES! EYEHATEGOD, BONGRIPPER, NEBULA & MORE
We’re back, kickin’ butt and dropping names!
We have a couple of hard-hitting sludge and doom monsters added to our line-up, beginning with the absolute trailblazers of them all: EYEHATEGOD from New Orleans has been at it for over thirty years, and their most recent tour showed them in prime form. We’re excited to welcome them to our Antwerp Fest for the first time! Hailing from Chicago, BONGRIPPER is not a band of many words but their colossal and thoroughly evil riffage speaks big and loud volumes. And to complete this Unholy Triad, how about the legendary NEBULA who are back in the game with a new album that will be aptly named ‘Holy Shit’, and we have nothing further to add.
But of course, that’s only half the story… if you’re looking for some straight-up no-frills rock with killer hooks and catchy shout-along choruses, FIREBALL MINISTRY is your ticket – classic hard rock done right! And since no Desertfest would be complete without some proper Sabbath worship, we’re delighted to have HIGH REEPER on board, the proto-metal alliance from Reeperville (or so they claim). And finally, the glorious sound of the West Coast will be revived with CRYPT TRIP, sweet grooves and harmonies with just a touch of classic Dead.
Some old, some new, all fresh… we think this is is shaping up to be another DFBE line-up for the books, and we hope you all agree! More to come in 2 weeks time, stay tuned…
Posted in Features, Reviews on August 17th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
08.16.18 – 4:50AM – Friday morning – Hard Rock, hotel room
None of it makes any fucking sense. Not a lick of it. And it took me the better part of the day to realize that’s the idea. The whole point. What even is underground when you watch Bell Witch play by the side of a casino pool in a sweltering den of capitalist exploitation? What is real? Any of it? I don’t know. That’s the point. Psycho Las Vegas is taking the narrative of what the underground is and punching it in the face until it can’t be recognized anymore. The sheer spectacle of this event. The are-you-overwhelmed-yet-okay-good tilt. It’s so weird. It’s so weird.
It’s so weird.
But I don’t think you’re supposed to get it. It’s not about making sense in any kind of traditional way. Psycho Las Vegas, in the span of three very-clearly-well-funded years, has become the absolute destination heavy festival in the US. There are plenty of other metal fests that have been around longer and have unquestionable reputations, but for this particular branch of heavy, there’s nothing to match this. I don’t know how anything could.
This was the first day. The pool party. By the Paradise Pool. I apologize deeply to Haunt and Toke. I just didn’t make it in time. I wanted to see both. It just didn’t work out. I got myself situated in time to catch most of Fireball Ministry though, and here’s how it went from there:
Fireball Ministry
If you gotta start a weekend of top-class heavy somewhere, it might as well be with top-class heavy. Fireball Ministry had bassist Helen Storer filling in for Scott Reeder alongside guitarist/vocalists Jim Rota and Emily Burton and drummer John Oreshnick, but there was no way in hell they weren’t going to rock either way. Ostensibly, they were here supporting their new album, late-2017’s Remember the Story (review here), but even more than that, they were here representing a sans-frills heavy rock spirit that has endured in spite of trend and generational swap. That is, Fireball Ministry were there when, and they’re here now, and they delivered a powerful set as only a group of no-bullshit, ace-songwriting, still-underrated-after-all-these-years veterans could hope to do. I hoped to run into Rota later to ask him if this was the first casino pool party he’d ever played — hey, Fireball Ministry‘s done a lot of shows, so you never know — but didn’t get the chance. Either way, they absolutely delivered, and while I was fairly gutted to miss the first two bands, if you need to get on board with a show already in progress, Fireball Ministry are more than ready to make their rock your rock. Oh and by the way, they rock.
Dengue Fever
Tough to be the odd band out on this bill, but Dengue Fever managed, and again, I was a little bit in wrapping my head around what was happening. Psycho returnees? Took it all in stride. Let’s assume they were the ones in the patched battle vests dancing to Dengue Fever‘s upbeat semi-punk/semi-funk surf groove. There’s a trick to being here, I think, and no, it’s not just drinking. I’ll grant that Las Vegas is among the worst places on earth to be sober — the town simply wasn’t built for humans to be lucid within its borders — but beyond that, the trick is to just go with it. Dengue Fever played two bands after the dirt-sludge of Toke and two bands before Bell Witch and Wolves in the Throne Room back to back. That was the whole vibe of today in a nutshell. If you sat back and thought about it, you were doing it wrong. It’s a party. It’s a weird party. So party, and be weird. Dengue Fever were more than just a vehicle for that spirit, of course, but in this context, but with the sax blaring and the bouncing rhythms, they seemed to embody this festival’s will to be whatever the hell it wants to be, whenever the hell it wants to be it. Truly Psycho.
Elder
Band of the day. One more record and Elder will be headlining shows like this. It’s a toss-up whose crowd was bigger, theirs or Wolves in the Throne Room‘s, but even so, their presence on stage, their command of their sweeping progressive heavy rock sound, and their drive to genuinely push the idea of ‘heavy’ to places it’s never been all speak to a band ready to be at the next level. Their 2017 album, Reflections of a Floating World (review here), and 2015’s landmark Lore (review here) were assuredly well known to the masses assembled, and even if it was the title-track of 2011’s Dead Roots Stirring (review here) that got the biggest response, people were cheering during part transitions, let alone the standard round of applause between the songs. Elder are that kind of band, and their movements within tracks have only gotten more fluid and nuanced over time. The four-piece incarnation of the band had all the more depth of tone and sonic reach from guitarists Nick DiSalvo and Mike Risberg (the former also vocals, the latter also keys), while bassist Jack Donovan and drummer Matt Couto offered swing and intricacy of play alike that just furthered the proggy impression Elder make at this point. They killed. I don’t know how else to say it. It was an utter pleasure to watch and they’ve become one of the best heavy rock live acts anywhere, period. If you missed them, sorry.
Bell Witch
It was sunny when Bell Witch started and by the time they were done, dusk had fallen and the moon was out. Felt about right. They had 80 minutes at their disposal, which would’ve been just enough time to play last year’s brilliant and mournful Mirror Reaper (review here), and sure enough, that single-song outing was basically what comprised their set, even if Erik Moggridge (aka Aerial Ruin) wasn’t around to add his clean parts to it. Bassist/vocalist Dylan Desmond and drummer/organist/vocalist Jesse Shreibman had no problem carrying across the outright bludgeoning sensibility of their ultra-doom on their own, however, and with the inward-turned grieving process that is the material itself, Bell Witch nonetheless oozed forth a consuming mass of volume that, despite the outdoor setting, left little choice but to be swallowed whole by it. They’ve toured fairly heavily in support of Mirror Reaper since its arrival — I was fortunate enough to catch them playing it at Roadburn earlier this year as well — and there’s no denying the power of their performance. It’s a masterwork in every sense and deserves to be heard by as many people as possible.
Wolves in the Throne Room
The fog machines on full blast for the breezy desert night, incense consecrating the stage during the low-end volume-swell drone of their intro, and Washington’s Wolves in the Throne Room actually managed to make the atmosphere of the pool party their own for the duration of their set. It was a raging, scorching performance, as they took hold on the heels of 2017’s Thrice Woven (review here) and blasted out an intensity that was as much about the ambience as it was the assault. The expanded five-piece lineup was fully charged and as guitarist/vocalist NathanWeaver, whose brother, Aaron, handles drums in the studio while Trevor DeSchryver fills in live, led the band through an outright pummeling set that made itself even further distinguished from everything before it owing to its keys and synth elements and the manner in which it was able to turn from its most seething stretches to minimalist soundscaping seemingly on a dime. The crowd thinned out some by the end — I’ll admit I watched them finish out my hotel room window as well — but for every dragging-ass member of the audience like me, there were even more for whom the party was just getting started, and somehow, Wolves in the Throne Room fit that party as well as anyone else who played on the poolside bill.
—
It’s about six-thirty now. Need to shower. Need to sleep more. First band today at 12:30PM. Madness is the order of the weekend. Keep falling asleep while typing. Writing with my eyes closed. Still need to sort pictures. Busy busy busy.
Didn’t have enough coffee yesterday. Will work to rectify that soon enough. More pics after the jump though, so thanks for reading.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 23rd, 2018 by JJ Koczan
It’s only taken a few years for Psycho Las Vegas to establish itself as the premier underground festival in the US. All well and good. With 2018’s lineup, though, it’s time to start thinking of Psycho among the best in the world.
Sounds like too much? Consider Godflesh and Dimmu Borgir sharing a stage, both for exclusive West Coast appearances. Think of Sweden’s Witchcraft playing one of the two shows they’ll do in the US at Psycho, and ditto that for Japanese riff-madmen Church of Misery. Think of US exclusives from Lee Dorrian’s With the Dead, or Lucifer, whose Johanna Sadonis will also DJ the Center Bar. The commitment to up and coming underground acts local, domestic and foreign like Temple of Void, King Buffalo, Dreadnought, The Munsens and DVNE. Picture yourself watching Wolves in the Throne Room headline a pre-fest pool party with Elder, Young and in the Way, Dengue Fever, Fireball Ministry and Toke.
2018 is the year Psycho Las Vegas outclasses even itself and pushes further than it ever has in terms of stylistic reach (Integrity walks by and waves… at Boris) and the sheer power of its construction. If you’re looking for the future, you’ll find it in scumbag paradise.
Here’s the lineup:
Psycho Las Vegas 2018
Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Las Vegas 4455 Paradise Rd, Las Vegas, Nevada 89169
PSYCHO LAS VEGAS 2018 lineup: DIMMU BORGIR (west of chicago exclusive) HELLACOPTERS (one of two shows to be played in the USA in 2018) SUNN 0))) GODFLESH (west of chicago exclusive) WITCHCRAFT (one of two shows to be played in the USA in 2018) ENSLAVED AMERICAN NIGHTMARE HIGH ON FIRE ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT RED FANG ZAKK SABBATH CHURCH OF MISERY (usa exclusive 2018 with exception to one other show in San Diego) TINARIWEN GOBLIN CKY VENOM INC EYEHATEGOD VOIVOD BORIS COVEN INTEGRITY PALLBEARER WITH THE DEAD (USA exclusive 2018) MONOLORD LUCIFER (USA exclusive 2018) ACID WITCH SURVIVE DOPETHRONE BIG BUSINESS UNEARTHLY TRANCE MUTOID MAN TODAY IS THE DAY HELMS ALEE SPIRIT ADRIFT BATUSHKA PRIMITIVE MAN DVNE ALL PIGS MUST DIE EIGHT BELLS WORMWITCH INDIAN NECROT HOMEWRECKER BRAIN TENTACLES CLOAK BLACK MARE MAGIC SWORD UADA TEMPLE OF VOID DREADNOUGHT WOLVHAMMER ASEETHE DISASTROID FORMING THE VOID VENOMOUS MAXIMUS GHASTLY SOUND HOWLING GIANT KING BUFFALO NIGHT HORSE THE MUNSENS GLAARE
Paradise Pool Pre Party
August 16th
WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM ELDER YOUNG AND IN THE WAY DENGUE FEVER FIREBALL MINISTRY TOKE
Center Bar DJ’s Andrew W.K. Nicke Andersson (Entombed/Hellacopters) Johanna Sadonis (Lucifer)
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 15th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
In the long, storied and groundbreaking career of Washington-based US black metal innovators Wolves in the Throne Room, I’m willing to wager that this will possibly be the first pool party they’ve ever played. Now, if you told me Toke had done pool parties, or even Elder, or Fireball Ministry — yeah, I’ve got no trouble believing that. But Wolves in the Throne Room? No way. This has to be the first.
They’re in good company with the aforementioned as well as Young and in the Way and Dengue Fever, but it should be an interesting test of their aesthetic to see if it works in such an unexpected context. Call me crazy, but it seems like Wolves in the Throne Room would be way more suited to a party in a dark and humid cave than a Vegas poolside. Hey, cave party! Maybe next year.
One more reason to hit Psycho Las Vegas 2018, as far as I’m concerned. Incongruity like that doesn’t come along every day. I dig it. You wouldn’t want to let the chance to see it slip.
Info from the PR wire:
Wolves in the Throne Room, Elder, Dengue Fever to play PSYCHO LAS VEGAS Pre-fest Pool Party (Tickets Limited)
PSYCHO LAS VEGAS ANNOUNCING
WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM
ELDER | YOUNG AND IN THE WAY
FIREBALL MINISTRY
DENGUE FEVER | TOKE
TO PLAY PRE-FEST POOL PARTY AT THE HARD ROCK HOTEL
PLUS TINARIWEN JOINING FULL LINEUP AUGUST 17-19, 2018 @ HARD ROCK HOTEL AND CASINO, LAS VEGAS
In a week oversaturated with redundant festival announcements, Psycho Las Vegas throws its hat into the ring to once again prove why the award-winning festival keeps fans on their toes year after year. Playing the exclusive pre-fest pool party will be Psycho alumni Young and in the Way, as well as Wolves in the Throne Room, Elder, Dengue Fever, Fireball Ministry, and Toke. This event will be the only time during the weekend where desert festival goers can enjoy the lineup from the comfort of the Hard Rock Hotel pool during the daytime — and tickets are extremely limited, available only to the first 2500 ticket buyers (labeled as Tier I), with less than 1000 remaining.
In true Psycho form, they have announced their first curveball for the main lineup: Mali’s Tinariwen.
Another exciting addition to the Psycho Las Vegas team is legendary artist Dirty Donny Gillies, who will be designing this year’s exclusive artwork. Deemed to be one of the most influential artists to invade the pop culture scenes of the punk, rock and metal underground, Dirty Donny has been spreading his art across all mediums for decades; ranging from skate decks to pinball machines, hot rods and album covers for clients like Metallica, Vans, Stern Pinball and Snap-on Tools, to name a few. The pairing of Psycho Entertainment with Gillies’ signature psychedelic themes and acid-soaked color palette is a celebration of the classic underground, the roots of heavy music and the surrounding culture. Limited prints of the 2018 poster will be available soon.
PSYCHO LAS VEGAS 2018 AUGUST 17-19 WITCHCRAFT | GOBLIN | HIGH ON FIRE | TINARIWEN WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM | ELDER | S U R V I V E ZAKK SABBATH | DENGUE FEVER | INDIAN | YOUNG AND IN THE WAY FIREBALL MINISTRY | TOKE | DVNE And many, many more to be unleashed…
Posted in Reviews on November 7th, 2017 by JJ Koczan
It’s difficult to believe that it’s been 18 years since Los Angeles-based heavy rockers Fireball Ministry made their debut with Où Est la Rock? (discussed here) on Bong Load Custom Records, but then, it’s also hard to believe it’s been seven since their self-titled (review here) was issued via Restricted Release. Fireball Ministry followed two strong outings in 2003’s The Second Great Awakening and 2005’s Their Rock is Not Our Rock, and while a perhaps overly slick production took away some of the impact one found in the songs on their earlier offerings, the band’s songwriting was as crisp and efficient as ever.
Prior to and following the release of that album, founding guitarist/vocalist James A. Rota spent time in supergroup The Company Band alongside guitarist Dave Bone, Clutch vocalist Neil Fallon, Fu Manchu bassist Brad Davis and CKY drummer Jess Margera, but still, seven years is a significant delay between full-lengths for Fireball Ministry, who in the interim have continued to play shows and brought bassist Scott Reeder (The Obsessed, Kyuss, Unida, etc.) on board the lineup with Rota, guitarist/backing vocalist Emily Burton and drummer John Oreshnick.
No doubt that’s a powerhouse presence and I won’t take away from what Reeder brings to the Hollywood rockers’ overall sound on their fifth long-player, Remember the Story (on Cleopatra Records), but as was the case seven years ago and has been the case with Fireball Ministry all along it is still the songwriting that most shines through. Elements bleed in from classic metal, desert heavy and voracious riff rock, but it’s the structural integrity of what Rota and company do with those pieces that makes the 10-song/51-minute full-length so undeniably their own.
Especially after the self-titled, production was a question heading into Remember the Story, but as opener “End of Our Truth” and the following “Everything You Wanted” set a tone through hook, comfortable tempo and a purposeful fervency of groove, the contribution of producer/engineer Paul Fig — who has helmed records for post-reunion Alice in Chains as well as Rush and Ghost, among others of a more metallic ilk — shines through in presenting the songs with a clean sense that nonetheless doesn’t detract from their harder-hitting aspects.
Oreshnick‘s drums push “End of Our Truth” into and through its chorus with ease as Reeder noodles his bassline beneath the core riffing from Rota and Burton, and an immediate balance is established that Remember the Story maintains for its duration as cuts like the bruiser-riffed “The Answer” and the melodic highlight “Weavers Dawn” bring a feeling of variety around the root approach, which remains straightforward and unabashed in its will to engage the audience on the level of classic heavy rock. That is, Fireball Ministry clearly aren’t looking to change the world.
While peppered with raucous moments as on the cowbell-laden “Back on Earth” here or the transfigured Sabbathian swing and stomp of “All for Naught” — which seems to draw a direct line to “A National Acrobat” — it’s never been Fireball Ministry‘s intention to reinvent heavy rock so much as to highlight the best of what never needed reinventing about it in the first place.
They do that again with Remember the Story, and indeed as the songs play out through the meatier “Dying to Win,” the aptly-titled instrumental “Stop Talking” and the rolling title-track, that indeed becomes the narrative of the record as a whole. It is a story worth remembering, and the hooks the entire way through are earworm enough to make sure that listeners do precisely that, whether it’s the initial energy of the opening two cuts as bolstered by “Back on Earth” or the seeming B-side that begins with “Stop Talking” and moves inexorably toward acoustic-led closer “I Don’t Believe a Word.”
That latter, and last, track is a Motörhead cover taken from 1996’s Overnight Sensation and is given something of a manifesto feel as regards Rota‘s delivery of the lyrics. The perspective is very much in keeping with sentiments like Their Rock is Not Our Rock and the more political mindset of the self-titled — the band setting itself apart from its surroundings and offering a critique from a distant point of view. With Burton joining Rota on vocals in a follow-up to the harmonies that cap “Weavers Dawn” or the call and response in the verses of “Everything You Wanted” back on side A, it’s a moment of departure from the rest of Remember the Story, but still not so far removed as to upset the overarching flow of the record, which after finding itself on the steadiest of ground in its first half takes relative advantage of the opportunity to be a bit more adventurous with its second.
Again, classic form. And giving that classic form a modernist execution is what Fireball Ministry have done best for going on 20 years. Listening to Remember the Story, one can’t help but wonder if the band’s intention wasn’t to remind its audience of that in the first place — an urging toward recall rather than, say, the suggestion that this outing is the complete story to be remembered. It may or may not be, but especially as the title-track and “All for Naught” roll into “I Don’t Believe a Word” and the band get ready to make their collective exit, there’s a sense of summary that seems to extend beyond this record itself, speaking perhaps for the work of Fireball Ministry across their discography and examining the group’s place in the heavy rock underground, their accomplishments, their letdowns, and what they might still hope to do.
The question that will remain to be seen, especially with a seven-year gap between the last LP and this one, is whether Fireball Ministry‘s story has received its last chapter, or if it will continue. For what it’s worth, the returned vigor to their impact serves them remarkably well throughout here, and though well expected, their level of craft is as uncompromising in its accomplishment as ever. It’s not like they didn’t know what they were doing all along, but maturity suits them, and if this might be their final statement, they’ve reaffirmed their place among deeply underappreciated heavy rock songwriters.
