A band playing a release show might not ordinarily be news, but this is 2020. Note that The Brothers Keg‘s celebration of their debut album, Folklore, Myths & Legends (review here), is taking place at London’s famed The Black Heart venue, and that it’s limited capacity, small-group seating only. 45 people get to go. I’ve been lucky enough to be in that upstairs room at The Black Heart where they do shows, and it’s by no means big, but I’d guess it holds about 150 when they’re crammed in, so 45 I guess is about right for these days. The show is put on by Desertscene — also known for Desertfest — and will feature The Grand Mal as well.

I don’t know how The Black Heart will work it with the bar downstairs and upstairs, and stuff like that, but I assume there will be copious mask-age involved, and maybe even some of those plastic faceshields. If you’re in that part of the world and thinking about going — having recently attended a live performance myself, it was spiritually refreshing in the extreme — maybe you just want to go all out and get a welding mask. Whatever it takes. I also just read about the UK locking down on social gatherings of more than like six people starting next Monday, so I don’t even know how that will affect this. Could be REALLY limited capacity, I guess. Like two people in the crowd, which would make it like heavy rock shows in the early ’00s.

But the show’s sold out its 45 spaces, by the way, as one might expect. Good luck, you intrepid pavers of the way. I hope the gig happens.

Desertscene posted the following:

***DESERTSCENE – THE BROTHERS KEG – NEW SHOW ANNOUNCEMENT*** FOR 2020!

We’re very excited to be teaming up with our friends at The Black Heart to dip our toes back into the world of non-virtual, actually in a room with other human beings, live music events. Next Thursday we will be bringing you a limited capacity, socially distanced album release show from The Brothers Keg, with support from The Grand Mal. The current capacity for this show is 45 people and seated tickets will be available in groups of 2, 3 or 4 only – with some tasty Stone & Wood Brewing + ticket combos to boot.

More details about the social distance guidelines & on-the-day protocols can be found via the event page or ourblackheart.com. We really hope you’ll join us in trying to kickstart our scene back into action!

Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1040600833040567/

The Brothers Keg are:
Tom Hobson – Guitar/Vocals
Paul Rosser – Bass/Vocals
Tom Fyfe – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/thebrotherskeg/
https://www.instagram.com/thebrotherskeg/
https://thebrotherskeg.bandcamp.com/releases
https://www.facebook.com/apfrecords
https://www.instagram.com/apfrecords/
https://apfrecords.bandcamp.com/
http://www.apfrecords.co.uk/

The Brothers Keg, “Moorsmen” official video

London heavy rockers The Brothers Keg will release their debut album, Folklore, Myths & Legends, through APF Records on Sept. 18. The album follows behind a well received 2017 demo of similar title, Folklore, Myths & Legends of The Brothers Keg (review here), and runs a gamut from the brash rock of “No Earthly Form” and largesse of “Introducing the Brothers Keg” to the prog-style ambience and narration of “…From the Records of Arthur Shnee” and “The Ice Melteth” and “From the Battle of Castle Keg” to the wink at The Beatles‘ “Within You Without You” in the 12-minute space-doomer “Brahman,” with the brazen sludgy shouts in the culminating “Castle Keg” and the spare guitar and aptly-titled spoke “Epilogue” at the end for good measure.

With the nine-minute “Moorsmen” at the outset, it is something of a dizzying back and forth array, but what it works out to is each ‘song’ song is followed by a companion interlude, with the exception of “Introducing the Brothers Keg” and “Brahman” in the album’s midsection, and “Moorsmen” begins with an introductory sample/spoken part as well, so clearly the storyline is a major factor in what The Brothers Keg are bringing to their first record. It’s an ambitious 43 minutes presented across the nine total tracks by bassist/vocalist Paul Rosser, guitarist/vocalist Tom Hobson and drummer Tom Fyfe (the latter two also of Stubb), and while the sound of the album has raw aspects — the shouts, the crackly speech, the pop of the snare drum — that does not take away from the atmosphere the three-piece are able to conjure. It is fitting that “Moorsmen” should be the first audio to make its way to public ears from Folklore, Myths & Legends, since it functions much as a closer otherwise might in terms of summarizing the proceedings that follow, from its angular and sludgy earlier riffs all the way to its spacious and headspinning solo later on.

Ultimately, with “Moorsmen,” The Brothers Keg charge into the story the telling of which consumes the rest of the album, but rest assured, it well earns each of its nine minutes. The video is suitably over the top and features not only elements of the plotline, but also a bit of lightning coming off Rosser, Hobson and Fyfe for good measure. That too is only appropriate as throughout their debut, The Brothers Keg make their enjoyment of what they’re doing as up front as their riffs. It’s a willfully peculiar record, but has a certain charm for that, and it’s clear that The Brothers Keg were going all-in on the recording and bringing their ideas to life. You can dig as deep into it as you like, or you can just enjoy the grooves and the figurative (and literal, in the case of the video) lightning. It’s really up to the listener, but the record works either way.

I’m happy of course to host the premiere of the “Moorsmen” video, which you’ll find below, followed by APF‘s announcement of the record and a choice quote from Hobson, the all-over-the-place-all-over-the-top nature of which sums up the record more beautifully than I ever could.

Please enjoy:

The Brothers Keg, “Moorsmen” official video premiere

Sometimes, heavy isn’t purely about brutal riffs and gut-wrenching, despair-invoking themes; often, heaviness shines through when it’s filtered through jam-invoking psychedelic tightness. The Brothers Keg fall into that latter side of heavy, and in their few short years have become one of the finest examples of it in the whole of the UK.

Made up of the rhythm section of psych / stoner scene mainstays STUBB – with Tom Fyfe on drums and Tom Hobson switching out his bass for guitar / vocal duties – as well as Paul Rosser, who completes the trio on bass / vocals, The Brothers Keg have been kicking up an avalanche of the finest elements of stoner-doom as well as grunged-out psychedelia since their formation in London in 2018.

Now we are finally able to unleash The Brothers Keg’s debut album “Folklore, Myths and Legends of The Brothers Keg” upon you. Recorded at Bear Bites Horse Studio in London (Green Lung, Terminal Cheesecake, Opium Lord and many others), producer Wayne Adams has expertly extracted the esoteric essence of the project, and the spirit of the KEG flows freely in full force. The album, as the title suggests, follows the origin story of ‘The Brothers Keg’ – three ancient folk characters which the band is named after.

Tom Hobson: “We imagined the record as akin to a fantasy film soundtrack, with cinematic voiceovers and a nod to sci-fi classics. Expect heavy riffing psyched-out sci-fi doomageddon. HP Lovecraft meets Queen’s Flash Gordon listening to Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds at the wrong speed smoking a medieval spliff dipped in poppers.”

Tracklisting
1. Moorsmen
2. …From the Records of Arthur Shnee
3. No Earthly Form
4. The Ice Melteth
5. Introducing the Brothers Keg
6. Brahman
7. From the Battle of Castle Keg
8. Castle Keg
9. Epilogue

The Brothers Keg are:
Tom Hobson – Guitar/Vocals
Paul Rosser – Bass/Vocals
Tom Fyfe – Drums

The Brothers Keg on Thee Facebooks

The Brothers Keg on Instagram

The Brothers Keg on Bandcamp

APF Records on Thee Facebooks

APF Records on Instagram

APF Records on Bandcamp

APF Records website

After painstaking hours of keen-eyed detective work, I’ve concluded that the central mission behind the newly-issued two-song Folklore, Myths and Legends of The Brothers Keg by London trio The Brothers Keg is to introduce the band to their audience. How did I come to this resounding realization? Well, the first track on the thing is called “Introducing the Brothers Keg.” There’s that. Also it’s nine minutes long — so I had some time to think about it. That helped too.

Hey folks, it’s a process.

One might recognize guitarist/vocalist Tom Hobson and Tom Fyfe as the current bassist/vocalist and drummer for the soul-rocking trio Stubb. In The Brothers Keg, the transmutated rhythm section brings aboard bassist/vocalist Paul Rosser and with “Introducing the Brothers Keg” and its also-nine-minutes-long companion-piece “Castle Keg,” they hit immediately into a righteous sonic gamut that’s as comfortable basking in the King Buffalo-esque spaciousness of the first song as the post-Sleep roll of the latter, both captured to their fullest in the mixing and mastering job helmed by Chris West (Landskap).

At just under 19 minutes total, it’s not a minor sampling of what The Brothers Keg can do at this point, and while one might expect them eventually to veer away from some of the gruffer aspects they present here in favor of a more melodic approach particularly to the vocals, they use that edge well in these tracks and give a clear signal of where they might be headed and, sure enough, a right and proper introduction.

Check it out:

Download our new demo for free through the link below. Cheers.

Bros Keg.

https://thebrotherskeg.bandcamp.com/releases

Tracklisting:
1. Introducing The Brothers Keg (demo) 09:32
2. Castle Keg (demo) 09:17

The Brothers Keg is:
Tom Hobson – Guitar/Vocals
Paul Rosser – Bass/Vocals
Tom Fyfe – Drums

Recorded at Farm Factory Studios, Mixed and Mastered at Scuzzball Studios by Chris West

https://www.facebook.com/thebrotherskeg/
https://thebrotherskeg.bandcamp.com/releases

The Brothers Keg, Folklore, Myths and Legends of The Brothers Keg (2017)