Posted in Whathaveyou on April 3rd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Next month, Kingston, New York, trio Geezer and Richmond, Virginia, four-piece Book of Wyrms will head north together for a three-date weekender in Ontario and Quebec. As both bands note below, it’s their first time playing in Canada, and for the dates in Toronto, Ottawa and Québec City, they’ll be keeping good company with a sampling of the righteous Canadian heavy underground. You can see the names on the poster and in the announcement, so I’ll spare you my just listing them again, but it’s a curated assemblage.
Geezer go in continued support of 2022’s Stoned Blues Machine (review here) on Heavy Psych Sounds, having most recently played Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in San Francisco and Joshua Tree, California. For Book of Wyrms, they’ll herald new projects in the works, including plans to record their next full-length at summer’s end, which will follow their 2022 single “Sodapop Glacier” (premiered here) as well as 2021’s Occult New Age (review here), released by Desert Records.
Of the locals, I’ll cop to being less familiar with Hempress and Acid Moth, though Hempress released their Masters of the Trade LP last year and that’s pretty cool and Acid Moth just last Friday offered their self-titled debut EP, complete with a Trailer Park Boys reference and riffs a-plenty. Aawks, Low Orbit and Witchrot are known quantities and killer enough to make the Toronto show practically a festival. And you’ll note The Death Wheelers, who play the last date in Québec City, released their Topon Das-mastered Mondo Trasho 7″ last Fall as the follow-up to their 2020 debut on RidingEasy Records. Sounds like fun, but I know one way to find out for sure.
To that end, I hit up Geezer last week and invited myself along for the trip. Looks like it might even happen, so one way or the other, here’s looking forward:
GEEZER & BOOK OF WYRMS – Canadian Road Trip
Geezer and Book of Wyrms are teaming up for a May road trip to Canada, joined by noted northern lights Aawks, Low Orbit, and Witchrot (Toronto May 11), Hempress and Acid Moth (Ottawa May 12), and the Death Wheelers (Quebec City May 13). These ragers are generously brought to you by Pale Horse Promotions, Fuzzed n Buzzed Records, and Sewer Pool Productions.
Says Pat Harrington of Geezer: “This will be our first time in Canada and we are totally stoked about it. I reached out to Jake from BoW about the idea of doing some shows together and they were already working on the Canadian idea, so we put our heads together and it all worked out real quick. We’re excited about the bands we’re playing with and the promoters have already been working hard on spreading the word, so we expect this short run to be a banger!”
Says Book of Wyrms’ Jake Linsley: “This will be our first time playing outside the US, and getting to go with our buddies in Geezer just makes it extra badass. I’ve been listening to Aawks a lot so it’s gonna be cool to play with them while we’re up there. Other than that, we have a few summer runs coming up that haven’t been announced yet, a new song on a compilation that hasn’t been announced yet, and we’ll be back in the studio at the end of the summer to record our fourth LP.”
GEEZER & BOOK OF WYRMS live: May 11 Hard Luck Toronto ON w/ AAWKS, Low Orbit & Witchrot May 12 Dominion Ottawa ON w/ Hempress & Acid Moth May 13 Scanner Québec City QC w/ The Death Wheelers
Geezer are: Pat Harrington – vocals/guitar Richie Touseull – bass Steve Markota – drums
Book of Wyrms are: Sarah Moore-Lindsey: Vocals and synthesizers Kyle Lewis: Guitar Chris DeHaven: Drums Jay “Jake” Lindsey: Bass
Posted in Questionnaire on August 4th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Richie Touseull of Geezer
—
How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I’m a bass player, it’s that simple. I provide the rhythm for the other musicians to stand on. The essential heartbeat of the song, if you like.
And how I came to do it — I couldn’t afford to play drums, and there were too many guitar players around so the bass seemed like a good idea.
Describe your first musical memory.
Watching my elder brother, John, play the sax in the army band. I was so proud. Then, at the age of 12, I saw a local rock band, and that just blew my mind. I don’t remember what they were called, but that was the moment I knew I wanted to do be a musician.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
Playing Freak Valley Festival with Geezer. Maybe because it just happened in June and so is top of mind, but it was a blast. Great to be up there with Pat Harrington and Steve Markota.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
Oh man, many times playing to empty rooms! We’ve all had that happen. You play your best, keep believing in what you’re doing and hold tight to the dream.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
To possibility — new ideas, new people, new opportunities. And the rush you get when you surprise yourself, that’s some high.
How do you define success?
Being able to do what you love every day. How many people can say they do that?
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
A singer I once played with was tripping on acid and it was no fun watching him roll backwards into the drum set with his legs in the air.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
I’ve had an idea to create a space where musicians come together to jam, record, perform, collaborate or just hang out. Just need to find the right space and make it concrete. Maybe I’ll get around to it.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Art connects people. It connects the artist with the crowd or reader or listener. It connects groups of people in a shared experience, around an emotion or feeling. In that way it brings people together, and we need more of that now in the world.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
To travel more. My wife lived in Amsterdam, and I’ve never been. Maybe this fall.
[Click play above to stream Geezer’s Stoned Blues Machine in full. Album is out Friday on Heavy Psych Sounds.]
Now we know what to call Geezer. They’re a Stoned Blues Machine. The Kingston, New York, three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Pat Harrington, bassist Richie Touseull and drummer Steve Markota have never been more so than on their latest collection. In mid-2020, the heavy, bluesy, intermittently-jammed-out-but-nearly-always-rocking trio issued the righteous Groovy (review here), which was a lockdown-era lifeline to a better time if also a reminder of the kind of party that absolutely at that point couldn’t happen. It may be that record’s fate to have never gotten its due in terms of being celebrated live, but Geezer knew even as that was coming out that they would press forward and continue to write, rather than sit on their hands and wait for the pandemic to abate.
Stoned Blues Machine answers the boogie and the ass-shake of Groovy, and with the lineup solidified around these three players since 2019’s Spiral Fires EP (review here), but pushes further and works on multiple levels — perhaps best emphasized in the title-track itself, which has a huge swinging nod as its foundation but also brings in finer details like some addled-sounding mumbles along with its verse lines before the hook, “Stoned blues machine/Living is my thing/When things ain’t what they seem/When you’re stoned, baby, don’t want to think about it,” is fleshed out with what might be a guitar effect that sounds like a dolphin chirrup, like they’re just screwing with you.
But that perspective is essential to understanding where Geezer are coming from especially early on. Working with producer Chris Bittner at Applehead Recording — I was fortunate enough to be there for the basic tracks of much of the record (in-studio posted here and here) — they’ve never sounded bigger, clearer or more professional, and that progression is natural from Groovy, 2021’s recorded-in-the-practice-space jam single Solstice (review here) filling the long, show-less gap between with its expansive, synth-laden exploration as an immersive holdover.
It doesn’t always work out this way, but the elaborate production is what allows Geezer to flesh out their songs. The dual-channel vocal layering for the “ooh” in opener “Atomic Moronic,” for example, or the tambourine adding to the crescendo of the penultimate “Saviours” ahead of the seven-minute finale, which sees them loosen the reins structurally and roll out a mellow jam in the midsection topped with effects-laced vocals and, after five minutes in, give over to a languid solo that’s a highlight in terms of its fuzzy tone and the just-holding-to-the-beat bassline that accompanies.
These songs have been worked on, to be sure, but are not overwrought, and they offer a point of view of which the title-track is emblematic. Considering sociopolitical turmoil, a raging virus (which I’ll note for my own posterity that I have right now; thankfully a seemingly mild variant thus far), and whatever other apocalyptic visions one might cast over the last few years — can’t help but think of watching an insurrection in progress when I see the title “Broken Glass,” even though the song’s an uptempo strut-and-stomper with handclaps in its chorus, but certainly second cut “Logan’s Run” applies as well with its immediate shuffle-chug, more tambourine, big-room crash and final repetitions of “Do not resist” — there’s been no shortage of reasons to feel overwhelmed.
And Stoned Blues Machine doesn’t shy away from expressing confusion, dismay or judgment. “Atomic Moronic” is a song for the Trump years — the line, “You put your faith in stupid,” is as succinct a summary of American anti-intellectualism as one could ever hope to hear — but there’s no sense of preach either. “Atomic Moronic” and “Stoned Blues Machine” aren’t campaigning, and neither is “Broken Glass,” they’re just trying to get through it. That, too, is deeply relatable. It’s a kind of helplessness answered both by essentially saying ‘screw it’ and going to get high, and of course by writing these songs themselves, the act of creating them, arranging, recording, etc., which side B’s “Eleven” seems to engage directly. Turn up and get away, even if just in your own brain. Who would begrudge them that?
Especially when the material is so tight. Side A moves from “Atomic Moronic” into “Logan’s Run” into the maddeningly catchy “A Cold Black Heart” and “Stoned Blues Machine” with a build of propulsion that loses not a step as “Broken Glass” picks up with its bouncing snare and “Eleven” finds salvation in its volume — “The walls are closing in again/And I ain’t leaving/And I don’t want to think about it again” — and “Saviours” begins a more tempered shove en route to “The Diamond Rain of Saturn,” which for its first two minutes (until the countdown ends) rocks like all is normal and then spends the next four minutes tripping out until building back to the album’s last apex. All told, it’s eight tracks and 42 minutes that live up to the ethic they espouse and answer chaos with cohesion, setting the proverbial bar higher for themselves while discovering a way to both be in the moment lyrically and to get out of it.
Being their sixth album in less than a decade, Stoned Blues Machine continues to show forward growth on the part of the band, and the lineup of Harrington, Touseull and Markota deliver the songs with organic-feeling chemistry and an energy that having been there I’ll tell you is sincere. They worked hard to make the best Geezer album yet, and they made the best Geezer album yet. I’ll readily cop to being a fan of their work in general, but if one considers Groovy as a second debut for the band since it was their first with this incarnation (Harrington is the lone remaining founder), then Stoned Blues Machine is beyond a worthy follow-up. You can either get on board or not, it’s up to you, but the ability of Geezer to find good times in dark times isn’t to be understated, and if a Stoned Blues Machine is what they are, one only hopes there are wheels on the bottom so they can keep this creative momentum rolling.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 27th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
This is my favorite kind of news these days. Band makes good record, is going abroad to tour. It’s been known for some time that New York’s Geezer would head overseas to play in support of their forthcoming LP, Stoned Blues Machine — I’ll be streaming it in full on May 18; tune in — as the three-piece were announced early on for Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in Switzerland and Austria. They’ll also be at Freak Valley and GockelScream, which makes this a pretty efficient run. There are still a couple TBA dates, so if you happen to live between Salzburg and Mannheim or between Mannheim and Berlin — or at least somewhere nearby — and can help out, maybe hit up Total Volume Agency to let them know, but even if they end up with two days off, seems like this one is well worth the journey. Stay safe, gents. I’ll see you at Freak Valley.
As such, I can only hope they’ll bring their bong spaceship as depicted in this most righteous poster art below by Steven Yoyada. Imagine a nug-powered FTL engine rolling lazily out of drydock and crossing the subspace threshold while expanding your mind. Think of the aliens you’d meet in that thing. We on Pluto, and so forth. Right on.
Pack your bags:
Total Volume Agency presents
*** Geezer – ATOMIC MORONIC EUROPEAN TOUR 2022 ***
01/06 Nantes FR: Little Atlantique Brewery 02/06 Chambéry FR: Brin De Zinc 03/06 Winterthur SW: Heavy Psych Sounds Fest 04/06 Luzern SW: Bruch Brothers 05/06 Salzburg AT: Heavy Psych Sounds Fest 06/06 TBA 08/06 Mannheim DE: Alter 09/06 TBA 10/06 Berlin DE: Wild at Heart 11/06 Dresden DE: GockelScream Festival 12/06 Karlsruhe DE: P8 14/06 Strasbourg FR: Molodoi 15/06 Netphen DE: Freak Valley Festival 16/06 Ghent BE: Kinky Star 17/06 Liège BE: KulturA 18/06 Paris FR: Supersonic
NEW ALBUM Stoned Blues Machine coming out May 20th on Heavy Psych Sounds !!!
ALBUM PRESALE: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS229
USA PRESALE: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop-usa.htm
GEEZER is Pat Harrington – vocals/guitar Richie Touseull – bass Steve Markota – drums
Posted in Features on March 28th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
This session was originally supposed to happen two weeks ago, but Geezer’s recording plans were derailed by drummer Steve Markota contracting what was apparently a mild case of Covid-19. It turned him into a newt, but he got better. In any case, I was invited to come hang out — because it’s not weird unless I’m there to make it that way — and I wasn’t about to say no to watching the Kingston heavy jam/psych/blues trio lay down even just the basic tracks for their next full-length after mid-2020’s it’s-okay-that-it’s-a-miserable-year-we-can-still-dance-a-little-bit Groovy (review here) as their debut on Heavy Psych Sounds who, one assumes, will also be releasing this one sometime in 2022.
Fostering that supposition is the fact that Geezer are already booked to return to Europe — a second appearance at Freak Valley has been confirmed and I’ve heard murmurings of more shows besides — so I don’t know if there’s a hard deadline for the new record, since it’s not like they got to tour the last one, but in talking to Geezer guitarist/vocalist Pat Harrington over the summer, he expressed some urgency to get it out. Can’t blame him or them. Gotta do something.
A rainy day did little to lessen my appreciation for the scenery on the way up here. Drive was about 90 minutes, a 60-mile shot up the NY Thruway to Exit 19, and by then the sleepy Catskills were lording over the sides of the road like forgotten gods, and the landscape was pockmarked alternately by lived-in-the-woods-forever, stare-long houses, escape-from-the-city money, ski facilities and, because it’s how it goes up here, plenty of artist studios and places like Applehead Recording, which is a beautiful, pro-shop with a 32-foot ceiling in the live room. Apparently Markota was the one who argued to record here, which, given the drum sound in that room, is easily understandable.
I’m here for two days. Here are some notes from the first.
12.18.21 – 12:39PM – Applehead Recording – Woodstock, NY
“Mercury Rising”
Got here maybe an hour ago, had some coffee, settled in, took a couple pictures, gonna take some more. Bassist Richie Touseull was getting sounds when I came in, Harrington was next. It’s almost 1PM and engineer Chris Bittner — who co-owns Applehead with Michael “Mike Boom” Birnbaum and opened here in 2013 — has them sounding tight, full and killer through the board mix. Listening in the room now to a jam they did maybe 10 minutes ago, just shaking off the dust, and… well, it’s not a room sound I’d fuck with.
It is apparently the biggest, most studio-ish of the studios Geezer has recorded in, and I’ll agree: this couch I’m on is like a Neve console for my ass right now. I’ll be perfectly happy if I can stay here for the duration, and if the rest of my afternoon is hearing Touseull’s bass tones and the band jamming — if that’s what the process of “basic tracks” is — I’ll be perfectly happy to have spent the time. Shit sounds tight. Of course, nothing ever sounds so good as in the studio monitors, but still.
Best case is Geezer come out of the next two days with 10 songs done. “Mercury Rising” to loosen up, then I guess hit it for real.
A couple songs in, Bittner suggests Marokta lose the click in the midsection of whatever song this is. It is the right suggestion. Continuing through “Mercury Rising” with a couple quick punch-ins on drums and bass, then a doubled guitar solo. Also the right choice. Bassline is killer. Mellow opening, more driving verse, some killer drum jabs as moves between parts, a couple starts and stops.
Printing the song after it’s done, bouncing it down, makes it feel complete.
12.18.21 – 2:39PM – Applehead Recording – Woodstock, NY
“Logan’s Run”
I think the cab in the isolation room next to the control room is humming. It’s a kind of relaxing backing drone. With “Mercury Rising,” the band are moving on to “Logan’s Run,” trying it first with the click track, then probably without again as they get together a take. Vibe in the studio is pretty chill. Sometimes you get into a place like this — especially a nice studio — with a band and it’s a gotta-go-gotta-go-time-is-money kind of thing. Sometimes you get in and everybody’s stoned and/or not there.
This is in between. The band loaded their gear in last night and clearly some sounds were gotten last night as well ahead of starting work properly this morning. Smart not to waste that time this morning. It’s real easy to lose four hours on some minor thing, and better that happens when you’re not trying to also make an album before the day is over.
But Appelhead is gorgeous. There’s a stream in back. I pulled in the wrong driveway the first time, but once I made it here, following the little ‘Studio’ signs on the trees of the long pull-in, it’s clearly designed as a getaway kind of spot. Stream in back, woods out front. Bittner’s house is next door.
Before they start playing, there’s some adjustment with the rack tom. It’s all good though. I’m so into this vibe. Everyone’s tone sounds right on. I hear Touseull with some fuzz on in there and Harrington noodling around while Markota’s drums are adjusted. It all sounds warm and killer and these guys know what they’re doing and they know the songs and they’re here to hit it and have a good time. They’ve got some Sabbath swing going now that I can only hope is actually part of this song and not just something they’re playing to get sounds.
2:48PM, rolling. Bittner takes notes while the band plays, Markota decides quick not to use the metronome. Indeed the swing is the core riff of “Logan’s Run.” Classic stoner janga-janga shuffle. Can’t argue. Evens out to a smooth hook and builds weight as it goes. Harrington crushed vocals for “Mercury Rising” on the quick. I wonder what he’ll do with the pulled-note sections here ahead of the solo, if anything. Song is somewhere in the neighborhood of five minutes long. Another banger.
They do another take the dampener off the snare. Kill it. Listen back to confirm. Yup, it’s dead. Or not. One more take to get the second verse, and then another to punch it in. A few more punch-ins. Pat wants to double the solo again — one doubts it’ll be the wrong choice this time either — and there was a wah-bass part, which, well, yes obviously that’s going to work. Riff is pure stoner rock in how it builds to a finish. “Hole in the Sky,” or Blues-era Kyuss even. Thicker though.
Some more dug-in work on this one, but everybody’s still pretty relaxed.
12.18.21 – 4:47PM – Applehead Recording – Woodstock, NY
“Atomic Moronic”
Talk of dinner leads to pizza. I’ll get a salad and because I’m embarrassed at my own dietary preferences — low carb, no sugar, no pork, etc. — I offer to place the order. Seems the least I can do.
Another speedier boogie, “Atomic Moronic” comes together pretty easily, or at least seems to. Lead lines peppered in, a bit of sass toward the end. Scorched. Could hear on “Mercury Rising” Pat’s pushing himself vocally.
Steve nailed drum punch-ins while I was on the phone with the pizza place. Richie next with one or two bass fills. Pat next with a fix on the solo, then guide vocals I guess for later. Very much a pre-dinner affair, but a fun one. There was some discussion as to whether or not to do a more complicated song before eating. Arguments in favor of “pizza power” won out against implied hangry. I’m glad I could contribute there and bring my homemaker skills to bear in another context. The answer is eat first and do the hard thing after.
Lines “Ignorance is sacred/Crucify the truth/Gotta let it burn/Burn baby burn/Put your faith in stupid/Self-inflicted wound.” Clearly Geezer aren’t going into their first true release of the pandemic era with blinders on to the world around them, and fair enough. Most of these riffs apparently come from lockdown time, so maybe it makes some kind of sense that the three songs I’ve heard so far are all movers in terms of tempo. I’m not sure that makes more sense as a channel for energy than anything else — that is, if they were diving headfirst into jams, it would be easy enough to frame the narrative of pandemic-effected creativity the same way — but when Geezer write songs, they make it count.
This one apparently might start the record. There is some talk of adding a gong, but I don’t think it’s serious. You never know.
The gauntlet is thrown down at two more songs tonight. If they all go as smoothly as “Atomic Moronic,” or even “Logan’s Run,” that’s probably possible, unless the next one is a real burnout deal, I don’t know. I don’t get told these things.
Ate dinner to the soundtrack of a Metallica/Huey Lewis mashup. “It’s Hip to be the Sandman” or some such. When civilization collapses, I hope the mashups are the only piece of modern culture that survives so that future archeologists can be like, “Wow, these people sure liked screwing around with shit. Also they killed the planet.” Guess that’ll be a double-edged sword. Also the archeologists are hypersentient dolphins, or octopuses, or pigoons or some such. Definitely not people. Gotta figure by then humanity will have long since “burned it down.”
12.18.21 – ~7:05PM – Applehead Recording – Woodstock, NY
“Eleven”
Everybody’s cruising post-dinner. Harrington warns that “Eleven” has a part where they might, probably will get hung up. So be it. I drink a bottle of water. Brought a whole gallon with me but it’s in the car. Saving for tomorrow. I’m a firm believer in hydration.
“Eleven” feels shorter, but I’m not sure that was the full song. Going through again. Boogie riff, still uptempo, but feels a little brighter in its turns, if that makes any sense and I’m not sure it does. Steve, Pat and Richie seem pretty locked in, and the bass in this room sounds amazing as Harrington takes a quick solo.
I know from experience that nothing that’s ever come out of a studio has ever sounded as good as on the studio monitors, but the work they apparently did put in last night (I asked) getting sounds and preparing for today is paying off in the fact that they’ll be able to do five tracks before everyone’s too tired.
They break for a solo section, then turn it back around to what I think will be the chorus. It’s got some strut to it with Steve on the ride cymbal but still rolls over fluidly. They run through it again. And again. Change something with a drum fill in the back half. The song is now a beast.
As a producer, Bittner’s very diplomatic in his suggestions — “tell me to go fuck myself, but…” — but I’ve yet to hear him put something out there that didn’t make a song better. Which is the ideal. They’re riding that last verse groove now. I assume the track is named for how loud they’ll be playing it in a live setting.
Listening back, the pace is relaxed in picking out parts to punch in or redo altogether. It’s easy-peasy. Feel like I’m stepping into a situation where the band has done their homework and the studio has been prepped for them. Unless a ceiling caves in right now, I feel like this has been one of the smoother sessions I’ve sat in on, and at this point I’ve done a few.
Steve goes back in for a fill. Fixed. Richie punched in a transition. Pat’s over guitars. Onto vocals for the guide track. Lyrics some bit of stoner escapism. “What is real? And where do we go from here? Nothing is real.” Done.
One more for tonight.
12.18.21 – ~8:30PM – Applehead Recording – Woodstock, NY
“Stoned Blues Machine”
Maybe the title-track. Hell of a title to live up to. Thudding start into slower nod, drums crashing in a way a little more open, pulls up for what might be between-measure shifts, gives it a back and forth feel, but that center groove is a gut puncher and they know it because they keep going back to it. Trippy solo over a rolling bassline. I must be getting tired because I’m running out of ways to say something sounds cool.
Can hear the blues in “Stoned Blues Machine” as they progress. Geezer started out and to some extent has kept a heavy blues underpinning, but I can also hear the other stuff going on in their sound as it’s progressed over the last eight years or so. They hold out distortion at the end of “Stoned Blues Machine.” Noise and delay. First take is solid, but won’t be the last.
They do another take. Warmer. Closer. Pat floats an intro idea they’d apparently talked about. Tape, as it were, is rolling, so they feel it out and it sounds about as solid as something so purposefully molten could want to. Not sure if that’s a slide in there or just the delay making it sound like one, but I like not knowing so I’m not going to sit up and look. Oh, okay, I will. Yeah, it is.
This is the jammier side of the band coming out. Nothing to complain about. They bring it around on the quick to the rest of the song they played earlier and it seems to be a little slower this time, keeping some of that vibe going, though it’s been a long day at this point and that could completely be my imagination.
Harrington calls out “hits!” and some follow, shifting into what’s either another verse or bridge, hard to know until the vocals (or whatever) go over it, but pick up with more drive coming out of the solo and into the ending. They’ve put work in at this point — it’s after 9PM, I got here at 11:45 and they were already working getting sounds — but have a lot to show for it.
Come in to listen. There will be some parts to fix. Doesn’t matter. Everyone knows the day is wrapping up sooner than later and the mood remains as it was. Any fatigue I discern is probably just me projecting because if I was at home right now I’d have probably been in bed for the better part of an hour already.
Nah, everyone’s tired. Talking about doing one more instead of the fixes for this one, get the basics down.
12.18.21 – 9:30PM – Applehead Recording – Woodstock, NY
“Broken Glass”
Richie switches basses. Pat warms up on some chug and noodles. The song starts with snare hits, like death metal, only not at all. It’s a strutter, twisting around Hendrix leads, well punctuated by toms and kick drum. Fucking a. Easy to see why they thought they might be able to sneak this one in before the end of the night. It’ll probably work.
Two takes, in to listen. Second take is the one, but everybody wants a piece of the end again, so they decide to take it from somewhere in the solo ahead of the transition to the last run. They do. No drama.
Pat goes back in for vocals. “We gotta get up and dance/We gotta get up and go/But where are we going?”
This one’s a ripper. Pat fixes a guitar thing after. Quick. Steve has something quick at around 2:16, but he and Chris decide to leave it.
May 20 is the set date for Geezer‘s Stoned Blues Machine to arrive via Heavy Psych Sounds. Preorders are up as of today, and the chance to announce that fact and host the premiere below of “Broken Glass” kind of fell into my lap, and there wasn’t really any way I wasn’t going to say yes. I still need to coordinate when I’ll put up my in-studio with the band — the drafts of the posts have been ready to roll out since December — but that’s little more than an email to be sent, and there’s about four minutes of stomping heavy rock and roll to be had here instead.
In the bio I wrote for Stoned Blues Machine, I noted that Geezer‘s sixth LP boasts their broadest-sounding production to-date. I think you can hear that in “Broken Glass.” Listen to Steve Markota‘s drums. Big room. And Richie Touseull‘s bass and Pat Harrington‘s guitar both sound rich but still able to move as they strut and careen through the no-nonsense cut. They jam out elsewhere on the record — looking at you, “The Diamond Rains of Saturn” — but Stoned Blues Machine also continues to highlight the songcraft and stonerly charm that made 2020’s Groovy (review here) such a boon to that generally wretched year.
I’ll have more to come before the release — including, eventually, that in-studio — but here’s the song, art and preorder links for now.
Enjoy:
Geezer, “Broken Glass” track premiere
BROKEN GLASS is the first single taken from the GEEZER upcoming brand new album STONED BLUES MACHINE.
The release will see the light May 20th via Heavy Psych Sounds.
GRAB YOUR COPY HERE: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm
USA SHOP: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop-usa.htm
“High octane blues for the 21st Century. Broken Glass is a call to arms. In a world where everything seems to be going backwards we need to grab hold and smash your face into the future. Where are we going? I don’t know man. Rock and roll will fucking save the world don’t fight that shit dig on it.”
New album ‘Stoned Blues Machine’ out May 20th on Heavy Psych Sounds.
GEEZER is Pat Harrington – vocals/guitar Richie Touseull – bass Steve Markota – drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 2nd, 2022 by JJ Koczan
I took the picture of Geezer here, and I wrote the bio below (they shortened it a bit and took out the yet-to-be-unveiled title of the new album; so it goes). Since late December, I’ve been sitting on a two-day in-studio feature I did with them while they were making this record at Applehead Recording in scenic Woodstock, New York, that I hope to be able to post sometime in the coming weeks. I need to check with the Heavy Psych Sounds folks to make sure I’m not stepping on promo-plan toes in giving away song titles or anything like that.
Accordingly, I’ve heard this album, seen the cover (epic), all that stuff. It’s a winner. This announcement-of-an-announcement is par for the course of HPS record rollouts, and sometimes I post these and sometimes I don’t, but I’m doing so now to give you a heads up that this is coming and that it rules and whatnot. If you dug mid-2020’s Groovy (review here), then I assure you you’ll be down with what they’ve got going this time around.
More to come:
HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS signed the cosmic stoner rock band GEEZER for the new album – presale + first track premiere March 9th!!!
We are so stoked to announce that the stoner blues-rock riffers GEEZER has signed a worldwide deal with Heavy Psych Sounds for their new album !!!
PRESALE + first track premiere: MARCH 9th
SAYS THE BAND:
“We are beyond stoned… I mean stoked to be working with Gabe and the Heavy Psych Sounds family on the release of our new album! HPS are the grooviest cats with the hippest bands and it’s rad as fuck to be a part of it. Break out the weed and the riffs, this time, we’re going to eleven!”
BIOGRAPHY
A decade beyond their formation, Geezer have become a staple presence of the US heavy underground. From their 2013 debut, the Kingston, New York, trio have progressed into and through open-spaced jams and memorable hooks, offering glimpses at their growth across records like 2014’s Gage, 2016’s self-titled and 2017’s Psychoriffadelia, founding guitarist/vocalist Pat Harrington has led the band – now himself, bassist Richie Touseull and drummer Steve Markota – on a thrilling journey of altered consciousness and downright boogie.
Amid the grim existence of 2020, Geezer unleashed Groovy, their most vital release yet, pulling together what Harrington calls the “three pillars of Geezer: heavy, trippy, groovy” with a batch of memorable songs and easy-rolling vibes.
It’s a rare band that finds its sound so engagingly, and with the new album, the sixth Geezer LP, coming out in 2022 via Heavy Psych Sounds, they once again build on their accomplishments, working with producer Chris Bittner at Applehead Recording in Woodstock, NY, to harness the band’s most expansive production to date.
GEEZER is Pat Harrington – vocals/guitar Richie Touseull – bass Steve Markota – drums
