Posted in Questionnaire on August 16th, 2021 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: Tommy Stewart of Tommy Stewart’s Dyerwulf, Hallows Eve and Black Doomba Records
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see here papers and make everyday university life feel manageable. For a UK thesis writing service, we have the largest selection of writers for you to choose from. How To Buy A Custom Thesis Paper In The United Kingdom. When looking to buy thesis paper you don’t want an overcomplicated buying process. Our ordering process is simple, easy, and secure. All you have to do is: Choose theses How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I am an explorer of music! I’m a producer with a studio, a label, I’m a songwriter, bassist and vocalist mostly. I’m often thought of as the bassist of Hallows Eve. How did I come to do it? I had music and art in the house from the very beginning and my mother began teaching me about music on piano at age four.
enter site for sample long term sub cover letter. Posted on gre essay scoring online by buy university diploma uk. Because her children are ill, she had no legal force where the original text is taken in supporting the clients cell number is the breaking down of potentially troublesome and estranged anti-commercialistic consumer youthis that commodication not only transforms Describe your first musical memory.
Playing ‘Silent Night’ on piano at a Christmas recital in kindergarten at age five.
Thorsten, self-determined and without a crown, defrosts his images of mounds or whips in a resistant Custom Writing Services United States manner. The most unpleasant Describe your best musical memory to date.
One of my favorite musical memories was being dragged up onstage at a Supremes show and singing with Mary Wilson plus making her laugh because I did all her dance moves with her. It was quite surreal, being a metal guy.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
This is a tough one. I keep finding out everything I think is a certain way turns out to be true. Which is pretty scary since I have a fairly bleak opinion of the world that I keep to myself except in art and music where I express it, you lucky people.
Every student wants cheap essay writing online service that offers custom essay at a minimal cost. Our company provides an affordable essay writing service that assists several students in completing their tasks. Our Essay website is the best in proving cheap essay services. Don’t Wait and Think! Avail English Language Homework Help Now . Every student needs a custom essay at inexpensive rates and they are Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
I don’t know, I never saw art as a destination which takes us or me anywhere. I just… do. I create in the moment and it reflects what’s happening to me now.
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Being happy. It’s that simple.
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I can’t think of anything. Most unpleasant things I’ve seen I accept as parts of life, even death right before me. All parts of life are part of life, I accept it. I’m the one not shocked when others around me are freaking.
I wanted to pay somebody to http://www.cleode.fr/en/?best-business-plan-writers-uk. The Michael Vick of Programming Should You Let the Michael Vick of Programming Do Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
I have painted since I was a kid, it started with coloring. I’m not good at drawing and don’t enjoy it, but I like painting. I’d like to paint much more. I feel that time is coming, wherein I may do less music and paint more, not for anyone in particular but just for the sake of it and myself.
That is why our online site Your Homework Help can help you not only to do the statistics homework but also request- How To Write Grad School Admissions Essay. What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
To express oneself as a form of language, at times just to oneself. An example is I feel, I play, you hear, you feel. That is language.
Are you a lawyer in need of assistance? When you need Www Dissertation Help Co Uks and assistance with legal research, Better Briefs is here to help. We serve Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
I’m spending December holidays on a small island with my family!
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 24th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
I guess it’s possible we’re counting The Personal Statement Conclusions that we offer is unsurpassed by other writing companies for a number of reasons. First, our writers are the best in the industry. They have years of experience doing PhD dissertation writing. Many are now, or have been in the past, college professors who now exactly what a dissertation committee is looking for in this important body of work. They know everything Kylesa‘s 2002 self-titled debut as a demo here? It was certainly raw compared to the band they’d become over their years together. But I don’t know, because the PR wire info lists 2005’s Online Essay Corrections requires professional eye and qualified skills. And all these you can get from our expert! To Walk a Middle Course — on the heels of which they signed to Should you simply opt for Essay About Helping Your Community services and hope for the best? Or, should you pay for the best thesis help that money can buy. Prosthetic for the subsequent two releases, 2006’s Outsource Writing Works to Outsource2india and get access to accurate blog writing by a team of experienced professional writers. Time Will Fuse its Worth and 2009’s All of our essays for sale are completely original and unique. Custom Reason Writing Acklenortongreen means we have to provide a great value to our customers. Static Tensions (review here) before aligning to Season of Mist — as the second record, so maybe it’s just a question of there being four more to come instead of three. Perhaps an issue for another time. The point here is that the three records listed above originally put out between 2005-’09 are being reissued on vinyl through Heavy Psych Sounds.
That puts Kylesa in the choice company of Dozer and Nebula as an act for whom the Italian label has embarked on a reissue series. While they’re without the doubt the least stoner rock of that bill, their more aggressive style — highlighted during this period of their tenure — was always tinged with an undercurrent of heavy. In any case, can’t argue. These records deserve to be heard, as the does the rest (?) of the Savannah, Georgia, troupe’s catalog apparently to see reissue next year.
Preorders up now. Links, all three album streams, and whatnot follow:
Heavy Psych Sounds to repress first three KYLESA albums – presale starts TODAY!!!
Today we start with the presale of the first 3 albums. In 2022 we are going to repress the other 3 releases.
SAYS THE BAND: “We’re happy to announce that HPS is reissuing the long OOP titles “To Walk a Middle Course”, “Time Will Fuse Its Worth” and “Static Tensions” on vinyl. These were really our most formative years as a band; a time when we toured the most, discovered who we were musically and found a sound that we could no doubt call our own.”
HPS180 *** KYLESA – Static Tensions *** – REPRESS of the 4th KYLESA album with new coloured versions – RELEASED IN 15 ULTRA LTD TEST PRESS VINYL 100 ULTRA LTD 3 COLORS STRIPED SOLID PURPLE/TRANSPARENT/BROWN SOLID VINYL 300 LTD TRANSPARENT SPLATTER PURPLE VINYL BLACK VINYL
RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 15th
TRACKLIST Scapegoat – 3:25 Insomnia For Months – 2:04 Said And Done – 4:10 Unknown Awareness – 4:23 Running Red – 5:46 Nature’s Predators – 4:10 Almost Lost – 3:03 Only One – 5:20 Perception – 3:43 To Walk Alone – 4:23
HPS181 *** KYLESA – To Walk a Middle Course *** – REPRESS of the 2nd KYLESA album with new coloured versions – RELEASED IN 15 ULTRA LTD TEST PRESS VINYL 100 ULTRA LTD TRANSPARENT BACK. BLUE-FUCSIA SPLATTER VINYL 300 LTD SEA BLUE VINYL BLACK VINYL
RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 22nd
TRACKLIST SIDE A A1 In Memory – 4.29 A2 Fractured – 2.43 A3 Train Of Thought – 3.29 A4 Motion And Presence – 4.26 A5 Welcome Mat To An Abandoned Life – 3.38 SIDE B B1 Bottom Line – 2.48 B2 Eyes Closed From Birth – 3.56 B3 Shatter The Clock – 4.46 B4 Phantoms – 6.15 B5 Crashing Slow – 3.35
HPS182 *** KYLESA – Time Will Fuse Its Worth *** – REPRESS of the 3rd KYLESA album with new coloured versions – RELEASED IN 15 ULTRA LTD TEST PRESS VINYL 100 ULTRA LTD CORNETTO YELLOW TRANSPARENT VINYL 300 LTD ORANGE SOLID VINYL BLACK VINYL
RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 22nd
TRACKLIST SIDE A A1 Intro – 0.34 A2 What Becomes An End – 4.02 A3 Hollow Severer – 4.12 A4 Where The Horizon Unfolds – 4.53 A5 Between Silence And Sound – 6.18 A6 Intermission – 2.01 SIDE B B7 Identity Defined – 3.20 B8 Ignoring Anger – 5.17 B9 The Warning – 6.26 B10 Outro – 2.23
Kylesa last lineup: Phillip Cope – vocals, guitars, samples Laura Pleasants – vocals, guitars Carl McGinley – drums, percussion, keys / samples
Georgian atmospheric sludge five-piece Dead Hand released their split with exclamatory fellow Peach Staters Machinist! in March through Nefarious Industries. It’s a beast. A short beast, but a beast just the same. Machinist! offer two tracks in “Bask in the White Light,” which fosters almost immediate post-hardcore sludge lumber and caps with quotes from Fahrenheit 451, and “The Nail,” which is presumably named for what they hit on the head in their blend of noise, lumber, loathing and bite — actually the title comes from the lyric “I am Jesus and you are the nail,” but for the sake of argument, let’s roll with it — and unleashes its furies with corresponding efficiency and thickness. When Dead Hand enter this thickened, churning fray, they do so amid the chuggoplod and harsh doom of “Muirgeilt,” a single inclusion running a seven-minute gamut of extremity in purpose, bridging death-sludge with atmospheric heavy along a linear course that breaks almost exactly halfway in to a stretch of bass, spooky keys and drums like all of a sudden someone invited John Carpenter to the party. Please, come right in.
The surge back is satisfying and sudden, as “Muirgeilt” pushes into its angular, consuming final stretch with its riffs dystopian and its vocals more gurgle than growl, becoming shouts in the last minute forward push, some gang shouts to let you know where they come from. They started angry and they end angry, which is fair enough when you do anger so well. In the video below, which is Dead Hand rendering “Muirgeilt” live in the mood lighting of their rehearsal space, one of course gets a better sense for what everyone is doing at any given moment, with the arrangement between vocalists, the keys and guitar, what looks like and may or may not be some kind of theremin-esque device going on there, and so on. Yes, the sound is rawer than on the finished studio version — if the words “rehearsal space” didn’t signal that loud enough I’ll say it outright — but the tradeoff is personification of viciousness, faces to the rage, and that’s worth the viewing in itself, let alone the bootleg vibe of the thing, which is enjoyable in its own right and gives its own sense of atmosphere to the proceedings.
The split’s out on 10″ vinyl and DL, and you can stream it down by the bottom of this post. The band offered some words on the video and more below.
Enjoy:
Dead Hand, “Muirgeilt” live-in-studio premiere
Cliff Carr on “Muirgeilt”:
It was recorded in mid-February at our rehearsal space at my house. This song had a different drummer on the recording. Although Carson [Pace] is playing 90 percent of what Craig [Harper] played on the recording, he steps it up in the end and puts his own stamp on it. It is what we wanted to do originally but Craig couldn’t play double bass that fast.
Live performance of “Muirgeilt” off of our split with MACHINIST! from the DEAD HAND practice space. Out March 19, 2021 on Limited 10 inch glacier blue vinyl and digital worldwide via Nefarious Industries..
“Bask in the White Light” and “The Nail” recorded, mixed, and mastered by Lee Dyess at Earthsound Studio in Valdosta, Georgia. machinistga.bandcamp.com
“Muirgeilt” recorded, mixed, and mastered by Matt Washburn at LedBelly Sound Studio in Dawsonville, Georgia. deadhandcollective.bandcamp.com
Dead Hand are: Clifton Carr – guitar/vocals Shannon Harris – synth/vocals Stephen Williams – guitar/vocals Carson Pace – drums Andrew Seth – bass
Posted in Questionnaire on April 13th, 2021 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: Jeff Hill of Machinist!
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I guess when people ask me what I do I most commonly respond “I’m in a touring band.” Then they normally ask what we sound like and I say “metal” and they say “oh like skillet.” And inside I die and outside I say “yeah man.” But at its base I’d say I’ve come to be most comfortably saying I’m an artist that makes art with his friends. That’s really what it is. It’s gross, sweaty, loud art but it’s art.
I started writing poetry in middle school. I was in a couple of puddle-of-nickel-creed-back bands in high school but I became comfortable on stage through drama and debate. I was a drama kid and I had a wonderful teacher and mentor named Phillip Wertz who taught me so much about engaging the audience and telling stories. I went to college and joined a band. We went on the first and worst tour I’ve ever been on and I fell in love.
Describe your first musical memory.
Riding in my dad’s Buick listening to a Jim Croce tape that came out of this leather tape collection box that rode on the floorboards. I remember listening to “Bad Bad Leroy Brown” and thinking dad’s giant Buick was the coolest. It was “19 feet 2 inches of American steel” and it had a 455 rocket under the hood.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
Dang. I’d say probably The Fest a few years back. I mentioned I had to leave right after our set to go take my little girl trick or treating and the capacity crowd started chanting my little girl’s name. I still get chill bumps thinking about that.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
Our van broke down in Lexington, Kentucky, once in a 9 degree winter. We and False Tongues (the band we were sharing the van with) were stuck in a house for three or four days with this guy named Nasty Nate and his family. 80 percent of the people on the tour and in the house smoked cigarettes inside because there was ice and snow outside. I’m from South Georgia. I’ve seen snow like four times in my life. It’s one of the few times I’ve wanted to quit being in a band. But I didn’t. And we made it.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
For me it leads to peace and balance. I couldn’t exist without writing words.
How do you define success?
These days it’s making stuff that I like with my friends.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
I wish I hadn’t seen a lady in a Cat In The Hat hat shit in a Solo cup in the middle of the street in front of Churchill’s Pub in Miami, Florida.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
I’d like to write a children’s book.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
To remind us that we are more than cogs in a capitalist machine. It’s escapism but also it gives us a connection to other human beings.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
The federal legalization of Cannabis and the expungement of charges and release of our brothers and sisters who are trapped inside of a for profit prison system. I’m looking forward to the abolishment of the system that grinds people into a place of desperation so that rich bastards can watch unreal numbers increase on screens. I’m also looking forward to The Matrix 4.
Posted in Reviews on March 29th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
The Spring 2021 Quarterly Review begins here, and as our long winter of plague-addled discontent is made glorious spring by this son of York Beach, I can hardly wait to dig in. You know the drill. 50 records between now and Friday, 10 per day. It’s a lot. It’s always a lot. That’s the point.
Words on the page. If I have a writing philosophy, that’s it. Head down, keep working. And that’s the challenge here. Can you get over your own crap and say what you need to say about 10 records every day for five days straight out? I’ll be exhausted by the end of the week for sure. I’ll let you know when we get there if it feels any different. Till then, let’s roll.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
Wolvennest, Temple
The second full-length offering — and I mean that: ‘offering’ — from Belgium’s Wolvennest is an expansive and immersive follow-up to their 2018 debut, Void, as the Brussels six-piece offers next-stage extreme cult rock. Across 77 willfully-unmanageable and mind-altering minutes, the troupe caroms between (actual) psychedelic black metal and sheer sonic ritualism, and the intent is made plain from 12:26 opener/longest track (immediate points) “Mantra” onward. Wolvennest are enacting a ceremony and it’s up to the listener to be willing to engage with the material on that level. Their command is unwavering as the the heft and wash of “Alecto” and the ethereal swirl and dual vocal arrangement of “All that Black” show, but while King Dude himself shows up on “Succubus,” and that’s fun, especially followed by the penultimate downward march of “Disappear,” the greatest consumption is saved for “Souffle de Mort” (“breath of death,” in English; it’s not about eggs). In that 10-minute finale, marked out by the French-language declarations of Shazzula Vultura, Wolvennest not only make it plain just how far they’ve brought you, but that they intend to leave you there as well.
A 15-minute playful jaunt into the funk-grooving max-fuzzed whatever-works garage headtrip if Toronto’s Lammping is right on the money. The four-piece start channel-spanning and mellow with “Jaws of Life” — which is a righteous preach, even though I don’t know the lyrics — and follow with the complementary vibe of “The Funkiest,” which would seem to be titled in honor of its bassline and conjures out-there’est Masters of Reality in its face-painted BlueBoy lysergics over roughly traditional songwriting. Is “Neverbeen” weirder? You know it. Dreamily so, and it’s followed by the genuinely-experimental 40 seconds of “Big Time the Big Boss” and the closer “Other Shoe,” which if it doesn’t make you look forward to the next Lammping album, I’m sorry to say it, but you might be dead. Sorry for your loss. Of you. This shit is killer and deserves all the ears it can get with its early ’90s weirdness that’s somehow also from the late ’60s and still the future too because what is time anyway and screw it we’re all lost let’s ride.
Tales to Be Told is the late-2020 third long-player from Swedish classicists Lykantropi, following 2019’s Spirituosa (review here) with a warmth of tone that’s derived from ’70s folk rock and vaguely retro in its tones and drum sounds, but remains modern in its hookmaking and it’s not exactly like they’re trying to hide where they’re coming from when they break out the flute sounds. Harmonies in “Mother of Envy” make that song a passionate highlight, while the respective side-endings in “Kom Ta Mig Ut” and “Världen GĂĄr Vidare” add to the exploratory and roots-proggy listening experience, the album’s finale dropping its drums before the three-minute mark to allow for a drifting midsection en route to a class finish that answers the choruses of “Spell of Me” and “Axis of Margaret” earlier with due spaciousness. Clean and clear and wanting nothing aesthetically or emotionally, Tales to Be Told is very much a third album in how realized it feels.
Japanese trio Mainliner — comprised of guitarist Kawabata Makoto (Acid Mothers Temple), bassist/vocalist Kawabe Taigen (Bo Ningen) and drummer Koji Shimura (Acid Mothers Temple) — are gentle at the outset of Dual Myths but don’t wait all that long before unveiling their true freak-psych intention in the obliterating 20 minutes of “Blasphemy Hunter,” the opener/longest track (immediate points) that’s followed by the likewise side-consuming left-the-air-lock-behind-and-found-antimatter-was-made-of-feedback “Hibernator’s Dream” (18:38), the noisier, harsher fuckall spread of “Silver Guck” (19:28) and the gut-riffed/duly scorched jazz shredder “Dunamist Zero” (20:08), which culminates the 2LP beast about as well as anything could, earning the gatefold with sheer force of intent to be and to harness the far-out into some loosely tangible thing. Stare into the face of the void and the void doesn’t so much stare back as turn your lungs into party balloons.
On a certain level, what you see is what you get with the Orion slavegirl warriors, alien mushrooms and caithan beast that adorn DayGlo Mourning‘s debut album, the six-song/35-minute Dead Star, in that they’re suitably nestled into the sonic paraphernalia of stoner-doom as well as the visual. With bassist Jerimy McNeil and guitarist Joseph Mills sharing vocal duties over Ray Miner‘s drums, variety of melody and throatier shouts are added to the deep-toned largesse of riff, and the Atlanta trio most assuredly have their heads on when it comes to knowing what they want to do sound-wise. The hard-hit hi-hat of “Faithful Demise” comes with some open spaces after the fuzzy lumber that caps “Bloodghast,” and as “Ashwhore” and “Witch’s Ladder” remind a bit of the misogyny inherent in witchy folklore — at the end of the day it was all about killing pretty girls — the grooves remain fervent and the forward potential on the part of the band likewise. It’s a sound big enough that there isn’t really any room left for bullshit.
Issued in the waning hours of Dec. 2020, Chamán‘s 70-minute, six-song debut album, Maleza, is a psicodelico cornucopia of organic-toned delights, from the more forward-fuzz of “Poliforme” — which is a mere six and a half minutes long but squeezes in a drum solo — to the 13-plus-minute out-there salvo that is “Malezo,” “Concreto” and “Temazcal,” gorgeously trippy and drifting and building on what the Mendozza, Argentina, three-piece conjure early in the proceedings with “Despierta” and “Ganesh,” each over 10 minutes as well. Even in Maleza‘s most lucid moments, the spirit of improv and live recording remains vibrant, and however these songs were built out to their current form, I’m just glad they were. Whether you put it on headphones and bliss out for 70 minutes or you end up using it as a backdrop for whatever your day might bring, Chamán‘s sprawling and melted soundscapes are ready to embrace and enfold you.
Italian duo Sonic Demon bring a lethal dose of post-Electric Wizard grit fuzz and druggy echoed snarl to their debut full-length, Vendetta, hitting a particularly nasty low end vibe early on “Black Smoke” and proving willing to ride that out for the duration with bouts of spacier fare in “Fire Meteorite” and side A capper “Cosmic Eyes” before the second half of the 40-minute outing renews the buzz with “FreakTrip.” Deep-mixed drums make the guitar and bass sound even bigger, and such is the morass Sonic Demon make that even their faster material seems slow; that means “Hxxxn” must be extra crawling to feel as nodded-out as it does. Closing duo “Blood and Fire” and “Serpent Witch” don’t have much to say that hasn’t already been said, style-wise, but they feel no less purposeful in sealing the hypnosis cast by the songs before them. If you can’t hang with repetition, you can’t hang, and the filth in the speedier-ish last section of “Serpent Witch” isn’t enough to stop it from being catchy.
Sow Discord is the solo industrial doom/experimentalist project of David Coen, also known for his work in Whitehorse, and the bleak feel that pervades his debut full-length under the moniker, Quiet Earth, is resonant and affecting. Channeling blowout beats and speaker-throbbing crush on “Ruler,” Coen elsewhere welcomes Many Blessings (aka Ethan Lee McCarthy, also of Primitive Man) and The Body as guests for purposefully disturbing conjurations. Cuts like “Desalination” and “Functionally Extinct” churn with an atmosphere that feels born of a modern real-world apocalypse, and it’s hard to tell ultimately whether closer “The World Looks on with Pity and Scorn” is offering condolence or condemnation, but either way you go, the bitter harshness that carries over is the thread that weaves all this punishment together, and as industrial music pushes toward new extremes, even “Everything Has Been Exhausted” manages to feel fresh in its pummel.
They’ve cooled down a bit from the tear they were on for a few years there, but Dali’s Llama‘s new Dune Lung EP is no less welcome for that. The desert-dwelling four-piece founded by guitarist/vocalist Zach and bassist Erica Huskey bring a laid back roll to the nonetheless palpably heavy “Nothing Special,” backing the opener with the fuzzy sneer of “Complete Animal,” the broader-soundscape soloing of “Merricat Blackwood,” and the more severe groove of “STD (Suits),” all of which hit with a fullness of sound that feels natural while giving the band their due as a studio unit. Dali’s Llama have been and continue to be significantly undervalued when it comes to desert rock, and Dune Lung is another example of why that is and how characteristic they are in sound and execution. Good band, and they’re edging ever closer to the 30-year mark. Seems like as good a time as any to be appreciated for the work they’ve done and do.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on January 15th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Savannah, Georgia’s Kylesa released their final album, Exhausting Fire, on Oct. 2, 2015. The record came out on Season of Mist, and as was their wont, they did a bunch of touring to support it before and after it came out, including playing what was then Psycho California and I’m sure five or sixty others. By the time Exhausting Fire was six months old, though, in April 2016, they announced they were essentially on permanent hiatus, “no set date to reconvene.”
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen worse, but that was kind of a bummer way for Kylesa to end, and to even look at the title Exhausting Fire, one gets the sense that the group — who had already pared down from being a two-drummer five-piece to just guitarist/vocalists Laura Pleasants and Philip Cope (the latter also bass and keys) and drummer Carl McGinley (Jay Matheson also plays bass on the bulk of the outing) — saw it coming. They’d spent years road-dogging. My prevailing memory of them live will always be sitting on grass watching them play with the two drummers set up on a flatbed trailer on a little hill behind a now-gone record store at SXSW one year, but I saw them plenty of times and they always delivered. From their second album, 2005’s To Walk a Middle Course and 2006’s Time Will Fuse its Worth through 2009’s Static Tensions (review here) and the increasingly progressive trio of recordings for Season of Mist in 2010’s Spiral Shadow (review here), 2013’s Ultraviolet (review here) and Exhausting Fire, they never put out the same album twice, and though their fire may have been exhausting — while the lyrics in bulk feel more about personal relationships (not that a band isn’t one), “Night Drive” could easily be read to be about touring — they still pushed themselves forward in their approach and style.
That resulted in some righteously heavy moments, as with the opener “Crusher,” or the riff-forward side A closer “Shaping the Southern Sky,” or the oboe-inclusive “Blood Moon” on side B, but also a more brazenly and more confidently melodic take than they’d ever shown before. Granted, their reemergence from having two drummers was inherently going to realign the dynamic of the group as a whole, making room for that melody to flourish, but one of the overarching narratives of Kylesa‘s discography is the ratio of shared vocals between Cope and Pleasants becoming a defining element of the band. More even than on Ultraviolet, there’s a sense of individual authorship in the songs — he brought this part, she brought this one, etc. — but both parties are still evolving in this material. Cope takes on an almost gothic New Wave aspect with “Moving Day,” backing himself on keys, while Pleasants offers an ahead-of-its-time heavy post-rock with side B leadoff “Falling,” underscored by the weighted punctuation of McGinley‘s drumming.
Songs like “Inward Debate” and “Lost and Confused” find one or the other in the forward position, or effectively switching or working in a thoughtfully constructed arrangement, and by the time they get to the penultimate “Growing Roots,” they manage to pull together a sound like heavy Weezer — which I have to imagine that, if they saw this, they’d take as the compliment it’s intended to be, since “Growing Roots” sounds like heavy Weezer is what they were going for. With Cope at the helm as ever at The Jam Room in Columbia, South Carolina, Kylesa‘s exploration never really ended — until of course it did — and even while there were signature elements of their style in their deceptively angular riffing resulting in the mounting rhythmic tension of their verses headed toward a chorus release, or even the touches of psychedelia worked into “Shaping the Southern Sky” or the arrival of the last shove in album finale “Out of My Mind,” those came accompanied by evident growth that was no less an essential component of the band’s work.
The melodic burst at the end of “Lost and Confused.” The conveyed monotony of “Night Drive.” The boldness of the verses in “Crusher” and the simple fact that that song leads off while being so dynamic rather than just an up-front rocker. There’s so much on Exhausting Fire to argue for Kylesa as an undervalued, taken-for-granted band. It’s not their heaviest album or their most rawly aggressive — maybe that would be their 2002 self-titled, with Cope fresh off his time in Damad; recall their split with Meatjack if you dare — but Exhausting Fire is also more than a band burning themselves out or already being burnt. It’s them turning exhaustion into expression, and it still resonates effectively.
I didn’t review Exhausting Fire when it came out. I don’t remember why. I’d spent a decade at that point listening to them and considered myself a fan, but I was a little scared off by the title, and it goes back to what I was saying before about the band knowing the end was coming. I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear that from a group whose work I’d enjoyed so much. Like how Abbey Road is bittersweet because you know they knew it was over, one last blowout. That’s kind of the vibe that hindsight puts to work across Exhausting Fire, but even in that, their work as songwriters and the chemistry between Pleasants and Cope continued to move forward from where it was a couple years before. It wasn’t until earlier this week that I actually gave Exhausting Fire a fair shot. Now I want the CD. Go figure.
Both Philip Cope and Laura Pleasants have remained active since Kylesa called it a day. Cope produces a swath of acts at The Jam Room and features in the band Oakskin, who have a few singles up on Bandcamp and took part in last year’s Mutants of the Monster virtual festival, while Pleasants has pursued more New Wave and post-punk-inspired atmospheric songcraft with The Discussion, who reissued the 2017 EP Movement Towards a New Beginning (originally just called the European Tour EP) and offered the new single Deathtripper B/W A Forest in 2020. There’s been no word of a reunion and I wouldn’t expect any anytime soon — so it’ll probably happen five minutes after this is posted; that’s how it usually goes when I say something like that — but Kylesa merch continues to be available and their albums still sound vibrant these years after the fact, like they were made to do.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
—
Okay. Everything is awful. Mostly me. I’m the worst. Let the record show.
Oh man, I miss the record show.
Anyway. It was just one of those weeks. Muddling, middling, head down, just-get-through-the-day-to-another-one-for-fucking-what kind of week. I mentioned last week the telehealth appointment about meds. Holy fucking shit that was weird. And awkward, and uncomfortable. Dude was asking me questions like I’m supposed to sit there and do Depression Theater for him and talk about how I don’t want to get out of bed or how daily tasks are hard for me and I just said fuck it. “I’m sorry, this is making me really uncomfortable and I’m going to end the call. Thanks for your time.”
Nothing resolved, but at least pulling myself out of that situation felt good. I was weirded out the rest of the day though. Is this really how people do medicine? I’m a fucking stranger tell me about the time you spend curled up on the floor? Shit. I said to him, “I’ve been in treatment long enough to know when things aren’t right.” Fine. So dance for me, you pill-seeking monkey.
I recorded some vocals last Sunday. Sang clean a bit, which is hard for me because I know I’m not good at it and that’s like the omega of self-fulfilling prophecies. A vocal coach once quickly cut to the core of me and said, “Someone in your life once told you you couldn’t sing,” and that’s true. Anyway, I got through it and then went back on Wednesday and added a bunch more screams to the track, because that I can do and of course that’s what the person whose project it is was into. Can’t blame him. Anyway, it came out fine and I think the song will be out in a couple weeks. It’s a Joni Mitchell cover, but I rewrote most of the lyrics so they didn’t feel misogynist coming out of my mouth.
The Patient Mrs.’ semester begins next week. She’s back on campus not quite full-time, I think. I don’t know. Shit changes daily. She’s worried about getting tenure, trying to get writing done while teaching. The Pecan has been in virtual preschool the last couple weeks because the fucking plague is a thing and he maybe goes back next week too to in-person instruction. We don’t even know yet and it’s Friday. He was just finally sitting in the chair long enough to sing the days of the week (which is to the tune of the old Addams Family theme song, hilariously enough) and months of the year (to the tune of something else I can’t put my finger on just now; if The Patient Mrs. reads this as she sometimes does, she’ll probably tell me and I’ll slap my forehead, which is how I do).
I’m sure there’s more, but between that and the general overhang of dread resulting from impending fascist insurrection, is any more really necessary? Look out for a video interview with Lupus from Kadavar on Monday. I talked to him yesterday. Had never interviewed him before and probably should’ve by now, but he was nice.
Great and safe weekend. Don’t forget to hydrate and wear your mask and social distance and all that stuff.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on September 8th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
The Pinx‘s exclamatory five-track Electric! EP, out now, puts guitarist/vocalist Adam McIntyre (also now of StoneRider) back in the drivers seat as regards production after relinquishing the helm for the band’s 2019 third full-length, Sisters and Brothers. The Atlanta-based four-piece offer five new tracks on the quick-turnaround short release — they also put out a couple holiday singles last December — and whether it’s the opener “Victimless Crime,” the pointedly catchy “Bad Behavior,” the semi-psychedelic centerpiece “Hammer of the Dogs” or the rushing “It’s Electric” or the turn to ’70s Southern fluidity in the double-lead guitar and harmonies of “See You Later,” McIntyre and the band around him comprised of guitarist/vocalist Chance McColl, bassist Charles Wiles and drummer Cayce Buttrey bring efficiency right to the forefront of the work they’re doing. Stylistic turns are quick and unannounced but a pleasure to follow. Pretense is nowhere to be found. The material is well written, well performed, well produced. It sounds like rock and roll to me.
That’s almost a novelty in an age of genre-minded hyper-specialization, but The Pinx comport themselves with a classic methodology while letting the recording itself carry across the energy of the band to which the EP’s title is so clearly alluding. Electric! is something of a stripping down as compares to Sisters and Brothers, and that’s reportedly the idea, but if you had to pick a time to go to ground, reset, and push yourself to do something kind of new in the studio, well, it’s not like there’s a show to play instead. Not to be glib or anything, but if the cathartic burst of these tracks is productive for McIntyre — also a prolific solo artist — and the group as a whole, then so be it. “See You Later” brings in some of the embellishment of the band’s more Southern rocking work, as noted, but even that is more about drive than pastoralism, and whether it’s a one-off or an entire realignment of purpose, it suits The Pinx well. Electric! is engaging while asking shockingly little of the listener other maybe than that they keep up, and frankly, doing so is what makes the thing fun in the first place.
The EP is out and you can stream the full thing below. “It’s Electric” is the second video collaboration between The Pinx and esteemed psychotropic-oil-duder Lance Gordon of The Mad Alchemy Liquid Lightshow, who gets his hands dirty so you can get your mind dirty. Of course I’m going to tell you to watch the video — colors are pretty and it’s premiering below — but you should know in so doing that Electric! takes on a number of directions, and the push here is just one of them.
You got three and a half minutes for rock and roll? Of course you do.
Enjoy:
The Pinx, “It’s Electric” official video premiere
Adam McIntyre on “It’s Electric”:
“I met Lance of Mad Alchemy when my other band Stonerider opened for Graveyard and Radio Moscow. They had this fellow working lights doing that old-school Fillmore West projection and I just started asking him questions. I liked the idea that the ‘light guy’ wasn’t pushing buttons and faders, but actually putting his hands into this stew of colors and bathing the bands in his magical creations. Lance and I just clicked. I saw the possibilities for connecting with the crowd in a different way, and it took a while and a pandemic, but I found the card he gave me back in 2013 and finally started working with him. It wasn’t live shows, as I’d always expected we’d do, but making videos instead. I gave very little direction to him. He’s playing off of the music, so I’ve already given him the music as my direction. His visual interpretation is his own.”
The Pinx are back with another collaboration with visual artists Mad Alchemy, whose dynamic, psychedelic oil projection backgrounds have graced the stages of Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Temples, Radio Moscow, Graveyard, Circles Around The Sun and many more. This video showcases a few new editing tricks to bring out the dynamics in the music. Oil Projection by Lance Gordon, Titles and editing by Ryne Freed.
As for the song, it says what it does, does what it says. This is The Pinx in pure, sweaty and electrifying ROCK mode.
Recorded and mixed at Bear Pause by Adam McIntyre Mastered by JJ Golden at Golden Mastering
The Pinx are: Adam McIntyre – Lead Vocals & Lead Guitar Chance McColl – Lead Guitar and Vocals Charles Wiles – Bass & Backing Vocals Cayce Buttrey – Drums & Backing Vocals
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 4th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Based in Miami and Atlanta, the Southeastern two-piece of Juan Montoya (ex-Torche) and Evan DiPrima (ex-Royal Thunder) form the core of Moon Destroys, and their mission, at least judging by the bit of their aptly-titled debut EP, Maiden Voyage, that I’ve had the chance to hear, would seem to be to further blur the line between heavy and prog, which is a barrier that over the last several years has only become increasingly obscure. Inevitably that will lead to a snap-back/regression sooner or later, but that’s years away, frankly, and in the interim, an outfit like Moon Destroys, which brings shades of Montoya‘s brighter-tinged guitar work along with guest vocals from Cynic‘s Paul Masvidal and Mastodon‘s Troy Sanders — working that prog angle — makes for a fascinating as well as head-spinning listen. You can stream “Blue Giant” below, which is the cut with Sanders, and it’s one to keep up with, but it proves worth the effort to do so.
Something cool to check out that doesn’t sound like everything else? Yeah, I’ll give that upwards of four minutes out of my day, thanks. Preorders are also a thing.
Dig:
MOON DESTROYS (ex-TORCHE, ex-ROYAL THUNDER): Announce Debut EP Maiden Voyage coming March 27th
MOON DESTROYS is the brainchild of guitarist Juan Montoya (ex-Torche) and drummer Evan Diprima ( Brother Hawk, ex-Royal Thunder). Having written together in various configurations for over a decade, they now come together under the auspices of celestial forces with a new project to unveil their mesmerizing debut EP Maiden Voyage.
An experiment of truly galactic proportions, MOON DESTROYS blend heavy riffage with psychedelic flourishes and vivid imagery across two intricately designed centerpiece tracks; “Blue Giant” along with “Stormbringer” featuring the gorgeous vocals of Paul Masvidal (Cynic) and layers of synths from Bryan Richie (The Sword). Three instrumental bursts connect the pieces together to create one mind-melting trip across the cosmic highway! Maiden Voyage is an absorbing, dynamic and forward-thinking debut that explores the new frontiers of heavy music in the 21st century.
Maiden Voyage will be released on March 27th on LP/Digital via Brutal Panda Records and is available for pre-order at this LOCATION.
Tracklisting: 1. At The End Of Time 2. Blue Giant (feat. Troy Sanders) 3. The Shores Of The Cosmic Ocean 4. Stormbringer (feat. Paul Masvidal) 5. The Edge Of Forever
