This is gonna sound like I’m kissing ass, but Heavy Psych Sounds is real-deal upping its festival game this year. From the stellar California lineup to Italy to this, it’s been fun to watch as the shows get bigger and more plentiful. El Perro and maybe Acid Mammoth/1782 (?) had this fest in their latest tour dates, so the existence of Heavy Psych Sounds Fest Switzerland isn’t exactly news — and they’re both booked by HPS, so if it was a leak, it wasn’t done without the label knowing it since the bookers and the label are the same people — but the lineup is right on with Truckfighters in the headline slot, the aforementioned El Perro, Acid Mammoth and 1782, Giöbia and Oreyeon ticking any boxes you have for weird, and Deadsmoke for a bit of something nastier. I’ll be interested to see who else gets added — certainly there are plenty of acts on tour in May and with so many festivals happening around then — but if this was it I’d still say it’s a good one. And the poster alone is giving the lineup alone a run for its money.

Shows are in Martigny and Winterthur, and if you need me to say any more about Heavy Psych Sounds, I’m done here, but I’m pretty sure there will be more news from them in about five minutes, so just sit tight.

From the PR wire:

First names and tickets for HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST SWITZERLAND available; May 26-27th on Winterthur and Martigny!

Today, Heavy Psych Sounds Records unveil the first names for the 2023 edition of HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST SWITZERLAND, the stoner, doom and psych rock mini-festival taking place simultaneously on May 26-27th in Winterthur and Martigny. Two days, two cities, same lineup: all the fuzz!

Following on from the recent HPS Fest Italy and HPS Fest California announcements, it’s now time to get ready for the summer season with the yearly Swiss gathering of all things heavy and fuzzy-sounding! As always with Heavy Psych Sounds, some of the finest bands of their label roster will hit the festival’s stage, joined by one or two cornerstone acts of the international heavy rock scene: on this special occasion, Swedish stoner rock icons Truckfighters are confirmed as headliners for this 2023 edition!

All bands announced are set to play both in Winterthur and Martigny across the weekend of April 26-27h of April. Day splits and timetables to be unveiled soon!

Heavy Psych Sounds Fest Switzerland 2023
May 26-27th at Gaswerk (Winterthur) and Les Caves du Manoir (Martigny)
(#127903#) Winterthur tickets: https://www.petzi.ch/de/events/51711-gaswerk-heavy-psych-sounds-fest/tickets/
(#127903#) Martigny tickets: https://www.petzi.ch/fr/events/51669-caves-du-manoir-heavy-psych-sounds-fest-switzerland/

All bands play both cities!
Truckfighters
Acid Mammoth
El Perro
1782
Giöbia
Deadsmoke
Oreyeon
+ more bands TBA

heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/

Truckfighters, Live at Fuzz Festival #3, Stockholm, Sweden

Park myself in Joshua Tree for a weekend just as the winter is turning to spring, catch a ton of awesome bands from and beyond the desert? Yeah, that sounds pretty magical, to be honest. Nothing against San Francisco. I’ve seen videos from outside at Thee Parkside and it looks like an incredible place to see a gig, but if I’m making the trip from the other side of the country — and unless there’s a sudden fiscal windfall in my favor, I’m not, sadly — it’s the desert calling, all the more with All Souls and BigPig and Third Ear Experience on that bill. That’s a memorable weekend in the making.

The 2023 lineups for Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in California are finished, and with the two posters next to each other you can see some of the differences from one to the other, but they’re mostly the same as artists will play in one city one night, the other the other, and as someone who remembers seeing Yawning Man and Fatso Jetson together a decade ago at Desertfest London 2013 (review here), I’d offer up a kidney to do so again if I thought I could be healed in time to actually enjoy the show in March.

Anybody want to buy some… shit I have nothing of value. Alright then.

Here’s the bill:

Heavy Psych Sounds Records & Booking is proud to announce *** HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST CALIFORNIA 2023 JOSHUA TREE & SAN FRANCISCO ***

full lineup announcement

Heavy Psych Sounds together with Plastic Cactus Productions and Subliminal SF presents the full lineup of the Heavy Psych Sounds Fest California 2023 !!!

HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST ***CALIFORNIA 2023***
MARCH 25 & 26

SAN FRANCISCO @ OPEN AIR AT THEE PARKSIDE

JOSHUA TREE @ HI DESERT CULTURAL CENTER

JOSHUA TREE
HI DESERT CULTURAL CENTER
MARCH 25th and 26th

WINDHAND
WEEDEATER
BRANT BJORK
NEBULA
THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX
YAWNING MAN
FATSO JETSON
DUEL
HIPPIE DEATH CULT
GEEZER
KADABRA
WARLUNG
LOVE GANG
WITCHPIT
COSMIC REAPER
ALL SOULS
BIG PIG
THIRD EAR EXPERIENCE
DEATHCHANT
WHISKEY AND KNIVES
HIGH TONE SON OF A BITCH

SAN FRANCISCO
OPEN AIR AT THEE PARKSIDE
MARCH 25th and 26th

WINDHAND
WEEDEATER
MONDO GENERATOR
NEBULA
THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX
DUEL
HIPPIE DEATH CULT
GEEZER
KADABRA
WARLUNG
LOVE GANG
COSMIC REAPER
WITCHPIT
DEATHCHANT
HIGH TONE SON OF A BITCH
DISASTROID

TICKETS PRESALE SAN FRANCISCO:
https://www.venuepilot.co/events/65782/orders/new

TICKETS PRESALE JOSHUA TREE:
https://heavypsychsounds.ticketleap.com/heavy-psych-sounds-fest-joshua-tree-2023/

heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/

Windhand, Live in Hollywood, CA, June 26, 2022

A couple days’ escape to Joshua Tree just as winter starts to wane sounds pretty god damn good right now. And that’s nothing against San Francisco, mind you — there’s an Amoeba Music there, so however otherwise expensive lodging may be, it’s worth it — but a bit of desert rock in its native habitat feels like a win, and with more bands to be announced, Heavy Psych Sounds Fest 2023 in California makes an enticing prospect. Daydream-worthy.

Traveling from the East Coast will be Weedeater, the particularly sludgy Witchpit, Cosmic Reaper and The Atomic Bitchwax, Duel make the trip from Texas, Hippie Death Cult come down from Portland, Oregon, and Brant Bjork and Nebula represent California itself, so already the two-dayers (which will swap lineups from one night to the next) are varied in geography and style, and one would expect no less at this point. It ain’t Heavy Psych Sounds‘ first rodeo. The label/booking empire also recently announced two fests in Italy and if past is prologue, one expects plenty more to come as well spread throughout 2023.

We live in a golden age. Peak riffs.

From the PR wire:

*** HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST CALIFORNIA *** first confirmed bands

Heavy Psych Sounds together with Plastic Cactus Productions and Subliminal SF presents the 2023 edition of the HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST CALIFORNIA !!!

The HPS Fest California will be taking place 25th and 26th of March, 2023 at the Thee Parkside (open air) in San Francisco and Hi Desert Cultural Center in Joshua Tree !!!

HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST – CALIFORNIA
@ Thee Parkside, San Francisco
@ Hi Desert Cultural Center, Joshua Tree

March 25th and 26th 2023

FIRST CONFIRMED BANDS

WEEDEATER
BRANT BJORK
NEBULA
THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX
DUEL
HIPPIE DEATH CULT
COSMIC REAPER
WITCHPIT

+ more TBA

In January we will unveil the full line up and single day line up.

Same line up will play both cities in different days !!!

TICKETS PRESALE SAN FRANCISCO: https://www.venuepilot.co/events/65782/orders/new

TICKETS PRESALE JOSHUA TREE: https://heavypsychsounds.ticketleap.com/heavy-psych-sounds-fest-joshua-tree-2023/

heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/

Brant Bjork, Bougainvillea Suite (2022)

Do not expect this to be the last Heavy Psych Sounds Fest announcement. The Italian label/booking empire gas over the last several years turned its various festivals into celebrations that each even beyond its own significant associated roster, and in this first reveal for Bologna and Torino fests, we see that happening exactly. Look for tours to emerge around this and other HPS fests to come in Europe (maybe US too), as end-of-April/beginning-of-May is kind of the culmination of the Spring festival season over there.

As someone born, raised and living in the US, I can only marvel at such a thing. I came up in the days of Lollapalooza roaming around bringing bands from town to town in a big traveling festival, but imagine multiple separate tours converging and separating across state lines in one spot, then roving around for club shows until the next one. What an amazing course of live performance and art and craft that is. I know we’re talking about rock shows and that’s generally considered lowbrow fare, but god damn, isn’t that how culture happens? These two dates encapsulate some of that same idea, and Heavy Psych Sounds did similar in California earlier in 2022, so maybe someday they’ll get there. I don’t know, but they make it easy to dig in the meantime.

Lineups follow:

HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST ITALY 2023

BOLOGNA & TORINO

Heavy Psych Sounds Records & Booking is proud to announce *** HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST ITALY 2023 – BOLOGNA & TORINO ***

first bands announcement

Heavy Psych Sounds Records & Booking will smash Bologna and Torino with their highly acclaimed mini festival-series, the HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST!

In cooperation with Freakout Club, Mkno, Blah Blah and Last One To Die, today Heavy Psych Sounds has revealed the first bands for the upcoming HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST ITALY !!!

The HPS Fest Italy will be taking place 29th and 30th of April 2023 at the TPO Club in Bologna and Last One To Die in Caramagna Piemonte (Torino) !!!

BOLOGNA TICKETS PRESALE:
https://www.musicglue.com/freakoutclub/events/2023-04-29-heavy-psych-sounds-fest-at-tpo-freakout-club

TORINO TICKETS PRESALE:
https://www.musicglue.com/last-one-to-die-1/events/2023-04-29-heavy-psych-sounds-fest-italy-impianti-sportivi-caramagna-piemonte

STAY TUNED FOR MORE INFO COMING SOON…

Stoned Jesus
Conan
BelzebonG
BLACK RAINBOWS
MESSA
TONS
Giöbia
OREYEON
Isaak

heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/

Stoned Jesus, “Porcelain” official video