Posted in Whathaveyou on October 30th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Like a month ago, as the first bands and the what-it-is details were announced for the inaugural Mojave Experience Festival set to take place next March in Joshua Tree, California, if you went to the website, there was a picture of Yawning Man. Fair enough. Even with the likes of Earthless, Dead Meadow, Acid King, John Garcia, Mario Lalli and the Rubber Snake Charmers and Ecstatic Vision on the bill, there would kind of be a glaring hole in the notion of ‘desert’ if Gary Arce and company didn’t take part. If it becomes an annual thing, they could be the house band.
YawningMan are joined in this week’s announcements by Hippie Death Cult, from Portland, Oregon. The sometimes-sweet-sometimes-gnashing sludge-rocking three-piece (actually they’re always sweet in my experience) represent the second act to be added to the lineup not from California, behind Ecstatic Vision, from Philly. Needless to say, neither will have any trouble making their mark on the weekend, but it does show that Mojave Experience is looking beyond the actual, physical desert as it comes together, and that could be a point of growth for the future, again, should it become an annual thing.
I’ll admit I’m not sure how the ticket sales are working, with the different bundles and all that, but the first two groups of tickets are gone and I’d expect the rest to go as well. If you’re thinking travel plans (and you know I am), the arguments in favor are myriad. Here are two more, from social media:
Yawning Man
Yawning Man are legends — the originators of the desert rock sound and one of the most influential bands to ever rise from the sands of Southern California. Formed in the late ’80s, their hypnotic instrumentals and sun-bleached grooves became the spiritual blueprint for an entire generation of desert musicians. Their sound — part mirage, part meditation — drifts between psychedelic reflection and raw, earth-born power, evoking the endless horizon and the wild stillness of the Mojave itself.
On stage, Yawning Man’s performances feel like living landscapes — waves of tone unfolding with patient intensity, every note soaked in atmosphere and intention. There’s no separation between player and place; the music breathes with the desert wind and glows with its fading light. Their live sets are more than concerts — they’re experiences that transport audiences to the heart of the high desert, where sound and silence trade places and time seems to dissolve.
As one of the godfathers of desert rock, Yawning Man’s legacy continues to shape the scene they helped create. Their influence can be felt in countless bands across the globe, yet no one captures that elusive sense of space, soul, and sunburned serenity quite like they do. When Yawning Man take the stage, it’s not just a performance — it’s a return to where it all began.
Hippie Death Cult
Hippie Death Cult stands as one of the most magnetic forces in modern heavy rock — a band whose sound fuses vintage psychedelia, thunderous riffs, and soulful introspection into something unmistakably their own. Hailing from Portland, Oregon, the power trio of Eddie Brnabic (guitar), Laura Phillips (bass/vocals), and Harry Silvers (drums) has carved a deep imprint on the global heavy music scene, evolving through resilience and reinvention while remaining anchored by an unshakable creative spirit.
Their live shows are a revelation — a hypnotic surge of groove, fuzz, and emotion that moves like a desert storm. With walls of tone and trance-like rhythms, Hippie Death Cult doesn’t just perform; they create a shared space where heavy music becomes spiritual. Each set feels both primal and cinematic — a journey through reflection, rebellion, and release that leaves crowds buzzing long after the last note fades.
At festivals and stages across the world, they’ve earned a reputation for transforming every performance into a wall of sound and connection. Whether under the glow of club lights or the vast open sky, the band channels an energy that feels timeless — equal parts catharsis and communion. Hippie Death Cult doesn’t just play rock; they conjure it, inviting listeners to lose themselves in the hum of amplifiers and the pulse of something bigger than sound itself.
Come ready. Come raw. The Mojave Experience isn’t here to entertain you — it’s here to change you.
See you March 20 & 21.
Next Ticket Bundle, Sun Chaser, goes on sale soon. Early Bird & Dust Rider Bundles are Gone.mojaveexperience.net
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 29th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Spoiler alert: it’s rad.
Admittedly, that was the case in August, when this year’s Rain City Doom Fest — set for Dec. 12-13 in Seattle, Washington — made its initial announcement, with Acid King and Ragana and Merlock and sundry others confirmed at that time. But more of a good thing is a better thing, and with the complete picture of how those two days will look, it’s not hard to imagine seeing the bill and wanting to make the trip. Wherever you might be traveling from, from Mizmor to Kadabra, Hippie Death Cult, Sorcia, Sun Crow, Serial Hawk, Glasghote, Ragana and the relocated-from-the-desert Red Mesa, you’ll not be likely to find a richer sampling of the Pacific Northwest’s native underground — plus Acid King and Electric Citizen, from CA and Ohio, respectively — and if you wanted to cap the utter awfulness of 2025 with something decidedly less than awful, well, here you go.
To answer the question no one asked, no, I’m not likely to be there, but it still makes for a welcome escapist daydream for my afternoon, and for that I’m grateful. I’m not sure it needs to be said, but the below comes from social media, and I’ve left the atsign profile tags intact in case you’re on your phone and can use them to magically transport yourself to the bands’ pages or whatever. I assure you, I have no clue how any of that works, on the rare occasion it does. Killer bill, regardless.
Check it:
RAIN CITY DOOM FEST 2025 – Full line-up officially announced!
@raincitydoomfest December 12 + 13 at @elcorazonseattle / @funhouseseattle 2 stages | 18 bands | 2 nights of DOOM 2-day passes (limited) and single day tix on sale NOW! 🎟️🔗 in bio
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 11th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Granted, you had me at Acid King, and that’s pretty much always going to be the case forever and into perpetuity. HOWEVER, even putting aside that singularity-type draw, to have Witch Mountain, the black metallers Ragana, Electric Citizen (who I just saw and were killer), Hippie Death Cult (get well soon, Laura, sidelined for now with an unspecified health issue), Merlock (who I seem to recall seeing had new stuff in the works, including with a cello), Kadabra, Red Mesa (now at least partially relocated to the Pacific Northwest) and Glasghote, well, that’s a really good bill front to back.
This is just the first announcement for the Seattle-based Rain City Doom Fest 2025. I assume Sorcia will be added as they’re affiliated with the fest and are something of a house band, and there are others who’ve been regulars along the way, but yeah. I don’t know how much flights to Seattle are two weeks before Xmas, but this does very much make me want to find out.
Of course, there are no shortage of others in and around the region to fill out the bill, but whoever’s going to be added, I’d call this the proverbial killer start. I doubt I’ll get to see it — ain’t nobody banging down my door to bring me to Seattle for a thing, and that’s reasonable — but maybe you will, and that’s pretty rad.
Info follows as cobbled from social media:
RAIN CITY DOOM FEST 2025!
December 12 + 13 at @elcorazonseattle / @funhouseseattle
I don’t know what it was that Agriculture were soundchecking when I walked into John Dee from upstairs at Rockefeller, but it sure sounded a lot like CKY’s “96 Quite Bitter Beings,” which was cool because I just got that song out of my head last week for the first time since like 2003. So I was due.
Sleep did happen — the state, not the band — and I woke up two hours after my alarm to discover I hadn’t actually finished setting it. Didn’t matter; plenty of time to sit around and be anxious for the start of the day. I video called home — the house is a mess, which very much is how it goes when I’m gone — and all is well. Ate a couple bites and tried to sleep a bit more, but the three double espressos tearing ass through my bloodstream weren’t having it. Sometimes living in the moment means calling yourself dumb later.
Agriculture’s lights were going to be too much for my brain. I knew that going into the set, because soundcheck, but when it happened, it was still punishing. The overwhelm is part of it, purposeful. Part of what you sign up for. But the sandblasting and the immersion, coinciding, is why you stay. Watching them, I couldn’t get the parallel out of my head between the traditions of Norwegian black metal and their subversion in terms of weather. That is, if the ‘trvest’ of black metals was born in this place — and they have it scrawled on that basement wall for people to take pictures with, so it’s arguable — in the dark and cold of winter here, then the aural brightness of Agriculture, the natural-light-reflecting-on-water of their post-rock-style guitar floating above all the pummel and screech, feels correspondingly climate-born to Los Angeles, where the band are from. To paraphrase George Carlin, the sun probably sets 10 minutes from their rehearsal space. Of course they’d make black metal beautiful.
That’s a generalization, obviously. Broad strokes to cover lack of insight. The truth of their presentation is more emotionally complex and less niche-declarative, but transgressing just the same, though maybe black metal is used to it by now; a punching bag catchall genre to push against the borders of. The tie with Agriculture is in tonal heft and the honesty of their scathe and the atmospheres they build around it, and they’d be a sore thumb in the lineup if Desertfest was stoner-only, but neither day was. It’s all one big heavy melting pot, and genres evolve. Always cool to see it happen on the stage right in front of you, though.
But the lights got me, so I headed upstairs to the Rockefeller balcony ahead of Slift. I know. Not like Slift were going to take it easy on visuals. Still. The French heavyspace trio are riding the course of 2024’s Ilion (review here), and the fact that they’ve spent the better part of the last three years touring was not lost on their stage presence.
The story of their set was kind of that I blew it there as well. Got my photos and moved on. I was dragging, had basic human needs to attend to in food, water, bathroom, so broke out of Rockefeller a bit into the set in an effort to get my head right. I was saving the second half of Friday’s weedy muffin for later in the day, but there’s nothing like when the check-into-your-flight notification comes in while you’re trying to enjoy a busy afternoon of writing, taking photos, and general sonic obliteration.
Hippie Death Cult ruled last year at Desertfest New York (review here) and with their new live album, Live at Star Theater (review here), it felt like half the point of the damn thing was to argue in favor of showing up when the band inevitably comes through where you live — Parsippany, New Jersey, if you’re tour planning — when the opportunity presents itself. So there I was. I’d already bumped into guitarist Eddie Brnabic and drummer Harry Silvers at the hotel, and they and bassist/vocalist Lauren Phillips would soon take the stage to unroll a blanket of riffs onto the crowd, roll that same blanket back up again with the crowd in it, and then send it careening down the side of a mountain. I’m really, really looking forward to their next album.
Nothing against 2023’s Helichrysum (review here), mind you, but — and I think this is something the live LP posited as well — they sound like they’re just getting started. The lineup change that resulted in Phillips taking the lead vocal role, plus bringing Silvers in on drums, made them a different band. On the record and live, they’ve explored harsher, more direct and classic feeling ideas, but at the same time, begun to develop a character for themselves separate from what it was just a few years ago. This is a strength. Some bands would just fall apart. Hippie Death Cult have figured, are figuring out, how to make it work and progress from their new starting position.
And since much of this work has happened on tours, yes, I am very much convinced their best work is ahead of them. They can be warm and bluesy — Brnabic’s shred suits all sides — or sludge-nasty and it doesn’t matter. Songs like “Arise,” “Red Giant,” “Toxic Annihilator,” as they’re playing them now, are paving the way for a band who can crush or boogie or gallop at a measure’s whim.
Phillips let out a couple Tom Araya-esque screams while Silvers was on the double-kick, and they’re getting more comfortable bringing that kind of metal into their foundation in capital ‘h’ Heavier groove. They’re a monster band. They should get monstrous, and I think they just might continue to do that. This was their first time in Norway. Someone in the crowd shouted, “What took you so long?” Near-total reset takes some time, I guess, but it’s done Hippie Death Cult well in terms of the intensity level. They finished big and noisy — at some near-final point, I looked up and Phillips’ mic stand had disappeared — and I watched the whole set and wouldn’t have wanted it another way.
Back upstairs to Rockefeller for Finland’s Oranssi Pazuzu. True, I saw them a couple weeks ago, playing their latest album, Muuntautuja, in full, no less, but whatever. I dug it then and wanted to investigate the band further. Seeing them again felt like a half-decent way to do that. The balcony was full before the floor, which the lightshow would soon justify, but the room was full by the start of the set.
The thing was, they’re a name I’ve seen around for well over a decade, and a band I’ve listened to before and appreciated for what it was but soon enough moved on. But after that Muuntautuja set at Roadburn, they kind of took up residence in the back of my head. I was glad to recognize a few songs from one show to the next, including the opener, and while they’re not usually the kind of band I’d go all-in on, and I’m positive I don’t know enough of their music to call myself a fan, after seeing them these two times, I do feel compelled to dig further.
There’s enough going on at any given moment in their songs to trace threads of influence and constantly end up in a different place. That’s black metal, straight up, but then there comes a synthier part, or a drone stretch, or some Ministry-style keyboard thrash. Krautrock guitars might meet up with some soul-grinding ferocity, and the band seem to delight in precisely that manner of fucking with norms; picking apart ideas about style and what the rules are, cherrypicking which ones they want to uphold and which they want to break and then breaking most of them anyway. Like Agriculture, they’re in-genre outsider art, but whatever the stylistic cast, Oranssi Pazuzu refuse and refute pigeonholing.
My scheduled break was next. I went back to the room, had that half a weedy muffin — I could not tell you the last time I ate an actual muffin; nine years at least; I don’t normally do breadstuffs — drank a bunch of water and took some ibuprofen, tried and failed to check in for my flight because my town has both a different mailing address and a hyphen in it (not joking) and confirmed an earlier decision about the course of my night.
Chat Pile were sub-headlining the Rockefeller, and Whores. would be on at 22.00 in John Dee. I skipped both in favor of Villjuvet at St. Edmund’s Church right around the corner from Revolver. I had gotten to see the inside of the church earlier in the day — it was active-catholic enough to give yer boy eucharistic flashbacks — and been told a bit about the project, the visual component and the work of Ruben Willem, who in addition to operating as Villjuvet is a producer and has either mixed or mastered releases for an entire slew of bands from Lonely Kamel to Håndgemang who were in Friday’s lineup, to Gluecifer, Suncraft and Kal-El. I could go on.
I’ve seen Chat Pile, again recently. It was cool. I’ve never seen Whores., and frankly part of the reason why is the danger of liking them and then having to admit to myself I like a band with that name, but I know people who swear by them, and I actually did end up watching them for a few minutes and they were killing to a packed room. But I was told ahead of time, “Villjuvet might be just your speed,” and was happy to take the recommendation to a path less traveled before finishing the night off back at Rockefeller for Elder. Slow and weird, you say? That sure does sound like my speed.
At 9PM, it was still pretty broad daylight, but the church was dark, the door ominously left open. I took a seat in the second pew — was not at all the first one there — and waited as more people came in. There was some white noise drone, but I’ll be honest and say a big part of me wanted to hear “Holy Diver,” though that went away when the actual show started.
You could follow the projections — branches and the like, nighttime ambience, loosely creepy but mostly for the soundtrack — up the white wall with the stained glass windows onto the wood ceiling as Villjuvet turned out to be very much indeed my speed. Willem played facing the projections before a sprawling pedal board, often kneeling as if to a true god being revealed. His drones came through in looped layers and hit high and low through guitar and bass amps. It was not a tune to take out earplugs, despite the lack of percussion. A couple popes later, church has really changed since I was last forced to go, probably around three decades ago. I recall a good time this January sharing religious traumas over a breakfast in Las Vegas. Life takes you weird places when… you expressly make it do that because you enjoy it.
Rockefeller was filling up quickly for Elder and I knew the second Whores. finished downstairs that crowd would flood out, which was exactly what happened. I was at the bar at John Dee at the time, chatting amiably as one does, and then it was time to head upstairs to cap the evening. A 6AM wakeup loomed large over the 11PM start-time — hazards of the trade at the end of a fest; it’s part of the thing — but with the band celebrating the anniversary of 2015’s Lore (review here), and having missed them when they came through Brooklyn with Sacri Monti, there was imperative.
I could go — and have gone! — on about Lore as both a creative statement and a breath of daring fresh air operating in an underground genre that can at times pride itself on traditionalism. I’ll gladly argue its influence is still felt and spreading, even as the band have continued to move forward. But there’s no denying it was a special moment for them, a progressive breakout in craft to which their work before had been leading. So, 10th anniversary it is. Not unreasonable.
Guitarist/vocalist Nick DiSalvo got on mic before they started and thanked the crowd, thanked the fest, said it was an honor to close it out, and explained what they were going to do, and soon enough they were off into “Compendium” and on from there. I always loved “Deadweight” but I knew I wouldn’t make it that far into the set and I didn’t. I was glad to see them though, even briefly as I felt the pull of getting back to finish work and crash out ahead of the early start. The responsible thing. The me that knows I can’t sleep on planes would thank me in the morning, but it was a hard sell to the me looking down the ramp to walk out of Rockefeller and be done with the night and Desertfest Oslo more broadly.
But I did. If I’m fortunate enough to come back next year, I’ll try not to make it so tight, but that’s kind of how it has to be for me to be here in the first place, and a couple Elder songs is better than no Elder songs, so I guess my old-ass punk-rock guilt can fuck off. Time to crawl out of my own head a little bit.
Thank you to Desertfest Oslo for having me. Thank you Ole and Preben for the invitation and thank you to everyone who has worked here to make this happen. The sound, the lights, everything has been spot on, and for this being the second year this festival has taken place, they’d be entitled to a few screwups. I saw none. I did, however, see a bunch killer bands, a bunch of old friends, and some things I wouldn’t have been able to see anywhere else. I am incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity.
It is not lost on me that in the US this weekend, today, is Mother’s Day. Thank you to The Patient Mrs. for the work she does as a mother always, and for the sheer indulgence that allows me to exist as I do both at and away from home. She is so much more than the love of my life that is humbling she would deign to be it. I know I’ve said this before, but I am the luckiest boy you know.
Thank you to my mother, Pamela Koczan. Thank you to my sister, Susan Wright. Thank you to Cate Wright and Samantha Wright.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for saying hi, for giving a shit after so many years and so many typos and run-on sentences. Dumbassed blocks of text, just endless. Thank you for being here for it in some way at some point, maybe now. The support this site gets is what sustains me doing it. One more time, thank you.
More pics after the jump. No posts tomorrow (Monday) while I get caught up writing/living. Thanks again.
Posted in Reviews on April 30th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
This stretch of touring Hippie Death Cult undertook throughout 2023-2024 supporting their late-’23 full-length, Helichrysum (review here), may end up as formative for the band, and if that seems counterintuitive to you as they’ve been around for six-plus years, it is. It makes sense, however, if you think of Helichrysum as a born-late debut album for the trio configuration of the band, comprised of vocalist/bassist Laura Phillips, guitarist Eddie Brnabic and drummer Harry Silvers. Hippie Death Cult‘s third album overall, it was the first with Phillips handling the role of vocalist, the first with Styles, and the first without the organ sound that had been a staple of their work to that point.
It was a significant moment in the life of the band thus far, and Phillips, Brnabic and Silvers greeted it with an adapted vision of what Hippie Death Cult do. They were sludgier and rawer, with Phillips‘ propensity for shifting into a scream and shoutier delivery generally, songs like “Arise” and “Toxic Annihilator” account for that because, unlike the material from their first two records, it was written to do so. Live at Star Theater makes a whole lot of sense to release in the way live albums make sense broadly — good for fans, look good on the merch table, etc. — but for Hippie Death Cult, they’re still letting people know (or they’re letting them know again) what they’re about as a group. Whether it’s new songs or old, Live at Star Theater is a chance for listeners who haven’t seen three-piece Hippie Death Cult to find out some of what they’ve been missing. So it makes specific sense as well.
The show was recorded Nov. 9, of course at Star Theater in the band’s hometown of Portland, Oregon, It was reportedly the last gig of the year and wrapped the already-noted busy stint that may ultimately have an impact on the development of Hippie Death Cult‘s sound — playing live a whole bunch will do that, I’m told — and they captured the full audio/video experience for posterity; one show, as it happened. It’s not this song pulled from this night and that one from that one. It’s the show, or at least part of it.
Their full set was longer, with “Squid,” “Nice to Know You,” “Better Days,” “Tomorrow’s Sky” and the Nirvana cover “Aneurysm” (posted here) closing out, but on the live album, “Arise,” “Toxic Annihilator,” “Shadows” and “Red Giant” feature from Helichrysum and they cap with a reinterpretation of the title-track to 2021’s Circle of Days (review here) that takes up 16 minutes of Live at Star Theater‘s 42-minute runtime. That ethic of fleshing the material out is there in the other songs as well, with each one longer than its studio counterpart by some measure or other. This is the way of songs with some bands — they become living things that change over time rather than setting the studio take as definitive and playing directly to that — and Hippie Death Cult‘s remaining allegiance to psychedelia resides in no small part in that flexibility.
Fret not, though, they also shred. Brnabic — who also mixed and mastered; Richard “Will” Fenton and Jeremy Romagna engineered — is no stranger to tearing up a solo or 10, and across Live at Star Theater, part of what Hippie Death Cult are showing off is the chemistry of its lineup in this form. This comes through even in the abbreviated, mostly-new set as appears on the LP, as the gallop of “Toxic Annihilator” comes in on precise stops picking up from the noisy nod that has people cheering before “Arise” is actually even done, Phillips between songs advising those who don’t want to be part of the mosh to stand aside. Fair enough.
But “Toxic Annihilator,” as taut as it is in comparison to a song like “Circle of Days,” opens up as well, during its later solo section, and alongside everything else Hippie Death Cult are doing with Live at Star Theater, they’re changing the character of their material — or at least showing how that change took shape over the course of 2024 leading to these songs, on this night, during this set — as part of their ongoing evolution. “Shadows” wasn’t as much of a standout from Helichrysum as either “Arise” or “Toxic Annihilator,” but it makes a rousing centerpiece for the live record, with a bassier push bringing Phillips‘ role at the forefront of the trio into focus as Brnabic offsets with bluesy shred and Silvers sets it to the swing with which he would seem to have been born.
“Shadows” brings a different mood than the opening duo, and the cymbal wash build into “Red Giant,” with its stops and twists, feels no less purposeful for the obvious edit before it starts. Live at Star Theater isn’t a complete live picture of Hippie Death Cult circa late last year, but in addition to the archival appeal of capturing this band at this moment in their collective history, it’s a thrilling showcase for the nastier side that has emerged in their sound, “Red Giant” playing host to a particularly vicious scream from Phillips, who then leads the band through the smoother nod that makes up most of “Circle of Days,” though I’ll note that when they get to the gallop there as well, everybody sounds relieved.
Sometimes a band ends up in a different place than they started, and with Hippie Death Cult reveling in the sludged and abrasive aspects of their sound as they do across Live at Star Theater, they have a charge to them that one wouldn’t have predicted would come to focus from their earliest work. At the same time, the subversion of expectations continues to suit the trio, and the end result of all the touring they put in for Helichrysum, as one might hear it on this live offering, is in the dynamic manner in which they bring their songs to life. I don’t know where Hippie Death Cult are going to end up sound-wise three records from now, but the path they’re on is exciting and Live at Star Theater showcases part of the reason why.
Hippie Death Cult, “Red Giant” live at Star Theater
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 24th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
With their weighty name added to festivals like Heavy Psych Sounds, Desertfest Oslo, Desertfest Berlin, Desertfest London, Worship Fest in Iceland and Sideral in France, a tour announcement from Hippie Death Cult covering Spring in Europe isn’t a huge surprise, but they’re a touring band — they tour — so I’m not sure how shocked you’re supposed to be in the first place. Have you seen them as a trio? If not, do. All three on stage, killer, and Laura‘s scream intimidates mountains. It’s fucking rad.
Obviously then the prospect of a live album, Live at Star Theatre, recorded in the band’s hometown of Portland, Oregon, is a postive. It’s not out until May 9 and everything they play on it comes from 2023’s Helichrysum (review here) save for a 16-minute take on the title-track from 2021’s Circle of Days (review here), which should be plenty. I assume side B is that and “Red Giant.” Once again, right on.
The PR wire brought details
US heavy rockers HIPPIE DEATH CULT to release “Live at the Star Theater” album on Heavy Psych Sounds; spring European tour announced!
US heavy rock champions HIPPIE DEATH CULT announce the release of their “Live at the Star Theater” album on May 9th through Heavy Psych Sounds. The electric trio will be touring Europe for an extensive month-long run, including appearances at Desertfest London and Oslo and Heavy Psych Sounds Fest Italy.
The band says: “We’ve been toying around with the idea of doing a live album for a while now, considering our music has a whole different energy and vibrance to it in any given live situation, so it’s cool to have a well-recorded document of a little snapshot in time from this era of the band’s history. It’s also something we plan on doing more regularly in the future as we progress along our path and evolve. We toured a whole hell of a lot in 2024, both across the United States and Europe as well as Canada and this was our final show of the year, which took place in our hometown of Portland, Oregon. We figured it would be a special place to try and capture an audio and video document of a full concert, 1) because Portland has always been our rock, a very supportive hometown with whom we’ve always shared a genuine connection with and 2) it’s a place where we have the resources to have friends help to make it happen on little to no budget. Some things went right that night, some things went wrong. It’s raw. It’s live. It’s us.”
Hippie Death Cult on tour: 01.05 IT Genova – Trinità Live Club 02.05 IT Bologna – Heavy Psych Sounds Fest 03.05 IT Venezia – Heavy Psych Sounds Fest 04.05 SLO Izola – Hangar Bar 05.05 HR Pula – Klub Kotač 06.05 HR Zagreb – AKC Attack 07.05 AT Vienna – Arena 08.05 DE Ravensburg – Slainte Irish Pub 09.05 AT Ebensee – Kino 10.05 NO Oslo – Desertfest Oslo 11.05 DK Copenhagen – Stengade 13.05 DE Göppingen – Gaststätte Zille 14.05 DE Wiesbaden – Kreativfabrik 15.05 NL Oss – Groene Engel 16.05 UK London – Desertfest London 17.05 IS Reykjavík – Worship Fest 18.05 UK Huddersfield – Northern Quarter 20.05 UK Nottingham – Ye Olde Salutation Inn 22.05 FR Paris – Le Klub 24.05 FR Capbreton – Sideral Festival 28.05 IT Torino – Blah Blah 29.05 IT Sezzadio – Cascina Bellaria 31.05 CH Geneve – L’Usine
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 12th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Three more names for Desertfest Berlin 2025 and by all the ‘more’ that’s featured on each day of the poster below, I’m guessing it’s not the last round of lineup additions to come before the festival takes place this May. Scott Hepple and the Sun Band are a mystery to me, but they’re booked now for London, Oslo and Berlin Desertfests, as well as Freak Valley and more, so good for them being all over the place. Hippie Death Cult just announced another European tour, and they too are making the Desertfest rounds in multiple cities, while The Mystery Lights so far as I know are Berlin-only but coming from New York to play, so good on them making the trip too.
You can see the full lineup below, with The Hellacopters, Dinosaur Jr. and Elder headlining and the likes of Slomosa, Dozer, Khan, My Sleeping Karma, Lowrider and Elephant Tree, Stinking Lizaveta and Darsombra, Temple Fang, Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol previously confirmed. If you haven’t caught wind of this one yet in 2025, the appeal pretty much speaks for itself.
Or at least the PR wire speaks for it:
DESERTFEST BERLIN adds HIPPIE DEATH CULT, THE MYSTERY LIGHTS and SCOTT HEPPLE & THE SUN BAND, who will join DINOSAUR JR., ELDER, THE HELLACOPTERS & many more outstanding live acts in 2025!
Desertfest Berlin has revealed three new names for its outstanding festival edition in 2025, and confirms Portland’s heavy doom and cosmic riff worship at its finest: HIPPIE DEATH CULT, New York’s raw and fuzzy garage-psych act THE MYSTERY LIGHTS and UK-based psychedelic vintage rockers SCOTT HEPPLE & THE SUN BAND!
This May will see Desertfest Berlin undoubtedly run its perhaps best and most eclectic line-up to date, welcoming iconic DINOSAUR JR., Swedish rock pioneers THE HELLACOPTERS, prog-and psych-rock masters ELDER (playing their groundbreaking “Lore” album in its entirety!), New Orleans sludge legends EYEHATEGOD, MY SLEEPING KARMA returning home, US doom metallers PALLBEARER, Norwegian “tundra rock” frontrunners SLOMOSA, DOZER, TEMPLE FANG, LOWRIDER and so many more incredible live acts the stoner, rock, doom, sludge, psych and metal scene has to offer.
Desertfest Berlin will take place between May 23 – 25, 2025 at Columbiahalle and Columbia Theater. While the Early-Bird tickets sold out in within hours, regular passes are available at:www.desertfest-tickets.de
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 4th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Now we’re talking. If you weren’t expecting Desertfest London to drop a fresh batch of 20 names for its 2025 lineup, well, happy holidays. There’s a ton to unpack here, from Pallbearer and Conan — who’ll tour together in Australia before — to Kind making the trip to Boston, Elephant Tree signing on for what will surely be a celebration, Earth joining the ranks of the thus-far headliners Zeal & Ardor and Elder, Hippie Death Cult, The Hazytones (who rule, look them up), and a new Isaiah Mitchell collab called Chöd (I guess Brü couldn’t make it?) — it’s a ton of stuff and you can see on the poster below it’s just the tip of the Desertfest iceberg.
As a flagship of the Desertfest brand alongside Berlin, the London lineup should be stunning, and it is. Whether you’re going for Stoned Jesus, Amenra or 10,000 Years and the slew of others making their first appearances, 2025 promises to be a landmark for those lucky enough to be there to see it.
Could be you if you’re up for it. Here’s the latest:
DESERTFEST LONDON ANNOUNCES 20 NEW ARTISTS FOR 2025
The time has come for our next artist announcement! We are over the moon to welcome Seattle veterans of drone n doom EARTH as our third 2025 headliner, joining Zeal & Ardor and Elder. This appearance marks the band’s first UK show in 5 years as well as their first time on the DF London stage.
Arkansas doom quartet Pallbearer will join our stacked Saturday line up at Roundhouse, while homegrown local heroes Conan will make their long awaited return to Desertfest London.
We will also welcome the UK debut of Chöd, an audio-visual collaboration between Isaiah Mitchell (Earthless), artist Arik Roper, and Doc Kelley (Psychedelic Sangha) that is sure to take you on a psychedelic meditative journey for the ages.
Please welcome our latest additions to Desertfest London 2025:
↠ Earth headlining Sunday at Electric Ballroom ↠ Pallbearer ↠ Conan ↠ Elephant Tree ↠ Chöd ↠ Hippie Death Cult ↠ Castle Rat ↠ Avon ↠ Green Milk from the Planet Orange ↠ Servo ↠ Mr Bison ↠ Kind ↠ El Moono ↠ The Hazytones ↠ King Botfly ↠ Lust Ritual ↠ Slump ↠ Witchorious ↠ The Summit Fever ↠ Dresden Wolves
