If we lived in a universe where justice and righteousness reigned, Bloodcow wouldn’t have to come a-knockin’ with a Kickstarter campaign to finish mixing and press their forthcoming fourth album, Crystals and Lasers, because they’d already be millionaires. The riotous, hook-laden, perma-sarcastic DIY outfit began the recording process early in 2012 — the song “Little Chromosome” was streamed here in October of that year — and though I don’t usually like to post crowdfunding-type stuff, my motivation here is the thinking that the sooner they reach their goal, the sooner I can get to hear the album, which is the follow-up to their logic-defying 2007 outing, Bloodcow III: Hail Xenu. Selfish reasons rule the day.

They’ve got some legitimately cool rewards as well, including original art and, if you live close enough to Council Bluffs, Iowa, a house show they’ll come play for you. Lock up the fancy silver and soundproof the living room if that’s the one you go for, but either way, if you giving them money means Crystals and Lasers gets done, then yeah, do that.

Here’s the info and their campaign video:

New Bloodcow Record – “Crystals and Lasers”

The fourth full length release from Bloodcow, ‘Crystals and Lasers’ is their most ambitious to date. One word description? Epic.

How it started.

When we started writing songs for this new album, we talked a lot about how rock music was consumed in the past, how you might sit in a poorly lit room full of smoke with your headphones on and trip out on the music while staring at some cool artwork. That’s how we wanted people to be able to enjoy this record…not only a collection of songs, but our contribution to an experience.

What’s the plan?

To fund the release of Bloodcow’s 4th full length entitled ‘Crystals & Lasers’ on multiple formats including vinyl, cd, and digital download.

Where we are right now.

We were fortunate enough to record at ARC in Omaha, NE with uber engineer Jim Homan and also in the science lair of uber producer Aaron Gum. All the music is in the can (that’s music business lingo) and we have since mixed 3 songs. We have album and CD artwork finished and are coming up with the sticker and T-shirt art as you read this.

What are you funding?

Remainder of mixing with Jim Homan.
Mastering at TurtleTone Studio with Mike Fossenkemper.
180 gram Vinyl Records.
CD Digipaks.
Digital download cards.
Stickers
Kickstarter only T-shirts.
The Kickstarter/Amazon fees that have to be paid in order to run this campaign.

What if the goal is surpassed?

We have ideas in place to record a music video with Aaron Gum involving drag queens in an awesome club setting…and yes that was totally serious.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bloodcow/new-bloodcow-record-crystals-and-lasers
https://www.facebook.com/Bloodcow
http://www.bloodcow.com/

Bloodcow, Crystals and Lasers Kickstarter video

I’ve heralded the righteous shenanigans of Bloodcow before ’round these parts, but well, it’s been a while. Lo and behold, the Midwestern riff-monger five-piece — now reportedly based in Council Bluffs, Iowa, having relocated from Omaha, Nebraska — have a new album in the pipe called Crystals and Lazers, and I have a brand new excuse to dig on their asskicking antics. Five (frickin’) years have passed since the band unleashed their third album, Bloodcow III: Hail Xenu, and one can only imagine that in that time, they’ve grown up, settled down, started to take themselves all seriously and whatnot.

Not if the track “Little Chromosome” (or this picture) is anything to go by. The band posted it up on on their ReverbNation page and guitarist J.J. Bonar sent it my way for checking out. Dig this verse:

They called him father and they also called him dad
They killed him while he slept in a tent
Mocking his dead body, they shot it up with a machine gun
The money in his wallet was spent

I don’t know about you, but there’s little more I could ask of rock and roll than that. Bloodcow currently list themselves as the aforementioned Mr. Bonar alongside fellow guitarist 1987, bassist Navin, drummer Run DMFC and The Corporate Merger on vocals. Whilst I anxiously await more info on the forthcoming Crystals and Lazers, consider yourself encouraged to check out the all-too-sensible nonsense of “Little Chromosome” on the player below:

[mp3player width=470 height=150 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=bloodcow.xml]

To keep up with Bloodcow as best as any mere human being could possibly hope to do so, start by looking them up on Thee Facebooks. Follow that by harassing Crustacean Records at their website, and you should be well on your way to enlightenment or whatever it is they call it when you fall over because the room won’t stop spinning.

Burly Iowan five-piece Superchief and Minneapolis fuzz contenders Red Desert have teamed up for five gigs together in the Midwest. Superchief’s ultra-dudely Corporate Dynamite came out last year (review here) and Red Desert will have in tow their new one, Damned by Fate, which is their first outing since 2008’s 18 Wheels. Here’s what the PR wire has to say about it, raw copy-style:

Superchief and Red Desert Announce 2012 Midwest Tour Dates

The two Midwestern powerhouse bands join forces in August 2012 for Summer Tour! Red Desert and Superchief team up for 5 dates in August 2012 for a regional, Midwestern tour.

Dates are:
August 21st – Iowa City IA (Blue Moose Tap)
August 22nd – Indianapolis, IN (Indy’s Jukebox)
August 23rd – Chicago, IL (Quenchers Saloon)
August 24th – Madison, WI (The Wisco)
August 25th – Racine, WI (Bar 525)

Red Desert loads up the van in support of their brand new release, Damned by Fate. The album is a nine-song, fuzz-infused masterpiece of the highest order. Red Desert is determined to get the music out in front of new listeners across the Midwest. Damned by Fate is currently available for purchase on Bandcamp.com and Red Desert will have physical copies available on the tour.

Brolester Records recording artists, Superchief, have been relentlessly touring their current release Corporate Dynamite for the past year and a half. After a successful stint at SxSW in 2012, Superchief has been itching to get back out on the road. The band is excited to be heading into new territories on this tour, as well as returning to old favorite locations. Building a fan base takes work and consistency and Superchief has this in abundance.

Both bands, having played several times together in Iowa and Minnesota, felt it was their duty to bring their brands of rock n roll to the masses. Musical brothers-in-arms traversing the back roads of the Midwest together, with instruments in one hand and a cold beer in the other; both Red Desert and Superchief would not have it any other way. Through solidarity and perseverance they will convert those that are unaware, and solidify those that are; that rock n roll is not dead.

http://www.reverbnation.com/superchief

http://www.reverbnation.com/reddesert

http://brolesterrecords.com/

When last heard from, the riff-heavy Des Moines, Iowa, rockers Superchief made their debut with last year’s Rock Music EP. Recorded mostly live, it was a decent if familiar excursion into genre-minded heavy rock, elements of the desert showing up here and there amid straightforward drive. The subsequent self-released full-length, Corporate Dynamite, is a different game almost entirely. Still definitely in the riff rock vein, Superchief’s first album trades easygoing atmospheres for distortion-fueled burl, and sounds more professional doing it.

The five-piece keep a mind toward the old school in more than just their full jewel case presentation. A double-guitar five-piece with standalone vocals – that is, Haldor Von Hammer isn’t holding one of those two guitars or anything other than a microphone – their crunch is decidedly self-aware, and they fit easily within the heavy rock scope. In that way, tracks like “Odin be Praised” and “They Call Me Nomad” are unpretentious and, like the EP cuts before them, undemanding. Corporate Dynamite is an easy listen in the sense that you understand where it’s coming from and where it’s headed, but Superchief have refined their approach, sound heavier and more individual than they did last time around.

A lot of that is Haldor Von Hammer, who I think might actually be JT Strang, Superchief’s credited vocalist on Rock Music. If he’s assumed the identity of Von Hammer, he’s also taken on a gruffer singing style. He’s not quite at Scissorfight levels of dudeliness, but he’s not far off. Certainly in the Brand New Sin range. For him, and for guitarists Riccardo “Churchill” Terranova and Jason “The Archer” Monroe, Clutch is a decent comparison point, but Superchief have less of a funk influence. Seven-minute opener (bonus points for starting with the longest track) “Fear No Shield” shows that the band’s allegiance lies to metal as well as rock, the crashing second movement of the song – subtitled “The Stand Off” as opposed to the first, which is “The Getaway” – features china cymbal breakdown rhythms from drummer Ryan “The Orb” Marcum, and start-stop riffing from the guitars with which bassist Jason “Big Business” Boten marches in tandem.

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If there’s one thing that’s going to test a band – so much so that most acts will go out of their way to avoid the challenge altogether – it’s recording live. Des Moines, Iowa, five-piece Superchief take the task head on with their aptly-titled, self-released five-song EP Rock Music. From what I can gather, the music was done with the two guitars, bass and drums playing together and the vocals added later. It’s not exactly the same, but you can’t really hold it against the band when you consider vocalist JT Strang hadn’t yet joined when the first tracks were put to tape. That kind of thing can really mess with the timing.

Superchief play straightforward guitar-led stoner rock with tonal nods to Queens of the Stone Age’s earlier work, Pure Rock Fury-era Clutch and Fu Manchu, but they aren’t afraid to let the boogie out on “Rock ‘n Roll Living,” with lead six-stringer Ricc Terranova lets an impressive solo fly at 2:45 and rhythm guitarist Jason Monroe holds down the song’s main riff with bassist Jason Boten and drummer Ryan Marcum. Strang’s vocals have a slight Hendrixian inflection, but are otherwise unaffected, sounding natural over the music and asking little of the listener. In some ways, it’s evident he hadn’t been in the band long, but he doesn’t feel out of place, which works greatly to the songs’ benefit.

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If you’re anything like me, you probably looked at that headline and said to yourself, “What the hell is a Daytrotter Session?” It’s a fair question for those of us non-Iowans, but the recently-reviewed Davenport psych rockers Mondo Drag know all about it, and that’s what’s important. They recently stopped in to perform four songs from their debut album, New Rituals, for the Napoleon Dynamite-designed website, and they’ve all been posted online for your streaming and/or downloading pleasure. Why — here’s “New Rituals” now!

Mondo Drag – New Rituals

The PR wire has the goods on the rest:

Fast-rising heavy psych rock band Mondo Drag is featured as [Feb. 12]’s Daytrotter Session (“The Wolves and the Hallucinogens are Crying Kill”). The original versions of the songs featured appear on the band’s debut album, New Rituals, which is in stores now — on CD and limited edition red LP — via Alive Records.  Mondo Drag becomes “the first band currently living in the Quad-Cities area to earn a spot alongside all of the other great artists that have visited the Horseshack” (a list which includes artists such as Bon Iver, Dungen, The Mountain Goats, The Soft Pack, Yeasayer and more). Check out Mondo Drag’s Daytrotter Session now at this location.

Wouldn’t you know, here’s the other songs from the session!

Mondo Drag, “Come Through”
Come Through

Mondo Drag, “Love Me (Like a Stranger)”
Love Me (Like a Stranger)

Mondo Drag, “Light as a Feather”
Light as a Feather

With minds expanded and set to the key of retro, Davenport, Iowa — which for those in the know is called “the San Francisco of Iowa” (that’s not true) — the high toned Mondo Drag emerge bearing psychedelic sweets that seem to melt as soon as they hit your tongue. There are 11 of them, to be exact, and when packaged together and put in the right order, they make up the band’s Alive Records debut, New Rituals. It’s a record about as thick as the band’s collective sonic moustache, and right from the opening nine-minute title track, you know there’s a freakout bound to happen here.

Their heavier moments could be drawing from Graveyard or a less doomed-out Witchcraft, but as change-up tracks like the acoustic-led “Black River” or “Come Through” demonstrate, there’s more to Mondo Drag than mere aping of ‘70s proto metal. “Love Me” is laced with organ-fused heaviness, and “Serpent Shake” takes a later-‘60s acid pop feel, once again making use of the organ, but being more rhythm-driven and upbeat. The changes in attack are subtle, but show themselves more distinctly on repeat listens, and though I don’t know if any of the songs on New Rituals ever prove to be catchy in that “stuck in your head” sense of the word, there is a natural feel throughout the album that sustains the enjoyment level for the duration.

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Hailing from the hotbed of righteous psychedelia known as Devenport, Iowa, the five-piece Mondo Drag blend retro stylization, modern approaches and timeless groove for a concoction both lysergic and familiar. Their debut, New Rituals, was just released via Alive Records. Ever vigilant in these cases, the PR wire has the info:

Merging exciting psychedelic rock with an electric blues edge, Mondo Drag delivers a sound that references the past while pushing forwards towards the future (Jimi Hendrix, Pentagram, Blue Cheer and even Pink Floyd are part of the band’s musical lexicon, while Sonic Youth hints to its current references). Mondo Drag’s first-rate live performances have become a thing of local legend in and around its Midwest home and have seen the band share stages with artists such as Sleepy Sun, Dead Meadow, Witchcraft, Radio Moscow, Jennifer Gentle, The Dodos, Cass McCombs, Awesome Color and Monotonix to name a few. With a hulking wall of sound, an arsenal of guitars and a head full of clouds, Mondo Drag is on a rock ‘n’ roll mission.

A taste of what Mondo Drag’s New Rituals holds in store can be sampled now as the record’s intoxicating title track has been posted online at this location. In celebration of the release of New Rituals, Mondo Drag has announced upcoming US tour dates as well as multiple appearances at the 2010 SXSW Music Festival, set to take place March 17-21 in Austin, TX.

Mondo Drag live dates:
February 6 – Iowa City, IA – White Lightning Wherehouse
February 9 – St. Louis, MO – Off Broadway Nightclub
February 10 – Carbondale, IL – The Swamp
February 11 – Lexington, KY – Al’s Bar
February 12 – Nashville, TN – Springwater Supper Club
February 13 – Murfreesboro, TN – Wall Street
February 14 – Greenbrier, TN – Loudhouse Coffee
February 15 – Cincinnati, OH – Blue Rock Tavern
February 16 – Detroit, MI – Corktown Tavern
February 17 – Chicago, IL – The Mopery
February 18 – Dekalb, IL – House Show
February 20 – Davenport, IA – RME Hall (New Rituals CD release show!)
March 17 – Austin, TX – Cheers on 6th (SXSW)
March 20 – Austin, TX – Electra Beauty Lounge (SXSW)