Mathew Bethancourt is an interesting cat. The last interview that appeared here with him was in 2009, but we’ve been in touch longer and spoken certainly more often than that, even in just, “hey, here’s a record from this band I’m in” fashion. You’d be surprised how often that conversation happens.

Nonetheless, as we hit and pass the 20-year mark since Josiah‘s first, self-titled LP arrived, we find the reunited UK heavy rock trio in the midst of catalog reissues through Heavy Psych Sounds, about to play Desertfest London 2022 this coming weekend — headlining at The Black Heart, no less; that’s where the cool kids go — and having just this week announced the July 15 release of their new album, We Lay on Cold Stone. Their debut EP, 2001’s Out of the First Rays was already reissued last year.

It’s an arguably overdue — though actually the timing feels pretty spot-on — celebration of who Josiah were at the turn of the century and an opportunity to better understand who they are now. I could sit for a long time and talk with Bethancourt about music, his own and that of others. He is not only knowledgeable, but thoughtful, and well aware of both the classic heavy guitar that influenced him and the scope of the UK heavy underground he now reenters with Josiah. Part of that familiarity, no doubt, stems from the fact that while Josiah was put to bed more than a decade ago, Bethancourt has continued on in Cherry Choke and more recently his weirdo-solo outlet Mathew’s Hidden Museum, which should have its own album announcement sometime in the coming months, allegedly.

That follows time spent in and out of acts like The Kings of Frog Island and Dexter Jones’ Circus Orchestra (the latter brief) as well, so yeah, dude’s been around. As you can hear on the players below, the material from Josiah‘s aughts-era run is stone-cold classic heavy rock and roll, energetic, drawing from garage rock, psychedelia, Hendrix and your lovin’ mama, it’s a discography worthy of revisiting in the age of social media mobilization, records that deserve more than to be lost to time and the memories of aging heads who read about them on stonerrock.com or bought them from Elektrohasch (the first two were on Molten initially) when they came out.

And that’s the thing here, right? It’s about getting the music out again for a generation who wasn’t around when they first came out to hear. Can’t argue with the mission anymore than the songs, and with four reissues and 20 years to cover, there was no shortage of ground to cover in chatting to Bethancourt, who’s joined in Josiah‘s current incarnation by Jack Dickinson (also of Stubb) on bass and Dan Lockton on drums. The video on his side is a little out of synch, and I’m sorry for that. It’s some Zoom/YouTube thing that I have tried to rectify and been unable, but even if you listen to the conversation and do something else — it’s not like you really need to watch me gesticulate in wildly New Jerseyan fashion with my hands — it’s a good one, and I hope you enjoy.

But if you also want to skip it and go to the album streams, I get that too. You can always go back.

Dig:

Josiah, Interview with Mathew Bethancourt, April 15, 2022

Reissues of Josiah’s Josiah (2002), Into the Outside (2004), No Time (2007) and Procession (2009) are streaming below. The first two came out last Friday, the second two are out this Friday on Heavy Psych Sounds. Josiah’s new album, We Lay on Cold Stone, is out July 15 on Blues Funeral Recordings. More info at the links under the players below.

Josiah, Josiah (2002)

Josiah, No Time (2007)

Josiah, Procession (2009)

Josiah, Live at Stoned From the Underground 2006

Josiah on Facebook

Josiah on Instagram

Josiah on Bandcamp

Heavy Psych Sounds on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds on Instagram

Heavy Psych Sounds website

Heavy Psych Sounds on Bandcamp

Blues Funeral Recordings on Bandcamp

Blues Funeral Recordings on Facebook

Blues Funeral Recordings website

First of all, I love the psych-band-doing-Celtic-Frost-cosplay of Josiah‘s new promo pic. I actually interviewed Mathew Bethancourt last week and forgot to ask him about it, but we talked for a while about the upcoming We Lay on Cold Stone in addition to the band’s reissues out this week and next on Heavy Psych Sounds. As for this album, well, that was discussed in the main a while back for the PostWax liner notes which I can’t seem to stop writing — my ego, ugh; I despise myself — but for the purposes of this post, let me just say I’ve heard this record, lived with it for a while now and it’s not just the cover and promo pic that kick ass. There are a whole lot of people who are going to know who Josiah are by the end of this year who were not previously aware. Perhaps that’s you, too.

Look for that interview I think next Monday with streams of all the current reissues and note that they’ve got Jack Dickinson from Stubb on bass now and it’s been well over a decade since the last Josiah offering, unless you count their debut EP reissue, which was last year. That does not, of course, mean that Bethancourt hasn’t been active. If you’ve never dug into Cherry Choke, you’re in for a treat should you take this chance to do so, and his work in the more recent solo-project Mathew’s Hidden Museum is a delight of bizarre psychedelic treasures born of genuine experimentation.

But all these things can and will be discussed another time. For now, info from the PR wire:

JOSIAH to issue new album ‘We Lay On Cold Stone’ on Blues Funeral Recordings; preorder and first single available!

UK’s heavy psych legends JOSIAH return this summer with their first album in over a decade, to be released on Blues Funeral Recordings! ‘We Lay On Cold Stone’ will be available worldwide on July 15th, and supported by performances at Desertfest London and Black Deer Festival. Watch their brand new “Saltwater” video now!

Blues Funeral Recordings recently announced their special collaboration with JOSIAH to release the UK trio’s new studio album as part of their revered PostWax II vinyl subscription series.

Forging ahead to reclaim their legacy as some of the earliest architects of lysergic heavy psych, JOSIAH return in 2022 with the exultant ‘We Lay on Cold Stone’. Emerging re-energized and in peak form, the band sear forth with a barrage of irresistible hooks and tripped-out riff-romps, utterly new yet subtly infused with vintage flashes of Cream and Grand Funk. Striding boldly into a new era, JOSIAH confidently claim a place amid modern titans of psychedelic heavy rock like Earthless, Kadavar, The Atomic Bitchwax and Graveyard, asserting vast gravitas in a style they helped create.

Frontman Mathew Bethancourt declares: “We Lay On Cold Stone has been a long time coming. Perpetual dawn, finally risen. The writing spans years, and the collective pulse of the tracks, lifetimes. Recorded with purpose and heart for all the seekers who wish to hear. The resurrection is truly upon us! I’ve come to realize that every song is an opportunity. It’s a chance to push some buttons and maybe get people to think in a different way. Saltwater speaks of acceptance. Accepting the fact we drank way too deep from this earth and had a ball doing it. Feel no self-pity as you sit amongst the ruins of fear. Embrace your fate. You earned it.”

‘We Lay On Cold Stone’ will be available worldwide on July 15th, 2022 (with the ultra-limited PostWax edition shipping exclusively to PostWax Vol. II subscribers in May).

Preorder now via Blues Funeral Recordings website and Bandcamp: https://www.bluesfuneral.com/
https://bluesfuneralrecordings.bandcamp.com/

Subscribe to the PostWax II series here: https://www.bluesfuneral.com/collections/postwax

New album ‘We Lay On Cold Stone’ Out July 15th on Blues Funeral Recordings

TRACKLIST:
1. Rats (To The Bitter End)
2. Saltwater
3. Let The Lambs See The Knife
4. Cut Them Free
5. We Are Not Real
6. The Bitter End

Upcoming live shows:
23.04.22 – Salty Dog, Northwich (UK)
30.04.22 – Desertfest London (UK)
18.06.22 – Black Deer Festival, Eridge (UK)

Josiah album line-up:
Mathew Bethancourt – guitar and vocals (bass on side A)
Sie Beasley – bass & vocals (side B)
Dan Lockton – drums

Josiah are:
Mathew Bethancourt / Guitar & Vocal
Jack Dickinson / Bass
Dan Lockton / Drums

https://www.facebook.com/Josiah-106875318556254
https://www.instagram.com/josiah_rock_uk/
https://josiah-rock-uk.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/bluesfuneral/
https://www.instagram.com/blues.funeral/
https://bluesfuneralrecordings.bandcamp.com/
bluesfuneral.com

Josiah, “Saltwater” official video

I hadn’t necessarily planned on doing a tribute to Desertfest London 2022. Not that it doesn’t deserve it, just that it didn’t occur to me until last week’s lineup announcement happened to hit at the right moment for my brain to connect the two things: the show and the fest. Sometimes you get these impulses and it’s a good idea to follow.

In the voice tracks here I mumble a couple times about doing a second installment because this is so packed and there’s still so much more that got left out because the show is only two hours long. I may get around to doing a second one, or I might do a Berlin one, a New York one, or a Freak Valley one, Krach am Bach, Stoned From the Underground, etc. There are many, many options, and that’s not to mention Roadburn, which is also happening in two weeks.

But god damn the lineup for Desertfest London 2022 is sick, and I’m happy to report that the playlist below follows suit accordingly.

Thanks if you listen, thanks if you’re reading. Thanks in general.

The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at: http://gimmemetal.com.

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 04.01.22

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is April 15 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

Gimme Metal website

The Obelisk on Facebook

They say the quiet part quiet here, but amid all the tracklistings and preorder links and revamped cover art for the self-titled (I like the color scheme), Heavy Psych Sounds also announces that it’ll be working with Josiah on booking, which is as clear an indicator as I’ve seen that the UK trio are looking to do more than just re-release records. Their Out of the First Rays debut EP was put out by Heavy Psych Sounds last year, and now their four full-length offerings — the 2002 self-titled, 2004’s Into the Outside, 2007’s No Time and the 2009 collection, Procession (review here) — will follow suit. Preorders are up now ahead of April 22 and 29 release dates.

New Josiah was announced as part of Blues Funeral Recordings‘ ‘PostWax’ series — I interviewed Josiah‘s Mathew Bethancourt last year for the liner notes and might just try to bug him again for these reissues — but the fact that the band are also looking to get out and hit the road, even a bit, speaks to the ‘reunion’ as more of an ongoing thing. Of course, we live in the great age of ultra-wacky, usually-sad, anything-can-happen, but it’d be cool to see Josiah get a little of the love they’re long overdue on fests and such, and we know Heavy Psych Sounds likes to throw a party.

Info follows from the PR wire:

Today we are stoked to start the presale of four JOSIAH albums repressed in brand new coloured vinyls and digipaks:

JOSIAH
INTO THE OUTSIDE
NO TIME
PROCESSION

ALBUMS PRESALE:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/

USA PRESALE:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop-usa.htm

!!! The band is also now part of the Heavy Psych Sounds Booking roster !!!

*** JOSIAH – Josiah ***
– repress of the legendary debut album in brand new coloured vinyls –

RELEASED IN
10 ULTRA LTD TEST PRESS VINYL
100 ULTRA LTD TRANSPARENT BACKGROUND SPLATTER ORANGE-PURPLE VINYL
350 LTD PURPLE SOLID VINYL
BLACK VINYL
DIGIPAK

RELEASE DATE:
APRIL 29th

TRACKLIST
And Time Melts Down 04:37
Saturnalia 03:58
Malpaso 05:54
Gone Like Tomorrow 05:47
Suspended Revolution Ride 08:27
Head On 04:32
Change To Come 08:53

REPRESS of the Josiah self-titled debut album in new coloured vinyls !!!

*** JOSIAH – Into The Outside ***
– repress of the Josiah sophomore album in brand new coloured vinyls –

RELEASED IN
10 ULTRA LTD TEST PRESS VINYL
100 ULTRA LTD HALF/HALF BROWN-WHITE VINYL
350 LTD ORANGE SOLID VINYL
BLACK VINYL
DIGIPAK

RELEASE DATE:
APRIL 22nd

TRACKLIST
The Scarlatti Tilt
Turn It On
O.B.N.
Bloodrock
Beyond
Sylvie
Sweet Time
Keep On Pushin’
Black Country Killer
Death Rides A Horse
Unwind Your Mind

REPRESS of the Josiah sophomore album in new coloured vinyls !!!

*** JOSIAH – No Time ***
– repress of the Josiah third album in brand new coloured vinyls –

RELEASED IN GATEFOLD VINYLS
10 ULTRA LTD TEST PRESS VINYL
100 ULTRA LTD COLOR IN COLOR TRANSP. BACK. RED-BLUE VINYL
350 LTD TRANSPARENT VINYL
BLACK VINYL
DIGIPAK
DIGITAL

RELEASE DATE:
APRIL 29th

TRACKLIST
Looking At The Mountain – 3:42
No Time – 6:28
Long Time Burning – 3:53
The Dark – 7:02
Time To Kill – 3:32
Silas Brainchild – 5:06
My Bird Of Prey – 7:07
I Can’t Seem To Find It – 6:06

REPRESS of the Josiah third album in new coloured vinyls !!!

*** JOSIAH – Procession ***
– repress of the Josiah fourth album in brand new coloured vinyls –

RELEASED IN GATEFOLD VINYLS
10 ULTRA LTD TEST PRESS VINYL
100 ULTRA LTD SIDE A/SIDE B BLACK-MAGENTA-SILVER VINYL
350 LTD MAGENTA VINYL
BLACK VINYL
DIGIPAK
DIGITAL

RELEASE DATE:
APRIL 22nd

TRACKLIST
Procession
Broken Doll
Thirteen Scene
Dying Day
Dead Forever
Looking At The Mountain (Live)
Time To Kill (Live)
Silas Brainchild (Live)
Malpaso (Live)
I Can’t Seem To Find It (Live)
The Scarlatti Tilt (Live)
Long Time Burning (Live)

REPRESS of the Josiah fourth album in new coloured vinyls !!!

https://www.facebook.com/Josiah-106875318556254
https://www.instagram.com/josiah_rock_uk/
https://josiah-rock-uk.bandcamp.com/
heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/

Josiah, “Long Time Burning”

Yeah, I knew this announcement was coming. Didn’t know when, but yes. I tried to drop hints about new Josiah in writing about the UK band’s forthcoming reissue on Heavy Psych Sounds, but I didn’t want to inadvertently give anything away. And you should note that Acid King bringing Jason Landrian aboard as part of an expanded lineup for this release kind of makes that band combined with Black Cobra, since Rafa Martinez, who drums in the latter, plays bass in the former. I do not expect the liner notes to be easy to write. I need to talk to Josiah‘s Mat Bethanourt this week and get on it before I start holding up vinyl pressing. Again. Which I probably already am.

I’m not going to try to sell you on the thing — that’s not my job — but I know a couple other of the NINE — oh my god — releases coming out as part of PostWax Vol. II, and there’s not what you’d call a “filler” in the bunch.

This came down the PR wire. Nine volumes. Oof…:

ACID KING and JOSIAH to release new music as part of PostWax Vol. II series; Blues Funeral Recordings launches Kickstarter for exclusive vinyl subscription!

Blues Funeral Recordings have revealed stoner metal pillars ACID KING and cult heavy psych rockers JOSIAH will join the second volume of their groundbreaking PostWax vinyl subscription series. The label launched a Kickstarter on April 1st to sign up subscribers for the 9-volume project.

The PostWax series presents exclusive limited edition records from some of the best stoner rock, doom and heavy psych bands on the planet. Benefiting from a spectacular Kickstarter success in 2018, PostWax Year One debuted monster releases to subscribers first — including Elder’s “The Gold & Silver Sessions” and the seminal comeback album “Refractions” from Lowrider — which were subsequently released in standard retail versions to the public several months later.

Announced on the PostWax Vol. II series are Bay Area legends ACID KING, who are joining forces with Jason Landrian (Black Cobra) and Bryce Shelton (Nik Turner’s Hawkwind, Bädr Vogu, High Tone Son of a Bitch) for a mind-altering soundtrack-inspired sonic journey created exclusively for this project.

PostWax Vol. II will also mark the blistering return of Britain’s the fuzz-fueled power trio JOSIAH, who are making the most of the Blues Funeral collaboration to present their first studio album in over a decade, the followup to their 2009 Eletrohasch release ‘Procession’. Fans of heavy-psych meets straight ahead riff-rock should take notice!

PostWax Vol. II will unfold as a series of 9 deluxe releases on gorgeous vinyl, with every record set to include at least one exclusive track that only those who join PostWax will ever receive. Blues Funeral also invited each band to contribute one or more riffs to a “share pool” that every other band in the series can dip into and to integrate into what they’re doing, in order to create more connectivity and shared DNA across all the releases in the series.

View the PostWax Vol. II Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bluesfuneral/postwax-vol-ii

https://www.facebook.com/bluesfuneral/
https://www.instagram.com/blues.funeral/
https://bluesfuneralrecordings.bandcamp.com/
bluesfuneral.com

Josiah this cover on Instagram yesterday and I had the feeling something was up. It’s been 20 years since the UK heavy fuzzbringers made their debut with the Out of the First Rays EP, and today comes word that a Heavy Psych Sounds reissue of same will be out June 11 with preorders up now. It’s been kind of apparent something’s up with the long-defunct outfit, who broke up in 2009 as guitarist/vocalist Mathew Benthancourt pursued garage psych with subsequent outfit Cherry Choke, since they’re essentially new to current social media and their Bandcamp lists them as reactivated as of last year.

Does that mean new material? Maybe. In the meantime, it means this reissue, and if this is the first of several — certainly their 2002 self-titled and 2004’s No Time and 2007’s No Time are nothing if not ripe for a look from the post-Facebook generation of rockers — then all the better. If there’s a record to come, it’ll come. Let them remind people who they are first.

Bottom line is this is a killer band and good news any way you look at it.

From the PR wire:

Heavy Psych Sounds to announce JOSIAH repress of the debut EP Out Of The First Rays – presale starts TODAY!!!

Today we are extremely proud to start the presale of the JOSIAH legendary debut and sold-out EP Out Of The First Rays!!!

ALBUM PRESALE:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS171

USA PRESALE:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop-usa.htm#HPS171

20 years on and Out Of The First Rays is still as powerful today. As the band rip straight into “Head On” it’s clear that Josiah wanted to take heavy rock back to it’s opiate drenched roots. Psychedelic lyrics sung with soul and the heavy as fuck grooves laid down across this release owe a debt to Black Sabbath and Monster Magnet.

“Malpaso” quickly became the bands signature track (featuring on film soundtracks and TV shows) with its pulsating riffs and trippy middle section and “Spacequake” makes you start to think there must be something in the midlands water supply, as Bethancourt echoes Ozzy with “come take my hand my child” and the Iommi styled guitar hooks kick you straight in the gut. “Sweet Smoke” kicks off side B with its Cactus meets Grand Funk early 70’s rock vibes. The sonic interplay between the power trio, back the vocals up for this anthem to a burning earth – “Let the flames just take you higher”.

The 10 minute closer “Black Maria” with its psychedelic twin vocals and one of the heaviest riffs you’ll hear this side of dead, gives way to uptempo bass grooves and a wah drenched lead break. Take another sip of the electric kool-aid baby, before we “slide down the cosmos” and fall into the big black sleep.

It’s the year 2000 – the world did not end, Uncle Acid, Graveyard and Kadavar are nothing but twinkles in Satan’s eye – and Josiah are about to come together to make something very heavy happen. From the beating heart of the UK, Mathew Bethancourt, Sie Beasley and Chris Jones laid down a dark sound, laced with acid and fuelled by Bethancourts heavy fuzz-wah guitar playing. Early live shows with the likes of Nebula, Zen Guerilla, Atomic Bitchwax and more, unleashed the loud, full stack, heavy psych rock experience of Josiah.

The group quickly rose to prominence on the UK scene with heavy touring and in June 2001 released their debut record Out Of The First Rays via Cargo Records. The quick to sell out 10″ EP’s killer cut “Malpaso” was aired by Marianne Hobbs on the Radio One Rock Show and Metal Hammer included “Spacequake” on their best new UK bands compilation CD.

RELEASED IN
15 ULTRA LTD TEST PRESS VINYL
150 ULTRA LTD SIDE A/SIDE B WHITE-YELLOW-RED VINYL
300 LTD RED VINYL
BLACK VINYL

PRESALE STARTS: MARCH 25th

RELEASE DATE: JUNE 11th

TRACKLIST
Head On
Malpaso
Spacequake
Sweet Smoke
Black Maria

JOSIAH is
Mathew Bethancourt – vocals & guitar
Sie Beasley – bass & vocals
Chris Jones – drums

https://www.instagram.com/josiah_rock_uk/
https://josiah-rock-uk.bandcamp.com/
heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/

Josiah, “Black Maria” from Josiah

This Friday, Dec. 4, UK-based multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Mathew Bethancourt — known for his work in Josiah, Cherry Choke, The Kings of Frog Island‘s first three LPs, etc. — will release the debut EP from a new solo endeavor, Mathew’s Hidden Museum. Comprised of three tracks, Golden Echoes follows behind two singles posted in October (one of which was a remake of The Kings of Frog Island‘s “Satanica”), and while Bethancourt has in the past produced some of the most diggable fuzz ever put to tape — yes, I mean that — Golden Echoes pushes beyond the hairy riffs once proffered by Josiah and even Cherry Choke‘s blend of garage rock and psychedelia to offer a decided turn toward the weird.

Yes, friends. The sometimes-mandated idleness of 2020’s quarantine months has produced any number of offshoot projects from artists, but honestly, as it’s been five years since the last Cherry Choke studio LP, 2015’s stunning Raising the Waters (review here), I’m glad to hear from Bethancourt at all. And Golden Echoes — as the title might hint — is far from another “hey I’ve been stuck in my house for five months so here’s a dungeon synth”-style experience. The bulk of the 16-minute outing takes place in “Golden” and “The Voyage of Psyche,” while closer “Golden (Echoes Flow)))” builds off the opener with a quiet, drifting three and a half minutes, easing into the end of the proceedings. Prior to, the five-minute “Golden” starts with far back drums and piano and vocals, establishing a hook early on. A hint of melodica prefaces the soon-to-dominate-the-mix arrival of that overlaid progression, and when Bethancourt joins with a second layer of vocals, the experimentalist vibe is set and ready to be fleshed out for the remainder of the piece, which is backed by the 7:20 “The Voyage of Psyche”‘s immediately bizarro-Floydian organ.

Less structured overall, and without the solidity of the same kind of prominent drumbeat to keep it grounded — at least initially — “The Voyage of Psyche” is a semi-directed self-jam that unfolds in two, maybe three, stages. The organ holds sway initially until the arrival of harder drums and electric guitar near the midpoint. A solo gives way to a lower-toned, deceptively fuzzy riff, like Bethancourt sneaking into his wheelhouse without telling anyone, but it’s the drums that ultimately dominate, as a relatively simple but locked in groove is backed by quiet bass as the guitar takes a momentary rest before picking up again and carrying to the sudden finish. After that aptly-named journey, the drone-patient beginning of “Golden (Echoes Flow)))” feels suitably like an arrival, with quietly woven guitar figures hinting toward a wash but never becoming quite so overbearing before the already-noted soft let-go at the finish.

The overarching lesson of Golden Echoes is that Mathew’s Hidden Museum is unhindered, unbound by expectation or some imaginary genre limit. The grace in the closer particularly speaks to future explorations that might come, but the same could easily be said of the entire release and the project as a whole. Whatever Bethancourt does with his Hidden Museum, or if he does nothing with it at all from here on out, these songs effectively speak to their moment of creation and set an open foundation upon which subsequent work might build. One doesn’t want to go around making predictions, but Golden Echoes sounds far more like a beginning than an end.

You’ll find the EP streaming below in its entirety, followed by some comment from Bethancourt about its making.

Please enjoy:

Mathew Bethancourt on Golden Echoes:

Like so many, I suddenly found myself with the gift of time. Time to think, reflect, step back and watch the world deconstruct itself. Watching some turn to fear and panic, now aware of the unquenchable thirst created by the sudden lack of rampant consumption in their lives. Whilst I calmly looked on, observed and slowly started to make music.

The enforced social isolation meant I had to do everything myself. My parameters and limitations forced the creative solutions unique to my situation. This music will never happen again. It’s a one off product of a freak moment in time. Born of an experience that will echo across all our lives. All written and performed during the UK lockdown. I hope my observations, of the delicate construct we call society and the people existing within, reflect in the sound. Like – Golden Echoes)))

Tracklisting:
1. Golden
2. The Voyage Of Psyche
3. Golden (Echoes Flow)))

Composed, Performed & Recorded by Mathew’s Hidden Museum somewhere between the months of April & September 2020.

Cherry Choke on Thee Facebooks

Mathew’s Hidden Museum on Instagram

Mathew’s Hidden Museum on Bandcamp

It continues to be a matter of some debate as to whether rock and roll will save or damn your eternal soul. Well, your soul is a myth, and if rock and roll gets your blood moving during your limited, mostly futile existence, then fuck it, run with that. Once upon a United Kingdom there was a band called Josiah, and oh my, could they boogie. In the annals of pre-mobile/social media ubiquity, they were a well-kept secret of fuzz worshipers, riff heads and those frequenting the message boards of the day, but my oh my their grooves hold up. Procession (review here) was their final outing, arriving in 2010 through Colour Haze guitarist/vocalist Stefan Koglek‘s Elektrohasch Schallplatten imprint, and it only underscored the point of how fierce they could be in their prime.

Fronted by guitarist Mat Bethancourt — who also did time with The Kings of Frog Island and Dexter Jones Circus Orchestra and was last heard from in Cherry Choke, running his own festival and doing artwork for various acts — and completed in their final incarnation by bassist Sie Beasley and drummer Keith Beacom, Josiah started around the turn of the century and were well ahead of the pack when it came to ’70s-style riffing, most especially in the UK, where doom and more straight-ahead stoner rock largely reigned supreme, Bill Steer‘s Firebird notwithstanding. Josiah‘s 2002 self-titled debut has been reissued a number of times at this point and it remains undervalued for what it accomplished in heavy boogie, and the organic tonality that came with Into the Outside in 2004 and 2007’s harder-driving No Time was not to be taken lightly or overlooked. Releasing through Elektrohasch and Molten Records, their profile was never as high as some of England’s forerunners in Orange Goblin, Electric Wizard or Cathedral, but even unto the post-breakup swansong that was Procession, the force of their delivery and groove was palpable, and whatever direction it was sending you, it sent you.

Of course, by 2010, the situation had changed, or at very least it was changing. The rise of Witchcraft and the first Graveyard record in Sweden has brought retroism to a broader audience, and Kadavar would soon rise up from Germany to continue the movement. Still though, Josiah were never a purely retro band, and Procession‘s early tracks remind of the niche they occupied between the classic and more modern branches of heavy rock. Certainly the swing and proto-punk rush of the opening title-track and “Broken Doll” after it have their foundations in a ’70s mindset, but “Thirteen Scene” was and is distinguished by its Queens of the Stone Age-style bounce, and even the strut of “Dying Day,” which follows, seems to modernize a one-guitar Thin Lizzy groove, all that swagger and attitude channeled into a nod-ready rhythm that is a timeless vision of cool refusing to be denied. That these first four tracks were recorded in 2006 is important. That puts them before or at least vaguely concurrent to No Time, but if they sat around after those sessions and were going to show up elsewhere and didn’t, then at least the band was able to put them to good use posthumously and remind their audience of what was.

“Dead Forever” serves as a transition point following “Dying Day” — two morose-sounding cuts, to be sure, but neither of which is particularly dark in terms of sound — and is a rawer take in the actual recording. It veers into some spaced-out guitar over the shove of its apex, and might represent the last of Josiah‘s studio work, given that it came after the final album-album. If that’s the case, it’s somewhat emblematic of the changing mindset on the part of Bethancourt, whose appreciation for garage rock came through not only in the third album from The Kings of Frog Island, which was his last with the band, but with the first Cherry Choke LP as well. “Dead Forever” harnesses some of that same style, but the personality of the rhythm section is still prevalent in what they’re doing, and so the five-and-a-half-minute cut keeps a more weighted edge. It makes for a fascinating blend, and if Josiah had wanted to, no doubt they could’ve put together a full-length of such material and continued to refine their niche and songwriting processes, but it wasn’t to be.

I don’t know what became of Beasley or Beacom, but from the first Cherry Choke album in 2009 through the most recent one in 2015, Bethancourt kept expanding that band’s sonic palette to suit shifting influences between garage rock, heavy psychedelia and classic-styled boogie. When last they were heard from on social media, they were working on material for a fourth record, though who knows what the status of that might be.

In the meantime, though, Procession rounds out Josiah‘s run with five corresponding live tracks that were taped in Sweden circa 2007. Among them are four songs from No Time in “Time to Kill,” “Looking at the Mountain,” “Silas Brainchild” and “I Can’t Seem to Find It,” which closes, as well as “Malpaso,” which comes from the first record and is perhaps truest to the original era of late-’90s/early-’00s stoner rock of anything Josiah have on offer here. That Procession is split between studio and live material doesn’t really matter to the overall listening experience — if anything, it brings into relief just how much in common they had between performing in one context and the other — and the front-to-back progression of Procession (yes, I’m a little ashamed of that phrasing) feels all the more appropriate as an encapsulation of who Josiah were for having both sides represented. I like the idea of a goodbye offering, and Procession is a particularly encompassing one that puts a stamp on Josiah‘s career and even a decade after the fact reminds of what they managed to accomplish during their time together.

And anytime Elektrohasch want to go ahead and do another pressing of Josiah, Into the Outside or No Time, or hell, even this, I can’t imagine they’d run into much argument. Someday some Akarma-style label is going to come for all this stuff. I hope I’m around to dig it all over again when that happens.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.

—

I wrote the above yesterday so I’d have time this morning to work on the Mars Red Sky review that went up a bit ago. Nice to have that kind of flexibility, but I honestly don’t think it matters much to anyone other than me. Reviewing streams makes for interesting discussion in my mind, but to this point it’s a conversation I’m having with myself. Ups and downs to that, like anything. Humbling, usually.

Next week is full. There’s a lot of premieres. One for Temple Fang that’s been pushed back a couple times. A Psychlona video. A track from Morton Gaster Papadopoulos, who’ve been featured here before.

I’d find you the link to the last time I posted about that project with members of Stinking Lizaveta and Clutch and so on, but I’m writing in the car and as you might expect, running the wifi off my phone is for crap, especially as we’re driving through a rural area in New Jersey to go to Space Farms basically so my kid can throw corn out the window to animals as we drive past — “1-2-3-corn!” he yells while throwing. It’s usually a walk-around zoo, but they’ve made it a driving thing during the pandemic. This is the second time we’ve gone in the last week.

Because that’s real life. You do what you need to do.

Anyhow, that’s basically the weekend plans. Get through it. Went for a run this morning with the kid and he face-planted on the pavement, got a big scrape and knot on his forehead that’s gonna be there for at least the next week. We hold hands while we run, but frankly, we were both sweaty and he just slipped out of my grasp while falling. I had caught him like four other times, which is pretty standard, but yeah. The one time. He was up and finishing the run shortly after though. Dude is way tougher than my ass. I’d be in bed for the rest of the day. If not two days.

More real life.

Thanks for reading. Great and safe weekend. If you’re reading this, I hope you and yours are well; life, limb, livelihood.

FRM.

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