The more I think about it, the more impressed I am all around by what Geezer accomplished yesterday. If you, like most people, have never been in a studio setting either to record or just sit there and be weird while someone else does, you might not know just how rare it is for a band to roll in, throw down for about 11 hours with one relatively minimal dinner break, and come out of it with the better part of an album recorded.

Of course there’s more work to do. Four more songs, to start with, and then overdubs, non-scratch vocals, and so on, but even so. The work-hard-work-smart nature of the band’s hitting it yesterday — and more, their down-to-business-but-cool-about-it attitude — was what you would hope a best case scenario would be for a group going into their sixth full-length and then some. Everybody has their insecurities, and recording can be and inherently is a push on that — was it good enough that time? is it ever? — but the way they kept focused on the work, even when the work was jamming out the start of “Stoned Blues Machine.”

I wound up staying after the session at the Super 8 in Kingston, about 15 minutes away from Applehead Studio. Maybe I could have driven home the 90-plus minutes, but I was tired and it’s not like there’s a surging global pandemic on or anything. The morning coffee is pretty rough — I’ve still had three cups — but I’ll admit to some nostalgia looking around the room and thinking of the Super 8 in Frederick, Maryland, and Maryland Doom Fest. It’s all pretty standardized.

Shower, some other work, then maybe a bit of exploring around Woodstock if it’s not too cold before I go back to the studio for day two. It’s been a long time since I was last up here for a long weekend broke-honeymoon, right after I got married. If nothing else, it’s the kind of place where I might expect to find some better coffee.

There’s a stream that runs behind the studio, a big open field next door. The tea shop down the way is badass (yes I said that), and I took a few minutes to drive through Woodstock’s main drag before coming back here. Hippie tourists and hippie locals, yuppies with a passing interest in counterculture met head-on by Free Tibet-types and tie-dye shops. My only regret is having neither the time nor the funds to shop. First one to tie-dye a pair of sweatpants wins my heart forever. And probably whatever they’re charging for them.

I’ve got until about 4PM here today, so hopefully that’s enough for them to bang out the basics on the other four songs.

Notes from day two:

12.19.21 – 11:50AM – Applehead Recording – Woodstock, NY

“Stoned Blues Machine”

Pat’s a bit late. Sick kids at home. They decide to roll out with a revisit to “Stoned Blues Machine,” but if their warmup jam doesn’t end up on the record, I’ll be personally disappointed. Dudes walked in and hit it like they never left, except better rested.

The solo’s a scorcher. Unmixed, it reminds me of Chocolate & Cheese-era Ween in that combination of dreamy warm tone and punk rock fuckoff. There was a hiccup at the start, but the listen-back sounds right on, and yes, Bittner saved that initial jam.

Little fixes. Tom at the start, two guitar things, and a retake on the solo. Steve has drum stuff. Richie has a couple bass things. Pat will go last and I assume put down the scratch vocals at the same time. This is the process. Do the song, listen to the song, tweak what needs tweaking. It’s not an uncommon tack. What differentiates this experience for me being here is the mood and the vibe. Smoke weed. Calm down.

Applehead Recording is — have I mentioned this? — a beautiful looking, beautiful sounding place to exist for whatever measure of time. But it’s also relaxed. It’s not so pro that, unless you’re me, you’re afraid to sit on the couch for fear of something exploding. It’s pro-shop, no question — the board’s as big as my living room — and I imagine every session is different, but with Geezer here, the prevailing spirit is mellow, unrushed, despite a universal need for coffee. Everybody’s waiting on the pot to finish.

I very purposefully didn’t send the band the stuff I wrote yesterday, because the last thing I want to do is mess with the atmosphere here. When you come to do things like this, you’re a guest, but you also have to walk on eggshells a little bit. You try to make yourself small, to not impose yourself on things. Generally, no one will ask your opinion on anything, and if you have one, you’re probably better keeping it to yourself. It’s not that you’re an intruder, but if you were on the inside of the experience, you’d be in the band or behind the board, and you’re neither of those things. Be thankful for the coffee and the tunes.

Richie finishes quick, Pat’s next. Redoes the solo, tries some weird phase stuff on top. The door’s open the whole time. Super casual. Vocals follow, a little more of a spoken take in the verse to go with the roll, reminds me of the first album. Hook opens up fluidly, lyric about the world being a wreck, saying screw it, moving to the mountains and getting high. I mean, yeah. There’s 90 acres listed down the way I drove past on the way here. Wonder what that’s going for. Steve calls it “trucker vibes” when Pat comes back into the control room — my head immediately starts spinning with visuals playing off the Burn One Up comp. Geezer’s got some big shoes to fill in terms of cover art after Groovy, as it happens.

In any case, if this song is the title-track, it will have earned it.

12.19.21 – 1:30PM – Applehead Recording – Woodstock, NY

“A Cold Black Heart”

“Stoned Blues Machine” took a while, but it seemed like everyone was having a pretty good time with it.

An impromptu sing-along to Poison’s “Every Rose Has its Thorn” — sans Harrington, sans me — gives way to “A Cold Black Heart,” for which they do a couple takes of the intro first. It’s nothing so outlandish, but just a timing thing it seems.

The verse riff is a chug and a wind, reminding me of something I’ll probably need to hear it 15 more times to put my finger on, but it’s easy enough to hear where the chorus is going to be even hearing it run through the first time, and that’s probably a good sign. The solo take live sounds really solid, and there’s a turn into a different, slower chug for what I’d guess is a bridge that leads to another solo, they kind of jam on it with Richie’s bassline holding the tension of a build that tells me they’re bringing it back around, which they do, if just to finish.

Another take to work on the transition into that slower part, have some trouble getting it going, but do. The slower part seems to be a little faster, but the transition into it sounds more natural — it’s a split-second thing, but Steve got it — and in that later solo I hear a little “Heaven and Hell” between the bass and guitar. I will not complain about that, probably ever, though who knows if it’ll still be there after the mix, overdubs, etc. are done.

One more take. They sound more comfortable, like they’re locking in. That change again is no problem. I wonder if there will be vocals over this part, or some other trippy whatnot. Could hear keys there, easily. It’s pretty open before the lead line kicks in.

Third take was the best one. Hilarious as to how smoothly things have gone that that many times through a song seems like a lot. Drum mic broke. So it goes, probably expensively.

It takes some time to fix, which might honestly be the difference between my being able to be here for the other three songs and leaving before they’re done, but like anything, it’s a part of what happens when you’re in a studio.

12.19.21 – 3:07PM – Applehead Recording – Woodstock, NY

Work is still being done on “A Cold Black Heart,” putting some funkified bass parts in with what Chris Bittner calls the “Purple Haze” part, which is as good a name for it certainly as anything I’ve got. It’s swagger on swagger, in any case.

I think this’ll probably be the last song I hear while I’m at Applehead, by the time this gets done and the scratch vocals are done. I’ll take comfort in knowing that even though I’m not here until the end I’ve heard most of the record, whatever it ends up being called, unless they decide to leave some of what they did yesterday off. I won’t get to hear “Diamond Rain of Saturn,” which I was looking forward to just given the title, but I’ll look forward to hearing it when it’s done instead.

Today is colder but gorgeous and bright. I’m looking forward to seeing the sunset on my way back south, the mountains of doom that are the Catskill Appalachians — old, slow-rolling, eroded by time and a little sad about it — alongside the Thruway. I don’t get up here a lot.

3:15PM, Pat hits the vocals. “Late at night, I feel no pain/In the morning, I feel no shame.” Chris moves to one of the several key instruments around — an organ — to feel out ideas for that part. Seems reasonable.

Next song is “Little Voices.”

Today hasn’t been the crazy-productive jaunt that yesterday was, but I won’t be the least bit surprised when they finish the basics by the time they’re out of here tonight. I don’t know what the plan is for following up on the work they’ve done here, but if they came here to work with Chris Bittner and to work in that room — both pretty solid reasons from what I’ve been able to tell — then they’ve made a lot out of that opportunity. I guess whatever will happen from here will happen.

They’re talking food, which means it’s probably time I started packing up.

This session was originally supposed to happen two weeks ago, but Geezer’s recording plans were derailed by drummer Steve Markota contracting what was apparently a mild case of Covid-19. It turned him into a newt, but he got better. In any case, I was invited to come hang out — because it’s not weird unless I’m there to make it that way — and I wasn’t about to say no to watching the Kingston heavy jam/psych/blues trio lay down even just the basic tracks for their next full-length after mid-2020’s it’s-okay-that-it’s-a-miserable-year-we-can-still-dance-a-little-bit Groovy (review here) as their debut on Heavy Psych Sounds who, one assumes, will also be releasing this one sometime in 2022.

Fostering that supposition is the fact that Geezer are already booked to return to Europe — a second appearance at Freak Valley has been confirmed and I’ve heard murmurings of more shows besides — so I don’t know if there’s a hard deadline for the new record, since it’s not like they got to tour the last one, but in talking to Geezer guitarist/vocalist Pat Harrington over the summer, he expressed some urgency to get it out. Can’t blame him or them. Gotta do something.

A rainy day did little to lessen my appreciation for the scenery on the way up here. Drive was about 90 minutes, a 60-mile shot up the NY Thruway to Exit 19, and by then the sleepy Catskills were lording over the sides of the road like forgotten gods, and the landscape was pockmarked alternately by lived-in-the-woods-forever, stare-long houses, escape-from-the-city money, ski facilities and, because it’s how it goes up here, plenty of artist studios and places like Applehead Recording, which is a beautiful, pro-shop with a 32-foot ceiling in the live room. Apparently Markota was the one who argued to record here, which, given the drum sound in that room, is easily understandable.

I’m here for two days. Here are some notes from the first.

12.18.21 – 12:39PM – Applehead Recording – Woodstock, NY

“Mercury Rising”

Got here maybe an hour ago, had some coffee, settled in, took a couple pictures, gonna take some more. Bassist Richie Touseull was getting sounds when I came in, Harrington was next. It’s almost 1PM and engineer Chris Bittner — who co-owns Applehead with Michael “Mike Boom” Birnbaum and opened here in 2013 — has them sounding tight, full and killer through the board mix. Listening in the room now to a jam they did maybe 10 minutes ago, just shaking off the dust, and… well, it’s not a room sound I’d fuck with.

It is apparently the biggest, most studio-ish of the studios Geezer has recorded in, and I’ll agree: this couch I’m on is like a Neve console for my ass right now. I’ll be perfectly happy if I can stay here for the duration, and if the rest of my afternoon is hearing Touseull’s bass tones and the band jamming — if that’s what the process of “basic tracks” is — I’ll be perfectly happy to have spent the time. Shit sounds tight. Of course, nothing ever sounds so good as in the studio monitors, but still.

Best case is Geezer come out of the next two days with 10 songs done. “Mercury Rising” to loosen up, then I guess hit it for real.

A couple songs in, Bittner suggests Marokta lose the click in the midsection of whatever song this is. It is the right suggestion. Continuing through “Mercury Rising” with a couple quick punch-ins on drums and bass, then a doubled guitar solo. Also the right choice. Bassline is killer. Mellow opening, more driving verse, some killer drum jabs as moves between parts, a couple starts and stops.

Printing the song after it’s done, bouncing it down, makes it feel complete.

12.18.21 – 2:39PM – Applehead Recording – Woodstock, NY

“Logan’s Run”

I think the cab in the isolation room next to the control room is humming. It’s a kind of relaxing backing drone. With “Mercury Rising,” the band are moving on to “Logan’s Run,” trying it first with the click track, then probably without again as they get together a take. Vibe in the studio is pretty chill. Sometimes you get into a place like this — especially a nice studio — with a band and it’s a gotta-go-gotta-go-time-is-money kind of thing. Sometimes you get in and everybody’s stoned and/or not there.

This is in between. The band loaded their gear in last night and clearly some sounds were gotten last night as well ahead of starting work properly this morning. Smart not to waste that time this morning. It’s real easy to lose four hours on some minor thing, and better that happens when you’re not trying to also make an album before the day is over.

But Appelhead is gorgeous. There’s a stream in back. I pulled in the wrong driveway the first time, but once I made it here, following the little ‘Studio’ signs on the trees of the long pull-in, it’s clearly designed as a getaway kind of spot. Stream in back, woods out front. Bittner’s house is next door.

Before they start playing, there’s some adjustment with the rack tom. It’s all good though. I’m so into this vibe. Everyone’s tone sounds right on. I hear Touseull with some fuzz on in there and Harrington noodling around while Markota’s drums are adjusted. It all sounds warm and killer and these guys know what they’re doing and they know the songs and they’re here to hit it and have a good time. They’ve got some Sabbath swing going now that I can only hope is actually part of this song and not just something they’re playing to get sounds.

2:48PM, rolling. Bittner takes notes while the band plays, Markota decides quick not to use the metronome. Indeed the swing is the core riff of “Logan’s Run.” Classic stoner janga-janga shuffle. Can’t argue. Evens out to a smooth hook and builds weight as it goes. Harrington crushed vocals for “Mercury Rising” on the quick. I wonder what he’ll do with the pulled-note sections here ahead of the solo, if anything. Song is somewhere in the neighborhood of five minutes long. Another banger.

They do another take the dampener off the snare. Kill it. Listen back to confirm. Yup, it’s dead. Or not. One more take to get the second verse, and then another to punch it in. A few more punch-ins. Pat wants to double the solo again — one doubts it’ll be the wrong choice this time either — and there was a wah-bass part, which, well, yes obviously that’s going to work. Riff is pure stoner rock in how it builds to a finish. “Hole in the Sky,” or Blues-era Kyuss even. Thicker though.

Some more dug-in work on this one, but everybody’s still pretty relaxed.

12.18.21 – 4:47PM – Applehead Recording – Woodstock, NY

“Atomic Moronic”

Talk of dinner leads to pizza. I’ll get a salad and because I’m embarrassed at my own dietary preferences — low carb, no sugar, no pork, etc. — I offer to place the order. Seems the least I can do.

Another speedier boogie, “Atomic Moronic” comes together pretty easily, or at least seems to. Lead lines peppered in, a bit of sass toward the end. Scorched. Could hear on “Mercury Rising” Pat’s pushing himself vocally.

Steve nailed drum punch-ins while I was on the phone with the pizza place. Richie next with one or two bass fills. Pat next with a fix on the solo, then guide vocals I guess for later. Very much a pre-dinner affair, but a fun one. There was some discussion as to whether or not to do a more complicated song before eating. Arguments in favor of “pizza power” won out against implied hangry. I’m glad I could contribute there and bring my homemaker skills to bear in another context. The answer is eat first and do the hard thing after.

Lines “Ignorance is sacred/Crucify the truth/Gotta let it burn/Burn baby burn/Put your faith in stupid/Self-inflicted wound.” Clearly Geezer aren’t going into their first true release of the pandemic era with blinders on to the world around them, and fair enough. Most of these riffs apparently come from lockdown time, so maybe it makes some kind of sense that the three songs I’ve heard so far are all movers in terms of tempo. I’m not sure that makes more sense as a channel for energy than anything else — that is, if they were diving headfirst into jams, it would be easy enough to frame the narrative of pandemic-effected creativity the same way — but when Geezer write songs, they make it count.

This one apparently might start the record. There is some talk of adding a gong, but I don’t think it’s serious. You never know.

The gauntlet is thrown down at two more songs tonight. If they all go as smoothly as “Atomic Moronic,” or even “Logan’s Run,” that’s probably possible, unless the next one is a real burnout deal, I don’t know. I don’t get told these things.

Ate dinner to the soundtrack of a Metallica/Huey Lewis mashup. “It’s Hip to be the Sandman” or some such. When civilization collapses, I hope the mashups are the only piece of modern culture that survives so that future archeologists can be like, “Wow, these people sure liked screwing around with shit. Also they killed the planet.” Guess that’ll be a double-edged sword. Also the archeologists are hypersentient dolphins, or octopuses, or pigoons or some such. Definitely not people. Gotta figure by then humanity will have long since “burned it down.”

12.18.21 – ~7:05PM – Applehead Recording – Woodstock, NY

“Eleven”

Everybody’s cruising post-dinner. Harrington warns that “Eleven” has a part where they might, probably will get hung up. So be it. I drink a bottle of water. Brought a whole gallon with me but it’s in the car. Saving for tomorrow. I’m a firm believer in hydration.

“Eleven” feels shorter, but I’m not sure that was the full song. Going through again. Boogie riff, still uptempo, but feels a little brighter in its turns, if that makes any sense and I’m not sure it does. Steve, Pat and Richie seem pretty locked in, and the bass in this room sounds amazing as Harrington takes a quick solo.

I know from experience that nothing that’s ever come out of a studio has ever sounded as good as on the studio monitors, but the work they apparently did put in last night (I asked) getting sounds and preparing for today is paying off in the fact that they’ll be able to do five tracks before everyone’s too tired.

They break for a solo section, then turn it back around to what I think will be the chorus. It’s got some strut to it with Steve on the ride cymbal but still rolls over fluidly. They run through it again. And again. Change something with a drum fill in the back half. The song is now a beast.

As a producer, Bittner’s very diplomatic in his suggestions — “tell me to go fuck myself, but…” — but I’ve yet to hear him put something out there that didn’t make a song better. Which is the ideal. They’re riding that last verse groove now. I assume the track is named for how loud they’ll be playing it in a live setting.

Listening back, the pace is relaxed in picking out parts to punch in or redo altogether. It’s easy-peasy. Feel like I’m stepping into a situation where the band has done their homework and the studio has been prepped for them. Unless a ceiling caves in right now, I feel like this has been one of the smoother sessions I’ve sat in on, and at this point I’ve done a few.

Steve goes back in for a fill. Fixed. Richie punched in a transition. Pat’s over guitars. Onto vocals for the guide track. Lyrics some bit of stoner escapism. “What is real? And where do we go from here? Nothing is real.” Done.

One more for tonight.

12.18.21 – ~8:30PM – Applehead Recording – Woodstock, NY

“Stoned Blues Machine”

Maybe the title-track. Hell of a title to live up to. Thudding start into slower nod, drums crashing in a way a little more open, pulls up for what might be between-measure shifts, gives it a back and forth feel, but that center groove is a gut puncher and they know it because they keep going back to it. Trippy solo over a rolling bassline. I must be getting tired because I’m running out of ways to say something sounds cool.

Can hear the blues in “Stoned Blues Machine” as they progress. Geezer started out and to some extent has kept a heavy blues underpinning, but I can also hear the other stuff going on in their sound as it’s progressed over the last eight years or so. They hold out distortion at the end of “Stoned Blues Machine.” Noise and delay. First take is solid, but won’t be the last.

They do another take. Warmer. Closer. Pat floats an intro idea they’d apparently talked about. Tape, as it were, is rolling, so they feel it out and it sounds about as solid as something so purposefully molten could want to. Not sure if that’s a slide in there or just the delay making it sound like one, but I like not knowing so I’m not going to sit up and look. Oh, okay, I will. Yeah, it is.

This is the jammier side of the band coming out. Nothing to complain about. They bring it around on the quick to the rest of the song they played earlier and it seems to be a little slower this time, keeping some of that vibe going, though it’s been a long day at this point and that could completely be my imagination.

Harrington calls out “hits!” and some follow, shifting into what’s either another verse or bridge, hard to know until the vocals (or whatever) go over it, but pick up with more drive coming out of the solo and into the ending. They’ve put work in at this point — it’s after 9PM, I got here at 11:45 and they were already working getting sounds — but have a lot to show for it.

Come in to listen. There will be some parts to fix. Doesn’t matter. Everyone knows the day is wrapping up sooner than later and the mood remains as it was. Any fatigue I discern is probably just me projecting because if I was at home right now I’d have probably been in bed for the better part of an hour already.

Nah, everyone’s tired. Talking about doing one more instead of the fixes for this one, get the basics down.

12.18.21 – 9:30PM – Applehead Recording – Woodstock, NY

“Broken Glass”

Richie switches basses. Pat warms up on some chug and noodles. The song starts with snare hits, like death metal, only not at all. It’s a strutter, twisting around Hendrix leads, well punctuated by toms and kick drum. Fucking a. Easy to see why they thought they might be able to sneak this one in before the end of the night. It’ll probably work.

Two takes, in to listen. Second take is the one, but everybody wants a piece of the end again, so they decide to take it from somewhere in the solo ahead of the transition to the last run. They do. No drama.

Pat goes back in for vocals. “We gotta get up and dance/We gotta get up and go/But where are we going?”

This one’s a ripper. Pat fixes a guitar thing after. Quick. Steve has something quick at around 2:16, but he and Chris decide to leave it.

Uptempo kick in the ass. Way to end a long day.

May 20 is the set date for Geezer‘s Stoned Blues Machine to arrive via Heavy Psych Sounds. Preorders are up as of today, and the chance to announce that fact and host the premiere below of “Broken Glass” kind of fell into my lap, and there wasn’t really any way I wasn’t going to say yes. I still need to coordinate when I’ll put up my in-studio with the band — the drafts of the posts have been ready to roll out since December — but that’s little more than an email to be sent, and there’s about four minutes of stomping heavy rock and roll to be had here instead.

In the bio I wrote for Stoned Blues Machine, I noted that Geezer‘s sixth LP boasts their broadest-sounding production to-date. I think you can hear that in “Broken Glass.” Listen to Steve Markota‘s drums. Big room. And Richie Touseull‘s bass and Pat Harrington‘s guitar both sound rich but still able to move as they strut and careen through the no-nonsense cut. They jam out elsewhere on the record — looking at you, “The Diamond Rains of Saturn” — but Stoned Blues Machine also continues to highlight the songcraft and stonerly charm that made 2020’s Groovy (review here) such a boon to that generally wretched year.

I’ll have more to come before the release — including, eventually, that in-studio — but here’s the song, art and preorder links for now.

Enjoy:

Geezer, “Broken Glass” track premiere

BROKEN GLASS is the first single taken from the GEEZER upcoming brand new album STONED BLUES MACHINE.

The release will see the light May 20th via Heavy Psych Sounds.

GRAB YOUR COPY HERE:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm

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

https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/geezer-stoned-blues-machine

“High octane blues for the 21st Century. Broken Glass is a call to arms. In a world where everything seems to be going backwards we need to grab hold and smash your face into the future. Where are we going? I don’t know man. Rock and roll will fucking save the world don’t fight that shit dig on it.”

New album ‘Stoned Blues Machine’ out May 20th on Heavy Psych Sounds.

GEEZER is
Pat Harrington – vocals/guitar
Richie Touseull – bass
Steve Markota – drums

https://www.instagram.com/geezertown/
https://www.facebook.com/geezerNY/
http://geezertown.bandcamp.com/
heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/

Geezer, “Solstice”

I took the picture of Geezer here, and I wrote the bio below (they shortened it a bit and took out the yet-to-be-unveiled title of the new album; so it goes). Since late December, I’ve been sitting on a two-day in-studio feature I did with them while they were making this record at Applehead Recording in scenic Woodstock, New York, that I hope to be able to post sometime in the coming weeks. I need to check with the Heavy Psych Sounds folks to make sure I’m not stepping on promo-plan toes in giving away song titles or anything like that.

Accordingly, I’ve heard this album, seen the cover (epic), all that stuff. It’s a winner. This announcement-of-an-announcement is par for the course of HPS record rollouts, and sometimes I post these and sometimes I don’t, but I’m doing so now to give you a heads up that this is coming and that it rules and whatnot. If you dug mid-2020’s Groovy (review here), then I assure you you’ll be down with what they’ve got going this time around.

More to come:

HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS signed the cosmic stoner rock band GEEZER for the new album – presale + first track premiere March 9th!!!

We are so stoked to announce that the stoner blues-rock riffers GEEZER has signed a worldwide deal with Heavy Psych Sounds for their new album !!!

PRESALE + first track premiere: MARCH 9th

SAYS THE BAND:

“We are beyond stoned… I mean stoked to be working with Gabe and the Heavy Psych Sounds family on the release of our new album! HPS are the grooviest cats with the hippest bands and it’s rad as fuck to be a part of it. Break out the weed and the riffs, this time, we’re going to eleven!”

BIOGRAPHY

A decade beyond their formation, Geezer have become a staple presence of the US heavy underground. From their 2013 debut, the Kingston, New York, trio have progressed into and through open-spaced jams and memorable hooks, offering glimpses at their growth across records like 2014’s Gage, 2016’s self-titled and 2017’s Psychoriffadelia, founding guitarist/vocalist Pat Harrington has led the band – now himself, bassist Richie Touseull and drummer Steve Markota – on a thrilling journey of altered consciousness and downright boogie.

Amid the grim existence of 2020, Geezer unleashed Groovy, their most vital release yet, pulling together what Harrington calls the “three pillars of Geezer: heavy, trippy, groovy” with a batch of memorable songs and easy-rolling vibes.

It’s a rare band that finds its sound so engagingly, and with the new album, the sixth Geezer LP, coming out in 2022 via Heavy Psych Sounds, they once again build on their accomplishments, working with producer Chris Bittner at Applehead Recording in Woodstock, NY, to harness the band’s most expansive production to date.

GEEZER is
Pat Harrington – vocals/guitar
Richie Touseull – bass
Steve Markota – drums

https://www.instagram.com/geezertown/
https://www.facebook.com/geezerNY/
http://geezertown.bandcamp.com/
heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/

Geezer, “Solstice”

Geezer, Groovy (2020)

Geezer are gigging. Maybe not right this second, but now-ish. The Kingston, New York, heavy trio of guitarist/vocalist Pat Harrington, bassist Richie Touseull and drummer Steve Markota released the says-it-all-really Groovy (review here) full-length last year as their label debut through Heavy Psych Sounds — it was their fifth record overall — and hit a new echelon for the band in terms of both crafted material and the flowing jams that have always been at root in their sound. Not to mention cover art. I interviewed Harrington last year when the album was coming out, so the impetus for chasing down a chat now wasn’t so much to deep dive into the songs or anything like that.

And yeah, I wanted to talk about gigs, how he felt about playing songs on a stage again after everything that’s gone down in the last year and a half. People avoid saying ‘Covid-19’ now. It’s become this unspoken presence in our lives, I don’t know if that’s out of fear, or fatigue, or if the very idea of thinking about it has become a cliché apart from either bragging that you did or didn’t get vaccinated as a gesture toward establishing political perspective, each side chastising the other.

But shows are happening and Geezer have announced a few — ideally their next album would take them back to Europe on tour, but they’re not quite thinking that grand a scale yet — so I was interested in Harrington‘s opinion on playing now and if the mindset has shifted at all. Dude’s been in bands for a long time; I figured he’d have an interesting viewpoint and I was right.

Also wanted to talk about his recent collaboration with Scott “Dr. Space” Heller on the synth-master’s solo album Alien Planet Trip Vol. 5: Search in Of… — joining the esteemed ranks of Suzuki Junzo in so doing — and to lobby as hard as I could for bringing Heller on board for a future contribution to Geezer. Make it happen! And with the synth overlays that Harrington put on the band’s 17-minute jam-single Solstice (review here), I would say the groundwork is well laid out for it. That’s a good track. You’re not going to regret getting lost in it.

Harrington is also visible on social media as a parent, and since I am too, we talked a bit about that, about sharing passions with kids while letting them find their own way, trying to strike that balance between giving space and being like, “Check out this sick-ass riff!” with our children. Other highlights include an entire section of the recorded conversation about the kitchen table and chairs behind him in the video. Yeah, that’s right. We actually do talk about the furniture. Because I am a fucking professional, no matter how much money I don’t make doing this.

And since we’re reaching the end, I’ll say too that a big part of wanting to talk to Harrington was simply that. He’s a nice guy, we’ve spoken a bunch over the years, and I just wanted to check in. So I did. Easy peasy.

Enjoy:

Geezer, Pat Harrington Interview, July 30, 2021

Geezer‘s Groovy is out on Heavy Psych Sounds and “Solstice” is available through Bandcamp. Both are streaming and more info is at the links below.

Geezer, “Solstice”

Geezer, Groovy (2020)

Geezer on Instagram

Geezer on Facebook

Geezer on Bandcamp

Heavy Psych Sounds on Bandcamp

Heavy Psych Sounds website

Heavy Psych Sounds on Facebook

Oh my breaking heart as we move into day seven of the Summer 2021 Quarterly Review and I am reminded that the wages of hubris are feeling like a dumbass later. I was loading up my laptop on Saturday — so pleased with how ahead-of-the-game I was able to stay all last week — when the thing decided it was gonna give itself some time off one way or the other.

I dropped it for repair about 20 minutes before the guy I’ve come to trust was closing shop. He said he’d be in touch on Monday. Needless to say, I’m on my backup cheapie Chromebook, reviewing off Bandcamp streams, eagerly awaiting that call which I can only hope has come in by the time this is posted. I’ll keep you in the loop, of course, but putting together the reviews for yesterday? That was not pretty.

I expressly thank The Patient Mrs., through whom all things are possible.

Onward.

Quarterly Review #61-70:

Geezer, Solstice

Geezer‘s ambition could hardly be clearer in their 17-minute “Solstice” jam. It was the Solstice — Winter 2020, to be specific — and the Kingston, New York, trio jammed. Guitarist/vocalist Pat Harrington (who doesn’t sing on the track) added some dreamy synth after the fact, and the affect is all the more hypnotic for it. Harrington, bassist Richie Touseull and drummer Steve Markota are no strangers to exploratory fare, as they showed on 2020’s righteous Groovy (review here), and as a Bandcamp Friday-era stopgap offering, “Solstice” brings a sampling of who they are in the rehearsal space, willing to be heavy, willing to not, ready to go where the music leads them. If Geezer wanted to do a whole full-length like this, I wouldn’t fight them, so you most definitely will not find me arguing against a digital single either. With jams this tasty, you take what you can get.

Geezer on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

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Spaceslug, The Event Horizon

Issued less as a stopgap, which a digital-only single might normally be, than as a response to the band having lost gear in a practice space flood, the 8:52 single-song outing The Event Horizon was recorded at the same time as Spaceslug‘s late 2020 EP The Leftovers (review here) and in a way acts to bridge the melancholy beyond-genre push of that release with the more weighted, spacious roll that has typified the Polish outfit’s work to-date — their latest full-length was 2019’s Reign of the Orion (review here), and they recently finished a new one. So perhaps “The Event Horizon,” with its hypnotically languid rhythm and concluding drift, is a stopgap after all, but between helping the band recoup their losses and thinking of what might be coming next, it’s an exciting if not-unalloyed listening experience, and the three-piece move deeper into a signature sound even as they continue to bring the definition of what that means to new places.

Spaceslug on Thee Facebooks

Spaceslug on Bandcamp

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Expo Seventy, Evolution

Creating sometimes-scorching, droning psychedelic soundtracks to all your favorite classic sci-fi films that never existed, Kansas City’s Expo Seventy offer a call to worship for freaks and converted heads on their new album, Evolution. Still headed by guitarist James Wright as on late-2016’s America Here and Now Sessions (review here), the band offer new glories celestial and terrestrial instrumental chemistry throughout the six tracks (seven on the CD) of Evolution, lumbering away on “Echoes of Ether” only after floating in brass-section antigrav conditions on “The Slow Death of Tomorrow.” Can you hang? You’ll know one way or the other as the culminating duo “Second Vision, First Sight” and “First Vision, Second Sight” are done with you, having altered dimensions so thoroughly that the ethereal will either come to feel like home or you will simply have melted. In any case, lash yourself to it. Own that shit.

Expo Seventy on Facebook

Essence Music on Bandcamp

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Boss Keloid, Family the Smiling Thrush

Peak-era Faith No More reborn in progressive heavy fuzz? What stoner rock might’ve been if it went to college instead of spending all that time hanging around talking about old cars? I don’t know where UK four-piece Boss Keloid ultimately stand on their admirable fifth LP, Family the Smiling Thrush — the follow-up to 2018’s also-well-received Melted on the Inch (review here) — but they most certainly stand on their own. Across seven tracks, the band careen, crash, lumber, rush and ponder — lyrics no less worth a close read than any other component — and from opener/longest track (immediate points) “Orang of Noyn” on, they make it abundantly clear that their style’s unpredictability is an asset, and that just because you might not know where they’re going next doesn’t mean they don’t. Melodic, complex and cerebral, there’s still a human presence here, a sense of a plan unfolding, that makes the album seem all the more masterful.

Boss Keloid on Facebook

Ripple Music on Bandcamp

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Bong-Ra, Antediluvian

Though it’s ultimately less electric-kool-aid than endless-churning-abyss-with-psychdelic-saxophone-screaming-up-at-you-like-free-jazz-trapped-in-the-downward-tonal-spiral, Bong-Ra‘s four-tracker Antediluvian is duly experimentalist in being born out of the mind of Jason Köhnen, whose work on this project not only extends more than 20 years, but who has been a part of landmark Dutch outfits like Celestial Season, The Kilmanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble and The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation, among scores of others. The procession on this full-length, originally released in 2018 through Svart Lava, is wild times indeed, but immersive despite feeling at times like a litmus for how much you can take, with Köhnen‘s bass/keys/etc. and Balazs Pandi‘s drums meeting with Colin Webster‘s saxophone and Chloe Herrington‘s bassoon, willfully plodding through long-ish form improv-seeming movements of atmospheric heft creation.

Jason Köhnen website

Tartarus Records store

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Zebu, Reek of the Parvenu

A coherent and forceful debut full-length, Reek of the Parvenu quickly shows the metallic undercurrent from Athens-based four-piece Zebu on opener “The Setting Dust,” and pushes from there in groove metal fashion, taking some impulses from heavy rock but holding largely to a central aggressive stance and tension in the rhythm that is a backdrop even as the later “Nature of Failure” breaks from its chugging shove for a quieter stretch. That is to say, the next punch is always coming, and Zebu‘s blows are effectively delivered — looking at you, “Burden” — though some of the slower, sludgier cuts like “Our Shame” or the doomier finale “The City” bring a welcome atmosphere to go with the coinciding burl. I’m not sure if “People Under the Stairs” wants to kick my ass or crack a beer, but the songwriting is air tight and the thrashy threat only contributes to the immediacy of the release on the whole. They’re not screwing around.

Zebu on Facebook

Zebu on Bandcamp

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Los Disidentes del Sucio Motel, Polaris

It’s been 11 years since France’s Los Disidentes del Sucio Motel debuted with Soundtrack From the Motion Picture (review here), an engaging, kind of silly play on stoner rock and B-movie tropes. Beneath that, however, it was also a concept album, and the band — who now seem to prefer LDDSM for a moniker — still work from that foundation on their fourth full-length, Polaris. The difference scope and sonic maturity. Rife with vocal harmonies and progressive flourish, the 10-track answer to 2016’s Human Collapse (review here) smoothly shifts between the patient and the urgent, the intimate and the grand — and that’s in the first two minutes of “Blue Giant” alone — finding their way into a proggy post-heavy rock that’s too clearheaded to be psychedelic, but that balances the crunch of “Horizon” with a sense of the otherworldly just the same.

Los Disidentes del Sucio Motel on Facebook

Klonosphere Records website

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LáGoon, Skullactic Visions

With their fourth long-player, guitarist/vocalist Anthony Gaglia and drummer Brady Maurer of Portland, Oregon’s LáGoon welcome bassist Kenny Combs to the fold and dive as a trio — their first three-piece outing was last year’s Father of Death EP — headfirst into murky riffing and heady heavy rock, made all the more spacious through cavern echo and the garage doom vocals Gaglia brings on the title-track, as well as the synth that surfaces on the subsequent interlude “Buried” and elsewhere throughout. The earlier “Beyond the Trees” is particularly bleak and otherworldly, but I won’t take away from the further-down procession of “Hill Bomb” and “The Slow Down” into “Final Ride,” the last of which closes out with scummer doom that’s familiar but distinct enough to be their own. There are moments on Skullactic Visions where, for as much as they could sound like Electric Wizard given the ingredients, I’m all the gladder they don’t.

LaGoon on Facebook

Interstellar Smoke Records webstore

Forbidden Place Records on Bandcamp

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Maha Sohona, Endless Searcher

Maha Sohona‘s second album comes some seven years after their self-titled debut, but who cares about time when you’ve got your headphones on and you’re surrounded by the richness of tone on offer throughout Endless Searcher‘s five rolling tracks? Heavy and laid back, the trio of guitarist/vocalist Johan Bernhardtson, bassist Thomas Hedlund and drummer David Lundsten finding some kinship with Polish three-piece Spaceslug in their post-Sungrazer blend of weight and flow, a jam like “Luftslot” nodding and conjuring depth even as it soars. Can’t argue with the quicker push of “A Black Star” or the purposefully straightforward “Scavengers” (where the title-line is delivered) but some of the mellow moments in opener “Leaves” and especially the building instrumental finisher “Orbit X” are even more satisfying for how effectively they move you place to place almost without your realizing it. I’ve got nothing for you if you can’t dig this vibe.

Maha Sohona on Facebook

Made of Stone Recordings on Bandcamp

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The Bad Sugar Rush, Liar/Push Me

Keen observers will recognize The Bad Sugar Rush vocalist René Hofmann from his work with Wight, but the work here alongside guitarist Josko Joke-Tovic, bassist Minyeong Fischer and drummer Peter Zettl is distinct from that other unit here, even as the Humble Pie-esque “Push Me” and semi-sleeze “Liar” both have some shade of funk to their procession. Both cuts circa four minutes makes for a suitable debut 7″ with respected purveyor H42 Records doing the honors, and the results are an encouragingly catchy display of what a first full-length might accomplish when and however such a thing emerges. There’s classic heavy rock as the foundation, but more than outright ’70s worship — though some of that too — it’s the organic feel of the songs that leaves an impression on the listener, though the background singers on “Push Me” don’t hurt in that regard, certainly. An auspicious and intriguind first showing.

The Bad Sugar Rush on Facebook

H42 Records website

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Who among you will complain at 17 minutes of Kingston, NY, trio Geezer jamming out? Who, I ask! Stand up and be counted. Or better yet, pull your head out of your ass and find something better to complain about. The three-piece are no strangers to improv-ing it up, and they’ve taken this tasty morsel of spontaneity, topped it with a bit of synth to make it extra classy, and put it up for all of one US dollar for Bandcamp Friday.

Apparently today’s the last Bandcamp Friday? I saw that somewhere on the internet. So I guess that website got vaccinated? That’s how it works, right? Whatever. If they keep up the smooth PR or not, it’s good to get while the getting’s good, and that means today. So get on it.

While you’re there, you can check out Geezer‘s take on “Mississippi Queen” that was released in homage to Leslie West of Mountain — hard to imagine some label or other isn’t working on a heavy rock tribute to him — as well as their 2020 album, Groovy (review here), which hell yes most certainly was that.

Don’t go into this thinking you’re getting an album-style production. It’s a rehearsal room jam. But do go into it ready to spend a buck. I actually bought it twice this morning.

Release info:

Geezer – Solstice

We came together on the winter solstice of 2020 to have our final jam session of the year. We were happy to finally, if not symbolically, put the year behind us and we looked forward to better days. As always, we just plugged in, turned on the amps and pressed record. This is the music that found us.

Dig.

Released May 7, 2021.

Improvised jam from the Geezer rehearsal space that occurred on 12/21/2020. The synth tracks were added later.

Geezer are:
Pat Harrington – Guitar/Vocals
Richie Touseull – Bass
Steve Markota – Drums/Percussion

https://www.instagram.com/geezertown/
https://www.facebook.com/geezerNY/
http://geezertown.bandcamp.com/
heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/

Geezer, “Solstice”

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Earl Walker Lundy

of Shadow Witch, Swarm of Flies, 0h Greenman

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I first found a “voice” through drawing, and then painting, but music always had the strongest pull on me.

I sang along with the radio, I sang in Church, I sang in my room while I was drawing, but when I finally got on stage with some loud guitars and a drummer everything made sense — I made sense.

It was like my “lightbulb” moment.

Describe your first musical memory.

My father was always singing; when I was really little we’d go walking way out in the country, near where he grew up. He would almost always sing hymns, like “I Come to the Garden Alone,” but occasionally folk songs.

I remember he liked singing Ledbelly’s “Goodnight Irene.”

Describe your best musical memory to date.

It’s been a while, but it still might have to be seeing The Mars Volta live.

The band was just on fire, and Cedric was channeling serious spirits that night. Like a soul possessed.

Otherwise, it would have to be walking (again with my dad) past a “sharecropper’s” house, and seeing the man on the porch of that house playing guitar using a knife for a slide.

THAT is a uniquely special memory.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

In this context “tested” implies temptation to me, and temptation for me is always of a sexual nature.

So I guess leaving the moral constricts of my Judeo-Christian heritage behind me was an important “test.”

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Hopefully to more art. More work. More opportunities. More experience.

How do you define success?

How I’d define it now is definitely very different than I would have in my youth – fame and fortune and all that.

I would like to find a larger audience for the work I do, sure, but ultimately one makes “art for arts sake” – for ones self, so I suppose just having that opportunity is a success in itself.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

My first thought would be that of seeing someone die in front of me, but in reality, that’s quite a powerful gift.

Memory is pain, but that pain is power.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I’d like to score films. I don’t read or write music in a classical sense, but Brian Eno was an early influence, and I know how to use the studio as an instrument.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

To convey emotion.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Walking into a bar and hanging with friends. And bearhugs, lots of bearhugs!

www.facebook.com/shadowwitch.band
www.shadowwitch.bandcamp.com
www.argonautarecords.com

Shadow Witch, Under the Shadow of a Witch (2020)

0h Greenman, “Grandchester Meadows” official video