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Mondo Generator Announce Summer UK & European Tour for July/August

Posted in Whathaveyou on May 26th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Mondo Generator did a European summer tour like this last year as well, where I was fortunate enough to see them play at Freak Valley Festival. This year, the Nick Oliveri-led trio hit StonerKras, Red Smoke, Hoflärm, SonicBlast and more besides over the course of more than a month of consistent bang bang bang, show show show, plugging away. This is an admirable thing. Gotta get paid, of course, but consider that Mondo Generator could easily be marketing itself as ‘Nick Oliveri‘s gonna sing some Kyuss and QOTSA songs too!’ and probably draw more heads, but to-date they haven’t really gone there. Yes, the bulk of what they do are the band’s own punk rippers, but Oliveri‘s whole catalog is fair game and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s down to whatever a given evening calls for as to what’s played.

Oliveri is someone preceded by his reputation as a wildman, but I’ll say this: when I was introduced to him outside the show Stöner played in New Jersey last year, he was polite to my wife, which many with less wild reputations are not. Even if they hadn’t killed it when I saw them in 2022, that’d probably be enough motivation for me to put these dates here, if the general relevance wasn’t already enough, which I’ll point out that it is.

You may have recently caught wind of the collaboration between Oliveri and Italy’s Temple of Deimos. I don’t know if there’s anything else planned for while Mondo Generator are in Europe, but their schedule sure seems full, as told by the PR wire:

mondo-generator-euro-tour-2023-sq

MONDO GENERATOR announce full European & UK summer tour + festival appearances!

Californian stoner punk icons MONDO GENERATOR (fronted by former Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age bassist Nick Oliveri) are taking over Europe and the UK this summer, with an extensive summer tour including a few festival appearances!

Mondo Generator European summer tour:
13.07 – Prato (IT) Orto Sonoro Santa Valvola
14.07 – Genova (IT) Bau Fest Villa Rossi
15.07 – Trieste (IT) Stoner Kras Fest
16.07 – Pleszew (PL) Red Smoke Fest
18.07 – Dresden (DE) Chemiefabrik
20.07 – Hoofddorp (NL) Duycker
21.07 – Münster (DE) Rare Guitar
22.07 – Eindhoven (NL) Popei
23.07 – London (UK) Underworld
24.07 – Milton Keynes (UK) Craufurd Arms
25.07 – Swansea (UK) Bunkhouse
26.07 – Corby (UK) The Raven Hotel
27.07 – Bournemouth (UK) Anvil
28.07 – Bradford (UK) The Underground
29.07 – Glasgow (UK) Ivory Blacks
30.07 – Manchester (UK) Satans Hollow
31.07 – Norwich (UK) Waterfront Studio
01.08 – Cheltenham (UK) Frog & Fiddle
02.08 – Dover (UK) The Booking Hall
03.08 – Tilburg (NL) Little Devil
04.08 – Steenwijkerwold (NL) Dicky Woodstock
05.08 – Paris (FR) Petit Bain
08.08 – Chambery (FR) Brin De Zinc
09.08 – Zurich (CH) Safari Bar
10.08 – Marienthal (DE) Hoflärm Festival
11.08 – Ancora (PT) Sonic Blast Festival
12.08 – Innsbruck (AT) Pmk
13.08 – San Zenone Degli Ezzelini (IT) Villa Albrizzi
14.08 – Pula (HR) Monte Paradiso
16.08 – Cagliari (IT) Cueva Rock
17.08 – Caramagna (IT) Last One To Die
18.08 – Ravenna (IT) Hana-Bi
19.08 – Francavilla Al Mare (IT) Frantic Fest
20.08 – Carhaix (FR) Motocultor Festival

MONDO GENERATOR is:
Nick Oliveri – Bass & Vocals
Mike Pygmie – Guitars
Mike Amster – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/officialmondogenerator/
https://www.instagram.com/nick_o_1971/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5Ug0EkTXplXiip0C2OzVi7
https://www.mondogenerator.net/

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

Mondo Generator, Fuck It (2020)

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Willems Lilja Mann: Trio with Members of Monolord and Here Lies Man Posts “Transatlantic Explorations” Video

Posted in Bootleg Theater on May 24th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Willems Lilja Mann

I’d take an album of this happily, and I don’t imagine it would be much more trouble than is apparent here to make one happen, which doesn’t look like much trouble at all, unless you count the cross-continental logistics. Willems Lilja Mann is an exploratory trio featuring in its ranks Gothenburg-based drummer Esben Willems of Monolord and Studio Berserk, synthesist Marcus Lilja of the experimentalist Eyemouth, who worked closely with Willems on February’s A Headlong Fall into the Vast Ocean of Anxiety and who shares space with the studio, and multi-instrumentalist Geoff Mann, known for his work in Los Angeles afrobeat-infused heavy rockers Here Lies Man, who reside on RidingEasy Records, which is the same label that put out the first three Monolord albums.

Thus the connections between the players are multidimensional, and hey, it’s cool the way connections can be made across borders and styles in the underground, and more generally speaking, I hear it’s really nice to have friends, but fun as it is to connect those dots, it’s “Transatlantic Explorations” itself that’s the focus here, Lilja hitting up his wall-sized, many-plugged synth while Willems and Mann frame either side of the video, the latter also filling out the arrangement with punches of doubly-layered flutes that offer melodic complement to the dual-drummer rhythm, all of it resulting in instrumentalist semi-psych jazz fluidity that’s fleshed out across the song’s four minutes, the ultimate sound lush and maybe a bit inherently indulgent if one takes it at face value, but immersive nonetheless and not leaving the listener behind as it embarks on the mini-journey.

Could be a one-off, could be a side-project, could be that the video doesn’t even exist and I’m living in an alternate reality where it does; the universe hosts infinite possibilities playing out in infinite succession. Entirely possible they made it as a means to promote their other work in the age of algorithmic content demand. One way or the other, Willems Lilja Mann‘s “Transatlantic Explorations” offers a reminder that what genuinely matters most is what’s happening now rather than what could or could not follow, and whether or not these three players do anything else in collaboration, the vibrancy of what they’ve created here is resonant and engaging. It’s a cool sound. I dig it. Maybe you will too if you’re up for giving it a shot.

To wit:

Willems Lilja Mann, “Transatlantic Explorations”

Esben Willems on “Transatlantic Explorations”:

This impromptu sudden collab stems from an amazing snippet of a pulsating modular synthesizer soundscape created by Marcus Lilja, the brilliant mind who’s permanently residing in one room in my studio. It sparked instant inspiration, I asked if I could add some drums and subsequently asked Geoff Mann if he’d like to add some of his magic to it all. And suddenly we apparently made this little laidback groove nugget. I love unexpected creations like this, it’s both heart and brain fuel.

Drums left: Esben Willems
Modular synthesizers: Marcus Lilja
Flutes and drums right: Geoff Mann

Mixed and mastered at Studio Berserk by Esben Willems.

Esben: https://linktr.ee/studioberserk
Marcus: https://linktr.ee/allharmonicsstudio
Geoff: https://linktr.ee/geoffmann

Studio Berserk on Facebook

Studio Berserk on Instagram

Studio Berserk store

Monolord on Facebook

Monolord on Instagram

Monolord on Bandcamp

Monolord webstore

Eyemouth on Bandcamp

Eyemouth on Instagram

Eyemouth on Mastodon Music

Eyemouth’s Linktr.ee

Here Lies Man on Facebook

Here Lies Man on Bandcamp

Here Lies Man website

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Video Interview: Meg Castellanos & Antonio Aguilar of Totimoshi Talk Reunion, Caterwaul Fest, New Music & More

Posted in Bootleg Theater, Features on May 22nd, 2023 by JJ Koczan

totimoshi

This was an interesting conversation. Yeah, I’m a dork for these two generally and this isn’t the first time they’ve been interviewed in this fashion, but that was for a whole other band. This is Totimoshi gearing up to play their first show in more than a decade, and while I’m not going to be in Minneapolis this coming weekend to see them at Caterwaul Fest, I still think it’s exciting on the off chance someone will have their phone out taking video that they post later.

The last time I saw Totimoshi was Aug. 20, 2011, at a then-newly-opened Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn (review here). They were touring to support that year’s Avenger (review here), which was their second record to see release through Volcom Entertainment and their sixth overall, their self-titled debut having arrived in 1999. And among the subset of turn-of-the-century heavy rockers, Totimoshi were always distinct. Born out of punk and guitarist/vocalist Antonio Aguilar and bassist Meg Castellanos‘ respective experiences growing up Chicano and Cuban in that scene, Totimoshi were always a band in-between styles, never easily pegged stylistically. Individual. They were never purposely weird in the sense of banging on trash cans or whathaveyou, but their style was their own and it remains vital, even amid the more melodic explorations of songwriting Castellanos and Aguilar have been doing for the last five-plus years in All Souls.

And yeah, All Souls put out Ghosts Among Us (review here) last year — I got to stream and review it on my birthday, so that was a fun little present to myself — and that was brilliant and I wanted to talk about that too, but as you dig into the interview below, it goes fairly deep into especially Aguilar‘s experience, his coming to terms with new aspects of his lineage, realizing himself as both colonized and colonizer, how the band’s not-white identity affected their initial run, and what if anything the future might hold for Totimoshi. More shows? New music? Maybe a bit of each as we move forward. They’re not talking about a new full-length yet, just new songs, but talking about new songs is a step, and this reunion between AguilarCastellanos and drummer Chris Fugitt is barely getting started, if it’s going to ‘start’ at all beyond hitting Caterwaul.

We’ll see where it goes. Either way, I was glad to speak to Castellanos and Aguilar again about old times and new times, things past and things maybe to come.

I hope you enjoy and thanks for reading and watching:

Totimoshi, Interview with Meg Castellanos & Antonio Aguilar, May 12, 2023

Totimoshi play Caterwaul Fest on May 28. More info and tickets available here: https://www.caterwaul.org/tickets/

Totimoshi, Avenger (2011)

All Souls, Ghosts Among Us (2022)

Totimoshi on Facebook

Totimoshi on Bandcamp

Totimoshi on YouTube

Totimoshi store

All Souls on Instagram

All Souls on Facebook

All Souls on Twitter

All Souls on Bandcamp

All Souls Patreon

All Souls website

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Gods of Sometimes Release First Single “In the End”; Debut Album Coming Soon

Posted in Whathaveyou on May 15th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

About two weeks ago I closed out the week with Moab‘s 2018 third album, Trough (discussed here), and got word on social media that that band’s guitarist/vocalist Andrew Giacumakis and Brad Davis, bassist of Fu Manchu, had a new project coming out together. Hello, Gods of Sometimes. There was a snippet on Instagram of “In the End,” which is the song you can hear at the bottom of this post, and not much else to go on, but the Lennon/McCartney vibe in the track — plus a guitar solo from J. Mascis — is palpable in the melody and bouncing rhythm, and as a sucker for, well, really all of it, I’m excited at the prospect of the duo’s impending debut full-length, apparently set to release this summer.

The song speaks for itself with a lush melody and easy roll that reminds of when psych-pop and psych-rock weren’t so necessarily opposed, and I remember very well how excellent a match it was when Giacumakis produced Fu Manchu‘s 2014 album, Gigantoid (review here), which would seem to have set this collaboration in motion. If “In the End” is representative of the record as a whole, it should be just about perfect for release under the summer sun.

Dig:

gods of sometimes

GODS OF SOMETIMES (FU MANCHU/MOAB) Make Their Debut With “In The End” (Feat J. MASCIS)

Southern California alt-indie rock duo GODS OF SOMETIMES has unveiled their first single, “In The End” (featuring J. Mascis of revered rock pioneers DINOSAUR JR.), today. The two-piece, consisting of bassist Brad Davis (FU MANCHU) and guitarist/vocalist Andrew Giacumakis (MOAB), deliver mesmerizing folk tinged space rock on their first outing; a taste of what’s to come from their first album due out this summer.

Commenting on the song, Davis says:

“When the song “In The End” came together we saw it as an opportunity to give a nod to The Beatles. One of our big musical influences. We had the luck of being graced by a guest guitar solo from another big influence. J Mascis did us the favor of lending his talents. His style of reckless melody brought things to a new level. Although it’s called “In The End” we felt it was the best song to put out first!”

About GODS OF SOMETIMES:

Brad Davis (bassist for Fu Manchu) and Andrew Giacumakis (guitarist/vocalist for Moab) met in the studio in the mid-2010’s while working on Fu Manchu’s “Gigantoid” (2014) and “Clone of the Universe” (2018). Andrew served as a recording engineer/producer for the records and the two multi-instrumentalists quickly developed a friendship and discovered a mutual love of mellower music outside the realm of the heavy genres they both worked in. They decided to make an album together.

Brad Davis – drums, bass, (some guitar and vocals)
Andrew Giacumakis – vocals, guitar, mellotron, (some drums and bass)

https://www.instagram.com/godsofsometimes/
https://godsofsometimes.bandcamp.com/
https://godsofsometimes.bigcartel.com/
https://linktr.ee/godsofsometimes

Gods of Sometimes, “In the End”

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Quarterly Review: Yakuza, Lotus Thrones, Endtime & Cosmic Reaper, High Priest, MiR, Hiram-Maxim, The Heavy Co., The Cimmerian, Nepaal, Hope Hole

Posted in Reviews on May 10th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

the-obelisk-qr-summer-2020

Coming at you live and direct from the Wegmans pharmacy counter where I’m waiting to pick up some pinkeye drops for my kid, who stayed home from half-day pre-k on Monday because the Quarterly Review isn’t complicated enough on its own. It was my diagnosis that called off the bus, later confirmed over telehealth, so at least I wasn’t wrong and shot my own day. I know this shit doesn’t matter to anyone — it’ll barely matter to me in half an hour — but, well, I don’t think I’ve ever written while waiting for a prescription before and I’m just stoned enough to think it might be fun to do so now.

Of course, by the time I’m writing the reviews below — tomorrow morning, as it happens — this scrip will have long since been ready and retrieved. But a moment to live through, just the same.

We hit halfway today. Hope your week’s been good so far. Mine’s kind of a mixed bag apart from the music, which has been pretty cool.

Quarterly Review #21-30:

Yakuza, Sutra

Yakuza sutra

Since it would be impossible anyway to encapsulate the scope of Yakuza‘s Sutra — the Chicago-based progressive psych-metal outfit led by vocalist/saxophonist Bruce Lamont, with Matt McClelland on guitar/backing vocals, Jerome Marshall on bass and James Staffel on drums/percussion — from the transcendental churn of “2is1” to the deadpan tension build in and noise rock payoff in “Embers,” the sax-scorch bass-punch metallurgical crunch of “Into Forever” and the deceptively bright finish of “Never the Less,” and so on, let’s do a Q&A. They still might grind at any moment? Yup, see “Burn Before Reading.” They still on a wavelength of their own? Oh most definitely; see “Echoes From the Sky,” “Capricorn Rising,” etc. Still underrated? Yup. It’s been 11 years since they released Beyul (review here). Still ahead of their time? Yes. Like anti-genre pioneers John Zorn or Peter Brötzmann turned heavy and metal, or like Virus or Voivod with their specific kind of if-you-know-you-know, cult-following-worthy individualist creativity, Yakuza weave through the consuming 53-minute procession of Sutra with a sensibility that isn’t otherworldly because it’s psychedelic or drenched in effects (though it might also be those things at any given moment), but because they sound like they come from another planet. A welcome return from an outfit genuinely driven toward the unique and a meld of styles beyond metal and/or jazz. And they’ve got a fitting home on Svart. I know it’s been over a decade, but I hope these dudes get old in this band.

Yakuza on Facebook

Svart Records website

 

Lotus Thrones, The Heretic Souvenir

Lotus Thrones The Heretic Souvenir

The second offering from Philadelphia multi-instrumentalist Heath Rave (Altars of the Moon, former drums in Wolvhammer, etc.) under the banner of Lotus Thrones, the seven-song/38-minute The Heretic Souvenir (on Disorder and Seeing Red) draws its individual pieces across an aural divide by means of a stark atmosphere, the post-plague-and-the-plague-is-capitalism skulking groove of “B0T0XDR0NE$” emblematic both of perspective and of willingness to throw a saxophone overtop if the mood’s right (by Yakuza‘s Bruce Lamont, no less), which it is. At the outset, “Gore Orphanage” is more of an onslaught, and “Alpha Centauri” has room for both a mathy chug and goth-rocking shove, the latter enhanced by Rave‘s low-register vocals. Following the Genghis Tron-esque glitch-grind of 1:16 centerpiece “Glassed,” the three-and-a-half-minute “Roses” ups the goth factor significantly, delving into twisted Type O Negative-style pulls and punk-rooted forward thrust in a highlight reportedly about Rave‘s kid, which is nice (not sarcastic), before making the jump into “Autumn of the Heretic Souvenir,” which melds Americana and low-key dub at the start of its 11-minute run before shifting into concrete sludge chug and encompassing trades between atmospheric melody and outright crush until a shift eight minutes in brings stand(mostly)alone keys backed by channel-swapping electronic noise as a setup for the final surge’s particularly declarative riff. That makes the alt-jazz instrumental “Nautilus” something of an afterthought, but not out of place in terms of its noir ambience that’s also somehow indebted to Nine Inch Nails. There’s a cough near the end. See if you can hear it.

Lotus Thrones on Facebook

Seeing Red Records store

Disorder Recordings website

 

Endtime & Cosmic Reaper, Doom Sessions Vol. 7

endtime-cosmic-reaper-doom-sessions-vol-7-split

Realized at the formidable behest of Heavy Psych Sounds, the seventh installment of the Doom Sessions series (Vol. 8 is already out) brings together Sweden’s strongly cinematic sludge-doomers Endtime with fire-crackling North Carolinian woods-doomers Cosmic Reaper. With two songs from the former and three from the latter, the balance winds up with more of an EP feel from Cosmic Reaper and like a single with an intro from Endtime, who dedicate the first couple of minutes of “Tunnel of Life” to a keyboard intro that’s very likely a soundtrack reference I just don’t know because I’m horror-ignorant before getting down to riff-rumble-roll business on the righteously slow-raging seven minutes of “Beyond the Black Void.” Cosmic Reaper, meanwhile, have three cuts, with harmonized guitars entering “Sundowner” en route to a languid and melodic nod verse, a solo later answering the VHS atmosphere of Endtime before “Dead and Loving It” and “King of Kings” cult-doom their way into oblivion, the latter picking up a bit of momentum as it pushes near the eight-minute mark. It’s a little uneven, considering, but Doom Sessions Vol. 7 provides a showcase for two of Heavy Psych Sounds‘ up-and-coming acts, and that’s pretty clearly the point. If it leads to listeners checking out their albums after hearing it, mission accomplished.

Endtime on Facebook

Cosmic Reaper on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

 

High Priest, Invocation

High Priest Invocation

Don’t skip this because of High Priest‘s generic-stoner-rock name. The Chicago four-piece of bassist/vocalist Justin Valentino, guitarists Pete Grossmann and John Regan and drummer Dan Polak make an awaited full-length debut with Invocation on Magnetic Eye Records, and if the label’s endorsement isn’t enough, I’ll tell you the eight-song/44-minute long-player is rife with thoughtful construction, melody and heft. Through the opening title-track and into the lumber, sweep and boogie of “Divinity,” they incorporate metal with the two guitars and some of the vocal patterning, but aren’t beholden to that anymore than to heavy rock, and far from unipolar, “Ceremony” gives a professional fullness of sound that “Cosmic Key” ups immediately to round out side A before “Down in the Park” hints toward heavygaze without actually tipping over, “Universe” finds the swing buried under that monolithic fuzz, “Conjure” offers a bluesier but still huge-sounding take and 7:40 closer “Heaven” layers a chorus of self-harmonizing Valentinos to underscore the point of how much the vocals add to the band. Which is a lot. What’s lost in pointing that out is just how densely weighted their backdrop is, and the nuance High Priest bring to their arrangements throughout, but whether you want to dig into that or just learn the words and sing along, you can’t lose.

High Priest on Facebook

Magnetic Eye Records store

 

MiR, Season Unknown

mir season unknown

Its catharsis laced in every stretch of the skin-peeling tremolo and echoing screams of “Altar of Liar,” Season Unknown arrives as the first release from Poland’s MiR, a directly-blackened spinoff of heavy psych rockers Spaceslug, whose guitarist/vocalist Bartosz Janik and bassist/vocalist Jan Rutka feature along with guitarist Michał Zieleniewski (71tonman) and drummer Krzystof Kamisiński (Burning Hands). The relationship to Janik and Rutka‘s other (main?) band is sonically tenuous, though Spaceslug‘s Kamil Ziółkowski also guests on vocals, making it all the more appropriate that MiR stands as a different project. Ripping and progressive in kind, cuts like “Lost in Vision” and the blastbeaten severity of “Ashen” are an in-genre rampage, and while “Sum of All Mourn” is singularly engrossing in its groove, the penultimate “Yesterday Rotten” comes through as willfully stripped to its essential components until its drifting finish, which is fair enough ahead of the more expansive closer “Illusive Loss of Inner Frame,” which incorporates trades between all-out gnash and atmospheric contemplations. I won’t profess to be an expert on black metal, but as a sidestep, Season Unknown is both respectfully bold and clearly schooled in what it wants to be.

MiR on Facebook

MiR on Bandcamp

 

Hiram-Maxim, Colder

Hiram-Maxim Colder

Recorded by esteemed producer Martin Bisi (Swans, Sonic Youth, Unsane, etc.) in 2021-’22, Colder is Hiram-Maxim‘s third full-length, with hints of Angels of Light amid the sneering heaviness of “Bathed in Blood” after opener/longest track (immediate points) “Alpha” lays out the bleak atmosphere in which what follows will reside. “Undone” gets pretty close to laying on the floor, while “It Feels Good” very pointedly doesn’t for its three minutes of dug-in cafe woe, from out of which “Hive Mind” emerges with keys and drums forward in a moody verse before the post-punk urgency takes more complete hold en route to a finish of manipulated noise. As one would have to expect, “Shock Cock” is a rocker at heart, and the lead-in from the drone/experimental spoken word of “Time Lost Time” holds as a backdrop so that its Stooges-style comedown heavy is duly weirded out. Is that a theremin? Possibly. They cap by building a wall of malevolence and contempt with “Sick to Death” in under three minutes, resolving in a furious assault of kitchen-sink volume, that, yes, recedes, but is resonant enough to leave scratches on your arm. Don’t let anyone tell you this isn’t extreme music just because some dude isn’t singing about killing some lady or quoting a medical dictionary. Colder could just as easily have been called ‘Volcanic.’

Hiram-Maxim on Facebook

Wax Mage Records on Facebook

 

The Heavy Co., Brain Dead

The Heavy Co Brain Dead

Seeming always to be ready with a friendly, easy nod, Lafayette/Indianapolis, Indiana’s The Heavy Co. return with “Brain Dead” as a follow-up single to late-2022’s “God Damn, Jimmy.” The current four-piece incarnation of the band — guitarist/vocalist Ian Daniel, guitarist Jeff Kaleth, bassist Eric Bruce and drummer TR McCully — seem to be refocused from some of the group’s late-’10s departures, elements of outlaw country set aside in favor of a rolling riff with shades of familiar boogie in the start-stops beneath its solo section, a catchy but largely unassuming chorus, and a theme that, indeed, is about getting high. In one form or another, The Heavy Co. have been at it for most of the last 15 years, and in a little over four minutes they demonstrate where they want their emphasis to be — a loose, jammy feel held over from the riffout that probably birthed the song in the first place coinciding with the structure of the verses and chorus and a lack of pretense that is no less a defining aspect than the aforementioned riff. They know what they’re doing, so let ’em roll on. I don’t know if the singles are ahead of an album release or not, but whatever shows up whenever it does, The Heavy Co. are reliable in my mind and this is right in their current wheelhouse.

The Heavy Co. on Facebook

The Heavy Co. on Bandcamp

 

The Cimmerian, Sword & Sorcery Vol. I

the cimmerian sword and sorcery vol i

The intervening year since L.A.’s The Cimmerian made their debut with Thrice Majestic (review here) seems to have made the trio even more pummeling, as their Sword & Sorcery Vol. I two-songer finds them incorporating death and extreme metal for a feel like a combined-era Entombed on leadoff “Suffer No Guilt” which is a credit to bassist Nicolas Rocha‘s vocal burl as well as the intensity of riff from David Gein (ex-The Scimitar) and corresponding thrash gallop in David Morales‘ drumming. The subsequent “Inanna Rising” is slower, with a more open nod in its rhythm, but no less threatening, with fluid rolls of double-kick pushing the verse forward amid the growls and an effective scream, a sample of something (everything?) burning, and a kick in pace before the solo about halfway into the track’s 7:53. If The Cimmerian are growing more metal, and it seems they are, then the aggression suits them as the finish of “Inanna Rising” attests, and the thickness of sludge carried over in their tonality assures that the force of their impact is more than superficial.

The Cimmerian on Facebook

The Cimmerian on Bandcamp

 

Nepaal, Protoaeolianism

Nepaal Protoaeolianism

Released as an offering from the amorphous Hungarian collective Psychedelic Source Records, the three-song Protoaeolianism arrives under the moniker of Nepaal — also stylized as :nepaal, with the colon — finding mainstay Bence Ambrus on guitar with Krisztina Benus on keys, Dávid Strausz on bass, Krisztián Megyeri on drums and Marci Bíró on effects/synth for captured-in-the-moment improvisations of increasing reach as space and psych and krautrocks comingle with hypnotic pulsations on “Innoxial Talent Parade” (9:54), the centerpiece “Brahman Sleeps 432 Billion Years” (19:14) and “Ineffable Minor States” (13:44), each of which has its arc of departure, journey and arrival, forming a multi-stage narrative voyage that’s as lush as the liquefied tones and sundry whatever-that-was noises. “Ineffable Minor States” is so serene in its just-guitar start that the first time I heard it I thought the song had cut off, but no. They’re just taking their time, and why shouldn’t they? And why shouldn’t we all take some time to pause, engage mindfully with our surroundings, experience or senses one at a time, the things we see, hear, touch, taste, smell? Maybe Protoaeolianism — instrumental for the duration — is a call to that. Maybe it’s just some jams from jammers and I shouldn’t read anything else into it. Here then, as in all things, you choose your own adventure. I’m glad to be the one to tell you this is an adventure worth taking.

Psychedelic Source Records on Facebook

Psychedelic Source Records on Bandcamp

 

Hope Hole, Beautiful Doom

Hope Hole Beautiful Doom

There is much to dig into on the second full-length from Toledo, Ohio, duo Hope Hole — the returning parties of Matt Snyder and Mike Mulholland — who offer eight originals and a centerpiece cover of The Cure‘s “Sinking” that’s not even close to being the saddest thing on the record, titled Beautiful Doom presumably in honor of the music itself. Leadoff “Spirits on the Radio” makes me nostalgic for a keyboard-laced goth glory day that never happened while also tapping some of mid-period Anathema‘s abiding downer soul, seeming to speak to itself as much as the audience with repetitions of “You reap what you sew.” Some Godflesh surfaces in “600 Years,” and they’re resolute in the melancholy of “Common Sense” until the chugging starts, like a dirtier, underproduced Crippled Black Phoenix. Rolling with deceptive momentum, the title-track could be acoustic until it starts with the solo and electronic beats later before shifting into the piano, beats, drift guitar, and so on of “Sinking.” “Chopping Me” could be an entire band’s sound but it’s barely a quarter of what Hope Hole have to say in terms of aesthetic two records deep. “Mutant Dynamo” duly punks its arthouse sludge and shreds a self-aware over-the-top solo in the vein of Brendan Small, while “Pyrokinetic” revives earlier goth swing with a gruff biker exterior (I’d watch that movie) and a moment of spinning weirdo triumph at the end, almost happy to be burned, where the seven-minute finale “Cities of Gold” returns to beats over its gradual guitar start, emerging with chanting vocals to become its own declaration of progressive intent. Beautiful Doom ends with a steady march rather than the expected blowout, having built its gorgeous decay out of the same rotten Midwestern ground as the debut — 2021’s Death Can Change (review here) — but moved unquestionably forward from it.

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Totimoshi Premiere “The Whisper” Video; Playing Caterwaul Fest This Month

Posted in Bootleg Theater on May 3rd, 2023 by JJ Koczan

totimoshi

I had a pretty interesting conversation with Meg Castellanos and Antonio Aguilar of Totimoshi last week that’ll be posted around here in the next couple weeks as a video interview. The occasion is the first show for the trio — Chris Fugitt rounds out on drums — in about nine years that will take place later this month, specifically May 28 at Caterwaul Fest in Minneapolis. You might recognize the pair from the work they’ve done over the last half-decade in All Souls across three-to-date full-lengths the latest of which was last year’s Ghosts Among Us (review here). Totimoshi was founded before the turn of the century and self-released their first album in 1999 before going on to work with labels like Crucial BlastThis Dark ReignVolcom Entertainment and At a Loss Recordings, the latter of which issued 2011’s Avenger (review here), their final full-length to-date.

Among the topics covered in the chat was how Totimoshi were never — they’re still not — a band that fits neatly in genre. Aguilar linked this to his own roots and those of Californian punk rock in Chicano culture and history, and went back through his family line to some surprising places as a part of that, reckoning with colonialism and racism from across the subject/object divide. Keep an eye out for the interview, which I’ll post as soon as I find a day for it before Caterwaul. In the meantime, Castellanos has put together a video for “The Whisper,” which comes from the band’s 2008 LP, Milagrosa, released by Volcom and produced by Helmet frontman Page Hamilton and engineered by Toshi Kasai, that you can see below. Totimoshi toured with Helmet at this point and was closely linked with the Melvins for a while, but “The Whisper” is a showcase of dynamic as well as Totimoshi‘s songcraft more generally, less aggro in its shove than some of their work was even as they grew increasingly melodic throughout their (original) tenure, but still keeping some snarl to coincide with the harder-landing edge of their tonality and Fugitt‘s steady crash.

There’s some nostalgia in the video, as I imagine there is in bringing back a band you used to play in after about a decade, and that’s reasonable enough. Maybe in looking back as well, Milagrosa was a special moment for the band, short of burning out, touring hard, righteously undervalued as they’d be for the duration but dug into their own style and consistently progression in their approach. It wasn’t their final statement — again, to-date; they have a couple new songs in the works but said in that interview they don’t want to do another full-length at this point — but “The Whisper” emphasizes the gentleness as well as the force of their output and reminds just how encompassing their material could be when met on its own level, genre-based expectations put to the side if only for a little while.

If you’re going to watch the video, give that a shot, especially if you aren’t already familiar with who Totimoshi were or what they did during their time together. Take a breath and let it be its own thing, because that’s what it is anyhow. In any case, I hope you enjoy:

Totimoshi, “The Whisper” video premiere

Official music video for The Whisper by Meg Castellanos.
From the album Milagrosa, produced by Page Hamilton, engineered and mixed by Toshi Kasai.

Totimoshi are:
Guitar and vocals, Antonio Aguilar
Bass, Meg Castellanos
Drums, Chris Fugitt

Totimoshi, Milagrosa (2008)

Totimoshi, “Gnat” official video

Totimoshi on Facebook

Totimoshi on Bandcamp

Totimoshi on YouTube

Totimoshi store

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Stygian Crown Premiere ‘Live From Hell Over Hammaburg’ Full Set Video

Posted in Bootleg Theater on May 2nd, 2023 by JJ Koczan

stygian crown live at hell over hammaburg

Later this year, Los Angeles traditional doom metallers Stygian Crown will release their second LP through Cruz Del Sur Music. In early March, the five-piece traveled to Germany to perform at the vaunted Hell Over Hammaburg Festival alongside MorneBrutusWheelSanhedrin and others. Their making the trip comes almost three full years after the June 2020 arrival of their self-titled debut, from which songs like “Devour the Dead” and “Up Through the Depths” are taken, and between the two records is certainly a tumultuous stretch of time. Nonetheless, Stygian Crown‘s doom is resilient, strident, and forceful in its metal-stud-accoutrements homage to Candlemass and Dio-era Sabbath, and conveyed with due presence through the vocals of Melissa Pinion and the riffs of guitarists Andy Hicks and Nelson Miranda and the steady roll/periodic shove — looking at you, “Flametongue” — from bassist Eric Bryan and drummer Rhett Davis (ex-Morgion).

If you heard the album — and I’m sure you did because it’s not like there was anything else going on that spring/summer — you already know it’s a work of stately heavy metal, with Pinion at the fore melodically over fist-pump-worthy progressions like that of closer “Two Coins for the Ferryman.” The keyboard lines in the studio version of that album-finale and the other cuts are absent from the live renditions here, and while Pinion contributed in that regard in the studio, it makes sense watching the video that, as she conquers either side of the stage, or the middle for that matter, she might not necessarily want to be tethered to a keyboard instead. Lose some flourish, gain raw impact. These are the tradeoffs one makes in deciding how to bring material to life, but it does nothing to hold Stygian Crown back, either for “Two Coins for the Ferryman” or anywhere else, and it raises curiosity as to how “Where the Candle Always Burns” and “Scourge of the Seven Hills” might be embellished when the new LP arrives.

I don’t know when that will be, mind you, but there’s a lot of 2023 left and always room for doom. In the interim, the 43-minute video serves well as a bridge leaving behind one full-length and embarking on the next, and I find in watching that I remain a sucker for the ubiquity of concert videos. Especially being a pro-shot, multi-camera, soundboard-audio example of the form, it’s enough to make me feel old remembering a time when such things were the treasures of bootleg hunters rather than something to be dialed up in a matter of seconds. You might find a VHS at somebody’s merch table or in some distro somewhere, or trade through the mail if that was your thing, but even then, you’d be dumb lucky to stumble on something of this kind of quality for a band with only one record out. I could go on, but again, it makes me feel old. Not exclusive in that, these days.

Don’t let me keep you. Doom awaits, and more to come with the next record before the end of the year.

In advance of that, please enjoy:

Stygian Crown, ‘Live From Hell Over Hammaburg 2023’ premiere

Stygian Crown Releases “Live From Hell Over Hammaburg” Video

Los Angeles epic doom band Stygian Crown has released a video of their full set from the March 3-4 festival “Hell Over Hammaburg” in Hamburg, Germany.

“Live from Hell Over Hammaburg” showcases the band’s set from the sold-out festival at the Markthalle Hamburg. The two-day fest also featured artists including Sanhedrin, High Spirits and The Ruins of Beverast.

“There is no substitute for actually being at Hell Over Hammaburg, but we think this is the next best thing,” said singer Melissa Pinion. “We are extremely grateful to the festival promoters for accommodating the Visual Evidence camera crew so we can share this unforgettable experience with the world.”

Stygian Crown’s set:

Devour the Dead
Up From the Depths
Scourge of the Seven Hills
Two Coins for the Ferryman
Where the Candle Always Burns
Flametongue

The set featured four songs from the self-titled debut and two new songs, including the world premiere of “Where the Candle Always Burns,” which is expected to be on the new release, along with “Scourge of the Seven Hills.”

The new album is expected to drop in 2023 through Cruz Del Sur Music.

STYGIAN CROWN:
Melissa Pinion – Vocals, Synth
Nelson Tomas Miranda – Lead Guitar
Eric Bryan – Bass Guitar
Andy Hicks – Lead Guitar
Rhett A. Davis – Drums

Stygian Crown, Stygian Crown (2020)

Stygian Crown on Facebook

Stygian Crown on Instagram

Stygian Crown on YouTube

Stygian Crown on Bandcamp

Stygian Crown linktr.ee

Cruz Del Sur Music on Facebook

Cruz Del Sur Music on Instagram

Cruz del Sur Music website

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Sasquatch Announce European Tour

Posted in Whathaveyou on May 1st, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Not quite a month ago, Los Angeles heavy rockers Sasquatch announced a Fall UK-plus-Dublin tour that will run for two weeks this November. Their name has been added to a bunch of summer festivals — among them Free & Easy, Rock im Wald, SonicBlast, Aquamaria, on and on and on, with probably more to come — and with some TBAs still on the list, the trio have now unveiled the full scope of their summer abroad. Currently slated to hit Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Portugal, Denmark, France and Spain, they’ll cover a healthy amount of the continent this trip, and don’t be surprised if it’s not the last round of shows they announce for 2023. They may or may not get to Eastern Europe, Australia, or the US again before the New Year, but as they make ready to follow-up last year’s Fever Fantasy (review here), they’re never too far off from the next list of gigs on a poster.

Also worth noting they were just confirmed for SoCal Heavy Jam (info here). That’s in September, and yeah, they’re (mostly) based in Southern California, but I still wouldn’t be surprised if they got a tour together around it. Seems to just be how they do.

To wit:

Sasquatch European tour

SASQUATCH – Summer 2023 European Tour

Top of the morning to our European family. We’re coming back your way for summer vacation. Shall we schedule some time together at the pool?

More dates to be announced…

Sound of Liberation presents:

SASQUATCH SUMMER TOUR JUL-AUG 2023
26.07.2023 (DE) Karlsruhe, Alte Hackerei
27.07.2023 (DE) München, Free & Easy Festival
28.07.2023 (DE) Michelau, Rock im Wald
29.07.2023 TBA
30.07.2023 (NL) Rotterdam, Baroeg
31.07.2023 (DE) Münster, Rare Guitar
01.08.2023 TBA
02.08.2023 (DE) Düsseldorf, Pitcher
03.08.2023 TBA
04.08.2023 (AT) Feldkirch, Poolbar Fest
05.08.2023 (IT) Osoppo, Pietra Sonica Festival
06.08.2023 (IT) Novegro-Tregarezzo, Magnolia
07.08.2023 TBA
08.08.2023 TBA
09.08.2023 (CH) Bruno, PALP Festival
10.08.2023 (PT) Moledo, Sonic Blast
12.08.2023 (DE) Plattenburg, Aquamaria Festival
13.08.2023 TBA
14.08.2023 (DK) Kopenhagen, Stengade
15.08.2023 (DE) Berlin, Urban Spree
16.08.2023 TBA
17.08.2023 (DE) Hannover, Faust
18.08.2023 (DE) Cottbus, Blue Moon Festival
19.08.2023 (DE) Braunschweig, B 58
20.08.2023 TBA
21.08.2023 TBA
22.08.2023 (CH) Düdingen, Bad Bonn
23.08.2023 (FR) Marseille, Le Molotov
24.08.2023 (ES) Barcelona, Razzmatazz 3
25.08.2023 (ES) Hondarribia, P30
26.08.2023 (FR) TBA
27.08.2023 TBA

Previously announced UK & Ireland tour:
3.11.23 Great Yarmouth, UK | HRH Festival
4.11.23 Bournemouth, UK | The Anvil
5.11.23 Crumlin, UK | The Patriot
7.11.23 Belfast, UK | Voodoo
8.11.23 Dublin, IRE | Grand Social
9.11.23 Edinburgh, UK | Bannermans
10.11.23 Sheffield, UK | Network 3
11.11.23 Newcastle, UK | Cluny 2
12.11.23 Nottingham, UK | Rescue Rooms
13.11.23 Glasgow, UK | Ivory Blacks
15.11.23 Manchester, UK | Rebellion
16.11.23 Bristol, UK | Strange Brew
17.11.23 Milton Keynes, UK | Craufurd Arms
18.11.23 London, UK | Black Heart
Tickets on Sale Now – https://routeonebooking.tourlink.to/sasquatch2023

Sasquatch are:
Keith Gibbs – guitar/vocals
Jason “Cas” Casanova – bass
Craig Riggs – drums

www.sasquatchrock.us
www.facebook.com/sasquatchrocks
www.instagram.com/sasquatchrock
www.twitter.com/sasquatchrocks
http://store.sasquatchrock.us/

http://www.madoakrecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MadOakRecords/

Sasquatch Interview w/ Keith Gibbs & Craig Riggs, 03.14.23

Sasquatch, Fever Fantasy (2022)

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