Posted in Whathaveyou on April 3rd, 2024 by JJ Koczan
The information in the headline above I offer to you today with nothing more behind it than being happy about the idea of a thing. There’s no hype push behind the thing — not the least because it doesn’t exist yet. It’s not something I’m putting here in some vain attempt to either make hype happen or generate some kind of controversy — I don’t see a scenario where there’d be any, the less drama the better, and anyway, fuck the internet. Suplecs said they’re writing a new album, and I’m repeating what the wretched social media algorithm made me feel like it was doing me a favor as it put before my eyes. It made my day better, even apart from the silly photo they overlaced with the minimal text they had to offer on the subject, and I hope it makes your day better as well. As regards agenda, that’s the beginning and end of it.
Predating even the emergent internet ubiquity of the turn-of-the-century stoner rock underground — an era no less classic for the fact that describing it as such makes me old — by a couple crucial years, the New Orleans power trio have spent much more time over the better part of the last three decades not releasing albums than padding out their discography, and have counted bummer luck among their defining characteristics since probably even before Man’s Ruin Records — which put out 2000’s Wrestlin’ With My Lady Friend and 2001’s Sad Songs… Better Days (discussed here) — collapsed, right alongside fuzz, groove, and a party vibe that was certainly still resonant when I was lucky enough to see them at a rare-enough not-hometown show or Mardi Gras jam in late-2022.
Accordingly, I don’t know when or if what would be their fifth long-player and first since 2010’s Small Stone-issued Mad Oak Redoux (review here) — which even as a ‘redoux’ of earlier sessions wasn’t perfect and knew it — will be recorded, let alone released to some kind of public audience. But I do know that if such a thing were to happen, I’d want to be in that audience, so again, here we are, heralding a possibility. One among an infinity of infinite potentials. Gosh, the universe is big.
Would be cool to get another long-player from Suplecs though. Did you hear they’re writing a new record?
Posted in Questionnaire on November 6th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
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: Stephen Sheppert of Radiant Knife
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I’d describe our music as prog influenced sludge with some sci-fi and possibly dark wave elements. Prog in the sense of math-rock/noise rock influence akin to Don Caballero, Dazzling Killmen, Breadwinner, Loincloth, and not necessarily tech-metal wankery.
Describe your first musical memory.
One that has stood the test of time is many mornings my father would play the record “The Wall” by Pink Floyd. I distinctly remember the song “Another Brick in the Wall” playing as I got ready for school. He had a music room full of vinyl and a decent sound system that would fill the house. “Hey teacher, leave those kids alone” as I walked out the door.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
Any time I’ve made connections with other musicians via the riff without speaking. It feels like a form of telepathy that everyone should experience. It’s one of the unique things creating music can provide through making art with others.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
These days overt self promotion has become the norm, fueled by a fake it till you make it mentality. Being bombarded with that mentality through modern media is a test.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
In some ways it can result in more technically proficient and developed song structure, but in some cases regression can be progression as well. In many cases stripped back roots of music in its rudimentary form can more effectively convey a message or connect with listeners. Really depends on how you define progression.
How do you define success?
Created unabated art walled off from influence of outsiders, metrics, and all things business.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
The daily news, any day of the week or anything spewed from mainstream media.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
Possibly a blues influenced album that embraces time signature changes and off timings. An off timed vibe based in pentatonics.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
To the artist the essential function is release and realization of something tangible, formed from emotions, moods, etc. To the person, aesthete, etc. experiencing the art it could be a connection through a similar way of thinking, or lasting impression from a different way of thinking.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
These days I look forward to family time and time spent with lifelong friends. The reality that life is fleeting becomes more evident the older we get. The Beatles weren’t wrong with “All you need is love”.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 12th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Well, to be honest, I was kind of thinking of Forming the Void‘s slot on this year’s Ripplefest Texas, which is next weekend in Austin, as proof-of-life for the band’s continued existence. So that the Lafayette, Louisiana-based progressive heavy rockers pulled out of that is somehow fitting. They had played in 2021 as well, which put them closer to the May 2020 release of their fourth album, Reverie (review here), though right around the turn of the decade time gets all wonky in my head. Can’t imagine why.
And while we’re alluding to the pandemic, I’ll count Forming the Void among the acts who got decisively screwed by covid. Where they’d been doing regular touring and increasing their fanbase, productively putting out full-lengths all the while — 2015’s Skyward (discussed here, review here), 2017’s Relic (review here) and 2018’s Rift (review here) before Reverie — to a steady stream of praise. If this is genuinely the end of the band, they get to say they went out doing their best work, which isn’t a claim everyone can make, and while I’m sorry Reverie apparently won’t get a follow-up, it felt like a culmination of their creative progression when it came out and now it will serve as just that.
They say it’s not how they wanted to go out. It’s not how I would’ve wanted them to go out either. At least a goodbye show. But sometimes you don’t have the ability to do something like that, especially with travel involved as there would’ve been for their TX trip, and I don’t think Forming the Void owe anybody anything, even if it feels like they had farther to go on the path they had carved out for themselves.
I got to see them a couple times, which was something I very much didn’t regret even before they posted the end of the band, and wish them the best as they move on either to other bands, or not, whatever the case may be. Thanks for all the nod and expanse.
From the band:
Well, folks, it’s not how we had hoped things would go, but the balance of life and time constraints has led us to make the difficult decision to embark on an indefinite hiatus.
We want to express our gratitude to everyone that has supported the band over the years. We had some really great times making music and are thankful for those who enjoyed it.
Regrettably, this means we will not be able to play RippleFest in Austin this year. Though we were hoping to make it happen, it doesn’t appear to be in the cards.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on September 1st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Released by the band in 2015, Forming the Void‘s debut full-length, Skyward (review here), was warmly greeted on its arrival. It was kind of the dawn of the Bandcamp era, such as it is, and the Lafayette, Louisiana-based four-piece of guitarist/vocalist James Marshall, guitarist Shadi Omar Al Khansa, bassist Luke Baker and drummer Jordan Boyd showed up with just the right kind of rolling grooves to start mouths wording.
There are only five songs — “Skyward” (6:12), “Three Eyed Gazelle” (7:39), “Saber” (7:58), “Return Again” (6:18) and “Sleepwalker” (6:32) — and the album takes place over a readily-digested 34 minutes, beginning with the atmospheric intro provided by the first two minutes of “Skyward” before its central riff sweeps into the record’s first verse. I’ll admit it’s been a while since I last visited, but the title-track is an insistent nod there and shifts at 2:40 into a section of chug to remind that Forming the Void‘s prog-metal elements were part of what helped them stand out from the cadre of other outfits taking shape at the time, as well as the atmospheric lead put over that chug.
Even with “Skyward” dropping the first hints of the deeper-diving into Middle Eastern scales and melodies that would flourish through the band’s three subsequent LPs to-date, 2017’s Relic (review here), 2018’s Rift (review here) and 2020’s Reverie (review here), Ripple Music being the perfect label to issue the latter not the least for Forming the Void‘s emergent ‘r’ theme in record titles. In the car, “Skyward” is raw and some of the ambience is given up to the bare crunch of the riff, but on headphones the deeper reaches come through clearer. ‘Listen without distraction,’ the saying goes.
And no question, Skyward is a case-in-point for creative evolution. Forming the Void‘s sound has grown bigger, more progressive, and boldly heavier throughout their time, and as the foundation of their development as a group — Thomas Colley would replace Jordan Boyd on drums — in the vocals of Marshall, in the guitar of Al Khansa, and in the sheer aural largesse amassed in records two, three and four, it feels a little bit like the spark before the Big Bang. In part just for the relative dryness of the vocals. And if they had never done anything else, it would still be a killer record, but I don’t think I’m giving away state secrets when I say they’d soon enough blow themselves out of the water in terms of complexity, clarity of vision and ongoing refinement.
So again, evolution. Things starting as one thing and becoming something else over time. A single cell as life form. Skyward is nowhere near that basic, and the brooding, lurching, churning groove of “Three-Eyed Gazelle” (video here) expands the ambience of the title-track with an early roller verse — a Forming the Void specialty, stylistically-speaking — and soon breaks to an ambient section anchored by Baker‘s bass and again peppered with leads before surging back to pay off the tension built. They nod back into the verse, hints of doom in the solo as they approach the seven-minute mark, and course through with a stateliness that the more uptempo rock almost-boogie of the intro to “Saber” intentionally contradicts.
Harmonies in the verse — is it Marshall and Al Khansa, or maybe Marshall in layers? — mark “Saber” as a highlight, along with the ’90s-style groove that takes hold, not quite grunge, but pre-turn of the century at heart. “Saber” also doubles as a construction project for the big ol’ wall of noise and crash at its finish, the apex riff and shouted vocals overtop met by a rising movement on guitar that could be higher in the mix for extra adrenaline push. Residual noise finishes and “Return Again” answers by pairing soothing quiet sections with contrasting comedowns — heavy, quiet, heavy, quiet, heavy, if you’re curious — bordering on aggressive in its heavier parts, and is psychedelic in its mellower stretches, if still rhythmically tense.
“Sleepwalker” caps and is effective in finding a middle ground. More melodically-centered in its verse than, say, “Three Eyed Gazelle,” the gradual build and harder kick-in at 3:05 are confidently executed in a way that doesn’t want to catch the listener off guard so much as bring them along. Even when they’re about to get loud, you can almost hear them rearing back to do so, as if just checking to make sure everybody is on board. Please keep your hands and feet and phones and whatevers in the car at all times.
By the time it’s finished, “Sleepwalker” has portrayed the multi-tiered potential of the band and given hints at how they might grow. The fact that listeners now know the answers to the questions inherently raised by that makes the culmination of Skyward no less satisfying, especially since so much of Forming the Void‘s evolution as a group happened on tour.
As you can see above, three years is the longest break the band — who are still active and booked to appear at Ripplefest Texas this month — have had between albums, and one assumes that the plague upheaval surrounding the time of Reverie‘s release is at least partially to blame for that. I don’t know anybody’s life or work situation or anything like that, but if shit got complicated during covid for Forming the Void, they’d hardly be the only ones for whom that’s the case.
And for what it’s worth — plenty — they’ve dropped hints of new stuff coming soon, so maybe next year we’ll get there. Until then (or not), any excuse to revisit is welcome, both to remember this initial display of their songwriting and to appreciate it and the forward-thinking style they’ve made their own.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.
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I have too much going on to talk about it. This week was insane. We got a puppy. Her name is Tilly. Here’s the picture. The Patient Mrs. started a new semester. The Pecan starts kindergarten on Tuesday. I was watching three kids on Wednesday (5, 7, 10) and it was nuts. I spent so much time writing on my phone, completely overwhelmed, chasing. Trying to squeeze in as much as I could. That would be what I signed up for, it seems.
I talked about it a little bit earlier this week — and yes, that link is there because I don’t expect you to have read it or remember — but we drove out to Pennsylvania to get the dog, way out. The place was far enough that it made sense somehow to stop through Hersheypark on our way to the 2PM meeting with the breeder, who was a Mennonite farmer with an expansive operation — fields, cattle, chickens, etc. — and thankfully not a puppy mill. The place was clean and obviously not just because someone was showing up that day, and the litter was kept together and she got 10 full weeks with her bothers and sisters and seems to have benefited from that. Eight, which is the standard, is not enough. Also, she’s clearly been handled, including by kids, who we met, can fetch, sometimes comes when she’s called, and she responds well to positive reinforcement, so that’s been a plus.
The pressure was on me. It wasn’t spoken so much, but The Patient Mrs. very clearly took the ‘I got the last dog and you made us get rid of it so this is your show, champ’ position, and fairly so. I’m glad Omi likes living at my mother’s house. I hope our experience with this puppy continues on the track of this past week.
We took the one from the selection of five who hung back and who looked confused in the videos I was sent. So far she’s been very good. She has peed in the house once. I caught her in time on a pee this morning and on a poop the other evening, whenever it was, so I’m not calling her housebroken at all — she was born in June 12; we have a ways to go on all fronts, including teaching her the difference between dog toys and just about everything else when it comes to chewing — but we’re off to an encouraging start. I like carrying her in the crook of my arm and reveling in the dopamine drip.
But it’s time now to feed The Pecan her breakfast, so hey, have a great and safe weekend. Have fun, watch your head, see you at the kindergarten ice cream social at 1PM! Don’t be late or you won’t get into college!
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 31st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
A brand you can trust, Crowbar will head out on the next leg of their forever-tour on Sept. 7, spending just about a month on the road joined by the noise-as-weapon felony-level assault of Primitive Man, which is a hell of a pairing. And they’re playing Dingbatz. Oh, I love it when bands come to New Jersey. It doesn’t happen all the time, but Crowbar have hit my beloved Garden State on the regular for years, decades now. They’re touring ostensibly in support of 2022’s Zero and Below (review here), but also because they’re Crowbar and that’s what they do. And by now, if you don’t know you’re getting a pro-shop top-tier sludge metal show when they arrive, well, now you do. They are the very definition of reliable.
Bodybox join the tour starting on Sept. 12, and as the PR wire informs, they’ll be rolling over/through the following:
CROWBAR Announces US Headlining Tour; Tickets On Sale Now!
CROWBAR today announces a US headlining tour! The twenty-four-date journey begins September 7th in Fort Walton Beach, Florida and runs through October 5th in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Support will be provided by Primitive Man as well as Bodybox, on select dates. Additionally, the band will play a special show with Venom Inc. on October 1st in Iowa City, Iowa. Tickets are on sale TODAY! See all confirmed dates below.
CROWBAR w/ Primitive Man: 9/07/2023 Downtown Music Hall – Fort Walton Beach, FL 9/08/2023 Conduit – Orlando, FL 9/09/2023 The Orpheum – Tampa, FL 9/10/2023 Gramps – Miami, FL w/ Primitive Man, Bodybox: 9/12/2023 Masquerade – Atlanta, GA 9/13/2023 New Brookland Tavern – Columbia, SC 9/14/2023 Asheville Music Hall – Asheville, NC 9/15/2023 The Camel – Richmond, VA 9/17/2023 Broken Goblet – Bensalem, PA 9/19/2023 Dingbatz – Clifton, NJ 9/20/2023 Song & Dance – Syracuse, NY 9/21/2023 Palladium – Worcester, MA 9/22/2023 Saint Vitus Bar – Brooklyn, NY 9/23/2023 Angel City Music Hall – Manchester, NH 9/24/2023 Space Ballroom – Hamden, CT 9/26/2023 Crafthouse – Pittsburgh, PA 9/27/2023 Hobart Art Theater – Hobart, IN 9/28/2023 Reggie’s – Chicago, IL 9/29/2023 Grog Shop – Cleveland, OH 9/30/2023 Pyramid Scheme – Grand Rapids, MI 10/01/2023 Wildwood – Iowa City, IA w/ Venom Inc # 10/02/2023 Red Flag – St Louis, MO 10/04/2023 Cobra – Nashville, TN 10/05/2023 George’s Majestic – Fayetteville, AR # = No Support
CROWBAR released their critically-adored Zero And Below full-length last year on MNRK Heavy. Produced, mixed, and mastered by Duane Simoneaux at OCD Recording And Production in Metairie, Louisiana, Zero And Below is the band’s most unforgivably doom-driven record since their 1998 landmark effort, Odd Fellows Rest. Led by Windstein, with guitarist Matt Brunson, bassist Shane Wesley, and drummer Tommy Buckley, songs like “Chemical Godz,” “It’s Always Worth The Gain,” and “Bleeding From Every Hole” are unapologetic emotional outpourings, with a bare-knuckle resolve alongside its soul-searching vulnerability, reliably delivered with crushing heaviness.
This Thursday, Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based noisemakers Woorms launch an East Coast/Midwest tour supporting their 2022 album, Fatalismo, but even as they go they’re moving forward from there too. If you’re sensitive to flashing lights, the idea of self-mutilation as sexual kink, or aural pummel, you might consider hanging back on this one, but for everyone else — therapy? — the 5:43 “Amputation Station” video should sit nicely. Making his first appearance in the trio is Miguel Rincon, and for those who encountered Fatalismo last year or who will find themselves standing in front of the stage on the band’s current tour, his presence would seem to make a marked difference in the group.
The narrative around the single is one of aural expansion. Drummer Aaron M. Polk and guitarist/vocalist Joey Carbo, and the aforementioned newbie low-ender Rincon, bring atmosphere into the song in a way that Fatalismo moved away from after 2019’s Slake (review here) was loaded with samples and whatnot. A keyboard part running alongside the central riff in the new song makes the last record seem so comparatively raw. Where even “And Heck Followed With Him” preferred to flesh out with feedback around its almost Melvins-y riffing and Carbo‘s guttural bellows, or the subsequent “Lunge Meat” held its noise till the end, “Amputation Station” builds off “Dead Dead Men”
Both of those, by the way, are well intact on “Amputation Station,” but with more layering, that current of keys comes through as methodical and a more essential piece of what gives the song its eerie vibe. It’s not a crazy shift in sound, but it does distinguish the track from the previous LP, and would seem to hint at the direction in which they’re moving, but of course what the hell do I ever know about any of it. Recorded by Carbo, “Amputation Station” is every-level-weird, a little off-putting in its subject matter, and visually abrasive. All of this is on purpose. Woorms are a band who offer their crunching, meat-toned aggression as a challenge to themselves and their audience alike. If you end up at a gig, I hope it’s a blast.
Carbo digs (carves?) into his fascination with the idea of amputation fetishization — I’m sure there’s a word for it, but I’m not going to look it up — in the PR wire info that follows the video, and sure enough, the video follows here. If you’re up for it on whatever level you want to read that as meaning, please enjoy:
Woorms, “Amputation Station” video premiere
“Amputation Station” is the newest video and single from Baton Rouge/New Orleans, Louisiana-based noise rock trio WOORMS. The standalone track drops as the band gets in the van to assault the Eastern half of the US on tour this week.
WOORMS’ material surges with dirge, grit, and groove, backed with bellowing amplification. Since their 2017 formation, the band has developed a diehard fanbase through three LPs, an array of singles, demos, and EPs, splits with A Hanging, Radiant Knife, and The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, released through the likes of Sludgelord Records, Forbidden Place Records, and their own Hospital Records. Most recently, the band’s third LP, Fatalismo, was recorded with Steve Austin from Today Is The Day and released on Austin’s SuperNova Records last Summer.
After the release of Fatalismo, guitarist/vocalist Joey Carbo and drummer Aaron M. Polk welcomed new bassist Miguel Rincon, and the trio immediately began creating new music, expanding the band’s sound with new stylistic experimentation. “Amputation Station,” the first new song from the revamped lineup, was recorded by Carbo at his own The Hospital studio in Baton Rouge, and now sees release through a video, filmed and edited by Istanbul-based director Ensar Oytun Morgul.
Carbo delves into the new song and video, “I have intended to write about self-surgery for maybe twenty years now. Back then I had read some accounts of people successfully removing glands in marathon self-surgery sessions, lying on plastic sheeting on a motel room floor. They would become obsessed with the removal of a certain organ; a pathology would develop there. I do a lot of research for songs and to find samples that no one will have heard before. These research sessions are not always the best part of my job, to put it nicely, but research for this song was fucking hardcore.
“I learned that there are a few subtypes within this community. So, let me be very clear on this video. The acts we portray mimic those of individuals who, for sexual and/or aesthetic purposes, willingly remove their own body parts. We absolutely don’t judge any of this behavior. We say go for it; safety first, and let God be your gardener… we don’t give a fuck. But what we are not making light of (or even portraying here) is the fetishization of those who have lost limbs in accidents, etc. Again, all good with us when consent is established. I say that because one thing I learned is that when someone suffers an amputation one of the first things doctors will prepare them for is the fact that they will be approached by or receive the attentions of certain people who will be attracted to the amputation itself, so they can decide how they will deal with that and consider how that might make them feel.
“We had no desire to tackle that nuanced subject. But two guys willing to take their own limbs off so they can enjoy some good old’ fashioned stump fucking? Well, that’s fair game. The extreme certainly interests me as much as anyone else. I am intrigued by those who would go so far as to self-mutilate, become a serial killer, or join a religion.”
WOORMS sets out across the Eastern US on tour this week. With sixteen shows confirmed, the band will play cities in Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia, and Alabama between June 8th and 24th. See all confirmed dates below and watch for additional live updates and more to post over the months ahead.
WOORMS June 2023 Tour Dates: 6/08/2023 Marsh Room – Metairie, LA 6/09/2023 The Mix – San Antonio, TX 6/10/2023 The 13th Floor – Austin, TX 6/11/2023 3 Links – Dallas, TX 6/12/2023 Growlers – Memphis, TN 6/13/2023 Kiss Bar – Springfield, MO 6/14/2023 Minibar – Kansas City, MO 6/15/2023 Buzzbomb – Springfield, IL 6/16/2023 Cobra Lounge – Chicago, IL 6/17/2023 The Lager House – Detroit, MI 6/18/2023 Buzzbin – Akron, OH 6/20/2023 Southgate House – Newport, KY 6/21/2023 Cherry St Tavern – Chattanooga, TN 6/22/2023 Starbar – Atlanta, GA 6/23/2023 Alabama Music Box – Mobile, AL 6/24/2023 Fractal Brewing – Huntsville, AL
WOORMS is: Joey Carbo – guitar/vocals/keys/samples/etc. Aaron M. Polk – drums Miguel Rincon – bass
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 24th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Is it June yet? No? Then I’m glad not to be egregiously behind the times in posting these Woorms tour dates as the Louisiana-based atmosludgers/noisemakers will head out on a run through the Midwest and Southeast in support of last year’s Fatalismo, their third album, on SuperNova Records, the label helmed by Steve Austin of avant-caustic trailblazers Today is the Day.
Austin also produced, mixed and mastered Fatalismo, which is weirder than thou and judges thee harshly for that but is less prickish about it than, say, ’90s-era Melvins, and listening to it now, I wish I’d reviewed it a year ago (I did post a Questionnaire from Joey Carbo, so the neglect wasn’t complete), but such is Mango. Persistently.
The tour runs two-plus weeks and apparently they have a new single on the way as well. I’ll look forward to that press release coming in 10 minutes after this is published, because that’s how it goes when you suck as bad at life as I do.
From the PR wire:
WOORMS: Louisiana Noise Rock/Sludge Trio Announces Eastern US June Tour; Fatalismo LP Out Now On SuperNova Records + New Music In The Works
Baton Rouge/New Orleans, Louisiana sludge/noise rock crew WOORMS has announced a run of tour dates through the Eastern half of the US this June, supporting their SuperNova Records-released Fatalismo LP.
Released in May of 2022, WOORMS’ Fatalismo was produced, engineered, and mastered by Today Is The Day/SuperNova Records’ Steve Austin – who also provides additional vocals on “This Is Nothing Short Of Character Assassination” – at Austin Enterprise, with additional recording by the band’s Joey Carbo at The Hospital in Baton Rouge. The album was completed with surrealistic artwork by Januz Miralles and design/layout by Joshua Wilkinson.
Guitarist/vocalist Joey Carbo and drummer Aaron M. Polk also welcome new bassist Miguel Rincon, who joined the band in recent months. From Chicago, Rincon cut his teeth in the hardcore/metal scene of New Orleans. As a hired gun in various touring bands Rincon found a home in WOORMS in 2022. Known for his dynamic attack to the bass and high energy stage presence it’s safe to say he fits right in.
Having supported Fatalismo with regional live performances over the past year, WOORMS will now take the album out across the Eastern US in June. With sixteen shows confirmed, the band will play cities in Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia, and Alabama between June 8th and 24th.
WOORMS is also working on new material, some of which will be played on the new tour. The band is currently completing a new single which will be released in conjunction with the launch of the tour. See all confirmed dates below and stand by for the new single and other news to post shortly.
WOORMS June 2023 Tour Dates: 6/08/2023 Marsh Room – Metairie, LA 6/09/2023 The Mix – San Antonio, TX 6/10/2023 The 13th Floor – Austin, TX 6/11/2023 3 Links – Dallas, TX 6/12/2023 Growlers – Memphis, TN 6/13/2023 Kiss Bar – Springfield, MO 6/14/2023 Minibar – Kansas City, MO 6/15/2023 Buzzbomb – Springfield, IL 6/16/2023 Cobra Lounge – Chicago, IL 6/17/2023 The Lager House – Detroit, MI 6/18/2023 Buzzbin – Akron, OH 6/20/2023 Southgate House – Newport, KY 6/21/2023 Cherry St Tavern – Chattanooga, TN 6/22/2023 Starbar – Atlanta, GA 6/23/2023 Alabama Music Box – Mobile, AL 6/24/2023 Fractal Brewing – Huntsville, AL
WOORMS’ anthems thunder with elements of dirge, grit, groove, and bellowing amplification foundationally attributed to masters of the realms of noise rock, sludge, and psychedelic metal scenes. Since their 2017 formation, the band has developed a diehard fanbase through performing live and their records, released through Sludgelord Records, Forbidden Place Records, and their own Hospital Records, including two LPs, an array of singles, demos, and EPs, and split releases with A Hanging, Radiant Knife, and The Grasshopper Lies Heavy.
In March of 2020, WOORMS drove 1500 miles to open for Today is The Day in Ohio where frontman Steve Austin joined them on stage for a song. This connection led WOORMS to Austin’s compound in remote northern Maine in the Fall of 2020 to record what would be their third LP, Fatalismo.
Posted in Questionnaire on December 30th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
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: Tim Smolens of High Castle Teleorkestra
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I produce and arrange music that draws on a variety of genres not typically put together, and assemble it in such a way that hopefully leaves the listener hearing it as unified. You could vaguely call it “progressive,” music, but it doesn’t have all that much in common with music typically stamped with that label.
Describe your first musical memory.
I made my mom take me to buy a 7-inch single of “Eye of the Tiger” which I had heard in Rocky when I was about five years old. I still like that tune to this day as it has an amazing energy that should get any listener pumped up for any occasion!
Describe your best musical memory to date.
I got to play cello on a John Zorn song that was arranged and produced by the Secret Chiefs 3/Trey Spruance called Hamaya on (Masada) Xaphan, Book of Angels vol. 9. It was a great honor since I had been a big fan of certain Zorn music for years. The kicker here is that I am not even really a cellist. I play contrabass which has similarities but cellists have much more melodic dexterity and therefore possess a different skill set that is not native to me. With some coaching from Trey he was able to coax a few takes out of me that sounded much better than I would have expected from a hack cellist like myself. I was surprised.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
Every day, but I am having trouble pinpointing specific examples.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Hopefully towards truth and beauty but probably more often towards emotional release and a portrayal of the artists current state of being. Some art lifts us up towards that to which we aspire to, while others pull us back down by cinematically portraying the battles, roadblocks and adversity that routinely populate our paths. Both have their place.
How do you define success?
From an artistic standpoint success is when the result is better than what was planned. The artist worked hard but the subconscious elements (seeds) of the work took root and sprouted a life of their own as well.
As uncool as it is to talk about financial success, if you can’t make a living from your art you will have much less time to work on it which is the boat I currently find myself sailing in.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
Well I work as an ER nurse so you I will spare everyone the details!
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
Music composition and recordings using all pure intervals (just intonation), which is much more difficult since western music uses a compromise of a tuning system (equal temperament). It is so much more beautiful and has an incredible resonance but is hard to pull off because many musicians do not know how to tune in such a way, and many instruments are incapable of it (fixed pitch instruments).
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
To elevate the listener from the mire (lead) of their current state to a more transcendent state which they seek (gold).
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
My 13 year-old daughter’s upcoming softball tournaments.
