My favorite part of the poster for Truckfighters Fuzz Festival — to be held in Stockholm, Sweden, on Nov. 10-11 at the tail end of the Fall fest season in Europe — is the disclaimer where it says, “Warning: There will be progressive and psychedelic fuzz!” Take precautions, rockers! Love that.

Also pretty into the fact that not only have Lowrider been added as headliners here with Black Rainbows listed directly below them on the bill — that’s badass, yes — but check out Peder Bergstrand of Lowrider‘s other band, I Are Droid, joining the lineup. By the time this fest happens, I Are Droid‘s most recent album, The Winter Ward (review here), will be a decade old, and I’ll tell you something personal in letting you know I still have it on my phone. And sometimes I even put it on. Makes me feel feelings in the way that only quality pop music can.

Although I went to this fest last year, I don’t really have a path to get back for 2023, but I do very much dig the way the lineup has come together, with Valley of the Sun, Skraeckoedlan, Kaiser and Australia’s Khan, Tidal Wave, Dark Ocean Circle and Stonewall Noise Orchestra, among others, doing the thing. When you’re there, the place is packed — both Debaser Strand and Bar Brooklyn, which are right next to each other, sharing a building — but it’s still possible to both see the show and enjoy yourself while you do, and it’s imagining that that’s got me stoked on this final lineup.

Truckfighters themselves sent word in their Fuzzorama Records newsletter:

LINE UP COMPELTE FOR TRUCKFIGHTERS’ FUZZ FESTIVAL!

The festival takes place on Nov 10 + 11 in Stockholm, Sweden at Debaser + Bar Brooklyn.

Tickets from TICKSTER: https://secure.tickster.com/sv/hjw9fd1fuhy1xur/selectevent

or FUZZORAMASTORE: https://eu.fuzzoramastore.com/en/concert-tickets.html

The last names are:
LOWRIDER
BLACK RAINBOWS
DEVILLE
STONEWALL NOISE ORCHESTRA
I ARE DROID
BOTTENHAVET

MORE INFO AT truckfighters.com/festival

OR CHECK OUT THE EVENT AT FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/events/634595348488406

Truckfighters Fuzz Festival #4 promo video

Don’t mind me, just over here daydreaming about this one. Yeah, maybe I’ll always be something of a sucker for The Netherlands in Springtime, but even taking that into account, the lineup for Sonic Whip 2023 in Nijmegen speaks for itself top to bottom in terms of the bill. There’s a couple bands I don’t know — including The Psychotic Monks, who were just added, and Shaman Elephant, who were the other band that took part in Enslaved‘s big-band collab — but for familiar names and faces and acts I’ve never seen like Stoned Jesus, Causa Sui, Somali Yacht Club, Samavayo, Vinnum Sabbathi, Slift, and so on, I feel like this is two days I very much wouldn’t mind living through.

I feel that way about a lot of European fests these days, and maybe that in itself is worth examining — if perhaps we’re in something of a golden age (a loaded phrase for the Dutch) of smaller-scale festivals across the continent. I see nothing but arguments in favor of that proposition here, and post-covid, the explosion of events both new and returning is only welcome as far as I’m concerned. I haven’t been invited, won’t get over for it, but it’s a good one, and if you’re headed out to it, I tip my hat in your general direction. Or at least I will next time I have a hat on.

Final announcement follows. Tickets are on sale:

LINE-UP SONIC WHIP 2023 COMPLETE

5 & 6 MAY Doornroosje, Nijmegen, Netherlands

Sonic Whip, the multi-headed rock monster that combines ripping guitars with steaming bass lines, pounding drums and other sonic, psychedelic excesses. The 2023 edition will happen on May 5 & 6 in Doornroosje, Nijmegen.

With the addition of The Psychotic Monks (fra), Samavayo (ger), Shaman Elephant (no) and Vinnum Sabbathi (mex) the line-up for Sonic Whip is complete! We’re looking forward to welcome all these fantastic artists and are convinced this is going to be a rad psychedelic sonic party. We hope you will join us on 5 & 6 May in Doornroosje.

FULL LINEUP:
King Buffalo, SLIFT, Stoned Jesus, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Causa Sui, Lowrider, Somali Yacht Club, Les Big Byrd, GNOD, The Psychotic Monks, Radar Men From The Moon, Samavayo, Ecstatic Vision, Iron Jinn, USA Nails, The Gluts, Deathchant, Dommengang, Shaman Elephant, Psychlona, Vinnum Sabbathi and Madmess.

Get your tickets here: https://bit.ly/SonicWhip2023

Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/530494448958919

https://www.facebook.com/Sonicwhipfestival
https://www.instagram.com/sonic_whip/
https://www.doornroosje.nl/festival/sonic-whip/

Vinnum Sabbathi, Live at Channel 66 (2022)

This isn’t the first time I’ve done this — an all-request show — but I’m especially happy to have put word out for people to pick tunes in this instance, because look at that middle block of songs! It’s like a guided tour through classic stoner rock. Not Slomosa so much, though they certainly emphasize the enduring influence of ’90s and ’00s heavy rock on new bands — or Circle, who end that block in avant-sludge fashion, but the rest of it is right in there. Unida. Goatsnake, Astroqueen. Lowrider. Acrimony. I’ll say them again. Acrimony. Even newer Bitchwax. I could’ve put Spirit Caravan in there as well, I guess, but I like the way this one flows as is, and you can see, they all came by request.

Some were just bands — play Slomosa, etc. — but some were specific to the songs included here. Playing Tin House and Funkadelic back to back is my idea of a good time. See also Lowrider and Goatsnake. I was thinking I might do blurbs in the Gimme chat for these bands while the show’s on. The last episode was pretty dead — I think it was also Good Friday? so maybe that had something to do with it — but just to help people kind of understand some of the context here, because I’m guessing that the more headbangerly contingent is going to see stuff like 500 Ft. of Pipe and not know what the hell is going on. Fair enough.

I may do that, I may not have the energy later today. I’ll be around in any case. Come say hi.

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

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 04.29.22

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is May 13 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

Gimme Metal website

The Obelisk on Facebook

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

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

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

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

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 04.01.22

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

Gimme Metal website

The Obelisk on Facebook

I’ve been trying to do a best-of-2020-a-year-later episode since like June, but maybe it’s all the more appropriate since we’re coming up on that most wretched of years is actually nearly a full year buried. As much as it’s buried at all — don’t you kind of feel like 2020 lives on in our hearts, minds and residual traumas? I kind of do.

As I say in the voice breaks for this episode, I have very little conception of when 2020 ended and 2021 began as regards albums. I would’ve told you that the Grayceon record, the Enslaved record and Slift were 2021 releases. Yeah, I know Lowrider and Elephant Tree were last year, and Colour Haze and All Them Witches, but Polymoon? That could’ve been 2019.

So in addition to being a collection of what I think are killer tunes — always the goal, right? — this playlist is also a way for me to recall when things were ahead of digging into the best of 2021 over the course of the next month-plus. I’ve got a Black Friday episode, then two December episodes left this year. The December ones will both be best-of-the-year stuff. Let this be my precursor to that.

Thanks for listening if you do and/or reading. I hope you enjoy.

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 11.12.21

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Nov. 26 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

Gimme Metal website

The Obelisk on Facebook

Tickets are on sale as of today for Desertfest Berlin 2022, which will be headlined by Electric Wizard, Kadavar playing a hometown show and Witchcraft. The rest of the lineup is a thrilling combination of mainstays — which somehow feels extra comforting — and upstarts, plus Stöner, who are kind of both, I guess, being a new band but with Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri at the helm thereof. You’ll note Lowrider and Orange Goblin — the latter celebrating their 25th anniversary, delayed of course — and Elder and Ufomammut (debuting their new lineup), 1000mods and Truckfighters and My Sleeping Karma. Could hardly get more Desertfest than that. Like a reaffirmation of the festival’s core mission. Plus YOB, for extra life-giving vibes.

And with those, you get acts like Slomosa, Slift, Polymoon and Villagers of Ioannina City, underground celebrants like Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs and Samavayo and Dhidalah and MaidaVale and 24/7 Diva Heaven as well as Love Machine, Los Bitchos and Huntsmen. There’s reportedly more to come — and by that I mean that’s what it says on the poster below — but for real, if this was the four days, I can’t imagine wanting to see any less than all of it.

Announcement follows as per the PR wire:

Desertfest Berlin – 26-29 May 2022

www.desertfest.de

LINEUP:
Electric Wizard
Kadavar
Witchcraft
Orange Goblin
YOB
Truckfighters
Elder
1000mods
My Sleeping Karma
Ufomammut
Stöner
Lowrider
Villagers of Ioannina City
SLIFT
MaidaVale
24/7 Diva Heaven
Samavayo
Slomosa
Los Bitchos
PigsPigsPigsPigsPigsPigsPigs
Dhidalah
Polymoon
Enigma Experience
Huntsmen
Love Machine

+ more to be announced

After two years without our beloved Desertfest happening, we need you more than ever. We can’t wait to see you all again to party, have some drinks and enjoy the finest of stoner, psychedelic, doom and heavy rock music!

Thank you so much for your continuous support and for holding on to your tickets. We want to give a little something back to you…

Existing weekend passes (3-days tickets) from 2020 will remain valid for the full 4 days in 2022 automatically. Yes, you will be granted access to ONE MORE FESTIVAL DAY ON TOP, FOR FREE!

We hope you’ll understand that there are logistical changes to the original 2020 line-up. Due to these challenges, existing 2020 single day ticket holders will be refunded for their chosen day. More info about our ticket-policy: www.desertfest.de/information

https://www.facebook.com/events/520164272080736
www.desertfest.de
www.facebook.com/DesertfestBerlin
www.instagram.com/desertfest_berlin

Desertfest Berlin 2019 official aftermovie

It’s good to see you again, Desertfest London. The 2022 lineup of the esteemed British edition of Desertfest brings some returning presences who were to have been at the 2020 edition, then the 2021 — both of course gone the way of corona. But we see Electric Wizard, Shellac and Witchcraft in headlining spots, while Corrosion of Conformity will bring their delayed 25th anniversary of Deliverance to Camden Town, and returning kingpins Orange Goblin will play, along with YOB, Truckfighters, Earthless, My Sleeping Karma, Mos Generator, Conan, The Obsessed, the reunited Josiah, Lowrider come for a Refractions victory lap well earned, along with Elephant Tree, Elder, Steak, Deathrite and a ton from the UK’s own ever-blossoming underground scene — Blind Monarch, The Brothers Keg, King Witch, the more established Alunah and Trippy Wicked, and so on and so many.

Note Slomosa. Note Wolftooth. I would expect both to be touring Europe around this time. Green Lung too, for that matter.

There’s no way this isn’t going to be one to remember and it is my sincere hope to be there for it. Maybe I’ll see you there. Maybe we can hug.

Kudos and thanks to the Desertscene crew — Sarika, Jake and Reece — on and for a job well done.

Here’s looking forward:

DESERTFEST LONDON ANNOUNCE FULL LINE-UP FOR 2022 ·

A DECADE IN THE DESERT
CELEBRATING TEN YEARS WITH THE BIGGEST & MOST DIVERSE LINEUP YET

EXCLUSIVE UK PERFORMANCES FROM
WITCHCRAFT
(FIRST UK SHOW IN OVER A DECADE)
and
SHELLAC

As the home for all the things truly heavy, leading independent UK festival Desertfest have announced their full line up for 2022, which will take place in Camden, London from Friday 29th April – Sunday 1st May.

Celebrating their tenth year, next year’s festival promises to be their biggest and most diverse yet. Covering six venues across the heart of Camden and now including a full line up at The Roundhouse on both Saturday 30thApril and Sunday 1st May.

Founding owner of Desertfest Reece Tee comments, “Desertfest is 10 years old! I’m so proud that our independent festival has stood the test of time. What we have created is special, a decade of great bands, great friends and amazing memories. This year’s line up is a true reflection of how diverse Desertfest has become and with such a loyal audience, Desertfest can champion the underground for decades more to come.”

Headlining the Friday will be Swedish heavy rock masters Witchcraft, with a UK exclusive performance and their first UK show in over a decade.
Saturday’s headliners are none other than Chicago’s Shellac, who in another UK exclusive will be bringing their experimental post-hardcore sound to the Roundhouse. Fronted by the iconic Steve Albini, Shellac are one of those bands we all need to experience live, at least once. Whilst closing the festival on Sunday will be UK doom legends Electric Wizard, whose heavy sound encompasses the spirit of Desertfest.

Other acts confirmed include the likes of Corrosion Of Conformity, Orange Goblin and Truckfighters who all played the festival in its debut year in 2012 and there are further UK exclusive performances from hardcore-punks Integrity and the Ukrainian psych space rock trio Somali Yacht Club.

The festival will also see desert legends Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri’s new band Stoner, who will be playing the Electric Ballroom and doomed heavy metallers Khemmis making their UK debut at The Underworld.

Please see below for the full Desertfest 2022 line up / stage splits.
Tickets are on sale now and are available at www.desertfest.co.uk

NEW TICKETS FOR 2022
Weekend Ticket (all venues) – £132 +fees
Friday Day Ticket (all venues) – £45 +fees
Saturday Day Ticket (all venues) – £50 +fees
Sunday Day Ticket (all venues) – £50 +fees
Saturday Roundhouse only – £35 +fees
Existing ticket holders from 2020’s postponed event have a number of options as the festival is now larger, with an added Roundhouse line-up on Saturday 30th April & Sunday 1st May.

EXISTING WEEKEND + DAY TICKET HOLDERS OPTIONS
Full refund
Weekend roll-over to 2022 without Roundhouse upgrade (access only to Electric Ballroom, Underworld, Black Heart & The Dev)
Weekend roll-over to 2022 with Roundhouse upgrade – £15 +fees
Day ticket holders can upgrade to a full weekend ticket – £92 + fees – or will be issued a refund. Upgrade options only available until May 7th ’21.
For any ticketing enquiries please contact sarika@desertscene.co.uk

Desertfest 2022’s artwork is hand drawn by legendary artist Arik Roper who has created illustrations for the likes of Sleep, Earth, Sunn O))), High on Fire, Kvelertak, Windhand and many more. As always, posters and other merch will be available to buy at the festival.

https://www.facebook.com/events/464163361105416/
http://www.desertscene.co.uk/support
https://www.facebook.com/DesertfestLondon
https://www.instagram.com/desertfest_london/
https://twitter.com/DesertFest
https://www.desertfest.co.uk/

Electric Wizard, Live at Desertfest London 2016

Year two of the vinyl subscription service PostWax continues to roll out an impressive array of artists. As I write this, I’m about an hour away from hopping on the ol’ teleputer to talk to Mat Bethancourt of Josiah about their offering, and then I guess it’s on to the next one, which actually hasn’t been announced yet, but also rules. I’m hoping to have the liner notes in by the end of the week. Today’s Monday, right? Ha.

Anyhow, including the likes of REZN, Vinnum Sabbathi (a collaboration between the two) and Lowrider and Elephant Tree (a split with an exclusive collaborative track), doesn’t hurt the project’s case any, and at least I know there will be plenty to talk about when it comes time to putting together the liner notes. Like I said when Josiah and the Acid King-plus inclusions were announced, I don’t need to sell you on the thing. Now that four of the total nine offerings have been unveiled, that seems even more to be the case.

From the PR wire:

LOWRIDER and ELEPHANT TREE team up to release special split record as part of PostWax Vol. II vinyl series on Blues Funeral Recordings!

Blues Funeral Recordings announce the next colossal pairing of artists to take part in their PostWax Vol. II series, with Swedish stoner rock legends LOWRIDER and London’s most treasured heavy rockers ELEPHANT TREE. This mind-boggling union will give rise to a special split record, with details to be unveiled soon.

Heavy rock icons ELEPHANT TREE, whose 2020 album ‘Habits’ is a decimating blend of organic fuzz-fueled bliss and transcendent vocal hookery, and LOWRIDER, whose unassailable ‘Refractions’ LP blasted across 2020’s heavy music landscape like an extinction-level desert storm and swept top honors for the year throughout the scene, are joining forces for a titanic special release on PostWax.

Each band will produce a trio of new tracks for this unparalleled split record, topped off by a seventh collaborative tune forged exclusively for PostWax — which will only be available to the series subscribers.

Elephant Tree’s Jack Townley gushes: “When we were flanked by Jadd and Peder about serving up a juicy slab of riffage, we were delighted! We’d been massive fans of Lowrider’s chops since we started out as a band, so didn’t skirt around or mince words when we replied “yes!” with gravy on top! We came up with the idea to go whole hog and collab on a track as well, and now here we are. It’s rare these days to find projects as different and exciting as PostWax, and the veritable carvery of bands on board is mouth-watering. Sausage.”

Lowrider’s Peder Bergstrand adds: “Few releases have moved me the way Elephant Tree’s Habits did. My most played track of 2020 was easily “Sails” and honestly I think Elephant Tree in many ways is the most original flavor of heavy rock I’ve heard in ages, and exactly what the scene needs. I love how they weave blissful and mellow with absolute skull crushing heavy for a blend that’s uniquely their own. The idea of doing a split together, and a PostWax exclusive collaborative track at that, has got us enormously stoked. I have a feeling this will be a very, very special album.”

REZN and VINNUM SABBATHI for new PostWax Vol. II series; Kickstarter for subscription signups live now

Blues Funeral Recordings reveal Chicago’s REZN and Mexico City’s VINNUM SABBATHI as the next two bands to take part in the second volume of their PostWax vinyl subscription series, this time for a special collaborative release.

The joining of REZN’s gargantuan heaviness and lysergic dreamscapes with VINNUM SABBATHI’s hypnotic and jammy superscience soundtracks is the exact type of aural mind-meld that PostWax was conceived to present. These two avant-garde outfits will deliver one massive and ground-breaking effort, one that has chance to make an impression among heavy music lovers and beyond.

REZN guitarist Rob McWilliams elaborates: “Our intention is to give this collaboration a solid REZN foundation with Vinnum Sabbathi providing the cosmic textures and atmosphere to align it all under the same sonic storyline. We’ve been talking about doing something together for a little while now, since our bands are a great match sonically and already sync up in a lot of ways. In the end, we’ll have a roasty REZN dish with a decadent Vinnum Sabbathi glaze.”

VINNUM SABBATHI guitarist Juan Tamayo adds: “For us, this collaboration with REZN is very special. From the day we played with them in Mexico, we knew we wanted to create something together, and being able to do it with Blues Funeral for the PostWax series is a great privilege. We can’t wait to make something truly unique by adding a story to the sonic landscapes, and all the fans are in for some cosmic epicness.”

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