Bongzilla, Gateway (2002)

I think it says something about how far we’ve come as a species that on a given Friday night, I can type in a few simple words and come back with a complete stream of Gateway, the 2002 third album from Bongzilla, who even more than a decade later still sound like the stonedest group of dudes ever to walk the face of the earth. There still aren’t many bands around who can match these guys for tone, and though neither Gateway nor their 2005 apparent-swansong, Amerijuanican, has the reputation that 2001’s sophomore outing, Apogee, managed to pack into its crust-covered bowl, Gateway had no trouble getting its point across. That point? Bongzilla really, really liked to get high, and they wanted to talk about it.

Or if not talk, at least communicate ideas through a series of vocal-cord-shredding screams and ten-ton stomp. Bongzilla guitarist/vocalist Michael “Muleboy” Makela and drummer Michael “Magma” Henry were last heard from in 2010 when their subsequent duo, Aquilonian, made its debut on a Choking Hazard Records split with Sollubi (review here), but there hasn’t been much word of them since. Still not sure what broke up Bongzilla, to be honest, though if you told me that the dudes in the band got tired of making weed puns after a decade and wanted to quit, or if you told me they just got high and wandered off, I’d believe you either way. Could do with some more from Aquilonian though.

But so it goes.

—

Guess what I am? Broke as shit. I mean b-r-o-k-e. Turns out that when you lose the job that lets you sustain yourself at a semi-livable wage it has a real impact on your take-home. Who’d have thought? The good news is it doesn’t cost anything to play albums uploaded to YouTube — and with nearly all of my CDs still in boxes more than two months after my move and set to stay that way for an undetermined amount of time, I’ve been streaming a lot lately. The bad news is it means there’s a decent chance I won’t be making the trip south to Virginia for this year’s Stoner Hands of Doom after all. Hard to justify at least $300 in gas, plus whatever in hotel, plus the time off from work, when you’re sitting at the table with The Patient Mrs. trying to figure out which day to buy milk before the next paycheck.

The thought of missing that is a bummer, especially with all the fest has been through in being canceled and brought back from the brink, but last I heard being broke sucked, and I’m pretty sure I’m not the first person to express the sentiment. We’ll see how next week pans out, but it’s not looking positive.

Better thoughts come in the form of a slew of cool local gigs. Tomorrow night I go see Pelican and Kings Destroy in Boston, then on Wednesday, Mike Scheidt and Uzala hit Providence, and the next night, Jim Healey from Black Thai and Mike Cummings of Backwoods Payback have a gig at Radio in Somerville. Next weekend It’s Not Night: It’s Space rolls through with Queen Elephantine as well, so yeah, with or without travel, it’s pretty packed.

Look out next week for reviews of those, and one for the new Samsara Blues Experiment album, which if you want the short version is a delight. No less of a surprise than was the direction on their last full-length, Revelation and Mystery (review here). I’ve been back and forth on the idea of reviewing the new Red Fang as well. I’d like to do it, since I also have that interview in the can, but am backed up on stuff that I think probably is more pressing than yet another Red Fang review among the thousands that are probably out there at this point. Maybe that’s a fucked way of thinking of it. Whatever. It’s my time I’m spending.

Most importantly next week, though, I’ve got a track premiere on Wednesday from Lumbar, the project with Aaron Edge (ex-Roareth, etc.), Mike Scheidt (YOB) and Tad Doyle (TAD, Brothers of the Sonic Cloth), and interviews with Edge and Scheidt both to go with it. It’s heavy stuff by any means you want to measure and not to be missed.

I hope you have a great and safe weekend. Please check out the forum and radio.

The Obelisk Forum

The Obelisk Radio

Lo-Pan‘s touring adventures continue. In our last installment, the Ohio heavy rock four-piece stomped their way through Dayton, Ohio, and Chicago, and having covered that ground, this time around they’ve moved on to Madison, Wisconsin, and Indianapolis on their tour with Indy-based Devil to Pay.

Please enjoy, and note that the lead photo here was taken by Devil to Pay‘s own Steve Jankiak:

July 6th and 7th — “Eat a Sandwich”

Did you know Otis Redding was from Madison, Wisconsin? Well, he was. So was Chris Farley. This auspicious town was the locale for our next tour adventure.

We woke up early in Chicago in order to get to Madison by the early afternoon. About a year ago a friend of ours took us to this amazing deli in Madison and hooked us up on some great sandwiches so we always like to revisit that spot when we are in town. Hospitality on tour is like a full tank of gas, or a clean load of laundry — it kind of sets everything back to zero and allows you to start fresh. In my experience, when you go on tour you start out with a plan. I’ve got so many so-and-so’s for so many days and this do-hickey goes in this pocket and that’s where it will be forever. Well, after about eight days, things start to become a little less concrete. Pockets of things change. Things break or get lost. You get hot and tired and you just plain stop caring about those things. After around 15 days you start to degrade into an animal state of instinct and muscle memory. 30 days in, you don’t even remember what home feels like. 40 days and wherever you are is your home. Then, when you go home, it takes a while to adjust. All of this is to illustrate that when you find hospitality — a welcome smile, a great plate of food, a person who lets you enter their home and use it as your own for a little while — all of these things serve to reset the dials, and get you centered to carry on. Madison is such a place for us because it is home to some very hospitable and kind people. It’s one of those places that when you are a few days away you start to hear the mantra, “If we can just make it to Madison, everything will be ok.” So we made it to Madison, our Midwest oasis.

The show was at a bar called Mr. Roberts. We had never played there before so we didn’t know what to expect. We were set to play with a band called The Garza. They are a three piece featuring our friend Nate Bush on bass. We made Nate’s acquaintance a couple of years ago when he was playing bass for Madison band Droids Attack. In addition, the drummer for The Garza [Mike “Magma” Henry] is also in Bongzilla. Hopefully for your sake, Bongzilla need no introduction. The last time we played in Madison was on tour with High on Fire. The show that time was at High Noon Saloon. This was certainly a different situation, but we did see quite a few people at this show that remembered us from the last show. It’s good to see that our travels and work are paying off.

Devil to Pay started off the evening with a killer set. DTP are one of those bands that seem to nail their recorded sound in a live setting, and do it with ease. We played second out of three bands and we decided to change up our set tonight. We were playing Sasquanaut start to finish but on the drive to Madison we decided we would rather play our newer material and that people would just have to deal with it. Whatever! We do what we want! The Garza closed out the night and after some drinks and laughs we packed up and headed to our accommodations for the evening.

Brian is a friend of ours and he owns a tattoo shop in Madison. He let us stay in his posh tattoo studio for the evening. I had an honest-to-goodness couch to sleep on. Jesse slept on his air mattress and Fristoe took up residence on an amazingly adjustable tattoo chair. Skot, however decided to sleep on the floor despite the availability of other tattoo chairs. Skot Thompson is a floor-sleeping sumbitch. He loves it. Got a hardwood, concrete, or tile floor? Skot will sleep on it. Got a dining room table? Skot will sleep under it. And he will sleep well.

We woke up around 9:30AM and tattoo Brian came to take us to breakfast. Nice guy, that Brian. We said our goodbyes and headed off towards Indianapolis.

Indianapolis, Indiana. Indy’s Jukebox Live. Devil to Pay is from Indianapolis. Do you know what else is from Indianapolis? I’m asking because I don’t know. Or maybe I just don’t care. If you have ever driven through Indiana, then you know what a wholly depressing place it can be. Unless you are into extremely flat, corn covered vistas, there is not much outside of DTP to lure you to the Hoosier State. Actually, President William Henry Harrison was from there. I stand corrected.

On the bill for this show were Death Trap and Stealing Volume. Death Trap seemed to be having some technical difficulties during their set. They got off to a rocky start but finally got it dialed in towards the end. It sucks when you are just trying to play some music but you end up wrestling your gear into submission the whole time instead. Stealing Volume was a surprise to me. They had a punchy punk sound and they were very tight. Really good stage presence and delivery. I liked Stealing Volume very much. We played what felt like a good set to a sparse but engrossed audience and Devil to Pay headlined for the home town. After the show we packed up rather quickly and headed for home. Real life loomed large on the horizon, at least for a few days until we pick back up with the DTP boys in Detroit.

Until then…

They only made 50, and when I was in the process of writing up Romero‘s new album, Take the Potion (review here), I stumbled on the band’s prior cassette single — yes, a cassingle — dubbed Couch Lock/In the Heather. Released through Triceratrax Records last year, the limited pressing comes complete with red tape, a 7″ x 14″ foldout (the kind that would normally house a 7″ record) with 3D graphics and 3D glasses to see them. Sorry, but that’s frickin’ awesome.

Both the included tracks on the tape, “Couch Lock” and “In the Heather,” were re-recorded for Take the Potion, but neither is wanting for production on the single either, even if they’re somewhat rawer than they’d wind up. I’ll admit when I shelled out the cash for the tape (I think it was five bucks), it was the packaging that drew me in — the art is by Miranda Martin and guitarist/vocalist Jeffrey Mundt — but it’s not like the Wisconsin trio put all this effort and detail into a practice tape.

And speaking of detail, even the inside of the tape liner — the J-card, as I learned this week that they’re called because of their bend — has a 3D design:

But the righteousness of the design goes further than just the 3D stuff. The layout of the lyric sheet on the inside of the foldout poster (designed by drummer Ben Brooks) is also well thought out and stylized, not to mention hand-numbered:

Of course, there’s good news and bad news. Taking latter first, the pressing of 50 is sold out. I bought the last tape even before I was done with the album review. So unless Romero decide to do another round somewhere down the line, it’s a goner. The good news, however, is that Couch Lock/In the Heather is still up for a pay-what-you-want download, so if you’re thinking of hitting it up, there’s still some opportunity. They’ve even got the 3D images up in case you have a spare pair of glasses around.

To that end, here’s the stream from the Romero Bandcamp:

Romero, Couch Lock/In the Heather Single

There are few lines drawn in heavy underground rock that Madison, Wisconsin, three-piece Romero don’t cross on their debut full-length, Take the Potion. Fluidly touching on heavy rock, crashing into doom and caustic sludge while keeping an eye toward the pop melodies of Torche, the post-hardcore threat of later Akimbo and leaving room for a Sleep-derived riff-out at the end, the seven-track collection is perhaps most surprising in how well it’s all held together. Worth noting in that regard that for a band putting out their first album, Romero aren’t lacking for experience. Guitarist/vocalist Jeffrey Mundt drummed for Naked Aggression in the ‘90s, among others, and Take the Potion (released by Grindcore Karaoke) follows two preliminary singles, Couch Lock and Solitaire +1 (more on them here), so it’s not unexpected that Romero would come into their full-length debut with a decent sense of how they wanted to sound. Indeed, both sides of Couch Lock – those being “Couch Lock” and “In the Heather” – show up on Take the Potion as well, the latter as the closer. What surprises is the level of cohesiveness the three-piece harness throughout the songs, working in a variety of structures and with a swath of influences beyond those noted above, so that the oncoming rush of opener “Compliments and Cocktails” gives way to a catchy stoner verse and chorus before opening to a midsection of tom-heavy beefy hardcore shouts, like all of a sudden Pro-Pain showed up at the studio as Romero were 2:57 seconds into the 6:22 track and decided to take over. Maybe that’s a stretch, but it’s to the band’s credit – the rhythm section of bassist Steve Stanczyk and drummer/vocalist Benjamin Brooks alongside Mundt — that they’re able to transition so smoothly back into the more melodic verse and chorus. “Compliments and Cocktails” is a solid beginning in that it sets up the listener to never quite know what turn Romero might make within a song – after conveying monotony in the opener’s chorus without actually becoming monotonous, they even throw in a little organ near the end – and the rest of Take the Potion doesn’t fail to catch off guard, whether it’s the creeping initial build of second track “Couch Lock” or the stomp that shows up later in the yelling stretch of “Wheeling Deervish” on side B. Throughout, Romero, who recorded and mixed over the course of last year in cooperation with Mark Whitcomb (Phillip Cope of Kylesa mastered), distinguish their methods and showcase a powerful approach that sounds natural even as it melds genre elements often thought of as being at odds.

Primarily, this shit is heavy, and heaviness seems to be its main concern. That is, I don’t imagine Romero sat around in smoking jackets and plotted out second by second how they were going to tie different pieces of heavy rock together to create their own sound from them. More likely they just focused on writing good songs, which however impressive the other achievement might be is at the root of what makes it so. “Couch Lock,” re-recorded and cleaner-sounding than it was on the single, starts slow and arrives at a massive lumber signaled by Brooks’ drums, the plod soon topped with layers of shouting from the drummer and Mundt. Just when it seems they’ve exhausted the part, about two minutes later, they pick up the pace and shift into a faster, driving groove no less heavy but rife with energy and inviting swagger, riding the part out until the final hits recall the stomp from whence they emerged. Two tracks in, and already Romero’s Take the Potion has convinced me to do just that – I’m on board to follow them wherever they might go – and the psychedelic opening of “One Means Four,” some chime added for percussive ethereality, proves easy enough to follow. Stanczyk’s bassline holds the intro together, so that when the track kicks into the shouting verse and cleaner chorus, it makes an eerie kind of sense, gang shouts coming on near the midpoint to foreshadow a surprising rush in what turns out to be a deceptively linear build, breaking here, swarming there, never quite fully playing its hand until the last minute, when it brings back those shouts for another go. By the time you’ve caught up to it, Romero have moved onto the shorter (4:00, the shortest on the album) title-track, a centerpiece that casts off the long-intro ethic of “Couch Lock” and “One Means Four” in favor of immediate pummel with its verse riff. Brooks works a groove out on his ride while the trio crafts momentum out of what’s otherwise a familiar stoner progression, mounting effective stops in the chorus, Mundt’s guitar leading one riff cycle into the next. A solo after the chorus leads to a quieter break, still in motion and bouncing in Stanczyk’s bass, but topped with quick spoken word that leads to crashes that to my ears are enough to justify the Akimbo comparison above. That burst of energy transitions smoothly into the early shuffle of “Distraction Tree,” marking the movement into a second half of Take the Potion no less seamless than the first.

Read more »

The future kinda sucks. You know it and I know it. We were promised hoverboards, Martian colonies, kickass robots, Freejack and a bunch of other stuff, and all we’ve got is an even shittier version of iTunes than the last one. Thanks for nothing, existence.

One good thing to come out of, oh, the last 30 years of human development has been live streaming shows, and Wisconsin-based riff slingers Romero will take advantage of that technology for upcoming Jan. 18 gig on Red Dragon TV. The band (On the Radar’ed here) are about to release their debut full-length, Take the Potion digitally on Jan. 29 through Grindcore Karaoke and have launched a Kickstarter to help fund a vinyl release. More on that here.

Details follow:

ROMERO “Take The Potion” LP will be released on Tuesday, January 29, 2013.

The entire album will be available for FREE DOWNLOAD through GRINDCOREKARAOKE.COM.  The band is also releasing a LIMITED EDITION of 100 CD’s in deluxe packaging and has started a Kickstarter campaign to fund the vinyl release.  The Kickstarter page and more information on the release can be found here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/romeroisloud/romero-releases-take-the-potion-full-length-album

ROMERO Live Performance & Webcast!
January 18, 2013 @ 7pm (US Central standard time)
The band will be playing songs from the “Take The Potion” LP and doing a short interview for the cameras of Red Dragon TV in Madison, WI.  The show will be broadcast LIVE on the net through the Red Dragon TV website, Ustream & BlogTV, simultaneously. Our friends and supporters from all over the world will finally be able to see & hear ROMERO play live and will have the opportunity to chat with us  on-the-air.  Get more information from http://reddragontv.tv/ or stay tuned to our FACEBOOK page for updates.

LIVE on Inna Godda Davida!
w/ Studio Audience & live broadcast on the net!

THE SHOW WILL BE BROADCAST WORLDWIDE! SIMULTANEOUSLY ON:
http://reddragontv.tv/
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/reddragontv
http://reddragontv.tv/blogtv/

There is room for approximately 20-30 guests in studio!

ALL AGES WELCOME
No alcohol on premises, please. (VFW bar is next door. Behave!)

More info @ http://reddragontv.tv/

Show Details
7:00-7:20 Host Greeting and Introduction. Performance
7:20-7:25 – Short Break, station id etc
7:25-7:35 Interview
7:35-7:37 Short Break, Station Id etc
7:37-8:00 Performance.

There is a suggested donation of $5.00 for all guests. These funds go to the Red Dragon TV Cultural Center.

ROMERO Tour in March?
Maybe.  More details sooner than later.

Although I don’t generally talk about them explicitly in this space, I hold some pretty strong political beliefs, and here in the US, last night we reelected a president who — despite being a war criminal — also has his upsides (it’s okay though, because they’re all war criminals and that makes it better right?). That’s all well and good, but more importantly, the state of Colorado — which I’m going to have to stop thinking of as being square — legalized marijuana. Not decrim, not medical. Like go-getcha-some “legalize it”-brand recreational use legalized. Pretty impressive.

But what I haven’t yet heard anyone talk about is the grassroots work done over the years to pave the way for this legislation by the cultural force known as Bongzilla. True, they made their home initially in Madison, Wisconsin, but surely their tireless efforts to raise weedian awareness throughout the middle states during their years together deserves some measure of credit for making this possible. Thank you, Bongzilla. Your legacy is not forgotten.

Though the memory of it is a little hazy.

Ha.

Last time we heard from them, Wisconsin rockers Droids Attack were persevering through a burst appendix to open for Floor in Chicago. That was just over two years ago now, and guitarist/vocalist Brad Van has sent over word that the band are headed to the East Coast for a round of dates next month. Van also dropped hints that the band has a new record in the works with plans to record this fall, so hopefully the live shows will be a chance for them to tighten up their new songs on stage. If you don’t recall, 2010’s Must Destroy (review here) was a charmer.

Here are the dates:

07/04 Joe’s Place w/ Snow Demon and TBA (Iowa City, IA)
07/05 The Replay Lounge w/ The Leotards (Lawrence, KS)
07/06 The Railhead Saloon w/ TBA (Lawton, OK)
07/07 The 29th Street Ballroom w/ Sky Crawler, Rust, and The Blood Royale (Austin, TX)
07/09 The Nick w/ Cousin Sleaze, and Jerolyn (Birmingham, AL)
07/10 The Landshark w/ Rojo Diablo (Jacksonville, FL)
07/11 Chapel Hill Underground w/ Ruscha, Self Inflicted, and Blood Red Sky (Chapel Hill, NC)
07/12 The Bell Foundry w/ Curse, Insane Clown Pussy, and Sprayer (Baltimore, MD)
07/13 Saint Vitus Bar w/ The Giraffes, and Cinema Cinema (Brooklyn, NY)
07/14 Mojo 13 w/ TBA (Wilmington, DE)
07/15 Cedars w/ Trust Mission, and RNRCP (Youngstown, OH)
07/16 Bourbon Street w/ TBA (Columbus, OH)
07/17 Corktown Tavern w/ Minus 9 and TBA (Detroit, MI)
07/18 Liar’s Club w/ TBA (Chicago, IL)

6:14AM – Woke up a bit ago from a dream that The Patient Mrs. was pregnant. There wasn’t much action happening — it’s not like she was pregnant and we were in a car chase; that was a separate dream — but it was one of those super-realistic dreams that you’re not sure when you come out of it which side of reality you’re on. Funny shit. I can’t even go to sleep without being hounded to reproduce. You’d almost think my genes weren’t totally fucked.

Anyway, once I was up, the thought of there being writing to do assured I wouldn’t go back to sleep — if you’re awake, you might as well be productive — so here I am. The four hours I got should suffice, or maybe I’ll be lucky and crash back out after this post. I’m not too worried about it. And hey, there’s Cuda, doing “Hellfire.” Who doesn’t want to be awake for that?

It might seem a strange choice to wake up and suddenly say, “I’m gonna go post a Cuda clip!” but it makes sense on some level as I was thinking about the nature of obscurity last night as I started to put together the new podcast — oh yeah, there will be a new podcast this weekend — and was ripping tracks from bands who had vastly different levels of success in their time. I don’t want to give away the theme in advance, but it got me thinking about all the stoner bands that popped up in the period between the mid-’90s and early-’00s and how many if any of them will have the chance to be rediscovered however far down the line.

Cuda was a one-shot offshoot from Bongzilla. Guitarist Spanky and bassist Cooter Brown assembled a four-piece and released the stonerly Hellfire EP on 12th Records in 2001. It’s the only thing they ever put out that I know of. Under half an hour of music 10 years ago and that’s it. Amazing how many acts have come and gone on one official release over the years. Hell, my band did it, if you want to put “official” in quotes.

This coming week, aside from that new podcast I already mentioned, I’ll get that Sungrazer interview posted. It’s not long, but there’s some insight to it that I think is cool and guitarist Rutger Smeets talks about being on tour with Colour Haze and RotoR, which is badass. I’ll also have reviews of discs from El Camino, Nordic Nomadic, The Dive and Russian Circles (and someone else), and in case the podcast isn’t enough audio for you, a premiere of a new track from SerpentCult. Lots of good stuff to come.

If you’ve emailed me in the last week or two and I haven’t gotten back yet, I apologize. Things have been really busy for me between work and school, and I just haven’t had the chance to be on my laptop and conscious at the same time. I’ll hammer all that out this weekend. Hope you have a good one. Be safe and we’ll see you on the forum and back here Monday for more zany fun.