https://www.high-endrolex.com/18

Ripplefest Germany 2023: Lineups Announced for Berlin and Köln

Posted in Whathaveyou on August 29th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Life takes you strange places. I’m reporting live from a bench at what I grew up calling Hershey Park — it’s now known as “Hersheypark,” if current signage is to be believed — in not-much-else-here Hershey, Pennsylvania. My wife and kid are and have been for long enough for me to set up the entire back end of this post, maybe 25 minutes or so, waiting on line for a rollercoaster called The Comet. Park opened at 11 and is slammed.

We’re here, my little family unit, because it’s the end of summer. The Patient Mrs. starts a new semester teaching this week, The Pecan goes to school for full-day kindergarten Sept. 5, so this is pretty much it for summer. Why we’re here instead of something not two and a half hours from where we live is because about 25 minutes from here, at 2PM, we’re meeting with a dog breeder to see about maybe buying a three-month-old puppy. It’s a shichon, small, doesn’t shed much or make a lot of noise. A non-dog, by some standards. Fine. If it doesn’t immediately bite my kid, we’ll probably get it. This has emotional baggage for me — shocking, I know — but it’s time to get this kid a dog, so even if it’s not this one, we’ll keep looking.

What does any of this have to do with Ripplefest Germany 2023 announcing lineups for Cologne — Köln in German — and Berlin?

Just about nothing, actually, but it’s why I’m distracted from giving you the usual spiel: “here’s a cool fest I’ll never get to see but maybe you will and we can both daydream so here you go,” so at least that’s a connection. And please don’t take my inability to focus as somehow detracting from the work Max Röbel has done in assembling lineups both representative and forward thinking from Ripple and -adjacent acts. If you need more proof of his noble mission to shake heavy rock genre norms, go check out the new Plainride. Also, good for Crystal Spiders doing a bit of travel.

These reportedly are not the only acts that will be announced for these events, but it’s a start. Here’s what the PR wire has to say about it:

ripplefest-germany-berlin-koln-posters

RIPPLEFEST GERMANY announces first names for 2023 edition in Berlin and Cologne this fall; tickets on sale now!

The international RIPPLEFEST festival series, organized by renowned California independent label Ripple Music, returns to Germany this fall with two unmissable events! Ripplefest Berlin and Ripplefest Cologne promise a musical experience of the highest caliber for fans of Stoner, Doom, and Heavy Psychedelic Rock.

Ripple Music, a label known for its specialization in heavy rock sounds, aims to promote emerging talents from the international heavy rock underground and bring together fans and bands from all over the globe. Dubbing their own festival series “Ripplefest”, the record label has been organizing showcase events for years, in cities such as Austin, San Francisco, London, Nantes, Stockholm, Cologne and Berlin.

The organizer of both Ripplefests is Max Röbel, frontman of Cologne’s heavy rock band Plainride and Head of A&R Europe for Ripple Music. About curating the festival, he says: “Creating a platform for music beyond the mainstream and being able to showcase it with such international lineups is a matter dear to my heart. These festivals are meant to be both a meeting place and a stepping stone for our acts, which is why I am particularly excited that with Kabbalah, Crystal Spiders, and Daevar, we once more have three bands with exceptionally strong frontwomen, on this year’s lineup.”

RIPPLEFEST BERLIN 2023
November 25th at Roadrunner’s Paradise
Buy tickets (20€): https://ripplefest.de/berlin.html
Facebook event: https://facebook.com/events/s/ripplefest-berlin-2023/987568972444269/

❱ CANNABINEROS (DE) Stoner rock
❱ KABBALAH (SP) Occult rock
❱ CRYSTAL SPIDERS (USA) Doom rock
❱ APPALOOZA (FR) Heavy tribal rock

RIPPLEFEST COLOGNE 2023
December 2nd at Club Volta
Buy tickets (20€): https://ripplefest.de/berlin.html
Facebook event: https://facebook.com/events/s/ripplefest-cologne-2023/1301970177360757/

❱ MOTHER’S CAKE (DE) Stoner rock
❱ KABBALAH (SP) Occult rock
❱ FIRE DOWN BELOW (BE) Stoner rock
❱ CRYSTAL SPIDERS (USA) Doom rock
❱ APPALOOZA (FR) Heavy tribal rock
❱ CANNABINEROS (DE) Stoner rock
❱ DAEVAR (DE) Stoner doom

https://www.facebook.com/theripplemusic/
https://www.instagram.com/ripplemusic/
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/

Mother’s Cake, Studio Live Session (2022)

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Mother’s Cake Announce Off the Beaten Track 2LP Preorders

Posted in Whathaveyou on December 28th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Mother's Cake

There’s a lot of info here, so to sum it up: Austrian funk-infused heavy rockers Mother’s Cake are looking to release a special 2LP edition of their live-recorded 2014 outing, Off the Beaten track. That six-tracker, recorded live in the studio, has seen new life through YouTube streams, and the three-piece are obviously looking to honor that and provide collectors with something righteous to chase down. The band, whose latest LP, Cyberfunk, came out in 2020, accordingly have lined up expanded artwork, an etched side D, and 20 limited artwork, maybe-data-containing floppy discs that will be included randomly with the first 100 preorders.

Sounds neat? I agree, hence the post. The kicker is they need to get to 100 preorders to have the requisite cash on hand to make the thing, so the project at this point is a kind of self-contained crowdfunding. I’m not telling you how to spend your money, especially during the holidays when everybody’s strapped, but Off the Beaten Track is a cool outing — maybe the algorithm has bumped you into it, or maybe you’ve found it on Bandcamp (that stream is below) — and as the band say in their semi-pitch video, if it works out, they might do more of this kind of thing. So there you go. It’s not my job to sway you either way, but this is a thing that is in progress and a good example of how listener support directly steers the work a band might or might not do, since it wouldn’t be happening if the original release didn’t get the play it has, and it seemingly won’t happen without the preorders. There you go.

Info follows, as snagged from socials. Note that Mother’s Cake have also been confirmed for 2023’s Bear Stone Festival (info here) in Croatia. No doubt there’s more to come:

MOTHER’S CAKE – ‘Off the Beaten Track’ Special Edition

Preorder link: https://www.motherscake.com/shop/off-the-beaten-track-2023-vinyl-ltd-special-edition/

„Off the Beaten Track“ was always very special for us! When we decided to record a live version of our first album, quite a few doubted that decision.

But it became somewhat of a signature move for all other recordings to come. „ No Rhyme No Reason” got its „Live at Bergisel“ and „Cyberfunk!“ the analogue tape session „Live at Little Big Beat“

We saw that you share our love for „Off the Beaten Track“, which has now a total of more than 600.000 clicks on Youtube with all its spin offs. The Vinyl Release already got a face lift once before, when we updated the original cover, done by Jan, to a more artistic approach done by Austin Settle. Time to take it a little bit further and make this a truly special Release: „Off the Beaten Track“ Special Edition

– Double LP
– marbled color Vinyl (140g)
– Gatefold
– Numbered & Limited to 500 pcs
– Etched Side D
– Finally all songs including „Runaway”

Also the cover artist Austin Settle will throw in 20 specially designed floppy discs, which will be distributed randomly within the first 100 preorders. Think of it as a golden ticket, that only a few lucky ones will own as a unique art piece for them.

There is a catch though: As we are producing this on our own, we first need to generate 100 preorders before we can start manufacturing . We hope you are as excited as we are, to make this happen. Feel free to share and spread the word.That would help immensely.

Place your order in our store. Bear in mind, when you add other items than „Off the Beaten Track“ in the same order, that we can only ship them together and that might take a while.
After paying you will receive an email confirmation for your order. Make sure to keep that.

When we exceed 99 orders, we’ll give the go ahead for the manufacturing plant to press the Vinyl. Waiting times for vinyl can be up to 6 months. We will of course try our best to keep that to a minimum but you will have to be patient.

In case that we don’t reach 100 preorders, we will of course refund you with all processing fees taken care of by us. We will send regular updates via our newsletter and social media postings.

Newsletter: http://bit.ly/mailchimpMothersCake

https://www.facebook.com/motherscake
https://www.instagram.com/motherscakemusic/
https://motherscake.bandcamp.com/
https://www.motherscake.com/

Mother’s Cake, Off the Beaten Track special edition project video

Mother’s Cake, Off the Beaten Track (2014)

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Bear Stone Festival 2023 Makes First Lineup Announcement

Posted in Whathaveyou on October 13th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

bear stone festival 2023 banner

People, dogs, a river, plenty of rock and roll. If you have a minute, take a gander at the slow-motion-prone aftermovie from Bear Stone Festival in Croatia earlier this summer. It’ll make you nostalgic for the event whether you were there or not. A frog even shows up. That’s always fun. And they’ve got the same bear back on the poster art for consistency’s sake. I vote we name him ‘Beartholomew.’

Perhaps bear and frog alike will put in an appearance next July for Bear Stone Festival 2023, the first lineup announcement for which has just been made. Orange Goblin stand among headliners, as they will, and Mother’s Cake, Croatia’s own Seven That Spells and Hungary’s Woodstock Barbie are the initial confirmations, and you can see with handy visual aid of the poster below that there’s plenty more to come for the vibe-heavy two-dayer set for July 7 and 8. I’ve never been much good at things like camping, enjoying sunshine, being around humans, etc., but I’ll be damned if they don’t make it seem enticing here, and what looks like an intimate vibe balanced with the outdoors in a kind nestled-in spot? Yeah. I think there’s something cool happening with this one. Like, let’s watch over the next couple years and see what happens.

The fest sent the following down the PR wire. I love that they call them ‘early bear’ tickets instead of ‘early bird’:

bear stone festival 2023 poster

Bear Stone Festival 2023 – First bands and ticket presale info announcement

It’s with great pleasure that we are announcing the first bands that are set to perform at Bear Stone Festival 2023 as well as the presale date for a limited number of Early Bear tickets!

We are very eagerly expecting the next edition of Bear Stone Festival after this year’s “Year Zero Edition” which created quite a buzz and very quickly established the festival as a fresh new concept that has been recognized both by its domestic and international audience. The symbiosis of Rock music with all of its (sub)genres and untouched nature has never been more beautiful.

See you again on July 07&08, 2023 on the banks of the magical Mrežnica river (Donje Primišlje, Slunj).

Our first headliners are a world famous UK institution for over 25 years, the legendary Stoner Rock/Blues Metal band Orange Goblin. They are followed by Croatia’s very own Psychedelic Rock magicians Seven That Spells for whom this will be their first public appearance since the pandemic. Mother’s Cake are a band that tenaciously expands their Alternative Space Rock gospel across the European stages for a number of years proving themselves to be the backbone of the Austrian alternative scene. Coming from Hungary are Woodstock Barbie led by the charismatic vocalist Alexandra Pádár with an arsenal of material that guarantees a wild ride.

ORANGE GOBLIN (UK)
SEVEN THAT SPELLS (CRO)
MOTHER’S CAKE (AT)
WOODSTOCK BARBIE (HU)

We are also announcing the presale date of limited and discounted Early Bear tickets that will be available from Wednesday, 19.10. from 10 a.m. Follow us on social media below for important links that will be posted soon.

Grab your discounted tickets on time!

https://www.instagram.com/bearstonefestival
https://www.facebook.com/bearstonefestival
http://www.bearstonefestival.com

Bear Stone Festival – Year Zero Edition aftermovie

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Up in Smoke 2016: Lineup Final; Trailer Posted

Posted in Whathaveyou on September 28th, 2016 by JJ Koczan

The final addition to the lineup for Up in Smoke 2016, which starts this Friday at Z7 in Pratteln, Switzerland? Camping space. Namely the floor of the venue, which will be cleaned after the last band finishes each night so that fest goers can grab their sleeping bags and bed down for the night, only to find breakfast waiting when they roll back to consciousness the next morning. I’ve never slept on a venue floor before. That would be a new one. But provided they get the beer/other fluids up, which I’ve no doubt they’ll be able to do because it’s Switzerland and things like that increase the likelihood that anyone gives a shit about what they’re doing, it seems like a cool way to achieve total immersion in a festival atmosphere. I’ve never gone camping either, though, so don’t necessarily take my word as an expert or anything.

With the festival’s most massive lineup yet, Up in Smoke 2016 kicks off this Friday. A new trailer for the fest with some 1000mods in it has been posted and you can find that under the camping info and complete billing below:

up-in-smoke-2016-timetable

SOUND OF LIBERATION and Z7 KONZERTFABRIK PRATTELN proudly present the 4th edition of UP IN SMOKE INDOOR FESTIVAL on September 30th and October 1st 2016! Musical Highlights include Electric Wizard, Yob, Truckfighters, Pentagram and many many more.

Many of you asked for the chance to sleep over in the venue, like we offered in the last editions. Here´s the procedure:

After the last band is done playing, we will go on partying with Dj music for another hour. Then afterwards, we will ask everybody to step out of the main hall for a few minutes. The floor will be cleaned and covered with a sheet so that the place gets clean for all our “in site – campers”. If you want to sleep over in the venue, you should bring your sleeping bag and camping mat. Upon your arrival on the festival site you can store your belongings in the wardrobe and get it back for the night.

In the morning, we will offer you a nice breakfast with coffee/tea, bread and breadrolls, meat and cheese and sweet stuff to get you in shape for the next festival day! The price for sleep over and breakfast is 15.- CHF per person/night. There´s no option of separate bookings like ” only sleep over and no breakfast” or “only breakfast”.

Up in Smoke 2016 Final Line Up
Electric Wizard
Pentagram
Truckfighters
YOB
Elder
Greenleaf
Monkey 3
Cough
Black Cobra
1000mods
Yawning Man
Fatso Jetson
Dyse
Wucan
Desert Mountain Tribe
Giobia
High Fighter
Mother’s Cake
Ephedra

Also not to forget: No overlapping set times, sleep over/breakfast possibiity in the venue + some more specials to be announced soon to sweeten you the “TWO NOT TO BE MISSED DAYS OF VOLUME WORSHIP” !!! Grab your ticket (2-day passes) right now on our website, on www.z-7.ch and on our Facebook (tab ‘Buy Tickets’). If you prefer to buy an original, real hard-ticket, our partner Woolheads is selling them!

http://woolheads.com/cms/shop-2/festivalmerchandise/up-in-smoke-the-indoor-festival-vol-iv-ticket/
http://www.upinsmoke.de/eventinfo-indoor-festival
https://www.facebook.com/UpInSmokeIndoorFestivalInZ7
https://www.soundofliberation.com

Up in Smoke 2016, festival trailer

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Up in Smoke 2016 Lineup Complete; Black Cobra, Dÿse, Mother’s Cake and High Fighter Added

Posted in Whathaveyou on June 30th, 2016 by JJ Koczan

up in smoke header

With the additions of Black Cobra, Dÿse, Mother’s Cake and High Fighter, the lineup for Up in Smoke 2016 is complete. The Pratteln, Switzerland-based festival runs for two nights, Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, and will be headlined by Electric Wizard, John Garcia, Pentagram and Truckfighters, with YOB, Elder, Yawning Man, Fatso Jetson and more listed below on the bill.

Black Cobra and High Fighter are particularly interesting of this final batch of adds. I’m not an expert on Desert Mountain Tribe or Ephedra to say for sure, but it would seem the San Francisco heavy thrash duo and the German sludgecore rockers are the two most aggressive acts playing. I guess you could make an argument for Cough, but they’re more about drowning you in tone than getting a pit going, where it doesn’t seem unreasonable to think that in the right setting Black Cobra or High Fighter would do just that.

The PR wire has this:

up in smoke 2016 final poster

UP IN SMOKE 2016! Sept. 30th / Oct. 1st … Black Cobra, Dÿse, Mother’s Cake & High Fighter complete the line-up!

Summer is here, and before you all go on vacation trying to find the sun far, far away (…), we’d like to give you the last bands confirmed for our Up In Smoke Indoor Festival 2016! We are thrilled to welcome San Francisco’s Hardcore-fueled Sludge Metal duo Black Cobra, Berlin’s incredible Noiserock stage freaks Dÿse, Austrian Alternative Space Rock outfit Mother’s Cake (touring with John Garcia next fall) and Hamburg’s rising Heavy Stoner Bluescore band High Fighter (who just released their debut album ‘Scars & Crosses’ on Svart Records)!!

Taking place on September 30th and October 1st 2016, in our dear Z7 Konzertfabrik (Pratteln / near Basel / Dreiländereck) this year’s edition also features Electric Wizard, John Garcia, Pentagram, Truckfighters, Yob, Elder, Cough, Greenleaf, Monkey3, 1000Mods, Yawning Man, Fatso Jetson, Wucan, Giöbia, Desert Mountain Tribe and Ephedra.

Unfortunately, the Italian band Noon had to cancel their appearance for medical reason.

Also not to forget: No overlapping set times, sleep over/breakfast possibiity in the venue + some more specials to be announced soon to sweeten you the “TWO NOT TO BE MISSED DAYS OF VOLUME WORSHIP” !!! Grab your ticket (2-day passes) right now on our website, on www.z-7.ch and on our Facebook (tab ‘Buy Tickets’). If you prefer to buy an original, real hard-ticket, our partner Woolheads is selling them!

http://woolheads.com/cms/shop-2/festivalmerchandise/up-in-smoke-the-indoor-festival-vol-iv-ticket/
http://www.upinsmoke.de/eventinfo-indoor-festival
https://www.facebook.com/UpInSmokeIndoorFestivalInZ7
https://www.soundofliberation.com

Black Cobra, “Imperium Simulacra”

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