When your festival location requires GPS coordinates, you’re off to a good start. This weekend, the Czech Republic will play host to the Psy-High fest, an independently-produced psychedelia and heavy rock outdoor gathering with a few imported acts — headliners Dopelord are from Poland and Mamont and Mud Walk are on tour from Sweden — and a slew of native bands. Where does one hold such a heavy rock fest? In a quarry, of course.

If you happen to be in that part of the world, the info for the fest follows. If you’re elsewhere, then at least it’s a couple bands to check out and a reminder that awesome things are happening everywhere:

PSY-HIGH

Stoner and psychedelic rock, stoner doom, and the closest vicinity of the rock, blues, doom, sludge (,…) music inspired by altered states of mind and the culture around them.

Psy High is a DIY festival, which aims to unite, support, provoke and grow a more consistent stoner/psych rock/doom culture in Czech Republic, because it is almost non-existent, while it thrives and blossoms in all countries arround us. Bit by bit, year after year, we want to help to develop a scene that country called ‘Bohemia’ deserves.

We have booked 2 great bands from Sweden: Mamont, and Mud Walk, and Dopelord from Poland + we will host many Czech bands, to cite few of our favourites, there will be Argonaut, Zkouška Sirén, Tomáš Palucha, Bumfrang3, Keysmoon, Five Seconds to Leave, and other small, starting projects and bigger bands alike. Check the poster on Facebook to see the whole lineup!

The whole shebang will take palce in a beautiful little old quarry called Jarov, near to the city of Beroun (30minutes by car from Prague). The mine is in walking distance from the Beroun train station(20min). Parking is possible in the nearby village. There is another quarry, which is flooded and offers epic swimming in walking distance (20mins) It is insanely beautiful.

GPS location of the fest: 49°56’33.158?N, 14°4’8.050?E

Photos of festival location are to be found on the FB event, along with the set list, the poster, the bands and a chance to express your opinion and ask questions! Should not be problem to ask on FB event for accommodation in Prague as well!

The entrance fee is 400czk/15€ or in presale for 12,50€ , and you can look forward for good and fair Czech beer prices (arround 1€). Come and be part of this (hopefully) historical event!
List of Bands

Mamont
Mud Walk
Dopelord
Five Seconds to Leave
Argonaut
Zkouška Sirén
Depakine Chrono
Bumfrang3
Tomáš Palucha
Stoned Ape
Meccaverius Society
The Tower
Keysmoon
Pantauism
Shiva Khurva

Links
FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/539496556109740/
Nyx: http://www.nyx.cz/index.php?l=events%3Bl2%3D2%3Bid%3D22162
G+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/csf7kdtaohm7aq789tq2mivma8k
Last.fm: https://www.last.fm/festival/3655926+Psy+-+High

Psy-High Festival Trailer

Who doesn’t like to go for a ride in the fall? That at least seems to be the theory that Swedish heavy rock acts Mamont and Mud Walk are going for. The two bands will team up — Mamont continuing to support their 2012 Passing through the Mastery Door full-length (review here) and Mud Walk riding the bluesy grooves of their 2012 sophomore EP, The Drifter’s Forgotten Lore (discussed here) — for what’s been dubbed a “Stoner Ride” throughout Europe, hitting their native Sweden as well as Germany (where they’ll support Radio Moscow), Poland, the Czech Republic and Denmark on the way over the course of 10 days.

Mud Walk‘s grooves are more blues-based than Mamont, who revel in heavy psych and fuzz, but for anyone lucky enough to catch them on this run, the two bands should provide excellent complement for each other stylistically, making for a well-rounded bill. I wouldn’t be surprised either if they both had some new material to show off on the tour, as it’s been a while since both of their last releases. Mud Walk also just completed a European tour where they played with Siena Root and others, and apparently have their own “Barefoot Beer” in honor of their 2011 Barefoot Band debut EP.

Here’s the poster and tour dates:

MUD WALK & MAMONT ON TOUR IN SEPTEMBER 2013

SWEDEN – GERMANY – CZECH REPUBLIC – POLAND – DENMARK – SWEDEN

For every gig, there will be a private event!
More info, pics and videos from our StonerRide throughout Europe will follow … stay put ppl!!

Dates:
31.08.2013 Stockholm (SWE) – Nalen Klubb (with Kansas City Shuffle Umeå and Mushroom Caravan Overdrive !)
04.09.2013 Lund (SWE) – Hemgården (with Vidunder !)
05.09.2013 Berlin (DE) – Jägerklause
06.09.2013 Lichtenfels (DE) – Paunchy Cats (with Radio Moscow !!)
07.09.2013 Beroun (CZ) – / Psy – High \
08.09.2013 Beroun (CZ) – / Psy – High \
09.09.2013 tba
10.09.2013 Prauge (CZ) – Klubovna
11.09.2013 Wroclaw (PL) – Alive Wroc?awski Klub Muzyczny
12.09.2013 Copenhagen (D) – Stengade (with Lewd Flesh !)
13.09.2013 (SWE) tba
14.09.2013 (SWE) Jönköping

See ya there!

https://www.facebook.com/events/666841953345625/

MUD WALK:
https://www.facebook.com/mudwalkswe
https://myspace.com/mudwalk

MAMONT:
https://www.facebook.com/mamontsweden
http://mamont.bandcamp.com/

Mamont, Passing through the Mastery Door (2012)

Dually-fronted Swedish six-piece Mud Walk recorded their latest EP, The Drifter’s Forgotten Lore, in San Francisco earlier this year. Released by Ella Music Nation, it’s a five-track collection of unpretentious retro heavy rock, fervent in its groove and varied between the warm low-end vibing of “I’m Good When I Hear the Guns” and the unmitigated shuffle of “On the Loose,” which has enough early ’70s swagger in its execution to live up to its title. Put to tape at the US Women’s Audio Mission, it’s a thickened garage stomper with bluesy thrust and soulful vocals vying for prominence in a way that only adds to the excitement of the listen.

The Drifter’s Forgotten Lore is Mud Walk‘s second EP behind 2011’s Barefoot Band, and is more than cohesive enough to make me wonder what the band might be able to do with a full-length release. Much of the focus inevitably is going to be on vocalists Johanna Bayard (also harmonica) and Anna-Stina Jungerstam — one can almost see the line forming to make mostly inaccurate comparisons to Heart circa Dreamboat Annie — but on opener “Alaska” (also the longest track at 4:47; points), guitarists Stina Årman-Assargård and Liv Platzer lack nothing for presence or prominence, and throughout the release, the double-Jonna rhythm section of bassist/backing vocalist Jonna Wikblad and drummer Jonna Karlsson consistently provide the foundation that keeps it all together.

To wit, “Sole Times” seems to be a moodier waltz at first, with vocals further back in their analog echo, adding to the psychedelic vibing, but in the final third, Wikblad underscores a start-stop riff with some classic funk and the sense of movement so prevalent throughout The Drifter’s Forgotten Lore is revived. Likewise, though Bayard‘s harmonica features heavily in the 2:50 closer, “Hounded,” it’s the rolling groove that emerges near the halfway point that makes the track such a landmark to end the EP. It’s a strong release from a young band with a firm handle on their aesthetic, more fully produced than the first, but still natural-sounding, and however much bell-bottomed worship seems to emerge from Sweden, acts like Mud Walk seem to be able to maintain their own spin on the style even as they affirm the tropes of the burgeoning subgenre.

The EP is available now from Ella Music Nation — I don’t have Spotify, but apparently Mud Walk is on Spotify — and they’re on Thee Facebooks and Twitter as well. The EP isn’t streaming publicly anywhere to the best of my knowledge, so here’s the video for the title-track to Barefoot Band, which should still give some idea of what Mud Walk are all about.

Dig it: