StonerKras Fest to Hold Inaugural Edition Aug. 20; Nebula Confirmed

Posted in Whathaveyou on June 14th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

stonerkras fest 2022 nebula band photo

When Nebula announced their extensive European tour back in April, the Aug. 20 date in Trieste, Italy, was left as a TBA, and it’s been revealed that the reason for that is that the band’s first Euro run supporting their new album, Transmission From Mothership Earth — which was itself announced just about two weeks ago — will cap at the inaugural edition of the StonerKras Fest, a collaboration between Rocket Panda Management (this means I won’t be surprised when Trieste locals Buss are added) and Slovenia’s Mladinski Krožek Prosek-Kontovel. The stated mission is to represent both regions, and fair enough since there’s plenty of heavy to go around, but with Nebula on board, their reach proves immediately international and I doubt the Cali legends will be the only act from elsewhere to play.

Though I say that and I have no idea how many bands there will be on the finished bill, so take it for what it is in being next-to-baseless speculation, but whatever. Even as a single-day all-dayer, I have every reason to believe this won’t be the last edition of StonerKras Fest given the personnel involved, and who knows, maybe you’ll be in that part of the world in August following Nebula on tour like some kind of hippie revivalist thing and you’ll hit this one up. Or maybe you’re just sitting on your ass thinking it would be rad to go someplace you’ve never been and have a once-in-a-lifetime experience there. I say do it. Life’s too short and too generally wretched to let that kind of opportunity slip. As ever: quit your dayjob. For yourself, if not for rock and roll.

From the PR wire:

stonerkras fest 2022 nebula

STONERKRAS FEST

20.08.2022 – Prosek-Prosecco (Trieste, ITA)

Rocket Panda Management & Mladinski Krožek Prosek-Kontovel present STONERKRAS FEST

– 20.08.2022 – Prosek-Prosecco (Trieste, ITA) –

StonerKras is a psychedelic music gathering based on stoner, doom and heavy psych music. The festival will have an international footprint but with the aim of enhancing the local heavy scene (both Slovenian and Italian) while attracting spectators from the region but also from neighboring countries. Youth aggregation and cultural exchange accompanied by good music.

!!! FIRST BAND ANNOUNCEMENT TODAY !!!

NEBULA (heavy psych, USA)

+ more bands T.B.A. !!!

** FOOD & DRINKS **
** MARKET STANDS **
** FREE AFTERPARTY DJ-SET ***

Tickets at the door: 20€
For info and reservations: info@rocketpandamanagement.com

STAY TUNED FOR MORE INFO COMING SOON…

https://www.facebook.com/events/532235522016554
https://www.instagram.com/stonerkrasfest/
https://www.facebook.com/StonerKrasFest/

Nebula, “Highwired”

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Nebula Announce New Album Transmission From Mothership Earth out July 22

Posted in Whathaveyou on June 2nd, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Californian desert/heavy psychedelic rock legends Nebula have set a July 22 release for their new album, Transmission From Mothership Earth. Their second new studio offering for Heavy Psych Sounds behind 2019’s Holy Shit (review here), it features the returning trio of founding guitarist/vocalist Eddie Glass, longtime bassist/vocalist Tom Davies and drummer Michael Amster, and as discussed here earlier this year, it is the first Nebula album to have been made by the band out in the desert.

I expect tour dates, further track reveals, much hoopla to follow. Maybe I’ll even be able to get in on it if I’m lucky. The first single, “Highwired” is out today and streaming at the bottom of this post for your enjoyment. It sounds raw and the fuzz is real and in true Nebula fashion, they pack about seven minutes’ worth of song into four. Right on.

Cover art , preorder links and more follow, as per the PR wire:

nebula transmission from mothership earth

NEBULA – Transmission From Mothership Earth

– brand new album of the californian heavy psych wizards –

Today we are stoked to start the presale of the NEBULA brand new album TRANSMISSION FROM MOTHERSHIP EARTH !!!

The release will see the light July 22nd on Heavy Psych Sounds !!! Desert Psychedelic Fuzzsters Nebula are back with an incredible new album!! 8 tracks of pure Fuzzness recorded by bass player Tom Davies and produced together with the mastermind Eddie Glass in the Mojave desert !

It’s the classic Nebula sound: walls of guitars, riffs that come from outer space, melodic vocals matched with desert grooves… you couldn’t ask for more.

The band spent the last 6 months in the studio alone recording and mixing this new Psychedelic Stoner Rock gem! Amazing artwork made by Robin Gnista. TRANSMISSION FROM MOTHERSHIP EARTH is coming out on Heavy Psych Sounds Records July 22nd as the official soundtrack of your summer!

ALBUM PRESALE:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS243

USA PRESALE:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop-usa.htm

SAYS THE BAND:
“Begin Transmission from the mothership… Future humans, it is the year 2022. Space is deep. We are stoned and beautiful. If you have marijuana, smoke all of it and drop some acid. Turn on, tune in, drop out.”

RELEASED IN
15 ULTRA LTD TEST PRESS VINYL
100 ULTRA LTD COLOR IN COLOR TRANSPARENT-BLUE-SPLATTER RED-BLACK VINYL
200 ULTRA LTD 3 COLOR STRIPED BLUE-RED-BLACK VINYL
LTD AQUA BLUE VINYL
BLACK VINYL
DIGIPAK
DIGITAL

+

DISCOGRAPHY BUNDLE
(black LP + digipak from the following releases + T-shirt (Branca design) + Shopper)
Transmission From Mothership Earth
Heavy Psych
To The Center
Let It Burn
Dos Ep’s
Atomic Ritual
Apollo
Live in the Mojave Desert
Holy Shit
Charged
Demos Outtakes

+

NEW ALBUM ULTRA LTD BUNDLE
(Transmission From Mothership Earth + Heavy Psych REISSUE Ultra LTD LP’s + digipaks + T-shirt (Branca design) + Shopper)

RELEASE DATE:
JULY 22nd

NEW INCREDIBLE MERCH:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/merch.htm#nebula

TRACKLIST

Highwired – 4:08
Transmission From Mothership Earth – 4:07
Wilted Flowers – 5:15
Melt Your Head – 4:14
Warzone Speedwulf – 7:17
I Got So High – 4:45
Existential Blues – 5:20
The Four Horseman – 3:14

NEBULA is:
Eddie Glass – guitars/vocals
Tom Davies – bass/backing vocals
Michael Amster – drums

https://www.facebook.com/NebulaBand/
https://www.instagram.com/the_official_nebula/
https://atomicritual.com/

https://twitter.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUND
https://instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/
https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/
http://www.heavypsychsounds.com/

Nebula, “Highwired”

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Nebula Announce Summer UK & European Tour

Posted in Whathaveyou on April 19th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Nebula (Photo by JJ Koczan)

Go see Nebula. If you like the band, if you think you don’t like the band, whatever. Go see them anyway. Reason? If nothing else, Nebula are a band crucial to the fabric of what heavy rock and heavy psychedelia have become over the last two decades. Without them, these sounds would not be the same as they are today. I’m not saying Nebula singlehandedly made that happen — they did not — but they were a part of it, and in addition to being a fucking right-on-the-money rock and roll show, that has significant experiential value.

My question here is whether this tour will in some way coincide with the release of Nebula‘s next full-length. You’ll recall they were in the studio when I interviewed them in February, so it seems likely the record’s done by now and set to arrive presumably later this year as the follow-up to 2019’s Holy Shit (review here). This is an awfully big tour to go on without new vinyl — look at all those festivals! — but of course it’s a new universe now as regards releases and touring, so it may be this is just when it could happen and the album will come later. I don’t know, but this list of dates was certainly enough to raise my eyebrow in that regard.

Obviously, whenever it happens, I’ll look forward to that. You will too, especially if you go see Nebula, which you should.

From the PR wire:

nebula eu tour 2022

Heavy Psych Sounds to announce NEBULA – EUROPEAN TOUR 2022!!!

*** NEBULA EUROPEAN TOUR 2022 ***
HEAVY PSYCH FROM OUTERSPACE

20.07.2022 UK MILTON KEYNES – The Crauford Arms
21.07.2022 UK ** OPEN SLOT **
22.07.2022 UK BIRMINGHAM – Asylum
23.07.2022 UK LONDON – Underworld
24.07.2022 UK BRISTOL – Exchange
25.07.2022 UK DUBLIN – Grand Social
26.07.2022 UK CORK – Crane Lane Theatre
27.07.2022 UK BELFAST – Voodoo
28.07.2022 UK HUDDERSFIELD – The Parish
29.07.2022 UK MANCHESTER – Rebellion
30.07.2022 UK EDINBURGH – Bannermans
31.07.2022 UK COUNTY DURHAM – Dominion Festival
02.08.2022 FR **OPEN SLOT**
03.08.2022 FR MARSEILLE – Le Molotov
04.08.2022 IT TORINO – Blah Blah
05.08.2022 FIN HELSINKI – Ääniwalli
06.08.2022 DE PRIGNITZ PLATTENBURG – Aquamaria Festival
07.08.2022 DE OLDENBURG – MTS Records
08.08.2022 DE HAMBURG – MS Stubnitz
09.08.2022 DE DRESDEN – Chemiefabrik
10.08.2022 DE **OPEN SLOT**
11.08.2022 PO ANCORA – Sonic Blast
12.08.2022 DE COLOGNE – Hoflärm Festival
13.08.2022 DE MÜNSTER – Rare Guitar
15.08.2022 IT BRESCIA – Radio Onda D’urto Festival
16.08.2022 IT MARINA DI RAVENNA – Hana Bi
17.08.2022 IT ZEROBRANCO – Altroquando
18.08.2022 IT FRANCAVILLA AL MARE – Frantic Fest
19.08.2022 IT CAGLIARI – Cueva Rock Live
20.08.2022 IT TRIESTE – TBA

NEBULA is:
Eddie Glass (guitars-vocals)
Tom Davies (bass-backing vocals)
Michael Amster (drums)

https://www.facebook.com/NebulaBand/
https://www.instagram.com/the_official_nebula/

https://twitter.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUND
https://instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/
https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/
http://www.heavypsychsounds.com/

Nebula, Holy Shit (2019)

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Heavy Psych Sounds Fest California Announces Day Splits

Posted in Whathaveyou on April 14th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

You don’t need much more here than the list of bands, which is its own excuse for being. Italian label Heavy Psych Sounds returns to the States at the end of next month with Heavy Psych Sounds Fests in Los Angeles and San Francisco. With the day-splits announced, you get a little more sense of how the two nights in two cities will function (it’s not an insignificant drive from one to the other, mind you) and share bands, but any way you go, you don’t lose, whether you’re looking at Dead Meadow and Weedeater headlining, the appearances of long-running acts like 16 and Danava and Nebula, or relative newcomers in Kadabra or Mountain Tamer and others from the label’s ever-expanding roster of talent.

It’s a fucking solid two day lineup. Doesn’t look completely overwhelming. Looks like a party, which is exactly what I expect it will be for those fortunate enough to be in attendance. Maybe that’s you. If so, cheers. I hear Bongzilla like it if you bring them weed.

From the PR wire:

heavy-psych-sounds-california-fests-2022

HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST CALIFORNIA 2022 – DAY SPLITS LINE UP

– feat. DEAD MEADOW, WEEDEATER, THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX, BONGZILLA, NEBULA, DANAVA and many more –

HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS in cooperation with SUBLIMINAL SF and SOS BOOKING present:

HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST CALIFORNIA 2022
28 & 29 May
(Memorial Day weekend)

LOS ANGELES @ 1720 Club

SATURDAY, MAY 28th

DEAD MEADOW
DANAVA
NEBULA
HIPPIE DEATH CULT
16
KADABRA
MOUNTAIN TAMER

SUNDAY, MAY 29th

WEEDEATER
BONGZILLA
THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX
HIGH REEPER
WARLUNG
THE FREEKS
JD PINKUS
HIGH TON SON OF A BITCH

SAN FRANCISCO @ Openair at Thee Parkside

SATURDAY, MAY 28th

WEEDEATER
BONGZILLA
THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX
HOT LUNCH
HIGH REEPER
WARLUNG
JD PINKUS
HIGH TON SON OF A BITCH

SUNDAY, MAY 29th

DEAD MEADOW
DANAVA
NEBULA
HIPPIE DEATH CULT
16
KADABRA
MOUNTAIN TAMER
DISASTROID

heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/
https://www.instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/

Dead Meadow, Levitation Sessions (2021)

Weedeater, Goliathan (2015)

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Nebula Announce West Coast/Midwest Tour with Year of the Cobra

Posted in Whathaveyou on February 10th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

In case you missed it the other day — and maybe you did — I put up a video interview with Nebula‘s Eddie Glass and Tom Davies, ostensibly talking about reissues they’ve got out on Heavy Psych Sounds, but actually spending a decent amount of time discussing the band’s next record as well. If you didn’t see it, it’s at the bottom of this post, along with the stream of 2019’s Holy Shit (review here), which is the album they’ll be following up. I do not expect this to be the last tour Nebula will announce, and it’s my sincere hope that whenever East Coast dates should follow, they’ll also include Seattle’s Year of the Cobra, who — it should be noted — destroy.

 

nebula year of the cobra poster

Nebula & Year of the Cobra Western US Tour

Kicking the next tour off with Year of the Cobra this Cinco de Mayo in San Diego!!! Check the dates.

Nebula & Year of the Cobra:
05.05 San Diego CA Soda Bar
05.06 Mesa AZ The Underground
05.07 Albuquerque NM Launchpad
05.09 El Paso TX Raves Club
05.10 San Antonio TX Lonesome Rose
05.11 Houston TX
05.12 Lafayette LA Freetown Boom Boom Room
05.13 Dallas TX Three Links
05.14 Nashville TN The 5 Spot
05.15 Louisville KY Portal @ Fifteentwelve
05.17 Chicago IL Reggie’s
05.18 Milwaukee WI Cooperage
05.19 Sioux Falls SD Bigs Bar
05.20 Omaha NE Dr. Jack’s Drinkery
05.21 Denver CO HQ
05.22 Salt Lake City UT Aces High
05.24 Seattle WA El Corazon
05.25 Vancouver BC Rickshaw
05.26 Portland OR High Water Mark
05.27 Sacramento CA
05.28 Heavy Psych Sounds Fest CA
05.29 Heavy Psych Sounds Fest CA

NEBULA is:
Eddie Glass (guitars-vocals)
Tom Davies (bass-backing vocals)
Michael Amster (drums)

https://www.facebook.com/NebulaBand/
https://twitter.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUND
https://instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/
https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/
http://www.heavypsychsounds.com/

Nebula, Holy Shit (2019)

Nebula, Atomic Ritual & Apollo Interview, Jan. 21, 2022

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Nebula Premiere Apollo & Atomic Ritual Remasters; Interview with Eddie Glass & Tom Davies

Posted in audiObelisk, Bootleg Theater, Features on February 7th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

nebula (Photo by Matt Lynch)

Last week, Los Angeles trio Nebula oversaw the latest in a series of catalog reissues through Heavy Psych Sounds. This coming Friday they’ll do another. Time has been kind to both 2003’s Atomic Ritual and 2006’s Apollo.

That wasn’t necessarily the case at the time. Atomic Ritual saw the always-called-desert-rock-but-are-really-just-punkers-who-fuzz-and-shred-and-bliss-out outfit sign to short-lived Century Media rock-offshoot Liquor & Poker Music, and found them in the studio with Chris Goss (Masters of Reality, Kyuss, etc.) as producer, resulting in several choices being made for the songs that — as founding guitarist/vocalist Eddie Glass and bassist Tom Davies readily admit in the interview belownebula atomic ritual — probably wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

In the case of Apollo — which marked Davies‘ first appearance on record as a member of the band, though he’d filled in live and toured with Nebula prior — it was producer Daniel Rey‘s drive toward a stripped-down feel, making a raw rock version of Nebula‘s sound that resulted in something unlike anything the band had done before or has done since. Two records, seemingly outliers in the catalog, with the impossible task of moving forward from Nebula‘s landmark early work in the Let it Burn EP (discussed here), To the Center (discussed here) and Dos EPs (discussed here) — all previously reissued, along with 2001’s Charged and the compilation Demos & Outtakes ’98-’02 (review here), allowing the band to grow as artists and go through some at-times-bumpy shifts in lineup (though the fistfight story recounted in the interview happened later), and refining the identity they had already forged.

Revisited with open ears — and especially in context of 2009’s Heavy Psych LP (review here), the band’s years of silence and reignition which eventually resulted in 2019’s Holy Shit (review here), both of which were a return to the sometimes-psych, sometimes-whatever-screw-you-for-asking style that has come to define Nebula — the songs on Atomic Ritual and Apollo have the hallmarks of Nebula‘s craft, but they present them in ways entirely of their own, their producers taking almost oppositenebula apollo routes to get there between Goss‘s smoothing effect and Rey‘s history with the Ramones, Raging Slab, Gang Green, etc. When you put them on without the expectation of getting To the Center parts three and four, the listening experience is satisfying today in a way it inherently couldn’t have been 19 and 17 years ago. More then, than fodder for completists.

I was glad to have the chance to talk to Glass and Davies (the latter of whom was also interviewed here about a year ago) about these records, the flashing light changing color by their camera giving an all the more beamed-in-from-space feel to the conversation. Understandably, they were more keen to talk about their next record, the follow-up to Holy Shit, which at the time — like, that very moment — they were recording, with the band itself acting as a producer. They talk about album titles, touring prospects and more besides. And yeah, at one point Eddie had a knock-down-drag-out with one of their drummers. No, it wasn’t Ruben Romano.

Enjoy:

Nebula, Atomic Ritual reissue premiere

Nebula, Apollo reissue premiere

Nebula, Atomic Ritual & Apollo Interview, Jan. 21, 2022

Apollo is available now and Atomic Ritual is out this Friday through Heavy Psych Sounds. They can be ordered internationally here and in the US here. More info on their next album as I get it.

Nebula, Holy Shit (2019)

Nebula on Facebook

Nebula on Instagram

Heavy Psych Sounds on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

Heavy Psych Sounds on Bandcamp

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Review: Various Artists, Live in the Mojave Desert, Vols. 1-5

Posted in Reviews on April 13th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

live in the mojave desert 1-5

Late in 2020, when the project was announced, Live in the Mojave Desert sounded immediately ambitious. A series of five exclusive streams, taking bands and putting them out in the Californian deserts, with civilization somewhat visible from the aerial drone shots, but definitely far enough away to have been left behind, to record live sets by Giant Rock (see also: Yawning Man, Live at Giant Rock, the video/LP something of a precursor) and be captured doing so by professional audio and video. The series was successfully pulled off, which was impressive in itself, and it set a standard for heavy acts in this era of streaming that few could hope to match. The intention was concert-film, and the results were likewise.

Heavy Psych Sounds and the newly-formed Giant Rock Records — helmed by series director Ryan Jones — have overseen physical pressings of the sets as live albums, taking the audio caught by Dan Joeright of Gatos Trail Studio in Joshua Tree with mixing by Matt Lynch at Mysterious Mammal and others. From this comes Live in the Mojave Desert Vol. 1-5, and from the moment Isaiah Mitchell starts echoing out the notes that signal the pickup in “Violence of the Red Sea” to the final wah-out, crashes and shout of Mountain Tamer‘s “Living in Vain,” it remains clear the series is something special — a grand monument built to an ugly time.

A rundown:

Earthless, Live in the Mojave Desert Vol. 1

earthless live in the mojave desert
(stream review here)

The crazy thing about this series — or one of the crazy things, anyhow — is that if it had been just Earthless, that probably would’ve been enough to be staggering. Admittedly, it is difficult to hear the audio from bassist Mike Eginton, drummer Mario Rubalcaba and the aforementioned Isaiah Mitchell and not think of the desert at night being lit up by the Mad Alchemy Liquid Light Show, drones flying overhead as trippy lights flash and shift with the music, but I’m not sure that’s a bad thing. Earthless played three songs — “Violence of the Red Sea,” “Sonic Prayer” and “Lost in the Cold Sun” — and that’s enough to make their release the only 2LP of the Live in the Mojave Desert set, topping out at about 77 minutes, with the entirety of sides C and D dedicated to “Lost in the Cold Sun”‘s 39-minute sprawl.

There’s a reason Earthless were the headliners for this thing, and it’s because there’s no one else who has the same instrumental dynamic they bring to the stage — or sand, as it were — and because if you’re going for “epic” as a standard, they’re the band you call. Will Live in the Mojave Desert Vol. 1 replace Live at Roadburn 2008 (discussed here) as the band’s supreme live-recorded statement? I don’t know, but it sure sounds incredible. “Sonic Prayer” comes through with due sense of worship and “Lost in the Cold Sun” fuzzy grace feels like the kind of thing a future generation might think of as classic rock. Watching, it was easy to get lost in the show, follow the head-spinning turns of guitar atop the ultra-sure foundation of bass and drums, and listening, it’s the same. With an exquisite mix and a vital performance, it’s every bit the best-case-scenario for what Live in the Mojave Desert could and should be.

Earthless on Thee Facebooks

Earthless on Twitter

Earthless on Instagram

Earthless on Bandcamp

Nebula, Live in the Mojave Desert Vol. 2

nebula live in the mojave desert
(stream review here)

With Live in the Mojave Desert Vol. 2, I consider Nebula‘s comeback complete. The band reformed in 2017, hit the road hard, and in 2019 offered up the return studio full-length, Holy Shit! (review here), and toured again for as long as that option was available. They have new material in the works too, and what’s most striking about the trio’s performance the 10-song/48-minute set here is how characteristic it sounds. Drummer Mike Amster (also Mondo Generator, etc.) and bassist Tom Davies strap the listener down while founding guitarist/vocalist Eddie Glass takes off to the center of the universe, and amid classics like that opener, Holy Shit! cuts like “Messiah,” “Let’s Get Lost,” “Man’s Best Friend” and the new song “Wall of Confusion” fit right in. There’s never a doubt, never a question of who you’re hearing. Even the sloppiest moments are pure Nebula.

That’s what they’ve always been — part punk, part heavy psych, part pure go — and Live in the Mojave Desert Vol. 2 brings that to bear without question. As a follow-up to Holy Shit! as well as the band’s second sanctioned live recording behind 2008’s Peel Session, it captures their inimitable sonic persona and the sense of chaos that their material always seems to carry, like it’s all about to come apart at any second and if it did, fuck it anyway, you’re the one with the problem. It never does come apart here, which I guess is to the band’s credit as well, but this set is nonetheless a full expression of who Nebula are as a group. Now get to work on that next record.

Nebula on Thee Facebooks

Nebula on Instagram

Spirit Mother, Live in the Mojave Desert Vol. 3

spirit mother live in the mojave desert

(stream review here)

If one might think of including Spirit Mother in the series as a risk, the risk was mild at best, and as the first of two bands representing a next generation of California’s heavy underground, the Long Beach troupe more than acquitted themselves well in their relatively brief 10-song/33-minute showing. Live in the Mojave Desert Vol. 3 basks in the violin-conjured atmospheres of the four-piece’s debut album, Cadets (review here), and wants nothing for impact to complement that ethereal sensibility. Their songs are short, and that gives them a kind of proto-grunge edge, and the vocals of bassist Armand Lance, who shares those duties with violinist SJ, add drug-punkish urgency to the procession of one song into the next.

For a band coming off their first album, they are intricate in aesthetic in ways that might surprise new listeners, and that’s exactly why they feature behind Nebula in this series. Hearing them dig into “Black Sheep” and “Martyrs” and “Dead Cells” on Live in the Mojave Desert Vol. 3 is the best argument I can think of in favor of signing the band for their next studio release, and if Heavy Psych Sounds doesn’t, someone else surely will. Not trying to tell anyone their business, of course, but Spirit Mother are happening one way or another. That combination of air, earth, and fuzz is too good to leave out.

Spirit Mother on Thee Facebooks

Spirit Mother on Instagram

Spirit Mother on Bandcamp

Spirit Mother website

Stöner, Live in the Mojave Desert Vol. 4

Stöner live in the mojave desert

(stream review here)

Aired fifth but billed almost inevitably as Vol. 4, the unveiling of Stöner, the new trio from Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri with Ryan Gut (also of the former’s solo band) on drums was a bonus to the Live in the Mojave Desert. On-again-off-again collaborators across decades, Bjork and Oliveri nestled into mostly laid-back, stripped down grooves, their stated purpose in going back to the roots of the sound they helped create in the first place. The Kyuss-ness of the central riff of opener “Rad Stays Rad” is no less demonstration of their having done so than the driving punk of the Oliveri-fronted “Evel Never Dies.” The vibe is nostalgic in that song, as well as “Rad Stays Rad,” the gleefully funked “Stand Down,” and “The Older Kids,” but if Stöner is about looking back at this point, they’re doing so with fresh eyes.

To wit, “Own Yer Blues,” “Nothin’,” and the 13-minute mint-jam finale “Tribe/Fly Girl” are more endemic of who these players have become than who they were in the early ’90s or before, and that applies to “Stand Down” too. Bjork‘s vocals sound double-tracked on some of the parts (or at least close delay), but he and Oliveri work well together as one would expect, and as a reveal for what these guys had come up with in renewing their collaboration, Live in the Mojave Desert Vol. 4 offers seven memorable songs that would make anything more seem unnecessarily fancied up. If their calling card is that rad stays rad, they prove it. And I know he’s not the top bill in the trio with Bjork‘s flow and Oliveri‘s bass tone, but Gut‘s contributions here aren’t to be understated.

Stoner on Instagram

Stoner website

Mountain Tamer, Live in the Mojave Desert Vol. 5

mountain tamer live in the mojave desert

(stream review here)

Second only to Stöner in curiosity factor, L.A. trio Mountain Tamer have always held a darker edge in their sound, and that comes through in the brash 36 minutes, shouts and screams echoing out over fuzzed garage metal in a fuckall that’s punk in attitude but angrier in its underlying core. Guitarist/vocalist Andrew Hall, bassist Dave Teget and drummer Casey Garcia are the kind of band who open the show and sell the most merch when they’re done. The elements they’re working with are familiar and have been all along in their decade together and across their three LPs — the latest of them, 2020’s Psychosis Ritual (review here), was released by Heavy Psych Sounds — but more even than in their studio work, Live in the Mojave Desert Vol. 5 brought to light just how much their own their sound really is.

Whether languid as in “Chained” or “Black Noise” or furious as in “Warlock” and “Living in Vain,” Mountain Tamer give Nebula a run for their money in terms of chaos, and easily make for the most pissed off listen of the bunch in Live in the Mojave Desert. The relative roughness of their edge suits them, however, and the rampant echo on the guitar assures there’s still a spacious sound to act as counterbalance to all that thrashing and gnashing. If you can call it balance, I don’t know, but it works for them and they wield their sound as knife more than bludgeon when it comes to it.

Mountain Tamer on Thee Facebooks

Mountain Tamer on Instagram

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The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal Playlist: Episode 54

Posted in Radio on March 5th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

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Back to normal, such as it is, for The Obelisk Show. I did two songs in two hours last time and though it seemed to go over decently well in the chat, it was less welcomed by the station itself. Fair. I’ll readily admit that two hours of psychedelic improv is not going to be everybody’s cup of tea, even in a setting that supports extreme fare as a central ethic. I’m lucky they decided to air it. I’m lucky they let me do another episode.

In here you’ll find some more rocky stuff like Greenleaf and Formula 400. I’ve yet to really dig into the new Domkraft, so I wanted to give that a roll, and then the show gets into some heavier industrial stuff. Godflesh were talked about here last week, and Trace Amount, but some Sanford Parker and Author & Punisher too. I’ve had an itch lately that stuff has helped scratch. After that and Yawning Sons is my little homage to the Live in the Mojave Desert stream series. Mountain Tamer are on that this weekend and it’s well worth your time to search out. Of course, Earthless started that series so they’ll end the show here. Only fitting.

Thanks for listening and/or reading.

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 03.05.21

Greenleaf Love Undone Echoes From a Mass
Genghis Tron Ritual Circle Dream Weapon
Sunnata A Million Lives Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth
VT
Sonic Demon Black Smoke Vendetta
Formula 400 Messenger Heathens
Domkraft Dawn of Man Seeds
Kauan Raivo Ice Fleet
VT
Godflesh Avalanche Master Song Godflesh
Author & Punisher Ode to Bedlam Beastland
Trace Amount ft. Body Stuff Concrete Catacomb Concrete Catacomb
Sanford Parker Knuckle Crossing Lash Back
VT
Yawning Sons Cigarette Footsteps Sky Island
Spirit Mother Space Cadets Cadets
Nebula Let’s Get Lost Holy Shit
Mountain Tamer Black Noise Psychosis Ritual
Brant Bjork Stardust & Diamond Eyes Brant Bjork
VT
Earthless Violence of the Red Sea From the Ages

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is March 19 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

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