Posted in Whathaveyou on July 14th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
You know, I wouldn’t necessarily have thought so, but Buy Online Essay provides best visit & essay help for students. Our professional online essay writers deliver quality work at affordable Endless Boogie put it all on the line when they say “you most certainly need this thing,” and I think they might be right. writing a service research writing services free essay generator dissertation philosophie travail bonheur The Gathered and Scattered is the New York jammers’ upcoming collection of rehearsal improvisations. It reportedly runs three hours long and spans four 12″ records. It is limited to 1,000 copies.
Am I ever going to have three hours solid to sit and listen to four High-quality click to read mores in UK. Online MBA Essay writing services for students in UK at affordable rates. Contact for best MBA essays Endless Boogie LPs in a row, back to back, for that stretch of time? Given what my life is as of today, I can’t think of any way it would happen in at least probably the next 15 years. Just doesn’t seem feasible. But maybe stretched out over time, an LP here, an LP there, I could make my way through, and maybe that’d be an alright way to go. The preorders are up and they’re $58, so that ain’t nothing, but it’s about $3.41 per jam, and certainly seems like a fair ask on the band’s part.
They posted some of this material on Bandcamp back in March, and you’ll find it below, along with the info for the box set, which I expect will sell out on preorders long before I get up the nerve to pull the trigger and get it myself. Such is Mango.
Dig:
Endless Boogie – The Gathered and Scattered
Lord have mercy! 4xLP boxset of archival crude EB rehearsal jams from 1999-2012?!? Strictly NoFi! You most certainly need this thing. Preorder today at:
“Since the pandemic has made it impossible for the Endless Boogie gentlemen to gather in order to finally finish their new studio album they thought this an appropriate time to dig through the basement for some ancient fierce jams for you to relish and devour.
These recordings were made mostly during the first decade of this century and it’s mostly entirely improvised rehearsal recordings, a couple of 3am jams after falling out of the bar, and hints of aborted and despairing recording sessions. Besides the core line-up of Gray/Druzd, Eklow, Major and Mark O during this era we get glimmers of double Sweeneys (both Matt and Spencer), as well as Tim Evans, and, whoop dee, Andrew WK?!
This collection of unrelenting Pre-Music comprise some selections previously only available on limited edition CDRs, almost half is entirely previously unreleased and NONE of the tracks in this box have ever appeared on vinyl before. 4 LPs, 3 hours of CRUDE TRUTH. It’s a one-time vinyl-only edition of 1,000 copies.”
1. Life and Legend 2. Basement Jam Ritual III 3. Cretan Miniatures 4. Crude Truth 5. Bob Murphy Control 6. Surplus to Requirements 7. Ruin Art 8. Basement Jam Ritual V 9. Hadrian’s Fall 10. Magic Square 11. Red Cloaks, Stained Shields 12. Fat Man Loop ? 13. Rattlesnake Shake 14. Electioneering 15. Basement Jam Ritual I 16. Mother Fury 17. Reconstruction
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 8th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
If the vibe of the second how to head a personal statement see this Uk do i title my college application essay write my dissertation uk online Swarm of Flies single strikes you as having a different vibe from the first, that’s at least in part because it’s also got something of a different lineup. While project-spearhead/guitarist Write An Essay About My Dream Car. Ranked #1 by 10,000 plus clients; for 25 years our certified resume writers have been developing compelling resumes, cover letters Ken Wohlrob and bassist We college essay help price, term papers, research papers, thesis papers, reports, reviews, speeches and dissertations of superior quality written from scratch Davis Schlachter make a return — they’re bandmates in We are glad to introduce you the buy custom essays onlines! We understand the trust you are placing in us, so your paper will match the highest grade level! End of Hope; Need a service to http://www.zacapaonline.com/?restaurant-business-plan-templates? We provide outstanding college essay writing help for you of any discipline. Price starts just at per page! Wohlrob also fronts Experience the Australias best online assignment help service at My http://www.hotelbiser.com.mk/?writing-up-my-phd-thesis. Our team of professional assignment helpers, will provide you Eternal Black, Professional custom read this offers custom essays, term papers, research papers, thesis papers, reports, reviews, speeches and dissertations of Schlachter doubles (triples?) in Students always look for answer of please Argumentative Essay Topics About Education for me at cheap price, do my essays has the right credentials to meet your expectations for essay help Reign of Zaius — they’re joined by a Philadelphia contingent of sample thesis statement for compare and contrast essay http://cheapessaywritings24.com/can-do-my-essay/ can do my essay an expository essay reputable essay writing services Thunderbird Divine‘s A reliable In A Reflective Essay You Should service with 24/7 customer support. Order professional college papers here (with a discount %)! Erik Caplan and The Smart Writers is one of the most renowned online http://gomoawda.gov.gh/personal-statement-masters-degree/ in UK. Besides being cheap in price, we maintain 100% confidentiality and a Clamfight‘s pay it forward essay ideas Business Plan Vs Strategic Plan annual fundsforwriters essay contest college application essay writing service by george ehrenhaft Andy Martin.
It’s Martin to whom the vocal duties fall on “The Jaunt,” and he weaves a tale of sci-fi paranoia and conspiracy that’s only suited to whatever clever name history will someday give what we’re now calling “this moment” that we’re living through. It’s a spoken word piece, and the music behind is correspondingly atmospheric, which itself is a departure from the prior “Mine All Along” (posted here), but if the end-goal of Swarm of Flies is to create an album’s worth of collaborations, the Wohlrob and Schlachter serve a vital function in tying it all together.
But really, what’s a guy gotta do to get an invite to do a track, huh? Is it ‘sit here and be jealous?’ Because that I can do.
Here’s info and audio:
Pandemic-project Swarm of Flies releases second single, “The Jaunt,” featuring members of Eternal Black, Clamfight, Thunderbird Divine, Reign of Zaius, and End of Hope.
A few words from Ken Wohlrob (Eternal Black, End of Hope):
Swarm of Flies is a collaborative musical project made up of musicians from well-established underground bands. The goal is to continue to release new music during the coronavirus pandemic. Our second single, “The Jaunt,” is now available as a name-your-price download on Bandcamp (swarmofflies.bandcamp.com) and is also available via online streaming services including Spotify and Apple Music.
The Song
As always, the S.O.F. lineup changes with each track. “The Jaunt,” features Andy Martin from Clamfight on vocals, Erik Caplan from Thunderbird Divine on guitar, drones, and harmonica, Davis Schlachter from Reign of Zaius and End of Hope on bass, synthesizer, and piano, and myself on guitar, Moog, and programming. This song is a strange one and the journey it went through from a somewhat minimalist dirge into a sort of space-rock epic speaks to the collaborative process. Erik is a flurry of creative ideas and threw so many layers at me that the challenge became finding the sonic bandwidth to make all the parts fit. The piano part added by Davis became an important counterpoint to all the electronic noise and his bassline anchors the whole thing in the Bad Seeds tradition. Andy had the idea for a spoken word part early on, but when we finally heard what he cooked up, we were stunned. It sets this dark tone and then builds to a great revelation. We handed it over to our good friend Joe Kelly, of Suburban Elvis Studios, to mix and master it, as well as add some additional percussion. It is a headphones song. You’ll keep hearing different layers every time you listen to it.
Comments from Erik:
“‘The Jaunt’ initially arrived as a sort of a puzzle challenge from Ken. The song is in an awkward key, and it’s in a janky time signature. It’s gloomy and moody. Once I figured out the progression, I had to figure out where I fit into the equation. This isn’t a song for guitar shredding, and it’s not a rocker or a doom jam. So I did a little Doors surf guitar and added some drone manipulations. I think the end result is simultaneously trippy, intense and organic.”
Comments from Andy:
“Lyrically, ‘The Jaunt’ was born of a collision between astrological alignments of Neolithic monuments, the Space Race during the Cold War, and the Repo Man soundtrack. The world we currently exist in is one that’s both isolated and unintentionally intimate. People are cut off from each other yet we can broadcast every moment of our lives to the those in our social circles. That made it easy to imagine being isolated from someone while having intimate access to their last moments.”
Who?
Here is a list of musicians who have participated in the Swarm of Flies project so far: Andy Martin from Clamfight Erik Caplan from Thunderbird Divine Davis Schlachter from Reign of Zaius, Clothesline, and End of Hope Earl Walker Lundy from Shadow Witch David Richman from Witch Taint, St. Bastard, and End of Hope Joe Kelly and Kol Marshall from Suburban Elvis Studios And myself (if you don’t know who I am) from Eternal Black and End of Hope
It had been probably a decade since I put on World Coming Down, the fifth album from Brooklyn, New York’s Type O Negative, but I still knew every word to every song. That’s a special record.
Type O Negative — principal songwriter Peter Steele on bass/vocals, Johnny Kelly on drums, Kenny Hickey on guitar/some vocals and Josh Silver on those oh-so-essential keys — were coming off an absolute masterpiece in their prior offering, 1996’s October Rust (review here), which saw them transcend the goth metal stereotype to which they’d been lumped in part rightly and truly bask in the possibilities for what they might offer in their impossibly-individualized blend of Black Sabbath and The Beatles. In a time when metal was beating its chest to the Panteras of the universe, Type O Negative was apologetically sexually transgressive, and they defined their own course and their own career on October Rust.
Yeah, all well and good, but then you have to make another record, right? Throw that pressure, Steele‘s well-under-way cocaine addiction, various personal losses and traumas, and the result is probably the darkest work Type O Negative ever released. Sure, songs like “Who Will Save the Sane?” and “Creepy Green Light” and “All Hallows Eve” seemed to speak to some of the same post-goth elements as October Rust, but when you put those alongside “Everyone I Love is Dead,” “Everything Dies” — who the hell let both of those on the same record? — and the slog of an opening that the album gets with “White Slavery,” and the affect is just miserable from the outset. Type O Negative had certainly trafficked in downerism to this point, but World Coming Down — even its 11-minute title-track, which is high among the best songs this band ever produced — felt more real, more personal, and at times the weight it seemed to put on the listener could be a lot to take.
A product of its era, it runs 13 songs and 74 minutes long with a Beatles medley at its conclusion after “All Hallows Eve” and “Pyretta Blaze” — which one might accuse of being a cynical redux/answer to the likes of “My Girlfriend’s Girlfriend” or even “Be My Druidess” from the prior album — and is peppered with death in the three interludes “Sinus,” “Liver” and “Lung,” which of course allude to cocaine, drinking and smoking. If this was the band’s excesses catching up with them, then fair enough, but the difference on World Coming Down is that what was gallows humor is instead just misery. If that seems like a fine line, Type O Negative demonstrate clearly by the end of “White Slavery” that it isn’t. Of course, Steele was still a songwriter at heart, so the clever chorus, “Let me say, Pepsi Generation/A few lines of misinformation/Watch your money flow away oh so quick/To kill yourself properly coke is it,” is just that — clever. And catchy. But the underlying message isn’t lost just for being couched in an accessible package, and, even the uptempo piano lines of “Everything Dies” can’t mask the plainness with which Steele delivers, “Now I hate myself, wish I’d die.” This, right before the flatlining of “Lung.” A radio hit about hair dye, it ain’t.
There was no question that World Coming Down was informed by both the creative and the audience success of October Rust. From “Skip It” at the outset pulling a prank on the listeners to the lushness of melody in “Everything Dies” and “Pyretta Blaze.” The pre-medley closer “All Hallows Eve” seems to echo the sparseness (at least initially) of “Haunted” from the album before it as well. Each Type O Negative record was its own beast, from 1991’s Slow, Deep and Hard to 2007’s Dead Again, but neither were they ever shy about self-awareness, and that manifest throughout World Coming Down as much as anywhere. Even with the title-track as the centerpiece, it’s not a record I’d reach for before, say, 1993’s Bloody Kisses, October Rust, or maybe even Dead Again or 1992’s still-formative The Origin of the Feces, famous as much for its cover art as for any of the songs it actually contained. That’s not to say World Coming Down doesn’t have an appeal, just that, again, it can be a lot to take in. It is an album of meta-heaviness. They sound no less weighted down than the guitar or bass tones.
When Type O Negative were at their most ‘goth,’ on Bloody Kisses, they were tongue-in-cheek about it. There are some moves made to have the same perspective on World Coming Down, but somehow the humor is undone by the surrounding sincerity. As Steele intones during a break in the the title-track, “It’s better to burn quickly and bright/Then slowly and dull without a fight,” paraphrasing Neil Young in the process, it’s hard to know whether he’s working to convince himself or the listener of what he’s saying. World Coming Down is a gorgeous record, make no mistake, but its beauty has the arduous task of finding expression through a range of pains that comprise the recurring themes: death, addiction, inability to cope, etc.
The Beatles medley, with pieces of “Day Tripper,” “If I Needed Someone” and “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” is fair enough ground for Type O Negative to tread, having made no bones throughout their career of being influenced by — or as they might put it, “ripping off” — that group at various points. They also did a number of Beatles songs live, including “Back in the USSR.” And their penchant for matching parts of different songs together could easily be seen as an extension of the individualized takes they brought to “Hey Pete” or their version of “Paranoid” earlier in their career. It’s a little out of place on the album, tacked onto the end, but if I’m not mistaken, RoadrunnerRecords had a mandate at one point that everything they put out had to have a cover on it. Fear Factory did “Cars.” Type O Negative did “Day Tripper.” Fair enough.
Thinking about Nine Inch Nails‘ The Fragile (discussed here) last week — which came out the same day as World Coming Down; Sept. 21, 1999 — prompted a revisit here, and while the context of Steele‘s death in 2010 adds a spin of tragedy to everything Type O Negative did, as someone who was a fan of the band at the probably-too-tender age of 11, and who called Q104.3 so many times to request “Black No. 1” that they knew my name, I’m glad for any excuse to listen to them when an excuse to do so happens along.
—
We’re in Connecticut, came up yesterday. I’ve got to wrap this up in like 10 minutes so we can hit the road. Dropping off The Patient Mrs. and The Pecan at her mother’s, then driving north into Rhode Island about an hour and a half to buy chicken from a farm up there, then back down to grab them and back down again to NJ, hopefully all by naptime, but we’ll see. It’ll be a busy day.
Next week — Quarterly Review. I’m supposed to watch the Candlemass live stream this afternoon and review that too. It starts at 2PM. That should be up Monday, but other than that, it’s QR all the way. Not much news lately, so it’s a good time for it. Of course I say that and next week will probably be flooded. Whatever.
But since I haven’t even managed to brush my teeth yet — already changed a poopy diaper, made the kid breakfast (admittedly half-assed), and got two posts up! — and there’s still packing to do, I’m gonna call it. The Gimme show is a repeat this week, but if you feel like listening, it’s always appreciated.
It’s 4th of July weekend. I don’t have much to say about it, but if you’re proud to be an American in 2020, you’re either fooling yourself or an asshole. We should hang our heads and mourn the unnecessary dead this year. Have fun at the fireworks.
Whatever you do with it, a day off is a day off. I hope you have a great and safe weekend. Enjoy yourself from a safe distance.
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 29th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Terminology hasn’t really caught up yet with modern the two-song release. The tradition, obviously, comes from a single’s A and B sides, and very often, that tradition is upheld, and a band releases a single as a 7″. As both songs on Human Impact‘s new foray, Transist / Subversion, run near/at six and a half minutes, they’re a little long to fit on a 7″, and unless they’re feeling cheeky and want to do an 8″ — they wouldn’t be first — and if they’re just leaving it digital, it is what it is. When it comes to this kind of thing, I like “two-songer.” Says what it is, gives the B-side a bit of validity, and lets the audience know they’re getting more than just a “single.” If you have to specify, you might as well be specific.
So hey, Human Impact have a new two-songer. It’s not an EP. It’s not just a single — the second track, “Subversion” is a noise wash but lacks nothing for substance in that — but for those who dug the band’s 2020 self-titled debut (review here), it’s an appreciated check-in from the corporeal-chaos noisemakers.
It’s pick-your-apocalypse these days, so we might as well take joy as it comes, huh? Here you go:
HUMAN IMPACT SHARE TWO STANDALONE SINGLES; “TRANSIST” AND “SUBVERSION”
Following the release of their debut self-titled album, Human Impact have been releasing brand new material, including the recent single, “Contact” which was written and recorded shortly before the outbreak of Covid-19. The band share two further standalone singles “Transist” and “Subversion.”
About these latest singles the band remark, “Transist” was from a group of songs that we recorded and mixed just prior to the current pandemic. The song is a reflection on what the world looks like as things fall apart. Our broken ideals, the unstable foundations of our civilization, our trusting dependence on technology and our subservience to the ruling governments/corporations. The shining object held up by society that will never be realized. All creating a pressing need for change.”
They continue, ““Subversion” emerged from a 30 minute intro from our last live show (on March 14). We started that show with a 30 minute improv noise/ambient set. All members of the band have varied histories in soundtrack work and scoring music to picture. We look forward to getting back to live shows and expanding on this more.”
HUMAN IMPACT is Chris Spencer (Unsane, UXO): Vocals/Guitar Jim Coleman (Cop Shoot Cop): Electonics Chris Pravdica (Swans, Xiu Xiu): Bass Phil Puleo (Cop Shoot Cop, Swans): Drums
By now the ‘quarantine video’ is fast becoming a genre of its own, and one that will, when the planet has reopened to whatever new reality awaits our pitiful species — back to burning working class labor and fossil fuels we go, merrily cutting taxes and learning nothing — be a marker of this time and experience. It speaks to the simple need to create that, even isolated from each other, the members of bands can’t help but collaborate on projects like this new video from Kings Destroy. There are so many working on new material during this lockdown, and as we seem to be at least telling ourselves we’re through the worst of it — maybe we are, I don’t know — the baby-boom of records to come might indeed be another marker of COVID-19’s aftermath. So be it. In the meantime, locked in their homes in New York, Kings Destroy put together a clip for “Fantasma Nera” from their 2019 album of the same name (review here), which Svart delivered and you should’ve listened to if you didn’t. There’s time now, to paraphrase Burgess Meredith at the end of the world.
But whatever. The album’s fanatically melodic, and a boldly rock and roll reaction to the confrontationalism of their past work. More than anything, it was the record where they perhaps once and for all shrugged off the expectations of others and took the course they wanted to take. No two Kings Destroy releases have ever been the same — all the more reason to listen — so I wouldn’t count on them repeating this process next time, even should they return to work again with producer David Bottrill (Tool, King Crimson, etc.). But though I’m sure guitarists Carl Porcaro, who bursts into the room at one point in the video with his freshly-shaved head carrying his guitar like he’s on Smackdown, and Christopher Skowronski, who hates run-on sentences like this one and recently did a days of rona talking about his own plague experience, have been chipping away at new riffs and during their stuck-at-home time, the band as a whole aren’t probably there yet. It would probably help things along though if they could get in the same room. Remember when that used to happen?
And as the opening lyrics of the song say, “Remember when we were alive?/Neither do I.”
On that fun note, a few highlights: We see drummer Rob Sefcik‘s dog and child and he gives a good shrug in addition to a righteous performance on some pretend drums. At one point, vocalist Steve Murphy points at the camera. Bassist/backing vocalist Aaron Bumpus fades in with some ’80s metal effects on the harmonies and, later, enjoys a drink, as does much of the band. And of course, that Porcaro entrance. It’s a good one.
The video was edited by Skowronski and he offers some quick comment below, and the Bandcamp stream of Fantasma Nera is down there too. Have at it.
And please enjoy:
Kings Destroy, “Fantasma Nera” official video
Christopher Skowronski on “Fantasma Nera”:
“I was just looking for a project to keep me busy during the lockdown. I realized we never made a video for any song off of Fantasma Nera, so why not make one. Of course all of us being in isolation posed a problem. I also didn’t want to do one of those videos of a band playing “live” via Zoom or whatever. I mean, I’ve seen some cool ones, but it’s been done, and not all of us have the technology to pull that off anyway. So I just asked everyone to film themselves playing the song, as well as some footage of them in isolation doing whatever they chose. I got a ton of footage back from everyone, went through it, and cut it together. It wasn’t until I began making it that I realized the lyrics — especially the first few lines of the song — fit the overall situation so well. Anyway, it at least gave us all something creative to do.”
It’s been a while since the last check-in from New York-based heavy rockers Thinning the Herd. It happens. Their last album was 2013’s Freedom From the Known and after that came out they went through a few lineup shifts as a band will, and already in 2012 they’d lost drummer Rick Cimato in a fatal auto accident, so yeah, after something like that, you might need some time. Still, led by guitarist/vocalist Gavin Spielman, the band have a new video for the instrumental track “Gaikatt Mountain” from the aforementioned 2013 LP, made in homage to Cimato, and I’m happy today to host the premiere for it. You’ll find it below, followed by some comment from Spielman.
The track itself unfolds as a mellow jam, beginning with light strings strumming and gradually moving into fuzzier terrain. You can hear the live feel that Steve Albini recordings are known for in the rhythm section, even as acoustic and electric guitars intertwine, the bass punching through insistently all the while. Its easy flow is contrasted soon enough with a quick shift to a rushing riff and tempo-surge progression. You’ll see in the video it’s when the shift happens from landscape to cityscape, and there’s live footage spliced in as well, but later on the drone shots return and make a fitting cap even as the shift to quiet ends up more permanent. As these cats always were, it’s no pretense heavy rock with some metal oomph behind it that asks little indulgence beyond four minutes of your time.
The album’s seven years old, so absolutely, you can find it streaming in the places where streaming happens.
Enjoy the video:
Thinning the Herd, “Gaikatt Mountain” video premiere
Gavin Spielman on “Gaikatt Mountain”:
The inspiration for this song came during a shroom experience in my early teens. It was just a warm up technique, a riff that bridged spirit and technique for me, rudimentary but a melody I never stopped playing. I played this tune in bands before Thinning the Herd, and it went by “Hard To See” and had lyrics, but abandoned them. I feel the main riff is pure Thinning the Herd stripped down to its bare bones, and somewhat of a departure from our heavy tone. It’s the only instrumental song we’ve put out, and I’m glad we did because it’s a reminder of an angel flying overhead, watching us.
This new video signifies our drummer Rick watching us, looking down upon our journey into the unknown, blessing us with understanding of knowledge, showing us the simplicity of birth and death, capturing the ephemeral experience in between.
GAIKATT MOUNTAIN by THINNING THE HERD: The 9th Song off the third record (FREEDOM FROM THE KNOWN) by THINNING THE HERD (on St. Mark’s Records). This tune is an instrumental written in 2011 specifically for the record.
Available through all major online retailers including AMAZON and Apple Music, Bandcamp and Streaming on Spotify.
Recorded by Steve Albini in Chicago Mixed by Wes Edmonds Mastered by Tony Gillis in NYC All lyrics and music G. Spielman Video Production by Green Pine Tree Studio
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 13th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
If idle hands are the devil’s workshop, then I guess we’re casting Eternal Black‘s Ken Wohlrob out of paradise — such as it is — this week. The guitarist/vocalist from the Brooklynite doom trio — also of the more hardcore-driven End of Hope is working toward assembling a rotating cast of misfits and ne’er-do-wells that includes familiar faces from the Northeastern Corridor like Erik Caplan from Philly’s Thunderbird Divine and Earl Walker Lundy from Shadow Witch, among a host of others that is still growing.
The project is called, somewhat self-effacingly, Swarm of Flies, and along with Davis Zaius and fellow End of Hope member David Richman, as well of course as Wohlrob himself at the helm of the riffs, the drive here is obviously to collaborate with others in a way that, during “normal” times, probably wouldn’t happen just for the sheer logistics of getting people in the same room, but that now seems all the more possible precisely because there’s no alternative.
Swarm of Flies‘ first single, which boasts Lundy‘s vocal contribution, is called “Mine All Along.” I don’t know what the longterm plan is, whether these singles will eventually add up to an album or what, but It’s a cool idea manifest in at least one killer tune so far, so well worth sharing as far as I’m concerned. You’ll find “Mine All Along” at the bottom of this post, and Wohlrob offers the particulars on Swarm of Flies below.
Dive in:
Members of Eternal Black, Shadow Witch, End of Hope, Witch Taint, St. Bastard, Reign of Zaius, Thunderbird Divine, and Clamfight join forces as Swarm of Flies to release new music during the coronavirus pandemic. The first single, “Mine All Along,” is available now.
A few words from Ken Wohlrob (Eternal Black, End of Hope):
What?
Swarm of Flies is a new collaborative musical group. The goal is to continue to release new music during the coronavirus pandemic while our other bands are on hiatus. So far, the group includes members of Eternal Black, Shadow Witch, End of Hope, Witch Taint, St. Bastard, Reign of Zaius, Thunderbird Divine, and Clamfight. Our first single, “Mine All Along,” is now available as a name-your-price download on our Bandcamp page (swarmofflies.bandcamp.com) and is also available via online streaming services including Spotify and Apple Music. We will release each new song as it is ready. Every song will feature different musicians or new members who have joined the fold.
Why?
As the world ground to a halt, I didn’t want to stop making music. Even though my other bands were sidelined temporarily, I still wanted to find a way to release new music. The more I thought about it, the more I saw it as an opportunity to change the whole damn approach. Not only the type of music I made, but how it was created -— play different styles, play different guitars, hell, play different instruments. And why not get some friends involved, including people I admired from bands that I was lucky enough to share a bill with at one time or another? Once we started sending files back and forth and everyone kept adding their own layers, it got really interesting. I think people who know us will be surprised by what they hear.
Who?
Here is who has jumped on board so far: Earl Walker Lundy from Shadow Witch David Richman from Witch Taint, St. Bastard, and End of Hope Davis Schlachter from Reign of Zaius, Clothesline, and End of Hope Erik Caplan from Thunderbird Divine Andy Martin from Clamfight Joe Kelly and Kol Marshall of Suburban Elvis Studios will be mixing and mastering And myself (if you don’t know who I am) from Eternal Black and End of Hope
The Song
The first single, “Mine All Along,” features Earl Walker Lundy on vocals, Davis Schlachter on bass and keyboards, Dave Richman on drums, and myself on guitar. The sound is more akin to Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. I think Earl’s vocal performance is spectacular. For my money, he’s one of the most dynamic frontmen in heavy music and he’s got so much soul in his voice. Dave Richman is a rock. He anchors any band he plays in. Songs rise to a whole new level once he’s added his parts. Davis is the utility player. He can play so many different instruments and so many different styles. But his sense of what works for a song is always spot on.
What’s Next?
The next single, “The Jaunt,” will feature Andy Martin (Clamfight) on vocals, Erik Caplan (Thunderbird Divine) on vocals, guitars, drone noises, and other strange contraptions, Davis Schlachter on bass and keyboards, and myself on guitar, Moog, and programming. It’s out there. Way out there.
Posted in Features on April 27th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
The statistics of COVID-19 change with every news cycle, and with growing numbers, stay-at-home isolation and a near-universal disruption to society on a global scale, it is ever more important to consider the human aspect of this coronavirus. Amid the sad surrealism of living through social distancing, quarantines and bans on gatherings of groups of any size, creative professionals — artists, musicians, promoters, club owners, techs, producers, and more — are seeing an effect like nothing witnessed in the last century, and as humanity as a whole deals with this calamity, some perspective on who, what, where, when and how we’re all getting through is a needed reminder of why we’re doing so in the first place.
Thus, Days of Rona, in some attempt to help document the state of things as they are now, both so help can be asked for and given where needed, and so that when this is over it can be remembered.
Thanks to all who participate. To read all the Days of Rona coverage, click here. — JJ Koczan
Days of Rona: Dana Schechter of Insect Ark (Berlin, Germany)
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How are you dealing with this crisis as a band? Have you had to rework plans at all? How is everyone’s health so far?
Luckily our health is good so far. Everything besides getting sick or caring for those who are seems relatively unimportant. I suppose we’re dealing the same as many bands — waiting to see how, if, and when things will fall back into place. Andy and I are across the world from each other right now — I’m in Berlin, he’s in Salt Lake City — and on a normal day we’re across the country anyway. We’ll hopefully tour this Fall, but it’s too soon to say. Yes it sucks. Our new album came out just as the virus was hitting.
It’s hard for smaller bands to recover from something like this, since we left for the Europe tour on Feb 29 and had to pull the plug after four shows and go home. Getting Andy back to the US on short notice wasn’t easy, and I decided to stay in Berlin. A year of planning, ultimately with a massive loss of money/time… I haven’t really moped or licked my wounds re: how we’ve been so unlucky, because all people everywhere are feeling the same. Of course it’s massively disappointing, at best. But so many people are struggling much harder than I am, harder than ever before, and it’s on a massive scale — I know that I am lucky, relatively speaking. No kids, no house or car payments, etc. I’ve gotten by on almost nothing for a long time, so I can adapt to some extent.
What are the quarantine/isolation rules where you are?
Here in Berlin — at least so far [April 16] — it’s less strict than in other EU countries, like Italy, Greece or France, where you need a letter to leave the house or risk hefty fines by the police. Here, I can take a bike ride or walk, food shop, i.e., the basics. No public gatherings of any kind over two people. Keep six feet away from others when in public. People here are pretty compliant. I’m glad I’m not home (NYC) though, and it’s heartbreaking to watch the US struggling from afar. Some days it is beyond comprehension how we will all get past the challenges we are facing. And I’m utterly ashamed and furious at the USA’s reckless handling of the situation.
How have you seen the virus affecting the community around you and in music?
I’ve been seeing many creative friends saying that they’re having trouble being creative or productive. Even with the sudden luxury of free time, it’s hard to feel motivated when the day has no shape and making plans is such a questionable pursuit. And of course there are the thousands of events and tours that were canceled or are being rescheduled. I was supposed to do three consecutive Swans tours starting next week, which have mostly been pushed to next year now. It’s like a full year of our lives is being chopped out and a black box fills the calendar for days and days and days. There is a massive amount of uncertainty and the whole “business model” of touring and releasing albums feels extremely unstable and questionable right now.
What is the one thing you want people to know about your situation, either as a band, or personally, or anything?
We will make it back somehow. We live on the margins anyway, so with any luck this will be just a waiting game. I hope we can all try to be grateful for what we have… hold onto the good memories to get us through, don’t lose hope, and vote the bastards out of office before they get us all killed.
