Posted in Whathaveyou on November 8th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
If you’ve been paying attention to Sun Voyager‘s steady flux of social media whatnot around the recent release of their self-titled album (review here) through Ripple Music, you’ve probably seen them mention in passing that they’ve been working with “local shredder” Christian Lopez (seen below at their Halloween gig) for shows over the last couple months. Savvy as they are, it seems likely this was intended to focus the conversation not on what is actually a pretty significant shift in their lineup, replacing now-former frontman Carlos Francisco, with someone who hasn’t, you know, been in the band for the past decade with bassist/sometimes-vocalist Stefan Mersch and drummer Kyle Beach, but on the release of their finest work to-date, even if the personnel shift means it’s also the end of an era for them and whatever they do next will invariably be affected by the change.
It should be noted that’s not necessarily a bad thing, and given their work up to this point in the studio and on stage, I have no trouble trusting Sun Voyager on picking a new guitarist and singer. They’re not a band who does things haphazardly — see also: their waiting to get distance from the album release before making this change official — and if the end result here is they can do more shows, explore different approaches and styles and ultimately come out of it a stronger group, well, that’s the whole idea, I guess.
I’m not going to take away from what the band accomplished with Francisco at all, and neither should anyone else. I don’t know the full situation here, but sometimes these things happen and all you can do is wish everyone the best going forward. Sun Voyager might want to film a live video or something like that in the next month or so, just to let their audience have some idea of where they’re at as a unit when it comes to live performances (at least I know I’m curious), but there’s time for these things yet.
For now, here’s them marking the occasion:
Sun Voyager welcomes bona fide shredlord Christian Lopez into its ranks. He’s been ripping with us for a couple months, nailing the sound, and has our infinite gratitude for embarking on this voyage. He does great work with guitars as @calivibescustom too. Help us give him a warm welcome.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 7th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
By the time they embark in January on this newly-announced stretch of Midwestern and East Coastern touring, Rochester, New York, heavy psychedelic forerunners King Buffalo will have already on doubt reaped a slew of album-of-the-year-type praise for their work on their latest long-player, Regenerator (review here), and who would argue? Jerks, maybe. But those jerks are jerks, so whatever.
Regenerator, the third installment in the band’s pandemic-era trilogy behind 2021’s Acheron (review here) and The Burden of Restlessness (review here), is a culmination of everything the band have done to-date, and it has been widely hailed as a landmark for a group whose influence is already beginning to be felt in the work of others. No, that is not likely to stop as they continue to go town-to-town spreading their own take on prog-informed heavy psych, or as they move into 2023 with the inevitable announcement of European tour dates to follow-up on recent confirmations of performances at Desertfest Berlin and Freak Valley Festival. Let’s see… DF Berlin happens May 19-21, and Freak Valley happens June 8-10, so if they start at the one and end at the other, that’s the better part of a month on the road abroad. No guarantee it won’t be more than that by the time the tour is announced, and I have no doubt there are more fests as a part of it as well. This is a band everybody (rightly) wants a piece of right now, and that’s something they’ve earned no matter how you want to look at it.
They’re out with REZN and The Swell Fellas, at least for some shows, and still wrapping their Fall run in the meantime:
KING BUFFALO – 2023 TOUR DATES ON SALE NOW!
**JUST ANNOUNCED** 1/13 Cleveland @ Grog Shop 1/14 Indianapolis, IN @ Hi-Fi 1/15 St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway 1/17 Iowa City, IA @ Gabe’s 1/18 Milwaukee, WI @ Colectivo 1/19 Ann Arbor, MI @ Blind Pig 1/20 Pittsburgh, PA @ Cafe Club 1/21 Pittsburgh, PA @ Cafe Club 2/16 Brattleboro, VT @ Stone Church 2/17 Albany, NY @ Empire Live 2/18 Lancaster, PA @ Tellus 360 2/19 Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall 2/21 Charlotte, NC @ Snug Harbor 2/23 Orlando, FL @ Will’s Pub 2/24 Miami, FL @ Gramps 2/25 Tampa, FL @ Crowbar 2/26 St. Augustine, FL @ Cafe 11 2/28 Athens, GA @ Hendershots 3/1 Asheville, NC @ Asheville Music Hall 3/3 Huntington, WV @ The Loud Buy Tickets!
We’re on Tour RIGHT NOW! Come see us on our last shows of the year.
11/7 Portland, OR @ Douglas Fir Lounge 11/8 Boise, ID @ The Olympic 11/9 Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge 11/11 Denver, CO @ Gothic Theatre 11/12 Fort Collins, CO @ Aggie Theatre 11/14 Omaha, NE @ Slowdown Front Room 11/15 Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line 11/16 Madison, WI @ High Noon 11/17 Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village 11/18 Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village 11/19 Grand Rapids, MI @ The Stache 12/10 Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
We’ve announced our return to Freak Valley Festival and Desertfest Berlin in 2023! More to be announced soon.
King Buffalo is: Sean McVay – Guitar, Vocals, & Synth Dan Reynolds – Bass & Synth Scott Donaldson – Drums
New York-based longform instrumentalists Clouds Taste Satanic announced this past Spring that they’d signed to Majestic Mountain Records, and the then-promised vinyl, Tales of Demonic Possession, will be released on Feb. 3, 2023 as a four-song 2LP with each of its component sides consumed by a single track. The band — guitarists Steve Scavuzzo and Brian Bauhs, bassist Rob Halstead and drummer Greg Acampora — don’t make you go looking for the epic, but they’ve operated under this methodology across seven full-lengths to-date, so they’re well at home in the doing.
In general sound and feel, one is reminded in listening to the raw prog-doom riff-succession in “Flames and Demon Drummers” and “Sun Death Ritual” of later Revelation, though obviously the structures are different. But the atmosphere of weight implied even beyond the actual listening experience is there, and that holds in the later crashes and continual unfolding of “Sun Death Ritual” as well. Ebow or some similar magic trick makes an appearance in “Spirits of the Green Desert,” adding texture to the record’s heaviest roll — still just part of what that 21-minute track accomplishes — and the triumph in “Conjuring the Dark Side” is evident from the opening lead guitar onward, the acoustic layered in later on presumably conveying that, indeed, the dark side showed up.
That Clouds Taste Satanic get that point across without falling into the trappings of cultism is both a credit to the band and their instrumental configuration, since the music is broad and open enough to be interpreted as a given listener will. There’s a long time between now and Feb. 3, but to go with the confirmation of the release date, the band are premiering the video for an edited stretch of “Flames and Demon Drummers,” and you’ll find below, followed by PR wire info. Preorders start Friday.
Enjoy:
Clouds Taste Satanic, “Flames and Demon Drummers” video premiere
CLOUDS TASTE SATANIC – Tales of Demonic Possession
Happy Halloween Majestic folk! Your MMR Newswire is here with musical treats and the news of another killer new album release coming at you from the Majestic roster.
It is with great pleasure we can finally announce that ‘Tales of Demonic Possession’ by New York based instrumental riff masters Clouds Taste Satanic is on its way!
In celebration, we also bring forth a premiere of the first single off the album and its accompanying video. In its entirety, ‘Flames and Demon Drummers’ is an entrancing, 18 minute and 28 second trip to the dark side of the instrumental moon and with this preview of the third movement of the track, we stumble through an expansive, thick, and fuzzy prog fog oozing mega heavy atmosphere.
The listener takes a heroic dose with Clouds Taste Satanic, and we charge through the rabbit hole right into the furthest reaches of dark, dank and deep space where screaming riffs and Pink Floyd-esque grandeur reign supreme. The track is a tense and pensive journey which never quite lets us feel at ease, it’s a monolithic free-fall into a progressive, fully instrumental doom abyss. Exceptional musicianship and composition is unmistakable and even without vocals we are made to feel like we’re being led into some unknown yet impending peril and ultimate sacrifice awaiting just around the corner of the next refrain. Clouds quite simply kick us all right into the deepest pit of torturously good, proggy doom of the highest order.
‘Tales of Demonic Possession’ is an instrumental epic of magnificent proportions and the gents of Clouds Taste Satanic share with us the following about the impetus behind their new album:
“‘Tales of Demonic Possession’ is Prog-Doom born of and inspired by the pandemic and Yes’s Tales From Topographic Oceans. We wanted to make a record that felt different, dark, heavy and challenging. With time to write and create, we wanted to make music that reflected the ambitions of the past, the oppressiveness of the present and the cautious optimism for what comes next.
Yes’s Tales came at a time when bigger meant better. Creating works of art that challenged listeners to come along on their journey. The casual listener was put off by the lack of instant gratification. Lazy critics who longed for a simpler time used it as a scape goat rather than appreciating it for the masterpiece it was. Those willing to go along for the ride were rewarded with music that gained depth and beauty with each listen.
Fast forward to 2020. New year, new decade, and the creeping feeling that possession was around every corner. What would that possession feel like if it ever took hold? Would possession today be the same as demonic possession from years gone by but with a fancy new title? Bigger would not necessarily be better but it seemed to make more sense. Why not use the opportunity to reach farther. The one thing everyone seemed to have was time. Time to create, time to listen.
So here we are. Everyone has their own possession story. Ours is four sides of vinyl that tell the tale of where we came from, where we are now and the direction we are heading. We wanted to make a triple album but reality set in so we decided to leave that for another day. If you have some time, come along for the ride. Don’t fear… it has plenty of riffs.”
MMR is stoked on getting ‘Tales of Demonic Possession’ out to the world, it’s an expansive, diabolically monstrous, four-headed beast and will be coming to you on deluxe double vinyl. Four tracks of up to 20 plus minutes each, one epic song per side. As we’re continually striving to bring you the best in riffs and top shelf wax, to match the epic nature of this fantastic release, we’ve spared no expense or detail on this extra premium release for you.
Now is the time to get psyched, pre-order opens November 4th at Clouds Taste Satanic’s Bandcamp and Majestic Mountain Record’s BigCartel.
Official release comes to you on CD and digital on the 04 February 2023.
More info to come, stay tuned!
CLOUDS TASTE SATANIC: Steve Scavuzzo – Guitar Rob Halstead – Bass Greg Acampora – Drums Brian Bauhs – Guitar
Posted in Questionnaire on October 21st, 2022 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Gregory March of False Gods
—
How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I play guitar and write songs for False Gods. I don’t really know how it happened, to be honest. Myself and Mike, our singer, were in another band called “skeletondealer” but I was playing drums at that time still. That band dissolved and there was a guitar still at our old rehearsal space so I wrote some songs and the rest, as they say, is history.
Describe your first musical memory.
I honestly don’t know. There was always music in the house when I was a kid. My mother would do local theater while we were growing up so it’s probably something related to that. Having her learning songs for whatever show she was involved in.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
My best musical memory was writing and recording our last record entitled “Neurotopia” which should drop this summer on Seeing Red Records. I’m very proud of this one. We upped the ante on this record, bigly.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
During the lockdown.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
To the poorhouse.
How do you define success?
Having the freedom to do as you please, whenever.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
The Sisters of Mercy in NYC about 10-15 years ago, although I still love them dearly.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
A living.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Communication of ideas and feelings. Connecting with an audience.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
[Click play above to stream Sun Voyager’s Sun Voyager in its entirety. Album is out tomorrow, Oct. 7, on Ripple Music.]
A decade after they started writing songs for their first demo, New York State cosmic grunge rockers Sun Voyager offer their self-titled second album as their first outing through Ripple Music. Momentum is the key. Where their 2018 full-length debut, Seismic Vibes (review here), launched at a medium pace before hitting the space-rock sprint of “Open Road” and “Caves of Steel,” Sun Voyager both picks up where that album left off, starting with a jam on Seismic Vibes finale “God is Dead” which, as “God is Dead II,” introduces new melodic complexity to the immediately far-outbound progression of swirling guitars and, crucially, rhythmic thrust.
The returning-perhaps-for-the-last-time trio of guitarist/vocalist Carlos Francisco — his role has of late been filled by Christian Lopez, and indications are that will continue, though the situation seems fluid and no grand announcements have been made — bassist/keyboardist/backing vocalist Stefan Mersch, and drummer Kyle Beach offer radical thrust throughout the new seven-song/32-minute, basic-tracks-recorded-live blazer, giving Philly’s Ecstatic Vision a run for their alien currency in terms of building and maintaining a throughline of motion in and between their pieces, while still allowing each enough breadth to make an individual impression. That is, “Run for Your Life,” which follows “God is Dead II,” is fast, but that doesn’t mean it’s immediately forgettable, and the same holds true for the effects-soaked “Some Strange,” which is one of just two cuts to pass the five-minute mark; the other is the jammy slowdown moment “Feeling Alright” on side B.
It’s not that Sun Voyager — I’m having a hard time not calling the album Sunny V, so I hope you’ll please bear with me if one slips through — isn’t dynamic or doesn’t let you breathe. Both “Some Strange” and “Feeling Alright” have comedown parts, the former in the bass-led groove that builds off the final chorus and rides out the last minute and a half or so, and the latter in a midsection build where Beach‘s drums hold the tension in such a way as to reassure that the Nebula-style wah blastoff will return before the finish, which, like atomic clockwork, it does.
But the prevailing vibe throughout is that Sunny V — whoops — is a ripper, and having “Rip the Sky” as a centerpiece feeds into that in a manner that feels like a purposeful turn from some of the mellower psychedelia Sun Voyager have offered in the past, either on the first album or 2015’s Lazy Daze EP (review here), splits with Greasy Hearts (discussed here) and The Mad Doctors (review here) in 2014 and 2016, respectively, and the 2013 demo Mecca (review here) that helped establish their penchant for v-i-b-e vibes and lysergic push alike.
Could be the times, could just be this batch of tunes, or it could be the band sat down and had a formal-dress meeting and were like, “we’re gonna play faster songs now and it’s gonna have more keys and be more freaked out and blah blah blah time to make new t-shirts,” I don’t know, and I suppose it doesn’t really matter, but it’s true nonetheless. And, as they handled some of the recording themselves amid the process of building their own studio — basic tracks were done live with Paul Ritchie at New Future in Belmar, NJ, with vocals, guitar overdubs, keys, etc., added at their place after; crucially, the band mixed themselves, and that’s not a negative — Sun Voyager sizzles with intent whether a given part of a given song is fast or slow, but at no point sounds overwrought, whether it’s the all-go sunshine guitar and organ heavy psych in the back half of “Rip the Sky” or the more low-end-minded, dripping-wet boogie of “To Hell We Ride,” the bikers-in-space spirit and it’s-about-freedom-baby guitar solo of which feel definitive.
That they’re moving toward self-recording is interesting in terms of speculating what they might do on an eventual third LP — not to mention the (potentially permanent) lineup change — but their doing so is already playing a significant role here. Whether it’s “Feeling Alright” reaching the top of Olympus Mons with its melodic apex in the second half or closer “The Vision” building off the earlier shoves in “Run for You” and “Some Strange” to set up a broader nod in its still-a-wash finish for the album, the chief accomplishment of Sun Voyager circa Sun Voyager is to be uptempo without sounding like they’re in a rush. The way “The Vision” seems to ooze and bounce reminds a bit of Slift and the radiated punk of Misfits‘ “Hybrid Moments” in its turning declension, but that goes back to the idea of momentum and the physicality of the music. Consider even the titles — “Run for You,” “Rip the Sky,” “To Hell We Ride” — that put the verbs right out there. Action words for action psych.
Like the rest of everybody’s everything, there’s no real telling what the future might hold for Sun Voyager, but if their self-titled demonstrates anything at all it’s that the band is capable of maintaining control of what they’re doing even when working at maximum flux. The synthy/maybe-theremin twists in “Some Strange” and the organ-born realization of “Feeling Alright” are by no means the only examples of the trio/sometimes-four-piece — Seth Applebaum of Ghost Funk Orchestra has sat in live on multiple occasions and contributes photography here, so is involved — using the cohesive underpinning of that live-tracked guitar, bass and drums as a springboard into more expansive fare, and the fact that they’re able to hit that balance in a way that sounds so natural whether a given part is fast or slow(er), raucous or subdued, is an analog for their larger creative growth. They may be holding onto the steering apparatus of a flying saucer careening through an ion storm, but they’re holding on. That feels an awful lot like burgeoning maturity.
Suits them, if these songs are anything to go by. They don’t stick around here long enough to really test attention spans, but neither is Sunny V — there I go again — a flash and gone. Rather, even after “The Vision” has landed like a NASA satellite crashing into an asteroid, the resonance of the guitar, vocal echo and even the overarching forward urgency remains. This is a credit to craft as well as performance, and will only continue to serve Sun Voyager well after this release as they step out once more into the grand unknown. In the meantime, they are a boon to East Coast US psychedelic heavy both for the rawness of their aural amplitude and the expanses they use that to foster, and this is their finest work to-date.
Posted in Reviews on September 20th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Day two of the Fall 2022 Quarterly Review brings a fresh batch of 10 releases en route to the total 100 by next Friday. Some of this is brand new, some of it is older, some of it is doom, some is rock, some is BongBongBeerWizards, and so on. Sometimes these things get weird, and I guess that’s where it’s at for me these days, but you’re going to find plenty of ground to latch onto despite that. Wherever you end up, I hope you’re digging this so far half as much as I am. Much love as always as we dive back in.
Quarterly Review #11-20:
Fu Manchu, Fu30 Pt. 2
Like everyone’s everything in the era, Fu Manchu‘s 30th anniversary celebration didn’t go as planned, but with their Fu30 Pt. 2 three-songer, they give 2020’s Fu30 Pt. 1 EP (posted here) the sequel its title implied and present two originals and one cover in keeping with that prior release’s format. Tracked in 2021, “Strange Plan” and the start-stop-riffed “Low Road” are quintessential works of Fu fuzz, so SoCal they’re practically in Baja, and bolstered by the kinds of grooves that have held the band in good stead with listeners throughout these three-plus decades. “Strange Plan” is more aggressive in its shove, but perhaps not so confrontational as the cover of Surf Punks‘ 1980 B-side “My Wave,” a quaint bit of surferly gatekeeping with the lines, “Go back to the Valley/And don’t come back,” in its chorus. As they will with their covers, the four-piece from San Clemente bring the song into their own sound rather than chase down trying to sound like Reagan-era punk, and that too is a method well proven on the part of the band. If you ever believed heavy rock and roll could be classic, Fu Manchu are that, and for experienced heads who’ve heard them through the years as they’ve tried different production styles, Fu30 Pt. 2 finds an effective middle ground between impact and mellow groove.
Not so much a pendulum as a giant slaughterhouse blade swinging from one side to the other like some kind of horrific grandfather clock, Valborg pull out all the industrial/keyboard elements from their sound and strip down their songwriting about as far as it will go on Der Alte, the 13-track follow-up to 2019’s Zentrum (review here) and their eighth album overall since 2009. Accordingly, the bone-cruncher pummel in cuts like “Kommando aus der Zukunft” and the shout-punky centerpiece “Hektor” is furious and raw. I’m not going to say I hope they never bring back the other aspects of their sound, but it’s hard not to appreciate the directness of the approach on Der Alte, on which only the title-track crosses the four-minute mark in runtime (it has a 30 second intro; such self-indulgence!), and their sound is still resoundingly their own in tone and the throaty harsh vocals on “Saturn Eros Xenomorph” and “Hoehle Hoelle” and the rest across the album’s intense, largely-furious-but-still-not-lacking-atmosphere span. If it was another band, you might call it death metal. As it stands, Der Alte is just Valborg, distilled to their purest and meanest form.
2022 is probably a good year to put out a record based around Frank Herbert’s Dune universe (the Duniverse?), what with the gargantuan feature film last year and another one coming at some point as blah blah franchise everything, but Montreal four-piece Sons of Arrakis have had at least some of the songs on Volume I in the works for the better part of four years, guitarists Frédéric Couture (also vocals) and Francis Duchesne (also keys) handling recording for the eight-song/30-minute outing with Vick Trigger on bass and Eliot Landry on drums locking in tight grooves pushing all that sci-fi and fuzz along at a pace that one only wishes the movie had shared. I’ve never read Dune, which is only relevant information here because Volume I doesn’t leave me feeling out of the loop as “Temple of the Desert” locks in quintessential stoner rock janga-janga shuffle and “Lonesome Preacher” culminates in twisty fuzz that should well please fans of Valley of the Sun before bleeding directly and smoothly into the melodic highlight “Abomination” in a way that, to me at least, bodes better for their longer term potential than whatever happenstance novelty of subject matter surrounds. There’s plenty of Dune out there if they want to stick to the theme, but songwriting like this could be about brushing your teeth and it’d still work.
Voidward‘s self-titled full-length debut lands some nine years after the Durham, North Carolina, trio’s 2013 Knives EP, and accordingly features nearly a decade’s worth of difference in sound, casting off longer-form post-black metal duggery in favor of more riff-based explorations. Still at least partially metallic in its roots, as opener “Apologize” makes plain and the immediate nodder roll of “Wolves” backs up, the eight-song/47-minute outing is distinguished by the clean, floating vocal approach of guitarist Greg Sheriff, who almost reminds of Dave Heumann from Arbouretum, though no doubt other listeners will hear other influences, and yes that’s a compliment. Joined by bassist/backing vocalist Alec Ferrell — harmonies persist on “Wolves” and elsewhere — and drummer Noah Kessler, Sheriff brings just a hint of char to the tone of “Oblivion,” but the blend of classic heavy rock and metal throughout points Voidward to someplace semi-psychedelic but nonetheless richly ambient, and even the most straightforward inclusion, arguably “Chemicals” though closer “Cobalt” has plenty of punch as well, is rich in its execution. They even thrash a bit on “Horses,” so as long as it’s not another nine years before they do anything else, they sound like they can go wherever they want. Rare for a debut.
The second long-player from Long Island, New York’s Indus Valley Kings, Origin brings together nine songs across an expansive 55 minutes, and sees the trio working from a relatively straightforward heavy rock foundation toward more complex purposes, whether that’s the spacious guitar stretch-out of “A Cold Wind” or the tell-tale chug in the second half of centerpiece “Dark Side of the Sun.” They effectively shift back and forth between lengthier guitar-led jams and more straight-up verses and choruses, but structure is never left too far behind to pick up again as need be, and the confidence behind their play comes through amid a relatively barebones production style, the rush of the penultimate “Drowned” providing a later surge in answer to the more breadth-minded unfurling of “Demon Beast” and the bluesy “Mohenjo Daro.” So maybe they’re not actually from the Indus Valley. Fine. I’ll take the Ripple-esque have-riffs-have-shred-ready-to-roll “Hell to Pay” wherever it’s coming from, and the swing of the earlier “…And the Dead Shall Rise” doesn’t so much dogwhistle its penchant for classic heavy as serve it to the listener on a platter. If we’re picking favorites, I might take “A Cold Wind,” but there’s plenty to dig on one way or the other, and Origin issues invitations early and often for listeners to get on board.
Clearly whoever said there were no second chances in rock and roll just hadn’t lived long enough. After reissuing one-upon-a-time Blue Cheer guitarist Randy Holden‘s largely-lost classic Population II (discussed here) for its 50th anniversary in 2020, RidingEasy Records offers Holden‘s sequel in Population III. And is it the work for which Holden will be remembered? No. But it is six songs and 57 minutes of Holden‘s craft, guitar playing, vocals and groove, and, well, that feels like something worth treasuring. Holden was in his 60s when he and Randy Pratt (also of Cactus) began to put together Population III, and for the 21-minute “Land of the Sun” alone, the album’s release a decade later is more than welcome both from an archival standpoint and in the actual listening experience, and as “Swamp Stomp” reminds how much of the ‘Comedown Era’s birth of heavy rock was born of blues influence, “Money’s Talkin'” tears into its solo with a genuine sense of catharsis. Holden may never get his due among the various ‘guitar gods’ of lore, but if Population III exposes more ears to his work and legacy, so much the better.
Gleefully oddball Montana three-piece The Gray Goo remind my East Coast ears a bit of one-time Brooklynites Eggnogg for their ability to bring together funk and heavy/sometimes-psychedelic rock, but that’s not by any means the extent of what they offer with their debut album, 1943, which given the level of shenanigans in 10-minute opener and longest track (immediate points) “Bicycle Day” alone, I’m going to guess is named after the NES game. In any case, from “Bicycle Day” on down through the closing “Cop Punk,” the pandemic-born outfit find escape in right-right-right-on nods and bass tone, partially stonerized but casting off expectation with an aplomb that manifests in the maybe-throwing-an-elbow noise of “Problem Child,” and the somehow-sleek rehearsal-space funk of “Launch” and “The Comedown,” which arrives ahead of “Shakes and Spins” — a love song, of sorts, with fluid tempo changes and a Primus influence buried in there somewhere — and pulls itself out of the ultra-’90s jam just in time for a last plodding hook. Wrapping with the 1:31 noise interlude “Goo” and the aforementioned “Cop Punk,” which gets the prize lyrically even with the competition surrounding, 1943 is going right on my list of 2022’s best debut albums with a hope for more mischief to come.
Oh, sweet serenity. Maybe if we all had been in that German garden on the day in summer 2020 when Acid Rooster reportedly performed the two extended jams that comprise Ad Astra — “Zu den Sternen” (22:28) and “Phasenschieber” (23:12) — at least some of us might’ve gotten the message and the assurance so desperately needed at the time that things were going to be okay. And that would’ve been nice even if not necessarily the truth. But as it stands, Ad Astra documents that secret outdoor showcase on the part of the band, unfolding with improvised grace across its longform pieces, hopeful in spirit and plenty loud by the time they get there but never fully departing from a hopeful sensibility, some vague notion of a better day to come. Even in the wholesale drone immersion of “Phasenschieber,” with the drums of “Zu den Sternen” seemingly disappeared into that lush ether, I want to close my eyes and be in that place and time, to have lived this moment. Impossible, right? Couldn’t have happened. And yet some were there, or so I’m told. The rest of us have the LP, and that’s not nothing considering how evocative this music is, but the sheer aural therapy of that moment must have been a powerful experience indeed. Hard not to feel lucky even getting a glimpse.
A sophomore full-length from the Dortmund trio of guitarist/synthesist Bong Travolta, bassist/vocalist Reib Asnah and (introducing) drummer/vocalist Chill Collins — collectively operating as BongBongBeerWizards — Ampire is a call to worship for Weed and Loud alike, made up of three tracks arranged longest to shortest (immediate points) and lit by sacred rumble of spacious stoner doom. Plod as god. Tonal tectonics. This is not about innovation, but celebrating noise and lumber for the catharsis they can be when so summoned. Willfully repetitive, primitive and uncooperative, there’s some debt of mindset to the likes of Poland’s Belzebong or the largesse of half-speed Slomatics/Conan/Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard, but again, if you come into the 23-minute leadoff “Choirs and Masses” expecting genre-shaping originality, you’ve already fucked up. Get crushed instead. Put it on loud and be consumed. It won’t work for everybody, but it’s not supposed to. But if you’re the sort of head crusty enough to appreciate the synth-laced hypnotic finish of “Unison” or the destructive mastery of “Slumber,” you’re gonna shit a brick when the riffs come around. They’re not the only church in town, but it’s just the right kind of fun for melting your brains with volume.
Any way you want to cut it with Mosara‘s second album, Only the Dead Know Our Secrets, the root word you’re looking for is “heavy.” You’d say, “Oh, well ‘Magissa’ has elements of early-to-mid-aughts sludge and doom at work with a raw presentation in its cymbal splash and shouted vocals.” Or you’d say, “‘The Permanence of Isolation’ arrives at a chugging resolution after a deceptively intricate intro,” or “the acoustic beginning of ‘Zion’s Eyes’ leads to a massive, engaging nod that shows thoughtfulness of construction in its later intertwining of lead guitar lines.” Or that the closing title-track flips the structure to end quiet after an especially tortured stretch of nonetheless-ambient sludge. All that’s true, but you know what it rounds out to when you take away the blah blah blah? It’s fucking heavy. Whatever angle you’re approaching from — mood, tone, songwriting, performance — it’s fucking heavy. Sometimes there’s just no other way, no better way, to say it. Mosara‘s 2021 self-titled debut (review here) was too. It’s just how it is. I bet their next one will be as well, or at very least I hope so. If you’re old enough to recall Twingiant, there’s members of that band here, but even if not, what you need to know is that Only the Dead Know Our Secrets is fucking heavy. So there.
Posted in Reviews on September 10th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Handsome Jack were on when I got in. It had been about three and a half hours of road time to get me to Outer Space Ballroom in Hamden, Connecticut, but I’m well familiar with this particular segment of the I-95 corridor, so it was alright. Dropped The Patient Mrs. and The Pecan off with family, sat for all of 15 minutes, then back in the car to the venue, which is tucked just far enough off the main drag to feel a little out of the way. The kind of place where people can probably tell you about the shit they used to get away with in the parking lot.
Anyhow, Handsome Jack. Band has some vibe for sure. Strengths include blues groove, guitar and bass tone, three-part harmony and that includes a singing drummer, so yeah. A lot going for them, I guess is the bottom line there. They were low-key-rockin’ the joint, and said joint was fairly packed. I didn’t know what to expect — I almost never do anymore; it was easy when nobody ever showed up — and I caught maybe the last 20-25 minutes of it, but that was enough to make me feel like, okay, the music’s on, everything’s alright. That message was well complemented by the last song Handsome Jack played, which was “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright.” I mean, the oceans are gonna rise up and swallow us all, and the world is full of war, rape, and pestilence, but at least the tunes are good. You hold onto what you can.
This was the second night of a just-beginning domestic touring cycle for King Buffalo‘s newly-issued fifth album, Regenerator (review here), and really, the three-piece are also out to support all three LPs in their unofficially-titled ‘pandemic trilogy,’ with 2021’s The Burden of Restlessness (review here) and the subsequent Acheron (review here) no less fresh in mind for not actually being their newest releases anymore. And yeah, I’d seen King Buffalo at Desertfest New York (review here), but that was a whole album ago. In any case, if Regenerator and the promise of a full set — they went about 90 minutes total — weren’t enough to justify the sit-on-ass in Friday traffic on the way north, certainly Dan Reynolds‘ bass in “Mammoth” alone made it worth the trip.
The set drew mostly from the recent LPs, with the title-track, “Mammoth,” and later “Hours” representing Regenerator, “Shadows” — during which someone by the board remembered the lights could flash — and regular-set-finale “Cerberus” taken from Acheron and opener “Silverfish,” “Hebetation” and the penultimate “The Knocks” coming from The Burden of Restlessness. Filled out by “Eta Carinae” from 2020’s Dead Star EP (review here), the slide-guitar-inclusive “Kerosene” from 2016’s debut full-length, Orion (review here), and “Sun Shivers” from its 2018 follow-up, Longing to Be the Mountain (review here), the regular set was largely unfuckwithable, and yes, I mean that.
It’s a very I-know-touring-bands thing to say that the second night of the tour they’re probably still getting their feet under them. And maybe it’s true that after another four or five nights in a row of gigs, King Buffalo will be more on fire than they were, but there was no doubt they delivered, and the crowd was way into it. It was like one of those movies where the actors in the audience are just told to keep cheering. No, I’m not saying it’s a false flag operation, I’m saying the band is unreal. I stood right in front of the stage, could see and hear them feeding off that energy. They owned the pandemic. Defined it in large part for my listening habits and I’m sure for many others as well. They should be and are right to be reaping their due acclaim, and that includes for the Regenerator just arrived.
Of the several times I’ve been lucky enough to see King Buffalo at this point, this was the best to-date. They played with confidence, and I could feel the intensity of Donaldson‘s drums keeping step with the chug of McVay‘s guitar in “Hours” better, Reynolds‘ bass laying one smooth groove after the other to coincide. I’m sure I’ve said this before, but Reynolds is the one holding it together. The band? It’s all three of them. They all have a pivotal role to play. They are all essential personnel in making King Buffalo arguably the best heavy psychedelic rock band in America right now. Part of Reynolds role in that is that groove, and he played like he knew it.
Same could be said of the whole band, too. McVay and Donaldson as well. King Buffalo? They’re a great band. Great. I can’t urge you strongly enough to go see them. They’re better than they know, and they know damn well they’re good. Just watch them. There’s some strut there. Seeing their dynamic as up close as I was — I think I spent most of the set closer to McVay than his bandmates in the middle and on the other side of the stage, respectively — and hearing Reynolds‘ basslines under the guitar solo in “Sun Shivers,” the breadth in “Kerosene” and the precision intensity of the fuck-yes-hammer-it-into-my-god-damn-skull stops at the end of “The Knocks,” there was no mistaking the sense of being in the presence of a band who have arrived. A special, important moment.
30 years ago, King Buffalo, Elder and All Them Witches would all be signed to Atlantic Records and putting out albums that would influence a generation. That industry infrastructure doesn’t exist anymore, and while DIY, semi-DIY and even outright signed-to-label acts don’t have the same kind of marketing power, they’re out there doing it anyway. I could see it in the crowd too. Some younger heads, some older ones, and I think that speaks to the transitional generational moment we’re in. In a couple years, those older heads are gonna keep phasing out. And the younger ones are going to bring friends next time King Buffalo roll through. I hope I’m there to see it.
The encore demanded by the room was received. “Orion” will be in my head for the next week and I have no problem with that, and “Centurion” from 2018’s Repeater EP (review here) was a surprise finish, but worked well enough. I’ll allow that the record is still really new, but at some point, they’re going to have to start closing with “Avalon” from Regenerator. Sorry guys, you don’t get to write a song like that and not stick it at the end of the set. Gotta play fair. Same could be said of “Cerberus” coming after “The Knocks.” Both songs are about the build into the payoff, as a fair amount of King Buffalo‘s work is, but that finish in “The Knocks” is another level. The proverbial hard act to follow.
They head up to Buffalo, New York, next, then pick up the tour on Sept. 16 in Ohio before spending a decent portion of the next two months on the road. I wholeheartedly encourage you to make the effort. They’re a band you need to see and now is the time. That’s it.
Posted in Questionnaire on August 4th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Richie Touseull of Geezer
—
How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I’m a bass player, it’s that simple. I provide the rhythm for the other musicians to stand on. The essential heartbeat of the song, if you like.
And how I came to do it — I couldn’t afford to play drums, and there were too many guitar players around so the bass seemed like a good idea.
Describe your first musical memory.
Watching my elder brother, John, play the sax in the army band. I was so proud. Then, at the age of 12, I saw a local rock band, and that just blew my mind. I don’t remember what they were called, but that was the moment I knew I wanted to do be a musician.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
Playing Freak Valley Festival with Geezer. Maybe because it just happened in June and so is top of mind, but it was a blast. Great to be up there with Pat Harrington and Steve Markota.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
Oh man, many times playing to empty rooms! We’ve all had that happen. You play your best, keep believing in what you’re doing and hold tight to the dream.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
To possibility — new ideas, new people, new opportunities. And the rush you get when you surprise yourself, that’s some high.
How do you define success?
Being able to do what you love every day. How many people can say they do that?
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
A singer I once played with was tripping on acid and it was no fun watching him roll backwards into the drum set with his legs in the air.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
I’ve had an idea to create a space where musicians come together to jam, record, perform, collaborate or just hang out. Just need to find the right space and make it concrete. Maybe I’ll get around to it.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Art connects people. It connects the artist with the crowd or reader or listener. It connects groups of people in a shared experience, around an emotion or feeling. In that way it brings people together, and we need more of that now in the world.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
To travel more. My wife lived in Amsterdam, and I’ve never been. Maybe this fall.
