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Desertfest London 2015 Adds Noothgrush, Black Cobra, Minsk and More to Lineup

Posted in Whathaveyou on October 17th, 2014 by JJ Koczan

desertfest banner

Desertfest teased this announcement yesterday, and since Human Disease Promo/When Planets Collide have put together a stage at each of the past fests, that they’d do so again at Desertfest London 2015 isn’t a huge surprise, but still, they’ve acquired some killer acts to fill it out. The reactivated Minsk will apparently make a trip overseas next April, and Black Cobra will return to Desertfest after playing at the Underworld last year. Add Noothgrush on top as headliners and DopethroneAgrimonia and Walk through Fire to round it out and it’s safe to say Desertfest London won’t be lacking for sludge next year.

The PR wire put it like this:

desertfest

NOOTHGRUSH, MINSK, BLACK COBRA, DOPETHRONE, AGRIMONIA and WALK THOUGH FIRE confirmed for DESERTFEST LONDON 2015

Like every year, London promoters When Planet Collides and Human Disease Promo will be curating a stage at The Underworld, hosting some of the most crushing and bleak riffage on the whole festival. Let’s all welcome the mighty NOOTHGRUSH, MINSK, BLACK COBRA, DOPETHRONE, AGRIMONIA and WALK THROUGH FIRE at DESERTFEST LONDON 2015, taking place on April 24-26th in Camden.

Already confirmed:
SLEEP
RED FANG
ORANGE GOBLIN
MY SLEEPING KARMA

Human Disease Promo / When Planets Collide Stage
NOOTHGRUSH
MINSK
BLACK COBRA
DOPETHRONE
AGRIMONIA
WALK THROUGH FIRE

For the fourth year running, Camden will be hosting one of the most exciting stoner/doom/sludge/psyche gatherings in Europe, for a full weekend of fuzzed-out tunes, psychedelia and partying. As the first headliner of this 2015 edition, American stoner rock pioneers SLEEP will be treating the Desertfest crowd to the finest smoked-out odysseys, with an exclusive headlining set at London’s famous venue Koko. Also headlining, Portland’s heavy rock’n’rollers RED FANG are set to turn this fourth edition into a massive metal celebration. The ground is set to tremble once again this year, with UK metal heavyweights ORANGE GOBLIN delivering their fiery metal anthems for a one-off 20th anniversary performance. It’s very rightfully than German psych foursome MY SLEEPING KARMA will be perfectly embodying the cosmic side of the lineup.

This new announcement with cult North-American outfits NOOTHGRUSH, MINSK, BLACK COBRA and DOPETHRONE, as well as Sweden based AGRIMONIA and WALK THROUGH FIRE is giving our 2015 lineup the blackened twist that is expected by all sludge and doom worshippers each year. Impending earthquake in Camden…

http://www.thedesertfest.com/london/
https://www.facebook.com/DesertfestLondon
https://twitter.com/DesertFest
http://instagram.com/desertfest

Noothgrush, Live at Maryland Deathfest 2014

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Roadburn 2014: Sets from Bong, Age of Taurus, Windhand, Samothrace, Noothgrush, Brutus, Whitehorse and Regarde les Hommes Tomber Available to Stream

Posted in audiObelisk on June 18th, 2014 by JJ Koczan

One of the things I enjoy most about these Roadburn streams every year is that not only do they allow the people who were there to relive the awesome (and in many cases, fuzzy) memories of seeing these bands, but they allow everyone, whether they were there or not, to get a glimpse at some of what they didn’t get to see. Because you can try your damnedest to catch everything at Roadburn every year — I know I have on the years I’ve been fortunate enough to go — but it’s just not going to happen. At any point during the three days of the fest-proper, there are at least four stages running simultaneously, and there’s just no way to be everywhere at once. I saw Noothgrush at Roadburn 2014, but I missed Brutus, saw Samothrace and missed Windhand.

With the audio streams — diligently recorded at Roadburn 2014 by Marcel van de Vondervoort and his team, as ever — that doesn’t matter. It would be something if the fest set up a security system for the audio one of these years that you had to be there to hear it (actually it would suck, aside from being a logistical/coding nightmare), but fortunately that’s not the case, and whether you were at the 013 or in the Netherlands or not, you can enjoy the fruits of Roadburn‘s considerable labors. If it sounds utopian, it is.

To listen and enjoy:

Age of Taurus – Live at Roadburn 2014

Bong – Live at Roadburn 2014

Brutus – Live at Roadburn 2014

Noothgrush – Live at Roadburn 2014

Regarde Les Hommes Tomber – Live at Roadburn 2014

Samothrace – Live at Roadburn 2014

Whitehorse – Live at Roadburn 2014

Windhand – Live at Roadburn 2014

Thanks as always to Walter and the Roadburn crew for allowing me to host the streams. The first batch is still available as well, and for all of the Roadburn 2014 coverage, click here.

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Roadburn 2014 Day Three: “I Know Where to Go…”

Posted in Features, Reviews on April 13th, 2014 by JJ Koczan

04.13.14 — 07:28 — Sunday morning — Hotel Mercure, Tilburg

Morning in Tilburg. Got back to the hotel last night and tried to get writing immediately but kept falling asleep at the keyboard. I’d wake up a couple seconds later and find a string of semi-colons a line long. It’s been a while since that happened. It finally came to the point where I semi-consciously reasoned that I’d be better off sleeping than having it take seven times as long to write because I couldn’t stay awake. I guess we’ll see how the reasoning works out.

Roadburn 2014 Day Three started for me more or less immediately after I closed the lid of my laptop in the afternoon. It was a day of kickass bands, noble intentions, and in my case, dragging ass. Some tough decisions. Will it be Indian or Old Man Gloom, Loop or -(16)-? Mansion or Horisont? A lot depended on my energy level at any given second, and a telling moment was when during YOB I was upstairs on the balcony of the Main Stage room and I opened the package of a protein bar only to have it be broken and two-thirds of it fall out of the wrapper onto the floor. Oh, I was a sad little monkey. I went and got myself dinner and said it was going to be okay. And it was, but for a second there the god damn world was about to end.

Better news is that all the bands I saw yesterday completely destroyed. In very different ways, to be sure. I watched more full sets than in the prior two days, bands like Noothgrush, Gozu, YOB, and Old Man Gloom offering thrills to the dedicated many who stuck around for the duration. When Noothgrush came out to open the Main Stage, vocalist Dino Sommese — in addition to referring to his band as “DIY punk; kinda angry, kinda slow” and backing up his punker perspective by talking some shit on corporate sponsorship — set about unleashing some of the nastiest screams I’ve heard the whole festival. Real, crusty, sludge. It wasn’t “post-” anything. It was visceral.

They’re a West Coast band, were gone for a while and came back a couple years ago. 11Paranoias were on at Het Patronaat, but Noothgrush set the tone for the day in both their unbridled riff-led filth and the fact that it compelled me to stay where I was for just about the whole time. Admittedly, I did poke my head into the Green Room to check out the beginning of Monster Truck — stoner rock; good for the soul — but from there I basically sat tight until Gozu were going on in the Green Room. For them, Roadburn 2014 is the start of a European tour that’ll go until they hit Desertfest in a couple weeks, and for me, it was a pleasure to watch them kill it so hard in that space.

Because that’s the thing about Roadburn. Well, one of the things. You can see a band 100 times, then see them at Roadburn and know it’s different. I’ve had that happen in years past and it was the same with Gozu. Every band is on top of their game and from the lights to the sound to the projections behind, the 013 crew is so professional that it all looks and sounds great. I could not tell you how many times I’ve seen those dudes — Marc Gaffney, Douglas Allen Sherman, Joe Grotto and Mike Hubbard — play a song like “Meat Charger” from 2010’s Locust Season (review here). I suppose it’s less with this lineup, but still, no matter how many more times I catch Gozu at places in Boston, I will have seen them at Roadburn and know that means something.

I had a moment with Gozu similar to watching Hull the other day, and I realized that it was being happy for hometown guys making good at Roadburn, and that’s the first time I’ve really thought of Boston as being my hometown as well as New York (or New Jersey, but in the Netherlands, you just say New York). One more reason the 2014 fest is special to me. Getting to see YOB twice — and getting to hear their forthcoming album, Clearing the Path to Ascend, didn’t hurt either. It’s their third time here, and each time, the Eugene, Oregon, trio have played two sets, which is efficient if nothing else. Yesterday was The Great Cessation in full. Seems redundant to say it was fantastic, or at least needless, but YOB on the Main Stage at Roadburn. If there’s ever a band who ever fit in a place, it’s them and there. What a pleasure to watch.

The Great Cessation I would count as the angriest of YOB‘s record, and especially in the context of hearing the new record a couple hours before, it’s material and a method of writing they’ve progressed beyond. Anger is still a factor, but The Great Cessation is so rife with disappointment, with frustration and rage. Of course that only made the songs more vicious. I was genuinely surprised when I walked out from the balcony to go back downstairs and closer to the front that it was still day outside. If anything was ever going to darken the sky, it would have to be “Silence of Heaven.” I look forward to seeing them again today and to becoming acquainted with their new songs. The second track on Clearing the Path to Ascend has some of the most furious drums I’ve ever heard from Travis Foster. We’re talking Through Silver in Blood-level. Can’t wait to see that live.

There was a bit of a break before Old Man Gloom went on. I thought I’d check out Carlton Melton instead, but they’re doing a jam with Dr. Space today and I started remembering the good times I had with Seminar II: The Holy Rites of Primitivism Regressionism and stuck it out in the Main Stage room. I haven’t listened to much Old Man Gloom since, and probably should’ve picked up their 2012 return outing, No, but for funds. They were fairly incredible and, as I thought just about no one would be able to do, managed to follow YOB. That shouldn’t be such a surprise with the all-star lineup of guitarist/vocalist Aaron Turner (Isis), guitarist/vocalist Nate Newton (Converge), bassist/vocalist Caleb Schofield (Cave In) and Santos Montano (Zozobra), but at one point I had to stop and say to myself, “So this is probably what it was like to see Neurosis 15 years ago.” Not a bad response for a band to evoke. “To Carry the Flame” from No was a particular highlight, and had me wondering if Roadburn might see an Isis reunion maybe in 2015 or sometime in the future beyond.

Part of the appeal of seeing Old Man Gloom was that I’ve never seen them before and may or may not ever get to see them again. That’s what kept me there the whole time. With Finland’s Mansion, the situation was similar. Their 2013 We Shall Live EP (review here) intrigued with its cultish leanings and semi-psychedelic churn and the new single Congregation Hymns Vol. 1 has only furthered interest. Dressed all in black, in turtlenecks save for their bassist, who had a button-down (heathen!), Mansion projected religious righteousness well, and that’s cool since it’s part of their aesthetic, but it was really the songs I was there for. Vocalist Alma Mansion had a calm intensity that came to bursts of energy in the title-track from the EP, the band behind her following suit in both atmosphere and presence. I think a lot of people were getting ready for Loop to hit the Main Stage, but the Green Room was still pretty full as Mansion got going, and they delivered something I’ve seen no one else here have on offer. Chalk their new single on my list of records I wish I’d bought.

To be fair, Loop are touring the US this coming week — especially after seeing them play here, I can’t help but think that’s the wrong choice, and not because of the band– but to see them headline at Roadburn, particularly after their reunion came about following Loop guitarist/vocalist Robert Hampson sitting in with Godflesh last year, seemed fitting. I won’t profess to be an expert on Loop‘s records, Heaven’s End and A Gilded Eternity are certainly top quality psych-gaze and were decades ahead of their time, but they’re not something I put on every day or every week, so for me it was more about just watching the band and seeing Loop for what they brought to the show. They seemed aware of the gravity of the situation, but handled themselves expertly and where Old Man Gloom had been about bombast and urgency, Loop were a more patient, gradual vibe. It worked well, but I was about ready to close out the night and so headed over to Het Patronaat for the first time of the day to catch Los Angeles noise rockers -(16)-.

I caught wind of Zoloft Smile around the time it was released, and the sludgy outfit’s return over the last several years has only furthered appreciation. They were West Coast hardcore intense, but with thicker tones right on the edge where noise rolls into sludge. Fast. Mean. Loud. Perfect for Het Patronaat‘s relatively compact stage, incredible volume and otherworldly vibe, the stained glass church windows, woodwork, all of it covered in -(16)-‘s spilled guts. They were a steamroller from word one, vocalist Cris Jerue bounding from one side of the stage to the next while founding guitarist Bobby Ferry and the relatively recently-added rhythm section of bassist Barney Firks and drummer Dion Thurman did likewise. Their energy was infectious, and brought fitting symmetry to the crust with which Noothgrush had started my day.

That bookend in mind, I decided it was time to call it a night and headed back to the hotel, exhausted by grinning. Today is the Afterburner, which cuts the number of stage from five to three, and while it’s supposed to be the laid back finish to Roadburn similar to how the Hard Rock Hideout on Wednesday eased attendees into the festival mindset, I’ve got no real letup in terms of bands I want to see, from Selim Lemouchi’s Enemies honoring the fallen The Devil’s Blood guitarist to YOB again and Triptykon. Plus a fanzine to put together. Much to do this last day here. I better get to it.

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Roadburn 2014: Bong and Noothgrush Added to Lineup

Posted in Whathaveyou on October 4th, 2013 by JJ Koczan

So you’re telling me that if I’m fortunate enough to be able to get my ass to Roadburn 2014, I can see Graves at Sea and Noothgrush? Well Jeebus, Roadburn, why don’t you just fulfill all of my West Coast sludge wishes? The already-badass continues to get more and more badass, and as somebody who’s caught Bong at Roadburn before, I’m happy to say that once you get indoctrinated into that cult there’s really no getting out.

Here’s the latest, courtesy of the Roadburn website:

 

Shamanic Leaders of Psychotropic Doom Excursions Bong To Return To Roadburn Festival 2014

Shamanic leaders of psychotropic doom excursions to the farthest reaches of lysergic space and time, Bong return to Roadburn in 2014!

Exploring the outer reaches of raga-like doom /psychedelia, Bong are meant to be experienced in a live setting and we are ecstatic to have them back to Roadburn, playing on Thursday, April 10th at the 013 venue in Tilburg, The Netherlands. Strap into the cockpit of your own private space ship and prepare to experience the inexorable journey to the darkest corners of the doomiverse.

Electric Wizard gave us doom-mantia, and Bong stretch that concept out into doom-mantra… a sound where space and time are suspended, and drone, doom and sitars wash over you while you depart this space-time continuum to become suspended in distortion, propelled by slowly mutating drum patterns toward doom enlightenment.

Join us as we turn Roadburn over to Bong‘s mystic vision quest to the molten center of doom.

Roadburn Festival 2014 will run for four days from Thursday, April 10th to Sunday, April 13th 2014 at the 013 venue in Tilburg, The Netherlands.

Bay Area’s Noothgrush To Rumble The Foundations of Roadburn Festival 2014

Utilizing Iommi guitar tone, huge drums awash in wide open cymbals, and sludge / hardcore vokills with heavy political / social lyrical content, Noothgrush are the crushing essence of modern doom, the Bay Area’s answer to Corrupted and early Boris.

They are masters of dynamics, not afraid to get quiet and minimal to create space and contrast for the enormous riffing that follows. Roadburn is extremely happy to to welcome them to the 2014 festival where they will be rumbling the foundations of the 013 venue on Saturday, April 12th in Tilburg, The Netherlands.

Noothgrush stretch back almost 20 years, but took a 10 year hiatus and reformed in 2011. They have a guitar sound that is firmly rooted in classic doom, but the drumming and vocals put them stylistically in the modern doom camp. Contemporaries of Eyehategod, Grief and Cavity, Noothgrush did their fair share to drive the sound of U.S. doom lower and slower.

Their vengeful, harrowing doom also incorporates some psychedelic elements as well — evidenced by them covering tracks from Pink Floyd‘s Ummagumma — along with lots of space to give the vocals and guitar maximum impact.

Roadburn Festival 2014 will run for four days from Thursday, April 10th to Sunday, April 13th 2014 at the 013 venue in Tilburg, The Netherlands.

Bong, Idle Days On The Yann (2013)

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Noothgrush, Failing Early, Failing Often: Overachieving at Underachievement

Posted in Reviews on September 14th, 2011 by JJ Koczan

In the spirit of their reissue of the out-of-print Early Works Compilation from Church of Misery, the vigilant Michigan label Emetic Records now plays host to a renewed edition of Failing Early, Failing Often, a collection of demo cuts and rarities from Oakland, California, sludge imperialists Noothgrush. It’s one of several releases the Noothgrush have on offer for fall 2011 – as the band also plays their first live shows in a decade, they’re unleashing a host of vinyls and CDs, including this, the Live for Nothing live album on Southern Lord, a reissue of their Erode the Person full-length, a reissue of their first demo, and a collection of unreleased songs and covers. The material on Failing Early, Failing Often, which was first released in 2001, comprises Noothgrush’s second two demo tapes and numerous contributions to splits, compilations and 7”s. Recorded over the course of a little under two years between August 1995 and June 1997, this 17-track, 70-minute CD is equal parts expansive and oppressive. Any way you cut it, it cuts you first.

The reasonable assumption when approaching a disc like Failing Early, Failing Often is that these songs — which are culled from no fewer than 14 disparate sources and put side by side — would have nothing in common, sound-wise, and that the comp would be completely haphazard as a result. Not so. Noothgrush recorded this material over the stated stretch of time, true, and with a varied lineup around drummer Chiyo Nukaga, guitarist Russ Kent and vocalist/periodic-guitarist Gary Niederhoff, but they did it all at the same studio. The entirety of Failing Early, Failing Often’s material was put to tape (over eight sessions, according to the liner notes) at Trainwreck Studios in Mountain View, California, and between that and the consistency of Niederhoff’s ultra-gnarly throat abrasions, it’s enough to lend some measure of consistency. The tracks don’t flow as easily as they might on an album, but the rough production they all receive throughout acts as a base that songs stray in various directions around, either grittier or cleaner. Mostly grittier. Noothgrush – who’ve gone underappreciated in the resurgence of sludge-influenced acts like EyeHateGod and Buzzov*en – clearly knew at the time what works for their genre, and there’s no capitulation anywhere to accessibility. Failing Early, Failing Often is 70 minutes of mud-covered fuckall to which many endurances will no doubt fall.

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