Posted in Whathaveyou on June 8th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
I’d be interested to witness the gathering of weirdos that FreakTulsa 2016 brings out. The festival — based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and of no relation to the German Freak Valley fest that I know of — culls bands from around the Midwest and well beyond, groups like King Buffalo and Destroyer of Light sharing the stage with Merlin and Red Wizard, among many others. It’s a three-day affair, June 17 through June 19, and while I won’t make it out for it, I’ll look forward to finding out how it goes. Seems like an event in the middle of the country could be a good regional pull, a haven of sorts, for followers of riff.
Bottom line, it looks like a good time. Hope it goes well.
Updated lineup, info and ticket links follow:
Get it together folks, for the most fuzzed out, brain-jarring, facemeltingest fest to trample Tulsa, June 17th-19th at the Downtown Lounge. We’ve got an incredible and diverse lineup, from the deep and fuzzed out valleys to the peaks of devestating alpine thrash glory. Get your tickets now.
Freaktulsa 2016 is a 3 day psychedelic rock festival celebrating all that is hard, doomy and heavy. Join us and our diverse lineup at the Downtown Lounge in Tulsa Oklahoma June 17 – 19th. This is a show presented by and for enthusiasts of dark rock of all types. The Mid West Heshfest exists for the love of music above all else, driving our focus to be on providing the best possible musical experience for you.
There doesn’t seem to ever be a break with this stuff. 16 records joined The Obelisk Radio playlist today, and that’s still got me behind on checking out more to add. I don’t know what the state of that hard drive is, but I might not be far off from needing to add a second one. It’s become an archive for me.
Diligent and admirable bastard that he is, Slevin is working on an automatically refreshing script that will allow listeners to see what was played over the last 24 hours, which will be a big help if a file is missing its ID3 tags — that being how the player identifies the songs — as I know things sometimes are. I get asked regularly what was played at a specific time, so hopefully this will be able to answer that question.
So things are in the works, but of course there’s a ton of music to talk about in the meantime, and that’s the fun part anyway.
The Obelisk Radio Adds for July 11, 2014:
All Them Witches, Effervescent EP
There are at least two distinct jams at work in the 25-minute single track that makes up Effervescent, the 2014 EP from Nashville psych-blues rockers All Them Witches. The Fender Rhodes of Allan Van Cleave and airy guitar of Ben McLeod feature heavily in both, as bassist Michael Parks, Jr., and drummer Robby Staebler (interview here) provide a foundation on which to space out, and the two pieces find a bridge in hypnotic, psychedelic stretching and backwards noise beginning at around 13 minutes in before building back up. All throughout, the vibe is central, there is movement, and the four-piece demonstrate that the chemistry they showed burgeoning on last year’s brilliant Lightning at the Door(discussed here) was no fluke, but the beginning of a grand and creative exploration that finds its next installment here. It may be a stopgap — formerly their primary means of release, they’ve recently pulled their full-lengths down from Bandcamp; one expects big, got-signed-type news from them at any moment — but Effervescentis fluid and rich, and as deep as you want to go in listening to it, it’s willing to take you there and further. All Them Witches on Thee Facebooks, on Bandcamp.
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Nyarlathotep, The Shadow over Innsmouth
Some six years after releasing their initial The End is Always Near demo, New Jersey black metal outfit (whom, in the interest of full disclosure, I know personally) Nyarlathotep follow-up with the Lovecraftian full-length, The Shadow over Innsmouth. Based around the short story of the same name, the album breaks down into five extended tracks plus an intro of rage-fueled atmospherics. Using programmed drums to their advantage on “Old Zadok Allen” — the only proper song here under 10 minutes — they add an industrial feel with a keyboard-led midsection backed by vague, ambient screams. The density in the material is striking, but even at their most unbridled — as on the blasting, solo-topped early moments in the title-track — Nyarlathotep hold their commitment to setting a mood firm, and the blown-out, distorted soundscape they create across the release is grim and otherworldly enough to be worthy of its subject matter. It is a complex, biting execution that won’t be for everyone, but that seethes in its quiet parts and gnashes its pointed teeth with monstrous force. Nyarlathotep on Thee Facebooks, on Bandcamp.
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Idre, Idre
Oklahoma City trio Idre specialize in ambient fluidity and deeply-weighted tonal crush. Their self-released, self-titled debut long-player is comprised of two extended cuts — “Factorie” (26:41) and “Witch Trial” (13:17) — that each impress with their patience, their impact and their ability to contrast the generally claustrophobic feel of post-metal with an open-spaced, salt-of-the-earth pulse. Within its first 10 minutes, “Factorie” has moved from undulating waves of riffing to vast, strumming, Across Tundras-esque roll, and never does it seem to be meandering without purpose in the noisy stages to come. It builds and collapses, and when they seem the most gone, the clean, twanging vocals return to finish out, leading to the parabolically constructed “Witch Trial,” which marries Earth-style drone and galloping drums effectively to create a decidedly Western feel while still building toward, and eventually moving through a sonically pummeling apex. Once again, vocals are sparse, but perfectly placed almost as if to remind the listener of how small a human being can be in so wide a space as the Midwest. Like that landlocked region, Idre‘s Idreis expansive and lets you see for miles. Idre on Thee Facebooks, on Bandcamp.
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Rainbows are Free, Waves ahead of the Ocean
Led by the substantial pipes of vocalist B. Fain Kistler, Norman, Oklahoma, four-piece Rainbows are Free seem keen on finding the place where classic doom and heavy rock meet, and on their second full-length, Waves ahead of the Ocean (released by Guestroom Records), they just about get there. Kistler is a singer worthy of comparison to Grand Magus‘ JB Christoffersson, but Rainbows are Free are less grandiose overall, early songs like “The Botanist,” the title-track and the cumbersomely-titled opener “Speed God and the Rise of the Motherfuckers from a Place beyond Hell” nestling into heavy, engaging grooves marked out by the choice riffing of Richie Tarver, the bass work of Chad Hogue and drums of Bobby Onspaugh. Unpretentious and professional in their presentation, they doom up an otherwise Clutch-style boogie in “Cadillac” before going full-on trad metal in “Snake Bitten by Love,” and ably making their way through a Dio Sabbath push on “Burn and Die,” which works well despite feeling a long way from the upbeat rockin’ of earlier highlight “Sonic Demon” and leads smoothly into closer “Comet,” the six-and-a-half-minute spacier thrust of which seems to be seems to be where Rainbows are Free most choose to harken to the psychedelia one might expect from their moniker. They most drive toward the epic in their finale, and the payoff there is churning and insistent in a way that more than justifies the song’s position on the 37-minute record, but even then have a keen eye for structure and holding the attention of their audience. An impeccably put together album from a band more than ready to turn heads. Rainbows are Free on Thee Facebooks, Guestroom Records on Bandcamp.
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Panopticon, Roads to the North
Despite the bluegrass influence and liberal inclusion of banjo amidst its blackened onslaught, Panopticon‘s Roads to the North (released on Bindrune) is perhaps most American of all for its pulling together seemingly disparate elements in defiance of European traditionalism. Billed as and creating the standard for American folk metal, it nonetheless is in conversation with European black metal — a conversation that in my head looks something like it’s being chased à la Benny Hill for its heresies — while purposefully working against its tenets. Roads to the Northis the fifth full-length from the one-man project of Kentucky’s Austin Lunn, and made in collaboration with Krallice‘s Colin Marston (among others), it elicits a sprawl through both its metallic extremity and its devotion to the aesthetic it pioneers. It makes for a heady 74-minute listen, but Panopticon are cohesive throughout — five records deep, they should be — and one doesn’t embark on an album like Roads to the Northlightly or without wanting full immersion into an evocative and blistering landscape. That’s just what you get. Panopticon on Thee Facebooks, Bindrune Recordings.
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For the full list of albums added to The Obelisk Radio this week and to see the latest updates, click here.
Posted in Features on November 1st, 2013 by JJ Koczan
For most who will play and/or attend Stoner Hands of Doom XIII next week (Nov. 7-10) at Strange Matter in Richmond, Virginia, the trip is something that starts next week, but for Oklahoma natives Oberon and Grel, it’s SHoD season already. The two groups have teamed up for what they’ve dubbed the “Star Stuff” tour — they even had laminates made of the Adam Burke poster art — and they’ll begin tonight at the Railhead Saloon in their native state, gradually making their way to Virginia over the course of the next week to play on Saturday, Nov. 9, with Beelzefuzz, Backwoods Payback, Valkyrie, Admiral Browning and many more.
Rivaled only by Kin of Ettins, who are coming from Dallas, Oberon and Grel will be making the longest trek to get to Strange Matter. I posted the dates here when they were first announced, and Grel were written up earlier this year for their 2012 Red Sun GodEP following their name change from Deadweight, but considering the extra mile(s) the two bands are going to in order to play SHoD, it only seemed fitting to highlight their material again for anyone who may not have encountered them yet.
Oberon
“Progressive stoner” is a hard one to pull off. While heavy rock has its technical side, that mostly comes in drum fills and solos, and those who’d push structural bounds usually come face to face with a defiance of the traditional adherence to classic methods that rests at the genre’s core. That concern seems to hold little sway for the double-guitar foursome Oberon, who released their debut EP, Through Space, We Ride, last year on Crew Dawg Records. And rather than fall in with the post-Mastodon multitudes, they harness a more metallic end of prog on centerpiece “Phobos,” with guitarist/vocalist DJ Bryant establishing a distinct singing approach as the song plays out.
Oberon, “Phobos”
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Grel
With keyboards adding melody to their two-guitar approach, Grel come across as basking in many of the heavy rock classicisms that Oberon seem to be purposefully avoiding on their Red Sun God EP. Rife with bluesy groove, strong rhythms and flourishes of psychedelia, the Lawton five-piece stay grounded and don’t lose themselves either in earthy punch or cosmic indulgence, but find a balance between the two that takes a garage-rock Deep Purple and gives a modern edge. They’re reportedly got new material in the works, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they threw a more recent song or two in the set with “Stone Frog” and “Lady” from Red Sun God.
Grel, Red Sun God EP (2012)
Oberon and Grel on tour:
11/1 Lawton, OK @ Railhead Saloon w/ Juju Beans
11/2 Kansas City, MO @ Daveys Uptown w/ Hossferatu & Merlin
11/3 Chicago, IL @ Livewire Lounge w/ Marmora
11/4 Colombus, OH @ The Trees Bar
11/5 Northampton, MA @ The Elevens w/ Titanis & Scimitar
11/6 Boston, MA @ PA’s Lounge
11/7 Philadelphia, PA @ JR’s Bar
11/9 Richmond, VA Stoner Hands of Doom XIII
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 25th, 2013 by JJ Koczan
Engagingly naturalist heavy rockers Grel have partnered with fellow Oklahoman outfit Oberon for a tour that will take them through the Midwest and down the East Coast en route to Stoner Hands of Doom 2013 in Richmond, Virginia. Grel, who changed their name from Deadweight after the release of 2012’s The Red Sun GodEP (discussed here), are reportedly trying out and tightening up new songs on the road for the eight-day run, and they’ve hooked up with some cool acts on the way to the fest.
Details came joined by the Adam Burke poster for the tour down the PR wire:
Grel Announce Star Stuff Tour
Grel and Oberon will be embarking on tour this November. The route will take them through New England on their way to Stoner Hands of Doom.
The tour, named the Star Stuff Tour, will be the first national tour for both bands. Grel will be truly introducing itself to the world, following their name change from Deadweight. The two bands will be road-testing new material in preparation for new releases in the future as well as supporting their previous releases on the road (Grel’s “Red Sun God EP” and Oberon’s “Through Space, We Ride”). The tour will feature local support in each city, such as The Scimitar, Hössferatu, and Titanis.
When asked about the tour, three members of Grel simply said “what?” and another put sun screen on. Bentley Smith, had this to say, “yeah, it’ll be a fun time, especially with these Oberon guys, they all smell great.”
11/1 Lawton, OK @ Railhead Saloon w/ Juju Beans 11/2 Kansas City, MO @ Daveys Uptown w/ Hossferatu & Merlin 11/3 Chicago, IL @ Livewire Lounge w/ Marmora 11/4 Colombus, OH @ The Trees Bar 11/5 Northampton, MA @ The Elevens w/ Titanis & Scimitar 11/6 Boston, MA @ TBA 11/7 Philadelphia, PA @ JR’s Bar 11/9 Richmond, VA Stoner Hands of Doom
Posted in On the Radar on March 20th, 2013 by JJ Koczan
Their sound is an tonic of classic rocking stomp, presented with the inimitable arrogance of punker youth, so when it came to my first listen of Grel‘s self-released debut EP, Red Sun God, my only real question was, “What’s the reptilian conspiracy?”
I ask because when Grel, who went by the moniker Deadweight at the time, sent along their first outing in the mail, it came with a note scribbled in permanent marker about said conspiracy, written on — what else? — a page torn out of a porno mag. Well, the most cursory of interwebular investigations has turned up the “information” about how many major world leaders are reptiles bent on enslaving humanity. This explains a lot. Not necessarily about the EP, but you know, in general. Wars and such. Low corporate taxes. The list goes on.
More importantly, the songs. Ah, the songs. Grel hail from Lawton, Oklahoma, and bask in Stooges brashness filtered through heavy looseness. One hears neo-psych commonality with Baltimore’s The Flying Eyes on “Silver Buckle,” but with the razor riffing of “Astro Cannibalism” — presumably that’s a different conspiracy — the sound is fuller, more barroom metal that’s already several beverages ahead of the evening. I dig the dichotomy, even if it means the recording (a self-done job) sounds inconsistent, a far cry by the end of “Astro Cannibalism” from the organ-inclusive ’70s vibing of opener “Lady,” on which the five-piece sound a completely different kind of unhinged.
Closer “Gannymead” follows suit sonically with “Astro Cannibalism,” with a return of the organ as well perhaps to tie the final moments together with the earlier material. Still obviously getting their style hammered out (emphasis on “hammered”), Grel carry the Hendrix fuzz of “Cosmic Lunch” across with fitting whatever-itude, and since I don’t think they’re ever as completely out of control of what they’re doing as they sound — for evidence, I’d cite the underlying build of the moody “Silver Buckle,” which reminds a bit of Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor before its payoff hits — their approach is all the more impressive.
But it’s the dirt that makes it that way. Clean up “Stone Frog” or pull out the feedback and I don’t think it would land with the same insistence in its march, so when it comes to Grel‘s debut full-length, which is reportedly in process, my only hope is that the reptiles don’t steal the cone-shaking soul out of these tones. If nothing else, the fivesome were right to change the name. Deadweight sounds like a nu-metal act on a pay-to-play opening slot. Grel is crazy enough that I don’t know what to expect, and going by Red Sun God, that’s just where they want their listeners to be.
