It is difficult, especially now that they’re not a band anymore and won’t likely be again (though one never knows), to speak about Orange Sunshine in terms other than the superlative. Oh they’re the most fraaked out buncha freaks who ever freaked their way onto an 8-track recording machine! They’re the biggest garage psych cosmic blown-mind mushroom rock secret ever kept by Den Haag! Although I guess at least the latter is demonstrably true.

Nonetheless, 2007’s Bullseye of Being — which is not to be confused with 2006’s Ruler of the Universe — absolutely is the same thing. Five songs, four of them covers and one an older demo. Kind of a hodge-podge where a third full-length proper might have been. But it’s Orange Sunshine, whose acid-drenched take on early-heavy rock was groundbreaking in itself, and so even if it is four covers, it’s a ripper. And I’m willing to bet you weren’t just listening to Terry Brooks & Strange‘s “Ruler of the Universe” anyhow, and even if you were, Orange Sunshine push the 11-minute original into a 15-minute jamadelic opening track that even as a cover demonstrates clearly how ahead of their time Orange Sunshine were in how they took it on.

Again, four of the five tracks are covers on the 37-minute Bullseye of Being — which I guess is what Leaf Hound Records decided to call it for the 2007 release; the band streams it as the later title, so that’s how I’m writing about it — and the first of them is a 15-minute take on an 11-minute obscurity from 1973? With sitar and tabla? Well of course it is. “Demonise” is a play on Deep Purple‘s “Demon’s Eye” from 1971’s Fireball that ups the swing to a delightfully over the top degree that’s all raw fuzzy blues strut in the guitar of Arthur Van Berkel with the vocals of drummer Guy Tavares cutting through set to his own march, bassist Thomas Van Slooten underscoring the bopping groove on which the song is based and within which the entirety of Orange Sunshine feels ready to reside at least on a time-share basis, if not permanently.

There is one copy of Orange Sunshine‘s 2001 self-titled four-song CD-R demo for sale on Discogs, and it’s about $70 after shipping. “Demonise” and the Cream cover “Sunshine of Your Love” appear on there as well as on Bullseye of Being, but I’m not sure if it’s the same versions or not, as the band has said that these tracks were put together at the same time as their 2001 debut, Homo Erectus (review here), so it’s possible they were sitting around, ready to be included with “Ruler of the Universe” and the subsequent “Speed,” first by Ron Wray Light Show. The original version of that track, from 1970, is a two-minute lysergic wahfuzz blaster that only doesn’t realize how stoned it is because it’s also on acid, and, well, Orange Sunshine add about another 40 seconds to that ethic to make the song three minutes, like Monster Magnet screwing around with Hawkwind tracks — making it their own and retaining loyalty to the original as part of that.

“Sunshine of Your Love” is one of those generation-defining hooks — you just know it whether you own a Cream record or not — and so the challenge there is for Orange Sunshine to basically do the same thing they did with “Speed” and pull it off with a song that’s going to be almost universally previously known to their audience. As the centerpiece, it has familiar ‘brump’ in its chugging chorus riff, but doesn’t sound exactly like Cream or like it wants to. Orange Sunshine often walked the line between psychedelia and garage rock, and they could freely draw from either in a way that gives them flexibility with the source material that others might not have. That is to say, Orange Sunshine was a pretty casual kind of band. You never know somebody until you’re in the rehearsal space with them — and I never was — but they always seemed like fairly laid back cats, even if they clearly knew what they were about as a band.

Inevitably, “Ruler of the Universe” is a lot of the draw on Bullseye of Being, and well it should be. It is expansive and encompassing, a triumphant head-jam that’s not only the opener and longest track (immediate points) but that effectively puts the listener in the hypnotic state the band wants just so they can turn around and deliver the slap of “Speed” that follows. Especially for being ostensibly a covers collection, the entire affair drips with personality, and that’s not at all limited to the scorch of lead guitar and feedback burning around the riff of “Balls Knocking.” The curious lone original — if it is — is a classic heavy blues rocker that mashes two channels of dirty-toned soloing together only to emerge clean in the second verse after like what might’ve inspired Radio Moscow ever to get the blues in the first place. It was reportedly also an older recording than its 2006/2007 release would indicate, and it closes here, but I honestly don’t know where it comes from. All I know is that its tones are covered in hair and by the time it’s halfway done it feels like it’s melted the sky.

But if you can vibe with stretches of LSD-drenched noise and heavy vibes pulled right out of 1968, but like, an alternate 1968 where 1968 already happened, Orange Sunshine are already on that astral plane and they already have the volume all the way up, which you probably know because you can feel it in your capillaries. This wasn’t the last Orange Sunshine studio output, but it was pretty close to it. Motorwolf, and the accompanying recording concern that puts Tavares at the helm, still ostensibly operates, and Tavares is currently in Mercury Boys and a few others, as Van Berkel passed away in 2018. Orange Sunshine‘s last release to-date was the 2014 live album, Live at Freak Valley 2013 (review here). The story I will tell about them forever is that when I saw them at Roadburn 2010, they covered Blue Cheer three times. It was one of the most honest and ballsiest things I’ve ever seen happen on any stage anywhere.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.

—

I’m changing meds. It has not been a clean process. It’s been a pain in the ass. I have a new hole in the wall. I was alone when I put it there.

School is hard. We had a meeting with The Pecan’s kindergarten crew. Behavioral plans, etc. It’s just hard. I think that’s how it’s gonna be. Like, forever.

The dog is good.

We’re having brunch on Sunday, you should come.

Next week is Quarterly Review. I’m telling you, but really I’m telling The Patient Mrs., whom I’ve not been brave enough to inform in-person yet. She’s right next to me on the couch as I write this. 50 records. Solid week.

That’s about the long and short of what I’ve got. It’s raining today. I’m looking forward to picking The Pecan up at school and hopefully not needing to leave the house again after that.

Whatever you’re up to this weekend, have fun, be safe. Make sure you implement your behavior action plan in ways that are clear, measurable and malleable, and don’t forget to hydrate. See you back here on Monday for the Quarterly Review and more.

FRM.

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Having offered their willfully double-slashed debut EP, Dogma//Clairvoyance (discussed here), in 2020 and signed to Copper Feast Records at the beginning of this year, Melbourne instrumentalist heavy psych trio Fuzz Meadows have set a May 6 release date for their first full-length, Orange Sunshine. If the title sounds familiar, you may be thinking of the underrated Dutch rockers of the same name, or indeed that it was the original moniker of Blue Cheer, taken for the name of another kind of LSD. Whatever the particular source, I think you get the idea. The title-track “Orange Sunshine” is streaming now, and hell’s bells if it doesn’t apply itself to that standard. In representing the three-piece of guitarist Domenic Evans, bassist Louis Smith and drummer Prince Jayasundera, it doesn’t quite speak to the full dynamic brought to bear across the entire album, but it certainly makes an impression, and that’s pretty clearly the idea.

Fuzz Meadows come across as schooled in the ways of sans-vocals heavy psychedelia, and where at the outset with “You Are the Void,” they seem to specifically exude a pastoral serenity born of Yawning Man-style jamming, by the time they get to “Benji” at the finish, it’s not a surprise to find them diving into the more weighted end of heavy post-rock, casting a spaciousness with guitar that feels all the more launched for the low end residing beneath. Shades of Russian Circles, Pelican, even Monolord show up in that 14-minute last cut by the time it’s halfway through, but even that doesn’t cover the sweeter drift in the back end of the song; an experiment that calls to mind what might’ve been had Sungrazer kept going but in context is still just a part of what Fuzz Meadows do, echoing the manipulated howls early in “Reach” and the build that ensues, willing to push into harder-hitting terrain than a lot of acts in the style — ready, in other words, to crush as well as space out.

And more, the shifts from one moment to the next are dizzying in light of the hypnosis the band cast. Orange Sunshine is not just a question of volume trades back and forth, but of graceful transitions that capture the listener’s attention on their own and then turn into something else, sometimes sweeping, sometimes gently letting go. As the title-track crashes in — one of the album’s most largesse-minded moments — the expanse that’s been set up through the first two pieces is brought to a new stage for the centerpiece, and they make it move. Again, some of the lead guitar rings out à la Yawning Man, but the rhythm that accompanies is more strictly progressive, like Colour Haze with more shimmer. Goes without saying this is all excellent stylistic company to keep for an act making heavy psychedelia, and just to emphasize the point, Fuzz Meadows never seem to fail to bring these influences and others into the breadth of their craft. “Orange Sunshine” becomes a head-all-the-way-under wash before setting itself to a final minute-plus of effects drone, and feels intended to complement the more straight-ahead riffing that emerges from the foreboding open of the subsequent “Death Echo.”

Even here, Fuzz Meadows find another level of heft, and in the case of “Death Echo,” pace, as the song hits into a thrust of groove that could be cast as a brief homage to Karma to Burn, but it’s just one more movement consumed by the overarching flow of Orange Sunshine in its entirety. And that’s seemingly how the album was intended to be heard — in full, its five songs and 41 minutes running one into the next, feeding and building off each other such that the momentum established by “Death Echo” en route to “Benji” is a payoff not only for itself or the title-track before it, but everything prior. True, on vinyl the last two tracks answer back as a side B unto themselves, but they remain in conversation with the first three, and “Orange Sunshine” resounds gracefully in letting its minimalism give way to the silence of a side split, something not quite echoed but not quite not by “Benji” at the culmination of side B. The closer is less patient in its final-final-final measures, but still adds plenty of scope to the procession of the record and its feeling of outward growth still to come.

Under the player below, you’ll find the release announcement, relatively fresh off the PR wire, as well as the all-important preorder link. The stream of the title-track is also available at the bottom of the post.

As always, I hope you enjoy:

Fuzz Meadows, “You Are the Void” track premiere

FUZZ MEADOWS /// Oz Rock’s Rising Psych Instrumentalists to Release Debut Album this May

Orange Sunshine, the debut album by Fuzz Meadows is released May 6th on Copper Feast Records

Preorder: https://www.copperfeastrecords.com/product-page/fuzz-meadows-orange-sunshine

Primed and ready to breach the Northern Hemisphere, and to take on the world full tilt, Fuzz Meadows are a commanding psychedelic rock trio, and an act that has already made sizeable waves across the underground in recent years.

Hailing from Melbourne and featuring members of other local favourites The Black Heart Death Cult, Silurian and Ninety Ninety Hate, the band will release Orange Sunshine – their long-awaited debut album – on Sydney/London-based label Copper Feast Records, this May.

Having spent several years touring and honing their sound, the band put out a limited run of tapes for their debut Dogma//Clairvoyance EP in 2020, a release which quickly caught the attention of psych collectors across the US and Europe.

Drawing from a unique well of inspiration, Fuzz Meadow’s instrumental sound is one that’s embedded in the imposing and cinematic scope of post rock, the gorgeously crafted vistas of psychedelia and shoegaze, and the earth-shaking magnitude of metal. Heavy, beautiful, buzzing with energy; it’s the kind of devastating symphony that only truly comes alive, when played by three close friends exchanging riffs and ideas into the early hours.

Orange Sunshine by Fuzz Meadows will be released on 6th May via Copper Feast Records. In the meantime, you can stream and share the album’s title track here and pre-order here: https://www.copperfeastrecords.com/product-page/fuzz-meadows-orange-sunshine

TRACK LISTING:
1. You Are The Void
2. Reach
3. Orange Sunshine
4. Death Echo
5. Benji

Recorded at Vagabond Studios, June 2021
Produced by Fuzz Meadows, Engineered, mixed and mastered by Josh Bills
Artwork by Louis Smith with waterfall photo taken by Niyanta Sharma in Kere Kere, New Zealand

FUZZ MEADOWS:
Domenic Evans – Guitar
Prince Jayasundera – Drums
Louis Smith – Bass

Fuzz Meadows, “Orange Sunshine”

Fuzz Meadows on Facebook

Fuzz Meadows on Instagram

Fuzz Meadows on Bandcamp

Copper Feast Records on Facebook

Copper Feast Records on Instagram

Copper Feast Records on Twitter

Copper Feast Records on Bandcamp

Copper Feast Records website

You wanna hear something wild? Go ahead and click play on Orange Sunshine‘s 2001 debut, Homo Erectus. That’ll qualify for sure. Something else, demonstrably less wild: I was all set to close out thweek with their second album, 2003’s Love = Acid Space = Hell, but as I started putting the post together, it turned out I already did, like two years ago. Hell, at least I’m consistent.

When it comes to boogie and/or fuzz rock, they don’t come much more undervalued than the Den Haag-based power trio. They were there early — Homo Erectus lit a fire under the ass of anyone who heard it upon its release in 2001 as the band — now comprised of Arthur van Berkel (guitar), Mehdi Rouchiche (bass), Guy Tavares (drums/vocals) — dove headfirst into the fuzzed-out heavy blies of “Catfish” — coated in ’60s whiteboy soul like a slightly less frantic Radio Moscow — ad the unmitigated swing of… well, just about all of it. In its original form, the album’s got six tracks. Take your pick and insert namedrop here.

Of course, Blue Cheer are a influence in sound and style, but one can hear plenty of bluesier-minded Hendrix throughout Homo Erectus, as well as The Kinks on album-closer “Free” and some shades of Sabbath on the otherwise Leaf Hound-referential “Girl, You…” or the Stoogesy vibe in opener “Hush Hush” serve as distinctive moments, driven by powerhouse basslines and the loose-feeling vocals of Tavares, who also mans the helm of Motorwolf Studios where the album was recorded for release on — wait for it — Motorwolf Records. These sonic references would become even more of a theme on Love = Acid Space = Hell, when Orange Sunshine dug deeper into specifics on Thin Lizzy and MC5, but “Magic Ship” here does a damn good job of getting the point across of proto-heavy swing, and the immediate shuffle of “Hush Hush” and stoned bluesy stomp of “Catfish” do pretty well too. If you’ve never heard Orange Sunshine before, you’re not going to come out of Homo Erectus with any mistake about where they’re coming from, is what I’m trying to say.

A few different versions of Homo Erectus have been released over the years, by Motorwolf as noted and then subsequent reissues in 2004 through Leaf Hound Records and Headspin Records. Leaf Hound would also do versions of Love = Acid Space = Hell and the third Orange Sunshine LP, Bullseye of Being, which saw initial release in 2006 under the title Ruler of the Universe before a revamp made the collection of covers what it wound up being. The band put out a couple live records this decade — both Live at Roadburn 2007 (released in 2011) and 2014’s Live at Freak Valley (review here) — but there hasn’t been much activity on the studio front. Still, I recall fondly seeing them at Roadburn 2010 (review here) and watching them play three Blue Cheer covers. In fact, it was regaling The Patient Mrs. with that story a couple days ago for probably the 80th time that made me want to close out the week with them. So there you go.

When I was a lad. Just a wee college boy doing wee college radio playing heavy rock and roll even as I was still in the process of discovering what it was, I wrote an email to Guy Tavares as representative of Motorwolf. I sent out a lot of that kind of note in those days to bands and labels I discovered mostly by perusing SoulSeek and the All That is Heavy store : “Hey, send me CDs and I’ll play them on the radio in the NY market.” It wasn’t a bad pitch, to be honest. Tavares not only sent me Homo Erectus and Love = Acid Space = Hell, but also the Den Haag Motor Rock compilation and a few other odds and ends. This was maybe in 2003. I still have those copies of those records, and there continue to be times when nothing else quite seems like enough of a party.

As always, I hope you enjoy.

—

I made this pot of coffee yesterday, it was so good you would not have fucking believed it. It was a medium roast custom blend I’ve put together through Dean’s Beans, and I don’t know if it was the grind, the water temperature, the amount of water or what, but wow. It was smooth and delicious and so god damned good that I actually stopped drinking my first cup of it so that it could come to room temp and I could make The Patient Mrs. — who prefers colder coffee to hotter — give it a shot, even though she’s supposed to take it easy on caffeine while breastfeeding. If our son got some second hand, I feel like it can only go toward developing his palette for the better. Or make him poop, which he was going to do sooner or later anyway.

I’ve got another pot of the same roast brewed right now and I’m a little nervous to take it on, to be honest. What if it’s not as good? What if it was a fluke? A one-time deal? Guess I’ll never know until I give it a pour.

The Patient Mrs., The Pecan and I have shared a cold all week. Same cold, the three of us. Only the Little Dog Dio seems to be immune, and more power to her, because it’s been more than its fair share of terrible. Hurts to swallow my delicious coffee and all this food that medical professionals are obliging me to consume — I’ve put on so much weight in the last month-plus it makes me so sad; let’s not talk about it — plus my sinuses feel like they’re in one of those hand-crank vise grips, and I’m all coughy and swollen throat glands and all the rest. It has sucked and continues to suck. I’m hoping over the weekend to get better but I’ll be plenty busy this weekend too.

Because next week — actually through the end of the month — is totally and completely packed. Here’s notes subject to change:

Mon.: Blackwulf video premiere/album review; Supernaughty album stream/track-by-track.
Tue.: Apostle of Solitude album stream/review.
Wed.: All Souls Six Dumb Questions; maybe a Besvärjelsen track premiere.
Thu.: Deathwhite album stream/review.
Fri.: Strauss EP stream/review.

I’ve got a couple other projects I’m working on and so forth — somebody’s willing to pay me to write bios! — and the process of putting stuff together for the Roadburn Weirdo Canyon Dispatch has begun, so I’ll be dedicating some time to that as I continue to recover from this cold this weekend, but beyond that, I’ve got a good friend coming north tonight to spend some time with us and the baby, The Patient Mrs. plans to make lentils for dinner that I’ll have with brown rice and I’ll make homemade peanut butter granola sometime either today or tomorrow using my own mixed-nut butter and oats and cereal and whatever else I can get my hands on.

It’ll be a good time all around, even with the screaming baby who doesn’t understand why he feels so crapped out. Sorry kid.

Whatever you’re up to, I hope you have a great and safe time. Please enjoy yourself, check back Monday for more whatnottery, and in the meantime hit up the forum and the radio stream, which Slevin was kind enough to fix this week when it went offline. Much appreciated, sir, as always.

PS: The coffee is delicious.

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Orange Sunshine, Love = Acid Space = Hell (2003)

Talk about a few records dying for reissue. Not that Netherlands-based acid rockers Orange Sunshine haven’t kept up pressings for their three studio full-lengths, 2001’s Homo Erectus, 2003’s Love = Acid Space = Hell and 2006’s Bullseye of Being, through their own Motorwolf imprint, but I’m talking about wide-distro, color-LP, all that do-it-up nonsense that sells out on preorders before anyone’s heard a note. Can’t say the band wouldn’t deserve such fare. As it happens, 2016 marks 15 years since their debut came out, and they’ve been steadily kicking ass all the while, proffering dangerous groove and garage-derived heavy in the spirit of the free-swinging classics. My prevailing memory of them may always be seeing them at Roadburn 2010 (review here) and bearing witness to a set that featured not one, not two, but three Blue Cheer covers. That’s the kind of band Orange Sunshine are. They’re the kind of band who might cover Blue Cheer three times if they feel like doing so.

As an ethos, it’s hard to argue, and whether it’s the harmonica-topped shuffle of “I’m a Man” or the megafuzzed interlude “Population III” — presumably a sequel to the 1969 album from Blue Cheer guitarist Randy Holden, Population II (discussed here) — and subsequent 15-minute closer “Hey Mama,” they live it all over Love = Acid Space = Hell. That finale is a jam worthy of Cactus, which is not praise I deliver lightly, and it comes only after Orange Sunshine have scorched their way through “Ain’t No Way” (which nods at Thin Lizzy‘s “Boys are back in Town”), the freaked-out “H-Theme” and the proto-punk “Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am,” making the vast, vast majority of the retro-stylized heavy rock that’s come out of Europe in the last decade sound positively safe by comparison in terms of songwriting and production. Kids wanna sound like the first Witchcraft record. They should wanna sound like Orange Sunshine.

The last few years have been quiet in terms of studio outings, but in 2013, Who Can You Trust? Records issued a tape called Burnout at Roadburn, and Lay Bare Recordings followed that up in 2014 with Live at Freak Valley (review here), so Orange Sunshine — the power trio of drummer/vocalist Guy Tavares, guitarist Arthur van Berkel and bassist Mehdi Rouchiche — haven’t been completely absent, though any major-scale touring or studio work seems to be on hold as van Berkel has battled Crohn’s Disease. Still, their records, the two live outings and a couple other odds and ends singles are all available for downloading/streaming on Bandcamp, so there’s plenty to dig into either way, whether or not more shows up eventually.

—

A snow day today has been much needed and much appreciated. In addition to being able to sneak in a couple extra posts about new Causa Sui and Heavy Psych Sounds stuff, it’s just been good not to have to drive to work and to be able to sit on the couch with The Patient Mrs. with our laptops and the dog, hang out and still be reasonably productive. We’re not supposed to get a foot even, so shoveling shouldn’t be too terrible when the time comes.

I didn’t get that Borderland Fuzz Fiesta mixtape up this week. Should be able to make that happen next Wednesday, so keep an eye out for it. I’ll start putting it together this weekend. Also next week, reviews of Spidergawd and hopefully Rotor, a track premiere from Talmud Beach on Tuesday and videos from The Vintage Caravan and Merlin, along with whatever else should happen into my purview between now and then. Heard a cool demo this week by Brooklyn newcomers River Cult that I’d like to write about. Might be time to resurrect On the Radar since I can’t seem to find time to do a proper post of radio adds. We’ll see.

I hope you have a great and safe weekend, whether you’re snowed in or not. If you need me, I’ll be in my pajamas as much as humanly possible, rounding out the third season of Star Trek (yup again; my greatest fear is that the new series due in 2017 will be a gritty reboot of The Next Generation) and trying not to spend money. See you back here Monday if I can actually go that long without posting something.

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Years from now, when some unfortunate soul is putting together a comprehensive history of European heavy psychedelia, Dutch power trio Orange Sunshine will be one of a select few acts complicating the narrative. Similar to the manner in which their chief point of influence, Blue Cheer (who were also named after a kind of acid), forces those who’d look beyond the simplistic “Black Sabbath invented heavy metal” to broaden their horizons, so too does Orange Sunshine show that not all Euro-retro grooving began with Norrsken in Sweden or On Trial in Denmark. Orange Sunshine got their start kicking around Den Haag circa 1999, and released their debut, Homo Erectus, in 2001, following it up with Love = Acid, Space = Hell two years later, both albums released through Motorwolf Records with reissue through Leaf Hound. The three-piece of drummer/vocalist Guy Tavares, guitarist Arthur van Berkel and bassist Mehdi Rouchiche issued their third outing, Bullseye of Being, via the same labels in 2006/2007, but have produced little studio material since — just a couple singles.

In late 2013, Who Can You Trust? pressed a tape of their 2007 set from Roadburn (they also played in 2010), and just last month, Lay Bare Recordings followed suit with a vinyl of Orange Sunshine recorded at last year’s Freak Valley festival in Germany. The aptly-titled Live at Freak Valley 2013 is presented, even digitally, on two sides, and captures Orange Sunshine‘s ’60s loyalist heavy garage psych groove with a marked flow and thorough looseness. Each side tops a little over 20 minutes but meets a fuzz quota for probably twice that, Tavares‘ vocals cutting through in soulful, bluesy madman shouts. Rouchiche carries a lot of the weight on bass, holding together jams that seem to send van Berkel on solo explorations, but as a whole, the three-piece wind up as tight as one might hope for a dynamic act who’ve been at it for roughly a decade and a half, despite the swing in the songs themselves. Side A includes the opening jam that was their warmup before their time actually started, takes on All Saved Freak Band‘s “All Across the Nation,” and The 31 Flavors‘ “Distortions of Darkness,” and side B boasts Lincoln Street Exit‘s “Straight Shootin’ Man,” Sam and Dave‘s “I Thank You” (co-written by Isaac Hayes)  “Rock Me Baby” — which Blue Cheer also did — and the Rolling Stones‘ “Gimme Shelter.” The latter closes out in jammed fashion, and each is given Orange Sunshine‘s own stamp and stomp along the way, fitting smoothly with the original “Did You Tell the Woman?,” which to-date hasn’t been included on an Orange Sunshine LP.

The vinyl version of the album is just about gone (Lay Bare sold their yellow-platter version, the band has some regular copies left), but Orange Sunshine have made it available digitally through their Bandcamp, and while it’s not a new studio offering and the fact that it’s at least almost entirely covers doesn’t make me think a new one is on the way anytime soon, it still sounds like a psychedelic garage freakout and I wouldn’t ask more of it than that. Check out Live at Freak Valley 2013 now as part of the 24/7 stream on The Obelisk Radio or sample its two sides on the player below and see what you’ve been missing by not tuning in and dropping out:

Orange Sunshine, Live at Freak Valley 2013 (2014)

Orange Sunshine on Thee Facebooks

Live at Freak Valley vinyl from Orange Sunshine

Lay Bare Recordings

I think by now there are enough of these live streams so that anyone who didn’t actually make it to the 013 Popcentrum in Tilburg can reenact their own Roadburn festival, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to stop posting them, because they sound great. Special thanks as always to Walter for the permission and for sending over the links. Enjoy:

Monkey3 live at Roadburn 2010

Russian Circles live at Roadburn 2010

Orange Sunshine live at Roadburn 2010

Darkspace live at Roadburn 2010

Dive live at Roadburn 2010

Noneuclid live at Roadburn 2010

12:05AM: City Hotel, Tilburg, The Netherlands: You know, before the day started (and by day, I mean the show, which started at 4PM), I didn’t think it was too ambitious a plan to review all of the Afterburner special post-Roadburn event in one sitting. “Nah, I can handle it,” I said with confidence that only my first shots of caffeine since last Wednesday could have given me. “No problem.”

Well, the thing is that Afterburner, while not quite as intense to witness as Roadburn itself because it only runs on two, not four, stages at the 013, is still a great deal of show. Even in this allegedly more laid-back setting of just the Green Room and the Bat Cave, I found myself unable to see absolutely everything, leaving me once again to pick my battles. This is not a complaint. I want to make that perfectly clear. It’s like trying to choose what to see at the Met in New York. Pretty much whatever direction you head in, you’re gonna see some cool shit, but to do it all in one day can’t be done.

In other words, bear with me. This could be a while.

Jex Thoth opened in the Green Room at 4PM. For a nifty comparison, I’ll put their opening slot today in contrast with Death Row‘s yesterday in the main hall. You know those Windows 7 commercials where they take the already exceptionally good-looking people and they all start talking about how they thought of Windows 7, and then it cuts to a dream sequence of even more cartoonish exceptionally good-looking people? That’s like the jump from Death Row, who already ruled, to Jex Thoth, who were good at what they were doing, but a little silly at the same time.

I don’t know. I didn’t get into the set. The music was cool, I guess, but nothing really mind-boggling, and I just have a hard time taking some cult-ish rock seriously. I seemed to be the only one.

When they were done, Orange Sunshine‘s late-’60s obsessed garage psychedelic rock was a refreshing change of pace and a nod to the stoner rock purist set, who surely appreciated the lack of posturing. I know I did. I had to chuckle though at how much one of their riffs reminded me of Blue Cheer‘s version of “The Hunter,” but I’d soon learn just how honestly they come by it, since after an extended heavy jam on The Rolling Stones‘ “Gimme Shelter,” drummer/vocalist/Euro-Chong lookalike Guy Tavares shouted out their set to the memory of Dickie Peterson, then they closed with “Summertime Blues” and “Rock Me Baby,” in that order. There’s a word for that, and that word is “charm.”

And I’ll pause here for a quick side note. Nachtmystium played this fest. Where else in the world are you going to have the opportunity to see Nachtmystium and Orange Sunshine in the same building? These kinds of things only exist at Roadburn.

Church of Misery continued their assault on common decency with their set, playing mostly the same stuff as Friday when they were on the main stage, but killing nonetheless for the smaller capacity venue that is the Green Room. Hell, I’m relatively certain Walter could have had Church of Misery play the same songs every four days in a different room and people would have migrated from one stage to the other to see them again. It’s not a chance that comes up every day, and watching guitarist Tom Sutton do his stoner rock softshoe while vocalist Yoshiakki Negishi pretends to shoot people in the crowd — well shucks, my eyes get all misty just thinking about it.

Having seen them three times now over the last two years (all Roadburn performances), I can say they haven’t yet put out a studio record that captures just how heavy they actually are in a live setting. Houses of the Unholy came close, but the sheer volume they wield might be too powerful for modern recording technology. In this way, they are truly ahead of their time. As for their riffs, I think we all know they fall under the heading, “born too late,” which is just fine.

It was almost cruel to have to witness them do it, but Sweden‘s Graveyard followed in a sonic twist that came on like a big break between Church of Misery and Eyehategod. No complaints, it’s just not really my thing at this point. But hey, if you like skinny Swedish dudes with expensive equipment, vintage t-shirts and tight flannels, ’70s mustaches and hair looking like something off an Allman Brothers album cover, playing the rock and roll their dads probably listened to, then have I got a band for you.

To be fair, they were incredibly tight across the board, and the Green Room was so crowded that for most of the set, the only vantage point I had was through the doorway. It’s like there was a sign outside saying, “Must Be this Cool to Enter” with a line drawn under some guy with bellbottoms’ ‘stache as a measure. I’m nowhere near that cool, so I got some falafel and waited for Eyehategod. Things could have been worse.

I never fail to be surprised that I’m not the world’s biggest Eyehategod fan. According to my records, I own all of theirs (which isn’t saying much since they haven’t put out a full-length in a decade), but if you were to ask me to name six Eyehategod songs, I don’t think I could do it. Well, maybe six, but probably not 10. And I’ve dug it every time I’ve seen them, tonight included. They were fucking great, but in terms of what I listen to on a given afternoon, I’ll rarely reach for Eyehategod while sitting on the porch and sipping a beer.

A fun note; when bassist Gary Mader broke a string, vocalist Mike Williams, guitarist Brian Patton and drummer Joe LaCaze did a quick couple songs under the moniker of their “side-project,” Fuckmouth, and I managed to catch it on video, which you can see below.

Williams was good and fucked up tonight. When he came out on stage, I said to myself, “This looks like a guy who’s going to fall over at some point during his set,” and sure enough — toward the end, to his credit — he went backwards into LaCaze‘s drums. Where was Jimmy Bower in all this? Over up front on stage right, mostly in the dark, playing to the crowd. Kicking ass like he will.

Eyehategod was a good note to end Roadburn on. A slow, rung out, feedbacked note that seemed to last even after the amps were shut off. But being the greedy son of a bitch I am, I wanted to see what Dutch locals The Machine were doing in the Bat Cave, so I meandered in the middle of Eyehategod‘s set into the other room, only to find the young trio jamming out heavy Colour Haze style with vocalist/guitarist David Eering throwing in some “Stone Free” and not sounding like a complete jackass while doing it, which is nothing short of an astonishing feat for so junior and so caucasian a player.

Jamming is apparently their thing, but they do it well, and have two records out already with a third written and are looking for a label. I can’t imagine one of the sundry European heavy rock labels wouldn’t be interested given the opportunity. I know I would.

But alas, I only caught their last two songs — both jams — and they were done, so I went back to the Green Room to close out the night and the fest with Eyehategod. They slammed their way through an astonishing amount of material, and I’m pretty sure I heard Williams at one point start singing Pantera‘s “I’m Broken,” though it could have just been a coincidence of cadence. In any case, good times, and when it was done, I split out on the quick (no afterparties for my unfriendly ass) and came back here to write about it, stopping only for some pommes frites along the way.

This review is long enough, so I’ll save any grand reflections on Roadburn for another time under the consideration that even the most interested of Obelisk attendees has failed to make it this far (I don’t take it personally). My plan for tomorrow is to get up, be out of here by 11AM checkout and head — where else? — to Schiphol airport in Amsterdam to see when and if I can reschedule my flight. The Patient Mrs. says it might not be until next weekend, but I need to go in-person anyway since British Airways‘ sundry hotlines and website have proven useless in this volcanic clusterfuck. I expect to spend a good deal of time waiting on line only to find out nothing, but these are the things we have to do, aren’t they? That’s a small price to pay for the weekend I just had.

And I’ll tell you something else: If I am stuck in Europe for another week, you bet your ass I’m getting my francophile self to Paris tout de suite. I’m pretty sure I’d be the first displaced American ever to do that. Ever. In the history of the world. Ever.

Until then…