Posted in Whathaveyou on December 11th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
I’ll gladly go on record to say that I could be perfect happy to never hear Geoff Rickley from Thursday sing anything again, ever. Though they and I hail from the same Garden State, I was never a Thursday fan and remain true to that inclination. Pelican don’t feel the same way, and fair enough. The Chicagoan outfit — traditionally but by no means at this point exclusively instrumentalist — have Rickley singing on “Cascading Crescent” on this new EP complementing earlier 2025’s Flickering Resonance LP (review here), as well as two songs that I bought on the Adrift tape last year as they were getting money together to record the album, as well as an off-album track that isn’t streaming or I’d probably be telling you how long it is.
Oh and there’s a European tour with Russian Circles newly announced, tying together previous fest confirmations at Desertfest Oslo, Sonic Whip, Desertfest Berlin, Sonic Rites, and others. It all came down the PR wire thusly:
PELICAN – Ascending EP
Excited to share that our new EP Ascending is coming January 23 from Run For Cover – click the link in our bio to hear the previously un-streamable vocal version of “Cascading Crescent” feat. Geoff Rickly from Thursday. Originally recorded for the “Cascading Crescent” vinyl-only 7” (limited to 500 copies and very sold out), we had the chance to perform this version live in Cleveland when our tours intersected this past July, as documented in the music video out today. The experience made us eager for more folks to hear how Geoff’s melodies re-contextualize the song.
The EP is rounded out by “Ascending,” a hypnotic epic recorded at the Flickering Resonance sessions, and the vinyl debut of “Adrift” and “Tending The Embers,” recorded and self-released in 2024 just as we’d begun piecing the album together.
In honor of the EP, Laurent teamed with Will Killingsworth of Dead Air Studios to create Resonance, a custom reverb pedal that interacts with users’ playing and resonates in unique ways, varying from light echo to lush soundscapes to self-oscillating frenzy. The pedal and a new shirt design are available from the RFC site via the link in our bio.
We’ve also added some headline dates to our upcoming EU tour with Russian Circles. Hope to see you out there
Feb 1 – Something In The Way – Boston, MA Feb 28 – Doom City Festival – Mexico City, MX May 5 – Kollektivet Livet – Stockholm, SE May 6 – Monument – Gothenburg, SE May 7 – Skraen – Aalburg, SE May 8 – Desertfest – Oslo, NO * May 9 – A Colossal Weekend – Copenhagen, DK * May 11 – Gruenspan – Hamburg, DE * May 12 – Live Music Hall – Köln, DE * May 13 – P8 – Karlsruhe, DE * May 14 – dunk!festival – Zottegem, BE * May 15 – Sonic Whip – Nijmegen, NL * May 16 – Desertfest – Berlin, DE * May 18 – Arena – Vienna, AT * May 19 – Durer Kert – Budapest, HUN May 20 – MeetFactory – Prague, CZ * May 21 – Technikum – Munich, DE * May 23 – Sonic Rites – Helsinki, FI * * w/ Russian Circles
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 3rd, 2025 by JJ Koczan
King Buffalo, Dozer, Pelican, High Desert Queen, Blackwater Holylight, Howling Giant, Daevar, Bottenhavet, Moonstone, The Sword, Russian Circles — I mean, do I really need to say more here than the list of names. Desertfest Oslo 2026 will be the third edition of the Norwegian Desertfest installation, and one might accuse them of coming out of the gate swinging. Some of these — The Sword, Earthless, High Desert Queen, etc. — are being shared with Desertfest Berlin and Desertfest London, setting up the possibility of three weeks of touring at least for a few acts here. Then there’s King Buffalo, who I think are just spending their entire summer abroad next year. Not gonna complain about it if there’s a chance I can see them.
To that end, I was lucky enough to be invited to cover Desertfest Oslo last year and, unsurprisingly, I had a blast. Should I be so fortunate as to be invited again, I’ll go, but I’m not about to presume. Whether I’m there to see it or not has no bearing on the sickness of the lineup-thus-far, as you know, but still makes for a nice daydream.
They’ve got tickets on sale now, as per socials:
Let’s get this train running! 🔥
We’ve been so excited to share the first batch of bands coming to Oslo the 8th and 9th of May 2026.
From great geniuses of the genre, to guitar-wielding warlocks of the wasteland. From divine drop-d decibels, to new necromancers of nostalgic noise.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 22nd, 2025 by JJ Koczan
First of all, this art frigging rules. Kuba Sokolski Illustration is apparently the party responsible for the look of Desertfest Berlin 2026, and I dig it. The colors, the theme, the implication of narrative in becoming part of something bigger than yourself. Oh yeah, and the first band announcements are pretty killer too.
Russian Circles, Hermano, The Sword, Acid King, King Buffalo, Truckfighters, Earthless, Crippled Black Phoenix, Pelican, Mother’s Cake, High Desert Queen, Zerre, and Dope Purple comprise the first cohort to join the lineup, and aside from having me at Acid King and King Buffalo — which, yeah; also Hermano — it’s good to see The Sword will take their reunion to Europe next Spring, and Truckfighters will likely be out supporting their new album, which is due around that time as well.
This won’t be nearly all of it, but it’s plenty and it’s a killer start. As with every year, I look forward to seeing how Desertfest and the European underground circuit will shape up for next Spring. Here’s the announce from social media:
BERLIN, THE DESERT IS CALLING! 🌌
We’re beyond stoked to drop the first wave for Desertfest Berlin 2026 // 14.-16. May 2026 – and it’s a riff-heavy ride straight into the void 🌙
Russian Circles will crush you with their cinematic post-metal soundscapes, while desert rock legends Hermano return with John Garcia at the helm. Texas riff titans The Sword are back to shake the ground, and the mighty Acid King keep the doom thick and smoky. King Buffalo invite you to drift away on cosmic psych grooves, while fuzzlords Truckfighters bring the Swedish desert storm with their first new album in 10 years.
Earthless will melt your mind with endless space jams, and Crippled Black Phoenix deliver apocalyptic rock full of grandeur. Expect instrumental heaviness from Chicago pioneers Pelican, plus wild progressive energy from Mother’s Cake. Adding Texan groove power from High Desert Queen, new wave of würzburgs thrash metal Zerre, and psych-doom freakouts from Taiwan’s Dope Purple – the storm is real.
If this line-up speaks to your soul – better grab your tickets now before they vanish into the haze:www.desertfest.de
DESERTFEST BERLIN 2026 14.-16. MAY 2026 COLUMBIA VENUES, BERLIN
⚡FIRST ANNOUNCEMENTS⚡ RUSSIAN CIRCLES HERMANO THE SWORD ACID KING KING BUFFALO TRUCKFIGHTERS EARTHLESS CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX PELICAN MOTHER’S CAKE HIGH DESERT QUEEN ZERRE DOPE PURPLE AND MANY MORE!
Whatever else its eight component songs might be ‘about’ in terms of subject matter, Pelican‘s Flickering Resonance is about love. The long-running Chicago instrumentalists’ first album in six years since 2019’s Nighttime Stories (review here) is something of a reset, or return-to-form, and as they feature returned guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec, who came back to the band three years ago and was in Tusk with drummer Larry Herweg and guitarist Trevor Shelley de Brauw before Pelican were even founded, let alone being a founding member — the band is completed by bassist Bryan Herweg, who joined in 2001 — some of the material here represents the most straightforward Pelican have sounded in two decades.
The record breaks in half with a shorter piece introducing each side in “Gulch” on side A and “Cascading Crescent” leading the way into side B, but each side is also arranged from shortest to longest, so the tracks feel more immersive as they play out. Pelican are no strangers to bringing a range of influences to their approach. They’ve been celebrated for over 20 years for the central innovation of their sound, which in its infancy dared to mix shades of post-hardcore and emo in with crunch-tone-but-pastoral and largely-undeniable riffing, finding escape in the nod and richness of melody in the guitars. Flickering Resonance shimmers brighter than its title would lead one to believe, and across its span, it reminds the listener who Pelican were without sounding like a ‘gritty 2025 reboot’ of the band circa the Champions of Sound tour or a hackneyed attempt to lead the songs somewhere they don’t want to go.
But the secret ingredient here, in the ebbs and flows of “Evergreen” as it rolls out from the wistful leads of “Gulch” near the start of the record and the mellower drift of the finale “Wandering Mind,” is love. To listen to a song like “Indelible,” well, that’s what’s indelible about it. That’s what’s evergreen in “Evergreen.” It’s there in the takeoff after the quieter stretch in “Pining for Ever,” certainly, and it’s in the early shove of “Specific Resonance,” the quiet stretch and the later chugging ride to the finish. The album bleeds it. It’s the band’s love for each other, their love for the music, for making these songs both in the writing and recording sense, and the kind of chemistry that could only result from knowing each other as deeply as these players do.
Look. I’m not purporting Flickering Resonance as a sequel to their 2003 landmark debut, Australasia (discussed here), or anything like that — and I mean it. As much as “Cascading Crescent” and “Evergreen” and even the swayingly post-punk divergence of the penultimate “Flickering Stillness,” which comes to an engrossing crescendo that’s like being hugged by an old friend, are Pelican being themselves, they’re not Pelican trying to be themselves in their 20s. There’s no attempt to pretend that the years between then and now haven’t happened, and the maturity of the band underscoring is what makes the manifestation of their emotional expression so vivid.
This is a band who’ve been around the world I don’t know how many times, and no matter what hyperbole I could muster up to toss out about Flickering Resonance would pale in the face of that which they’ve received from far cooler sources over the course of their career. They don’t need to be putting out records at all if they don’t want to — it’s not the kind of thing where they’re locked into a label’s album cycle — and no doubt every individual member has their own life outside the band. That’s what happens when bands get older. Families, jobs, lives. And for every second of Flickering Resonance, whether it’s loud, quiet, riffing or exploring, they all just sound so happy to be there. I don’t know the recording circumstances, if they were all in the same room tracking with the esteemed Sanford Parker (Buried at Sea, Corrections House, Minsk, etc.) or in their respective living rooms playing to a laptop, but if you have found yourself in need of solace living on planet Earth in 2025 — whatever that might mean to you — Pelican‘s exuded joy for playing these songs together can be something to hold onto.
It’s a celebration of creativity, sure, but it’s really more human than that, more primal, and the lead guitar singing phrases no words could in “Indelible” tells a lot of the story. Love as a radical act. There’s no flinching away from what the last years have wrought, and while escapism and hypnotics have always been part of what Pelican do, the urgency here is to come together rather than to flee. Flickering Resonance is nothing if not a reminder to tell your friends you love them. It’s never going to be an answer to everything, but in the comings and goings of making their way into middle age, Pelican have landed in a place where they realize and understand how special this band is and most of all how special they are to each other. No part — really, none of it — sounds obligatory.
I’ve been a Pelican fan for a long time, and it would contradict the honesty of Flickering Resonance — oh, that last solo reaching out of “Wandering Mind” — to pretend otherwise. So if you want to say I’m impartial or I’m hearing things in the riffs that aren’t there, fine. I respectfully disagree, and I don’t think hearing the band valuing each other as they twist through the surge of “Pining for Ever” cheapens the listening experience at all. Rather, a great resource Flickering Resonance has working for it is its sense of openness and letting the parts of songs breathe; a hard-won patience on the band’s part that goes beyond the payoff of this or that individual track. Pelican step up, declare themselves across 51 minutes, and are gone again. In that time, they reinforce the boundary-pushing aspects of their early work without feeling any need to ‘go back’ in the songs themselves, acknowledging the past and moving inevitably forward, driven by the love, friendship and creativity that’s held them together all the while.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 12th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Fresh off the internet is word that Pelican‘s awaited new album, titled Flickering Resonance, will be released through Run for Cover Records on May 16. A clip of one song has been posted on social media — “Cascading Current,” also being released as a 7″ — and you’ll find that below with all due crunch of riff as Pelican highlight the fact that they’ve always been a secret-not-so-secret emo band, despite the tonal heft and fervency of groove. The deluxe-preorder-whathaveyou edition of Flickering Resonance will feature a vocalized version of the record with Thursday‘s Geoff Rickley sitting in.
I’ll readily admit that sounds like a nightmare and I don’t want to hear it, but that’s me and I’m from Jersey and I have my own associations with Thursday accordingly. It’s interesting nonetheless, and not the first time Pelican have had vocals, though they remain steadfast instrumentalists for the most part. Either way, new Pelican. I’m holding a place in my best of 2025 notes for it.
There are also tour dates in the image below. The March tour was previously announced. The summer run I think is new, and they’re talking about going back to Europe as well, which will likely happen. Okay, here we go.
From socials:
The long wait is over – our new album Flickering Resonance is coming May 16 on Run For Cover Records and there are now various pre-order options at the link in our bio including exclusive merch designs based on Christian Degn Petersen ‘s album artwork. You can also find the new song “Cascading Crescent” wherever you stream music (hear an excerpt in the comments section featuring an accompanying visual by Joshua Ford).
In addition to the 2xLP, CD, and new merch designs, there is a special preorder bundle that includes a super limited (500 copies) “Cascading Crescent” 7” single with both the album version and a special vocal version featuring Geoff Rickly of Thursday that is exclusive to the vinyl.
We’ve added tour dates in the US (with Porcelain) and the EU this summer to follow up on our upcoming run with Russian Circles next month (tickets for those are starting to sell out, so grab them soon). We cannot wait to share these songs with you both in-person and on the album. We cannot thank you enough for the support and patience.
Tracklist: 01. Gulch 02. Evergreen 03. Indelible 04. Specific Resonance 05. Cascading Crescent 06. Pining For Ever 07. Flickering Stillness 08. Wandering Mind
Bio:
Pelican has always been a band that’s not just from Chicago, but distinctly of Chicago. Formed in 2000 by guitarists Trevor Shelley de Brauw and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec alongside brothers Bryan and Larry Herweg on bass and drums respectively, Pelican’s foundation was built upon the rule-free, genre-agnostic scene synonymous with the Fireside Bowl. “The ‘90s in Chicago was a free-for-all. Everyone was just coming from a place of pure creativity,” says Shelley de Brauw. With Schroeder-Lebec returning to the band following Dallas Thomas’ exit in 2022, this reunified version of Pelican allowed the band to tap back into those influences and build something distinctly new with Flickering Resonance.
While longtime Pelican fans will find an updated version of the band’s ethos—one that’s been constantly evolving since their very first EP—their new partnership with Run For Cover Records emphasizes something that’s always been implicit to the Pelican formula. These songs take as much inspiration from titanic ‘90s post-hardcore, space-rock, and emo as they do traditional metal, showing that though Godflesh and Goatsnake records occupied the shelves of Pelican’s songwriters, so too did Quicksand, Christie Front Drive, and Hum. “A lot of people didn’t hear it,” says Schroeder-Lebec. “I was like, well, I guess the metal world is where we fit. But now, I’m willing to acknowledge all the suits we’re wearing.”
On Flickering Resonance, Pelican allowed themselves to look at their music less as a means of hard-earned catharsis and more as an appreciation for the glimmers of joy that occur even in the bleakest landscapes.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 15th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Pelican finished recording their next full-length at the start of September, and as they note below that the US West Coast stretch they’ll do alongside fellow Chicagoan instrumentalists Russian Circles is their first bigger run in five years, I can’t help but speculate the album will be out sometime around when they go, or shortly thereafter in Spring. Or, you know, ever, I guess, while we’re theorizing.
You’ll recall the band earlier this year put out the two-songer Adrift/Tending the Embers (review here) as a precursor to the seemingly-impending long-player, so if news were to show up about that between now and this tour, that would make sense. Thrill Jockey has been handling catalog reissues, so I’d expect the next LP to show up with that backing as well, but I never know anything until the PR wire tells me and it’s a universe of infinite possibility, so take that as you will.
Before this tour, Pelican will play the rescheduled Heavy Mountain Music and Beer Fest, which is to be held Jan. 17-18 in Asheville, North Carolina. Obviously I’m a nerd for the potentiality of a new Pelican album in the next however-many months, but if you’ve never seen them bring their work to life on stage, I strongly encourage you to consider doing so.
Dates from socials:
Very excited for this one – this March we’ll be joining our longtime friends Russian Circles for our first major US tour in five years. Tickets are on sale this Friday at 10am local time. We cannot wait to see you out there!
RUSSIAN CIRCLES & PELICAN TOUR 2025 March 3 St. Louis, MO – Delmar March 5 Denton,TX – Rubber Gloves March 6 Austin, TX – Mohawk March 8 Tucson, AZ – Wired Fest at MSA Annex March 9 Los Angeles, CA – The Regent March 10 Santa Ana, CA – The Observatory March 12 San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore March 13 Sacramento, CA – Ace of Spades March 15 Portland, OR – Revolution Hall March 16 Seattle, WA – Showbox March 17 Boise, ID – Knitting Factory March 18 Salt Lake City, UT – Metro Music Hall March 19 Englewood, CO – Gothic March 21 Omaha, NE – Slowdown March 22 Minneapolis, MN – Fine Line
Welcome back to the Quarterly Review. Good weekend? Restful? Did you get out and see some stuff? Did you loaf and hang out on the couch? There are advantages to either, to be sure. Friday night I watched my daughter (and a literal 40 other performers, no fewer than four of whom sang and/or danced to the same Taylor Swift song) do stand-up comedy telling math jokes at her elementary school variety show. She’s in kindergarten, she likes math, and she killed. Nice little moment for her, if one that came as part of a long evening generally.
The idea this week is the same as last week: 50 releases covered across five days. Put the two weeks together and the Spring 2024 Quarterly Review — which I’m pretty sure is what I called the one in March as well; who cares? — runs 100 strong. I’ll be traveling, some with family, some on my own, for a bit in the coming months, so this is a little bit my way of clearing my slate before that all happens, but it’s always satisfying to dig into so much and get a feel for what different acts are doing, try and convey some of that as directly as I can. If you’re reading, thanks. If this is the first you’re seeing of it and you want to see more, you can either scroll down or click here.
Either way, off we go.
Quarterly Review #51-60:
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Pelican, Adrift/Tending the Embers
Chicago (mostly-)instrumentalist stalwarts Pelican haven’t necessarily been silent since 2019’s Nighttime Stories (review here), with a digital live release in Spring 2020, catalog reissues on Thrill Jockey, a couple in-the-know covers posted and shows hither and yon, but the stated reason for the two-songer EP Adrift/Tending the Embers is to raise funds ahead of recording what will be their seventh album in a career now spanning more than 20 years. In addition to that being a cause worth supporting — they’re on the second pressing; 200 blue tapes — the two new original tracks “Adrift” (5:48) and “Tending the Embers” (4:26) reintroduce guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec as a studio presence alongside guitarist Trevor Shelley de Brauw, bassist Bryan Herweg and drummer Larry Herweg. Recorded by the esteemed Sanford Parker, neither cut ranges too far conceptually from the band’s central modus bringing together heavy groove with lighter/brighter reach of guitar, but come across like a tight, more concise encapsulation of earlier accomplishments. There’s a certain amount of comfort in that as they surf the crunching, somehow-noise-rock-inspired riff of “Adrift,” sounding refreshed in their purpose in a way that one hopes they can carry into making the intended LP.
Something of a harsher take on A Mortal Binding, which is the 15th full-length from UK death-doom forebears My Dying Bride, as well as their second for Nuclear Blast behind 2020’s lush The Ghost of Orion (review here. The seven-song/55-minute offering from the masters of misery derives its character in no small part from the front-mixed vocals of Aaron Stainthorpe, who from opener “Her Dominion” onward, switches between his morose semi-spoken approach, woeful as ever, and dry-throated harsher barks. And that the leadoff is all-screams feels like a purposeful choice as that rasp returns in the second half of “The 2nd of Three Bells,” the 11-minute “The Apocalyptist,” “A Starving Heart” and the ending section of closer “Crushed Embers.” I don’t know when the last time a My Dying Bride LP sounded so roiling, but it’s been a minute. The duly morose riffing of founding guitarist Andrew Craighan unites this outwardly nastier aspect with the more melodic “Thornwyck Hymn,” “Unthroned Creed” and the rest that isn’t throatripper-topped, but with returning producer Mark Mynett, the band has clearly honed in on a more stripped-down, still-room-for-violin approach, and it works in just about everything but the drums, which sound triggered/programmed in the way of modern metal. It remains easy to get caught in the band’s wretched sweep, and I’ll note that it’s a rare act who can surprise you 15 records later.
Masonic Wave‘s self-titled debut is the first public offering from the Chicago-based five-piece with Bruce Lamont (Yakuza, Corrections House, Led Zeppelin II, etc.) on vocals, and though “Justify the Cling” has a kind of darker intensity in its brooding first-half ambience, what that build and much besides throughout the eight-song offering leads to is a weighted take on post-hardcore that earlier pieces “Bully” and “Tent City” present in duly confrontational style before “Idle Hands” (the longest inclusion at just under eight minutes) digs into a similar explore-till-we-find-the-payoff ideology and “Julia” gnashes through noise-rock teethkicking. Some of the edge-of-the-next-outburst restlessness cast by Lamont, guitarists Scott Spidale and Sean Hulet, bassist Fritz Doreza and drummer Clayton DeMuth reminds of Chat Pile‘s arthouse disillusion, but “Nuzzle Up” has a cyclical crunch given breadth through the vocal melody and the sax amid the multiple angles and sharp corners of the penultimate “Mountains of Labor” are a clue to further weirdness to come before “Bamboozler” closes with heads-down urgency before subtly branching into a more spacious if still pointedly unrelaxed culmination. No clue where it might all be headed, but that’s part of the appeal as Masonic Wave‘s Sanford Parker-produced 39 minutes play out, the songs engaging almost in spite of themselves.
There are shades of latter-day Conan (whose producer/former bassist Chris Fielding mixed here) in the vocal trades and mega-toned gallop of opening track “Sky Father,” which Bismarck expand upon with the more pointedly post-metallic “Echoes,” shifting from the lurching ultracrush into a mellower midsection before the blastbeaten crescendo gives over to rumble and the hand-percussion-backed whispers of the intro to “Kigal.” Their first for Dark Essence, the six-song/35-minute Vourukasha follows 2020’s Oneiromancer (review here) and feels poised in its various transitions between consuming aural heft and leaving that same space in the mix open for comparatively minimal exploration. “Kigal” takes on a Middle Eastern lean and stays unshouted/growled for its five-plus minutes — a choice that both works and feels purposeful — but the foreboding drone of interlude “The Tree of All Seeds” comes to a noisy head as if to warn of the drop about to take place in the title-track, which flows through its initial movement with an emergent float of guitar that leads into its own ambient middle ahead of an engrossing, duly massive slowdown/payoff worthy of as much volume as it can be given. Wrapping with the nine-minute “Ocean Dweller,” they summarize what precedes on Vourukasha while shifting the structure as an extended, vocal-inclusive-at-the-front soundscape bookends around one more huge, slow-marching, consciousness-flattening procession. Extremity refined.
That fact that Sun Moon Holy Cult exist on paper as a band based in Tokyo playing a Sabbath-boogie-worshiping, riff-led take on heavy rock with a song like “I Cut Your Throat” leading off their self-titled debut makes a Church of Misery comparison somewhat inevitable, but the psych jamming around the wah-bass shuffle of “Out of the Dark,” longer-form structures, the vocal melodies and the Sleep-style march of “Savoordoom” that grows trippier as it delves further into its 13 minutes distinguish the newcomer four-piece of vocalist Hakuka, guitarist Ryu, bassist Ame and drummer Bato across the four-song LP’s 40 minutes. Issued through Captured Records and SloomWeep Productions, Sun Moon Holy Cult brings due bombast amid the roll of “Mystic River” as well, hitting its marks stylistically while showcasing the promise of a band with a clear idea of what they want their songs to do and perhaps how they want to grow over time. If this is to be the foundation of that growth, watch out.
Dortmund, Germany’s Daily Thompson made their way to Port Orchard, Washington, to record Chuparosa with Mos Generator‘s Tony Reed at the helm, and the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Danny Zaremba, bassist/vocalist Mercedes Lalakakis and drummer/vocalist Thorsten Stratmann bring a duly West Coast spirit to “I’m Free Tonight” and the grunge-informed roll of “Diamond Waves” and the verses of “Raindancer.” The former launches the 36-minute outing with a pointedly Fu Manchuian vibe, but the start-stops, fluid roll and interplay of vocals from Zaremba and Lalakakis lets “Pizza Boy” move in its own direction, and the brooding acoustic start of “Diamond Waves” and more languid wash of riff in the chorus look elsewhere in ’90s alternativism for their basis. The penultimate “Ghost Bird” brings in cigar-box guitar and dares some twang amid all the fuzz, but as “Raindancer” has already branched out with its quieter bassy midsection build and final desert-hued thrust, the album can accommodate such a shift without any trouble. The title-track trades between wistful grunge verses and a fuller-nodding hook, from which the three-piece take off for the bridge, thankfully returning to the chorus in Chuparosa‘s big finish. The manner in which the whole thing brims with purpose makes it seem like Daily Thompson knew exactly what they were going for in terms of sound, so I guess you could say it was probably worth the trip.
Kicking off with the markedly Graveyardian “Hangtime,” Mooch ultimately aren’t content to dwell solely in a heavy-blues-boogie sphere on Visions, their third LP and quick follow-up to 2023’s Hounds. Bluesy as the vibe is from which the Montreal trio set out, the subsequent “Morning Prayer” meanders through wah-strum open spaces early onto to delve into jangly classic-prog strum later, while “Intention” backs its drawling vocal melody with nylon-stringed acoustic guitar and hand percussion. Divergence continues to be the order of the day throughout the 41-minute eight-songer, with “New Door” shifting from its sleepy initial movement into an even quieter stretch of Doors-meets-Stones-y melody before the bass leads into its livelier solo section with just a tinge of Latin rhythm and “Together” giving more push behind a feel harkening back to the opener but that grows quiet and melodically expansive in its second half. This sets up the moodier vibe of “Vision” and gives the roll of “You Wouldn’t Know” an effective backdrop for its acoustic/electric blend and harmonized vocals, delivered patiently enough to let the lap steel slide into the arrangement easily before the brighter-toned “Reflections” caps with a tinge of modern heavy post-rock. What’s tying it together? Something intangible. Momentum. Flow. Maybe just the confidence to do it? I don’t know, but as subdued as they get, they never lose their momentum, and as much movement as there is, they never seem to lose their balance. Visions might not reveal its full scope the first time through, but subsequent listens bring due reward.
The narrative — blessings and peace upon it — has it that guitarist/vocalist Bobby Spender recruited bassist Loz Fancourt and drummer Harry Flowers after The Pleasure Dome‘s prior rhythm section left, ahead of putting together the varied 16 minutes of the Liminal Space EP. For what it’s worth, the revamped Bristol, UK, trio don’t sound any more haphazard than they want to in the loose-swinging sections of “Shoulder to Cry On” that offset the fuller shove of the chorus, or the punk-rooted alt-rock brashness of “The Duke Part II (Friends & Enemies),” and the blastbeat-inclusive tension of “Your Fucking Smile” that precedes the folk-blues finger-plucking of “Sugar.” Disjointed? Kind of, but that also feels like the point. Closer “Suicide” works around acoustic guitar and feels sincere in the lines, “Suicide, suicide/I’ve been there before/I’ve been there before/On your own/So hold on,” and the profession of love that resolves it, and while that’s at some remove from the bitter spirit of the first two post-intro tracks, Liminal Space makes its own kind of sense with the sans-effects voice of Spender at its core.
A solid four-songer from Birmingham’s Slump, who are fronted by guitarist Matt Noble (also Alunah), with drummer David Kabbouri Lara and bassist Ben Myles backing the riff-led material with punch in “Buried” after the careening hook of “Dust” opens with classic scorch in its solo and before the slower and more sludged “Kneel” gets down to its own screamier business and “Vultures” rounds out with a midtempo stomp early but nods to what seems like it’s going to be a more morose finish until the drum solo takes off toward the big-crash finish. As was the case on Slump‘s 2023 split with At War With the Sun, the feel across Dust is that of a nascent band — Slump got together in 2018, but this is their most substantial standalone release to-date — figuring out what they want to do. The ideas are there, and the volatility at which “Kneel” hints will hopefully continue to serve them well as they explore spaces between metal and heavy rock, classic and modern styles. A progression underway toward any number of potential avenues.
What dwells in Green Hog Band‘s Fuzz Realm? If you said “fuzz,” go ahead and get yourself a cookie (the judges also would’ve accepted “riffs” and “heavy vibes, dude”), but for those unfamiliar with the New Yorker trio’s methodology, there’s more to it than tone as guitarist/producer Mike Vivisector, bassist/vocalist Ivan Antipov and drummer Ronan Berry continue to carve out their niche of lo-fi stoner buzz marked by harsh, gurgly vocals in the vein of Attila Csihar, various samples, organ sounds and dug-in fuckall. “Escape on the Wheels” swings and chugs instrumentally, and “In the Mist of the Bong” has lyrics in English, so there’s no lack of variety despite the overarching pervasiveness of misanthropy. That mood is further cast in the closing salvo of the low-slung “Morning Dew” and left-open “Phantom,” both of which are instrumental save for some spoken lines in the latter, as the prevailing sense is that they were going to maybe put some verses on there but decided screw it and went back to their cave (presumably somewhere in Queens) instead, because up yours anyhow. 46 minutes of crust-stoned “up yours anyhow,” then.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 28th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
If you think I’m about to start complaining about a new two-songer from Pelican, you’ve got the wrong place. The long-running Chicago (mostly-) instrumentalists helped pioneer a take on heavy informed by post-rock, post-punk, emo and shoegaze, and considering that kind of thing is everywhere now, I’d say history has proven them right, whereas one recalls in their earlier going the message-board kerfuffle the airier elements of their styles caused. Dudes were pissed. But in the parlance of that same internet, Pelican did nothing wrong. Wasn’t their fault, being skinny and playing heavy.
Yeah, there’s probably a bit of the power of suggestion with the first on-studio-recording appearance of guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec since he rejoined the band — you’ll recall Dallas Thomas (Asschapel, The Swan King, etc.) held the position for the intervening years — but I do hear some aspects of Pelican‘s earlier work in Adrift/Tending the Embers, which carries all the poise one might expect from Pelican as a veteran act but seems as well to be exploring and questioning what it is that makes Pelican who they are. Was it a willingness to be heavy without metal’s chestbeating toxicity? That bit of float amid all the surrounding crunch?
I don’t have the answers to these questions, but as many have been following the band on the trail they’ve marched lo these last two-plus decades, as many have taken on their influence and as forward as the band has always looked, I’m sure glad there’s new music happening alongside the reissues and covers that came out last year. Whatever this leads to or doesn’t as regards a full-length, I’ll take what I can get. If you want to hear it before it’s out on Friday, there’s a listening party on Bandcamp tomorrow you can get on board for. Info follows as per the band’s email list:
Dear friends – we are thrilled to announce that we have launched pre-orders for our new ‘Adrift / Tending the Embers’ EP, which is out this Friday. These are our first new songs since 2019 and the first material written with founding guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec since 2012.
Laurent joined us on our 2022 Summer tour and the reunion proved so inspiring that we began writing a new album early last year. The ideas were flowing so quickly that it soon became clear that there was more than an album’s worth of material in the works. Late last year we booked studio time with our longtime collaborator Sanford Parker to document a pair of the earliest compositions in order to present them to our supporters sooner than later.
The result is ‘Adrift / Tending the Embers’ – digital preorders are up right now and a limited cassette version (first press is 200 copies) will be coming on Friday. We’ve also launched preorders for a limited long sleeve shirt based on Christian Degn’s hand illustrated EP artwork- we will only be accepting orders for this until March 6, so jump on it sooner than later if you’re interested.
If you’re interested in hearing the EP early we will be hosting a Bandcamp listening party tomorrow at 2pm EST / 11am PST. Please join us!
We can’t thank you enough for you support and your patience. We’re still writing the album, so it may be a little wait for that still, but we are so excited by the direction of the new material and are thrilled for you all to hear it when the time comes.
