Posted in Whathaveyou on March 10th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Guitarist Shane Trimble of High Reeper has produced all three of the band’s albums to-date, so if you want an example of his work, you don’t have to look farther than the bottom of this post for their most recent outing, 2024’s metal-tinged rager Renewed by Death (review here), released in continued alliance with Heavy Psych Sounds. As High Reeper have been around for a bit — and Trimble‘s production/engineering isn’t limited to his own projects, as you can see below — I think what makes this a “launch” for Sletner Sound is the fact that now there’s a physical, dedicated recording studio, instead of helming recordings in the DIY/homemade style.
Wilmington, Delaware, is where the spot is located, so adjacent to any number of metropolitan areas. I know a fair amount of the people who might visit this site on a day-to-day are artists as well as fans. In a literal sense, it might be news you actually can use. There are equipment lists and such on the studio’s site, should you want to investigate further.
From the PR wire:
Shane Trimble of High Reeper Launches New Recording Studio, Sletner Sound, in Wilmington, DE
After nearly 30 years in the audio industry, producer and engineer Shane Trimble — guitarist of High Reeper — has officially opened Sletner Sound, a new recording studio in Wilmington, Delaware.
Trimble, who worked closely with legendary engineer and mentor Mike Tarsia, carries forward the Sigma Sound legacy, honoring Tarsia’s influence following his passing. With an extensive portfolio that includes mixing records for Bongzilla, Black Rainbows, The Pilgrim, High Reeper, and more, Trimble has cultivated a sound that blends classic techniques with modern production.
“I wanted to create a space that continues the tradition of the studios I grew up working in — where artists can push creative boundaries while getting the best possible sound,” says Trimble.
Sletner Sound is now booking for 2025. Artists and producers looking for a professional recording and mixing environment can visitwww.sletnersound.comfor more details.
For media inquiries, interviews, or studio bookings, please contact: Shane Trimble shane@sletnersound.com
About Sletner Sound
Founded by Shane Trimble, Sletner Sound is a professional recording studio in Wilmington, DE, dedicated to high-quality audio production. With decades of experience in engineering, mixing, and recording, Sletner Sound provides a space where artists can create music with expert guidance and top-tier sound.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on February 26th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
It happens maybe once, maybe twice a year that a video will come along and some switch will flip in my sillybrain and I’ll put it on the tv to enjoy in its entirety. You see where this is going, of course. It’s been a crappy morning, and you should note that I say “morning” at like 1:30 in the afternoon. Yeah, I’ve done some laundry and wrote a review, got the kid out to school and this and that, but productivity on all fronts has been like pulling teeth and I’ve got way more to do at this point than I have time to do it. Sad to say the difference is today I answered email.
Anyhow, the point. With overwhelm looming, a full 40-minute Stinking Lizaveta concert set — captured at Milkboy in the long-running instrumentalist trio’s Philadelphia hometown and set to release on SRA Records as a live album on March 7 along with a host of catalog reissues — is a welcome excuse for escape. I’m not gonna pretend this is a review of the live album or anything more than me sitting in front of my tv enjoying Stinking Lizaveta instead of being stressed out about not getting shit done I was hoping to. Cheshire getting on mic after “The Heart” tells me I was right.
And as regards heart, there’s plenty of it there and in the subsequent “Sherman’s March,” which Yanni shouts out in the memory of Dave Sherman — a labelmate to Stinking Lizaveta when Spirit Caravan released their first album through Tolotta Records — to go along with the charm and chicanery that begins the set in “Serpent Underfoot” and “Electric Future,” a joy no less resonant than the wistful soloing of “Sherman’s March,” with Alexei’s bass locked in step with the drums for the sans-vocal chorus that follows.
Oh man, that sounds an awful lot like a review.
I’ll allow for the fact that if Stinking Lizaveta are inspiring, it’s not the first time. This clip landed in my email (also my DMs, also my social timelines, etc.) at a particularly welcome moment. I’ll get the laundry changed over. I’ll get the rest of the day done. And maybe tomorrow will be easier for the time I took to share the obvious delight Stinking Lizaveta bring to the breakdown in “L.B.J.” — Yanni laughing before they start about how it’s the “extended version” — with Alexei free-jazzing it on the electric standup; a definition of cool that didn’t exist until he made it — and a bit of freakout to boot before they charge, stop, goof off for a minute and then make a rocking return. Fucking hell this is a great band.
The latest-I’ve-seen confirmations for Stinking Lizaveta‘s upcoming European tour with Darsombra are included with the video info and live-album/reissues preorder link below, and if that all seems like a lot and you just want to put on the video and chill out for a little bit with it, I can tell you it definitely worked for making my day better.
Please enjoy:
Stinking Lizaveta, Live 2023 concert video
Stinking Lizaveta “Live 2023” full concert movie streaming now
Limited vinyl available in the pre-order packages for the Stinking Lizaveta reissues
Tracklisting: 1. Serpent Underfoot 2. Electric Future 3. Daily Madness 4. Nomen Est Omen 5. Shock 6. The Heart 7. Sherman’s March 8. L.B.J. 9. Let Live
Recorded August 31st 2023 at Milkboy in Philadelphia Live sound by Mike Moffitt Recording by Joe Smiley Mixed and Mastered at Red Planet by Joe Smiley Video by Mark @trimungus8653 Thanks Dysrythmia and Countdown From Ten
STINKING LIZAVETA / DARSOMBRA SUMMER EU TOUR 2025 updates here: DARSOMBRA.COM 23 – 24 May – GERMANY/CZECH REPUBLIC/POLAND 25 May – Berlin GERMANY @ Desertfest Berlin CONFIRMED *26 – 27 May – CZECH REPUBLIC/POLAND/GERMANY 28 May – Warsaw POLAND @ Mlodsza Siostra CONFIRMED 29 May – Wroclaw POLAND @ Kalambur CONFIRMED 30 May – Krakow POLAND CONFIRMED 31 May – Kosice SLOVAKIA @ Collosseum CONFIRMED 1 June – Budapest HUNGARY @ Auróra CONFIRMED *2 June – SLOVAKIA/HUNGARY 3 June – Vienna AUSTRIA @ Arena CONFIRMED 4 June – Linz AUSTRIA @ Kapu CONFIRMED 5 June – Nuremberg GERMANY @ Kunstverein Hintere Cramergasse e.V. CONFIRMED 6 June – Potsdam GERMANY @ Archiv CONFIRMED 7 June – Dresden GERMANY @ Veränderbar CONFIRMED *8 June – CZECH REPUBLIC/GERMANY 9 June – Prague CZECH REPUBLIC @ Eternia CONFIRMED *10 June – CZECH REPUBLIC 11 June – Brno CZECH REPUBLIC @ Kabinet Muz CONFIRMED 12 June – Berlin GERMANY @ Schokoladen CONFIRMED 13 June – Brandenburg GERMANY CONFIRMED *14 – 19 June – WEST GERMANY/BELGIUM/NETHERLANDS 20 June – Herzberg GERMANY CONFIRMED *21- 24 June – GERMANY/DENMARK/BELGIUM/NETHERLANDS 25-29 June – Lärz GERMANY CONFIRMED *to be confirmed
Stinking Lizaveta is Yanni Papadopoulos on guitar, Alexi Papadopoulos on upright electric bass, and Cheshire Agusta on drums.
Posted in Reviews on February 26th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Comprised of 10 tracks that bring harmony-topped not-quite-gazing grunge contemplations, deep running tonal heft and an abiding sense of quirk that makes the material all the more expansive and multifaceted, inMake Money From Home‘s self-recorded, self-released and self-titled debut — in addition to sounding huge; Will Mellor (Heavy Temple) mixed at Red Water Recording — is nothing if not dug in. Running a total of 53 minutes, the album signals its course early in the moody and subdued verses of “Lumber,” carried by James Udinski‘s ride cymbal, light strum of bass from Emily Brown (also vocals and cover design) and the guitar and vocals of Bill O’Sullivan.
One might recall O’Sullivan from his prior band, the Brooklyn-based Eggnogg, who also had a penchant for gosh-darn-heavy riffing, the occasional cosmos-scorching blues solo, and personality. Based in Philadelphia, Make Money From Home are distinguished certainly in atmosphere from O’Sullivan‘s previous outfit, and the vocal interplay with Brown on pieces like “Frozen Over,” the brief and semi-twanged “The Evening Ball,” “Stable,” the chorus of “What is it For,” and so on, is a noteworthy strength that’s apparently at root in the band; Make Money From Home seems to have started out acoustically circa 2020 with O’Sullivan and Brown singing together.
A certain folkishness persists in what they do now — certainly in the wit of the lyrics and the occasionally lush vocal melodies — but Make Money From Home sound intentional in their weighted distortion. Accordingly, folk is only part of it, alongside grunge, classic mid-paced stonerly roll and even a bit of Electric Wizard as second/longest cut “Alarum” (8:34) reinvents the riff to “The Chosen Few” toward its own ends in languid post-Nirvana drawl.
“Alarum” is one of two songs over eight minutes, and the other, “Pistols at Dawn” manifests the Western edge hinted at in its title, serving as one of several diversions around the heavy-grunge crux of Make Money From Home, the movement changing from a ‘lumber’ — derp see what I did there? — to a sway in “Pistols at Dawn,” a rockabilly-style swing in “Ever and More” and ’90s-nerd-rock bounce in “Flew the Coop.”
These shifts in intent, coupled with the consistency of performance from O’Sullivan and Brown — whose basslines make “Ever and More” one of the best examples of a heavy jazz-swing I’ve come across; it’s a tough balance to strike — result in a record that sounds like it knows where it wants to be and how it wants to explore around that. That this isn’t O’Sullivan‘s first time leading a band on guitar and lead vocals is apparent in the confidence of his voice throughout; a bluesy, low register that’s able to slip into more guttural but still clean delivery as called for in a given song.
And the album very much plays out as a collection of songs. Flow between them, with methodical tempos from the outset in “Lumber” and “Alarum,” rampant melody and varied structures from one piece to the next assuring that the trio don’t seem to linger anywhere for longer than they want to. True, the listening experience isn’t a minor investment — a runtime north of the 50-minute line feeling in itself like a reference to the 1990s; but who knows if or when Make Money From Home will do anything else, so I’m not holding it against them — but the rewards are there for repeat listens, as a lyric like, “Some sleep afloat, I’ll drown awake” belted out at the end of “Lumber” or the sheepishness in O’Sullivan‘s voice as he stops all that shouting in “Flew the Coop” and apologizes in the verse croon, “Pardon me, I didn’t mean to raise my voice so loud/Threw back a bunch of meds floating on a cloud/Gotta hand it to you, doc, it really shuts it out/I really shouldn’t talk so proud/Should’ve shut my mouth…” and continues a balladeering-type story of what might’ve been a mental health invervention and in any case is way more fun as a song than it probably was to live through. So it goes. “Flew the Coop” is a standout, and so is “Stable” and “Frozen Over” (that layered shred! for ambience no less!), “Lumber,” “The Evening Ball,” “What is it For,” “Alarum,” “New Clown,” “Pistols at Dawn,” and “Ever and More.” That’s the whole record, in no particular order.
It’s telling that some of the most resonant stretches are the quietest. Maybe that’s Brown and O’Sullivan in the hook of “What is it For,” a sleek groove there that “Flew the Coop” of all songs will answer back to later, vulnerable and trying to be silly to cover it, or maybe it’s O’Sullivan laying out oddball connections in “Pistols at Dawn,” the bridge lines, “I’m content with four blank walls/What’s a reader to do?” prompting any number of potential answers. Read? I don’t know. In any case, while there’s no doubt Make Money From Home revel in the outright crush of “Lumber” when it kicks in, even as a first record, these songs offer more realization than a single idea or genre designation wants to convey.
There’s an adventurousness of songwriting that O’Sullivan has to some degree carried over from his last band, but Make Money From Home sounds more like a beginning than a continued thread, and the direction the material takes is its own thing, rooted in a bluesy style that still somehow lets the solo later in “Pistols at Dawn” sound like Jerry Cantrell as the jam starts to come apart, only to have “Ever and More” sweep in, not quite as manic as “Flew the Coop,” where ‘manic’ is the point, but a toe tapper just the same. And in “Flew the Coop,” like “The Evening Ball,” “Stable” and even arguably the develops-more-each-time hook of “Frozen Over,” storytelling lets the band make an impression in persona and craft alike.
I could sit here and bloviate uninformed on where Make Money From Home‘s progression might take them in the future — it might even be fun — but I don’t know anything, wouldn’t want to hazard a prediction when diversity of songwriting is so much at play, and generally feel like these pieces and the front-to-back entirety merit consideration on their own terms in the now. This is one of the best debut albums I’ve heard thus far into 2025, and one of the best albums, period, and I look forward to hearing how its character develops over the rest of this year and beyond.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on February 13th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
This is some nasty, nasty shit. I wouldn’t lie to you. Bottom line, top line and all lines in between — nasty.
Based in Pittsburgh and having just last month put up their two initial singles — “Hollow Eyes,” for which a lyric video premieres below, and the concurrent “The Burden We Have Become” — Passing Bell are a new band that pulls together members of Horehound, The Long Hunt and others and who have set themselves immediately to the work of vicious stylization. The harsh, largely indecipherable barks of vocalist Kevin Tuite — good thing it’s a lyric video — are the flay to coincide with the bludgeon of riff in “Hollow Eyes,” and though it and its companion piece are relatively short at under five minutes, that’s plenty of time for Tuite, guitarist/engineer Trevor Richards, bassist Russ Johnson and drummer Christian Dean to affect a mood (by souring it) and entrench themselves onto the brain of the listener, there to fester.
The lyrics for “Hollow Eyes” are below — why not? I never include lyrics but probably should — and surely lines like “Hollow eyes reflect across darkened water under starless skies” give some impression on their own of where Passing Bell are coming from. “Fester” is in there too, as part of a litany of grim descriptives to go along with the biting instrumentation behind. So is this the part where I say that given the extreme nature of the music, listeners should be advised before taking it on that it’s not going to be for everybody? You bet your ass it is. While “Hollow Eyes” and “The Burden We Have Become” both have one foot in a rock-based groove, the other has a boot on your larynx, and admittedly, that’s not something universally accessible. If you can get on board with the rawer side of Passing Bell as they present themselves here, so much the better. Go see them live. Be a fan. Caustic bands need love too, mate. Get in there with hugs and enjoy.
Lovey dovey. If you can’t hear that here, in the overarching catharsis if nowhere else in the four and a half-ish minutes, that’s okay. Some bands make it a challenge.
Please enjoy:
Passing Bell, “Hollow Eyes” lyric video premiere
From Crevices so dark the moon dare not spare light Hollow eyes reflect across darkened water under starless skies
An abhorrent wind does spring forth Driven forward, reins held by the cursed whispers gasped from a mouth of multiple tongues
Hollow eyes reflect across darkened water under starless skies a lasso cast by the (sinister) Advancing in violent bursts etching beauty to jagged stone.
A scorched and tarred trail of festering slime is what’s left behind A mother of amphibious plains beckons A corrupt summons an invitation utterly blasphemous
Hollow eyes reflect across darkened water under starless skies
Embark into the wild under the distant darkened sky Join her scaled womb draped in moss Marinate in the fetid waters of the desolate marsh
released January 10, 2025
Passing Bell are: Kevin Tuite : Vocals & Lyrics Christian Dean: Drums Russ Johnson: Bass Trevor Richards: Guitar
Album photography by Russ Johnson. Recording and mixing by Trevor Richards.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 6th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
In troubling times, Stinking Lizaveta are a reminder of the good humans can do. As they close in on the 30th anniversary of their first album, 1996’s Hopelessness and Shame, the venerable Philadelphia-based instrumental doomjazz innovators will undertake an even more massive European tour in 2025 than they did in 2024, again keeping company with Maryland-based experimentalists Darsombra — a damn good pairing — and embark on a no less sprawling reissue campaign with SRA Records, the same label that put out their latest album, Anthems and Phantoms (review here), in 2023.
To commence said campaign, SRA will stand behind new editions of the aforementioned Hopelessness and Shame and its 1997 follow-up, Slaughterhouse, as well as two new outings, a live record, Live 2023, captured at Milkboy in their hometown fresh off tour, and 1994 Steve Albini Demo, which was cut prior to recording the first record, also with the legendary producer at the helm. That’s not new music, being 31 years old, but it’s apparently never been released. Oh, and the second record was tracked by Steve Austin from Today is the Day. What is it with artsy noise dudes named Steve?
Anyhow, there’s a ton of information here, but since it’s Stinking Lizaveta, I expect all details to be fully memorized, preorders to be deployed, and so on and so forth. Stinking Lizaveta remain a band to tell your friends about, so here’s me telling you. The PR wire backs me up:
On March 7th, Philadelphia Legends Stinking Lizaveta & SRA Records Kick Off Massive Reissue Project With Debut, Sophomore Album, & More
Legendary Philadelphia Instrumental Rock Trio Stinking Lizaveta Kicks Off Massive Reissue Project with Steve Albini–Recorded Debut, Hopelessness and Shame, Second Record, Slaughterhouse, Recorded with Steve Austin (Today Is the Day), Plus Early Albini Demo and 2023 Live Record — All Available on Vinyl for the First Time
• Albini recorded debut and demo is an essential document for Stinking Lizaveta fans and Albini enthusiasts
Three decades ago, a thunderous roar emerged from the West Philadelphia punk underground. Stinking Lizaveta assembled, a rock ‘n’ roll powerhouse fronted by the ferocious screaming of guitarist Yanni Papadopoulos’ black Les Paul and propelled by the growling electric upright bass of his brother, Alexi, and the pummeling assault of drummer Cheshire Agusta. Rocking with extreme abandon, they were iconoclasts, delivering instrumental music that matched the intensity of their hardcore forebears.
The band followed the template provided by Greg Ginn’s Gone—as well as the guitarist’s vocal-less explorations within Black Flag (The Process of Weeding Out and Family Man)—a rare precedent for instrumental guitar-driven rock in the heavy music scene. “We were just trying to find our place on the shoulders of giants,” recalls Yanni. “I was copying the previous generation, as was Greg—he was copying Mahavishnu Orchestra and other stuff from the ’70s that he dug.” The guitarist cites other influences, notably stoner-rock stalwarts The Obsessed and the Bad Brains’ I Against I. “That’s stuff you can’t escape that influenced the whole generation,” the guitarist says. “Anyone who started playing guitar in the ’80s, you just hear [Bad Brains guitarist] Dr. Know in there. Is it metal? Is it punk?” The same questions would apply to Stinking Liz.
“We had two identities as a band at the time,” says Papadopoulos, recalling Stinking Lizaveta’s early days. “We had this overdriven guitar identity and this cleaner guitar identity. We used all the overdriven stuff for the first record and put the cleaner stuff on the shelf.” While on tour supporting their debut, they spent a night at Steve Austin’s house, who invited them to take advantage of his home studio. “We just recorded a bunch of stuff, and he’s such a creative person, he was able to capture this vibe in one night of unexpected recording.”
Austin’s recordings make more than half of their sophomore release, Slaughterhouse. These moody, bluesy excursions capture the late-night atmosphere. Effectively pre-dating the prevalent doomy jazz of Bohren & Der Club of Gore, or the proliferation of the slow-as-an-aesthetic guitar riffage in the hands of Earth, Slaugherhouse adds a new dimension to the band’s sound and reputation. On the record, the Austin recordings are mixed and matched with material recorded along the way at other sessions, which show the band’s rock focus was still firmly intact.
Newly remastered by Dave Eck, this reissue reconstitutes these tracks into a more cohesive-sounding form than ever before, delivering this necessary document in its highest fidelity. Along with Slaughterhouse—which will be pressed on gold vinyl—the first 100 copies purchased directly from SRA Records will include a copy of Live 2023, an all-new exclusive live recording of the trio performing a set of material culled from 2023’s Anthems and Phantoms at the height of their powers, fresh off a tour with Telekinetic Yeti, where they shared a bill with fellow instrumental underground rock legends and longtime compatriots Dysrhythmia at Philadelphia’s Milkboy.
Stinking Lizaveta’s trajectory is notably long and varied, but Live 2023 offers somewhat of a full-circle experience. Papadopoulos points out that much of the formula remains the same: Not only are they the same lineup, but they’re essentially all using the same tools—the guitarist has burned through a trio of Les Pauls but has not ventured from the model, and his brother continues on with the same electric upright. Yanni has gone through phases of heavier pedal exploration in his guitar sound but is back once again to using an elemental direct-into-the-amp approach as is heard on the first two records.
Following the band’s earliest demo recordings, capturing their sound in its infancy, to the big bang of their debut, through the sonic explorations of Slaughterhouse, hearing Live 2023 continues to deliver the same vitality and thrill that Stinking Lizaveta have become known for.
STINKING LIZAVETA / DARSOMBRA SUMMER EU TOUR 2025 updates here: DARSOMBRA.COM 23 – 24 May – GERMANY/CZECH REPUBLIC/POLAND 25 May – Berlin GERMANY @ Desertfest Berlin CONFIRMED *26 – 27 May – CZECH REPUBLIC/POLAND/GERMANY 28 May – Warsaw POLAND @ Mlodsza Siostra CONFIRMED 29 May – Wroclaw POLAND @ Kalambur CONFIRMED 30 May – Krakow POLAND CONFIRMED 31 May – Kosice SLOVAKIA @ Collosseum CONFIRMED 1 June – Budapest HUNGARY @ Auróra CONFIRMED *2 June – SLOVAKIA/HUNGARY 3 June – Vienna AUSTRIA @ Arena CONFIRMED 4 June – Linz AUSTRIA @ Kapu CONFIRMED 5 June – Nuremberg GERMANY @ Kunstverein Hintere Cramergasse e.V. CONFIRMED 6 June – Potsdam GERMANY @ Archiv CONFIRMED 7 June – Dresden GERMANY @ Veränderbar CONFIRMED *8 June – CZECH REPUBLIC/GERMANY 9 June – Prague CZECH REPUBLIC @ Eternia CONFIRMED *10 June – CZECH REPUBLIC 11 June – Brno CZECH REPUBLIC @ Kabinet Muz CONFIRMED 12 June – Berlin GERMANY @ Schokoladen CONFIRMED 13 June – Brandenburg GERMANY CONFIRMED *14 – 19 June – WEST GERMANY/BELGIUM/NETHERLANDS 20 June – Herzberg GERMANY CONFIRMED *21- 24 June – GERMANY/DENMARK/BELGIUM/NETHERLANDS 25-29 June – Lärz GERMANY CONFIRMED *to be confirmed
HOPELESSNESS AND SHAME Stinking Lizaveta’s 1996 debut album First time on vinyl Recorded by Steve Albini Mastered from original analog master reels by James Plotkin Red vinyl Yellow vinyl
SLAUGHTERHOUSE Stinking Lizaveta’s 1997 second album First time on vinyl Recorded by Steve Austin, Les Lentz and Aaron Levinson Remastered by Dave Eck at Lucky Mastering Gold vinyl
1994 STEVE ALBINI DEMO SRA Records Exclusive – only available here! First time available Recorded by Steve Albini Limited to 100 copies Remastered from the master reels Black vinyl
LIVE 2023 SRA Records Exclusive – only available here! Stinking Lizaveta’s first live album Recorded live in Philadelphia after returning from a US tour Multitrack recording done by Joe Smiley Mixed at Red Planet Limited to 100 copies Black vinyl
Stinking Lizaveta is Yanni Papadopoulos on guitar, Alexi Papadopoulos on upright electric bass, and Cheshire Agusta on drums.
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 28th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
11 minutes of new Clams is a big ‘yes please’ this morning as the Philly-ish riff-crunchers unveil “The Oar” as the first single from their impending self-titled follow-up to 2018’s III (review here). The four-piece who are a veteran presence both on stages up and down the Eastern Seaboard and in my heart have been working on Clamfight for years now — I know because I sing guest vocals on it (different song) and I recorded like two years ago — and as drummer/vocalist Andy Martin notes below, it will be their last collaboration with Steve Poponi, who passed away last year.
Bittersweet, then, certainly for the band. “The Oar” is big and lumbering, not without a reach in its melody and linear in its trajectory, build and flow. When it hits the comedown, you’ll be surprised the 11 minutes hare gone. If you’ve seen them live since the pandemic, I’m pretty sure they’ve been doing this one live for the last however long, epic solos and all. Plus gang vocals. Little something for everyone here.
I don’t have any idea on the release plan for Clamfight‘s Clamfight because, uh, I don’t, but I’ll keep an eye/ear for more, and there’s plenty here to dig into in the meantime. Enjoy:
In Andy’s words:
It’s very hard to sum up what this record means to us, or what the process of making it was like. The drum tracks were laid down as Lock Down was beginning and now we’re releasing it during another very dark and uncertain time. In the intervening years we lost close friends and family and gained new ones.
In making this record we leaned on each other and our collaborators more than ever before. I never write lyrics until we’re in the studio and as recording happened I found myself writing about where we were in our lives, the people we loved, the mistakes we made, and about how much I love these guys. So when it came time to name the record, the choice was obvious.
Submitted for your listening pleasure, this is “The Oar” the first song off the record “Clamfight” by the band Clamfight.
This is the last record we were privileged to make with our brother Steve Poponi. You’ll hear him on the end of the track. Words fall short when it comes out to expressing how much we miss him, so for and now always, we’ll just say Poponi Forever.
Posted in Reviews on December 13th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
It’s been almost too easy, this week. Like, I was running a little later yesterday than I had the day before and I’m pretty sure it was only a big deal because — well, I was busy and distracted, to be fair — but mostly because the rest of the week to compare it against has been so gosh darn smooth. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. This is the last day. The music’s awesome. Barring actual disaster, like a car accident between now and then or some such, I’ll finish this one with minimal loss of breath.
Set against the last two Quarterly Reviews, one of which went 10 days, the other one 11, this five-dayer has been mellow and fun. As always, good music helps with that, and as has been the case since Monday, there’s plenty of it here. Not one day has gone by that I didn’t add something from the batch of 50 releases to my year-end list, which, again, barring disaster, should be out next week.
Quarterly Review #41-50:
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Cosmic Fall, Back Where the Fire Flows
After setting a high standard of prolific releases across 2017 and 2018 to much celebration and social media ballyhooing, Berlin jammers Cosmic Fall issued their single “Lackland” (review here) in mid-2019, and Back Where the Fire Flows is their first offering since. The apparently-reinvigorated lineup of the band includes bassist Klaus Friedrich and drummer Daniel Sax alongside new guitarist Leonardo Caprioli, and if there was any concern they might’ve lost the floating resonance that typified their earlier material, 13-minute opener and longest track (immediate points) “Lucid Skies Above Mars” allays it fluidly. The more straightforwardly riffed “Magma Rising” (4:31) and the tense shuffler “Under the Influence of Gravity” (4:38) follow that leadoff, with a blowout and feedback finish for the latter that eases the shift back into spacious-jammy mode for “Chant of the Lizards” (12:26) — perhaps titled in honor of the likeness the central guitar figure carries to The Doors — with “Drive the Kraut” (10:34) closing with the plotted sensibility of Earthless by building to a fervent head and crashing out quick as they might, and one hopes will, on stage. A welcome return and hopefully a preface to more.
It doesn’t seem inappropriate to think of Weather Systems as a successor to Anathema, which until they broke up in 2020 was multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Daniel Cavanagh‘s main outlet of 30 years’ standing. Teamed here with Anathema drummer/producer Daniel Cardoso and producer Tony Doogan, who helmed Anathema‘s 2017 album, The Optimist (review here), Cavanagh is for sure in conversation with his former outfit. There are nuances like the glitchy synth in “Ocean Without a Shore” or the post-punk urgency in the rush of highlight cut “Ghost in the Machine,” and for those who felt the Anathema story was incomplete, “Are You There? Pt. 2” and “Untouchable Pt. 3” are direct sequels to songs from that band, so the messaging of Weather Systems picking up where Anathema left of is clear, and Cavanagh unsurprisingly sounds at home in such a context. Performing most of the instruments himself and welcoming a few guests on vocals, he leads the project to a place where listening can feel like an act of emotional labor, but with songs that undeniably sooth and offer space for comfort, which is their stated intention. Curious to hear how Weather Systems develops.
Assembled by bassist Ron Holzner and his The Skull bandmate, guitarist Lothar Keller, Legions of Doom are something of a doom metal supergroup with Henry Vasquez (Saint Vitus, Blood of the Sun) on drums, Scott Little (Leadfoot) on guitar alongside Keller, and vocalists Scott Reagers (Saint Vitus) and Karl Agell (Leadfoot, Lie Heavy, C.O.C.‘s Blind LP) sharing frontman duties. Perhaps the best compliment one can give The Skull 3 — which sources its material in part from the final The Skull session prior to the death of vocalist Eric Wagner — is that it lives up to the pedigree of those who made it. No great shocker the music is in the style of The Skull since that’s the point. The question is how the band build on songs like “All Good Things” and “Between Darkness and Dawn” and the ripping “Insectiside” (sic), but this initial look proves the concept and is ready and willing to school the listener across its eight tracks on how classic doom got to be that way.
The first offering from Netherlands mellow psych-folk two-piece Myriad’s Veil brims with sweet melody and a subtly expansive atmosphere, bringing together Utrecht singer-songwriter Ismena, who has several albums out as a solo artist, and guitarist Ivy van der Meer, also of Amsterdam cosmic rockers Temple Fang for a collection of eight songs running 44 minutes of patiently-crafted, thoughtfully melodic and graceful performance. Ismena is no stranger to melancholia and the layers of “When the Leaves Start Falling” with the backing line of classical guitar and Mellotron give a neo-Canterbury impression without losing their own expressive edge. Most pieces stand between five and six minutes each, which is enough time for atmospheres to blossom and flourish for a while, and though the arrangements vary, the songs are united around acoustic guitar and voice, and so the underpinning is traditional no matter where Pendant goes. The foundation is a strength rather than a hindrance, and Ismena and van der Meer greet listeners with serenity and a lush but organic character of sound.
Never short on attitude, “I Only Play 4 Money” — “If you take my picture/Your camera’s smashed/You write me fan mail/I don’t write back,” etc. — leads off Michael Rudolph Cummings‘ latest solo EP, the four-track Money with a fleshed out arrangement not unlike one might’ve found on 2022’s You Know How I Get (review here), released by Ripple Music. From there, the erstwhile Backwoods Payback frontman, Boozewa anti-frontman and grown-up punk/grunge troubadour embarks on the more stripped down, guy-and-guitar strums and contemplations of “Deny the World” and “Easier to Leave,” the latter with more than a hint of Americana, and “Denver,” which returns to the full band, classic-style lead guitar flourish, layered vocals and drums, and perhaps even more crucially, bass. It’s somewhere around 13 minutes of music, all told, but that’s more than enough time for Cummings to showcase mastery in multiple forms of his craft and the engaging nature of what’s gradually becoming his “solo sound.”
Basking in a heavygaze float with the lead guitar while the markedly-terrestrial riff chugs and echoes out below, Moon Destroy‘s “The Nearness of June” is three and a half minutes long and the first single the Atlanta outfit founded by guitarist Juan Montoya (MonstrO, ex-Torche, etc.) and drummer Evan Diprima (also bass and synth, ex-Royal Thunder) have had since guitarist/vocalist/synthesist Charlie Suárez joined the band. Set across a forward linear build that quickly gets intense behind Suárez‘s chanting intertwining vocal lines, delivered mellow with a low-in-mouth melody, it’s a tension that slams into a slowdown in the second half of the song but holds over into the solo and fadeout march of the second half as well as it builds back up, the three-piece giving a quick glimpse of what a debut full-length might hopefully bring in terms of aural largesse, depth of mix and atmospheric soundscaping. I have no idea when, where or how such a thing would or will arrive, but that album will be a thing to look forward to.
Billed as Coltaine‘s debut LP — the history of the band is a bit more complex if I recall — Forgotten Ways is nonetheless a point of arrival for the Karlsruhe, Germany, four-piece. It is genuinely post-metallic in the spirit of being over genre completely, and as Julia Frasch makes the first harsh/clean vocal switch late in opener “Mogila,” with drummer Amin Bouzeghaia, bassist Benedikt Berg and guitarist Moritz Berg building the procession behind the soar, the band use their longest/opening track (immediate points) to establish the world in which the songs that follow take place. The cinematic drone of “Himmelwärts” and echoing goth metal of “Dans un Nouveau Monde” follow, leading the way into the wind-and-vocal minimalism of “Cloud Forest” at the presumed end of side A only to renew the opener’s crush in the side B leadoff title-track. Also the centerpiece of the album, “Cloud Forest” has room to touch on German-language folk before resuming its Obituary-meets-Amenra roll, and does not get less expansive from that initial two minutes or so. As striking as the two longest pieces are, Forgotten Ways is bolstered by the guitar ambience of “Ableben,” which leads into the pair of “Grace” and “Tales of Southern Lands,” both of which move from quieter outsets into explosive heft, each with their own path, the latter in half the time, and the riff-and-thud-then-go 77 seconds of “Aren” caps because why the hell not at that point. With a Jan Oberg mix adding to the breadth, Coltaine‘s declared-first LP brims with scope and progressive purpose. It is among the best debuts I’ve heard in 2024, easily.
Zagreb-based veteran heavy rockers Stonebride — the four-piece of vocalist/guitarist Siniša Krneta, bassist/vocalist Matija Ljevar, guitarist Tješimir Mendaš and drummer Stjepan Kolobarić — give a strong argument for maturity of songwriting from the outset of Smiles Revolutionary, their fourth long-player. The ease with which they let the melody carry “In Presence,” knowing that the song doesn’t need to be as heavy as possible at all times since it still has presence, or the way the organ laces into the mix in the instrumental rush that brings the subsequent “Turn Back” to a finish before the early-QOTSA/bangin’-on-stuff crunch of “Closing Distance” tops old desert tones with harmonies worthy of Alice in Chains leading, inexorably, to a massive, lumbering nod of a payoff — they’re not written to be anything other than what they are, and in part because of that they stand testament to the long-standing progression of Stonebride. “Shine Hard” starts with a mosh riff given its due in crash early and late with a less-shove-minded jam between, part noise rock, answered by the progressive start-stop build of “March on the Heart” and closer “Time and Tide,” which dares a little funk in its outreach and leaves off with a nodding crescendo and smooth comedown, having come in and ultimately going out on a swell of vocals. Not particularly long, but substantial.
Toad Venom will acknowledge their new mini-album, Jag Har Inga Problen Osv…, was mixed and mastered by Kalle Lilja of Welfare Sounds studio and label, but beyond that, the Swedish weirdo joy psych rock transcendentalists offer no clue as to who’s actually involved in the band. By the time they get down to “Dogs!” doing a reverse-POV of The Stooges‘ “I Wanna Be Your Dog” in classic soul style, they’ve already celebrated in the rushing bliss and Beatles-y Mellotron break of opener “Jag har verkligen inga problem (så det måste vara du),” taken “One Day You Will Be Perfect” from manic boogie to sunny Californian psych/folk rock, underscoring its chorus with a riff that could easily otherwise be black metal, dwelled in the organ and keyboard dramaturge amid the rolling “Mon Amour” — the keys win the day in the end and are classy about it afterward, but it’s guitar that ends it — and found a post-punk gothy shuffle for “Time Lapse,” poppish but not without the threat of bite. So yes, half an album, as they state it, but quite a half if you’re going by scope and aesthetic. I don’t know how much of a ‘band’ Toad Venom set out to be, but they’ve hit on a sound that draws from sources as familiar as 1960s psychedelia and manages to create a fresh approach from it. To me, that speaks of their being onto something special in these songs. Can’t help but wonder what’s in store for the second half.
Following up on the organ-and-fuzz molten flow of “Radio Radiation” with the more emotive, Rolling Stones-y-until-it-gets-heavy storytelling of “Antihero,” Berlin’s Sacred Buzz carve out their own niche in weighted garage rock, taking in elements of psychedelia without ever pushing entirely over into something shroomy sounding — to wit, the proto-punk tension of quirky delivery of “Revolution” — staying grounded in structure and honoring dirt-coated traditionalism with dynamic performances, “No Wings” coming off sleazy in its groove without actually being sleaze, “Make it Go Wrong” revealing a proggy shimmer that turns careening and twists to a finish led by the keys and guitar, and “Rebel Machine” blowing it out at the end because, yeah, I mean, duh. Radio Radiation is Sacred Buzz‘s first EP (it’s more if you get the bonus track), and it seems to effortlessly buck the expectations of genre without sounding like it’s trying to push those same limits. Maybe attitude and the punk-born casual cool that overrides it all has something to do with that impression — a swagger that’s earned by the time they’re done, to be sure — but the songs are right there to back that up. The short format suits them, and they make it flow like an album. A strong initial showing.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on December 6th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Caught Between Worlds turned 20 this year. A decade prior to its 2004 release through At a Loss Recordings, Philadelphia instrumentalists Stinking Lizaveta were putting together their first demos, so if we’re talking anniversaries, the band being 30 years old certainly warrants note. Their first album, the Steve Albini-produced Hopelessness and Shame, was came out in 1996. This was their fourth, following behind 2001’s III, which came out via Tolotta Records (run by Joe Lally of Fugazi), and the first of three that the lineup of guitarist Yanni Papadopoulos, bassist Alexi Papadopoulos and drummer Cheshire Agusta would do for At a Loss, which in a catalog of nine full-lengths and various splits and 7″s is a long as they’ve stayed with anybody. Hazards of this level of restlessness, perhaps.
And as for that level? Call it “characteristic,” though the persona of the band is something that’s evolved into itself over time as well. From a punkier, rawer foundation, Stinking Lizaveta have evolved a studio ideal of performance as a moral ethic. True to the very tail end of the CD era, it runs 61 minutes long and features 16 tracks, most under four minutes each. It shifts from place to place and its slowdowns don’t so much feel like they’re there to let the listener catch up as to throw down a gauntlet of instrumentalism. Stinking Lizaveta even two decades ago were no less clear in their purposes than the paragons of sans-vocals heavy riffing, Karma to Burn, but the Philly trio’s structures are quirkier, the turns brazenly angular, the stops and starts willfully unpredictable. The tense chugging and crashes of “I Denounce the Government” — at least as relevant in 2024 as 2004 — unfold with their own language of squeals in Yanni‘s guitar, answering the twisted depths conjured by Alexi‘s bass at the finish of “Beyond the Shadows” with a more animalian howl than the riffer title-track provided in the wistful melody of its shred and ensuing doomly march.
Parts are fast, parts are slow, ideas take shape in and around building cycles of riffs and are soon vaporized by impulsive-but-not-random redirects. “Out of Breath” seeming to hit a wall before pivoting to a creep before it’s halfway though, “Over the Edge” proffering a jammier, open and melancholic jazz fluidity, less manic than the crux of the record from which it comes but essential to it just the same, “Staying Here” getting its own acoustic intro before unfurling a Southern-style nostalgic sentiment, gradually flowing into improv-sounding meander but managing not to lose the plot by the finish, and so on. The focus throughout is less on atmosphere than one might expect having heard their more recent output — last year’s Anthems and Phantoms(review here) was born of the same roots as Caught Between Worlds, but the band have never stopped evolving or exploring — but the trade for that is a markedly live feel in the sound resulting from Ben Danaher and Joe Smiley‘s recording and mix, and Caught Between Worlds conveys its vitality in a way that, if it wasn’t all tracked with everyone in the same room playing at the same time, having that musical conversation and shaping the dynamic as it happened, is perhaps doubly impressive for sounding so much like it.
Granted this wasn’t a new band at the time — four records in 10 years isn’t nothing, however much they’ve done since — but in both their connections to punk in the drums, to jazz in the bass and to classic heavy rock via the guitar, the deep individualism of their writing style, and the verve with which even the urbane, largely mellow “Someone’s Downstairs” seems to soundtrack an invisible cartoon of someone walking tiptoe carrying a lamp with their shadow projected on the wall behind them — did it just move on its own? — is palpable and defining. Parts are fast, parts are slow, as noted, but Stinking Lizaveta remain unflinchingly themselves. It is a combination of elements that works simply because it does, and in the frenetic elbow-thrower “Stop Laughing” and the chunkier-style groove of “Last Wish” — still a live staple — and the greater tonal threat issued by “Side Naked,” which is even more striking for the human voice captured in its sample, the chemistry is plain to hear. It’s not about showing off, or maybe it is just a little, but each piece of Caught Between Worlds brings something to the complex picture of the whole.
That’s going to be most heard by those who put something into it. That is to say, Stinking Lizaveta have never been light on challenge when it comes to listening, and Caught Between Worlds — which front-to-back does what it says in presenting the band as drawing strength from existing in the spaces betwixt one style and another — is no exception, either in runtime or the various shifts in sound, tempo and mood put forth. They bring it back to ground near the finish for “Day of Dust” after “Someone’s Downstairs,” “Staying Here” (plus its intro) and the prior “Prayer for the Living” push into various oddball niches, and “Man Day” provides an insistent finish that feels well placed in providing a convincing closing argument. The more you put into it attention-wise, the more you’re going to get out of it, but as dug in as the band are throughout, it’s accordingly an easier dive for the listener to make at the outset, and once you’re in it, you might as well forget whatever else you had on for the day as you’ll be too busy trying to convince your head to stop spinning to get anything else done. This might make it distracting if you’re not committed to giving their songs the attention due, but if you can get on board, Stinking Lizaveta are good for the soul in a way few acts could ever hope to be and many don’t care enough to try to become. I promise you this is restorative music.
I already mentioned it, but the band’s latest LP, Anthems and Phantoms, is hardly a distant memory. I was lucky enough to catch them over the summer in Germany at Freak Valley (review here), and to absolutely no surprise, they were stellar. If you can see them, do. If not, they’ve got nine records for your plunge. Do it up.
Good luck, and as always, I hope you enjoy this one. Thanks for reading.
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I was back and forth on whether to close out the week — it’s after noon now, which is later in the day than I’d prefer to be doing so, for sure — but I won’t regret it. In like an hour and a half I’m going to leave the comfort of my home and drive to I-don’t-know-where in Brooklyn to the TV Eye venue, try to find a place to park for however many hours and sit in my car rather than wait to drive in. I’m doing this because traffic and because it’s that much easier to get out of the house before school pickup, which is a little after 3. Traffic’s going to suck either way; going in or coming out of New York, that’s just a condition of life, but yeah. It’s Mars Red Sky and Howling Giant, and I swore up and down I was going, and I want to go, so I am.
The intervening time I’ll spend at least part of putting together the back end of the Quarterly Review I’ll be doing next week. Sneaking one in before year-end list time, and absolutely part of that is me trying to keep up with releases before I close out the year around here. It’s just one week — 50 releases, as opposed to 110, which we did, I don’t know, like four weeks ago, maybe? — but there’s some good stuff in there from the whole year, in addition to new releases. Things like Gnome, Fuzz Sagrado, Hermano, Thou, Sergeant Thunderhoof, Cortez (which I wrote the bio for but haven’t reviewed yet) Cosmic Fall and Coltaine — I don’t want to let these slip before 2025 hits and I start yet another year of listening at a deficit. Not that music has an expiration date, not that any of it matters in the first place, blah blah you get the point.
But doing the QR next week will help me finalize the shape of my own year-end list, and I’d feel awfully triumphant if I could get that out the week before the Xmas holiday — when I’ll almost certainly have a ton of other crap going on — rather than the week of. There was one year it was Xmas Eve it went up, which is ridiculous. I’ll do my best, but while I’m working on that it means I’ll be doing fewer reviews, so yeah, having just banged out 50 and needing to get caught up on news anyway — there was so much this week; anyone remember when the music industry shut down in December? — should put me in good position to start wrapping my head around what I think are the best releases of the year. I also feel like I need a special section to mention that I haven’t heard either the Opeth or the Blood Incantation records, but I can plot all that out as I get closer.
So that’s the plan for the rest of the month. Quarterly Review, list as soon as I can and whatever news and reviews I can fill in around it. There are less premieres, which is fine. That frees me up to chase down stuff on my own rather than follow what comes in for PR pitches, and that’s not a hardship when there’s a lot to do. If I get through it in a timely manner — I never know how much I have to say until I start saying it with these things, and sometimes it’s a lot — and have the week of New Year’s open, I’ll see where I’m at and what I want to do writing-wise with that time. I’ll do as much as I can, when I can. If you see me in my car this afternoon in Brooklyn typing out a 180-word review of the new Space Shepherds outing, perhaps you’ll have some semblance of the truth of that.
Whatever you’re up to this weekend — 16 are also in town but I can’t commit to driving to the city twice given how much I both hate it, it takes time away from duties at home, and I have a fair amount of travel set for the end of next month; Morris County, North Jersey needs a 200-cap venue on the underground circuit so god damn bad; anyone want to open one with me? — I hope you have a great and safe time. Have fun, maybe relax a bit, and enjoy the break if you get one. I’ll have the review of tonight up either over the weekend or on Monday, depending on when I have time to sort photos. Ugh, photos.
