Can’t help but think maybe it’s time I institute Wino Wednesday as a regular feature on this site. Any thoughts? Jeebus knows he’s got enough of a back catalog that I could post something different every week for a year, and by then, he’s bound to have put out two or three new albums, prolific as he is.
Leave a comment and let me know what you think. While you’re mulling it over, check out this new clip for the Premonition 13 track “La Hechicera de la Jeringa” from the band’s Volcom debut, 13:
Posted in audiObelisk on July 26th, 2011 by JJ Koczan
Today, July 26, marks the release of Premonition 13‘s full-length Volcom debut, 13. The album finds legendary guitarist/vocalist Scott “Wino” Weinrich pairing with guitarist/vocalist Jim Karow and filling the bassist role as well in the studio for what would be (and has been) a four-piece live. Together, Weinrich, Karow and drummer Matthew Clark forge a sound that’s at once in line with Weinrich‘s past work in his various trios — Wino, The Hidden Hand, Spirit Caravan — but a step away as well for the interplay between the two guitars and vocalists.
And it’s that interplay that’s at the core of Premonition 13‘s 13. I’ve already reviewed the album, so I’ll spare the longwinded opining, but suffice it to say that fans of Weinrich will be as much thrilled by what’s familiar about 13 as they will by what’s different about it. The record is raw and natural, but still has that essential core of classic doom riffing that has made Wino the influential figure he is, and the balance works.
Volcom was kind enough to give me permission to host the nine-minute album opener “B.E.A.U.T.Y.” for streaming, which you’ll find, followed by some info from the label, on the player below.
The Premonition 13 debut album, 13, is now available for purchase in all formats (LP and CD orders come with an immediate digital download). The pre-orders for this album came in fast and heavy, so the limited edition orange LPs are close to being sold out. T-shirts are indeed sold out, but when you scroll to the bottom of the offers page you can view the bundles and individual items still available.
If legendary doom guitarist/vocalist Scott “Wino” Weinrich has proven anything over the course of his career, it’s that he’s a fan of the trio. Between The Obsessed, Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand and his Wino solo outfit, there’s obviously something about the chemistry of three players on stage and in the studio that holds great appeal. It’s a classic formula, anyway, and Weinrich is essentially a classic player in a rock sense, and on the heels of his successful Adrift solo acoustic offering and with new albums from Saint Vitus and the supergroup Shrinebuilder still nebulous on the horizon, he unveils Premonition 13, his latest trio band. The twist here is that it’s a four-piece. On their self-titled 7” single, released earlier this year, Weinrich handed bass as well as guitar and vocals, and he does the same on the follow-up full-length, 13, which is also issued by Volcom. Former Meatjack bassist Brian Danilowski (also of the droning Darsombra) was playing with them for a while, but that seems to have dissipated, putting Weinrich in the rhythm section along with drummer Matthew Clark as well as dueling it out on guitar with Jim Karow, whose longtime friendship with Weinrich seems very much to be the impetus behind starting the band.
Karow also adds vocals to Weinrich’s trademark style, and the two offset each other well. In that regard, Premonition 13 has something in common sound-wise with The Hidden Hand, in which bassist Bruce Falkinburg also contributed both lead and background singing in a similar fashion to what occurs with Karow on 13. Still, there’s no question that Premonition 13 is its own unit, and that it’s the double-guitars that make it so. Longtime followers of Weinrich will recognize many of the elements at play immediately – the downtrodden riffing, dynamic shifts, fire-red solos and Wino’s half-snarled/half-crooned singing – but just as people have different personalities, so do bands, and with so much to compare it to, 13 still emerges as somewhat unique within the context of the vast Weinrich catalog. A thread of strong songwriting emerges throughout the nine component tracks, and the two-guitar factor allows more room for the music to breathe, as Premonition 13 shows with subtle psychedelic flourishes in passing moments like the intro to opener “B.E.A.U.T.Y.,” the centerpiece interlude “La Hechicera de la Jeringa (Prelude)” and closer “Peyote Road.” 13 begins with a fade-up of e-bow guitar, giving an ethereal hum for the first two of the song’s total nine minutes (it’s the longest on the album; bonus points in my mind for putting it at the start), before the riffing starts and Karow and Weinrich trade off vocals to excellent affect, following the undulating riff to make the song both engaging and memorable in a way that’s no less so for being what you’d expect.
There are a few genuine highlight cuts on 13 – third track “Clay Pigeons” and the later, infectious “Modern Man” on which Karow takes the lead vocal come to mind most readily – but it’s important to note that Premonition 13’s first LP, is very much that: An LP. It’s structured into sides, and the flow from one song to the next is smooth and easy. In a way, “B.E.A.U.T.Y.” is a microcosm of the album itself, it’s grand, open-string ending sounding huge with Clark’s capable but not flashy drumming behind. Followed by the shorter, more driving “Hard to Say,” the tempo gets a kick and a highlight solo is provided, if one more deeply mixed than it might be on an album that doesn’t have two guitars. There’s another strong chorus that the verse seems to be in a hurry to get to (though maybe that’s just the impatient riff), but “Clay Pigeons” overwhelms its lead-in both in terms of execution and complexity. Weinrich and Karow infuse the back end of the song with some of 13’s best guitar interplay, and the long fadeout sets up the quieter “Senses,” which closes Side A in semi-ballad fashion, with a quiet verse and heavier chorus structure that repeats twice and leads to a bridge and chorus ending that works well. Like a lot of 13, it’s been done before, but is still a boon to the converted.
Posted in Reviews on March 15th, 2011 by JJ Koczan
Longtime fans of guitarist/vocalist Scott “Wino” Weinrich will recognize his signature tone almost immediately on Switchouse/Crossthreaded, the debut 7” from his new project, Premonition 13 (released via Volcom Entertainment’s vinyl club in a limited edition green-record pressing of 1,000), but there’s something different going on too. Something strange. Spoiler alert: It’s another guitar. Though Premonition 13 remains, as of this release, a power trio with Weinrich adding bass to his guitar and singing duties, he’s joined in this new project by guitarist and longtime friend Jim Karow, who proves no slouch when it comes to keeping up with the blazing leads and huge-footed stomping grooves. The two tracks they present – “Switchouse” and “Crossthreaded,” oddly enough – find Weinrich well in his element songwriting-wise, and though it’s not the first time he’s worked with another guitarist, it is the first time he’s worked with a guitarist doing this. Where the supergroup Shrinebuilder, in which he shares six-string responsibility with Scott Kelly of Neurosis, draws from elements of its various members’ bands, Premonition 13 feels very much in the vein of Weinrich’s trio projects – Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand, the Wino band – though perhaps more the former than the latter.
“Switchouse” begins immediately with a solo and moves quick into its verse. Judging by tone alone, I’d guess it’s Karow’s lead with Weinrich on the backing track, but I could be wrong, and before you know it, the song’s started anyway. The double-guitars don’t affect arrangement much, at least as compares to a record like the Wino band’s Punctuated Equilibrium – Weinrich’s prior release in the trio format, now over two years old – in that the song is rife with soloing in almost every bridge, which is how it should be, or at least what expectation dictates. Drummer Matthew Clark keeps a standard middle pace, not unreasonably fast, not overwhelmingly slow, but steady on his cymbals and snare. There isn’t any trickery going on stylistically, either. The song is more or less straightforward in its structure, verse/chorus, etc., and apart from some backing “ooh”s from Weinrich, there isn’t much to catch listeners off guard. That’s not to say the song is boring. Rather, it harkens at a similar kind of easy-riding atmosphere as Spirit Caravan’s landmark debut, Jug Fulla Sun, and blends it with a kind of “you’re going to get screwed over” social critique in the lyrics to result in a brew so distinctly Weinrich’s that I almost feel like I’m downplaying Karow’s involvement by not including him more in the description. If Premonition 13 is looking to make an opening statement with Switchouse/Crossthreaded, side A does so definitively.
Longtime fans of guitarist/vocalist Scott “Wino” Weinrich will recognize his signature tone almost immediately on Switchouse/Crossthreaded, the debut 7” from his new project, Premonition 13 (released via Volcom Entertainment’s vinyl club in a limited edition green-record pressing of 1,000), but there’s something different going on too. Something strange. Spoiler alert: It’s another guitar. Though Premonition 13 remains, as of this release, a power trio with Weinrich adding bass to his guitar and singing duties, he’s joined in this new project by guitarist and longtime friend Jim Karow, who proves no slouch when it comes to keeping up with the blazing leads and huge-footed stomping grooves. The two tracks they present – “Switchouse” and “Crossthreaded,” oddly enough – find Weinrich well in his element songwriting-wise, and though it’s not the first time he’s worked with another guitarist, it is the first time he’s worked with a guitarist doing this. Where the supergroup Shrinebuilder, in which he shares six-string responsibility with Scott Kelly of Neurosis, draws from elements of its various members’ bands, Premonition 13 feels very much in the vein of Weinrich’s trio projects – Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand, the Wino band – though perhaps more the former than the latter.
