The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Daniel Story Rice of Westing, Brim, Sun Umbra & Fuzz Family Booking

—

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

Composing lyrics along with vocal melodies and harmonies are my largest contributions to the music of Slow Season/Westing, Brim, and Sun Umbra, but I do write songs or just instrumental parts for guitar and keys as well. As far the lyrical side goes, I think that I am trying to find a way to express feelings and ideas that I find difficult to express in a strictly verbal sense. Music is very therapeutic for me in that way.

I came to do this work by very intentionally practicing songwriting in my early twenties. I would perform an exercise where I would open a newspaper with my eyes closed and put my finger on a column at random. Whether it be a classified add or murder mystery, I would set about writing a song using the details of that randomly selected newspaper content as a creative exercise.

After toiling on bedroom recording projects for awhile, I finally got the gumption to emerge and collaborate. I joined my first band when I was 23 because I felt confident enough in my singing abilities to provide a second harmony part to some three-part harmonies a friend had. I brought my lap steel along because I could fake proficiency at that instrument with enough reverb and a volume pedal. Soon enough I had started to play keys and harmonica in that band and began to gain confidence from the repetition of performance after performance. Cody Tarbell joined that band as our third drummer and we soon broke away and started to do what would become Slow Season in late 2011.

Describe your first musical memory.

I remember choking on a coin while the congregation sang a hymn at the church my parents and grandparents attended in Porterville, CA. I think I was two years old. I remember singing mixed with hushed panic as one of my parents hung me upside down and hit my rear end until the coin dislodged. I have no idea if there is an extended metaphor there or not. The second memory I have is attempting to harmonize to Beach Boys songs with my mom while we drove in the car. She sang either the alto or tenor parts in a church where instruments weren’t allowed and four-part shape note hymnals honed my musical ear.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

I started crying a teeny bit when King Crimson played “Epitaph” and just generally killed it at the Fox in Oakland in late 2019. It was an incredible show and helped me to process what had been yet another difficult year in my life.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

Outside of personal spiritual matters, I’d say a music-related belief I once held was that analog recording was superior to digital because the limitations of the medium became a component of the art’s aura itself. Now that I’ve done a record with Cody that incorporated some digital aspects into the latter parts of the production I can decisively say that that’s not really true. What’s more, recording digitally enabled us to work remotely with Ben [McLeod] since he wasn’t able to finish every single thing he needed to in the four days we had to record the new Westing record.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Hopefully to a better understanding of self, others, and life in general. Inevitably it will probably lead you away from fans of your early work as you grow and change as an artist and as person. Sometimes that means more financial “success” and sometimes that means less “success” but in the end at least you did what you had to do. I def don’t begrudge some of my favorite older artists their later output because the music they make now isn’t for me – it’s for the old fart I’m gonna become and the people that became old farts alongside the artists from their own generation.

How do you define success?

In broad terms I think it means reaching your deathbed without having compromised your core values. In musical terms, to me it means sharing my thoughts and feelings in a way that I can feel honest and uncompromised by economic interests. Financial success in music to the point that it paid my bills would probably destroy the pleasure and therapy of it for me.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Most of the films that I’ve viewed in the last few years. I used to like movies but the vast bulk of productions in the last decade or so have gotten so dumb/redundant. I hate walking away from a screen feeling robbed of time and attention with nothing to show for it.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I’d like to either score a film or write and direct a serialized music video series. Either way, I want to be a part of combining visual narrative forms with music that will help audiences to interpret the visual art and immerse themselves more fully into the experience.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

Yikes. I’d say it mostly has to do with mediating our own confusing lived reality with our own imagined reality of the ideal. We are finite creatures who shit and stink and die and yet can also comprehend truth and beauty and the infinite. That’s a lot of therapeutic ground to cover, and I’m guessing music in addition to visual arts and narrative forms help with this in psychological, spiritual, and even concrete physical ways. I’ve gotten into to the ideas of Ernest Becker, Otto Rank, and Norman O. Brown in the past and that has helped me to make some sense of cultural functions like the arts.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Harvest time in my garden and the creation of a community garden next year at the non-profit I volunteer with. The focus is on organic, sustainable practices that address the realities of the seemingly permanent California drought. We are going to break ground in August on a community modeled after the Community First! Village in Austin which provides housing, relationships, services, and dignified income opportunities to people who are chronically homeless.

https://www.facebook.com/slowseasonmusic/
http://instagram.com/slowseasonmusic
http://slowseasonmusic.com/

https://www.facebook.com/sunumbraband
https://www.instagram.com/sunumbra/

http://facebook.com/bandbrim/
https://www.instagram.com/brimband/
https://brimband.bandcamp.com/releases

https://www.instagram.com/fuzzfamily/
https://www.facebook.com/fuzzfamily/
https://visaliahomestead.weeblysite.com/

https://www.facebook.com/ridingeasyrecords/
https://www.instagram.com/easyriderrecord/
http://www.ridingeasyrecords.com/

https://www.facebook.com/royaloakie/
http://instagram.com/royaloakie
https://royaloakie.bandcamp.com/
https://www.royaloakierecords.com/

Brim, California Gold (2022)

Slow Season, Westing (2016)

The narrative here would be hard to top. In 2020, RidingEasy Records dug deep into the universe is underheralded awesome to reissue Randy Holden‘s legitimately-pioneering Population II LP (discussed here) in honor of the 50th anniversary of its original release. How better to follow-up such a thing than with an actual follow-up?

Population III is obviously intended as a direct sequel to a record that for five decades has had a very specific but continually resonant influence. Is it reasonable to expect that 50 years from now we’ll still be talking about it? Nope, but that probably wasn’t reasonable to expect the first time either. Holden has a classic heavy rock dream team in working with Cactus’ Randy Pratt and drummer Bobby Rondinelli, who has more pedigree you can see below but did time on Black Sabbath and certainly that’s enough, and the first single is streaming now. Don’t let me keep you.

It came from the PR wire:

Randy Holden shares first single from forthcoming new album Population III

Ex-Blue Cheer guitarist’s legendary, extremely rare Population II album reissued in 2020 on RidingEasy Records

Los Angeles based unsung guitar hero Randy Holden announces the sequel to his legendary 1970 album Population II, set to arrive 52 years later, titled Population III via RidingEasy Records. The ex-Blue Cheer guitarist’s new album was recorded as a trio with members of Cactus and Black Sabbath. Hear and share the first single “Swamp Stomp” HERE:

How do you follow up one of the most legendary, yet rarest albums said to signal the birth of doom metal?

If you’re Randy Holden, you give everyone about 50 years to catch up, then casually drop a tastefully modernized reinterpretation of that sound. Population III picks up where Holden’s 1969 solo debut left off, updated with several decades worth of technological advances and personal hindsight.

Following his tenure in proto-metal pioneers Blue Cheer in 1969, the guitarist aimed for more control over his next project. Thus, Randy Holden – Population II was born, the duo naming itself after the astronomical term for a particular star cluster with heavy metals present. Along with drummer/keyboardist Chris Lockheed, Holden created what many say is one of the earliest forms of doom metal.

“Godzilla just walked into the room. People just stood there with their eyes and mouths wide open,” Holden says of the audience’s reaction to their live debut performing with a teeth-rattling phalanx of 16 (sixteen!) 200 watt Sunn amps.

Likewise, their 6-song debut album Population II delves into leaden sludge, lumbering doom and epic soaring riffs that sound free from all constraints of the era. It’s incredibly heavy, but infused with a melodic, albeit mechanistic sensibility. However, troubles with the album’s original 1970 release bankrupted Holden, who subsequently left music for over two decades. For good reason, it’s widely hailed as a masterpiece, and until finally getting a proper formal release in 2020 on RidingEasy Records, was a longtime Holy Grail for record collectors.

Flash forward 40 years to 2010, we find the guitarist/vocalist quietly coaxed into recording a followup album by Holden superfan and Cactus member Randy Pratt. Joined by drummer Bobby Rondinelli (who has played with Black Sabbath, Blue Öyster Cult, Rainbow), the trio cut the 6-song collection of leaden future blues, Population III. “Randy Pratt had written the basic song structures, he understood my music and where I come from quite well,” Holden says. “He nailed it.”

But the recording was ultimately shelved for over a decade. “A year ago, in 2021 I listened to the songs and was delightfully surprised,” Holden says. “I think it’s the best album I’ve ever done.”

Throughout Population III, Holden effortlessly dishes out squealing, soaring leads and skull-thwacking riffs with his signature low end grit and penchant for Middle Eastern scales. Coupled with Pratt’s pocket-locked bass, the slight flanging effect on Rondinelli’s drums and his pugilistic beats, the album occasionally brings to mind Presence-era Led Zeppelin, particularly on the 22-minute epic “Land of The Sun.” Elsewhere, “Swamp Stomp” echoes more the troglodyte blues of Holden’s older work, with his evermore searing solos showing hints of early Clapton/Hendrix era guitar prowess to drive home the stomp of the song’s namesake. At times, Holden sounds reminiscent of Neil Young leading Crazy Horse’s ruptured grunge as his lilting falsetto vocals push and pull his guitar’s siren’s call. Taken as a whole, there’s a very distinct difference between the way these veterans of hard rock’s formative years carry the songs compared to the more lugubrious riffing of today’s young doom purveyors. Population III is the real deal — a powerful continuation of a sound forged 50 years ago, that almost didn’t happen. Somehow, Randy Holden’s music always finds a way to stand the tests of time.

Population III will be available on LP, CD and download on July 1st, 2022 via RidingEasy Records. Pre-orders are available at ridingeasyrecs.com

Artist: Randy Holden
Album: Population III
Label: RidingEasy Records
Release Date: July 1st, 2022

01. Living End
02. Sands Of Time
03. Land Of The Sun
04. Swamp Stomp
05. Money’s Talkin’
06. Outside Looking In

https://www.facebook.com/RandyHolden.GuitarGod
https://randyholden.bandcamp.com/
https://randyholden.com/

https://www.facebook.com/ridingeasyrecords/
http://www.ridingeasyrecs.com/
https://www.instagram.com/easyriderrecord/

Randy Holden, Population III (2022)

Randy Holden, Population II (2020 Reissue)

Blackwater Holylight headlining with support from Bleakheart on the East Coast and Spirit Mother on the West Coast? And that’s following up on the European run they did with Monolord in Europe? Yeah, this is probably the kind of show you’re going to want to go to. It’s only due to circumstances outside my control, and much to my regret, that I’ve never seen the band live, and the prospect of catching them on their first US headlining stint feels like good timing. Who the hell knows what the world will be like by then, but since the occasion is a celebration of 2021’s Silence/Motion (review here), I’m at least willing to let myself pretend for the sake of this post that I’m willing to let myself err on the side of optimism.

The PR wire dutifully delivered the dates:

Blackwater Holylight announce Summer 2022 headlining North American tour

Portland, OR band Blackwater Holylight announce Summer 2022 North American headlining tour dates today in support of their third album Silence/Motion on RidingEasy Records. The tour kicks off on May 9th. Please see complete dates below.

Ticket links: https://linktr.ee/Blackwaterholylight

Quote from the band: “We’re gearing up for our first US headlining tour and couldn’t be more excited to be sharing the road with Bleakheart and Spirit Mother! We will have a ton of merch available and can’t wait to see you all out there.”

BLACKWATER HOLYLIGHT – TOUR 2022:
5/09 San Diego, CA – Casbah*
5/10 Scottsdale, AZ – Pub Rock*
5/11 Albuquerque, NM – Sister*
5/14 Lafayette, LA – Freetown Boom Boom Room
5/15 New Orleans, LA – The Goat
5/16 Atlanta, GA – 529*
5/18 Charlotte, NC – Snug Harbor*
5/19 Durham, NC – Pinhook*
5/20 Baltimore, MD – Metro Gallery*
5/21 Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s*
5/22 Brooklyn, NY – Saint Vitus Bar*
5/24 Boston, MA – Middle East (upstairs)*
5/26 Montreal, QC – Le Ritz*
5/27 Toronto, ON – Garrison*
5/28 Youngstown, OH – Westside Bowl*
5/29 Columbus, OH – Natalie’s*
5/30 Indianapolis, IN – Black Circle*
* Bleakheart supports

6/01 Chicago, IL – Sleeping Village**
6/02 Milwaukee, WI – Cactus Club**
6/03 Green Bay, WI – Lyric Room**
6/04 St Paul, MN – Turf Club**
6/05 Omaha, NE – Slowdown**
6/07 Denver, CO – Hi-Dive**
6/08 Salt Lake City, UT – Metro**
6/09 Boise, ID – Neurolux**
6/10 Seattle, WA – Chop Suey**
6/11 Vancouver BC – Rickshaw**
6/12 Portland, OR – Revolution Hall**
6/15 Sacramento, CA – Café Colonial**
6/16 San Fransisco, CA – The Eagle**
6/17 Santa Cruz, CA – Felton Music Hall**
6/18 Los Angeles, CA – Lodge Room**
** Spirit Mother supports

Blackwater Holylight:
Allison “Sunny” Faris – Vocals/bass/guitar
Sarah McKenna – Synths
Mikayla Mayhew – Guitar/bass
Eliese Dorsay – Drums
Erika Osterhout – Guitar (not on LP)

https://www.facebook.com/blackwaterholylight/
instagram.com/blackwaterholylight
blackwaterholylight.bandcamp.com
ridingeasyrecs.com

Blackwater Holylight, Silence/Motion (2021)

How much volume do you need? How much you got? Many records are made to sound their best when played loud — many more claim to be — but I’ve yet to find the maximum tolerance for Dwell in the Fog, which is the third full-length from Gothenburg, Sweden’s Firebreather and second for RidingEasy Records behind 2020’s Under a Blood Moon (review here) and their 2017 self-titled debut (review here), the latter of which was on Suicide Records. As loud as you want to go, the six-song collection seems ready to meet you there, with an increasing sonic fullness that readily pushes over into outright crush. At some point, in all that fog, the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Mattias Nööjd, newcomer bassist Nicklas Hellqvist and drummer Axel Wittbeck would appear to have found concrete to add to their tonality and the impact of their groove, and as a result, tracks like opener/lead single “Kiss of Your Blade” and the side A capper “Weather the Storm” land with an all the more forceful and purposeful thud. This is all a long way of telling you that Dwell in the Fog is very, very heavy, that it knows this about itself and that said heft is integral to the mission of the band on the whole.

It is not, however, the entire mission. Those who’ve followed Firebreather since their inception following the transmogrification from Nööjd‘s prior outfit, Galvano, will note that one of the distinguishing factors between the two projects was Firebreather‘s commitment to a post-High on Fire sense of crash ‘n’ bash, and that element is still a starting point from which they work on Dwell in the Fog, the influence present in cuts across the album’s 39-minute span. The difference, then, between these songs and even those on the last record — aside from the cowbell on “Sorrow”; I hear you in there, you don’t need to hide — is the framing of that influence as a starting point from which Firebreather actively work to cast their own identity. In “Sorrow” and elsewhere — the title-track on side A, for example — one can hear in the band’s songwriting not only these individualized aspects being realized, but the band actively working to make them so. There is much more to Dwell in the Fog, at any volume, than raw charge or the swinging of a battle axe, though to be sure a given listener’s skull may still be cleaved at any moment.

At the same time, there are details throughout Dwell in the Fog that command attention. The stops and the shift in tone before the build-up to the big groove in the penultimate “The Creed” qualify, as do the layered vocals that ensue following that crescendo. Likewise, Hellqvist‘s bass tone brings a character to the low end beneath Nööjd‘s guitar solo on “Weather the Storm” that is especially righteous. It doesn’t seem aesthetically appropriate to call the tracks nuanced or progressive, but there is consideration and awareness of self behind all that pummel that stems from the evolution of the band over the course of the last half-decade, on tour (when possible) as well as in the studio and in the writing.

“Dwell in the Fog” itself is a demonstration of this, for its more patient tempo as well as for the melody underpinning Nööjd‘s vocals. He reminds of Crowbar‘s Kirk Windstein there and in the later moments of “Sorrow” at the outset of side B with his ability to move from barbarian shouts, echoing out from deep in the mix, to a kind of semi-melodic gutturalism. Even on a more intense piece like “Kiss of Your Blade” or the two main verse sections in closer “Spirit’s Flown,” this development of his approach can be heard, and since Firebreather have been consistent in working with producer Oskar Karlsson (Morrow, Agrimonia, Bror Gunnar Jansson, many others) at Elementstudion in Gothenburg, the conclusion one can reach on the issue is that it’s an intentional pushing of boundaries on his part and the band’s.

That’s plenty respectable in principle, but all the more because it works to serve the interests of the songs themselves. “Dwell in the Fog” is a highlight of the full-length that shares its name, and their ability to play tempos off of each other, move one instrument forward or back in the mix at a given time, and have no shortage of bludgeonry on hand when it’s called for, is a resilient strength of their craft. That “Sorrow” can shift so fluidly from its beginning nod into and through its chugging verses, opening to a broader chorus that remains consistent in atmosphere before “The Creed” begins its wavy rollout adds to the flow of side B and the entirety of the release, and while “Weather the Storm” and “Spirit’s Flown” serve different purposes in capping their respective halves of Dwell in the Fog, their ability to make their sound do more than just one thing is further evidence of the growth they’ve won as a result of the work they’ve put in.

It’s a convenient narrative for a third LP to be a moment of arrival for a band functioning on the longer term — that is, the point at which a given act “figures it out” after an initial album and a second in response to the first. Dwell in the Fog may indeed be that for Firebreather; it depends entirely on what they do from here forward. For now, it is unquestionably the strongest work they’ve done, both on a per-song basis and in terms of the album as a whole. The balance they find is more than just that between fast and slow parts, and stems no less from their ability to pull back on outright aggression in favor of establishing a mood that feeds into the overarching impression Dwell in the Fog makes, and more, knows it is making. Despite a change in lineup, Firebreather have made themselves into a broader-reaching and more distinctive unit in the two tumultuous years since their last album. Whatever volume one might enjoy it at, that’s worth appreciating.

Firebreather, “Kiss of Your Blade”

Firebreather on Facebook

Firebreather on Instagram

Firebreather on Bandcamp

RidingEasy Records website

RidingEasy Records on Facebook

On Dec. 31, Los Angeles-based classic-style doomers Early Moods will take the stage at the Permanent Records Roadhouse in their hometown to ring in 2022 alongside Deathchant. Further occasion to celebrate comes with the fact that the two bands are now labelmates on RidingEasy Records, which, even if you’re not into getting loaded on the last night of the year, is reason for the season, if you know what I’m saying. If you do, please tell me, because I’m not quite certain.

Early Moods, who’ve also been confirmed for the Legions of Metal Festival in Chicago next May, released their debut EP, Spellbound (review here), in 2020 through Dying Victims Productions, and in addition to that release, the EP is also available on tape thanks to Olde Magick Records in a pressing of what I’m sure is a suitably doomed shade of purple.

I don’t know if RidingEasy Records has plans for Spellbound as well, but band and label alike mentioned plans for new material in 2022. One can’t help but wonder if there will be continued delays in the pressing of vinyl. How quickly it’s become normal for a 12″ to arrive months past a CD/DL. RidingEasy puts CDs in handy lil digipaks, and that does just fine for me, so I’m not in crisis over those wait times, but I acknowledge being in the weirdo minority — that is, in the minority of weirdos — currently of that mindset. People want their records on records. Not gonna say I don’t get it.

No big announcement on Early Moods at this point, which either would or pointedly wouldn’t have word of a next release/maybe debut full-length, but here’s this from social media along with the stream the the EP in case you need an argument to buy whatever format is left.

Behold:

We are proud to welcome @early_moods to the #ridingeasyrecords roster. Give them a follow and look out for new music next year!

Early moods is :
Eddie Andrade – Guitar
Elix Feliciano – Bass
Alberto Alcaraz – Vocals
Chris Flores – Drums & Percussions
Oscar Hernandez – Guitar

https://www.facebook.com/earlymoods/
https://www.instagram.com/early_moods
https://earlymoods.bandcamp.com/releases
ridingeasyrecs.com

Early Moods, Spellbound (2020)

Gothenburg heavy bastards Firebreather will issue their third album, Dwell in the Fog, on Feb. 25 in a continued association with RidingEasy Records. The three-piece now includes bassist Nicklas Hellqvist in place of Kyle Pitcher, and their new streaming single “Kiss of Your Blade” seems to have a current of murk in accord with the marauding heavier-thrash groove one has come to anticipate from their post-High on Fire style. I take that as a good sign, to be sure, and while I can’t speak as to what the rest of the record has in store — it may be all bludgeon and battleaxes or it could be an all-out doom antistravaganza — the fact that they went with this track to give a first impression and the fact that they went so far as to mention fog in the album’s title could speak to an awareness of where they’ve headed with their sound and, indeed, intent behind their direction in that regard.

Speculation! Anticipation! New records are so much fun. All the more with a band you dig, and I dig these guys.

From the PR wire:

Firebreather announce new album, share first single “Kiss of Your Blade”

Swedish trio Firebreather announce their return with an incendiary new album due out in February 2022, and today share the first track. Hear and share “Kiss of Your Blade” HERE.

Gothenburg, Sweden trio Firebreather’s 2019 RidingEasy Records debut album Under a Blood Moon was a powerhouse that most certainly established the band’s incendiary potential. But none of us would be prepared for the suffocating onslaught that is Dwell in the Fog. While that album was in-your-face and raw, Dwell in the Fog rumbles and rages with a fury the band had only hinted at previously.

Firebreather has a streamlined focus on driving, symphonic riffs in the vein of High on Fire, Inter Arma and their tour- and label-mates Monolord. The guitar and bass tones are, quite simply, entrancing. Paired with vocalist/guitarist Mattias Nööjd’s guttural yet melodic howls and drummer Axel Wittbeck’s groove based rhythms, their entire sound flows like thick, viscous lava.

“The album is a cathartic journey inwards and a musical continuation from Under A Blood Moon, but with more emphasis on groove and feel,” Nööjd says. From the first notes of album opener “Kiss Of Your Blade” you’ll know exactly what he means.

Like their preceding two albums, Dwell in the Fog was also recorded and mixed by engineer Oskar Karlsson at Elementstudion in Gothenburg. The band is joined by new bassist Nicklas Hellqvist on this album, who seems to have increased the thunder rumble tenfold.

From the aforementioned album opener “Kiss Of Your Blade”, with its droning opening chords over a rollicking tom pattern, the band quickly shifts gears into a head bobbing, serpentine riff with a transcendent melodic hook. Elsewhere, as on the title track and “Weather The Storm” rapid-fire hummable riffs come and go in an ever-shifting mass of devastating swirling churn. It’s like the band has such an endless supply of great hooks that to, ahem, dwell for too long on any one would undo their constantly building momentum. That they somehow give each song, and the album as a whole, a streamlined and cohesive, monolithic groove is testament to their skill. And, proof that the album must be absorbed in its entirety to experience the overwhelming swaying and lunging low end growl that drives the band’s most captivating work to date.

Dwell in the Fog will be available on LP, CD and download on February 25th, 2022 via RidingEasy Records.

Firebreather are:
Mattias Nööjd – Guitar/vocals
Axel Wittbeck – Drums
Nicklas Hellqvist – Bass

https://www.facebook.com/firebreathergbg/
https://www.instagram.com/firebreathergbg/
https://firebreatherdoom.bandcamp.com/
ridingeasyrecs.com

Firebreather, “Kiss of Your Blade”

Hey there tour dates. That’s nice to see, even if they would seem to arrive with the unfortunately-normalized asterisk of *yes-this-will-happen-so-long-as-it-can-happen. But I’m glad to see Austin trio The Well getting back out. The last time I posted a list of shows from the three-piece was when they were headed to Europe in January 2020 and doing US dates in Feb. and into March. Points for timing to them on that one, as they went out supporting 2019’s Death and Consolation (review here), their third album on RidingEasy Records.

I can’t help but wonder if, having spent more time off the toad — you know what? I meant to type “off the road,” but I like “toad” better and I’m leaving that typo — they have new material in the works to some degree, and as they head out with Nashvillain heavy progressives Howling Giant, the list of dates may not be months long, but they’re covering a decent amount of ground in the Midwest and toward the West Coast, and if they perhaps have other regional stints to come later next year — pending blah blah blah — they’d be off to a good start. A new record in there too? Hell if I know, but that’d be fun.

The following poster — which takes my head right to the ’90s and I’m not sure if that’s right or not — and announcement were posted on social media. Have you heard about that? It’s a whole thing:

THE WELL – TOUR ANNOUNCEMENT

Ahhh finally!!! We are beyond excited to hit the road in 2022 with Nashville’s heavy hitters @howlinggiant in tow. We’ve missed y’all!! Which show will we see you at?

2.22 – Dallas – Ruins
2.24 – El Paso – Rockhouse
2.25 – Tempe – Pub Rock
2.26 – Albuquerque – Sister Bar
2.27 – Denver – Hi Dive
3.1 – Milwaukee – Cooperage
3.2 – Chicago – Reggie’s
3.3 – Columbus – Spacebar
3.4 – Cincinnati – Northside Yacht Club
3.5 – Louisville – fifteentwelve
3.6 – Nashville – Springwater
3.9 – New Orleans – Santos
3.10 – Lafayette – Freetown
3.11 – Houston – White Oak Music Hall
3.12 – Austin – Independence Brewing
3.13 – San Antonio – Lonesome Rose

http://www.facebook.com/thewellband
https://www.instagram.com/thewellband/
http://thewellaustin.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ridingeasyrecords/
http://www.ridingeasyrecs.com/
https://www.instagram.com/easyriderrecord/

The Well, Death and Consolation (2019)

There is a quote by the author Margaret Atwood that comes to mind in considering Blackwater Holylight‘s third album, Silence/Motion: ‘Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.’ It says something that as human beings, we live in a culture in which sexual assault, rape, and the killing of women by men is a cliché. It’s a trope of tv storytelling. How many “gritty” procedurals define themselves at the expense of the feminine body? Sexual violence, fetishized. Blood dried on nude flesh.

In the backing screams of “Delusional,” the creeping synth line of “Who the Hell” and tense guitar that accompanies, in its flourishes of minimalist sadness and distorted blowout, its engagement of extreme metal in closer “Every Corner” or the earlier “MDIII,” Silence/Motion conveys and at times seems to push against inherent male-gaze violence. It is a specific attempt being made to transform objectification and victimization into expressive power, to convey through rich and deep-running atmospherics that transcend what the Portland, Oregon/Los Angeles, California, outfit of bassist/vocalist/here-also-guitarist Allison “Sunny” Faris — who discussed her history with sexual violence in a recent interview here — guitarist/bassist Mikayla Mayhew, synthesist Sarah McKenna, drummer Eliese Dorsay and recently-joined guitarist/backing vocalist Erika Osterhout (who does not appear on the album) accomplished in melding together heavy psychedelic, pop, and metal on their first two LPs, 2019’s Veils of Winter (review here) and 2018’s self-titled debut (review here). Even in the transition of the title-track itself, from its acoustic beginning and string-laced midsection surge, Blackwater Holylight find the beauty in horror without shying away from the horror in horror.

What does that mean? On the most basic level of listening to Silence/Motion front to back, it means that those who took on the band either or the self-titled or Veils of Winter, or both, might be surprised at the darker spaces Silence/Motion inhabits. Melody is central to the songwriting as it has been all along, but there’s no question that this material puts even the edge of melancholy in the prior record in an entirely new context. It’s of course worth noting that for the first time, the band worked with an outside producer in A.L.N. of Mizmor, and that Faris is backed on “Delusional” by Thou‘s Bryan Funck and on “Every Corner” by Mike Paparo of Inter Arma, both male vocalists, bookended, but the sense of exploration in their sound that comes through is more than just studio happenstance. Silence/Motion feels like Blackwater Holylight using their songs to do something new.

One can still find plenty of ethereality in their work, as the touches of airy post-rock guitar floating at the outset of centerpiece “Floating Faster” remind, the vocals entering a vibe like grunge made to float, but as the song plays out, the drums foreshadow a turn to come after its slowdown, and sure enough, it is the lower-end rumble that wins the day of the track. The song does not “get heavy” in the same way as the subsequent “MDIII,” with its squibbly guitar and charred textures, but it emphasizes the purposefulness that is behind the material across the 41-minute span of the outing, each piece contributing something toward the greater intent of the whole.

True to the time of its making, Silence/Motion fits easily across two vinyl sides, but it does not do so evenly. Side A ends with “Falling Faster” and side B begins with “MDIII,” and while that transition is crucial in giving over to “MDIII”‘s metallic incorporations, the poppier false security of “Around You” and the consuming paranoia payoff of “Every Corner,” the story being told throughout is linear, a narrative conveyed as much through ambience and instrumental shifts as in the lyrics to “Silence/Motion” itself.

So I guess this is the part where I make it feel safe for dudes, right? Maybe, except much as I might support what the band and or RidingEasy Records get up to with a given release, it’s not my job to sell records. Yeah, Blackwater Holylight have been and remain a largely deeply accessible band, working with classic verse/chorus structures, vibrant harmonies, and a catchiness that even the looming threat of “Who the Hell” can’t/doesn’t entirely cast away. But just because they make it sound like them doesn’t cut off the powerful resonance of Silence/Motion itself. If anything, it makes it all the more vital and a more resilient showcase for other women who might relate.

There’s no way I would have demographic statistics to back this up, but as somebody who’s spent a fair enough portion of his life at gigs, I imagine the majority of Blackwater Holylight‘s audience is dudes, and there is a sense of challenging the dehumanization that takes place when one is objectified — the point that men on stage become objects for men in the audience as well is one that not-surprisingly few make; a tangent for another time, but not entirely irrelevant — and not just pushing back on how easily violence against a person becomes when they’re no longer human, but of turning that gaze back on itself. Silence/Motion offers nothing so trite as a ‘girl-power’ salute to what women can accomplish in a male-dominant culture, but instead speaks toward the conditions in which such a thing might be passed off as genuine progress in the first place.

Accordingly, no, Silence/Motion is not an easy listen. It shouldn’t be. I suppose it could be divorced from its own thematic context — it was apparently a good time in the making, if that helps? — and taken as just a collection of songs with some screams at the start and end, but that feels like cheapening what Blackwater Holylight actually accomplish with the material. It is a showcase of craft and performance as one would expect from Blackwater Holylight sonically progressing into their third long-player, and if that’s enough, fine. But to not engage with Silence/Motion with a deeper, experiential consideration, to not at very least acknowledge what’s being confronted, regardless of one’s own gender identity and where one resides within the stakes Atwood lays out above, is missing a big part of the point.

Blackwater Holylight, Silence/Motion (2021)

Blackwater Holylight on Facebook

Blackwater Holylight on Instagram

Blackwater Holylight on Bandcamp

RidingEasy Records website

RidingEasy Records on Facebook