Posted in audiObelisk on December 17th, 2014 by JJ Koczan
Every year at Roadburn, there are a couple bands — guaranteed, without fail — whose sets you want to watch but don’t get to. Maybe you’re somewhere else seeing a once-in-a-lifetime show or reunion or one-time-only thing or maybe you just get the schedule wrong and miss it. This batch of Roadburn 2014 audio streams has the three bands I most regret not seeing at this year’s fest: Freedom Hawk, Inter Arma (pictured above), and Aqua Nebula Oscillator. I wouldn’t have minded catching Anciients, Hark, Glitter Wizard or The Old Wind either, but those three stung particularly hard.
In the case of Inter Arma, their single-song 2014 full-length, The Cavern, has made a considerable splash on the Readers Poll so far, and like their fellow Virginians, Freedom Hawk, they were a band whose schedule just didn’t match my own. At least I can hear what I missed out on, thanks to Marcel van de Vondervoort and his crew, who’ve returned again with another diligently gathered round of primo live recordings. As we move closer to 2015 and the next incarnation of the festival — Roadburn 2015 has a few lineup announcements left, but it seems to be by and large set — all the better to cap off the year that was by tying up such loose ends.
Check out the streams on the players below, snagged from the Dutch website Vpro 3voor12:
Anciients – Roadburn 2014
Aqua Nebula Oscillator – Roadburn 2014
Freedom Hawk – Roadburn 2014
Glitter Wizard – Roadburn 2014
Graves at Sea – Roadburn 2014
Hark – Roadburn 2014
Inter Arma – Roadburn 2014
The Old Wind – Roadburn 2014
Thanks as always to Walter and the Roadburn crew for permission to host the streams. For the other batches of audio from Roadburn 2014 — there’s some stuff worth digging for — click here, here, here and/or here, and to read the coverage from this year’s fest, click here.
Posted in audiObelisk on August 27th, 2014 by JJ Koczan
I’m always happy to post streams from Roadburn, and I think I’ve made that clear over the last half-decade, but this batch in particular features two of my favorite performances from this year’s fest, namely Brooklyn’s Hull, who played Day One, and Boston’s Gozu, who played Day Three. The two bands are pretty far from each other sonically and aesthetically, but both are fantastic at what they do and for me represent where I come from (the New York area) and where I’m at now (the Boston area). So in addition to having enjoyed watching these guys wreck up Stage01 and the Green Room, respectively, I’m happy now to have the chance to revisit those memories. Heavy riffs and fuzzy feelings.
Also cool to hear Mansion‘s set again, which was something of a sleeper, and Carlton Melton, who were so psyched out I almost broke a vinyl-buying embargo, as well as acts I missed like E-Musikgruppe Lux Ohr, New Keepers of the Water Towers and ASG. As ever, all the sets were recorded by the venerable Marcel van de Vondervoort and his team, and they’ll be available into perpetuity so that future generations can know just how much they suck in comparison to the rock and roll we beheld.
So behold:
ASG – Live at Roadburn 2014
Carlton Melton – Live at Roadburn 2014
E-musikgruppe Lux Ohr – Live at Roadburn 2014
Gozu – Live at Roadburn 2014
Hull – Live at Roadburn 2014
Mansion – Live at Roadburn 2014
Nicklas Barker & Reine Fiske – Live at Roadburn 2014
New Keepers Of The Water Towers – Live at Roadburn 2014
Thanks as always to Walter and the Roadburn crew for permission to host the streams. To check out past streams from Roadburn 2014 click here, here and/or here, and to read the coverage from this year’s fest, click here.
Posted in audiObelisk on July 16th, 2014 by JJ Koczan
It’s a formidable batch of streams this time around from Roadburn 2014, with YOB‘s The Great Cessation played in its entirety, and gigs from Indian, who by all accounts killed at the fest, Morne, ditto, Lord Dying and more. For me though, like the first batch with their Lenny Kaye jam, the highlight is probably Harsh Toke. They were my find of the fest. When their Light up and Livealbum came out in 2013 on Tee Pee, I guess I didn’t pay enough attention and missed it, but after seeing them with the aforementioned Mr. Kaye, I knew there was no way I was going to let their set at the Afterburner pass without watching at least for a little bit.
As such, the San Diego jam-rippers were how I closed out Roadburn 2014, stopping by the Green Room to watch them tear into heavy psych fluidity as though you could actually tear into something fluid. Killer band. I’ve spent much time with Light up and Livesince April, and I’m glad to have the chance — thanks, as always, to Marcel van de Vondervoort and his crew — to relive their show. That’s not to mention YOB doing The Great Cessation, which was hypnotic to the point of being trance-inducing, and Morne and Indian and The Vintage Caravan, Lord Dying and Obliteration, the last two adding a malevolent, lurching extremity. Very cool mix.
No big surprise there, I guess, since the festival has become so eclectic. Plenty to dig into here so I won’t delay further:
Harsh Toke – Live at Roadburn 2014
Horse Latitudes – Live at Roadburn 2014
Indian – Live at Roadburn 2014
Lord Dying – Live at Roadburn 2014
Morne – Live at Roadburn 2014
Obliteration – Live at Roadburn 2014
The Vintage Caravan – Live at Roadburn 2014 (Friday, April 11th)
Yob – Live at Roadburn 2014 (The Great Cessation)
Thanks to Walter and Roadburn for letting me host the streams. The first and second batches are still available as well, and for all of the Roadburn 2014 coverage, click here.
Posted in audiObelisk on June 18th, 2014 by JJ Koczan
One of the things I enjoy most about these Roadburn streams every year is that not only do they allow the people who were there to relive the awesome (and in many cases, fuzzy) memories of seeing these bands, but they allow everyone, whether they were there or not, to get a glimpse at some of what they didn’t get to see. Because you can try your damnedest to catch everything at Roadburn every year — I know I have on the years I’ve been fortunate enough to go — but it’s just not going to happen. At any point during the three days of the fest-proper, there are at least four stages running simultaneously, and there’s just no way to be everywhere at once. I saw Noothgrush at Roadburn 2014, but I missed Brutus, saw Samothrace and missed Windhand.
With the audio streams — diligently recorded at Roadburn 2014 by Marcel van de Vondervoort and his team, as ever — that doesn’t matter. It would be something if the fest set up a security system for the audio one of these years that you had to be there to hear it (actually it would suck, aside from being a logistical/coding nightmare), but fortunately that’s not the case, and whether you were at the 013 or in the Netherlands or not, you can enjoy the fruits of Roadburn‘s considerable labors. If it sounds utopian, it is.
To listen and enjoy:
Age of Taurus – Live at Roadburn 2014
Bong – Live at Roadburn 2014
Brutus – Live at Roadburn 2014
Noothgrush – Live at Roadburn 2014
Regarde Les Hommes Tomber – Live at Roadburn 2014
Samothrace – Live at Roadburn 2014
Whitehorse – Live at Roadburn 2014
Windhand – Live at Roadburn 2014
Thanks as always to Walter and the Roadburn crew for allowing me to host the streams. The first batch is still available as well, and for all of the Roadburn 2014 coverage, click here.
Posted in audiObelisk on May 21st, 2014 by JJ Koczan
I’m not gonna tell you to only listen to one of these sets, because frankly, there’s a lot of really awesome stuff in this first batch of audio streams from this year’s Roadburn festival, which took place the beginning of April in Tilburg, the Netherlands. What I am going to say instead is that if you’re lost for a place to start, definitely dig into the Lenny Kaye & Harsh Toke jam. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to see the name of the band without thinking of Kaye saying, “Harsh Toke makes good smoke,” but I haven’t been able to get them out of my head since, to the point that I went back and revisited their 2013 Tee Pee debut, Light up and Live, just to hear them jam out some more. Kind of a specialty appeal for a physical pressing, but I can’t imagine there was anyone in that room who didn’t leave that set wanting it pressed to vinyl or CD. I’d take either.
And in the meantime, the audio stream is doing well to suffice. “Harsh Toke makes good smoke,” as Kaye is handed a joint passed up from the crowd. Fucking awesome. Hopefully when they put that out, they call it Good Smoke: Live at Roadburn 2014. Got my fingers crossed on that one.
In the meantime, huge respect as always to Roadburn for preserving all these sets and the many that are sure to come for posterity. As with years past, these were helmed by Marcel Van De Vondervoort of Torture Garden Studios, whose new band, Fire Shrine, I’ve been digging. They’ve got an EP on Bandcamp if you get a second to check it out between all this madness.
Enjoy:
Lenny Kaye & Harsh Toke – Live at Roadburn 2014
The Shrine – Live at Roadburn 2014
Ron van Herpen’s Jam Session: Louisiana Voodoo Centre – Live at Roadburn 2014
Mantar – Live at Roadburn 2014
11Paranoias – Live at Roadburn 2014
Papir – Live at Roadburn 2014 (Friday, April 11th)
The Great Old Ones – live at Roadburn 2014
Goatess – Live at Roadburn 2014
Thanks as always to Roadburn for letting me host the streams.
There are a lot of people out there with a vision. Anyone with a targeted daydream can claim to have one. Whatever it is you dream of doing. I dream of owning and running a venue. I can see it in my head, how it comes together, the people there, the music playing, all of it. That’s my dream. I’m working toward it, but it’s not anywhere close to being a reality at this point. That’s where most people are. Walter Hoeijmakers (Obelisk questionnaire here) is on the other end of it — that rare person who has taken his vision, made it real, and continues to work with unmatched drive in refining and remaking his dream.
I’ve spoken at length before in admiration of what Walter does and all he continues to accomplish with the annual Roadburn festival in Tilburg, the Netherlands. It’s not just him — there’s Jurgen, Yvonne, the 013 crew, many, many people — but he’s widely regarded as the driving force, and his passion and heart reside at the core of what Roadburn has become. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you Roadburn has changed my life and changed the way I experience music every single day. In many ways, it has been the anchor of my last six years, and I was so, so happy to be there again in 2014.
When I arrived at the 013 for this year’s fest, and was greeted by Walter, the first thing I saw was the camera crew from Vice/Noisey filming the Mr. Roadburndocumentary. I hadn’t slept, was unshowered, could barely keep my head up, but there was Walter, guru-calm in being unphased by the familiar stresses of the festival that was about to launch. Comment from Walter himself, as well as those playing and attending the fest (because even when you play, you also attend), it’s a good look at somebody whose work has genuinely contributed to the course of underground heavy music for more than the last decade, and someone whose influence runs toe-to-toe with any artist against whom you might want to measure. I know that when it comes to my own daydreams, he’s a major inspiration.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 28th, 2014 by JJ Koczan
Over the last couple years, the number of Roadburn‘s fest-exclusive releases has been quietly growing. In 2013, one could pick up vinyl from Dread Sovereign and The Obsessed, and this year, no less than the grind royalty of Napalm Death put together an EP. Add to that live records from YOB and Candlemass and you have a bit of a series going. Or Burning World Records has a bit of a series going, anyway.
Today the label has put the word out that they’ve culled all the leftover vinyl and instead of hording it all to themselves, holing up in a corner somewhere with their arms wrapped tightly around Our Pain is Their Power, they’ve decided to make it available to the buying public who maybe didn’t get the chance to pick the stuff up at the fest itself. In addition, Burning World has made Elder‘s Live at Roadburn 2013 — which I’m told has one or two of my photos in the layout — available as a pay-what-you-want download, which if nothing else is generous. Elder‘s on tour now in Europe with Hull, so that ties together nicely.
Burning World sent the following down the PR wire:
Roadburn Festival exclusive vinyl
We managed to get our hands on these exclusive and limited Roadburn Festival 2014 only vinyl releases:
Napalm Death – Our Pain Is Their Power – The Roadburn Festival EP Yob – The Unreal Never Lived live at Roadburn 2012 2LP Candlemass – Live At The Marquee 1988 2LP
Free Elder Live at Roadburn download
Download Elder Live At Roadburn 2013 from Bandcamp. As usual with the Roadburn releases this download is free (or more exact ‘pay what you want’). If you need more you can pre-order the album on cd (in digipack with artwork) here (vinyl is sold out, get it on tour with the band).
I stood for a couple seconds last night in the air outside the 013, trying to inhale it, thinking if I kept my wristband on maybe Roadburn could just keep going.
Someone told me yesterday that you project your negative energy, that people feed off it and respond to you based on it. That’s true in a sense, if New Agey, and I might quibble with the phrasing and put it up to unconscious cues of tone and body language more than energy, but the one is as valid a means of expressing the idea as another in the end – the point’s the same. Smile, stand up straight, like your mom told you.
That’s easier for me at Roadburn than just about any other place I’ve ever been. Words like “special,” “magical,” “vibe” get tossed around, but they’re pale shadows of the thing itself once you’ve managed to soak some of it in. A popular refrain for Roadburn 2014 was, “This one is special,” and it was to me too. The kindness and generosity shown to me by the Roadburn crew not only made me feel validated for the time I’ve put in covering the fest these last six years, but like I, as a person, mattered even in some small way. When I knew in my heart that I wasn’t going to be able to go, they reached out and not only made it happen, but brought me behind the scenes in a way I’ve never been before. There I sat in the office with Walter, Jurgen and Lee Shaman, putting together the fanzine with my tired eyes, talking about bands and who we saw the night before and so on. It seems greedy to hope I could have the good fortune to do it again, but I do.
First and foremost, thanks to Walter, Jurgen and Yvonne for bringing me in to even in some small way be a part of the Roadburn festival, editing that fanzine. My heart goes out in appreciation to Rianne, Sanne, Miranda, Brent, Gijs and the entire 013 crew, who were so welcoming and helping my clueless ass find where it should be, which printer to use, and how to operate Windows 7 in Dutch, which is a beautiful language that, six years later, still makes me happy every time I hear it spoken by a native.
In Lee Edwards of The Sleeping Shaman I felt like I found a kindred spirit, and not only his efforts for the ‘zine, but just the company was something I looked forward to each morning, swapping stories about shows, talking about reviewing and editing and the joys and trials of working with a staff of writers. I realized somewhere in the making of the third issue of the ‘zine that this could very well be the last time I ever do that. I hope it’s not, but there’s nothing guaranteed in life and I’m thankful for every opportunity I have. To Costin Chioreanu, Paul Verhagen, Walter (yes again), Adrien Begrand (who I wish I could’ve met), Kim Kelly, Paul Robertson, Saúl Do Caixão, Sarah Kitteringham and José Carlos Santos as well for their communication and the work they all put in. The Weirdo Canyon Dispatch was easily the best staff of writers I’ve ever had.
To my family for their continued and generous support, thank you. There are so few people who understand or give a shit about how much this means to me personally, especially this year, and it was incredible to just have it known.
Especially to The Patient Mrs. as well, who even when I lost my job said to me, and I quote, “I think you should still go to Roadburn.” I’m forever astounded at her tolerance, her acceptance of the wretched creature I am and her seemingly endless depth of understanding. She knew I needed this more than I did.
So many others. Stephen Flam, Mike Scheidt, Tom and Will from Rozamov, the Gozu dudes, the Hull dudes (how great it was to see those two bands back to back days and have tastes of home new and old), Vania, Désirée, Aris Tombul, Daan Toner Low, everyone I met and re-met over the course of the weekend who had heard of the site, as well as Claudio, Vanna, Susanne, Falk-Hagen, Iñaki, Christian and all the other familiar faces in the photo pit. I’m no photographer, but to even be around such talent is inspiring.
Anyone who read, liked, commented, posted, retweeted, or shared any part of this whole thing, consider yourself responsible. I am so grateful for every response, whatever it might be, and I am humbled endlessly by the support this site and I personally continue to receive as the years roll on. Thank you so much for being a part of it with me, for making it happen for me.
Each of the headers in this series with a quote comes from either song titles or lyrics. The references are as follows:
“…This heart of mine” is from the first verse of Fatso Jetson’s “Jet Black Boogie.”
“Descend to the place…” is from Young Hunter’s “Welcome to Nothing.”
“So much still lingers…” comes from Crowbar’s “All I Had I Gave.”
“Spirit of the Staircase” is the title of a track from Dwellers’ new album, Pagan Fruit. It was chosen in honor of the stairs up to the office at the 013.
“Death means just life” is taken from Candlemass’ classic “Solitude.”
“Clearing the path…” derives from the title of YOB’s next album, Clearing the Path to Ascend.
“I know where to go…” is from Gozu’s ultra-catchy “Jan-Michael Vincent.”
“Altar Made of Red Earth” is a song title from Beast in the Field’s 2013 album, The Sacred Above, The Sacred Below. Picked in honor of the red coffee cups in the 013 office.
“Walk in the Blue Light” is a Pentagram classic available on their First Daze Here collection.
All of the posts in this series can be found cataloged together under the tag Roadburn 2014 trip.
I keep thinking at some point the novelty will wear off, but it doesn’t. Six Roadburns later, I feel luckier to have been here than I ever have, and more fortunate and privileged than I ever have. It was an honor to stand in that building once again. I feel like these words don’t do justice to how much, deep in the core of what makes me me, this festival meant.
The plane that will take me first to Reykjavik and then home from there – named Hekla, which I can only assume is another volcano – just pulled up to the gate. It’s about two hours to Iceland and then another six and a half or seven to Boston from there, but I’m ready to go home, kiss my wife and sit down to dinner with her, crash out on the couch with the dog. Shower in my shower, sleep in my bed. It’s time.
I think I might have a job interview sometime either this week or early next. I’ll let you know how it goes.
