Posted in Whathaveyou on June 9th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
South African good times/bad times heavy rockers Ruff Majik are set to head out on a tour of their home country beginning June 16. They go supporting The Devil’s Cattle (review here), which is only fair since it’ll be the first real domestic stint they’ve had since the album came out in 2020. Between South Africa’s pandemic situation and the band’s own goings on, that record has been waiting to get its due for a while now, even as the band — who may or may not actually be sponsored by a sunglasses company, mind you — has started work on the follow-up. They’ve gone pretty quickly from one LP to the next over the last few years, and that momentum helped them leading into The Devil’s Cattle, but of course when the world stops you kind of have to stop too or you might fall off.
In any case, glad they’re hitting it now. I have to assume a return to Europe was planned for sometime in 2020, so it could be that might happen this Fall, or maybe next year when/if that next record surfaces. I’ll take it as it comes, and in the meantime, if you didn’t check out their comic book, that’s linked below the dates as well just for fun.
From social media:
Introducing: THE GREAT TREK!
Our first inaugural bi-annual tour of South Africa! (We told you we were gonna do it, we weren’t lying).
Come catch us on the road in June and July at these fantastic spots!
In association with Mongrel Records, Plug Music Agency, Marshall Music SA, M-PIRE MUSIC, Planet Karavan and No Reason Clothing!
Our fabulous shades, as always, sponsored by Pit Viper!
Amazing poster by Cic•a•trix !
Ruff Majik live: 16.06 Cape Town Woodstock Brewery Next Fest 17.06 Cape Town Open Sesame 18.06 Stellenbosch Daisy Jones Raised by Riffs 19.06 Cape Town M-Pire Records 20.06 Swellendam Karoo Saloon 22.06 Knysna Ad’s Pub 23.06 Bloemfontein Chillax 24.06 Parys The Picked Pig 25.06 Pretoria Railways Fuzigish 01.07 Johannesburg The Irish Uncle Mother’s Yndian Mynah 02.07 Durban Robsons Real Beer 03.07 Durban The Westville Warehouse 05.07 Port St. Johns Jungle Monkey 06.07 Mdumbi Mdumbi Backpackers 07.07 Morgans Bay Yellowwood Forrest Backpackers 08.07 East London Gonubie Sports Club TBC 09.07 Port Alfred Guido’s Beach Bar 10.07 Kenton on Sea The Den 14.07 St. Francis Christy’s Seafood and Grill TBC 15.07 Port Elizabeth Eddie Mac’s 16.07 J-Bay @Work Rocking Sports Bar 17.07 Cape St. Francis Joefish Restaurant at the Cape St. Francis Resort 29.07 Potchefstroom Dia Bebados
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 30th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
First, you should watch Ruff Majik‘s new video for ‘Heart Like an Alligator.’ It’s fun, the song’s a ripper, and the clip ends with an almost-subtle Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas reference. All of two and a half minutes you will not regret spending. It’s at the bottom of this post.
When you’re done with that, read their new Pulp comic. It also doesn’t ask much of your time and delivers a product well worth the investment. Linked below too, but here it is, just to make it easy.
And after that? Well, if you haven’t gotten distracted and gone about your business, maybe had a snack or whatnot, their 2020 long-player, The Devil’s Cattle (review here), is streaming. No reason not to enjoy yourself. Make a day of it.
Really though, the clip and the comic are a good time. “Heart Like an Alligator” is the last single from The Devil’s Cattle, so here’s looking forward to new stuff to come and future issues of Pulp as well. Crowdfunding for a print edition? I’d give some cash to preorder that.
The PR wire has it all like this:
Ruff Majik share the animated video for Heart Like An Alligator plus new issue of PULP
South African powerhouse rock cult Ruff Majik have released the animated video for their track Heart Like and Alligator. The track will be the last single taken from their critically acclaimed 2020 full length album The Devil’s Cattle before the band start releasing new material towards the end of the year.
“The lyrics for Heart Like An Alligator were written after a long and excruciating late night slog through the streets of Berlin, somewhere in 2019. Inspiration was taken from the classic Hunter S. Thompson novel, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, and the whole song was meant to emulate the feeling of dread and encroaching doom that goes hand in hand with a night of partying (too hard).” Says vocalist and guitarist Johni Holiday.
He goes on to explain the idea behind the video – “The video was a fun animation project. Created by our long-time illustrator, Anni from Ale & Cake Illustration – it follows the story of desert trash on a psychedelic trip through a wasteland.”
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 25th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Stay with me here, because this is a lot of info. First, South African heavy rockers Ruff Majik — whose own Johni Holiday has taken it upon himself to curate a series of recommendations of bands from his home country in The Obelisk Collective; thanks much to him for that — have a new video up for “Swine Tooth Grin.” Track comes from their Fall 2020 full-length, The Devil’s Cattle (review here), which is a thing you should hear if you haven’t. Album stream and new video both included at the bottom of this post. The other three videos the band has done for the record and a recent interview with Holidayare here.
Second, they’re kicking off a new series of singles and comics called Pulp. This is ultimately leading to a next long-player/graphic novel/video series in 2022, but the comics are set to come out monthly along the way (which seems ambitious), and they’re going to be doing a Kickstarter for the whole thing because, well, yeah, I should hope so.
Third, there’s another video coming out on July 30 for “Heart Like an Alligator.” That’s easy, right? Seems they’re wasting no time.
Holiday was pretty tight-lipped on upcoming projects when we did that interview, and I guess now we know why. Patience is a virtue. I look forward to seeing the comic and being a little disappointed when I don’t get to be in it.
The PR wire has all the relevant details. Here’s to the heavy lifting:
Ruff Majik and announce PULP, their new single and comic series of releases
There is no white magic, there is no black magic, there is only Ruff Majik. Pulp Rock fandom, here we come.
Ruff Majik has never been a band to do the same thing twice. From trying out different production styles for every release, playing mixtures of genres ranging from soul to black metal, to releasing a season-based EP series (later compiled into a full album), the band has always strived to keep themselves (and their fans) on their toes.
It should come as no surprise then that Johni Holiday has dreamt up yet another mad hatter type plan for their upcoming release.
After the release of The Devil’s Cattle in October 2020, the band found themselves at a crossroads. Ruff Majik had just increased their membership to a five piece, the album was well received critically, and sold well in terms of vinyl, but didn’t reach the lofty heights the band were aspiring to. As fate would have it, the band pressed for their first breakout release just as COVID-19 hit the world.
Says Johni: “It’s a bummer you know. We had just singed to Mongrel Records and had this festival ready album, with the best production value we’ve ever attempted, big eye-catching music videos, everything. And then the world stopped. I guess you could argue that we had a captive audience, hahaha, but I don’t think that’s completely true. The world was so oversaturated with online activity that everything just became engulfed. Too much news to follow, too many amazing artists releasing amazing productions due to their newly found time off. Just too much of everything. Being able to tour would have made a world of difference.”
The band needed to make a plan to ensure their future endeavours would generate some heat. So, what then? What is the logical step forward for a small South African band, still hell bent on world domination, but humbled by a global pandemic? Enter PULP – Ruff Majik’s rebirth, re-brand, and singles campaign. Based on the idea of early 1900’s pulp fiction magazines, which are described as:
“A genre of racy, action-based stories published in cheaply printed magazines from around 1900 to the 1950s. It got its name from the paper it was printed on. Magazines featuring such stories were typically published using cheap, ragged-edged paper made from wood pulp. These magazines were sometimes called pulps.”
Says Johni: “So then the idea hit me. I’m a consumer of all things crazy, b-grade and wonderful. Our band name even came from a failed pilot for a b-grade adaption of an H.P. Lovecraft story (Rough Magik). One thing I’ve always been very invested in was the history of pulp fiction, not the Tarantino film, but where it actually got its name from. Just these crazy stories that were printed in mass on terrible, low grade paper, that gave rise to many different genres of fiction, and were even the ancestors of comic books. I always kind of felt like that was what Ruff Majik was doing with our music, we were always playing ‘pulp rock’. It just didn’t come out regularly enough and lacked the storytelling capacity that a short novel would. So, then I thought, why not have comics? Why not have animated features to go along with the singles and give us a sense of the world around the music? Why not turn us into an animated band, like Dethklok or Gorillaz?”
Therefore, Johni set forth to create a universe of pulp literature, to go along with their music, old and new.
The new PULP series kicks of today with a web comic telling the story between their videos “Who Keeps Score” and “Swine Tooth Grin”, along with a visualizer video for “Swine Tooth Grin.” The single is the second to last to be released from their album “The Devil’s Cattle”, and features undertones of the blues with battering heavy riffs. It will also be the final single to feature a non-animated video (at least for a while).
This will be followed up on the 30th of July with another interim comic and an animated music video for their single “Heart Like An Alligator”.
From there, the band plan to start releasing a monthly issue of “PULP”, which will chronicle stories from their past and future discography, released along with a range of animated music videos. The comics will feature the band, including all members and recording members, some other South African musicians, and even musicians in the greater stoner/desert/doom/rock scene.
The newest singles will form part of a full album set for release in 2022 and will be released on a monthly basis along with videos, short online comics and exclusive merch. A release date has been set for June 2022, and announcements thereof and a pre-order are said to follow “soon” (along with the launch of a Kickstarter campaign). What we do know is that the full vinyl/CD release will include multitudes of artwork, as well as a full print version of PULP with all the monthly online comics compiled into one.
If you want to keep up with the PULP chronicles, follow Ruff Majik on Webtoons, Facebook and Instagram, or check out their website for all relevant links. You can also buy merch for the current singles, with artwork centred around new PULP characters, monthly from the band’s Big Cartel storefront.
If you want to contribute to the creation of PULP, you can keep an eye out for their Kickstarter campaign which is launching soon.
If you want to contribute or assist in any other way, you can contact the band at: ruffmajik@gmail.com
The Devils Cattle is out now on Mongrel Records, available on 140g vinyl (single gatefold with splattered coloured vinyl and a pull out A2 poster) and Digipak CD via Just Direct (South Africa) and Black Farm Records (Europe / North America) Buy // Stream The Devils Cattle:https://orcd.co/thedevilscattle
