Posted in Whathaveyou on August 14th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Holy shit this looks like a good time. Don’t get me wrong, I post about a lot of festivals all over the place and often say the same, but if you’ve got two minutes and 45 seconds — and if you make it to the end of this run-on-ass sentence, let’s face it, you do — go ahead and check out the recap video at the bottom of this post of last year’s Elav Stoner Open Air in Bergamo, Italy. I know it’s edited together to look cool and I know rocking out in slow motion is universally awesome and blah blah blah, but even so, look at that space. Look at the vibe. Look how relaxed everything seems, everybody just having a good time, downing some beers and watching killer bands play. What the hell is life about if not that very thing?
That was the first edition of the festival, and it’s grown significantly since. Elav Stoner Open Air 2018 features Bergamo’s own beer aficionados Humulus in a returning role, and alongside them are the likes of Mars Red Sky, Samavayo, Sonic Wolves, Papir playing a special jam set and a regular set, Belzebong, Weedpecker, Da Captain Trips and more. Just absolutely killer. I don’t want to say “job well done” before it happens and jinx anything, but seriously, this looks like an incredible time. It’s free to get in if you can get there, and it’s three nights of killer shows back to back to back. I’m sorry I won’t get to see it, but I’ll look forward to the video after the fact.
Lineup info and links follow here, as seen on the social medias:
ELAV STONER OPEN AIR FESTIVAL 2018
13-14-15 September 2018
@ Birrificio Indipendente Elav (Comun nuovo – Bergamo, Italy)
\\\\ FREE ENTRY ////
LINE UP:
Gio 13 ::: Da Captain Trips + Sonic Wolves + Samavayo Ven 14 ::: RAIKINAS + Papir (jam set) + Humulus + Mars Red Sky Sab 15 ::: The Black Lodge + Dead Man’s Blues Fuckers + Weedpecker + Papir + BelzebonG
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 30th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Next time you’re looking at a pair of cartoon tits on an album cover with a cowskull instead of a woman’s face or some shit, remember the artwork for Samavayo and Sons of Morpheus‘ The Fuzz Charger Split, because that is how a stoner rock album cover is fucking done. I’m not saying every record needs to have a muscle car out front, but you want to speak directly to your audience? This does it better than all that pointless pseudo-ritualistic misogyny anyday. Looks like something straight out of 2002. Kudos to the bands and to Sixteentimes Music for putting it together.
Even better? The rest of the car is on back. I fucking love this genre.
Six tracks kicked off by the immediate momentum build of Samavayo‘s “Rollin'” and running through the dug-in desert fuzz and anchoring bassline of Sons of Morpheus‘ “Slave,” you don’t lose. You only win. Whole thing is 31 minutes well spent.
PR wire background follows, including the preorder link. You’ll want that:
Samavayo and Sons of Morpheus – The Fuzz Charger Split
Date: 18th of May 2018 Via: Digital and 12” Vinyl Label: Sixteentimes Music KatNo.: SIXT020
All three band members of Samayo grew up in East-Berlin, in the neighbourhoods Lichtenberg and Friedrichshain. As a 10 year old kid, singer Behrang Alavi fled as a political refugee from his home country of Iran to Berlin, Germany. The brothers Andreas and Stephan Voland grew up in the GDR (East-Germany) in East-Berlin. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the city was open, letting in cultural influences from any foreign country.
The capital city became a multi-cultural melting pot where a singer from Teheran and two brothers from Berlin started making music. More than 500 live shows in Europe and overseas followed, including gigs in Brazil, Albania, Greece, Croatia and France. They also played at one of the most well-known European Stoner Rock festivals “Stoned from the Underground.”
Before Sons of Morpheus were able to tour across Europe (f.e. with Karma to Burn and Kamchatka) and playing shows in 17 countries including USA, a simple feeling gave birth to everything: The need to crank up an amplifier and doing some good-shit rock music. Fuck the world! And that’s exactly what made singer/guitarist Manuel Bissig start conquering stages in Switzerland by the name of “Rozbub” (Swiss-German for “brat”). Everything followed the call, it was loud, nasty and raw – and immediately everyone could see, hear and feel: This “brat” knows exactly what he’s doing.
No surprise that 2013 released debut “S’esch ziit” climbed the Swiss iTunes-charts right away. In no time Sons of Morpheus played shows in the rock-republic of California and recorded for two weeks in Tucson AZ with Producer Jim Waters. That thriving spring in 2014 gave birth to new material and as a result a debut-album simply called “Sons of Morpheus” was about to be released. The band’s call for the following year 2016 was clear: To go back to rehearsal, write new material and get it recorded. Listening to “Nemesis,” Sons of Morpheus appear gloomier yet explosive.
Tracklist: A01 Rollin – Samavayo A02 Chopper – Samavayo A03 Justify – Samavayo B01 Dark Shadows – Sons of Morpheus B02 Money – Sons of Morpheus B03 Slave – Sons of Morpheus
Germany-based heavy rockers Samavayo are getting ready to move forward from their 2016 album, Dakota (review here). That record, their fifth overall, has served as a high-water mark for the Berlin trio as they’ve continued to refine their approach within driving riffage and Middle Eastern-inflected stylistic flourish. They have a handful of dates left for this year and then they’ll settle in and begin the writing process anew. At the risk of giving you my actual opinion on the matter, I think Samavayo are underrated as songwriters and so the idea of another record and another step forward from them is exciting. They’ve only grown more progressive over time.
Before they get down to the nitty-gritty of constructing new material — which they’ll do with an eye toward a Fall 2018 release according to guitarist/vocalist Behrang Alavi, who’s joined in the band by bassist/vocalist/Moog-ist Andreas Voland and drummer/percussionist/vocalist Stephan Voland — Samavayo will oversee a second pressing of Dakota, and it’s to mark this occasion today that you’ll find the premiere of the previously-unreleased cut “Justify” below. Recorded at Big Snuff Studio by Richard Behrens, its central riff a little bit speaks to the upbeat shove one finds from the likes of Red Fang, but even to this Samavayo can’t help but lend their own personality.
Full in tone and righteous in hook, “Justify” is one more example of the edge Samavayo bring to classic-style structures and the kind of rhythmic drive that will hopefully find its way into their new stuff as well. Alavi offered some background on the song which you can read under the track itself below, followed of course by the tour dates.
Please enjoy:
Behrang Alavi on “Justify”:
“Justify” was recorded in the same 11-day session as Dakota at Richard Behrens’ studio in Feb. 2016. We didn’t put the song on the album like our previously-released “To The Ground” because we wanted to have that as a clear, homogeneous heavy psych stoner album. We planned to release them later, but by then we didn’t have a plan how. Now we release the track with the second edition (500 pieces) of the Dakota CD after the first edition has sold out (only few few copies left).
As we did with the second edition of our first album death.march.melodies, we again changed a detail on the second edition to make it something special. In the case of d.m.m., we changed the artwork of the CD print. On Dakota, the artwork is unchanged but we added a bonus track at the end of the CD.
This month we also started writing songs for the next album planned for autumn 2018. We have a few shows left this year in Germany and Switzerland. If progress remains positive, we will record the album in spring 2018 while we play few shows. Next year we will be playing festivals where we are going to put some of the new songs into set list and then have the main tour with the new album in autumn. We are considering looking for a new label after many years releasing on our “home”-label, Setalight.
Samavayo live: Oct 03 Forum, Bielefeld, Germany supporting Brant Bjork Oct 12 Hirscheneck Basel, Switzerland Oct 13 Böröm Pöm Pöm Oberentfelden, Switzerland Oct 14 Jazzkeller Hofheim Am Taunus, Germany Nov 18 Lindenpark Potsdam, Germany Dec 01 Finsterwalde, Germany
Last spring, Berlin-based heavy rock three-piece Samavayo reinforced their willingness to cross genre lines with their fifth album, Dakota (review here). With a strong sense of drive behind their crunching tones, they brought together elements of noise rock, heavy riffing and flourish of Middle Eastern progressions that only further distinguished their material. Recorded by Richard Behrens (Heat, formerly Samsara Blues Experiment) and released through Setalight Records, it was angular in its purpose — that is, prone to sharp edges on a sonic level — but flowed smoothly throughout and brought the band to a place that emphasized the consideration put into their songwriting without coming across as navelgazing in its sound.
It rocked, in other words. I guess I’m trying to say it rocked.
The trio of guitarist/vocalist Behrang Alavi, bassist/vocalist Andreas Voland (also Moog) and drummer/percussionist/vocalist Stephan Voland haven’t been shy about getting out to support Dakota, and next month, they’ll hit the road on a tour through Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria and the Czech Republic ahead of showing up in the UK for a slot at Desertfest London 2017. Good gig to get, but it’s hardly their last. Summer festival season awaits in Europe, and July will find Samavayo back in action at the long-running Stoned from the Underground as well, and it seems likely more are to follow (also more precede, hello Hell over Esslingen).
At the same time, and perhaps to herald their departure, Samavayo have put together an artfully shot new video for the track “Cross the Line” from Dakota that is premiering today. You get to see the band playing as silhouettes and you get to see people with boxes on their heads — are they robots? — and other such fun whatnots, but of course the star is the song itself, which shows off where Samavayo are sound-wise and the penchant for working under a variety of influences that stands them out so much from their peers.
Please find it below, followed by their tour dates, and enjoy:
Samavayo, “Cross the Line” official video
Cross The Line is the first official video of the latest album Dakota from the German stoner rock band Samavayo. The song is currently also the first of their live set. “The audience gets carried away by that song and its sound right at the beginning of our shows,” says singer and guitarist Behrang Alavi. “The song also has a message: We can’t cross the red line of humanity and decency, because there won’t be a way back from it. We need to find empathy and get rid of ruthlessness and greed.”
In cameraman and director Johannes Plank Samavayo found the perfect fit to visualize that message. He mobilized the antagonists of his upcoming movie “Eva Ost.” The “TV-Men,” whose heads are actual TVs, illustrate a society poisoned by consumption and ownership. In the video the tv screens show some cuttings that can be understood as political statements and therefore build up a new meta level. The message is: “Nobody can run from this change. Our brains are already poisoned.”
Credits: Director / Camera / Editor / Production | Johannes Plank Assistant Director | Florence Freitag Gaffer | Yannick Spiess Production Design | Mihan Torabi Camera Assistant | Ranav Adhikari Set Runner | Siddarth Thapa Catering | Anne Berger Drivers | Andreas Voland, Christian Schmalfuss Musicians | Behrang Alavi, Stephan Voland, Andreas Voland TV-Men (Berlin) | André Schröder, Ricardo Ziege, Richard Volkmer, Simon Höhne, Mustafa Bozbalak TV-Men (Plauen) | Christian Dressel, Stephan Stumpf, Alexander Enskat, Rico Gemeinhardt
Samavayo “Cross the Line” tour: Mar 16 Zentralcafé Nuremberg, GER * Mar 17 Immerhin Wurzburg, GER * Mar 18 Dirty+Dancing Osnabrück, GER * Mar 24 Zukunft am Ostkreuz, Berlin, GER ** Mar 25 Spring Rocks! 2017, Wolfenbüttel, GER Apr 03 AKK Karlsruhe, GER *** Apr 04 L’Elastic Bar, Strasbourg, FR Apr 05 Dr. Feelgood, Paris, FR **** Apr 06 Café Faust, Stuttgart, GER **** Apr 07 Gaswerk, Winterthur, CH **** Apr 08 The Bruch Brothers, Luzern, CH **** Apr 12 Alte Mälzerei, Regensburg, GER Apr 14 Kramladen, Vienna, A *** Apr 15 Kain Prague, CZ *** Apr 16 Bajkazyl, Brno, CZ *** Apr 28 Little Devil, Tilburg, NL Apr 29 Desertfest 2017 London, UK Apr 30 Hopla, Cologne, GER May 11 Sabotage Dresden, GER May 12 Hell over Esslingen, Esslingen Am Neckar, GER Jul 13 Stoned from the Underground, Erfurt, GER Jul 14 Steinbruchfestival 2017, Mühlheim, GER * with Operators ** with Mother Engine *** with Shotgun Valium **** with Hellroom Projectors
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 13th, 2017 by JJ Koczan
Feels like a given to me, but obviously I’m incredibly interested to see King Buffalo added to the lineup for Stoned from the Underground 2017 this July in Germany. That’s not to take anything away from Pentagram, Acid King or Mothership — also US-based acts — or from Berlin’s Samavayo, whom I also dig a great deal, but King Buffalo issued my pick for the best debut of 2016 in the form of Orion (review here), and the confirmation of their appearance among the hallowed many at Stoned from the Underground — the aforementioned, as well as Elder, Sasquatch, All Them Witches, Monolord, Steak, CJ Ramone, and so on — is the first confirmation of their going to Europe at all, let alone the timing of the trip. They were a band I was rooting for even before they appeared at The Obelisk All-Dayer this past August. It’s nice to see them making good things happen.
And again, check out the company they’re keeping as they go. Stoned from the Underground is of course one of the longer-running Euro heavy fests, but the 2017 lineup feels particularly high-grade thus far. I’ll continue to keep an eye out as others get added and do my best to update as we get closer to summer. I get a pretty strong sense a certain youth-minded trio from Australia are going to show up.
Till then, here’s the lineup and links:
Happy to announce some more bands for the Stoned From The Underground 2017 Festival: Pentagram, Acid King, King Buffalo, mothership and samavayo to announce. The 2017 stoned from the underground is FETT.
Lineup so far (more tba): Acid King All Them Witches Cj Ramone EARTH SHIP Elder Karma to Burn King Buffalo Monolord Mothership Pentagram (official) Samavayo Sasquatch Steak ZEKE
The Stoned From The Underground 2017 takes place from July 13th until July 15th 2017.
The first STONED FROM THE UNDERGROUND took place in 2001…the festival offers a platform for diverse kinds of bands within the underground and beyond. The STONED FROM THE UNDERGROUND is a pure scene festival…a festival made by fans for fans.
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 30th, 2017 by JJ Koczan
I have no problem admitting to feeling overwhelmed looking at the full lineup and individual day splits for Desertfest London 2017. I mean, seriously. Look at that poster. What a way to spend a weekend.
Likewise, I have few grand reflections to offer in light of that overwhelming feeling, except perhaps to take a step back and be massively impressed at how much this event has grown in just six incarnations. Along with Desertfest Berlin, the London edition has become an anchor not only for the UK heavy rock underground — which is well represented here as ever in Elephant Tree, Black Spiders, Stubb, Vodun, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Terminal Cheesecake, Chubby Thunderous Bad Kush Masters, Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard, and so on — but for bands from abroad as well. You’ll note the three headliners: two American, one Norwegian, and the next line down on the poster is two Swedish, one American. Desertfest London 2017’s reach feels wider than ever. Staring at the final lineup, it’s clear just how much of a big fucking deal this festival has become.
Wish I could be there to see it.
Here’s the announcement of the individual day lineups from their website:
DESERTFEST 2017 DAY SPLITS AND DAY TICKETS ARE HERE!
Finally, the Desertfest 2017 day and stage splits are here, along with individual day tickets. It’s the point of the year where you can start planning the weekend, you can imagine the sets in your head and you can curse those god damned clashes.
Last things first, let’s get straight to that insane Sunday main-stage. To celebrate The Roundhouse joining the Desertfest family, we made their debut appearance something special. Not only will stoner doom icons Sleep be topping the bill, but the Roundhouse hosts a full bill of huge acts. Candlemass, with over three decades of underground acclaim to their name, bring the epic doom metal. USA’s Wolves in the Throne Room bring the atmospheric black metal. Traditional doom metal stalwarts Saint Vitus bring the classic riffs. And how about this for a ‘curtain jerker’? Bongzilla bring the raw weed metal for their second show of the weekend; more on the first later.
It’s not just about the Sunday though. Friday’s stage at the Electric Ballroom is headlined by returning heroes Slo Burn whose short run in the mid 90s furthered the then fledgling stoner rock scene. One band they surely had an impact on is Lowrider, who play Europe’s finest stoner rock alongside them. Ukraine’s Stoned Jesus celebrate their resonant album Seven Thunders Roar, and 1000Mods and Pontiak round up the main stage on the Friday.
The Electric Ballroom on Saturday will be swarming with Turbojugends as death-punk grandmasters Turbonegro turn Camden into party central. John Garcia sticks around for a solo show, sure to feature classics from his years of nonstop mastery in the stoner rock scene. Sheffield’s rock and roll five piece Black Spiders visit London for one last time on their farewell tour, with Satan’s Satyrs and Avon rounding up the main stage.
As ever though, it doesn’t stop at the main stages. Our regular partners have delivered three stages with diverse lineups. Human_Disease_Promo and When Planets Collide take over The Underworld on Saturday in a bill headlined by Bongzilla with a special set celebrating the band’s early work. The Quietus stage is led by synth wavers Zombi, and Nightshift Promotions bring an eclectic mix led by Hungary’s Apey & the Pea. To be honest, just stick a pin in the lineup poster and you’re guaranteed a good time.
For those who can’t make the full weekend, we have a limited number of individual day tickets. Priced at £40 for Friday tickets, £40 for Saturday tickets and £45 for Sunday tickets, links are below.
So there we have it. Our final lineup for Desertfest 2017. We hope you’re as excited as we are to get back to Camden this April and riff London to the ground.
DESERTFEST LONDON 2017 Final Lineup: SLEEP SLO BURN TURBONEGRO CANDLEMASS WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM SAINT VITUS JOHN GARCIA BAND BONGZILLA LOWRIDER SCISSORFIGHT BLACK SPIDERS SAMSARA BLUES EXPERIMENT THE PICTUREBOOKS STONED JESUS SATAN’S SATYRS INTER ARMA WEAR YOUR WOUNDS 1000MODS STEAK AVON DEATH ALLEY DEAD LORD BOSS KELOID PONTIAK YURI GAGARIN HARK VODUN CHRON GOBLIN PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS THE WELL MAMMOTH STORM CELESTE STUBB MONOLITHIAN WUCAN VENOMOUS MAXIMUS BRUME APEY & THE PEA ELEPHANT TREE GRAVE LINES IRON WITCH EARTH SHIP BACKWOODS PAYBACK WIZARD FIGHT BRULE CLOSET DISCO QUEEN GRAND MAMMOTH CHUBBY THUNDEROUS BAD KUSH MASTERS MAMMOTH WEED WIZARD BASTARD SAMAVAYO WELCOME BACK DELTA DEAD LETTUCE MONSTERTONE LEDFOOT ZOMBI TERMINAL CHEESECAKE KHÜNNT BASK BRUXA MARIA
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 18th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
The fall festival season kicks off in Europe before fall even starts. It’s like car companies rolling out next year’s models before we’re halfway through this year (though we are that now as well; you get my point). It seems like between August and November there isn’t a week when one if not multiple nations is playing host to a swath of quality bands, and Setalight Festival 2016 throws itself into the heart of the fray on Oct. 21 and 22, hosting an already-packed two-day lineup at the these-are-German-words Zukunft am Ostkreuz venue in Berlin.
I’m not sure if this is the complete lineup or not. It could be, easily. As of now, jam-prone Dutch trio The Machine, and Germany’s own Mother Engine — veterans of Freak Valley and Desertfest Berlin, no doubt among others — will also take part, as well as East-meets-West groovers Samavayo (based in Berlin), French mostly-instrumentalists Glowsun, uptempo rockers Phiasco and a host of others, some familiar — looking at you, Motorowl — and some less so. A couple names to investigate below, since if Setalight Records — which of course is putting on the festival — knows anything it’s how to pick bands.
The particulars came down the PR wire:
The Berlin based music label SETALIGHT presents the 4th time bands out of Stonerrock, Heavy & Hard Rock, Doom, Noise and Psychedelic Rock. Beside known bands of the scene, we will also present new or unknown bands.
For the lineup, we picked some great bands out of the dust, such as:
THE MACHINE MOTHER ENGINE SAMAVAYO NEUME OUZO BAZOOKA PHIASCO GLOWSUN THIEVES BY THE CODE BALG MOTHERBRAIN SWEDENBORG RAUM KALAMAHARA MOTOROWL and many more.
When / where:
The SETALIGHT FESTIVAL will take place from 21st to 22nd of October 2016 in Berlin, (Club: Zukunft am Ostkreuz). The pre-sale just started. Get more information at the links:
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 6th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
With the final additions of Electric Citizen, Samavayo, Deadsmoke and Salem’s Pot, the lineup for Keep it Low 2016 in Munich, Germany, is complete. Presented by Sound of Liberation at the Feierwerk venue, the fest boasts John Garcia, Colour Haze, Elder and Greenleaf at the top of the bill and pulls acts from around Europe and the US together for a two-nighter focused on vibe and groove, but still pretty varied in its spirit overall between the likes of 1000mods and Deadsmoke. Wherever they’re at sound-wise, you’d be hard-pressed to find a dud in the bunch.
Last announcement from the fest follows here:
KEEP IT LOW 2016! Oct. 21st & 22nd… Electric Citizen, Salem’s Pot, Mother’s Cake, Samavayo & Deadsmoke complete the line-up!
We are pleased to tell you that our 2016 line-up is now complete: 21 bands that will blow your mind!!
Today, the American 70’s heavy rock influenced four-piece Electric Citizen, the Swedish catchy spooky doom rock quintet Salem’s Pot, the German not-quite-like-anything else stoner/heavy rock outfit Samavayo and the monolithic Italian doom sludge trio Deadsmoke joined the bill alongside previously announced John Garcia, Colour Haze, Karma To Burn, Elder, Greenleaf, The Atomic Bitchwax, Monkey3, 1000Mods, Toner Low, Black Rainbows, Fatso Jetson, Moaning Cities, Duel, Bright Curse, Grusom and Swan Valley Heights!
All those 4 bands released amazing new albums during the spring that you can listen to by clicking on the links above.
Also, due to the unfortunate cancellation of Kind, we are able to add John Garcia’s touring support band, Austrian Alternative Space Rockers Mother’s Cake! And we are very happy about that!
KEEP IT LOW 2016 will happen on October 21st and 22nd in FEIERWERK (Munich) and will greet with 3 stages and outside beergarden & skatepark. On this upcoming edition we are setting up a cozy and rain protected outside area with food and drink station. We also decided to play already on 2 stages on the Friday night and ending both KIL nights with aftershow parties and Dj Sets (Friday until 3 am and Saturday until 5 am).
Hard Tickets (2-day passes) are available on Woolheads for 65 €! Online tickets are also available on Eventim!
