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Scott Kelly Retires; Admits to Domestic Abuse

Posted in Whathaveyou on August 28th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

This, obviously, is bigger than music. This is a human being and their family. Given the circumstances, it doesn’t feel right to speculate what might happen with Neurosis or any of his other projects in the longer term, so I’ll just say that if this was the situation, he’s probably right to step back. We all know that ‘permanent’ is a fluid idea when it comes to things like band breakups and retirements, so if you’re down about the prospect of no more music from Kelly, first, maybe you’ve missed the point a little and want to look at that, and second, never say never. But again, there are larger concerns at play here.

Best to Scott Kelly’s family on behalf of this site and myself, and hope for healing all around.

If you or someone you know is suffering under domestic violence, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is 800-799-7233. And no, a hotline isn’t enough and one can feel trapped, paralyzed, terrorized. It happens every day. But if that’s you, know that you’re not alone no matter how much you’ve been made to feel you are.

From social media:

Neurosis 2 (Photo by JJ Koczan)

Scott Kelly on abusing family and retiring from music:

Due to recent events, I feel that I clearly need to address some rumors and set the record straight. For the past several years I have engaged in the emotional, financial, verbal and physical abuse of my wife and younger children. When I became paranoid that people were going to find out, I found ways to keep my wife and kids from work and school and created divisions with friends and family members. I became obsessed with control and used threats, manipulation, threats of self-harm and suicide, inflicted physical damage on people and their reputations all to keep that control. When I knew my wife was going to leave I tried to convince her and others that I was crazy, and seeing things, and that I did not know what I was doing. She tried to help me with therapy and psychiatrists. My lies and deceptions fell apart in front of the professionals. When my wife finally tried to leave, I stalked and harassed her day and night and caused her and our youngest to live in a constant state of fear. I have lied or told half truths to so many people about so much of this that I can’t keep track of them. I don’t want to lie about any of this anymore. I love my wife to no end. She is the best person that I know. She is intensely honest, loving and good to her core. This letter is massive simplification of the irreparable damage I have caused and the unforgivable things that I’ve done to her and our kids. To say more in this public forum would not help anyone. As the truth has started to leak out there have been people who have tried to blame my wife for my abuse to give me an out and people who have spread ridiculous and damaging rumors about her. This is fucked. She deserves so much better. If you are adopting this mentality or spreading these rumors you need to fucking stop. I have some serious issues that I am dealing with and I have separated myself from anyone who is connected with my public life so that I can focus on my own toxic shit. When my wife has been kind enough to answer questions about my absence, she has faced crazy accusations. There was a recent situation that was so fucked up that it necessitated immediate action on my part to set the record straight. My wife absolutely speaks for me in my absence and I have already said she is intensely honest. If you don’t want the truth definitely don’t ask her questions. Additionally it is never appropriate to approach or question our children.

I know now that choosing to live a public life and be onstage was the worst decision that I could have made given the way that I am. I have hidden behind the attention and unfounded respect and adulation. I used my social position to directly and indirectly manipulate all of you and to hide the abuse of my family. I got satisfaction from my deception and perceived control of everyone involved. I am 100% permanently retired from being a professional musician. Some people can be in a scene like this where there is no accountability and maintain their integrity. I cannot. My sole focus for the rest of my life is on taking care of my family, allowing them safe space to heal and rebuilding their trust. I hope putting this out there will protect my wife from further attacks and finally allow my family some peace.

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Scott Kelly and John Judkins to Tour Europe Early in 2018

Posted in Whathaveyou on December 6th, 2017 by JJ Koczan

You in no way need me to tell you to go see Scott Kelly. The Neurosis guitarist/vocalist, as a solo performer, has more than enough of a reputation behind him at this point that if you don’t know to show up and sit quietly, it’s nobody’s fault but your own. What I’ll do instead is point out the trio of videos at the bottom of this post of Kelly at work. The first clip is a trailer for a new 7″ split with his upcoming tourmate/collaborator John Judkins (Rwake). It contains new music and makes me very badly want a copy of that single. The second is a live clip from earlier this year of Kelly and Judkins performing “The Sun is Dreaming in the Soul” together, and if you needed further argument to get out to a show, that should about cover it. And the third is a recently-posted clip from Revolver of Kelly playing Neurosis‘ “Stones from the Sky” in the open-air setting of Crater Lake that The Patient Mrs. showed me the other day. I don’t know who might’ve thought of setting that one up, but whoever it was, they deserve a raise.

Judkins is the latest in a distinguished line of Kelly-solo collaborators that includes Bruce Lamont (Yakuza), CHVE of Amenra, and Scott “Wino” Weinrich, among others, but as you can see in the clip below, he brings a genuine complement to Kelly‘s acoustic work. As for Kelly himself, he recently got off tour with Mastodon and has a new band going called Semantron with Dave French of Brothers of the Sonic Cloth and Guy Nelson of Green Jellö about which one hopes to hear more in the New Year.

Until then, this from the PR wire:

Scott Kelly John Judkins photo Danin Drahos

SCOTT KELLY Announces Early 2018 European Tour Dates With John Judkins

SCOTT KELLY of NEUROSIS announces a European solo tour for early 2018, where he’ll accompanied by John Judkins of Rwake.

The tour will be supported by the release of a 7″ EP which captures the two artists performing at their show at White Water Tavern in Little Rock, Arkansas on March 3rd, 2017, during a US tour together. In selecting these two songs for the release, SCOTT KELLY offers, “we felt that they show the depth, emotion, and life that we are trying to bring to them.”

This limited edition live 7″ will be sold throughout the tour via My Proud Mountain, available in quantities of 200 on purple vinyl and 100 on black vinyl. A full overview of the dates can be found below.

SCOTT KELLY European Tour 2018 w/ John Judkins:
1/11/2018 Stubnitz – Hamburg, DE w/ Peter Wolff
1/12/2018 UT Connewitz – Leipzig, DE w/ Peter Wolff
1/13/2018 TBA – Poznan, PL
1/14/2018 Chmury – Warsaw, PL
1/15/2018 Klarisky Church – Bratislava, SK
1/16/2018 Kapu – Linz, AT
1/17/2018 Circolo Magnolia – Milan, IT
1/18/2018 Traffic Club – Rome, IT
1/19/2018 Cueva – Caligari, IT
1/20/2018 Poudrière – Belfort, FR
1/21/2018 Black Sheep – Montpellier, FR
1/22/2018 Karspek – Lyon, FR
1/23/2018 Sunset Bar – Martigny, CH
1/24/2018 Knabenschule – Darmstadt, DE w/ Peter Wolff
1/25/2018 Parterre – Basel, CH
1/26/2018 Sabotage – Lisbon, PT
1/27/2018 Understage – Porto, PT
1/28/2018 Festsaal Kreuzberg – Berlin, DE @ CTM Festival
1/29/2018 Arena 3raum – Vienna, AT
1/30/20018 A38 – Budapest, HU
1/31/2018 Club Mochvara – Zagreb, HR
2/02/2018 Dachstock – Bern, CH
2/03/2018 Pauluskirche – Dortmund, DE w/ Peter Wolff
2/04/2018 Gebr de Nobel – Liden, NL

https://www.facebook.com/ScottKelly.official
http://www.myproudmountain.com
https://www.facebook.com/myproudmountain
https://www.neurotrecordings.com
https://www.facebook.com/neurotrecordings

Scott Kelly & John Judkins tour trailer

Scott Kelly & John Judkins, “The Sun is Dreaming in the Soul” live Feb. 28, 2017

Scott Kelly, “Stones from the Sky” live at Crater Lake

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Scott Kelly Announces Southeastern Acoustic Tour

Posted in Whathaveyou on February 9th, 2017 by JJ Koczan

I’ll be honest with you: I could use a new Scott Kelly record. I know that’s asking a lot. First of all, the ink is barely dry on Neurosis‘ 2016 outing, Fires Within Fires (review here), and his collaboration with Sanford Parker, Mirrors for Psychic Warfare, also had its self-titled debut (review here) out last year on Neurot, and already in 2017 he’s got the project noted below with the guys from Amenra — and Corrections House always seem to be a looming threat in the background, even when they’re not actually active — but yeah. A new Scott Kelly record? Five years after Scott Kelly and the Road Home put out The Forgiven Ghost in Me (review here), that’d just about hit the spot.

Kelly, who’s soon to head to Australia and New Zealand with Neurosis, has announced an acoustic stint in the Southeastern US in the company of Rwake guitarist John Judkins. Will it preface a new record? Maybe. I wouldn’t guess. File under: “Who knows?” and leave it at that. At least he’s touring. If you’ve never seen him live, it is an intense experience not to be missed.

From the PR wire:

scott kelly

SCOTT KELLY Of Neurosis Confirms Southeastern US Solo Acoustic Tour Dates Joined By John Judkins Of Rwake

Neurosis’ founding guitarist/vocalist SCOTT KELLY has confirmed a new set of tour dates beginning later this month, where the artist will take his acoustic solo anthems to the Southeastern US.

While Neurosis continues to tour in support of their lauded eleventh studio album, Fires Within Fires, SCOTT KELLY also continues to perform in a variety of other forms, including Mirrors For Psychic Warfare with Sanford Parker who just returned from an intense tour of Europe, Absent In Body with Colin H Van Eeckhout and Mathieu Vandekerckhove of Amenra who just released a record through Hypertension, and others, in addition to his own solo projects and recordings.

The coming weeks will see KELLY taking his gravelly, gritty, and heartfelt acoustic anthems of love, loss, hope, and redemption out to audiences throughout the Southeastern realm of the country, with a ten-city tour running from February 22nd through March 4th. With shows confirmed in Atlanta, Charleston, Asheville, Savannah, Jacksonville, New Orleans, Hattiesburg, Dallas, Little Rock, and Nashville, SCOTT KELLY will be accompanied on all shows by John Judkins of Rwake.

NEUROSIS Australia & New Zealand tour:
Wellington – San Fran – February 14 w/ SPOOK THE HORSES
Auckland – Kings Arms – February 15 w/ OLD LOAVES
Brisbane – The Triffid – February 16 w/ DISPOSSESSED
Sydney – Manning Bar – February 17 w/ DISPOSSESSED
Melbourne – The Croxton – February 18 w/ DISPOSSESSED

SCOTT KELLY w/ John Judkins:
2/22/2017 Smith’s Olde Bar – Atlanta, GA
2/23/2017 Royal American – Charleston, SC
2/24/2017 The Odditorium – Asheville, NC
2/25/2017 The Jinx – Savannah, GA
2/26/2017 Rain Dogs – Jacksonville, FL
2/27/2017 Poor Boys – New Orleans, LA
2/28/2017 T-Bones Records and Cafe – Hattiesburg, MS
3/02/2017 Three Links – Dallas, TX
3/03/2017 The Preserved Moose – Little Rock, AR
3/04/2017 Basement – Nashville, TN

https://www.facebook.com/ScottKelly.official
http://www.neurotrecordings.com
http://www.facebook.com/neurotrecordings
https://neurotrecordings.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/OfficialNeurot

Scott Kelly, “We Let the Hell Come” Live

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Quarterly Review: Mirrors for Psychic Warfare, Candlemass, Skuggsjá, Black Lung, Lord Vicar, Dakessian, Gypsy Chief Goliath, Inter Arma, Helgamite, Mollusk

Posted in Reviews on June 22nd, 2016 by JJ Koczan

the-obelisk-summer-2016-quarterly-review

Who’s ready for another round of 10 reviews in The Obelisk’s Quarterly Review? I know I am. We gotta hit 50 by Friday, and there’s still a lot — a lot — of ground to cover. Yesterday was all over the place style-wise and today has some of that going as well, but there’s a lot of quality in both, so hopefully you get to check some of it out. Today is the all important QR Hump Day, wherein we pass the halfway mark on our way to the total 50 reviews. If you’re wondering, it’s Lord Vicar who do the honors this time around at #25. Just kind of worked out that way, but I’ll take it. Down to business.

Quarterly Review #21-30:

Mirrors for Psychic Warfare, Mirrors for Psychic Warfare

mirrors for psychic warfare mirrors for psychic warfare

Probably fair to call Mirrors for Psychic Warfare an offshoot of Corrections House, since its two members – Scott Kelly (also Neurosis) and Sanford Parker (producer extraordinaire/also Buried at Sea) – are also in that group, but the feel of their Neurot Recordings self-titled debut is substantially different, rawer and at times harsher. Parker handles beats and electronics, creating at times a wash of abrasive noise as in the culmination of “CNN WTZ,” the centerpiece of the five tracks, and elsewhere providing an industrial backdrop for Kelly’s voice for a gothic feel, as on “A Thorn to See.” Unsurprisingly, nothing about Mirrors for Psychic Warfare makes for particularly easy listening – though opener “Oracles Hex” has some commonality with Kelly’s solo work and his voice is resonant as ever – but as they round out the album with “43,” the keys, synth and guitar find some common ground, which leaves distorted shouts from Kelly to do the work of taking listeners to task. We already knew these two worked well together, and the partnership once again bears fruit here.

Neurot Recordings on Thee Facebooks

Neurot Recordings webshop

Candlemass, Death Thy Lover

candlemass-death-thy-lover

The four-song Death Thy Lover EP (on Napalm) is the first new studio offering of original material from Swedish doom legends Candlemass since their 2012 album, Psalms for the Dead (review here), marked the end of the tenure of vocalist Robert Lowe, also of Solitude Aeturnus. His replacement is the person who nearly had the job in the first place, Mats Levén (formerly Therion), who has a kind of stateliness to his presence in opener “Death Thy Lover” but suits the plod of “Sleeping Giant” well. Of course, at the center of the band is bassist/songwriter Leif Edling, whose style is unmistakable in these tracks, whether it’s the late-Iommi-style riffing of “Sinister ‘n’ Sweet” or “Death Thy Lover”’s chugging its way toward the hook. Candlemass save the most grueling for last with “The Goose,” as guitarists Mats “Mappe” Björkman and Lars “Lasse” Johansson intertwine a chugging rhythm and extended soloing over dirge-march drums from Jan Lindh to give the short release a darkened instrumental finale.

Candlemass on Thee Facebooks

Candlemass at Napalm Records

Skuggsjá, A Piece for Mind and Mirror

skuggsja-a-piece-for-mind-and-mirror

Talk about scope. Oh, only a country’s entire cultural history is fair game for Skuggsjá, the brainchild of Norwegian artists Ivar Bjørnson (also Enslaved) and Einar Selvik (also Wardruna) that crosses the line between black metal and Norse traditionalism probably better than anyone has ever done it before. A Piece for Mind and Mirror is the studio incarnation of the work the two composers and a host of others did as commissioned for the 200th anniversary of the Norwegian constitution, and though it’s broken into 10 movements for the album, it flows together as one orchestral entirety, the gurgle of Grutle Kjellson (Enslaved) recognizable in the eponymous track amid choral backing and a richly textured blend of traditional folk instruments and metallic thrust. The lyrics are Norwegian, but whether it’s the blowing horn of “Makta Og Vanæra (I All Tid)” or the lush melodies in the march of “Bøn Om Ending – Bøn Om Byrjing,” the sense of pride and the creative accomplishment of A Piece for Mind and Mirror ring through loud and clear.

Skuggsjá on Thee Facebooks

Season of Mist webshop

Black Lung, See the Enemy

black lung see the enemy

Two years after making their self-titled debut, Baltimore heavy bluesfuzz trio Black Lung come swaggering back with the spacious vibes of See the Enemy (on Noisolution), which takes the establishing steps the first album laid out and builds on them fluidly and with a clear direction in mind. At eight tracks/45 minutes produced by J. Robbins, the album was clearly structured for vinyl, each half ending with a longer cut, the psych-jamming “Nerve” on side A, which resounds in an ending of scorching guitar from Adam Bufano atop the drums of Elias Schutzman (both of The Flying Eyes), and the closer “8MM,” on which Bufano, Schutzman, guitarist/vocalist Dave Cavalier and Robbins (who also contributes bass) roll out the record’s most massive groove and cap it with an impenetrable wall of noise. While the songs are striking in their cohesion and poise, there are moments where one wants Black Lung to really let loose, as after Trevor Shipley’s keyboard stretch in “Priestess,” but they have other ideas, feeding the title-track directly into “8MM” with no less a firm sense of control than shown earlier. All told, an excellent follow-up that deserves broader consideration among 2016’s finer offerings.

Black Lung on Thee Facebooks

Black Lung at Noisolution

Lord Vicar, Gates of Flesh

lord vicar gates of flesh

Offered through The Church Within Records as a paean to classic doom, Lord Vicar’s third LP, Gates of Flesh, nonetheless almost can’t help but put its own mark on the style. The Turku, Finland, outfit’s first album in five years, it finds guitarist Kimi Kärki (ex-Reverend Bizarre, Orne, E-Musikgruppe Lux Ohr, etc.), vocalist Chritus (also Goatess, ex-Saint Vitus, Count Raven, etc.), and drummer Gareth Millsted (ex-Centurions Ghost) — who, along with Kärki, also contributed bass after the band parted ways with Jussi Myllykoski and prior to adding Sami Hynninen as a temporary replacement — bold enough to shift into minimalist spaciousness on “A Shadow of Myself,” and really, they’re not through opener “Birth of Wine” before Kärki executes a gorgeous dual-layered solo. Trace those roots back to Trouble if you must, but there’s no question to whom the lurch of centerpiece “Breaking the Circle” or the sorrowful 10-minute closer “Leper, Leper” belongs, and the same holds true for everything that follows, be it the quiet start of “A Woman out of Snow” or the swinging second half of “Accidents.” Lord Vicar enact the doom of ages and take complete ownership of the sound, thus only adding to the canon as they go.

Lord Vicar on Thee Facebooks

The Church Within Records

Dakessian, The Poisoned Chalice

dakessian the poisoned chalice

Like the stench of rotting, Dakessian’s The Poisoned Chalice provokes a visceral and physical response. The long-in-the-making debut release from the Portland-based duo of vocalist Kenny Snarzyk (also Fister) and multi-instrumentalist Aaron D.C. Edge (Lumbar, Roareth, so many others) had its music recorded back in 2013, and the vocals were added earlier this year, throat-searing screams and growls that top the noisy, claustrophobically weighted tones from Edge’s guitar. The onslaught is unrelenting, both longer songs like “Demons” and “Ten Double Zero” and shorter cuts “Nothing Forever” and the sample-laced opener “Choose Hate” brim with aggressive misanthropy, the will against. Even the penultimate “Baerial,” which offers a glimmer of melody, continues to crush, and starting with a slow drum progression, closer “Cosmic Dissolution” barely tops two and a half minutes, but it brings thorough reassurance of the project’s destructive force before its final drone rounds out. One never knows with Edge if a given band will ever have a follow-up, but as ever, the quality is consistent. In this case, brutally so.

Dakessian on Bandcamp

Holy Mountain Printing

Gypsy Chief Goliath, Citizens of Nowhere

gypsy chief goliath citizens of nowhere

Actually, if you want to get technical about it, Gypsy Chief Goliath are citizens of Ontario, but you’d never know it from listening to their third album, Citizens of Nowhere, which if you had to pin a geographic locale on it might be more of a fit for New Orleans than Canada. The Pitch Black Records release sees the triple-guitar-plus-harmonica six-piece outfit dug deep in Southern metal grooves, marked out by the burl-bringing vocals of frontman/guitarist Al “The Yeti” Bones, formerly of Mister Bones, Serpents of Secrecy and The Mighty Nimbus and the chug-and-churn of cuts like “Black Samurai” and the shuffle of “We Died for This.” The title-track winds its central riff with thickened-up ‘70s boogie, while “Elephant in the Room” and “The Return” space out a bit more, and the closing Black Sabbath cover “Killing Yourself to Live” (a CD bonus track) plays it loyal structurally while dude’ing up the original like it was on hormone therapy.

Gypsy Chief Goliath on Thee Facebooks

Pitch Black Records on Bandcamp

Inter Arma, Paradise Gallows

inter arma paradise gallows

Hard-touring Richmond genre-benders Inter Arma are due for a landmark release. Their 2014 single-song EP, The Cavern, was wildly well received and earned every bit of praise it got. Their follow-up to that is Paradise Gallows, their third album and second for Relapse behind 2013’s Sky Burial (track stream here). Is Paradise Gallows that landmark? Hell if I know. Recorded, mixed and mastered by Mikey Allred, who also guests on trombone, bass violin, organ and noise, Inter Arma’s third brings an expansive 70 minutes of bleak progressivism, conceptually and sonically broad enough to be considered brilliant and still weighted enough that the prevailing vibe is extremity in their blend of sludge, doom, black metal, post-metal, atmospherics, and a moody acoustic closer. The only real danger is that it might take listeners time to digest – because it’s a lot to take in, all those twists and turns in “Violent Constellations,” particularly after the plod of the title-track – but I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to find Inter Arma inhabiting any number of year-end lists for 2016. Once again, they earn it.

Inter Arma on Thee Facebooks

Inter Arma at Relapse Records

Helgamite, Hypnagogia

helgamite hypnagogia

Virginian bruisers Helgamite manage to cover a deceptive amount of sonic ground on their second LP, Hypnagogia (on CD through Lost Apparitions with vinyl soon on Flesh Vessel), spending plenty of time in dense-toned sludge metal but using that as a foundation for a wider range of explorations, winding up in blastbeats by the time 13-minute side B finale “The Secret” comes around, but by then having torn through the aggro-thrash of “Origins,” lumbered through the mosher “Æstrosion” and topped off “Shaman’s Veil” with math-metal guitar fits melded to a saxophone arrangement. Growls from vocalist William Breeden and Jonah Butler’s drums tie it all together as guitarist Casey Firkin (also sax) and bassist Matthew Beahm pull off intermittently jazzy runs, but impressively, Helgamite never sound in danger of losing sight of the songs they’re serving, and Hypnogogia is stronger for its unwillingness to waste a second of its runtime, even in the aforementioned “The Secret” or its 10-minute side A counterpart, “Snowdrifter.”

Helgamite on Thee Facebooks

Lost Apparitions Records website

Flesh Vessel Records on Thee Facebooks

Mollusk, Children of the Chron

mollusk-children-of-the-chron

Get it? Children of the Chron? I’ll admit it took me a second. While I was thinking about it, Allston, Massachusetts, duo Mollusk doled out sludge-punk-metal beatings via raw tones and shouts and a general sense of checked-out attitude, “Glacier” reminding of earliest, least-poppy Floor, but cuts like “Demon Queen” and “When You’re Gone” finding guitarist Hank Rose using a purposefully monotone vocal approach that works well over slower parts. Rose is joined in Mollusk by drummer Adam O’Day, and though I’ve already noted that the 11-track album is raw, their sound wants nothing for impact in the low end or any other end for that matter. Rather, the harsher aspects become part of the aesthetic throughout Children of the Chron and the band successfully navigates its own mire without getting lost in either its own “Torture Chamber” or “Zombie Apocalypse,” which like opener “Ride the #9,” is almost certainly a song about life in the Boston area.

Mollusk on Thee Facebooks

Mollusk at ReverbNation

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Live Review: Scott Kelly and Bruce Lamont in Chicago, 11.11.15

Posted in Reviews on November 13th, 2015 by JJ Koczan

scott kelly and bruce lamont 1 (Photo by JJ Koczan)

It had been a few days since I’d gone outside. Seriously. In Chicago for a work trip, I’d been holed up either at the conference I was in town for or the hotel immediately adjacent to it. Dinner had been ordered in three nights in a row, and I’d gone precisely nowhere since arriving in the city on Sunday. Not healthy. Not living right. In the end, it was the phone call from hotel security — checking on the wellness of the room’s occupant, since housekeeping hadn’t been allowed to clean in more than 48 hours — that shamed me into leaving to see Corrections House bandmates Scott Kelly (also Neurosis) and Bruce Lamont (also Yakuza and Bloodiest). Shame sometimes does the trick.

As it happened, they were playing a different hotel, the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel, in a space carved out as the “Drawing Room” and decorated in what I can only describe as man-bun living room chic; dimly lit (as the pictures I got will attest — god damn I need a new camera), all things made to look old and comfortable, leather-bound everything, like the Harvard club where people go to talk about how their new app is going to do away with various plights of inequality. “Gamechanging” modern design by making it look like a slavemaster’s parlor. I’m sure it was all very expensive. It looked very expensive. Strange setting for a show.

bruce lamont 1 (Photo by JJ Koczan)Not to say that with Misters Kelly and Lamont both playing solo sets — they shared a guitar — it should’ve been in a dive bar. The chair I sat in was perfectly comfortable. It was the second night of the Kelly/Lamont tour, which may or may not be taking the place of a full Corrections House run to support that group’s new album, Know How to Carry a Whip, out on Neurot Recordings, and the plan seemed to be in order: Lamont would play first, Kelly second, and then they’d play together. Not a method entirely dissimilar from the first time I saw Corrections House early in 2013 (review here), but obviously a different sonic context without Sanford Parker‘s beats — likely on his way to the West Coast with Buried at Sea — and without Mike Williams of Eyehategod‘s semi-spoken drug poetics. Worth it to say that nothing felt overly like it was missing once the show got started.

Part of that is probably thanks to Lamont‘s kitchen-sink experimental approach. Surrounded by his saxophone, clarinet, the guitar he was sharing with Kelly, at least two vocal mics and sundry other processors, pedals and effects, he was able to create a wash of droning noise all on his own. Lamont‘s solo album, 2011’s Feral Songs for the Epic Decline, was the basis for some of the performance, but much of what he did was manipulated, echoed, spaced out, and layered into something new. I know Bloodiest have a new full-length coming at the start of 2016 via Relapse, but if Lamont hasn’t considered recording a follow-up solo outing live and putting it out even in limited numbers through War Crime Recordings, his label co-owned by Sanford Parker, he probably should. Some of the most affecting moments came as he tilted his head back and let loose a soulful howl that reminded me of some of the spaciousness he was able to conjure in Yakuza, but the whole set was saturated with creativity and Lamont‘s sense of controlling the chaos was palpable.

The switch to bringing out Scott Kelly was done via an extended saxo-drone and a wave of the hand. Both mics were already set up, and so Kelly came out from the crowd and picked up the guitar. There were a couple songs he played I didn’t recognize — maybe new, maybe covers I couldn’t identify — but his meditative takes on the works of Townes van Zandt are always welcome. He did “Tecumseh Valley” early in the set, but the highlights were cuts from his 2012 Scott Kelly and the Road Home album, The Forgiven Ghost in Me (review here). I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping for “The Field that Surrounds Me,” but “The Sun is Dreaming in the Soul” scott kelly 1 (Photo by JJ Koczan)did just fine, and particularly following “The Ladder in My Blood” from 2008’s solo album, The Wake. “We Let the Hell Come” provided an intense finish to his solo portion — Kelly rocking back and forth behind the mic in a less neck-dislocating fashion than he might on stage with Neurosis, but definitely with a similar rhythmic sensibility — arriving at its title line after gravel-throated incantations for which he backed off the mic about a foot but that still came through clear in their intent and vision.

A similar wave brought Lamont back to the front. Together Kelly and Lamont offered renditions of Townes Van Zandt‘s “The Rake” and Neil Young‘s “Cortez the Killer,” before finishing off with the Corrections House track “Run through the Night,” taken from their 2013 debut, Last City Zero. Standing side-by-side, Kelly‘s guitar and Lamont‘s sax cast a Morricone-style spell over the room, a hard strum spacious with both adding vocals until Lamont, having layered backing “ooh”s, created a sufficient wash and apex that seemed to swell one voice at a time until appropriately consuming. The studio version of that song gets pretty noisy, but live, it was more melodic, and when Kelly got back on mic to whisper out the last few lines, the multi-layer barrage he cut through made it plain that nothing else would follow. They cut out together and the show was over with a quick plug for merch, which had been placed on a table behind them while they played.

It was raining outside when they were done, so I took a quick cab back to my temporary lair and tried to get a night’s sleep. No dice there, but I didn’t the least bit regret how the evening had been spent, whatever it took to get me out the door.

Thanks for reading.

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Scott Kelly and Bruce Lamont Announce Nov. Tour

Posted in Whathaveyou on October 26th, 2015 by JJ Koczan

As it happens, I’m slated to be in Chicago for work the night that Corrections House bandmates Scott Kelly (also Neurosis) and Bruce Lamont (also Yakuza) play the second night of their upcoming solo-set tours. I wouldn’t mind seeing Lamont in front of a hometown crowd, and I’d presume that with Corrections House‘s new album, Know How to Carry a Whip, newly released, a decent portion of what they play when they get together on stage will be drawn, one way or another, from that. Plus, it’s Chicago, so Sanford Parker might be there. Sounds like a good time to me.

Should probably see if I’m actually going to be there before I start solidifying plans, but either way, this one seems like a win:

scott kelly bruce lamont tour

Neurosis’ SCOTT KELLY And Yakuza’s BRUCE LAMONT Join Forces For November Tour Run

Neurosis’ SCOTT KELLY and Yakuza’s BRUCE LAMONT will join forces later this Fall for a special stretch of US live dates. Set to commence November 10th in Detroit, Michigan, the pair will traverse eleven cities, with the trek coming to a close on November 21st in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Both Kelly and Lamont will be performing material from their respective solo projects as well as tunes from CORRECTIONS HOUSE.

SCOTT KELLY/BRUCE LAMONT:
11/10/2015 Majestic Café – Detroit, MI
11/11/2015 Drawing Room @ The Chicago Athletic Club – Chicago, IL
11/12/2015 Double Happiness – Columbus, OH
11/13/2015 The Acheron – Brooklyn, NY
11/14/2015 Gorman Bros. Music – Syracuse, NY
11/15/2015 Middle East (upstairs) – Boston, MA
11/17/2015 Kung Fu Necktie (late show) – Philadelphia, PA
11/18/2015 Ottobar- Baltimore, MD
11/19/2015 The Funhouse – Jersey City, NJ
11/20/2015 Alternative Gallery – Allentown, PA
11/21/2015 Smiling Moose (late show) – Pittsburgh, PA

SCOTT KELLY (Neurosis, Corrections House) will deliver his signature hymns of pain, reflection and redemption with tracks off his solo outings — the bleakly atmospheric Spirit Bound Flesh and starkly minimalist The Wake as well as The Forgiven Ghost In Me album, released in 2012 under the moniker SCOTT KELLY AND THE ROAD HOME and tunes from the moving Songs Of Townes Van Zandt collection. With a sound that’s at once soulful, morose and healing few artists can manifest with such devout sincerity, when KELLY sits quietly, with his guitar, there’s rarely a dry eye in the room when he bows out at the end.

Multi-instrumentalist and vocal sorcerer BRUCE LAMONT (Yakuza, Corrections House, Led Zeppelin 2) has performed/collaborated with an array of artists throughout his storied career. On this run, Lamont will be performing versions of some of the material on his 2011-issued debut solo album Feral Songs For The Epic Decline as well as newer/unreleased material. As with his previous solo outings, LAMONT will be executing multiple instruments and a plethora of vocal styles, with an incredibly layered looping system that culminates into some of the most entrancing live solo artist work one could ask for.

In addition, both KELLY and LAMONT will unite each evening following their respective sets to deafen the masses with renditions of various CORRECTIONS HOUSE hymns. CORRECTIONS HOUSE – which features within its ranks KELLY, LAMONT, Sanford Parker (Buried At Sea), Mike IX Williams (Eyehategod) and recently institutionalized minister of propaganda, Seward Fairbury — unleashed their long-awaited sophomore full-length, Know How To Carry A Whip, TODAY via Neurot Recordings. A nine-track, forty-five-minute exercise in sonic indecency, the record was captured by Parker alongside Fairbury in a subterranean bunker complex in Vietnam and dispels a disconcerting air of danger, paranoia and looming defeat marked by an inexplicable sense of catharsis.

http://www.facebook.com/ScottKelly.official
http://www.facebook.com/brucelamontmusic
http://www.facebook.com/CorrectionsHouse
http://www.neurotrecordings.com/
http://www.facebook.com/neurotrecordings
neurotrecordings.bandcamp.com/

Corrections House, Know How to Carry a Whip (2015)

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Roadburn 2016: Scott Kelly, Steve Von Till, Midnight, Jakob, Ecstatic Vision, Black Moon Circle and More Added to Lineup

Posted in Whathaveyou on October 16th, 2015 by JJ Koczan

What is this, the third, maybe fourth, announcement for the lineup of Roadburn 2016? As of this week we’re still half a year out from the launch of the festival next April in the Netherlands and I’m already starting to get that gosh-I-hope-I-get-to-go ache. Seems early for such things, but here we are, barely ankle-deep into the lineup and it’s only becoming a more and more severe issue. Steve Von Till and Scott Kelly from Neurosis added for solo sets? At the church, no less? That’s not even fair.

Never mind righteous space heavy of Black Moon Circle or the saw-it-coming-from-a-mile-away-but-it’s-still-right-on addition of Ecstatic Vision to the bill, the raw fuckery of Midnight? I feel like Roadburn 2016 could probably call it a day, maybe let Lee Dorrian add another couple of acts to his curated stage, and anyone who went would call the fest a win. As I say, it’s getting severe.

And it’s still just the beginning.

From the PR wire:

New additions to Roadburn 2016 including Scott Kelly, Steve Von Till, Midnight, and Jakob

  • SCOTT KELLY & STEVE VON TILL to play individual solo shows
  • Ambient post-rockers, JAKOB will perform
  • Heavy metal outlaws, MIDNIGHT, make their Roadburn debut
  • Plus more acts including Kenn Nardi and Ecstatic Vision

SCOTT KELLY & STEVE VON TILL

Neurosis are so much more than a band. At times, they seem to be at the heart of a sentient organism, fully functioning all by itself, with the activities of their members and of the entire Neurot family constituting the remaining organs and limbs of this fascinating creature. None of those activities are more deeply connected and enwrapped around that ever-beating heart than the solo careers of guitarists/vocalists SCOTT KELLY and STEVE VON TILL themselves. Therefore, it is but natural that the Neurosis 30th anniversary celebrations that will take place at Roadburn will also include a typically intimate and profoundly touching solo performance by each of the two musicians.

SCOTT KELLY and STEVE VON TILL will therefore complete the weekend-long Neurosis anniversary experience with both performances taking place at the Het Patronaat on Friday, April 15th. Each of them will be a life unto itself that must not be missed.

To find out more about Scott Kelly & Steve Von Till at Roadburn, click HERE

JAKOB

JAKOB will travel from far, far away to provide you with a moment of introversion – an hour of a special kind of beauty filtering through the weekend haze – all the way from their beautiful coastal hometown of Napier, New Zealand, but it will surely be as worthy for them as it will for us, when the connection is established between band and audience. JAKOB’s is a sharp beauty, good-natured but with a lingering, riff-ridden menace to it; soothing, but able to stay in your memory for a long time after you experience it. JAKOB will play Roadburn on Sunday April 17th.

To find out more about JAKOB click HERE

MIDNIGHT

The twisted, bastard offspring of a Venom, Motörhead and Sodom threesome of debauchery, complete with a devil-may-care attitude which GG Allin himself would surely have been proud of, Cleveland’s MIDNIGHT might just provide the most reckless amount of fun you can have at a concert without breaking the law, or at least too many of them. Pack your leather jackets, bulletbelts and facemasks, because you’ll surely need them when MIDNIGHT take you to hell (…on the wings of Satan!) on Friday, April 15th, at the 013 venue. Steel won’t be stopped!

To find out more about MIDNIGHT at Roadburn, click HERE

KENN NARDI

Former Anacrusis guitarist/vocalist KENN NARDI brings his forward-thinking metal to the stages of Roadburn on Saturday April 16th. Between 1988 and 1993, in an era when thrash was anything but dark or progressive, Anacrusis produced four critically-acclaimed albums that were heralded as cornerstones of dark, angular, progressive thrash. The band dissolved shortly after releasing their fourth and final album, Screams And Whisper and this performance will mark NARDI’s first show in Holland since Anacrusis’ final original-era performance in 1993. A singer/songwriter at heart, but with a background in metal, hardcore/punk and early gothic rock, Nardi is an innovator whose works still resonate to this day. He will be performing a wealth of material from the Anacrusis catalog along with selected solo tracks.

To find out more about KENN NARDI, click HERE.

FURTHER ADDITIONS TO THE BILL

Icelandic ambient post-metallers, KONTINUUM – read more HERE
Philadelphia heavy psych trio, ECSTATIC VISION – read more HERE
Norwegian Psychedelic space rockers, BLACK MOON CIRCLE – read more HERE

FURTHER TICKETING INFORMATION

Tickets to Roadburn Festival 2016 are now on sale! Ticket sales got off to an incredible start with many of the available weekend tickets being snapped up within the first few days. There are still 3-day, 4-day, and Sunday tickets on sale. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday day tickets will be released at a a later date.
It is also possible to book camping tickets via Ticketmaster.

Click HERE for all the details.

Roadburn Festival takes place at the recently upgraded, state of the art 013 venue, Tilburg, The Netherlands, between 14 – 17 April 2016. The line up this year includes Neurosis (30th anniversary), Paradise Lost (performing Gothic in full), curation by Lee Dorrian, Amenra, The Skull, La Muerte, Of The Wand And The Moon, and Green Carnation.

http://www.roadburn.com/
https://www.facebook.com/roadburnfestival
https://twitter.com/roadburnfest

Steve Von Till, A Life unto Itself (2015)

Scott Kelly and the Road Home, The Forgiven Ghost in Me (2012)

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The Road Home Announce Full-Time Members and Tour Dates

Posted in Whathaveyou on January 14th, 2015 by JJ Koczan

scott kelly (Photo by Mootown on Instagram)

Scott Kelly and the Road Home‘s “The Field that Surrounds Me,” taken from 2012’s The Forgiven Ghost in Me (review here), is one of those songs I go back to when I’m absolutely out of my mind. Needless to say, it’s come up a couple times since the album was released, and so I’m pleased to see Kelly and his Neurosis bandmate Noah Landis bringing in Munly J. Munly of Slim Cessna’s Auto Club and Munly and the Lee Lewis Harlots as a full-time member and moving forward with the project. Re-dubbed The Road Home, the trio will embark on a 12-date tour starting Jan. 22, joined for a couple shows by Mike Scheidt and linking up with the Karma to Burn/Sierra tour for a gig in there as well.

Hopefully they come east at some point so I can intend to go see them and, should I actually manage to do so, get pulled over on the way. Because that’s what happens every other fucking time I try to leave the house and go someplace in this godforsaken over-copped perma-gray wintry hellhole where I live. Fuck everything. Cool project though. I got sidetracked. Sorry.

To the PR wire:

the road home tour poster

THE ROAD HOME: Scott Kelly Solo Venture Takes New Form With Full-Time Members Noah Landis And Munly J Munly

West Coast Tour Dates Begin Next Week

With the addition of new full-time members, the project forged as SCOTT KELLY AND THE ROAD HOME — orchestrated by Neurosis’ founding guitarist/vocalist, Scott Kelly — has since taken a new form as simply, THE ROAD HOME.

Neurosis’ keyboard/effects wizard, Noah Landis, has been a part of the project since the creation of SCOTT KELLY AND THE ROAD HOME’s 2012-released debut album, The Forgiven Ghost In Me, providing baritone guitars and keyboards to the record and on stage. Yet, since his role in the outfit has become much more expansive and significant, in both inception and delivery of the tunes, his place in the lineup has therefore become more permanent. Additionally, renowned singer/songwriter Munly J Munly has joined the group in recent months, helping reshape the band’s sound. An iconic folk/country/gospel multi-instrumentalist who has helped shape the contemporary sound of Denver, Munly is part of several current acts, including his own Munly and the Lee Lewis Harlots, as well as Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, Denver Broncos UK and others, with releases on Smooch Records, Alternative Tentacles and more, in addition to being an awarded author, and so on.

Issues Kelly of the current state of THE ROAD HOME, “We changed the name because with the addition of Munly and Noah’s already prominent role in the process it felt that this had become a band of absolutely equal parts in every way. We will be working on new material throughout the year in preparation for a new record.”

As their next recorded chapter comes together, THE ROAD HOME’s new lineup will be playing live whenever possible, beginning with a newly-confirmed Western US tour which begins next week. From Thursday, January 22rd through Wednesday, February 4th, they will traverse through California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho and Washington with twelve dates confirmed.

Additional tour and release news on THE ROAD HOME will be confirmed and announced in the months ahead.

THE ROAD HOME Winter Tour Dates:
1/22/2015 1234 Go! Records – Oakland, CA – in-store performance
1/23/2015 Metavinyl – Santa Cruz, CA
1/24/2015 Audies Olympic – Fresno, CA
1/25/2015 Against The Stream Buddhist Meditation Society – Los Angeles, CA
1/27/2015 TKO Records – Huntington Beach, CA – in-store performance
1/28/2015 Yucca Tap Room – Phoenix, AZ
1/29/2015 Dive Bar – Las Vegas, NV
1/30/2015 Heart of Gold Tattoo – Salt Lake City, UT
1/31/2015 Crazy Heart – Boise, ID
2/02/2015 The Shakedown – Bellingham, WA
2/03/2015 El Corazon – Seattle, WA
2/04/2015 Hawthorne Theatre front room – Portland, OR

Neurot Recordings released SCOTT KELLY AND THE ROAD HOME’s debut outing, The Forgiven Ghost In Me, in August 2012. Dissimilar to his previously-released solo outings, on this recording Kelly sought out additional musicians to help bring his written vision to fruition, recruiting the talents of Greg Dale and Noah Landis, as well as guest contributions from Jason Roeder (Neurosis, Sleep) and Josh Graham (A Storm Of Light, ex-Neurosis). The Forgiven Ghost In Me, flows with over forty minutes of foreboding Americana showcasing the ever-evolving artist brandishing some of Kelly’s most expressive hymns of pain, reflection and redemption to date.

http://www.facebook.com/ScottKelly.official
http://www.neurosis.com
http://www.facebook.com/officialneurosis
http://www.neurotrecordings.com
http://www.facebook.com/neurotrecordings

Scott Kelly and the Road Home, “The Field that Surrounds Me” live in Hamburg, 2014

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