Stöner Premiere “A Million Beers” From New Live Album Hittin’ the Bitchin’ Switch
Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on August 27th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Desert rock trio Stöner will release their new live album, Hittin’ the Bitchin’ Switch, on Oct. 11 through Heavy Psych Sounds. The power-grooving scientific team who once proposed the Theory of Radness Stability — for the math on that, see “Rad Stays Rad,” from their first release, Live in the Mojave Desert (review here) and its studio follow-up, Stoners Rule (review here); it’s also here — were on tour in Italy, having just played Freak Out Festival in Bologna and on their way to Switzerland for the fast-becoming-legendary Palp Festival in the Alps and SonicBlast in Portugal, when this Aug. 8, 2022, recording was made at the Go Down Records-managed Altroquando, in Treviso. Just another gig, just another night of Brant Bjork, Nick Oliveri and Ryan Güt laying it down. A club show. I doubt they knew before they got to the venue it was being taped, if they knew at all.
Listening to set-leadoff “A Million Beers,” which is premiering below, there’s something extra righteous about the rawness, the thickness of Oliveri‘s bass bringing density to Bjork‘s riffing with the unflinchingly solid swing from Güt behind them, the energy of the material wrought in such a working-band context, the notion of dudes rolling up, hitting it — in this case the ‘bitchin’ switch,’ but it has a lot of names — and rolling on. I wasn’t at the gig in question, but I did see Stöner just about a month afterward (review here) as they supported their second album, Totally… (review here). They were out with Mario Lalli and the Rubber Snake Charmers (who also have had a live release this year; recorded in Australia) and between Lalli, Oliveri, Bjork, Güt and desert poet Sean Wheeler, it was like a family jam that morphed into the Stöner set-proper — vibe right on from the outset, holding for the duration. Expect no less when Hittin’ the Bitchin’ Switch — which by the way is also my new name for complaining — lands in October.
And obviously it’s worth pointing out that, yes, Stöner got started with a live record, and that Live in the Mojave Desert did a damn good job of representing the band, captured as it was from the pandemic-era livestream of the same name. Fine. Two key differences there. First, the second record. They had more than like six songs to tour on by 2022, and the setlists show that. Second, more touring — or more accurately, touring at all, since when Stöner did that first offering, hitting the road at all, let alone in bitchin’-switch-on fashion, was an impossibility owing to covid restrictions. Particularly as Oliveri has gone back to his rager three-piece Mondo Generator and Bjork has the Brant Bjork Trio going with Güt and Lalli (studio LP out next month), putting Stöner on the proverbial back burner with a future that’s always uncertain until something happens, there may or may not be another Stöner release after this. I’m not about to begrudge a band putting something out when what I want from them is more, not less. That’s the simple math of it.
Oh yeah, and they cover Kyuss, because if you were in Kyuss and you wrote or were a part of writing those songs you’d play them too. You get “Gardenia” and “Green Machine.” They did “Green Machine” when I saw them. I sang along. Good fun.
Enjoy “A Million Beers” below, followed by more from the PR wire:
Stöner, “A Million Beers” track premiere
A MILLION BEERS is the new single taken from STÖNER upcoming new live album Hittin’ The Bitchin’ Switch.
The release will see the light October 11th via Heavy Psych Sounds.
SAYS THE BAND:
“Gabe from HPS hit me up and said his friend got a good live recording of STÖNER in Italy and that he wanted to put it out. I checked out the recording and Gabe was right. Killer recording of a really hot and sweaty night in Italy. Super stoked Gabe’s friend captured STÖNER with our bitchin’ switch on. This is as real as it gets. No over dubs, no editing. What you hear is exactly what it was. Dig it.” Brant Bjork
ALBUM PRESALE: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS318
USA PRESALE: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop-usa.htm
TRACKLIST:
1. A Million Beers
2. Party March
3. The Older Kids
4. Rad Stays Rad
5. Evel Never Dies
6. Night Tripper vs No Brainer
7. Stand Down
8. Own Yer Blues
9. It Ain’t Free
10. R.A.M.O.N.E.S.
11. Tribe – Fly Girl
12. Strawberry Creek
13. Nothin’
14. Gardenia (Kyuss cover)
15. Green Machine (Kyuss cover)
Recorded live at Altroquando Treviso Italy by Matteo Pillon
Engineered and Mastered by Tommaso Mantelli
Mixed by Tommaso Mantelli and Max Ear At Lesder Studio, August 8th 2022
Cover by Mirkow Gastow
STÖNER is:
Brant Bjork — Guitar & Vocals
Nick Oliveri — Bass & Vocals
Ryan Güt — Drums
Stöner, Hittin’ the Bitchin’ Switch (2024)
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