Hey Europe, random-ass American here. I know there’s not a ton of good coming out of my country these days. Bullshit by the hour, an apparently concerted effort to make the world worse in myriad ways, none of them new but most of them horrifying. Hellscape capitalism and war, only the most dystopian of technoligical fealties, on and on. It’s a pretty dark time, and if you see anything US and go “ugh,” you’d be well justified. But, well, we’ve also got Suplecs.
And Suplecs aren’t a horror. They’re actually frickin’ killer. And they don’t do a ton of touring outside New Orleans these days. They’re coming to Norway, the UK and Belgium for a few shows — “select,” you might call them; one’s a private party, and London and Brussels are supporting Unsane — and it’s not the kind of thing that’s going to happen all the time, so regardless of how you’re feeling about the US, about Americans and/or Americanism, I can only urge you to consider getting out for a gig.
Back in February, which was somehow three years ago even though I apparently missed all of March, the three-piece debuted on Ripple with their first album in a decade and a half, Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky (review here), defying an ancient curse of bad luck with classic boogie groove, more than a tinge of funk, and riffs like they were trying to make up for lost time. Punk at heart and given to only the most wholesome-in-nature mischief, the album has songs and persona in kind, and however much of it they’ll be playing on the road, you’ll be lucky to see it.
To herald the tour, a video for “Pentacle Star” premieres below. The two-minute fuzzbasher arrives early in the proceedings on the album, right behind “Got Nothing” at the outset, and moves deftly between nod and shove, but most importantly, it moves. It is the very essence of classic stoner rock, and that applies to the fact that as I write this post, I still haven’t seen the video that — hopefully — is going to appear shortly following the end of this paragraph. It is a very particular kind of good time.
But heads up to folks in Stavenger, Oslo, London and Brussels. I’m not really keen on US exports right now either, but this is one you should give a shot.
Enjoy the video:
Suplecs, “Pentacle Star” video premiere
Suplecs Spring Tour Europe 2026 09.04.26 w/ Astrovagant @ Blygeharry Ostervag Stavenger Norway 10.04.26 w/ Håndgemeng @ Brewgata Oslo Norway 11.04.26 Private Party Stavenger Norway 13.04.26 w/ Unsane @ New Cross Inn London UK 15.04.26 w/ Unsane @ Magasin 4 Brussels Belgium
SUPLECS is Danny Nick – Bass, Vocals Durel Yates – Guitars, Vocals Andrew Preen – Drums, Percussion
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 27th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
We’re now less than a month out from New Orleans heavy rockers Suplecs releasing their first album in 15 years, Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky (review here), Feb. 20 on Ripple Music. If you’re not immediately stoked on that prospect, it’s cool. It’s been a decade and a half, after all. A generation of bands has happened in the interim. But take it from me, the fact that this band — whose roots go back to the mid-’90s sludge scene, who released on Man’s Ruin before the collapse of the turn-of-the-century’s most crucial US imprint, and who continue to kick ass all over every stage they play — are announcing any European shows at all is a big deal.
I don’t know when the last time they went abroad was, and I don’t know when they’ll go again. There are two shows with Unsane, in London and Brussels, and a trio of dates in Norway, one of them with Håndgemeng in Oslo and one of them at a ‘private party’ in Stavenger, which is kind of an incredible thought. To whoever’s getting married there, congratulations on both the nuptials/whatever and your likely-legendary taste.
It’s still up in the air how many shows Suplecs will end up doing to support Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky, but they’re a see-them-when-you-can band, and if you ever wanted to know why a ‘power trio’ configuration became a thing, a perfect lesson in how it’s done.
From social media:
European Spring Tour Dates!!! See Y’all in April!!
Suplecs Spring Tour Europe 2026 09.04.26 w/ Astrovagant @ Blygeharry Ostervag Stavenger Norway 10.04.26 w/ Håndgemeng @ Brewgata Oslo Norway 11.04.26 Private Party Stavenger Norway 13.04.26 w/ Unsane @ New Cross Inn London UK 15.04.26 w/ Unsane @ Magasin 4 Brussels Belgium
SUPLECS is Danny Nick – Bass, Vocals Durel Yates – Guitars, Vocals Andrew Preen – Drums, Percussion
New Orleans heavy rock veterans Suplecs will release their fifth album and first in 15 years, Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky, on Feb. 20 through Ripple Music. If that doesn’t elicit a Stone-Cold-Steve-Austin-circa-’96-level ‘hell yeah’ from the frontal cortex of your brain, feel free to go back and read it again. There’s new Suplecs coming. Rockers, awaken.
It should tell you something that Suplecs — who’ve never been the biggest of big bands or the most hyped, who’ve toured plenty in their time but not in a long time, and so on — have released albums through the three record labels most responsible for defining the course of American heavy rock over the last 25-plus years. Their first two LPs, 2000’s Wrestlin’ With My Ladyfriend and 2001’s Sad Songs… Better Days (discussed here) were on Man’s Ruin. The story of 2005’s Powtin’ on the Outside Pawty on the Inside is complex and the album was released through a local imprint, but 2011’s Mad Oak Redoux (review here) was on Small Stone, and Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky being on Ripple completes the trifecta. It is not a coicidence.
I went 11 years between seeing them at a Small Stone showcase in Philly in 2011 (review here) and in Richmond, Virginia, in 2022 at Alabama Thunderpussy‘s reunion show (review here), and was still looking forward to it, no questions asked. If you went to Ripplefest Texas in 2025, you already know why. When they got on stage, they delivered like a band who — perhaps contrary to the insistant chorus of opening track “Got Nothing” here — had more to say. Rooted in ’90s-style fuzz, Suplecs have always kept the forms loose and the performances tight, and despite the severity of the title, Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky retains some of the humor, funk and swing that have made their first two LPs classics by now, and will be recognizable for that. In ideal fashion, the fifth record accounts for the band’s beginnings and roots, while having grown well beyond them.
The narrative of Suplecs‘ sound was never actually so simple as ‘fuzz plus riffs,’ and Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky reinforces this as well, in part with two side-ending divergences in the string-inclusive “Old Spanish Trail,” which builds around a purposefully slogging jangle guitar line with an evocative melody and is the longest inclusion at 6:45, and the album-capper “La Ti Da,” which harnesses the largesse of side B leadoff “Damn These Pills” and works in a Mardi Gras horn section to blow out the finish with a huge nod that, thankfully, at no point in its drawling ourse approaches being ska. Bullet dodged, gentlemen. And with apparent ease. Other cuts like the strutting “Blackwater Rising,” or the taut two-minute roller “Pentacle Star” or the punker thrust of “$6 Man” or the midtempo howler “I See You” (premiering below), which is apparently a crunching ode to guitarist/vocalist Durel Yates‘ mother, create a flow through material that still holds its ripper sensibility at the core — “Mountain,” “Forest of Fire,” “Heartless Bodies,” etc. — and builds complexity around the root methodology.
Which tells you what? Suplecs aren’t wasting their time. Throughout Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky, Yates, bassist/vocalist Danny Nick and drummer Andrew Preen are very clearly not unaware of the decade and a half it’s been since they were last heard from in a studio capacity — they’ve still played live, built a local Mardi Gras following, and so on, as you can read in the PR wire info below — and there are aspects of Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky that speak to the band sitting down, hammering out the songs, putting time and effort into sculpting a sound that, in parts anyway, wants you as the listener to think it’s off the cuff. It works in the sense of making difficult changes sound less difficult, and calls to mind a sneaky songwriterism that’s always been underlying and continues to make songs memorable here.
Ain’t nobody gettin’ any younger, in Suplecs or otherwise, and Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky resonates with a feeling of the band locking in with a purpose. Part of that is expressive, part is expansive, part is clearly about the chemistry and the joy Yates, Nick and Preen feel creating music together, and all of it results in a gorgeous 48-minute/12-track outing that, yeah, pushes the form of a vinyl LP, but makes its every moment essential through urgent delivery and the already noted, purposeful variety.
I’ll not feign impartiality; I’m glad this record exists, and more, I’m glad it doesn’t suck. Rather, it feels like Suplecs stepping up to a moment that, hopefully, will see them able to get some of the broader plaudits for which they’re long overdue. No, I don’t think they’ll ever be the biggest or most hyped band, but one can’t ignore the fact that Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky will likely be Suplecs‘ introduction to a lot of listeners in a generation that’s come up since 2010, and I have a hard time imagining it being anything other than well received.
December was last month, and that was year-end list time. I’ll tell you in all seriousness that I have Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky in my notes for Dec. 2026 already, so when it comes around again, you can’t say you’re surprised. If/when you hear the album, I’m not sure how you could be.
I hope they get added to Emissions From the Monolith.
Enjoy “I See You” in the visualizer below, followed by more from the aforementioned PR wire:
Suplecs, “I See You” visualizer premiere
“Hymns Under A Blood Moon Sky” is a gut-wrenching ride through the New Orleans trio’s world. It ranges from the relentless, Maiden-meets-Sabbath attack of “Got Nothing” to the haunting, brass-backed NOLA jazz funeral dirge of “La Ti Da” featuring the horns of Egg Yolk Jubilee. The album fearlessly tackles themes of death, divorce, suicide and addiction (“Blackwater Rising”), balanced by moving tributes such as guitarist and vocalist Durel Yates’ ode to his mother, “I See You”. It weaves in diverse influences, from Black Flag swagger to prog-jazz intricacy, culminating in the dynamic first single: “No Apologies.”
The album’s title and artwork are deeply rooted in New Orleans history and personal narrative. The cover features a 1960s painting by Danny Nick’s father, famed Jackson Square artist Richard “D.Nick” Nick, depicting the pirate Jean Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, which housed an arsenal of weapons strategic to the victory of The Battle Of New Orleans in the War of 1812. The title, Hymns Under A Blood Moon Sky, serves as a tribute to the band’s resilient, outsider spirit—forging an arsenal of riffs in secrecy to pay homage to the only home they’ve ever known.
TRACKLIST: 1. Got Nothing 2. Pentacle Star 3. I See You 4. Forest of Fire 5. Blackwater Rising 6. Old Spanish Trail 7. Damn These Pills 8. Mountain 9. $6 Man 10. Heartless Bodies 11. No Apologies 12. La Ti Da
Marked by life’s passages, Suplecs have maintained a vital presence, most notably with their annual Mardi Gras show—a New Orleans staple for over 500 attendees, celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2025. Now, after years of fan-favorite live sets, the band is channeling decades of raw experience, swagger, and heaviness into writing their highly anticipated fifth album, promising a powerful culmination of their storied career.
SUPLECS is Danny Nick – Bass, Vocals Durel Yates – Guitars, Vocals Andrew Preen – Drums, Percussion
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 3rd, 2025 by JJ Koczan
If you can’t funk with Suplecs, we ain’t gonna be friends. The narrative holds it’s been 15 years since the New Orleans fuzzstrutter power trio released their still-latest album, 2010’s Mad Oak Redoux (review here), and that’s plenty long for a band that good to go unheard-from studio-wise, but the horrid truth is Mad Oak Redoux was itself built on sessions that took place earlier. If you want to go further back, their last album-proper was 2005’s Powtin’ on the Outside Pawty on the Inside, which as noted below coincided with Hurricane Katrina. That was neither the first nor the last time circumstances would shit all over the notion of Suplecs getting their due. 20 years later, if the world ended between now and Feb. 20, I couldn’t really say it would be a surprise.
Longtime denizens of Small Stone showcases, the band played Ripplefest Texas this year and no doubt woke up some heads. Last time I saw them was at the end of 2022 in Virginia (review here) and their groove was glorious. This goes right to the top of my most anticipated for 2026 list and if the Deep Purple-derived riff of opening track “Got Nothing” — streaming below, of course — is anything to go by, I have a lot to look forward to.
From the PR wire:
New Orleans stoner metal trio SUPLECS (with former EyeHateGod) to issue new album “Hymns Under A Blood Moon Sky” on Ripple Music; first single streaming!
New Orleans stoner rock veterans SUPLECS announce their great return with the release of their first studio album in over a decade, “Hymns Under A Blood Moon Sky”, this February 20th through Ripple Music and stream the first single “Got Nothing” today!
Get a full shot of adrenaline with new single “Got Nothing”
The album’s genesis took place in a hallowed Mid-City rehearsal space; the same warehouse that incubated the foundational New Orleans sludge of Crowbar or Graveyard Rodeo and echoed with the grooves of The Meters. Drawing inspiration from this legacy, Suplecs started crafting new material before being forced out by complaints of noise — an ironic fate for a room once dedicated to forging the city’s sound. They proceeded to track the album at High Tower Studios with esteemed engineer James Whitten (High On Fire, Thou), resulting in a mature, sonically diverse and emotionally charged collection.
“Hymns Under A Blood Moon Sky” is a gut-wrenching ride through the New Orleans trio’s world. It ranges from the relentless, Maiden-meets-Sabbath attack of “Got Nothing” to the haunting, brass-backed NOLA jazz funeral dirge of “La Ti Da” featuring the horns of Egg Yolk Jubilee. The album fearlessly tackles themes of death, divorce, suicide and addiction (“Blackwater Rising”), balanced by moving tributes such as guitarist and vocalist Durel Yates’ ode to his mother, “I See You”. It weaves in diverse influences, from Black Flag swagger to prog-jazz intricacy, culminating in the dynamic first single: “No Apologies.”
The album’s title and artwork are deeply rooted in New Orleans history and personal narrative. The cover features a 1960s painting by Danny Nick’s father, famed Jackson Square artist Richard “D.Nick” Nick, depicting the pirate Jean Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, which housed an arsenal of weapons strategic to the victory of The Battle Of New Orleans in the War of 1812. The title, Hymns Under A Blood Moon Sky, serves as a tribute to the band’s resilient, outsider spirit—forging an arsenal of riffs in secrecy to pay homage to the only home they’ve ever known.
TRACKLIST: 1. Got Nothing 2. Pentacle Star 3. I See You 4. Forest of Fire 5. Blackwater Rising 6. Old Spanish Trail 7. Damn These Pills 8. Mountain 9. $6 Man 10. Heartless Bodies 11. No Apologies 12. La Ti Da
Hailing from New Orleans and formed in 1996, Suplecs stands as a powerhouse trio in the stoner rock scene. Consisting of Danny Nick (ex-EyeHateGod), Durel Yates, and Andrew Preen, the trio forged their legacy with their first two albums on Frank Kozik’s iconic Man’s Ruin Records: 2000’s “Wrestlin’ With My Lady Friend” (produced by EyeHateGod bandmate Jimmy Bower) and 2001’s “Sad Songs, Better Days” (produced by Dave Fortman of Ugly Kid Joe). This era cemented their reputation through relentless coast-to-coast tours with heavyweights like Clutch, Alabama Thunderpussy, High On Fire, Corrosion Of Conformity, Gwar and Halfway To Gone.
Their third album, 2004’s “Powtin’ On The Outside, Pawty On The Inside” was produced by another NOLA heavyweight, Pepper Keenan of Corrosion of Conformity. Unfortunately, the album failed to gain the traction it deserved as it was released on local label Nocturnal Records, which was sidelined along with the band and everyone from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina.
After a period of rebuilding, Suplecs reemerged through various appearances over the next few years at SXSW, helped by their new home Small Stone Records. In 2011, they would release their fourth album “Mad Oak Redoux” and gained a coveted High Times Magazine Award as “Stoner Rock Band Of The Year”. The following years saw them continue their musical journey with appearances at Voodoo Fest, Mutants Of Monsters Fest, and Bayou Boogaloo, along with yearly pilgrimages to their second home in Austin, Texas. Their music has been featured on TV shows such as “Dog the Bounty Hunter” and “MTV’s Fun Factory”.
Marked by life’s passages, Suplecs have maintained a vital presence, most notably with their annual Mardi Gras show—a New Orleans staple for over 500 attendees, celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2025. Now, after years of fan-favorite live sets, the band is channeling decades of raw experience, swagger, and heaviness into writing their highly anticipated fifth album, promising a powerful culmination of their storied career.
SUPLECS is Danny Nick – Bass, Vocals Durel Yates – Guitars, Vocals Andrew Preen – Drums, Percussion
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 5th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
With no Desertfest New York this year (and, let’s face it, maybe not next year either), I don’t have the luxury I’ve enjoyed throughout the 2020s thus far of consoling myself at missing Ripplefest Texas by seeing some of the same acts coming through without having to fly out to do it. Not so much this year. In unveiling its full lineup for this September, Ripplefest Texas 2025 lays out an absolute dream of a bill — from Weedeater to Suplecs to Mothership to Author and Punisher (new record by then?) to Sundrifter and Mr. frickin’ Plow and Lake Lake — it’s the most imperative US festival lineup I’ve seen pretty much since Ripplefest Texas last year.
I’ve never been to Ripplefest Texas and it’s been over 15 years since the last time I set foot in Austin, but I’d be there in a hot minute for this one. Gonna start a GoFundMe for the flight and lodging (more likely, beg my wife). If you get there, congratulations on your life.
Check out the new adds and the full lineup below. It’s a beautiful thing:
The best family reunion of the year is back! The lineup for RippleFest Texas 2025 is now complete and you will not want to miss your chance to see the best music at the friendliest festival in the world. Lick of My Spoon Productions brings you the only open air festival in the US with ABSOLUTELY ZERO BAND OVERLAPPING! New bands added to an already stacked lineup are ASG, Author & Punisher, Mondo Generator, High Desert Queen, Bronco, Rainbows Are Free, The Absurd, Volume, Gran Moreno, Karma Vulture, and Desert Suns.
The festival will once again be held at The Far Out Lounge and Sagebrush in Austin, TX on September 18-21, 2025. Get your tickets now at www.lickofmyspoon.com.
Full List of Bands: Weedeater Whores. Mothership Author & Punisher Mondo Generator ASG Unida Wo Fat Valley of the Sun Left Lane Cruiser High Desert Queen Mos Generator Telekinetic Yeti Human Impact Mountain of Smoke Thunder Horse Suplecs Kind Bronco Sundrifter Rainbows Are Free Fostermother Mr. Plow Kupa Pities Luna Sol Shun Gran Moreno Stone Nomads Volume The Absurd Desert Suns Karma Vulture Lake Lake Sons of Gulliver
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 14th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
As Ripple Music continues its ‘Beneath the Desert Floor’ series exploring the heavy underground of the turn of the century era, let’s say roughly ’97-’05, that New Orleans Suplecs would end up included feels inevitable. Still absolute killers on stage as the attendees of Ripplefest Texas 2025 will find out thanks to a recent confirmation, their 14-years-running studio absence, and the fact that 2011’s Mad Oak Redoux (review here) was comprised of tracks being re-recorded, while the album prior, 2005’s Powtin’ on the Outside Pawty on the Inside landed concurrent to Hurricane Katrina, and yeah let’s say it’s been a long time since Suplecs were last on track to get their due for being so gosh darn kickass.
A new record, a real Suplecs studio album with heart, groove and fuzz poured into it in like measure, would surely go a long way to alleviating that, and you can see the phrase below: “new music.” It’s right there. That’s not the same as a date, however, and I’ll note that even last Spring the band let it be known they were writing. I’ve no word on whether or not recording has happened or if and when it might. But those first two records, 2000’s Wrestlin’ With My Lady Friend and 2001’s Sad Songs… Better Days (discussed here), are classics by now and should be back out there, however terrible the band’s luck has been for the last quarter-century.
When I see more on either the reissue or reissues, or a fifth Suplecs album, I’ll say something:
Last week we had some great announcements for Ripple family, so let’s keep the love flowing. How’s this? Please welcome the one and only SUPLECS to the Ripple family! Look for reissues of their past Man’s Ruin catalog and, damn straight, new music. Psyched!!
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 31st, 2025 by JJ Koczan
My understanding is that at some point in the between-now-and-September, the full lineup of Ripplefest Texas 2025 is going to be laid out in a nice, orderly, day-split-style fashion. I don’t doubt it, but that’s not what this is. If you caught the update from the Austin-based festival last week, you know they’ve started a round of daily adds, and so this is a weekly catchup. The second one, as it happens. It’s the one with Wo Fat and Suplecs in it, which to be sure are distinguishing features.
Mr. Plow, whose pretense-free heavy rock charm springs eternal, as well as punkers Lake Lake from Ohio, and the duo Sons of Gulliver. Maybe I’ll sneak one more in here — Stone Nomads! The Kupa Pities! — before it’s posted. I’m traveling so it’s kind of complicated timing-wise.
In any case, you’re perfectly capable of hitting up the Ripplefest Texas socials if you want to get a sense right now immediately of the full lineup as it stands. It’s rad. We’ll get there.
For now:
RIPPLEFEST TEXAS 2025 – NEW BAND ANNOUNCEMENT: SUPLECS
Hailing from New Orleans, and formed in 1996, Suplecs has been a power trio force to be recon with in the stoner rock community. Consisting of Danny Nick (former EYEHATEGOD), Durel Yates, and Andrew Preen, Suplecs released their first album “Wrestlin With My Lady Friend” on Frank Kozik’s famous Man’s Ruin Records in 2000 produced by Danny’s EYEHATEGOD bandmate Jimmy Bower. Their sophomore effort “Sad Songs, Better Days” would be released the following year again by Man’s Ruin Records and produced by Dave Fortman, then rereleased in 2002 after the demise of Frank Kozik’s home for all things heavy.
Their music has been featured on TV shows such as “Dog The Bounty Hunter” and “MTV’s Fun Factory.” Age, marriage, children, business ventures, and divorce all played roles in the members of Suplecs lives over the last decade. 2025 will mark the 25th Anniversary of Suplecs Annual Mardi Gras show in New Orleans that has become a staple for over 500 people every year. In early 2024, Suplecs decided to write new material after many years of “playing the hits” from their early releases. With all that has transpired in their lives, Suplecs is currently finishing up writing on their fifth album which promises to be a culmination of previous efforts with more raw heaviness and age old swagger than some of their earlier works.
We are excited to have these legends performing this year. It’s a live show you won’t want to miss!
—
NEW BAND ANNOUNCEMENT: LAKE LAKE
Lake Lake is a glimmer of hope in a sea of black hoodies. A noisy near death dance party in a world of folded arms.
“I saw this band a few years ago and wondered why everybody else didn’t know this band. Then when I listened to their new record I had to get them to RippleFest Texas. They were actually the first band I booked for 2025.” -Ryan Garney, Lick of My Spoon Productions
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NEW BAND ANNOUNCEMENT: MR. PLOW
For over 25 years, Mr. Plow from Houston, Texas, has thrilled listeners with their original brand of heavy rock. Taking musical inspiration from heavy 1990s bands (like Fu Manchu, Kyuss, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Melvins, Clutch, Helmet, Quicksand, and others) and lyrical inspiration from popular culture and novels (particularly those of Kurt Vonnegut), Mr. Plow self-released 3 albums: Head On (2000); Cockfights and Pony Racin’ (2004); and Asteroid 25399 (2006). Mr. Plow then signed with Ripple Music and released their fourth album, Maintain Radio Silence, in August 2018 (a mere 12 years after their last release). Mr. Plow is currently working on material for a new album, which will hopefully be released sometime before 2030.
Mr. Plow consists of Justin Waggoner (vocals, guitar), Jeremy Stone (guitar, vocals), Cory Cousins (drums, vocals), and Gabe Katz (bass, vocals).
—
NEW BAND ANNOUNCEMENT: SONS OF GULLIVER
Since their first single “Desert Boogie” in 2023, Texas drum ‘n bass duo Sons of Gulliver has been releasing a steady stream of tunes and gigging across Texas, honing their brand of beefy, booty-shaking stoner metal. It all culminated in their debut self-titled EP released in May 2024, on which Justin Potter and Dolphin Riot explode forth with a ferocious exuberance and knack for gigantic grooves. Sons of Gulliver’s potent combo of pulverizing tone and swinging rhythms recalls The Midnight Ghost Train and Clutch at its heaviest, and Potter’s earthy growls add a primal edge that hammers it all home. This boogie van has longhorns on its grill and Mad Max at the wheel.
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NEW BAND ANNOUNCEMENT: WO-FAT
While Wo Fat may be speaking a familiar language to the apostles of the riff, there isn’t anyone that sounds quite like them.
Wo Fat’s journey slinging their Texas-sized psychedelic blues doom began in 2006 with their first album The Gathering Dark, and the swampadelic visionquest of overdriven, fuzz-laden riffage and jazz-minded jam explorations have continued through six more studio albums, a live album and a couple of splits including their latest and most daring psychotropic exploration of heaviness to date, The Singularity, released May 2022 on Ripple Music. Having gained a reputation as one of the premier US Stoner Metal bands, they have stayed true to the deep, dark blues that wails from within and have forged their riffs with a primal grooviness, giving them a consistency of style, even while they have progressed and matured as a band, with their musical forays getting heavier, trippier, and even bringing in elements of jazz fusion and prog at times on the latest album.
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NEW BAND ANNOUNCEMENT: STONE NOMADS
STONE NOMADS is an American doom-sludge-metal power trio based in Houston, TX. The band, formed by Jon Cosky (Guitar/Vocals) and Jude Sisk (Bass/Vocals) in 2021, incorporates the sounds of modern Sludge Metal, early Doom Metal and all things heavy. Conceptually, the band explores the journey of life and death through the heavier and darker side of things, delivered via sludged-out, powerful riff-based sonics.
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NEW BAND ANNOUNCEMENT: THE KUPA PITIES
The Kupa Pities are a German heavy fuzz-rock band with a garage attitude. Blasting tunes from a Mad Max resurrection, this machine is rollin straight outta the desert into your 90’s closet, shredding flannel shirts with hardcore attitude.
Founded in 2020 The Kupa Pities released their first album “Godlike Supervision” in November 2021. Incorporating their live energy and widening their sound, the second album followed in May 2024.
There is no greater family reunion than RippleFest Texas, so get your tickets now and get your eardrums and bodies ready for lots of crushing music and warm hugs!
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 3rd, 2024 by JJ Koczan
The information in the headline above I offer to you today with nothing more behind it than being happy about the idea of a thing. There’s no hype push behind the thing — not the least because it doesn’t exist yet. It’s not something I’m putting here in some vain attempt to either make hype happen or generate some kind of controversy — I don’t see a scenario where there’d be any, the less drama the better, and anyway, fuck the internet. Suplecs said they’re writing a new album, and I’m repeating what the wretched social media algorithm made me feel like it was doing me a favor as it put before my eyes. It made my day better, even apart from the silly photo they overlaced with the minimal text they had to offer on the subject, and I hope it makes your day better as well. As regards agenda, that’s the beginning and end of it.
Predating even the emergent internet ubiquity of the turn-of-the-century stoner rock underground — an era no less classic for the fact that describing it as such makes me old — by a couple crucial years, the New Orleans power trio have spent much more time over the better part of the last three decades not releasing albums than padding out their discography, and have counted bummer luck among their defining characteristics since probably even before Man’s Ruin Records — which put out 2000’s Wrestlin’ With My Lady Friend and 2001’s Sad Songs… Better Days (discussed here) — collapsed, right alongside fuzz, groove, and a party vibe that was certainly still resonant when I was lucky enough to see them at a rare-enough not-hometown show or Mardi Gras jam in late-2022.
Accordingly, I don’t know when or if what would be their fifth long-player and first since 2010’s Small Stone-issued Mad Oak Redoux (review here) — which even as a ‘redoux’ of earlier sessions wasn’t perfect and knew it — will be recorded, let alone released to some kind of public audience. But I do know that if such a thing were to happen, I’d want to be in that audience, so again, here we are, heralding a possibility. One among an infinity of infinite potentials. Gosh, the universe is big.
Would be cool to get another long-player from Suplecs though. Did you hear they’re writing a new record?
