Posted in Whathaveyou on August 4th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Melbourne, Australia-based raw heavy rockers Stepmother will release their first full-length, Planet Brutalicon, through Tee Pee Records on Sept. 29. The label has preorders up and that’s probably fair enough as they also unveil the song “Do You Believe,” the apparent side A closer with its languid hook and disaffected slow-garage tonality. You’ll note the involvement of Graham Clise, whom one might recognize from Witch or Annihilation Time or Lecherous Gaze, and so on, and that the trio also issued their self-titled debut EP last year.
That outing (also streaming below, along with the title-track of the LP) had three songs: “Fade Away,” “Here Comes the End” and “Stalingrad.” All of them feature on the 12-cut long-player, so if you hear “Do You Believe” and decide you want to dig further — and you well might; I certainly did — those are available at least in an earlier form to give some basic idea. Sept. 29 is the release date, as the PR wire confirms:
Australian Power Trio STEPMOTHER to Unleash Debut Album PLANET BRUTALICON on TEE PEE RECORDS
Steam new single ‘Do You Believe’ now! | Prepare for a sonic assault like no other with the release of Planet Brutalicon on 29th September 2023
Spearheaded by legendary underground guitarist Graham Clise (Witch, Annihilation Time, Lecherous Gaze, Rot TV), Tee Pee Records is thrilled to announce the release of Planet Brutalicon, the debut album by Oz–based outliers, Stepmother.
Channelling raw rock ‘n’ roll energy into anthems that resonate with the poor, depraved and miscreant sickos of society, the trio concoct an aural speedball of motor city proto-punk cut with power lines of fedback-fuzz and electric psychedelia.
Influenced by the likes of Blue Cheer, The Pink Fairies, Nervous Eaters, and The Damned, the band weave together a spellbinding tapestry of hardened punk rage and nefarious nihilism, no better exemplified than on their storming debut single, ‘Do you Believe’:
“Just think of it as a fairy-tale hellscape of children being dragged into the woods and eaten alive by goblins and trolls,” explains Clise. “It sounds like a proto-punk fuzzed out crazy horse… don’t forget to check under the bed.”
Recorded at Rat Shack by Robert Muinos (Saskwatch) and mastered by John Davis (The Damned) at Metropolis Mastering, there’s no doubt that Stepmother are set to carve a mark in the annals of rock history with Planet Brutalicon. The question is will you be joining them for the ride?
TRACK LISTING: 1. Fade Away 2. Settle Down 3. Scream for Death 4. The Game 5. One Way Out 6. Do You Believe 7. Dead and Gone 8. Here Comes the End 9. Waiting for the Axe 10. Stalingrad 11. Signed DC 12. El Gusano
STEPMOTHER: Graham Clise – Guitar, Vocals Rob Muinos – Bass, Vocals Sam Rains – Drums
On Oct. 16, 2001, barely a month after the planes flew into the Twin Towers, New York City’s The Brought Low made their self-titled debut through Tee Pee Records. A classic heavy rock power trio, they came together in 1999 with guitarist/vocalist Ben Smith and drummer Nick Heller, who’d both spent most of the ’90s in the hard-punk outfit Sweet Diesel, bassist Dean Rispler, who’d produced that band and a swath of the rest of NYC’s punk and hardcore scene by the time Sweet Diesel were done, and who has been in Tiger Mountain, The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, The Dictators NYC, on and on. Dude even produced my Gimme Radio show when that was a thing. The point is he’s gotten around in 30 years of playing and performing. One could go on.
But the story here is the band itself. Recorded with Jesse Cannon and produced by Rispler, The Brought Low‘s The Brought Low runs nine songs and 41 minutes, and bringing Smith to the forefront feels in hindsight like a bigger stepping-out than perhaps one might’ve understood at the time. The genre shift from NY punk rock to a brand of Southern-tinged heavy rock looking to be both of its place and moment and wistful for something else — a past, an alternate present, something — is emblematic of what was happening in NY as bands like The Brought Low, Bad Wizard, Rye Coalition and others came up in a turn-of-the-century-era blossoming of a ‘scene.’ Hell, get RPG up from Virginia, take the other three, and you’ve got yourself a probably-modestly-attended show at The Continental circa 2003. Right on.
Mirroring that shift, Smith‘s sliding into a frontman role, lead singing and only-guitaring — he’d done backing vocals in Sweet Diesel and played guitar alongside vocalist/guitarist Nat Murray (also The Monumentals, more recently The High Stride), Heller on drums, and bassist Zack Kurland (Green Dragon, Altered States); these guys are lifers, let’s just assume everyone’s been in a dozen bands — feels all the more significant for the coinciding stylistic purpose shown throughout The Brought Low‘s debut. Yeah, they had a couple burners in the opening salvo, with the organ-inclusive “What I Found” leading off before the live-show staple “God Damn, God Bless” put emphasis on blues with its harmonica and steady, ’70s-with-an-update flow, and “Motherless Sons” demonstrating in its early chorus riff the punk still at root in their rock. “Hot and Cold” would add some gallop to launch side B as well, after the Southern rock ode to New York “Kings and Queens” revels in its own defiance of expectation to finish side A.
“Kings and Queens” and “City Boy” — “Some people love the country air/Not me I’m a city boy, oh yeah” — are in some ways telling of the group The Brought Low would become, and the same applies to the linear build that happens across the seven minutes of “Outer Borough Dust Run,” which starts with a moment of quiet before the guitar kicks in alone to begin the procession. Hindsight makes them sound impatient — because 2006’s Right on Time (discussed here) and 2010’s Third Record (review here) would show growth in that as well — but whatever tension there is early is smoothed out in the midsection with its backing vocals and stay-and-rest-a-minute hook, offered again before the guitar solo takes off shortly before five minutes in, and after for a pre-comedown crescendo. A structural standout, “Outer Borough Dust Run” also prefaced the ability that would surface on subsequent outings to sound genuinely out of place in the world when the song calls for it.
The BroughtLow, as an album, remains a statement of intention on the part of the band that is only underscored by the rampant Skynyrd-ism of the lead guitar at the start of closer “Deathbed.” Heller taps the ride and hits sharp pops of snare as he as throughout, but the quieter verse build benefits from the preface it got in “Outer Borough Dust Run” and brings back the organ from “What I Found” in its sweeping finish, which ends with a few crashes and relatively subdued ceremony.
A final instrumental jam is buried as a hidden track, under two minutes long, but the point has gotten across. The Brought Low revel in the contrast. Some other players might have come together in NYC to play Southern rock and made it showier, more of a caricature. With The Brought Low, that’s not really what it’s about. It’s more the songs than the format or presentation of them. Yeah, they’re playing to a classic vinyl ideal in the makeup of the record, but that’s part of it too, because that speaks to the direct influence of heavy ’70s rock under which they are working. Or were, 22 years ago. Authenticity is a myth, and authenticity in New York doubly so — then and now unless you really dig investment properties — but The Brought Low have never sounded anything other than honest, sincere in their blues, and strident in their contradiction with the output of their own musical history (I doubt they see it as one, actually) and the expectation of Southern rock as being from the Southeastern US. The Brought Low did it early, often, and without chestbeating or sounding like a joke. That is not an accomplishment to be understated.
When I think of records from this era desperately in need of a reissue, The Brought Low‘s The Brought Low is pretty high on that list. I’ll admit that years of watching them play live — as they continue to do every now and then — has made me biased in that assessment. Their other two records being likewise rad doesn’t hurt either. But what I take away from these tracks now is the willingness to do something else, the chance-taking that happened in this material when probably, if they’d wanted, Smith and Heller and Rispler — who’d been replaced by Bob Russell by when Right on Time came out on Small Stone — probably could’ve just started another punk band and done pretty well for themselves. They didn’t. You see what I mean about honesty.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
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This one’s for Johnny Arzgarth, whose attention might be caught out of what I know is a relatable and enduring affection for the band. He and his family were in Ireland and Northern Ireland this week, reminding me of my own trip there a few years back.
As I write this, we’re about to hit the road, not so far as Dublin, but to Connecticut at least, which given that it’s Friday and we’ll be doing the driving in the afternoon is going to be a fucking unpleasant disaster on I-95. I will not take the Merritt Parkway. I would rather sit for two hours on 95 than spend an hour on that. I’d rather drive Rt. 1 from Stamford to Madison.
Anyway, that’s happening. Tomorrow is the memorial service for The Patient Mrs.’ grandmother. I’ll be saying a few words, sort of MC’ing it, but not doing a full eulogy, which is probably for the best because put me in the right situation to talk about a person, place or thing, and I’ll just blah blah blah until everyone’s dead and they all need eulogies. What are we doing with the kid while we stand in the family cemetery in one place for upwards of 20 minutes? Let her run, I guess. “Don’t knock over any headstones,” and so forth.
We’ll be staying up there until Monday, which stresses me out but I seem to be the only one, so there you go. Next week? Of course it’s a Quarterly Review. I haven’t even been brave enough to broach the subject with The Patient Mrs. but had a moment of panic yesterday morning in talking about the plan for the week and nearly got chewed out for it, likely deservedly so. This morning I told The Pecan we could either brush her hair or cut it short so it didn’t need to be brushed and I got punched once in the arm and then had a fist pushed in my face. Just another breakfast with a five-year-old.
She’s at fairy camp right now, actually. That’s just this week, and is the first of a slew of camps The Patient Mrs. has lined up throughout the summer. It was a success. If you’ll recall, last summer, camp didn’t work and we ended up hiring the babysitter — which very much did work — and doing a lot of winging it. At least this time, we’re starting off with a success. Next week? Winging it.
I might bump the QR. It’d double me up on one day the following week but make life much, much easier otherwise and give me time to catch up on other reviews for stuff like Khantate and Lucid Vision. And if I put it off two weeks, I can add extra days… Oh okay. Things to consider.
However that plan shakes out, I wish you a great and safe weekend in the meantime. Thank you for reading, watch your head, be safe, tell someone you love them. All that stuff. I think The Patient Mrs. and I are going to post that podcast soon. Will keep you in the loop.
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 20th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
New Jersey heavy rock institution The Atomic Bitchwax were previously confirmed for Fall fests listed below like Into the Void Leeuwarden, Up in Smoke, Desertfest Belgium, Tabernas Desert Rock and Lazy Bones, and from the calendar spread of those, it was easy to guess that full tour dates were coming, but knowing that they’ll be in the company of good-time trio Daily Thompson as they go, and that they’ll be hitting the UK in addition to continental shows, these are good things to know. The band continue to road-dog it after a full European tour last year and an appearance earlier this year at Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in California.
And they’ll keep going. After they get back from this UK/Euro stint, there’s only like a week before Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in New York and Baltimore, and who knows what else they might have planned, as the trio of founding bassist/vocalist Chris Kosnik, guitarist/vocalist Garrett Sweeny and drummer Bob Pantella prove that as the band approaches 25 years since the release of their self-titled debut album, not only are they not slowing down in tempo, but they’ve got the freneticism of work ethic to match. If you’ve never seen them, it’s not too late.
Sound of Liberation put word out of the tour thusly:
ATOMIC BITCHWAX!! Teaming up with the great Daily Thompson for a lot of shows this is something you should not miss! Check out the Tour Dates below, grab your tickets and join the party!
28.09.2023 (NL) Nijmegen, Merleyn (W/ Daily Thompson) 29.09.2023 (NL) Rotterdam, Baroeg (W/ Daily Thompson) 30.09.2023 (NL) Leeuwarden, Into the Void Festival 01.10.2023 (CH) Pratteln, Up In Smoke Festival 02.10.2023 (IT) Torino, Blah Blah 03.10.2023 (FR) Marseille, Le Molotov 05.10.2023 (ES) Barcelona, Upload 06.10.2023 (ES) Alicante, La Iguana Rock Bar 07.10.2023 (ES) Tabernas, Desert Rock Fest 08.10.2023 (PT) Porto, Hard Club (w/ Yawning Man) 09.10.2023 (ES) Cangas, Salason 10.10.2023 (ES) San Sebastián, Dabadaba 11.10.2023 (FR) Bordeaux, Sortie 13 12.10.2023 (FR) Nantes, Black Shelter 13.10.2023 (FR) Lille, La Malterie 14.10.2023 (UK) Crdiff, Clwb Ifor Bach (w/ Daily Thompson) 15.10.2023 (UK) Manchester, Rebellion (W/ Daily Thompson) 16.10.2023 (UK) Edinburgh, Bannermans (W/ Daily Thompson) 17.10.2023 (UK) Newcastle, Anarchy Brewing Company (W/ Daily Thompson) 18.10.2023 (UK) Hubbersfield, The Parish (W/ Daily Thompson) 19.10.2023 (UK) Milton Keynes, The Craudford Arms (W/ Daily Thompson) 20.10.2023 (UK) Bristol, Strange Brew (W/ Daily Thompson) 21.10.2023 (UK) London, Powerhouse (W/ Daily Thompson) 22.10.2023 (BE) Antwerpen, Desertfest 24.10.2023 (DE) Berlin, Cassiopeia (W/ Daily Thompson) 25.10.2023 (DE) Düsseldorf, Pitcher (w/Daily Thompson) 26.10.2023 (NL) Amersfoort, Podium FLUOR (W/ Daily Thompson) 27.10.2023 (DE) Fulda, Kulturkeller (W/ Daily Thompson) 28.10.2023 (DE) Hamburg, Lazy Bones Festival (W/ Daily Thompson) 29.10.2023 (DE) Erfurt, Bandhaus
The Atomic Bitchwax are: Chris Kosnik – Bass Bob Pantella – Drums Garrett Sweeny – Guitar
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 5th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Iowa’s Telekinetic Yeti, slotting comfortably into position as headliners. Can’t say they didn’t earn it, no matter what angle you want to see the question from. Their 2022 album, Primordial (review here), was the stuff of stoner doom memes not made by the band, and live the two-piece lay waste, as I was fortunate enough to see them do at Desertfest New York last Spring (review here). Right now they’re out in the UK with Weedeater and Mars Red Sky headed to Desertfest London this weekend, and when they come back from that, they’ve now got this summer stint lined up with support from instrumental prog-heavy legends Stinking Lizaveta — whose new album, Anthems andPhantoms, will have just come out on June 23 — as well as alternate openers Somnuri for most of the shows and Rifflord for the last few.
Incidentally — or more likely, not — Telekinetic Yeti and Stinking Lizaveta both played that day at Desertfest New York — Somnuri the day before — and while I don’t know if they met there or not, they’re both Tone Deaf Touring clients, and the shows are gonna be bangers. It’s not my job to sell you on a thing, but really, even if it was, I feel like this one sells itself. Megafuzz meets ultrajazz with crush and/or nod as a preface. That’s a good night.
Dates follow:
TELEKINETIC YETI Announces U.S. Summer Headlining Tour
Psychedelic doom duo Telekinetic Yeti will be embarking on a U.S. headlining tour this July with support from Stinking Lizaveta (all dates), Somnuri (July 5-26), and Rifflord (July 27-30). The extensive trek kicks off on July 5 in Des Moines, IA and will conclude on July 30 in Chicago, IL. The full itinerary and ticket links can be found below!
The band will be supporting its 2022 sophomore full-length, ‘Primordial,’ which was released on July 8, 2022 via Tee Pee Records. Stream/order/download HERE.
Telekinetic Yeti U.S. Tour Dates (w/ Stinking Lizaveta (all dates), Somnuri (July 5-26), and Rifflord (5/27-30): 07/05: Des Moines, IA @ Leftys 07/06: Denver, CO @ Hi Dive 07/07: Salt Lake City, UT@ Aces High Saloon (On Sale Friday May 5 @ 10:00 A.M. EDT) 07/08: Boise, ID @ Shredder (On Sale Friday May 5 @ 10:00 A.M. EDT) 07/11: Vancouver, BC @ The Wise 07/12: Bellingham, WA @ Shakedown 07/13: Seattle, WA @ Funhouse @ El Corazon 07/14: Portland, OR @ Dantes 07/15: Eugene, OR @ John Henrys 07/18: San Francisco, CA @ Bottom Of The Hill 07/19: Pacifica, CA @ Winters Tavern 07/20: Palmdale, CA @ Transplants Brewery 07/21: Hollywood, CA @ Knitting Factory 07/22: Mesa, AZ @ Nile Theatre 07/25: Oklahoma City, OK @ 89th St 07/26: Tulsa, OK @ Mercury Lounge 07/27: Lawrence, KS @ Bottleneck (On Sale Friday May 5 @ 10:00 A.M. EDT) 07/28: Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St Entry 07/29: Lincoln, NE @ Cosmic Eye 07/30: Chicago, IL @ Reggie’s Rock Club ALL TICKET LINKS: http://tonedeaftouring.com/yeti
Telekinetic Yeti is: Alex Baumann – Guitar/Vocals Rockwel Heim – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 28th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
I didn’t know it until I went ahead and googled the single looking for a Bandcamp version, but Sphaèros‘ Possession was apparently released in 2020 through Pan European Recording, which I guess makes this a reissue. And the whole album is streaming from that label, at least as of this writing. One might also note that, while Possession being released with Tee Pee‘s backing, it’s also coming out as digital-only, so as to why it’s Tee Pee Records proper and not the Tee Pee Digital Annex that’s done more than a handful of cool outings over the last few years, I don’t know. I gotta be honest with you. I got asked if I wanted to do this announcement like five months ago and I was like, “yeah sure of course” and thought I had it all figured out. Then this shows up in the ol’ inbox a bit ago in a general PR wire mailing and here I am.
Possession lays on Arthur–Brown-in-space vibes pretty hard, and the project is helmed by David Sphaèros of Aqua Nebula Oscillator — awkward to say, fun to listen to — and one might at any point hear frogs croaking, orgasmic moans (not from frogs) or subconscious-piercing synth. It’s gets weird is what I’m saying. Don’t fight it.
I don’t know if that Bandcamp player will still be there by the time this is posted, but I certainly don’t mind getting to sample Possession while I write about it. It’s wild stuff.
From the aforementioned PR wire:
SPHAÈROS | Aqua Nebula Oscillator Founder Raises Hell with Subterranean Psych Rock Project on Tee Pee Records
‘Possession’, the debut album by Sphaèros is released 23rd June 2023
Watch the video for ‘Lucifero’ HERE
After spending thirty years as a multimedia artist experimenting in sculpture, retinal visualization, travel, and poetry, Aqua Nebula Oscillator founder David Sphaèros has channelled his creative energies into music once again for the protean monster; Possession.
When forming the beloved Parisian psych rock cellar-dwellers ANQ in 1999, Sphaèros pulled inspiration from several dimensions. Voodoo, horror, underground literature, early cult cinema and even painters like Jérôme Bosch and Salvador Dali. Chartering more than his fair share of ships across many a sea of creative existence, in 2005 he eventually settled underground. Literally, beneath the capital, establishing a cosmic haven of crypts and sixteenth century caverns to house his art, sculptures, mystic paraphernalia, photos, and videos.
Due for release on the legendary New York label Tee Pee Records this June, Possession is the aural embodiment of those three years spent inside that inner world, living an almost monastic life to find the very essence of creation, and to openly share a vision of both magic and reality as without any concession.
“For Possession, I’ve created seven music pieces and seven films, born from spheres, without a preconceived form, created spontaneously like automatic writing, to let the spirits speak,” explains Sphaèros. “This work is made up of a superposition of successive layers of sound, visions, poetry, and colours. When linked together, these elements create a unique living kaleidoscopic universe that blends seeing, hearing, and spiritual thinking into the Beyond and its parallel worlds.”
Listen, watch, and partake in the first official offering from Possession, with new single ‘Lucifero’, ahead of the album’s official release on 23rd June 2023 on Tee Pee Records.
Earthless and Harsh Toke offered their split LP, Acid Crusher / Mount Swan (review here), through Tee Pee Records in 2016. By then, the former trio were already on their way to being legends in the live performance space, their various stage-recorded offerings — arguably highlighted by 2008’s Live at Roadburn (discussed here) but by no means limited to that — some with wider distribution, some for the merch table, and studio works like 2013’s From the Ages (review here), 2007’s Rhythms From a Cosmic Sky having propelled them to the forefront of heavy consciousness as a landmark act for their generation and an influence for others to work from. Their latest LP, Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (review here), came out last year and they’ll continue to herald it live throughout 2023.
Enter, then, Harsh Toke, who were always more toke than harsh, and whose penchant for heavy jams came through the speakers in oozing fashion on 2013’s impressive debut, Light Up and Live (discussed here), also on Tee Pee. The Earthless comparison was obvious even before the two bands teamed for Acid Crusher / Mount Swan, but guitarist Justin “Figgy” Figueroa, keyboardist/vocalist Gabe Messer, drummer Austin Ayub and bassist Richie Belton dug in deep and came out of doing so with an individual chemistry and an energy that was smoke-cloud-thick in vibe and engaging to follow on its outward course.
How the two met and how the split came about, I don’t know — bands working in a similar style in the same city, it doesn’t seem unlikely they’d run into each other sooner or later — but it tells an important part of the tale of San Diego’s heavy underground in the early- and mid-’10s. It was happening, man. There were a few years there where it seemed like every couple weeks another San Diego band was popping up — and Tee Pee fostered a lot of them, but there was even more than what they put out from bands like Joy, Sacri Monti, Harsh Toke, later Pharlee, Volcano, and many others if you want to open geography to greater SoCal — and the material coming out of that town right around 2016/2017 was largely unparalleled in the US as regards single scenes. They could do no wrong.
Sure, Portland has been a heavy hotbed now for at least the last 15 years, and the doom of the Chesapeake Watershed will outlive us all, and there’s Chicago’s post-whathaveyou, Florida’s post-Cavity sludge rock, Boston’s traditional heavy songwriting, New York trying to be all things to all people all the time, on and on, but what came up in San Diego felt big and special and fresh, and so it was. I don’t know that I’d call the scene ‘over’ now, since certainly Earthless are actively touring and releasing records and they are a guiding light for newer bands some two decades into their tenure, and Sacri Monti and Zack Oakley and El Perro (maybe?) and Birth are rolling, but the boom has abated as it inevitably would, and Acid Crusher / Mount Swan serves as not only a reminder of the vitality of spirit that was behind much of what came out of that place and in those years, but emphasizes the mentor role Earthless played in shaping the classic-heavy and boogie rock methodology that in part defined the boom in the first place.
As ever, the trio of bassist Mike Eginton (who also did the cover art here and for most of what they put out), drummer Mario Rubalcaba (Hot Snakes, Rocket From the Crypt, etc.) and guitarist Isaiah Mitchell (ex-Howlin’ Rain, Golden Void, collabs with Seedy Jeezus and a ton of others, touring guitarist for The Black Crowes, etc.) offer quintessential heavy exploration in “Acid Crusher,” while in more of a rarity for Earthless, their piece is actually the shorter of the two side-consumers on the release. With a mood quickly set by its initial fuzzy bassline, organ (Tim Green played on the first record, not sure if he’s doing so this time), echoing tambourine flourish and Mitchell‘s shimmering guitar over the steady groove held down by Rubalcaba and Eginton that ensues, “Acid Crusher” isn’t two minutes into its total 14:56 before Earthless have dug out a space for themselves in the pocket of a mellow swing.
Some hand percussion enters after seven minutes in, and the wah overdose past the 10-minute mark has more soul than most rock records all by itself, but “Acid Crusher” is basically set around repetitions of its central groove, a light bounce that gives the keys and guitar room to play around it. As to how much is or isn’t improvised, one never really knows with Earthless, but they manage to carve a hook out of the interplay of guitar and keys, and they roll it out casual-like to make that 15-minutes go by in a semi-conscious flash. One could hardly ask for a more appropriate setup to Harsh Toke‘s “Mount Swan,” which checks in at 19:37 and fades into its takeoff with an early sense of doom overarching in the riff, but turns quick to jazzier punch in transitioning to a verse with watery vocals from Messer that even seven years later feel like a surprise after Earthless‘ instrumental take.
They don’t last, not that it would be a problem if they did. It’s a quick few lines before Harsh Toke crash out to noise and the bass picks up the thread on a slower roll, ambient psych guitar feedback and effects swirling around it. Ayub‘s drums return sooner or later, slow taps on the ride cymbal with crash for accent, an easy fluidity that defines the instrumental remainder of the song that feels correspondingly jammed out, band-in-room, and if it wasn’t recorded live, they make it easy to believe it could’ve been.
Dual-channel guitar solos take hold as the band approach the seventh minute, and they bring it to a head gradually before slowing down again, the organic nature of how they ride the main progression all the more fluid for its shifts in tempo, a bit of shred tossed in for good measure along the way. “Mount Swan” comes apart at about 12:05 and over the remainder of the track seems to hold on by a thread — or by the bass and drums, if you prefer — but it holds on just the same until its final fade, faster here, groovier there, abidingly languid all the while in complement to “Acid Crusher” before, willing a kind of warts-and-all approach that most bands wouldn’t dare even in the context of heavy psych jamming.
Repetition again serving a key role as regards rhythm, Harsh Toke still manage a showcase of dynamic that lives up to what Earthless do on side A, which, yes, is a compliment. Their last release (to-date, because one never knows) was 2019’s Burnout (review here) split with Sacri Monti and Joy, and they toured Europe that year as well. In 2018, Harsh Toke had taken part in the ‘San Diego Takeover’ at the Roadburn Festival in the Netherlands, which was arguably a crescendo for that league of San Diego heavy outfits. Earthless by then were headliners — at that fest and elsewhere — and artists-in-residence playing multiple sets, and had signed to Nuclear Blast to release the daringly-song-based Black Heaven (review here) that same year.
This split LP — a deceptively accessible listen at 34 minutes — was old news by then, but in hindsight it casts a light on the creative blossoming that took place in San Diego around this time. That scene wasn’t and isn’t perfect, but the sense of community was real, and Acid Crusher / Mount Swan underscores this as well as the heady pleasure of losing oneself in the unfolding of these longform pieces.
Thanks for reading. As always, I hope you enjoy.
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Coming on 5AM now. I’ve been up since two. It’s been like that. The other night I rolled over at 12:30 and was awake for the duration. I stayed in bed and tried to sleep for 45 minutes or so before admitting defeat and waking up. I’ve been reliably waking up around three most nights. Alarm goes off at four. I think I made it that long once this week. To be honest, at the end of the day I’m tired no matter what I do, and if I was going to ‘catch up on sleep’ or readjust my circadian rhythm to something approaching normalcy, it would probably be a process of weeks and months more than days. Maybe I’ll get there at some point. Maybe a piano will fall on my head.
While we’re on fascinating subjects, anyone want to talk about the weather? This week was The Pecan’s spring break from pre-K, and the weather fortunately cooperated for the most part. On Tuesday we went to the Turtle Back Zoo for the first time this year — it’s a regular stop for us — and plotzed around, and it was so nice out that we hit a playground after. And yesterday was actually hot in the sun, so life-affirmingly beautiful that I broke out three Amorphis records to listen to in the car as we drove from one playground to another in the afternoon.
We’d gone for an ADOS evaluation earlier in the day, which assesses a bottom line on whether or not a given brain is on the autism spectrum. The prevailing thought is no, which I’ll take — one of my three nephews is very much ASD, limited verbal, and so on, so we’re pretty attuned to it — but I think we’re all just kind of hanging around the ADHD-with-sensory-features thing. But everyone says the kid is brilliant, and it’s kind of true, so it’s possible the situation is just a ‘gonna be a smart weirdo’ kind of thing. Fair enough, I guess.
Gender continues to be a big topic in our days, and you’ll notice a lack of he/she pronouns in the two paragraphs above. I think we’re genuinely moving from ‘he’ to ‘she’ in that regard, happening like right now, and it’s kind of incredible to see this kid coming to feel so right about a thing. I remember when The Patient Mrs. first got pregnant — oh the harrowing tale, let me not relive it though I do anyway pretty much constantly — we talked about how much we wanted a daughter. Well there you go. Again, fair enough, though one does worry about things like nazis in government and shitty kids in school and violence against trans people and so on.
But the last few weekends there’s been an Our Whole Lives class at the UU church in Morristown and that has seemed to help a lot with framing at least as far as The Pecan’s own mindset goes. Dare to say she’s a good boy or some such and you’ll be corrected, with gusto. I think we might be in dresses by the time kindergarten starts this Fall, which is only an issue because all of the handmedowns we have — and we have so, so many — are boy clothes. Fucking of course it would be a money thing. Alas, we roll with it.
As 700 or so emails have already informed me this morning, today’s Bandcamp Friday. If you’re celebrating that or whatever pagan version of Easter is cool this year, I wish you all the best. We’re having family over as we will and I feel fortunate to be able to do so even while acknowledging the inevitable fuckton of work to be done. While we’re on the subject, the next seven days are a Quarterly Review, because I’m both an idiot and way backed up on shit. I might even do another week in May, then one in early July, as there’s so much coming out to try to keep up with. I’ve got most of the rest of the year planned out in that regard. At least space blocked off for fests and QRs.
And speaking of fests, I might end up at SonicBlast this August. Keeping my fingers crossed that comes together over the next week. Would be an awesome trip to add to Freak Valley in Germany this June and Høstsabbat in Norway in October, along with Grim Reefer in Baltimore later this month, hopefully Maryland Doom Fest in June, and Desertfest New York in September. Fests are easier for me at this point than club shows. Time does weird things to you.
I’ve gone on long enough so will leave it there. No Gimme show this week, but thanks if you check out any old ones in their Vault, or hit up Obelisk merch, or make it to the end of this sentence, or just exist. Have a great and safe weekend, and don’t forget to hydrate. It’ll be summer (winter in the southern hemisphere) before you know it.
[Click play above to stream premiere of the title-track from Danava’s Nothing But Nothing. Album is out April 28 on Tee Pee Records, with preorders here.]
Now we know what the fire emoji was made for. Some bands burn churches, Danava burn barns to a point of near-exclusivity (they’ve also been through a number of rhythm guitarists). The Portland, Oregon, troupe led by guitarist/vocalist Greg Meleney have been at it to one degree or other for 20 years as of 2023, and in that time have moved from hipster metal upstart invaders — yes, they were on that compilation in ’06, alongside Kemado denizens like The Sword and Saviours who had headbangers clutching purist pearls in the mid-aughts — to being elder statesmen of the Pacific Northwest underground and a band who’ve helped teach an entire generation how to throw down, influential in sound and work ethic.
That’s not nothing, but Nothing But Nothing is the first Danava record in 12 years, and arrives through Tee Pee Records with suitable anticipation; a studio return for an act who’ve spent plenty of the decade-plus since 2011’s third album, Hemisphere of Shadows, on tour, and which encapsulates and pushes deeper into the classic metallurgy Meleney and company have fostered since their 2006 self-titled so brazenly engaged thrash with vintage-style production and heavy rock tonality.
Comprising eight songs that run — emphasis on ‘run’ there as regards meter and general urgency; 12 years later they’ve got no time to waste — an LP-friendly 42 minutes, Danava‘s fourth full-length leans with ferocity into the band’s established metallic modus, Meleney (who also co-produced with Evan Mersky at Red Lantern in Portland) and follow-guitarist Kerby Strom igniting fretboards with overarching fleetness of finger, shredding with righteous glee across hot-shit singles like the leadoff title-track (premiering above), “Let the Good Times Kill,” “At Midnight You Die,” which was issued as a standalone in 2016 (review here), and the subsequent side B rippers “Strange Killer” and “Nuthin But Nuthin,” the latter a fitting companion to the opener that’s nonetheless a completely different song, positioned with just the maybe-Slovak-language blues rocker “Čas” behind it to close out.
The threat is made plain with the art by Richard Clifton-Dey (Blue Öyster Cult, many pulp book covers) out front as much as the lyrics to “At Midnight You Die” or “Strange Killer,” and with bassist Dominic Casciato and drummer Matthew Oliver — who is all over that bell of the ride cymbal in the hooky “Strange Killer” — in the propulsive rhythm section, Danava have never sounded so outwardly sharp. Where Hemisphere of Shadows basked in a rawer style in terms of the recording, Nothing But Nothing feels daring in its cleanliness and hard-edged presentation, letting the careening riffs that start on second-one of “Nothing But Nothing” and define much of the work here speak for themselves with resounding lucidity. One wouldn’t call it polished in a pop sense, but on the scale of Danava‘s own discography, it’s a definite and willful-feeling shift in intention and a choice that serves the songs well, the frenzied opener scorching the ground with still-accessible intensity en route to “Let the Good Times Kill,” the chorus of which reminds of Belladonna-era Anthrax in its head-down charge and no-room-for-bullshit mindset.
Force and momentum, gravity, thrust and g-o-spells-go, Danava use speed to knock their listeners off-balance at that outset, and in cuts like the duly-screaming instrumental “Season of Vengeance” and in the culminating solo of keyboard-laced side A closer “Enchanted Villain” that’s backed by a last chorus to complete its 6:58 stretch as the longest track here — a lead line bookends that reminds of whatever it is that opens Ross the Boss‘ show on Gimme Metal, but is roughed up and more for speed than grandiosity — they are outright dizzying in a way that can’t help but surge adrenaline.
“Enchanted Villain” lands that blow feeling like an arrival after the sprint that is “Season of Vengeance” — marked by the kind of turns that make most guitarists very, very angry in the studio — and its synthy middle underscores the ’80s metal vibe, rising out of harmonized guitars in the hook with a “Heaven and Hell”-ish chug behind and no time to waste, successfully conveying its titular enchantment before bringing the chug back to the forefront and making its way into its next solo and ending at about five and a half minutes in.
Of course, Nothing But Nothing isn’t all speed-metal haranguing, rampant memorable hooks and murderous-but-not-really lyrical themes, even if it’s mostly that. The finale “Čas” has already been noted as a departure linguistically, and its correspondingly quiet guitar intro, subdued verse and actually-midtempo roll — even Meleney‘s solo seems to try to restrain itself — are no less distinguished from the bulk of what precedes. Easing the transition there is “Nuthin But Nuthin,” which reimagines Judas Priest and Mk II Deep Purple as the same band; organ, brooding verse, gang-shout fist-pumper hook that delivers the title-line in a way that “Nothing But Nothing” shied away from in launching the album, brazen in its groove and aware of that which it speaks in terms of the influences it’s working from. And at the start of side B, “At Midnight You Die” is plenty fast but more NWOBHM than thrash, while “Strange Killer” lets up on the throttle some and is less jaw-clenched in its verse and own departure into fanfare, a choral part taking hold at 3:47 into the total 6:45 that’s there and gone in the spirit of that keyboard part in “Enchanted Villain” while making an impression of its own.
Branching out on side B is well in the wheelhouse for classic metal and heavy rock, but Danava are firm in their purposes throughout Nothing But Nothing, and whatever pace they’re keeping or elements are at play in the individual tracks, the progression across the album is natural and undeniable in the momentum they’re able to build going into the sweep that starts “Nuthin But Nuthin” and the moody finish that “Čas” — the title of which is ‘time’ in English according to a major tech company’s translation matrix — provides, rounding out a show-’em-how-it’s-done blueprint for bringing together different aspects of both styles from various eras preceding. An excellent and welcome return from an act who’ve earned their place as veterans.
If in hearing it one finds the spinning-in-circles madness of “Nothing But Nothing” or “Season of Vengeance,” the quicker parts of “Enchanted Villain,” etc., to be overwhelming, that would seem to be a big part of the point. It’s worth keeping in mind that wherever they go and however close they come to lightspeed in getting there, they’ve never out of control, not at all reckless, sloppy or haphazard, and if it’s landmarks you need to help keep up, they abound in choruses and riffs alike. Simply put, Danava — with Meleney as the founding principal — are masters of the form, and Nothing But Nothing is very much a thing in demonstrating that as furiously as it does. You might be sucking wind by the time they’re done, but that doesn’t mean you won’t also be ready to go around again.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 21st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Man, that new Danava single is some hot shit. Three and a half minutes. A burner. Hevvy fuggin metuhl.
I kind of feel like the new Danava record and tour is this winter’s funniest worst kept secret. The tour dates have been shared around for a while, and word of the album title, Nothing But Nothing, goes back to the end of 2021. But the PR wire has made it all official — April 28 release, preorders up from Tee Pee — with the tracklisting and the tour dates and so on, and brought the single along for the ride, and yeah, that song just kicks ass. There’s a lot of classic metal happening right now, but the way Danava do it, right on the line between rock groove and more aggressive intent, is a distinguishing factor if their reputation and past work isn’t. I’ve been lucky enough to see them a couple times, and would be happy to do so again one of these years. Aside from being a band somebody decided a while back was important, they’re destroyers on stage.
The PR wire takes it:
DANAVA: Hard Rockin’, Cosmic Metallers Return with Tour, Album and Single After Decade on the Road
New LP Nothing But Nothing is released 28th April on Tee Pee Records
Rising from the depths of hell with fury, wrath, and rage, Danava – Portland’s hard rock anti-heroes – return with the release Nothing But Nothing, their first album in over a decade and a devastating collection of songs to soundtrack the inevitable decline of western civilisation.
Scheduled for release this April on Tee Pee Records, Danava, who formed in 2003, will mark their twentieth year of collective existence while seeking to deliver a sound that incorporates hard rock, heavy metal and a fire forged in the spirit of Iommi and Schenker.
Ever since the release of their debut album in 2006 the band has adopted a scorched earth approach that has blazed brightly through psychedelic metal solos, glam-rock flair, fret-board wizardry, 70s prog and a white line fever reminiscent of Lemmy at his most lethal.
With our world going to hell in a handcart make no mistake, we need Danava now more than ever. Fortunately for us, this March and April the band is taking to the road for a US tour (see dates below) ahead of the official release of Nothing But Nothing on Tee Pee Records on 28th April 2023.
TOUR DATES: 14th March – Brick by Brick – San Diego, CA 15th March – The Echo – Los Angeles, CA 16th March – Rickshaw Stop – San Francisco, CA 18th March – Dante’s – Portland, OR 19th March – Substation – Seattle, WA 21st March – Aces High Saloon – Salt Lake City, UT 22nd March – Denver HQ – Denver, CO 24th March – White Oak – Houston, TX 26th March – The Goat – New Orleans, LA 28th March – Boggs Social & Supply – Atlanta, GA 29th March – New Brookland Tavern – West Columbia, SC 30th March – Richmond Music Hall – Richmond, VA 31st March – First Unitarian Church (Basement) – Philadelphia, PA 1st April – Brooklyn Made – Brooklyn, NY 2nd April – The Ottobar – Baltimore, MD 5th April – Brillobox – Pittsburgh, PA 6th April – Small’s – Hamtramck, MI 8th April – Reggie’s/Music Joint – Chicago, IL
TRACK LISTING:
1. Nothing But Nothing 2. Let the Good Times Kill 3. Season of Vengeance 4. Enchanted Villain 5. At Midnight You Die 6. Strange Killer 7. Nuthin But Nuthin 8. Čas
