Comprising what’s sure to be a weekend full of riffs, fuzz and grooving stomp, the inaugural Moving the Earth festival is set to roll out at The Windup Space in scenic (if you like stoner rock, anyway) Baltimore, Maryland. It shares a weekend with Days of the Doomed III out in Wisconsin, but for anyone on the East Coast lamenting not being able to make the trip to the Midwest, the lineup below certainly makes a compelling argument in its own favor, with The Flying Eyes assuming a headliner position among stalwart Marylanders like War Injun and Weed is Weed while out-of-towners like When the Deadbolt Breaks and Borracho add variety to the still-quite-heavy mix.

Here’s to the first of many:

Moving the Earth Fest, June 22-23 at The Windup Space, Baltimore, MD

You can hear the low rumble in the distance getting deafeningly louder with every closing second… Plumes of diesel smoke, fire, and dust billow upwards to block out the sun… An army of sonic bulldozers are coming together to lay waste to the Mid Atlantic region’s musical landscape…….

The MOVING THE EARTH FEST, a two day celebration of all that is Heavy/ Stoner-Rock / Psych/ and Doom will take place at The Windup Space in Baltimore MD Saturday/ Sunday June 22nd and 23rd…….

MOVING THE EARTH FEST DAY 1
Saturday June 22nd
The Flying Eyes -(Baltimore psych rock heavyweights/ headliner)
Foghound – (ex Sixty Watt Shaman/ Halfway To Gone)
Weed is Weed – (ex Spirit Caravan / Earthride)
War Injun -(MD Doom legends)
When the Deadbolt Breaks -(NY/CT experimental, psychedelic, doom)
Wasted Theory – (Philly/ Del Stoner Rawk)
The Deserts of Maine -(ex Wooly Mammoth)
The Walking Ghost – (Aaron from W.t.d.b.- solo accoustic opener)

MOVING THE EARTH FEST DAY 2
Sunday June 23rd 2013
Bastards of Reality (AllStar KickAss Black Sabbath tribute/ headliner)
The Convocation – (ex-Moss Icon, Universal Order of Armageddon, & Born Against)
The 91’s -(PA Stoner Fuzz)
Borracho -(DC Stoner rock bulldozers)
Lazlo Lee and the Motherless Children – (manic garage/psych/ blues)
We are Blackbirds – (“heavy wood” prog/stonerrock)
Balors Eye -(inspired prog /tech metal w/ crushing grooves)
Ophidian – (bleak sludge/ doom)

Venue:
the Windup Space
12 W. North Avenue, Baltimore, MD.
(410) 244-8855

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Windup-Space/40942699251

Foghound, “Gotta Go and High Rider”

Initially formed in the late ‘90s, Maryland’s The Convocation started out as The Convocation Of… and was a three-piece featuring guitarist/vocalist Tonie Joy, bassist Guy Blakeslee and drummer George France. In 2000 and 2001, they released a self-titled full-length and a follow-up called Pyramid Technology before fizzling out as bands do circa 2002. Blakeslee went on to form The Entrance Band, and Joy and France reignited the trio as The Convocation first in 2005 and have since played with a slew of bassists, among them Matthew Hall, Chris Camden, current bassist Donny Van Zandt and Jason Stevens, who happened to be in The Convocation for the 2009 release of their self-titled redux 7” single, The Convocation, on Gravity Records. Since the duo of tracks, “My History Mystery” and “Face to Face with the Beast,” the band has put out three more on a split with Chrissakes, but in the seven years since Joy (a veteran of hardcore outfit Born Against and a slew of others) and France reformed as The Convocation, neither a full album nor an EP has materialized. Whatever the situation in the band was or is, the songs “My History Mystery” and “Face to Face with the Beast,” both circling around the four-minute mark, prove worthy of a follow-up, reminding as they do of the earliest part of the ‘90s, as grunge didn’t yet have the name and was still just the weirdo rock that baggy-pants skaters listened to.

Both tracks affect that kind of sensibility – if updated some in the production – but especially “My History Mystery,” which quickly after its launch brings in ringing-out guitar notes and a visceral rhythmic tension, calls to mind some intangible aspect of the year 1991. I don’t know if it’s Helmet I’m hearing there, or Soundgarden, or even something like Tad, but all are a fair touchstone one way or another for the atmosphere The Convocation are culling together on the single, Joy’s vocals coming on as though from a blown out megaphone. The song has basically three parts, a verse, a chorus and an ending, but the simplicity is put to good use, and whatever may have happened to eject Stevens from the band since, his bass is a key factor in what makes the song work so well. Along with straightforward drumming from France, Joy has a rhythmic, almost Fugazi-type vocal cadence, but his efforts most pay off as his voice and the guitar come together in the lines of the verse. It’s a rolling groove in the first part of the song, and that continues into the second, which follows a short, heavily-wah’ed solo and once again seems to find its foundation in the bass-led rhythm. A single line is repeated over a subtle build, and if you pay too close attention to it, it almost sounds like they’re doing it too much, but if you back off a bit and just ride it out, the build can genuinely take you along with it to a kind of sub-culmination – it’s not like there’s a sudden burst of energy that might qualify as a payoff – of slick basslines and guitar leads and France’s kit holding the whole thing together. As one of two, it’s a solid leadoff track, and its second part, though repetitive, turns out to be the catchiest part of the entire release.

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