I should’ve known better than to take The Heads‘ word for it when they said they were done. The Bristol psychmasters, — at 30 years’ remove from their landmark debut, as noted by the PR wire below — sort of called in quits in 2022 but haven’t ever really been gone. A 5LP jams collection came out earlier this year through Cardinal Fuzz/Feeding Tube records, and though it was archival, it still did the work of letting listeners know there was still life in there somewhere. A forthcoming 2LP, stylized-titled yourprettyplaceisgoingtohell, underscores the point, however ‘in hell’ your particular pretty place may already be and likely is.

One imagines the nebulous discontent that prompts guitarist/vocalist Simon Price to opine, “in 5000 years, a flicker of a candle in space’s eternity, we have managed to go from caves to the moon and yet seemingly get nowhere,” in his liner notes/album ruminations below shows up in the music as well across The Heads‘ fifth long-player, and after hearing the two noisy/gazey/drippy singles — 2LP, two singles — they’ve put out thus far, you bet your ass I’m looking forward to relaxing with the rest when the time comes.

From the PR wire:

Announcing The Heads brand new double album!!

Released almost 30 years on from their seminal debut “Relaxing With”, this will be their fifth proper studio album!

At last, a brand new album from the legendary Heads.

‘yourprettyplaceisgoingtohell’ is their first new material for 20 years.

It will be released almost 30 years on from their seminal debut “Relaxing With”, this will be their fifth studio album proper.

The band are a well established though reclusive part of the UKs underground /cult psychedelic rock scene. A constant four piece, they also perform/record in their own projects; Paul Allen/Anthroprophh, Simon Price/Kandodo and Wayne Maskell and Hugo Morgan are both now in Loop.

THE HEADS
YOURPRETTYPLACEISGOINGTOHELL
ROOSTER RECORDS
RELEASE DATE: 20TH MARCH 2026 (2LP)

Tracklist:
Side A:
1. Hits Like a Dove
2. Cardinal Fuzz
3. Can’t Stop the Rushing

Side B:
4. It’s about time…and Space

Side C:
5. On
6. Snake Oil
7. Sunquaker
8. Socially Awkward

Side D:
9. Entropic Dissolution
10. Bullets Fly But No Bees
11. It’s All Over Now Sunshine
12. Off

The album was recorded over three days whilst the Heads were rehearsing for a couple of live dates with their friends, and peers, Mudhoney. The guitars, drums and bass were laid down live in Bristol, over-dubs added and then mixed/produced by John McBain in Portland.

Initially planned as two single albums, (Volumes 1+2) it soon made sense that they should be put together as a double LP.

Named in a nod to the Stooges’ Raw Power classic ‘Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell’, it describes the trajectory we’re all on.

The Heads are renowned for their brutalist take on psychedelic rock, this new album shows how much they have absorbed from their years of existence, their peers and the world around them. Not much change though, they haven’t mellowed out.

The pummel is there, the spaced out sike zones are there, there’s wigged out guitar solos that will peel the paint off the walls, there’s even pop songs if you look/listen hard enough. John McBain has done a grand job in fine tuning the noise and sonic assault.

It’s hard to draw a direct “for fans of “ list, because ultimately this album is for fans of the Heads.

However, you can trace the DNA of this album back to the Stooges, Hawkwind, 13th Floor Elevators, Can, Mudhoney, Monster Magnet, Loop, Spacemen 3, MC5 etc. all squeezed through the Head’s heavy sonic blender.

A band that only ever existed on the fringes, “if you’re not on the edge, you’re taking up too much space”.

Life and jobs got in the way a bit but hey, at least that kept it pure.

‘One chord, three pedals, six years’ was an old mantra of theirs. They’ve pushed that to ‘three chords, double album, 20 years’.

Don’t expect another.

Pre-apocalypse blues of rhythmic fuzz and acid rock.

This album will be the soundtrack to navigate 2026.

Notes from Simon Price about the album……

The lyrics reflect a despair at what we, the human race, has done, is doing and will do. Not only to ourselves and to each other but also to the delicate balance of our ecosystems, Gaia, Mother Earth. The creatures and critters really don’t deserve us.

But it seems it’s so much easier to kill than to create. We’re crap custodians, quick to destroy habitats and homes rather than to nurture our inter-connected futures.

Playing loud guitars, creating beautiful noise, gives us release, escape from the mundanities of life. Screaming into the void. Know that doesn’t really help much but it’s better than nothing.

your pretty place is going to hell, Raw Power from a lost age of comparative innocence.

‘what’ve we done? Made it for nothing? The race was won but can’t stop the rushing?’ The money machine chews it all up,spitting out diminishing returns, ever increasing pain and poisoning our planetary home.

‘So many lives in concrete hives’ This is progress? We’ve lost our connections to the ‘Vast One’, forgotten that we are a part of the greatest whole. ‘Chopping it down, delicate balance.’

if only plastic would rust

Music allows us to vent some frustrations of powerlessness, confusion, anger, of living in a world run by egotistical greedy old men. ‘Cos it’s always been this way’ Does it have to be this way? is this it? really?

we, humanity, are the plague that will choke our planet, the only animal that kills for fun. ‘The only hope is in the trees, bullets fly but no bees’

in 5000 years, a flicker of a candle in space’s eternity, we have managed to go from caves to the moon and yet seemingly get nowhere.

Everybody knows we got nowhere.

Animals adapt or die, only we haven’t/can’t adapt to our environment, still gathering in excess and hunting wealth to the detriment of all else.

‘The earth/the planet, the future is gold/sold’

yourprettyplaceisgoingtohell

Wars rage endlessly, driven by vain ancients, warped realities, climate collapse, greed and desperation.

The innocents are at best ignored, at worst destroyed.

It’s not all doom, gloom and pessimistic rantings; shyness, love and loss are also covered.

We know everything and yet have seemingly learnt nothing. snafu

‘the less you know, the more that you say’ there’s a ‘post truth’ media slop overload,

AI can only speed the descent, junked up food for primitive brains.

wanna just shut out the noise,

so we plug in, bang the drums, hit the fuzz

Apparently we want to go to Mars and beyond but cannot see what we’ve already got, heaven in a wild flower.

Not to worry, we’re fucked, but, hey, we’ve got enough distractions, such as making this album, so we can ignore that iceberg dead ahead.

yourprettyplaceisgoingtohell

Released on the Vernal Equinox (March 20th)

https://theheads1.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/The-Heads-282801075465/

The Heads, yourprettyplaceisgoingtohell (2026)

Well, Bristol psych lejjunds The Heads announced they’d broken up in 2022, so yeah, a somewhat new/compiled improv whathaveyou 5LP slab makes as much sense as anything. Reverberations is the title of what I’m assuming will arrive in some kind of boxed set, and if you look at Volume III below and try to glean when it was recorded from the song titles, you’ll see it’s material from the aughts. I guess it’s a span over the different volumes, because this is The Heads and time means nothing. To wit, the set is out July 11 but streaming in full now through Cardinal Fuzz and Feeding Tube Records.

The writeup for the release is kind of confrontational — that is to say, I don’t think anyone is actually confirming non-poser status at the Bandcamp or BigCartel checkout — but I guess when you’re putting five platters’ worth of jams into the world, you’re basically throwing down a gauntlet for your fans or just about anyone else who might dare take it up, so fair enough. Accessibility, clearly not priority one here. I like the line about being like a Hawkwind bootleg but heavier and more lost, though.

But whether or not you think you’re freak enough, you probably are. By all means, have at it:

THE HEADS UNLEASH ‘REVERBERATIONS’: A FIVE-LP EXPLOSION OF BASEMENT-BORN, ACID-FRIED SONIC FURY

This isn’t a comeback.

This isn’t nostalgia.

This is a transmission from the other side of the amplifiers, where time folds in on itself like overheated tape and riffs spiral so deep into your skull you’ll swear they’re rearranging your teeth.

Prepare your mind and melt your speakers: the legendary psych high priests of fuzz and feedback — have unearthed five slabs of PURE JAMMED MADNESS from their subterranean lair. It’s called Reverberations and it’s not a box set, it’s a goddamn exorcism.

Forged in the fogged-out depths of their Bristol basement, Reverberations captures The Heads at their heaviest and most unhinged — sprawling, free-form jams that pulse, pummel, and phase into infinity. No edits, no overdubs, no apologies. Just pure, pulverising cosmic communion.

Spanning over 4 hours of fuzz-drenched excursions, hypnotic riff spiral, motorik freakouts and tape-saturated noise walls, this is The Heads as they were never meant to be heard — unless you were in the room, and out of your mind. If you’re looking for catchy hooks, clean vocals, or anything resembling a structure, keep walking. Reverberations is a swirling vortex of cosmic chaos — a brutal baptism into noise, a tidal wave of sound that will drag you kicking and screaming into the outer reaches of your mind.

You ever hear a Hawkwind bootleg on the wrong speed and think “yeah but what if this was heavier and more lost?” That’s Reverberations.

It’s acid-fried, it’s righteous, it’s like crawling through the fuzz-soaked lungs of the universe with only a blown speaker and a half-drunk pint for company.

Five LPs.

No polish. No polishers.

This ain’t your polite “let’s jam and sound pretty” nonsense. No, sir. This is Reverberations — captured in the basement like some kind of sacrificial rite involving pedals, trance states, and a total disregard for your delicate little earbuds.

The guitars don’t play — they detonate.

The drums don’t keep time — they pull it apart, beat by bloody beat.

And the bass? That’s not bass. That’s the sound of tectonic plates grinding their teeth in orgasmic terror.

You don’t listen to this stuff. You submit to it.

And what’s more: this ain’t some polished retrospective with a sticker saying “FOR FANS OF…” No, this is FOR NO ONE. Or maybe everyone. It’s for people who remember what it meant when music could still scare you — when a riff could knock your third eye wide open and leave you babbling in the car park muttering about The Truth.

Each LP in the series is its own trip, housed in Matte Laminated Outer Sleeves and pressed on mixed colour vinyl, for the full synapse-sizzling experience. Issued via Cardinal Fuzz (Europe) & Feeding Tube Records (USA), in strictly limited quantities, Reverberations is a vital document from the outer reaches of Britain’s psych underground.

This is not a reissue. This is not a retrospective.

Five LPs.

Infinite madness.

Zero fucks given.

The Heads have spoken. Are you listening? Or are you still playing it safe with your canned playlists and digital wallpaper?

Get ready to have your face melted, your brain scrambled, and your whole concept of “music” pulverized into psychedelic dust.

Strictly limited. Psychos only. No posers

“Reverberations is a full-frontal assault on your senses, a sonic maelstrom that rips open your skull, drags out your brain, and plays it like a psychotic theremin. It’s as if The Heads have plugged their amps directly into the sun, blasted it through a tornado of distortion, and dared you to survive the fallout. Listening to this is like taking a hit of pure, uncut cosmic insanity — equal parts terrifying, ecstatic, and utterly irresistible. If music is a drug, then Reverberations is the kind that’ll blow your mind and never let go.”*

https://theheads1.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/The-Heads-282801075465/

https://www.facebook.com/CardinalFuzz/
https://cardinalfuzz.bigcartel.com/
https://cful.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/FeedingtubeRecords/
https://feedingtuberecords.bandcamp.com/
http://feedingtuberecords.com/

The Heads, Reverberations Volume 3 (2025)

So this is it for the second of two Quarterly Review weeks around here, bringing the total to 100 releases covered since last Monday, with 10 more still to come next Monday.

110 releases, mostly (not all) from about April through November.

That’s insane. More, I’m not in any way prepared to call it or any other Quarterly Review comprehensive. It’s nowhere near everything that’s come out or is coming out. It’s a fraction at best. There’s just so much.

I’m not going to attach a value judgment to that. It’s not good, it’s not bad; it simply is. My processes remain largely unchanged, and whether it’s a net positive that the underground is either sparse and fractured or flooded with bands to such a point that Gen-X reunions underwhelm in the face of so much good, new music being made, I’ll be here regardless. And even if there were a fifth as many bands out there as there are right now, no doubt I still couldn’t keep up.

See you Monday.

Quarterly Review #91-100:

—

Elder, Live at BBC Maida Vale Studios

While it’s by no means Elder‘s first captured-live release, as they’ve put out festival sets from Roadburn and Sonic Whip in years past, Live at BBC Maida Vale Studios answers any what’s-all-this-about questions with the sound of the performances themselves. It’s a single LP, somewhere about 40 minutes long, and in Elder terms that translates to three songs — “Merged in Dreams/Ne Plus Ultra” (15:33), “Lore” (13:54) and “Thousand Hands” (9:21) — so by no means is it expansive, or comprehensive in representing this era of Elder‘s presence on stage or scope in songwriting. Why put it out instead of some recorded tour night or a compilation of songs from different shows? Same answer as before: the sound of the performances. For sure Live at BBC Maida Vale Studios is a fan-piece, but it is live, and Elder sound fantastic — and it’s probably a pretty decent memory for the band to celebrate — so you’re not at all going to hear me argue.

Elder on Facebook

Stickman Records website

—

Kandodo, theendisinpsych

Simon Price, now formerly of UK heavy psych forebears The Heads, returns with the first Kandodo outing since 2019’s K3 (review here) and a reoriented focus on intimacy rather than operating in a full-band style. That is to say, the five-track/44-minute release sounds like the solo album it is. That, however, doesn’t stop “Fuzzyoceans” from casting an expanse in its just-under-11 minutes, with a central rhythmic bounce around which layers of synth and guitar conjure a wash of experimentalist flourish. Lo-fi beatmaking starts in “Chamba7,” the opener, and sounds higher budget as “Theendisinpsych Pt. 1” borders on psych techno — “Theendisinpsych Pt. 2” follows immediately and moves from sustained keyboard notes and a sampled David Bowie radio interview to an evocative, shimmering drone; it isn’t arhythmic, but it doens’t have a ‘beat’ per se — and becomes part of the avant garde soundscape (the lightning part) in closer “Freefalling,” which unfolds in stages of variable volume and hum with some howling leads snuck in near the end. It’s a deep dive and at times a challenging listen. So yes, exactly what one would hope.

Kandodo on Facebook

Kandodo on Bandcamp

—

High Reeper, Renewed by Death

When High Reeper‘s third LP, Renewed by Death, was announced back in July, it was notable how much the album’s narrative seemed to position them as a metal band rather than heavy/doom rock, which even though 2019’s Higher Reeper (review here) had its harder-hitting moments, is kind of how I’d come to think of them. The eight songs of Renewed by Death aren’t hyper-aggressive — though you wouldn’t call “Torn from Within” ‘chill’ by any means — but they feel sharper in their composition than the last record, and if High Reeper want to say that “Lamentations of the Pale” and “Jaws of Darkness” are their take on doom metal, I’d only emphasize how much that take feels like High Reeper‘s own in being cognizant of the traditional metal and doom aspects of their sound and making them groove as fervently as they do. The Eastern Seaboard is lucky to have them.

High Reeper on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

—

Kanaan & Ævestaden, Langt, Langt Vekk

A low-key highlight of 2024, the collaboration between Norwegian neofolkers Ævestaden and heavy progressive instrumentalists Kanaan — titled Langt, Langt Vekk and comprising nine songs of varied intent, arrangement and origin — resounds with creative depth. It’s in Norwegian, and plays a lot off of traditional folk instrumentation and vocal styles — not to mention the songs themselves, which are also traditionals — but as the two sides come together even just on a three-minute instrumental piece like “Fiskaren,” there’s an organic forested space rock to be found, and whether it’s the somehow-catchy “Farvel” or “Habbor og Signe,” the cosmic-leaning “Vallåt efter C.G. Färje” or the wistful progeadelia that resolves in “Vardtjenn,” the reverence for the material is palpable, and also the reverence for the process itself, for each of these two entities contributing to something grander than either might be able or inclined to conjure on their own. That the collection worked out to be gorgeous, both worldly and otherworldly, and to cast such a breadth while remaining cohesive in mood is a credit to all involved. It could’ve been an absolute mess. It very much is not.

Kanaan on Instagram

Ævestaden on Instagram

Jansen Records website

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MC MYASNOI, Slugs are Legal Now

Slugs are Legal Now contains two live sets from experimental doomers MC MYASNOI, one from Harpa and one from R6013, both venues in the band’s hometown of Reykjavík, Iceland. The setlists are identical at six-per, but the performances are varied in a way that becomes part of the personality of the whole, which is immersive in its droning stretches, sometimes harsher in the noise being made particularly on the rougher R6013 songs, but still able to be heavy in a piece like “Step on Ur Neck” in a way that feels conversant with the likes of Ufomammut or Boris, and neither the moody post-darkjazz of “Nytrogen” nor the drums-and-rumble-do-a-minute-or-two-of-free-psych “lea%rdi%rdx2%rcx” a short time later (watch out for your speakers with that one), do anything to dissuade that impression. “Terror Serpentine” finishes both halves of Slugs are Legal Now with 11 minutes of grim sprawl, and in the culmination, that it’s the keyboard that’s shredding instead of one or the other of the guitars feels suitable to the weirdo nuance MC MYASNOI seem to come by so naturally and pair with a progressive will to grow by screwing with convention. Not going to be for everybody, but those ready to take a risk might find the reward waiting.

MC MYASNOI on Instagram

MC MYASNOI on Bandcamp

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Turkey Vulture, On the List

Back after two years with further affirmation of their comfort with the EP format, Connecticut two-piece Turkey Vulture run a condensed gamut in the six songs and 12 minutes of On the List, with the duo of vocalist/guitarist/bassist Jessie May and drummer/backing vocalist Jim Clegg giving specifically Misfits-y early punk impressions on “Fiends Like Us,” which “Untitled” takes more of a garage angle on in following before they metal-up for “Dollhouse” and the 48-second grind-punker “Adults Destroy,” which leads to thrashing in “Harvest Moon” offset by doomly swing, and the closing “Jill the Ripper,” going out on a note that toys with goth Americana in the vein of The Bad Seeds and boasts banjo, guitar, percussion and, crucially, accordion from Steve Rodgers in a multifaceted guest spot. The accordion makes it. Turkey Vulture‘s output is generally pretty raw and that’s true with On the List as well, but there’s character in them coinciding with the flow from one aspect of their sound to the next between the songs, and the EP ends up conveying a lot about what works in the band for something that’s 12 minutes long.

Turkey Vulture on Facebook

Turkey Vulture on Bandcamp

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Ghost:Whale, Dive:Two

Doubly-bassed Brussels longform doom explorers Ghost:Whale certainly don’t get any less consciousness melting on the second disc of Dive:Two, which manifests its plunge across three extended pieces each given the title “Dub:Whale” and assigned a Roman numeral, but by then the five songs of the album’s first 67 minutes (as opposed to the 57 of the concluding trilogy) have already passed in the hypnotic, cosmic-doom push of “Under Pressure” and the synth-laced chug nod in the second half of “Les Danses des Sorcieres” that seems to come to a head in the speedier “Ultimas Palabras.” The shortest inclusion at nine minutes and by its finish spending some time cruising around a Truckfightersian desert, “Ultimas Palabras” gives over to “Godzilla” and “Eye of the Storm,” a kind of second LP within the first CD, led into by the synth of “Godzilla” — not a cover — and arriving at the farthest reach in the electronics-infused expanses of “Eye of the Storm,” for which the drums mostly sit out and the noise spends 21 minutes venturing into the unknown. Ghost:Whale are not fucking around. And obviously the “Dub:Whale” tracks are a divergence in intention, harnessing the power of repetition in a different way, but either it’s a logical extension or my brain has just gone numb from the low-end. Fine in any case, honestly.

Ghost:Whale on Facebook

Forbidden Place Records store

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Sheepfucker and Kraut, Bring Your Sheep

Do I really need to tell you these guys are up to some shenanigans? They called the band Sheepfucker and Kraut, for crying out loud. Heavy rock chicanery ensues over eight tracks rife with willful misbehavior, culminating with “Broner” after turning the album’s progression into a kind of playground running between heavy rock, classic and psychedelic instrumentalism, metal and jams. It’s not a little, and I guess a namedrop for Mr. Bungle is somewhat obligatory, but the Bulgarian outfit make themselves welcome in the swath of ground they cover, punkish in their glee on top of everything else in “Bobanei” and the pop-adjacent “Look at Me,” which would seem to have some satire behind its chorus but is a standout hook just the same. They’re not all nonsense, or at least not at the expense of their songwriting in “Rich Man” and “Jolly Roger,” or “Did You Know” mirroring “Look at Me” in the penultimate spot on side B, but if people having fun while making music is a problem for you, I mean, really, you might want to have a good long think on what that’s all about. Yeah, it’s over-the-top. That’s the idea.

Sheepfucker and Kraut on Facebook

Threechords Records on Instagram

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LungBurner, Natura Duale

In some ways, LungBurner‘s second LP of 2024, Natura Duale, reminds of earliest Yatra in bringing together vicious sludge metal and a breadth of atmosphere, but the Atlanta outfit have more of a post-metallic bent as the solo of “Barren” nonetheless dares to soar, and opener/longest track (immediate points) “Requiem” establishes the first of the album’s nods in a build of standalone guitar in the spirit of YOB, and in combination with a churn that wouldn’t feel out of place on Neurot and a crush in centerpiece “(Prey) Job” that opens to a classic stoner metal swagger in its verse, the righteousness here takes many forms, most of them dark, grueling and heavy — this definitely applies to the Celtic Frosting put on the proceedings by the finale “Astral Projection” — but not without a corresponding reach or purpose. LungBurner are served by the complexity of character, and Natura Duale grows more vivid as it goes.

LungBurner on Facebook

Electric Desert Records on Bandcamp

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Bog Wizard, Journey Through the Dying Lands

With their material steeped in fantasy and horror/sci-fi lore, a goodly portion of it being of their own making, Michigan’s Bog Wizard continue to find the thread between tabletop gaming and sometimes monolithic sludge. The bulk of Journey Through the Dying Lands, which is their second release in a row done in collaboration with a game company, is dedicated to opener “I, Mycelium,” which stretches across 19:50 and unfolds in stages that don’t bother to choose between being brutal or fluid, the band winding up coming across as dug-in as one might expect Bog Wizard to be in the endeavor. There are two more studio tracks, in “Dodz Bringare,” which is black metal until it slams into the doom wall, and “Hagfish Dinner,” on which they depart for two minutes of harmonized chant-like vocals over resonant acoustic guitar. They’re not done yet as Ben Lombard (guitar/vocals), bassist Colby Lowman and drummer/vocalist Harlen Linke offer a glimpse at some live-on-stage banter before tearing into the thrasher “Stuck in the Muck” and backing it with another live track, this one a take on “Barbaria” from 2021’s Miasmic Purple Smoke (review here) that by the time it builds to its galloping finish has already long since demanded every bit of volume you can give it.

Bog Wizard on Facebook

Bog Wizard on Bandcamp

—

The last Kandodo release, K3 (review here), came out in 2019, which was before any number of world events took place, among them the Fall 2022 kinda-disbanding of what up till then might’ve been called Simon Price‘s main band, The Heads. That record featured Price and The Heads bandmates Hugh Owen Morgan (bass) and Wayne Maskell (drums), as well as a collaboration with guitarist John McBain (ex-Monster Magnet, Wellwater Conspiracy, and so on), and was duly oddball and tripped out. Kandodo‘s upcoming long-player, theendisinpsych, finds Price on his own, living a few hours north of Bristol, self-recording and pushing into even weirder grounds. Hell yes.

The album has four tracks and the first to be unveiled is “chamba7,” for which there’s a video streaming at the bottom of this post. The record is out Sept. 13 through Rooster Records, and the single heralds much weirdness and dug-in experimentalism to come, but you never know until you hear it, and in Kandodo‘s case, even that’s not always a tell for what’s really happening under the surface.

One to look forward to:

Announcing new Kandodo album, theendisinpsych

Solo project of Simon Price of legendary Bristol psychedelic rock band The Heads shares new single/video “chamba7”

The Heads’ Simon Price returns to his kandodo project with ‘theendisinpsych’; “primitive pieces of psychedelic tuneage+years of wasted time=43 minutes of headphone bliss.”

It’s the follow up to the 2019 collaboration with Wayne Maskell and Hugo Morgan, Kandodo 3 – K3, but this time back in solo-mode. He is now relocated in Northumbria, and has recorded the album himself in his home studio, drawing on his wide collection of music/instruments and the rural environment for inspiration.

The new album fizzes and crackles with a verve that will activate the “turn on, tune in, drop out” sense in all listeners…

Simon explained the album in a focused/out of focus track by track way… is this Price’s paean to his obsession with Bowie?

chamba7 – octave mandolin through fuzz, tambo beat, in praise of Bowie compilations. chamba is malawian weed

theendisinpsych – bought a reel to reel tape off ebay in 2005, (‘Bowie radio interview tape, USA, 1970, 3 minutes?’) then bought a machine to play it on in 2015. Heard the words and laid them onto a fuzzy break bed. Thought it all too relevant to today, prophetic David from his ‘hippy’ days (not a prophet or a stone age man)

fuzzy oceans – played on 1 string spamjo, bouncing echo over 70’s drum machine, ‘we’ve fucked the oceans’

freefalling – rolling cello and hissing cymbals with vocoder dreams

comes with african/stationtostation artwork stylings for the sleeve.. pre-apocalypse blues (and pinks), the world isn’t going a good way
a sumptuous 4 course sonic supper, tuck in.

Kandodo
theendisinpsych
Rooster Records
Release Date: 13th September 2024

Tracklist:
1. chamba7
2. theendisinpsych
3. fuzzy oceans
4. freefalling

—

Known as the singer/guitarist of The Heads. Price was raised in Zambia and Malawi, which left an indelible mark on him personally, and is manifest in the song titles, artwork, and name of the project; named after a Malawian supermarket that he used to shop in back in the late ’80’s. The influence is less obvious on his instrumental music, but Simon says that if there were lyrics, they’d be about animist religions, hyenas, sharks and dusty drives. Along the way, Simon touches on influences as diverse as Kraftwerk, Neu!, Eno, Morricone, Stooges, Loop, and Spacemen 3.

kandodo is for Price an exploration of tones, chords, and textures that evoke a very particular emotional response, a sense of yearning. These instrumental pieces are lyrical and evocative soundtracks with an elongated and elegant song structure. Describing them himself as “fuzzy lullabies”, Simon’s pieces undulate as delicate layers are built and removed, easing the listener along a thread of melodies. This is immersive music meant to be listened to at a loud volume or in the space between headphones.

https://www.facebook.com/Kandodo-168305819900725/
https://kandodo.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/The-Heads-282801075465/4
https://www.instagram.com/theheadsrock/
https://theheads1.bandcamp.com/

Kandodo, “chamba7” official video

It’s fitting that even a breakup announcement from long-running Bristol psych heads The Heads — wait, what? — should be nebulous. These shows were announced some time ago, but I saw the following posted on the band’s social media, and even as they’re set Sept. 9 to release a 20th anniversary edition of 2002’s Under Sided, preceded by a limited 7″ with a May Blitz cover from Small Stone‘s well-ahead-of-its-time Sucking the ’70s compilation and an edit of “Born to Go” — both out through Rooster Rock — they’re putting out word that these will be the last shows the four-piece play.

Well you’ll have to pardon me, but that’s a pretty big fucking deal. The Heads are more than 30 years into one of heavy psych’s trailblazing tenures, and in the world of fuzz, psychedelic rock, acid jams and shoegaze, you’d have a hard time finding a band of that era whose legacy is so well earned. Everybody knows they, in fact, got somewhere.

I reached out to Hugo Owen Morgan and asked if this was really it. Honestly, I know playing with Mudhoney is cool and all, but I can’t bring myself to imagine a final The Heads show happening somewhere other than Roadburn in the Netherlands, however far that venerated festival has removed itself from its psychedelic and heavy foundations. Some bands you figure get on the bill no matter what.

Morgan was willing to say in so many words that the “final ever” might be as definitive as the “world tour” portion of the same sentence. I don’t know, but if you’d begrudge The Heads wanting to pick and choose their appearances from here on out and feel like they don’t need to be doing anything if they don’t want to, well, that’s true. This isn’t some pissant psych rock upstart with a TikTok and the same manager as insert-impressive-namedrop-here. This is The Heads. They’ve only ever done the thing for real. And if these do end up being their last shows ever, then they’re going out on the same terms under which they’ve always operated: their own and no one else’s.

But I do hope they keep going, at least to some degree. They want to take seven or 10 years, just put out limited reissues, archival live albums, various collections and the odd bit of jams, fine, but I’ll go on record saying I think The Heads have another album in them. I don’t have a god damned clue what that might sound like, but I would sure like to find out. Maybe we’ll get there maybe not. Life is long and weird.

Their announcement and links for the shows follow, as per the aforementioned social media:

Our final ever world tour is fast approaching.

Will be great to see some old familiar faces.

Sept 9th – Bristol Exchange
Sept 10th – London Electric Ballroom,with Mudhoney

https://exchangebristol.com/whats-on/#events/e76409

https://electricballroom.seetickets.com/event/mudhoney/electric-ballroom/1505859

The Heads are:
Simon Price: Guitar/Vocals
Hugo Owen Morgan: Bass
Paul Allen: Guitar/Vocals
Wayne Maskell: Drums

https://www.facebook.com/The-Heads-282801075465/4
https://www.instagram.com/theheadsrock/
https://theheads1.bandcamp.com/

The Heads, Undersided (2002/2022)

A quarter-century later, The Heads are still too much vibe for the planet. Come back in another 25 years and maybe humanity will be caught up to the Bristol lords o’ space, but frankly, I don’t think we’re there yet as a species. Relaxing With… (discussed here) was indeed released before the turn of the century, and it continues to resound with past-as-future, out-of-time relevance, too weird for its day and so continually timeless. In any case, it’s more than earned the 25th anniversary release it’s being given on June 25 through Rooster Records, paired with the band’s of-the-era Peel Session — I walked by that studio in Maida Vale last time I was in London; it’s in a very posh neighborhood — as well as some other BBC odds and ends from ’95/’96. My freshman year of high school. I was nowhere near cool enough to be listening to The Heads. I’m still not, but one has aspirations.

The PR wire sent this along, doing the thing it does:

Announcing 25th Anniversary Silver Jubilee Vinyl Edition of THE HEADS Debut Album Relaxing With… on Rooster Records

IT’S 25 YEARS (THIS MONTH) Since the first Heads album was released.. .so.. for 2021..Rooster has decided to get the album back in print on vinyl.. but changing the artwork. With some silver foiling and bordering, the single sleeve has been boosted to a sweet gatefold, Rooster also got the Radio 1 sessions from the time remastered, and re-cut along with the huge b-side to their Television 7″ “Jellystoned Park”.

So there you have it, a double vinyl silver jubilee reissue of a fantastic debut album!

Tracklist

LP 1 Original Album: Silver Vinyl Pressing
Side A:
1. Quad
2. Don’t Know Yet
3. Chipped
4. Slow Down
5. U33
Side B:
1. Television
2. Woke Up
3. Widowmaker
4. Taken Too Much
5. Coogan’s Bluff

LP 2 Radio Sessions & 7″ B-side
Side C: First John Peel Sessions:
1. Chipped (Peel Session, Maida Vale 10/11/95)
2. Widowmaker (Peel Session, Maida Vale 10/11/95)
3. Theme (Peel Session, Maida Vale 10/11/95)
4. Woke Up (Peel Session, Maida Vale 10/11/95)
5. Spliff Riff (Peel Session, Maida Vale 10/11/95)

Side D: More Radio 1 Sessions / B-side:
1. Quad (Live BBC Radio 1 Rock Show, Glasgow 31/03/96)
2. U33 (Live Mark Radcliffe BBC Radio 1, Manchester 02/05/96)
3. Television (Live Mark Radcliffe BBC Radio 1, Manchester 02/05/96)
4. Jellystoned Park ( b-side of Television 7″)

From the original reissue sales notes:
“The Heads had self-released a couple of 7″‘, and then Cargo Uk’s inhouse label Headhunter UK got to release a further 7″, and then the Debut album in 1996. Amidst a world suffocating in Britpop smarm, the Heads cut a timely swathe with their unkempt rock psychedelique. The album contained 10 tracks of guitar driven, amp destroying rock, with cues taken straight from the US underground, Stooges, MC5, Mudhoney, Pussy Galore, early Monster Magnet too but with a disitinctly British stamp, some of the drone and fuzz from Loop / Spacemen 3, some of the attitude of the Fall, Pink Fairies and Walking Seeds and overlaid with the spaced rock of early Hawkwind. It was obvious that the four members of the Heads were music obsessives. The debut album was recorded at Foel studios (owned by Dave Anderson from Hawkwind) and engineered by Corin Dingley, it was mastered by John Dent at LOUD.”

https://www.facebook.com/The-Heads-282801075465/
https://theheads1.bandcamp.com/

The Heads, Relaxing With… (1996)

Is it a full tour? Nope. Week of UK dates? Nope. One might in Manchester and one night in London? Yuppers. Still, it’s The Heads, so when they announce a weekender like the one below, Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, two nights only, it’s news as far as I’m concerned. Anytime The Heads do just about anything, it’s good for the universe in general, so while I won’t get to see them, I’m still glad they’re getting out. They’re touring in support of the 2CD/3LP compilation RKT! on their own Rooster Rock imprint and are promising more reissues to come, which is fine by me. I wouldn’t mind a new album either, but sometimes people have real lives and that’s a thing that happens instead of recording sessions. For anyone who hasn’t had the pleasure, The Heads are easily among the best live psychedelic acts I’ve ever seen, and should you happen to be in their path for either of these shows, consider yourself lucky.

Dates follow from the PR wire:

THE HEADS announce two new UK shows!!

Bristol’s Heads set up a brace of UK shows at the end of the year… following on from well received appearances at this years Roadburn, Bristol Psych Fest and others already this year, its time to do a couple of club shows, a first time at the 100 Club and a welcome return to Manchester.

This year also saw the release of the 3LP/2CD set RKT!, which compiled the band’s late 90’s / early 2000 releases for the then fledgling label Rocket Recordings, many of which now fetch ridiculous amounts on various record trading sites.
The Heads are a mainstay of outsider psychedelic rock, they have been together since the early 90s, and constantly buck trends by ploughing their own path.. Britpop tried to thwart them, Stoner rock tried to adopt them.. they just kept turning up their amps and digging deep into a library of obscure kraut rock and early 70’s heavy rock to inspire their riffs and playing.

The four members, Paul Allen, Wayne Maskell, H O Morgan, Simon Price continue playing as the Heads alongside their day jobs, and other band commitments (Anthroprophh, Loop, Kandodo, Karen, etc ). They have taken back control of all of their catalogue and have been working to remaster it all and reissue it on their own label Rooster. In their 25th year together with this line up, it seems the Heads will keep rolling……

The Deaf Institute, Manchester. Friday, 30 Nov 2018
Doors Open: 7:00 PM
Starts: 7:30 PM
£16.50
Buylink: https://www.seetickets.com/event/the-heads/the-deaf-institute/1250899

100 Club, London. Saturday, 01 Dec 2018
Doors Open: 7:00 PM
Starts: 7:30 PM
£16.50
Buylink: https://www.seetickets.com/event/the-heads/100-club/1251017

https://www.facebook.com/The-Heads-282801075465/
https://theheads1.bandcamp.com/

The Heads, “Longest Gone”

Various Artists, Burn One Up: Music for Stoners (1997)

21 years ago, Roadrunner Records gathered together 15 bands on one compact disc, slapped a picture of an 18-wheeler truck in the desert on the front of it, and called it Burn One Up: Music for Stoners. It’s not easy to find a copy of it these days — I looked for a while before finally getting it in London in 2010 — but with bands like Queen of the Stone Age, Karma to Burn, Sleep, The Heads, Cathedral and Fu Manchu on board, it’s worth the search. Dig the full tracklisting:

1. Queens of the Stone Age, 18 A.D.
2. Karma to Burn, Ma Petit Mort
3. Fu Manchu, Asphalt Risin’
4. The Heads, GNU
5. Spiritual Beggars, Monster Astronauts
6. Floodgate, Feel You Burn
7. Slaprocket, Holy Mother Sunshine
8. Leadfoot, Soul Full of Lies
9. Celestial Season, Wallaroo
10. Cathedral, You Know
11. Acrimony, Bud Song
12. Blind Dog, Lose
13. Sleep, Aquarian
14. Hideous Sun Demons, Icarus Dream
15. Beaver, Green

It’s easy to argue that, as far as “stoner rock” goes, these are some of the bands who would most shape it. Yeah, Slaprocket never got an album out, but the New Jersey-based outfit divided into Solace and The Atomic Bitchwax, and both of them continue to make their mark to this day. Europe is represented through Dutch outfits Celestial Season, Hideous Sun Demons and Beaver, Sweden’s Spiritual Beggars and Blind Dog, and the UK shows off some of its best in The Heads, Cathedral and Acrimony. The aforementioned Slaprocket speak for the Northeast, while Floodgate hail from Louisiana, Karma to Burn from West Virginia and Leadfoot from North Carolina, so the Southeast is accounted for as well.

And of course we wouldn’t even be talking about the genre if it weren’t for California, which brings Fu Manchu, Sleep and an early incarnation of Josh Homme‘s then-new, on-the-rebound-from-Kyuss outfit, Queens of the Stone Age, which featured a frontman known only as “The Kid”. That’s a particular point of fascination unto itself, but with a first-album-era vocalized Karma to Burn as well and an off-album track from Cathedral, there’s plenty of fodder to make Burn One Up worth seeking for anyone who’d do so, but while the comp wouldn’t serve as a debut for Cathedral, or Celestial Season — who followed a similar path from doom to stoner rock and didn’t stick around long enough to make the turn back before reuniting in 2011 — or Acrimony or Sleep, etc., it’s still amazing to look at it and think of the legacy many of these bands cast. Shit, Sleep just put out their first record in 15 years and took over the world. Would instrumental heavy rock be where it is today without Karma to Burn? And Slaprocket through their already noted ties and Floodgate‘s vocalist, Kyle Thomas (also Exhorder) is currently fronting a little band called Troublem so you know, not exactly minor shakes there.

Blind Dog put out two records through MeteorCity before splitting up, closers Beaver would soon have a split out with openers Queens of the Stone Age via Man’s Ruin Records, and this would be the final appearance for Hideous Sun Demons, who released their only album, Twisted, in 1995. Spiritual Beggars gave an early look at their third album 1998’s Mantra III, with “Monster Astronauts,” while The Heads showcased how far out aural weedism could go with “GNU,” inarguably the trippiest cut on the release.

And The Heads are just one of the several bands who continue to make an impact. Fu Manchu. QOTSA. Karma to Burn. Sleep. Spiritual Beggars. One could argue the only dude missing here is Wino, and he would’ve been coming off The Obsessed and just getting going with Shine — later Spirit Caravan — so that could just as easily be a question of timing as anything else. Okay, maybe a bit of Orange Goblin and Electric Wizard would’ve been cool. You can’t have everything.

As with most compilations, the sound is somewhat disjointed, as the material was recorded by different players in different studios often enough in different countries, but Burn One Up gives an amazing summary of where the genre was in the wake of Kyuss‘ breakup and as it looked forward to developing in the 21st century into the multi-headed beast it is now. You can hear the crunching influence of grunge in Beaver, Floodgate and Slaprocket, but clearly these bands and the rest were on their own wavelength already, and whether new or old, whether they went on to lead the aesthetic or folded soon after — that reminds me, I need to break out those old Leadfoot discs — Burn One Up: Music for Stoners shows an admirable prescience in its picks and is a true piece of treasure for anyone who’d seek it out in its summary of what heavy rock and roll was at the time and what it would go on to be.

As always, I hope you enjoy.

—

Went to bed last night around 8PM. I’d been up since one in the morning, so somehow it made sense, plus The Patient Mrs. was having trouble getting The Pecan to go to sleep and she had half a cocktail to finish, so it seemed only fair to tag in. I’d woken up early on account of said Pecan as well, his sort of nighttime mumblings varying between actual fuss, crying and a kind of sleepy coo, and decided to spend the extra hours organizing stuff on my new laptop, which I’ve dubbed The Silver Fox. Because it’s silver, you see. Yes, we’re all very clever over here.

Anyhoozle, kind of another rough night with the baby last night had me up at three. He was in the bed — something I swore up and down I wouldn’t let happen and then of course did — and had rolled toward me in such a way that I was against the wall pretty much pinned. By a kid who, at seven months, weighs about 18.5 pounds. Life does funny things to you. I woke up, enjoyed the snuggle-time for a bit, and then got up to work on the above post. Circa 5:30, The Patient Mrs. came out of the bedroom carrying the again-complaining baby — whose diaper I’d already changed at some point — and kind of at a loss for what to do. I went back to bed with both of them and sort of rocked him while standing up, a gentle bounce with his head on my shoulder and swayed back and forth until he was falling asleep, then got into bed while holding him basically the same way and he went out. We all caught a solid two hours of rest in that position and it’s early yet to call it (a little after 8 as I type this), but I think that might be the difference-maker on the day.

We’ll get in the car soon enough and head south from Connecticut, where we drove to yesterday for two magical hours of screaming-baby-in-the-car fun, to New Jersey, where once again we’re basically setting up shop for the summer. We’ll be back and forth between there and CT to hit the beach probably on weekends and/or various other times, and there’s still stuff that will need tending to in Massachusetts — The Patient Mrs.’ work commitments and the like — but it’ll be a lot of good family time over the summer with my people and her people and I’m looking forward to being in the New York area for probably the greatest amount of time in the half-decade since we moved away.

Around here, things will likely proceed as normal, if there is such a thing. Notes for next week look like this currently, but these things can and do change as you well know by now:

Mon: Demande a la Poussiere review/track premiere; Dust Lovers video premiere maybe.
Tue. Oresund Space collective review; Kal-El live video.
Wed. Orange Goblin review.
Thu.: Currently open. Maybe Astrosoniq review.
Fri.: King Heavy review/album stream.

Plus plenty of news and whatever else happens my way.

Ups and downs this week as ever, but I’m getting through. That’s the story from here.

I hope you have a great and safe weekend. Thanks for reading and stick around as there’s more good stuff to come. All the best. Forum and Radio.

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