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With the addition of Amsterdam’s Death Alley, the bill for the first-ever The Obelisk All-Dayer is complete. Show is Saturday, Aug. 20 at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn. The complete lineup is as follows:

THE OBELISK ALL-DAYER:
Mars Red Sky*
Death Alley*
Snail*
Kings Destroy
EYE
Funeral Horse*
King Buffalo
Heavy Temple
* first East Coast appearance.

Death Alley

Motor-driven Netherlands heavy rockers Death Alley tore their way into the consciousness with their 2015 debut album, Black Magick Boogieland (review here), on Tee Pee Records. An offering that set itself a seemingly impossible task with its title and then managed to live up to it, the record pulled together straightforward, classic-style brashness and offered an edge of spaced-out expanse that worked in a scope few groups would dare attempt, especially their first time out.

With members of Gewapend Beton, The Devil’s Blood and Mühr in the lineup, they’re not exactly inexperienced, but the energy they brought to Black Magick Boogieland and the energy they bring to the stage is fresh and righteously their own. I was fortunate enough to see them at Roadburn in 2014 (review here) and again twice this year (reviews here and here), and the progress they’ve made in that time was evident both in their sound and in the crowd they drew to watch them play. A group that obviously enjoys what they do on stage and wants you to do the same, they’ll bring vitality and push to The Obelisk All-Dayer in a way that no one else could, and maybe get a little weirdo jammy in the process. Awesome.

The Afterparty

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: “Oh an afterparty. La-di-da. Let’s all do blow and talk about Reaganomics.” Not quite what I’m going for. The show itself will run from 2:30PM until about midnight. Today I’m thrilled to announce that at 12AM, two DJs will be taking over: DJ Adzo and Walter Roadburn.

I don’t think either needs much of an introduction. Walter is of course the creative force behind the aforementioned Roadburn festival in Tilburg, the Netherlands. DJ Adzo is also known as Adam from Brooklyn’s own The Golden Grass and La Otracina. Both are excellent human beings and I’m humbled they’re willing to be involved in The Obelisk All-Dayer.

From 12AM to 2AM, they’ll be spinning whatever the hell they want — classics, new stuff, stuff you know, stuff you don’t — and I feel completely comfortable trusting the taste of both of them and can’t wait to hear what they put on. After Mars Red Sky‘s headlining set, there’s still plenty of party left, and I hope you’ll stick around for it.

The Obelisk All-Dayer is Aug. 20, 2016, at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn, New York, and will feature full sets, after-show DJs, food on-hand, live recordings, limited edition merch and much more. Official poster and set times coming soon.

The Obelisk All-Dayer tickets

The Obelisk All-Dayer event page

Kings Destroy on Thee Facebooks

Heavy Temple on Thee Facebooks

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The first-ever The Obelisk All-Dayer is set for Aug. 20, 2016, at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn, NY. So far the announced lineup includes Mars Red Sky for their first East Coast appearance, Snail for their first East Coast appearance, Ohio’s EYE supporting their new album, Funeral Horse for their first East Coast appearance and King Buffalo, who’ll be playing the last night of their release tour.

I’m proud and thrilled today to add Kings Destroy and Heavy Temple to the bill.

I can’t say enough about what each of these bands brings to the show, and I couldn’t be more stoked to have them involved. One thing I’ve been trying to do all along is build a genuine flow to the day that I think will make sense as one set leads to the next. It’ll make sense once the full running order is posted, but for the time being, let me just say that both these bands hold a special place in the lineup.

Here’s more on each:

Kings Destroy

There isn’t a band today I feel closer to than Brooklyn’s Kings Destroy. If you read this site at all, you probably already know that. I’ve been a nerd for these cats since their first 7″ and I’m fortunate today to consider them as friends and the bottom line is there’s just no way in hell I’d put on this show and not have them involved. They were out on tour earlier this year with Black Cobra, Lo-Pan and Bongzilla supporting their 2015 self-titled third album, for which they’ve already started writing the follow-up. They have a new 15-minute song that last I heard was about half done and they don’t know it yet, but I’m calling them out to play it at this show. The gauntlet is thrown down, gentlemen.

Heavy Temple

Oh my god, the new Heavy Temple is so good. Don’t get me wrong, I knew before I heard it that I wanted them on this bill — I’ve known it since Vultures of Volume last year, but the Philly trio have a new EP in the can and it’s absolutely stellar. They’ll open the show hopefully playing tracks from it and I expect by the time August comes around, there will be some official announcement as to the release, but even if you don’t know it yet, you’re in for a treat as they kick things off at The Obelisk All-Dayer. I shouldn’t have to tell you to get there early — looking like a 2:30PM start — but I will anyway, just to reinforce the importance of the issue. Get there early.

The Obelisk All-Dayer is Aug. 20, 2016, at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn, New York, and will feature full sets, after-show DJs, food truck on-hand, live recordings, limited edition merch and much more. One more band to be announced in June, along with DJs and the running order.

The Obelisk All-Dayer tickets

The Obelisk All-Dayer event page

Kings Destroy on Thee Facebooks

Heavy Temple on Thee Facebooks

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Today I’m ridiculously pleased to announce that lush progressive heavy psych rockers EYE will play the first-ever The Obelisk All-Dayer on Aug. 20 at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn, NY.

By the time Aug. 20 gets here, EYE will have very likely issued Vision and the Ageless Light, their third full-length and first for The Laser’s Edge. The album arrives following a grueling three-year wait since EYE‘s last release, 2013’s Second Sight (review here), and features new guitarist Jon Finley and new bassist Michael Sliclen alongside founders Lisa Bella Donna (synth) and Brandon Smith (drums), embarking on an expansion of the melodically resonant poise they showed last time out and on their 2011 debut, Center of the Sun (review here).

I’ve been fortunate enough to see EYE live, and their flowing, patient, heavy and thoughtful material is a perfect fit for The Obelisk All-Dayer. If you haven’t been introduced, their latest outing was 2014’s Live at Relay (review here), which brought together two massive, 19-minute cosmic explorations captured, as the title indicates, completely on the move. The textures they’re able to create on those songs push through atmospheric boundaries to create something as spaced-out as it is plotted, and EYE steer their ship with a rare grace as they move further and further away from terra firma.

Bella Donna had this to say about playing: “We are equally excited to rip some music as well as listen during the festival. We are very big fans of The Obelisk and our full intention is to celebrate that energy and the momentum that JJ has already elevated. We have a lot of new sounds and vibes flowing in our music, so we’re excited to bring them to the already great host of music we’ll get the opportunity to listen and party to.”

EYE join the previously announced Mars Red Sky, Snail, King Buffalo and Funeral Horse on the bill for The Obelisk All-Dayer. Tickets are available now. Three more bands still TBA.

The Obelisk All-Dayer is Aug. 20, 2016, at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn, New York, and will feature full sets, after-show DJs, food truck on-hand, live recordings, limited edition merch and much more. Stay tuned for announcements to follow.

The Obelisk All-Dayer tickets

The Obelisk All-Dayer event page

EYE on Thee Facebooks

EYE on Bandcamp

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I’m happy to report the first-ever The Obelisk All-Dayer, Aug. 20 at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn, NY, will also mark the first-ever East Coast appearance of Snail.

The band, who released their finest outing to-date in last year’s Feral (review here), go back some 23 years, having gotten their start with an underrated self-titled album that was followed the next year by an EP and then 16 full years of silence before 2009’s Blood (review here) brought them back. That record, 2012’s Terminus (review here), and Feral established them as masters of heavy psych grooves, rolling maximum-density riffs with a laid back vibe that few dare to be chill enough to match, full in sound and soothing even in its most chaotic moments.

I was fortunate enough to see Snail play a few years back in San Francisco (review here), and they were killer then. Now, back to their original trio incarnation with guitarist/vocalist Mark Johnson, bassist Matt Lynch and drummer Marty Dodson, Snail will hit the Eastern Seaboard for the first time to play a full-hour set and join the bill with France’s Mars Red Sky (also their first East Coast appearance), Texas trio Funeral Horse, Rochester, NY’s King Buffalo, and more TBA at The Obelisk All-Dayer. It wouldn’t be a party without them.

Comments Mark Johnson on making the trip from the West Coast to play: “People have been asking us to play on the East Coast for years. Honestly, personally, this is one of the most exciting things in my life. I’ve been to Manhattan once and completely fell in love — so super-happy to be going back to NY… this time Brooklyn!!! And it feels like going home in some way since we’re all friends and you are putting this on.”

That’s precisely the vibe I’m going for with this whole idea. We’re all friends, it’s gonna be a good time, and we’re all hopefully going to feel at home in some big ol’ heavy hippie kind of way. I’m dead serious. The closer we get to this thing happening, the more excited I am. I hope you feel the same, and I hope to see you there.

The Obelisk All-Dayer is Aug. 20, 2016, at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn, New York, and will feature full sets, after-show DJs, food truck on-hand, live recordings, limited edition merch and much more. Stay tuned for announcements to follow.

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More to come!

The Obelisk All-Dayer tickets

The Obelisk All-Dayer event page

Snail on Thee Facebooks

Feral on Bandcamp

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It is with distinct and enduring pleasure that I announce the next two bands for The Obelisk All-Dayer, Aug. 20 at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn: Funeral Horse and King Buffalo. Two groups with vastly different mindsets between them, they nonetheless emphasize the kind of weirdo rock range I’m going for with this thing, varied in their levels of sonic heft, aggression and scope.

They join the previously-confirmed Mars Red Sky on the bill for the show, which will start at 2PM and run past midnight with loads of heavy psych, noise, doom and beyond, as well as food on hand, recorded sets, exclusive merch and more. It’s going to be a party, a day-long party, and it’s my sincere hope that you can make it out.

More announcements will follow, but for now, here’s some info on Funeral Horse and King Buffalo:

Funeral Horse

Funeral Horse will make their way north and east from Houston, Texas, to play The Obelisk All-Dayer. By the time they get to Brooklyn, they’ll have recorded their new full-length and performed at Borderland Fuzz Fiesta and more besides, and my motivation for having them aboard couldn’t be simpler: I need to see them live. If only just to try and figure them out.

The three-piece release their third album, Divinity for the Wicked (review here), last fall as the follow-up to 2014’s Sinister Rites of the Master (review here) and 2013’s Savage Audio Demon (review here), and all along, they’ve fostered this strange combination of punk, doom, noise, stoner and cult rock that’s immediately familiar but entirely their own. I’m eager to see what they bring to the stage in terms of energy, but more than that, I’m just dying to try and get a grip on where they’re coming from, since they’re one of the most individualized acts I’ve come across in the last three years.

King Buffalo

Is King Buffalo‘s debut album, Orion, out yet? Okay. How about now? Now? NOW??? Truth is, I’ve been dying for the thing since the Rochester, New York, trio offered up their much-played first demo (review here) in 2013. A split with Sweden’s Lé Betre (review here) followed on STB Records and cemented the anticipation. I don’t know whether or not it’ll be out by the time Aug. 20 gets here, but with any luck they’ll have Orion material in their set and offer up a fix that way.

Their blend of heavy psychedelia, Americana and classic riff-led rock is second to none, and as The Obelisk All-Dayer makes the shift from afternoon into evening, they’ll be a perfect engrossing vibe to help everyone dig in as much as possible. Last I heard, that album is in the mixing stage, but whether or not the pressing’s done, I’m thrilled they’re aboard and can’t wait to see them again.

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More to come!

The Obelisk All-Dayer tickets

The Obelisk All-Dayer event page

Funeral Horse on Thee Facebooks

King Buffalo on Thee Facebooks

Today I am thrilled to announce the first band for the first-ever The Obelisk All-Dayer, to be held Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016, at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn. Coming over from Bordeaux, France, ascendant heavy psych trio Mars Red Sky will make their first East Coast US appearance ever as a part of a seven-band lineup to be fully revealed over the coming months.

By the time they arrive on US shores, Mars Red Sky will have released their third full-length, Apex III (Praise for the Burning Soul), on Listenable Records. Following-up on 2014’s excellent Stranded in Arcadia, the new album is a defining moment that captures one of the heavy underground’s most satisfying progressions of the last half-decade, boldly moving the band forward while maintaining the blend of fragile melodicism and elephantine tonality that has become their hallmark.

Expect something genuinely special when they take the stage. After numerous European tours over the last several years, Mars Red Sky have truly reached a new apex, and I couldn’t be more proud to have them as a part of this event.

Ticket preorders for The Obelisk All-Dayer are available now, and more band announcements will follow over the coming months. The Obelisk All-Dayer is set to offer a different experience than the average fest. Set times will be longer to allow each band to really flesh out on stage. All sets will be recorded for posterity (at least unless someone says no). Look out for word about food on hand, posters and more to come as the day gets closer, and expect a heavy, spaced out and welcoming vibe for all who make the trip, no matter where they’re coming from or who they’re there to see. All are invited.

Thanks to everyone who can make it out, to Saint Vitus Bar for hosting, and thanks in advance to Mars Red Sky for making the trip.

The Obelisk All-Dayer ticket preorder

Mars Red Sky on Thee Facebooks

Saint Vitus Bar