Maybe you’re saying to yourself, “Gee, but didn’t The Well tour Europe just last month?” Correctamundo, your inner-dialogue. That was the Summer tour. This is the Fall tour. And anyway, the thing about going to Europe is once you go, it’s pretty much all you want to do. You get over there and everything’s awesome and old and different looking and they have different cars and not everything is slapped with a corporate logo on it — The Roman Coliseum, brought to you by Supercuts — and yeah, it’s not really much of a mystery why The Well would be headed back so soon. Plus, they’re booked for Up in Smoke, Desertfest Belgium and Keep it Low, so who’s gonna argue with their turning it into a three-week run? Jerkwads, that’s who.

They head back over still supporting 2016’s candlelit-good-timer Pagan Science (review here) on RidingEasy Records, and though I was speculating for the summer tour that maybe they’d have a new record out — their debut, Samsara (review here), was released in 2014, so a two-year span between LPs would be on target — I still haven’t heard anything about such doings, so I’ll keep my speculations to myself this time. Lesson (probably not) learned.

Dates and whatnots from the PR wire:

***THE WELL – EUROPEAN FALL TOUR 2018***

Austin-based power trio The Well blossomed when guitarist/vocalist Ian Graham was fired from his previous band. Determined to redirect his musical focus, Graham hooked up with bassist Lisa Alley and the two began picking out riffs in their east-side garage. Rounding out their sound, they stole drummer Jason Sullivan from Graham’s old band in a tale of vengeance and karma. His solid groove and reckless tribal beat gave the three-piece their ideal primal attack.

Due to their psychedelic doom edge, The Well reap comparisons to Black Sabbath, Sleep, Electric Wizard and Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats. As fans of cult horror films, they embrace the sinister, revel in dark themes and find inspiration in haunting echoes. The dual vocals of Graham and Alley evoke an ancient language that carries a mystic spell..

THE WELL EUROPEAN FALL TOUR 2018:
04.10.2018 IT Roma-Traffic
05.10.2018 IT Pisa-Albatross
06.10.2018 CH Basel-Up In smoke
10.10.2018 FR Lorient-Le Galion
11.10.2018 FR Nantes-La Scene Michelet
12.10.2018 FR Paris-Olympic Café
14.10.2018 BE Antwerp-Desert Fest
15.10.2018 DE Osnabruck-Darty+Dancing
16.10.2018 DE Tubingen-Shedhalle
17.10.2018 CH Basel-Hirschneck
18.10.2018 AT Salzburg-Rockhouse
19.10.2018 DE Augsburg-City Club
20.10.2018 DE Munich-Keep It Low Fest
22.10.2018 DE Berlin-Toast Hawaii
23.10.2018 DE Erfurt-Tiko
24.10.2018 DE Frankfurt-DKK
25.10.2018 CH Olten-Coq D’Or
26.10.2018 CH Frauenfeld-Kaff
27.10.2018 CH Rorschach-Treppenhaus

THE WELL ARE
Ian Graham – Guitars / Vocals
Lisa Alley – Bass / Vocals
Jason Sullivan – Drums

http://www.facebook.com/thewellband
http://thewellaustin.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ridingeasyrecords/
http://www.ridingeasyrecs.com/
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/

The Well, Pagan Science (2016)

With reportedly more dates to come, Austin heavy rockers The Well have announced a European tour for this August presented by Heavy Psych Sounds. I haven’t heard anything about it, but I wouldn’t necessarily be surprised if they had a new album on the way either before or after this run, which as of now is set to start on Aug. 8 in Rome. Their last outing was 2016’s Pagan Science (review here) on RidingEasy Records, which was awesome and put them on the road in the US, and interestingly, in addition to the shows below, The Well have also been confirmed to take part in Keep it Low 2018 in Munich this October. I don’t necessarily imagine that the band will just be on tour in Europe for two months-plus in order to do it all in one trip, but in light of the whole “more to be announced” thing, I guess anything’s possible.

Heavy Psych Sounds sent word of the tour as follows:

THE WELL – EUROPEAN SUMMER TOUR

Austin-based power trio The Well redefine heavy rock by merging massive riffs with sophisticated melodies. Their progressive sound stems from a nostalgic desire to blend different musical styles as diversified as Joy Division to Blue Cheer. The group blossomed when guitarist/vocalist Ian Graham was fired from his previous band. Determined to redirect his musical focus, Graham hooked up with bassist Lisa Alley and the two began picking out riffs in their east-side garage. Rounding out their sound, they stole drummer Jason Sullivan from Graham’s old band in a tale of vengeance and karma. His solid groove and reckless tribal beat gave the three-piece their ideal primal attack.

Due to their psychedelic doom edge, The Well reap comparisons to Black Sabbath, Sleep, Electric Wizard and Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats. As fans of cult horror films, they embrace the sinister, revel in dark themes and find inspiration in haunting echoes. The dual vocals of Graham and Alley evoke an ancient language that carries a mystic spell.

08.08.2018 IT Roma
09.08.2018 IT Parma
10.08.2018 AT Dornbiarch-Sauzipf Fest
13.08.2018 IT Brescia-Radio Onda D’Urto fest
15.08.2018 IT Alessandria-Cascina Bellaria
16.08.2018 DE Mannheim
17.08.2018 DE Nürnberg – Z Bau
18.08.2018 DE Münster – Rare Guitar
19.08.2018 CH Basel
20.08.2018 FR Chambery-Le BrinDu Zinc
21.08.2018 IT Mantova

with many more to be announced soon!

THE WELL ARE
Ian Graham – Guitars / Vocals
Lisa Alley – Bass / Vocals
Jason Sullivan – Drums

http://www.facebook.com/thewellband
http://thewellaustin.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ridingeasyrecords/
http://www.ridingeasyrecs.com/
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/

The Well, Pagan Science (2016)

[Click play above to hear a new track from The Well’s Pagan Science. Album is out Oct. 14 on RidingEasy Records.]

In 2014, Austin trio The Well offered up Samsara (review here), their first full-length, on RidingEasy Records. The album wasn’t a revelation in style from what they’d accomplished on their 2012 single, Seven (review here), or the subsequent First Trip EP, but it was a definitive step forward and, to my ears, represented a key piece in the arrival of a new league of US bands ready to take up the mantle of heavy rock.

With the follow-up, Pagan Science (also on RidingEasy), guitarist/vocalist Ian Graham, bassist/vocalist Lisa Alley and drummer Jason Sullivan confirm that supposition. They’ve put in no shortage of road time in the interim, and that would seem to have affected the songwriting in making their material tighter, with shorter, crisply executed songs that manage to fit four more tracks in and still only be five minutes longer than the preceding outing at a vinyl-able 44 minutes.

Not only that, but the arrangements of Alley and Graham‘s vocals, as heard on songs like “I Don’t Believe” and the closing Crosby, Stills and Nash cover “Guinnevere,” as well as the flow between tracks particularly earlier in the proceedings, how “Skybound” picks up from the curiously but rightly placed second-track interlude “Forecast” and leads directly into “A Pilgrimage”‘s tales of gypsy woes all speak to the growth the three-piece have actively undertaken over the last two years, and it makes Pagan Science an expansion of reach even as it seems to have tightened the reins on some of the loose, jammy feel of the first LP.

As in the best of cases, songs feel written to stand out and run together in kind. The band returned to work with producer/engineer Chico Jones at Micro Mega Studio (Mark Deutrom also worked on the last one) earlier this year, so there’s some consistency in overall sound. From the harmonies that signal the beginning of opener “Black Eyed Gods,” The Well still skulk around a murk somewhere between garage doom, heavy psych, classic stoner and yet-undefined Sabbath-born impulses.

Riffs lead the way through the shuffle of “Black Eyed Gods,” and the effect of pairing that with the 41-second low-end noise wash of “Forecast” isn’t to be understated in giving Pagan Science an open sensibility immediately.

The drive of the speedier “Skybound” is introduced and from there, The Well dig deeper into the heart of what their second record is all about — Graham and Alley coming together vocally over Sullivan‘s steady roll busting out memorable tracks that remain spacious in their intent and echo while working around a deceptive structure that even in a longer cut like “Skybound,” which is one of four songs to top five minutes, though none hit 5:30, holds the material together even as they directly tie songs into another to create the whole-album spirit.

“A Pilgrimage” has a landmark chorus and laid back solo that should translate well to the stage if it hasn’t yet, with Alley and Graham trading parts back and forth to conversational effect and though “Drug from the Banks” seems to shift the narrative, its build and chug balance an airy feel in the verse and far-back hook that keep the momentum going, underscoring the efficiency that’s taken root beneath the spiky leaves of The Well‘s sound.

Further in that argument, the chants that mark the arrival of centerpiece “Byzantine” make that song feel all the more appropriate for its position and its gradual unfolding, but it’s still under four minutes long, despite leaving a much grander impression.

I’m not sure where the vinyl split is, if it’s before “Byzantine” or after, but that track is a definite landmark for Pagan Science either way, and “One Nation” picks up with Graham‘s vocals introducing the hook before the rest of the band crashes in with a two-and-a-half-minute nod of some lyrical social comment cloaked in suitably ethereal language.

Could that be The Well showcasing a punk side? Possible, but it fits nonetheless, and “One Nation” ends with a cymbal wash that leads into the ultra-languid bass-highlight start of “Choir of the Stars,” the back half of the album’s own instrumental (save for some samples that may be shouting, may be dogs barking; it’s all pretty obscure) that works to a mirror the effect of “Forecast” in broadening the context of its surroundings. Again, it’s just three minutes, but the effect is longer lasting.

With a sort of Eastern minor-key flair that draws on Om without directly emulating them, “Brambles” introduces the closing trio with a purposefully repetitive course no less memorable than that of “A Pilgrimage” earlier, and “I Don’t Believe” provides immediate complement in that regard, with its long-since-dropped-out-of-life righteous vibe and sing-along section in the second half leading to a faster charge to close out.

Might be fair to think of “Guinnevere,” since it’s a cover and since “I Don’t Believe” caps with such a push, as a bonus track, but it works exceedingly well with the rest of the material here and offers one last vocal highlight from Alley and Graham while taking the central progression of the original and turning it into a more malevolent, thickened riff backed up by atmospheric noise.

It ends Pagan Science on a somewhat understated note, but if anything, The Well‘s second offering makes the clear point that the band is ready to keep rolling onward on their forward course, progressing and expanding and refining what they do as they go, but going most of all. As a part of that up and coming surge in American heavy rock, they only prove themselves more crucial here.

The Well on Thee Facebooks

The Well on Bandcamp

The Well website

RidingEasy Records website

RidingEasy Records on Instagram

RidingEasy Records on Bandcamp

There hasn’t been any kind of official announcement from the PR wire about it, but savvy social media types that they are, both The Well and RidingEasy Records have been dropping hints about the former’s follow-up to 2014’s most excellent debut, Samsara (review here). The most solid word from the label has come down to confirm the title of the Austin, Texas, trio’s second outing as Pagan Science and an Oct. 14 release date. Preorder info, reportedly, is coming soon.

The Well — bassist/vocalist Lisa Alley, guitarist/vocalist Ian Graham and drummer Jason Sullivan — toured hard behind Samsara, so it seems reasonable to expect that Pagan Science will benefit from that. Like its predecessor, Pagan Science seems to have been tracked at Ohm Recording Studio in Austin, though if it was Mark Deutrom (also of Bellringer) once again at the helm as producer and Chico Jones engineering — the team that handled Samsara — I don’t know for sure. Doesn’t seem unlikely, considering how well that album captured the band’s live sound.

Doesn’t seem at all unlikely either that they’ll hit the road hard once again either before, after or during the release of Pagan Science, but The Well also recently had a song feature as the opening theme of Ride with Norman Reedus, starring the titular actor best known at this point for his role as Dale on The Walking Dead. That’s not likely to hurt exposure-wise either, especially leading into a new record.

RidingEasy‘s announcement was short and to the point. Will keep you posted when I hear more about a firm release date, tour in the US or abroad, or any of that other good stuff.

For now, here’s what the label had to say and the Samsara stream if you’d like a refresher:

[UPDATE 6/30: The PR wire sent the album art as well. It follows here.]

Stay tuned for @thewellband pre-sale info on the new album “Pagan Science” out worldwide October 14th. Are you ready for some new Jams?

http://www.facebook.com/thewellband
http://thewellaustin.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ridingeasyrecords/
http://www.ridingeasyrecs.com/

The Well, Samsara (2014)