Posted in Whathaveyou on May 5th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
With no Desertfest New York this year (and, let’s face it, maybe not next year either), I don’t have the luxury I’ve enjoyed throughout the 2020s thus far of consoling myself at missing Ripplefest Texas by seeing some of the same acts coming through without having to fly out to do it. Not so much this year. In unveiling its full lineup for this September, Ripplefest Texas 2025 lays out an absolute dream of a bill — from Weedeater to Suplecs to Mothership to Author and Punisher (new record by then?) to Sundrifter and Mr. frickin’ Plow and Lake Lake — it’s the most imperative US festival lineup I’ve seen pretty much since Ripplefest Texas last year.
I’ve never been to Ripplefest Texas and it’s been over 15 years since the last time I set foot in Austin, but I’d be there in a hot minute for this one. Gonna start a GoFundMe for the flight and lodging (more likely, beg my wife). If you get there, congratulations on your life.
Check out the new adds and the full lineup below. It’s a beautiful thing:
The best family reunion of the year is back! The lineup for RippleFest Texas 2025 is now complete and you will not want to miss your chance to see the best music at the friendliest festival in the world. Lick of My Spoon Productions brings you the only open air festival in the US with ABSOLUTELY ZERO BAND OVERLAPPING! New bands added to an already stacked lineup are ASG, Author & Punisher, Mondo Generator, High Desert Queen, Bronco, Rainbows Are Free, The Absurd, Volume, Gran Moreno, Karma Vulture, and Desert Suns.
The festival will once again be held at The Far Out Lounge and Sagebrush in Austin, TX on September 18-21, 2025. Get your tickets now at www.lickofmyspoon.com.
Full List of Bands: Weedeater Whores. Mothership Author & Punisher Mondo Generator ASG Unida Wo Fat Valley of the Sun Left Lane Cruiser High Desert Queen Mos Generator Telekinetic Yeti Human Impact Mountain of Smoke Thunder Horse Suplecs Kind Bronco Sundrifter Rainbows Are Free Fostermother Mr. Plow Kupa Pities Luna Sol Shun Gran Moreno Stone Nomads Volume The Absurd Desert Suns Karma Vulture Lake Lake Sons of Gulliver
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 5th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Here’s a daydream for you. Hop on a plane and land somewhere in Spain that’s (quite literally, as I understand it) out of a Sergio Leone film to see three full days of international quality heavy from Mondo Generator and Unida and Nightstalker on down to Xispa and the Wild Pigs. I’m assuming the six tickets that were left when Tabernas Desert Rock Fest 2025 posted its full lineup the other day are long gone by now, or if not, congratulations if you’re one of the last six. I’ve talked to people who’ve been to this one and it looks amazing. Think of an experiential festival, kind of like Duna Jam or Bear Stone, but in an old-style Western setting.
And not to harp on it, but the lineup is really solid. I’m less familiar with Convoy or Scrotem or Baläte near the bottom of the poster, though at least the latter have played before, but with the likes of High Desert Queen, Kal-El, Rotor, TempleFang, Godsleep, Ritual King and Tankzilla, it’s a cross-generational assemblage limited to 300 tickets and what seems to be an intimate setting that, at very least, is going to look incredible when you share the photos of everyone ripping it up. This is one I’ve been keeping up with for the last few years, and I think it’s easy to see why when you check the bill.
Again, I’m assuming those six tickets are gone, but you never know until you reach out at the email below:
So now here it is, our official confirmed LINE-UP for 2025 edition, with still one surprise ;-) = ENJOY!
WE ONLY HAVE 6 TICKETS LEFT, GET YOURS NOW BY MAIL:
Posted in Reviews on January 31st, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Earlier – Before Show
Oh shit, I’m in Las Vegas. I opened the window four times on the five-and-a-half-hour flight here. Once was at Newark. Two in the air: the Rockies and the desert. And the last was at the gate after landing. My wife had recommended I watch the Sonic the Hedgehog movie. I may yet on the way home, but I played Zelda the entire time I was in the air. I slaughtered every lynel in Hyrule and they all came back to life and I did it again.
Adam Sage of the band Sonolith, who it turns out is quite a generous dude, kindly offered to put me up for the weekend — thank you, Adam and Jocelyn — and even picked me up at the airport. A stop at the grocery store and the weed store and I’ll of a sudden I’m hanging among the antiques and Weimaraner swag listening to Spaceslug, which was the right call, with a couple hours before the show. Mellow hangs. May it be a theme for the weekend.
Four bands tonight: Unida, MR.BISON, Sons of Arrakis and Samavayo. That’s California, Italy, Canada and Germany represented. Tell me the last time you saw a bill like that.
Okay? So that’s kind of the thing about this fest — it’s not big, but it’s stacked, and it’s thoughtfully curated. Of the four bands playing tonight, the only one I’ve seen is Unida, and it was a different incarnation of the band. Tomorrow is five bands, Saturday is six, Sunday is five, but each one brings something special to the mix. They’re all here for a reason. The whole weekend’s going to be a blast.
Just like you’ve heard in all those heavy metal songs about the night, here’s ‘the night’:
Samavayo
Samavayo aren’t the only reason I’m here this weekend, but they’re a big part of it. The Berlin-based three-piece have made a low-key tour of coming to the US for the first time, and the last show is tomorrow in Los Angeles. They locked into a groove and didn’t look back. The intricacy of their songwriting, and their blend of influences remains their own. Not that there was any doubt, but they did very much sound like they’d been on tour for a week, which they have been. Tight, having a good time, making the sing-along at the start of “I Keep on Rolling” extra fun, outright nailing the three-part vocal in “Vatan.” The kick drum pedal broke, which gave guitarist/vocalist Behrang Alavi a chance to thank the crowd and sound sincere in talking about how kindly they’ve been treated on their first US trip. The way they open up to a chorus, where you don’t even realize why your stomach was tight until the tension releases, how the songs seem to follow linear paths even in verses and choruses. This was my first time seeing them, and meeting then. I feel fortunate to have been able to do both. They go to L.A. tomorrow and then are out, taking their big grooves with them. It was lucky for those who got to see the band they brought them in the first place, let alone have them set a nigh-on-unreachable standard for the rest of the weekend with the big rock finish at the end of the set.
Sons of Arrakis
Another first for me were Canada’s Dune-themed melodic heavy rockers Sons of Arrakis. They were younger than I was expecting — which isn’t actually weird but kind of was anyway because I’ve seen photos of them before, but whatever. Very clearly a band working from an envisioned methodology of craft and performance. The four-piece are out supporting their second album, Volume II (review here), and they brought the songs to Vegas with due push, referencing 1970s rock but not necessarily boogie. I think maybe they’re what modern heavy rock sounds like. I’m cool with that. They spliced in on-theme samples between the songs and didn’t say much from the stage accordingly, but the riffs are there and the songs they make from them are memorable. Somehow I doubt this will be the last time I run into them at a festival setting, and at least now I know enough to look forward to the next one. I feel like their next album will tell a lot of the tale about the band they ultimately want to and will be, but go see them in the meantime so you can feel cool later.
MR.BISON
When I talk about Planet Desert Rock Weekend being impeccably and purposefully curated, from here on out I’ll cite the vibe liquefaction of Italy’s MR.BISON as an example from here on out. Neither Sons of Arrakis nor Samavayo were without some flourish in their sound, but the keys in MR.BISON, the effects on the guitars and vocals, made it something else. A shift in sound from the first two of the night, but the point is there’s a linear sense to it all. There’s a story being told in the progression from one band to the next, and MR.BISON tripped it out at just the right moment to feel like what the night has been leading toward up to this point — which happens to be true, technically — and pull off that vibe-shift, but still hold onto some sense of heavy continuity, while also daring funk and floaty solos back to back. They have grown into being this band, and that maturity suits them, but the songs were expansive even at their most thrusted, and a spacious feeling pervaded, highlighting some of the mood of last year’s Echoes From the Universe (review here) while seeing an overarching groove and hitting into a few bigger moments, double-tracking vocals live with effects. I guess the word is dynamic. At the very least, they were that. They were also a bunch of other stuff that all rounds down to awesome.
Unida
Enter the headliner. The “new” Unida — vocalist Mark Sunshine, guitarist Arthur Seay, bassist Collyn McCoy and drummer Mike Cancino — have a couple years under their belt at this point, and they absolutely owned the room from the moment they started. They seemed to find another level of volume, and it’s not like the evening had been lacking to that point, and used it to deliver a pro-shop, touring-band-type set. Old songs and new in set, which was fun. I’m eager to hear this band move forward, and writing new songs counts big as a part of that, as much as I have an affection for Unida classics. It’s been 12 years, but last time I saw them was at Desertfest London 2013 (review here), and that was a different kind of novelty, but now that I’ve seen this Unida, having seen that one, they’ve got something that could work. On stage, it already does, with Sunshine giving due homage to the band’s original era while beginning to put a stamp of his own on the newer material. I don’t know what the band’s plans for the rest of this year are — and yes, I asked — but they were just right to finish out this night, and they gave the narrative of the successive sets the blowout ending it deserved. There were some technical issues with the guitar late in the proceedings — and during a new song, which I feel like might sting more to start over when you didn’t actually screw it up. A couple minutes of jamming and on-mic shenanigans and they were back up and rolling, as was the entire room to that riff from the new one, and then it happened again and Arthur grabbed a different guitar, which was probably the way to go since they made it through the song. Mark Sunshine: “We’ve been on a journey with you people.” True enough. They finished and sent the crowd staggering into the cool of the desert midnight.
—
So tired. More pics after the jump. I know it was only four bands, but I did a fair amount of socializing tonight and my brain is done. More tomorrow. Thanks for reading.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 13th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Once again, the Las Vegas-based Planet Desert Rock Weekend still feature a different poster for each day. The first to be unveiled — and after one-at-a-timing through the lineup itself, you didn’t think it was going to be all at once here, did you? — is for the first night of the fest, suitably enough, and with the art/design by Joey Rudell (also Fuzz Evil and pointedly not a robot so far as I know) comes the confirmed running order of Unida, MR.BISON, Sons of Arrakis and Samavayo for Jan. 30, the first of the festival’s now-four nights, with the final being ‘Last Call’ slated for Feb. 2.
We have at least the day-split for that too, if not a separate poster and a confirmed running order. Duel, BoneHawk, Luna Sol, Iota and Jason Walker’s Badmotorfinger will play ‘Last Call.’ That leaves the two days between for the likes of Fireball Ministry, Solace, Mos Generator, JIRM, Sergeant Thunderhoof, Valley of the Sun, Fire Down Below, Green Desert Water and Godzillionaire, which breaks down into two sets of five. I don’t know if that’s how fest-curator John Gist will lay it out, but I do know that any way you mix those names up, you still get a badass way to spend a weekend.
Glad to say my flight is booked for this one. Still need to shore up a crash spot, but one thing at a time.
From the PR wire:
PDRW V – Opening Night – Thursday January 30th
Vegas Rock Revolution is excited to announce Night 1 of Planet Desert Rock Weekend V with a bang! Desert legends Unida will be headlining opening night along with 3 international bands to get the party started at Count’s Vamp’d in Las Vegas on Thursday January 30th. Unida reemerged back onto the scene just a few years back with the blessing of John Garcia as Arthur Seay (Guitars) and Mike Cancino continue the band’s legacy of melting faces each performance.
On vocals is the very talented Mark Sunshine who of recent years has been lending his vocal prowess to Patriarchs in Black. On bass is musician madman Collyn Mccoy who brings the thunder! We felt it appropriate to have Arthur Seay’s crew kick off PDRW as he and Mike were part of the very first night of PDRW for A Night with John Garcia. VRR has had Unida multi times for shows and they bring it hard and heavy!
Mr. Bison out of Italy on the heels of their very successful 2024 release “Echoes From the Universe” (#2 on the February Doom Charts) on Heavy Psych Sounds will be playing directly before Unida and we are grateful to have them return to PDRW. Their sound has expanded since adding a multi-instrumentalist to the fold that will sure be cool to see and hear.
Montreal’s Sons of Arrakis also is having an amazing year in which they released their 2nd album “Volume 2” to great acclaim including landing #3 on the June Doom Charts right behind Greenleaf and FU Manchu. Their accessible hard rocking sound has caught fire so much so that they get over 82,000 Spotify plays a month currently!
Opening then night will be Germany’s Samavayo who will be playing the USA for the 1st time on this trip, They have been rocking since 2003 and have creatively evolved each of their albums over the years. Their last release “Payan” landed #2 on the Doom Charts for March 2022 and featured guests’ appearance by Elder’s Nick DiSalvo, Tommi Holappa of Greenleaf and more! Their high energy rocking style is perfect to light the fire for the night.
We will have Night 2 of PDRW V announced within a week along with ticket sales.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 23rd, 2024 by JJ Koczan
The sun hadn’t even set on this year’s Ripplefest Texas this past weekend and the Austin-based festival announced its dates for 2025. No headliners have been revealed yet — and fair enough; it’s a year away — but Unida return to top the thus-far bill, and along with Mos Generator, Left Lane Cruiser and Kind, the first of no-doubt-several international acts has been announced, with London’s Steak making the trip over.
You may recall Steak recorded in the California desert in the past, and they may have done a couple gigs around that, but I’m assuming there will be a more substantial stint of touring around their slot at Ripplefest. I haven’t seen dates for Desertfest NYC 2025 yet, but the two fests were closely interlinked in terms of lineup this year, somewhat akin to the on-the-same-page togetherness Europe will see between various events on successive weekends next month, and given Steak‘s connection to Desertscene London, the team from which is also behind Desertfest New York, it wouldn’t be terribly surprising to see that relationship continue to develop as Ripplefest Texas 2025 adds more bands building on the initial names here.
And if you saw the lineup for 2024 or — congratulations on your weekend if this is the case — you were there to actually see the show, you know Ripplefest Texas packs its four-day expanse front to back at a scale that few outside of Maryland Doom Fest could hope to, and with an increasing reach to boot. If you’re not yet looking forward to the next Ripplefest Texas, here’s a cue to do so:
RippleFest Texas 2025 dates are officially announced! We are selling 100 4 Day Passes only at a ridiculous price of $100! That is worth seeing these bands announced so far and we haven’t even announced our headliners yet! Get them while you can!!!
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 19th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
With just a confirmation for the final evening’s headliner to go, I feel pretty comfortable putting Planet Desert Rock Weekend V squarely in “sick lineup” territory. There’s a great mix of old and new bands, and with eight international acts, it’s not the same show you see everywhere else or just the usual-suspect bands who happen to be on tour. It’s curated, and pieced together to be exactly what it is, and whether it’s bringing Omega Sun from Slovenia for a return appearance, pulling from one side of the US with Mos Generator or the other with Solace, the blend of styles around a heavy rock foundation is no less striking than the geography. I’d go in a heartbeat.
Unida are the second headliner to be announced behind Fireball Ministry. There’s one more to go, and as organizer John Gist unveils below, there’s a five-band Sunday show that I assume will serve as kind of the comedown day, help people transition back to real life, and so on. Interested to see who’s playing that, but either way, if this doesn’t already have you looking at flights, it should.
Vegas Rock Revolution is fired up to have Unida as part of Planet Desert Rock Weekend V! Unida recently have rejoined together without John Garcia who has given his blessing to play live shows again. VRR has witnessed first hand on 2 VRR shows the amazing vocal prowess of Mark Sunshine who has played not only with Patriarchs in Black but also with Riotgod who featured Bob Pantella and Garrett Sweeny of Monster Magnet/ Atomic Bitchwax. These classic desert rock songs deserve to be played live and Arthur Seay on guitar always brings the riffs and energy. Arthur and Mike Cancino’s other band House of Broken Promises not only played VRR’s first show ever but have also played PDRW v2. On bass is a beast of a rocker Collyn McCoy from The Ultra Electric Mega Galactic and others. He performed at PDRW v2 with Sasquatch as well.
Unida will be headlining open night of PDRW V on January 30, 2025 at world famous Count’s Vamp’d which is owned by TV personality Danny Koker of the History Channel show “Counting Cars’ as well as vocalist for Count’s 77. We have one remaining band to announce for PDRW V and it will be the headliner for Night 3. In addition be on the lookout for a Sunday show that weekend that will be aptly named “Last Call”. We will have five carefully selected bands for this evening which will be held in a venue in The Arts District of Las Vegas. Most of the bands have been decided and one will be a very outside the box band that is sure to excite the well versed VRR PDRW crowd! More on that soon! That will be a separate ticket.
We also have got more great news as Joey Ruddell will be doing posters and shirts for PDRW V. If you didn’t snag shirts for PDRW IV here is the link to snag one of these badass designs:https://5b9ac2-77.myshopify.com/
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 3rd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
I guess someone on social media was giving Unida crap for touring without John Garcia? That seems like a pretty shitty thing to do, although I do think they need to do a record with the current lineup, or even an EP, maybe make a couple videos or some such to let people know what they’re about as they move to what they’re calling ‘Unida 2.0.’ But the band’s heart has long been guitarist Arthur Seay and drummer Miguel Cancino (see also House of Broken Promises), and after having their career short-circuited as it barely began, losing their frontman, reuniting a decade later, then kinda splitting again, that they’d want to move forward one way or the other at long last and be a real band is nothing to talk shit about.
So Unida, which is Seay, Cancino, bassist Collyn McCoy (Circle of Sighs, etc.) and vocalist Mark Sunshine (RiotGod), will tour Europe this Fall with support from Roadkillsoda, who are from Bucharest and will host Roadkill Fest on Oct. 24. A few days later, Unida will also hit Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in Berlin and Dresden, as you can see below. Don’t talk shit on the internet. That’s not who you wanna be.
Dates:
This Fall Unida 2.0 (meaning the line-up from 2022+) joins forces with Roadkill Soda, hitting up Greece, the Balkans, Heavy Psych Sounds Fest, and more. This will see Unida presenting classic material, songs from the unreleased Great Divide (For the Working Man ) LP as well as road testing all new music slated for release in the not so distant future!!
Here we are and we are setting up the tour for 2023. We weren’t sure how frequently people would pop off references to John Garcia, Unida’s founding member and iconic vocalist, regarding his continuing absence. In 2022 we had to handle all manner of comments regarding the situation. Respectfully, our current scenario is one of a band having endured several dormant years and that simply wasn’t tolerable anymore. Any comments rehashing John Garcia’s absence will — for our desire to remain focused on the present — only be engaged by private message but will NOT be allowed to bloom into some back and forth hell-thread. We appreciate YOUR devotion, please respect OUR priorities.
EASTERN EUROPEAN TOUR – OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023 13.10 – KYTTARO LIVE, ATHENS [GR] * 14.10 – LAB ART, VOLOS [GR]* 15.10 – EIGHTBALL CLUB, THESSALONIKI [GR] * 16.10 – DOWNLOAD BAR, PLOVDIV [BG] 17.10 – SINGLES BAR, SOFIA [BG) 18.10 – ZAPPA BAZA, BEOGRAD (SRB] 19.10 – SKCNS FABRIKA, NOVI SAD [SRB] 20.10 – MOCVARA, ZAGREB [HR] 21.10 – CHANNEL ZERO, LJUBLJANA [SI] 22.10 – GODOR, BUDAPEST [HU] 24.10 – ROADKILL FEST, BUCHAREST [RO] 25.10 – FLYING CIRCUS, CLUJ NAPOCA [RO] 26.10 – PINK WHALE, BRATISLAVA [SK] 27.10 – HEAVY PSYCH FEST, BERLIN [DE] * 28.10 – HEAVY PSYCH FEST, DRESDEN [DE) * 29.10 – HYDROZAGADKA, WARSAW [PL] 30.10 – TBC, [PL] 01.11 – VIPER ROOM, VIENNA [AT] 02.11 – TBC, [DE] 03.11 – VORTEX, SIEGEN [DE] 04.11 – RARE GUITAR, MUNSTER [DE] * WITHOUT ROADKILL SODA
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 18th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
I don’t feel the need to even really say anything here. The lineup speaks for itself. And those who go to this year’s RippleFest Texas will also speak of it, for years, probably in a similar way people now talk about having been at this or that Emissions From the Monolith when that was going on in Ohio. The stuff of legend, in other words. Yeah, you can put on a fest and try to make it cool and fun, or you can do something like this and make it the highlight of everybody who attends’ year.
Kudos to Lick of My Spoon Productions and Ripple Music on a job well done. This will be something special. Bands have been leaked out one at a time at intermittent daily intervals, but the final lineup is out as of today, and it’s stunning. A blend of generations, a reach from on end of the country to the other, and a swath of the heavy underground all rallied in one place for a few days, pre- and after-parties included. Fucking a. If you’re attending, count yourself lucky.
As seen on socials:
Here it is! The full lineup for RippleFest Texas #3! This will be one for the ages with a stacked lineup and lots of special treats in between. Get your tickets now!
Amazing art by @1horsetown
* playing the Pre-Party + playing the Afterparty
King Buffalo, Acid King, Brant Bjork Trio, Sasquatch, Wo-Fat, Fatso Jetson, Mondo Generator, Unida, The Well+, The Atomic Bitchwax, Telekinetic Yeti*, Duel, Forming the Void, Hippie Death Cult, High Desert Queen*, Avon, War Cloud, Rubber Snake Charmers, Spirit Mother+, Kind, Nick Oliveri, Thunder Horse, Royal Sons+, Restless Spirit*, (Big) Pig, Fostermother, Dead Feathers+, Rainbows Are Free, Warlung*, Sun Voyager, Red Mesa, Dunes, Tia Carrera+, Mr. Plow, The Heroine*, Michael Rudolph Cummings, The Absurd+, GoodEye*, Red Beard Wall, God Damn Good Time Band+
Plus a “Legends of the Desert and Friends” jam session to close out Saturday night!
And as always, the visuals by The Mad Alchemist Liquid Light Show
All-Access passes are SOLD OUT! All we have left are 2 Day Passes and Pre/Afterparty tickets available. Many more bands to be announced! Get your tickets now before the full lineup is revealed and the ticket price goes up!
