Weed, Weed (1971)

Weed‘s Weed is little more than half an hour long, but that proves to be plenty of time for it to summarize much of what was righteous about the heavy rock movement of the early ’70s. The band was founded circa 1970 by keyboardist Ken Hensley, who by then had not only released two records with Uriah Heep, but albums with Toe Fat, Head Machine and The Gods as well. Bringing him to the fore on lead vocals and guitar in addition to keys, Weed would only release this one album during their time together, but it nonetheless captures a moment right at the intersection of psychedelia, heavy rock and what would in the early/mid-1970s become krautrock and prog, something of course Uriah Heep would dig into deeply after their rawer earlier work. Joining Hensley in Weed were guitarist Werner Monka, bassist Reinhold Spiegelfeld, flutist Bernd Hohmann, keyboardist Rainer Schnelle and drummer Peet Becker, some of whom came from the German prog band Virus, and while commonly thought of as a solo-project for Hensley, Weed‘s Weed boasts a definite and significant full-band feel.

That’s true even in the minimalist intro of the organ-led “My Dream,” but most apparent on bluesier cuts like opener “Sweet Morning Light” and its shuffling side B counterpart “Slowin’ Down.” Elsewhere, Weed bask in the second-track balladry that would become a staple of the era on “Lonely Ship” and embrace a wider scope on “My Dream,” leaving the penultimate “Before I Die” to offer piano-led proto-prog and the closing title-track to move into post-Hendrix psychedelic jamming, bass and guitar sparring excitingly over swinging drums and an upbeat push, ending as scorching lead lines are placed one on top of the next until finally the whole thing becomes a wash of big-finale noise. Live-sounding to be sure, but clear, Weed pulls off difficult stylistic pivots with ease and remains something of an underrated addition to the canon of the classic heavy era. A footnote perhaps when compared to the 13 records Hensley put out during his time with Uriah Heep, its appeal all the same runs much deeper than its bizarre cover art and the band’s moniker. If it’s a footnote, it’s a loud one.

And an enduring one. Weed‘s Weed has been reissued multiple times over, by Philips Records, which originally put it out, among others, all the while finding an audience among heads looking to dig into the past. If you know it, I hope you enjoy the chance to revisit, and if you haven’t heard it, I hope you stick it out through the whole thing, because both the trip and the destination are entirely worth the effort.

Hope you dig.

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So uh, hey. Next week is Roadburn. Wish I could tell you the laundry is done, my bag is packed and I’m ready to roll, but the truth is that it kind of snuck up on me this year. I like that though. Better than waiting for months and months more than I am anyway for April to get here. I fly out on Tuesday, get in Wednesday morning to Tilburg, get to the hotel in time for the Hardrock Hideout on Wednesday night, then four days of heavy bliss ensue.

If you don’t know how I do Roadburn coverage, basically my goal is to review each day before the next day starts. This involves a lot of late-night posting, it does not involve a lot of sleep. I hope, if you choose to keep up with that adventure, you enjoy it. There will not be many posts next week aside from Roadburn coverage once that starts. Don’t want to say none, because you never know, but still, if any not many.

That’s okay though, because in addition to a rare Sunday post lined up, I’ve got a full-album stream on Monday for the new Black Rainbows and a track premiere from Sidewave, as well as a full-album stream Tuesday for Merchant and a track premiere for Atala. That’s pretty much a week’s worth of stuff anyway, so there you go. There’s more too. It’s going to be somewhat hectic. No big change there.

Posted about it on the social medias, but we hit a new record for listeners-at-once for The Obelisk Radio this week. It was awesome, and thank you. Wish I knew what was playing at the time, I’d put it on more.

I hope you have a great and safe weekend. Please check out the forum and radio stream.

The Obelisk Forum

The Obelisk Radio

Yeah, you read that right. 24 albums. Uriah Heep have come a long way, temporally and sonically, since they were Very ‘eavy Very ‘umble, and this June the long-running UK outfit led by guitarist/founder Mick Box will release their 24th studio offering in the form of Outsider on Frontiers Records. Their last record was 2011’s Into the Wild, and for Heep‘s consistent fanbase, the latest work stands out because it’s the first since the death of longtime bassist Trevor Bolder, who passed away last year.

The PR wire brings comment from Box on the acquisition of new bass player Dave Rimmer and the direction of the material on Outsider:

URIAH HEEP RETURNS WITH POWERFUL NEW RELEASE: OUTSIDER

URIAH HEEP is:
Mick Box: Guitars, Vocals
Phil Lanzon: Keyboards, Vocals
Bernie Shaw: Lead Singer
Russell Gilbrook: Drums, Vocals
Dave Rimmer: Bass, Vocals

Uriah Heep, one of the pivotal hard rock groups to emerge from England in the late 1960s returns with Outsider, its 24th studio album, and the first since 2011’s critically acclaimed Into the Wild album. Outsider will be released on June 6th in Europe, June 9th in the UK and June 10th in North America on Frontiers Records.

“We are very proud of our history” says founder/guitarist Mick Box, “but it is equally important to keep producing new material. This new album, Outsider, is very much a rock album in true ‘Heep’ style. It shows that we still have the same passion and energy for our music that we have always had.”

From the opening chords of the album’s hard driving rocker, “Speed of Sound”, to the more introspective closer, “Say Goodbye”, Outsider proves that Uriah Heep has remained a musical powerhouse, and one that can effectively balance its legendary sound with a distinctly contemporary approach. The record, which was produced by Mike Paxman (Asia, Status Quo), also introduces bassist Dave Rimmer, who joined the band last summer after the untimely death of long time member, Trevor Bolder.

Says Box of his late friend, Bolder: “We lost a world class bass player, singer, songwriter and friend. While Trevor was ill, he wanted us to continue working, so we used a bass player called Dave Rimmer, who Trevor approved of. It was only natural that Dave carried on with the band.”

After major tours of Europe, Scandinavia, Russia and South America, upon the release of Outsider, Uriah Heep will launch a world tour that will take in many continents as the band promotes the new album to an eager international audience.

Formed in London in 1969 by guitarist Mick Box and late singer David Byron as “Spice”, the group evolved into Uriah Heep (the name was taken from a character in Charles Dickens’ novel David Copperfield) when they began conceptualizing the first record. The album Very ‘eavy, Very ‘umble, launched the band’s distinct sound in 1970, one that was built around layered harmony vocals, swirling keyboards, and heavy guitar riffs. Current lead singer Bernie Shaw and keyboardist Phil Lanzon have been ever present since the mid 1980s, and drummer Russell Gilbrook joined Uriah Heep in 2007.

The band’s repertoire features hits over five decades from the 70s through to the present day including tracks such as; “Gypsy”, “ Easy Livin’”, “July Morning”, “Look At Yourself”, “Stealin’” and “Lady in Black”, which went to #1 in Germany on three different occasions, and once stayed at #1 for 6 months. They have gone on to sell 40 million records, and have toured globally for 5 decades, visiting no less than 56 countries, headlining numerous festivals and arena tours, including being the first western rock band to play Russia, in 1987. Founder Mick Box has remained throughout.

Track listing for Outsider:
Speed Of Sound, One Minute, The Law, The Outsider, Rock The Foundation, Is Anybody Gonna Help Me?, Looking At You, Can’t Take That Away, Jessie, Kiss The Rainbow, Say Goodbye

Preorder URIAH HEEP- the Outsider at: http://www.smarturl.it/heepoutsideramazon

www.uriah-heep.com
@uriah_heep
www.facebook.com/uriahheepofficial

Uriah Heep in the Studio

Admittedly, I usually have to be several beverages into the evening before I’ll break out Uriah Heep, but I’m pretty sure if any alcohol at all crossed my lips at this point, my cranium would just explode in a mess of mucus and a pathetically little amount of brain matter. At this point, I’m far enough into having this post-Roadburn cold that I’m sick of being sick. If only Tilburg SARS would listen to reason and go away on its own. Wednesday was the worst, yesterday was better, today’s worse than yesterday.

I’ve been coughing loudly and persistently enough to piss of those with whom I share my office space, and it seems like no matter how much stoner rock I blast, there’s no mending that fence. I’ll look forward to a long allergy season of being ostracized, and if I have to turn to Mick Box‘s über-grandiose solo in the second half of “The Magician’s Birthday” for comfort, so fucking be it. Damn my swimming head.

Nonetheless: There will be a new podcast this weekend.

The theme is that it’s all stuff I purchased on the recent adventure across the Atlantic, and in that regard, there’s more than enough material to choose from. I also picked up a 5-CD BBC audio documentary of Michael Palin’s Himalaya, which I read the book of before I realized it was a tv special and am now stoked to check out the audio from. My original plan was to talk over this podcast, I guess basically to nerd out over the albums I bought, but that would require a voice with which to speak, and right now I don’t have one at all, for speaking or much of anything else. Maybe I’ll let Mr. Palin do the honors instead if I can find some samples worth putting in.

But before I sign off for the week to embark on a night that will, aside from doing laundry, also hopefully lead to some level of recovery from this plague I brought back from foreign shores (I should’ve checked that box on the customs form that says I’m traveling with germ cultures), let me say thanks once more to everyone who checked out the Desertfest, Roadburn and other travel-type posts. If you’re going to Desertfest Berlin this weekend, you have my envy.

Whatever your plans might entail, a great and safe weekend to you and yours. Don’t forget that the podcast will be up before Sunday’s out (I have a wedding reception to attend tomorrow during the day, so I’m not sure exactly on the timing yet), and I’ll see you on the forum and back here Monday for another slew of riff-loving hijinks. All the best.

I mentioned last Saturday the self-titled album fro Icelandic proto-heavies Icecross that I picked up at the monthly Second Saturday Record Show in Wayne, but that was by no means the only piece of buried treasure I managed to unearth. Along with new albums by Mogwai (meh; people keep telling me I need to like them, I keep meh’ing out every time I hear them), Arbouretum (fuzzy freak folk that’s way too hip to see in person but not awful on record), Charlie Parker (I’m taking a class on him this semester), Primordial (Metal Blade‘s reissue of Storm Before Calm) — and perhaps most notably, three other heavy ’70s delights: Warpig by Warpig, Megaton by Megaton, and Wonderworld by Uriah Heep.

Some might recognize Warpig‘s Warpig from the reissue Relapse gave it in 2006, trying to keep a little momentum going in that direction after the success of unearthing the material for Pentagram‘s First Daze Here compilation. It didn’t really work out in terms of sales, but I dug Warpig well enough to grab the original CD release this weekend. The Canadian band, who reunited in 2004 and may or may not have put out an album since (they have a cover, but I couldn’t see anywhere on their website to buy it), only put out this one album before breaking up in 1973, so it’s not like I’m embarking on a massive discography, but for the pre-NWOBHM gallop of “Sunflight,” it was worth picking up. This may actually be a bootleg version, and that’s fine too.

Knowing literally nothing about the band, I bought the self-titled Megaton CD solely based on its cover. Not much is really known about the band — there may be some connection to Les Humpires (which sounds like the French TV Guide‘s description for True Blood but is/was apparently a person) — but I officially have no idea. There’s a couple cool tracks, but nothing really landmark, and among the canon of the decade, it fits in more than it stands out. Whatever. I got my money’s worth out of the cover alone, which is as good an argument for LP over CD as I’ve seen. I’d love to hang it on my wall. The Patient Mrs., probably not so much.

By the time they got around to putting out 1974’s Wonderworld — amazingly, their seventh album since 1970’s debut Very ‘eavy, Very ‘umble — British rockers Uriah Heep had long since “gone prog,” and there’s no looking back to the band’s bluesy start across these nine drama-filled and technically intricate tracks, though “Suicidal Man” doesn’t lack for heavy crunch in its central riff. The seminal outfit apparently will have a new album out in 2011, and while I don’t know if I’ll stick with Wonderworld the way I did the first record or 1972’s Demons and Wizards, it’s definitely worthy of future investigation as the weather begins to let up. No regrets, in any case.

The Icecross record might still have been the highlight of the haul; so much darker than everything else and a complete out-of-nowhere surprise as it was. I got that, the Megaton and the Warpig from the same vendor, all ridiculously overpriced. I talked the woman down to an acceptable ask for all three, but I think doing so puts me in a different category of “record show asshole,” so there’s an additional cost there. You pay the price one way or another, I suppose. At least my way left me with enough cash for lunch afterward.

Have I had seven beers? Yes. Does that mean this Uriah Heep video isn’t the best thing ever? Absolutely not. Do I understand the double-negative I just perpetrated? No dice. Enjoy “The Wizard” from 1972’s Demons and Wizards: