Posted in Whathaveyou on December 2nd, 2022 by JJ Koczan
No lack of substance as Desertfest Berlin 2023 moves forward this morning (afternoon CET) with its second announcement for next May, adding the likes of Corrosion of Conformity, Bongzilla, Monolord, Slift, Minami Deutsch, Valley of the Sun, Dommengang, Kanaan, Mother Engine, and Gnome to what was already a packed bill. Accordingly, the European underground’s touring sphere — of which this fest is a significant part in the Spring season — is also starting to take shape, and if you’re paying attention, you can start to connect some of the dots for who will be on the road when and where, as well as speculate who will be out with whom, and so on. These are things I enjoy thinking about.
I’ve never been to this fest, would love to go. I imagine it’ll be a little different this year with a shift in venue, but my understanding is the vibe is where it’s at in Berlin, and after so many years, I have no trouble thinking Desertfest Berlin feels like home to many who will attend, no matter where it’s actually taking place. I mean, as long as it’s in Berlin. Would be weird if they decided to run Desertfest Berlin in Copenhagen one year or something (though an extension of the festival brand in that Danish city would likely be ace in its own right).
Here’s the latest, courtesy of the fest:
DESERTFEST BERLIN — NEW BANDS ADDED TO THE 2023 LINE-UP
Desertfest Berlin is happy to add to the line-up of the 2023 edition (May 19-21, 2023):
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY MONOLORD SLIFT BONGZILLA MINAMI DEUTSCH MOTHER ENGINE VALLEY OF THE SUN DOMMENGANG KANAAN GNOME
Along with: UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS THE OBSESSED KING BUFFALO CHURCH OF MISERY DOZER BLOOD CEREMONY L.A. WITCH SOMALI YACHT CLUB GNOD ECSTATIC VISION DAILY THOMPSON GAUPA PSYCHLONA + much more TBA
Weekend tickets for Desertfest Berlin 2023 are on sale NOW via the link in our bio or www.desertfest.de
The new venues for the 2023 edition will be Columbiahalle and Columbia Theater Berlin (with additional outdoor space & stage). Address: Columbiadamm 13-21, 10965 Berlin.
Desertfest Berlin May 19th – 21st 2023 will take place at Columbiahalle and Columbia Theater (with additional outdoor space & stage) this year.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 30th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Some considerable names in the first announcement for Desertfest London 2023. The festival set for next May 5-7 in Camden Town will be kind of the first to be removed from the effects of pandemic delay — many artists who played earlier this year had been originally booked for 2020. Seeing them move forward is encouraging.
All the more so given the bands playing, from Uncle Acid and Kadavar to High Desert Queen and Plainride. With Mars Red Sky, Ecstatic Vision and Gaupa included, Blood Ceremony, Spaceslug and a ton of others in just this first round, it looks like Desertfest is ready to throw down after a few rough years, now a survivor event hopefully that much stronger for the experience as it moves past its first decade into the next.
Announcement follows, as seen on social media:
DESERTFEST LONDON – FIRST BANDS ANNOUNCED FOR 2023 EDITION
Returning stronger than ever thanks to the unyielding support of our steadfast fan base, Desertfest is now entering its eleventh year next May. Kicking off the initial 2023 announcement, we welcome cult heroes Uncle Acid and the deadbeats to headline the Roundhouse for the very first time. As one of the most widely-requested bands in the Desertfest-sphere, the Uncle Acid amalgamation of riff-driven hard-rock & trippy melodic weavings has allowed a uniquely original, yet utterly timeless beast to form.
Swedish heavy-blues maestros Graveyard join once again, eliciting raw emotion with their lyrical prowess & introspective compositions. One of the greatest live acts of all time, German groovers KADAVAR and worshippers of vintage occult folklore Blood Ceremony, all of whose boundary pushing retro-rock sounds make a gratifying return.
For those with a heavier appetite, macabre Japanese doom legends Church of Misery, genre-bending nihilists INTER ARMA & London’s own gloom heroes Grave Lines should be a delectable entrée to proceedings.
Ukraine’s Somali Yacht Club will undoubtedly meet a rapturous reception when their flawless musicianship makes its long awaited Desertfest debut. Dynamic US rockers Valley of the Sun will also make their first DF appearance, as they quickly propel themselves onto ‘must see’ lists across the globe.
Poland’s own Spaceslug will bring revellers into a world of atmospheric sci-fi influenced proto-doom, whilst the unique sounds of Mars Red Sky, GAUPA & Ecstatic Vision also up the ante with their progressive fusions of stoner & psychedelia.
Rounding off this first announcement, we also warmly welcome Celestial Sanctuary, High Desert Queen, Plainride, Everest Queen, Venomwolf & Margarita Witch Cult.
Weekend tickets for Desertfest London 2023 are on sale now, with much more still to be announced – www.desertfest.co.uk
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 14th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
You may or may not already know this, but I daydream about these kinds of things all the time. Traveling to a festival someplace I’ve never been, meeting people and seeing music I’d probably never be able to see otherwise, at least not in that kind of setting or situation. Seems strange to think this as I’m about to travel to Europe for another festival, but between Savanah and Wedge and Swan Valley Heights, bands like Cone and Les Lekin and The Strange Seeds, there’s stuff here that I’m not likely to run into anywhere else and even though I can’t go, that’s one of my favorite things to write and think about. Someone will have good hangs and check out cool tunes. Even when it’s not me, the world doesn’t get much better than that.
June 18 is the pre-show, and none other than The Atomic Bitchwax will headline that, which if you’re looking to have your ass handed to you with rock and roll, that’s who you call. I don’t know how open the pre-show is, but with just 400 tickets available for the fest proper, this strikes me as the kings of weekend that everybody is going to come out of with a few new friends.
From the PR wire:
Blackdoor Outdoor Festival 2022
With the Blackdoor music festival we would like to provide live-music-lovers a new opportunity to enjoy some handpicked stoner, blues and psychedelic rock bands in lower Bavaria and our surroundings. The focus of our new in- and outdoor event series lies on providing a comfortable atmosphere to enjoy hand-made music while having some great times together as organizers and audience.
Blackdoor = Vacation, tickets are available here:www.blackdoor-festival.de. We are looking forward to seeing you!
Lineup: Tides From Nebula Greenleaf Valley of the Sun Wedge Savanah Enigma Experience Swan Valley Heights Cone Les Lekin Scorched Oak Ozymandias The Strange Seeds Bazodee
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 23rd, 2022 by JJ Koczan
First I was like, ‘Oh damn, that day one lineup rules!’ and then I was all, ‘Oh damn, but look at day two!’ and that’s how I know this festival will be a good time. Lazy Bones, in the spirit of Up in Smoke or Keep it Cool — both in the autumn season — is a new festival helmed by the obviously-capable hands of Sound of Liberation, set to take place July 29-30 in Hamburg, Germany. And yeah, the lineup rules so far. There’s apparently more to come — I’m not sure how much more because I’m not sure how many stages there will be; figure one or two for a first-time-out kind of fest — but anytime Sound of Liberation plants a flag on a weekend and says they’re doing a festival, it’s worth paying attention.
The end of July puts Lazy Bones a respectful two weeks apart from Stoned From the Underground in Erfurt, and Hamburg is over three and a half hours by train anyhow, so not much stepping on toes there. Where it is, Lazy Bones is in a good position to catch some tours just ending and others just beginning, and I continue to look forward to a day when Europe has a different festival to offer — at least one — somewhere on the continent every weekend of the year. Think it can’t happen? I mean, it most likely won’t, but stranger crap certainly has.
Some day I will see My Sleeping Karma. This’d be a cool way to do it.
From social media:
Lazy Bones Festival: WITCH, Colour Haze, My Sleeping Karma, King Buffalo & many more
29. & 30. JULY 2022: LAZY BONES
Friends, today we’re super excited to present you what we’ve been working on in secret lately…
Please welcome a brand new SOL Festival in the beautiful city of Hamburg: Lazy Bones!
Two days of finest stoner & psychedelic rock in the legendary „Gruenspan“ club in one of the most beautiful maritime cities.
LINE UP Friday 29.07.2022 Witch King Buffalo Valley of the Sun & more to be announced
Saturday 30.07.2022 Colour Haze MY SLEEPING KARMA – OFFICIAL monkey3 Wo Fat Lucid Void & more to be announced
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 18th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
It had been almost a decade — mere months away — since I last saw Valley of the Sun before catching them at the Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn for opening pre-party of Desertfest New York 2022 (review here), and among my first thoughts watching them as they tore into a selection of tracks from their new record, The Chariot (review here), and past releases was, ‘god damn, these guys need to get back to Europe.’ They were last there in 2019, touring with Bellringer, no less, and the extensive, many-festivals-inclusive list of dates should serve them well as they promote the album. My reasoning was pretty simple — the lineup that founding guitarist/vocalist Ryan Ferrier has behind him feels ready for bigger stages and as many eyes and ears as they can grab. And Europe is where that happens.
Total Volume Agency booked the shows, and again, it’s by no means the Cincinnati-based four-piece’s first time abroad, but even if you’ve seen them before — maybe it’s been a while, like it had been for me — consider showing up all the more of an imperative for the righteous performance this incarnation of Valley of the Sun brings. It’s not a thing you’ll regret.
The Chariot is out June 17 on Fuzzorama Records and Ripple Music. Dates follow:
We’re excited to get back to Europe! It’s been too long. If we don’t have a show in your town, check out one of the many awesome festivals we’re playing on this tour.
Total Volume presents: Valley of the Sun European Tour 2022: 25.06 – DE – Wasted! Open Air 01.07 – CY – Strovolos – Down Town Live 02.07 – DE – Blackdoor Music Festival 04.07 – FR – Paris – Supersonic 07.07 – DE – Würzburg – Immerhin 08.07 – PL – Red Smoke Festival 09.07 – IT – Indigest Festival 10.07 – IT – Tuscany – TBA 13.07 – FR – Chambéry – Le Brin du Zinc 14.07 – CH – Zurich – Werk 21 15.07 – DE – Rock auf Dem Berg 16.07 – DE – Halle (Saale) – Rockpool E.v. 17.07 – DE – Berlin – Cassiopeia 21.07 – DE – Hannover – Lux 22.07 – DE – E-Lite-Culture Festival 23.07 – AT – Salzburg – Rockhouse 28.07 – DE – Frankfurt – Zoom 29.07 – DE – Hamburg – Gruespan 30.07 – DE – Rock Im Wald Festival 02.08 – DE – Köln – MTC 04.08 – DE – Münster – Rare Guitar 05.08 – DE – Aquamaria Festival 06.08 – DE – Krach am Bach Open Air 11.08 – CH – Palp Festival – Rocklette 12.08 – FR – Marseille – Rapts Corpus 13.08 – FR – Queyrock Open Air 14.08 – ES – Barcelona – Upload 16.08 – ES – TBA 17.08 – ES – Santander – Rock Beer The New 18.08 – ES – Mos (Pontevedra) – Sala Rebullon 19.08 – PT – Viano do Castelo – Cave Avenida 21.08 – FR – Motocultor Festival
VALLEY OF THE SUN are: Ryan Ferrier – Guitar/Vocals Lex Vegas – Drums Chris Sweeney – Bass, Keys Josh Pilot – Guitar
Is it real? Doesn’t feel yet like it could be. I was at Desertfest New York in 2019, and it was a blast while obviously shooting as well to be a proof of concept in terms of whether or not a DF-branded thing could work here. It was also 10 lifetimes ago.
And before we go any further, I propose the official game of Desertfest NYC 2022 is that, whoever feels so clever as to point out that Brooklyn is indeed not a desert ecosystem gets punched in the arm. “Ah you said it!” Punch. Doesn’t have to be a hard punch.
This is the pre-show, which makes the coffee I pounded at the shop down the way as the pre-pre-show. It’s been the better part of three years since I was last at a festival like this, and with coordination by the powers that be at Desertfests London and Berlin, this second DFNY has significantly upped the scale from its lone predecessor. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, packed. Tonight is “just” four bands. An easing in, if you will.
I don’t have a coverage plan for the next few days. I’m going to write when I can, take pictures when I can, do my best to stay hydrated and unconcerned about shit like catching the plague or where to stand so I don’t feel like an asshole. That’s gonna be a big one in terms of difficulty.
But I got to the Vitus Bar early, which is fine because I’d rather sit in a coffee shop than traffic, and apart from needing to use the restroom [I did avail myself of the W.C., labeled as such], I was reasonably comfortable if restless. I took a Xanax before I left the house but am otherwise lucid. I made and brought pecan butter to eat in the car, because that’s who I am. And I have to feed the meter sometime between 5 and 5:30 so I don’t blow it on parking. All of this felt very urgent, because I was nervous about the show.
—
Druids
Their new album is about to come out on Pelagic. They have it for sale in the back, reportedly, which I may have to investigate for myself. The Des Moines trio were supposed to be touring with Planet of Zeus, but so it goes. They did well in the opening spot, had a good and celebratory crowd on their side from the start. Some sludge, some more modern progressive heavy, and they carried it across well in a short set. I could tell you how long it’s been since I’ve seen a band for the first time, but frankly it’s embarrassing. Druids made it easy to remember why I enjoy that kind of thing. Circumstances permitting, they should tour as much as possible. And for having had their tour essentially pulled out from under their feet, they were putting in admirable work on stage and making the most of what they had. For being unfamiliar, I was impressed by their range.
—
Freedom Hawk
Freedom Hawk are one of at least two bands on this bill about to put out their best album to-date. They played two new songs in “Take All You Can” and “” and their older stuff was a joy to revisit. Doesn’t seem like that long ago since the last time I saw them here, but turns out it’s been a few years. Live there’s always extra heart in their stuff and the fun they’re having comes across more when you can see them having it, even though Mark Cave’s bass had to be turned down because it was “insane.” And so it was. While I’m thinking of the rhythm section, watching the drums during “Blood Red Sky,” which might need to be moved to a set closer position, have me a whole new appreciation for the snare work in that song and elsewhere throughout Freedom Hawk’s oeuvre. Mostly they were a blast though, whatever you were paying attention to, and they must certainly found welcome in the increasingly packed out room.
—
Valley of the Sun
I didn’t drive 11 hours to be here tonight, but Valley of the Sun did, and I don’t know about for them, but it was certainly worth the trip for me. It’s been a decade easy since I last saw them and they too are about to put out the best record they’ve ever made. They had the songs in their set to prove it. “The Chariot,” “Devil I’ve Become.” And I won’t say a bad word, ever, about “Riding the Dunes,” but with so much good new stuff around it, it was just one of a number of highlights even if the last one. They tore it up, and Ryan Ferrier has assembled a lineup for the band that feels built for the stage. They were a joy enough that my neck will be sore tomorrow and I feel lucky to have seen them right now. I asked immediately when they were going on tour and the answer was soon. I’ll be keeping an eye out for that announcement, and if you’re reading this sentence, you should too. What a night this is.
—
The Atomic Bitchwax
Fuck, I think I got motion sickness from The Atomic Bitchwax’s riffs. No, really. From the stage, Chris Kosnik, “You wanna hear a fast one or a slow one? Trick question, they’re all fast ones.” I mean, it’s been years since I’ve seen just about anybody, but I feel like it’s even more too long when it comes to these guys. To wit, this is my first time since Garrett Sweeny joined on guitar, and it just works. I’ve seen him play with Monster Magnet — same goes for all of them, I guess — but this band is all about letting loose and ripping it up. And especially in a style where so much is about slow groove and nodding out, here come the Bitchwax just daring you, the other bands they’re playing with on any given night and humanity in general to keep up if you, they, all can. As a band, their oneupsmanship is unreal. It is right that they are headlining. And they did “Kiss the Sun,” and “Birth to the Earth” and “Hope You Die,” and oh, the years since the last time I saw them just melted. T-t-t-total. Freedom. To think a few hours ago I was sitting at the bar reading a book and the place was dead. Now this. How is it not magic? I guess it is. I think I’m gonna throw up though. Still dizzy. Might die. But I’ll die with “So Come On” stuck in my head, so mark that a win.
Gadzooks! You’d almost think I planned these things out in advance. Please rest assured that this 84th episode of The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal is as conceptually haphazard as usual — I’d say it’s as haphazard in execution as well, but Dean Rispler does a banger job putting it all together, editing, etc. — so it’s really just my end that’s a wreck. In any case, today begins Desertfest New York 2022 proper at the Knockdown Center in Brooklyn, and I’m thrilled to have this playlist as a selection from among the bands playing it.
Some are New York or area natives — Geezer, King Buffalo from Upstate, Somnuri from Brooklyn itself — but whether it’s WarHorse coming down from Boston to play or High on Fire, Brume, Red Fang, Dead Meadow, Sasquatch and others coming from the other side of the country to Orange Goblin making the trip from the UK, it’s a rager. The playlist is killer because the fest is killer. Simple as that.
I won’t be in the chat this time because, well, I’ll be at the fest, but I’ll check in if I can. Thanks if you listen, and thanks for reading.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at: http://gimmemetal.com.
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 05.13.22
Corrosion of Conformity
Deliverance
Deliverance
Torche
Mentor
Torche
High on Fire
Hung, Drawn & Quartered
Surrounded by Thieves
VT1
John Garcia
Chicken Delight
John Garcia & The Band of Gold
Sasquatch
It Lies Beyond the Bay
Fever Fantasy
Dead Meadow
Sleepy Silver Door
Live at Roadburn 2011
Brume
Despondence
Rabbits
Red Fang
Number Thirteen
Murder the Mountains
Somnuri
Watch the Lights Go Out
Nefarious Wave
King Buffalo
The Knocks
The Burden of Restlessness
Orange Goblin
They Come Back (Harvest of Skulls)
Healing Through Fire
VT2
Inter Arma
A Waxen Sea
Sulphur English
WarHorse
Lysergic Communion
As Heaven Turns to Ash
Yatra
Terminate by the Sword
Born Into Chaos
Valley of the Sun
The Chariot
The Chariot
Druids
Path to R
Shadow Work
High Reeper
Plague Hag
Higher Reeper
Greenbeard
Diamond in the Devil’s Grinder
Variant
VT3
Geezer
Atomic Moronic
Stoned Blues Machine
Howling Giant
Nomad
The Space Between Worlds
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is May 27 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
Ohio heavy rockers Valley of the Sun will release their new album, The Chariot, on June 17 through Ripple Music and Fuzzorama Records. It is the Cincinnati-based four-piece’s second album for Fuzzorama, first for Ripple and fourth overall behind 2019’s Old Gods (review here), and it finds guitarist/vocalist Ryan Ferrier the lone remaining original member of the band with the acquisition of new drummer Lex Vegas. Bassist/keyboardist Chris Sweeney and guitarist Josh Pilot both played on the last record, but at 12 years remove from their debut EP, Two Thousand Ten, their time as a band has always been marked by lineup changes.
What makes their run to-date all the more impressive is their consistency in the character of their songwriting. The Chariot — which may or may not be named after a car; I’m leaning yes — continues a tradition for Valley of the Sun that goes back to their very beginnings in that first EP and 2011’s The Sayings of the Seers (review here, discussed here), which is it brings together a collection of ace tracks, constructed with care and passion both, energetically delivered with a mind toward live energy but a crisp, and all-pro-style recording sound. They begin using the according depth of their production immediately — the literal first seconds of opener “Sweet Sands” — as some particularly Hendrixian wah guitar leads the way into the first smoothly layered hook of the many to come.
Every song has something. That’s not saying The Chariot doesn’t have a flow from one song to the next — the shift from “Headlights” to “As We Decay” argues otherwise on linear formats — but from that initial guitar lick in “Sweet Sands” through the thudding drum part in the break and under the solo of “Images” to the stamping snare and insert-that-when-they-play-the-riff-slower-meme-here slowdown in the initially careening “Devil I’ve Become” (video premiering below), the post-midpoint comedown and build back up of “The Chariot,” the semi-psychedelic guitar at the end of “Headlights” that makes the aforementioned transition to “As We Decay,” which is a ballad complete with what may be slide guitar.
And if you’re listening on vinyl, that song begins side B with no flinch in purpose, with backing from the quieter buildup and Queens of the Stone Age-style backing vocals of “Running Out of Love,” the organ on the messy divorce story “Sunblind,” the flourish of cowbell here and there in the penultimate we’re-going-to-do-Def–Leppard-but-heavy “The Flood” and the layered melodies and non-lyric vocals in “Colosseum,” which also rounds out The Chariot with a riff that’s about as signature as it gets for Valley of the Sun.
None of this is to say that the band or Ferrier as the presumed principal songwriter is shooting for novelty. Rather, it is emblematic of the care Valley of the Sun have always put into their work that each successive cut on their fourth album should have to justify its existence to them. Each Valley of the Sun album, from 2014’s Electric Talons of the Thunderhawk (review here) to 2016’s Volume Rock (review here) to Old Gods to The Chariot has been a step forward from the last.
The same can be heard in the arrangement and treatment on Ferrier‘s vocals, which take full advantage of his range and ability to change up his delivery from one moment to the next, and even in the additional level of crunch brought into sections like the payoff nod groove of “Devil I’ve Become” or in the bridge between verses on “Sunblind” that is just the kind of sonic detail one has come to expect from the band, adding to the adrenaline at just the right time to emphasize movement.
That physicality is a big part of the momentum that The Chariot builds — even the title itself implies going somewhere, and the somewhat escapist lyrics back that up — as “Sweet Sands” and “Images” both roll out at a comfortable pace before they kick into the speedier beginning of “Devil I’ve Become.” At the start of side B, when “As We Decay” goes quiet ahead of the Brant Bjork-strum that begins “Running Out of Love,” the sound is gentler but no less considered, and that applies to side B’s own centerpiece-as-tempo-burst “Sunblind” as well.
All of this drives home the point that Valley of the Sun know what they’re doing. They know the heavy rock band they are and the band they want to be, and when “Colosseum” ends solid, they know that they’re ending the set at the show they just put on. It’s not about leaving in or taking out mistakes in songs — I’m sure there are flubs here and there that the band would have no trouble pointing out if asked; those kinds of things are crucial — but about capturing the electricity in the conversation that is the performance of the players involved, and on The Chariot, balancing that with as lush and far-reaching a production value as Valley of the Sun have ever had. There’s a restlessness behind them — fair, considering the era — but the care that’s taken in presenting this material isn’t to be understated or devalued.
It stands as further evidence that Valley of the Sun are veterans at this point. Their intention to take their favorite classic heavy rock, make it theirs, and give it to their audience could not be plainer. If they’re hiding anything from the listener, they’ve hidden it well, and though on first listen some of what they do might seem easy — they are and always have been an easy band to listen to — or maybe just straightforward on its surface with seven or eight of the 10 songs in the four-minute range, as deep as you want to go in hearing it, The Chariot will meet you there. And better, it’ll bring hooks too. Valley of the Sun know their sound, know that much of their listenership knows their sound, and still keep finding new things to make it do while delivering on the promise of their prior work. It is what you would hope a fourth album to be. It puts the songs first.
