Posted in Whathaveyou on June 22nd, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Chicago experimentalist-in-form metallers Yakuza always seemed to suffer the fate of those whose sound lie between styles. They reaped plenty of critical praise each time out, but as it goes with bands who challenge convention one way or another, their songs’ willfully jarring turns and shifting atmospheres set themselves beyond kneejerk accessibility and, well, there you go. By the time their next record comes out, it will have been 10 years since Beyul (review here) was issued through Profound Lore, and that album, along with 2002’s Way of the Dead — imagine this band on Century Media for a minute; it was a different age — and presumably the rest of their catalog, will be reissued through War Crime Recordings, which is the label Yakuza frontman/saxophonist Bruce Lamont runs alongside Sanford Parker, who’s also producing the new Yakuza album. Keeping it all in the family, as it were.
Of course, Lamont has hardly been idle in the last decade. In addition to founding War Crime — who were also kind enough to publish a collection of short stories by yours truly in 2016, thereby earning eternal gratitude — and taking part in Corrections House again alongside Parker and members of Neurosis and Eyehategod, he’s released solo work and an album with Bloodiest, and so on. Last year, he took part in a quarantine-era socially-distant cover of Trouble‘s “The Tempter” (posted here) with Parker and members of Snow Burial and Pelican. So yeah, dude gets around.
Looking forward to this though. Should be like a coming home, oddly shaped as that home may be.
From the PR wire:
YAKUZA To Begin Recording First New Studio Album In Ten Years; Back Catalog To See Reissue On Vinyl Via War Crime Recordings!
Chicago’s YAKUZA will begin recording their long-awaited, as-yet-untitled new studio album!
The band will enter Palisades Studio with engineer Sanford Parker (Yob, Voivod) later this month. The recording will be completed and mixed at Parker’s own Hypercube Studios. Set for worldwide release in the Spring of 2022, the record follows their critically lauded Beyul full-length (2012) and marks YAUKZA’s first official studio output in ten years!
Offers vocalist/saxophonist Bruce Lamont, “Ten years! You would think that a bunch has changed, Well, some has and some hasn’t. The shronky, heavy, hairpin tempo shifts are still there, now add more bottom end thanks to current bassist Jerome Marshall. This new batch of tunes is a nice mix of weird and riffy and we couldn’t be happier with how everything has come together.”
Adds bassist Jerome Marshall, “It’s a return to form from the origins of where the band began. A return to post-metal, avant-garde jazz-influenced heavy chaos with the structural balance of intrinsic order.”
The record will be released in North America via Lamont and Parker’s joint imprint, War Crime Recordings, with Svart Recordings handling Europe and beyond.
In related news, War Crime Recordings will reissue the YAKUZA back catalog on a limited-edition LP throughout the coming months. First up is 2012’s Beyul which has never before been available on vinyl.
Comments Lamont, “We over at War Crime Recordings have had a plan for a number of years to reissue all the YAKUZA LPs that haven’t seen the light day and then reissue the ones that have. Beyul was an obvious first choice. Originally released back in 2012 through Profound Lore, this reissue is a single LP gatefold edition. The mastering for the LP was done back in 2012 by Colin Jordon and we couldn’t be happier with the result. Next up…Way Of The Dead!”
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 9th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Chicago-based experimentalist Bruce Lamont — he of Corrections House, Yakuza, Bloodiest, and so on — will release his new solo album, Broken Limbs Excite No Pity, on March 23 via War Crime Recordings. There’s a trailer video posted.
Okay, so those are pretty much the basics. You can go ahead and expect those to be the only things in any way basic about the release. Lamont, whose contributions on sax vocals, guitar and a variety of other noisemaking implements have helped push releases from more bands than I can count to new levels of progressive accomplishment, is a deeply creative sonic explorer. I last saw him on stage in his hometown with Scott Kelly in 2015 (review here) and though that night and everything about that trip in general was weird as hell — ask me about it sometime — it was nonetheless incredible to see what he brought to even such an intimate, quiet setting in terms of sonic breadth.
The rundown of accomplishments that the PR wire tosses out below is formidable, and from the track descriptions it looks like Lamont‘s covering a pretty significant range on the release as a whole. I’d expect no less.
Art and details:
BRUCE LAMONT To Release Broken Limbs Excite No Pity Via War Crime Recordings This March; Album Teaser Posted
When BRUCE LAMONT released his first solo album, Feral Songs For The Epic Decline, seven years ago, he was best known as the leader of the psychedelic Chicago jazz-metal group Yakuza. Thus, that album’s morose, arty songs came as a radical departure, showing him to be just as comfortable constructing droning, Swans-like epics as exploding with industrial and black metal-inspired rage. In the six years since, his creative journey has taken him farther and farther afield. He’s part of electronic noise-dirge squad Corrections House, with Eyehategod’s Mike IX Williams, Neurosis’s Scott Kelly, and longtime creative partner Sanford Parker; the mind-melting jazz-prog-hardcore trio Brain Tentacles, with Keelhaul bassist Aaron Dallison and grind drummer par excellence Dave Witte, and dozens of other projects, large and small, collaborating with an ever-growing network of like minds.
Broken Limbs Excite No Pity, LAMONT’s second solo album, is in many ways a harsher experience than Feral Songs. Tracked in Chicago’s Minbal Studios with Sanford Parker behind the board, it’s a one-man show like its predecessor — LAMONT sings, harmonizing mournfully with himself, and plays saxophone, guitar, percussion, and electronics. Also like last time, it opens with an eleven-minute epic. “Excite No Pity” starts out featuring multiple crying saxophones and deep, almost Bill Laswell-esque bass drones, but is ultimately overtaken by searing electronic noise. “MacLean” warps an acoustic guitar melody with tape effects, to keep it from sounding too much like a Kansas song, while “Goodbye Electric Sunday” is a unique blend of spaghetti western soundtrack and beat poetry over an almost hip-hop groove. LAMONT uses his voice as an instrument almost as often as he uses it to put across his lyrics. On “Neither Spare Nor Dispose,” he wails and groans as loops of forcefully strummed acoustic guitar and rumbling percussion thunder past, and static washes over it all like a wave.
At its base, music is sound (noise, if you like) organized into patterns. And those sounds/noises don’t have to be pretty ones, as long as the patterns are compelling. BRUCE LAMONT understands this intuitively, and has demonstrated an ability to create hypnotic, ominous, emotionally resonant and even somehow transcendent arrangements of patterned sound. These aren’t “songs” like you hear on the radio. They’re literally sound art. This is an album you dunk your head in like a bucket of ice water, and when you pull it back out, you’re not the same person you were before. – Phil Freeman, 2018
Broken Limbs Excite No Pity will see release on CD, digital, and limited vinyl formats via War Crime Recordings on March 23rd.
Broken Limbs Excite No Pity Track Listing: 1. Excite No Pity 2. 8-9-3 3. MacLean 4. Goodbye Electric Sunday 5. Neither Spare Nor Dispose 6. The Crystal Effect 7. Moonlight And The Sea
Posted in Features on December 22nd, 2017 by JJ Koczan
Please note: This post is not culled in any way from the Year-End Poll, which is ongoing. If you haven’t yet contributed your favorites of 2017 to that, please do.
—
This is the hardest list to put together, no question. Don’t get me wrong, I put way too much thought into all of them, but this one is damn near impossible to keep up with. Every digital single, every demo, every EP, every 7″, 10″ one-sided 12″, whatever it is. There’s just too much. I’m not going to claim to have heard everything. Hell, that’s what the comments are for. Let me know what I missed. Invariably, something.
So while the headers might look similar, assuming I can ever remember which fonts I use from one to the next, this list has a much different personality than, say, the one that went up earlier this week with the top 20 debuts of 2017. Not that I heard everyone’s first record either, but we’re talking relative ratios here. The bottom line is please just understand I’ve done my best to hear as much as possible. I’m only one person, and there are only so many hours in the day. Eventually your brain turns into riffy mush.
With that caveat out of the way, I’m happy to present the following roundup of some of what I thought were 2017’s best short releases. That’s EPs, singles, demos, splits — pretty much anything that wasn’t a full-length album, and maybe one or two things that were right on the border of being one. As between genres, the lines are blurry these days. That’s part of what makes it fun.
Okay, enough dawdling. Here we go:
The Obelisk Presents: The Top 20 Short Releases of 2017
1. Lo-Pan, In Tensions
2. Godhunter, Codex Narco
3. Year of the Cobra, Burn Your Dead
4. Shroud Eater, Three Curses
5. Stubb, Burning Moon
6. Canyon, Canyon
7. Solace, Bird of Ill Omen
8. Kings Destroy, None More
9. Tarpit Boogie, Couldn’t Handle… The Heavy Jam
10. Supersonic Blues, Supersonic Blues Theme
11. Come to Grief, The Worst of Times EP
12. Rope Trick, Red Tape
13. Eternal Black, Live at WFMU
14. IAH, IAH
15. Bong Wish, Bong Wish EP
16. Rattlesnake, Outlaw Boogie Demo
17. Hollow Leg, Murder
18. Mars Red Sky, Myramyd
19. Avon, Six Wheeled Action Man Tank 7″
20. Wretch, Bastards Born
Honorable Mention
Across Tundras, Blood for the Sun / Hearts for the Rain
The Discussion, Tour EP
Fungus Hill, Creatures
Switchblade Jesus & Fuzz Evil, The Second Coming of Heavy – Chapter Seven
The Grand Astoria, The Fuzz of Destiny
Test Meat, Demo
Blood Mist, Blood Mist
Sweat Lodge, Tokens for Hell
Dautha, Den Foerste
Scuzzy Yeti, Scuzzy Yeti
Howling Giant, Black Hole Space Wizard Part 2
Decasia, The Lord is Gone
Bible of the Devil/Leeches of Lore, Split 7″
I can’t imagine I won’t add a name or two or five to this section over the next few days as I think of other things and people remind me of stuff and so on, so keep an eye out, but the point is there’s way more than just what made the top 20. That Across Tundras single would probably be on the list proper just on principle, but I heard it like a week ago and it doesn’t seem fair. Speaking of unfair, The Discussion, Howling Giant, The Grand Astoria and the Bible of the Devil/Leeches of Lore split all deserve numbered placement easily. I might have to make this a top 30 in 2018, just to assuage my own guilt at not being able to include everything I want to include. For now though, yeah, this is just the tip of the doomberg.
Notes
To be totally honest with you, that Lo-Pan EP came out Jan. 13 and pretty much had the year wrapped up in my head from that point on. It was going to be hard for anything to top In Tensions, and the Godhunter swansong EP came close for the sense of stylistic adventurousness it wrought alone, and ditto that for Year of the Cobra’s bold aesthetic expansions on Burn Your Dead and Shroud Eater’s droning Three Cvrses, but every time I heard Jeff Martin singing “Pathfinder,” I knew it was Lo-Pan’s year and all doubt left my mind. Of course, for the Ohio four-piece, In Tensions is something of a one-off with the departure already of guitarist Adrian Zambrano, but I still have high hopes for their next record. It would be hard not to.
The top five is rounded out by Stubb’s extended jam/single “Burning Moon,” which was a spacey delight and new ground for them to cover. The self-titled debut EP from Philly psych rockers Canyon, which they’ve already followed up, is next. I haven’t had the chance to hear the new one yet, but Canyon hit a sweet spot of psychedelia and heavy garage that made me look forward to how they might develop, so I’ll get there sooner or later. Solace’s return was nothing to balk at with their cassingle “Bird of Ill Omen” and the Sabbath cover with which they paired it, and though Kings Destroy weirded out suitably on the 14-minute single-song EP None More, I hear even greater departures are in store with their impending fourth LP, currently in progress.
A couple former bandmates of mine feature in Tarpit Boogie in guitarist George Pierro and bassist John Eager, and both are top dudes to be sure, but even if we didn’t have that history, it would be hard to ignore the tonal statement they made on their Couldn’t Handle… The Heavy Jam EP. If you didn’t hear it, go chase it down on Bandcamp. Speaking of statements, Supersonic Blues’ Supersonic Blues Theme 7″ was a hell of an opening salvo of classic boogie that I considered to be one of the most potential-laden offerings of the year. Really. Such warmth to their sound, but still brimming with energy in the most encouraging of ways. Another one that has to be heard to be believed.
The dudes are hardly newcomers, but Grief offshoot Come to Grief sounded pretty fresh — and raw — on their The Worst of Times EP, and the Massachusetts extremists check in right ahead of fellow New Englangers Rope Trick, who are an offshoot themselves of drone experimentalists Queen Elephantine. Red Tape was a demo in the demo tradition, and pretty formative sounding, but seemed to give them plenty of ground on which to develop their aesthetic going forward, and I wouldn’t ask more of it than that.
Eternal Black gave a much-appreciated preview of their Bleed the Days debut long-player with Live at WFMU and earned bonus points for recording it at my favorite radio station, while Argentine trio IAH probably went under a lot of people’s radar with their self-titled EP but sent a fervent reminder that that country’s heavy scene is as vibrant as ever. Boston-based psych/indie folk outfit Bong Wish were just the right combination of strange, melodic and acid-washed to keep me coming back to their self-titled EP on Beyond Beyond is Beyond, and as Adam Kriney of The Golden Grass debuted his new project Rattlesnake with the Outlaw Boogie demo, the consistency of his songcraft continued to deliver a classic feel. Another one to watch out for going into the New Year.
I wasn’t sure if it was fair to include Hollow Leg’s Murder or not since it wound up getting paired with a special release of their latest album, but figured screw it, dudes do good work and no one’s likely to yell about their inclusion here. If you want to quibble, shoot me a comment and quibble away. Mars Red Sky only released Myramyd on vinyl — no CD, no digital — and I never got one, but heard a private stream at one point and dug that enough to include them here anyway. They remain perennial favorites.
Avon, who have a new record out early in 2018 on Heavy Psych Sounds, delivered one of the year’s catchiest tracks with the “Six Wheeled Action Man Tank” single. I feel like I’ve had that song stuck in my head for the last two months, mostly because I have. And Wretch may or may not be defunct at this point — I saw word that drummer Chris Gordon was leaving the band but post that seems to have disappeared now, so the situation may be in flux — but their three-songer Bastards Born EP was a welcome arrival either way. They round out the top 20 because, well, doom. Would be awesome to get another LP out of them, but we’ll see I guess.
—
One hopes that nothing too egregious was left off, but one again, if there’s something you feel like should be here that isn’t, please consider the invitation to leave a comment open and let me know about it. Hell, you know what? Give me your favorites either way, whether you agree with this list or not. It’s list season, do it up. I know there’s the Year-End Poll going, and you should definitely contribute to that if you haven’t, but what was your favorite EP of the year? The top five? Top 10? I’m genuinely curious. Let’s talk about it.
Whether you have a pick or not (and I hope you do), thanks as always for reading. May the assault of short releases continue unabated in 2018 and beyond.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 1st, 2017 by JJ Koczan
Things have been quiet on the surface from Brooklyn’s Kings Destroy the last couple months. Sure, they shared the stage with YOB over the summer and issued the single-song 14-minute None More EP (review here) early this year, but while there hasn’t been much word from them since, currents have been running full speed, carrying them toward the inevitability of their fourth full-length. The band posted on Instagram the other day they’ll start recording on Nov. 6, which if you’re paying attention at all to the calendar, you already know is this coming Monday.
That’s already exciting news for anyone who heard 2015’s self-titled (review here) third outing, but if anything’s been true from record to record when it comes to Kings Destroy, it’s that they don’t repeat themselves. And this time around they’ve added further intrigue in a producer swap from Sanford Parker, who has helmed their previous three LPs, to David Bottrill, who mixed their second, 2013’s A Time of Hunting (review here). Taken into consideration with some accompanying changes to their songwriting process, the prospect of the next Kings Destroy album seems more primed than ever to push them into yet-uncharted territory, which as they’ve proven time and again is where they most thrive.
I chased down guitarist Carl Porcaro for an update about the band’s plans and what’s thus far gone into the making of the next album. Here’s what he had to say:
Carl Porcaro on Kings Destroy’s Fourth LP:
It’s time for Kings Destroy to get back in the studio to record our fourth album, and while some things will remain the same, there will be big changes. Next week we’ll start tracking at Applehead Recording in Saugerties, NY, where we recorded our second album, A Time of Hunting. The surroundings will be familiar but this will our first time working without Sanford Parker at the bridge. He’s been a constant though our all of our albums and although his presence will be missed, we felt that it was a time to change producers and shake ourselves out of our comfort zone. David Bottrill will be producing and although most of us never met him in person, he mixed A Time of Hunting, so we are familiar with each other, have talked extensively over email about the songs we are going to record, and are excited to make this record together.
We’ll be recording 12 songs and the direction we’ve set our sights on is simultaneously heavier, deeper, and more melodic, mostly slow but with some uptempo thrown in for balance. You’ll probably find some themes you haven’t heard from us lyrically and some sounds that are new for us. We allowed ourselves more time to craft the material this time around and didn’t limit ourselves to our typical approach of only working through the new songs together in our practice room. We demoed songs, listened to them, lived with them, and tweaked them until we felt they were at their best while still leaving room to get spontaneous during the recording process.
Previously we wrote a batch of songs together that we were ready to play live and then went into the studio and figured out how to make a record out of them. This time we’re making a studio record first and foremost, and will enjoy adapting the material for the road in time to start touring on it next year.
[Click play above to stream Kings Destroy’s None More EP in full. It’s out Jan. 13 on War Crime Recordings, and Kings Destroy are on tour with Truckfighters starting Jan. 18 (dates here)]
Brooklyn heavy noise specialists Kings Destroy will release their new EP, None More, on Jan. 13 via War Crime Recordings. Like everything they’ve done up to this point in their seven-year tenure, it’s a departure. It departs from their last album, 2015’s self-titled (review here), and from 2013’s A Time of Hunting (review here), and certainly from their 2010 debut, And the Rest Will Surely Perish (originally released through this site’s then-existent label, The Maple Forum). “Departure” is pretty much the running theme of everything the five-piece do in one way or another, so it’s all the more intriguing as regards None More — this limited, one-song, 14-minute curio EP pressed to tape with a Mech-battle Josh Graham cover almost two full years after the band’s last record came out and with numerous tours home and abroad behind them — that they should sound so much like themselves on it.
“None More,” the track itself, is presented in five component parts, each with a subtitle: “I. Rise of the Betrayer,” “II. The Blood Waters,” “III. The Battle,” “IV. Requiem,” “V. The Awakening” and “VI. Rise of the Betrayer (Reprise).” It does not feel like some great leap of insight to note the clear narrative at play here, or that “None More” comes full circle at its conclusion — an instrumental move as much as a dramatic turn — or that it’s the grandest scope the lineup of vocalist Steve Murphy, guitarists Carl Porcaro and Chris Skowronski, bassist Aaron Bumpus and drummer Rob Sefcik have enacted in a given piece. More to their credit, None More moves through its extended but brief stretch, it flows not like a disjointed assemblage of parts, but with a careful and patiently executed arc. It’s not the first time Kings Destroy have told a story in their work, but it’s the first time they’ve put so much into the telling.
I alluded to it above but should say outright that Kings Destroy and I have collaborated in the past and I continue to consider myself a fan of what they do and I’m fortunate enough to feel comfortable calling them friends — something I’ll just about never do — so what minuscule impartiality I might otherwise claim is right out the window. If that means this review comes with a grain of salt, so be it. That does nothing to change the level of achievement Kings Destroy have reached as they’ve grown over the course of the last seven-plus years, or the substantial mark in their progression None More signifies. One might be tempted to relate “None More” to “Time for War” from the self-titled, and indeed, the EP track does seem to make a direct predecessor of the last album’s closer.
But true to their commitment to always moving forward, it builds on what that song did, beginning after an initial crash and extended count-in by establishing the nodding, Earth-style riff that will serve as its bookend. In less than a minute they’re into the verse — the sound full and spacious as captured by Mike Moebius at Moonlight Mile (Pilgrim, etc.), whose work with Kings Destroy extends back to their first 7″ single (review here) — and guitar leads mournfully interweave beneath as Murphy begins to set up the storyline. Like “Time for War,” it’s a battle.
Specifically the Battle of Clontarf, which took place in Ireland in 1014 and pitted the Irish High King Brian Boru against Vikings as well as other Irish forces, and which — though everyone seems to have died in the process, because war — resulted in the first Irish victory over the Vikings and a turning point in Irish culture after nearly 300 years of raids. Murphy‘s telling is way less prog-rock-history-lesson and way more working to convey the impression of the sunrise-to-sunset slaughter. With a shift into a quicker tempo at around 2:45, ‘The Blood Waters’ takes hold and introduces layered-in tight backing vocals, almost chanting, but more grunted. Sefcik‘s drums hold together a torrent of guitar soloing and the band settles in around a faster riff that’s as much classic metal as it is true to the band’s New York hardcore lineage, and as the next movement makes its way in, what seems to be the key line of the whole song is delivered in dual layers for effect: “We will be victorious/The dead will honor all of us.”
From there, they’re in the thick of it. We would seem to have been through ‘The Battle,’ which plays out instrumentally until about six minutes in, but as it should, “None More” gets murkier from there. Some turns are clearer than others — you know it when they hit into the reprise of ‘Rise of the Betrayer,’ for example, at the 11-minute mark — but between ‘The Battle,’ and the subsequent pair of ‘Requiem’ and ‘The Awakening,’ the progression is fluid enough that they essentially bleed into each other. Harmonized guitar lines lead a march punctuated by Sefcik and Bumpus through the midsection in an intricate play of melody and stomp, and by seven and a half minutes, all has come to a halt and what’s probably ‘The Awakening’ has begun. It’s a from-the-ground-up motion, quiet and ultimately shortlived, but it further conveys Kings Destroy‘s growth in its lack of rush to get where it’s going, instead spreading out a kind of hypnotic drift until they crash back in with the more emotional crux of the song, patient and effective. That they can pull it off and not give in to tension or sound like they’re just waiting to pounce is a definitive step.
Again, it’s quick, but telling. The rolling groove that ensues will carry through to ‘Rise of the Betrayer (Reprise),’ with a momentary break between the two sections and then a resumption of the introductory movement, bringing “None More” full circle rhythmically as a guitar solo takes hold at 11:40 and serves as a finishing move topping the nodding fluidity until the drums and bass drop out and feedback holds sway until clicking off just past 14 minutes. That ending conveys an in-the-studio feel that offsets some of the gritty grandeur of “None More” itself, but has the dual effect of jerking the listener back to reality after the band has dug so deep into the track’s final statement, and that would seem to be intentional. In any case, it fits with the narrative of Kings Destroy themselves, which is no less prevalent here than the Battle of Clontarf, and is shown through the dedication to pushing their approach forward in style and performance. None More might prove to be a stopgap en route to a fourth full-length, but it finds Kings Destroy in a crucial moment as a group and presents their story in a metaphor that could hardly be more apt.
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 8th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Swedish fuzz forerunners Truckfighters will return to the US next month for a tour that will find them joined by Brooklyn heavy noise rockers Kings Destroy. The shows, presented by Tone Deaf Touring and Fuzzorama Records, begin Jan. 18 in Somerville, MA, at the Once Ballroom and head into the Midwest and down into the South before looping back up the East Coast to finish at Goldsounds in Brooklyn, NYC.
For both bands, the January touring follows European runs. Truckfighters are currently wrapping an extensive stint supporting their latest full-length and Century Media debut, V (review here), for which they’ve basically been on the road since September. Even then, a US tour was in the works, as bassist/vocalist Oskar “Ozo” Cedermalm confirmed in an interview conducted at Høstsabbat in Oslo, Norway. It is hardly their first, and judging by the “LEG 1” that appears on the tour poster below, I’m guessing it won’t be their last before the cycle for V comes to a close, probably sometime late in 2017 or in 2018.
You might recall Truckfighters‘ first US tour was in 2011, half a decade ago, and it just so happens that Kings Destroy played the New York stop on it (review here) — a night at the Cake Shop on which a crowd who largely didn’t know what it was in for was handed its collective ass. Five years later, Kings Destroy are recently returned from a European tour of their own, conducted alongside The Skull in November, still heralding their 2015 self-titled third album (review here). They’ll take a break from writing the follow-up to do these shows, which is about as good an excuse as any I can come up with for leaving the rehearsal space. Whether or not they’ll have new material ready for the stage, I don’t know, but it doesn’t seem like the least likely thing in the world. I seem to recall some of the songs for the self-titled being thoroughly road-tested.
I’ve been invited on this tour and am hoping to tag along starting either in Kansas City or Tulsa, depending largely on which I can fly into directly and for what cost. We’ll see how it goes. In the meantime, here are the dates, which I dutifully transcribed from the poster and turned blue:
Truckfighters with Kings Destroy: 01.18 Somerville MA Once Ballroom 01.19 Montreal QC Bar Leritz 01.21 Ottawa ON House of Targ 01.22 Toronto ON Hard Luck 01.23 Pittsburgh PA Cattivo 01.24 Chicago IL Reggies 01.25 Minneapolis MN 7th St. Entry 01.26 Kansas City MO Riot Room 01.27 Tulsa OK Downtown Lounge 01.28 Dallas TX Curtain Club 01.30 New Orleans LA Siberia 01.31 Atlanta GA Drunken Unicorn 02.01 Richmond VA Strange Matter 02.02 Philadelphia PA Kung Fu Necktie 02.03 Brooklyn NY Goldsounds
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 15th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Brooklyn’s Kings Destroy will head to Europe this fall. The genre-defiant five-piece will head overseas with Chicago’s The Skull for the first time since the release of their 2015 self-titled third album (review here), which was released by War Crime Recordings, who, in the interest of full disclosure, also pressed up my book. I’ll confess I was invited to go along with Kings Destroy on this tour as I did twice in the US circa 2014, but the basic fact of the matter is those kinds of things are way easier to do when you’re out of work, which, at the moment, I’m not. Unless I get canned between now and then. If that happens, I’m fucking there.
The Obelisk All-Dayer veterans will be keeping good company one way or another, both in touring with The Skull and in bringing aboard none other than the Mayor of Boston Heavy, Darryl Shepard (Kind, The Scimitar, Hackman, Milligram, Blackwolfgoat, so many others) himself — to play bass no less. Shepard had a few words about filling the low-end position this time out, and you’ll find those, Kings Destroy‘s announcement, the dates, and the stream of the self-titled below, because I’m thorough like that when I like a band this much.
Have at you:
Excited to announce that Kings Destroy will be joining The Skull for the majority of their British/European tour in November! Some additional German KD-only dates TBA. See you on the road!
Darryl Shepard on touring with Kings Destroy:
When Kings Destroy ask you to play bass for them on their European tour, you say yes. I’m very honored and excited to be joining these guys on bass for their tour with The Skull in November.
The Skull & Kings Destroy Nov. 2016 European tour: 03.11.2016 GB London @ Koli’s Night Club 04.11.2016 GB Bristol @ Exchange 05.11.2016 GB Milton Keynes @ Crauford Arms 06.11.2016 GB Birmingham @ The Rainbow 07.11.2016 NL Tilburg @ Little Devil 08.11.2016 NL Utrecht @ DBs 09.11.2016 DE Karlsruhe @ Jubez 10.11.2016 AT Vienna Doom Over Vienna Festival @ Viper 12.11.2016 NL Nijverdal @ Cult-Art Shop 13.11.2016 NL Drachten @ Iduna 14.11.2016 DE Wiesbaden @ Schlachthof 15.11.2016 DE Kassel @ Schlachthof 16.11.2016 DE Hamburg @ Hafenklang
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 3rd, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Known for his work as a producer in addition to adding the foundation of beats to Corrections House alongside members of Eyehategod, Neurosis and Yakuza, as well as for pioneering doom extremity in Buried at Sea and exploring the low-end depths of post-metal in Minsk, Chicago’s Sanford Parker can now check “solo artist” off his list. His debut album, Lash Back, will be issued by My Proud Mountain in July and is also available to preorder through War Crime Recordings (yup, the same label that put out my book), in which he’s also a partner.
This is at least the second LP Parker has had out this year, and it seems like it should pair pretty well with Mirrors for Psychic Warfare, the atmospheric two-piece consisting of Parker and his Corrections House bandmate Scott Kelly, who made their debut this Spring on Neurot, but I wouldn’t actually go so far as to speculate what this thing will sound like until I hear it. Even then, one might hesitate.
From the PR wire:
Sanford Parker to release debut solo album ‘Lash Back’ via My Proud Mountain on July 22nd
Sanford Parker is the reputed producer and electronics wrangler behind some of metal’s most exploratory outfits, breaking new territory in his work as a fixture of Buried At Sea, Minsk, Corrections House and Mirrors For Psychic Warfare, and featuring on and producing numerous records from respected names across the experimental spectrum. His trademark paranoid atmospherics slalom from the nuanced to the crushingly direct, siphoning elements of industrial, cold-wave and power electronics to give bleak, brutalist clout to his work.
Now, Parker is striking out on his own with Lash Back, a full length record of mechanical, dystopic, beat-driven menace. Due out on the My Proud Mountain label on July 22nd, Lash Back is a marked departure from his metallic legacy, retaining some of the hallmarks of his impressive work to date but moving towards a distilled, gruesome interpretation of the electronic world’s darkest operators like Perc, Youth Code and Pharmakon. Scathing kick detonations establish anti-dance rhythms to lose consciousness to, and vast swathes of swarming disintegrated synths wrap around the beats until they obscure all that existed below. Whilst intentionally disorientating and confrontational (with titles like ‘Sheep Slaughter’ and ‘Knuckle Crossing’ underlining his aesthetic), Parker still provides enough coherence and mastery to make Lash Back a record of searing hot excellence, and with tracks like ‘Your Feral Blood’ impinging on Kevin Martin styled earthquake beats, and opener ‘Psychic Driving’ uniformly loud yet majestic like Dominick Fernow, each gap a gasp for breath, Parker has broken into a wicked and characteristic style.
LASH BACK TRACKLISTING: 1. Psychic Driving 2. Knuckle Crossing 3. Slow Children 4. Low Gaps 5. Your Feral Blood 6. Sheep Slaughter
