09.16.23 – Saturday – Knockdown Center – Before show

First thing, got kicked out of the parking lot. “Who are you with?” Alone in the car, clearly I’m by myself. Whatever. That’s New York. “You can’t be here.” Is it okay if I exist anywhere else?

Yesterday was great, front to back. Knockdown Center has apparently gotten a new sound system since last year and I’ll confirm with my ringing ears that it is fully functional. But even aside from that, saw cool people I don’t often get to see, met some I’d never met, dared to enjoy myself amid the back and forth.

Got to bed at about 2AM, was up a bit after seven. Charged the camera batteries, phone, etc. Traffic was light on the way in, which felt like a gift, and I did find parking on the street nearby, so yeah.

What does the day hold? An intimidating amount of music. Today opens the third stage — called ‘The Ruins’ though actually it looks pretty nice — outside in back where the food trucks were last year. Brant Bjork Trio out there will be cool, as well as Clouds Taste Satanic and Mick’s Jaguar early. And both inside stages are packed, so it’s right back to it. It is my sincere hope that adrenaline will carry me through. Guess we’ll find out.

Conan loading in. Clouds Taste Satanic checking on the outside stage, where by the grace of Geezer Butler’s bass tone on Master of Reality there is a photo pit. Thank you Desertfest for that specifically. Maybe I’ll just hang out outside all afternoon. Crazy ideas you get.

Here’s the day:

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Clouds Taste Satanic

Did not turn out to be a photo pit, just a barricade — Geezer’s bass giveth and taketh away; it’s okay though because Tomoko went in and I’m going to do the same next time — but though I went up and laid out on a picnic table before New York’s own instrumentalists Clouds Taste Satanic went on, here supporting this year’s Majestic Mountain-issued 2LP, Tales of Demonic Possession (discussed here) as they are after a first European stint this Spring, they bore the naked riffing and groove that tells you how little you need anything else when you do it right. I grabbed some photos and put myself in a shady spot. It’s a long day ahead, and especially as I’m outside in the sun, gotta hydrate. Clouds Taste Satanic, with their LSD name and raw sound, were a wakeup for me — almost literally — but there’s no arguing with their approach, they drew a good early crowd and more came as they played, and a broken kick pedal only cost about a minute before they were back at it. I’d never seen them though and I’m glad to have rectified that. Imagine sans-vocal toe-tappers, but like 15 minutes long.

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Mick’s Jaguar

A check-in with New York-based attitude rockers Mick’s Jaguar is appreciated after the late-2022 release of their Salvation (review here) album, and their catchy, ultra-NYC take on heavy revels in a lineage that goes back actual generations, not just musical ones that are like four years or whatever. They’re the middle installment in a NYC triad opening the ourdoor stage, and their party vibe and brash swing and crash were suited to that spot, with some flow held over from Clouds Taste Satanic, but brought to a different context. There’s a narrative there, Clouds Taste Satanic into Mick’s Jaguar into White Hills, Desertfest celebrating the local sphere and its aural diversity. Other than to fill my water bottle — 16 oz. per band; I am a firm believer in radical hydration — I haven’t been inside yet, and I suppose that’s not really saying anything since there haven’t been any bands on in there yet, but the sunshine, gently autumnal breeze and buzz in the crowd were suitable accommodation for an energetic take and people were into it. I’ll say it was different being outside as opposed to when I saw them at Desertfest NY 2019 (review here), when they played the small room at The Well, which has only become smaller in my mind in the years since. Almost the opposite, really, but the fact that they owned both spaces is a unifying factor.

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Mantar

I didn’t go in the photo pit, because jesus there’s gotta be a break somewhere and I could not envision a scenario in which somebody said to themselves “oh man he didn’t shoot Mantar — fucking poseur,” and I was all set to remain on the picnic bench where I’d been writing and hanging out, but the ultra-aggressive German two-piece drew me inside for a bit. Nasty, gnashing, pummeling and biting as they are, Mantar still groove. If that’s the crossover appeal that lets them play a fest like this, fair enough. They’ll always be an outlier, but you need that for something like this. Yesterday I called Windhand the sore thumb, and they were. That’s Mantar today, if less so with the always devastating Conan on the bill. Godflesh are mean, but it’s not the same intensity. Even punk as they are, Mantar cross that line between heavy and metal, and when you’re on one side there, it’s easy to recognize the other. They’re not really my thing most of the time, but I like that they wreck up the place, sonically speaking.

White Hills

White Hills are weirder than you, weirder than me, weirder than the fact that an electron doesn’t technically exist until something is used to measure it. The list goes on. But the stalwart NYC outfit — third of three in the noted triumvirate — seem perfectly content to inhabit their own spacial plane. Comprised of drummer/vocalist Ego Sensation and guitarist/vocalist Dave W., their persistently exploratory psychedelia — here droning, there rolling, somehow freaking out ALL THE TIME like they’re me with any kind of social obligation — is wholly immersive. Even in the great out-of-doors. Their sound bounced off the concrete wall up by where the trains go (I don’t think it’s an actual station, but could be wrong; it’d be an odd spot for one but these are odd times) and seemed to come from behind as well as in front while standing near the stage, and the effect was hypnotic. A roll you can just go with, a drift set adrift, jams for the universe. Spirals of water down a drain casting hurricane echoes and a scale at which even galaxies rotate. The sun’s out. Everything is great. Let’s be friends in real life.

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Conan

I went outside for a bit during Conan’s set to let some air back in my lungs after they had squeezed it all out. They’re was about three entire seconds of my earplugs not being in, and I suspect that’ll be enough for me to hear their low distortion in my head when I try to go to sleep tonight. Fine. I don’t know how many superlatives are left to say it — also don’t care — but there’s no mistaking Conan as one of the heaviest bands on the planet. When I was done with pictures, I stood over by the sound desk for optimal fidelity. All hail “Volt Thrower.” Jon Davis, Chris Fielding, Johnny King — guitar, bass, drums — and if you put it on paper it’s nothing so special, but when these dudes hit it, you know damn well to whom you are listening. And if you do go see them, which you should, wear earplugs. The whole time. Sad to say, however, my foamies aren’t holding up to Conan’s volume assault — “Thronehammer” laying waste, as it will — which is probably to be expected. But against all common sense and every piece of advice one might receive from a medical professional, I stayed there and let that volume and tone just kill me. And sure enough, I was obliterated. 9 got another bottle of water though and felt better after that.

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Dorthia Cottrell

You could hear Mondo Generator playing outside before Dorthia Cottrell — vocalist for Windhand, who played last night — started her set, playing as a three-piece with guitar and violin accompaniment. As to the metric by which I ended up inside instead of out, the math is easy. Last time I saw Mondo Generator was a month ago. saw Cottrell play solo was 2015, and Also last June. Both have new records. From hers, which is called Death Folk Country (review here), Cottrell eased quickly into the sad blues and dark folk — you might say she’s influenced by, death, folk, and country — with the breathy melody of her voice bolstered by the textures of the additional guitar (it was Leanne Martz, formerly of Heavy Temple) and fiddle. To their credit, once they started, I didn’t even know anymore whether you could still hear the noise from outside. Got lost in the mood and the ambience and and somehow it no longer mattered.

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Godflesh

The Main Stage heft streak continues, and it turns out that what I’ve needed all day was to be churned into so much human goo by industrial metal pioneers and still-ahead-of-their-time crushbringers Godflesh. They have a new record out, Purge. I didn’t see it on the merch table earlier, but will check again to be sure. They played at least initially mostly in the dark and fog, and fair enough, but the onslaught of their beats and distortion, of guitarist Justin K. Broadrick’s gruff, barking shout and the filthy tone of G.C. Green’s bass, was consuming regardless of how visible they might or might not have been. I’ve been destroyed. Bludgeoned. Godflesh were a culmination of the progression on the main stage today that drew through Mantar and Conan; another triad. A decidedly angrier one, and if you want to hear what it feels like when your brain is running a thousand miles an hour and you don’t want it to and your entire body feels overwhelmed to the point of physical collapse — if you want to hear something that will remind you of being an insecure kid — Godflesh are here for it. I’d heard a bunch of good things about them on their current tour — mostly from Boston — and I was not misinformed. Now, about that album. Not on the table. Oh, if only someone would invent the internet so I can buy a Godflesh CD. Oh wait, sold out online too. You’ve betrayed me, circumstance! JK Flesh, one of Broadrick’s many other projects, plays NYC tomorrow. Good for him, making the most of the trip. Also, Godflesh rule. Thanks.

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The Brant Bjork Trio

Brant Bjork, Mario Lalli and Ryan Güt are The Brant Bjork Trio, and they played songs from Bjork’s solo catalog. I don’t have any insight into the narrative of how they got together this time around, but I know that Bjork and Lalli have known each other for decades and worked together periodically over that time. Lalli played on Bjork’s 1999 solo debut, Jalamanta, so that’s about all the way back at least as far as this thing goes. And Mario Lalli and The Rubber Snake Charmers supported Bjork’s Stõner three-piece last year. On and on. Güt is a part of Stöner as well with Nick Oliveri on bass/vocals, and I kind of assumed that when Nick was ready to go back to Mondo Generator, keeping a trio configuration made sense. And crap, if there’s a chance to go on tour in a band with Lalli on bass, of course you’re gonna do that. Together, Bjork and Lalli are sculptors of desert rock, Lalli having actively participated in the forming of the style in Yawning Man and brought weird to the desert in Fatso Jetson, Bjork having played drums and contributed to the songwriting of Kyuss before joining Fu Manchu and embarking on the solo thing in various formats over the last 24 years, the latter I’d argue as his most crucial work. I could go on about this — blah blah generator parties; the horrible truth is I think the timeline is fun — but what I’m trying to say is these guys are real deal lifers, and in addition to having influenced two-plus generations of bands in a global underground that exists in part because of them, they also rock. “Cleaning Out the Ashtray” was a nice touch, and “Let the Truth Be Known.” There was a longer-maybe new song with a classic, sleek groove called “Sunshine” that broke after a couple verses into an even more languid flow, and if there’s new material, maybe this band will put out an LP. That’d be just ducky, thanks. Maybe I’d even get to tell the same story about how these guys are legends all over again! Perhaps with slight variations in the phrasing! Sweet!

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Boris

Volume and thrust, lumber and noise. Shove. GO. Boris make it all exciting, and are somehow frenetic in their energy no matter what they’re actually playing. They drew the biggest crowd of the festival. Significant, statistically. Brant Bjork Trio finished and Djunah — of whom I saw a few minutes; knew nothing about them beforehand, turned out they were cool; a note-to-self moment — and I guess everybody who was at another stage congregated in front of Boris only to be blown back by a bulldozer of volume. Whoosh. It’s been a few years, but Boris were Boris, and that’s maybe the highest compliment they might be paid, since it actually means so many things, nearly all of them awesome. Wata, Atsuo and Takeshi took the whole building on a ride through a vortex of shred, the set becoming an assault of noise and fog with the band in the eye of their own storm, and while I could go on mixing metaphors and trying to craft suitable hyperbole for what they do on stage, the truth is that I’m really, really fucking tired and that I don’t need to hide that. Doesn’t mean I didn’t appreciate Boris, doesn’t mean I don’t think they’re an incredible band with decades of influence and legacy who also absolutely slay live. The not-even-the-end-of-the-day fatigue might’ve put Boris closer to the line between immersion and abrasion for my own experience, but hell’s bells, they’re dizzying when they want to be.

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Ecstatic Vision

Because I’ve seen the band before, I showed up 25 minutes early to Ecstatic Vision on the Texas stage. Does it make sense to leave a band from Japan’s set to go see a band from Philadelphia when you’re in New York? It does if that band is Ecstatic Vision. Psychrippers extraordinaire. Bombast in excelsis. Willfully sliding into most of humanity’s definition of obnoxious, but hitting this crowd just right. I wasn’t the only one there early, nor first in the room. A reputation, preceding. I knew I was going to miss the Melvins — I saw them in June and as I said then, I’m not a huge fan, though they were and are good live — and somehow having Ecstatic Vision in the small room as my capper seemed just right. It goes without saying they destroyed. The sax, the guitar, bass and drums, the effects wash, the intense push inherited from Hawkwind and Monster Magnet both, cosmic heavy rock turned into a party unparalleled by anyone I’ve encountered in current US psych. They were the blowout, and as excellent as the Melvins are live (and yes I know they’ve got Coady Willis drumming in place of Dale Crover; the point stands), I knew that was how I wanted to cap my Desertfest New York 2023. Three days of heavy stuffed into a cannon and launched into the sun, and everyone in the room with it. I’d take a new record from them for sure, but I do also feel like they shouldn’t even stop playing live long enough to make one. These guys are providing a valuable service guiding all involved parties on a direct line into the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy.

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I made it home from Brooklyn in under an hour. It was beautiful. Unheard of. “Magic,” as Ronnie James Dio might say. Falling asleep at the keyboard now.

That’s it for me. Thanks to Desertfest New York for coming back, to Sarika, Reece and Matte and all behind the making of the thing. Friends old and new — in the photo pit: Falk-Hagen Bernshausen (so glad you made it over), Tim Bugbee (you’re the best), Dante Torrieri (that Star Trek nerd-out turned my whole day around), Dylan Gonzalez (smartest guy in the room, also sweetest), Tomoko (thanks for the fruit offer, by the way you’re a genius), Charles (rarely do I find somebody who so much speaks the same language of sarcasm) — and everyone who came to say hi or something nice about the site. Thanks to The Patient Mrs. for the time. Thank you for reading.

More pics after the jump.

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This is some of the biggest news of my year, right here, and precisely some of what I’ve been hoping for since the advent of Desertfest New York in 2019. The NYC branch of Europe’s foremost heavy festival brand is slates do the seemingly impossible this Fall and bring German heavy psychedelic rock progenitors Colour Haze to the States for the second time as well as Greek heavy rock forerunners 1000mods, overcoming the pandemic-interrupted growth after a successful 2022 edition to realize a genuinely world-class event already just with the first reveal. And that’s before you get to the badassery of Lo-Pan, Heavy Temple, bringing Duel back, Boris, and so on.

I mean that. This puts Desertfest New York on a level of scope and reach with Psycho Las Vegas, Monolith on the Mesa or Fire in the Mountains or whoever else you want to namedrop, while maintaining club-show roots in its pre-party and secondary stages. I also wouldn’t surprised if a third stage isn’t added to the fest proper, as Knockdown Center certainly has that space available.

Either way, this is a big fucking deal and I’m excited at the prospect of what’s still to come. Will Steak return? My Sleeping Karma? Perhaps even a Green Lung US debut? The doors are thrown wide here as Desertfest New York 2023 takes it to that next level. The possibilities are that much closer to endless.

From the PR wire:

Desertfest New York returns for 3rd edition this September announcing
Melvins, Boris, Colour Haze, Truckfighters & more

TICKETS ON SALE NOW VIA WWW.DESERTFESTNEWYORK.COM

Leading independent stoner rock, doom, psych & heavy rock festival Desertfest returns to
New York this September. Hot off the heels of their largest US event to date in May ‘22, the
globally renowned festival will return to the unique space of the Knockdown Center in
Queens, alongside an exclusive pre-party at heavy metal institution, Saint Vitus Bar from 14th to 16th September 2023.

Headlining the 3rd edition of the festival will be genre-defining trailblazers the MELVINS.
With King Buzzo & Dale Crover at the helm ensuring their 40-year status as icons of the
underground, Desertfest attendees can expect a MELVINS performance unlike any other, as
they are treated to the bands’ expansive & iconic back catalogue.

Joining them on the Knockdown Center main-stage, with a rare New York performance, will
be Japan’s own BORIS. An exercise in auditory marksmanship for any whom are lucky
enough to bear witness, BORIS continue to redefine heavy on their own terms.

German psychedelic trio COLOUR HAZE will join the festival for a US exclusive,
headlining Thursday’s pre-party at Saint Vitus Bar. A band who move beyond a space of
labels, their continued evolution propels them out of any current galaxy recognised as ‘stoner
rock’. Thursday night will also welcome the infectiously groovy sounds of LO-PAN &
Texan goodtimers DUEL to help warm up the gears.

Long-time friends in the Desertfest-sphere, high-octane Swedish rockers
TRUCKFIGHTERS join proceedings for their first New York performance in three years.

Greece’s stoner rock heroes 1000MODS also make the jump overseas, ready to bring their
ear-worm worthy riffs to revellers. Local legends WHITE HILLS, raucous street doom
reapers R.I.P & ‘heavy primal psych’ outfit ECSTASTIC VISION all join the bill.

Elsewhere Desertfest NYC also welcomes HEAVY TEMPLE, CLOUDS TASTE SATANIC, MICK’S JAGUAR, CASTLE RAT, GRAVE BATHERS & SPELLBOOK, with more still to be announced…

3-day passes (incl. access to Saint Vitus Pre-Party) & 2-day passes (Knockdown Center
only) are on sale NOW via the following link – https://link.dice.fm/Desertfest_NewYork

Day Tickets will be released in April. There are no individual Day Tickets for Thursday’s
Pre-Party.

Full Line-Up
Saint Vitus – Sept 14th | Knockdown Center Sept 15th & 16th 2023
Melvins | Boris | Colour Haze | Truckfighters | 1000Mods | White Hills | Lo-Pan | Duel |
R.I.P | Ecstatic Vision | Heavy Temple | Clouds Taste Satanic | Mick’s Jaguar | Castle
Rat | Grave Bathers | Spellbook

https://facebook.com/Desertfestnyc/
https://www.instagram.com/desertfest_nyc/
http://www.desertfestnewyork.com

Colour Haze, Sacred (2022)

In many ways, this is my favorite kind of Quarterly Review day. I always place things more or less as I get them, and let the days fill up randomly, but there are different types that come out of that. Some are heavier on riffs, some (looking at you, Monday) are more about atmosphere, and some are all over the place. That’s this. There’s no getting in a word rut — “what’s another way to say ‘loud and fuzzy?'” — when the releases in question don’t sound like each other.

As we move past the halfway point of the first week of this double-wide Quarterly Review, 100 total acts/offerings to be covered, that kind of thing is much appreciated on my end. Keeps the mind limber, as it were. Let’s roll.

Winter 2023 Quarterly Review #21-30:

White Hills, The Revenge of Heads on Fire

The narrative — blessings and peace upon it — goes that White Hills stumbled on an old hard drive with 2007’s Heads on Fire‘s recording files on it, recovered them, and decided it was time to flesh out the original album some 15 years after the fact, releasing The Revenge of Heads on Fire through their own Heads on Fire Records imprint in fashion truer to the record’s original concept. Who would argue? Long-established freaks as they are, can’t White Hills basically do whatever the hell they want and it’ll be at the very least interesting? Sure enough, the 11-song starburster they’ve summoned out of the ether of memory is lysergic and druggy and sprawling through Dave W. and Ego Sensation‘s particular corner of heavy psychedelia and space rocks, “Visions of the Past, Present and Future” sounding no less vital for the passing of years as they’re still on a high temporal shift, riding a cosmic ribbon that puts “Speed Toilet” where “Revenge of Speed Toilet” once was in reverse sequeling and is satisfyingly head-spinning whether or not you ever heard the original. That is to say, context is nifty, but having your brain melted is better, and White Hills might screw around an awful lot, but they’re definitely not screwing around. You heard me.

White Hills on Facebook

White Hills on Bandcamp

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Dystopian Future Movies, War of the Ether

Weaving into and out of spoken word storytelling and lumbering riffy largesse, nine-minute opener and longest track (immediate points) “She Up From the Drombán Hill” has a richly atmospheric impact on what follows throughout Dystopian Future Movies‘ self-issued third album, War of the Ether, the residual feedback cutting to silence ahead of a soft beginning for “Critical Mass” as guitarist/vocalist Caroline Cawley pairs foreboding ambience with noise rocking payoffs, joined by her Church of the Cosmic Skull bandmate Bill Fisher on bass/drums and Rafe Dunn on guitar for eight songs that owe some of their root to ’90s-era alt heavy but have grown into something of their own, as demonstrated in the willfully overwhelming apex of “The Walls of Filth and Toil” or the dare-a-hook ending of the probably-about-social-media “The Veneer” just prior. The LP runs deeper as it unfurls, each song setting forth on its own quiet start save for the more direct “License of Their Lies” and offering grim but thoughtful craft for a vision of dark heavy rock true both to the band’s mission and the album’s troubled spirit. Closer “A Decent Class of Girl” rolls through volume swells in what feels like a complement to “She Up From the Drombán Hill,” but its bookending wash only highlights the distance the audience has traveled alongside Cawley and company. Engrossing.

Dystopian Future Movies on Facebook

Dystopian Future Movies store

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Basalt Shrine, From Fiery Tongues

Though in part defined by the tectonic megasludge of “In the Dirt’s Embrace,” Filipino four-piece Basalt Shrine are no more beholden to that on From Fiery Tongues than they are the prior opening drone “Thawed Slag Blood,” the post-metallic soundscaping of the title-track, the open-spaced minimalism of closer “The Barren Aftermath” or the angular chug at the finish of centerpiece “Adorned for Loathing Pigs.” Through these five songs, the Manila-based outfit plunge into the darker, denser and more extreme regions of sludgy stylizations, and as they’ve apparently drawn the notice of US-based Electric Talon Records and sundry Euro imprints, safe to say the secret is out. Fair enough. The band guide “From Fiery Tongues,” song and album, with an entrancing churn that is as much about expression as impact, and the care they take in doing so — even at their heaviest and nastiest — isn’t to be understated, and especially as their debut, their ambition manifests itself in varied ways nearly all of which bode well for coming together as the crux of an innovative style. Not predicting anything, but while From Fiery Tongues doesn’t necessarily ring out with a hopeful viewpoint for the world at large, one can only listen to it and be optimistic about the prospects for the band themselves.

Basalt Shrine on Facebook

Electric Talon Records store

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Psychonaut, Violate Consensus Reality

Post-metallic in its atmosphere, there’s no discounting the intensity Belgium trio Psychonaut radiate on their second album, Violate Consensus Reality (on Pelagic). The prog-metal noodling of “All Your Gods Have Gone” and the singing-turns-to-screaming methodology on the prior opener “A Storm Approaching” begin the 52-minute eight-tracker with a fervency that affects everything that comes after, and as “Age of Separation” builds into its full push ahead of the title-track, which holds tension in its first half and shows why in its second, a halfway-there culmination before the ambient and melodic “Hope” turns momentarily from some of the harsher insistence before it, a summary/epilogue for the first platter of the 2LP release. The subsequent “Interbeing” is black metal reimagined as modern prog — flashes of Enslaved or Amorphis more than The Ocean or Mastodon, and no complaints — and the procession from “Hope” through “Interbeing” means that the onslaught of “A Pacifist’s Guide to Violence,” all slam and controlled plunder, is an apex of its own before the more sprawling, 12-minute capper “Towards the Edge,” which brings guest appearances from Brutus‘ Stefanie Mannaerts and the most esteemed frontman in European post-metal, Colin H. van Eeckhout of Amenra, whose band Psychonaut admirably avoid sounding just like. That’s not often the case these days.

Psychonaut on Facebook

Pelagic Records on Bandcamp

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Robot God, Worlds Collide

If you’re making your way through this post, skimming for something that looks interesting, don’t discount Sydney, Australia’s Robot God on account of their kinda-generic moniker. After solidifying — moltenifying? — their approach to longform-fuzz on their 2020 debut, Silver Buddha Dreaming, the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Raff Iacurto, bassist/vocalist Matt Allen and drummer Tim Pritchard offer the four tracks of their sophomore LP, Worlds Collide, through Kozmik Artifactz in an apparent spirit of resonance, drawing familiar aspects of desert-style heavy rock out over songs that feel exploratory even as they’re born of recognizable elements. “Sleepwalking” (11:25) sets a broad landscape and the melody over the chugger riff in the second half of “Ready to Launch” (the shortest inclusion at 7:03) floats above it smoothly, while “Boogie Man” (11:24) pushes over the edge of the world and proceeds to (purposefully) tumble loosely downward in tempo from there, and the closing title-track (11:00) departs from its early verses along a jammier course, still plotted, but clearly open to the odd bit of happy-accidentalism. It’s a niche that seems difficult to occupy, and a difficult balance to strike between hooking the listener with a riff and spacing out, but Robot God mostly avoid the one-or-the-other trap and create something of their own from both sides; reminiscent of… wait for it… worlds colliding. Don’t skip it.

Robot God on Facebook

Kozmik Artifactz store

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AAWKS, Heavy on the Cosmic

Released in June 2022 and given a late-in-the-year vinyl issue seemingly on the strength of popular demand alone, AAWKS‘ debut full-length, Heavy on the Cosmic sets itself forth with the immersive, densely-fuzzed nodder riff and stoned vocal of longest track (immediate points) “Beyond the Sun,” which finds start-with-longest-song complement on side B’s “Electric Traveller” (rare double points). Indeed there’s plenty to dig about the eight-song outing, from the boogie in “Sunshine Apparitions,” the abiding vibe of languid grunge and effects-laced chicanery that pervade the crashouts of “The Woods” to the memorable, slow hook-craft of “All is Fine.” Over on side B, the momentum early in “Electric Traveller” rams headfirst into its own slowdown, while “Space City” reinforces the no-joke tonality and Elephant Tree-style heavy/melodic blend before the penultimate mostly-instrumental “Star Collider” resolves itself like Floor at half-speed and closer “Peeling Away” lives up to its title with a departure of psychedelic soloing and final off-we-go loops. The word-of-mouth hype around AAWKS was and is significant, and the Ontario-based four-piece tender three-dimensional sound to justify it, the record too brief at 39 minutes to actually let the listener get lost while providing multiple opportunities for headphone escapism. A significant first LP.

AAWKS on Facebook

AAWKS on Bandcamp

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Smokes of Krakatau, Smokes of Krakatau

The core methodology of Polish trio Smokes of Krakatau across their self-titled debut seems to be to entrance their audience and then blindside them with a riffy punch upside the head. Can’t argue if it works, which it does, right from the gradual unfurling of 10-minute instrumental opener “Absence of Light” before the chunky-style riff of “GrassHopper” lumbers into the album’s first vocals, delivered with a burl that reminds of earlier Clutch. There are two more extended tracks tucked away at the end — “Septic” (10:07) and “Kombajn Bizon” (11:37) — but before they get there, “GrassHopper” begins a movement across four songs that brings the band to arguably their most straightforward piece of all, the four-minute “Carousel,” as though the ambient side of their persona was being drained out only to return amid the monolithic lumber that pays off the build in “Septic.” It’s a fascinating whole-album progression, but it works and it flows right unto the bluesy reach of “Kombajn Bizon,” which coalesces around a duly massive lurch in its last minutes. It’s a simplification to call them ‘stoner doom,’ but that’s what they are nonetheless, though the manner in which they present their material is as distinguishing a factor as that material itself in the listening experience. The band are not done growing, but if you let their songs carry you, you won’t regret going where they lead.

Smokes of Krakatau on Facebook

Smokes of Krakatau on Bandcamp

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Carrier Wave, Carrier Wave

Is it the riff-filled land that awaits, or the outer arms of the galaxy itself? Maybe a bit of both on Bellingham, Washington-based trio Carrier Wave‘s four-song self-titled debut, which operates with a reverence for the heft of its own making that reminds of early YOB without trying to ape either Mike Scheidt‘s vocal or riffing style. That works greatly to the benefit of three-piece — guitarist/vocalist James Myers, bassist/vocalist Taber Wilmot, drummer Joe Rude — who allow some raucousness to transfuse in “Skyhammer” (shortest song at 6:53) while surrounding that still-consuming breadth with opener “Cosmic Man” (14:01), “Monolithic Memories” (11:19) and the subsequent finale “Evening Star” (10:38), a quiet guitar start to the lead-and-longest track (immediate points) barely hinting at the deep tonal dive about to take place. Tempo? Mostly slow. Space? Mostly dark and vast. Ritual? Vital, loud and awaiting your attendance. There’s crush and presence and open space, surges, ebbs, flows and ties between earth and ether that not every band can or would be willing to make, and much to Carrier Wave‘s credit, at 42 minutes, they engage a kind of worldmaking through sound that’s psychedelic even as it builds solid walls of repetitive riffing. Not nasty. Welcoming, and welcome in itself accordingly.

Carrier Wave on Facebook

Carrier Wave on Bandcamp

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Stash, Through Rose Coloured Glasses

With mixing/mastering by Chris Fielding (Conan, etc.), the self-released first full-length from Tel Aviv’s Stash wants nothing for a hard-landing thud of a sound across its nine songs/45 minutes. Through Rose Coloured Glasses has a kind of inherent cynicism about it, thanks to the title and corresponding David Paul Seymour cover art, and its burl — which goes over the top in centerpiece “No Real” — is palpable to a defining degree. There’s a sense of what might’ve happened if C.O.C. had come from metal instead of punk rock, but one way or the other, Stash‘s grooves remain mostly throttled save for the early going of the penultimate “Rebirth.” The shove is marked and physical, and the tonal purpose isn’t so much to engulf the listener with weight as to act as the force pushing through from one song to the next, each one — “Suits and Ties,” “Lie” and certainly the opener “Invite the Devil for a Drink” — inciting a sense of movement, speaking to American Southern heavy without becoming entirely adherent to it, finding its own expression through roiling, chugging brashness. But there’s little happenstance in it — another byproduct of a metallic foundation — and Stash stay almost wholly clearheaded while they crash through your wall and proceed to break all the shit in your house, sonically speaking.

Stash on Facebook

Stash on Bandcamp

—

 

Lightsucker, Stonemoon

Though it opens serene enough with birdsong and acoustic guitar on “Intro(vert,” the bulk of Lightsucker‘s second LP, Stonemoon is more given to a tumult of heavy motion, drawing together elements of atmospheric sludge and doom with shifts between heavy rock groove and harder-landing heft. And in “Pick Your God,” a little bit of death metal. An amalgam, then. So be it. The current that unites the Finnish four-piece’s material across Stonemoon is unhinged sludge rock that, in “Lie,” “Land of the Dead” and the swinging “Mob Psychosis” reminds of some of Church of Misery‘s shotgun-blues chaos, but as the careening “Guayota” and the deceptively steady push of “Justify” behind the madman vocals demonstrate, Lightsucker‘s ambitions aren’t so simply encapsulated. So much the better for the listening experience of the 35-minute/eight-song entirety, as from “Intro(vert)” through the suitably pointy snare hits of instrumental closer “Stalagmites,” Lightsucker remain notably unpredictable as they throw elbows and wreak havoc from one song to the next, the ruined debris of genre strewn about behind as if to leave a trail for you to follow after, which, if you can actually keep up with their changes, you might just do.

Lightsucker on Facebook

Lightsucker on Bandcamp

—

 

I bet White Hills kill it in Europe, and tonight’s the night they get started. The New York-based heavy psych veterans begin their latest European stint this evening in support of their The Revenge of Heads on Fire album, which is the first release on their new imprint, Heads on Fire Industries. Expect copious and well-justified reissues to come, but in the meantime, something new from White Hills is nothing to complain about. And if it was, you know I’d be complaining. Never miss a chance.

Anyhoozle, true to form, White Hills will spend more than a month abroad, kicking through Europe before rounding out in the UK, taking few days off and skipping the brunt of festivals in favor of club shows and doing their own thing, which if you know anything at all about White Hills, you probably know that’s what they do. Their own thing. Perennially. They may be underrated forever, but it certainly won’t be from lack of work on their part.

But again, I bet they do well on the Euro circuit. Safe travels, White Hills. America doesn’t deserve you anyhow.

From the PR wire:

WHITE HILLS: New York City Psychedelic Fuzz Rock Duo To Kick Off EU/UK Tour This Week; The Revenge Of Heads On Fire Full-Length Out Now

New York City fuzz rock duo WHITE HILLS will kick off their EU/UK tour this week! The journey begins October 12th in Berlin and runs through November 15th in London.

Comments the band’s Dave W. (guitar, vocals, synth), “Europe and the UK have always felt like home to us. We’re looking forward to unleashing the beast of The Revenge Of Heads On Fire upon a rabid public seeking a transcendent experience.” See all confirmed dates below.

WHITE HILLS EU/UK Fall Tour:
10/12/2022 Urban Spree – Berlin, DE
10/13/2022 Sonic Ballroom – Cologne, DE
10/14/2022 Foyer Culturel Saint-Ghislain – Mons, BE
10/15/2022 Magasin 4 – Brussels, BE
10/16/2022 Trauma – Marburg, DE
10/17/2022 Brandherd @ Altes Volksbad – Mannheim, DE
10/18/2022 Rote Sonne – Munchen, DE
10/19/2022 Between – Bregenz, AT
10/20/2022 Blah Blah – Turin, IT
10/21/2022 Bronson – Ravenna, IT
10/22/2022 Dong – Macerata, IT
10/23/2022 Fat Art – Terni, IT
10/24/2022 GCCB – Roma, IT
10/25/2022 Raindogs – Savona, IT
10/27/2022 Paral-lel 62 (Sala Club) – Barcelona, ES
10/28/2022 Wurlitzer Ballroom – Madrid, ES
10/29/2022 Tizon Sound – Gijon, ES
11/02/2022 Sonic Club – Lyon, FR
11/04/2022 Supersonic – Paris, FR
11/05/2022 Bistrot St. So – Lille, FR
11/06/2022 The Pit’s – Kortrijk, DE
11/07/2022 Green Door Store – Brighton, FR
11/08/2022 District – Liverpool, UK
11/09/2022 Headrow House – Leeds, UK
11/10/2022 Audio – Glasgow, UK
11/11/2022 Zerox – Newcastle, UK
11/13/2022 The Asylum – Birmingham, UK
11/14/2022 Le Pub – Newport, UK
11/15/2022 Peckham Audio – London, UK

WHITE HILLS released their The Revenge Of Heads On Fire full-length last month via their own Heads On Fire Industries. Harnessing the energy of ferocious, hedonistic rock with blissful passages of dark ambience, The Revenge Of Heads On Fire explores themes of mortality, transformation, and rebirth. Together, the duo reveals a spiritual depth unparalleled in previous works. The roar of fire, swirling of oceans, and hallucinogenic visions can be heard throughout the seventy-five-minute journey.

The record consummates Dave W.’s prototype for the 2007’s Heads On Fire, released on Rocket Recordings and later picked up by Thrill Jockey. Six rediscovered songs accompany re-mixed versions of the original material, fulfilling the master arch of the pyre lit long ago. Recorded during the band’s tumultuous early years, the music vibrates with the energy and volatility of a sonic boom.

WHITE HILLS:
Dave W. – guitar, vocals, synth
Ego Sensation – drums, bass, vocals

http://www.whitehillsband.com
http://www.facebook.com/WHITEHILLSBand
http://www.twitter.com/whitehillsmusic
http://www.instagram.com/whitehillsmusic
http://whitehills.bandcamp.com/music
http://www.youtube.com/whitehillsband
http://www.tiktok.com/@whitehillsband
http://www.patreon.com/whitehills

White Hills, The Revenge of Heads on Fire (2022)

White Hills, ‘Eternity’ video premiere

[NOTE: White Hills are on tour with Telekinetic Yeti starting July 19. Dates are here and at the bottom of this post. The Revenge of Heads on Fire is out Sept. 16; preorders on their Bandcamp.]

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Ego Sensation and Dave W. of White Hills

—

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

Ego Sensation: I guess I’d define what I do as second nature. If I’m not making music, I feel like crap. It makes me feel like I have a purpose. And no matter how infinitesimal it may be, it’s creative, not destructive — which is huge in the face of all the violence we see in the world right now. It gives rather than taking away.

Dave W.: Simply, it’s what we do. I don’t feel it needs to be defined beyond that. Creating is in our nature. Music is the voice through which we speak and sound is what we sculpt.

Describe your first musical memory.

DW: Listening to records with my Mother and dancing around the family room with her when I was four or five years old.

Ego: Hearing my dad playing Scott Joplin’s “Solace” on piano. I was 3 and I sat on the piano bench with him watching his hands. I wanted to jump right in and learn that song. It’s an amazing piece of music so full of feeling — it completely encompasses the conceptual idea of pain and solace — and even as a three year old I could feel that.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Ego: Dave and I have been writing and recording new songs recently and we have this one song, “Sea Dog,” that we really like to play. I have a memory from just about a week ago of being at practice and 1) being excited to play the song and 2) feeling elevated within the music while playing it. It’s a certain, sublime energy that isn’t personal — it’s more like you’re tapping into this universal song and riding the wave of all that is good about being alive.

DW: It’s hard to pick just one as so much of my life has involved music in some way or another. If I’m looking at White Hills, one of my best memories is recording the album Walks For Motorists, with producer David Wrench in Wales. Another would be the series of shows with did with Jim Jarmusch and his band Squrl in promotion of the film Only Lovers Left Alive.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

DW: Lately, it feels like everyday something comes up that tests some firm belief I hold.

Ego: I’ve always felt that you can create your own destiny. A few years ago, the wife of one of my best friend’s was killed in a freak bike accident. He died shortly after, basically from the despair. Sometimes life just shits on you and a positive mental attitude just doesn’t apply.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Ego: Maybe to greater wisdom. Or maybe it’s just necessity. If you aren’t growing, you’re dying. All living beings are like plants- we reach towards the sun. It’s what we are meant to do. Nature wants us to progress, to be constantly becoming, then changing and becoming again. I believe that’s the path to greater wisdom and a higher consciousness. Artistic progression helps us lift each other up.

DW: Ego sums up my feelings about artistic progression well.

How do you define success?

Ego: Intellectually, I think that success is doing your best at whatever you choose to do. But mentally, I struggle with the concept of success because it seems like a bottomless pit. I read Lemmy’s book White Line Fever a few years back and I was really struck because he mentioned that he didn’t think he was successful- which from an outside perspective doesn’t seem true but that’s how he felt. I think it’s a great challenge for creative people to feel that what we’re doing is good enough.

DW: Doing what you love. When I was a child and first understood that you had to work for a living, I thought to myself I want to do whatever I want to whenever I want to and make a living from it. Essentially that is what I have achieved in my life and therefore I feel successful. That said money does not equal success in my book. Having a vision, setting goals and reaching those goals are more important in measuring success.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Ego: The overturning of Roe vs. Wade.

DW: That’s a doozie of a question… where to start? I wish I hadn’t seen the faces of the people in the windows on the first plane to hit the World Trade Center on 9/11 while I was walking to work. I wish that I wasn’t witnessing, in real time, the rise of fascism and white supremacy in the US. I wish I didn’t have to see the systematic and gross display of religious dogma within government and society
that wreaks havoc on the lives of women, people of color, the LGBTQ community or anyone who believes differently than the few that are ramming it down others’ throats.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

Ego: Have you ever seen the movie All That Jazz? It’s an autobiographical movie about choreographer Bob Fosse. On his deathbed, he hallucinates this theatrically staged, blow-out song and dance scene. I’m still going for something like that.

DW: I’ve always dreamt of building a Geodesic Dome to live in. One of Buckminster Fuller’s designs to be exact.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

Ego: To enlighten. After getting a handle on base survival, it seems like the next logical step for humanity is to become enlightened — to harness our collective energy toward harmony for all life forms. Art gets us closer to that place. It speaks to the sublime within us — both through creating the art or experiencing it as a viewer/listener.

DW: To open one’s mind. To make people feel something and question. To inspire another to achieve greatness. Art connects us in a way like nothing else does. It transcends any barrier of language, religious belief, social status and so on. It can express ultimate beauty or sorrow. Within that beauty or sorrow it connects us all to a common human experience.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Ego: Social progress — a world without gun violence, racism, sexism, antisemitism,
homophobia, crazy despots. I’m not holding my breath but I’m still lifting a finger to
help be a part of the change.

DW: Humanity reaching a higher consciousness where we realize our interconnectedness to the whole of the universe and within that become a positive force versus a destructive one.

[WHITE HILLS w/ Telekinetic Yeti:
7/19/2022 Snug Harbor – Charlotte, NC
7/20/2022 Champion Brewing – Charlottesville, VA (Free Show)
7/21/2022 123 Pleasant St – Morgantown, WV
7/23/2022 Richmond Music Hall – Richmond, VA
7/24/2022 Silk City – Philadelphia, PA
7/25/2022 Knitting Factory – Brooklyn, NY
7/26/2022 Crafthouse – Pittsburgh, PA
7/27/2022 Bug Jar – Rochester, NY
7/28/2022 Smalls – Detroit, MI
7/31/2022 Southgate House – Newport, KY
8/01/2022 Empty Bottle – Chicago, IL
8/03/2022 Lyric Room – Green Bay, WI
8/04/2022 Wildwood – Iowa City, IA
8/05/2022 Reverb – Omaha, NE
8/07/2022 Globe Hall – Denver, CO
8/08/2022 Aces High – Salt Lake City, UT
8/10/2022 Substation – Seattle, WA
8/11/2022 Shakedown – Bellingham, WA
8/12/2022 Rickshaw Theatre – Vancouver, BC
8/13/2022 Bossanova Ballroom – Portland, OR
8/14/2022 Cafe Colonial – Sacramento, CA
8/16/2022 Bottom Of The Hill – San Francisco, CA
8/17/2022 Gigi’s – Ventura, CA
8/18/2022 Knucklehead – Los Angeles, CA
8/19/2022 Yucca Taproom – Tempe, AZ
8/20/2022 Albuquerque, NM
8/21/2022 89th St – Oklahoma City, OK
8/25/2022 Record Bar – Kansas City, MO
8/26/2022 Red Flag – St. Louis, MO
8/27/2022 Skylark – Rock Island, IL
8/28/2022 The Lift – Dubuque, IA
8/29/2022 7th St Entry – Minneapolis, MN]

http://www.whitehillsband.com
http://www.facebook.com/WHITEHILLSBand
http://www.twitter.com/whitehillsmusic
http://www.instagram.com/whitehillsmusic
http://whitehills.bandcamp.com/music
http://www.youtube.com/whitehillsband
http://www.tiktok.com/@whitehillsband
http://www.patreon.com/whitehills

White Hills, The Revenge of Heads on Fire (2022)

This planet will never be freaked out enough for White Hills to be as revered as by rights they should be, but the New York duo’s work will nonetheless resonate across generations of listeners present and in the future. And I mean that. Decades from now you’re going to have minds continually blown by the sounds White Hills have done and still make, perhaps treasured all the more for the sense of discovery behind that. It’s never going to be a mass thing, but pockets of people here and there will hear it, take influence, and be affected by them, and that rippling outward is tuned directly into the expansive space punk and heavy psych they’ve made indelibly their own.

In other words, it’s a very, very good thing that White Hills have started their own label, and I only hope that The Revenge of Heads on Fire is a beginning point for them in terms of deconstructing, reconstructing, and continuing to burn as only those genuinely driven to create can. That they could decide at a moment’s notice to remake an album, release every set from a tour, or do whatever else they want is only going to serve their own purposes, which are exactly the ones they should be serving. Rare band that’s been around for circa 20 years and are still exploring unknown reaches as a matter of course. If I had the money, I’d give them $100 a month through Patreon just on principle. But I’d have to start my own Patreon to even begin funding such a project and somehow that seems inefficient.

In any case, new stuff that screws with old stuff? Yes please. They’re on tour with Telekinetic Yeti starting next month. And if you’re in New York, the Brooklyn Knitting Factory is closing — maybe they’ll go back to Manhattan; I bet that’s cheaper now; more likely it’ll just move to Queens — and I can think of few acts better than White Hills for a last blowout.

From the PR wire:

WHITE HILLS: New York City Fuzz Rock Duo To Release The Revenge Of Heads On Fire Full-Length September 16th On Recently Launched Heads On Fire Industries; “Silent Violence” Video Playing + Preorders Available

New York City explosive fuzz duo WHITE HILLS will release their long-anticipated new album The Revenge Of Heads On Fire on September 16th. This will be the first physical release on the band’s newly launched record label Heads On Fire Industries, distributed exclusively by Cargo Records UK.

“A screaming head on fire penetrated my chest, jolting me from the universal plane back to earth.” Guitarist, vocalist, and sonic alchemist Dave W.’s vivid fever dream ignited The Revenge Of Heads On Fire which harnesses the energy of ferocious, hedonistic rock with blissful passages of dark ambience. Exploring themes of mortality, transformation and rebirth, the band reveals a spiritual depth unparalleled in previous works. The roar of fire, swirling of oceans and hallucinogenic visions can be heard throughout the seventy-five-minute journey. From the intrepid prelude “The Instrumental Head” to the closing punk blaze of “Eternity,” the album ebbs and flows, smoldering and seething in the middle with the twenty-one-minute mammoth opus “Don’t Be Afraid.”

The Revenge Of Heads On Fire consummates Dave W.’s prototype for the 2007’s Heads On Fire, released on Rocket Recordings and later picked up by Thrill Jockey. Six rediscovered songs accompany re-mixed versions of the original material, fulfilling the master arch of the pyre lit long ago. Recorded during the band’s tumultuous early years, the music vibrates with the energy and volatility of a sonic boom.

Poised to subvert convention and amplify innovation, the band’s own Heads On Fire Industries will focus on sonic exploration. The name, inspired by the myth of Viking warriors setting their helmets on fire to astonish their enemies, aptly describes the passion, determination, and creative madness that WHITE HILLS has invoked throughout their career. “Having our own label has always been a dream,” Dave W, a rabid vinyl collector, notes. Adds Ego Sensation, “Creating music is a tiny peaceful revolution, and when shared with others it can gain momentum and give humanity a chance to raise our collective consciousness. With this label, we will nudge the borders of possibility.”

In advance of the official unveiling of The Revenge Of Heads On Fire, today the band reveals their video for the record’s first single, “Silent Violence,” now playing. Brazen and guitar heavy, this unhinged raw power ripper is anchored by an infectious hook and a meditative vocal mantra. “It’s got a down and dirty Stooges vibe to it- unhinged and sultry like a wild night of debauchery,” says Ego Sensation. Directed by the band’s own Ego Sensation, the imagery was composed from the album’s saturated artwork by Rocket Recordings’ Chris Reeder and outtakes from an intoxicated photo shoot.

The Revenge Of Heads On Fire will be released on CD, LP, and digital formats. Find preorders at the official WHITE HILLS Bandcamp page HERE: https://whitehills.bandcamp.com/music

European & UK Customers can pay less in shipping by pre-ordering from Cargo Records UK here: cargorecordsdirect.co.uk/products/white-hills-the-revenge-of-heads-on-fire?variant=42903541350643

The Revenge Of Heads On Fire Track Listing:
1. The Instrumental Head
2. Radiate
3. Inoke Tupo
4. Oceans Of Sound
5. Speed Toilet
6. Is This The Road
7. VTDS
8. Don’t Be Afraid
9. Vision Of The Past, Present & Future
10. Silent Violence
11. Eternity

Additionally, WHITE HILLS will return to the road next month on a North American tour with Iowa-based stoner doom duo Telekinetic Yeti. The journey will commence on July 19th in Charlotte, North Carolina and run through August 29th in Minneapolis, Minnesota. See all confirmed dates below.

WHITE HILLS w/ Telekinetic Yeti:
7/19/2022 Snug Harbor – Charlotte , NC
7/20/2022 Champion Brewing – Charlottesville, VA (Free Show)
7/21/2022 123 Pleasant St – Morgantown, WV
7/23/2022 Richmond Music Hall – Richmond, VA
7/24/2022 Silk City – Philadelphia, PA
7/25/2022 Knitting Factory – Brooklyn, NY
7/26/2022 Crafthouse – Pittsburgh, PA
7/27/2022 Bug Jar – Rochester, NY
7/28/2022 Smalls – Detroit, MI
7/31/2022 Southgate House – Newport, KY
8/01/2022 Empty Bottle – Chicago, IL
8/03/2022 Lyric Room – Green Bay, WI
8/04/2022 Wildwood – Iowa City, IA
8/05/2022 Reverb – Omaha, NE
8/07/2022 Globe Hall – Denver, CO
8/08/2022 Aces High – Salt Lake City, UT
8/10/2022 Substation – Seattle, WA
8/11/2022 Shakedown – Bellingham, WA
8/12/2022 Rickshaw Theatre – Vancouver, BC
8/13/2022 Bossanova Ballroom – Portland, OR
8/14/2022 Cafe Colonial – Sacramento, CA
8/16/2022 Bottom Of The Hill – San Francisco, CA
8/17/2022 Gigi’s – Ventura, CA
8/18/2022 Knucklehead – Los Angeles, CA
8/19/2022 Yucca Taproom – Tempe, AZ
8/20/2022 Albuquerque, NM
8/21/2022 89th St – Oklahoma City, OK
8/25/2022 Record Bar – Kansas City, MO
8/26/2022 Red Flag – St. Louis, MO
8/27/2022 Skylark – Rock Island, IL
8/28/2022 The Lift – Dubuque, IA
8/29/2022 7th St Entry – Minneapolis, MN

WHITE HILLS:
Dave W. – guitar, vocals, synth
Ego Sensation – drums, bass, vocals

http://www.whitehillsband.com
http://www.facebook.com/WHITEHILLSBand
http://www.twitter.com/whitehillsmusic
http://www.instagram.com/whitehillsmusic
http://whitehills.bandcamp.com/music
http://www.youtube.com/whitehillsband
http://www.tiktok.com/@whitehillsband
http://www.patreon.com/whitehills

White Hills, The Revenge of Heads on Fire (2022)

White Hills, “Silent Violence” official video

I believe that if you go back and check the Official Bureau of Records on Such Things, the central thesis of my last post about New York’s White Hills was that nobody has any idea what they’re doing and that people who pretend otherwise are full of crap. It was something like that, anyhow. Or if not, that’s what it should’ve been. Whatever. In support of this argument I may or may not have been making — I don’t have the funds to file a 27B/6 request with the Official Bureau to check the record and find out — I humbly offer the band’s new video for “Automated City,” which they’ve newly posted ahead of the European tour on which they’ll embark next month.

“Band releasing a new video ahead of a tour,” you say. “Not much weird about that.” Correct. However. Check out the track itself before you fully assess. Yeah, you’ll hear some krautrock vibes in there as well as intangibles like the legacy of New York’s noisemaking experimentalist scene such as it was before Thurston and Kim got divorced, and you’ll hear any number of things all coming together as White Hills, but isn’t that the point? Put a tag on that. Call it something other than the band’s name. Double-dog dare you. As I know I said last time, verbatim: “Good fucking luck.”

And once you’ve accomplished that task, I’ll gladly set you on figuring out what might lead White Hills to make a video for a song from 2015’s Walks for Motorists rather than their latest LP, 2017’s Stop Mute Defeat, or maybe even something new they’re working on from their next album in progress.

And once you’ve accomplished that task, I’ll leave you to the video itself, put together by the band’s own Ego Sensation, and looking like something out of a Hitchcock opening credits sequence.

Have fun:

White Hills, “Automated City” official video

White Hills present “Automated City”, a noir vignette shot and constructed by Ego Sensation. Inspired by noir films of the 1940s and the avant-garde stage theater of American director and playwright Robert Wilson, the video traverses a shadowy dream world of shifting perspective. A firm fan favourite, the song is from the band’s 2015 album Walks For Motorists, produced by David Wrench, best known for his work with Goldfrapp, Caribou and FKA Twigs as well as with his own synth-duo audiobooks.

White Hills are currently in the studio working on a new album with Jeff Berner (Psychic TV) at Studio G in Brooklyn featuring a slew of unique collaborators including; Jim Jarmusch (Filmmaker & Musician), Yasmine Hamden (singer-songwriter who also appears in Jarmusch’s “Only Lovers Left Alive”), Simone Marie Butler (bassist with Primal Scream), Jim Coleman (Cop Shoot Cop) and Alex Macarte (GNOD).

White Hills – Buy The Ticket Take The Ride EU tour 2019 Dates:
14/11 CH Bern Spinnerei
15/11 ITA Busto Arsizio Circolo Gagarin (with Martin Bisi)
16/11 ITA Roma Roma Psych Fest
17/11 ITA Loreto Reasonanz (with Martin Bisi)
18/11 ITA Perugia T-Trane
19/11 ITA Torino BlahBlah
20/11 ITA Padova Nadir
21/11 ITA Ravenna Transmission Festival (with Martin Bisi)
22/11 ITA Ravenna Transmission Festival
23/11 AT Salzburg Dome of Rock Festival
24/11 DE Karlsruhe Alte Hackerei
25/11 DE Leipzig Nato
26/11 DE Berlin Urban Spree (with Martin Bisi)
27/11 SWE Malmo Plan B
28/11 SWE Gothenborg Musikenhus
29/11 DK Copenhagen BASEMENT
30/11 DE Munster Rare Guitar
1/12 NL Den Bosch W2 Poppodium
2/12 BE Bruxelles Mag 4 (with Martin Bisi)
3/12 FRA Paris Supersonic

White Hills Tumblr

White Hills on Thee Facebooks

White Hills on Bandcamp

Let’s face it: Long after the floods and storms and famine and whatever else claim humanity, the sentient dolphins who inherent the earth will still be dedicating their best scholars to the task of trying to understand just what the hell level White Hills were working on. Most certainly, whatever it was — or, you know, is — it’s their own. In the best tradition of New York’s underground, they’ve long been an in-the-know-type band. The sort who might record and play shows with Martin Bisi and whose experimentalism extends through things like covering obscure ’80s synth tracks and scooting off to their kinda-adopted-home-base on the European circuit for a Fall tour that includes a slew of festivals psychedelic and otherwise.

White Hills thrive in this hard-to-get-a-handle-on aesthetic territory between genres, and as they’re in the studio putting together a new album that, you know, just has Jim Jarmusch on it — as one does — they’ll no doubt continue that thread of casting out mysteries for future aquatic-mammalian historians to try and unravel.

Good fucking luck.

From the PR wire:

New York’s acclaimed fuzz art-rock duo White Hills return to Europe

Having gathered a reputation as one of the most prolific and exciting live bands of their generation, White Hills are scheduled to descend upon mainland Europe this Autumn, playing for the very first time as a duo; with Ego Sensation on drums, electronics and vocals and Dave W on guitar and vocals.

On this tour the set will include new never-before-heard material which the band are currently working on (more on this below) as well as songs from the band’s vast catalogue including tracks from Glitter Glamour Atrocity, White Hills, H-p1, So You Are…So You’ll Be, Walks For Motorists and Stop Mute Defeat.

The tour includes several shows with collaborator and legendary NYC producer Martin Bisi (Sonic Youth, Swans, Foetus). Dave and Ego comment further on this collaboration. “We’re honored to have been able to work with Martin on three White Hills’ albums and the BC35 collaboration which brought together members of The Swans, Sonic Youth, Pop 1280, Foetus, Dresden Dolls and many other unique artists. BC Studios continues to be a vibrant breeding ground for New York noise and innovative music.” Bisi is curating The Transmission Festival in Ravenna, Italy which will feature several other NYC artists who appear on the BC35 Volume II compilation, which is released by the hosts of the festival, Bronson Recordings.

White Hills are currently in the studio working on a new album with Jeff Berner (Psychic TV) at Studio G in Brooklyn featuring a slew of unique collaborators including; Jim Jarmusch (Filmmaker & Musician), Yasmine Hamden (singer-songwriter who also appears in Jarmusch’s “Only Lovers Left Alive”), Simone Marie Butler (bassist with Primal Scream), Jim Coleman (Cop Shoot Cop) and Alex Macarte (GNOD).

White Hills – Buy The Ticket Take The Ride EU tour 2019 Dates:
14/11 CH Bern Spinnerei
15/11 ITA Busto Arsizio Circolo Gagarin (with Martin Bisi)
16/11 ITA Roma Roma Psych Fest
17/11 ITA Loreto Reasonanz (with Martin Bisi)
18/11 ITA Perugia T-Trane
19/11 ITA Torino BlahBlah
20/11 ITA Padova Nadir
21/11 ITA Ravenna Transmission Festival (with Martin Bisi)
22/11 ITA Ravenna Transmission Festival
23/11 AT Salzburg Dome of Rock Festival
24/11 DE Karlsruhe Alte Hackerei
25/11 DE Leipzig Nato
26/11 DE Berlin Urban Spree (with Martin Bisi)
27/11 SWE Malmo Plan B
28/11 SWE Gothenborg Musikenhus
29/11 DK Copenhagen BASEMENT
30/11 DE Munster Rare Guitar
1/12 NL Den Bosch W2 Poppodium
2/12 BE Bruxelles Mag 4 (with Martin Bisi)
3/12 FRA Paris Supersonic

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https://whitehills.bandcamp.com/

White Hills, “Putting on the Pressure”