Posted in Whathaveyou on May 30th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
YOB‘s current US tour started over a week ago and this week swings through the Midwest en route to the Eastern Seaboard. The Eugene, Oregon, cosmic doom stalwarts announced about a week and a half ago they’ll reissue their debut album, 2002’s Elaborations of Carbon, through Relapse Records in the spirit of past album revisits with new artwork, a remaster, and so on. The tour will see them stop through Mutants of the Monster this week and as they head in that direction, they’ve put word out that Dave French (a noted front-of-house sound engineer and formerly drums in Brothers of the Sonic Cloth) has joined on drums as a permanent member of the group.
This isn’t the huge news it might seem to be when one considers that French has been playing with YOB for two years, as the band mentions below, but the current tour is the largest undertaking they’ve done in that time, so it’s a fitting moment to make it official. French stepped in on drums for YOB as life began to return post-pandemic, filling the role formerly occupied by Travis Foster, who had joined in 2003. Guitarist/vocalist Mike Scheidt is as he has been the lone remaining founding member, while bassist Aaron Rieseberg (also Simple Forms) came aboard when the band returned in 2009 after breaking up in ’06. Got all that?
The dates don’t really matter. What’s important is that with French as a permanent member, YOB will proceed on this tour and continue moving forward, and that their announcement gives me an excuse to post a pic by Dutch photographer Paul Verhagen, who is among the all-time champion sweethearts of the universe. Also included are the dates for the tour that I spent half the post talking about.
Dig:
We’re very happy to announce that Dave French is officially joining Yob as our new drummer.
We’ve been friends, neighbors, tour mates and admirers of Dave for over a decade. We first met in 2012 when he was playing drums for Brothers Of The Sonic Cloth. His crushing approach and commitment to detail behind the kit was remarkable. Since then we’ve toured with Dave in multiple scenarios when he was working as a tech or sound engineer for bands like Neurosis, Voivod, Sleep (as well with Om, Boris, Soundgarden, MC50, and many others) over the years.
Dave has been playing drums with us live since 2021 and has brought his focus, energy and inspiration to every moment. We’re thrilled to welcome him to Yob.
(#128248#) Paul Verhagen
YOB US TOUR DATES Tue 5/30 – St Paul, MN – Turf Club* (SOLD OUT) Wed 5/31 – Omaha, NE – Slowdown* Thu 6/01 – Lawrence, KS – Bottleneck* Fri 6/02 – Little Rock, AR – Mutants Of The Monster Fest* Sat 6/03 – Murfreesboro, TN – Hop Springs* Sun 6/04 – Louisville, KY – Portal* Tue 6/06 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall* Wed 6/07 – Pittsburgh, PA – Spirit Hall* Thu 6/08 – Baltimore, MD – Ottobar* Fri 6/09 – Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts* Sat 6/10 – Boston, MA – Middle East (Downstairs)* (SOLD OUT) Mon 6/12 – New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge* Tue 6/13 – New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge # Wed 6/14 – Richmond, VA – The Broadberry # Thu 6/15 – Asheville, NC – Asheville Music Hall # Fri 6/16 – Atlanta, GA – Masquerade (Hell) # Sat 6/17 – New Orleans, LA – House Of Blues # Sun 6/18 – Austin, TX – Oblivion Access Festival # Tue 6/20 – Albuquerque, NM – Sister # Wed 6/21 – Mesa, AZ – The Nile # Thu 6/22 – San Diego, CA – Brick By Brick # Fri 6/23 – Los Angeles, CA – Teragram Ballroom # Sat 6/24 – Oakland, CA – 3rd & Castro # * = w/ Cave In # = w/ Pallbearer
YOB is: Mike Scheidt – Guitar, Vocals Aaron Rieseberg – Bass Dave French – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 18th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
YOB won’t actually hit all four corners of the US on their upcoming coast-to-coast tour, but they’re not far off. After starting out in their native Pacific Northwest, they’ll swing through the Midwest, loop up northeast to go south along the East Coast, then turn west and circle back out across to Southern California, finishing en route back north through Oakland. As the press release states, it’s the most significant North American touring they’ve done in four years, and as they make ready to go, word comes through the PR wire of a reissue of their first album, 2002’s Elaborations of Carbon, through Relapse Records.
If you don’t recognize 12th Records, the original label that put out the Eugene, Oregon-based three-piece’s debut full-length, it’s the imprint of Electric Amplifiers — even if you’re not a guitar nerd, you’ve probably seen Green or Black or White, etc., amplifiers resting on guitar cabinets at shows. That’s them. The label also put out releases from Bongzilla offshoot Cuda, as well as High on Fire‘s first demo, Starchild‘s debut and a curated selection of others around the turn of the century — also Black Capricorn in 2009, so they’re not by any means ancient-ancient history. Their eBay store remains a moneyspender’s paradise.
Elaborations of Carbon is by no means YOB‘s most crucial release, but it was a formative moment for them in discovering a genuinely cosmic take on doom, a psychedelia of heft not seen before if also not yet fully realized, and it remains a document of their beginning that, whether you have the original CD or not, is worth seeking out. Essential? Definitely if you’re digging into YOB‘s catalog for the first time. And for collectors, this new-art/remastered-audio edition is a no-brainer. If neither of those is you, maybe you preorder just because it’s been five years since YOB last put out a record and you feel a primal need to spend your money on their wares. I get it.
The 2LP Elaborations of Carbon will be out Sept. 15, but it’s streaming now, player is below, blah blah. You get it. Info came off the PR wire:
YOB ANNOUNCE ELABORATIONS OF CARBON (REISSUE)
PHYSICAL PRE-ORDERS OUT SEPTEMBER 15; REMASTERED DIGITAL AUDIO STREAMING IN FULL NOW
Epic, crushing, and heavy beyond words, YOB has achieved legendary status over the last two decades with their unmatched aesthetic and incredible body of work. Now Elaborations of Carbon, the debut full length that set the stage for the band’s singular, organic universe of transcendent doom, is being presented for the first time on vinyl as well as being made widely available for the first time across streaming services.
Mike Scheidt Comments:
“At long last, Elaborations Of Carbon is available to anyone who wants it, and on vinyl no less! It’s wild that EOC was first released over 20 years ago, counting the 4-song burned CD-R version we handed out to friends before releasing the 6-song album. We were swinging for the rafters, and gave it everything we had. It’s been a blast to revisit this album and remember all of the good times we had.”
The enormous volume and pensive, ethereal beauty that YOB would become synonymous with make themselves known across the 6 riveting tracks on Elaborations of Carbon. The album’s lineup features Yob founder and heart Mike Scheidt (vocals and guitars), Lowell Iles (bass), and Gabe Morley (drums) and was recorded and mixed by Jeff Olsen (who would go on to become a long time collaborator of YOB’s) at Dogwood Recordings in Elmira, OR.
After its initial release in May 2002 on 12th Records, the CD would see a small repress in 2013 and the album has been unavailable since. Billy Barnett was called upon to make the archival transfer for the 2023 reissue which was mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis Music and features completely re-envisioned artwork by Orion Landau.
Additionally, YOB’s first full US tour in four years BEGINS this weekend on Sunday, May 21 at Modified Ghost Festival! The headline tour dates have them making their way across the US throughout late May & June with select support by CAVE IN (5/28-6/12) & PALLBEARER (6/13-6/24). Tickets are available now at https://www.yobislove.com/tour.
ELABORATIONS OF CARBON (REISSUE) TRACKLIST: 1. Universe Throb (2023 Remaster) 10:33 2. All The Children Forgotten (2023 Remaster) 17:01 3. Clear Seeing (2023 Remaster) 16:53 4. Revolution (2023 Remaster) 10:56 5. Pain Of I (2023 Remaster) 07:06 6. Asleep In Samsara (2023 Remaster) 07:20
YOB US TOUR DATES Select Support By CAVE IN & PALLBEARER Sun 5/21 – Vancouver, BC – Modified Ghost Festival (SOLD OUT) Thu 5/25 – Seattle, WA – Northwest Terror Fest Fri 5/26 – Boise, ID – Treefort Music Hall Sat 5/27 – Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge Sun 5/28 – Denver, CO – Gothic Theater* Tue 5/30 – St Paul, MN – Turf Club* (SOLD OUT) Wed 5/31 – Omaha, NE – Slowdown* Thu 6/01 – Lawrence, KS – Bottleneck* Fri 6/02 – Little Rock, AR – Mutants Of The Monster Fest* Sat 6/03 – Murfreesboro, TN – Hop Springs* Sun 6/04 – Louisville, KY – Portal* Tue 6/06 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall* Wed 6/07 – Pittsburgh, PA – Spirit Hall* Thu 6/08 – Baltimore, MD – Ottobar* Fri 6/09 – Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts* Sat 6/10 – Boston, MA – Middle East (Downstairs)* (SOLD OUT) Mon 6/12 – New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge* Tue 6/13 – New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge # Wed 6/14 – Richmond, VA – The Broadberry # Thu 6/15 – Asheville, NC – Asheville Music Hall # Fri 6/16 – Atlanta, GA – Masquerade (Hell) # Sat 6/17 – New Orleans, LA – House Of Blues # Sun 6/18 – Austin, TX – Oblivion Access Festival # Tue 6/20 – Albuquerque, NM – Sister # Wed 6/21 – Mesa, AZ – The Nile # Thu 6/22 – San Diego, CA – Brick By Brick # Fri 6/23 – Los Angeles, CA – Teragram Ballroom # Sat 6/24 – Oakland, CA – 3rd & Castro # * = w/ Cave In # = w/ Pallbearer
Elaborations of Carbon credits: Mike Scheidt – Guitar & Vocals Lowell Iles – Bass Gabe Morley – Drums
Recorded and mixed by Jeff Olsen at Dogwood Recording Archival transfer by Billy Barnett Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis Music Design by Orion Landau
YOB is: Mike Scheidt – Guitar, Vocals Aaron Rieseberg – Bass Dave French – Drums (live)
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 8th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
2023 makes it two full decades since YOB released their second album, Catharsis (discussed here). I don’t know if they’re doing anything on this tour to mark that occasion or not — probably not or they’d, you know, mention it — but that’s a record that directly changed my opinion of what heavy music could do and be, so it’s an anniversary I’ll celebrate even if I’m the only one celebrating it. In the meantime, it’s been five years since the Oregonian cosmic doom progenitors released their last album, 2018’s Our Raw Heart (review here), and that’s the longest stretch of their career without a studio LP. Even when they broke up in 2005, they were back with a new record in 2009. If you believe in due, they’re due.
I have no info or speculation to offer in that regard. They’ll either do another record or they won’t — there you have it. But while I’m listing out reasons for ongoing sentimental attachment to this band, I’ll note they were the first show I went to after live music opened up post-pandemic (review here), and I don’t think that’s something I’ll ever forget. I’ve been saying ever since that next time they come through it’s time for me to take The Patient Mrs. to a gig since they’re a band who’re important enough to me that she should experience them live as well. Maybe Le Poisson Rouge will be where that happens. Could do worse as well than having to pick your poison between Cave In and Pallbearer as an opener. Date night and whatnot.
Fresh off the PR wire:
YOB ANNOUNCES US LATE SPRING HEADLINE TOUR
SELECT SUPPORT BY CAVE IN (5/28 – 6/12) & PALLBEARER (6/13 – 6/23)
Oregon cosmic three piece YOB announce their first full US tour in four years! The headline tour dates have them making their way across the US throughout late May & June. Select support will be provided by CAVE IN (5/28-6/12) & PALLBEARER (6/13-6/24).
YOB US TOUR DATES Select Support By CAVE IN & PALLBEARER Sun 5/21 – Vancouver, BC – Modified Ghost Festival+ Thu 5/25 – Seattle, WA – Northwest Terror Fest+ Fri 5/26 – Boise, ID – Treefort Music Hall Sat 5/27 – Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge Sun 5/28 – Denver, CO – Gothic Theater* Tue 5/30 – St Paul, MN – Turf Club* Wed 5/31 – Omaha, NE – Slowdown* Thu 6/01 – Lawrence, KS – Bottleneck* Fri 6/02 – Little Rock, AR – Mutants Of The Monster Fest* Sat 6/03 – Murfreesboro, TN – Hop Springs* Sun 6/04 – Louisville, KY – Portal* Tue 6/06 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall* Wed 6/07 – Pittsburgh, PA – Spirit Hall* Thu 6/08 – Baltimore, MD – Ottobar* Fri 6/09 – Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts* Sat 6/10 – Boston, MA – Middle East (downstairs)* Mon 6/12 – New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge* Tue 6/13 – New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge # Wed 6/14 – Richmond, VA – The Broadberry # Thu 6/15 – Asheville, NC – Asheville Music Hall # Fri 6/16 – Atlanta, GA – Masquerade (Hell) # Sat 6/17 – New Orleans, LA – House Of Blues # Sun 6/18 – Austin, TX – Oblivion Access Festival #+ Tue 6/20 – Albuquerque, NM – Sister # Wed 6/21 – Mesa, AZ – The Nile # Thu 6/22 – San Diego, CA – Brick By Brick # Fri 6/23 – Los Angeles, CA – Teragram Ballroom # Sat 6/24 – Oakland, CA – 3rd & Castro #
* = w/Cave In # = w/Pallbearer + = Already on sale
YOB is: Mike Scheidt – Guitar, Vocals Aaron Rieseberg – Bass Dave French – Drums (live)
One assumes that next year, YOB‘s Catharsis will see a duly deluxe reissue for its 20th anniversary, just as the band’s 2011 outing, Atma (review here), was recently re-pressed to mark 10 years, and Catharsis itself saw reissue for its own first decade in 2013 through Profound Lore and Relapse Records (that is the version above). Seems only the Metal Blade albums — 2004’s The Illusion of Motion (discussed here) and 2005’s The Unreal Never Lived (discussed here) — sit untouched. But every 10 years is fair. If it was every five, I doubt I’d complain. If there was a way to just ultimate-forever-preorder and receive a new edition of every record every time one happened, into perpetuity, you would only be able to call it an investment. A debt paid in installments.
This album changed my life. I mean that. I happened into YOB, like so much else at the time, through StonerRock.com’s All That is Heavy store — both of those things are still missed; call me sentimental — and bought the Abstract Sounds jewel case CD as a new release. It reshaped what I understood the word ‘heavy’ could mean. I’d never heard something that managed to be riff-based, psychedelic, metal, doom, beautiful, crushing and fun all at once, and aside from the novelty of the track lengths — three songs on Catharsis: “Aeons” (18:10), “Ether” (7:16) and “Catharsis” (23:39) — I’d never heard a clean/harsh vocal shift like that from Mike Scheidt in my life, despite the turn of the century’s rampant scream-verse-sing-chorus metalcore ethic.
That eerie, effects-soaked voice, complemented by brutal growls or shouts, whispers as in “Aeons” or pure gutturalism near the end of the title-track — helped expand my definition of genre and form. I’d heard long songs, I’d heard weird songs, but YOB took the tenets of sludge via Neurosis and the stoner metal of Sleep, the it’s-doom-at-any-speed attitude of Cathedral and from all of this and more harnessed once-in-a-generation individualism. I didn’t quite understand it, and I’m still not sure I do, to be honest, but I loved that about it. It seemed like no matter how deep you listened, there was always something new. That funky break in “Aeon!” They’re taking it for a walk! 19 years after the fact, I still feel there’s more to find.
I’ve never written about Catharsis like this before in no small part because I feel so strongly about it. I find I’m nervous doing so now, like all the words want to come out of my brain at the same time and none can squeeze through. Whether it’s the lumbering spaciousness of “Aeons,” or the daring of both speed and a hook in “Ether” — there’s more Matt Pike in that riff than I ever realized; even now I hear something I hadn’t heard before — and the outright emotive expanse of “Catharsis” and the way it throws itself open for its chorus, “The tyranny built upon our philosophies/Not for me in solitude again,” the way those lines aren’t about defiance or a middle finger, not even angry, just knowing of place and self, Catharsis speaks to a timeless sense of not belonging, of seeing differently, while creating reaches in which to dwell.
For the trio then comprised of Scheidt, bassist Isamu Sato and drummer Travis Foster — Aaron Rieseberg (Norska, Simple Forms) took over bass when the band came back from a four-year hiatus with 2009’s blistering The Great Cessation(review here; discussed here) — it was formative, part of an ongoing realization of sound that is inarguably still happening in Scheidt‘s songwriting as of the band’s most recent album, 2018’s Our Raw Heart (review here). But the manner in which soul is manifested on Catharsis was legitimately new for heavy-anything at the time, and it turned the weight of the tracks themselves into a ceremony suited to the lyrical searching, that outsider perspective looking in with a kind of resigned disappointment and understanding that something else is needed. This point of view, honest, personal, continues to inform YOB‘s work, and while the band’s prior 2002 debut, Elaborations of Carbon, had spent plenty of time in the cosmos, Catharsis internalized that journey in a manner no one else has since, though plenty have tried.
And “Catharsis” itself would set forth a pattern of ‘the YOB epic’ that spans across their catalog. The Illusion of Motion had its closing title-track, The Unreal Never Lived had “The Mental Tyrant,” The Great Cessation had its closing title-track, Atma disrupted the pattern by making “Adrift in the Ocean” the finale but not the longest song but still followed the quiet-guitar-intro-then-all-hell-breaks-loose modus, while 2014’s Clearing the Path to Ascend (review here) offered the once-in-a-lifetime “Marrow”(discussed here), and Our Raw Heart dared to disrupt, putting “Beauty in Falling Leaves” as fifth of seven cuts. “Catharsis” was the predecessor to them all with its meandering but ever-purposeful procession, its undeniably metal culmination, its drone, thrash ‘n’ bash harvesting of the titular ideal and culmination that seems to find even another level of blast and spiritual release, ending almost while still in progress as if to remind us as listeners that our lives and our worlds will inevitably do the same.
YOB went on after this album to produce some of their generation’s most crucial heavy music, transcending even the cosmic doom that Catharsis helped define, delivering iconic performances in studio and on stage ever driven by passion and correspondingly influential and incomparable. It was by no means the start of the band, preceded by their demo (discussed here) in 2000 and the aforementioned Elaborations of Carbon, but I count Catharsis as the beginning of that process, the Eugene, Oregon, three-piece having discovered their sound and purpose to a degree such that the pursuit and growth across the nearly two decades since has had these three songs at its foundation.
A popular answer to the Obelisk Questionnaire question, “What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?,” is that all life experience is valuable because it has led that individual to become the person they are. Not judging anyone else’s self-assessments — including Scheidt‘s nine years ago — but I don’t agree. I’ve seen and experienced things in my life that I feel like I’d be better off without, whatever ‘character-building’ I might’ve missed out on as a result. When “Catharsis” hits that change as it enters its last seven minutes, though, I’m a believer. I’m ready to accept everything; the good, the bad, the up, the so, so many downs. All of it. To hear that progression, the turns and the push and riff that has just an edge of light coming through all the barrage, feels like a true exhale, low and deep from the center of one’s being. It’s all worth it, if only for a while.
I love this album like family.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
—
So why now, if I’ve never been able to write about it before? Fair enough.
I was loafing on the couch the other day, broiling in climate change comeuppance, and I suddenly had to ask myself the question of whether these might be the best days of my life.
I am reasonably healthy, physically, at 40 years old, and nowhere near my lowest of lows mentally. I don’t work outside of taking care of my son and doing this, plus odds and ends in other freelance writing/editing. I write for Creem, which feels weird to say. I’m on Gimme Radio — today, 5PM Eastern (playlist here). I finally went to Freak Valley Festival. People say nice things about me on the internet sometimes. My wife still speaks to me. Every now and then we get to make out, which is always nice. My family is close by. My mother is alive. My father is not. My wife’s mother is alive. Her father is not. My wife’s grandmother is alive. My sister and her husband and their two sons, my wife’s sister and her daughter and son are all around, healthy, well, challenging in their tween/teenagerdom, but vibrant people who make any day better and give hope for the future. My own son is four and a half years old and I don’t think we’ve ever spent more time together.
His getting kicked out of camp as part of the all-plans-blown-to-smithereens Summer of Pivot ’22 has resulted in my running point parenting — with about two hours’ break when the don’t-call-her-a-babysitter-she’s-just-his-friend-who-shows-up-to-play-and-gets-paid-for-it comes, that I almost invariably spend writing — more than I ever have. In the last two weeks, he’s gone from swearing he’ll never take off his diapers to playing ‘the cereal game’ aiming his pee in the potty, and he’ll now use a toilet in places that aren’t his house — yesterday at his speech therapist’s and Bed Bath and Beyond, today doing what we call a ‘bush wee’ (that’s what they call it on Bluey) at the nearby park — and he’s amazing and infuriating and just everything all at the same time. He is such, such an asshole, completely overwhelming and hits harder than the riff to Neurosis’ “The Doorway,” but I can’t get away from loving him.
We have this house, in this neighborhood. I eat Jarlsberg cheese like every day. After the kid goes to bed, I can sit on the couch in my garage like a teenager, light up a joint that I bought at the smoke shop right next to the pizza place — pure Jersey — and marvel at the fact that even my next door neighbor who’s a cop can’t do shit about it. That novelty may never go away.
Inside, the air conditioning works. The ice maker works. The shower works. The kitchen isn’t done, but it works too. The coffee pot works, and the Nespresso. I have shit days, often — having one today, in fact — but when was that not the case, and as time goes on into the imperfect stretch of memory, I look back on life events and mundane afternoons of years gone and remember them at least as much positive as negative, times worth being in. I wonder what I’ll say about now if I’m fortunate enough to live another two or three decades, which right now there’s no reason to think I won’t. The world is going to hell. My country is falling apart. Sometimes I need a xanax just to get me over until bedtime. But I’m okay right now, today. When I stand back and look at it, I’m okay. Doesn’t that count too?
I hope that, if these are the best days of my life, if this is the pinnacle, that when I remember them, I remember as well that I tried my best to appreciate them at the time. And that sometimes I even managed to do so.
It was in that spirit that I decided Catharsis was the record to close out this week.
Thank you for reading. Great and safe weekend. Drink water. It’s hot out there.
Good show. Good tracks. Two Acid King songs to start, new stuff from Nebula, Sasquatch, Obiat, Torpedo Torpedo, Les Nadie — with whose debut album I am enthralled; review next week — Chat Pile, Brujas del Sol, Cities of Mars, Freedom Hawk (also reviewing next week). Classics from YOB, The Devin Townsend Band, Yawning Man, Kyuss, Sleep. New classic, anyhow, from the latter and a live cut from Yawning Man that’s gorgeously immersive to end out before the bonus track Freedom Hawk closes. I don’t know how much sense it makes on paper, but it flows well.
I don’t really have a theme here other than “make a good show.” I wanted to mix it up with stuff people might know and not, hopefully keep listeners hooked. Even 89 episodes of The Obelisk Show, I still a little bit live in fear that at some point Gimme Metal is going to be like, “You’re weird, you play weird shit, you never turn your playlists in on time and you suck at this,” and give me the axe. It’s happened to me on radio before (ask me about that some time; glorious story), but hasn’t happened yet here. Still, a nod to accessibility isn’t the worst idea once every 90 shows or so.
Thanks if you listen and thanks for reading.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at: http://gimmemetal.com.
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 07.22.22 (VT = voice track)
Acid King
Red River
Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere
Acid King
2 Wheel Nation
III
The Devin Townsend Band
Sunday Afternoon
Accelerated Evolution
YOB
Quantum Mystic
The Unreal Never Lived
VT
Cities of Mars
Towering Graves (Osmos)
Cities of Mars
Torpedo Torpedo
Black Horizon
The Kuiper Belt Mantras
Les Nadie
Del Pombero
Les Nadie
Sasquatch
Save the Day, Ruin the Night
Fever Fantasy
Sleep
Giza Butler
The Sciences
Kyuss
Whitewater
Sky Valley
Nebula
Highwired
Transmission From Mothership Earth
Chat Pile
Slaughterhouse
God’s Country
Obiat
Sea Burial
Indian Ocean
Brujas del Sol
To Die on Planet Earth
Deculter
VT
Yawning Man
Blowhole Sunrise/Space Finger
Live at Giant Rock
Freedom Hawk
Age of the Idiot
Take What You Can
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Aug. 5 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
Yeah, there are some longer songs here. Truth be told, I wanted that. I wanted the show to have a flow from one track to the next. A lot of it is a pretty dug-in, trippier vibe. There’s some light and dark, and when you get to Wild Rocket and YOB that’s a kind of blasting point that I acknowledge in the subsequent voice track too, but I get two hours every other week to do this thing and I had a specific idea for how I wanted to use it this time.
Does that matter? I don’t know. I just want you to listen to Moura and Okkoto because those records has been laying waste to my soul of late. Lili Refrain I was put onto last weekend or somewhere thereabouts and I wanted to check out more, so there you go, and I feel punk rock guilt for missing Blackwater Holylight and BleakHeart when they came through — to be fair, I had/kinda-still-have the plague — and I thought that I’d probably be the only person on Gimme to play something like Magick Brother & Mystic Sister, so after having closed out last week with that on the site, the temptating to include it was too much to resist. Everything else was built off that.
I did my best to make a good show. If you listen, I hope you enjoy it.
Thanks if you listen, thanks if you’re reading. Thanks in general.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at: http://gimmemetal.com.
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 05.27.22
Moura
Lúa vermella
Axexan, Espreitan
Okkoto
Where the Meadows Dream Beside the Sea
Climb the Antlers & Reach the Stars
Magick Brother & Mystic Sister
Utopia
Magick Brother & Mystic Sister
Kungens Män
Vaska lyckokaka
Kungens Ljud & Bild
Blue Heron
The Buck
Ephemeral
VT
Blackwater Holylight
Who the Hell
Silence/Motion
BleakHeart
The Dead Moon
Dream Griever
Lili Refrain
Ichor
Mana
Wild Rocket
Formless Abyss
Formless Abyss
Mt. Echo
Flummox
Electric Empire
YOB
Nothing to Win
Clearing the Path to Ascend
VT
Wo Fat
The Oracle
The Singularity
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is June 10 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
I hadn’t necessarily planned on doing a tribute to Desertfest London 2022. Not that it doesn’t deserve it, just that it didn’t occur to me until last week’s lineup announcement happened to hit at the right moment for my brain to connect the two things: the show and the fest. Sometimes you get these impulses and it’s a good idea to follow.
In the voice tracks here I mumble a couple times about doing a second installment because this is so packed and there’s still so much more that got left out because the show is only two hours long. I may get around to doing a second one, or I might do a Berlin one, a New York one, or a Freak Valley one, Krach am Bach, Stoned From the Underground, etc. There are many, many options, and that’s not to mention Roadburn, which is also happening in two weeks.
But god damn the lineup for Desertfest London 2022 is sick, and I’m happy to report that the playlist below follows suit accordingly.
Thanks if you listen, thanks if you’re reading. Thanks in general.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at: http://gimmemetal.com.
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 04.01.22
Witchcraft
No Angel or Demon
Witchcraft
Electric Wizard
The Chosen Few
Witchcult Today
Greenleaf
On Wings of Gold
Echoes From a Mass
Josiah
Malpaso
Josiah
VT
Elephant Tree
Sails
Habits
Steak
Papas Special Custard
Acute Mania
YOB
Quantum Mystic
The Unreal Never Lived
Conan
Eye to Eye to Eye
Existential Void Guardian
King Witch
Under the Mountain
Under the Mountain
VT
Earthless
Gifted by the Wind
Black Heaven
Green Lung
Reaper’s Scythe
Black Harvest
MaidaVale
Another Dimension
Madness is Too Pure
Bongzilla
Free the Weed
Weedsconsin
VT
Old Horn Tooth
True Death
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The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is April 15 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 17th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
I’d be telling you to see YOB even if I hadn’t recently had the pleasure myself. It was my first show in New York in over two years and a genuine piece of needed spiritual rejuvenation. If you’ve seen YOB before, you know what I’m talking about. I’ve decided that my wife needs to see them next time they come through. That’s how important they are to me.
And Dave French killed it on drums. Don’t get me wrong, there are few drummers I’m as pleased to see walk into a room as Travis Foster, but French brought it. Recall he was in Brothers of the Sonic Cloth. If he’s heavy enough for frickin’ Tad, he’s heavy enough for you.
So anyway, YOB‘s got newly announced European tour dates and previously announced Southwest tour dates. Here are both:
We are so stoked to be heading out on tour, and with True Widow! Our beloved brother and drum wizard Travis is taking some time away from shows. The three of us put our heads together and approached Dave French, the sublime drum crusher from Brothers Of The Sonic Cloth to fill in. The four of us have toured together many times. We’re family, it shows, and holy shit is Dave killing it. We’re on fire, and we can’t wait to bring it to you.
3/17/2022 Sacramento, CA Harlow’s* 3/18/2022 Santa Cruz, CA Felton Music Hall* 3/19/2022 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall* 3/20/2022 Los Angeles, CA 1720* 3/21/2022 San Diego, CA Brick By Brick* 3/22/2022 Tucson, AZ Club Congress* 3/23/2022 Albuquerque, NM Sister Bar* 3/24/2022 Denver, CO Marquis Theater* 3/25/2022 Salt Lake City, UT Soundwell 3/26/2022 Boise, ID Treefort 4/27/2022 Glasgow, UK G2 4/28/2022 Leeds, UK Brudenell Social Club 4/29/2022 Manchester, UK Academy 3 5/1/2022 London, UK Desert Festival 5/3/2022 Lille, FR Aeronef 5/4/2022 Rouen, FR Le106 5/5/2022 Paris, FR La Maroquinerie 5/6/2022 Feyzin, FR L’Epicerie Moderne 5/7/2022 Karlsruhe, DE Dude Fest 5/8/2022 Munich, DE Strom 5/10/2022 Bologna, DE Freakout Club 5/11/2022 Mezzago, IT Bloom 5/12/2022 Martigny, CH Les Caves du Manoir 5/13/2022 Delemont, CH SAS 5/14/2022 Dortmund, DE Junkyard 5/16/2022 Oslo, NO Partkteatret 5/17/2022 Stockholm, SE Slaktkyrkan 5/18/2022 Gothenburg, SE Valand 5/19/2022 Copenhagen, DK Colossal Weekend 5/20/2022 Aarhus, DK Atlas 5/21/2022 Hanover, DE Café Glocksee 5/22/2022 Groningen, NE Vera 5/24/2022 Eindhoven, NE Effenear 5/25/2022 Esch-Sur-Alzette, LU Kulturfabrik 5/26/2022 Ghent, BE Dunk!Festival 5/27/2022 Berlin, DE Desertfest * – With True Widow
YOB is: Mike Scheidt – Guitar, Vocals Aaron Rieseberg – Bass Dave French – Drums (live)
