Psychedelic supergroup MIEN will be making their live debut at Levitation Austin this year (April 27th at Stubb’s BBQ starting 7:30pm). The band consists of members of the Black Angels, Elephant Stone, the Horrors, and the Earlies. Their set will surely be one of the highlights of the festival, so don’t miss it.
Keep your mind open.
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Is it too early to say I’ve already heard one of the best singles of the year? MIEN, consisting of the Black Angels‘ Alex Maas, Elephant Stone‘s Rishi Dhir, the Earlies‘ John Lapham, and the Horrors‘ Tom Furse, have released “Black Habit,” the first single from their debut self-titled album due out April 6th.
The single is a heady, almost nightmarish trip blending psychedelia with a bit of dark wave. The album is available for pre-order and the band will play live at Levitation Austin this April. I already have my tickets for their performance. Don’t wait to get yours, or to order this record.
Keep your mind open.
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Montreal’s Elephant Stone have a remix album of their Ship of Fools record, entitled Remix of Fools, now available for pre-order. Two of the tracks are instant downloads once you pre-order the full album.
PRE-ORDER the EP today and get instant downloads of both singles: http://smarturl.it/RemixOfFools
WATCH ‘Love Is Like A Spinning Wheel’ (Xavier Boyer Remix) here: https://youtu.be/teO4UmdGLLQ
WATCH ‘The Devil’s Shelter’ (Young Galaxy Remix) here: https://youtu.be/_cpXRAjRT-U
Don’t forget to catch them on tour across Europe! Paris, Leicester and an Acid House Ragas (check out this live recording) London date just added!
Elephant Stone have been on tour for seemingly all of 2017, and now they’ve added more tour dates throughout Europe and North America that go into the winter. They’re playing gigs with the likes of the Black Angels, A Place to Bury Strangers, and the Dream Syndicate. Any of these shows would be well worth your time and money. Here are the dates:
8/11 Quebec City, QC @ Le Cercle TICKETS | FB EVENT
Elephant Stone (Rishi Dhir – lead vocals, bass, sitar, Miles Dupire – drums, vocals, Gabriel Lambert – guitar, vocals, Stephen Venkatarangam – keyboards, synths) never disappoint live. I’ve seen them three times in three different settings: A music festival attended by thousands (the main stage Levitation Austin at the Carson Creek Ranch), a mid-sized indoor / outdoor venue with a couple hundred people there (at the Mohawk in downtown Austin), and at a tiny pub with barely anyone there (Howler’s in Pittsburgh). Each show has been good and their first live EP, Live at the Verge, is a nice release that puts me in the mood to see them again.
The EP is five tracks from their latest record, Ship of Fools, starting with “The Devil’s Shelter” and plunging you straight down a rabbit hole of psychedelia. Venkatarangam’s pulsing synths meet Dhir’s echoing vocals and Joy Division-influenced bass while Dupire knocks out a beat so precise that you could knife fight to it.
Dhir breaks out the sitar on “Silence Can Say So Much.” It’s one of the loveliest songs on Ship of Fools, and the recording of it here is outstanding. Lambert plays some stadium-level riffs on “See the Light,” and the rest of the band cooks alongside him. His guitar lifts you into orbit on “Andromeda” and is something out of a groovy 1960’s sci-fi / Euro-spy film you’ve never seen.
The EP ends with “Manipulator,” which sounds even better live than you hope it will. Elephant Stone puts down a serious groove and each launch into the chorus pumps you up more. The bridge will leave you slack-jawed.
The whole EP is impressive, and I hope they release a full-length live album sometime in the future. Whoever recorded Live at the Verge deserves special credit, because it sounds fantastic. It’s only a digital release, so snag it while you can.
Keep your mind open.
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First, Canadian psych-rockers Elephant Stone have released their first live recording – Live at the Verge. It’s only available in digital format and has five tracks from a show at the Toronto nightclub recorded in February 2017. Elephant Stone never disappoint live, so this is more than worth the low price.
Second, the band has released dates for a European and UK tour taking them from the Netherlands to France.
05/24 EKKO, Utrecht NL
05/26 Moth Club, London UK
05/27 The Printworks, Hastings UK
05/28 Eiger Studios, Leeds UK
05/29 Mono, Glasgow SCO
05/30 Picture House Social, Sheffield UK
05/31 The Hope & Ruin, Brighton UK
06/01 La Cave Aux Poètes, Lille FR
06/02 Supersonic, Paris FR
06/03 La Sirène, La Rochelle FR w/ The Black Angels
06/04 Carte Blanche à Rock in the Bar, Giverny FR
Catch them if you can.
Keep your mind open.
Psych-rockers Elephant Stone have released a big batch of tour dates across their home country and in the United Kingdom. Catch them if you can. You won’t regret it.
Feb. 08 – Grad Club – Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Feb. 09 – Starlight – Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Feb. 10 – Adelaide Hall – Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Feb. 14 – Casbah – Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Feb. 15 – E-Bar – Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Feb. 16 – Red Dog – Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Feb. 17 – Zaphods – Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Feb. 18 – Theatre Fairmount – Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Mar. 24 – Trou de Diables – Shawinigan, Quebec, Canada
Mar. 31 – Petite Boite Noire – Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
Apr. 01 – La Sainte Paix – Drummondville, Quebec, Canada
May 26 – The Moth Club – London, UK
May 27 – The Moon Club – Cardiff, UK
May 28 – Eiger Studios – Leeds, UK
May 29 – Mono – Glasgow, UK
May 30 – Picture House Social – Sheffield, UK
May 31 – Hope & Ruin – Brighton, UK
BTW check out this live in-studio performance they did of Ship of Fools sitar track “Silence Can Say So Much”. Listen to Ship of Fools HERE.
Keep your mind open.
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Don’t let anyone tell you that there’s no good music anymore. There is always good music. You just have to find it. I hope this list and this blog helped you discover some good stuff in 2016.
I reviewed close to 50 albums released in 2016 last year, so I’ve decided to highlight the top 25. Here are numbers 25-21.
25.
Slaves bring great British punk that skewers not only the elite rich, but also Millennial slackers and even the stupidity of drunk driving.
24.
Dunsmuir is a metal supergroup featuring members of Clutch, Fu Manchu, The Company Band, and Black Sabbath. Their debut is a concept record about a shipwrecked crew fighting monsters on a remote island.
23.
Canadian psych-rockers Elephant Stone have yet to put out a bad record, and this one added electro touches to their mix of 1960’s psychedelia and bhangra.
22. 
Birth is a fine piece of stoner rock from this three-piece Australian outfit. I was on a big stoner rock kick in 2016 and ORB certainly fit the bill.
21. 
Klaus Johann Grobe were a delightful discovery this year, and their latest album, Spagat Der Liebe, is a fun electro / lounge record suitable for both late night parties and making out.
Who cracks the top 20? Come back tomorrow to find out!
Keep your mind open.
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We made the 5-hour drive to Pittsburgh through the rain and got in a nice romantic dinner before settling in at Howlers – a local rock / dive bar in Pittsburgh to see Elephant Stone. My wife and I have been fans of theirs since we first saw them at Levitation Austin in 2013, and I was eager to hear tracks from their new album, Ship of Fools, live.
We had to wait a little while, however, because we were surprised to learn there were three bands playing before them. The first was a local hero – Paul Labrise – who played in a rock three-piece that laid down a good mix of surf, rockabilly, and garage rock.
Following them were One Day Steady – who were only on the second date of their current tour. They played loud, enthusiastic that reminded us of Green Day, Fall Out Boy, and a little bit of Red Hot Chili Peppers for good measure.
The Tilt Room were another three-piece, but this one played Americana / acoustic jams and didn’t mess around. They got on stage, blasted through a short set, and sounded good.
Elephant Stone got on stage after 11:00pm and ended up played a shorter than normal set due to the late start time. It was, nonetheless, impressive as always. This is the smallest venue in which we’ve seen them, and hearing tracks like “Andromeda,” “Manipulator,” and “The Devil’s Shelter” in such a space was uplifting. Many of the members of the other bands stuck around for their set and were impressed by their sound and efficiency.
We got to chat with Elephant Stone frontman Rishi Dhir, and it was great to finally meet him in person after a couple years of seeing them in Texas and swapping Tweets. He gave us a hug before and after their set, which was (unbeknownst to him) the best birthday gift he could’ve given my wife – as it was officially her birthday by the post-midnight end of their set. It was a fine set at that, and shame on you if you missed it. Catch them on this tour if you can.
Keep your mind open.
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Psychedelic rock trio Elephant Stone have announced an impressive fall – early winter touring schedule, and lead singer / bassist / sitarist Rishi Dihr is offering a sitar lesson at each stop of the tour. You can contact him through the band’s website for details.
The band’s tour starts in their home province of Quebec and then into the Midwest, a brief stop in New York, out to the west coast, back up through Canada, and then into Europe by the time November gets here. By the way, their show on October 19th in Cincinnati is free.
Keep your mind open.