#20 – Reverend Horton Heat – House of Blues – Chicago, IL – November 28th
I hadn’t seen Reverend Horton Heat in years. He had a new drummer and added a pianist since I’d last seen him. This was a fun “Holiday Hayride” show that included Christmas tunes as well as plenty of his hits and a guest set by Dave Alvin.
#19 – Chromatics – Park West – Chicago, IL – May 31th
I knew this show was going to be a sell-out as soon as it was announced, but I still managed to score tickets. Despite me almost having to drag a drunk jerk out of the crowd after he punched someone, this turned out to be well worth the trip and ticket price because Chromatics delivered a beautiful set of shoegaze and synth wave that had everyone fawning over them.
#18 – Dave Alvin – House of Blues – Chicago, IL – November 28th
A set within a set, Dave Alvin played a half-hour set with the Reverend Horton Heat as his backing band during the “Holiday Hayride” show. Mr. Alvin put on a clinic in outlaw country and country-punk, absolutely shredding multiple guitar solos that even had Jim Heath grinning in amazement.
#17 – Acid King – Levitation Austin – November 09th
Stoner rock veterans / icons Acid King closed the outdoor stage during the RidingEasy Records showcase at Levitation Austin this year. It was a great, heavy set that showed they hadn’t lost anything and could still wallop you like a force of nature.
#16 – Here Lies Man – Levitation Austin – November 09th
Playing that same showcase earlier in the day wasHere Lies Man, who brought a solid groove throughout the entire set that was as funky and heavy as I’d hoped it would be.
Who cracks the top 15? Come back later today to find out!
Here we are at the top 25 best live shows I saw this year. Let’s get to it.
#25 Bebel Gilberto – Birchmere – Alexandria, VA – June 22nd
This was a lovely acoustic, intimate set with Bebel Gilberto and her guitarist in a small venue. Her voice was delightful, as always, and there was a funny moment when she had a wardrobe malfunction and her guitarist had to fix her top onstage.
#24 ORB – Aragon Ballroom – Chicago, IL – August 24th
I hadn’t seen ORB for a couple years, so it was good to catch up with them and see them as a four-piece for the first time. They hadn’t lost any of their heavy power and crushing riffs.
#23 Prettiest Eyes – Thalia Hall – Chicago, IL – October 11th
The energy expelled during a Prettiest Eyes set could power a tank. They’re frantic and manic, but still a tight machine that can stop on a dime. We were eager to see them again after catching them last year at Levitation France, and we were bouncing during the whole set (in each venue).
#22 The KVB – Levitation Austin – November 10th
I was eager to see the KVB at Levitation Austin this year after not being able to catch a show they played in Chicago a month earlier. They put on a good set that was everything I wanted – synth wave, krautrock, and shoegaze. It was also their first time playing in Austin, so that made the show extra special for all involved.
#21 Minami Deutsch – Levitation Austin – November 07th
Speaking of Levitation Austin, another great set we saw there (on the coldest night of the festival, no less) was from Minami Deutsch – a Japanese krautrock band. It was a flow of rock grooves, precise beats, and hypnotic drone. I became an instant fan and later chatted with lead guitarist, Kyo, about chicken shawarma wraps.
Who made the top 20? Come back tomorrow to find out.
RidingEasy Records proudly announce the official reissue on physical and digital formats of the extremely rare 1970 proto-metal album Randy Holden – Population II. Considered one of the first doom metal albums ever, the ex-Blue Cheer guitarist’s solo debut has long been sought out by collectors. The remastered full length will be available on all streaming platforms for the first time, with a master more true to the original mix on LP, CD and streaming.
This weekend, Saturday December 21st, Holden will perform a rare live show at the Whiskey A-Go-Go in L.A. supported by drummer Mario Rubalcaba (Earthless, RFTC, OFF!) It will be a career-spanning set featuring songs from theFender IV, the Sons of Adam, the Other Half, Blue Cheer, and his solo work, including Population II. Tickets and info HERE.
“Godzilla just walked into the room. People just stood there with their eyes and mouths wide open.”
To hear Randy Holden describe the audience’s reaction in 1969 to his solo debut performing with a teeth-rattling phalanx of 16 (sixteen!) 200 watt Sunn amps is about as close as many of us will get to truly experience the moment heavy metal music morphed into existence. However, at last we have unearthed the proper fossil record. Population II, the now legendary, extremely rare album by guitarist/vocalist Holden and drummer/keyboardist Chris Lockheed is considered to be one of the earliest examples of doom metal. Though its original release was a very limited in number and distribution, like all great records, its impact over time has continued to grow.
In 1969, Holden, fresh off his tenure with proto-metal pioneers Blue Cheer (appearing on one side of the New! Improved! Blue Cheer album and touring for the better part of a year in the group), aimed for more control over his band. Thus, Randy Holden – Population II was born, the duo naming itself after the astronomical term for a particular star cluster with heavy metals present.
“I wanted to do something that hadn’t been done before,” Holden explains. “I was interested in discordant sounds that could be melodic but gigantically huge. I rented an Opera house for rehearsal, set up with 16 Sunn amps. That’s what I was going for, way over the top.” And over the top it is. The 6-song album delves into leaden sludge, lumbering doom and epic soaring riffs that sound free from all constraints of the era. It’s incredibly heavy, but infused with a melodic, albeit mechanistic, sensibility.
“At the time, I was hearing these crazy melodies everywhere I went,” Holden says. “I thought I was going crazy.” For example, one day he slowly rooted out a powerful sound that had been nagging him and discovered it coming from a ceiling fan. “Machinery all around us doesn’t turn in a perfect rhythm. That’s what I was tuning into, I heard the music and the discordant sounds coming from the machinery. It was perfect for rendering the machine we built.”
Troubles with the album’s release bankrupted Holden, who subsequently left music for over two decades. It was bootlegged several times over the years, but until now hasn’t seen a proper remaster and has yet to be available on digital platforms. “The original mastering just destroyed the dynamics of it,” Holden says. “They flattened it out. Now we got a really nice remaster that should be the closest thing to the original recording.”
Population II will be available on LP, CD and download on February 28th, 2020 via RidingEasy Records.
Austin trioThe Well announce yet another round of North American, EU and UK tour dates in support of their critically acclaimed new album Death and Consolation (RidingEasy Records.) The band has spent much of the year on tour, and now continue the trek into 2020, sharing some US dates with label mates Zig-Zags and R.I.P. These will be The Well’s first ever tour in the UK, having only played London’s DesertFest in 2019, and fans’ first opportunity to see the band performing songs from the new album. Please see all dates below. The band also recently shared a new video via Brooklyn Vegan. Watch & share the 4K UHD video for album track “Raven” which was directed, shot and edited by William Orendorff HERE. (YouTube.) Death and Consolation is without a doubt a weighty album title. And, The Well is among the heaviest heavy psych bands in existence. So when we say that there’s even more darkness and intensity to the band’s third album than previous efforts, take heed. It’s a deep sea diving bell of enveloping heaviness and longing.
“This one is a little more personal,” says guitarist/vocalist Ian Graham. “2018 was a strange, dark year. A lot of change going on in my life, there was a lot of depression and coming out of it over the last year. I wanted to call this Death and Consolation, because in life that’s a constant.” While The Well continue to walk an intriguing line between authentic early 70s doom/heavy psych and frayed weirdness of dark folk – especially with their haunting unison male/female vocals – the new album also adds the stark vibe of post-punk acts like Joy Division and early The Cure. “I feel like this album is almost more gothic. We’re big fans of post-punk,” Graham says. There’s also much less jamming, the songs are tight and concise. And, did we mention, heavy? The band tuned down a full step to C-standard tuning for this album, which gives the proceedings its monstrous sound.
Sonically, Death and Consolation picks up where The Well — Graham, bassist/vocalist Lisa Alley and drummer Jason Sullivan — left off with their widely heralded 2016 RidingEasy album Pagan Science. The band once again recorded with longtime producer/engineer Chico Jones at Estuary Studio in 2018, who has turned the knobs for all three of their albums (Jones engineered the band’s debut album Samsara with producer Mark Deutrom [Melvins, Sunn0)))] in 2013.) Samsara, released late September 2014 was ranked the #1 debut album of 2014 by The Obelisk and Pagan Science among the Best of 2016 from the Doom Charts collective. Likewise, the band’s intense — some even say “possessed” — live performances have earned them featured slots at Austin’s Levitation Fest, as well as tours with Kadavar, All Them Witches, Black Tusk and more.
“This album might be a little less produced, because I didn’t want to push technical stuff as much,” Graham says. “I’m so scared of getting too complicated when getting better at guitar. This is still kind of punk rock.”
Death and Consolation is available on LP, CD and download via RidingEasy Records. Orders are available HERE.
THE WELL TOUR 2020: 01/22 – Milan, IT @ Ligera 01/23 – Bologna, IT @ Freakout 01/24 – Turin, IT @ Ziggy 01/26 – Lille, FR @ La Bulle Cafe 01/27 – Tours, FR @ Le Canadian Cafe 01/28 – Nantes, FR @ La Scene Michelet 01/29 – Bordeaux, FR @ Les Voutes 01/30 – Dijon, FR @ Peniche Cancale 01/31 – Rennes, FR @ Le Melies 02/01 – Paris, FR @ Espace B 02/03 – Brighton, UK @ Hope & Ruin 02/04 – Milton Keyes, UK @ The Craufurd Arms 02/05 – Glasgow, UK @ Broadcast 02/07 – London, UK @ Black Heart 02/08 – Bree, BE @ Ragnarok 02/09 – Berlin, DE @ Zukunft am Ostkreuz 02/10 – Salzburg, AT @ Rockhouse 02/19 – El Paso, TX @ Monarch 02/20 – Phoenix, AZ @ Yucca Tap Room 02/21 – San Diego, CA @ Til Two Club *02/22 – Oceanside, CA @ The Pourhouse *02/23 – Los Angeles, CA @ Permanent Records Roadhouse *02/25 – San Francisco, CA @ The Knockout 02/26 – Nevada City, CA @ The Brick 02/27 – Portland, OR @ High Water Mark +02/28 – Seattle, WA @ Substation +02/29 – Vancouver, BC @ TBA +03/02 – Kalispell, MT @ Old School Records 03/03 – Missoula, MT @ TBA 03/04 – Boise, ID @ The Shredder 03/05 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court 03/06 – Denver, CO @ Streets of London 03/07 – Albuquerque, NM @ The Launchpad * w/ Zig-Zags+ w/ R.I.P.
Nashvilly psych-rockers All Them Witcheshave released a new single, “1×1,” ahead of a European tour with Ghost and Tribulation and well as three shows to finish the year at Nashville’s Exit/In. Tour dates are below.
The new single is almost doom metal in its weight and is available on most streaming services. Give it a listen. It’s great.
NOV 16 – Motorpoint Arena – Nottingham, United Kingdom NOV 17 – Motorpoint Arena – Cardiff, United Kingdom NOV 18 – SSE Hydro – Glasgow, United Kingdom NOV 20 – 3Arena – Dublin, Ireland NOV 22 – The SSE Arena, Wembley – London, United Kingdom NOV 23 – First Direct Arena – Leeds, United Kingdom NOV 25 – Black Box Pangea – Kobenhavn, Denmark NOV 28 – Hartwall Arena – Helsinki, Finland NOV 30 – Spodek – Katowice, Poland DEC 1 – Universum – Prague, Czech Republic DEC 3 – BSA – Budapest, Hungary DEC 4 – Močvara – Zagreb, Croatia DEC 5 – Palabam – Mantova, Italy DEC 6 – Halle 622 – Zürich, Switzerland DEC 8 – Palau Sant Jordi – Barcelona, Spain DEC 10 – Altice Arena – Lisboa, Portugal DEC 11 – WiZink Center – Madrid, Spain DEC 13 – Zenith Of Strasbourg – Strasbourg, France DEC 14 – Stattbahnhof – Schweinfurt, Germany DEC 15 – Zenith – München, Germany DEC 17 – Rockhal – Esch Sur Alzette, Luxembourg DEC 18 – Zenith Nantes Metropole – Saint-herblain, France DEC 19 – Zénith de Toulouse – Toulouse, France DEC 27 – Exit/In – Nashville, TN DEC 28 – Exit/In – Nashville, TN DEC 29 – Exit/In – Nashville, TN
Despite the hot (literal and figurative) cover image of two naked women standing in a dried out lake and staring at fiery horizon, Endless, the third album from Australia’s Holy Serpent (Dave Bartlett – bass, Nick Donoughue – guitar, Lance Leembruggen – drums, Scott Penberthy – guitar / vocals) is heavy on ocean imagery. Stories of coasts, waves, sea trenches, undertow, and frightening denizens of the deep are all over the doom metal album. It almost threatens to drown you.
Penberthy has said that the album’s title refers to the endless nature of the ocean and the story of two lovers standing on opposite sides of an ocean as they long for each other is weaved through the lyrics. The opening track, “Lord Deceptor,” is heavy fuzz with giant tortoise-level sludge prowling along its edges while Penberthy sings about ocean graves. “Into the Fire” is perhaps the story of the two women on the cover or the tale of sailing straight into a blazing sunset at sea (“Where the ocean meets the sky, I’ll be waiting…”). It’s a blistering track either way with Bartlett’s bass growling like a wild animal and Leembruggen’s drums smashing like an icebreaker.
The guitars on “Daughter of Light” push against the reverb-laden vocals while Leembruggen’s cymbals crash like waves against sharp rocks. I once described “For No One” as a tidal wave you see coming but can’t avoid. It’s a monster bearing down on you and there’s nothing to do but let it wash over you. Penberthy’s vocals sound like he’s tumbling inside the wave while Donoughue, Leembruggen, and Barlett sould like a shark racing up to meet him. The title of the final track “Marijuana Trench” is a play on “Mariana Trench” – the deepest place on Earth. It starts with acoustic guitar chords and sea shell-echo lyrics before space rock guitars zoom in and flatten you.
Endless is practically a soundtrack for a modern Conan movie if someone finally decided to shoot a movie about the famous Cimmerian’s adventures at sea. Someone should get on that, and you should hear this record.
Keep your mind open.
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Australian quartet Holy Serpent share a new track from their forthcoming third album Endless on RidingEasy Records today via CvltNation. Hear and share “For No One” HERE. (Direct YouTube.)
Brooklyn Vegan recently hosted lead single “Lord Deceptor”HERE.(Direct YouTube.)
The forthcoming third album by Melbourne, Australia’s Holy Serpent could likely be its defining moment. Seemingly bottomless in its relentless heft, with billowing and suffocating riffs leading glistening melodies, it’s the sound of a band that has locked on to something unique. Endless is fully conceptualized throughout, encapsulating an oceanic theme from the lyrics and art, even to the very structure of the sounds themselves.
“Lyrically, it’s heavily influenced by the ocean,” explains vocalist/guitarist Scott Penberthy. “Lots of ocean metaphors and imagery was used. Also the title of the album Endless, is an homage to the ocean: Its mystery, power and its ability to give and take life.” The album loosely follows the lyrical theme of two lovers, oceans apart, waiting for each other on the shores of eternity. Their love is so strong, they eventually walk into the water, ending their lives to be together in the afterlife.
Fitting to these themes, the band experiments with sound throughout the album, such as layering in a wobbly synth sound reminiscent of tape push and pull, mixed just loud enough to blend with the instruments. “It’s sort of a haunting sound which gives the album an ebb and flow, much like an ocean’s current or tide,” Penberthy says.
The 6-song, 40-minute album finds Penberthy, guitarist Nick Donoughue, bassist Dave Bartlett and drummer Lance Leembruggen expanding their melodic hooks while simultaneously taking listeners on a rigorous journey. It was written over the course of 2 months, then recorded in seclusion at Beveridge Road Recording Studios near Australia’s beautiful Dandenong Ranges with head engineer Marc Russo and mixed by Mike Deslandes. Surrounding themselves with nature and no distractions allowed the band to focus on every detail of the album as a coherent whole.
In the time since their self-titled RidingEasy debut in mid-2015, Melbourne, Australia’s Holy Serpent have gained a lot of attention for their rather punk version of heavy psych and metal. Their 2016 skate-metal leaning album Temples further defined their more experimental blend of early Soundgarden, Saint Vitus and Kyuss that eschews simplistic 70s-worship in favor of shimmering sonics and uncommon production techniques. Nonetheless, Endless is like all of the band’s earliest visions fully realized and honed into an album beyond easy classification.
Starting with the slow, exaggeratedly compressed 4/4 drum lead in to “Lord Deceptor” — something of a hi-dive anticipation before we plunge headlong into the ensuing depths — crushing and crackling guitars burst in as Penberthy sings in low baritone, “ocean grave, carry me upon a wave / I’m hypnotized in prophecy, what Is left for you and me?” Harmonies drift in and out of the main motif as it sways along into the tempest of “Into The Fire.” Here, a churning riff gathers intensity as the rhythm section builds to a lurching 3/4 time. Reverb-soaked vocals sing, “where the ocean meets the sand, I’ll be waiting, I’ll be waiting there.” Elsewhere, on “For No One,” impossibly low droptuned guitars slink along as the music swells with space rock abandon. Album closer, “Marijuana Trench” is a play on the Mariana trench, the deepest place on earth. Appropriately, the song plunges from gently strummed acoustic guitar into a tsunami crest that pulls the listener under the dark and enveloping weight of sound as Penberthy’s soothing vocals seem to ease us into the end, subsumed in the album’s powerful allure.
Endless will be available everywhere on LP, CD and download on October 18th, 2019 via RidingEasy Records. Preorders are available HERE.
Mixing power doom riffs with shoegaze, psychedelia, and, for all I know, mystic rituals carved onto pillars in Atlantean ruins, Blackwater Holylight‘s second album, Veils of Winter, is another fine, mysterious, heavy album from them.
The opener, “Seeping Secrets,” is doom metal perfection, and those doom metal riffs continue onto “Motorcycle” – which even puts into krautrock beats and synths. “Spiders” is so close to post-punk grooves that I kept expecting to hear a saxophone solo in it. We get spooky house synths instead, which is even better.
“The Protector” seems to be about some sort of forest spirit that is an absolute beast if crossed. The heavy drums and fuzzed guitars sure seem to indicate this. The haunting vocal harmonies on “Daylight” are counterbalanced by war hammer bass and drums. “Death Realms” has a foreboding title, but it’s a lovely track with some of the brightest guitars on the record and dreamwave-like synths. It’s a great example of Blackwater Holylight‘s love of musical contrasts and toying with the listener’s expectations.
“Lullaby” has a hypnotic, repeating three-note structure that builds into a lush, trippy track with a neat fuzzy punch near the end. The album’s closer, “Moonlit,” combines psychedelia with Middle Eastern rhythms and more fascinating vocal harmonies.
I’ve tried to figure out what “veils of winter” could be. The first image that came to mind was a winter day with a cloudless sky and bright sun but bone chilling temperatures. The sun is a veil over the cold. Another was a moonlit winter night over a snow-covered landscape with the moonlight reflecting off the snow to push back the veil of the surrounding dark.
I could also be reading far too much into the album’s title, but those images that came to my mind seem fitting for Blackwater Holylight’s music. They veil and unveil their musical influences throughout Veils of Winter whenever the mood strikes them. It becomes mysterious, thrilling, and sometimes chilling.
Keep your mind open.
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Noise rock is a weird genre. The name itself is appropriate for some, oxymoronic for others. There are plenty of bands out there blending distortion and noise with unintelligible vocals, but few that do it in a way that intrigues the listener and doesn’t make them think, “What is that racket?”
Brooklyn’s Weeping Icon is such a band. Their self-titled debut is a fascinating mix of noise rock, punk, shoegaze, synthwave, and other things I can’t define. The cover image is a wild piece of art showing waves of…something (Sound? Images? Psychic projections? All three?) emanating from two skulls to form things that resemble cityscapes, forests, cemeteries, nuclear explosion test footage, and dust clouds in the hearts of galaxies.
The songs on the album sway back and forth between short, dystopian future instrumentals and full-length tracks with vocals. “Ankles” bursts at the seams with pounding riffs, drums from Lani Combier-Kapel that sound like they’re falling down a flight of stairs at one point (and I mean that in the best possible way – How does she produce those wild, weird fills?), and vocals on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The pedal-to-the-metal groove of “Be Anti” has singer / guitarist Sara Fantry wondering how to stand up against the establishment and whom to blame for her troubles (instead of looking in the mirror). The whole album explores concepts like this – lives lived online, addiction to technology, the fake self we project to hundreds (if not millions) of people we’ve never met.
“Ripe for Consumption” is a fine example of this, too. We make ourselves easy prey for Madison Avenue. Fantry’s guitar launches like a drag strip car and never stops through the whole track, an effect that really flows through the entire album with the instrumentals linking each track. “Natural Selection” is near goth perfection with its haunted house synths from Sarah Lutkenhaus, Bauhaus guitars, and often hissed vocals from Fantry about a corporate goon discussing how it’s not up to him to fix problems he didn’t create. “Power Trip” brings back punk anger and guitars that hit like hammers on anvils.
Sarah Reinhold‘s crispy yet creepy bass opens “Like Envy” – a witty song about a social media addict who learns too late that she’s lost her sense of self by giving away bits of herself every day at 11am and 3pm. The song builds to an eye-watering speed as Fantry chants, “Do you like my content?” The opening fuzz of “Control” sounds like some sort of rock crushing machinery that’s been set on fire. Fantry’s guitar comes in with stoner metal riffs to keep the fire at bay, however, and Combier-Kapel hits her cymbals so hard that I wouldn’t be surprised if she broke them and at least two sticks doing it.
Weeping Icon have become a must-see band for me thanks to this record. It’s a powerhouse of an album and a kidney punch to the expectations (self-imposed and from others) of modern social life.
Keep your mind open.
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I grew up in a small town. We lived across the street from the more expensive lake houses and next to a woods that was part of a pine tree farm. I spent many hours in that woods, crafting stories, searching for treasure, fighting imaginary battles, and listening for monsters. Every kid has a place like this, and for the members of stoner metal legends Acid King (Brian Hill – bass, Joey Osbourne – drums, Lori S. – vocals and guitar) it was Busse Woods.
Their 1999 album has received a full reissue from RidingEasy Records to celebrate Busse Woods‘ twentieth anniversary. The album has become almost a mystical tome in the last two decades with its tales of nature’s power over man, creepy things in the shadows of old trees, and good ole fashioned heavy riffs.
The opener, “Electric Machine,” has such heavy bass thumps that you’d think a giant was tap dancing next to you. “Silent Circle” starts with a guitar riff that’s like a burning trail of gasoline heading straight for an ammunition warehouse. It only gets louder and heavier from there. “Tell all the people I’m on my way. There is no tomorrow for me…Silent circle breaks the chain,” Lori S. sings. It’s a song about death, at least on its surface, but it might also be a song about resurrection – whether that resurrection is beneficial or harmful to her (or mankind, perhaps) is up to the interpretation of the listener.
The title of “Drive Fast, Take Chances” is certainly a reflection on the band’s wild times in Busse Woods not far from their Illinois hometown, smoking weed, listening to metal, and ditching school and the cops. The riffs and drums on it are as heavy as the fallen trees in their favorite stomping grounds. An unexpected treat is Acid King’s cover of “39 Lashes” from Jesus Christ Superstar. The onslaught of the drums is only outweighed by the battle axe-heavy guitar chords and thunderous bass.
“Carve the Five” starts off with a languid bass line from Brian Hill that lures you into what almost feels like a safe place, but Joey Osbourne’s drum fill at the start of the track is akin to a rattlesnake’s rattle (if that rattlesnake were a giant 8HD variety) warning you to tread carefully. The title track finishes the album with a long instrumental that boils and bubbles like the contents of cauldron.
It’s great that Busse Woods (pronounced “buss-ee,” by the way) is getting a nice reissue for its twentieth anniversary because this album should be even more known than it already is. It’s a bit of a secret classic. Those who know about it revere it. Those who have only heard of it are intrigued by it. Those who don’t know of it are changed after discovering it.
Keep your mind open.
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