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Following a myriad of regional touring together, as well as their recently released fully collaborative full-length Nothing Passes, apocalyptic doom duo The Body and orchestral/drone rock outfit Braveyoung have just confirmed another stint of shows together.

The new Braveyoung & The Body tour will tangle with eight East Coast cities in early February, which will see both acts performing individual sets, in addition to an additional collaborative set with both bands simultaneously performing material from their Nothing Passes album on several of the dates. Braveyoung are on their way to Providence to record new material during this special tour, which immediately follows the current West Coast tour The Body are embarked on with Thou — including the band’s first-ever shows in Mexico this week.

The Body West Coast Tour w/ Thou (remaining dates):
01/13 Burial Grounds Salem, OR
01/14 924 Gilman Street Berkeley, CA w/ Brainoil
01/15 Submission San Francisco, CA w/ Brainoil
01/16 Pioneer Santa Cruz, CA
01/17 The Smell Los Angeles, CA
01/18 Bica Tijuana, Mexico
01/19 house show Rosarito, Mexico
01/20 Che Cafe San Diego, CA
01/21 The Trunkspace Phoenix, AZ
01/22 The Train Yard Las Cruces, NM
01/23 Sons of Hermann Hall Dallas, TX
01/24 Zeitgeist New Orleans, LA

*NEW – The Body & Braveyoung Collaborative East Coast Tour:
02/04 Bull City Metal Fest Durham, NC
02/05 The Courthouse Downtown Rock Hill, NC
02/06 Drunken Unicorn Atlanta, GA
02/07 The Milestone Charlotte, NC
02/08 Floristree Baltimore, MD
02/09 Saint Vitus Brooklyn, NY
02/10 Dad City Amherst, MA
02/13 AS220 Providence, RI

Avenger (review here) marks Totimoshi‘s first studio outing since departing from Volcom Entertainment, the imprint on which their last two installments — 2006′s Ladrón and 2008′s Milagrosa — were released, and while the 10 tracks continue the complex melodic development that songs from those records like “Dance of Snakes” and “Gnat” first began to demonstrate, there is an undeniable noise rock crunch in Aguilar‘s guitar as well that comes across right from the bluesy swagger of “Mainline” down through the grandiose epic “Waning Divine,” which features guest appearances from Mastodon‘s Brent Hinds and Scott Kelly of Neurosis. It’s a sound fit for the oft-groundbreaking At a Loss Recordings.

The drummer for the Melvins, Dale Crover, also shows up in the intro and elsewhere, but Avenger is much more than Totimoshi showing off the fact that they have cool friends. The chemistry between Aguilar and bassist/vocalist Meg Castellanos is pivotal to the album’s success, as is the input of drummer/vocalist Chris Fugitt, whose versatility in no small part allows the band to roam in the varied and genre-defying directions they do on a cut like “Rose,” which is just as exciting for its melodic apex as for its stylized heaviness. Having also been fortunate enough to see Totimoshi live supporting Avenger, and earlier in the band’s career, it’s apparent that they’ve hit new levels of creativity, confidence and mastery of their craft.

Totimoshi are, and always have been, beholden to themselves. That comes across as important to Aguilar in the following interview, and that he takes the time to consider his band’s place in the overall sphere is no great surprise considering the effort that goes into actually making the songs. In our phone conversation, he discussed the touring lifestyle, the tribulations surrounding the 2002 album, Monoli, working with Melvins producer Toshi Kasai on Avenger instead of Helmet‘s Page Hamilton (who helmed Ladrón and Milagrosa), the differences between headlining a tour and playing in a support slot, potential future directions, and much more.

Please find the complete Q&A after the jump, and enjoy.

How have the shows been so far?

There’s been one kind of dud, and all the other shows have been great so far. The one dud was in Denver. Kind of weird, because we’ve had really good shows there before. I don’t think there was a lot of promotion for it, but other than that, every show’s been really cool. Been super-awesome. And this is our first time in 14 years where we’re actually trying to do a headlining tour. It’s a little scary, but it’s way more gratifying, because we actually get to play a whole hour. It’s way more fun.

I was gonna say, I’m used to seeing Totimoshi come around with the Melvins or whoever else. Is it different playing to your crowd?

Yeah. It’s more gratifying, because you know people are there to hear you specifically, whereas opening for other bands, it’s more like, we want to try to turn people on and see what happens, but often times they’re more fans of the bands headlining and you’re just kind of there (laughs), trying to get their attention. It’s different. It’s a little scarier, because it’s the first time venturing off into that whole world of trying to do your own thing, but it’s what we want to do. Not that we’re not gonna look for support slots in the future, but for now, it’s what we want to start to try to do more and more.

All the time you’ve put in supporting other bands puts you in a better position to do that, I’d think.

The band’s been around for 14 years (laughs). It’s time to try at least to do that and see what happens. We definitely have enough music, that’s for sure, but you know. It’s a lot of the old stuff that we don’t play anymore that we need to get down. We were thinking of re-recording, actually, some of the old stuff.

Doing a whole album over, or just a comp of material?

A lot of the stuff — for example, like Monoli, the second record that we did – it’s completely out of print. John [Geldbach] from This Dark Reign just completely took it out. He actually told the guy at the distributor to throw them in the trash because I asked for a statement on sales. Dude, I don’t know what that guy’s problem is. He freaked out on me for simply wanting a statement, and told me I wasn’t entitled to a statement as per the contract, and told the distributor guy to throw them in the trash. Of course, I went over to Cobraside [Distribution], which is right around the corner from my house, and the guy was super-nice. He was like, “Dude, I wouldn’t throw them in the trash.” He gave me whatever he had left of Monoli, and the worst part about that is I wrote that album right after my father died. Almost every single song – not every single song, but most of the songs – are about losing my dad and the whole idea of death and going to a dark place. It was a really, really personal record, and to have that guy want them to go in the trash was like throwing my father’s memory in the trash to me. So I want to re-record it and re-put it out with a bunch of other older songs, and just sell them at our merch table. I think that’s more the way to go these days, is to have your own small run of records at the merch table that people can buy, rather than having shit in stores. It doesn’t seem like stuff is selling in stores as much anymore.

Shitty situation to have with that record. That was my introduction to the band.

The fortunate thing is he doesn’t own the work. He doesn’t own any of the soul and the spirit that went into it. He’ll never, ever own that. He’ll never be able to throw that in the trash. The guy can just fuckin’ eat a huge pile of dicks as far as I’m concerned.

Are you more comfortable at this point on the road than in the studio?

No. They’re different things. I like being in the studio, especially (laughs) recently. We didn’t have any money, and Toshi was coming to our rehearsal studio to record us with this little mobile unit. So we were basically – our rehearsal studio’s like our house, our second house, and we’re really comfortable there. It was really simple to record. It’s a good, cheap way to do it. We’re gonna do that from now on. As far as the road is concerned, I tour with Totimoshi, and I also tour manage Neurosis, Sleep and Shrinebuilder, and then I also tech for the Melvins, so I’ve been on the road… Basically since November, I’ve been on the road. I’ve been home maybe a month since November of last year. I’m on the road all the time. Both are incredibly comfortable to me. They’re just kind of what I do, personally. We were in the earthquakes. Did you hear about the earthquakes?

Which ones?

There was the Christchurch one in January. I was with the Melvins when all that stuff happened. Pretty crazy. That makes touring a little weird (laughs). Natural catastrophes.

What did you guys end up doing? I remember reading everyone was okay.

Basically everyone was fine. I think Dale [Crover] hurt his pinky, but other than that, everyone was cool. Basically run for a safe place, or what you think is a safe place.

Did you stand in the doorway?

(Laughs) I did. I didn’t know where else to go. Just like, “Uh, I’ll stand right here.” Kind of funny.

So if you’ve been on the road since November, when were the songs for Avenger written?

I think when we moved to Los Angeles, about a year and a half ago, two years ago, we had one song. I think I had “Rose” written already. I also had “The Line” written, which is now called “The Fool.” It was originally called “The Line.” The rest of it was written, when I would get home from a Melvins tour, I would write. I wrote “Avenger” around the same time. “Waning Divine” I just wrote right before we recorded the last small batch of songs. They were just basically recorded on breaks, being home from tour. “Calling all Curs” I actually wrote in a hotel room on a Melvins tour. I take a itty bitty guitar to practice with. I wrote that in a hotel room, showed it to Dave Curran, the Unsane guy. He tour manages the Melvins, and I showed it to him, like, “Check this out!” It was just written on the road, basically. Most of it.

Have you done it that way in the past?

Yeah. Milagrosa was completely written on the road. I take a little tape recorder, and I record ideas, and I’ll re-listen to the ideas, and I’ll go over and over them again, and slowly trim them into more songs, and then by the time I show Meg and Chris, they’re almost songs, and then they turn into songs with those two added. They put in their two cents and it gets finished. Usually by the time I present them, the idea’s almost done. It makes it a little easier. And then after that, it’s whatever we add in the studio and whatever we think is gonna work here and there, and you know. It’s a process, definitely. It’s cool, bro. I like writing on the road. Especially when, say, if I’m tech’ing for the Melvins – I was thinking about this the other night. Tech’ing for the Melvins or tour managing for Neurosis, it’s almost like – it’s a normal job – but it’s almost like understudy. I get to watch two of probably the most amazing bands in the last 20 years. The most groundbreaking, seminal bands. I get to watch those guys every single night, and I feel almost like I’m an understudy with those guys when I’m watching them on stage. Watching how they approach music, how they approach what they do on stage. How they work as a band, how they tour. Everything about those guys just amazes me. Especially those two bands specifically are incredible. They’re machines. It’s great to see. I think that adds to our artistic edge. Seeing the way that they work. Fucking awesome. Mastodon too was pretty fuckin’ amazing. We did a tour together in January. Those guys are pretty great.

You’ve toured with them for years at this point.

We have. We’ve done one major tour, and then we used to do shows with them back before they were as huge as they are now. [Mastodon guitarist/vocalist] Troy [Sanders] would set us up with shows in Atlanta and stuff. All those guys are so nice. They’re super, super-great people. We instantly became friends with them, and we’ve stayed friends with them. It’s great. Music, to me, is all about unity and it’s such a small world. We all see each other all the time. We’re out on the road, or occasionally we’ll see each other, and it’s like a big family. I really love it.

Was Page Hamilton involved with Avenger at all?

He did some pre-production stuff for four songs. He did “Avenger,” “The Fool,” “Rose” and “Leeds,” which was the very, very first recording that we did, at a studio in L.A. He came for pre-production, and then he was busy doing the Helmet record, so he just didn’t have any time, and we didn’t have any money to pay him, and I felt really bad about not being able to pay Page. He’s definitely worth what he gets paid for. Because he got so busy, me and Toshi just took over, and I didn’t really have time to be waiting, unfortunately, so me and Toshi took over the reins, and Toshi ended up producing it, and I’m super, super-happy with how it came out. It’s really cool, because I was go to Toshi’s house, and we would just sit in his room – he’s got a studio in his little room – and we would just sit there and bounce ideas off each other and try them. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn’t work, and it was just continuous idea-throwing. It was really great. The first time I’ve really gotten to do that – just be patient and take my time. And Toshi’s such a great guy, so easy to work with, easy to communicate. I never feel intimidated by anything. It’s a mellow atmosphere, so it makes it easy to work. So Page was involved with a few of the songs.

What came out of those idea exchanges with Toshi?

It was mostly adding counterpoint. Vocal ideas. Adding harmonies to the main melody of the vocal. Harmony, and maybe adding a keyboard part here or a guitar part there. Tambourine. A lot of the parts, the weird – some of it Toshi came up with completely on his own and I was just really floored, like, “Oh yeah man, I love that shit. It’s really cool.” It’s just adding stuff, adding texture, basically, to the original recording. The base recording is, you go in there and you record a track exactly how it is live and raw. Adding texture on top of that is basically what the whole production part of it was with me and Toshi. It wasn’t changing any parts of the songs at all. The basic structures of the songs are exactly how they were written. It was just adding stuff on top.

I wanted to ask you about the melodic growth of the band. It seems like the last couple albums especially have been more melodically focused. This one is too, but it also brings in that guitar crunch. It doesn’t feel like a step backwards because it’s still very melodic, but it’s almost like the guitars have stepped up too. Was that something you specifically wanted to do?

No, I think that’s just something that happens naturally. Early on, we were heavy and I was screaming way too much because I was – I think I was too much of a chickenshit. A lot of the Oakland scene was grindcore, and really angry and heavy, and I was too much of a chickenshit to actually stand up and be myself. I’m more into the Beach Boys than I’m into some grindcore crap. I’ve never been from that whole perspective. I really, really, really love melody. I like songs. I like structure. That’s just me allowing myself, and growing to just be more naturally who I really am, rather than basing it on some scene that we’re kind of around. I think I’m less of a chickenshit now, is basically what it is. (Laughs) I hope that makes sense.

Absolutely. But at the same time, Totimoshi’s never really been part of one specific scene or sound. You were never metal, never really stoner rock, never really noise. Always in between.

Yeah. We certainly were never really accepted into any of those Oakland dark metal whatever scenes. We’ve always been kind of on the outside of a bunch of different genres, and it’s probably because of that, because we’re not really one specific genre. To me, it would be incredibly boring to be something like that. I don’t want to be part of a scene anyways. I’d rather just be a musician. Whatever comes out comes out. It’s natural. It’s all related to your experiences in life. It’s all such a personal thing. Not every single person is going to have the exact same experiences in life, so it’s better to just do it that way. Be who you are. I do think we’re unique though, honestly. I’m reminded of it usually when we play shows (laughs). We’re always the sore thumb that sticks out. We don’t sound like a lot of the bands that we play with.

What was behind bringing Dale, Brent and Scott onto the album?

Firstly and most importantly, they’re our friends. The whole Brent thing was because, when I toured with Mastodon in January, he had this little acoustic guitar. And he would come into our dressing room all the time and we would sit there, me and him, and we would just kind of jam. I just liked the way the two styles blended together. I thought it was really cool. So I asked him because, for one, I love him as a person, and because I love his guitar playing. To me, he’s one of the best guitar players around, period. Ever. Scott is also a friend. I love his singing. His voice is amazing. He just happened to be in town when I was over at Toshi’s house recording. I called him up and asked him if he wanted to sing on some stuff, so I went over and picked him up and that worked our perfectly. And Dale. Dale lives like five minutes from my house. So we were over there hanging out, I asked him if he wanted to do something. It was me, Toshi and Dale just hanging out, drinking, so we ended up doing it right here. Dale ended up using a headphone jack. Like a regular headphoner? Toshi plugged a quarter-inch from the headphone into a little recorder, and actually recorded Dale using a headphone as a microphone. (Laughs) It was great. It was really, really cool. It was kind of spontaneous. The only one it was planned was the Brent thing. I’d planned to ask him for a long time, so that ended up happening. We sent the files to Bill Kelliher, and Bill recorded Brent and then sent it back. It was perfect. It’s awesome. And Brent’s solo on “Waning Divine” is insane. Just amazing.

That track has so much going on with it. It’s a great way to cap the record.

It’s the last song that was written for the record. I really like it. I really dig the direction it’s going.

Along those lines, is that something you’d want to build on for future writing? Do you have a direction in mind for the band, or is it like you said before, what comes out?

I have an idea of what I want the next one to be like. I have actually two ideas. One is, I have a ton of acoustic songs. They’re not acoustic like singer-songwriter acoustic. They’re acoustic like Zeppelin II, with drums and bass and guitar. I have a bunch of those songs already written, and then the other one, I want to see if I can find a keyboard player to play parts and make it a little more ethereal. But that’s a direction that I haven’t really written for yet, but that I see we could progress to. Ethereal in a Pink Floyd kind of way. Like Meddle or later Pink Floyd, around the time of Live at Pompeii, or something like that. That kind of stuff. Love that era of Pink Floyd. I love every era, but that, artistically, is what I’m looking at. I’ll see if it happens (laughs).

In the meantime, do you know what you’re doing after this tour?

No plans right now. We’re trying to get a European tour together in November. We’re not sure if it’s going to come to fruition or not. It depends on the promoters, if they’re going to offer anything. If that doesn’t happen, we’re going to try to do a tour in the States before the end of the year again. Maybe look for some support slots and see what happens.

Totimoshi on Thee Facebooks

At a Loss Recordings

The latter two show up on the stylistically out-there closer “Waning Divine,” which is Totimoshi’s most experimental excursion to date, trading in the comparatively straightforward and almost punk-ish drive of earlier cuts like the opening title-track (which follows a brief intro) or its chorus-centric follow up, “The Foot,” for a solid six-and-a-half-minute build capped by a solo from Hinds that’s well placed as the payoff for the whole of Avenger. All told, the record is just 42 minutes, but in that time, Totimoshi manage to work in a variety of moods. The aforementioned “Avenger” is about as pure as Melvins-worship can get (the two bands have toured together extensively over the years, and Aguilar techs for Buzz Osborne, so it’s an influence they come by honestly), and as Aguilar delivers the lines, “I have punch/I have kick/I will slash and wear your skin/I will teach you not to look at me” and threatens a feast of hemlock tea and strychnine meat in his characteristic snarl, the aggression is well met by his guitar work, Castellanos’ bass and Fugitt’s drumming. Immediately, Avenger presents the intensity of Totimoshi at their best – which is perhaps the element most absent from Milagrosa and the source of any comparison to the band’s older material – and from there, the band is able to capitalize on that momentum however they see fit.

Over the years, Aguilar has managed to turn his aforementioned snarl into a bona fide melodic approach, and one of the most effective aspects of Avenger is the balance it strikes between songwriting and its wheels-about-to-come-off feel. Fugitt is most at home in that element of Totimoshi’s sound – his fills on “The Fool” feel as though they could completely undo the song at any moment, but he’s never out of control. That song also shows the band’s grown capacity for melody and structure both in and out of its layered chorus, which sets up the punkish cabaret stomp of “Mainline” all the more effectively. Commencing with Avenger’s dirtiest riff and drunken bluesy sway, it moves into a solo to match, but then Fugitt steps it up on the drums and the half-minute delivers the title line with handclaps and one of Avenger’s most memorable flashes. “Calling all Curs” begins with Castellanos’ considerably-toned lead in and jams out a solid riff as the album’s only instrumental, but in the context of the record as a whole, it’s hard to see it as more than a cool groove and a stepping stone to side A closer “Rose.”

It’s among the shorter tracks at 3:52 (only the intro and “Calling all Curs” take less time), and “Waning Divine” has the high-profile guest spots, but there’s no question that “Rose” is Avenger’s crowning achievement. Aguilar has said it’s “about fucking,” and sure enough, it’s sex in the classic Hendrixian fashion, finding its climax in its last minute build, the interplay of Aguilar and Castellanos on vocals brilliantly backed by Fugitt’s snare making the scenario complete. It’s a hallmark of Totimoshi’s catalog that each album has a definitive standout, and “Rose” is it for Avenger, but as the record is only half over, Totimoshi use the space on side B to get more adventurous, beginning with the freakout guitar work on the heavily-percussed “Opus” (I think that’s where the Crover guest appearance is, but don’t have confirmation of that at this point). They’re toying with desert rock’s echoes here, transitioning from a call and response between the drums and guitar in the chorus to the extended solo that feels as though it could consume the whole rest of the track but ultimately doesn’t, giving way to melodic vocals that transition smoothly into the more subdued “Leaves.” Totimoshi have always borrowed from the dirtier end of ‘90s noise, and “Leaves” maintains that, but the reverb on the guitar early in the song and the laid back vocals adds a chic moodiness that Avenger has thus far left untouched, flowing into a more angular second half that reminds of the opening duo and sounds like it could’ve been on a more realized version of 2002’s excellent Monoli.

“Snag” creeps open with a near-waltz guitar-led rhythm and unfolds into an engaging chorus. Like many of Avenger’s tracks, it’s about playing one side of Totimoshi’s sound off another. Songs do this, then they do that, but there’s always movement within them, and so sometimes it’s harder to get a handle on what the band is trying to accomplish on a first listen. With “Snag,” it’s not so much a dip in quality – because there isn’t one – as it is a shift in methodology. Fugitt is charged with keeping the song grounded, and he does so well, punctuating Aguilar’s noisy solo with consistent bass drumming that subtly both opens and closes. There are about 30 seconds of silence before “Waning Divine” starts, which is a surprising move given how much emphasis Totimoshi put on momentum otherwise on Avenger, but once the track actually begins – instant swirl – it’s clear why they would want it separate and standing apart from the other material. Both in terms of its structure and execution, it’s different from everything else on the album, Aguilar and Scott Kelly’s vocals meshing together following a chugging instrumental build that only gets larger as the verses play out. If “Waning Divine” has anything in common with the rest of Avenger, it’s that the guitar lead acts as the apex of the song, only this time it’s Brent Hinds providing the fleetness of finger, concluding the album with a performance that’s equal parts surprising and stellar.

The temptation with a band like Totimoshi, who seem to release album after album of high-quality songs and tour ceaselessly to support them, is to hope loudly that this is the record that “gets them their due,” whatever that means. That’s not to say Avenger isn’t a more than respectable outing or that Totimoshi, over the course of their studio work and extensive touring, hasn’t grown into one of the heavy undergrounds most individual bands, just that when you accomplish all that and earn a position near the fore of your creative generation, the admiration of your peers, critics and fans – however underappreciated your records still might be in relation to how good they are – I’m not sure what’s left. Headlining, I guess, and Avenger is already letting Totimoshi do that too on their latest tour, so there you go. They’ve always been a band rooted in appealing to a certain kind of listener, and Avenger is no different in its marriage of contradictions. It’s dissonant but melodic, dirty and clean, noisy but engaging, structured but open. If there’s a word to encompass the existence these varied ideas within a singular space that’s better fitting than the name of the band, I don’t know what it is, so I’ll just say that. It’s Totimoshi.

Totimoshi on Thee Facebooks

At a Loss Recordings

Avenger

Years of persistent touring with the likes of the Melvins and Helmet has tightened the chemistry between founding guitarist/vocalist Tony Aguilar and bassist Meg Castellanos – drummer Chris Fugitt came aboard in 2008 — and Avenger boasts both an individualized tonality and a distinctive crunch as a result. There are times where Totimoshi drive a riff so hard it’s like they’re trying to bury it, and they complement that ethic with a certain social awareness in their lyrics, adding contemplative heft to the fervor.

Totimoshi are long-underrated, and one hopes that with Avenger, they begin to get their due for the hard work they’ve put in. The album boasts guest appearances by Dale Crover (Melvins), Scott Kelly (Neurosis) and Brent Hinds (Mastodon), and should have no trouble winning favor from fans of those players. I was lucky enough to get permission to stream epically psychedelic Avenger closer “Waning Divine,” which features Kelly and Hinds both. You can check it out on the player below, followed by the dates for Totimoshi‘s upcoming North American run. Please enjoy:

Totimoshi North American tour dates:
08/04 Scottsdale, AZ Chaser’s w/ Greenhaven
08/05 Santa Fe, NM The Due Return
08/06 Denver, CO 3 Kings Tavern w/Ume, Self Service
08/07 Lincoln, NE Duffy’s
08/08 Dubuque, IA Off Minor
08/09 Milwaukee, WI Garibalid’s w/ Sleestak, Like Like the Death Deaths
08/10 Madison, WI The Frequency
08/11 Chicago, IL Ultra Lounge
08/12 Lansing, MI Mac’s Bar
08/13 Kent, OH Stone Tavern w/Rebreather, The Unclean
08/14 Toronto, ON Hard Luck
08/15 Montreal, QC TBA
08/16 Milford, CT Daniel St
08/17 Cambridge, MA O’Brien’s
08/19 Providence, RI TBA
08/20 Brooklyn, NY Saint Vitus
08/21 Baltimore, MD Golden West
08/22 Richmond, VA Strange Matter
08/26 Charlotte, NC Milestone w / Music Hates You
08/27 Atlanta, GA Drunken Unicorn w/ Zoroaster
08/28 Memphis, TN HiTone Cafe
08/29 New Orleans, LA Siberia
08/30 Houston, TX The Mink
08/31 Austin, TX Scoot Inn w/Vaz, Pygmie Shrews
09/01 San Antonio, TX Korova Basement
09/03 Tucson, AZ Vaudeville

More to come on this one for sure, but here’s the preliminaries:

California heavy desert deathrock enigmas, Totimoshi, are pleased to announce the release of their long-awaited new full-length, Avenger, later this summer. Set for release on Aug. 16, 2011 via At a Loss Recordings, Avenger was produced by Toshi Kasai (Melvins, Shrinebuilder, Tool), mastered by John Golden (Melvins, Mike Watt, OM) and includes appearances by Dale Crover (Altamont, The Melvins, Shrinebuilder), Brent Hinds (Mastodon) and Scott Kelly (Neurosis, Shrinebuilder).

Avenger Track Listing:
01. Intro
02. Avenger
03. The Fool
04. Mainline
05. Calling All Curs
06. Rose
07. Opus
08. Leaves
09. Snag
10. Waning Divine

For the past 14 years, Totimoshi — guitarist/vocalist Antonio Aguilar and bassist/vocalist Meg Castellanos — have been pounding out its own brand of acid induced rhythmic Hendrix-meets-Dick Dale rock. Born in the high desert of Southern California just 30 minutes from the hometown of Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart, Aguilar, the band’s principle songwriter, definitely shares said composers’ love for adventure in music. Joined by drummer Chris Fugitt in 2008, the trio have carved out a sound all their own. A busy 2010 saw the band tour Europe with Mastodon and Eyehategod and the US with the Melvins and 2011 has already seen the band shake the west coast with Floor.

Info comes courtesy of the PR wire:

Psychedelic post-rockers Del Rey perform a live score to the animated sci-fi classic Fantastic Planet at Lincoln Hall on Thursday, May 5. They’ll be joined on the bill by drone merchants White/Light, who will provide accompaniment to a film by Chicago experimental filmmaker Alexander Stewart.

Since their inception in 1997 in the attic of a three-flat in Ukrainian Village, Del Rey has been keeping Chicago’s instrumental rock torch aflame, purveying their brand of sonic lyricism and rhythmic textuality from countless stages and speakers. In 2010, they released their fourth full-length, Immemorial, in North America via At A Loss Recordings (in Europe via Golden Antenna), which fused the punishing grace of the band’s riff- and percussion-driven sound to a more evocative, melodic sensibility.

The beautiful and surreal imagery of Fantastic Planet (1973) may be the perfect cinematic complement for Del Rey‘s cosmic soundscapes and epic odysseys. In the film, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes, humans are kept as pets by blue humanoid alien giants called Traags. Said to be based on the Soviet occupation of the Czech Republic, the story centers on a human named Terr, who escapes the Traags and incites other humans to revolt. Del Rey will also be performing the score in Spain later in May as part of a tour based around their upcoming show at the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona.

Lincoln Hall will provide an ideal setting for the screenings – the club is a converted movie theater.

Providence‘s punishers The Body are back on the road early in the New Year, set to kick off a Southeastern US mini-tour today. The duo will devastate cities in Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina and Maryland over the coming days, appearing alongside Thou, haarp and more over the short onslaught. These dates all build up to The Body’s appearance later this month where they are scheduled to provide support for reunited hardcore icons The Universal Order of Armageddon in New York City.

The Body January 2011 Tour:

01/04 Tupac’s Bungalow Baton Rouge, LA w/ Thou, Haarp
01/05 Sluggo’s Pensacola, FL
01/06 Farside Tallahassee, FL
01/07 Wayward Council Gainesville, FL w/ Civilization
01/08 Lomax Lounge Jacksonville, FL w/ Civilization
01/10 Legitimate Business Greensboro, NC
01/11 some warehouse space Baltimore, MD
01/21 The Cake Shop New York, NY w/ Universal Order of Armageddon, Orphan

Thanks to all who commented for your podcast suggestions. I kind of like the one about the new Southern stuff, but I’d have to find out if I actually have enough material for it. We’ll see. In the meantime, we close out this week with Dark Castle, in honor of that idea.

This weekend is Halloween, and I’m going as “The Guy Who Spent His Whole Weekend Doing Homework.” Seriously, it feels like every week I do all this homework and then another week comes and there’s just more. What the hell is that about? Enough already.

I’m going to try to make it out to Brooklyn tomorrow night to catch Moth Eater, The Resurrection Sorrow, King Giant and Solace. More info on that show here. It’s getting awfully exhausting driving into Brooklyn for shows every weekend for what feels like and might actually be the past month, but I guess until anyone in Jersey starts giving a shit about good music, I’m stuck. Stupid lack of convenience.

Whatever your plans are, I wish you well. Have a happy and safe whathaveyou and we’ll see you back here next week to wrap up October’s numbers, get that new podcast up and — if I’m feeling fancy and have time to transcribe an hour-long phone conversation — maybe even my interview with Chris Goss from Masters of Reality. Either way, stay tuned. More fun to come.

But though Del Rey present multiple components of their total sound in each song, Immemorial can still be understood in a structure of the long tracks being complemented by the short. The aforementioned “Innumeracy” bleeds into the 10:35 “Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars” with an ease and grace that could only be on purpose, and the whispering synth line that concludes “Ouisch” is also that which begins the 9:39 “These Children that Come at You with Knives,” which gives way to the sort-of afterthought that is “Ancestral,” closing the album with nearly two-and-a-half minutes of hopeful guitar runs. It’s worth noting that in “Return of the Son of Fog Rider,” Immemorial gets a beginning that moves right from the start, and there is a kinetic energy through most of the longer tracks. I don’t know if I’d call it “heavy” in a heavy metal sense, but I’ll be damned if Del Rey’s instrumental explorations don’t carry a weight you can feel in each of your senses.

Listeners with different backgrounds are going to hear varying influences, but it’s hard for me to listen to “E Pluribus Unicorn” and not think of the better end of the heavy psych/prog style that’s grown up over the course of the past Isis-inspired half decade or so. That said, multi-instrumentalists Eben English, Chris Cowgill, Damien Burke and Michael Johnson (joined on Immemorial by second drummer Jason Ward, who has also recorded all of their albums) have been performing under the Del Rey moniker since 1997, so their roots obviously run deeper than the likes of Red Sparowes, with whom they may or may not share incidental sonic similarity. Again, Immemorial is an incredibly textured collection of tracks, and if you sit with it long enough, you can hear just about whatever you’re looking for.

And if you’re thinking “Oh god, not another two-drum band everyone knows the Melvins are the best at this so why would anyone even bother?” it only really seems to come up on “Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars.” There may be other times on Immemorial where there is more than one percussion instrument being played, but not once on the album does double-drumming feel like a gimmick Del Rey are perpetrating to up some imaginary hipster appeal. Frankly, the album is a much more satisfying piece of work than something you would say, “Hey, that’s neat,” to. Prog heads will grasp onto the experimental elements, psychedelonauts will want to be dragged along the jamming peyote desert floor “These Children that Come at You with Knives” seems to be built on, and assholes will call it overrated hipster rock. Somewhere between all that, you’re likely to find yourself a rich LP worthy of multiple engagements.

Del Rey’s website

At a Loss Recordings

Dark Castle have also secured a supporting slot on Kylesa‘s Spring European tour, which plows through France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Greece, Finland and Norway, with appearances at several festivals including Metalorgie (France), Impetus (Switzerland) and AsymetryFestival (Poland). The tour will share the stage with Shrinebuilder, Eyehategod, Nachtmystium, Electric Wizard and more along the way.

Dark Castle SXSW 2010 shows:
3/17/2010 Emo’s – Austin, TX
Brooklyn Vegan showcase w/ Torche, The Atlas Moth, Skeletonwitch

3/18/2010 East End Tattoo – Austin, TX
Chronic Youth showcase w/ The Atlas Moth

3/19/2010 Headhunter’s – Austin, TX
Profound Lore/20 Buck Spin showcase w/ White Mice, Liturgy, Salome, Coffinworm, Yakuza, The Atlas Moth, The Endless Blockade and more

3/20/2010 Plush – Austin, TX
Giant Steps Productions showcase w/ Irepress, Battlefields, Caspian and more

Dark Castle European tour w/ Kylesa:
4/07/2010 Trix – Antwerp, Belgium
4/08/2010 Nantes, France – Metalorgie Festival w/ Baroness
4/09/2010 Santana 27 – Bilbao, Spain
4/10/2010 Porto Rio – Porto, Portugal
4/11/2010 Ritmo & Compas – Madrid, Spain
4/12/2010 Be Cool – Barcelona, Spain
4/13/2010 Le Confort Moderne – Poitiers, France
4/14/2010 Le Grand Mix – Lille, France
4/16/2010 L’autre Canal – Nancy, France
4/17/2010 Impetus Festival – Lausanne, Switzerland w/ Eyehategod
4/18/2010 Grnd Zero Vaise – Lyon, France
4/20/2010 La Maroquenerie – Paris, France w/ Shrinebuilder
4/21/2010 Substage – Karlsruhe, Germany w/ Shrinebuilder, Eyehategod
4/22/2010 Covo – Bologna, Italy
4/23/2010 Bloom – Mezzago – Italy w/ Shrinebuilder
4/24/2010 Kapu – Linz, Austria
4/25/2010 Sfentona Club – Athens, Greece
4/27/2010 Tavastia – Helsinki, Finland
4/28/2010 The Garage – Oslo, Norway
4/30/2010 Asymetry Festival – Wroclaw, Poland w/ Electric Wizard, Shrinebuilder, Zu, Nachtmystium
5/01/2010 Ucho – Gdynia, Poland
5/02/2010 Archiv – Potsdam,Germany