They’re among the original harbingers of Maryland doom, and Baltimorian four-piece Iron Man have seen ‘em come, and seen ‘em go. The band’s last full-length, I Have Returned, came out in 2009 (review here), and in the time since then, they’ve been through I don’t even know how many drummers — at least two — and frontman Joe Donnelly has also departed, leaving “Iron” Al Morris III on guitar alongside bassist Louis Strachan, drummer Mike Rix (since out of the band), and newfound singer Dee Calhoun for the new Dominance EP. If we were doing SAT analogies, I might say that Calhoun : Rob Halford as Donnelly : Ozzy Osbourne, minus the physical mimicry of onstage persona. His voice fits well over the four tracks of Dominance, of which I’ll have a review in the next week or two.

In case you missed it, Iron Man aren’t the only ones who premiered a new video today. Pagan Altar, who already had a new track up this week, posted a brand new video from their forthcoming album, Never Quite Dead, for the song “Dance of the Vampires.” That video is on the forum here, and I’d recommend it if you’d like to get your doom fix a little bit more when you’re done with “Ruler of Ruin” above. Right on.

Tomorrow night I’ll be in Philly to check out Earthride, C.O.C. and Clutch at the Trocadero, which I’m confident is going to be a complete blast. While I’m posting links to new videos on the forum, Mike H. shot a yet-unreleased Clutch song Wednesday night in Maine, and embedded it here. Thanks as always to him for his diligence. Anyway, if you’re gonna be at the show tomorrow, I’m the fat guy with the long hair, beard and the brown messenger-type camera bag, singing along to the chorus, “The party’s over/You all got to go/The wolfman is coming out.” I imagine it’ll be the bag that most distinguishes me.

This week, aside from that probable Iron Man review, I’ll have a writeup on tomorrow’s show, as well as the new Cherry Choke album, and — if it kills me — I will get Skype to record on my laptop and hook up that Grifter interview. I’ll also have the December numbers (I have no idea how they are), and since it’ll be 2012, at some point in the week I’ll do a preview of the year to come, most likely in the spirit of last year’s two-parter of records I’ve heard and ones I haven’t yet.

And as we learned today, there will be some albums I won’t hear at all, and for that, I apologize profusely.

I wish you a safe, insanely happy and healthy New Year, wherever you are and whatever you’re doing. I hope your 2012 is overflowing with joy and personal fulfillment, large cash settlements and whatever else it is that will make you glad to be on this planet. Raise a toast to the killer records to come and we’ll see you back here Monday for more adventures in adjectival phrasing.

Ah, to be young, creative, and constantly on the road throughout the European Union. Such seems to be the plight of Baltimorean heavy psych-blues specialists, The Flying Eyes. Seems they’ve just about bypassed every bit of their locality in favor of a more worldly approach to supporting their two albums, The Flying Eyes and earlier this year’s Done So Wrong. An interesting way to go about it, but it seems to be working for them.

Their new video, for the song “Overboard” from the latest album, can be viewed below with the background info following, and then be sure to check out the flyer for their newest string of European dates, which is set to kick off Nov. 17. Dig:

The music video was shot on Super 8 film in Baltimore, September 2011 by Veruschka Bohn from Germany (http://veruschka.tumblr.com). Developed by hand, this video pays tribute to the analogue days of video production and was successfully presented as a pre-diploma project at HfG Offenbach, where Veruschka studies Photo & Film. The song “Overboard“ is taken from the album Done So Wrong (Trip in Time/World in Sound, 2011).

Young men carrying old souls, Baltimore four-piece The Flying Eyes first made an impression by collecting two EPs into a self-titled Trip in Time full-length debut early last year, blending heavy psychedelia and Southern blues to an effect both surprisingly individual and confident given their age and the fact that it was their first album. Now following it with Done So Wrong, the collective of childhood friends continues to refine their approach and expand it a bit, shirking off some of the more stonerly elements in their sound – for better or worse – and instead working shades of indie, country and folk into their palette. The lead vocals of guitarist Will Kelly remain soulful and strongly presented, embodying in many ways the “beyond their years” aspect of The Flying Eyes’ sound, though the overall retro psychedelia in tracks like highlight “Overboard” and the Dead Meadow-toned instrumental “Heavy Heart” don’t hurt in that regard either, the band drawing more from late-‘60s pop sprawl than the hard-driving riff rock that would rise to prominence just a few years later.

As stylized as they are, though, what’s most consistent about The Flying Eyes is prowess in songwriting. The funky, bass-led groove of “Poison the Well” – Mac Hewitt laying down warm low end in the verses while drummer Elias Schutzman one-e-and-a’s his hi-hat to classic affect later echoed on the toms during guitarist Adam Bufano’s solo break – offers immediate contrast to the fuzz and wah swirl of opener “Death Don’t Make Me Cry,” but both ultimately work. The diversity is subtle, but it’s there, showing up also in the chic neo-grunge feel of “Sundrop” and the thoughtful acoustics of closer “Leave it all Behind,” on which Kelly is joined by a female guest vocalist for a duet worthy of capping off Done So Wrong. Their heaviest moment, at least in the sense of playing fast and loud, might come in the cut before “Leave it all Behind,” “Greed,” which in addition to breaking down to guitars sounding more like violins, has one of the album’s several catchy and memorable choruses. Another strengthening Done So Wrong’s swaggering back half is “Overboard,” ringing notes from Kelly and/or Bufano topped with vocals that sound run through a just-overmodulated vintage mic. There’s obviously a self-aware element to what they do, but The Flying Eyes make it sound spontaneous, and ultimately, that’s why they succeed with the record.

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Against Nature know the score. The Baltimore trio have put out at least 15 full-lengths since 2005 on guitarist/vocalist John Brenner’s Bland Hand Records imprint, the latest of which is Stone Over Stone, and they’ve given them away for free the whole time. Physical CDs are pressed sometimes in limited numbers with accompanying artwork from Brenner – joined in Against Nature by bassist Bert Hall, Jr. and drummer Steve Branagan – but by and large, they just home record albums and put them up on the label’s website for those who find them to enjoy. Music for the love of music. It’s a beautiful ideal to work from, and Against Nature’s songs, humbly-toned, classically-styled and engaging, are perfectly suited to it. Stone Over Stone collects five solid traditional rockers and one more extended jam into about 29 minutes’ worth of material, paying homage to the LP ethic of old in the album’s relatively short runtime.

One thing about Against Nature’s material in every iteration I’ve heard (and at this point, I’ve heard a few): influences at work can vary by record, but in both tone and Brenner’s voice, Against Nature are distinctly themselves. Some material is more active, some more passive, but all of Against Nature’s work – and indeed this applies to Stone Over Stone as well – is completely lacking pretense and operating on a “what you see is what you get” level. Brenner is an accomplished solo guitarist, and he shows that off a bit later into this record on “Clod” or “Walking on Stilts in Sand,” and Hall and Branagan are as tight as ever in the rhythm section, the latter injecting some rocking fills into “Clod” that are as driven as anything I’ve heard from Against Nature in a while. The production style is the same as it ever was in its smooth but still home-recorded warmth, and though that can lead to some of the albums having a similar feel, the trio actually works in some different avenues on each record. It’s not quite a thematic concept, but the drive behind Stone Over Stone seems to be to capture a more spontaneous vibe. The seven-minute closing jam “Off the Cuff” is a big clue in that regard, but it’s true for some of the other songs as well.

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Baltimore heavy psych rockers The Flying Eyes, whose self-titled debut was reviewed early last year, are in the process of preparing a follow-up for release via World in Sound/Trip in Time. The next album, reportedly titled Done So Wrong, is due out March 18, and drummer Elias Schutzman was kind enough to send over the track “Nowhere to Run” for your advance streaming pleasure. Check it out on the Soundcloud player below.

Done So Wrong is due out March 18 on World in Sound/Trip in Time. For more info on The Flying Eyes, check out their Facebook page.

They share a drummer with The Flying Eyes in Elias Schutzman, but blown-out psychedelic trio Mother Sun Flower are going for a different sound entirely. Where so much of what made The Flying Eyes‘ self-titled debut work was in the vocals, for Mother Sun Flower, the focus is on far-out riffing and an underlying intensity that comes across as kind of a surprise.

I credit youth for that and posit that The Flying Eyes probably couldn’t relax sonically even if they wanted to, which, as the three songs on their MySpace demonstrate, they don’t. “Death Talk” and “I Will End You” both get off on a blend of spacey atmosphere and outright aggression that few bands can pull off well, but Mother Sun Flower manages. The bass of Timmy Shaw and guitar/vocals of Jon Lipscomb only help bring out the meaner side of the band, and Schutzman‘s drumming can change from furious to sedate at a clip, so you never know quite what you’re going to get.

Their debut EP, which may or may not be called Mother Sun Fucker is in the works now, and for anyone in the Baltimore area, Mother Sun Flower join nomadic noise duo Jucifer for a show at The Ottobar next Wednesday, Jan. 12. More info on that here, and while you’re deciding how to spend your midweek evening, check out this clip from the YuToubes.

You know, some bands, you expect when you haven’t checked in on them for a while they’ve maybe got some news that they’re touring or thinking about starting to put out a new album, maybe have some ideas for songs, all very nebulous, not yet willing to reveal titles, etc. Baltimore, Maryland’s Against Nature, meanwhile, have released two albums and have a third and fourth on the way. In about six months. And that’s not even counting their super-doomed alter ego, Revelation, who also put out a record in that time. They should call the next album Prolific Bloody Prolific.

In January, Against Nature self-released Drawing Arrows through their own Bland Hand Records, and a mere month later (presumably from the same sessions; though I don’t know that for sure) came Chasing Eagles, the band’s 13^th or 14^th release, which continues their seemingly overflowing run of ‘70s-style prog played at three-quarter speed and as unpretentiously as possible. Guitarist/vocalist John Brenner is as much at home with this material as I am on the couch, and whether it’s the bluesy “A Likely Story” or the more Sabbath-fueled “Snowed Under,” bassist Bert Hall, Jr. and drummer Steve Branagan have no trouble laying a solid foundation for the songs to build on.

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Young Baltimore rockers The Flying Eyes offer bag-packed voyage-ready psychedelia amid one of the world’s most potent and vibrant doom scenes. If this makes them stand out, they hardly seem concerned. Their recent collection of two EPs, released as a self-titled full-length through Trip in Time, shows heavy blues American melancholy mixed with smart and urgent rock. They groove well beyond their years.

The story (as seen after the jump) goes that drummer Elias Schutzman, guitarist Adam Bufano and bassist/vocalist Mac Hewitt still considered themselves incomplete until vocalist/guitarist Will Kelly came along. Perhaps it’s that unwillingness to be — like so many others — a trio without a frontman that sets The Flying Eyes apart from their rocking peers. Whatever it is, the energy and vibrancy of their music stands testament to the success of the “getting together” process. When it’s the right people, it just sounds better.

Schutzman took time out recently for a Q&A exchange that’s available for checking out immediately after the jump. Hope you dig and thanks for reading.

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Before I took the (literally) three seconds to fact-find on the situation with Baltimore psych-blues rockers The Flying Eyes’ self-titled Trip in Time debut, the fact that the album was split into two parts had me searching for some conceptual or sonic split between them, mining the tracklist for clues and trying to understand what it was about the first five tracks the band would want to call Bad Blood and what about the back half that would lead the four-piece to dub it Winter. It was an exhaustive search. The significance of three out of the five Bad Blood tracks end with the word “Me” in the title grew with each listen. I thought for sure “Red Sheets” (track seven of the total 10) held a clue beneath its retro fuzz riffing. Certainly the peacocks in Kiryk Drewinski’s album art mean something.

But yeah, it’s a compilation of two EPs, one named Bad Blood and one named Winter. Less thrilling than an underlying spiritual union of metaphysical sonics, perhaps, but at least it’s a fucking answer.

Two immediate thoughts when listening to The Flying Eyes opener “Lay with Me,” in order: (1.) alright, that acoustic guitar is pretty cool, and (2.) wow, this guy sounds like Jim Morrison. The “this guy” in question is guitarist/vocalist Will Kelly, whose powerful vocals not only are reminiscent of the spindly “poet” whose work still mesmerizes would-be deep 13 year olds the world over, but also are a good portion of the reason The Flying Eyes pull off their sound. The brazenness of his approach, backed by bassist/vocalist Mac Hewitt on the more compact, atmospheric “Better Things,” is a means of putting the listener precisely where the band wants and a constant that provides a connection between the sundry musical shifts beneath. Almost wistful notes on “Better Things” give way to organ and riff dance hall stomp on the first EP’s title cut — both of which can be attributed to guitarist/organist Adam Bufano — but Kelly’s voice links the two tracks with each other and with the rest of Bad Blood and Winter.

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The way Baltimore‘s Mopar Mountain Daredevils have set up their debut EP, Mopar Bloody Mopar (El Suprimo! Records), it’s like a trip that keeps going further out. Emitting four rays of molten, swirling stonerdelia each more lysergic than the last, the 25-minute collection offers the listener a gradual expansion; from the comparatively unassuming opening title track to nine-minute closer “Tiger’s Pause,” which deforms and oozes concepts over a canyon of reverb.

Put to tape and mixed over the course of just two days less than a month ago from this writing (Feb. 26-27, 2009, to be exact) by Rob Girardi at Lord Baltimore Recording, Mopar Bloody Mopar doesn’t sound at all haphazard or sloppy beyond intent, but the songs to retain a live spontaneity about them that brings the disc an energy often voided by layering in modern psych albums. I have no doubt that when I go see them open for Ya Ho Wa 13 at the Knitting Factory in NYC on Saturday, they’ll sound just like the EP — and yes, that is a good thing.

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