Heavy Bostonian foursome Riff Cannon announced last night that they’ve changed their name and will be known as Summoner going forward. As Riff Cannon, they released the excellent Mercury Mountain in 2009 and recorded the forthcoming Phoenix, which will be Summoner‘s first release, out in 2012 on a to-be-determined label. We’d been talking about doing it on The Maple Forum, and may yet, but the band is rightly taking the opportunity to shop the album around with the band’s new moniker. Whoever gets behind it, the record is a monster, so hopefully it’s released soon.

In the meantime, Summoner sent this down the PR wire:

Hey all,

Just wanted to let everyone know that we will be changing our name.  After much deliberation and discussion between the guys in the band, we have decided to move forward with this.  The new name will be SUMMONER.  The old name will be missed, and yes we understand that a lot of people really like it, but we also found that just as may people don’t like it…. including ourselves. 

I’ll spare you the long drawn out explanation of when and why we have decided to do this.  Just know that we are the exact same band… SAME DUDES, SAME MUSIC, DIFFERENT NAME.

Please follow the link to the new Facebook page and “LIKE” us so we can keep you all updated on news, shows, and most importantly, when we will be releasing the new album Phoenix!!!  The record is mixed, mastered and we have some amazing cover art (courtesy of Alyssa Maucere).  We’re going to take some time to shop the record around while we settle in as SUMMONER.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us over these last few years… now it’s time to move forward!!!
—
Summoner
(formerly Riff Cannon)

Friday night, man. Traditionally you’re supposed to go out after work, get fucked up, party your ass off and all the rest of it. All I want to do on a Friday night is sleep. And usually, that’s how it goes. But when Cortez is making the trip down from Boston and hooking up with Mighty High for a show in Brooklyn that’s not even in the middle of hang-yourself Williamsburg, well, showing up is the thing to do. So it’s the thing I did.

Last time I was at Hank’s Saloon was just over a year ago, to see Black Thai (which boasts two members of Cortez in its ranks) hit up a gig with Thinning the Herd, and as low key as that was, I knew that with Mighty High on the bill, good times were bound to be had. When I rolled in, there was what had previously been described to me as an “alt country” act on the stage. It was a little white girl, soul-singing like little white girls do, accompanied by some dude who seems to have found Les Claypool‘s tailor on guitar. Striped pants, silly hat, and — inevitably, predictably, excruciatingly — a kazoo. Hell, it was bound to happen, but they were about half done when I got there, so it could’ve been worse. They covered Spinal Tap‘s “Gimme Some Money,” and that was a fun reference.

They’d been put on the bill by the venue, which as I understand it, is for sale. Bar-ownership being something of a long-term fantasy of mine, as Cortez set up their gear on the small stage, I looked up at the ceiling beams, down at the dirty floor, over at the walls full of pictures and stickers and post-its with cabbie phone numbers. I inhaled the smell of mold and thought to myself, “Yeah, I could do this.” The Patient Mrs., joining me for the night on the town, seemed less thrilled at the notion.

Cortez frontman Matt Harrington would soon blow out the Hank’s P.A., but as soon as they got going, they were on the ball. They hit up a few songs from their forthcoming self-titled (vinyl master is on the way, reportedly), including highlights “Monolith,” “Johnny” and the catchy “Until We Die,” with bassist Jay Furlo adding backups to Harrington‘s melodies while Scott O’Dowd, aka Scotty Fuse, let fly carefully constructed riffs and drummer Jeremy Hemond (also of Roadsaw and Black Thai) managed to do some equipment damage of his own. I can’t remember ever seeing him play that he didn’t require a new snare at some point in the set, and Hank’s was no exception.

They rocked in spite of any and all technical difficulties, and much as I’d hoped, the night played out as sans-bullshit as possible. All I wanted was a rock show with some good bands, good people, decently-priced beer and no Friday night fashion show, and that’s basically what I got. Mighty High‘s boogiethrash blend of Slayer, Black Flag, Motörhead, Sabbath and any number of ’70s obscurities I’m not qualified to name was the perfect finale. Decked out in a Foghat Live t-shirt, guitarist/vocalist Chris “Woody High” MacDermott introduced the native Brooklynite act by saying, “We’re The James Gang from Ohio,” and it only got better from there.

The thing about Mighty High, though, is that as much as songs like “Chemical Warpigs” (a highlight) “I Don’t Wanna Listen to Yes” (another highlight) and “Breakin’ Shit” (always a highlight) are about getting high and having fun, they’re also maddeningly good. Mighty High hit like a megaphone yelling at stoner rock to get its head out of its ass, but they have the chops musically to back it up. I’m not going to say they were perfect up there, but even where they stumbled, they did it right, guitarist Kevin Overdose, drummer Jesse D’Stills and bassist Labatts Santoro seeming to take the instruction to heart as Woody led the way through the opening cover of “Kick out the Jams.”

When they were done, I walked out with the “Hands Up!” chorus still in my head, where it stayed for much of the weekend, and — now that I’m thinking about it again — remains. The Patient Mrs. had already filled her rock quota for the evening and retired to the car, so I said some quick goodnights and we headed back to Jersey, where I happily checked off the first of three shows in a row and fulfilled my Friday destiny by crashing out as quickly as possible. Good fun.

Extra pics after the jump.

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The resulting drone is just a part of the scope of the project. For Boston-based artist Craig Colorusso, the idea is more about the experience than the aural result (though, granted, that and pictures is what we’re limited to here). His installation, Sun Boxes takes a collection solar-powered speakers, each of which plays a loop of part of a Bb chord, and puts them in natural settings.

Seems simple enough, but the individual loops run at different lengths, and since the nature sounds of wherever they’re placed inevitably factor into the overall experience of the work, as does the striking visual of the wooden boxes topped with futuristic-looking solar panels, it’s never the same twice. Colorusso has found a way to make the same elements work in a different way each time.

He started in the desert, but he’s taken Sun Boxes to sculpture parks in Maryland and his native Massachusetts as well, and even released a 7″ named the same as the installation, with the two sides “Frozen Pond” and “Grassy Field” featuring their respective environs. Though they’ll sound familiar to anyone who’s engaged themselves with drone before, the relaxing, subdued feel of the project comes through even just from the audio.

Colorusso — who has the 7″ available for purchase now on his website and is on Thee Facebooks here — was kind enough to let me host the tracks for streaming. You’ll find them on the player below, followed by some words from Colorusso himself. Please enjoy:

People often ask where all this came from. The short answer is… in November 2008, long time friend and collaborator, “Sexy” David Sanchez Burr called me up and said, “Yo! Make something solar. We’re going to the desert.” Then he hung up. Dave is the kind of guy when he’s on the phone you take the call. So, in June of 2009 we went to Rhyolite, Nevada, with Richard Voseller to a place called The Goldwell Open Air Museum. The three of us had a residency called “Off the Grid,” where we used sustainable energy to make art. Sun Boxes was my contribution.

The long answer is… I’m not sure. Although I would cite Dave as a catalyst the truth is I’ve been thinking about this a long time. 39 years of observations.

I really wanted make something people could feel like they’re part of physically. One of the things about Sun Boxes I love is as soon as you hear it or see it your in it. You decide how close you want get. I often find people on the edge of the array. I don’t like telling people what to do but I do encourage them to walk amongst the Boxes. It really sounds better in the middle of it all. I think it sounds best when you’re surrounded by the piece. Sun Boxes is loud enough to engulf the participant but quiet enough to allow ambient sounds of the environment to creep into the mix. Birds, traffic, wind, voices, feet crunching leaves, waves, all kinds of sounds sound very musical with Sun Boxes, even an ambulance full sirens.

Entries were closed as of Friday, and just a few minutes ago, I printed up the names and addresses, cut them out individually, crumpled them up and stuck them in the plastic cup as you can see above. Then I went around my office and had five winners chosen by my coworkers. Thanks again to everyone who entered (50 people on the dot), and congrats to the following:

Luca in Italy
Dan in California
Mikko in Finland
Erik in Colorado
Eric in Michigan

There you have it. I need to pick up some bigger envelopes and do it up with bubble-wrap and whatnot (can’t take any chances with vinyl, quality pressing though it is), and I should be able to get these out in the next day or two, so if you see your name above — there were a couple Californian Dans, but I don’t want to give out anyone’s last name, so I’ll drop an email — keep an eye out. They should be there shortly.

Thanks again to Play the Assassin Records (Facebook here, Bandcamp here) for donating the picture discs to the cause, and to Moth Eater and Black Thai for putting together a killer split. Congratulations again to the winners and hopefully we’ll be able to do more of this kind of thing in the future, so stay tuned.

Play the Assassin Records was kind enough a while back to give me five copies of the Lowering the Doom split between Long Island metallers Moth Eater and Boston‘s Black Thai. All you have to do to win one is enter with your name, email and address below. That’s it. You send that over, I email to let you know you’ve won and send you a killer, free, limited edition 10″ vinyl with demo tracks from two awesome bands, and everyone goes home happy. Pretty simple stuff. Enter here:

[NOTE: This contest is now closed. Thanks to all who entered.]

Contest runs until the end of this week. All are welcome to enter. Please note that I have neither interest in sharing your personal information with anyone, nor anyone to share it with if I did, nor the know-how to go about actually doing so. If you trust in nothing else, trust in my utter incompetence and suckdom-at-life. Either way, your privacy is your privacy. Special thanks to Play the Assassin (‘Like’ them on Thee Facebooks here) for the support. The original release info goes a little like this:

Finally, Boston and New York can agree on something.

Black Thai, from Massachusetts, released a split with New York’s doomly rockers Moth Eater on April 26, 2011, via Play the Assassin Records. Moth Eater, which features members of Dirty Rig (Escapi Music) and Scar Culture (Century Media), included two tracks from their devastatingly heavy Thunder God of Monster Island EP, and Black Thai, whose lineup boasts members of Roadsaw, Cortez and We’re all Gonna Die, answered back with two cuts from their Blood From on High EP, released late last year.

The split is limited to 250 copies and pressed onto a 10” picture disc vinyl with a free download card included. Six additional bonus tracks not on the record will appear in the download. Full songs are available for streaming and download now at playtheassassin.bandcamp.com. The vinyl can be ordered at playtheassassin.com.

Lowering the Doom vinyl track list:
1. Moth Eater, “Aftermath”
2. Moth Eater, “Our Time”
3. Black Thai, “Blood Dust”
4. Black Thai, “Satan’s Toolshed”
(digital only bonus tracks 5-10)
5. Moth Eater, “When Bruises Leave Scars”
6. Moth Eater, “Rocking is my Business”
7. Moth Eater, “Smashing Saturns”
8. Moth Eater, “Moths @ the Round Table”
9. Black Thai, “The Ladder”
10. Black Thai, “333”

When Boston trio Elder dropped their self-titled debut on MeteorCity in 2008, it was clear the band had potential. What’s most interesting about the follow-up, Dead Roots Stirring (also MeteorCity), is how that potential has played out. Where the first album was heavily indebted to Sleep’s stoner caravanning and dropping out of life, the new five-song collection has expanded Elder’s reach sonically, branching into a more complex realm of psychedelic melody. The short version is that Elder have grown up a lot in three years, and Dead Roots Stirring sounds like they picked up a few really killer records along the way to cull influence from. Guitarist/vocalist Nick DiSalvo is still in the forward position in the band, with bassist Jack Donovan and drummer Matt Couto locking into a string of excellent grooves beneath memorable hooks and far-out extended instrumental breaks. Elder takes full advantage of the trio format in that regard, more so than on the Elder album; the tracks on Dead Roots Stirring are longer on average, with the shortest being centerpiece “III” at 8:43 (three of five on the debut were shorter), and the time isn’t misspent. The band proves almost immediately on 9:40 opener “Gemini” that they’re able just as well to hypnotize as engage, and the album as a whole benefits from the flow they craft from song to song. At 51 minutes, it seems like a lot, and there are moments where parts can feel incongruous relative to elsewhere, but for the most part, Elder’s stated potential has paid off in an unexpected and exciting way.

One can hear a variety of influences at play on “Gemini,” including the modern heavy psych style you might expect to come more from Tee Pee Records, but what really makes the track notable is that it sets the tone for much of what DiSalvo has to offer lead-wise for Dead Roots Stirring. He adds flourishes layered in with the riffs that shine through the well-weighted Justin Pizzoferrero mix (Black Pyramid’s Clay Neely engineered the recording) during the verses and launches near the song’s halfway point into a huge and ripping but still clearly constructed Hendrixian solo. His guitar winds up providing the apex of Dead Roots Stirring later on closer “Knot,” so to have it also elicit the first mini-culmination of “Gemini” – the chorus of the song is also one of the album’s most memorable, relying on a simplistic delivery of “I’m coming home/It’s been so long” – is fitting on a structural level and a move that I don’t know if Elder had in them the first time around. Not to harp on the point, but DiSalvo also adds repeated high notes during the instrumental stretch nearer to the end of the song, and it’s a case of knowing how to do more with less, not just showing off one’s ability to scale like a madman at all times. Couto, whose drums sound full as he rattles the toms with two minutes to go, scores a build with Donovan adding a righteously Euro-derived warmth to the overarching groove when the riff comes back in to end the song.

Donovan and Couto begin the title-track as well, which is the longest cut on Dead Roots Stirring at a full 12 minutes. As much as DiSalvo is out front in the band’s sound, as ever for heavy rock, it’s the rhythm section that carries the song over. “Dead Roots Stirring” has more of an instrumental sprawl than the opener, seems to be on not so short a leash, and the parts allowed to range further and jam out more. That being the case, though, Elder still work an enticing chorus into the fray, or at least a standout recitation of the song and album’s titular line. Compared to the vocal-less “III” which follows, “Dead Roots Stirring” is among the album’s more straightforwardly stoner songs, at least as far as the riffs go, but it’s worth noting that even if that’s the case, it’s still more complex than almost anything they concocted on the first album. “III” marks a tonal change to a rich and bright sound – especially from Donovan, who provides his best performance on bass for the track – that stands in contrast to Dead Roots Stirring’s otherwise gorgeously painted Adrian Dexter artwork, which although deep and moving, does little to complement the blinding oranges and yellows the song puts before the eyes. DiSalvo makes his lead at the end of “Gemini” seem maximal in comparison.

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Venerable Boston rockers Roadsaw have a new video for the track “Weight in Gold” from their self-titled full-length, released earlier this year. In it we see the four-piece alternating between rocking in a small room and traipsing through the snowy woods wearing gold rush garb and finally coming upon what I can only assume is Marcellus Wallace‘s soul. Good song, good times.

And my goodness, but vocalist Craig Riggs looks just like Orange Goblin‘s tour manager from their shows back in May. That must’ve been some party.

Enjoy the clip:

Thanks to cheech for posting this on the forum.

It’s a tricky proposition, playing in NYC on a Friday night. On the one hand, it’s pretty much the ideal, right? Get a bunch of people trapped in a small room on a small island — there’s really nowhere to go but to a show. On the other hand, there’s at least three shows for each of the eight million people on that small island, so it’s easy for a band to get lost in the mix. Truckfighters, on their first American run, made a landmark out of the Cake Shop on Ludlow St. Though I’ll certainly have other associations with it as well, it’s going to be a while before something comes to my mind when I think of the venue faster than, “Oh yeah, that’s the place Truckfighters played.”

A full 41 people took advantage of the “say The Obelisk and get in free” thing by the last tally I heard — which was about 38 more than I expected — and the vibe was insane. Like YOB/Dark Castle earlier in the week, it seemed like the people who were there were really glad to be there. And there were a lot of them. By the time Borracho were done, I turned around and the room was packed out. Weirdos, button-down yuppies and in-between-types came and went, but for most of the night, it was consistently hard to get to the bar for all the people standing around.

That has its ups and downs, which I probably don’t need to explain, but good for all the bands having heads to play to. The running order was Borracho, Blue Aside, Kings Destroy and Truckfighters headlining, and the show got going a bit before 9PM, allowing extra time for a crowd to arrive for Borracho, who were up from Washington D.C. solely for this one gig. Seemed like a haul, but if the bonus is you get to play with Truckfighters, I can’t imagine it wasn’t worth their time. They got a good response from the crowd too, played (unless I’m mistaken) four songs from their recently-reviewed Splitting Sky album, and were a fitting start to the evening.

I stand by the critiques I made of Borracho in that review, but it’s worth noting that as each song in their set began, I recognized it immediately. Sure, the record’s still relatively fresh in my mind, but I found myself anticipating the chorus of “Grab the Reins” and looking forward to what was coming next — even hoping for “Never Get it Right” — which I took as evidence of a certain level of quality in their songwriting. They have some growing to do yet, some smoothing out of their processes, but there’s something there. It’s not hollow stoner repetition, and while some of their parts wander, their potential as a unit is plain to see in the live setting. I bought a copy of Splitting Sky, and I think it’s going to be really interesting to hear how they develop with their next batch of material.

Their energy was infectious, in the meantime, which actually wound up not doing any favors for Blue Aside, who were decidedly more laid back and stoic in their on-stage presence. The Boston space doom trio started late following some technical problems with their bass head (an Ampeg SVT that they then put front and center on the stage), and shared vocal duties with an incongruence of atmosphere. Drummer Matt Netto had an almost frantic anxiousness in his playing that was contrasted by guitarist Adam Abrams and sandal’ed bassist Joe Twomey, both calmer and more methodical. Nonetheless, they gave a decent showing of material from their The Orange Tree EP, even if they were the odd men out on the bill.

Blue Aside also managed to separate the yuppie chaff, which was fine by me. It’s not that the band was bad, just out of place, and most of the crowd, which was anticipating a rock show, probably wasn’t ready for the spaced-out excursions they had on offer. That, combined with the conflict between energies as noted, didn’t do them any favors. Still, taken on their own level, they did well with what they had. Would be hard for anyone to play those songs bouncing off the walls.

At this point, I don’t even know how many times I’ve seen Kings Destroy, but it was awesome to catch them as a part of this lineup. I missed them with Sourvein in Brooklyn, so this was my follow-up to their Santos Party House gig with Orange Goblin, and as ever, they did not disappoint. They locked in a groove with “The Whittler” from …And the Rest Will Surely Perish and held it down across their whole set. “The Mountie” was especially tight, and the same new song they played last time around — now graced with the title “Holy Dice” — fit right in with the rest of the selections: “Planet XXY,” “Medusa,” “Dusty Mummy” and “Old Yeller” to close out. Good times.

And I mean that. In talking to guitarist Chris Skowronski after they were done, he said he didn’t think they’d ever felt so on point, and having attended as many of their shows as I have, I can’t help but agree. Each time I see them, they’re better than the last, and whether it’s the raised stage of Santos or the declining floor in the Cake Shop basement, they bring it, plain and simple. They’ve reportedly got more new stuff in the works, so here’s looking forward.

It had already been a good night before Truckfighters took the stage. If it had been just Borracho, Blue Aside and Kings Destroy for the show, it would have more than justified the search for SoHo parking. But Truckfighters made it something different entirely. There was no irony to what they did, no cheeky self-awareness masking insecurity. They took the stage, the crowd and the whole damn place. It was theirs. No worries. They gave it back after an hour or so.

I can’t remember the last time I saw people dance at a show. Not even just rocking out — legitimately dancing. Of course, it might have helped that guitarist Niklas “Dango” Källgren only stopped jumping up and down to take the occasional stroll through the crowd. It might have been the best use of a wireless rig I’ve ever seen. As he made his way toward the back of the venue, soloing all the while, the fuzz in his tone was epic, and the set played out like the stoner rock ideal. You could have filmed it and used it as a promo video, people were so excited.

It was kind of odd timing for Truckfighters to come to the States, since their last album, Mania, was released in 2009, but if this is just how the timing worked out and this was when they could all do it, fine. They killed. They managed to keep their intensity up for nearly the entire set, and it was easy to understand what prompted Josh Homme to say they’re the greatest band he’s ever seen, since they showed much of the same fluidity in their songs as does the Queens of the Stone Age guitarist/vocalist when playing live.

That is, though the songs had their given structures, there was an element of freedom in the trio’s handling of them. Bassist/vocalist Oskar “Ozo” Cedermalm had his parts to sing and obviously he, Dango and drummer Oscar “Pezo” Johansson weren’t getting up there and improvising for an hour, but each stop was held out longer for crowd interplay, and where most bands set a clear divide between themselves and their audience — “I’m here and you’re there” — Truckfighters engaged completely. You wanted to be a part of it, to go along with it, and they wanted to bring you. And in the case of Dango and someone’s girlfriend in the audience, they also wanted to make out a little bit toward the end of the set.

They had fun. It seems like such an easy thing, but it wasn’t about mocking something, or being rockstar assholes, or performing in some theatrical sense. They delivered a slew of material and closed with “Desert Cruiser” from 2005′s Gravity X debut, and they sounded like desert rock kings doing it. It was dangerous, out of control and completely fucking awesome. Motion was constant. For the second time in a week, I feel like everything I have to say about a show is hyperbole, but it’s absolutely true. Truckfighters paid off in full every bit of the anticipation I’d had to see them, and I have no idea when I’ll see a rock show that’s that good again.

I was handed a tray of drinks as their set wound down from the bar next to which I was standing, and I placed them on the stage next to Dango, like an offering. Of course, they got off stage preceding an encore and in that time some spoiled yuppie scumbag girls stoke their beers, but the sentiment of appreciation was there, anyway. The room cleared out on the quick after that encore, and I too was splittsville, not imagining any way the evening could possibly get better.

Who knows when they’ll have another album out, and who knows when and if they’ll ever come back. While they played, none of it mattered. All there was was fuzz and glory.

More pics after the jump.

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This July 4, I decided to honor one of the most vibrant and enduring American scenes, namely that of New England. As the fireworks begin to sound, the vision begins to blur and the “USA! USA!” chants commence, I can’t think of any better way to celebrate Independence Day than sitting around listening to bands from Boston and the surrounding region. So that’s pretty much what I did.

It’s an area whose hardcore/punk rock anger grew up well, and you can still hear the deep-seated aggression in the riffs of Roadsaw and the ’70s-loving rockers of their ilk. There’s a lot of that kind of stuff in this playlist, I guess because that’s mostly what I think of when I think of the New England scene — straightforward, unpretentious heavy rock. But that’s by no means the beginning and the end of it.

What I discovered as I picked out acts to include was that there’s a vast array of styles and sounds that have come out of the Northeast over the last couple decades. Being south of it myself, the most I can say I’ve had is a tertiary experience — that is, I didn’t grow up in this scene — and though I by no means consider this audiObelisk Transmission a complete document of it, I think it’s made for a pretty good mix.

You get the ultra-hateful sludge of Grief, the organ-infused country rock of Antler, Phantom Glue‘s thrashing rhythms, the crushing despair of Warhorse and the avant weirdness of The Body. Save for Vermont, every state in New England is represented — Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine — and as a Yankee fan, I’d like it to be known that the title “Such Sawks, Such Sounds” is meant with the utmost respect and reverence for the Boston Red Sox. My alternate name for it was “The Green Monstah,” but I liked this better.

Everything but The Body was culled from a direct physical source — i.e. my rips — and the total winds up at 33 tracks, 3:21:44 runtime. If you’ve been curious what Blackwolfgoat sounds like, I put the track “Fear of Stars” in there, which is one of my favorites from Dronolith, and there’s recent selections as well from the aforementioned Roadsaw, as well as Black Thai, Curse the Son and Olde Growth.

Listening back to it, I dig the overall flow and I hope you do too. To listen, click play above, and to get the file, click the header image, click here, or follow the link in the sidebar. Complete playlist is after the jump.

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Boston space doomers Blue Aside have sent over a massive update for their upcoming tour (featuring shows with Truckfighters and a ton of other quality bands, among them Blackwolfgoat, Kings Destroy, Clamfight and Rukut) and their next album, which will reportedly be titled The Moles of a Dying Race and will be mixed in August and released sometime thereafter. There’s a whole lot of news in the press release, so be ready:

Blue Aside will be touring the Northeast and Midwest in July to support the release of their The Orange Tree 12” off Hydro-Phonic Records. The tour will consist of 12 dates in which they will be sharing the stage with Truckfighters, Kings Destroy, Black Pyramid, Mountain Goat, Dr. Device, From the Embrace, Clamfight, Ironweed, Blackwolfgoat, Super Killer Robots, Van Walton, Mockingbird and many other great bands!

07/14 Ralph’s Diner Worcester, MA w/Truckfighters, Black Pyramid & Mockingbird
07/15 The Cake Shop New York, NY w/Truckfighters, Kings Destroy & Borracho
07/16 J.R.’s Philadelphia, PA w/ Clamfight, Bitchslicer, Thunderbird Divine (ex-Wizard Eye) & Rukut
07/17 Mojo 13 Wilmington, DE
07/18 The Tudor Lounge Buffalo, NY w/Super Killer Robots & Escape Tower
07/19 TBA Pittsburgh, PA w/ Steve, Surrounded by Mouse & The Walking Ghost
07/20 The Mochbee Cincinatti, OH w/ From the Embrace, Below
07/21 TBA
07/22 Mulligan’s Pub Grande Rapids, MI w/ Mountain Goat & BerT
07/23 Mac’s Lansing, MI w/ Mountain Goat, Dr. Device & BerT
07/24 Now That’s Class Cleveland, OH w/ Beyond the Gates & Dr. Device
07/28 O’Brien’s Pub Allston, MA w/ Ironweed & Blackwolfgoat

In other news, Blue Aside has finished tracking their upcoming full-length album, The Moles of a Dying Race, the second part of the trilogy which was introduced with their debut release The Orange Tree. Running at 63 minutes, this album features seven new songs and their own unique arrangement of Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive.”

The drums were recorded at Black Coffee Sound (Black Pyramid, Elder) in October 2010. The next few months were carefully spent tracking the guitar, bass, sythns and vocals at the band’s studio. Once again, Blue Aside utilized the Phil Spector/Brian Wilson wall of sound technique when layering the instruments, thus creating a massive and psychedelic soundscape for this record. They plan to have Glenn Smith (RawRadarWar, Blackwolfgoat) mix starting the first week of August.

Blue Aside, The Moles of a Dying Race
1. The Moles of a Dying Race – Part 1: Without a Home
2. The Electrode Man
3. Will We Remain Tomorrow?
4. The Moles of a Dying Race – Part 2: No Way Out but Fear
5. The Ice Mammoth
6. We Move to Sleep, Lost in Hollow Parks
7. The Moles of a Dying Race – Part 3: The Blue Sunshine
8. Interstellar Overdrive (Pink Floyd)

Originally a 2010 self-release, the self-titled debut from Boston bass/drum duo Olde Growth is given a second look thanks to MeteorCity. The 46-minute offering plays to a wide host of riffy influences, and the duo do well in carving out an identity for themselves among the melee of energetic songs. Of the seven tracks on Olde Growth, only the feedback interlude “Red Dwarf” is under five minutes long, but the cuts nonetheless move quickly one to the next, and no matter what tempo they’re working in – thrashingly fast, drearily slow or somewhere in between – Olde Growth pull off an immediacy in the music that might be their greatest asset. Parts abound in the songs, and there are both chorus-based and more linearly-structured passages (the third track is a three-parter), but as complex as bassist/vocalist Stephen Loverme and drummer Ryan Berry get, they don’t lose sight of either the thickness of tone or the subtle melodicism that finds its way into sections of Olde Growth, and that works much to the album’s benefit.

Being a duo with bass and drums and playing this genre, one would be remiss to not cite Om as an influence – conceptually if not musically. If that reference shows up anywhere, it’s in the late-album instrumental, “Everything Dies,” or the contemplative, subdued beginning of 10-minute closer “Awake.” The bulk of Olde Growth owes more to the likes of Sleep and High on Fire (if you want to stay in the same family tree of bands), with some more bombastic tertiary-feeling desert influence and a dose of Acid King’s expansive doom in the clean-sung sections of “Sequoia.” Loverme, in addition to writing inventive riffs on which the songs are based, has a good sense for varying his vocal approach. Screams, shouts and melody are all well placed over the music, starting immediately with a rhythmic/melodic interplay on opener “The Grand Illusion” that provides Olde Growth’s most memorable chorus. Lyrically centered around the occasional bit of epic stoner nature worship (see “Sequoia”), with “Cry of the Nazgul/The Second Darkness/To the Black Gate” being – appropriately enough – a trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Olde Growth prove consistent mostly in terms of the quality of their material and the heaviness of atmosphere they affect. Everything else on these tracks feels like it could change at a moment’s notice.

In such cases, it’s often easy for a band to come across as overly angular, but Loverme and Berry avoid this with the injection of stoner groove like that which shows up in the break of “The Grand Illusion” or for the bulk of the sludge-laden “Life in the Present.” They’re not technically focused by any stretch, but the duo does work well together and that’s essential to the album’s success. Early into “Cry of the Nazgul,” Berry’s drums seem to cut through the mix more than is warranted, which, honestly, I don’t know how you avoid when Loverme is on the low end of the low-end and there’s nothing else to fill out the sound, but the abrasion doesn’t necessarily feel like it’s anything more than Olde Growth wanted it to be, and “The Second Darkness” is faster and more melodically aware, setting up one of the full-length’s arguable apexes in “To the Black Gate,” where Loverme layers his vocals over a frantic riff/crash combination. If not for what was still to come on “Sequoia” and “Awake,” it would probably be the most satisfying moment on the album.

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Upon sampling their self-titled debut, I thought Boston‘s massively-toned Olde Growth were good enough to justify hanging out in a Jersey basement with a bunch of 20 year olds to see. That’s pretty damn good, as far as I’m concerned. The bass/drums duo have announced they’ll reissue said self-titled through MeteorCity on April 26, and good for them. They made a killer record and the more people who hear it, the better.

The PR wire has info and the scoop from bassist/vocalist Stephen LoVerme:

Heavy Boston, Massachusetts, duo Olde Growth will release its eponymously-titled debut Olde Growth on April 26 via MeteorCity. Recorded by AJ Peters at Black Box Studio (Batillus, Disappearer), the album features seven tracks of powerhouse doom metal “inspired by noise, nature, sound and space.” The group features Stephen LoVerme (bass / vocals) and Ryan Berry (drums), but the sound it delivers is thick enough to make you think they have an army behind them pummeling away.

“We wanted the album to have a raw, immediate quality to it, the kind you get from playing live in the same room together. So that’s exactly what we did,” commented LoVerme. “I think we struck a pretty good balance between raw and polished; the sound is thick, warm and organic, and a listen all the way through will take you on a winding journey through some unexpected places. For our debut record we couldn’t be happier!”

Olde Growth tracklisting:
1. The Grand Illusion (6:47)
2. Life in the Present (5:12)
3. Cry of the Nazgul / The Second Darkness / To the Black Gate (9:55)
4. Sequoia (6:41)
5. Red Dwarf (1:05)
6. Everything Dies (5:45)
7. Awake (10:38)

Olde Growth will celebrate the album’s impending arrival with a record release party and live performance on April 7 at the Church of Boston (69 Kilmarnock Street, Boston, MA). Also appearing at the special show will be the band’s new labelmates Black Pyramid.

I haven’t been to SXSW in a couple years, but if I was to get on a plane at this point and go, it would be almost exclusively for the Small Stone Records showcase. I witnessed it personally from 2004-2007 and some of my best show memories ever are of heading down to Austin, drinking Shiner Bock and having my ears blown out by the likes of Sasquatch, Acid King, Suplecs and hometown heroes Dixie Witch.

Ever since the label added the day party, it’s been twice as much debauchery, and as I sit in still-cold New Jersey, I can’t help but think of the sun (and barbecue) in Texas and be a little sad I’m missing out. Especially since Small Stone has put together such a killer lineup this year, with the likes of Lo-Pan and The Might Could making their debut appearances.

In honor of the 2011 Small Stone SXSW showcase, the label has graciously given me permission to host a complete-album stream of the band who’s driving the furthest to get to the festival: Roadsaw, from Boston. Their self-titled full-length was released earlier this year (review here), and is precisely the kind of rock best suited to downing too many beers and hating the music industry. Believe me, I’d know.

It’s an honor and a pleasure to present Roadsaw, by Roadsaw. Hope you dig it:

And in case you haven’t seen them yet, here are the awesome posters for the separate day and night parties, designed by recent-interviewee Brian Mercer:

For the better part of 18 years (there was a lengthy break in there), Boston outfit Roadsaw have produced some of the most definitively American heavy rock the world has ever heard. Their songs are like cars with unrepentantly inefficient engines: loaded with swagger and volume and ready to run your ass over if you get in their way. The latest installment in their discography is Roadsaw, on Small Stone, and it’s an album that’s probably going to surprise some longtime listeners of the band with its maturity. Figuratively and literally, the days of scumbag rock that permeated albums like 1995’s 1,000,000 and 1997’s Nationwide are long gone. There are traces of that kind of thing on Roadsaw’s Roadsaw, but the band, who took a seven year break between their 2001 Rawk ‘n’ Roll and 2008 See You in Hell releases (they also put out the Takin’ out the Trash compilation in 2007), are different people in 2011 than they were then. Founding members Tim Catz (bass) and Craig Riggs (vocals), along with guitarist Ian Ross and drummer Jeremy Hemond (also of Cortez and Black Thai) now present a smooth and intricately-constructed 11-track collection of songs, viciously catchy and tighter than your emo cousin’s pants.

Opener “Dead and Buried” features just one of Roadsaw’s several landmark choruses. I liked See You in Hell well enough, but to be fair, the bulk of my excitement about it was just that there was a new Roadsaw album. With the self-titled, it’s all about the songwriting. Ross’ riffing is prime, and Catz and Hemond prove absolutely lethal when it comes to setting the pace and grounding the tracks, the latter with the kind of taut snare sound that has become one of the trademarks of a Benny Grotto/Mad Oak engineering job (Sean Slade was also brought in to produce), but if any single member of Roadsaw is giving a standout performance on these songs, it has to be Riggs. His vocals maintain the gruff, throaty Southern feel of some of the band’s earlier work, but across “Thinking of Me,” “Long in the Tooth” and late-arriving barn-burner “Too Much is Not Enough,” Riggs counterweighs the rougher approach with several seriously accomplished melodies. “Song X” (you’ll never guess where it appears on the tracklisting) is a heavy pop number that pulls off precisely what the last Fireball Ministry album couldn’t, blending radio-ready accessibility with an underlying heaviness and not sacrificing one in service to the other.

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The place was unmarked from outside by everything but the hip-looking kids loitering in front of the restaurant next door. I’d never before been to The Meatlocker in Montclair, but I went to see Olde Growth (down from their home in Boston) and a couple other acts, arriving half an hour late for a 9PM start and finding I was still about two hours too early. They were just gonna wait for some more people to show up. I went to the bar by the train station. See you later.

A round of Smithwicks later, Brooklyn post-whathaveyou kids Yorba Linda started the show off. The Meatlocker, for all its “I’m a fire hazard basement” atmosphere, was actually run pretty efficiently. The dudes from Dutchguts, who I’d seen a couple weeks ago at Lit Lounge for a Precious Metal show with Rukut that I meant to review but never did (it was the week of Xmas), seemed to be involved with running the show, and they had it going festival style: one band plays on one stage while another sets up on another. By the time I got back from the bar, Yorba Linda was maybe halfway through their set, and the tiny room in which they played was so packed I could barely poke my head in. It’s okay, I could hear fine from the hall.

It is a basement. Graffiti on the walls, space heaters, cement. Kids by the dozens and me standing there wondering where all the sludge-heads came from and where the hell they were six years ago. As the more bearded of my two show-going compatriots accurately pointed out: Grade school. Six years ago, they were in grade school.

Even before I heard the Saint Vitus song that so concisely put it into words, I’ve always thought of myself as being born too late. In 1981. And I don’t say that so if you’re older than me you can say, “If you were born too late, what am I?” like it’s some fucking contest. I only mention it because the peculiar timing means I’m too young by a few years to be prime Generation X and I’m too old by a few years to be whatever the hell these kids are now. Music-wise, I skew older, but I’ll admit to being not a little jealous of the scene at The Meatlocker. I never had that. Even when I was younger and really into metal, I couldn’t go to a place in my town and see three or four local bands play. And now I’m right on the border of being the creepy older guy at the basement show. I missed my shot at that. I’m back and forth on the regret level.

I’d bought a disc from Olde Growth before leaving to go to the bar, in case I didn’t make it back, but there was one more band between Yorba Linda and their set. In the bigger of the two active rooms (it looked like the venue could have gotten a third going if they’d wanted), local-types The Sun the Moon the Stars lit up a Relapse-style new-school Southern metal pit the likes of which I’d not seen in a long time. Standing there and watching, I realized that four years ago these were all probably scenester post-hardcore kids. They kept the skinny jeans and started doping Dixie Witch riffs at double-speed, but it was energetic, and it was good, and the crowd loved it. I alternated between nodding, like I do, and shaking my head at the moshing heathens, also like I do.

Once they were set up back in the small room, Olde Growth got a couple songs off from their stunning self-titled disc soon to be reissued on MeteorCity before the bass amp blew out. When you’re a bass and drums duo, you kind of need that, so a break was taken while they got it operational. It took a minute or two, but they did, and you knew it was real doom because no one could mosh to it. A couple kids tried, but it was too slow, too thick. I like that.

It was made apparent when the bass went the second time that it was going to be a theme for the evening. I felt bad for the band, and doubly so since apparently Dutchguts — who were the night’s big draw, apparently — decided to start their own set in the big room right then. I don’t know whether they thought Olde Growth were finished or what, but by the time Olde Growth got to the point where they could play their last song, there were six people watching and I’d brought two of them with me. The other three, to their credit, were Yorba Linda. A skinny weirdo kid with a bad moustache popped in every now and again to do homoerotic spazz-freakouts dangerously close to the band. He’ll probably grow up to be a CEO.

While their equipment was working, Olde Growth were refreshingly good. A formidable rhythm section playing grooving doom is never unwelcome as far as I’m concerned, even if that’s all there is in the band. Drummer Ryan Berry hit hard and refused to end the set after the second time Stephen Loverme‘s bass blew, which was admirable, and Loverme in turn delivered in tonal weight on the three-part closing act, “Cry of the Nazgul.” I didn’t at all feel like a guitar was missing or would have added anything to their sound that Olde Growth wasn’t already delivering, and I hope it’s not the last time I see them play.

I caught about two minutes of Dutchguts‘ abrasively-stoned sludge assault on my way out the door and left off to the shortest ride back to the valley I’ve had from a show in recent memory. It’s unlikely I’ll be a regular at The Meatlocker, but for the purpose I needed it to serve, it was just right. Some shows call for a grimy basement, and I’m glad to know a place like this is out there, fostering a scene of which I’ll never be a part.