But the announcement yesterday that this lineup of C.O.C. will headline Sunday night, April 8, at the London Desertfest is just the latest endorsement it has earned. Dean, Weatherman and Mullin toured twice in 2011 with Clutch, including their New Year’s tour last month, and played the 2011 Maryland DeathFest and Roadburn festivals (among others), supporting the single Your Tomorrow on Southern Lord. The track “Your Tomorrow” would wind up as one of the strongest on the album Corrosion of Conformity as well, but the record does an excellent job meeting and surpassing any aesthetic expectations that could be put on it.

Because, hey, let’s face it, if you’ve got a trio lineup of C.O.C., they’ve got a lot to live up to. Animosity is a crossover classic, and coupled with everything the band was able to accomplish after Keenan joined, then Corrosion of Conformity needs to cover a lot of ground to be a success. The album’s greatest attribute, however, is that it seems to ignore all of that in favor of just rocking out on some killer songs. As a result, cuts like “Rat City” and “Leeches” and “What We Become” hone in on the band’s hardcore past without seeming like a put-on while “Psychic Vampire,” “The Moneychangers” and “Come Not Here” bring in elements of the riffy Sabbathian groove that was always present in their sound, however prevalent it may or may not have been.

If you’re interested, the full album review is here. Just prior to their heading out with Clutch to put 2011 to bed, Dean and I spoke about what brought C.O.C. back together in this form and how it was composing the new album without Keenan, recording it with longtime producer John Custer, his own process for composing lyrics, and much more. Like the music on the self-titled, he was honest and straightforward in his responses, as you can see in the interview that follows here.

–Special thanks to Candlelight Records for letting me give away THREE copies of the new C.O.C. album on vinyl! Enter to win by sending your name and address below. Contest runs until Jan. 20!

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

Complete Q&A is after the jump. Please enjoy.

Take me back to what got you guys jamming. What put the idea in your head to really pick up C.O.C. again?

Well, I mean, we didn’t really put it down, in theory, but it’s just in practice, we were waiting around to work with Pepper, because we’d done some good stuff with him and we were looking forward to the opportunity to get him and Reed back together and do some stuff. He was pretty occupied with Down, but what put the idea in our head was him actually saying, “Let’s go play some festivals. We could do well.” And then it turned out he couldn’t do it, so we just suggested in jest that we should do it as a three-piece (laughs). I kind of blurted it out and nobody was laughing, so it was like, well, maybe we should pursue this. Then, once we got into that process, it seemed a little lame to be going out there to play the nostalgia circuit. Obviously, as a three-piece, our last record was quite a while back, so we’d be learning an Animosity set that people wanted to hear, but at the same time, we didn’t want to play the nostalgia circuit, so it was kind of a condition of mine that we would get some new material together, and while we were dusting it off, do a recording, so it wouldn’t be just exploitation of past deeds.

And that was the Your Tomorrow 7”.

Yeah. That was pretty much what we could get together to have a little something to sell on tour and to have something to take to the media or whatever. We kind of immediately had four new songs in our set. Four brand new songs.

When did Reed come back into the picture?

About three years ago, I started jamming with him in a band called Righteous Fool. We still do that, we just recorded an album. So we got him to break out the drums and get back with playing a little bit on that. Once I saw that he was really running on all cylinders, we talked about the C.O.C. thing. It just kind of worked out.

Can you talk about the change in dynamic between C.O.C. working as a three-piece as opposed to having Pepper involved while you’re writing?

Everybody has a lot of ideas to contribute, and the more participants involved, the less direct individual contributions everybody’s gonna make in the realm of songwriting. Take one person out of the equation, and it’s that much more everybody has to contribute and gets to contribute. That’s interesting. That’s a good thing. I thought we all rose to the occasion. Another thing is, we were doing it with this format a really long time ago, when we were literally still in high school, so it was kind of like reverting to something that we hadn’t done for a while, but it was very natural to us and kind of reminded us (laughs) of old times. In a good way.

Yeah, I saw those old pictures on Facebook. You look like you’re about 12.

I think Reed was 15 when he got that drum set. He’s still got the same Tama drum set. It’s ridiculous how old it is. He really ought to think about putting it in cases, because it’s probably worth something just based on its antique status.

Were you surprised at all at the reaction you got initially to coming back as a trio live?

Nah. There’s so many different incarnations of C.O.C. and the various incarnations have covered a lot of stylistic ground along the way. People will become alienated with some new thing that we do, and they’ll pine for whatever came before, so there are a lot of people that were anxious to hear the hardcore thing, or the hardcore-punk-metal-crossover-type of thing or whatever. We were getting a lot of requests to do that, and people spouting off about how that was better or they wanted to hear that. So I think we expected a good reaction. We expected there to be interest. It was about what we expected.

On the album, you kind of cover all the bases, sound-wise.

Yeah. It’s not just a crossover nostalgia record at all.

Were you conscious of that as you were putting the songs together? Did you have the shape of the album in mind?

I think once we had a few songs written, then we could be a little more calculating. We started off with some real natural exploration of ideas and just moving quickly to write some lyrics and craft a couple songs. Once we saw where it was going, then maybe it was a little but more calculated, like, okay, we want to show the scope of what we can do with this lineup and not have it just be pigeonholed to be going backwards to old times, even though we wanted to demonstrate that we could still play fast.

Given all the years since, has your opinion changed at all about the Animosity-era material? Do you feel differently about those songs now than you did then?

I felt pretty good about them. I think I feel about the same way. I think that’s one of our strongest recordings, and as far as from a performance standpoint and an idea standpoint. I think it holds up pretty well. It was fairly unique among that kind of music.

What do you think has let the album endure? It seems like there’s always the C.O.C. debate. Everyone has their favorite record that they’re going to champion.

Oh yeah. It was a good balance of young energy kind of getting to the point where there was just enough experience involved that there was agile performances, capable performances. Still maintains some of the amateurish energy, but there’s capable performances as we were, in our own way, becoming pretty good at the instruments. There just happened to be some good performances captured.

Was there ever any doubt you’d be recording with John Custer again for this record?

Perhaps. We knew he’d be into it. We were considering possibly doing it all ourselves, but ultimately I thought that he could really add some ideas and add some perspective to it. A little bit of depth. He kind of likes to sit back a little bit and let the band be the band a little more than he probably did with Blind or he did with Deliverance, certainly. He’s pretty much just trying to enable us. He’s not trying to mastermind, really, anything. I enjoyed working with him this time. It was kind of John Custer and C.O.C., really, that produced it. It was a good collaboration. He was remarking that we were kind of working like one organism, and I thought that was apt. But I think for a moment there we were thinking about trying to just entirely produce it ourselves, and I don’t know how that would’ve turned out. At this point, I’m glad we did it the way we did it.

One thing I’ve noticed in listening is a balance between a raw, natural sound, and still being clear and full. Did you know you wanted that kind of natural vibe?

We wanted something organic. We wanted a pretty organic performance. We weren’t looking to record something that was put on a grid with real prominent drum samples that sounded like a machine, although there’s some music like that I might enjoy. We wanted honest performance, and something that invoked a real live but also powerful rock band-type of thing. I’m still digesting how it turned out. We mixed it pretty quickly and I know I’m happy with it, but I don’t really have that much perspective on it yet. I’m very happy with the results… I’m just not sure what’s making me happy (laughs). I can hear everything. The idea was to have something a little bit vibe-y, a little bit real, but still presentable.

Tell me about the song “Leeches” and when that came along in the writing.

That’s something that Reed stood out on. That’s his vocal, that’s his lyric. He kept belittling it and describing it as, “I guess I have this punk rock song.” Listen to that opening progression, it’s kind of like early Black Flag or something, but it has a couple real melodic parts to it; real almost anthemic-sounding chorus that has a little bit of depth beyond the type of song that it is. He showed that to us, and we assimilated it kind of quickly, and we worked pretty fast on that. That has kind of a throwback vibe to it, but there’s some melody there. The lyrics seem a little bit cut and paste hardcore, but in a good way.

I think it sums up some of what’s going on with the record, because it’s familiar for anyone who’s heard the trio C.O.C., but it’s not really a throwback.

A lot we were thinking of when we first began the songwriting process is that we weren’t necessarily going to do Animosity again. We were going to look at the things that were influencing us at the time of recording Animosity, some things that came before us, and some of our young contemporaries at that point. So we were looking at Bad Brains, Black Flag, and even early Slayer, Metallica, Mercyful Fate and stuff like that. I think a song like that is almost more indicative of some other hardcore of the era than a C.O.C. song, per se (laughs).

How does the writing break down? That’s Reed’s song. I’m not going to ask you to go track-by-track, but how did things shake out this time around writing-wise?

A lot of things happen. Sometimes people will come in with what they think of as a complete idea, and they present it to the band, and sometimes, that’s the arrangement and that’s the idea. Other times, on bass, people will bring a song in, and I’m kind of big on throwing a wrinkle into a bridge or turning it around and making it resolve somewhere different or something like that. That’s the sort of thing we started to think about when we were working with Custer, and also working with Pepper. He has a good ear for those finishing touches on a song like that. I kind of jumped on board that bandwagon. I’ll have a lot of those if someone brings a piece in. But a lot of times, someone brings in a complete song. Four or five of them were real collaborative. Me and Woody trading riffs and saying, “Okay, well, now we need a bridge, now we need to do this.” A lot of times then we would come up with a completely instrumental collaborative piece and then coming up with the vocals was kind of a dirty job, but someone had to do it. Usually falls to me, so I’ll be coming up with a vocal melody and lyrics for somebody else’s initial musical ideas. That’s kind of a challenge. It’s kind of fun. It’s almost more fun to come up with the vocal part for someone else’s musical idea than your own. But this time I had a lot of complete songs of my own. Four or five, six of them. Pretty collaborative, though. The song “Come Not Here,” that’s 90 percent Reed’s music and his concept for a song, but we collaborated a lot. He had a real strong vocal melody that he would hum all the time and try to get us to harmonize on. I think we collaborated on the actual lyrics themselves at the last possible minute we could’ve been working on them and still had the song on the album. Like a month ago or something (laughs). That was real collaborative. I think the middle part was probably Woody’s idea, and we thought that we would get Custer to help us with some insane overdubbing ideas to make the middle part sound like Wings. Make it sound like “Live and Let Die” (laughs). Without hiring an orchestra or resorting to keyboards. It had to be a guitar-based thing we could never do live. If you’re making an album, you want the lion’s share of the stuff to be things that you can pull off live, and I think we really stuck to that. A minimum of overdubs, or overdubs that reinforce the basic thing that you wouldn’t miss live. But there’s a couple exceptions and that would be the most notable, the middle of that song. That and “Rat City” would be the most collaborative stuff, where we really just traded off ideas, and be like, “Here, you think of a part.” So there’s a couple different approaches and all levels of collaboration there, from the megalomaniac to the completely consensus-based.

What’s your process of writing lyrics?

I’ll tell you what, sometimes I start off with an idea and I just try to channel whatever comes into my head on that matter and step away and look at it. Sometimes it starts to take on an alternate meaning, and if it seems too direct or on the nose, I try to go back and be a little more vague so that there’s the possibility for people to have other interpretations. That way, when you have it all written and said and done, people will mention their really involved interpretations of it and make you sound like a genius. Then you’re just like, “Yes. Yes.” You just adopt their mythology for it, so the next time I’m giving a – you got an early interview here, so I don’t really have much to say – but in about six weeks, I’ll have all these really elaborate explanations for the songs that, by virtue of being vague, I get from people who come to me and tell me what it’s about and I’m like, “Oh yeah, yeah. That’s what I was thinking.” But really, I just try to leave it a little bit up to interpretation. I think that makes the songs a little more enduring. Some of the stuff is pretty on the nose, and I’ll have a concept that’s set in stone, but it’s a little inexact, and if I’m not just channeling what I’m hearing directly, I find it hard to work deliberately and literally in a straight line. It’s one of those things that just has to happen. I’m not that good a writer. I’m just a receiver of randomness, and I try to assemble it in a meaningful and entertaining way.

You’re doing the New Year’s tour with Clutch.

Yeah, it’s genius. We’re driving due north to do Portland, Maine, and then we’re gonna do sunny Syracuse at the end of December. Great idea (laughs). Whose fucking idea was that? Last year, Righteous Fool opened for them. The same run last year, and we were in Cleveland, and we got to Asheville, North Carolina, on New Year’s Eve, and that was pretty cool. This year it’s C.O.C. and New Year’s Eve in Philadelphia.

You guys toured with them earlier this year too. I was in Flint, Michigan, and you had dropped off the bill last minute. What happened there?

Drummer fell out and had a seizure in Pittsburgh, and we were kind of concerned about him. He bounced back and we were back out there about the time they hit Columbia, Missouri. We were kind of not very excited about Flint, because that’s always a good show for us, and a very good show for Clutch. That kind of sucked.

Any other solid touring plans for 2012 yet?

Oh yeah, starting in March, we’re gonna do a bunch of US dates [NOTE: Those dates have since been announced]. Still finalizing who we’re playing with. But we’re gonna do a little brief headlining tour of the US and we have some plans to go to Chile and we definitely have some festivals in Europe in the summer, and that’ll be interesting to see if they still have Euros to pay us or not. I’m sure it’ll be fine (laughs).

Corrosion of Conformity’s website

Candlelight Records

This in itself makes C.O.C.’s latest a landmark, but moreover, it’s the defiance of expectation that really sets Corrosion of Conformity apart. One might look at the fact that they chose to make it a self-titled as a kind of statement that this lineup is somehow definitive, maybe a subtle “fuck you” to Keenan, but I don’t think that’s the case. Rather, naming the record after the band feels appropriate for these songs because what these songs do is essentially distill 30 years of natural and genre-transcending progression into a cohesive set of 11 tracks that play out over 43 minutes. In every move they are C.O.C., and that seems to be more the basis of choosing the title rather than showing anyone up. I acknowledge that’s speculation and opinion on my part as a listener and a fan of the band, but I’d gladly offer the forward-looking development of these tracks as supporting argument. Dean, Weatherman and Mullin could easily have slopped together 35-40 minutes of crossover punk, called it Animosity 2 and ridden the coattails of their past glories to reunion-act glory, but they didn’t do that. Instead, with Corrosion of Conformity, they take the band’s past scope and form something cohesive and – most of all – new from it. Whatever else you take away from this review, take that. C.O.C. are not rehashing what they’ve done before. As much as these songs may be carved from a lineup dynamic that existed 27 years ago, the ensuing time has meant that the players are different people than they once were, and the album shows that right from the beginning of opener “Psychic Vampire.”

In a way, the first 40 seconds of Corrosion of Conformity tell the whole story, and even more so when one considers the efficiency and lack of pretense with which the album is executed front to back. It’s perhaps in that spirit that C.O.C. most capture the simplicity of their earliest days, but one can’t deny the grunt at the beginning of “Psychic Vampire” and the riff-led groove that ensues as epitomizing a side of the band, just as does the faster, more propulsive 10 seconds that follow and open into the verse groove. Without warning, Dean, Weatherman and Mullin have established much of the course of the record, which sets its dynamics through pacing changes and balances Southern heavy rock with unabashed punk-born fury. “Psychic Vampire” sets itself out among the strongest cuts on the album in doing so and is based in large part on these two opening riffs, which play out in juxtaposition as Dean takes the frontman/vocalist role for two distinct choruses that he keeps through much of the material, backed capably by Weatherman and Mullin. Where some other tracks, particularly later in the set, need time to sink in, the likes of “Psychic Vampire” and “River of Stone,” which follows, are more immediately memorable. Weatherman’s riffing, as captured by longtime C.O.C. producer John Custer’s excellent recording job, is part of that, keeping a tonal consistency with In the Arms of God while also capitalizing on the added rawness of having one six-stringer versus two.

Mullin distinguishes himself right away on “River of Stone,” which is the longest song on Corrosion of Conformity at 6:12. His double-bass drumming is consistent throughout the first part of the track, but not rushed in terms of pace. The song opens in its chorus, but is mostly head-down forward motion, playing off some of the faster crossover elements that were hinted at with “Psychic Vampire” and are brought to the fore on “Leeches” still to come. Most of the song’s extra length comes from a break at 3:20 wherein Dean’s bass, soaked in wah, leads to a solo from Weatherman that carries the song back to its verse and chorus. Again, they show tempo flexibility and establish a solid flow, and Custer makes his presence felt as a shout rises in the mix to transition back into the verse that leads to the chorus finale. Dean’s vocals surprise in their capability to carry the song, and though it’s not a shock C.O.C. would want to establish this early, he impresses throughout the album in both arrangement and occasionally deceptively melodic execution. Not, however, on “Leeches,” which is two-plus minutes of crossover rawness that goes directly to the Animosity roots. It’s the shortest song on the album, and possibly the rawest, though Weatherman rips several leads worthy of the band’s legacy, and Mullin handles the changes fluidly while the vocals trade off leads and backing shouts. “Rat City,” which arrives just before closer “Time of Trials,” works in a similar vein, but “Leeches” is more outwardly aggressive, making the interlude that comes with “El Lamento de las Cabras” feel well earned.

Its title translating from the Spanish to “The Cry of the Goat,” “El Lamento de las Cabras” might be the most reminiscent of the Pepper Keenan era as C.O.C. get here. The song is basically a Southern rock guitar break – hilarious that it’s 40 seconds longer than “Leeches” – that finds Weatherman layering acoustics and electrics to shift the mood of the record from the raw to something more emotionally complex and more deeply engaging. Four cuts in seems early for an interlude, but as the three-piece have already covered as much aesthetic ground as they have, “El Lamento de las Cabras” is ultimately well-placed, providing a moment to recover from the onslaught of “Leeches” and a sweetly-toned (all things relative) precursor to “Your Tomorrow,” which is among the most effective blends of the varying sides of C.O.C.’s sound as they present on the album. Where “Psychic Vampire” had divided the more thrashing and the more grooving riffs into separate parts, “Your Tomorrow” brings them together a cohesive and still quick-paced whole. Dean’s delivery of the chorus line, “Who stole your tomorrow?” feels like an anchor of the record’s sociopolitical themes, and though the song will obviously stand out to anyone who heard it as a single in 2010 or 2011, it remains strong in relation to the material around it and is one of Corrosion of Conformity’s best tracks, bolstering a strong middle section that continues with “The Doom.”

Pretty ballsy to call a song “The Doom” these days. Doubly so to make it the centerpiece of the record. That said, “The Doom” has a riff that’s about as quintessential as C.O.C. riffs get without being “Albatross.” The pace ratchets up after about a minute in, but the groove is maintained – one wants to send a care package of band-aids to Mullin’s snare – and shows again how much of the diversity within the sound of Corrosion of Conformity comes from the fluidity of the tempo shifts and how much the trio is able to get the most out of them stylistically. Mullin is a big part of that, and though he doesn’t have the flash of Galactic’s Stanton Moore, who played on In the Arms of God, his long-term chemistry with Dean and Weatherman makes this lineup frighteningly solid. Weatherman layers his leads over a chugging riff and the song finishes strong into the speedier “The Moneychangers,” which is more angular but still nod-worthy, particularly in its quick-turning bridge and pinch-harmonic chorus. A more subdued break leads to heavy riffing and a crisply soloed outro, but more than that, “The Moneychangers” provides a firm transition from the middle of Corrosion of Conformity into the back end of the record, keeping the substantial blend of “Your Tomorrow” in mind while also beginning to show some of the lasting effect that the album’s later cuts have on the listener. That is to say, where “Psychic Vampire” hit you over the head with its chorus and “Leeches” was blindingly intense, “The Moneychangers” doesn’t give the full scope of its quality away so quickly.

It works all the more with repeat listens, so that what might be missed the first or the first couple times through comes across that much better when the initial novelty of, “Hey, it’s a new C.O.C. record!” and the first couple tracks has worn off. Thus, Corrosion of Conformity is ultimately able to stand up both to its underground hype and the high quality standard set by the band’s past releases. “Come Not Here,” which hits after “The Moneychangers,” keeps the same unassuming ethic – a quiet start leads to a subversively memorable chorus begun with the line “Bow down or walk away,” which might as well stand in for the options the trio is offering listeners in terms of reaction to the record as a whole. It’s probably the most powerful vocal arrangement on the album as well, but also more musically atmospheric, acoustics coming back into play. It relies on its chorus, but the chorus is strong enough to carry it, and as “What We Become” revitalizes the energy level with straightforward, pretense-free riffing and lyrics taking the “company man” down a peg, it’s further demonstration of the album structure’s overall effectiveness. They brought the mood down a bit, now they’re picking it back up. “What We Become,” while also substantial and catchy in its own right, in turn serves to provide fluid transition into “Rat City,” which is over nearly as quickly as was “Leeches.”

Call and response vocals, fleet riffing and a healthy dose of lyrical ire make the two tracks almost like companion pieces, however. “Rat City” is no less rife with blue-collar disaffection, and a catchy delivery of the title line ensures a lasting effect on the listener. With vocals from Dean, Weatherman and Mullin, the song is more melodic than it at first appears, and keeps the momentum steady rolling into closer “Time of Trials.” Weatherman’s guitar is higher register for part of the verse, but the “Time of Trials” wastes no time getting to its point; the riff is introduced once, and in no time, Dean is in on vocals and the song is underway. Dean’s performance on bass for the finale is easily among his best on Corrosion of Conformity, showing personality late as he sets up Weatherman’s well-reverbed, big-sounding solo with smooth but still aggressive runs. The song and the album end with Weatherman chugging out one last riff, and as unpretentiously as it arrived, C.O.C.’s self-titled is over. Deluxe editions include two bonus tracks, “Canyon Man” and “The Same Way,” but the record proper concludes without ceremony, big rock finish or long fadeout. As much as the opening of “Psychic Vampire” set the tone for what followed, the end of “Time of Trials” sums it up: It was heavy, it rocked, and now it’s done. And while not much more needs to be said about it than that by the band, in the context of what they’ve been able to accomplish overall, it’s an understatement.

Corrosion of Conformity not only brings back one of heavy rock’s most seminal and defining bands, but it pushes that band into new ground it’s never yet known. The achievement is substantial, the performances crisp, the production clear but organic, but sure enough, these elements and the varied aesthetic of the band come together to create something wholly stronger than its parts. Dean, Weatherman and Mullin unquestionably benefitted from their time on the road prior to recording, but the core of songwriting at work is by no means something they lucked into or stumbled upon. They may have been back for a while now, but with their self-titled, C.O.C. have the document to prove that the trio lineup in 2012 is no less commanding than anything that’s come before it.

Corrosion of Conformity’s website

Candlelight Records

Here’s the announcement, plus tour dates and new album details, off the PR wire:

Relapse Records is extremely proud to announce the signing of North Carolina’s finest psychedelic stoner punks, ASG! Impossible to pigeonhole, ASG has been wheelin’ and dealin’ in kickass rock ‘n’ roll since forming in 2001. The band has previously released four albums with including their most recent, critically acclaimed effort Win Us Over in 2007. ASG has gained a reputation for their wildly energetic live shows, and has found themselves on the road with heavy-hitters Motörhead, The Sword, CKY, Fu Manchu, Torche and The Dwarves among others.

ASG plan to enter the studio in February 2012 to record their highly anticipated Relapse debut with producer Matt Hyde (Slayer, Children of Bodom, Fu Manchu). More details will be announced shortly. Additionally, the band has confirmed a string of Southern US dates in January plus a special appearance at next year’s Hellfest in France. A complete list of tour dates are included below.

ASG guitarist/vocalist Jason Shi commented on the signing: “To be part of such a well respected music label like Relapse and to be included in their roster of bands both past and present is quite an honor for us. We plan to record our first release on Relapse in the winter of 2012 with Matt Hyde and are very excited for everyone to hear it! We are amping!”

01/04 Savannah, GA The Jinx
01/05 Jacksonville, FL Brewster’s Pit
01/06 Satellite Beach, FL The Sports Page
01/07 New Smyrna, FL Beachside Tavern
01/11 Orlando, FL SIP Art Gallery
01/12 Lake Worth, FL Speakeasy Lounge
01/13 Vero, FL Filthy McNasty’s
01/14 Daytona, FL Frank’s Front Row
01/20 Wilmington, NC Soapbox (w/ Hail!Hornet, SSS)
01/21 Charlotte, NC Tremont Music Hall (w/ Hail!Hornet, SSS)
06/15 Clisson, France Hellfest 2012

Some things to note in the Weedeater clip above: First and foremost, that room looks to be about the size of my office. Second, they come out to the theme song from Sanford and Son. Third, there’s a bottle of Robitussin taped to the side of “Dixie” Dave Collins‘ amp with a straw sticking out of it that he drinks from at several intervals, including as they transition from “God Luck and Good Speed” to “Wizard Fight,” when he chases it with what I assume is whiskey.

Another reason I decided to go with Weedeater was because earlier today I did a phone interview with artist Joe Wardwell. Wardwell‘s paintings draw a lot from heavy rock and doom for inspiration and a gallery show he has going on in NYC through October is titled “Untied We Stand” — a line taken from “God Luck and Good Speed” — so the song’s been in my head. I’ll hopefully have that Q&A posted in the next week or two. In the meantime, you can check out Wardwell‘s work here. It rules and the interview was great as well. Dude loves his Boris, loves his Sabbath, loves his Melvins. Right on.

Given all that, I couldn’t possibly have chosen anything else to close out the week — not to mention Weedeater‘s earth-swallowing volume or tonal weight, which is suiting me perfectly on this tired-as-hell Friday afternoon. The reason I’m signing off early (usually I’d wait to cap another ultra-exciting couch-bound Friday night with a post, but it’s about 4PM now) is because I’m heading out in a bit to make my way down to Philadelphia, again, for the start of the Small Stone showcase, which kicks off tonight at The M-Room. I don’t want to miss Infernal Overdrive, and I think they’re opening, so I need to haul ass a bit.

Thanks to everyone for checking in this week. It was crazy on this end, between the Brooklyn show and Kyuss Lives! Wednesday night, and it isn’t over yet. I’ll be in Philly the next two nights, then back to Jersey Sunday to do school work. Next week it starts all over. I do hope to get some more album reviews posted next week, but I’ll be checking out Akris at the Cake Shop in Manhattan on Tuesday, and I hope to get my massive interview with Rwake frontman CT posted, so we’ll see what there’s time for. In the meantime, keep your ears posted for a Windhand stream that’s coming Thursday and hopefully another that I can’t quite reveal just yet in case it falls through.

Some news for The Maple Forum coming soon as well, it looks like.

So big stuff yet to come. Not sure yet how I’m going to handle posting from/about the showcase, but if you check in over the weekend, you might find some stuff on it up.

Either way, great and safe couple days. See you on the forum and back here for more shortly.

Being of the generation that once dreamed of climbing that ladder (Sam didn’t know how good he had it), I can get down with paying homage to Melissa Joan Hart, but more importantly, with a track length of 17 minutes, the song definitely gives enough time to get a sense of what Old Mountain are really about.

And what they’re about is heavy. Though “Clarissa” doesn’t use its full runtime for pummeling, they certainly pack plenty of it in there. Thunderous riffage, blown out screams, quicksanding bottom end and searing crash are all elements that’ll be familiar enough to fans of Southern sludge, but true to their name, Old Mountain show a kind of patience in “Clarissa” that’s rare for a new band. Couple that with massive tones from guitarist N. Brown and bassist/vocalist M. Reisch, set it to drummer A. Milstein‘s forceful hits, and it’s the kind of plod that gets dudes from Animal Planet thinking they’ve just found bigfoot.

I didn’t want to read Doomantia‘s writeup before posting my own, so if I’m just repeating what’s there, I apologize, but for fans of the new school of sludge — a less apocalyptic Thou comes to mind, or older Rwake — Old Mountain should be a welcome find. After about 12 minutes, “Clarissa” cuts to noisy droning and eventually gives way to a conversation about phantom limbs, inadvertently showing that the band doesn’t take themselves too seriously. Like the slowly churning riffs that came before, that too can only serve them well as they move forward.

Here’s “Clarissa” from Old Mountain‘s Bandcamp page:

And while we’re talking familiarity, The Asound should ring bells with anyone who stops by this site regularly, since they’ve been reviewed twice now (here and here). It’s seems like a curious pairing at first — a Hungarian doom outfit and American heavy rockers — but both bands make off with some righteous riffery, and The Asound even slow their tempos a bit from their past offerings and match Magma Rise for doomly stomp. Seriously, “The Baron” pretty much marches.

The split is a joint release between Tsuguri and PsycheDOOMelic, and since I have reviewed The Asound twice in the span of 13 months, I thought hosting the tracks for streaming might be time well spent for anyone who hasn’t yet checked them out. If you’ve missed Magma Rise too up till now, you’ll definitely want to hit up “Five” on the player below, as it also rules. Dig it:

The Asound/Magma Rise split is out now in a limited edition of 500 7″ vinyl. Special thanks to Tsuguri Records (website here) and PsycheDOOMelic (website here) for letting me stream the tracks.

Nonetheless, they rule — and it’s an excuse for me to use the above picture again (this time in snazzy black and white!). Here are the dates off the PR wire:

After a few months off the road, North Carolina sludge demons Weedeater have just announced another headlining North American tour for September/October, still in support of their recently-released full-length, Jason… The Dragon.

While Weedeater‘s caustic style of aggressive sludge is devastating on its own live, the trio have enlisted some help on this rampage from Saviours, Bison B.C. and Fight Amp supplying opening support for the duration the venture. Saviours will not play the Philly or Brooklyn shows, but Oxbow will be supplying direct support for Weedeater at the Brooklyn gig.

Weedeater North American Headlining Tour:

09/06 Kings Barcade Raleigh, NC
09/07 Sonar Baltimore, MD
09/08 Strange Matter Richmond, VA
09/09 North Star Bar Philadelphia, PA (no Saviours)
09/10 Europa Brooklyn, NY w/ Oxbow (no Saviours)
09/11 Middle East Downstairs Cambridge, MA
09/13 Lee’s Place Toronto, ON
09/14 Montage Music Hall Rochester, NY
09/15 Outland Live Columbus, OH
09/16 The Pyramid Scheme Grand Rapids, MI
09/17 Reggie’s Rock Club Chicago, IL
09/18 Upfront & Company Marquette, MI
09/19 Triple Rock Social Club Minneapolis, MN
09/20 Rock Island Brewing Company Rock Island, IL
09/23 Larimer Lounge Denver, CO
09/24 Burt’s Tiki Lounge Salt Lake City, UT
09/26 The Highline Seattle, WA
09/27 Rickshaw Theatre Vancouver, BC
09/28 Branx Portland, OR
09/29 The Independent San Francisco, CA
10/01 Soda Bar San Diego, CA
10/02 Key Club West Hollywood, CA
10/04 Lanchpad Albuquerque, NM
10/06 Emo’s Austin, TX
10/07 Fitzgerald’s Houston, TX
10/08 Siberia New Orleans, LA
10/09 The Earl Atlanta, GA
10/10 New Earth Music Hall Athens, GA
10/11 Engine Room Tallahassee, FL
10/12 The Orpheum Tampa, FL
10/14 The Jinx Savannah, GA

Recorded by Burke (who I guess I need to get on interviewing) in his own Sniper Studio, Disperse the Curse is a little more focused, more linear than was Hail!Hornet‘s first outing — all things relative — but it’s still dirty as hell tonally and topped off with Medlin‘s trademark throat-searing screams. It’s not all sludge, but those elements are definitely in there, and there’s no denying that when these guys kick into a groove, it’s absolutely brutal.

Relapse was kind enough to grant me permission to premiere the track “Unholy Foe” for streaming, so dig this:

Hail!Hornet‘s Disperse the Curse is out July 19, 2011, on Relapse Records, and is available for preorder through the label’s website. The cover art, which rules, is by Brian Mercer.

Weedeater‘s last album, 2007′s God Luck and Good Speed (which was also released through Southern Lord), saw the band begin to expand the reach of their ultra-fuzzed sludge, and on Jason… the Dragon, they took their sound to new places altogether, whether it was incorporating the guitar melody of “Homecoming,” or just ripping through the entire first half of the album live in the studio. From “The Great Unfurling” through the title-track, Weedeater were as raw and visceral as anyone could ever ask sludge to be, and a simple song like “Mancoon” or the plodding “Turkey Warlock” — which originally appeared on Shifty Records‘ Crushers Killers Destroyers II compilation in 2004 — hit that much harder for the energy that the band and Albini were able to capture on tape.

Front to back, Jason… the Dragon was just a really strong record — and in precisely the right way. They tweaked some little things in their approach and definitely were making an attempt to branch out musically, but Weedeater knew too what worked best about their style and kept more than enough of that to satisfy their audience, and most importantly, themselves. With each new album a band puts out, there are going to be people who favor the one before, or the one before that, but I think Jason… the Dragon more than stands up to Weedeater‘s back catalog, maybe even surpassing it in terms of killer grooves and memorable songs. Wherever it sits on your list of favorites, they nailed this one.