If it was just two new clips I’d seen in the last 24 hours, they’d probably each get their own post, but three would feel cheap spacing them out that way. Plus, this way you can watch them next to each other and pick a winner. Not a clue what the prize is, but I do know that between the three videos below, all the bases are pretty much covered. Crippled Black Phoenix‘s surprisingly politicized clip for “Laying Traps” has gasmasks, King Giant‘s “Appomattox” has zombies, and Samsara Blues Experiment‘s “Into the Black” has a sad-looking girl doing a kind of stop-motion Curly shuffle. Good fun all around. Here they are, in that order, which also happens to be alphabetical. Go figure.

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Crippled Black Phoenix, “Laying Traps”

The song is taken from the British outfit’s new album, (Mankind) The Crafty Ape, and finds the band — their faces obscured by gasmasks and bandannas — attempting the rare feat of making anthemic post-rock. I’ve never tried it, but it can’t be easy, though it seems their often mournful sound has been given a kick in the ass somewhere along the line. The spirit of protest suits them well, and there’s also a free download of “Laying Traps” here.

Watch for: The banker-looking dude with the screwdriver sticking out of his head.

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King Giant, “Appomattox”

I give much respect to Arlington, Virginia’s King Giant for making a zombie video. As prevalent as zombie’s are in today’s weirdo media culture, it seems like an easy move, but the ubiquitous nature of zombies these days actually makes it that much harder to get right, and I think the band does that here. We start out with tattooed hottie and a bloody baseball bat and a decent The Walking Dead-style chase ensues. “Appomattox” comes from King Giant‘s sophomore album, Dismal Hollow.

Watch for: The zombie in the Red Fang t-shirt.

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Samsara Blues Experiment, “Into the Black”

The German band’s second album, Revelation and Mystery (review here), pushed their sound in a surprisingly straightforward direction, moving away some from the heavy psych jamming of the first record. “Into the Black” was among the songs that most displayed this shift, though as you watch the video below, you can see the psychedelic element is nowhere near gone from Samsara Blues Experiment‘s sound. It’s just blended with a killer boogie riff.

Watch for: Orange amps, the stop-motion Curly shuffle and the big comfy chair.

I almost don’t want to say it out loud because I’m afraid an Icelandic volcano will erupt and I’ll miss their set, but as someone who lives on the other end of the country from the band, I’m stoked as hell at the prospect of finally being able to catch Ancestors live at London Desertfest next April. They’re among several in the latest batch of confirmations, which also includes German heavy psych upstarts Samsara Blues Experiment, British trio Stubb, Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight, Horisont and more.

Full info on the fest, and the Berlin Desertfest, which is also shaping up, is available at the Desertscene website. In the meantime, here’s a few updates and the poster with the latest lineup:

Atmosphericness will be washing over us in waves with Ancestors, who are now confirmed for Desertfest. The L.A. based 4 piece will be laying down there unique mixture of progressive invention and with influences of doom, stoner and psych all running through their epic tuneage, these guys are sure to blow your mind away. After receiving critical acclaim for their 2009 album Of Sound Mind and having shared a 7? split with the mighty Graveyard, last summer saw them release an EP called Invisible White. Ancestry is a hobby, Ancestors are an experience.

Desertfest are very pleased to announce German heavy psych stoners, Samsara Blues Experiment. These guys have many influences ranging from spiritual to Eastern sounds which adds to the whole Experience. Based in Berlin, the Experiment were founded in ‘07 and could have been seen on the recent “Up in Smoke Vol. III” European Tour. Samsara means “to flow together” and we are looking forward to merging with the band next year at Desertfest. Peace.

Desertfest are pleased to announce UK psych Rockers Stubb. A mutual love of Jamming gave birth to a three-piece of fuzzy psyched rock that come to be known as Stubb. They have toured Europe with the mighty Stone Axe and shared stages with bands such as Gentlemans Pistols, Firebird and more. Hopefully by the time they hit Desertfest they will be riding high on their debut album which is due for release early next year.

The second album from Samsara Blues Experiment in as many years, Revelation and Mystery (World in Sound) takes a surprising turn in approach from their Long-Distance Trip debut, distilling the jams of the first record into more structured, song-based material. The tracks of Revelation and Mystery almost exclusively follow verse-chorus-verse patterns, and while part of the joy of listening to a song like “Singata Mystic Queen” from the prior collection was meandering along with it, Samsara Blues Experiment don’t completely lose sight of the journey in favor of the straightforward. Right from its start, Revelation and Mystery sees the four-piece layering guitar effects and infusing their parts with swirls and a spaced-out feel. It’s not that they’ve completely changed their methodology so much as they’ve shifted the balance within their sound. These structural elements were certainly present on Long-Distance Trip, but a cut like the semi-acoustic “Thirsty Moon” shows that Samasara Blues Experiment are able to work within these parameters to grow their songwriting. One gets the sense in listening to opener “Flipside Apocalypse” (which follows a 17-second nameless intro track) that this process is just beginning and that the band are still finding out what they want their sound to be, but that only makes Revelation and Mystery a more immediate, direct experience; the linearity of the album unfolding gradually as the songs move from the straightforward into the more sublimely jammed.

Fast-paced rumbling from the bass of Richard Behrens in the surprisingly punkish beginning of “Flipside Apocalypse” is an immediate clue to the changes the last year have brought about in Samsara Blues Experiment. The mood is more active, less calming and chilled out than last time around, and the guitars of Hans Eiselt and Christian Peters – who also handles vocals – seem to be more concerned with riffing out than stacking layers upon layers, though there’s some of that too, even as later in the song a riff straight out of the biker rock milieu shows up and carries the song through to its end. I don’t know if it’s the result in some change in the band’s songwriting process or just how things happened to come out this time, but the change continues through “Hangin’ on the Wire,” which is genuinely hooky and thoroughly in the realm of heavy rock. A crisp production during the solo section brings to mind some of Queens of the Stone Age’s finer moments, and drummer Thomas Vedder locks in with Behrens’ own excellent fills with a few of his own. Peters, though, emerges at the head of the song. His vocals confident and effected in equal measure, he works quickly to establish the verse and chorus patterns, both worthy of sing-alongs, so that by the end, “Hangin’ on the Wire” feels like its earned its handclaps, and though “Into the Black” starts out more ethereal, with extended solo sections and a long instrumental introduction, the shuffle soon takes hold and it proves to be more boogie than nod.

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German rockers Samsara Blues Experiment impressed with last year’s Long-Distance Trip (review here), and with their demo before that, and live this year as the last band I saw at Roadburn, so it’s not really shocking that their new album, Revelation and Mystery is met with some measure of anticipation. A proven track record that’s held up live goes a long way, and with some of the turns they make sonically on the new full-length, I’m glad to have been looking forward to it.

In a way, I expected the Berlin four-piece to go farther into the improvised-sounding heavy jamming that showed up on some of Long-Distance Trip, but they didn’t, really. If anything, Revelation and Mystery is more straightforward on the whole. Cuts like “Flipside Apocalypse” and the near-burly “Into the Black” have a pointed riffy thrust to them and clear adherence to structure all the way through. The band still jams and offers journeying psychedelia on the closing title-track and the preceding interlude “Zwei Schatten im Schatten,” but even “Outside Insight Blues” is more directed than its eight-minute runtime would lead you to believe.

This makes the album an even more exciting listen. The lineup from Long-Distance Trip has returned — guitarist/vocalist Christian Peters, guitarist Hans Eiselt, bassist Richard Behrens and drummer Thomas Vedder — and their time touring with the likes of Sons of Otis and on stage at festivals like the aforementioned Roadburn and Burg Herzberg has begun to pay off in the confidence with which they approach the surprisingly sunny “Thirsty Moon” and the ultra-memorable “Hangin’ on the Wire,” which is the track I’m lucky enough to be able to premiere on the player below.

I think you’ll find it’s a fitting example of Samsara Blues Experiment‘s heavy rocking side that mixes well with their psych edge. Dig it:

Samsara Blues Experiment‘s Revelation and Mystery is due out Oct. 31 on World in Sound. More info on the release is available at the band’s website and the label’s website. Thanks to Christian Peters for letting me host the track.

1:46AM — Sunday Night/Monday Morning — Hotel Mercure, Tilburg

It’s over. I couldn’t even leave the building. I walked out of Sourvein more than three-quarters into their set, and still, it was another 15 minutes before I could actually bring myself to walk out of the 013 and head back to the hotel. I stopped along the way in Weirdo Canyon for fries, which, true to form, came buried under a heap of mayonnaise. Kind of a tradition at this point, though most of it I scooped off and sent down the sink in the bathroom here at the Mercure. Hot water on. Gross nonetheless.

Hard to know where to begin, really. When I got back to the venue, I hit up the Green Room to catch the start of The Machine, and of course it was packed. Amazing to see what a year’s done for them — although, granted, they weren’t on in the Bat Cave opposite Eyehategod like they were in 2010 — but I guess that’s part of it too. They sounded tighter, more mature, more together than they did when last I encountered them, but the material was no less vibrant and spontaneous for it. I was back and forth between them and Dead Meadow, who were on the main stage, and while they were a decent sonic complement for Sungrazer (a sort of new school European fuzz Green Room trilogy would be completed later in the evening as Samsara Blues Experiment closed out the night), they also did right in showing some of their own sonic personality, which they began to display on their recently-issued Elektrohasch debut, Drie.

Dead Meadow, on the other hand, brought out Sasquatch. Literally. There was a dude in a Sasquatch costume, and he came out during their set and stomped around the stage while they played. Clad in my Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy t-shirt, I couldn’t have felt more appropriate. I’ve never seen Dead Meadow before, so I couldn’t say whether or not this is a regular thing, but either way, brilliant. Their music, sedate, meandering, cosmic, seemed to make a good impression on the furry beast, and everyone else there to see it (myself included), and with visual accompaniment from festival organizer Walter Hoeijmakers, who handled a video mixer of various psychedelic imagery, it was “a show” despite the lack of anyone losing their minds on stage.

Other than Sasquatch, of course. He seemed to be really enjoying Dead Meadow‘s set.

I stood and waited for Black Mountain to go on, thinking I’d catch their opening couple of songs and then head in for Black Pyramid, but before they even got on stage, I realized how dumb that was, that I’d never get a spot to watch Black Pyramid, and that Black Mountain‘s set was allotted enough time that I could see them after Black Pyramid were done anyway. So, without reason to stay in the main stage area, off I went to the Green Room, which was already mostly full — although nowhere near as full as it would be by the time they started playing — and set up shop there for the duration.

With their riffs of stone and language of doom, Black Pyramid inspire devotion. They played a couple new songs — “Stormbringer” from the 8″ vinyl of the same name — and when they were finished, the crowd wouldn’t let them go. True enough, they hadn’t yet seen their time-slot to its conclusion, but I don’t think they’d have been allowed to leave even if they’d wanted to, so they fired up the amps again and treated Roadburn to a new song from their upcoming second full-length. It was rough, but guitarist Andy Beresky was trying out some new things vocally, so it should be interesting to hear what they come up with on the next album. Everyone seems to go all-out for the fest anyway, but Black Pyramid really have become an excellent live act. I stayed for their whole set and regretted not a second of it.

And sure enough, when they were done, Black Mountain was still on the main stage. They’re one of those bands I keep hearing about, people recommending them and so forth, and good people, too, but although I have a copy of their latest CD, Wilderness Heart, I can’t say I’ve ever listened to it. I remember hearing them when they put out their first record and being unimpressed. Maybe I need to give them another shot. They were elaborate melodically, and probably not my thing on the whole, but decent enough for what they were doing. They sounded clean, which, with Sourvein following, was like wiping off the mirror before crushing up six vicodin and making an evening of it.

Don’t know when it happened, but at some point T-Roy Medlin from Sourvein adopted a kind of “Dirty South” affectation in his stage mannerisms, and that was in full force when they hit the main stage. Before they even started, he urged the crowd to “get ghetto.” I’d already by then been in and back from the Green Room to see Samsara Blues Experiment, who were killer, and had Black Mountain not just played opposite Black Pyramid, I’d have a hard time coming up with a time when two more sonically incongruous bands were on simultaneously. Samsara Blues Experiment: warm, sweetly toned, jammy, laid back. Sourvein: like being punched in the face with the broken glass of the mirror from the paragraph above. They do abrasive and it’s about all they do.

If the two bands had anything in common — and it just might be the only thing — it was energy. Samsara Blues Experiment did well in not getting too lost in their material, in keeping the audience engaged, and Sourvein, complete with Dave Sherman from Earthride on bass, were personality on parade. For not the first time in the evening, I was reminded of Eyehategod doing an Afterburner set last year, but Sourvein might be even more demented. They were ridiculous in their heaviness and completely over-the-top in their stage antics, Medlin managing at one point to call European beer weak while asking for a whiskey from the stage, which aside from not being true was not exactly going to win him friends among the Dommelsch-downing audience.

But then, if he was even slightly concerned with being accessible or friendly, he probably wouldn’t be in Sourvein. They’re good at being mean, only thicker with Sherman (now bearded) on bass, and considering the last time I saw them was playing to an empty Europa club in Brooklyn, the response they got from the main stage was enjoyable to watch. After a festival with acts as diverse as Wovenhand and Wardruna, Sourvein and Samsara Blues Experiment were as fitting a finale (who likes alliteration?) as Roadburn 2011 was going to get.

I’m not exactly ready to wrap up the festival reporting yet, and I’ll allow that maybe that’s me just not wanting it to end and/or being too exhausted tonight to finish it off once and for all, but I’ll have a post to round out this series tomorrow, so keep an eye out for that. In the meantime, thanks to everyone who’s been reading and commenting. That kind of feedback means a lot and is greatly appreciated.

More tomorrow, and more pics after the jump.

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If you missed the previous announcement (I did, oddly enough), German heavy psych-outs Samsara Blues Experiment and Canadian über-stoners Sons of Otis are hitting the road together at the start of next month. By now, the former should be in — if not finished with — the recording process for their second album, which as anyone who heard their Long-Distance Trip debut knows, is good news.

In case your day wasn’t “stoner rock” enough, get a load of this:

As a general rule, I try to avoid reviewing compilations, because either the review winds up being a list of the bands involved with nothing of substance said about any of them, or it’s promo-speak pushing an album by saying, “It’s good, you should buy it.” Finally approaching the Planetfuzz Records debut release, Cowbells and Cobwebs, which culls together a whopping 28 underground purveyors of heavy and fuzzed out rock over the course of two 14-track discs, the best I’m hoping for is a combination of both the above. Needless to say, I’ve been sitting on the review for a while, and for me to go track by track and analyze each song would (1) take too long and (2) make for a review of such length that no one would ever read it, being of no use to any of the parties involved – bands, label, reader or myself. To give away the conclusion early: It’s a quality collection with a bunch of previously unheard material that those who think they can hold their breath for nearly 160 minutes (each disc is 79-plus) of fuzz without drowning in it would do well to check out.

A few familiar names pop up on the first disc, appropriately labeled Cowbells. Bands like Orthodox Fuzz, Arrowhead, Ride the Sun, Honcho, Gate 9, Sungrazer and The Grand Astoria are situated next to newcomers Mangoo (who might win the award for best band moniker on the comp), Loimann, Sons of Giants, Propane Propane, Audio Dream Sister, Moab and Spelljammer, and the highlights are just about evenly split between bands I knew going into Cowbells and Cobwebs and bands I didn’t. Sungrazer’s jammy “Zero Zero” shows there’s ample reasoning behind their having been signed to Elektrohasch, and I didn’t think much of it for its opening, but Propane Propane’s “It’s Alright” wound up one of the high points of the collection for its drum sound alone. Norwegian rockers Honcho check in with a track called  “Earth” from their 2010 self-released Battle of Wits album and the song is positively gorgeous in that post-Soundgarden Euro-stoner kind of way, while just a few tracks earlier, Ride the Sun show why their name has been ringing out so far over the last year or so with the previously-unreleased “Ride.”

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German heavy psych-outs Samsara Blues Experiment sent over notice that they’re set to begin work on their second album following this year’s hypnotic Long Distance Trip. In addition, they’ll also be at this year’s Roadburn Afterburner and they’ll be touring in March with Sons of Otis. One can only assume massive smoke-laden jams will ensue.

Here’s the news right from the band themselves:

Samsara Blues Experiment will start to record their second album in January 2011. Again there are six tracks to put on tape (okay it’s still a Mac ;-)…). Quite obviously there will be some epic stuff again. People who have met us on our last summer tour through Europe and on this year’s festivals might have an early idea of how the new songs will sound. The blues (in our name) might be given some deeper meaning this one also…

We will tour again in March 2011, this time we will support Sons of Otis on some “well-assorted” shows in Germany and Switzerland. Other gigs are being planned at this very moment and are being updated almost weekly.

Here’s a first bunch of coming shows:

14/01 GER Rostock – Café Momo
04/03 GER Dresden – Groovestation
05/03 GER Halle – Rockstation Hafenstraße *
06/03 GER Berlin – Wild at Heart *
07/03 GER Hamburg – Hafenklang *
08/03 GER Bielefeld – AJZ *
09/03 GER Stuttgart – 1210 *
10/03 SUI Geneva – L´Usine *
11/03 SUI Martigny – Les Caves du Manoir *
12/03 SUI Winterthur – Gaswerk *
09/04 GER Berlin – Burning Earth Festival w/Lonely Kamel, Stonehead and others
17/04 NED Tilburg – Roadburn Festival Afterburner
* w/ Sons of Otis

German psych rockers Samsara Blues Experiment are going to be touring Central Europe with Yawning Man, including a slot at the Stoned from the Underground fest. More info on that at the band’s MySpace, where you can also hear all of their debut full-length, Long-Distance Trip, streaming free of charge (the player is in the “Sounds Like” section — also on Lastfm.com). The above video for “For the Lost Souls” was shot on their US West Coast tour, and it looks like everyone was having a good time.

So that’s nice.

Well, it was a rough week here in the valley. Been sick for pretty much all of it, hits have been down, and I’m generally feeling bitter and out of sorts. A nice conversation with Gozu‘s Marc Gaffney was a well-needed pick-me-up this afternoon, and that interview will be up in a week or two. Beyond that, however, I’m about ready to cover my head with a pillow and move as little as possible for at least the next 24 hours.

That said, I’ll be at Eyehategod tomorrow night in Brooklyn. If you want to catch me, I’ll be the fat guy in sandals dragging around an I.V. loaded with DayQuil. Or maybe just the fat guy in sandals. Hard to tell how these things will pan out. Say hi either way and I promise I’ll do my very best not to be a prick.

If you’re reading, thanks for reading. If not, I hope whatever you’re doing instead is fun too. Enjoy the weekend.

Though I’ve already reviewed the album and interviewed the band, something about Samsara Blues Experiment‘s Long Distance Trip still seems fresh to me. Maybe it’s because the record hasn’t been released yet. Take that, timing! You may have seen this news item over on StonerRock.com, but anyone feeling bummed that I got scooped should know it was up there because I posted it. Now it’s here because I posted it. Funny how that works out.

Samsara Blues Experiment are happy to announce the official release of their first album on March 31, 2010. The aptly-titled Long Distance Trip will take you out on a wild ride through the depths of psychedoomelia. Right now World in Sound Records is pressing the album on green and black vinyls, as well as on digipak CDs.

Preorders may be sent through our webpage. Dealers may contact World in Sound directly or get the album through Roughtrade or Clearspot.

Recently SBE have been added to the magnificent band roster of Sound of Liberation Booking & Management, which leads us directly to all coming concert dates, so check this out:

05. Mar 2010: Bar en Boos with Lucid Leiden – Netherlands
06. Mar 2010: SCSI Cell with Lucid Den Haag – Netherlands
07. Mar 2010: Little Devil with Lucid Tilburg – Netherlands
18. Mar 2010: White Trash with Baby Woodrose Berlin – Germany
02. Apr 2010: Borwaerk with Lucid Netzschkau/Vogtland – Germany
03. Apr 2010: White Pig with Lucid Frankenhausen – Germany
15. Apr 2010: Roadburn Festival Tilburg - Netherlands
29. May 2010: Kulturhof with Skywise Lübbenau – Germany
18. Jun 2010: Waldbad Open Air Fraureuth – Germany
09. Jul 2010: Stoned from the Underground Erfurt - Germany
17. Jul 2010: Burg Herzberg Festival Breitenbach am Herzberg - Germany
13. Aug 2010: Yellowstock Festival Geel – Belgium

Few bands’ demos struck a chord like Samsara Blues Experiment‘s did in 2008. The lush German four-piece — leader Christan Peters (ex-Terraplane) on vocals, guitar and sundries, Hans Eiselt on guitar, Richard Behrens on bass and recording engineering, and Thomas Vedder on percussive elements — produce a rich jam-based heavy psychedelia that echoes the creative freedom that birthed it. And yet, as we see in the interview with Peters and Behrens below, the process by which the expansive songs come together is nearly as complex and multi-layered as the tracks themselves.

Samsara Blues Experiment‘s recently reviewed full-length, Long Distance Trip, is set for release this year via World in Sound Records. The album contains the two songs that made up the demo, plus an assortment of new adventures just waiting to be discovered. Thanks to Peters and Behrens for the time and clearly-evident thought (and emoticons) they put into their answers for the Q&A, which can be found immediately following the jump. Please enjoy.

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I can?t figure out why none of the myriad stoner indies out there has jumped on Berlin?s heavy psych rockers Samsara Blues Experiment. The German four-piece have recorded their first full-length, Long-Distance Trip, and sent it over for some preview-type listening, and especially coming off the heels of their two-song demo — which itself was nothing to scoff at — it?s got the kind of trance inducing stoner feel that one would think labels would be all over. Tee Pee? MeteorCity? Hell, even Elektrohasch (although that one might even be too obvious)? These guys toured the West Coast of the US on their own dime! Far worse has been signed for far less. Won?t someone give a quality band a home?

The two tracks from the demo, ?Singata Mystic Queen? and ?Double Freedom? show up here, the latter closing the album with a stunning 22-minute sprawl and the former serving as the opening movement. Samsara Blues Experiment, like Los Sounds de Krauts-era Colour Haze before them, are just beginning to explore where they can go with their jams, utilizing both heavy riffing and mellow noodling to establish a flow both within each track and one to the next. Long-Distance Trip?s greatest asset might be its ability to pull listeners in and surround them with its encompassing feel. There?s nothing pretentious in it; these dudes are just having a good time and inviting you to trip out with them.

Long solos, wah guitar, adaptable drumming and sparse, far off vocals permeate the 13-plus minutes of ?Center of the Sun,? but Samsara Blues Experiment have more on offer than extended psych jams and apex builds. Shorter instrumental tracks ?Army of Ignorance? and ?Wheel of Life? serve as a respite from the longer material, spaced throughout Long-Distance Trip as if to provide the listener some breathing room. Both also take a slightly different approach musically, ?Army of Ignorance? beginning with a doomier, darker riff and ?Wheel of Life,? by contrast, offering four and a half minutes of acoustic guitar warmth. These two pieces help establish Samsara Blues Experiment as a band whose breadth is just beginning to show itself. They never take a turn that?s out of place and there isn?t much on Long-Distance Trip that bends the genre or remakes it in its own image, but if that?s a requirement for stoner rock, there?s a lot of acts out there who need to take a second look at what they?re doing.

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Here’s a fun fact: When there’s a job or chore my mother-in-law wants done — a piece of furniture moved, something picked up at the store, the internet on her computer fixed, etc. — she will never put it in the form of a question. That is, it’s never, “Can you do this for me?” but always, “You know, you could do this,” as though the mere implication of the ability to do whatever is being (not) asked is enough persuasion to actually entice you to do it. “I could? You think so? Well, I better get that done then!” and so forth.

As such, when German heavy, sitar-infused psychedelic rockers Samsara Blues Experiment — who are touring the West Coast later this month with L.A. space campers Farflung, and on whom I’ve had my eye since first downloading their self-titled 2008 demo this past fall — checked in via the MySpace by informing me that I, “could review our 2008 promo/release would be very much appreciated,” well, I just couldn’t resist. They’re right, I can review it.

And so, I therefore must.

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