What a coincidence that Ancestors‘ new album, In Dreams and Time will be out just around when the band heads to Europe for appearances at Desertfest and Roadburn. Man, if I didn’t know better, I’d swear these things were planned out ahead of time. In any case, I’m very much looking forward to hearing how Ancestors follow-up last year’s excellent Invisible White EP (review here), the stylistic divergence of which was both unexpected and gloriously accomplished, particularly on the title-track.

The following PR wire info doesn’t exactly give the answer to that question, but it does add further intrigue in a quote from guitarist Justin Maranga. Check it out:

Los Angeles psychedelic prog-rock band Ancestors will release its new album In Dreams and Time on April 10 via Tee Pee Records. Recorded in east L.A.’s Infrasonic Sound (Queens of the Stone Age, Best Coast, Xasthur), the record showcases the band’s most accomplished music to date and a creative sound that morphs from thunderous cacophony to soul-searching peaks and valleys as towering riffs collide with bleak beauty and deep wells of light and dark.

“In Dreams and Time feels like the culmination of everything we’ve done so far,” says Ancestors guitarist Justin Maranga. “The record incorporates elements of everything that we’ve come to feel that Ancestors is, as well as new things that we’ve never tried. We’re hoping that it will tie together fans of our previous albums Neptune with Fire, Of Sound Mind and Invisible White who may or may not have connected one release or the other, while hopefully helping us reach a new audience. We’re excited about it.”

The track listing for Ancestors’ In Dreams and Time is as follows:
1. Whispers
2. The Last Return
3. Corryvreckan
4. On the Wind
5. Running in Circles
6. First Light

Ancestors have also announced the addition of new drummer Daniel Pouliot (Horse the Band, ex-Bleeding Kansas) to its ranks and have been confirmed for both the 2012 Desertfest and the 2012 Roadburn Festival, where the band will share the stage with Killing Joke, Michael Gira, Chelsea Wolfe and more.

Yesterday I woke up in Jersey. Last night I went to bed in Connecticut. Tonight I’m going to sleep in Maryland after waking up in Connecticut and subsequently having to report to work in Jersey. Nothing like the holidays, my friends, and nothing to do but have a little “Wine Cooler Blowout” with The J.J. Paradise Players Club.

This is the title-track from their 2001 album, and if user names are anything to go by, it was uploaded to YouTube by the forum’s very own dong ytown about two years ago, so a late thanks for that. The band, whose name was later shortened to just Players Club and who were fronted by Dave Curran (Unsane, now Pigs), is unfortunately defunct, but they were killer right up to the end with the last EP, Coextinction, which by I’m sure no small coincidence is the name of the label in which Curran is now partnered with James Paradise (also Players Club and Pigs), Andrew Schneidor (Pigs) and Chris Spencer (Unsane). It’s one big noise rock family: just the way it should be.

Because I’m so far behind (somehow it’s like I lost a whole day this week — can you imagine?), I’ll be posting tomorrow. The plan is to have my Six Dumb Questions interview with Wiht up in the afternoon, and some news about Electric Magma‘s new vinyl, and a Buried Treasure post about my own Black Friday adventures early this morning. I would have loved to have gotten all that stuff up today — as was my initial plan — but between travel time and a busted computer at work, it just wasn’t in the cards. So onto tomorrow’s to-do list it all goes.

Still, for the sake of habit, it seemed appropriate to wrap up the week. I talked to Ken-E Bones of Negative Reaction today for an interview that will be posted sometime in the coming weeks, and on Monday I’m slated to have a chat with former Trouble vocalist Eric Wagner about his new project Blackfinger, leaving his longtime bandmates behind, etc., so that will be fun. I’ll also have that Elder interview that I’ve now been unable to post for two weeks in a row, or so help me it’s right in the river I go.

There’ll also be the usual insane amount of reviews and news postings, whathaveyou and so forth, so stay tuned for good stuff yet to come. By the end of the week we’ll wrap the month and give the numbers (I haven’t looked yet), and I’m sure we’ll find room in there to sneak some music up as well.

If you’re in the US, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving, and wherever you are, I wish you a fantastic and safe weekend, as always. See you on the forum and back here tomorrow.

Stepping somewhat outside his role as the frontman and guitarist for Toronto psychedelic pasture-izers Quest for Fire, Chad Ross is the sole figure behind the unsurprisingly more minimal Nordic Nomadic. He released a self-titled album under the moniker after starting the project in 2007 and makes his debut on Tee Pee (also Quest for Fire’s label, by odd coincidence) with Worldwide Skyline – an album whose title speaks to its breadth. Fans of the bedroom neo-folk of Comets on Fire guitarist Ben Chasny’s ongoing Six Organs of Admittance will recognize and delight in at least some of what Ross has on offer with these nine songs, the drone and subtle interweaving of electric and acoustic guitars and still somewhat lush feel undercutting the notion of Nordic Nomadic as a “solo project.” It is that, though, on the most superficial level; Ross is the only one in the band and is responsible for all the material. Anyone who was touched by Ross’ gentle melodicism on either Quest for Fire’s 2009 self-titled or last year’s Lights From Paradise will find spiritual companion in his work here, as the vocals are brought even more to the forefront by the inherent lack of other layers surrounding. Nordic Nomadic, for its relative want of personnel, does still sound lush, and could just as easily be branded psych as folk. As such, no reason to limit it to one or the other: Psychedelic folk.

There’s a self-consciousness at play on Worldwide Skyline, or at very least some self-awareness in how it’s structured. Ross opens the album with its title-track, which in turn is introduced by large swinging gates of distorted guitar that seem to open to the field of the acoustic song itself. It’s hard to imagine the grandeur of the electrified opening wasn’t intentional on Ross’ part. To his credit as a songwriter, he blends the acoustic and electric guitars gorgeously throughout, playing them off each other in well-constructed, well-mixed layers beginning right with “Worldwide Skyline.” His vocals follow a similar course, somehow managing to sound lush and humble at the same time on the shorter, more solo-feeling “The Future’s Fear” (2:30). Like most of the work here, it’s not upbeat or hooky enough to really qualify as “catchy,” but the standout quality (and surprising diversity) of the songwriting makes some of these tracks genuinely memorable. That might be true of “Worldwide Skyline” more than “The Future’s Fear,” but the finger-plucked strings of Ross’ acoustic toll like bells and excellently transition back into the droning electrics of “Growin’ Horns,” which highlights the major ambient crux of Worldwide Skyline with an atmosphere that’s open to interpretation either as bright, sunny and sepia or lonely. The wistful melody in the vocals comes through strikingly in the verse, but the soft inclusion of synth and the memento mori of effected electric guitar does well to add an element of darkness. It’s a sunset over some landscape that never existed, and Ross takes time with “Growin’ Horns” that he didn’t on “The Future’s Fear” to revel in the instrumentation.

“Bite to Chew” opens with the line “I read the news today,” which inevitably sets off the Beatles alarm (Quest for Fire showed some Beatles influence in the guitar work late on Lights From Paradise as well), but the song is altogether more psychedelically lush and less poppy than “A Day in the Life” or anything else from that era of the band’s discography. Interestingly, the song forms a sort of linear progression to Worldwide Skyline of longer tracks that begins with the opener and ends with later album highlight, “Listen to the Leaves.” The three are Ross’ only cuts over five minutes in length, and each sets a kind of landmark for the rest of the songs to hinge themselves upon; it’s easy to listen to the songs surrounding in the context of their position relative to the longer songs, in other words. The runtime disparity isn’t so huge – apart from “The Future’s Fear,” everything is within the three-to-five-minute range – but Ross fleshes the longer material out more (maybe this is obvious, since he’s taking extra time to do it, but the arrangements seem more complex as well) and really hones in on a creative vibe with these three tracks in a way that the rest of Worldwide Skyline seems to complement. And if that’s true, then the two-song to three-song ratio between “Worldwide Skyline” and “Bite to Chew” and “Bite to Chew” and “Listen to the Leaves” speaks to Ross’ expectation of the listener being that much more engaged in the album by the time it shifts through its sweetly bluesy “Summer Friends” centerpiece. That turns out to be precisely the case.

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It must be showcase season, because New York imprint Tee Pee Records has announced a slew of label nights as they always do. And as per usual, they’ve put together a couple killer evenings of heavy psych and rock, which will take place as part of the Montreal Pop and CMJ fests. Fortunately, as you can see below, most of the bands playing the CMJ showcases in Brooklyn don’t have to travel too far to get there.

Here’s the news off the PR wire:

New York City-based independent rock label Tee Pee Records has announced plans to showcase at two of North America‘s most celebrated music festivals in the coming weeks. On Thursday, Sept. 22, Tee Pee will proudly showcase an array of its artists at the 10th annual Pop Montreal festival, an annual music festival occurring in Montreal, Quebec. Artists slated to appear include Canadian psychedelic rockers Quest for Fire, fast-rising Brooklyn stargazers Naam, Toronto hardcore punks Burning Love and Brooklyn “astral metal” band Elks.

The following evening (Sept. 23), Tee Pee will bring the family to Toronto, ON, with a supercharged show at The Silver Dollar Room. Quest for Fire and Elks will bring the rock and the whole shebang will conclude with a (super loud) performance from Naam.

Tee Pee will follow the Pop Montreal showcase and Toronto show with not one, but TWO showcases at the 32nd annual CMJ Music Marathon, set to take place Oct. 18-22 in NYC. Tee Pee will host the first of its CMJ showcases on Wednesday, Oct. 19 at Brooklyn‘s Saint Vitus Bar and follow with a second evening of diverse Rock ‘N’ Roll on Friday, Oct. 21 at Union Pool.

The lineups for Tee Pee Records‘ 2011 CMJ showcases are as follows (check it out!):

Tee Pee Records CMJ (Night 1)
Wednesday Oct. 19 at Saint Vitus Bar
(1120 Manhattan Ave (between Clay St & Box St), Brooklyn, NY 11222
Featuring:
Hopewell (Brooklyn, NY)
Weird Owl (Brooklyn, NY)
The Main Street Gospel (Columbus, OH)
Nordic Nomadic (Feat. Chad Ross of Quest for Fire, Toronto, ON)
Dead Stars (Brooklyn, NY)

Tee Pee Records CMJ (Night 2)
Friday, Oct. 21 at Union Pool
(484 Union Ave. # A, Brooklyn, NY 11211-3440)
Featuring:
Naam (Brooklyn, NY)
Very Special Guest TBA (Brooklyn, NY)
The Fucking Wrath (Montalvo, CA)
Elks (Brooklyn, NY)
Mirror Queen (Brooklyn, NY)
Unstoppable Death Machines (Brooklyn, NY)

Brooklyn psychedelicaticians Weird Owl get down with freaky heathen sun worship, organ-infused tonal bliss and a progressive spirit so serene it’ll have you at inner peace before you can even get through that mantra. To wit, the forebodingly-titled “Skin the Dawn” from their second album on Tee Pee Records, the ever-flowing Build Your Beast a Fire.

While the album itself is built as a complete idea — the songs not quite united as one large piece, but definitely copping to the same friendly ambience — “Skin the Dawn” is one of the few cuts that can be taken on its own and still give a general idea of Build Your Beast a Fire as a whole, with its synth swirl, oddity percussion, semi-chant vocals and gorgeous folk sensibility.

The full-length varies madly with acoustics, electrics, slide and some tracks that are just mood-setting noise, and if I’m honest, I had a hard time picking a single song to hopefully some it up — the wah sprawl of “Mirrors in the Mud” and the crunchier space of “Parallax Eyes” were also under consideration — but hopefully “Skin the Dawn” does it. Take a listen on the player below and let me know what you think:

Weird Owl‘s Build Your Beast a Fire is out July 26, 2011. More info at Tee Pee Records‘ website. The band will also be playing a record release show Aug. 5 at Union Pool in Brooklyn, with Heliotropes and Blanko Noiry also on the bill. Here’s the flier for that:

There is nothing in the climate of their native Los Angeles that should have Ancestors so sad, but something definitely did the job. On their latest offering, the EP, Invisible White (Tee Pee Records), the five-piece run through three tracks in just over 29 minutes and present atmospheres as gray and melancholic as their artwork would indicate. As on their prior full-length, Of Sound Mind, the interplay of Justin Maranga’s guitar and Jason Watkins’ organ is essential to the sound, but where Ancestors has made a turn since their 2009 outing – and certainly since 2008’s more straightforwardly riffian debut, Neptune with Fire – is in where the progressions lead. Invisible White has more in common with Crippled Black Phoenix or Blood and Time than Sleep, and where the EP most succeeds is in the band’s making “Invisible White,” “Dust” and “Epilogue” grounded and memorable, based on structures that allow the rhythm section of bassist Nick Long and drummer Brandon Pierce to give solidity to Maranga’s, Watkins’ and Moog-er Matt Barks’ explorations.

This is especially true on “Epilogue,” which closes and – somehow fittingly – is nearly as long as “Invisible White” and “Dust” combined. Everyone in Ancestors contributes vocals but Pierce, and on Invisible White, the singing is at its most accomplished yet. Maranga is in the lead spot, but backed and harmonized with skillfully by Long, Watkins and Barks, and though his tonality and phrasing has an underlying element of the heavy stonerisms on which Ancestors cut their teeth, they sound like a completely different band than they did three years ago. It’s hard to get a sense through listening whether Invisible White is a declaration of future intent or a kind of touristic dabbling in influences outside the towering distortion that Of Sound Mind was beginning to pull away from.

Even in the context of the last album, it’s a jump from the heavy parts of “Bounty of Age” to the acoustic-led “Invisible White” or “Dust,” which is even more subdued, but Ancestors do it well, and after defying expectation with their second release – they probably could have put out six more albums that sounded just like Neptune with Fire and kept a solid fanbase – they once again surprise in how cohesive they sound in their progression. The word “visionary” sounds hyperbolic in a way I don’t mean it to be, but it’s clear Maranga and company came into Invisible White with some idea of the mood they wanted to set and how they wanted to do it.

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Awash in overwhelming amp noise, Whirr‘s Distressor EP is that rare bit of shoegaze that’s best enjoyed loud. You can see for yourself, as the band has posted the whole thing to their Bandcamp page for free streaming. I included it here after the news that Whirr has just signed to Tee Pee Records and will start recording their first LP in August. Dig it:

Bay Area post-shoegaze sextet Whirr (formerly Whirl) has signed with NYC rock label Tee Pee Records. The band will enter a Northern California recording studio this August to lay down tracks for its full-length debut and follow-up to its recently released Distressor EP. The album will be preceded by a limited edition vinyl 7″ that will be issued this fall.

“Our new album is a much more of a defined, dynamic and mature sound rather than just an expansion of Distressor,” dished Whirr guitarist Nick Bassett (also of San Francisco black metal band Deafheaven). “The writing process for the record was much more of a collaborative effort than ever before. We’re all very excited to have the opportunity to work with a label that’s home to bands and artists we respect and enjoy.”

They’re high in the running for Best Moniker Pun, Brooklyn-region (some stiff competition there), and it came down the chute the other day that Tee Pee psychedelic five-piece Weird Owl will have a new full-length out this July. There’s nothing quite like psych in the hot summer. It makes everything that much hotter, true, but also infinitely more bearable, and in the coming days of “let’s save money by shutting off the A/C” office politics, I’ll take what I can get for comfort.

The news reads thusly:

Weird Owl, the Brooklyn band that creates music by “searching out the convergence of imagination, poetry and sound,” will release its sophomore album Build Your Beast a Fire on July 26 via Tee Pee Records. The follow-up to the band’s 2009 debut Ever the Silver Chord be Loosed was recorded at Verdant Studio in Vermont with Justin Pizzoferrato (Dinosaur Jr., Witch, Sonic Youth) and The Drawing Room in Kingston, NY, with Bishop Allen‘s Justin Rice.

“Build Your Beast a Fire represents Weird Owl in its most structured and melodic incarnation yet,” commented vocalist/bassist Trevor Tyrrell. “The album is part magical, part scientific; part futuristic, part ancient; part muscular, part psychological; part heavenly and part terrestrial. It dwells perfectly in a universe of its own creation.”

The track listing for Weird Owl‘s Build Your Beast a Fire is as follows:
1. No Time Nor No Space
2. Up From the Root
3. Stral Proj
4. Tiny Sleeping Animals
5. Mirrors in the Mud
6. Parallax Eyes
7. Build Your Beast a Fire II
8. Saucer-Shaped Shadow
9. Skin the Dawn
10. Two-Headed Brother
11. Horn Antler Tusk
12. Mountains on Top of Buried Stars
13. Space Bolero
14. What We See What We Know
15. Build Your Beast a Fire I

Ancestors kick ass, and I have yet to hear anything in their catalog to change my mind. The announcement just came in that the L.A. band will be issuing a new EP in June called Invisible White that will mark the recorded debut of Moog/synth specialist Matt Barks. The release is something of a surprise, but I can’t wait to hear what they’ve come up with this time around. Good band.

While I go break out my copy of Of Sound Mind, here’s this from the PR wire:

Los Angeles-based psychedelic rock quintet Ancestors will release an EP of all new music titled Invisible White on June 21 via Tee Pee Records. The follow up to the group’s sophomore album Of Sound Mind, Invisible White marks the debut of new member Matt Barks on Moog / modular synthesizers and charts a new course for the band’s progressive, colorful sound.

“This record showcases another side of the band,” comments Ancestors guitarist Justin Maranga. “It’s a project that we’ve been talking about doing for a long time and with the addition of Matt to the lineup, we knew it would be a while before we were able to get the next full-length out, so we decided that now was a good time to do this. We went into the studio with rough acoustic skeletons of the songs written and essentially let the songs chart their own course. It was a really different approach for us, as we normally go into the studio knowing exactly what is going to happen.”

Invisible White was recorded at Los Angeles‘ Bright Street Recorders (Lykee Li, Sia, Grant Lee Phillips) on a 20-channel mixing desk formerly owned by James Brown. The songs on the EP feature a hybrid of orchestral and electronic instruments and assume an almost cinematic, film score feel augmented by guest musicians playing violin and vibraphone. Simultaneously playing to the strengths of psychedelia, prog and even rhythm and blues, the music retains Ancestors’ exploratory approach and adds a hauntingly emotional impact, pushing the band’s sound into interstellar overdrive.

Ancestors, Invisible White track listing:
1. Invisible White (7:22)
2. Dust (7:40)
3. Epilogue (14:07)

It was my first time at Santos Party House. The club, famously shut down last year for dealing drugs, resides in that not-quite-Chinatown, not-quite-financial-district section of Manhattan below Canal St., down by where the Knitting Factory used to make its home on Leonard. It’s kind of a nether-region in New York, at least after 6PM when all the suits have gone home. Stores close. There’s parking. Santos seemed to be doing alright anyway for attracting a crowd; last night’s was the most packed Weedeater show I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a few.

Over in the Webster Hall basement, The Brought Low and Puny Human were opening for Danko Jones and if I’d had half a brain in my head or a memory to retain what goes into said brain, I would have headed into the city early to catch their sets before hitting up Santos, but no, I was playing it cool, waiting to get to the club at around 9:30. Clubs in NYC can go either way these days. In Brooklyn, you’re more or less guaranteed a late night, but you never know who in Manhattan is going to decide at 11PM that it’s time for the dance party to start. To Santos‘ credit, the dance party was downstairs by the bathrooms and Weedeater, ASG and Naam played upstairs. A few years ago, that would have been the other way around.

Naam were on stage when I got in, bathed in blue light, playing songs from their self-titled Tee Pee Records debut and Kingdom EP, which, try as I might, I still can’t find a copy of on CD. They had the vinyl for sale, but any disc smaller than that was a no dice. I’ve seen them a couple times now, and as they make ready to head over to Europe for a Tee Pee label tour that includes a stop at Roadburn, they sound ready for it. “Kingdom,” which they closed with, sounded especially killer, beardo bassist John Bundy‘s backing vocals giving that last chorus an extra push behind guitarist Ryan Lugar.

There are printed signs posted all around the club with messages like, “Santos Wants You To Be Happy” and “No One Knows Who You Are” and an attendant in the bathroom to hand me a paper towel, so there were some mixed messages in terms of what the vibe of the club overall was supposed to be, but I could easily see it being a rave-type place. Still, a ton of people came out for the show, and young people, and girls. Not just girlfriends, either. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know quite what to make of it.

For their part, ASG — who share Weedeater‘s hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina — were heavier than I thought they’d be. I vaguely recall their 2008 Win Us Over debut on Volcom, and it was passable in terms of West Coast-style riff rock, but nothing really landmark. Likewise, their live set was full of killer guitar work, and crowd ate it up each time drummer Scott Key locked into a half-time groove (who could blame them?), but overall, I was left somewhat cold by the performance.

When the lights came down at the start of their set, guitarist Jason Shi took an extra five minutes to check and get the levels on his mic, feeding back into the crowd and apologizing for it, but doing it anyway. Maybe I never got over that. Not to hold wanting to sound as good as possible against the guy, but come on dude, at some point it just has to be what it’s gonna be. I’m sure thinking that makes me a prick. I’ll live.

The last time I remember seeing Weedeater (which, since it’s Weedeater, isn’t necessarily the last time I saw them) was a few years back in an Alphabet City basement that’s not there anymore called Club Midway. Or if it’s there, they stopped putting on this kind of show because they weren’t making any money. Anyway, the place had a decent amount of people in it — not a crowd by any stretch, but a good showing of the NYC faithful. Santos was jammed. I guess the people who’ve moved to the area over the last five years, mostly Brooklynite hipsters, but some humans as well, are of a different mindset than the last generation of showgoers — mine — and more open to this kind of thing.

Part of me wants to be the grumpy old man and tell the damn kids to get off my lawn, but on the other hand, fuck it, good for the bands. If Weedeater can pack a house in NYC and have people moshing to songs on an album that isn’t even out yet, maybe Manhattan will start getting more shows again. And if that saves me driving two hours to Brooklyn at any point, it can’t be all that bad.

Weedeater opened with the start of their new record, Jason… the Dragon, which they were also selling in advance of its release date. “The Great Unfurling” intro led into “Hammerhandle” led into “Mancoon” led into “Turkey Warlock,” and it was a violent, energetic start to the set. Guitarist Dave “Shep” Shepherd sounded huge through a spraypainted Marshall stack, and recent Obelisk interviewee “Dixie” Dave Collins might have the best bass tone in sludge. His cackling vocals seemed to be swallowed up in the distortion and groove surrounding, but he managed to cut through well enough, on more or less equal footing on the stage with Shepherd and be-dreadlocked drummer Keith “Keko” Kirkum.

The highlight of the set and the night for me was “Homecoming,” which Collins introduced by saying something like “Here’s a new song, I hope you fucking hate it.” That riff is one of the best they’ve ever come up with, and whether or not the audience had heard the track before, they dug it hard. Moshing at a stoner show. I guess that’s what happens when the kids show up.

Some bands act angry on stage, posture and look pissed off, but there’s something about the contempt with which Collins delivers his performance that makes me believe it’s genuine. And being in New York, I’m used to bands coming through who hate the town — half the time I’m there, I feel the same way, and it’s only going to take me an hour to get home — but with Weedeater, it was more than that. Some kind of drunken misanthropy-turned-rage that only got more visceral as the set wore on. Toward the end, when Collins said, “We’re gonna play a couple old songs now,” and then launched into “God Luck and Good Speed” from the 2007 album of the same name, I wondered if maybe there was a little extra edge of “fuck you” in his voice, as Weedeater had two albums out before then that, in all likelihood, the crowd wouldn’t know nearly as well.

Their Skynyrd cover of “Gimme Back My Bullets” followed “God Luck and Good Speed,” and they closed with “Weed Monkey,” also both from God Luck and Good Speed, and at the end of the set, Collins — if I heard correctly — advised everyone to “get high as eagle pussy on stilts.” Sound advice, and a little ironic after I watched Santos security drag a dude out by his hair presumably for smoking something he shouldn’t have been, but I didn’t take it.

Instead, I headed down the block to the car and drove back to the valley to be up for work this morning, the wackiness of my recently-purchased Leeches of Lore CD keeping me company along the way. I wound up with a bunch of extra pictures from the show, so if you want to have a look, feel free after the jump.

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Stalwarts of the New Jersey stoner/heavy rock scene, The Atomic Bitchwax have come a long way since their 1999 self-titled debut on Tee Pee Records, and not just in terms of lineup. The band, once considered by many an offshoot of Monster Magnet for the participation of guitarist Ed Mundell, has endured under the careful eye of bassist, vocalist and founder Chris Kosnik, who found a virtual stylistic rebirth when he teamed up with former Core guitarist Finn Ryan for 2005’s 3. Having also survived the departure of drummer Keith Ackerman (who has since joined and left Solace) and recruited Monster Magnet/Riotgod’s Bob Pantella for the more pop-oriented TAB4 in 2009, which also marked their return to Tee Pee after a stint on MeteorCity, The Atomic Bitchwax are back in 2011 with the curiously non-numerically titled The Local Fuzz.

Admittedly, neither the Spit Blood nor the Boxriff EPs had numbers in their title, but The Local Fuzz is definitely a full-length album at 42 minutes, so maybe it’s the fact that it’s so different from anything The Atomic Bitchwax has done before that inspired the change in nomenclature. The Local Fuzz is comprised of a single titular track that runs, reportedly (I feel remiss in confessing this, but I didn’t count for myself), through a course of no less than 50 riffs, and is entirely instrumental. Compared to the tightness of songwriting and adherence to structure that showed itself on TAB4 in songs like “Sometimes Wednesday” and “Wreck You,” it’s a definite curveball on the part of Kosnik, Ryan and Pantella, and though there are parts throughout where it sounds like one of The Atomic Bitchwax’s many instrumental introductions and interludes that have been spread over their discography and live shows – rather than a larger work, that is – for lovers of the riff, The Local Fuzz cuts out just about any middleman you can think of. It’s probably the most direct line to the essence of heavy rock you can take.

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To be fair, they probably could have milked this for more than one press release. Nonetheless, venerable NYC imprint Tee Pee Records has made public its plans for both this year’s SXSW music festival and a considerably sized European tour that will take its bands through Roadburn and beyond.

Before I give it all away, here’s the PR wire:

Tee Pee Records is proud to announce the details for its 2011 South by Southwest (SXSW) label showcase. The independent record company will spotlight its diverse family of artists on Friday, March 18 at Headhunter’s (720 Red River Street, Austin, TX). This year’s lineup will feature Iron Age (Austin, TX), Sweet Apple (feat. Dinosaur Jr.‘s J Mascis), Night Horse (Los Angeles, CA), Lecherous Gaze (ex-Annihilation Time; Oakland, CA), Weird Owl (Brooklyn, NY) and The Main Street Gospel (Columbus, OH) and marks the 10-year anniversary of Tee Pee‘s annual SXSW “rock party.”

This April, Tee Pee will highlight its roster with its first ever European label tour, which will kick off on April 5 in Wiesbaden, Germany and will be headlined by stoner rock legends The Atomic Bitchwax. Also performing will be fast rising New York heavy psych band Naam, Toronto-based psych rock band Quest for Fire and NYC rockers Mirror Queen, rounding out the bill.

The 2011 Tee Pee European label tour itinerary is shaping up as follows:
Tee Pee Records 2011 European Tour
04/05 Wiesbaden, Germany Schlachthof
04/06 Vienna, Austria Arena
04/07 Würzburg, Germany Cafe Cairo
04/08 Dresden, Germany Groovestation
04/09 Hohenstein, Germany Schützenhaus
04/10 Berlin, Germany Magnet
04/11 Hamburg, Germany Molotow
04/12 Marburg, Germany KFZ
04/13 Dortmund, Germany Piano
04/14 Tilburg, Netherlands * Roadburn Festival (feat. The Atomic Bitchwax, Naam, Quest for Fire)
04/15 Jena, Germany Rosenkeller
04/16 Salzburg, Austria Black
04/17 Millstatt, Austria Bergwerk
04/18 Maribor, Slovenia Dvorana Gustaf-Pekarna
04/19 Torino, Italy United Club
04/20 Brescia, Italy Latte & Live
04/21 Luzern, Switzerland Sedel
04/22 Winterthur, Switzerland Gaswerk
04/23 Weil der Stadt, Germany JH Kloster
04/24 Paris, France Nouveau Casino
04/25 Rotterdam, Netherlands Baroeg
04/26 Antwerpen, Belgium Trix
04/27 London, UK Underworld

This is here pretty much just because it’s awesome. Emerging Brooklyn psychedelonauts Naam playing an ultra-spacey version of “Black Ice” from their self-titled debut Tee Pee Records full-length. Diasdegalvan posted this in the News/Band Update forum and it turns out it’s also on the YousTube. The band sounds killer. Enjoy.

New York‘s Tee Pee Records, not to be outdone, has just put out info on three showcases they’re doing in October, one in Brooklyn for CMJ, one in Montreal and one in Los Angeles. Good to keep busy, I guess. Here’s the PR wire info:

Tee Pee Records has announced a trio of label showcases set to take place this Fall. The independent record company will grandstand its diverse family of artists this autumn at special events on both sides of the US and also in Canada.

Pop Montreal 2010 presents the Tee Pee Records Showcase
Saturday, October 2
Katacombes (1635 St-Laurent, Montréal, QC H2X 2S9)

Featuring: Priestess, Naam, Mirror Queen, The Main Street Gospel
Tee Pee Records and CMJ present:
The 2010 Tee Pee Records CMJ Showcase
Friday, October 22
Union Pool (484 Union Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11211)
Featuring: Priestess, Naam, Quest for Fire, Mirror Queen, The Atomic Bitchwax, Hopewell, Weird Owl, The Main Street Gospel

Tee Pee Records proudly presents All Hallows Eve
Thursday, October 28 & Friday, October 29
Spaceland (1717 Silver Lake Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90026)
Featuring:
Night one: Black Cobra, Ancestors, Black Math Horseman, Imaad Wasif
Night two: Big Business, The Fucking Wrath & two more TBA
*Special kick off performance by Jason Simon on October 27 @ Vacation Vinyl