The video’s pretty rough, as you might expect, but this week, our ongoing celebration of all things Wino takes us back to 1984 and finds The Obsessed rocking a packed house in NYC. There are a ton of old Obsessed clips on the YouTubes, and they can be fun to sift through, but this one is short, sweet and pulls no punches either in sound or style.

Near as I can tell, the trio lineup is Scott “Wino” Weinrich (obviously) on vocals/guitar, Mark Laue, who’d later go on to join Unorthodox, on bass/vocals and drummer Dave Williams, though the latter is a guess at best, since the clip is grainy and whoever it is, his face is obscured for the most part by the cymbals. Sorry, but I’m no good at picking out drummers by their arms. It’s always been my private shame.

As for the song itself, “Lifer City” never made it onto an Obsessed record, but it would show up 17 years later in 2001 on Spirit Caravan‘s final full-length, Elusive Truth. This version is a lot more punk, a lot less fuzzed and has no shortage whatsoever of vitriol. Hope you dig it on this time-traveling Wino Wednesday:

The clip below for “No Blame” is the third video I’ve chosen for this week’s Wino Wednesday. I suppose that’s a good problem to have, right? There’s just such an abundance of awesome shit in the man’s catalog that it’s hard to pick one and stick with it? Could be worse, I suppose.

Lunar Womb, the album from which the track is taken, was released in 1991. Alongside Scott “Wino” Weinrich, this reinvigorated version of The Obsessed got together post-Wino‘s tenure in Saint Vitus and featured bassist Scott Reeder (later also of Kyuss and Goatsnake) and drummer Greg Rogers (later also of Goatsnake and Debris Inc.). The Obsessed had released their self-titled album with a different rhythm section only a year before.

Formed in 1976 under the moniker Warhorse — just two years after Nick Semper‘s Deep Purple offshoot played their last show with the name and a full 20 before the Massachusetts band picked it back up — The Obsessed is basically where it all starts for Wino. Their mid-90s run saw them signed to Columbia Records, and afterwards, the guitarist and vocalist would go on to release some of the best stoner rock ever, but The Obsessed‘s sound is one that’s never successfully been duplicated in doom, no matter how many it may have influenced.

Enjoy:

Admittedly, before I even fired up the website’s back end today, I called the Hotel Mercure in Tilburg, The Netherlands, to make sure they still had my reservation on file. Roadburn 2012 is shaping up to be something really special. First we get the announcement that Sleep is playing, and now this:

Roadburn is elated to announce that legendary doom pioneers The Obsessed will reunite to play the Roadburn Festival on Saturday, 14 April 2012. The band will be featuring the lineup from The Church Within; Scott “Wino” Weinrich on guitar/vocals, Greg Rogers (Goatsnake, Sonic Medusa) on drums and Guy Pinhas (Acid King, Goatsnake and Beaver) on bass.

There is no debating the impact that Wino has had (and continues to have) on the stoner scene, and The Obsessed is the band with which he developed his signature doom songwriting and guitar sound. Formed in Maryland in 1976 as Warhorse, they soon changed their name to The Obsessed. The original four-man lineup was pared down to a power trio and they spent several years playing shows and honing their sound, culminating in the release of the Sodden Jackal 7? in1983.

The band then went on hiatus as Wino joined Saint Vitus for a few years in the late ’80s. They reformed in 1990 with Wino joined by a rhythm section of Greg Rogers and Scott Reeder. The new lineup released Lunar Womb before Reeder left to join Kyuss. At that point Guy Pinhas joined as the bass player and the band was signed to Columbia Records and went on to release The Church Within.

The Church Within was Wino’s most critically-hailed album. Despite being co-released by Hellhound Records and the major label Columbia Records, the music-buying masses were not ready to embrace doom in 1994 and instead fixated on buying records by rehashed pop-punk bands. Several factors led to The Church Within becoming The Obsessed‘s last full-length album. Despite not becoming a top-seller, the album remains hugely influential.

Wino has appeared at Roadburn in a number of guises, including: Saint Vitus, Shrinebuilder, Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand, and his eponymous band, Wino. His distinctive style of guitar playing and his seemingly endless supply of great riffs has earned him a place on the Mount Rushmore of stoner rock, and now we at Roadburn are thrilled to give you the opportunity to experience the band that started the legend.

Other recent Roadburn announcements include 40 Watt Sun, Sólstafir and Agalloch. Here’s more on that:

Portland, Oregon‘s Agalloch will bring their sweeping sonic landscapes conjuring desolate forests, icy waters and fire emerging from fog to Roadburn‘s main stage on Thursday, 12 April. The band’s highly atmospheric touchstones, which are equal parts dark ambient, drone, Nordic folk-infused black metal and dark wave, are as much a cinematic experience as a musical one. Agalloch‘s releases — four full-length albums and several EPs over the last 15 years — are a feast for the ears in the same way that Werner Herzog‘s and Alejandro Jodorowsky‘s visual imagery is a feast for the eyes. Marrow of the Spirit (2010) is a healing, spiritual journey through the forests of the Pacific Northwest, and one of last year’s most stunning statements in metal.

Iceland‘s very own Sólstafir will appear on Friday, 13 April as part of the Roadburn Festival. Having emerged with a sound as dark as the volcanic ash spewed by their homeland’s volcanoes, the band has evolved to excel at blending atmospheric, angst-fueled post rock with their blackened heritage, underpinned by psychedelic phrasing and an eerily, hypnotic groove for a truly mind-expanding experience. Iceland‘s endless white landscapes, glowering peaks, empty valleys and shrieking winds can be heard and felt through the band’s moving, sonic elements, too. Sólstafir have come a long way much in the same way that Enslaved has progressed, albeit somewhat differently, as showcased on Köld (hailed as a true masterpiece) and the forthcoming Svartir Sandar, the emotional equivalent of the stormy North Atlantic.

After calling it quits in 2009, Warning‘s Patrick Walker returns with his new band 40 Watt Sun and we are really pleased to welcome the band for a one-off show on Saturday, 14 April. 40 Watt Sun‘s stunning debut album, The Inside Room, ranks among the very best Roadburn-related albums of 2011, and offers Walker‘s distinctive melancholic voice a more prominent role. His soaring and somber pipes bless the album’s burning tracks. 40 Watt Sun‘s emotionally charged, slowcore hybrid of Jesu meets a harder-edged Red House Painters put the band in a class of its own.

I haven’t done one of these in a while (it might actually be since last Thanksgiving), but today’s the perfect opportunity for it. Maybe you’re stuck in the house with your entire family and you want to get away for a little bit — no better way to do it than with the clips below.

For the puritan in all of us, there’s the creepy heavy ’70s rock of Salem Mass, for the doomer, The Obsessed live in 1992. Steven Seagal shows up in the Masters of Reality video. Christopher is bound to fill your psych needs, and if it gets more stoner rock than Fu Manchu doing “King of the Road,” I don’t know how. And finally, if you don’t feel like listening to or watching music at all, there’s Ian Gillan telling stories about his time in Black Sabbath. Hope you dig it and Happy Thanksgiving (or whatever day it is when you see this).

When last I checked in with Wallingford, Connecticut‘s Redscroll Records, I walked out of there with a cassette copy of Torche‘s Meanderthal Demos. It’s a purchase I still consider the right move to have made, and as my most recent trip there was most likely going to be my last until Springtime, I figured I’d make the best of it. A thorough search of Redscroll‘s used section has done me right on numerous occasions, and this latest was no different. Dig this haul:

Bottom, Made in Voyage
Chrome Locust, Chrome Locust
Clutch, Jam Room
Fu Manchu, Daredevil
Jethro Tull, Aqualung
Lost Breed, Save Yourself
Lost Goat, Equator
My Dying Bride, Turn Loose the Swans
Natas, Delmar
The Obsessed, The Obsessed
Spiritual Beggars, Ad Astra

A few of those CDs I already own, but there are difference. The Fu Manchu is the original Bong Load Records version, where before I only had the reissue, and though it’s my third copy of Jam Room — probably my least favorite Clutch album — it’s the River Road Records pressing, and I think they only made six of them or something, so I was stoked to find it. Ad Astra is the Music for Nations digipak edition, and Chrome Locust is in a jewel case, where I’d only ever seen the digipak, so I grabbed that as well. The Jethro Tull had a sticker on it that it was the first CD issue, which made it too good to pass up. If you’re wondering, by the way, whether or not I believe everything I read on stickers stuck to jewel cases: Yes. Yes I do.

Lost Goat is on Man’s Ruin and I didn’t already own it, so that was a given. The Natas record I thought might have been a different catalog number than mine, but no, it’s a genuine double. I was bummed out on that until the other night when I thought to myself, “Gee, I sure would like to listen to the first Natas album,” and I actually had a copy on me because I was holding onto it to write about today. Maybe one just wasn’t enough.

Of the two Hellhound Records purchases, the highlight is unquestionably The Obsessed‘s The Obsessed. I had the Tolotta reissue previously, but you can’t beat the original. I had seen it for sale on Redscroll‘s eBay store, and asked if I could buy it right there in the shop. They were more than accommodating. The other Hellhound album, Lost Breed‘s Save Yourself, was the US version, where I’d only had the European before. Or maybe that’s reversed. I don’t know. The catalog numbers and back cover art are different. Apparently that’s enough for me these days.

I legitimately hadn’t owned the Bottom or My Dying Bride CDs (or the Lost Goat, which was meh), and I was stoked especially to hear the former, which didn’t disappoint. Crazy to think it’s been five years since Bottom put out their last album, but I suppose it has. Hearing their debut for the first time, it was easy to tell what Rise Above, Man’s Ruin and Small Stone all saw in the band, and by that I mean killer riffs and lethal groove. An excellent capper for an even more excellent haul.

Maryland‘s is pretty much the style people mean when they say “traditional doom.” There are three things you want to know right away about the Maryland scene, and they are as follows: Pentagram, The Obsessed and Hellhound Records. With that as your starting point, you can’t really go wrong, but like any fertile bandscape, Maryland (and, by extension the D.C., or “Doom Capitol” scene) has much more to offer the curious listener than just its biggest bands.

In addition to the five albums I’m listing here, you might also want to check out material from Iron Man (Shadow Kingdom has a couple cool reissues and their latest album), Unorthodox, Against Nature, Spirit Caravan, Wretched, Place of Skulls, Nitroseed and many more. But, to get you introduced to the scene and some of its most influential and important acts, feel free to start with the following:

1. Pentagram, First Daze Here: You can get Relentless instead if you feel strongly about it, there are no shortage of reissues out there, but if you really want to understand Pentagram‘s influence, you need to go to their earliest recordings, and this Relapse compilation has them. American doom from the age of Sabbath. They laid the foundation.

2. The Obsessed, Lunar Womb: I picked Lunar Womb because MeteorCity reissued it a couple years back and it’s easy to come by. In this age of wonders, you could just as easily pick up The Church Within if you’re looking to spend a little more. The Obsessed is the band that first gave us guitarist/vocalist Scott “Wino” Weinrich, whose influence is paramount in modern doom. Currently on the road with the reunited Saint Vitus, he can also be heard in Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand and elsewhere.

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The video’s a little dark, but you can’t go wrong with The Obsessed. The above show is from 1994, and you can find the second half on the YouberTrucks. No small coincidence, it also rules and is Wino-riffic.

I’m about to head out to catch High on Fire, Black Cobra and Bison B.C. (will do my best to tolerate Priestess as well) at NYC‘s Gramercy Theater, so I’ll keep this short since every minute I sit here is a minute more I’m in tunnel traffic. It’s Friday, after all, and if I’m going to be sitting still for the next 90 minutes of my life, I’d just as soon stay here and do it on the couch.

Next week is ROADBURN! Fucking a yes. I can’t wait. I fly out Wednesday night, get there Thursday and get right to action. Expect updates as up-to-the-minute as I can get them, Buried Treasures and maybe even an interview or two, depending on what I can work out in the meantime. It’s going to be killer, I promise.

And before I go, I’ll be posting April’s podcast and that Lee Dorrian interview, so stick around for both of those. The podcast, if all goes according to my evil plan, will be up before the weekend’s out. Good things ahead.