For this week’s Wino Wednesday, I have the absolute thrill of hosting the first track premiere from Heavy Kingdom, the new collaborative album from Wino & Conny Ochs. Ochs, a German singer-songwriter whose aptly-titled Raw Love Songs was released last year by Exile on Mainstream, toured with Wino following the issue of his own acoustic debut, Adrift, and the two reportedly hit it off creatively as well as personally. As is often the case when it comes to Wino, an album was imminent.

And Heavy Kingdom, which will be out on Exile on Mainstream Jan. 30 in Europe and March 13 in North America, captures the emotionality in both songwriters’ work. Most of its tracks are pretty bare-bones, however, so there’s an element of rawness that seems to convey the basic nature of the collaboration. They wrote them together, they play them together. Wino & Conny Ochs, as a unit, isn’t about showing off the prowess of one player or another, but about two artists who respect each other working in tandem to create something new and whole.

The album succeeds in that, and is at times almost embarrassingly honest. As a representation of the material as a whole, it’s fitting to unveil the title-track first, since it hones both that honesty and the rawness of approach that so much of Heavy Kingdom is built on. Like the collaboration itself, it deals in duality and effectively bridges seemingly disparate elements into something natural and engaging.

Please enjoy Wino & Conny Ochs‘ “Heavy Kingdom” on the player below:

Heavy Kingdom is due out Jan. 30 in Europe and March 13 in North America on Exile on Mainstream. Special thanks to Earsplit PR and Exile on Mainstream for letting me host the track. For more on the release, check out the label’s site here and Wino‘s official page. If you’d like to see a bigger version of the cover, click here. Happy Wino Wednesday.

It’s not the most exciting video — basically just the song playing and still photos of Scott “Wino” Weinrich and bassist Jon Blank — but I think the song speaks for itself. “Release Me” was the opening track on 2009′s Punctuated Equilibrium, which was the debut and the only release to date from the Wino band; Weinrich, Blank and Clutch‘s Jean-Paul Gaster on drums. A power trio, indeed.

I was lucky enough to see this lineup play at Roadburn in 2009, just a couple weeks before Blank died of an overdose and cast an immutable shadow over the album and the Wino band. They toured some afterwards, opening for Clutch on an American summer jaunt that found Gaster more than ably pulling double duty, but that was it after that. Wino went back on tour with Saint Vitus, did his acoustic record and worked on Premonition 13 and Shrinebuilder, and Gaster continued his never-ending road work with his main outfit.

Whether the Wino band ever does another record, the pairing of Weinrich and Gaster was something unique in the catalogs of both players. Gaster‘s popping snare added bounce to Weinrich‘s riffs, which in turn provides opportunities for stylistic exploration away from Clutch‘s well-established latter-day bluesy aesthetic. Maybe they’ll get back and do it again at some point, maybe they won’t. Either way, Punctuated Equilibrium stands out as a special moment in one of the underground’s most storied discographies, and “Release Me” is one of those songs that just feels like home.

I hope you dig it on this last Wino Wednesday of 2011. See you in the future.

I thought to honor the gorgeousness of the recently-unveiled packaging of the Wino/Conny Ochs collaboration — click the photo below to make it massive — we’d do some acoustic stuff this week. The clip at the bottom of this post of the Weinrich-original “I Don’t Care” and the Townes Van Zandt cover “Nothin’” was filmed at the Volcom (you might know them as the people who released the Premonition 13 album) store in Los Angeles way back in January.

This was just a couple weeks before Wino hit the road alongside Shrinebuilder bandmate Scott Kelly on an acoustic tour in support of Adrift and a split 7″ single between them, but I’d hardly call the performance rough. He nails the restless angst of “I Don’t Care” and manages to elicit whoops and yells from the crowd during “Nothin’” in the solo at the end. The energy is there, is what I’m trying to say.

And given the odd setting near a shirt rack and the clarity of sound and video for this clip, it was an easy choice. Enjoy “I Don’t Care” and “Nothin’” and the rest of your Wino Wednesday:

Okay, so maybe my timing on Wino Wednesday was a little off, or I might have gotten this press release in time to make it coincide with that, but what the hell. I’m pretty sure no one’s going to moan about it when the news is that Wino has a new record coming out. It’s a two-man collaboration with German singer-songwriter Conny Ochs, with whom Wino toured in Europe for his acoustic album, Adrift.

One can only hope that, like that album, Exile on Mainstream decides to do a wood-box edition of Heavy Kingdom. No details yes or no on that yet, but here’s what the PR wire has to say:

The folks at Germany’s avant-rock source Exile on Mainstream Records are thrilled to report that the final master for Heavy Kingdom, the anticipated collaborative album by Wino and Conny Ochs has arrived at label headquarters, and the final details on the album’s release are being finalized.

The legacy of Scott “Wino” Weinrich in the world of heavy music is indisputable and ever evolving, and here he teams up with Conny Ochs, a songwriter so pure and honest in his output that he seems to be the perfect partner for the straightforward Weinrich. The two met for the first time in 2010 when Conny was supporting Wino on his acoustic solo tour promoting his acclaimed solo album, Adrift. Through music they discovered a very similar approach to life and art, and a shared wisdom in creating music. It really seemed like two souls becoming one after they got to know each other. Together the two wrote, performed and recorded an incredible set of soulful tunes that speak for themselves, as well as a Townes Van Zandt cover. The artwork contains drawings by both Weinrich and Ochs, and follows the dedicated and deeply personal approach of the whole album.

Heavy Kingdom Track Listing:
1. Somewhere Nowhere
2. Heavy Kingdom
3. Dust
4. Vultures by the Vines
5. Dark Ravine
6. Traces of Blood
7. Heavy Kingdom Jam
8. Highway Kind
9. Dead Yesterday
10. Here Comes the Siren
11. Labour Of Love

Heavy Kingdom will be released throughout Europe on Jan. 27, 2012 and in North America sometime in March, a final release date to be confirmed in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned for tracks from the record to be released in the near future, as well as the details on a month-long European tour being finalized for March and April.

I’ve been waiting for this one. This week’s Wino Wednesday clip comes courtesy of the bonus footage to the heavy rock documentary Such Hawks, Such Hounds. It’s basically a six-minute interview with Scott “Wino” Weinrich, who talks in his pepper garden about getting clean and sober and putting his life together, “settling down” (as much as someone who constantly tours and puts out albums with new projects can do such a thing) and starting a family.

Such Hawks, Such Hounds came out in 2008, so this isn’t exactly the most current info (in the interview we did back in February, Wino talked about being separated from his wife), but it’s a cool insight into the spirit and motivations of the man, which I expect is why the people behind the movie felt compelled to include it in the DVD extras to start with.

We’ll get back on with the music next week, but for now, hope you enjoy this on your Wino Wednesday:

This is nearly as close to “what it’s all about” as it gets. For this week’s Wino Wednesday, we find the trio Spirit Caravan absolutely nailing Black Sabbath‘s “Wicked World.” The track didn’t originally appear on the British version of the self-titled Sabbath debut, but it was on the American edition of the album, which is obviously what Wino, bassist Dave Sherman and drummer Gary Isom would’ve encountered at the time.

The track is them performing the song live, and it’s taken from the first Sucking the ’70s compilation on Small Stone Records. I humbly submit that it’s better than at least 97 percent of what appears on both Nativity in Black tribute discs, and among the most honest Sabbath covers put to tape. Considering the legacy Spirit Caravan left behind them in their too-short tenure, it’s fitting.

Although, with that solo, just about anything would be fitting.

Anyway, enjoy. Hope you have a great Wino Wednesday:

We’ve covered most of Wino‘s bands at this point, but something not yet mentioned in this ongoing Wino Wednesday series is the incredible amount of guest appearances Scott “Wino” Weinrich has made over the years. From Lost Breed, to Solace, to Shepherd and Earthride, he’s constantly contributing guitar and vocals to the songs of others, and the fact that he’s still in such high demand after all this time just further proves the ongoing nature of the Wino legacy.

This week, the chosen clip is courtesy of Paul Chain, who’s widely regarded as the master of Italian doom. Through his work in the earliest days of Death SS to his own Violet Theatre and sundry solo projects, the guitarist/vocalist has always had an eye and ear for experimentation. His latest band, Translate, has moved away from doom into more progressive and experimental styles, but much like Wino, he’s someone whose discography it would take years to even begin to grasp.

The song “Bloodwing” appeared on Chain‘s 2004 compilation, Unreleased Vol. 2, and is one of two tracks to feature a guest spot from Wino; the other, “Nibiru Dawn,” is no less plodding and mournful. Weinrich‘s integration with Chain‘s playing style is seamless, and it’s a great introduction to anyone who might not be familiar with the latter’s also-continual progression. Hope you enjoy:

The forum is lucky enough to play host to a resurrected and updated version of the Scott “Wino” Weinrich: Buyer’s Guide that was originally posted on (the still-missed) StonerRock.com. The Wino buyer’s guide is a proven resource, and author Throatwobbler provides insight, context and real guidance on a release-by-release — and in the case of Wino, band-by-band — basis. If you’re new to Weinrich‘s work, or even if you want an interesting read, I highly recommend it. I have it and Throatwobbler‘s also-updated Pentagram buyer’s guide bookmarked for future reference, and I’ve copied the Wino one after the jump here for ease of access. It’s huge.

As I was reading through it looking for inspiration for this week’s Wino Wednesday post, I was reminded of Place of Skulls‘ excellent 2003 album, With Vision. It turned out to be little more than a blip in Weinrich‘s storied career — that is, it was Victor Griffin‘s band even before Wino added his profile to it and he only stayed on board for that one record — but the Weinrich/Griffin pairing resulted in some truly landmark tracks, among them “Last Hit,” on which (as Throatwobbler notes in the guide), they trade vocals.

Here’s that song for your YouTubular pleasure:

Extra special thanks to Throatwobbler for his hard work writing the guide, posting it on the forum and for allowing me to host it here. Please click “Read more” below to view it in its entirety.

Read more »

This week’s Wino-age comes from the acoustic tour he did with Shrinebuilder bandmate Scott Kelly (also of Neurosis), supporting the similarly-minded, mostly-unplugged Adrift record. I saw this tour in New York. It was my wife’s birthday, Feb. 12. I’m a very lucky man.

I don’t think any song was as striking on Adrift as the Motörhead cover “Iron Horse,” which you’ll see below. The live rendition is pretty faithful to what you get on the album — the man and his guitar — but where a few of the songs on that record were telling stories or describing feeling a certain way, “Iron Horse” was a credo. The appreciation for the song bled through the performance, and the result was anthemic. All the more so live.

The video was recorded at Emo’s in Austin. Thanks to whoever taped it.

There isn’t much live footage of Premonition 13 out there, because, unlike every other project Scott “Wino” Weinrich has ever been involved in, he hasn’t had the chance to tour the hell out of it yet. As the PR wire informed yesterday, though, that’s about to change, and Premonition 13 — which released its debut, 13, on Volcom earlier this year (review here) — have announced their first two runs of North American shows with Witch Mountain and The Gates of Slumber. Right on.

What’s most interesting about Premonition 13 in comparison to the slew of Wino‘s projects is the inclusion of guitarist Jim Karow, a friend of Weinrich‘s going back to the days of The Obsessed, for whom Karow‘s wife served as the first manager. What Karow brings to Premonition 13, though, is a sense of being a co-headliner. Where in Shrinebuilder, there’s the formidable likes of Al Cisneros and Scott Kelly to play off of, in the realm of “Wino bands,” it’s always been Wino up front. Now he’s playing off of Karow. The elements of Wino‘s playing and songwriting are there as they’re always going to be, but it’s different.

To wit, the clip below for “Modern Man” from the 13 album with Karow on lead vocals. One of my favorite tunes from this record and I thought a great way to change it up this Wino Wednesday. Make sure to check out the tour dates under the player. Hope you dig:

Premonition 13 on tour:
10/04 Monterey, CA Jose’s Underground Lounge (w/Wino solo acoustic opening)
10/06 Seattle, WA El Corazon*
10/07 Bellingham, WA Shakedown*
10/08 Portland, OR Branx (Fall into Darkness Fest)*
10/09 Arcata, CA Alibi*
10/10 San Francisco, CA Elbo Room*
10/11 Los Angeles, CA Handbag Factory*
10/12 San Diego, CA The Shakedown Bar*
11/04 Providence, RI AS220=
11/05 Newark, DE Mojo Main=
11/06 Baltimore, MD Sonar=
11/07 Richmond, VA Strange Matter (w/Wino solo acoustic opening)=
11/09 Charlotte, NC Tremont Music Hall=
11/10 Atlanta, GA Drunken Unicorn=
11/11 Nashville, TN The Muse=
11/12 Indianapolis, IN Melody Inn=
11/13 Chicago, IL Cobra Lounge=
11/15 Pittsburgh, PA 31st St Pub=
11/17 Brooklyn, NY St. Vitus=
* w/ Witch Mountain
= w/ The Gates of Slumber

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.

Among the various Wino projects, The Hidden Hand is bound to be overlooked. Pairing Scott Weinrich‘s guitar and vocals with the bass, vocals and production of Bruce Falkinburg and an assortment of drummers, the band had the profile of neither Spirit Caravan, which preceded, nor the Wino band and Shrinebuilder, which followed. The context of the four years since the band’s last album — the wandering but still underrated The Resurrection of Whiskey Foote — has left the trio with an in-between place in Wino lore.

Nonetheless, The Hidden Hand resulted in three varied and enjoyable full-lengths, from the straightforward drive of 2003′s Divine Propaganda onward through 2004′s well-balanced political firestorm, Mother Teacher Destroyer, and the sprawling finale already mentioned. For devotees of Wino, they’re an immediate must.

The clip below was shot in 2004 at the much-missed Emissions From the Monolith festival at the Nyabinghi in Youngstown, Ohio. The song is “Welcome to Sunshine” from the Night Letters split with D.C. doomers Wooly Mammoth, released that same year.

Thus begins the new series of Wino Wednesday posts celebrating the work of Scott “Wino” Weinrich on The Obelisk. I asked last week when I posted the new Premonition 13 clip if it should be a regular thing, and the response both on this site and Thee Facebooks was overwhelmingly yes, so here we are. I aim to please.

I probably could’ve gone back and found something older than the reunited Saint Vitus performing live earlier this year in Denver, Colorado, on the last night of the Metalliance Tour, but hell, the present is as good a place to start as anywhere, and “Born too Late” is one of doom’s greatest anthems. I figured no one would complain.

The song originally appeared on the 1986 album of the same name and was Wino‘s first album as Vitus‘ frontman, coming on following time in The Obsessed to replace Scott Reagers, who would later return to sing on 1995′s Die Healing. Note the Stone Axe shirt drummer Henry Vasquez is wearing in the video, because it rules.

Can’t help but think maybe it’s time I institute Wino Wednesday as a regular feature on this site. Any thoughts? Jeebus knows he’s got enough of a back catalog that I could post something different every week for a year, and by then, he’s bound to have put out two or three new albums, prolific as he is.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think. While you’re mulling it over, check out this new clip for the Premonition 13 track “La Hechicera de la Jeringa” from the band’s Volcom debut, 13:

Today, July 26, marks the release of Premonition 13‘s full-length Volcom debut, 13. The album finds legendary guitarist/vocalist Scott “Wino” Weinrich pairing with guitarist/vocalist Jim Karow and filling the bassist role as well in the studio for what would be (and has been) a four-piece live. Together, Weinrich, Karow and drummer Matthew Clark forge a sound that’s at once in line with Weinrich‘s past work in his various trios — Wino, The Hidden Hand, Spirit Caravan — but a step away as well for the interplay between the two guitars and vocalists.

And it’s that interplay that’s at the core of Premonition 13‘s 13. I’ve already reviewed the album, so I’ll spare the longwinded opining, but suffice it to say that fans of Weinrich will be as much thrilled by what’s familiar about 13 as they will by what’s different about it. The record is raw and natural, but still has that essential core of classic doom riffing that has made Wino the influential figure he is, and the balance works.

Volcom was kind enough to give me permission to host the nine-minute album opener “B.E.A.U.T.Y.” for streaming, which you’ll find, followed by some info from the label, on the player below.

The Premonition 13 debut album, 13, is now available for purchase in all formats (LP and CD orders come with an immediate digital download). The pre-orders for this album came in fast and heavy, so the limited edition orange LPs are close to being sold out. T-shirts are indeed sold out, but when you scroll to the bottom of the offers page you can view the bundles and individual items still available.