Pictured: “Dirty” Dave Johnson and Brett “Cap’n” Holsclaw
After a near-decade-long silence, notorious Louisville, Kentucky based psychedelic punk unit, The Glasspack, will return to the stage and studio. Featuring core members, “Dirty” Dave Johnson (vocals, guitars), Brett “Cap’n” Holsclaw (mc, drums), and Nicholas Hall (guitars, keys), with Billy Lease (guitars, bass) and Rodney Roads (bass, guitar), the band feels it is once again time to jump start Louisville’s rock scene. Continue reading
For Americans, Woodstock is largely known as an iconic cultural event in the history of popular music that would leave its mark for generations to come. Even though the festival itself took place years before many of us were even born (myself included), its impact can still be seen in many ways today, especially on the way we experience live music. The modern concert crowd may glow in a sea of iPhones rather than Zippos, but the sense of community brought together by music, in many ways, still remains the same. While today’s age of annual festivals such as Coachella, Lollapalooza, SXSW, and others (touted fervently on social media by hashtag-craving, attention-seeking attendees) take the concept of a massive, multi-day concert to rake in boatloads from inflated entry fees, concessions, and merch, Woodstock, on the other hand, became something much deeper than the latest big trend in pop music – it was a movement. In 1969, during the heart of the Vietnam war, sexual politics, and civil rights struggles, Woodstock and the music of its time represented a call for change in America. During a peaceful gathering of nearly 500,000 people on a small dairy farm in upstate New York, Woodstock would, in fact, change history. This documentary, Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation is an in-depth look, featuring never-before-seen footage, into the landmark event told by those who helped create it and those who experienced it firsthand. Continue reading
*This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured state. This month’s state is Oklahoma.*
Cosmic Wool is straight from the Heartland Of America, Oklahoma City to be exact. The band formed in 2013 by brothers Nevada (Guitars/Backing Vocals) and Larado “Rado” Romo (Lead Vocals/Bass) who both are formerly of the band Anti Mortem and Nevada has been the guitarist for Texas Hippie Coalition since 2016. In 2018 Texas Hippie Coalition bassist and co-founder John Exall parted ways with the band, it was at that time Rado Romo joined his brother in the band and replaced Exall. I believe the Romo brothers being in 2 bands together allows them to constantly keep their chemistry alive and well both on stage and in writing new music. The remaining members of Cosmic Wool are John “Drew” Williams (Guitar/Keyboards) who met the brothers through a mutual friend, and Tom Frizzell (Drums) who responded to an ad by the band seeking a drummer. The band initially like most bands do started out as a jam band. Cosmic Wool was something for the Romo brothers to do with their breaks between tours. With the dissipation of Anti Mortem in 2014 it freed up more time and Cosmic Wool was moved up as a priority. The band first released a 3 track EP ‘Over Your Eyes’. The band tested their sound with local Oklahoma crowds and they seemed to love the direction the band was going in. The next step was to step further out of their region and see if the country was ready for the comforting sounds of Cosmic Wool. In 2016 the band released another EP titled ‘White.’ The band further developed their “cosmic” psychedelic sound and intertwined amazing melodic choruses within their newer songs creating the sound they have today. Cosmic Wool spent the spring of 2015 until the summer of 2017 writing and reworking the songs that would make up their debut full length, working with Chainsaw Kittens guitarist Trent Bell perfecting the sound they were looking for. The band has stated “We met Trent through another producer we’re friends with named Dustin “Provo” Provenzano who did the first Cosmic Wool demos as well as the Anti Mortem demos. Bell Sound is a huge facility,” points out Rado Romo, “so we took full advantage of that and recorded most of the guitar, bass and drum tracks together in the same room. We also experimented with state of the art synths and keyboards to round things out.” The bands sound has been described as various things, space rock, desert rock, psychedelic rock, groove metal, but one thing is for certain; the band has moved out of the hard rock genre and created a sound that is uniquely theirs. The bands debut self titled full length was released on December 19, 2017 and is available at most online music merchandisers. Pick up a copy on Amazon here, or check it out on spotify. Continue reading
High n’ Heavy are a four piece instrument of destruction out of New Bedford, Massachusetts. Formed in late 2014 with The Stooges, Black Sabbath, and Motörhead in mind; their sound has evolved to perfectly embody all of their influences. Mostly playing shows in their native New England, High n’ Heavy has been picking up a handful of new fans every time they perform. The following is multiplying not only because of their talented musicianship but also because of their high energy live sets that create fandom simply by word of mouth. Their first 3 albums have shown the band to be at home playing everything from the most brutal of doom to the dirtiest of rock n’ roll. The electric circus that is High n’ Heavy consists of Kris Fortin on vocals, John Steele on guitar and keys, Mike Dudley on bass, and drummer Nick Perrone. The New Bedford band have now released their 4th album ‘Warrior Queen’ (via Electric Valley Records): An album full of psychedelia, mysticism and killer airfare! ‘Warrior Queen was recorded & engineered by Trevor Vaughan, recorded at The Colosseum and produced by Trevor Vaughan and High n’ Heavy.
Sixcircles came to light in the blinding heat of August 2017 in Italy. The Dark psychedelic rock group was formed by Sara B. (Messa, Restos Humanos) and Giorgio T. (Haemophagus, Assumption, Elevators to the Grateful Sky, Furious Georgie ). The duo composed, recorded, mixed and mastered its first full-length album in barely three months time. The first record is entitled ‘New Belief’ and it was released on March 1, 2018 by Phonosphera Records.
*This is part of our “Louder Than Life 2018 Spotlight” series where we focus on some of the up-and-coming bands that fans can see at this year’s Louder Than Life Festival on Sept. 28th-30th. This week, we’re checking out Monster Magnet.*
1989 marks the year of birth of New Jersey’s spacerock legends Monster Magnet. Though this band isn’t one of the headliners of this years festival they have put in their time and are veterans of the rock and metal world. They have likely put in more hours on stage than most of the other early acts combined. The bands first demos titled ‘Forget About Life, I’m High on Dope’ and ‘I’m Stoned, What Ya Gonna Do About It?’ should pretty much tell you everything you need to know about the band, but there is much more you should know. The band released their official debut album ‘Spine Of God’ on Caroline Records in 1991 which became a full on genre classic literally in an instant. If you were ever looking for some stoner space rock look no further than the originators; Monster Magnet. Frontman Dave Wyndorf has expertly piloted the band through an asteroid belt of lineup changes and health scares, substance abuse and public opinion, emerging as something of a stoner rock elder statesman. The drug hazed heavy sound of the releases helped in cementing Monster Magnet‘s reputation of being the only legit descendants of the likes of psychedelic and stoner rock Godfathers Hawkwind, Black Sabbath, and their electrifying punk siblings in MC5.
Switzerland based power trio Echolot was founded in 2014. The band consists of Lukas Fürer (Guitar), Jonathan Schmidli (Drums) and Renato Matteucci (Bass). The band combines prog, stoner rock, doom and psychedelic rock all into one unique and complex sound. In April of 2016 Echolot released their first full length album titled ‘I’. They kicked things off with an album release party alongside the amazing Swedish stoner rockers Goatess. The bands fresh jams have these psychedelic eruptions that drive you from the depths of doom into a Pink-Floyd type lightness. On October 6th 2017 the band released ‘Volva’ their debut on their new label Czar Of Revelations. ‘Volva’ is a 4 track full length album that comes in with a run time of over 55 minutes. The band says of the album “it will contain moments of fragility, heavy riffing, epic solos and some truly unique jams!”
Cosmic Wool is straight from the Heartland Of America, Oklahoma City to be exact. The band formed in 2013 by brothers Nevada (Guitars/Backing Vocals) and Rado Romo (Lead Vocals/Bass) who both are formerly of the band Anti Mortem and Nevada is currently the guitarist for Texas Hippie Coalition as well. The remaining members of the band are John “Drew” Williams (Guitar/Keyboards) who met the brothers through a mutual friend, and Tom Frizzell (Drums) who responded to an ad by the band seeking a drummer. The band initially like most bands do started out as a jam band. Cosmic Wool was something for the Romo brothers to do with their breaks between tours. With the dissipation of Anti Mortem in 2014 it freed up more time and Cosmic Wool was moved up as a priority. The band first released a 3 track EP ‘Over Your Eyes’. The band tested their sound with local Okalahoma crowds and they seemed to love the direction the band was going in. The next step was to step further out of their region and see if the country was ready for the comforting sounds of Cosmic Wool. In 2016 the band released another EP titled ‘White’. The band further developed their “cosmic” psychedelic sounds and intertwined amazing melodic choruses within their newer songs creating the sound they have today. Cosmic Wool spent the spring of 2015 to the summer of 2017 writing and reworking the songs that would make up their debut full length, working with Chainsaw Kittens guitarist Trent Bell perfecting the sound they were looking for. The band has stated “We met Trent through another producer we’re friends with named Dustin “Provo” Provenzano who did the first Cosmic Wool demos as well as the Anti Mortem demos. Bell Sound is a huge facility,” points out Rado Romo, “so we took full advantage of that and recorded most of the guitar, bass and drum tracks together in the same room. We also experimented with state of the art synths and keyboards to round things out.” The bands sound has been described as various things, space rock, desert rock, psychedelic rock, groove metal, but one thing is for certain; the band has moved out of the hard rock genre and created a sound that is uniquely theirs. The bands debut self titled full length was released on December 19, 2017 and is available at most online music merchandisers. Pick up a copy on Amazon here, or check it out on spotify.
Photo Credit: Jenifer Stratton
After years of turning heads in the subterranean metal scene, Twentynine Palms, CA-based sludge/doom metal group Atala are rising above with the release of their most confident album yet – the full-length crusher ‘Labyrinth of Ashmedai’ out January 26, 2018 via Salt of the Earth Records, the bands first release on the label. This album is a follow up to their previous album ‘Shaman’s Path of the Serpent’ which was released in May of 2016. Atala has an inspiring sound that is made up of various influences. Psychedelic desert sludge combined with crushing doom riffs and stoner rock melodies. Though the band hails from the barren desert of Twentynine Palms they aren’t anything like the standard desert rock bands you may be familiar with, Atala are breaking the mold and solidifying a new sound associated with the desert. As with their last record, ‘Shaman’s Path of the Serpent’, ‘Labyrinth of Ashmedai’ was produced by Billy Anderson, recognized for his work with colossal bands such as Sleep, Melvins and Mastodon. The album is available for pre-order as digital download, cd, and also on Limited edition black and blue splatter vinyl. Pre-order your copy here today!
“A thinking human’s aural wet dream. Part progressive, part psychedelic, part grunge, and all rock, this quartet’s music is just as calm and calculated as it is erratic and emotional” – PureGrainAudio.
Pheonix, AZ’s grunge/prog metal cult The Oxford Coma has just released a new lyric video for “Inflatable Patriots (Touching People In Their Sleep)”, taken from their recently released second LP ‘Everything Out Of Tune’. Commenting on the single, guitarist/vocalist Billy Tegethoff states “This song is about hypocrisy, obliviousness, injustice, brainwashing, hipster racism, and cat noises.” Intrigued? Watch the video below this article!
‘Everything Out Of Tune’ delivers more than forty minutes of devastatingly creative noise rock-influenced psychedelic intensity that takes The Oxford Coma’s unique sonics to the next level in every conceivable way. Offering a spectrum of effects-drenched tones that teleports the listener into an altered state of listening, with thundering grunge riffage meets progressive exploration. The follow-up to the band’s 2015 release ‘Paris Is Mine’ features guitar from Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable on the lead track, “Trauma (Maybe I’m Forgetting Something.” Created over a two-year cycle with a completely restructured line-up, ‘Everything Out Of Tune’ was recorded and mixed by the man of many talents Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago, and mastered by John Golden at Golden Mastering. Continue reading
