Review- Naam-The Ballad of the Starchild EP
Naam is a Brookln based psych stoner band that is releasing a trip of an EP, The Ballad of the Starchild, on May 8th through Tee Pee Records. It’s a ambitious journey of psychedelic sounds and musical gentleness. It is something to get lost in.
“Sentry of Skies” is chill and stoney. The music trickles with a constant beat and gentle guitar that lifts me off with great care and ease. Relaxing. “Lands Unknown” sends rings of Saturn around my (more…)
Daily Bandcamp Album – Gift Horse – Mountain of Youth
“Filled with heavy, exploding drum beats and a magical, ethereal blending of guitar, bass, and keys, Gift Horse has the ability to draw you in, capture your mind, and compel your imagination. Their songs carry menacing undertones and floating vocals that at once pick you up and mellow you out. Each melody offers a climax, backed by raging cymbals, which give way to atmospheric organ tones preparing you for the next climax and back around again.” – The Silver Tongue
I tell you thise is different and pretty fricking sweet. Think Weird Owl, meets Hopewell meets The Main Street Gospel. That’s kinda what Gift Horse’s sound is all about. Nice psychedelics and shoegaze wrapped up into one trippy ball.
Kaleidoscope – Self-Titled EP: Review
via Sludge Factory
Hailing from Gerringong are a bunch of fresh faced teens called Kaleidoscope. Don’t let that dissuade you, because the song writing ability these guys possess is well beyond their years. This psychedelic/stoner rock trio have been pricking up ears and turning heads right across the globe amongst niche, genre based publications as their self-titled debut release hits the information super highway.
As soon as I press ‘play’ I find myself reaching for my eighth and my papers because I instantly get the sense that being stoned is the only way to enjoy this release. I soon realise that nor do I actually have any weed but I don’t smoke, although this minor inconvenience is quickly over come. Recording on a shoe-string budget only does this release even more justice as it encapsulates the essence of a live performance, which you just (more…)
The Soda Shop Podcast This Saturday!
Tun in this Saturday, April 14th, 2012 at 3-5 pm EST to Grip of Delusion Radio for this weeks Podcast. This week, Godfathers of Green. There are many genres of music under the “stoner rock” umbrella. A lot of those bands have had many of the same influences. This week we pay homage to those influences. There have been a lot of great bands that have influenced musicians today and this Podcast does a pretty good job of covering a small portion of those bands.
Setlist:
01 Grand Funk Railrodad – “Inside Looking Out” from Grand Funk Railroad (1969)
02 The Who – “Baba O’Riley” from Whos’ Next (1971)
03 Leafhound – “Freelance Fiend” from Roadburn 2006 (2006)
04 Sir Lord Baltimore – “Kingdom Come” from Kingdon Come (1971)
05 Black Sabbath – “Sweet Leaf” from Master of Reality (1971) (more…)
Daily Bandcamp Album – The Bad Light – Marrow Of Sound
As originally found on Stonerobixxx:
The Bad Light is a heavy jam/ blues duo from Santa Cruz, California. “Kinda like RL Burnside and Electric Wizard”. These guys produce a really niche sound with interesting vocals & a constantly driving vibe (think Wooden Shjips). This is slow, dirty swamp rock for those who aren’t afraid of a little psychedelica & repetition. Solid stuff!
Very cool stuff indeed. I found them to sound like a swampy and doomy version of Left Lane Cruiser or Black Diamond Heavies. Perhaps a tad bit of The Black Key to boot. They do have plenty to offer.
Daily Bandcamp Album – Bezoar – Wyt Deth
Like a torch blowing on the faces of all that is candy stripes and happy garage rock, Bezoar powers through the new disco era with a true vision of the ages. Sick, guttural, beautiful,engaging, raw, powerful, original, and twisted, Bezoar look forward to a long life of putting out records.
THE SAINT JAMES SOCIETY Unveils New Music Video “Reflections”
Austin Buzz Band Announces U.S. Tour Dates in Support of Debut EP
Austin, TX psychedelic garage rockers THE SAINT JAMES SOCIETY have signed with NYC’s Tee Pee Records and will release their self-titled debut The Saint James Society on February 7, 2012. Recorded at ATX’s Cacophony Recorders (The Black Angels, Explosions in the Sky, Roky Erickson), the four song EP delivers electric rock music that brilliantly connects the dots between the late ’60s British blues-based bands and the brooding atmosphere of early ’80s post punk resulting in a hypnotically powerful sound the fabulous five-piece has coined “Pentecostal Desert Glam“. Today, The Austin Chronicle premieres the quintet’s new music video “Reflections“, calling the band’s sound “three-mile-wide psych rock”. The video was lensed by Adam Schlender for Sneaky Giants Productions and was shot at east Austin night spot Cheer Up Charlie’s, deftly capturing THE SAINT JAMES SOCIETY‘s bombastic live performance. Check out TSJS’ “Reflections” video now (below)!
“We had no idea Adam was shooting video. I had invited him to come shoot stills for our press kit,” says THE SAINT JAMES SOCIETY vocalist / bassist Brandon Burkart. Then he just let the live feed rip and we were left with a tripped out video of an actual live performance. He was able to film what it feels like inside of our collective head. Talented guy…”
Review – Uncle Acid & The Dead Beats – Blood Lust
Don’t let the hipster-ish, vaguely Zodiac Mindwarp-ish band name mislead/ dissuade you: these guys write songs, actual complete songs, worth listening to.
After closely studying Bill’s “Best of 2011” list I got a bit hooked on this one.
“I’ll cut you down” sounds a bit like The Devil’s Blood, and “Over and Over Again” like something that would rock out the car speakers in your ’78 LTD– Kansas, or UFO even (anachronistically)… there’s a great main riff.
“Curse in the Trees” is a Satanic lysergic high, not unlike “Cornucopea” with Paul McCartney singing.
Melodically-speaking, this a bit like the White Album, actually– though what with the riffs and the Satantic content, it’s almost like The Dark Gray Album. (more…)
Heavy Pink, 7″ Vinyl
I can feel doom like Something under the sheets with bristles That stinks and moves Toward me…. “A Nice Day,” Charles Bukowski, Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame
From that Maple Forum label… home of those monsters Roareth, we get, bien sûr, this band… this band called Heavy Pink. Which, in all seriousness… well… I can’t go into it here. (more…)
Daily Bandcamp Album – Rotor – Festsaal Kreuzberg
We play instrumental rockmusic since 1998 and we’re THE Rotor from Berlin! “Be prepared for an astonishing piece of music!” (stonerrock.com) “This trio from Berlin makes an infernal intensive noise between old Kyuss, older eccentric US-indie-rock and very, very old psychedelic rumble.” (rockhard) “Attention! Neo-Hippies are at work.” (metal hammer)
Epic Album of The Week – 35007’s Liquid
Written By Ian Gerber
For The Soda Shop
35007 is an interesting psych/stoner band from The Netherlands. While they are definitely a psychedelic band in every sense of the term, they have a very pleasing modern take on psychedelia. These guys are in the same company as Red Sparrowes, Isis, Pelican, and Farflung. Sometimes they have vocals, sometimes they just make intense soundscapes, but they always space out. (more…)
Review – SuperGiant – Pistol Star
After a 3 year break in between albums, SuperGiant has released their latest album, Pistol Star. It’s been out for a few months now and I’ve had plenty of time to really listen to it and let it soak it in. The band is from Albuquerque, New Mexico which isn’t to far from southern California, home of some of the finest desert stoner rock known to all humankind. There’s no reason why SuperGiant can’t be mentioned in the same breath as Fatso Jetson, Kyuss or Yawning Man as they are just as good and just as talented. If you don’t believe me then I dare you to listen to Pistol Star.
Pistol Star is some fine desert rock with plenty of stoner rock and psychedelics sprinkled throughout. It’s heavy, the guitar riffs are haunting and crushing. The beat is mesmerizing and the vocals add to the whole aura of the album. I constantly found myself stomping my feet to the beat and (more…)
Review – Larman Clamor – Altars To Turn Blood
After 2 successful releases earlier in the year, Larman Clamor have released their latest full length album titled Altars To Turn Blood. For those of you new to the band, Larman Clamor are a two piece from Germany. They play a mixture of different styles including delta blues, lo-fi, garage, stoner, psychedelic and swamp rock.
Altars To Turn Blood channels some of the influences including ZZ Top, R.L. Burnside, Dr. John, Iron Butterfly, The White Stripes, Endless Boogie, early Monster Magnet, Clutch, Earth, Blackwolfgoat, and Creedence Clearwater Revival to name a few. It rocks hard and it’s also ambient and bluesy at the same time. The majority of the album is a bit more down tempo and mellow as is evident in tracks like “Handful of Hex,” “Altars To Turn Blood” and “Phantom & Rinosaur.” A few of the more upbeat songs are “Deep In The Tar” and “Limb Creek Boogie.” (more…)
Review – The Moss – Wulfram
Here’s an album that I listened to just now and thought that this is some bad ass stuff. The band is The Moss from Portland, OR. They’ve been together for a little over a year now and put out a 12 track “demo” titled Wulfram. If you remember last year, The Heavy Eyes recorded some songs and called it a “demo.” The Moss seem to be in that same boat as Wulfram doesn’t sound like a bunch of demos, it sounds like a full blown full length release. It sounds really really good too.
The Moss seem to play a unique brand of psychedelic blues with a lot of Sabbath inspired doom, plenty of great sounding riffs and some 70’s progressive hard rock ala Hard Stuff, Fuzzy Duck or Atomic Rooster. Vocally, Adam Burke does have a similar voice to Dylan Francis (The Suede Brothers). The album doesn’t rely heavily on effects and sound bits although there is a little bit of it. (more…)
Bandcamp Recommendations 10/13/2011
Welcome to another Bandcamp Recommendations. Lots of good stuff of course. I won’t take your time with the chatter (does anyone read this or skip to the music?). All free, support, support and support when you can!
Melon was founded by David Doyen and Shawn Pratzner in 2003 in Wilmington, Delaware originally operating as the homemade recording project “Throat Wobbler Mangrove and the Post Nasal Drips”, an eclectic mix of esoteric lo-fi goofy weirdness influenced by Frank Zappa and Mike Patton. The project slowly evolved into more psychedelic/punk/stoner rock territory and Melon was born. In 2005, they recruited drummer Ernest Goldner and bassist Chris Haug (Giant Bags of Weed, Take Down Your Art) and eventually started writing songs as a collective unit. Since that time they have recorded three EP’s (Drink of the Gods, Mirage, and A World of Monsters) and one full length titled “Never Eat on an Empty Stomach” as well as inclusion on the Delaware stoner rock compilation LP “Delaware Kills Everything” which also included Onita (members of Black Throat), Count Von Count, and Ape. Melon has been described as “a refreshing, exciting blend of stoner rock, psychedelic frequencies, noise and grunge that is all topped off with a weird set of quirks that makes it impossible to truly pigeonhole them into any exact corner.” – (hellridemusic.com)
Bandcamp Recommendations 9/22/2011
Another week, another Bandcamp Recommendation. All music is free. Some bands have a “Name your price” activated. If you dig the tunes, slip a few $$$ their way or buy some other merch from them.
Boston’s own Black Thai are first with their first EP release called Blood From On High. Those who are into heavy rock with doom and metal will like this.
Review – The Atlas Moth – An Ache For the Distance
I love the Atlas Moth– be forewarned. Previously reviewed here, here’s the newest wave of reasons why they’re awesome, and why their newest album, An Ache For The Distance, is balls awesome.
Music like this should give you a good feeling about life in the 21st century, specifically about its tolerance about merging art forms: even 20 years ago, you would never have been able to produce something as genre-mixed as this: best description is emo psychedelic minimalist doom metal.
It’s Pelican, if they got Mortuus (Marduk) and Morrissey (Smiths) to alternate as signers– and then only covered tunes by The Church.
It’s weird as hell and I dig it. And make sure you listen to it on headphones– to hear how the two guitars are at the extreme left and right of the sound field, and how they nearly always play different parts. Their guitar tones are somewhat unique: they use very little gain, but are detuned all the way to B (a fifth below standard).
You get melody (clean vocals alternate with shrieked metal ones), and weight– one guitar usually slogs out a dirgy riff while the other plays a melancholy or angry melody over top it. It’s a fascinating, complex aural experience.
I’m not suggesting anything to you, my impressionable viewers, but I would imagine, hypothetically, that one would do well to listen to this work while chemically-augmented.
Songs? The whole thing is great and works as whole album, rather than a collection of tunes. But if you make me, I’ll cherry-pick you these three: “Perpetual Generations” “Holes in the desert,” and closer “Horse Thieves.”
Go listen, then get it.
[An Ache For the Distance is released Sept. 20.]
Microreview: Ethereal Riffian, Shaman’s Visions
Black Sabbath, covered by a Sioux tribe in the early 19th century.
How…?
Wormholes, man… fucking wormholes….
Ethereal Riffian, chanunpa in hand, apparently beseeched wakan tanka around several–
Dig “Part II: Beyond (The Search)”:
Micro: Mainliner, Mellow Out
[Originally seen here.]
Here’s my theory about how Mainliner came into existence: Japanese heavy psych band, on LSD, in the middle of playing this lick from Hendrix’ “Purple Haze” [starting at 0:23]…
…were suddenly and violently killed, and Mellow Out is the EVP (electronic voice psychedelia) that results: a spectral, unexplainable, ceaseless repetition from somewhere, possibly beyond the grave, that collected on tape– the sound of a residual haunting over and over and over, like a poltergeist trying to wrest itself free of its mortal mooring… Poltergeist Rock.
Sloath hipped me to Mainliner during my interview with them.
CD: Riot Season records (the vinyl’s sold out), or
MP3s: Amazon
Review – Bloodiest – Descent
The debut full length from Chicago’s seven piece, Bloodiest, is a beast. The album is titled “Descent” and plays out like a cascading fall into a beautifully dark chasm. And I ain’t even gonna attempt to put their sound into a genre of metal.
We begin with “Fallen”, a perfect track to begin our descent. The vocals are haunting from a background distance. The smell of Doom lingers throughout. The guitars and drums are thick and grinding. A tinge of Wolves in the Throne Room for me. The track spins into psychedelic unforgiving cries. “Coh” swaggers into a spaghetti western piss drunk on whiskey laden blood. An atmospheric landscape that is as bleak as the hottest desert day. Beautifully bleak. The beauty of metal and rock is again expressed in “Pastures”. The tribal feel puts me on the edge of a ceremony. Witnessing the dark dance from just beyond the inner circle. (more…)
Review – Wizard Smoke – The Speed of Smoke
Via Sawtooth Wave:
Been looking forward to this one for awhile. I love new music Tuesday.
The Speed of Smoke is psychedelic sludge rock– a new musical permutation (emphasis on mutation): there’s definitely sludge here, and it’s assuredly psychedelic, yet sounds like rock, rather than metal. There’s as much hip-shaking as head banging. (more…)
March Bandness Is Coming
March is coming along and with it, besides the spring weather, college basketball starts their playoffs in the form of March Madness. Well in collaboration with Heavy Planet, The Soda Shop will be putting together our own March Madness called March Bandness. We’ve picked 64 bands and will have an elimination until we find the best band. The best part, everyone that visits will have a chance to vote for their favorites. Voting begins Sunday February 27th, 2011. (more…)
Bandcamp Recommendations 2/10/2011
Thursday has become somewhat of a weekly holiday of sorts. For most (not I), it marks one more full day until the weekend. One reason for making these recommendations on Thursdays is to prepare everyone musically for the weekend. Not everyone goes out for whatever reason so I present you with some good music to sit in and listen to for your weekend. Each recommendation is a free download and we encourage you to support the artists in any way possible by paying for a physical copy, tshirts, stickers, tickets, etc.
First up is a band from my hometown, the snowed in and sunny Chicago. The band is Verma. They play experimental, psychedelic, instrumanetal rock. This is a live and improvised session they played and recorded themselves. Pretty damn cool i you ask me. “”an epic slow burn headbanger” – Jon Graef, chicagoist
“Verma come across as a drunken, lumbering beast knocking down tress and crushing all on its path to who knows where.” – Ross Meyerson, Loud Loop Press
“…tranced out, drone-y, repetitious, atmospheric psych with some Hawkwind-esque synth textures over the top. Dare we compare them to an instrumental hybrid fo Can and Hawkwind? We dare.” – Lance Barresi, Permanent Records”
The Soda Shop Needs Help
As Jake posted on Facebook a few days ago, we’re looking for help. Him and I focus a lot on the rock side of things and we tend to neglegt the doom and sludge portion. Because of that we’re looking for a contributor or two to help add give those two other genres a little bit more exposure. Here is what we’re looking for:
Some writing experience preferred but not required. Please submit a few samples of your work. Samples may be cut and paste into an email, a URL or any other form.
We’re looking for people passionate about the doom and sludge genres of music. If you don’t absolutley love doom and sludge then still feel free to submit but keep in mind that doom and sludge is out top priority.
Must have both a Facebook and WordPress account. Knowledge of both also required. No HTML experience required but it certainly doesn’t hurt.
Contributors will be required to review doom and sludge albums and post the reviews on The Soda Shop blog and post links on The Soda Shop Facebook page. Whenever possible, post about doom and sludge related news onto the blog and Facebook page. Keep in mind, this is more or less done in your spare time. You put in what time you can and contribute as much as you can. We aren’t looking for someone that’s going to post something once every few months, please don’t bother if you’re that type.
Now this doesn’t pay money. We’re all as broke as the next person. We can pay you by giving you our thanks and from time to time, free music. Look at it as more of a way to unleash some of your creative side. We’re not as big as Rolling Stone so we don’t see they type of traffic and submissions they do. Perhaps with your help though we can get there.
After all that your still interested, well send an email to bill.goodman@thesodashop.us with your name and samples.
The Soda Shop 