Stoner Hive’s Quick Fire Friday

 

Stoner Hive’s Quick Fire Friday

We've arrived on yet another final Friday of the month and we are treated once again to a Quick Fire Friday all done in famous Ronny Dijksterhuis style! Which means, this will get hot and heavy from here on in! You ready? 

For old time's sake I'm listening to AC/DC's 'The Razor's Edge' for the first time in years. Cool riffage, memorable tunes, just the right amount of grit and best listened to when the volume is turned up to 11, decibel meters living in the red constantly, the risk of sound distortion and blown-up speakers lurking around the corner. Exactly what we aim for with Quick Fire Friday: destroying your sound system, your ears and your reputation as the perfect neighbour in one go, smashing your thirst (or what's left of it) for doing everything within the confinements of society's strive for political correctness to smithereens. Yes, this is another one of those moments to start the weekend the right way with a bunch of new, (un)known songs and forgotten gems. So, to speak with that AC/DC classic that's about to start right now while writing these very words: "Are you ready for a good time?". A rhetorical question of course, because I bet you are and I know you'll be as blown away as us by the goodies listed below.

 

Trance Bill - Violent Impulsive Primitive

Trance Bill (Rodolphe of Mud Spencer) unleashed a surprising debut album last year and is already back with a follow up. The EP, titled 'Violent Impulsive Primitive' is exactly that and brings his stonerized, surfed-up psych rock garage punk to another level, drenched in some of the nastiest fuzz you've ever heard. Another great release rising from the Indonesian soil.

Bandcamp

Facebook

 

 Freedom Run - Soul Eater

Also from Indonesia comes another solo project called Freedom Run, a name more likely than not taken from the Kyuss song with the same name. Some shoes to fill, but Ghifari Hakim delivers ear-shattering, groove-driven stoner metal with a doom undercurrent that hands out punch after punch without giving you any room to breathe for the entire running time of the four track debut EP 'Soul Eater'. Great stuff and maybe there's a possibility to see Freedom Run live at some point, given the fact there are two full band rehearsal video's on Hakim's YouTube page. As the slogan goes: to be continued...

Bandcamp

Youtube

Mauled - When Your Eyes Are Shut

We get into even heavier territory with Mauled's low-tuned blackened sludge that leapfrogs the act of throwing punches and aims straight for your throat with a spiked belt, choking you to submission while violently belting in your face, spit drooling from the mouth of death. Even though what's being said gets drowned in an overdose of indecipherable screams and growls, you will exactly know what to do: drop to your knees and bow to the lords of aggression before you get mauled even more.

Bandcamp

Homepage

Facebook

Instagram

Okay You Win – Smoke

'Smoke' is the lead single from 'End of Days', the upcoming debut album by London rockers Okay You Win. It's an organic blend of British metal from the eighties, nineties grunge and dusty desert rock, but above all a great song played to perfection as it flows smoothly from section to section, from head-nodding up-tempo grooves to moments of restraint and back again with a singer who can deliver the goods in every way. A stunning preview for what promises to be an incredible album if the other songs can match the quality of 'Smoke'.

Bandcamp

Facebook

Instagram

High Fade – Swamp

High Fade isn't a band that makes a lot of music fit for Stoner HiVe and on their new single 'Swamp' they start out as the funky rockband they are. But during the guitar solo it veers into heavy psych territory before ending with a damp, sweaty stoner groove. And all of that in less than three and a half minutes. I personally love this song and expect you might too.

Bandcamp

Facebook

Instagram

 

Pussy Miel - Don't Know

On their Bandcamp page these French ladies proclaim that Pussy Miel stands for the brute energy of punk, the heavy drowsiness of stoner and the sweet taste of honey. That more or less fits the bill, although the only real stoner song on their new ep 'Bee Raged' is the opening track titled 'Don't Know' - a very good song that shows they're at their best when laying down those catchy stoner grooves with a bit of female flair. Hopefully there'll be more of that in the future. But, to be fair and give them the credit they deserve, the other five songs aren't bad either (pretty good actually). If you like punk noise with a ragged edge from time to time, we highly recommend checking out the entire ep.

Bandcamp

Facebook

Instagram

 

Creek Devil - Boot Scootin' in Blood

Fuck, how could we at Stoner HiVe have missed out on Creek Devil's 'Boot Scootin' in Blood' EP way back in October 2025? Because this is some heavy southern stoner metal in the vein of Borgo Pass, Down and Corrosion of Conformity, coming at you like a supercharged bulldozer flattening the Appalachian Mountains in their home state of Tennessee while wielding bottles of illegal liquor and shooting at the hats of innocent bystanders with a Colt .45. Oh yeah, their take on ZZ Top's 'Tush' is damn fine too.

Bandcamp

Facebook

Instagram

BLKE – Heat

Last year Berlin-based British band BLKE surprised us with their debut EP 'Living Without Expectations' consisting of five noise and psych rock songs skirting the borders of kraut. It's no  surprise they got picked up by the famed Tonzonen Records where you can find the best of the best in the German music scene. 'Heat' is a repetitive, hypnotic, mind-bending psychedelic krautrock masterpiece and the second single from their upcoming full length album, simply titled BLKE, set for release in May 2026.

Bandcamp

Facebook

The Heavy Eyes - Troublesome Priest

The Heavy Eyes from Memphis, Tennessee have always been kind of an up and down affair. Sometimes playing heavy, fuzzed-out bluesy stoner that bursts with energy, but ever so often missing the mark when the spark isn't quite there. Therefore we were over the moon hearing their brand new single 'Troublesome Priest'. One of their grittiest tunes where the blues growls, the desert fuzz stings and the muddy swamp sucks you in. A burning hot appetiser for their new album 'Focus' (street date: June 12th 2026).

Bandcamp

Homepage

Facebook

Instagram

Phantom Logic – Glyphwave

And to round things off, here's something you've all been waiting for without knowing it. Just a few days ago Glory or Death Records announced the debut album from Phantom Logic by releasing the single 'Glyphwave'. Heavy psychedelic rock with a hint of stoner and a freedom that brings to mind the greatest jam bands in the history of mankind. Not strange considering Isaiah Mitchel from Earthless is one of the band members. And to arguably give an even more accurate description of what's on offer here, let's cite the promo poster for the album: this is "beauty and chaos, held together by guitars". We couldn't have said it any better.

Bandcamp

Instagram

 

 

 

 

KrashKarma on tour!

 

 

KrashKarma on tour! 

Later this year, the KrashKarma two will return to Europe for a wild two month tour through France, Austria, Spain and hitting almost every city in Germany! But at the end of April and begin of May they will do a mini tour through Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. And yes, my hometown is among the dates! On the 3rd of May they will be crashing into The Jack in Eindhoven! 

And wild is an understatement! Two people, somehow sounding like five, hurling drums, riffs and vocal chaos straight into your face, Niki Skistimas soaring one moment, Ralf Dietel growling from the basement the next! It’s a volatile cocktail of modern metal swagger, that combines their powerful drums and energetic guitar with that striking vocal contrast to something that becomes larger than life. Just go back to their last Falling To Pieces album from 2023 and hear the proof that a duo can sound incredibly massive and keep listeners curious for more and for how they sound live on stage. Unbelievably loud, dynamic, unpredictable, explosive and weirdly addictive! Yes, very curious how they deliver it all on stage! May 3rd, The Jack, Eindhoven! 

KRASHKARMA On Tour:

30.04. St.Wendel - Irish Pub (GER)
01.05. Diest - Hell On Air (BE)
02.05. Essen - Don’t Panic (GER)
03.05. Eindhoven - Cafe the Jack (NL)
02.10. Romans-Sur-Isère - La Cordonnerie (FR)
03.10. Saint-Just - Just’n’Fest (FR)
08.10. Kortrijk - DVG Club (BE)
10.10. Savigny-Le-Temple - L’Empreinte (FR)
14.10. Grenoble - L'Ampérage (FR)
16.10. Montpellier - The Oliver Pub (FR)
20.10. Barberaz - Brin de Zinc (FR)
27.10. Wiesbaden - Kesselhaus (GER)
28.10. Würzburg - Keller Z87 (GER)
29.10. Lindau - Club Vaudeville (GER)
30.10. Balingen - Sonnenkeller (GER)
31.10. Emmendingen - JuZe (GER)
03.11. Nürnberg - Z-Bau (GER)
06.11. Wien - Arena (AT)
07.11. Schongau - Reaktor (GER)
10.11. Marburg - KFZ (GER)
11.11. Oberhausen -Druckluft (GER)
12.11. Hamburg - Stage 15 (GER)
13.11. Hannover - Mephisto (GER)
14.11. Eisenhüttenstadt - Schleichers (GER)
17.11. Leipzig - Hellraiser (GER)
18.11. Kassel - Subterrain (GER)
20.11. Schwerte - Rattenloch (GER)
21.11. Berlin - Wild at Heart (GER)
23.11. München - Backstage (GER)
26.11. Zweibrücken- Gasthaus Sutter (GER)
27.11. Stuttgart - Goldmarks (GER)
28.11. Ulm - Beteigeuze (GER)
05.12. Gran Canaria (SP)

Homepage

Facebook

Bandcamp

Instagram

Desert Colossus – Apparatus

 

Desert Colossus – Apparatus
Self-released – 2026
Stoner, Rock, Metal, Sludge
Rated: *****

We fell in love with Desert Colossus the moment we heard their Golfshoes track for the very first time. I guess that was some ten years ago. And since then we’ve been lucky to see them live a couple of times and always felt justified in our love for these cats. Cause they’ve always done it all in their own singular way and with a dose of energy, fun and humor that is hard to come by. And now there’s proof once again that they do everything however they want and however they feel like. For they just unceremoniously dropped a bombshell of a record called Apparatus on March 1st without sending out promos beforehand or calling out to a record label for aid with this stunning album. That’s how they roll and have been rolling ever since they put on them Golfshoes… 

But this time around it’s serious business, they’ve realized they have their own style, are highly accomplished in what they do and should dispel with trying to make light of it. There’s still fun and humor, textually, musically, but it’s all served with such fervor and zeal, that you can’t help but be entirely swept off your feet from first opening track Hermit till final song Come Forth…

Most of the songs have this stand out vocal part that is bound to drag every listener along, hook, line and sinker. This is the ear worm kind that will surely get the crowd a grooving or the listener at home to scream that sentence out loud. Whether it’s the swing in Sweet Cherries Hang Low, the with Komatsu in mind line “My shit smells savage” during Feel Me Up or the absolute brilliant ending to the chorus of Black Out, “I knew her name and now it’s gone…” And those are just a few of the lyrical, vocalized gems found on Apparatus. Which you know will be there from that very first opening line: “You should see me now, nothing’s in my way” in Hermit. But it has so much more… 

For they have upped their game in every aspect, turning the Desert Colossus sound into something leviathan would quiver and quake for! You can almost feel the veil lift, the curtain rise, as Hermit starts with a slow-burning desert vision, which just rolls on towards the horizon on towering waves of fuzz. The riffs stretch wide and heavy, pulsing with hypnotic and powerful intent. The grooves man, they swing big and have you lusting for that swaggering motion and that more ritualistic desert churn. Or take that thick distortion and off center rhythmic approach, during Hermit, the different sections, giving it all that restless spirit edge. In synch with all that opening song wants to be. 

Most of it was recorded during the pandemic and afterwards mastered by Karl Daniel Liden, giving the highly dynamic and versatile album that extra push, stomp and cohesive ability. That open aired beginning of Three Eyed Fox, slowly edging through the hallway, before coming to the punch in the face and the carpet pull. And as you fall backwards through the second slow and spacious melody part, you feel a smile creeping through every fiber of your being, because you fall in love with all the creativity displayed. A bit of grunge here or punk there, or a mirror image of Red Fang for an instant. 

But on other tracks they let the melody take flight, first drifting through some thick distortion, turning misty as rhythms shift shape and then, as the passages open into spacious elevations, they fly away… Before snapping back with a bite! Entirely immersive, balancing raw grit with so much fun and awe inspiring hooks, this is a Desert Colossus on the absolute top of their game. I cannot wait to see them live again and shout along. Cause over here, next to the record player, with the album on repeat, every run again, another mile deeper into a vast, echoing landscape, that never lets me go, I am starting to feel like that Hermit… But… “I’m not crazy, I will never be alone again…”

(Written by JK)

Bandcamp

Facebook

Instagram

Desert Colossus – Eyes And Tongues

Desert Colossus – Desert Colossus

 

Yeast Machine – Bad Milk

 

 

Yeast Machine – Bad Milk
Noisolution – 2026
Rock, Stoner, Grunge, Alternative 
Rated: *****

Love the vocals and the way they let them hang, love the Queens of The Stone Age vibes and how they ferment into something intoxicating and very much their own. Love the new album Bad Milk by Yeast Machine. I mean, there’s no need to beat around anything here, they’ve delivered an amazing album that marries a grunge edge to the stoner rock sound of the first Californian boom. And then spice it up with something pop sensible and groovy, or even extremely danceable like the middle track and paradoxically titled Dust On The Radio…

But that’s what it often feels like, Dust On The Radio, some late night transmission, shadowy and smudged with distortion, but pulsing with live. Across the record the band pull you through all these different scenes, sudden eruptions of noise that collapse into hushed, smokey reflection, then rise again into something bold and unshakably alive. Chaotic yet intimate. 

Opening in the desert, with immediate movement and restless, hook driven energy. And as the broadcast continues, the atmosphere deepens, darkens, and emotion seems to linger longer, and the edge feel more frayed and worn. And during the final stretch of the record you feel it tighten its grip until everything spill out in a raw and cathartic release. And as dawn rises, you feel like you’ve moved with them and through something lived-in and electric. Messy, entirely honest and impossible to forget. Like the taste of... 

(Written by JK)

Homepage

Bandcamp

Facebook

Instagram

Noisolution

Stoner HiVe’s Top 10 Most Listened Artists Last Week…

 

 

Stoner HiVe’s 
Top 10 Most Listened Artists Last Week…

Corrosion of Conformity
Desert Colossus
Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows
Witchfang
Earth Tongue
Borracho
Hallusinoid
Star Beast
Motorpsycho
Urlaub In Polen

It’s a weird Monday. It always is of course. But when you are still not nowhere near a 100 % (you never are of course) after a bout with the flu, it even feels weirder. Sorry for the lack of updates, but I got felled on Thursday night and could barely operate on Friday. And after that I got only worse. But here we are and the brain fog and fever has turned into a mist and a few degrees. So onwards and upwards. Well. Soon. We’ve got a few reviews almost done, so those will surely see the light of day this week. Unless the plague comes back… 

Luckily we had Steve De Rique aka Stevie Reek deliver a cool blurb for the Starf**K Electric Company release and we managed to promote the Doom Charts Peroration. Did any of you visit the Peroration? Did you find a new favorite album? Did you find the missing album art in the Peroration Header image? And a couple sentences about the new Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows appeared last week as well. But of course, our main attention went out to the FULL ALBUM PREMIERE we were honored to do for that amazing Bad Mothers Union album Sore Losers! Go visit all of those and the Top 10 Most Listened albums list and you will surely have a grand old time! And I’m sure that will be the case for me as well… Soon… Very soon! 

Starf**K Electric Company - Light Years Ahead

 

 

Starf**K Electric Company - Light Years Ahead
Self-released – 2026
Krautrock, Space Rock, Psychedelia
Rated: 
 

Dave Pitt, the legend behind Black Country groups such as Poppyfields and Falcons Of Haunt returns with a new project Starf**K Electric Company and a shimmering sonic onslaught of 70's-drenched Krautrock/Space/Psych called "Light years ahead": A double album of extended excursions into the Mycelian realm. At times reminiscent of early Hawkwind and Can; but also revealing later influences such as Yoo Doo Right and Oh Sees, the four tracks offer up a cornucopia of rampant retro rock that should tickle the fancies of all Space Cadets everywhere!

(Written by Steve De Rique aka Stevie Reek)

Bandcamp

The Doom Charts Peroration - February 2026

 

The Doom Charts Peroration 

February 2026

“Sitting on a corn flake
Waiting for the van to come
Corporation T-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday
Man you’ve been a naughty Doom Charts
You let your face grow long
I am the…“
~ probably misheard lyrics The Beatles

Even though it’s not Easter yet… We are the Egg men! As some of you probably realized, we always use all the album covers for the monthly Peroration header art. Well… Below, we feature 25 amazing albums straight out of the heavy underground. All worth every minute of your time. On the header image though, only 24 are featured. What?! Well.. Find out what album is missing, and then send us an email or a PM on the Doom Charts Facebook page through with the solution. The first ten to send an email or message will get a bandcamp code for that album! Happy hunting and listening!

We're gonna try to mention the Peroration Post on Stoner HiVe on a monthly basis as well, for the Doom Charts deserve it. The Contributors deserve it. And most of all, the bands and their albums deserve it! And this time around, once again, no less than 11 of those blurbs were written by one of the crazies that occasionally writes for the HiVe... So, go read up on Rob Zombie, Riastrad, Oreyeon, Motorpsycho, Mientras Las Abejas Duermen, India Tigers In Texas, It It Anita, Earth Tongue, Druid Stone, Dirty Dwarfs and Black Toaster... And of course all those other ones! 

 

The following are professions of love and adoration by Doom Charts Contributors for albums they could not stop spinning. Each month, the Doom Charts critics submit their picks for the best new doom, sludge, metal, stoner, psychedelic and other sorts of heavy rock and metal albums. The results are compiled and tabulated into the chart which is published on the First Friday of the new month. However, sometimes a love is so great, but for whatever reason the album unfortunately did not make the published Doom Charts Edition or because there were so many contributors in love with that one album, that multiple blurbs were written, and only the one got published… Well, you can peruse that love here…

The Doom Charts Peroration - February 2026

FULL ALBUM PREMIERE - Bad Mothers Union - Sore Losers

FULL ALBUM PREMIERE 

Bad Mothers Union - Sore Losers

We mentioned it on Monday. Stoner HiVe is doing another FULL ALBUM PREMIERE this week! And the time is now! We're honored to present to you the new release by BAD MOTHERS UNION! It's called Sore Losers and was already hinted at during a Quick Fire Friday session hosted by Ronny Dijksterhuis. He mentioned the first two singles and wrote: "March 19th sees the release of Bad Mothers Union's new Album 'Sore Losers'. January delivered the first preview through the twisted and slightly alienating heavy psych song 'God's Intercom'. This month these Irishmen treat us to another tune of the album, a mystical, dragging, dark, drawn-out yet exiting experimental psychedelic trip called 'Cut in Half'. God knows how the other tracks will sound, but I for one am more than eager to find out because both previews are killer."

Well, somewhere between a rehearsal room sweat-fog and a cosmic transmission beamed out of Wefxord, Bad Mothers Union’s Sore Losers detonates like a crate of amps tumbling down a pub cellar staircase. Part of the unruly Irish underground currently kicking up dust in basements across the country, the record rides a lazy motorik pulse into long, hallucinated jams where guitars spiral, drums hammer and feedback blooms like neon moss on damp brick. Think the jagged noise of Sonic Youth colliding with the garage-psych ferocity of Thee Osees after three days without sleep. Five tracks, played loud, loose and gloriously alive. 

And the time truly is now! For right now, you can hear the full album in full force, from the over twenty minutes long opener Jerusalem Jones, sprawling in scope and wonderful in all its meandering psychedelic flow. The one-minute long punk and noisy Bad Mothers Union outcry and battle statement. The two singles and almost eighteen minute long final track Golden O. A tour de force that starts somewhere in a deep cosmic fog, where it slowly drifts forth, like a languid psychic broadcast from the outer edges of a jam heavy galaxy. Fuzz guitars hum, delays scream and a stubborn snare drum keeps the track steady while the music spirals outwards through eastern tinged psychedelic trance infusion before touching down in a rainy back alley cul de sac somewhere in the dubious Murrintown part of Wexford, Ireland... Amazing album! Sore Losers is a winner! 

Sore Losers comes out Camellia Sinensis Records on March 19th, but you can hear it right here, righ now!  

You know what to do, press play below and get lost with Bad Mothers Union!  

 

 PR Wire:

A whirling dervish of unbridled self-expression Bad Mothers Union unleash torrents of euphoric kraut-psych-rock as they reach to the heavens on their new album ‘Sore Losers’. Established in Kilkenny, Ireland by front man Conor Kavanagh, during Bad Mothers Union existence they have focused on forging a community of like-minded individuals, bands and artists with the view that no crowd or venue is too small. Driven by the unshakeable need to share their artistic vision with the world. Eschewing the standard approach to membership the band act as a musical collective, thriving on collaboration and what each player’s voice brings to their sonic tapestry. Building on the success of two highly successful singles ‘God’s Intercom’ and ‘Cut in Half’ which caught the sharpened ears of Hot Press, IMRO, First Music Contact, Pure M Zine, Blowtorch Records, Blackmarket Playlists amongst other, new album ‘Sore Losers’ is a 5 song sonic exploration of the musical relationship between the band members. The blistering results of people, live, in a room playing music together. Speakers pushing air, cymbals crashing and drums exploding as they ring an unbridled expression of themselves from their instruments. Hypnotic, trance inducing rhythms, are juxtaposed against celestial spiralling guitars or swathes of noise and feedback punctuated by samples of mundane everyday life. All at once, the songs are a reflection of the world the band live in and pull the inner world out for all to hear. It feels organic, it feels real, unpretentious, unapologetic and absolutely vital in Ireland’s music scene today.

Eschewing the standard approach to membership the band act as a musical collective, thriving on collaboration and what each player’s voice brings to their sonic tapestry. The current line-up is Conor Kavanagh (vocals/guitar), Shay English (bass), James O’Neill (drums/percussion), Céin O’Dowd (guitar/bouzouki) and Ethan Corcoran (synth/bass/vocals) while Shay English (bass/vocals/guitar), Joel Pitcher (guitar/bass/vocals), Michael Lanigan(guitar/bass/vocals) and Aaron Harbourne(drums/percussion) all contributed to the album alongside Conor Kavanagh. Drawing on influences musical and beyond the band cite Sonic Youth, Thee Osees, Mogwai and Melvins with some David Lynch adding a surrealist twist to the expansiveness of their music.

The album opens with ‘Jerusalem Jones’ and quickly establishes the mood for the album. Clocking in at 20 minutes and change, the band aren’t here to make radio friendly unit shifters or interested in bending to some algorithmic idea of what music should be. The song builds organically as if unfolding before us for the first time. Bass and drums lock in from the start as a hypnotic bass line keeps the track tethered to Earth, while drums give the track its drive, subtle changes in rhythm push parts forward and dictate the flow of energy. This solid foundation gives the guitars the time and space to explore multiple melodic ideas as they build to crescendo and pull back, or double down and ascend to further celestial heights. Music like this is designed to give you space to think, to let your mind wander and conjure up images that accompany the spiraling music. Reminiscent of bands like Earthless or Sleep, there’s a vastness to ‘Jerusalem Jones’ that just isn’t achievable in 4 minutes with a verse, chorus, verse structure.

Second track ‘BMU’ takes a complete 180. It’s all over before it’s began as the track burns past in under a minute a half. Musically, perhaps the only track to ever feature a Gnasher impression, reference Desperate Dan and then descend into noise rock/hardcore. The lyrics are described as the band’s mission statement, repeated until the tracks die into a fury of feedback and chorus pedals. Similar to a long lost Nirvana track you might find on an Outcestide compilation, crafted in some dank Seattle basement before Nevermind hit, unself-conscious and unpretentious.

‘God’s Intercom’ was initially conceived during a jam session, fittingly, in a Methodist Church in Kilkenny. From the outset ‘God’s Intercom’ is explosive, a single chord and a machine gun snare roll are all the introduction given before the band open the gates to the fury within. Aaron's drums propel the track forward, while guitars swirl around each other, untethered like a wild rudderless rocket. We are giving some breathing space as the track drops down enough for Conor to intone ‘It was Christmas Day, pissing rain, Jammy called once again, Were those the days before the crash?’. He says the lyrics are stream of consciousness, borne out of the track evolving over many jams and many live shows, but pull in characters from his youth, coupled with insecurities, and self-doubt mixed with reminiscence about teenage boredom. There’s no ‘verse/chorus/verse’ here as the track naturally ebbs and flows, guitar melodies rise and fall, and unexpected hand claps remind people it’s cool to dance as we build to crescendo and before dropping down to recharge. The track features Peer Pleasure’s Brandon Murphy on vocals during the staccato middle section who’s lines ‘I've been looking at you while you've been laughing at me and I've been laughing at you this whole entire time.’ seem like how the conversation with God might actually go, should he ever answer that intercom. Elsewhere on the track Fiachra Carey plays saxophone, who, when recording his takes decided to dress like a member of ska legends, Madness. Because, of course.

Penultimate track ‘Cut in Half’ explores some of the bands more experimental post punk leanings. When the track was written, Michael Lanigan instructed Aaron to play a simple beat ad infinitum allowing the band to swirl around it. Making full use of the three guitars, as the track progresses they intertwine and melt together, becoming almost impossible to discern who is playing what. String scrapes become an essential part of the language for the track, creating tension as the band pulse behind. Sounding like signals captured from space, delayed guitars seem in conversation with each other as the two bass lines, act as an anchor and alternately adding to the chaos. During the recording, Shay, suffering from a bout of illness and without realizing the tape was rolling, in his frustration took to smashing his bass off the floor, creating an accidental new layer of noise for track. This unadulterated approach to song writing and recording is central to Bad Mothers Union, moving at the speed of inspiration the band aren’t hindered by more traditional ‘rock & pop’ approaches.

Closing out the album is ‘Golden O’, which acts almost as a sister song to ‘Jerusalem Jones’, two sides of the same coin. Originally conceived as an intro to another song, with the main riff played backwards, it outlasted it’s original home and grew into something of its own. Unhurried in allowing the music to find its way, there’s a heavy pschy influence here with more than an air of eastern mysticism. The track pulls you into it’s deep hypnosis, as the ever morphing guitars guide you through the trance. Small, subtle changes grow and build into new ideas that blossom into another and into another. There are any number of sounds that rise up and fall away, delays that sound like signals screaming to Earth from space, fuzz guitars that whirr away under the track, the ever-present snare drum keeping you from losing yourself to the viscous atmosphere. The track ends with an acoustic guitar and the final haunting tones that bring us back down to earth.

‘Sore Losers’ is representative of Bad Mothers Union as a musical entity, in that, it is an unrelating infinite spiralling force of energy. Unperturbed by what the outside world may think. This is music that needs to be created, that could not be kept inside and speaks to both worldly and celestial forces. Bad Mothers Union create moments of transcendence, sounds to get lost in, a blissful euphoria all concocted by a voice, drums, bass, guitar and some ska saxophone. A band that remains true to themselves and in that create their own gravitational pull. ‘Sore Losers’ feels like only a glimpse into the wider world of Bad Mothers Union.

 

Tour Dates: 

March 20th / Album Release Show / The Green Door, New Ross w/ Scalder & Redder Herring 

March 21st / The Watchtower, Drogheda / headline w/ Relics & Amadán

April 3rd / The Dock, Carrick on Shannon w/ Mark + Luke 

April 10th / Lost Lane, Dublin / supporting Unsane

April 18th / Hackett’s, Kilkenny / support from Star Comedy Democrats, Reckless Tony & Amateur Pharmacy

April 23rd / Fred Zeppelins, Cork / supporting Tide7 w/ Rafters

May 6th / Fibber Magees, Dublin / supporting Goblinz w/ The Romboids

July 25th / Volume Records & Books, Dun Laoghaire w/ Slouch

August 7th / Bennigans, Derry w/ Deoch

August 8th / Ryan’s, Kilkenny w/ Oracle Villa

August 21st / The Ol’ 55, Galway

 

Bandcamp

Facebook

Instagram

Spotify

Soundcloud

 LinkTree