The Atomic Bitchwax, Valley of the Sun, and Borracho - Live at Hill Country Barbecue, Washington DC

 

 

The Atomic Bitchwax, Valley of the Sun, and Borracho - Live at Hill Country Barbecue, Washington DC – March 20th, 2022

What better way to close out a weekend than with loads of live fuzz. Local DC venue Hill Country Barbecue put on a show for the ages with the rock-solid lineup of hometown heroes Borracho, Ohio riff slingers Valley of the Sun, and the garden state's own legendary The Atomic Bitchwax.

Borracho kicked the doors open with their trademark rolling, gargantuan grooves, treating the audience to a sneaky preview from their upcoming album before time traveling backwards through their discography. Cuts from last year's "Pound of Flesh" lead the way, with "Holy Roller" and "It Came From the Sky" inducing head-nodding trances that would last through the set's end. Deeper cut "Empty" showed 2013's "Oculus" some righteous love, and throwback high speed ripper "Concentric Circles" helped close things out with a kick in the ass.

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In the unenviable position of following Borracho and opening for a certain TAB, Ohio's Valley of the Sun took the stage with years of well-earned confidence and proceeded to throw an absolute banger of a party. Frontman Ryan Ferrier's soaring vocals and gruff growls ushered in the Valley's grungy, desert-tinged stoner and slapped on the crowd's dancing shoes. Highlights like hit track "Hearts Aflame" from "The Sayings of the Seers" brought the Monster Magnet vibes with walls of fuzz, and the welcome toe-tapping QOTSA riffage of "Land of Fools" was a homerun.

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Finally, enter headliners The Atomic Bitchwax. Being a longtime fan and first-time show-goer, it's an understatement to say anticipation was through the roof, and the sentiment was shared. Band members in the crowd from both the opening acts and local groups spoke in awe of the sight we were about to behold, and hot damn we were not disappointed. Chris Kosnik and crew greeted the crowd with easygoing cheer and big grins, and promptly went to work melting faces clean off.  Cut after cut of auditory adrenaline shots were hammered out at breakneck speed, opening with the bawdy screams of "Hope You Die" and classics like "Houndstooth" and "Liv A Little". Not to mention the audience was blessed with not one, but two songs about kung fu. The high point of the night, however, was without question the display of top musicianship that is "War Claw". Every bassist in attendance craned for a look at the blur of fingers that was Chris Kosnik's right hand, and no one said it better than Borracho's own Mario Trubiano: they shouldn't be allowed to be that good. Mind blown.

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The Doom Chart for August 2020

Doom Charts

    “We must become so alone, so utterly alone, that we withdraw into our innermost self. It is a way of bitter suffering. But then our solitude is overcome, we are no longer alone … And suddenly we find ourselves in the midst of the world, yet undisturbed by its multiplicity, for our innermost soul we know ourselves to be one with all being.” ~ Hermann Hesse

… our huge world has shrunk to the size of a pea! Our social contacts are limited to a cool “one square meter distance ritual”! Our bathroom mirror meets us daily as our only friend! We crave for variety in shimmering colors, while we put the oil sardine tin in the metal bent shopping cart! … The self-made hermit goes home frightened! – alone… alone? … alone with ourselves? Ey, a grinning monster sits on our shoulder and gloatingly whispers in our ear: “You are alone with your thoughts, your feelings, with the fears of your soul and there is no escape, mate!“ And this mean monster is exactly the one we fear most, isn’t it? All these years we have made the greatest effort to cloud the view of this monster with the razor-sharp eyes, with journeys around the world, social activities and escape into everything that could distract us!

And now we crumble, under it’s gaze to sawdust, because we CANNOT FLEE!!

Dude, knock the dust out of your self-cut hair and shake the sawdust out of your bulging pockets! You are not alone! You have a friend, the monster with the razor-sharp eyes! Take on the wild ride with your new stranger friend, dude and spit with it neon-colored ash rain on this pea world! ~ Mel Lie & Her Monster

Mel Lie and Her Monster… I want to meet them both even more now! Ye gods, what a screed! Crazy, wicked, wild and poetic! Just like those albums on the new August edition of the Doom Charts! All of them are equally stunning; but personal favorite at this moment in time are the deserved Numero Uno: Psychlona! Man, what an album! But we’ve been getting crazy on the new Motorpsycho, Hydra, Black Elephant, Blues Pills, Kitchen Witch, Temple, The Atomic Bitchwax and Volcanova! Volcanova and their Radical Waves album will surely end up higher next month! But hey; it’s just the tip of the heavy rock ice berg! There is even more awesomeness out there!

Welcome to Doom Charts, representing some of the finest bloggers, journalists, radio, podcasters and album reviewers from the heavy underground around the globe.  Each month, our critics submit their picks for the best new doom, sludge metal, stoner-psychedelic and heavy rock albums.  The results are compiled and tabulated into the chart below.  This is a one-stop shop for the best new albums in the world…

The Doom Chart for August 2020

The Atomic Bitchwax – Force field

The Atomic Bitchwax – Force field

Tee Pee Records – 2018

Rock, Hard, Metal, Stoner

Rated: *****

They're calling out to you, but are they cool enough for you? I would have to say absolutely. The Atomic Bitchwax's new album Force Field is an awakening of grand proportions, period. . . . If you liked their previous album Gravitron, then force field is for you! It's like Gravitron squared. The songs are well crafted, the playing is awesome and the production is on point. But just a tad more on this album than any former. If I had to pick my favorite song on the whole album it would be Shell Of A Man. It's what I like to call a ‘driving song’. It makes you want to get in an indie car and go full boar 200 mph. And the song Alaskan Thunder F!#* is balls to the wall progressive style metal riffing on fire. I'm not sure if they're adding extra octane to the water in Jersey these days but something is definitely a foot. And I'm not sure who is the majority writer of their songs, but they get better with every record. Probably Pantella. The Drummer is usually the most talented guy in the band, but no one knows it (wink) BoB... But you have to give a nod to all three band mates. Finn and Kosnik both rip! And vocally this is the best album to date. If you love hard rock get Force Field on December 8th!

(Written by Charlie Tooth)

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Number 6

Number 6

“All the good cakes have already been eaten by people with wigs and stuff.” ~ Frank Zappa

A massive jump of fourteen points takes us up to Number 6. A band that made the list at Number 7 back in 2011 and the absolute Numero Uno according to Charlie Tooth. So let’s let him do the talking. “I ask you, how can a band like this not make the list? That's right, no way in hell it wouldn't! This year’s release is kick ass, bad ass and downright dirty. Ten tracks of unadulterated bliss, from Sexecutioner right to the pop savvy Ice Age Hey Baby. This trio is a bands band in every sense of that statement. Pantella, Ryan and Kosnik all shine on this record. For a band that has been around well over a decade the shit just keeps getting better. And have you ever seen a bassists fingers eat lighting and crap thunder like Kosnik's do? (Sorry, I had to fit that in. Hahaha) Thank you for another awesome atomic release.” Fourteen points above Kadavar on Number 7 we find on Number 6 ...!

The Atomic Bitchwax – Gravitron

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The awesome cake above courtesy of the boys from . . . . . :    Freedom Hawk.

Who made the list at Number 16 this year and baked the cake above for the 6th birthday of one of their sons. Best of late birthday wishes for the little man and thanks to Freedom Hawk for sharing the awesome picture. As well as their awesome new album!

Number 7

“这些人是易爆的象原子弹!”

"These guys are explosive like an atom bomb! "

Number 7

Flirting with progressive and symphonic rock, offering up seemingly musical anarchy, dishing out the best of psychedelic waves, serving hardrock from the sixties and seventies and glazing it all with a nice layer of stoner and a hefty groove to put out a prime example of free rock for all to hear and appreciate. One track, no more, no less. But one track of pure blissful madness and seemingly endless adventures. Over fifty impossibly sweet riffs, unparalleled basswork and a drummer with more variation then the amount of animals on planet earth and still functioning as the glue that holds it all together. It’s grooving to a high musical wave, destined for far away lands and forever rolling and gushing and crashing. It’s so good it’s almost a criminal act not to be swept of your feet by this record. So you’d better get on board; otherwise you might get arrested by the fuzz, local or otherwise…

The Atomic Bitchwax - The Local Fuzz