C, as he is
known and only wants to divulge to everyone out there is a new member to the
team. He has little time to review, write or do much else for that matter. He
makes music for a living and will only once in a while send a review our way.
Be warned; he is weird and will use his words carefully and with prejudice. As
you can judge yourself by his first review above…
A new drummer and a new name. Austrian trioCachimbo De Paz smoked their last pipe a while back and then started a new
unholy fire and growled out loud: Lucifer Baby! And with this new identity
comes new music, a seven inch named The Walls / The Spell is out there; looking
to kick up dust and wreak havoc. And where Cachimbo was all about the groove,
the fuzz and its sunny side their new incarnation is darker and sounds more
evil. In part due to the vocals; which are even browner and perhaps weirder. It’s
the voice we also heard in the Cachimbo track Stare Into The Sun. There it took
a moment getting used to; and on the new single it is wilder a little less
growly and it makes The Walls close in even faster. And then there’s that
second voice in the back during the ‘hey Lucifer’ chorus; I would definitely
love to have that explored more. It sounds haunting and excellent. Even so; the
vocals are only used to ride the waves of a rattling bass and drums that can
fill every little gap just as easy as letting the compositions breathe. It
gives these songs a blueish color; something melancholic or mournful at times
or gives it the speed and weight to have you live in the moment and forget your
troubles. Which is exactly what the guitar does as well; it is also the
instrument that tries to let a little light in when it all becomes too gloomy.
Lucifer Baby, they make you crazy baby…
Made up from bands like Shinin Shade, Calendula and Caronte the members wanted to make something simple, fast and raw. And when the night turned dark and the clock passed midnight they poured some whisky on their instruments and there it was: Black Gremlin. On their debut album Rock And Raw they go for the gusto and aim for speed. This is powerful and dirty stuff; meant for the concrete jungle and worn down parts of town. Big guitars and huge drums; wicked vocals and a rumbling bass. Indeed; Black Gremlin has all of that and might be heralded as a new hard rock biker sensation. Cause the riffs shine like filthy chrome once again and the vocalist runs flat out through the eye of a beer can and up your daughter’s leg with no quarter asked and none given. Like a few of the great motor bands before them, Black Gremlin is here to show the squares some class and give’m a whiff of those kicks they’ll never know…
For those of you who like me adore Mr. Catching and the Rancho De La Luna studio which is becoming more famous by the day know the story of the African trio Red Huxley. Formed in the year of our lord 2009 the boys quickly released a first EP and followed that up with the My Own Way EP in 2012. The story gets wild, crazy and amazing after that. The Cape Town rockers, thanks to a simple phone call, manage to sneak their way backstage after an Eagles Of Death Metal concert and hand Mr. Catching their music. Not knowing if anything will ever come from this they truck on in their rehearsal space. But Mr. Catching calls and asks them to record their debut album in Rancho De La Luna. So they start a Kickstarter campaign and actually raise the dough so they can head on over to Palm Desert. There they spend two weeks at the Rancho and record the eleven tracks on their full-sized debut named Nothing More. It’s a rocky blues album with twitches of Americana and an extremely open spaced atmosphere. Think of a mix of Black Keys, Foo Fighters, Audioslave, Masters of Reality and Queens of The Stone Age; but without ever sounding like them for more than a couple of seconds. They have managed to capture the essence of what makes those bands sound like they do and transformed it into something lighter, sandier, earthier and simpler. Perhaps it’s their laidback African spirit but it manages to induce a tranquil state of peace and the knowledge that all and everyone is connected in some way. And then the boys really pick up steam at the end of the record with great tracks like Black Hole Waiting, Out Of Time and Coming Home. Indeed; Good ol’ fashioned rock ‘n roll; something to drink good beer to and laugh as the sun sets and the mosquitos come out to play…
Moving ever forward towards the great musical past, getting richer by the album and deeper in shades of soul and grander in gestures the Limburg, Dutch trio Dewolffhas managed to also do the other thing all at once on their fifth album Grand Southern Electric. Cause even though their sound is bigger and better; it is also stripped down and simpler. The boys moved towards the Valdosta, Georgia in the United States to record the album with Black Keys producer Mark Neill. Which is audible in the way the voice of singer/guitar player Pablo van de Poel moves, changes color and finally dares to sing; but also in the way the rhythms and drums play with that honkytonk and country trek through the wide spaces. Their very own psychedelic past grows thinner on this one and only shines through on certain tracks. Indeed; the trio has gone the way of the blues, garage and Americana and do this with a feverous intensity. The entire album just compels you to jump on board on the Dewolff train and not even feel like waving goodbye as you pick up speed and leave the station, heading south towards a future that seems filled with the great American music that’s inspired by Leon Russell, The Band and Neil Young. Much lighter and filled with fun; Grand Southern Electric is the train you want to jump on!
A thrilling seven inch split release once again. Sons of Alpha Centauri are the kings of the seven inch! And this time around, for the second time around, they have Karma To Burn filling in on the other side. Who deliver a stunning display of heavy stoner trucking K2B wise in the form of their new track 53. Ofcourse the illustrious trio is no longer formed by the original members. Rob Oswald and Rich Mullins once again left for reasons nobody really wants to talk about. Will Mecum therefor got a hold of Rob Halkett to fill in on Bass and Even Devine on drums. Can this line-up measure up to the original three? Judge for yourself when you listen to the steaming track 53! On the other side are ofcourse the kings themselves, the instigators, the instrumentalists who deliver every time around. Sons of Alpha Centauri hit us hard with a new song called 71. Best to get your hands on this diamond quick; for it’s a limited run of 500. With a 125 light blue-white marbled (Tour Edition), a 125 orange-black marbled (Label Edition) and 250 black ones. We for one cannot stop spinning it!
Not long after Heydays And Maydays, the first track from the debut Endings EP by Dutch trio Life Savings, has started rustling your feathers. You find yourself longing for those garage rehearsals where everyone stumbled around knocking over paint buckets and stepping on piles of rusty nails screaming when the blood started gushing from ones feet and just continuing on cause the red button on the cassette player was on record. Formed in the doomed year of 2012, the three amigos have produced a four track little gem that is laced with dissonance and disharmony, with full stops and speed ups. With a voice that evokes slowly withering urgency and a bleak aluminum sound reminiscent of those fading memories. Exactly like Mark Arm or Thurston Moore can evoke. Grungy and noisy the boys truck on and deliver a very tasty walk on White Beef; which even transforms itself to something melodic for a moment. Overall the violent sound is ghastly and seems to runneth over from advertised tension. Which turns the little record into something manic, meant for the concrete jungle and with a tiny hallucinogenic edge…
What? It is friday once again? Damn, how time flies!
The Stoner HiVe Quick Fire Friday segment is a weekly feature of a handful of bands and only a small amount of words to help spread their musical prowess and our melodic belief…
Polarbeers – Stayin’ Alive
We dig the Polarbeersfrom Milano, Italy. They do their very own thing without giving a flying fuck about anything or anyone. They merge punk with grunge, hardrock and stoner and did that to an awesome degree on their full-sized self-titled debut. And now they’re back with a teasing cover from that lovely disco fever delivered by the Bee Gees: Stayin’ Alive! Put on your dancing shoes; it’s party time!!
Their tasty sixties and seventies psychedelic jams have been whirling through many of our heads for a while. Well, the Swedish acid rockers Three Seasons are about to return with their new album Grow. But before they do, feast your mind on the first single: Familiar Song. A groovy track that slowly builds into something that has you traveling back in time. Ten minutes of perfect golden era Hammond and riffs that tune you in and turn you on. It’s all happening!
Are you ready for some old school chugging metal? Want to be in the presence of something ominous and dark? Well, get on board with Long Island’s very own Dragon’s Bane! A wicked five some that has just released a first EP called Harbingers of Glory that not only provides you with the horns and the riffs; it infuses some hardrock, a bit of stoner and sweet classic soloing to have your pledging allegiance before the moon has waxed...
Ooh; and while you’re at it: check out Bed Bunnies and Uncle Scotch. Italy? Tasmania? Who the hell knows? Just check them out! Simply because they know coolness if overrated, they love to call you there whores and dress up like big banana’s. And we all love them damn apples; when it gets cold at night… Below you can watch their video: Justification to love Sadie (Raised from the Dead Version)
We mentioned the Colchester boys from Telepathy during a Quick Fire Friday segment a while back when they released their first single Cystine Knot from their upcoming new album which soon would appear. Well, it is here and it’s one hell of a kraken! 12 Areas as it is called throws you off balance from the first intro track Hypnos and leaves you dangling like a hangman. The icy blue glow that permeates their technical sludge metal extravaganza has you shivering with euphoric hypothermia and the battering of the drums almost breaks your brittle bones. But it is the pattern changes that scatter like breaking ice shelves that has you growing warm inside. Their sound is more massive than that of the big Bloop; and their prowess seems perfectly normal if you already know Fracture, their earlier work from 2011. But is in fact something extraordinary, forceful and passionate. One could imagine the entire album being the soundtrack underneath a scary doomed nature movie about the end of the arctic ice. But instead of constantly breaking and melting; parts would blow up and explode and rain down it large chunks. Indeed, Telepathy has delivered an album that can set the world ablaze and drown it at the exact same time…
At times like these; one wishes one lives in Sidney! Sharing the stage during Nicefest on August 30 are: Serious Beak, Brian Campeau, Squat Club, We Lost the Sea, Fat Guy Wears Mystic Wolf Shirt, Captain Kickarse, Jxckxlz, Gvrlls, H A N N A H B A N D andThe Cheggy Dawe Experience
