Wednesday, December 29, 2010

A Spanish Masterpiece


A lot of bands found their way to this blog to seek promotion for their music. This blog would be pretty worthless without these contributions! So I want to express my gratitude to all bands who has sent their music!
One of these bands is Domo from the Spanish city of Alicante. One of the members of this band, Paco, sent me their first album!
Domo is an Instrumental Psychedelic Stoner Rock band with experimental tendencies and this trio plays their music with a lot of conviction. This self titled debut album got it all! From the Heavy fuzz riffs till the some more relaxing passages, it all sounds awesome! These guys are truly great musicians. Domo treats you with this album over one hour of excellent tunes. Domo is definitely a new star in the Stoner firmament. This album is without any doubt an absolute recommendation! Enjoy!

Domo is formed in January of 2010 after the dissolution of other proyects and with the purpose of killing the thirst for experimentation and to liberate the dosage of adrenaline of its band members.

Practising psycodelic and electrifying rock Domo builts its foundations on experimentation and psycodelia. Using the clasic structures of Hard Rock as a starting point they run through a wide variety of musical styles.

¨We make music using dark riffs, trying to create intense atmospheres...¨

¨From Heavy to Kraut Rock, it can all inspire us when writing a song..."

¨We always try to keep away from convencionalism when building the structures of a song...¨

Their concerts combine wild and intense moments with long and hipnotising atmospheres and in their short career they have shared lineup with bands like Mystic Frequency Worm, The Hapiness Project, Kayser Sozé or Piñata and have also participated in various spanish festivals.

Their participation in ¨Territorio Lunar¨ (Santa Maria del Páramo, León), a festival dedicated in body and mind to Hard Rock and Psycodelia, was a turning point for their career, as well as the organization and participation in the ¨Festival en el Castillo¨ festival (Santa Pola, Alicante) last summer, which was made possible thanks to the initiative and dedication of the bands that formed the lineup.

Domo brought out their first homonymous album in August of 2010, an album full of lysergic sounds and a large dosage of experimentation, and are right now emmerged in the creation of new songs for a future album, which we hope, will see the light of day in a near future.
(Their bio)

Domo - Domo (2010)



Monday, December 27, 2010

Add A Little Bit Of Tobacco


A while ago I've posted the first EP by the Polish band Rachael. This is the second EP and I must say there's a lot of improvement in their music. The Add A Little Bit Of Tobacco EP sounds more Psychedelic and not so mellow as the first EP. The female singer has left the band and maybe is that the reason of the change of the musical direction. Add A Little Bit Of Tobacco reminds me a bit of some Lorenzo Woodrose stuff. Anyway, I like this EP far more than the first one. Enjoy!

Rachael band was formed in Warsaw at the begining of 2007. After a year and a lot of changes they played their first gig on a local club scene. On September 2008 they have released, recorded and produced on their own, debut EP “I bet you like drugs instead of sex”. Whole material was published on the web for free download. Music of the band is mixture of 50s & 60s mainstream, rough punk and rock psychedelic.
(From LastFM)

Rachael - Add A Little Bit Of Tobacco (2010)



Friday, December 24, 2010

Have some great days!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Mars Red Sky


Mars Red Sky is a band from France. This band plays some great Psychedelic Stoner Rock. Curse is a two track single that needs to be heard! These tracks are damned awesome! I guess this single is the first release by Mars Red Sky. Their MySpace says their album will be released in march. If this single is the preview of that release, then I really look forward to that! I can't find any further information about Mars Red Sky, but let the music speak for itself! Enjoy!

Mars Red Sky - Curse (2010)



Dare I Say...


After Kyuss, Slo Burn and Unida is Hermano the fourth band of John Garcia. Hermano has released three awesome albums and Dare I Say... is the second one. This album is full of great Stoner/Desert/Hard Rock tunes, as we can expect from John Garcia. The voice of Garcia is again of major importance with this band. It is always a pleasure to hear his voice. Great songs are: Cowboys Suck, Life, Quite Fucked, Murder One and Angry American. Enjoy!

Considering the tough luck (especially with labels) of few of Hermano's members have been through, it's almost a miracle the band actually stuck together to record this highly anticipated second album, which many predicted would be their true debut album, as opposed to the scattershot affair that Only a Suggestion was a few years ago. And indeed, Dare I Say… does feel more cohesive, even though the band repeatedly steps out of the stoner/desert groove mould, and it actually is a full-length album (the debut only contained 7 actual songs and was usually treated as a long EP). However, good intentions do not always result in worthwhile material, and this sophomore album definitely has its flaws and share of less impressive material. What the band does have in heaps, is energy, as the brash "Cowboys Suck" immediately makes clear with a middle-finger raisin', scorchin' groove that'll burn off your eyebrows and sideburns. The lyrics contain too much clichéd imagery and the music's too straightforward to tower above their contemporaries' releases, but of course there's John Garcia, and very few singers out there can bellow and holler like this guy, whom many still consider to be the ultimate stoner vocalist. There's certainly a case to be made for that statement, as his delivery (often seething with energy) and the diversity his displays is quite impressive: during the rumbling "Life," which seems to reconcile late-period Kyuss with early QOTSA, for instance, his vocals switch from mellow whisper to righteously nasty scream in a split second.
The QOTSA-name actually rears its head regularly during the course of the album, most of all during the typical robot-rock of "Is This O.K.?", which needs a Garcia shifting into a higher gear to find its truly own voice. Despite the similarities to the releases of former band mate Homme, Hermano contains to exude their own brand of energy again. Looser and bluesier than QOTSA, they come off as more spontaneous and more traditional: you'd never find anything as direct as "Roll Over" or as simple as the acoustic blues of "Murder One" on an album by the Queens. The hostile atmosphere of the latter pops up throughout the entire album (and the cover art), turning it into quite an angry, even bitter, document. While this not always works to their advantage - in fact, the endlessly repeated "Go, motherfucker, go" of the metronome-raunch of "Quite Fucked" gets fucking annoying after a while, and so does the adolescent, humourless ranting of "Angry American" - this indignant energy also infuses the album with a stubborn pulse that keeps it from becoming a bore. As such, the mildly enjoyable "On the Desert" and quite generic "My Boy" are easily redeemed for by excellent tracks such as "Brother Bjork" (a dramatic, almost pompous anthem that gives Garcia the opportunity to show what he's got) and the vicious album closer "Let's Get It On" ("I'll make a motherfucking mess out of you"). On the one hand, the band definitely comes off as a determined unit, which pays off in the energy department, but on the other hand, Dare I Say… also contains too much unexceptional songs to smack you against the wall - which is exactly what you expect from this band. Nothing less. Other bands would probably sacrifice a limb or two to come up with an album like this, but I can't get rid of the opinion that these four troopers could and should have achieved something even better.

(By Guy Peters)

Hermano - Dare I Say (2005)



Four Seasons And Hundred Flowers.


This nice EP was dropped as a comment in one of my posts by Kenny from Time Columns!
Time Columns is a Post Rock duo from Baltimore. These guys are according to their Facebook page influenced by: Explosions In The Sky, Battles, Tortoise, Steve Reich, Incubus, Toe, The Octopus Project, 65Daysofstatic, Tool, Don Caballero, Prefuse 73 and Flying Lotus.
Their music is rather complicated and the rhythms are very complex. Nevertheless, it is very interesting music. Despite the difficulty of the music it is very pleasant to listen. The electronics are a very welcome addition to their sounds. Give this EP a chance and you might like it! Enjoy!

Baltimore’s instrumental math rock duo Time Columns combines the radical elements of live looping and tight instrumentation with elements of post-rock, hip-hop and progressive rock. After spending years with other projects in the blossoming Baltimore experimental scene, Eaton and Benny broke off to create a brainchild of their own, tapping into influences from contemporaries like Battles, Explosions in the Sky and Don Caballero. They have been performing as Time Columns since early 2009.

Central to the group’s existence is the Gibson Echoplex- a digital looper that allows keyboard and guitar lines to be played back and overdubbed on the fly. When used in a live setting, it gives the illusion of many performers playing at the same time and smashes what previous limits had been placed on the two-man band format.

Following a successful East Coast Tour in 2009-2010, Time Columns self-released their debut EP, Sunriseinthesea, on Mystery Ton Records. The five tracks on the EP marked a turning point in “modern” rock, expanding on the rhythmic foundations of Battles but emphasizing the need for melody and dynamic pacing reminiscent of the post-rock genre.

(From CD Baby.com)

Time Columns - Sunriseinthesea EP (2009)




Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Salt Lake City Stoner Rock


I want to say thank you to the band Jesust for dropping their album in my C-Box!
Jesust is a band from Salt Lake City and they play some pretty good Stoner Rock with a twist of Metal. This band is influenced by the following bands: Down, Crowbar, Eyehategod, Weed, Trailer Park Boys and Utah Jazz. So you have a small clue of what you're dealing with. The album Smokin' Wisdom sounds very nice and promising! Enjoy!

Forming from the ashes of metalcore act Clifton. Jesust is Mark Wursten and Jeffery Brent Wood ex bass and guitar of Clifton, decided in the summer of 2009 to start writing songs together again after the split of Clifton so out of boredom and love for the riffs (Bacon) or Jefferey Brent wood picked up the drumsticks and put down his bass while Mark took on two jobs being the vocalist and guitarist. together the pair of Mark and Bacon have written some 15 or more songs 8 of which will be released on the debut album "Smokin Wisdom" which the sessions started in feb 2010 and is scheduled to be finished early next year pending any more line up changes which is the reason it still sits as a work in progress.
(Their bio at ReverbNation)

Jesust - Smokin' Wisdom (2010)



A Singer/Songwriter From Detriot


I have been asked by Christopher Pratt to share his EP.
I'm normally not so into singer/songwriters, but this time I make an exception. The songs of Christopher are pretty good. This guy is according to his MySpace influenced by Bob Dylan, Jack White, Burt Jansch, David Bowie, The Stooges, Son House and Robert Johnson.
The Fourth Wall EP contains six songs and they are somehow melancholic and sometimes a bit Psychedelic. You have to be in the mood to listen this EP. Give it a listen anyway. Enjoy!

Hello, my name is Christopher Pratt. I am a singer/songwriter in Detroit. I recently put forth the time/effort/money to go into Rochambeaux Studio in Hazel Park and record my first studio EP, entitled The Fourth Wall. It's a surprising, haunting, and poignant EP that mixes a variety of influences from Pink Floyd psychedelia to Bob Dylan folk and Bowie-esque attitude.
The Fourth Wall was produced by my good friend Patrick Davy, and I can honestly say that his experience, sense of music, and guidance has been absolutely invaluable to myself and this record. Patrick also contributed musically to the album, including electric guitar, piano, and even back-up vocals on the track, "You Will Sleep A Heavy Sleep." Patrick is also the leader of the up-and-coming Detroit band Patrick Davy and the Ghosts. Check it out.
Andrew Davis is the long-time friend of Patrick and the sound engineer for The Fourth Wall. Andrew also contributed significantly to the sound on the record, and he also played many instruments, including the synthesizer and many of the percussion instruments.
The Fourth Wall is set to be released on Friday, August 6th 2010. All of the tracks will be available for both streaming online and free online downloads. Later in the year, we will have some actual CD's printed and for sale. You can listen to "Mystery Man Blues" and "You Will Sleep a Heavy Sleep" above, both of which are on The Fourth Wall E.P.

(From MySpace)

Christopher Pratt - The Fourth Wall EP (2010)



Tuesday, December 14, 2010

The Descent Of Man


Thanks to the guys of Vestiges for sharing their free download album The Descent Of Man!
Vestiges is a trio from the U.S.A. and The Descent Of Man is their debut album. This album begins quietly with a nice intro. The song after that begins also quietly and suddenly hell breaks loose! A mix of Hardcore, Black Metal, Crust, Screamo and Post-Rock influences hits you right in your face!
This album contains seven tracks (Intro, song I till V and Outro) that are filled with anger and despair. These guys did an excellent job with this album. The sound is right and all instruments are in balance. The vocals are making almost me afraid. This guy has an awesome throat. This voice goes truly through your bones!
Vestiges has released this impressive album at the tenth day of the tenth month in year ten and it is an display of heaviness, brutality and also sadness. Enjoy and support Vestiges!

"Vestiges formed in January of 2010 as a two-piece band. Influenced by hardcore, black metal, crust, screamo, and post-rock, the band set out to incorporate elements of each genre to articulate their message both musically and lyrically. A third member was added to the band shortly before entering the studio to record The Descent Of Man. The band plans to release two more albums, an EP and a LP, in order to complete their narrative. The band and a filmmaker are currently in the process of producing a film to visually capture the theme of The Descent Of Man.

The Descent Of Man follows the creation, the evolution, and the eventual annihilation of mankind. Today, we find ourselves hoping to reverse the damage that we have done and struggling to sustain what little earth we have yet to rape repeatedly. We validate this existence with stories that justify our behavior and our role in the natural world. The promise of salvation in a land we have yet to see has clouded our judgment in a land that is right before our eyes. Industrialization, militarization, overpopulation, theism, specieism, and nihilism are regarded as evolution and progress. Our greed and ignorance have been celebrated and our past has been forgotten. We were meant to be a part of nature. We were not meant to conquer nature. We were given life and we have done everything in our power to bring death upon everything in our path, including ourselves. There will be horrifying consequences for what we have done."

(Their biography)

Vestiges - The Descent Of Man (2010)




Monday, December 13, 2010

Experimental And Atmospheric Post/Sludge Metal From Spain


Thanks to the guys of Marasme for sharing their music again!
Marasme is a Spanish band that plays some great Experimental Post/Sludge Metal. A while ago I've posted their EP here.
Now it's time to post their full-length debut album. This album is called Mirroir and it contains seven awesome tracks that are Heavy and Atmospheric. If I have to compare Marasme with something, then it must be Isis. The musicians are playing with great class on this album. The singer is just perfect for this kind of music. So give this excellent album a listen and I'm pretty sure you will like it. Enjoy and support Marasme!

Marasme - Mirroir (2010)




Saturday, December 11, 2010

Nice Stoner & Space Sounds from Hungary


This demo was dropped in my C-Box by Nicodamien of the Hungarian Stoner blog stoner.blog.hu. Thank you for that, Nicodamien!
Urania is a Stoner/Space Rock band from Hungary. I can't say much about this band, because there is nothing to find about them, no website, no MySpace or whatever. The only thing about Urania is here. What I can say about this demo is that it is an excellent piece of work. This demo contains eight tracks and they're simply are named I till VIII. These tracks are a display of superb Instrumental Stoner/Space Rock that is performed by Urania. This demo is definitely worth a listen. Enjoy!

Urania - Demo (2010)


Wednesday, December 8, 2010

The Latest Sensation From The Hague.


Lucid is a band from my home city and they play some awesome drug-fuelled Psychedelic Garage Rock. This 10" EP definitely kicks ass! There are obvious influences of MC5 and The Stooges, but you can also hear some more sounds of todays Stoner Rock. Their music is high energetic and loud! This is yet another great Motorwolf recording! This EP is pressed in a limited number of 200 copies. So get it fast as possible! Enjoy!

Having cool influences is not always enough, you have to have your own voice too.

Luckily for the Netherlands Lucid, the trio have managed to embrace the space rock and psychedelic fury of the 60’s without sounding like clones.

Selwyn Slop (vocals and bass), Bart Schotman (guitar) and Maarten van Oers (drums) explore hard rock, metal and small doses of fuzz to develop their sound.

‘Black Eyed Woman’, the stand out track of this release, is a cauldron of down-tuned licks and Ozzy-esque vocals, backed up by equal amounts of fuzz and feedback.

This could have easily been a sure fire hit in the drug-fuelled haze of groundbreaking 70’s rock. The solos are not bad either.

‘Shatter’ meanwhile, plays on Bold As Love-era Hendrix, while combining Fu Manchu’s love of no frills Californian laid back rock.

On the other hand, ‘Godspeed’ is a fast tempo rocker where the trio use their instruments as projectile weapons that enhance their artillery.

However, ‘Black Sheep’ is evidence of a band that is beginning to zone out to their own slow sci-fi jams.

A fine set of tracks that cling onto mystic 70’s charm long enough to galvanise the trios sound.

(From Chybuccasounds.com)

Lucid - 10" EP (2010)




Forest Worship Black Doom From Santa Cruz


Thanks to the band Folivore for sharing their rehearsal demo!
Folivore is a foursome from Santa Cruz, California. (Or as they say Satan Cruz!) This band plays a combination of Black, Doom, Sludge and Stoner Metal. This is I guess their first recording. And as you can expect from a rehearsal, it sounds pretty lo-fi. Their music is very dark, brutal, heavy and intense. What I especially like is the voice of the female singer/screamer. Her voice is awesome and frightening! These grunts are damn great! I think there's a lot of potential for Folivore in the future! Enjoy and support this band!

Folivore - Rehearsal Demo (2010)



Still More Serbian Stoner Grunge.


Thanks again to Milos from Fluid Underground for sharing their latest album!
Fluid Underground is a Serbian Stoner Rock/Grunge band. I did earlier post some stuff of them here and here.
Decembar is the second album of this year, so you can say these guys don't like to sit still. The first album of this year called Napad I Prve Noci was already a great recording, but Decembar is nothing less! The song Zlocin ili Kazna could be a tune on the album Through The Eyes Of Heathens by Dozer. If you're familiar with Fluid Underground and you like this band, you don't wanna miss this one. Enjoy!

Fluid Underground - Decembar (2010)




Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Crystal Meth Boogie


A transparent vinyl album with a transparent plastic sleeve? It should not become any crazier! And it can get any more crazier, because this LP is only pressed at one side! This album contains one song and it takes about a quarter of an hour. It seems a bit little that you get for 20 euros, but it is completely offset by the music! Santa Cruz offers you in one song all that they've got! Santa Cruz is the continuation of Orange Sunshine.
The song What Is Love? (Crystal Meth Boogie) is an eruption of Stoner Rock, Doom, Metal and Psychedelic. It is dark, sinister and absolutely heavy! Too bad they didn't press the other side of the album, because this tastes really for more! If you want to order this album, then I suggest you act fast. There are only 200 copies made! Enjoy!

One-sided fully transparent 12inch (and sleeve) - limited to 200 copies, a 16 minute insane and epic black acid fuzz drug rock metal track by Orange Sunshine, old ZZ Top meets Danzig meets Goatsnake. Very sinister, very insane, very dramatic and very heavy psychedelic/psychotic doom/drone/boogie/boner rock song of 16 minutes, Orange Sunshine's black ritual acid rock drug metal project!
(From Godspill.net)

Santa Cruz - What Is Love? (Crystal Meth Boogie) LP (2010)




Monday, December 6, 2010

Stereoner


Stereoner is a Stoner Rock band from Wuppertal, Germany. This is their free download debut EP called Silverback. Stereoner is influenced by bands like Kyuss, Truckfighters, Lowrider and The Sword. This EP contains four decent Stoner tracks. Enjoy!

It was a freezing day in October 2008 when Basti, Ben and Julian met to jam out. They wanted to do some Hardcorepunk, but things didn't go well.There was neither flow nor feeling while playing. After a short break, some smokes and a few beers they cleared their minds and started to jam again without any stylistic boundaries... Suddenly some huge and powerful riffs cut the air and blew their minds!

That's when they realized that they were meant to play bad-ass Stoner Rock - and so they did...

While working on some material, it occurred to them that they need a second guitar. So Basti brought Flo on board and finally the rocket was ready to take off! They got overwhelmingly positive feedback, which was motivation enough for the guys to follow their path and rock on with their own interpretation of Stoner Rock.

Anger and serenity! These two emotions Stereoner unite within their music: THE Stoner Rockband from Wuppertal, Germany.Uncontrollable feelings like a Gorilla in the rain forest, screaming from his deepest throat full of rage and desperation about his haunts annihilation. Or shooting along the highway with hell for leather and still having two gears left while nodding one's head to the beat. In between unconditional fury and psychedelic floating, the Band moves as they and the crowd please.

With the 'Silverback EP', Stereoner presents their first record, forged self-made. With the addition of the necessary trash it sounds exactly as it should - and gives you a hint what energy this Band creates on stage.

(From Planetfuzz)

Stereoner - Silverback EP (2010)



Sunday, December 5, 2010

New Email Adress


Everyone knows by now that Stonerrock.com has vanished. So now they will also close their free email service at stonerrock.net. That means I have to provide a new email adress. And that will be from now:

riez.stoner@gmail.com

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Flying Mountains


Aqua Nebula Oscillator is a band from Paris, France. This band is an awesome Psychedelic Garage band with a lot of Space influences, think MC5 meets Hawkwind. Aqua Nebula Oscillator saw the light in 1999. Under The Moon Of is their second album release from 2008 and it contains a lot of great tracks like LSD Therapy, Beware, Girl and my favorite song Flying Mountains! This band treats you on great fuzz guitars, nice drum grooves and a pounding and rolling bass. But where I really felt for is the female singer Shazzula, her voice and appearance are really delightful. Too bad she has left Aqua Nebula Oscillator.
Under The Moon Of is a perfect balance of great Psychedelic Garage songs and mesmerizing Space tracks. Enjoy!

In his New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (1933) Freud wrote the following about the Id*, "It is the dark, inaccessible part of our personality, [...] We all approach the id with analogies: we call it a chaos, a cauldron full of seething excitations... It is filled with energy reaching it from the instincts, but it has no organisation, produces no collective will, but only a striving to bring about the satisfaction of the instinctual needs subject to the observance of the pleasure principle."

I was reminded of this by the latest AOTM, 'The Godlike Genius of Blue Cheer' and the passing lamentation that BC (oh yeah, long BC) had been relegated into the nether regions of the Rock Pantheon, the wrecking yard, garage. And I thought, I don't know, I think they survived there, their memory nurtured by crude shrines and lurching, seething songs of worship. And that's when I thought of Freud and the Id: garage is rock's Id - the demands of civilisation are ignored there, there is only instinctual energy and dark desires which brings me to...

Aqua Nebula Oscillator. A hefty chunk of Europe's prehistoric rockpainting is found on French cave walls and it has to be *nearly* true that Aqua Nebula Oscillator were raised in those very caves. This is *primitive* acid garage punk. Throughout the 80s I had secret hopes that the delights of Pebbles Vol.3 would find a medium who would channel their sounds into a timeless postpunk 'now'. Bands came and went but never quite delivered what I wanted - maybe Plasticland's "Office Skills" or "Mushroom Hill", a few years later moments of Wobble Jaggle Jiggle delivered the dirty, dark and mid-freak out freaking out sound that I was looking for but there was never a perfect acid garage punk album which was all killer until....

Aqua Nebula Oscillator nearly pulled it off last year. The "nearly" part? The joke of "Somebody In Your Nose" wears thin quickly (unfunnily enough Wobble Jaggle Jiggle had quickly annoying 'humourous' tracks too). But the rest... the videos on their Myspace look like they were recorded in a cave filled with peacock feathers (well, "Flying Mountain does") and the band sound like a hot woman cave decorated with peacock feathers. Dirty, psychedelic garage sounds with an oscillator set to attack.. like Gonn ('Blackout of Gretely') meets '73 Hawkwind.

And that's all you need to know: like Gonn ('Blackout of Gretely') meets '73 Hawkwind. Track by track rundown? Nah. They *all* obliterate your good sense and rationality and free up your dark'n'dangerous musical Id.

(By Fauny Furgus at
Head Heritage)

Aqua Nebula Oscillator - Under The Moon Of (2008)





Monday, November 29, 2010

Danish Heaviness


The digital copy of this 12" maxi single was send to me by Mikko of the band Double Space.
Double Space is a trio from Aarhus, Denmark. This band plays some awesome Sludge/Stoner Doom/Noise Rock. With this debut single, Double Space displays some great Heaviness. This single contains some great music with perfectly matching vocals. If I have to compare this music with something, then I say High On Fire.
This single is just a start. These two tracks taste absolutely for more! So listen this 12" maxi single and you will decide to buy it! You can buy the single on their Myspace or here: 2xspace@gmail.com. Support Double Space in any way you can! (By leaving a comment for example!) Enjoy!

DOUBLE SPACE distills the essence of sludge, stoner doom and noise rock into their own crystal clear vision: Unmatched heavy epic groove rock. An utterly relentless onslaught of crushing power riffs and killer leads. Never looking back!

DOUBLE SPACE - based in Aarhus, Denmark - formed late 2003 around the recording of a handful of songs the two guitarists Mikko Mansikkala Jensen and Rasmus Rosenkilde Jensen had written together. Drummer Per SilkjÊr was initially brought in as a session drummer. Yet the DOUBLE SPACE universe instantly engulfed him. The heaviness, the curious guitar melodies and the persistent search for the ultimate in every aspect of making music.

And even before these recordings were to be released and receive high appraisal from Danish underground press, the first show was played supporting Electric Turn To Me and Lost Sounds. Over the years stages are shared with a ton of bands, including Unsane, Fuck The Facts and Ufomammut, and a reputation as a mind blowing live act is established. Dreaded by headliners - loved by stoked audiences.

On paper the combination of two guitarists and a drummer may strike one as a bit odd, in terms of playing seriously low end based music. But as any member of a DOUBLE SPACE concert audience will testify: îIt does not get much more massive than this!î. And here you also find the reason why DOUBLE SPACE fans have dubbed the bandís backline Twin Towers. The sound of a colossal brick wall collapsing on top of you!

Seemingly DOUBLE SPACE have everything going for them, yet they are followed by a dark shadow. Suicidal girlfriends and chaotic love lives, record deals with labels that fold, producers who drop off the face of the earth carrying entire DOUBLE SPACE recording sessions and the list goes on. Everything from the smallest margin to the greater powers work against them on a bit too regular basis. The emotional havoc spills into the lyrical content, and the band discovers they can use this, as their own collective therapy session to overcome.

Another break is caught when Danish Metal Award nominees Rising step up and ask DOUBLE SPACE to support them on their 2010 European tour. A two track maxi 12î, mixed by Q (Danish indie rock darlings Figurines, Tiger Tunes, Beta Satan a.o.) - an avid DOUBLE SPACE fan - is released by the band for the occasion.

Immediately upon the return from the tour, late March 2010, four new songs are tracked live with Jacob Bredahl (ex-Hatesphere, Last Mile, The Kandidate) by the helm at his Dead Rat Studio. îThere has never been so much low end in this studio!î Bredahl confesses at first. And then he proceeds to torture the band to deliver their all-time best.

Things are indeed looking up for Double Space, and the nearest future has been dedicated to obtaining worldwide distribution for the debut 12î, hunting for a vinyl label to release the next one, and not least, torturing Bredahl until he delivers the mix of a life time.

(Their bio)

Double Space - Double Space 12" Maxi Single (2010)




Friday, November 26, 2010

Great Italian Instrumental Psychedelics


This outstanding piece of work that was send to me by Brano of the band Manthra Dei. Thank you for that, Brano!
Manthra Dei is an Instrumental Psychedelic trio from Brescia, Italy and this is their same titled debut EP. This EP contains two awesome tracks that both are around 18 minutes long. The guys of Manthra Dei are very good musicians. The guitar player is so damn good! And his playing is well complemented by the drummer and bassist. This band is very good with letting you get carried away with their music. This is the kind of music that I want to hear in a live performance! This EP brings me in a state of trance and in a state of euphoria! One funny thing: The start of the second track sounds a lot of Machine Gun by Jimi Hendrix. Enjoy!

Manthra Dei - Manthra Dei EP (2010)

1. Der Waldgang
2. The Mute Machine

Paolo - guitar
Michele - drums
Brano - bass

Recorded and mixed by Zven in November 2010 at Orange Studios, Ponte Buggianese (PT) - Italy.
Produced by Manthra Dei & Electric Goat Rec. (EG002) in November 2010.

Inlay and cover artwork is under kind courtesy of Brescia Psychiatric Center.



Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Nice Greek Psychedelic Stoner Rock


These nice EP's are shared by the band 1000mods from Greece. This foursome play some very nice Psychedelic Stoner tunes and they sound a bit like Colour Haze.
The EP Liquid Sleep contains two great tracks. The first song called Liquid Sleep is a moody instrumental track and the second one, Burnt Sleep is an atmospheric song with some nice vocals.
The other EP called The Woodrose Effect has just one track. But it is an awesome twenty minute epic track. Enjoy!

1000mods is a stoner rock band from Hiliomodi, Greece. They formed in 2005 and after a few changes the final lineup was made up in summer 2006. From that time and later on they have played numerous live shows and sometimes they accompanied bands like Nightstalker (greek stoner rock legends), Brant Bjork, My Sleeping Karma,Radio Moscow and Colour Haze. They tend to impress everyone that attends their shows with their commitment to vintage equipment, the thick and heavy analog sound and their remarkably passionate on stage performing.

In the beginning of 2007 they released their self financed first EP “Blank Reality” on CD. In December 2009 they stroke back with a brand new 7” EP titled “Liquid Sleep”. Available on coloured (light green) vinyl by SuiSound.

In October 2010 they recorded their debut album with the almighty Billy Anderson(Sleep, Melvins, Neurosis, Om, Los Natas, Orange Goblin etc...).

(Their Bio)

1000mods - Liquid Sleep EP (2009)

DOWNLOAD

1000mods - The Woodrose Effect EP (2009)



Promising Stoner From Wisconsin


Thanks to Jeff from the band Romero for sharing the digital copy of their stunning 7" single!
Romero is a pretty new and heavy Stoner Rock/Doom/Metal trio from Wausau, Wisconsin, U.S.A. Their single Solitaire is a real promise for the future. I hope these guys are working on a full-length album, because I want to hear more from this band!
According to their MySpace Romero is influenced by the following bands: Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer, The Who, High On Fire, Melvins, Sleep, Clutch, Kyuss, The Sword, Neurosis, Torche, Sunn O))) And Floor.
The Solitaire single contains two awesome tracks, especially the song Solitaire is a masterpiece. This track has a very great slow groove! The second track El Sentido Morboso reminds me somehow of the Swedish band Lowrider.
There are only 500 copies pressed of this single, so be fast! Order your copy on their MySpace page. Enjoy!


Romero's Jeffrey Mundt spent most of the 90's behind the drum kit for a variety of bands including Bovine Records' THUG & punk legends, NAKED AGGRESSION. A long-time guitar player & songwriter, he often dabbled in fronting a band, but never pursued it seriously. Enter: a move to northern WI, a random Craigslist ad from bass player Josh Stanchik, a casual 8 month writing and recording session (with Mundt handling vocals, guitar & drums!) & Romero was born! Intent on creating a demo to locate & convince a drummer to work with them, Mundt & Stanchik were about a month from completion when... a drummer found them! Rumors of the project peaked the interest of PONEY drummer & vocalist Ben Brooks and he gleefully volunteered before even hearing a single note. Good thing he eventually liked what he heard!

ROMERO started playing live immediately. Very often. First, locally...then regionally...now, nation-wide!

ROMERO spreads like a weed.

HEAVY - LOUD - VERY, VERY HIGH...

(Their bio)

Romero - Solitaire 7" (2010)




Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Goodbye Orange Sunshine, Hello Santa Cruz


Orange Sunshine is the most famous Fuzz band from The Hague, Holland. This trio has performed their last show at the Gods Of Groove fest last saturday. Yeah, that's right, Orange Sunshine will stop existing. But don't be sad. Some members will continue in the new band Santa Cruz. Check out their MySpace page and listen to their tunes and order their one track album.
Now back to Orange Sunshine. This band made four full-lenght albums and they're all awesome. This is their second album called Love=Acid Space=Hell and it is full of great Fuzz/60's/70's/Garage/Hard Rock songs. The major influence of Orange Sunshine is Blue Cheer. Orange Sunshine is absolutely blessed with the best guitar player of the The Hague agglomeration. Their shows where always great and loud! Enjoy!

Orange Sunshine: catching the very soul of the motor-blues garage-punk and acid proto-hardrock era of the late '60's and the early 70's? With band members derived from several Dutch '80's and '90's hardcore, garage-, doom-, acid-, surf-, noise-, punk- and hard-rock bands (such as Top
Gear, Panty Boy, Twin Earth, the White Trash Minstrels and Sunwheel from the metro area
of The Hague/Den Haag and Cromlech from Arnhem, check out www.motorwolf.nl for more information), Orange Sunshine started in a squat in The Hague early 1999 as a traditional 3-piece power blues band playing a mix of blues covers and originals in a very explosive way, in the very same intense way and with the very same raw sound and the very same high volume as the much inspiring power blues bands BLUE CHEER, MC5 and STACKWADDY once did in the late '60's, rendering, or should we say screaming out, the same pain, the same drugs (LSD, amphetamines, opiates), the same tension and the same soul.

Many shows followed, in many squats and bars, parties and youth centres, regular venues and main concert halls, in the Netherlands and abroad, a first record was expected and so we plunged into our own analogue recording studio in the squat where we also lived and rehearsed.

We always worshipped the music and the sound of BLUE CHEER's first 2 albums and to make sure we got as close as possible to their organic energy and exhilarating dynamics, we decided to do the recording ourselves, using authentic valve amplifiers and cabinets (Fender bassman, ampeg SVT), drums (Rogers), effects (a.o. spring reverb, tape echo, Electric Mistress flanger, Big Muff and Avora fuzz), an old 1" tape recorder and an old mixing console, and authentic recording techniques i.e. recording the space around us, instead of the modern-day close-micing with tons of compressors, gates and digital multi-effects. When the volume is so up, that the air turns into french cheese, you better register that french cheese instead of all the separate instruments that are used. The source has to be pure, but it's the flow that one records! Thus 'Homo Erectus' was produced and released on our own record label Motorwolf records by the end of the year 2001.
A sincere tribute to the sheer ritual drug that is the early music of BLUE CHEER and with the self-made 3D sleeve (a photograph of a gospel preaching freak messiah and his guitar God apostles on a German second-world-war tank) and the enclosed self-made Gibson- flying-V-shaped 3D glasses the record (limited to 500 vinyl copies) was sold out in half a year, you bet how eagerly all these record collectioneurs wanted to buy our bullshit story of the excavated acetate from an obscure '60's group. 2002 saw new opportunities for the band with a new bass player (Mischa Poppe) and a first small eastcoast/mid-west US tour. Very soon our sound and music began to evolve with the new band member and our new SUNN amplification (the ultimate howlin' and growlin' tube machines!), developing more into the black roots of rock'n'roll and rhythm'n'blues of CHUCK BERRY, BO DIDLEY and HENDRIX (the music we listened to as kids), while at the same time growing more into the CREAM-like pop song structures of the psychedelic '60's, but without losing the heavy rock aggression and wildness of our original set-up. Therefore we wanted another recording style for our second album release 'Love = Acid, Space = Hell' (recorded in our Motorwolf studio and released on Motorwolf records in 2003), more sort of like a 'professional' studio recording from around 1970 (perhaps even just as the old ROLLING STONES sounded on their records at the time), with all the limitations of that era (no computers, only an 8-track tape recorder, old-school condenser microphones, no digital mastering), resulting in a very warm sound, yet with a much more 'produced' production than 'Homo Erectus'. The hilarious 8-minutes drum solo (probably the first on a record in more than 25 years) and the over-the-top space-echo-laden and reverse-tape-recorded guitars and drums in our version of BO DIDLEY's 'hey mama, keep your big mouth shut' certainly add to the distinct and long gone psych/progrock feel of the record. A second small eastcoast US tour was done in december 2003 and very soon our fresh release, which had far better distribution now, was well received throughout the world. And while we are currently working on a lot of completely new material, a small German tour has been done around christmas 2004, a 7" is released on Germany's Swamp Room records at the same time (feat. a re-interpretation of the FUZZTONES' song 'Black-out') and our debut album 'Homo Erectus' is rereleased (with 2 previously unreleased bonus tracks) on cd by Holland's Clear Spot/Headspin records and on vinyl and cd by Japan's Leaf Hound records in the beginning of 2005. 2005 started great with holland's prominent 'roadburn' festival, but just before the 'stoned for the underground' festival in erfurt, germany, our bass player Mischa had to quit the band due to serious ear damage! Our friend Antal Buisman from the Zippies helped us out on bass for a few shows in the summer and autumn of 2005, but we're finally back with a new bassplayer: Mehdi Rouchiche, former guitar player of The Hague's old-school HC sensation Shorttime and graphic designer of Godspill, and we're closer to the old BLUE CHEER sound than ever before! However, we will still record an new album with Mischa Poppe and perform his last Orange Sunshine shows in Japan in 2006. Further plans for 2006 are a french/italian/swiss/german tour, 'Black-out' on the coming 'The Hague Motor Rock Vol.2' compilation by Motorwolf and the final release of the never released album 'Ruler of the Universe' (on vinyl by Motorwolf and on cd by Leaf Hound records), named after the 15-minutes long epic space psych track from Terry Brooke's Strange that we cover on the A-side (including sitar, tablas, crazy sectarian-cult-choir-like vocals and lots of endless manic soloing with a self-oscillating echo device). This album was produced while we recorded for the 'Homo Erectus' LP (with our former bass player Thomas van Slooten, who is now taking care of all the coming album artwork), during our 'psychedelic freak-out' sessions. And excessive heavy acid fuzz madness it is! Definitely the wildest, craziest and most extreme stuff we have ever done, of which one track ('Balls knocking') was previously released in early 2002 on the first volume of Motorwolf's 'The Hague Motor Rock', a compilation of 25 heavy garage-/surf-/punk-/ acid-/doom-/hard-rock bands from our metro area.
A fourth LP (as said before with Mischa Poppe) is also planned with a further development of our music, expanding into the styles of the early '70's, with subtle elements of black soul, gospel and funk (FUNKADELIC, SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE, CURTIS KNIGHT, GRAND FUNK), jazz (i.e. boogie, GEORGE BRIGMAN's style of melodic soloing), proto-doom hardrock (RANDY HOLDEN's POPULATION II) and even some techniques from Latin-American progrock groups (LOS DUG-DUG'S from Mexico, PAPPO'S BLUES from Argentina). Will we stick to our original principles or will we fall into the same trap as lots of heavy bands did during those dreadful 1970's?
The irony of this all is that we actually hate cliche blues rock, hippy space rock and other lame cannabis-influenced 'psychedelia', and all these terribly pretentious and technical progressive/kraut rock bands from the '70's (flutes!), you can imagine lots of people had a bloody good reason to ignite the punk virus! Thank the lord for the bad-acid-trip drug rock magnet that inflamed many a good band, 'damn you hippies, we still got our music!

(Their bio)

Orange Sunshine - Love=Acid Space=Hell (1971/2003)



Santa Cruz MySpace