Land Before Time

Thanks to Nick from the Band Cower for sharing their free download album!
From the state of Oregon comes the band Cower. This foursome plays a mix of Hardcore, Punk and Sludge. Many tracks on their album Land Before Time are pretty heavy and aggressive. The music is played well. I especially like the sound of the guitar.
The song Here Comes The Sunn also appears on the Mary Janet In Music Vol. 1 compilation. Enjoy!

Cower - Land Before Time (2010)

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The Mary Janet In Music

This is a great compilation by the DIY label The Ghost Is Clear Records. The Mary Janet In Music Vol. 1 compilation contains 35 tracks and these bands represent genres as Hardcore, Heavy, Metal, Sludge and Stoner. If you want to hear what The Ghost Is Clear Records is about, then you should listen to this compilation. Enjoy!

The Mary Janet In Music Vol. 1 (2010)

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Tracklist:

1. Bleeding Kansas - Lucky
2. Canyons - Nate Jameson
3. Doubt - Quick Mouth
4. Hammers - Snow
5. Foreign Theaters - Cycles
6. The Pick Up - The Amazing Hoax
7. Recession - Manifest Destiny
8. Illustrations - Violence
9. Lord Green - Higher Than God
10. Prize Country - I Could Be A Knife
11. Ghost Town Electric - Atomic Temple
12. Across Tundras - Weary Travellers Rest (Exclusive Demo Version)
13. Hercules - If you've got the Stash we've got the Ca$h
14. Isolation - Brazen Bull
15. Creeper - Brannigan
16. Cower - Here Comes the Sunn
17. Jument - Branches Above
18. Cloud Mouth - Flex Yr Head (Live @ WHPK)
19. The Farley Overdose - Buzzard Gut
20. Bone Dance - Nom De Guerre
21. Benoit - Alone I Dream
22. Fight Pretty - Nightwalkers
23. Altered State - Guillotine Proof
24. Badmouth - Nostrildamus
25. The Burden - Swastika
26. Dead Heroes - Heartache
27. CTL - Forever
28. Burn Idols - Mindfuck
29. Girls of Porn - Bong Rips / Big Tits
30. Casting Curses - Hey Disbeliever
31. Anxiety Attack - Planet Piss
32. The Love Below - Serious Delerium
33. Tragic Ends - Broken Fingers
34. Capsize - Nothing Changes
35. No Discretion - Cold World

The Ghost Is Clear Records MySpace - Blogspot - Bandcamp

Nice Argentinian Grunge

Thanks to the guys of Likwid for sharing their album!
Likwid is an alternative Rock band from Córdoba, Agentinia. This foursome plays mainly Grunge with influences such as Funk, Punk and in my opinion even a bit Stoner Rock. The result is this self-titled album. It is a nice piece of work. It contains twelve decent tracks and these are pleasant to the ear. Enjoy!

Likwid began rehearsing in 2000, intending to achieve a modern sound while respecting the roots of what we know as grunge. The band's style of a power trio with separate voice, achieving an 90's sound, mixing rock, funk and punk. It was from August 2001 we started playing live, touring much of the local circuit in various places such as Coronado, Tabasco, Diogenes, Captain Blue, Al Azif, Casa Babylon and festivals of great magnitude in the Interior of Cordoba in our city, such as festivals Paralocs and la Primavera en el Parque de las Naciones,, in addition to massive events such as concerts in Plaza San Martin of the Inspectorate, college festivals, benefit, etc. playing a leading role as a band of stars in some cases. The themes of the band are unique. All songs are sung entirely in English (for now). The lyrics are made by Martin, while the music comes from trials of the band together. Likwid said goodbye after four years of stage and missed a last show on Friday, June 17, 2005 in Captain Blue, after almost a year without playing live.
(Translated from MySpace with Google translate)

Likwid - Likwid (2004)

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Massive Impressive

Thanks to Jelle from the Electric Earth label for sending this promo!
SardoniS is a Belgian duo that plays some awesome Instrumental Sludge/Doom Metal. Their first release was a 7' single in 2008. This is their impressive self-titled debut album, released in april 2010 by MeteorCity.
The nine songs on this album have a very dark atmosphere and are heavy as hell. What strikes me are the heavy riffs. These guys did a really great job on this album. All with all an excellent and recommended album!
On the first of october this album will be released on vinyl, but there's only a limited number of 500! (300 on black and 200 on silver vinyl!) This is a co-release between the labels Electric Earth Records (Belgium), Heavy Birth Records (The Netherlands) and Hydro-Phonic Records (U.S.A.). So hurry if you want to get it! Enjoy!

SardoniS - SardoniS (Promo CD 2010)

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Swedish Ancestors?

Thanks to Rudy for suggesting this awesome album!
Baby Grandmothers were a Psychedelic Hard Rock band from Sweden. This trio was inspired by music such as Jimi Hendrix and Cream. Their self-titled album from 1968 is an absolute classic.
This album contains excellent songs, especially the tracks Bergakunden and Being Is More Than Life. These are long-drawn-out songs where guitarist Kenny Håkansson excels. This guy is almost as much a virtuoso like Jimi Hendrix was! Baby Grandmothers were even support act for Jimi Hendrix on his Swedish tour in 1968!
Baby Grandmothers was an awesome band and this album is highly recommended! Enjoy!

One of Sweden’s most obscure psychedelic treasures, Baby Grandmothers evolved out of the T-Boones in 1967 and only officially released one single in Finland (Eteenpäin!, aka Forward!, May 1968) during their lifetime before the power trio of guitarist, Kenny Håkansson, bassist, Bengt “Bela” Linnarsson and drummer, Pelle Ekman joined forces with Mecki Bodermark in the reincarnated Mecki Mark Men, a highly prized, Swedish psych outfit that released a much-loved 1969 album for Mercury, ‘Running In The Summer Night.’ (MMM, rumoured to be Hendrix favorite Swedish band, were also the first Swedish band to tour America, where they recorded their final album, ‘Marathon’ at Chess studios in Chicago, later to be released by Sonet in 1970.) This archival release (which marks the 40th anniversary of the band’s formation and was compiled with detailed, historical photos and liner notes by Dungen guitarist, Reine Fiske) includes various live recordings of mostly soundboard quality (although the source tapes appear to have been sonically washed for improved presentability – these are definitely not your dodgy, microphone down the pant leg audience recordings), which only scratch the surface of conveying what the band sounded like, but will be of much interest to fans of fellow Swedish psych monsters, Pärson Sound and their myriad offshoots such as International Harvester and Träd, Gras och Stenar. A taste of the band’s mind-melting attack is evident the A-side to that single, ‘Somebody Keeps Calling My Name,’ wherein Håkansson moans the title like some psychotic patient in a mental ward before ripping off a brain-bending solo for a track that’s much more focused (but no less psychedelic) than the hippy-dippy assaults of their fellow countrymen. Imagine vintage Cream and Syd Barrett-led Pink Floyd morphing into a primeval Hawkwind sonic brain attack and you’re on the right track.

The flip side is up next (‘Being Is More Than Life’), presented here (as was the opener) from a live Finnish broadcast on March 24, 1968. It’s a meandering, freeform improv, which is essentially an elongated Håkansson guitar solo. Surely, one of the most unusual (and, at nearly six minutes, one of the longest) singles, psych or otherwise to come out of the Scandinavian sixties scene. A two-song, nearly 40-minute(!) live performance from late October, 1967 at the legendary Swedish psychedelic underground club FILIPS (where the Grandmothers were the house band) yields the 17-minute ‘Burgakunden’ and a nearly 20-minute version of the single’s B-side! The former is a rafter-rattling chunk of heavy psychedelia and together they just may be the most impressive examples of vintage Swedish psychedelia you’re ever likely to hear. Although it’s unknown whether this was one such recording, but the band did share the FILIPS stage for all-night jam sessions with the likes of Hendrix and The Mothers when they rolled through town, and Jimi’s influence, particularly on Håkansson’s amazing guitar work is immeasurable. Throughout, Håkansson dons the guitar God crown, exploring every nook and cranny of sound he can emit from his guitar, although to label him a “Swedish Jimi Hendrix” would be unfair, as he, perhaps intentionally, lacks or avoids the blues’ structures underlying many of Jimi’s solos.

Stretched out to sidelong proportion, the single takes on a life of its own and, despite the somewhat dodgy condition of the source tape, whose historical importance far outweighs it’s lack of pristine quality, is 20 minutes of sheer Hendrixian mayhem which actually precedes Hendrix’ guitar-burning performance at Monterey by two months. The fact that this is performed in front of what sounds like an audience of about 5 is not only shameful, it’s downright criminal, so mucho kudos to Fiske for rescuing this from oblivion. (And, oh, that video footage of the Grandmothers should someday surface, although, interestingly, Fiske suggests in his liner notes that this segment, which was provided by film-maker Stefan Jarl, was originally intended to form the soundtrack to the first film in Jarl’s Mods trilogy, ‘Dom Kallar Oss Mods’ (‘They Call Us Mods’). The slot eventually went to the Lea Riders Group, but we’re lucky to finally be able to hear this amazing piece of history.)

The band’s September 30, 1967 performance at FILIPS gives us ‘St. George’s Dragon,’ which finds the band in fine improvisational flight, with Linnarsson’s rolling bassline more prominent around Ekman’s galloping drum rolls and Håkansson’s by-now familiar fire breathing guitar bursts. So if you’re in the mood to experience the ultimate in six-string manipulation and total guitar destruction, you owe it to yourself to add this to your collection of vintage psychedelia, Scandinavian or otherwise.

(By Jeff Penczak at Terrascope)

Baby Grandmothers - Baby Grandmothers (1968)

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*Thanks and credits to Andy from Another Sucker On The Vine!

Euphoria

Mantra III is the third album of the Swedish Stoner Rock band Spiritual Beggars. This album is a good continuation on Another Way To Shine. The organ has a more prominent role at Mantra III and I like that. Great songs are: Monster Astronauts, Euphoria, Bad Karma and Mushroom Tea Girl. This album is an absolute recommendation! Enjoy!

For the uninitiated, the Spiritual Beggars are a three-piece psychedelic groove-metal trio from Sweden. Their guitarist, Michael Amott, is best known for his role in doom-metal units Carcass and Candlemass. With deep riffing and more precision than speed, he is as heavy as any two speed demon metal guitarists put together. The Spiritual Beggars' primary influence is mid-period Black Sabbath (say, Vol. IV and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath), but they expand their horizons with each record.

The band's sound on this third recording differs from its previous efforts in two ways. First, there is the addition of Per Wiberg on organ and Mellotron, Fender Rhodes piano, and clavinet, and Stefan Tsebring on percussion. (Don't worry -- all the teeth are still there, even sharper.) Second, there is the obvious influence of two late American bands on the Spiritual Beggars' sound: Kyuss and the semi-legendary Trouble. Mantra III has its roots in the almighty kingdom of riff. If all these guys came from gloom-metal bands, it's not possible to tell from the songs here. This is rock -- hard, heavy rock -- more than even metal. It's possible to imagine Blue Cheer playing this music if that band had been born in the late '90s rather than the '60s. The CD kicks off with a breezy, jazzy, Santana-like intro, which thankfully only lasts a fraction of a minute before the real medicine kicks in. From "Homage to the Betrayed" through "Broken Morning," the tempo is nonstop, full-on, in-your-face heavy rock. The lyrics are as lunkheaded as one might expect -- as on "Monster Astronauts" ("Take me to the river/Dance with the demons inside/Put me in the mist/Wait for the golden twist/Fly me to the moon 'cause we got enough fuel) -- but it makes no difference. It's cool enough that they sing in English and often mess up the syntax. From "Lack of Prozac" and "Bad Karma" through to the bonus tracks -- which are largely throwaways -- the band digs deeper into a groove for its menace. The tempos are throbbingly quick, but they hold within them a kind of funk that only white guys from Sweden would interpret as soulful. It comes off to the average Yankee grungoid rock fan or metalhead as a more complex kind of riffing, but no matter, it's all a great ride, full of crunch, bombast, and the sound of meat tearing from the bone. Get on your bad motor scooter and ride.
(By Thom Jurek at All Music Guide)

Spiritual Beggars - Mantra III (1998)

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New York Psychedelics

Thanks to Jessica from the band Heliotropes for sharing their EP!
Heliotropes is an all female band from Brooklyn, New York. These girls play some great mesmerizing Grunge influenced Psychedelic Rock. According to MySpace Heliotropes is inspired by the following: Current 93, Spacemen 3, Spiritualized, Brian Eno, Pentagram, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Black Sabbath, My Bloody Valentine, Shirley Collins, Laurie Anderson and Sleep.
III is the title of their debut EP and that is a bit odd! This EP contains three nice tracks with awesome hypnotic vocals. I definitely like to hear some more of Heliotropes in the future! Enjoy!

Heliotropes - III (2010)

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Weird Alternative Stuff From Russia.

Thanks to Anton from the band Sindie 4 for sharing their EP!
Inside! Inside! Inside! is the very short debut EP from the band Sindie 4 from Chelyabinsk, Russia. This band plays some weird alternative Rock. What I like about this EP are the vocals. It sounds so typical... Russian! What I also like is the artwork. This looks really great!
I think Sindie 4 is inspired by some sixties music on this EP. This music is so strange, I have no idea what else I can say about this EP except that it is nice music. Maybe the readers of this blog can add something by leaving a comment. Enjoy!

Sindie 4 - Inside! Inside! Inside! EP(2010)

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Another Way To Shine

Spiritual Beggars is a Hard Rock influenced Stoner Rock band from Sweden. They just released their album Return To Zero. About this album I can be brief: I do not like it! The Stoner sound is almost gone on this album. I prefer their old work far more.
Another Way to Shine is their second album and in my opinion one of their best releases.
The bass player and singer Spice has an important role on the earlier Spiritual Beggars albums. This man has an incredible voice. There is no one that sound like him.
Great songs on Another Way To Shine are: Magic Spell, Blind Mountain and Nowhere To Go (with a beautiful sounding organ). Enjoy!

Led by former Carcass and ongoing Arch Enemy member Michael Amott's fuzzed-out guitar riffs, the Spiritual Beggars never let up on Another Way to Shine, one of the best stoner coming-out parties of the '90s. Kicking off the debut in typically energetic fashion, "Magic Spell" blasts the top off of Another Way to Shine, setting a high standard for the following eight tracks. All comparisons and genre-tagging aside, this track just plain rocks. Music so accomplished paradoxically solicits the simplest of descriptions, so there's no sense complicating descriptions of this stoner gem with obvious comparisons and inadequate adjectives. Suffice to say that fans of the genre will love the more energetic entries and appreciate all of Another Way to Shine. There is some lumbering, relatively dull material toward the record's finish, but second-rate offerings from Amott and company easily surpass most records dished out during later waves of stoner rock. Highly recommended.
(By Vincent Jeffries at All Music Guide)

Spiritual Beggars - Another Way To Shine (1996)

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Delmar

The Argentian band Los Natas (a.k.a. Natas) sounded in their early days very like a Kyuss clone. That is not so bad when you see how the band has developed over the years.

Delmar is the full-length debut album by Los Natas. This album contains ten decent Stoner Rock songs with a Psychedelic twist.

Elektrohash has re-released Delmar on vinyl last year. Enjoy!

"Their swirling, sub-psychedelic song structures find them deeply entrenched in the seventies-inspired stoner rock phenomenon which are filling the imaginations of so many aggressive music fans as of late, myself included."
(By Sean Palmerston at AllThatIsHeavy)

Natas - Delmar (1998)

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