James Moore's Blog, page 99

The 7 Best Los Angeles Music Venues

Los Angeles is a place regularly revered for its film-making industry, the hills of Hollywood offering the perfect setting for the film world’s greatest to ply their trade. However, the City of Angels is more than just a filmmakers dream, no the city has plenty on offering for any music fan. Los Angeles music finds a home at the below revered live venues.

El Rey Theatre

A stone’s throw from Museum Row on the Miracle Mile, one of Los Angeles’ preserved art deco districts, the El Rey Theatre is a stunner, from its nostalgic neon signage to the grand chandelier-lighted ballroom. The El Rey was built in 1936 and designed by Clifford Balch. After over 50 years as a first run movie house, the El Rey was converted into a live music venue in 1994. A registered Historic-Cultural Monument, the El Rey has sweeping staircases, an art deco lobby, VIP balcony lounge and a grand ballroom equipped with a full stage. It’s a beautiful place to stop and see a show and offers a number of interesting acts, specializing in booking artists on the cusp of mainstream stardom, giving fans the chance to see artists such as Lana Del Rey in a relatively small setting before they graduate to bigger music venues. Check out Australian band San Cisco in the coming weeks!

The Smell

A more recent opening, The Smell may have only been around for a decade, but already it has a reputation for providing cheap, but cheerful gigs for music lovers of all ages  in L.A. Most shows total at just $5, cheaper than most fast food joints and the venue itself has an accessible, welcoming vibe. This space was essential in the development of the unique L.A. noise and punk scenes, with acts like No Age, Mika Miko, and Abe Vigoda as regular guests the future has seen bands like Pangea and FIDLAR carrying the torch.

The principle of D.I.Y and community is very important for the Smell as they’re completely not-for-profit and volunteer run. The community of individuals who call The Smell their home, whether it be the musicians who play here, the artists whose work hangs on the walls, or the dedicated supporters who attend events week in and week out, for one of the best Los Angeles music venues, visit the Smell!

 

Blue Whale

Located in a corner of Little Tokyo that sees the least amount of foot traffic, the Blue Whale is a jazz sanctuary. The sound system is perfect, the house piano is a jewel and the bar staff takes care of you. Whether you want to hear avant-noise from serious-looking Europeans or soak up some straight-ahead sounds from our vast collection of Los Angeles music talent, the Blue Whale is always a worthwhile bet.

The Wiltern

A great historic venue, which has to compete in a city full of historic theaters, the Wiltern is unique. Officially known as the Pellissier Building, the theater and office complex was designed as a vaudeville house. The Wiltern Theatre opened its doors on Oct. 7, 1931, as the Warner Theatre, but the theater went dark only two years later, due to the Depression.

Today Live Nation, hosts a wide variety of events — not just concerts, but everything from benefits and galas to Lebowski Fest. Eight decades in, it’s both a reminder of, and a contributor to, our local cultural history. Named for its cross streets, Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue, the Wiltern was built in the glamorous art deco style, and headliners such as Wilco and the White Stripes’ Jack White stop here. Vertically challenged concertgoers appreciate the balcony seating and multiple levels of standing room, making a view of the stage possible even from the back of the theater. Similar to the El Rey, it has a wonderful clash of music and old-timey settings that concertgoers tend to love and behold, in an industry that is leaning more and more towards 20,000 soulless arenas for pop-stars to fill up and move onto the next identikit venue.

Troubadour

[image error]

Is there another club in the city with this much rock n’ roll history? Lenny Bruce got arrested on obscenity charges, Elton John played his first U.S. date, Janis Joplin partied there the night before she died of a heroin overdose. Warrant made their debut, Guns N Roses and Tom Waits got discovered, Prince played two secret shows. Phew!

The Troubadour may well be approaching its 60th birthday, but unlike other spots whose heydays are past, any time you see a show at the Troubadour, there’s a chance history will be made. In a lovely change from the arenas which populate the country nowadays, this wonderful club is intimate -the stage is small and in the summer, you’ll probably leave drenched in sweat. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

It’s a favorite stop for musicians who live in L.A. and even those who don’t; arena headliners such as as Prince and Coldplay have come here to preview new material. Small enough to lend intimacy to the ballads of a singer-songwriter, but big enough for a raucous rock show, the Troubadour is a treasure. If you need anymore convincing just head over to the website and check out the history of landmarks and achievements that have occurred there, it is truly mind-blowing.

Velvet Magarita

While strictly it was originally a Mexican restaurant, Velvet Margarita has always featured top-notch DJs, but they’ve just started featuring bands on their patio during their “Cahuenga Block Party,” a summer shindig co-promoted with St. Felix. Throw in $5 premium margaritas “every day until the recession ends” and another wallet-friendly feature, complimentary tortilla chips accompanied by warm beans and three types of salsa, even if you just fancy a visit to a quality Mexican restaurant, with music on the side, the Margarita is a viable option.

The focus is still on developing the restaurant, and the combined concept of a restaurant-gig venue is slowly becoming a reality, with the successful parties leading to more and more events, with 2015 likely to see the biggest and best summer parties with live rock and roll.

Loaded

Loaded – Los Angeles music venue

Loaded is aptly named, both for the liquor and the flavorful menu. They offer exceptional deals on beer and pizza, that accompany the nightly live rock music perfectly. Sure it’s not the Hollywood Bowl, in terms of surroundings or acts that they manage to attract, but for a truly grimy rock and roll Los Angeles music experience, with beer in abundance, there won’t be many better places for a music fan to visit.

Agree or Disagree; let me know your favorite Los Angeles music hotspots.

As featured on Indie-music.com, Examiner.com, I Am Entertainment Magazine, Antimusic.com, and recommended by countless music publications, “Your Band Is A Virus! Expanded Edition” is the ultimate music marketing guide for serious independent musicians and bands. Get your copy now.

The post The 7 Best Los Angeles Music Venues appeared first on Independent Music Promotions - Guaranteed PR for Music With Depth Worldwide.

7 of Los Angeles’ Best Music Venues

Los Angeles is a place regularly revered for its film-making industry, the hills of Hollywood offering the perfect setting for the film world’s greatest to ply their trade. However, the City of Angels is more than just a filmmakers dream, no the city has plenty on offering for any music fan.

El Rey Theatre

A stone’s throw from Museum Row on the Miracle Mile, one of Los Angeles’ preserved art deco districts, the El Rey Theatre is a stunner, from its nostalgic neon signage to the grand chandelier-lighted ballroom. The El Rey was built in 1936 and designed by Clifford Balch. After over 50 years as a first run movie house, the El Rey was converted into a live music venue in 1994. A registered Historic-Cultural Monument, the El Rey has sweeping staircases, an art deco lobby, VIP balcony lounge and a grand ballroom equipped with a full stage. It’s a beautiful place to stop and see a show and offers a number of interesting acts, specializing in booking artists on the cusp of mainstream stardom, giving fans the chance to see artists such as Lana Del Rey in a relatively small setting before they graduate to bigger venues. Check out Australian band San Cisco in the coming weeks!

The Smell

A more recent opening, The Smell may have only been around for a decade, but already it has a reputation for providing cheap, but cheerful gigs for music lovers of all ages  in L.A. Most shows total at just $5, cheaper than most fast food joints and the venue itself has an accessible, welcoming vibe. This space was essential in the development of the unique L.A. noise and punk scenes, with acts like No Age, Mika Miko, and Abe Vigoda as regular guests the future has seen bands like Pangea and FIDLAR carrying the torch.

The principle of D.I.Y and community is very important for the Smell as they’re completely not-for-profit and volunteer run. The community of individuals who call The Smell their home, whether it be the musicians who play here, the artists whose work hangs on the walls, or the dedicated supporters who attend events week in and week out, for a welcoming place, visit the Smell!

 

Blue Whale

Located in a corner of Little Tokyo that sees the least amount of foot traffic, the Blue Whale is a jazz sanctuary. The sound system is perfect, the house piano is a jewel and the bar staff takes care of you. Whether you want to hear avant-noise from serious-looking Europeans or soak up some straight-ahead sounds from our vast collection of local talent, the Blue Whale is always a worthwhile bet.

The Wiltern

A great historic venue, which has to compete in a city full of historic theaters, the Wiltern is unique. Officially known as the Pellissier Building, the theater and office complex was designed as a vaudeville house. The Wiltern Theatre opened its doors on Oct. 7, 1931, as the Warner Theatre, but the theater went dark only two years later, due to the Depression.

Today Live Nation, hosts a wide variety of events — not just concerts, but everything from benefits and galas to Lebowski Fest. Eight decades in, it’s both a reminder of, and a contributor to, our local cultural history. Named for its cross streets, Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue, the Wiltern was built in the glamorous art deco style, and headliners such as Wilco and the White Stripes’ Jack White stop here. Vertically challenged concertgoers appreciate the balcony seating and multiple levels of standing room, making a view of the stage possible even from the back of the theater. Similar to the El Rey, it has a wonderful clash of music and old-timey settings that concertgoers tend to love and behold, in an industry that is leaning more and more towards 20,000 soulless arenas for pop-stars to fill up and move onto the next identikit venue.

Troubadour

[image error]

Is there another club in the city with this much rock n’ roll history? Lenny Bruce got arrested on obscenity charges, Elton John played his first U.S. date, Janis Joplin partied there the night before she died of a heroin overdose. Warrant made their debut, Guns N Roses and Tom Waits got discovered, Prince played two secret shows. Phew!

The Troubadour may well be approaching its 60th birthday, but unlike other spots whose heydays are past, any time you see a show at the Troubadour, there’s a chance history will be made. In a lovely change from the arenas which populate the country nowadays, this wonderful club is intimate -the stage is small and in the summer, you’ll probably leave drenched in sweat. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

It’s a favorite stop for musicians who live in L.A. and even those who don’t; arena headliners such as as Prince and Coldplay have come here to preview new material. Small enough to lend intimacy to the ballads of a singer-songwriter, but big enough for a raucous rock show, the Troubadour is a treasure. If you need anymore convincing just head over to the website and check out the history of landmarks and achievements that have occurred there, it is truly mind-blowing.

Velvet Magarita

While strictly it was originally a Mexican restaurant, Velvet Margarita has always featured top-notch DJs, but they’ve just started featuring bands on their patio during their “Cahuenga Block Party,” a summer shindig co-promoted with St. Felix. Throw in $5 premium margaritas “every day until the recession ends” and another wallet-friendly feature, complimentary tortilla chips accompanied by warm beans and three types of salsa, even if you just fancy a visit to a quality Mexican restaurant, with music on the side, the Margarita is a viable option.

The focus is still on developing the restaurant, and the combined concept of a restaurant-gig venue is slowly becoming a reality, with the successful parties leading to more and more events, with 2015 likely to see the biggest and best summer parties with live rock and roll.

Loaded

Loaded is aptly named, both for the liquor and the flavorful menu. They offer exceptional deals on beer and pizza, that accompany the nightly live rock music perfectly. Sure it’s not the Hollywood Bowl, in terms of surroundings or acts that they manage to attract, but for a truly grimy rock and roll LA experience, with beer in abundance, there won’t be many better places for a music fan to visit.

Agree or Disagree; let me know your favoured LA hotspots.

As featured on Indie-music.com, Examiner.com, I Am Entertainment Magazine, Antimusic.com, and recommended by countless music publications, “Your Band Is A Virus! Expanded Edition” is the ultimate music marketing guide for serious independent musicians and bands. Get your copy now.

The post 7 of Los Angeles’ Best Music Venues appeared first on Independent Music Promotions - Guaranteed PR for Music With Depth Worldwide.

6 of the Music Industry’s Biggest Fall Outs

Musicians are artists at the heart of it. Sometimes they are spotted, taken, and morphed into something that resembles fairly little of what they started out as. Then there are the faceless record companies that throw young talent together and see what sticks. It’s unsurprising, then, that so many arguments and fall-outs between musicians have proven to be fatal. Let’s go over some of the biggies…

1. Pete Doherty vs Johnny Borrell

Let’s kick off with a couple of mid-00’s British music royalty, Pete Doherty and Johnny Borrell. Doherty was part of the on-off majesty of the Libertines, while Borrell led Razorlight as they headlined Glastonbury and took a reasonable crack at toppling America in their brief crusade. While in 2015 both bands are still going, The Libertines reuniting after a considerable break away from the limelight, and Borrell still touring under the Razorlight banner, back in their original heyday in 2005, the pair were involved in ‘headbutt-gate’ at Leeds Festival. Doherty had visited Razorlight’s dressing room to talk with Borrell, which then led to the former friends ending up embroiled in a bloody indie-rock battle. What began as a few drinks led to Doherty standing up and butting Borrell, and things got a little bit tasty after that.

2. Taylor Swift vs Spotify

Okay so not strictly a fight, per se, but one of the reigning pop queens, country star Taylor Swift upset the proverbial apple cart when she upped and took her songs away from Spotify in 2014, following her latest album release ‘1989’. Whether or not this removal resulted in that aforementioned album being the first to acheive over 1m in sales in the US, coming dangerously close to Eminem’s record of 1.2m back in 2002, or not is another reason. Her reasoning for the removal was that the popular streaming service  paid so poorly per song listen, giving artists between $0.006 and $0.0084. The service counteracted with claims it paid out $500m in royalties in 2013 and over $1bn since 2009. As of June 2015, Swift is still not back on the service, yet her popularity remains, whether this is a precedent for the future is yet to be seen, but who knows, could the streaming revolution collapse before it reaches its peak?

3. Jack White vs Black Keys

Another act who refrain from Spotify, are the Black Keys, but they aren’t the real star of this feud. Private emails from Jack White to ex-wife Karen Elson entered the public domain causing the self-record label artist a fair bit of embarrassment. White bizarrely ranted about his children attending the same school as Black Keys’ singer Dan Auerbach, claiming he’d ripped his act off. What could have led to a proper, big argument, and threatened to for a while as White told the Rolling Stone that ‘without the White Stripes there’d be no Black Keys’, simmered down by 2014, by which time White had issued a letter apologising to the band, as well as Danger Mouse, Adele, Meg White and “anyone I’ve offended with my comments about my creativity, their creativity, and the music business in general”. It was a big step for the blues man, and drew a firm line under the incident.

4. Charlie Watts vs Mick Jagger

A story that emerged via a devoted Stones fanzine editor gave some insight into what it is like to be in a world-famous rock band and the pressures that come with it. Bill German, founder of the Beggars Banquet fanzine, described a meeting in Amsterdam to discuss whether the band should call it a day. It led to Mick Jagger infamously calling drummer Charlie Watts as “my drummer”. Jagger allegedly said something to Watts along the lines of: “None of this should matter to you because you’re only my drummer.”

While Watts immediately kept it bottled inside until he got back to his hotel room, German describes him as, “Clicking off his TV, putting on his shoes, walking down the hall and knocking on Mick’s door. When the lead singer of the Rolling Stones opened it, ‘his’ drummer clocked him on the jaw. Charlie then turned round and calmly walked away.” It was one of who knows how many incidents, and one only uncovered as a result of the fanzine editor’s hard work.

5. Kid Rock vs Tommy Lee

The MTV Video Awards had seen this type of thing before; the Axl Rose vs Nirvana debacle dating this confrontation by 15 years, but ultimately Kid Rock and Tommy Lee’s ‘brawl’ was all about a girl. Pamela Anderson was in-between the two men, the ex-wife of one and the current wife of the other, the two men eerily similar in their oily haired rocker status. During Alicia Keys’ performance, it all kicked off with the RnB star’s interpretation of George Michael’s Freedom playing with increasingly surreal elements throughout. It may have been every bit the drunken punch up at a wedding, but when you’re both vying for the attention of Anderson, it was always going to end in a publicly damning bitch fight. Security separated the two following a few punches thrown.

6. Lorde vs Diplo

An indictment of the social media world we live in in the 21st century, the feud between American DJ Diplo and NZ sensation Lorde also revolved around Taylor Swift. The former tweeted out “someone should make a Kickstarter to get Taylor Swift a booty”, Lorde – on Swift’s behalf – hit back with the excellent: “should we do something about your tiny penis while we’re at it?”. It caused all sorts of controversy amongst various groups of fangirls before Lorde later claimed there was no animosity, and that Diplo is like “a big brother”, adding that special friendship is about “not letting them say stupid shit.” Diplo has extensively remixed Lorde’s tracks both past and present, so the friendship is hardly surprising, maybe they should keep it private the next time they want to have ‘banter’?

Agree? Disagree? Was your favourite fall-out on the list? Comment below!

As featured on Indie-music.com, Examiner.com, I Am Entertainment Magazine, Antimusic.com, and recommended by countless music publications, “Your Band Is A Virus! Expanded Edition” is the ultimate music marketing guide for serious independent musicians and bands. Get your copy now.

The post 6 of the Music Industry’s Biggest Fall Outs appeared first on Independent Music Promotions - Guaranteed PR for Music With Depth Worldwide.

Independent Industry Figures : Nate Carson

Independent Industry Figures is a weekly column at IMP where we do a feature on a different music industry figure every week and try to better understand what they’re all about. With each installment we try and get a better sense of what it means to make a living in the music industry and how people can get involved. After all – what can we do but work hard and try to help each other live the dream?

Nate Carson is one of the most important people in metal, but you’ve probably never heard of him, or his company Nanotear. Yet this is the man who books Rolling Stones favorite metal band of 2014, who books legends like Agalloch and Nick Turners Hawkwind and who has played shows in almost every state in the continental US with his own band, the critically acclaimed Witch Mountain. Carson represents a new wave in heavy metal professionals, having figured out how to make a living in one of the most obscure corners of the genre.

While it may have taken him several years, Nate Carson has become one of the most respected booking agents in the industry. In his words “There are thousands of record labels and dozens of booking agencies. There are lots of great bands with no representation who want to go on tour.” Recognizing this very real need Carson decided to step up to the plate and deliver quality representation for a roster of thirty two bands, many representing the best and brightest in metal and outer sound.

Getting to this point wasn’t an easy task though, when I first started hanging out with Carson back in June of 2014 he made it very clear to me saying “I think it’s always good to have a backup plan, as passionate as we all are about music, there are millions of people who are interested. I’ve seen people put all of their eggs in that basket and then they hit thirty or forty and they are unskilled. I think having a separate career path to fall back on is always smart. If music is your livelihood that’s when you’re going to be in a position that you’re going to have to make compromises at one point. The more you have another method of paying your bills, the less you have to compromise your art.”

One thing I’ve always admired about Carson, and that we don’t really get into in the interview is his willingness to help others get their start in the music industry. He’s already become a mentor to me, and he has helped to guide other music industry types work out their place in the scene. Basing his career on integrity and the value of his word hasn’t been easy but it has established him as an almost universally lauded ‘good dude’. He is living proof that the music industry has a place for self-made men who manage to bend the fucked up environment to their will.

What I’m trying to say, and what the interview will hopefully reveal, is that Nathan Carson is perhaps one of the key trendsetters in the music industry – simply because he gets what the entire thing is supposed to be about. He brings the industry back to its basics and proves that there is still integrity in a world of jaded dudes and grim executives. Carson provides a smiling face even in the bleakest scenarios and shows that as the industry starts to recover we’ll all be able to profit off what it will become.

So Nate to start – how did you become a booker?

Well, I started by booking my own tours for my own band. When I first started playing music when I was a teenager I was the one guy who had the gumption to take our demo cassette and go up to the door guy and say “Hey, please leave this for the booker” and then I would follow up with telephone calls. I was in the high tech industry in the 90’s and was online fairly constantly before a lot of people were online at all. There was a booking corporation out of Chicago called Billions Corporation, they’re still going, and they’re highly respected. They booked bands like Nic Cave and the Jesus Lizard, really great stuff. At one point they needed a webmaster which didn’t require much more than updating tour dates. So I got the job as their webmaster and for a couple of years I just got to see how one of the best agencies in the industry was just routing tours and the kinds of circuits they sent bands on and the venue they like to send bands too. Through osmosis I absorbed some of that and then started booking my own tours for Witch Mountain and started being successful. Then this fledgling band called Yob asked me if I could help them get around the country and I booked two tours for Yob and they started coming home with money. At that point it dawned on me that I was actually good at it and should start charging people for it.

To what extent do you think your success is do to Yob? Did that kickstart everything?

They weren’t huge at the time but they were definitely growing. We weren’t asking for crazy money because gas was still cheap. It was all pretty underground. The fact that they were growing so rapidly and they were so well loved helped. I can’t say they were so tremendously successful in the beginning that it made my career in any way. It was more just encouraging to see my friends experiencing this growth. I feel like the relationship between Nanotear and Yob has been very symbiotic. I don’t think we would be in the same position if they hadn’t started at that point. A lot of the hard work that we did ten years ago has really come into fruition for them. I’m not taking away anything away from the fact that they write brilliant albums and put on an incredible show. It’s a real joy that my very first clients are still with me and we’re working on really cool stuff for the near future.

Can you give me a timeline for all of this?

I guess Nanotear started technically eleven years ago, it was the tail end of 2003. The agency started in 2004 for most practical purposes. I had already done two Yob tours by that time and several Witch Mountain tours and I was in a place where Witch Mountain was sort of going into hibernation and I had started another band called Point Line Plane which was also kind of going into hibernation. All of the sudden I had a bit more free time then I had had when I was touring more constantly. I started exploring a lot of my contacts. Really the week I decided to start a booking agency I looked around and just amongst my friends, bands who had slept on my floor, and there were dozens of artists on really good labels who had no representation. I was a little it ahead of the curve when it came to the artistic underground metal that was happening in the state and also as to how many women were involved. It was never a purposeful move, it was largely based on personal taste and friendships but the roster has always had a pretty high percentage of bands with female membership. In the past you always hear what an uphill battle it was for women to get representation in metal and I just want to make sure that the people I like and respect are getting the opportunity for others to hear them.

How long did you have to build Nanotear until it was your full time gig?

I was definitely doing a lot of freelance computer animation and graphic design simultaneously for the first couple of years that the agency was going. I had been DJing that entire time to supplement it and I write for various magazines so I won’t say it was ever my only full time job but there definitely was a point when I stopped pursuing any of the computer graphics gigs because they were too time intensive for me to do music and tour. That’s money that I miss sometimes because obviously that industry pays much better. But I don’t like having a boss and I don’t like having a day job routine I kind of like how every day is a different challenge. It was a process that happened over years. It’s getting better all the time. If anything my biggest problem is that there’s only one of me and I have to turn down bands I would like to work with all the time because I’m stretched too thin.

So would you say that for someone trying to make a living in the music industry they’d have to diversify their interests and wear a lot of hats?

Well it depends on what part of the business you want to get involved in and what your cost of living requires. I’ve always kept my cost of living really minimal. I got into a really great rental deal eleven-twelve years ago. I don’t drink much, I don’t need a lot to live on,  and I have an old car that doesn’t break down, knock on wood. Everyone has to find a path that works for them. Portland is also a place that was, until recently, a really affordable place to live. I’ve managed to lock into a place where it’s still affordable for me. But I think it would be difficult to just move here, quit your job and work full time in the music industry unless you have a job for someone else. I kind of had to build this very organically over time and I don’t know that it’s a process that someone else could repeat just because times change and I don’t know what the future will bring.

I can say that there is a vast shortage of talented booking agents. There are thousands of record labels and dozens of booking agencies. There are lots of great bands with no representation who want to go on tour. I could build an entire roster of excellent bands in a weeks time if I all of the sudden had the manpower or unlimited time. The fact is, it’s a hard job, it’s a frustrating job and unless you have a very specific set of competencies and interests it’s going to either drive you insane or get you to piss people off. So having integrity and knowing how to negotiate and knowing how to treat venues and promoters like people too is important. I don’t like to lose people money and I feel like a lot of other agents really don’t seem to mind if promoters lose money time and time again. It’s not anyone specific it’s just industry wide.

I think that a lot of agents just think “This is how much I want to get, and this is how much I should get” as opposed to “This is how much is fair for the time of the year, the day of the week, and what the room is” I always try to treat everyone very fairly in every aspect. Of course, it’s my job to push the promoters to do their best. That guarantee is meant to be incentive for them to work hard and do their job to promote the show. If there isn’t a little bit of fear as a motivator people get lazy. It’s really my job to say “Here’s the most we can really be worth” and get it for the band so the promoter will do whatever it takes to get the audience that we need. I’m not one to vastly overprice a package just for the heck of it. I really like everyone in a situation to be a winner.

Could you explain to us how your business model works?

Basically it starts with the bands. I’m a musician as well, I’ve toured extensively. I think that there’s a lot of insight that comes from being someone who does this. I’m not someone who says “You’re going to drive 12 hours this and and 16 hours this day and zig zag back and forth across the country” I’m trying to think of things in very artist friendly ways.

It starts with an idea, the band says “We have an album coming out at this time and we would like to be on the road for this time” We discuss what is in the bands best interest and then I come up with a proposed itinerary which is something I’m very good at at this point. I’m very proud of that since North America isn’t known as the most profitable place for underground bands touring. I make sure we’re working with the weather not against it. I make sure we’re not wasting time in valueless markets where there’s no people at the shows or no interest and making sure we’re in the right places on the right days of the week. If I know there’s a Metal Thursday in Worcester, Massachusetts then it’s better to be there on the Thursday than the Tuesday. I’ve been doing this for long enough that I know where a lot of those are. I’ve gotten very good at targeting weekly events that are on the other side of the country from me.

Once we have an itinerary we like I send out holds throughout the country. This means I write emails to promoters and venues around the country saying what dates we would like to be at their town. And we try to do this far in advance so we can get the best venues and the best local support. For an agent like me this means we need to do this 5-6 months out. Less than that and it starts being really competitive. However if you’re just a band sometimes 6 months out is too far out for the comfort of a lot of promoters. If you don’t have professional representation it’s easy for you to get a night at a club and then break up or flake out. Nothing against DIY bands, they’re great. A band like Shellac books themselves and nobody worries about whether or not they’re going to show up. If you’re a brand new band with no history chances are they’re going to be a lot more comfortable giving you that night 4 months out rather than 6 because they don’t want to tie themselves up and lose something big.

Once the holds are in place we start negotiating and once we have arrived at a deal that everyone is satisfied with then we either confirm the show or we have to challenge to get the date. So for example if there’s a club we want on a certain date and I’m the fourth hold, if I’m ready to lock it in and confirm it, we issue a challenge that goes to the first hold. Standard procedure is they get about 24 hours to either confirm a deal or get out of the way and often bands have multiple dates booked anyway. So, if they’re not ready to lock in their tour oftentimes our challenges are won. There have been times where our challenge loses and hopefully that’s a situation where we have multiple venues in that city and I have my bases covered.

Once the shows are confirmed there’s a contract phase. We work with publicists who announce shows at a certain time and in a certain order and then of course there’s supporting the bands when they’re out on the road. If they have questions or problems I need to be available. I am constantly berating friends and partners for calling and texting me at 9 in the morning. I work in sort of a swing shift industry. Usually I’m DJing or at musical events, so I’m out until two or three in the morning most of the week so there’s no point in me being an early riser. If someone on the East Coast texts me at 8:50 in the morning I say “Hey man, don’t do that!” and if they ask me “Why don’t you turn off your phone?” I tell them that the reason I don’t turn off my phone is because I have Ufomammut, a band from Italy, on the road right now and I need to be on the line 24/7 for them in case they need me. I don’t want to say “Oh I only have office hours from 8 to 5 so if you’re driving into Texas and it’s flooding… too bad for you!” (Laughter) That’s my defense for when I get crabby at people for texting me early in the morning!

How do you deal with something like what Ufomammut are facing in Texas right now with the flooding?

The first thing I did was reach out to the promoter and say “How are you feeling” they were definitely nervous but they didn’t want to cancel. Usually the deal is, if the promoter has to cancel the show for any reason there will be some sort of kill fee. They’re pledging to give us some money even if they pull the plug on the show. As long as they’re in a position that people can physically get there they probably are going to take their chances and have the show. There was flooding in Texas but I checked on Google and I looked at the traffic and it seemed like it was reasonable for them to get to the venue. Then I posted on Facebook, I have thousands of friends and followers on there and we’re all a connected hive mind. I asked “What’s the deal in Houston, is it safe to get too?”

I have had bands in the past who were driving into tornado country and we decided it wasn’t a good idea to go on. I’ve had bands who were stuck in a blizzard and couldn’t get to a gig. Sometimes that happens.

Personally I’m of a mind to just get there and make it work. We had a Witch Mountain tour that began the day the tsunami happened in 2010. Many of the roads we needed to take were washed out, and the band we were on tour with decided to take the day off and didn’t go. But we found an alternate route that involved us towing our trailer down a one lane mountain road for miles. I can just imagine what would have happened if we had come upon another vehicle. But it was a beautiful drive through a national forest and the weather was great. I took us 10 hours to do a 7 hour drive but we made it and played for the people that came.

Likewise we played in New York the day after Sandy hit. We were in Vermont when it hit and the next day we had to be down in Brooklyn and there where gas shortages and the buses weren’t running. We stopped in Connecticut and gassed up and bought groceries. We drove into what seemed like a war zone, it was like a zombie movie. People were walking in the streets with gas canisters and the only people we played too were the 50 people who walked to the St Vitus bar that night. It feels kind of badass to be the band that manages to show up and make it work anyway. It’s too bad that maybe we played to only a third as many people as we should have but it was still cool. So I was happy the Usnea and Ufomammut were gung-ho enough to make the best of it.

What’s the next step for Nanotear and your career as a whole?

The agency is growing and I’m having to turn down bands constantly. The trick would be to grow and be able to take on more talent without overwhelming myself and going insane. I’m trying to run a business but I’m also a creative artist myself and I have other endeavors. So do I try to plateau at this level and keep growing the bands? That’s what’s been happening for a long time, it’s not that I have that many more bands that I’m working with but they’re getting bigger. That’s what happens when you’re serious about your art and go on tour. Most of the people I work with I would not consider hobbyists. Keeping the same number of bands but having them grow to where they’re playing for more money and to more people is a great business model for me. The idea of hiring more people and taking more bands… I’m nervous about. I’ve seen so many businesses go through those growing pains and then collapse. I feel that my business is so much based on me and my word so I feel that putting someone between me and my clients makes me a little nervous.

I have had an assistant for the last five years and she is rock solid and amazing. Her name is June. I am so fortunate to work with someone who is as on top of shit as she is. We still have different skill sets. I’m a lot more of a diplomat in the spotlight and she’s a lot more of an administrator in the shadows. It’s a really great partnership that we have there.

Whether or not I could have another agent… It’s been discussed. I’ve had several agencies ask to absorb me into their businesses. My view is “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” There was one person who I really got on with and I asked her to join forces with me but she decided to move to New York instead and I’m happy for her and she’s doing well. We saw eye to eye on many things and had similar tastes. But she had her own name and business going and she didn’t want to be under my banner and I totally respect that and I feel the same way.

It’s hard to say though. The landscape keeps changing. When I first started this business it was fortunate because it was right at the beginning of the e-mail era. I never had to book national tours over the telephone the way Black Flag did. I would be able to accomplish 10% of what I do, maybe less if it was those days The internet, social media and texting has made things a lot easier. Who knows what’s coming next though?

I feel like I’ve seen an era come and go though in the last few years when Facebook was a free for all with tons of people and get news to tons of people and now they’ve changed their model so that you have to pay to boost the post so people can actually see it. I think my business has suffered from that. Who knows what’s coming next, maybe it gets easier maybe it gets harder but you have to roll with the punches!

As featured on Indie-music.com, Examiner.com, I Am Entertainment Magazine, Antimusic.com, and recommended by countless music publications, “Your Band Is A Virus! Expanded Edition” is the ultimate music marketing guide for serious independent musicians and bands. Get your copy now.

The post Independent Industry Figures : Nate Carson appeared first on Independent Music Promotions - Guaranteed PR for Music With Depth Worldwide.

Full of Hell Changing the future of Punk

I feel like I was late catching on to Full of Hell. I first saw them at This Is Hardcore in July of 2014 and had been impressed, but not blown away. Somehow seeing them smashed in between dozens of hardcore bands made it hard for me to register what they were all about. I saw them again a couple of times throughout 2014 and was impressed by their energy – but it wasn’t until my friend Robin gave me Full Of Hell & Merzbow to listen too that it clicked. Somewhere deep in my second or third listen of the record I realized that Full Of Hell, as humble as they may be, are essentially changing the future of heavy music.

Started in 2009 – apparently as more of a straight up powerviolence band it wasn’t long before the band started to spiral into electronic influenced madness. It’s been five years since the bands mastermind Dylan Walker dropped out of college to work on Full of Hell and it’s incredible to hear how this band has evolved – from an Ocean City grindcore band into something far noisier and almost sublime. Romantic music lives on in what Full of Hell do and they are unafraid to push the envelope with ambient sounds, horns, and all sorts of avant garde ideas.

Perhaps the first true indicator of what Full of Hell would go on to be came on their second release, the now seminal FOH Noise Vol 1 which features the semi-mythic face of a man known for allegedly appearing in the dreams of random individuals (It was later deemed to be a hoax). Yet the simple buzzing and the more abrasive electronic moments that followed helped to evidence the greatness of what Full Of Hell would become. It’s strange to think that this kind of band could appeal to so many hardcore kids, given the droning sense of alienation on this record. Yet there is something rather meditative about the FOH Noise collection, it’s demented, but that’s kind of the point.

I’ve only ever had the chance to interview the bands guitarist Spencer, and then only for a few minutes, but even from that (Along with personal relationships with the band members) I have realized that these guys are very in tune with themselves and the weird reality they have only just started to delve into. The thing is, the dudes in Full of Hell are incredibly humble, sure they’ve toured Southeast Asia and sure, they’ve toured Europe more than almost any other band their age, but every once in a while they still will play a church basement. Despite the overarching grinding power of their music they remain down to earth, never getting a tour manager and hanging out with the local bands. It’s impressive to see that a band credited with changing the face of heavy music can remain so in touch with reality and just be four simple friendly dudes who like to see their friends whilst on tour.

As I started to really dig into Full Of Hell’s discography I realized that the depth here is perhaps unparalleled in any other band that has started up in the last few years. I mean – How many bands who debuted in 2009 now have thirteen releases and another on the way? These guys are as prolific as they get, and I feel that’s part of why they are so willing to experiment. Full Of Hell are unafraid of crafting apocalyptic and soul searing sounds, but they also know what it means to create music that forces the listener to think. They are giving a new nobility to punk music, a refreshing breath of fresh air that is exactly what the genre needs after years of stagnation.

What Full Of Hell do, and what is perhaps most prevalent on Full Of Hell & Merzbow (Although you can hear it throughout their discography) is use the magic of bands like Swans to accentuate vile grindcore. The usage of electronic sounds alongside grind is not really a new idea, (Hell, even Napalm Death do it!) but Full Of Hell seem to implement it differently. The sense of raw energy is vital to the entire thing – how else could you justify a track like Gordian Knot which seems to reek of cosmic brutality and feels almost as if it where torn from another dimension?

It comes through in the live performances just as much as it does on the records too. The raw energy of the band is exuded through the bands frontman, Dylan, and his violently quaking body. He thrashes around the stage and is beaten in the pit – a slave to the incredibly heavy music that has come to help define his life. He is grindcore incarnate – extremely friendly, smart and polite when you talk to him, but a veritable monster the second he steps onto the stage. Full Of Hell’s live shows are a sight to be seen. The photographs barely do justice to the raw chaos that abounds. It’s a strange balance that they strike, between the avant garde music that is almost reminiscent of John Zorn at times and the grindcore basis of the sound, yet it is one that kids in the global hardcore scene seem to love.

One thing that Full Of Hell do that has always made them more exciting to me is their use of additional musicians to help guide their stormy music along and make every set unique. The stunning attack that defines this bands live set is only possible because every time they get up to play it feels very different. Be it in the use of noise elements, or by bringing a trumpet player or saxophonist along (I’ve seen them perform with both) it’s hard to deny that Full Of Hell know what it means to create a unique live experience. In world where this is increasingly important it gives the band a definite edge. The fact of the matter is, as much as they might want to pay tribute to their influences (And they certainly wear these on their collective sleeve) Full Of Hell are doing something totally unique and groundbreaking.

One thing that really struck me from my lone interview with Spencer was his statement that “We just say we’re a punk band. That can go in so may directions.” The sense of artistic liberation is crucial to Full Of Hell’s aesthetic and helps to make them, in my eyes at least, a far greater band. The raw diversity of sound, be it in the saxophone parts found on Full Of Hell and Merzbow or the power tools occasionally used in the FOH Noise releases Full Of Hell know how to create deliciously interesting sounds – sounds that never cease to inspire the listener and force them to look at music from strange new directions.

Incredibly heavy and undeniably inspiring Full Of Hell aren’t even close to finished, even though in the last 5 years they’ve put out more music than most bands do in decades of work. Their latest project is a record with The Body which they didn’t even start writing until they were in the studio, a novelty for the band. Apparently they have a few more compilations of that nature coming up, but the main focus the band has at present is a 7 inch featuring new material of the sort featured on their first two records. That’s the thing about Full Of Hell. Sure they could team up with one of the most important composers of the 21st century and write one of the greatest heavy records of all time, but if they want to go back home to Maryland and write some grindcore and put that out… well, they’re damn well going too.

The point I’m trying to make is that Full Of Hell’s very existence is a crucial to the history of grindcore and even punk rock as a whole. They have proven that the genre isn’t just teenagers slamming on guitars, instead it has the potential to stick to its primal roots whilst embracing something greater. Full Of Hell are showing the way forward for punk – embracing a brave new future for the genre with a band who can open for Earth just as easily as they can for Carcass. Anyone who values what is weird, alternative, or just gosh-darned interesting will have no time digging in to what Full Of Hell represents and their weird dichotomies are exactly what we need if we want extreme music to remain vital for years to come.

As featured on Indie-music.com, Examiner.com, I Am Entertainment Magazine, Antimusic.com, and recommended by countless music publications, “Your Band Is A Virus! Expanded Edition” is the ultimate music marketing guide for serious independent musicians and bands. Get your copy now.

The post Full of Hell Changing the future of Punk appeared first on Independent Music Promotions - Guaranteed PR for Music With Depth Worldwide.

Maryland Deathfest Day 4: A Day of Death

Described as the American Death Metal Mecca I was of course curious to check out what Maryland Deathfest was all about – even if I only could go to the first and last days of the festival. Still – Maryland Deathfest provided an experience that is never to be forgotten and speaks to the enduring power that heavy metal will have – that people will travel from different countries and sleep in their cars just so that they can afford to see these bands. What more could you want from the transcendent annihilation that Maryland Deathfest provides? Read our coverage of Thursday HERE

It seemed to me that Sunday was going to be a lot closer to the all-day experience I have come to cherish at festivals. Though I only had Edison Lot tickets I was able to find a lot of my friends and figure out some hacks (Shh!) for getting in free next year. Edison Lot seems to be just the right size it’s big enough that there’s plenty of space for food trucks and to sit and eat (Hailz to the vegan options!) but small enough that you can’t help but bump into friends. I joined the ragged company just as Goatsnake wrapped up – passing a herd of smelly crust punks selling beer and telling crass jokes – a fitting addition to a demented scene.

The first band I did get to see was Primordial, the Irish maniacs delivered their unique brand of black metal with a flourish and felt a bit too European for their rather urban surroundings. That’s part of what made them so charming though, that we could watch music like that from our spot on a parking lot and contemplate our place in a society that seems to have cast us aside. Their overwhelming hymns and epic riffs guided the crowd into head banging fury. These guys have a sense of bombast and shake the audience with a sonic assault that is impossible to deny. The epic choruses in particular seem to embrace the listener with a sense of atavistic triumph that is hard to deny.

Within moments of Primordial closing their set with another explosive set of riffs I rushed over to the second stage to witness Winter. There is something distinctly fascinating about these guys. There brand of death-doom was spurned back in the day, but now here they are more than twenty years after their initial break up playing one of the biggest stages for a band of their ilk. They performed with grace though and they thundered through nearly an hour of music – bombarding the listener with each and every song, proving the eternal power that doom can have. Sure they had a fill in drummer, and sure they don’t really tour that much, but that’s all asides the point, because at Maryland Deathfest, Winter became masters of their own reality.

 

Perhaps the band of the day (Asides – of course – from Neurosis) was Anaal Nathrakh. These guys have rapidly become legendary – a fact they seem very aware of. Every song title was greeted with a roar from the crowd and many of the fans seemed to know every word. These guys are distinctly evil – preaching paeans of a fucked up reality and interspersing songs with strange moments of intellectual preponderance. The ferocity of the band though is impossible to deny. The vocal delivery is ferocious, and the bands bassist, who occasionally provides backups only serves to make the entire thing even more fucked up. What’s not to love about a band who reek of putridity like Anaal Nathrakh do? Nihilistic and gleefully demented, they represent all extreme metal has the potential to be, and yet are insane enough that it will be hard to find any imitators.

I had thought that I was simply going to spend Skepticism’s set going over to get food – yet somehow their unique brand of symphonic death-doom managed to lure me over to the stage to observe their live ritual. The wonderfully epic power of this band sweeps the listener off of their feet and makes them beholden to greater beings than we can ever acknowledge. Skepticism’s music is the sound of mountains moving, and as we try to navigate the shallow and morbid realities of our lives they are strangely comforting. Their utterly transcendent sound carries the listener, and their set follows a logical path lifting you up in arms of steel and then gently laying you back down, after waves of melodic guitar lines and crushing riffs you find yourself cleansed, ready to go on with your day and see some more death metal unfold.

During Demilich’s I bumped into a whole mess of friends including my PR buddy Liz who I had seen on the opposite side of the continent the prior weekend at Psycho CA, I will reinforce my previous sentiment – her hugs are legendary. Anyway – Demilich – who have been known for years for their brand of hard hitting buzzing death metal immediately captured my imagination. Their gurgling assault was gloriously violent and seemed to revel in the decay that it invoked. There are few bands these days who still have that old school flame burning in their hearts. The way that they reached out and assaulted the listener – forcing them to bend the knee to death metal gods who seem to be from a wholly different dimension… That is the kind of majesty that makes this music so endlessly fascinating to me. They understand their role in underground history and their sonic devastation will leave me considering my place in the scene for a long time to come.

Suddenly the hour had come for the moment I had been waiting for all weekend. Neurosis took the stage and played perhaps the best set list I’ve ever seen from them. They play with a sense of grim humanity and Scott Kelly seemed to transform into William Blake. I’m probably getting too poetic here, but when Kelly unleashes his endlessly repeated cry of “In a shadow world” it seems impossible to deny the overarching glory of this band. They speak to the nature of the human condition and life on earth. It’s impossible to deny the way that they seem to rise from the guitar and use their punk rock roots to rise up and create some of the great music of our day and age. Perhaps more than any other heavy act out there right now these guys are the ones who will make it and be listened to in five hundred years.

Just before Amorphis started I met a super cool punk chick who I started talking too about death metal, My Little Pony and all that it entails. It provided a fitting backdrop for seeing Amorphis, one of the bands who set me down this path but who I have not revisited in many a year. Their melodic lines were delicious and every song seemed to be almost Iron Maiden-esque. With fans going crazy like hell in the pit and the folk nerds screaming along there was a sense of transcendent might to what happened on the stage that night. It showed me that melodic death metal will never die, merely because it can hit so many demographics and is so much fun to watch that to deny it is to deny yourselfas a fan of loud guitars and passionate – exciting music. These guys have touches of rockstardom, but that doesn’t keep them from keeping it trve and reveling in the glorious power of the underground. They have risen up and become masters of that particular reality but led me to bend the knee at the power within.

I knew my chances were slim but I took the time then to run over to the Baltimore Soundstage to see if I could sneak into DRI. By some strange miracle I was let in unquestioned (The secret is to walk confidently guys!) and immediately got in the pit for the thrashing of a lifetime. Sure I had seen DRI only two days prior, but that’s not the point. Or maybe it is… What I’m trying to say is that DRI are creating something timeless and fun. That almighty cry of “Fuck You” at the end of I Don’t Need Society speaks to the bands enduring power. There words remain vital and important even in the twenty first century. The crowd went nuts to the point that even the security guards led the fans in chanting the bands name in hope for a well deserved encore. The weekend was nicely summarized when Kurt Brecht called out “I can’t believe you guys have so much energy for the last band on a festival!” to which one tired fan screamed back “I can’t believe I’m still alive!” DRI are still killing it every night and it is impossible to deny that these hardcore and thrash legends will live on forever.

What followed as I left was a sequence of events that is almost too bizarre for words.

My buddy Sean, his stoned friend and I were going to ride up to Philly together after MDF. We would be taking the rental car Calvin had taken and slept in. He and his friend had just spent 4 days partying at Maryland Deathfest, for me this was my second consecutive festival weekend – suffice to say we were exhausted. My phone the only smart phone was low on battery so we couldn’t use GPS but we thought we had a pretty good idea of how to get back to Philly. We had a hard time finding the car and at first couldn’t get the headlights to work (Poor Sean almost had to hold the high beams the entire ride) but eventually we worked it out and got onto the I 95

Now this is normally like an hour and a half drive from Baltimore and we were feeling young and confident – we had Judas Priest’s Breaking the Law blaring with the windows rolled down.

Then we noticed the PSI of one of our tires was going down alarmingly quickly. So we pulled into a rest area where we found we had a puncture. We tried to contact Alamo but they weren’t being helpful – remember this is at about 2:30 in the morning. While Sean was on hold with the company I got in line to buy him some coffee. In line I met a really nice guy named Dmitri who told me about his family and how he was concerned he didn’t have enough cash to pay his tolls on his way to Atlantic City.

Sean had no luck with the rental company in getting help so we realized we would have to change the tire with a bare minimum of knowledge. I said “Wait! I have a friend!” and I went inside and offered Dmitri five bucks to help us out. He would stay with us for two hours as we tried to figure out the situation. You see the issue was we got the jack and the spare tire, but somehow the wrench was attached to the jack and we couldn’t figure out how to get it off.

We got a picture with Dmitri!

So I went inside to charge my phone and try to figure out what we could do – I was considering getting a non emergency cop but our stoned friend was a liability. In walks a biker gang- I remember reading in Hunter S Thompsons Hells Angels about how biker gangs often would help motorists who were struggling. I figured I would go out – see what the situation was with my friends and then get the bikers to help.

Turns out the bikers had already jacked up our car and given us advice as to how to best change the tire.

We finally got back on the road – going slow after the spare started to smell funny and worrying about what the rental company would say.

Of course we missed our exit.

This created a 45 minute detour where we had to talk to more cops whilst our stoned friend slept in the back.

I broke down and cried in a convenience store.

It was bleak.

We arrived at my house at around 6 in the morning where my INCREDIBLE mother who helped us navigate the whole night gave me and Sean chili while stoned friend slept in the car.

Sean took a three hour power nap and hit the road again and somehow the rental car company had no problem with what had happened.

Perhaps it’s just the magic of festivals, but somehow we all made it out okay. That’s what this years edition of Maryland Deathest taught me – how to get through when times are bleak and how to look at an uncaring world and realize that maybe we can transcend using the power of heavy music as our compass. Sure some things were meant to stay in the dark, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have to embrace death and the power it holds.

As featured on Indie-music.com, Examiner.com, I Am Entertainment Magazine, Antimusic.com, and recommended by countless music publications, “Your Band Is A Virus! Expanded Edition” is the ultimate music marketing guide for serious independent musicians and bands. Get your copy now.

The post Maryland Deathfest Day 4: A Day of Death appeared first on Independent Music Promotions - Guaranteed PR for Music With Depth Worldwide.

Maryland Deathfest Day 1: A Night of Doom

Described as the American Death Metal Mecca I was of course curious to check out what Maryland Deathfest was all about – even if I only could go to the first and last days of the festival. Still – MDF provided an experience that is never to be forgotten and speaks to the enduring power that heavy metal will have – that people will travel from different countries and sleep in their cars just so that they can afford to see these bands. What more could you want from the transcendent annihilation that Maryland Deathfest provides?

I ended up getting to the festival later than expected – which is fine – that’s just the way life goes. I would still see the four acts who I had hoped would define the night. Arriving to the legendary Rams Head venue is a treat in and of itself. Sure – Baltimore is a shitty spot and you see a lot of rats but getting to witness so many metalheads in one place – all gathered around in the name of doom, well, there’s few things that get better than that. Everyone who was anyone seemed to be there – and yet surprisingly enough MDF fosters a kind of anonymous democracy. Dudes who put out all of your favorite records are able to just blend in and dig the music just as much as anyone else.

Within minutes I had bumped into my old friend, Jon from Conan and we navigated the venue searching for a better spot to view the live rituals Jex Thoth are known to unleash. I had known about these guys for a while but never had had a chance to see them perform. As the band lit candles and came on stage with a sense of pomp I knew I was in for something special. Their was a sense of majesty and magic to what Jex Thoth bring in a live setting. It’s impossible to deny that this band have crafted something truly special. The way that Jex herself seemed to become one with the flame she held at the end of the set showed the otherworldly power of this band. Jex Thoth are indomitable – they dig to the heart of rock and roll and find the pagan roots of the music God hates. They have invoked something death defying and endlessly fascinating – the type of music that has dark vibes that leave the listener gasping for air.

Up next was Conan – this was my second time seeing them in a week and my fourth time ever. Suffice to say – I was beyond excited. When that first riff hit and Jon fell into his crushing headbanging we got a sense of triumph from the band, as if they have found their way in this strange new land and now have learned how to reign supreme in the fucked up American reality they have found themselves in. One of the most hotly anticipated acts of Maryland Deathfest they were able to quickly establish themselves and with every song set a new bar for heaviness. Conan have found a very specific sound and have mastered it – making it work in both a live and recorded context. Yet it is the sheer power of the vibrations and the aural desecration that makes them so much fun to see live. They give you a sense of something greater and never seem to get old. Heavy as all get out and seemingly born to create a new meaning of the word ‘heavy’ Conan are, if nothing else, a rising band to watch.

Now, I’d listened to Ufomammut before and I knew I was in for a good time – but I had fairly forgotten how good they are. Live they manage to invoke strange images, their video backdrop providing a refreshing glimpse into the overwhelming power that this band can bring live. Crushingly heavy and wonderfully unique Ufomammut seem dedicated to bringing a unique live experience to the table when they perform. Their stage presence and their comprehension of what it means to be truly and awfully heavy is impressive. You find yourself getting lost in the soundworld they have crafted and it’s hard to deny the bands raw dominance. Every moment seems precisely calculated and yet somehow simultaneously strangely organic – as if you are navigating a totally distinct soundworld, one that permits freedom and remains strangely violent. Ufomammut simply seek to guide you home, their music is the map to peace in a world of despair.

Suddenly the hour I had been waiting for had arrived – the almighty Yob took the stage to unleash doom metal destruction and show the path to greatness. Mike Scheidt seems better than ever, his vocals roaring out, even as he narrates the spoken word portions of Yob’s latest masterpiece, Clearing The Path To Ascend. Their set was exciting and dynamic, when Scheidts mic and guitar both failed on him he strode to the front of the stage, raised his fists and roared at the crowd – the absolute picture of a metal god. The punters ate it up. Yob have managed to tap into something grander, something more epic that speaks to the all consuming power that doom metal can have over the listener. It’s become impossible to deny the very visceral glory that Yob has. They free the listener and open their mind to all sorts of sonic triumphs that might otherwise go ignored. One of most exciting and potent bands in heavy music I think we’re going to have a hard time coming up with another band who hold themselves to the same bar of excellence as Yob are known for.

This first night of Maryland Deathfest had opened my eyes to the power this festival has, even if it’s only really mid sized by my snooty European standards. The thing is – music like this needs an outlet and these American fans seem to be among the most serious – even the headliners are pretty underground. Their songs are brutal, desecrations of what it means to live in this world and we need a place where we can be real. Thursday night at the Rams Head showed me the significance of doom in our world. Sure – a lot of these bands had similar vibes to what I witnessed at Psycho CA just last weekend – but that’s kind of the point, that’s what gives us a glimpse into the reality we so desperately need to understand if we want to continue to find out way through this fucked up life.

As featured on Indie-music.com, Examiner.com, I Am Entertainment Magazine, Antimusic.com, and recommended by countless music publications, “Your Band Is A Virus! Expanded Edition” is the ultimate music marketing guide for serious independent musicians and bands. Get your copy now.

The post Maryland Deathfest Day 1: A Night of Doom appeared first on Independent Music Promotions - Guaranteed PR for Music With Depth Worldwide.

Psycho CA: The Journey Home

 

 

 

Psycho California, now that’s a name that suggests things could get weird fast. Perhaps America’s largest doom metal festival we sent our worrisome journalist Matt Bacon out on the trail to try and get to the heart of the fucked up world represented by this festival. Seeing a ton of bands, meeting a lot of people and being surrounded by drugs can lead to a fascinating weekend if nothing else, and as Matt found out – there is a lot more to the demented depths of doom than might initially meet the eye. Find parts ONE, TWO and THREE and FOUR of our coverage at the links provided.

Sometimes your itinerary gets fucked up and you end up spending an extra day at a friends place in Southern California. In this regard I lucked out in a big way thanks to my wonderful friend Cara who was kind enough to take me in despite a fairly last minute request. Before I go on I need to say – Hailz to those guys, they really helped me out in a time that could have been very bad and possibly even catastrophic (And not just for my bank account) Asides from getting to spend a day with a great friend I got to see the Pacific ocean, and for that I am eternally grateful.

I sit here now in a flight that was 40 minutes late and trying to figure out what the hell is even going to happen when I get home tonight. I’ll have less than 48 hours before I need to head off to the next festival but that’s just the way I like it. It may not be a life for everyone, but it seems to be the one that makes sense for me. The fact of the matter is coming down from this kind of event is hard, especially when in two days I’ll be at a show featuring a handful of the same artists as Psycho California had to offer.

Yet what this weekend really gave me was a better understanding of what doom metal means. It seems like this is the true progression of rock and roll. The fact of the matter is – these bands blur the line. A group like Elder have simply taken “heavy” to an emotional level, something reflected as well in acts like Earth or even Pallbearer. These are bands that have breakout potential and who speak to bleak realities that we all need to face.

One of the prevailing sentiments over the course of the weekend seemed to be distinctly anti-cellphone. The atavistic power of the music means that those who are too far enamored with the digital age will have a hard time figuring out what it’s all about. Yet the vibes remain they speak to a certain type of person, someone who is trying to find their way in a world that is often confusing and usually misleading. If, as TS Eliot said, all we know is a heap of broken images than these are the fragments we have shored against our ruins. The doom metal presented this weekend showed elements of rock and roll mixed in with all other sorts of music – stuff that allows us to see the depth and breadth of the music.

Once you dig in to what it means to be a doom freak it’s hard to find your way out. This isn’t necessarily music for normal people or even happy ones. Buy I get the impression that that isn’t the point. Instead we raise our glasses to a much nobler reality, a world that many choose to ignore. As Rebecca Vernon will constantly say to me “Isn’t it amazing how there’s this huge underground thing going on that almost no one outside of it knows about?” Perhaps it’s better that way – but I hope that Psycho CA will continue to grow and our understanding and our love affair with all that is slow and heavy will one day be shared with the whole world.

As featured on Indie-music.com, Examiner.com, I Am Entertainment Magazine, Antimusic.com, and recommended by countless music publications, “Your Band Is A Virus! Expanded Edition” is the ultimate music marketing guide for serious independent musicians and bands. Get your copy now.

The post Psycho CA: The Journey Home appeared first on Independent Music Promotions - Guaranteed PR for Music With Depth Worldwide.

Psycho CA Day 3: Ohmic Rituals and the End of All Things

Psycho California, now that’s a name that suggests things could get weird fast. Perhaps America’s largest doom metal festival we sent our worrisome journalist Matt Bacon out on the trail to try and get to the heart of the fucked up world represented by this festival. Seeing a ton of bands, meeting a lot of people and being surrounded by drugs can lead to a fascinating weekend if nothing else, and as Matt found out – there is a lot more to the demented depths of doom than might initially meet the eye. Find parts ONE, TWO and THREE of our coverage at the links provided.

Sunday was – weird to say the least. See – as the weekend continued John and I had realized that our hotel room wasn’t in as nice a building as we had initially thought. In fact – it was in a much worse neighborhood than we could have foreseen, it was also hella far from the venue, but that’s asides the point. It seemed fitting though, that we would be waking up in this den of debauchery, (there apparently was an incident with a prostitute a few rooms down) gambling (A couple of dudes were playing dice in the parking lot of the strip mall adjacent to the hotel) and sin (We met a lot of heroin addicts and crackheads.) There was nothing we wanted to see early in the day so we headed over to get breakfast with the Pallbearer dudes.

Watching one of your favorite bands smoke weed (That’s what I found out those funny smelling cigarettes are filled with!) in a parking lot is the kind of thing that seems distinctly Californian to me. I mean – I guess it could happen elsewhere, but never as openly as it does here. It’s kind of beautiful honestly and suggests that the oncoming wave of legalization could lead to some very interesting incidents in my journalistic career. It also helped me to get a better understanding of what it means to be a doom freak. You see – these guys aren’t bad people, they just can’t really deal with normal society. I think the sense of morality found in the community is strong, but the appreciation of legality is fairly minimal. These are the kind of core ideas the help to define this culture, perhaps the most rabid of all heavy metal fanbases. People don’t realize what it means to give it all up for what Josh Lemore of Cattle Decapitation describes as “The smallest slice of pie of the smallest slice of pie” but the raw passion on display at this festival was simply stunning.

We eventually did make our way over to the venue though, just in time to see Mothership who are among the best of the wave of heavy rock bands that is coming to once more dominate the underground. There sets are always a blast to watch, and though they didn’t do an AC/DC cover as they did when I had last seen them at Uninvited Fest in NYC they still had the crowd raising their fists and singing along. Kyle Juett – the bands frontman seems to carry himself with a sense of well deserved swagger. He’s worked for this, and his tattooed body and tea-shades show that he really has no choice but to rock. Yet that’s part of what makes Mothership so damn fascinating. These are dudes who were borne from the sewer into a world of big tours and flashy women. This is rock and fucking roll at its absolute finest, being extolled by musicians who truly get it, and who want it to return with no real financial interest in mind.

It was only when I stumbled into the opening moments of Truckfighters set that I realized that the main stage was running two hours behind. I had seen these dudes play a club show back when I lived in Paris and I was excited to see them again. Stage diving and tossing their instruments into the crowd Truckfighters live and breathe rock and roll to the point that now this is their occupation. These touches of punk in a heavy blues mindset can’t help but make the listener smile. Truckfighters get the eternal power that this music is supposed to have and they seek to play it with a sense of energy that few of their peers are ever going to match. See – I’ve had some serious doubts about the future of rock and roll, but Truckfighters are a band who clearly get it. The way the music resonates in their very bodies is impressive. And furthermore they are not afraid to improvise and build up their own sound. Sure, it’s easy to see their influences at times, but that’s part of the appeal and it’s hard not to fall in love with a band who are so candid with their adulation for the music that has come to define us all.

At this point – largely due to how everything had been moved back I realize that I had a chance to watch Tombs. This was my first time seeing these Philly stalwarts – odd since we live in the same city, but such is the nature of 21+ shows… The point being these black metal maniacs delivered utterly vile and yet surprisingly articulate and refined American black metal. There sound was precise and triumphant, the aural assault, fresh off of a European tour saw Tombs playing an extremely tight set, featuring primarily tracks from their critically hailed release Savage Gold. Suffice to say – this is a band you don’t want to miss. They are recharging traditional black metal ideas with something a little bit more evil and it’s hard to deny that these guys are turned on to a much more profound and bleak reality that most choose to ignore.

It was at this point – hanging out in the VIP area – that I realized the significance of what doom means for me. For dropouts and maniacs like me and the dudes who live for this shit we are no longer the weird one. We may be the weird ones when we walk down the street – people staring at our patches, hair and tattoos, but this is a community where there is no upper limit on weird. You can think that you’re weird because at one point you tried to model your voice after your favorite guitarists (As I did) and then you’ll hear one of the dudes in Pallbearer tell the story of how he wore a monk robe from a Halloween costume for three years. You realize that there is a place for even the craziest, and yeah, we may all be fuck ups but we can be fuck ups together. In the words of Stavros Giannopolous of The Atlas Moth “I’m a responsible adult in the loosest sense of the term and I doubt I will ever really grow up… but I am still a responsible adult”

Suffice to say – when his band came on I was ready for a good time. This was another band I had previously had a chance to check out, I had seen The Atlas Moth in New York City with Subrosa and Boris and had loved what they’d done – I was excited to see the madness of this band in a more intimate venue. This particular set left me scraping my jaw from the floor. I had totally forgotten the power of Stavros’s voice. Furthermore – David – whose beard has reached new levels of a metallitude since I last saw the Atlas Moth delivered some stunning cleans. As the crowd was awash in the bands trademark points of light it was impossible to deny that they had conjured up something truly special. The ayahuascan power that The Atlas Moth rely on is indomitable and proves to me that these guys are unafraid of plumbing strange new worlds. People in this band have met God and if you can’t accept that you might never get The Atlas Moth’s majesty.

As The Atlas Moth wrapped up Elder came on. I had seen them too just a few weeks prior in Philly and I had a blast all weekend hanging out with these dudes. I was curious to see what their live show would deliver this time around. I was gratified to see that Elder seem to only be getting better. This time was in fact the best I had ever seen them. With, what the band told me, was on of their best audience reactions ever (With stagedivers, moshing, et al) it was a pleasure to be beholden to a group whose sense of jam oriented hard rock transcends that of their peers. While most bands end up emulating legions of other stoner rock bands there is something delightfully iconoclastic about Elder that – in my eye – establishes them as veritable rock and roll demons, young men possessed by strange and oft forgotten spirits that force you into strange worlds and get you to consider new layers of reality. What I’m trying to say is that watching Elder play is a trip, and not just because Jack is almost more charming on stage than he is in person (As if that was even possible) These guys are here to alter the face of rock and roll, and it might just take seeing ’em live to get you to believe it.

I had another pause now – my last of the festival (As seeing Om and Pentagram back to back would simply have me searching for a good view) I took a moment to say goodbye to those who I could find and wondered when I might see some of these people again. That’s the sad thing about kids like us. Sure we were born to run, but when you’re dealing with that bleak reality you also have to realize that you don’t know when you’ll see your friends again. Life on the road is a strange place to start a family, and for some of us that’s the only choice. Some of these road warriors will be dead in a few months, others will be friends for life. The nature of things though is that we all fall in and out of each others lives, like waves in the ocean or crescendos in a song. Transients like us practically live on Facebook – it’s the only way to find our place in the world amongst brethren who understand us as we understand them. So when I found Devin Holt of Pallbearer we knew that this would be the last time we might hang out for at least a few months. We went together to watch Om and prepared our bodies for a live ritual of legendary scope.

Al Cisneros knows how to put on a show. It’s strange because his own particular brand of showmanship is so subdued, yet somehow in the context of what he does he manages to make it work. I mean – yeah – he just kinda stands there and sips in the inevitable pot smoke drifting up from the crowd, yet his every word is grateful and he seems extremely humble. Hell – He stopped the show mid song to get an amp fixed because he cares that much about the audiences experience. The experimental vibes of Om are another fascinating aspect to me. There is something endlessly delightful about the high pitched vocals provided by the bands multi instrumentalist INSERT NAME HERE. It creates a magical aura that permeates the entire experience and once again evidences the enduring power that Om has. A band based on absolute minimalism they create a surprisingly rich and thought provoking live experience that is hard to deny and am absolute joy to listen too. The band takes you on a journey and if you find yourself on the edge of a broken heart or with shattered nerves causing you stress Om know just what it takes to guide you back home.

I managed to find a much coveted sitting spot for Pentagram and relaxed. The weekend was about to end – it had been a success and now I could witness freaked out and a perhaps perpetually fucked up Bobby Liebling take the stage. I was curious as to how this entire thing would play out. The minute Liebling picked up the mic know I knew that the man – despite years of drug addiction – still has it. He has a sense of self on stage – of his own internal terrors and of what the audience wants. Watching him is like watching an old school rock and roll band take the stage. When Liebling cries out “Guitar!” before a solo or duck walks across the stage you are witnessing a man who is rock and roll incarnate. A faded glory perhaps but a hero nonetheless and one whose name will go down in history -whether he will be remembered favorably or not – now that is a question that I am not qualified to answer. Yet he seems unafraid, sure he’s aware of his own mortality, and seems terrified of it, but when he gets up there and starts making crazy faces at wowed fans, you can’t deny his majesty. The point being Pentagrams live sow retains the rock and roll magic that it rightfully should and sure – they don’t tour that much, but it merely makes the experience all the more exciting creating a sense of magic that far too few bands manage to touch on these days.

And suddenly it was over. Pentagram had blared out one classic after another but now the beautiful surprise of the band had left me behind. It was time for me to make my way to a wholly different friends house and spend the ride talking to my very stoned cohort. We reflected on what had been unveiled to us in the process of this weekend and how Saturday had probably changed both of our lives. The fact of the matter remains though – this kind of music is not for normal dudes – you need to find your own freedom, and your own peace within yourself before you start delving into the strange worlds that doom metal can invoke.

As featured on Indie-music.com, Examiner.com, I Am Entertainment Magazine, Antimusic.com, and recommended by countless music publications, “Your Band Is A Virus! Expanded Edition” is the ultimate music marketing guide for serious independent musicians and bands. Get your copy now.

The post Psycho CA Day 3: Ohmic Rituals and the End of All Things appeared first on Independent Music Promotions - Guaranteed PR for Music With Depth Worldwide.

Psycho CA Day 2: The Heaviest Day Of My Life

Psycho California, now that’s a name that suggests things could get weird fast. Perhaps America’s largest doom metal festival we sent our worrisome journalist Matt Bacon out on the trail to try and get to the heart of the fucked up world represented by this festival. Seeing a ton of bands, meeting a lot of people and being surrounded by drugs can lead to a fascinating weekend if nothing else, and as Matt found out – there is a lot more to the demented depths of doom than might initially meet the eye. Read Parts ONE and TWO of our coverage at the links provided!

I woke up wondering what the day would hold. I knew I was going to be able to see Subrosa for the fifth time and be reunited with the whole band – not just the few members I had seen the night before, and I would also finally see Bloodmoon after years of chatting with their singer online, but beyond that, all I really felt was that it would be the best day of the festival. I’d see a lot of friends play and hopefully make some new ones, but the song, that creeping slow song, derived from Black fucking Sabbath would remain the same and that’s all we really need, isn’t it?

The first up was Acid Witch – now I’d seen these guys back in Texas when I had flown down for Housecore and I expected a great show – but nothing of the caliber that these guys put together. Fresh off of thirty two consecutive dates in Europe these guys have a renewed sense of rage that few of their peers can match. The vocals seemed torn open and twisted – full of potent energy and incredibly hateful. Yet that being said, these guys still know how to have fun in the live context. The introduction of every song felt over the top and triumphant, a special highlight for me was the ass kicking joy found in Metal Movie Marijuana Massacre Meltdown (As the bands bassist, Shagrat, decried “This song is for people who like to smoke dope and watch movies!”) where Slasher Dave unabashedly adopted a searing falsetto for the climactic chorus. The point being – these boys have come into their own, and sure they may no longer just be a studio project but they certainly seem more potent and capable than ever.

Within minutes of this ear violating desecration it was time for Anciients to storm the stage with their own very unique and potent brand of… I don’t even know what… It sure is good though. The thing is, Anciients are not afraid to mix in a little bit of everything into their incredibly polished and immaculate sound. Featuring a new song in a dynamic and exciting setlist I couldn’t help but be impressed at how these guys have been able to create a sound that is totally their own. Ominous, bearded and rocking adorable Vancouver accents, Anciients are perhaps the only band in metal who can capture so many different genres (many not even related to metal) in the course of a single setlist and make it work. There is something sublime to the way these guys confidently take on the stage and force you to genuflect in awe at a sound that has been endlessly polished to create something totally unique and distinctive. These guys are opening up new vistas for heavy metal and this show only confirmed their greatness.

Yet as soon as they finished I found myself rushing over to the Grizzly stage to catch Bloodmoon, a band I’ve wanted to see since I was about 15 and who have never really left the West Coast. Suffice to say – it was worth the wait. Their performance was stunningly energetic using jazzy elements alongside more traditional doom ideas to create a soundworld that was wholly unique. Sure – some of the cleans were a bit hard to hear at times, but that was probably because I was right in front of Peter Tomis’s massive cabinets, reveling in the truly stunning tone he has been able to refine over years of hard work. The front of house sound though – mixed by the legendary Billy Anderson – was stunning. It merely accentuated the fact that these guys hit every note – using jaw dropping improvisations and gut crunching riffs to prove that Bloodmoon may very well be the new doom heroes. With a new full length due out sometime this year what else can we do but wait and see what sort of aural annihilation they are able to conjure up? All I’m gonna say is, if they can invoke such a profound audience reaction from a two song set – imagine what the hell will happen when they’re finally allowed to headline.

I suddenly had a moment of pause before Lord Dying came on. I got to talk to the Anciients dudes and raid the VIP food table with them (Side note: Whoever put together the catering for the VIP section – hailz, you saved me so much money, I love you) Peter seemed to be reveling in the triumph of his bands latest set, and the cream of the metal crop (The Metalluminati if you will) seemed all gathered around, talking about tour life and plans for future records. That’s what I love about events like this. There is a sense of camaraderie amongst us all. We’re the drop outs, the one no one thought would make it, and here we are, snacking off killer riders and partying together, enjoying an open bar and each others company. This is what we stand for, and this is what gives us hope for a better tomorrow. We know that we can stand together and guide each other despite the madness that might define our lives.

Enough random soliloquizing though, I have to tell you about Lord Dying! It’s fascinating to me that we live in a world where there is a very real market for Crowbar worship of the sort Lord Dying unleash. Yet – there is so much more to this band than that. Lord Dying are a bunch of grungy and fucked up dudes, but that’s part of what makes it so charming. The way they unabashedly throw themselves into the music to craft songs that – in a word – rock, is a lot of fun. Sure there were a lot of Black Sabbath knock offs at this festival (Which I by and large avoided) but Lord Dying manage to invoke that power without seeming corny or derivative. These guys raged for their entire set time, the drummer, Chris, even going so far as to stand up behind the kit to goad the crowd on. It’s always fun to see a band you love having fun, and that’s what these guys do. They shake rattle and roll in their own distinctly fucked up and charming way and it creates songs that force you to bend the knee to the all consuming power of heavy rock and roll music and its enduring twenty first century might.

No sooner had Lord Dying finished though then it was time for Pallbearer. Now, I’d seen these guys a few weeks prior in Philly and I had been entranced by them, but they seemed a little tired out, it’s hard for a dude like Brett to hit those high notes after weeks of touring. Tonight though they simply crushed it. Every note was on point, Devin seems to have found his place as a veritable rock god, his hair flying as he slams his guitar. Meanwhile, Mark, ever the rabid and mildly insane drummer locked into a groove that gave the entire performance a strange pulsating might. Sue, I had to back out halfway through to see Subrosa, but what I had seen proved to me that Pallbearer are a force to be reckoned with. Good dudes and incredibly down to earth they are unafraid to call out heavy metal’s bullshit and I love them for it. Performances like Saturday’s though are the icing on the cake. They are deeply emotive and seemingly can’t help but force you to rock your entire body in deference to perhaps the defining heavy act of our time.

I managed to get in the room a few minutes before Subrosa started and snapped a few pre-show selfies with Sarah and Rebecca – women my mother describes as my “Aunties” They put on one of the best shows I have ever seen from them. Though this was the first time I’d gotten to see the band in a smaller venue it was clear from their response that this was not a normal crowd. The group singalong on The Usher- which at times overwhelmed the band – was stunning. Subrosa have grown rapidly in the year that I’ve known them, they have come into their own, putting on better live shows than ever before and cultivating a group of rabid superfans who will travel for hundreds (Or in my case, thousands) of miles to see the band. As the show ended and a man started telling Sarah how they “Were better than the Swans” I couldn’t help but smile. It makes me happy that my favorite band is getting the recognition they deserve. There is a sense of destiny here, and live shows like this prove to me that there is no end to the ephemeral triumph they represent.

This was the peak for me, riding high off of Subrosa and Pallbearer I rushed back to the Monarch stage to watch the eternal eerie jam of Earth’s live set unfold. The three piece are truly turned onto something spectacular. The way that they find it in themselves to unleash overwhelming torrents of sound every night is simply stunning, especially when considering how they couch it in a 70s rock sensibility. Their delivery allows them to stand tall as true legends in their own lifetimes. Remember, this is the band who worked with Kurt Cobain back in the 90s this is the band who altered what it means to be loud, this is the band who, along with Swans, are largely responsible for the entire nature of most improvisational heavy performances today. Face tattooed and surprisingly lighthearted their everyday personas were cast aside in the name of the music. Here they stood as triumphant figureheads, conjuring a shamanic mass and guiding people towards the sublime and face melting light of a better future.

Finally, I had a moment to come to grips with what I had just witnessed. Here I was, surrounded by the bearded, the tattooed and the stoned and we were all witnessing perhaps the greatest day doom metal has seen since Black Sabbath played to 300,000 people at CalJam 1974. Subrosa were being lauded by fans, Earth were drenched in applause and Pallbearer were back in the beer line, because, as Devin said (Quotable chap he is) “Such is the nature of alcoholism!” Though Sleep had yet to conduct their green mass I felt saturated. It seemed only fitting that at this high moment I would bump into none other than Bobby Liebling himself who consented to an interview whilst a drunken groupie dangled off his shoulder. A true rock star moment for the Pentagram singer I was left wondering “What the fuck is happening?” It seemed like the whole world had gone crazy, and I was somehow left in charge of documenting it.

Rebecca Vernon of Subrosa fame came with me as we searched for a spot to watch the almighty Sleep. Fifteen minutes before the band went on the air was already heavy with the smoke of funny smelling cigarettes. Though I didn’t take any when the nice man offered some to me (It touched his mouth! Gross!) I couldn’t help but feel really good, like really good yknow? Also my hands suddenly became endlessly fascinating. And like… my place in the universe man? Like what about that? Like woah… I… woah dude…suddenly every movie made sense! Somehow when Sleep came on, and I was able to drag myself away from staring at my hands, and lost myself in the band (And that funny smelling cigarette smoke… I think I have a cousin who smokes these kind of cigarettes!)

Sleep are always incredibly to see. Al Ciscneros seems to have become marijuana incarnate at some point and the way he chants over top of Matt Pike’s incredible riffs is always stunning. Largely improvised these guys showcased an incredible depth to their work with songs from across their catalogue. This is the band who have release one song in the last twenty years, who have based their career on pot and Paranoid, to the point that it’s impossible for a metalhead not to like what they have been able to craft with this live experience, for that is what Sleep provide, an experience. Other bands might be fun to watch, and they might give you a shiver or be inspiring, but Sleep take it to a whole new level. Using a surprisingly basic formula these guys have been able to hone a sound that forces you to reconsider everything you know about heavy music. It doesn’t need to be technical or soaked in distortion – instead it can just be poignant and triumphant. It can speak to the human element and show us that we have the power to use some pretty stripped down improvisational punk rock ideologies run through the lens of a Black Sabbath record or two to make something incredibly special and always memorable.

Coming down from the, what I assure you was a totally metaphorical, high from Sleep was strange. I had in fact almost fallen asleep during the bands set – for some reason the combination of crushing riffs and that strange smoke can do that to a guy. I wasn’t the only one either, many members of this twisted congregation lay passed out, as if they were at home on their couches, soaking in the vibes and wondering what would come next from the twisted gods of stoner metal. Beyond this though, every band I had seen today was an absolute life highlight – how often can you claim that for a festival? I think that is what resonates with me about Psycho CA. The organizers have been able to put together an experience, something that forces you to take a step back and consider your own place in the world and realize, sure, we may be the lost and the forgotten, but fuck you, we can rise up, be stronger, bolder and better on our own terms.

As featured on Indie-music.com, Examiner.com, I Am Entertainment Magazine, Antimusic.com, and recommended by countless music publications, “Your Band Is A Virus! Expanded Edition” is the ultimate music marketing guide for serious independent musicians and bands. Get your copy now.

The post Psycho CA Day 2: The Heaviest Day Of My Life appeared first on Independent Music Promotions - Guaranteed PR for Music With Depth Worldwide.