Bordeaux, France post-metal sextet Year of No Light announce their forthcoming fifth studio album Consolamentum today, sharing the first single "Réalgar" via all DSPs. Hear and share "Réalgar" via Bandcamp, Spotify and YouTube. 

Consolamentum is the band's first album on Pelagic Records. To celebrate joining the label and Year of No Lights's 20th anniversary, they will release a limited edition deluxe wooden box set of the band's entire discography, titled Mnemophobia on July 2nd. The handmade, hand-silkscreened wooden box features 12 vinyl LPs in 6 gatefold sleeves, exclusive colored vinyl variants, a slipmat, metal pin, patch and poster. For more information, see HERE. 

Year of No Light's lengthy, sprawling compositions of towering walls of guitars and sombre synths irradiate a sense of dire solemnity and spiritual gravity, and couldn't be a more fitting soundtrack for such grim medieval scenarios. But there is also the element of absolution, regeneration, elevation, transcendence in the face of death. Consolamentum is dense, rich and lush and yet somehow feels starved and deprived.

It comes as no surprise that ever since the beginning of their career, the band have had an obsession for the fall of man and salvation through darkness. The term “consolamentum” describes the sacrament, the initiation ritual of the Catharic Church, which thrived in Southern Europe in the 12th - 14th Century – a ritual that brought eternal austereness and immersion in the Holy Spirit.

“There's a thread running through all of our albums”, says the band, collectively “an exploration of the sensitive world that obeys a certain telos, first fantasized ("Nord") and reverberated ("Ausserwelt"), then declaimed as a warning ("Tocsin"). The deeper we dig, the more the motifs we have to unveil appear to us. Yes, it's a bit gnostic. This album is invoked after the Tocsin, it's the epiphany of the Fall."

With debut album Nord (2006) and sophomore release Ausserwelt (2010), the band made

themselves a name in the European avant-metal scene. Extensive tours of Europe, North America and Russia in 2013 and 2014, including two appearances at Roadburn festival, Hellfest and a spectacular performance in a 17th Century fortress in the Carpathian mountains introduced them to a broader and quickly growing international audience.

With their seminal 3rd album Tocsin, released in 2013, Year Of No Light reached the peak of their career thus far – a logical decision that Consolamentum was made with the same team again: recorded and mixed by Cyrille Gachet at Cryogene in Begles / Bordeaux, mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side.

“We wanted this album to sound as organic and analog as possible”, comments the band. “All tracks were recorded live. The goal was to have the most natural, warm and clean takes possible, to give volume to the dynamics of the songs. We aimed to have a production with a singular personality.”

For the adept listener, Consolamentum seems to be venturing deeper into the dark and claustrophobic spheres explored on Tocsin – but the band doesn't conceive of the evolution of their music in a linear way, as it would be apparent from looking at their discography. 

“It’s more a matter of sonic devotion. Music against modern times. Year Of No Light” is above all a praxis. We wanted intensity, trance, climax and threat, all of them embedded in a bipolar and mournful ethos."

Consolamentum is huge, poignant, frightening, sublime, smothering and cathartic – and, much like Decibel Magazine says of its predecessor, it's “audacious, memorable and supremely confident."

Consolamentum will be available on 2xLP, CD and digital on July 2nd, 2021 via Pelagic Records. Preorders are available HERE. 

Artist: Year of No Light

Album: Consolamentum

Record label: Pelagic Records

Release date: July 2nd, 2021

01. Objuration

02. Alétheia

03. Interdit aux Vivants, aux Morts et aux Chiens

04. Réalgar

05. Came

On The Web:

facebook.com/yearofnolight

pelagic-records.com

"So rare that diehard fuzz junkies say you'd have a better chance of winning the lottery than finding a physical 45 rpm single by one of the bands featured on their latest installment." -- Dangerous Minds

"Will do for hard rock, proto-metal and heavy psych what Nuggets did for garage rock, and bring it to a wider audience of collectors and music fans." -- The Guardian

"Mining the surprising rich reserves of heavy rock and proto-metal from the '60s and '70s, these collections have been crucial to understanding the history of a subgenre of rock that had far deeper roots than most fans realize." -- Paste Magazine

The Brown Acid series is curated by L.A. label RidingEasy Records and retailer/label Permanent Records. Read interviews with the series curators via Paste Magazine HERE and LA Weekly HERE. 

About The Twelfth Trip:

The Waters start this Trip off right with swampy fuzz- and phaser-soaked dueling guitars oozing from the grooves of their 1969 single “Mother Samwell.” The Louisville, KY trio somehow failed to make much of a splash however, only issuing two 45s, one in ’68 and this rocker the following year, before eventually evaporating in ’72. The bassist went on to play in Hank Williams Jr.’s band for a couple of decades, so the band’s fortunes weren’t entirely sunken.

Hamilton, Ontario launched the Village S.T.O.P.’s freak-out heavy psych marauding, but it was after frequent trips to NYC that the Canadian band really learned to let their freak flag fly. Sometimes the band played with their faces painted black & white, other times draped in fluorescent ink & blacklight, with strobe lights and the whole nine yards of theatrics… occasionally even adding a few extra inches of male nudity. Musically, their 1969 track “Vibration” is a bopping number nodding to Frank Zappa, Hendrix and some really brown acid doses. 

White Lightning’s blazing double-kick drum, sizzling melodic riffs and Jim Dandy howls on “1930” is a power metal rocker from 1969 that perfectly epitomizes the raison d’être of this series. The Minneapolis, MN band formed by guitarist Tom “Zippy” Caplan after he left garage psych heroes The Litter, later shortened its name to Lightning. The group only issued one proper album before disbanding in 1971. However, with the late 1990’s reissues and revival of The Litter, Lightning’s bevy of unreleased recordings also surfaced as a self-titled LP and Strikes Twice 1986-1969 CD compilation. 

The blues runs deep in the veins of “Woman (Don’t You Go)” by Bay Area rockers Shane. The biracial group may have borrowed its heavy syncopated groove and lead singer/organist aesthetic from locals Sly & The Family Stone, but their troglodyte fuzz riffs and beastly drums owe just as much to blazing proto-metal hellfire. Sadly, they only released this 1968 single before these men decided to go. 

Ace Song Service probably thought they were pretty clever with their risqué acronym name, but it’s their B-side “Persuasion” that really kicks A.S.S. Rollicking, relentless drums, walking bass, staggering guitars and shimmering Hammond organ shake the foundations while crooning blue-eyed soul vocals remind you that this is still the late-60s. The Dallas, TX band only issued this lone (star) 2-song single before crawling back up from whence they came. 

Opus Est’s strange 1974 headbanger “Bed” has a bit of “Hocus Pocus” by Focus style mania — and we mean that in the best lunacy inducing way. However, it’s the Belgian trio’s heavy panting and squealing vocals in the amorous breakdown that nods to a particular whole lotta nub that gives this song its, um, thrust. After just two singles, Opus Est came and went. 

The Mopptops’ heavy riff of “Our Lives” starts of sounding like Greg Ginn’s frantic guitar work on Black Flag’s Nervous Breakdown, before wah-wah and high harmony vocals turn it into more of a Blues Magoos-meets-Iron Butterfly tune. This Hawaiian Islands based quartet took its inspiration more from the British Invasion than local traditions and were quite popular for their gritty long-hair R&B but remained isolated from the world at large. They did however release a handful of 45s between 1965 and the early 70s. This 1968 banger on Fantastic Records is, well, fantastic. 

Youngstown, OH artists Artist weren’t too creative with their band name, instead saving that energy to create meaty midwestern rock’n’roll like “Every Lady Does It.” Harmonized guitar leads and driving cowbell power their hook-filled lone 1977 single. Not much is known about the obscure band, other than singer/guitarist Al Tkach later fronted something he called Reality Rock. 

Rural hard rock bar band Stagefright hailed from Carthage, MO and their 1980 album D-Day is a highly collectible selection of landlocked rippers. Album opener “Comin’ Home” is a barnstorming romp led by vocalist/drummer Jim Mills who somehow smoothly sings while simultaneously playing wild Keith Moon style drum rolls. 

Dickens “Sho’ Need Love” / “Don’t Talk About My Music” 45 is one of those record collector’s Holy Grail type of releases. The 1971 single only exists as a demo, printed as a white label promo pressing for Scepter Records. Dickens were, essentially, a mockery of the era’s hard rock shenanigans, comprised of NRBQ’s road crew and some band members all playing instruments they didn’t know how to play. This recording happened essentially by accident when studio time became available after Gomer Pyle actor and balladeer Jim Nabors cancelled a session. The group quickly cut a few songs, which an enthusiastic A&R man had pressed up, before the label president nixed it and fired the VP for allowing such nonsense. It’s believed that only about 50 copies survived. It’s a shame, since this Flipper-before-Flipper dirge-metal freakout was way ahead of its time. 

About the Brown Acid series:

Some of the best thrills of the Internet music revolution is the ability to find extremely rare music with great ease. But even with such vast archives to draw from, quite a lot of great songs have gone undiscovered for nearly half a century -- particularly in genres that lacked hifalutin arty pretense. Previously, only the most extremely dedicated and passionate record collectors had the stamina and prowess to hunt down long forgotten wonders in dusty record bins -- often hoarding them in private collections, or selling at ridiculous collector's prices. Legendary compilations like Nuggets, Pebbles, ad nauseum, have exhausted the mines of early garage rock and proto-punk, keeping alive a large cross-section of underground ephemera. However, few have delved into and expertly archived the wealth of proto-metal, pre-stoner rock tracks collected on

Brown Acid. 

Lance Barresi, co-owner of L.A./Chicago retailer Permanent Records has shown incredible persistence in tracking down a stellar collection of rare singles from the 60s and 70s for the growing compilation series. Partnered with Daniel Hall of RidingEasy Records, the two have assembled a selection of songs that's hard to believe have remained unheard for so long. 

"I essentially go through hell and high water just to find these records," Barresi says. "Once I find a record worthy of tracking, I begin the (sometimes) extremely arduous process of contacting the band members and encouraging them to take part. Daniel and I agree that licensing all the tracks we're using for

Brown Acid is best for everyone involved," rather than simply bootlegging the tracks. When all of the bands and labels haven't existed for 30-40 years or more, tracking down the creators gives all of these tunes a real second chance at success. 

"There's a long list of songs that we'd love to include," Barresi says. "But we just can't track the bands down. I like the idea that Brown Acid is getting so much attention, so people might reach out to us."

Brown Acid: The Twelfth Trip will be available everywhere on LP, CD and download on April 20, 2021 via RidingEasy Records. Pre-orders are available for digital (with immediate download of the first single) at Bandcamp, physical pre-orders at RidingEasy Records. 

Artist: Various Artists

Album: Brown Acid: The Twelfth Trip 

Label: RidingEasy Records

Release Date: April 20, 2021

01. The Waters “Mother Samwell” 

02. Village S.T.O.P. “Vibration” 

03. White Lightning “1930”

04. Shane “Woman (Don’t You Go)” 

05. Ace Song Service “Persuasion” 

06. Opus Est “Bed” 

07. Mopptops “Our Lives” 

08. Artist “Every Lady Does It”

09. Stagefright “Comin’ Home”

10. Dickens “Don’t Talk About My Music” 

"Like if Thin Lizzy and Melvins got together. Deathchant is about to become your new favorite band" -- Metal Injection

L.A. quartet Deathchant share the first single from their forthcoming sophomore album Waste today via Metal Injection. Waste is the band's debut on RidingEasy Records. Hear and share "Holy Roller" HERE. (Direct YouTube and Bandcamp.)

Heavy music’s evolution has always been a murky swamp of sub-genres. So, combining Thin Lizzy’s glistening twin guitar harmonies with Melvins-grade sludge and a hearty dose of proto-metal psych probably shouldn’t sound so revolutionary as it does in the hands of L.A. quartet Deathchant. But theirs is a special, transcendent sound.

Waste, the band’s sophomore album and first for RidingEasy Records, is anything but. The 33-minute, 7-song blast flows seamlessly from song to song, aided by droning segues, while simultaneously slithering between genres and moods. Rumbling noise, chiming guitar melodies, bluesy boogie, NWOBHM thrash, COC grunge and punk fury all rear their head at times, sometimes all at once. 

Though you wouldn’t be able to tell by the concise structures and well-crafted songs, a lot of Deathchant’s music is improvised, both in the studio and live. That’s not to suggest their songs are jammy — they’re very tightly organized compositions. But the four musicians have that special musical telepathy that allows them to keep the song structures open-ended.

“Improv is a huge things for us and always has been,” singer/guitarist T.J. Lemieux says. “The musical freedom to look at the other dudes in the band and be able to take things wherever we want to go is magical. I like the feel of flying off the hinges.”

Likewise, the band itself is similarly amorphous in its membership. “We run the band with an open door. No lineup is definitive,” Lemieux explains. On Waste, the lineup is: Lemieux, George Camacho on bass, Colin Fahrner on drums, and John Belino on second guitar. 

Waste was recorded live in a rented cabin in the mountains of Big Bear, CA. “We packed a big-ass van and set up in the living room and kitchen,” Lemieux says. “Tracked it live, with overdubs after.” The whole album was recorded over two separate weekends, engineered by Steve Schroeder, who also recorded the band’s 2019 self-titled debut album. 

“I’d say it has sort of a DIY LA punk aesthetic,” he adds. “Very ironically going hand in hand with a classic metal vibe: Thin Lizzy, Judas Priest, classic Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and other melodic heavy rock bands.” 

Waste will be available on LP, CD and download on June 25th, 2021 via RidingEasy Records. 

“A nihilistic listening experience” – The Quietus 

"Brings forth the tangential and historical relationships between industrial and its 'sister' genres like coldwave while splicing them with influences that range from shoegaze to black metal." -- Heavy Blog Is Heavy

"Long-standing darkness merchants... brooding, Katatonia-esque gloom." -- Metal Injection

"Promises to change the way we hear heavy music." -- PopMatters

Experimental duo CROWN are streaming their forthcoming sophomore album on Pelagic Records early today via Roadburn in conjunction with the popular European festival's Roadburn Redux online fest. Hear and share The End of All Things album HERE. (Direct YouTube.)

CvltNation recently shared the intense and beautifully directed video for "Illumination" Watch and share "Illumination" HERE. (Direct YouTube.) Metal Injection previously hosted the "Illumination" single HERE. Heavy Blog is Heavy recently shared the single "Shades" HERE. PopMatters shared "Violence" video HERE. (Direct YouTube.)

The End Of All Things is for CROWN what Kid A was for Radiohead: an album that nobody was expecting from them.

Dark and moody; bleak and sublime; airy and crushing; mesmerizing and engrossing; bold yet unerring; strident, danceable and suffocating, all at the same time. An album oozing with tasteful, fragile hook lines flirting with the abyss they are hovering above, encapsulated within an ingenious major production, provided by one half of CROWN himself: David Husser has worked as a sound engineer, producer and musician all across the globe with artists like Alan Wilder of Depeche Mode or at Peter Gabriel's Real World studio, and has toured with his industrial band Y Front alongside Rammstein in the 90s. Paul Kendall (Mute Records, NIN, Nick Cave) said about David: “a distorting diamond... we have collaborated on a number of projects and I have been amazed by his ability to teach an old dog new tricks. He is simply the best recording engineer I have ever met.”

The other half of CROWN is founding father and vocalist Stéphane Azam, who has worked as live sound engineer for French blackgaze pioneers Alcest for years. Stéphane's low, soothing voice on The End Of All Things comes as a complete surprise to anyone familiar with the band's previous 2 records, which featured mostly screamed vocals – a fact showcasing the immense versatility of the musicians at work here.

Furthermore, In contrary to previous efforts, there are (almost) no vocal guest appearances on The End Of All Things – 'almost', because Karin Park of Årabrot lends her beautiful voice to closing track “Utopia.” David pushed Stéphane from the start of the writing and recording process to do all the vocals himself, for the sake of coherence: he wanted the band and the album to have one single “captain of the vessel. Stéph sings with a very low voice now, and it was a challenge to make space for that sound- and production -wise, we had to find some kind of relief in the low register. It took us pretty long to find what we consider the right recipe to make it work”, Husser explains.

Crown started out in 2011 as 2 men and a drum machine, and their debut album instantly got them an invitation to the prestigious Roadburn Festival in 2013, and a record deal with Candlelight Records. The duo's early sound was defined by hissing electronics, soaring heavy guitars and the absence of “real” drums, touching on industrial metal acts like Godflesh, Ministry or Killing Joke. The End Of All Things is clearly a departure from that sound in almost every imaginable way.

“Life is change, it’s the only thing we can always expect”, says Husser. “It's the same with music. I personally feel offended when a band just regurgitates their own ideas and delivers a copy of the previous album, over and again... I want to take risks and let myself in for adventures and ventures into new territories, otherwise it wouldn't be art anymore.”

The End Of All Things is a seminal album, which could well turn into a new 'Shape Of Heavy Music To Come'. Get involved.  

The End Of All Things will be available on LP, CD and digital on April 16th, 2021 via Pelagic Records. Pre-orders are available HERE

Artist: Crown

Album: The End of All Things

Record label: Pelagic Records

Release Date: April 16, 2021

01. Violence

02. Neverland

03. Shades

04. Illumination

05. Nails

06. Gallow

07. Extinction

08. Fleuves

09. Firebearer

10. Utopia

On The Web:

crownritual.com

crownritual.bandcamp.com

facebook.com/CROWNBAND

pelagic-records.com

“A raw, bluesy track dripping with dark psychedelia, with a strut reminiscent of PJ Harvey circa To Bring You My Love or The Kills’ first couple records.”  -- Treble

"A lively union of post-grunge guitar psychedelia and Stonesy chug." -- Austin Chronicle

Austin, TX band The Living Pins share the first video from their critically-lauded Freaky Little Monster Children EP -- their first release since their single debut in 1996 -- today alongside a humorous interview with It's Psychedelic Baby Magazine. Watch/share "Raven" HERE. (Direct YouTube.)

The Onion AV Club recently picked the EP in their 5 New Releases We Love feature, calling it, "equal parts sinister and sunny...both accessible and impossibly cool."

Austin Chronicle recently chatted with the band HERE. Treble recently hosted the lead single "Raven" HERE. Glide Magazine recently hosted "Downtown" HERE The Spill Magazine shared "Jaguar" HERE.

Brian knew his time had come. With clubs shuttered and parties postponed, this most recent iteration of The Living Pins — guitarists/vocalists Pam Peltz and Carrie Clark, joined by Brian the Drum Machine — groove through these crazy times with a full tilt swagger from the back room of an Austin house. 

Carrie is an inductee into the Austin Music Hall of Fame as the frontwoman for Sixteen Deluxe (Trance Syndicate, Warner Bros. Records). Pam is a published photographer and the producer of two Daniel Johnston songs, “Ain’t No Woman Gonna Make a George Jones Outta Me” and “Casper” on Daniel’s Continued Story album.

The Living Pins originally formed in 1996 during the heyday of iconic Austin clubs such as Liberty Lunch, Electric Lounge, and The Hole In The Wall. Pam and Carrie met as co-workers at Wheatsville Food Co-op and continued in the tradition of employee bands including the likes of Ed Hall, Cherubs, Sixteen Deluxe, Pong, Palaxy Tracks, and Cotton Mather. The original Living Pins line-up included Kathy Ziegler (Morningwood) and Leslie Petit (Bunny Stockhausen) and this incarnation of the Pins appeared on the 1998 Wheatsville band compilation The Wheat Album, with their cover of the T. Rex song, “Spaceball Ricochet”, produced by John Croslin (Spoon, Guided by Voices).

Now, the Living Pins are back as a two-piece with Freaky Little Monster Children -- their new fledgling baby bird EP of glam-psych-guitar explosions. Primordial 1990s Austin, meets 2000s oversaturated festival hangover, meets 2020 lockdown mind-melt champagne fountain.  

“We’ve never been to the Rites of Pan Festival at Jajouka, but something like that goes on in the back of our heads all the time.” —The Living Pins

Freaky Little Monster Children was mostly recorded late on Friday and Saturday nights during the lockdown of Fall of 2020, in the empty lobby of Splinter Group, an East Austin artisan collective. “Fingers crossed the power tools stay silent during the next guitar overdub,” was the mantra. Facemasks and headphones were the main accessories. Jeff Copas (Sixteen Deluxe, Mule Ear Productions) engineered and produced the EP plus added some sweet keyboard and percussion details. And special guest, Matt Devine (Medicine, Permanent Green Light, Possum Dixon), played his Mick Taylor-esque endless guitar solo on “Jaguar” from a different time zone out in L.A.

EP personnel:

Carrie Clark: vocals, guitars, tambourine

Pam Peltz: vocals, guitars, bass

Brian, the Drum Machine: beats

Jeff Copas: production, keyboards, percussion

Matt Devine: lead & rhythm guitars on “Jaguar”

Freaky Little Monster Children will be available for download on April 9th, 2021. Pre-orders are available HERE. 

"So rare that diehard fuzz junkies say you'd have a better chance of winning the lottery than finding a physical 45 rpm single by one of the bands featured on their latest installment." -- Dangerous Minds

"Will do for hard rock, proto-metal and heavy psych what Nuggets did for garage rock, and bring it to a wider audience of collectors and music fans." -- The Guardian

"Mining the surprising rich reserves of heavy rock and proto-metal from the '60s and '70s, these collections have been crucial to understanding the history of a subgenre of rock that had far deeper roots than most fans realize." -- Paste Magazine

The Brown Acid series is curated by L.A. label RidingEasy Records and retailer/label Permanent Records. Read interviews with the series curators via Paste Magazine HERE and LA Weekly HERE. 

About The Twelfth Trip:

The Waters start this Trip off right with swampy fuzz- and phaser-soaked dueling guitars oozing from the grooves of their 1969 single “Mother Samwell.” The Louisville, KY trio somehow failed to make much of a splash however, only issuing two 45s, one in ’68 and this rocker the following year, before eventually evaporating in ’72. The bassist went on to play in Hank Williams Jr.’s band for a couple of decades, so the band’s fortunes weren’t entirely sunken.

Hamilton, Ontario launched the Village S.T.O.P.’s freak-out heavy psych marauding, but it was after frequent trips to NYC that the Canadian band really learned to let their freak flag fly. Sometimes the band played with their faces painted black & white, other times draped in fluorescent ink & blacklight, with strobe lights and the whole nine yards of theatrics… occasionally even adding a few extra inches of male nudity. Musically, their 1969 track “Vibration” is a bopping number nodding to Frank Zappa, Hendrix and some really brown acid doses. 

White Lightning’s blazing double-kick drum, sizzling melodic riffs and Jim Dandy howls on “1930” is a power metal rocker from 1969 that perfectly epitomizes the raison d’être of this series. The Minneapolis, MN band formed by guitarist Tom “Zippy” Caplan after he left garage psych heroes The Litter, later shortened its name to Lightning. The group only issued one proper album before disbanding in 1971. However, with the late 1990’s reissues and revival of The Litter, Lightning’s bevy of unreleased recordings also surfaced as a self-titled LP and Strikes Twice 1986-1969 CD compilation. 

The blues runs deep in the veins of “Woman (Don’t You Go)” by Bay Area rockers Shane. The biracial group may have borrowed its heavy syncopated groove and lead singer/organist aesthetic from locals Sly & The Family Stone, but their troglodyte fuzz riffs and beastly drums owe just as much to blazing proto-metal hellfire. Sadly, they only released this 1968 single before these men decided to go. 

Ace Song Service probably thought they were pretty clever with their risqué acronym name, but it’s their B-side “Persuasion” that really kicks A.S.S. Rollicking, relentless drums, walking bass, staggering guitars and shimmering Hammond organ shake the foundations while crooning blue-eyed soul vocals remind you that this is still the late-60s. The Dallas, TX band only issued this lone (star) 2-song single before crawling back up from whence they came. 

Opus Est’s strange 1974 headbanger “Bed” has a bit of “Hocus Pocus” by Focus style mania — and we mean that in the best lunacy inducing way. However, it’s the Belgian trio’s heavy panting and squealing vocals in the amorous breakdown that nods to a particular whole lotta nub that gives this song its, um, thrust. After just two singles, Opus Est came and went. 

The Mopptops’ heavy riff of “Our Lives” starts of sounding like Greg Ginn’s frantic guitar work on Black Flag’s Nervous Breakdown, before wah-wah and high harmony vocals turn it into more of a Blues Magoos-meets-Iron Butterfly tune. This Hawaiian Islands based quartet took its inspiration more from the British Invasion than local traditions and were quite popular for their gritty long-hair R&B but remained isolated from the world at large. They did however release a handful of 45s between 1965 and the early 70s. This 1968 banger on Fantastic Records is, well, fantastic. 

Youngstown, OH artists Artist weren’t too creative with their band name, instead saving that energy to create meaty midwestern rock’n’roll like “Every Lady Does It.” Harmonized guitar leads and driving cowbell power their hook-filled lone 1977 single. Not much is known about the obscure band, other than singer/guitarist Al Tkach later fronted something he called Reality Rock. 

Rural hard rock bar band Stagefright hailed from Carthage, MO and their 1980 album D-Day is a highly collectible selection of landlocked rippers. Album opener “Comin’ Home” is a barnstorming romp led by vocalist/drummer Jim Mills who somehow smoothly sings while simultaneously playing wild Keith Moon style drum rolls. 

Dickens “Sho’ Need Love” / “Don’t Talk About My Music” 45 is one of those record collector’s Holy Grail type of releases. The 1971 single only exists as a demo, printed as a white label promo pressing for Scepter Records. Dickens were, essentially, a mockery of the era’s hard rock shenanigans, comprised of NRBQ’s road crew and some band members all playing instruments they didn’t know how to play. This recording happened essentially by accident when studio time became available after Gomer Pyle actor and balladeer Jim Nabors cancelled a session. The group quickly cut a few songs, which an enthusiastic A&R man had pressed up, before the label president nixed it and fired the VP for allowing such nonsense. It’s believed that only about 50 copies survived. It’s a shame, since this Flipper-before-Flipper dirge-metal freakout was way ahead of its time. 

About the Brown Acid series:

Some of the best thrills of the Internet music revolution is the ability to find extremely rare music with great ease. But even with such vast archives to draw from, quite a lot of great songs have gone undiscovered for nearly half a century -- particularly in genres that lacked hifalutin arty pretense. Previously, only the most extremely dedicated and passionate record collectors had the stamina and prowess to hunt down long forgotten wonders in dusty record bins -- often hoarding them in private collections, or selling at ridiculous collector's prices. Legendary compilations like Nuggets, Pebbles, ad nauseum, have exhausted the mines of early garage rock and proto-punk, keeping alive a large cross-section of underground ephemera. However, few have delved into and expertly archived the wealth of proto-metal, pre-stoner rock tracks collected on

Brown Acid. 

Lance Barresi, co-owner of L.A./Chicago retailer Permanent Records has shown incredible persistence in tracking down a stellar collection of rare singles from the 60s and 70s for the growing compilation series. Partnered with Daniel Hall of RidingEasy Records, the two have assembled a selection of songs that's hard to believe have remained unheard for so long. 

"I essentially go through hell and high water just to find these records," Barresi says. "Once I find a record worthy of tracking, I begin the (sometimes) extremely arduous process of contacting the band members and encouraging them to take part. Daniel and I agree that licensing all the tracks we're using for

Brown Acid is best for everyone involved," rather than simply bootlegging the tracks. When all of the bands and labels haven't existed for 30-40 years or more, tracking down the creators gives all of these tunes a real second chance at success. 

"There's a long list of songs that we'd love to include," Barresi says. "But we just can't track the bands down. I like the idea that Brown Acid is getting so much attention, so people might reach out to us."

Brown Acid: The Twelfth Trip will be available everywhere on LP, CD and download on April 20, 2021 via RidingEasy Records. Pre-orders are available for digital (with immediate download of the first single) at Bandcamp, physical pre-orders at RidingEasy Records. 

Artist: Various Artists

Album: Brown Acid: The Twelfth Trip 

Label: RidingEasy Records

Release Date: April 20, 2021

01. The Waters “Mother Samwell” 

02. Village S.T.O.P. “Vibration” 

03. White Lightning “1930”

04. Shane “Woman (Don’t You Go)” 

05. Ace Song Service “Persuasion” 

06. Opus Est “Bed” 

07. Mopptops “Our Lives” 

08. Artist “Every Lady Does It”

09. Stagefright “Comin’ Home”

10. Dickens “Don’t Talk About My Music” 

Los Angeles record label RidingEasy Records founder Daniel Hall recently sat down with artist Mike Fisher's Anyway Whatever podcast to discuss his experiences in the music business that inspired the label, its unique L.A. born-and-bred history & aesthetic and much more. Watch/share the full episode HERE.

Along with RidingEasy Records, Daniel Hall is co-creater of the Psycho Smokeout Festival, manager of beloved doom band Monolord, organizer of the Sabbath By The Sea monthly events (soon to return, pandemic permitting) and more.

RidingEasy Records also recently shared a free 17-song download compilation "mixtape" of tracks released in 2020 along with some unreleased singles slated for 2021. The RidingEasy Records Mixtape is available at Bandcamp HERE.

The mixtape features new tracks from Warish, Alastor, Deathchant, Brown Acid: The Twelfth Trip, the forthcoming soon-to-be-legendary compilation series Scrap Metal, and Coventry (Mondo Drag's John Gamino's modular synth project.)

Plus, it includes standout 2020 singles from Here Lies Man, Spelljammer, Warish, Brown Acid: The Eleventh Trip, The Goners, The Death Wheelers, R.I.P., Hell Fire, Randy Holden, Ice and Monolord guitarist/vocalist Thomas Jäger's solo debut.

Daniel Hall is available for interviews. Please get in touch for more information.

On The Web:

ridingeasyrecords.com

www.facebook.com/RidingEasyRecords

www.instagram.com/easyriderrecord

www.soundcloud.com/easyriderrecords

www.youtube.com/easyriderrecords

"They’re at their weirdest and best." -- The Wire

"Take(s) Årabrot forward into a new era... As dynamic and unpredictable as ever." -- The Quietus

"Noise rock gone strange." -- Metal Injection

"Dark and heavy yet almost startlingly accessible. There's really nobody who does this kind of thing the way Årabrot does." -- Brooklyn Vegan

Norwegian Grammy Award winning band Årabrot are streaming their forthcoming new album in full today via esteemed outlet The Quietus. The epic 2xLP album Norwegian Gothic, is due out this Friday on Pelagic Records and finds the historically caustic band expanding melodically with evermore catchy hooks. Hear and share Norwegian Gothic HERE. 

The band also recently shared a live performance of album track "Hallucinational" from their "Neo-Depression" livestream performance via YouTube. Clash Music previously premiered part one of two videos, "Kinks Of The Heart" HERE. (Direct YouTube.) Metal Injection followed with part two, "Hailstones For Rain / The Moon Is Dead" video HERE and YouTube HERE.

Årabrot's 9th full-length album Norwegian Gothic (its title a play on the Grant Wood painting American Gothic) sees the band collaborate with Lars Horntveth (Jaga Jazzist), cellist Jo Quail, Tomas Järmyr (Motorpsycho), Anders Møller (Turbonegro, Ulver) and Massimo Pupillo (Zu). A stellar production by Jaime Gomez Arellano (Black Eyed Peas, Paradise Lost, Hexvessel, Oranssi Pazusu) makes this the quintessential Årabrot record, as guitarist and vocalist Kjetil Nernes confirms: 

"Norwegian Gothic is the culmination of everything Årabrot has done musically the past 10 years. It is not only the climax of the band so far, but also a good indication of what to come. It is basically anamalgamation of all of our influences here in the church where we live. Musically it is inspired by all the albums of our record collection and thematically by the books we have in our shelves. More specifically it is our special brand of rock'n'roll music mixed with fin-de-siecle decadence, surrealism and even a pinch of old German philosophy to boot.”

While the 20-year history of the band is a story of change and correlation, it would be too simple to break this creative duality down to the stereotypical dichotomy of the yin and the yang... and if one attempted to do so, it would turn out to be quite difficult to determine which of these forces would be represented by which individual. 

A chubby child from a christian family, growing up in a small Swedish village and years spent in a Missionary school in Japan made Karin Park desperate to break away from narrow thinking. And she used her only advantages to do so; her unique voice and personality. By the age 15 she had moved away from home to find her place in music After studying at Stockholm Music Conservatory, a Norwegian poet took her to Norway where she started her pop career, this was followed by a move to London to write songs, and working as a model. 

After five albums, a few Grammys, writing a Eurovision entry for Norway and hits for other artists and performances with Lana Del Rey and David Bowie, Karin returned to the village of her youth and bought the church where she first sang in front of an audience as a child. She turned the church into iswhere they rehearse and record, surrounded by pianos, organs and hundreds of old bibles that the church left behind when the congregation stopped. The clerical environment has proven to be an excellent creative tapestry for a band whose lyrical focus orbits around sex, death and defiance.

Kjetil Nernes was diagnosed with malignant throat cancer in 2014, in the middle of a tour. Instead of heading in for surgery right away, the band finished a full European tour first, "Every night of that tour was like the last show ever“, Nernes comments, "It was really strange. When a doctor calls and says,'you're terribly sick', it's surreal. You go into this phase where life is more vivid and more real, in a weird way. We've done so many shows through the years and sometimes it’s a little like going to the factory to do a job. But with an axe hanging over your head you perceive the world differently.“

But the axe did not fall, and after successfully recovering from cancer, Årabrot are now stronger than ever. The band has collaborated with procuders like Billy Anderson and Steve Albini, and musicians like Ted Parsons (Killing Joke/Swans), Sunn O))))'s Stephen O’Malley, and Kvelertak's Erlend Hjelvik. They have composed music for silent movies like “Die Niebelungen” and “Doctor Caligari”, and have teamed up with The Quietus founder John Doran on his spoken word tour. Their album The Gospel was named “Album of the Year” by The Quietus.

Norwegian Gothic will be available on 2xLP, CD and digital on April 9th, 2021 via Pelagic Records. Preorders are available HERE. 

Artist: Årabrot

Album: Norwegian Gothic

Record label: Pelagic Records

Release date: April 9, 2021

01. Carnival of Love

02. The Rule of Silence

03. Feel It On

04. The Lie

05. The Crows

06. Kinks Of The Heart

07. Hailstones For Rain

08. The Voice

09. (This Is) The Night

10. Hard Love

11. Impact Heavily Onto The Concrete 

12. Hounds Of Heaven

13. Deadlock

14. The Moon Is Dead

15. You’re Not That Special

On The Web:

http://www.arabrot.com

https://www.facebook.com/ARABROT

pelagic-records.com

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpN0MnP1OT8HSoa-WmHL3Wg

https://twitter.com/ARABROT

"Swallow the Rat’s ‘Preservation Plan’ is a taut, melancholy post-punk track with abrasive guitars and hazy, shoegaze density, reminiscent of Sonic Youth with more soaring guitar leads and haunting organ. Meanwhile, Clone’s ‘Woman of the Year’ puts up a dense wall of guitars and a dizzying atmosphere, ecstatic and hallucinatory all at once. They’re two complementary sides of the same, mesmerizing, guitar-heavy coin.” -- Treble

Kindred spirits from far across the globe, Brooklyn, NY quintet Clone and Aukland, NZ trio Swallow The Rat each share a new track from their forthcoming split LP today via TrebleZine. Hear and share both tracks HERE. (Or listen/share via Clone's Bandcamp or STR's Bandcamp.)

New Noise Magazine recently premiered the lead tracks from both bands HERE. 

New Zealand's Swallow the Rat (featuring ex-My Education guitarist Brian Purington) and New York's Clone (ex-Dead Leaf Echo, Squad Car) shared a stage in Queens, NYC on perhaps the last day before the city shut down in 2020. A mutual appreciation society was formed over drinks later that night. Swallow the Rat were in town to play the New Colossus Festival, while Clone were playing what was to be the first date of their debut tour of the East Coast. There were plans to share the stage again in New Orleans and in Austin at SXSW.

A global pandemic put an end to this, but the bands kept talking. Both had recently recorded EPs, and so a plan was hatched: a split 12" with songs from both bands. Four tunes apiece, about the irony of memory recall, the loss of friends by their own hand, frustrations of gender role psyche and the fear of looking back. Dissonant delayed guitars and martial drums abound, despite the oceans and continents separating the groups.

Swallow The Rat / Clone split LP will be available on LP and download on May 21st via Headbump Records. Pre-orders are available via Rough Trade in the US HERE and Golden Antenna in the EU HERE. 

Artist: Swallow The Rat / Clone

Album: Split LP

Label: Headbump Records

Release Date: May 21, 2021

01. STR - Fall Away

02. STR - Preservation Plan

03. STR - Don’t

04. STR - Station

05. Clone - Deja Vu

06. Clone - Speak, Memory

07. Clone - Woman Of The Year

08. Clone - Easy On The Eyes

On The Web:

facebook.com/swallowtherat

instagram.com/swallow_the_rat

twitter.com/swallowtherat

facebook.com/clonebknyc

instagram.com/clonebknyc

twitter.com/clonenyc

“A raw, bluesy track dripping with dark psychedelia, with a strut reminiscent of PJ Harvey circa To Bring You My Love or The Kills’ first couple records.”  -- Treble

"Laid back, groovy and psychedelic... rambles along with shoegaze vocals and a sly guitar that weaves in and out of the track in a way that almost feels improvised." -- Glide Magazine

Austin, TX band The Living Pins are streaming their forthcoming Freaky Little Monster Children EP -- their first release since their single debut in 1996 -- in full starting today alongside and in-depth interview with the Austin Chronicle. Hear and share Freaky Little Monster Children EP HERE.(Direct Bandcamp.)

Treble recently hosted the lead single "Raven" HERE. Glide Magazine recently hosted "Downtown" HERE.

The Spill Magazine shared "Jaguar" HERE. 

Brian knew his time had come. With clubs shuttered and parties postponed, this most recent iteration of The Living Pins — guitarists/vocalists Pam Peltz and Carrie Clark, joined by Brian the Drum Machine — groove through these crazy times with a full tilt swagger from the back room of an Austin house. 

Carrie is an inductee into the Austin Music Hall of Fame as the frontwoman for Sixteen Deluxe (Trance Syndicate, Warner Bros. Records). Pam is a published photographer and the producer of two Daniel Johnston songs, “Ain’t No Woman Gonna Make a George Jones Outta Me” and “Casper” on Daniel’s Continued Story album.

The Living Pins originally formed in 1996 during the heyday of iconic Austin clubs such as Liberty Lunch, Electric Lounge, and The Hole In The Wall. Pam and Carrie met as co-workers at Wheatsville Food Co-op and continued in the tradition of employee bands including the likes of Ed Hall, Cherubs, Sixteen Deluxe, Pong, Palaxy Tracks, and Cotton Mather. The original Living Pins line-up included Kathy Ziegler (Morningwood) and Leslie Petit (Bunny Stockhausen) and this incarnation of the Pins appeared on the 1998 Wheatsville band compilation The Wheat Album, with their cover of the T. Rex song, “Spaceball Ricochet”, produced by John Croslin (Spoon, Guided by Voices).

Now, the Living Pins are back as a two-piece with Freaky Little Monster Children -- their new fledgling baby bird EP of glam-psych-guitar explosions. Primordial 1990s Austin, meets 2000s oversaturated festival hangover, meets 2020 lockdown mind-melt champagne fountain.  

“We’ve never been to the Rites of Pan Festival at Jajouka, but something like that goes on in the back of our heads all the time.” —The Living Pins

Freaky Little Monster Children was mostly recorded late on Friday and Saturday nights during the lockdown of Fall of 2020, in the empty lobby of Splinter Group, an East Austin artisan collective. “Fingers crossed the power tools stay silent during the next guitar overdub,” was the mantra. Facemasks and headphones were the main accessories. Jeff Copas (Sixteen Deluxe, Mule Ear Productions) engineered and produced the EP plus added some sweet keyboard and percussion details. And special guest, Matt Devine (Medicine, Permanent Green Light, Possum Dixon), played his Mick Taylor-esque endless guitar solo on “Jaguar” from a different time zone out in L.A.

EP personnel:

Carrie Clark: vocals, guitars, tambourine

Pam Peltz: vocals, guitars, bass

Brian, the Drum Machine: beats

Jeff Copas: production, keyboards, percussion

Matt Devine: lead & rhythm guitars on “Jaguar”

Freaky Little Monster Children will be available for download on April 9th, 2021. Pre-orders are available HERE.