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Hey folks — a very Happy (Belated) New Year to all of you! 2013 definitely turned out to be an interesting year for me, with lots of big changes, new projects, new responsibilities, etc., but an unfortunate side-effect of some of that was (as you’ve surely noticed) that the amount of time I’d been spending writing really tapered off as the year went on, to the point where I didn’t post
anything here for the last few months! Well, as you may have seen, I’ve started writing reviews of some new 2014 releases — and as time allows I promise I will also be sharing plenty of older stuff I’ve missed writing about, because believe me there has been a TON worth sharing!But more on that later. As I started doing last year, I’ve once again put together a collection of various people’s “best of” lists from 2013. Admittedly I sort of got a late start on this (I didn’t even put out the open invitation until after most websites had already finished with publishing all their year-end stuff), but several people have answered the call and contributed some really interesting lists that you’ll want to check out…
Tag Archives: Borracho
VOS Videography 2013: A Mid-Year Retrospective (Part 11)
Howlers Coyote Cafe (Bloomfield / Pittsburgh, PA), 28 March 2013
Low Man – “Golden Dawn”
Low Man – “Last of the Rat Kings”
Rice Cultivation Society – “Sky Burial”
Rice Cultivation Society – “Bunny in the Sun”
Dewey Marquee – the one that’s all jazzy and shit
Dewey Marquee – the corniest thing…
Howlers Coyote Cafe (Bloomfield / Pittsburgh, PA), 29 March 2013
Borracho – “Stockpile” (New Song)
Been Obscene – “Demons”
Been Obscene – “Pilot the Pirates” (New Song)
Neon Warship – “Paralyzed”
Neon Warship – “In Waves”
Supervoid – “The Bear”
Supervoid – “Ride the Snake” (B&W video)
Supervoid – “Ride the Snake” (color video)
NAVIGATION
Part 1 (28 December – 18 January)
Part 2 (01 – 09 February)
Part 3 (16 February)
Part 4 (22 February)
Part 5 (23 February)
Part 6 (02 – 09 March)
Part 7 (10 March)
Part 8 (14 March)
Part 9 (16 March)
Part 10 (22 – 24 March)
Part 12 (02 – 11 April)
Part 13 (12 – 19 April)
Part 14 (20 – 26 April)
Part 15 (04 – 05 May)
Part 16 (11 – 17 May)
Part 17 (18 – 27 May)
Part 18 (31 May – 20 June)
Part 19 (23 – 30 June)
Borracho – Mob Gathering 7″
It’s been nearly two years since Borracho, the heavy stoner-fuzz-rock band from Washington DC, graced the world with their debut album Splitting Sky. Since that LP was released (and subsequently landed on my Top 11 of 2011 list), there has also been a 7″ single (and video) for “Concentric Circles”, a video for “All in Play”, and a 10″ single for “Plunge/Return” (which was included in the digital and CD versions, but didn’t fit on the vinyl pressing of Splitting Sky).
Now, all that has been really cool, but we haven’t heard any NEW songs in a while! Well as it turns out, that’ll be changing soon, because in a few months the band will have a follow-up album out…
[In mid-February], we entered the studio to lay down brand new music for a proper follow-up release. We’ve reunited with Splitting Sky producer Frank Marchand at his brand new Hudson Street Sound studio in Annapolis MD. The as-yet untitled record will be co-released on limited edition 12″ vinyl by No Balls Records (Germany) and Ghost Highway Recordings (Spain) in June.
So that’s pretty exciting, huh? But that’s not even all of the good news I have for you! Although it’ll still be a few more months ’til we get some new material, right now you can get treated to some OLD stuff — plus select east-coast cities are due to be visited by the band this weekend!
Borracho – Plunge/Return 10″ Single Now Available
Borracho – Plunge/Return 10″ Single (Strange Magic Records, 27 November 2012)
So over the course of the past year or so, you’ve been following along with everything I’ve written, including all the mentions of Washingtonian heavy fuzz-rock band Borracho, right?
Including when I named their album Splitting Sky as one of my Top 11 of 2011 over at No Clean Singing? (Which reminds me, I promised to send them another list this year, so I guess I should start thinking about that, huh?)
Presumably, on my recommendation, you went straight out and bought a copy of that album. Now, if you got the CD or the digital download (including the download that comes free with the vinyl LP), then you are lucky enough to have the full album including the massive epic final track “Plunge/Return”.
However, if you do have that vinyl edition, you probably noticed that it’s about eleven and a half minutes shorter than the digital formats — because that last song just didn’t fit. And even though you have listened to the version you downloaded, the purist in you wishes that you had all of the album’s tracks on vinyl, right?
Well finally, your prayers have been answered.
Borracho Announces “Tres Hombres” Labor Day Weekend Tour Dates
Hey readers, if you happen to live on the east coast anywhere between the D.C. region and New England, listen up! The Washingtonian stoner/fuzz metal band Borracho recently announced a string of dates running throughout the Labor Day holiday weekend, so if you’re anywhere near that area you’ll want to pay close attention to this.
We’ve talked about this band a few times, starting with a mention on the list of top 2011 releases, and including features on a couple new videos over the past several months.
Here’s what the guys said about these tour dates:
Borracho LIVE on the Tres Hombres Tour!
All work and no play makes Borracho want to hit the road! We’ve been spending too much time in the lab writing for the new record and we really need some fresh air! So, we’re hitching up the wagons and heading north Labor Day weekend for a short tour en route to the 12th annual Stoner Hands of Doom festival in New London, CT.This will be our second appearance at the festival, and the tour will bring us to the city of brotherly love and New England for the first time. We’ll be playing four dates, kicking off in our home town of Washington DC, travelling to Philadelphia, PA and Boston, MA before our Sunday showcase at SHoD. We’ll be joined on these shows by One Inch Giant from Gothenburg Sweden, Black Thai from Boston, and Fire Faithful from Richmond VA. Spread the word! See the details on each show below, and on the Shows page of our site.
We’ve also mentioned One Inch Giant around these parts before, and although I might not have written about them (yet), I’ve also really enjoyed what I’ve heard from Black Thai and Auroboros. Fire Faithful is a name that’s unfamiliar to me, but they’re definitely in good company — as far as I can tell, the line-up for any one of these shows will be well worth checking out…
- Thursday, 30 August – DC9, Washington DC – w/ One Inch Giant, Auroboros
- Friday, 31 August – Gunners Run, Philadelphia PA – w/ Black Thai, One Inch Giant
- Saturday, 01 September – O’Brien’s Pub, Allston MA – w/ Black Thai, Fire Faithful
- Sunday, 02 September – Stoner Hands of Doom XII @
The El ‘n Gee Club, New London CT – (full details and schedule here)
So once again, be sure to check out Borracho and friends if they’re coming near where you live. One of these days I hope these guys decide to venture out a little further — at least to this side of the Allegheny Mountains (the closest they’ve come to the Pittsburgh area, as far as I am aware, was a show a while back in York PA, which is still a few hours away from here). But for those of us across the rest of the country and the rest of the world — they did say something about writing a new record, so how cool is that!!?
Hey, Look: Another New Borracho Video
Well here’s something interesting. Turns out Borracho has got a video out for another song from last year’s album Splitting Sky.
This song, “All in Play” is one of the more mellow, laid back grooves on the album — and at nearly nine minutes, definitely one of the longer ones.
The last few minutes of the song are made up of an extended fuzzy guitar jam, the kind where if you’re playing Guitar Hero, your fingers are about to fall off and you keep on wondering if the song is going to end soon!
But you aren’t playing Guitar Hero, you’re just kicking back and enjoying the pretty pictures of huge natural phenomena like waterfalls and volcanos, and possibly enhancing your listening pleasure with some sort of herbal supplement from your local pharmacy. Who knows.
Here’s the new video:
Hey, Look: A New Borracho Video (Plus Drinking Game)!
You remember Borracho, don’t you? Their debut LP Splitting Sky landed on my Top 11 of 2011 list which was ever so graciously published by No Clean Singing. In that list, I referred to the band as “Fuzzy, grungy, balls-out stoner metal from the District of Columbia,” because that’s exactly what it is.
Anyway, just yesterday they sent out an email announcing that they were releasing the first official video from that album, for the single “Concentric Circles.” The video “frames the band’s live show energy and punctuates it with vintage clips of destruction, atrocity and mayhem,” and those clips are the key to the drinking game that accompanies it! As they explained:
… it wouldn’t be a proper Borracho project without an official drinking game to go along. So before you press that play button, grab many beers, assemble a throng of your closest head-banging friends and challenge them to a round of “Boom!” – a beer down for every explosion you see. That’s right! We’ve got your buzz all worked out: every time something blows up, you drink! It’s that easy.
The VoS Top 11 of 2011 – Published at No Clean Singing
Hey. You should already know this, because you should already be reading the No Clean Singing blog. But in the event that for some reason you missed this, yesterday morning they published a list that I threw together, summing up some of the top new releases of the past year. The list represents my eleven favorite albums that I heard, that were released in 2011 by bands I had never heard prior to last year. I also chose to exclude albums I had already written about here at the Valley blog, because I didn’t want to bore you by just rehashing the same thing over and over again. I hope you enjoy the list, or at least find something there you might not have heard before. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, either here or there.
Thanks for reading!
Valley of Steel 