The seventh annual Desertfest is happening THIS WEEKEND in Berlin! The complete line-up and schedule is out now, including the headliners for each day, Monster Magnet, Graveyard, and High on Fire! There are plenty of other names to get excited about as well, which we’ll list for you below. And as an added bonus, a preview of information about albums coming later this month from two of these bands…
“Now it’s time for YOUR Classic Rock” says the title at the top of Ripple Music‘s website, and the slogan is fitting: since its formation back in 2010, the label has made a name for itself as one of the premier sources for stoner rock and metal, psychedelic rock, and all things fuzz-laden. We’ve talked about some of their releases in the past, for example here and also here, but more generally, the label has come to be known for putting out music of consistent quality, within the circles of those styles. And now (starting last summer), they have begun a brand-new series of 12″ splits called The Second Coming of Heavy, which so far has featured some pretty serious heavy hitters, with plenty more on the way. Today we’re going to take a look at the first two of these, Chapter One which came out nearly eight months ago, and Chapter Two which hit the streets at the end of February.
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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…
Hey there, friends and comrades, how are you all doing?! Feel free to imagine all the typical witty “oh man it’s Monday, I really hate Mondays” rhetoric here. Honestly, though, I’m not really feeling that terrible so far.
It could just be that I’m still not quite awake enough to really feel it yet, or maybe it could be a lingering positive feeling from watching (my local football team) the Steelers utterly demolish the visiting New York Jets yesterday. (By the way, if anyone reading this is a Jets fan, I’m sorry — for many reasons…)
But anyway, whatever the explanation, I think I’ll take advantage of this ultra-rare pleasant mood (relatively speaking, of course), and do something productive. The first thing I want to do is talk to you about Low Man.
Now I’ve mentioned these guys a time or two in the past, when they’ve had various shows scheduled, but I’ve never really taken the time to discuss the band at length before. And since they’ve recently released their self-titled debut EP (which has been online for the past few weeks, but will also be available on CD starting today), it seems like a good time to start!
Valley of Steel 