Archive for the ‘Roadburn Recommended’ Category

The Obelisk: Roadburn Coverage – Day Three

Posted on Tuesday, April 17th, 2012

When my alarm went off this afternoon, it was with both excitement and a touch of apprehension that I considered the prospect of what today would bring Roadburn 2012, Day Three. Saturday, April 14. I looked at my pocket schedule — no fancy printouts or cellphone PDFs for me — and took a deep breath, steeling myself against the truly monolithic.

I’m sure the stories differ almost on a per-attendee basis, but my version of the final day of Roadburn proper went like this: Mike Scheidt, 40 Watt Sun, Dark Buddha Rising, Church of Misery, Pelican, The Wounded Kings, The Obsessed, Mars Red Sky, Sleep. If I was still standing, I wouldn’t know how.

The noon alarm gave me a little more time to get my head around what I was going to see, whereas the last two days it’s been up and go. Time well spent, since I was about to embark on the busiest day of this entire trip, a wave-crest culmination of everything that the last week-plus has been building toward. Fitting it should end with Sleep, since without them I and most of these bands probably wouldn’t be here. What now feels like aeons before the gods ascended their Olympus, however, Saturday afternoon began at 15.00 with Mike Scheidt in the Stage01 room.

Not 24 hours after YOB laid waste to the entire city of Tilburg performing all of The Unreal Never Lived, Scheidt, the guitarist, vocalist and driving force behind that band, emerged on 013‘s smallest stage to play acoustic songs from his upcoming Thrill Jockey solo release, Stay Awake — words which are also tattooed across his two hands, facing up for him to read. He got on stage talking about how excellent Doom had been the night prior and was soon in the thick of a spoken intro to a song called  “Until the End of Everything.” I’ve heard the album a few times in preparation for a review, and it takes some of YOB‘s sonic mysticism into account on “Until the End of Everything” and a few other tracks, but Scheidt was careful as well to acknowledge singer-songwriter roots, alternating between finger-picking strings and a rhythmic strum that was familiar to many in the room in its construction.

He’s still clearly working out the approach he wants to take to the form, and said on stage as well that performing acoustic was a recent advent for him and that he was very much enjoying it, but as he dug into the throatier vocals on the closing title-track to Stay Awake, there was little to no perceptible temerity or lack of confidence in what he was doing. The songs sounded better live than they do on the record, but most importantly, there’s room for Scheidt to grow and explore new ideas outside the context of YOB, which at this point have established at least in part the palette from which they continue to refine their sound. That is, they have a “sound” they continue to refine, whereas Scheidt is still finding out what he wants to be as a solo artist, and seeing that unfold on stage was engaging.

Main room openers 40 Watt Sun had been on my list to see since I missed them when they came through New York last year, so when Scheidt was finished, I took the not-at-all-a-secret passageway from Stage01 and prepared myself to get sad. That’s what 40 Watt Sun do. Their doom is as much contingent on emotional weight — if not more — than tonal, and that could be heard as well on last year’s The Inside Room (review here). That puts them in a tight spot in terms of a stage show, however, since they’re basically limited then to how much they can really get into a show experience before undercutting the pervasive emotionality of the music. To work at all, they almost have to be boring to watch on stage. You can’t have some dude doing jumping jacks and playing a song like “Carry Me Home.”

Well, you could, but you’d probably get laughed at. 40 Watt Sun relied on the music to carry their ideas across on stage, and the songs had enough presence to make up for any fireworks that may have been absent otherwise. Vocalist / guitarist Patrick Walker (ex-Warning) was visceral in his presentation of the material, or perhaps “wrenching” would be a better word. In any case, they managed to make an entire concert hall of burly beardos miss their wives and girlfriends at the same time.

Continue reading: The Obelisk: ROADBURN 2012 COVERAGE: Day Three

Tags: JJ Kozcan, Roadburn, Roadburn 2012, Roadburn Festival, Roadburn Festival 2012, The Obelisk
Posted in 2012, Interviews, Roadburn Recommended | No Comments »

The Obelisk: Roadburn 2012 Coverage – Day Two

Posted on Tuesday, April 17th, 2012

Today was going to be my calm day. Yesterday was a ton of running around, tomorrow indeed will also be a ton of running around. Today the idea was fewer bands, but more full sets. I wanted to let the fest sink in a little. To savor it for a ...read more

The Obelisk: Roadburn Coverage – Day One

Posted on Tuesday, April 17th, 2012

It was utter madness, but I suppose that’s to be expected. At this point, that’s part of what makes Roadburn the festival it is and has become. And on the day that 2012 kicked off and it was announced that Electric Wizard will curate 2013 and that Godflesh will play ...read more

Album Of The Day: Temporarily On Hold!

Posted on Wednesday, April 4th, 2012

Roadburn‘s album of the day is temporarily on hold, as we’re tangled  up in festival affairs. It returns a week or so after the festival.    

Album of the day: Killing Joke – MMXII

Posted on Monday, April 2nd, 2012

Lovingly pinched from Uberrock: Killing Joke are a band that instantly sends some of my colleagues here at URHQ running to the hills screaming “Eskimo” whenever their name is uttered. This is largely due to the UK post punk legends fateful appearance opening for Motley Crue in U.K arenas back ...read more

Monday Song: Robin Trower – Bridge of Sighs

Posted on Monday, April 2nd, 2012

Every Monday morning we’ll post a kick-ass song to get your week going.

Album of the day: Crown – The One

Posted on Sunday, April 1st, 2012

Lovingly pinched from The Inarguable: Crown (two lovely French lads and their pet drum machine) do an excellent job of synthesizing the pounding, crushingly low trance of bands like Buried At Sea and YOB and a sort of post / post-black sound (shudder) without the abominable kitsch. Once you get ...read more

Album of the day: Pelican – Ataraxia/Taraxis

Posted on Saturday, March 31st, 2012

Lovingly pinched from CVLT Nation: Having been off the musical radar since 2009’s What We All Come To Need, Chicago’s Pelican burst back into hearts with the grace filled Ataraxia/Taraxis. This four track EP flits between massively weighty bass-heavy tones and sweet uplifting progressions, the instrumental four-piece delving into empty ...read more

Album of the day: Ufomammut – Oro Opus Primum

Posted on Friday, March 30th, 2012

Lovingly pinched from Doommantia: It seems like I am reviewing all the albums of the year all at once in the past week or so and here comes another; the new effort from Italian space-rock doomsters Ufomammut. Formed in Northern Italy in 1999, this is one band that has been ...read more

Album of the day: Ararat – II

Posted on Thursday, March 29th, 2012

Lovingly pinched from The Obelisk: In the two-plus years since Los Natas guitarist / vocalist Sergio Chotsourian made his debut with Ararat, a lot has changed. Long story short, Ararat has become a band and Los Natas – for all intents and purposes – has stopped being one. While the ...read more