CHICAGOSTONERROCK.COM
Stu Helm:
2004 was a kick-ass year in music here on America's
North Coast, and we'd like to think that CSR.com had
its small influence on the heavy side of things.
For me personally, the highlight came late in May when
I procured YOB for a super-late-night show at The
Note, right after a huge Orange Goblin show ended at
The Double Door across the street. The place was
packed, YOB played for close to two hours, and the
crowd was drinking and rocking well past 4AM.
Later in the week we had Weedeater and Dozer booked on
the same ticket, and then Sean [from DoomedNation.com]
and I drove down to Youngstown, Ohio for Emissions
>From The Monolith VI. So I guess you could say it was
a pretty good week in Rock and Roll.
2004 was the first year of booking live shows, and
we've got to give huge thanks to the good folks at The
Note for putting up with our stoned asses!
Apart from local gods of doom and thunder like Indian Pines, and
Buried At Sea, we welcomed many of the Midwest's best;
Salth of The Earth, Gates of Slumber and Melk The G6-49
from Indiana; Test Site and Sleestak from Milwaukee;
Kita and Burnout from Iowa, and The Esoteric from
Kansas all graced the our stage, and kept it heavy.
Friendly visitors from the southern half of the US
like Weedeater, Rwake, Zaius, Glasspack, Starchild,
Earthride, and King Valley to name a few, came up and
showed us how they do it down that way.
In local news: Grimble Grumble got back together,
Behold! The Living Corpse broke-up and then got back
together; Leroy Fix broke up and stayed broke up, The
Last Vegas toured the fuck out of the country and the
world; Pelican packed the room more than any other
band I saw at Emissions, and Lair of The Minotaur
got signed to Southern Lord.
The worst part of 2004, hands down, was George Bush
somehow, someway winning the Election.
Wha-wha-wha-what?!?!?
In 2005, I'm looking forward to continuing to work
with local Democrats against this fucked-up Monkey
Prez, as well as working with Doomed Nation and The
Note to book more heaviness in our fair City.
We're having a "Pre-Mature Emissions" festival in May / June
that should be a lot of fun.
HELLRIDEMUSIC.COM
Chris Barnes:
This year whizzed by like a bullet train. Driven by a meth-fueled
engineer. That fast. 2004 was another landmark year for
Hellride Music.com.
We went from HTML to a PHP format which was a huge pain in the ass; the
introduction of Hellride Music Forum and Website Hosting / Design; the first
Hellride Music Records release came out [Reverend Bizarre / Orodruin split vinyl 12"] which
promptly sold out [thank friggin' God!] and this was the biggest
year yet for the Hellride Music Superstore.
Yeah, sure I kinda lament the days when Hellride was solely a hobby and
not a second full-time job but it's like seeing your kid grow up
and be successful - the growing pains are a bitch, but the pride felt
when the blood, sweat and tears pays off can't be beat.
Many thanks to all the PR and label folks, the store and forum
patrons that make Hellride what it is, and especially the bands w
hose great music make this whole thing a possibility.
Special thanks to the following for all their contributions in '04: Scott
Sanfratello, Themis Pamfilos, Kevin McHugh, Mike Ballue, Mat Urbancich, Matt
Artman, Darryl Baysinger, Rube, Chris La Tray and Greg Fee. You guys rule.
- Hermano - "Dare I Say"
Whatta kick arse record this is!
- Reverend Bizarre / Orodruin - "Split 12-inch"
DOOM!!!
- Marshan - "Songs From Southern and Baseline"
The return of heartfelt, passionate rock n' roll
STONERROCK.COM
Dan:
2004 was a momentus year for StonerRock.com. First off, we just
celebrated our 5 year anniversary!! Second, John Pegoraro [aka Arzgarth]
pioneered the Editor-in-Chief position and cranked out more high
quality content than ever before...
And, third, we got seriously involved with event sponsorship and promotion
including the Bongzilla / Monster Magnet US Tour; Three Days of Darkness; Emissions
from the Monolith; the Sunn0))) / Earth show in L.A., and most recently "The Kennefit" [a fund
raiser for Kenny Lund of Solace].
We're looking forward to much more of it all during the next 5 years!!
- Astroqueen vs. Buffalo - "Split"
- Nightstalker - "Just a Burn"
- Red Giant - "Devil Child Blues"
STONERROCKCHICK.COM
Deanna:
2004 was a year of ups and downs for Stoner Rock Chick but we made it through the year with nary
an issue, a brand new website which more reflects the stonerrock / doom scene [created by Nick
from the Research Director], and a lot more new members, features, etc. So labels, bands come
advertise with us [little plug there].
2004 again was another wicked show at Emissions, courtesy of the amazing Greg Barrett. I can't
wait for 2005 for the coming Emissions.
In general I think 2004 was a year that saw a lot of amazing albums - Colour Haze, Hypnos 69, Baby
Woodrose, Stinking Lizaveta, Cracktorch, the insurgence of psychedelica on the scene is really
exciting and I hope to hear more bands incorporate such diversity into their sound.
Looking forward to the Sons of Otis "X" album, due out on Small Stone,
really looking forward to Canadian bands like Puddy, Fiftywatthead and The Illuminatti breaking
out past the Canadian border.
I think this is very possible, especially given the new cohesiveness
of the stoner rock scene in Toronto and the emergence of the Stoner Rock Revolution, which is planned
to spread to the US and Europe sometime in the future [Stonerrockrevolution.com].
- Valis - "Head Full of Pills"
- Comets of Fire - "Blue Cathedral"
- Colour Haze - "S/T"
STONERROCK LIST
Shrike:
When Roadburn asked me to write a brief retrospective to the year
2004 in the context of the Stonerrock mailing-list, I thought "how can
I do something like this when there are around 600 people on the list". But
then I realized it was about the music and not about speaking
for 600 other people. So I'm writing how I saw the year go down
and will be presenting two different Top 3 lists. A personal one and one that
has been taken with a brief survey off the list.
First of all, musicwise the year was a damn good one. Goatsnake came up with
a new offering, them being a personal favourite it was a big deal, while
UK's own The Electric Wizard also managed to climb up from their grave
and make a new album. And grew a new tentacles in form of new
musicians, while the old severed tentacles grew a new body
in the form of sludged out Ramesses.
There has been a good amount of new bands coming out with innovative
music and while the personal taste has been leaning towards the doomy and the psyched-out, the
rawk side has been good too. Newer bands like Qualone, Monkey3, Shovelhead and
Pelican have been putting out great music.
Older masters of groove, such as Monster Magnet and
Alabama Thunderpussy came out with their new offerings. Church Of Misery is
back with new vocalist and while they sound very different to what
they were, they managed to sound like themselves as well.
In general I think 2004 was pretty good, even as it seemed that the genre loosely
stacked under the phrase "stonerrock" seemed to be getting bigger by the day. A lot
of music is being put under the protective umberella of a known descriptor, while
few bands try to fight the stigma of labels.
Place Of Skulls and The Hidden Hand are still going strong, Candlemass did their
re-union - breakup - re-reunion and released an Essential Doom collection.
Baby Woodrose has gotten into gear and is going awesome -straight-out rock, while ambassadors
of doom, Reverend Bizarre seem to be gaining momentum too.
Regarding the SRMList, the year was actually pretty good. After a
kind of an activity slump the list got active again after few heated
discussions and less moderatorial intervention. Much of the thanks [and
fuck-offs from some list members, I'm sure] goes to Matt Green, who got
fed up of the stale state of the discussion and decided to
rattle things up. Which worked.
Top 3 lists are impossible to make, without leaving something out
and later regretting the whole fucking thing. So I'm just listing the
ones that I've been listening to a lot this year. They would all be eligible to the #1 spot
and are in alphabetical order.
But I digress...
- Baby Woodrose - "Dropout!"
- Electric Wizard - "We Live!"
- Goatsnake - "Trampled Under Foot"
The Stonerrocklist Top 3:
- Blood Farmers - "Permanent Brain Damage" / Witchcraft - "S/T"
- Isis - "Panopticon" / Electric Wizard - "We Live!"
- Qualone - "S/T" / Clutch - "Blast Tyrant"
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