DEBRIS INC
Ron:
Dave and I got to headline the Doom Shall Rise fest at the chapel in Goppingen, Germany. This was not only the highlight of 2006 for Debris INC, it was a major highlight of our
careers!!! We were truly honoured.
As far as my favourite records of 2006. I do not listen to much new music. I can just list three
that I can say I listened to and liked: Witchcraft, Stinkin Lizaveta, and Dixie Witch.
DEXTER JONES CIRCUS ORCHESTRA
Daniel:
"2006 started out with releasing the EP "Morbyn Outtakes" in February
and playing some clubs in New York and Sweden in March. Those shows
got DJCO booked for dates on the west coast US and landing a spot at
"Stoner Hands of Doom" festival in Aug / Sep. 12 days and thousands of
miles from LA, San Francisco and deep into the Arizona desert.
Before that we finished the recordings for our next full-length and rehearsed
our asses of with our new bass player, Fredrik Jonsson. The west coast
tour was followed up with a 10 date tour of Sweden during Oct / Nov.
- Mos Generator - "The Late Great Planet Earth"
- Year Long Disaster - "Debut EP"
- Colour Haze - "Tempel"
DREAM MACHINE
Alex:
2006 was a fantastic year for Dream Machine. The debut Album "Trilogia" completely sold out and the "Live at Bush Hall"DVD was very well received all around the world. Dream Machine CD and DVDs have been sold to everywhere from Mexico, India and the States to all over Europe. A local radio DJ has also been playing "Trilogia" in the heart of the Brazilian Rainforest!
The highlights of 2006 must be the mainstage performances at the Sunrise Festival in Somerset [June] and at Eastern Haze in Norfolk [July]. At Sunrise, Dream Machine went on just before midnight on the Summer Solstice night -after the brilliant Arthur Brown, with the amazing Eat Static to follow [even if they were only allowed to play a short set]. Special Dream Machine guests included Paul Didge and Mindflux [who has since joined permanently] on percussion.
At Eastern Haze DM came on just before Tim Blake, followed by Hear & Now and Hawkwind. Dream Machine had a very special guest in Gavin Griffith [original Ozrics, Ullulators and Thunderdogs guitar maestro]. Both Sunrise and Eastern Haze were incredible brand new festivals and to have Dream Machine playing on the mainstages was both a great honour and a truly magical experience.
At the end of the Summer there was a line-up change. Maurizio left to pursue other projects and the drum stool vacancy was taken by Metro, fresh from Ozric Tentacles. Metro made his Dream Machine live debut on Sept 3rd at the Brixton Jamm Club and has since become an integral part of the line-up his dynamic style inspiring the band into a new cosmic universe. We were also joined onstage at the Jamm Club gig by the amazing Cyndee Lee Rule.
At present Dream Machine are busy working on their second album which is due for an early Spring release. 2006 also saw the launch of the fan site Dream Machine Online, and Dream Machine's own
MySpace site. Both sites are full of reviews, photos, forums, news and play music samples.
Finally Dream Machine would like to thank all those who helped so much in 2006. Special mentions must go to Stuart McLean [our brilliant producer and soundman] and Pete Wibrew for the transport and live recordings. There are too many others to thank individually – including our brilliant audiences, some of whom have followed us to every gig and festival. Thank you so much. Champignon [flutes], Gabs [bass], Metro [drums], Alex [Guitar], Joie [Synth], Jules [Keys] and Mindflux [percussion] wish everyone a stunning 2007.
EARTHLING SOCIETY
Fred:
2006 for Earthling Society has been both a rewarding and frustrating one fraught with line-up changes, though the nucleus of guitarist Fred Laird and Drummer / percussionist Jon Blacow has remained as strong as always.
In February of last year E-S supported Julian Cope at the Manchester Academy during his Dark Orgasm tour. It was during this phase that the keyboard talents of Joe Orban were unleashed. Joe then played a major part in the recording of E-S's second album "Plastic Jesus and The Third Eye Blind" which was released in June on Nasoni records to much acclaim. The album has now been featured in the top 10 best albums of 2006 on such websites as Kosmik radiation [The influential Wisconsin based Freak radio station], Blogs San Diego and Aural moon’s poll for progressive music of 2006.
Frustratingly, although E-S has received much critical acclaim in Europe and the U.S they are still largely ignored by the music press in their English Homeland.
In July E-S played the Eastern Haze festival in Norfolk. The festival was the largest gathering of Psychedelic Space rock bands seen in the UK for years.The line-up included Hawkwind, Tim Blake, Litmus, The Future kings of England and Dreadzone. Earthling Society where joined on stage by the Legendary x-Hawkwind cadet, Harvey Bainbridge, who replaced Joe Orban on keyboards, who had to leave the group due to ill health.
In September Earthling Society played the 10 year Nasoni festival in Berlin with new keyboard whizz-kid Kevy Canavan. Also at the festival where the brilliant: Polytoxicomane Philharmonie, La Ira De Dios, Vibravoid, Zone six and The Atomic workers feat Gary Ramon of Sundial.
Earthling society have returned to their Green Ray studio to record their third album which, will be more psychedelic and more krautrock informed as ever before. It will be released by Nasoni in April to coincide with E-Society's Roadburn appearance.
- Brain Donor – "Drain'd Bonor"
Julian Cope’s metallurgical negative soundscape that evokes the sounds of Flower Travellin’ Band, mutant Detroit rock and PIL circa Metal Box.
- Om – "Conference of The Birds"
Never has a mixture of drums, bass and chanted vocals sounded so compelling.
- Valerie and Her Week of Wonders – "S/T"
Original S/T to the film of the same name unearthed from Czechoslovakian state vaults for the first time since 1970 and lovingly re-mastered by Andy Votel. A baroque gothic masterpiece.
ELECTRIC WIZARD
Jus:
Well, 2006 was a terrible year for electric wizard as usual... haha. It
started off pretty good, with a tour with Cathedral and Grand Magus. We
got to visit some new countries, Finland and Italy and had a really cool
response. The wizard legions grow!! Also great support from all our fans
this year!! Especially with the re-releases as well. I was especially
pleased to finally see "Come My Fanatics..." on vinyl. Also I think the
remastering for all the vinyl releases turned out really well...
But... also we started to notice a that bad vibes were brewing and this had to be
stopped. It was quite a desicion because we and the fans hate the line-up
changes but we felt it was the best thing as things would have ended
badly... also we want to sound like fuckin electric wizard again, evil, dirty
and totally fucked!!!
So we got a new drummer , Shaun, and the band improved 100% overnight. Now
its totally heavy and sick and a bit unpredictable again... Hahaha! We've been
writing some new shit and its way heavy with a total Come My Fanatics / psychedelic sound
again. So here we go new album soon and maybe a fuckin gig if yer lucky!!!!!
- OM – "Conference of the Birds"
- Bedemon - "Child of Darkness"
- Bruno Nicolai – "Eugenie"[De Sade] soundtrack
END OF LEVEL BOSS
Harry:
2006 was a year of change for the End of Level Boss. We began the year with
drum-batterer Ben Hallett joining us as we continued to tour the "Prologue"
album across Europe, culminating in our debut appearance at the Roadburn
Festival. This show was pivitol for us in many ways. It introduced the End
of Level Boss to a whole new world of riff-hungry noise worshippers! I've
lost count of how many times over the year I've been approached by people
saying "I saw End of Level Boss at Roadburn."
The festival also marked the end of an era for the band, and me personally. We parted ways with lead guitarist James Ogawa, who I've been making music with for 15 years. It was a great way to say goodbye to a great friend. It's just a shame his life needed to take
a different direction.
We quickly recruited Sloth guitarist Roland Scriver and picked up right
where we left off by playing the South of Mainstream festival, followed by
an awesome European tour with Place of Skulls. Undoubtedly our most
succesful tour so far. It's cool to see people freaking out 'cause they knew
our material. We even had crowds singing along. All very new to us!
The end of the year was spent putting together the sounds for our new album,
which we'll be recording in February for a May 2007 release. It's gonna be
hard for us to better 2006, but we have every intention of blowing away
everything we have done previously. Be prepared!
Thanks to everyone who checked out the End of Level Boss in 2006. We'll see
you at the bar at Roadburn 2007. Cheers!
- Volt – "Rörhät"
Awesome band. Their appearence at Stoned from the Underground was not only the gig of the year, but the gig of my life so far.
- Voivod – "Katorz"
My favourite band of all time released this after the loss off guitarist & legend Denis 'Piggy' D'amour to cancer. It's not their greatest work by any means, but the moments of genius it contains are still far above anything else.
- Art of Burning Water – "The Voyage of the Pessimistic Philosoph: An Ode to
Believers of the Prevailing Law of Sod"
I was gonna have the Melvins album in here, but anyone in their right mind already knows about that, so this is the best release by a UK band in 2006. Massively underrated, these guys twist riffs and madness to new levels of absurdity. Check 'em out.
ETERNAL ELYSIUM
Yukito:
In February, we toured Japan with Acid King. A bunch of people
checked out those shows. Also, lots of Japanese heavy rock bands
[Church of Misery, Boris, Sonic Flower, Garadama, and more...] joined
these gigs. I felt the Japanese heavy rock scene just getting better
throughout the tour.
We had an interesting experience in Tokyo in March. We joined a
really big event called "Independence-D." This was a kind of showcase
gig planned by many record labels. So we were booked there by DIW/
PHALANX records with label mates Boris, Church of Misery and Balzac.
So many people were there... it was amazing. A guy from the label
told me about 5,000 people came to that show.
The most important story about us in 2006 was our 3rd US tour. We
toured from Portland, OR to NYC with Acid King and Black Cobra. That
was a totally great experience. I would play in Mesa at the Stoner
Hands of Doom festival again. It was great to know that SHOD is
alive. The tour was tough, though. I guess every musician who's done
it knows how hard it is. Yeah, that's touring. Among the hardships I
felt were some language situations that made me nervous. You know,
I'm not a native English speaker, so it was tough, but I can also
say that difficult situations make a person strong. That's a great
thing.
I made so many friends through this tour everywhere in the states.
Many bands, too, like Middian, Negative Reaction, Aldebaran, Roanoke,
Ditch Liquor... We appreciate everybody who helped and supported us.
After we got back to Japan, we played some more shows. In September,
we got a headliner gig in Tokyo with Doomriders from US, and there
was a totally full house. That night was awesome.
We recorded only one song last year. It was pretty different from our
regular songs, and I guess that was the point. It's included on a
compilation album "7586 Vol.2." A Promotional clip from the song "Reefer Happiness" is
still airing on some Japanese TV stations.
2006 was such a great year! The only problem was that we didn't have
much time to write new songs...
- Comets on Fire – "Avatar"
- Black Cobra – "Bestial"
- Death Valley Dragline – "S/T"
FIREBIRD
Bill:
2006 was OK for Firebird. "Hot Wings", our fourth LP, came out on JVC in Japan during the summer. The European and American releases took a little longer, eventually surfacing in November if I recall correctly. Overall the response seemed to be pretty good. We ourselves felt like the album was as good as could be, considering the circumstances. It's low on finesse but probably has a rawer vibe than any of our previous discs. You lose one thing, gain another.
Rise Above plan to release a vinyl edition of the album with a bonus song shortly. As far as live work was concerned, we played a few dates here and there, although not as many as we'd have liked. Maybe we can improve on that this year. Thanks to those of you who did come to us see us play. Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
- Bobby Blue Bland - "Introspective"
- Van Morrison - "Too Late To Stop Now"
- John Martyn - "Inside Out"
FIVE HORSE JOHNSON
Eric:
Another fine fine year for the FHJ band. We released the new album "The Mystery Spot" and had the great opportunity of playing with JP Gaster of the Clutch Band, GOOD TIMES! We added Phil Durr [Big Chief] on the second guitar as a permanent member, more good times! The annual Euro tour was blast and a shining success! I also had the great fortune of laying down some harp tracks for the new Clutch album [which slays!] in sunny LA California. James Brown RIP.
- The Brought Low - "Right on Time"
- The Racontours - "Broken Boy Soldiers"
- Clutch - "Robot Hive/Exodus"
FU MANCHU
Scott:
2006 for Fu Manchu was great. We signed a new record deal with
Century Media / Liquor and Poker Records. We recorded our new full length record and 4 song EP. Our "Hung Out To Dry" EP was released in November. We have tours of the USA, Europe, Australia and New Zealand set up for 2007. We will be touring for all of 2007 so we will hopefully see you at the shows. New record "We Must Obey" comes out February 2007.
- Easy Action – "Live - Glendale, CA"
- Adolescents - "Live"
- Negative Approach - "Live DVD"
GENEROUS MARIA
Goran:
Last year didn't totally lack interesting events from the Generous Maria point of view. Let's see if I can recall some of the stuff.. It started out with the preparations for, and finally in May, the release of our second album entitled "Electricism." It is out on Belgium´s mighty Buzzville Records. Let me grab the opportunity to say “thank a lot!” for all the kind words that have been said about it by so many of you guys.
In May we also went on a short tour in Begium and Holland. One gig in Germany was squeezed in as well. We had a really great time, as always. The only fucked up thing was that I got sick as a dog towards the end of the tour and got more interested in sleeping instead of having a party off stage. The tour ended with the release party of “ Electricism” at Sticky Fingers here in Gothenburg and by then, with the help of some pretty strong medication, everything was back to one hundred per cent rock ‘n’ roll.
The Electricism tour part 2 took place in October when we returned to Benelux for a few gigs together with 3Speed Automatic, the great band from Rotterdam. We did, among other shows, the Villa Rocka festival at 3SA's place, a happening that's beyond my power to describe -you have to be there.
We also did the BuzzFest 2, a festival organised by Buzzville Records, where we shared stage with a bundle of great bands, like Dozer and Kube. The whole thing was so cool.
A sad thing happened late 2006. One of our guitarists, Ulrik, left the band after many years at the post. That was sad, but it had to be, I guess.. All the best to him for 2007.
So now we’re continuing as a four piece, at least for the time being, and we've only just started working on new recordings, which feels like a lot of fun, and looking forward to new gigs and tours during 2007.
So, again, thanks for all your support during last year and see you out there during this!
- Tom Waits – "Orphans, Bawlers & Bastards"
- Cabron - "S/T"
- On Parole - "Classic Noise"
THE GLASSPACK
Dave:
Hello there Roadburn folks, My name is Dave, or Dirty, and I play in the Kentucky bands the Glasspack & Muddy Nasty River. For those of you interested, 2006 was a year of planning & preparation for the Glasspack. I wrote a new batch of songs. We recorded a new record for Small Stone and rehearsed nonstop for it's release in Feb. 2007.
We also did an AC/DC track for "Sucking the 70's: Back in the Saddle Again" on Small Stone as well. We also straightened out our band funds, got new merch, obtained PayPal, fixed out equipment, and basically put our head back in the game for 2007. "The Glasspack/Dirty Women" will be coming soon...
As for my favorite releases of 2006, I don't listen to much anymore. I like listening to classical music. I would say my 2 most prized 2006 musical possessions are the new Slayer record & Kissology dvd box set. Both are amazing to me, as I love Kiss & Slayer to death.
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