The sights, sounds and words of the week in noise.
NEWS
The Bakery held its final show on Saturday, celebrating its last day with a ridiculously stacked 14-hour extravaganza. (How fucking good were The Wednesday Society? My god.) It’s a huge loss for Perth music and it’ll be a long time before another space emerges to fill the void, but there’s some good venue news on the Western front (for once). Plans are in motion for a new music space in Wolf Lane in a room that formerly housed a manufacturing base for fashion retailer Pierucci. You can follow updates on The Sewing Room — which has just lodged its plans with the City of Perth — on Facebook.
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Pitchfork and others are reporting that prolific D.C. noise rock duo Royal Trux are set to return for LA festival Berserkertown in August. So far it’s the only date for the two-piece who broke up in 2001
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In yet more reunion news, Blabbermouth is reporting that Phil Anselmo’s Superjoint Ritual are set to tour the US, according to a recent interview from drummer José Manuel Gonzales. The thrash outfit broke up in 2004 before reuniting for a one-off performance at Housecore Horror Film Festival in October last year. Anselmo had previously insisted that the show would be the band’s only time sharing the stage together — despite insisting years prior that a reunion was an impossibility — adding further proof that every single goddamn band in the world members who are breathing and at least half a dozen fans will reunite at some point. Superjoint Ritual are set to play Hellfest in June.
READ
Ask Andrew W.K.: ‘How Do I Become A Successful Musician?’ | The Village Voice
“The traditional modern concept of success — being the measurement of monetary income as the primary indicator of effort and mastery in a certain field — is essentially a scam, a con, and a lie. To equate success with an amount of money earned, or an amount of fame achieved, is at best an unfortunate miscomprehension of the very nature of success. At worst, it’s a malicious distortion.”
Saluting Ronnie James Dio, metal’s uncool godfather | The A.V. Club
“The album that finally resulted from the lineup turmoil—Butler also left during the sessions, though he returned before recording finished—was Heaven & Hell. Dio’s presence as a lyricist and driving songwriting force revitalized the rest of Black Sabbath. Iommi’s riffs and solos, previously rooted almost entirely in the blues, began to incorporate the neoclassicism that Dio learned from Blackmore in Rainbow. The songs began to shift between high-tempo (for Sabbath) blasts and moody, atmospheric passages. And, of course, Dio’s fantasy lyrics were a departure from Butler’s tales of war, women, and drugs. Despite the album’s commercial success, the change in direction led to an exodus of old fans. The Dio era is still a point of contention among Sabbath fans, though a string of successful reunion tours from 2007 to 2009 under the name Heaven & Hell renewed interest in his records with the band.”
How to take a picture of rock ‘n’ roll | i-D
“Back in the pre-Instagram days, folks were in it for the love (not the likes). Iconic music photographers such as Glen E Friedman, Henry Diltz, and London DJ/punk documentarian Don Letts — whose 1978 The Punk Rock Movie shot on Super 8 footage featured all the key players in the UK punk movement (The Clash, The Slits, The Sex Pistols) — were capturing a piece of history. In LA, the show From Pop to the Pit is currently showing electric, rarely seen archival portraits of the bands that shaped the city’s music scene from 1978–1989 shot for the now defunct Herald-Examiner. These camera-wielding renegades were in pursuit of those vulnerable and fuck-all moments that happen backstage, in the pit, and in an infested alley behind a venue. From hazy-days with Diltz, Woodstock’s official photographer who spent the 60s with Joni Mitchell and the Laurel Canyon Folk Scene, to stage-diving with Edward Colver, the gritty punk photog who chronicled the birth of American hardcore and snapped early portraits of Bad Religion and Minor Threat, nostalgic images have shaped our understanding of a formative time.”
LISTEN
High on Fire — The Black Plot
The new High on Fire sounds just like High on Fire, which is just fine, because High on Fire sounding like High on Fire is better than most other things. Pike makes his guitar sound like an actual screaming banshee at the beginning of the bridge. Honestly, listen to that moment around 3:53 and tell me that doesn’t sound like the horrid scream of some harbinger. The cut is from their forthcoming 7th LP, Luminiferous, a concept record about the social engineering of the nebulous Elite, which is out June 23.
Methyl Ethyl — Twilight Driving
On every song, Methyl Ethyl exist on some kind of utopian celestial plane where the sun never sets and the the whole world is a coastline. Twilight Driving harbours an ever-so-slight sinister undercurrent in its verses, as if the whole veneer could shatter at any moment.
Todd Tobias — Suvarnabhumi
Something lurks beneath the lush melancholia of this first track from Todd Tobias’ forthcoming Tristes Tropiques. The imagery in my head is organic yet machinic, like a Vangelis-scored nature documentary. Tristes Tropiques is out June 9.
WATCH
The 13th Floor Elevators — You’re Gonna Miss Me (Live at Austin Psych Fest Levitation)
The last time this band played together, LBJ was president, the Stooges had existed for only a year and Matt Pike wasn’t even born. The psychadelic stalwarts’ first show since 1968 closed Austin Psych Fest Levitation marked 50 years since their formation in the Texas capitol and closed the proceedings of the ridiculously stacked festival that boasted Earth, Lightning Bolt, Primal Scream, Thee Oh Sees, Nothing, A Place to Bury Strangers and Chelsea Wolfe. 47 years between shows. Think about that.
