Sunday, June 9, 2013

Sun Wheel, Motherplant, Black Tar Prophet, Holy Mountain Top Removers at Springwater (+Shroud Eater)

After a quite pregnant pause, it is time to give birth to some much-delayed show reviews! I think, for my own sake, I'm going to group the past shows I've seen by month (which means that May is going to end up the disproportionately large triplet due to that week of shows I attended.). Fuck it, I'll just do it one show at a time. It's easier to read and write this way. Enough with the weird birth jokes though, let's get these writeups going!

I considered not writing anything up the last show I saw in February due to the headlining band not really needing any press from me. The trio that is Shroud Eater has begun to blow up enough to be covered by legitimate metal news sites. I changed my mind when I heard their new release however. Everybody needs to hear it. If Matt Pike was secretly two women and a Scott Ian lookalike in disguise, that would be awesome. Also it would sound kind of like this.


ooh and I just learned about this "jump break" thing, I guess you have to click on the link headline if you want to read about the other shows in March the bands listed in the header. Unless you've already clicked. I'm not sure how it works yet.





The first show I saw in March, on 3/2, was in everybody's favorite dive bar, Springwater. The place was surprisingly full. Also, for these month-encompassing write-ups, I'm essentially going to be transcribing my notes that I hopefully took for each show. For this show, my notes tell me that first up was Sun Wheel. The notes go on to say that it was instrumental, and reminiscent of Black Sabbath. I came in during some sweep-picking, but the song after was booming doom. I also appeared to have written "Fast part with some chugging. Emotional part, with a wood block. Serenade wtf?" I wish I could remember this show better to comment, but I'll just let your imagination fill it in. There was also some tremolo riffing, with some serious bass speed chops going on. The next song had a complicated riff that sounded a lot like Wolfmother's song "Woman". Nice usage of the wah pedal here and there. Pretty groovy overall, might benefit from vocals though. Have a taste:


Next up was a band I'd been anticipating for over a year, even if I didn't know it at the time. Y'see, I met Motherplant vocalist Clutch Coomer at the Hail!Hornet show at the Muse early in 2012, where he and his Kentucky entourage were generous enough to share their intoxicants with my friends and I. I'd kept up with him on facebook, so I was pretty excited to learn that his band was coming to play in town. To quote my notes: "Oh lordy. Heavy ass stoner doom. Black Sabbath, Sleep, Electric Wizard, and definitely Cough can all be heard in their lumbering din. You lose all sense of time during their songs." These guys have some unbelievable riffs, and long enough songs to where you can really get lost in them. With members from Kentucky groups like Seidr (gorgeous funeral doom with members of KY black metallers Wheels Within Wheels and Panopticon) and Below, it's no wonder these guys kick so much ass. Check out their demo here, and prepare get swallowed in mammoth riffs.


Next up was the always-thundrous local doom duo Black Tar Prophet. Greg and Erik were as heavy as ever, with one member of Motherplant remarking to me after the show (after Clutch and I discussed the finer points of getting cheese in one's beard) that Greg's bass rig was as loud as their whole band's setup. Greg got a big new speaker cabinet for this show (as he is wont to do for many shows), but this cab was big enough to elicit a nausea warning. Erik confirmed this after the show, saying that he definitely felt it. So you heard it here first all you bulimic doom fans, BTP is going to be your absolute favorite group! Just make sure you get in nice and close at the shows. If you can't make it to a show, just play this as loud as you can.


Last up was what-the-fuck-am-I-listening-to trio Holy Mountain Top Removers. If you haven't read about them already, they're comprised of half of local psychedelic country doomers Hellbender, but totally not what you'd expect. Their set is quite chaotic, almost akin to free jazz, but I'm not sure they all stay in the same key at the same time. Regardless, it makes for a mesmerizingly chaotic performance, and you never know what to expect, including floor tom gravity blasts, and switches from bass guitar to droney synth. When they're not banging about in seeming randomness, they sometimes settle into what seems to be bluesy rock with a dash of sludge. You can listen to their bandcamp here below, but it really isn't very reflective of their live style.


Again, apologies for the long delay in writeups, things have been busy and stressful. More to come soon. Also, I did have pictures of this show, but my phone decided it was a good idea to corrupt 6 month's worth of pictures and videos at the end of April.





So since I've started this trend of ending these things with some neat science stuff, here's something interesting I found recently:
"Bagheera kiplingi is a species of jumping spider found in parts of Central America. This spider is unique in that it is the only known spider to have a herbivorous diet. The spider who was named after the panther in the jungle book usually inhabits trees of the genus Acacia where it eats the fat rich nubs off the tips of the leaves on the tree (they also consume nectar)."

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