Two Pirates And A Dead Ship

 Portugal. Ahhh Portugal. Ocean-loving, friendly people, beautiful countrysides, pleasant weather, floral-scented breezes, salty air... wait. Hang on. I've never been to Portugal, actually. I admittedly don't know a thing about it. I do know that the music coming out of Portugal certainly gives me this feeling. I think I want to visit Portugal someday, based on this fact alone. Sounds silly, but there might be something to this.

I'm thinking about birds today. Birds of Portugal can certainly be interesting. Here's a cool fact:
The Sacres area of Portugal is a huge hotspot for birders. The area is a migration route for all kinds of rare birds like the Black Vulture and the Horned Grebe. People can spot many European, North American, and South American birds all hanging out at the same time. The region's history of birding is a rich one.

Two Pirates And A Dead Ship come from Bairrada, Portugal, which, if I'm doing my research correctly, is one of the largest producers of fine Portuguese wines. The cooler, oceanic Mediterranean-esque climate apparently makes for some interesting grape flavors. These well-grown Baga grapes bring rich, dark fruity wines with a high tannin content, and a classy appeal. The grapes themselves are fermented as a whole cluster rather than removing the stems. This puts these grapes on the higher end of the tannin gamut. The region's history of viticulture is a rich one.

So, there is an essence here. Something not quite apparent until you piece it all together:
Birds + Portugal + Wine + The Ocean = Pirates, right? I'm probably just grasping. But I DO know that Bartolomeu Português was the one who originally created what eventually became known as the "Pirate's Code", and he was from Portugal, and a pirate. Portugal's history of pirates is also a rich one.
Yo Ho Ho, and a bottle of Bairrada wine!

This band brings jams a-plenty. Mostly-instrumental stoner rock, with enough reverb-y and squishy parts to walk the plank into psych-infested waters. Like many of the great bands I hear from Portugal, they do have a slight "salty" influence which translates well into the psych/stoner rock they bring to the table. The album really begins to pick up and doesn't let go until the end. "The Worst Is Yet To Come" sounds a little like a warning. I'm not heeding this warning, if they are talking about the next album they put out. These guys are doing things that certainly don't portend anything bad to come from them. A promising release from this young Portuguese trio. AHOY!

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Cambrian Explosion - The Moon EP

From Portland, Oregon comes Cambrian Explosion with their maddeningly great The Moon EP. 

This is really good. Trust me. Psych Rock madness, teetering on being a bit stonery here and there. It zig-zags around from gorgeous melodies to dark passages into galaxies unknown. There's something vaguely European about them, and I was very surprised at where they are from. Just check it out, and also be surprised.

I tend to gravitate towards the psych rock often. In doing that, I find that there are a lot of bands out there that use the "psych" as part of their job descriptions. Many of these bands do not play psych rock after all. 
This is not one of those bands. Pure melodies of sovereign Psych. In the presence of such nobility, it would be wise to listen well.

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Over The Ocean - Be Given To The Soil

I'd like to take this time to extend a personal apology to Norfolk, VA's Over The Ocean for not finding them sooner. Besides being not what I expected AT ALL, it's an incredible work. This feels like the end of Summer, the last scoop of ice cream, the final episode. It's melancholy, beautiful, spacious, bleak, and hopeful. And the heaviness of the rhythm is pretty stabby. Not your typical rock band. They are equal parts darkness, cold mornings (mournings), expressed wisdom and experience..
The whole album starts off on a rather cold note with "Herons". It really has this subdued, thoughtful feel to it that sets up the mood of the rest of the album nicely. "Riverbed" opens with lines: "my friend died in a car crash... it's a hard thing to understand"... creating the air of dreary days, losses, and sun going down. "God In My Own Image" slaps you in the face with harsh vocals, whispers, and clean singing, and spiritual questioning in a very cohesive manner, allowing the breadth of the whole album to culminate right there in one song.
The following 8 tunes wind down in such a way that the album can be listened to over and over again without one barely noticing. Lots of ambient soundscapes, noisy movements, echo-ey passages, and the trusty guitar screeching. "Air In My Lungs" is a delicate acoustic song, played with emotion... sounding a little like it was recorded in a tiny box, devoid of breathing holes.
"Kiss The Ground" comes in grasping onto the tiny threads remaining from "Air In My Lungs", and holds it there, giving way to the quiet slow rock of "Owl". "Arguing Philosophies" runs the show with another powerful slap of heavy emotive rock (NOT using the term 'emo' here, or ever). The album finishes off with "Ecology", "In The Darkness", and "Someone Has To Bleed", all of which blend together into an airy, cold, misty environment. 
What have we learned here? Over The Ocean is worth your time. In this day, many rock bands get lumped into some category or another. It would be easy to say that this band is an emo band, or an indie rock band, or a post rock band. It would be easy to say that this band also just plays music. To lump Over The Ocean into any kind of category would be a serious injustice to the band. When you hear music by people that actually mean it, you can tell. And this is one of those bands.
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"Bloodpheasant - Grieve"... famous last words...

So, Bloodpheasant hit me square in the jaw in 2015. I was slow on the draw with their previous offering Traum. From Providence, RI USA, this is a great heavy alt-doom/indie-folk group (I know, I know), who are so easy to listen to, it's crazy. I was super excited about this new release, only to find out that it will be their swan song. Each member of the band has something like a thousand other bands to be busy with, but it still makes this a pretty special album. It is a dreamy, dreary, dark & howling spiral staircase of reptile bone and raven tongues... Grieve is a great album. A perfect way to call it day for the band, and worthy of being a little bummed about...

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Devil Electric: Fine Australian Doom

 Devil Electric are from Melbourne, Australia. I have no idea what might in the water to make them so doomy. I also have never been to Australia, but from what I know, I'm pretty sure that it's warm there. Like, the temperature stays a pretty comfortable degree ALL of the time, for the most part. So, what part of Australia is cold? It seems like they live in an icy climate with all of their dark and dreary "woe unto us this Winter mourning"- sort of thing. Maybe they just feel chilly with that wind generated by all of the applause they must receive from their awesomeness. Whatever weather phenomenon is going on down there, it's churning up good things.
Their first (now sold out) 7" EP The Gods Below Vol. I came as quite a surprise. There are lots of doom bands around. And definitely lots of female-fronted doom bands at that. It's nothing new. But Devil Electric are something else.The sultry nastiness and ballsy delivery of vocalist Pierina O'Brien is really a thing to behold. Really. She can actually sing.
"Devil's Bells" opens everything with a kick in the ribs. O'Brien immediately rips into the opening with a huge presence, winding in and out of the main riff with her powerful melodic lines. It keeps everything in check with a slow, plodding, head-nodding tempo, devil-ish lyrics, and thunder-y bits.
"The Dove & The Serpent" has some obvious moral questioning going on. Perhaps a cry for help, or an ode to the dark lord of whatever: "I think about the Dove, the Serpent, and which I've felt I need more".... Either way it has the darkness that mercilessly pounds away with the swaggering tempo and Sabbathy chunka-chunkas.
Second EP 7" The Gods Below Vol II continues the fracas with the very NWOBHM-inspired "Confusion Of Mind"... this is almost white knuckle driving music. You'll get a ticket for sure if you play this while cruising.
"Holy Ghost" caps it off with more of the Sabbathy doom that seems to be their specialty.
So... why so dark in Australia? Well, it seems that they have been listening to the right stuff and it's translating into something special. Not to mention, just a little poking around will also point out that the other members of the band are all actively involved with other bands, as well. So, seasoned musicians all getting together to make something pretty cool... When ol' Scratch pokes away at doom/stoner, he eventually gets tired. So, these folks take over for a while. That's awful nice of them to do, wouldn't you say? Female-fronted stoner/doom that, when played at high dB, has been shown to open up demonic portals, and peel carrots. I approve.

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Wight- Love Is Not Only What You Know

So.. I know I'm early, but this album is already way up on my Top Ten list of 2016. Some super smooth and classy tunes from an incredibly groovy band of gents.. reminiscent of "Rides Again"-meets-"Bang"-era James Gang and every Free album ever, with true psych/stoner grooves, great vocals, awesome bassings, frettings, and drummerings... That's some serious music. And that cover is rad, let's just be honest. Wight rules. You'd be nuts to let this one slip by you...
As far as the band goes, they send out transmissions from Darmstadt, Germany. Over the years, they have released a few really good heavy albums (Through The Woods Into Deep Water, a split with Stone Axe, etc.), and everything has been showing nonstop signs of growth for the band. Musically, they once had a doomy vibe. Heavy, downtuned, sludge-driven riffs accompanied by exceptionally smooth basslines. A stoner/doom band working their stoner/doom band magic. But then while listening to the albums over the years, you notice a real progression and "coming of age" in the songwriting and general musicianship. Then they slyly began including some real jamming in their songs, some inspired songwriting, and some sneaky groovy-ness, live shows turning into real muscial experiences (Live In Athens)... so Love Is Not Only What You Know is a culmination of these years of simply growing and becoming the incredible band they are.
Check it out here!

Not Dead

So.
I've been away from the Blog scene for a while. I'm not dead. I originally intended this to be a music review blog, and that's the way I intend to keep it. Starting today.

Thanks.
- A