Big Walnuts Yonder is bassist/vocalist Mike Watt (Minutemen, The Stooges), guitarist Nels Cline (Wilco, Nels Cline Singers), drummer Greg Saunier (Deerhoof) and guitarist/vocalist Nick Reinhart (Tera Melos). It is not a supergroup. “It’s worlds colliding,” says Mike Watt.
Four exceptional musicians whose work spans multiple genres and generations, Big Walnuts Yonder is a monumental endeavor that’s more than the sum of its parts. The results are a truly epic album defying categorization, where one might hear elements of proto-punk, free jazz, power pop, experimental music, psych-rock and your first teenage acid trip all in one.
The impetus for Big Walnuts Yonder came about way back in 2008 from a conversation between Watt and Reinhart while their bands toured together in Japan. The two discussed recording together and who they might bring in to the sessions. “Nick gets ahold of my first opera,” Watt explains. “Made in 1997 with Nels Cline. He said ‘what’s it like playing with Nels?'”
Jay Jayle kicked the night off with their On the Road-esque bluesy blend of rock. Cloaked in amber lighting on a stage that left little room for movement, you can really hear the southern roots so deeply threaded in their music. I’ve always felt their music would be the perfect soundtrack to a gritty, adventure-filled and nicotine-saturated movie – indie of course, not the mainstream variety. It’s a sound that reminds me of small towns and late nights spent on the porch with an acoustic guitar and moths fluttering around the light, especially when they were joined by Emma Ruth Rundle.
And So I Watch You From Afar will be touring Europe starting in October 2017. All tickets will be on sale on Friday 4/28.
Dates below:
OCT 18 Haarlem, NL // Patronaat OCT 19 Utrecht, NL // EKKO OCT 20 Nijmegen, NL // Doornroosje (Purple Room) OCT 21 Osnabrück, DE // KI. Freiheit OCT 22 Karlsruhe, DE // Stadtmitte OCT 23 Eindhoven, NL // DDWMusic Festival OCT 24 Rouen, FR // Le 106 Club OCT 25 Nantes, FR // Le Ferrailleur OCT 26 Bordeaux, FR // Le Void OCT 27 Barcelona, ES // AM Fest OCT 28 Madrid, ES // Sala Caracol OCT 29 Porto, PT // Hard Club OCT 30 Lisbon, PT // Musicbox
NOV 02 Milan, IT // Magnolia NOV 03 Fribourg, CH // Nouveau Monde NOV 04 Winterthur, CH // Gaswerk NOV 05 Pratteln, CH // MiniZ7 NOV 06 München, DE // Ampere NOV 07 Prague, CZ // NoD Teatro NOV 08 Leipzig, DE // Conne Island NOV 09 Berlin, DE // Bi Nuu NOV 10 Hannover, DE // Bei Chez Heinz NOV 12 Cologne, DE // Gebäude 9 NOV 13 Wiesbaden, DE // Schlachthof NOV 14 Essen, DE // Zeche Carl NOV 15 Hamburg, DE // Knust NOV 16 Groningen, NL // Vera NOV 17 Maastricht, NL // Muziekgieterij NOV 18 Louvain-La-Neuve, BE // Festival La Ferme NOV 19 Kortrijk, BE // De Kreun NOV 21 Paris, FR // Maroquinerie NOV 22 Luxembourg, LU // Rockhal NOV 23 London, UK // Koko NOV 24 Manchester, UK // Academy 2 NOV 25 Glasgow, UK // Oran Mor NOV 26 Bristol, UK // Thekla
“Well, it has been a minute, several thousands of them actually. Figured it was time to dust off the ol’ Tera Melos machine and get back to it.” - Nick Reinhart of Tera Melos.
Chon has invited Tera Melos on to sound blast on their album release tour this summer. All show info can be found here.
6/02 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre 6/03 - San Francisco, CA @ Slim’s 6/05 - portland, or @ hawthorne theatrE 6/06 - seattle, wa @ neumos 6/08 - salt lake city, ut @ the complex 6/09 - denver, co @ summit music hall 6/10 - lawrence, ks @granada theater 6/11 - chicago, il @ cobra lounge 6/13 - detroit, mi @ sAINt andrew’s hall 6/14 - toronto, on @ mod club 6/15 - cleveland, oh @ agora ballroom 6/16 - philadelphia, pa @ union transfer 6/17 - new york, ny @ webster hall 6/18 - boston, ma @ royale 6/20 - pittsburgh, pa @ rex theater 6/21 - baltimore, md @ baltimore soundstage 6/22 - carrboro, nc @ cat’s cradle 6/23 - atlanta, ga @ terminal west 6/24 - orlando, fl @ the beacham 6/25 - tampa, fl @ the orpheum 6/27 - dallas, tx @ gas monkey live! 6/28 - austin, tx @ emo’s austin
Another impressive live outfit is Brutus. The band have toured for two years, chalking up an astonishing 200 gigs during that period. After three singles and an amazing split release with The GURU GURU the band have now unleashed their first album on the world. Accompanied by a distorted guitar and bass, frontwoman Stefanie Mannaerts plays and sings as if all hell has broken loose. It’s quite hard to believe, in fact, that the female drummer has never had any ambitions to make it as a singer. Brutus are currently one of the louder bands on the scene, their efforts evidently very much appreciated by many members of the jury.
Belgium’s Brutus is what you’d get if you took Royal Thunder, upped the anger by a ton, and maybe got Kurt Ballou’s opinion on how much distortion the album needed. Brutus will be releasing its new album Burst on May 12 (digitally, June 30 physically) via Sargent House, and we’re thrilled to be premiering the debut single from the album “All Along.”
“All Along” starts off pretty heavy with the frantic drumming and raspy vocals of drummer and vocalist Stefanie Mannaerts, though the song takes a turn for the somber and mildly melancholic about halfway through, resulting in one hell of a listening experience despite its short run time.
Pre-order Burst here physically, and here digitally.
The downcast Los Angeles synth duo Youth Code have a unique knack for turning EBM tropes and squalling electronics into something truly horrifying. It’s a skill they demonstrated more effectively than ever on their 2016 album Commitment to Complications, but today, with help from some friends, a recent single has been pushed to even gloomier depths.
The original “Lost at Sea” bleakly expressed the emptiness of loss, a sentiment echoed in the shredded remix that the California musician Chelsea Wolfe has just turned in. It begins sparsely, with icy piano lines and effected vocals ringing through the silence. That changes halfway through the song, as the instrumental becomes crushed and mutated, and George Clarke of Deafheaven joins in on Youth Code’s acid-burned screams. In the spirit of the original track, it’s grim and dramatic, but somehow it feels like there’s even less light leaking in—no hope, period.
The remix is out today and you can listen to it below or over at Youth Code’s Bandcamp. All proceeds from the track will go to Planned Parenthood, a choice that the band explained in an email.
“Thematically the song is pretty transparent as it deals with feelings of loss and frustration that there is no hope for any redemption in the future,” They wrote. “We would like to donate all the proceeds of this song to Planned Parenthood in hopes that people in need of these resources can continue to attain them without ever having to feel lost or frustrated with taking care of their reproductive health.”
Youth Code tour dates:
April 21 London, UK - Koko * April 22 Tilburg, NL - Roadburn April 23 Glasgow, UK - Saint Lukes * April 24 Manchester, UK - Gorilla * April 25 Birmingham, UK - O2 Institute * April 26 Cardiff, UK - Tramshed * April 28 Wiesbaden, DE - Schlachthof * May 01 Prague, CZ - Lucerna Music Bar * May 02 Berlin, DE - Binuu * May 03 Leipzig, DE - Taubchenthal * May 04 Stockholm, SE - Kraken
*= With Deafheaven
Chelsea Wolfe tour dates:
April 18 - London, UK - Heaven April 19 - Brighton, UK - The Haunt April 21 - Tilburg, NL - Roadburn Festival April 23 - Karlsruhe, DE - Dude Fest April 24 - Zurich, CH - Bogen F April 26 - Praha, CZ - Futurim Music Club April 27 - Berlin, DE - Berghain April 29 - Athens, GR - Smoke the Fuzz fest at Academy
We met with George Clarke, lead singer of the band Deafheaven, while we were in Boise, Idaho for Treefort Fest 2017. George kindly shared with us some important albums, that influenced his and the band’s sound, as well as offering a couple surprising records for us to check out! Some of his favourite albums include titles by Simon And Garfunkel, Slayer, and Philip Glass.
Deafhaven, play April 20th in Tilburg, Netherlands. The band’s latest release New Bermuda, is now out on Anti Records.
“I’m sorry man, I’ve been really sick.” This is one of the first things Emma Ruth Rundle says to me as we ascend the stairs to the Green Room of the Paradise Rock Club in Boston (March 16, 2017). No apologies are necessary, but the exhaustion present in her voice is understandable. To put it mildly, New England has seen better weeks, especially in March. My initial plan was to arrive in Boston on Wednesday, the original date of Rundle’s show supporting This Will Destroy You and Deafheaven (one of the more epic tour lineups I can recall). However, I had to change things up, leaving Burlington, VT at 2 AM Tuesday morning following a 12-hour shift at work to get ahead of a storm that would ultimately dump at least 2 miserable feet of snow on a town that had been foolishly anticipating the coming of Spring. The rest of New England and New York were not spared either, resulting in the postponement of the show to Thursday evening. As a result, I had to spend an extra two days at an inn-that-shall-remain-nameless in the heart of the Harvard Ave area of Boston which, frankly, reminds me of the kind of place a depressed person would shack up at to drink themselves to death. I also made the mistake of only bringing one pair each of shoes and pants, which I nearly ruined attempting to navigate the slush-flooded Bostonian sidewalks Tuesday evening, leading to a fiasco in which I was, for at least a fleeting moment, sure I was going to die of hypothermia in an alley.
