NURSE WITH WOUND! Steven Stapleton discusses Huffin Rag’ Blues and female-fronted hip-hop!
PLUS: MELVINS! HARVEY MILK! MUDHONEY! TORCHE! GREY DATURAS! FREE KITTEN! WOODEN SHJIPS! ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB! RUNHILD GAMMELSAETER! UFOMAMMUT! MOSS! A STORM OF LIGHT! LABEL FOCUS: COLD SPRING!
Plus 100 releases reviewed, including all the latest albums, limited edition vinyl, CD-Rs, cassettes and tons more!
Plus live action: Merzbow, Dub Trio, Portishead, Today Is The Day, Animal Collective, Roadburn 2008, Triptych Stars Of The Lid, Pissed Jeans, A Place To Bury Strangers!!!
ONLY IN ROCK-A-ROLLA - THE FIRST AND LAST WORD IN MODERN MUSIC
Pittsburgh ‘math rock’ heroes Don Caballero have completed their latest full-length entitled Punkgasm. The band’s sixth studio album was recorded in spring at Rust Belt Studios in Michigan and will hit the stores in August via Relapse. The full tracklisting is as follows:
Sunn O))) are currently recording a brand new, as yet untitled full-length scheduled for release in early 2009. The band’s 7th studio album, following the Boris collaboration Altar, will see the core duo of Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson joined once again by Attila Csihar on vocals, as well as a myriad of guests including long-time collaborator Oren Ambarchi and Mr Bungle/Secret Chiefs 3 violinist/composer Eyvind Kang on horns and string section. The early word has it that the LP will once again see a change in direction for the drone outfit.
Meanwhile, this summer sees the release of Dømkirke, a double vinyl-only album recorded live at a
special performance in a cathedral in Bergen, Norway. The performance saw O’Malley, Anderson and Csihar joined by Steve Moore (Earth, Ascend, Stebmo), Lasse Marhaug (Jazzkammer), and keyboards from T.O.S. Each LP side contains one singular piece:
Side 1) Why Dost Thou Hide Thyself in Clouds?
Side 2) Cannon
Side 3) Cymatics
Side 4) Mass of the Ætmospheres
The 2xLP will be packaged in a “super deluxe gatefold jacket with printed inner-sleeves featuring stunning photographs of the performance”.
That’s right, we’re giving away a pair of tickets to one lucky person for the awesome Supersonic festival, courtesy of the fine folks at Capsule! Taking place in Birmingham, UK 11th-13th July 2008, the Rock-A-Rolla sponsored event will see a mouthwatering line-up of Battles, Harmonia, Merzbow, Keiji Haino, Harvey Milk, Earth, Gravetemple/Julian Cope, Asva, Dälek, Oxbow, Guapo, Thrones, Noxagt, Wooden Shjips and tons of other groundbreaking acts performing over three days. This is one of the best festivals, if not THE best festival, in the world right now so make sure you don’t miss it! For full festival details and tickets click on the festival banner to your right.
For a chance to win the pair of tickets, simply email us at info@rock-a-rolla.com with the answer to this extremely difficult question:
Where is Supersonic held? a) Custard Factory b) Blancmange Factory c) Charlie’s Chocolate Factory?
The winner will be notified by email. Competition closes 4th July.
Zach Hill, drummer for noise-rock outfit Hella, will release his debut solo album Astrological Straits on August 4 in Europe and August 12 in US via Ipecac. The two-disc record will feature a host of guests, including Les Claypool and Chino Moreno, as well as members of No Age, LCD Soundsystem and Hella’s Carson McWhirter and Josh Hill. The full tracklisting is as follows:
Disc 1:
1) Iambic Strays
02) Toll Road
03) Street People
04) Dark Art
05) Keep Calm and Carry On
06) Hindsight Is Nowhere
07) Ummer of Love
08) Stoic Logic
09) Uhuru
10) Momentum
11) Unseen Forces
12) Tick On
13) Astrological Straights
Asva will join Gravetemple, the SunnO))) offshoot featuring Stephen O’Malley, Attila Csihar, Oren Ambarchi and Matt ‘Skitz’ Sanders, for a special show at London’s ULU on July 10th. Both bands will likewise play the Rock-A-Rolla sponsored Supersonic festival, taking place in Custard Factory, Birmingham 11th-13th July.
Tickets are available from www.ticketweb.co.uk
Read the massive interview with Asva in the latest issue of Rock-A-Rolla! Click here
LIARS release their FREAK OUT EP this week and return to the UK for series of dates including a summer headline show at Koko on 17th June with support from Deerhunter. The band have previously had to pull out from a series of UK shows due to their US support slot for Radiohead, and have confirmed the following UK & Ireland dates:
17 JUNE - LONDON KOKO with Deerhunter
18 JUNE - LIVERPOOL THE KAZIMIER with Deerhunter
19 JUNE - MANCHESTER CLUB ACADEMY with Deerhunter
21 JUNE - DUBLIN ANDREWS LANE
22 JUNE - CORK CRANE LANE THEATRE
The Freak Out EP, a download only release, features the title track taken from their self-titled album on Mute, as well as a selection of videos. Full tracklisting is as follows:
1. FREAK OUT
2. CLEAR ISLAND LIVE
3. PLASTER CASTS OF EVERYTHING VIDEO (directed by Patrick Daughters)
4. HOUSE CLOUDS VIDEO (directed by Sonny Gerasimowicz)
5. LET’S NOT WRESTLE MT HEART ATTACK VIDEO (directed by Julian Gross)
6. WE FENCED OTHER GARDENS WITH THE BONES OF OUR OWN VIDEO (directed by Karen O)
Check out the video above for Plaster Casts Of Everything.
Italian avant-rock/jazz fusionists Zu are recording an album with Mike Patton on vocals. The trio have recently completed a short European tour with Patton and are planning to enter the studio for a full-length to be released by Ipecac. Speaking exclusively to Rock-A-Rolla, bassist Massimo Pupillo had this to say: “The plan is to have the next record on Ipecac, and [Patton] will be on some of the songs. We’ve done one song with the Melvins too.”
The full interview appears in the current issue of Rock-A-Rolla (#14) available to order here
Mike Patton and Melvins are set to curate this year’s Nightmare Before Christmas, ATP’s annual festival held in Minehead, UK in December. Previous years have seen the likes of Thurston Moore and Portishead invite their personal favourites to perform over three days. Sources close to Ipecac, the record label co-owned by Mike Patton and Greg Werckman, have confirmed that this is going ahead as planned. The details are still sketchy, however the line-up will no doubt lean heavily towards Ipecac’s roster and Patton’s numerous projects. We will bring you breaking news on the event as it happens, so watch this space!
