Update From The Habitually Line-Crossing EOLIAN EMPIRE:
All The News Fit To Spit From Portland’s Outsider Collective
The punters can’t wait to get their dirty mitts on Ripper Killer, the first full-length LP from Portland scuzzcore outfit DRUNK DAD, due July 1st. Noisey premiered the (ahem) incendiary track “Light a Fire” with a long-form shit-talking interview (really, leave Stevie Nicks out of it!), and local rag Willamette Week just dropped a reasonably accurate profile on the self-described scumbags as a preview for their show this Friday with noise rock allies RABBITS and Montreal’s THE GREAT SABATINI at The Know in Portland. DRUNK DAD played to a capacity crowd at Stumpfest last month along with labelmates HONDURAN and DIESTO opening for Black Cobra and Yob, next month opens for Big Business and plays live in the studio on KEXP in Seattle, and is booking a full US tour with HONDURAN for September. Ripping, Killing.
Drums-synths-n-samples duo HOT VICTORY is home after a trip out to the East Coast and back, including a dozen shows with the mighty Floor, in support of their recently released and startlingly unique self-titled LP. Brooklyn Vegan premiered the track “Labyrinthos,” calling it “as tribal as it is cosmic and experimental, it pushes forward with a vibrant energy on the back of lively drumming loaded with ‘Aha!’ tricks and circular patterns that give it a hypnotic quality.” After their performance at Stumpfest Ghost Cult proclaimed, “If there is an alternate Tron-type universe built of neon and whirring things, HOT VICTORY would most certainly be worshipped there as Gods.” Indeed. A video for “Island Realm” is due out next month.
GRAVES AT SEA returned after a walloping Roadburn appearance and a tour of Europe with SOURVEIN, only to headed out to Maryland Deathfest last week. Their 12-inch EP, This Place Is Poison, is getting high marks from all over, with Metal Observer saying it’s “a seamless stitching of the band’s sound and evolution, hurling about big rocky riffs and occult-cloaked vapors in a more cohesive and sinister manner than ever before.” Word is the band is writing new tunes for that full-length album that the eager beavers are slapping their tails about.
PRIZEHOG, “taking the tribal thump of Neurosis and the woosh of space rock, filtering the result through the pitch-shifted everything of avant-pop” (Brooklyn Vegan), is in the midst of their full US tour in support of their platter of cosmic heaviness, Re-Unvent the Whool. The Boston Hassle said their “oppressively bodacious guitar/synth/drum attack crawls forth from a swirling, Lovecraftian muck of its own creation with a refreshing lack of self-seriousness, the heavily-processed vocals hinting at the occasional soaring melody buried below before bludgeoning you brainless with an avalanche of pure, glacial volume.” We like those odds. Catch these spacelords wherever you can. Sick photo spread of the band by John Mourlas is LIVE.
What else? TOWERS is banging away in their new cave, readying the unleashing of their next wave of apocalyptic dirges. REDNECK has been tirelessly recording and performing with DRUNK DAD while still making time to bludgeon passersby with his harsh reality. RABBITS is back in the game after some well-deserved downtime (i.e., being lazy), playing some local shows as they gear up for their new record Untoward due on another label (gasp!) this Summer and planning a return trip to Europe with ARABROT in the Fall. DIESTO played live at KEXP a few weeks ago and hits Crucial Fest next week. HONDURAN hits the US with DRUNK DAD late summer. BIG BLACK CLOUD demoed out songs for their next LP and is furiously playing shows all over town. The KEEP OUR HEADS compilation hit its one-year anniversary, and live recordings of the tape release show from last year, featuring 12 of the 26 bands on the comp, will be out soon. UNDERLORDS TAKE ACID, the “stupor group” featuring members and ex-members of RABBITS, FIST FITE, and DIESTO made a rare live appearance, bringing their crazy world of “Arthur Brown on meth” to the masses, and an ultra-limited vinyl of their record is slated for this summer. And news from some first wave Eolian bands: ORDER OF THE GASH is working on their “Library of Leng” series and dronemaster ACRE and wild grinders GONE TO CROATOAN are reactivating. An as-yet unnamed local heavy crew is heading into the studio soon to begin work on the next Eolian release.
Eolian Empire, in cooperation with local bookers, is also putting together a seven-show “Festicide” August 15th – 17th featuring twenty or more local bands at the best underground venues around town as an antidote to the indie rock waterfront snoozefest that dares to dub itself a “Northwest” event. (Well, technically it does occur in the NW, but that ain’t enough for us.) Cheap and free shows, two matinees (including an all-ages one), and no wrist band needed. The stellar lineup will be announced in the coming weeks.
That’s it for now, suckers.
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