Throttlerod – Turncoat
These Virginia veterans and Small Stone mainstays have just put out their first album in almost seven years. Turncoat is album number five from…
Small Stone
Miss Lava – Sonic Debris
This Portuguese stoner-rock outfit has actually been on my radar for quite some time, ever since they sent me a copy of their first…
Sasquatch – IV
By Gruesome Greg Album number four from these Small Stone stoner vets shows that they haven’t lost their grooves after all these years—12, to…
This Small Stone showcase is tonite! (It’s also in Boston…)
You gotta give it up for Small Stone, one of the few labels out there still specializing in stoner rock on these shores. Tonite, some of their finest wares are on display at the Radio club in Somerville, MA, with names like Gozu, Lo-Pan, Roadsaw and Freedom Hawk on the bill. Mind you, a last-minute flight from Toronto to Boston will set ya back about $620…
Back on the air — on the web, that is!
When CKLN went off the air, I had it in the back of my mind that I’d be willing to get back into online radio at some point. However, it had to be under the right set of circumstances. I was looking for a station that specialized in stoner/sludge/doom with an open timeslot before most people went to bed. Fortunately, I found it. The first episode of Gruesome Tunes airs tomorrow at 6 pm!
Dixie Witch – Let It Roll
For the most part, Dixie Witch straddles the line between southern and stadium rock, and while this album mostly hits the mark, there isn’t that much separating one song from the next. That said, Let It Roll doesn’t drag, at 36 minutes long, so you get your fill before it becomes too much to handle.
Freedom Hawk – Holding On
Holding On sounds like a big departure for these guys in the early going. Gone is the slow, lazy, southern/stoner vibe, replaced by uptempo tunes and high-pitched, nasal, Ozzy-wannabe singing.
Gideon Smith & the Dixie Damned – 30 Weight
Not quite what I expected, sort of a subpar Danzig I with a coupla country-fried tunes tacked on to the end.
Black Tusk – Passage through Purgatory
Questionable timing aside, this is a solid, albeit less-than-spectacular slice of Georgia sludge.
Lo-Pan – Sasquanaut
A heavy foursome from a college town (Columbus, OH) named after a character from a Kurt Russell movie (Big Trouble in Little China), Lo-Pan had been going on five years before they caught the ear of Small Stone Records, who have remastered and re-issued the band’s debut album.
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