ULTRA INTERVIEW:

FRAZER JONES from DESERT PSYCHLIST

If you have checked out our links page, perhaps you have checked out the Desert Psychlist, written by Frazer Jones.  If you have, you realize that he does what I do, faster and better than I do.  Frazer's recommendations are sure bets, and I have been following his blog, as well as his bandcamp page, for years.  I have been so impressed by Frazer's ability to identify huge quantities of great music every month, that the thought finally occurred to me to ask him for an interview.  

He was gracious enough to accept, and here is the result:

Ultra: Frazer, as I have told you, I follow you on Bandcamp, and check in on your blog on a regular basis.  While I appreciate some of your recommendations more than others, not once have you recommended something that I disliked.  With the amount of music you buy and the volume of reviews that you produce, I find myself amazed at how you manage to keep up with it all.  First of all, how do you manage to find out about all these relatively obscure but great bands? 

Frazer: Well thanks for following me on Bandcamp and checking out my blog Mike, you’ve sort of answered, in part, your own question as I also follow others on Bandcamp as well as using its excellent feed option to see what others are listening to and buying. My main source of discovery however is from a Facebook page I am a member of called Hard Rock Revolution (https://www.facebook.com/groups/HardRockRevolution/ ) which is a cabal of like minded people from around the globe constantly sharing their discoveries, many of whom are also bloggers, podcasters etc. Of course, as Desert Psychlist has grown I’ve also managed to attract the attention of a number of record companies and PR firms who send me a steady stream of promos and newsletters.

Ultra: How much time are you able to make for listening to new music in your average week?

Frazer: I’m very lucky in that I have a day job that allows me to have most of the early afternoons and evenings free to listen to music and write my reviews. My children have all grown up and left home and my wife works the weirdest hours as a health career so I’m often home alone, just me, the dog and my music.

Ultra: How many listens do you usually give to an album before posting a review?

Frazer: Good question. I usually give an album a spin from start to finish to decide whether it’s just something that appeals to me or is something that might appeal to a wider fan base. If I think it's something worthy of a Desert Psychlist review I will then play it while I’m writing my review, constantly re-playing tracks, trying to catch those little nuances and hooks so I can best describe them to a reader and give him/her a feel of what I’m hearing.

Ultra: When you are listening to new music, are you multitasking, or just totally immersed in the music?

Frazer: Usually, and I say usually as its not always the case, I try to give a release my full attention relaxing with my feet up, eyes closed, headphones on. Life often has a tendency to get in the way so that approach is not always practical, on those occasions I try to get a feel of an album while dealing with something else hoping that I can find some free time to go back and re-evaluate later.

Ultra: The mark of a truly great album, I think, is when you are still listening to it years later.  How often are you still listening to an album that you reviewed a year later?

Frazer: All the time, I don’t believe in hearing something then moving on to the next thing, I go back and listen to albums from 70’s, the 80’s and even last week on a regular basis. As I reply to this question Elder’s “Lore” is playing in the background!

Ultra: What were some of the first rock bands you were ever into?

Frazer: Oh an easy question! All the usual suspects, Sabbath, Zeppelin and Purple etc. along with many (then) lesser known 70’s bands such as Stray , Pink Fairies and Sir Lord Baltimore. I’ve always seemed to have a thing about finding gems buried among the coals of the rock underground. Got a give a big shout to Rory Gallagher too, he was/is one of my all-time heroes.

Ultra: How about a few of the best concerts you’ve ever seen?

Frazer: So many, in my youth I was a regular attendee at London’s famous Marquee so saw many bands who are now legends strutting their stuff at the start of their careers but I suppose Black Sabbath at the East Ham Granada in 1973 ranks highest, they were at the height of their powers and just slayed that night. If though you want something a little nearer to the present then a filthy, rainy Sunday night in North London was made so much better by a blistering performance from Greece’s Planet of Zeus, phenomenal live band.

Ultra: What are a few of the albums you’ve probably played the most in your lifetime?

Frazer: Deep Purple’s “Made In Japan” is never far from the turntable nor is The Allman Brothers “ At Filmore East”, Egypt’s first EP and Elder’s “Lore” are also  releases fast moving to catch up

Ultra: Can you give me a few of your favorite album covers of all time?

Anything with Roger Dean artwork is always going to get my attention especially Yes’s “Close To The Edge” and the cover to The Clash’s “London Calling” is just so iconic but everything pales into insignificance against the artwork gracing Bell Witch’s latest release “Mirror Reaper”, stunning!

Ultra:  You are from England, aren't you?

Frazer: Yes, you're correct. I was born in the East End of London although I now live on a little island in Essex, England that juts out into the Thames River called Canvey Island.

Ultra: Are you willing to give me a top ten albums of 2017 list?  I am so curious to see if we have any of the same picks.  (Several of mine I came to know about through you)

Frazer: Checking out my Desert Psychlist best of 2017 will give you not only my top ten but also another twenty …  http://stonerking1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/desert-psychlists-best-of-2017.html

Ultra: Some of the bands I am most anxious to hear something new from would be Salem’s Bend and Rainbows Are Free.  What are a few bands whose next releases you are most anxious to hear?

Frazer: I’m looking forward to hearing where UK’s Cybernetic Witch Cult may take us next as I love what they do and there is a band called Sun of Grey who released a fantastic two song EP last year, I’m very interested to see how they progress.

Ultra: Finally, I am curious to hear how you feel about the label “Stoner Rock”.  I think it’s relatively easy to determine whether music deserves this tag, yet it’s really tricky to define the category.  It seems pretty safe to say that being called stoner rock entails being heavily influenced by rock from the 1970’s, including everything from mellow trippy rock to super heavy.  But I also think that relative obscurity seems to be a requirement as well.  For example, it seems to me that a band like Alice In Chains would be called stoner rock if they weren’t well known, but because of their huge success are never given the stoner rock tag.  Another thing that’s tricky about the stoner rock label is that the stereotype of a stoner is someone with little energy who can barely keep their eyes open, while so much of stoner rock is aggressive and energetic.  How do you feel about this analysis, and what insight do you have to offer on the subject?

Frazer: Stoner (or desert rock) was once associated with a certain sound and a certain lifestyle but I see “stoner rock” now as a catch all term for a variety of grooves that fall just outside of the rock mainstream, a sort of umbrella term under which doom, sludge and hard edged rock all reside. The druggy weed smoking connotations that were often associated with the term are slowly being swept away and we are seeing many of those band once classed as “stoner” branching out and experimenting with elements from other musical sources. Personally, it's all about the music and not the classification, if you dig it you dig it, if you don’t then move on.

Ultra: Frazer, I am honored that you have taken the time to share your thoughts and experiences with me, and grateful for all the great music you have introduced me to over the last few years.  I wish you all the best in 2018, and look forward to your next update.

Frazer: Thank you, Mike it’s been a blast,!

Once again, thanks to Frazer for taking the time to answer my questions.  Respect for seeing Sabbath in 1973.  Embarrassed I had missed Frazer's best of 2017 list, but glad I have seen it now.  Got a couple of reviews brewing, will have at least one to post next weekend.  If you need some good tips in the meantime, now you know where to look.  
Until next time!!

-ULTRA

ULTRA INTERVIEW:

Dmitri and John from SKUNK!!

 

My top three albums from 2017 were all their respective artists' first full-length albums, and at the top of my list sat Skunk's mind-blowing "Doubleblind", an old-school hard rock tour de force.  One of my favorite releases of the decade so far, never mind the year.  Needless to say, I was extremely excited to score an interview with a couple of these guys:  Dimitri (guitar) and John (vocals).  Here is how it went down:

First of all, thanks for taking the time to answer some questions.  I found your album “Doubleblind” two days after it was released, through a Bandcamp e-mail.  I was tired and planning to go to bed, and told myself I’d just click on a tune to see if I would want to check it out the next day.  As soon as I heard “Forest Nymph” I had to hear the whole album, and stayed up to post a review, knowing in my heart that Doubleblind would end up as my pick for #1 album of the year.  Every few weeks it still makes its way into my commuting playlist; I haven’t gotten tired of any of the tunes yet.  It feels like you all must have had the same favorite songs as me growing up.

Along those lines, I am curious if you remember what was the first rock album you ever bought?

Dmitri: Thanks for diggin our tunes! Yeah, I remember my first album clearly. My dad had store credit at the local record shop. He told me I could pick whatever I wanted. I looked around and saw Kiss “Destroyer” (which had just come out). I remember that I couldn’t even say anything, I just pointed at it! That was 3rd grade. I was a Kiss fanatic until I discovered Rush a few years later.

John: When I was probably 9, I bought a Beach Boys album (probably Best Of) with my own money. I listened to it constantly and fell in love with their harmonies.  A little later in life, at probably age 14, I remember buying the cassette of Ramones Mania and played it for literally years and years, until all the words faded off. They both seem like important album purchases in my life.

How about the first band you were ever in?  Assuming you started with cover tunes, what tunes did you play?

Dmitri: I was in a band that played psychedelic lounge music. I had only been playing guitar for a year or so, so I pretty much learned on the job.

John: By mid highschool I was a lover of all things rock, southern rock and metal. I remember playing AC/DC, Lynyrd Skynard and Tom Petty songs a lot early on.  But then later on, basically all bands I was ever in after high school were all original. 

What was your first concert, and how old were you?

Dmitri: Rush “Grace Under Pressure Tour” mid-80s. I didn’t see any other arena concerts because I got into punk right after that and spent high school going to run down VFW halls in Detroit to see Black Flag and such.

John: Rolling Stones, Steel Wheels Tour was my first real stadium concert. 17 years old. 

 What is the best concert you’ve ever been at?

Dmitri: Butthole Surfers, Ornette Coleman, Fela, Hermeto Pascoal, The Romantics (really!).

John: Motorhead, Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, Willy Nelson, Tool, Rage Against The Machine.. so many to name

If for some reason you could only listen to five albums for the next six months, which five would you pick?

Dmitri: Impossible! But “Monk’s Dream” and Captain Beefheart’s “Clear Spot” would probably be on the list.

(I love the fact that I got called out on the impossibility of this situation)

John: Ramones (First Album), Lynyrd Skynyrd (Second Helping), ACDC (Highway To Hell), Stanley Brothers (The Complete Columbia Collection), Vern Williams (Bluegrass From the Gold Country). The last two are bluegrass albums. Besides a rock and metal lover, I'm kind of a bluegrass and old country freak.

I grew up in a time when rock music was king of popular music.  If you went to a traveling carnival, a roller skating rink, or were near somebody with a radio at the beach, you would hear rock music being played, and most likely hard rock.  Times have changed in this regard, yet I feel like rock music today is the best it’s ever been if you know where to look (not on the radio).  Quite possibly due to a decrease in the profitability of playing rock, the bands that still dedicate themselves to this art today are the ones that are most sincere.  What are your thoughts on rock of today versus years past?

Dmitri: I agree that it’s a labor of love. I’m not sure if the music better now, I mean, how can you compare anyone to Sabbath, Zeppelin, Hendrix, etc? Current musicians have the luxury of looking back over six decades of rock music and learning from the masters. There are definitely a ton of cool bands and great players, but it’s all built on the foundation of the originators.

John: I think there are always really great bands out there, no matter what decade you're in. If you're lucky they stick around for a while.  Doom metal, sledge, stoner rock.. all are brimming and boiling over with great bands every where you look. It's definitely a great time for heavy music right now.

Any music you are currently listening to that you’d like to recommend to our readers?

Dmitri: I try to check the new bands I hear about, but when it comes to rock I mainly listen to the old stuff. I can never get enough Sir Lord Baltimore!  The Bay Area is blessed with a lot of cool bands that I dig; War Cloud, Zed, Blackwulf, Older Sun, Banquet. Our buddies from Chicago, Thee Arthur Layne, rock somethin’ fierce. Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell is great. The guy who runs Mothervan Records in Sweden has a cool band called Burning Saviours. Mothervan released the vinyl edition of our album, Doubleblind.

 I love the art you have on your Facebook page.  I noted in my original review of Doubleblind that you’ve got a spin-off of a black light poster of a chopper that I had on my bedroom wall growing up, and I love it.  I also love the Skunk logo with the cow bell, and of course the Doubleblind album art.  I see these are done by you Dimitri, and have to point out that your talent for art is as elite as your talent for music.  Have there been any albums you’ve ever bought, just because you were attracted to the album art?

Dmitri: Thanks! I’m a graphic designer for a living. I can definitely get hooked in by album art or book covers. I bought my first Mastodon album because of Skinner’s insane artwork. Just this week I bought a cd of heavy sludge doom just because of the cover (Dismal Planet by Coffin Torture). I usually don’t listen to that kind of thing, but the cover hooked me and it’s awesome!

What are some of your favorite album covers of all time?

Dmitri: Houses of the Holy is a favorite, Motorhead’s first album, the red Grand Funk, first album by Toad. I like the trippy ones too, Roger Dean and such. There are a lot of great designers and artists working now, and it’s nice to see these cool designs that get past the typical cliches of a succubus holding a skull. The Elder albums all been amazing artwork. Clouds Taste Satanic have great design. Adam Burke’s work is epic. Really, there are tons of great covers in the underground rock scene. Even the cliches are usually cool as hell!

Well because of your art, when the day ever comes that you play in Massachusetts, I’m buying the ticket and the t-shirt.

Thanks again for the interview.  I can’t wait to hear the next Skunk album, and wish you the all the best in 2018.

Dmitri: We’ve been putting the finishing touches on our new material and we’re planning to start laying down tracks for the next album this spring. 

Many thanks to Dmitri and John, and I can't wait to hear what comes next.  If you have not given Skunk a listen, do yourself a favor and click on any track you see here.  If you like 1970's style hard rock, you will most likely feel the need to own this gem of an album.  

PS: Dimitri, I have to thank you for the Thee Arthur Layne referral: great music!  Also, Hermeto Pascoal is fascinating.  John, Tool is on my best concerts list too;  They are truly special live.

That's all for now, catch you next weekend, if not sooner.  Until then, stay heavy

-ULTRA

ULTRA INTERVIEW:

Ed, Rich and Chris from SPACELORD!!

Spacelord was one of the best surprises of 2017 for me, and made both my top ten rock tunes and my top ten stoner rock albums lists.  I will be listening to both their 2017 releases for years to come, and was  beside myself when they agreed to an interview.  Here's how it went down:

I am psyched to be able to interview you. I found your album after getting an e-mail that several listeners I follow on Bandcamp had bought it. For me, “Spacelord” let my attention drift away but then slowly and subtly sucked me in, and before I knew it I had listened to the whole album twice. I purchased it that night, and as I commented on your Bandcamp page, I expect to still be playing this one a decade from now.

Your music seems to blend influences from the seventies, eighties and nineties in a really natural way. I am totally curious: What bands you feel have influenced you the most over the years?

Ed: There are some obvious ones, Zeppelin, Sabbath, but everyone's influenced by them. Writing and recording the songs on the EP and the album (they were all done together, just released separately) was definitely a process of figuring out what kind of band we were going to be. We had no preconceived idea. We could have easily gone in a more roots rock direction. For these songs, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and Tool were major influences that are pretty obvious, I think. And The Sword is a big deal for me, because they made me realize it was cool to write about wizards and starships and shit like that. I've always loved that stuff, but there was definitely a period where to make music about that felt a little cheesy to me. So I remember the first time I heard "Barael's Blade" it kind of opened up my mind, to just write about what you're into and love what you love.

Rich: Ed identified the ones that are universal to the four of us. After that, it comes down to whatever influenced the individuals. I don’t even know if I could put my finger on a single artist beyond those already mentioned. I dip pretty much into every genre, myself. Hendrix is a big one for me. I dig anything Clarence White has done.

Chris: Influences can be tough to nail down for me because I grew up listening to such a huge variety of music. Rich really brings most of the song ideas to the table and as the bass player I try to support the riffs and grooves in a way that lends power in a band that only has guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. I want to beef up what the guitar is doing by doubling it and at times add a second voice, but not so much that loses the punch. The 70's bands Ed mentioned really made the blueprint for that sound and to me the 90's bands we sound similar to are just what rock would have sounded like if you'd skipped over all of the terrible stuff that happened in the 80's. So as far as influences it's not one particular band but just hearing that way of making music and understanding that doing things that way is going to make the song ideas come together in the best way to our ears. We're not ever trying to sound like anything in particular.

Ed: We eventually came around to the idea that whatever songs we were into writing and recording, that's what we sound like. That we define ourselves by what we do. So something as different as "Old Road" is just as much of a Spacelord song as "Warlike." We do kind of like the idea of being influenced as much by the 70s as by the 90s.

As far as who has influenced me, personally, over the years, it would be a list of hundreds. You take a little something from everything you're exposed to. Steve Marriott, Paul Rodgers, Chris Cornell, Chris Robinson, Steven Tyler are some of my biggest vocal influences. And a ton of women rock singers, Jill Janus from Huntress, Diamanda Galas, Pink. I could go on forever, because I'm kind of fascinated by figuring out where things come from and where we get our ideas. I get a lot of melodic sense from Geddy Lee's singing, for instance. But a million other places too.

Here are some questions I love to ask when I get to interview a band I love:

If you remember, what was the first rock album you ever bought?

Ed: When I was 8 I got Van Halen's "1984" on cassette and wore it out. But I also remember when The Black Crowes' "Shake Your Money Maker" came out and it was the first album I really connected with. My mom drove me to the mall to buy it (on cassette, of course). I was a massive Crowes fan for a long time.

Chris: The first album I bought was Iron Maiden's Live After Death. Way before that though, I got Live Dead by the Grateful Dead. I had no idea who they were, it was like a dollar at a garage sale or something and I thought it was going to be a heavy band. Why else would the word "dead" be in the name? Needless to say that was a disappointment.

Rich: I can’t remember which one I bought. I used to have a little record player and I remember somehow having a copy of Back In Black on vinyl and also a K-Tel album with some Kiss songs on it. Actually, a Kiss album was likely what I bought first. I was really, really young when I was bitten by the music bug.

How about your first concert, and what was the best concert you ever attended?

Rich: First concert? Impossible to remember. I grew up pretty poor, but we went out to shows and concerts frequently. Not just rock and roll, but classical and I even remember going to an Engelbert Humperdinck concert as a kid.

I saw King Crimson open for John Paul Jones when they came to UB. That was pretty cool. But, frankly, I think the best concerts are the ones I’ve never been to live, but watched on video. I love watching concert videos.

Ed: I saw Crimson and JPJ on that tour too, in Kansas City. What a show. Robert Fripp came out and handed out apples to everyone waiting in line to get in before the show! First concert was The Bangles. Yes! "Walk Like an Egyptian" and "Manic Monday." Best was Pearl Jam in Montreal around 1997 or 1998. The show was sold out but my friend heard on the radio they were releasing some more tickets the day of the show, so we scored some and drove up. They were side of the stage seats, which actually ended up being an amazing view. I can't really explain all of what went into making that my best ever concert. On objective observer would probably say it was a fairly average Pearl Jam show of that era, but for me it was really special. A close second was seeing The Black Crowes by myself at the Further Festival during a thunderstorm.

Chris: My first concert was Cheap Trick. I wasn't a huge fan but I went with some friends who had tickets. As far as walking into the whole big rock show thing for the first time, that was pretty mind altering. My favorite "concert" was seeing a band called Lightning Bolt at a club here in Buffalo. There was a stage but they set up on the floor instead, in front of a literal wall of speaker enclosures they had brought. In the crowd, you were getting just annihilated by the volume and they were right there, you had to work against the crowd surge to keep from falling into the drum kit.

If you could only listen to five albums for the next six months, which albums would you choose?

Rich: Led Zeppelin – How the West Was Won; Jimi Hendrix – Winterland; Tool – Lateralus; Pink Floyd – Ummagumma; Nashville West – Nashville West.

Chris: Frank Zappa- One Size Fits All, Meshuggah- The Violent Sleep of Reason, Jimi Hendrix- Axis Bold As Love, Rage Against the Machine- Battle of Los Angeles

Ed: I always cheat and start with double albums so I get more bang for my buck. So Physical Graffiti, Exile on Main St, Eat a Peach. And then The Sword's Warp Riders and Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger. I hope whoever's stuck on this desert island with me enjoys hearing me sing along with "Jesus Christ Pose."

Any music you’re listening to currently that you’d like to recommend to us?

Chris: Not to sound cagey but it's hard to choose. There are 3 or 4 stoner/doom/heavy psych/fuzz Youtube channels that I follow and there is such a level of consistency there. I might listen to 3 or 4 albums from bands I've never heard before between Friday and Saturday every week, and they're all killer. Other than that, go listen to the new Meshuggah hahaha.

Ed: I just discovered Windhand a little while ago and have just been listening to them non-stop. The new Butcher Babies album is pretty wild, too. And I bought the entire Ruby the Hatchet discography the other night because, yeah.

This is sort of an oddball question, but every now and then I hear some similarities to Diamondhead in your music. Is this a band any of you ever listened to?

Ed: This is going to make me sound massively lame but as I write this I've never heard a Diamondhead song. I'll go check them out immediately and rectify this situation.

Chris: I checked out Diamondhead way back when I read they had influenced Metallica, but I was obsessively into a couple other bands at the time so I didn't dwell on them.

It seems that you are a brand new band, but your music is too good for you to be new to this. What bands have you played in prior to Spacelord?

Rich: I’ve been in bands for too long to admit. I played in Austin, Texas for three years, mostly as a keyboardist then. I had a band in the early 2000s called “Leopold Bloom” that this band has some relation to. We do a couple of songs from that band.

Ed: We've all kicked around in various bands. I was the drummer for The Transonics a few years back. I was the singer of a U2 tribute band for a little while. Seriously. Chris is in another band at the moment, but I'll let him decide if he wants to tell you about that.

Chris: I've been playing in various local bands forever. I had actually jammed a few years ago with Rich and a random drummer for a couple months in a thing that went nowhere. The thing Ed is referring to is an Iron Maiden tribute I play out with a couple times a year. Coincidentally at one point years ago that band was looking for a vocalist and Ed came down to check it out. So it was funny, when the band that is now Spacelord was looking for a bass player I responded to this random ad not knowing who anyone was. I got an email: "Hey Chris, it"s Rich!" Which was a good sign. Then I come to the audition and there's Ed.

How long were you at work on “New Horrible Menace” and “Spacelord” before releasing them in 2017?

Chris: I guess by the time I got on board the bones of most of the songs were there. It didn't take a huge amount of time to finish writing and making things tight, a couple months I guess. Rich was really responsible for recording and mixing so he'd know most specifically. The recordings were done before we'd really even had any contact with the outside world as a band, so we actually sat on them for quite a long time. Until we'd done at least SOME things that put the name out there.

Rich: As mentioned, a couple of the songs go back to early 2000s. There might even be something among that material that I had since Austin…I’d have to meditate on that. Most of the material is based on stuff I had kicking around the past five years or so. Some of it was after we all got together. The lyrics are all fresh, though. I can write lyrics, but I prefer it when the vocalist writes their own, and Ed prefers to write his own, so that works out. Chris and Kevin put their own thing to the material, so, depending on how you look at it, it’s decades in the making or six months.

I LOVE both album covers. Are they both by Andy Belanger?

Ed: The New Horrible Menace cover is a piece by Lloyd Rognan, first published in Imaginative Tales magazine, and currently in the public domain.

What are some of your favorite rock album covers?

Rich: 70s Kiss albums look great. Pretty much every Led Zeppelin cover was artful. Queen – News of the World is a memorable cover. Big Brother and the Holding Company – Cheap Thrills, I have that one hanging on my wall. Love the Robert Crumb art. There’s a lot of great album covers out there.

Chris: I was a huge Iron Maiden fan growing up and of course those covers are pretty iconic. I have to bring it back to the current stoner/doom/heavy psych/etc scene. The bands are really showing up in terms of album art. It's one great cover after another. There's a real emphasis on vinyl there too so good art is really important.

Ed: There's a comic book artist named Becky Cloonan who's been doing a ton of stoner and doom album covers the last few years, and her work is just incredible all the time. My dream is to get her to do a Spacelord cover. That's basically my benchmark for success in Spacelord. If we can get a Cloonan cover I'll die happy.

I don’t think they grew up in Buffalo, but I believe “The Midnight Ghost Train” band formed in Buffalo. Have you ever run into those guys in any Buffalo clubs?

Rich: Not that I am aware.

Chris: Ha, I am terrible with these things. I'm super anti-social. Whenever someone starts asking about if I know a band or a local musician I always cut them off mid sentence, throw up my hands and say, "I don't know anyone!" I'm the worst.

What other great Buffalo rock bands should I be investigating?

Ed: There's this band called The Scarecrow Show that we've played with a few times that just bring a ton of energy to their shows. And they're kids, like we could literally be their dads. But they rock their asses off. I also really like Stone Priest -- they have a keyboard player, which only adds to the doomy vibe on stage. That dude is like the Garth Hudson of doom.

Rich: I like Handsome Jack.

Only if anyone’s a Bills fan: Do you think Tyrod Taylor is a good quarterback who just needs a better offensive coordinator, or do you dislike him as a quarterback?

Rich: He’s a nice guy, but he’s not getting you past the first round of the playoffs if he can get you into them. I don’t think he makes reads quick enough.

I am truly grateful to have been able to interview you, and grateful for one of the best albums and one of the best Eps of 2017. I am going to do my best to spread the word about Spacelord, and wish you all the best in 2018. Can’t wait for the next album.

Ed: Thanks man, we're hard at work on it right now. We've also been getting a lot of people asking about a vinyl release, and hopefully we can connect with a label this year to help make that happen.

Chris: Thanks!

Rich: Thanks! That means a lot to us.

I urge you to check out "Spacelord" and "New Horrible Menace", and if you like what you hear I hope you'll encourage these guys by purchasing these classics, for a dollar per tune.  There's not a single one I don't love.  As Ed mentioned, the variety of styles their music represents is in part what defines Spacelord.  And an extra thanks to Ed and Rich for their Buffalo music recommendations; I am liking all three.

Back next weekend!   -ULTRA

ULTRA INTERVIEW:

THE WELL!!

Lisa Alley (bass & vocals), Ian Graham (guitar & vocals) and Jason Sullivan (drums) of  heavy psych heavyweights The Well were kind enough to put quality time into answering some questions for me this week, and here's how it went down:

Ultra: First of all, I want to say how much I appreciate the Bandcamp site and interface.  I find listeners who like the same bands as me, follow them, and get e-mails when they buy new stuff.  Then I find bands like The Well, who simply blew me away with your inspired songwriting, distinctive harmonizations and truly unique sound.  The three of you are so tasteful in what you play, to an extent that my words can’t possibly convey.  

Ultra: The cover art is striking.  I see in my CD jacket that the artist is Adam Hunter Caldwell.  How did you come to find him, and what meaning does the album art have for you?

Lisa: The art is sourced similarly to how you discovered our band, actually, through social media. Our label, Riding Easy Records, found both Adam Hunter Caldwell’s painting and the art for Samsara (by Abbey Watkins) via instagram. The art gives an element of mystery with the title, Pagan Science, juxtaposed with such an image. There’s an obvious religious connotation with the halo, but a mask, a plastic film, distorting it, leaving room for ambiguity. 

Ultra: Where was the sound clip “Forecast” about Pagan Science/Pagan Technology taken from? 

Ian: That was Dr. Timothy Leary speaking in a lecture that I happened upon online. It was regarding unpopular and persecuted ideas and/or sciences that was akin to what happened during the crusades, when knowledge was pushed back by pious moralism - which to a certain degree this is still happening. Illegal ideas. 

Ultra: Do any of you practice paganism?

Ian: I respect ritual in various forms. I have practiced paganism and/or witchcraft, in my younger years, which definitely left a lasting impact on my personality. I now consider myself an agnostics agnostic, because I barely believe the bullshit that goes on in my head, let alone other peoples, so it’s hard to subscribe to any particular sect. Though, I do value meditation. 

Ultra: You clearly put more thought into your lyrics than almost everybody.  Who writes most of the lyrics, and were you considered a good writer in school?  

Ian: I do. Was I a good writer in school? I used to write a lot of poetry when I was a kid and I’d give it to girls and they seemed to like it. But I dropped out of school in 9th grade. Didn’t stop reading though! 

Ultra: I have to know:  What were some of the first rock bands you ever listened to, and how have your tastes evolved to the current day?

Ian: My dad was a metal drummer, so I don’t remember not listening to metal in the 80s. My first favorite band was Twisted Sister, and Black Sabbath… Motley Crue… normal boiler plate metal stuff. Then I got into punk rock and decided everything else sucked. Except Sabbath… Sabbath was the only constant. 

Jason: My first rock bands were sourced from my dad too - Pink Floyd, Sabbath. My tastes have fluctuated over the years, but I find myself returning to the staples through my youth… right now I’m listening to a lot of Type O Negative. 

 Lisa: Yeah, my firsts were similar… Pink Floyd especially. While I’ll always stay there, I’ve also found myself in recent years going beyond what I knew as a kid, mainly geographically. I’ve been into a lot of international blues and psych… Ali Farka Toure, Erkin Koray, Tinariwen… 

Ultra: What was the first rock concert you ever saw, and what was the best one you’ve ever been to?

Jason: First was Korn and Stained. Ha! 

Ian: I’m going to show how old I am here. My first was Great White, Tesla, and Badlands at the state fair in Ducoin, IL. Granted, I was nine years old. 

Lisa: Mine kinda dates me as well. My first rock show was the Strokes at the old, still grimy, Austin Music Hall.

Jason: Best I ever saw was Gogol Bordello on my birthday; they let me backstage and I got to hang out with Eugene.

Ian: Seeing Nirvana on the day Frank Zappa died was probably the best show I’ve ever seen. They were doing acoustic Frank Zappa covers and they played for around 2 1/2 hours. Shonen Knife and the Breeders opened for them. It was insane. 

Lisa: I think my favorite show was seeing Om a few years ago at Rubber Gloves in Denton. They turned down the lights to where the small room was pitch black and the packed in crowd was silent, reverent, for their whole set. It was a very communal, almost spiritual experience. 

Ultra: Lisa, how old were you when you first played bass?

 Lisa: Ha! Well, I was 22 years old. It was just before we started The Well. Ian had been kicked out of his previous band for being, “reclusive and despondent.” I got him whiskey drunk to try to lift his spirits. After many hours of consolation, he had the grand idea that we just start our own band. It started that night with me on bass and him on guitar. I’d played guitar before, but that was the first time with the bass and it was a seamless transition. 

Ultra: Playing in a rock band is far more common for males than females.  I am curious as to whether playing rock made you more popular with your girlfriends or distanced you from them and caused you to have more male friends.   

Lisa: I think if you commit yourself to anything, it’s inevitable that some friendships will suffer. So yeah, when we began The Well and realized quickly that this wasn’t just going to be some weekend hobby, I was slightly distanced from my female friendships that had since held a large placeholder in my social life. I’d definitely say that I’ve made closer friendships with a lot of guys as a result of the band, particularly through tour, since you’re essentially thrown together with likeminded people who have similarly forsaken the straight life for their art. I’ve also met a lot of badass women through the band - other musicians, artists, promoters, and fans. They might not be as frequent, but when I do come across women in the industry, there is almost always an instant connection, a camaraderie. 

Ultra: If the only thing you could listen to this week was a playlist of five albums, what albums would you pick?

Ian: Acid King, Busse Woods; Burning Spear, Garvey’s Ghost; Celtic Frost, To Mega Therion; Butthole Surfers, Independent Worm Saloon; and any random Grateful Dead bootleg from the late 70s 

Lisa: Erkin Koray, Elektronik Turkuler; Tinariwen, Emmaar; Om, Adviatic Songs; Neil Young, After the Gold Rush; Flying Burrito Brothers, The Gilded Palace of Sin 

 Jason: B.R.M.C, Howl; Pink Floyd, Saucer Full of Secrets;  White Stripes, White Blood Cells; Wu Tang Clan, Enter the Wu Tang; Flaming Lips, In a Priest Driven Ambulance

Ultra: Are you able to make The Well your full time job, or do the three of you have side jobs as well?

Ian: Side jobs, fuck. I work at one of the worlds largest video rental stores, I luv Video. I’m basically a librarian. 

Lisa: Yeah, I work as a barista and pick up at Waterloo Records here and there. 

 Jason: I’m a cook at a local Austin restaurant. We’re ready for The Well to be full time though!

Ultra:Do any of you have children, and if so, do they enjoy listening to you play?

Dogs? 

Ultra:Will you be touring in Massachusetts or Rhode Island any time this year?

 Not specifically, but we’re playing Maryland Doom Fest and around New England in June. 

Ultra: I consider it an honor to have gotten to interview one of my new favorite bands, and I appreciate you taking the time for this.  I am guessing it will take a couple of years, but can’t wait to hear your next album when the day comes.  I am going to do my best to spread the word about The Well in the meantime.  I wish you the best of luck and lots of success in 2017.    

The Well gave me my a great interview, and their sincerity shows just as much in their responses as it does in their music.  If you have not done so, check out The Well here.  If you have appreciated any of my recommendations over the years, understand that this band is in the stratosphere of my recommendations to you, and I am confident if you give Samsara and Pagan Science a listen, you will want to own them just like I did.  Thanks for reading, catch you next weekend with something new.  

-ULTRA