BOTCH ANNOUNCES MORE US TOUR DATES - 2023 Tickets on sale FRIDAY, February 17th 10AM Local time of each city. All show links: linktr.ee/botchband
BOTCH LIVE 2023 5 Oct Portland, OR - Revolution Hall 6 Oct Portland, OR - Revolution Hall 7 Oct Portland, OR - Revolution Hall 13 Oct Chicago, IL - Metro 14 Oct Chicago, IL - Metro 19 Oct Austin, TX - Emo’s 21 Oct Denver, CO - Summit Musichall 11 Nov New York, NY - Webster Hall 14 Nov Baltimore, MD - Soundstage 15 Nov Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer 17 Nov Boston, MA - Roadrunner 8 Dec Los Angeles, CA - Fonda 9 Dec Santa Ana, CA - Observatory 12 Dec San Francisco, CA - The Regency
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Four didn’t seem like enough and six seemed like too many and so five it was. Specifically, The Live Five, a place in WONGDOODY space where we drag in figures of note and blast them with five questions about creativity. In the hopes that if you look at something long enough it might change how you understand it. For the better.
There’s a magical thing that happens some times when your awareness of something lines up just so with that something becoming everyone is suddenly aware of. Not sure how the juju really works but Chelsea Wolfe’s been weaving it. Repo Man style — “[Y]ou’re thinkin’ about a plate o’ shrimp. Suddenly someone’ll say, like, plate, or shrimp, or plate o’ shrimp out of the blue, no explanation….It’s all part of a cosmic unconsciousness.” — Wolfe, from a small town in Northern California is now, officially, everywhere.
Records, festivals, fashion designs, film scores and collaborations with a bevy of fellow travelers has Wolfe in that cool cool-lady space and even better than that: it all sounds/looks/feels…great. Well thought out, carefully constructed and with an eye toward perfectly plumbing her soul to make magic for whoever has the ears to hear or the eyes to see.
Do we have a creative crush on Wolfe? How could we absolutely not?
So having her in on The Live Five is the best kind of delightful. You have been warned.
Chelsea Wolfe and Emma Ruth Rundle New Zealand & Australia tour. The Auckland show has just moved to a bigger venue. Tickets are selling fast: chelseawolfe.net
JUN 09 Wellington, NZ @ San Fran JUN 10 Auckland, NZ @ Powerstation JUN 12 Brisbane, AU @ The Triffid JUN 13 Adelaide, AU @ The Gov JUN 14 Perth, AU @ Rosemount Hotel JUN 17 Sydney, AU @ Manning Bar JUN 18 Melbourne, AU @ ( SOLD OUT ) JUN 19 Melbourne, AU @ Max Watts JUN 20 Hobart, TZ @ Dark Mofo
Seattle three-piece Helms Alee has announced a new album Keep This Be The Way available April 29th via Sargent House. Across the span of their first five studio albums, the trio zeroed in on different aspects of their sound - a blend of lilting siren songs, crushing Northwest thunder and sludge, angular econo-rock, and heady guitar pop
while retaining their no-frills, meat-and-potatoes approach in the studio. But with this Helms Alee have expanded their palette by delving into the production possibilities afforded by recording the album themselves, creating their most dynamic and technicolored work to date. This new approach is immediately evident on first single and album opener “See Sights Smell Smells,” where reverse cymbal crashes, fragmented piano, layered drums, woozy drones, saxophone freak-outs, and trippy vocal treatments transport the listener to an altered state of exhilarated anticipation. The song is accompanied by a video created by Allen Watke whose video art consists primarily of analog equipment with an emphasis on VHS dubbing, glitching & manipulation.
When the pandemic hit, guitarist/vocalist Ben Verellen, bassist/vocalist Dana James, and drummer/vocalist Hozoji Matheson-Margullis found refuge in their music and bunkered down in a makeshift studio in Verellen’s amplifier shop. Through the remainder of 2020 and into early 2021, the band wrote an album as a distraction from the surrounding turbulence, recording songs with the assistance of Ron Harrell as they were writing them, composing the material with the added benefit of hearing them come together from the engineer’s chair. Keep This Be the Way still very much sounds like a Helms Alee record, but it’s their first album that diverts from the faithful recreation of their live sound and delves into a vibrant tapestry of surreal sounds and invented spaces.
In the video for Alto Arc’s “Bordello”—the second single from the band’s self-titled debut EP, released last week—Isamaya Ffrench appears in a courtesan’s lair, draped in diaphanous silks and surrounded by candelabras like Mata Hari by way of David Lynch. Her co-star, George Clarke, sits to have his tarot read by Ffrench as she sings a ditty over a guitar’s folksy jig, before a glitchy beat erupts and Clarke launches into a demonic growl, his heart bleeding through the white linen of his ruffled shirt and a snake wrapping its way around his throat. It’s every bit as weird and wonderful a visual trip as you might expect from the celebrated makeup artist and creative director Ffrench, and Clarke too, who is best known for his work with the shoegaze-meets-black metal band Deafheaven.
Despite the sumptuously cinematic feel of the visuals that accompany their music, speaking to Ffrench in London and Clarke in New York over Zoom, they explain that Alto Arc came together as something of a pandemic project, almost entirely over the Internet. Indeed, Ffrench, Clarke, and their two other collaborators on the project—experimental pop producer Danny L Harle, perhaps best known for his associations with the PC Music collective and producing for the likes of Caroline Polachek and Charli XCX, and Trayer Tryon of the offbeat electronic pop band Hundred Waters—have never even been in the same room together.
Due to the continuing issues with Covid restrictions and safety we decided to postpone Emma Ruth Rundle EU/UK tour planned for February 2022. We are working with all the promoters to schedule new dates, and will announce the new shows as soon as possible. Tickets are still valid.
Musician and visual artist Emma Ruth Rundle discusses creating an approachable schedule, setting digestible goals, and how human flaws create emotional and authentic connections in art.
The heaviness that Emma Ruth Rundle is able to achieve on her new record Engine of Hell is an elemental force that transcends any discussion around the volume of her music. Released on Sargent House, the record is a complete solo affair with all of it’s eight songs sung and performed by Rundle with either piano or acoustic guitar as accompaniment.
With her early beloved projects such as The Nocturnes, Red Sparowesand Marriages—as well as her fantastic solo records—Rundle had always found the balance between doom-infused metal, post-rock, and crystalline gothic folk. With this album, she has stripped away all of the pummeling drums and sludgy distortion of her previous work to make a record that is overwhelming with it’s honesty and intimacy.
On this episode of In Conversation, Rundle discusses the solo adventure of writing and recording Engine of Hell, how finding dance helped her as she now lives a life of sobriety, the joys and pitfalls of being the “solo female singer on metal bills,” her amazing collaborative albums with metal greats Thou and so much more.