Hello fellow primates –
It is September and you are all done with back to school shopping. Now what? Well – as you know, it is often conjectured that the thing that separates us from the “lower species” is a) opposable thumbs b) language c) tool making d) bigger brains with a more developed cerebral cortex e) uhhh. It’s probably simpler than that – we just stay awake a lot longer than other species. They’re nappin’ and we’re kickin’ you-know-what. And as long as you’re gonna be awake, you might as well make some noise.
As you know from my own release, I Ain’t Blue Anymore, I do likes me a little blues from time to time, usually a little on the ruff and ready side. What we have as Album of the Month is just that – three Seattle dudes who go by the name of GravelRoad. I first heard about them from somebody’s best o’ the year list a couple years ago. And went out and bought it – it being Psychedelta. Cool cover – couldn’t even figure out they had the word ”Psyche” on it cuz it was so swirly (trust me, it’s there). I’ve since picked up some more of their stuff which I dig, but I still like Psychedelta the best so here it is! Seattle-blues-swampy-howl-fuzz-ZZ-Hooker-Groundhog-Burnside-Doo Rag-whatever. It’s fat. It’s chewy. Good.
They have a new album coming out in mid-November, El Scuerpo, which you can pre-order right here! They were kind enuff to give us a sneak preview that you can find at Track 11 of this month’s AotM!
Oddly, I have yet to see these guys. Came close a couple times, but I am essentially lazy so you know how that goes. However, Friday,September 26, 2014 – Triple Door Musiquarium, Seattle, WA – 3 hours of GravelRoad. It’s on my calendar.
In other quite exciting news, next month we will be releasing The Green Pajamas – Happy Halloween! Originally released 30 years ago, seven songs, a total of ten cassettes made. I didn’t even have one. Mr. Joe Ross has been bugging me about doing this for a long time and we finally did. What you have now is a massively expanded – 21 song version that documents the 8 month period between Summer of Lust and recording of the “Kim The Waitress” single. These songs were all mixed to cassettes back then, so special care has been taken to preserve the utmost sonic quality while remaining pure to what these tracks are. I think they came out pretty fine. We will send out a notice to the mailing list about the availability of limited edition signed copy thing, so if you want to get in on that sign up for the mail list (Above and to the right).
Everything else we are working on is taking longer than we thought it would but what’s new about that? Nuthin.
GMR Shows you want to know.
The OF at The Central Friday September 5th!
King County Queens – Saturday, 9/27 at The Skylark with In Cahoots and Post Adolescence
td
PS. Everybody’s saying albums are dead. Even Weird Al. Well screw all those people. We still like ‘em. HA!
September 2014
GravelRoad – Psychedelta
1: Devil Eyes
2: Nobody Get Me Down
3: Keep On Movin
4: Furry
5: In The Woods
6: Leave Her Alone
7: Deep Blues
8: Goin’ Down That Road Again
9: Caves
10: Let Me Hold You
11. 40 Miles (Sneak Peak from new album El Scuerpo)
Produced by GravelRoad
Stefan Zillioux: Guitar/Vocals/Grit
Martin Rensel: Drums/Some Vox
Jon “Kirby” Newman: Guitar/Vox/Bass
Engineered by Tom Meyers
Additional engineering by Chris Proff
Mixed by Jim Diamond @ Ghetto Recorders, Detroit, MI
Mastered By Ed Brooks at RFI, Seattle, WA
On Knick Knack Records – released in 2012
To contact GravelRoad: gravelroadblues@gmail.com
We currently book ourselves for most shows.
European booking, please contact Ewa Matysik, delta@delta.art.pl
To contact Knick Knack Records: joe@knickknackrecords.com
For Retail Distribution contact: kristin@cobraside.com
GravelRoad Sonicbids page
From the Gravel Road site: GravelRoad Bio
GravelRoad is a Seattle band that seamlessly blends the trance of North Mississippi Hill Country Blues with the fuzz and power of heavy rock and roll. The band is hot off recent releases for local upstart label Knick Knack Records. 2012 saw the band release the widely acclaimed full length Psychedelta (one of Classic Rock Magazine’s Albums of the Year). 2013’s single Pedernales (recorded at Willie Nelson’s studio of the same name) was quickly followed by the full length album, The Bloody Scalp of Burt Merlin (“GravelRoad’s “The Bloody Scalp of Burt Merlin” is one of those rare albums from whose wholly exceptional songs it proves more than a little difficult to choose favorites.” – James Carlson, No Depression).
The new album, as yet untitled, will be released once again on Knick Knack Records in the fall of 2014, and follows in the footsteps of their signature mix of the Hill Country and the Heavy by widening the scope of their sound even further. If Black Sabbath had grown up in Holly Springs, Mississippi, they might sound like where GravelRoad is heading, with their feet firmly grounded and pedals to the floor.
GravelRoad has also proven itself worthy of attention when they were hand-picked by T-Model Ford to be his backing band. They began to work with the self-proclaimed “Bad Man” in 2008 until his death at the age of 92 in 2013. This partnership thrived through 9 U.S. & international tours and 2 critically acclaimed albums released on Alive NaturalSound Records. 2010 saw the release of the all-acoustic “The Ladies Man” (January 2010), and 2011 saw the release of “Taledragger”, a mind-bending trip through electrified and psychedelic blues. In 2010, T-Model Ford & GravelRoad were hand-picked to play the All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival in New York by the always amazing American Independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch.
2014 proves to be a banner year for the band, as they celebrate their 10th anniversary of their first album. Having already recorded much of the forthcoming album, the band heads back into the studio at the end of March to wrap up recording, with a few surprises in store. April sees GravelRoad heading back to Clarksdale for Juke Joint Festival, followed closely by 3 week tour of Europe in May. Summer sees the band playing Deep Blues Northwest followed by what is sure to be an amazing experience at Muddy Roots Festival over Labor Day Weekend, which includes other Northwest sons Mudhoney and The Sonics.