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LORD STERLING

March 1995 New Jersey: Introduction of non practical song writing and rehearsal. Lysergic developments and improvisational live performances are conducted by Mike Schweigert, Robert Ryan, Jason Hoffman and a unknown drummer. Subterranean demos are recorded and quickly destroyed. Live performances with the Melvins, Human Remains, Buzzoven, and Monster Magnet.

May 1996: Former drummer pleads insanity and disappears. Jason Silverio member of free form space rock band Sivle is recruited for drum duties. Band begins recording demos with Alap Momin ( Octopus from Dalek) What we call Lord Sterling is a myth of expanding sounds which all higher questions are involved. Occult rumors surround the band. Live performances with Deadguy and Atomic Bitchwax.

April 1997: Lord Sterling is approached by independent record label Chainsaw Safety about releasing its debut album. Handshakes are made and the band records the 10 song release titled ‘Your Ghost Will Walk’ with Alap Momin. Ryan and Schweigert are incarcerated on drug charges yet questioned about many unrelated topics one being of the interest of song titles. DAT Tapes and photographs of the band are confiscated and held by authorities. Live performances with No Knife, Bent Leg Fatima, Goliath and the Vampires (Monster Magnet), Casino Royales.

Oct 1997: Bass player Jason Hoffman moves to Atlanta to study Chiropractic and is replaced by Jim Baglino former guitarist in Human Remains, former bass player for Deadguy and the Casino Royales , current member of Lord Sterling, Monster Magnet, and The Ribeye Brothers.

January 1998: In the age of complete and utter confusion the Lord Sterling band provides a soundtrack for absolute decay and madness like a Salomonic key unlocking the 72 goetian demons to perform the lucifarian orchestra for its masses. The band begins to demo songs’ No more Identity’, and ‘Songs of Sinking Ships with Alap Momin. Live performances with Bluetip, Acid King, Gluecifer, Murphys Law.

March 1999: Band records self released ‘Amplified’ e.p. with Keith Acherman and Charlie Schafer of Word of Mouth studios. Stacks of Orange amps are procured and the use of Echoplex and the Moog keyboard become a recording standard with the band. Kerrangs magazine gave Amplified four K’s saying “This comes highly recommended to anyone disillusioned with the endless stream of Kyuss/Sabbath clones clogging up a once vital scene.” Live performances with Core, Atomic Bitchwax, Need New Body.

May 2000: Lord Sterling hits the road on a haywire east coast/ Mid west tour with friends and confidants Need New Body. The first week of shows is a complete success and then deteriorates into an Apocalypse Now styled dreamscape of odd events. Live Performances with Lightning Bolt, The Sightings, Need New Body, Grand Buffet, Dalek, Lungfish

April 2001: After a botched deal with Tee Pee records the band signs with the Knitting Factory’s Rubric records and begins pre production of its next album Weapon of Truth. Cellist Meaghan Peters joins the band for the recording and a few shows.

Nov 2001: Band records Weapon of Truth with Eric Rachel at Trax East Studios in South River N.J. Alternate mixes of the bands cover of the MC5’s Black to Comm are done at Word of mouth studio for Small Stone records ‘Sucking The 70s’ compilation .

April 2002: Weapon of Truth is released and stumps most critics . One Major multi national magazine which featured ‘Good Charlette’ on the cover gives a negative review comparing the album to the B-side of Black Flag’s “My War” Lord sterling accepts this as a total victory over the so called “alternative press” Live performances with Black Nasa , Monster Magnet Need New Body, Butterflies of Love.

March 2003: SXSW Austin Texas Lord Sterling plays the Tee-Pee record showcase and is picked as one of Austin Chronicle’s bands to go see. They also perform a 15 minute blistering version of ‘Black to Comm’ at the High Times Magazine party. ” If you think the war for oil is bad wait until you see the war for water ” is chanted during the middle of the song and Bums out many hippies and forces Wavy Gravy into a panic attack. Mission complete .. Live performances with All Night, Bad Wizard, Drunk Horse, and The Formula.

Fall 2003: Band begins demos for next album for Detroit’s finest Small Stone Records. Live performances with Five Horse Johnson, Halfway to Gone, Nebula, The Bell Rays, Easy Action, 25 Suaves, Lungfish, The Rye Coalition, Miss TK & The Revenge.

Jan.2004: Lord Sterling begins working on their third and most psychedelic album ‘Today’s Song for Tomorrow.’ To offer a brief over view of the album singer Robert Ryan says this “It must be admitted that its the work that counts. Its the music that we bring before you as our ambassador or as our nemesis. May it be a Mirror or a bridge for the listener. These songs, Today’s song for tomorrow’s people are not mystification its the entire human mystery. Rock and Roll, Future erupting, Holy tabernacle of Amplification Amen……”

Copyright© Small Stone Recordings

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20 December 2014 Read more

GIANT BRAIN

Giant Brain came about because of a painting, really… When Detroit art-tiste Mark Dancey painted what he thought Detroit genius-savant Andy Sutton’s brain might look like, the concept for a group came about one that would fuse all things good about Detroit music with the improvisational aspects of Krautrock. If only because the Giant Brain is native to the Motor City, one could think of Giant Brain as Can gunning a GTO down Route 66, or the Stooges speeding down the Autobahn in a late model Porsche.

Andy (bass, drum programs, and general concepts) had played in bands with his brother, Al Sutton, producer of records by such indie -rock stalwarts as Big Chief, Don Caballero, The Laughing Hyenas, as well as “stoner-rock” acts like Five Horse Johnson and Halfway to Gone. The siblings enlisted the musically and otherwise unemployed Philip Durr, former lead guitarist of Big Chief, and conveniently the only real Kraut in the neighborhood, and Al took the reins as editor/arranger. Together they began recording pretty much immediately. This Philosophy-101 musical method of thesis/antithesis/synthesis has finally yielded Plume, a merger of Krautrock and Stoner-Rock that will undoubtedly make Daimler-Chrysler wet its corporate trousers with envy at the Teuto-American synergy it can only dream to someday achieve.

As with the great Krautrock bands they so admire, improvisation is a major part of the Giant Brain, in-studio as well as live. The concept is devilishly simple: establish a basic premise, deconstruct, demolish and re-construct it, (if necessary) invite some friends to do whatever they’re good at, until the end-product is a right, mostly-instrumental, Detroit-cum-Stuttgart jam… Ear candy abounds on Plume, an album that should be experienced at least once with headphones and under the influence of something, anything. Live gigs, though rare, consist of the core band of Andy and Phil on stage with any and all manner of guest musicians, while Al mans the controls to create that “come-hither-so-we-may-rock-your-pants-wet” atmosphere out of the controlled chaos that is so desperately lacking from other, less off-the-cuff bands!

Plume is a record for fans of Kraftwerk and Kyuss, Neu and Blue Cheer, but we leave you with a word of caution: early versions of the Giant Brain’s Plume have been shown to cause impromptu outbreaks of provocative dancing. Consider yourself warned.

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19 December 2014 Read more

SS-019 :: PUNY HUMAN – Revenge Is Easy

 

– Tracks

1. Raze the Leghorn Bar 03:58

2. Goddess of the Metal 03:50

3. Eating Cigarettes 04:45

4. Lefty Among the Leeches 03:05

5. Jesus Has My Leg 05:46

6. Stink of Two Men 03:35

7. Spatial Interpolation 04:43

8. Jimbo the Hutt 05:14

9. Way of Intercepting the Fist 04:47

10.Damone 03:36
 

– Reviews

All MUSIC
Thunderous, fuzzed-out, heavy metal with a touch of grunge. A definite mix of early-’70s Black Sabbath and early Metallica (without the thrash, but with the James Hetfield vocals), with even a nod to White Zombie. Massive emphasis on a the fuzzy bass and bass drum. Lots of thud thud thud boom boom boom and plenty of tempo change-ups during the songs. The album begins with a sample of Yoda, and there’s even an Aerosmith cover as the extra song on track number 39. Forget the discordant, overly aggressive and pre-adolescent tripe that masqueraded as “metal” on the radio at the turn of the 21st century; go for something that has a bit more meat on it.
 

THE BOSTON PHOENIX 
And the award for the best use of a Jedi master on a metal album goes to… Puny Human, who begin Revenge Is Easy (Small Stone) with an edited snippet wherein Yoda reminds us, “You must feel the Force around you…here, between you…me…the tree…the rock.” It’s all, of course, about the rock – in this case, guttural throb and boogie in the storied tradition of Sabbath, Cactus, Scissorfight, B.O.C.,, Clearlight, Blue Cheer, and Alabama Thunderpussy, with enough subterranean snarl and swagger that they haven’t had much problem covering Aerosmith or Skynyrd when the mood hits ’em. Their own songs ain’t bad neither, ‘specially the grindhouse muscle-car shitstorm “Jesus Has My Leg” (“Satan’s got my hand/Vaders in my head/ Leia’s not my friend”), “Goddess Of The Metal” (something about strippers and the apocalypse’ downright Danzig-ian), and yet ‘nother hyperdrive Star Wars nod, “Jimbo The Hutt.” And “Stink Of Two Men” has the strength of at least three. Drummer Ian Robinson has a cool day job as MTV News’ “metal correspondent”; The Puny ones have played up here almost often enough to qualify as honorary Rock City inductees, and they’ve got the Ironlung beards to prove it. Five Horse Johnson, Lamont, and Bottleneck Drag are also on the bill at The Linwood.
Carly Carioli

 

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9 December 2014 Read more

SS-018 :: VARIOUS ARTISTS – Right in the Nuts (A Tribute to Aerosmith)

Hey, just when your thought your were safe from those damn tribute records, we decided to throw one at you. So you want the lowdown…well…take a look at the line-up below and imagine these underground power-houses aggressively kickin’ the jams of America’s finest rock n roll band. From acid to sludge to funk to punk to blues and beyond…it is all in there. The cover is rendered by the world famous Mark Dancey (Big Chief, Motorbooty Magazine).

Side 1 

Fireball Ministry – Movin Out
Altamont – Make It
Scissorfight – Lick And Promise
Atomic Bitchwax – Combination
Puny Human – Rock In A Hard Place (Cheshire Cat)
The Quill – S.O.S. (Too Bad)
Five Horse Johnson – Bright Light Fright
Honky – Adam’s Apple
Voltage – Draw The Line
Speedball – Rats in The Cellar
Electric Frankenstein – Sick As A Dog
Drunk Horse – Kings And Queens
The Want – Let The Music Do The Talking
Soul Clique – Last Child
Iron Boss – Train Kept A Rollin’
t
Side 2
Alabama Thunderpussy – Sweet Emotion
Half Man – Round & Round
Roadsaw – Toys In The Attic
Solace – Nobody’s Fault
Natas – Remember (Walking In The Sand)
The Men Of Porn – Lightning Strikes
Gideon Smith & The Dixie Damned – Chip Away At The Stone
Raging Slab – Bone To Bone (Coney Island White Fish Boy)
Volume – Walkin’ The Dog
NovaDriver – Seasons Of Wither
Red Giant – Lord Of The Thighs
Core – Soul Shaker

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9 December 2014 Read more

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