Eye of the Stone Goat 2 fest dooms Delaware

As if Delaware were not doomed enough, Snake Charmer Booking has announced a new doom metal music festival “The Eye of the Stoned Goat 2” for Saturday, February 9. Set at JB McGinnes Pub in New Castle, the show features 10 stoner rock and doom metal bands from the mid-Atlantic. Tickets are $10 and doors open at 5 p.m.

The festival line up includes Delaware locals Wasted Theory and Heavy Temple along with Maryland heavyweights Iron Man, Blackhand and Beelzefuzz. Pennsylvania acts include Wizard Eye, Clamfight, Skeleton Hands, Thee Nosebleeds and Pale Divine.

I spoke with festival organizer Brendan Burns, who is also the drummer for Wasted Theory, about why he decided to put on Eye of the Stoned Goat:

What was your inspiration for organizing this fest?
I wanted to do a smaller version of the Stoner Hands of Doom festival basically. I just love the idea of a three or four day long show where you can see so many great bands at the same time. So, it had occurred to me that between Delaware, Philly and Maryland, that I could do a miniature festival of my own, with some of my personal faves from the area. And that's really what inspired me.

What was the first Eye of the Stoned Goat Festival like?
Last November I did a five band show at Mojo 13 in Wilmington with Black Cowgirl, Borracho, Wizard Eye, Wasted Theory, and Behind the Ghost. It was really just me testing the waters to see if anyone besides me enjoyed this type of music enough to fill a venue. The turnout was decent, not jam-packed like I was hoping, but decent. All the bands had a great time, and I just liked the name of the event so much that I decided to continue with it.

Tell me about the vendors. Why are you including them too?

When I decided I was going to do 10 bands on this bill, I really wanted to bring a festival-like vibe to it. All the festivals I've ever been too there's always lots of great vendors doing some really cool stuff, and I wanted a little sample of that at my show. So, I decided I wanted some record labels to come sell their their records and swag and any other cool music inspired merchandisers. So, at this year's event we have Anthropic Records and Dullest Records from Philly, Red Heart 13, which is a jewelry and photo type company, Useless Rebel Imaging will be there, he does amazing band photo's, and DeadDave from DeadDavesRadio will be there.

What about the venue?

The venue is awesome, it's at a bar called JB McGinnes, in New Castle, DE. It has a sound system that could rival the Trocadero (in Philadelphia) and is seriously one of the best places to have such a show. I think people are going to be blown away by how great the stage and sound really is there. 

What else do we need to know?

JB McGinnes Pub is located at 519 E. Basin Rd, New Castle, DE 19720.

Tickets for Eye of the Stoned Goat 2 are $10. You can find out more about Snake Charmer Booking events on their website or Facebook page. The website has tons of useful links to audio and videos fo the bands playing as well as to listings of nearby lodging and so forth.

Brendan says he is already looking into making next year's ESG a two-day event, so if bands are interested in being considered they should contact him at SnakeCharmerBooking@gmail.com.

Corrections House live stream tonight from Miami

Corrections House at Metro Gallery 1/25/13

For those of you who were scared of a little snow last Friday to attend the performance of Corrections House at Baltimore's Metro Gallery, the group presents a live stream tonight (January 30) at midnight, EST at this location. The show will be broadcast from Churchill’s in Miami, Florida. 

Corrections House is a "collective" of well known musicians from other groups including Mike IX Williams (Eyehategod), Sanford Parker (Nachtmystium), Scott Kelly (Neurosis), and Bruce Lamont (Yakuza). I recommend ponying up the pittance these venues will charge to see the actual show, but if they are not coming to your town, I suppose a live stream is ok. I believe a video stream will pale in comparison to the live performance, however. 

I have heard some criticism of this musical experiment. But I suggest approaching this group with an open mind. You are not going to see the bastard child of Neurosis and Eyehategod or any other permutation of the aforementioned groups these cats have been involved in. What you will see is the artistic expression of four super talented people who are stepping off of well worn paths to share their ideas of what music and poetry and sound and performance can be.

People these days spend a lot of time alone listening to music that was by created by people alone in studios. What Corrections House does is form a living organism comprised of a marriage of the performers and the audience.  Mike Williams said no two performances are exactly alike, and I believe that. 

I also DON'T recommend that you watch the somewhat pretentious video that was made for the group's composition "Hoax The System". I watched the video and I think it may have colored my expectations a bit too much. I would like to have unwatched it. Don't even listen to the song. In fact, stop reading this blog post right now. No, just kidding because there is still a little bit more important info here. 

Here are the remaining Corrections House tour dates. If you care about the future of music or are just curious, I encourage you to go: 

1/30/2013 Churchill’s – Miami, FL [LIVE BROADCAST!]
1/31/2013 Crowbar – Tampa, FL
2/01/2013 529 – Atlanta, GA
2/02/2013 Bottletree – Birmingham, AL
2/05/2013 Spanish Moon – Baton Rouge, LA
2/06/2013 Siberia – New Orleans, LA
2/07/2013 Walter’s Downtown – Houston, TX
2/08/2013 Korova – San Antonio, TX
2/09/2013 Red 7 – Austin, TX
2/10/2013 Bryan Street Tavern – Dallas, TX
2/11/2013 Opolis – Norman, OK
2/12/2013 Hero’s – Fort Smith, AR
2/13/2013 Slowdown – Omaha, NE
2/15/2013 Moon Room – Denver, CO