Friday Heavy: June 10, 2022

Cliff: Welcome to Friday heavy your guide to the world of aggressive and abrasive and loud music brought to you by the individuals behind TuneDig. We are as always and planning to stay cliff

Kyle: in this dimension And I’m Kyle

Cliff: When I’m here. Each episode we can one brand new release and why we think it’ll be worth the spin Cause there’s a ton of heavy music out there and it’s all it’s not all awesome A lot of it’s awesome Uh it we like to bring at least one to your attention every week That’s brand new that’s going to be awesome We’ll listen to you and we’ll be hearing it for the first time along with you Uh we also do one playlist that we’ve curated to explore a heavy sub genre or an artist And then lastly and importantly we do one organization covering critical culture impacting work in their community so that you can pay attention to the things going on around you support the people who are already doing important work and put all that good energy to use So let’s get into it We’re going to flip stuff around this week because Kyle is going to give us a lot more from new releases What’s up dude

Kyle: a little bit different territory this week Cause I made the pick Normally I looked to you to make the pick as our resident heavy guru so this week we’re going definitely less hard but still quite heavy This week is fever fantasy The new record by Sasquatch And if you don’t know Sasquatch they are a hard rock power trio from Los Angeles It’s been around 20 plus years This is their sixth studio album and their first since 2000 sevens acclaimed record maneuver fever fantasy was actually recorded in late 2019 Stop me if you’ve heard this story before from another band new love So this actually winds up being the band’s first album in five years Um they said they didn’t want to throw the tunes out there without being able to support them in the right way which makes sense And we appreciate and in in a fashion that will let you get to know this band really quickly in a sentence They said we can’t wait to hang with old friends and nuance For this album

Um I bet they do

Cliff: just straightforward

Kyle: Just get in the van and try to love someone not in the van

Cliff: of this whole music

Kyle: I know man I know they have been called an institution among fuzz heads and those willing to groove their deal is modernizing classic rock without aping it uh like Gretta van shite in their bio I thought this was great They said they tend to sip on influences from seventies metal rock and psychedelia Their songwriting approach is clear Cut Keep the focus on the hook Don’t bore us Get to the chorus They sip on influences I like even even the thing is about partying

Even our

Cliff: Sizzurp with my influences I dropped Skittles in the bottom

Kyle: This the Stooges 1969 is the purple jolly rancher at the bottom of

the

SCUP the site the obelisk for those of you who may be familiar describe them as raw rock for rockers I’m giving you all these descriptors so that I’m not giving you the descriptor stoner rock Um because

Cliff: for almost anything

Kyle: north north magnet to north magnet with me in that term you know it’s such a fine line with this type of music I’ve always felt like as somebody who really loves this music and we were talking about before we started recording kind of a scholar of this type of music I’ve always felt like there were so many people who were into this music that didn’t get it of the people who Don’t make it there are lots of sites like the obelisk on paper but not in spirit that but right up against the worst kind of obnoxious nerdom you know like the star Trek metal heads that try to collect a subculture and own it like a Funko doll that’s that I think When I’ve talked about genre descriptors on other episodes of Friday heavy That’s why I hate it because it creates dividing lines and it commoditizes and it’s it separates the art from the commerce And it’s very much not in the spirit of a band like Sasquatch She was just like man just show up grab a brew smoke a little something grab you a burger over there We got burgers on the grill and and hang out

Cliff: Most bands with that attitude are terrible though in Sasquatch rates

Kyle: That’s true There was a short-lived festival put on by a Brant Bjork from Kayas and some other folks in the Palm desert were Kayas and some of those other bands originated called stone and dusted and it filtered out all of the bands like that that suck and to the best of the best for three or four years So this scene at its best is like the purest and greatest musical thing in the world to me but getting back to this record you the first thing you’re going to see is super rad color for all our artwork There’s a there’s usually a great connection between visual art and other scenes like skateboarding and you know other crafts With this music So Ian Promana did this artwork pretty prominent artists in his own Right they have really sullied off single for this record called it lies beyond the bay It’s the album opener We’re gonna hear that now

Kyle: you started headbanging and in the silence of this room But it’s that compelling

Cliff: right It’s just

Kyle: like you know what it is and so that’s straight ahead Sasquatch That’s what like big fuzzed out riff big drums some killer repping soloing They also can slow it down and space it out like on Ivy a little later in the record where they introduce some Hammond Oregon and a little more space and little more like when it gets to be nighttime out at the generator

Cliff: All right those are sick I love this Thank you Kyle for taking us on our first foray into not stone a rock a Sasquatch is awesome I love that We’re able to talk about all this different heavy music and bring people into these different sub genres and weird cultures and everything else If we’re telling you about a release or an art Go explore everything that catches your attention about it that you like because there’s so much to discover so check out fever fantasy from Sasquatch out today on mad Oak records as always go listen to it however you want stream it However you want it almost literally doesn’t matter because what you’re going to do is send the band your money after that Cause cause the streams don’t right So go go to shows Sasquatch looks like they’re on tour this July and August which is awesome Go see a good show Make a friend or don’t go by yourself That’d be cool to grab some merch or as we always like to say just you know ask them if you can send them money directly

Cause they’re cool people Yeah So you know cash out your favorite non stoner band So awesome new type of release especially but all within that big heavy metal genre that we like pulling together So we’ve talked about that new release Kyle you usually take whatever new release I’ve kind of pushed in your general direction and used it to prompt for whatever playlist you managed to put together which is always awesome But you just ran a straight through line So what did we end up doing on this one Because this is uh I don’t know how to relay how in your lane This is

Kyle: is so

Cliff: Tell us about your masterclass after I make the joke that it’s 69

Kyle: songs First of all I barely blinked and took a breath and it was 60 songs And I was like well might as well go where it needs to go

Cliff: 60

Kyle: I described this playlist as a group of songs that are like if putting on a leather jacket had the same effect as Jim Carey putting on the mask just Just pure biker ID released but the filter was would they listen to it at a biker club Or would this play on an episode of sons of anarchy or would they let this band actually physically play at Pappy and Harriet’s and if one of those three things wasn’t true it didn’t pass the cool test we have joked about it a little already I laugh at all the hand wringing around whether metal and extreme music or negative influences Like I love that I could listen to a band like decapitated like we did last episode and be like all right time to go to home Depot Let’s have a great morning but this kind of music actually makes me want to do bad things like uh that this release is my worst darkest Viking instincts so if you hear the FAS coming out of the coming out of my Volkswagen sedan My my own little buggy van then uh please steer clear

Cliff: It does make you like a little bit more impatient for anyone in the crosswalk get out of the

Kyle: That’s right That’s right and you know I’m I’m 6, 4, 2 30 So when I get to straightened to music like this watch out as always I strove to avoid Your honor trappings or any bands that feel also ran Um there’s a lot of bands that are like what if we tried to be Titus or what have we tried to be Fu Manchu and none of that is on here Like it would just trying to be something else The most important thing with all of these bands is that they’re the only one It’s like this is the scene that taught me how important that I also had some subconscious guard rails against too heavy so no straight up sludge no primitive man We have that playlist if you want it it it will brutalize your senses and also not to chill So no permanent man no yawning man Those are the two Those are the two guardrails on either end we hope you enjoy It’s like five hours long So it’ll last you for a whole Route 66 road trip from the grand canyon to Joshua tree

Cliff: this playlist also for real doubles as a list of the bands with the best Merck on planet

Kyle: That’s true

Cliff: like seriously like earth listeners in here But there’s also a run at the top that I loved with the red Fang and torch right next to each other

Kyle: Really good red Fang uh uh torch bonus track that I joined the Volcom seven-inch club to get a 45 of and then a song with a band from Australia called the black Armada that Nick OD they sent to Nick olive airy and he did vocals on and they called it up and down under and it’s super sick And then they go And then we go into an anti-cop jail song from Wilmington North Carolina weed-eater from a record that also features a totally Ernest tribute to Dale Earnhardt

So we love this world a lot the same way that cliff has pulled me into the decapitated death metal world and made a believer out of I’ve been pulling cliff into this world since we were baseball umpires in high school And I was like what’s up wanting to smoke weed out of a Sprite can And he was like not right now it’s the morning

Cliff: things have changed in recent years

All right So as always we’ve got that new release linked up along with the playlist uh at tuned-in dot com and on our social and all that stuff So you can grab it and make sure you can spin this this heck in playlists dude This is awesome So in our last section here where we talk about an organization doing impactful work in their community it’s America And the time is right now So everything is always serious and a little bit worse than it was the last time we checked in with each other But uh we’re we’re gonna try All as always to confront what we need to confront but do it with an angle towards how can we focus on what actually needs to be done and contribute towards long-term solutions So yeah uh if you have lived in America or even if you haven’t at this point cause I’m sure you’re hearing about it You’ve probably been thinking and hearing about guns in recent weeks again and the long-term effects of Pandering to weapons Manufacturers am generally heartless people continually comes home to roost in our generations We get to be alive right now It’s a literal nightmare Um just horrendous truly bad So what we’re going to do okay What we’re going to do is take the stance today at which I personally believe anyway Okay There’s no changing of hearts and minds to be done around this Okay So I’m not really interested in proselytizing or whatever about

Kyle: more thoughts

Cliff: No no there’s no reason to talk about it if you’re a caring human being you already know what needs to be done and we need to get it done on a level that protects people there is only policy that protects us from massacre at this point And anything other than putting in policy to protect us is just a delay of exactly that policy We’re just kicking the can down the road So let’s talk about what we can do because me nor Kyle have been elected to office Um that’ll be fun

Kyle: please don’t write then

Cliff: Yeah we’ll see if they let me in right after I just said I like to smoke a Sprite box a second ago so but let’s focus on what we can do about this Okay Because here’s the thing gun violence is always more than just the physical violence itself It ripples through communities and we can help to repair that damage as well A few weeks ago in Buffalo New York a white supremacist murdered a bunch of community elders and hurt a bunch of other people at their local grocery store In addition to the really obvious catastrophic damage from that it also shut down the only local grocery store in that area which was a staple for that community And so the people who are there I have not only experienced endless trauma right But now they don’t even have food nearby and many people

Kyle: food desert

Cliff: Yeah they were already a food desert and now the single like Oasis is gone because they have to be shut down right now And so you know a lot of people don’t have access to to be able to go back and forth to other places to get food They don’t have the means or the time or or perhaps even the the physical ability to travel to other places to get it The community steps in to help That’s always the theme from this the community is already stepping in to help even before tragedy happens So when tragedy strikes look to who’s already doing the work So one established organization that

Kyle: just did a Mr Rogers and when times are tough look for the helpers so simple

Cliff: just sat down and took off my vans It is So one of these established organizations one of the helpers that we can find that immediately pivoted into action was an organization called feed Buffalo Who’s a nonprofit community food pantry with healthy options including Halaal food for Muslim families which come to find out as part of the reason that organization existed at all it’s cause when families uh who are Muslim who needed help literally couldn’t find a food that You know the requirements that they have for for their you know religion and community in the way that they live and so feed Buffalo was one that included healthy options and whole food And they were already doing this work before this massacre took place Like we always want to point that out but now feed Buffalo really urgently needs resources because they’re actively providing hot meals and food delivery perishable items expanding into toiletries everything else Right They’re literally taking care of their community They’re ready for this They knew what to do They know how to take in what you can give them and turn them into something for the community Feed Buffalo is one of the two food banks that just to make sure we’re being really clear about credibility because it’s really important to know where your money’s going And in times like this feed Buffalo is one of the two food banks that the white house is actively directing people towards in that area and so as always we want to just recommit and encourage you to the idea that people in your community are often already addressing problems on the ground Even a little bit of privilege even if you’re a person who really struggles even a small amount of privilege in your life maybe you’re a just a healthy human being who can walk everywhere or ride a bike or something Just those little bits of privilege can blind you towards what other people need help with and how they’re already being helped because it may just not have come across your radar In moments of crisis like those people who are already doing the work are best prepared to do more of the work for So feed Buffalo set up a go-fund me to take in larger donations Uh I saw that they took some some really large ones from folks pretty quickly and I gathered that’s why they kind of stood up a GoFundMe because they can take in donations but I noticed they wanted to be able to take in larger dollar amounts So you can find that link to their go fund me and along with other ways to give them money to be involved to figure out how to help them out at their website feed Buffalo dot I encourage you to make a donation if you can And then also another thing we are always encourage you with If you can find someone doing important work in their community and you can help them out in moments of crisis the next step is to go back and look in your own community and find out who you’ve been overlooking Who’s already doing this work who needs preparation and help for when something else happens when they need to be able to help their community Right Look and find the types of folks who are already doing food pantry work who were figuring out how to get food to people who actively need

Kyle anything before we go

Kyle: I just want to say thank you and much love to feed Buffalo my favorite thing about Buffalo cease to be at the end of last year so in the absence of the band every time I die I am grateful that um there is another instance of the Buffalo community just being rad and taking care So as always that’s kind of a lesson take care of each other Look out for yourselves look out for your neighbors Pick somebody up when they fall down in the pit comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable This has been Friday heavy Thanks for hanging out with us we’ll grab a beer with you at the next tailgate again in two weeks

Cliff: See ya

Go to tunedig.com or follow us on Instagram and Twitter for links to the new release, the playlist and the organization that we talked about today.