Karma to Burn: The Long Version, Pt 3

Check out Parts 1 and 2, then get 'er done here.

Which one thing do you wish you knew back then?
RM: What we didn’t know back then is you really can’t force lyrics onto an existing piece of work. We went in and recorded a record instrumentally, then Roadrunner’s idea was to get someone to sing on top of what was already there, rather than have us sit down and rewrite all the songs and record them for vocals. We worked with a couple of producers, and no one ever suggested that as a thing to do. [Laughs.] We had no idea.

WM: We went at it as hard as we could in the ’90s, and people kicked us in the dick every fuckin’ time we had a chance to shine. We tried to do what we wanted to do, yet people always wanted to change that or manipulate us.

How do you feel about the term “stoner rock”?
WM: The first time we heard of the term, Rich and I hadn’t even smoked pot yet.

RM: I like it. I always liked it. I liked it for a different reason back in the day because people would always bring us weed, which was great. Now I enjoy it because it was its own little thing back then and it was cool to be a part of it.

The first single off Appalachian Incantation, “Waiting on the Western World,” features Year Long Disaster vocalist Daniel Davies. What made that song so special?
RM: We actually wrote it for vocals. It was our first time where we sat down and wrote a song with a singer. He also plays guitar on that song.

Karma to Burn and Year Long Disaster are touring right now, but Rob is filling in for drummer Brad Hargreaves in YLD [who had a conflicting tour with his “day” band, Third Eye Blind] and Daniel is playing guitar with KTB. What’s that like?
RM: It’s all merging into one band. [Laughs.] It was really fun to do that one song with Daniel, so we thought we’d try to do some more stuff along those lines and do it soon… like record a whole record this year. The four of us are really good together, so we want to pursue that no matter which name we use, it’s all the same guys. It’ll be fun.

What’s the oddest thing about being back on the road?
RM: The weirdest thing is we have so many kids at the shows, and I thought it would be all be older people. That’s kind of great.

What are you out to prove this time around?
RM: We just have musical goals. I just want to show that our band can do exactly what I thought we could do back in ’99, when everyone was like, “you gotta check this band out”… and take it to a higher level.

Read Parts 1 and 2 here.

Karma to Burn: The Long Version, Pt 2

Read part 1 first, then get back here.

What went through your mind during those weeks between exchanging phone numbers?
WM: It was burning a hole in me. [I kept thinking] even if we don’t get back together, I still need to talk to them. It had been seven years since I talked to either of them. But I did it on my terms.

What was that first conversation like?
WM: It went well. It was something I’d never done before. Getting back with Rich—especially Rich—I really had to sit down and face the facts: Am I gonna live with this anger all my life? And the answer is no. There’s no sense in going through life being angry at someone.

Rich started off apologizing. I said: We all know what we all did. If we want to do this, let’s just forget about it and move forward. I think the first words out of his mouth were, “Thank God.”

RM: I needed to talk to Will man to man, just about all the past stuff that I did when I quit the band. [Sighs.] Mistakes were made, bad decisions were made while high. I wanted to talk to him, but he didn’t want to talk to me and I knew it. I waited patiently.

What were those first new rehearsals like?
WM: When they got out [of rehab] and we started playing again, they reminded me of the people I played with in the first place.

Even though we hadn’t played together in seven years, getting back and writing with those guys didn’t feel like we missed a step at all. It seems like the material that we wrote recently would have happened if we could’ve kept our act together.

RM: We were so close [at one point], we had been together almost every day for about 10 years straight. There was so much history between us that it was just so easy to just go right back to the music. We pretty much grew up learning how to play together.

Now, go to Part 3!

Karma to Burn: The Long Version, Pt 1

When I first met the guys in Karma to Burn, I wasn't even old enough to drink yet. In fact, in order to attend the SxSW be bonded at, HIGH TIMES had to invest in a fake ID for me (which I was promptly busted with during my second night in town). We were introduced by their long-suffering A&R guy and a long, tempestuous friendship was born—particularly with bassist/ringleader/snake oil salesman Rich "Little Dickie" Mullins.

Little did I know then just what a dangerous meeting it was. Over the years, I beared witness to so many hustles, white powders, unsavory situations, and industry fuckfests with the instrumental trio, that I'm honestly surprised (and infinitely pleased) they're all still breathing and thriving. And it always irked me that their place in stoner rock history was regularly overshadowed by their party legacy.

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview them about their reunion for DECIBEL. It gave me the rare chance to put on my Journalist hat and really ask them all the questions I probably would never have the balls to ask as a friend. And naturally, a lot of it didn't make it to print because of word count restrictions.

Not wanting to waste all that editing, I decided to post my interview with Rich Mullins and Will Mecum here in three parts. Enjoy.

Did you ever expect Karma to Burn to reunite?
Will Mecum: No, definitely not. There were a lot of things that were left undone when we decided to split; a lot of anger—and a lot of late night revenge scenarios. Like, ‘if I ever see that guy again…” And that went on for years.

What was the breakup like for you?
WM: I lost my band, I lost a friend, and I lost a career—if you want to call it that. [Laughs] It all went to shit. Substances got in the way, personalities got in the way. We lost sight of the goals that we set when we first started playing.

What kind of substance issues did you have?
Rich Mullins: Everyone in our band had a little bit of a heroin problem; mine was giant and Rob’s was giant. Will was able to just stop, Will doesn’t really have that personality for it.

How did you get clean?
RM: After Speedealer, I went to Holland for a year, then I came to L.A. and that’s where I got clean. I was in a rehab, and the guy who ran the place came up to me and said, what if I say the name ‘Rob Oswald’ to you? I go, ‘Oh, I love that guy.’ He said, ‘well, he’s behind this door.’ Can you imagine?

WM: I’m proud to say that I’m the only member of the band that didn’t have to go to rehab. But my addiction wasn’t anything minuscule. I went cold turkey and it was not pleasant. I quit my job and I locked myself in my apartment for 10 days. After the eighth or ninth days, I started feeling human again. 

How did the two of you get back in contact after you’d cleaned up?
WM: I got a call really late at night, [a mutual friend] said that Rich and Rob were trying to get a hold of me. Two weeks later I said yes to giving them my number. Rich texted me—and I’m not one to really receive texts that well. The first thing I texted back was, “Fuck you, L.A. cunt.”

Then Rob called and we talked for a good two hours. He said, “You really need to talk to Rich.” After that conversation, I waited another week and got Rich’s phone number and I sat down and talked to him.


Want to read more? Check out the rest in Part 2 and Part 3.


Photo lifted from Raginpit magazine.

Memory Burn Psych Fest

So you're stuck in the NYC area on Memorial Day weekend and don't know how to spend a long, hazy Saturday. Well, have I got a show for you!

The first annual Memory Burn Psych Fest will take place at Brooklyn's Glasslands on Saturday, May 29 and features a stellar lineup of psychedelic, stoner rock, trippy music from acts like White Hills, the Black Hollies, Weird Owl, Future Hunter and Revival Times. See y'all there! BYOJ.

Here's a preview of the action:

Waiting on the Western World

Here's something truly rare: a Karma to Burn song with vocals! Year Long Disaster's Daniel Davies laid down some magic on "Waiting on the Western World" the first single off of KTB's comeback album, Appalachian Incantation, which came out in the US just yesterday. Go buy it!

Better yet, go see the two bands play together on tour, which kicks off this Friday night at Brooklyn's Knitting Factory. For more dates and info, click here.

Shut Up And Listen To... Karma To Burn

Back in the day when instrumental-only bands were as rare as Republicans with a sense of humor, Morgantown, WV's Karma to Burn were tearing up stages and blowing through towns like a gang of rock n roll outlaws. And like all good (or bad) volatile creations, the band eventually went out in a blaze of glory, becoming the stuff of legend.

Then earlier this year, the trio made peace and decided to give it another go—headlining festivals all across Europe (where they're HUGE) mere months after the reunion. So in honor of their recent signing with Napalm Records and brand-new DVD, I implore you to shut up and listen to Karma to Burn.

Fog Rising

West Coast stoner rock fans, rejoice: the Fog Rising Festival is coming to San Francisco on Saturday, November 7. The brainchild of Tee Pee Records and Secret Serpents, the Fog Rising event promises to be "a celebration of the twisted offspring of the fragmentation [that is the rock music scene]."

Among the bands performing are the above-pictured Witch (featuring Dinosaur Jr's J Mascis and my boyfriend, Mario Rubalcaba of Earthless on drums*), and will mark Witch's only West Coast performance of 2009. Other stoner-friendly bands to watch for are Saviours, the incredible Red Fang, and sludgy doomsters Ancestors.


*He's not really my boyfriend, but he could be...

Bands include:
Witch
Saviours
Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound
Night Horse
Red Fang
Ancestors
Black Math Horseman
Imaad Wasif with Two Part Beast
Lecharis Gaze (members of Annihilation Time)
Citadelle

Artwork will be displayed by famed poster artists Alan Forbes, David DAndrea, Alan Hynes and Marq Spusta.

For more info, check out the official site: Secret Serpents.

And here's a bonus video of Red Fang's stellar "Prehistoric Dog."

Shut Up And Listen To... Monster Magnet

During my college days, I spent many hours listening to New Jersey's Monster Magnet in altered states. There was just something about all their psychedelic influences, the power rock chords and singer Dave Wyndorf's constant references to Marvel Comics characters (in fact, he once told me during an interview that he strived to write lyrics the way Jack Kirby drew comics—all angular and greater than life) that ingratiated Monster Magnet to me, particularly their watershed 1995 album, Dopes To Infinity. To this day, it still feels like home.

Yet like so many other bands, Monster Magnet subsequently ran out of steam and released a series of sub-par records that sullied their otherwise stellar catalog.

Last month, I went to see Monster Magnet—now reunited with guitarist/Atomic Bitchwax founder Ed Mundell—on a whim, hoping they'd ignore their last few albums. Not only did they exceed my expectations, but they also played all their standards, starting with the opening track from Dopes, plus underground classics like "Zodiac Lung," "Tractor," "Spine of God," "Melt," and my favorite song by them, "Blow 'Em Off." The result? I fell into their vortex all over again and listened to them for the next three days.

So today, in concord with Music Monday on Twitter, I'm telling all you suckers, LISTEN TO MONSTER MAGNET.