I believe that I'll be there!

Upstairs Stage
6:30-7:10 Presley (MA)
7:30-8:10 Heretic's Fork (RI)
8:40-9:20 Ichabod (MA)
9:50-10:30 Sumo (MA)
11:00-11:40 We're All Gonna Die (MA)
12:15-1:00 Today is the Day (MA)

Downstairs Stage
5:05-5:45 Suicide Contest (NH)
6:05-6:35 Bury the Needle (MA)
7:05-7:35 Septic Youth Command (MA)
8:05-8:45 Ogre (ME)
9:15-9:55 Eldemur Krimm (ME)
10:25-11:05 Wooly Mammoth (DC)
11:35-12:15 Dove (FL)

(Entire schedule subject to change as situations develop; the above is tentative)

sweet leaf?
maple leaf?

I dont know any of those bands. Never even heard of them. Maybe Today is the day but never heard their stuff.

Septic Youth Command is a great band.

wakeoftears said:


All the more reason to go!!!

Stoner rock/metal show?

wakeoftears said:

yes it's a whole new genre of music, where people listen to the bands and dont jump around like idiots.

plus i hear those folks like to smoke "the pot"

but please don't go, it'll be new music and i mean who wants to check out new music. it's all about you've known for years !

I didn't know Thor was a stoner... well I guess it makes some sense.

Hey loki... have you seen my keys? Fuck bro I... SHIT, HEY LOKI... WHERE THE FUCK DID I PUT MY HAMMER?

My dad wanted to name me Thor. Seriously. But my mom decided to give me a girls name instead - Taylor, after James Taylor. And my lil bro is named Jaymes.

whiskey_weed_and_women said:

you make it sound like its something new

contrary to popular belief, Thor's hammer is actually a giant rock-bong for which he uses to subdue his opponents into uncontrollable munchies.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
David Tornstrom, Rootsucker Records
(978) 922-4609
Email:  david.tornstrom@rootsuckerrecords.com


Rootsucker Records proudly presents- The 2nd Annual "Sweet Leaf Festival", in Lowell, Massachusetts 

To Be Held May 14th, 2005 at Evos' Arts Tavern & Grille (www.evosarts.com)

April 28th, 2005 (Beverly, MA) -Rootsucker Records proudly announces the booking of the 2nd annual Sweet Leaf Festival at Evos' Arts in Lowell on 5/14/05, doors open @ 4pm, 21+.  This festival will also serve as the CD release party for Rootsucker Records' latest album, "Reaching Empyrean" by Ichabod.

This year's festival will feature two stages of music, showcasing a total of 13 bands.  There will also be art on display by Eric David Love, world renowned visionary/psychedelic artist Scott Cranmer, Bruce Bettis of Zeroflesh.com, and others TBA.  Live video installations and accompanying soundscapes will be provided by Rob Byrd & Kris Thompson, Steve Albert, and J'Ambiance.

Tickets are available for sale in advance ($12.00) online at www.rootsuckerrecords.com/sweetleaffestival, or through the bands and other participants.  Prices for tickets at the door will be slightly higher ($15.00), and there is a likelihood that this show will sell out early, so advance purchase is recommended.  

The confirmed lineup is as follows, with the aforementioned artists and performers displaying their wares throughout the day;
Upstairs Stage-
6:30-7:10 Presley (MA)
7:30-8:10 Heretic's Fork (RI)
8:40-9:20 Ichabod (MA)
9:50-10:30 Sumo (MA)
11:00-11:40 We’re All Gonna Die (MA)
12:15-1:00 Today is the Day (MA)

Downstairs Stage-
5:05-5:45 Suicide Contest (NH)
6:05-6:35 Bury the Needle (MA)
7:05-7:35 Septic Youth Command (MA)
8:05-8:45 Ogre (ME)
9:15-9:55 Eldemur Krimm (ME)
10:25-11:05 Wooly Mammoth (DC)
11:35-12:15 Dove (FL)

(Entire schedule subject to change as situations develop; the above is tentative)
Rootsucker Records' goal in arranging this festival is to create the premiere event of its kind in the Northeast of the United States.  Heavy, aggressive music is featured everywhere these days, but there are few outlets for the more challenging sub-genres of rock and metal (progressive/stoner-rock/doom/psychedelic/ambient/etc.).  Rootsucker Records and Evos Arts have therefore collaborated to present this, a totally afferent multi-media presentation of the hallucinogenic, kaleidoscopic and tripped-out underbelly of today's hard rock world.


About Rootsucker Records
Rootsucker Records is a record label imprint whose objective is to discover ground-breaking new music artists who demonstrate quality musicianship and have an innate desire to explore, challenge and venture beyond the constrictions which contemporary music places upon artists based on genre.  Rootsucker Records is a division of Black Locust Entertainment.

About Black Locust Entertainment
Black Locust Entertainment is a company dedicated to promoting music and other media styles with which music has an intimate interaction, to create new outlets for artistic expression and to spark a resurgence of public appreciation.  Founded in 2000, Black Locust is located in Beverly, MA.  We work with bands and artists whose music transcend "accepted" genres and reaches into mind and soul, from sounds that are earthy and raw to those that are atmospheric and a bit psychedelic.

eddie said:

it's new to me if i haven't seen it !

Dove is one of the heaviest fucking bands out right now...they'll level you like Thor's mjolinir, and by Odin, SYC will crush all takers!!! Then there's the almighty Today is the Day...that's the point of this genre, to pummel and confuse. And to clarify, I'm the organizer of the event, and "Sweet Leaf" has nothing or little to do with the pot, but moreso the fact that all the bands on this sucker are into badass amounts of Sabbath worship (you know, that old time band who had a megahit called "Sweet Leaf"?)...I guess though that by extension, since that song was about pot, that one could kinda infer that the fest is a "stoner rock" deal....but whatever. All I know is that I have to take piss tests for work, so I'm clean. Come get sludged.

woah, Sumo! those guys are good

Who's going?
I know that I am!!!!

a friend from NJ's cousin is in SUMO. he told me to check them out.

Sweet Loaf fest organizer! said:

If you wanted to name it off a "Sabbath megahit" why would you choose Sweet Leaf? Did you not see the association with pot that the name would arise?

Like I said, "whatever"....

"Sweet leaf Fest ": fuck you ,it has Nothing to do with weed! Regardless of the obvious double talk, do your self a favore and go check out OGRE, aka The best band ever!

I'm leaving in a couple hours.

probably getting there later than you rev. sucks that cable isn't playing.

damn it...
since carpooling is the coolest

I'm leaving for this now.

madTV just had something hilarious on it.. I'll give you a hint
"colby, my backdoor's a little hard to get open. do you think you could loosen it for me?"

the rev wants me to relay this message:
you are lame if you missed Presley

he said it's a lowish turnout but he's having a good time

hope it was a good show..im pissed that i missed today is the day..but im sick as hell...

it was fucking awesome!

how was titd?

single best time I've seen them. they were a 4 piece.

presley: wow. their name was sort of dumb when I looked at it, but they were amazing. it started off sounding like the parts that I love from the one-hit-wonder band hum, but it didn't just rest there. they mixed in semi-sonic youth, slint, and yes, even a bit of the more spacey parts of conifer. they had a few spacey repetitous loops, but they would be cut short by guitar riffs that could have been plucked from curtian society's note book, both echoy, sweet, and distance all at the same time. the vocals were VERY sparce.. like conifer sparce. it also helped that I was majorly pumped by the pictures that I took of them. they had a movie playing behind them. The only flaw was something happening to the bass so for 30 seconds while he switched up, they had to perform without him. All in all, their set alone would have made it worth anyone coming to this.. and since they started at 7pm, you could have caught their set and still gone to DeeDee's or whatever other show you were suppose to go to.

heretic's fork: it was at this point that I realized that the movie in the background was a function of the room and not of the first band. definitely not my bag. they were an ok band with a lot of 70's influences that shone through a lot. but over that was a 90's feeling like all the rock bands that sprung out with people trying to sound like stone temple pilots or sound garden just slowed down a few rpms so that it's a bit more proding in spots. Like all the bands that I've heard in this vien, they were very heavy on the floor tom, giving it a semi-indian drum circle sounds that I heard at bars around 96/97. they have a CD coming out at some point, once they finish recording it.

ichabod: the only other time I saw them, I don't remember them being so stoner rock. I had heard from a bunch of people that that is what they sounded like now. needless to say, I was very interested in hearing it. with all the "stoner rock" hype that I heard, they really haven't changed their sounds that much since I saw them. it was basically the same with some fx on the vocals. they had a couple guest singers too. one guy that I didnt know and one guy that I didnt see. I heard from someother people that steve austin came out and sang with them. whether it did happen or not, I don't know. they also had the largest crowd of the whole show.

sumo: they were interesting to watch and the music wasn't that bad either. I guess they share a practice space with blistered earth. the lead singer was in his own little world for most of the set, stamping around the stage almost rocking it to pieces. I don't think it was ready for that at all. the crowd was completely into them too. I'm sure the energy in the room only helped them playing better.

we're all gonna die: I think I saw them at a boston's dead show... or something... their first few songs answer the question what if june of 44 (or slint for that matter) had danzig singing for them. I'm a huge slint fan so that did it for me. the last songs they did slipped more into 70s sabbath sound from there.

today is the day: this is the single best performanace I've seen from them. they played as a 4 piece, featuring the first show from the keyboardist and the drummer. they played songs off all their passed albums, 1..1..1..1...2..2..2..2 it was awesome. including tapes & samples that are in their songs. for those who missed this, you surely missed out.

warning: most of the bands that I'm comparing the bands in this thread to, I haven't listened to since I was 7 and my dad forced me to listen to WBCN before WBCN turned into alt-rock.

suicide contest: this might have been their last show... I heard someone saying that, but I don't really know. they opened up the the show a little later than was announced. that was good cause I got there about 15 minutes late. I will be the first to admit that I'm not a fan of that NH band that everyone in NH is suppose to like, scissor fight. That means that I'm not really a fan of a band that sounds like them, but the msuic they play I'm sure would be rather entoxicating and fun after a couple of those tall PBRs that everyone was enjoying. with that said, I recognized a bunch of the songs from the other times that I've seen them, like living the goon life, osama bin kringle, etc... they seemed to have slathered their music with more sabbath-riffs that make them sound a whole lot heavier than they used to, IMHO. oh, at one point the microphone cut out... but I didn't know that song anyhow. the goose-type stepping on stage was hilarious, imho.

bury the needle: they kicked off their set so immediately that I didn't even know that they were ready to play... right from the start, they were really good. fast, jangly guitars with some feed back tossed into the mix. the only thing that I was down with were the vocals. some times they would drop into geddy lee/rush vocals that typically get on my nerves. at some point, one of the guitarists ended up on the floor, being helped up by an audience member. the drummer kept having to pull his set forward cause the kick drum kept sliding away from him.

septic youth command: compared to all the bands thus far, they were a lot more punky. I guess it really wasn't that far towards the mohawk side of punk, put the songs were more structure that way. they had a couple sing along parts. they also (I think it was a cover) covered an old punk song, no rules. I maybe mistaken though cause I only know the chorus to the song no rules. they had samples leading into and out of each songs and reminded me an aweful lot of disengaged minus the killer metalriffs that is.

ogre: holy 70's rock experience! this was not stoner rock or doom rock, this was straight up rock from the 70s. I thought for a second that led zeplin was back alive and playing. their vocals were a bit weird, but they mixed together a cream sound with some more comtemporary music. you may remember the drummer from his other gig with ocean.

eldemus krimm: 70s rock again. I liked a lot of the material they played. sort of like king crimson. the lead guy was wicked tall and had a beard that was right out of the 70s. a bunch of people came down from the ichabod set and watched them rock out.

wooly mammoth: well, we've heard just about every single type of 70's rock... but now on to deep purple! they reminded me of a nerdy uriah heep/dp only with fewer members, giving them a cleaner sound. there was a lot of long feed back from the uitar which he bent around in frequencies as he bent the strings on his guitar (and bent down to the floor). they've been on tour with dove for a while now. they also have a CD coming out though it's in dispute whether it's coming out september 9th or 20th 2005. I suggest not going to the store until the 20th or you might be disappointed.

dove: more like psych-rock mixed with some newer metalcore feel. the lead singer/guitarist kept almost kicking wade in the head too... just barely missing him.

the_reverend said:
this site needs an emoticon that shows that I'm crying.

you should have gone...

oh, there was also some guy there who used to do head banger's ball...
I think his name was ian.
I probably should have given him a sticker.

some of the randomshots from the "chill room" are of an artist who was there with giger-esque things. actually, really really really giger-esque. like to the extreme.

and I was in the venue thinking to myself "for a 'sweet leaf' festival, I've seen no one doing any illicit drugs" and then I saw someone smoke crack. yeah lowell!

ps: best picture I took all night.

f/9 so his whole arm is in focus!

the_reverend said:

i work in a goddamn motherfucking restarunt waiting tables for ungrateful cunts all night long every friday and satudray night. i always get out just as muy freinds are going to bed. I hate my motherfucking job.

rev-
what about the two you showed me (of Dove)?

Hey, Dave from Ichabod here...thanks so much for coming out Rev! We had a blast, and hope you did too. And thanks to everyone else who came out to this, a fun, successful event on all counts, due to y'all..What a kick to look up during our last song and see Steve Austin in a duet with Ken!!!!!! Good times.

This is Steve Albert (Random Access Theatre (RAT), visuals on the upstairs stage). Had a great time last night and just wanted to thank Dave for the invite as well as everybody who told me they liked what I was throwing on the wall. Definitely good working with Sumo again. If anybody has any feedback about that aspect of the show Feel free to send me an email (SA@picsbysteve.com) or drop by Evos on almost any Thursday night in the upstairs lounge.

Damn that new today is the day drummer did his homework. This show was really fun. I was surprised that more people didn't show up to see today is the day. I mean, they haven't played in forever. Anyway, it was fuckin awesome.

everything from Steve's visuals, the venue itself, and the overall attitude and quality of rock made this undoubtedly one of the year's best shows. Hats off to Dave Ichabod and everyone else involved.

the_reverend said:

These guys are from Maine and I last saw 'em open for Mastodon at the Asylum a while back. What I didn't know then (but found out soon afterwards) was one of my good friends from like 6-8th grade (thereabouts) plays drums for them. Hadn't talked to Stefen in probably 10 years easy so it was cool to briefly catch up with a dude whose house I once rode my bike to with Gene Simmons make-up on.

eldemus krimm is the best name ever. i'm going to name my penis after that.

it's eldemuR Krimm. does that change your mind?

eldemur krimm is a pretty good name, but eldemus krimm is way better. either way, that band has one of the best names around. i had heard of them before, and thought it was eldemur krimm, but the reverend said eldemus and i liked that better.

you take some great fucking pictures!
nice review you wrote on us (presley) and all of the bands

boobtoucher said:

he also plays (or did play) in a rad band from ohio called harlots.

blue said:

and 3 (if i remember correctly) tracks on eyes upon separation's 'i hope she's having nightmares.'

anyone who dug the bands here should check out the boston band the major stars

wade said:

yup. thats him. we played with harlots in indiana. them and eyes upon separation be's some good stuff.

jef fucking lepard

the_reverend said:

good thing that tat is well done. good stuff.

blue said:

more people should know this band. i mean really.

I know a couple harlots, one being blue, but none being the band.

the_reverend said:

Very much so! These guys are way too good and fucking epic to be as unknown as they are.


...and Sweet Leaf was a great time, Ogre and Dove rocked my socks.

the_reverend said:

-blush-

mmm, harlots

I just remembered... dove reminded me quite a bit of RAOV... something with the vocals.

I have to say that I was at this show and IT FUCKING rocked!!!!!! I heard alot about this particular band that is from Providence and I never had a chance to see them, so my buddies and I went to this festival and all the bands kicked ass, but one band stood out upstairs called Heretic's Fork! they are fucking awsome!! dark doom rock, aka (Type O Negative)
Peter Steele would love these guys. thank's HF for a killer show.

Great, great event. I still have an Ogre tune stuck in my head. All the bands were truly excellent and the vibe was incredibly positive.