What Way Out West is really about? Down to the bone? Here’s the Kentuckyseven Experience. Buckle up.
Giant and their boots-cover-LP. The porcelain toilet of the press centre. To dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free. Warm sun, cold beer. The search for Jason Isbell. Walking down Linnégatan in the rain. The drugs. The girls. The greatest song on Appetite for destruction.
The apartment in Kullavik Centrum where it all started. The side burns of Woody-Kim. Sturgill Simpson, the ruler of our kingdom. The tears. The bus rides. The search for Jack White. The pitch dark Father John Misty chatting away. Grey Goose served by Rocky Balboa. A sweaty small stage of Pustervik.
Photo: Olof RIngmar
Photo: Olle Kirchmeier
The uncertain uniformity. The Tallest Man On Earth Olof Lundh. The afternoon talks about producer Dave Cobb. The Canadian Fireball’s. The search for Ray LaMontagne. The intense smell of urine. The ducks of the lake. Late nite work in a deserted pressroom. Pizza at midnight, then Burgers at four.
Photo: Jonas Löfvendahl
The eternal beauty of Emmylou Harris. The bond of a 30 year-old friendship. Making money of gunslinging ponchos with Zlatan and The Epic Split. Talks of Vince Neil. Reunions. The next year, the WOW-decade. The missing of dead friends. The search for Ryan Adams.
Straight outta Birmingham, Alabama, meet the … Banditos and the intense, powerful, violent voice of Mary Beth Richardson. Goddammit.
Their self-titled debut full-length album is out this spring and layered with as much grime as it is with pinpoint songwriting and feverish technical savvy. Each song wafts new dynamics into a streamlined stylistic roots, punk, and rock ‘n’ roll jet stream.
As a Friday Special: Check out Banditos perform I Put A Spell On You live in Nashville, Tennessee. If this don’t get you moving, don’t get you emotionally addicted to the soul of great music – what will?
• John Moreland is back with another great record. The big man from Tulsa, Oklahoma got a rhythm and a rime to knock us down and out. It’s a beautiful record, poetry and songs combined into angelic bliss.
Try this live version of Hang Me in the Tulsa County Stars.
• Swedish singer-songwriter and bluesman Daniel Norgren startade out as a one-man-band. His latest record takes two steps back from the frusting-stomping and one big leap into divine folky-earth. This is Fleet Foxes in the hands of eternity. Pure genius.
Check out his newly released album Alabursy – and try the hollow, powerful song Like There Was A Door.
• Ellen Sundberg is a young & fabulous, great & swedish, americana super star in the making. Her new album White smoke and pines is out – produced by no less then the bearded wonder of Israel Nash on his farm outside Austin, Texas.
Check out great song Vägen är lång (The Road Is Long) who takes an epic turn switching from english to swedish in a quite stunning way. Way to go (grymt), Ellen!
• WULF is a brilliant London three-piece indie rock band will release their debut single ’Fire’ on December 1st through BMG Chrysalis. Enjoy a early listen, right here on Kentuckyseven. It’s a catchy, piano driven gem for sure.
The song is from the band’s debut EP ’Lairs’ (due for release Spring 2015) and we dig references as Black Keys, White Stripes, James Vincent McMorrow, Cold War Kids and Band of Horses. Golden, that is.
Lemmy Kilmister has had a rough ride. You can tell by looking at the man. He gets upon stage with local boy Mikkey Dee on drums and guitar-man Phil Campbell in a BK Häcken-shirt (give the guy a GAIS-shirt for crying out loud!) and the gig is on. We get Killed By Death and Ace Of Spades and Lemmy sings his weary tunes and raffles the bass guitar. The trio knows what to do, they have been on this highway forever, and deliver the goods. No more, no less.
The National
4/7
”Very lukewarm”
Photo: Annika Berglund
The National never takes off this night in Slottsskogen. They got stuck at the mellow point and can´t crack us down. It´s all very lukewarm. Singer Matt Berninger got his deep beautiful voice but the band isn’t delivering headliner-goods. Songs I Need My Girl and Fake Empire hits us hard, but we want more. More emotions! I want a night to remember, but The National wont give. When Berninger gets into the crowd in the end with the world longest cord it’s absolutely lovely, but too little and too late.
Queens of the Stone Age
7/7
”Pure dynamite”
Photo: Olle Kirchmeier
QOTSA are amazingly powerful tonite. What a bumper tornado ride! Josh Homme is a monster on stage; one second a rock’n’roll god and the other a disco queen. They start of with hits as No One Knows and follows up with Go With The Flow and If I Had A Tail and Monsters In The Parasol and I Sat By The Ocean and The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret and I can go on and on and on. Jack White, Deer Tick, Foo Fighters and other great bands take their dig at classic rock. This night is all of the above, pure dynamite!
Tomorrow hell breaks loose in our home town of Gothenburg, Sweden.
• We sure look forward hanging out with the fine young men of Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires:
• Or with the legend-AAAARY dude Seasick Steve:
• Or the airy sweetness of Kurt Vile:
Wonderful stuff as Conor Oberst, Motörhead, Queens of the Stone Age, Bo Ningen, Neko Case, Bill Callahan and Broken Twin are ahead. Giddyup, Way Out West.
• Joel Borg is the ear on every street. He´s the talk of the town, the shit of the fan, the mojo of hobos. He’s also on of the whizz kids behind Way Out West and we got a minute of his time.
1. Thursday is close. What’u doing up til then?
– I’m in Stockholm today. We’re having Neil Young, GOAT, Magic Numbers, Seun Kuti and more today at Stockholm Music & Arts. Will be super. The sun is shining and the beer is cold, says Joel Borg.
2. Any personal favorite bookings this year?
– Mac DeMarco, The Growlers, Mos Def and Darkside, Elliphant, The Horrors, Holograms, Hurula, Jaakko Eino Kalevi, Kurt Vile, Les Big Byrd, Södra Sverige, MÖ, OutKast and like 100 others. Also, the film programme is fucking ace.
3. We are really looking forward to Friday night, Broken Twin and Kurt Vile tearing down the opera house of Gothenburg. Thoughts on the operetto gigs?
– Yes. Me too. We love challenging peoples thoughts. And we love having artists in forums/venues they might not play in everyday. But maybe mostly, having people over at places they never been to before. The Opera House is right in the center of the City but I can almost promise you most of the Way Out West audience that will be at Kurt Vile next week have probably never seen anything there before.
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• Thanks to brother Joel – and check out one of his fav WOW-bands this year below. The Growlers is a Cali-band with that funky cool garage/psych-vibe we adore. Try the song Humdrum Blues and go see them Friday nite at 23.45 @ Stay Out West.
