Valient Thorr Tour w/ Mastodon, BTBAM, & Baroness!!

Alahoyus to all! just posted a shitload of new dates for the VOLCOM TOUR 2010 featuring MASTODON, BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME, BARONESS, and yes, your favorite Venusians, VALIENT THORR. We are super psyched to do this tour with all these great bands, especially in TONS of cities that we've never even played in. Touring 250+ shows a year for 6 years, and you'd think that we've hit every spot, but there are ALWAYS more spots. And a few of these spots we've only been to a few times, so this is a special treat for us. Another cool thing is its close enough to some of our regular stomping grounds that tried and true THORRIORS can hop in a rig and haul ass for a little road trip action. We'll be playing cuts from our new album that will be finished (not released, but finished) by the time we hit the road. Can't wait to see you all out there! Help us spread the word! Add us on facebook and twitter to keep up with updates straight from my earth communicator device.!!

http://www.facebook.com/valientthorr
http://www.twitter.com/valientthorr

more very soon!
valient himself

Apr. 16 - Charleston, SC - Music Farm
Apr. 17 - Raleigh, NC - Lincoln Theater
Apr. 18 - Richmond, VA - The National
Apr. 20 - Baltimore, MD - Rams Head
Apr. 21 - Sayreville, NJ - Starland Ballroom
Apr. 22 - Hartford, CT - Webster
Apr. 23 - Worcester, MA - Palladium
Apr. 24 - Burlington, VT - Higher Ground
Apr. 26 - Pittsburgh, PA - Palace Theater
Apr. 27 - Rochester, NY - Water Street
Apr. 29 - Grand Rapids, MI - Orbit Room
Apr. 30 - Indianapolis, IN - Vogue
May 01 - Columbia, MO - Blue Note -
May 03 - Albuquerque, NM Sunshine Theater
May 04 - Tucson, AZ - Rialto
May 05 - San Diego, CA - House Of Blues
May 07 - Pomona, CA - Fox
May 08 - Oakland, CA - [to be announced]
May 09 - Reno, NV - Knitting Factory
May 10 - Eugene, OR - McDonald Theater
May 11 - Spokane, WA - Knitting Factory
May 13 - Billings, MT - The Shrine
May 14 - Fargo, ND - The Venue
May 15 - Omaha, NE - Sokol Hall
May 16 - Lawrence, KS - Liberty Hall
May 18 - Madison, WI - Orpheum
May 19 - Urbana, IL - Canopy Club
May 20 - Memphis, TN - Minglewood
May 21 - Knoxville, TN - Valarium
May 22 - Lexington, KY - Busters

Tickets go on sale on Friday, February 12

LO-FI CONSPIRACY (1997-2000)

waaay back in 1997, in Greenville, NC there was a building on the corner of 5th street. This building was Backdoor Sk8park.  A bunch of the dudes from art school had bands, and Backdoor provided us w/ a place to play with touring bands from around the world while local dudes skated, other area bands would play and get drunk and it was pretty much anything goes.  Nitewolf was starting up a band at the time w/ some dudes and they asked me to sing.  Our first show was actually @ the Corner w/ the Spazms, and Bilirubin.  Our second show was at Backdoor w/ the Mommyheds.  Over the course of our run, we played w/ some killer bands, that mostly don't exist anymore, some of which were: the Spazms, Creeping Phlox, the Mommyheds, Bilirubin, Kill the Hippies, NEMO, Blatt Box, the Soccer Moms, F13, King Monkey, Twin Turbo, Justin Little, Exercises in Breathing, Mollycuddle, Read Palms, the Kickass, the Ladderback, Reason of Insanity, DS13, Municipal Waste (super early on), Hank Earl Carr, Bread & Water, Otophobia, Diskonto, the First Step, JRS, Wheelbite, Pretty Little Flower, Berzerk, Crash Smash Explode, Legend of the Overfiend, Party of Helicopters, the Convocation Of..., If It Doesn't Kill You, Question Rig, Prelude to Damnation, Crimescene 13, Wesley Willis, and a ton more i can't seem to think of right now.  Ill post more as they come to me.

Anyway, the other night, I found this little video that either me or our buddy Biggs put together for like an old geocities site in like 1999.  Its got some RARE footage of the Robot Condor, and 3 songs from our only released album.  "Intro", "LOFI", and "Genitalia".  there is a TON more footage that i have on VHS buried somewhere that makes this look even more like shit than it already does... but  I'm pretty sure there are people who will appreciate this.  LO-FI Conspiracy created some stepping stones for us to be where we are today, and when I watch this over ten year old footage, it kind of blows me away how time flies.  LO-FI was: Herbie Abernethy- vocals, Tyler Wolf- bass, Brendan O'Donnell- drums, and DJ Griffin- guitar.  Enjoy, and post thoughts and old pics below if you have any! thanx.

***update: thought of a couple more bands! secret life of machines, and sullenspire. probably more to come.  i should also mention that the whole scene, Peasants, The Percolator, the Attic, the Corner, the "blue room" and all the house parties made the whole vibe for those days something to remember.  thanx for all the feedback!***

Lo-Fi Conspiracy (1997-2000) from valient himself on Vimeo.

if you are into killer jams

hallo.  Do you sit all day @ a cubicle and are bored as shit with your own itunes?  Or are you already an avid listener/DJ on Blip.fm yourself?  Either way, i am concocting a pretty sweet playlist over @ Blip.fm that is based on my old radio show from college entitled, "Rocknowledgy".  you can check it out here: http://blip.fm/ValientHimself

Valient Thorr add another Mastodon show in Paris

Valient Thorr add another show with Mastodon in Paris, France @ Trabendo on July 6th.  It will be Valient Thorr's first show in Paris, so they are excited, and want French girls to come and sweep them off their feet, and feed them, and love them, and hang them up to dry.  Bon Swa.

SXSW recap/ Awesome Band Alert (sxsw edition)

yosoholius.  So sxsw is over, and we are still reeling from it.  Having to take a week off here in Houston so everyone can attend to some personal stuff.  Trying to remember all the shit that we got into.  Here's what i can remember on first thought:

Wednesday:  Roll into town... Rock @ Emo's Annex.  This was probably our best show of the week.  We got the chance to party with different buddies all week long and it started just as we got here.  (Jucifer, Priestess, the Bronx.)  Saw Jucifer play, then we rocked, then we loaded our shit, and then we watched Priestess play.  I have to say their new songs are badass.  Especially "lady killer".  Then we watched the Bronx kill it over @ Red 7.  The next day is such a blur of blown eardrums and sore feet, that ill spare you the details of everything and just give you a list of the complete shows that i saw.

Thursday:  Ironworks BBQ!!  Skeletonwitch.  Avett Brothers.  walk 3 miles.  Roky Erickson!  walk 2 miles.  Radio Moscow.  the Entrance Band.  Flower Travelin' Band!!!  walk 1 mile.  Annihilation Time.  Early Man.

Friday:  I can't even really remember a lot of what was going on this morning, but i do know that I made my way over to see Earthless play w/ J Mascis on extra guitar.  This (unbeknownst to me at the time) was blowing out my fucking eardrums.  They jammed so goddamned hard, and my ears were ringing for over an hour later.  Best thing I saw really.  Hmmm...  Then sometime later we played @ a gay bar.  It was rad, but totally unorganized.  Then we partied it up some more w/ skeletonwitch and all the dude bands over at red 7.

Saturday:  We played a party early style w/ like a round robin setup.  One of the bands scheduled to play apparently went to jail, so our buddies in Golden Error got to play.  And the other bands were Team Robespierre, Cerebral Ballzy, and She Rides.  And somehow after that, we got out of town in time to make it to Houston to see Skeletonwitch yet again w/ Black Tusk, and Kylesa.  So.  My brains are fried.  Just purchased the new Extra Golden cd.

Thanx to all of our friends in every band we saw like Black Skies, and Colossus, and everyone else.  Extra Special thanx to Jeff Hammett and his family for putting us up.  More and More And More soon.

Awesome Band Alert #2

hello, and welcome to another addition of Awesome Band Alert. Today's band's are not new bands, but they are exciting and refreshing nonetheless. I feel that you guys who have not heard about them will be psyched to check them out. These are all bands from the triangle area of North Carolina which consists of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill.  Let's get started.  band#1- the first two bands that we'll discuss played a killer house party (which are very rare in these parts these days) in Raleigh this weekend.  the first one ill talk about is Double Negative. (actually the first band that played was called Whatever Brains, but I missed them.)  So, Double Negative are no bullshit hardcore band that kill it.  Need more info?  how about a video showing them jam?  That should sum it up for you.  Brian Walsby is the drummer and did the art for our Exit Strategy video.  He has a new book (his fourth) coming out on Bifocal Media w/ yet another Melvins "official?" bootleg.

ok. band #2 is the Birds of Avalon.  they are labelmates of ours and put on a hell of a show.  We were all fans of the different bands that they are made up of (Cherry Valence, Dynamite Brothers, Olympus Mons, Pyramid, the Weather, etc.)  and so a few years back, they just started blazing away.  Ive gotten word that they have a new record in the can, and I cant wait to get my filthy paws on a copy.  The new jams and Can cover that they played were awesome @ the party.  This party by the way, was most certainly the perfect example of a how to do up a house party.  You couldn't fit one more person in (even tho they tried).   And there were super young lil dudes just rocking... some so young that they didn't even care about scoring beer, they were just there to party.  That to me, is always a beautiful thing.  It was getting so crazy that the floor was flexing, crackheads were being escorted out to the lawn, and i was starting to get a real "hey now!/old man" type vibe.  Haha.  It was hectic to say the least.  I had beer and confetti (that Craig Tilly- their singer threw out) in my hair, and even the next day some in my bed.

alright, and finally- band #3- Caltrop.  This is one of my favorite bands around right now.  i absolutely love their new album and have been jamming the fucking demos from it since last year.  Jason Lucian Thorr was a drummer in this band in the beginning and will still jam with them from time to time.  Adam Nolton is one of my favorite guitar players in the country and I believe that Sam and him having been writing some amazing licks while this band has been going.  Adam used to have this band called Pegasus while I was living in Chapel Hill about 5 years ago, and I used to love to go get stoned and listen to them jam.  But now, this band is even better, what with Murat from Kerbloki, and other local bands on bass and vocals, and speaking of Sam, I think that with this band, his guitar playing has improved from other bands he's been in, and his goddamn vocals on this are unbelievable.  I feel like this is a weird compliment, but I think the band sounds like Big Business if they wrote Earthless type jams w/ a Hendrix player on guitar and the dude from Soundgarden singing.  In the best way possible.  But they are even better than that, because hendrix didnt have a killer harmony man jamming guitar with him, and theyve got Murat on vox as well as John Crouch on drums.  And that dude is every bit the drummer that Jason was, and is.  Meaning- I hold them both high on my drummer scale.  So yup.  Come out to see them play with us this Sunday @ Tir Na Nog in Raleigh.  Now, all you have to do is check out all these links and you'll become a super genius, like me.

WOW! 2 of my favorites, together!!

man, how come no one ever showed me this before!  I can't believe with as much nerding out over both of them over the years as I've done, that I've never seen any of this footage before.  Now, I HAVE heard of the movie (Human Highway) that they did, and i'm pretty sure the footage of "worried man" that I always see is from that, but I never saw this jam w/ DEVO and Neil Young playing "my my hey hey (into the black)."  Its got Mark Motherbaugh singing as Boogie Boy.  What a gem of a find.  Anyone have a whole copy of this flick?  Time to add it to the list.  Check it out.
Neil Young & Devo

Awesome Band Alert #1/ Today I am 30.

alahoyus.  Today is my thirtieth earth birthday.  and with that, i have a new little thing i'm going to do whenever i see awesome bands.  I don't know how many of you feel this way, but I see a million bands, and I used to get excited and impressed easily, but somewhere along the line, the quality turned into quantity of actual bands that are out there, and the output turned to shit.  Im rarely blown away, and I thought, well, from now on, when I am, Ill tell the world about it.  So, Ill tell you a little about them, and then you click on the links and check them out.  Simple enough, right?  Ok, here we go.  Awesome Band #1 is called Children.  I saw them the other day in the west side in Manhattan.  I believe they are from nyc as well.  I think we should take them out with us.  Pretty intense ripping stuff.  For fans of Early Man, Saviours, and other badass things.  Looks like they are working on a new record.  Awesome Band #2 is from the same town (Orebro) in Sweden that Witchcraft and Truckfighters and Winchester Widowmakers and about a 100 other awesome bands are from.  They are called Dead Man, and they completely blew me away last night.  Swedish prog/folk played now, that is every bit as ripping as any of the bands that you'd find on an Underground Psych comp.  i bought both of their albums.  One of which isn't available in the US.  i believe their 2nd lp, Euphoria, is available in the states on Metro City (im pretty sure anyway, just check their myspace).  The 3rd Awesome Band for this installment is a band from Iowa called Radio Moscow.  I thought these little dudes were just there to see the show last night, and then after dead man ripped, they got up and started grabbing the instruments and commenced to just killing it.  They were so young, and i was tripping out, b/c i thought somehow since I'd hit 30, that now everyone just seemed young and i was an old man... hahaha, but maybe that was the beers.  These kids were pumping out a Blue Cheer meets Hendrix w/ a heavy dose of British blues.  I had discounted them after hearing one single a while back, but obviously I heard the wrong track.  These dudes are solid.  Check these last two out and about right now.  Do not miss them.  alright.  Party On.

new york city recap

holy shit.  too much to tell.  But i have to try.  its been a hell of a week.  Last week after we did the benefit show in Raleigh as Funkadelic, Nitewolf and I split up to Jersey in the Cutlass on one hour sleep to see Metallica.  And I'm here to tell you that they rocked.  No bullshit.  They really killed it.  They played a ton of old stuff and a couple tracks from the new album.  I haven't heard it, but it doesn't really matter to me if it sucks or not.  Live, they pulled it off in the same vein as the old stuff, so it had the fast pounding rhythm that made me like them in the first place.  I dont know any of the shit after the black album, so im not sure if they played any of that or not.  I will say that there wasn't a point where i was like, "well, this one sucks."  and thats a good thing.  Thanx to the Sword for the sweet floor tix.  We were right there ten feet from Hetfield and Hammett.  Nuts.  Then around midnight, we went up to go see our buddies in Golden Error play in Brooklyn.  Then they took us over to this spot that we'd play later in the week called the Shank.  Its a new afterhours warehouse party spot in Brooklyn.  We partied there til it wasn't nighttime anymore.  Butts shaking, everyone just rocking out to some 50s and early 60s 45s thrown down by Jonathan Toobin, all night long.  Then, finally- we slept.  Now, i know i was there for like 4 more days between then and our first show, but to tell you the truth, a lot of it kind of blurs together.  I know that it snowed one day really hard, and it layed and was beautiful, and i know later i fell on the ice and got a nasty bruise on my side.  I know that i had many amazing meals, and i know that i spent too much money in many different ways.  I got fucking ripped off getting my alternator fixed, but thats mechanics in manhattan for ya.  I had some killer pizza @ my buddys spot in Brooklyn called Roberta's.  But i'm blanking on most everything else.  So fast forward a bit, and all the dudes are in nyc now and its a bitter BITTER cold day.  Im saying 20 at the highest.  in the teens for sure, and the wind chill coming off the east river was un-fucking-believable.  We manage get over to the event, and all day we are trying to stay warm.  We play (we slay).  Snowboarders fly thru the air.  Some other band plays.  We drink.  a lot.  a whole lot.  Then things are getting crazy.  I played/ talked video games with Spider-Man's girlfriend for a hot second.  But she wasn't there with Spider-man, she was with some dude who looked more like Elongated Man. Food is served.  Pisses are taken behind the tent.  Models are sucking down our rum.  Little kids are being ushered out.  Drunken howls are loosed.  Pants are dropped (not mine).  Tents are cleared.  I snag a pass to take pics at the top of the ramp.  Its so cold that my legs are knotting up @ the top of this 8 story ramp, and i'm hoping that if i fall, i can fall to the right so that i just end up sliding down this enormous fucking thing.  I wander back over to the stage just as things are wrapping up. The snowboarding goes over time.  Anthrax plays 4 songs, and are shut down for time.  BUT- they did get to play "Bring the Noise" with Chuck D from Public Enemy.  That's a highlight.  So then, after another night in the swank Thompson LES hotel they put us up in, we sit around all day (in my car) waiting to play this party.  And we rocked, and then it was time to split.  Debaucherous.  and really, waay to much to actually recap in a few paragraphs.  I know i'll be remembering shit from this trip for weeks.  So so so good to see all of you characters from all the different time streams of my life.

BONUS.  got to stop in DC for a record fair today.

Valient Thorr is Funkadelic

so, the secret it out.  On Friday, for the Raleigh Undercover, Valient Thorr played a set as Funkadelic.  I have to say, it was one of the most fun things we've done in years.  Thanx to all who came out and supported the Beehive Collective Charity Event.  And thanx so much to Craig from Birds of Avalon, and Murat from Caltrop for coming along for the ride.  Ride on.

obsessed

sometimes i just can't get thoughts outta my head.  I woke myself up this morning worrying about things that are beyond my control.  Once you've done everything possible, you don't have to give up, but you've gotta "stop thinking about it".  that's where joey comes in.

I don't like that owl that lives on the fridge.

ok, so here are some things that i've been doing/thinking.  I don't like the owl that lives on our fridge.  I don't trust owls, and I think they are a symbol for an ancient organization of assholes.  Every time i'm over there getting some cheese or orange juice, he's just sitting there, looking at me.  Moving on- I made some banana bread from this recipe.  It was called "Banana Banana Bread" because you use a lot of bananas in it.  I'm here to report that it was delicious.  Part III- I took a picture of a deer in the backyard today.  Can you see him?  They're really scared to come hang out with us.  Click on the picture to get a better look.  And lemme think, oh yeah,  I drew this girl's picture.  Plus I watched The Wrestler, Alien, and Oldboy.  If you haven't watched Oldboy, its worth renting just for the fight scene alone.  Good Christ, I thought he was never gonna pull that knife outta his back.  Alright.  PS...Part 5, we are gonna be playing in Brooklyn on February 6th w/ Golden Error, Tournament, and Acid Tiger.  Its @ this place called the Shank.  See flyer for address.  $6, total party time.  I'm getting older.

The Kickass blaze Raleigh

This video is from the other night in Raleigh @ the Dive Bar.  maybe turn the sound down just a tad?  Its not bad, just recorded close, so its loud.
Wanna see another? Go here.

Valient Thorr to play NYC w/ ANTHRAX

alahoyus

just confirmed.  Valient Thorr will participate in the 2009 RED BULL SNOWSCRAPERS event.  featuring Shaun White and a bunch of snowboarders, and also ANTHRAX, and Black Gold.  Its in the east river park in manhattan, and best of all, im 99.99% sure its FREE.  so come on out and help me celebrate my 30th earf berf ritual celebration.  plusss- extra top secret secret party on feb 6th.  more about that soon.  keep yer ears on.

greenville visit

went back to gvegas (ehck.. i always hated when people called it that.) yesterday for a little reunionesque action.  Eidan Thorr's other band The Kickass played.  They played with another old gville band, Future Islands.  They reside in Baltimore these days.  Both bands were really killer.  And it was great to see SO many dudes that we haven't seen in a looooong time.  Kudos to Backdoor Skatepark and all the bros for coming outta the woodwork.  See yall again soon.

Also went up to the Art Building to find out about one of my old professor's who i heard had lung cancer.  So many memories crammed into such a short amount of time.  I caught up with a few old professors and stopped by the art supply store before splitting town and bought a giant piece of lineoleum.  Now, i have everything i need to do some lineo prints, some intaglio prints and all kinds of new good shit.  just you wait.

How I spent my New Years Eve

on New Year's Eve, my buddy's in the Avett Brothers asked me to come up and sing a couple jams with them at the Belk Theater in Charlotte. This is one of my favorites.  Thanx to those dudes, and Paleface, and Joe.  We've had a lot of fun over the years.