Having had a direct involvement with America’s first post-rock dedicated festival, dunk!usa, I know first hand how hard it is to mount a successful event featuring largely fringe artists. When you live in my bubble and you book Russian Circles and Pelican to headline a two-day event with 20 more high-quality artists in a town neither of them has ever played before, you can become lulled into the mindset that all you have to do is hang out and watch the tickets sell themselves. When you discover how wrong you are, that location is massively important, that timing is a key factor, that even though a band like Russian Circles seems huge to a nerd like you, the reality is that probably one out of every forty people has even heard of them, it can be kind of a bummer. dunk!usa was an amazing event that not a ton of people had the privilege of enjoying. So when Nason Frizzell of the band PILLARS approached me with the idea of doing Post. Festival – essentially a dunk!usa without the post-rock name value, the first two things I felt were (a) excitement, because obviously I was 100% ready to get back at trying to grow this scene and (b) cynicism, because I knew how my expectations of fan dedication had been flattened somewhat by my previous experiences. As it turns out, I’m feeling a bit better about the state of “post” music in America as of this moment.
In case you missed it, we announced a couple of months ago that Heavy Blog will be sponsoring Post. Festival, the US’s only (and thus also premier) major post-rock/metal/whatever festival on October 19th and 20th at Indiana City Brewery Co. in Indianapolis, IN. The festival is shaping up to be an incredible event, featuring the likes of The Appleseed Cast, Outrun the Sunlight, Heron, This Patch of Sky, and far more. I wanted to talk to the festival organizers about what fans can expect from the weekend, about what makes holding a post-rock festival in the US a more daunting challenge than in Europe, and about why they believe the genre of post-rock is as strong as it’s ever been and only getting stronger.
I guess we’ve hit the doldrums of summer for new music, though you certainly wouldn’t be able to tell that by a look at our most recent Editors’ Picks and Death’s Door columns, which were positively overflowing with good new material. So I’ll revise that: I guess we’ve hit the doldrums of summer for new post-rock. I’m not sure what it is, but July proved to be a struggle to find many releases of note, though what did manage to rise to the top was pretty exceptional. Slower times like these though offer a perfect opportunity to take a look back at some of the bands making waves in the scene in the past year or so and remember why they’re so great, as well as catch up on some things you missed the first time around. And there’s no better vehicle for that than the compilation, which is what makes the timing of the latest edition of one of the best post-rock/metal compilations around from our friends and merch partners at A Thousand Arms impeccable!
When I got my hands on Zaius’s new album for the first time, I was immediately interested in what makes such a band tick. They seemed firmly rooted in the emerging Chicago post metal/rock scene but also of their own type, their music infused in something unique. I jumped on…
We’ve sung the praises of the Chicago metal scene for a while now; there appears to be a current of energy running through that part of the States and it’s bringing us plenty of great music. It seems to be specifically fertile in the areas of instrumental post rock/metal and interesting experimentation within those genres, with bands like Outrun the Sunlight and Sioum released their fair share of evocative music. It appears there’s now another name to be ended to the roster, Zaius. These guys are getting to release their debut album, Of Adoration, via Prosthetic Records on October 6, 2017 and let me tell you, it’s damn good. But why take my word on it? Head on below to hear a track from the very same album!
Schuba’s Tavern is a strong advocate for local performers, offering a stage to bands who just want to spread their music. We’ve covered Outrun the Sunlight quite a lot, and Sioum have recently entered the pantheon of “Heavyblogcore” bands (check out their premiere with us and their Kickstarter!), so what…