A Quest for the Wicked

Ten days ago we were all getting excited to release our second single from our current work in progress (due for release in early 2013) and the unshackling was well received. Emerald Lord of Pleasure took too the glorious world as fervently as he was admired. 

Along with the offer of free download (BANDCAMP), the track is conjointly acknowledged in a music video along with some trippy occult satire and heavy doses of rockin'. 

After the online release on Wednesday we made our way to The Mother Fuzzers Ball at Fibbers Magee's in Dublin on Thursday. Ran by an amazing fellow called Matt Casciani, 'The ball aims to serve the pleasure palette of all stoners, fuzzers, groovers and doomers alike. In with all the usual challenges of attracting attention to a new event Matt balances a healthy work life with his own band, Electric Taurus. Fair play to ye man, you're holding the tribe together!

Motherfuzzers on this night was particularly well matched. Kyzyl Kum a stoner doom duo from outside Bordeaux, France, gave us the ultimate fuzzy trip to begin the night. Following were Dublin's own Celestial Burn and these groove merchants fairly brought the pace up a bit. All in all the night was amazing, great fun between the band members and mighty craic all around. 

Here's a shot of the bands and sound engineer Jean-Claude in the greenroom post gig. Massive respect to Jean-Claude, he is easily one of the best engineers in the country and Matt behind the camera. 

Fast forward four days and we're in Auntie Annies after having just setup and had a sound check. The tension builds, positively, as riots spurred by some colored material rage on in Belfast city, a horde of noise loving fiends made their way out to party with us in celebration of our newest release.

If it weren't for the two great acts, Nomadic Rituals and Annapurna the energy in that room would not have been as high to encourage us and the audience together. Such a great response to an equally honest performance. Thank you so much to all for coming out on a cold and damp Monday evening among the ever politically torn northern capital.

And not only this but the pleasing request for an encore bellowed from the audience and after much deliberation and confusion we whipped out a tune that has made the cut for our next release. Here's a wee taste of Urban Brawl, filmed by the guy that directed and produced our first official music video, Stefan McShane.

Nomadic Rituals

Annapurna

So, onward for Astralnaut, Friday the 7th we recommenced recording with Stephen on the drums and Beano Kinneas at the helm. We are continually settings plans for further studio ventures so watch this space.

We have also received some new snaps from our very good photographer friend Tomas McKenna (check out his work here) and we are very pleased, here's a peak but if you wish to see more visit our facebook page

Saturday the 15th of this month see's us back to Kildare for a good oul blow out with our mates from The Phoenix Music Venue. The bill on this night includes friends of ours, 9TH Life along with EdenFire and Taibhse.

Then the last gig of the year for us lads is New Years Eve. This night promises to be a good ole traditional hometown stomper! With Keady's newest birth Only Escapades and longtime scene-riders Chocolate Love Factory, we intend to blow the town away at the tipping point and into 2013 with grooves hanging!
And to end the night in true style we have a very good friend of ours, Vinyl Tap, spinning records until ye cant dance no more.

Keep the hallion hand strong people!

Pearse

Astral Lords OF Singles

So here we go, new single inbound this week.

The artwork for the single is by a wonderful person we had the great pleasure of meeting in Dublin last week. W. Ralph Walters has made some art for American stoner and doom giants such as High On Fire, Groan, Kalas, Thorr Axe and many more.

Ralph was on a journey around our fair isle for a week and he happened to bump into a mutual friend who pointed him in our direction as a gig to see that weekend, the rest is history.

I think its pretty needless to say but we instantly fell in love with what he created for us.

Catch Ralph's podcast (THE CORRIDOR OF DOOM) here or visit his website to view his other fine works of art.



We have a video to accompany the single directed, produced and edited by our good friend Stefan Mc Shane, thanks for all the hard work homeboy. Here's something we've done together in the past:

 Pics from the video shoot:

Also we have a few new pictures shot and edited by the wonderful Tomas Mc Kenna, you can visit his page to witness his other works or if indeed you need a young, eager photographer for..well....anything really, he's mad for it!

Monday 10th December is the date that see's the official release of the single 'Emerald Lord Of Pleasure' on hard copy (limited edition b-side), on this night we will be playing in Auntie Annies in Belfast alongside Annapurna and Nomadic Rituals, all thanks to Kevin McGowan @ two1two promotions. Cheers Kev!

Though if you cant make the gig fear not! We shall be uploading our video and single for free download this week. Watch out on our facebook for the video, set to be unleashed on Wednesday and the free download of  'Emerald Lord Of Pleasure' is to be made available the following day. Keep your eyes and ear holes peeled!

LIMITED EDITION HARD COPIES are available with the single 'Emerald Lord Of Pleasure' and the b-side which is a live acoustic version of our first single 'Back To The Bog'.

Much respect to the lads and their involvement with this single and not forgetting the awesome Clark Phillips @ Great Northern Productions for recording/mixing/mastering and the hallionistic Beano Kinneas for his recording expertise.

Keep 'er lit.
Pearse

...beyond the fields we know

So the last time we talked to y'all we were gearing up for The Mother Fuzzers Ball, Shizznigh's Stiff sessions, a trip to Limerick with the mighty BadRep @ The Blind Pig and we've also since seen the return of Stephen our drummer. Good to see you back homeboy!

    

First off was the Mother Fuzzers Ball hosted by the ever relentless Matt Casciani from Electric Taurus. We had an amazing night at this event with all the lads from Celestial Burn, Matt's own band and stoner rock's German counterparts, Trecker. Fair play to them lads that made it all the way over for the one gig! Here's a shot of all the bands together that night. 

Massive thanks to Ste O Connor / Born Again Nihilist for this video he took on the night, much appreciated man, thank you! If it weren't for this guy the underground and under the radar scene in Ireland may not have as much propulsion. Your a true musical zealot Steve and we love everything that you do, have done and will hopefully continue to do.

This was also the second to last weekend we spent out with our stand in on guitar, Stephen Crozier, if it weren't for him we'd have been performing at either half strength or not at all.

The following week was a shorter trip to Belfast for a session in the Stiff Kitten alongside some wonderful bands and great people partaking in the nights music. 

  

This was also our last night with stand in Steve Crozier, thanks for all the fine work brother. 

We also got new models on this night. showing off their brand new Astralnaut T's here's Alice and Matthew.

The next night we made a trek to Limerick to rock the Blind Pig with Castero all thanks to John @ BadRep.

It was one hell of a journey but thankfully we had some work to do copying some fresh cd's.

We were also down to one guitarist on this night. It wasn't as bad as we'd thought it would be but we certainly dont want to go back to that territory. As fun as it was....

The following week we were happy to spend a night in Newtownards with new friends of ours Baleful Creed, sound lads and some great pumping tunes. Here's to next time lads!! CHEERS! Shout out to Ciderfish and Cavehill, two great surprises for the nights banter. 

Onward we go yet again, the following weekend we got a little session with the mighty Clark Phillips at his studio, Great Northern Productions. Just a final mix on the new single, 'Emerald Lord Of Pleasure' and for a recording session on the b-side which is decidedly an acoustic version of 'Back To The Bog', our first single from our first EP (listen/free /download here!!). Things are coming along nicely and you should be getting the single in a few weeks.

Remember to sign up to the newsletter to get the first sneak peek of the tune before it goes live on the net.

So for the next few weeks we are involved with a few fundraising gigs in aide of a very good friend of ours then we're back on the road. We will be playing Fibbers in Dublin alongside Two Tales Of Woe (Nov 24th) and hopefully before this y'all will have a single to sink your teeth into! In early December (6th) we will also make a return to the Mother Fuzzers Ball.

Keep the hallion hand strong people and we shall see you upon ascension!

Pearse

The Emerald Lord Of Pleasure

So, in the past month we have traversed the length and breadth of the country (and plan to do much the same in the next month), Stephen, our very talented and greatly missed drummer has broken his collar bone in a gnarly skateboarding accident and we've almost wrapped up all that needs to be done for our next release. Good action in a month!

First up, we must apologize to James Loveday from The Distortion Project. Sorry we couldn't make the date on the 14th with Angry Chair, we were greatly looking forward to this gig but due to the unforeseen circumstance of a skateboarding fail! We couldn't perform this night. Thankfully we did have the ability to recover and we got a friend from our hometown of Keady, Mr. Stephen Crozier, to step in on rhythm guitar duties as I was relegated to the drums for the foreseeable future. Having to cancel only one gig in desperate times was certainly not as bad as having to call off our whole schedule.

The following weekend we had the grace of visiting The Walled City once again with our brothers and sisters of Acari and LibidoSwitch. On this night we also fell in with yet another great Northern Irish act that we've never seen before, Dying Breed. These lads really blew us away and I hope we get a chance to play with them again soon.

The next night we were very happy to be making our way to Fibbers in the city of Dublin to play with our muckers from Gacys Threads and By Any Means. This was a seriously pumping affair on this night as the place was buzzin' and so were we. The Gacys and BAM lads hooked off as early as possible due to a lack home comforts over the previous week and a half while on tour. Who could blame you lads!? Fair play!

A week later we were blessed to get the chance to play again in the wonderful Phoenix Music Venue in Kildare with a great band from the Dublin area, Dead Label! before they headed out on a tour of Japan. If anyone out there likes a dose of some seriously aggressive heavy metal laden with pounding beats and chopping, biting guitars then these are your guys.

As well as getting to play an awesome gig with other two other great bands we were very happy that our good friend Sandra Butler put us up for the night, therefore giving us the chance to hang out and get our drink on! Cheers Sandra. Here's a wee snap of our handsome merch stall on the night. Unfortunately the shot got wrecked by a couple of hairy bastards. ;)

Last weekend was our first without a gig in about ten weeks so we decided to make a move on tracking some vocals for the much awaited second EP. As Stephen may be out for another month we've decided to go ahead and release one of the songs from the EP in single format with a B-side, an acoustic version of our first single 'Back To The Bog'.

The single alone will be available for free download or you can pick up a hard copy of the tune which will include artwork and B-sides for the small fee. Release date to be set.

Onwards for Astralnaut however as we are glad to be apart of a new event night in Dublin. The Mother Fuzzers Ball, ran by a delightful Italian fellow called Matt Casciani. 

Matt plays for an equally delightful band called Electric Taurus. He's taken it upon himself to host a night praising all things FUZZ, STONER, DOOM, SLUDGE and GROOVE. 

He has also received sponsorship for his event from Molten Magazine, Fuzzed Out Radio and the organizations Stoner Rock Dublin / Desert Rock Ireland and also the Some Neck Guitar Company based in the fair city. Good on ye Matt.

The following week were are very happy to be opening proceedings at Shizznigh Promotions brand new night in the Stiff Kitten, playing alongside the hardcore fiends Lantern For A Gale and Lurgan rockers PsychoJet. So get on down to this for a nights drunken malarkey. 

If you're in Limerick, the night after this we will be rattling a few bones in the Blind Pig. Come on down for i hear it'll be a wild stoney session!

Here's hoping we're back on form by the time you hear from us again,

Pearse

Astralnaut - Trampions of the World

It been almost a month since we've made a blog entry, A MONTH! Things must be getting hectic or something...

Since the last time you heard from us we have had many great nights, meeting some awesome people, being involved in some pretty messy late night parties and early morning kitchen raids. 

Lurgan town was hit hard on the 17 of August and we had the pleasure of playing alongside Jekyll and Hyde for their first ever showing and also the ever amazing Katabolisis. If any of you enjoy some seriously crushing riffs and an even more brutal live performance, check these guys out, IMMEDIATELY! 

The following week we were very excited to be making the trek back up to Omagh to play a gig for Uproar Omagh which is ran by the true local music zealot Gary Todd. On the bill this night were the impressively rockin' Hesh and local heavyweights Axis Of. But i think the most memorable thing about this night for the band (and possibly for all the bands) was the Doom Chicken squad. Fair play to you lads, you made our night in Omagh and we hope to meet with you all again very soon. 

The next night we flew ourselves to The Warzone in Belfast and we instantly fell in love with this place. Its DIY atmosphere and everyone that works as a part of this amazing collective make gigging here comfortable and fun for all involved. 
The night we played was the second to last night of the illustrious Warzone Fest which lasted a whole week and hosted performances from Dead To Me (US), Gascan Ruckus, Empty Lungs, Roysta, Gacys Threads, Putrefaction, 1000 Drunken Nights, Pocket Billiards and Runnin' Riot. 

Our next outing was another wild and wonderful evening. The people of Derry City always give us a wonderful buzz and an even stronger reaction ever single time we play there. On this night we shared the stage alongside the band we popped our walled city cherry with, Libido Switch. Not much can be said about this band for its just something you have to experience but it goes without saying that you will get a severely aggressive dose of honesty out of these hallions. 

Massive thanks to Aidy and Squinty for the party, the folks from Acari and Balls Deep and all the other mad cunts from Derry for making our night that bit more interesting. Also, we really appreciate the Derry City Independent Hostel for not booting us out over our late night antics, kitchen raiding and tempo mapping snores, needless to say little sleep was had this time around. 

Now, onto the recent movements, The Pavilion in Belfast on Saturday night. I, personally, am speechless. First of all big thanks to Amelia at Dark Horse Promotions for the slot. Second of all, FYLTH WYZZARD!! "What the absolute fuck just happened!?", was the general thought. It was just as they said, a 30 minute sound check. If you were in the mood for a galactic oddessy this was the set to catch. 
Next was Spiral Force, full on bluesy hard rock with a pinch of the Egyptian desert in there for good measure. The lads never fail to impress and on this night they were very much on their game. Check out Amun Ra for a taste of what you'd be in for in the future.
Now the massive shock of the night was a band that traveled all the way from Cork. On public transport!! That's impressive. Iweriu blew the whole place apart with their strange mix of drone, stoner, doom and dark ambiance. Most notable was their front man's performance, to talk to you would not imagine what you witness in his stage presence. Great job lads. 

As we roamed the streets of Belfast, randomly bumping into friends along the way, we feared we may be making use of the nearest bus shelter but thanks to a good friend of Gaz's we had place to sleep with a roof over our heads, regardless of the cardboard box blankets. 

Onward for gigs, this Friday we prepare for another siege on Belfast, we are happy to be playing alongside the awesome Angry Chair, Dublins tribute to Alice In Chains. The following week we make a return to Derry to rock alongside our brother and sisters from Acari and Libido Switch on friday the 21st and on the 22nd we head to Dublin. On this night we will be supporting By Any Means and Gacys Threads on the penultimate date of their European Assault which starts tomorrow. Have a blast lads, we'll see you soon ;)

         



















It'll be a great rip of shows so come on out for the wreckin' and some banter over pints!


Pearse

DRINK “THE ASTRALNAUT”... alone if you like!!

The Cally, August 11th

Enjoy “The Astralnaut” as you rock out alone or with friends!

"The Astralnaut" all you need to make it is a bottle of Banijiu! 

Unfortunately bottles of Banijiu will not be available at gigs but we have lots of lovely new merch which you can pick up at our gigs! 

Consisting of tee-shirts, stickers, CD's and other little trinkets! 

There was no drinking alone at the weekend anyway! There was no Banijiu either for that matter! But plenty of pints! And plenty of rocking!! A great weekends craic on local turf!! And we had our good friend Tomas McKenna on site to document the affair!

The Cally, August 11th

More great live shots to come!! 

A powerful show with compatriots in rock! We hope to repeat it again real soon. All the bands played a blinder but in-case you missed it check them out for yourselves...

who's reputation precedes them and the legends from Lurgan!

Now that Keady has been shook once more we move on! This weekends helping of Astralnaut will be served in Lurgan and will feature the debút of a new Lurgan outfit Jekyll and Hyde... prog/funk metal ! Can’t wait to check them out!

It’s going to be a good one!! We’ll bring the beer, you bring the Banijiu! 

Hope to see you there!

Cheers

Thomas