Moths and Locusts
Nanaimo, Canada | Established. Jan 01, 2011 | INDIE
Music
Press
Psych-rock bands take over the Legion
Julie Chadwick, The Daily News
Published: Friday, February 22, 2013
With work on hundreds of albums and dozens of collaborations, the trio of musicians in the instrumental psych-rock band Rangda bring a range of experience and sound to their latest musical effort.
The release of their second album Formerly Extinct in September of last year confirms that this collaboration is one that may be around for a while for guitarists Sir Richard Bishop and Ben Chasny, and drummer Chris Corsano.
The show they bring to Nanaimo March 1 also marks the beginning of another potentially prolific collaboration, as it is the first in a series of local shows to be put on by Dave Read the Vinyl Record Guru and Jack Tieleman of Lance Rock Records. Tieleman is also the former owner of Black Ball Records from back in the mid-'90s.
"I did an Evaporators show at Fascinating Rhythm before Christmas, and that was sort of the impetus to put on the promoter's hat again," said Tieleman.
The show features both the U.S.-based Rangda and local acts from Nanaimo and Victoria. The instrumental psych-rock stylings of Rangda come from the members' extensive work in other indie bands.
Drummer Chris Corsano has worked with many avant-garde jazz musicians and Bjork, and Sir Richard Bishop is best known for his work as a solo artist and member of Sun City Girls. Ben Chasny is also busy with the bands Six Organs Of Admittance and Comets On Fire.
The idea of the event is that the international indie music pedigree of Rangda not only makes it a great show but also helps promote the local bands involved, said Tieleman.
Both Moths & Locusts and Colliding Canyons from Nanaimo will also perform, as well as High Arctic from Victoria and "They aren't necessarily household names as far as musicians that would come to our town. So part of our mandate would be to bring things that people haven't heard of, necessarily, to expose them to it," said Tieleman. "To give them that opportunity to see something that they may not ordinarily see in town or that they would have to travel to see. Rangda for example aren't playing in Victoria, but are playing here and in Vancouver."
Future plans for shows will include some all-ages events, though this event is not all-ages. Rangda with Moths & Locusts, High Arctic and Colliding Canyons are at the Harewood Legion, Royal Canadian Legion Branch #10, 129 Harewood Rd. on March 1. Tickets are $10 advance, $12 at the door at Fascinating Rhythm on Commercial Street.
jchadwick@nanaimodailynews.com
- Nanaimo Daily News/Harbour City Star
Psych-rock bands take over the Legion
Julie Chadwick, The Daily News
Published: Friday, February 22, 2013
With work on hundreds of albums and dozens of collaborations, the trio of musicians in the instrumental psych-rock band Rangda bring a range of experience and sound to their latest musical effort.
The release of their second album Formerly Extinct in September of last year confirms that this collaboration is one that may be around for a while for guitarists Sir Richard Bishop and Ben Chasny, and drummer Chris Corsano.
The show they bring to Nanaimo March 1 also marks the beginning of another potentially prolific collaboration, as it is the first in a series of local shows to be put on by Dave Read the Vinyl Record Guru and Jack Tieleman of Lance Rock Records. Tieleman is also the former owner of Black Ball Records from back in the mid-'90s.
"I did an Evaporators show at Fascinating Rhythm before Christmas, and that was sort of the impetus to put on the promoter's hat again," said Tieleman.
The show features both the U.S.-based Rangda and local acts from Nanaimo and Victoria. The instrumental psych-rock stylings of Rangda come from the members' extensive work in other indie bands.
Drummer Chris Corsano has worked with many avant-garde jazz musicians and Bjork, and Sir Richard Bishop is best known for his work as a solo artist and member of Sun City Girls. Ben Chasny is also busy with the bands Six Organs Of Admittance and Comets On Fire.
The idea of the event is that the international indie music pedigree of Rangda not only makes it a great show but also helps promote the local bands involved, said Tieleman.
Both Moths & Locusts and Colliding Canyons from Nanaimo will also perform, as well as High Arctic from Victoria and "They aren't necessarily household names as far as musicians that would come to our town. So part of our mandate would be to bring things that people haven't heard of, necessarily, to expose them to it," said Tieleman. "To give them that opportunity to see something that they may not ordinarily see in town or that they would have to travel to see. Rangda for example aren't playing in Victoria, but are playing here and in Vancouver."
Future plans for shows will include some all-ages events, though this event is not all-ages. Rangda with Moths & Locusts, High Arctic and Colliding Canyons are at the Harewood Legion, Royal Canadian Legion Branch #10, 129 Harewood Rd. on March 1. Tickets are $10 advance, $12 at the door at Fascinating Rhythm on Commercial Street.
jchadwick@nanaimodailynews.com
- Nanaimo Daily News/Harbour City Star
Traveling between ethereal effervescence and mind bending sonic tsunamis, Mission Collapse in the Twin Sun Megaverse goes straight for the third eye and converts precious grey matter into a psychotropical fruit smoothie. - BC Musician Magazine
The verbosely-titled debut LP from Nanaimo’s local psych-rockers is as ambitiously-named as it is ambitiously orchestrated. The name brings about images of some sci-fi rock epic, and to some degree this could very well be the soundtrack to an intergalactic outing. Musically, the album draws from the well of psych-rock and post-rock, with a heavy focus on guitars above all else. The band also doesn’t seem to factor in restraint — and that isn’t a bad thing. A band that isn’t afraid to put eight-minute tracks alongside two-minute ones shows a certain amount of courage. - Grayowl Point
Motionless yet stormy rhythmic changes fuzz your perception of time. ... Just when you’ve figured out the feeling that has swallowed your body, another clean and heavy riff presents a solitary black hole from which gravity prevents any of your insanity from escaping - Weird Canada
Discography
Helios Rising LP - To Be Released May 2016
A Ram Named Drama Split 7" with Public Animal - 2015
Mission Collapse in the Twin Sun Megaverse LP - 2013
Seven Potatoes - Damo Suzuki Live in Nanaimo - 2013
Nero's Tale Split 7" with The New Colours - 2013
Escape from Sector C - 12" vinyl EP - 2012
The Astronomical Significance of ... 7" vinyl - 2011
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Moths and Locusts
are diehard space-rock explorers hailing from the pulsating heart of Vancouver Island. They create dynamic, heavy, melodic, fuzz-drenched explorations of the inner and outer cosmos inspired by their love of psychedelia, Krautrock, science fiction, vinyl records, and delay pedals. Trance inducing dream-scapes intertwine with visceral blazing garage rock bangers and all elements of the intervening spectrum are sampled. Always over the groove, always.
The early years of Moths & Locusts brought a steady stream of west coast shows and two self-produced 7"s, one split with Victoria's New Colors. The band's passion for unique physical products saw a buzzing lock-groove on the first single and a rare concentric grooves approach to the split where two versions of Nero's Tale lie side-by-side and the luck of the needle drop determines which one is played.
In 2011 the band set up camp at the Noise Floor Studio and with engineer Jordan Koop at the controls recorded a flood of material with an album's worth of arranged songs and hours of improvised jams and experiments. The following months found the boys in their home studios and their beloved jam space "The Republic of Doom" layering, arranging and whittling down to hours of audio to the essential moments. The first release of this material was a 12" 45rmp EP of a sprawling jam Escape from Sector C where the B-side is a vinyl-only version of the same song played in reverse. It is affecting both ways, but differently.
The epic first full-length album was released in 2013 and given a suitable title - Mission Collapse in the Twin Sun Megaverse. The gatefold cover and coloured vinyl are works of art unto themselves. The album was very well-received and spent time on Earshot's national charts. 2013 also saw the band sharing the stage with some high profile veterans, starting with psych-prog heavyweights Rangda, and rocking the main stage at the Quadrapalooza
festival.
The summer of 2013 brought an unbelievable opportunity - Moths & Locusts was the backbone of a psych-rock orchestra, including members of Colliding Canyons and Wolf Parade, backing legendary Can vocalist Damo Suzuki. A multi-track recording of the improvised set to a sold-out crowd beautifully captured the creative alchemy of the night and later that year the 2XLP Seven Potatoes - Damo Suzuki Live in Nanaimo was distributed to krautrock devotees around the world.
Two studio sessions followed - one at Lap of Luxury in Victoria in the fall of 2014 and to the re-located Noise Floor on Gabriola Island in the spring of 2015. Another mountain of music was distilled over months in the laboratory to extract the mind altering substances contained within. More highlights of this period include opening for godfathers of grunge Mudhoney, and a packed Vancouver show with Dan Boeckner's band Operators.
A 2014 Vancouver Island show with Canadian journeyman Ian Blurton's new band Public Animal was a meeting of kindred spirits and plans for a split 7" were realized in 2015 timed with a shared western Canadian summer tour. The outro of each band's song is the intro to the other's making a seamless circle of sound. After the tour Moths & Locusts set to work on finishing LP #2.
Mastered by legendary engineer Bob Weston, Helios Rising will be released in May 2016 on NoiseAgonyMayhem Records and Sunmask Records. The album's eight tracks cut a wide swath from catchy and convulsive fuzz-rock freakouts through mid-tempo mood-setting jams to the just plain strange. The album is an artful sonic journey, a stoner-rock album for the thoughtful, and a passionate assertion that the avenues of creative exploration remain boundless.
Band Members
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