The Sonic Road Podcast

Pepper Keenan and Kirk Windstein of DOWN talk Volume V (Nuclear Blast, Nov 20), King Diamond on "Merciful Fate," and five two-inch reels from the NOLA sessions that still need to be baked and digitized. They aren't sure what else is on them.

Volume V is DOWN's first full-length since 2007, and they made it the old way: two rhythm guitars tracked live in one room, no click track, Phil Anselmo calling the turnarounds, and a mix built on "think Back in Black." We also cover the "Ozz" tribute to Ozzy Osbourne, open tunings, co-producing with Eddie Mapp at Nodferatu's Lair, Dave Fortman's mix, why they signed to Nuclear Blast, Pepper's possible solo album, and recording Down II in 28 days.

Plus: The Great NOLA Trendkill, DOWN's release show, Nov 20–21 at Lakefront Arena with Pantera, Black Label Society, COC, Power Trip, Crowbar, Eyehategod and more. Underground picks at the end: Blast and RĀDE.

Pre-order Volume V: shop.nuclearblast.com/products/down-volume-v 

Bandcamp: downofficial.bandcamp.com/album/volume-v 

Great NOLA Trendkill tickets: down-nola.com 

Nuclear Blast Records: nuclearblast.com 

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#DOWN #PepperKeenan #KirkWindstein #VolumeV #PhilAnselmo #NewMusicAlert

Rival Sons drummer Michael Miley is back for a long conversation about drumming, jazz, and what's ahead for the band.

Rival Sons drummer Michael Miley is back for a long conversation about drumming, jazz, and what's ahead for the band.

Michael Miley Patreon drum course: https://www.patreon.com/cw/mileyondrumz

Rival Sons tour dates: https://www.rivalsons.com/home/#jump

Rival Sons Official: rivalsons.com

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Miley gets into the student approach that still drives him — working with Dave Elitch back in 2015 on posture and body mechanics, checking in with him annually, and why the gospel chops generation on social media keeps pushing the bar higher for everyone.

He covers the 2013 John Bonham comparison that came out during the Great Western Valkyrie period and what it pushed him to do, and how jazz comping from players like Max Roach, Philly Joe Jones, and Art Blakey shows up in how he plays with Rival Sons.

He also talks about the Mike Miley Trio — a jazz Christmas album paying tribute to Vince Guaraldi and the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack, with jazz vocalist Veronica Swift singing "Christmas Time Is Here" in one take, out Black Friday on Sacred Tongue Records.

Plus five years as the house drummer on Last Call with Carson Daly, playing Letterman on tour, Tomas Haake of Meshuggah tracking him down to talk ghost notes, the story behind Jordan from Head Down, and the Domestic Bliss Tour kicking off October 30.

Rival Sons' 10th album and the Dom Gilday documentary are both targeting a 2027 release.

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro

5:30 Rock report from Milwaukee — Howling Giant, Greenleaf & ticket prices

18:00 Pat Smear, Nirvana & the MTV Video Vanguard controversy

28:00 Neil Peart documentary No Disciple

33:00 Michael Miley interview begins

35:00 The student approach — being the best version of yourself as a player

42:00 The 2013 John Bonham comparison

48:00 Four-piece kit setup and additions on Darkfighter / Lightbringer

55:00 Dave Elitch, posture & fixing injury through technique

1:04:00 Teaching philosophy and the Patreon foundations course

1:14:00 Jazz drumming in a rock context

1:24:00 The Rival Sons rhythm section with Dave Beste

1:32:00 Mike Miley Trio — Vince Guaraldi Christmas album and Veronica Swift

1:40:00 Rival Sons 10th album and the Dom Gilday documentary

1:46:00 Jordan and how Beau found Rival Sons

1:52:00 Playing Letterman and five years on Last Call with Carson Daly

2:04:00 Rock, social media and the music industry

2:18:00 Domestic Bliss Tour 2026 and Cleveland

2:26:00 Wrap up

Use AI as a tool, not a crutch. That's the line at the center of this no-guest episode of The Sonic Road Podcast — a conversation about making real art in the AI age and why the analog world is set to come back stronger because of it.

In this episode:

The "barbell" idea — letting AI handle the admin and spreadsheet side so artists can protect the creative side — and what goes wrong when people lean on it as a crutch, including a booking email so obviously AI-generated it cost the sender the gig.

The graphic art behind music: concert posters, hand-drawn and hand-painted work, album covers, and the artists doing it right, from Branca Studio to Harrison Colby to Dave Wilson's graphic novels.

Calvin and Hobbes and Bill Watterson's Ohio roots and refusal to license, Get Fuzzy and the lost art of the newspaper comic, why digital amps can sound "too perfect," the room sound you can't recreate with a plugin, and the open question of who owns a song made with a tool like Suno.

The business side — simple one-page label contracts and a "love and affection" clause built on mutual respect, the collaborative spirit of the indie scene, venues sharing knowledge to make their rooms more accessible, and the algorithm churn that pushes the show to build community through its newsletter instead.

Plus quick hits on Moon Destroys on tour with The Well, Vader closing on Slayer's "Raining Blood," Mr. Bison, and Mastodon's first record without Brent Hinds.

The Sonic Road Podcast: thesonicroad.com | @thesonicroad on all platforms

Mr. Bison — the Italian four-piece from coastal Tuscany — join The Sonic Road Podcast to talk about their new album The Garden of Forgotten Dreams, out September 25th on Heavy Psych Sounds.

In this episode:

How the band formed as a trio in 2009, lost their bass player after a year, and spent two or three years playing as two guitarists using an octave-split solution — a setup built for the Clutch and Fu Manchu influences behind their early sound.

The lineup change that pushed them out of straight stoner rock into the psychedelic and progressive territory they work in now, closer to bands like Elder.

The mythology concepts behind past records — the Tyrrhenian Sea legend on Seaward, Norse non-linear time on Echoes From the Universe — and why The Garden of Forgotten Dreams steps away from a storyline toward something more intimate and mood-driven, using the garden as a metaphor for refuge and the things we keep hidden until we're ready to share them.

The singles "The Cosmic Tide" and "Bright Shadow," recording live from jams at their own studio in Tuscany, tracking drums first, and working with Richard Behrens at Big Snuff Studio in Berlin — the engineer behind Elder's Through Zero — who pushed them to track with no reverb, delay, or effects. Carl Saff mastered the record, with Adam Ayan mastering "Bright Shadow."

Plus the reality of the scene in Italy, touring Europe from tiny smoky clubs to festival stages, cutting long songs to fit festival sets, hopes for a return to America and a KEXP session, and the underground bands they think deserve more attention.

Order The Garden of Forgotten Dreams: mrbison.bandcamp.com/album/the-garden-of-forgotten-dreams
Mr. Bison: @mrbison_band | facebook.com/mrbisonband | lnk.bio/MrBISON

The Sonic Road Podcast: thesonicroad.com | @thesonicroad on all platforms

Juan Montoya (ex-Torche) and Evan Diprima (ex-Royal Thunder) of Moon Destroys join The Sonic Road Podcast to talk about the band's new album Omni, out September 4th on Blues Funeral Recordings, and the new chapter that came with adding Zach Amster of Abrams on lead vocals and rhythm guitar.

In this episode:

How meeting Zach Amster on the road in 2025 changed everything, and why Omni is shorter, catchier, and more immediate than She Walks by Moonlight.

The origins of Moon Destroys, the debut EP with guests Troy Sanders, Paul Masvidal and Bryan Richie, the breakout 2025 run touring with Elder, Dozer and The Sword, and signing with Blues Funeral Recordings after connecting with Jadd Shickler.

The making of the record — the Type O Negative and Nine Inch Nails textures on "My Eyes," keeping it DIY with Evan recording in-house, Mario Quintero of Spotlights on the mix and master, and the analog, less-is-more approach.

Plus the state of the heavy underground in 2026, why albums beat singles, the venue merch-cut problem, and the upcoming US tour with The Well — including a Cleveland stop at the Beachland Ballroom where the band plans to play Omni nearly in full.

Order Omni: moondestroys.bandcamp.com/album/omni
Moon Destroys on Blues Funeral: bluesfuneral.com

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Chris and Conner Poole — the two brothers behind Nashville DIY heavy psych duo Materializer — join The Sonic Road Podcast to talk about their debut album As the Body Flies, out October 2nd on Bandcamp.

Materializer is the next chapter after nearly nine years as The Swell Fellas. This episode traces the whole arc — from playing Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath covers in Ocean City, Maryland bars, to booking DIY tours in a 1991 Chevy van, to the move to Nashville in 2020 after Ben McLeod of All Them Witches invited them out to record. It's also the first episode with Becky Franzel officially co-hosting, making a duo interviewing a duo the right way to kick things off.

In this episode:

How Materializer built a genuinely heavy sound as a two-piece, running a pair of '70s Silverface Fender Twin Reverbs with sub-octave low end, all analog, mostly in drop C.

The writing and recording of As the Body Flies — tracked at their home studio with drums cut at Gnome Recording and mixed by Ben McLeod — and where the album title comes from, pulled from a lyric at the end of the second track, "Walking Home."

What watching bands like All Them Witches, King Buffalo, YOB and Cave In up close taught them about leveling up, the state of the Nashville underground in 2026, phone-bagging shows and the fight for presence in a room, why they chose the name Materializer, the reality of running a fully DIY band on night-shift jobs and endless emails, and the freedom and uncertainty of starting something new after nine years in one project.

If you care about DIY heavy music, analog tone, van life on the road, and bands doing it entirely on their own terms, this one is for you.

Materializer: materializerband.com | materializer.bandcamp.com | @materializerofficial

The Sonic Road Podcast: thesonicroad.com | @thesonicroad on all platforms

Becky Franzel officially joins The Sonic Road Podcast as co-host, and she and host Beau open up about what led to this new chapter. They talk about building a real community around music conversations, the shift from Zoom interviews to in-person recording, and how Becky's ties to Milwaukee's rock scene will bring fresh stories to the show. It's the start of a new era for this stoner rock, heavy psych, and independent music podcast.

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Concert ticket prices are up 41% since 2019, tours are getting canceled across the country, and unsold seats are showing up on Ticketmaster maps everywhere. John Gist — founder of Vegas Rock Revolution and creator of Planet Desert Rock Weekend — is building the opposite of all that.

John spent years running marketing departments for Marriott and Wyndham before leaving the corporate world to promote heavy rock in Las Vegas. Seven years in, Planet Desert Rock Weekend has become one of the most carefully curated independent heavy rock festivals in the United States.

In this episode:

Pollstar data shows the average concert ticket went from about $96 in 2019 to nearly $136 by 2024. John breaks down where that money actually goes, how Ticketmaster and Live Nation operate, the role artist management plays, and why bands get blamed for prices they don't set.

Why fewer companies controlling more of the industry is a problem, why marketing spend separates bands who sell tickets from bands who play to twenty people, and what "blue dot fever" says about the current touring market.

The philosophy behind Planet Desert Rock Weekend: one stage, no overlapping sets, twenty minutes between bands, full 45 to 60 minute sets, and evening-only shows so people can enjoy Las Vegas during the day. John supplies the backline for international bands, obsesses over sound quality, and books at The Usual Place near Fremont Street so fans can walk from their hotel.

Also covered: losing tens of thousands of dollars on the second edition in 2019 and rebuilding from scratch at volume three with John Garcia and Nebula, growing up on Circus and Hit Parader magazines, hearing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" for the first time from a cover band at a fraternity house, Kyuss in 1993, why Las Vegas has never had a real stoner rock culture, and his years co-hosting the Doomed & Stoned Show with Billy Goate and Bucky Brown.

Planet Desert Rock Weekend VII runs January 28–31, 2027 at The Usual Place in Las Vegas — 21 bands from 9 countries over four evenings, including Greenleaf's exclusive West Coast show, Howling Giant playing their side of the Ripple Music split with Sergeant Thunderhoof for the first time ever, plus Sasquatch, Mothership, Black Rainbows, Cowboys & Aliens, Carousel and The Cold Stares. Tickets on Eventbrite.

Vegas Rock Revolution: vegasrockrevolution.net | vegasrockrevolution.com | @vegasrockrevolution

The Sonic Road Podcast: thesonicroad.com | @thesonicroad on all platforms

Jadd Shickler — founder of Blues Funeral Recordings, director of Magnetic Eye Records, and lead vocalist of Blue Heron — joins The Sonic Road Podcast for a career-spanning conversation about a life in heavy music that goes all the way back to the beginning of the stoner rock scene.

Jadd has been shaping the heavy underground for nearly thirty years. In this episode he walks through the entire journey — from taping songs off the radio as a kid in 1984 and discovering the world of underground music through his older brother's mixtapes, to the grunge era, to founding the All That's Heavy online store in 1997 around a Kyuss bootleg and a dedicated landline phone in a house full of roommates.

From there the conversation moves through the founding of MeteorCity Records — one of the first labels dedicated to stoner rock — the genre-defining Welcome to MeteorCity compilation, and the early demos that fell into their laps from a teenage Peder from Lowrider, Tommi from Dozer, and the New Jersey bands Solace and The Atomic Bitchwax. Jadd also tells the story of starting his own band in reverse order — filling in for Maryland doom band Iron Man on three weeks' notice in 2000, having never sung live before.

The second half digs into the modern era — selling MeteorCity, stepping away from music for years, returning through writing before joining Magnetic Eye Records, and eventually founding Blues Funeral Recordings in 2018. Jadd breaks down the origin of the PostWax vinyl subscription series, the two-year pursuit of Elder that he finally closed with a SoundCloud audio message, the Mark Lanegan collaboration on the Domkraft record, and what a day in the life of running two labels actually looks like in 2026.

He also gets candid about the business side that most labels won't discuss — transparency, delivering honest sales statements to bands, why "that which is measured improves," how Elder got burned before coming back to work with him, and why it's so easy to take advantage of artists who just want to make music. Plus: the Clutch story from a 2003 European tour, the health of the scene in 2026, why there are more bands than ever but attention is harder to earn, the younger fans showing up to Slomosa and Corrosion of Conformity shows, and balancing Blue Heron with running two labels.

This is a deep one for anyone who cares about the heavy underground, the business of independent music, or the story of how the stoner rock scene actually got built — told by someone who was there from the start.

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Nick DiSalvo — vocalist, guitarist, and founding member of Elder — returns to The Sonic Road Podcast for a full conversation ahead of the band's seventh studio album Through Zero, out May 29th via Blues Funeral Recordings in North America and Stickman Records in Europe. 

Topics covered: twenty years of Elder and what it actually feels like from the inside, life in Germany while working for a European record label and playing in two active bands, the heavy music renaissance of 2026, All Them Witches, playing smaller venues by choice, scaling back activity to avoid burnout, being a maximalist and learning to pull back, barely finding time to play guitar, why COVID proved stopping isn't an option, creating from passion vs. making a product, the most important advice for young bands, medieval imagery and modern technocracy, fans and musicians building a community ecosystem within a broken system, the making of Through Zero at Big Snuff Studio with engineer Richard Behrens, Mellotron and the sonic palette of the new record, Ron Nevison and Led Zeppelin, the three-label global distribution setup with Blues Funeral, Stickman Records and Bird's Robe, whether Elder will ever play Through Zero in its entirety live, The Black Crowes and Clutch playing full albums, ticket prices, and what's coming next on tour. 

Through Zero out May 29th — Blues Funeral Recordings. bluesfuneral.com | beholdtheelder.com 

The Sonic Road Podcast: thesonicroad.com @thesonicroad on all platforms. 

Elder: @elderofficial