Adventures In Stereo

For those of you unaware of Chris Goss or Masters of Reality, check out this incredible show from Roadburn Festival 2001 that I’d found floating around the net.  I’ve been a fan of this band since 1998, when I found ‘How High The Moon’ in one of these record fayre events for £7.00.  I had been looking for the rare debut album, but I figured anything would do.

‘How High The Moon’ is one of the finest live albums I have ever heard and remains a favourite.  I duly purchased the entire back catalogue (including the Def American, Rick Rubin produced debut) and caught the band on tour in 2001.

You may also be interested to learn (if you aren’t aware of Mr Goss) that Chris Goss was also a major player in the founding of Queens of the Stone Age (having ‘discovered’ Kyuss and having helped name the QotSA) and the Desert Sessions, as well as being a collaborator of Josh Homme, Mark Lanegan … well an extensive list of alternative artists who he’s produced records for or appeared on records with.  He has even written a track for an episode of ‘Ren & Stimpy’.

Anyhoo, having been busying himself with Queens of the Stone Age’s excellent ‘Era Vulgaris’, gigs with Josh Homme as 5:15er’s and a brilliant full length debut with Goon Moon, Mascot Records have announced that the new Masters of Reality record is due out May 12th.

There’s also some tour dates announced:

May

31st: Bad Bonn Kilbi – Düdingen [Switzerland]

June

6th: Rock-Im-Park – Nürnberg Zeppelinfeld [Germany]
8th: Rock-Am-Ring – Nurburgring [Germany]
12th: Hultsfred Festival – Hultsfred [Sweden]
16th: The Cathouse – Glasgow [UK]

… oh, and the picture?  That was from the last night at the Rancho de Luna. 

Goss explains: “the idea was to get a photo of us roasting marshmallows on the burning guitar.  It was a 12 string.  I tuned the strings pretty high hoping the tense strings would pop and make good noises.  We set up a microphone and recorded, but nothing happened.  Our spirits shrivelled.

Then John and I thought the wood might explode, splashing molten varnish on us, or perhaps the fumes from the plastic pick guard would kill us.  So we ran.  We forgot to buy marshmallows too.”

– thanks to MastersofReality.co.uk for this (a great fricken’ site).