Welcome to the third installment of the Top 5 On Friday’s Planet Desert Rock series. Last week (posted here), I discussed the five bands that confirmed my decision to go. The bands are: The Atomic Bitchwax, The Heavy Eyes, Saturna, The Well, and Phantom Hound. Two weeks prior, I discussed the initial bands that got me excited about Planet Desert...
TIER are three-piece heavy stoner/ blues rock band from Trier, Germany. The band put out their debut Dawner EP in 2022 and just released their debut full length album on May 16th 2025. Entitled Backwoods Blues, the record is a powerful ensemble of eight heavy rocking blues songs fully fuzzed out with some heavy stoner grooves. The band consists of...
Dead Shrine is a one man band from Hamilton, New Zealand. Formed in 2021, Dead Shrine is the masterful musical art work from Craig Williamson (Lamp Of The Universe, ex-Arc Of Ascent, ex-Datura, and ex-Azazel). Williamson creates, plays, and records everything himself. I was a little familiar with Datura (just recently) but never heard anything else from him. The debut...
Miss Lava is a stoner/ psychedelic rock band from Lisboa, Portugal. They formed in 2005 and currently consists of Johnny Lee on vocals, K. Raffah on guitars, P. Gonçalves on drums, and Ricardo Ferreira on bass. The band’s releases includes: 2008’s Self Titled EP, 2009’s Blues for the Dangerous Miles, 2013’s Red Supergiant, 2016’s Sonic Debris, 2017’s Dominant Rush EP,...
Last week, I discussed the first five bands that sold me on the Planet Desert Rock Weekend Festival, in Las Vegas. The dates are January 29th – February 1st, 2026. You can read that post here. Anyways, these next five bands actually got me to physically order the tickets. 1. THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX The first new addition to the initial...
Mountain Of Misery is a heavy stoner doom band from Wrocław, Poland. Formed in 2023, the band is a project of Kamil Ziółkowsk (who is the drummer/vocalist of Spaceslug and also drums for O.D.R.A and Palm Desert.) Their album releases include: 2023’s In Roundness, 2024’s The Land, and their latest, 2025’s Shades Of The Ashes. Shades Of The Ashes was...
Indie riff rockers Puddy are back with another album of sorts. Misses 1998-2025 is a collection of songs that span from the Toronto, Canada based band’s twenty seven year career. The album can only be obtained free from the band’s subscriber mailing list and is not available on any other streaming platform or digital media. Puddy’s current lineup is Paolo...
Komatsu is a heavy riff rock band from Eindhoven, Netherlands. Formed in 2010, their music is a mix of sludge, stoner rock and metal. The current lineup consists of Martijn Mansvelders on bass and vocals, Mo Truijens on lead vocals and guitar, and Jos Roosen on drums. The band’s releases include: 2011’s Self Titled EP, 2013’s Manu Armata, 2016’s Recipe...
Live at The Shaskeen Pub in Manchester, New Hampshire USA *May 3rd 2025* It’s been quite a while (a few years) since I went to a show at the Shaskeen Pub in Manchester, New Hampshire. Worshipper, Dust Prophet, Sundrifter, and The Forest Forgets are the four bands on tonight’s bill. I was psyched for a local show and it’s only...
Planet Desert Rock is arguably the best stoner rock festival that exists in America. I state this without ever attending RippleFest Texas, but I am solely basing this on the lineup and feedback from past participants. When John Gist started announcing this lineup for next year’s Planet Desert Rock as early as February or March, I was definitely interested. 1....