i think i better follow you around

Industrial mastermind AUTHOR & PUNISHER shares the official “Maiden Star” music video from the 2022 release full-length Krüller out via Relapse Records.

Tristan Shone shared this about the video: “‘Maiden Star’ was shot during Author & Punisher’s 2023 June European tour by photographer James Rexroad, who joined A&P for an epic adventure that took them across the northern EU territories. From the fjords of Norway, the wood fired saunas of Helsinki and Tallinn, to the beer halls of Bochum, with friends new and old, this one goes out to the fans who support underground music. Every time I watch this video it hits me…it’s a beautiful music scene and it really makes me so thankful that I get to do what I do. Thanks to James Rexroad for coming along and capturing the community, the energy and the power of heavy music in our lives. Shout out to my bandmate Doug Sabolick, John Cota (sound engineer) and Augie Arredondo for editing the damn thing. The community is strong. We love you.”

The video was shot and directed by James Rexroad.

Additionally AUTHOR & PUNISHER and his intrepid gear company DRONE MACHINES announce a partnership with visionary multi-discipline artist ARCA designing and building machines for her live work Mutant;Destrudo at Park Avenue Armory in NYC now through October 15.

Author & Punisher shared this about the ARCA collaboration: “There aren’t many artists out there as innovative and groundbreaking as Arca. Her style of production and visual design is visceral, dark, and bleak; yet always intriguing and exciting. She’s produced amazing solo works as well as music for Bjork, Kanye West, and FKA Twigs to name a few. When she asked me to build her some machines I immediately jumped on it. We’ve worked on this now for the past 8 months with Alejandra and her creative team focusing on building some industrial controllers that would interact with her DJ setup and allow her to make broader, more physical strokes with levers, sliders, and large knobs. There are five machines in total: one Fader, two Throttles, and two Platters that are all rack mounted above her DJ setup with the table suspended from the ceiling by chains. The aesthetic of Drone Machines (the small gear company birthed from Author & Punisher) is raw and industrial, with heavy machine components. Functionally, there is MIDI, USB, DSP Audio output, and CV/Gate; they are completely open source. Many thanks and shout outs to the team at Drone Machines working with me who helped on this project as well as the other devices we are making: Adam Reed-Erickson (mechanical engineer), Jason Begin (sound designer, producer, composer), and Hanri Thayyil (software engineer).”

Guns N’ Roses played the Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego on Sunday October 1st.

SETLIST:

01. It’s So Easy
02. Bad Obsession
03. Chinese Democracy
04. Pretty Tied Up
05. Slither (Velvet Revolver cover)
06. Mr. Brownstone
07. Hard Skool
08. Welcome To The Jungle
09. Reckless Life
10. Double Talkin’ Jive
11. You Could Be Mine
12. Perhaps
13. Anything Goes
14. Absurd
15. Better
16. Down On The Farm (UK Subs Cover)
17. Rocket Queen
18. Live And Let Die (Wings cover)
19. Estranged
20. T.V. Eye (The Stooges cover. Axl didn’t sing, Duff McKagan did)
21. Street Of Dreams
22. Civil War
23. Slash’s Solo
24. Sweet Child o’ Mine
25. November Rain
26. Wichita Lineman (Jimmy Webb cover)
27. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door (Bob Dylan cover)
28. Nightrain

ENCORE

29. Coma
30. Madagascar
31. Patience
32. Don’t Cry
33. Paradise City

The three and a half hour set was at times fun and at others funny. At other times it sounded amazing and a few moments later it would sound atrocious, and no it wasn’t the PA or the wind carrying the sound. The one thing that was consistent throughout the show were the horrendous background visuals. Not ever had we witnessed something as painful to the eyes as those awful so called background visuals.

There were some good (great?) highlights about the show. Among them was the cover of “T.V. Eye” by the Stooges and what made the cover even better was the fact that ACL didn’t sing. The second thing that was good on the show was Slash’s Solo, turns out that he can still shred. Those two things were amazing.

Now, in all honesty they did play a mammoth set of 33 songs. The show did go over 2:30 hours and you almost start thinking that this is a great idea until you realize that they’re also including songs from “Chinese Democracy” and you start asking yourself why? But you’re already there so you just enjoy the ride of The Good, The Axl and The Visuals and hope for the best even though you know the best was 30 years ago and this is just a nostalgia trip for those that care about nostalgia.