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October 21st and 22nd the second annual End Hip End It Fest gave Houston a much needed break from everyday life. You know, gutting houses, arguing with insurance companies, scheduling fema inspector visits, trying to find a contractor that can take on another house, finding sheetrock, trying to rebuild your home… everyday shit in post hurricane Harvey Houston.

What was just going to be a cool music festival became something more. It became a benefit, a break from the physical and emotional drain of rebuilding, and a place for people to just enjoy something good. Every conversation seemed start with “How are you guys? How’s your house?” Everywhere you looked people were hugging and smiling. It was a beautiful day and the positive vibe was amazing.

Before long Sigma Brewery was full of the smells of good food, the craft beer was flowing, and awesome bands were launching into their sets. BTW, Sigma brews some GOOD beer. Definitely worth stopping by even when there aren’t a ton of awesome bands playing. We set up camp and spent the day hanging out with old friends and making new ones.

As the sun started to set we got set up to play. Fair warning to promoters, if you tell us we’re playing on a big stage, we’re gonna fill that fucker up. In short order we had the amp wall up and were ready to do the thing.

By the end of our set it was dark and Kevin from Digital Evolution Systems was giving us a killer light show. We played a great set for an awesome crowd with killer sound and lights. One of the sigma crew even brought us a beer as we were getting off stage. What more could a band ask for?

After we played we got to just be fans. Drinking beer and watching the rest of the bands. Buying merch. Trading records. By the end of the weekend, we must have collectively picked up 40 records. We can’t give Darr and Tobin enough props for not quitting on this. They pulled off something really special despite all they were dealing with from Harvey. We can’t wait to see what End Hip turns into. Thanks for letting us be a part of this guys. And thanks to everyone that came out!

To check out all our pics from End Hip head over to Facebook

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It’s been a few weeks since we first started hearing about hurricane Harvey. It started with people saying “it’s headed this way”  “it’s getting stronger”. Then people started saying stuff like “storms always weaken in the gulf” “storms weaken before they make landfall” “Houston isn’t gonna get hit” “it’s just gonna be a rain event”. 

It started to look like Harvey was going to make landfall as a serious hurricane. Then everyone started getting concerned. They started getting ready. Social media was a stream of people complaining about long lines in stores, stores running out of things, and people generally annoyed at having to get prepared for a storm. Having to deal with so many other people.  

Then as it came closer to land and the forecast looked like Harvey was going to give the Houston area several days of the dirty side of a category four hurricane… people started getting concerned. They hunkered down. Then it rained for four days. 51.88 inches of rain to be exact. 4.3 feet of water. It didn’t take long for “pray for Houston” memes to start flooding social media. Suddenly thousands of people were crying out for help. 

But then, people looked around, realized shit got real, and stopped waiting to get saved. They stopped waiting for someone else to help people. If someone wasn’t in need of help odds are they were out doing something to help someone. People helping people. There was no race. No politics. No religion.

So for days a makeshift navy of regular people with boats, jet skis, canoes, army trucks, lifted pickups, dumps trucks, and whatever else could get people out of flooded neighborhoods poured into Houston from all over Texas and Louisiana. They coordinated via Facebook and walkie talkie apps. Other regular people turned their garages into supply hubs or started cooking and feeding dozens of first responders and civilian rescuers. People threw everything aside and just helped each other with everything they had. Eventually the rain stopped. But with damns reaching critical levels the flooding didn’t. And neither did the now nationally known Cajun and Texan navies. They ran themselves and their boats and trucks until there was nobody else to help. Until the waters eventually receded. 


But then a new group of people started to show up in Houston. People driving rented and borrowed trucks and vans full of water, food, clothing, and cleaning supplies. People from all over the country. The support and generosity was literally overwhelming. Then people just started forming “demo crews” and went house to house tearing out carpet, sheetrock, and destroyed furniture. Cleaning and doing what they could to salvage homes and belongings. Social media became a stream of dirty but smiling faces. People hugging. Heartfelt thank yous. People asking “who needs help next?” 

Harvey is being called one of the worst natural disasters in US history. Harvey threw the worst that nature had to offer at us. Texas responded with the best that humanity had to offer.

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The first weekend of August we headed into Blackbeard Studios to record a song for a split with Forming The Void. I mean what better way to cement a budding bromance? 


So we all packed up and moved in for the weekend. George and Steve packed up thier usual rigs. Sam and Jason brought their everything. 


Blackbeard is hands down the nicest place most of us have recorded in. It was clean, comfortable, well put together and had some awesome equipment. Now, it may seem like a weird thing to get excited about but even the restrooms were nice and clean. Like, Buccee’s ain’t got shit on them. Anyone that’s traveled or been in a band will tell you, a nice clean restroom is a precious thing. We’re pretty sure this is gonna be our go to recording studio from now on. Provided they’ll let us take the place over again. 


First up was drums. Our engineer Michael was meticulous in capturing the massiveness that is Steve’s kit. It sounded thunderous. He made sure we got a solid foundation to build on. Dude even tuned Steve’s bass drum for maximum thump. 

Next up was guitars. Since Jason and Sam brought a bit of everything, Michael set everyone up to be able to re-amp their parts. So everyone but Steve got to play together keeping the live tracking vibe we dig. It was definitely an easier way to play with sounds and find the right gear combinations for each part. 

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After all the guitars were sorted out it was time to work on bass. With the blank slate d.i. bass track to work with, George and Michael were able to get some ridiculously massive sounds. Blending dirty and clean sounds, and finding the perfect sounds for everything. 


Last but not least Sam and Jason cut their vocal tracks. Definitely the fastest and easiest part of the recording. They both nailed their parts in a couple of takes. 


We then sent it off Aidan Cunningham. Aidan contacted us a while ago. Dude does amazing work. But we wouldn’t expect less from someone working with the GodCity Studios crew. He’s mixing our track and mastering both our track and Forming The Void’s track. Should make everything sound really good and kinda cohesive. Oh and since we’re kind of a go big or go home group of guys, the split is gonna be a 10 inch. A totally calculated move that has nothing to do with the fact that we couldn’t come up with a song less than 7 minutes long…  


We’re really excited to get this new song out there. It really turned out awesome. We definitely think we found a winning combination , between Blackbeard, Michael, and Aidan. Hopefully we’ll be back at it again in a few months cutting our next album. We can’t wait. The new stuff we’re writing is epic. 

Oh, and check out BlackBeard Studios, Michael Silvia, and Aidan Cunningham. This wouldn’t have been possible without them. We cant recommend them enough. 

https://www.facebook.com/blackbeardrecordingstudios/

https://www.michaeltsilva.com/

http://www.aidan-cunningham.com/

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What is best in life?

To crush your audience, to see them nodding before you, and to hear the cheering of their women!

Last weekend we played two awesome shows. The first with our label mates and favorite people Forming The Void and local Stoner Rock heavy hitters The Dirty Seeds. The place filled up early. There were lots of familiar faces but also a bunch of new ones too. Every band threw down a solid set. The crowd supported all the bands, buying some of the awesome merch everyone was selling. Nights like that show how strong the Houston scene can be. 


The second show was with indisputably one of the heaviest bands in the world Conan and Arizona sludge dealers North. Pretty sure that was the loudest, sludgiest show White Oak Music Hall will see this year other than Sleep. You felt this show in your bones. It was epic. 


Our merch goddess/den mother Jenny recorded our whole set. You can check it out at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoYSde2Zmqdf044NTQXa6YE-_DZObYKVl Despite Jason being on the verge of death we played a pretty solid set. Even kicked it off with a song we don’t have recorded yet. We’re calling it “Lost Between The Sea”. We’re hoping to record it and get it on a 7″ split. More on that later though…

We can’t thank everyone enough that made this weekend what it was. Jon and everyone at Black Bow, Curtis Dewar, Conan, North, Forming The Void, The Dirty Seeds, the staff at White Oak and Rudyards, and everyone that came out and supported us. Thank you all!

Oh yeah, we’ve got another show on the books. See you soon Austin!

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Today is the big day. The Liars Bend Low is hitting the streets. The awesome peeps at Black Bow are handling international and digital distribution, we’ve got vinyl, new merch, and we’re playing twice this weekend with awesome bands. You can buy it online on band camp or iTunes. Links below. 

https://bbowpyreship.bandcamp.com/

https://itun.es/us/Auadkb


If you’ve already binged on the S Town podcast like the rest of us. Check out the Texas metal podcast episode 17 featuring yours truly. They’re on YouTube, iTunes, and all that. Or you can just check it out at http://texasmetalshow.com/ Talking with Jon just felt like hanging out with a friend. It was a ton of fun. We talked about musical influences, how we met, how we write, and even how Tom Petty’s Last Dance With Mary Jane is basically a closet death metal song. Seriously. Our hour interview turned into a two hour interview. Sorry Jon, hope you didn’t go too crazy trying to edit all that down. 

Also, Steve’s gonna be rocking new drums,  cymbals, and hardware from now on. After rocking the same set since high school Steve went crazy. Meinl cymbals, limited edition Ludwig Vistalites (1 of 45 in the WORLD… the WORLD Craig!), and heavy duty Tama stands. Now I know 90% of you are thinking “cool story bro…” but take our word for it, they are loud and sexy AF. Steve is a full blown God of Thunder now. I mean, would you look at it?

Oh, here’s some links to the upcoming shows. Come out and grab some vinyl in person. Nobody likes buying online. Don’t believe that Amazon hype. Think about it. Jason has to make labels, there’s fees, waiting for it to show up… the instant gratification of buying one at a show is unbeatable. Plus we have fancy sharpies to sign that shit if you want. 

https://www.facebook.com/events/1844108019139348??ti=ia

https://www.facebook.com/events/1883499861937297??ti=ia
https://www.facebook.com/events/707664442738335??ti=ia

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The past few days have seen a bunch of reviews and a few songs streaming through various blogs and websites. So far the reception has been positive even when offering honest criticism. Today the album is streaming in its entirety at New Noise Magazine. Vinyl will be available in the US through our big cartel store and internationally through Black Bow Records’ website. 

http://newnoisemagazine.com/stream-pyreship-liars-bend-low/ 

We’re super excited to finally get this album out there. We put a lot of heart into it and it just feels really topical right now. Stream it today. Buy digitally or on limited edition vinyl it tomorrow. When we originally started out, this was going to be a demo. Somewhere along the way it turned into an album. For a look at how it happened check out the dead city demo doc we put together. 

We can’t thank everyone at Black Bow Records and everyone else that’s supported us enough. You guys rock. 

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Pull up a chair, we’ve got a ton of stuff going on. Everything is starting to come together. All the shows we’ve played, the friends we’ve made, and Jason’s seemingly endless well of connections. It seems like every new thing that comes our way is another step forward. Something bigger and better. That old saying “The harder I work, the luckier I get” sums it up. 

Last weekend we spent the morning with Jon from The Texas Metal Show. Such a cool guy. A few hours flew by talking music, life, and Pyreship. It’s easy to talk about what you love. Especially with some good coffee on board. Afterwards we hit Snooze for some crack dusted pancakes. Seriously. That shit is highly addictive. 

We also got our vinyl in last week. It looks great and sounds amazing. Definitely gonna be a collectors item for anyone that’s a fan of Houston metal bands called Pyreship. They’ll be $15 at shows or $20 online from our big cartel store. It’ll be available on May 26th when the album releases. 


That’s the biggest news. Our album finally hits the streets on the 26th! The awesome folks at Black Bow Records are releasing it for us, so it’ll be everywhere. Spotify, iTunes, Bandcamp, EVERYWHERE. If you go to the Sludgelord blog you can stream the first track now. 

We’ve got a few gigs lined up to coincide with the album release. We’ll be playing at Rudyards with Forming The Void and The Dirty Seeds on the 26th. Then we’re opening for Conan and North on the 29th. 

Also, we got our first official album review from Hellbound.ca. They threw some pretty kind words our way. “Machine Men launches into some solid post-sludge riffage, sorta sounding like the heavy-but-beautiful construct of ISIS’ Oceanic album. Daaaamn, dude!” Check the whole review here: 

http://hellbound.ca/2017/04/pyreship-liars-bend-low/

We finally got around to setting up a twitter account after one of our friends said we were getting reviewed over there too. We figured we probably need to stay in the loop. So follow us on twitter @PyreshipHTX to keep up with all the Pyreship news that’s fit to retweet. 

All the stuff we mentioned above… here’s the links. Check ’em out. 

https://m.soundcloud.com/texasmetalshow

http://www.blackbowrecords.com/

http://thesludgelord.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/track-premiere-houston-tx-sludge-thug.html?m=1

https://www.facebook.com/events/1844108019139348??ti=ia

https://www.facebook.com/events/1883499861937297??ti=ia

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You may have noticed that we’ve been on the quiet side lately. No, no one died. We’ve been writing new material, exploring some new sounds and ideas we feel are worth pursuing, drinking black coffee, staring at walls…the usual. Our maiden release is complete and we have some welcome news regarding format and distribution, so stay tuned. A new batch of songs is seething in the cauldron, and we’ll be rolling them out slowly over the next several months. Expect longer compositions, more emphasis on atmospherics, concepts that pervade entire recordings, and, as always, an iron sense of purpose.


A number of shows are in the pipes. April 7th we’ll be taking the stage with Ape Machine, The Dirty Seeds, and Mr Plow. April 8th we’ll be getting loud with our friends Forming The Void in Lafayette, LA. It’s our first out of town show and we’re excited to begin branching out. May 29th we’ll be girding ourselves for war alongside Conan and North for our record release – it’ll be a homecoming of sorts, since our inaugural performance was with Conan, a band we avidly admire. Beyond that, the live plans will likely include some light regional touring, fly-out dates and hopefully a few festival slots. Maybe score a movie. The lightning is striking.

Oh, and we’ll be rolling out some new gear soon. Not telling who’s getting the makeover, but he’ll be shining like a goddamn beacon.

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Okay guys, we’ve had a show on the books for a while at Fitzgerald’s. It’s put us in a pretty tricky spot. For those that don’t know the story, last week an exchange between the owner and a producer blew up on social media. It’s painted Sara Fitzgerald in a pretty bad way, raising allegations of racism, and damaged the reputation of the venue.

After sitting down and talking about it we decided to play the show.

Sara is entitled to her opinion, however misguided it may be. It’s also true that freedom of speech isn’t freedom from consequence. For us, it’s potentially a lose/lose situation. Either we’re the guys who played a show amidst allegations of racism or we’re the guys who caved to pressure. We don’t know what the consequences will be for the band moving forward. We just hope that the message of courage, hope, love, and equality in our music speaks for itself. And we hope that the people who know us will trust that we would never support hateful, ignorant or exclusionist belief sets. It’s also true that we don’t believe in demonizing people. Expressions of anger and outrage, even when entirely justified, are only the beginning of a process that we hope can include the necessary dialogue to change people’s minds when they express hateful or ignorant beliefs. There’s always room for one more person who wants to fight the good fight.

Some people might be wondering why we’d take the risk. First, there are simple bread & butter issues. Being a band is tough, despite what people think. It’s even tougher on the road, as each of us can attest, and we felt that our touring friends deserved the opportunity to ease some of that burden by earning their pay and not having to face a lost show due to factors outside of their control. It’s also important that we acknowledge that recently other groups and artists were not afforded that same opportunity due to factors that were out of their control. It’s not our intent to cheapen that or detract from it and we hope that people won’t come away with that impression.

On a more personal level, we all feel like Fitzgerald’s belongs more to the Houston music scene than to any one person. Each member of this band grew up going to shows at Fitz. Each of us can point to friends made, memories indelibly etched in our minds, personal heroes close enough to touch as they poured their hearts out onstage, playing our first “big” shows there, and so forth. So much of Houston’s live music heritage has fallen into decay or disappeared entirely, and it’s excruciating to think that an iconic club that has survived so much could be killed by an exchange of emails.  

We wholeheartedly acknowledge the hurt and outrage that a lot of people are probably feeling right now. We hope you’ll come to the show, but we also understand if you choose not to. At the end of the day we all have to do what we think is right. 

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Should old albums be forgotten and never brought to mind? No, fuck that noise. This year saw some awesome new albums. When we sat around talking about the albums that blew us away this year  we came up with a list of our favorites. Don’t go into the new year without checking out some of the best music that came out this year.

Sam: Conan- Revengance

Steve: Neurosis- Fries Within Fries

George: Whores- Gold

Jason: Cult of Luna-Mariner

Happy New Years kiddos. Keep it heavy in 2017.