![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/snozzberries.jpg\")
The Snozzberries released a new self-titled album on Oct. 11. The Asheville-based group \u2014 a fixture of the progressive\/psychedelic\/funk scene since forming in 2017 \u2014 had already previewed the new album with a pair of advance singles, \u201cReturn\u201d and \u201cHide.\u201d And beginning in August, the band embarked on a tour visiting 20 cities, some as far away as Colorado, Nebraska and Illinois.<\/p>\n
The tour began in the band’s Western North Carolina hometown, and in mid-September, the Snozzberries announced plans\u00a0to end the run of live dates with a grand celebration\u00a0\u2014 the fourth installment of Psychedelic Circus. Historically held at Salvage Station, the annual performance is an immersive, multimedia, multisensory celebration that delivers much more than a concert.<\/p>\n
At the time, guitarist and vocalist Ethan Heller<\/strong> noted that the 2022 edition featured several hundred balloons variously stuck onto surfaces and launched into the audience with the aid of a leaf blower. The 2023 Psychedelic Circus focused on art installations and featured massive murals and neon netting. The convivial feel of those events established a baseline that the Snozzberries planned to exceed with their 2024 hometown performance.<\/p>\n \u201cPsychedelic Circus is our homecoming show after the tour,\u201d Heller told Xpress in September. \u201cIt\u2019s also the unofficial album release party.\u201d<\/p>\n The event was set for Friday, Nov. 29, at Salvage Station. Tropical Storm Helene had other plans.<\/p>\n The show must go on<\/strong> As Asheville and other affected areas in WNC began to recover and deal with the aftermath of Helene, the Snozzberries pivoted.\u00a0The group has secured a new venue for the fourth annual Psychedelic Circus \u2014 Asheville Music Hall. While adding new aspects aimed at helping the region heal from the disaster, the event has retained much of its originally planned experience.<\/p>\n Only a few components couldn’t make the shift. Acclaimed bandleader and punk-jazz vibraphonist \u2014 and frequent visitor to Asheville \u2014\u00a0Mike Dillon\u00a0had been billed with his Punkadelick trio as part of the show. But when Helene struck, it wasn\u2019t immediately clear that the event would continue in any form, so his management rescheduled a run of dates in the Midwest.<\/p>\n Other pieces changed because the Snozzberries\u2019 plans at the outset had leveraged the unique character of Salvage Station. \u201cWe were going to have fire spinners and make this year\u2019s Psychedelic Circus a sort of indoor\/outdoor event,\u201d Heller explains. Open flames certainly aren\u2019t an option at Asheville Music Hall, so the group adjusted the theme in a less incendiary direction. \u201cWe\u2019re bringing in visual artists and their work,\u201d Heller says.<\/p>\n As part of that, Heller is pleased to add Joel Schooling to the event\u2019s festivities. The Charleston, S.C.-based video artist has done extensive work adding visual elements to performances by a number of regional musical acts, including fellow Charlestonians, satirical pop group Sexbruise? \u201cJoel will bring a whole new element to the show,\u201d Heller promises, noting that Schooling\u2019s setup includes lasers. \u201cHis style is really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n Asheville-based Magenta Sunshine was billed for the event as originally scheduled, and the group will open the show at Asheville Music Hall. \u201cThey\u2019re a really fun, feel-good band,\u201d Heller says. \u201cEspecially with what we\u2019re all going through as a city right now, it\u2019s great to have them on the bill. Their positive messages will help bring a really good vibe to the show.\u201d<\/p>\n Spirit of fun<\/strong> That lack of seriousness was underscored by the ad hoc name they adopted. \u201cBut the name stuck,\u201d Heller says with a laugh and a shrug.<\/p>\n Heller recalls a gig at The Orange Peel opening for Here Come the Mummies as a major break for the band. Within a year of forming, the Snozzberries had begun adding original material to its set, and a more distinct musical identity began to emerge.<\/p>\n Baked into that identity, though, is variety. Heller says that each band member \u2014 himself plus keyboardist Ian Taylor, bassist Josh Clark and drummer Paul Gladstone\u00a0\u2014 has contributed songs to the new album. \u201cEach of us comes into the studio with our composed ideas,\u201d he says. \u201cThen it\u2019s a free-for-all from there.\u201d<\/p>\n The group has gone through its share of changes. Clark, who joined a year and a half ago \u2014 in time to be involved in all aspects of writing and recording the new album \u2014 is the third bassist since the band\u2019s launch. Original drummer Sean Mason passed away during the COVID-19 lockdown, and Gladstone\u2019s addition brought a harder sound that moved away from the jam aesthetic and toward rock. \u201cThe lineup is solid now,\u201d Heller says. \u201cAnd our material has gotten a lot more mature lately.\u201d<\/p>\n But the spirit of fun that inspired the group\u2019s formation remains embodied in its annual Psychedelic Circus. \u201cI had always wanted to throw an event that combined a rock concert with a carnivalesque character,\u201d Heller says. \u201cDoing this show reminds me of some of the first music festivals I ever attended.\u201d<\/p>\n Another component of this year\u2019s event that will set it apart from previous Psychedelic Circus stagings \u2014 the first of which took place in 2019 \u2014 is an auction and raffle. \u201cWe\u2019ll have some Snozzberries merch, and we\u2019re talking to local artists and businesses who will add to that,\u201d Heller says. Proceeds from the auction and raffle will benefit the work of local nonprofit BeLoved Asheville. \u201cWe want to help as much as we can,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n Amid the sensory spectacle, the centerpiece of this year\u2019s Psychedelic Circus will be the original music of the Snozzberries. The new album was recorded at The Eagle Room in Weaverville with producer\/engineer Matt Williams, and The Snozzberries<\/em> is available in digital and on CD and vinyl.<\/p>\n Heller notes that Williams created a unique mix of the album for its vinyl configuration. And one of the tracks, \u201cStorm,\u201d is nearly a minute and a half shorter on the LP version than on the other formats. \u201cI actually like the shorter version better,\u201d Heller admits with a laugh. \u201cBut it was too late to change on the other formats.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, the Snozzberries have proved resilient when it comes to making late-breaking changes like rebuilding concert plans on short notice in response to a disaster like Helene. \u201cWe try to make it a little more exciting every year,\u201d Heller deadpans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Snozzberries released a new self-titled album on Oct. 11. The Asheville-based group \u2014 a fixture of the progressive\/psychedelic\/funk scene since forming in 2017 \u2014 had already previewed the new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28537,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,44,49,56],"tags":[5549],"class_list":["post-28536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-live-shows","category-new-release","category-prog","tag-snozzberries","cat-41-id","cat-44-id","cat-49-id","cat-56-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28536"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28538,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28536\/revisions\/28538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIn the wake of the massive flooding of the French Broad River, Salvage Station suffered total destruction. Though the venue was facing imminent closure to make way for the planned construction of a new Interstate 26 interchange, Salvage Station still had an impressive schedule of shows lined up for the remaining months. But Helene\u2019s razing of large swaths of Asheville\u2019s River Arts District and regions along the banks of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers meant that the popular concert venue met an early end.<\/p>\n
\nHeller believes that the progressive, psychedelic and funk textures of the Snozzberries\u2019 music lend themselves to the sort of audiovisual extravaganza the event has in store. But the band\u2019s development has been a gradual process. \u201cWe started as a bar band playing covers,\u201d he says. \u201cAt the beginning, we didn\u2019t really take it seriously. We were just a silly jam band.\u201d<\/p>\n