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What's up everybody — Beau here.
Episode 43 was a bucket list one for me. Pepper Keenan and Kirk Windstein of DOWN joined the show a few weeks before their new album, Volume V, comes out on November 20th on Nuclear Blast. The full episode is up now on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and as always, you get the written version here first.
Here is the highlight reel of the episode. The full episode is out now on Youtube, Spotify & Apple Podcasts: https://videos.thesonicroad.com/v/highlight-reel-of-ep43-down?t=300
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I still own my first pressing of NOLA. My very first copy was a cassette, though. It was 1995, I'd had my driver's license for a couple of years, and I was jamming it in the tape deck of my '81 Camaro. It came out as a surprise, a seemingly one-off side project from members of Pantera, Corrosion of Conformity, Crowbar and Eyehategod. My first few listens were a little difficult for some reason, which is a strange memory now, because I've loved that record more and more every year since. I'm not alone. NOLA has aged perfectly and taken its place as an all-time classic.
I think that's how classic albums tend to work. They challenge you. This music wasn't built to be digested in one sitting, and there's no formula behind it. It's from the heart. It takes a little patience and curiosity to get there, and honestly, I still love finding new bands that ask for my time and attention. It usually pays off. I'm the same way at a museum. Catch me in front of a good painting and I might be there for 15 minutes. Weird? Maybe. That's how I do it.
A Band That Barely Played
Here's some context if you're new to the band. DOWN formed in New Orleans in 1991, and the lineup today is Phil Anselmo on vocals, Pepper Keenan and Kirk Windstein on guitars, Pat Bruders on bass and Jimmy Bower on drums. NOLA came out in September 1995, and the band supported it with just 13 shows before everybody went back to their other bands. That makes sense when you remember the schedules. COC, Pantera and Crowbar were constantly recording and touring back then, so there wasn't much room for DOWN.
Then, in 2002, the second album showed up. Down II: A Bustle in Your Hedgerow came out in March of that year, and it's become a classic too, alongside Over the Under in 2007, which just got a remastered vinyl reissue from Nuclear Blast this year. Two EPs followed, Down IV – Part I in 2012 and Part II in 2014. That makes Volume V the band's first full-length since 2007, and it picks up right where they left off. The first time I saw DOWN was in 2002 on the Down II tour, and it was next level. Those guys influenced my own band, Burn Blue Sky. We tried to carry the torch and keep some loud guitar rock and roll moving forward.
I've talked with Kirk a number of times on my other podcast, and I run into him at Crowbar shows around Ohio. He's always great to the fans. This was my second time talking with Pepper, after a conversation about COC. If you'd told me 25 years ago I'd be doing this, I wouldn't have believed you. You can watch some of my past interviews with the guys here:
Kirk Windstein Interview: https://youtu.be/Gee-7XqtRo0?si=Y8bmCq8HD5QVp5u0
Pepper Keenan / Corrosion of Conformity episode: https://youtu.be/YDLCZzm8RCM?si=Mj-77skMzdPGgEo5