{"version":"https:\/\/jsonfeed.org\/version\/1","title":"Black Tongue Reverend","home_page_url":"https:\/\/www.939waby.com\/blogs\/black-tongue-reverend\/","feed_url":"https:\/\/www.939waby.com\/blogs\/black-tongue-reverend\/json","description":"Black Tongue Reverend","items":[{"id":"o186-2116-6a2808aadddaa","url":"https:\/\/www.939waby.com\/blogs\/black-tongue-reverend\/post\/black-tongue-reverend\/","title":"Black Tongue Reverend","date_published":"2026-06-09T12:35:00+00:00","summary":"If you\u2019re into music that is all about happy puppies and sunny days\u2026 this ain\u2019t it. Black Tongue Reverend deals in slow, heavy, hypnotic sludge -the kind of sound that feels like a joyride through a smoke-soaked world where every riff feels like it\u2019s rising from a smoldering scrapyard. Ahead of a stacked summer that includes Mindblown Festival and Reverbicon, I caught up with the bassist and lead vocalist Eric Tulip to talk about how the band came together, what drives their sound, and where they\u2019re headed next. Their album Upstate of Mind is a must listen; if you\u2019re a fan of Gozer, you will definitely\r\nlock in with Black Tongue Reverend.","content_html":"<p><img alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/mmo.aiircdn.com\/186\/6a280ad67f57f.jpg\" style=\"\" \/><\/p>\n\n<p>If you&rsquo;re into music that is all about happy puppies and sunny days&hellip; this ain&rsquo;t it. Black Tongue Reverend deals in slow, heavy, hypnotic sludge -the kind of sound that feels like a joyride through a smoke-soaked world where every riff feels like it&rsquo;s rising from a smoldering scrapyard. Ahead of a stacked summer that includes Mindblown Festival and Reverbicon, I caught up with the bassist and lead vocalist Eric Tulip to talk about how the band came together, what drives their sound, and where they&rsquo;re headed next. Their album Upstate of Mind is a must listen; if you&rsquo;re a fan of Gozer, you will definitely<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Who is the best band or artist you&rsquo;ve seen live?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>It might be an odd answer considering the style of music we play, but the best show I&#39;ve ever seen was Bruce Springsteen at the Times Union Center on the 2016 The River tour. He&#39;s been one of my absolute favorite artists since I was about 13.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>How long has Black Tongue Reverend been together and what is your origin story?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>I wasn&#39;t much of a musician before this band - just a bedroom guitar player who didn&#39;t grow up around here and know any musical people. I was turning 30 and decided it was time to do something musical with other people, so I found our guitarist and our former drummer on craigslist in spring 2021 and had them come over for an improv jam session - anything goes. That pretty quickly turned into Black Tongue Reverend when<br \/>\nwe realized that we were coming up with a cool sound.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>What is a moment in the band&rsquo;s journey so far that really affirmed you&rsquo;re on the right path?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>A few months ago, we were playing Wolf Hollow Brewery and someone yelled out what song they wanted to hear next. Funny enough, he got his wish because it was the next song in the set. He came up to talk to me after and said he had seen our last show opening for a bigger act and was blown away, and that he&#39;d be bringing friends to see us whenever he could make it. That really made me realize that we&#39;e building a genuine local following and turning people who have never heard of us into fans.<\/p>\n\n<p><img alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/mmo.aiircdn.com\/186\/6a2809aa4c6cc.jpeg\" style=\"\" \/><\/p>\n\n<p><strong>If someone is listening to Black Tongue Reverend for the first time, which tracks should they start with and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>I think the first three songs of our latest record Upstate of Mind are a perfect intro to what we&#39;re about and some of the different flavors it takes. When The Reverend Comes<br \/>\nTo Town is a riff-fueled party jam, 37 West is a bit of a narrative journey with plenty of psychedelic guitar work and bluesy sludge, and Rust is a monolithic, lumbering descent into Rust Belt desperation.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%;\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NTc4zWrhvH4?rel=0\" style=\"top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; border: 0;\" allowfullscreen scrolling=\"no\" allow=\"accelerometer *; clipboard-write *; encrypted-media *; gyroscope *; picture-in-picture *; web-share *;\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n<p><strong>Your music has that slow-burn, hypnotic heaviness. What themes or emotions do you hope listeners get from your music?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>A lot of my inspiration comes from growing up in far northern New York in a dying industrial town on the Canadian border. It&#39;s the kind of place that sucks the life out of you if you aren&#39;t careful to avoid the pitfalls that everyone around you is stumbling into. A good way to sum up the message underneath the sardonic humor in a lot of our songs is that it&#39;s a tough world out there and you only have one shot at living a good life, so you&rsquo;d better find a way to enjoy it in your own way and don&#39;t let whatever environment that&#39;s around you bring you down.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>What does a typical writing session look like - is it a structured jam, controlled chaos or somewhere in between?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>It can be any of the above. Some songs come from ideas that we&#39;ve developed individually, then brought to practice. Some ideas come out of spontaneous jams that<br \/>\nfell into an interesting place. Regardless of where the initial idea comes from, there&#39;s a lot of iteration and creative input from everyone over weeks or months before we play a song live. Very rarely is anything immune from change, even once it&#39;s been recorded.<br \/>\nWe&#39;re always tweaking things.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>What is an ideal live setting to catch a Black Tongue Reverend show?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>Anywhere you&#39;re free from other distractions and able to focus on the music and the energy. We tend to be loud so don&#39;t plan on trying to have a conversation while we&#39;re<br \/>\nplaying, we&rsquo;re definitely not background music. I think we&#39;re best experienced in a darker room with a good light show and your mind-altering substance of choice.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>What&rsquo;s on the horizon for you this summer &ndash; shows, releases, anything fans should keep an eye out for?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>We have an incredible lineup of shows this summer. On June 27 th , we&#39;re part of Mindblown Festival. That&#39;s going to be an all-day musical affair at The Shirt Factory in Glens Falls. July 12th we&#39;re opening for Atomic Rule (featuring Andy Williams, formerly of Every Time I Die) at Empire Underground. August 14th we&#39;re playing a WABY<br \/>\norganized event called Reverbicon at Slidin&rsquo; Dirty in Troy. October 10th we&#39;re part of another WABY sponsored event, an all-day bonanza of stoner rock called Joint Jam at Putnam Place in Saratoga, organized by our good friend Nick from Gozer. We&#39;ve started debuting new songs as we write them over the past couple months so if you want to hear them before the rest of the world does, come on out and see us!<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Where can fans find more on Black Tongue Reverend?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>Our main social media is Instagram &ndash; it&rsquo;s the best place to follow us for news. We&#39;re not big so we promise not to waste your time with meaningless posting, 99% of our social media presence is just telling you where you can come see us in real life. Our music is on all major streaming platforms, but if you want to own our music and not just borrow it, you can buy our CDs or digital downloads on Bandcamp . If you want to advertise for us for free, you can buy stuff with our logo on it at Missedmerch.com and wear it in public places.<\/p>\n\n<p>Between Mindblown Festival, Reverbicon, and a stacked lineup of summer dates, Black Tongue Reverend is primed to make serious noise in the months ahead. Big<br \/>\nthanks to Eric for taking the time to chat with WABY.<\/p>\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<p><img alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/mmo.aiircdn.com\/186\/6a2809a931cbb.jpeg\" style=\"\" \/><\/p>\n\n<p><img alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/mmo.aiircdn.com\/186\/6a2809ae910a9.jpeg\" style=\"\" \/><\/p>\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<p><img alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/mmo.aiircdn.com\/186\/6a1df483c6333.jpeg\" style=\"\" \/><\/p>\n\n<p><img alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/mmo.aiircdn.com\/186\/6a281691c9630.jpeg\" style=\"\" \/><\/p>\n\n<p><img alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/mmo.aiircdn.com\/186\/69dce4598045f.jpeg\" style=\"\" \/><\/p>\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>","image":"https:\/\/mmo.aiircdn.com\/186\/6a2809ad78eb6.jpeg","author":{"name":"Joey Boots"},"_mobile_inapp_url":"https:\/\/www.939waby.com\/_app_pages\/stations\/5262\/blogs\/posts\/85281"}]}