Burial Hex headlines the all-Madison-artists show on September 11 at Union South.
Burial Hex.
I’m still not entirely convinced that this isn’t a prank, but anyway, WSUM and WUD Music have announced that Madison-based experimental project Burial Hex will headline the 2015 Snake On The Lake Fest, set to take place September 11 at The Sett in Union South. Everyone else on this year’s bill is from Madison too: Electronic act Samantha Glass, electro-R&B artist Mr. Jackson, surf-rock mutants Myrmidons, power-pop band Proud Parents, and far-reaching DJ Evan Woodward. The event is free and begins at 6 p.m.
The lineup is surprising because in recent years, SOTL has generally booked a mix of national acts and mostly pretty palatable local bands. Burial Hex is more of a defiantly underground thing, and mastermind Clay Ruby’s intimidating reach across scathing power electronics, metal, and choral music couldn’t be further away from previous headliners including bubbly electronic producer Saint Pepsi (2014) and math-rockers Maps & Atlases (2010). Plus, as Ruby told us in an interview last year, he’s been concentrating on bringing the project to its conclusion with a planned triple album, and last year he played what he at the time said would be his final Madison show as Burial Hex. Basically pull up any of the dozens of things on Burial Hex’s Bandcamp and try to imagine hearing that in the french-fry-scented environs of The Sett and you’ll get why this is weird, if a welcome surprise. SOTL is a little different every year, but a tip o’ the Sett Sauce to the organizers for taking a chance on Madison acts, and especially a varied and overall quite weird bunch of them.
As for the other acts on the bill, Samantha Glass released a new album, Advancing The Visible Winds Of Spring, in March and is working on more new recordings, Proud Parents recently put out a live-recorded cassette, Myrmidons released their short debut EP, Swamp Cocktail, a few months back, and Mr. Jackson is working on Black Gandalf, the follow-up to last year’s The Golden Hour Groove Session. Check out our recent interviews with Proud Parents and Myrmidons and the Mr. Jackson video we debuted recently.
