Reptile House Drops A Massive Live Record

A new album release from Reptile House just dropped, and not only does this thing deliver loads of psychedelic, desert, and stoner rock, but it does it with an intense energy level and perfect element of trippiness to come through, packing a punch and bringing on that righteous fuzz tone flavor.

One of the best things about this new record is that it is alive. Listening to it, you would barely be able to tell, aside from a few moments, that it wasn't recorded right there in the studio for months at a time.

The album is called Reptile House Live! At Lansing Prison and this thing is absolutely relentless.

The record starts with "Elephant Gun", which is an absolute banger and has a great, crunching riff with vast undertones and augmented chords laced into it.

Right off the bat, you're starting to get a feel for the live energy these guys are putting out, and it's intense. This track also does a great job of introducing the record simply because it gives you some of the best staples that the full album is going to display.

Now, having said that, this is an album you want to listen to from start to finish. Not just because it's live, but because there are more than a few surprises around its corners, and again, that electric energy, desert vastness, and fuzz tone garage heaviness doesn't let up for even a second.

Of grunge and indie rock into the mix at times, especially with songs like "Feel The Heat", which rocks out, but still, even with songs like that, you get some tripped-out, psychedelic-based guitar work. This one's got a phase-infused effect with some lead elements, and these ads have such great textures and tonalities to the songs.

All these ambient and tripped-out effects give the record depth and layers, and that, combined with the energy of the live performance, makes everything super addictive.

You can feel the synergy between the members of the band and how they're feeding off of each other to bring the record this almost rambunctious but super tight approach.

There's plenty of that grunge blended in with songs like "Dawn & Quartered" as well, and the vocal approach across this record also gives it a fresh life.

The vocals are always a little bit different. With tracks that have a more desert or Stoner rock kind of vibe that include widened and single note sort of riffs breed vocals that have a more belting out loud and powerful approach. Notes are held out, and you can feel this raw power behind them.

Songs like "Dawn & Quartered" give you more of an animated vocal style that comes through a little bit more theatrical and less impactful in terms of that sort of mountain or tundra rock approach.

I like all of the different factors that the band brings to the table on this record. It's not like there are tripped-out effects on every single song the entire time. They're put in just the right places, the guitarist knows exactly what to do and when to do it, and doesn't go overboard.

It's all done with a tasteful approach so that everything still comes through really tight-sounding, and believe me, for a live record, this thing sounds super tight. The band definitely knew exactly what they were doing and put on a hell of a show that, even though it was that tight as a band, the energy was through the roof, delivering bombastic songs.

There are echoes, delays, and songs where the main riff is performed with a wah pedal, like "Sludge".

The whole thing, as I said earlier, has plenty of great surprises around the corners and some experimental approaches that are balanced.

The record has an in-your-face edginess, but a sort of warm tone and a bit of a vast underbelly. All that stuff is rolled into this album, and it's hard to believe that it's all performed live.

The feeling in aesthetic of it all puts you right there in the moment as well, and I love how they pulled it off and got the sound quality that they did.

Like I said, a lot of songs sound like they were recorded in a studio, tracked, and dubbed.

It just goes to show how much of a live band these guys actually are.

This album was an absolute powerhouse of rock, and they pulled it off with this brilliant gusto and well-thought-out approach so that everything came through with the proper aesthetic.

Obviously, after hearing this record, I had to backtrack a bit and listen to the actual recorded versions of some of these songs. Some of the ones I mentioned are from an EP called Ultra Violence from last year, while others are from another release from 2022.

Hearing the actual recorded versions of the songs was almost just as powerful to be honest.

I most certainly cannot wait to hear what comes next from Reptile House.

These guys deliver massive sonic drive, brilliant riffs, and infectious energy, that sort of spacious and experimental edginess, and a little bit of color to boot.

No matter what they're doing, live or recorded in the studio, you can tell that this is a band with a real love for their craft.

As I went back to listen to the live record again, I started to have questions that popped into my head.

I started to wonder about the reaction of the crowd, what it was like to perform in a prison, and how they got it all done.

So, in light of all that, we decided to have an interview with the band to get the answers to some of those questions and more.

What you should be doing now is playing this record, and while you listen, you can read through the interview.

Turn this one nice and loud and remember where you heard it first.

Buzz Slayers: Hey guys, thanks for taking some time with us! Let's talk a bit about the Reptile House Live! At Lansing Prison! The record was a heavy handed garage psych-and stoner rock album!! Where did this album come from?

Quinn: When we got the offer to play in Lansing, we were all pretty excited by the opportunity. We felt it would be super cool to capture our live sound in such a unique environment, and to be able to share that experience with our listeners. We had just recently acquired all the tools we would need to do so, and we wanted to finally release some material featuring Oscar, our new guitar player. It just all fell into place at the right time.

Oscar: We were offered a spot to play, but it had to be scheduled out in advance. I wanna say that we were first given the date at Nov 2024, and we wouldn’t play until late May. We recorded it cause we thought it would be cool. I mean who can say that they’ve played at a prison, let alone record it. 

Turner: It felt like it came from a place of necessity to get our boy Oscar on a record. After he joined our ranks back in September of 2024, people were telling us they loved our new live sound and the records, but they both had their own sound. So I felt it was necessary to record something with Oscar as soon as we could, and what better place to record than a prison?

Buzz Slayers: I'm hearing some great styles here! What are some of your biggest influences?

Quinn: Some people that come to mind immediately: Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan from Avenged Sevenfold, he's probably my biggest inspiration as a player. Mike Portnoy, Chad Sexton, Mario Duplantier, Chris Adler, Matt Halpern, Tomas Haake, and Matt Garstka were all big parts of my drumming journey. I'll never forget the first time I heard Gojira, 311, or Periphery, the drumming styles on display stuck with me immediately. I definitely gravitate the most towards metal, but growing up I heard a lot of 80's new wave and 90's alt as well. Weezer is a staple in my family's collective favorites, for example.

Oscar: Man, that’s a hard question for me. I love listening to music. I’m a big fan of jazz actually and I really love Bossa Nova. It’s my favorite style to play in guitar. I will say being a guitar player, I have to say that Hendrix is a huge inspiration, but additionally, Santana, David Gilmore, Jimmy Page, Tony Iommi, and James Hetfield

Turner: I take a lot of pride in the fact that Reptile House is held together by so many different influences from its members. I’ve always been a fiend of 60’s and 70’s garage and blues rock. My first big breakthrough in bass playing was studying Cliff Burton of Metallica, then expanding my influences to players like Jack Bruce of Cream, Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath, John Entwhistle of The Who, Lemmy of Motörhead, Burke Shelley of Budgie, Dee Dee Ramone, and of course Paul McCartney. Between my 60’s and 70’s rock influences, Quinn’s thunderhorse drumming with guttural sounds of Avenged Sevenfold and Gojira, and Oscar gluing the sound together with a foot in each of our influences and topping it off with jazz and indie flares; We can topple just about anything and make it sound as our own. 

Buzz Slayers: How did this all start for you as a band?

Quinn: I believe I joined this band in January 2023. We met at our retail job at the time. I heard him playing some Black Sabbath on his phone, and we started talking about music. He invited me to jam, traded some ideas and grooves back and forth for a couple hours, and we've been playing together ever since. Turner had already been using the Reptile House moniker for a few years at that point, and for about a year after I joined we operated as a pretty mean 2-piece, although we both agreed it still felt lacking without a guitar player.

Oscar: Well I joined the band a little late. By the time I had joined Turner and Quin had been playing as a two piece for quite some time. We had jammed once and I’ve been with them since. They’re insanely talented musicians and I’m glad to be playing with them.

Turner: Reptile House started back around January 2021 when I began jamming with my friends Matt and Zach after quarantine. That’s when I really started to cut my teeth on the process of writing songs and stepping up as the lead singer. I was in another project of theirs at the same time but we all went our separate ways around May of 2022. The songs from the first EP were all projects for my recording studio class at Johnson County Community College. I’ll never forget being scared out of my wits playing AutoBahn for my class for the first time and everyone loving it instantly. It really gave me a lot of confidence as a song writer. After the original lineup disbursed I sat on the tracks for a while and put them out on October 26th, 2022. I went about 6 or 7 months sitting alone in my apartment after the band dispersed wondering what I was going to do until I ran into Quinn at Target and we hit it off instantly. In January of 2023 we started jamming and then we started playing shows as a 2 piece in August of 2023. Oscar joined in September of 2024 and that brings us to today. 

Buzz Slayers: How did you guys book this show?

Quinn: It honestly kind of fell into our laps. Lansing Correctional Facility had a summer concert series where they would have bands come out and play in the yard once a week. We got connected essentially to their booking agent at a gig in Lawrence, and as soon as they offered us a slot we jumped at the chance to get such a rare opportunity.

Oscar: We had a gig at the Replay Lounge in Lawrence, where we had a guy connect us with the person who sets up the live shows at the prison. 

Turner: Me and Quinn had been playing around the local underground scene as a two piece (Bass, Drums, and Vocals) for a few months to great reactions. We ran into Kyle Williams who played in a lot of different projects and loved our stuff and was always really cool to us. He would always sing our praises and throw shows our way just to catch up when possible. The last show in our string of 5 right after Oscar joined was at the Replay Lounge in Lawrence KS with one of Kyle’s jam bands. He asked us if we had anymore gigs for the year and I remember telling him we weren’t interested in anymore at the time and we were about to take a break from gigs over the winter months to practice some new material. He then asked us if we would be down to play a Prison sometime and I immediately told him sign us the fuck up. 

Buzz Slayers: How was the crowd reaction to the performance? 

Quinn: Oh the residents loved it for the most part. The staff at the prison did tell us beforehand that this would probably be one of the better crowds we'd played for in a long time, and they were right. They all seemed like they enjoyed it, there were a lot of nodding heads and a couple guys got up and danced for most of the set.

Oscar: We had been warned that it would be the best crowd we had ever played for… and it was. From the get go they were just so excited and pumped to hear us play. At one point all the guards came rushing to apprehend a prisoner right in the middle of our songs, while it was raining. 

Turner: We were warned by everyone we had talked to previously who had played the prison that it was going to be one of the best crowds we’d ever play to, and they were absolutely right. The crowd was going absolutely nuts once we got into our set and it was fantastic. Between praying the recordings would sound okay, playing to 250+ inmates, and trying to sing and play bass, it was a speedball of emotions to say the least but all the same absolutely electric. 

Buzz Slayers: How was it set up to record at the prison?

Quinn: They had a full concrete stage area with a mixing board and power and everything you'd need for a live band to play. We did have to bring our own drum/guitar mics and some other equipment from our rehearsal studio in order to be able to not only record in the first place, but also get the kind of sound we wanted out of it. As far as the drums go I just used my main kit which is a Mapex maple kit: 12x10", 14x14", and 16x16" toms, 14x6.5" snare, and a 22x18" kick. Pretty standard rock setup except for the shallower toms. I used a mix of Zildjian crashes, Sabian hi-hats, and Meinl splashes/ride cymbal. Plus, of all things, a Wuhan 16" china cymbal that has somehow survived over 7 years of abuse.

Oscar: The whole idea of recording the show was Turner. It was his brain child. Months leading up to the gig, we were wondering how it would turn out, and if it was even feasible. We had a mix board. A pre amp. Vocal mics, guitar and bass mics, and mics for the drums.

Turner: The show took months of planning to work out all the kinks and to have a plans A to Z to adapt to if anything malfunctioned. I’d sit at work and write note after note planning signal paths and researching how I was going to route everything. A couple months before the show we had just finished putting together our home recording setup and I had learned about The Rolling Stones mobile recording tuck that was around the 60’s and 70’s. I found this great YouTube channel called Mixing and Mastering Online that breaks down how all these amazing albums were recorded, and a lot of my favorites used that truck in particular so I was intrigued by the idea of making our set up mobile. And what better way to test out my new found ideas like diving head first into a trench with a knife in my teeth and recording a live album in a prison? It was honestly a miracle nothing failed and everything went smoothly, even tho I had been obsessing about planning it all out for months. We had been testing out gear and sending stuff back we had bought cause things weren’t working like they should and got just the right set up put together just in time to record. We were hungry and desperate. Even the box we used to house all of our outboard effects and pre amps was made of janky 2X4s me and a friend had lifted from a job site, just because we were broke and determined. 

Buzz Slayers: Now that this is released, what's next for you guys?

Quinn: We have new music in the works, it seems like there is always new stuff coming up during rehearsals, and hopefully soon we will have enough quality music to go and record a proper full length studio album. We don't know exactly what the timeframe for that will be just yet, but that is definitely the direction we're trying to move in. We're also hoping to branch out and play in some other cities in the Midwest now that we've met and played with some touring bands coming through town. TBD.

Oscar: Right now we have plans for an album. Release date to be determined…. Stay tuned!!

Turner: Shows, shows, more shows and an official studio album in the works. I’m currently trying to find a van as well to get me and the boys on the road so we can play out of state. 

Buzz Slayers: Who is in your headphones right now? 

Quinn: The last thing I listened to was Meshuggah, "The Mouth Licking What You've Bled" killer song.

Oscar: Right now it’s gonna be the album Stuff by the band Stuff.  Volume 4 by Black Sabbath, and Chicano Batman’s debut record, they’re my favorite band.

Turner: Patiently waiting for the debut album from the Boojums, Live at the Oval 1971 by The Who, Thickfreakness by The Black Keys, Dick Dale’s Greatest Hits 1961-1967, Check Your Head by the Beastie Boys, and various kinds of blue grass and pedal steel music. 

Buzz Slayers: What is the significance behind the name Reptile House? How did you come up with that?

Quinn: Haha, that's definitely gonna be a good question for Turner. I don't know that there's any one meaning behind the name, to be honest. For me it always makes me think of the "Reptilian Brain", the section of the human brain that governs basic coordination and survival instincts, and that we share with reptiles. Our music has a raw, primal edge to it sometimes, I think that's where I make that connection.

Oscar: I honestly have no idea. That’s a Turner question. Turner had the Reptile House band going for a few years now.

Turner: It was summer of 2020 or 2021 I believe and I was working as a grounds keeper for a bed and breakfast outside my home town. My friends and I were in charge of maintaining the trails which was done by weed whacking what felt like a mile or more of winding trails, creeks, ponds, and all sorts of slopes and hills. One morning my friend Cole and I decided to take a detour across a field behind the garden to get to our destination and it was absolutely teeming red eared sliders. It was nesting season and I had never seen so many turtle nests, let alone turtles in one place before. Between carefully navigating between all the nests and wading through shoulder high grass I belted out without a thought “It’s like a fucking Reptile House out here! Hey wait a second”. Then wrote it down the second I had an opportunity.

Buzz Slayers: What advice do you have for other bands trying to get their music out there?

Quinn: Play in as many different areas as you feasibly can, keep practicing, keep performing, and stay true to yourself. I think people yearn for something original and genuine, even if they sometimes don't even know it.

Oscar: Just play any chance you can, and just have a good time jamming. It’s all about the music at the end of the day.

Turner: Just get out there and don’t let the bastards tear you down. If you want something, go get it. If you want something bad enough, you’ll find a way.

Buzz Slayers: What can people expect from this release?

Quinn: It's the full Reptile House experience. If you ever want to come and see us, this is what you can expect to hear. It's raw, it's loud, and it's coming to you straight from the yard in Lansing.

Oscar: It’s gonna be a loud in your face record. It’s blood, guts, and rock n roll!!

Turner: Reptile House in all of its nastiness. If played under a full moon you’ll turn into a werewolf with an unquenchable thirst for jack and cokes. Blood and Guts Rock n’ Roll. 

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