Mint Mile — Roughrider (Comedy Minus One)

Photo by Patrick Masterson

Mint Mile has been an active concern for going on a decade now, but the build has been slow: Three promising EPs were finally followed by a sweeping full-length that dropped the week after the bottom dropped out on reality and the pandemic began. Ambertron was a grand triumph in a year that did its best to stifle such art, but its casual, communal air felt out of sync in a year where easy connection was impossible. Like time and those of us that survived, however, the band has moved on. Those changes are well processed and documented on the appropriately titled Roughrider.

The best place to start with Roughrider might be right at the end with “I Hope It’s Different.” The alt-country ensemble SIlkworm’s Tim Midyett has been writing for and helming with the steady assistance of bassist Matthew Barnhart, guitarist Justin Brown and drummer Jeff Panall is here led by Nina Nastasia on vocals instead — an acclaimed songwriter in her own right whose “That’s All There Is” Silkworm covered way back in 2003. Nastasia looks optimistically to what comes next as she sings “I hope it’s different / Not just another good time / Insulated by uncomfortable lies” set to the band’s twangy slow dance and given added flourish by Poi Dog Pondering’s Susan Voelz organization of the strings. It’s like opening a window and walking outside, the promise of fresh air and a new environment before you after Midyett’s scrawling shifts and meandering moods.

That doesn’t mean “I Hope It’s Different” is the best song here, exactly. Mint Mile has taken up the mantle of the kind of unspooling Americana Jason Molina used to excel at so well, which is a funny thing to say given Roughrider’s brevity relative to Ambertron. Even so, the band is firing on all cylinders here regardless of track length; “Interpretive Outlook” does every bit as much with its sub-three-minute runtime as “Brigadier” does pushing eight. The breadth of musicianship is on full display and Midyett’s songwriting expands or contracts to fit the music as needed; his roughened, unsparing delivery had me recalling early Jets to Brazil and Lucero.

But perhaps even more so than Ambertron, this is a record about community. To wit: The band shines brightest when the core four are accompanied, which is almost always. The fluid grace of Brown’s pedal steel guitar and Barnhart and Panall’s anchoring rhythm section never sounds better than when there’s just a little something extra — Susan Voelz’s violin, say, or Alison Chesley’s cello. I was disappointed to discover frequent associate Howard Draper did not bring back the “magic spackling thing” as a credit from Ambertron, but nevertheless, his piano, organ and lap steel guitar frequently add a magic touch where an otherwise strong song could’ve settled. There’s Corvair’s Heather Larimer lending vocal assistance on “Empty Island.” And for Silkworm fans, “Halocline” and “S c ent” each feature Joel R.L. Phelps on saxophone. You could write out the whole list of credits for how many contributors are worth noting and for how much they add to make such a satisfying record.

As with Ambertron, though, the best songs on Roughrider happen when Mint Mile piles on the people in a gradually growing jam that stretches the band’s legs. Mirroring “The Great Combine” and “Amberline,” “S c ent” and “Brigadier” probably started as simple singer-songwriter sketches but grew into enormous, swooning spins. MIdyett appropriately struggles on “Brigadier” to hit an attempt at his highest registers as he sings “Can’t overcome the life we made” while the strings skitter and Panall’s percussion finally brings the band to a crashing finish, where Draper’s pulsing, spirit-cleansing organ takes you out. It’s a real thing of beauty.

The whole album and band — really, we should be more generous and call them a collective — is a thing of beauty. Once again, Mint Mile has delivered music with weathered emotional complexity that retains an open-ended sense of optimism that, maybe from now on, the ride won’t be so rough. How easy it is to fall for that kind of burdened but unbeaten perspective.

Patrick Masterson

She-Hulk 1.07

“The Retreat”

SPOILERS!

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1. I don’t know if this was accidental or intentional but ISTG I heard a musical phrase straight out of Hesham Nazih’s ‘Moon Knight’ main theme (specifically the first five notes I highlighted below) when Jen’s on her way to Blonsky’s retreat 👀

2. He sounds fun. Imagine… “My name is Alejandro Montoya*. Josh ghosted Jen. He must die.” 😂🤣

3. I knew he was trouble from last episode 🫣

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*

Life Metal by SUNN O)))

Silkworm - In the West 2x vinyl + CD reissue

Live Picks: 5/8

Julia Jacklin

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Indie dad tries out syntheszier?

Stephen Malkmus, Art Institute of Chicago

In contrast to when we saw him at Metro with the Jicks earlier this year, tonight in the Art Institute, Stephen Malkmus will be performing a rare solo electronic set, presumably of songs from his new solo electronic album Groove Denied. Don’t worry, Pavement freaks--he might play a few beloved band classics.

Tim Midyett (of Silkworm and Mint Mile) opens.

Julia Jacklin, Schubas

On “Turn Me Down”, the penultimate track from Julia Jacklin’s incredible sophomore album Crushing, her significant other tells her that he sees a bright future, but one without her in it. “Please just turn me down,” she repeats, the word “turn” delivered with stunning, raw melisma. The line repeats as the guitars increase in volume, Jacklin eventually yelling, the song crashing to a distant tremolo. “Maybe I’ll see you in a supermarket sometime,” Jacklin whimpers. This exchange is taking place on a roadtrip from Sydney to Melbourne, one that Jacklin and her partner are cautiously taking two days to complete because of past car crashes. What you come to realize is that’s a metaphor for how Jacklin is going to deal with all future relationships: slowly, with tension and doubt. 

This deliberation oozes all over Crushing, which isn’t a breakup album so much as it’s about insecurity and repression caused by dishonesty, gender double standards, the temporary nature of life, and the volatility of love. Throughout, Jacklin describes scenarios we’ve all been through. On “Pressure To Party”, she realizes that if she went out after a break up, she’d just get drunk and want her ex. “I don’t care if you lie...you’re still a good guy,” she reflects on “Good Guy”, lying in bed with her ex, illustrating the levels to which we delude ourselves in order to simply feel loved. On the gorgeous, slow, blues-tinged dirge “Don’t Know How To Keep Loving You,” she simply declares, “I want your mother to stay friends with mine,” attempting to retain a level of normalcy after a life-changing event.

But what’s powerful about Crushing isn’t Jacklin’s admittance of her emotions and thoughts but how she reclaims them. Ownership over one’s body--and one’s self--is a running theme throughout the record, starting immediately with opening track “Body”, a true story about her boyfriend getting the two of them kicked off a plane because he smoked in the bathroom. “I’m not a good woman when you’re around,” Jacklin realizes, planning action, “heading to the city to get my body back.” Slowly building around the simple statement, “It’s just my life / It’s just my body,” the song refuses to downplay the importance of Jacklin’s increasing sense of security. On “Head Alone”, she’s a step further: “I don’t want to be touched all the time / I raised by body up to be mine,” she sings confidently, pausing, and letting out a smirking, “hah,” fully knowing how ridiculous it is that she still has to say this in 2019. By this time on the record, she’s already spitting out mantras with ease: “Yeah, I’ll say it ‘til he understands / You can love somebody without using your hands.” 

Jacklin’s empathetic, yet snappy confidence pervades Crushing. On “Convention”, named after the RNC where Trump was confirmed as the nominee, she quips to a mansplainer, “Oh, please say something, I’m dying for your advice / I can tell you won’t sleep well if you don’t teach me how to do it right,” flipping the sexist on his head to suggest that she’s letting him feel better about himself. On “You Were Right”, she tells of how she started experiencing her ex’s favorite things right after breaking up--but because she wants to. He was right that she would like his favorite bands and restaurants, but he was wrong about her not being devoted to him.

The two most devastating songs on Crushing are where Jacklin shows the most self-awareness. Her first recorded solo piano song, “When The Family Flies In”, details learning her late friend is in critical condition (the same friend to whom she dedicated her debut album Don’t Let The Kids Win). “You know it’s bad when the family flies in,” she states matter-of-fact. It’s not dark humor, though. Like elsewhere on the album, Jacklin accepts the end of a body, or the end of a relationship between bodies. On closer “Comfort”, she admirably sings, “Don’t know how he’s doing / But that’s what you get / You can’t be the one to hold him when you were the one who left.” It’s more than just a clever line--it’s the type of advice you wish you had at various stages of your life to help guide you through what at the time seems like the worst pain you’ve ever had, wise words from one of today’s best songwriters.

8.6/10

Crushing by Julia Jacklin

Black Belt Eagle Scout, the indie rock project of singer-songwriter Katherine Paul, opens.

Cursive & mewithoutyou, Bottom Lounge

We previewed Cursive’s show at Thalia Hall late last year:

“Vitriola is the first Cursive album since The Ugly Organ to feature a cellist (Megan Siebe). This isn’t that notable, but I’ll take any connection to what’s undoubtedly their best record. The more notable connection recalls a similar era–founding drummer Clint Schnase returns for the first time since Happy Hollow. So while the album’s dramatic, baroque instrumentation actually blends quite nicely with the band’s usual mixture of rough power chords, slinky post-rock guitar lines, meaty drumming, and shout-along choruses, it’s the themes that are in a little too over their head. No, Vitriola is not a concept record, but whereas previous Cursive albums were rooted in a topic or two, Vitriola is Tim Kasher’s midlife crisis record, considering anything and everything including the concept of free will on the opening track and not backing down for the rest of the record. 'You know it’s gonna hurt / There’s nothing left to lose,' Kasher sings over and over. Looking at the plight of so many in today’s political climate, you find his words a bit insincere. And 'Ouroboros' is chock full of lines that hit you over the head with their plodding delivery. ('The writer will obsess over success / Success is like the carrot on a stick / Once the writer finds it’s just a carrot / The writer takes a shit all over it.') 

Instead, the best songs on Vitriola come when Kasher and company ask questions and show some self-awareness. 'Who will show remorse?' he wonders on the soft, piano-laden, melancholy ‘Remorse'. It’s the idea that in order to earn the right to be angry and nihilistic about the world, you not only have to validate what others are going through–you have to understand and own up to your part in it. Eventually, on 'Everending', he admits what you already know he’s going to come to: “The point of all of this eludes us.' You just wish he had gotten to the realization a little bit quicker.”

Aaaand same with mewithoutyou’s show at Lincoln Hall:

“The best part of Philadelphia’s mewithoutyou is that they’re impossible to describe, fitting in a unique place somewhere among indie rock, post rock, punk, and post hardcore. Their recent releases, an album and an EP both untitled, were recorded in the wake of frontman Aaron Weiss’s newfound family life and move to Idaho and additional musicians. The album is expansive, as evidenced by heartland emo track 'Winter Solstice' and frigid 'Wendy & Betsy', and urgent, as on chugging opener '9:27 a.m., 7/29'. Tonight, the band will play heavily from their new records as well as classics like Catch Us For The Foxes, Brother, Sister, and Ten Stories.”

Lawrence, KS rock band The Appleseed Cast open.

2020 Voting

To preface this, these are just my opinions of course, and I am not trying to sway anyone, nor make the decision for them. I just did the research and sent it to my family so figured I would share with all of you as well if it would help! Also, the 2 Referendums at the end only apply to Florida voters, so feel free to ignore. :) My source is Ballottopia as well as the sources on Wikipedia.

                                                     2020 Voting

President

-Joseph R. Biden

         Kamala D. Harris

House of Representatives

-Donna Deegan: John Rutherford is an avid Trump supporter. Really it's time for him to gtfo.

Representatives

-Al Lawson

-Tammyette Thomas

 County Clerk of Court

-Jimmy Midyette

 Justice of the Supreme Court

-Justice Carlos G. Muiz NO defended rapists, Trumper

 District Court of Appeal

Joseph Lewis Jr. YES, though republican he tends to vote more liberal

Judge Scott Makar NO argued for juveniles sentenced to life without parole for non-homicide crimes

Judge Rachel Nordby NO conservative republican, elected in by Rick Scott

Judge Clay Roberts: NO  conservative republican, elected in by Rick Scott

Judge Tim Osterhaus NO Republican, elected in by Rick Scott

Judge Adam S. Tanenbaum NO Republican, Elected in by Rick Scott

 Soil and Water Conservation Group 2

Binod Kumar: most qualified and seems to be most passionate of the candidates.

 Soil and Water Conservation Group 4

Arthur R. Bides: most qualified and most passionate

 Constitutional Amendments

·         No. 1 Constitutional Amendment Article VI Section 2: Restricts the right to vote NO

 ·         No. 2 Constitutional Amendment Article X, Section 24: YES, no hidden agenda, amazing this got on the ballot at all. the minimum wage will be raged to a living wage for everyone, even though it’s still not fast enough for a lot of people. There is a threat on the ballot that this will negatively impact the state net budget, but really? Don’t we have a responsibility to pay a bit more to cover our fellow humans?

  ·         No 3. Constitutional Amendment Article VI, Section 5: YES, would give all voters the right to vote in the primary, including nonpartisan, which is what should have been happening all along. This will even the playing field for Millennials and Zoomers who tend not to identify with either dominant party, no hidden agenda.

 ·         No. 4 Constitutional Amendment Article XI, Sections 5 and 7: NO, puts more power in the hands of the legislature and less in the hands of the people, takes more time and money to get changes passed, in states where this has passed it has become harder to get changes made to the state constitution and legislature

  ·         No. 5 Constitutional Amendment Article VII, Section 4 and Article XII: NO, would reduce property tax revenue available for funding local schools and other services like police, fire and infrastructure

 ·         No. 6 Constitutional Amendment Article VII, Section 6 and Article XII: YES, though proposed and supported purely by Republicans there are no hidden agendas and the amendment would cause no defunding anywhere else.

 Referendums

·         School Capital Outlay Sales Surtax to improve Safety and the Learning Environment: YES, though uncertain about the application of the funds particularly in reference to the charter schools that are included in the improvements.

·         Amending Jacksonville Charter Granting City Council Authority to Appoint and Remove Four JEA Board Members: NO, this one, it’s simply mind boggling. Why on earth would I want city council to have a hand in JEA? JEA is running themselves just fine, they had our backs during the hurricane and we’re going to have their backs now.

SUNN O))) are pleased to present Life Metal, their first new studio album in four years, due for release on Southern Lord in April 2019. The album will be supported by their first European tour since 2016, including their first ever French tour - dates and details below.

At the very beginning of 2018 SUNN O))) co-founders Stephen O'Malley & Greg Anderson set out on a path toward a new album production. They were both determined to create new music and a new method of working in the studio, without forgetting the long and proud history of production and studio accomplishments forged during their first two decades of existence (and the members' own musical experiences out of the band's). One long term goal was completely clear: to record Sunn O))) with Steve Albini in his Electrical Audio studio. Steve took the call, said "Sure, this will be fun. I have no idea what is going to happen."

Greg and Stephen gathered twice that spring for writing, conceptualising and riff woodshedding in the very building where the band was formed: Downtown Rehearsal in Los Angeles. Sonic cosmoses, flashes of abstract colour (synthetic and objective) and themes emerged from the mastered depths of saturation and circuits between the two players and their mountains of gear. Themes developed in terms of brightness and energy, while visionary cues pointed toward subconscious areas of practice and the pair realised they were exploring other zones of consciousness via sound/time and sound/energy manipulation. In early summer a pre-production session with full backline, as a trio with T.O.S. on Moog, was recorded at Dave Grohl’s 606 studios, Northridge, California.

In July 2018 SUNN O))) spent just over two weeks in Chicago at Electrical Audio (Studio A) with Steve Albini at the helm. The results are astounding: there is breadth and luminosity of colour, it sounds vast. The sessions were impeccably recorded, authentically represented and completely accurate. The spectrum cracked the firmament open in clarity. An all analogue technique was used, they recorded and mixed on tape, providing a creative gateway for SUNN O))) to evolve their production methods into stronger, confident, performance based and a more logical executive process. The album was mastered and lacquers cut from tape in October by SUNN O))) ally Matt Colton at Alchemy in London. The LP version is a AAA album, recorded and mixed on tape via a completely analogue production, from the input of the band's amplifiers and the air coming off the speakers in front of the microphones to needle touching the pressed vinyl on your turntable.

Continuing one of the main currents of the SUNN O))) concept, depth of exploration within collaboration, brought forth Hildur Guðnadóttir to the Sunn O))) constellation. Hildur is a sometime live collaborator of Sunn O))) and a renowned film music composer, former member of the bands Múm, Pan Sonic and Angel. She was a long time collaborator with the composer Jóhann Jóhannsson (RIP). Hildur lent her incredible attitude, as well as her voice, breath and electric cello, and the enigmatic haldorophone to the proceedings, culminating in the epic composition/concerto "Novæ". The cosmos clearly expands.

Tim Midyett, a close friend of Greg and Stephen since the Seattle days of the early 90s (and member of Silkworm, Bottomless Pit and Mint Mile), joined in a foundational role tying earth to sound with wicked performances on aluminium neck bass and baritone guitars: instruments he helped pioneer playing back in the 90s (alongside Steve and Shellac of course). Dark matter is reality.

Prolific new music composer Anthony Pateras arranged and recorded an incredible contribution of pipe organ for a piece titled "Troubled Air" (titled after an essay by author Aliza Shvarts, who also penned the liner notes for Sunn O)))’s Kannon) at Schlosskappelle, Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart. String theory of space.

The resulting album is titled Life Metal. It is fully realised and completely real. The record was produced by the core of Stephen & Greg & arranged by the greater constellation Sunn O))). Paintings by visual artist Samantha Keely Smithgraciously adorn the sleeve and provide a perfect suitable mask to the proceedings. They collide ideas of 19th century romanticism & late 20th abstract expressionism (mysticism) with Sunn O)))’s approach to metal (via reference points of Arbo, Turner, Delville, Richter, Turrel, Wou-Ki). Photographer Ronald Dick shot them in baths of light colour representing depth of sound pressure in the work.

SUNN O))) Life Metal (sunn300, Southern Lord)

1. Between Sleipnir's Breaths 2. Troubled Air 3. Aurora 4. Novae

There is a second more meditative LP titled Pyroclasts, also recorded by Steve Albini in parallel, and which will be revealed in the autumn 2019 (more later) with all music performed by Stephen, Greg, T.O.S., Tim Midyett, and Hildur Guðnadóttir.

SUNN O))) are touring March (EU/France), April (USA), September (USA), October (UK & Europe). They are working toward some special events in London and other cities.

SUNN O))) LET THERE BE DRONE (MULTIPLE GAINS STAGES) March 2019 Europe part 1

Thu 28/02/2019 DE Frankfurt Mousonturm Fri 01/03/2019 AT Graz Elevate festival/Orpheum ° ~ Sat 02/03/2019 CZ Prague Divadlo Archa ° Sun 03/03/2019 DE Hamburg Kampnagel - K6 ° Mon 04/03/2019 NL Amsterdam Paradiso ° Wed 06/03/2019 FR Lyon L'Epicerie Moderne ÷ Thu 07/03/2019 FR Nancy L'Autre Canal ÷ Fri 08/03/2019 FR Dijon La Vapeur ÷ Sat 09/03/2019 FR Rouen QuasaRites Day/Le 106 Mon 11/03/2019 FR Tours Le Temps Machine § Tue 12/03/2019 FR Nantes Stereolux § Wed 13/03/2019 FR La Rochelle La Sirene § Thu 14/03/2019 FR Bordeaux Le Rocher de Palmer §

Supports : ° Puce Mary https://puce-mary.bandcamp.com ÷ Golem Mecanique https://golemecanique.bandcamp.com § France https://standard-in-fi.bandcamp.com ~ Robin Fox presents Single Origin

SUNN O))) LET THERE BE DRONE (MULTIPLE GAINS STAGES) April 2019 USA part 1

Wed 17/04/2019 Cleveland, OH The Agora Theatre Thu 18/04/2019 Detroit, MI Masonic Temple Fri 19/04/2019 Chicago, IL Rockefeller Chapel Sat 20/04/2019 Pelham, TN The Caverns Wed 24/04/2019 Philadelphia, PA Underground Arts Thu 25/04/2019 Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Steel Fri 26/04/2019 New Haven, CT College Street Music Hall Sun 28/04/2019 Washington, DC The Howard Theatre

Support : Papa M

SUNN O)))’s website/webstore sunn.southernlord.com SUNN O)))’s album oeuvres online sunn.bandcamp.com SUNN O)))’s live recordings online sunn-live.bandcamp.com

Tours produced by Ideologic Organ Music SUNN O)))’s booking in EU by Odyssey / Vincent Royers SUNN O)))’s booking in USA by UTA / David Strunk

SUNN O)))’s recordings are released by Southern Lord Recordings www.southernlord.com www.southernlordeurope.com

Sunn O))) annO)))unce first new studiO))) album in fO)))ur years

It’s been over four mortal earth-years since Sunn O))) released an album. And while a casual browse of Discogs proves that Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley have been pretty much doing the OPPOSITE of nothing, it’s still nice to imagine Sunn O))) have been bunkered down in a cave somewhere that Google maps doesn’t know exist, summoning dark frequencies through a portal to the Underworld they created from a bass amp and a divining rod. As it turns out, that “cave” is more of an “LA rehearsal space,” and Sunn O))) have actually been crafting several albums there, which have been laid to tape (literally) with Steve Albini at his hallowed Electrical Audio studio. The first evidence of all this deliberate toil and trouble will be Life Metal, which will be released via Southern Lord in April. In addition to Anderson and O’Malley, Life Metal will feature contributions from a host of impeccably pedigreed artists, including Hildur Guðnadóttir (Múm, Pan Sonic and Angel), Anthony Pateras (playing the incredible metal pipe organ), Tim Midyett, and Ronald Dick — who lent his photography skills, with Samantha Keely Smith compiling the artwork. In their words, Life Metal “collide[s] ideas of 19th century romanticism & late 20th abstract expressionism” while the companion piece Pyroclasts will be more meditative and released later in 2019 once your ears have stopped ringing from blasting Life Metal on an infinite loop. Sunn O))) will also venture out for a tour around Europe in support of their triumphant re-emergence from the figurative cave. Check out all the dates below the full tracklisting, and watch an album teaser down below: Life Metal tracklisting: 01. Between Sleipnir’s Breaths 02. Troubled Air 03. Aurora 04. Novae O)))n the rO)))ad: 02.28.19 - Frankfurt, Germany - Mousonturm 03.01.19 - Graz, Austria - Elevate Festival/Orpheum 03.02.19 - Prague, Czech Republic - Divadlo Archa 03.03.19 - Hamburg, Germany - Kampnagel 03.04.19 - Amsterdam, the Netherlands - Paradiso 03.06.19 - Lyon, France - L’Epicerie Moderne 03.07.19 - Nancy, France - L’Autre Canal 03.08.19 - Dijon, France - La Vapeur 03.09.19 - Rouen, France - QuasaRites Day/Le 106 03.11.19 - Tours, France - Le Temps Machine 03.12.19 - Nantes, France - Stereolux 03.13.19 - La Rochelle, France - La Sirene 03.14.19 - Bordeaux, France - Le Rocher de Palmer 04.17.19 - Cleveland, OH - Agora 04.18.19 - Detroit, MI - Masonic Lodge 04.19.19 - Chicago, IL - Rockefeller Chapel 04.20.19 - Pelham, TN - The Caverns 04.24.19 - Philadelphia, PA - Underground Arts 04.25.19 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Steel 04.26.19 - New Haven, CT - College Street Music Hall 04.28.19 - Washington, D.C. - The Howard Theatre http://j.mp/2tbQH4U

CALIFICACIÓN PERSONAL: 6 / 10

Título Original: Girl on the Third Floor

Año: 2019

Duración: 93 min

País: Estados Unidos

Director: Travis Stevens

Guion: Travis Stevens

Música: Steve Albini, Alison Chesley, Tim Midyett

Fotografía: Scott Thiele

Reparto: CM Punk, Trieste Kelly Dunn, Sarah Brooks, Elissa Dowling, Karen Woditsch, Travis Delgado, Marshall Bean, Anish Jethmalani, Bishop Stevens, Tonya Kay

Productora: Queensbury Pictures

Género: Horror, Mistery, Drama

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9026184/

TRAILER:

The Gotobeds — Debt Begins at 30 (Sub Pop)

Debt Begins at 30 by THE GOTOBEDS

The Gotobeds make a fractious racket, hard and heavy but surprisingly tuneful. Here on their fourth full-length, the band reinforces connections with a host of like-minded artists bringing in guests from Protomartyr, Silkworm, Positive No, Shellac, gut punching post-punk heavyweights all. Still, despite the extra fire power, not so much has changed since the early days, captured on the reissued Fucking in the Future and reviewed at Dusted in 2017. “In the fine, frantic tradition of Swell Maps, early Wire and, more recently, Tyvek and Parquet Courts, the Gotobeds, out of Pittsburgh, imbued angst and chaos with just enough melody,” I said then, and I’m sticking to it now.

The collaborations are interesting, though, shedding a certain amount of light on where the Gotobeds sit along the spectrum of past and current punk rock ranters. “Slang Words,” whose words are spat by Protomartyr’s Joe Casey, serves as a prime example. The two bands met in the middle of this decade and found enough common ground to go on tour together in 2015. Casey sang in the chorus of Blood//Sugar//Secs//Traffic on the last Gotobeds album, and he’s back in the ferocious, chaotic “Slang Words,” a song whose bass and drums are particularly raw and powerful, whose guitars rattle like a monsoon pounding on a tin roof. The Gotobeds’ Eli Kasan and Casey trade shouted verses, each, in his way, hoarsely impassioned and end in a stakes-raising exchange of the phrase “Can’t stand the taste.” It’s like one of those acting exercises where a single set of words must be made to mean multiple things, where the whole spectrum of human emotions can be encapsulated in a brief, nondescript phrase. It gets you thinking that Protomartyr and the Gotobeds have a fair amount in common, the slashed out chords, the galloping drums, the brash hallucinatory spate of verbiage—and that as far as differences, perhaps, Gotobeds are better at the barbed-wire hook and Protomartyr more adept at electrifying the spew of words.

“On Loan” gets at the Protomartyr linkages from another angle, this time featuring Greg Ahee on guitar. It is, interesting, the most lyrical and laid back of these tunes. It’s here that you come to appreciate the Gotobeds knack for a melody; it’s slow and hummable, with little firestorms of guitar going off around it.

Tim Midyett from Silkworm also makes an appearance (like Casey, he was also on the previous album as well) in “Parallel” which has a bit of his old band’s radiant guitar work and wry, mordant stoicism. Sounds like a sausage fest, eh? Well, not to worry, Traci Wilson of Dahlia Seed and Positive No! guests in “Twin Cities” trading verses with Kasan in the disc’s jangliest song (which is still tense and irregular and pretty far from indie pop).

It is perhaps natural to focus on the guests, who add a great deal to this fine album, but the fact is that the Gotobeds themselves come off very well, too. “Calquer the Hound,” is a slow moving fist-fight of a song, punching hard but in no hurry, its down-slashed guitar chords close to ripping the strings off the instrument, its drumming full of headlong abandon, its bass anchoring but anarchic, a solid but unconforming foundation. The emergence of a sing-along chorus out of this hedge of sharp, serrated sounds is welcome, and if you didn’t know the Gotobeds, it might even be a little surprising. But this is the sort of trick this band is always pulling, embedding little bits of indelible tune in uncompromising bouts of aggression, and they’ve never been better at it.

Jennifer Kelly

Sunn O))) Release Metta, Benevolence.  BBC 6Music: Live on the Invitation of Mary Anne Hobbs. on Double LP format

Available on CD and digitally last November, this epic release is available on vinyl today from Southern Lord. // Watch an unboxing video to check out the excellent packaging now.

Paintings by Samantha Keely Smith.

In late October 2019, following a successful UK tour ending in a sold-out concert at the mythical Roundhouse in London, SUNN O))) entered studio 4 of the BBC Maida Vale on invitation to record a live session for Mary Anne Hobbs to be broadcast on Samhain via her excellent radio show on BBC6. To enter the legendary John Peel studios was to enter a temple of music and experimentation, liberty in ideas and sound.

The band was nearing the end of a long touring year around the Life Metal and Pyroclasts albums (of which Anna Von Hausswolff and her band had accompanied SUNN O))) on the UK tour, and Anna joined SUNN O))) in the studio on synths and with her tremendous voice). SUNN O))) had developed their compositions extensively, embracing the formative concepts of the Life Metal album conceptually and emotionally, but actualized and evolved into vast, open and bright hyper-saturated arrangements. Particularly the pieces the band chose to perform on this recording: Troubled Air and Pyroclasts. The former enriched into a total aspect of the band's ethos and form in many ways, and Pyroclasts had evolved to become all-inclusive radiation of O))). The radiation embraces collaboration and freedom of interpretation by each player, within a structural format of the massive monuments of sound and distortion which define SUNN O))).

The recordings of this session—  Metta, Benevolence.  BBC 6Music: Live on the Invitation of Mary Anne Hobbs.— were released on CD and digital formats last November via Southern Lord and today, the long-awaited double LP version is finally available.

Watch (+ share) the Sunn O))) Metta, Benevolence... LP unboxing video on YouTube.

Revisit passages from "Pyroclasts F (featuring Anna von Hausswolff) here and "Troubled Air" here.

SUNN O))) Metta, Benevolence       BBC 6Music : Live on the invitation of Mary Anne Hobbs 1. Pyroclasts F 2. Pyroclasts C# 3. Troubled Air

Stephen O’Malley (Electric Guitar, Minimoog Model D synthesizer) Greg Anderson (Electric Guitar, Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 synthesizer) Tos Nieuwenhuizen (Moog Rogue synthesizer) Stephen Moore (Trombone, Roland Junior-106 (mod) & Nord Stage (gaffed black) synthesizers) Tim Midyett (Electric Bass Guitar, Roland Juno-106 synthesizer) Anna von Hausswolff (Voice & Nord C2D synthesizer on Pyroclasts F & C#)

Artist photo by: Ronald K. Dick.  Hi-res available here.

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*exclusive EU color variants

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*exclusive Evil Greed color variant

SUNN O)))’s website/webstore sunn.southernlord.com

SUNN O)))’s album oeuvres online sunn.bandcamp.com

SUNN O)))’s live recordings online sunn-live.bandcamp.com

SUNN O)))’s recordings are released by Southern Lord Recordings

www.southernlord.com

www.southernlordeurope.com

The Pyroclasts album is the result of a daily practice which was regularly performed each morning, or evening during the two week Life Metal sessions at Electrical Audio during July 2018, when all of the days musical participants would gather and work through a 12 minute improvised modal drone at the start and or end of the day’s work. The piece performed was timed with a stopwatch and tracked to two inch tape, it was an exercise and a chance to dig into a deep opening or closing of the days session in a deep musical way with all of the participants. To connect/reconnect, liberate the creative mind a bit and greet each other and the space through the practice of sound immersion. The players across the four pieces of Pyroclasts are Tim Midyett, T.O.S., Hildur Guðnadóttir, and as always Stephen O’Malley & Greg Anderson. The music on Pyroclasts is inextricably woven to Life Metal. It exists on the very same tape reels, was explicitly recorded by Steve Albini. The brightness and vividity of that glorious session glares through these four tracks, the precision and radiance, prismatic lustrousness of the saturation, the elemental sculptural shapes, the abstract renderings. It is a sister, or perhaps a shadow album. Or perhaps the now apparent miasma or aether. But it also exists in a form of a pause, a time space which exist in between and around the compositional structures of Sunn O)))’s titanic works. . . . . . #sunno #pyroclasts #southernlordrecords #metal #drone #doommetal #vinyl #vinylcollection #vinylcollector (presso Bassano del Grappa) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-13R0lpGVk/?igshid=xluaeci42dxy

Mint Mile - Ambertron

songs: chicago live video

dustin park (who recorded the durham songs: molina show) has just posted his video from the songs: chicago show two weeks ago! tim midyett (silkworm, bottomless pit), becky levi, lawrence peters, andy cohen, kelly hogan and edra soto join the early aught songs: ohia band for a handful of tracks. the show includes almost all of the 2003 magnolia electric co album (no 'peoria lunchbox blues') as well as other ohia favorites.

songs: chicago is: dan sullivan - guitar/vocals dan macadam - guitar/violin/vocals jeff panall - drums rob sullivan - bass jim grabowski - keyboards rob bochnik - guitar

with guests tim midyett, becky levi, lawrence peters, andy cohen, kelly hogan, nora o'connor and edra soto on vocals. lawrence peters guests on drums/piano and tim midyett on bass.

DRONE MASTER

Marc A. BERTIN / © 2018 SUNN O))) & Ronald Dick 

SUNN O))) 

En préambule de la sortie de Life Metal, l’autoproclamé power ambiant duo s’embarque dans une tournée européenne dévouée aux sons des ténèbres.

Que dire de plus et de mieux que ce qui a été déjà écrit ? Depuis 1998, Stephen O’Malley et Greg Anderson malaxent jusqu’à l’épuisement le codex metal, versant doom, avec une certaine idée mystique de la transe. Adulée par les fans de Black Sabbath et de La Monte Young, la formation n’a de cesse de (se) jouer des paradoxes du minimalisme.

Adepte de l’art du silence comme des déflagrations, Sunn O))) transforme la pesanteur en extase, convertit les branchés à ses rituels (murs d’amplis, robes de bure, brouillard gothique) et figure toujours dans le Who’s Who des musiciens fondamentaux du siècle.

Auteur d’une impressionnante discographie, où le nombre d’albums live dépasse allégrement celui des efforts studio, le groupe assoit définitivement son statut avec Monoliths & Dimensions (2009), convoquant à sa messe noire Oren Ambarchi, Dylan Carlson, Attila Csihar et Stuart Dempster.

En 2014, c’est en luxueux backing band pour le mythe Scott Walker que Sunn O))) fait taire les derniers grincheux abasourdis par la beauté sépulcrale de Soused.

Nouvel édifice majestueux, Life Metal, produit par Steve Albini, réunit une nouvelle distribution ad hoc (Tim Midyett, Anthony Pateras, Hildur Guðnadóttir), le tout serti d’une surprenante pochette signée Samantha Keely Smith, plasticienne surdouée des paysages abstraits.

Autant dire que si Richard Wagner ne s’était éteint à la Ca’ Vendramin Calergi, c’est à eux qu’il demanderait d’interpréter L’Entrée des dieux au Walhalla chaque été à Bayreuth.

Sunn O))) « La traversée du drone (étages de gains multiples) » + France Mercredi 13 mars, 20 h, La Sirène, La Rochelle (17000). www.la-sirene.fr

Jeudi 14 mars, 20 h 30, Le Rocher de Palmer, Cenon (33150). lerocherdepalmer.fr

SUNN O))) Announces Two New Albums and Books Extensive Rituals

SUNN O))) Announces Two New Albums and Books Extensive Rituals

Enigmatic doom legends SUNN O))) have announced two new albums. Life Metal, the first due out this April via Southern Lord Recordings. Recorded simultaneously with a second “more meditative” LP dubbed Pyroclasts, both albums created by Steve Albini in parallel, and which will be revealed in autumn 2019. All music performed by Stephen, Greg, T.O.S., Tim Midyett, and Hildur Guðnadóttir.Their first…

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