Sleep

I’m trying to avoid simply recounting concerts or bands, but in this case I can’t resist.  Although I’ve referred to stoner rock bands countless times already, I haven’t blogged about Sleep in particular, and they are a particularly important band in that genre.

Current lineup:  Matt Pike (guitar), Al Cisneros (bass/vocals), Jason Roeder (drums).   Cisneros was also in a band called OM, which is heavy dronelike s**t.  Five albums: Variations on a Theme, Conference of the Birds, Pilgrimage, God is Good, and Adviatic Songs.  The singing sounds like it’s in Byzantine or some foreign language.  It reminds me of SunnO))).  To make matters even more stonerish, Cisneros was also in a one-off band called Shrinebuilder, somewhat of a stoner rock supergroup with only one (awesome) self-titled album, featuring Dale Crover on drums (the Melvins), Scott Kelly (Neurosis) on bass, and the ever-popular Scott “Wino” Weinrich (Saint Vitus & the Obsessed, among others) on guitar and vocals.  Note that current Sleep drummer, Jason Roeder, was with Neurosis, making two members of that band Al Cisneros has worked with. 

Discography:  Volume 1, Holy Mountain, Jerusalem/Dopesmoker, The Sciences.  With the exception of J/D (see below) these four albums have multiple songs with lyrics.

Along with Kyuss, Sleep can be considered one of the premiere stoner rock bands.  They began around 1991 and continued to 1998, at which point they broke up when the record label refused to release their album, Jerusalem, also known as Dopesmoker, a continuous 52 minute song (later released on a different label).  While most of their songs can be enjoyed without herbal enhancement, the latter album almost requires it to be listenable, and I imagine the record company weren’t 4:20 friendly enough to make that work.   

Doom with a Groove.  As noted earlier, a frequent complaint of stoner rock is that too much of it sounds the same, mostly bands incessantly copying not only Black Sabbath but also each other.  A subset of stoner rock is doom, which seems to take Black Sabbath, particularly “Into the Void”, the last song on Master of Reality and tuned down to C#, and make it even slower, heavier and doomier.  Electric Wizard really come to mind on this, but SunnO))) and Sleep do this as well.  And after awhile that really gets dull and tiresome.  Are you trying to lull everyone to sleep?  [WARNING:  DO NOT USE INDICA].  So the challenge with this is keeping it lively when you’re tuned down low – thus the GROOVE.  I could hear a definite groove with Pike & the boys that night, and certainly on The Sciences.  I did not fall asleep during this show. 

Pike tends to play Les Pauls through multiple Orange amps – I counted three heads and six 4x12” cabinets – and heavily detuned.  He doesn’t wear a shirt.  Cisneros handles the vocals and Rickenbacker bass, through no less than 4 full stacks of Sunn amps.  The music drones but (as noted) has a definite groove which breaks up what might otherwise be monotonous and dull.  Both shows (see below) were highly enjoyable. 

In 2000, Pike formed High On Fire, more of a thrash metal band, and continued with that for awhile, putting out 8 albums between 2000 and now.  I actually saw them open for Opeth in Baltimore in 2008, but for some reason they didn’t impress me.  I tried listening to their stuff on Spotify and it went in one ear and out the other.  Like a fair amount of thrash metal, it does a poor job of distinguishing itself from angry white noise.  Fortunately Sleep are much different.

In 2009 Sleep reformed and began touring again.  Recently they released a new album of awesome s**t, called The Sciences.  [Technically it seems High on Fire is on hiatus and not disbanded.]  

Here is a particularly good (and of course, positive) review of the new album which addresses much of the circumstances surrounding its long-awaited arrival: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/sleep-the-sciences/

Now I’ve seen them twice, both at the new 9:30 Club in DC.

2016 set list.     Dragonaut, Holy Mountain, Dopesmoker (excerpt), The Clarity, Sonic Titan, Aquarian, From Beyond, Cultivator/Improved Morris.

2018 setlist.       Marijuanaut’s Theme, Holy Mountain, The Clarity, Sonic Titan, Giza Butler, Leagues Beneath, The Botanist, Dragonaut, encore: Dopesmoker (excerpt).   Remarkably, the following night they played another show, a different setlist featuring most of Holy Mountain.   Hopefully Pike was using a new guitar cable. 

As you might imagine, this is a band not quite shy about declaring their love of marijuana consumption.  In addition to the names, and much bud-like imagery on the album covers and t-shirts, the concession stand at the recent show featured lighters, credit card-style grinders, and at a premium, metal grinders – i.e. MJ paraphernalia.  Other bands are doing the same these days, so it’s only a matter of time before band-emblazoned bongs, pipes, rolling papers, etc., become available.  Hell, Willie Nelson and Snoop Dogg have proprietary weed strains, so as legalization spreads, perhaps we’ll see that from stoner rock bands as well – hell, concert venues would be well advised to double as legal dispensaries (dare we hope).  DC, where the concert took place, has legalized possession, but not sale, of MJ.  Stay tuned.  In the meantime, enjoy SLEEP.  

Orphan Black

Recently I finished watching this one – Season 5 of 5.  The premise is that a girl, Sarah Manning (Tatiana Maslany) discovers that she has not merely twins, but actually CLONES.   Just when she thinks she’s found them all, she finds another one.  Each is different, though all played by the insanely talented Maslany.  Over five seasons the drama develops with a fair amount of excitement and some degree of action and adventure.   It seems to take place in Toronto, eh, with no hockey in the picture – initially no actual setting until season 5 when Felix admits they’re in Canada.  I figured it out early enough, since everyone’s heads were flipping around and they all said “aboot”.

DYAD is the company which made the clones, but there’s another secret society out to kill the clones.  Things get very confusing, over and above the clone deal. 

Clones. 

Sarah.  The main character, has a daughter Kira, despite the fact that clones are supposed to be sterile.  Kira has super powers.  (Center above)

Alison.  A soccer mom, married, with adopted children.  Found out she was a clone while tripping on shrooms. (Second left above)

Helena.  Ukrainian, with thick accent. “Stick in baby!”  Apparently a twin of Sarah, as she gets pregnant by artificial insemination.  The most dangerous.  (Far right)

Cosima.  Cute, dreadlocked, lesbian science girl.  Very important.  (Second right)

Rachel.   Runs the bad guys.   Often at odds with Sarah and Helena.  Ruthless and nasty. (Far left)

Beth.  Toronto cop who kills herself early on. 

There are about 6 more clones, but these are the most important.  Some of the others die off early or – in the case of the male transsexual clone – show up briefly and then leave. 

NOTE: Later we find there are MALE clones (all played by Ari Millen).  I never had the patience to tell them apart.  Not as cute as the female ones anyway.  The male clones know they are clones. 

Other people (not a complete list):

Felix.  Sarah’s gay roommate and BFF.  Annoying but sympathetic.

Detective Art Bell.  Beth’s partner.  Sarah assumes Beth’s identity but eventually teams up with Art even after he knows she’s not Beth. 

Siobhan Sadler.  Sarah’s “Mom”, aka “Mrs S”.  In addition to looking after Sarah and Kira, she’s also DEEP in this whole s**t.  Plus she’s handy with a gun.  Don’t f**k with her.

Dr. Delphine Cormier.  Cosima’s off-again-on-again “partner”, sometimes sympathetic and sometimes possibly on the wrong side.  Not sure if she can be trusted.

Donnie Hendrix.  Alison’s chunky husband.  Usually useful but also somewhat funny.

Aldous Leekie, played by Matt “Max Headroom” Frewer.  One of the Dyad scientists.

Modest sex, modest violence, but mostly paranoia and intrigue as we try to figure out who is with which organization, and as the various actors plow through their agendas, a few clones get killed, other characters die, but fortunately they wrap everything up by the last episode and we figure it all out.  There’s some issue of the ethics of cloning, which I zoned out on as the technology doesn’t seem to be here yet, and according to this treatment, clones are sterile by design (with the exceptions of Sarah and Helena).  I got tired of it and wound up completing it as much out of sheer determination as genuine interest.  However, Sarah and Helena remain sympathetic throughout and Maslany’s acting is compelling enough reason to indulge in this.  Seriously, I had no doubt that each clone was a separate person, notwithstanding the fact that the same actress portrayed all of  them.  Maslany’s talent is phenomenally underrated.   

There are also comic books, but I have no patience with that.

Finally, Tatiana Maslany reminds me a bit of Mila Kunis.   Imagine a parallel dimension in which they’re switched on all roles, e.g. “That 70s Show” and “The Family Guy”.  I’ve seen Maslany on “Parks & Recreation” but not a whole lot elsewhere. 

YOB & Lynyrd Skynyrd

Friday the 13^th?  Not a fan of the movies or the superstition itself.

Yet again I take a perverse pleasure in reviewing my two most recent concert experiences, bands which have absolutely nothing in common aside from playing music.

YOB, Metro Gallery, Baltimore.  This is a club north of the Pennsylvania Station with little in the way of seating (up against the wall facing perpendicular to the stage) and a stage facing away from the entrance, basically just a big empty room.  The band itself is a doom metal trio from Eugene, Oregon, consisting of Mike Scheidt (guitar/vocals), Aaron Rieseberg (bass), and Travis Foster (drums).   Opening acts were Bell Witch and some band not identified except in indecipherable logo on t-shirts for sale.  These acts did a good job of playing the stoner rock which us stoner rock fans know and enjoy, though their performances fell short of inducing me to purchase any of their material or pursue them further.  Sorry. 

Yob’s songs are long, slow, heavy, obnoxious, and truly radio-unfriendly as you might expect from any band referred to as “doom”.  Scheidt cites the following bands as influences:  Neurosis, Tool, Immolation, Saint Vitus, Soundgarden, Deep Purple, The Obsessed (Wino again), Judas Priest, Pentagram, Trouble, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath (de rigeur for doom bands), King Crimson, and Pink Floyd.  Some tracks do get a bit mellow and change up the rhythm a little to keep it from getting too oppressively doomy.  In that regard, however, Elder (who I still haven’t been able to see in concert) do a better job.  Both band’s newest albums are the best so far of their material. 

Albums: Elaborations of Carbon (2002); Catharsis (2003); The Illusion of Motion (2004); The Unreal Never Lived (2005); The Great Cessation (2009); Atma (2011); Clearing the Path to Ascend (2014); Our Raw Heart (2018).  All but the first album are available on Spotify.

Set:  Ablaze, The Screen, The Lie That Is Sin, Breathing From The Shallows, Adrift in the Ocean, and Our Raw Heart.  Six songs in about 90 minutes = 15 minutes per song.  [Their live album, Live at Roadburn (2010) similarly features four songs over an hour, again averaging 15 minutes per song].  Having driven up myself this show was straight edge for me, no inebriants of any nature.  Despite that, and despite the nature of the music, I enjoyed it from start to finish and even more remarkably had no trouble driving home from Baltimore.  Wonders never cease. 

Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jiffy Lube Live.   Prior to the show the ads conspicuously refused to acknowledge who the opening acts were, but they turned out to be:  Atlanta Rhythm Section, Foghat, and .38 Special.   ARS I ignored as I was picking out a t-shirt at the concession stand.  Foghat I enjoyed, particularly the only two songs I knew, “I Just Wanna Make Love To You” and “Slow Ride”.   .38 Special was a band I’d known of but never actually listened to, so I was fresh in my assessment of them being a slightly commercial copy of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Skynyrd themselves?   I got into them in college, picking up the first two albums Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd and Second Helping on cassette from Kemp Mill Records, probably in spring of 1988, followed by Nuthin’ Fancy (last album with Ed King), Gimme Back My Bullets, Street Survivors (last original studio album, only one with Steve Gaines on it), the live album One More From The Road, and the bonus albums First…And Last & Legend, both of which are simply collections of extra tracks left around.   These five studio albums were the core released from 1973-77 and the only ones with Ronnie Van Zant on them.  Thus the classic original lineup was Ronnie Van Zant (vocals), Gary Rossington (guitar), Allen Collins (guitar), Ed King/Steve Gaines (third guitarist), Leon Wilkinson (bass), Billy Powell (keyboards), and Bob Burns/Artimus Pyle (drums).  RVZ and Steve Gaines died in the infamous plane crash.  That was when their charter plane, supposed to take them from South Carolina to Louisiana, ran out of fuel and crashed in the forest of Mississippi on October 20, 1977.   

In 1987 the band reunited for a tour, and after legal issues were resolved finally released a new album in 1991 with the remaining surviving members, remarkably Ed King returning as Allen Collins had died the year before.  From then until 2012 they released 9 albums:  Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991, The Last Rebel, Endangered Species, Twenty, Edge of Forever, Christmas Time Again, Vicious Cycle, God & Guns, and Last of a Dyin’ Breed.  Ironically, that’s almost twice the output of the original lineup, though not quite as productive in terms of albums/year.  Then again, during the 60s and 70s bands were pushed to release no less than an album per year PLUS touring, which obviously took its toll even on young, energetic musicians.  But now natural causes conspired to thin the herd, gradually and not in one fell swoop, e.g. plane crash: Ed King left after Endangered Species, Leon Wilkinson died after Christmas Time Again, and Billy Powell died after God & Guns.  Rickey Medlocke, best known as the singer/guitarist for Blackfoot, had actually been in LS before the first album came out, and joined the band for Twenty. 

Thus of the original band, only Gary Rossington is left.  Part of my reluctance to see the band in concert up to now has been the knowledge that Rossington is the only member left, although the replacement members are very much competent and the substitution is not one I’d be in a position to ascertain, having been a kid in the US well below concert attendance age in 1977. 

Of these newer albums I only have the two most recent: God & Guns and Last of a Dyin’ Breed.   Fortunately 1991 through Edge of Forever are all on Spotify for me to listen to when I get the chance.  The last two I have heard do a competent job of replicating what RVZ might have done had he survived 1977.  However, neither Gimme Back My Bullets nor Street Survivors seem to be as consistently heavy hitting as the first three, notwithstanding Steve Gaines pouring new energy into the band on the last album.  Figuring what post-’77 LS would look like with RVZ alive is speculation at best.  Who knows, maybe there’s a parallel dimension where their plane didn’t crash and RVZ decided to turn the band to disco or heavy metal. 

Current touring lineup, then.  In addition to Rossington, they have Johnny Van Zant on vocals.  Notwithstanding the lyric “my only son” in “Simple Man”, ZVZ is the younger brother of (sign of the cross here) Ronnie Van Zant, and their brother Donnie Van Zant is the singer for .38 Special.   Rickey Medlocke, who favors Korina Gibson Explorers, effectively takes Allen Collins’ place in the group.   The remainder are Mark Matejka (third guitarist), Keith Cristopher (bass), the appropriately named Peter Keys (keyboards), and Michael Cartellone (drums).   As noted they did their jobs to my satisfaction, there being no reason Gary Rossington couldn’t find capable replacements for his fallen comrades.

Set: Workin’ For MCA, Skynyrd Nation (only newer song), What’s Your Name, Travelin’ Man, That Smell, I Know A Little, Whiskey Rock-A-Roller, Saturday Night Special, The Ballad of Curtis Loew (deep cut added to the set to the audience’s immense satisfaction), Tuesday’s Gone, Don’t Ask Me No Questions, Simple Man, Gimme Three Steps, Call Me The Breeze, Sweet Home Alabama, and guess the encore:  FREEBIRD. 

Overall an excellent show.  JVZ talks a bit much, but not too much.  Some good footage on the screen behind them, particularly during “Breeze”.   CSA flags were in abundance among the audience, as you might expect, although the band themselves only showed it briefly in the screen footage.  JVZ’s banter suggested that the band is patriotic and loves America, but with no express exhortation to “Make America Great” or any references to our current President, I’m wondering if they didn’t vote for Gary Johnson.  I can’t imagine anyone in the band voting for Hillary Clinton.   

This gets us back to the CSA flag debate.  Skynyrd has never expressed any support for slavery, secession, subjugation of blacks, or any political position which might be asserted, directly or indirectly, by the overt display of what we commonly refer to as the Confederate flag.  They are from Jacksonville, Florida, and straddle the line of being a rock band which happens to be from the South, vs. a southern rock band, whatever that might be.  I’ve never heard of Ronnie Van Zant or any other band member expressing any political views which would be negatively associated with the CSA.  Anyhow.  I’d say this is a prime example where the CSA flag might well merit a pass.  The funny thing is, the audience was 99.99% white….

Twin Peaks The Return aka Season 3

I’ve finished a few series and will blog about each of them in turn, so be patient.  This entry is about “Twin Peaks: The Return”, what is effectively season 3 of the famously bizarre TV show, “Twin Peaks”. 

First off, while I was aware of the series when it originally aired, as noted in my prior blog on the topic I refused to watch it expressly because of all the hype.  I generally don’t watch a whole lot of network TV, and I wasn’t a big TV head back when this came on either.  As of today I rarely bother to turn on the TV, but I do like Netflix and watch much programming after the fact.  I don’t binge-watch, though – my patience runs out after a single drama episode or a few sit-com episodes.  Anyhow. 

In addition, my tolerance for bizarre and strange things increased exponentially since the show originally aired, which is how and why I was able to finally digest it decades later.   In the recent past I finally watched the first two seasons and the movie.  FYI, Kyle MacLachlan seems to work well with David Lynch and has been with him in “Dune” and “Blue Velvet”.  I’ve already done blogs on both Twin Peaks (3/24/17) and Kyle MacLachlan (4/14/17). 

Season 1.  8 episodes.  Originally aired April 8, 1990 through May 23, 1990.

Season 2.  22 episodes.    Originally aired September 30, 1990 through June 10, 1991.

Movie:  Fire Walk With Me.  Released August 28, 1992.  Featuring Chris Isaak as the FBI agent before Cooper, whose disappearance Cooper was investigating.  Likewise, this goes into much more detail about why Cooper was investigating the town AND finally shows Laura Palmer’s death.  Either highly entertaining or tedious depending on how badly you still like the show.

Season 3.   This was on Showtime instead of network TV.    I started watching it there and finished with it on DVD.  18 episodes   Originally aired May 21, 2017 through September 3, 2017. 

Good news.  90% of the major characters are here, including Agent Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan).  In fact, you get not one but TWO Coopers:  a nasty, long-haired fully articulate but dangerous lowlife version, and a clean guy in suit and tie who is borderline catatonic:  he merely repeats the last word the last person said, which no one recognizes as mental illness and everyone accepts immediately as tacit understanding of the conversation. 

Diane, the recipient of Cooper’s tape recorded instructions, finally shows up, played by Laura Dern.  Log Lady is here, Andy and Lucy, Hawk, etc.  In fact, most of the original cast is still here – though obviously somewhat older – and Bobby Briggs is now a deputy with the sheriff’s office.  His father, Air Force Major Briggs, disappeared at the end of season 2.  In this regard you can count on it being Twin Peaks.

Bad News.  Weird to the point of being incoherent.  Even the ending made no sense.  As noted, my tolerance for weird-for-the-sake-of-weird has gone up big time since 1990, but even now I found much of it deliberately nonsensical.  If that’s what you want, knock yourself out with another 18 episodes of the same weird incoherence you knew and loved from the first two seasons and the movie.  Don’t expect much in the way of answers.  Well, at least now you have TWO Coopers AND Diane to be surly, petulant, and chainsmoking. 

Bonus: RIVERDALE.   Those of you who remember an older cartoon from the 50s and later, plus the late 60s animated series, might recall the mostly wholesome adventures of Archie Andrews, Jughead, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle, Moose & Midge, Dilton Doiley, etc.  Well, take that, mix it into Twin Peaks, and you have “Riverdale”.  Season 2 just began.  FYI, the Veronica Lodge, Camilla Mendes – not just a brasileira, but a carioca (see last week’s lesson) – is super hot (gostosissima).   Also Jughead is actually pretty cool and not a glutton, nor does he swear off girls in favor of food – Cole Sprouse has grown up since “Zack and Cody”.  And not only does Riverdale wind up looking like Twin Peaks, Madchen Amick is in both; in “Riverdale” she plays Betty Cooper’s mom, Alice – get it?  Check it out.