Earth and Earthless

My writer’s block has been cured by a pair of concerts at local clubs by a pair of bands with similar names.

Earthless, Wednesday, September 7, 2022 at the Ottobar in Baltimore, Maryland.  The Ottobar is a small club, capacity 400, up on Howard Street, in a somewhat rundown neighborhood of mostly body shops and auto repair shops – in fact, very similar to the Knockdown Center in Queens, NYC where I saw the DesertFest in May of this year.  The flip side is that it’s easy to get to (just drive up Martin Luther King Blvd. until it merges with Howard Street) and street parking is plentiful.  Moreover, the venue has a decent amount of seating, perfect for my 50+ year old back. 

Earthless themselves are mainly Isiah Mitchell (guitarist), Mike Eginton (bass), and Mario Rubalcaba (drums), from San Diego, California, USA (yes, on Earth).   Their albums are Sonic Prayer (2005), Rhythms from a Cosmic Sky (2007), From the Ages (2013), Black Heaven (2018), and Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (2022).  The material is 90% instrumentals, with the song structure essentially being nonstop 100 mph guitar solos.  This is not music with a general commercial appeal.  I find it from tolerable to enjoyable depending on my mood.  I enjoyed the show; the opening act was Black Lung (not to be confused with British band Green Lung), who are actually from Baltimore.  I can say I’m glad I went.  I had seen Earthless before, at the Rock’n’Roll Hotel in DC in March 2018, plus a few online streaming shows during COVID.  As with any band, check them out Spotify to get some idea of what to expect.  In any case the way the music is set up, every studio album may as well be a live album. 

Earth, Friday September 23, 2022 at the Black Cat in Washington, DC.  Before I go further, I’ll clarify this is an American band from Olympia, Washington, formed in 1989 (hereinafter “Earth 3”). 

There was a British band called Earth in the late ‘60s – or rather, two such bands.  What I’ll call “Earth 2” was a band from Birmingham, England – Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward.  They had to change their name to Black Sabbath due to another band called Earth (hereinafter “Earth 1”).  While Earth 2 released 9 albums with Ozzy Osbourne, 4 with Ronnie James Dio (5 if you count The Devil You Know), 5 with Tony Martin, and one each with Ian Gillan and Glenn Hughes, the original band which caused them to change their name only managed to release two singles, “Everybody Sing The Song”/Stranger of Fortune” in April 1969, and “Resurrection City”/”Comical Man” in December 1969, i.e. a total of four songs and no albums.  Guitarist Glenn Campbell (not the American musician often associated with the Beach Boys) disbanded Earth and founded Juicy Lucy, which put out five albums from 1969 to 1972, and four more from 1995-2006.  At an early stage they had Micky Moody, better known as guitarist with Bernie Marsden in the earlier, blues-oriented incarnation of Whitesnake.  I listened to the first Juicy Lucy album, and it sounded pretty much like all other blues-based bands of that era.

ANYHOW.

Earth 3 is mainly Dylan Carlson (guitar) and Adrienne Davies (drums).  Carlson actually took the name from the E1/E2 Earth bands, neither of which were still active in 1989 when he founded his own band.  I saw him play as a solo artist opening for Sleep at the new 930 Club in DC in 2018, then with Earth at the Ottobar in 2019 – so I can say I saw both Earth and Earthless at the Ottobar, albeit on different dates. 

By now they have 9 albums:  Earth 2: Special Low-Frequency Version (1993); Phase 3: Thrones and Dominions (1995); Pentastar: In the Style of Demons (1996), Hex: Or Printing in the Infernal Method (2005); The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull (2008); Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I (2011); Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II (2012); Primitive and Deadly (2014); and Full upon Her Burning Lips (2019). 

Whereas Earthless are nonstop guitar solos, Earth do the opposite:  each song picks a specific musical phrase, and repeats it over and over again without lyrics, although often with some interlude/solo in between to break up what would otherwise be the same riff simply repeated over and over again.  Like Earthless it’s a fairly raw and primitive version of hard rock music with negligible commercial appeal.  Supposedly the band was co-headliner with Iceage (more of a pop band and NOT a stoner rock band) but Earth’s set was only an hour, somewhat more than an opening act and 30 minutes short of a full set of a headliner.  However, the songs are much shorter than Earthless’ – which average out at 20-40 minutes each.   Live, they had another redneck looking guy playing guitar and bass pedals in his socks, which amplified the sound somewhat. 

Strangely, Carlson knew Kurt Cobain quite well – maybe too well.  But that is another story….