This weekend I’ll mostly be listening to… Sunn O))) July 17, 2010
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Culture, This Weekend I'll Mostly Be Listening to..., Uncategorized.trackback
It’s sunny this morning. At least it is where I am. Sun splitting the sky, time to kick back, have a beer and chill out. The Orb perhaps, or something party like, well we had Asian Dub Foundation a few months back… so perhaps them, or the Fleshtones… or…
Let’s put on something relaxing from… er… a band which provides a form of experimental drone doom metal which is… no… wait… come back… seriously..!
This is worth listening to. Sunn O)) – name taken from a brand of amplifier, started out as a fairly standard, albeit more intense, US based doom metal band, but they’ve subsequently evolved into something quite fascinating, something that sits in a genuinely experimental place.
So, sure, there are downtuned guitars and echoes of Sabbath riffery – actually not just echoes but whole stadia of them brought in more or less as is. There are doom metal vocals deeper than deep, (apparently Lee Dorrian of Cathedral has worked with some of the members in the past – which figures) but something beyond that. You suddenly hear horns, strings… and I mean, really, how many doom metal bands have tributes to Alice Coltrane as part of their oeuvre? Not many I think is the answer.
How many largely eschew drums or indeed beats of any sort, except as additional background noise, to compete with the feedback as it were?
And how many rope in classical instruments to produce something entirely unlike the usual nonsense when rock tries to go ‘serious’ and all middle brow on us (I’m thinking of you Metallica, and yes you early offender Deep Purple…). Who use classical instruments and choirs in order to produce yet further experimental music that is difficult, more melodic than one might expect, and hugely compelling. Naturally how seriously one takes it is entirely up to the individual… đ
Enjoy…
Big Church [MegszentsĂ©gtelenĂthetetlensĂ©geskedĂ©seitekĂ©rt]
Alice
Agharta
Hunting & Gathering (Cydonia)
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
You’re getting real trendy listening to Sunn – Sigur Ros next perhaps?
Stephen O’Malley from Sunn btw is a close associate of the Nazi nutter/murderer behind the Burzum operation.
If you like 10 minute Sabbathian epics look for the album ‘Seven Hells’ by Ogre, the second track on that one is a song called ‘Soldier of Misfortune’
My grandpa fought in the First World War
my daddy died in World War II
they fought the good fight for freedom’s sake
so I will do my duty too.
The leering face of my Uncle Sam
his finger’s pointing right at me
I need you now, son, in Vietnam
to do my dirty work for me….and make ’em free!
Yeah, free to slave away for my democracy
free to make my shoes and drink my Coca Cola
well let me ask you this
what price is freedom? I’ll tell you what price….
the lowest we can get
Dawn patrol—was a rainy night
rumors of the enemy
we got caught in a firefight
two men down in front of me
I’m spraying lead from my M-16
like water from a garden hose
shooting shapes in the morning mist
I thought I shot my deadly foes…how could I know?
As I run through the jungle
to see what it was I killed
oh my God! A mother and her baby child
What have I done?
’cause these people ain’t no fucking Nazis
this is just their home
Brother in arms
I fear it’s too late
a babe in her arms
my smoking gun has sealed their fate
and it’s too late
So now I hang from a jungle tree
captured by the Vietcong
steely knives smiling up at me
they split my guts and now they’re gone
I done them wrong
Wrong to see so many people
die for ill-thought ideas
sucked up and spit out by the war machine
you tell me some wars are just…I guess
but let me tell you this
most are just war
A vision beckons me beyond the pain
endorphins carry me to a higher plain
I’m tripping harder than I ever have before
oh, future’s locked away I open up the door
to more misfortune
I’m a solider of misfortune
I see my nephew now grown to be a man
he is a soldier too, but in the desert sand
oh no!
shot full of holes
he’s bleeding on the ground
I hope his cause was just and not another round
of more misfortune
He’s a soldier of misfortune.
LikeLike
No Sigur Ros leave me cold. There’s no doubt about it there are problems in parts of metal and EBM etc with far too much tolerance of fascist iconography (or worse), but in fairness to O’Malley, while he did do the cover artwork for Burzum albums, I don’t know if that pre the murder or post it. He’s also collaborated with Julian Cope, and as noted above one of the tracks is dedicated to and named after Alice Coltrane.
By the way, that’s an impressive range of interests you have there PJ.
LikeLike
You’ll be pleased to read those no doubt
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-10673083
LikeLike
O’Malley has been involved with Vikernes post the murder, interviews with him in prison and all the rest.
As far as I know and I dont keep up with the goings on as much as I used to but he has never condemned his views.
LikeLike
“All the rest”?
LikeLike
Some of Declan Nerney’s new material is quite heavy. Louise Morrissey was very influenced by the Norwegian scene as well I hear.
LikeLike
Big Tom was heavy.
I’d never have taken those Monaghan lads as been into the mainlining though – see you never can tell.
LikeLike
One can hope.
LikeLike
PJ
They got big crowds in the states based on that misunderstanding
LikeLike
Although i appreciate you are joking
LikeLike
Sandy Kelly’s ‘The Night Daniel O’Donnell Came to Town’ was almost certainly Satanically inspired.
LikeLike
That certainly sounds about right.
On a tangent I was in a bar in a town in the west last night. Guy playing guitar throughout the night, a bit of country, a bit of Elton John, a bit of whatever. All very mainstream. Anyway, twice in the evening he decided to intersperse the act with the bassline from ‘Come as you are’ by Nirvana. No explanation. Nothing. Just that line…
Or perhaps he was a Killing Joke fan.
LikeLike
Please, please, please!!!! Can I do a “this weekend I’ll be listening to” with a normal band? It pains me so to read through these posts. I mean even the beach boys was turned into something almost unrecognizable. I write all of this with the utmost respect for this blog, but this is the one segment that I really have a hard time with.
LikeLike
You know where to contact me. Any contribution(s) very welcome – I very much enjoy your own on your site.
If there’s a rationale behind all this it is that some of the most interesting music is often found in the output of major or minor bands/groups individuals that has been overlooked or overshadowed by other work they’ve done, or in obscure but not willfully so material. There’s a million – or enough – mainstream magazines playing to the expectations of their readers as regards the ‘canon’ in whatever genre.
Why follow like that? But I’m not crazed on experimentalism for experimentalisms sake so you’ll find I like melody and so on in the stuff here.
I’m definitely not trying to establish an alternative ‘canon’, there’s far too much of that sort of thing going on as well, and given that I’m as likely to enjoy Double as Husker Du (okay, truth I enjoy Husker Du more but Captain of Her Heart has a killer piano line) I’m not trying to lock into some intangible sense of ‘cool’… but what I am trying to do is to just post up tracks/artists/albums which primarily I like and which I think someone or another might like too.
But remember, the answer to your pain is if it’s too painful simply don’t read it!
LikeLike
Sorry if that was a bit rough. Yesterday we topped out at over a hundred and after working on unpainted metal doors (ie they reflect sunlight on you as you work) as the asphalt sizzled beneath our feet and then coming home to a house with no AC…Well I can be a little short at times.
We’ll see what I can throw together.
I know I should just ignore them, but what can I say? I enjoy your writing and there have been some gems in the “this weekend series”. So I keep hoping and reading/listening.
LikeLike
It wasn’t a bit rough. It was grand. It’s good to get a response.
LikeLike
Here is “normal”
“For me that’s country music. Not just the classic kind, though that’s how I was raised and it remains the bar by which I new country. I’m a Johnny Cash man myself, my brother is a Waylon man, my father’s more of a Roy Acuff kind of guy (who loves the fact that I have Bill Monroe doing Mule Skinner Blues on my iPod) and my mom can’t stand any of it.”
I think your mother is the only one of ye with a bit of taste! I bet she listens to Black Sabbath?!
LikeLike
PJ,
You’re now walking on the fighting side of me.
LikeLike
Dunno about their politics but I got full on inspiration for a little movie* from listening to SUNNO up very loud driving round roscommon with my other half in mad snowstorms on pure glass back arse of nowhere roads in the dark and freezing fog earlier this year – the album we were listening to is the recent one where they buried some famous doom metal guy in a coffin with a mic to get the correct doom head atmosphere
The buzz of doing this unusual activity lasted two or three evenings – enough for a lifetime I reckon.
* http://vimeo.com/13167154
LikeLike
Reminds me a bit of GYBE! (no bad thing) – but also of Swans, and in particular of the tape of early Swans a friend pressed on me saying You’ve got to hear this, it’s unlistenable!
More interesting than fun, really.
LikeLike
[…] The Dude Abides, or this weekend I’ll be listening to Townes Van Zandt July 24, 2010 Posted by WorldbyStorm in Culture, This Weekend I'll Mostly Be Listening to…. trackback Many thanks to yourcousin for taking up the offer last week…made on foot of the comments here… […]
LikeLike
[…] element albeit teeth-grindingly twee for some (but when it gets too much there’s always Sunn O))), or Cathedral or Endless Boogies […]
LikeLike
‘ Satanic Ritual – Decorate the space with human sacrifice, goblets of blood, pentagrams, and things draped in black. At the end of the party all of the papers write down who they think was the prohibition agent. Cranberry studios developed this sequel while publisher Anaconda brings it to you in stores.
LikeLike
I think we need a bit more of this on CLR. The Left’s failure to engage with Satanism explains etc. etc.
LikeLike