Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Dec. 04 pt. 2

below: more photos from isis euro tour. top - mop streaked floor in the same italian venue featured in the last photo posting. middle - mike gallagher from ISIS riding a mechanical bull at an austrian festival we played. we sucked that day as did the "crowd" that was watching us, but mike's champion run on the bull more than made up for it. bottom: scary polish bathroom - looked like a backwoods murdershack. fortunately the toilets themselves were reasonably clean....

still working on the cavity. currently stalled. i'm sure it'll pass, but frustrating at the moment. will likely move on to some other projects until i feel i'm sufficiently unclogged to return to that. the forthcoming torche album is next up on the chopping block, as well as the second of 2 forthcoming ISIS singles. the first ISIS cd/12" single for the track "holy tears" is now in production as is the ISIS 12xLP box set. we obviously didn't get either those done in time for the ISIS 10th anniversary tour, but it's not for the lack of trying. we want these things to be perfect and we hit a couple unanticipated snags. they're both really close to completion now, so keep your eyes peeled.

someone asked about old man gloom, specifically about what album to start with for the uninitiated. i would suggest the most recent full length "christmas". it runs the spectrum of what OMG was and is, and is my personal favorite...

lastly, i would like to suggest a wonderful source of records for those mailorder junkies out there. the place i refer to is called aquarius records, is based in san francisco, and can be found here: http://www.aquariusrecords.org/. many of you may already be familiar, but in case you're not here's my take on this place: great selection of aural oddities - everything from dubstep to black metal to minimalist composition, AQ has got some or a lot of just about everything that is good. they also have a knowledgeable and friendly staff - none of that elitist record store nonsense you're likely to find else where. they also have some of the best descriptions/reviews available anywhere, and clips of almost everything they carry. they're a bit on the pricey side, but well worth it. these bandits have made off with more than their fair share of my money, but i won't hold it against them.

people seem to be enjoying the playlists, so here ya go...
soundtrack for dec 4th 2007: nex "zero", angels of light "we are him", kayo dot "blue lambency downward", anenzephalia "ephemermal dawn", om "pilgrimage", ......

6 comments:

Michal Popielnicki said...

Hmm...to bad that the only photos worth publishing form Poland are nightmarish one (The polish highway and now the bathroom). I hope that during the visit to my country You've found at least a tiny piece beauty and You'll publish it here. If not, next time during the Isis visit, ill try to show You that its not so bad here after all ;).

On the other hand maybe I should be glad that there was something in here that got Your attention.

Jake said...

I also like to see the playlist postings, I think I've discovered some of my favorite albums through artist/band playlists...

This is sort of a geeky question maybe, but, what type of camera do you use, or would you recommend? Thanks for any info!

::Andre:: said...

playlist of the week:
neurosis - given to the rising
konono nr 1 - congotronics
lento - earthen
mgr - wavering on the cresting heft
wolves in the trone room - two hunters
tesa - nekad
skip james - early recordings
teeth of lions rule the divine - rampton
gnaw their tongues - reeking...

Anonymous said...

I'll try to check this playlist when I have time. By the way, great photos and artwork.

Anonymous said...

The Phoenix
Holy Dread
by James parker

In Reagan’s America, to generalize wildly, the music of cultural resistance was hardcore: shrill, witty, hasty, aimed straight at the forehead. In Bush World, for reasons I will leave to the socio-musicologists, the rebellion is downward-tending: the kids are hurling themselves into the low end, abandoning their intellects to a shadow-metal roar and a churning, tunneling mysticism. OM, the unbelievably intense unit comprising bassist Al Cisneros and drummer Chris Hakius (both formerly of stoner legends Sleep), are a sort of apocalyptic prayer machine, and this past Sunday at the Middle East upstairs they bulldozed a packed house into noise nirvana, and then beyond.

Earlier in the evening, the burly Jack Rose had beguiled us with a short set of his beautiful roots-raga acoustic plucking, and Grails, from Portland, Oregon, had laid down some heavy Can-meets-Godspeed atmospherics. But the dominance of OM was established in the instant that Cisneros stamped on his distortion pedal and feedback reared like a dragon behind him. The riffs are punishingly simple, on the bluesy side of Sabbath, but repeated until they detach themselves from time. Cisneros shudders, screams, puts his hands together in prayer: Hakius, shirtless and mega-bearded, plays as if he were chopping wood, but with a Bonham-esque lilt in the clang of his ride cymbal. Their shared concentration looks at times like the fiercest face of worship.

The night ended, appropriately enough, in chaos: OM wouldn’t stop, houselights shuddered on and then off again, attempts were made to eject the audience, and a Middle East management unwilling to interfere in the raptures of a too-high-to-die Al Cisneros could only stand by as he defied the curfew with rants, chants, stop-start riffs, and a big joint billowing the smoke of the assassins. For a moment or two, all sorts of things seemed possible, and bouncers twitched as the air adrenalized around them. A riot in the nervous system, on the point of being a riot for real.

alteredcourserecords said...

i could listen to pilgrimage forever.