Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - Grand Opening And Closing
ARTIST.....: Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
TITLE......: Grand Opening And Closing
LABEL......: Equilibre Music
URL........: http://www.sleepytimegorillamuseum.com
RIP DATE...: Oct-02-2006
STORE DATE.: Sep-05-2006
GENRE......: Rock
QUALITY....: VBR / 44,1Hz / Joint-Stereo
SIZE.......: 115,3 MB
Track Listing:
01 - Sleep is Wrong 06:36
02 - Ambugaton 05:38
03 - Ablutions 06:12
04 - 1997 04:56
05 - The Miniature 01:04
06 - Powerless 09:33
07 - The Stain 06:47
08 - Sleepytime 10:29
09 - Sunflower 07:53
10 - More Time 02:48
11 - Flinch 05:25
12 - Powerless 09:42
─────
77:03 min
Release Notes:
The Sleepytime Gorilla Museum opened its doors to the public in
1916, only to show them a well-managed fire. Its doors were closed
shortly thereafter and remained so for the rest of the century.
Almost. The last year of the 20th century found the improbable
trio of words once again adorning a placard posted outside a
derelict urban building, with the addendum- "No Humans Allowed."
Indeed, the awkward re-inaugural movements were witnessed by a
lone banana slug (Ariolimax dolichophallus)-- a suitable beginning
for a group that would soon shelter Oakland California's hindmost
interpreters of Anti-Humanist literature. Their incessant travels
since 2001 have brought new life to the Movement. Like their
namesake and its instigators (Futurist Lala Rolo and
Black-Mathematician John Kane) the new museum embraces the
essential weakness of the Movement. But also like their
predecessors they reject the elitism of the avant-garde in favor
of a reckless populism: They are entertainers. Though not without
humor, their often wide-ranging musical and theatrical choices are
rarely ironic. This sincerity extends to a passionate
craftsmanship, as evidenced by:
1. The LIVE SHOW, a costumed festival of hyperventilating
self-derangement, which has yet to include much of a puppet show,
but has included human performers of varying stiffness (see Ink
Boat).s
2. The ALBUMS- Grand Opening and Closing (2001 Seeland/Chaosophy),
a collection of boisterous laments for the failure of the
millennial apocalypse; Live (2003 Sickroom), a collage of mishaps
and singularities from various stages; and Of Natural History
(2004 Mimicry), a setting, in part, of a debate between two
contradictory pillars of 20th C. Anti-Humanism: The Futurists
versus the Unabomber.
3. The INSTRUMENTS, many of which are homemade creations of
bassist/producer/mechanic Dan Rathbun: The Slide-piano Log, the
Percussion Guitar, the Electric Pancreas, the Vatican, & the
Pedal-action Wiggler; or rare: Autoharp, Glockenspiel, Toy Piano,
& Viking Rowboat.
4. The ROAD approached as (A) a place of potential learning: the
bloody history of our doomed nation, its warm and varied current
inhabitants- our hosts and their regional splendors, and (B) a
scar which conducts us in our lumbering Green Bus into the temples
of Nature: Forests, swamps, deserts, mountains, and coasts, with
national parks and rest stops alike as places of reverence and
study, sources of sound and vision, many of which appear on Of
Natural History.
5. The FOOD, prepared on the bus kitchen in large pots, in
quantities befitting a seven+ person crew, mixing local
ingredients with reliable spices, beans, and the "other black
meat"- coffee.
The Museum are unified in these various crafts by the simplicity
of their opposition to rock music. In the words of John Kane,
"Nothing should be left undone which might contribute to its
demise." To this end they employ a most tried and proven
destructive force: rock. ROCK AGAINST ROCK. In this they were
preceded by Oakland bands Idiot Flesh and Charming Hostess, which
brought together Museum members Dan Rathbun, Carla Kihlstedt
(violin+), and Nils Frykdahl (guitar+). SGM's initial writings and
first shows were with drummer David Shamrock. Drummer Frank Grau,
who co-released the first album and managed the band until
recently, instigated touring in 2001. Industrial
percussion-tornado Moe! Staiano brought his visceral spontaneity
from the inception until late 2004. New life has arrived with
drummer/orator Matthias Bossi, who took the throne on New Year's
2004, and blossomed like a menacing jungle flower. Finally, with
the Of Natural History tour of fall 2004, Michael Mellender,
player of percussion and ALL THINGS, rounded out the Museum with
his singular brand of hyper-kinetic instrumental dysfunction.
The group writing process is at a new level of collaboration and
the next album's songs are well underway. More U.S. touring is
imminent. A European tour hovers. The stalwart Museum crew-- Neil
Yamagata (sound/photography/field recording) and Allen Willner
(lights/delicious stews)-- are ready for the road. 2005 saw the
release of The Face, A DVD collaboration with Shinichi Momo Koga,
The Last Human Being. A single 45 on Moe!'s label (Dephine
Knormal) featuring SGM, Cheer-Accident, The Ex and Voodoo Muzak
was also released.
In January of 2006, amidst a clutter of cheesecake and frozen
champagne, SGM singed the eyebrows of Andreas Katsambas. Who
threatened them with a record deal? And assured the Museum that
his label has been and would continue to be called The End
Records? The very same Andreas Katsambas. With his pen and on his
paper, on January 3rd, the Museum, as a formal entity, signed with
this emminently appropriate label whose commitment to the
forthcoming apocalypse is without question. This newfound
collaboration will birth a plethora of new high- fidelity
explorations. FIRSTLY: a re-issue of the Museum's inaugural opus,
Grand Opening and Closing, featuring two newly minted symphonic
catastrophies, and AGAIN: an as-yet unnamed studio album to be
loosed in March 2007.
Ambugaton.