- Are you ready for the Anatomy of Habit show tomorrow at the Abbey Pub? I sure as fuck am. It's been since July, after all, and I'm champing at the bit to belt it out a bit
- I believe that we are calling the new The Fortieth Day album "Constantinople: 746 AD," regardless of the potential for The Four Lads (or worse, They Might Be Giants) jokes. The disc is mastered, barring any glitches that we catch, as we review it over the next few days, and the artwork seems to be complete, pending internal approval
- I went to see Sleep last night, as part of the Empty Bottle and Wire magazine's annual Adventures In Modern Music festival, this year also encompassing the Chicago edition of Sonar. Sleep were pretty great... huge and dirty sounding. They started with "Jerusalem" (or do you prefer "Dopesmoker") and moved into "Holy Mountain." The replacement drummer, Jason Roeder (of Neurosis), had the necessary (gulp, jazz) swing to his playing to fit in quite nicely. Al Cisneros was all business, while Matt Pike was all swagger. Not to be contentious, but honestly, if they had played all of "Volume One," I would have been even happier. I have always preferred that album. Still, I definitely enjoyed their set. Except for the smells. When it didn't smell like skunky pot, it smelled like bad farts. And when the farts subsided, the B.O. rose up. And when the B.O. passed, the PBR burbs appeared. Sheesh. Lichens was nothing short of revelatory. Robert Lowe knocked a grand slam out of the Logan Square Auditorium, as far as I am concerned. He built a foundation of dark, foreboding modular synth (think M.B., or Atrax Morgue, or Hive Mind with way less delay, or Workbench, or even Super Eight Loop) that should have schooled every so-called "arpeggiated synth" dude on why new age music sucks so badly... had any of that sort of person even ventured out to the show... Sorry, it needs to be said. Over the synth, he layered waves of vocals and vocal loops, ranging from the nearly-castrati to the deeply monastic. You could say it was spiritual, but it became increasingly unholy, supported by Mr. Lowe's entertaining, verging-on-black-metal, hand gestures. Maybe aspects of early Current 93 are worth mentioning ("Nature Unveiled" or "In Menstrual Night"), or maybe that's just how I remember it. Abruptum? Not really... It was its own thing, wholly... I'm just grasping for a mood comparison. Truly excellent. Ga'an opened the night with their big, prog meets Italian horror style... highlighted by Seth's totally massive and totally 70's sounding drums. All in all, a very smart mix of styles.
- I'd put some Sleep on - "Volume One" - of course, if I could be fucked to take the new Interpol out of repeat rotation. I could probably just keep the song "All Of The Ways" on constant repeat today, but I'll stick to the full album... and maybe I'll switch to the recent Pontiak record, later on, after a long run...
