With a subject like that, I don’t even need to post any news, but here it is anyway: Sleep will headline the 2012 Roadburn festival. Life doesn’t get much better, but I’ll save my ranting for later. Om are reportedly playing too (full on Cisernos fix!), and hopefully they’ll have a new album out by then. Here’s the news from Roadburn‘s site:

Roadburn headquarters are in a euphoric state as we report that West Coast stoner metal legends Sleep have been confirmed as the headliner at Roadburn Festival 2012. Sleep are irrefutably a seminal band of the stoner rock scene and to our elation they are coming to their spiritual home of Roadburn to anchor the 2012 festival.

Featuring original members Al Cisneros and Matt Pike together with drummer Jason Roeder of Neurosis, Sleep will be playing (a one-off show) on Saturday, 14 April 2012. Al Cisneros will also be appearing with OM together with Emil Amos and Robert A.A. Lowe, bringing their hypnotic vibrations to Roadburn‘s mainstage on Thursday, 12 April.

We at the Roadburn Festival consider Sleep to be among the most important bands influencing today’s thriving stoner/sludge/metal scene. Their vision to combine the powerful riffs of Black Sabbath with the outsider ethics of punk rock turned into an unstoppable amalgamation, one that catapulted them to international attention within a very short time. Their rapid rise and unquestionable musical significance is a testimony to the fact that they tapped into something that resonates inside virtually every fan of stoner metal today. They truly embody the spirit and power of The Riff.

Good news on top of good news for anyone in the New York region or who might be traveling there next month to see Sleep. Winter and White Hills were announced yesterday as support acts for the upcoming Terminal 5 show in Manhattan on June 25. Should be awesome to see the reaction as Winter lays doomly waste to that warehouse-turned-dance-club-turned-rock-venue. I suspect a whole bunch of people are about to be viciously schooled in the ways of the abrasively slow. Killer.

This from the PR wire:

West Coast stoner metal legends Sleep recently confirmed support for their special New York City show at Terminal 5 on June 22 . The bill will now include two New York-based acts: Space rock duo White Hills and recently reunited death/doom trio Winter. Both bands were featured on this year’s illustrious Roadburn festival in Tilburg, Holland.

Sleep 2011 tour dates:
06/22 Terminal 5 New York, NY w/ Winter, White Hills
06/24 Sled Island Festival Calgary, AB
06/26 The Wiltern Los Angeles, CA

I’m kind of surprised Sleep scheduled more shows, as there didn’t really seem to be any love lost between Al Cisneros and Matt Pike on stage when they played Brooklyn last year — it ruled, was certainly better than whatever else I might have been doing that night, but it was almost like watching two separate gigs happening at the same time where the two bands happened to be simultaneously playing different parts of the same songs — but hey, a Sleep show is a Sleep show, and I’ll be there. Inevitably this leads to the “new album?” question, but no word on that yet. Not sure how I feel about it, to be honest with you.

The PR wire has the short and sweet details:

Legendary stoner rock band Sleep has just announced a string of summer North American tour dates. On the heels of its sold out US tour run last September, the California trio will return to the stage this summer by popular demand. Live dates in NYC (June 22) and Los Angeles (June 26) will bookend an appearance at the Sled Island Music and Arts Festival in Calgary, AB on June 24, where the group will share the stage with The Dandy Warhols, Blonde Redhead, The Buzzcocks and more.

Sleep tour dates:
06/22 New York, NY Terminal 5
06/24 Calgary, AB Sled Island Festival
06/26 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

This is the mother of them all. Short of doing three songs in as many hours, which I could have done just as or even more easily, I don’t see how any audiObelisk Transmission could get heavier than this one. It’s just a little bit of an excuse on my part to have an easily accessible copy of Dopesmoker at all times, but with new music as well from Hypnos 69, a classic dirge from Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine and one of Boris‘ most avant garde moments, Transmission Zero Zero Nine is an absolute monster. I hope you dig it.

No need to hide the tracklist after a jump since it’s only four songs. Click the banner at the top of this post to get the file, or stream it on the player above. Here’s what we’ve got:

0:00:08 Sleep, “Dopesmoker” from Dopesmoker (Tee Pee, 2003)
There was no way I was going to make this podcast and not include this song. It’s the riff that launched a thousand clone bands, and Sleep‘s shining hour. Literally, an hour. Plenty of time to worship.

1:03:42 Hypnos 69, “The Great Work” from Legacy (Elektrohasch, 2010)
New music from these Belgian classic proggers. It’s the last cut on their new album, Legacy, and maybe their most aptly-titled song ever. Their sense of melody is second to none and the progressive elements in their approach have never shined brighter than they do here.

1:21:53 Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine, “He Who Accepts all That is Offered (Feel Bad Hit of the Winter)” from Rampton (Southern Lord, 2002)
The lineup of Lee Dorrian (Cathedral), Stephen O’Malley (SunnO)))/Khanate), Justin Greaves (Iron Monkey/now-Crippled Black Phoenix) and Greg Anderson (Goatsnake) only put out one album under this cumbersome moniker, taken from a song title on Earth‘s Earth 2. It’s a good thing. I don’t think the universe could handle a second without ripping in half.

1:51:35 Boris, “Flood” from Flood (MIDI Creative, 2000)
Is that guitar forward or backwards? Both? I doubt anyone really knows what Boris are getting up to for the entirety of this song, Boris included. I remember interviewing drummer Atsuo Mizuno a couple years back and he looked at me like my head was on backwards when I asked about it. See if you can figure it out.

Download audiObelisk Transmission 009 here.

I know a lot’s been said about the Sleep shows at the Masonic Temple in Brooklyn (I only went to the second of the two), and honestly, apart from the obvious — “Sleep are gods” — there isn’t much to say. If forced, I’d probably pick the cover of Ozzy Osbourne‘s “Over the Mountain” as my personal highlight of the night, if only because after coming on following a projected still photo of Tony Iommi and a medley of Sabbath riffs and solos played over the P.A., I think everyone expected them to cover Black Sabbath, so doing Ozzy was a nice twist. Plus, there’s the whole “mountain” connection between the track and the classic Sleep’s Holy Mountain that was about as enjoyable as puns get.

You’ve probably heard already that they were fucking loud, and they were. I stood upstairs in the back, probably as far away from the stage (and, more to the point, the crowd) as I could get, and even still my earplugs felt futile. Even the rumbling of Al Cisneros‘ bass between the songs shook the half-wall on which I alternately leaned and sat for the two-hour show, and Matt Pike ran Marshall amps through Orange cabs that probably would have been enough on their own to blow out eardrums, never mind piping them through the Masonic Temple sound system. Had it not been so awesome, you might’ve been able to call it cruel.

They played all of Sleep’s Holy Mountain as they were reputed to be doing on this “Marijuanaut’s Return” tour, and peppered in sections of Dopesmoker, beginning the show with that album-long piece’s lumbering opening riff. Watching Cisneros and Pike play these songs was like watching B.B. King play the blues — you were seeing two people who were the absolute best at what they do doing what they were born to do. They may not like each other (Cisneros is all meditative contemplation on stage while Pike‘s energy is every bit as frenetic as it is in High on Fire even if the Sleep songs are slower), but there’s no denying the chemistry between the two players, and anyone who thinks Neurosis‘ Jason Roeder is anything less than a suitable fill-in for original drummer Chris Hakius is just wrong. In presence, hard-hitting and technique, he is easily a match for Hakius or anyone else, and the two groups’ shared Oakland roots puts Roeder probably the closest to an original member as Pike and Cisneros could come without getting someone who was actually in the band.

Brooklyn was Brooklyn, ever as was, ever shall be. I don’t even care anymore. I’d sit here and rip on flannel-clad hipsters, but who gives a shit? Sleep got back together and played shows. I’d go see that shit at a convention of Nazis with a Star of David tattooed on my forehead, I think I can put up with the Williamsburg trust-fund crowd. Plus, it was one of those gigs that brought out a whole group of friends I hadn’t seen in a while or don’t get to see all that often, so it was hardly me against the world. Once Sleep kicked into “Holy Mountain,” it was riffs, space and good times. Everything else be damned.

With the success of High on Fire and Cisneros‘ post-Sleep ritual drone outfit, Om, I can’t for the life of me imagine either of them actually wants to bring Sleep back on any kind of permanent basis, but they at least looked like they were enjoying the chance to revisit the material in front of the sold-out crowd, which is probably more than you could ask. Whether or not they continue to proceed the weedian toward Nazareth is really irrelevant at this point, I was just happy to see a killer band I never thought I would. Any other ranting about the importance of Sleep to stoner metal or the interaction between Pike, Cisneros and Roeder on stage is secondary to that, so I’ll spare it. Was a good night I look forward to remembering fondly.

Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.

Seriously. Oh my god.

Legendary stoner rock band Sleep split in 1997 after two hugely influential albums. Members went on to form underground heroes OM and High on Fire, and more recently metal supergroup Shrinebuilder. This Fall, original members Al Cisneros and Matt Pike will be joined by drummer Jason Roeder of Neurosis to perform the seminal Sleep’s Holy Mountain album as well as selections from Dopesmoker and more.

Sleep debuted with 1991′s Volume One album, recorded for San Francisco label Tupelo. Earache Records received the band’s next recordings in the mail as a demo. The label — impressed by Sleep‘s single-mindedness and unique vision – immediately signed the band and released the tape exactly as it was received. Record stores worldwide stocked Sleep’s Holy Mountain from November 1992 to this day.

The band then signed to London Records. Their debut album for the major took the form of one mammoth 63-minute leviathan of a track titled “Jerusalem.” The band resisted the label’s attempts at radio edits and bringing in their own engineer to remix the album in view of “marketability.” London balked at the prospect of promoting what probably still is the most extreme music ever recorded for a major label, so shelved the recording and dropped the band.

SLEEP 2010 US tour
9/03/2010 All Tomorrow’s Parties – Monticello, NY
9/07/2010 Starlight Ballroom – Philadelphia, PA
9/08/2010 Brooklyn Masonic Temple – New York, NY w/ Lichens
9/09/2010 Logan Square Auditorium – Chicago, IL w/ Lichens
9/10/2010 Mohawk – Austin, TX w/ Sub Oslo
9/11/2010 Roseland Theater/Music Fest NW – Portland, OR w/ Scott Kelly, YOB
9/12/2010 Regency Ballroom – San Francisco, CA

Woke up not half an hour ago realizing I never said a word about the shops I hit while in Asheville last weekend. An egregious error to be immediately remedied. It was 10:30AM, probably time to get up anyway, but surely I wouldn’t have been able to fall asleep again without this task completed. Maybe I’ll take a nap this afternoon.

There were three shops amidst the list of important addresses The Patient Mrs. compiled for me before I left the valley, and they were, in order, those of Static Age Records, Harvest Records and Voltage Records. Both Static Age and Voltage were on N. Lexington — about three doors down from each other; which should say something about the town itself — so I figured I’d hit them simultaneously.

Nice thought, and one complicated by the overarching hippieness of Asheville. Static Age‘s listed opening time of 11:00AM was more like 1:30PM. Since they were the shop with a Caltrop show listed on their website, they’d been the one I was most looking forward to checking out, but I hit Voltage first instead. No Holy Grails there, but I’d have probably been more into it if I was buying vinyl, since that’s mostly what they had to offer. Some cool Beatles records, “imports,” but nothing I could afford given my liquor budget.

Read more »

Let’s face it: if you’re here, on this site, there’s a good chance that Sleep classic Sleep’s Holy Mountain is at least part of the reason why.

The album stands among Black Sabbath‘s Masters of Reality and Kyuss‘ Welcome to Sky Valley as one of the formative moments of stoner rock, but Sleep‘s approach was rougher, higher and had an almost punk sense of fuck-all that bled into the songs in a way that an entire generation of riffers has tried to imitate. And it’s true some have done very well at it, even going so far as to surpass Sleep in their own methodology, but like Sabbath before them, Sleep‘s legendary status is just as much due to circumstances and right-time-right-place as it is to Matt Pike‘s guitar, Chris Hakius‘ drumming and Al Cisneros‘ vocals and bass.

Sleep’s Holy Mountain was originally released in 1993, a year in which the pop mainstream was wearing flannel and hair product to make it look like it hadn’t showered in half a week. But Sleep were even dirtier. Hailing from Oakland, CA, they emerged on Earache Records with a sound that showed the likes of Pearl Jam and Nirvana for the polished major label fare they were. Drug metal, stoner metal, weed metal, whatever you want to call it, they were loud as fuck, bombed and unapologetic. And like a lot of great metallers, they didn’t get their due at the time.

Well, with that in mind and perhaps the notion of introducing Sleep to an audience 16 years later who might not have been there the first time around (and certainly giving completists some reason to grumble), Earache re-presents Sleep’s Holy Mountain in a digipak reissue that stays loyal to the original artwork and sound. By way of bonus material, a Sabbath cover of “Snowblind” is included, as is a Quicktime video for “Dragonaut.” And that’s it.

Read more »

I’m getting ready to go have all four of my wisdom teeth pulled, and since I’ll be under general anesthesia, no video seems more appropriate to throw up here than Sleep. There’s a bunch of live clips from their reunion shows at All Tomorrow’s Parties posted on YouTube, but this one was the best I could find. Enjoy. When next we meet I’ll be considerably less wise and considerably more on painkillers.

Blabbermouth has the story, but here’s the good part of it:

Acclaimed San Jose, California stoner doom metal band Sleep will have its classic Earache debut album, Holy Mountain, reissued on June 16. The special edition will feature the Black Sabbath cover “Snowblind” as a bonus track along with a video for the song “Dragonaut” video. Rare photos will also be included in the package.

That’s right folks, Sleep’s Holy Mountain is getting reissued with the video for the song “Dragonaut” video (hello, grammar!). Not too much in the way of bonus material — especially when there’s that whole Vol. 2 vinyl selling for $100+ on eBay just ripe for inclusion — but whatever. It’s still Sleep, and if this gets in the hands of some of those mall kids with the stupid anime hair, then fine. Maybe if they sell a shit ton of copies they’ll tour the US. This is me holding my breath.

“Infernal” Keith Bergman — drummer/vocalist of The PB Army, former editor of InfernalCombustion.com (Wiffley Snidegarb!), contributor to Blabbermouth and numerous other outlets and regular feature in the stoner rock scene — has opened an eBay shop called Exile Toledo. While perusing the tubuwebs recently I came upon an original Man’s Ruin promo copy of 1999′s The Art of Self Defense by High on Fire, not even knowing it was Keith selling it, and it was simply too cool to not buy.

Yes, I know it seems like a long time ago, but before they were the overlords of beast metal, blessing black wings and communing with Death himself (or herself if you read Saramago), High on Fire were just the nascent offshoot of stoner kings Sleep. They were just getting going, and the promo for The Art of Self Defense was the first exposure a lot of people had to them. There may have been press releases beforehand with their self-titled EP, maybe a live track on Napster or something, but remember, there was no Facebook or MySpace, and if you were a member of the media, unless you were really searching it out, you’d be hearing “Blood from Zion,” “10,000 Years” and “Fireface” for the first time. How fucking awesome is that?

Needless to say, thanks to Keith for the listing and prompt shipping (positive feedback ahoy) and I’m happy to share with anyone who feels free to click the “Read More” link the bio that came in the back cover of High on Fire‘s first record.

Read more »

Well, my brain is fried, and I can think of no better band to go along with friend brains than Sleep. Five reviews later, here’s the video for “Dragonaut” from the all-time classic Sleep’s Holy Mountain. If you can’t get behind this, you’re on the wrong page.