From Dead Meadow to Mr. Peanut Grows a Chin

I’m draggin’ a little today, but not as much as I could be. I’m simply not used to being out ‘til almost 3 AM on a work night anymore. There are many reasons, many of them good, why I don’t go to shows to the extent that I did back in my heyday. You are probably familiar with most of them. But I’ve made a conscious decision to shift the pendulum back a bit and put more effort into makin’ the scene.

To that end I wandered down to the Larimer Lounge last night to mingle with friends over PBR drafts and take in a show by Matador recording artists Dead Meadow. A good percentage of the non-touring friends-of-PMFS crew was out in force, and good times were had by all. (Btw...Ken, where the hell did you go? Don’t think I won’t be gettin’ my Bucky book back, bro!)

Reviews of the Meadow were decidedly mixed, with undying love, mild disappointment, and bittersweet ambivalence professed in approximately equal portions. I felt a little of each myself. I was right up front for the first half of their set before retiring to the back of the club midway through. Live, the DC band was better than solid, at times they were mesmerizing, yet I feel I did not receive the spectacular ass-kicking that I was expecting. I can’t put my finger on exactly what intangible I felt was missing, but more than once the thought crossed my head that I might rather be home enjoying the simple pleasures of my vinyl lair, ears swallowed by headphones, tokin’ on Dead Meadow’s psilocybic Philly Blunt of a third record, Shivering King and Others. I reviewed it for Skyscraper last year:

The fittingly christened DC power trio Dead Meadow really comes into their own on its third studio album, the gloriously epic gatefold double-LP Shivering King and Others. Though weaned on the Dischord-style hardcore that has dominated the DC underground for going on two decades, the Meadow foregoes Fugazi-bred punk flavors for a massive, fuzzy, psychedelic colossus of a sound deeply influenced by the hulking mastodons of late-‘60s psych and ‘70s hard rock. Sabbath. Cream. Hendrix. Zeppelin. Floyd. Deep Purple. Vanilla Fudge. Blue Cheer. The musical ancestry of Dead Meadow is a totem pole of monolithic icons stacked atop a surplus of other like-minded but lesser known bands of the same era, yet this band is no throwback to a bygone age of bloat; neither can their sound be summed up so succinctly. Just as endemic is the drone & blues &Velvets recipe of Spacemen 3, permeating Shivering King like an osmotic specter. Modern-day stoner disciples of Hawkwind make red-eyed cameos in a thick miasma of ubiquitous smoke. Perhaps their closest of contemporaries is Philly’s Bardo Pond, who, ironically, left the Matador just as Dead Meadow was checking in. More than any lame comparisons to other bands, though, this record is an unspeakably brilliant painting in an otherworldly gallery of its own means and ends. No museum piece, it hangs prominently in your mind’s eye, a sprawling canvas of hypnotic grooves and hallucinogenic flashbacks, a phantasmagoric collage of Tolkienesque fairy tales and cryptic lullabies. To describe the swirling contents herein is to hesitate and be reminded once again of the oft-quoted suggestion that "writing about music is like dancing about architecture." ‘Tis better to close your eyes and turn off your mind: this king’s trance-like shivers live far beyond the measly decoration of words; in the celestial orbit of its soaring, effects-laden guitar riffage, in the titanic sludge of its lumbering low end, in the beautifully unintelligible murmurs and paranoid whispers which comprise the bulk of this album’s vocal forays. Moogs and sitars dissolve murkily into a maelstrom of vintage distortion and reverberating volume, each song flowing effortlessly into the next with a cohesion that invokes Sleep’s landmark Jerusalem album, which was, in fact, one veeerrryyy long song. After the skull-crushing opener "I Love You Too", "Bubbling Flower" breaks down into the expansive territory of "Everything’s Going On", then leads into the hard-driving "The Whirlings", eventually winding into the eerie acoustic requiem "Heaven", the album’s haunting pinnacle. Through it all, Dead Meadow relentlessly slices through the arena rock pretensions of their forebears and brings the DIY punk ethic full-circle to confront its original enemy head-on.

It’s interesting how some bands live and die by The Live Experience, their entire recorded discographies shriveling against the spells cast by the sizzle of an amplifier, while others toss off masterpieces of studio wizardry with seemingly little effort, yet never can quite reproduce that magic effectively onstage. Dead Meadow isn’t quite so easy to pigeonhole. I definitely enjoyed the songs from Shivering King the most. I wasn’t nearly as into the other stuff, but I'm not sure if that’s because the songs are weaker or just less familiar. Are their first two records still out of print for a reason?

In the end, I think what sabotaged my enjoyment of the show ever so slightly, was simply the great expectations unleashed by such a record so nearly perfect as Shivering King and Others.

Of the two opening bands, one was rather impressive, the other, less so. I really don’t have anything to say about the Clean Prophets, but Denver’s own Nightingale rocked my world, perhaps more so than the stylistically similar Meadow. Knowing nothing about them, expecting nothing from them, I thoroughly enjoyed every second of their fuzzed-out, trance-inducing riffage. Is this the flip side of the expectation coin? Heavily indebted to Spacemen 3 and distinguished by their brilliant seventies fashion sense and thin mustaches, I’ll definitely be checking these cats out again. Their first EP drops in early 2005.

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Looking forward to the Arcade Fire at the Larimer on December 3rd. Do rush out and pick up their fabulous debut, Funeral, out now on the venerable Merge Records, so you'll know all the songs before the show. Check out noiseboy’s review here.

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You have got to see this ebay auction:

Virgin Mary In Grilled Cheese
NOT A HOAX ! LOOK & SEE !

Seriously. It’s up to $7,600, with less than three days remaining!

It's a freaking grilled sandwich! Roll item description, please, spelling errors and all:

You are viewing an extroidinary out of this world item!! I made this sandwich 10 years ago, when I took a bite out of it, I saw a face looking up at me, It was Virgin Mary starring back at me, I was in total shock, I would like to point out there is no mold or disingration, The item has not been preserved or anything, It has been keep in a plastic case, not a special one that seals out air or potiental mold or bacteria, it is like a miracle, It has just preserved itself which in itself I consider a miracle, people ask me if I have had blessings since she has been in my home, I do feel I have, I have won $70,000 (total) on different occasions at the casino near by my house, I can show the recipts to the high bidder if they are interested, I would like all people to know that I do believe that this is the Virgin Mary Mother Of God, That is my solem belief, but you are free to believe that she is whomever you like, I am not scamming anyone, I would like all potinetal bidders to know that this has gained alot of attention from media personell around the country, On Tuesday November 16, 2004 the Miami Herald will feature a story in thier paper on this phenomon, Also Today which is November 15, 2004 The story of The Virgin Mary In The Grilled Cheese will be aired on Channel 4 News here in South Florida, The story has been told nationwide on radio stations ect. I also would like all onlookers to understand why I am choosing to keep the high bidders ID private, I listed this once before and had all kinds of emails some were nice and funny comments but many were cruel intended, and vindictive, I ignored them but, I do not wish to subject potiental buyers to this form of invasion, The last time this was listed there were over 80,000 viewers, Like I said I recieved alot of emails that were down right cruel intended, I do not care I will not read them anyhow, but you should not waste your time being vindictive, I am asking that only serious questions about the item be emailed to me, not jokes or ridiclous comments, If you have a genuine question please do feel free to email, I am not scamming anyone I am selling this item proivided that there is a serious bid with a payment, SERIOUS BIDDERS ONLY! DO NOT BID IF YOU INTEND TO RETRACT THE BID OR FOOL AROUND, THERE IS NO RESERVE ON THIS AUCTION!! I AM STARTING IT OUT AT THE BOTTOM LINE PRICE THAT I INTEND TO SELL THIS ITEM FOR!!

The holy sandwich was first brought to my attention by the good folks at Miles of Music. They continue:

While the item itself brought minutes of pleasure, the voluminous listings related to it are what really got us going. There was the group of listings that jumped on the entrepreneurial train by offering t-shirts, bumper stickers, key chains, etc all emblazoned with the image. Then there is the other group of joke postings that swear, SWEAR they aren't hoaxing! Your Jester was literally wiping tears from his eyes, the laughs were so big. Coincidentally, Robinson announced today that he found a packing peanut on the floor in the warehouse that looks just like Jay Leno!

Ha! Mr. Peanut grows a chin! Ya gotta love capitalism.

Alright, naptime! Whew! Longest post yet!

N/P 3 Mile Pilot – Another Desert Another Sea (underappreciated classic!)