Crib Notes

Kyle Dawkins recently completed a short video clip to preview the forthcoming Exsanguinette album, which features an impressive lineup of like-minded musicians fronted by Killick (Eric Hinds) playing guitar, along with Brann Dailor of Mastodon (drums), Liz Allbee (trumpet) and Larry Ochs of Rova Saxophone Quartet (sax).

The finished product is still about a month away, but in the meantime this teaser video offers a pretty tantalizing preview of things to come.

“Bloodletting” (excerpt) mp3

Bookmark to:

In case you missed it, Mastodon played “Oblivion” from Crack the Skye on CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman” on Friday night.

Bookmark to:

Tuesday will be an historic day for Criminal Records as two of Atlanta’s greatest musical exports, the Indigo Girls and Mastodon, both take the stage to celebrate the release of their respective albums.

First up, the Indigo Girls take the stage at 4:30 p.m. to play songs from their brand new CD, Poseidon and the Bitter Bug.

From the IG press release:

It’s been two decades since the Indigo Girls launched their career with their independently released debut album, 1987’s Strange Fire. Now, after entertaining millions of fans with their 10 major-label studio albums (nine on Epic Records and one, 2006’s Despite Our Differences, on Hollywood Records), Emily Saliers and Amy Ray have come full circle with the independent release of their new 2-CD album, Poseidon And The Bitter Bug, on their new label IG Recordings, distributed through Vanguard Records.

Indigo Girls’ “What Are you Like?” mp3

Then at 8 p.m. Criminal Records is closing its doors early to clear a path for the destructive force that is Mastodon who will be playing at 8:30 p.m. Upon re-opening, customers that have a Criminal Records receipt from purchase of Crack The Skye will be given priority to enter. Due to space constraints and security concerns the number of people allowed in the store for the show is limited to 300.

(more…)

Bookmark to:

The following interview with Mastodon guitarist/vocalist Bill Kelliher was conducted at noon on Wednesday, March 11.

Chad: You got sick in Europe last year while you were on tour with Slayer. What happened?
Bill Kelliher: It was an undisclosed stomach ailment. People have speculated about what it was, but I can’t really talk about it.

Really?
Yeah, as a band we decided not to talk about it, so I can’t. It was a big shake-up and the band had to play as a three-piece while I recovered. We had a big decision to make about whether we were going to loose a lot of money or not. We had just flown over there. We rented the gear, rented the bus and if we would have sent everybody home when I got sick it would have cost us a fortune. The band was looking to loose a whole lot of dough and they asked me what I wanted them to do. They said we’ll play if we have to, and they did. The next few shows were in Germany and we were playing first, so it was a half-an-hour set, which goes by pretty quickly when your playing songs back-to-back like we do. So it wasn’t that big of a deal. They did it and I healed up.

That was the second scare you guys have had in the last couple of years, the first being what happened with Brent in Las Vegas.
Yeah, when I heard about what happened to Brent I was holding my breath and just kind of hoping and waiting for everything to be OK. This band is my life, and I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have it. We were all wondering what was going to happen. But I didn’t sell my guitars or anything. I was banking on him being OK and then we heard from him a week or so later and he was going to make it, so it came as a huge relief. But yeah, we were all hoping and praying that he would pull through. We didn’t really know what else to do. … We’re lucky. Some bands don’t bounce back from that kind of shit.

(more…)

Bookmark to:

STILL STANDING: Brann Dailor (left), Bill Kelliher, Brent Hinds, and Troy Sanders.

For nearly 10 years, Brann Dailor and Brent Hinds have served as two equal but wholly opposite forces fueling the fiery dirges of Atlanta’s metal behemoth, Mastodon.

While Dailor’s fast, complex movements as a drummer are the flipside to his reserved and somewhat aloof demeanor, Hinds is a mad dog. His bark is every bit as mean and loud as the malevolent guitar thunder he commands. Over the years, his public brawls with a music journalist and other rockers have made him the stuff of legend.

“If you ask for it, I’m down for the dealing, and I will definitely hand you the price tag!” he offers coldly.

When anchored against Dailor’s precise musicianship and persona, the two function as a powerful machine whose real-life tragedies and traumas are manifested in Mastodon’s fourth full-length album, Crack the Skye.

It’s the first time that the group has exercised such a noticeable compositional restraint. Though the riffs and rhythms are massive, each song on the release comes together with focused melodies and slower tempos compared to the prog showiness and experimental chaos of the band’s previous album, Blood Mountain. Cleaner vocals and sprawling white space sandBrannwiched between stinging guitar assaults define the ethereal qualities of Crack the Skye. If Blood Mountain was the group’s homage to earth, and previous albums Leviathan and Remission honored water and fire, respectively, Crack the Skye flies into the stratosphere and beyond.

Continue reading “Crack the Skye finds Mastodon on the haunt”

(Photo by James Mincihn)

Bookmark to:

This weekend Pitchfork posted a short video documentary that features Brann Dailor and Troy Sanders from Mastodon discussing the ins and outs of life on the road and their forthcoming album, Crack the Skye. The video ends with a  short video of their Halloween show at the Hammersmith Apollo in London.

Bookmark to: