Crib Notes

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

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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.

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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.

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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)

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Atlanta psych metal trio Zoroaster has completed its third album, Voice of Saturn, due out on Match 10th via the group-run Terminal Doom Records.

Voice of Saturn was recorded at The Living Room with Ed Rawls, and carries Zoroaster’s hallucinogenic hybrid of doom-laden metal, drone and dirge to bombastic new places, and even features a guest appearance from Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds on the song “White Dwarf.”

Voice of Saturn track list:

1.) Intro (1:00)
2.) Spirit Molecule (6:10)
3.) Undying (13:43)
4.) White Dwarf (5:42)
5.) Voice of Saturn (5:25)
6.) Lamen of the Master Therion (7:55)
7.) Outro (14:14)

Bassist / vocalist Brent Anderson was recently featured as a guest on MTV’s Headbangers Blog.

Zoroaster will embark on a full North American tour starting in February. In the meantime you can catch them on New Year’s Eve as they headline a bill with Withered and Subrig Destroyer at the infamous Clermont Lounge.

“Spirit Molecule” (live).

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Mastodon announced today that the tile for their forthcoming full-length is Crack the Skye, which is due for an early 2009 release.

The seven-song album is the follow-up to 2006’s Blood Mountain, and will clock in at 50-minute. The songs were recorded at Southern Tracks Studios in Atlanta  with producer Brendan O’Brien (Bruce Springsteen, AC/DC) at the controls.

The group will once again join forces with artist Paul Romano for the album’s cover art which is reportedly epic and involves an eyeball. Multiple packaging formats are expected to be lavish. Details are forthcoming.

Crack the Skye track listing:

1. Oblivion
2. Divinations
3. Quintessence
4. The Czar
I. Usurper
II. Escape
III. Martyr
IV. Spiral
5. Ghost of Karelia
6. Crack The Skye
7. The Last Baron

In the meantime Mastodon is gearing up to head over to Europe to share the spotlight with Metallica for their summer 2009 tour.

Tour dates include:

6/14 – Hartwall Arena – Helsinki, FIN
6/15 – Hartwall Arena – Helsinki, FIN
6/17 – Spektrum – Oslo, NOR
6/22 – Datch Forum – Milan, ITA
6/24 – Palalottomatica – Rome, ITA
7/13 – Palacio de Deportes – Madrid, Spain
7/16 – Hallenstadion – Zurich, SWITZ
7/20 – Copenhagen Forum – Copenhagen, DEN
7/22 – Copenhagen Forum – Copenhagen, DEN
7/23 – Copenhagen Forum – Copenhagen, DEN
7/27 – Copenhagen Forum – Copenhagen, DEN

More dates to be announced soon.

Photo by Jimmy Hubbard

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Last week Rolling Stone’s “Rock and Roll Daily” blog posted an interview with Mastodon’s guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds. In the interview Hinds explains how the head injuries he incurred as the result of being attacked at the VMA’s in Las Vegas last year pushed Mastodon to pursue a more melodic direction with their forthcoming album.

According to the story:

“I was dizzy for eight months… During those months, I just sat with my acoustic and a little marijuana, and wrote all the music. I wanted a more melodic, easy-listening situation, and that definitely came from having head trauma.”

From there the group sought out producer Brendan O’Brien (Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, AC/DC) to help flesh out the reportedly melodic but heavy as hell sound of Mastodon’s next record.

Read the full story here.

Hinds’ recent run-in with King Khan at the Highland Inn Ballroom in Atlanta (and ensuing witch hunt) hasn’t churned out any musical epiphanies or led to any fortuitous pairings with producers just yet, but give it time…

(Photo by Jimmy Hubbard)

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The inimitable Arish “King” Khan made a surprise appearance at The Highland Inn Lounge last night for the weekly Kirkwood Ballers Club open mic night. The place was packed, spirits were high and Khan, who flew to Atlanta from Berlin, played guitar and sang in an impromptu set with Bobby Ubangi (vocals / tamborine), Frank Jenson (drums), Jessica Juggz (drums), and a guest appearance by Brent Hinds from Mastodon who also played guitar.

The legendary pairing of the king and the behemoth on one stage together seemed to be working just fine as they pounded their way through a few, sloppy garage rock numbers, including a cover of the song, “G–L–O–R–I–A.” The crowd loved it. The band was all smiles and at one point Arish even dumped a beer out on Brent’s head, but it all looked like it was in good fun.

However, the mood changed drastically when shortly after the set, Khan took a fist to the face from Brent, that resulted in a trip to the hospital.

The formerly amicable party atmosphere turned into somewhat of a witch hunt, but Brent had left the building.

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