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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Mastodon's Troy Sanders (right)

The following interview with Mastodon bass player and vocalist Troy Sanders was conducted at noon on Friday, Feb. 30 while en route to Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q.

Chad: Let’s talk about Crack the Skye. I’m familiar with the stories that shaped the album from Brann and Brent’s perspectives, but what’s your take?

Troy: With all of our previous records we’ve been happy with the end results, but collectively speaking we’re more excited and proud of this one than anything we’ve done before. It feels good that we’re still excited to be playing music and still pushing ourselves to tread new waters. It consumes us and we’re all immersed in the Mastodon lifestyle. It’s nine years later and five records down the line [including the Call of the Mastodon compilation of early material], and the fire that burns in all four of our guts is yet to be extinguished.

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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.

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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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