Sunday, Sept. 19, 2004 - 1:16 a.m.

Sleepytime

I just got back from a concert by Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. Not surprisingly, they kicked boatloads of ass. I even removed my earplugs during their song, "1997". Why? Because "1997" is the single most rocking song in existence, perhaps ever. I mean superlatively so. Then they played their otherworldly "Sleep is Wrong" (which among other things sounds vaguely like Korn on a bad acid trip) and in the middle of the song, the whole band pretended to fall asleep on their feet and started snoring, only to awaken again 5 minutes later to bring the song to a raucous conclusion.

The band appeared in gothy makeup and blackened teeth, all wearing identical sleeveless black robes. Hardly necessary, but why not? It did add to their creepiness. They played some of their homemade instruments such as the percussion guitar, the log, the spring nail guitar, the pedal bow, and the electric pancreas. There was also a bowed instrument with a gazillion tuning pegs that simulated a whole string quartet. To top it off, they had a Japanese No theater guy with them who crouched on a platform, grimmacing grotesquely while the band played.

Even better, I had a chance before the show to hang out a little with Nils, the co-lead singer and guitar player. I told him that he was one of my role-models for singing, and asked him for advice on screaming. He said to avoid anything that hurts and it will gradually develop. I asked if screaming damages his voice. He said not significantly, but after a tour, there's still a buzz in his voice when he tries to sing cleanly. He assured me that he continues to get more out of his voice year after year. When I told him I sing Queensryche, he said, "You've got an octave on me". I asked if the Sleepytime Gorilla Museum his band is named after is real or fictional, and he assured me that it was real. I asked if their songs are written atonally or in 12-tone, and Nils said that some of their songs have atonal parts (but not ridgid 12-tone) inspired by Schoenberg, but they're more influenced by Stravinsky and Bartok, as well as lifting things from traditional folk melodies. He asked me about the S.L.U.G. queen contest, and I filled him in about the Society for the Legitimization of the Ubiquitous Gastropod. This may have been relevant to him, since his band's icon happens to be a snail, and the Grand Opening and Closing album was first performed for a banana slug. He gave me part of the cookie he was eating.

They performed a song about the Unabomber, and Nils encouraged the audience to read the works of Johnny Z! I had no idea this band had an explicit politics/analysis! He even said something about smashing the state, and that the country has been taken over by Mafia types, but that's not limited to the current crooks. However, then Carla, the other kick-ass singer and violinist, entreated the audience to make sure to vote, a sentiment which would have made Johnny Z quite irate had he been present. After the show, I went up to Nils again and directed him to my website anarchistnexus.com where he could listen to Johnny Z interviewing me.

It was everything I could have hoped for: mind-blowing hard rock, with avant-garde classical influences, informed by a green anarchist critique!

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