Gig Report - OM live at the Button Factory

"We're told there's a curfew...but we're not gonna give a shit."

Well, it has been far too long since I've done a bit of writing (I don't dare find out exactly how long!), perhaps my final exams made me feel as if I could never write again, but if a gig report involving the mighty OM isn't reason enough to hit the keyboard again, then I don't know what is! Thursday September 27th saw OM take the stage of Dublin's Button Factory venue for a night of intense relaxation unmatched by almost any gig I've attended, and that's considering I've seen the likes of Isis, Sleep and Pelican in the recent past...

A three piece OM featuring Emil Amos on drums, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe on keys and guitar (not to mention the longest suffering tambourine in the world) and of course Al Cineros on bass, brought the weight of a universe of music down on an adoring crowd, and a very mixed crowd at that; several world music fans along with the expected stoner and doom fans.

I'll admit at this early stage, I don't know OM's back catalogue very well, but such is the beauty of these kind of gigs that you don't need to go into it knowing every track, you can sit back and just let the music run over you. I am however, familiar enough with the recent record 'Advaitic Songs', and was glad to see that the bulk of the gig was devoted to tracks from the album adapted for the stage. In other words, HEAVIER. An overwhelming version of "Sinai" opened the night and set the tone for the remainder. Cineros is a joy to watch playing, he visibly adores his instrument and the beastly sound it achieves, and in turn we love the resulting music it creates. Lowe was a member I had not known of before and what a pleasant surprise he was! His energy is infectious, his voice equally so; some of those high notes he can reach are unbelievable. Amos' drumming style, while it can be heard on the album, add unexpected speed and energy to the music in a live setting. Quite hard and driving but in that wonderfully relaxing way. 

The word 'culture' is thrown about far too much in my opinion, speaking as a student of cultural and arts. The greatest problem being the fact that it is used interchangeably with the word 'arts', yet it is times like this when I put that academic concern aside and allow the two to merge. This night ranks second only to seeing Neurosis in the same venue last year as the most cultural experience I've had. A night only marred by the set being cut slightly short by the support band (Dead Skeletons, who actually weren't at all bad and won me over by the end). Forget 5 Star ratings or 10 out of 10 evaluations, if I were to use them they would be meaningless; this was OM live, enough said!

Edward Gerard Brophy, bornagainnihilist@gmail(dot)com.

Film Review- Such Hawks Such Hounds

Film Review
‘Such Hawks Such Hounds’

Stoner Rock. Could there ever be a more vague term to describe a genre? Show me a stoner that doesn’t listen to music and I’ll show you anything you want! But let’s ignore this problem of language for the moment and focus on the task at hand, John Srebalus’ 2008 documentary ‘Such Hawks Such Hounds’.

At the time of writing this review it has been months since I watched the film so my facts and references will be loose but my impression has been thoroughly digested. Reminded by stumbling across a trailer on YouTube, I felt inclined to write it up.

I dislike writers who disguise a negative review by withholding criticisms to the final paragraph so I will get mine out of the way at the outset and concentrate on the positives, of which there are plenty. This film is a little too long for its own good. The extended scenes of live performances are excellent for the opportunity to see each band doing their own unique thing but by the ¾ way mark of the film this begins to get tedious. I can think of two positives to this however; if you love all the music then of course you will be happy to listen to it all if the mood strikes. The second is, I suspect, a certain harking back to music documentaries of the 60’s and 70’s. Films such as the iconic Woodstock film with their ‘forget commentary, we want music, music and more music!’ attitude.

There is a particular humility to this film that I think is very admirable. So many films that focus on certain genres of music try far too hard to instil seriousness and credibility into the genre and the vibe of the film. Such Hawks Such Hounds confronts the not-so-cool aspects of its chosen genre head on, chief among them being the troublesome ‘Stoner’ label. Asked in interviews the majority of artists grudgingly accepted the label but do not seem to hold it in high regard. And why would they really? It seems a shame to reduce a whole genre to a stoned past-time. But then again, show me ANY musical tradition that can’t be reduced to that using crafty rhetoric!

Such a myriad of artists are interviewed in the course of this film that almost every popular opinion is covered, without the cheesiness that films such as ‘Heavy Metal a Head Banger’s Journey’ tend towards (don’t get me wrong here, that was an OK film). Perhaps a little too much reverence for trippy experiences in the woods late at night but at least there are no anthropologists saying ‘it’s a pathway to God!’ The film opens with Matt Pike, of Sleep and High on Fire fame, giving a now infamous definition of heavy, which I will encourage you to check out for yourself since I think about 50% will agree and the other 50% will laugh but few if any will say they really disagree.

High on Fire, Sleep, OM, Dead Meadows, Goatsnake, Sunn 0))), Wino, Scott Reeder and more are represented here excellently by both themselves and the film makers. And if there is one important thing that this film conveys it is the seemingly timeless nature of stoner rock. Thrash Metal, one can easily and quite correctly say is associated with San Francisco during the early to mid 1980’s. Similarly, one could tie Grunge (a term I’m not totally comfortable using, stay tuned to future articles to find out why) to Seattle in the late 80’s and early 90’s, whereas Stoner as we know it today has remained much the same since the late 60’s and early 70’s. I can’t help but feel that Kyuss, for example, would have been a welcome support act on an early Black Sabbath tour. OM probably would be cult legends if they had been doing exactly what they do now in the hippie environment. Just imagine how mind-blowing that relentlessly intense bass sound would have been to an audience that thought Jefferson Airplane was a trip! Yet in that period of time of 40 odd years, stoner has still expanded to encompass many other sounds, sights and experiences. It has never been afraid to absorb outside influences, a problem which strikes all musicians and probably halts creative progress more than anything else. Nothing was going to stop Matt Pike exploring his Slayer influences, nor was King Buzzo of The Melvins going to ignore the greater love he held for Black Flag rather than Black Sabbath.

All things considered, I would recommend this film to anyone interested in the music and even more so to those folks, like myself, who so truly need the encouragement it offers: YES, the scene DOES exist, YES there are people who feel and share the love and YES you can be part of it!

Cheers,
And when in doubt, DOOM it out!

For Bornagainnihilist 2011
Edward Gerard Brophy

'2007- What A Year' by Edward Brophy

Allow me to set the scene:

Me, 2007.

17 year old long-haired Black Sabbath enthusiast (the latter is even more true today.)

In 5th year in an all-boy/all-jock rugby school in Dublin (no one reading this from outside Ireland will know the term “D4”, but to those Irish readers I need say no more...)

Still an expert in all things Metallica, but at this stage my interest was waning.

Similarly I had decided that Motorhead held little appeal for me despite all the opportunities I gave them.

No girlfriend.
No car.
A recently split band and the toughest school year still looming on the horizon the following year.

All in all, while I won't be so spoiled as to say a terrible situation, I can safely say, a boring one! Yet thinking back to that time I am always faced with an almost nostalgic feeling, a voice saying contentedly; “ya know, that was a fuckin' good year.” Yet you have already read the setting-the-scene portion of the article, so where is the joy?
The fact is that I can only pin down one thing as a suspect to account for the fond memories of that year; that is discovering that most colourful spectrum of music between Rock and Metal (two ancient terms that seem to become less meaningful everyday), the part of the spectrum that I like to refer to simply as 'Heavy'. The stonery, the psychedelic, the groovy, the droney, the sludgy, the weighty, the fuzzy, the terms go on and on precisely because the music does likewise!
I believe it began with Dave Grohl's under the radar 'Probot' project. On that record I came across names I had never heard of. There were the isolated few including Sepultura's Max Cavalera and Motorhead's Lemmy, but who the hell were The Obsessed, Cathedral, Trouble, DRI, Corrosion of Conformity???
A track called 'The Emerald Law' demonstrated an approach to riffing and soloing that were alien to me at the time. I was still convinced at that age that Kirk Hammet had a decent vibrato technique! I resolved to investigate.
My YouTube based inquiry yielded a few live videos all featuring this large shouldered man with hair down to his arse, tattoos down to his hands, (before Suicide Silence and Bring Me The Horizon made it 'in vogue'!) and armed with a black Les Paul. This is of course, you guessed it, Wino.
Saint Vitus videos linked me to Spirit Caravan, Caravan to The Obsessed, Obsessed to The Hidden Hand, then it grew wider; The Hidden Hand to The Sword, The Sword to High On Fire, High On Fire to Sleep, Sleep to OM, OM to Neurosis, on and on and on..... One of the videos that stick in my memory best have to be a fan-made video for The Hidden Hand's 'The Last Tree' made up of live footage from the late 'Emissions from the Monolith' festival and stock footage of hardy men cutting down Giant Redwood trees by hand. Another would have to be a the music video for Sleep's 'Dragonaut', a strangely edited black and white affair featuring a young Matt Pike with blonde dreadlocks.
I could continue on with videos, discoveries on Myspace, etc. etc. but it I think the point has been made that the ball had begun to roll. From here the bands came into my scope one by one like and endless parade of pure quality with no end in sight. Today my personal favourites are still as strong as they ever were, Mastodon, The Hidden Hand, Baroness, Melvins, The Obsessed, High on Fire and of course Black Sabbath, all occupying the ruling tier in my subjective hierarchy.
This was my 2007. What better way to begin maturity of taste? Turning on, tuning in and dropping out just in time to catch The Hidden Hand's last release 'The Resurrection of Whiskey Foote', Baroness' 'Red Album', and not forgetting the slick monster 'Death is This Communion' from High on Fire.
Freeing themselves from the limitations imposed by the Rock or Metal categories, the musicians are free to explore whatever they fuckin' want, (an attitude much advocated but rarely practised!) therein lies the beauty of this music that in an ideal world would be true of all music. Until that ideal is realised let us privileged few sit back, stick on the Sabbath LP, engage our inner Taoist and lose ourselves in Absorption................................

For Bornagainnihilist 2011
Edward Gerard Brophy