Sleep Om Earth Pelican

I remember the moment I first fell in love with rock music. I was 9, and the song that did it was "You Give Love a Bad Name" from Bon Jovi's "Slippery When Wet." That same year, I heard Run-DMC's "You Be Illin," and was just as moved. Since then, I've loved the music of the guitar, and the music of the beat with equal passion. I see genre as adjective, not category, and I allow my interest to flow as the spirit moves me.

That being said, I'm surprised to find I've been enjoying a certain sort of metal music. Generally, I respect the virtuosity required to be a serious metal musician, but I don't enjoy the overwhelming aggressiveness of most metal. Thus the heaviest music I've enjoyed (until recently) was the progressive rock of bands like Rush and the art-rock bloodline traceable from Layne Staley to Josh Homme.

Enter Sleep, the band often credited with founding the subgenre "stoner metal." They released 2 LPs and 1 EP between 1991 and 1993 before signing to London records. The band broke up over frustrations with London records, who refused to release what was to become the band's masterpiece, the hour-long dirge-epic song "Dopesmoker" (aka "Jerusalem"). Not until 1998 did this album finally see daylight as an "official bootleg." It has since been re-mastered and re-released in 1999 and 2003, and I heard it by accident in 2006.

This music, Sleep's "Dopesmoker", is nearly indescribable. It's very, very slow and through-composed. The lyrics, such as they are, describe a marijuana-centric epic journey of some sort. Since one must dedicate a full hour to listening to this song properly, I've only heard in it's entirely maybe 6 times. It's worth hearing if you get a chance, but I don't blame you if you only ever listen to it once. You'll never forget it.

Intrigued that anyone had ever made music like that, I investigated stoner metal and it's cousins, doom metal, drone metal, and post-rock. I've been investigating this corner of rock and roll for a few months now, and I've found some gems I'd like to share.

First, Om. Om is the current project of the drummer and bassist from Sleep, and one of the most listenable and provocative bands of this genre. Their songs regularly top 10 minutes, and are slow, textured, and more traditionally structured than "Dopesmoker." My favorite Om record, "Conference of the Birds" (1996, Holy Mountain) is 2 songs, "At Giza" and "Flight of the Eagle," whose open, airy tones introduce a theme that runs through the rest of the music in this post. That theme is the power and scope of nature, and the planet itself. I believe it is this theme which draws me to all three of the bands about whom I am writing.

When the name of the band is Earth, one knows the artists are looking to larger inspirations than girls and cars. Earth's first full-length, 1993's "Earth 2," is to drone metal what "Dopesmoker" is to stoner metal. It's 3 songs, 15, 27, and 30 minutes long. However, if I didn't have a track counter, I wouldn't have been able to tell when one ended and the next began. There's no vocals, no keyboards, and although the credits list a percussionist on one song, I noticed nothing that sounded like percussion anywhere. It's all heavily distorted guitar and bass, and it's beautiful. Like, meditate to this beautiful. Totally alien to some, I'm sure. It's mildly maddening to me, but it lines up my brainwaves in some powerful manner. However, later work by Earth is much more listenable, and even accessible to less accustomed listeners. My personal favorite, "Pentastar: In the Style of Demons" (Sub Pop 1996) even has verses & choruses, and ends with a fantastic traditional rock guitar solo, something I've otherwise not heard from Earth.

Finally, I'm sure my friends debate behind my back about whether they're more sick of hearing me talk about: Ron Paul or instrumental post-rock band Pelican. Wtf is instrumental post-rock? Well, there's drums, bass, and lots of guitars. Pelican uses musical forms familiar to both modern rock and metal listeners, but fits neither of those genres well. I've not yet tried it on my in-laws, yet, but I believe even the most traditional classicist could enjoy the musicianship on Pelican's latest album, "City Of Echoes" released this past June on Hydra Head. On this album, Pelican explores the boundary between wild and urban environments, layering unusual chords over one another to create a multidimensional distortion that excites every synapse of my brain. Pelican plays rock music that inspires me to think more openly, more richly, and more sensuously. In fact, I love "City of Echoes" so much that I went to the band's website and bought it. That's the first new CD I've purchased in years, and I feel great about my purchase. In the process of getting familiar with this band, I've listened to them and their labelmates & musical collaborators on Rhapsody. I've befriended and conversed with the band via MySpace, and now I've purchased their physical CD as an act of support. I love having a direct relationship with these artists.

So I say to you, friends, in this long-winded manner, the state of rock and roll is alive and well. These bands are exploring, they're composing, they're performing, and they're making great music. So here's to smart metal music. Let me bang my head till I die.