Boris' drummer attempts to reenergize the crowd. Pic by Beta.

​Sunn O))) and Boris/BXI
Brooklyn Masonic Temple
September 6, 2010

Better than: Sun King, the Cult tribute band.

Time has a way of getting suspended at shows involving Boris and fellow Southern Lord labelmates Sunn O))). But usually, it tends towards the extreme, not the abrupt.

More >>

Hm, something looks oddly familiar here. All photos via Ideologic.

​Almost certainly, yes! Back in September, SunnO))) leveled the Brooklyn Masonic Temple, punishing the crowd for more than two hours and three costume changes by the band's sometime frontman and vocalist, former Mayhem singer Attila Csihar. Our reviewer at the time attempted a couple of descriptions of what exactly Csihar spent most of the set wearing: "A mirror ball suit--somewhere between Voltron, Gwar, the Donnie Darko bunny, and Duchamp's Nude Descending A Staircase. With laser-pointer claws. A set-ending third costume took the form of a big armless potato bug." Here's SF/J's attempt:

More >>

That right there are some dangerously vibrating windows outside a club in Cologne, Germany, a city clearly not built with a band as loud as Sunn O))) in mind. [via Ideologic]

​That right there is the last word on Tuesday night's Sunn O)))/Atilla Csihar mayhem--consensus best/most terrifying outfit, with all sincere respects to the lazer-claw ensemble that preceded it. They had to play two punishing hours just to coax this guy out. [l_c_m_tt_'s photostream, via popadopalis]

SunnO))), Earth, Pelican, Eagle Twin, Brooklyn Masonic Temple, September 22

SunnO))) photo by that.turtle

​"Thanks to the Masons for letting us use their building" - Dylan Carlson, Earth

You should know the deal for these Southern Lord shows by now: oppressively loud doom metal riffs, guys in robes, limited edition posters, tote bags, slip mats, 180 gram vinyl, smoke machines, Mongolian throat singing as between-band music, seven amp stacks, a mile-long guest list (I spotted Matthew Barney and Yoko Ono). So the real novelty this time out is the Brooklyn Masonic Temple, billed by the promoters as "the loudest room in New York." The Temple is already a mystical place before you add the five hours of sitting in a rickety seat and the windowless hotbox effect of a steamy crowd. The balcony vibrates when, like, Jose Gonzalez plays in there. So how would wave after wave of suffocating doom feel? Here's a quick rundown:

More >>

New York magazine is good for one absolutely maddening piece about music every month or so, whether it be the much reviled "Jukebox" feature, once described in this space as "a shame, and a perpetually bad omen," or the mag's Mountain Goats feature in March, about which the name-- "God & Worshipper: A Rock-and-Roll Love Story, of Sorts: The complex bond between the Mountain Goats' John Darnielle and his sensitive fans."--says it all, although at the time we then tried to say even more. One reason for this is the magazine's inexplicable preference for writers (or worse, "citizen critics") who don't usually write about music--by no means a dealbreaker, as Peter Terzian's upcoming Heavy Rotation anthology amply demonstrates, but often one. Among other things, the practice tends to lead to startling and dispiriting ledes like the one below:

The last thing anyone expects at age 38 is to become a fan of something called "doom metal." But one evening I asked a friend--a perfectly reasonable 42-year-old, gainfully employed with a nice family--what kind of music he enjoyed, and his fateful answer dropped like an anvil: "Metal." Professional curiosity led me to join him one night at the Knitting Factory, where I bore witness to the work of a Japanese doom-metal band called Boris: four silhouetted figures on a fog-choked stage, laser lights shooting from behind their heads, playing the absolute loudest music I had ever heard in my life.

More >>

The newest left-field, cool guy feathers in Jim Jarmusch's cap? SUNN O))), Boris, and Earth on the soundtrack to The Limits of Control, his new Bill Murray/Isaach De Bankolé/Gael García Bernal/Tilda Swinton-starring existential spy film, due in May. [Ideologic]