Bubbles&Gutz

Every Record I Own - Day 860: Mastodon Crack the Skye

This is Mastodon at their peak, as far as I’m concerned. Remission was a smart and savvy riff-fest. Leviathan showed that the band could carve out a place for melody in their sound. Blood Mountain demonstrated the band’s defiant insistence to pursue their wildest whims. But on Crack the Skye, Mastodon showed that they could be heavy, melodic, ambitious, AND create something that felt cohesive from front to back, colossal in scope, and catchy as all hell.

Crack the Skye is also the only Mastodon record I tend to think of as one large composition. Even though the album is technically comprised of seven tracks, it feels like one of those ‘70s prog albums that’s meant to be experienced in its entirety, where the distinction between one song and the next becomes blurry.

I didn’t see the band on this album cycle. No tours together, no crossing paths. As a result, I don’t have the kind of personal connection to this record that I have with, say, Blood Mountain or Emperor of Sand, but it doesn’t matter. When I think of everything that makes Mastodon great, I think of Crack the Skye.

Every Record I Own - Day 859: Mastodon Blood Mountain

You gotta hand it to Mastodon… they signed to a major label and they turned in a truly weird and wild record.

Not everyone loved it. Some old Mastodon fans felt Blood Mountain veered too far into prog territories while sacrificing some of the meat-and-potatoes riffage that hooked people on Remission and Leviathan. A friend of mine referred to the album as Coke Mountain.

I’ll admit, I was a little perplexed by Blood Mountain at first. They’d once again recorded in Seattle with my friend Matt Bayles at the console. My good friend (and occasional bandmate) Ben Verellen assisted. And These Arms Are Snakes drummer Chris Common served as the studio drum tech on the sessions. So I heard a lot about the album as it was coming together. I knew I was in for something pretty “out there.”

I didn’t hear the record until it after it was mixed by Rich Costey. I remember my initial reaction being disappointment. I felt like they took some of the dynamic range that made their earlier albums feel so feral and volatile and compressed it all down like it was a radio-rock album. It was an odd choice considering the music was anything but radio-friendly. Maybe they were hoping to offset some of the headier compositions by at least giving it the sheen of a commercial band.

My band These Arms Are Snakes would wind up on a three-and-a-half week tour with Mastodon on this album cycle, so I heard these songs a lot. While not as immediately accessible as their earlier material, I came to love this album after hearing these songs night after night. I loved the straightforward assault of “The Wolf Is Loose” paired with the classic Mastodon dexterity of “Crystal Skull.” But more than anything, I was drawn to the more ambitious compositions. I loved “Bladecatcher,” which felt like their version of Rush’s “YYZ.” I loved the scope of songs like “Sleeping Giant.” These weren’t tracks that ensnared you on first listen. You had to sit with the album the same way you sat with King Crimson or Yes until it really started to sink in.

Ten years later, I’d tour with Mastodon again, and they played five songs off Blood Mountain in their sets. It was wild to watch the audience light up for those songs, as if the gestation period had finally run its course and the fans finally understood that Blood Mountain was truly an incredible record.

charliedor asked:

Just wanted to let you know that your bass playing has been a constant source of inspiration and joy for me mate. In a creative rut recently but a quick spin of some of your work has me plugging in my bass again and dialling in some gritty sounds and I’d like to thank you for that!

Any chance you could reel off your top 10 desert island effect pedals?? As much detail as you feel necessary!

Awww… thanks so much. That’s really nice to hear!

I don’t think I have 10 desert island effect pedals, but I’ll mention four.

I’ve used the AKAI Headrush for about 25 years now… it’s my looper + delay / echo. There are fancier loopers out there but I just feel like I know my way around the Headrush better, and I like how easy it is to switch between functions on the newer models (E2).

As far as distortion, the Fuzzrocious Cat Tail (originally known as the Rat Tail) has been on my board for about 15 years, so that’s a pretty crucial one as far as tone goes.

Then there’s the Digitech Whammy, which I love for adding / dropping octaves and getting a mild chorus effect on the Shallow / Deep settings.

And then I’d probably throw the Dunlop Cry Baby bass wah into the mix just cuz I love a good, slow filter sweep. There are lots of great fuzzes out there that I could mention but I feel like there isn’t really one great fuzz to rule them all, so none of ‘em make the desert island list.

documenting-a-busy-signal:

savage-kult-of-gorthaur:

“YOU ARE INVITED TO JOIN US FOR AN EVENING OF HELLISH NOISE AND ENDLESS CRUNCHING MAYHEM.”

PIC INFO: Spotlight on a gig flyer for CORRUPTED, BEHEAD THE PROPHET, N.L.S.L., NOOTHGRUSH, TURKYSH DELIGHT (the band BOTCH, under a different name), & TOADLIQUOR, performing live at the Velvet Elvis Arts Lounge in Seattle, WA, on October 29, 1997.

Source: www.picuki.com/media/2698451731995853553.

@bubblesandgutz You guys were called Turkysh Delight for a show??

Yeah, Botch was Turkysh Delight cuz we were playing too many local shows at the time and we had to be sneaky but I REALLY WANTED TO PLAY THIS SHOW and then we wound up having to cancel anyways. And then i couldn’t get a ride from Tacoma to Seattle to see it. I’m still a little salty about it.

Every Record I Own - Day 858: Mastodon Remission

On the first Botch European tour back in 1999, our tour intersected with a Neurosis / Voivod / Today Is The Day tour in Rennes, France. Unfortunately, Today Is The Day didn’t actually play the show, because Steve Austin had flown back to the States to deal with a dental issue. But his two bandmates stayed behind and continued traveling with Neurosis. They were a friendly pair named Bill and Brann.

Within the year, our producer friend Matt Bayles mentioned that he was recording an EP for a new band out of Atlanta. “They’re called Mastodon,” he said, “and I think you know a couple of the guys in the band… Bill and Brann were in Today Is The Day.” Matt would go on to record their full-length Remission not long after.

While the Lifesblood EP was good, it wasn’t until Remission landed that Mastodon really caught my ear. Back in 2002, I preferred my metal to have a strong punk edge to it and Mastodon had a bit more of fretboard flash than I usually went for, but there was still something sufficiently crusty and grimy in their sound. It had that manic punk energy where it feels like everything is about to rattle apart at the seams, like each member is trying to push his bandmates to go harder. It was heavy. It was frantic. It had melody, but still veered towards ugliness. And it was impossible to deny the opening one-two punch of “Crusher Destroyer” and “March of the Fire Ants” or the epic scope of tracks like “Ol'e Nessie.”

Mastodon wound up camping out in Seattle for several weeks back in the Spring of 2004 to record their sophomore album Leviathan, and I wound up at a bar with a few of the guys in the band. I remember bringing up Melvins’ Lysol album and their guitarist Brent lit up. “That’s the best opening of an album in all of rock music. Two chords and feedback for all of Side A!”

I loved that this guy who was an absolute shredder of a guitarist was championing Melvins’ antagonistic minimalism. It added a whole new context to Mastodon’s music. These weren’t a bunch of guys trying to show off their chops. This was just the music that they had to make. And rather than imitating their heroes in Melvins and Neurosis, they went in the opposite direction and wrote these advanced-level riffs and proggy compositions because… well… that’s what happened when you put the four members of the band in a rehearsal room together.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Mastodon since Brent Hinds passing back in August, and it’s been a trip to revisit the early records when the band was still this scrappy and feral metallic beast building their reputation by obliterating the crowds in these tiny hole-in-the-wall venues. Success was right around the corner with their sophomore album Leviathan, but there was a certain magic in the music they made in those hungry, lean, and desperate early years.

Every Record I Own - Day 857: The Rolling Stones Goats Head Soup

I’ve already talked about The Rolling Stones at length, so rather than making you go back through old posts, let me just say this… my trajectory from adolescence to middle age was a journey from being a Rolling Stones hater to a Rolling Stones mega-fan.

If you’re a hater, you probably think the Stones have always sucked. But even if you’re a fan, you’ll probably admit that the Stones lost the plot somewhere along the way. Maybe you think they took a downward turn after the ‘60s. Maybe they started to suck at the tail end of the '70s. My personal take has shifted over the years… first they started sucking after Exile. Then the winning streak ended when Mick Taylor left. Or maybe it was after Some Girls.

Keep reading

Looks like I was trying to hide my face, but I was really just wiping the sweat off my brow.

alldads asked:

I’m going to Chicago to see Thou in a couple months. What’s the best Chicago record store for heavy stuff?

Hey!

Strangely enough, despite spending a lot of time there every year, I haven’t done much record shopping in Chicago. That said, I picked up the Life’s Blood and Neanderthal reissues at Reckless Records a few years ago. And I’ve heard good things about Bucket O’ Blood but have never actually been to it.

I’m kinda embarrassed that I play in a heavy band based out of Chicago and can’t be a better resource for record store info!

bitter-fears-stipend-deactivate asked:

I think I remember you saying a while back that Necrophones was the only Lungfish LP you didn't have. If you didn't know, Dischord just did a repress

https://dischord.com/release/119/necrophones

You’re a peach for making sure I knew about the repress! Bless yr heart.

A friend made sure to alert me when Dischord first posted about it on socials so I ordered that shit right away. Haha!

Thanks for looking out!

Every Record I Own - Day 856: Steve Miller Band The Joker

Yeah, I can spend all day talking about my collection of Japanese noise albums, krautrock obscurities, and tour-only crust punk releases, but in many ways I’m a total normie. I collect Starbucks city mugs. I watch HGTV shows. And, perhaps most incriminating of all, I love “The Joker.”

I’m not gonna apologize for it. “The Joker” is a heaping dose of serotonin as far as I’m concerned. Every time I hear it, I’m transported to my summer college job painting campus houses. It remains one of my favorite jobs I’ve ever had. Zero stress. Fun coworkers. Extremely chill boss. We got to go through all these student houses and scavenge things they’d left behind in the rush to move out at the end of the school year. We listened to college rock radio all day, took long lunches and frequent naps. “The Joker”—as much a classic rock radio staple in 1997 as it is in 2025—embodies the relentlessly casual, sunny, and upbeat vibe of that summer.

Look, I know it’s a ridiculous song. The dumb “wah–WAAahh” on guitar. The saccharine “lovey dovey” verse. The nonce word “pompatus.”

But you know what? I don’t care. Its absurdity is part of its charm. He’s a space cowboy. A midnight toker. A sinner. There’s just enough irreverence and subversiveness sprinkled throughout the lyrics to make it a study in contrasts. He’s a bad boy, even if the song itself is about as chipper as a pop song can be.

The rest of the album? Also great. Definitely worth the buck I spent on it.