Dead Meadow: Why No Thread Of Their Own Yet?

anyway, i really wish these guys would either go instrumental or get a new singer. on "got live" the guy's voice is practically toxic, it's so awful. interestingly there's an acoustic song on the first album where he doesn't sound like he's singing through his nose and he's even in the right key, it's a damn shame he can't seem to pull that off more often.

but the music is excellent. kind of reminds me of a deeper, more psychedelic version of the obsessed or a far more traditionally rocked out early bardo pond.

because it's terrible. sorry if i didn't make that clear.

it's hardly the worst heavy rock vocalizing (certainly more tolerable than the bardo pond singer's often tuneless warble),

okay, you insult isobel's voice I PUNCH YUO!!!!!!!!!1

anyways, the end of your statement points out how bad the guy's voice is - they have to mix it low and bury it just to make it tolerable. at least isobel generally is in the neighborhood of the right key for a song and her voice is infinitely more pleasant to listen to (i'd say beautiful and perfect for bardo pond's music, personally).

to reiterate - dead meadow are great because of their music. at this point i have to think the singer's refusal to stop singing in that godawful keening wail have to do with sheer bloodymindedness.

Does that answer your question?

no, but it raises another: why respond to the thread?

okay, so you're just wrong. got it.

The new album is fucking fantastic.

* voice gets subsumed completely in the mix, making it a bit like Robert in Loop

* the now fourpiece band turns INTO Loop, specifically a classic rock variation on same. Mantras repeated and extended but with more than one melodic/rhythmic part to the song, breakdowns, etc. It's like a 1973 that never exactly was but almost might have been.

Result last night: a mind-blowingly great two-hour set that I *never* felt tired through, even though it ran well after midnight. So even if you don't like the voice on the album, trust me, live is the way to go. Catch them on this tour or the next one, you so won't be disappointed.

The short blonde dude, if that was the original guy, yeah -- maybe he's the totally new replacement. He did seem a bit distanced/in his own world on stage but he was playing along damn well anyway.

it seems that 2nd guitarist (corey shane) has contributed most to the shoegazier stuff that they've been playing lately.

Any thoughts on the new one? Old Growth?

I'm digging it so far, there are quite a few more "pop"/accessible moments on here (especially "I'm Gone"), but the trademark sludge is still present. Only a few listens in, but this may be among my favorite of theirs.

I completely forgot I saw them three years back! (And I actually met most of them in London randomly back in 2003, that's another story.)

there are quite a few more "pop"/accessible moments on here (especially "I'm Gone")

That must be a pretty tricky accomplishment considering the singer can't hold a tone to save his life.

I guess more just in terms of the instrumentation, he still sings in that lazy, stoned style.

it's hard for me to imagine them with a different singer. he reminds me a lot of someone - maybe the Charlatans UK's singer on their first album.

So boring. So amazingly boring. Like some tedious stoner grunge/blues band.

Yeah, the psychedelic guitar solos are occasionally quite nice, but my god, how much boring blues rock do you have to wade through to get there?

Left halfway through the set because sleeping seemed more interesting.

I thought they might be moving on after their last album was more in a space-rock/shoegaze vein, but then I heard the new one. Matador jumped in the hipster metal pool feet first with these guys, so their heart was in the right place, but I think at this point people are more into Early Man.

Which is the spacerock shoegaze album, then? Maybe I should try that instead.

'Feathers', the last one. I wouldn't be so bold as to say, OK you don't like this band's other stuff but you'll *definitely* like this, but there is a bit less emphasis on the stoner/low end side of things.

Early Man are actually popular then? I heard pretty much nothing about them after their album came out, I guess if they toured the UK this might change

I was trying to explain "doom metal" to someone at the gig and she accused me of making it up. I can't imagine trying to explain stoner metal.

yeah this is a disappointing record. also agree i was psyched after feathers that they were distancing themselves from the stoner rock-blues dirges, but no, they just reverted back to that and worse, made an even more mediocre version of that paradigm. i think the production has alot do with that.

They were never up to much

I got into these guys early on. Shivering Kings is a masterpiece. I haven't been too on board since...

<i> from the stoner rock-blues dirges, but no, they just reverted back to that and worse</i>

I've had all the records except the new one. Dead Meadow were always the fringe of the fringe. I thought the first one on Tolotta was the most listenable. As for being in the stoner rock genre, they never did the hairy boozing he-man of the mountain thing which is pretty much required, even when you're doing your space rock jam shtick. If there was an advantage to Dead Meadow "distancing" themselves from stoner re <i>Feathers</i>, I couldn't discern it. They're poor at hard rock, adequate at conjuring rolling fog.

lol, they were referenced on the Wire and i thought it was a made-up band.

Some likeable stuff here and there, agree w/ Nate that Shivering Kings stands out as the best thing they've done so far. But for a band that's been at it as long as they have, the returns have been awfully meagre. Tepid sub-stoner space drizzle.

I guess I feel like I watched them grow and peak. They are playing 2 NW shows with SubArachnoid Space in May so I will let my final verdict rest then and there.

It was an exciting moment when they signed to Matador because I was a fan and they were NOBODY back then.

I wrote an article on Dead Meadow back in '03 for the weekly in Portland. I'd like to think it helped break them here since they'd been playing to crowds of 5-10 prior to that. They've not played to less than 100 since.

At the last second, the editor changed the title of the article to "Metal For Your Mom" because I had mentioned that I got my parents into Dead Meadow. I was so embarrassed when this thing hit the streets. I personally apologized to the band. But they were cool and didn't seem to care.

i bought "howls from the hills" like a year ago, i listen to it just often enough that i'm constantly being re-blown away by the music on it. i feel like after this one they slip off a little more with each album. i like shivering king, am indifferent towards feathers and don't like old growth.

i've been on a "shivering king" kick as of late. still think it's the lesser of the first 3 albums because it just isn't as varied, but as a mood piece it works pretty well (particularly the spacemen 3-ed out version of "everything's going on").

"old growth" is not aging particularly well. some ok songs, but overall it flirts with brian jonestown massacre levels of 60's revival lameness.

not sure why in 2003 i felt the need to compare these dudes to bardo pond in this thread. i guess i felt that dead meadow replaced bardo pond as the token heavy psych act on matador or something?

I think Shivering Kings is the best. But I love the first two. Half of Feathers is good. After that... I'm fine just seeing them live.

Been a big supporter of these guys since the first record came out. I saw them play for 5 people, then 10, then 50, then 100... Gratifying to see these guys live the dream.

not be donnie downer here but both times i've seen them they've been completely obliterated by the headliner (amt and oneida, respectively, although i think oneida might actually have been opening for them, since it was in bmore)

Well nobody is going to best Oneida on stage.

They did reasonably well up against Mogwai earlier this year though Mogwai still won the day there.

They don't really strike me as a "competitive" band. They're more into just jamming away and getting high. I like it.

Three Kings is pretty solid, but I suppose you'd have to be a fan of their recent albums, as I am, to really love it. The new studio tracks are pretty solid too.

Sorry if this offends anyone, but I cannot believe anyone who has ever listened to any real psych / stoner / doom can take these guys seriously. They're to 'doom' what the Pillsbury Doughboy is to breakdancing. I just sat through the DVD and omg these guys work SO hard at being fraudulent posers. I mean, the robes...the robes!! The shots of them very seriously sitting at desks perusing occult texts! The obligatory desert shots of them eating plants! I don't like to bump threads just to talk shit but my word what an awful, awful fucking band.

i just finished the Wire (late pass i know) but the Dead Meadow reference in the last season caught me by surprise

I guess it helps that I've never seen that DVD? The only time I caught them live was opening for Zwan and they just wore jeans and t-shirts and didn't come across as anything other than regular duds making psych-jams. I really don't think of them as doom either though, just kinda psych/stoner dudes.

i just finished the Wire (late pass i know) but the Dead Meadow reference in the last season caught me by surprise

― Jandek at the Disco (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, August 31, 2012 4:32 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark

Jason Simon of Dead Meadow is David Simon's nephew haha

aaaah....ok i was like damn that's a deep cut just because even if you had some stoner rock set designer seems like there'd be 5 bands you'd pick ahead of that.

i was hoping mcnulty would be like "c'mon son, check out comets on fire instead"

well i mean there ARE some arbitrary/surprising musical choices elsewhere in the show so i don't think of it as totally strange, i just remember that factoid coming out shortly after that episode aired

the hip hop choices in the first season are kind of weird, they were like kinda old schoolish conscious rappers like i recall maybe mos def and krs-one tracks, which didn't ring real true in terms of what i suspect heroin dealers in baltimore were listening to in the 00s....later seasons seem to get it better, i remember "Crunk Musik" by dipset in season 4

yeah i got to know their music supervisor blake a little bit and i think he kind of admits they didn't nail that aspect earlier on and improved by the later seasons.

lol @ anyone who thinks Dead Meadow are supposed to be "doom"

they're a pretty great heavy psych-pop band but I guess people who think stoner/doom is the only "real" psych are not going to see that in them

i'm "big tent" stoner rock

Before I saw the DVD I would have relegated them to "indie stoner rock" pile too but, uhh, watch the DVD and tell me they aren't on some Southern Lord occult kitsch shit. Despicable.

Okay, well, again, I haven't seen that DVD, but whatever look they are going for in that doesn't really translate to their actual recorded output, which sounds nothing like Southern Lord doom stuff.

That's sorta my point. They sound like every other band with a wah pedal and no tunes whatsoever.

I can't even

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esyrjX2HQJg

is the wire the scene where mcnutty's like "you guys should be listening to the ramones!" dadrock.

I remember a couple scenes in The Wire when there was J-Live on in the background and thinking to myself that it really didn't belong.

tbf in baltimore there ARE some serious backpackers in the hood

i don't think "true doom artists" have a proprietary hold on 70s occult imagery, though many of them do seem to have set up camp there. trailer for the movie just makes it look like some homemade song remains the same ish, which is fine. don't much care for dead meadow though.

I can't even

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esyrjX2HQJg

― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Friday, August 31, 2012 6:50 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i am really enjoying how bothered you are by this incredibly innocuous band

Yeah, I know. I'm being petty, maybe. But speaking to what contenderizer says upthread, totally correct - in fact, when Grails do this exact same thing it doesn't bother me a bit. I just think this band is so transparently phony it sorta just...makes me mad.

I only rock with authentic druid bands

There are plenty of holes to poke in Dead Meadow but when it comes down to it, their third album Shivering Kings is just as good as MBV Loveless. Sometimes a band only needs to make one great album...

I've heard they have serious off nights, but I saw some great performances from them 2002-2006.

Have not seen the DVD but sounds like a bit of an inside joke?

Possibly. But can't imagine too many people being in on that joke. I've never heard their third album, but I may have to take your word for it.

Hey Nate, why didn't we do an ILX-themed split with W!tch M0unta!n back when I was in Jex Th0th?? That woulda ruled.

"Turn Back You Poxy Fool" b/w "Bump"

I only rock with authentic druid bands

― Jandek at the Disco (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, September 1, 2012 2:38 AM (13 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol exactly

I don't fuck w/ Dead Meadow a whole lot but they have some good riffs here and there iirc

haha reading this thread back they kind of get consistently bodied by ppl posting in it

WM <3s Jex Thoth!

Can't speak for the band anymore, but I <3 WM!!

(Bet JT loves WM too)

PS cool to see you in Spin. I knew there was a reason I still read that rag

Dead Meadow have laid down god's own riffs over the years but the guitar solo that blankets the last four minutes of "Binah" from the new piece is a psychedelic chemical so pure I would drop it into my eyes from a pipette and stare at the stars. https://t.co/QyP0E2pce7

— steve albini (@electricalWSOP) December 12, 2022

Yeah that new album is really good.

Cool, I thought they were broken up for some reason.

Ha my friend just sent a copy to me, haven’t listened yet. nice!

They've just really slowed down their pace, it's been four years since the last album and five years since the one before that. After that long of a wait I was a little disappointed that this was barely over half an hour long, but it's so good that I can't complain. Love these dudes.