GRAILS?

Yay

the drummer is in Om now too.

great album cover too
http://cache.io9.com/assets/resources/2008/04/EricaGlasier-Spock.jpg

OK...were to begin? New one?

New one would be a good start. The newer stuff is a bit different to the 1st 2 that were on Neurot. But any of the last 2 or 3 would be a good choice. There's a covers ep too where they covered Flower Travellin' Band, The Byrds and Gong.

Yeah, the Latitudes thing, right? That sounds great...

drummer = Emil Amos, who played with Jandek at the Portland Oregon show. He has power, timing, and force in spades. He also rips it on the 12-string.

yeah Latitudes You wont get that cd as it's long OOP, but it's now out on vinyl..

these guys were so boring live. very middle-of-the-road.

new album is very cool. not as cool as the new acid mothers temple album though.

xpost

I saw them this past weekend and they were astonishing.

If you can find it though, the Latitudes EP is definitely worth getting. It's short, but absolutely wonderful.

I'm liking the new album of late too. There's a nice, slightly eastern tinge to it.

Woke up this morning from the strangest dream
I was in the biggest army the world has ever seen
We were marching as one
On the road to the holy grail

Started out seeking fortune and glory
Its a short song but it's a hell of a story
When you spend lifetime trying to get your hands
On the holy grail

Well have you heard about the great crusade
We ran into millions, but nobody got paid
Yeah we raised four corners of the globe
For the holy grail

All the locals scattered, they were hiding in the snow
We were so far away from home, so how were we to know
There be nothing left to plunder
When we stumble on the holy grail

We were full of beans
But we were dying like flies
And those big black birds, they were circling in the sky
And you know what they say, yeah, nobody deserves to die

You know I, i been searching for an easy way
To escape this cold light of day
I been high and I been low
But I nowhere else to go

Theres nowhere else to go

And i followed orders
God knows where i've been
But i woke up alone
All my wounds were clean
Im still here
Im still a fool for the holy grail

oh yeah im a fool for the holy grail

You can get the latitudes 12" from Southern.

I saw them this past weekend and they were astonishing.

when I saw them, they were one of the opening acts for om. they played too long for an opener (45mins to an hour) and everything was just so samey. the songs were all in the same plodding mid-paced tempo, most of them basically went nowhere, and it just left me and my buddy really, really bored.

then again, om are nothing if not samey... but they were awesome!

Grails make great background music for being stoned. It's hard to imagine having to stand up while listening to them. I mean this in a good way.

Alan you find everything boring!

I'm just keepin it real.

Playing in NYC tomorrow with Nadja. Wish I could go! Both of Grails and Nadja rule my world.

I actually couldn't even GIVE away tickets to the show today on the radio. It was a shame.

Really? That's awful. 2 brilliant bands who deserve more.

Just ordered the new album from Important. Better be as good as their others. :)

Take Refuge is a solid release on par with Burning Off Impurities, though I wish they'd kept the sludgy-ness Black Tar Prophecies on both records

hopefully Doomsdayer's Holiday (due on Oct. 7th) strays a bit from the drone-raga template

Doomsdayer's Holiday might just be album of the year. Fucking awesome! (and heavier than previous releases by a long way)

Sounds better with each listen

I wonder if this LP has some of the tracks we saw them do at Terrastock. Cause those were heavy and amazing.

They are playing my Fall into Darkness festival in Portland, OR this Sun 10/12 w/Sunn0))), SubArachnoid Space, and Trees.

sleeve it will be those tracks

ok, this new album is cool.

they were still really boring live, tho. ;-)

"immediate mate" sounds like a bit of an om rip. which would be a "set your controls for the heart of the sun" rip, I guess. it's cool.

this seems pretty spot-on:

Grails make great background music for being stoned. It's hard to imagine having to stand up while listening to them. I mean this in a good way.

when I was at a dead c gig, I was thinking the same thing. maybe I'm just getting old, but man, I wish I could sit down at more shows.

Burning Off Impurities is really rocking my world at the moment. Such amazingly focused, concentrated playing.

Black Tar Prophecies 4 is out now and is very nice indeed. Highly recommended.

Two tracks from the new lp that have been released so far kill: http://stereogum.com/640731/grails-almost-grew-my-hair-stereogum-premiere/mp3s/

pre-ordered the album couple of weeks ago

I got 'Black Tar Prophecies V. 1-3' by Grails a couple of weeks ago and last night listened to it and Amon Duul II 'Phallus Dei' on nearly alternating tracks in my player and was really impressed how well those two records went together, especially considering the age difference of the recordings.

This rules

http://img15.nnm.me/1/e/7/2/3/71e97022ae5970abfabadfff174.jpg

new album next month, stream 2 songs

I totally missed that there had been a new Holy Sons album a couple monthes ago

new record stream: https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/listen-to-chalice-hymnal-grails-first-lp-in-six-years

also Emil's podcast is consistently very entertaining http://www.feralaudio.com/show/emil-amos-drifters-sympathy/

I like the new record quite a bit

i started listening to emil's podcast, god is it good. i enjoy the storytelling ones over the music ones, but those are great too.

still haven't checked out any of this man's music but i'm planning to soon

new album is fantastic and this interview is both great & hilarious

“Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Neil Young… they all famously have that one-take mentality. But from another point of view that’s remarkably lazy! So we did the opposite. We pieced together something only built of the necessary compositional items from the perspective of the post-mix, and jig-sawed it into a picture that’s specifically, texturally satisfying when you’re extremely high, which was a very important divining rod. Because when you’re high, people seem to think you can sit through absolute bullshit a lot longer, but it’s really quite the opposite. When I’m high I can see through all the layers of sound much quicker and see why it’s not taking me to the happy place I could be in, and leaving me in the warmest, glowing light."

still haven't heard grails. thinking i should start with the new one unless you or anybody else has a rec?

Grails are consistently changing and evolving between LPs, definitely just see how the new one catches you but then try the 2 beforehand to see how they've been developing. The downside for them (but not for fans), I would imagine, is that they're too hard to pigeonhole, so although there are lots of post-rock related festivals and tours happening these last few years, metal-adjacent and otherwise - I think Grails just stand out too much and are too idiosyncratic to benefit.

The new one isn’t the greatest example of what they do best imho. I’d start with “Burning Off Impurities” or “Take Refuge in Clean Living” first.

I greatly enjoyed that interview, although surely it can't be the first album based on the principle that all ideas must be approved by a producer, who is extremely high at all times.

Doomsdayer's Holiday is probably my nostalgic fave, but Anches En Maat last year was very different but also killer.

great interview, thanks for sharing

Anches En Maat might be a better starting point than the latest one but afaict they've never released a bad album

i listened to the new one and thought it was fantastic. definitely makes me want to explore the catalogue. as i said upthread, i’ve been really into emil’s podcast, so i’m happy to discover that the music he makes is just as excellent as so much of the music he’s recommended

jeez this is great, how have i not heard of these guys before

You really can’t go wrong with any Grails record, remarkably consistent band.

I somehow missed that they released an album called Anches En Maat so ordered that along with the new one.