In Glorious Times (Dig)

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 29, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: The End Records
• ASIN: B000PFU9U6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #92,620 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Companions

2. Helpless Corpses Enactment

3. Puppet Show

4. Formicary

5. Angle of Repose

6. Ossuary

7. The Salt Crown

8. The Only Dance

9. The Greenless Wreath

10. The Widening Eye

11. The Putrid Refrain

Editorial Reviews

BRAVE WORDS & BLOODY KNUCKLES

Wonderful mess of eccentric tangles

For fans of experimental and uncompromising rock, be sure to buy a ticket to this Museum

[Grand Opening and Closing!] is all over the place.... Definitely not for the faint of heart or anyone who likes cookie-cutter music

Product Description

Triumphantly smothered within the intricate stylings of musical evolution, the expansive world of literature and the pain and passion of one's emotions, Oakland, California's Rock-against-Rock pioneers Sleepytime Gorilla Museum have once again imbedded themselves deep in the creative process, allowing themselves to reach new plateaus on their latest album In Glorious Times. The new album celebrates the extremes of sonic debilitation, with this muffled cry into the dark night of the soul. The band know for their expressive and wildly entertaining theatrical live shows gives justice to their eclectic music in the live forum and plan to stay on the road for the mot of 2007.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I should have bought the album instead of the shirt...., July 22, 2007

By 

A Pilgrim (San Jose, Ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Glorious Times (Dig) (Audio CD)

I recently saw SGM perform these collection of freakishly exhilarating pieces of music. This is a band that is not only musically talented, but also conveys a convincing, creative, and pervasive persona. Carla Kihlstedt, Dan Rathbun, Nils Frykdahl, Matthias Bossi, and Michael Mellender all marched to their stage through the audience, playing a cheery yet equally eerie ballad on trumpets and other hand held instruments. All of them are dressed in homemade cloths, covered in white makeup, and with the exception of Carla, have various sections of their head shaved, braided, and growing long.

Many of the instruments are homemade, which are comprised of various pieces of metal, wood, and perhaps a trash can. I believe there is glockenspiel as well. There are your standard guitars, a violin, a bass; and then oddities, like the slide-piano log, pedal-action wiggler, and other strange and primitive instruments.

Their lyrics on this album, like their others, tend to be abstract and many of the members will deliver very odd and perhaps even disturbing non-sequiter soliloquies as their other instruments lay silent. The lyrical content often explores the dark and complex corners of the human psyche, or the "things that we bury," in the words of Carla.

Unlike their previous album, "In Glorious Times" seems employ, but not depend upon, heavy and distorted guitar riffs more often; which, obviously lends to a "metal" sound. But the textures, timbres, and dynamics of the multiple instruments and vocals they employ add a considerable layer of complexity, darkness, and beauty to this album.

The structure, melody, and meter of the songs within this album are far too complicated for me to understand let alone enumerate. But I can say they contribute to their overall sound greatly. Anyone with a deeper understanding of music theory will probably find something about their techniques to appreciate.

The only problem I have with this album, and SGM in general, is the feeling of being overwhelmed with the sheer complexity and weirdness of their music. SMG is not easy and relaxing music. But that is the price to be paid for such unique and odd music. This album will provide the brain with something highly desirable when listening to music: creativity and originality. But in my opinion it will not provide the brain with something that is also desirable when listening to music: predictability, easy listening, and relaxation.

I highly recommend this album, especially if you need to add something dark and flavorful to your music collection. Thanks for reading.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 3rd hit album in a row, December 10, 2007

By 

Christopher K. Koenigsberg (Norman, OK USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In Glorious Times (Dig) (Audio CD)

Yes! I had to listen through a couple of times to be sure, but this is another great and satisfying album, from this at times stunningly powerful, at times intricately delicate, always emotionally moving, weird, unpredictable, theatrical, overall delicious Bay Area weirdo supergroup.

They're on their 3rd exploding drummer, and 2nd percussionist; but these 2 stickmen are good (and even contribute some songwriting), the rest of the jolly crew is intact, and the music is spot on as usual.

If Marilyn Manson, Peter Gabriel, Dagmar & Art Bears (but Carla's electric SGM violin kicks Fred Frith's violin's butt) & King Crimson got squished together in a train wreck, like the old ads for peanut butter & chocolate cups, they might make it onto a little corner, of the inside cover, of a Sleepytime Gorilla Museum album.

oh and speaking of the cover, at last we get more information, this time, than on the first 2 studio albums, on the source of the bizarre, unsettling SGM artwork and strange ideas..... that was Nils' dad, right? I guess it's a family affair.... makes it more real.

And of course if you haven't already picked up their first 2 studio albums "Grand Opening & Closing" and "Of Natural History", be sure to do so too. I'm still not sure what I think of their live album; need to listen to it some more.

And then you'll want to explore the whole extended musical family (that's why I call SGM a "supergroup") -- look up Idiot Flesh, Charming Hostess (check out their version of the Resident's "Working Down Below"), Faun Fables, Carla Kilstedht's solo albums, Moe! and all his collaborators in the Moe!kestra, etc.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Musical Mayhem, August 9, 2007

By 

WillieB - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Glorious Times (Dig) (Audio CD)

You need a lot of patience to absorb this disc. On first listen, I thought it was decent and weird, but the musicianship compelled me to keep listening, and after repeated spins, it's still very weird but much better than decent. The music is avant-garde rock - brutal, dissonant, scary, but in a good way. Even the doodle artwork is creepy. I like their instrumentation, for example, on "Helpless Corpses Enactment" the pounding guitar riff is echoed by violin and it does not sound like an ordinary death metal tune, even with the vocal growls. I also hear subtle influences of bands such as Primus, Pain of Salvation (especially during the falsetto vocal parts), and my current favorite tune on the album, "Formicary", sounds like a reggae outtake from a King Crimson album. "In Glorious Times" demands attention and is not an easy listen but it definitely is the most unusual disc I've heard this year.