Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.

Seriously. Oh my god.

Legendary stoner rock band Sleep split in 1997 after two hugely influential albums. Members went on to form underground heroes OM and High on Fire, and more recently metal supergroup Shrinebuilder. This Fall, original members Al Cisneros and Matt Pike will be joined by drummer Jason Roeder of Neurosis to perform the seminal Sleep’s Holy Mountain album as well as selections from Dopesmoker and more.

Sleep debuted with 1991′s Volume One album, recorded for San Francisco label Tupelo. Earache Records received the band’s next recordings in the mail as a demo. The label — impressed by Sleep‘s single-mindedness and unique vision – immediately signed the band and released the tape exactly as it was received. Record stores worldwide stocked Sleep’s Holy Mountain from November 1992 to this day.

The band then signed to London Records. Their debut album for the major took the form of one mammoth 63-minute leviathan of a track titled “Jerusalem.” The band resisted the label’s attempts at radio edits and bringing in their own engineer to remix the album in view of “marketability.” London balked at the prospect of promoting what probably still is the most extreme music ever recorded for a major label, so shelved the recording and dropped the band.

SLEEP 2010 US tour
9/03/2010 All Tomorrow’s Parties – Monticello, NY
9/07/2010 Starlight Ballroom – Philadelphia, PA
9/08/2010 Brooklyn Masonic Temple – New York, NY w/ Lichens
9/09/2010 Logan Square Auditorium – Chicago, IL w/ Lichens
9/10/2010 Mohawk – Austin, TX w/ Sub Oslo
9/11/2010 Roseland Theater/Music Fest NW – Portland, OR w/ Scott Kelly, YOB
9/12/2010 Regency Ballroom – San Francisco, CA

Tags: California, Gods, Oakland, Sleep

This entry was posted on Monday, June 21st, 2010 at 2:56 pm and is filed under Whathaveyou. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.