With an official release date just 10 days after the tour ends, I would think that Grails will have copies of the new compilation Black Tar Prophecies 4, 5 & 6 on hand for the shows. Hope so anyway; the timing would be a little unfortunate otherwise, but either way, the latest in the band’s ongoing Black Tar Prophecies series is due Oct. 1 and they’re hitting the road just a bit beforehand, including the first East Coast dates in a couple years. Good things are in the works for the adventurous Portland instrumentalists, however it winds up coming together.

Here’s the Black Tar Prophecies 4, 5 & 6 artwork and trailer and the latest off the PR wire:

GRAILS ANNOUNCE NEW RELEASE COMING THIS FALL

BLACK TAR PROPHECIES VOL’S 4, 5 & 6 COLLECTION SET TO DROP AFTER SEPTEMBER TOUR

Following the release of the most acclaimed album of their decade-long career, Deep Politics, Portland-based out-rock quartet Grails have revisited Black Tar Prophecies, their envelope-pushing, enigmatic series of eclectic musical experiments released in scarce editions that often disappear before fans discover their existence.

Black Tar Prophecies Vol’s 4, 5 & 6, set to drop October 1 on longtime label Temporary Residence Ltd., collects the last three volumes in the series, originally released as a limited-edition 12″ and a split LP with Finnish psych-rock phenoms Pharaoh Overlord. Exclusive to this collection is Volume 6, three previously unreleased tracks that run the gamut from found-sound collage to moody, piano-driven soundtracks to obscure erotic horror films that never existed (but should have). The collection hits just after the band’s previously announced run of US tour dates, an increasingly rare opportunity to see the virtuosic ensemble commute their otherworldly compositions to the material realm.

GRAILS TOUR DATES (all with Wrekmeister Harmonies and Lilacs & Champagne except where noted)
Sep 10 Nashville, TN The End
Sep 11 Atlanta, GA The Earl
Sep 12 Chapel Hill, NC Local 506
Sep 13 Baltimore, MD Metro Gallery
Sep 14 Philadelphia, PA Boot and Saddle
Sep 15 New York, NY St Vitus
Sep 16 Boston, MA Great Scott
Sep 17 Montreal, QC Il Motore
Sep 18 Toronto, ON The Drake
Sep 19 Detroit, MI Magic Stick Lounge
Sep 20 Chicago, IL Beat Kitchen
Sep 21 Lexington, KY Boomslang Festival *(only Grails)

Grails, Black Tar Prophecies 4, 5 & 6 Trailer

One of my very favorite aspects of Grails is seeing what people call them. Because of all the many bands out there, the eclectic Portland outfit are among the most purposefully genre-less, and just when you think you’ve got a handle on what they’re doing, they delight in slipping that grip. They’re headed out on their first North American tour in two years — their last full-length was 2011’s Deep Politics (review here) and they released a split with Pharaoh Overlord last year on Kemado — and they’ll be bringing side-project Lilacs and Champagne and Wreckmeister Harmonies along on the trip.

Also sprach the PR wire:

GRAILS ANNOUNCE US TOUR

HEADING OUT FOR FIRST NORTH AMERICAN DATES IN 2 YEARS WITH LILACS & CHAMPAGNE AND WREKMEISTER HARMONIES

The Portland-based out-rock/crate-digger quartet Grails have announced their first US tour in nearly two years. The dates, which primarily focus on major cities along the east coast, directly precede the band’s previously announced appearance at Kentucky’s coveted Boomslang Festival (full tour dates below). Grails are noted and respected not only for their unique and meticulous composition style, but also for their virtuosic instrumental prowess and riveting live shows. The scarcity of their performances renders attendance at these shows a veritable necessity.

Joining the group will be Lilacs & Champagne, the production moniker of Grails members Alex Hall and Emil Amos, who just dropped a video for “Sensations” from last year’s self-titled album on Mexican Summer, and Wrekmeister Harmonies, the musical mantle of Chicago-based multimedia composer JR Robinson, whose recent Thrill Jockey LP You’ve Always Meant So Much To Me bridges the chasm between minimalist neoclassical and blackened doom to harrowing and gorgeous results.

GRAILS TOUR DATES (all with Wrekmeister Harmonies and Lilacs & Champagne except where noted):
Sep 10 Nashville, TN The End
Sep 11 Atlanta, GA The Earl
Sep 12 Chapel Hill, NC Local 506
Sep 13 Baltimore, MD Metro Gallery
Sep 14 Philadelphia, PA Boot and Saddle
Sep 15 New York, NY St Vitus
Sep 16 Boston, MA Great Scott
Sep 17 Montreal, QC Il Motore
Sep 18 Toronto, ON The Drake
Sep 19 Detroit, MI Magic Stick Lounge
Sep 20 Chicago, IL Beat Kitchen
Sep 21 Lexington, KY Boomslang Festival *(only Grails)

Grails, “I Led Three Lives!” official video

Driving past the homogenized “warmth” of the brick retail chains that have appeared since I was last down on the outskirts of Baltimore’s Fell’s Point neighborhood, I couldn’t help but think of John Brenner from Revelation discussing the inner harbor in that interview that went up last week. These places with all the trappings of economic stimulus except any investment back into the community that hosts them the way feet host blisters. There for a painful while and then gone. Pop.

It was different once I actually got into Fell’s Point. Not that the neighborhood wasn’t gentrified from its working class harbor roots, but that at very least it was actual gentrification, independently owned businesses or at least smaller, regional chains and a most welcome onslaught of pubs, eateries, and other gastro-type decadences. Kooper’s Tavern, where The Patient Mrs. and I had lunch, had tables set up outside selling oysters and recycling the shells for use by — wait for it — other oysters. Seems nobody is immune to the economic ravages of our age. Even the oysters have to buy used.

Fitting that act of conservation would be prelude to a radical haul whose like — in what otherwise might be considered a regular ol’ record shop — I’ve not seen in some time. Sound Garden (no relation) was just down the street from the pub where we ate and several others, and it wasn’t my first time there by any stretch (seems impossible that it would’ve been over three years ago, but I guess that’s why old posts are dated), but I didn’t remember it being quite the trove it was this time around. Walking up the middle of the three aisles, I went past the metal and the midsection divide — I’d come back to the metal, no worries — something strange compelling me forward, and that’s when I saw it:

The Psychedelic section.

Oh yeah, that’s right. The monkey that lives in my head where my brain should be clicked on the dim bulb of his cavernous abode and for a moment I said a prayer to my pagan octopus god that I might win the $300 million Powerball and come back to Sound Garden to purchase every album in the Psychedelic section on principle alone. A mere celebration of the existence of such a thing. Portrait of the mouth, drooling.

What fun I had. Flipping through was like opening presents. I limited myself to two discs about which I knew absolutely nothing but what was written on the eloquent description labels — Truth‘s Truth from 1969 and Escombros‘ Escombros, from 1970. The former is a poppy, folksy thing, not bad but not quite as bizarre as I was hoping based on the cover, and Escombros is a heavier Chilean obscurity that opens with a cover of Hendrix‘s “Stone Free,” so I guessed I was pretty safe in grabbing it. Turns out I was right about that. The vocals sounded mixed too high on my office speakers when I listened, but I expect on a different system, it might not be an issue at all, and there were a couple gems there anyway. Wicked Lady‘s Psychotic Overkill was a welcome find as well, all buzzsaw-this and early-’70s narcodelia that.

I also picked up Goat‘s World Music based on the tarantula-sized hype surrounding. That hype is probably earned, and however problematic I might find European acts copping a feel on some Fela Kuti afrobeat fuzz, they’re hardly the first and they did it well enough. I wasn’t quite enchanted, but sometimes with albums like that I go into it determined not to like them and usually find I don’t. That wasn’t the case with Goat.

In the “I reviewed this and I’m annoyed at buying it” category, the newest ones from Golden Void (review here), Astra (review here) and Six Organs of Admittance (review here) were fodder enough for a grumble, even if Astra and was used. Six Organs was $15 new and the sleeve isn’t even a gatefold. Call me a privileged shit if you want — boo hoo you don’t get free stuff, etc. — but for the time and effort I put into even a shorter review, I don’t think a CD is too much to ask, especially when I know that I’m one of like three remaining motherfuckers who cares in the slightest. Apparently the music industry disagrees. Grumble grumble, man.

One might include the new Neurosis (review here) in that category as well — and the Grand Magus I didn’t even step to this time around — but the fact is on that one I was just being impatient and that a physical promo of Honor Found in Decay would show up sooner or later (it did, today). However, my wanting to hear it right that minute met with such logic on the field of diplomacy and the compromise reached was that I’d buy the digipak edition, because it’s limited and the promo would likely be the jewel case anyway. I never got the digi version of 2007’s Given to the Rising and there’s a little bit of me that still regrets it. That same part is very much enjoying listening to “My Heart for Deliverance” as he types this.

There were odds and ends as well. With Kalas on my brain after The Johnny Arzgarth Haul resulted in another promo, Used Metal paid dividends in the first full-artwork copy I’ve ever owned — and in case you were wondering why I care so much about physical media, that’s how long I remember shit like that — and over in Used Rock, the first Grinderman happened to be situated next to a special edition of 2009’s Grinderman 2, the unmitigated sleaze of which I friggin’ loved at the time, as well as Grails‘ cinematic 2012 outing, Deep Politics (review here).

I wound up with a used copy of Dungen‘s 2002 third album, Stadsvandringar, getting the band confused with Black Mountain, I think because they both used to have the same PR. Thanks a lot, Girlie Action Media circa 2005. I felt a little pathetic when I discovered my error, but I checked out the Dungen and it wasn’t bad, covering some of the same sunny psych folk territory that Barr did on their 2012 sophomore installment, Atlantic Ocean Blues (track stream here), and giving me a new context for not onlyBarr, but a slew of other acts as well. Could’ve been much worse.

Cap it off with a used copy of Lewis Black‘s The Carnegie Hall Performance from 2006 — a stellar two-disc show recorded in the depths of American hopelessness post-Katrina but for the bit about air traffic control — and when I brought it all to the counter, the dude asked me, “Are you local?” I said I wasn’t and he said, “Well, I’m going to give you a discount anyway.” It was much appreciated, regardless of the geography involved, and by the time I left Sound Garden, I was more pleased with the outcome I carried in a red plastic bag than I’ve been coming from a single record store in a long time. Probably since I visited Flat, Black and Circular in Lansing, Michigan, over the summer, and that’s saying something.

My hope is that it’s not another three years before I get back there — appropriately enough, Lewis Black has a whole section early into his show about time moving faster as you age, and he’s absolutely right — but whenever it is, Sound Garden is definitely on the must-hit list for next time I’m in Baltimore. If you want to look them up, their website is here.

Nifty news for anyone who’s followed the always-intriguing progression of Portland’s Grails, in that the fifth installment in their ongoing Black Tar Prophecies series of releases will come in the form of a split with Finnish outfit Pharaoh Overlord. The last album from Grails proper was 2011’s Deep Politics (review here), and this will be the first Black Tar Prophecies to be a split since the very first in 2006 came out as part of a release with Red Sparowes.

The band may be instrumental, but the PR wire speaks the following:

GRAILS split w/ Pharaoh Overlord

Kemado Records announces its October 30 release of Grails’ new offering, Black Tar Prophecies, Vol. 5, the latest in the band’s Black Tar Prophecies series.

From Portland, Oregon, Grails feature drummer Emil Amos, also of Om. Making music under the Grails name for a decade now, the instrumental band have released music on labels such as Temporary Residence, Neurot, and Robotic Empire. Pitchfork bestowed this review upon them: “From stoner sludge to swirling desert rock to meditative mood music, Grails run an impressively wide gamut… Grails’ constantly changing sound makes every moment arresting, not simply the big crescendos.”

Kemado will release Grails’ Black Tar Prophecies, Vol. 5 on October 30 as one side of a split LP, the other side belonging to Finland’s Pharaoh Overlord, featuring members of prolific Finnish band Circle.

BrooklynVegan is now streaming “Chariots”, the lead track off Grails’ side of the split.

Grails head to Australia in October:
Oct 13 – Melbourne, AU @ The Corner (w/ Tortoise)
Oct 14 – Perth, AU @ UWA (This Is Nowhere Festival w/ Tortoise)
Oct 17 – Brisbane, AU @ The Zoo
Oct 18 – Melbourne, AU @ Northcote Social Club
Oct 19 – Sydney, AU @ Oxford Art Factory

After releasing their first two albums on Neurot, Portland, Oregon instrumental unit Grails began their association with Temporary Residence by appearing on the avant Black Sabbath tribute Everything Comes and Goes, covering the mother of all doom tracks, “Black Sabbath.” The newly-issued Deep Politics is Grails’ third full-length since then, and their sixth overall if you count the EP compilation Black Tar Prophecies Vols. 1, 2 & 3 on Important Records. From their 2003 The Burden of Hope full-length debut through 2008’s two LPs, Take Refuge in Clean Living and Doomsdayer’s Holiday, Grails had a remarkably prolific period, and though they released the Acid Rain DVD in 2009 and the fourth Black Tar Prophecies came out in 2010 (Vol. 5 is impending), the last couple years hasn’t found them nearly as present on the road or keeping the same level of productivity in terms of releases. That’s owed in no small part to drummer Emil Amos joining Om as the second half of the duo with Al Cisneros (Sleep, Shrinebuilder), as well as releasing solo material under the moniker Holy Sons, but he’s not the only one. Guitarist Zak Riles has also released an accomplished, meditative solo album, and toured with Portland singer-songwriter M. Ward. The effect all this has had is that the Grails of 2011 is a completely different animal.

Maybe that’s disingenuous. Grails has always shown diversity on their releases, beginning with The Burden of Hope and developing almost immediately an ethic for genre-transcendence on the 2004 follow-up, Redlight. On Deep Politics, however, the breadth of their creativity expands to bounds that are simply beyond anything they’ve ever done before. There are two sides to that. By reaching into new areas of sound, exploring (boldly) new influences, Grails today literally and physically cannot do what they’ve done before. I’d say this might disappoint some followers of the band, but I think if you’ve managed to stick it out this far with Grails, you probably expect something different each time out, and the sound the four-piece concoct on Deep Politics should be a boon to almost anyone who approaches it with an open mind. Their penchant for rich, contemplative atmospherics – a kind of think-thinky aural darkness – continues to run through the music, but across songs like the extended “I Led Three Lives” or the earlier “Corridors of Power,” Grails – the lineup completed by guitarist Alex Hall and bassist/pianist William Slater – bring in elements of dub and synthesized orchestration to affect an ambience like none they’ve experimented with previously. Beats back Native American flute sounds on “Corridors of Power,” which is a direct change from the lush and more organic build of opener “Future Primitive” – a manic guitar line running underneath like some kind of heart monitor – and the more piano- and guitar-driven reinterpretation of Morricone compatriot Bruno Nicolai’s “All the Colors of the Dark” score, from the 1972 film of the same name.

Immediately, Deep Politics surges with confidence and self-awareness. The title-track, led into by “Corridors of Power,” seethes with longing that comes through Slater’s piano work – so much so that about two minutes in, the music stops and Amos reintroduces it on drums, as though the song itself, said, “Oh what’s the point?” and tried to shut itself down. String-sounds texture “Deep Politics,” as they do much of the album, and there’s an acute sense of melody and rhythm in the guitars that feels more based in jazz than rock. “Deep Politics” is structured around, built from, the piano line, but in its later moments, it’s the strings that come to the fore, and it’s probably the most gorgeous realization to come from Grails to date, complemented by the shorter side A closer, “Daughters of Bilitis,” which seems to blend all the elements together: the electronic beats, the synth strings, the guitar and piano. It’s shorter than the title cut, and something of a comedown on the CD, but it makes sense thinking in terms of a vinyl release, which Grails always seem to do.

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Maybe you’re like me and you slept late this morning, got to work late, and have been struggling the whole day to try and get your shit done. The thought of another impending snowstorm for the American East Coast has me staring out the window looking for the first flake, and since my Tuesdays are usually a wash anyhow, this one just seems especially immobile.

This Grails track came down the wire a few days ago, and because I don’t seem to be able to accomplish anything else this afternoon, here it is. The song is called “I Lead Three Lives,” and it comes off the instrumentalists’ new album, Deep Politics, which is due out in March on Temporary Residence. Please enjoy.

I Lead Three Lives

Here’s the full tracklisting for the album:

1. Future Primitive
2. All the Colors of the Dark
3. Corridors of Power
4. Deep Politics
5. Daughters Of Bilitis
6. Almost Grew My Hair
7. I Led Three Lives
8. Deep Snow

Nothing says “we know how to have a good time” like a union between ’70s soundtrack sonics and horrific video. Portland, Oregon, instrumentalists Grails demonstrate their talent for pitting one against the other in the below teaser trailer for Deep Politics, apparently out March 8, 2011, on Temporary Residence. As someone who became used to a steady stream of Grails albums at six-month intervals, this first release since 2008’s Doomsdayer’s Holiday will be a most welcome arrival.