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Friday Full-Length: Om, Conference of the Birds

Posted in Bootleg Theater on September 28th, 2013 by JJ Koczan

Om, Conference of the Birds (2006)

2:14AM — Yeah, it’s pretty late. I left North Jersey at almost precisely 8PM to head back up here to Massachusetts, but made a stop off in New London, Connecticut, at the El ‘n’ Gee to catch Clamfight play a set. They were starting that weekender with Philly’s Thee Nosebleeds, whom I was also fortunate enough to see some of, and were killer as always in that cavernous room. I was only there for about an hour — the timing was absurdly good — but that hour was the difference between getting back to Abington at 12:30 and 1:30AM. So here I am. It’s good to see The Patient Mrs., even if she has a pillow over her head while I’m playing Om‘s 2006 sophomore outing, Conference of the Birds, which I consider one of the best late-night albums ever made.

It must’ve been a trip for Al Cisneros to put out this and Variations on a Theme through a label named Holy Mountain — “So, your records are out on a label that just happens to have the same name as an album you put out over a decade ago?” “Yup.” — but very cool. I like where Om are at now sound-wise very, very much, but I remember hearing the first two records when they came out and you just knew they were something special. I don’t listen to Variations on a Theme as much as Conference of the Birds, admittedly, but still, what a pair they make. And High on Fire was putting out Blessed Black Wings and Death is this Communion at that point. And then a couple years later Sleep got back together and started doing shows again. Sometimes time is beautiful.

Tomorrow is my anniversary, or later today or whatever it is. My wedding anniversary was the other day as well — I left in the evening to head south in order to catch Vista Chino on Thursday (ever the romantic), but tomorrow’s the one we celebrate more, which is when we first got together, a whopping 16 years ago. I’m 31, which means The Patient Mrs. and I have been together more than half my life. It’s awesome and it blows my mind. I’m so stupid for her and I’m so lucky she has yet to kick my ass to the curb; she casts off the constant bombardment of reasons to do so like meteors burning up in the atmosphere, and for that I consider myself blessed.

So I’m looking forward to some sort of celebration — we’re light on cash these days, but we’ll have a meal, anyway — and then Sunday I’m interviewing Fu Manchu‘s Bob Balch about his new Sun and Sail Club project (info here) with Scott Reeder (Fu Manchu‘s drummer) and Scott Reeder (The Obsessed/Kyuss) and I’ll have that posted on Monday, along with hopefully a review of the Clamfight show I hit tonight and a track premiere from Louisville noise punkers Black God. Lots of audio to come next week, actually. Hoping to hook up a Gonga stream for Tuesday, and then Wednesday is also a track premiere from Brooklyn trio Blackout, whose album I’ve been digging plenty. Between all that and reviews of The Freeks and Luder, it’s going to be a busy one. You’d think I might want to rest up.

There was more I wanted to get posted today, but with the drive north looming, writing the aforelinked Vista Chino review and some spiritually restorative family time — hard to tell your 98-year-old grandmother you gotta cut short hanging out with her so you can go post somebody’s tour news and I wasn’t going to try — the hours went quickly. Wish I could say the same for the drive north, but so it goes. The good news is I made it eventually and I’ll get caught up this weekend on email and whatever else. For now the eyelids are heavy, the album’s over and it’s time to turn in.

As always, I wish you a great and safe weekend. I’ll be back with more Monday at the latest and in the meantime, please hit up the forum and the radio stream:

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