Friday Full-Length: Seedy Jeezus, The Hollow Earth
It is arguable of human art that no matter what it is or does, it will never completely encapsulate the drive behind it or the inspiration causing it to be made. I tend to believe this of great historical works — your Mona Lisas, your Sphinxes, and so on — as well as of the statues-of-nothing one finds outside office buildings. It certainly applies to my work — already, three sentences in! — and over the last two decades I’ve heard from countless songwriters and bands that it’s true for the greater part of theirs as well. Not that you can’t be happy with what you’ve done, but that some part of you always knows the motivation behind it was even stronger than the realization.
So imagine a momentous occasion. I bring this up because Australian heavy psych r-o-c-k-ers Seedy Jeezus last summer released The Hollow Earth through Lay Bare Recordings, as a double-LP, and more, as a moment captured. I could summarize, but here’s the band’s recounting:
In Melbourne we had some crazy lockdowns, some of the strictest in the world. There was a window between lockdowns we had the chance to get a group of friends together without social distancing etc… so we took the chance to get into a studio, and have a bbq, catch up and a jam. Mark flew in from Tasmania for a rehearsal the day before the recording session.
What we got was a great testament to where we were after lockdowns and very little time together. During lockdown Lex had learnt to play Voodoo Chile and dropped it on the band to cover it… we selected a mixx of old n new for the session. We played 2 sets, and thought wed get a album out of it, but as it turned out we had enough for a double album.
This went down at Studio One B here in Melbourne, with David Warner engineering it all. Tony Reed came on and mixed n mastered what we sent him, and did a killer job. Stephen Boxshall took the cover photo and with a little help from our friends it all came together.
And there you are. That guitarist/vocalist Lex Waterreus learned Jimi Hendrix‘s “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” is something that comes up between the songs as either bassist Paul Crick or drummer Mark Sibson chimes in, after Waterreus says “I was bored during lockdown and learned it,” that then the rest of the band had to do the same to make the cover. Fair enough. They rip the galaxy open with it though, so I assume it was all worthwhile.
That cover is also the tip of the 75-minute 2LP iceberg that is The Hollow Earth. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of engaging Seedy Jeezus‘ studio work — their latest proper full-length is 2018’s Polaris Oblique (review here) but they’ve done live stuff and one-offs since — you’ll know they walk the line between stretched-out heavy psych and more traditional rock, structure and ‘out-there’ vibes pervading at the same time. They’re not the first with a similar blend, but they do it exceedingly well, and as they run through two sets on The Hollow Earth for a lockdown-era gathering of friends, you can hear them digging all the way in, getting it while they can because who the hell knows when they’ll be able to again?
Even before you get to the bass leading the way through “Echoes in the Sky” with the drums at the foundation and the guitar gone a-wanderin’ in a fantastic display of classic chemistry and Seedy Jeezus‘ own dynamic in particular, or the 11-minute Floydian highlight “Dripping From the Eye of the Sun” with its own jam giving a slight return to the earlier parenthetical in the Hendrix tune, as a concept it’s a beautiful thing to capture. However many people were there, it’s enough to sound like at least a small crowd in between songs, and for all the implied intimacy of that, Seedy Jeezus bring the full breadth of their sound, be it Wattereus‘ scorching solo work in “The Golden Miles” or the later fuzzy shove of “Oh Lord Pt. 2.” I know everybody’s tired of hearing about the pandemic and I am too, but this isn’t about the lockdown so much as the vital creative spirit that persisted through it. The same need that had humans drawing on cave walls tens of thousands of years ago made this. What an incredible species we can be when we’re not busy killing or otherwise being complete assholes to each other, the planet, animals, and so on.
They start quiet and gradual with the ‘strap yourselves in, kids’ unfolding of “Is There All That Is,” which immediately demonstrates the malleability of structure in the band’s grasp, the openness with which they approach their own work. They’re jammers, is what I’m telling you, even when the jam has a set destination in mind via a vis the next chorus, the quiet part, whatever, to which it will eventually return the audience. But man, these cats really go, and The Hollow Earth, for every moment like the righteous crash into the second verse of “Wormhole” and the freelance fiending that ensues has a corresponding fleshout, like the 16-minute take on “How Ya Doin'” that for most acts would be a career landmark but here is delivered, well, not with no ceremony, because certainly it’s a good time, but with some sense of being understated when it comes to the actual vibrancy of the material being explored.
I wonder if they had chairs or if people sat on the floor. Studio couches for those who got there early? How was the barbecue? Burgers and dogs, curried sausages, what? How long was the party? How soon after did Melbourne go back into lockdown? Did they know it was coming? Just how true is the getting-away-with-it narrative around the record’s making?
Maybe it’s better not to know. Maybe it adds mystique so often absent from the world of immediate access, cloying social media content and storyline positioning. In any case, Seedy Jeezus did two sets as part of one show and got a double-vinyl out of it, and if you ever needed an example of an offering hurt by the pressing delays that slammed record manufacturing between 2020-2022, this is it. Beset by bullshit. By the time it came out last summer, it already seemed to be a historical document, and it may be years before it can be rightly and fully embraced for what it captures and the vibe throughout, never mind the actual sound of the thing. Such as it ever ended, it was a weird time to be alive. Tucked into the middle of it, this must’ve been a hell of a night.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
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My alarm went off at 3AM. The first time. Then four. By the time the last one came around at 5:30, I was already up, but it felt like a luxury nonetheless. I needed the sleep, I guess.
Was feeling pretty light on motivation this week after finishing the Quarterly Review (for now), thinking about what a bummer it is to lose the Gimme Metal show because they’re shutting down the app, and so on. That and dividing my attention between writing and keeping up with the GoFundMe for Leanne from Riff Relevant/Mettle MediaGoFundMe for Leanne from Riff Relevant/Mettle Media as it met, passed, met and passed again its goals, plus a decent amount of fuckoff time was where my head was at. I’m glad to have reviewed the Black Moon Circle, Fuzz Sagrado and Dozer records. Next week is Ruff Majik and I’ve already talked about that. There’s other stuff too, but in my mind that’s the centerpiece of the week. It’ll be posted on Thursday.
This weekend I’m in Maryland for wedding of The Patient Mrs.’ brother, who lives in Baltimore. That’ll be fine, if a little harried chasing down The Pecan, whose new dress for it is lovely and bound to be wrecked by wearing if not immediately then almost certainly soon thereafter. So it goes in the way of things that go. Pretty much nonstop.
I hope you have a great and safe weekend. Wherever you’re at, I hope the weather is good and you’re comfortable and not worried about money or some other bullshit. Watch your head, don’t forget to hydrate, and don’t tell me spoilers for the ending of Star Trek: Picard, because I haven’t watched it yet (yeah I read a review but comprehension is low and of course I want to see it for myself). In any case, thanks for reading.
FRM.
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Tags: Australia, Lay Bare Recordings, Melbourne, Seedy Jeezus, Seedy Jeezus The Hollow Earth, The Hollow Earth
