For my money, which I just might spend on this reissue, Pelican‘s Australasia (discussed here) is one of the best heavy records of all time. If you narrow those parameters to instrumental releases, it only moves higher up the list. Issued through Hydra Head, it broke ground for heavy atmospherics in a way that continues to resonate, and as one of series of reissues through Thrill Jockey Records (more info here), this reissue follows a stint for the band in Europe that included a headline slot at Freak Valley 2022 (review here) in Germany that I felt lucky to be able to witness. Guess that saves you the trouble of reading the review, which I’m pretty sure no one was going to do anyhow.

The release date is Aug. 19 and the vinyl is colored to the cover’s theme —  always classy, I think — with preorders up through Bandcamp. I have to imagine that if these don’t go beforehand, they will by the time the band plays a weekender in September that includes a stop at Post Festival in Indianapolis. I’ve never been to X-Ray Arcade in Cudahy (unless it’s the old Blue Pig), but I’ve hit Pyramid Scheme in Michigan before, and that place is fabulous. But really, anywhere Pelican are showing up is where you want to be.

From the PR wire:

Pelican announces deluxe reissue of their classic debut album Australasia Out on August 19th, 2022

Featuring never-before released material from the era, remastered audio by Josh Bonati, and expanded artwork

Original guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec has rejoined the quartet, reinstating the band’s original lineup

Listen to Australasia:
https://pelican.bandcamp.com/album/australasia

Following a headlining European tour including sets at Dunk! Festival, Freak Valley Festival, and Hellfest, Chicago/Los Angeles quartet Pelican have announced the first of their Thrill Jockey reissues, Australasia, out on August 19th. The deluxe reissue will feature remastered audio by Josh Bonati and bonus material, including a never-before shared track, a live recording of the album’s title track from the era of the album’s release, a remix by James Plotkin, and artwork by ISIS/SUMAC/Hydra Head founder Aaron Turner.

Pelican’s debut album Australasia, originally released in late 2003 by Hydra Head Records, is a landmark record in the shifting tides of heavy music that took place at the turn of the millennium. 20 years since its release and with several sold out represses, Australasia is a proven essential for any listener exploring the bounds of rock music. Following the release of the band’s auspicious self-titled EP, Australasia’s singular integration of melodic complexity and tremendous density redefined conceptions of what constituted “heavy.” Pelican’s unique manipulation of atmosphere and dynamics seamlessly alchemized their disparate influences beyond metal into music grand, mercurial and utterly sublime, worthy of the album’s namesake.

Billowing clouds of strange serenity give way to tectonic riffs. Hypnotic rhythms chug at the precipice between doom and euphoria. Guitarists Trevor Shelley de Brauw and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec twirl soaring harmonies around the roaring thunder of bassist Bryan Herweg and drummer Larry Herweg. Throughout the album, the quartet move as one like a glacier, awesome and forever imbuing the landscape with their mark. Australasia stands as a pioneering work, unmatched in the level of unbridled beauty and devastation.

Pelican will be playing a handful of Midwest shows this September, including a headlining set at Indianapolis’s Post Festival.

Pelican tour dates
Sep. 9 – Grand Rapids, MI – The Pyramid Scheme
Sep. 10 – Indianapolis, IN – Post Festival at The Vogue Theatre
Sep. 11 – Cudahy, WI – X-Ray Arcade

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Pelican, Australasia (2003)

Holy trinity? Maybe it would be if the rest of Pelican‘s discography wasn’t also so good. Still, you won’t hear a bad word from me about Australasia (discussed here), and I still remember the first time I listened to follow-up The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw was at a gate at Chicago O’Hare airport waiting for a connecting flight to Austin, Texas, for SXSW a couple rows away from Sanford Parker, to whom I was too shy to say hello. I have a million stories like that, about not talking to people. More than ever, it seems.

City of Echoes was badass too, crunchy and defying-expectations-of-escapism and all. But the additional cool news to go with the remasters that Pelican‘s upcoming European tour will include founding member Laurent Schroeder-Lebec is certainly welcome, though Dallas Thomas was killer as well. Truth of the matter is I guess I’ll take Pelican as they come. It is my deep hope to be able to catch them at Freak Valley Festival. If that doesn’t happen, well at least I’ll have more stories of not interacting with humans.

Hoo-mans.

Here’s word from the PR wire. Listen to Pelican today:

Thrill Jockey to reissue three essential albums by Pelican:

Australasia
The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw
City of Echoes

Deluxe vinyl reissues throughout 2022-2023 will include rarities, unreleased outtakes, demos and remastered audio

Pelican touring Europe this Spring with original lineup

Thrill Jockey are proud to reissue acclaimed and innovative classic albums by Chicago/Los Angeles quartet Pelican: Australasia (2003), The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw (2005), and City of Echoes (2007). The trilogy is streaming now and will be issued on deluxe vinyl editions throughout 2022 and 2023. The reissues will include a bevy of bonus material comprising rarities, unreleased recordings, long out of print singles & EPs and more. Each album will feature painstakingly remastered audio by Josh Bonati as well as deluxe artwork that recreates the classic artwork expanded to include unseen images sourced from the band’s archive.

Pelican have announced a European tour this spring, including their return to headlining Dunk! Festival, as well as rescheduled appearances at Hell Fest, Freak Valley Festival, and a handful of headlining shows. Following the departure of long-standing guitarist Dallas Thomas, the band will be joined on upcoming dates by founding guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec, reuniting the classic Pelican lineup behind their first three albums.

Pelican is a dreamlike art-metal institution, a band whose kaleidoscopic melodies and ocean-dredging riffs have now hypnotized audiences for more than two decades. Emerging from the frozen tundras of Chicago, Pelican were early adopters in blending majestic repetition with sludge metal’s skull-vibrating bluster, adding their own singular sense of keening emo-psychedelia and heavy-metal motorik. Since then, their prismatic instrumental mesmerism has rippled across six critically acclaimed studio albums, been featured in television and film, and influenced countless bands in their wake.

Pelican tour dates
May 28 – Ghent, BE – Dunk! Festival
June 12 – Vienna, AT – WUK
June 13 – Linz, AT – Kapu
June 14 – Dudingen, CH – Bad Bonn
June 15 – Karlsruhe, DE – Jubez
June 16 – Netphen-Deuz, DE – Freak Valley Festival
June 17 – Strasbourg, FR – La Laiterie
June 18 – Clisson, FR – Hellfest

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Pelican, Australasia (2003)

Pelican, The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw (2005)

Pelican, City of Echoes (2007)

Pelican‘s debut, Australasia, turns 10 this year. I think if this album showed up in my mailbox today, I probably wouldn’t call it innovative, but I also think the main reason that’s true is because so many bands have tried so hard over the last decade to sound like this record. It’s one of those “change your opinions” albums that I think has gone a long way toward defining “heavy” in its wake, either through people who’ve heard it or people who’ve heard bands who’ve heard it. In any case, bit of a classic in waiting.

Tomorrow night Neurosis play the Masonic Temple in Brooklyn and I’m going. To be honest, the pre-show anxiety is already riding high. What if I get there and can’t find parking? What if I get there and can’t get in? What if I get there and all the pictures I take suck? What if I get there, everything’s going really smoothly and then Neurosis gets on stage, points at me and goes, “This guy’s an asshole and his blog sucks and because of that, we’re not gonna play ‘Raise the Dawn.'” We live in a universe of infinite possibilities and any of this could happen. Probably less so the one where I flatter myself into thinking I’m a blip on Neurosis‘ collective radar, but definitely that one about the parking.

Pending some such disaster, I’ll have a review of that show on Monday, and then Monday night is the Corrections House supergroup kicking off their tour at the Saint Vitus bar in Brooklyn and I’ll be hitting that as well. Then, on Thursday, Graveyard roll through Philly and I’m slated to go to that, so expect much hyperbole to come about all of those. Also hoping to have a review of a new CD/LP reissue of Crooked Hook‘s demo before the week’s end and Gozu too if I can make that happen.

In addition to the Neurosis gig — which has consumed much space in my mind for the latter half of this week — this weekend I’m also planning on putting together a couple emailers that have been waiting and also considering a few phoners I want to put together. I’m decently caught up on reviews (much as I ever am) and it’s time to get back to interviewing people and start getting some opinions about records from the people who actually made them. Quite a novel thought.

If you’ve been a regular checking in on The Obelisk Radio, you probably noticed this week that the service has been shit, and intermittent shit at that. The company that hosts the stream has been getting a DDOS attack and I’m told that means my stream gets interrupted. No one’s going after The Obelisk Radio specifically, but just the server that hosts it and probably a million other online radio stations happens to be one of the lucky ones. Fortunately, Slevin is diligent in his keeping up with it and we hope to have the whole thing cleared up by next week. I still found time to update the playlist over the last couple days with another 35 or so records, so we’re not completely destitute.

Hope you have a great and safe weekend, and if you’re going to the Neurosis show, I’ll probably be the jerk annoying you with my stupidly large camera bag, so please feel free to say hi while you throw an elbow. See you on the forum and back here Monday for a resumption of shenanigans.