Maybe I am just a suspicious dude, as John Lennon sang, but I cannot help thinking sometimes that some rockers out there have not been living entirely spotless, exemplary lives. I know, I know but just hear me out, okay? I think that some of these so-called stoner rock bands have begun to hide subtle drug references within their music. Now I know that this revelation may just blow apart the whole world of rock, but you’re all adults and so I would like you to judge for yourselves. With that in mind I will paste the lyrics to a natty little record I picked up earlier this year, Sleep The Clarity.
From the temple stone
Smokes the lambsbread
Through dream, sleep and in waking.
Toward the weed fields
To That which holds the worlds
Walks the Sinsemillian.
Refutes death
Remains stoned constantly
The dealer breaks the eclipse.
Backpatch.
All are stoned thereafter.
Stoned chariot ascending
Smokes the true believer.
Life complete
The dealer is my refuge.
Heavy dry weight
Hasheeshian smoked relief.
Backpatch.
Iomnic life complete.
So, is it just me, or do you think Sleep are actively extolling the non-medical usage of mary-jhu-awnaa? Much more of this and I’ll have to dust off my old copy of Dopesmoker and see if I can find any subliminal pro-weed messages in there too.
I was very excited to see The Clarity on the wall in my beloved probe Records in Liverpool and bought it despite the guys there warning me about the price*. After all this was a new track from a group I love unreservedly and who had not released anything ‘new’ since 2003 and that, Dopesmoker, was a full release of something they had completed way back in 1993. It is almost as though something was slowing them down, or chilling them out so they could only move at a truly glacial speed; wish I could work out what that was**.
The Clarity is a one song 12″, single-sided and etched on the reverse with a rather nifty image of, what I can only assume is, a hashtronaut drifting around a lunar landscape, geodesic domes and a lunar rover type vehicle in the background. The lettering on the PVC cover is glow-in-the-dark, just to space me out even further – except I can’t get it to work, maybe I’m expecting results too quickly and I need to slow down to the band’s speed.
So far, so cosmic but what about the tuneage here? ‘The Clarity’ is, by Sleep’s admittedly leisurely standards, a bit of a flash. Within 30 seconds we’re launched into the main riff and the vocal – Dopesmoker took about a week to get to that point, 12″ singles clearly agree with Sleep. ‘The Clarity’ is a perfect slice of doomy stoner metal, the guitar tone that Matt Pike conjures up just gives me goosebumps.
The playing of bassist Al Cisneros and the drumming of, comparatively, new boy Jason Roeder (ex-Neurosis) are wonderfully, powerfully primitive. Add in some great dynamics (there’s a thrilling ‘drop out’ bit), plus stir in Pike’s vocals which sound so disembodied and stoned immaculate that they have clearly been ‘phoned in from the Astral Plane, together with a guitar solo that caused me to break out my air guitar whilst driving to the station the other day*^ and the whole concoction could have been created in a lab specifically to flip all my switches.
Also Sleep score BIG 1537 bonus points for coining the word ‘Iomnic’, which is defined by the Oxford Online Dictionary as:
Plus they also get additional 1537 bonus points for mentioning backpatches twice, surely the most important part of any denim jacket/vest? and thus the crucial part of any gentleman’s outfit.
So there we have it, a great 9-minute slice of stoner brilliance. It won’t convert anyone to the stoner rock cause, but for those of us who are already there it’s balm for our souls. But having now cracked the subliminal drug references on The Clarity, your intrepid reporter is off to investigate something called ‘reggae’ because I heard that if you play Peter Tosh Legalize It backwards there’s a reference to some sort of drugs; will I ever be able to rest?
788 Down(er).
*Southern Lord releases always cost so much, but they are always quality objects too. The collector in me will also say that they tend to rise in price substantially down the years.
**in fact the single was, I now know, originally released as part of Adult Swim’s singles club in 2014. Ah well, only 3 years behind.
*^not recommended, it makes steering really difficult, especially if headbanging too; who knew?!
I saw SLEEP live last month. Just sayin’…
Oh wow, I am seriously impressed by that – have they finished playing Dopesmoker yet, or are they still about halfway through the introduction?!!
Good detective work on the drug references 1537. You are one sharp cookie.
I’m entirely self-trained as a detective too. Word up.
There’s a movie waiting to be made with that kind of police work.
Your influence is pernicious and extensive. Today I found myself forking out a substantial wad of cash (i.e.: plastic) for a green splatter double vinyl copy of ‘Dopesmoker’. I blame you entirely.
I feel very proud Bruce. Welcome.
It’s an awesome LP, worth it for the title alone I say. A great writer of our times once said it’s almost an autistic quest for the perfect low-slung riff.
Even you fanatic fundamentalist gentlemen MUST know that Dopesmoker is, by far, best experienced in it digital CD version, thus allowing for stoned stasis throughout the totality of its 63:34′. Just the idea of having to get up and turn over the record harshes my buzz.
[Note: I just bought my double black vinyl edition in early June at the show.]
[Note: Did I mention I saw Sleep live in early June? They killed ‘The Clarity’, iomnically speaking.]
“Hey, check out this awesome 60′ python… that I’ve helpfully cut up into 15′ chunks”
Yep, you are absolutely correct, Vic. It’s vinyl stupidity at its most non-sensical. I’m allowed to say that because I did the same thing a few months later with Eno’s ‘Reflection’.
I do, I definitely do.
I forked out loads of money (by my standards) for an original vinyl copy of Biosphere ‘Substrata’ one of my very favourite ever ambient LPs ever. It’s a gorgeous object but the listening experience is crap because you can’t drift away on an icy glide of sound, without having to turn the bugger over every 20 minutes.
So I take your point entirely.
I have the munchies just from reading this!!
Oh. This. I think I might need this. What is it with you and objects of awesomeness?
Also, I agree that Southern Lord know how to package records. Two of my favourites in my collection are Southern Lord releases (Jesse Sykes and Earth). Heavy duty covers… heck, the sleeves alone are heavier than most 180g, gatefold sleeve housed double LPs!
They feel nice when you rub them against your skin too. True story.
Ooooo that’s a thing a beauty. Man I haven’t played Sleep in ages. Well done, and thanks for the reminder… wait, what were we talking about? 😉
Not sure, but I feel very hungry
Oh man, suddenly so am I…
Hashtronaut? Iomnic? Dude, you were amazing tonight.
Wasn’t that an Eric Clapton song? I have to confess that I was quite proud of hashtronaut.
Did anyone ‘fess up that they actually checked the Oxford On-line Dictionary? (or was I the only one 😚)
Sorry Bruce, I fear you were the only one caught in my trap. It makes me very happy to hear though, I took the definition of ‘Wildean’ and changed it a little bit.
Not much, presumably, there being considerable overlap between Oscar and the Sabs.
No, just the punctuation.
😆
I downloaded this from the Adult Swim site a few years back. It’s ace. Can’t bring myself to buy that vinyl though. However tempting and Iomnic it is!
Even tough long-term it could be in your best econIomnic interests?
Wheres Tony Iomnic when u need him?
Exactly!
Your posts are totally Iomnic. I can only assume you cut the tips of your typing fingers off in a work accident.
I love stoner rock and now I must get this.
True, I lost the tips of them all via a particularly vicious paper cut in the office. Still, it’s helped me develop my own unique style of typing by using both my elbows, thus giving me my unique tone. Totally true story that.
Yup, you do need this, if only for the air-guitaring possibilities. Not too expensive on Discogs yet.
Hence the famous term 2 elbow typer.
I am almost tempted to do a post on a cost analysis basis. Price of album per song.
I think you need to be more precise, you also need to break it down into $/minute too. Otherwise you penalize prog rockers and classical dudes unfairly.
Even more precise would include a breakdown per instrument and vocal (s).
So would you then give each one a weighting, according to your preference? E.g. Bagpipes 1, Guitar 5, Penny whistle 2
Preference and artistic contribution to the end result. Oh, I love bagpipes… next would be pedal-steel guitar… and there was that crazy tambourine you brought to us a while ago….
For example, a tambourine might on occasion rank 1 and other times might create a deficit. The sax might rank 1 if it’s by Big Man, and other times might rank 2 or 3….
The algorithm is complex.
Halleluhjah!
Can you imagine if he’d released Jealous Guy under its original working title, suspicious dude?
This was an Iomnic post if you ask me!
It would have made it an even better song, just imagine.
Thank you Geoff, that’s kind but I am not truly worthy of that adjective. Mostly because my drugs of choice are caffeine and sugar.