See OM perform at the Great American Music Hall
There once was a time where Al Cisneros, singer and bassist for stoner-metal band Sleep, would play music about the finer things in life (see: the hour-long epic "Dopesmoker"). But in 2003 he found solace in a new project: OM. Decidedly different than Sleep, the band plays experimental style of drone music. Incorporating Catholic, Hindu and Sufi themes against the backdrop of foreboding-sounding cellos, chanting vocals, and slow dirge-like drum work, Om is heavy in their own right. https://soundcloud.com/biz-3-publicity/om-state-of-non-return Now we all know that concert tickets come at a premium these days - so that's why we're giving a tickets [...]
Om leaks another 'Advaitic' tune
Around the time I was beginning to get the hang of tiresome and underdeveloped adolescent sarcasm, which I would ultimately deploy in an all-out war to control the radio in each of my parents' vehicles, I remember saying something rather sardonic relating to how boring I found all NPR personalities to be. Perhaps it was: "This guy is so dry! Why doesn't he even try to sound like he is excited about what he is saying?!" This, of course, was before I became a full-fledged NPR-addict, discovering that I greatly favored the matter-of-fact tone the hosts to the over-the-top shouting of [...]
Herb-alert: Om to release 'Advaitic Songs,' 7/24/12
Orthodox Christian iconography and bong rips are having another baby. San Francisco's heavily drugged and droning doom-metal duo, Om, are set to release the followup to 2009's God is Good. And they are giving fans (along with those of you too stoney baloney to keep Googling) a six-minute taste of the forthcoming "five-song suite," set to drop July 24. Advaitic Songs is the name of the Drag City release. The word Advaitic has something to do with this, I think. Far out, man. None of this is really meant to be tongue-in-cheek, even though I'm a cheeky blogger. I really dig Om, [...]
Shredification: Sleep at the Regency Ballroom 9/12, 9/13
I always thought Sleep was one of those bands that I would just never get to see, like Zeppelin, or the real Guns 'n' Roses. The members disbanded in 1995, fed up with the intractability of their label, London Records, which refused to release Dopesmoker, the band's hour-long stoner metal odyssey of an album -- the sort of artistic endeavor that the phrase "magnum opus" was invented to describe. The members moved on to other projects -- guitarist Matt Pike to High on Fire; bassist/vocalist Al Cisneros and drummer Chris Haikus to Om. For fans of the doom genre, even [...]