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MusicMindSet#002: Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (often abbreviated to SGM) was an American experimental rock band, formed in 1999 in Oakland, California. The band fused classical, industrial, and art-rock themes throughout their music. They were known to perform elaborate routines on stage and discuss possibly fictitious stories of dada artists and mathematicians.
According to the extensive liner notes for , the name “Sleepytime Gorilla Museum” comes from a small group of Dadaists, Futurists, and artists named the Sleepytime Gorilla Press. The group owned and operated what they called a “museum of the future” which was “anti-artifact, non-historical and closed.”
The “museum” opened on June 22, 1916 (the same day as the band’s first concert, 83 years later). The exhibit consisted of a fire which caused widespread chaos and confusion. The following day, the museum was closed (hence the name of the first album). The name itself apparently comes from a poem called “Of the Future Hides the Past,” written by Museum members Lala Rolo and Ikk Ygg.
SGM’s music can be likened to experimental rock or avant-garde metal; however, as inherent to the music, the band attempts to escape any categorization. Some influences include Henry Cow, Swans, Einstürzende Neubauten, King Crimson, Mayhem, Bauhaus, The Art Bears, Igor Stravinsky, Thinking Plague, and Univers Zéro. In a review for SGM’s second album Of Natural History, David Moore of Pitchfork Media states that SGM’s debut album Grand Opening and Closing was an amalgam of Meshuggah and Secret Chiefs 3, resulting in “some truly cracked prog-metal anthems.”
SETLIST – Song title (album, year)
1. A Hymn To The Morning Star (Of Natural History, 2004) 2. The Donkey-Headed Adversary Of Mankind (Of Natural History, 2004) 3. Helpless Corpses Enactment (In Glorious Times, 2007) 4. The 17-Year Cicada (Of Natural History, 2004) 5. Sleep Is Wrong (Grand Opening & Closing, 2001) 6. Ambugaton (Grand Opening & Closing, 2001) 7. Sunflower (Grand Opening & Closing, 2001) 8. FC The Freedom Club (Of Natural History, 2004) 9. The Creature (Of Natural History, 2004) 10. Phthisis (Of Natural History, 2004) 11. Bring Back the Apocalypse (Of Natural History)
Introduction and ending vignette: Fantômas, ‘Delìrivm Còrdia’ (Ipecac Recordings, 2004)
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