2009 IN REVIEW: The Year In Photos Part Two, Featuring Jay-Z, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Throbbing Gristle, Fever Ray and 25 Other Standout Shows

Posted on December 31, 2009
Filed Under 2009 In Review, Features, Media | 1 Comment

2009 IN REVIEW: Part One of Our Complete Guide to the Year’s Best Releases, Including Girls, Memory Tapes, The Flaming Lips and 17 More Must-Listens

Posted on December 27, 2009
Filed Under 2009 In Review, Features | 5 Comments

Florence and the Machine

[Photo by Ivan Jones]

Sorry to break it to you, blogosphere, but we just don’t believe in lists anymore. They’re just so arbitrary, and a couple mouse clicks away from being obsolete, you know?

That’s why we decided to give you a completely random rundown of our favorite ‘09 releases—because it’s not as predictable or pointless as an argument over “who’s No. 1 this year, Dirty Projectors or Animal Collective?” Be sure to watch out for a second set of s/t-endorsed records before the clock strikes 12 on Thursday night.

S/T Survived … Smoke Machines, Laser Claws, A Howling Hungarian, and 90 Minutes of Relentless Riffage At Sunn O)))’s Masonic Temple Show

Posted on September 24, 2009
Filed Under Reviews, S/T Survived | 5 Comments

Words and Photos by Andrew Parks

“Marco!”

“Polo!”

And there you have it. It took Sunn O))) 15 minutes, tops, to lose their stranglehold on a crowd of curious masochists, here at Brooklyn’s Masonic Temple to soak up pea-soupy patches of fog and feedback that feels like a fireball to the face. Or at the very least, a bass-heavy full body massage. Read more

WHEN THE FOG CLEARS: Watch Three Shadowy Clips of Sunn O)))’s Brooklyn Masonic Temple Show

Posted on September 24, 2009
Filed Under Media | 1 Comment

Some people celebrate Shark Week; us, we’re in the midst of a Sunn O))) celebration tied to their Brooklyn Masonic Temple show on Tuesday night. We’ll file a full report from the foggy frontlines in a little bit. For now, we’ve got three dimly-lit videos featuring the black mass breakdowns of Mayhem frontman Attila Csihar. FYI: Part III is the most up-close-and-personal clip. Read more

WHAT’S WITH THE ROBES?: Get Psyched For Sunn O)))’s Masonic Temple Show With Lots of Slightly Demonic Live Clips From Over the Years

Posted on September 22, 2009
Filed Under Media | Leave a Comment

And there’s more smoky, icy hooded action below, including a Sunn O))) clip from North Six (!) before it became ‘the Music Hall of Williamsburg’… Read more

COFFEE TALK: The Latest Posts, Profiles and Think Pieces on DJ Shadow, Kode9, Blur, Mount Eerie, Richie Hawtin, Bat For Lashes and More

Posted on August 6, 2009
Filed Under Coffee Talk, News | Leave a Comment

Richie Hawtin, re-enacting what we looked like the last time we spent a weekend in Berlin.

We sift the ‘net for today’s top stories so you don’t have to… Read more

ST004 UNVEILED: Flip Through Our New Issue, Including Features on Florence and the Machine, Patrick Wolf, Sunn O))), The Horrors & More, Plus a Priceless GZA/Telepathe Interview

Posted on July 31, 2009
Filed Under News, ST004 | 1 Comment

CLICK TO START READING

[Florence & the Machine photo by Ivan Jones]

We know, we know—the idea of diving into a digital magazine is still foreign to most of you. Hell, you might even equate it with something as stale as ‘perusing a PDF’. Not true, kids. And goddammit, we’re not willing to accept no as an answer this time; not when self-titled just unveiled a complete redesign that shifts our focus to massive, monitor-friendly photos and the kind of features you’ll never read on a regular Web site. Or in a ‘real’ magazine for that matter, since many of the good ones have fallen prey to the print industry’s ongoing money problems.

Here’s the breakdown this time around: Read more

JUST A LITTLE PATIENCE: Sunn O))) Channels the Spirit of Alice Coltrane, Recruits Animal Collective Arranger For “Monoliths & Dimensions” Album

Posted on May 25, 2009
Filed Under Features | 2 Comments

[Polaroid shot by Alexander Wagner; rest of photos by Jon Kristiansen & Giselle Vienne]

Interview by Andrew Parks

We usually skip listening sessions because they’re awkward, forced and rushed. With that in mind, the one for Sunn O)))’s seventh studio album, the aptly-titled Monoliths & Dimensions, was a welcome diversion from everyday office affairs because it involved free beer and a studio grade stereo Jann Wenner couldn’t even afford. Not to mention a low profile appearance by a cooler-than-thou Jim Jarmusch, who hand-selected Sunn O))) and Boris for The Limits of Control soundtrack.

The verdict: best…listening session…ever, as the album’s four expansive acoustic v. electric battles washed over our eyes and ears, leaving us grasping for adjectives that’d describe a disc that channels everything from Alice Coltrane to death-metal and features such curveballs as a madcap conductor (the incomparable Eyvind Kang, who’s also worked with Animal Collective and Mr. Bungle), an otherworldly Viennese choir, and a trio of conch players. The following is from an s/t interview in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen area (how appropriate, right?) with Sunn’s core members, guitarists Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson. Expect a full-on feature with the pair, complete with streaming songs and a Sunn-invades-NY photo shoot, in our next digital issue, which drops in June… Read more

LONG PLAYER OF THE DAY: Sunn 0))), “Dømkirke” (Southern Lord)

Posted on November 4, 2008
Filed Under Long Player of the Day, Reviews | 1 Comment

As is often the case with Southern Lord’s limited LP releases, Dømkirke’s vinyl-only pressing is so meticulously designed/packaged that it’s essentially an art piece masquerading as two 180-gram slabs of music. Doubly so since it involves Sunn O))), the New York Times-approved duo that churns out confusing—some would even say infuriating—drone/doom compositions you don’t listen to so much as lose yourself in.