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Biography
refimprove|date = May 2010Infobox musical artist || name = Sleepytime Gorilla Museum| image = Sleepytime Gorilla Museum.jpg|300px| caption = Performing live in 2003| landscape = Yes| background = group_or_band| origin = Oakland , California , United States | genre = Experimental rock , avant-garde metal , progressive rock / progressive metal|metal cite web|url=Allmusic|class=artist|id=p509648/biography|pure_url=yes |title=Sleepytime Gorilla Museum > Biography|last=Rivadavia|first=Eduardo|work=Allmusic|publisher=Macrovision |accessdate=2009-02-20| years_active = 1999& ndash;present| associated_acts = 2 Foot Yard Charming Hostess Cosa Brava Faun Fables Idiot Flesh Immersion Composition Society inkBoat MOE!KESTRA! Mute Socialite Skeleton Key (band)|Skeleton Key Species Being The Book of Knots Thin Pillow Thinking Plague Tin Hat Vacuum Tree Head | label = The End Records | website = http://www.sleepytimegorillamuseum.com/ Official website| current_members = Matthias Bossi Nils Frykdahl Carla Kihlstedt Michael Mellender Dan Rathbun | past_members = Frank Grau David Shamrock Moe& #33; Staiano Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (often abbreviated to SGM ) is an United States|American experimental rock band, formed in 1999 in Oakland, California . The band fuses classical, industrial, and art-rock themes throughout their music. They are known to perform elaborate routines on stage and discuss possibly fictitious stories of dada artists and mathematicians.citation needed|date = July 2009
History
After the disbanding of Idiot Flesh , Dan Rathbun and Nils Frykdahl joined with Charming Hostess member Carla Kihlstedt (of which Rathbun and Frykdahl were also members) to form Sleepytime Gorilla Museum with Moe& #33; Staiano and David Shamrock . Their first performance, on June 22, 1999, was to a single banana slug (Ariolimax dolichophallus). http://www.sleepytimegorillamuseum.com/history.html Sleepytime Gorilla Museum The following night's performance was their first to a human audience.
Some time during the recording of Grand Opening and Closing (2001), drummer David Shamrock left the band and was replaced with Frank Grau . Grau also co-released the album, instigated their first tour and managed the band.
During the recording of the follow-up, Of Natural History (2004), Grau left the band and was replaced with a new drummer, Matthias Bossi, formerly of Skeleton Key (band)|Skeleton Key . The Of Natural History tour saw Moe& #33; Staiano's exit, and new multi-instrumentalist Michael Mellender 's entrance. In January 2006 Sleepytime Gorilla Museum signed to The End Records who re-released their début Grand Opening and Closing with three bonus tracks.
Soon after, an announcement was made that a new album was in the works and had a tentative date of March 2007. During early 2007, the title and track list for their third studio album, In Glorious Times was announced with the release date set for May 29, 2007. Prior to the release, an mp3 and music video of "Helpless Corpses Enactment" were made available online.
In February 2011, the band announced that they will play three final shows in California. They also intend to release a final album, a short film, and a live DVD. http://www.facebook.com/notes/sleepytime-gorilla-museum/the-future-imperfect/10150097863754218 The Future Imperfect announcement on Facebook , February 14, 2011.
Name
According to their extensive liner notes for Grand Opening and Closing , their official history and repeated in interviews, the name "Sleepytime Gorilla Museum" comes from a small group of Dada ists, Futurism (art)|Futurists , and artists named the Sleepytime Gorilla Press who owned and operated what they called a " museum of the future" which was "anti-artifact, non-historical and closed."Album notes for Grand Opening And Closing , CD 2001. The End Records.
The "museum" opened on June 22, 1916 (the same date as the bands' first concert, 83 years later). The exhibit was a fire which caused wide 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.
The only source of information on the internet regarding the Sleepytime Gorilla Press, Lala Rolo, and Ikk Ygg arises from the band's interviews.
Performance
Their live performances have featured puppet shows, pseudo-scientific scholarly presentations, and performances by members of the Butoh group http://www.inkboat.com inkBoat.
The band uses many homemade devices as instruments, such as the Viking Rowboat. Dan Rathbun — who has created most of the band's idiosyncratic instruments — plays, among other custom-made instruments (though he uses a common bass guitar most of the time), a custom-stringed bass instrument referred to as the Sledgehammer Dulcimer (or, alternately, the Slide Piano Log), which uses piano strings and is possibly more than 7 feet long; it is played with two sticks: one in the left hand generally used as a fret, and another in the right hand to strike the strings.
Percussionist Michael Mellender's instruments consist of restaurant kitchen equipment, trash can lids, and other "found" metal objects, in addition to traditional percussion instruments. One of the more infamous instruments used by the band was Moe& #33; Staiano's Popping Turtle (now residing in Brooklyn, NY http://www.sleepytimegorillamuseum.com/moe/sleepytimegorillamuseum.html Moe& #33; Staiano - title). It can be heard about 1:21 into the song "Sleep is Wrong".
Categorization
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 (band)|Swans , Einstürzende Neubauten , King Crimson , Mayhem (band)|Mayhem , Bauhaus , The Art Bears , Igor Stravinsky , Thinking Plague , and Univers Zéro . http://www.progreviews.com/reviews/display.php? rev=sgm-goac Ground and Sky review - Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - Grand Opening and Closing 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." http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/22317/Sleepytime_Gorilla_Museum_Of_Natural_History Of Natural History | Pitchfork
Moe& #33; Staiano – bowed spatula , food containers, glockenspiel, metal , paper , percussion, popping turtle, pressure-cap marimba , Spring (device)|spring , spring-nail guitar, Timpani|tympani , wood (1999–2004)
References
Reflist
External links
http://www.sleepytimegorillamuseum.com/ Sleepytime Gorilla Museum official website
http://www.theendrecords.com/artists/sleepytime-gorilla-museum Sleepytime Gorilla Museum at The End Records
http://www.myspace.com/sleepytimegorillamuseum SGM official MySpace site
http://www.ambugaton.com/ Ambugaton! Live photographs of SGM covering 2002 and 2003 by David J. Grossman
http://www.archive.org/details/SleepytimeGorillaMuseum Sleepytime Gorilla Museum collection at the Internet Archive 's live music archive
Category:American progressive rock music groups Category:Art rock musical groups Category:Experimental rock groups Category:Musical groups from California Category:Musical groups established in 1999 Category:Museums in popular culture
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