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Moor and mountainBearing gifts of gargantuan psych-rock,
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Los Angeles-based psychedelic band Dead Meadow have never done anything small. Since the band’s inception in ’98, when the majority of indie rock still seemed comfortable in tight pop confines, Dead Meadow has taken the opposite route, an expansive, rumbling sound that had more to do with the ponderous, panoramic moments of Pink Floyd than it did with the hip bands of the day. With each release, Dead Meadow has stretched even further outside of the traditional songwriting form, and only become more challenging and adventurous with each successive release. Currently at their peak, the band has just released its most loaded document yet, a live/studio record and accompanying film entitled Three Kings. “We recorded our last show in Los Angeles and because we had just done 87 shows, we were playing really tight,” says guitarist/vocalist Jason Simon, “so we just wanted to document the evolution of the songs. The live show ended up being filmed—as it turned out, there were three cameras that were shooting. It really kind of came together out of that.” This is where Los Angeles film production house Artificial Army jumped into the picture, editing the live images together and helping hash out and film a loose narrative of dreamlike sequences that could be interspersed with the live footage. “I guess it’s kind of like our take on [Led Zeppelin film] The Song Remains the Same, but I think it’s a lot cooler and a lot less cheesy. It just kind of kept getting bigger as time went on and we kept throwing on more ideas by adding five new songs and putting the story together.” The surrealist sequences of Three Kings recall David Lynch’s vision of Dune or Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain, and perfectly match Dead Meadow’s lysergic soundtrack. The timing couldn’t be better, as the term “psychedelic” has almost completely replaced “angular” in indie rock’s vocabulary. “I think any music that you can really dig deep into could be called psychedelic, and thankfully, there’s a lot of bands that are making that kind of music right now.” WITH IMMAD WASIF AT CLUB LAMBI |
