Sleepytime Gorilla Museum

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
Performing live in 2003
Background information
Origin	Oakland, California, United States
Genres	Experimental rock, avant-garde metal, progressive rock/metal
Years active	1999–present
Labels	The End Records
Associated acts	2 Foot Yard Charming Hostess Cosa Brava Faun Fables Idiot Flesh Immersion Composition Society inkBoat MOE!KESTRA! Mute Socialite Skeleton Key Species Being The Book of Knots Thin Pillow Thinking Plague Tin Hat Vacuum Tree Head
Website	Official website
Members
Matthias Bossi Nils Frykdahl Carla Kihlstedt Michael Mellender Dan Rathbun
Past members
Frank Grau David Shamrock Moe! Staiano

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (often abbreviated to SGM) is an 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]}

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! Staiano and David Shamrock. Their first performance, on June 22, 1999, was to a single banana slug (Ariolimax dolichophallus). 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. The Of Natural History tour saw Moe! 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.

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 Dadaists, 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."

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 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! Staiano's Popping Turtle (now residing in Brooklyn, NY). 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, 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."

Discography

Studio albums

• Grand Opening and Closing (2001)
• Of Natural History (2004)
• In Glorious Times (2007)

Live albums

• Live (2003)

DVD

• The Face (2005)

Compilations

• Mimicry CD Sampler (2004) — Features a different mix of 'Bring Back the Apocalypse'
• Knormalities V.3: Posthumorites (2005) — Features SGM covering This Heat's 'S.P.Q.R.'

Members

Some of the instruments are custom instruments built by the band.

Matthias Bossi Drums Glockenspiel Melodica Percussion Piano Xylophone

Nils Frykdahl Vocals Autoharp Flutes Guitar Twelve-string guitar Percussion guitar Recorder Saxophone Tibetan bells

Carla Kihlstedt Vocals Autoharp Bass harmonica Electric violin Nyckelharpa Organ Percussion guitar Pump organ Stroh violin

Michael Mellender Accordion Euphonium Guitar Lever-action lever Pancreas (electric) Percussion Tangularium Toy piano Trumpet Valhalla Vatican Wheel Xylophone

Dan Rathbun Vocals Autoharp Bass guitar Lute Pedal-action wiggler Recorder Roach Sledgehammer-dulcimer/Slide-piano log Thing Trombone Tuba

Former members

• Frank Grau – drums, melodica (2001–2004)
• David Shamrock – drums, piano (1999–2001)
• Moe! Staiano – bowed spatula, food containers, glockenspiel, metal, paper, percussion, popping turtle, pressure-cap marimba, spring, spring-nail guitar, tympani, wood (1999–2004)

External links

• Sleepytime Gorilla Museum official website
• Sleepytime Gorilla Museum at The End Records
• SGM official MySpace site
• Ambugaton! Live photographs of SGM covering 2002 and 2003 by David J. Grossman
• Sleepytime Gorilla Museum collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive