Addict Recommends: (Music) Sleepytime Gorilla Museum

Sometimes in life you come across something beautiful and important, unique and resounding by complete accident, if such things as accidents exist. Last Friday night, by a fortuitous, happy aligning of the planets, I thus came across Sleepytime Gorilla Museum.

I was in the City after a day at the races with my brother, having dinner with my old friend Syed at Sutros Restaurant at the Cliff House, at the end of the western world in San Francisco. As we were completing our first martini and just about to head outside to smoke some hash, he made a suggestion.

“Should we a-call the Double A?”
”Yeah, let’s call Doubles. It’s been a while since I’ve seen that guy,” I replied.
“Good.” He dialed the number and handed me the phone.
“What’s up you crazy Paki?” AA answered.
“No, Dubs, it’s me,” I said. “I’m with the Paki. We’re having dinner at the Cliff House. Get your butt over here.”
“I can’t. I’m at a show with Adolph at the Independent. You should come over when you’re done.”
“Will do,” I replied. “See you in a couple of hours.”

Syed and I then continued with our evening, which consisted of a lovely dinner, several cocktails and two delicious bottles of wine. As we were leaving, I exhorted him to come along, but he had family in from out of town so he politely declined. As he staggered away from the car I continued on to Divisadero and Grove, not far from my old neighborhood, to see if I could find the boys.

AA was outside talking to some girl, as always seems to be the case. He gets more ass than a toilet seat. I honked at him as I passed, parked the car not far away and hugged him at the door.

“How’s the show?” I asked.
“Terrible. There was some opening band and the lead singer had his cock hanging out the whole time.”
“Oh, not good.”
“This show sucks,” he said, annoyed. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
“All right. But let’s go in and get Adolph first.”

I followed AA inside, but lost him almost immediately in the crowd of perhaps two hundred and fifty people. Along the wall, however, I saw Adolph by himself. I approached and we began talking.

“Double A says the show sucks.”
“The opening band was terrible,” he informed me. “But we’ve got to stick around for the show. You’re not going to believe these guys.”
And so I decided to stay. And man, was I happy that I did.

The core musical component of the band is what most people would describe as heavy or even death metal, so if you are turned off by the genre and can’t get past it then you should probably read no more. But to pigeonhole this group to any one musical style would be totally myopic and unfair. Within the show, there were elements and influences as diverse as tribal and gospel, classical and art-rock. The band consists of five members: Nils Frykdahl, Matthias Bossi, Carla Kihlstedt, Michael Mellender and Dan Rathburn. Frykdahl, the vocalist and guitarist, has a deep Tom Waites voice that ascends to a hearty growl when performing the heavier metal lyrics. The band is overwhelmingly talented, playing an array of musical instruments, many of them homemade and invented by the musicians themselves. I think a good word to sum up the experience is contrast. The music is at times melodic, at others atonal and dissonant. The content of the band’s lyrics cover a number of topics and themes. And yes, Satan is among them.

The crowd was as diverse as the band. I saw neo hippies, rockers, punks and intellectuals all in attendance. Some people were smoking dope, others were completely sober, concentrating intently and shushing thoughtless drunks – like myself – for talking too loud during the softer musical interludes. The bar was not doing good business; I know this to be the case because I never had to wait in line for a drink. That says something in itself. There were a few fantasy gamers there too, dungeon and dragons types: you know who you are. The one thing that seemed to unify the audience was their love and appreciation for the band.

Reputedly, the name Sleepytime Gorilla Museum comes from a group of artists, Dadaists and Futurists who founded a “Sleepytime Gorilla Press” and a museum of the future that opened on June 22, 1916. The sole exhibit was a fire that then permanently closed the museum. The band’s first album was appropriately named Grand Opening and Closing and their first concert was on June 22, 1999. Something tells me that Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Umberto Boccioni and F.T. Marinetti would approve of this dynamic, technological, avant-garde and nonlinear musical aesthetic.

When the show ended I had no idea how much time had elapsed, but I did know that I wanted to hear more, much more of what the Sleepytime Gorilla Museum had to say. The booze and weed was wearing off, so we called Gary, the friendly neighborhood cocaine dealer, to save the night. And so he did. But now I’m heading into another story altogether.