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Bottom of the Hill April 17, 2001 Review by Squid We're pretty scared to even touch this show, review-wise. When it comes to Shipping News, there seem to be two types of people: those who have never heard of them and those who have immense respect for these three musicians and their myriad side projects. The former won't bother reading this review, and the latter are usually so well-versed that it seems insulting to try and provide some sort of historical background. Just a quick run through, then. Shipping News founding members Jason Noble (Rodan, June of 44) and Jeff Mueller, (Rodan, Rachel's) met while composing music for a show on NPR. Part-time Rachel's member Kyle Crabtree rounds out the ensemble on drums. They are in fact named for the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by E. Annie Proulx. It would be easiest to write them off as math rock, particularly given the time period that the began recording, but there's far more going on, particularly with intermittent addition of strings, vocal dynamics and loops. Oh hell, like we said, if you like them, you already know what we're getting at. So how was the show, eh? It fuckin' ruled, thanks very much. There were quite a few nods to their new album, "Very Soon And In Pleasant Company", namely March Song, Quiet Victories, and Squid's favorite, Actual Blood. The only thing missing from the wish list for Daz was the epic ten-minute "A True Lover's Knot" off of their first album, Save Everything. The whole thing amounted to a gorgeous noisy guitar riddled mess. We wish it could've continued for another three hours at least. Mesmerizing. In the beginning, there was VSS. And lo, members of VSS became Slaves. And it came to pass that, out of nowhere, they changed their name and begat Pleasure Forever. It's amazing how LOUD an organ can be when given the opportunity. It damn near drown out the guitar in this sixties-ish keyboard-based blues rumble. Squid kept waiting for them to tear into a hard-ass cover of "House of the Rising Sun". The room was fairly shakin' with shouted vocals and crunching guitars. It was great to watch this mostly male audience grudgingly warm up to these guys with the less-than-punk moniker. And we totally forgot that we had caught a snippet of their show at SXSW at Emo's. Gotta lay off that Texas beer. Sappington are starting to get positive mentions 'round town with their meditative sound that recalls both Low (vocals) and Dead Can Dance, (frequent nods to Middle Eastern melody). A crowd of brainy-rock Shipping News fans was perfect for their extremely quiet keyboard/guitar musings. Best of all, they were giving out free copies of their EP, which is far more somber and mournful than they come off live. |