Another year, another torrential downpour of albums across our desks. As always, we encountered way too much amazing music, from Meshuggah to The Mars Volta, Converge, Killer Mike, P.O.S, and many more.
Grails/Pharaoh Overlord: Black Tar Prophecies Vol. 5 (Kemado, 10/30/12)
Grails: “Wake-Up Drill II”
Tied together by a mutual appreciation of psychedelia, this split record by Portland’s Grails and Finland’s Pharaoh Overlord is a fitting introduction to each obscure group.
Grails: Deep Politics (Temporary Residence, 3/8/11)
Grails: “I Led Three Lives”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Grails-I-Led-Three-Lives.mp3|titles=Grails: “I Led Three Lives”]The newest album from Portland, Oregon-based instrumental-rock band Grails, Deep Politics, got a nod in a recent installment of This Week’s Best Albums. Mixing cinematic compositions with worldly sounds and a little ’60s psychedelia, it encapsulates, perhaps better than any of its other releases, what Grails is capable of as a band.
For its guest playlist, Grails made 11 picks based on a new, tongue-in-cheek method of determining a song’s quality.
The 11 Best Songs for OD-ing
by Grails
Emil Amos: At a shitty party some years ago, a man was heard to have said in a drunken defense of the Eagles, “More people have shot up and died to this band than will ever hear ours!”
That man was me. After this rip in the logical fabric of the universe was torn, a new yardstick was introduced to the high-record-collector culture around the concept of “Can you OD to it, though?” And then the inevitable schools of thought naturally followed: “Is it a harsh track to OD to, or more mellow/inviting?”
See what you can get out of these, enjoy yourself, and don’t die!
Tangerine Dream: “Ricochet”