Amazing Holy Sons live footage.

A rare treat; The Feral Kid, More Mind Briars, Drifter's Sympathy and Gnostic Device, live from SXSW.

Holy Sons live.

"THE FACT FACER" (live in Bloomington) from The Fact Facer on Vimeo.

Survivalist Tales!

After months of anticipation the new Holy Sons album is out, and I have eagerly commenced the relentless back-to-back listenings that accompanied the arrival of all the previous albums. I'd already become thoroughly addicted to 'Look of Pain!' and 'Slow Days', two songs from the album which were available before its release, but now I have a bunch of new songs to wrap my head around which is wonderful.  I struggle to find any appropriate words to describe how I feel about this music, which whilst frustrating is probably part of its magic; I think if you can pin-point exactly why something is pleasing to you it maybe loses some of its lustre.

One of the reasons I love music so much more than other art forms is precisely because I feel as though the creation of it requires some sort of supernatural power that I simply don't have, so it's a constant source of wonder and excitement for me. Sure, you can break a song down into its more mundane parts like words and melodies and rhythms, and that may help towards understanding why the song is successful...but no matter how great your appreciation of those elements, with truly great music there's always something infinitely more mysterious and alchemical going on under the surface of its creation. Here's hoping the mystery of why I love Holy Sons so much remains a mystery to me forever.

Appropriately titled collage by Emil Amos.



Happy

So I've just had the privilege of attending three Om shows and a Holy Sons show in the space of a week, and they were without a doubt some of the best live performances I have ever witnessed.  Biased as I may be, I don't think I'm alone in feeling that these shows were pretty damn special.

I never got to see Om with their original drummer, but I really do think Emil Amos breathes new life into their older material, and even more so into the new music that he's written with Al for the God Is Good album. A definite highlight of every set was the song Cremation Ghat from said album, which features a simple but distinctive, stomping rhythm that departs somewhat from the traditional Om ride-groove formula, and provides Rob (also of supporting act Lichens) with an opportunity for some of his incredible vocal wailing.

The other track that had me grinning stupidly from start to finish was 'To the Shrinebuilder' from Om's split with Current 93, (as seen in my previous post here) during which Emil's drumming reached it's most exciting and bombastic, as did Rob's seriously enthusiastic tambourine playing. I've never had so much fun watching a live band before, and it really struck me how sad it is that Om get lumped in with the stoner metal and doom genre when to me they have very little in common with any of those bands, aside from the fact that Al was in Sleep.  Anyway, I enjoyed every performance immensely and can't wait to hear what they record next, which shouldn't be too far off according to an excellent interview with the band that you can read here.

As for the Holy Sons show, I wasn't quite sure what to expect that night because he doesn't play live often, and when he does it's usually with a band. I was thinking that being a solo show he might do some of his simpler songs accompanied by an acoustic guitar, perhaps in the style of 'I Want to Live a Peaceful Life', but instead we were treated to entirely new and stripped back arrangements of some of my favourite, more layered songs like Drifter's Sympathy (original here), More Mind Briars and Gnostic Device, played on an electric guitar with what seemed like a fair amount of improvisation, on both guitar and vocals. Needless to say, they sounded absolutely stunning and I feel extremely lucky to have witnessed such a unique and rare performance. I also had the opportunity to chat with Emil briefly after several of the shows and he was remarkably warm, funny and friendly, which was just the icing on the cake really. I couldn't have asked for anything more.

Holy Sons Wisdom Part 2

"Open yourself to the world, and see if it loves you back."

Drifter's Sympathy

Holy Sons makes me feel a little bit happier when I'm sad.  Watch this clip, it rules.


DRIFTER'S SYMPATHY from The Fact Facer on Vimeo.

Holy Sons Wisdom

"What do people who want to confront serious matters in their life do with blunt statements like 'Don't Worry be Happy'? You have to point an arrow towards redemption or finding Love in the Universe... to just come out and say "Life is Great, Sit back and enjoy the Party" is to do a disservice to the audience's ability to deal with serious issues that lead to a greater understanding of why life is precious. " 


"Companionship with the like-minded blob, relief of individual responsibilities, and the pressure to join, in most societies, seem to be too hard to avoid for many people..."


" It's important to me to join the force of creativity in the universe as opposed to worshiping it as a subordinate. "


"I think we're collectively going through some sort of aesthetic crisis these days. When I look at the covers of the records assaulting the public daily there seems to be a type of general aesthetic confusion going on. I have a friend that's older and grew up just before punk really hit and he often laments how the punk phenomenon took away the ambition of bands to really learn how to play their instruments or make more 'developed-sounding' records. That's pretty analogous to how Photoshop has put the formerly-respected craft of visual art into the hands of the non-visually-inclined these days. ...We're kind of languishing in a post-modern graveyard y'know? "

I feel a new obsession coming on....

Holy Sons is the solo project of Emil Amos, current drummer for Om and member of the almighty Grails, an amazing band that I've been listening to a lot lately. This video is the first I'd ever heard of Holy Sons and it really stayed with me so I'm sharing it with you here. I'm still too intrigued by this man and his music to really know what else to say, so I'll leave it at that for now.

The Feral Kid from The Fact Facer on Vimeo.