Must say I think Pelican to be much overhyped. While smooth and slightly stoney, they aren't doing anythng to get excited about. Saw them perform with Mono and the Mono performance revealed the homogeneity of the Pelican material and the brainlless sheep that flocked to see Pelican not surprisingly walked out on Mono. Pelicasn demonstrated no nuance or depth to the sogwriting or arrangements. Seemed like one long (boring) song. Mono on the other hand made epic impressionistic mayhem that was played with a sensitivity and delicacy in their songwriting and arrangement that was incredible, imaginative, and thoroughly engaging.

Dead Meadow was much more interesting than Pelican, but that's not saying much.

See early Jennyanykind

no new ground here.

and especially not worth the hype-risen ticket prices. Thanks Pitchfork.

While I'm on that tip, the Pitchfork fest was the biggest flame out of the past summer. Demonstrated how much of what the site hypes as gold fades in the light of day, at least at a large outdoor festival. Most of the acts need to remain in the small dark confines of a club to retain the intimacy necvessary to get their point across-see Destroyer, Mountain Goats, Silver Jews, etc. And the lineup arrangement was peculiar to say the least. Funny how most of the "seasoned" acts were the hstrongest of the festival. More big sunglasses and ironic t-shirts this summer?

god, get me out of the 80s

Why omit Mastodon? "Thinking person's metal" is such a condescending term, the kind (sorry, David) usually employed by metal dilettantes. Just because Isis or Pelican may borrow from acceptably "arty" styles like shoegazer or post-punk doesn't mean they're the only - or even primary - bands worth a damn. When Ulver or Watain's got a new album, maybe a post will be in order. Seriously, metal doesn't have to sound like Cluster or Brian Eno for it to be 1) worthwhile, 2) gripping, or 3) cerebral.

I listened to the Pelican thing that was posted; it was strictly o.k.

Now I want to know what makes it, "intelligent"? It sounded like some very ordinary metal to me, except that it doesn't swing. Whenever the word, "intelligent", makes an appearance in an assessment of a piece of music, the piece is guaranteed to be tightassed. Here now revealed is metal's dirty, funky secret: since Zeppelin and Van Halen used James Brown tunes to warm up on and get themselves in the proper frame of mind, through Sepultura's Brazilian revelation, and right on up to Mastodon's 'drums, front and center' polyrhythmic attack, metal has been a form of dance music.

Put this up against the 'intelligent' stuff, whose only contributions to the form are a straghtjacket for the drummer, and a lobotomy for the bassist.

After all this time it's still true - it don't mean a fucking thing if it aint got that swing.

If you weren't there in 1967, then you can't understand. You should have researched what the Beatles themselves have stated about Pepper; John Lennon said it wasn't a concept album, and that the songs could have been on any other LP. Did you know that "I Am The Walrus" was planned for Pepper, but it was released as the flip to "Hello Goodbye" after a early demo of the track turned up on radio?

During the Beatles era, if they released a song with brass, everyone did the same; if they used a string quartet, then everyone did the same. If they grew moustaches and/or beards, then everyone did the same. It's a fact that the typography of the Rubber Soul LP influenced the pop art music posters from San Francisco and elsewhere.

I could go on and on, but here's one more tiny piece of info... in 1967, we were all listening to AM radio. Have you ever heard "Manic Depression" or "Purple Haze" on AM? Terrible audio quality, you miss so much. The first track I heard was on the day it was released, on AM radio -- "When I'm 64." The audio was clear as a bell, try that with other music from that era.

Here's more Sixties trivia for you -- name a song mixed through a automobile AM radio speaker... "Summer In The City," by Lovin' Spoonful. Now, name a song mixed on a cassette deck with tinny speakers... "Jumpin' Jack Flash."

There's more to music than meets the ear.