2004

A proud Mimicry release, we were graced for one album cycle and are very happy to have helped steady the ladder for this great band (who have now appropriately moved on to The End Records).

Something of a post-modern apocalyptic cult, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum delight in setting folksy allegorical tales of auto-genocide and the species-wide doom we all face to breathtakingly strange and compelling music. With this release, their musical method blossomed and delivered a devastating musical experience. With their dense, multi-harmonic compositions and jagged, intricate rhythms (by far the best in the business on both counts) servicing the artistic equivalent of a Unabomber tract set to music, the music collected in Of Natural History sets a serious high water mark for future generations to look back on in awe-- (assuming future generations are given the chance to exist).

SGM's impressive instrumental array includes many homemade devices suggestive of the avant-garde. But SGM have little in common with those who have marred that field with mere arty obscurantism, jock-like musical gymnasts, and high-brow snootism that doesn't deliver, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum are self-confessed as thoroughgoing populists, warmly regarding their varied audience, and skillfully embracing their role as entertainers. Even though the band boasts heavy-hitters like Carla Kihlstedt (Tin Hat Trio, Carla Bozulich) and Nils Frykdahl of Faun Fables, this is a band that survives and thrives supremely through heavy touring, and in the process has amassed a devoted following. For a band that owes as much to Meshuggah as they do to the Art Bears, Messiaen, and Einstürzende Neubauten, their skewed exhumation of Futurism in reverse strikes a broad nerve and fills a big void. This release captured the band at a point of breakthrough and exaltation. It's loved by thousands!