I know that this news has been out since last month, but I’m just now getting somewhat excited about it.
Every now and then, a band comes along that blows your mind, and as you are listening to their albums or watching them live, you wonder “How is this not the biggest band on the planet? Is the world collectively deaf? What the hell is wrong with people?”
Of course, you secretly don’t want them to become huge because you know the music will probably go to shit if they do, but you can’t help but be shocked that they aren’t household names in every state.
I have had this feeling many times in my life, and of those times, two really stand out.
Love Battery and the Screaming Trees.
The former still plays out locally every now and then, and the latter certainly enjoyed some mainstream success, but for whatever reason … neither really got as much play as I was sure they would.
When the Trees broke up in 2000, I was bummed out. That was that. The end of an era.
Or so I thought.
Well, slap my salami and call it Sally, because here I sit 11 years later, eagerly awaiting a brand-spanking-new Screaming Trees album.
Barrett Martin posted on his Facebook page:
“Hey Folks, I’m quite happy to announce that last night, Jack Endino and I finished mixing a new Screaming Trees album. Its the unreleased album we recorded in 1998-99 and its finally coming out on August 2nd on my label. Mark Lanegan, Van Conner, Lee Conner, and myself felt that these final songs should be heard, and soon they shall be. Here’s the album cover, done by the renowned artist Erin Currier.”
Have you ever crashed after a three day coke binge, exhausted, irritable, and anhedonic — and as you were laying in bed, wishing that sweet death would come and take you away on her velvet pillow of oblivion … you suddenly remembered the little plastic container that you duct taped to the inside of your amp?
Yeah, that container.
You know the feeling you get when you scramble out of bed, feel inside of the speaker case, and realize that it’s still there? That’s right, your little plastic pillbox thing is still there! How on earth could you have completely forgotten about it the previous two nights? It’s a damn good thing you were so fucked up on cocaine, otherwise you would have no cocaine left!
You know how you rip the tape out, open the container, and realize that the contents are all still there?
Suddenly, the world is not such an awful place anymore. Your life … it ain’t so bad. The old dude that tried to finger your butthole in the back of the bus when you were 7 … it was probably just a misunderstanding.
Well, that, my friends, is the feeling I get knowing that a new Screaming Trees album is right around the corner. Suddenly, years and years of autotune, Jamie Foxx, folk music, video game music, and Lady Gaga seem like a small, small price to pay for what I am about to receive.
The music industry (Barrett’s own label at least), with all its flaws, has hidden a container for me, and now when I need it most, I’ve remembered where it was.
The album, called “Last Words: The Final Recordings” will be released on August 2, 2011. It’s not so much new material as it is unreleased material, but hey, if you haven’t heard it … it’s new to you.
Now, if only the band would get back together for one more tour, I could go on one, last, satisfying binge.
For old times sake.
The pride of Ellensburg!
Is it just me or does the waiter in the picture look a lot like Lando Calrissian?