An Avant-Metal Icon Mellows, and the Results Are Sensational

I saw them in November at Chop Suey and it was fantastic…

Seattle Weekly:

“The early ’90s Earth albums, Extra-Capsular Extraction, Earth 2, and Phase 3: Thrones and Dominions, are considered to be a holy trinity of sorts for ambient-metal fans. But the aforementioned disciples emerged while Carlson was in hiding, so to speak. As has been documented ad nauseam, Carlson spent the years between 1996 and 2002 flip-flopping between heroin addiction and rehab, but mostly the former.

When he re-emerged, clean and sober, Carlson was greeted with praise from those he had inspired. A lesser musician might have tried being darker and louder than his successors, but Carlson instead got quieter and more reflective. Earth’s 2005 “comeback,” Hex: Or Printing in the Infernal Method, was unmistakably a western album; it sounded like it could be the soundtrack to Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. While still rooted in drone, it resonated with Duane Eddy twang and ghost town atmospherics, worlds beyond the body-buzzing wall of metal Sunn O))) were erecting onstage. …

The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull takes this aesthetic to the next level. Indeed, it is the most melodic, clear-headed record in the Earth catalog. Whereas Hex had maintained a doomy, apocalyptic aura, Bees seems to spend its time staring at the sky. Carlson said his intent with Bees was to make a gospel-style record. The result is a wash of primary-colored guitar and organ tones. The seven songs are seamless; one melody from “Omens and Portents 1: The Driver” morphs into all the others so that, like good jazz, what sticks in your head are not whole songs but moments. But “Miami Morning Coming Down II (Shine)” is certainly the most structured and melody-and-rhythm-driven number in the Earth catalog, containing traces of Ennio Morricone and Johnny Cash. More than Hex, even, that number will confound the devoted Earth listener. But regardless of how broadened Carlson’s color palette has become, drummer Davies and organist Steve Moore keep things anchored, essentially slowing the album’s heartbeat to a near-still, as if keeping time with the natural world.

Bees’ album cover speaks volumes about the band’s past and future. It’s an illustration by N.Y.C.-based artist Arik Moonhawk Roper depicting, quite literally, the album title: bees making honey in a lion’s skull. It’s not as gross as it sounds. Previously, it probably would have been rendered in smears of gray decay. Instead, it’s a lush, colorful portrayal of the organic life cycle of things. “

It’s a song by the late great Elliott Smith that goes something like this (listen.) …

Everything is exactly right
When I walk around here drunk every night
With an open container from 7-11
In St. Ides heaven
I’ve been out haunting the neighborhood
And everybody can see I’m no good
When I’m walking out between parked cars
With my head full of stars
High on amphetamines
The moon is a lightbulb breaking
It’ll go around with anyone
But it won’t come down for anyone
You think you know what brings me down
That I want those things you could never allow
You see me smiling you think it’s a frown
Turned upside down
Cos everyone is a fucking pro
And they all got answers from trouble they’ve known
And they all got to say what you should and shouldn’t do
Though they don’t have a clue
High on amphetamines
The moon is a lightbulb breaking
It’ll go around with anyone
But it won’t come down for anyone
And I won’t come down for anyone

It’s the inspiration for this blog, a journal of a girl staying clean and thinking about what that means. I listened to the song all the time when I was drinking. I also spent alot of time in and out of 7-Elevens.

Who’s crazy enough to do this? An impulsive drunk like me, that’s who.

Well, I’m Blue Ruin, a Seattle chick no longer drinking. I’m interested in addicts and addiction and want to share what I’m learning on my clean journey. This helps me stay clean. I also really like writing and I’m out of practice for various reasons, so let’s practice.

Heard of Blue Ruin before? I hope so. In Eternal Sunshine, Clementine Kruczynski dyes her hair all the time, including the color “blue ruin”. I have a lot in common with CK, no really. Here’s a quote that I actually would utter in so many words before I saw the film. I’m serious: “‘Im just a fucked up girl looking for my own piece of mind, I’m not perfect.” CK’s also a drunk and more than slightly impulsive (thus the whole memory thing, which I’d love to do! Wait, I actually did alot of it when I blacked out from drinking. Hmm. Could be a Film Studies term paper. I’m not writing it…)

Anyhow, the “blue ruin” reference comes from “9th & Hennepin” on Tom Waits’ best album, “Rain Dogs.” Good lord, I hope you’ve heard Rain Dogs. If not, leave now, heathen!

“Blue Ruin” pretty much sums up what alcohol did to my life, in two handy words. I also started drinking heavily about the same time I started listening to Tom Waits (Early Years Vol, 2 — the saddest record ever– thanks to my college ex, KL. No hard feelings, KL. Honest.)

Oh, Tom is sober now, by the way. Did you know that?

Music is a big part of my life, so I’ll be obsessing over it alot here in St. Ides Heaven.

Lyrics to “9th & Hennepin” by Tom Waits: (LISTEN):

Well it’s Ninth and Hennepin
All the doughnuts have names that sound like prostitutes
And the moon’s teeth marks are on the sky
Like a tarp thrown all over this
And the broken umbrellas like dead birds
And the steam comes out of the grill
Like the whole goddamn town’s ready to blow…
And the bricks are all scarred with jailhouse tattoos
And everyone is behaving like dogs
And the horses are coming down Violin Road
And Dutch is dead on his feet
And all the rooms they smell like diesel
And you take on the dreams of the ones who have slept here
And I’m lost in the window, and I hide in the stairway
And I hang in the curtain, and I sleep in your hat…
And no one brings anything small into a bar around here
They all started out with bad directions
And the girl behind the counter has a tattooed tear
One for every year he’s away, she said
Such a crumbling beauty, ah
There’s nothing wrong with her that a hundred dollars won’t fix
She has that razor sadness that only gets worse
With the clang and the thunder of the Southern Pacific going by
And the clock ticks out like a dripping faucet
til you’re full of rag water and bitters and blue ruin
And you spill out over the side to anyone who will listen…
And I’ve seen it all, I’ve seen it all
Through the yellow windows of the evening train…