“We shall support everything that the enemy opposes and oppose everything that the enemy supports.” Like Mao Zedong, some folks are just plain stubborn. Take Ben Chasny, for example. Just when you thought you could pigeonhole him with a convenient tag, he turns his heels and strides confidently into another guise, be it Badgerlore, Comets on Fire, August Born, Current 93, Plague Lounge, Basalt Fingers, or Six Organs of Admittance. I am positive there are more Chasny outfits that I am forgetting, but I am advancing the strict paragraph word count imposed by Chairman P dangerously close to the breaking point. I would go on, but if I show a bit of individualism and stretch the rules, the result may be castration (TMT’s book of state policies is fuzzy on this point; the only words I can translate clearly are “nuts” and “vise,” so I’m not going to take my chances, if you don’t mind).
After spending much of 2006 jumping in and out of a wide variety of studio and tour beds, Chasny opted to concentrate his efforts this year on his Six Organs of Admittance project. Flanked at times by Matt Sweeney, Elisa Ambrogio (Magik Markers), Tim Green (Fucking Champs), and Comets on Fire bandmate Noel Harmonson, the resulting album is bound to be his most focused and confident disc as Six Organs of Admittance. Or maybe it will be his most frazzled and fragile record. Regardless, Shelter From the Ash will be out November 20 on Drag City.
Chasny notes on the Six Organs website that Shelter From the Ash contains “Themes of war, the end of the world, the inherent evil in leaders as they send the young to die, abandonment, the singularity, the impending 'accident,' and those sorts of general good times abound. Have fun!” Um, I like the where you are going with this album Ben, but you forgot to mention rampant epidemics, intolerance, the increasing trampling of human rights, tragic poverty, global warming, stepping in doggie doo, and NASCAR among your list of underlying charged influences. Some people just cannot be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered! Chasny is not a number; he is a free man, man! To rebel is justified!
1. Alone with the Alone
2. Strangled Road
3. Jade Like Wine
4. Coming To Get You
5. Goddess Atonement
6. Final Wing
7. Shelter From the Ash
8. Goodnight
Who wants to see a true master of guitar manipulation at a bar or venue where you can get pissed, be with like-minded people who follow and respect the artist, and get a full show’s worth of material in the manner intended by the performer when you can sit cross-legged on the shit-bum floor of a record store with scores of pea-brained cheapskates under the warm feel of fluorescent lights, sober? Hooray for no one! Yeah, yeah, sure... in-stores rule
11.16.07 - Los Angeles, CA - Amoeba Music (Hollywood), 6:30 PM
11.17.07 - Berkeley, CA - Amoeba Music, 4:00 PM
11.20.07 - Portland, OR - Jackpot, 6:00 PM
11.21.07 - Seatlle, WA - Sonic Boom (Capitol Hill), 7:00 PM
[Photo: Kami Chasny]
