Despite the fact that some may know them only as a footnote in the annals of Allmusic.com as “the band Mount Eerie’s Phil Elverum used to drum for for like a second,” Old Time Relijun might in fact be *the* cult K Records band. Centered around eccentric multi-instrumentalist, singer, lyricist, and owner of the coolest name in indie rock — Arrington de Dionyso — the Olympia group have spent the last ten years on a hiatus their PR people want me to call “mysterious.” A hiatus that is about to end very soon: Old Time Relijun have announced that they will perform a string of West Coast dates to celebrate the 23rd anniversary of their becoming a relijun.
In their most active days, roughly between 1997 and 2007, the band released seven albums of unhinged and perplexing, avant-garde garage blues (or a “thunder-lightning-tidal-wave of Primordial Sound”), reminiscent of both Captain Beefheart and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Since their sort-of-but-not-really dissolution, de Dionyso has released even crazier music under the name Malaikat dan Singa (you guessed it: all the songs were performed in Indonesian).
Old Time Relijun will be reuniting the line-up that created their last LP together, Catharsis in Crisis, which means that de Dionyso will be joined by Aaron Hartman (upright bass), Germaine Baca (drums), and Benjamin Hartman (saxophone and percussion). The four-piece are taking both your beloved “ancient sing-alongs” and new material on the 5 (a.k.a. the West Coast of the US) in October and November. Check out the dates — and maybe find your lost relijun by revisiting some of the band’s cathartic catalog — down below:
Old Time Relijun 23 Anniversary West Coast tour dates:
10.13.18 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios
10.14.18 - Seattle, WA - The Tractor Tavern
11.02.18 - Los Angeles, CA - The Echo
11.03.18 - San Francisco, CA - The Chapel