King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Nonagon Infinity

aren't they the band that lets any label release their stuff so long as they get a copy? maybe that's live records only. still I think "release as much stuff as possible" is kind of this band's M.O.

I suspect that the market for regular CDs is mostly non-existent, and the only way they sell any physical product is through these ultra exclusive drops.

I understand being bummed about CDs if that's your thing, but I think the limited runs on vinyl is just a reality of being a band releasing their own stuff in a world where any affordable pressing plant is likely to be jammed up with neon vinyl reissues of herb alpert records for RSD. The new albums from last year (save Omnium) are, as far as I can see, largely available in the UK at the moment, but they'll come back into print at some point. The alt pressings are just for the collecter scum fanboys, and I'm sure they partly keep the band rolling. But also, they aren't signed to a label, they release their stuff themselves, so I'm guessing they have to run these things on quite tight budgets.

Like I said in my post, I don't blame them for doing what they need to do to survive. It's more just my observation that the distribution has changed in recent years and what used to be easy to scoop up has gotten pretty hard. The last five albums haven't been released on CD at all and only 3 of those 5, afaict, got wide vinyl releases. It seems like they are still kinda associated with ATO since they are reissuing a few vinyl things this year, but doesn't look like the same distribution deal they used to have.

I honestly think a good solution (getting to frogbs' point) would be to license someone like Needlejuice to press up CDs and get a cut from that. I know Needlejuice has done a really good job with the live physical packages they've put together and I'd be happy to support that too.

At the end of the day, obviously I can stream and that's what I've done with the 2022 albums that I missed on vinyl. I think it's just more that I've been collecting these guys since pretty much their fourth album and it's mildly annoying to just have stopped in 2021, despite them still releasing great new stuff.

To more specifically answer frogbs' point - yeah, they freely license live stuff but I think only one or two specific studio albums so far.

ok I'm stoned to the bone and am listening to the album in the thread title for the first time, which I bought purely on good faith based on the cool people in my life. I tell you what going "okay I'm not that high, this really has been going on longer than 5 minutes" is a fun feeling

hahahahahahaha

i can imagine being stoned and not expecting the same riffs ro reoccur throughout the record would be a fun experience

Jon OTM. (I haven’t heard this band but we clearly share similar frustrations about CD availability in the modern era.)

by the way anyone who digs this should check out "N.O.X." on the Motorpsycho album The All is One, which is a similar blend of motorik and hard psychedelic rock. 40 minues long too. kinda makes me wonder if it would've been hyped up more as a separate album. obviously these guys thought this sort of thing would stand on its own.

Good recommendation frogbs, that's a great tune. Motorpsycho was a great discovery for me during the pandemic. Still have a ton of their catalog to discover, but I've fallen hard for everything I've gotten so far, which is everything starting with Death-Defying Unicorn (also got the Blissard 4xCD reissue thing).

you may wanna go a little back for Heavy Metal Fruit, that's when they really started hitting the prog hard and IMO it's one of their best

Definitely on my list, kinda working my way backwards. I think when the new album comes up for pre-order, I'll grab a handful from Stickman.

I'm listening to one of their live shows from last year and it's way harder/bigger than I expected.

going to see them this summer despite not really having listened to much of their music since nonagon infinity. they seem like they'll be fun live though

New album is called "PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation."

Wish I was going this summer, enjoy. I've heard nothing but amazing things about their live shows.

xpost - yep, and per a discussion from another thread, it's not due out until June 16th, but it is completely sold out in every format already.

Apparently many of the variants sold out in 9 minutes. I love these guys, but jfc the tiny pressings and drops drive me absolutely batshit.

they gotta be the only band around right now that could get away with a title like that

well there's a parallel discussion in the billy woods thread about cult-popular hip hop artists like woods and roc marciano and mach-hommy doing similar things

worth checking out - someone asked woods about it in an interview and he said he was not trying to create artificial scarcity, it's just hard for him to find the sweet spot in terms of how many LPs to produce without losing money

yeah, though I think it's a little different for these guys, I suspect there is a bit of intentionality in what they do, because it works. they have fans salivating for these drops and, every time, they sell out nearly instantly. they don't do typical pre-orders, it's precisely timed drops for different regions with different vinyl variants, it reminds me a lot of the hype and drop cycle for like new sneakers. and it works, as someone pointed out on a reddit thread, 6 variants in runs of 10,000 each @ $40 a pop - the band pulled in over 2 million dollars in just a few hours.

correcting faulty numbers there, it was actually runs of 2,000 each, so they "only" cleared half a million in that time frame. still, imagine most artists would kill for those numbers.

enjoying some gizz at the office, great way to momentarily chase away bad vibes

what gizz did you go for?

definitely reckon the dripping tap would annihilate any badvibes

IDPLML

"mycelium" is low key the most positive song ever recorded

They're playing three sold out shows here. Assuming I can get in, I'm trying to figure out which of the three might be the most strategically appealing for a band with 25 albums that I've never seen live before. First show? Third show?

have they announced any themes for the three shows?

Ooh, I never even thought about that. I did a quick google and I think word is they are not going to repeat any songs over the course of the three nights, so ... roll a dice?

I’m going on the 13th.

they've done metal shows, garage shows, etc, before. they're also REALLY GREAT at pacing and planning their setlists - the show i took my then-8yo to a couple of months ago began with a bunch of their thrash jams, then eased into some Nonagon Infinity stuff, and then slipped into a bunch of Butterfly 3000 stuff, and it all worked together so well.

I'll be there tonight, no idea what to expect. I'll be the one looking old and confused and (checks weather) possibly damp.

My only advice as a fellow old is if it is general admission, be careful about standing in the middle of the crowd. I made that mistake when I saw them and almost got crushed as soon as they started playing.

all metal so far!!!!

now stoner krautrock boogie

now space prog

hope you're having a blast these guys sound like a lot of fun

a little too phishy for me at times, but they are all over the place in a good way

This sounds a lot like the show I saw a few years ago. Started off super heavy but after a while shifted into more of a mellow jam mood that I found less engaging.

it's gone back and forth tonight. two hours straight, thought it'd be longer, maybe because of the rain.

the "stoner krautrock boogie" segment/medley was the peak for me, especially the flute song (maybe not coincidentally, this is also when the rain finally stopped). the metal stuff is fun but feels pastichey imo.

Talked to a dude who flew in from Seattle. This was his 15th show this tour, and he said it was a great set. But I get the feeling they don't really do "bad" sets, just always a hodgepodge of their styles.

My buddy, a recovering Phish guy, was impressed. On one hand, he said, there were moments that reminded him of peak 1995 Phish (I trust him), but he also said there was also lots of other stuff that Phish could never authentically pull off, like the metal or krautrock/psych. Maybe Ween could do that, I dunno, I've never really listened to Ween. (I did see a few Ween shirts, but I also saw a kid wearing a Rites of Spring shirt.)

Anyway, it was fun, not really my scene, so a change of pace.

i saw someone wearing a green velvet cape with a fur collar and a ween logo on the back

I know that before they did the metal albums they were anxious that they wouldn't seem like dilletantes, that it wouldn't seem like pastiche. I know Stu's favourite era of metal is that moment when prog hits thrash - And Justice For All-era Metallica - and I think they make a fine fist of that noise. Certainly Gaia is one of the finest metal songs I've heard in years - that groove, those changes.

I like metal KG, but I'm also definitely a metal dilettante

Ha! Me too tbh...

Sounds like a pretty good show! I have to admit I haven't heard much Phish in their stuff just yet, but I haven't seen them live and haven't caught up with any of the recent recordings. I could see them hitting on some similar jam vibes though.

we couldn't really figure out how much jamming was happening - i'm guessing some of the solos were improvised but there would also be sudden shifts in tempo/rhythm that seemed like they had to be planned, so structurally it didn't seem as jammy