What's teh big deal about Pentagram, anyway?

Yeah this really isn't much more than second-tier acid rock (as mentioned above), but goddamn if "20 Buck Spin" doesn't slay me every time.

The last song of their main set Sat night was "20 Buck Spin." Awesome. They hit that fuzzy low-end sweet spot that literally tickled my balls. There is something special about them. There's no shortage of bands inspired by Black Sabbath, but how many of them had their own tribute band (Witchcraft)?

They dedicated Day Of Reckoning (1987) to Blue Cheer, but it doesn't really sound like them either. My friend Tomiiko who went to see them with me says that a documentary is in the works. They recorded the Empty Bottle show, but that's for a live album.

The last update was a year ago: http://blogs.myspace.com/pentagramdocumentary

I think they still have plenty of magic these days, unlike Iommi. The comparisons with Sab are exaggerated - based on Relentless maybe, where the Sab influence is strongest? They're more of a heavy southern rock OTT Christian guilt garage thing. What they have is those great southern vocals. They must be a tricky band to mix though, some of those albums grapple with the Liebling/gtr balance. I don't consider them second tier. First tier without a doubt, but very unstable in someway, a bit unhinged.

Bobby always big ups Blue Cheer and The Stooges more than Sabbath, I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmbPA6OUjA0

\m/

Here's what I said about Pentagram for the Voice in 2003. It was for a collection and I rated it a little higher than I would now. Not indispensable but it encapsulated Bobby Liebling's thing.

"southern rock OTT Christian guilt" from upstream made me laugh. Liebling definitely had Cotton Mather drilled into him somehow.

Thirty years in the business, almost twice that many records sold—or so it seems. But for Pentagram, persistence of vision works. The collection is mid-'80s Cotton Mather-inspired sludge 'n' cack, a style absolutely no mass demographic is or was interested in—shunned even in Britain, where this band of Virginians was mystifyingly sent to market. "Vampire Love" is a catchy trudge-metal classic; "The Ghoul," Edgar Allan Poe for those prone to tattooing themselves using the nibs off fountain pens. And Bobby Liebling is a Roky Erickson type who mixes blues mumbling, I'm-living-in-a-ram's-head black metal dogma, and Johnny Cash storytelling in the space of an hour and a half.

We did a whole story on Victor Griffin/Pentagram last year, for those into such things. (Griffin lives here in town, is why we devoted so much space to him.)

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/68284_150458288337600_150457901670972_287045_6806794_n.jpg

Liebling founded the first incarnation of Pentagram in Arlington, Va., just outside of Washington, D.C., in 1971. That version of the band had more than a dozen members over the course of the decade, but recorded only three demos and two singles.

^great article, but I think this quote doesnt do the 70's stuff justice.

http://www.spin.com/articles/meet-dr-doom-pentagrams-bobby-liebling-returns

I just got Be Forewarned on double vinyl via Svart. It's smoking.

Be Forewarned (the song) sounds like a version of the 13th Floor Elevators nurtured in hell.
There are a couple of good songs also on the Bedemon reissue.

Saw the Bobby Liebling documentary at SXSW. It's a pretty awesome and unbelievable story, regardless of how you feel about Pentagram.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-Kk5K1mLmg

saw the film, which ain't bad at all. I don't have any use for the music.

Just saw the documentary myself. Goddamn. I don't know how he's doing these days but I hope he's holding it together.

In related news, listening to a lot of Pentagram today.

Despite/maybe because of the basement sound quality, love "Catwalk":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN23dhNaATw

That riff, man, so snakey.

Be Forewarned is pretty fuckin' great

I will rep for Review Your Choices but damn if I can’t get the feeling that they are the American Sabbath out my head

Bobby is out of jail and they are currently on tour:
http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/bobby-liebling-is-back-pentagram-announces-10-city-u-s-tour-in-march/

Just watched the documentary. If the comments in the above link are to be trusted, his later life is even worse than I expected, he went to jail for assaulting his mother, kicked his girlfriend and child out and went back to drugs in a big way.