Silkworm: C/D?

Midgett & Cohen have a new band called Bottomless Pit...

Indeed, and here's some promo guff I just got:

The first release on the newly formed Comedy Minus One label (formed by My Pal God's Jon Solomon) is the debut compact disc by Chicago's Bottomless Pit, titled Hammer of the Gods which streets on Nov. 6. Bottomless Pit is the new group formed by erstwhile Silkworm members Tim Midgett and Andy Cohen. They are joined by longtime friends Chris Manfrin (Seam) and Brian Orchard (.22). Hammer of the Gods is soulful, emotionally intense, and often transcendent post-punk that is as inviting as it is bracing. The band has a handful of shows coming up and will be touring more extensively in the near future.

Promos available upon request.

Bottomless Pit - Hammer of the Gods Track List:

1.The Cardinal Movements
2.Dogtag
3.Repossession
4.Leave The Light On
5.Dead Man's Blues
6.Human Out Of Me
7.Greenery
8.Sevens Sing

Press Photos:
http://www.forcefieldpr.com/pressphotos/bottomlesspit/

BOTTOMLESS PIT LIVE DATES

Friday October 19 - Cactus Club - Milwaukee, WI
Saturday October 20 - Coral Room - Madison, WI
Saturday November 3 - Brillobox - Pittsburgh, PA

www.bottomlesspit.us

www.myspace.com/bottomlesspitchicago

www.comedyminusone.com

www.myspace.com/comedyminusone

And here's the mp3 for "The Cardinal Movements."

I like this. I'm glad they're still making music, it would have been even more tragic if they stopped after the accident.

i saw bottomless pit live they were good. i'm excited for the double 45s...cool idea...

the Bottomless Pit album is really, really good. Like, REALLY good.

Great to hear. Must check it out.

5.Dead Man's Blues

this was my favorite track on the CDR they sold on tour, very Silkwormy

looking forward to hearing the album

"Reposession" is fantastic

This Bottomless Pit rekkid is just slaying folks - utterly awesome songs - just wish it was longer. Anyone know if there's any US dates on tap?

going to see bottomless pit tonight : ) : )

we were gonna tour together before my health went down the tubes :(

oh really?? jeez that sucks.
i'm sorry yr feeling poorly j0hn get well.

kadane bros. from bedhead are on the bill tonight as well so it sounds like there will be some collabo jamz.

it's all right I'm on the mend thank you matt!

bottomless pit was great, last time i saw them was one of their first shows they've gelled a lot since then.

but yeah honestly great stuff. the kadane bros. did a mix of bedhead, new year, and new stuff off an upcoming album. they are sorta doomed to be the really unpopular Low, but i think they are great.

STNNNG opened and played bunch of amazing shit, the best being "A Tremblin' Blues" which imagines that Physical Grafitti-era Led Zep wrote a 7 minute version of "Salad Days" by Minor Threat.

IN THE WEST

i don't get the firewater love, this band was never the same after phelps left. this brings me back to high school.

i love pre- and post-phelps silkworm, "libertine" and "firewater" are my two faves

libertine is amazing, yes. firewater, i don't mind, but phelps's contributions were an essential part of the trifecta which made silkworm work for me.

btw matador has found some old LPs in a warehouse, firewater and developer on vinyl on their site for cheap

cutty do you have any of the phelps downer trio stuff? it's pretty good too.

i like all eras of this band.

whoa thanks dude! i just picked those up.

i've never listened to phelps-era silkworm; but trio silkworm/bottomless pit is probably top 5 all-time for me

IN THE WEST

i don't get the firewater love

I like In the West but to me they transitioned from (sometimes literal) Pavement followers / noisy indie into more of their own thing (even if their "own thing" has heavy Television + Neil Young vibes). and the lyrics became a bigger deal -- Miracle Mile, Don't Make Plans This Friday, Slow Hands all some of my favorites by them. even if it is sort of a downer record

even if even if

cutty do you have any of the phelps downer trio stuff?

i love the phelps solo stuff, yes. did any here get a chance to see silkworm with phelps?

i've never listened to phelps-era silkworm

this is mind boggling. he has the best songs on the first two records.

my firewater and developer lps got here today; rockin out to firewater now and soooooo happy

please try the earlier records, thank you

ordered libertine 20 minutes ago--just for you, cutty

is in the west OOP? because i will post it here.

amazon sez: physical version has been discontinued, still available from amazon mp3 tho

also check out the marco collins sessions EP

my firewater and developer lps got here today; rockin out to firewater now and soooooo happy

― call all destroyer, Tuesday, April 7, 2009 9:27 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
just curious, is your firewater 1 lp or 2?

No more simple tunes
No more easy poon
It takes so many millions to get laid

great, great opening line

it's 2 lps. 10 bucks from the matastore!

completely addicted to the two bottomless pit records.

particularly "red pen." great, great song.

really into bottomless pit now too

yeah, I keep putting the congress EP on again because I wish there were MORE.

Man every single time I play Lifestyle I'm reminded of why I fucking love rock music when the guitar solo kicks in on "Around the Outline".

fucking incredible record imo

It really is.

the "AIN'T YOU EVER BEEN ALONE IN YOUR LIFE?" part of the chorus to "Treat the New Guy Right" might be my favorite moment in any rock song ever

So hard to pick just one moment though. Really loving the "Ooh La La" cover, so good. Why the hell weren't these guys ever huge?

yepppp

they were huge. for me.

cutty otm

Why the hell weren't these guys ever huge?

I think part of it is that, for the press, they weren't a band that presented any kind of really appealing built-in "story angles"...you know, like for instance Animal Collective or Joanna Newsom or Bonnie Prince Billy or Pavement etc etc

like three/four workmanlike midwest regular dudes playing rock that split the difference between 90s indie and 70s classic rock but not in a flashy way

but isn't that basically GBV's story, too? And they had more success than Silkworm ... I guess GBV had Pollard's bajillions of songs + hard drinking live show as a story hook.

Also Pollard's former life as a school-teacher was a pretty big hook too, especially when you read 90s interviews.

gbv was catchy. i love silkworm's pretty lackadaisical approach to writing choruses.

yeah also GBV were such a drunk circus live

Silkworm was a huge band for me too. I was more of a Libertine/Firewater fan than Lifestyle, but "Treat the New Guy Right" is definitely one of their best songs ever.

also a big fan

I finally got around to seeing Bottomless Pit live about 4-5 months ago and it was great. I can't get into the records as much as Silkworm but it was just amazing to see Midgett and Cohen, they're an intense live band.

i bought firewater when i was 16 based on a review in puncture magazine and i didn't get it at first either. the albini "live" production was weird to me, there are a lot of songs on that album, etc. i think it was just that physical media era thing of "well i bought this CD, i guess i should keep listening to it even if it doesn't make sense to me" where i kept putting it on until it stuck with me. i'm sure i still wasn't connecting with the lyrics on an emotional level as a teenager but i came to love the sound of the album and the songs.

the first time I put on developer I rolled my eyes and thought it sounded like a parody of monotonous 90s indie. it was the darker songs like “don’t look back” and the poppier stuff on lifestyle that pulled me in

https://thecrustbrothers.bandcamp.com/album/fight-songs

unreleased crust brothers? five "fight songs" for NFL teams, around 10-20 seconds each

bizarre, never heard the Cars covers either.

Fun. Comedy Minus One is great but I really wish they didn't change the artwork for their Silkworm reissues. I don't like when album art is just basically a press photo, especially when it's needlessly replacing something recognizable and inspired. Not worth the only benefit of immediately knowing it's NOT an original.

i'm guessing the remaining band members had some input tho

Fun. Comedy Minus One is great but I really wish they didn't change the artwork for their Silkworm reissues. I don't like when album art is just basically a press photo, especially when it's needlessly replacing something recognizable and inspired. Not worth the only benefit of immediately knowing it's NOT an original.

― Evan, Friday, 3 February 2023 18:18 (twenty-three minutes ago) link

I believe in the cases of In The West and Libertine it had to do with not having access to the original artwork and jah I'm sure the band had input. The reissue artwork of Chokes! is the same bar the label logo.

Curious about the Firewater and Developer reissues coming sometime in the future...

Yeah it's just disappointing, whatever the reason. No big deal though.

https://www.comedyminusone.com/2023/08/03/deep-tunnel-project-members-of-silkworm-and-tar-join-comedy-minus-one-for-debut-album/

Excited for that, though I wish Comedy Minus One wasn't so CD averse lately (but that's more my issue than theirs).

i'm sure the guy would probably show you all the boxes of unsold cds but yeah wish it were an option more often

it's frustring the live clip they show the soundguy has literally forgotten to turn on the vocals then he "fixes" it to barely audible.

Oh yeah, not casting judgement on them at all, I get it. Just personally would have bought more titles from them in the past if it was an option. I got all the Bottomless Pit ones, which I loved.

fuck yeah the silkworm thread's open. party at the silkworm thread

Crust Brothers "Marquee Mark" physical object original pressing quietly reappeared on bandcamp friday (7 remaining as of posting):

https://thecrustbrothers.bandcamp.com/album/marquee-mark

goin to acuapulcooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

https://mintmile.bandcamp.com/album/roughrider

Nina Nastasia providing guest vocals on one track = ums catnip x2

haha no shit! thanks for sharing

"people who text with Steve Albini" rock

accurate!

kids these days are all Shoegaze this, Slowcore that, while overlooking what they REALLY need, the cure for what ails em: Missoula, Montana indie rock band Silkworm

— keegan (@FranziaMom) December 20, 2023

nice to see some love for silkworm. raging bull is an all-timer

i love the songs on libertine but it's serious earache to listen to on headphones, even by albini's standards. it actually sounds ass backwards to my ears; everything that should stand out in the songs is pushed to right the back. as spoken upthread, i wonder how this band would have done with a just marginally more forward production at times...

I feel like later on they did

if they were ever going to have a minor hit it was going to be this and I don't see how the production or mix could be better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9nQ8OARDcg

a lot of those earlier albini productions sound dated to me now - kind of muffled or flat or something? like i've never enjoyed how those classic pixies albums sound. sometime in the mid-90s things improved, the drums sound more alive on albums like firewater and at action park.

yeah I know what you mean it does feel like he makes some kind of breakthrough

or honestly maybe some of the bigger paydays meant he could buy better gear