King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Nonagon Infinity

I see they're touring. I'm only a casual fan - I know their discography is ridiculous but I've scarcely listened to 1/4 of it - but I'm sure it would be a great show. £40 a ticket though, is that normal these days? Sold out anyway.

lol that's sort of my thinking. I've only heard one or two songs from them, but they've released 100 albums and have earned a grassroots level of legit appreciation, so advantage King Gizzard, I will totally see them. (fwiw, was just visiting family in Australia, and neither my brother in law - nor *his* hipper brother in law - had heard of them.)

I went to the Red Rocks show in November 2022 as "only a casual fan" and left a fully converted Gizzhead after 30 songs and a three-hour marathon set.

One of the best live shows I saw all year.

XP: If they get a giddy mention in a state government press announcement they can't be toooo obscure domestically!

they've played some pretty big venues here in aus but it's a cult following thing where unless you're an active music fan you probably wouldn't know who they are

got a ticket, in the circle, ah well. nevertheless.

having listened to two of the most recent of their five 2022 albums i'm feeling good about my decision (to buy the ticket, would still prefer to be in the stalls).

I'm a pretty big fan of these guys, but didn't expect they'd have a lot of ilm love. I'm really disappointed that they've given up releasing their music on CD and have just fully embraced the multi-pressing, varied color LP thing for every single release, but the 2022 material was pretty good. I'd rank 'em:

Ice, Death, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava (seriously great record that I recommend to the curious, one of their best albums ever imho)
Omnium Gatherum
Laminated Denim
Made in Timeland
Changes

Dumb question about bands like this and lots of other similarly prolific acts. Can they really remember and tell apart all the hundreds of weird songs they've released? I always wondered that about guided by voices; so many songs, so many weird non-sequitor titles, how many could Robert Pollard name? I suppose jazz guys are equally if not more prolific - like, how many albums or songs has Bill Frisell recorded? I bet even he has no idea - but jazz is often about quickly moving forward onto the next thing, not a lot of retrospective stuff. Does a band like this operate similarly? Are there songs fans expect them to play, or do they expect every set to be a semi-improvised psychedelic explosion, with a few nods here and there to current stuff or fan fave stuff?

I've never seen them live, but heard a few live recordings and it seems to be all over the place - some shows are just a grab-bag from all over, they have a number of fan favorites that show up a lot, other focus more on specific modes/genres (the microtonal thing they've done on a few albums, or the heavier rock stuff paired with the material from the thrash record, etc.).

KGLW definitely play specific songs in their live shows including at least a few fan favorites, I don't think the live material is particularly improvised. They obviously have a lot of space for improvised solos, but it all seems fairly planned out in advance.

Can they really remember and tell apart all the hundreds of weird songs they've released?

Stu is insanely sharp, and seems to have a handle on everything Gizzard has done (though he admits he doesn't own all their stuff on vinyl). It helps, I think, that a lot of their stuff is conceptual, in sound if not text: each of the three albums they put out at the end of last year follows its own strict concept, and I interviewed him about them and he had a real clear understanding about each one, how the songs work within that concept, and what they were doing. He's deep into world-building and has an insanely driven work-ethic - he's not just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks, everything seems, on some level, to be an intellectual exercise, and he understands what he's doing and what the music is doing. With Pollard, I feel there's a mercenary vibe that's developed in later years (maybe less so than circa GBV's initial split and the avalanche of releases that followed), where he seems to be focused on making PRODUCT, and knowing that there's a faithful audience there that will purchase all his output, even box sets sourced from fan-circulate bootlegs. For Stu, he seems genuinely intellectually engaged with each project Gizz do - there's an infectious sense of joy, and one shared among the other bandmates. It's a bit of a utopian thing, if you can dig it.

Are there songs fans expect them to play, or do they expect every set to be a semi-improvised psychedelic explosion, with a few nods here and there to current stuff or fan fave stuff?

At the Red Rocks show in November 2022, they played 30 distinct songs from their 23 albums. Many had improvisational bits added and/or were extended live versions, but the improvisation was tied to existing studio cuts. A few songs were transitioned into each other seamlessly (unlike on the studio albums). The two prior Red Rocks shows in October had another 55 to 60 unique songs with no overlap between the three setlists — close to 90 songs across three shows and nine hours.

I spoke with a superfan who said that altogether, King Gizzard played about 130 different songs on last year's tour.

This summer's run of three Red Rocks shows in June 2023 is promised to be similar. Three shows with no overlap between the setlists for fans who want to attend all three (... and you can guess how many shows I have tickets for).

I'm really disappointed that they've given up releasing their music on CD

My wallet is torn about this. I have a complete set of King Gizzard studio albums on CD — it was finally easier to keep up last year!

I'm just not into the variant chasing thing and their vinyl is really expensive (although I did finally cave and buy Ice, Death) so I was happy to keep rolling with the CDs. The abandonment was surprising since they'd even gone back a year or two ago to specifically release stuff that wasn't previously on CD, like Quarters.

Hopefully, they'll come back around with CD pressings of the recent albums. I'll certainly pick up copies if they do.

Ice, Death, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava (seriously great record that I recommend to the curious, one of their best albums ever imho)
Omnium Gatherum
Laminated Denim
Made in Timeland
Changes

― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, January 17, 2023 11:30 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

interesting, Changes is my fav of their 2022 albums! feels like the most fusiony steely dan-ish of them. Omnium Gatherum prob would've been #1 without the rapping.

I need to give Changes more of a chance I think, it honestly might have been KG exhaustion by the time I got to it when I was powering through the three October albums. Yeah, the rapping was awful and I'm so glad Changes wasn't the "rap" album that some fans were theorizing on based on the cover art.

yeah otm i love all their sounds so far but the dad rap

Omnium Gatherum prob would've been #1 without the rapping.

There was almost a whole rap album. Omnium's my favourite of the bunch, and 'The Dripping Tap' is probably my favourite track of 2022 and maybe the best thing they've ever done? 'Gaia''s also their best full-on metal number yet. But all those records are great.

So there was some basis to those rumors/theories... er, uh, not looking forward to that one.

"The Dripping Tap" alone is what prompted OG to be my #2 for the year.

Hahaha, I don't think it'll ever see the light of day tbh. Joey said "We were very aware how problematic it was, six white idiot psych-rock guys, making hip-hop…”

Ice, Death, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava (seriously great record that I recommend to the curious, one of their best albums ever imho)

listened to this earlier, never heard this band before but it reminded me so much of Gong that i ended up throwing on the Dashiell Hedayat record.

They definitely are like an Antipodean Gong. Same playfil attitude allied to thrilling muso chops and willingness to go balls-out without a safety net.

not quite sold on this band but i'm onboard with the recurring falsetto wooooh's that enochroot didn't like, it's never quite expected and made me laugh a bunch of times.

yeah, broadly Gong-like in attitude and approach but there are also more direct similarities, at least on that one record.

Can they really remember and tell apart all the hundreds of weird songs they've released? I always wondered that about guided by voices; so many songs, so many weird non-sequitor titles, how many could Robert Pollard name?

well a key difference is they have a ton of stylistic variety compared to guided by voices who pretty much just have one sound so it's probably easier for them

God this band is good live. Yet I never have any desire to listen to their recorded output. Bummed I didn't catch tickets for their upcoming Brisbane show. If you ever get a chance to see the Giz, do not pass it up, even if you hate them.

Yeah I'd love to see them, but the tickets disappear almost instantly around here, since they (understandably) don't tour a ton over here, meaning their shows are "events".

Diving more into Omnium. These guys rule. I even like the rap tracks. So much wit and spirit. I wasn’t sure about em but I’m getting increasing returns.

The most impressive thing about the giz is that with their ridiculous output, they’re never boring.

yeah totally! i mean there are honestly some sections here and there when i am a little ??? but the imagination and engagement is just consistently there & they always bring a smile to my face within a few seconds. some impressive songwriting too that feels very intuitive. as far as the metal goes, it's not like they're technical masters or anything, but the real draw through all their styles for me is the philosophy, outlook and spirit behind it. like "gaia" as a subject, that's hippie shit, but they kind of go off the deep end a little bit, i.e. it's hippie stuff that gets it right and drops the self-importance and is more often than not an arresting song, like the byrds' "5d" or something.

it's perfect stoner music for the times and makes me have some faith in people since they're apparently kinda huge now among a certain type? i also just love that they deliver a concentrated version of the feeling of being younger and having a bunch of music freaks for friends and just like eating it all whole.

i'm also enjoying that they're not afraid of some things that might come across as kinda cheesy, it's all in the service of their whole vibe. also when they bring out eclectic instruments, even when they're obviously not masters of the instrument or anything, the imagination delivers and, like you said h p, it's never boring.

otm to everything. They really capture some of the best parts of Australian youth culture: wide optimism towards everything, the willingness to have "FUN" at the expense of status. Re: the hippie stuff, I think it's because Giz is so broad in their style that whichever style they pick loses the corniness as it is more of an exercise of "let's pull out all the fun/good from this particular style" and less of a "lets take conceptual metal albums or hippie gaia musing as some narrow road to the truth" that can inadvertently come out of bands where such a style is a sole focus.

and yeah, they are huge over here. It's a surprise to meet anyone under 30 who doesn't at least know of the giz. And I mean anyone, yuppies, beachies, do-nothing'ies, churchies, skate'ies, gamer....'ies, etc. etc. And even if the band is not for said people, there's still a sense of respect given (work-ethic and diversity, we suck at it so we respect it when we see it).

oh that's interesting to hear about their audience in australia.

i see them doing all of these big venues here in the states in the summer, red rocks and all that - with multi-day engagements, matinee shows, that kind of thing. it seems to me that they're the perfect "college music fan" band of the 2020s, i think of the crowd i was with in the early 2000s that were into flaming lips and jam bands and indie rock and jazz and stuff.

everyone otm and I need to listen to them more, they are very big with the kids at the college station I DJ at

I’m getting increasing returns.

This is absolutely them, for me. The more I listen, the more I love it. The more of it there is, the more I admire them. It helps that my 8yo is currently OBSESSED and plays them non-stop at the moment.

Re: Gaia, I think that's their best "metal" song yet. I think it was Rat's Nest that made me realise how genius this band was - that they could play such a breadth of music, but also demonstrate such a depth of understanding, or at very least sincere enthusiasm, in all that music at the same time. They played thrash so well, so enjoyably. But Gaia is something else - the way the riffs ride over the switching grooves, the sliding sections of it, the sheer heaviness and darkness of it.

Their embrace of climate politics is 100% sincere, by the way. I don't doubt Stu believes Gaia theory and is probably on the planet's side tbh.

yep I agree with map, idk if this band is gonna be my thing (I like what I've heard though) but either way it's super cool they're as big as they are. They really do seem to be having fun with what they're doing and I love how they seem to just let anyone who wants to press their records. For a band as strange as they are sometimes they seem to be fairly well known. I've heard them brought up in conversation a lot lately and my local shop has a bunch of posters for them up.

Their embrace of climate politics is 100% sincere, by the way. I don't doubt Stu believes Gaia theory and is probably on the planet's side tbh.

oh absolutely, you can hear it! i didn't mean to sound dismissive of it by calling it hippie shit - that is really nice to hear atm and i think it's part of what makes them so appealing. "gaia" also dives into a kind of cosmology that i also basically agree with. there is an embrace of death in a lot of their lyrics / subjects that feels like the opposite of nihilism to me.

my other fav on omnium right now is "evilest man." the subject matter of "conservative media" is like .. proceed with caution for me, lol, not something i necessarily want to hear a song about, you know? but i'm all in when it gets to this section:

I wonder if he knows this song
Probably read before it was done
He probably hacked my phone
I'll change the locks when I get home

and after the last line it just blasts off into one of their psych guitar explosions - like it's such a gratifying affirmation of interior personal space in the face of some hall of mirrors nightmare land.

i got ice, death..., laminated denim and changes based on jon via chi's list. he is otm about ice, death..., what a great album, just deep psychedelic rock goodness that goes further into their earth-based cosmology. that first track is so unbelievably euphoric. laminated denim burns bright too, two 15 min tracks with some ashra / can shenanigans going on. haven't connected as strongly to changes yet but think it's likely i will.

pastiche distillation music

With Pollard, I feel there's a mercenary vibe that's developed in later years (maybe less so than circa GBV's initial split and the avalanche of releases that followed), where he seems to be focused on making PRODUCT, and knowing that there's a faithful audience there that will purchase all his output, even box sets sourced from fan-circulate bootlegs. For Stu, he seems genuinely intellectually engaged with each project Gizz do - there's an infectious sense of joy, and one shared among the other bandmates. It's a bit of a utopian thing, if you can dig it.

― his cartoon heart expands, then he relaxes by smoking crack (stevie), Tuesday, January 17, 2023 11:18 AM

If they did a collabo with Guided By Voices, I really hope they call it "Doug Gillard and the Lillard Willard"

hahahahahaha!

this is gonna sound like a stretch i'm sure but the band these guys remind me of is neil young & crazy horse, in overall scope and vibe more than a particular set of common sounds, although some of the extended guitar work has a resemblance.

hell's itch: a beautiful song about flaying oneself

the kraut influence sometimes translates as stereolab-gone-prog-rock. the music is good to great but the lyrics are really where it's at for me. in that department they remind me of radiohead a bit when that band was really nailing the zeitgeist in the late 90s. but their lyrics are better. really interesting / probing stuff about bodies and the earth, making really bleak observations sound affirmative, sometimes joyous, sometimes funny, sometimes just weird.

that's an intriguing take! where do I start, which album do u recommend?