I’ve had this album for years, and listened to it infrequently over that time. I always thought it had one or two really good songs, but the whole thing kinda bored me.

But damn, I just had a hell of a listening experience with it. What a powerful and epic sound, and that’s just the singer’s voice! Epic doom metal would be the word for it I guess, with a bit of death thrown in there. Some even reminded me a bit of Opeth, although not too much. And the closing title track….simply beautiful.

With this, November’s Doom, and While Heaven Wept, maybe I’m *finally* learning to appreciate doom after all these years. Although I just listened to Solitude Aeturnus’s “Through the Darkest Hour”, and that still bored the crap out of me…..

Went to see Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and others on Saturday at the Bottom Lounge in Chicago.

Hometown act Cheer-Accident, who played last (although SGM seemed to be the “headliner”) was ok, they were plenty “prog”, in an indie/math rock sort of way, but somehow their aesthetic was just a bit too “bar band” for me, especially after seeing all the weirdness that came before.

SGM was great, and truly a weird bunch. I could listen to the singer read the phone book, he just has the coolest voice. They certainly aren’t an easy-listening experience, especially when the guy who plays the percussion instruments made of salvaged junk is going nuts, but they keep your attention.

Faun Fables, which is a duo consisting of the main SGM guy and his girlfriend, played some sort of folk music mixed with some SGM-like insanity. Good, but not quite mind-blowing.

And then there was the opening band, The Dresden Dolls, who were actually my favorites of the night. Again, it’s a duo, with a girl on piano and vocals, and a guy on drums. Both of them are pretty heavy-hitters, though I was surprised how “musical” the whole thing was with only two melodic sources. The songs were just really good, where I was not only able to connect immediately with the music, but also with the lyrics, which is pretty rare in a live situation especially when it’s your introduction to the band. Ok, I wasn’t really able to “connect” to the lyrics, since they come from an angsty twenty-something female, but I did appreciate the creativity, delivery, and dark humor in them. If I was going to give an Alzn-like review, I would say “The Dresden Dolls: this sounds like music Alzn would like.”

I thought of buying their CD at the show, but decided I didn’t care that much, especially since I’m thinking of making an effort to wean myself off physical CDs. But then the next day, when I still had one of their songs running through my head (“Coin-Operated Boy”, which I think any woman would love), I figured maybe I should get the album after all. I checked iTunes, but unsurprisingly the album wasn’t on there. However, when I checked the band’s website (dresdendolls.com) to see where I could order it from, I did find a place where I could pay to download it. It wasn’t as quick and easy as iTunes because it was set up as a “micropayment” thing, so I had to install another little software app, and download and extract each song individually, but it was still a lot faster than mail-ordering it from somewhere. And at $0.75 a song, it was cheaper too. If the digital download option wasn’t available, I might have lost interest and thus not spent any more money on the band, so I really hope that more and more bands start to offer their music online for a price (or free, if they really want to). Because physical CDs are for dorks! 🙂