Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
Promotional Photo
Background information
Origin	Oakland, California, United States
Genre(s)	Art Rock Experimental Music Theatre Performance Art
Years active	1999–Present
Label(s)	The End Records
Website	Official website
Members
Matthias Bossi Nils Frykdahl Carla Kihlstedt Michael Mellender Dan Rathbun
Former members
Frank Grau David Shamrock Moe! Staiano

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (often abbreviated to SGM) are an American avant-rock band, formed in 1999 in Oakland, California. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (584x750, 233 KB) Summary Promotional Photo from SGM Official Web Site Source: http://sleepytimegorillamuseum. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_States. ... Oakland is the name of several places in the United States of America: Oakland, Alabama Oakland, California (The best-known city with this name) Oakland, Florida Oakland, Maine Oakland, Maryland Oakland, Michigan Oakland, Missouri Oakland, Nebraska Oakland, New Jersey Oakland, Oklahoma Oakland, Oregon Oakland, Pennsylvania Oakland, Rhode Island Oakland, Tennessee... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... A music genre is a category (or genre) of pieces of music that share a certain style or basic musical language (van der Merwe 1989, p. ... It has been suggested that Experimental Rock be merged into this article or section. ... For experimental rock music, see experimental rock. ... Serge Sudeikins poster for the Bat Theatre (1922). ... Performance art is art where the actions of an individual or a group at a particular place and in a particular time, constitute the work. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The End Records is an independent metal and rock record label based in Salt Lake City, Utah. ... Carla Kihlstedt, a violinist and vocalist, is a founding member of Tin Hat Trio and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Art rock. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Oakland, founded in 1852, is the eighth-largest city in California[1] and the county seat of Alameda County. ...

Performance and Stage Persona

The band tours frequently. They have played often in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles Area, but also have travelled other parts of the U.S. by tour bus. Their live performances have featured puppet shows, pseudo-scientific scholarly presentations, and performances by members of the Butoh group inkBoat. USGS satellite photo of the San Francisco Bay Area. ... Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino counties in Southern California The Greater Los Angeles Area is the agglomeration of urbanized area around the city of Los Angeles, California. ... Butoh (sometimes written butô) is the collective name for a diverse range of techniques and motivations for dance inspired by the Ankoku-Butoh movement. ...

The band uses many homemade devices as instruments, such as the Viking Rowboat.^[1] Dan Rathbun—who has created most of the band's idiosyncratic instruments—plays, among other self-made instruments (though he uses a common bass guitar most of the time), a custom-stringed bass instrument referred to as Piano Log, which uses piano strings and is possibly more than 7 feet long; it is played with two sticks: one in the left hand generally used as a fret, and another in the right hand to strike the strings. Percussionist Michael Mellender's instruments consist of restaurant kitchen equipment, trash can lids, and other "found" metal objects, in addition to traditional percussion instruments. One of the more infamous instruments used by the band was Moe! Staiano's Popping Turtle (now residing in Brooklyn, NY^[2]). It can be heard about 1:21 into the song "Sleep is Wrong". Martin EB18 Bass Guitar in flight case. ... For other meanings, see Brooklyn (disambiguation). ...

SGM's music can be roughly likened as something akin to avant-rock or avant-prog, but it practically escapes any rigorous categorization so that people usually have to name-drop different kinds of bands in order to give some sort of scope or conception of what they sound like. Some names that have come up in reviewers' texts include Mr. Bungle, Thinking Plague, Univers Zéro, White Zombie, Änglagård, King Crimson, GWAR, and so on;^[3] while not excessively naming bands in his review of SGM's second album Of Natural History, David Moore of Pitchfork Media thinks, in the same swoop, that SGM's debut album Grand Opening and Closing was an amalgam of Meshuggah and Secret Chiefs 3, resulting in "some truly cracked prog-metal anthems."^[4] It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Art rock. ... Avant-progressive rock is a style of rock music that explores unconventional territory, often incorporating non-standard chord progressions, tempo changes within a piece, odd time signatures, avant garde passages and complex horn and orchestral arrangements. ... Mr. ... Univers Zéro are an instrumental Belgian band known for playing dark music heavily influenced by 20th century chamber music. ... White Zombie was an American band named after the 1932 film White Zombie, which starred Bela Lugosi. ... ÄnglagÃ¥rd is a currently defunct Swedish progressive rock band, with influences including King Crimson, Genesis, TrettioÃ¥riga Kriget, Schicke Führs Fröhling & Van Der Graaf Generator. ... King Crimson is an English musical group founded by guitarist Robert Fripp and drummer Michael Giles in 1969. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Of Natural History is the second album by avant-rock group Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. ... Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork and occasionally shortened to P4K or pfork,[1] is a United States-based daily Internet publication devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. ... Grand Opening and Closing is the debut album by Oakland, CA based avant-rock group Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. ... Meshuggah, whose name is derived from the Yiddish word for crazy, is a five-piece tech metal band from UmeÃ¥, Sweden who use extended polymetric passages, complex drum patterns, odd time signatures, angular, dissonant guitar riffs, and harsh, monotonal vocals. ... Secret Chiefs 3 is a rotating-membership band hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area. ...

As of January 2006, the band has signed to The End Records and plans to release a new album entitled In Glorious Times in March 2007.^[1] A reissue Grand Opening and Closing, with three previously unreleased tracks, was released on September 5, 2006.^[5] The End Records is an independent metal and rock record label based in Salt Lake City, Utah. ...

The band will be touring across the United States and Europe in March and April. They and are slated to appear with Secret Chiefs 3 for most of the US shows. ^[6] Secret Chiefs 3 is a rotating-membership band hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area. ...

Discography

• Grand Opening and Closing CD (2000)
• Live CD (2003)
• Of Natural History CD (2004)
• Knormalities vol. 3: Posthumorities limited edition 45" vinyl (2005, Dephine Knormal Musik)
  • This record features the track "SPQR", a cover of the song by This Heat.
• The Face (DVD) DVD
  • with Shinichi Momo Koga
• Grand Opening and Closing reissue with 3 bonus tracks (2006)

Grand Opening and Closing is the debut album by Oakland, CA based avant-rock group Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. ... Of Natural History is the second album by avant-rock group Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. ... This Heat were a British progressive rock band widely considered a missing link between progressive rock (especially krautrock) and such later experimental genres as post-punk, post-rock, and noise rock. ...

Trivia

• SGM claim to have performed their first live gig in front of an audience that consisted of a single banana slug and their friends.^[7]

Species Ariolimax californicus Ariolimax columbianus Ariolimax dolichophallus The banana slug (Ariolimax) is a genus of mollusk, although when used in the context of a species banana slug usually refers to the Pacific banana slug (Ariolimax columbianus). ...

Members

• Matthias Bossi – drums, glockenspiel, xylophone, vocals
• Nils Frykdahl – guitar, flute, vocals
• Carla Kihlstedt – violin, percussion guitar, autoharp, organ, vocals
• Michael Mellender – percussion, assorted melodic instruments, vocals
• Dan Rathbun – bass, piano log, trombone, lute, vocals

A drum kit (or drum set or trap set - the latter an old-fashioned term) is a collection of drums, cymbals and other percussion instruments arranged for convenient playing by a sole percussionist (drummer), usually for jazz, rock, or other types of contemporary music. ... Most orchestral glockenspiels are mounted in a case. ... Xylophone in Bali 1937 The xylophone (from the Greek meaning wooden sound) is a musical instrument in the percussion family which probably originated in Indonesia (Nettl 1956, p. ... In music a singer or vocalist is a type of musician who sings, i. ... Left: Rosa Hurricane, a heavy metal-style solid body guitar. ... The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. ... Carla Kihlstedt, a violinist and vocalist, is a founding member of Tin Hat Trio and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. ... The violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. ... An Autoharp The Autoharp is a zither-like musical string instrument having a series of chord bars attached to dampers which, when depressed, mute all the strings other than those that form the desired chord. ... An organ is the following: In anatomy, an organ is a group of tissues which perform some function. ... Percussion instruments are played by being struck, shaken, rubbed or scraped. ... Bass may refer to: Look up bass in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. ... The lute is a plucked string instrument with a fretted neck and a deep round back. ...

Former members

• Frank Grau – drums (2001-2004))
• David Shamrock – drums (1999-2001)
• Moe! Staiano – percussion (1999-2004)

Related Projects

• The Book of Knots (Bossi; 2004)
  • Kihlstedt appears on one cut.
  • Arclight Records (AR05)
• Charming Hostess (Frykdahl, Rathbun, Kihlstedt; 1998–present)
• Faun Fables (Frykdahl; 1999-present)
• Idiot Flesh (Fryldahl, Rathbun; 1985-1999)
• Immersion Composition Society (Mellender (co-founder), Rathbun, Kihlstedt, Bossi; 2001–present)
• inkBoat (Frykdahl, Rathbun)
• MOE!KESTRA! (Staiano; 1997–present)
• Skeleton Key (Bossi)
• Species Being (Grau)
• Thin Pillow (Shamrock; 2004)
  • Kihlstedt appears on two cuts
  • Includes alternate arrangement of "Ambugaton", performed by Sleepytime Gorilla Museum on Grand Opening and Closing
• Thinking Plague (Shamrock)
• Tin Hat (formerly Tin Hat Trio) (Kihlstedt; 2000–present)
• Two Foot Yard (Kihlstedt; 2005–present)

This article needs to be wikified. ... Faun Fables is the name of the atmospheric, slightly witchy psych folk music of Dawn McCarthy. ... Idiot Flesh was a band. ... The Immersion Composition Society (ICS) is a network of speed-composers, organized into independent groups, called lodges. ... Skeleton Key, 2005 Skeleton Key is a rock band based in New York City. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

References

J.J. Newberrys was an American five and dime store chain in the twentieth century. ... Oakland is the name of several places in the United States of America: Oakland, Alabama Oakland, California (The best-known city with this name) Oakland, Florida Oakland, Maine Oakland, Maryland Oakland, Michigan Oakland, Missouri Oakland, Nebraska Oakland, New Jersey Oakland, Oklahoma Oakland, Oregon Oakland, Pennsylvania Oakland, Rhode Island Oakland, Tennessee...

External links

• Sleepytime Gorilla Museum official web site
• SGM official MySpace site
• Charming Hostess official web site
• Faun Fables official web site
• Moe! Staiano official web site
• Tin Hat Trio official web site
• Immersion Composition Society official web site
• inkBoat official web site
• Thinking Plague official web site and Thinking Plague on Cuneiform Records
• Ambugaton! Live photographs of SGM covering 2002 and 2003 by David J. Grossman
• Sleepytime Gorilla Museum collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive