THE ROYAL PICK: godheadSilo @ Chop Suey
These two smiling men are responsible for a spike in Immodium sales in the late 1990's.
Ah, the silky mystique of "The Brown Note"; That earth-shattering, pants-splattering frequency zone where sounds manage to weave their way inside of you, stir up the most delicate parts of your inner-workings and rally the troops to abandon ship. While I never had a chance to see godheadSilo back in their heyday, I read enough zine articles and heard enough pre-internet folklore about the band to know that their live shows were widely regarded as a punishing display of sound and fury that left members of the audience walking away feeling nauseous. That two men could create a literal wall of sludge so physically affecting (minus the aid of computers/laptops, but merely aided by a wall of bass amps and a ridiculously large drum kit) was the stuff of legend. Their records required warning labels stating "we are not responsible for speaker damage", with more pre-internet rumblings of the band's records being engineered to essentially crack speakers in half. While the teens of the 70's had KISS to worship as a larger-than-life rock band shrouded in secrecy, godheadSilo had a lovely mystique of their own in the mid/late-90's.
Drummer Dan Haugh suffered a terrible accident that left him having to go through physical therapy to re-learn how to play drums again, and is currently based in New Orleans, LA. Singer/bassist Mike Kunka is still in Washington state, and is preparing for the release of a record he wrote with The Melvins (Mike And The Melvins) that was recorded back in 1999 and has sat unreleased for 17 years for reasons unknown to the general populace. (Mike And The Melvins "Three Men And A Baby" comes out April 1st on Sub Pop.)
After a long hiatus, Fargo's most famous band is back for a few tour dates between Seattle and Portland. They play Chop Suey in Seattle this Friday (1/29/16). Tickets are $15 and available here. They play Portland, OR at Bunk Bar on Saturday 1/30 and Sunday 1/31. Tickets are sold out for the 1/30 show, and tickets for the 1/31 show are available here.