Sojourns Lucid Magic - Thumlock

[mush]

Just thought I should post that this is a bloody fine CD.  Might even be, as Jeb Taylor himself said, their best piece of work to date.  I would have thought that someone would have posted a review here by now, and I'm interested in what everyone thinks of it.

The album doesn't deviate much in style from the other 'chronicles', however with slicker production and a slightly more rock feel I thought some might be turned off.  Not me however, this is Thumlock at their mightiest.  I love their unique otherworldly album covers and the space/fantasy vibe they have, and this is continued on Sojourns Lucid Magic.  From the start with the Stephen Hawking intro, SLM rocks out right through to the ewok village "Flash of Marble to the West" ending, after which the music really blasts off into other galaxies with a rather weird hidden track "UFO Christ".  Thumlock are getting better with age, and their thick stoner grooves are added to with eastern touches, especially in "Time Machine" and "Mantis Preying".
I was never a big fan of 'Lord of the Rings'/'Dungeons and Dragons' fantasy, yet I find myself checking the Thumlock website every now and again to see if the SLM story is up.

What does everyone else reckon of SLM?

[Writhe]

honestly my first impression wasnt much, i had great hopes from the single

but i will give it 2nd and 3rd chances, and i'll update my opinion later

[FGM]

Thumlock never fail to dissapoint me whether it is listening to one of their cds or seeing them live.  SLM not only met all my expectations, it exceeded them!

Thumlock will only keep on going from strength to strength until they get the recognition that they deserve.  It may be a biased opinion but I think that they should have the same stature as a lot of the other heavyweights in the scene.  

I think that you would all agree that bands like Nebula and QOTSA are considered responsible for a creating a whole new approach to the stoner rock genre.  That said, I really believe that the uniqueness of the Thumlock sound should be recognised as a fresh approach to the genre just the Nebula and QOTSA sound was and still is!  

Thumlock have the potential to be such a seminal influence for a lot of new and up and coming bands.  To put it plainly the new Thumlock record is awesome!  

[nicster]

My cd should arrive in the mail any day now, so I'll post my opinions soon. But given what I heard of the new songs at their cd laucnh gig last weekend, I was a tad disappointed. They still rocked, but the new tunes didn't have the same space rock vibe which I really dig. They were more about all out Rock. But as I said, I'll post back later when I've got more to say.

[herstrut]

i agree 100% with mush and especially FGM - thumlock should definitely be up there with the 'big boys' in this scene. they have so much talent and each album they produce just gets better and better. i think the only thing that holds them back is that wollongong is a very far, far away place in a lot of peoples eyes...

[Into Yer Shtik]

yep I agree too, they're amazing, They are unique in the scene and it's really suprising that they aren't mentioned a whole lot more on Stonerrock.com - everyone that speaks of them says how great they are, but for some reason they don't get a lot of mention - maybe b/c we're isolated here and they've not toured outside Australia

[nicster]

I try to mention them as much as possible without sounding like I'm obssessed on SR.com  

But you're right Johno, I reckon if they toured Nth America and/or Europe they would build more of a following. That's gotta be expensive to do though, especially with the value of the Australian peso, oops, I mean dollar.

[Jeb]

Yeah it is very expensive to tour o/s, they were offered the last  Nebula European tour and we worked costs out for the six - eight weeks at being around $40,000 (AUD).
Hopefully they will get there late this year/early next year.Would probably be a shorter tour focused on only a couple of coutries.It all the depends how well the European release of the new album goes and how much (if any) money we can scam in touring grants/export assistance from the government.

[F_Rock]

I love Thumlock, but like nicster I haven't yet listened to the whole album and was a little disappointed by their last show. Straight rock is all fun and good but from the talents of Thumlock I was expecting more interesting, spacey sorta stuff.
Maybe they were just a bit tired down in Melb last?
Yeh, good luck getting that gov grant - I hear Dern were sent packing. Pollies dont give a fuck about the rock.
Anyways, I will reserve further comment until extensive listening.

[Jeb]

The reason Dern missed getting a grant was because from what I'm told because their songs have drug references in them.I guess they shouldn't have sent a disc with a cocaine snorting cartoon character on the front with their application.

In regards to the Thumlock album while generally it is a more sraight up rock album I still think it is a pretty diverse album.

[nicster]

"I guess they shouldn't have sent a disc with a cocaine snorting cartoon character on the front with their application. "

LOL!!!!

Man, I just about choked on coffee from laughing when I read that!

Good think I wasn't doing a line. There would have tears.

[FGM]

Yeah pretty funny about Dern - what a fuck-up!  Hey Jeb isn't it true that the title of the song 'Lines on the table' originally started out as 'Lives on the table'?  

Hmm maybe they could have used that in their defence?  They could have just said that they made a spelling mistake?  Hahaha!

[Jeb]

Yeah apparantly that's the case, what 'lives on the table' is supposed to mean I don't know.

[Clint]

Have any of you checked out the Swiss tour diary and its accompanying photos on the Dern site? Its a pisser of a read and some of the photos are just so tasteless, in the funniest possible way of course hehehe.

www.patash.com.au/skyblue/

[herstrut]

i read it the other week. hehehe. craig is one hell of a funny writer. hehehe funny dern boys.