rock and roll = barium
Sasha Frere-Jones on Sunn O))). Warning: EXCESSIVE SIMILE ALERT, but they’re all so good.
The median sound for Sunn O))) is a low chord, pitched below standard tuning, that blows through the crowd like a humid wind and stays in your body like that liquid they make you drink before you go through the CAT-scan machine. Standing in front of the stage on Tuesday night felt like a teen-age dare. How long could I stand to have my organs palpated? How could I tear myself away? Would the volume loosen up kinked muscles? Sterilize me? … After the show was over, my head felt like a bag of blueberry muffins that had been left under a bench for three days. I walked down Vanderbilt Avenue towards my house, sweaty and bereft of the ability to echolocate.
I don’t think I’ve ever been able to echolocate, and I haven’t had the pleasure (?) of seeing Sunn O))). But still, I get what he means.