KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD to infinity and back again When King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard set out to create their <strong>2016</strong> album Nonagon Infinity, they did so after years of cultivating the relentless behemoth on the stage and on the road. “It’s a record we put together live, really. We were playing all these songs in their rough versions and they were coming together slowly with improvisation,” recalls frontman Stu Mackenzie. “So it became this kind of condensed hyper real version of what felt right.” What began to emerge as they put the tracks together was that each track seemed to lead into the next, as if they were chapters of a larger book. This passing of the torch from song to song slithered down the line to the last note and it was decided that it made the most sense for that note to lead right back to the first one. The result is a big mean ouroboros of an album, one that is best served whole and repeatedly; after all, it is meant to be “the world’s first infinitely looping LP.” From the first big-balls-on-the-table notes of “Robot Stop,” when the album hits you with the titular first lyrics, chanting “Nonagon infinity opens the door,” the record does just that and keeps kicking it open over and over again. “We definitely set out to make the heaviest album we have ever made,” admits Mackenzie. Mission. Accomplished. Nonagan Infinity has that large throbbing Black Sabbath heartbeat to it, like what it would sound like if you put a stethoscope up to a bull’s erection. It is like one of those freight trains that you wait at a crossing for, one that seems to keep surging past you, car after car, until your brain can’t fathom what kind of engine could pull such a thing and your guts suddenly become very aware of how easy it would be for it 6 MUSIC to run you right over if you got too close. But you should get close to Nonagan; and if you have the time, according to Mackenzie, you should try to listen to it more than once. “It’s very possible that you could find it means something totally different the second time around.” Like all concept albums—a dying breed of long form musical creation—the themes and sonic offerings evolve as you revisit. In fact, if you put it on and allow yourself to settle right into it, you might even miss how the last growling and lurching notes of “Road Train” barrel directly back into the intro notes of “Robot Stop,” and you won’t even realize you have been led right back into the gauntlet without getting the chance to dust the desert off of you. A pretty impressive feat for an album released in the time of the $.99 single on iTunes. Though Mackenzie admits that this harkening back to a time when an album was enjoyed as a whole doesn’t necessarily mean it should be ingested on vinyl. “This is an album that actually makes the most sense to be consumed digitally because you can’t loop a record. So it actually makes the most sense to listen to it on an iPod in your headphones, more than any other album we have done.” So snag a digital copy of your own when the album drops on April 29 and ride the snake as it devours its own tail over and over and over again. Or even better, take in the immersive and all-encompassing live show that King Gizzard has become known for when they ride this runaway train through Vancouver. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard perform at The Rickshaw on <strong>May</strong> 28 The Australian psych septet are quickly becoming one of the most prolific bands operating today. by Jennie Orton photo: Lee VIncent Grubb TITUS ANDRONICUS punk rock existentialist keeps it authentic Frontman Patrick Stickles’ battle with manic depression has become a driving force of Titus Andronicus. It’s been awhile since Titus Andronicus’s latest album, The Most Lamentable Tragedy, has come out, and the last time <strong>BeatRoute</strong> talked to front man Patrick Stickles, it was a sprawling, many-layered conversation that went on for an hour or more, covering all kinds of topics. One might think he’s over talking about it, as he laughs, “I’ve discussed it a bit for sure.” Luckily talking is something that seems to come naturally for the 30 year old punk rocker. The Most Lamentable Tragedy is a sprawling, 90 minute rock opera, a narrative about mental illness that is a compelling, emotional journey. While Titus Andronicus is not a stranger to concept records (2010’s The Monitor focused on the U.S. Civil War), punk isn’t known for its sprawling narratives, but playing it safe was never in the cards, explains Stickles. “You wouldn’t want us to just lob it over the plate. You have to be willing to fall on your face and look like a fool if you want to strive for greatness. You have to take a risk and put yourself out there.” This isn’t just important for reasons of self-expression, but also for maintaining your artistic credibility with your fan base. “You can make some sort of pandering, puffy piece of art, and hope that it caters to the masses’ idea of what’s a good record in <strong>2016</strong> and maybe that will be a hot thing for a few months or a year and maybe that’s lovely, but I have to think more about the longer arc of the career, the whole body of work and make every component of it as true as possible because that’s what will be your currency as an artist, even after the time of it being a hot thing is past. If you are able to foster a genuine connection with the audience, hopefully that will keep them coming back year after year.” The narrative feel of the album also allowed him to really earn a lot of the emotional expression in the songs. To Stickles, context is what really makes the emotional moments that much more impactful “The goal was to present a wide enough emotional spectrum across the narrative that when the character is feeling low or sorrowful it will mean more because you’ve seen that character at the height of joy or ecstasy or vice versa. I think when you do that it allows you to explore any of those extremes more fully.” The narrative also provided the means to look at ideas that Stickles had previously not delved into with his previous work. Rather than fall into cheap love tropes, dealing with ideas of romantic love were “earned because earlier in the narrative in the rock opera we had been with the character when he was his most defeated and sad and then the joy of romantic love hopefully means more when you know what’s at the other end of that spectrum, and later in the narrative hopefully it means more because you know how much it meant at the time.” Another concept that seems more prominent on this record is that it seems to be more hopeful, especially after the bleaker Local Business. This seems to cut to the heart of Stickles’ thoughts. “You have to go through some time facing that bleak, hopeless attitude to come through the other side and see the hopefulness that’s embedded in it, in our black universe and how lonely it all is. Once you’ve dealt with that you can see the freedoms that come from that. The freedom that you create, as opposed to the one that was handed to you as a young person falls away.” I told him that sounds a lot like existentialism. “Yeah,” he answered, “that’s my whole bag. That’s what I’m selling, That’s what I preach.” Titus Andronicus performs at the Biltmore Cabaret on <strong>May</strong> 28 by Graeme Wiggins photo: Matthew Greeley <strong>May</strong> <strong>2016</strong>
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