The Convocation (of?) on Gravity records

Well I guess they changed their name since last I listened to their self titled first album. No 'of' just The Convocation. My friend Tim gave this to me while I was in an Unwound phase which since hasn't ever really ever ended. It fit in perfectly, a three piece guitar centered post rock.
It's ridiculous to think this was 2001.
I think the thing I still appreciate about this is how minimal it sounds, pretty sparse instrumentation, there's a lot of room to breathe. The starts and stops, I'm going as far to say mathy. Heavy, deliberate, nearly instrumental. The drums are recorded in a huge booming room, you can hear every hit. The bass is a little distorted, it's not precious, just get the notes out. But the vocals really push this into post rock perfection. They're far away from the mic, like unwound, not secondary, but when your pushing melody like this, I guess that comes first. It's almost recorded somewhere else, with no effects whatsoever, just flat yelling, or a backwards reverb....is there a reverb that has a minus echo? Something like that....making it sound more intimate...you get closer somehow in that mix. I remember it took some getting used to at first. It wasn't screechy yelling that turned me away from anything remotely emo, to whiny to cry-e. These guys sounded tough, the music came first, bad ass complex intricate rocking, with vocals that weren't trying to emulate emotion but singing through it.
I went to look for it in my itunes playlist, and it was still there...this is after migrating between countless laptops, desktops, external hard drives...there aren't many bands that make the cut of having to dig around to find the CD and rerip it for the thousandth time. Now if I only had this on vinyl....well that would be a find.

With the limited research I did on this single I couldn't find any idea of what this might sound like, but of course I'm in. Gravity has an impressive roster of truly great bands, Unwound included, and I'm willing to see where these guys are at for $5. Just looking over their bands page I'm reminded of a bunch of great stuff I should be listening to still. Clikatat Ikatowi....damn. they even have an oold Black Dice 7" for sale there still. The Convocation myspace weirdly has two kind of remixes of tracks from the self titled....nice to hear but nothing like the originals.

From Gravity records.

Also available from stickfigure distro who says:
*Convocation, the s/t 7” (gravity) - Gravity is proud to announce the release a new 7" from The Convocation. With this new release Baltimore's The Convocation return from an extended hiatus joining new bassist Jason Stevens (formerly of Wash. D.C.'s Wooly Mammoth) with founding members George France and Tonie Joy. A decade ago Joy and France started The Convocation OfÉ with original bassist Guy Blakeslee (now leading The Entrance Band in L.A.) as a natural evolution beyond bands Tonie Joy founded in the previous decade: The seminal D.C. area band Moss Icon and avant hardcore (and earlier Gravity band) Universal Order of Armageddon a.k.a. U.O.A. (as well as The Great Unraveling, both also on Kill Rock Stars), plus bands he served time in (Born Against and Men's Recovery Project). Before dropping the "Of" from their name The Convocation released their debut 12" "remix" e.p. and first full length LP/ CD on Sonny Kay (of The VSS) and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (of The Mars Volta)'s label GSL (Gold Standard Labs), as well as a second LP/ CD on Insound's in-house label Tigerstyle. While The Convocation's sound has loose ties to the hardcore, punk, and "indie rock" of the above mentioned bands it's roots run simultaneously back thru time before these terms were coined and into a future where genres implode to allow this band's heavy psych rock post whatever sound to speak for itself. The Convocation have shared the stage with other heavy acts such as Nebula, Dead Meadow, and Acid Mothers Temple as well as diverse bands such as Blonde Redhead, Unwound, and The Locust. This new 7" was recorded and co-produced by J. Robbins (Against Me!, The Promise Ring, Clutch).


The podcast this week - Episode 54 is a recent interview I did with Craig from Scribbler. We finally hooked up after a bunch of emails back and forth and a weird time difference. (Halifax is one hour ahead?) This is part 1 of another 2 part interview...we talked about their single on Stumparumper records, touring in the US, the noise side of Scribbler, his brothers other band Fuck Montreal and the Radiator family.
A bunch of tracks are played in the background (Aributus, Ocean Floor, Dramamine, Rust, Sine Cosine Destroy and Negative Band) from Scribbler....all available for download at Reverbnation...hundreds...literally. (14.5mb, 16min)

All Night Drug Prowling Wolves / Sick Figures split 7"

I have another All Night Drug Prowling Wolves single from Rob's House, and I remember it sounding a little like a rough bar band who is probably just in it because they have to be...and since Rob's House was endorsing it, well I had to give it a try.
What can I say? his is pretty standard rock, they do it well, there's a lot of heart to it. It's like they combined Zach Galifianakis and Bruce Springsteen, and I'm only saying that because of the beard. He's got this growl hoarse vocal quality that probably sets them apart from anything else like this, and when he gets real melodic, it's pure 80's rock. Like a good John Cougar....or if Tom Waits played in a bar band really early in his career before he completely went solo.
The B-Side is from Sick Figures and I'm kind of wondering what they have to do with the label or if the name is just some kind of coincidence.
The track 'Whiskey Song' on the B-side and their myspace sounds immediately like 90's Peter Murphy. Those layered deep vocals on top of this weird carnival beat full of every kind of percussion, thin sounding player piano...I feel like I'm listening to something off the Coraline soundtrack, or Nightmare before Christmas...it feels like a musical score for some reason. OK Lou Reed writes a demented musical for children. Parents are outraged.

Stickfigure seems to me to primarily be a distro place, but they release singles every once in a while, and it's cool to see they believe in something enough to take a chance pressing 7" vinyl. It's only $4, and they basically have everything else so throw this in the cart.

“The wolf is loose indeed. All Night Drug Prowling Wolves are a pop band, a punk band and at times even Americana. With their first release on Stickfigure Records they flirt with all of the above and the result is nothing short of gorgeous. "Maybe Tomorrow" is All Night Drug Prowling Wolves attempt at being early U2, Replacements and Bruce Springsteen. After the first verse you will find yourself singing along and asking for more. We certainly hope that is the case. This is raising your glass in the air music for sure. For fans of Tom Waits, Leatherface and Nick Cave.

Sick Figures are an Atlanta-based band formed by Chris Campbell and Nick Black. In 2006 they released their first demo album with 11 songs that sound like a couple of kids raised on punk rock playing vaudevillian tunes. Since then their sound has expanded, but still reflects the Danny Elfman/ Tom Waits vibe from their original work. About a year ago Gavin (Stickfigure Recordings) introduced Sick Figures to Tom Cheshire from the All Night Drug Prowling Wolves. They hung out, played a show together then it was suggested they do a split 7'. Thus was born "The Whiskey Song". A tune that sits well on it's own and doesn't seem fit in a full album. "The Whiskey Song" branches away from Sick Figures typical sound and features Erich Netherton on percussion.”