LOS ANGELES (End Records) - Giant Squid, a sonic colossus a prowl in the Northern California music scene since 2002, builds an overwhelming wall of gorgeous melody that is as likely to crumble into abyssal serenity, as it is to rupture forth waves of down-tuned guitar doom.
Expect epic fuzz tones, saturated in analog synthesizer sounds, giving way to delicate breaks of clean tranquility. Bizarre song titles referring to marine life and historical tragedies are the norm as Giant Squid's cinematic soundscapes are soaked with imagery of nautical desolation and mountainous solitude.
Three haunting voices swell from husband and wife guitar players, Aaron and Aurielle Gregory, and the soulful, keyboard virtuoso, Andy Southard, forming a combined vocal range that reaches down to the darkest depths and up to the highest tides. This trio of drastically dynamic sirens dart in and out from one another while telling melodious tales of lost loved ones, unbeatable odds, cannibalistic friendships, and... sharks (usually in a metaphorical sense). The unorthodox bass-guitar of Bryan Beeson slithers through the nether regions of Giant Squid's music like some unseen cephalopodic monster, always on top of the precise and perpetual movement of Mike Conroy's drumming, as if the beats themselves were its prey.
Giant Squid garnered the attention of eclectic indie-metal label The End Records with its self-released first album, Metridium Field, engineered by legendary veteran producer of heavy music, Billy Anderson (Neurosis, Melvins, High On Fire, Mr. Bungle). The band signed a deal with The End in 2005. This original release, featuring the concussion-inducing beats of legendary Sacramento drummer Jason Divencenzo, (Red Tape - Roadrunner Records) will be fully re-mixed with added vocals and instrumentation by Billy Anderson, and then re-released in a beautiful new digipak highlighting the original cover art of Aurielle Gregory. Any fan of artistically intelligent and organically heavy indie-rock music, in the vein of Isis, Sonic Youth, Pleasure Forever, Black Heart Procession, Tarantula Hawk, My Bloody Valentine, Pelican, Mogwai, Ulver, Neurosis, Tarental, High on Fire, or classic rock and punk like Black Sabbath and the Subhumans, should appreciate the band's worship of guitar overdrive, somber interludes, and tide-like build ups.
Line-Up:
Andy Southard (keyboard, vocals, pants)
Mike Conroy (drums, theories)
Aurielle Gregory (guitar, vocals, wife)
Bryan Beeson (bass, final fantasy)
Aaron Gregory (guitar, vocals, husband)
Official Giant Squid website: www.giantsquidmusic.com
TOUR DATES
07/15/06 Sat @ Karnevil II at Ridglea Theater - Dallas-Fort Worth, TX (w/ Stolen Babies)
07/16/06 Sun @ Wreck Room - Fort Worth, TX (w/ Stolen Babies, Shaolin Death Squad )
07/17/06 Mon @ The Conservatory - Oklahoma City, OK (w/ Stolen Babies)
07/18/06 Tue @ Emo's - Austin, TX (w/ Stolen Babies, Invincible Czars)
07/21/06 Fri @ The Blue Lamp - Sacramento, CA (w/ Stolen Babies)
07/22/06 Sat @ Bottom of the Hill - San Francisco, CA (w/ Stolen Babies, Frozen In Amber, Saros)
07/25/06 Tue @ Off Limits Bar - Chico, CA
07/26/06 Wed @ Samurai Duck - Eugene, OR
07/29/06 Sat @ Sabala's - Portland, OR (Agalloch's "Ashes Against The Grain" album release party w/ Waldteufel, Wolves In The Throne Room)
07/30/06 Sun@ Ash St. Saloon - Portland, OR (w/ Prize Country
08/03/06 Thu @ The Replay Lounge - Lawrence, KS
08/24/06 Thu @ Snake Eyes Vinyl - Austin, TX
08/31/06 Thu @ Beerland - Austin, TX
