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Of Natural History

by Sleepytime Gorilla Museum

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • 180-gram double vinyl second-pressing (BLACK)
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Blood Music's second-pressing of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum's second album, black vinyl.

    The heavyweight 350gsm gatefold jacket with black-flood inner pocket printing features layouts and transliterations created in collaboration with the curators. Printed inner sleeves chock full of treasures from SGM's vast archives. Mastered specifically for vinyl.

    All proceeds from your purchase will go directly towards fundraising for SGM's return in 2024... and buying the curators some groceries in the meantime!

    Thanks for supporting independent musicians!

    AMBUGATON.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Of Natural History via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.
Open you heart to the lord of light Open your heart and mind and let him in He holds the key to the throne of might You are empty Say his name and let him in All hail the dawn of a rising star All hail the crowned and conquering child Morning will come for you at last No matter how far into night you have strayed Say his name Welcome the child A new world is crawling from the ashes of the old Two thousand years of guilt and fear And the greatest lie ever told Out of the wounded side of the dying god Out of the sacred heart of the throttled hen The blood is the life The flowing milk for the infant god The throne is empty The cup is full He approaches and then He steps from the shadow and he opens up his eyes He spills the blood onto the throne And hurls a curse up to the skies I am the adversary and must remain the adversary
2.
The d.h.a.o.h. opens the book  The d.h.a.o.h. opens the discussion I am the adversary and must remain the adversary I am not yours to embrace I am not yours to invoke The d.h.a.o. h. sleeps in the hall  Watches for signs of our imminent demise in the scratchings on the wall The d.h.o.a.h. sleeps in the park Listens for sounds of our eminent decay in the singing of a solitary lark Mankind is a plague Breathing hell into every corner of the rotting earth Even now in this our finest hour I feel the hate of every stone tree & flower Even now we fall under the long shadow of the donkey’s ears Even now we listen for the slow grinding of the donkey’s teeth Lalala we weep in the din of the stomping of the donkey’s black hoof Lalala we weep for the slow coming of the dance of our doom (Dance) Eaters of the soil take us into the ground Death by worm Eaters of the air drive us from the blue Death by sparrow Eaters of the sea take us into the green Death by eel Eaters of the scraps take in our beds Death by dog Eaters of the soil take us into the ground Death by sand Eaters of the air drive us from the sky Death by flower Eaters of the green take us into the sea Death by water Eaters of the scraps take us in our beds Death by stone Death by silence Death by sorrow The d.h.a.o.h. closes the book The d.h.a.o.h. closes the discussion
3.
Phthisis 03:44
The future sticks out its tongue in the eyes of the gentle past It fears its own demise but knows it cannot last This momentary throne precariously formed from its ashes It takes the time we thought was ours below to be reborn Throw us away like a stack of old paper Learn not from our scrawls Close your ears to our rantings And come against us Flex your hooked claws and sniff Like a dog at the stench of our decaying minds Distrust the deceitful math of our perishing eyes Run away from the phthisicky past
4.
Bring back Bring it back Bring it Bring it back Bring back the apocalypse Its never too late for the end of time
5.
Let us turn our backs on this world of ease Let us turn our backs and walk away Let us close our eyes to the glory of the machine Let us close our eyes and walk away The houses are all gone under the sea The dancers are all gone under the hill And let us dream now the impossible dream of a math professor Even when the last tree falls There will be fire Even when the last bird is gone Wooden boxes Lovingly made by hand Filled up with fire To blow off the hands of the strong With wooden boxes "And let us never forget that the human race with technology is like an alcoholic with a barrel of wine" Rise up Friends of the Freedom Club Rise up Dream your impossible dream Crawl from your hole in the earth Crawl The captains of this ship of fools are flesh and softer than wood The Freedom Club Rise Wake The hermit of the woods is gone The shack taken down Even though his mind now is drugged His desperate warning lives on Blandly titled: Industrial Society and its Future* Rise up Friends of Unabom Rise...Wake Let us lay to rest our future dream Let us leave it to rust and walk away Let us turn around on the road of progress Let us go back the way we came
6.
"M-day’s child is fair of face, Drill-day’s child is full of grace, Gun-day’s child is breastless and blind, Shell-day’s child is out of its mind, Bomb-day’s child will always be dumb, Cannon-day’s child can never quite come, But the child that’s born on Battle-day is blithe and bonny and rotted away." —Muriel Rukeyser
7.
8.
The Creature 06:00
There is a creature. It has to feed. It stops at nothing to fill its need. The people live in gruesome squalor, So that the creature may grow taller. Those with nothing have to bleed, To help the creature spread its seed. They learn to dine on fecal matter, So that the creature may grow fatter. The creature tells of evil gnomes, Coming to destroy our homes. And trolls who come with gun and knife, To threaten our way of life. The creature has enslaved our town, But no one thinks to bring it down. Provided with so much distraction, The people can’t be moved to action. And when the people are all dead, Still the creature needs its bread. When we’ve been sucked completely dry, The creature needs its food supply. (a parasite cannot survive, unless its host remains alive.) It has amassed such awesome wealth, maybe it can eat itself.
9.
"what shall we do without us? Now when I get back here I expect to find all of you marching through the streets with great bunches of wildflowers in your arms." —Kenneth Patchen
10.
Babydoctor 13:59
Three ways of staring at the sun Thank you Thank you Babydoctor Babydoctor Thank you And you count out the years you have been here in this foreign land 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Fourteen years Here Jalal Jalal Babydoctor And you count out the years you’ve been deprived the use of your hand 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Thirteen years Stroke Staggering walker it takes you two lights to cross the street Traffic is backed-up here at the place where cars and people meet The very fast and the very slow Beg for a ride and choke out a stream of words as I drive A mantra of thanks and counting out years that buries me alive In the light of your humble and proud handful of mispronounced words And I fall to my knees in the shade of a tree and cry Thank you I look into the sun until it blinds me I look into the sun until I go blind I am raped by the light of the light until I am the son of the sun I am replaced Hail and praise the all-seeing eye of Pelton & Crane I open my mouth to the all-seeing eye of Pelton & Crane Pelton & Crane I am replaced Thank you
11.
Cockroach 02:12
O loathsome crawling thing Be done with your miniscule affairs O hungry creeping speck I release you from your cares Be gone Roach! You live on carrion That’s outrageous You’re probably contagious Blind crippled and half-squashed and yet you carry on Your persistence is disgusting I could never find myself trusting A creature that would rather live in the trash than in the lawn Cockroach your problems are not mine I love life but with you I draw the line Not to flaunt my superior design But next to you I’m practically divine Cockroach your problems are not mine
12.
Untitled 05:57

about

These are the remastered tracks provided to Blood Music for SGM's 2017 vinyl repressings.

Recorded & Mixed by Dan Rathbun
at Polymorph Recording, Oakland, CA, 2003-04

Produced by Dan Rathbun & SGM

Mastered by Justin Weis at Trakworx, San Francisco

"Phthisis" produced by Scott Humphrey at the Chop Shop, Hollywood May 2004

Engineered by Chris Baseford, assisted by Garry Raposo & Vincent Piette

Field recordings made by Olivia Oyama & Carla Kihlstedt

credits

released October 25, 2004

Guest Voices: Dawn the Faun McCarthy (FC), Vince Piette, Kristin Burns, Strawberry (Phthisis), Gregory Scott Parker (hillbilly), Rich Louis Bires (3-6-9), Camp Manager (Swamp), F.T. Marinetti (Phthisis, Bring Back)

Art: Per Frykdahl

Design: Jenya Chernoff & Nils with thanks to Lorus J. Milne, Frank Lutz, and the John Kane Society.

Photos: Carla, David Grossman, Olivia Oyama, Marika Hughes, Moe!

Thanks: Olivia Oyama (live sound), Allen Wilner (lights), Trey Spruance, Mike Bennewitz, Mike Pukish, Chris Sipe, Danny Tunick, Ches Smith, David Grossman (web), Scott Humphrey & crew, Laurel Deppin, Konstantin Kondakov, Rusty Gil, The Stikman, Lisa Fay, John Carr, Vicky Grossi, Steve Chinn, Nick & Anya, Steven Eye & cooks, John Hagelbarger, Tom Crawford, Skeleton Key, Cheer-Accident, Dredg, Dresden Dolls, Yeti, Secret Chiefs 3, Brian Kenney Fresno & Felix, Faun Fables, Uz Jsme Doma, Degenerate Art Ensemble, Barbez, Immersion Composition Society, Mark Growden & Electric Piñata, Juan Prophet Organization, Pong, Dark Matter, Mattson & Stefanie, Eric & Ximena, Trish, Vacuum Tree Head, Michael Chen, Inkboat diaspora, our Families.

Field Recording Locations: Okeefenokee Swamp, Ft. Worth, Toledo, the Stealth Bus, Columbia SC, Oklahoma gas station.

Also thanks to the LucasArts Sound Effects Library.

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Sleepytime Gorilla Museum Oakland, California

Perhaps we can call them Avant-Prog Metal, or Grindcore Funk Theater, or in the words of one
particularly rapt concertgoer “Satanic Anarchic Viking Shit."

Regardless, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum indoctrinates their audiences with circuitous melodies, unnamable harmonies and gleefully dark, evocative sounds emanating from an array of voices and instruments, many of them homemade.
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