Sleep - Saarbrucken, Germany 1993 (video)

This video is a short one, but awesome nonetheless. It was taken during Sleep's European tour opening for Cannibal Corpse (the banner is visible in parts in the background) and is only one song, Holy Mountain.

It's obvious that they are the opening act as the only one close to the stage is a dude smoking at the end of the stage and the audience seems pretty chill, even after they finish, though they do get a sturdy round of applause.

Tons of energy from the band though and when the camera pans to Chris, he's going full out behind the kit - as are Al and Matt during the whole song. It's short but powerful and even though the audio is muddied by the approximity to the amps, its still got that 1993/1994 Sleep tone with the full-on Green Matamp thing, which is a seriously beautiful sound indeed.

Sleep practicing 'Dopesmoker' before Roadburn 2012

Very cool short video here and an undoubtedly tired and dragging Sleep. Al looks like he needs about ten Red Bulls just to get him off that chair. Still, one cool video and a neat insight into Sleep.

One of my co-workers got to go to Roadburn this year and said the Sleep show was amazing. Probably actually meant fucking unbelieveably amazing, but she's not given to hyperbole.

Doing a little sleuthing, I checked out the Sleep show schedule for this year and there was a full European Tour based around Roadburn and then four US shows - with 2 at Neumo's in Seattle, WA. Which begs the question - why two back-to-back shows in Seattle? (Even though Neumo's is a bitching club and its right next to my favorite fish and chip place, Pike Street Fish Fry) Jack Endino, producer extrodinare still records there and he's done a few HoF albums - so I am wondering - is Sleep is back in the studio?! Fucking hopefully.

Sleep - Jerusalem (1998) CD Bootleg

This is the last piece of the Sleep puzzle I needed as far as the Jerusalem/Dopesmoker releases are concerned. This is the bootleg version of the original Jerusalem mix the band released in 1998 with cover art by Arik Roper, who is credited as "Moonhawk" in the insert.

The release is identical as far as I can tell to the later Rise Above/Music Cartel Records release with "Jerusalem" broken up into 6 parts and the same truncated opening to the album on that later release.

This was bought from a small online shop and as far as I know, its pretty hard to find, but doesn't command stupid money - probably because the version is the same as the later Rise Above/Music Cartel one. It's worth it, if only for the awesome art. The Rise Above/Music Cartel version art is OK, even with the tolex of the Matamp/Green amp as the backing color/texture behind the pics.

For those of you wondering which version to get, there are four now - this, the Rise Above/Music Cartel one, the Tee Pee records remixed Dopesmoker release and now the Southern Lord version, which is sceduled to drop in about a months' time. The Tee Pee Records Dopsmoker release is really the one to get right now, but I have yet to hear the new version - which also has an extra track - a live version of "Holy Mountain".

Sleep - 1/30/1994 Live at the Limelight NY, NY

1) From Beyond
2) Dopesmoker
3) The Druid

This is one of the shows from the 1994 Hawkwind tour and a pretty good bootleg from the time. The audio is very clear and you get a good idea of what they sounded like live. The tone alone from Pike's Green's is thunderous!

'From Beyond' is slow and its like Al, Matt and Chris all just wanted to soak up that thick tone of the Matamps! It takes about 5 minutes from the start of the song to get into the lyrics, which is fine for me. If there were a perfect time to listen to this bootleg, it would be right after waking up. Starts slow and gets you nodding your head. After five minutes you chill hard and spend the next half hour drinking coffee and getting ready to chill equally hard for the rest of the day.

'Dopesmoker' is the early version heard on a few other bootlegs and its 22-minutes long and awesome here. It's still strange to me that the song went through such a transformation before they committed it to tape as this version sounds like its was almost done - if not totally there.

The show ends with a great version of 'The Druid', a version more reminicent of the Holy Mountain recording than the Vol. 2 one. It's a clear and powerful bootleg of Sleep on the fabled Hawkwind tour, a must-get for any fan of their live work.