(Double LP+DVD / CD+DVD) FIVE NEW SONGS, LIVE RECORDING AND ORIGINAL FILM out April 4th on Xemu Records
January 21, 2010, 10:05 PM
“There is a California myth about these cloaked spirit characters on the coast. Lost souls from another time and world that are trapped here and watch us for one reason or another, I guess depending on your view you are either lucky or not to run into one. John Steinbeck actually writes about them in one of his short stories “Flight.” Steven Kille, Bassist for Dead Meadow alludes to the characters that the three band members portray in their upcoming film The Three Kings (Xemu Records). A stunning mix of fantasy film and multi-camera live concert footage The Three Kings overlays the transcendental experience of the band’s music with film vignettes of The Three Kings at work. “They are sort of play on characters we allude to in our last record (Old Growth) but elaborated on with the biblical Bedouins concept of wandering holy mystics and function as a vehicle to bring all these ideas we have had for years into your living room. The Kings look into our mortal world where each of the three human characters we play are tempted by the dark side of things and each react differently. Not sure if it is a moral tale but I suppose a viewer can look at it like that.”
The package consists of an album that stands alone with live material and FIVE new studio songs produced by Kille such as That Old Temple mixed by Dave Schiffman and mastered by Howie Weinberg. Temple is the first single and has an accompanying video. Dead Meadow have cradled the wide niche that resides between desert soaked 70’s fuzz rock and sonically ambitious indie rock for over a decade at this point. Members Kille, Jason Simon (vocals/guitar) and Stephen McCarty (drums) have released five studio albums, three of which were on Matador Records. The Three Kings is a celebration of the band’s lyrical mythos and is directed by Artifical Army, who in the past bent reality with videos for the likes of The Sword, Mars Volta and Coheed & Cambria.
The idea for the film seems guided by otherworldly forces or at least by the LA DIY art and music community. Recorded live at an art warehouses in L.A. It was like a speakeasy that threw amazing concerts that blossomed by word of mouth, there were always the same few hundred people coming regularly, with their numbers growing by the event. The band and film collective actually used another warehouse next door as an office/practice loft. “We rented space as did Artificial Army. Practicing late at night the only other people in the building at that time was Artificial Army editing their work, we became good friends” says Kille.
Supporting 2008’s release Old Growth the band recorded the live concert and film the last show of an 89 date tour. “We were just going to record the audio as a document to our performance at the time or as an official live album but Artificial Army just said “cool, let’s bring down our cameras too!” They did an amazing job!” That summer Kille and Simon Chan of Artifical Army lived a block away from each other and spent each day kicking around ideas for what became The Three Kings.
Replete with pro actors and locations that include the California sand dunes where George Lucas set Tatooine and Lautner’s Elrod house in Palm Springs where a James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever film was shot. The result is an updating of classic rock films for the viral generation. http://www.deadmeadow.com/
