Dead Meadow at The Electric Circus

Saturday 29th LIVE MUSIC
Dead Meadow
7pm doors, £9
The band started as Jason Simon on vocals and guitar, Steve Kille on bass, and Mark Laughlin on drums. They began to combine 70s hard rock and 60s psychedelic rock with themes from authors such as J R R Tolkien and H P Lovecraft. The first album, “Dead Meadow,” was released in 2000 on Tolotta Records, a label run by Fugazi bassist Joe Lally. This was quickly followed by 2001's “Howls From The Hills”. At the completion of "Howls from the Hills" John Peel asked Dead Meadow to record a Peel Session which was recorded in Fugazi's home studio, the first time a Peel Session was recorded outside the BBC studios.
 
In Spring 2002, Laughlin parted ways with the band in order to pursue a career as a lawyer. He was replaced by long-time friend Stephen McCarty. A live album, Got Live If You Want It was released in mid-2002, which documented one of the last shows with drummer Mark and was produced by Anton Newcombe of Brian Jonestown Massacre In early 2003 the band signed with Matador Records, released Shivering King and Others. Along with the heavy song and blues-influenced songs as on the previous two records, the band continued in their psychedelic style, with acoustic elements and ballads. With the addition of second guitarist Cory Shane, Feathers was released in 2005. Simon’s guitar virtuosity is influenced as much by the droning modal character of Eastern music as by classic rock riffs.
 
In 2007 the band has reverted back to a three piece, made an appearance at the 5th annual Green Man Festival and relocated from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles.
In the beginning of 2008, Dead Meadow released Old Growth on Matador Records. A collection of songs that brought the band back initially to the same farm that their second release Howls From The Hills was created and eventually finished up at the legendary Sunset Sound studio in Los Angeles. As with the last three albums “Old Growth”, was produced by bassist Steve Kille.
 
Later in that same year a brief session with Andrew Stockwell of Wolfmother led to the reinterpretation of the Dead Meadow song "Everything's Goin' On" as a new song "Pilgrim" landing on the second release for Wolfmother, “Cosmic Egg”.
As of summer of 2009 Dead Meadow is working on a feature length live film and soundtrack “Three Kings" that spotlights their current stage show along with psychedelic dream scenarios. The live footage and audio was captured at the bombastic final show of the five month "Old Growth" tour.