Grails / Doomsdayer's Holiday
Artist Grails
Album Title: Doomsdayer's Holiday
Album Cover:
Primary Genre Alternative & Punk: Indie
Format CD
Released 10/07/2008
Label Temporary Residence Ltd.
Catalog No TRR 144
Bar Code No 6 56605 31442 6
Packaging Jewelcase
Tracks
1. Doomsdayer's Holiday (3:24)
2. Reincarnation Blues (4:25)
3. The Natural Man (4:41)
4. Immediate Mate (5:43)
5. Predestination Blues (6:20)
6. X-Contaminations (4:56)
7. Acid Rain (8:00)
Date Acquired 03/09/2010
Personal Rating
Acquired from Electric Fetus - Minneapolis
Purchase Price 12.59

Web Links

All Music Guide Entry:
Discogs Entry:
Musicbrainz entry:
Wikipedia Entry:

Notes

Notes:
Comes in a O-card sleeve.
Basic tracks recorded at Audible Alchemy, Portland, OR
Basic tracks for 'Acid Rain' recorded at Aleph Studios, Seattle, WA
©℗ 2008 Temporary Residence Ltd / Grails

Credits:
Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Baglama [Saz], Oud – Wm. Zak Riles
Bass Guitar [Bass Gtr], Piano, Synth, Vocals [Vocs], Guzheng – William Slater
Design [Art Design] – Alex Hall
Drums, Guitar [Gtr], Keyboards, Lap Steel Guitar [Lap Steel], Vocals [Vocs], Melodica, Tape [Tapes] – Emil Amos
Edited By [Editing], Recorded By [Additional Recording By] – Alex Hall, Emil Amos
Guest [With], Flute – Erik Nugent
Guest [With], Synth [Analog Synths] – Randall Dunn
Guest [With], Vibraphone [Vibes] – Jordan Hudson
Guest [With], Violin – Kate O'Brien-Clarke
Guitar [Gtr's], Sampler [Sampling] – Alex Hall
Mastered By – Carl Saff
Mixed By – Emil Amos (tracks: 4), Jeff Stuart Saltzman (tracks: 1 to 3, 5 to 7)
Recorded By [Basic Tracks Recorded By] – Jake Hall (tracks: 1 to 6), Randall Dunn (tracks: 7), Steve Lobdell (tracks: 1 to 6)

Companies, etc.:
Manufactured By – www.bellwethermfg.com
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Temporary Residence Limited
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Grails
Copyright © – Temporary Residence Limited
Copyright © – Grails
Recorded At – Audible Alchemy
Recorded At – Aleph Studios

Barcode and other Identifiers:
Barcode (On O-card sleeve): 6 56605 31442 6
Barcode (Scanned): 656605314426
Mastering SID Code (Variant 1): IFPI L485
Mould SID Code (Variant 1): IFPI 8114
Matrix / Runout (Variant 1): 0NCB6<7205>TRR144 WWW.BELLWETHERMFG.COM
Mastering SID Code (Variant 2): IFPI L481
Mould SID Code (Variant 2): IFPI 8112
Matrix / Runout (Variant 2): 40FP1<7205>TRR144 WWW.BELLWETHERMFG.COM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
foobar2000 1.2.9 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2013-12-24 23:39:32
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analyzed: Grails / Doomsdayer's Holiday
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR           Peak          RMS       Duration Track
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR6       -0.30 dB     -8.94 dB      3:25      01/07-Doomsdayer's Holiday
DR7       -0.30 dB   -11.00 dB      4:26      02/07-Reincarnation Blues
DR9       -1.82 dB   -13.13 dB      4:42      03/07-The Natural Man
DR9       -0.30 dB   -12.75 dB      5:43      04/07-Immediate Mate
DR6       -0.30 dB     -9.92 dB      6:20      05/07-Predestination Blues
DR9       -0.30 dB   -12.95 dB      4:57      06/07-X-Contaminations
DR7       -0.30 dB   -10.57 dB      8:00      07/07-Acid Rain
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of tracks:  7
Official DR value:   DR7
Samplerate:            44100 Hz
Channels:               2
Bits per sample:    16
Bitrate:                   790 kbps
Codec:                   FLAC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reviews
All Music Guide Review by Thom Jurek:

The Grails have embraced open-ended, free grooving, psychedelic rock, open-toned Eastern modalism, assault-worthy hard rock, spooky dub, and even folk music in this heady, stoned out brew. The basic quartet of Emil Amos, Alex Hall, William Slater, and Zak Riles are still intact; they've augmented this set -- in places -- with Kate O'Brien Clarke on violin, vibist Jordan Hudson, Randall Dunn on analogue synths, and even Erik Nugent on flute. Alan Bishop makes a guest appearance as a vocalist on "Predestination Blues." While playing is one end of the spiritually tripped-out Grails' aesthetic, the other is post-production, with intricate dynamic touches, textural embellishments, dramatic flair, space, silence, and even ambience as one track segues seemingly endlessly into another -- this is becoming a real trademark in the way they record.

The title track opens the record with the sound of a far off scream that can mistakenly, at first, be taken for wind blowing through an open window. It is quickly followed by thudding tom-toms, waves of muted feedback, and guitars and violins worthy of Black Sabbath's fuzzed-out bass heaviness and the flanged out space guitar in the instrumental bridge of Robin Trower's "Too Rolling Stoned." It's all overblown, slow, and menacing. It's followed by the wailing power of an Eastern European violin with bass thudding, power-amped guitar riffage and wailing snares and cymbals in "Reincarnation Blues." There are dynamic stops and starts, making the listener yearn for that heaviness to continue. And it does, with slide guitars, electric saz's, and all manner of synthed out wonkiness. But then it changes again in the relative bliss of "Natural Man," where acoustic guitars, washed out synths, reverb, and what sounds like a cembalom (but is probably piano strings being plucked), enters in slow 4/4 before being adorned with minor-key flourishes by a strummed acoustic guitar and the pillowy beauty of a sonically treated flute, vibes, melodica, and tape delays. Taken together, these three cuts have already traveled immeasurable distances musically; they stretch the notions of time and space into pure drift. The astonishing thing is that only 12 minutes have transpired. The remaining four tracks are similarly ambitious and seamless: the incantory acid dub effects on "Immediate Mate," the beautiful speaker blowout in "Predestination Blues," the pure experimental soundscape ocean that is "X-Contaminations," culminating in the glorious and majestic psychedelia of "Acid Rain" (reminiscent in scope of "Echoes" on Pink Floyd's Meddle). The end of the album feels like the nadir of a particularly vivid dream that encompasses both true darkness and ecstatic light. The Grails have once more pushed their own sonic terrain, where all that is familiar to them is woven into a gorgeously textured fabric with all that could be envisioned by them at this point in time, with the listener as the true beneficiary.
Cover 1
Cover 2
Cover 3
Cover 4
Cover 5
Cover 6
Cover 7
Cover 8
Cover 9