Photo by: Anita Martinez
Official press release:
Nefarious Industries presents one of the most mind-melting releases of the year, with Calling Whitetails To A Tuned Bow, the third full-length from San Diego’s Those Darn Gnomes. The collective’s unhinged, unpredictable, and utterly explosive blend of free-jazz, noise, metal, and musical experimentation pushes the boundaries of sanity and safety through every minute of the new release.
See a brief trailer for Those Darn Gnomes’ Calling Whitetails To A Tuned Bow here:
Calling Whitetails To A Tuned Bow is Those Darn Gnomes’ first release for Nefarious Industries and sees a further expansion and refinement of the band’s sprawling, genre-defying sound. Here, the group explores the outer reaches of progressive metal, free improvisation, and avant-garde sound design through the incorporation of algorithmic compositional techniques derived from mold cultivation, homemade instruments, and a greater focus on abrasive weirdness.
While the lineup of Those Darn Gnomes has since shifted, Calling Whitetails To A Tuned Bow was performed and self-recorded at Apollo’s Crotch by then core members Mark Steuer, Christian Molenaar, Russell Case, and Bryon Wojciechowski, who collectively deliver a crushingly odd blend of instruments. Additionally, a throng of guest musicians provide a barrage of additional instrumentation, coalescing in a demented layering of guitars, bass, drums, percussion, power electronics, brass and woodwind instruments, an array of stringed instruments, keys, and more. The album’s cover collage was created by Robert Khasho, visually depicting the abstract dementia of the album.
With four tracks consuming nearly forty-one minutes, Calling Whitetails To A Tuned Bow is one of the most intriguing, challenging, genre-defiant, and off-the-chain albums of the year. Fans of Naked City, Ornette Coleman, Fantômas, Zu, Boredoms, Oxbow, Merzbow, Ruins, other boundary-bulldozing extreme music icons, Those Darn Gnomes should be the next thing you check out.
Nefarious Industries will release Calling Whitetails To A Tuned Bow on all digital platforms and eco-wallet CD on June 28th. Find pre-orders at the label webshop and Bandcamp. Watch for full audio samples, insight into the bizarre recording tactics employed on the album, and much more to be issued over the weeks ahead.
Calling Whitetails To A Tuned Bow captures the intense, antagonistic, and damaging sound that has become the live Those Darn Gnomes experience, particularly with the new lineup comprised of Christian Molenaar (voice, electronics), Noah Souza (saxophone), Jonathan Piper (tuba), Joe Molenaar (bass), Russell Case (tenor guitar), and Nathan Hubbard (drums).
Notorious for going haywire upon unsuspecting audiences live, Those Darn Gnomes performs with dizzying regularity throughout their local region, and has already performed several dozen sporadic shows this year. They’ll take the act further out of bounds in support of the new record, having confirmed a hometown release show for Calling Whitetails To A Tuned Bow on May 31st. The band has also a West Coast tour with labelmates Fuck Your Birthday and several other shows for June. Watch for continual live updates all year.
Calling Whitetails To A Tuned Bow Track Listing:
- “Birds”
- “Hall”
- “A Cliff In Our Garden”
- “The Frail Stag (Vanity Sounds The Horn And Ignorance Unleashes The Hounds Overconfidence, Rashness, And Desire)”
5/31 – San Diego, CA | San Diego Content Partners (album release show)
6/05 – Los Angeles, CA | Coaxial *
6/06 – San Diego, CA | Weird Hues *
6/09 – Denver, CO | Thought//Forms Gallery *
6/13 – Portland, OR | Twilight *^+
6/14 – Eugene, OR | The Urgus (house show) *
6/17 – San Francisco, CA | Honey Hive Gallery *
6/21 – Los Angeles, CA | Infinite Noise Outrageous Loud
6/29 – San Diego, CA | UC San Diego
* = Fuck Your Birthday
^ = Mercury Tree
+ = Leafminer
Those Darn Gnomes current lineup:
Christian Molenaar – vocals, electronics
Noah Souza – saxophone
Jonathan Piper – tuba
Joe Molenaar – bass
Russell Case – tenor guitar
Nathan Hubbard – drums
Calling Whitetails To A Tuned Bow core members:
Mark Steuer
Christian Molenaar
Russell Case
Bryon Wojciechowski
Calling Whitetails To A Tuned Bow additional musicians:
Lucas Broyles – guitar
Tall Can – melodica
Cindy Elizondo – piano
Ken Fitzgerald – trumpet
Doug Hall – French horn
Willie Marshall – voice
holy! – guitar, voice
Queen Erika Andrews – violin
Mortal Bicycle – banjo, bass, concertina, harmonica
Erin Monaghan – clarinet, trumpet
Noah Souza – guitar
Raphael Tosti – percussion
Katie Walker – viola, voice