Grand Opening and Closing is the debut album by the American avant-garde metal group Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. It was recorded at Polymorph Recording, Oakland, CA, and was recorded, mixed, mastered by bassist Dan Rathbun. The album was produced by Dan Rathbun and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum.
The album was originally released as a CD on October 30, 2001, by Seeland Records in conjunction with Chaosophy Records. When the band signed to The End Records in 2006, the album was re-released on September 5, 2006, with three previously unreleased tracks.http://www.theendrecords.com - SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM - Grand Opening And Closing! Accessed July 30, 2014. Archived from the original, May 20, 2008.
Grand Opening and Closing features David Shamrock on drums, the only SGM album to do so. He was replaced by Frank Grau, who plays drums on "The Stain" for this album.
Like with Of Natural History, some of the album's lyrics are inspired by different authors and poets. For example, the track "Sleep is Wrong" quotes a section of a poem by Dylan Thomas,"From a poem by Dylan Thomas, used by at least one mother to taunt sleep-resistant children" (Grand Opening and Closing, liner notes, p. 112, note 5). while "Sleepytime (Spirit is a Bone)" is inspired by William T. Vollmann's The Rainbow Stories and phrenology."Hospital color-lines inspired in part by William T. Vollmann's The Rainbow Stories" & "Spirit is a bone is the motto of the phrenologists, 18th century skull-readers." (Ibid., notes 6 & 7, respectively.)
Track listing
Personnel Carla Kihlstedt – Electric Violin, Percussion Guitar, Autoharp, Pump Organ, Voice Dan Rathbun – Bass Guitar, Slide-piano Log, Pedal-action Wiggler, Thing,If some of these instruments seem unusual, the reason is that SGM uses a lot of homemade instruments. See the main article about the band for more information. Autoharp, Voice David Shamrock – Drums, Piano Frank Grau – Drums on "The Stain" Moe! Staiano – Percussion, Metal, Pressure-cap Marimba, Spring, Spring-nail Guitar, Popping Turtle, Food Containers, Tympani Nils Frykdahl – 6 and 12 string guitars, Tibetan Bells, Autoharp, Voice
Notes