I’ve written about them before here and on Shambhala SunSpace, but this not-unimportant post-punk turned full-on rock band is back (again) and referring to Buddhism in the press for the coming release of their new album, Choice of Weapon. As I say, this isn’t the first time; The Cult’s last album had some Buddhist themes, and singer Ian Astbury has spoken about his affinity for Tibetan Buddhism before, even writing a piece called “The Buddhist Way” for SPIN back in ’09.)

And The Cult’s weapon of choice? (more…)

Huge thanks to the eagle-eyed Sam DeWitt for giving me the heads-up about Yamantaka // Sonic Titan, a band which, according to Pitchfork, “blends philosophies of Buddhism, meditation, and mantra with the band’s love of extreme sounds like black metal, industrial, and noise. Their name, for example, pins a reference to the Buddhist deity Yamantaka with a song title from doom metal band Sleep’s Dopesmoker.” [A true classic, sez the Horse. And so far, YT//ST seems to be very much my cuppa tea, too.]

You can listen to the band’s whole new LP online here.

There’s a video, too:

YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN – COUNTING TRACK from LZKA on Vimeo.

More from Pitchfork:

When I was a young, bitter punk rock kid, much of the (very small amount of ) light I saw in the world usually came from seeing that others had as caustic and cynical a take on things as I did. One exception, though, was Pianosaurus, a band that absolutely slayed on their instruments – all of which were children’s toys. Their record, Groovy Neighborhood (left), was playful and non-cynical. To my best friend Josh and me, it was summer freedom on vinyl.

I always wondered what happened to those guys. Well, now I have some answers, thanks to Marc Maron and the newest installation of his fantastic comedy-insider podcast, WTF, which features non-comedian Dr. Stephen Dansiger – psychotherapist, happy family man, and lifetime musician who’s played with some great bands, including Pianosaurus. So: why is this relevant to this blog? Well, Dansiger is also a Zen meditator now. (He’s friends, too, with Josh Korda of Dharma Punx.) And he talks about all of this, and how he’s gotten to the other side of some seriously rough times, on WTF. Click here to listen online. Or download via iTunes.

Warning: if you’re not comfortable with the word that the “F” in “WTF” represents, this won’t be easy listening for you. But it’s a good listen nonetheless.

The Pittsburgh band White Wives has released their new video, “Hungry Ghosts” — something many Buddhists will know about, but which the great music site Consequence of Sound is covering, too:

Small mouths, bloated bellies, thin necks. No, this is not a description of our high school prom dates but of the fabled hungry ghost, a supernatural being often filled with more desire than one could possibly consume. Completely driven by unfulfilled cravings, they want nothing more than satisfaction that’s never quite enough. Sound familiar? Pittsburgh-based White Wives dive head first into this age-old yet always relevant theme in their video for “Hungry Ghost”, a garage-punk/alt-rock anthem that serves as the third track off their debut LP, Happeners.

Here’s the video — and head over to CoS for more info and White Wives tour dates.

White Wives – Hungry Ghost from Cluster 1 on Vimeo.

Barn Owl, one of my very favorite musical acts these days, played a show hosted by the SFZC. Watch, listen, enjoy. It’s two great tastes that taste great together!

Barn Owl from auraloptic on Vimeo.

Another act that played SFZC was Date Palms. Click here for that.

You may recall mentions of the three-piece metal band Deadly Light both here and over on Shambhala SunSpace. It’s pretty obvious that the Horse is enthusiastic about metal — especially when it’s at turns hard-to-play, sludgy, chuggy, catchy — but of course we’re talking about Buddhism here, at least ostensibly, so let me remind you of the Buddhist connection. As drummer Don Baumer told me about two years ago: “As practicing Buddhists, we have written lyrical content that deals with consciousness, the trials and triumphs of working with meditation and the path, and the difficulties of bringing that path into a society that often fosters materialism and alienation.” (It’s worth noting that Deadly Light is Dharma-Burger free; any Buddhism here is in the lyrics, not in the packaging. We’re talking art here, and not commerce.)

Now Deadly Light have a new singer — Rob Ropkins, formerly of Beat Senseless and North American Bison – and a new CD called No Gods Within the City. This time, Don tells me, the music amounts to

kind of an unfolding story of ego. The title track is about overthrowing or ridding oneself of external authorities. The second track, “The Feast,” is about the resulting sense of self-importance and hedonism that can arise from immature autonomy. “Arachnophile” follows and is about getting rooted in new self-destructive habits.

Track 4, “Phantom,” is about realizing that the whole story you’ve been telling yourself is bullshit, intransient, and illusory, and the resulting longing for something genuine. The closing track, “Rebellion,” is about rebelling against external and internal norms in order to live an honest, genuine existence.

Check out Deadly Light on their website, where you can download “Phantom” for free — and order No Gods Within the City “for more mere pence,” as the DL dudes say. (In fact, if you click here, you can have your choice of how to download No Gods Within the City, plus Deadly Light’s earlier Six Walls — and get lyrics. All of which is recommended!)

Lastly: I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Deadly Light are celebrating the release of No Gods with a show at The Funhouse in Seattle, on Sept 30. If you’re in the area, be sure to go.

Hear the new track from the great metal band — and The Worst Horse’s house band (I wish!) — The Firstborn, here.

It’s from their forthcoming LP, Lions Among Men. Click here and here for more of the Horse’s coverage of The Firstborn.

The latest entry from the ever-expanding realm of metal/Buddhism crossovers is the cover and title of the new EP by the great doom/drone band, Queen Elephantine:

The Tibetan-thangka-style art is one thing, but it doesn’t really get more metal than “Garland of Skulls,” does it?* (Queen Elphantine has dabbled in imagery from world religions and cultures, what with album titles like Surya and Kailash, and song titles like “Search for the Deathless State.” And you can download their record, Yatra (as in the Hindu term for “pilgrimage”) for free here.)

Hear the slow, dirgy, powerful track, “Potency,” from Garland of Skulls, here.

(See here for another recent — and recommended — Buddhism/metal crossover.)

* Note: I have dibs on the band name SkülCüp.

“[T]here’s been a detour in Gomo Tulku’s spiritual journey,” reports NPR. “He’s about to release his first rap recording.”

Now, comments on the piece, so far, don’t seem to be in the Rapping Lama’s favor. But listen for yourself and see what you think.

Of course, there’s nothing new about the Buddhism/hip-hop crossover. And like anything, the results have been all over the map. You’ll find some gems — and otherwise — in the Horse’s archives.

Thanks to Colleen Ann K. for the tip.

For a while now I’ve wondered about the band Yob. (Their name refers to a classic Warner Brothers cartoon; I distinctly remember being a teenager in bands and seeing the cartoon and thinking, Good band name.)

Anyway…: Yob has just gotten back at it after some inactivity. Hearing that, I recalled their last album; it was called The Great Cessation. Was it possible they could be talking about nirvana there? “The great cessation” is in fact one translation of the term parinirvana, the “final nirvana, which occurs upon the death of the body of someone who has attained complete awakening.” (Yes, I cribbed that from Wikipedia but it works for my purposes here.)

Yob’s new album (shown here) is called Atma. About the title, the great heavy music blog The Obelisk writes that it “refers to the Buddhist concept of the complete, spiritual self.” Now, that’s not a Buddhist concept, really — Buddhism usually emphasizes anatta, or not-self — but still: Hmmm. And in addition to a title track, there’s another song on the album called “Upon The Sight Of The Other Shore.” That sounds like it could be reference to the “other shore” referred to in the closing lines of the shorter version of The Heart Sutra, about which Barbara O’Brien writes:

The last words in the shorter version of the sutra are “Gaté Gaté Paragaté Parasamgaté Bodhi Svaha!” The basic translation, as I understand it, is “gone (or ferried) with everyone to the other shore right now!”

A little more Googling about Yob and Buddhism turns up a quick reference in a Rebel Extravaganza interview with vocalist and guitarist Mike Scheidt, in which he responds to the interviewer’s question about the use of the word bardo in the song “Ball of Molten Lead” from 2004′s The Illusion of Motion LP:

I’m surprised that one jumped out at you, man! A bardo is a term used in Buddhism. A bardo is a segment of life. The Tibetan Book Of The Dead goes into it, the bardos of life… the stages of life and death. More in depth, when you get into the places where the book deals with learning how to die. We go through time periods of trying to understand and remember who we are outside of this life.

And the band has a track called “Asleep in Samsara” on 2002′s “Elaborations of Carbon.”

Is all this a coincidence? And more important: does it matter?

I’m not saying that Scheidt is a Buddhist or that YOB is in some way a “Buddhist band.”* (And either way, they get points for clearly not trying to cash in on Buddhism’s cultural cachet. They’re hardly hitting us over the head with the references here.) They probably wouldn’t want to be identified as a Buddhist band, even if they were. And I’m not saying they are. All I am saying is this:

1) Metal can be a lot smarter than some would ever think.
2) Buddhism can be way more metal-confluent than some would ever think. (It can also be way more punk- or hip-hop- or baseball- or business- or whatever-confluent than some would ever think, too.)
3) It’s refreshing when a really good band makes great music whose lyrical content is not only not insulting, but somehow in line with the kinds of things that concern you.
4) YOB is one such really good band.

If you like your metal on the heavy, doomy side, you should check’m out on their MySpace page, which includes the first track from Atma, “Prepare the Ground.”

And if you get a little something extra out of Yob’s music, well hey.

* PS: Since this post was written, I’ve seen Scheidt refer to himself as being influenced by many Eastern religions (which would make sense) but that he identifies particularly with Hindu thought (which would account for his interest in exploring the concept behind Atma‘s title.)