Giant Squid lost its biggest champion and supporter as well as dearest friend, Adrian Bromley.

Adrian was, on the surface, our unbelievably energetic PR agent. He had been since we were on The End Records, where he got our music into the hands and heads of thousands of people all over the world. When  both Giant Squid and Adrian left that record label, we hired him and his start up company, Ixmati Media. We introduced him to our friends Walken, Cormorant, and La Fin Du monde who he started working tirelessly for as well. He got us, an unsigned band, in the pages of Revolver and Decibel Magazine with huge write ups and reviews, and has dozens of other magazines and websites chomping at the bit about our little band. If he had been here a little bit longer, he would have gotten hundreds more important people buzzing about us, as well as these other bands on his roster, and thus thousands of fans.

Beneath his ever smiling persona though, Adrian was simply the biggest fan and the best friend our band has ever known. He was more excited about our new record and where we were going than any of us were! He'd call me at 1:00 in the morning to say how he was getting goosebumps just thinking about the album and what it could do. He stood by the band and I during our hardest, most painful and desperate times when no one else would. 

Adrian has been calling me every couple days, bursting with excitement about some new review or interview that he got for us, or some crazy idea he had to get us into Popular Science magazine - just cause we sing about the ocean and its critters. He thought we should put little rubber squids in every press package we sent out to magazines and websites, just so they'll remember us as that band that, well, put little rubber squids in their packages. I used to LOVE that shit about him! So much imagination and energy and love.  His heart was fucking huge and his brain was like a locomotive.

I'll never get another text from him saying "Call me now!!" or "Are you sitting down!? You're not going to believe what I have to tell you!" Adrian and I will never talk about superhero movies again. I'll never get another email from "Canuck Squid" as he loved to call himself, sending me pictures of his fat ass cat, Yosemite Sam. 

I called in sick today for you dude, and then went record shopping even though I'm totally broke. Because that's the way you, "the vinyl pillager" rolled. Fuck, it's Monday night. You would have already called me by now for something or another.

Adrian, I had never seen you happier and more confident in these last months, which at least eases my heart a little. You found yourself in a whole new way and were hitting the ground running full speed with your company and your label. I'm crushed knowing that the world won't get to see your dreams come to fruitation. But, we all still have our copies of Unrestrained, ripe with the articles written by the one and only "Energizer" Bromley. And, Giant Squid has our entire career to remember you with, as we owe you everything.

I can't believe you're gone my friend. I really loved you a lot. We all did. Giant Squid will never forget you. 

Giant Squid is extremely proud to announce the guest appearances on our up coming album, The Ichthyologist, now scheduled for a Feb 3rd release, available only through the band at myspace.com/giantsquid, and limited to only a thousand copies.

Hopefully, while we have a bunch of you excited by the news below, we can convince you to throw down some cash in advance as we have also made The Ichthyologist available for preorder from our myspace page. You'll be guaranteed (if you live in the U.S.) to have the album in your mailbox by the third, if not a day or two earlier. The first fifty orders get a real sevengill shark tooth collected by yours truly from the bottom of the tanks in which I dive in daily at The Aquarium of the Bay in San Francisco. Yep, a real shark tooth freshly fallen from the mouth of the beasts that inspire us so. Just don't hurt anybody with it.

Three female legends in underground heavy music adorn The Ichthyologist with masterful performances.

Anneke van Giersbergen (The Gathering, Agua de Annique) laid down goose bump inducing, soaring vocals on Sevengill (speaking of sharks teeth). Just as in all the guest performers on The Ichthyologist, we had absolute faith in Anneke's ability to raise one of our songs to a level unimagined by us. Being that she resides in her homeland of Holland, she had to record her vocals at home. We gave her the song, lyrics and the basic parts to sing over in any way she saw fit. Her tracks were the last to come in on the final day of mixing. I had already laid down all my vocals by this point, not having any idea how they were going to relate or feel side by side with hers. We did not hear one note of her performance until it was mixed in to the song, and so when we sat down in the control room and listened to Sevengill in it's entirety for the first time, chills ran through all of us. She delivered a larger than life performance, like only she could. All heart and power.

Here's what Anneke had to say about it: "When I was asked to sing on the new Giant Squid album I was just over the moon! After we did a small U.S. tour together in 2006 I really got into their music and still there is not a week that goes by that I don't play their songs. From what I hear their new material is fantastic. The music is intense and emotional; rock that is heavy on the heart. I love it and I love being part of it!"

Kris Force (Amber Asylum, Neurosis) also recorded her ethereal tapestry of violins on Mormon Island by her self, taking our sparse, fragile little song into her own hands and effortlessly making it a personal favorite of everyone in the band. If there was a musical equivalent to being a forgotten spirit, forced to haunt the bottom of a murky lake for eternity, it would sound like the wall of ghostly gorgeousness that Kris created. Having her on our record is an immense honor for both Bryan and I, as Jackie (a veteran member of Amber Asylum for over ten years) can tell you what fan boys we are.

Karyn Crisis (Crisis), who is a metal hero to so many - inspiring countless female metal fans to take hold of the microphone themselves and brutalize audiences in ways never seen before years before it became almost commonplace - is the only woman on the planet who could deliver vocals like she did on Throwing a Donner Party at Sea. Uncompromising, vein bursting, mountain lion like ferocity that perfectly captured the anxiety, fear, and pure pissed off punk rock rage that this song embodies. She is an icon and a pioneer, and has become a dear friend of the band. The Ichthyologist wouldn't have been complete without her roar on it.

Here is what Karyn Crisis had to say about it: "I am honored to be a guest vocalist on the new Giant Squid album! I've been a longtime admirer of the Squid's dynamic songwriting and clever storytelling… and with the dramatic addition of the cello, this album is sure to be epic!"

In addition to tracking Karyn Crisis's vocals, legendary bay area producer, Billy Anderson (Neurosis, High On Fire) also took the time out of his hectic recording schedule to record the rest of the guest appearances by some of our favorite people at Shark Bite Studios in Oakland, CA.

Lorraine Rath (Amber Asylum, Worm Ouroboros, The Gault) bestowed upon us some crushingly beautiful flute on Sevengill. Lorraine is such an incredible song writer, who took a woeful song and just made it heart breaking. In addition to the tenderness she portrays in the song's much quieter first half, she literally wrote the perfect flute part to go over a 6/7, ultra heavy barrage of melody at the end of the track.

Nate Perkins (The Lesdystics) has been a long time friend and contributor to Giant Squid's previous incarnations in our shared home town of Sacramento. He's a trumpet workhorse who we had coming up with incredible parts on the spot for over three songs on the record. Nate is a mind reader. He would listen patiently to my sometimes absurd descriptions of imaginary trumpet parts in my head, and then quickly come up with fantastic arrangements that were far superior to anything I could have conceived. Now if we can just get him to tour with us!

Last but not least, Jackie's own lovely sister, Cat Gratz, came in and played oboe on Emerald Bay, creating the quintessential forlorn sea shanty sound we strived for in that track. Her touching performance is simultaneously heartwarming and foreboding – an eerie contrast to the grim nature of the song's lyrics.

On Giant Squid's myspace page, you can watch a short you tube video in which, if you watch all the way to the end, you'll be able to hear bits of ALL the guest performances, as well as watch the studio footage of those who recorded their parts in Oakland with Billy Anderson. In addition there is a very short little video of Jackie and I doing some vocal takes and a bit of banjo jangling in Matt Bayles's studio, the Red Room in Seattle.

Enjoy!

~Aaron Gregory

Everyone in Giant Squid has been waiting for the day when we'd finally be able to post a song on line that was truly us, in the now, representative of all who are in the band. So, we've posted a track off our new record, The Ichthyologist, on our MySpace page. The song is called "Blue Linckia" and it's the eighth track on the album. Though it's a very thorough sample of all things currently Giant Squid, it's definitely the most hopeful - dare I say cheerful - song on the whole record. Don't be alarmed! By the time you get to the eighth track on The Ichthyologist, you might just need some cheering up!! The theme and lyrics of the song are the epitome of the whole concept of the record, so we saw it as a fitting first taste to hopefully excite some fans and intrigue some new listeners.

The track listing of The Ichthyologist is:

PANTHALASSA Lampetra tridentata
LA BREA TAR PITS Pseudomonas putida
SUTTERVILLE Vibrio cholerae
DEAD MAN SLOUGH Pacifastacus leniusculus
THROWING A DONNER PARTY AT SEA Physeter catodon
SEVENGILL Notorynchus cepedianus
MORMON ISLAND Alluvial Au
BLUE LINCKIA Linckia laevigata
EMERALD BAY Prionace glauca
RUBICON WALL Acipenser transmontanus

We've also posted the album cover art on our MySpace as well, though it won't really appear exactly like it does on the site. The nature of the really cool, very unique foldable packaging we're using, called an Arigato-Pak made by Stumptown Printers in Portland, OR, has the image wrapping around all sides of the album. Imagine a digi-pak size match book. We'll announce all the incredible guest appearances on the album, along with some studio footage of most of these lovely people, as well as a pre-order option in just a couple weeks.

Hell yeah OBAMA!!!

Well, it's been a long time coming, and I hate to keep putting off all the people who have been emailing about this the last couple of years, so… we finally got around to putting together the last batch of Monster In The Creek EPs. And, since we're seriously hard up for cash, I've made these available for order immediately from us at myspace.com/giantsquid for ten of your hard earned dollars.

The EPs are all hand packaged by the band themselves with printed CD-Rs, hand cut labels on a cardboard slip package, and a hand folded lyric insert, exactly as they originally were three years ago. Of course like before, these too will each be individually numbered, which we've had to do backwards from 400 as by now we've totally forgotten where we left off in making these, so rest assured the count will be accurate for those who are a stickler for details!! I think there are only like 140 of these left. Unlike the first batch though, these WILL have the word "analog" misspelled on the CD-R. We were painstakingly scratching off an inappropriately placed "e" on each one before, but now we just don't fucking care as I'm sure you all don't. First batch, "analog", second batch "analoge". Got it? It's like having an ultra rare action figure with wrongly colored plastic weaponry. And really, what would a Giant Squid release be without a glaring typo?

Once these are gone, I don't know what we'll do with the material, maybe a cool vinyl reissue or something someday, but we for surely won't ever remake these like this again. Putting these together is a high cost, tedious, pain in the ass that was a bad idea from the beginning. Get them while we got them.

Monster In The Creek was on odd but really enjoyable era for Giant Squid that took place between the original self released, Metridium Field, and The End Records release, Metridium Fields. It features Aaron, Bryan, Mike, and Aurielle, all from Metridium Fields, along with Andy Southard, aka "Young Aundee" who was our full time keyboardist and third vocalist at the time. The songs are rich with keyboards and almost dance like passages, but still possess all the dark indie rock-esque melodies sandwiched with Giant Squid's trademark ultra heavy, down tuned guitar parts, which this time around feel more classic rock than post-doom metal-whatever you call it. It's unique to say the least. You can hear a couple of the tracks on our myspace page.

In 2005, we recorded these songs live (sans vocals of course) and directly to analog, 16 track, two-inch tape, with all of us playing in one enormous room. This took place at The Hangar recording studio in Sacramento, CA with producer Eric Broyhill (Far, !!!, Outhud). Everything done on this album was analog, from vocal effects to mixing, but then was mastered digitally by Broyhill. It sounds amazing and natural.

The album is loosely based on the New Jersey shark attacks that happened in Matawan Creek in 1916 – an event that I've been rather obsessed with since I was a child.

The recording process of The Ichthyologist has required some serious out of pocket money from us, so help us out here people and grab a little collectable piece of Giant Squid lore.

In addition to that, you can also buy for the first time ever through our MySpace page, the first version of Metridium Field, which we self released in 2004, two years before we entirely re-recorded the album and released it on The End Records as Metridium Fields. The original version of this record was engineered, mixed, and produced entirely by Billy Anderson (Neurosis, High On Fire, Cattle Decapitation) and is much more gritty and metal in both tone and feel. There's both male and female death metal-esque vocals coupled with double bass and more saturated metal guitar tones. Many of the songs possess slightly different arrangements before we "trimmed the fat" in the re-recording. A must have for any real Giant Squid nuts.

Also, if you haven't picked up a copy of our colored vinyl, limited 7" split with Grayceon, featuring the previously unreleased track, "Sutter's Fort", there aren't many of them left so grab one while you're at it. Thanks everyone for pestering us about the EPs and being so into it. I hope all who wanted one ends up with one. More big news about The Ichthyologist coming soon, including announcements of some amazing guest appearances!"

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..tr> ..table>..table> August 25th, 2008 GIANT SQUID issues studio update; Cover Syd Barrett for tribute CD San Francisco's progressive/doom/stoner rock band GIANT SQUID have completed a week of studio work on their upcoming, self-released album The Ichthyologist with Matt Bayles (Mastodon, Isis, Pearl Jam). In an update posted online, singer/guitarist Aaron Gregory posts: "Giant Squid just finished a grueling seven days of recording in Seattle's Litho Room studio with highly regarded producer, Matt Bayles (Mastodon, Isis, Pearl Jam), and will return in September for another six days to finish tracking and mixing at Bayles' personal studio, The Red Room. The results so far have been incredible. Our new album, The Ichthyologist, is just over an hours worth of music, ten full songs ranging from  immensely heavy riffs to other worldly melodies that Giant Squid is known for. Bayles is a true master of his trade, and the rough mixes already sound beautiful. We can't wait to hear how our music will come across after he's finished having his way with it. Giant Squid will be self releasing only a thousand physical copies of The Ichthyologist, available only through the bands website, giantsquidlives.com and our myspace page, myspace.com/giantsquid, along with digital versions of the record available for purchase as a download as well. Hopefully, we can find a solid label to release a full vinyl version simultaneously. We're shooting for a January 2009 release, so wish us luck and keep checking in to see how it's coming along!" Giant Squid's debut album, Metridium Fields, was released on August 22, 2006 on The End Records. In other GIANT SQUID news, the band has also recorded a cover song for the upcoming Syd Barrett tribute album. The guitarist comments, "We're  also excited to finally announce the release of Like Black Holes in the Sky: The Tribute to Syd Barrett on Los Angeles based label, Dwell Records, upon which we cover Syd's, "Octopus". Dwell approached us a while back to take part in this amazing compilation of artists to pay homage to one of the founding members of Pink Floyd, and unarguably one of the most influential artists in psychedelic and experimental rock music. Upon hearing the roster of bands taking part in the album, it was a no brainer for us, and a real honor to have Giant Squid considered to be amongst them as well as the chance to try our hand at interpreting one of Syd's bizarre yet equally brilliant songs. The tracklisting: Kosmos – Vegetable Man Kylesa – Interstellar Overdrive Intronaut – Arnold Layne Stinking Lizaveta – Matilda Mother Jarboe – Late Night Pentagram – Flaming Giant Squid – Octopus Jesu – Chapter 24 Unearthly Trance – Long Gone Dredg – Astronomy Domine Circle – Rats Zodiak – See Emily Play Not only is "Octopus" the first song Giant Squid has ever covered, it is also the first song we've recorded with cellist/vocalist, Jackie Perez Gratz (Grayceon, Asunder), and so will be an interesting glimpse into future material to come from us. Since this recording took place before Chris Lyman, Giant Squid's latest drummer, joined the band, we kidnapped Grayceon's bombastic drummer, Zack Farwell and convinced legendary heavy music producer, Billy Anderson (Cattle Decapitation, High On Fire, Neurosis) that this "madcap" idea would sound like something musical at the end of the day if he was willing to twist some knobs for us. We feel the end result came out far better than we could have expected. We'll issue another update as soon as we get out of the studio in September. Talk then!" For more information, copies of material to review and/or scheduling interviews, please get in touch! IXMATI MEDIA: Adrian Bromley vinylpillager@gmail.com URL: www.ixmatimedia.com MySpace: www.myspace.com/ixmatimedia Currently listening: The Madcap Laughs By Syd Barrett Release date: 1990-08-07 10:05 AM  7 Comments (Add Comment) | 14 Kudos Translate Powered by English Albanian Arabic Bulgarian Catalan Chinese Croatian Czech Danish Dutch Estonian Filipino Finnish French Galician German Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Indonesian Italian Japanese Korean Latvian Lithuanian Maltese Norwegian Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Spanish Swedish Thai Turkish Ukrainian Vietnamese