Why, if you're a band, do you have a personal myspace?
Well, see, s'like this: our Espresso Shaman, brown hat, was at work one day an' lil' !tiff was a-messin' about with her myspace an' brown hat says "ah bin meanin' ta do one o' them fer the band" an' !tiff says "why, 'tis easy! ya'll kin do it" an' brown hat says "ah'm a-skeered a-causin' ah is illetterate an' canna do a thang" an' !tiff says "ah'm techneolithickly perfishin'! ah'm's'll do it fer ya!" an' so it happened. And by the time anybody else got around to looking at the page and saying "Wait a second, this isn't a band page at all", The Big Drum In The Sky Religion had accumulated 666 friends and it seemed easier to just leave it be. Agus fagamid suid mar ata se.



How is it a "band" if everybody in the room is in it?
We have no idea where anybody got the idea that every/anybody in the room was "in" The Big Drum In The Sky Religion. That's idiotic. The Big Drum In The Sky Religion has a semi-open-door policy. People come and go, according to what makes sense to them at any given time.Some people seem to think that "semi-open-door" means "revolving door", i.e. that they can just sort of, ya know, roam in or out whenever they feel like it, man, without ever having to show up at practice or shows because its all, like, cool. These people are fucking hippies and they've got another think comin'. It is true that we don't forbid people who attend our shows from making noise(s). Who does?

Who is the 'we' you are referring to?
Agh, gould questioning! Arviously, 'tis a cryin' sham to get a stait answerve from this one here. I odor to dew sew, you must axt ritely. There exists a sintral figger around which The Big Drum In The Sky Religion does durty deeads and that'un is Brown Hat, Espresso Shaman,(a.k.a. browny or brownie and'll also answer ta tha sound of COFFEE bitches'brewin'),  (d/r)eceiver of the inspiritation to make manifested thi many-splintered thang which is The Big Drum In The Sky Religion an' 'e ded it nary aloon. Theym's no eand of participents in the Creeation and maimtaining of The Big Drum In The Sky Religion and sooth, tha vaste majorentity of whom's made the beast be bairn will ne'er be rekognized. Aind again, the long body messt be bagg'd and tagg'd and there'll allus be peop's to & fro, come & go, so Tina Trouble(d) maybee hear or thear an' iz a parth of the 'we' or some as whot was partycippiants butt ain't nuh muhr is in the 'we' an' agin me assumes t'will be comers & ghoers 'till tha end of the Word, Amen, an' them's bran'new futurers ("gonna die") musk be inkluded in the 'we' an' ailso some volken water ne'er ta bang a drum but whitch'll play sum part in the Bigging Drumming Skying Religioning to braing it ferth, f''r'instance, mayhap  Rainbow Spite 'r John Rye Ergot 'r Blue Chester Infant've halped this beast be bairn and t'wood be a wrung to nay re-cognize thy input. Aind again, ner well the walking naymes of the verriest players bee putched ferth fer t'wood be a sin an' a stain which 'd curt DISasscar fer us all if'n we shaked our Aholes at the infiniteeds so hard as to claim any credit fer wot's beeen givt. So ye'll gnaw us bye noms de querre.


What kind of music do you play?
The frequency with which we get asked this question is evidence supporting what we've been screaming all over the place. Our typical answer is "Wait until you hear it and then decide for yourself."  Why should music be labelled? Why is it so important for people to know before hand what kind of music they're about to hear? We usually get lumped into the "Noise" pigeonhole, but that ain't accurate becos our name isn't Japanese for "Loose Bowel Movements Cookie Cookie", we've never used a photograph of a Japanese woman in bondage for cover art and we aren't Japanese. We accept this categoryation becos we realize that  we're closer to "Noise" than to anything else and we don't always  feel like preaching a sermon to some door-guy who just wants to be able to answer every idiot who stumbles in and says "A band? What kind of music do they play?" Really, tho', its bullshit. We're no more noisy than the Taj Mahal Travellers and we think "Metal Machine Music" is a raga.

So, you can't really "play" your instruments and you just make noise.
Yes. That's it exactly. And its also true that a machine can keep a steady rhythm and the average oran-utan can be taught to form barre chords on an SG, run that through a Big Muff and a Crybaby Wah into a vintage tube amp and the local cool kids will drool all over their black t-shirts. Or go to your nearest open-stage and you can't swing a dead cat without hittin' some goomba who can do MS John Hurt better than MS John Hurt could do MS John Hurt even before he started his dirt nap and those poor saps'll ne'er be nuthin' but human play-back machines, wallowing in the shit of imtating. The World's Fastest Guitar Hero still ain't doin' nothin' new - just the same ol' same ol' same ol' over and over, but a little bit better. And what's fuggin' heroic about that? Of course, we appreciate the time/space/effort that people have logged to develop their skills with their various axes of evil, but fer feck's sake, how's it so hard to comprehend that they's mo' to music than increasing its speed and that different ain't bad, ja git? This's the beauty of cultures non-our-own: ya ne'er know if'n that twisted nekkid savage pickin' a 1-stringed stick stuck thru a turtleshell is the John Fahey of his tribe or just the local imbecile, ergo ya have lil' choice but to hear the music on its own terms w/o the filter of yr prejudices. So, when The Big Drum In The Sky Religion starts droppin' harmolodic bones on yr noggin in multiple time signertures & Locrian fauxde, untunedaged D D D D D# D*,  jes' you wander outside, lean agin' the wall with a cancerstick dangle an' say "Yeah, these fuckers can't play."
     *an explaynation of tha Fauxdal System may'r'mayn't be fowned in a difficerent blorg.

Why is everything so long?
Because it takes that long.

Why no titles?
We make it all up as we go. We could pick artbitrary titles that don't really mean anything like "Mad Dance Of The Saddhus" or "Satanal Punch Drunk" or "Toaster Oven Carpe Nocturne *3", but what would be the point? Its a block of sound - why title it? CDs get titles to differentiate them, so the first track on "War Party" is "War Party 1". Or you can make up your own goddamned titles for all we fuckin' care.

How can an improvisational band do covers?
As humans, we are theo nly aminal witch est "hystorical", as 'tis, we has a passed and musk needs allus act of & frum ahr 'istorical context. Thet which'us "written" by udders is meerly the dippage of the Cosmic Well by an other hand and 'tis readedly availed by all. (Alb. Ayler more'n adequately addresseded this isssue, cf. his workings fer clarity's shake).

I really enjoyed your set. Can I play with you sometime?
Yes. Our next show is at ---- on ----. If you don't have a drum, you can use one of ours.

Can I play with you? I want to bang on shit and be obnoxious.
Maybe. (The answer, of course, is "No", but if someone approaches us this way  - it really has happened -  we respond with "maybe" becos it creates a psychological dischord in the mind of the obnoxious shitferbrains who asked this stupid question.)


 Why are releases limited to runs of 100?
The Big Drum In The Sky Religion has only/does only/will only release INDEPENDENTLY produced releases - i.e. d.i.y., l.s.m.f.t. That means we make 'em ourselves, do all cover art, ephemera art &c. 100 is a goodish roundish and by the time we do 100 of anything, we're about sick of it and ready to move on, which is also why we release something every few months. We may consider doing a distribution arrangement with somebody someday, but that would mean they were making available our hand-made stuff - if The Big Drum In The Sky Religion EVER releases any mass-produced produce, we'll've sold out - please to be noted thet this don't nee cain't be appliqued to splits or karmpilations as we's gwine ta be doin' that sort'o'shite an' we get lil' or no say in how other bands/people/labels do their bizniz.


It doesn't go anywhere.
Where's it gonna go? Its sound. It can't go anyplace but from the speakers into your earholes. Its not a fuckin' go-cart. Listen to it. If you feel the need to go somewhere, then for fuck's sake, go. 'R stand'n fight and dive into dirthole for flight's sake, the place like a place whar people go to draw water, twa kingdoms, spirit whirled, lazybones, braek thru an' we'll meet you on that omther shore.

Are you people on drugs?
We are nonsynchronized on this issue. Some of us may enjoy certain recreational drugs, whilst others among our number may have been entirely abstinent from mind-altering concoctions for lo these many a year with or without the possible exception of phychotropical madications, our alleged injestion of whom is carefully monitored by teams of mental health care providers. Upon certain key points, however, we can all agree, to wit:
- Between us, we have (ab)used every drug known to humankind save certain antheogenic herb/root combinations which are all but impossible to score in North Amorica and which have no standardized spelling in English.
- Respecting the inherent right of every individual to fuck up her/his life in the manner of his/her choosing and regarding the obvious fact that prohibition has never and will never accomplish anything other than overcrowding the prisons with victimless "criminals", we scry that all drugs should be decriminalized now.
- We neither encourage nor discourage the use of drugs.
- We proclaim that drugs, when used in deliberate environs and in specific rituals may help certain individuals to experience elements of the Divine Mystery, but they are a cheap and easy shortcut that doesn't go far. All shamanicly derived cultures recognize that in the Old Time, the shamans did not need peyote or ayahuasca or whatever because they - the shamans - were more powerful than they - the shamans  - are now. We suspect that modern shamans might just be lazier. The more effective and purer ways of altering conciousness and inviting the Spirits,( including but not limited to: fasting, prayer, meditation, long periods of isolation, with or without self-torment, sweatlodging, prolonged dancing and the drum), take a long time and are a huge pain in the ass to get through with which is why they're better.
- Excessive use of marijuana will make anybody stupid.

Why the crazy get-ups?
Medicine hats, mystery cloaks, masques and other powerphernalia have been used by shamans for at least 30,000 years, cf. Lascaux. These garments help the shaman to fully engorge in his/her role, thus facilitating the crossage over to the other side.

What's with all the "shaman" shit?
We are shaman. The Big Drum In The Sky Religion is a spirit walking/working/ wandering expression of an inspiration: to return to the source/origin of belief. Ya sea, 'tis been speculated that the first inkling that our bonemunching preceders had'f a God above, a.k.a. Father Sky was/is the Voice in the thunder: roiling boom of the Big Drum in the Sky. From this conception came down the pike all the odors of religions, designed to manifest the re-ligio (Gr.: re-connection) of we the childers to our distant Dad and this over/against the idear of 'r very Mother Earth from whom we ha' ne'er been parted and hence ha' nary a need to reconnect with Her tho' we may do well to think'f Her more often. And as She is a Her so is Her earth/wa+er/yin and Her Co-Parent air/fire/yang. Now, it is long seen since that the female is and the male does - but before ye git yr tits in a lather 'r yr dick in the dirt, hearken ye here that these's arc'o'types in us all, respectiveless of X or Y chromesome distro. There ain't airy need ner reason to do a dang thang to touch Gaia: jes' sit thee doon ona rock and image Her billions o' yer life-long and know that ye're mad of Her flesh - ah, but Ouranous is far'n'away an' as Nature is our Mama, so is Society of the Maleskin and it is Society that has sinned and is fallen, nay the Earth. The sheep is shorn and we can see that our species lives now w/o a mythos for guidance which may've been fine once upon, but that dog won't hunt no mo' as we hold in our hands the means of matricide an' ja ain't gotta go to the Holy Land to see what a F.U.B.A.R. we're baring, Babylon. Kali Yuga. We's livin' in the Last days an' Ragnarok is swift upon us. Mayhaps 'tis a sparrowfart in a horrorcane, but if nay us, who? an' if nay now, when? Sooth, we hie us back ta tha drawing bard to beacon agin an' let the life from the lifehouse shine on we. Raise up the banner an' bangin' the Drum: from our asses may rise the phoenix culpa to save us all from Hellflash and what is a shaman but a wish doctor? A psychesian to heal the sick? Thus we roam among the disease of this day, scatterwaulling an' if'n we suck, 'tis 'cause we suck out the maleficience and spit it into the far. We are shaman: seething solvents for soul sickness. What more can we do?

Aren't you afraid that you might accidentally 'drum up' a spirit or demon or other noncorporeal entity which you can't handle?
The 1rst time we got this question, we dismissed it as pure flakery, but its come up on more occasions (some people even cited this as their reason for no longer participating in The Big Drum In The Sky Religion, tho' we suspect that it was just a cover-story as those hippies never really did all that mush anyhow, trust-fund anarchists...). Tha answer still remaynes "Kno, of coss knot, dun't be redickulous", but wee daed thank 't'over a bite and cunnsulted ahr varyous helper-spirits afore decidiing thet as fools, 'tis behoven to us to rush in whar angles fear to tread (on us). Devil taint the hindmost.

Are you trying to get to 'spirit realms' or just make fun of them?
Both 'n' nayther. Same difference.

None of this makes sense.
Our incestuous lies are crystallion clear, ass clear as Joshu's mu, as opaque as Odin's eye, as dogged as the diamonds in 'umbled Indra's web. Our theories is quarly as chaos, let them's what gots ears be here. Go sit naked in the sun for 99 years & then we can talk more of Heaven and Earth than is dreamed of in this cacaphony. Fr'if'n we answerve plain, we deceive what worth be saved, giveneth the imp(ressionism) thet unntherstaining is unnderstood when't'ain't and the last strain of that lamb is worst than the first.

What is The Big Drum In The Sky Religion about?
Well, y'see, somebody invented the plow about 10,000 years ago and that led to settlements - communities - which led to a lot of good stuff - astronomy,stable food supplies, written language, coffee makers, new developments in the arts, staple guns, architecture,y'know, a lotta shit - but a lot o' bad shit came aboot too, like poverty, militaries, police, laws, lawyers, politicians, priests, popes, mechanized wars of conquest, genocides, kings, prisons, the need for prisons, serial killers, television, ya know...and rules. Jeezum Crow, the fuckin' rules and regulations and common sense and how things are SUPPOSED to be done, like music is supposed to have rhythm and be in a key and follow certain patterns set in place by some somebody or other who lived someplace else some time long long ago and determined, using a sliderule that music was math. Fuck that shite. Ain't no fuggin' way we'ns is gonna cowtow to that meme, polysyllabic deathtrip, like a self-fulfilling no can do. Its a righteous, open-airy civil war agin' the conquest of our soulanimals we be fightin' with any means available: where are we? Shit, we're anyplace anytime 'cos we done transcended yr time/space rigamarole, Kali Motherfucker, we're anyplace bodhisattvas're loading guns, banging drums an'/'r bendin' circuits runned via all the fx we can steal (NO CLEAN CHANNELS!), so put that in yr pipe an' smoke it. Ain't like we got anything personal against "songs", per se, Hel, we even like some: "I Am The Light Of This World", "The Logical Song", "Big A (Little a)" & some others that don't come to mind at this present present, but how many songs d'ya need, fer Christ's sake? & whyfore does it gotta be that the song structure/pattern/verse/chorus/same ol' same ol' same shit again an' again, another singer/songwriter/pop star/crooner/shit sandwitch...can't there be nuthin' else? So, go on, hie thee home an' G/C/Dm yr ass all the way, but don't run it longer than 4min 'cos the kids get distracted...Or them's someother possibles to be explored an' ya might as well start with The Big Drum In The Sky Religion or start yr own (we flip the challenge easy like becos ain't nobody e'er done done it, too greasy to shittalk on they ass). Nothin' special aboot it - Jizzum, anybodhisattva can do it, all's it takes's a drum an' eternity. An' the same's sooth of allther realms that ricochet 'round: the intrapersunal, amortional, revolting and warshipful et. al. Them's as differ's redactive and pigeunholy what breaks the boon of being into barxes for bitter barter - no slashing, no surrendar, no needin' nary a noun'f sweetingly sorted. Dreadnought and participate with joy in the sorrows of yr life.

Should people dance at your shows?
Oi, vay, The Big Drum In The Sky Religion est nought a danse bannd. Thar ain't gnow reasen fer foolks to try to danse 'r moive aboot et our shoes. 'Tis moore then enouff to just staind thar 'r sit Injun-fashion o' in some foarm of Lotus po'sittin'.  Ye kin jittahburg if ya wanna, but we doan't care.

What religion is The Big Drum In The Sky Religion?
The Big Drum In The Sky Religion is not a religion.