Steve Shelley has really gotten the short shrift, don’t you think? I mean, for example: WAIT, WHO IS STEVE SHELLEY?
Exactly. So pay attention, now. Steve Shelley is the sure handed, rock-solid, badass-and-don’t-you-forget-it time keeper in Sonic Youth, who makes it possible for Moore and Gordon and Ranaldo to walk all of those crazy guitar-centric tightropes that they walk. And now he’s stepping out for little walking of his own with a new band, The High Confessions, which features Shelley alongside industrial legend Chris Connelly (Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Pigface), Chicago metal mainstay Sanford Parker (Minsk, Nachtmystium, Buried at Sea), and engineer Jeremy Lemos of the band White/Light.
And if the whole thing sounds a little… well, metal to you, I guess it should. Metal label Relapse Records is releasing the band’s debut album this summer. And that album’s title, Turning Lead Into Gold With the High Confessions, even goes so far as to reference two distinct kinds of metal. Relapse is describing the High Confessions’ sound as “a real heavy, psychedelic rock.” Duh.
And while there are no live dates to post as of yet for the new supergroup, Shelley is performing with Lemos’ band White/Light at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art as part of an interactive music installation. So maybe that’ll shed a little bit of light on the prospect of awesomeness to come. Man, I sure hope these guys have come to take out the hacky, metal-tinged supergroup trash that is Them Crooked Vultures, don’t you?
• The High Confessions: http://www.myspace.com/thehighconfessions
• Relapse Records: http://www.relapse.com
[Photo: Anna Cerniglia]
