Pitchfork

Is there anything more slippery than the unleashed contents of a lava lamp? Why, yes! The Acid Mothers Temple "soul collective," of course. The loose amalgam of musicians led by the inmitable Mokoto Kawabata have big plans for 2006, and we'll be the first to admit we won't be able to keep track of it all.

But here goes nothing: while the group's website proclaimed late last December that the Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. moniker would return from a year-long hiatus this spring with an album and tour, the Acid Mothers Temple and the Cosmic Inferno are not waiting around. In fact, Alien8 Recordings is putting out their latest album, Starless and Bible Black Sabbath, tomorrow, February 21.

As you meditate on the unholy marriage of Fripp and Osbourne, make sure to mark your calendar for the latest AMT incarnation's trek through America, which will take place in April and May. Hopefully Kawabata and whoever else he brings can avoid the visa delays that forced AMT to cancel several shows here last year.

Underground Freak Outs:

04-19 New York, NY - Knitting Factory *
04-20 Providence, RI - AS220 #
04-21 Philadelphia, PA - Vox Populi Gallery *
04-22 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar *
04-23 Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle Tavern *
04-24 Atlanta, GA - The Earl *
04-26 New Orleans, LA - One Eyed Jacks *
04-27 Houston, TX - Walter's on Washington *
04-28 Austin, TX - Emo's *
04-29 Denton, TX - Hailey's *
04-30 Kansas City, MO - The Record Bar *
05-01 Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge *
05-02 Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge *
05-04 Tucson, AZ - Plush *
05-05 San Diego, CA - Casbah *
05-06 Hollywood, CA - Knitting Factory *
05-07 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill *%
05-08 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge *
05-09 Seattle, WA - Neumo's *
05-12 Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock *
05-13 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle *
05-14 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick *
05-15 Cleveland Heights, OH - Grog Shop *
05-16 Buffalo, NY - Soundlab *
05-17 Wallingford, CT - Wallingford American Legion *
05-19 Cambridge, MA - Middle East Upstairs *
05-20 Brooklyn, NY - Northsix *

* with the Antarcticans
# with Abunai, Bright
% with Tryptophan

P.S. The AMT website recently posted a 61-part FAQ section called "Kawabata's Words" compiling the AMT frontman's answers to several common press inquiries into the enigmatic group's life and past. The questions range from "Are all Acid Mothers tracks initially improvised?" to "If you had to describe something like the idea of time, how would you do so? Is it a concept that sonically could be described?" His answer to the latter: "I never feel the necessity of capturing ideas in written form. My music comes to me as a continuous broadcast from the cosmos and I merely recreate those sounds."

Right.