Here’s something crazy to consider: Pioneering doom metal titans Sleep are coming back, and they’re coming back without Matt Pike, the permanently shirtless wildman guitarist who has always been their most recognizable member. In fact, there’s only one returning Sleep member in this new lineup: Al Cisneros, the band’s singer, bassist, and lead songwriter.
Cisneros is joined by legendary Melvins drummer Dale Crover, who just announced a solo EP and shared a Neil Young cover yesterday. And then there’s Matt Pike’s replacement: Bubba Dupree, a man who has been in many bands over the years but who is best-known for his time in Void, the early-’80s Columbia, Maryland crew who invented a certain form of sloppy and metallic hardcore. Dupree is a legend in his own right, and this is a fascinating development.
We need to get into some backstory here. Sleep formed in San Jose back in 1990, and they made three deep-crunching ultra-stoned classics before breaking up. The last of them, the single-track masterpiece Dopesmoker, came out in 1999, after the band was already done. Matt Pike went on to start High On Fire, another legendary crew, while Al Cisneros and drummer Chris Hakius became the meditative drone-metal duo Om.
In 2009, Sleep came back. Chris Hakius only stuck around for the first show before retiring from music, and Neurosis’ Jason Roeder took over on drums. In 2018, that version of Sleep surprised the world with The Sciences, their first album since Dopesmoker; it was a 4/20 release on 4/20. I saw Sleep around the time that The Sciences came out, and they were sick as hell. The band went on hiatus in 2019. Earlier this year, before Neurosis announced their own new-lineup reunion, Roeder said that he’d been fired from the band and that he was probably done making music. That thankfully turned out to be premature.
So now, there’s a whole new Sleep! Al Cisneros hasn’t said why the band no longer includes Pike, who has had health problems in recent years. There was a big NPR feature in 2022 about Pike’s enthusiasm for antisemitic conspiracy theorist David Icke, so maybe that has something to do with it. Or maybe Pike is just too busy with High On Fire, who have lots of tour dates coming up. A press release deals with Pike’s absence like this: “The music and art are alive and after the decades of obstacles that Sleep has overcome, it is time to move forward and make songs and albums. Al wishes Matt the best on his earth bound maneuvers.”
As for the new Sleep lineup, Cisneros says, “The vibe of the first jam was obvious. It was blue sunglasses-era Iommi in the quality, and equally awesome is Bubba is also one of the coolest people I’ve been able to make music with.” To demonstrate, this new Sleep lineup has shared a new song called “Have Spacesuit Will Travel.” It’s a righteous riff-beast that really does have some of that old Sleep magic, and the edit that they’ve shared lasts for exactly four minutes and 20 seconds.
At least right now, “Have Spacesuit Will Travel” isn’t coming out on an album. Instead, Cisneros has written a comic book called Sleep Comic Book, illustrated by Dave Kloc and Arik Roper, and the song is included on a flexi in some editions of its first issue. Here’s how that press release describes it: “Issue #1 begins the saga of The Marijuanaut. An adventure which takes the reader to Planet Iommia, encounters with The Weedian, and introduces the traveller to Iommia’s deeper reverential practices, all this and more that resonates within the universe that Cisneros’s lyrics created from the riff-filled lands of Sleep’s discography.” That sounds about right. The comic is out via Third Man Books and the song via Third Man Records. You can pre-order it here.
This September, the new-look Sleep will head out on a North American tour that’ll include a headlining slot at Austin’s Levitation Festival. Below, check out “Have Spacesuit Will Travel” and the band’s tour dates.
TOUR DATES:
9/08 – San Diego, CA @ The Observatory North Park
9/09 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren
9/10 – Albuquerque, NM @ Revel
9/12 – Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater
9/13 – Austin, TX @ Levitation
9/14 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Tower Theatre
9/16 – Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre
9/17 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Grand At The Complex
9/18 – Boise, ID @ Treefort Music Hall
9/20 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
9/21 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre
9/22 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre
9/23 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
9/25 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
9/26 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
9/27 – Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst
9/28 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern
9/29 – Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory
11/04 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
11/05 – Milwaukee, WI @ Pabst Theater
11/06. – Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre
11/07 – Detroit, MI @ St. Andrew’s Hall
11/09 – Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
11/10 – Montreal, QC @ Club Soda
11/11 – South Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground Ballroom
11/12 – Boston, MA @ Roadrunner
11/13 – Hudson, NY @ Basilica Hudson
11/15 – Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts
11/16 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount
11/17 – Washington, DC @ Lincoln Theatre
