#matthew thudium

[rainingmusic]

Thou - The Unspeakable Oath

[nofatclips]

Hollywood (The Cranberries cover) by Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou from the EP The Helm of Sorrow

[whileiamdying]

May 6, 2019 | Lars Gotrich -- The first-ever metal band at the Tiny Desk is a little bit of a head fake. Make no mistake, Thou makes some of the heaviest, most tortuous music around; but the band also constantly experiments with beautifully ornate arrangements that balance its most extreme measures. In a set culled from the acoustic-driven Inconsolable — one of six full-lengths, EPs and splits the band released last year (no, really) — Thou shows us just how crushing quiet can be. "This is the softest I've ever played," guitarist KC Stafford told me during sound check. Yes, their downtuned guitars are turned down low at the NPR Music office, but the weight is still ever-present. Stafford takes the lead on "The Hammer" as co-vocalists Emily McWilliams and Melissa Guion (who also makes ambient-pop music under the name MJ Guider) sing, "Bring down the hammer / A bludgeon to my shrines / Bring down the hammer / To the corpse of my worship." These are the cryptic lyrics and melodies largely written by Bryan Funck, who normally screams his existential despair for Thou. But for these songs and this Tiny Desk, he lurked in the audience. Thou's decade-plus discography is an exercise in exploration and refinement, finding new textures in heft, which is why this set offers such a slow-burning thrill to its oeuvre. Case in point: the closing cut, "The Unspeakable Oath," lead by guitarist Matthew Thudium, is a twinkling grunge song that overlaps guitar melodies with the grace and grandiosity of a whale. SET LIST "The Hammer" "Come Home, You Are Missed" "The Unspeakable Oath" MUSICIANS Matthew Thudium: guitar, vocals; Andy Gibbs: guitar; Mitch Wells: bass; KC Stafford: guitar, vocals; Tyler Coburn: drums; Emily McWilliams: vocals; Melissa Guion: vocals CREDITS Producers: Lars Gotrich, Morgan Noelle Smith; Creative Director: Bob Boilen; Audio Engineer: Josh Rogosin; Videographers: Morgan Noelle Smith, Kimani Oletu, CJ Riculan, Kara Frame; Associate Producer: Bobby Carter; Production Assistant: Adelaide Sandstrom; Photo: Amr Alfiky/NPR

[cprokansascity]

South Central Kansas MLS announces 2019 board

The South Central Kansas Multiple Listing Service has announced its board of directors for 2019.

Dwyn Thudium, broker/owner of Crown III Realty, will serve as this year’s president, replacing Megan McCurdy Niedens of McCurdy Auction. Richelle Knotts of J.P. Weigand & Sons moves into the role of president-elect.

Rounding out the list of 2019 officers, Matthew Sikes of the Courtley Jackson Company will serve as secretary/treasurer.

Other members of the board are Greg Fox (Better Homes and Gardens…

[nofatclips]

Orphan Limbs by Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou from the EP The Helm of Sorrow

[dustedmagazine]

Thou — Inconsolable (Community Records)

Inconsolable by Thou

Thou’s withering, antagonistic affect is instantly recognizable, generated by Bryan Funck’s harshly declamatory vocals and the thick, scabrously distorted guitars of Andy Gibbs and Matthew Thudium. Both are absent on Inconsolable, though the band’s penchant for oppressive melody is prevalent, and Funck provides the lyrics. On “Come Home, You Are Missed,” Emily McWilliams sings, “Bark hanging like sack-cloth from sweeps of bone, like empty flesh / Branches shorn, stripped of greenery, stripped of dignity.” The words have a striking immediacy, not just because of the clarity of McWilliams’ voice. Funck’s vocabulary — of image and lexicon — is less inflected with philosophical jargon and abstraction than usual. The songs have Thou’s signature tone of suffering and dread, but they’re not as ponderous.

Well, no shit — it’s an acoustic record. The arrangements favor space and sustain over complexity, and the lissome vocals further leaven the mood. McWilliams is a frequent contributor in Thou’s catalog, and it’s lovely to hear her sing without all of the usual competing buzz and thunder. K.C. Stafford, who played bass on Thou’s recent spring tour, sings on “The Hammer” and “Fallow State,” and harmonizing vocals are supplied throughout by Melissa Guion and Nicole Estill. But Inconsolable is no picnic at the folk music festival. “The Unspeakable Oath” and “Into the Scourge Pit” are not campfire songs.  

Still, it would be easy to dismiss Inconsolable as an experiment or a stunt recording. The band seems to invite invective from the metal orthodoxy: they cover Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s “Find the Cost of Freedom,” without irony. The vocals don’t soar quite so high as in the original (say what you will about David Crosby and Graham Nash, they surely could sing), but the song is just as urgent today. Perhaps more so. In 1970, the Vietnam War was the unavoidable context for the song’s lyric, and for its elegiac finger picking. On a number of recent songs, Funck has extolled the value of experience in nature as the ultimate rebuke to Enlightenment culture’s domination of human will—the trope is especially vivid on “Into the Marshlands” from Heathen. In relation to those recent compositions, CSNY’s song resonates with a grimmer, but more transcendent energy. “Mother Earth will swallow you.” Perhaps that’s more a beginning than an end, a doom that opens to new freedom. As ever, Thou’s guiding ethos tries to point the way.  

Thou is releasing a lot of new music this summer, in the run-up to their new LP Magus, scheduled for an August debut. Much of that music comprises thematically and stylistically related songs, grouped on EPs and splits — a cycle of drone and glacially paced doom tunes on The House Primordial (vinyl release by Raw Sugar); a soon-to-be-released collection of Alice in Chains-inspired grunge, Rhea Sylvia (vinyl from Deathwish Inc.); a tour-only spilt CD, with HIRS Collective, of Nirvana covers; and Inconsolable, a set of downcast acoustic compositions (vinyl from Community Records). For most other bands, this would seem like a cynical marketing stunt, or a bald-faced money-grab. For Thou, it’s a testament to the multiplicity of their interests and ambitions — and like the major portion of Thou’s records, most of this summer’s music is (or soon will be) available for free on their Bandcamp page. Cynicism be damned.  

Jonathan Shaw