By J. Bennett

Thrones
w/the Replicators, Dove
Sun June 6, Fun House, 9:30 pm, $5.

I like traveling alone. You get to go where you want when you want, eat what you want, listen to what you want--and you have plenty of time to do it. --Joe Preston

In underground music circles, the name "Thrones" has become synonymous with the amplifier-worshipping one-man thunderfuckery of Joe Preston. Which is handy, because Thrones is Joe Preston. His musical career can be traced back through the early '90s, when he played bass for those twin Northwestern pillars of de-tuned slo-mo indie-metal, the Melvins and Earth. In fact, one might say Preston first codified the mondo disturbo aesthetic that would become Thrones when he recorded the Joe Preston EP in 1992 (in homage to flash-metal queens KISS, each member of the Melvins released a solo joint with his own Chevy Chase airbrushed on the cover), but to that assertion Preston would undoubtedly reply, "Give me a break." In fact, he sort of did. Apparently, he's not particularly fond of those days.

Regardless of his past affiliations, Preston has been referred to in these very pages as a "Viking Tornado," which is as befitting a description as one could imagine--assuming that person has an affinity for the kind of robo-metal/blast-beat disco/vocoder hell that only Thrones can deliver.

Unfortunately for Thrones' vast legion of red-eyed disciples, Preston hasn't been delivering much of anything lately. After the release of two full-lengths (Alraune on Communion and Sperm Whale on Kill Rock Stars), a handful of singles, and a bunch of compilation appearances, Preston packed up his homemade effects pedals and dropped out. His self-imposed exile was owed partly to just not feeling it ("Playing alone gets a little stale, especially as I have been having a hard time feeling motivated to write new material for several years," he told me via e-mail) and partly to the sudden end of his auspicious stint as guitarist for the Whip--a trio completed by ex- Karp super- troupers Scotty Jernigan and Jared Warren (also of Tight Bros from Way Back When)--which was cut short tragically when Jernigan was killed in a boating accident last June.

"When I started playing with [the Whip]," Preston explains, "I felt really freed up to be playing with such solid musicians with so many ideas. I wasn't in a role where I had to do everything myself, which felt great and kind of scary, too--giving up all that control, or trying to. And I've NEVER had as much fun playing and hanging out with my bandmates as I did with them. We had a lot of touring and recording plans, and it felt as if Thrones was becoming much less a priority in my life--not that I felt it was done, but I was feeling really fulfilled by taking the risk to rejoin the human race. When Scotty died, I was really unmotivated to even play, let alone write, and I kind of took that as, 'Maybe I don't have any love for this anymore.'"

Mercifully, Preston collected his thoughts, and--after tour-managing Blonde Redhead for a bit--decided to resurrect the mighty, slumbering beast. "I started playing shows again in December, and that feels amazing. I'm still struggling with writing stuff, but it's more about finishing things now."

Thrones enthusiasts will be thoroughly psyched to learn that Preston currently has at least three projects in the proverbial pipeline. But that's not to say anyone should start holding his or her breath. The first--and most overdue--offering is a new full-length entitled Lambda Lambda Lambda, to be released on Neurot Recordings, the label owned by Bay Area psych-metal sorcerers Neurosis. Says Preston, "I'm so late in working on it--they literally have been asking me to finish it for years--that I don't know if they even want to put it out anymore."

The second is a compilation of singles, remixes, and unreleased tracks to be released on Southern Lord. "I'm waiting on two more DATs to show up and then it will probably be out in the fall," Preston reports. "A Day Late and a Dollar Short would be an apt title."

The third is a three-inch CD of new Thrones material to be released on Preston's vanity label, Joe Preston's Solid Gold Records. "I have no interest in putting out other people's records," he assures us. "It's hard enough dealing with me."

editor@thestranger.com