Sleep Are Back. Matt Pike Isn’t.
Sleep are awake again, and most of this news genuinely rules: a new single, a comic book, a fall tour with SoCal dates. Then the part that stops you cold. Matt Pike is not in the band anymore, and nobody has said why.
Sleep dropped “Have Spacesuit Will Travel” through Third Man Records, their first new music since 2018’s The Sciences. Al Cisneros is still on bass, but the lineup around him is brand new: Dale Crover (Melvins) on drums and Bubba Dupree (Void) on guitar. They also put out issue #1 of a Sleep comic written by Cisneros, and booked a summer/fall North American run.
Here is the thing: Matt Pike’s riff is Sleep. That Iommi-on-a-pound-of-weed tone built Dopesmoker. Losing him is not a personnel footnote, it is a new band wearing the name. But this is not a cash-in lineup either. Crover is one of the heaviest drummers breathing, and pulling Bubba Dupree out of Void is a genuinely strange, thrilling choice nobody saw coming. Cisneros says the first jam sounded like “blue sunglasses-era Iommi.” That is exactly the right bar to set.
The “oh?” is the silence. No statement, no reason, just a quiet line that “Al wishes Matt the best on his earthbound maneuvers.” Pike has High on Fire and a long road behind him, so maybe it is amicable. Maybe it is not. We do not get to know yet.
The comic is cool. The tour is great. The single is promising. We will find out if this trio holds the weight when it hits the Wiltern on September 28.
Source: Third Man Records
Tour Dates
Sep 09 – Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren
Sep 10 – Albuquerque, NM – The Revel Entertainment Center
Sep 12 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater
Sep 13 – Austin, TX – Levitation
Sep 14 – Oklahoma City, OK – Tower Theatre
Sep 16 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre
Sep 17 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Grand At The Complex
Sep 18 – Boise, ID – Treefort Music Hall
Sep 20 – Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom
Sep 21 – Seattle, WA – Neptune Theatre
Sep 22 – Seattle, WA – Neptune Theatre
Sep 23 – Portland, OR – Roseland Theater
Sep 25 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
Sep 26 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
Sep 27 – Santa Cruz, CA – Catalyst
Sep 28 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern
Sep 29 – Santa Ana, CA – The Observatory
Nov 04 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
Nov 05 – Milwaukee, WI – Pabst Theater
Nov 06 – Chicago, IL – Riviera Theatre
Nov 07 – Detroit, MI – St. Andrews Hall
Nov 09 – Toronto, ON – Phoenix Concert Hall
Nov 10 – Montreal, QC – Club Soda
Nov 11 – Burlington, VT – Higher Ground Ballroom
Nov 12 – Boston, MA – Roadrunner
Nov 13 – Hudson, NY – Basilica Hudson
Nov 15 – Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of Living Arts
Nov 16 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount
Nov 17 – Washington, DC – Lincoln Theatre
Artist presale begins June 23; public on-sale June 25. Full routing and tickets at the band’s announcement.