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After their first record, 'Plume,' garnered some very good reviews from some unexpected sources--who would expect a loop-and-rock quasi-Kraut record to appeal to Stonerrock.com readers?--the boys in Giant Brain figured it was time to make a new one. Brothers Andy and Al Sutton and Philip Durr enlisted the talents of one Eric Hoegemeyer , who had previously lent his drumming services to some of the songs on 'Plume.' As the trio became a quartet, and Andy moved from the Motor City to Washington, D.C. (Detroit lost the No. 1 spot as the Murder Capital, so he reckoned he had to move... to the new No. 1), the new album, 'Thorn of Thrones,' became even more of an experiment of action-reaction-thesis-synthesis than Giant Brain's first effort had been. The basic modus operandi of the first album was to establish a basic premise, deconstruct, demolish and re-construct it. On Thorn of Thrones this exercise was exaggerated by geographical separation. "It became a game of 'here's my idea, I'll email it to you, you react, I'll react, Hell! everybody'll react!" explains guitarist Philip Durr (Big Chief, Thornetta Davis, Five Horse Johnson, Luder), "so the recording became even more improvisational. Thorn of Thrones will surprise fans of Giant Brain earlier work. While it retains the Teuto-American synergy, those Detroit-cum-Dortmund freak-out elements of 'Plume,' it is a darker, more dynamic record than its older brother. Even the lighter moments disguise a cynicism that wasn't present on the first album, as exemplified by the lone GB song to ever feature lyrics, 'Empyrian.' It may seem airy at first, but the lyrics are anything but... Some have attributed this new-found skepticism and doubt to the current state of the world, and specifically the current state of disarray in the Motor City. We here at Small Stone wouldn't know about that, but we feel that regardlessly, the sky will be blue, the flowers will bloom, and Giant Brain makes great records.