"Nothing if not epic, the band's buzzing guitar and screeching synth drew a massive and enthusiastic crowd of curious fans into the shade of the Troo Music Lounge, which eventually overflowed into the grass, forcing latecomers to peek over shoulders and peer through cracks in the tent for a glimpse of the sweat soaked trio gyrating onstage. As the set finally drew to a close, there was a palpable sense of excitement for what the rest of the weekend had in store."
- Spin.com
"Barria's slashed and torn tone carried across the field, pushing a blast of dark reverb and tough fuzz and touches of dream-pop swirl that spread the notes out like melting glass, but lost no touch of intensity. He has a real-deal, singular tone, something you don't hear so much these days. Jimmy Page built a singular tone, Angus Young did too. And it's a bigger thing than picking good pedals and amps; it's the mark of a craftsman.
He plucked the spooky arpeggio opening to "Pinkies," and tore into one of the more timeless riffs the indie-rock sect's produced in recent years. Balchandani added flesh via long and low keyboard bass notes. If you smashed shoegaze's heady atmospheres and the head-nod-inducing, gut-grabbing stomp of stoner-rock, you'd be on The Big Sleep's current plane. And it's a worthwhile place to visit."
- USA TODAY
"One of my favorite parts of Bonnaroo: not giving a hoot about whether they look hip or not, fans are cheerfully dancing to any music they like. People were pogo-ing to the math-rock of the Big Sleep, a Brooklyn band that takes tangents into visceral punk and metal before unveiling new patterns."
- NY Times
"If there is any justice in the world, The Big Sleep is, simply put, the future of rock."
- Head Exploder
"'Sleep Forever' is a triumph, as rewarding as it is replayable. With any luck, it just might be the opening shot signaling a long career of enduring quality."
- MXDWN
"Sonya sings about her visions, her fears, and trouble close to home -- all while you're pumping fists and realizing suddenly your cruising well over the speed limit...check "Undying Love," "Slow Race," and the Mew-ish "So Long"/"Sleep Forever" exeunt to understand why people preach after seeing the Sleep's live show."
- Stereogum and Stereogum
"'Bad Blood' is a wake-up call to a tauter, more urgent, and more vocal-driven Big Sleep-- like, never mind the psychedelic milk-clouds, here's the Irish coffee."
- Pitchfork
"This brooding Brooklyn trio's winding arrangements build tension in jagged, noisy, overlapping riffs, minor-chord melodies and a steadfast pulse..."
- Alternative Press
"For every moment the band spends reflecting on where we've been, it's using the rubble to rebuild a rock'n'roll future. It's a lesson to which a lot of classic-rock loving acts should pay attention."
- Aversion
"And just when we thought we couldn't love this trio anymore, we heard their new album Sleep Forever...It's hard to make a diverse record work, but the Big Sleep pull it off. Of course they do. I mean, they're the Big Sleep."
- Recommended Show, Oh My Rockness
"Their strength lies in their propulsive power; it’s a shock that it’s only three people making this beautiful noise."
- Recommended Show, This Week in New York
"The Big Sleep is as indebted to its influences as any band is, but on Sleep Forever the members take bold enough steps to shake the influences clear. Sure, the riffing still reminisces of Tony Iommi or Jimmy Page and the blistering feedback of Lee Renaldo and Thurston Moore lingers throughout. But The Big Sleep owns the foundations of these songs...Sleep Forever distinguishes [the band] as a force in its own right."
- Prefix
"Check your pulse if 'Bad Blood' doesn't get you moving...'Pinkies' is frankly irresistible...2008 is shaping up to be the year of The Big Sleep. No shit."
- Band of the Week, Ear Farm
"I can’t recommend any single song on this disc over any other, because like the work on their previous album and EP, everything here is outstanding...This is an example of rock music as art."
- Confront Magazine
"Definitely not a victim of the sophomore slump, The Big Sleep’s latest offering is cool, both loud and subdued, and worthy of your ears."
- Sentimentalist
"Sleep Forever" is propulsive and robust. Mr. Barria hasn't changed his guitar tone much but the band seems to have expanded around him - they both want to be part of the ruckus. The result is noisy, seductive accessibility. An acoustic guitar and a drum machine are mere adornment on the Big Sleep's core of bass, drums, and electric guitar, and the potential energy promised by those weapons constantly hovers somewhere in the album's mix. That the band doesn't always feel the need to mess up a great, thundering song with words makes "Sleep Forever" one of the most solid no-filler rock records of this young year."
- NY Sun
"The first amazing track of 2008 is officially 'Pinkies' by The Big Sleep."
- Coatie Puffs
All the stuff below is about our first cd, "Son of The Tiger" -
This is our video for "Murder":
"I always imagined the whole point of events like CMJ was to discover music you hadn't heard before, but my luck hasn't been too good the past two years. Pulling into Pianos as part of the Frenchkiss showcase, The Big Sleep were my pleasant surprise of the night. The Brooklyn-based trio banged out muscular avant-rock textures with a totally bonkers Mick Fleetwood bugeye drummer who did those Zep things Dom Leone loves and a guitarist as content to hash out blues riffs (over bassist Sonya Balchandani's teutonic drone) as ear-splitting electronic noise. It would've been next to impossible to buy beer in this sardines-packt crowd, so at least the music was pretty kickass." - Pitchfork
"Illuminated from the floor as if playing in a creepy, lantern-lit barn, the threesome is deceptively powerful. Building slowly on a simple bass line or an unassuming synth effect, they eventually assault the room with a wall of jagged noise that escalates even further with guitarist Danny Barria's soaring solos. And then, the decibel level abates, gradually lowering to mellow grooves that frame bassist Sonya Balchandani's blunt, understated vocals. Even though its high-low roller coaster scrambles the stomach as thoroughly as a metal band might, the Big Sleep shows just how delicate the heavy stuff can be." - Time Out NY
"The Big Sleep's combination of name and aesthetic is a gutsy move: this is exactly the kind of thick, meandering music, heavy on the multitracking and light on the vocals, that if done badly would merely allow satisfied critics to note that the band is selling precisely what they advertise. But there's too much life here for that—too much in the prog-rock stomp drummer Gabriel Rhodes cheerfully slathers across churning pop like "Murder"; too much in the billowing guitar Danny Barria casts over "S.K.B."; and too much, particularly, in Sonya Balchandani's bass, which in one of Son of the Tiger's wisest moves is given what amounts to an entire track of its own. "You Can't Touch the Untouchable," driven by a slowly loosening bass line that carefully skirts the edge of mood music, is a highlight—as is the title track, also Balchandani's show; she not only steadily supports the song's hyperactive menace but turns in a hazy vocal performance that's one of her best..." - Stylus
"The Big Sleep is a New York City-based three-piece. It's just drums, guitar, and bass, but oh how the members put it all together-and their music doesn't sound like Mogwai, Russian Circles, or Godspeed You Black Emperor. They pick up where the Verve could have gone with the wig-outs on its first two records, or where shoegazers like Slowdive only hinted at going. Throw in some heavy riffs and layers of My Bloody Valentine-drizzled haze, and that's the sound of the Big Sleep's take on (mostly) instrumental songs. When Sonya Balchandani's (bass and vocals) voice slithers over the cacophony, it's chilling. Her voice is thick and lustrous, the lyrics rolling like velvet off her tongue. Rather than turning over the already-stripped dry soil of '80s angular rock or '70s street sleaze, the members of the Big Sleep are invoking the ghosts of psychedelia and poking the not-quite-cold corpse of shoegazer pop with a well-aimed toe. The songs sound quite dark but with an energy that crackles bright and warm..." - Prefix
"The Big Sleep, a mostly instrumental trio from Brooklyn, N.Y., touches down with an uncommonly strong debut in the form of "Son of the Tiger." The band comes crashing out of the gates with the unrelenting "Brown Beauty," whose jet plane guitar and buzzing synth lift the song toward a dramatic, heart-pounding climax. Out of the smoldering wreck comes "Murder," propelled by a rat-a-tat drum attack and Johnny Ramone-style hyperspeed guitar and eventually lathered with a thick, foamy wash of reverb and delay. "You Can't Touch the Untouchable," anchored by chest-thumping bass and a deep-in-the-pocket drum groove, is punctuated by sudden stops that heighten the building tension, including one long pause more than three minutes in that you'll be certain is the finish line. Awesome. With "Son of the Tiger," the Big Sleep has brewed up a stirring alchemical stew of math rock industry and emotional depth." - Billboard
"The Big Sleep's seducing-yet-disorienting bedroom-metal boasts berserker guitar lines that bug-eye and rubberband through sumo-dense walls of winter-coat feedback and anxiety drums. On standouts "Murder" and "Shima," the hypnotic leads are flanked by doorbell keyboards and Balchandani's ghostly, answering-machine vocals. This is religious music." - Spin.com Band of the Day
"This three-piece -- Sonya Balchandani (bass/keys), Danny Barria (guitar/keys), and Gabe Rhodes (drums) -- often sounds like five or more onstage, where over the last few years they've slowly gotten some word of mouth going via a show melding the most infectious elements of heavy, long-winded psych with an onstage chemistry that's almost too perfect..." - Village Voice
you guys are increeeedible! I love sonya, she's so cute. (: you seriously left me in awe in fresno. come back soon, okay? fresno misses you deeearly! :D ♥
