Been reading a lot about these guys, Shrinebuilder & Sleepy Sun, but haven't heard them yet. Just dl'd them today, finally & I'll take them home to listen. Maybe some folks in here will like them.

Shrinebuilder. The Obelisk, easily one of the very best stonerrock related blogs has reviewed Shrinebuilder’s self-titled debut album:

It’s hard not to feel like you’re standing in the presence of greatness when listening to Shrinebuilder’s self-titled debut (Neurot), and likewise difficult to separate the music from those making it. In that way I’d liken the experience to hearing Nola by Down for the first time and trying to pick out who wrote which riff, only in the case of Shrinebuilder, the personalities involved are even more distinct and with all four members adding vocals, it’s easier to imagine the individual contributions’ origins.

A band comprised of Scott Kelly (Neurosis) and Scott “Wino” Weinrich (The Obsessed, The Hidden Hand, Wino) on guitar, Al Cisneros (OM, Sleep) on bass and Dale Crover (Melvins, Altamont) on drums, there was no way Shrinebuilder wasn’t going to be good, and so the anticipation for the five-track offering has moved from excited to feral over the course of the last year.

As an album, Shrinebuilder meets every expectation head on and melds the different styles of Kelly, Wino, Cisneros and Crover so that there is a flow from song to song sounding natural and direct. When album opener, ‘Solar Benediction’, kicks off with Wino and Kelly trading vocals, the energy in the recording is driving, powerful and only made stronger by the back and forth musical conversation of the players.

Sleepy Sun. ‘Let’s Get Weird’ is the talismanic phrase with which San Francisco six-piece Sleepy Sun send forth their psychedelic jam-train. Unfortunately, citing horticulture, pizza and Neil Young as key inspirations screams ‘stoned, stinking hippies’. But this debut reveals a band who emerge from behind the shoulder of Black Mountain and the curvature of Earth to illuminate the Dead Meadow with some deranged and fresh ideas of their own. The great ‘om’ begins with ‘New Age’, a sprawling piece that cocks a snook at beady meditation in favour of some end times fire-and-brimstone noise. Yet Sleepy Sun are at their best when they revel in both light and dark, unleashing throatily riffing guitars to disrupt pastoral interludes. ‘Sleepy Son’ is like encountering a randy grizzly during a hike through a peaceful valley heady with the scent of eucalyptus. Similarly their ‘White Dove’ might eventually bring the olive branch of peaceful acoustica, but that’s only after a chaos of angrily clattering cymbals and militarised guitars lay waste to their verdant surroundings. Weak-minded souls beware, for this isn’t the warm patchouli stick you might at first expect.

I use to work with the guy who does 'The Obelisk'. He knows his stoner rock, and I often like what he winds up liking.

Shrinebuilder is pretty good, but a little disappointing considered those involved.

Haven't heard Sleepy Sun

Sleepy Sun played with The Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound here in Lincoln for Lincoln Calling back in late September/Early October.
Both bands were pretty good, Assemble Head was stoner rock as well.

Saw Sleepy Sun in big sur last summer... w/Dead Meadow. A local Santa Cruz band though I think they've moved to SF this fall.

They are good, no question. But my main reaction to their music live and recorded is how young they are and how much potential they have. If the music zeitgeist turns in their amply psych pop genre's direction they could be its Nirvana. Very fresh sounds in a potentially very tired idiom.

agree with harry, sleepy sun are good and i'm betting they just get better and better. looking forward to their new album.

also brought up by pro-mo, assemble head in sunburst sound are awesome (their newest will be top 20 for me). i'm not really all that big into "stoner rock", but these two bands to me are more about groove than sludge/drone that i always associated -and kept me away from that genre.

also worth a listen in the same general sound from this year are weird owl. they've got a great crazy horse jammy thing going on.

i think they are all on tee pee records t'boot.

not a fan of Shrinebuilder. need to check out Sleepy Suns though.

i'll second Weird Owl. good band.