Pitchfork

We've had a pretty productive morning already here at Pitchfork: someone made coffee, then we listened to the first thirty seconds of a record and made fun of each other's hairdos. That's peak efficiency right there. Difficult as it is to admit, though, we know of some folks working harder today. Like us, they're all too easy to ridicule; unlike us, they're performing a 12-hour marathon of cosmically-inspired music. On the back of a truck.

A huge consortium of musicians, including members of Six Organs of Admittance, the Fucking Champs, Neurosis, Sleep, Coachwhips, Comets on Fire and Tribe 8, have gathered in the Bay Area for The Rambler 12-Hour Composition starting at 6 a.m. Pacific time this morning; they will end, naturally, at 6pm. They are banging and strumming drums, bass, electric and acoustic guitar, electric sitar, harp, cello, and more, performing a composition entitled "Universe".

The piece (a sequence of 20-minute segments) speeds up as it progresses toward noon and then slows down again as the day wanes. It was composed by guitarist/drummer Tina Gordon, formerly of Lost Goat and currently of the AC/DC cover band AC/DShe, and is intended to "create a dialogue between light and sound on a sonic voyage," according to a press release. Duuuude. Appropriately enough, the event is sponsored by StonerRock.com. The titular Rambler is "a mobile soundstage and custom music environment" on which the whole shebang will take place, moving across the city from east (Warm Water Cove at sunrise) to west (Ocean Beach at sunset). If you aren't sold yet, allow us to point out that today is the autumnal equinox. What else could you ask for, besides an eighth?

The Rambler's website lists about three dozen performers, who we assume will tag in and out over the course of the day, unless somebody drank a case of Red Bull last night. It sounds like more happenings are in the works; that same website says the event will "christen The Rambler as a traveling music venue and vessel of infinite possibility". But if you're in San Francisco or its environs, you still have plenty of time to catch this one. The organizers have laid out the event's route on their site with little maps and everything, so no matter what time of day it is, you can just retrace their steps and look for...well, you'll probably know it when you see it. Or you can follow the weed smell.