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Nothing Says Halloween Like Horrible Noise at Zanzabar this Saturday!

Published

on October 19, 2009

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3wolfmoon Nothing Says Halloween Like Horrible Noise at Zanzabar this Saturday!
Man, I had to. I couldn’t find a hi-res photo relevant for this event, so I threw in the three wolves + moon meme. Shit’s still funny to me. I mean, c’mon… Wolf Eyes, Halloween, New Moon soundtrack. This was necessary and proper, ya’ll.

Anyway, back to the point… the most wonderful time of the year, the Reason for the Season – Halloween – is just around the bend. How do you plan to celebrate? Yeah, you could see Monsters of Folk at the Louisville Palace on this most ghoulish of holidays (whom are icidentally neither monsters nor fuckin’ folk). But it might be more festive and less sissy to bask in the horrifying power electronics and booty bass of new projects from 2/3 of Wolf Eyes and some excellent Derby City dirty noise thrashers foreboding enough to make Michael Gira change his cowboy hat. Think I prefer the latter for sure.

Headlining is Regression. From Boomkat: “Nate Young has taken the noise levels down several notches for his new solo outing as Regression, although the air of implicit, floating darkness cast over the whole affair is very much within his established oeuvre. You could neither classify Regression’s self-titled LP as a noise record or a death ambient record, instead the analog synth dissections and tape treatments more closely reference library music, horror soundtracks, or in its more austere moments, early electronic music. Regression is an outstanding album, proving to be more delicate than a Wolf Eyes full-length has ever been, yet it’s able to match the group’s sonic gravitas – and their uncanny ability to make the extremes of music sound so incredibly seductive.”

Library music? Oh shit yes. And his oft partner in crime John Olson is coming in as Spykes. He will probably still drink all the damn beer. The DIY-centric Nzambi is Louisville’s Christopher Cprek, who you may have seen tweaking knobs during the second (or maybe third) incarnation of Warmer Milks, as well as his other project Pax Titania. Cprek builds all his own shit, so no one could imitate his integallactic sounds even if they tried. Michigan’s Dog Lady opens up with some amplified violin, modified electronics, and various forest nymph summoning. In short, these guys put the “monsters of” in Mosters of Folk. Believe that.

Ya know what’s the weirdest thing though? This is all happening Saturday night at the Zanzabar! An insane noise show at the Zbar on a Saturday night! I guess somebody at the club owed Joel Hunt a serious favor.

Regression, Spykes, Nzambi, and Dog Lady
Saturday, October 24
Zanzabar
2100 S. Preston St., Louisville (map that shizz)
9 p.m. / $5
21+

“Black Vomit” is one of my favorite Wolf Eyes jams. It’s about having fun and making friends.

MP3 :::
Wolf Eyes – Black Vomit

Lightning Bolt – Earthly Delights

Published

Kenny Bloggins

on September 8, 2009

in Praise and Malaise

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earthlydelights Lightning Bolt - Earthly Delights

Can Lightning Bolt even make a bad album? Well, I suppose if they, I dunno, started sporting J Crew, ripped off Paul Simon’s whiteboy Afrobeat, and wrote a concept album about how rad their dad’s Cape Cod estate is, sure, that would be relatively gnarly. But worry not, this is Providence-reared, Load-loyal Lightning Bolt – ADHD rhythmic, skull-crushing low-end fuzz purveying, ski mask doning, intestinal fortitude testing, Frances Bacon meets fridge art shit on their album covers makin’, inclined toward all that is guerrilla style, quite possibly spawned from the primordial ooze Lightning Bolt. A veritable Rush for the noise kids; everything the two Brians touch is aces. And with their forthcoming Earthly Delights, Lightning Bolt comes correct… uh-gain… with an effort every bit as strong as Hypermagic Mountain and with an even more adventurous spirit to boot.

Though I wanted to hold off a bit after first hearing the jam hive before publishing my thoughts in narrative form, I did post some quips on the blog’s Twitter a couple of weeks ago. I think I said something to the effect of “Earthly Delights is Lightning Bolt’s Meet the Beatles’ and ‘I could get my folks into this record.’ Well, none of that is exactly true, but there’s a very odd, visceral melodicism running underneath the album. I noticed this on the first track I listened to, “Nation of Boar.” I chose to listen to this particular canticle first since it’s called “Nation of Boar.” The song exits with a rather gorgeous, mystic progression that makes me feel like returning to nature. Weird, right? Well, while LB hasn’t exactly gone verse-chorus-verse on us just yet, the more concise songs (half the album features songs under five minutes) yield less dissonance and fuckin’ around, replacing the new space with extremely structured, simple, almost hummable compositions. That is not to say that LB has lost any edge, but simply that Earthly Delights throws a little Occam’s Razor into the mix. The group’s opting to keep their disposition a bit simpler and less freeform. Hence the hyperbolic comparison to Meet the Beatles. I have to say that I like the results.

“Colossus” bring a slow-burning, nasty stoner metal groove to the forefront, and acts as one of LB’s most driving songs since Wonderful Rainbow’s “Assassins.” But don’t think the Brians are ever looking behind, because “Funny Farm” comes at you out of no-fucking-where. It’s a country song. That’s right, B Gibs does Buck Owens-style western licks through his grody bass distortion. Shit you not. “Funny Farm” is outta control ridiculous. “S.O.S.” then takes you through East London for a little oi punk call-response at machine gun speed. Again, awesome. After four years, you’d have to expect something insane to end up on the new record, especially with these bros.

As with all Lightning Bolt releases, there is one real ultimate epic trek through Middle Earth jam. Hypermagic Mountain’s was “Dead Cowboy,” Wonderful Rainbow’s was “The Two Towers” (interestingly enough, huh?), and with Earthly Delights, they save the big guns for last with closing track “Transmissionary.” The 12-and-a-half minute flight is definitely the closest that Lightning Bolt has brushed against psychedelia-leaning prog, and I mean that with all due respect and good vibes. If The Moody Blues cut the foreplay after Seventh Sojourn and just fuckin’ rawked, they may have gotten close to “Transmissionary.” The cut showcases an almost orchestral approach – organic, resplendent, and soaring to climax. It’s a sumptuous journey that leaves you refreshed, enlightened, but upset that Earthly Delights just ended real cold-like. Oh well… just gotta hit repeat on that sucka and get lifted again.

Earthly Delights solidifies once again that Lightning Bolt unequivocally remains one of the most relevant bands today. I hope they tour crazy on this record, and as soon I get some some dates sent to me, I’ll definitely let you all in the loop. In the interim, go buy Earthly Delights at your favorite record dealer when it drops October 13. Or preoder it soon from Load. Do it, poopypants!

Fagen-Becker Quality Rating
steelydan1 Lightning Bolt - Earthly Delights

MP3 :::
Lightning Bolt – Nation of Boar
Lightning Bolt – S.O.S.

I Was Wrong – New Lightning Bolt Coming Out in October

Published

Kenny Bloggins

on August 17, 2009

in Uncategorized

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earthlydelights I Was Wrong - New Lightning Bolt Coming Out in October

I don’t mind being wrong on this one. We’ll all be privileged to hear the latest from Lightning Bolt, Earthly Delights, one month earlier than what I posted on Friday. It drops October 13, thanks to Load. Prasie be to Allah.

That, indeed, is the cover up there. It’s like fridge art, except with a Frances Bacon spin. And here’s a new jam below. Methinks LB just discovered jazz drumming, which is utterly insane.

MP3 :::
Lightning Bolt – Colossus

Sweet Jesus! New Lightning Bolt Album Out in November

Published

Kenny Bloggins

on August 14, 2009

in News

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l_b9f216099a0b481697e0c881dc8f7301 Sweet Jesus! New Lightning Bolt Album Out in November

It’s about goddamn time, too! I mean, I know the Bolt Bros have been busy keepin’ it trill – what, with Black Pus and Wizardzz and a collaboration list that expands exponentially like pi. But it’s been four years since the near-flawless Hypermagic Mountain dropped and made thousands of kids realize their capacity for both love and hate.

Lightning Bolt will drop their load on Load on November 13, and it’s called Earthly Delights. I will buy this record when it comes out. I will partake in some earthly delights whilst the long player plays long on my ghetto blaster. I will turn my phone off. I am not to be disturbed.

And of course, new album means that LB will probably build another great play-on-the-floor-kumbaya tour. When I know, you’ll know.

Tracklist:
1. Sound Guardians
2. Nation of Boar
3. Colossus
4. The Sublime Freak
5. Flooded Chamber
6. Funny Farm
7. Rain on Lake I’m Swimming In
8. S.O.S.
9. Transmissionary

Can’t wait to hear the second track… cuz it’s called “NATION OF BOAR,” you see.

MP3 :::
Lightning Bolt – Birdy

Black Pus Continues the Noise Genre’s Tradition of Great Band Names

Published

Kenny Bloggins

on July 22, 2009

in MP3 and Visual Aids

. Comments

black-pus Black Pus Continues the Noise Genres Tradition of Great Band Names

Perhaps one reason we haven’t heard a whole lot from the monolithic Lightning Bolt since 2005’s flawless Wonderful Rainbow is the myriad of undoubtedly time-consuming side projects. Black Pus is one of them, featuring Lightning Bolt’s Brian Chippendale. While Chippendale maintains the holy spastic drumming, interdental vox, and ADHD garage prog vibe that christens the church of Lightning Bolt, he seems to utilize Black Pus as a vehicle to branch out into other songwriting styles, including movements that are almost, zounds!, poppy. Have a look and listen to “Land of the Lost,” a highly hummable tune (the melody almost sounds like the chorus to INXS’ “The One Thing”… almost) with an excellent visual brain rape akin to Paper Rad:

Black Pus just released 0: Ultimate Beat Off on Armageddon. I have yet to hear all of Ultimate Beat Off, but I bet it rules, and Forest Gospel has a review better than anything I could’ve written.

MP3 :::
Black Pus – River That Ran Too Far

About the Prank Yesterday Afternoon

Published

Kenny Bloggins

on April 2, 2009

in General Communique, MP3 and Publicity Stunts

. Comments

vamps About the Prank Yesterday Afternoon

Well sheeit, if I knew that so many people were coming over to see me and peep the Vampire Weekend demos, I would’ve cleaned up a little more around here. Ya know, some fancy animated GIFs, better karaoke performances, cOoL vIdEoS, vacuumed a little, etc.

A couple of thoughts on the prank/social experiment yesterday:

1) I knew Vampire Weekend was popular, but holy shit, I had several thousand visitors within a couple of hours. I have ambivalent feelings about this. On the one hand, the exposure of The Decibel Tolls to a new, wide audience was great. On the other, it’s disheartening that a lot of better bands and artists don’t receive those nice perks of the massive hype machine that the Vamps were able to produce. Sad on the inside. But whatever, that’s how the world works, right? I forget who said it, but I always enjoyed the quote “morality is the way the world should be and economics is the way the world actually is.”

2) The Vamp crowd is decidedly a younger crowd, yet seems more mature than many of the people I encounter through other stunts this blog has produced. The responses I received yesterday all showcased people with a pretty good sense of humor. Whereas the fake Billy Corgan Twitter yields a lot of flame mail from the Pumpkinheads, an older crowd, I received a lot of good responses in the comments and my inbox that made me say “touché.” Thanks for being good sports, ya’ll.

Now, some people were curious about what exactly the tracks really were. Here’s the revelation:

“Tube Socks and Trust Funds” – Oh… oh, you thought it was the Vamps at first, but then realized… fuck, it’s “Gumboots” from Paul Simon’s Graceland. FML.

“Cape Cod Shuffle” – This is Captain & Tenille’s “Love Will Keep Us Together” (a staple of the Keep Louisville Smooth DJ set). This was included because, I think, if Vampire Weekend increased their coolness by 400-500%, they would probably come pretty close to the good Captain and his shipmate Toni Tenille.

“Just a J Crew Holiday” – This is my friend Mark Evans with an old project of his called Lesbian Peanut Butter (I caught that reference, Mark). They wrote original music as well, but this track is their riverboat folk cover of KoRn’s “Blind.” When discussing KoRn, do you have to type in toggle case? Is that AP style? Anyway, thanks again, Mark. That song rules!

“Hello to You, Africa!!” – Nope, not Merzbow. It’s Kites, from his 2006 album Peace Trials, which is probably my favorite power electronics noise album. The composition of this song represents my feelings that the Vamps probably don’t really care that much about Africa. Since there was some interest in this record, I’ve included additional MP3s below for your consideration. If you dig it, you can grip that album over at Load.

“Country Club Blues” – this is ol’ Kenny Bloggins doing a one-take a capella karaoke of Collective Soul’s 1994 smash hit “Shine,” with a little spread chorus and reverb added for effect.

MP3 :::
Kites – Dirt
Kites – Flag Torn Apart