Category Archives: peter

Lightning Bolt, Dracula Mountain at the Unitarian Church of Philadelphia in May 2015

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I posted a great video of this tune yesterday, but this one has brighter color and is from just a handful of months ago. It also has a camera dude who is clearly not committed to not rocking.

Before the video, here’s a little of what I learned today about Lightning Bolt. They’ve been playing together for 20 years. They’ve made a number of records. The most recent came out in May 2015. The previous came out in 2009.

Brian the Bass Player has a regular job as a game designer, and worked on Guitar Hero. They live in Providence RI, so maybe he worked with Curt Schilling! Don’t know, but it seems possible.

What’s in My Bag is a show in which musicians go to a store and select stuff, and then talk about what they selected. I can tell from what Lightning Bolt selected that they’re educated and experimental. That’s a little too bad, but maybe that’s why they do what they do so well. Here’s the clip:

But much better yet, here’s more music, from a band that does away with the stage and invites the audience to stand as close as possible to them while they play. Loudly. I’m still blown away.

Stinking Polecats, She Was Great

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Friend of the remnants, Evan Davies, the WFMU DJ, is traveling around the UK buying records. Today he posted yesterday’s haul, which like his excellent radio show was an eclectic mix of punk and rock and novelties. One band name jumped out at me: The Stinking Polecats. Who?

It’s an excellent name and a quick survey at YouTube revealed a pop punk guitar band with an excellent attack and a bit too much (for my taste) of that cute uplifted voice in the vocals, like the theme song from Friends and a million other bands of their time. Which was from 1996 or so until 2006, when they stopped updating their blog.

There isn’t much out there about them, but Googling revealed that the Stinking Polecats, who sound 100 percent USA, were Italians from Piacenza, which is south of Milan. Plus, the chorus seems to be, “She was reading, and my heart was beating so fast.”

Vegan Black Metal Chef

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This is proof of something. I mean, it’s a pretty funny concept for a one off thing, but this guy has made at least 18 shows! Who’s watching? Or is it listening? Or maybe reading? I want to try the tahini thing he does in this one, “turning bitter brown shit into a creamy white paste!” It sure does seem like a mistake to finish this dish off with a jar of sauce, when a can of crushed tomatoes would make it your own.

Lightning Bolt, Dracula Mountain

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I’m watching the video and I’m invigorated, and I’m glad these guys are playing music loudly and expressively and without (obvious) boundaries.

Lightning Bolt, Collossus

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Wading into the LB songbook, many riches. With deep connections. This stuff careens between one thing and another, aesthetically and physically.

If I had a job I would not be listening to this.

Lightning Bolt, Ride the Sky

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This was at a show in 2009. It was the last song Lightning Bolt played that year. This is the only band I know where the bass and drums compete to be the lead instrument, and give no quarter. The results are awesome, and the video is full of drama. I’m crushing on Lightning Bolt.

Lightning Bolt, Megahost

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Why not get rid of the guitar? Do you really need it? Lyrics, too.

These guys also get rid of the stage. They’re like subway musicians beating on joint compound containers, though louder. Much louder.

The singer, who is busy drumming, sewed a microphone into his face mask, so he could go hands free. And I can only hope I’ll stumble upon them in the subway some day..

This is from a show in France in 2008. I found it on a raging website called weirdestbandintheworld.com. Lightning Bolt ranked 94th.

This is The Day The The are Waitin’ for The Upturn (Just to show it could be done)

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When I Said I Wanna Be Your Damned Ol’ Dog (Chronologically)

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Darlingside, “Terrible Things”

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I went with my daughter to see these four young men called Darlingside last night at the excellent Rockwood Music Hall in lower Manhattan. It’s a clever but lousy name. Darlingside, I mean. Rockwood is a clever and excellent name. We were there at the invitation of the author, John Seabrook, who is writing about the band for the New Yorker, who was there with his son Harry. Lucy and Harry were born two months apart 16 and a half years ago, and have grown up together in many ways. Rockwood is a 21+ venue. Special exceptions were granted. They were the youngest people in the room, surely, just as John and I were probably, statistically at least, the tallest. And maybe the oldest, now that I think about it.

John knew about Darlingside because his wife’s niece went to college with them recently at Williams. They’re very cute and apparently the kids at Williams thought they were great. These two things aren’t unrelated, but cuteness doesn’t diminish their skills. They are talented multi instrumentalists and harmonizers. Their first album came out yesterday and the show we saw was their first on their record-release tour. All of which is supposed to suggest that I didn’t know much about them until I listened to the album yesterday. It is full of very smart lyrics, and soft but engaging arrangements and vocals. In other words, it is not rock.

But watching their lovely show, which was thoroughly enjoyable and displayed a sense of humor the earnest songs on the album don’t, it was kind of easy to project back a few years to a band that was perhaps a little edgier, a lot less interested in being lovely and a lot more interested in telling it like it is. With drums.

Today my daughter found this old (from 2012) music video from Darlingside. It’s not hard rock by any stretch, but it’s a strong song with a rock beat and a sharp video that came way too late to hit the indie boom. But the harmonies are still front and center, and delightful, as is the dark storyline with a happy ending. This, I think, is Darlingside.