Listen: Lightning Bolt – “The Metal East”

Noise duo Lightning Bolt recently announced Fantasy Empire, their first album in over five years will be released on March 24 via Thrill Jockey. "The Metal East" is our first taste of the record and it’s a welcome return that definitely brought a smile to my face after hearing it. Lots of polyrhythms going on here with distorted vocals and heavy fuzzed-out baselines.   

Listen: Lightning Bolt - "King Candy"

On September 25, Load Records will release an EP of Rhode Island noise band, Lightning Bolt's, "lost tracks", called Oblivion Hunter.

"Since forming in 1994, Lightning Bolt has taken a zig zag path to recording, playing and touring. Following in this pattern is the release of Oblivion Hunter, a collection of the band’s epic recording sessions over the last few years. Oblivion Hunter is a real cool time – loose, hard and loopy. From the get-go the sound is amped-up and free with an ear on the railroad tracks to the big sounds of industry and clamor. Bass sounds jump out of the speaker cones that conjure up ears in alien propulsion systems, nights in faraway wind tunnels, and brutal beatings at Gitmo. Drums and assorted FX pop in and out with the resolve of a finger quivering over the A-bomb button drunk on power and convinced of your need. This record is one of the few necessary things in your grim stretch of existence, played by a band with 20 years of total conviction to the destruction of your ear drums. The net is cast decidedly further this time out with North Pole square dancing colliding with shock troop whiplash, executed with the spontaneous interplay of neutrino collision. It is time for you to binge and purge. You are now the Oblivion Hunter."

Track Listing:
1. King Candy
2. Baron Wasteland
3. Oblivion Balloon
4. Fly Fucker Fly
5. The Soft Spoken Spectre
6. Salamander
7. World Wobbly Wide

Listen to "King Candy” below...

Throwback Thursdays: Lightning Bolt - "20"

For this week’s Throwback Thursday we are going with some recently unearthed music from noise duo Lightning Bolt. "20" was recorded on August 11, 1997 in Fort Thunder R.I. on the old Tascam 424 cassette 4 track Chippendale's high school band had bought in the late 80's. The band recorded 3 takes over three days. Take 1 is thin and take 3 is rockin but the bass drum pedal breaks at the 19 minute mark, so here is take 2. Apparently the session was recorded over a tape of an older recording making the sound even more HiFi than usual. Budgets were tight back then and a new cassette was not in the cards. (So you may have to crank the bass a bit). The concept was simple, set up a clock, start playing the pattern and when the clock hits 20 minutes switch to part 2. The band had this to say of the project…

“The strange thing is on this particular take we change at the 19 minute mark, defeating the whole purpose of the concept. The only possibility is that time must have been different back then. Either way it was an endurance test and hypnotic experiment. And in a way is the most Lightning Boltesque song of all Lightning Bolt songs. This song was released on cassette on the 1997 Lightning Bolt/Forcefield U.S. tour. It was on the 3rd day after selling a couple copies for $5 each that we realized the master was so quiet it might as well have been blank. Sorry guys. The track was originally labelled "Rescue Mission" but that title was totally arbitrary and "20" seems like a more to the point name. The download is pay-what-you want. You can get it for free, but we do appreciate a donation. Thanks for listening.”

Credits: Written, performed, recorded by Lightning Bolt at Fort Thunder in 1997. Mixed by BC in the Hilarious Attic in 2012. Lightning Bolt was, and is, Brian Gibson and Brian Chippendale.