Bolt

arrrrrrrrrr...they be grate me hardy. the loudest band in the land. a multiple stress fracture on the face of rock and roll. arrrrrr.

oh, right...reasonable commentary...

search: "ride the skies," the s/t 12" on load (if you can still find it...to be repressed on cd this year), the conan 7", the split 7" with landed a few years back, the bootleg of a live performance of wmfu.

also search: landed's "everything's happening" lp, "why i live" 10."

destroy: good taste.

If you're looking for contemporaries digging similar, I've heard that both Pink & Brown and Burmese are something to check into. Can't say whether that's true, really. However, for sheer chaotic value, you can't beat Black Dice. Saw the Dice open for Lightning Bolt a couple of months ago, and the Dice were so atonal and loud (in that really great fashion) that the Bolt sounded like the Field Mice in comparison. (For an example of the Bolt live, click here.

Landed's fine & good, but not as much fun as the Bolt. But I'm quibbling. All y'all interested should saunter over to Fort Thunder.org and see where the Bolt (& other Providence-area madness) was born.

someone once said landed = listening to a quite good am rep or touch and go band through a concrete wall. which is pretty damn accurate. much more...uh...loose?...than the bolt, so i agree with david that they're not as fun, in that tight-yet-chaotic ac/dc meets merzbow meets rorshach meets no new york way. not that impressed with black dice when i saw em a few years back...somewhere i have their 7"s on vermin scum and gravity...but i hear their style has changed somewhat (noiser for a start) so perhaps i'd like em more now...

jess = not as much into this stuff (i.e. the noisier end of the post- hardcore [in a vermiform/gravity stylee rather than fugazi/tight assed d.c. core]) as i was a few years ago. the bolt album really woke me back up to a lot of it.

oh, also, search any and all ft. thunder related comics/mini-comics. especially the work of brian chippendale, brian ralph, and the VERY irregular monster anthologies.

No one has mentioned their live performances!

1st: the drummer sets up in the audience! the other member of the band wears a ski mask and wireless bass setup, runs around audience and makes ALL non-drum tones and sounds with distorted mask-mic and bass guitar. Trully ELECTRIFYIN and you fear for your life. listening to a CD's worth of the results of above almost ruins it for me. like: not really as threatening as all that.

Has everyone forgotten godheadSilo? Have they been relegated to the dustbin of loud-rock history?

I still haven't heard Lightning Bolt, but everything I've read about them indicates they probably sound really similar to godheadSilo.

From what I heard, godHeadsilo was turgid and slow. Lightning Bolt is fast & fresh.

If you get the chance to see 'em in Providence, go! I trekked up to AS220 to see 'em - they played w/ Landing. Landing was raucous & fun enough, with a mini moshpit going. But then, just as Landed finished, the crowd moved from in front of the main stage to the little nook just off to its right, where the Brians of LB had already set up their equipment. (They weren't wearing the ski masks; the drummer did have that phone mike mask; the bassist was wired to this HUGE bass amp; and, yeah, they were playing on the floor.) The crowd encircled them, and when the music started, the crowd erupted. People ping-ponging off each other, folks climbing poles to fall into the crowd, thrashing this way & that. It was a blast, to say the least.

Compare that to the Black Dice / LB show in CT, where the crowd stood still (presumably in shock). I talked to one of the other musicians (he played earlier in the afternoon; a multi-instrumentalist from El Guapo, a jazz-damaged punk group - and, no, they're GOOD) after LB finished; he was literally stunned, eyes stuck wide open, saying "Why should I even bother anymore?"

(By the way, Black Dice didn't "rock", but the rumble of the bass amp make my tummy jiggle, and gave the floorboards a good massage as well.)

Lightning Bolt is outclassed by NOBODY! Mahavishnu w/out all the useless instruments and slow parts and new age crap. Their records are pretty pointless though.

I saw Lightning Bolt, Pink & Brown, and The Thrones play here in Seattle last summer. Lightning Bolt were just boring. NEENERNEENERNOODLENOODLE, NEENERNEENERNOODLENOODLE, over and over again. Brian the drummer had stamina, I'll give him that. The other Brian look extremely bored and uninterested.

Pink & Brown were amazing. Same sort of sound assault as Lightning Bolt, but they just sounded far more damaged and destructive (or maybe deconstructive?)

While me and my visiting friend Dave (who runs NoiseNoiseNoise records in Costa Mesa, CA) were watching the Thrones, the guitarist/bassist Brian from Lightning Bolt just came, strolled over, and stood just directly in front of us, without even once acknowledging that he was blocking our way. Dave picked his nose, caught a fresh one, and rubbed it on his butt.

Scarily enough, Brian's nailed the basic sonic premise of LB (albeit in simplistic, unflattering terms) - when the snot-caked Brian slides his fingers up near the base of his fretboard, it sounds just like NEENERNEENERNOODLENOODLE. But there's more to it than that (sez me).

Let us again discuss this band, for they still consistently blow me away in the live setting (after about 8 times they still haven't bored me.) And from everything I've heard live, the new album should be incredible, especially if it boasts LOUD production (fuck clarity; it's all about volume.)

Also, anyone interested in the current musical climate of Providence should make attempts to see Freakzone if they ever play again (here or anywhere else.) Around 12 people, including members of Lightning Bolt and Forcefield, making hellacious (yet rhythmic) noise in costumes and destroying things. Last time they played they destroyed a toilet, a lot of AS220's chairs, their instruments, etc. They had lots of drums, a cannon that shot soda/beer cans, a six foot tall roll of saran wrap and costumes and other things. They also dumped huge bins of garbage/recyclables out on the floor; they got a big yelling at when they were done, obv.

Landed are amazing, as people have said above. Make sure to order their LP (and the 10" if it's still in print) from Vermiform before they decide to close up shop for good; the 7" on Load isn't as good, but has fun cover art.

Lightning Bolt shows have started to become too crowded to be comfortable for breathing. Still good.