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ch-scene - RE: Ch-scene Digest, Vol 15, Issue 11

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Subject: RTP-area local music and culture

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  • From: "Allen, Richard" <RAllen AT WWNORTON.com>
  • To: <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: Ch-scene Digest, Vol 15, Issue 11
  • Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 12:37:50 -0500


I think what distinguishes Lightning Bolt / brutal prog (which I imagine
includes bands like the Locust) is the path the band members seem to have
taken from 90s punk musical and social ideas -- at the point at which
everything boiled back down to "fuck the man, let's live in a hole and do
projects" -- to a particular ethic of musical and visual art that is all
about vigorous, almost idea-free experimentation/practice/performance, based
in questions like "What can these drums do? What can this bass do? What can I
do with them?"

I'm not a big Japanther fan, but the one time I saw them one of them screamed
at the crowd, "I rode my bike for ten hours today, what the fuck did you do?"
I guess if Minor Threat was the punk voice of Protestant self-improvement,
today's "crazy rock" is the punk voice of post-ideological
self-experimentation. Let's ride bikes for ten hours, build the biggest
amplifier ever, play the fastest ever, play the slowest ever. "Let's build a
car" -- which of course points back to the forefathers, acknowledged or not,
of these bands -- Swell Maps, Pere Ubu, Half Japanese.

And the reason this stands out is because every other band in, say, New York
is doing what Woody described -- laboriously concocting a sound and look out
of old sounds and looks. There are way, way too many ideas on display. Way
too much (visual/musical/verbal/historical) talk, not enough ROCK.

RA




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