RTP-area local music and culture

["Allen, Richard" <RAllen AT WWNORTON.com>]

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