The Days of Lore

The Lights turn me on

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010 | musiX | No Comments

The idea that rock ‘n’ roll is dead is a bunch of hooey. I will buy, however, that the rock star is dead—VD, PCP, people being too PC, and a lot of premature DOAs have made chugging Jack from the bottle, snorting ants and violating groupies with sea-dwelling creatures not as acceptable as they once were. All was lost when Twitter made it possible for Axl Rose to inform everybody that he’s flossing his teeth, or taking his dog to the groomers … chrissakes there are certain things you just don’t want to know; I preferred it when I pictured him doing blow off a stripper’s chest. Now back to the state of rock ‘n’ roll …

Rock music has definitely gone through some lean years, some stale years, some [insert culinary adjective here: Raw? Tender? Crusty?] years. Even in good times, there are usually only a few bands that truly capture the imagination, or at the very least rock with sincerity and abandon.

I recently discovered Seattle’s The Lights, three dudes who’ve been making twangy, arty, messy … raw, rock ‘n’ roll for almost two decades. Their new record Failed Graves (Wäntage USA) has that rare quality of immediately grabbing you as well as giving you something new to chew on with each listen. I can’t get enough. Choppy guitars come at you from all angles while the rhythm section bangs around in odd timings. And vocals occasionally drift out of key and typically revolve around death, drinking, drugs and … well, well, well—hail hail rock ‘n’ roll.

“Ginerella” - The Lights

The Lights, video for “New New”

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Tags: Failed Graves, rock 'n' roll, Seattle, The Lights, Wäntage USA

This band could be your neighbor: part 2

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 | musiX, pdX | 1 Comment

I think I saw one of them.

My girlfriend told me she had once seen two of them from a distance—a man and a woman—skinny, with long, wiry hair, sporting retro garb that one wouldn’t consider normal streetwear … even by Portland standards: “It looks like they’re from a completely different universe,” she explained.

I like them already.

The other night, we were walking back to our apartment right by a small pathway that runs along the back of the complex …

“There he is … ”

I looked down the path, and about 50 yards away was a skinny man, clad head to toe in denim with a long mop of stringy black hair. A plume of smoke dissipated to the left side of his dark coif. He looked like Tony Iommi, or maybe a young Jerry Garcia, or … Joey Ramone?! Is this guy a member of a stoner doom-metal group? A ’60s psychedelic jam band? A Ramones tribute band? No matter. I am hell-bent on finding out. This might, indeed, be the greatest rock band in Portland, or even the world … or one helluva tribute to The Ramones …

Tags: band, Jerry Garcia, Joey Ramone, rock 'n' roll, The Ramones, Tony Iommi

This band could be your neighbor: part 1

Monday, October 13th, 2008 | musiX, pdX | 1 Comment

There’s a mysterious van—gray with tinted windows—that comes and goes from my apartment complex … I’ve been told it’s sometimes gone for days at a time. Of course, my first thought was that it was a serial killer, like Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs! Maybe not. OK, perhaps it’s a group of circus performers! Naw. Flight attendants?! Hmm …

The thing is, I’ve never seen anybody enter or leave the vehicle—it’ll be parked and 20 minutes later, when I peer from behind the blinds, it’s gone. I don’t want to randomly knock on my neighbors’ doors. That would be weird. I’m going to assume it’s a band. This is Portland. That’s what people do—work at coffee shops and play rock ‘n’ roll. And I could be living next to the greatest rock band in Portland.

I’m going to get to the bottom of this. Because that’s what I do.

Tags: band, rock ‘n’ roll, The Silence of the Lambs