MUSIC
BIO
Lightmusic is a 3 piece rock group out of Long Beach, CA. In 2010, the members became roommates at the house-venue inevitably to become Porch Party Records. They self-released EPs while gaining the attention of local crowds with their charismatic shows. After several years of dedicated recording, they have returned with their most comprehensive group of songs: hybrid rock n roll not for the faint of heart.
Guitarist Micah Lewis' crafts percussive, etherial riffs around the rhythmic foundation of the songs. His frustrated tones dance around the strikingly sophisticated bass and drum lineup. Lightmusic's songs have a way of returning back to themselves after bouts of deconstruction. Stevie Kugelberg (bass) and Zach Mabry (drums) shape an aggressive, Minutemen like landscape that seamlessly transforms from amp-screeching noise into pseudo R&B inspired down beats.
It would seem difficult for a vocalist to compete for the spotlight over such a tumultuous musical landscape, but Lewis' vocal performance shines as he conjures a unique spontaneity that draws the band’s iterations together. Reminiscent of a schizophrenic vagrant disrupting a prayer circle, Lewis somehow punctuates crudely awkward lines with a surprisingly sweet melodicism, showing a penchant for Jeff Buckley's vocal tenderness. At their most aggressive, Lightmusic feels like a distant cousin of The Fall with instrumentation tirelessly chugging away and Lewis spouting on, slur for swagger.
Lightmusic's forthcoming full length release, Critica, is a seductive 48 minutes of sadness, aggression, and subversive poetry. One moment there are anthropomorphic genitals aflight, and the next Lewis croons in delicate falsetto, "I wept." The record opens archaically with lines from Homer: "Sing to me, Calliope, ennepe moi," (Sing to me, oh Muse of the epic song). Indeed, this is Lightmusic's epic offering: challenging images of violence and sadness, close to an hour in length, featuring several 6+ minute songs. Lightmusic attempts to evoke a realm in rock n roll that elicits a powerful literary response. Critica brims with bombastic, head banging moments, yet, strifes with emotionally reflective and self conscious episodes. This is rock n roll both fed up with and indebted to its own history, ferocious and beautiful, and, certainly, epic.
Lightmusic’s brilliant new album Critica will be released August 5th 2016 on Porch Party Records.
PRESS
EP + Show Review - American Pancake // "The songs freely shift genres and tones. They are supremely dynamic with sounds that ebb and flow between trancy sparkly guitar and explosive avant garde art rock. It is like the compositions are passive aggressive or bipolar. Throw some strangely obtuse lyrics in this mix and you have sounds that can both perplex and amaze. "
LA RECORD - Track Review: "Inside The Heart" // "four minutes of Minutemen or Neutral Milk Hotel wordcram and genre-bursting that feels like a long and vivid dream."
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VIDEOS