Lightning Bolt
Encyclopedia
Lightning Bolt is a noise rock
Noise rock
Noise rock describes a style of post-punk rock music that became prominent in the 1980s. Noise rock makes use of the traditional instrumentation and iconography of rock, but incorporates atonality and especially dissonance, and also frequently discards usual songwriting conventions.-Style:Noise...

 duo from Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...

, composed of Brian Chippendale
Brian Chippendale
Brian Chippendale is a musician and artist based in Providence, Rhode Island. Chippendale is best known as the drummer/vocalist for the bands Lightning Bolt and Mindflayer . He also plays saxophone and drums in a solo project called Black Pus...

 on drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

 and vocals
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...

 and Brian Gibson
Brian Gibson (musician)
Brian Gibson is a musician and artist based out of Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Gibson is best known as the bassist for the band Lightning Bolt, alongside drummer and vocalist Brian Chippendale, and as the drummer of Wizardzz, with Rich Porter of Bug Sized Mind, and Megasus. Gibson...

 on bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

. The band met and formed in 1994, when the members of the then-trio attended the Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design is a fine arts and design college located in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1877. Located at the base of College Hill, the RISD campus is contiguous with the Brown University campus. The two institutions share social, academic, and community resources and...

. The band signed to Load Records
Load Records
Load Records is an American noise/experimental independent record label based out of Providence, Rhode Island. "Load Records might possibly be in possession of the world's most challenging record roster," writes Mark Hensch of Thrash Pit...

 in 1997, and released their self-titled debut
Lightning Bolt (album)
Lightning Bolt is the eponymous debut album by noise rock band Lightning Bolt. Originally, five of the tracks on the album were recorded in the studio, however, with the exception of one track, the band discarded these and instead put lo-fi live versions of the songs on the record...

 two years later. In total, Lightning Bolt has released five full-length albums, numerous vinyl singles, and appeared on several compilations.

Lightning Bolt are known for their guerrilla-style live performances, where they typically play on the ground rather than a stage, with the crowd gathered around them. The band's sound is typically loud and aggressive, though the group cites composers Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...

 and Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Sun Ra was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama...

 as compositional influences.

History

The band formed while Chippendale and Gibson attended the Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design is a fine arts and design college located in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1877. Located at the base of College Hill, the RISD campus is contiguous with the Brown University campus. The two institutions share social, academic, and community resources and...

 in Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...

, and Chippendale had heard about "a new kid who was a whiz on the bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

." The two formed Lightning Bolt, with Brian Chippendale
Brian Chippendale
Brian Chippendale is a musician and artist based in Providence, Rhode Island. Chippendale is best known as the drummer/vocalist for the bands Lightning Bolt and Mindflayer . He also plays saxophone and drums in a solo project called Black Pus...

 on drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

, Brian Gibson on bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

, and with Hisham Bharoocha
Hisham Bharoocha
Hisham Akira Bharoocha was born in Niigata, Japan and is an ex-member of the Providence, Rhode Island bands Lightning Bolt and Black Dice. Currently, Bharoocha is involved in his band Soft Circle and works an artist in New York City.- Biography :...

 on guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 and vocals
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...

 joining the group after their first show. Bharoocha left the group in 1996 to continue with another RISD band that would eventually become Black Dice
Black Dice
Black Dice is an experimental electronic music group currently based in Brooklyn, New York, USA.-Early years:Black Dice formed in spring 1997 soon after guitarist Bjorn Copeland met drummer Hisham Bharoocha and bassist Sebastian Blanck when they were students at the Rhode Island School of Design...

, and Chippendale took over vocal duties. The only officially released music with Bharoocha was a track on the Repopulation Program compilation. For the first few years, Lightning Bolt was primarily an improvisational band, touring the United States for months at a time and "just playing". The concept of writing songs and recording an album didn't occur to the band until 1997, when Ben McOsker, founder of Load Records
Load Records
Load Records is an American noise/experimental independent record label based out of Providence, Rhode Island. "Load Records might possibly be in possession of the world's most challenging record roster," writes Mark Hensch of Thrash Pit...

, approached the duo.

During these formative years, Chippendale and his freshman-year college roommate Matt Brinkman began to set up Fort Thunder
Fort Thunder
Fort Thunder was a warehouse on the second floor of a pre-Civil War former textile factory in the Olneyville district of Providence, Rhode Island. From 1995 through 2001, the space was used as a venue for underground music and events, as well as a living and working space for the artists...

, a disused warehouse space in the Olneyville district of Providence. The space eventually came to house a number of local avant-garde artists and musicians, including Brian Ralph
Brian Ralph
Brian Ralph is a U.S. alternative cartoonist. His illustrations have appeared in Wired and the New York Post. His debut graphic novel Cave-In was nominated for three Harvey Awards, one Eisner Award, and listed as one of the Comics Journals "five best comics of 1999". His second graphic novel...

 as well as Lightning Bolt.

In 2006, Lightning Bolt was deported from Japan days after they arrived to continue their tour from the UK. Band members were detained on arrival on the grounds that they did not have work permits. Their official appeal was rejected after 48 hours, and they were deported back to the United States.

Recordings

Lightning Bolt have released a total of five full-length albums, a number of 7 inch singles and splits, and have appeared on numerous compilations. The band's first full-length album was a self-titled vinyl record on the Load Records
Load Records
Load Records is an American noise/experimental independent record label based out of Providence, Rhode Island. "Load Records might possibly be in possession of the world's most challenging record roster," writes Mark Hensch of Thrash Pit...

 label. The album was initially released in a limited edition pressing of 750 copies, and a 50-minute companion cassette titled "Zone" was released later. In 1999 the album was re-released on CD, including "Zone" as bonus tracks and alternative cover art. Lightning Bolt's second full-length album was Ride the Skies
Ride the Skies
Ride the Skies is the second album by noise rock band Lightning Bolt. This album is considered their breakthrough in the noise rock world.Track #2, "Saint Jacques," is named after bassist Dan St...

, released in 2001, followed by Wonderful Rainbow
Wonderful Rainbow
Wonderful Rainbow is the third album by noise rock band Lightning Bolt. It is considered to be their most accessible album, featuring heavy but catchy bass guitar riffs and frenetic drums....

in 2003. In 2005, Lightning Bolt released Hypermagic Mountain
Hypermagic Mountain
Hypermagic Mountain is the fourth album by the noise rock band Lightning Bolt. It has a very dense sound composed entirely of distorted bass guitar and loud, pounding drums...

, their most critically acclaimed album to date. In 2009, their album Earthly Delights
Earthly Delights (album)
Earthly Delights is the fifth album by the noise rock band Lightning Bolt. It was released on October 13, 2009 by Load Records. The album was leaked to the internet on August 27, 2009.-Track listing:#"Sound Guardians" – 4:52...

was released on Load Records.

The band starred in the 2003 tour-DVD The Power of Salad
The Power of Salad
The Power of Salad, also known as The Power of Salad & Milkshakes, is a film by Peter Glantz and Nick Noe, featuring and documenting the Providence, Rhode Island noise rock band Lightning Bolt...

directed by Peter Glantz
Peter Glantz
Peter Glantz is an American director of theater and film, notably the films Lightning Bolt - Power Of Salad and the music video DVD Pick A Winner, both released through the record label Load Records...

 and Nick Noe. Lightning Bolt have also performed in DVD compilations such as Pick a Winner (2004) and Sleep When You are Dead by performance artists Mighty Robot (2007).

Rumors have persisted concerning the release of an improvisational album entitled Frenzy. A post on Lightning Bolt's official website in early 2004 read "The next Lightning Bolt album, Frenzy, is currently in the works over at Load Records. It is expected to be available at the end of the summer." No further word was given, and the next Lightning Bolt album released was in fact Hypermagic Mountain in 2005. In an early 2007 interview, Chippendale said "When it comes to weird improv stuff, sometimes we're just at a weird stalemate." No official word has since been released.

On October 13, 2009, Lightning Bolt released the album Earthly Delights on the label Load
Load Records
Load Records is an American noise/experimental independent record label based out of Providence, Rhode Island. "Load Records might possibly be in possession of the world's most challenging record roster," writes Mark Hensch of Thrash Pit...

. It has been the band's first release in almost four years since Hypermagic Mountain.

Musical and lyrical style

The band's music takes cues from Japanese noise rock
Noise rock
Noise rock describes a style of post-punk rock music that became prominent in the 1980s. Noise rock makes use of the traditional instrumentation and iconography of rock, but incorporates atonality and especially dissonance, and also frequently discards usual songwriting conventions.-Style:Noise...

 bands such as Boredoms and Ruins, although composers Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...

 and Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Sun Ra was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama...

 are acknowledged influences. The band's sound consists of Chippendale's frenetic drumming, his usually incomprehensible vocals, and Gibson's rhythmic bass guitar – an example of which is the song "13 Monsters", where Chippendale sings a playground style counting chant through heavy distortion over the instrumentals of his drums and Gibson's bass guitar. As for the band's genre, Brian Gibson is quoted as saying, "I hate, hate, hate the category "noise-punk" I really don't like being labeled with two words that have so much baggage. It’s gross."

As the group's vocalist, Chippendale eschews a conventional microphone, instead using the type of microphone built into a household telephone receiver, held in his mouth or attached to a hood, which is then run through an effects processor to further alter the sound. Chippendale has also used a KMD 8021 Drum Exciter, a simple drum-synth
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

 module, triggered by the bass drum.

Gibson plays his bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

 tuned to cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

 standard tuning, in intervals of fifths (C G D A), using a banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...

 string for the high A. He used this four-string setup for several years, but has recently been seen using a five-string setup, tuned to C G D A E, with banjo strings for the A and E. Gibson also uses several effects pedals, including overdrive pedals, an octaver
Octave effect
Octave-effect boxes are a type of special effects unit which mix the input signal with a synthesised signal whose musical tone is an octave lower or higher than the original. The synthesised octave signal is derived from the original input signal by halving or doubling the frequency...

, a delay pedal, and a whammy pedal (pitch shifter).

Like many noise rock bands, Lightning Bolt mostly plays extremely loud, aggressive music. In the film The Power of Salad
The Power of Salad
The Power of Salad, also known as The Power of Salad & Milkshakes, is a film by Peter Glantz and Nick Noe, featuring and documenting the Providence, Rhode Island noise rock band Lightning Bolt...

, Gibson attributes much of their success to volume:
We used to get more negative reactions when [we] didn't have as loud of stuff. It's just, be super loud and you're all set. (laughs) The rock and roll has been revealed. I do feel that that's the message - if there's any message, that's what it is. This is kinda what we do to keep ourselves excited these days. In these days - everyone knows what I'm talking about. (laughs)


The band has reportedly never been a fan of the studio recording process. When they recorded five tracks for their eponymous debut album
Lightning Bolt (album)
Lightning Bolt is the eponymous debut album by noise rock band Lightning Bolt. Originally, five of the tracks on the album were recorded in the studio, however, with the exception of one track, the band discarded these and instead put lo-fi live versions of the songs on the record...

 released in 1999, they discarded four of them and replaced them with lo-fidelity tracks recorded at various live shows from 1997 and 1998. However, their following two albums, Ride the Skies
Ride the Skies
Ride the Skies is the second album by noise rock band Lightning Bolt. This album is considered their breakthrough in the noise rock world.Track #2, "Saint Jacques," is named after bassist Dan St...

and Wonderful Rainbow
Wonderful Rainbow
Wonderful Rainbow is the third album by noise rock band Lightning Bolt. It is considered to be their most accessible album, featuring heavy but catchy bass guitar riffs and frenetic drums....

, were recorded more traditionally in a studio. For Hypermagic Mountain
Hypermagic Mountain
Hypermagic Mountain is the fourth album by the noise rock band Lightning Bolt. It has a very dense sound composed entirely of distorted bass guitar and loud, pounding drums...

, half the tracks were recorded in studio, while the rest were performed and recorded in a house direct to a 2-track DAT
Digital Audio Tape
Digital Audio Tape is a signal recording and playback medium developed by Sony and introduced in 1987. In appearance it is similar to a compact audio cassette, using 4 mm magnetic tape enclosed in a protective shell, but is roughly half the size at 73 mm × 54 mm × 10.5 mm. As...

 master tape, where the audio engineer was unable to tell exactly how the final result would sound.

Since the band has only two members and two instruments, their sound has a somewhat limited range, though this is often noted as a positive thing. In one interview, Gibson states that his experiences in Lightning Bolt "has showed [him] the power of an extremely limited palette."

Lightning Bolt's lyrics, when decipherable, are generally tongue-in-cheek, covering such topics as fairy tales, heavy metal clichés, terrorism, anarchy, and superheroes. They delve occasionally into more political subjects, such as the anti-Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 "Dead Cowboy" from Hypermagic Mountain.

Live performances

Lightning Bolt are known for their so-called "guerrilla gig
Guerrilla gig
Guerrilla gigging is a type of concert performed in a non-traditional setting or arranged in an unusual fashion. It became associated with punk rock, indie rock and noise rock bands in UK and the United States during the early to mid 2000s. Bands who perform at such events are sometimes referred to...

s", preferring to play on the floor of the venue rather than the stage, creating a tight circle of spectators around the band. They have also been known to start playing only a few seconds after the opening band finishes, often taking the audience by surprise. In 2004, Lightning Bolt played on the doorstep of radio DJ John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...

's chalet at noon during the All Tomorrow's Parties
All Tomorrow's Parties (music festival)
All Tomorrow's Parties is a music festival which takes place at Camber Sands holiday camp in East Sussex and Butlin's holiday camp in Minehead, Somerset, England....

 festival, about which neighbor Steve Albini
Steve Albini
Steven Frank Albini is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman, and Flour, and is currently a member of Shellac...

 of Shellac
Shellac (band)
Shellac is an American group composed of Steve Albini , Bob Weston and Todd Trainer...

 and Big Black
Big Black
Big Black was an American punk rock band from Evanston, Illinois, active from 1981 to 1987. Founded by singer and guitarist Steve Albini, the band's initial lineup also included guitarist Santiago Durango and bassist Jeff Pezzati, both of Naked Raygun...

 commented "Best alarm clock I've ever had." They have also staged concerts in kitchens, on sidewalks, and in parking lots.

Albums

  • Lightning Bolt
    Lightning Bolt (album)
    Lightning Bolt is the eponymous debut album by noise rock band Lightning Bolt. Originally, five of the tracks on the album were recorded in the studio, however, with the exception of one track, the band discarded these and instead put lo-fi live versions of the songs on the record...

    (Load) (1999)
  • Zone 50-minute companion cassette (Load) (1999)
  • Ride the Skies
    Ride the Skies
    Ride the Skies is the second album by noise rock band Lightning Bolt. This album is considered their breakthrough in the noise rock world.Track #2, "Saint Jacques," is named after bassist Dan St...

    (Load) (2001)
  • Wonderful Rainbow
    Wonderful Rainbow
    Wonderful Rainbow is the third album by noise rock band Lightning Bolt. It is considered to be their most accessible album, featuring heavy but catchy bass guitar riffs and frenetic drums....

    (Load) (2003)
  • Hypermagic Mountain
    Hypermagic Mountain
    Hypermagic Mountain is the fourth album by the noise rock band Lightning Bolt. It has a very dense sound composed entirely of distorted bass guitar and loud, pounding drums...

    (Load) (2005)
  • Earthly Delights
    Earthly Delights (album)
    Earthly Delights is the fifth album by the noise rock band Lightning Bolt. It was released on October 13, 2009 by Load Records. The album was leaked to the internet on August 27, 2009.-Track listing:#"Sound Guardians" – 4:52...

    (Load) (2009)

External links

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