Lightning Bolt

Lightning Bolt
Album: Earthly Delights
Sound Guardians

Lightning Bolt belongs to a long line of rock revolutionaries, but it can be difficult to persuade someone with a strong preconception of what rock music really is of the band's intrinsic merit.  This is the popular music correlate of that old saw: "I don't know art, but I know what I like!"  So how do we approach a band like this?

Throughout history artists on the vanguard of their genres tend to be marginalized.  As time goes on their contributions are recognized and they become part of the popular lexicon.  Typically, at least in music, this is because our ears need to become accustomed to new ways of combining sounds.  This is most evident in the aesthetic sea change at the turn of the 20th century as manifest in the artistic movements, Primitivism and Abstract Expressionism.  The greatest Primitivist composition is Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps.  At its premiere Stravinsky was reviled and a riot ensued amongst his supporters and detractors.  No joke.  It is one of the defining moments in classical music.  At the time his detractors claimed that Le Sacre was "only noise."  Only later was this sort of primitivism assimilated into the popular musical lexicon, and subsequently Stravisnky has claimed his place as perhaps the most important classical musician in modern music.  Similarly the members of the Second Viennese School -- Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern -- the greatest early examples of musical Abstract Expressionism, were marginalized and dismissed at the height of their creative powers.  They too have since been become part of the canon and their genius celebrated.  Primitivism and Abstract Expressionism have become commonplace in the classical genre and are at the heart of much creativity in music today.

This sort of narrative arc holds true not only in the field of music but also in the visual arts, literature, dance, architecture, design, and so on.  Critics were openly hostile to Finnegans Wake after its publication.  The Bauhaus movement generated significant controversy despite its inherently practical approach to design.  Nijinsky and the Ballet Russe courted public disdain with their at times overtly sexual approach to dance.  For generations of critics, "modernism" was used as an epithet of sorts.  Nevertheless, despite the disdain, the controversy, and the hostility, the artists themselves overcame their detractors and became pivotal figures in their respective fields.

Historically, music has been a follower in terms of artistic evolution.  By the time Stravinsky shocked the world of music with Le Sacre, the primitivist impulse had already taken hold in painting and sculpture, seen very much in evidence in the work of Gaugin and Matisse.  So, it's not surprising that music today lags somewhat behind current aesthetic impulse.  And it's important to note that "rock" music in particular is only in its formative stages.  60 years is a mere blip in the grand scheme of things.  What we see in popular music now, therefore, is only the very first tentative steps in terms of artistic venture.  At various stages on the way, rock artists have changed the way we hear popular music: from Buddy Holly to Bob Dylan to Velvet Underground to Joy Division and so on.  But there has yet to be a popular corollary to Abstract Expressionism and Primitivism in music.  In my opinion, Lightning Bolt is the popular music embodiment of these important aesthetic movements.  Lightning Bolt is not yet fully appreciated, but in time its unique aesthetic sensibility will be incorporated into the popular lexicon and its important artistic contributions recognized.  I hear in the rhythmic complexity, brutal forms of aural assault, and extended vocal techniques a burgeoning art form.

Or, you can just call it kick-ass avant-garde rock.  Either works.