In was a mere three years ago that Call Me Lightning’s debut, The Trouble We’re In, was unleashed on an unsuspecting, and ultimately unaware populace by “hardcore” (i.e. metal) label Revelation Records. A rollicking minimalist post-punk tilt-a-whirl of shimmery Chicago-style guitars (think Shellac minus Albini’s metal guitar picks) and a rhythm section tighter than the Donnas circa their first record (you know, when they were underage? Get it? Ha! God, i’m sorry), Trouble was a sure-fire indie-rock phenomenon waiting to be discovered. Two problems though: 1) The recording didn’t quite capture the arena-rock bombast of the band’s live sound (particularly Shane Hochstetler’s thunderous drums–the not-so-secret weapon of the band), and 2) It’s quite possible that Revelation wasn’t sure what to do with the record in the first place.
What’s strange about the era of downloading and filesharing is that, for good and bad, record labels still mean something. A fan of Touch & Go Records, for example, can be assured of a certain aesthetic and level of quality when the label’s logo is emblazoned on a release (as long as they stay away from the !!! albums). On the flip, it means that if you’re on a label known for one thing (screamy metalcore) and are very much not that thing (thank god), you tend to get overlooked.
Flash forward to today, which sees the release of CML’s latest disc, Soft Skeletons, on the infinitely more appropriate French Kiss Records. This time, the band tracked at Electrical Audio and Hochstetler’s home studio, and the trademark EA Huge-Ass Drum SoundTM is in effect immediately in the opening seconds of leadoff track ”Meet the Skeletons.” As a result, the record sounds bigger, bolder, and overall more badass than the last. The single “Billion Eyes,” as well as the title track, boast moments of epic grandeur that call to mind the band from which CML swiped their name. To sound this huge with three people and minimal guitar effects or layering is just, well, fucking rad.
A lot of talk is being made about guitarist/vocalist Nathan Lilley’s evolution from “shouter” to “singer” on this record, but really, the change is slight. There’s still plenty of bark in that voice. Instead, what demands attention are the same key elements that made their first album a winner:
1) Lilley’s lyrics, which are chock-full of “we ares” and “i ams” and other gratuitous sloganeering. In “Billion Eyes,” Lilley declares “we are, we are the shattered truth/the broken pieces,” and if you don’t find yourself compelled to sing along, well, then Gene Simmons was wrong when he said that people identify more with lyrics in the first person (which is why he wrote “I wanna rock and roll all night” instead of “you wanna rock and roll all night”), and we all know that Gene Simmons is never wrong. It’s more likely that you have no soul.
2) That tight-assed (*smirk*) rhythm section. Listen closely to any song off Soft Skeletons, and you’ll notice that the bass and kick drum are perfectly in sync–neither makes a sound if the other isn’t. It’s a dedication to minimalist precision you often won’t find outside a Shellac album.
If there is a criticism to be leveled here, it’s that the record starts to run out of gas just a little by the end. The verse-chorus-verse-bombast-chorus formula starts to wear a bit on tracks like “Shook House Shakedown,” and in the moments where the band scales back the huge (”Beaming Streaks”), the songs get stuck in second gear. Still, it’s a minor quibble on an overall winner of a disc.
Milwaukee tends to be overlooked on occasion in favor of that slightly larger metropilitan area to the south with the shitty football team, but Call Me Lightning have taken the Windy City’s formula of serrated guitar riffage and minimalist, pounding rhythms and honed it into a fist-pumping exercise in anthemic indie rock that manages to be dissonant and, dare i say, accessible at the same time. And they’re doing it better than a lot of today’s Chicago bands that are striving for the same sound. They’ve found a label that won’t overlook them this time; let’s hope geography doesn’t keep them hidden for long either. I doubt it will.
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Nice review. CML is new to me, but I feel compelled to check them out in Chicago on March 10th at Subterranean. Why don’t you come down from Milwaukee for the show so we can discuss the things Chicago has that Milwaukee doesn’t. Like professional football, for example. See you there?
I changed it to “metal.” I figure if you’re picking that out, real Albini-groupies will castrate me for screwing that up.
I would have nitpicked on your LJ but I can’t as you got rid of comments
[nelson]Ha-ha![/nelson]
It\’s a Saturday, so i just might make the trip, Borch.
And by the way…i\’m originally from the Appleton/Green Bay area, so pointing out Milwaukee\’s lack of a football team when i grew up deep in Packer country does NOTHING! MUHAHAHA!
well I think you messed that up because Albini also plays a Travis Bean guitar which is basically all aluminum (its painted to look like wood) so its an easy mistake…
also this is why he uses that weird guitar strap, those things are really heavy…
I do like this album a lot. However, I don’t feel that it flows like their first one does. Maybe I need to let it grow on me a bit (I heard many roughs while they were recording it, but just got my own copy on Saturday), because sometimes it hits me like “a collection of individual-yet-similar songs” moreso than “a cohesive album with peaks and valleys.” I guess we agree on that.
Also, Shane told me that when they recorded the first album, he brought in “Back in Black” and told them to make his drums sound like that. I personally don’t get it, but he was waaaay stoked on it. This new album has 100% redeemed whatever tangent thought of his that was, but in all honesty, he’s the only drummer I know personally who could produce mindblowingly above-adequate sounds if you just recorded his kit with two mics in a live-sounding room. With that said, you should seriously look into recording with him at his home studio sometime.
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Comment by yaledelay — February 22, 2007 @ 11:16 am
I would have nitpicked on your LJ but I can’t as you got rid of comments… but I am pretty sure Albinis picks are not aluminum… as strings are nickel plated steal, and aluminum is a very soft metal where as nickel is a very hard metal, which would mean the picks would breakdown quickly…