The 'Gum Drop CVIII: Hear New Lightning Bolt, Win An Eels Box Set & Poster
Lightning Bolt's fifth album Garden Of Earthly Delights (Load, 10/13) opens like a riot with "Sound Guardians." It's the perfect place to get acquainted with the collection, so we asked drummer Brian Chippendale about it. You've heard "Colossus," now hear Chippendale talk about how he and Brian Gibson arrive at song titles (hint: Soundgarden and the Boredoms are involved), why they put "Sound Guardians" first, and whether or not their new Garden was inspired by the 15th/16th-century Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch. We didn't have enough room for his ruminations in the 'Gum Drop, but you can read it all here, while you give your eardrums a workout.
STEREOGUM: How'd you come up with the title? Are you the guardians of sound?
BRIAN CHIPPENDALE: Ha. We are ... not ... the guardians of sound. If anything we only have a dialogue with a limited palette of sounds. Honestly, the song when we first wrote it sounded like a Soundgarden song. We tend to have working titles based on the song's sound that morph into the actual title. "Nation Of Boar," the Boredoms sounding song? Am I giving way too much away here?
STEREOGUM: How'd you decide to make it Earthly Delights's opener?
BC: It is the opener because of its own opening sound. We both agreed that the introductory sort of sonic-wah over the steady tom beat was one of the coolest moments on the album, so we stuck it right in the beginning.
STEREOGUM: Are you referencing Hieronymus Bosch with the album name/cover art?
BC: It's a slight reference. But I would hesitate to say it's fully a reference especially because the art isn't really remotely related. But I did sneak one character, an abstract one the Bosch painting into the inner art of the album. You can have a where's Waldo moment with it when the record comes out Though, it could be a reference in that Garden Of Earthly Delights is one of the best paintings ever -- so not a bad crutch to prop yourself up on, related or not.
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This week we also offered up an autographed, limited-edition Eels vinyl box set and an E poster. Actually, we have two copies of each for two winners. The collection's valued at $205. It's limited to 2,500 copies:
The deluxe Blinking Lights package includes 3 LPs of the critically acclaimed album on vinyl for the first time with a fourth disc that is an exclusive 17 track live album, Manchester 2005, recorded shortly after the release of Blinking Lights. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl, the 4 LPs each have their own covers, rice paper dust sleeves, and are accompanied by a hardback book of lyrics and photos, all housed in a beautifully crafted box that is numbered and begrudgingly signed by the author himself, EELS leader E. The edition is limited to only 2,500 copies and will be sold in order of lowest cover numbers first, 0001 - 2500. And this is not a fake signature like the ones often found on eBay.
To prove the point, here's E signing one of the sets:
This is what it looks like:
Each winner also gets a copy of a poster featuring E and his dog Bobby, Jr. (who you might remember from the "That Look You Give That Guy" video). It's 22" x 28" and you'll have this to look at:
Enter to win. There's also still a some time left to nab a custom Pearl Jam guitar.
CONTEST ENDS 10/14/09 AT 12PM EST.
Posted at 11:50 AM in Giveaway, MP3
Tags: Eels | Lightning Bolt
just to elaborate a little on the LB title stuff since i demystified it all a bit too much, Nation of Boar at its origin was a Boredoms reference(the presence of one long drawn out epic riff sounded Boredomsy to us) but the song and its meaning grew from there. It picked up some sort of southern Rockies vibe to me. The long distance stare, the lost buffalo, with a touch of microwavable dinner in front of the TV(a trait which has no geographic limit).
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