Lightning Bolt – “Spaceman”
Last week, we learned that Brian Chippendale, the amazing and terrifying human-octopus drummer for the long-running Providence noise-rock duo Lightning Bolt, had a new band. He’s joined forces with Ty Segall to form a duo called Wasted Shirt, and their debut album is coming out next mont. But Chippendale is still wrecking faces with Lightning Bolt. And today, his main band has a new song out in the world.
Lightning Bolt, who released the new album Sonic Citadel last fall, have just dropped the new banger “Spaceman” as part of the Adult Swim Singles series. It’s a bit more direct than a lot of Lightning Bolt songs. Where the duo can often get complicated and twisty with its changes and time signatures, this one is just a straight-up rager.
You’d never know it just from listening, but the “Spaceman” lyrics apparently have something to do with immigration. In a press release, Chippendale says that the song started with an anecdote about fellow Providence noise band Landed:
They were on tour and swung into some small bar in the middle of nowhere. When the singer Dan St. Jacques sat down at the bar, he jostled some big dude already seated there. The guy, aggravated, says “Hey, watch out, man. I’m a local.” And Dan, unfazed, looks him in the eye and says “Wow, you know what? Where I’m from, I’m a local too!”
Check it out below:
Sonic Citadel is out now on Thrill Jockey. Wasted Shirt’s Fungus II is out 2/28 on Famous Class Records.