MP3: Lightouts – “More Than Ever”

The Indie/Fuzz, Brooklyn-Based Band Shares Maxi-Single Debuted by Indie Rock Cafe

06.23.2015

Critical Praise for Lightouts:

Named one of SPIN’s 2012 CMJ “Next Big Things” & 2013 SXSW “Hottest Acts”

“Lightouts …are enthusiastic singles makers, which suits the snappy, punk-fortified jangle-pop that they specialize in.” – Esquire

“…one of the better white guys-with-guitars songs I’ve heard in a while.” – Death and Taxes

“Melding Sonic Youth’s mangled guitars and monotonic vocal sensibilities with a taut and measured rhythm section, these Brooklynites manage to tap into an ever-expanding history of blown-out guitar rock and laconic vocals without feeling like a rehashing of rock’n’roll’s recent past.” – Colin Joyce, SPIN

10/10 star review: “The great thing about Want is how different it sounds from everything and not in a reactionary sort of way… They aren’t trying to sound original or better than the rest of the bands coming out of Brooklyn, they just are. Essentially Want is the kind of album that rock music was invented for.” – Tim Baker, SYFFAL

“Lightouts have the presence and experience to be something HUGE.” – LX-GOODS

The Song:

Brooklyn-based indie/fuzz rockers Lightouts dropped their first release in more than a year with their “More Than Ever” maxi-single, led by pulsating guitar riffs that sit behind Skip McSkipper’s drawn out vocals. The maxi-single debuted on Indie Rock Cafe, who said “‘More Than Ever’ blazes along nicely with menacing guitar riffs, a chugging bass line, monotonic vocals and whip-lashing drum beats. Some will notice the likeness of Bowie, and bands like Television, New Order and Sonic Youth, in the band’s mix of post punk meets goth, which frontman and guitarist, Gavin Rhodes, has sculpted from the get-go, and remained true to over the years.”

“The lyrics of the song were kind of about the mythology of that 1970s, slightly art damaged New York that was starting to crawl towards punk rock, and just how scenes develop around us and you sometimes wonder how that happens without your awareness of it until it really hits the pavement,” Skip explains. Lightouts previously released a cover song of post-punk’s most definitive band, Joy Division, as part of the maxi-single. Lighouts’ cover of Joy Division’s “Interzone” is based on the RCA demo version of the song that showed up on a box-set that the band put out a few years back, which Gavin Rhodes comments on, saying the rare RCA demo is “more raw than the studio version, it sounds like there’s a feral beast howling on the moors of some desolate land.”

“Lighouts are everything I like about bands,” said KEXP‘s John Richards during an interview/studio performance session with the Brooklyn-based rockers. Lightouts’ former vocalist Greg Nelson is no longer with the band, as he was replaced by Skip Greer early last year. In addition to working with the Lighouts, Skip was the founder East Bay pop punk band the Wynona Ryders and is also currently the singer for agit-punk legends the Dead Kennedys.

Listen to “More Than Ever” maxi-single: https://soundcloud.com/lightouts/sets/more-than-ever-maxi-single

Check out the Indie Rock Cafe premiere: http://www.indierockcafe.com/2015/06/dead-kennedys-singer-greer-joins-brooklyn-indie-rock-band-lightouts/

Listen to the commentary: https://soundcloud.com/lightouts/sets/more-than-ever-single-commentary

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/76682615″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]

Please contact Michelle if interested in talking with Lightouts.

Lightouts Background:

Gavin Rhodes isn’t one to flit from one musical style to the next; Bowie the Chameleon he is not. And as enthusiastic as he is about new sounds and collaboration, the Lightouts founder/songwriter/guitarist has a clear idea of how he wants his band to sound from one release to the next — even with a new singer onboard. And even if that new singer, Skip McSkipster, also sings for the Dead Kennedys.

Lightouts’ first release with Skip points strongly toward the band’s future. The A-side, “More Than Ever,” smolders along at a midtempo pace as it pays lyrical tribute to a few of the seedier elements of New York, the band’s hometown; the B-side “All We Had,” meanwhile, nails a newly wistful mood, going so far as to work a nocturnal chorus of crickets into the mix. Rhodes’ aim to continue Lightouts’ stylistic thread is realized via striking cover artwork by photographer Jason Knight (whose work also accompanied the Disappear / My My single), as well as through the inclusion of yet another masterfully curated cover, the driving Joy Division nugget “Interzone.”

Rhodes and Skip are understandably excited about making more music together, with plans already well afoot for a second Lightouts LP. Skip puts a fine point on how the pair works best: “I tend to offer more abstract ideas, but Gavin stays very focused and concentrates on exactly what a song needs. I think ‘More Than Ever’ is a good example of the sort of modern-rock progressiveness I hear us creating.”