Problem: Traditional "rock" groups try to generate excitement at live shows with loud guitars -- but, after 70 years dominating popular music, the guitar era is over and its graying progenitors, fussing about with their boutique amplifiers and eensie pedals, are in aesthetic crisis. Meanwhile, hip-hop production -- disruptive, innovative, incredibly exciting -- has already defined the 21st century, but the genre's reliance on backing tracks means live shows sometimes lack energy and spontaneity.
One solution: Light Beams, a D.C. trio that uses samples and a live rhythm section to write songs about staying positive. No computers. No set lists. No dudes staring at screens onstage making music that reduces you to staring at your screen offstage. Instead -- Voila! -- music that makes you move, makes you feel good and never, ever overstays its welcome.
Founded in 2015 by drummer Sam Lavine, bassist Arthur Noll, and sampler/vocalist Justin Moyer, Light Beams has risen from the ashes of D.C. bands both legendary and obscure -- and definitely too numerous to mention. Self-Help, its first full length out 1/31 on Don Giovanni records, fuses its diverse influences -- abstract expressionist painting, Terminator X, 80s New York freestyle, Dischord bands,
Sheila E. -- into a melange of cross-genre innovention the band calls "BLOCK ROCK." Recorded at Solar Power Station, Moyer's sun-kissed studio in downtown Washington, and mixed (in yet another twist) by metal legends Brian McTernan (Battery) and Mike Schleibaum (Darkest Hour), this record dares offer listeners overstuffed on streaming services' offerings something that cannot be contained by any playlist. That is: something new.
PRE-ORDER LIGHT BEAMS' SELF HELP
TRACK LIST
1. Renegade
2. Sacred Scales
3. Here To Help
4. It's Been a Minute
5. Block Rock
6. Rubberband
7. (I Don't Believe In) Ghosts and Goblins
8. Flash-Bang Grenade
9. Tear It Up
10. Light Beams Theme
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