Lightning Bolt: the official album thread

[LetMeSleep]

[harmless]

Within the limits of what this song is (and those limits are... limited), Matt drums this with some enthusiasm. The rhythm isn't greatly inspired, but I can think of songs we all love whose rhythms are fairly standard and boring. It's not a deal-breaker.

He's pretty much doing the same thing he did in Got Some, fills and all. It's pretty uncreative from a pretty creative drummer.

He's not a pretty creative drummer. At all. Soundgarden writes creatively structured songs which require him to keep up. So he does. But he always performs nothing more than what a song requires, even with Soundgarden. He's really not an imaginative drummer. What you need, with a band like PJ -- a band with a lot of open chords and jam sessions and lack of structure -- is a drummer who knows how to fill that space with interest. That's not Matt. The reason he sounds better with Soundgarden is that they don't give him that space. Their songs, structurally, are like well-oiled machines, more or less.

I don't think that's very fair to him. He's great at making those strange time signatures in Soundgarden flow well. The drums in Head Down are just luscious.

I said he was good in Soundgarden, so I'm not sure how that disproves my point.

Matt fills that space in PJ quite well, or has in the past. The little ride bell hits and tom roll that flow with the riff in Unemployable, the off-beat toms in Ghost, the snare shuffle he does for the whole song in Can't Keep, the way he helps create that off-kilter flow in Love Boat Captain, the way he tries to emulate the guitar ever so slightly with the toms in Insignificance in the verses. I could think of so many of these. He's doing things, he's not just playing a straight beat that any ol' drummer could do. But at the same time it only adds to the song, it doesn't detract or take focus off what's important. It's there for added flavour and nothing else. I happen to find these little added herbs and spices delicious. I don't think just any drummer could be as tasty as he can be with these simpler songs.

Interestingly most of what you'll think of will be on Binaural or Riot Act. I agree, Matt was great on those albums. I think he's also OK on Unemployable.

Hey, we're talking about a professional drummer, so obviously I'm not calling him bad. I'm calling him frequently disappointing and saying he frequently has ideas and makes decisions that I don't like, and I wouldn't make myself.

[harmless]

that's true. I didn't mean to imply otherwise. But it seems (to a non-drummer/musician so this could be totally wrong--sounds like it is) that there is less space for him to play around with in the context of a song like MYM or Lightning.

What's an example of a similar song where you really like his work?

Yeah, to be fair to him I don't think there's anything he can do with MYM, it's too fast to add anything else. But his approach to Lightning sounds the same as Got Some, he literally even does the same fill as he does in Got Some live.

I don't know, I can't think of a song similar to this one except Unthought Known, and I wouldn't use that as an example of a song where I "really like his work".

But he uses the same fills all the time, in everything!

True. He has gotten pretty lazy with his fills live for a few years now. But he used to do different fills every night and they were fantastic.

Bear in mind I don't listen to boots or see them much live: the last time I was glad Matt was in the band was on the TB2000 and Live in the Garden dvds. He was good for those songs.

[LetMeSleep]

I concur. But the other drummers had their limitations too.

I await the studio versions to see if he's playing for the song or not. There's little room on those two tracks (as one of you said).

[harmless]

Yeah, I wasn't a massive fan of Jack for other reasons ('In My Tree' might be his masterpiece). And I understand people's criticisms of Dave A even though he's my favourite.

[LetMeSleep]

Yeah, I wasn't a massive fan of Jack for other reasons ('In My Tree' might be his masterpiece). And I understand people's criticisms of Dave A even though he's my favourite.

Shit me but another agreement.

[harmless]

I could see a world in which Lightning Bolt was a good song. We'll see. I don't mind uplifting if the song isn't marred by terrible lyrics.

[injuddstree]

Anyone have a title/further info on the slowburner track they soundchecked in London? The Tremor Christ/Zeppeliny one.

Now THAT has promise.

These two new ones are OK. I guess.

[Coach]

Wow. Just woke up to all of this new music. What's the scoop?

[harmless]

Wow. Just woke up to all of this new music. What's the spoonful?

Fixed. It's not a whole scoop unfortunately.

[Coach]

The Chicago tribune review took a dig at lightning bolt.

[harmless]

The Chicago tribune review took a dig at lightning bolt.

Link?

[Coach]

http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/- ... -76732886/

[harmless]

http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-76732886/

This review also calls Even Flow 'pedestrian' and Bugs 'perverse', so I wouldn't worry about that. I was expecting it go full on insulting towards it.

[EJ]

That review didn't seem negative at all.

That being said, I haven't heard either of the new songs and will wait. But, based on most of the comments, my expectations for the album have now receded again. Some of the comments are really funny, by the way.

[harmless]

That review didn't seem negative at all.

That being said, I haven't heard either of the new songs and will wait. But, based on most of the comments, my expectations for the album have now receded again. Some of the comments are really funny, by the way.

You are the shoreline.

[EJ]

That review didn't seem negative at all.

That being said, I haven't heard either of the new songs and will wait. But, based on most of the comments, my expectations for the album have now receded again. Some of the comments are really funny, by the way.

You are the shoreline.

damnit, I set myself up for that.

[harmless]

That review didn't seem negative at all.

That being said, I haven't heard either of the new songs and will wait. But, based on most of the comments, my expectations for the album have now receded again. Some of the comments are really funny, by the way.

You are the shoreline.

damnit, I set myself up for that.

[Strat]

They should just release the album while people are still interested....

[harmless]

They should just release the album while people are still interested....

Absolutely.