LIGHTNING DUST is Amber Webber and Joshua Wells, who have been playing together for many years as part of BLACK MOUNTAIN. They've toured the world and have played impenetrable space-rock to the unlikeliest of audiences. With an abundance of creative energy to spare, the two decided to start a separate project together.
Committing themselves to a more simplistic approach with Lightning Dust, Webber and Wells also decided to escape the comforts of their familiar instruments and writing styles. On their debut, minimal and spacious arrangements and a moody, theatrical vocal-style aptly expose the demons, creating songs that creep into your bones with a haunting chill.
Lightning Dust - "Listened On"
Lightning Dust at Myspace
Featured Artist: Nurses
In an era when every band seems to spend more time designing merchandise and adding friends to their MySpace page than making art, Nurses have thankfully been losing touch with reality. As one listen to the CD can attest, their lack of convention results in an “instinctual” or dare say, “artistic” approach: “The songs we wrote weren't a reaction to anything, it was just the most natural thing we could do.”
Blossoming in the same arid California deserts that produced Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa decades earlier, Nurses join hands with bands such as Brainiac, Q and Not U, and Frog Eyes on the brave walk down the ultimate road least traveled: artistic integrity. All this despite being oblivious to all the aforementioned bands. “We've been compared to a lot of bands we've never listened to. It's flattering, but we never made an effort to break any rules. We just wanted to write the best songs we could.” [READ MORE]
Nurses - "Alone at Last"
Nurses - "Hungry Mouth"
Nurses at Myspace
Featured Artist: The Sharp Things
The Sharp Things' third album features performances by The New York Symphonic Arts Ensemble. The 40-piece orchestra, conducted by Sybille Werner, was recorded last November at the Julia Richman Education Complex in Manhattan. Other performers include Tony Award-winning actor and musician Michael Cerveris; Franz Nicolay, keyboardist for The Hold Steady; and tenor saxophonist Stuart Bogie of Antibalas.
Returning to the homemade approach of our first album, A Moveable Feast was recorded in various kitchens, living rooms and basements around New York City by producer Bill "Prince Polo" Szeflinski. The album was mixed during the first week of March by Alex Lipsen at Headgear Recording in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. At the urging of Bar/None owner Glenn Morrow, an additional song, "Cruel Thing," was recorded in late April at Truth & Soul, also in Williamsburg, by Clay Wells Holley.
A Moveable Feast is scheduled for release June 26, 2007 on Bar/None Records.
The Sharp Things - "An Ocean Part Deux"
The Sharp Things website
Bonus music:
Mooney Suzuki - "99%"
The View - "Face for the Radio"