LODRO at The Knitting Factory

Back when they were Royal Baths one of the members of LODRO told me the band preferred the stage to be nice and dark. Somewhere along the line they must have decided that they preferred their music to be nice and dark as well. That plus a partial lineup change and now we have LODRO, a band whose name I can never spell correctly. I keep wanting to type "LORDO", though the all-caps spelling makes me think of "MORBO" too.

LORDO have labeled themselves neo-noir punk. The first half of that label is indisputable. Their music has a strong flavor of Western noir, of inspiration from the chords and distortions and underlying sense of menace of Morricone's soundtracks. I assume that is why their electric guitar sounds like a slide guitar so often. On the other hand the sheer edginess of their sound, the incorporation of more modern psych elements like dissonant guitar solos, and song titles like "Big Sleep for Alice" suggest a more urban noir flavor. The singing is cool and in control like a classic anti-hero. The instruments tell a more sinister story, with guitar twangs which pierce like bullets and drumbeats like cars colliding, the sounds of a threatening world. It's a compelling contrast.

I'm not so sure that LODRO are "punk". Their music is aggressive in a sense but that alone doesn't make it punk. They certainly aren't sloppy or political or anti-anything. So what's with the "punk" label? I get the feeling that they're trying to avoid the "psych-rock" label. Yes, that is the same label applied to 13-minute heavy drones with four lines of lyrics and similar bores of that nature. Trust me, noone is going to confuse LODRO's vicious sonic attack with a snoozer like that. Plus their songs are relatively short and I can prove it... their SoundCloud site is here.

Posted: 4/21/2013 at 3:19pm     Tags: LODRO  The Knitting Factory