LODRO at Shea Stadium
Here are some more photos from my recent black and white experiment. Although I have photographed LODRO recently and hate to keep shooting the same bands over and over, their musical style (and those projections!) are such a good match to black and white photography that I just had to do include them.
Posted: 6/1/2013 at 11:15pm Tags: black and white Bushwick Open Studios LODRO Shea Stadium
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
Royal Baths at The Knitting Factory
The last time I took some photos of these guys it was at Death By Audio, more or less in the dark. What a difference a few LED arrays make, eh? These shots are much better. Dark and moody, well suited to the music, not dark and "that could be a photo of anything so anyway what is it?"
Posted: 3/6/2012 at 7:52pm Tags: Lodro red Royal Baths The Knitting Factory
Royal Baths at Death By Audio
Remember what I said about Death By Audio being too dark? These guys turned off some of the stage lights. Okay granted, the darkness did complement their heavy and hypnotic music. Sure made my job harder though!
Posted: 9/4/2011 at 5:20pm Tags: approaching total darkness Death By Audio Lodro Royal Baths
