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Red Lightning, L.A. Crash Landing
Even though they're not on a record label yet, Alain Whyte & Co.'s outfit, Red Lightning, have made a cd of their tracks
available. This review originally appeared in issue 4 of the Alain Whyte fanzine No one Can Hold A Candle to You, and is of
the cd sold at their recent gigs. However, the cd can now be bought from cdbaby.com, and it has extra cd-rom content. And
it's selling so fast that cdbaby keep running out of stock!
Even though they're not on a record label yet, Alain Whyte & Co.'s outfit, Red Lightning, have made a cd of their tracks
available. This review originally appeared in issue 4 of the Alain Whyte fanzine No one Can Hold A Candle to You, and is of
the cd sold at their recent gigs. However, the cd can now be bought from cdbaby.com, and it has extra cd-rom content. And
it's selling so fast that cdbaby keep running out of stock! Edit Text
With there being no Red Lightning gigs anywhere other than the west bit of the USA, impoverished Britishers like myself
have only heard the band through concert bootlegs and mp3s on their website and myspace. So, finally hearing a cd of Red Lightning
is rather a treat. Even though we shouldn't have, as they were only for sale at... ahem... the recent gigs in the USA.
Red Lightning aren't signed yet, so the cd is self-released. A lot of bands do this these days (even my own), as it's
fairly simple to do and a good way to inflict your wares on the masses. And let's face it, it's fun, and in fact much closer
to the original punk DIY aesthetic than all those terrible bands with massive record deals and a fanbase of brainwashed prepubescent
teenyboppers who still have My Little Pony wallpaper in their bedrooms, who claim to be punk because they have 'wacky' hairdos.
Well, never mind the ranting, here's the review.
'Something Out of Nothing' is a fantastic song to kick off the cd with. It's as catchy as a cold, but far more welcome.
Almost a bit - dare I say it? - Britpoppy, with solid guitars that beat you round the head then drag you down the High Street.
And you won't even want to complain. You can tell Alain's been hanging about Morrissey as the lyrics mention 'barrowboys'
and 'supermarket mums'. Either that or he's stalking Brett Anderson.
A Brit tries to find his feet in an alien city in 'LA Crash Landing'. Disorientated, and maybe in a Withnail & I manner
("we came on holiday - by accident"), Alain realises that "it's not important to be a star". In a city
of wannabees where, to quote Mr Hal David, 'all the stars that never were are parking cars and pumping gas', Alain sees through
the bluster and groundless ambition in exactly the way you'd expect such a down-to-earth chap to. It makes it apt as the title
track.
'I Miss You' is the first song on the album which makes you think "uh-oh, break up album". I began to perspire
with fear - oh god, not another 'this is a song about my ex-girlfriend' moment. Let me tell you a little story. I once went
to a terrible student gig where some bloke was on stage with a wildly expensive keyboard and bored us into comas with dreadful
plinky-plonky songs which he did indeed, cringeworthily enough, introduce with the mantra 'this is a song about my ex-girlfriend.'
Could the gig get worse? It did, in the shape of a painfully irritating girl with an acoustic guitar, who did a song about
tofu, and then said she's "vegetarian but eats fish." She came close to eating my fist as well. Depressingly enough,
and in a manner designed to make me stamp my feet at the cruel gods, she has a record deal. I nearly committed a violent act.
Now, the reason for that digression is to tell you that something which had me on the verge of trying to scale the garden
fence to escape, thanks to my cynical pre-conceptions, is actually RATHER GOOD. 'The Failed Relationship' is a recurring theme
on this album, but whereas it could've got biliously trite and repetitive, it doesn't. Alain is such a fabulous songwriter
that all memories of the terrible gig evaporated, like rain on rooftiles in the sun. The song opens rather like 'Every Day
Is Like Sunday', almost cheekily referring to it. But what happens with this familiar sound is that it gives the song it's
emotive atmosphere - it's gloomy, it's angry. The bass takes up this challenge by deciding to sound a bit Radiohead. One of
Al's lyrical tricks is to balance lines out with opposites, rather like Oscar Wilde does. Where The Wilde One wrote "only
dull people are bright before breakfast", Al sings "this feeling can make a rich man a beggar." He then rhymes
it with "stormy weather" which made me happy as it seems to refer to the marvellousness that is "Stormy Weather"
(I don't know why / there's no sun up in the sky / stormy weather...). As sung by Billie Holiday, it's a song which shows
that 'break up songs' needn't make you cringe. Everyone's lost someone, and Mr Whyte is splendid at capturing the rage and
sadness which results.
L.A. Crash Landing cover
Even though 'Black Dog Day' is about depression - the title seems to unashamedly gyrate the issue inches from the end
of your nose - it's far from a depressing song (any idea you may have had that Red Lightning might 'sound a bit like Radiohead'
from what I said earlier should now flee your mind). In fact, it pops and jigs along quite merrily, like a spinster on a bicycle
riding over potholes and beaming with joy. And ladies and gentleblokes, this is clearly because Alain has wrestled with the
Black Dog of depression and brought it to heel. Then gave it a squeaky chew-toy.
'Were You Ever in My Life' is another break-up song - 'the fire's embers have gone out' - but an acoustic number. Evidently
Al's flexing his muscles and showing off, as the 'rockist' sound of You Are The Quarry took no prisoners and wouldn't have
been a good home for this tender number. Dear ol' Al. He regrets a relationship which he knew was doomed to start with, but
with gentle, smiling, self-deprecation. Morrissey would be jealous of the lyric 'in my dream I held a rose / but you turned
up your nose.' The song seems to encapsulate that moment when you wake from a dream about a past mistake and groan "oh
god, why was I so stupid?" into your pillow.
Sometimes the lyrics don't always work that well. I suppose it's inevitable to compare them with Morrissey, which is unfair
as Alain is a musician first, and Morrissey is one of the greatest lyricists to have ever drawn breath. Occasionally, Al seems
to be under the influence of the 'moon in June' syndrome (though that is not at all to suggest in any way that he writes like
Noel Gallagher - far, far from it). But even when he does, Al gets away with it. As most people have only heard him sing backing
vocals before (unless they knew about The Motivators), Al's voice is a lovely surprise. He sings with such sweet, unswerving
sincerity that his lyrics work.
In all, it's a gem. Al's gone out on a limb and done what he's wanted to do for a long time - his own thing. 'Crushed'
is a fantastic song too, and 'Sign Up' is brave and enraged, almost Clash-like, at a stupid war. Al's bandmates, John DiMambro
and Milo Todesco, seem to be entirely (excuse the inexcusable puns) in tune and in harmony with Alain's creative intention,
so it's great to know that his sabbatical resulted in this. So easily, Alain could've spent his time loafing in a deckchair
with Guitar Monthly. Luckily for us, he didn't. And should Red Lightning tour in Britain, I'll be in the front row.
Reviewed by Helen
pretty petty thieves
http://prettypettythieves.com/
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