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It’s Time to Lawyer Up With Protovulcan’s “Noise Lawyer”

The fields of psychedelic rock are filled with all sorts of strange flowers. Just recently, we spoke about how we’re witnessing an especially vibrant and potent flowering this year,

5 years ago

The fields of psychedelic rock are filled with all sorts of strange flowers. Just recently, we spoke about how we’re witnessing an especially vibrant and potent flowering this year, with all sorts of takes on stoner, doom, and psychedelic rock popping up all around us. Gladly, this trend doesn’t show signs of letting up; Protovulcan, a thoroughly psychedelic band from Chicago, are gearing up for a new album titled Life is Twigs, recorded by none other than Steve Albini himself. We managed to get our hands on a single from the album, “Noise Lawyer”, and accompanying video and boy is it something. Punchy drums, fuzzy guitars, and heavily processed vocals all blend together with the trippy aesthetics of the video to send any of us wheeling on a musical all of our own. Head on down below to stream it!

God, don’t those tones just make you want to get up and dance? Naturally, your ears might first drift to the novelty of the vocals but it’s the insatiable groove section, like an even thicker take on Netherlands is what keeps this beast of a track pushing forward. I love how the kick drum cuts through the whole thing, even when the bass is going ham alongside it. The end result is a track which just keeps pumping, delivering riff after riff of solid, effective music. Finally, we can pay those trippy vocals more attention, their sci-fi sheen more than a gimmick but rather an integral part of the psychedelic sound that Protovulcan are going for here.

By the by, it turns out Albini himself was the source for this track’s name:

“When we were recording with Steve Albini, he was telling the story of this lawyer, who had gobs of money to spend, loved showing off his expensive and rare guitars, and would always say, “Hey – let’s jam!” But, he could only play mediocre blues riffs. Deric started joking later on about a Noise Lawyer – a guy who spent gobs of money on crappy noise toys like Speak and Spells and Synsonic Drums sorts of noise toys, and who jammed experimental noise.”

If all of this coalesces into pleasing shapes for you, as it does for me, Life is Twigs releases on May 31st via Midwest Action. You can head on over to their shop to pre-order it. Stay spaced out!

Eden Kupermintz

Published 5 years ago