White Light Motorcade

New York City’s White Light Motorcade is modern rock revival, unabashedly loud and electic, mindful of their roots but grounded in the present. Like the band’s influences both old school (The Stooges, MC5) and new (Oasis, Supergrass, Muse), they transcend the high volume intensity with keen melodies and well-crafted songs. But if this is pop, it isn’t pretty. The songs are often brash and in your face, while still retaining an instinct for dynamics and well-timed moments of Brit-edged (a la Stone Roses) machinations. White Light Motorcade’s debut record was produced by Brad Jones (Cotton Mather, Imperial Drag, Jill Sobule, House of Large Sizes), who saw them by chance at a New York showcase and attached himself to the project immediately. Asked what sold him on the group, Jones explains: "Brilliant melodies, great guitar playing, bass and drum playing of rock’n’roll animals… and just the right amount of chaos to keep it dangerous." With conviction and chemistry, White Light Motorcade literally explodes on stage and on record, testing the waters of something beyond "appropriate" volume, reveling in a wide array of four-on-the-floor angst and aggressive, amp-heavy crunch. Between singer Harley Dinardo’s back-street, proto-punk snarl, the emphatic bite of guitarist Mark Lewis, and the airtight bombast of drummer Stu Richards and bassist Tommy USA, WLM still sounds as though they are avoiding easily placed musical labels. "Too many bands today are worried about carving such a small niche while sounding like everyone else," says Dinardo. "What happened to variety? Zeppelin had that. We want that, too. A great song is a great song, period." Variety, coupled with what Jones terms the bands "low tolerance for bulls—t," certainly contributes to the strength of White Light Motorcade’s debut. Recorded in Nashville (a town Dinardo refers to as "haunted" with musicians come and gone) and mixed in New York by Chris Shaw (Weezer, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Super Furry Animals,), each track distinctly stands on its own legs. From the menacing chords of "Open Your Eyes," to the raw immediacy of "It’s Happening," to the downshift and swagger of "All Gone Again," the nimble flow of the record is refreshing amidst the grinding guitars of Lewis and Dinardo. In fact, for a rather loaded and intense musical experience, the record is full of Dinardo’s subversively catchy hooks in songs like "My Way" and "Dream day." wlms newest acheivement "take me to your party", is even more focused than the first record, and was recorded and produced wlm and mark lewis. the song writing is stronger than ever, and will stay in your ipod for the rest of it's life, and in your player permanently.