Able was I, ere I saw Elba ROCK THE FUCK OUT!!!
July 15, 2014 9:29 AM   Subscribe

'Some bands are ambitious. And then there’s Lazer/Wulf. The concept behind the prog-metal trio’s new album, The Beast Of Left And Right, is more than ambitious; it’s kind of insane. Guitarist Bryan Aiken, bassist Sean Peiffer, and drummer Brad Rice have constructed an entire, full-length work of technical yet melodic metal that forms a palindrome.' They've also attracted attention for having a very famous and unlikely fan.

Before playing at South by Southwest, Lazer/Wulf were unsigned, and relegated to playing at a 1am time slot in front of five audience members. That is, until Lady Gaga showed up.


Official Website.

Some live footage.
posted by MisantropicPainforest (26 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
Lazer/Wulf.

I have been making that joke for decades. No one has liked it.

Finally, someone else sees it my way. (Did Isaac Bashevis Singer intend this layer of meaning? Who can say. But that it is there cannot be denied!)
posted by grobstein at 9:48 AM on July 15, 2014 [4 favorites]


Came for the Fiddler joke, was not disappointed.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:49 AM on July 15, 2014 [3 favorites]


This is refreshingly good. Seriously thank you for posting this.

Also really!? People are actually saying that Lady Gaga is an unlikely fan? How strange. Her being a fan of this doesn't surprise me in the least. Consider:

1. Her stage name is a reference to QUEEN
2. She is a musician and (perhaps more importantly) a composer*

*I can only assume that people who are suprised by this don't know very much about what it means to be a musician/composer, which Lady Gaga decidedly is. She is not only a performer on a stage. She's intimately involved with composition of her music (often has first writing credit on her songs) and she is classically trained. In my experience (as someone who is also intimately involved with the composition of music), folks who spend a lot of time "in the weeds" with music tend to have wildly egalitarian taste in music. Because it turns out that when you gain a deep understanding of how music is made there is barely any genre or style of music that you can't enjoy. And Lazer/Wulf happens to be quite, quite good.

Also also I too have contemplated starting a band called Lazerwulf, inspired by an early viewing of Fiddler on the Roof
posted by Doleful Creature at 9:49 AM on July 15, 2014 [3 favorites]


I saved time by just listening to the first and last tracks
posted by thelonius at 9:57 AM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]


Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas!
posted by Atom Eyes at 10:10 AM on July 15, 2014 [19 favorites]


Bach did it.
posted by ryoshu at 10:23 AM on July 15, 2014 [3 favorites]


I think "unlikely" is used in the sense of "it's unlikely for any obscure band to suddenly get what amounts to a celebrity endorsement", but, yeah: anything highly creative is equally likely to attract la Gaga's attention.

And that helps point out to me something that (IMO) differentiates LG from other bizarre self-promoters, like Salvador Dali: she's openly, actively supportive of other big and small artists, with a "rising waters raise all boats" kind of attitude.

At least, I get that vibe.
posted by IAmBroom at 10:29 AM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]


Lazer/Wulf has this picture of the band, framed, at their merch table. Sadly it was not for sale.
posted by outlaw of averages at 10:46 AM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]


I saved time by just listening to the first and last tracks

Don't you mean you only listened to the first half of the album?
posted by kmz at 11:04 AM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]


Blotted Science wrote and performed an actual musical palindrome with their album closers Adenosine Breakdown and Adenosine Buildup, which I find much more compelling.

But this is pretty great! I'll have to give this a couple listens, to see how I feel about it long-term.
posted by NoahTheDuke at 11:15 AM on July 15, 2014


I'm really digging these guys. Good find. I forgot how much I like tech metal.
posted by quiet earth at 12:47 PM on July 15, 2014


The lutenist Jozef van Wissem has several palindromic compositions.
posted by kenko at 2:11 PM on July 15, 2014


From the title I thought Idris Elba was the "unlikely fan". Have to admit I'm pretty disappointed.
posted by turbid dahlia at 2:48 PM on July 15, 2014 [3 favorites]


Surprised we've gotten this far without anyone linking to Bob.
posted by JHarris at 2:56 PM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]


Good catch. Any other prog-metal bands you like?
posted by ersatz at 5:35 PM on July 15, 2014


Wow, this is a new favorite band for me. Thank you for posting this.
posted by jbickers at 6:10 PM on July 15, 2014


A man, a plan, a canal: Suez!
posted by Joseph Gurl at 8:44 PM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]


Rats live on no evil planet
posted by Joseph Gurl at 8:44 PM on July 15, 2014


Able was I before I saw Elba
posted by Joseph Gurl at 8:45 PM on July 15, 2014


Ah, squalindromes.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 8:45 PM on July 15, 2014


I kinda like this... it's giving me a nice early-Rush vibe, which is no bad thing. Unless you hate Rush, in which case you are dead to me. DEAD TO ME.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:47 PM on July 15, 2014


OK, now it's sounding a lot like NoMeansNo, which is also a good thing indeed. Maybe there's a certain quality of loud rock noise that comes as a result of being 3-piece band.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:52 PM on July 15, 2014


I'm dead to Stavros. So I've got that goin for me.

(Seriously? A band that released an Ayn Rand concept album?)
posted by Joseph Gurl at 12:24 AM on July 16, 2014


DEAD TO ME but, you know, to hell with Ayn Rand, it should go without saying
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:39 AM on July 16, 2014


Watch this doco -- even if you don't like their music, you kinda have to like these guys. They are charmingly, quintessentially Canadian to me, even if they are 'rock stars'.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:04 AM on July 16, 2014


I'm sure they're delightful fellows. One's even a "bleeding heart Libertarian"!

(I keed, I keed. I got no beef bacon with the Peartster.)
posted by Joseph Gurl at 4:19 AM on July 16, 2014


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