The aggressive grunginess of Loverless’ rock-n-roll proves that you need look no further than Portland to satiate your urges for dirty, sexy music. You will have a chance to satisfy this dirty urge on Thursday, when Loverless plays at Geno’s.
Loverless claims that their music is psychedelic, not like a hallucinatory orgy involving large pink warlocks and your mother, but rather psychedelic in the sense that the music comes at you from unexpected new directions, is kinda scary and it sweeps you up in a cataclysmic rain of heavy space age emotion.
A relatively new band, Loverless was formed by three friends with a desire to creatively experiment. Lead guitarist, Buck Hopkins and bassist Dan The Cloud played together in Neon Black Graffiti, a project that was dismantled in the spring of 2003. Hopkins and The Cloud recruited drummer Michael C. Anderson when they learned that he was back in town.
Says The Cloud, “We were really looking to form a band that could freak out like The Stooges.”
When I listened to their three-song demo yesterday, I was happy to find that it was indeed a powerful monster. All of the boring, homogenous promo discs in my desk instantly caught fire and burned my leg. I went to a Loverless show two weeks ago at the Big Easy and was impressed with their stage presence. Buck Hopkins is an animal. He somehow manages to maintain control of his instrument while his body folds and twists. Dan The Cloud brought a sort of drunken zen forgetfulness to the Big Easy show. A true showman, The Cloud climbed the amplifiers and antagonized everyone. Although he did not play approximately 25% of the prescribed basslines, his notes became weird garnishes on the songs, possibly improving them and definitely bringing a strange life to the show. Someone predisposed to such notions may have been seen doing things like raising their hands in the devil horns gesture, grimacing and saying “fuck yeah,” loudly, as Dan The Cloud threw the mic stand to the ground again.
Michael C. Anderson bashes drums intricately in Loverless. Anderson, also of Vacationland and Welfare Mafia (R.I.P.), describes the music as intelligent and creative.
“The Loverless project is a satisfying musical experience,” Anderson said.
Loverless says their song writing process is an impetus that usually originates with a Hopkins riff, after which Dan The Cloud composes a unique bassline and Anderson fills in the gaps. “When we build a song, it is a process of addition and subtraction,” said The Cloud, “we take off bits we don’t like and keep what we do like.” The Cloud said that since the trio is so flush with ideas, the “songs become suites with several different movements.”
The song, “Go on and wander off,” has a threatening edge to it. The melody seems to encircle the listener as the tempo quickens, Hopkins’ screams tear holes in this apocalyptic churner, which ends in a simple, fast punk rock breakdown.
The song, “Till Your Mama Comes,” is a gritty, blues influenced songs that invokes feelings of late night desperation and anxiety. Dan The Cloud says Loverless plays “science fiction blues.”
If you haven’t caught on yet, Loverless is brimming with life and they manage to control a bumpy and often volatile soundscape. The live experience is comparable to a swaggering rodeo. “We release a lot of tension on stage because we don’t have sex with people in real life,” Hopkins said. Although Loverless will be playing mostly original compositions at Geno’s, I heard them cover Nirvana’s “Breed,” so that might give you a clue as to what these guys sound like if you can’t make sense out of my colorfully convoluted metaphorical analysis.
Joining Loverless at the Geno’s show will be headliners Ocean and Casas, (see the article in issue one of this year’s Free Press) and Dublb. Check the flyer. I’ll see you there.