Latest news with #KaiSlater
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Lifeguard Kick Off Your Summer of Noise With ‘Ripped and Torn'
Just in time for summer, Lifeguard have arrived with the kind of guitar record you can play loud all day without wearing it out. They're a young, raw art-punk threesome from Chicago, finally putting out their debut album with the hotly awaited Ripped and Torn, on Matador. They started making noise when they were still in high school — two-thirds of Lifeguard are still in their teens. But they've already got a fervent following. They released the twin 2023 EPs Crowds Can Talk and Dressed in Trenches; last year they dropped the high-energy single 'Ministry/Energie,' and did a Wipers cover on the flip side. Yet that just hinted at the power of Ripped and Torn. Lifeguard have their own wonderfully brash power-clang guitar attack, jumping right in with the frantic 'A Tightwire' and keeping the buzz going for 12 jagged songs in barely over a half-hour, without a pause for breath. They sound willing to try anything, except being boring. More from Rolling Stone How Lifeguard Unleashed the Melodies Inside Their Punk Noise Lifeguard Reveal Debut Album, Summer Tour Noise Rules the Night in Austin Lifeguard come from the hopping teenage Chicago underground rock scene, the Hallogallo collective, with kindred spirits like Horsegirl, Friko, Answering Machines and many more. It's named after the art/music zine published by singer-guitarist Kai Slater, which he started up during the pandemic to keep the DIY scene in touch with each other. (In turn, the zine's named after a Neu! song.) In addition to Lifeguard, Slater has a completely different other top-shelf band, Sharp Pins, who just released an superb album Radio DDR, going for a mod lo-fi jangle-pop sound that bristles with intelligence. If these bands have anything in common, it's their hyper-active youthful energy, cocky confidence, cool record collections, and a refusal to follow cliches. There's a family connection as well: Lifeguard drummer Isaac Lowenstein's older sister Phoebe plays in Horsegirl, who just released their own bang-up album Phonetics On and On. (The two bands collaborated last year for a giddy cover of the Stone Roses' 'I Wanna Be Adored.') These kids don't waste time, and neither does this album. Ripped and Torn was produced by Randy Randall, from the excellent L.A. noise-punk band No Age. Slater, Lowenstein, and bassist Asher Case jump right in, with fiery rockers like 'It Will Get Worse.' Their sound is definitely in the Matador tradition — it makes sense for Lifeguard to drop this stellar debut thirty years after the peerless Matador spring of '95. That might be the hottest streak any rock label has ever had, cranking out stone-cold classics by Guided By Voices (Alien Lanes), Pavement (Wowee Zowee), Helium (The Dirt of Luck), Yo La Tengo (Electr-O-Pura), and Chavez (Gone Glimmering), all within a few weeks. But this album would fit right in, and that's high praise indeed. 'Under Your Reach' begins with 20 seconds of white-noise synth buzz before the rhythm section kicks in with a martial beat, leading to a harmony-drenched chorus. 'Like You'll Lose' is steeped in Eighties U.K. postpunk, with the dub-wise throb of the Raincoats, Gang of Four, or the Pop Group. Fugazi might be the loudest element in their sound, especially the quiet-to-massive bass breakdowns in songs like 'A Tightwire.' But you can also hear the Pacific Northwest roar of Unwound, with the stick-to-the-ribs crunch of their Midwest forebears like Arcwelder. There's also a surprising amount of early-2000s NYC dance-punk, especially the Rapture. Yet Lifeguard turn it all into their own style of craftily melodic body-slam punk hooks, including a kinda-sorta theme song in '(I Wanna) Break Out.' Their Chicago roots run deep. The band released a 2023 video from a live session at Electrical Audio recorded by the late Steve Albini — a torch-passing of sorts, since they're steeped in the kind of uncompromising rock Albini spent his life making and recording. (Strange but true: Case and Lowenstein first met as tweens when one noticed the other was wearing a Tortoise shirt. Insert your own Millions Now Living Will Never Die joke.) Ripped and Torn hits hardest at the end, in the enigmatic chime of 'T.L.A.,' a song of yearning where Slater sings, 'Words like 'tonality' come to me.' The abrasive guitar harmonics might evoke legends like Polvo or Mission of Burma, but as always, Lifeguard give each sound its own fresh twist. They pace the whole album like experts, hopping from idea to idea within the same song, never letting the pace drag. Spending the summer with Ripped and Torn is gonna be fun. Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
Scoop
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Lifeguard Release Focus Track
Out Friday on Matador Records, Ripped and Torn is the eagerly awaited debut album by Chicago trio Lifeguard. Today, listen to the band's churning third single 'Like You'll Lose.' The dub-inflected track takes inspiration from Lee Perry's tight drum sound and expansive lo-fi atmospherics, with Asher Case 's baseline providing a center of gravity for skittering rhythms and tumbling echoes. Listen to 'Under Your Reach.' It's among the band's hardest-hitting tracks to date, expertly blending their experimental and pop-leaning impulses. Gritty drones and dub-inflected bass give way to a laser beam riff, with guitarists Kai Slater and Asher Case delivering the vocal in loose harmony. The song is drawn from the Chicago-based trio's forthcoming debut album, Ripped and Torn, out June 6th on Matador Records. The youthful trio of Asher Case (bass, baritone guitar, vocals), Isaac Lowenstein (drums, synth), and Kai Slater (guitar, vocals) have been making music together since they were in high school, nearly a quarter of their lives. Noisy and immediate, cryptic but heartfelt, they draw inspiration from punk, dub, power-pop and experimental sounds, and bring them all together in an explosive cacophony. Recorded last year in Chicago with producer Randy Randall (No Age), the album captures a claustrophobic scrappiness that evokes the feeling and energy of house parties and tightly-packed rooms, where ears are easily overwhelmed, and ragged improvisations connect with the same force as melodic hooks. Praise for Lifeguard: "Some of the year's tightest, catchiest rock songs, full of hooks that will ricochet around your head all summer." – Rolling Stone ('Artist You Need to Know') "Lifeguard may conjure sounds of the past but crucially, they make the future seem more exciting for their existence." – FADER "Ripped and Torn is renaissance post-punk with a twist of anthemic, post-Y2K bombast" – Paste "If you believe they don't make 'em like they used to, you'd better check these kids out." – Stereogum 'The Chicago three-piece (…) draw on the dissonant, melodic sounds of alt-rock heroes, but forge their own path' – The Observer 'Artist To Watch' 'A fresh addition to US alt rock's rich canon, headbangers everywhere will approve' – Music Week 'urgent, existential noise-rock' – NME '… nothing short of pure, menacing excitement' – DIY David Keenan on Ripped and Torn: Ripped and Torn, the debut album by Chicago three-piece Lifeguard, may or may not take its title from the legendary Scottish punk fanzine of the same name. Or perhaps it references the torn t-shirts that rock writer Lester Bangs claimed the late Pere Ubu founder Peter Laughner died for 'in the battle fires of his ripped emotions.' Or maybe it points to the trio's ferociously destabilising take on melodic post-punk and high velocity hardcore, signposting their debt to the kind of year zero aesthetics that would reignite wild improvisational songforms with muzzy garage Messthetics in a way rarely extrapolated this side of Dredd Foole & The Din. Either way, Lifeguard stake their music on the kind of absolute sincerity of the first wave of garage bands, garage bands that took rock at its word, while simultaneously cutting it up with parallel traditions of freak. The half-chanted, half-sung vocals are hypnotic. Songs aren't so much explicated as they are exorcised, as though the melodies are plucked straight from the air through the repeat-semaphoring of Asher Case on bass, the machine gun percussion that Isaac Lowenstein plays almost like a lead instrument, and that flame-thrower guitar that Kai Slater sprays all over the ever-circling rhythm section. Indeed, the trio play around an implied centre of gravity with all of the brain-razzing appeal of classic minimalism, taking three-minute hooks into the zone of eternal music by jamming in – and out – of time. And then there are the more experimental pieces – 'Music for Three Drums' (which surely references Steve Reich's Music For 18 Musicians), 'Charlie's Vox' – that reveal the breadth of Lifeguard's vision, incorporating a kind of collaged DIY music that fully embraces the bastardised avant garde of margin walkers like The Dead C, Chrome, and Swell Maps. But alla this would be mere hubris without the quality of the songs. The title track 'Ripped & Torn' suggests yet another take on the title, which is the evisceration of the heart. Here we have a beautifully brokedown garage ballad, with the band coming together to lay emotional waste to a song sung like a transmission from a lonely ghost. 'Like You'll Lose' goes even deeper into combining dreamy automatic vocals with steely fuzz on top of a massive dub/dirge hybrid. 'It Will Get Worse' is pure unarmoured pop-punk crush while 'Under Your Reach' almost channels the UK DIY of The Television Personalities circa 'Part Time Punks' but with a militant interrogation of sonics that would align them more with This Heat. Plus the production, by Randy Randall of No Age, is moody as fuck. Are they really singing 'words like tonality come to me' on 'T.L.A.'?! If so, it would suggest that Lifeguard are one of those rare groups who can sing about singing, who can play about playing, and who, despite the amount of references I'm inspired to throw around due to the voracity of their approach, are capable of making a music that points to nothing outside of the interaction of the player's themselves. And sure, there's a naivety to even believing you could possibly do that. But perhaps that's what I have been chasing across this entire piece, the quality of openness that Lifeguard bring to their music. You can tell these three have been playing together since junior high/high school: the music feels youthful, unburdened, true to itself, even as it eats up comparisons. Lifeguard play underground rock like it might just be as serious as your life, but with enough playful ardour to convince you that youth is a quality of music, and not just of age. With a sound that is fully caught up in the battle fires of their own ripped emotions, Lifeguard make me wanna believe, all over again.
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Lifeguard: Ripped and Torn review – this brilliant post-punk racket sounds like a trip to a rivet factory
After emerging from the Chicago DIY scene five years ago, Lifeguard's long-awaited debut crashes in with loud guitars and drums like a statement of intent. Opening track A Tightwire sets the template for the album: urgent, off-kilter and even slightly disorienting. The youthful trio of Kai Slater (guitar, vocals), Asher Case (bass, baritone guitar, vocals) and Isaac Lowenstein (drums, synth) have played together since high school, which has meant they have a musical understanding and are as tight as the proverbial nut. Theirs is angular, driving post-punk with audible echoes of the Pop Group, Wire, Gang of Four and the Wedding Present, but they've certainly brought their own spin to it. The songs blaze forth with hurtling, mostly indecipherable imagery. They could be yelling 'I am the spy on your pillow' or 'words like tonality come to me'. What does it all mean? Who knows – but it's fun thinking it through. There's a real sense of drama to the circular-saw guitars, slow builds and cascading basslines, from which spring effervescent tunes and interesting curveballs. Like You'll Lose is post-punk with a hymnal quality. The weirdly compulsive Music for 3 Drums knowingly references Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians, but sounds as if it was recorded during a visit to a rivet-making factory. Some of their most distorted guitars, drones and screeching metal might prove too challenging for many palates, but it's refreshing to hear a young band make such a bold racket.
Scoop
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
LIFEGUARD Deliver A Gritty, Hard-Hitting New Single
Listen to the new Lifeguard song 'Under Your Reach.' It's among the band's hardest-hitting tracks to date, expertly blending their experimental and pop-leaning impulses. Gritty drones and dub-inflected bass give way to a laser beam riff, with guitarists Kai Slater and Asher Case delivering the vocal in loose harmony. The song is drawn from the Chicago-based trio's forthcoming debut album, Ripped and Torn, out June 6th on Matador Records. The youthful trio of Asher Case (bass, baritone guitar, vocals), Isaac Lowenstein (drums, synth), and Kai Slater (guitar, vocals) have been making music together since they were in high school, nearly a quarter of their lives. Noisy and immediate, cryptic but heartfelt, they draw inspiration from punk, dub, power-pop and experimental sounds, and bring them all together in an explosive cacophony. Recorded last year in Chicago with producer Randy Randall (No Age), the album captures a claustrophobic scrappiness that evokes the feeling and energy of house parties and tightly-packed rooms, where ears are easily overwhelmed, and ragged improvisations connect with the same force as melodic hooks. David Keenan on Ripped and Torn: Ripped and Torn, the debut album by Chicago three-piece Lifeguard, may or may not take its title from the legendary Scottish punk fanzine of the same name. Or perhaps it references the torn t-shirts that rock writer Lester Bangs claimed the late Pere Ubu founder Peter Laughner died for 'in the battle fires of his ripped emotions.' Or maybe it points to the trio's ferociously destabilising take on melodic post-punk and high velocity hardcore, signposting their debt to the kind of year zero aesthetics that would reignite wild improvisational songforms with muzzy garage Messthetics in a way rarely extrapolated this side of Dredd Foole & The Din. Either way, Lifeguard stake their music on the kind of absolute sincerity of the first wave of garage bands, garage bands that took rock at its word, while simultaneously cutting it up with parallel traditions of freak. The half-chanted, half-sung vocals are hypnotic. Songs aren't so much explicated as they are exorcised, as though the melodies are plucked straight from the air through the repeat-semaphoring of Asher Case on bass, the machine gun percussion that Isaac Lowenstein plays almost like a lead instrument, and that flame-thrower guitar that Kai Slater sprays all over the ever-circling rhythm section. Indeed, the trio play around an implied centre of gravity with all of the brain-razzing appeal of classic minimalism, taking three-minute hooks into the zone of eternal music by jamming in – and out – of time. And then there are the more experimental pieces – 'Music for Three Drums' (which surely references Steve Reich's Music For 18 Musicians), 'Charlie's Vox' – that reveal the breadth of Lifeguard's vision, incorporating a kind of collaged DIY music that fully embraces the bastardised avant garde of margin walkers like The Dead C, Chrome, and Swell Maps. But alla this would be mere hubris without the quality of the songs. The title track 'Ripped & Torn' suggests yet another take on the title, which is the evisceration of the heart. Here we have a beautifully brokedown garage ballad, with the band coming together to lay emotional waste to a song sung like a transmission from a lonely ghost. 'Like You'll Lose' goes even deeper into combining dreamy automatic vocals with steely fuzz on top of a massive dub/dirge hybrid. 'It Will Get Worse' is pure unarmoured pop-punk crush while 'Under Your Reach' almost channels the UK DIY of The Television Personalities circa 'Part Time Punks' but with a militant interrogation of sonics that would align them more with This Heat. Plus the production, by Randy Randall of No Age, is moody as fuck. Are they really singing 'words like tonality come to me' on 'T.L.A.'?! If so, it would suggest that Lifeguard are one of those rare groups who can sing about singing, who can play about playing, and who, despite the amount of references I'm inspired to throw around due to the voracity of their approach, are capable of making a music that points to nothing outside of the interaction of the player's themselves. And sure, there's a naivety to even believing you could possibly do that. But perhaps that's what I have been chasing across this entire piece, the quality of openness that Lifeguard bring to their music. You can tell these three have been playing together since junior high/high school: the music feels youthful, unburdened, true to itself, even as it eats up comparisons. Lifeguard play underground rock like it might just be as serious as your life, but with enough playful ardour to convince you that youth is a quality of music, and not just of age. With a sound that is fully caught up in the battle fires of their own ripped emotions, Lifeguard make me wanna believe, all over again.
