Is everyone gonna get all pissy with me if I say that I think Lightning Bolt records are kind of lame? Obviously the band is an absolute force live. No band I've ever seen can make crowds go absolutely batshit the way Lightning Bolt does. I saw people hanging from the rafters during their secret set at Bitchpork a few summers ago. I saw the band turn the entire park at the Logan Square monument into a gigantic, writhing mosh pit. I saw Bruce Lamont stage dive during their set at the Logan Square Auditorium. Something about the incredible volume and unrelenting, frantic energy just causes physical reactions in people. It's a vibe that's nearly impossible to catch on record. To me, the albums have always seemed kind of flat and simplified.

The Rhode Island duo, who've been creating their unholy racket since 1994, have a brand-new LP coming out in about a month (Oblivion Hunter, via Load Records). The first taste of it hit the Internet a few days ago, and it seems like the guys are learning how to get their live sound onto their recordings. Today's 12 O'Clock Track, "King Candy," captures the bizarre, overblown bass tones of Brian Gibson and the ear-piercing, machine-gun drumming of Brian Chippendale (who is seriously one of the most unique and intense players to ever pick up a pair of sticks); the song structure, on the other hand, is somewhat conventional, so that the result is weird, noisy, pulverizing, and catchy all at the same time. The band comes to the Empty Bottle on Sat 9/15.