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Kaliburg's Amethyst Lemon releases Debut Album on KMI
Noise Alternative LP Bloom follows on heals of Ultrafuzz' success
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
April 5, 5551


KMI's Amethyst Lemon answers noise for noise with their KMI release Bloom

Noise Alternative is experiencing something of a renaissance in the Kalistani music scene. As new underground bands making loud, distorted noise alternative spring up across the Empire, a handful of bands have travelled higher. The newest band to arrive in the charts representing the Noise Alternative subgenre is Kaliburg's Amethyst Lemon. This very loud band's debut album Bloom, produced by Frank Metal and Amethyst Lemon for KMI, is now in the record stores and is beginning to get noticed on Kalistan's radio stations, where it has risen to number 43 in its first full week after its release.

"There must be something in the water," said the band's lead singer and rhythm guitarist Roger Stuart. "Music is getting louder again. We're hearing more of it in the clubs, we're hearing more of it on the radio. The pendulum is swinging back and the kids are really digging it." Indeed, Stuart is correct about changing trends. This year alone more than 10 noise alternative records have made it into the top half of the charts, though no one of them has been able to crack the top 5, let alone displace the pop and R&B tunes currently dominating the top spot. This week, for example, 3 of the top ten spots at least feature the pop & B singer Candy Cane, who herself enjoys her third week in number 1.

"I just find that music so uninspiring," said Stuart. " It all sounds exactly the same, like bad disco. Made for real basic people, by real basic people and its all over the place, because its what people all over the world listen to when they just want to have some generic static or whatever on in the background. Nobody actually listens, like really sits down and listens to a pop song, and says 'Yo, they really put a lot of work into THAT! The talent is so stunning...' No you gotta just admire the machine that cranks out copy after copy after copy and then gets people with a bunch of money to give that money up for a copy of what they just bought last week. So if we aren't hearing a lot of music that we want to hear, we have to make it ourselves. And when people hear it, they'll make it too, and then one of us will finally make it. And then a lot of others will come along."

Stuart is significantly more philosophical about the return of noisy alternatives rock than a lot of his compatriots. Only just last year, Ultrafuzz, the vanguards of this return to louder, more distorted guitars and massive bombastic soundscapes, launched their own EP, and they have since failed to complete their tour, and have put the recording of their debut LP on hiatus while they attempt to deal with their failure to control their use of substances. This wave of alternative rock is, on the whole, being driven by a heavy use of narcotics among most of the musicians. "I mean I can't deny that it has driven a quest for volume and distortion," said Stuart. "I hear this hum, or this kind of drone, or this ringing, and I have to turn the guitars up to hear over it sometimes. But I think I personally have spent more time, when recording, totally sober, because I find that the drugs kind of affect my actual playing."

The rest of the band agrees. Primary song writer and lead guitarist Brad Mifune, who is responsible for introducing a lot of the dreamy elements into the band's music said, "I can only really do that on my days off, like when we're practicing or writing, yeah, but when we're actually rehearsing or recording, or playing a show, no, I gotta kinda leave it alone for a day or so ahead of time. We all agree, its kind of counterproductive. We don't need to follow Meg's [Ultrafuzz's Megan Rogers] same road to make the loudest music we can."

The band does indeed differentiate themselves from more underground bands and the earlier musicians in this wave by including music that includes dreamy and romantic themes. "I think what we do in this band and on this record is kind of add love and like wanting to the movement," said Mifune. "We started writing this music when we were teenagers, and you know, there's a lot of mixed up emotions in those lyrics. Sometimes you are over the moon, sometimes you are so unsure of yourself that you just doubt yourself. These lyrics reflect both a lot of that kind of confusion and sort of how we deal with it. It's quite romantic."

Not only are the lyrics of Amethyst Lemon more approachable than some of the earlier bands in this wave of Noise Alternative, their songs are a lot more melodic. "We can do a lot more with two guitarists than you can do with just one," said Stuart. "Like Brad can have a whole rack of effects pedals just for his guitar, while I got an array that suits more my style. And our rhythm section is perhaps a key. Terry (Kowalski, the drummer) is like one of the, well, was one of the best jazz drummers in Kaliburg before he joined us. And Carri (Marques, on bass) does a real good job at keeping up with him. Playing in clubs for three years now has really cemented us as a band, and I think we hit at just the right time to really do something with this."

"I just want to say," said Marques, "we owe so much to bands like Ultrafuzz and Melanie Flux and who else, like of yeah, our favorites, Lola from Dana for like paving the way for this whole scene. That distortion in all these bands, we want to do that too, make really distorted music and really loud music. I want listeners to go 'are their guitars ok?' after they hear our record. Like it totally sounds like we break our guitars. That's what its supposed to sound like... That's pretty much what all the best bands sound like. And its so cool, these guys have so much passion and they put it all into their music."

Amethyst Lemon has built its following in the Kaliburg scene over three years, and KMI picked the band up in October of last year following a modest bidding war that saw ARC and VDR attempt to attract the band as well. "Well, I was watching a movie," said KMI's Associate Director for Alternative A&R Martin Jennings. "It was some foreign picture. Anyway, these guys were playing in the club that was on the other side of the wall from the movie theater. And they were so loud that I couldn't even hear the movie in the theater I was in. So I decided to go check their second set out. And it really blew me away. There were like 400 stoned freaks in that club and they were just absolutely having a blast listening to this band. I knew we had something, because if you got 400 kids at a club on a Tuesday Night, there's 40 thousand at home wishing they could be there. I got them into KMI the next day and we started talking records."

Amethyst Lemon's new LP Bloom was the result. "We gave them a three record Guarantee," said Jennings. "I have no doubt that this record will not only blow their entire career up but also kick the door back open to Noise Alternative. Not only is this band going to be huge, but they may also bring this style finally out of Kalistan and to the world."

Check out the new LP from Amethyst Lemon Bloom here. On it you will find the album's first Single "Flowers".

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rGxhKC33GI]

But we've also included a live performance from the band's recent show at Kaliburg's Smoking Room, to give you an idea of the kind of energy we only usually see in the underground. Here's the bobnus cut "Lysergic Dream." Exclusive for Kalistani Rawk Monthly.

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BToaLREuhto]