Photo by Leah Gage
The Washington D.C. post-dance-punk band Light Beams have just released their new single “Friendly” across all digital platforms. The single arrives accompanied by a music video, which can be seen HERE. It is the second single to be released ahead of the band’s new album titled Wild Life which will be released this Friday, November 3rd via legendary independent label Dischord Records in partnership with the band’s own imprint Mud Memory.
The album is the band’s first recorded output since expanding from a trio to a five-piece, with the addition of Leah Gage and Erin McCarley on vocals, percussion, and samples to augment Sam Lavine’s explosive drumming and Arthur Noll’s bass. Thematically, Wild Life is an exercise in processing Light Beams vocalist/bandleader Justin Wm. Moyer’s experience covering protests, demonstrations, and ultimately the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol as a journalist on a Pulitzer Prize-winning team documenting the violent, chaotic, and horrific experiences of that day.
Wild Life is available for pre-order now, and “Friendly” is streaming across all platforms.
“Friendly” is an ESG-inspired track that explores an encounter with a demonstrator who confronted Moyer as a member of the press at a demonstration he was covering outside the Supreme Court. The altercation became threatening, and physical. However, Moyer was able to defuse rather than escalate the situation. Hence the title, “Friendly“. He reflects on the experience:
“I was covering a protest at the Supreme Court, interviewing a demonstrator who was very critical of the media. I had taken some photos of the scene and the protester started challenging me – physically challenging me – about my photos. This person was getting very angry, and I was getting very angry. But I realized that the situation could be defused easily by, well, keeping things friendly. So I gave this person my phone and let him delete all the photos he objected to (which weren’t going to be published anyway). I thought this was a good outcome. I’m not always good at dealing with anger and, in a different part of my life, the argument might have ended a different way. This song is about that – and any situation where emotions threaten to get too big for the people experiencing them.”
Wild Life is a collection of vignettes of post-Trump life that also serves as a grand exploration of our world at large. The compulsion to tease meaning out of the everyday is the cornerstone of Light Beams aesthetic. This is music that reaches towards the unknown, searching for a future for punk in a new century. As Moyer puts it: “I can’t just do another guitar band after the genius of Beyonce and Rihanna.” Successive generations experience paradigm shifts in music creation; be that home recording, sampling, or sequencing. By offering “block rock” – the band’s name for its sample-based approach – Light Beams carves its own path, juxtaposing dark, lyrical themes against upbeat, polyrhythmic, danceable music. The resulting album is a dauntless exploration of contemporary American life and the most ambitious, fully-realized Light Beams outing yet.
Wild Life arrives on November 3 in a collaboration between legendary D.C. label Dischord Records and Moyer’s own Mud Memory Records. This release is the latest in a lengthy relationship between Moyer and Dischord which stretches back to his former bands El Guapo, Antelope, and Edie Sedgwick. Pre-order Wild Life is available HERE, and the music video for “Coming Our Way” can be seen HERE.
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