"when a boot hits on your door they ain't asking por favor"
Hit Your Town, the latest single from NYC alt rock band LuLu Lewis made me instantly smile with a million thoughts percolating as explosively as the synth runs. The aesthetic which the band, founded by husband and wife duo Pablo Martin (Tom Tom Club, The Du-Rites) and Dylan Hundley (Metropolitan), refer to as Dyscopia or Dystopi-an Disco is the kind of funky escape we all need right now.
This coalescing of proto punkery and dance punk (or gutter punk) with new wave punk and pop indie sounds is spot on here and, oddly enough, I thought of Arcade Fire while listening. Their 2013 Reflektor album tried to mine these sounds (and Tropical punk tones) but it ended up sounding false and lackluster. LuLu Lewis gets it right pushing divergent fun edges. Hundley's vocal style is wide eyed sort of Nina Hagen-esque (and maybe Stan Ridgway), the musical breaks are 'truly' funky and bristle with bump and grinds. The songs just jams deliciously and decadently as this sort of song should. It shuns any sort of hipster patina and splashes on NYC all inclusive "make the kind of art you fucking want to" attitude.
Lulu Lewis with 'Hit Your Town' via Ilegalia Records is cool and free without trying to sound cool (a lesson Arcade Fire should take to heart). It is easier to be something than try to adopt it temporarily. The track will be on their second full length, yet unnamed but a follow up to last year's (2019) "Genuine Psychic" album.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
Web - https://www.lululewismusic.com/
Instagram - @lululewismusic
Facebook - https://bit.ly/fblululewis
Spotify - https://bit.ly/lululewis
Founded by husband and wife duo Pablo Martin (Tom Tom Club, The Du-Rites) and Dylan Hundley (Metropolitan), Lulu Lewis have established themselves as one of New York’s most prolific and versatile underground rock bands over the past few years, whether collaborating with artists like Brendan Canty of Fugazi, Sergio Rotman of Los Fabulosos Cadillacs or sharing the stage with musicians like Lenny Kaye, Shilpa Ray and Richard Lloyd.
The band was the subject of a short documentary from Condé Nast, while their debut EP earned them praise for its “bold pop-rocking with soulful touches courtesy of Hundley’s up-front delivery” (The Vinyl District), while their art house-style videos have been called “a force to be reckoned with, wielding a progressive spirit of artistry and passion” (Atwood Magazine). They are joined live by William Harvey (Urban Verbs), Jay Mumford (J-Zone, The Du-Rites) and Bruce Martin (Tom Tom Club) Lulu Lewis balance their sharp insight and dark poeticism with an air of playfulness across their genre-bending catalog. Genuine Psychic is the full-length debut album from the band drawing on influences ranging from post punk to goth to soul, the album showcases Lulu Lewis as an
inventive and pivotal band creating a distinctly unique sound. Haunting goth rock tracks live alongside tongue-in-cheek, synth-driven new wave, all connected by a sonic world of incinerat-
ing guitars, cutting rhythm section, and lo-fi production. The LP acknowledges the light and dark duality of the universe without taking itself too seriously. Over the course of ten tracks, it recalls
rock sounds of the Bowery’s grittiest days with a perspective that builds on the past, rather than copy it. In doing so, they create something entirely new and unique to itself, free of any trap-
pings of genre or time, and utterly exhilarating.
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