Getting to Know Four Lights

[ad]

four-lights-band-pic

Where are you from and when did you get started?

KII: I am from Whidbey Island. I started when I was 8.

Brian: Originally I am from Illinois, but moved to Washington State in the mid-2000s. I met these nerds between 2007-2010 and we decided to start this band in 2015 as an excuse to use the gravity bong at the old practice space.

Jeff: We’re Four Lights from Seattle, WA.

Who are you and who does what in the band?

KII: I am KII and I play Drums.

Brian: I’m Brian and I play bass and sing back ups. I am also responsible for the majority of press photos, album layouts, and all of the video work that we do.

Jeff: I’m Jeff, and I play guitar and sing backups.

Dan: I’m Dan! I sing and play the guitar!!

How would you best describe the sound?

Brian: Power-pop masquerading as pop-punk (or maybe vice versa).

Jeff: I’m terrible at describing the sound, but I agree with the others. Power pop with heavy pop punk roots.

Dan: Yeah, the other dudes really nailed it.

Dream rock moment (real or not)?

Brian: Meeting Tom Hanks.

Jeff: An opening slot on the next Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters world tour.

Dan: Bracket or The Impossibles decide to do a tour and bring us along.

Still got day jobs?

Dan: I am an IT manager for a long term care company.

KII: Yup. It’s OK. That’s what the therapist says to tell myself anyway.

Brian: Yes and it’s slowly killing me.

Jeff: Up until recently, I’ve had plenty of joe-jobs; nothing I’d call a career. Let me put it this way: I have an extensive collection of nametags and hairnets. Right now I work in a lab, in the nanotechnology field

Any regrets?

KII: Just that day old pizza.

Brian:Wearing these fucking suits in the summertime.

Jeff: I regret choosing a “D” instead of a “B”, in the Wheel of Fortune bonus round.
Dan: I regret letting the other dudes answer questions in interviews haha

Seattle punk act, Four Lights, have they released their debut album Death to False Posi on August 15, 2016 through Bomb Pop Records. Four Lights are streaming their new album Death to False Posi in full through Bandcamp. The title track features guest vocals from the veteran California pop-punk act, Bracket.

Check out the album here: Death to False Posi
Continue reading Getting to Know Four Lights

The Mr. T Experience – King Dork Approximately

The Mr. T Experience – King Dork Approximately
© 2016

Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

[ad]

mtx_king_dork_approximatelyIf there is such a thing as “pop-punk legends” The Mr. T Experience, or MTX as they’ve become known are surely among them. Admittedly I am not the biggest pop-punk genre and haven’t really listened to MTX in years. As it happens the band hasn’t put out anything new in about 12 years. I guess that kind of makes me still in the loop.

2016 brings us back around though. There’s a brand new MTX album. King Dork Approximately, not so coincidentally the same title as the recently released young adult book by MTX vocalist/songwriter “Dr. Frank” Portman. (The new book is the sequel to the acclaimed “King Dork”)

The new release offers 12 tracks of very poppy music with tinges of punk here and there. The songs are sweet and well crafted. It, in a way, is what would have happened in an alternate universe 1960s USA if the Beach Boys would have drifted more towards garage instead of surf. I guess what I’m getting at is that the songs are resplendent of teenage love songs, but with more edge that comes along with the societal norms from a different era.

I haven’t had the opportunity to read the book to which this album is apparently the soundtrack, but the songs make me feel like that it is early teen / junior high / highschool lit, geared towards the awkward and the weird. The worried and the harried. I’m well past that age bracket of my life, thankfully, but the core still resonates strongly to a guy who never really outgrew his own reign as King Dork.

The self-referential bits aside, King Dork Approximately is as tender of a pop-punk album as you’re likely to ever get. If you’re down with a little bit of bubble gum and want to reminisce about the good ol’ days of Lookout Records, grab yourself a copy and give it a spin.

Cheers,
Jerry Actually