The first release to feature the current Lantern line up appears on the excellent label, Night People out of Iowa City. Stranger I Come/Stranger I Leave is six original tracks of proto-punk-blooze-outs, wretched surf guitar, pounded drums, fuzzed out melodies, and burnt out dub.
"With this newest offering, Lantern have fully harvested their Hasil Adkins hee-haw while continuing to bury themselves alive in a blizzard of Bo’s beats. What am I talking about? A refreshing bad-breath, proto-punk, Rat Fink mud bath in which you can finally erase your pockmarked Chevy Chase face. You the listener are transported via the filth to the absolute crispiest and most burnt ends of the fuzz n’ buzz spectrum. There are too many notes in the solos to say they sound like The Cramps, but you get the idea. The opening title track steers the clearest, with an instrumental dub-stomp my co-workers agree is trippy. Lantern is the best band in North America. " - Weird Canada
" The new tape, Stranger I Come. Stranger I Leave, starts out with a slow dub burner, but quickly jumps to the garage fence. Quite a few of the gems on Stranger sound like they were dug right out of The Sonics' lost songbook. The majority of the tape writhes like the first vestiges of garage punk, unleashing the kind of sonic fury that informed the snottiest of guitar tribes of the late 60's and left its mark on punks to come." - Altered Zones
"I have been sitting on Canada via Philly’s trio Lantern for a second and I really have no good reason. Lo siento! Lantern is one of the best garage rock band out right now(for sure the best in Philadelphia)…so whoops!..hope you were digging the not Lantern in the meantime haha. That is a pretty bold/cliche statement, but these cats are the real deal holyfield. Lead singer/geetar Zachary Devereux Fairbrother growls howls and wails with the femmes fatales backing of Emily Robb on 4 string and Sophie White on kit. Rad! These cats recently dropped , Stranger I Come, Stranger I Leave, and it is a 6 track banger. You need this in your life quick fast and in a hurry if good music/ dirty punked up garage is your jam . The chicken would never steer you wrong. They even kick out an 8 minute pysched out bump as the title track. Redonk!... I could sit here and gush like I took Hokkaido steel to the jugular, but seriously…just boogie and grip the tape!" - Seizure Chicken GRIP IT!
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The newest Lantern Tape has arrived!
New is a bit of a misnomer as the recording takes place before Lantern was a band and I (Zach) was still playing with ideas. Never-the-less....
The recording was done by Andy March (who plays drums on the track, mixed and produced it, and put it out) and Christian Simmons (Play Guitar) in Christian's studio in Montreal - The Silver Door. The group really isn't reflective of the current Lantern line up but an ad hoc group formed in my last weeks in Montreal while I was still conceiving Lantern as a project. It interestingly feature's Alex Zhang Hungtai on bass AKA Dirty Beaches. This is a cassette single. The first track is a blistering metallic psych-rocker. The lyrics and much of the music is improvised. I just told the guys to play as hard and as fast as you can and then a little more and I'll come in with the riff. It features some of my most crazy guitar playing you'll ever hear. The second is a cover of an old Willie Dixon blues Standard, "Love To You" largely inspired by the stones version. The recordings were done to tape live through an 8 track. They sound great. All tapes are hand screen printed. Video below by Robert Drisdelle.
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Just got more artist copies!! Buy them now $7.50 with S&H
Here are some reviews.
From Raven Sings the Blues
"Lantern occupies a barren landscape of tattered blues and high plains dustbowl dirges. It occupies a space that's both personal and lonely, with Fairbrother citing "Beefheart, Bo Diddley, Hasil Adkins, the early Sun recordings, and the Bruce Springsteen album Nebraska" as touchstones for his new batch of songs. Though I'd definitely add touches of Cecil Barfield and overtones of Tetuzi Akiyama's brilliant Don't Forget To Boogie as welcomed references as well. The fuzz rears it's head occasionally but Lantern succeeds in capturing listeners attention with just the simple push of Fairbrother's sparse blues."
From Weird Canada
"Lantern is the duo of Zachary Fairbrotherand Emily Robb, two recent Canadian expats gone to the City of Brotherly Love. Wait, are we violating Weird Canada rules? Well, I’m sure both still have Canadian passports, and this first offering is too rad to pass up. Six songs taking cues from early American folk and blues, from desolate quietness to a harmonica call and response to the blown-out fuzz-wah meltdown in “Crude Vessels of Sound.” A grand foray into guitar-fueled proto-punk and psychedelic blues, Hasil Adkins cover included."
From Byron Coley in The Wire
"Philadelphia trio, led by Canadian expat Zachary Fairbrother (ex-Omon Ra). It’s a totally righteous mid-air collision of Bassholes-style blues-roots disturbation, guitar overload (à la Randy Holden) and the stillness of space. Hard to describe accurately, but an amazing peace of work."
Check out the video from the track "Crude Vessels" which appears on the EP.
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