Lightning Bolt are known for their guerrilla-style live performances, where they typically play on the ground rather than a stage, with the crowd gathered around them. The band's sound is typically loud and aggressive, though the group cites composers Philip Glass and Sun Ra as compositional influences.
The band formed while Chippendale and Gibson attended the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island, and Chippendale had heard about "a new kid who was a whiz on the bass guitar." The two formed Lightning Bolt, with Brian Chippendale on drums, Brian Gibson on bass guitar, and with Hisham Bharoocha on guitar and vocals joining the group after their first show. Bharoocha left the group in 1996 to continue with another RISD band that would eventually become Black Dice, and Chippendale took over vocal duties. The only officially-released music with Bharoocha was a track on the Repopulation Program compilation. For the first few years, Lightning Bolt was primarily an improvisational band, touring the United States for months at a time and "just playing". The concept of writing songs and recording an album didn't occur to the band until 1997, when Ben McOsker, founder of Load Records, approached the duo.
During these formative years, Chippendale and his freshman-year college roommate Matt Brinkman began to set up Fort Thunder, a disused warehouse space in the Olneyville district of Providence. The space eventually came to house a number of local avant-garde artists and musicians, including Brian Ralph as well as Lightning Bolt.
Dracula Mountain
Lightning Bolt Lyrics
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See you in the dawn,
See you in the daylight,
And in the beyond.
The lyrics of Lightning Bolt's song Dracula Mountain seem to be addressing someone that the singer wants to see at different times of the day. This person seems to be someone dear to the singer as they are looking forward to seeing them in the evening, dawn, daylight, and beyond. The repetition of the line "see you in" emphasizes the longing of the singer to see this person, whether it's during the night or day or even in a future beyond.
The lyrics could also be interpreted as an acknowledgement that human relationships are not limited by time, space or even life itself, and that the connection between people can exist beyond death. This could be the reason the singer says, "see you in the beyond," as a way of recognizing that the bond between two people can be timeless and transcend the present.
In summary, the lyrics of Dracula Mountain by Lightning Bolt convey a deep and abiding connection of the singer to somebody they long to see across time, day or night as it is clear that time and distance cannot break their bond.
Line by Line Meaning
See you in the evening,
We will meet each other during the night time
See you in the dawn,
We will meet each other at daybreak
See you in the daylight,
We will meet each other during the day
And in the beyond.
We will meet each other in the great unknown, beyond this life.
Contributed by Hunter N. Suggest a correction in the comments below.