Albemarle Lost, and Regained
The Ladybug Transistor celebrates an anniversary at Deep Cuts on Wednesday, 4 December 2024.
Lightheaded and Mark Robinson open the triplestack bill.
Mark Robinson (of Cotton Candy) played a solo set of electric guitar numbers to lead off the night at Deep Cuts. He had that 90s indie strum, which you heard on a million Sebadoh songs (heavy on the night’s house mix) and more. It’s a light, feathery rhythm that sports a more playful sensibility than the metal-adjacent grunge it shared the alt pop charts with. Add in some mawkish tempo changes, and some squishy tunings, and you’ve got an experimental indie rock auteur for a night. Shout out to what I think was some sort of “Sweet Home Alabama” cover.
Two throwback acts sandwiched the relative youngbloods Lightheaded, a five-piece out of New Jersey. The arch pop outfit recently released the new full-length Combustible Gems. If I heard the stage banter correctly, the album was produced by the front guy from The Ladybug Transistors, which explains how they find themselves on a mini tour with the band. Pert, bubbly, architected compositions. Shades of art pop like Mamalarky.
Odie Leigh (credit: Daniel Nova, Jr.)
It was the 25th anniversary of The Ladybug Transistor’s The Albemarle Sound. Not their first album, not their last, but it must have made enough impact to warrant another good, long look. Reissued by Merge Records with some added bells & whistles in terms of b-sides and demos.
It’s a complex album with a complex sound, but dressed in the sensibility of pop, through and through. Twenty-five years is a long time, and the band was a little rusty on its first gig (or one of the first?) out of the gate. Some squishy rhythms and lack of timing. They set the bar so high, they’re not making it easy on themselves. I mean, this is no 4-chord punk trio. This is some ornate late Beatles shit.
They’re an indie rock six-piece with symphonic ambitions. Beyond the usual rock n roll apparatus, a flute, melodica, and trumpet also found their way into the mix. They’ll have all the opportunity they need to work out the kinks on the road, and then maybe the audience will get a better sense of what the “Albemarle Sound” sounds like.