Lolita Black

Back in 2003, a guitarist and drummer were jamming together, writing dark, punk influenced heavy rock. The drummer was female, and as the guitarist watched her play her drums with a severe intensity, he thought to himself, "Lolita Black!" Thus was born one of the great up-and-coming bands in Providence, Rhode Island.
Lolita Black are a four piece, comprised of Bob on guitar, Kaleigh on drums, Jacob on bass, and Jessika on vocals. I had the pleasure of watching them at AS220 this past May opening for The Chinese Stars, and they killed. Straight out. Their sound is a throw back to oldschool riff-based rock, tempered by a thoroughly contemporary sensibility. Jacob and Kaleigh have the bass/drum nexus locked down tight, and from my memory banks I can still recall that Kaleigh beats the holy hell out of her drumset, playing with focus and conviction. Her sense of time is dead solid, and her phrasing is straightforward and right on top of the beat. As much as everyone is in love with Gabriel Serbian,(and rightly so), hearing good straight-up thrash can be refreshing, especially when the drummer in question possesses a time sense as solid as she does. I personally feel that she will be inspirational for many young women who want to rock out as hard as they can. She plays as though exorcising something dark and evil.
That's actually a great word to use in relation to this band. Not literally, but in a Geezer Butler/Bill Ward kind of way. Think of Black Sabbath, and songs like Children of the Grave or War Pigs but with more thrash, and you can start to get it. However, the presence of a female vocalist completely changes the texture. Jessika has a great vocal tone for the music they play, and tons of attitude. She seems to vocalize from her chest voice and head voice equally. Her chest voice adds a fullness to her tone, giving it a dark and rounded quality. When she changes registers, as in "Hollow", the quality of her tone becomes more biting and urgent. No matter which aspect of her range she is using, she acquits herself nicely, really bringing out the drama as though tortured by some long-held misery.
In some ways, however, Bob is the real revelation. Those "in the know" are already acquainted with his stage presence and crushing intensity as the frontman for DropDead. But, the world now has the chance to discover him as a guitarist. Maybe this was known already. I do not know him personally, so I cannot say. At any rate, his riffs are tightly constructed and rhythmically "in the pocket". He has absorbed a lot of great influences, and it shows through in his approach to riff writing. Not that his playing is derivative in any way (which it isn't), but his personality as a guitarist displays a deep knowledge of the tension and release necessary to any good music making. Also, he has a muscular right hand that pushes slightly ahead of the beat, heightening the intensity.
This brings us to Jacob. The bass player is always the "hidden weapon". With out a solid bassplayer, a great band will totally fail. Unless it is Arab On Radar or Yowie or some such, but that is a different style altogether. The style that Lolita plays in necessitates a tight bottom end, and in Jacob such is to be found. He has great rhythm and a fat, fuzzed-out tone. As I stated, he locks in with Kaleigh to form the "undernet" of the rhythm section, nailing all the downbeats with precision. He also locks in with Bob and glues the bridge between guitar and drums nicely. When doubling the guitar riffs, Bob and Jacob are seamless in their unison playing.
Though he has fronted DropDead for close to twenty years, Bob stated in response to my barrage of questions that he wants Lolita Black to stand on its own two feet, and he doesn't "see the need to use the DropDead name as a launching point". With songwriting this solid, there will be no need for such associations. On top of that, Lolita sounds nothing like DropDead.
As of this writing, the band has just finished its first release, entitled "Inside The Wasteland", which I was given to understand is in the vicinity of 23 minutes. I have only been fortunate enough to listen to the songs on myspace (about 50 times), so I am looking forward to picking up a copy of the album. They are also in the process of printing shirts and pins, and have some shows lined up for the coming months. I didn't verify, but listings could probably be found at Lots of Noise (www.lotsofnoise.com), which contains listings for most of the goings in the Providence area. Support this band!! They are going places.


Check 'em out at: www.myspace.com/lolitablackprovidence