| FEATURES
White Light, Hot & Heavy
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Goodbye, emo. Hello, rock. With all the hype turning from the softer side of sound to one that's raw and raunchy, it's difficult to separate the true rock 'n' rollers from those simply out to be part of the trend. White Light Motorcade, however, immediately dispel any such confusion with their live performance, as it envelops the two most basic elements of rock 'n' roll - sexy beats and sweaty skin. This New York City band likes their hometown pride, The Strokes, as well as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Interpol, but it doesn't mean they're anything like them. For one, this band's got way more soul, and with regular spots at local mainstays such as Pianos and Don Hill's, where they can also be found on their nights off, they're not nearly as inaccessible, either. "Our philosophy is that we should play wherever, whenever we can," says lead singer Harley Dinardo. " I think you should always try to be accessible, even after you're highly successful." Being within reach rarely means being bored, though. As is to be expected of a band that's toured with Alice Cooper, WLM sure has had its share of wild moments, as evidenced by Dinardo's once-upon-a-time in Amsterdam. "We had some mushrooms after the show - all four of us. The Donnas were playing, and all of a sudden, I decided I should walk outside. I felt like seeing Amsterdam. When I walked out, there were all these kids waiting for The Donnas, so I started talking to them, and then I was like, 'I have to start walking,' and they said, 'We'll walk with you.' So here I am walking through the streets of Amsterdam tripping on mushrooms with all these kids I didn't know. Eventually, I found my way back, and I just couldn't even look at them, I was laughing so hard. Amsterdam was by far the most fun we had." But Dinardo's lust for legal drugs is not nearly like the love he has for his home city. "New York's my favorite city in the world," he says, without a hint of insincerity. "The feeling you get in New York, like just when the plane's coming back in and you see the city, you're just like, 'I wanna go out!' There's just no other city like it in the world." But like all New Yorkers, Dinardo also understands the difficulties of living in a city so dense and so full of music. "What pisses me off is that there's too much going on at once, and you can't really take it all in," he says. "It makes some people snotty and obnoxious. And that's not cool. All the bands are really competitive and you have to fend for yourself." The fact that fellow New Yorker Jesse Malin asked the band to join him on his current European tour proves just the opposite, though. Dinardo concedes, "[The New York scene] has always been good. I think it's just opened the floodgates now. They've let a lot of new artists come in, whereas before, it went so long before anything happened. When we played in England, though, they're like, 'Oh, another New York band.' I'm going to start telling people we're from Westchester," he laughs. Being just another band from New York raises other issues as well. This month, it'll be a year since the band's Octone Records debut, Thank You, Goodnight! came out in the States. The album, which was also released earlier this year in the United Kingdom, seems to have received better press overseas than it has stateside. Is this the result of so many bands from one city and one scene that it's too difficult to distinguish one from another? For WLM, their problem seems to be just the opposite - their lack of similarity to their compatriots. "Everybody needs something to attach to," explains Dinardo. "I think that's why a lot of people don't write about us sometimes, because a lot of critics can't find those comparisons. They need that, that's how they explain to their readers what a band is like, and when they can't, they get annoyed with it, and just say, 'Oh, I hate it'." But while WLM is different, their music's not all that complicated. "All the best songwriters, the ones we listen to, are more basic," says Dinardo. "Like with the Beatles songs, or even Outkast, there's that one thing that happens on it, and nothing ever really changes. Something really good over three chords." Despite the simplicity, "There is a huge contrast between songs on the album, especially compared to what people expect. They get annoyed cause they just want one thing. That's the thing about Led Zeppelin or Aerosmith with "Walk this Way" and then "Dream On". People did that back then; people aren't doing it anymore. They're freaked out by variety. Like The White Stripes - it's all this one thing." WLM's songwriting isn't the only thing that makes the band akin to The Beatles. They have a knack for making the young girls scream. WLM's a bit rougher around the edges, yes, but so are the girls that adore them. Same pheromone phenomenon - just with a different generation. And while Mark Lewis's untrimmed guitar strings are characteristic of this band's untamed aesthetic, his backing vocals are often more stunning than Harley's leads, earning the band comparisons to the vocal dynamic between U2's Bono and The Edge. Although Dinardo admits to earlier hangovers, post evening power naps, there's never a lack of energy. By the time the band takes the stage, they're ready to rock out, really putting their all into a show - whether it be a European arena or a small, dark Lower East Side haunt. From Dinardo's ass-shaking for the hipster girlies in the front row, to Lewis's unbelievable on-his-knees guitar antics, the band always forges ahead at full speed, with their only worry being whether their audience can keep up. February 2004
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