"We just lost our minds and we never got them back." In so few words, guitarist Drew St. Ivany encapsulates the colossal mind-screw that was Laddio Bolocko, a late '90s NYC noise-rock band before being a NYC band was even remotely cool again. In Laddio Bolocko was the raging firestorm of '60s free jazz and psych rock, the motorik pounding of '70s Krautrock and whatever else fed the foursome's deranged noise a full decade before any combination of such stuff became de rigueur.
St. Ivany made a point to record anything and everything Laddio Bolocko played in the studio, in practice spaces or onstage. Some of these became extremely limited CDs, but most were left in boxes. Live and Unreleased 1997-2000 collects a bit more from the archives, including a live DVD, and truly presents a rare sonic chemistry in these musicians who came from Craw and Dazzling Killmen and went onto to form bands like The Mars Volta, The Psychic Paramount and Electric Turn to Me.
The live footage filmed by Aran Tharp is grainy and grueling, much like the sick groove laid down in this performance of "Nurser" from Sweden in 2000. It comes from the band's final year, at the absolute height of Laddio Bolocko's powers, burning with white-hot intensity that turns surreal.
Live and Unreleased 1997-2000 comes out Dec. 4 on No Quarter.
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