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Transformer Lootbag: "Crowning the Ant King"
I'd sort of forgotten how noisy Transformer Lootbag were until they got to this song. They're pretty noisy, as it turns out! It got me wondering what the Madison scene might've been like around the beginning of the decade, though -- with these guys, System and Station, Hum Machine, old Rainer Maria, among others, I suspect it was generally more ramshackle and forehead-poking than it is now. This is pure speculation, of course, as I guess there could've been a wave of folk acts controlling the city right up until I moved here, but I doubt it.
Transformer Lootbag: new song
This one I think is new -- it's not on their LP, it's kind of short and is instrumental for its first half, so I'd guess it's a work in progress -- and I like where they're going with it. There's an angularness to these guys that's kind of disappeared in the last few years that I'd like to see come back. Coincidentally, I'm listening to White Denim at the moment, in advance of their upcoming High Noon appearance, and they've got a bit of it. The one thing I really wanted to mention, though, is the beard on bassist Steven Riches. If you go looking for info on this band you may see older pictures of them featuring a much smaller beard; what once was plain is now truly a sight to behold. While they were setting up I told my wife that I wanted to have a tenure beard like that one day, and it's true. The only problem is, unfortunately, my facial hair doesn't grow quite that straight, so it may not work. I can dream, though.
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Location: Madison, WI, United States
Formed in: 1996
Label: Science of Sound
Matt Abplanalp, Steve Riches and Ricky Riemer have been making music together since high school, and in early 1996 they assembled themselves as a three-piece band named Transformer Lootbag. Always looking for new sounds and ways to combine them, the band writes angular music using their instruments in unconventional fashions and labyrinths for arrangements, but their songs sound more effortless and catchy than complicated. Over the years the band has released its puzzles of sound on internationally distributed compilations, singles and home-produced recordings and has enjoyed playing shows with bands such as Mike Watt, U.S. Maple, Mudhoney, Deerhoof, Melt Banana, Sicbay, The Flying Luttenbachers and Numbers at various venues around the Midwest. In 2003 TLB recorded themselves and released their self-titled, nine-song debut album-- the only full-length that made it out of their enormous hidden vault of material.
"It's not easy to get on stage after Transformer Lootbag rocks well in Beefheartian and Minutemen fashion." - Vince Meghrouni of Mike Watt and the Pair of Pliers
"Madison, Wis.'s Transformer Lootbag sounds like a dangerously unbalanced Ferris wheel translated into pop music. The dexterous trio's proclivity for rapid-fire, herky-jerk dynamics conjures visions of Fugazi coupled with Akron-era Devo."
- The Austin Chronicle
