Rhode Island Rocks: The Body bring their crushing sound to Connecticut

Photo by Richard Rankin

There is a loud and destructive force that has called Providence, Rhode Island home for the past 11 years. It includes the crushing weight of downtuned guitars and the pounding of drums. For the most part, the locals are quite proud with this force, and it seems like a lot of metal and loud rock fans are picking up on the Body’s destructive frequencies. So now, it’s time for Connecticut to submit to their will.

The Body, which is comprised of Chip King on guitars and vocals and Lee Buford, on drums, has been blowing eardrums and minds and ears. Their sound is one of the world coming down, the apocalypse brought to life, and it all started humbly enough for these two Arkansas transplants.

“Chip moved to Philly and I moved to Boston to go to school for a year. I ended up not liking Boston so I moved down to Providence where I seemed to like more of what was going on there way more than Boston. Eventually, Chip moved out of Philly and ended up in Providence, too,” said Buford.

You would think trading in those two major cities thriving loud rock scenes for Providence would hamper the duo’s creative opportunities, but, in fact, the Rhode Island capital has a thriving underground rock scene that seems to turn out edgy and wonderful loud rock bands at an alarming frequency. (Anyone remember the now unfortunately defunct Daughters and the current prog-sludge upcomers Howl, to just name two) So, it was a perfect fit for these two dudes.

“I think it’s a pretty small scene so there’s no division in terms of musical genres. We have a lot friend that play really great music that isn’t easy to classify and I think people kind of feed off of each other, too,” said Buford.

And the band’s ethos gels perfectly with the scene’s ethos.

“I think we fit in pretty well, we have a ton of Providence musicians on the record and we’re lucky to have really great friends here that are doing like minded things, maybe not musically, but thematically,” said Buford.

The record that Buford mentions in the above quote is called “All The Waters Of The Earth Turn To Blood”, and is the band’s latest and greatest. Released on the At A Loss label last year, it has garnered the band raves from such non-metal publications as Pitchfork, NPR and the New York Times. But there is truth in the title as the music contained on this disc is dark, heavy and scary, brimming with hymns for the end times.

It also features a bunch of Providence musicians and various other instruments, but the biggest contribution comes from the Assembly Of Light Choir, which is a full-fledged female choir whose voices are used to great effect on the record.

“Chrissy Wolpert, who started the choir up, is a great friend of ours and has been on other records of ours in the past. She was getting the choir going around the same time we started recording, so we both evolved in unison. I love the way the choir pieces worked out. We just went on a tour with them and seeing them every night was unreal,” said Buford.

In fact, the first seven minutes of the CD are taken up by the Choir’s angelic voices, before Chip and Lee weigh with their drums and guitars on the song “A Body”. But that isn’t the total highlight of disc. On the last track, “Lathspell I Name You”, Chip and Lee lay down a bludgeoning sound right before the choir kicks in at the half way point of this 14 minute song and totally takes it an epic sounding direction. It’s quite a way to end an already excellent CD.

It’s also interesting to note that the band’s live show differs from their recorded output. Live, it is all about the volume, while the studio is more a place to experiment for the duo. Buford affirms this thought.

“We can’t achieve the feeling of a live show as far as volume, so we have to come up with other ways to come up with the same feeling without relying on our equipment,” he said.

Right now, the band has a few other projects they will be working on, including a collaborative record with Braveyoung, that will see light in the fall, as well record another record with a friend named Steve, who plays with them sometimes on tour and Neill from Krieg for a record that will be released on their own Aum War label. So look out for those. It doesn’t look these two will be slowing down any time soon.

“We’re best friends so it’s pretty easy to keep going. I don’t know what we’d do, if we didn’t do this,” said Buford.

So get down to Daniel Street early, not only to catch great local opener Ferocious Fucking Teeth, but also to catch this crazy duo when they take the stage before headliners Harvey Milk. You will be glad you did.

Manic Productions Presents:

Harvey Milk
The Body
Ferocious Fucking Teeth

Tuesday, July 12
Daniel Street
21 Daniel Street, Milford, CT
8:00 pm – 21+ - $12 ($10 advance)