THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “To Hell With Tomorrow The Lords Are Now! is The Lords Of Altamont’s first live album — recorded not from the stage but in the studio, with every mic and preamp in the house peaking in the red.
This isn’t another vague, distant-sounding live album with senseless stage banter and songs doctored up in post-production — this is more like an episode of Live At The BBC or a Peel Session. The band carefully chose songs that show who they are today, as well as where they have been for the last 23 years. Preproduction took a day, recording took a day — and then it was done. The result: An album that captures the true feeling of a Lords live recording with a no-nonsense approach. Sorry, kids — there are no stickers, no fake tattoos, and no autographs, just raw, live rock ’n’ roll.
But what else would you expect from The Lords of Altamont — a band born to bring forth raw rock ’n’ roll fury from the ultimate end to the era of peace and love. Billed as the “Woodstock of the West,” the infamous Altamont free concert on Dec. 6, 1969 was highlighted instead by heavy drugs , motorcycle chains and brass knuckles — and later punctuated with shoving matches and fist fights that quickly escalated out of control. This palpable sense of bawdy foreboding resulted in four births, four deaths and extensive property damage.
While the hippies had been grooving and mellowing out in the Bay Area, the forefathers of The Lords Of Altamont were playing high-energy rhythms in the beer-soaked venues of Detroit and the dingy clubs along L.A.’s Sunset Strip. Mid-’60s London R&B shares equal space with the scruffy ’70s N.Y.C. Bowery punk among the influences of The Lords. They take more cues from kids banging out primitive riffs on cheap guitars all across the U.S.A. in garages alongside chopped bikes and American V-8 muscle, the lingering exhaust fumes mixing with sweat to conjure the rare elixir of real rock ’n’ roll.
The story of the band that would come to be known as The Lords Of Altamont gets a proper start in late 1999. A son of Southern California and a veteran of the SoCal music scene, Jake “The Preacher” Cavaliere — with numerous garage and punk bands under his belt dating back to the late ’80s — enlisted Johnny DeVilla, fellow biker and bandmember of instro/surf sensations The Bomboras. Holding their first show at the legendary venue The Garage in Hollywood, they went on to tour as the support act for everyone from primitive rock ’n’ roll idols The Cramps to infamous rock gods The Who.
Through personnel changes featuring an incredible roster of talent — the late Michael Davis of The MC5 was a past member — and various adventures over the past 22+ years, The Lords Of Altamont continue to evolve their sound while staying true to their roots.”
