LSD&D, Wednesday & Saturday, July 16 & 19

[July 16th, 2008]

[PSYCH-METAL] Getting the five members of LSD&D around the same table can be a dangerous thing. Especially when it leads to a freewheeling, PBR-fueled conversation that veers from the risks of dating bisexual women (“For every one minute of pleasure, there’s an hour of conversation”) to naming their demo (the frontrunners are The Dragon’s Anvil and Designing Women) to dueling Burgess Meredith impressions.

The intense chemistry the band members have with one another is an extension of what they exude during LSD&D’s furious live shows. Although the band’s only been together a scant few months, its singular brand of psych metal is already a force to be reckoned with—primarily due to Seantos McDonald’s intense vocals and the heated interplay between guitarists Mark Foeller and Billy Glenn.

That rapport stems from the fact that LSD&D’s members (including drummer Mike Albano and bassist Alex Fast) are longtime veterans of the Portland rock scene, crossing paths on many an occasion. This includes a time McDonald played a rare solo set opening for Glenn’s old band, Stoned Juicer, at a thrift store/coffee shop/porn outlet in Lincoln City. (Glenn: “I remember that! There were those two chicks on the huge bed with ropes and dildos.”)

Foeller says they wanted McDonald, a longtime friend, in the band because of his fearless performances fronting long-running experimental psych group Starantula. According to McDonald—a storied local bartender and handlebar-mustachioed “legend” of Portland Organic Wrestling (see “Grudge Match,” WW, March 1, 2006)—that made him more wary than flattered: “I figured I’d sit down with them and see what happens. If it turned out to be the same thing as all the other bands I’ve been in, I’d forget about it.”

The singer obviously liked what he heard, as LSD&D is in the midst of laying down tracks for the aforementioned demo, with the aim of fighting the “douchery” rampant in the world of indie rock. “My mother’s 60,” says MacDonald, “and she loves indie music. Man, if you’re in your mid-20s and my mother likes your music, that means your music sucks. And if you don’t print that, then fuck you, Bob!” Consider it done, Seantos.