Heated Bones - Hot Lightning

Heated Bones

Hot Lightning
self-released; 2023

4.1 out of 5 - TOP ALBUM

By ​Dino DiMuro

Colorado “psych rockers” Heated Bones hasjust released their second album titled Hot Lightning. Calling themselves “a concept band with storytelling and wild theatrics,” Heated Bones’ previous incarnation was called The Guestlist and toured with bands like Fantastic Negrito, Black Pistol Fire and The Nude Party before getting sidelined by Covid. With their new name and lineup they released the self-titled Heated Bones last year, then jumped right onto this current project.

Though I have no band credits to go by, I can see from their Instagram page that the Heated Bones are a four-piece band featuring electric guitar and vocals, bass and vocals, keyboards and drums. They compare themselves to King Gizzard and the Arctic Monkeys. Their website features an amusing video of the lead guitarist dancing around outside with a tea cozy on his head.

The group’s Bandcamp blurb reads: “(We are) a genre-bending band that keeps your tootsies warm. A buncha nerds cooking the soup. BROTH ROCK.” That description felt like a total non sequitur until I played the album through, and I admit it does make a bit of sense. A Heated Bones track is generally built on simple two or three-chord progressions, with little direct separation between verse and chorus. The guitars are (at least) double-tracked and build up a kind of sonic stew when joined with the retro keyboard sounds. The vocals are mixed with a lot of reverb for a Radiohead kind of vibe. When played through, the songs all join seamlessly into a prog rock broth very much as promised. 

“Amalgamite” starts with a main keyboard riff that’s very close to Devo’s “Whip It” while the overall feel is similar to The Cars or Thomas Dolby. The lead singer/guitarist has a very nasal, English-sounding voice for a Colorado boy, but the petite choir he creates along with the bass player’s backing vocals is quite nice. Vocally you can imagine Sparks with more sincerity. This track is basically just two chords that build power with sheer repetition and judicious variations, mostly on guitar. The end of the song seamlessly crosses over into “Spring Dream” which is a much different pot of noodles. It’s a lush, spacey dream pop tune with small dollops of dissonance to keep things interesting. As opposed to the opening track, this one feels modern and radio friendly and may be my favorite track on the album. 

“Dazzle” changes things up yet again with an upbeat, jazz-rock ditty with lots of surprising chord changes a la Steely Dan. The ringing, warbling tones of the electric guitars once more lift the arrangement into the stratosphere, with the keyboards providing appropriately spacey backing. Toward the end the vocals pack some of the power and stridency of David Bowie. “Time” is a heavy, driving psychedelic rock tune with heavy riffs, pounding kick drums and (again) Sparks-style vocals. At this point I’ve totally bought into the band’s description of their music as “Broth Rock” as it does sound exactly like a boiling pot of rock tropes with new and unusual seasonings. It seems incredible that there’s just four guys making all this noise. 

The title track “Hot Lightning” fades in with rain sounds and Apocalypse Now-like helicopter blades. The song itself is built on a meandering but fun guitar riff that cycles back onto itself, rocking heavier on the choruses before morphing into a third entity that reminded me of classic guitar prog like Steve Hillage. This is Head Music that will have you tripping first thing in the morning with nothing stronger than coffee. Cool location sounds including dogs and more rain takes us into the final track “Berry” which is another psychedelic time capsule with roots as far back as The Zombies or Love. 

​Though I wasn’t sure what I was getting into, the Heated Bones quickly won me over, and you’ll have no regrets trusting them with the time to hear their awesome sophomore release!

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