Bolides in District Weekly

There is an article on The Bolides by Chris Ziegler in the new District Weekly.

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Here's the cover:

THE SWEET SCIENCE
August 15th, 2007

The Bolides just cause devastation
By Chris Ziegler

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PHOTO by JENNIE WARREN

When nuggets come rattling in from outer space, they must be called bolides—that's the technical term for "a solid nickel meteorite that won't break up in the atmosphere and will just cause devastation," explains Bolides singer/guitarist Dr. Micro Fiche. Behind him, drummer Dr. Drummond has two of those little laser pointers/synthesizeristers that come with stickers warning you not to shine them directly into your eyes. He is shining them directly into his eyes.

This is just another night at the lab for the Long Beach band with the scientific shtick, and the only guy who isn't wearing glasses is wearing a microsurgeon's flashlight strapped to his forehead. Their 10 years of synth-stimulated rock & roll came just a little too late to align alongside revered inspirations like the Mummies and Devo, but that inherited pile of bile and science still combines to make the Bolides the determined and learned men they are. ("We all met at the League of Extraordinary Genitals," explains Fiche. Entrance exam? "No," says bassist Dr. Shrink Wray. "Weight requirement." Any message for the aspiring scientists still in school? "Don't worry," says Wray, "it'll grow.")

Kim Fowley could have done something with this: white-coated gutter geeks into fringe tech (Fiche drags out a scarred Korg keytar that handles like a capsized kayak; guitarist Dr. Philip D. Chi Chi keeps a new theremin quivering in the practice shed) who used to cover "Mr. Pharmacist" (the song that asks what science can do for you!) and who chunk out caveman originals like "Mind Ctrl Alt Delete" and "Relaxative" that substitute their own unknowns into ? and the Mysterians.

"I've always been into sci-fi movies, B-movie UFOs—and magic!" says Fiche, who in part of his out-of-character daytime life designed a T-shirt that perfectly details his character: a computer keyboard and a synthesizer keyboard mated seamlessly in the middle. "I always felt pretty nerdy—always had something stupid to say!"

But that was a long time ago, he adds cheerfully—now as the voice of the Bolides, he joins these three noted locals (all Long Beach-area musicians easily identified if unmasked, with discographies that pre-date even tenure in the Bolides) in a band that perforates its anxiety attacks ("The anti-depressants don't make her feel very pleasant," went an old song) with sharp punchlines and plenty of short pauses for Fiche to slip in a for-the-fun-of-it scream ("Giga-giga-bytes!" delivered at rat-a-tat stutter).

A no-quark-left-uncharmed set at the Bigfoot Lodge so boggled Dionysus Records' Lee Joseph that he set up the release of the Bolides' one and only official document—2004's Science Under Pressure, a full-length as much space junk as it is trog rock. Ever since (and after the amiable departure of original member Dr. Osiris) the Bolide research team has been chasing "cologne for clones" (thanks, Shrink) and an ass for the ASIMO robot, by subdivision U.S. Robuttocks (thanks, Fiche).

There's also a recorded live set at Alex's Bar and new demos toward a possible album that Fiche hopes point toward a newly technological sound something closer to Trans Am, though he can't get them to play right now. And their fog machine doesn't want to work, either. So to get the appropriately dramatic effect they want—it makes the lasers look better—the Bolides divvy up a pack of cigarettes and start smoking. As they say—science marches on.

THE BOLIDES WITH SUPERNOVA, THINKING ALOUD AND PISTOLERO ALEX'S BAR | 2913 E ANAHEIM ST | LONG BEACH 90804 | ALEXSBAR.COM | FRI 9PM | $7 OR $5 IF YOU WEAR TINFOIL | 21+

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