Lucid Furs Song Premiere: “Wait”

The Lucid Furs self-identify as “Detroit Freak Rock,” which can best be described as a refreshingly psychedelic spin on hard rock with a dash of metal. The local quartet is releasing their second album this weekend. The suggestive title No God? No Problem may seem to indicate a mix of the sinister and nihilistic, but don’t jump to any cultish conclusions, because it’s more nuanced than that. 

The Lucid Furs’ new album will be available on all platforms starting tomorrow, and the lead single is called “Wait.”

The eerie ambiance of its first 30 seconds transports you into a post-apocalyptic film. Dan Regenauer’s drums set a determined stride and Gordie Kasza’s guitar crackles like an abandoned bonfire glowing in the dark before the dawn. Karen O’Connor’s powerful voice and urgent lyrics start pulling you in, and then, after that first verse of incantation-like vocals, Norbert Joseph Kuhr’s bass gets a fierce solo. You feel a tension in your shoulder, fists coming to a clench, and suddenly everything explodes and ascends.

While your ears may have categorized this band as “heavy,” or “metal,” or both, it’s refreshing to know that this album doesn’t extoll the typical mysticism or dark magic characteristic to those genres, but instead holds to the known principles of science. Even if those guitars sound like they’re snarling, and there’s mention of “Original Sin,” this is not a Satanic song, nor a Satanic album. It’s a resistance against the instant-gratification culture that we’ve been indoctrinated into via social media platforms, online retailers, and the slew of streaming services beckoning for our subscriptions. The urgency of the tracks is meant to take a hold of you, wake you up, and shake you loose from the allure of any kind of creed, cult, religion, political party, or even zealous worship of a band. No God? No problem.

Lucid Furs’ new album was recorded, mixed, and mastered at Toneworks studios in Sterling Heights, engineered by its owner Emilio Diaz. Diaz also recorded their debut album, This Ain’t No Mating Dance. The band first formed three years ago, but this current lineup solidified in 2017. When they’re not working out songs in their practice space, dubbed “The Hive Colony,” they’ve been hitting the road to perform around the continental U.S.

They have some new projects in the works, including material for a third album, already. They’re heading out on their fifth tour, which will take them into the Southwest. Copies of No God? No Problem will be at Small’s tonight and will be available online.