Rockets and Bluelights (Close at Hand)

Rockets and Bluelights may go down as my favorite band of all time. They have everything I am looking for, mostly because I know so little about them. I have been scouring google.com trying to find more about them – mentions of them in lists, bands they played with, hopefully a concert review – but I have found very little. There are only scattered facts.

First, they take their name from a painting. This is that painting:


The painting’s full title is “Rockets and Blue Lights (Close at Hand) to Warn Steamboats of Shoal Water.” It was done in 1840 by a British painter named Joseph Mallord William Turner. Turner lived from 1775 to 1851, and “Rockets” was done in oil on canvas. Here is a description of the painting I also found:

This dramatic painting is an excellent example of Turner's interest in the sea and its uncontrollable power. On the left of the painting waves crash onto the shore and up against a harbor wall while exploding rockets and blue lights warn passing ships of the dangers they might encounter in these treacherous conditions. On the far right we can just make out the frail-looking mast of a sailboat in trouble, battered by the waves. In the center of the canvas another vessel can be seen, a steamer whose funnel belches smoke that curls up like a tornado into the stormy sky. Turner focuses our attention on the waves and the smoke and the spray, but on the left-hand edge of the painting he has also included two groups of figures -- a line of men struggling to salvage something from the waves and a ragged assortment of onlookers staring anxiously and helplessly at the approaching storm.

The painting is owned by The Clark Art Institute, which is somewhere in Massachusetts – suspiciously close to the band’s hometown, of Albany, New York. This painting is the first interesting thing about Rockets and Bluelights.

I can’t find a lineup for Rockets and Bluelights anywhere, although I am sure their lead singer (?) is named Enoch and another member is Dave. I believe them to be a four piece group. They had a website at www.rocketsandbluelightscloseathand.cjb.net (linked to www.geocities.com/rocketsandbluelightscloseathand/)– which is now defunct. They have only one official release: a 10” red vinyl EP, released in 2003. From online searches I have found they played shows with Rainer Maria, Q And Not U, and others.

I have only come in contact with them twice. I met them at a party once, before I had heard their record. Then, I met them at the Redder Metaphysics for Beginnners release show at the Bug Jar. At the Bug Jar, they showed up really late. Kalpana, the Pink Cammies, We Ragazzi, and the Tight Phantomz had already played, but Rockets pulled up in their dilapidated shortbus, unloaded and played a set on the floor, down with the people.

Luckily, I had some money that day. I bought their 8 song CDR. It was handmade, with music notes stenciled in red on the disc, furnished in a paper stapled sleeve with an airbrushed painting of a canoe on the cover. The liner notes were a scrap of paper photocopied, in punk tradition.

They also sold me a beautiful patch, with the picture of a piano scribbled on to it, although it was carefully screen printed. The band’s name is scratched into the design, with hand being crossed out the first time and then written again.

They then sold me a cassette tape, billed as an “acoustic performance.” The tape came in a small plastic case with a seven pointed star painted on it. Oddly, the tape is a dermatology lecture. It says “Audio Digest Foundation: Practical Dermatology Part II – Internal Medicine Vol. 34 No. 1 C.1987.” The liner notes for this appear to be a scrap of wallpaper. On one side it says “bluelights-tour hotmail” which presumably was their email address (I found it to bounce). The other side is a track listing: estes pic, crimson red, storms at bay, unkabuh (?), music box, wintermission. WRPL Troy 1.25.2004: bow wow, snow, estes pic.

The CDR is fantastic. The first four songs are unique to the CDR, while the last four are their “A Smashed City” 10” as released on Redder. The track listing is: Apples, Henchmen, What They Made You Mean, Now This Year, Midnight Blue (aka A Smashed City), Andee, Forrest Green and Autumn, We Bleed This In The Winter. The tracks fit together so well, going and stoping. They are vary in length and dynamics.

It is emo in the traditional sense. It is emo music circa 1994, sadly almost out of date. And this is another thing about Rockets and Bluelights – there is a sense that the band is obsolete before it began. They don’t play emo as it is known today and will be known in the future (read the wikipedia.com listing on emo music and its tragic endnote that history will be defined by the victors, the new Dashboard Confessionals and new My Chemical Romances, not remembered for Still Life or Fugazi).

But the band wanted it to be like this. They refused to let Adam from Redder run ads for their record. Despite the records’ beautiful cover and liner notes, they were unsatisfied with it. They wanted their note design to be screen printed on the inner dust sleeve. They preceded to hand-screen their first copies given by Adam. Because of this disagreement, and perhaps other factors, they wrote off the possibility of future Rockets releases on Redder, speaking of releasing a full length elsewhere. Of course, their 10” was Redder’s and Rockets’ first. Redder has gone on to release Kalpana, Summer at Shatter Creek, and The City on Film, while Rockets’ LP never materialized.

However, it worked. Honestly, I feel like I have two separate music collections now. One collection sits in a case: Sunny Day Real Estate, Jawbreaker, Built To Spill. Those albums are polished and commercial. Their covers are glossy. My second collection is my CDR, my 10”, my dermatology tape, and my scrap of cloth turned art piece. This is my real music collection. While Rockets deliberately wanted it to be like this, they wanted to be apart and special. I fell for it completely.

I posted once, a few months ago, to an Albany area punk message board. I asked how I could get in touch with Rockets. The most illuminating response, although I can’t remember it verbatim, directed me to attach my written message to a pigeon, wait a few days, and receive the response in the form of graffiti on the back wall of a Price Chopper in northern Albany. It wasn’t what I was expecting, but it was perfect.

But of course, with all this talk of the members of the band, how is the music? In a word: gorgeous.

Their 10”, which I just realized recently is called “A Smashed City With Flames And Music In The Air,” stands as great listening. And the vocals, I forgot to mention the vocals. They are lost in the music, but meant to play at high volume. They are crooned and screamed in a manner that seems easy, but on closer investigation exists only in a small margin of perfect. Actually, their use of vocals is rather similar to the way their labelmates, Kalpana, use vocals.

So, hear for yourself. Here is one song – track 5 on the CDR and track 1 on the 10”:

Rockets_and_Bluelights - "A_Smashed_Piano"

I would really love more information about Rockets and Bluelights. The former WGSU leader, Mike DiCaprio, a high school friend of the group who introduced them to Adam of Redder Records, once spoke of an acoustic side project of the band. I would love to hear that. I would also like some more show reviews, or an email address for the band members.

If there is no more Rockets and Bluelights, I will probably play this over and over again, then reach for their sonic peers: Braid, Boy’s Life, The Pine, The Promise Ring, Rainer Maria. The band will likely be forgotten. There will be no Propeller-esque registry of who has which chapter of the dermatology tape. Unsold boxes of Rockets 10”s will likely be crossed with boards to make a table to organize Redder releases, somewhere in Adam’s future apartment.

The latest word on Rockets is that they are on hiatus, but if the members of the bands are all present at an Albany-area show they can be coaxed into taking up instruments and playing a few of their songs. Perhaps if they reform they can release another 10” of their first 4 songs, to complete their composition. Additionally, if I find out more about them, I will update this article. I was hoping to write a less personal account of the band, but I figured I would never complete it. (Wait for my print zine!)

Buy their 10” and/or the Metaphysics for Beginners comp, which includes “Forrest Green and Autumn” at: www.redderrecords.com

Here are pictures of them from the Bug Jar show of May 2004: