Flash Lightnin'
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Flash Lightnin'

Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Established. Jan 01, 2006 | INDIE | AFM

Toronto, Ontario, Canada | INDIE | AFM
Established on Jan, 2006
Band Rock Blues

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This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

Press


"Toronto Torch Bearer: Flash Lightnin' Darren Glover"

Darren Glover may be the luckiest guitarist currently stalking the dream of rock supremacy. Propelled by Glover’s cutthroat approach to blues-rock guitar, his band, Flash Lightnin’, was seemingly hand-delivered by the music industry from humble beginnings playing boogie-rock covers at a Toronto dive bar. The band has graduated to opening for major acts touring the Great White North, including ZZ Top, whose songs the group used to cover. Flash Lightnin’ has released a pair of albums, including the recent For the Sinners, which was written in the rarefied air of Rancho De La Luna, the Joshua Tree, California, recording studio that spawned some of the best rock albums of the past 20 years.

A consummate student of anything great bled from the combination of a ’burst and a Marshall, Glover has successfully melded vintage tradition and modern style. While the band has yet to break stateside, Glover may well be your next favorite player. - Premiere Guitar


"Album Preview"

A few years ago, Toronto-based boogie-rock revivalists Flash Lightnin' arrived on the Canadian music scene with a bang, thanks in part to opening performances alongside the likes of Eagles of Death Metal and Metric, as well as their raucous 2010 self-titled debut. Now, after a four-year gap in recording, the thunderous twosome are ready to issue their sophomore effort. For the Sinners arrives April 29 through Pheromone Recordings. While you wait, stream the album in full on Exclaim.ca.

While their previous LP was recorded with Metric six-stringer Jimmy Shaw, the band joined forces with Juno Award-winning producer Gavin Brown (the Tragically Hip, Billy Talent) — who also happened to play drums on the record — to create their newest LP. After writing more than 30 songs for Sinners, Flash Lightnin' proceeded to further pare down the album's track size and record only 10 of their best songs for the new album. The result is a heady and heavy mix of cocksure rock'n'roll, and one that a press release notes fully captures the band's "electrifying live sound."

Starting out with the crackling chords of album opener "Last Breath," the riff-heavy outfit shocks listeners with an array of FM-ready desert rock ("On the Radio"), heartfelt acoustic ballads ("Hard Feelings") and socio-economic scorchers ("Born with Money").

Hear For the Sinners in its entirety in the player below, and just in time for 4/20, download the band's druggy album standout "Let's Get High" by clicking on the SoundCloud link underneath that.

Catch Flash Lightnin' in person with Sleepy Sun and Foreign Diplomats on May 8 at Toronto's Dakota Tavern as part of this year's CMW. They will also play Victoria's Rock the Shores fest on July 13 and BC's Pemberton Music Festival on July 18. - exclaim


"ZZ TOP / FLASH LIGHTNIN' SHOW REVIEW"

Toronto's Flash Lightnin', featuring Victoria native Darren Glover on guitar and vocals, warmed up the crowd nicely with some blues rock of their own, coming across, at best, as a low-rent Queens of the Stone Age (still the equivalent of a pretty good band) and, at worst, a high-rent Danko Jones. Confidence got them a long way, however, as did pure determination, with Glover tackling flirty guitar solos that had the crowd buzzing when the trio finished their set. - EXCLAIM


Discography

Destello - EP - 2008 - Pheromone Recordings
Flash Lightnin' - LP - 2009 - Pheromone Recordings

For The Sinners - LP - 2014 - Pheromone Recordings 

Photos

Bio

Flash Lightnin’

For the Sinners, Flash Lightnin’s second full-length effort is the antithesis to the aural pablum that passes for modern rock today.

Check out the first single, “One Pill.”

It’s a tale of addiction—whether a reliance on drugs, sex, or the affection of the wrong person—and how the afflicted exist one slip from the edge.

On the track, Darren Glover (guitars/vocals), Darcy Yates (bass), and producer Gavin Brown (who does double duty on the record, both twiddling the knobs and pummeling the drums) sound as ruthless and unyielding as a junkie with a serious jones. But it’s the infectious “On the Radio” that reveals Flash Lightnin’s game plan: to reach as many music fans as possible.

Glover and Yates formed Flash Lightnin’ in 2007. In the early days, the band maintained a mid-week residency at Toronto’s Dakota Tavern. Each week, music fans crowded the basement bar to witness Glover’s mesmerizing guitar work as the band blistered through sets of obscure classic rock.

In 2008, the group dropped Destello. This quick and dirty EP introduced the band’s own brand of “bad-ass-sludge-boogie” and captured its killer live show in a physical format.

The strength of that recording earned Flash Lightnin’ opening slots for the likes of Eagles of Death Metal, Metric, and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, and even accolades from Glover’s idol, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons.

In 2010, the band teamed up with Metric’s Jimmy Shaw to produce its full-length eponymous debut. A more refined effort, Flash Lightnin’ garnered radio plays around the globe, and its hemi-powered title cut appears in blockbuster movies such as Thor, Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows, and the Schwarzenegger comeback flick, The Last Stand.

This success has only made them hungry for more. They enlisted Gavin Brown to produce. Brown pushed the band members to dig deep, refine their songwriting, and accept only the highest standard. The new album delivers, with stadium-ready bangers (“Last Breath”), stripped-down acoustic ballads (“Hard Feelings”), and working-class anthems (“Born With Money”) that reveal the band’s far-reaching influences and its commercial viability.

The songs are aggressive, succinct, and delivered straight from the gut. The record bristles with intensity. It’s the sound of three killer musicians pushing the envelope and playing like their lives depend on it; the result is electrifying.

One listen and it’s obvious that Flash Lightnin’ aren’t willing to settle for good enough, almost there, or second best. And neither should you.

Band Members