By Daniel Kolm of ARKLIGHT — Introduction by Jason Lee — Arklight pictured above
THE QUEENS GAMBIT: I mean, sure, Brooklyn & Manhattan get most of the shine. The Boogie Down Bronx is the most real. Staten Island’s hardly real if you don’t live there already, however unfairly.
And then there’s Queens ahhh Queens cuz there’s just something about NYC’s largest borough (by sheer mass) that breeds the extremes, extremes that can be heard in the raw ’n’ relentless underground sounds that’ve oft emerged from there like for starters: Anthrax. Nas. Ramones. Run-D.M.C. Sick of It All. Simon & Garfunkel and other dirt people…
…which maybe’s got sumphin’ to do with it being the most linguistically diverse place on Earth supposedly—its residents hailing from over 120 countries; speaking over 160 languages and that’s just in Jackson Heights—yet it’s a place you can get bored in too…
…sometimes chaotic, sometimes insular with its set-apart ethnic neighborhoods and hard hat contingents w/some parts of Queens being downright suburban. Either way, music venues are few and far between, besides in Ridgewood (adjacent to Bushwick, BK) so get ready to commute if live music’s yr thing tho’ if you play inna band or other type of combo, rehearsal spaces (better yet basements) are easier to find plus more affordable vs. elsewhere (arguable but the Deli lived in Elmhurst for 5+ years so we know a thing or two!) thus making it a good place to form your own underground (or plot forming one elsewhere) far from trendier areas, which only goes in hand-in-hand with the borough’s long history of hosting countless lil’ hidden-away private Idahos…
[Editor’s note: yes, this video makes use of some grotesque AI, and it goes a little heavy on the “everything was so much better back in my day,” but it’s the best vid we could find for laying out some of the geography of Queens’ historical ethnic enclaves…]
…with it being just this peculiar mix of overstimulation and boredom, isolation and chaos, that makes Queens such a perfect breeding ground for uncompromising music in an uncompromising locale cuz, ya see, Queens don’t f*** around (that’s our story and we’re sticking to it!) like how the Ramones proudly wrote songs about sniffing glue and being aimless J.D.’s in Forest Hills, while Nas took pride in coming “straight outta the fukking dungeons of rap” a/k/a the Queensbridge Projects on Illmatic…
…which brings us to our actual subject: 1) the Queens-based band Arklight, if briefly; 2) Arklight’s guitarist/vocalist Daniel Kolm; and 3) and Daniel’s picks for the five best underground singles from NYC this year. And now here’s a photo montage…
It all started with our desire to solicit a “Best of” column on music hidden away in some of the secret nooks ‘n’ crannies of NYC’s underground we haven’t gotten around to here yet (with one exception) and we had an idea where to go. Queens, duh!
Daniel grew up and still lives in Queens (we think) and has the skewered sensibility and facial hair to prove it. Still, this ain’t gonna be a list of Queens music but rather one guided by its sensibility wherever it circulates, which for Daniel is largely among his longtime buds in longtime Queens-based noise-rock-sometimes-just-plain-noisy band Arklight—which also includes oft-shirtless brother Gregory Kolm on drums; ever-debonair non-blood-relation Jonathan Mastrojohn on bass who we believe to be Mephistopheles in slight disguise no foolin’; with additional guitaring by Noah Smith inna position once held by now-LA based Max Kostaras (get it? got it. good!)—a collective who’ve been making music & other sounds perfectly in keeping with the underground Queens ethos for a decade-plus…
Anyway, there’s a brief little intro to Arklight with a brief lil’ “outer borough” think-piece detour via the 7 line to Flushing, Queens assuming you nod off and ride it to the end of the line just to help establish the fact that Dan’s da man for this job or one of ‘em anyway. And with no further ado:
DANIEL: The overall theme? Repetition and simplicity. There are no prog rock epics or meandering ambient pieces here, these are short songs with two main parts (verse and chorus) and maybe a freakout or rough bridge thrown in to spice things up for a few seconds before we get back to the hook.
These songs have been played over and over ‘til they’re tight as a closely mic’d kick drum, but the bands still play them with intensity and abandon. That’s the only way they know how to play. These are songs recorded by a band in a room. You can hear the walls of the practice space closing in on you, covered in tattered set lists and flyers for the 500 gigs these bands all played within a 10 block radius of Bushwick this year. There is no escape from the internet, our phones, or our capitalist death dance, but we can still thrash into the walls to feel something, however briefly.
Short Porch – Final Human
Short Porch paint with a Dad Rock palette (Faces, Thin Lizzy, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Led Zeppelin), but stab hard at the canvas with the attack of a post-punk band; the synth poking through the guitars on this one like a late period Fall song. The singer is no Mr. Mark E. Smith though. This fella isn’t interested in street poetry, he’s telling you very direct stories about desperate losers with a bunker mentality, buying shotguns off Craigslist to prepare for the doom to which they will inevitably succumb. Also, this guitar solo is the best, cause the motherfucker can play for real and instead of stopping, he just keeps soloing the rest of the goddamn song. Why stop when you’re this good?
(From the album Hot & Ready, self released, 2025, www.shortporch.bandcamp.com)
Star Card – Even the Sun Can Hurt You
“Why do the church bells ring at 8 fucking 30?” Good line. Singer Calley delivers plenty more of them, in a clear, throaty voice, over the course of this sugar rush of a song. The bass is buzzing and heavy, the guitars squeak and wheeze at interesting points and the drums keep everything moving briskly, a lost Veruca Salt song, found just in time for the death of our Trash World.
(From the album Trash World, Already Dead Tapes & Records, 2025, www.alreadydeadtapes.bandcamp.com/album/trash-world)
Crab – Smash
I admire bands that can sound drunken and loose while playing some pretty complex shit. Squirrel Bait, Polvo, Volcano Suns, Death of Samantha, Sebadoh, Archers of Loaf, all that good post-Replacements stuff that got rid of any lingering whiff of Springsteen “Americana” and played something on the edge of skronky math rock, but also, just on the edge of a collapsing bar band. This red hot track fits into that grandiloquent tradition of falling down the stairs and sounding damn good doing it.
(From the album ApeApeApeApeApe, self released, 2025, www.crabnyc.bandcamp.com)
Drop Her – Drop Her
Sonically mending the thin musical membrane that connects ‘80s ‘ethereal’ music like Cocteau Twins with the more direct sounds of ‘60s psych rock à la the Jefferson Airplane, Drop Her are an absolute sumptuous delight. Dive into their sound world and feel the jewel-encrusted walls to find your bearings, trace the bioluminescent glint of their searing guitar leads, and hope your eyes adjust to the darkness.
(From the album Canyon of Fire, self released, www.dropher.bandcamp.com)
Some of Mine – Curly
Machinist drumming, one-note bass part, two-note guitar part, distorted screaming. This is absolutely perfect music for the self-flagellating minimalist in all of us. Cut the shit, jettison the unnecessary, eat dirt, shave your head, throw yourself on the ground and cry. Repeat as necessary.
(From the EP Some Demos, self released, 2025, www.someofmine.bandcamp.com)
*****
Daniel Kolm is the singer/guitarist of Arklight, a noise rock quartet based in Astoria, Queens. Follow them on Instagram @arklightnyc and check them out at www.arklight.bandcamp.com)