Indie rock act The Lightning Struck’s sound didn’t happen by accident. In 2000, frontman Loren Davie moved to New York City after listening to The Velvet Underground and Nico one too many times. Over two decades of making music there later, Loren returned to his hometown of Toronto and brought the city’s sound with him. He formed The Lightning Struck with old friends Michael Milanetti and Blitz, and the trio were soon joined by Aussie expat drummer Liam Baidon.

Debut full-length, bolt from the blue, is a straightforward rock release that treads a fine line between groove and noise – two genres that serve as essential to the band’s identity. While this could arguably be dubbed as a pandemic album, it’s more of a recovery album. There is a struggle to come to terms with our current world both as a society and on a personal level. bolt from the blue explores our anxieties and negotiation with the world as we find it now.

Groovy focus track, “Rock n Roll Ending,” looks at the 21st century situation of “burnout” – read as: systemic exploitation – and rejects it entirely. “Don’t want a culture where we eat our young,” Loren protests. “Caught in a web of scams before we’ve begun.”