Biography
Black Pus serves as the solo outlet for Lightning Bolt drummer and visual artist Brian Chippendale, delivering sounds that prove even more abrasive and ferocious than his primary band. Launched during the mid-2000s as a home-recording experiment amid Lightning Bolt’s already hectic touring and release schedule, the project provided Chippendale an avenue for channeling his excess of chaotic, unrestrained sonic ideas. Functioning on an irregular basis, Black Pus evolved from its initial lo-fi experiments into full-length efforts such as the 2024 Thrill Jockey album Terrestrial Seethings.
Chippendale inaugurated the project in 2005 by capturing performances at home and stacking his rapid-fire drumming against multiple tracks of free jazz saxophone. These sessions produced a run of Black Pus CD-Rs that surfaced beginning in early 2006. While continuing to devote substantial energy to Lightning Bolt’s live commitments and recordings, Chippendale gradually expanded the Black Pus catalog, incorporating live performances and a series of limited releases. By 2011 he had streamlined his solo methodology, abandoning the jazz instrumentation in favor of drum-mounted electronics that generated dense, abrasive textures to support his pounding percussion and distorted vocals. That revised approach defined the first official full-length, Primordial Pus, issued in 2011 on the Providence, Rhode Island imprint Load Records.
Chippendale returned in 2013 with All My Relations, the clearest and most polished presentation of his characteristically abrasive material up to that point, this time appearing on Thrill Jockey Records. The next year brought a split LP with Chicago thrash/noise metal outfit Oozing Wound alongside an LP reissue of the 2012 tour-only edition Pus Mortem. With the arrival of the 2020s, additional archival Black Pus material received wider reissues, while Chippendale also joined forces with Ty Segall in the duo Wasted Shirt. In 2024 the project resurfaced with Terrestrial Seethings, again on Thrill Jockey, revisiting Chippendale’s foundational methods through ragged improvisation, layered overdubs, prominent bass-heavy keyboard motifs, explosive drumming, and cyclical, hypnotic patterns.
Chippendale inaugurated the project in 2005 by capturing performances at home and stacking his rapid-fire drumming against multiple tracks of free jazz saxophone. These sessions produced a run of Black Pus CD-Rs that surfaced beginning in early 2006. While continuing to devote substantial energy to Lightning Bolt’s live commitments and recordings, Chippendale gradually expanded the Black Pus catalog, incorporating live performances and a series of limited releases. By 2011 he had streamlined his solo methodology, abandoning the jazz instrumentation in favor of drum-mounted electronics that generated dense, abrasive textures to support his pounding percussion and distorted vocals. That revised approach defined the first official full-length, Primordial Pus, issued in 2011 on the Providence, Rhode Island imprint Load Records.
Chippendale returned in 2013 with All My Relations, the clearest and most polished presentation of his characteristically abrasive material up to that point, this time appearing on Thrill Jockey Records. The next year brought a split LP with Chicago thrash/noise metal outfit Oozing Wound alongside an LP reissue of the 2012 tour-only edition Pus Mortem. With the arrival of the 2020s, additional archival Black Pus material received wider reissues, while Chippendale also joined forces with Ty Segall in the duo Wasted Shirt. In 2024 the project resurfaced with Terrestrial Seethings, again on Thrill Jockey, revisiting Chippendale’s foundational methods through ragged improvisation, layered overdubs, prominent bass-heavy keyboard motifs, explosive drumming, and cyclical, hypnotic patterns.
Albums
Terrestrial Seethings
2024
Improvised Curses
2023
L.I.M.C.
2021
Def Vesper
2020
Fungus II
2020
All My Relations
2013
Pus Mortem
2012
Primordial Pus
2011
Black Pus 0, Ultimate Beat Off
2009
Black Pus 4, All Aboard the Magic Pus
2008
Black Pus 3, Metamorpus
2006
Singles
