Solid Gold

Let’s get this out of the way Solid Gold is not top 40 countdown show from 1980, featuring the Solid Gold Dancers. But I could see the Solid Gold Dancers doing a fine routine to a couple of Solid Gold’s numbers—maybe the slinky “Bible Thumper,” or the dreamier “Who You Gonna Run To?” So, here’s the deal: Solid Gold is a band with the ability to compel you to Shake. Your. Ass. After meeting in 2000 at the University of Wisconsin, Zach Coulter and Matthew Locher founded the band along shared fu...

Let’s get this out of the way Solid Gold is not top 40 countdown show from 1980, featuring the Solid Gold Dancers. But I could see the Solid Gold Dancers doing a fine routine to a couple of Solid Gold’s numbers—maybe the slinky “Bible Thumper,” or the dreamier “Who You Gonna Run To?” So, here’s the deal: Solid Gold is a band with the ability to compel you to Shake. Your. Ass. After meeting in 2000 at the University of Wisconsin, Zach Coulter and Matthew Locher founded the band along shared fundamental principles: love of futuristic art, and obsession with the old-school doob. After their drummer left, they continued crafting tranced-out slow-dance grooves. Lifting guitarist extraordinaire, Adam Hurlburt, from one of their favorite bands proved to be excellent. In 2005 they left Madison and the haze of smoke, relocating to Minneapolis. In the new city, the three found that they still agreed on a few things; they enjoy guitar licks, fucked up old keyboards and synthed-out hip-hop beats. Thus situated, they reconnoitered in the studio to finish their debut, Bodies of Water. Full of songs about breaking up and running away, there is a penumbra of heart wrench lingering over Bodies of Water that belies the ironic Duran Duran-esque superficiality of their band name (and the flat plasticine whap of their beats). The songs are suggestions, but oftentimes suggestions recall mood and emotion and memory more powerfully than stories. Solid Gold has been on the road for a couple years now, performing showcases in London and New York, playing festivals in the middle of Texas and the middle of Sweden, and enjoying triumphant hometown returns every time they make it back to Minneapolis. Who knows, maybe Solid Gold will find a slot on a top 40 countdown show yet.