Brooklyn’s The Planes have been around long enough to watch entire scenes rise, crash, and gentrify. Their new EP, Motel for Lightning Bug, sounds like they survived all of it, louder, tighter, and weirdly optimistic. Recorded right before drummer Don Lavis left, it runs twenty minutes but plays like a time capsule on fire: re-recorded favorites, fresh chaos, and the same crooked heart that’s kept them going since 2009. Steve Perry calls it punk to “keep doing it for decades.” The guitars are still buzzing.
★ The Planes has seen different members over the years. How do you keep the band’s identity consistent, and why not just start over with a new name like other Brooklyn bands?
Steve Perry: When I founded the band back in 2009, the idea was to be a loose group of friends playing really simple songs, performing with whatever lineup was free for the show. Our first gig was a three-piece, no-drums acoustic set at Goodbye Blue Monday, and our second was a five-piece show at Matchless where I just sang. I think my roommate Joe was the only person who played both.
That setup turned out to be more of a headache than I expected, so I asked a few friends who had the time to be a real band, and they said yes. I had already decided that the band I front, the one where I write the songs, would be called The Planes. There were so many “flash-in-the-pan” bands back then that put out one or two albums, got some buzz, and disappeared. So I figured, to be a punk, I’d do the opposite: put out albums that get zero buzz and keep doing it for decades.
★ There’s something nostalgic and transitory about the title Motel for Lightning Bug. Does it tie into how the EP spans the band’s past and present?
SP: Yeah, I think there’s a certain nostalgia factor in all music now, in 2025 especially, for guitar-driven rock bands like us. Of course, artists can still create new, unique voices within that framework, which is something we aim to do.
To me, the “lightning bug” in the EP’s title represents the spark of creativity we had after Dark Matter Recycling Co., and I’m glad we found a little place for it to live, the Motel, if you will, before moving on with a new lineup: Perry on vocals and guitar, Patrick Porter on guitar, Mike Petzinger on bass, and Don Lavis on drums. As artists, we want to create new things, but there’s an opportunity cost to spending practice time and set time learning new material. So whenever there’s a lineup change, there are always songs that won’t get played anymore.
It’s a little sad, because some of those songs were great to play and don’t get the love anymore, but as long as you have a good recording (like we do with the Motel… tracks), they won’t be lost to time.
★ You’ve seen the Brooklyn scene evolve, implode, and rebuild since 2008–09. What’s the biggest shift between then and now? What’s changed, and what hasn’t?
The first thing that comes to mind is that the scene is less straight-dude-dominated than it was in the mid-00s. Not that there weren’t plenty of rad women around back then (shout-out to Stephanie Gunther of Desert Sharks, Amanda of Leathered, Rebecca Keith of The Roulettes, and others who are still making excellent music), but we’re getting closer to equal visibility for women. Whether or not it’s truly better, you’d have to ask them.
That’s a huge shift, and probably one that keeps the scene alive in new ways...
The change I bemoan all the time is the lack of true weirdos in the scene (that’s a term I use lovingly, btw). When I first moved to Williamsburg, my rent was $635 a month, and I knew people paying $400 or less, maybe in Bushwick or Bed-Stuy. Eight dollars could get you a BEC, a cup of bodega coffee, a slice of pizza, and a 40 of malt liquor, and a 23-year-old could live off that.
Today, you either have to come from money or have your shit together enough to handle the high cost of living. There are still incredibly talented and inspired people here, don’t get me wrong, but the kind of half-mad, half-drug-addicted wildcards who might never be able to hold a real job can’t afford to stick around anymore. I think that saps the energy a bit (though, yeah, those types caused problems too). I know some of that opinion comes from being in my 40s and not really hanging out with kids in their early 20s—but I’ll stick to it.
Check out The Planes here