I Heart Noise

[skvorisdeadsorta]

I've always been a huge fan of theirs, but I can see how this would weird some people out or annoy them some of the things they choose to perform live.

I would have liked to have been at that show, though. That is a dream pairing for me for sure.

[kmc]

I really like Black Dice. Broken Ear Record was a good album. That said, I have to concur with DED and say that noise performed live definitely trumps the stuff on record. I love seeing dudes mash on shit and creating something (semi) cohesive.

[Rit]

the pinnacle standardbearing noise song for me is Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music (pt. 1)"

[skvorisdeadsorta]

For me it's "SlugBait" by Throbbing Gristle.

[zorndeslammes]

I love me some noise. Not really into it live so much, but on record? Pff, hells yes. I'm a believer in Merzbow's Frog, myself.

Thinking about Black Dice makes me think of people from Williamsburg who shop at consignment shops and listen to Early Man. I can't get over that and enjoy them.

[skvorisdeadsorta]

Early Man and Williamsburg totally sucks.

[zorndeslammes]

Like, 4 people might get what we just said, but they'll understand. Or be horribly offended. And if you're offended, then good. You should be.

Seriously though, a lot of the noise bands just irritate me. Like they heard Reynols, thought, "gee, those are some smart fellows with that bizarre stuff!" and then attempted to make more pretentious and awful music than anyone else ever.

I do like The Liars though. They're just so damned odd. I remember hearing a remix of one of their songs, and it sounded like the most bizarre minimal hip hop I had ever heard. Their normal songs seem to understand what a pop hook is, and just before they put it in, they change course completely and do something else with the melody. Its friggen great.

[skvorisdeadsorta]

Liars are a band that I have adored since their first record. That's a band that I have always thought was a little quirky on an okay day and wonderfully bizarre on a great day. Their newest record I think is probably one of the best records I have heard in some time now.

The noise artists that I mostly find enticing are the ones that still bear a slight bit of structure, which is why the love for Black Dice. The same goes for my fawning over Wolf Eyes as well as they seem to have this little gems of noise "songs". From my own experience in the genre, I have discovered that making something out of sculpted sounds is far more difficult than not. The guys that I can't get into are the ones that are these stuck up goon from some East Coast city, blasting white noise genereators through a mixing console and changing the EQ settings. I can't imagine a more boring and non-exciting thing to hear and watch.

The noise that I dig is most of the stuff on Load Records, Wolf Eyes, Black Dice, Liars, Throbbing Gristle, Old SPK, No Wave, Cabarat Voltaire, Merzbow, and Bastard Noise.

[zorndeslammes]

I can see why you'd really like Black Dice and Wolf Eyes then, yeah. There's no freeform roaming sort of thing going on like you get playing a Aube, or the brief blasts of ultraviolence like Massona or Hanatarash. They sort of mold that tighter, Otomo Yoshihide kinda "light noise" almost into a IDMish context, and occasionally they pull something out that's not bad.

You gotta get into the Alien8 catalog, man. The Merzbow, Keiji Haino and Acid Mother's Temple stuff from 'em is outrageously good, to say nothing of their releases from Set Fire To Flames and Francisco Lopez.

[skvorisdeadsorta]

I have Set Fire To Flames and most of the Acid Mother's Temple records from Alien 8 records. I have a couple of Merzbow records and those records are mindblowingly good. I can only imagine how crazy that was when he was touring with Christian Marclay like 20 years ago.

[Mary]

I have a weird relationship to noise. I think I love the idea of it more than the actual execution - I don't necessarily wanna listen to it most of the time, but I looooove the fact that there are people out there making this completely bizarre, inaccessible, ear-splitting, cacophonic racket. I love the idea of playing this music for people and just having them go "what the FUCK is that?" So when I'm sitting at home by myself, I'm not gonna listen to Throbbing Gristle, but if I'm in the car with an unsuspecting acquaintance, I've got an entire mix of Throbbing Gristle, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Cabaret Voltaire, The Pop Group (actually I just genuinely fucking love The Pop Group, for what it's worth), James Chance, Dilinger Escape Plan, Swans, Fantomas, etc etc, that I loooove just randomly poppping in and awaiting the reaction. I'm not sure if all these bands really qualify as "noise" per se but they definitely belong in the average person's Totally Fucking Unlistenable drawer!

And I love seeing crazy ass shit live. I've gone to sooooo many fucking rock and roll shows in my life, an ordinary show now just feels like been-there-done-that unless it's a GOD in m personal pantheon like X or nick cave. But I'm not gonna go out of my way to see some garage rock revivalists just cause I've done that twenty million times already and I'd rather expand my horizons or just read a book. But I absolutely will go and see the nutjobs live, the ones who make my eardrums bleed, cause I fucking love the maniacs and extremists of the world and I want to support them at every possible opportunity. that's part of why i'm paying like $400 to fly across the entire country to see diamanda galas in october.

[skvorisdeadsorta]

I think that honestly the general consensus is that most people love to watch it, but fuck all if they would listen to it. I'm somewhere right in the middle to tell you the truth. For every Cherry Point/Bastard Noise release out there, which I do dig, there's some super angry weird guy with a distortion pedal and an eq band and really, that just doesn't do shit for me even if his body flailing is wildly entertaining. The only guy to ever get that honor was Prurient, which is probably one of the best shows I have ever been to. His record, "Black Vase" is one of the most apocalypic things I have ever heard. Right up there with Boyd Rice and SF's Factrix for me, which are two artists that I dig on a whole lot.

I'm with you on shows, especially these days, Mary. If it's some Phoenix, dance-lite shite, I will fucking guzzle my booze and walk out. If it's anything like something out of the Nuggets box set, I will piss myself with the bums downtown and have a much better time, frankly. I honestly can't remember a time when indie music was filled with such fucking oppurtunistic goons along with what seems to be the massive amount of people that really are doing cool shit.

I used to have a mix tape for potential girlfriends almost just like that, Mary. Cabarat Voltaire, TG (my fav band hands down and good Sunday morning NYT reading with coffee), Slayer, DNA, Lydia Lunch, Swans, NON, Monte Cazzaza, The Birthday Party, Captain Beefheart, and Big Black. Oh yes.......and I loved the reactions that I got as well.

[skvorisdeadsorta]

My noise band is opening up for Yellow Swans in Albaquerque! I'm sooooo excited, man!

[skvorisdeadsorta]

All Hail the Wolf Eyes!!

[samplestiltskin]

I'm having my fave local record store track some Wolf Eyes down for me. Thanks for finally giving me the fuel for an extremely uncommon "Wolf Eyes? I don't think I've heard of it," from the incredible Dave Vendetta.