XXhalberstramXX
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2001
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Yesterday i caught the final day of the "No Fun Fest", a three day festival put on (if i'm not mistaken) by the Sonic Youth people.
the line-up was:
Wolf Eyes
Lee Ranaldo + Roger Miller + William Hooker Trio
Massimo
Monotract
Sightings
Nautical Almanac
Double Leopards
I realize that these bands probably mean little to nothing to most people, and even if you've heard music by these bands, a very very very small percentage of the music-listening public can actually stand to listen to their music for very long. All the bands here were relentlessly noisy and abrasive, although their styles varied greatly.
I missed Double Leopards, and when I walked in on Nautical Almanac, two of the three members were going absolutely nuts screaming atonally, arytmically and quite possibly amusically into microphones while rattling around chains connected to contact microphones and physically abusing various peices of audio equipment, including recorders, mixers, and the occasional metal gutter pipe. It was rediculous, self-indulgent, and absolutely, haphazardly entertaining.
Next was Sightings, a favorite of mine. Brisk, repetitive drumming (reminiscent of Public Image Ltd's "Flowers of Romance" or the new Liars stuff), both on traditional drums and distorted contact mic pads were accompanied by satanically distorted and mangled guitar and chunky bass. Despite the pummeling, mechanical drumming, and seemingly random guitar screetches, the band had numerous very impressive dynamic shifts and surprisingly subtle and well-thought out song structures. While listening to Sightings, I was struck by the realization that this band (and not pseudo-industrial pop ala NIN) were the true torch-bearers of the industrial tradition pioneered by groups like Throbbing Gristle and Einsturzende Neubauten. Their music was mesmerizing, confrontational, exciting, and FUN! but loud. very very loud.
Monotract was an interesting laptop-based noise trio with a sound that occasionally became a sick perversion of house or trance, but would quickly become consumed within a sea of malfunctioning clicks and bleeps, distorted to death. After Sighting's highly energetic perfomance, however, three people standing intently behind laptops, clicking here and there, but not obviously playing anything bored me ever-so slightly.
Massimo was next, and I was immediately struck by a conceptual link between this performer (who also "played" a laptop) and M83, a French syth-shoegaze band which has gained recent critical acclaim. Massimo employed, to great effect, clear melodic structure buried within a cold, harsh static film. The inhumanity of the noise only served to emphasize the beauty and euphony of the melodies.
The Lee Ranaldo (of Sonic Youth fame) + Roger Miller + William Hooker Trio was next, and presented a very different sound which perhaps had more in common with free jazz than the industrial or punk rock that seemed to influence the other bands. Lee Ranaldo, on guitar, did employ noise to great effect, however, alternating between a guitar and a theremin-like box that created squealing noises when tapped and shaken. The entire set seemed to begin and end identically, providing nice bookends to what sometimes appeared to be structureless noodling.
Last, but most certainly not least, was Wolf Eyes. Before the show, a friend had described Wolf Eyes to me as "the Radiohead of noise-rock", and from this description i was expecting a more ambient or gentle manipulation of noise than, say, the punk-rock-inside-a-jet-engine of Sightings. From the first "note" my preconceptions were shattered, and as the performance continued, I was shocked by what I was hearing. This was without a doubt the most violent, terrifying and deranged music I have ever heard. Pseudo-beats of thumping square-waves were laid over a background static, puncutated by shards of filth from manipulated tape-loops, huge cymbals violently abused, a heavily distorted clarinet, and inhuman screaming. The band even looked the part, one member lurched over tape players like a zombie, a wire presumably attatched to a contact microphone dangling from his mouth. another seemed genuinely deranged, peridocally shaking his fists wildly in the air, baiting the crowd, and blowing into a clarinet whenever the voices in his head commanded him to do so. the third member of the band played what seemed to be a theremin-like instrument with sadistic glee, thrusting his arms downward in stabbing motions while screaming murderously into a mic. The sonic assault would periodically subside and then pick up steam again, giving the crowd a reason to go absolutely nuts (which they did). Now, i've been to tons of hardcore shows in my youth, many bordering on straight-up death metal, and nothing, NOTHING compared to this. There was a palpable sense of terror in the music, as if one's life were in danger simply by being in the same room as the band. The performance was simultaneously unhinged and controlled, spontaneous and premeditated. One of the best concerts of my life, hands down.
all in all, the show was great fun (ironic, eh?), the highlights being Sightings and Wolf Eyes, who both combine the threat of noise-rock with enough of a purpose and a structure to truly make an impact on the listener. Their intelligent and controlled manipulation of noise is what made these bands great music, and not just a great big racket.
the line-up was:
Wolf Eyes
Lee Ranaldo + Roger Miller + William Hooker Trio
Massimo
Monotract
Sightings
Nautical Almanac
Double Leopards
I realize that these bands probably mean little to nothing to most people, and even if you've heard music by these bands, a very very very small percentage of the music-listening public can actually stand to listen to their music for very long. All the bands here were relentlessly noisy and abrasive, although their styles varied greatly.
I missed Double Leopards, and when I walked in on Nautical Almanac, two of the three members were going absolutely nuts screaming atonally, arytmically and quite possibly amusically into microphones while rattling around chains connected to contact microphones and physically abusing various peices of audio equipment, including recorders, mixers, and the occasional metal gutter pipe. It was rediculous, self-indulgent, and absolutely, haphazardly entertaining.
Next was Sightings, a favorite of mine. Brisk, repetitive drumming (reminiscent of Public Image Ltd's "Flowers of Romance" or the new Liars stuff), both on traditional drums and distorted contact mic pads were accompanied by satanically distorted and mangled guitar and chunky bass. Despite the pummeling, mechanical drumming, and seemingly random guitar screetches, the band had numerous very impressive dynamic shifts and surprisingly subtle and well-thought out song structures. While listening to Sightings, I was struck by the realization that this band (and not pseudo-industrial pop ala NIN) were the true torch-bearers of the industrial tradition pioneered by groups like Throbbing Gristle and Einsturzende Neubauten. Their music was mesmerizing, confrontational, exciting, and FUN! but loud. very very loud.
Monotract was an interesting laptop-based noise trio with a sound that occasionally became a sick perversion of house or trance, but would quickly become consumed within a sea of malfunctioning clicks and bleeps, distorted to death. After Sighting's highly energetic perfomance, however, three people standing intently behind laptops, clicking here and there, but not obviously playing anything bored me ever-so slightly.
Massimo was next, and I was immediately struck by a conceptual link between this performer (who also "played" a laptop) and M83, a French syth-shoegaze band which has gained recent critical acclaim. Massimo employed, to great effect, clear melodic structure buried within a cold, harsh static film. The inhumanity of the noise only served to emphasize the beauty and euphony of the melodies.
The Lee Ranaldo (of Sonic Youth fame) + Roger Miller + William Hooker Trio was next, and presented a very different sound which perhaps had more in common with free jazz than the industrial or punk rock that seemed to influence the other bands. Lee Ranaldo, on guitar, did employ noise to great effect, however, alternating between a guitar and a theremin-like box that created squealing noises when tapped and shaken. The entire set seemed to begin and end identically, providing nice bookends to what sometimes appeared to be structureless noodling.
Last, but most certainly not least, was Wolf Eyes. Before the show, a friend had described Wolf Eyes to me as "the Radiohead of noise-rock", and from this description i was expecting a more ambient or gentle manipulation of noise than, say, the punk-rock-inside-a-jet-engine of Sightings. From the first "note" my preconceptions were shattered, and as the performance continued, I was shocked by what I was hearing. This was without a doubt the most violent, terrifying and deranged music I have ever heard. Pseudo-beats of thumping square-waves were laid over a background static, puncutated by shards of filth from manipulated tape-loops, huge cymbals violently abused, a heavily distorted clarinet, and inhuman screaming. The band even looked the part, one member lurched over tape players like a zombie, a wire presumably attatched to a contact microphone dangling from his mouth. another seemed genuinely deranged, peridocally shaking his fists wildly in the air, baiting the crowd, and blowing into a clarinet whenever the voices in his head commanded him to do so. the third member of the band played what seemed to be a theremin-like instrument with sadistic glee, thrusting his arms downward in stabbing motions while screaming murderously into a mic. The sonic assault would periodically subside and then pick up steam again, giving the crowd a reason to go absolutely nuts (which they did). Now, i've been to tons of hardcore shows in my youth, many bordering on straight-up death metal, and nothing, NOTHING compared to this. There was a palpable sense of terror in the music, as if one's life were in danger simply by being in the same room as the band. The performance was simultaneously unhinged and controlled, spontaneous and premeditated. One of the best concerts of my life, hands down.
all in all, the show was great fun (ironic, eh?), the highlights being Sightings and Wolf Eyes, who both combine the threat of noise-rock with enough of a purpose and a structure to truly make an impact on the listener. Their intelligent and controlled manipulation of noise is what made these bands great music, and not just a great big racket.
