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Rambling, probably contradictory post alert:
I think the musicians who strictly adhere to the concept of what a real, hardcore "noise" band should sound like aren't particularly interesting or compelling conceptually or aesthetically. You've got all these ridiculous, pasty white guys singing about raping little girls in alleys or contorting their bodies into pain temples that it's really hard to pick out anything compelling about it. Most of the truly interesting noise defies this fetishism and thus defies the genre itself. It's not as if they're really frightening the squares-- the squares don't step into their stinky dungeons of existential pain anyway; the squares would rather think about real problems like paying the rent than have some bald guy scream at them about being a "cunt'. If it's a joke, which I've heard in its defense many times before, it's not a very good one and gets even more boring on the retelling. I've had to see a few of these acts and used to be surprised at just how dull the sonics were that accompanied their school boy tantrums. I've found that the best "noise" comes from smiling kids with love and acid in their brains like the Yellow Swans, Burning Star Core or the noise influenced guys like The Animal Collective. But then again, they're not considered noise anymore or at least not the hardcore of noise. And a lot of that's just a big hoax too. I'm incredibly suspicious of most noise now, finding most of it to be played out, really uncreative and locked into genre that takes the worst aspects of industrial and metal and amplifies them. For a while, as written badly earlier in this thread I thought "noise" was going to be the next big thing and was an important influence on more mainstream music, I'm not so sure now. I think that the movement (if there was one) has definitely slowed down, although shows are still attracting a far bigger number of kids than I ever thought possible. And still spawning a legion of kids to play really bad noise rock. It's odd to go to a noise show now, seeing all these guys (and they are mostly guys) stand next to one another, feeling the wicked tones, dude -- swaying with one another to boring low rumbles. Maybe they really feel it, but I can't hear it. Now as far as I'm concerned If I want harsh noise, I'll stick to pudgy Japanese business men like the Incapacitants, who at least have an enthusiasm and boyish charm to their fits of fake rage. But what were we talking about? Yeah, noise. I still love Birchville Cat Motel. I recommend the whole New Zealand noise/rock thing for it's punk rock primitivism and continual lust for the drone. They're not just striking a scary, tortured pose either. They like sun sets and water and good things. |
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