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Underground > Radio & Music >

No wave/noise

15:03 / 20.06.02

I've flirted with getting into this scene, but have never known where to go. So, give me the run down on anything and everything I need to know about no wave/noise stuff. Bands, labels, zines, etc.

19:51 / 20.06.02

i don't know about the no wave label but if your looking for NOISE (and i mean NOISE!!!!!) you can do no better than to check out Merzbow and Whitehouse.

Murray Hamhandler

20:06 / 20.06.02

Two words, my friend: Skin Graft. Everything that I've gotten from this label has been excellent. Lake of Dracula, The Flying Luttenbachers, Brice-Glace, Yona Kit (the last two are Jim O'Rourke side projects), Dazzling Killmen, U.S. Maple (they're on Drag City now...also check out their previous incarnation, Shorty), Zeek Sheck...heck, just check out the Skin Graft site. They've got MP3's up for all of the bands on their roster. They've also got a pretty cool Yahoo club here. The guy who runs the label and a lot of the artists post there, and you can get some pretty good deals on SG product if you're a member.

Another good label to check into is Atavistic. The Scissor Girls are pretty cool, and Atavistic has a lot of the older no wave stuff, as well (Lydia Lunch and her early bands 8-Eyed Spy and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Mars, Don King).

Early Sonic Youth fits the no wave bill. The Birthday Party (Nick Cave's old band) is another good earlier band. A lot of people like Swans, but what I've heard was a bit too metal-y for my tastes. Racebannon is my current local favorite, and they seem to be getting some national attention. Mmmm...Melt Banana? Mr. Bungle? John Zorn's Naked City? Boredoms? Might be stretching the boundaries a bit, but they might be up your alley.

The best albums that I can recommend from what I've heard are:
Sonic Youth-Bad Moon Rising
Lake of Dracula-s/t
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks-Everything
Mars-78+
U.S. Maple-Long Hair In Three Stages
Brice-Glace -When In Vanitas
Arab On Radar-Soak The Saddle
Racebannon-In The Grips Of The Light
Flying Luttenbachers-Gods Of Chaos
Birthday Party-Junkyard

By no means am I a definitive source, but that should get you started.

uncle retrospective

22:21 / 20.06.02

See if you can dig up some of the Loveblobs (on wijja) they had a really nice habbit of desending into white noise and screaming, but in a good way.
There's also the Noise Metal side of of things, Fudge Tunnel's Hate songs in e minor is a classic if only for the cover of sunshine of your love.
Swans are a tricky lot, the first 4 albums, Filth, Cop, Blood Money et al are pure noise metal (godflesh are a more accesable rip off of this sound) but after A Burning World they went into a much better acustic/goth/white noise shoegaze direction.
God I use to love that band.

Red Cross Iodized Salt

23:24 / 20.06.02

This site has some info on the late 70s / early 80s no wave scene. I'd recommend tracking down a copy of the 'No New York' compilation, but the last time I saw it (second hand - I don't think it ever got a re-issue) it was going for about $70. DNA and Contortions were the best things on it anyway, and some of their stuff should be easier to find.

I'd definitely second the Skin Graft recommendation - although its been years since I've bought anything they put out - everything I got on that label was great (fun too - insane mini-comics in the 7" releases). I have a long standing love of John Zorn's Naked City (legendary NY saxophonist's jazz/noise/C&W/lounge/death-metal/calypso combo) but they're not for everyone. Boredoms and Ruins were two Japanese noise bands that totally blew me away when I first heard them. Boredoms are still doing stuff, but I have no idea what happend to the Ruins after 1994.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

05:18 / 21.06.02

early Swans, Whitehouse, Merzbow, Masonna, Nic Endo's "White Heat" album.

10:17 / 21.06.02

You know, I was going to start a thread about no-wave today. In case you need telling, I FUCKING LOVE IT.

I suppose I'm too late to this thread to recommend Sonic Youth's Confusion is Sex and the Teenage Jesus.. record as the finest examples of this noise? (I've been meaning to get into Swans too, but their records are always so fucking expensive).

Oxbow sound really no-wave to my ears too. The same sort of combination of primitive pounding rythyms, hellish noise and heavy emotional intensity. It was no suprise to discover they've worked with Lydia Lunch and Richard Kern..

Do The Birthday Party count as no-wave? They're a band I've been in love with since I bought their Hits album a few months ago, but I've never really made the connection .. they seem more a mixture of new wave Death Disco and the kind of Goth/Cabaret stuff that Nick Cave does today .. but now you come to mention it, yeah, they've got the noise and the intensity and the scariness and the basic 'we don't give a fuck' attitude..

15:23 / 21.06.02

Surprised it took Riz so long to respond. Figured his radar would go off as soon as the words were spoke.

ANYWAYS... Thanks to one and all, keep them coming. I pulled a bunch of stuff off the skin graft site and what I've heard so far is great. Thanks a lot.