Best Underground American Noise Act of the Noise-Punk Era (ca. 1998-2005)

The noise scene now is mostly a rehash of shitty EBM and industrial, and is basically a bunch of dorks acting "cold" and "dark" or jerking off behind a table of gear.

I miss the whole Hair Police/Air Conditioning/Sightings vibes where it looked/felt like a Black Flag show with dudes thrashing around on instruments and people sweating all over, but sounded like a garbage truck eating a smaller garbage truck.

Whiney you aren't on FB so you missed the John 0lson/Haxan Cloak guy thread involving ice cream

also this list is really East Coast-centric.

Yellow Swans played NZ but didn't leave much of an impression. Excepter were great at Creepy Teepee in Kutna Hora but wld lump them & Wolf Eyes in the breakout heavy hitters ...

Would vote UNICORN HARD-ON (also missing: Tan As Fuck/Taiwan Deth...) but Neon Hunk are pretty good runner-up. Saw an act in Guangzhou last night that was pretty Burning Star Core-ish, and I probs listen to BSC more than most of these in a Necks-y background fashion.

Voted Wolf Eyes, tho they were never as great after Dilloway left.

Also saw and enjoyed: Double Leopards (nosier in person than on disc), Prurient, Hive Mind (creepy insect sound), Burning Star Core, Dead Machines, Mouthus (underrated - almost an American variation on the Dead C)

Unicorn Hard-On isn't part of this era.

The noise scene now is mostly a rehash of shitty EBM and industrial, and is basically a bunch of dorks acting "cold" and "dark" or jerking off behind a table of gear.

I miss the whole Hair Police/Air Conditioning/Sightings vibes where it looked/felt like a Black Flag show with dudes thrashing around on instruments and people sweating all over, but sounded like a garbage truck eating a smaller garbage truck.
--posts baloney - whine iverson (Whiney G. Weingarten)

OTM

I am not sure they fit completely in regards to the intent of this thread, but one of the best live bands of that era without a doubt was USAisaMonster. One of the best shows I ever saw (again in that era) was a Lightning Bolt/USAisaMonster/White Mice/Ground Monkeys show in. But yeah, for me a list like this is pretty impossible to do.

Agree that Wolf Eyes was at its best with Dilloway. They seemed to get more ... cartoonish, or something, after he left.

"... in Richmond" that was supposed to say.

USAisaMonster was incredible, good call grandavis

Bunnybrains!

I think Pissed Jeans just falls into this chronology too, but maybe they're more like Blood Brothers?

Torn between Prurient and Magik Markers, of the ones I know.

And I guess JOMF is too eclectic to qualify, though some of their stuff certainly would.

dudes don't really fit any "scene" and are like 60 but Borbetomagus was the most intense live act I ever saw

feel like orthrelm also belong on here, but they may be too "metal" for this poll

Wish I has seen Magik Markers mark 1 a few more times live. Only saw them twice and it was totally great. Still love that band but the original trio sound was a really cool one.

I miss the whole Hair Police/Air Conditioning/Sightings vibes where it looked/felt like a Black Flag show with dudes thrashing around on instruments and people sweating all over, but sounded like a garbage truck eating a smaller garbage truck.

― posts baloney - whine iverson (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, September 21, 2015 7:31 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is so otm. I saw Wolf Eyes at the Empty Bottle in Chicago in 2002 or so, and it was incredibly sweaty and intense. It felt like their instruments were going to explode at any moment, and that they were doing their best to bring this about.

usaisamonster was fucking good. tasheyana compost rules

Yeah. That tour was really great too.

they were by p much any measure I can think of a 'rock band' but yeah a really great band, totally on their own trip

I'd probably cast my vote for Wolf Eyes or Sightings...

I miss the whole Hair Police/Air Conditioning/Sightings vibes where it looked/felt like a Black Flag show with dudes thrashing around on instruments and people sweating all over, but sounded like a garbage truck eating a smaller garbage truck.

This, I sort of miss being legit terrified at shows, haha

I've never heard of a single one of these bands.

pedantry:
"rock bands excluded" and yet we have mouthus, sightings, magik markers, hair police, air conditioning, fat day, etc?
puzzling omissions:
smegma;
TLASILA (well, smith & co despite some esteemed company here would likely puke at being included with such a merry list);
splotch (oh no, but splotch were a rock band nnng - malfunction);
greg kelley/nmperign;
the living trash;
the skaters;
cock e.s.p.;
bran(...)pos;
zeek sheck;
graveyards.

never understand the wolf eyes love. i just get fremdschämen any time i hear them.

hate coming over as boreder than, but even back then "noise" was only "punk" in the sense it was a minor journalistic confection only supposedly melting minds as yet unmelted

This is:

Yellow Swans v Double Leopards v Wolf Eyes

Gonna vote Yellow Swans.

puzzling omissions:
smegma;
TLASILA (well, smith & co despite some esteemed company here would likely puke at being included with such a merry list);
splotch (oh no, but splotch were a rock band nnng - malfunction);
greg kelley/nmperign;
the living trash;
the skaters;
cock e.s.p.;
bran(...)pos;
zeek sheck;
graveyards.

can't speak for Whiney but I've heard of every band in the OP and about half of the ones you've listed so that may be a clue to your puzzle

presume that the idea was to compile bands who came to a sort of prominence in the stated timeframe, whereas TLASILA, Cock ESP, Zeek Sheck all predate that I'd say

i always associated greg kelley with jon abbey-esque EAI ppl.

But skaters definitely are a glaring omission, as are cock esp, and to live and shave in LA. Smegma may fall into that "legacy" category along with Borbetomagus and ... uh, Caroliner?

also Total Shutdown should be on this list, if you would have included Burmese (save for being a rock band), and whoever said USAisamonster, them too.

saw Skaters live three times, they were great but VERY QUIET by noise standards

also MIA - Hototogisu = 50% American

Michel van der Aa ‏@vanderaanet 8 minutes ago

London tube, noisier than a SunO))) concert

I'm not exactly familiar with the Noise genre. Animal Collective is considered Noise? This does not bode well for me wanting to discover the best underground stuff. Although I've been to a couple random Noise rock shows (in this era) and I liked them. They were heavy hitters that would come out and play in downtown Athens around Halloween. Standing two feet away from a thrashing band that didn't need a stage was pretty cool. I think I still have the wig one of the band members was wearing.

Animal Collective ca. 2000-2003 was most def noize

cock esp should've been on

smegma is like a whole different trip, old hippies

Yeah, I think the "coming into prominence circa 1998-2005" or whatever the timeline was is the key.

Personally, I consider this more as a time/place/scene thing more than a specific genre, so it makes no sense to exclude someone like USAisaMonster (just my opinion). Similarly Sightings/Lightning Bolt/Magik Markers/Fat Day what have you. A band like XBXRX I only saw play with noise/weirdo bands from this scene, but I mean sure they weren't a "noise" band. They were really fun live though. Could get really tedious going down this road, so gonna stop.

The bands that have held up the best for me from the original list are: Magik Markers / Sightings / Burning Star Core.

yep. my pedantry is needless as always.
sightings / BXC for me too.
or maybe mouthus or fat day.
i'll get a nosebleed if i try & decide which.

it's cool massaman, i'd imagine that most ppl posting here like having their memories jogged and talking about these bands and scene.

I try to think about what exactly killed this scene, i think it was the last real organic punk movement based on actually touring, making connections, sleeping on floors until it just became ivy league brats sending MP3s to websites run by millionaires

This 2006 Thurston Moore Nightmare Before Christmas seemed like the peak of something - don't think i'll ever enjoy a better line-up:

http://www.atpfestival.com/events/nightmare2006/lineup

Yeah, he really did nail a moment with that. Kind of closes the book on the whole thing, really. Wish I went.

Voted Neon Hunk. They had a really enjoyable whimsical quality the time I saw them live, and I think their album was one of the best Load releases of this era.

This was a tough choice; I considered picking Hair Police, Sightings, or Burning Star Core. Gang Wizard, Nautical Almanac, and Friends Forever were also so great. Wolf Eyes too, of course, although I suspect they'll take this poll in a walk.

One of the bigger groups I associate with this scene that isn't on this poll is Pink and Brown.

I have such a vague memory of going to No Fun Fest in 2006 that I can't actually swear I was there. But I think so... There was an upstairs and a downstairs, right?

I try to think about what exactly killed this scene, i think it was the last real organic punk movement based on actually touring, making connections, sleeping on floors until it just became ivy league brats sending MP3s to websites run by millionaires

― posts baloney - whine iverson (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, September 23, 2015 3:44 PM (57 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also non-retro, also immune to being licensed and used in marketing/ad industry

Yeah Pink and Brown/Burmese/Total Shutdown/XBXRX/USAisaMonster were too "rock band" for the poll, but all 100% belong in this thread

I try to think about what exactly killed this scene, i think it was the last real organic punk movement based on actually touring, making connections, sleeping on floors until it just became ivy league brats sending MP3s to websites run by millionaires

― posts baloney - whine iverson (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, September 23, 2015 3:44 PM (57 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also non-retro, also immune to being licensed and used in marketing/ad industry

― Ma$e-en-scène (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, September 23, 2015 2:43 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ums and whiney otm

I try to think about what exactly killed this scene, i think it was the last real organic punk movement based on actually touring, making connections, sleeping on floors until it just became ivy league brats sending MP3s to websites run by millionaires

― posts baloney - whine iverson (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, September 23, 2015 3:44 PM (57 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Also, ca. 2004 -> 2006 there was def a trend of many noise-rock bands on the fringe of this going the Daydream Nation route and getting decidedly more "pop" to various degrees of success, including Animal Collective, Lightning Bolt, Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu, the Mae Shi, Japanther, the Hella record on Ipecac, um, p4rts + l4b0r

with the apotheosis being the existence of No Age?

haha I was gonna mention No Age, and last night the band I was trying to think of that was from LA, had Ezra Buchla in it for a while, but then went more pop, was ... Mae Shi.

also non-retro, also immune to being licensed and used in marketing/ad industry

― Ma$e-en-scène (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, September 23, 2015 2:43 PM (4 minutes ago)

didn't Captain Ahab get money somehow from the Snakes on a Plane thing?

wonder if Wolf Eyes gut some bux for that time they were on The Office

Since this is turning into post-2006 LETS MONETIZE THIS discussion, I think Cold Cave in the Radio Shack commercial is probably the best example

http://scaryideas.com/content/15143

this thread is a treasure. was sad that links to Whiney's mixes were broken. still... a ton of stuff to hunt down. was peripherally aware of some of the bands discussed here, but mostly just got into Wolf Eyes and Yellow Swans - though tbh the only Yellow Swans album I ever loved was Going Places which is pretty much ambient music (and released in '10).

yo this Universal Eyes (Aaron Dilloway / Gretchen Gonzales / John Olson / Nate Young) album is amazing

I miss the whole Hair Police/Air Conditioning/Sightings vibes where it looked/felt like a Black Flag show with dudes thrashing around on instruments and people sweating all over, but sounded like a garbage truck eating a smaller garbage truck.

― posts baloney - whine iverson (Whiney G. Weingarten)

I think about this post a lot

sleeve, you're in luck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZXOdpxYjeg

ever since the noise kids became ravers i miss going to a warehouse shows and watching a shirtless man stab an amplifier with a microphone for ten minutes

xp cool show, shame about the audience

lol tonight is Merzbow and Prurient show in Oakland --whiney did you go to the show where you are?

its tmrw

ha geeta sez she will see you there

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hpk157icl0lgsfz/American%20Noise-Punk.zip?dl=0

24-hour zip file re-up of all three volumes PLUS the unreleased Vol. 0, tracing the moment's 90s ROOTS AND INFLUENCES in powerviolence, AmRep/Skin Graft noise rock, SF tribal nonsense and weirdo rock, U.S. noise vanguards, no wave, Gravity/Vermiform art-hardcore and embryonic Rhode Island.

American Noise-Punk Vol. 0 (1993-1998)
1. Harry Pussy - Youth Problem
2. Couch - Old Man
3. Dropdead - I Will Defy
4. Born Against - I Am A Idiot
5. Godheadsilo - Precipice of Ice
6. Hammerhead - Swallow
7. U.S. Maple - Letter To ZZ Top
8. Caroliner - Salt Lumps
9. Universal Order of Armageddon - Clear Set
10. Crash Worship - Wild Mountain
11. Quintron - 005 Take Off the Wet Suits
12. To Live And Shave In L.A. - Lee Krasner 1949
13. Bunnybrains - (I'm In The) Bucket (Keith)
14. Man is the Bastard - Puppy Mill
15. Fat Day - Chigger
16. Chickita - Leave My House
17. Duotron - What!
18. Six Finger Satellite - Parlour Games
19. Brainiac - Vincent Come on Down
20. Thee Hydrogen Terrors - Mexico
21. Forcefield - Pac
22. Men's Recovery Project - Our Alaskan Brothers
23. The Scissor Girls - Vamps, Here!
24. The Flying Luttenbachers - Murder Machine Muzak
25. Crom-Tech - Queltrom-Victorm
26. Antioch Arrow - Chaos vs. Cosmos
27. Arab On Radar - Attack on Tijuana
28. Lake Of Dracula - Plague of Frogs
29. Deerhoof - A-Town Test Site
30. Olneyville Sound System - This Is Entertainment
31. Zeek Sheck - Beeper Gets Digested
32. Gerty Farish - Hey Seth, Why So Blue?
33. Replikants - They Will Get You
34. Cock E.S.P. - Scorn Lords
35. Lightning Bolt - LB.3.K6K3GU3.GO

thanks!

luscious, thank you

Many many thanks

hell yes just in time for summer road trips with the fam

Also, yes, I put a song I play drums on, which is a cornball move, but I couldn't resist.

lol <3

so sick. thx Whiney

Oh wow, thanks, downloading rn.

Vol. 0 is exactly what I want to be hearing in a vaccine hangover.

yeah psyched to listen to this, thanks. its funny, i used to love quintron but never occurred to me to slot him in w/that scene for whatever reason, but of course it makes total sense

i've played drums in bands with several of the Vol. 0 people ... feels like another life.

Thread Connection: this thread and "inevitable ilxors in their forties"

Matador wouldn't release the video because hal Ashby had lawyers

https://vimeo.com/12280161