NO AGE

I have never been cooler than when I knew about Weirdo Rippers when it came out.

how have you handled life since

Well I've listened to less indie

Which made me less cool? Never really thought about this one before

no, that doesn't sound right

Yeah good point. Cool album though

I didn't care for their last album that came out years ago, but this new song is excellent.

https://noage.bandcamp.com/album/snares-like-a-haircut

I loved that album, would rank it 2nd behind Nouns, super psyched they're back, was worried for a while they'd given up.

That 'Losing Feeling' EP and 'Everything In Between' still blow me away.
Maybe I should give 'An Object' another chance.

yeah I love it & don't know why the reception was so lukewarm at the time. I saw them play a month after it came out to a depressingly sparse crowd. they'd oversold the same venue 5 years earlier. Still super sweet guys.

Listening to the single now. I dig it, seems like an odd choice for a first single, & honestly not as good as anything on An Object. Looking forward to seeing them in November.

I wasn't blown away by the 'An Object' material live-it seemed tentative.
saw them play a Thurston Moore SXSW showcase that blew my mind.

'fever dreaming' at a deafening volume is maybe one of my fav songs ever

Yes, Fever Dreaming is my favorite too.

Maybe I need to listen to An Object more. I just remember when it came out, all the talk was about how they created all the artwork and hand-assembled the CDs themselves. When you're more excited about the packaging than the music, it's rarely a good sign.

yeah I remember that, it was bogus. though I imagine there is a pressure/expectation - when you're a plain old rock n roll band - to gussy up your press releases and promo sheets with something other than "Another collection of superb rock songs by No Age!" which is all An Object was- a really great collection of songs.

also the production was really great & kinda makes this new single sound weak in comparison. idk, maybe I need to listen more, but that shit sounds paper-thin. I mean I know they're Hüsker Dü superfans but

revisiting An Object today. as much as I love it I didn't listen to it after 2013. no fucking idea why, because now I'm convinced it's their best album by a long shot. heavy production, all killer no filler, that feedback loop refrain in "C'mon Stumming"? good god

possibly an unpopular opinion but if everything in between would have been released in 2003 and had more mainstream production values and dean and randy looked like strokes, they would have been bigger than the strokes

which is a really dumb way of saying that almost the entire album is catchy as hell, just full of earworms

no that's pretty much otm, & goes for all their other albums. like imagine if Weirdo Rippers came out in 1999

i like these points :)
really digged all their stuff other than 'an object', will give it a relisten or two in lieu of you guys' posts

don't know why the reception was so lukewarm at the time

some of the reviews were all 'why does NA not want to rock'

listening to it this morning it was very resonant, i wonder how much the lyrical/thematic content a la 'stimmung' was part of a design w/ the sound

I can't believe this band is ten years old now

"I Won't Be Your Generator" and "An Impression" are still stunning... I think they finally achieved the perfect synthesis of loud guitar rock & electronics on this record. if nothing else it's the best sounding of all their records - like I said upthread, Nouns is great but sounds too thin, very much like HD's Warehouse.

New album sounds great.

Very psyched to hear. Is it streaming anywhere?

oh whoa i forgot that it comes out today. i had a ticket to see them a couple months ago but didn't end up going, was kicking myself as i stayed at home and still am... so im a little sore

seriously though fuck this narrative of An Object being a 'failure' or a disappointment. I don't know why it got such tepid & negative reviews, that's their best record, if not a close second behind Nouns. I already talked about why upthread but goddamn, how many rock songs are as thrilling as "C'mon Stimmung"?

If you like An Object you will probably not like this as much, it's more direct.

"more direct" = stripped down/less melodic? because An Object sounds pretty direct to me, particularly the rock songs

https://www.spin.com/2018/01/no-age-snares-like-a-haircut-review/

Hopping from Sub Pop to the venerable but curmudgeonly Drag City is symbolic and instructive; while No Age likely have no interest in seeing Snares Like a Haircut on Spotify, it bears by far their highest ratio of “songs” to “ambient drift,” with several that could conceivably crash playlists worded to appeal to people who still associate indie rock with “guitars.”

is the inference that they are moving somewhere that will give them a chance to crash playlists or they are moving somewhere that will let them avoid being on spotify (thus safe to have songs that could crash playlists despite themselves)

That they did it to intentionally make their music more obscure, which I completely disagree with. That’s not the case at all, they’ve never been Fugazi or Albini puritans (thank god)

lol i bought my fugazi albums at best buy just like the 'alt rock is cool' tv commercials in the 90s told me to

kind of realized it's the ambient drift, or more likely,'Reoccurring Dreams'-type pieces that I love in particular, whether that's 'Sun Spots' or 'My Hands, Birch and Steel'.

listening on apple music and wow this is really good

5/5

how were Fugazi puritans musically speaking?

Ian owned his own label and hot like $6 per CD when most artists got like 80 cents and they could do like 300k units

when Ahmet Ertegan told Ian I'll give you your own label and a million Ian told him I already have both those things

when Ahmet Ertegan told Ian I'll give you your own label

Yes. I remember a huge Fugazi feature in the Washington Post during the peak of the mid 90s alternative boom. Record companies were all throwing themselves at them, they would have made them the biggest band in the world if they were willing, but they just said no.

but, A) I think Ian correctly saw that Fugazi would never be the biggest band in the world and that B) 6 * 300,000 is more than 0.80 * 900,000 plus you own your masters etc, I guess I question the idea that he did it for irrational reasons of punk cred or be whatever it more just seemed like rational business decisions

I already have both those things

and he bought nothing but rice with it, what a waste

he owns at least 2 properties in this area, we should all be so poor

https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/globalrelevanceex_sort/38.979027,-76.983691,38.86484,-77.166682_rect/12_zm/

is the inference that they are moving somewhere that will give them a chance to crash playlists or they are moving somewhere that will let them avoid being on spotify

Don't think he's implying either of those -- I think he's saying the move to Drag City is symbolic of the musical direction of the new album vs. the last one; he considers the Drag City roster (and the new album) to be more traditionally guitar-centric indie rock than current Sub Pop roster (and the last album). The Spotify/playlist references were just to get some buzzwords in there.

but are they in fact not streaming-accessible?

iirc drag city is on bandcamp but not spotify etc

he considers the Drag City roster (and the new album) to be more traditionally guitar-centric indie rock than current Sub Pop roster (and the last album).

is that true? i admit i don't follow the indie scene like i used to, but my stereotypes of the two labels were more like:

2000s sub pop: traditionally guitar-centric indie rock, trying not trying to write a indie hit that might be licensed for a movie - average audience age at shows: 20-25
2000s drag city: guitar-centric but contemplative fingerpickers who are very sad about things and play more quietly these days - average audience age at shows: 30-50

i fully admit that maybe the perception of those labels has totally switched around since i last paid attention

Drag City is on Apple Music as of last year, but not Spotify. Can confirm that the new No Age is not on Spotify but can't check Apple Music.

2000s drag city: guitar-centric but contemplative fingerpickers who are very sad about things and play more quietly these days - average audience age at shows: 30-50

― Karl Malone, Monday, January 29, 2018 11:58 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'M RIGHT HERE I CAN HEAR U

lol

Hey man, that’s some of my very favorite kind of music! For real. It’s just, I associate that stuff with drag city more than sub pop