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

You know who is probably the most consistently amazing band of this class, if not the most consistently amazing band of our generation, is Black Dice

Here the three biggest scene round-ups that I remember

Ben Sisario, SPIN, 2004: http://www.spin.com/2004/12/art-noise/

Brandon Stosuy, Village Voice, 2005: https://web.archive.org/web/20050317000015/http://villagevoice.com/music/0511,stosuy,62088,22.html

Young Whiney, CMJ, 2002:
https://books.google.com/books?id=LyoEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA1&ots=b-iNWXPcui&dq=cmj%20come%20on%20feel%20the%20noise%20rock&pg=PA53#v=onepage&q&f=false

hahah when i saw that article was from 2002, my first thought, was, it's about that Oops the Tour thing, and yes, i was otm

i was always deejbent that I was first on the ball with that but the other two pieces got way more play, but I didn't really know how the internet and timing and all that worked in 2002

lol @ deejbent, i was gonna say, i don't want to do "a suzy" and play gossip-maven here

Oops Tour was my Woodstock

who was Sha Na Na?

Quintron obv

I saw the Tampa show with Rah Bras, and the Brooklyn show with Avey/Panda iirc

It's kinda annoying that the only bands mentioned in those articles that are from the West Coast were the Locust and Erase Errata (i am a major fan of the latter). It's the standard alt-journalism thing though: the premise is that they are surveying "the underground" but then they only pick a certain part of it and just ignore the rest, and don't even do the boilerplate "vibrant scenes also exist in these other places i am not going to write about"

what bands would you have included in this thread from the West Coast & etc?

which west coast noise band would win in a fight?

Well, also, the real ground zero WAS Providence, Rhode Island, which ultimately became a filter to/from brooklyn and baltimore, there's no way around that

I think it's great that they got so much attention. Nice people! Very industrious.

Providence would be nothing without GX Jupitter-Larsen.

hahah and he's from the West Coast! (nb do not make pirate jokes to GX's face)

ha that was the point I was trying to make!

also, uh, that other '70s Cali industrial noise guy who we don't need to talk about

haha

16 Bitch Pile Up -- seen them do awesome sets, seen them do ok sets
Air Conditioning -- no idea
Burning Star Core -- might just have seen him play solo? kinda a drone bro iirc.
Can't -- i think the first time i saw her, it was a wtf of the best kind, in that i actually can remember it
Dead Machines -- don't remember
Double Leopards -- i think they were overrated? not sure if i ever saw them tbh
Excepter -- only heard tracks from albums
Fat Day -- no idea
Fat Worm of Error -- saw them 3/4 times? awesome most of the time
Forcefield -- no idea
Friends Forever -- hahaha memorable show, band had lots of incarnations iirc
Gang Wizard -- really good? iirc, might not rc
Hair Police -- i do not rc
Hive Mind -- nice guy, ok
John Weise -- prefer Sissy Spacek, had at least one friend who had a major crush on the dude
Kites -- don't remember
Landed -- no clue
Magik Markers -- dude stole my towel, not sure how many people at the show actually liked them, or just showed up because they were supposed to like them or to hang with friends
Mammal -- no idea
Metalux -- only saw MV Carbon solo; really good iirc
Mindflayer -- don't remember
Monotract/Carlos Giffoni -- opening act was way better
Mouthus -- really good, but might not rc
Nautical Almanac -- fine
Neon Hunk -- don't remember
Noise Nomads -- no referrer, can't tell
Prurient -- don't remember
Rusted Shut -- no idea if i ever saw/booked them; too lazy to research
Sick Llama -- no idea
Sightings -- i actually never saw them
Wolf Eyes -- did not see any shows w/them w/dilloway; i saw them play in brooklyn w/Richard Pinhas of Heldon and have probably posted the hilarious story related to that on several threads already
Yellow Swans -- saw/booked these guys so many times; saw each of them solo in the past couple years. really nice guys. a bit too dronebro for me, but solid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVOZeT2W6Bo

^ another west coast legend

xp i have not smoked weed since 1997

worth mentioning-
needlegun
dj dog dick
narwhalz (of sound)
teeth mountain
grasslung
wzt hearts

that stuff all comes later

Wham City era

i think this "era" extends to 2007, based on releases, tours, audiences

Sarahell, just curious what qualifies something as "dronebro" stuff for you? Not in a defensive way or what have you, but honestly just wondering what fits the tag vs. other stuff.

I mean, if it is simply dudes who used drones in a standard way, I get it hah hah.

moanwave

sustained broness

i think this era extends to at least 2009/2010, ending with the last whartscape

Baltimore Wham Cityness A) owes so, so, so much to Fort Thunder and PaperRad and B) Completely went in sync with "internet music journalism"

There were/are great moments for sure, but it's its own era, come on

I'm with Whiney on this one. Obviously any number of these artists kept at it, and similar artists came up, but the depth and vitality of this particular iteration of noise-punk scene dwindled somewhere around a decade ago.

Also by vitality I mean the sheer number of acts releasing music and touring. It really was shocking the number of two-pieces putting together interesting noise records on, like Load, Narnack, 5RC, or just through sending CD-Rs to college ratio stations.

Baltimore Wham Cityness A) owes so, so, so much to Fort Thunder and PaperRad and B) Completely went in sync with "internet music journalism"

There were/are great moments for sure, but it's its own era, come on

― posts baloney - whine iverson (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, September 24, 2015 6:15 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

true, there was overlap but wham city wouldn't exist without fort thunder by their own admission

wham city was barely doing anything in the timeframe provided by the thread

i know, i meant band overlap, lots of them played whartscape & were still active when it ended, s'all i meant

Yellow Swans were west coast, that's why y'all be hating.

Black Dice most underrated band of the last ~~~x years?

moanwave

― posts baloney - whine iverson (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, September 24, 2015 2:45 PM (Yesterday)

moanwave (whiney knows this, but for the benefit of everyone else, and uh, posterity?): generally a solo project involving vocals, pedals, often a sampler, sometimes a drum machine and/or ipad is also used. the key element of moanwave is the vocals, which are run through effects, especially reverb (lots and lots of reverb), sometimes looped and layered, and rarely involving words. Mostly "oh" and "ooh" and "ah".

dronebro sometimes solo, sometimes in a group, 99% male. not every dude who makes drone music is a dronebro. The dronebro likes his shit loud and is often a big fan of doom metal. Sometimes the dronebro will refer to his music as doom metal or a similar genre, but there is rarely ever a drummer in dronebrodom, unless all the drummer is doing is cymbal swells, lots and lots of cymbal swells. Most dronebros play guitar or bass, occasionally violin or another classical string instrument. Some of them play analog synths, and the dronebrodown involves the esoteric expensive nature of the gear, rather than overdrive and distortion pedals run through huge amps or a powerful PA.

Hah hah, thanks Sarahell. Makes perfect sense.

I do not hate Yellow Swans. I was just underwhelmed by them considering the considerable love they get (i.e., I do not know many people who hold my opinion that are into this stuff). I was also really underwhelmed by Mouthus, who were east coast jammers. Two times I saw them it was a big ball of mush with no dynamics, but I mean this was just the two shows I saw. Could have been bad nights, which most of these bands had.

From a home listening pov, would take Halve Maen by Double Leopards over any other disc by ppl on this list

rocking some Kites right now

I think DRONEBRO is a SF phenomenon abedded by aughts Aquarius Records and their penchant for writing variations of "DOOOOOOOM" in their descriptions

That Kites/Prurient split disc on Load is great, prob all the Pru you need

ouch, reading moanwave, and thinking about many people I know and/or have dated in the Bay

PLEASURE GROUND is the only prurient you ever need

uh, Caroliner?

and this was actually the first band that came to mind for me

Kites was really cool live. I still play "Peace Trials".