In 1991, if you were really into noise, what albums did you have?

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I know of a lot of noise rock from the era, and I know that some noise artists like merbow and whitehouse were doing stuff back then, but what else was going on?

― filthy dylan, Sunday, 25 February 2007 20:05 (nineteen years ago)

hanatarash
borbetomagus
skullflower

lotsa other stuff too

― Edward III, Monday, 26 February 2007 18:19 (nineteen years ago)

most anything on the Amphetamine Reptile label... Halo of Flies, Cows, Lubricated Goat, loads of stuff from them was really happening back then. (not like avant-noise, but more just hate-your-parents noise/punk rock type shit). I think that is back when people started rockin the Boredoms/Public Bath type shit as well.

― Saxby D. Elder, Monday, 26 February 2007 18:30 (nineteen years ago)

Definitely Boredoms thanks to Shimmy-Disc releasing Soul Discharge in 1990. Bunch of us college DJ types went 'UH?' and the rest followed.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 26 February 2007 18:31 (nineteen years ago)

college dj types, leading the way.

― hstencil, Monday, 26 February 2007 18:40 (nineteen years ago)

ahead of even the japanese in this case

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 February 2007 18:42 (nineteen years ago)

Agree so far w/ Boredoms & Skullflower. That's the "noise" I was listening to in the late 80s/early 90s. Rock-context noise, hardly mainstream, but lauded in Forced Exposure & Your Flesh. Also psychedelic stuff that veered in that direction: ST-37, Unholy Swill, Liquorball, Caroliner, etc.

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 18:47 (nineteen years ago)

Seemed like there was just starting to be more US interest in Xpressway stuff around this time.

Also: Twin Infinitives!

― Tim Ellison, Monday, 26 February 2007 18:48 (nineteen years ago)

ahead of even the japanese in this case

We were just THAT good.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 26 February 2007 18:50 (nineteen years ago)

Other contenders: Early Pain Teens. The Mike Gunn (pre-Charalambides). Current 93 & Nurse with Wound (neither exactly "noise" by this point). The Dead C and a whole bunch of affiliated/like-minded Kiwi wheeze 'n' drone soundscapers. Azalia Snail?

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 18:53 (nineteen years ago)

i think my brother brought home shimmy boredoms and torture garden on the same day. but early 90's was a fine time for all kinds of stuff. sludge, death metal, grindcore, noise rock, japanese stuff, powertools, industrial madness. i bought everything on public bath at the time. plus, too many bunnybrains shows. oof.

― scott seward, Monday, 26 February 2007 18:55 (nineteen years ago)

listened to way too many controlled bleeding rekkerds.

http://www.gothtronic.com/Goth/img_/Music1/sub/Skin%20Chamber-Wound.jpg

― scott seward, Monday, 26 February 2007 18:58 (nineteen years ago)

Zeni Geva were the first of that wave of Japanese music to tour in the US, weren't they?

― Tim Ellison, Monday, 26 February 2007 18:59 (nineteen years ago)

listened to way too many controlled bleeding rekkerds.

Had a few of those. Remember C'est La Mort Records?

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:00 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.discogs.com/image/R-150-203875-1074643348.jpg

― scott seward, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:00 (nineteen years ago)

that was a picture of something.

― scott seward, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:00 (nineteen years ago)

i still have my skin chamber tapes! serial killer porn-metal. i loved those guys. i must have had 20 controlled bleeding CDs at one time. now i probably have around three.

― scott seward, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:02 (nineteen years ago)

IIRC one of them was an English teacher at a high school somewhere. Must have been some interesting classes.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:03 (nineteen years ago)

last 20 minutes of My Bloody Valentine concerts that year

― sexyDancer, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:03 (nineteen years ago)

At a coed Catholic school at that.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:04 (nineteen years ago)

paul lemos put together those dry lungs comps on placebo too. that's the 80's though. they were cool.

― scott seward, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:05 (nineteen years ago)

Of his noise work, such as Bladder Bags and Interludes, Lemos says bluntly, "I wouldn't call it music. It's really easy to do. If that's what i wanted to do, I would manufacture one of those every two days." Of his noise processing, Lemos lets on, "All that was done was we went into a rehearsal studio, closed the doors, brought a cassette deck in with a couple of mics, and had the cassette deck saturating everything. So, it's really the cassette deck that is creating the sound. For people who don't do this music, that listen to these supposed 'noise' bands, they have no concept of how simple it is. It's really just a con game."

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:05 (nineteen years ago)

he's right about it being simple to make noise. it's much harder to make noise that someone would want to listen to more than once.

― scott seward, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:06 (nineteen years ago)

suckdog & costes

costes always way underrated. search lung farts.

― Edward III, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:08 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, Public Bath were a damn fine resource for weird Japanese shit. Had this Captain Condoms 45 on PB that I loved the hell out of. Terrible, obvious, fake Boredoms post-grunge RAWK, but "Great Captain" still gets me. The Machine Gun TV? Or was that later on? Keiji Haino.

Also, both Peter and Kaspar Brotzmann, leading into all kinds of Tuetonic "jazz" bludgeon.

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:16 (nineteen years ago)

subgenres:

straight up noise - borbetomagus, hanatarash
noise rock - cows, cop shoot cop, unsane
psych noise - skullflower, liquorball, pain teens
drone - earth, total
weird / lo-fi - suckdog & costes, caroliner, jandek

and all sortsa spillage everywhere

― Edward III, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:17 (nineteen years ago)

jesus lizard should get thrown in w/the am rep crowd.

― M@tt He1ges0n, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:19 (nineteen years ago)

always thought Caspar Brotzmann's Massaker was way underrated, too. he/they did some great stuff.

anybody remember space streakings?

― Edward III, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:21 (nineteen years ago)

smegma, crash worship

― chaki, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:23 (nineteen years ago)

ugly american interviews from that time period

#5 - 1990
Cop Shoot Cop, Peach Of Immortality, Dustdevils, Lubricated Goat

#666 - 1991
Monster Magnet, Skullflower, Morbid Angel, Pain Teens, Upsidedown Cross

#7 - 1992
Monster Magnet tour diary, Liquorball, Bewitched, Lithium X-mas, Caroliner

― Edward III, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:25 (nineteen years ago)

seconded: earth, jandek

add to genres:

goth/industrial noise - controlled bleeding/lemos, skinny puppy, sleep chamber, lustmord

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:25 (nineteen years ago)

missing foundation. sink manhattan.

― scott seward, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:28 (nineteen years ago)

Was skin graft active yet?

― JW, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:29 (nineteen years ago)

re: skin graft, I think so, weren't they putting out shitty drunks with guns singles at that point?

― Edward III, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:30 (nineteen years ago)

Skin Graft started releasing records late 1991.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:31 (nineteen years ago)

lotsa people picking up where swans left off.

― scott seward, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:31 (nineteen years ago)

Some of the first SG 45's were coming out in '91 (or so). Dazzling Killmen, UFO or Die, etc. Damn, I was so into those things. What a cunning ruse...

Collectibility + willful obscurantism + COMIC BOOKS = nerd crack.

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:32 (nineteen years ago)

hanson wasn't around in 91 yet either.

― scott seward, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:33 (nineteen years ago)

was bulb around by then. maybe not.

― scott seward, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:35 (nineteen years ago)

lotsa great stuff!

― scott seward, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:35 (nineteen years ago)

haha missing foundation, you couldn't walk a block in manhattan without seeing their stupid "the party's over" graffitti... man those guys were irritating.

circle x made a comeback around that time, too.

― Edward III, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:36 (nineteen years ago)

UFO or Die otm (first releases in 88?)
Hanadensha
Naked City

― JW, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:38 (nineteen years ago)

my bad, not drunks w/ guns, strangulated beatoffs. there was a space streakings single on skin graft.

― Edward III, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:40 (nineteen years ago)

Didn't notice Bulb until 2000, through Quintron's Satan Is Dead LP. Hanson at about the same time. Both had been active for quite a while, but not (I think) as far back as '91.

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:41 (nineteen years ago)

bulb was definitely putting stuff out in the 90's, but probably not as early as 91. probably mid-90's. i own a computer. i could check i suppose.

― scott seward, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:43 (nineteen years ago)

I think both ex-DWG camps were putting out stuff in '91. Mike Doskocil with teh horribly-named (but still kinda entertaining and very Drunks-like Bullets for Pussy), Stan Seitrich & Mike DeLeon with their teenage-girl-led version of the band.

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:47 (nineteen years ago)

teenage? more like 10 year old...

― Edward III, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:48 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.drunkswithguns.com/

― Edward III, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:50 (nineteen years ago)

The Drunks are currently looking for new musicians to embark on a new era mayhem. If you live in the Columbus, Ohio area and are interested please contact Mike Doskocil at the e-mail address above.

― Edward III, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:50 (nineteen years ago)

RRRecords were doing vocokesh and masonna lps at the time too

― Edward III, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:53 (nineteen years ago)

Ha!

Anyway, I heard Melissa was young, but never saw that version of the band, so I dunno. Whole thing seemed/seems repulsive, especially given Strangulated Beatoff's pedo-positive lyrics...

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:54 (nineteen years ago)

as much as i liked all the japanese stuff, i was all about roadrunner records and earache and eyehategod in 1991. and still listening to seasons in the abyss over and over again.

i remember that torture garden album impressing the hell out of me.

― scott seward, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:55 (nineteen years ago)

using the 500 greatest thread to jog my memory these are the ones I remember talking about / listening to around 91

zoviet-france - garista / gris
hafler trio
MB - symphony for a genocide
whitehouse - cream of the second coming lp & 'thank your lucky stars' 7"
arcane device
lennon / ono - life with the lions
rhythm & noise - contents under notice
gerogerigegege, merzbow, masonna cassettes
esplendor geometrico
SPK
TG bootlegs & 2nd annual report
xenakis - electro-acoustic music lp
john cage - variations II realized by david tudor
david tudor - pulsers / untitled lp
naked city - torture garden
hanatarash
metal machine music

― Milton Parker, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:57 (nineteen years ago)

Last post, re: Doskocil's ad for new DWG "musicians".

Have a RRRecords Vocokesh/ST-37 split, but I think it's from the mid-90s. Dunno Vocokesh from before that. Always meant to check out Masonna. Didn't until much later.

P.S. Anyone been listening to Christine-23-Onna's Acid Eater? Psychedelic go-go version of Masonna/Merzbow noize. Funny and cool.

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:58 (nineteen years ago)

Terminal Cheesecake

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:00 (nineteen years ago)

cover of "zombie" was kinda funny but yeah i'm not sure who lets their kid hang around w/ stan seitrich...

― Edward III, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:00 (nineteen years ago)

this is helpful

http://www.discogs.com/label/RRRecords

― Edward III, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:04 (nineteen years ago)

i think i was also listening to jackyl at the time. chainsaw sound artists from down south.

― scott seward, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:05 (nineteen years ago)

Looking at the RRR page reminds me: F/i. Space Mantra is fucking awesome, and Paradise Out Here, too.

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:10 (nineteen years ago)

was PSF getting distro'd

― JW, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:16 (nineteen years ago)

OMOIDE HATOBA

― JW, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:17 (nineteen years ago)

masonna
bunnybrains?

― JW, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:19 (nineteen years ago)

I don't think PSF was getting distro'd until Forced Exposure started their distro business, which was, what, '93?

― Tim Ellison, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:19 (nineteen years ago)

DISTRO'D - in U.S., anyway.

― Tim Ellison, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:20 (nineteen years ago)

yes JW please tell ILM all the albums that people who were into noise owned in 1991

/snark

― Milton Parker, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:25 (nineteen years ago)

so many mentions of bands that are as much noise rock as noise, and yet no mention of Confusion is Sex and Bad Moon Rising?

― dan selzer, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:31 (nineteen years ago)

did they come out in 1991? i think not.

― scott seward, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:37 (nineteen years ago)

oh but wait people are listing stuff that they OWNED in 1991. okay. whatever. i get confused by things.

― scott seward, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:38 (nineteen years ago)

haha, noise fracas on the main board

― Dominique, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:38 (nineteen years ago)

Attempt to avoid the obvious. And the original poster's bit about knowing "noise rock from the era" and wondering "what else was out there."

So, I've skirted SY, Butthole Surfers, Cows/Jesus Lizard/AmRep, Pussy Galore/Honeymoon Killers, Aussie scuzzrock a la Feedtime/King Snake Roost. But yeah. That stuff too...

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:38 (nineteen years ago)

Last one, re: Dan.

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:39 (nineteen years ago)

what about stuff like Throbbing Gristle, Einstürzende Neubauten?

― Dominique, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:43 (nineteen years ago)

Not very noisy, and far too obscure to bother mentioning on a generalist thread like this.

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:45 (nineteen years ago)

fuck off old people

― JW, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:49 (nineteen years ago)

obscure?

― Dominique, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:49 (nineteen years ago)

besides, if it's just a matter of "what albums did you have", surely a lot of proto-noise dudes had that stuff, along w/Coil, NWW...

― Dominique, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:51 (nineteen years ago)

Was Nautical Almanac around at this time?

― filthy dylan, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:52 (nineteen years ago)

A joke. Figure anyone who's up on Merzbow & Whitehouse doesn't need to be pointed towards TG/EN. Maybe I'm wrong...

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:52 (nineteen years ago)

no, I was trying to figure out how you could have been serious! just to be safe, I took out a whole bunch of extra question marks before I posted

― Dominique, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:56 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.sendspace.com/file/m0bidi

song from Unwound demo tape

― JW, Monday, 26 February 2007 20:57 (nineteen years ago)

Man Is the Bastard (+ assorted crusty ceteras)

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:10 (nineteen years ago)

the way I took the question was what noise stuff was coming out around '91 so that would exclude the post-no-wave 80s stuff like SY/Swans/PG etc....

― Edward III, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:12 (nineteen years ago)

if we're talking "what did I already have", it would be a lot of RRR and Some Bizarre stuff plus all the TG/Coil/C93/NWW axis, Whitehouse, and Blackhouse. if we're talking "what was I buying", it was definitely a lot of Ajax record squall, Xpressway stuff, even more RRR, and Boredoms et al.

― sleeve, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:18 (nineteen years ago)

When I think about the Skullflower records from that period, aren't they more noise rock then noise? They sound more like the Melvins then Whitehouse.

― dan selzer, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:35 (nineteen years ago)

there would be always that one noise track on the heavier rock LPs at the time.

― sexyDancer, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:41 (nineteen years ago)

The Rudolph Grey records on New Alliance

― Tim Ellison, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:43 (nineteen years ago)

splitting hairs here, but Skullflower's closer to psych/drone then noise rock - e.g. show me the "bridge" in a song from Xaman or IIIrd Gatekeeper. what they're doing is a lot more open-ended then say, Teh Melvins or Unsane. aside from the grounding of repetitive bass lines, they're near total improv.

― Edward III, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:45 (nineteen years ago)

While teh > the, than > then.

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:47 (nineteen years ago)

skullflower put out a shitload of great singles between '88 - '92. I made a comp of 'em, I should leonardo that on nb.

― Edward III, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:49 (nineteen years ago)

dont corect my grammer you pedantic hump

― Edward III, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:53 (nineteen years ago)

Anyway, even the noisiest tracks on Eggnog and Lysol seem more "rock" than what Skullflower were up to. Sf shared tools w/ the Melvins, but the end result sounds like pure drone/noise to me. That said, Melvins live c. '91 often came awful damn close to Merzbow territory.

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:58 (nineteen years ago)

Weird. Was correcting Dan's usage. Hadn't even noticed that Ed was guilty of the same venal sin. But yeah: you too.

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 22:00 (nineteen years ago)

I get you. I just always think of SF as a more rock thing untill the Carved Into Noises type era where it gets really free, then the hanging out with Tim Hodgkinson and playing horns and piano era.

― dan selzer, Monday, 26 February 2007 22:02 (nineteen years ago)

oh god... so many bands...

whitehouse
ramleh
body choke
splintered
illusion of safety
masonna
gerogerigegegege
sigillum s

plus dozens of dodgy cassette releases by: grey wolves / con-dom / mlehst / factor x / brume etc etc etc

― Jack Battery-Pack, Monday, 26 February 2007 22:15 (nineteen years ago)

Blowhole

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 22:18 (nineteen years ago)

BAD VUGUM

― Tim Ellison, Monday, 26 February 2007 22:35 (nineteen years ago)

Bad Vugum indeed. CMX, Circle, Faff Bey, Radiopuhelimet, Death Trip, Dr. Gunni and the like used to get big ups in Forced Exposure. But I never came across anything, and never took the time to mailorder. So my first contact to the label came through the If It Ain't the Snow, It's the Mosquitos comps that Sympathy for the Record Industry put out in '92/'93. They're excellent, and as it turns out, the Bad Vugum was probably the best noise rock label going in the late 80s/early 90s. Up there with Touch & Go, at any rate. More reliable than AmRep, Shock, Noiseville, Circuit, etc. Sure ain't easy to track down, though...

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 22:48 (nineteen years ago)

THUG

― electricsound, Monday, 26 February 2007 22:54 (nineteen years ago)

Who am THUG?

― Pye Poudre, Monday, 26 February 2007 22:57 (nineteen years ago)

hey sD is it true you were in r**li****s? wot?!?!/

― JW, Monday, 26 February 2007 23:21 (nineteen years ago)

probably not, what band are you trying to say?

― sexyDancer, Monday, 26 February 2007 23:24 (nineteen years ago)

oh wait r3plikants? yeah, I was for a little bit before splitting the oly scene. I don't think I made any of the releases...

― sexyDancer, Monday, 26 February 2007 23:28 (nineteen years ago)

THUG are aussie noise. the song you need is "DAD" (a.k.a. "FUCK YOUR DAD")

― electricsound, Monday, 26 February 2007 23:29 (nineteen years ago)

Is Just1n doing anything now? So bummed on that dude not doing shit!!!

― JW, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 00:10 (nineteen years ago)

Ahh, the good old days of 1989-92 . . . I was a Berkeley undergrad then and I recall seeing shows by C.C.C.C., Crash Worship, Caroliner, the Haters, Crawling with Tarts, Kapotte Muziek, Bilting/Karkowski, Phauss, Einsturzende Neubauten, Chris+Cosey, Laibach, Psychic TV, Boredoms, Hafler Trio . . .

"Noise" is of course a flexible/wiggly term but I recall especially worshipping Hanatarash, Merzbow's "Batztoutai with Material Gadgets" double LP, the P16.D4 CD, HNAS, a Swimming Behaviour of the Human Infant split LP, Schimpfluch stuff at the time. (in addition obviously to the Grand Industrial Canon of TG/NWW/Neubauten/Coil)

Ned is OTM about "Soul Discharge" suddenly making tons of people go "Wha?" and seeking out the backstory. Noise folks already knew Hanatarashi but "Soul Discharge" was the gateway drug for many many more because Shimmy Disc was such a high profile label at the time.

I guess the stuff that hasn't really been celebrated by hipsters so much but which was super popular at the time with "noise" types is the "dark ambient industrial" work by Cranioclast and O Yuki Conjugate (and certain Lustmord records) and so on.

your one-stop for cultural references of the noise scene immediately prior (87-88) can be found in the Bananafish book that collects the first four issues

Blah blah blah the good old days blah

― Drew Daniel, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 01:57 (nineteen years ago)

Ned is OTM about "Soul Discharge" suddenly making tons of people go "Wha?" and seeking out the backstory. Noise folks already knew Hanatarashi but "Soul Discharge" was the gateway drug for many many more because Shimmy Disc was such a high profile label at the time.

I knew I wasn't crazy for saying that. (Well, not entirely crazy at least.)

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 02:07 (nineteen years ago)

i just remember soul discharge as being a big breath of, um, maybe not fresh air, but some kind of air. it was neat!

― scott seward, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 02:43 (nineteen years ago)

i forgot about the haters! i used to have a good haters album. drew, did you ever see blackhouse? did that guy play live?

― scott seward, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 02:49 (nineteen years ago)

Nice! Yes Twin Infinitives was a huge album for me.

I was going to mention Xpressway and Feedtime and a lot of that other shit but I thought people would say it wasn't noise-ey enough or something.

It is funny how no one really mentions Sonic Youth or Pussy Galore etc, like that was really pretty much POP MUSIC by then. Also interesting to me is how the Swans picked that year to actually abandon their thick noise scree for a lighter sound. That was not a coincidence... They had mined it for everything they could and moved on. What was it, White Light from the Mouth of Infinity? That was a great counter-balance to all that pedestrian racket. (IMO)

Boy, when someone asks for "noise" 1991, they get the real shit!

― Saxby D. Elder, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 06:58 (nineteen years ago)

Swans put down the bludgeon in 1988. The Burning World and Love Will Tear Us Apart 12" aren't exactly scree landmarks.

Pussy Galore were kaput by '91, but they were straight up bluesy garage rock at the end anyway. Play Historia de la Musica Rock back to back with Right Now! and it's pretty evident why PG isn't on anybody's list.

If Goo isn't a pop album what is it? Sure ain't noise.

― Edward III, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:42 (nineteen years ago)

true all dat...

― Saxby D. Elder, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:55 (nineteen years ago)

I think most of the general public at the time would have considered Goo to be noise rock though, which is what interested me about it.

― Saxby D. Elder, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:59 (nineteen years ago)

Goos got a few little noisy bits. White Light and Love of Life are both pretty intense albums, it was the Laswell produces Burning World where they went all light rock. Give them some credit for that though, they were ahead of some sort of neo-Leonard Cohen/Lee Hazlewood curve on that. And they brought back the rock after it anyway.

― dan selzer, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 15:17 (nineteen years ago)

SY were definitely not noise by 1991.

that and Skullflower might be one of my least favorite bands ever. And I love noise.

― the table is the table, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 15:21 (nineteen years ago)

re: Goo as noise - You're Living All Over Me is noisy too but I wouldn't call it a noise record.

I saw Swans on The Burning World tour - IIRC they only did material from the current album, and it was actually really good, still loud, repetitive, hypnotic. material was like an extension of "Trust Me" or "Real Love" from CoG. strong evidence that Laswell dropped the ball on production.

table guy - what Skullflower have you heard? I love 'em from '88 - '92, after that their discog gets kinda spotty.

more circa '91 noise rock stuff: Konkurrel bands like Dog Faced Hermans & The Ex. Weasel Walter was getting started in Chicago though that scene didn't really take off till the mid 90s.

― Edward III, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:16 (nineteen years ago)

speaking of Weasel Walter, as I recall he was working w/Hal Russell at the time, and Russell's stuff from the 80s was pretty noisy jazz -- wonder if many noisers were into that branch of music, esp via Ayler, Cecil Taylor, Brotzmann

― Dominique, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:19 (nineteen years ago)

Was listening to a LOT of noise-jazz in the early nineties. Forced Exposure (my guide to a lot of this stuff) was pushing "free jazz" hard in the mid-to-late eighties, but I never got around to investigating it until later on. Coltrane, Ayler, Dolphy, Sharrock, P. Sanders, Don Cherry, Sun Ra, Brotzman, "New York Eye and Ear Control", etc.

Didn't notice Weasel Walter until the late nineties. DID notice Jim O' Rourke through Disengage in '92. Weird, near-ambient processed soundscaping, seemingly related to the idea of drowning. What you hear lying there on the bottom of the lake while boats circle overhead? Dunno, but it's kinda cool, kinda boring.

Became a fan of the Ex in '88, thanks to Aural Guerilla. Think that record introduced a LOT of U.S. folx to the band. So yeah, they kinda fit, though I don't really think of 'em as a noise outfit.

― Pye Poudre, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:43 (nineteen years ago)

Jim O'Rourke did some stuff with Illusion of Safety, and took some time to shake a sort of "industrial" association. Flying Luttanbachers w/ Hal Russell was going on in the early/mid 90s I think?

― dan selzer, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:50 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, first luttenbachers single is '91 or '92.

― Edward III, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:51 (nineteen years ago)

FE put out Sauter/Dietrich/Moore's Barefoot In The Head in '90. remember listening to that a lot.

didn't they put out a bunch of William Hooker LPs around the same time? free jazz = noise?

― Edward III, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 18:20 (nineteen years ago)

i didn't get full on into NOISE untill college, so 93-95 was when my radar was working. But as briefly mentioned, Bulb records, Couch, stuff like that. When were the first Simon and Richard releases? I bought the Kretinmuzik CD around 95 or 96 and their Forced Exposure releases had been around for a bit. These were also the days of Noggin and Pork Queen.

― dan selzer, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 18:22 (nineteen years ago)

and Prick Decay.

― dan selzer, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 18:22 (nineteen years ago)

I remember buying that Borbetomagus/Voice Crack collaboration LP - the first one.

― Tim Ellison, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 18:35 (nineteen years ago)

Schimpfluch

― chaki, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 18:49 (nineteen years ago)

Was kk null popular?

― JW, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 18:59 (nineteen years ago)

zeni geva was out & about by then, if not the kk null solo's

pork queen! loved pork queen.

& forgot to mention big city orchestra. in the 80's, dozens of cassettes out, all of them pretty interesting

― Milton Parker, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 19:09 (nineteen years ago)

KK Null was HUGE. He had that record with Jim O'Rourke, A New Kind of Water...I remember he came through cleveland while I was Oberlin (94-97) but I couldn't go.

Crawling With Tarts were really great.

I have to go dig out my copies of Crank Automotive Zine care of Marc Masters....

― dan selzer, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 19:22 (nineteen years ago)

SY were definitely not noise by 1991.

I hear ya and I agree but I was talking about how the general public viewed it at the time, not how ILM types view it. It was even marketed as "noise rock", really, and it basically was. It wasn't NOISE in the sense of most of these other records in the thread even of that era, and it wasn't trying to be, I understand all that. Most regular people don't know anything about noise. It was just a cultural observation. I am perfectly aware of where Goo fits into everything and consumed absolutely everything Sonic Youth did very closely back then, although I kind of tired of the whole thing after a while. Point is, it's pretty noisy stuff for the way we tend to view Goo as almost like a Pop album. I just thought it was interesting in a "the year punk rock broke" kind of way. no big deal...

― Saxby D. Elder, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 19:30 (nineteen years ago)

I was actually listening to a lot of rap, usually selected on the basis of 'most outrageous sleeve' "Fear of a Black Planet" the year before had made a lot of industrial music seem sort of obsolete. Unfortunately, even PE couldn't top that one.

― Soukesian, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 19:31 (nineteen years ago)

i was all of 6 in 1991, but in honor of this thread i am watching the "X WAY VISION"video comp that drag city put out, all recorded in dunedin in late 91. Gate, Peter Jeffries, Galbraith, Dead C, Heazlewood, etc. Fun stuff.

― ian, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 19:40 (nineteen years ago)

Clarification: the free jazzes do not always = to the noise. But sometimes. Neighboring universe?

Some KK Null around prior to Zeni Geva. ANP and YBO2. Plus occasional mentions of solo stuff. Just about impossible to come by tho.

Super yes to Pork Queen and Noggin. The old days. Sigh...

― Pye Poudre, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 19:42 (nineteen years ago)

I got the X Way Vision VHS at Vintage Vinyl in NJ some point during college. In typical Xpressway fashion, the whole think looks like it was shot with a broken security camera!

― dan selzer, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 19:48 (nineteen years ago)

link Bad Vugum http://www.badvugum.com/bv/ /link

― Soukesian, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 19:53 (nineteen years ago)

aw shit . . anyway, you can still get a lot of that stuff. I owe this informartion to the fact my brother wound up living in Radiopulimelimet's home town. I think they still perform live.

― Soukesian, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 19:55 (nineteen years ago)

i thought noise was gonna take over th world in 1991..but it waited.Here is my brother and me gettin noise in 1991..uhh thats skot on vocals and me on guitar.
http://media.odeo.com/5/1/3/peril_popper.mp3

― danbunny, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 19:57 (nineteen years ago)

SKOTFANSONLY

― danbunny, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 19:58 (nineteen years ago)

Point is, it's pretty noisy stuff for the way we tend to view Goo as almost like a Pop album.

it is a pop album ffs. who is this royal we? u got assburgers?

you start out saying "It is funny how no one really mentions Sonic Youth or Pussy Galore etc, like that was really pretty much POP MUSIC by then."

FUNNY HOW PPL ON NOISE THREAD THINK GOO IS POP

IF THREAD WERE CALLED In 1991, if you were really into genteel indie rock, what albums did you have? THERE WOULD BE MORE SYMPATHY TO YR VIEWS

― Edward III, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 20:19 (nineteen years ago)

SORRY NEED TO CUT BACK ON CAFFEINE

― Edward III, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 20:21 (nineteen years ago)

Dunno if it was the noise genre, but I expect "Loveless" would be a natural choice.

― Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 20:31 (nineteen years ago)

don't forget KFMDM

― Edward III, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 20:38 (nineteen years ago)

When I think of the genre called noise, I think of all the insane shit inside the "noise box" underneath the counter in the Cambridge In Your Ear. Here, I'm talking about cassettes covered in fur or tin foil or who-knows-what. posts by drew daniels and jack battery-pack are headed in that direction (bananafish + post-industrial weirdness). i wouldn't consider a huge chunk of the stuff mentioned here noise though. sure, the word has a wide range of meanings, but there is also a fairly specific genre classification as well. not even back in the day, would i ever consider jesus lizard or cows or pussy galore or even dead c Noise. Ther were the outer fringes of underground rock. Hell, the noise dudes were the REAL freaks listening to total fuckin distortion and screaming freedback and some post-free jazz freakery (but NOT Weasel Walter).

If the original poster is looking for jams, then let me second H.N.A.S and stuff on the Dom label.

― QuantumNoise, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 20:56 (nineteen years ago)

ther =they sorry

― QuantumNoise, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 20:58 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, but Dead C were in Bananafish. And there was a whole abstract free improv thing in NZ that came slightly later (Bruce Russell himself in A Handful of Dust). I do suppose that "noise" did generally connote harsher stuff coming more out of industrial music, though.

― Tim Ellison, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 21:02 (nineteen years ago)

who is this royal we? u got assburgers?

I don't understand this (joke?) but I am indeed sorry for saying "we" in any sort of manner which would indicate that I in any way speak for the diverse number of people who post here.

Otherwise I would say yes, ease up on the caffeine, the caps and the KMFDM while you're at it.

― Saxby D. Elder, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 21:04 (nineteen years ago)

like KMFDM

― Edward III, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 21:05 (nineteen years ago)

Suppose it's important to distinguish between troo kvlt grymm noise and poser pop noise. That said, I tend to side with the poser pop stuff in almost every category of music I listen to, and that's probably reflected here.

― Pye Poudre, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 21:05 (nineteen years ago)

great point. and i didn't mean to imply that Bananafish was exclusively noise. it totally covered the outer fringes of underground rock and pop.

and you also bring up another good point. i think a distinction can be made between abstract, free improv and Noise. the former has firm roots in free jazz. whereas, like you say, Noise is aligned a bit more closely with industrial (But NOT that Chicago dance stuff).

― QuantumNoise, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 21:07 (nineteen years ago)

x-post to tim

― QuantumNoise, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 21:08 (nineteen years ago)

CIRCLE X

(I think)

― David R., Tuesday, 27 February 2007 21:10 (nineteen years ago)

around 1993 we started putting rabid squirrels in a corrugated metal box and leave them to die in the hallway. but even that started to sound like nirvana after a while.

― Edward III, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 21:13 (nineteen years ago)

I think that first new Circle X single where they did a little version of "Puerto Rican Ghost" was '92?

― Tim Ellison, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 21:16 (nineteen years ago)

Godflesh - Streetcleaner

did Slug have any albums out in 1991?

― mcphee, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 21:47 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, first couple Slug 45s are c. '91.

― Pye Poudre, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 21:51 (nineteen years ago)

ha ha, now you remind me of a show I saw at the Haze Theatre with a killer lineup, must have been 92 or so:

ZENI GEVA
SLEEP
CRASH WORSHIP
SLUG
AMBER ASYLUM

― Drew Daniel, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 22:14 (nineteen years ago)

man, how do you follow Crash Worship on a bill?

― sexyDancer, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 22:16 (nineteen years ago)

with a mop.

― dan selzer, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 22:33 (nineteen years ago)

Huh, were Amber Asylum different back then? Seems an odd band to end the night with. I suppose concerts like that are all about being odd.

― Øystein, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 22:36 (nineteen years ago)

... and a fire extinguisher, and a 50-gallon drum of Febreeze, and a no-trespass warrant, and some tongs for the stray dreadlock fragments, and ...

― Pye Poudre, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 22:37 (nineteen years ago)

There were two big rooms, and the night tag-teamed back and forth- also that was in no particular order- Crash Worship headlined in one room and I think Sleep headlined the other. Can't recall if it was Zeni Geva or KK Null solo actually, it was a while ago. Anyway, it was a killer show, and a kind of cool handshake between industrial / noise / ambient / metal / heavy rock fans . . . .

― Drew Daniel, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 22:55 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, Crash Worship was really carrying the torch there for a while. I saw them at the X-Ray in Portland in maybe '91 but possibly '92 and it was one of the greatest things ever.

HNAS, Hanatarash, Masonna, Acrid Acme Of P16D4 CD, SBOTHI all seconded, great stuff.

― sleeve, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 00:46 (nineteen years ago)

Not to deviate too much, but are there any general differences you guys find in noise (the genre) now, and noise then?

― filthy dylan, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 01:18 (nineteen years ago)

girls.

― dan selzer, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 01:29 (nineteen years ago)

kidding, a little bit. I know there's always been plenty of women involved and even fans...but the ratio has really changed over the last few years.

― dan selzer, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 01:30 (nineteen years ago)

I agree with Dan, that's a good point. Also there's a level of internet-fueled networking that results in lots of local festivals and such, much more cross-pollination than before. There are a LOT of noise people in Eugene right now for whatever reason, 3 radio shows of full on assault-scale shriek, a yearly festival, and like 20 "bands" that are all one person. And a couple of women in the mix, which sadly is still a higher ratio than 1991.

― sleeve, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 02:11 (nineteen years ago)

Crash Worship was really carrying the torch there for a while.

The torch for ugly shamanic inanities?

― Tim Ellison, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 02:22 (nineteen years ago)

aw man, I'll grant you your opinion but it does not add up with my experience of the band at all.

― sleeve, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 02:26 (nineteen years ago)

laptops and less of a performance aspect nowadays.

― chaki, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 02:30 (nineteen years ago)

lots of women in SF -- the bi-weekly Godwaffle Noize Pancakes shows in SF have five acts a show, and for a while there it was close to 33%-50% female. that's not even counting the all-female series at 3957 sanleandro and the Women Take Back The Noise festival from last december -- it makes even more of an impact @ Godwaffle because it's not supposed to be a spotlight-on-girlz thing. 16 Bitch Pileup are cool but they're really just one of many good bands, a lot of people are wondering why they're getting treated like the Go-go's

the main thing (already widely noted but hard to argue with) is that noise has gone rock -- same sounds & industrial / academic electronic roots & sounds, but... rock. I remember finally getting myself to a wolf eyes show a few years ago and waiting & listening for them to do something different enough to deserve the buzz -- when the grungy vocals & beats kicked in, suddenly the mosh pit started -- the difference was in the attitude of the band & the crowd more than the sounds, which on record struck me as flat-out retro -- and it was only at that moment that it occured to me that the show was at an Oakland biker bar instead of 7Hz or the Compound or somebody's SF loft (most of the noise has been going on in Oakland)

JW would be right to repost 'old people fuck off' at this point as this might be too obvious but that's my attempt to answer it as a mid-thirties type, I see why Wolf Eyes are connecting but Esplendor Geometrico's 1980-1982 CD still fucking trumps all 900 of their CDRs, signed, grampa

― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 02:44 (nineteen years ago)

milton, you should hear the new Prurient album on Hanson. Straight-up old school noize. no rock allowed. i dig it. and i really did dig that row your boat thing on that channel 53 site!!! i left it playing for a while on my computer. sounded really cool.

― scott seward, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 04:51 (nineteen years ago)

in case you missed it:

http://www.gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com/bongodrums.html

― scott seward, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 04:53 (nineteen years ago)

Not to deviate too much, but are there any general differences you guys find in noise (the genre) now, and noise then?

I was gonna say there's nothing new under the sun until Scott proved me wrong with the browser Stockhausen hijinks.

― Edward III, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 15:45 (nineteen years ago)

― Soukesian, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 19:25 (nineteen years ago)

xpost: Milton on Wolf Eyes: "the difference was in the attitude of the band & the crowd more than the sounds" Absolutely OTM: I saw a few industrial acts back in the early eighties, and seeing WE last year, I was struck firstly by the fact that they were as precisely retro sounding as any rockabilly act, and secondly by the rock'n'roll attitude of both the audience and the band - down to the traditional hardcore mike held at right angle to mouth stance. Don't get me wrong, I loved it - back in the 80's, we were all relatively introverted and nervous.

― Soukesian, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 19:34 (nineteen years ago)

Agree w/ Souk and Milton on the noise gone rock. Not so much in terms of how it sounds (though Wolf Eyes really do "rock out" every now and then in ways that aren't totally retro w/in the genre - "Let the Smoke Rise", "Noise Not Music", etc.), but in terms of presentation and audience response. It's not a bad thing, either. Strips their shows of the grody, "cerebral", avant-art baggage, and repels the dweebs who get off on that vibe.

― Pye Poudre, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 20:25 (nineteen years ago)

Seeing early Napalm Death and Carcass tours, I had the reverse sensation of 'this is rock gone noise': the sound was more extreme than most contemporary industrial stuff - the Carcass slideshow put the presentation well over the edge as well!

The early industrial shows I saw were VERY serious - you almost felt you weren't meant to be enjoying it.

― Soukesian, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 20:53 (nineteen years ago)

One notable omission: Boy Dirt Car.

― libcrypt, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 21:08 (nineteen years ago)

But what if you ARE a dweeb who likes cerebral avant art baggage? What then?

― Drew Daniel, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 21:35 (nineteen years ago)

Get a laptop!

― Soukesian, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 21:43 (nineteen years ago)

xpost: No matter what, you'll always have turtlenecks.

― Pye Poudre, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 23:19 (nineteen years ago)

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