No Neck Blues Band ???

Dan, that's actually one of my favorite nnck-related records, and I always just assumed it was Nuss since the B side is so drum/jazz-heavy, but who knows?

i'm sure i read a review somewhere recently of a new D Charles Speer record.... possibly in the wire?

cant find any info on his site / mysp / sound@one / black dirt etc

can anyone help me out with any info?

[tell me this wasn't just a boring dream].

iirc it's coming out on Three Lobed?

coming out in november are new LPs from both steve gunn and d. charles speer & the helix. gunn's boerum palace is a stroke of guitar genius - deeply felt odes reflecting and respecting american traditions through his raga influences. distillation by d. charles speer & the helix is the last honky-tonk boogie-rock album you'll ever need - it will keep every party hoppin'. both are available for pre-order - check each release'se page for more information and downloadable previews.

After Hours was one of my faves from last year. Or was it this year? I dunno anymore.

what's the deal with this 7" credited to No Neck Blues Explosion?
http://www.myrecordcollection.org/artists/nnck/nnbx.jpg

Ian, you should sign up to Three Lobed's e-mail list. They just sent out an update with a link to a new Speer track.

This: http://www.threelobed.com/tlr/music/TLR-072-SpeerHelix.mp3

These guys just keep getting better and better.

ah three lobed - thanks ian.

yeah, after hours is a great record. the photo of shuford taking a bite of an onion in the inlay is pretty frameworthy.

are the singles worth picking up? they had the sleeve for the Past or Beyond 7" in Rough Trade - but the clerk couldnt find the vinyl.

xp: no-neck blues explosion was a parody record put out by an anonymous party. kind of odd at the time as nnck hadn't even released many records. The music misses the mark so don't break your back trying to get it.
I can't remember if the identity of those responsible was ever revealed.

i have it but never knew the story.

ah ... internet sez it was dudes what put out "Tuba Frenzy" fanzine.
disappointing ... boys in the band always thought it was Alan Licht.

nnck playing @ sculpture center in a few hrs, who's in?

is that the place in long island city?

i played this at a party and peeps was like, wtf d00d, dis ain't music, aiyyo put on some beyonce muthafuka

yeah, the place in LIC.

FWIW - No Neck Blues Band is still terrific, if a bit less tribal/drony/bizarre than in the early daze. Also, seek ye the Jandek live joints with Matt Heyner in the back-up band, as well as the superb free jazz band Test.

I love this band.

DOES THEM REALLY HAVE NO NEXX???
― Googler, Monday, July 21, 2003 2:06 AM (10 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is an important question that deserves an answer.

pearl neckless

tomorrow night in Greenfield. I'll be open until show time if you need records. this is at Replay across the street from my store.

Rhyton
http://www.thrilljockey.com/artists/rhyton
Rhyton is a group of experienced sonic voyagers, well versed in music both ancient and futuristic and wise enough to know that the distinction between the two is more subjective than one might initially be taught. They take ancestral forms, instrumentation and scales, primarily sourced from Middle Eastern and Greek traditions, and incorporate them into the context of scorching improvised rock. Their music is defined by divine mixture: electric and acoustic sources meld to form one sound, and when Rhyton plays, they play as one mind. The trio on Kykeon, their third album, is David Shuford (aka D. Charles Speer and of NNCK), Jimy SeiTang (Stygian Stride), and Rob Smith (Pigeons), each member providing essential building blocks for the interplanetary vibrations they conjure as a whole.

Kykeon literally means “to stir, to mix” in Greek, but was also a drink created by the ancients that had psychoactive properties, an apt name for the radical concoctions contained herein. While previous Rhyton albums were recorded generally in improvised first takes, preserving the freshness and exploiting their generous talents of spontaneous composition, Kykeon was carefully arranged while still retaining the unfettered vibe that has made their music so potent. Shuford’s melodic turns on the bouzouki, electro-saz, and guitar burst forth in the mix with a commanding intensity, while SeiTang’s bass and organ and Smith’s drums drive the pieces into unknown territory. There is an undeniable groove to many of the songs, showing the distant relation between Greek traditions, psychedelia, and the progressive boogie of Shuford’s work with The Helix. Rhyton exists on its own plane in the Brooklyn underground, forging its own more worldly path to psychedelic transcendence.

Decimus
https://decimus.bandcamp.com/music
"Pat Murano's solo project of abrasive atmospheric aggressions. Founding member of No Neck Blues Band, Murano also established the highly enigmatic K Salvatore duo in the mid-1990s together with Jason Meagher (also of NNCK fame and more recently head of the Black Dirt Studios) as well as the black Malkuth beast. Decimus has existed as an entity for some years, privately kept secret in the abyss of New York as its darkest creation."

Sunburned Hand of the Man
http://www.sunburnedhandoftheman.com/

Noise Nomads
"Jeff Hartford -- Mr. Noise Nomad, himself -- approaches every show like a happening, and he creates a vibe and vision that will hang in yr head and ears long after the fire has burned out (as it were)." - Byron Coley

looks like a great time.
I've heard a promo of the new rhyton LP and it is awesome. there's a joe walsh cover of all things.

Damn, four guitar army for Sunburned tonight. So good. Tony Pasquarosa guesting along with Ted Lee on vocals and Jen Gelineau on violin along with Jeremy Pisani, and Ron and Rob and John and Conrad, and Matt Robidoux. Loud and proud.

Rhyton were excellent. My son Rufus loved the electric mandolin jams. and the Joe Walsh cover was a great finishing touch. I know Rob Smith from playing here with Pigeons and he was so friggin' good on drums. also, the bass player is the chillest bass player with the coolest bass. he was great too. definitely a band to see if they are around you in the future.

Decimus was very cool but all i kept thinking when he played was how dumb i was to sell all those K Salvatore records I used to have because now I want to buy them all again. I love that stuff.

k salvatore records should be easy to find now. and not very expensive.
rhyton are great, three solid bros. jimmy the bass player played in psychic ills as well.

i still haven't seen noise nomads in a dozen years. loved seeing that dude all the time in RI.

i didn't go to the rangda show at the flywheel and then i heard that chris corsano brought ten boxes of records to sell at the show because he is moving!!! including all the k salvatore records. that's what i get for not getting out of town more often.

my friend andy bought a ton of stuff. apparently. andy has a new shop nearby.

Pat (the decimus dude) from NNCK also has a new collab with Tom Carter out, only 18 copies left. https://decimus.bandcamp.com/album/ashvin

i'm really into it, ordered mine a few weeks back, still waiting on the post.

Great new oral history up at Aquarium Drunkard. Love these freaks

https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2023/01/17/no-neck-blues-band-more-letters-from-the-earth/

That's certainly.... a read. Loved a couple of their albums, but there is some cringe AF stuff in there.

No doubt. It was a different world.

"OMG No-Neck Blues Band are sooooo PRETENTIOUS!"

"well..yeah"

having hung out with them and hosted them back in 05, i have to say that they were lovely and friendly people. it’s reactions like “cringe” and “pretentious “ that make me miss the Noise Board, not a sentiment that comes up a lot for obvious reasons

Going forward, nothing pretentious or cringe will be tolerated. Signed, young people

I mean, I think they were well aware of these pretensions and embraced them with humor and determination. NNCK might've been annoying at times, but hey, so were Sun City Girls. Just seems like part of the fun.

oh definitely, all of that stuff really sharpened my listening too and offered a whole new world of possibilities. there was a period of about 4 years where i was on that board i hate music, before i got to ilm. a lot of that stuff plus the eai erstwhile related stuff were responsible for helping me hear a lot more and more sensitively.

liking the revive, there is a hilarious noize board post somewhere that's an "interview" with some guy trying to guess the music playing and running through all of these names plus more

"Mouthus?"

-no

"Double Leopards?"

-no

etc

I’d add Growing to this list. I saw they’re playing still

Which NNCK album would you recommend for someone unfamiliar with their work? Saw them live a couple of times in the 2000s and was very impressed.

Anagram: most accessible would be “Sticks and Stones….”, I’m a fan of “Rye Antenna” and “Letters from the Serth”

I’d add Growing to this list. I saw they’re playing still

Here’s the live set from when I booked them as an undergrad.

https://archive.org/details/NNCK-live-11-5-05-fairchild-chapel_202101

I can't say I've heard enough of the discography to be certain, but I'll say that 2005's Qvaris was my way in.

i like Qvaris but feel it a little leas dynamic than I want. Sticks and Stones has high energy freakouts and low-level, nearly inaudible moments of weird mesmerizing string work. It was also, admittedly, my way into their sound, so I probably have listened to it more than most other records, excepting a few live sets that are just wild

Still have the original sleeve with Christopher Wool print for “Quantarenius, Cook & Co”, another favorite and perhaps their most explicitly “political” recording

Maybe I should start a thread as a nostalgia repository for all this stuff— it really did change my life, in many ways for the better. I became a much better listener

This old thread Whiney made has at least some overlap: Best Underground American Noise Act of the Noise-Punk Era (ca. 1998-2005)

Was doing college radio during the peak of this era. And though I rarely revist these groups now, I can honestly say--at the risk of sounding as grandiose or "pretentious" as the NNCK guys--this whole scene really did kind of change what I saw as "possible" in lots of different facets of life, not just music or art.

I caught the tail end of a lot of this stuff and never really got into the No-Necks. I'm going to have to revisit for sure.

In the UK, it feels like a lot of this stuff was centred around the Wire and David K33nan in particular - his record shop and mailing list. Also tend to think of this as 'ATP-core', which is ugly but true in terms of how we encountered lots of the bands.

This thread made me dig out *Drowner Yellow Swans*. Bury me inside this shit.

Yeah D Yellow Swans among the best of these groups, the most consistently good

This thread made me dig out *Drowner Yellow Swans*. Bury me inside this shit.

― Shard-borne Beatles with their drowsy hums (Chinaski)

thank you so much for this, never checked 'em out before cuz I never knew where to start, this is like Zoviet France through a distortion pedal, so good and exactly what I needed right this minute

I made a recording of a nasty good live set they did in 05, will upload soon.

05-06 was the year I was kind of the head of my college concert board— we brought Yellow Swans, No-Neck, Old Time Relijun, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Excepter, Wooden Wand, and Gang Gang Dance. Circle and Lichens also performed. It was a real golden age for me and this type of music.

Oh, and also BATTLES, who were excellent live

Not really listened to many of these bands recently but it really was fun being 16 or so and spending all day on the internet when this stuff was in it's peak.

Don't know where to put this— it's not noise, it's not a jam band, it's not anything like that— but moments of this Scorched Bogon record remind me a bit of the groovier elements of NNCK's output.
https://burgantriangletapes.bandcamp.com/album/scorched-bogon-back-at-the-deep-hole

Maybe a little more in line with some of the side projects, like there's def a hint of Enos Slaughter.

Are NNCK still going?

I think so!

Not as active, but yeah.

Also, Excepter has a record coming out in a few months. At this point it's just JFR and Lala, but hey, cool!
https://excepter.bandcamp.com/album/displacer

Thanks for the Excepter link, table!

I haven't listened to any of these bands in over a decade

It's nice to listen to them!! I been rocking Yellow Swans and Tan As Fuck a lot recently.

I doubt any of the old cdrs will work, but the NNCK I have was proper CD I think

a lot of my CDrs still work ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Thanks for the Excepter link, table!

― Clever Message Board User Name (Raymond Cummings), Sunday, February 8, 2026 5:46 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

yeah that sounds promising.

Playing September 12th at the First Unitarian Congregational Society in Brooklyn for Issue Project Room

fuuuuuuck

might have to come up for that

that would make NNCK on the 12th, Grouper and Bill Nace on the 17th, then Making Time festival the 18-20.

Any ilxors going to this tomorrow? i will be there. lmk and we can meet up, perhaps!!

Really surprised that no one here or in my friend network is as jazzed about this as I am. oh well, i will be among true freaks

I am here if anyone wants to say hi to tabes irl— i am wearing a shirt that says RAILROADING in big purple letters on it and baggy jeans

great show. got to say hi to Dave and Pat and Keith, too

<3

also worth mentioning that when i asked Dave whether they were gonna play out and record more, he said, “very possibly, we need to see how we all think tonight went!!”

What was the crowd like? I'm assuming it skewed older. Hopefully they had a nice turnout.

Probably about 65% over 40, the rest younger. Some actual twinks in the audience!!

Nice!

I miss Sexxxy Dancer. Hope he was having fun.

It was cool. Hundreds of people. Which is nice. I played the remnants of electric sticks/stones. Our most controversial member tried drowning himself a little bit. People seemed to like it, minutes long standing ovation. But was hiding in church cupboard by that point

It was cool. Hundreds of people. Which is nice. I played the remnants of electric sticks/stones. Our most controversial member tried drowning himself a little bit. People seemed to like it, minutes long standing ovation. But was hiding in church cupboard by that point

Our most controversial member tried drowning himself a little bit.

this raises several questions...

haha it sure does

He would have been successful had it not for having... No Neck

Thanks for the report in SexyD 🫡