Grandfather: “What is that you’re listening to sunny boy?”
Thurston: “It’s called punk rock gramps!”
Grandfather: “What? What did you say? Turn that racket down boy .......oh heavens! Why is it so loud? Why is that man screaming? This isn’t music son, its just noise!”
Thurston: “Well grandpa one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure!”
Well the senile old man wasn’t completely wrong there, was he? That is the customary first reaction to most forms of new, loud music …..Mind you he did die the next day, so let’s not berate him too much for his gaffe.
Punk rock was and always will be the original, rebellious, outsider genre. It ruled for almost an entire decade and inspired a horde of other genres. But in terms of mainstream acceptance, the musicians always chose to function outside of conservative society.
It’s been almost two decades since we’ve seen a real punk band! ..... (And no, Greenday does not count!!) So in punk’s absence, what has been rebelling against society, breaking norms, and throwing convention out the window?? ......wait….what’s that grandpa??
Noise rock has occupied punk rocks vacant throne since hardcore punk bit the dust in the early 90’s. Violent, abrasive and in your face, noise rock is everything for the 90’s what punk rock was for the 70’s…..a vibrant and exciting scene which is revolutionary at the same time. It employs dissonance, feedback and distortion to its breaking point. Unusual song structures, screeching guitars, down tuned grinding bass and earth shattering drums!!.....you get the idea….its loud!!
To the untrained ear, it may sound like two 6 yr olds going crazy on a band’s equipment! .... (Damn those are some talented 6yr olds!!) But more open minded listeners will be able to find the subtle beauty beneath the harsh exterior. You either completely embrace it or completely despise it.
Taking inspiration from noisy punk groups like the Germs and Flipper; and New York’s No Wave movement, noise rock burst onto the scene in the 80’s with Swans and Sonic Youth.
Probably the two most important front men in noise rock, David Yow of Scratch Acid & Jesus Lizard and Steve Albini of Big Black & Shellac were instrumental in the advancement of noise rock from basements into alternative radio.
Jesus Lizard’s uncompromising, scathing guitar driven rock was complemented by madman Yow’s psychotic and just plain pissed off vocals while Albinis’s sarcastic biting lyrics fit perfectly with Shellac’s tight as tight can be, precise sparse rhythms and sharp angular guitar riffs.
In the mid 90’s noise rock bands exploded in number with bands as diverse as guerilla gig specialists Lightning Bolt, spastic Arab on Radar and others like Locust, Wolf Eyes, Pink and Brown, Black Dice who along with 2000’s Parts and Labor, Indian Jewelry and Liars carried the formula of noise rock into the new millennium.
Genres like grindcore, powerviolence, metalcore started popping up in the new decade influenced by noise rock
As a takeoff on the established New Wave scene, the burgeoning New York music scene came to be known as No Wave. No Wave was basically at the experimental end of the rock spectrum, influenced by Punk---Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Jazz---James Chance and the Contortionists,
And Avant-garde and Experimental---Mars and DNA
No Wave shows were equivalent to the city’s Broadway theatre shows in which melody takes a backseat to texture.
Present day bands like Neptune, Liars, Erase Errata, and Ex Models are influenced by the atonal sounds of the No Wave scene.
Experimental Avant-garde worth noting includes Oxbow, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Chicks on Speed and Life without Buildings.
The use of free form structures of noise rock, feedback, dissonance with pop sensibilities constitutes Noise Pop. Ambient guitar effects, vocals melded into the reverb laden wall of sound, all these techniques were flawlessly used by probably the definitive noise pop band--Jesus and the Mary Chain. More accessible than it’s louder, harsher cousin noise rock, noise pop remained in the shadows till JAMC broke it big. To some extent Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr. and the Pixies also possess elements of noise pop.
Peaking in ’91 Shoegazing, a genre named after the manner in which its bands played a dense, droning type of rock while staring at their shoes influenced pop in various indie circuits. Cream of the crop of the shoe gazing scene were considered to be My Bloody Valentine who were seen as the successors to the Velvet Underground’s eccentric version of droning rock n’ roll. Tremolo arm permanently bent and open tunings, reverse reverb—‘glide guitar’ gave Kevin Shields that signature MBV sound which used Phil Spector's wall of sound to full effect and could disorient and mesmerize the listener in a single listen.
So the next time your grandfather tells you that punk rock is just noise, give him a hug....he knows more about music than you do!! :P
