Sonic Youth Gossip - It's official - NNCK are the best band in the world.

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- - It's official - NNCK are the best band in the world. (http://www.sonicyouth.com/gossip/showthread.php?t=9010)

Quote:

Originally Posted by hat and beard

live at ken's electric lake

no neck blues band
live at ken's electric lake
locust98
CD
2007-09-18

Nearly ten years of swimming up stream through the sonic flotsam & jetsam, the folks have gotten freaky , noise is the 'new noise', the chin scratchers have joined the metal circus and the No Neck Blues Band remain as relevant today as ever. Their indoor /outdoor audio assaults in upper & lower Manhattan are the stuff of legend but on 1998s Meets the Clear People with Mystery Gypped: Live at Ken's Electric Lake the band took a distinct turn, crossed the Canadian border, hooked up w/ some Sunburned folks and made a sudden diaspora to a rural retreat in the country for a full day's session of acid-head tribal percussion clatter that is utterly different than anything the band had put on the public record up to that time.

Looser, groovier & more in that communal state of mind than ever, NNCK's long out of print fifth release from 1998 is a classic testament to the urban dwellers' gone wild & ranks as among their finest displays of tribal churn and choogle in the band's 14 year history. Neo dada attacks were swapped out for psychedelic vibrations, midrange mystery for outdoor atmospherics. Ken's is a peak communal moment for New York's most enigmatic, longest running experimental collective.
this 2 cd set is fully remastered from the original source tapes, features new track IDs for easy, convenient armchair roaming and comes packaged in a stunning 'japanese style' gatefold tip on cd jacket.

http://www.locustmusic.com/index.php?option=com_albums&task=view&cid=96&cid2= 84&Itemid=6

I have this orginal LP... which i bought from Kevin Drumm on eBay like 5 or so years ago. good stuff.

Yeah, I have the LP so I don't think I'll get the cd. Not yet anyway. It is a top LP though...one of the best of the early-ish stuff I think.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sonicl

Having now heard Sticks and Stones..., I'm now a bit more inclined to being charitable towards them, it was excellent music for driving at night, but I still say that there is a very very large element of pretentiousness in their make-up which will stop me from ever loving them.

sticks and stones is what got me really into them i listened to that non stop for days and i will always love that album.

i don't understand how you can see them as being pretentious, i really don't

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iain

Yeah, I have the LP so I don't think I'll get the cd. Not yet anyway. It is a top LP though...one of the best of the early-ish stuff I think.

i have the lp from back in the day and couldn't help scoring the cd anyway. the packaging is really ace and the sound quality is way improved. i don't know the packaging lingo but basically for those who have th lp, the cd jacket is like a mini lp version on that same really heavy stock. locust did a bang up job on this one. i think it is a real hallmark release for them. it's cool that some of their catalog is getting reframed while they're still active and developing. to me, the biggest distinction with the 'ken's' cd is that it showcases a purity that doesn't always come through. anyway, i forgot just how much i loved this record until throwing the cd on.

marcus

I still don't see what the fuss about this band is. Their records are ok at the very least, and yes, I haven't seen them live, but isn't a band meant to be the shit because both their records and their live outings are awesome? I think it is, but I might be too demanding in that department. NNCK aren't that particularly good at all, argue about it all you like.

what albums have you listened to? I agree that they are amazing live. always unpredictable but there releases were really excting for me to obtain. there' a lot to the total package so if you've just been downloading the music, the experience is incomplete. i used to spend loads of time trying to get a handle on their strange hieroglyphics and weird adaptation of grafitti style art.
marcus

there's an interview with dave nuss about way of the cross here
http://www.vpro.nl/programma/dwars/a...ngen/36097016/
(second link)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toilet & Bowels

i don't understand how you can see them as being pretentious, i really don't

Really? Isn't the ostentatious live show, the absurd self-created mystique, the ridiculous theatric that Michiko in particular follows enough? I mean, they're still amazing, but I completely understand why Mr L in particular thought they were pretentious. They ARE pretentious, I just happen to enjoy their pretentiousness more than anyone else doing the round at the moment.

I'm not sure how you are defining pretentious - you accuse them of vanity or you have a problem with their ambitiousness?

anyone seeing them this week in NY?

Quote:

Originally Posted by tesla69

I'm not sure how you are defining pretentious - you accuse them of vanity or you have a problem with their ambitiousness?

anyone seeing them this week in NY?

I don't have any problems with them, I do happen to think, short of Haino, they're the best live band doing the rounds at the moment. Aaaaaaaand I'm still drunk.

I've not seen them live yet but even so, they're probably the only 'alternative' band I can think of at the moment that genuinely excite me. Maybe it's because they sort of remind me of a really early Amon Duul (who I also love) and, let's face it, you don't often get to say that about a band these days.

As for the pretentious thing, yeah, they are. But then this is a board dedicated to Sonic Youth, who aren't exactly Slade, are they?

Just saw nnck last night here in New York. Really reinforced why I liked them in the first place. They are one of the weirdest and most psychedelic noise bands I've ever seen. When their collective genius at jam-logic is channelled into total collage mode the results are staggering and awesome. A really great sounding band that shifts through various dimmensions effortlessly. They sound unlike any other band, and there is no other band that can do what they do when they are on top of their game.

They still are not all that, and by that I mean all that weird. They don't sound that shocking at all, but they have some cool moments. Funnily enough, I loved them big time by hearing the live stuff that Nefeli sent me, and by also watching some great youtube clips. Greatest band? Yawn. Yawn.Yawn.

Well 'greatest' is a silly way to describe any band, obviously. They're not revolutionising music. In the big scheme of things they aren't that significant. But when it comes to kicking back, I can think of few better soundtracks. I also like their fusion of mysticism with a kind of anarcho-collective spirit. This too isn't new (Amon Duul, Hawkwind, etc) but I can live with that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by coolchip

Just saw nnck last night here in New York. .

You saw the Midway show? Out of curiousity, did it start on time?

quoth wikipedia:

Quote:

The band is currently at work on their first full studio engineered recording to see release in 2008 on Chicago's Locust Music