serious idea for a blog
 

like i said in the sightings thread, i want to start a blog that specifically documents the best of the best of the 00's noise/drone/weird scene.

most of this stuff exists on slsk or you wade through dead mediafire links from 2006 or hard to search for youtube vids with 14 views and 10 likes.

i want this to be a collaborative blog since there are others out there that know more than me.

i'll contribute pieces on each band/album and we post links.

there are so many lost classics and gems that were totally underlooked at the time and that came from poverty and were made by people probably still in it and beaten down by life, and it pains me that its all being forgotten in the digital void and this stuff is going unappreciated.

of course the point would be to only post the absolute creme de la creme

anyone interested hit me up or post suggestions of worthy inclusions in this thread

this is a thing that needs to happen

Do it.. i recommended gmku start a fashion blog and its going well, im looking forward to reading yours.. also music is better for you, you get less pissed off about it than politics, ethics, or theology.

I recommend your first post be about that epic mid-2000s noise event that was John Weiss opening for Sonic Youth on the Nurse tour in 2004. That was possibly one of the greatest noise combinations ive ever heard from one stage

I'm definitely always looking for “new” or underapreciated noise & drone music from that era. I used to search blogs like Blood is Truth endlessly for new noise music. There are also some incredible current artists that fly the proverbial noise/drone/experimental flag, and though they're hard to keep track of for one busy person, a groups of people might have better luck.

If this is a serious deal I'm totally in. I think I could contribute a lot of suggestions and recommendations, if we're talking noise/drone from 2006-present.

This is a good idea... What blog medium do you have in mind?

Hell yes Severian, hit me up with recommendations and we can start compiling a list

Not sure about the medium yet but will probably tumblr it as well as do it somewhere else

i already have stuff in mind for

hospitals - hairdryer peace
early pocahaunted
skaters
scissor shock

and would def do something for:

sightings
hair police
double leopards
mouthus
hair police
robe
goslings
no neck blues band
vibracathedral orchestra
stars of the lid

and want to include some harsh wall stuff like haemmoraging foetus

looking at that list from the top of my head those are prob the least obscure bands, so we can do way better

it would be one band per post with an indepth analysis and links/embedded stuff

I'm just sitting on the train thinking of bands and there's so much incredible stuff, and this is just surface level, not even looking into any of the webs of connections or anything

ashtray navigations
wolf eyes
gang wizard
sandoz lab technicians
skullflower
no neck blues band
dreamcolour
yellow swans
emeralds
khanate
magik markers
pelt
hype williams
kevin drumm
astral social club
double leopards
birchville cat motel
bardo pond
magic lantern
opn
burning star core
taurpis tula
richard youngs
charalambides
vampire can't
birds of delay

severian while there is still a lot of stuff being made in this vein the whole thing has become completely decentralised and what gimple's talking about I feel died in about 2010/11 when wolf eyes went on hiatus, emeralds & opn graduated to emego, james ferraro made far side virtual, pocahaunted fell apart, the output of sightings/hair police etc. becoming considerably less frequent.

you should definitely do it. i don't think i could contribute anything worth attention but would really be interested in something like that. double leopards, mouthus, vibracathedral orchestra were some of my favourite acts at the time, always was into what they were doing. yellow swans as well

Yeah, it's true that there's been a noticeable lull in the production and release of noise music over the past few years.

Incidentally, we have very similar taste. Yellow Swans were the first act that came to mind when I went through this thread, actually. And yeah, Pocahaunted, Emeralds, Wolf Eyes, Jackie-o Motherfucker...

Also No-Neck Blues Band and Excepter
Belong
Burning Star Core!
Vibracathedral Orchestra
Robedoor
Mouthus

And if we're talking techno-influenced shit, then certainly Pan Sonic, Ben Frost, Fuck Buttons (maybe too modern? I don't know, I love me some Fuck Buttons... When Wolf Eyes fell out for a bit, I glommed on to FB's so tenaciously that I barely noticed their absence.)

I'm just spitting shit out here. Perhaps I should consult some notes and playlists and look through my music library a bit

god I love Burning Star Core.

owwww... look at you all growed up... wanting to build things!

i'm not trying to make fun, i swear, but i can't help to notice the change over the years--- hey, i'm old-- this is actually great/great idea/go forth & thrash

i'll read it for sure

i'll dig around my files for missing names

Also OOIOO. Times New Viking? LSD March. Prurient?

If this starts with a Tumblr, link it with a Wordpress. A cheap or free Wordpress template that allows CCS and HTML modification.

It's really hard to get regular readership on those mediums, though, without spending money. So my suggestion would be to link whatever you do to a Twitter feed and Facebook page, to try to draw people in so its not just a bunch of noise nerds posting their noise collections for their own amusement.

You know?

yeah this is exactly it - anyone want to share more insights in this vein please go for it

good to see i'm not the only one that noticed a sort of historical moment that happened for a few years

i can def remember a period where it seemed like there was an entire sub genre of skaters influenced bands.

the thing about this is that i don't want to impinge too much into things like hauntology and hypno and the whole fangs and arrows type scene because a lot of that stuff has already been covered but i do want to include the branch off points

yes this is what I was thinking about. also maybe a youtube channel too.

so far in this thread we've probably covered most of the big names - except for aids wolf - i also want to get at the forgotten stuff, rare gems and stuff that got passed over at the time.

anyone that has anything to share on these bands or feels they could contribute something jump in.

oh yeah shit belong, they were a good one. also the cleveland scene so bee mask and everyone else on that axis.

ben frost & fuck buttons are in a completely different lineage, more along the lines of 'populist noise' for lack of a better term, employing accessible signifiers like melody/rhythm to very conventional means. while all those other groups you've listed definitely conform to what we're talking about here those two are completely different; their music is high fidelity, free from the murk which defined everything else we're talking about and similarly lacking in any identifiable esotericism. also their music has been released on very prominent record labels and as such no DIY element. also ben frost is australian and also ben frost is a fucking cunt. his music's shit as well. :p tried to be nice but couldn't hold it together, sincerely sorry but I hate ben frost so much.

and as much as pan sonic employ noise as a compositional tool they were also operating within a completely different context, more readily aligning with the european avant-garde electronic styles (for example mego, touch, type, raster-noton), musics which skewed towards a more sterile, academic place as opposed to the proclivity of 21st century noise artists (particularly in the US) to engage in completely uninhibited improvisation which owes more to DIY rock and kosmische than GRM or modernist comp.

gimple I'm actually just polishing off a piece on the death of rock, talking about how sonic youth issued a threat to it on which they never truly delivered with the dead c marking its demise and creating a context wherein the liminal properties of rock were able to be explored by 21st century noise artists. so if you want this turd for your blog you're welcome.

I am a pretty casual noise enthusiest, but Wolf Eyes yes!

not sure this enters as what category, but maryanne amacher! -- making the ear produce its own sounds is pure genius

and therefore her teacher, stockhausen

also, alvin lucier

none of these artists qualify as a "band" from the 00's (though amacher had her 3rd ear releases) but eh

also

double leopards

sunburned hand of the man

sunn (i'll skip the unpronounceable part)

o wait guest already said double leopards-- and birds of delay!

nautical almanac, then

agata (from melt-banana) has some great solo stuff

16 bitch pileup came & disappeared and i always wanted a re-listen

more towards the techno-pop-punk then (i saw the name of times new viking, a bit too commercial for me but whatever) les georges leningrad were great

btw scott v if i recall has/had a massive connection to the noise scene. i think he only comes here to shake his fist at the kids these days, but someone could PM him he might like something with a purpose

also, see here:

http://www.heresee.com/tarantulalink.htm

definitely hit me up with it, will take a draft if its not finished yet.

someone tried to sell me on fuck buttons once cos they knew i liked "noise stuff" and i just thought that they hadnt caught up with my ears yet and forgot about them. the song sound outdated and boring. can sort of see how they might be interesting if you dont listen to noise and can only handle little bursts of it in pretty trad pop rock structures. now i google and they have stuff on youtube called "tarot sport" from 09 and it starts with emeralds sparkly crystal stuff like they read the hypno-pop issue of the wire from around that time and jumped on another bandwagon haha

they arent what we're looking for - neither static nor murk - its mainstream and hi fi like you said.

and 16 BITCH PILE UP - hell yes how could we forget them?

another mention for times new viking - a band which i actually listened to at the time and who did this amazing teen spirit cover - but this stuff is really lo fi isnt it? its lo fi noise pop and its in a different world.

i mean we could split off into an entirely 'nother thing and talk about eat skull and the siltbreeze axis - and thats really tempting because those bands kicked ass but i think we got to just stick to noise/murk stuff thats borderline formless - yet again i wanted to include pocahaunted and hospitals - but pocahaunted were definitely the olsen twins of blissed out drone and didnt go into full on raga pop until their last album. and hairdryer peace performs its own total mutiliation on its little shreds of rock song structure.

hard to know where to draw the line sometimes but got to draw it somewhere.

i mean, i dont want to give tribute to some rich dude with a delay pedal who very self consciously tried to be noise because it was cool. its about the people who were actually a part of this and actually cared about what they were doing.

does anyone remember Death Unit? bit tough to find information regarding the act on the Internet now, I remember there was a video of one of their live sets on youtube a few years ago which was really impressive. Carlos Giffoni + Chris Corsano + Mouthus' Brian Sullivan + Hair Police's Trevor Tremaine. I was pretty certain there was also a member of Double Leopards in the band but seems like I was wrong. Also did something with Prurient apparently: http://www.discogs.com/artist/509111-Death-Unit

edit: just realised Infinite Death was recorded and mixed at Echo Canyon!

Five albums I can think of that are of note:

Double Leopards - Halve Maen
Yellow Swans - Bring The Neon War Home
Hair Police - Blow Out Your Blood
Magik Markes - I Trust My Guitar, Etc
Skaters - Dark Rye Bread

Perhaps it would be a good idea to highlight certain albums instead of forcing a reader to delve into the huge discographies that most of these artists have? My knowledge of things outside of the American noise scene is pretty lacking. The albums I mentioned seem to me pretty important for that period and albums a lot of people referred to when those bands got brought up. I didn't mention Wolf Eyes because I never delved into them too much. Their was such a difference of opinion on what the great records by them were, and I didn't feel like wading through a monstrous discography to find what I liked. That being said, Wolf Eyes seemed to be the starting point for most of that time period and the Sub Pop signing was definitely significant.

Bloody hell, 16 Bitch Pile Up. There's a blast from the past. Saw one gig and then probably like everyone else never heard of them again.

thedom - yeah i think we want to write about the band as a whole but focus on specific releases - so obviously halve maen is gonna be in there.

with stuff like this, sheer volume of output was always threatening to exceed peoples patience, so we DEFINITELY want to pick out the absolute best of each artist rather than overload people.

lets not restart the magik markers controversy! if cooley were here he'd have something to say...

dark rye bread is one of my fav albums ever. skaters fucking ruled.

important records have the cd and some mp3s which i cant get to play http://www.importantrecords.com/imprec/imprec118

and brainwashed said it was "the sound of an irreverent collective throwing grenades into Sonic Youth's tour van."

I'm very excited for this blog! I actually haven't listened to this stuff in years and it will be great to look back on that period. Reminds me of the old board where you could come find a great, new band every day.

I remember that whole Magik Markers thing. He came around eventually and wrote some very positive things about them. They weren't my favorite but one of the "bigger" bands of that time.

Halve Maen is still the ultimate.

back in the day...

what are we gonna say about magik markers? just include that quote?

once you get up to boss its a whole different thing. taste is a guy playing some noise guitar turned down in the mix on top of what is basically a blues rock song

i like that song but they have turned into something else entirely

want to hear road pussy again. but i never decided if i liked this band and to be honest i probably dont unless someone can convince me with decent links

Ripfrey! Holy shit I forgot all about that guy

Never got to hear Boss.

Like I said they never were my favorite but this video is pretty great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WInKHEhRrvM

damn you convinced me

we got to say something about mm for that video alone.

heres dan st. jaques from landed setting himself on fire

I have this LP http://www.discogs.com/Death-Unit-On...release/673366

Anyway, the original post mentions lost classics but reading the suggestions it seems like a list of big names rather than anything else. I'd be up for a blog that really searches the darkened corners of that scene though.

yeah tb -

finding that stuff is what i want to do but it will take a lot of time and searching, particularly since so many of the vital blogs of the era are gone.

Didn't every review from Volcanic Tongue recently get archived somewhere? If you can access that it would be as good a place to start as any.

Another great album - Wzt Hearts had the lamest name, but their album "Threads Rope Spell Making Your Bones" was great

No disrespect to the dead but Scissor Shock were completely fucking awful.

haven't listened to many of Scissor Shock's records, and wasn't that much into them sonically speaking when I did (though I think I was perhaps too young back then, meaning I didn't have the same perspective on music as I do a few years later), but there was a sense of total freedom emanating from his music and throughout his music and works, the idea that you can pretty much do anything regardless of what you have, with your own will being the only limit, which I think was really interesting - and, come to think of it, one of the vital elements of that American noise scene the blog will document. so I would not definitely not dismiss it as completely awful.
that's my view on it anyway, and what I found in his music - might be completely wrong regarding what he wanted to do.

Yeah I get what you're saying. Fuck Buttons especially are more of a post-industrial noise-ROCK band, with fully formed songs and very little improvisation. Too much control and deliberation to be true noise. But Ben Frost really isn't so big on melody. It's the maximalist approach to music making that sets him apart from the group's we're talking about, making him more of a composer.

And yeah both artists are extremely hi-fi, and that's pretty much all that needs o be said.

My apologies. I knew it was a stretch to bring those artists into the discussion but despite what anybody else might think, I fucking love the shot out of both of them. In fact A U R O R A was my #2 album of 2014. But if they don't fit they don't fit.

ripfrey was hilarious. he's probably a lawyer now.

boss is a good record. i've been listening to it again recently-- it sounds great, although elisa's vocals lack a bit of depth for that kind of singing. but it's a radical departure from what that band used to be-- completely something else. sort of like when '77 punks learned to actually play their instruments and started to emulate their elders-- boss is a "rock" album.