V.A. Noisefest tape on Mutant Sounds, oh yeah the whole Sonic Youth set is on it too
 

V. A. -White Column Noise Festival Tape,tape,1982,USA

 

 

 

Compilation of performances taken from the June 1981 Noise Festival conceived by Thurston in NYC at White Columns. Sonic Youth made one of their first live appearances at this show, prior to Lee even joining the band (he did perform at the festival, however, with David Linton), and their full set consisted of 4 unique pieces. Their track on this compilation is the 3rd song from their performance, featuring Thurston on guitar, Kim on bass and vocals, Richard Edson on drums, and Ann DeMarinis on vocals and keyboards. Lee's track also appeared on his "East Jesus" album. Note the compete Sonic Youth performance is included here as bonus!

In mid '81, Kim and Josh Baer convinced Thurston to organize a 9-day noise festival to accommodate underemployed experimental performers in the downtown scene. The festival was held in the White Columns gallery, which had a capacity of 60 people. Each night three to five acts performed, including Glenn Branca (whom Lee also performed with), Rhys Chatham, Jeffrey Lohn, Dog Eat Dog, Built on Guilt, Rudolph Grey, the Avant Squares, Mofungo, Red Decade, Robin Crutchfield's Dark Day, Ad Hoc Rock, Smoking Section, Chinese Puzzle, Avoidance Behaviour, and, of course, Sonic Youth.

neat...thx

there are 27 tracks by 27 artists

there does seem to be bit of confusion on the uploader's part as he can't definitively identify 6 tracks and who they are by, they are listed with a ? as by Fakir, Lampshades, an unidentified band who plays a song called "Banana", Primatives, Ad Hoc Rock, and Chinese Puzzle

whoa- this is rad. always wondered about this embry(s)onic fest... thanks

edit- listening now, it is weird how the keyboard is so prominant in these tracks, with a quirky funhouse/lounge feel at times. based on these tracks, i am glad ann did not continue with the band. i had heard a track or two of her solo, maybe on "just another asshole" comp CD that i remember i wasn't very into either. however, it is really cool to have this as a document. i almost feel like this could see a re-release, like with thurston's proposed book on no wave or something...

edit 2- i couldn't get part 2 to "expand", a least i got the whole sonic set w/ part 1 though...

Swipe!!

Tremendous find, pantophobia...I'm just settling in with this today.

The total time is over 80 minutes, so I split this onto two discs:

V/A
NOISE FEST
C-82 cassette, ZG Music Number 5 (UK)
February 1982 issue ZG Magazine
White Columns Gallery, NYC
325 Spring St.
6/16-24/81
recorded by Ann DeMarinis
curated by Thurston Moore

disc 1
01 John Rehberger (performed off a boat on the Hudson River)
02 Off Beach - In Five (Michael Brown, Angela Babbit,
......Joe Dizney, Kurt Hoffman, Ian Peru, Fritz Van Orden)
03 Avoidance Behaviour (Lee Ranaldo w/ David Linton,
......appears on East Jesus)
04 Ut - Swamp [cassette mislabelled as "No Manifestos"]
......(Jacqui Ham, Nina Canal, Karen Auchenbach, Sally Young)
05 Mofungo - Scratch House (Willie Klein, Elliot Sharp?,
......Robert Sietsema, Phil Dray, Chris Nelson)
06 Khmer Rouge (Phil Schefield, Klaus Castenskiould,
......Phillipe Van Hagen, Ken Sitz)
07 The Problem (Soos Haglof, Nancy Heidel, Mya Holder,
......Andrea Tienan)
08 The Blue Humans (Rudolph Grey, Alan Licht?, David S. Ware?)
09 Smoking Section (Bill Obrecht, Daniel Diaz, Jeffrey
......Glenn, Richard Prior, David Rosenbloom, Eris Thoren)
10 Sonic Youth-their track on this compilation is the 3rd
......song from their performance
......Thurston (guitar) Kim (bass, vocals) Richard Edson (drums)
......Ann DeMarinis (vocals, keys)
optional alternative:
10-14 complete Sonic Youth set 6/18/81

disc 2
01 Jeff Lohn (w/ Eliott Sharp?)
02 IMA - Battery of Life (Andy Blix, Don Hunerberg)
03 Red Decade (Jules Baptiste, Jeffrey Glenn,
......Brian Hudson, Fritz Van Orden, Bill Obrecht)
04 EQ'd - Gridlock (Leslie Edge, Machiko Ichihara,
......John Mastracchio, Dan White)
05 Avant Squares - Zoom Golly (Barb Bary,
......Joe Chasler, Mike Sappol)
06 Don King (Don Burg, Marc Cunningham,
......Donald Lindsay)
07 Fakir - Desire
08 Lampshades (Andy Blix, Ken Kern,
......Al Butzbach, Gary Citro, Jim Tucker, Pete Fagiola)
09 unknown? - Banana (???)
10 Primitives (Tracy Tracy, Steve Dullaghan,
......Pete Tweedie, Tig Williams, PJ Court)
11 Ad Hoc Rock - Prenumbra (Marc Abbott,
......Bill Laswell, Shelley Hirsch, David Garland,
......Nigel Rollings, Bill Buchen)
12 Y Pants - Beat It Down (Barbara Ess, Virginia Piersol,
......Gail Vachon)
13 Borbetomagus (Jim Sauter, Don Dietrich?, Donald Miller)
14 Economical Animal (Dan Asher)
15 Chinese Puzzle - Dadat Dat (David Rosenbloom,
......David Hofstra, John Mernit)
16 Glorious Strangers - Why Don't You Join the Army?
......(Carol Tiers, Wharton Tiers, Richard Peare,
......Magic Franklin, David Brown)
17 Built On Guilt - Earth Moves (Robert Longo,
......Karol [Karen?] Haglof, Brian Hudson, Jeffrey Glenn)

Noise Trip: memoriez of Noise Fest
by Thurston Moore

We had just changed our name to Sonic Youth. Before that it was the Arcadians, named after the ancient Greeks or whatever who communicated through song. And before that we were called Red Milk. Not sure where that came from. Did a few gigs at Arleen Schloss' A-Space on Broome St between Chrystie and Bowery. The Arcadians did a couple of sorta exciting gigs at CBGB, once on the bill with a group led by an ex-girlfriend of Robert Fripp's. That was pretty heavy (not). And a gig at Great Gildersleeves a predominantly heavy metal hangout that hosted an evening as presented by The Kitchen. We went on first before Glenn Branca and some ensemble led by Bill Obrecht and others. We were trying to get gigs at other joints most notably Hurrahs as that was the hot joint to go to then. Big room, loud DJing by the kid brother of Ed Bahlman from 99 Records - the only record store that had the sides we dug and a great alternative to the 70s punk bloat of Bleeker Blobs, hot mix of people. Saw some amazing gigs there. Young Marble Giants, Y-Pants, The Slits, Pop Group, Bush Tetras when they were for a while there the best band on the planet. It became even tougher to get gigs when Hurrah closed which made no sense. The owner issued a statement in Soho Weekly News that there weren't any good bands in the city they all just seemed to make a lot of noise. What the fuck. As if that was such a bad thing.

Kim Gordon, a beautiful artist girl who had relocated from LA. to NYC, and I started hanging out. We began Sonic Youth from the loose jamming I had going on with Anne DeMarinis who was living with Vito Acconci. We rehearsed at Vito's in Brooklyn. Kim was working at Annina Nosei Gallery, had curated a show there. White Columns was a gallery directed by Josh Baer, son of white canvas painter Jo Baer. Not sure how Kim met him or why she became involved with his new White Columns scene but she did and curated a show there called the Record Cover show where artists displayed record covers. Around this time (this is all 1979-81 period I'd hazard to guess) she mentioned to me that Josh would like to do a music event at the space and would I like to pick the bands. Yes I would. Especially in light of the Hurrahs dude thinking there was nothing happening. I knew there was. There was a lot of weird experimental avant activity coming out of A-Space alone. There was the whole Mofungo gang of lower east side hepsters referencing Beefheart before Lamonte Young (Lamonte was more Rhys Chatham territory and to a more remote extent Branca). There was the whole conflux of Soho-ites involved with the Chatham/Branca guitar plexus axis: Rudolph Grey, Jules Baptiste, Lee Ranaldo (who wasn't in SY yet - he came in the band pretty much immediately after Noise Fest - in fact our first rehearsal as such with Lee was at White Columns in preparation for some weird gig at a Just Above Midtown/Downtown Gallery opening - Barbara Ess played bongos w/us for that gig(!)).



I called the event Noise Fest in reaction to what the Hurrah jerko had said and to reclaim the term noise from its derisive status. I made a short list of bands. Branca was of advice leading me to people like John Rehberger and Mark Cunningham, who was mythological to us as he was in the group Mars, probably the most notoriously "out" no wave group of the 70s. All the musicians and bands responded and were ready to play. A lot of them knew of each other but not everyone had really ever cohabitated so much together and, as such, Noise Fest was a watermark event in that a community of disparate yet contemporary avant garde post no wave punk experimentalists got to hang out, meet each other, and feel connected. It was great. Bands started calling me to be involved. Just about anyone who did call I said yes to. The fest grew from a one to two to four to five to six to nine day event. Insane. Some band from Georgia called Vietnam strode in because they heard about this thing brewing and asked to play. Sure, why not. The female drum machinist was a young Sue Garner who stayed in NYC and has continued creating fantastic music. Kim curated the attendant wall art show which had its own opening I believe. A lot of this is fuzzy I tell ya. I remember one afternoon during some kind of soundcheck when John Belushi and some pals walked in to see what was happening. Belushi's hang out was this 2nd story party joint in a building on Spring and Varick, a block or two away. He was chomping on a cigar and looked bemused, but not fully sold. When Lee Ranaldo and David Linton played as Avoidance Behavior their music was so harsh and shattering that the entire audience sat on the floor with their fingers in their ears. A woman who lived up the street came over in her bare feet, shaking, and complained about the din. She was incredulous as to how this was happening unregulated on her block. In tears she pointed to the ear plugged audience watching Lee and David kill. "What the hell is this?"- she was so confused. Elliot Sharp called me to play and I said sure though I had not known of Elliot at that point. He was more part of whatever free improv scene existed along with a young John Zorn and others. This was a group not represented only because of my not being too aware of it. But I granted Elliot a gig on the night Branca was to play. Glenn had put together his evening pretty much and wasn't into the intrusion of someone he hadn't chosen being stuck in he middle of it. So I had to call Elliot and say it wasn't going to happen. Highly unprofessional, but what did I know? The etiquette of booking was not exactly something I had experience with. Certainly Elliot was bummed by such crapola and in retrospect it's a damn shame he wasn't there - or Zorn, or any number of avant loft jazz improv cats. Whatever, it was loose, and it all just happened. Me, Kim, Anne, Josh and Barbara Ess sat around White Columns daily and had fun just coming up with ideas. Barbara did a t-shirt design, flyers were made, sometimes in editions of one. There was a main poster which went through two permutations as the roster was adjusted. Some staple zine catalogue of the art show which I don't even recall (Lee says he has one). I tried to get some of the new first generation hardcore bands but they were so young they couldn't seem to dial the phone. I liked the Beastie Boys who had done a couple of gigs around the art world but they were way scattered. But their friends the Primitives responded and they became the representatives of that scene. They were amazing in their very unschooled attack. The 14 year old lead singer with a mohawk had a lot to say about Ronald Reagan. Innocent times.

Lester Bangs called me from a phone booth and said he wanted to write about Noise Fest because if there was one thing he knew about it was noise. I invited him down, not only to see the bands, but for himself to play. I told him he could do anything he wanted. He was billed on the last night, on the makeshift marquee outside, as The Lester Bangs Explosion. He showed up after we had locked the doors of the gallery and were strolling east on Spring St., really young and lost in the glory of what went down the entire time. I recognized him as he came galomping down the street, he had a record under his arm. "Lester! it's over! Yr too late!" all smiles. He seemed a little inebriated but certainly not fall down drunk. He was real happy about the record he had just got: A Taste of DNA. He loved DNA. I was impressed, we walked together towards somewhere, Lester split to god knows where.

Anne DeMarinis taped everything, or at least almost everything (John Rehberger's music was performed off a boat just down the street on the Hudson River). Josh had a connection with Rosetta Brooks at ZG Magazine, a new UK contempo-art essay zine and ZG agreed to release the tapes as a cassette. When Branca started up Neutral Records, Sonic Youth were his first release. Plus I got asked to work there calling distributors and stores to see if they'd carry our records. I was replaced by a UK refugee from Rough Trade called Peter Wright who had a much better handle on such biz. I just wanted to rock. One of the last things I did at Neutral was distribute the Noise Fest cassette. I remember we had them all in a big garbage bag. I would haul the bag from record store to record store - there weren't that many - maybe ten stores at the most - some of them took one or two on consignment. The rest I gave to the artists and to whoever wanted one. I kept one for myself which I lost for years but finally found. I think I have the Barbara Ess t-shirt buried somewhere though it's been ages since I've peeped it. If the Noise Fest did anything it brought noise home to the artist punks who utilized it. The downtown art/music scene was activated and energized by it and a certain collective camaraderie was established. A lot of us still maintain good friends and memories from it. There was one weird band from Brooklyn called Fakir who had this really messed up sounding 7" which they brought in and asked if they could play. They were kind of young and hippiesh and how they came to find me in White Columns I'll never know. I said they could play and they were awesome, odd and sensual, as opposed to some of the mostly stringent angularities being projected by the Soho heavy squad (tho Glenn B and yeh Kim G had complete boner popping stylez). I wonder whatever happened to those kids. Anyone know?

thurston moore 2005

<<08 The Blue Humans (Rudolph Grey, Alan Licht, David S. Ware)>>

this lineup was for real? Licht must've been a teenager!

Thurston wondered the same thing.

There was one weird band from Brooklyn called Fakir who had this really messed up sounding 7" which they brought in and asked if they could play. They were kind of young and hippiesh and how they came to find me in White Columns I'll never know. I said they could play and they were awesome, odd and sensual, as opposed to some of the mostly stringent angularities being projected by the Soho heavy squad (tho Glenn B and yeh Kim G had complete boner popping stylez). I wonder whatever happened to those kids. Anyone know?

As to the Licht question, I have no idea. I listed his name as a guess. Of course, The Blue Humans is Rudolph Grey's band primarily. Thurston doesn't mention Licht's name in the memoir. But, then again, there's a lot of names he doesn't mention, and some of the musicians at the Noise Fest were only teenagers; Thurston was only in his early twenties. My guess though is that, as you suspect, Licht was not present since he would have only been (after researching) just turning fifteen, but who knows?

I've added a question mark to the track list next to his name.

Thurston accidentally mislabelled the Ut song as "No Manifestoes." The song is actually "Swamp."

I must have missed this thread. Thanks!

fakir were one of the short living bands founded by richard kane. they released a 7" single limited to 100 copies at 99 records and performed very few times live.
kane rehearsed as a substitute drummer for sonic youth and eventually performed with them at the mudd club in july 1980. he's
most known as one of the members of the texas punk band the inhalants, which he drummed for during 1992 to 1994. he quit the band saying that he was too old and
drumming made his back hurt. he was and still is a full time history professor. in june 2006 he released a 40-minute set of original instrumental
tracks. that summer he performed the set in a series of live shows at a coffeehouse in austin.

you can buy his cd at cd baby: http://cdbaby.com/cd/rkane

i was glad to receive news from the professor. mr. richard kane sent me an e-mail telling me that they have just released a collection of live recordings.

 

r.kane
r.kane/r.kive
© 2007 r.kane (634479554193)




55 minutes of abrasive post-punk noise-rock, recorded by 3 r.kane bands in the Vestry St. basement studio in lower Manhattan, 1980-82.


the only dance there is
2 phalange
3 desire
4 arabian nights
5 suspect circumstances dictate
6 bullet train
7 eyes right
8 strange equipment
9 new shoes
10 bombs in belfast
11 vanity
12 trouble in paradise

NOTES
Thurston Moore,"Noise trip: memoriez of Noise Fest"
(myspace.com/sonicyouth, Dec. 11 2005):
"there was one weird band called Fakir who had this really messed-up sounding 7" which they brought in and asked if they could play. They were kind of young and hippieish and how they came to find me at White Columns I’ll never know. I said they could play and
they were awesome, odd and sensual, as opposed to some of the mostly stringent angularities being projected by the Soho heavy squad . . ."
OK, HERE IT IS: r.kane/r.kive
an hour of 3 NYC no-and-noise wave bands from back in the day, featuring r.kane on guitar and drums:
FAKIR (1981), tracks 1-4
UGLIGENS (1980), tracks 5-8
WHITE HARLEM (1982), tracks 9-12
THE LEGEND OF R.KANE
r.kane and bob solete arrived in nyc in 1976 just as anyone with money was leaving. Caught up in the diy post-punk scene they dropped out of grad school and with fellow students formed the short-lived Young Hegelians.
Out of the ashes fell the Ugligens, just r.kane on guitar and bob solete on drums, although sometimes not. The dynamic duo "practiced" in a vestry street basement divided up into a warren of cinder-block spaces for the aspirants; for a while r.kane even called it home, coming back to sleep with the amps, pipes, and mice after all the other bands had quit for the night. In 1980 the band played all of 4 live gigs - the first was in-between sets at Raul’s in Austin, courtesy of the Big Boys (rip) - each under a different name (the Ugligens, God’s Lounge, Che Ole, Robert Yesco), probably to ensure our continued anonymity should anyone have liked us.
"r.kane/r.kive" presents excerpts from the Ugligens’ only recorded basement sessions, shortly after which bob solete quit playing music. r.kane hooked up with bill schilling, a guitarist and vocalist, bill’s bass-playing girlfriend janine gentile and brother bobby to form Fakir. They had a strange driving but strangled sound, with great and unintelligible vocals, as evidenced on their extreme low-fi 7-inch, featuring "the only dance there is" b/w "phalange". Only 100 copies were sold at 99 Records, each with a different spray-painted cover by bob solete. Fakir also played live 4 times, starting with the "Red Brigade Benefit" at Club 57 and ending in summer 1981 at Noise Fest, a 9-day and night art/music exposition at White Columns where the song "desire" was recorded live.
Then r.kane disappeared into the south of Mexico for
two months, looking for the revolution, finding instead the Guatemalan police-state, and exiting via Belize. Upon returning he teamed up with vinnie, a talented vocalist-songwriter, and his bass-playing girlfriend debbie to form White Harlem. This 1982 set from the basement captures vinnie at his edgy and charismatic best, not always guaranteed live at clubs like A7, where the show was often secondary to the excesses that eventually caught up with him. Note that in White Harlem it was vinnie distorting, not the guitar.
In July 1982 r.kane rehearsed on drums for a week with
Sonic Youth, and did a show with them at the Mudd Club. A decade later r.kane was in Austin, playing drums with punk-garage favorites the Inhalants. Another decade later, and he’s at it again, playing guitar, bass, and drums on the first "r.kane" CD, released in December 2006, and adding vocals on "r.kane2", to be released in summer 2007. bob solete, enfeebled as he is, continues to supply his friend with artwork as necessary.

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rkanerkive

The Fakir tracks sound cool! Another friggin CD to buy...