Noisy or Ambient 80s US Indie Tracks

Etc asks on the Husker Du thread:

are there many other 80s US underground tracks similar to "Recurring Dreams"/"The Tooth Fairy & the Princess", Sonic Youth's "Providence", etc? I wouldn't mind putting together a comp/playlist but my knowledge of non-NZ stuff is pretty shallow.

F/i and Skullflower (UK band) may be good places to start perhaps? There are other more 'out' tracks on early Sonic Youth albums like "Lee Is Free", maybe even "Secret Girl"? "Reoccuring Dreams" is still pretty rocking so maybe "Death to Our Friends" fits there, Branca's "Lesson No. 1"?

Edward III? Hellhouse? I'm still waking up so more will probably come to mind.

Are you more interested in examples of song-oriented bands doing this?

a lot of early sonic youth falls in the category - not only tracks like "halloween" or "shadow of a doubt", but bad moon rising is an album comprised almost entirely of noisy/ambient tracks.

but I will put my thinking cap on, this is some of my favorite stuff

Blind Idiot God

Spacemen 3 to thread

specifically "suicide"

^ not a US band

oh, I guess Skullflower were in the OP so I don't know what this thread is asking for!

Missed that qualifier, sorry.
I'm gonna be thinking about this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opgybJOgPdY

Not all their records were that great to listen to, but closest thing I can think of to Reoccurring Dreams is probably Phantom Tollbooth who were very psychedelic noise prog.

Yerself is Steam?

Oh yeah, Blind Idiot God!

I don't know what this thread is asking for

Tbh, etc asked the question so I'm hoping they'll come around to clarify a little.

Rhys Chatham - "Der Donnergotter" might fit, although it's not exactly noisy or ambient?

But yeah, maybe I shouldn't have mentioned Skullflower.

tbh skullflower sounded more like an american indie band than any of their compatriots

That was my thinking.

ramleh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=farvUqs5HJI

Early Swans might work?

oh US nm

Scratch Acid - Owner's Lament

Savage Republic, on certain tracks.

Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 have some little noisy ambient things between more song-oriented tracks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1JITTegVKU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1JITTegVKU

y'know what 'Reoccurring Dreams' is, is 'Interstellar Overdrive' for the 80s UG. Therefore I nominate CVB (with Eugene Chadbourne)'s version of 'Interstellar Overdrive', which I used to play over and over and over again.

y'know what 'Reoccurring Dreams' is, is 'Interstellar Overdrive' for the 80s UG

That's pretty astute!

my aha! moment for the day

Band Of Susans' Hope Against Hope fits in here somewhere

Dustdevils had some stuff along the lines of the Sonic Youth Bad Moon Rising stuff. Sometimes a few vocals sprinkled in here and there....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8SA3jM0hI8

That Dust Devils song is pretty cool. Any recommendations for songs/albums to check out?

Struggling Electric and Chemical is the one.

two variations of related psych here: Reocurring Dreams is hard, guitar-based instrumental psych (probably best matched by F/i, Skullflower, Blind Idiot God and instrumental Band of Susans as mentioned, but also check out Crystalized Movements for a similar vein of guitar damage), while the The Tooth Fairy and the Princess and Providence can be considered part of an 80s quasi-subgenre of forlorn but tweaked instrumental psych, which melded stoner introversion with dark romanticism. iirc the preferred medium for these downer anthems tinged w/ambient drift involved driving in the wee hours aimlessly at speed, smoking cigarettes with all windows cracked four out of four seasons and blasting shitty car speakers sporting extra hiss and spit from overcoming wind noise (because that’s what v. young Hellhouses do when they’re not fucking, reading, taking drugs, playing guitar or arguing w/girlfriends). I recall a whole raft of this stuff, but here are a few obvious hits of freak implosion:

Bob Bannister - Drone No. 1
Bob Bannister - Fond of His Drink
ESG - UFO: http://youtu.be/0BsS-QQ99aQ
Honor Role - Break Thelce
Mission of Burma - All World Cowboy Romance: http://youtu.be/hInO4y-MKhQ
My Bloody Valentine - Instrumental B (UK but w/e): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZueurvWak0&feature=share&list=PL561A66C11921011D
Scratch Acid - Albino Slug: http://youtu.be/1qFzlZiHccc
Steve Fisk - This Vacuum: http://youtu.be/7tE73n3KqJk
Steve Fisk: Weekend Review/Ragged Old Flag
Throbbing Gristle: Walkabout (UK + 70s, but part and parcel etc): http://youtu.be/iKId3RPPnqY

if lyrics are compatible w/yr. listening mission, check out anything by World of Skin and (f/the non-NZ-acquainted) This Kind of Punishment f/similar vibes (I also have to throw in Neubauten’s Kalte Sterne, the entire first Sonic Youth EP [now w/extra tracks], Throbbing Gristle’s First Annual Report and Cabaret Voltaire’s Mix-Up, though now I’m simply pushing together as many midnight-driving classics as my befogged memories will allow).

I’ll post YouTube links for the other tracks a bit later, along w/any other picks.

unintentional embed, but oddly appropriate.

w/lyrics, but on a similar axis of crushed and sideways bliss:

Roger Miller - We Grind In: http://youtu.be/gG8JOpzPkMQ

Bob Bannister - Drone No. 1: http://youtu.be/ruJY8rpoLDM
Bob Bannister - Fond of His Drink: http://youtu.be/MyCjYQMgNAw

Do Slovenly count?

some Buttholian ambiance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsT2akkI4lc

and Chrome surely fits in here somewhere

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U835J2i7ufM

Hey dlp, thanks for the Dust Devils recs.

Hellhouse, these links are great. Thanks for sharing. Really digging the Roger Miller!

Anyone remember Repulse Kava? Kind of obscure, their sound was pretty close to the jammed-out psych of Reoccuring Dreams, think they were from Chicago. Nothing at all of theirs on Youtube, but they do have a page on lol Myspace:
http://uk.myspace.com/billdeleonardis/music/songs/food-of-the-gods-repulse-kava-2887049

Aww man, that Bob Bannister shit is great as well, exactly the kind of thing I was hoping this thread would turn up! Might have to search those records out. I am fully familiar with Roger Miller, but what else of Bob Bannister's is interesting, don't really know anything about him.

I feel like some TVBC might belong here. My memories are fuzzy. Help?

There's probably some Sun City Girls that fits but I don't know their 80s stuff as well as I ought.

My favorite Butthole Surfers song that fits this thread concept: Whirling Hall of Knives (does have lyrics but they are pretty minimal and the music is dreamy)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGrO-08Rmyg

Crap, sorry about the embed, meant to just make it a link.

Worth it for the scary Gibby photo

For 80s SCG I would nominate 'Multiple Hallucinations Of An Assassin' but the cassette version from the tape of the same name is much more suitable than the version on the Bright Surroundings album.

I am fully familiar with Roger Miller, but what else of Bob Bannister's is interesting, don't really know anything about him.

Bannister was in Tono-Bungay during the 90s... This show from 2005 gives you an idea (BB's YouTube channel will give you more)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGSgr3mjMww

Just because it's a pet obscure band, feel free to check out the 90's group Vodka that included Bannister on guitar and future Spin chick/HIV Denialism poster girl Celia Farber on drums. Halfway decent off-kilter 90's girl pop, oddly. One CD and a couple of singles I think. Worth a listen or two.

Oh, wow, thanks for creating this thread, Sund4r, and apologies for not seeing it sooner.

I think Hellhouse captures what I was flailing around for with

The Tooth Fairy and the Princess and Providence can be considered part of an 80s quasi-subgenre of forlorn but tweaked instrumental psych, which melded stoner introversion with dark romanticism. iirc the preferred medium for these downer anthems tinged w/ambient drift involved driving in the wee hours aimlessly at speed, smoking cigarettes with all windows cracked four out of four seasons and blasting shitty car speakers sporting extra hiss and spit from overcoming wind noise (because that’s what v. young Hellhouses do when they’re not fucking, reading, taking drugs, playing guitar or arguing w/girlfriends),

though the other strand is great to hear about, too. I have a pretty shallow knowledge of US 80s underground stuff compared to New Zealand stuff, where there's plenty in this vein (the aforementioned This Kind Of Punishment, a whole mess of early Alastair Galbraith and Dead C/Xpressway related stuff; there's even arguments for some early Skeptics or Marie & the Atom). I got hold of Daydream Nation and Zen Arcade (& nothing else by either band) not long after I moved to Dunedin in 2000, where the local vibe was in the post-Bailterspace/Gordons zone of High Dependency Unit and similar, and I remember hearing "Providence" & "The Tooth Fairy & the Princess" and thinking at the time that it slotted in as proto-post-rock w/stuff like Mogwai's "A Cheery Wave From Stranded Youngsters" etc; got burned out on post-rock a v.long time ago but there's something about "Providence" & "The Tooth Fairy..." that sticks - my usual experience w/80s US underground's instrumental stuff is that it tends more towards ... jazzier? ... kinda vibes? Like that SST No Age comp, or the Minutemen; was wondering if other more uh song-oriented bands experimented w/trippy quasi-instrumentals etc. Not too concerned w/country of origin, either; guess I was using US as "non-NZ" rather than "non-UK" :)

Anyway, off to listen to a bunch of the YouTubes/suggestions, cheers!

I'm sure there are dozens of Boyd Rice/NON tracks, or just open to any page of any early Bananafish magazine and you will find tons of this stuff.
Also, this was probably my first exposure as a young listener:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I0NvgKZnTk

Xpost. After looking around, I realize that Bannister's Vodka thing isn't going to be found easily unless I do it myself. Doesn't really fit with this thread, but an interesting bit of trivia. Not sure why it bombed quite as much as it seems to have...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPVywLKmPhI&feature=youtu.be

Also not sure why I can't seem to post youtube links...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPVywLKmPhI&feature=plcp

is there any solo Barlow stuff that sounds like Poledo? the few Sebadoh songs i've heard in the past were v average indie rock imo

There are many Poledo-esque moments on his first two LPs (The Freed Man/Weed Forrestin'), also on the Wasted Pieces cassette.

I think Hellhouse captures what I was flailing around for with

thanks, glad you appreciate the tracks. here are a few more noisy/ambient instrumentals, mostly from the 80s (and all from the US):

Andy Hawkins/Azonic - River Blindness (from ’95, but shares w/Reoccuring Dreams an obsession w/bridging metal, psych and noise through the anti-essentialist/punk equalizer of obliterating volume: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2Gh9bkcFsU&feature=share&list=PLY5Lq4uZXIeGCbLSO8iU_zmhiWFuNqJqb
Blind Idiot God - Thunderhead (from '92 and a bit obvious but so fucking great): http://youtu.be/CwC0pkh1aII
Carol Parkinson - Heavybeat: http://youtu.be/V0Wd6pOKOo0
David Linton - Ringo: http://youtu.be/6SDKvxEz_xQ
Glenn Branca - Symphony No. Six, Fourth Movement: http://youtu.be/_xwfr_P6vgA
Honor Role - Break the Ice: http://youtu.be/wC04Ic870m4
Lee Ranaldo - Here: http://youtu.be/a1Y30OryyfY
Notekillers - The Zipper: http://youtu.be/aqPdaTXutdk
Rhys Chatham - Guitar Trio (break glass in the event of 70s rawk poll wreck): http://youtu.be/cDHUtZ4WoE4
Steve Fisk - Weekend Review: http://youtu.be/8YYjmGB6Ny8
Urinals - Orange Anal Sin: http://youtu.be/ewip8myoSb0

not sure how deep yr. knowledge of US 80s instrumental rock/psych goes, but maybe I'll throw together a Spotify playlist of the more obvious stuff that I've skipped.

sleep. just need more sleep.

okay, this is about nine hours too long, swings between o_0 and the bludgeoning obvious w/r/t selections and segues, and pointedly ignores SST prog-nooding, Bananafish free-noise wankery, Tortoise-ruined post-rock, and most of NZ, but it fairly covers noisy/ambient 80s US indie instrumentals w/psych overtones (while blatantly ignoring "US", “80s”, “indie”, “instrumental” and “psych” parameters when convenient). I started by weaving together the strands connecting Providence, The Tooth Fairy and the Princess and Dreams Reoccurring (which tbh I could've knocked off in twenty tracks), and then just started plundering Spotify's large but v. hit-and-miss catalogue f/all related fragments, detours and half-remembered favorites over several decades. the tracks are actually sequenced but who the fuck has nine hours to listen to a mix etc. enjoy the mess:

http://open.spotify.com/user/1234500846/playlist/13SZfHpW2HAE6lcOVHw319

tracklist:

Christoph De Babalon – Nostep
Aphex Twin – #6
Bowery Electric – Over and Over
Two Dollar Guitar – Patagonia
Chromatics – Tick of the Clock (Single)
Sand Circles – Entering Motor City
Sonic Youth – Providence (Album Version)
Honor Role – Break the lce
Big Boys – Sound on Sound
Hüsker Dü – The Tooth Fairy and the Princess
Hüsker Dü – One Step at a Time
Tuxedomoon – A Piano Solo
Tuxedomoon – Lowlands Tone Poem
Colin Newman – Fish 12
Rosa Yemen – Larousse Baron Bic
Rosa Yemen – Decryptated
The Residents – Numb Erone
Public Image Ltd. – Radio 4
Unwound – Excuse Me But Pardon My French
Butthole Surfers – Strangers Die Everyday
Philip Glass – Ange Des Orages
Jaco Pastorius – Okonkole Y Trompa
Glenn Branca – Symphony No. 6: Fourth Movement
Brian Brain – Brainstorm
Absolute Body Control – What Took You So Long?
Six Finger Satellite – Fall to Pieces
LX Sweat – How I Feel (Jack Your Body)
Samantha Glass – Dakota Shadows
Matthewdavid + Sun Araw – A1
U.S. Girls – National Anthem
U.S. Girls – The Day After 4th July
Malaria – Einsam
Unwound – Bonus Track
Minny Pops – Mountain
Martin Rev – Coal Train
Young Marble Giants – Sporting Life
The Cleaners From Venus – This Rainy Decade
Dark Day – Window
Gary Numan – Airlane
Crash Course In Science – Near Marineland
Tuxedomoon – Tritone
Moebius – Sinister
Unwound – Census
Shit And Shine – Flower Petal Sword
Arsenal – Half Control
Scratch Acid – Albino Slug
Mission Of Burma – All World Cowboy Romance
Purged – The Fall
Pell Mell – Anna Karina
Savage Republic – Song for Rikki
Glenn Branca – Lesson No. 1 for Electric Guitar
Link Wray – Jack the Ripper
Faust – Krautrock
Neu! – Fur immer
Urinals – Orange Anal Sin
Cul De Sac – Doldrums
Pell Mell – Saucer
Unrest – Hydrofoil No. 4
Trans Am – Carboforce
Aluk Todolo – Occult Rock VII
Holy Fuck – The Pulse
Holy Strays – Purls
Sand Circles – White Sand
F/i – Electric Waltz
Windy & Carl – Undercurrent
Flying Saucer Attack – Popol Vuh 1
Steve Roach – Gone West
Roy Montgomery – Fantasia on a Theme by Sandy Bull (Slight Return)
Andy Hawkins – River Blindness
Hüsker Dü – Reoccurring Dreams
Unrest – Hydro
Rhys Chatham & His Guitar Trio All- Stars – Guitar Trio Pt. 1, Chicago
Rhys Chatham & His Guitar Trio All- Stars – Guitar Trio Pt. 2, Chicago
D.A.F. – Bild 1
D.A.F. – Bild 2
Purged – Word of the Lord
Savage Republic – White Ginger
Smalts – Werktitel *7
Jarboe – Dance Demented
Ike Yard – Loss
Helmet – Rumble
Don Caballero – Belted Sweater
Shit And Shine – friseur nelson
Ensemble Economique – Psychical
Main – Core
Link Wray – Rumble
The Replacements – Buck Hill
Man Or Astro-Man? – A Reversal of Polarity
Flin Flon – Swift Current - Version 1
Trans Am – Armed Response
Agent Orange – Bite the Hand That Feeds Pt. 2
Notekillers – The Zipper
Band Of Susans – Where Have All the Flowers Gone
Lightning Bolt – The Faire Folk
Lightning Bolt – The Soft Spoken Spectre
The Denison / Kimball Trio – Framed
Sonic Youth – Loud and Soft (Live)
Unwound – Sensible
Cluster – Umleitung
Harmonia – Arabesque
Moebius – B 36
Conrad Schnitzler – Con 3.1
Eric Copeland – Scum Pipe
Klaus Schulze – Study for Terry Riley
Diamanda Galas – La Treizieme Revient
JARBOE/JUSTIN K. BROADRICK – Decay
Godflesh – Flowers
The Vocokesh – All This and Hieronymus Bosch
F/i – Observation (The Eye on Top of the Pyramid)
Air Miami – Sweet as a Candy Bar
Lightning Bolt – King Kandy
Bowery Electric – Slow Thrills
Spectrum – Ecstasy in Slow Motion
Sand Circles – Sun Circles
Swanox – Dawnrunner
Bugskull – --
Cough Cool – Teal Impala
High Wolf – Dream is Good
Jonny L – Exabyte
Scorn – The End

other tracks:

Caspar Brotzmann Massaker - Schlaf: http://youtu.be/bywrixHsrqw
Destroy All Monsters - Conga: http://youtu.be/yQWNwVyV17g
Flying Saucer Attack - Since When (Four): http://youtu.be/fMLdkcncAvU
Hovercraft - Phantom Limb: http://youtu.be/-R6UCqj4xo4
Justin K. Broadrick - Guitar Two: http://youtu.be/fD2dFKsE-LA
Liquid Sky OST - Alien Theme II: http://youtu.be/RHEU6VzdQoA
Pain Teens - Veil of Light: http://youtu.be/-zPCCdDVVLI
Raybeats - Tone Zone: http://youtu.be/1W5HKnYiaqg
Savage Republic - Andelusia: http://youtu.be/wOPpK0wugw8
Slovenly - Squeaky Clean: http://youtu.be/ArxgS2nHLdA
Throbbing Gristle - Final Muzak: http://youtu.be/44XQJe_QFiY
Toiling Midgets - Slaughter on Sumner St: http://youtu.be/DebNuOdss-w

a few of these tracks are v. long, but there are so many two- and three-minute instrumentals that I wouldn't be surprised if ILX already had a thread f/this niche but resilient form (have a feeling this is it).

*and bludgeoning banality w/r/t selections* ffs, important to clear up this typo, not at all apparent

Ooh that looks killer. Anticipating my next opportunity to have headphones on!

Oh boy, this is gonna be great. Used to greatly annoy one of my flatmates by vocalising along to "The Faire Folk"; glad to see dots being joined.

Oh, cool: I hadn't seen that at least some Band of Susans was on Spotify. Looks like it happened recently?

This is a really great place to browse for this kind of stuff:

http://noise-arch.net/