Best Underground American Noise Act of the Noise-Punk Era (ca. 1998-2005)

good poll; i somehow missed the Yellow Swans during this era, i'll have to check them out.

what is it people like about wolf eyes?

They've heard of them.

Shocked this poll got as many votes as it did. Could an Anthony Braxton fan contingent have pushed Wolf Eyes over the top? Thought Prurient would be higher, but maybe the ILX metal community didn't notice this poll. (Prurient's made some decent inroads into metal-land lately; his last album was on Profound Lore.)

Def worth analyzing the, like, 35 votes

Pretty easy to say "what is it people like about _______" for any of these bands. A highly variable and "not for everyone" list of bands. Wolf Eyes sure were fun to see live in a small room, especially during the Dilloway days, but I mean your fun may not be mine. As far as setting a mood though they were pretty masterful at it.

Def worth analyzing the, like, 35 votes

64. Again, a surprisingly high number.

shocked to see Yellow Swans in second when I didn't even remember to vote for them D:

also I would've expected Hair Police to place higher, if only because their name

Mouthus deserved more than 0

Yellow Swans are/were terrible band, and truly terrible people as well. Yikes ILM.

please describe what makes them terrible people.

One of the members was caught stealing from a business that I was associated with and the way he handled himself throughout the entire episode was pretty... terrible! But even worse: their music.

also I would've expected Hair Police to place higher, if only because their name

― Songs from a One Room House in an Uninteresting Location (bernard snowy), Wednesday, October 21, 2015 12:08 PM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, also they were awesome. I expected them to be one of the "tied for second place" acts.

Also for the grumbling about Wolf Eyes winning just for being the most famous act here, it's worth saying that they made really good records and absolutely slayed live. They deserved any success they got, even if you're annoyed by there being "one noise band everyone's heard of."

Also, yeah Wolf Eyes won easily, but the voting for this poll is pretty damn diffuse! It's not as though there was a lack of love for the less famous bands, they split 53 votes among them!

as in he shoplifted a razor from Walgreens or ?

lol at "Yikes ILM." Sorry for not knowing about the crimes and personal flaws of obscure Portland noise band Yellow Swans!

truly ilm has lost the moral high ground

I was the Mindflayer voter

can't believe as many as six people forgot the round the clock TV coverage of the police chase xp

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Yellow Swans - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Swans
Wikipedia
Yellow Swans were an American experimental electronic noise band from Portland, Oregon. The duo are renowned for their improvisational approach to music, ...
Missing: criminals

i checked before i voted. thanks, wikipedia.

one of the guys= everyone in the band apparently?

Oh it's two people.

Feel like I missed out on a lot of this

POX or C90 please!

Co-sign

Keeping with whiney’s criteria (no black dice or lightning bolt, which are 100% the two acts to start with), my POX is:

Sightings: Absolutes
Troubleman Mixtape
Wolf Eyes: Stabbed in the Face
Hair Police: Drawn Dead
Friends Forever: Killball
Neon Hunk: Smarmymob
Pick A Winner (Load Records comp)
Magik Markers: I Trust My Guitar, etc.
Kevin Drumm: Land of Lurches (more from the art-guy side than the punk side, but his rise is concurrent with this and I think he’s worth mentioning here)
Burning Star Core: The Very Heart of the World

Definitely tilted toward the years I did college radio (2001-2005) and which labels serviced my station, tbh. For the bands that were too rock band for Whiney’s list but part of the same scene, I think the best are Pink and Brown and USAisamonster are my favorites.

POX or C90 please!

Co-sign

― A Privacy Reminder From (Mr Andy M), Sunday, October 25, 2015 7:12 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'll make a dope mixtape this week, hopefully

There was always something very "Vice magazine farm team" to me about this entire scene, maybe because it often seemed like a scene full of well-heeled Brooklyn "bros"

Which is maybe why the bands in this scene I liked best (Markers, Leopards, etc) were mostly the bands with prominent female members

is 'Brooklyn' now used as a synonym for 'people I find disagreeable for non-specific reasons'

given that almost none of the bands listed lived there or anywhere near

Slicer is def my go-to Wolf Eyes rec

is 'Brooklyn' now used as a synonym for 'people I find disagreeable for non-specific reasons'

given that almost none of the bands listed lived there or anywhere near

― these are my pincers and if you don't like them I have udders (DJ Mencap), Monday, October 26, 2015 4:27 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a scene is more than bands, you know

and If you expand to "Brooklyn and NYC" and add Animal Collective and Black Dice (and Axolotl, who is missing for some reason), there are more NY-based bands on this list than from anywhere else

also, location of No Fun fest, location of Dom's record store, etc etc etc etc

lol new yorkers don't own everything

obviously this is covered upthread, but providence is the epicenter of this scene with significant outposts in the bay area, portland, new york, detroit, etc. and cross-over with a number of rock bands.

wait so the argument is "if you add these three bands from Brooklyn/NYC, then the list will have more bands from that area than anywhere else"?

don't forget "etc etc etc etc"

tbf, not sure why those three bands were disqualified in the first place. If it is because two of them are not "underground" enough, I'd definitely argue to expand the definition of underground a little bit. All three of those bands were ubiquitous in the scene around this time. Several of the members of these bands worked at either Other Music or Kim's, and most seemed to be at every show within 20 miles of the Pink Pony. To me it's fairly obvious that this scene sorta converged in NYC, with many people from those other, err, ports in Rhode Island, Baltimore, and Detroit / Ann Arbor / Ypsi moving to Brooklyn at some point during this time.

Obviously just speaking from my own experiences, but Brooklyn absolutely seemed like the noisebro nexus at the time.

i'll grant that the a lot of activity eventually converged around brooklyn (circa the last two years of this poll's title), but this was very much a national scene with bands of note throughout the east coast, midwest, and west coast. Things happen in other parts of the country too believe it or not!

Also I think it was smart to exclude those three bands because a poll that's "Lightning Bolt-20; Black Dice-20; Wolf Eyes-10; 12 random other bands-1," is boring and doesn't really do justice to the depth of this particular scene. Those bands really are great, but they're already generally regarded as such.

Also taking Animal Collective out of the poll prevented the thread from being post after post saying "Animal Collective sucks!"

gtfoh wimmels

the pull of brooklyn/new york in the 2000s is a larger story and not particularly "about" this scene imo

this was also an international scene w traffic between USA - Japan - UK/Europe - Wolf Eyes<Hijokaidan>New Blockaders

you can kinda say that about so many subgenres/ underground musical scenes with mostly white ppl though!

and Axolotl, who is missing for some reason

uh, these dudes were San Francisco/Oakland

that (one) dude lived in New York, and worked at Mondo Kim's in the village

at times the band was a duo, including people I know for a fact lived in Oakland and San Francisco. Maybe one of them relocated? People move!

lets def have a convo about who knew the guys in axolotl better

it would be more novel than discussing the merits of Black Dice or Animal Collective

OK, gang, I made some mixes for y'all that should do a decent job summarizing this period (1999-2006) as I see it. I tried to be as complete as possible, but obviously no attempt at a Rhino-style anthologization of a scene full of lathe records, tape labels and CD-Rs is going to be totally comprehensive...

First what's NOT on here:

Even though many bands were making records before 1999, this is definitely starts at Fort Thunder and works outward, since that's where the aesthetics of a DIY "noise-punk" scene coalesced. Too far before that and we're too deep into weirdo Albini-produced Midwest Skin Graft stuff, San Diego hardcore and powerviolence.The bands from those scenes who aligned themselves in the post-Fort Thunder world are included

I couldn't get too deep into serious harsh noise, power electronics and void-gazing dead Hansen/American Tapes stuff because the tracks are usually long, and the bummer vibes would break up the flow of the mixes, so apologies to Bloodyminded, Dead Machines, Hive Mind, Demons, Sick Llama, 16 Bitch Pile Up, Newton, etc.

Also, the psych-fried Arthur Magazine drone wing of this era swing to far on the other end of the spectrum for me, but would probably make a really good mix on it's own, shout out to Gang Gang Dance, Growing, Excepter, Double Leopards, No Neck Blues Band, Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice, Electroputas, Axolotl, Skaters, Rac-coo-oo-oon, etc.

I had to be picky with the more post-punk and no wave stuff and Noise-Pop that was coming out at this time, and a lot of those decisions were made completely arbitrarily even though many of these bands rolled in the same very tight circles (I left off The Get Hustle, Godzik Pink, Deerhoof, Shopping, Liars).

It ends before 2007 since that was the real breaking point for the next generation of bands influenced by this stuff, which took it to way more colorful/happy/poppy places: Dan Deacon and the Wham City crew; No Age, Health and the Smell crew; Deerhunter, etc

Also, yes, I know there's two Canadian bands on here. Also, yes, I put a song I play drums on, which is a cornball move, but I couldn't resist.

American Noise-Punk Vol. 1 (1999-2002)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cu60dvsaa09619e/American%20Noise-Punk%20Vol.%201%20%281999-2002%29.zip?dl=0

1. Fat Day - Dance To The Best Music Of Today
2. Men's Recovery Project - Frank & Judy
3. Olneyville Sound System - Immigrant Radio
4. Landed - How Little Will It Take
5. The Flying Luttenbachers - P.A.L.S., Nipple-Clamped
6. Quintron - Mysterious Rangers
7. XBXRX - Untitled
8. The Locust - Bring Your 65 Italian Carbine
9. Lightning Bolt - 13 Monsters
10. Arab On Radar - Birth Control Blues
11. Erase Errata - Tongue Tied
12. Rah Bras - Fungry
13. Friends Forever - You Cannot Do This Out Here
14. Black Dice - Smile Friends
15. Wolf Eyes - Burn Your House Down
16. Metalux - Clap-Prison
17. Nautical Almanac - Male Mountain (The Horns Of Dionysus)
18. Sissy Spacek - Untitled
19. Forcefield - Untitled
20. Hella - Been A Long Time Cousin
21. Pink And Brown - So Long Special Treat
22. Sightings - I Feel Like a Porsche
23. Mouthus - Sandonsand
24. Orthrelm - Untitled
25. Touchdown - Nobody Likes A Nomad, Or, "Simple Folk"
26. Animal Collective - Forest Gospel
27. Young People - Ron Jeremy

American Noise-Punk Vol. 2 (2003-2004)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kehn1ehcywzl1l0/American%20Noise-Punk%20Vol.%202%20%282003-2004%29.zip?dl=0

1. Neon Hunk - Beefmastor
2. Lightning Bolt - Assassins
3. An Albatross - I Am The Lazer Viking
4. The Locust - Psst! Is That A Halfie In Your Pants?
5. Octis - Kralls 12
6. The Blood Brothers - Burn, Piano Island, Burn
7. Upsilon Acrux - A Quart Of Zolex
8. The USA Is A Monster - No More Forever
9. Tyondai Braxton - Stand There
10. Numbers - Insomnia
11. Die Monitr Batss - Hand Model Death
12. The Hospitals - Again & Again
13. Total Shutdown - Ka Ka Ka
14. Vincebus Eruptum - Who Farted
15. Noise Nomads - Untitled
16. Black Dice - Live Loop
17. The Mae Shi - Virgin's Diet, The Hand Of Wolves
18. KIT - Untitled
19. Death Sentence: Panda! - Tribal Boyfriend
20. Les Georges Leningrad - Supa Doopa
21. Aa - Static Rights
22. Yellow Swans - Police Eternity
23. Kites - Big Ponytail
24. Coachwhips - You Gonna Get It
25. Can't - We Are the World
26. Wolf Eyes - Stabbed In The Face
27. Hair Police - Open Body
28. Sightings - Dudes
29. Air Conditioning - Accusation, Denial, Denali
30. Rusted Shut - Hatchet
31. Burmese – Headmaster

American Noise-Punk Vol. 3 (2005-2006)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6y67brh1v17w0on/American%20Noise-Punk%20Vol.%203%20%282005-2006%29.zip?dl=0
1. Fathers Day - I Have So Much Respect For Women
2. Japanther - The Gravy
3. Clockcleaner - Missing Dick
4. Prurient - Silent Mary
5. White Mice - The White Mice
6. Mindflayer - Gore Gone Wild
7. Monotract - Paper Bag
8. Magik Markers - Most Beautiful City On Earth
9. Zs - Olympics
10. Child Abuse - Pre-Emptive Priapism
11. AIDS Wolf - Chinese Roulette
12. Gang Wizard - The Pretty Ape
13. Fat Worm Of Error - Lets Fool The Meat To Hassle The Room
14. Parts & Labor - A Great Divide
15. Neptune - Equestrian Fantasy
16. Erase Errata - Cruising
17. Coughs - Bunny Slope
18. Night Wounds - Less Dead
19. Silver Daggers - We Didn't Pay
20. Shit And Shine - Here Come The Vikings
21. Hototogisu + Burning Star Core - Untitled

dope

otm

Ooh!