Noise
Noah’s Barks pages relating to the noise music genre. Combine with tags for subgenres, e.g. “noise+pop.”
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Sonic Youth – “Goo”
Perhaps the apex of Sonic Youth’s output, "Goo" has the band reach equilibrium with listless noise, pop hooks, and their iconic, idiosyncratic style. (read more)
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The Jesus and Mary Chain Retrospective
(Original publication date unknown) We all know Psychocandy, the landmark album to introduce writing songs with noise. Yeah, The Velvet Underground were one of the first to use noise feedback in their songs, but they used it in a more abrasive manner, writing songs around the noise, where The Jesus and Mary Chain (JaMC) chose to work… (read more)
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Big Black Retrospective
What’s there to like about a band as repulsive as Big Black? Well, I can think of a few things. (read more)
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Mercury Rev – “Yerself Is Steam” (1991)
Yerself Is Steam is a big pool of stereotypical early ’90s alternative rock noise to get lost in. If you’re a fan of the aesthetic as I am, it’ll make you feel just at home. This is best viewed as a collage though; focus on anything specific and you may realize there isn’t much in the way… (read more)
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Royal Trux – “Twin Infinitives” (1990)
On Twin Infinitives, Royal Trux use their constantly mutating guitar lines and faint, twinkling, sustained keyboard notes to paint an acid-soaked vision of a nighttime cityscape’s dark underbelly. Streetlights sparkle through a veil of smoke, carrying a heavy drug-induced haze protruding from shadowy alleyways and underground clubs. Jennifer Herrema is the star vocalist on Twin… (read more)
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Boris – “Akuma no Uta”
Public service announcement: I have recently removed the PX-102 copy of Akuma no Uta from my library to add the PXLP-102 copy. This PXLP-102 copy is the one known by the more popular album cover—that is, Atsuo sitting on a stool holding his guitar across his lap. Of course, we all know that this album… (read more)
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The Red Crayola with The Familiar Ugly – “The Parable of Arable Land” (1967)
Brilliant approach: just bash your guitar on the wall until you hear a new sound instead of reaching it naturally. I can’t respect The Parable of Arable Land at all. Tunelessly playing your instruments at random as if one gave a five year-old an electric guitar they’ve never picked up before is a result obvious… (read more)
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Boredoms – “Vision Creation Newsun”
Definitely a trip, but I don’t find the grooves very inspiring or engrossing, and Boredoms really overextend the reach of them with this 70-minute album. All of the songs naturally move and shift as they go along, which is the best thing about Vision Creation Newsun. It keeps the trance going while avoiding repetition and… (read more)
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Band of Susans – “Veil”
The riff in “Not in This Life” is so similar to the Big Black song “Kerosene” that I kept expecting Steve Albini to shout the title. I originally got this album because it had a pretty, purple cover. As it turns out, Veil is a solid B-tier shoegaze album that’s worth checking out for enthusiasts… (read more)
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My Bloody Valentine – “m b v” (2013)
I just want to be the first to call m b v the “indie Chinese Democracy” before Pitchfork says it 10 times in their review. I don’t actually view this as another Chinese Democracy at all, I just wanted to be the first to say it. After all, I was one of the first people… (read more)