[top 40 squeeze]

Alright, haven't seen a NO FUN FEST review, even on the old board so here goes... extensive coverage:

It was a real solid year, fucking amazing usual. Carlos Giffoni should truly be crowned the new Godfather of Noise, and we should all bend down to kiss his ring. Can't thank him enough, for putting on such a great event year after year.

I can't quite tell you how it related to the first two years. I think it somehow wasn't as good as the first and second No Fun Fests, but that might just be the novelty wearing off, or where my head is at at the moment. The sound was great, the sets were intense if somewhat shorter than the previous two years. Overall, the show was organized real tight with the upstairs and downstairs bands timed so that you could pretty much always catch the upstairs band, go outside socialize and smoke for 5-10 and then catch the downstairs act... Not always but more often than not. I think I pretty much caught all 40 + acts over the three days, barring a couple from the last day when the sets overlapped more due to the time constraints.

The Line-up was a bit more balanced this year. Last year it was heavy with power electronics and agressive abrasive pedal-driven scree. This year had a good balance, with day one being a good mix of different set-ups... Perhaps we could call it the feminine punch night, with the first 3 acts being all female... These girls bite though... Day Two, the boys stepped up and it was day of the harshest "FUCK YEAH!!!" attitude noise. Macronympha got things violent, but more on that later. Day three felt kind of like the lazy hangover sunday after a rough saturday. More the real instrument-improv night... DRUMS!!! Shit yeah! Guitars!!! Saxamaphones!!! Overall, balance was fucking great. And everyone brought the A-Game to induce cum soaked pants.

Oh shit! and did I mentioned it was fucking packed. 500+ people every night. Beards, Smiles, stinky leather jackets, burned out hippies, cute girls that hit hard in the mosh pit, people from all the fuck over: Ohio, Michigan, Japan, Rhode Island, California... I met one other dude from New York... Hipness was at an all time low... People CAME OUT for this shit travelled, crashed at each other's pads... This happened the previoius two years of course, but the sheer number this year was staggering. There gonna need a bigger venue, although I don't think that's possible, the place is fairly large and I can't think of a place in Brooklyn that's bigger or a club in Manhattan that's not lame that'll allow noise to be blasted till three in the morning, fucking unions. Things were set-up better this year though, with the record venues outside in this little bungallow/alcove/garage instead of downstairs crowding up room in the downstairs. Now to actual reviews.

Day One:
Upstairs:

Zaimph
- Damn, first act, mind's fuzzy. She was good. Nice and loud for one person. Nice tin-foil on guitar fuzziness... Definate solid start.

16 Bitch Pile-up
- These bitches rocked. Wanna buy a record. Man wish i could remember more.

Can't
- Awwww... Jessica was sweet as hell. I bought New Secrets on vinyl. She sang two songs acapella which brought out the hippie vibe I love about noise making folk. Also did usual thing of singing into microphone with high and low pitched noise processing (not really the word i'm looking for) through vocals. Amazing, really amazing. She should of played longer. She real shy, and sort of cut off an amazing new noisey-beautiful track off early, cause she said she heard someone heckle her which I didn't hear. Should have played longer.

Aaron Dilloway
- Great loud anarchic set w/ Carlos Giffoni, Wolf Eyes and Spencer Yeh onstage not playing anything but instead providing hillarious moral support... Fist pumping and fucking shit up... Kind of getting in Dilloway's way which was great... then inducing members of the audience to crash the stage... HAHAHAHA... real fun and funny... and loud. There's such a warm, goofy spirit to so much of this stuff... which kind of turned harsh unfortunately during MacroNympha's set on day two.

Lee/Corsano/Nace
- I've seen Lee play several times with Hooker, and he usually brings a very thoughtfull slow build attentive, delicate, wall-of-feedback approach. But honestly, is that possible when Corsano is hitting the skins? Oh I'm sure it is... but Lee when bonkers anyway bringing intense and immediate gratification. Good Set. Not the best, but more loose and immediate than other Lee sets... More of a beer-drinking, steak-eating Lee, but with all his usual class. Corsano is god.

Zbigniew Karkowski and Carlos Giffoni
- LAPTOPS!!! One of the louder sets if I remember... THANK YOU CARLOS!!!

Zeena Parkins and Ikue Mori
- Always wondered what the hell Zeena did to that damn harp... and now I know... At one point I think she was hitting it with a brick... Probably not a brick but she sure was smaking it with something... Used an e-bow too. Was absolutely great. I love this set... Ikue pumped out the intricate sounds... Zeena created the wall, then varied it with notes. Really the set of Day One where noise was build up by lots of organic sounds distorted... and you hear things within you've never heard before. Deep.

Solmania
- Huh? Don't remember it immediately. Good though, I'm sure.

Smegma
- Aha! And then there was Smegma, here to show the upstarts beards in the audience what a real learned BEARD is. Yes! Truly the full potential of the beard was explored during their set. Man, I'm really glad I got to see these old folk play. So responsive, and seemed truly greatful to be playing for a huge, young, and appreciative audience. Something akin to vindication, perhaps?

Downstairs...
- The downstairs acts which were all from Hospital Productions are a complete blur, probably because I was usually in the back and couldn't see a damn thing. Sludge, and Squeel, and bass. Lots of thumping bass. Air Conditioning and Landed were pretty cool and I bought there split, which is decent.

Stop me if this is too long...

[top 40 squeeze]

Day Two:
Upstairs -

C.P.T.
- Sort of set the tone for the night... Which was a little bit more of a FUCK YEAH!!! FUCK YOU!!! Kind of thing. Two guys made noise for a while then threw some equipment on the ground and Left. Crowd was more of an agressive, wolf-eyes fan like crowd. They played well, not particularly memorable. But y'know what... If I'm listening to noise live... Especially at such an egalitarian fest I feel like embracing everything. They were good.

Hive-Mind
- Hive-Mind was great. Pumped out the swarm sounding shit... BUZZZZZZZZ... And the first to bring the awesome super-low frequency throat and scrotum rattling low-end pulse.

Bloody-Minded
- These guys made me smile... Guy announced and talked before every song. Had more of a fuck-it! it attitude. Short songs that all sounded the same, high-pitched feedback... rambling. Guy playing low-end synth looked like Trent Reznor. "Raise your hand in the audience if you've had three meals today! Okay... Okay.. TWO? Okay... Okay... One? Okay.. Raise your hand if you've put nothing in you today? This song is for those who ate nothing today intentionally... It's called..." The majority of the audience at one meal, including yours truly.

Twig Harper-
Awww, Twig, poor Twig. Twig found out his house burned down, I guess while he was at No Fun Fest. He played well, but seemed out of it. Love goes out to you Twig. Just Keep On and On, man, never stop.

Daniel Menche
- One guy. Built up a tribal drone/trance by banging on some drums and screaming and looping it. Really enjoyed it. Dude hoisted himself up by grabbing the right-side speakers and climbed up on to the column on stage right.

Macronympha
- Ah... Here's where things got a little too violent, which I find is a really rare occurence at noise shows. I mean usually its people just chilling out and listening with a couple people slam-dancing to more aggressive acts. The crowd this night was assholic, i guess, because Wolf Eyes and other repudatedly harsh bands were playing. Macronympha played last year and nothing out of the ordinary happened, but this was a little microcosm of madness. An intense pit broke out with hahaha Thurston Moore in the middle of it, or so my girlfriend told me... I was more removed from it and couldn't see. Actually pretty funny, apparently a real tiny girl in the pit tried to shoved Thurston really hard, and since he's huge he just kind of put his hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her away. Anyway... bottles where thrown from the audience... Stuff was thrown back at the audience. A long fucking table ended up crowd surfing which was pretty scary. Equipment was lost. A couple people on and off stage ended up bleeding. Kind of sad kind of righteous. Carlos cut the set off because he realized it was out of hand. One poor dude ended up in the hospital needing stitches in his head. I read his post on a noise forum... he said he enjoyed the set until he realized he was bleeding and ended up in the hospital... Carlos posted a reply saying he'd help out with the hospital bill if the guy didn't have good insurance, which is class act. Overall, I think a couple bad seeds in the audience don't understand that the onstage provocation/acted-out-"violence" of certain bands is supposed to be good-natured, safe, and fun, and not aggressively trying to hurt people. Maybe Macronympha shouldn't have built up the atmosphere so much, but I really don't find too much fault. I think its just the same assholes who start throwing punches in a mosh pit. I mean, Macronympha had one of the girlfriends of a bandmember on stage wearing a corset-cincher thing, topless w/ black tape over her nipples... They were banging on trash cans. Some making out. Threw water bottles into the audience. I get depressed when I think some assholes think this is an excuse to pick a fight or try to really hurt someone. Or maybe I didn't see what hapenned and the band was more to blame. Overall, despite like two or three people getting a little hurt... it was nice to see some wild anarchy, even if it was forced and a bit depressing.

SJ
- Loudest thing all weekend.

Wolf Eyes
- You like them are you don't. I think they're okay.

Downstairs
- This was my favorite night downstairs. Bands from Brutal SFX/Terminal records. Why? Costumes!!! Keyboards!!! Man costumes are awesome. I wish Rubber-O-Cement had played, but shit, yeah anyway!!! Spider Compass Good Crime band opened and they were awesome. Two guys with really tall buzzard/chicken/bird mask things that touched the ceiling. Reall well done. Plus they played keyboards, samplers that pumped out rad carnival music/salsa/calypso grooves and overlayed with swirling oscillating noise. They were great. I sat crosslegged at the front and bobbed back and forth. Hans Grusel's Krenkan Kabinet was similar with awesome masks/costumes and demented Residents style sing-along cover of "Two for Tea." I bought the last copy of a ten-inch Lathe cut record by them, which is probably gonna be the last last because the lathe was Twig's and at his house when it burned down.

Alright Alright... this post has gotten huge and I don't think I can write any more. I'll come back later and write more about day three sometime, maybe. And talk more about the festival in general. Like the fact at the end of each night they gave out free coffee/snacks that they hadn't sold at the end of the day, which was amazingly cool.

[Inhuman]

Wow, well written. I don't know many of the artists who played, but Wolf Eyes would have been enjoyable, and so would Thurston.I wish I could have gone

[chabib]

Originally Posted by top 40 squeeze

Downstairs
- This was my favorite night downstairs. Bands from Brutal SFX/Terminal records. Why? Costumes!!! Keyboards!!! Man costumes are awesome.

i wore a costume last year. then i took it off and hammered a table with my cock while shrieking into synths. if you don't have my cd, i hate you.

 

[golden child]

Here's where things got a little too violent, which I find is a really rare occurence at noise shows.

dude, are you kidding me?

mp3 of macro here http://noisemp3.com/artists/macronympha

this incarnation of macronympha includes stimbox, prurient and the sickness

[toxic johnny]

Yeah... thanks for taking the trouble to write this... I of course wanted to go and was wondering the whole weekend how it was going down.

I like your witty turn of phrase... please tell all about day 3.

Have you by any chance changed your log in name?... I think I know who you are... but won't say who in case I've got it horribly wrong!

Strange things these internet identities.

[top 40 squeeze]

Originally Posted by golden child

dude, are you kidding me?

mp3 of macro here http://noisemp3.com/artists/macronympha

this incarnation of macronympha includes stimbox, prurient and the sickness


[/color]

Uh, yeah... Huh? Kidding you about what? Honestly I haven't been to any noise shows where many people have gotten straight up bloody hurt. I guess Macronympha might have a reputation for that kind of thing though, my only experience with them was at last year's No Fun where they weren't nearly as good/violent... Yeah and it was amazing with all those people onstage but I couldn't really figure out who everyone was from all the crap that was going on on stage and in the audience... I had a table blocking my view overhead...

[top 40 squeeze]

Originally Posted by toxic johnny

Yeah... thanks for taking the trouble to write this... I of course wanted to go and was wondering the whole weekend how it was going down.

I like your witty turn of phrase... please tell all about day 3.

Have you by any chance changed your log in name?... I think I know who you are... but won't say who in case I've got it horribly wrong!

Strange things these internet identities.

Thanks, and No, No... I've read SY board since it existed and have had the same log-in but have only had like a couple of posts in 5 years. Not much for posting on boards, but I felt like there was a dirth of No Fun Reviews.

[top 40 squeeze]

shit... double post

[top 40 squeeze]

Originally Posted by chabib

i wore a costume last year. then i took it off and hammered a table with my cock while shrieking into synths. if you don't have my cd, i hate you.

 

Hahaha... Really? where you downstairs, Chris? I'm almost never in front for the downstairs acts. If not I don't know how the fuck I missed that, and now I hate myself for missing the sheer power of chabib cock. Oh, and its real cool your always at these shows videotaping them for posterity. Really looking forward to seeing this years. Maybe I should talk to you sometime. My girlfriend admires your ears.

[toxic johnny]

Thank god I didn't say who I thought you were ! !... talk about egg on the face.

...oh and nice Free Kitten reference with your name.

[Everyneurotic]

it is really incredible how much better aaron dilloway solo is than with wolf eyes, i like the eyes too, but dilloway always brings good surprises.

i really don't know what in the wide world of extreme isn't hive mind bigger. greh is one of the best there are!!

[golden child]

though i havent experienced it myself really, ive heard many stories of violence at noise shows esspecially ones in the more power electronic vein.

at a hanatarash show eye destroyed the venue with a bulldozer

[faggot mangler]

wish i coulda gone

[toxic johnny]

Oh no thats such a shame !@#$%!... I was looking forward to hearing your report... I hope you're feeling better now.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by toxic johnny

Oh no thats such a shame !@#$%!... I was looking forward to hearing your report... I hope you're feeling better now.

yes man, feeling better now, thanks. went to stereolab last night. it was pretty packed! tried to get the new cd but was sold out-- scored the 45 rpm single -- haven't heard it yet b/c our host doesn't have a working turntable. oh well...

HOWEVER

in no fun related news:

i got a mass email from twig harper (from nautical almanac) that tarantula hill, their baltimorechouse/studio/venue, burned down while they were playing nofunfest!! <- funny icon looks like a frog. but this is not funny. anyway...

i migh repost the email here or in a separate thread. harsh news!

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ok. link is here: http://216.70.73.169/gossip/showthread.php?t=141