[Georgekrz]

yes thanks for the article, Thurson and Jim O'Rourke, just to get you psyched! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNw3noxQRdI

[Georgekrz]

top 40 squeeze: youre right, where to go after you cross over is the tricky part. if i didnt have a map with me id probably get lost after crossing that ramp. as soon as you cross over the highway you head north to the corner and make a left. if you go south (toward the gas station) youre going the wrong way...

[top 40 squeeze]

cool... yeah... i just couldn't remember exactly what it was in my mind... i'm glad my directions helped you.

[Brett Robinson]

WOW! I only caught today's line-up, but it was a phenomenal performance.

Leslie and Roger stole the show with the teddy-bear-pillow-fight dance party.

Thurston and Bill Nace made a beautifully loud racket.

Thurston jammed with fucking NEGATIVE APPROACH for two songs!

Aaron Dilloway did a rather intense and riveting set.

Lots of people at the Hook. Not a lot of assholes. Plenty of cute girls too, more than i usually see at noise shows (maybe 10% versus the usual 2%).

successs!

[Moshe]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/21/arts/music/21nois.html?ex=1337400000&en=d12d740d3354f68a&ei=5 088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

May 21, 2007
Music Review | No Fun Fest
Tough Territory in the World of Experimental Music

By NATE CHINEN
A lot of the sounds heard over the weekend at the Hook in Red Hook, Brooklyn, came with the force of an assault. There were whipsaw screeches, scorching blasts, solar-plexus-socking rumbles. Also ominous whorls and scabrous wails. It was all part of the fourth annual No Fun Fest, a transnational summit on the state of extreme experimental music, mostly electronic in origin and industrial in tone.
The festival, organized by the Venezuelan-born electronic improviser Carlos Giffoni, courts a hyper-specific subculture. But the crowd of several hundred strong on Saturday, the third of four consecutive nights of programming, reflected an impact beyond the realm of the cloistered connoisseur. And at its best — as in the performances of the evening’s two headliners, Merzbow and Keiji Haino — the music tempered its aggression with discipline, and even the suggestion of a clear design.
Mr. Haino, who went on shortly after midnight, presented a figure as spectral and inscrutable as his art. A longtime hero of the Japanese noise-rock scene, he has drawn deeply from sources both futuristic and folkloric. He began his set with a passage involving a mandolinlike stringed instrument and a vocal torrent, backing his own brackish growls with a plangent, wobbly twang.
Eventually he switched to guitar, unleashing a wave of barbed static. Through the haze there was occasionally a beam of something almost normative — pure amplifier feedback, or a drone processed through a ring modulator — but the general effect was a relentless hissing sludge. Near the end of his 45 minutes he started vocalizing again, in full freakout mode. His cackle, sampled and looped, sounded more mischievous than sinister.
Merzbow, a k a Masami Akita, adopted a calmer demeanor, though the results were more turbulent. Presiding over two laptops and a dial-covered console he turned a low-frequency churn into something disorientingly palpable. Shapes and textures kept mutating within the din. There was a metallic threshing sound, then something that resembled the roar of pummeling surf from an underwater perspective. The overall effect was visceral as well as artful, and the crowd responded with some scattered moshing.
Catharsis has become a mandate of this wing of experimental music, partly as a result of its association with doom metal and other sludgy variations. Masochism can quickly become part of the deal. During an abrasive set by the electronic artists Tom Recchion, Oblivia and Ju Suk Reet Meate, this point was crystallized by the appearance of a stage crasher, who somberly removed his shirt and then toppled to the stage like felled timber.
Sickness and Slogun, playing consecutive sets, attacked the audience with derision, as if antagonism were the only reception they could withstand. Chris Goudreau, who performs as Sickness, paced and sulked for a while before cutting his performance short; John Balistreri, who goes by Slogun, spent a few minutes glowering with his arms crossed. Eventually they were onstage together, along with an inexplicable entourage, spraying the crowd with insults and beer. It was sloppy excess but probably necessary; without the hostility there would have been nothing there.
In this atmosphere Religious Knives stood out for several reasons. They used conventional instruments: guitar, bass, keyboards and drums. And their set brushed up against rock and dub reggae, though not in any tuneful way. There were some not-quite-intelligible vocals — “When the lights go out” was one refrain — and some big, bare-bones riffs.
Before they began their set Michael Bernstein of the band informed the sound man that a microphone was “feeding back a little bit.” He didn’t give any indication of realizing how funny that sounded, in the context of the night.

[Georgekrz]

brett- thanks for that info on bill nace, i was wondering who the 2nd guitar player was. great performance from them. i noticed thurston seemed to be having the best time when hardcore bands were playing! like during the anti-freedom set on friday. hardcore is not really my thing but those sets were pretty fucking intense.

10% hot girls to say the least, there were many females there. btw- did you see the two girls that went down to the floor and were going at it in a sexual way? it was closer to the back of the room. it was during the set before stegm, i forgot who it was now...

oh yeah rodger stella, the guy who enters the pit backwards. haha he is one intense fucking dude. it wasnt a teddy bear, it was shamoo the whale! later he was chasing some chick around hitting her with it. i wound up standing next to him during thurstons set, right by the left floor speaker.

btw- you could get some really good deals on cds and stuff, i picked up the no fun 04/05 dvd for 15 bucks, and the new merzbow/giffoni/o'rourke for 10. everything was being taped btw, so im sure a dvd is coming.

[Everyneurotic]

Originally Posted by Brett Robinson

...
Leslie and Roger stole the show with the teddy-bear-pillow-fight dance party.

Thurston and Bill Nace made a beautifully loud racket.

Thurston jammed with fucking NEGATIVE APPROACH for two songs!
...
Lots of people at the Hook. Not a lot of assholes. Plenty of cute girls too, more than i usually see at noise shows (maybe 10% versus the usual 2%).

...

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

no, don't make me regret not going (like if i could go, i'm close to bankruptcy as i'm speaking) but but but but

I CAN?T BELIEVE IT!!!!

looking forward for the dvd.

[chabib]

Originally Posted by Georgekrz

brett- thanks for that info on bill nace, i was wondering who the 2nd guitar player was. great performance from them. i noticed thurston seemed to be having the best time when hardcore bands were playing! like during the anti-freedom set on friday. hardcore is not really my thing but those sets were pretty fucking intense.

10% hot girls to say the least, there were many females there. btw- did you see the two girls that went down to the floor and were going at it in a sexual way? it was closer to the back of the room. it was during the set before stegm, i forgot who it was now...

oh yeah rodger stella, the guy who enters the pit backwards. haha he is one intense fucking dude. it wasnt a teddy bear, it was shamoo the whale! later he was chasing some chick around hitting her with it. i wound up standing next to him during thurstons set, right by the left floor speaker.

btw- you could get some really good deals on cds and stuff, i picked up the no fun 04/05 dvd for 15 bucks, and the new merzbow/giffoni/o'rourke for 10. everything was being taped btw, so im sure a dvd is coming.

stella's great. he spent 15 minutes hooking up his theremin to use it for 15 seconds before unplugging it while wandering around.

[Moshe]

pics

[Georgekrz]

what happened when rodger stella went off the stage? i was on the right side for that set, back almost by the door and couldnt really see. did he walk all the way to the back of the floor and come back backwards, or the other way around? im assuming he did just by judging the commotion in the middle of the floor.

btw- those girls rolling around on the floor, that was during ludo mich.

habib- i just watched the 1st dvd, i got to take my hat off to you, that is a great music movie, period. everyone should buy this dvd.

[Moshe]

http://www.tinymixtapes.com/No-Fun-Fest-2007-Day-1

No Fun Fest 2007: Day 1
[The Hook; Brooklyn, NY]
[05-17-2007]

 

It was No Fun Fest weekend, and my friends and I made damn sure we booked out of work an hour early. With ride and shelter situations straightened out, we hit the highway, but I’ll be goddamned if New York City traffic planned our night differently. Missed Orphan Fairytale’s opening ceremonies, which all of us were looking forward to, but at least we made it to the festival chock full of friends and acquaintances
Rounding the un-genrified, dockside neighborhood, a faint buzzing wandered within an earshot, and we jogged to The Hook’s front door. After a frisking and ticket securing, we opened the black curtain to an all-too-familiar scene: darkness punctuated by a red-lit bar and a green-lit stage with roughly 200 music-hungry fans and a handful of stragglers on the dancefloor. Evil Moisture welcomed us to the four-day weekend by slaying the audience with madcap, rage-filled hums and squeals.
After some loud yelps, I wandered outside, escaping the scent of stale beer and body odor to catch up with friends from around the states. Two smokes and a few beers later, Lambsbread’s opening chords summoned the audience back. When we arrived indoors, Rat Bastard announced the band was just plugging in. A few minutes later, those evil mothers cranked out one helluva mind-bender. Kathy sketched a dissonant fuzz landscape, while Zac blurted out some Hendrix-of-noise noodlings and Shane spackled the percussive foundation. A brief foray into Sabbath-style doom gave the head a rest from fast banging — then BLAM... right back into lightspeed, free-hardcore riffage, ending at just the right point in the meltdown. A goddamn smoker fer sure.
Hive Mind and Damion Romero sounded like New Order tunes melted into one super long drone, but also super boring to watch. Time to hit up the merch stands. Unlike the previous three years, organizers dedicated the basement solely to merch, not the manic intensity of small bands. Hospital Productions, AA Records, Los Angeles Free Music Society, Fag Tapes, Hanson, Bennifer, et al — Thurston Moore running around with an underarm full of vinyl and tapes. Limited-edition cassettes and lathes galore, but since funds were limited, the place seemed more like an art museum piece on underground record packaging or a study in rampant consumerism.
Upstairs, Kim Gordon and Yoshimi began setting up. Grabbing a three $3 Pabst, I weaseled my way up to a good spot. Pumped the first Royal Trux album for the whole week prior and hoped something at the festival could approximate the feeling of that album. Thankfully, Kim and Yoshimi pulled it off with an energetic set. Kim’s noticeably improved guitar playing sounded like Neil Hagerty’s primitive playing on Royal Trux [#1] but with a penchant for dissonance and an amateurish earnestness on par with early Half Japanese. Yoshimi’s ritualistic banging kept things in motion, while Kim’s breathy poetics drove away some power electronics fans.
Preparation for Hair Police: smoke, piss, drink, patiently wait for the crew to do a soundcheck. Now it is time to watch skulls melt. Tonight, the band blurs the barrier between the spastic punk squalls of the past with drawn-out, black metal soundscapes, creating a crowd-pleasing glimpse into the band’s future trajectory. Crazed no-wave synth blurts and echoing train-track bass-smacks plot a dark underworld accentuated by Mike Connolly’s horrific, high-pitched screams. Two encores and a few minutes worth of psychotic clapping later, the best set of the night ends, and I kick scattered Pabst cans out of the way to see if my friends are still living.
The night ends with a set by the legendary harsh noise artist Pain Jerk. While the Japanese extremist wails on some sort of metal-cased keyboard of death, John from Slogun stands on the side of the stage, flipping people off and spitting on the people in the front of the crowd. He makes crying gestures and continues to provoke the crowd as Kohei Gomi shreds eardrums, constructing a wall-thick, scraping metal sound. Slogun punches a few people and a mini-melee starts with Gomi intervening. I don’t understand the violent stage show surrounding Gomi’s performance, but the barrage of sound distracts one from dwelling too long on ersatz.
For the first time in a few months, I walk home with a severe ringing in my ears and a smile on my face. Can’t wait to see what No Fun Fest curator Carlos Giffoni has planned for tomorrow.
by S. Kobak

[Moshe]

http://failedbandsofoklahoma.blogspo...at-no-fun.html

FBO: 'Seeks Fun at No Fun'

 

CAN YOU BREAK MUSIC?

The New York Times ventured to Brooklyn's noise-music No Fun Festival this weekend and peppered Monday readers with apt descriptions of the four days of electronic-induced feedback as 'resembling the roar of pummeling surf from an underwater perspective' and 'relentless hissing sludge.' FBO Admin, invited by FBO #2 Fan Tom C-- of Connecticut, attended the opening on Thursday and continues the report to Failed Bands of Oklahoma fans.

 

Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, playing with the Boredoms' drummer Yoshimi, had by far the most conventional set -- three improvised songs, with odd chords and moaned vocals lines, even touching on MoJo R-- with 'this is the end my friend' at the end. The rest of it -- including the 40-minute screeching end of monotonous feedback by 'Pain Jerk', a guy who looked like the lead guitarist of Cinderella circa 1987 and who had a guy pointing to him onstage, occasionally flipping off the crowd with both hands -- was a little noiser.

What caught FBO's eye is the pumping middle fingers and 'devil signs' -- a la Ronnie James Dio -- that saluted the three-piece Hair Police, a band of questionable haircuts and displaced rage, with a Jack Black-bodied bass player furiously yelling repeated words with fist pumps at odds with the screeching, nearly formless music. What drives us to acknowledge the devil, or our heavy metal hearts, with something distorted or unexplainable happens? Anyway, it wasn't bad.

 

Earlier, Hive Mind + Damion Romero played a low, 20-minute buzz, their faces barely visible between long locks of black hair and two large devices that looked, afar, like a 1950s operators' switchboard. On occasion, the guy with the longer hair and a beard rocked his head backward and took long, well-deserved sips from a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon that set atop the device. That was good. Something to look at.

 

Outside, in a common area in the back, a seated woman -- a local in the gritty waterfront neighborhood with limited public transport --- asked 20-somethings (mostly) to get off the exit ramp ('stay off the ramp, honey'), and flirters and 'noise nerds' (to quote Kim Gordon) ate sausages, drank beer and flirted between sets by the basement CD/tape/record displays below. The ID checker up front noted Tom C-- and I were both part of the '68 club' (born in 1968), as he was. After the show, they ushered people to the van to get to the 'train.'

--> www.nofunfest.com



Reporting from Red Hook, our civic duty fulfilled.

[Georgekrz]

my view, unedited shit so sorry for my ignorance, this was my first no fun fest
thurs:
just got back, id say the best band on the night was Hair Police, the crowd in front went into push and shove frenzy, and just kept at it through their 30 minute or so set.

Pain Jerk closed the night with a powerful Black Dice-y set. it was fun to see Yoshimi and Kim Gordon on the same stage, of course you dont know who to watch when that happens. How old is Yoshimi? she looks about 16..., also I guess Yoshimi's daughter was there she must be 3 or 4 years old, she wearing big gunshooting range style ear protectors. damn i should have asked her if she will be playing 77 drummers, im assuming she will. Thurston Moore was there of course. there was a guy with a professional-type video camera taping, so im hoping a lot of good footage will be surfacing soon. Hive Mind and Damian Romero were also quite good, they really worked their modulators through the whole spectrum of frequencies.. Evil Moisture threw his hamburger buns(he had his burger set up on his modulator) into the crowd and almost him me with it, the fucker...

also- it was fucking hot inside, the ac was just shut off, so no ventilation to speak of, lucky it was a cold night (50 F) even so, as soon as sets were over almost everyone went to hang in the courtyard.

day 2:
Incapacitants- they set-up to akira ikafube classic godzilla soundtrack(most of the album was played i think), many people got up on stage, giffoni, thurston, hive mind, there must have been 30 to 40 people around them. people climbing on the pa. insane attack energy, hitting yourself in the head with objects, a crowd surge? it was kind of a noise music version of beatlemania, the way the music and these two gentlemen moved people. pretty fucking cool. it was an aural equivalent of watching cities being destroyed. music for the apolacypse.

Sissy Spacek, from LA, they are masters of 1 minute song. at the end the singer did a suicide front flip into the audience, guitars were broken, etc.

Carlos Giffoni-, the man we thank for these 4 days

Raionbashi & Kutzkelina- kutzkelina is a yodeler and raionbashi controls the noise, it was heidi meets shining.

Anti-Freedom- the craziest set of the night, a hard-core skin band, though they have hair, beer throwing jumping in the audience, smashing things, general mayhem, basically flashback to 1985 hardcore scene. thurston even got into it from side of the stage.

Mouthus+Axolotl- great set, mouthus is definitely a band i want to see again,

Princess Dragonmon - a "robot" was outside when i got there, they whey they played the robot came in and started to attack, they were blowing soap bubbles and throwing a cardboard box with stuff on it, the theme was dr who, the robot was destroyed.

i was looking for the no fun fest dvd but they didnt have it i think it might be sold out, (in the basement theres a record fair with lot of stuff for sale from many dealers). i did pick up the new merzbow - giffoni - o'rourke cd electric dress for $10

day 3:
sat- because of the mets game which finished late and subway line construction work which rerouted the trains, i didnt get there till 10 on sat.

religious knives- this is kind of hipster band from brooklyn with noise elements, probably one of the more mainstream sounding on the bill that ive yet seen. that is not to say they werent good- they were!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi_9LReXmMA

Tom Recchion, Ju Suk Reet Meate and Oblivia - wow! i dont know the name of the woman in this band but she is probably in her 60s? she destroyed. there is another older gentleman and a guy who plays a trumpet. they use vinyl records, sound loops etc. to make these weird sound collages. it was a pretty good set. one weird thing is at one point this skinhead out of his mind jumped on the stage and ripped his shirt off and starting doing a strip-tease thing, and we were like wtf is this part of the show? then he went down and almost knocked tom's table over some of his modulators and cables got pulled off, then some dude who works for the club jumped on the stage and pulled this guy off the stage, grabbed him by the legs and pulled him off the guy was totally out of it.

toms myspace: http://www.myspace.com/tomrecchion

thats them: http://www.myspace.com/smegmatheoriginal

i should mention - quite a group of characters were at this show- there was another skin type who must have been 6'8" 260 lbs muscle linebacker type, thank god he wasnt too violent cause he could have destroyed all the music nerds! plus there was a "man who enters the pit backwards" the guy was in a trance like state and then when he turned around and raised his hand in front of his face you knew what was coming.

so keiji haino- strarted with acoustic japanese mandolin type thing(honestly i dont know the name of the instument) went to electric guitar in the next movement, and closed with theramin table thing last movement, also blood curdling screams, this was a long set i didnt look at the watch but prob over 40 minutes long. i think during this set what was going on in the audience was at least as interesting as what was happening on the stage. even the photogs were turning around and taking pictures. (it was just haino, no band) this vid pretty much captures what the guitar part of the show was like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt2T68yzOSA

merzbow closed the night, this was noise thing on the table modulators, heavy underlying bass lines with high pitched lead lines, with a lot of variety/complexity thrown in. symphony for destruction. prob one of the more interesting sets of the weekend so far, though perhaps not as frenetic as incapacitants. also this set seemed to attract the most press types with professional photogs and writers scribbling in their note pads. i think a lot of people couldnt take it anymore at this point, in the back lot of people were sitting with their heads in their hands. i wish i had a picture of that.

i think there was supposed to be an afterparty show, but i hung around and nothing seemed to be going on except punk disco spins by the dj(girls were dancing crazy i give them credit for that). maybe it was cancelled since the show ran late, merzbow didnt finish till about 2:15

day4:

the guy who walks backwards into the pit, turns out that is Rodger Stella, who was performing sunday, with Leslie Keffer (the line-up gota changed around a bit Hacky pack sack sack werent there, or crumbling). so the set is leslie does a noise thing while rodger stares into the audience then he SLOWLY descends off the stage and walks slowly all the way to the back of the hall, then he SLOWLY walks backwards back to the stage. amazing. then after that a whole bunch of girls jumped on the stage and they all partied to a noise-y disco style, while rodger began to disrobe and touch himself etc, then the girls started hitting him with the shamoo doll and pushing him around. quite a performance artist, with the insane steady stare and the backwayrd walk, actually he was standing next to me during thurstons set. nice guy. .

other things that happened- during one of the sets towards the back two girls just went down to the floor and started going at it. i guess they were very horny. pictures might surface since some were taken...

back to the music, i missed deathroes- sounded awesome, from outside. we couldnt get in in the middle of the set because the strobe lights were too intense or some such nonsense, so about 30 or 40 of us had to listen from the outside, everyone agreed it sounded pretty awesome,

now that i watch this, i cant believe i missed it, this is amazing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfNjjVgcDoM

Stegm- a pretty intense dude sings and plays the electronics box, and another guy just works the knobs etc. home-made instruments.

Enema Syringe- this is almost house-techno style noise with a nice steady beat, just one guy working the table,

Aaron Dilloway- more complex electronics with a little more subtlety thrown in than some other acts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJGddFGnCaE

Burning Star Core + Zaimph this is a 4 piece band, violin/vocal screaming, girl on electronics/slide guitar, another electronic box, and a drummer. this sound like 1967-68 era floyd kicked up to another level. pretty awesome actually.
this is a pretty good clitp: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7N3-ENXC9Q
this is zaimph, the girl who was playing slide guitar during this set: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReBbb...watch_response

Thurston Moore- and another guitarist (not jim o'rourke- Bill Nace) composition for two guitars, they pretty much covered all the bases on what you could do with a guitar and some electronic pedals/feedback/drumsticks/metal files etc. a nice long set.

then, to wrap up the festival it was Negative Approach w Thurston joining for the first song. they played about a 30 minute set, and action in the front was pretty intense- people flying jumping off speakers, beer and water flying, typical hardcore show.
their myspace: http://www.myspace.com/negativeapproach

i also picked up the 2004-2005 no fun fest dvd for 15 bucks. all in all i have to say pretty awesome 4 days. next year i will have to make sure to get there earlier each night since i missed some bands every night. im pretty sure a dvd will come of this, there were two camera people taping the whole time. cant wait to see it.

day later...

ok, someone corrected me, thurston did TWO songs with negative approach.

also, i checked the schedule and the girl on girl action took place during ludo mich who i guess was late addition(pretty interesting set- spoken word and then sound loops and screaming etc). there was no hacky pack sac sac.

i watched the dvd. one of the best music movies ever made? yes. money well spent, also as a bonus you get mp4/quicktime movies of the songs used in the movie.

[Everyneurotic]

this thread makes me feel bad...

[atsonicpark]

hot noise chicks?

wow.

go figure.

i have been dating a cute girl for 4 years who did think yellow swans was amazing though when we saw them. but i doubt she'd go to this. so, yeah, post some hot noise chick pics!

[mt page]

I had such a good time at No Fun.I missed out on Thursday.Was bummed cuz I really wanted to see what the Hair Police was all about. Friday I got there right in time.I walked in just to catch the first act Charlie Draheim. Holy Shit.It was some of the loudest painful music I have ever heard! It was good though.Different then I thought it was going to be.I had heard he was a guitar improv guy, but it looked like he was playing some electronic gizmos and maybe some tape decks. I liked it.
Next was Princess Dragon-Mom. I was interested in seeing that, because one of the members is in my all time favorite band His Name Is Alive.It was pretty weird.Lots of zapping sounds and a cardbord robot.It was fun though, and after the extreme sound that Draheim did, it was a welcome break.
Grunt was ok. I am not a big fan of the whole "Power Electronics" thing, but it seemed like he does it right.
Next was Mouthus who I had seen once before.I thought it was pretty good, but it seemed to go on for a long time. I really liked what the drummer was doing.
Anti-Freedom was totally crazy.I did not know that it was going to be a punk band thing.I got bruised all up and down my legs, and a cup of beer dumped on me, but it was well worth it. I watched Raionbashi from the back of the room.It was maybe the most interesting thing i had heard all night.I could not see what was going down on stage, but i guess a guy was doing push-ups? I really liked the yodeling.I need to check out more of their stuff.
I was outside for Carlos Giffonis set, but I caught the tail end of it.Sounded pretty heavy. I missed Sissy Spacek, but my friend told me they only played for 10 minutes.
Incapacitants blew me away! I honestly had never heard them before, and now I wish I had!!
It was super exposive noise that had everybody going crazy. maybe some of the best noise I have ever heard!
I left that night with ringing ears, but it was well worth it. Hopefully next year I can make it to every night!

[golden child]

jealous of people seeing incapacitants and negative approach

[Georgekrz]

remember when aaron dilloway got on tap of the speaker when the singer from anti-freedom called him out to sing? he went like he was going to sing something, but just decided to stand there, i guess he didnt know any screwdriver songs...

raionbashi and kutzkalina:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGk7o4unPGE
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEKaeLXtpqM
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EewVSYFQmP8

rodger stella and leslie keffer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-7MD...elated&search=

does it look like we had no fun? are you coming next year?

[mt page]

Originally Posted by Moshe

http://failedbandsofoklahoma.blogspo...at-no-fun.html

FBO: 'Seeks Fun at No Fun'

 

CAN YOU BREAK MUSIC?

The New York Times ventured to Brooklyn's noise-music No Fun Festival this weekend and peppered Monday readers with apt descriptions of the four days of electronic-induced feedback as 'resembling the roar of pummeling surf from an underwater perspective' and 'relentless hissing sludge.' FBO Admin, invited by FBO #2 Fan Tom C-- of Connecticut, attended the opening on Thursday and continues the report to Failed Bands of Oklahoma fans.

 

Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, playing with the Boredoms' drummer Yoshimi, had by far the most conventional set -- three improvised songs, with odd chords and moaned vocals lines, even touching on MoJo R-- with 'this is the end my friend' at the end. The rest of it -- including the 40-minute screeching end of monotonous feedback by 'Pain Jerk', a guy who looked like the lead guitarist of Cinderella circa 1987 and who had a guy pointing to him onstage, occasionally flipping off the crowd with both hands -- was a little noiser.

What caught FBO's eye is the pumping middle fingers and 'devil signs' -- a la Ronnie James Dio -- that saluted the three-piece Hair Police, a band of questionable haircuts and displaced rage, with a Jack Black-bodied bass player furiously yelling repeated words with fist pumps at odds with the screeching, nearly formless music. What drives us to acknowledge the devil, or our heavy metal hearts, with something distorted or unexplainable happens? Anyway, it wasn't bad.

 

Earlier, Hive Mind + Damion Romero played a low, 20-minute buzz, their faces barely visible between long locks of black hair and two large devices that looked, afar, like a 1950s operators' switchboard. On occasion, the guy with the longer hair and a beard rocked his head backward and took long, well-deserved sips from a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon that set atop the device. That was good. Something to look at.

 

Outside, in a common area in the back, a seated woman -- a local in the gritty waterfront neighborhood with limited public transport --- asked 20-somethings (mostly) to get off the exit ramp ('stay off the ramp, honey'), and flirters and 'noise nerds' (to quote Kim Gordon) ate sausages, drank beer and flirted between sets by the basement CD/tape/record displays below. The ID checker up front noted Tom C-- and I were both part of the '68 club' (born in 1968), as he was. After the show, they ushered people to the van to get to the 'train.'

--> www.nofunfest.com



Reporting from Red Hook, our civic duty fulfilled.

Whoa, what a shitty review.At least we know what all the people in the bands looked like!