Tag: No Wave

New Threads You Need Now – Night of Joy, Achille Lauro, Lee Ranaldo, Willis Earl Beal – more!
March 27, 2012 Off

New Threads You Need Now – Night of Joy, Achille Lauro, Lee Ranaldo, Willis Earl Beal – more!

By Billy Thieme

Night of Joy, Achille Lauro, Black Postcards (Local); Lee Ranaldo, Willis Earl Beal, Jeffrey Lewis (not local)

Well – This post we’ve got a bucket of sounds, and none too soon (having missed a while – our apologies)…. This one features a slew of locals – two from the same label (Hot Congress) and another totally DIY group that’s almost too new … but has promise. It also features a pile of national acts – a few coming to town soon, but all should be traversing your grey matter between you headphones – if not already, then soon….

Night of Joy – Hardcore Girls are a Hoax

Night of Joy has been around the Denver scene doing everything themselves for a bit – and have always been mighty impressive. Pulling its sound from somewhere amidst the part of New York’s late ‘70s No-Wave scene led by Lydia Lunch’s Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Glenn Branca’s Theoretical Girls and of ‘80s Post-punk like UT and Big Black, and ‘90s Breeders and Bikini Kill, Hardcore Girls are a Hoax (available now on Hot Congress Records’ site, officially released March 21st) is a solid, visceral ride.

Gangcharger and Smoothbore – two Denver bands release new tunes, noise in a new direction
October 17, 2010 Off

Gangcharger and Smoothbore – two Denver bands release new tunes, noise in a new direction

By Billy Thieme

There aren’t too many bands that can withstand an entire personnel change and keep going. There are even less that come back stronger for it – but Gangcharger is one that has. Ethan Ward’s love child – with huge emphasis on the love – has not only rebounded after being abandoned by virtually every member of the band over the course of late 2009, he’s driven the rebuilt band beyond anyone’s expectations, maybe beyond his own – and definitely miles beyond the previous lineup’s promise – with their latest release, “Free Exhaust.”

HeyReverb! Live Review: Sonic Youth @the Ogden – 10/04/10 – on a BRAND NEW Reverb site!
October 5, 2010 Off

HeyReverb! Live Review: Sonic Youth @the Ogden – 10/04/10 – on a BRAND NEW Reverb site!

By Billy Thieme

After last Monday night’s show at the Ogden Theater, I’m convinced that Sonic Youth are immortals – beings that refuse to age. What else explains their uncanny ability to remain constantly relevant, prescient – and continuously young – in the face of a culture hell bent on replication of the popular, and often the most vapid? Of course, we could agree that the members of this group of musicians – more a family than a band, really, after nearly 30 years – are intuitive charlatans, well-versed in manipulation of guitar strings, effects, anti-rhythms and atonality, but also steeped in the pop ethos that breeds automatic acceptance – or intrinsic danceability.

But then, you’d also have to explain short lives of other bands that sprung from that same NYC, post-post-punk, “no-wave” noise scene that attempted to espouse that same musical ethos. The truth is, Sonic Youth has proven they’re not only the only surviving band from that movement – but that they’re the most deserving.
They’re the only band that mastered the ability to turn pop sensibility on its ear, wrestle it through dissonant filters, and still know how to present the outcome in an irresistibly accessible way, without giving up any of their D.I.Y., no-wave roots.

Music News: Michael Gira announces plans to reactivate Swans in the Fall
January 21, 2010 Off

Music News: Michael Gira announces plans to reactivate Swans in the Fall

By Billy Thieme

Michael Gira, founder of Young God Records and vocalist/visionary front for Angels of Light, used to live a somewhat louder existence. An existence replete with just as much musical and lyrical beauty as the Angels’ output of over the past decade, but one that was also terrifyingly violent, brutal, hostile and swathed in a noise that had not been heard before, and has (so far) not been heard again since it was silenced with the death of his first band, Swans.

And Gira has announced what was constantly up to now only seen as an impossibility: he’s decided to reactivate the legendary band, and will release a new collection of songs (tentatively) in the fall of 2010. Plans for touring are also reportedly in the works.