by Matt Neff Photos by Luke Holwerda
Seismic Fortitude Tent/City Yellow Swans Mouthus The Trunk Space October 6, 2007
Better Than: The Best
This show not only demonstrated everything that’s wrong with today’s music “underground,” it also hurt my ears and made me question my will to live. Although I'd very much like to dive into a long impressionistic description of the holy beauties these donks churned up, the truth of the matter is they played straight noise. Not even interesting noise, like, perhaps, noise balanced with some kind of rhythmic, melodic, or harmonic counterpoint: nope, just plain, straight-up, old fashioned scuzzy wuzzy noise. What was I thinking, going to an experimental noise show? That I’d hear music? That I’d be able to sense what the fuck was happening past all the feedback? What a chump I was—and am! The friends I brought with me were bored and annoyed (I promised them “psychedelic/industrial”) as they rightly should have been, because this was not music; this was Malevich’s black square without the white canvas context. (A highfalutin cultural reference by a smarmy asshole, me! look it up and be enlightened!) But you deserve a precise journalistic rundown. Please, read on.
Seismic Fortitude:
Noise. Twiddling of dials. Slight variations in texture. Not moving. Not looking at the audience. Scraping a fork on some metal. Noise. (Myspace)
Tent/City:
Noise. More interesting noise than the previous, granted, but noise. Plinkings, plunkings, clingings, clangings, scrapings, effects pedals: building a little fire for fun. A saxophone (1UP 1UP 1UP). Whuh-uh—syncopation? Oh, it’s faded away. Some attempt at shouting/howling near the end. Champagne party poppers (?). Noise. (Myspace)
Yellow Swans:
Noise. Feedback loops. Effects pedals. A guitar? Not one you can hear in the mix. Looks neat though. Thrashing around—no discernable effect on the noise. Screams. Noise. (Myspace)
Mouthus:
Guitar. Drums. Looks promising. Microphone....singing? Wait. More noise. More thrashing around. More hardcore posturing. More inscrutability. More colorlessness. More indecipherability.……whadduya know? MORE NOISE. And I thought I liked noise. (Ecstatic Peace Page)
Personal Bias: NOISE Random Detail: NOISE
Seismic Fortitude
Tent/City
Yellow Swans
Mouthus
Mouthus
