No Age

In the past few decades, there's been an overlap in Los Angeles between the somewhat more academic avant-garde scene and punk rock. The Minutemen wove minimalism, jazz, funk, and rebel politics into a punk aesthetic (or was it the other way around?), and in the '70s, très avant collective Los...

By Mark Keresman

March 5, 2009

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In the past few decades, there's been an overlap in Los Angeles between the somewhat more academic avant-garde scene and punk rock. The Minutemen wove minimalism, jazz, funk, and rebel politics into a punk aesthetic (or was it the other way around?), and in the '70s, très avant collective Los Angeles Free Music Society (better known as LAFMS) included Dream Syndicate drummer Dennis Duck. The approach of No Age, the duo of Randy Randall and Dean Spunt, makes early recordings of The Fall sound like The Beatles in comparison. No Age is a true offspring of the California sound: Beneath bursts of dissonance, fuzzed-out and thrashed guitar, and waves of white noise, idyllic wafts of The Beach Boys and power-pop can be discerned, drifting into and out of focus. Imagine a parallel dimension/reality where its Elvis was John Cage, Yoko Ono is its Cher, and Hüsker Dü was Air Supply. No Age are that planet's punk rock. Make them feel at home in our world.

Mark Keresman

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