The News Review:
- The Art-Punk Duo No Age Embraces Chaos at the Bowery Ballroom – New…
- Love music hate corporate sponsorship
- Room With a View reunites for one night at Churchill’s in…
The Art-Punk Duo No Age Embraces Chaos at the Bowery Ballroom – New…
New York Times – May 8, 2008
Spunt who is also the band’s vocalist and the guitarist Randy Randall. Known for performing jagged exceedingly brief songs at unlikely locales — a library a vegan grocery store the concrete banks of the Los Angeles River — they thrill by purposeful happenstance. Though they are a duo thanks to pedals and samplers they make a disproportionately dense racket and the music toggles between noise punk and shoegaze pop often in the same song. Frequently though once the band finds its rhythm a song is over. On Tuesday No Age played a taut set — 45 minutes including an encore — that covered most of the tracks from “Nouns” (Sub Pop) its debut studio album. “Nouns” is crisper than last year’s “Weirdo Rippers” (Fat Cat) which was culled from some previous EPs. But this is a band that excels at controlled sloppiness.
Love music hate corporate sponsorship
New Statesman – May 8, 2008
I looked around and it seemed that all the guard’s colleagues were engaged in similar pursuits: rifling through pockets and throwing away any drinks that people were trying to bring into the fenced-off arena. That episode appropriately set the scene for Love Music Hate Racism. A free music festival organised by anti-racist campaigners and trade unions to mark the 30th anniversary of the original Rock Against Racism concert – and to encourage people to vote against the British National Party in the 1 May local elections – it promised a diverse bill of artists ranging from old punks through to young rappers and DJs. This should have been a triumph. Instead it was a washout and not because of the rain that drizzled throughout most of this Sunday afternoon. From the moment you entered Victoria Park’s fenced-off arena it became clear that there was as little festival spirit here as you’d find at the most commercial of Britain’s summer music events. Aside from a few concessions to political groups near the entrance the site was filled with rows of fast-food vans and a giant sponsored drinks tent… The punk bands that played back in 1978 – The Clash X-Ray Spex Buzzcocks – promoted a culture in which people were encouraged to be active participants rather than passive spectators. “This is a chord this is another this is a third. Now form a band” went the famous punk slogan. In today’s music industry it would be more like: “These are the results of our marketing demographics survey. Now generate some income. Things looked like they were going to pick up around 4pm. Suddenly the arena seemed full of kids making a beeline for the dance tent where a succession of DJs that included Skream Hype Target and Karnage were mixing up dubstep drum’n'bass and UK garage.
Room With a View reunites for one night at Churchill’s in…
mlive.com – May 8, 2008
“We played with only acoustic instruments except bass and we amplified everything. It really added to our sound. It was like punk jam-band music. The band kept as busy as it could both in the studio and on stage and Guigear said the group’s accessibility played a large part in its success. “It was more of a laid-back type feeling” he said. “A lot of bands have the attitude of ‘we’re better than you. ‘ We’re gonna get up and play but then we’re gonna come out and hang out.