Noise rock is a style of rock music that became prominent in the 1980s.
Noise rock makes use of the traditional instrumentation and iconography of rock, but incorporates
atonality and especially dissonance, and also frequently discards usual songwriting conventions.
Noise rock developed from early avant-garde music, sound art, and rock songs that featured
extremely dissonant sounds and electronic feedback.
The New York no wave scene, featuring such artists as Mars and Teenage Jesus and the
Jerks in the late 1970s was an essential development in noise rock.
A number of noise rock bands emerged in North America in the 1980s.
These included IAO Core, Caroliner, and Grotus, Big Black, Butthole Surfers, The Jesus Lizard
Scratch Acid, The Melvins, Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth, Live Skull, Swans, White Zombie, The
Thing, and Helmet, Pussy Galore and Royal Trux, among many others.
A similar scene also began to develop in Osaka, Japan, spearheaded by Hanatarash and the Boredoms,
The British shoegazing groups developed an entirely distinct form of noise rock, largely
derived from the so-called noise pop related genre.
Some math rock groups like Don Caballero are also considered noise rock.
The '80s noise rock bands were significant influences on Nirvana and Hole, The powerviolence
scene was close to noise rock, with Man Is the Bastard eventually dissolving into unstructured
noise music.
Beginning in the mid-90s, Providence became the center of a new crop of noise-rock bands,
largely a product of the RISD scene.
After 2000, noise rock groups formed all over the world.
The post 2000 noise rock often features tribal polyrhythmic drum patterns.
Noise rock that came up past 2010 are Roomrunner, Dope Body, Nü Sensae, Sunn O))), METZ, Disappears,
The Futurians, Thee Oh Sees, Cloud Nothings, Thurston Moore's Chelsea Light Moving, Dumb
Numbers, Ultrabunny, Bass Drum of Death, Black Light Brigade as well as new Japanese acts
such as Nisennenmondai.
Style Noise rock is a genre of music descended from
early avant-garde music and sound art.
Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore has said that Visual and conceptual elements
Many noise rock groups have a confrontational performance style which mirrors the aggression
of their music.
This reaches back to The Who and Jimi Hendrix, who were famous for destroying their instruments
on stage.
Other artists such as Iggy Pop, of the Stooges, and Darby Crash, of The Germs, lacerated their
own bodies during performances 1980s noise rock musicians tended to adopt
a Spartan, utilitarian mode of dress following the hardcore punk ethos and in partial reaction
against the more ostentatious elements of punk fashion.
Steve Albini articulated an ethical stance that emphasized restraint, irony, and self-sufficiency.
The Butthole Surfers were an exception in their desire to dress as bizarrely as possible.
Several bands also made public references to drug use, particularly LSD and heroin.
Many contemporary noise rock musicians, such as The Locust, Comparative Anatomy, and Lightning
Bolt, have a very theatrical mode of presentation and wear costumes.
Some bands incorporate visual displays, such as film or video art.
History Precursors
The origins of noise rock are rooted in rock songs that featured extremely dissonant sounds
and electronic feedback.
Examples of commercially successful figures that pioneered these elements include the
Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and Neil Young.
Underground rock musicians such as the Stooges, the Velvet Underground, and the MC5 incorporated
elements of free jazz and minimalism, notably The Velvet Underground's self-titled debut
and their second album, White Light/White Heat, which incorporated free musicianship
and drone sounds.
More obscure musicians, such as the Monks, San Francisco's Fifty Foot Hose, and Japan's
Les Rallizes Dénudés, also incorporated the effects of dissonance.
German Krautrock bands were also significant influences on noise rock, most notably Can
and Faust.
1970s The New York no wave scene, featuring such
artists as Mars and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, which began to coalesce in 1978, was
also an essential development in noise rock.
While no wave included a variety of post-punk, experimental tendencies, the most abrasive
groups would find their innovations streamlined into noise rock tradition.
Chrome, from San Francisco, produced their own style of psychedelic punk, which shared
some common ground with the no wave groups.
Australian noise rock also developed in the late 1970s.
The Scientists anticipated grunge.
1980s A number of noise rock bands emerged from
many different scenes in North America in the 1980s.
These included Caroliner, and Grotus, Big Black, Butthole Surfers, The Jesus Lizard
Scratch Acid, The Melvins, Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth, Live Skull, Swans, White Zombie, The
Thing, and Helmet, Pussy Galore and Royal Trux, among many others.
These bands were initially referred to as "pigfuck" by Robert Christgau, in a reference
to Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris, though the increasingly melodic tendencies of many
of these groups quickly rendered the tag misleading.
The Minneapolis label Amphetamine Reptile released a great deal of music in this tradition.
Industrial groups developed in parallel to, and sometimes in collaboration with, the noise
rock groups.
Many of these bands went on to temper the initial ferocity and amelodicism of their
approach.
IAO Core covered The Stranglers, Sonic Youth spoke highly of The Beatles, Pussy Galore
covered The Rolling Stones, Black Flag drew inspiration from Black Sabbath, and the Butthole
Surfers worked with John Paul Jones and emulated Jimi Hendrix.
Beginning in 1986, the British group Napalm Death created "grindcore" by melding the noise
rock of Swans with hardcore punk and death metal.
While later grindcore groups tended to move in the direction of death metal, American
bands such as Anal Cunt continued in an extremely dissonant, freeform vein.
A similar scene also began to develop in Osaka, Japan, spearheaded by Hanatarash and the Boredoms,
who composed extremely short, fast "songs", marked by blasts of rhythm, screaming, and
overloaded guitars.
Boredoms singer Yamantaka Eye also worked with the New York City jazzcore group Naked
City.
The Boredoms eventually evolved towards a far more meditative sound, taking inspiration
from Krautrock.
Gore Beyond Necropsy, Ground Zero, Zeni Geva, Guitar Wolf, and Melt-Banana extended the
Japanese noise rock style.
These bands also reflected the impact of the Japanoise scene pioneered by Merzbow.
The British shoegazing groups developed an entirely distinct form of noise rock, largely
derived from the so-called noise pop related genre.
Taking equal inspiration from the dream pop groups, in addition to aggressive rock like
The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Telescopes and Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine produced
a warm, feminine, but also dissonant, formless and psychedelic genre that belongs in the
noise rock tradition.
Some math rock groups like Don Caballero are also considered noise rock.
Post-hardcore, screamo, and some riot grrl groups also take influence from noise rock.
1990s The '80s noise rock bands were significant
influences on Nirvana and Hole, and as a result had some mainstream currency during the period
when grunge was played on the radio.
Nirvana's album In Utero is particularly evident in its debts to '80s noise rock, and was produced
by Big Black frontman and noise rock icon Steve Albini.
Industrial metal groups, such as Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, and White Zombie, were also
indebted to noise rock.
In 1992 Melt-Banana started in Japan, afterwards being picked up by John Zorn and Steve Albini
and became a known act in Europe and the U.S. at the end of the nineties and a famous example
of ultra fast noise rock.
In France, Diabologum experimented a mixture of dadaist collages and noisy rock.
English power electronics band Ramleh also started to experiment with rock music structures
in early 1990s, laying foundation for "improvisational noise rock."
The powerviolence scene was close to noise rock, with Man Is the Bastard eventually dissolving
into unstructured noise music.
The Locust also picked up from Man Is The Bastard and created a synth-driven powerviolence
sound.
They have gone to a more noise drone on their latest album New Erections.
Contemporaneous groups like Neurosis and Today Is the Day began to further blend noise rock
with extreme metal.
Much of the resulting innovations have been incorporated into the more experimental practitioners
of metalcore, such as Converge, Botch, and Dillinger Escape Plan.
Beginning in the mid-90s, Providence became the center of a new crop of noise-rock bands,
largely a product of the RISD scene.
These groups tended to owe less to traditional rock song structures, and were more minimal
and drone-like.
These included Lightning Bolt, Arab on Radar, Six Finger Satellite, and Pink and Brown.
Black Dice were originally part of this scene, but moved to Brooklyn, where they aligned
themselves with groups like Gang Gang Dance.
As journalist Marc Masters puts it, these groups "trafficked in a kind of art school
version of 90's scum rock, mixing in overloaded effects, damaged electronics, and gimmicks
like masks and in-mouth mics."
These groups were also related, in part, to the San Diego scene that emerged from screamo,
most famously The Locust, and to Wolf Eyes, from Ann Arbor.
Noise rock also spread into the American South with bands such as the Ed Kemper Trio.
Heavily influenced by the sound of SST and Touch and Go, EK3 was the focus of the 2004
documentary People Will Eat Anything.
Mike Patton is also an advocate of the noise rock scene, maintaining the label Ipecac.
2000s After 2000, noise rock groups formed all over
the world.
These included mclusky, Scarling, Black Dice, An Albatross, Deerhunter, The Death Set, Oneida,
Parts and Labor, Fuck Buttons, Indian Jewelry, Yuck, Health, Wavves, Neptune, Fiasco, Aa,
Girls in Love, Magik Markers, Mohamed UFO, Mindflayer, Part Chimp, Slicing Grandpa, Japanther,
and Hella.
In San Francisco Deerhoof, Boxleitner, Erase Errata, Total Shutdown, Numbers, Crack: We
Are Rock, Burmese, Pink & Brown and many others.
In Santa Cruz The Lowdown.
In L.A. No Age, Skeleteen, Pre, Part Chimp, Male Bonding, and Action Beat from the UK,
The Maharajah Commission from Malaysia, The Intelligence, from Seattle, Japandroids from
Vancouver, and Double Dagger, The New Flesh and Ponytail, from Baltimore are more examples
of modern noise rock outfits.
In 2007, San Francisco's IAO Core announced that after 23 studio albums, they would only
release recordings of the their live performances, many of which are ritually located and time/date
specific, and often several hours long.
Experimental luthier Yuri Landman has experimented with a variety of extended techniques, with
instruments created for the benefit of numerous groups in the scene, including Sonic Youth,
Lightning Bolt, Liars, Jad Fair.
The post 2000 noise rock often features tribal polyrhythmic drum patterns.
Recent bands have carried on older traditions while branching out and furthering their theatrics.
Bands such as Comparative Anatomy, Lightning Bolt, The Locust are known for wearing outlandish
costumes.
2010s More recent noise rock that came up past 2010
are Roomrunner, Dope Body, Fight Amp, Whores., Bleeding Knees Club, White Spot, Kowloon Walled
City, Nü Sensae, Sunn O))), METZ, Disappears, The Futurians, Thee Oh Sees, Cloud Nothings,
Riggots, Thurston Moore's Chelsea Light Moving, The Noise, GRIZZLOR, Dumb Numbers, Ultrabunny,
Bass Drum of Death, Black Light Brigade as well as new Japanese acts such as Nisennenmondai,
Akai Kouen, and ZZZ's.
Related genres Drone metal
Mathcore Sludge metal
Shoegazing Labels
The following is a list of record labels that specialize in noise rock.
References
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