NOISEXTRA - A podcast about noise

[W.K.]

I would ALWAYS recommend grabbing couple different style/era tape decks than investing 10 times more on "synth" or "efx" or "mixer". Way more crucial element in sounding good, of course sort of "solution for dummies" choice too as it is so easy.

No.

[Zeno Marx]

Talking anti-records...maybe worthy of a thread?

I believe it was Rubbish from the Troniks board that did some great anti-records.  Correct Troniks user?  If so, I remember this blue, thick paint one that stuck to memory.  Wish I had saved that image.  Anyone know what that was called?

[holy ghost]

I don’t always check out the regular ones but the recent Trashware with Jay from Curcuit Wound was fucking great.

“Tell me about your signal chain” is like a mild form of pornography for me....

[Duncan]

I don’t always check out the regular ones but

Likewise.  I'm just not a fan of this podcast in its regular format.  Sorry.  But when there are interesting guests in it's well worth it.  Chris Sienko's appearances have been great.  He has such a brilliant way of discussing noise and should be doing his own podcast really.  I've also appreciated episodes where artists get interviewed about their own work.  Seymour Glass, S&Q, Andy Bolus...more of that would be great.

[aububs]

chris sienko should definitely have his own podcast

[Zeno Marx]

RRR Taste Test episode...

One of those taboo subjects, but as MC touched on file sharing vs. tape dubbing.  Old argument.  Tape dubbing and mix tapes are one of the cornerstones of underground music.  Rehearsals, live, demos.  Borrowing records that you couldn't afford or find and making copies.  And basically how he differentiated the two was, as I understood it, the element of intimacy.  I find that interesting.  Having lived through both periods, I have to reach for a difference.  It's never been clearly different, though I definitely understand the argument.  Anyone else care to publicly share their opinion?  Not interested in an argument or judgment.

[Duncan]

RRR Taste Test episode...

One of those taboo subjects, but as MC touched on file sharing vs. tape dubbing.  Old argument.  Tape dubbing and mix tapes are one of the cornerstones of underground music.  Rehearsals, live, demos.  Borrowing records that you couldn't afford or find and making copies.  And basically how he differentiated the two was, as I understood it, the element of intimacy.  I find that interesting.  Having lived through both periods, I have to reach for a difference.  It's never been clearly different, though I definitely understand the argument.  Anyone else care to publicly share their opinion?  Not interested in an argument or judgment.

It's ultimately a totally different thing to tape dubbing/trading, but I think that file sharing has/had a certain character and feel to it that is often overlooked as its own significant cultural moment.  Despite the 'anything at anytime' availability of the internet we aren't just talking about users hoovering up everything they can find or searching out a specific album which will just be there instantly.  There was still lots of scope for discovery and exchange within it.  I certainly recall endless evenings using shitty P2P downloading programs and the same kind of experience as mentioned in the Taste Test episode of seeing all these weird band and artist names with no knowledge of what it all sounded like or where it came from other than it being bound up in some very general search term like 'weird', 'extreme', 'noise' etc etc.  The results would vary wildly, always depending on who was awake and sharing at a given time, you'd end up seeing particular items you'd never come across before and never seeing them again for this reason.  There was way less recourse to just go hunting on google for a web presence or info of all this stuff too back then and half the time you'd likely be downloading something straight off an artist themselves.  To this day I have tracks by some artists and still don't know who and what it really is.  Of course through some programs you could speak with them directly and discuss music.  I wouldn't use the word community here, at least not from my experience, but it was communicative for sure.  As I said, a different thing from tape trading and whatever it must have been like to make your major discoveries that way, and I'm only speaking from memory: it will have been different for many other people with better computers, internet connections and general smarts on how the shit worked, but my experience was one filled with mystery, ambiguity and intrigue and a massive part of formulating a taste for weird and noisy music.

This all refers to an older time for the internet and file sharing too...it was before music blogs filled with rips and viable online streaming sites, or databases or anything like that.  From a wider perspective I think people in my generation have a fairly overlooked experience of discovering music in the way these things get written about - it's either the days of all tape, vinyl and sometimes CD or the current world where everything is digital and online.  I never see anything said of the group in the middle who were too young for the tape trading and mail communication of the underground but were by no means raised in an online world, having gotten home internet access when they were already in their mid to late teens at a time when the online tools we have now were still very flawed or in some cases yet to be developed.  They discovered music through largely the same channels as everyone before them but the landscape was changing in ways people didn't fully appreciate and that crucial period where people really start to go nuts for music at a certain age took place in this complete middle point of what was then and what is now.  Even though people from this period are old enough to look back and memorialise it as a distinct time of its own, I doubt it can happen since so much developed so quickly and it was gone within a matter of a few years.  Maybe it's all for the best and wasn't anything that special overall, but it certainly existed and is largely not referenced.

[W.K.]

Pretty sure I got excited finding obscure bands online, not available in the stores, not knowing it was possible to order music at online shops. Waiting for an hour to download a single track file of what seems to be extreme vile death metal, getting riled up to start playing this MP3 that could also not have any music on it if was corrupted, or somebody gave wrong track names, getting frowned upon by parents for the costly internet usage (back in those days internet was still billed per minute + tick costs). Getting back to the CD store in the city asking for weird band names I barely could pronounce, spending all the money I could get by doing young ones jobs.

I think it was pretty magical.

Nowadays it's easier then ever to get an obscure tape or CD knowing how and where to order online, not even speaking of streaming or downloading through a high speed internet connection, but the CD shop in town is gone, the thrill of seeking out the most obscure named MP3 files is no more, the anticipation of getting excited about a band that could also be totally worthless, gone gone gone, and so (partly) is the magic of discovering. It's different now. But still enjoying it.

I'm getting old.

[Bloated Slutbag]

One of those taboo subjects, but as MC touched on file sharing vs. tape dubbing.  Old argument. 

In moments like these I go back to the roots. I mean, the roots for me. As a kid, at least in my town, the shit was available on the airwaves, on several radio stations. You'd maybe have to record hours upon hours of college radio or late night public broadcasting or whatever. But you would get shitloads of replayable awesomeness. To this day I have boxes upon boxes of replayable awesomeness.

But the point is. All your friends would STILL say- where the fuck do you get this shit? They wouldn't have a clue. Your parents wouldn't have a clue. No one would have a clue. It's on, every fucking night, or maybe every other fucking night, of at the least once a fucking night a week, but no one has a fucking clue because no one gives a flying fuck. Not a one could be arsed to seek the shit out like you were. To give the fuck, that may, under only the most ideal circumstances, fly.

And there's the dif. The percentage of persons who give a flying fuck. And then take yourself at that moment. Do you remember having spared a second thought for the persons whose giving of the flying fuck does not correspond to your own? Of course not. Because you would not have given a flying fuck for their not giving a flying fuck...

Uhh...

Sorry, getting carried away here. But suffice it to say, regardless of the source, an emphasis as far as curiosity on degree.

That degree is the difference. All caps on the THE.

(damn, this is some good beer)