Band To Watch: No Age
No Age floored us at Fader’s outdoor SXSW party -- it was hot, the sort of day you willingly drank the free, too sweet SoCo Jungle Juice, but the excellent art-pop duo of Dean Spunt and Randy Randall frolicked through a hard-hitting set of smashing noisy power-pop as if passing out wasn’t a worry. On some level you could try to compare No Age to Lightning Bolt: There's the bottomless energy coming from two guys (including a drumming vocalist very unlike Phil Collins), both connected to their area art scenes (the pair curate at L.A.’s the Smell and collaborate on videos and visual and performance art) with one member running his own label (in this case, drummer Spunt’s PPM).
What marks No Age's approach, though, is that the ex-members of the Wives (right, ex-Wives) also know their way around the achy, slow-mo ambient patch: "I Wanna Sleep," drifting loose-hinged, builds into phased Deerhunter psychedelia (incidentally, during SXSW, dressed-up Deerhunter dude Bradford Cox called these guys his favorite newbies); "Neck Escaper" flutters for a while until growing into rollicking cymbal-smash drums, a catchy guitar angle, and bouncy surf vocals; “Sunspots” approximates its name if the sun were constructed of softly pulsating rays of feedback. The guys rule at spacey fragments, nighttime lo-fi fuzziness, but it’s the snotty hooks in chattering anthems like "Boy Void" and “Everybody’s Down” that make us dance Deacon-style around Stereogum HQ: Experimental shoegazing skate punk with a sometimes Ramones/Dickies pronunciation (and production) key. If you want to hear the band the way nature intended, locate any of their five limited-edition vinyl EPs (each released on a different label). If that doesn’t work for turntable-free folks, wait until August’s Weirdo Rippers, which coming out on Fat Cat, culls tracks from those previous slabs.
For now, head to MySpace to sample the sizzling, disaffected fight song "Everybody's Down" (wait until those dust-kicked drums escalate like a spastic Moon for final lift-off!) and the house-of-mirrors love-rock sparkles of "My Life's Alright Without You." And be thankful you don’t need to sip that Southern Comfort beverage to make the discovery.
Posted at 12:37 PM in Band To Watch
Tags: No Age
Please quit plugging good music. Your G'n'R, Lohan, Twilight Sad coverage is much more believable.
Posted by: Anon at May 17, 2007 2:44 PM | ReplyScore = 0
The above mentioned EP's are:
6 song 12" on Upset the Rhythm ("Get Hurt")
2 song 7" on Post Present Medium
3 song 7" on Youth Attack
4 song 12" on Deleted Art
4 song 12" on Teenage Teardrops
Does anyone know where to get Deleted Art stuff in the US?
Posted by: Paul at May 17, 2007 3:25 PM | ReplyScore = 0
aw man. pitchfork beat you to this (with the same picture, no less!) by a half hour.
Posted by: nick at May 17, 2007 3:30 PM | ReplyScore = 0
actually nick, their posts are time stamped Central time because they're in Chicago (CDT), so really they were a half hour LATER. another reason for the pitchfork offices to follow piz to the east coast!
Posted by: robert klein at May 17, 2007 4:01 PM | ReplyScore = 0
as for deleted art stuff in the u.s. - their website is a good place to start. other than that, various indie record stores. i've seen deleted stuff at amoeba in l.a.
http://www.deletedart.org/
Posted by: the kerri nations at May 17, 2007 4:46 PM | ReplyScore = 0
I saw them open for Art Brut last month- I wasn't impressed. I wished my ear plugs could've blocked that shit out.
Posted by: Renee at May 17, 2007 7:51 PM | ReplyScore = 0
more like "by three months"
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/41349-no-age-neck-escaper-mp3
just sayin'
Posted by: oh word at May 17, 2007 11:20 PM | ReplyScore = 0
I like their songs and that picture makes me really really want to be friends with them.
they don't even have a wikipedia!
Posted by: lentbox at May 18, 2007 2:44 PM | ReplyScore = 0
hmm, checked 'em out. not feelin' No Age.
Posted by: GOOT at May 28, 2007 1:07 AM | ReplyScore = 0
they are the raddest band ever! they are so fucking good live i just saw them at the fuck yeah fest in LA and they made a room of 1000 people so stoked! it was amazing. FUCK HATERS,
Posted by: sooory at August 31, 2007 7:20 PM | ReplyScore = 0