Noise; and Wolf Eyes - Burned Mind

There came a time in my life, this past January, where I had to decide how far I was going to take it. I had spent some years of cutting my ears on Sex Pistols and early Clash, and then later Gun Club, Glen Branca, Minor Threat, Nirvana's Bleach, Pixies, Modest Mouse, Liars, Hella, Black Pus and on and on. Which is to say, I like violent music. I like really violent music. As far as passion could push it. This was, and is, acceptable in the community. There were many people I know who only listened to violent music: punk and metal. But... that wasn't good enough for me. The punk being consumed around me was generally angry, but also fun. People upset at the world who's proposed solution was booze, drugs, sex, and graffiti. Metal as well was almost too fun, indulging in high concepts and overly macho fantasies. It seemed more the anger of an oppressor then the anger of the resistance. And wile these genres have worth in their own way, and I've come to greatly enjoy both of them, they never quite gave me what I was looking for.

The thing is, I didn't want solutions, I just wanted the anger. The hippies and the early punks both knew there was something wrong with the world. The difference is that the hippies thought that love could solve it. The punks didn't pretend to know what was going to work, they just knew the situation at hand did not work and they wanted to destroy it. And though both very quickly dissolved into self indulgence until they forgot about the outside world altogether, both the love and the anger, its that punk nihilism that I felt the need for.

And so I hitched my wagon on to the least melodic forms of punk, and onto noise rock and no wave and post punk and jagged experimental. I started listening to music that any decent person would switch off in an instant, and then burn the disk. And I kept pushing it, it never was enough. CJ once made a comment that I am in love with feedback. I guess you could say that's true, anything to push the noise further.

Wolf Eyes is the farthest I've gone so far. A band that sits just across the boundary between noise rock and noise music. This is screeching violent thrashing music. Its damaging, and listening to it is borderline self abuse. None the less, it is brilliant and every listen reviles more depth, but its that primal passion and anger that really drives the album. And though I'm not always in the mood for it there have come times when I need this album.

Its a ubiquitous cliche for adults to listen to resent music and say "its just noise", a phrase dating back to the Beatles, to Elvis, to Charlie Parker, probably further. But... we are young and we are angry. We are furious. And to express that, to even really feel that, we need just noise. Just loud music with no music behind it. Just volume. And we need to keep pushing it.

And this is the point I'm willing to go to right now. Perhaps I will soon become more desensitized and have to look into Merzbow and No Fun Fest and beyond for my fix, but at the moment this is what speaks to me. I feel as though its the sound and the feelings that everyone has, but of what I've herd only Wolf Eyes has had the bravery to express it.

I don't think my ears will ever forgive me, though.

Wolf Eyes - Burned Mind

2004; Sub Pop; Ann Arbor, Michigan

http://www.wolfeyes.net/

1. Dead in a Boat
2. Stabbed in the Face
3. Reaper’s Gong
4. Village Oblivia
5. Urine Burn
6. Rattlesnake Shake
7. Burned Mind
8. Ancient Delay
9. Black Vomit

sometimes we freak and laugh all day