Rockness Recommends
Black Dice, Sightings and Excepter will hurt.
January 3, 2007
You would think a show like this would be in a parking lot somewhere in
Providence or in a decrepit loft in Bushwick instead of at the Bowery Ballroom.
This is not your traditional indie rock by any means. Maybe indie onslaught is a
better genre for Black Dice, Sightings and
Excepter. These three bands rock the New
York Noise (not to be confused with that excellent television program) that you
will either love or hate. There's no way they'll inspire of feeling of
neutrality. They are loud and scary and bracing.
Headlining is Brooklyn's electronic hardcore noisemakers, Black Dice. Boy, do they ever provoke strong gut reactions. They're either the groundbreakers of a new sonic revolution or makers of pretentious noise that takes a long time to go absolutely nowhere. However you feel about them, at least they get people talking.
Following the lead of such noise-rock luminaries as Melt Banana and Merzbow, Black Dice explore new ways of producing distortion, repetition and chaos within the song structure. Granted, this structure is very loose, but if you squint hard enough you can see a method to their madness. This band isn't for everyone. If you don't get off on scraping and grating noise, headache-inducing feedback, and other unexplored sounds in mostly uncharted territory, then Black Dice probably isn't for you. And I'm sure that's cool with them. But if you are into them, you'll know to remember your earplugs.
Also playing is the trio called Sightings. Their releases on Load Records (surprise surprise) sound as if they want to deliberately hurt you. Their "songs" are full of distorted and deafening blasts that tap into something that sounds a whole lot like despair. They remind me of a much more angry Liars. It's a good thing Bowery doesn't have any windows. Not for the faint of heart.
NYC's Excepter play electro-psych filled with scattered beats, programmed pulses, and squiggly synths. Fueled by minimalistic male & female vocals/cries/wails, the band will lull you into a hypnotic trance with their experimental acid-y noises and repetitive glitchy clicks. This is music that is as challenging as it is beautiful. Like all the bands on this bill, there's some work involved in listening to these drones, but the payoff is unexpected twists, turns and noise improvisations that work towards a cathartic, and entirely unpredictable, experience in sound.
Man, my head hurts just thinking about this show.
Black Dice, Sightings and Excepter play Bowery Ballroom, on Saturday, January 6th
Headlining is Brooklyn's electronic hardcore noisemakers, Black Dice. Boy, do they ever provoke strong gut reactions. They're either the groundbreakers of a new sonic revolution or makers of pretentious noise that takes a long time to go absolutely nowhere. However you feel about them, at least they get people talking.
Following the lead of such noise-rock luminaries as Melt Banana and Merzbow, Black Dice explore new ways of producing distortion, repetition and chaos within the song structure. Granted, this structure is very loose, but if you squint hard enough you can see a method to their madness. This band isn't for everyone. If you don't get off on scraping and grating noise, headache-inducing feedback, and other unexplored sounds in mostly uncharted territory, then Black Dice probably isn't for you. And I'm sure that's cool with them. But if you are into them, you'll know to remember your earplugs.
Also playing is the trio called Sightings. Their releases on Load Records (surprise surprise) sound as if they want to deliberately hurt you. Their "songs" are full of distorted and deafening blasts that tap into something that sounds a whole lot like despair. They remind me of a much more angry Liars. It's a good thing Bowery doesn't have any windows. Not for the faint of heart.
NYC's Excepter play electro-psych filled with scattered beats, programmed pulses, and squiggly synths. Fueled by minimalistic male & female vocals/cries/wails, the band will lull you into a hypnotic trance with their experimental acid-y noises and repetitive glitchy clicks. This is music that is as challenging as it is beautiful. Like all the bands on this bill, there's some work involved in listening to these drones, but the payoff is unexpected twists, turns and noise improvisations that work towards a cathartic, and entirely unpredictable, experience in sound.
Man, my head hurts just thinking about this show.
Black Dice, Sightings and Excepter play Bowery Ballroom, on Saturday, January 6th
