The NO AGE ride
Thread started by
tern at 04.18.08 - 6:15 pm
Sunday. April, 20 2008. Meetup: Heliotrope and Melrose. Time: 1 pm. Ride 1:30 pm. Show starts at 2 pm.
Let's ride to downtown to see NO AGE play before there tour starts. The Show is Free, and it's at the L.A. Central Library. We can ride down to see the show. Oh, Mika Miko is also playing. Then, after the show we'll ride back up to Pure Luck to have dinner and drinks.
Here is some info from their new label...the new album is coming out in early May...and hey, these guys are bike peeps! And, they have been fixtures at The Smell...playing, helping out, organizing--for a long time...
There's more info on the ride post....see you at the bicycle district on Sunday!!
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Okay...I'm trying to bump this, so I'll put the info about the band here.
Quote:
No Age: the name alone suggests multiple meanings and possible interpretations—timeless, ageless, anonymous, free from restriction, something positive from something negative… a profound strength in its simplicity. Likewise, the Los Angeles duo consisting of drummer/vocalist Dean Spunt and guitarist Randy Randall is many things at once even as it embraces its minimalism.
Spiritual heirs to both Thurston Moore’s wide-eyed experimentalism and the all-encompassing, stark DIY art-is-life aesthetic of the Crass collective, No Age is the kind of band that inspires its audience without affectation, without cynicism. Its live shows are an exploration of possibilities: a guitar laid over a resonating drum head, effect loops woven together like beautiful harmonies, pop songs as performance art, a duo that sounds like the gale force of rock history delivered through a wind tunnel.
The pair’s powerful force, both as a band and individuals has reached such heights to inspire such mainstream press as The New Yorker and The Los Angeles Times to feature No Age’s ties to the underground scene surrounding the Los Angeles all-ages club The Smell (where for the past several years they have each volunteered in various capacities, including booking shows and running the soundboard). Elsewhere, No Age’s members have impacted multiple mediums in a way that tastefully denies rampant cynicism. The duo’s music effortlessly blends piercing noise blasts with hummable melodies, textural loops and crashing drums taking on their own lulling beauty.
“The music is an invitation and rallying call for individuals to get involved in a community which celebrates art and experimentation,” Randy explains. “It’s DIY on a different scale, an attempt to reacquaint people with the notion that art is a crucial part of everyday life. No Age is more than a band to us,” he continues. “It is an umbrella.” And, under this umbrella, Dean and Randy have curated art shows, designed shirts, hats, bandanas, etc., made videos and ‘zines. No Age prefers to perform in unique venues: the LA River Basin, a public library, book stores, an Ethiopian restaurant, all to foster new ways to experience live music outside of traditional bar/club settings.
Fittingly, No Age’s Sub Pop debut, Nouns, is equally succinctly all-encompassing, from the faux-simplicity of the title to the beautiful distortion of its sound to the packaging that includes a 68-page full-color book packed with photos and art pieces. In keeping with the title, the visual component depicts many people, places and things, all of which have particular relevance to the music itself. No Age issued a slew of singles on a variety of indie labels in 2007, resulting in the tellingly cohesive compendium, Weirdo Rippers on Fat Cat Records later that year. That widely heralded release set the stage for Nouns.
No Age decided, as Dean says, in writing the album to, “put down what was on our minds, and create an atmosphere for Randy and I that would be fun to play live AND on our record players.” And, indeed Nouns surpasses that goal. Recorded by Pete Lyman at Infrasonic Sound in LA, Harvey Birrell at Southern Studios in London, and at home by No Age, Nouns opens with a symphony of noise (both Dean and Randy use samples alongside their main instruments) and creeps and/or smashes through a sonic headlock befitting Daydream Nation-era Sonic Youth, Kiwi pop, power pop, My Bloody Valentine, and experimental noise. “No Age is a band,” says Dean. “Bands should be fun and exciting and they should push all the buttons at the same time. They should make you feel like you are going to explode and make you utterly confused and inspired at the same time. At least they should.” Happily, as a band (and even as people), No Age does exactly that.
tern04.18.08 - 6:51 pm
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I've known Randy (from NO AGE) since he was 12. I was a friend of his older brother, at first. I know him for a few years, but he died playing on open mic night at the Haven, in Pomona (He lived longer than he was supposed to, his family tells me. But, after that, Randy came to the shows I played...and he went to the shows of all of our friends...if he could get in at his age. Then, he graduated, went to college...I was his friend, and / or keeping up with him throughout. He's been playing music in LA with a bunch of great bands since he moved out of his Parent's house and went to college. So, now he's a linguist (USC), and he's been a teacher for disabled kids in LAUSD. But, he's been doing music all the time...and helping everyone he can to do the same.
Before my first ride down to San Diego, he called me and asked if I would come down to San Onofre to go to his Dad's funeral / sea burial....I had already been training to go down to SD and I was gonna ride through there on the same day!!! What Luck??!! I rode down, and took a break...and I hung out with him and Dean...and family..and old friends. They fed me before I left. And, he made that ride the best I have ever had in my life, for inviting me.
So, they have done the hard work. They tour all the time. They play at parks, at houses, at the LA river.... I just want to see them off with some of my peeps.
tern04.18.08 - 7:14 pm
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I know you're gonna be out in the boonies on a ride this weekend, and thanks. Come out if you can make it!!
tern04.18.08 - 7:26 pm
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Pure Luck is closed on Sundays.
Really wish I could go. Quality time with the lil' one comes first though.
sleepy04.18.08 - 7:32 pm
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Yep...you're right, now that I think about it.
We'll go to the Joy Cafe in little Tokyo, or we'll decide on a place to go, when the time comes....thanks hommie!
tern04.18.08 - 7:37 pm
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how about Highland Grounds on Highland?
Joe Borfo04.18.08 - 7:56 pm
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Okay, you guys have some history, but that doesn't really have anything to do with this show.
They fucking rock!
That has something to do with this show!
;]
tern04.18.08 - 8:36 pm
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Damn.
If I didn't have work, I'd totally be there.
Yeah, wow. Who works on sundays?
kyber04.18.08 - 8:45 pm
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thats is some radness tern, thanks for posting!
trickmilla04.19.08 - 1:54 pm
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Highland Grounds got a liquor license a few years ago then changed up to be called "the dive", an upscale burger joint. same owner but as far as i could tell they are closed down.
barleye04.19.08 - 2:10 pm
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drew! I'll see you at scoops! i've wanted to see no age for a while but never managed to make it down to the smell. after that, we can go to the i love la festival/ bass ride event.
meandmybluebike04.19.08 - 4:15 pm
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Okay...see you there. If anyone else wants to go, I'll be at scoops at one.
tern04.20.08 - 8:31 am
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man I LOVE No Age and Mika Miko!!!
WISH I COULD COME!!!!
(alas - I have locked plans for today...)
redridinghood04.20.08 - 12:48 pm
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