NoMeansNo Means
You Will Go
Canadian trio NoMeansNo declared
their intent to pummel a square art-rock
peg into a round punk rock hole in 1981
with a 7-inch, Betrayal, Fear, Anger,
Hatred.
With all the delicacy of Motörhead in a
china shop, they sing songs about alien-
ation, sexual obsession and madness cou-
pled with a warped sense of humor.
Founding brothers Rob (bass, guitar and
vocals) and John Wright (vocals, drums,
keyboards) wear their book smarts on
their guitar straps, flecking their songs
with articulate and intelligent albeit often
weird lyrical moments. A hallmark of their
punk hybrid style is ferociously tight play-
ing and jazzy, complex song structure.
Rob Wright, working in a campus cafe-
teria in Victoria, B.C., in the late ‘70s, was
inspired to start a punk band after wit-
nessing a death-defying performance by
fellow Canadian punk rockers D.O.A. He
grabbed a guitar and the rest is pure leg-
end.
The Wright brothers also masquerade
as hockey-rockers Hanson Brothers. Along
with two pals, they retool Ramones-ish
three-chord punk gems into fist-pumping
songs about hockey and beer.
If you’ve never seen NoMeansNo, you
owe it to yourself to see them at least
once. If you’re a fan, you already know the
drill. NoMeansNo will perform with The
Bastard Saints and On the First Day …
They Were Kittens at 8:30 pm at the
WOW Hall, Thursday, May 5. $10 adv/$12
door. — Vanessa Salvia
Noise Music Fest
Examines Space and
Sound
In the literal sense, noise involves loud
or discordant sound. Combined with the
term music, the new label now takes on
some semblance of shape and composi-
tion, at least in the respect that someone
is consciously making and combining
sound into a thought-
out piece. Enter the
world of noise music
and Eugene’s first
NoiseFest
taking
place on April 29 and
30. Hosted by DIVA
and local noise musi-
cian Don Haugen, the
Eugene NoiseFest will
showcase around 20
noise artists from the
West Coast (with a
heavy emphasis on
the Northwest).
Noise music com-
prises
everything
from waves of deafen-
ing feedback to collections of small blips in
still space. Haugen calls it abstract music,
comparing its relationship to traditional
music the way one would compare an
expressionist painting to a Jackson Pollock
painting. “You can’t use the same music
conventions to describe it,” Haugen
explains.
Noise music lacks standard structure
and is usually characterized by its atonali-
ty and lack of an organized beat. But
because it loosely embraces anything cre-
ated by unusual means, it doesn’t have to
be devoid of melody or rhythm. The noise
musician’s arsenal of non-traditional
“instruments” includes, but is not limited
to: field recordings, machine sounds, inci-
dental analog noise, primitive and home-
made synthesizers and distorted guitar
chords. Noise music blossomed from both
the cutting edge of modern music as well
as its dregs, citing roots in modern classi-
cal, early electronic music as well as post-
hardcore metal.
With a following as amorphous as its
sonic bricolage, general interest in the
genre tends to fade in and out, Haugen
says. However, as an examination of the
basics as well as the complexities of sound
and space, the Eugene Noise Fest will
prove to be a fascinating first for the
region. Catch the Eugene Noise Fest at
Brandi Carlile
DIVA Friday and Saturday. Both shows
start at 7 pm. $5 each night. Log on to
www.humanmonster.com for more info.
— Steven Sawada
Rising Star Shines
Over Eugene
After recently inking a deal with
Columbia records and making it onto
Rolling Stone’s list of top 10 artists to
watch in 2004, Brandi Carlile has a lot to
smile about.
The 23-year-old singer/songwriter says
it was a gig as a backup singer for an Elvis
impersonator that taught her about har-
mony when she was a teen. Apparently
she took those lessons to heart.
Playing with twins Tim and Phil
Hanseroth (lead guitar and bass respec-
tively) Carlile has spare, trimmed down
melodies that burst from within the back-
ground guitars that surround and support
them. Layered harmonies pile on top of
each other as lightly as feathers, creating
an amalgam so beautiful you’ll barely hear
the other parts of the songs.
Her voice, one moment a breathy croon
and the next a velvety rich powerhouse, is
made for the Top 40. More than anything
else, it’s what sets her apart. She knows
exactly when to lay on the gas and when to
back off, when to shout and when to whis-
per.
Take “Eye of the Needle” off her EP
Acoustic for example. It moves along to the
steady beat of the strum, floating through
verse after verse until the chorus. Without
jarring you, the song takes off and carries
you with it. All Carlile needs to become a
household word is that one big hit, that song
that becomes the theme song for some
huge sitcom like Dawson’s Creek.
But don’t let that put you off if you
pride yourself on saying you heard it first.
Her stuff is real and earthy, not ethereal.
Carlile’s managed to blend the grit of dark
folk with sweet, soaring melodies to create
intense, emotion-laden ballads that fall like
a steady rain and break through like a rain-
bow. Brandi Carlile plays Café Paradiso
along with Shawn Mullins, 8 pm Saturday,
April 30. $ 15 .
With Andy Friedman,
Nothing’s Off Limits
If you missed Andy Friedman the last
time he rolled into Sam Bond’s, get thee to
the bar and prepare yourself for one hell of
a night. No one can figure out what to call
Friedman because his show is a combina-
tion of art, slide shows and poetry.
So he gets labeled with all these stupid
terms that just piss him off. It seems that peo-
ple either love him or hate him and in Eugene,
he’s well loved. Maybe it’s because we like to
think we embrace the bleeding edge, which is
where Friedman likes to hang out.
“Maybe I should have a press kit of all
those lousy people who don’t like anything
new,“ he said, joking, during an interview a
few months ago. “At one time, the singer-
songwriter must have seemed weird. But
we’ve come to a place where it’s OK to war-
ble poetry and strum cat guts.”
So check out this artist who paints with
words and creates melody with images.
Andy Friedman performs with The Other
Failures along with Ty Connor and Natalie
Zukerman at 9 pm at Sam Bond’s,
Thursday, May 5. $5. — Melissa Bearns
APRIL 28 2005 29