Featured in the weekend section of the New Haven Register 2/15/08
Making a Mix with The Black Noise Scam
Who: The Black Noise Scam, a New Haven-based quartet that makes old-school punk rock, the kind of three-chord, fast-paced, energetic music that made The Ramones or some of the early American hardcore bands famous. Featuring Jeffrey Thunders, left, on vocals, Dan Nugent on bass, drummer Ryan Taylor and Liam Burke on guitar, BNS really got going in October of 2007, when Nugent and Taylor got on board. Thunders and Burke formed the band a year before.
Where you can see them: The Black Noise Scam performs at Cherry Street Station on North Cherry Street in Wallingford Saturday, at Café Nine Tuesday and then again at Rudy's on Feb. 23. So you have no excuse not to see the band. But enough with all of this, here's BNS' mix:
"The Young Crazed Peeling," The Distillers (Dan's pick) — Brody's got such a kick-ass, gritty voice for a girl. I love it. It is just good.
"I Hate You," The Suicide File (Dan's pick) — Great band. Too bad it only put out one album. This is a perfect song to listen to if you're really hating somebody at the moment. It makes you realize that if you despise a person so much, that they're really not worth even paying any mind to.
.. language="JavaScript1.1" src="http://oascentral.newhavenregister.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_jx.ads/nhregister.com/Entertainment/Music/1113074393/@Middle3,Middle1,Middle2,Right1,Right2,Right3%21Middle3">..> .. 2nd Section: Acts on results of Browser test with delivery via SX code --> .. language="JavaScript"> .. if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf('MSIE 3') != -1){ document_write('<[[iframe]] WIDTH=140 HEIGHT=90 MARGINWIDTH=0 MARGINHEIGHT=0 HSPACE=0 VSPACE=0 FRAMEBORDER=0 SCROLLING=no BORDERCOLOR="000000" SRC="http://oascentral.newhavenregister.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_sx.ads/nhregister.com/Entertainment/Music/1113074393/@Middle3,Middle1,Middle2,Right1,Right2,Right3!Middle3">'); } else if (_version < 11) { document_write ('
..'); } //--> ..>
"Explode and Make Up," Sugar (Liam's pick) — Bitter, bitter dissection of a heart falling apart again and again in a storm of anger from Bob Mould and company. The music is so perfectly jagged and fragile and on the edge of dissolving.
"Girl from Mars," Ash (Liam's pick) — Nobody does wistful and longing like Irish boys. The moment, in the person of that girl, when everything was infinite clockwork perfection. A pure pop gem with big, surging guitars.
"12XU," Minor Threat (Liam's pick) — The best punk cover ever? Four bored DC teenagers take an already pretty good slice of silly new wave impressionism and cook it into 63 seconds of barbed menace and bleeding-from-the-mouth rage.
"Too Drunk To …," Dead Kennedys (Ryan's pick) — "Give me convenience or give me death." This song/lyrics (like many) shows the comedic side of Jello Biafra, but, don't get me wrong, the Dead Kennedys is a fantastic punk band that no one will ever be able to emulate again.
"Sonic Reducer," The Dead Boys (Ryan's pick) — Young, loud and snotty? How about a great damn song! Classic punk song from a classic punk band.
"Two For Flinching," Kid Dynamite (Jeffrey's pick) — Verse, chorus and bridge in less than 10 seconds! It doesn't get much better than this song. A perfect song for someone with ADD, and from one of my all-time-favorite bands.
"Personality Crisis," The New York Dolls (Jeffrey's pick) — The song that started it all for me. The New York Dolls were a prerequisite to punk.
"American Waste," Black Flag (Jeffrey's pick) — How can you listen to punk or hardcore and not like Black Flag? Don't get me wrong, Henry Rollins was great with them, but you need to go to your local record store and get "The First Four Years." "American Waste" is the best pre-Rollins Black Flag song. "I see my place in American waste/Faced with choices I can't take." Now who can't relate to that at some point in their lives?