More New York Noise! Three Sonic Youth Documentaries

Sonic Youth were an amazing band in their time. Well I guess I freeze them in my mind somewhere around late 80s-early 90s-—when I saw them—though they continued for many years afterwards. Thought I would post links to three intriguing films which feature the band. Charles Atlas' Put Some More Blood into the Music (screened by the UK program South Bank Show in 1989) features the formidable John Zorn too as well as interviews with Lydia Lunch, Dan Graham, Glenn Branca, etc. Director David Markey's 1991: The Year Punk Broke covers SY on tour with Nirvana (and Dinosaur Jr. among other bands) in Europe shortly before the latter band's career went ballistic. Christoph Dreher's Silver Rockets Kool Things: 20 Years of Sonic Youth presents a longer career survey for German/French television. Enjoy the noize!

Masami Akita a.k.a. Merzbow

I caught the Japanese musician Masami Akita's performance in Wellington in November. Known generally under the name "Merzbow" he is frequently called "the godfather" of noise. The performance was so loud that even though it lasted under an hour, it's probably lucky i've still got my hearing, as my ears rang for days (yes I stupidly did not wear earplugs!). I found this video of a performance recorded a couple of months earlier at Oberlin College in Ohio, and thought it would be interesting for those who don't run in the opposite direction of such sounds. Irish academic Paul Hegarty in his fine study Noise/Music: A History (Continuum Books, 2007) devotes a whole chapter to Merzbow and writes: "Duration, volume, harshness, interference, luring a listener into attributing meaning, and anti-virtuosity are all tools that work through the layers of harsh noises, pulses, oscillations, crashes and explosive bursts in Merzbow recordings. The quantity of his releases, even within the prolific production of Japanese noise musicians, is immense, to the point where Masami Akita could constitute a genre in his own right." For much more on Merzbow, see: http://merzbow.net/