By: John Mabery

The current trend of noise rock, and music in general growing progressively noisier, is something that needs to be put to death now.  It gives any jag-off with a computer the ability to falsely label his or herself a musician, and thanks to the wonders of Youtube and Myspace, those so-called musicians have a forum to display their nonsense.  Frankly put, it’s so subpar that it doesn’t deserve any sort of debate, and if that’s the kind of “music” you fancy, then you can go outside and place your head against a running lawnmower.  You would probably get more out of it.

Needless to say, I felt compelled to bring this up after attempting to listen to Twin Tigers (pictured), a “dream noise” trio from Athens, Georgia.  What starts off as an intriguing listen rapidly deteriorates into a big old mess of unnecessary noise under the weight of feedback, flat and/or sharp vocals and notes bent into oblivion.  Sounds to me like someone out there is having some painfully loud dreams, and if I were them, I’d pray for insomnia. 

It’s a shame too, as I was actually enjoying “Red Fox Run” and “Everyday,” even though they are far from what I would call fresh.  But then, halfway into “Island,” the noise bug strikes and the listening experience goes from good to downright frustrating.  I forged on through “Sexless Love” and “Envy,” but the lyrics were gobbled up by all of the sounds and those sounds were just far too heavy and distorted to make sense of.  I even tried to listen to the tracks again, but my tolerance had left me long since, and I hit the stop button on the Myspace player.  Even now, as I struggle to remember anything about the songs, I can’t bring myself to hit that play button again.  And what would be the point?  How does one rate, let alone recall to the reader, such noise?  It’s something that I won’t, and can’t do.

I’m sure many will argue that music has always been noisy, which is fine, as long as that’s your argument and not that this noise is actually worth a listen.  The way I see it, it’s a trickle down effect.  Pop music has become gradually noisier over the past decade and it has found its way into the underground.  But unfortunately, the growing popularity in noise is widening across the board, from Lady Gaga to the Sleighbells.  For this reviewer, the day that the majority of music can be lumped under a single umbrella due to the noise factor will be the day that I grab my records and run for the hills.