Album review: No Age's 'Everything in Between'

A mass of hiss floats through No Age’s “Everything in Between” like a cold front moving across a satellite image. At times it’s barely there, this sibilance, eclipsed by Dean Spunt’s hard bass drum and pierced snare snaps, and Randy Randall’s distorted guitar chords. But the sonic friction always makes an appearance, adding sandpaper grit or an ominous hum, and even when silence does seem to arrive, as on the pretty acoustic song “Common Heat,” noise whispers in the distance.

The follow-up to their acclaimed 2008 album “Nouns,” “Everything in Between” is the L.A. duo’s second studio album (“Weirdo Rippers,” from 2007, collected early singles), and finds them further refining their marriage of distorted punk, downtown noise, melodic flourish and that hiss. Across 13 songs, No Age moves from slow to fast, hard to pretty, ditty to dirge.

The one constant throughout, though, is Spunt’s monochromatic voice, which connects the various moods and turns them the same shade of gray. He seldom screams, seldom conveys much emotion at all, instead delivering conversational part-spoken, part-sung lyrics. Whether buried deep in the mix, as on “Dusted,” or relatively up high, as on the wonderful “Valley Hum,” untethered words and ideas drift through but minus the necessary vocal heft.

This absence is frustrating, because it stands in stark contrast to the music that surrounds it, which is varied, colorful and consistently surprising.

— Randall Roberts

No Age
"Everything in Between"
Sub Pop
Three stars (Out of four)

The rollout continues: No Age teases its upcoming 'Everything in Between' with new trailer

No Age -- "Everything in Between" album trailer from Sub Pop Records on Vimeo.

Without giving too much away, No Age's new album, "Everything in Between," comes out on Sept. 28, and it's been our cruising soundtrack for the last 24 hours. The second studio album from the buzzing L.A. band (its debut, "Weirdo Rippers," was a collection of singles) is a noise-infused, candy-coated distortion fest, as evidenced by this fuzzy, slice-of-life album trailer that Pop & Hiss is exclusively presenting you this afternoon.

Directed by Patrick O'Dell, the new clip is one of many teasers and tidbits that the band has been unfurling over the last month, each a piece of the puzzle that culminates when "Everything" sees the light of day.

The duo of Randy Randall and Dean Spunt, who tour with a third member, just left L.A. to go on the road for a string of dates with indie stalwarts Pavement, which culminates at the Hollywood Bowl on Sept. 30, when No Age will join a bill that also includes Sonic Youth.

-- Randall Roberts

No Age announce fall tour dates with Pavement, Lucky Dragons

L.A. punk band No Age has released a new video teaser, directed by guitarist Randy Randall, to promote the band's upcoming full length "Everything in Between" and has announced a fall tour that sees it jumping around the country from the Midwest to the East Coast to the Hollywood Bowl and then up to Canada and the Pacific Northwest. The band begins September with a string of dates with reunited indie rock icons Pavement, which culminates on Sept. 30 at the Bowl with a triple bill also featuring Sonic Youth. After that, fellow Angelenos Lucky Dragons will join No Age for the rest of the dates.

No Age Fall Tour:
09/11/2010 City Plaza, Raleigh (Hopscotch Music Festival)
09/12/2010 Roy Wilkins Auditorium, St. Paul w/ Pavement
09/13/2010 Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Chicago w/ Pavement
09/14/2010 Pabst Theatre, Milwaukee w/ Pavement
09/15/2010 Rhinos Youth Center, Bloomington
09/16/2010 The LC Pavilion, Columbus w/ Pavement
09/17/2010 Black Cat, Washington w/ Holy F
09/18/2010 Music Hall Of Williamsburg, Brooklyn
09/20/2010 First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia
09/30/2010 Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles w/ Pavement
11/16/2010 Middle East Downstairs, Cambridge w/ Lucky Dragons
11/17/2010 La Sala Rossa, Montreal w/ Lucky Dragons
11/18/2010 Polish Combatants Hall, Toronto w/ Lucky Dragons
11/19/2010 Magic Stick, Detroit w/ Lucky Dragons
11/20/2010 Grog Shop, Cleveland Heights w/ Lucky Dragons
11/22/2010 Majestic Theatre, Madison w/ Lucky Dragons
11/23/2010 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis w/ Lucky Dragons
11/26/2010 Neumos, Seattle
11/27/2010 The Rickshaw Theatre, Vancouver
11/28/2010 Holocene, Portland w/ Lucky Dragons
11/29/2010 Flying M Coffee, Nampa w/ Lucky Dragons
11/30/2010 Kilby Court, Salt Lake City w/ Lucky Dragons
12/01/2010 Bluebird Theater, Denver w/ Lucky Dragons
12/02/2010 Launchpad, Albuquerque w/ Lucky Dragons
12/03/2010 The Clubhouse, Tempe w/ Lucky Dragons

-- Randall Roberts

No Age previews new single 'Glitter'

While it's not the Mariah Carey cover we all hoped for, No Age's new single, "Glitter," is a sparkly little thing. The first cut to surface from its third album, "Everything in Between" (out Sept. 28 on Sub Pop), "Glitter" puts singer-drummer Dean Spunt's endearingly unprocessed vocals squarely up front, while a riptide of guitar feedback pulls at the margins and mercurial samples thicken the arrangement. For a band rooted in squalls of masterfully deployed aggression, it's maybe the most melodic thing No Age has done to date.

This time, however, it's all in support of the band's casually bummed and cryptic lyrics. "Everyone is out to get you again," Spunt mutters, with the classic sneer of all the '80s L.A. hardcore the band cites as formative influences. But sweetness abides -- "I want you back underneath my skin." The progress is evident, but "Glitter" is very much No Age, and very much an enticing glimpse at one of 2010's most ravenously awaited albums. It's out in 12-inch and 7-inch form on Aug. 24, with scads of B sides for you collector vermin.

-- August Brown 

Photo by Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

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No Age readies next Grammy bid with September's 'Everything in Between'

Local noise explorers No Age will begin their second Grammy campaign next month, when they release  "Everything in Between." Due Sept. 28 from Seattle's Sub Pop, the 13-track effort hasn't yet leaked -- to our knowledge, at least -- but the core of Dean Spunt and Randy Randall has at least pulled back the curtain on the album's cover art.

Pop & Hiss usually doesn't indulge in such promotional leaning posts, but No Age, aside from being one of this city's most ardent adventurers into the subtleties of ear-bleeding sonics, is a Grammy-endorsed act. At the top left, you will see the cover of No Age's 2008 album, "Nouns," a  Brian Roettinger work that inspired a best recording package Grammy nomination.

Roettinger was wisely entrusted with "Everything in Between." It's a harsher and more stark work all at once -- the black background heightening the shadows and the wrinkles in what could have been a low-rent flier. It's also loud. The ALL-CAPS letters make a powerful introduction, but the fact that they're distorted and nearly destroyed hints that this is a work that will hit with a heavy force -- and then dismantle it. Or something like that. All I know is that I like it better than the cover of Metallica's "Death Magnetic," which stole the recording package Grammy from No Age (Really, Metallica? A coffin? What's next -- a scythe?)

No Age, as noted a few times on the ol' Pop & Hiss, has swelled to a three-piece, adding Cundo Bermudez to spray some electronic frequencies between the crash-and-burn of Spunt and Randall. Bermudez has helped add layers to No Age's sound, but Randall told Pop & Hiss at Austin, Texas' South by Southwest that much of "Everything in Between" was recorded without the computer whiz. 

No Age will be at the Glass House in Pomona on Aug. 13, and will open for Sonic Youth and Pavement at the Hollywood Bowl on Sept. 30. Stay tuned to Pop & Hiss for more on the album, as well as any major happenings on Sub Pop's other SoCal acts -- Avi Buffalo and the Dum Dum Girls. 

-- Todd Martens

Photos:Brian Roettinger / Sub Pop

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No Age announce details of new album 'Everything in Between'

While local duo No Age has long been associated with the lo-fi punk rock coming out of downtown DIY haven The Smell, their sound has always sought to bridge the gap between hardcore, ambient and pop -- an inclination evidenced by the wide-ranging taste of guitarist Randy Randall featured on a recent mix for Artist Advocacy, which included everything from Brian Eno to Black Flag to Squeeze.

Judging from the name of their forthcoming full-length, "Everything in Between," Dean Spunt and Randall will continue to defy expectations, pulling from an array of influences, shifting tempos and dabbling with collage sampling. Slated for a Sept. 28 release on Sub Pop  -- two days before to the band's coveted slot opening for Sonic Youth and Pavement at the Hollywood Bowl -- details of their third full-length album had been relatively scarce until now. 

However, Randall told Pitchfork in January that "it's kind of a sound-collage element that's rooted in the songwriting process for some of the tracks, and some of them are sort of straight-up songs with textures and flurries of sampled sounds. It's not a whole lot different than from what we have done in the past; there's no big departures. But the creative process is evolving more."

In an interview with Rolling Stone last week, Spunt described the new songs as "experimental but [with] hooks. It doesn't sound like a lo-fi pop record. It just sounds like awesome." The interview also name-dropped the Ramones and Husker Du as points of reference, which is rarely a bad thing.

While speculation is just that, the album's song titles yield a glimpse into what can be expected: "Life Prowler," "Fever Dreaming," "Skinned," "Valley Hump Crash," "Shred and Transcend" and "Glitter." Presumably, the latter does not concern the failed 2001 Mariah Carey vehicle about a young girl with a huge voice chasing her dreams in the big city. The record will also boast a track called "Chem Trails," which will hopefully not raise the ire of Beck.

-- Jeff Weiss

Download:

MP3: No Age - "You're A Target"

MP3: No Age - "Teen Creeps"

MP3: No Age - "Eraser"

Photo: No Age. Credit: Ed Templeton

No Age beaten by Lisbon club bouncers

On its early single, "Dead Plane," the local avant-punk group No Age told a foe that "I don't want to fight you." The band unfortunately didn't get that option Tuesday night on tour in Lisbon, where according to the band's blog, a group of bouncers jumped two members and friend after they tried to enter a nightclub.

The band tells it like this -- Singer/drummer Dean Spunt tried to get into a Lisbon nightspot, only to be told at the door that the club didn't want any "English" inside. Spunt tried to talk to the doorman, when bouncers descended and did a number on him, keyboardist William Kai Strangeland Menchaca and sound tech Scott Cornish.

The band has photos of the aftermath. All at Pop & Hiss wish them a speedy recovery and hope they'll use these photos on a flier someday.  

-- August Brown

Photo: Dean Spunt. Credit: No Age

Live Review: No Age and Growing at the Center for the Arts in Eagle Rock

 

Songwriter David Berman once wrote that "punk rock died when the first kid said 'Punk's not dead,’" but he surely wasn't at the Center for the Arts in Eagle Rock on Saturday night, where Los Angeles band No Age ripped through an hour-long set of noisy but melodic punk songs.

The band’s incendiary performance caused a wild combination of slam dancing, pogoing and crowd-surfing among the sold-out, Converse-and-mustachioed (the men, not the women) crowd. It felt not like the death of a musical genre but a rebirth.

No Age, a two-piece band featuring drummer/singer Dean Spunt and guitarist Randy Randall, was born in 2005 within the influential downtown L.A. all-ages club the Smell, and over the course of two albums has become one of the most acclaimed guitar bands in the country. Its rich, explosive 2009 album "Nouns" was released on Sub Pop Records, and the group is currently recording its follow-up.

At the South by Southwest music festival in March, the pair began augmenting their live shows with a third member, electronics/sampler noisemaker Cundo Bermudez, and Saturday marked the band’s Los Angeles debut with this expanded line-up.

SXSW Day 4: Dum Dum Girls are ready for their close up, No Age gets bigger and Sleigh Bells hits hard

The likes of Perez Hilton and Rachael Ray threw in-demand parties on the fourth and -- for all intents and purposes -- final day of the South by Southwest music conference and festival in Austin, Texas. With just under 2,000 bands, many of them on the hunt for next-big-thing status, plotting a show-going schedule can be an arduous task, and it's easy to see why designer quesadillas and flavored drinks can be a welcome distraction.  

Yet after the guest lists have been tossed and the music industry has retreated from the Texas capital, it won't be the VIP parties that made a lasting impression. It will be the artists. 

Los Angeles has a worthy contender in the Dum Dum Girls, the '60s-tinged fuzzed-out rockers who take old-fashioned melodies and make them streetwise tough. All sporting different variations of black, the Dum Dum Girls have a look that could be ripped from a vintage film noir poster, and a sound that mirrors that femme fatale image. 

Though based in L.A., the Dum Dum Girls have felt a bit like outsiders. The band's rapid ascent began last fall in New York at the CMJ Music Marathon, and their hometown shows have been few and far between. The band's first SXSW comes near the eve of the March 30 release of the act's Sub Pop debut, "I Will Be," and in Austin, the band was more assured, confident and simply downright cool than it had been at its smattering of L.A. gigs.  

Opening with a slowed down and droned-out version of the Rolling Stones' "Play With Fire," the Dum Dum Girls offered the song as if it was a dare. The band stood largely in place, with a glare affixed out above the audience, lending a detached, effortless and old-fashioned rebellious rock 'n' roll attitude to its songs. Girl group harmonies grace the racing "Bhang, Bhang, I'm a Burnout," and drummer Frankie Rose, ex-Vivian Girls (a more 21st century reference point for the group), brought a defiant kick to the more moderately paced "Rest of Our Lives." 

Time will tell if such vintage trappings have a life outside of SXSW. Yet even if the Dum Dum Girls tap a rock 'n' roll sound that may live outside the mainstream, it's one that never really goes out of style. And speaking of style, it probably won't have hurt that the Dum Dum Girls have it in spades. 

Other notes from Day 4 of SXSW:

Sunset Junction Day 2: Fool's Gold, Nortec Collective, the Time and more

There’s always a resigned finality to the second day of Sunset Junction. Although L.A.’s Indian summer will surely stretch on for weeks, the feeling that the season is officially over (and all of its unrealized potential) is palpable.

Under the relentless sun, Day 2 of the annual street festival got off to a slow start Sunday afternoon, which seemed to suit those in attendance just fine. With a refreshingly manageable crowd roaming Sunset Boulevard, it actually felt more like a classic Los Angeles neighborhood street festival and much less the controversial flash-point for so many local residents.

The music of the afternoon matched the laid-back mood, with the atmospheric indie jangle of Local Natives pulling a crowd at the Bates Stage.

One of the day’s early highlights came from the sprawling dance machine Fool’s Gold, pictured, whose kinetic Afro-pop rhythms are reminiscent of the Talking Heads-circa “Remain in Light” and whose lyrics are sung in Hebrew. It’s easy to see why their profile has risen so far and so fast. Their engaging show and beat-crazy abilities can play to most any crowd.

New York’s Tiny Masters of Today didn’t fare quite as well. The underage grunge-punk duo drew a crowd enamored with the band’s youth (both are under 16). While the awkward stage banter helped, the songs held little of the charm of their recordings. Chalk it up to nerves (it was their first L.A. show), but their stage presence was little more than standing stock still and churning out the tunes.