The Nihilist Spasm Band

[Balor/SS1535]

I'm surprised that a band so important in the history of noise does not have its own thread?  They might also just be the most prolific when it comes to performances too...

The NSB was formed in 1965 by a group of people who enjoyed music and wanted to play in a band. There was no desire to learn to play traditional instruments so kazoos were bought and assorted noise makers modified or built from scratch. The band started playing regularly every Monday night in 1966 and has just carried on .The personnel has stayed the same. John Boyle (artist) kazoo and drums, John Clement (MD) guitar and drums, Bill Exley (geezer/latinist) vocals, Murray Favro (artist) guitar and Art Pratten (pensioner/gentleman of leisure) Pratt-a-various and Waterpipe. Greg Curnoe (deceased), Hugh McIntyre (deceased) and Archie Leitch (permanently retired) play less often.
The band currently plays most every Monday night at The Forest City Gallery, 258 Richmond St., just south of under pass in London, Ontario, Canada. The atmosphere is informal. We play for our own enjoyment but an audience is welcome.

The only material by them that I own are their contributions to the No Music Festival 1999 box set (which are great!).

I also very much enjoyed the documentary that was produced about/for them (not despite, but rather because of the local news-level quality, which added a bit of charm):

The song "I Have Nothing to Say" is probably also one of the best take-downs of academic pretensions ever put to music:

I have nothing to say, but I can say it very well
These words are too simple
I don't want you to know that I have nothing to say
So I will sing to you with words you won't understand
With a paradigm shift into a matrix of dynamic activity
With a hermeneutical synthesis with total transitional flexibility
With parallel incremental output
With dialectical interactional parameters
With functional logistical hardware
With idealized signification and commonification
With integrated tutorialized canons
With problematical notation and formulization
With a defined simulacrum of capability
With balanced empowering options
With systematized policiеs of specificity
With responsive monitorеd software
With functional differentiation of classification

[Zeno Marx]

Thanks.  I always found them more interesting than good, and I could never pinpoint whether they were interesting either.  I will watch the doc.

[NedOik]

Amesome stuff - i like the fact that they all look so "normal", personifies the Mark E. Smith maxim - you don't have to be weird to be weird.

[impulse manslaughter]

Saw them live once and they were really great. Have a few records by them that I rarely listen to. Need to revisit.

[Balor/SS1535]

Saw them live once and they were really great. Have a few records by them that I rarely listen to. Need to revisit.

When did you see them live?

[impulse manslaughter]

Not sure but it was somewhere around 2006/2007. They played Rotterdam, The Netherlands together with AMM.

[Johann]

I think some bands really shine live and recordings are just sort of documents, unfortunately never got to see them and while I've listened to some of the records I don't often return.

I suspect that they don't get spoken of much because they are coming from the "hippy era" of music which probably makes them less approachable to contemporary noise folks. Obviously a lot of what is worshiped is stories of shows where we can piece together the information with the live recordings we have access too, but a lot of that is informed by our experiences with sound/culture.

It does make sense they found worship in the Japanese scene though, a lot of those performers are more explicit about psychedelic music influence.