No Age
Weirdo Rippers

Dean Spunt and Randy Randall have been active for some time in the Los Angeles underground scene. They were the ones who managed the Smell, a small venue in Downtown LA where quite a few kick-ass Noise bands played, Mika Miko above all.

The two guys became known as Wives alongside drummer Jeremy Villalobos with the excellent debut "Erect The Youth Problem", but Villalobos soon decided to leave, and Spunt and Randall, left alone, became No Age.

In 2007 they released "Weirdo Rippers".

This little gem is not a true debut album but a collection of the highlights from the five EPs released in 2006 for five different labels.

Distortions, walls of feedback, crooked singing, DIY approach, catchy and lo-fi melodies are their bread and butter, and in this rather uneven and fragmentary record, there's a bit of everything. From the electric Dream-Pop of I Wanna Sleep to the rattling Hardcore Punk of the surprising burst Boy Void. From the Ambient atmospheres of Sun Spots and Escarpment to the Garage of Everybody's Down.

Dead Plane, which explodes at 4 minutes and 52 seconds after a long intro that has nothing to do with the rest of the song, is pure Punk '77, while My Life's Alright Without You, the most radio-friendly track on the album (in a veeery loose sense, of course) can be summarized as:

Beach Boys +

Distortions =

A Gem.

I have the impression that these No Age are slowly giving the infamous Yeah Yeah Yeahs a run for their money, who until now have dominated the current Noise Pop scene unchallenged. Sure, Randy and Dean will never afford Karen's beloved creative outfits, but they have plenty of substance, maybe even a tad more than the YYY. And if this is said by someone who worships Karen O as if she were Christ on Earth, it means that No Age really rock hard.

Trust me.