ANTiSEEN--Noise For The Sake Of Noise
TKO 2002
Some people would suggest that ANTiSEEN begins and ends with the Southern Hostility and Eat More Possum albums. These are probably the same folks who insist you only really need the first four Ramones albums, though. You know--the poseurs. Listening to ANTiSEEN's 1989 album Noise For The Sake Of Noise, there's no doubt that theory is full of holes--these guys were an important force long before those two (addmittedly classic) discs.
In a lot of ways, Noise For The Sake Of Noise foretells what was to come on those aforementioned successive albums. If you know your stuff in regards to ANTiSEEN, you know there is a subtle blending of influences going on within their furious wall of fuzz. This album is the point where their hybridizing really set in and took form. The hardcore and Ramones influences that constitute ANTiSEEN's base sound are augmented by light dashes of country & western, Southern rock, folk, and countless other genres. It takes a concerted, focused listen to recognize these overtones but that's one of the reasons why ANTiSEEN's past music has remained fresh and viable over the years--it keeps giving.
Noise For The Sake Of Noise is far less of an underdog effort in the band's backcatalog than some have suggested. This album contains such all-time ANTiSEEN classics as "Wifebeater," "Mill Workin' Man," its riff and structure echoing that of the Ramones' "Mama's Boy," "Cop Out," and "Twisted Brain." "Nothing's Cool" stands out due to its punishing midtempo grind, while the relatively mellow cover of Bob Dylan's "Positively 4th Street" hints at the experimentation folks would eventually see out of the band on Here To Ruin Your Groove. Add bonus tracks including a surprisingly powerful stripped down demo version of "Leeches and Losers," as well as an alternate take of "Mill Workin' Man" much slower and Southern fried than what ultimately made the final cut, and this remaster couldn't get much better.
The moral of all this is to make sure and scour the backcatalogs of all great bands as much as you can. If you don't, you stand the chance of missing out on gems like Noise For The Sake Of Noise. True to form, it's just as essential as the rest of ANTiSEEN's output. Don't hesitate.
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