Sadly, Not Feeling the Noize, Or Perhaps Too Much, At Least in the Literal Sense
This is probably the most awesome thing I've stumbled across today. I still don't know if M.A.N. (Mothers Against Noise) is real or not; the Reefer Madnessness of it all makes me think "no," as does this thread from a Lightning Bolt message board (the Jan. 4 post by xdugef seems fairly compelling evidence of hucksterism, but raises more intriguing questions like, "Island Records? WTF?"). What skews everything is this article from Detroit's Metro Times, dated well over a year ago, that gives M.A.N. a mention at the end.
A quick scan of five or six message boards shows that most people seem to think it's a hoax, and a pretty good one. I'm still not sure. The overarching craziness is only really missing one attribute of the internet nutjob, that being sporadic capitalization of words. A typical example might look like this:
"Joe McWrites-A-Lot writes nothing but LEFT-WING LIES meant to INTIMIDATE readers into believing the FASCISTS in the DEMOCRATIC PARTY!!!! Who is, even now, conducting BRAINWASHING experiments by dousing copies of the JEW YORK TIMES in a specially developed MIND CONTROL FORMULA, to be delivered even to the few PATRIOTS who brave the FILTH-STREWN LIES of its pages!!!!
And so on. Anybody who has ever been editor of any publication with even a hint of liberal sympathy (or even writing about the existence of liberal anythings) has received an email written like this, and it's always a freaky delight. These dispatches usually read a bit like Billy Graham doing his best Jim Jones, or like Ezra Pound doing his best Ezra Pound.
Really the thing that M.A.N. has going for itself, comedy-wise, hoax or not, is the What is Noise Music section of the site. It's almost quaintly out of touch with any kind of normative standard of what parses "noise" from "music," (and by noise I mean things like buzz saws and traffic [though of course plenty of music has been written utilizing things of that nature - Cage, Antheil, Varese, etc.]).
What's also interesting (and this is only true if the site isn't a hoax) is that the author of the "What is Noise Music" section spins out a theory of behavior and psychology based on noise, and also manages to counter-narrate the development of 20th Century music, but never seems to give an example of what music actually is other than "not Noise." All of this seems too crazy and non-persuasive to be real, but, jeez, I really hope it is. Wolf Eyes is one step from MTV.
posted by Mark S. @ 11:10 AM
5 Comments:
Did you see this one?
http://www.mothersagainstnoise.com/
Yeah, I saw that one. Still doesn't explain M.A.N. showing up at a Wolf Eyes show in Detroit in 2004. Jessica's theory is that there was a an actual, local, short-lived M.A.N. in Detroit, and that someone at Universal read about them and introduced the idea as a marketing campaign. Sounds plausible, but no proof, natch. Seems weird, too, that someone with an idea that good would let their IP address fuck them over.
oh this reminds me of something... my programming tutor used to spin sunday nights at a bar in Park Slope. But the mothers who'd frequent the bar with their babies in tow would complain about the "noise" of their night. Long story short my friend's night was ended and he started this site: "Stroller Free". I thought it was meant as a joke. But it's serious: http://www.strollerfree.com/
i had the same confusion. there's a link on my blog to an article that explains is all. (http://ztransmissions.blogspot.com/2006/02/reederbrosandmothersagainstnoise.html) but in a nutshell, it was serious at first, but the code got hijacked, now there's a real one and a fake one. the mothersagainstnoise.us is still sincere.
John Olsen of Wolf Eyes is the only person who has recounted first hand encounters with MAN. Think about it.. if MAN ever protested any show ..you'd think in this blogging crazy age some body somewhere with a camera would have taken a picture of this.
Also I have not been able to find any evidence that Wolf Eyes and Sonic Youth actually did a show together in San Diego during the period that Olsen Claims they were protested by MAN.
What more is that Olsen changes his explaination of why MAN claims they came into existance. In his first interview he says that they are a group mothers concerned about hearing loss (why not attack heavy metal and rock - my ears rang for a week after an AC DC concert) but then later claims that they were formed because a teenager was injured in a bicycle accident coming or going to a wolf eyes concert... like that has anything to do with the type of music being played.
Olsen is a known prankster and when playing at a show in Los Angeles concocted another ridiculous anecdote about how he was pulled over by the highway patrol and that the officer claimed his mom was a member of MAN. What are the odds of that happening for a group that no-one but john olsen has seen in person???
For more fun be sure to check out the archives of the hanson reocrds yahoo group .. as MAN for some unexplained reason decided to dump a large number of emails that they received there. Not surprisingly very few of them are in support of MAN.
There had also been some persusive arguments against any real involvement with Island records but since Thurston Moore signed a distro deal for estatic peace with Universal who also owns Island and estaic peace put sout records by half the bands on MAN's list of noise bands I'd say it's a little more than a coincidence.
At any rate it is without a doubt a prank or a hoax.
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