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Noise Rock

Amherst, Massachusetts, 1984

Dinosaur Jr.

Dinosaur Jr. formed in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1984. J Mascis and Lou Barlow had played together in a high-school hardcore band, Deep Wound, and now they brought in drummer Murph. They were Mogo first, then Dinosaur, and added the "Jr." after a supergroup called Dinosaurs sued over the name. The debut, Dinosaur, came out on Homestead in 1985. You're Living All Over Me followed on SST in 1987, then Bug in 1988. In 1989 Mascis threw Barlow out, and Barlow went off to form Sebadoh. The band signed to Sire in 1990 and Mascis kept it going for two more albums, after which Murph left. Mascis retired the name in 1997. The original trio reunited in 2005 and has released six albums since.

San Antonio, Texas, 1981

Butthole Surfers

Butthole Surfers started when Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary met at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. They became a band in 1981 and at first played under a different name at every show. Their debut EP came out on Alternative Tentacles in 1983. Corey Rusk's Touch and Go label then put out Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac in 1984 and Rembrandt Pussyhorse in 1986, with King Coffey and Teresa Nervosa drumming in unison on separate stand-up kits. Electriclarryland, on Capitol, got to number 31 on the Billboard 200 in 1996, and in 1999 they won a long legal fight with Touch and Go. They reunited in 2025, and an album they had scrapped in 1998 finally came out in 2026.

Providence, RISD, 1994

Lightning Bolt

Lightning Bolt formed in 1994, when drummer Brian Chippendale and bassist Brian Gibson met as students at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. Percussionist Hisham Bharoocha joined after their first show and left in 1996 for the band that became Black Dice. Chippendale and his college roommate Matt Brinkman set up Fort Thunder in a disused Olneyville warehouse, and the duo got known for playing on the venue floor, inside a tight circle of spectators. Chippendale sings through a microphone pulled out of a telephone receiver. Gibson tunes his bass in fifths, with a banjo string on top. The self-titled debut came out on Load Records in 1999, and Sonic Citadel, their seventh album, came out on Thrill Jockey in 2019.

Dunedin, noise over songs, 1987

The Dead C

Bruce Russell, Michael Morley and drummer Robbie Yeats formed the Dead C in 1987 on the noisier, rougher edge of the Dunedin scene. They built side-long drones and free-rock wreckage out of guitars that most of their peers were still using to write actual songs. Trapdoor Fucking Exit was recorded that winter and first issued on cassette in 1990 by Precious Metal, a small New Zealand label. Three years later the Philadelphia label Siltbreeze reissued it on CD, and it finally reached an international audience. The record went on to shape noise bands from Pavement's early b-sides to Bardo Pond.

Croydon, 1986, Robert Hampson

Loop

Loop were formed in Croydon in 1986 by singer and guitarist Robert Hampson, with his then-girlfriend Becky Stewart on drums. Their dissonant trance-rock drew on the Stooges and Can, on Krautrock and No Wave. They started on Jeff Barrett's Head label, which released their debut album in 1987, then went to Chapter 22 and from there to the Beggars Banquet offshoot Situation Two. Their second album in 1989 and A Gilded Eternity in 1990 both topped the UK independent chart, and the first of the two got to No. 51 on the albums chart. The group split in 1991. Hampson later formed Main with guitarist Scott Dowson. Loop reformed in 2013, released the Array 1 EP in 2015 and came back in 2022 with their first studio album in 31 years.

Austin, 1987, then Chicago

The Jesus Lizard

The Jesus Lizard formed in Austin, Texas, in 1987, when guitarist Duane Denison teamed up with David Yow and David Wm. Sims, both formerly of Scratch Acid. They rehearsed with a drum machine before recruiting drummer Mac McNeilly. Yow and Sims moved to Chicago in 1988, and Denison followed a year later. Steve Albini recorded their debut EP for Touch and Go in 1989 and the next four albums after it. Yow, meanwhile, got a reputation for jumping into the crowd and taking his clothes off. They shared a split single with Nirvana and signed to Capitol in 1995, but McNeilly left in late 1996 and the band broke up in 1999. They reformed in 2008 and in 2024 released their first album in 26 years.

Broken Flag, power electronics, 1982

Ramleh

Gary Mundy formed Ramleh in 1982, part of the early British power electronics scene along with Whitehouse, and a string of cassettes and EPs followed on his own label, Broken Flag. The band split in 1984. Mundy revived it in 1987, and in 1989 he reformed it with Philip Best for the LP Grudge for Life. Then Skullflower, Mundy's other band, pulled Ramleh toward rock, from Blowhole in 1991 through Homeless and Be Careful What You Wish For to Boeing in 1997, with Skullflower's Anthony di Franco on bass and Stuart Dennison on drums. Mundy shut it down again after Boeing and came back in 2009 with Valediction, which went back to power electronics. Hyper Vigilance followed in 2025. The fascist shock imagery of the early years was later disavowed.

The Collection