No Age: the name alone suggests multiple meanings and possible interpretations—timeless, ageless, anonymous, free from restriction, something positive from something negative… a profound strength in its simplicity. Likewise, the Los Angeles duo consisting of drummer/vocalist Dean Spunt and guitarist Randy Randall is many things at once even as it embraces its minimalism.

Spiritual heirs to both Thurston Moore’s wide-eyed experimentalism and the all-encompassing, stark DIY art-is-life aesthetic of the Crass collective, No Age is the kind of band that inspires its audience without affectation, without cynicism. Its live shows are an exploration of possibilities: a guitar laid over a resonating drum head, effect loops woven together like beautiful harmonies, pop songs as performance art, a duo that sounds like the gale force of rock history delivered through a wind tunnel.

The pair’s powerful force, both as a band and individuals has reached such heights to inspire such mainstream press as The New Yorker and The Los Angeles Times to feature No Age’s ties to the underground scene surrounding the Los Angeles all-ages club The Smell (where for the past several years they have each volunteered in various capacities, including booking shows and running the soundboard). Elsewhere, No Age’s members have impacted multiple mediums in a way that tastefully denies rampant cynicism. The duo’s music effortlessly blends piercing noise blasts with hummable melodies, textural loops and crashing drums taking on their own lulling beauty.

No Age's most recent album is Nouns.

Watch No Age on Pitchfork TV.

Woods is an acid/strange/psych folk rock band based out of Brooklyn, New York. Members include Jeremy Earl, Jarvis Taveniere, and G. Lucas Crane. The band is known for strange and upbeat folk rock hymns. Decaying before taking off and dancing before dying, the songs range from vocal-harmony jams to meandering and noisy tinges of noise.

Listen: Woods, Download Woods tracks for free at RCRD LBL

Listen: Woods live tracks (via Pitchfork)


Listen: Woods Daytrotter session

Silk Flowers play minimal, spooky, narcotic synth music that combines the dark-day electronic pop of Depeche Mode with the cemetery-obsessed intensity of Samhain. Formed in New York in the Summer of 2008, the band brings together Peter Schuette and Aviram Cohen of Soiled Mattress and the Springs with Ethan Swan of Car Clutch. Their debut LP, Silk Flowers, was released by Post Present Medium in July of 2009, earning the following praise from Pitchfork: “Silk Flowers’ real talent lies in their ability to carve hummable, head-bobbing moments out of decidedly downtrodden elements.”

Listen: Silk Flowers, “Flash of Light” MP3


Listen: Silk Flowers, "Sand"