Bring in the Noise

From Wrong's free-improv chaos to Savage Aural Hotbed's circle-saw precision, a disparate local noise scene maps the sound of modern anxiety

A A A Comments By Peter S. Scholtes Wednesday, Sep 9 1998

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"We're trying to record the next album without using a studio," says David Sarrazin, the band's original industrial noise fan. "We rented a portable DAT and went to a junkyard and a gravel pit." The band also found a big metal tube on Father Hennepin Bluff to bang on.

During our interview, my considerably less expensive tape recorder picks up its own found noises in the form of impromptu drum work from bassist William Melton's 2-year-old son Miles, who refers to the band as "Dave/Stuart/Mark." (Stuart DeVaan was married the day before the interview and was on his honeymoon.) Miles's dad may be the only nondrummer in the band, but he busies himself with Dave/Stuart/Mark's main occupation, drumming with two pens and a tambourine before proclaiming, "Yeah, I drum!"

Savage Aural Hotbed: Squeezing out sparks with trash barrels and circle saws

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"He has toy circle-grinders at home," says Melton, laughing. And so the next generation of aural nonsense is launched.

Rifle Sport Revisited features two cabarets this month recreating the kind of entertainment regularly put on by the gallery in the '80s. TheThen show occurs Friday and Saturday at Intermedia Arts; 871-4444.

Wrong opens for Chicago improv-noise group Storm & Stress on Tuesday at the Terminal Bar; 623-4545.

Savage Aural Hotbed performs Saturday at noon in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at Walker Art Center; Chicago-based electronic composer Jim O'Rourke will perform at 2:15.

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