America’s Greatest Noise: About RRRecords, Emil Beaulieau, and the True Sound of Love by Frans Da Waard (Korm Plastics). The focus is centered on the noise scene in the United States, as might be expected for a book about America’s greatest living noise artist.
Noise is the true sound of love
If it is true that you imitate what you contemplate, then we should expect a new crop of labels, record stores and noise musicians putting forth their efforts after reading this audacious and inspiring book. Reading about Ron Lessard’s life as a record store owner, a noise artist under the moniker Emil Beaulieau, as the force behind the RRRecords label, about ant-records and his custom built turntable with four-arms, the Minutoli, certainly filled me with the inspiration to make more noise, to do more in the DIY spirit, and get things out there into the world. The series of recycled music releases put out on recycled commercial cassettes are showcased here in Lessard’s own words. Alongside them are numerous tales of the American musical underground, with notable forays into Japan and Europe.
The focus is centered on the noise scene in the United States, as might be expected for a book about America’s greatest living noise artist. I love reading about most any kind of subculture, especially those that are home grown. The noise scene has a special place in my heart. I became involved in it myself through the former Art Damage radio show here in Cincinnati and the numerous shows put on by people involved with that program. It was a gateway drug into a world of broken consumer electronics, tape editing and manipulation, and feral children expressing themselves through sonic disruption in the lacerated zone of failed industry lurking between the bible belt and the rust belt.
But before all that, on a personal level, there was punk. Some of my favorite books have been about the history of punk rock, industrial music, ‘zine culture, graffiti, hippies, hip-hop and on and on and on. It’s about time there were some books on noise and its makers. I’m glad for this one that opens up the door into the enigmatic world of Ron Lessard, his record store, label, and antics of the subculture he personally did so much to boost. And what a fine and absorbing tale it is.
Reading this book makes me nostalgic ::
I know Emil Beaulieau came through Cincinnati during the oughts, when I was going to a lot of local shows. Yet, for whatever reason I missed him when he came through. Who knows where I was or what I was doing instead. Not long afterwards he retired from live performances, so I missed those opportunities, to see him in his pink dress shirt and tie, to hear him talk and yell as he played the Minutoli along with whatever else he used. Reading this book makes me nostalgic for those shows I missed out on. The take away is this: if there is an artist coming through your neck of the woods that sounds interesting to you, get out there and go support them! Who knows what might happen, and when they might stop playing all together. You’ll also be helping out the morale of your local scene, and the organizers who work hard to put on these shows and bring in touring artists from the underground.
This book got me very amped up on ideas for making cassettes (how much does a multi-cassette duplicator run, I wonder? —scrolling for dubbing machines on eBay gives me some ideas…). It got me amped on the old ‘zine and print-catalog based distribution networks that made seeking out new music and material that was otherwise hard to find exciting. It got me amped up on the related world of mail art. Cassette culture was really a kind of mail-art adjacent network, an audio version. Lessard points out too, how his creation of anti-records, was in some ways akin to mail art, and this book, got me re-juiced on the analog things I love.
I’ve mentioned anti-records several times. This is a term that has not gone out into the larger world of noise but started out as a series on RRRecords and inspired by his friend Andrew Smith. Smith played in Due Process, the group Lessard was also a part of before becoming primarily active with his solo Beaulieau project. Smith was also in a project called Eunuch of Industry, and as is keeping with many of these folks, there were other side projects. One of Smith’s was called Billboard Combat. Smith showed Lessard these hand painted old rock and roll records he’d been messing around with. “He painted over them and embedded them with nails, tacks, razor blades and various small objects.” I suppose in one sense you could think of these as prepared records, similar to the way John Cage prepared his pianos. Lessard liked the look of these as an object, but then thought he should actually play the record itself. “It would be infinitely noisier than any noise record.” He fell in love and decided he wanted to make 100 of these available through his mail order. They were a success, with only one person returning the record. So he decided to go further and ordered 200 blank records. One became Do Damage and the other became Do Nothing. For the Do Damage record he made a primitive home-brewed lathe with nails and a spindle and cut his own grooves into the record. Do Nothing remained entirely blank. From this he continued to make anti-records in a series of iterations and releases with other artists.
Speaking of noise, and anti-records, here is a bit of unsolicited advice: One reason you should always keep a Merzbow record or the like in your collection, even if you aren’t a big fan of harsh noise, is just in case any smelly hippies or other unwanted guests end up trying to sleep on your couch and crash at your pad. When they are asleep, put on the harsh noise record at a random spot. Make sure you crank up the volume real high so when you hit play, the hippie will jump up off your couch so fast they’ll never know what hit them. Keep the music on until they leave. It works like a charm.
Speaking of Merzbow, Lessard put out his first not-self-released record, and he talks about his connections to Mr. Akita, their tour in America together, and other prominent noise artists in Japan. He also talks about the development of his friendship with people like Dominick Fernow, aka, Prurient. There are also plenty of other known and lesser-known names, but they all loom large in the mind of Lessard. It’s not just a matter of the most well known and most prolific.
Spewing out chaos to an audience of ten or twelve ::
All of these are the people who make up the underground. Without them, alternative culture goes away and dies. The individuals in their hometowns spewing out chaos to an audience of ten or twelve, who are also probably playing the same show, are just as important as Merzbow and Prurient. The way Lessard talks about everyone he has been involved with makes this clear.
The text of the book originated in conversations recorded between Frans de Waard and Lessard. These were edited down, omitting Waard’s initial questions. I’m not sure how much arrangement of the material took place afterwards, but it all flows naturally and conversationally. You feel like you are hanging out at the record store in Lowell, Massachusetts with Lessard and getting to hear a long story from him as you take your selections up to the counter and talk about music.
Get this book. Read this book. Start your own record store. Start your own distro. Makes some recycled music on recycled tapes. Make an anti-record. Make some art. Write something. Play a local show. Network with people and do a regional tour. Just get out there and do something. Be a part of the world, underground or otherwise. This book is something to be excited about, in part because it transmits Lessard’s endless enthusiasm for music and underground culture. It made me excited about the DIY life, and I think it will get other readers just as excited. One other thing: it’s obvious from reading this book that Lessard is a bit of a trickster, something of a prankster, and funny as hell. Noise doesn’t always have to be so cold and clinical. It doesn’t have to take itself so goddamn serious. Inject some fucking humor into it and have fun when making some fucking noise. After all, noise is the true sound of love.
America’s Greatest Noise is available on Korm Plastics (softcover, 17×24 cm, 144 pages).
