no age

Nouns

No Age started accruing major indie kudos around the time they were releasing their early EPs and singles (later compiled under the Fat Cat release Weirdo Rippers), but none of that early hype has come close to the fuss stirred up around the release of this first album proper, on Sub Pop. Sure enough, Nouns finds the duo doing all the right things: their abrasive guitar sound seems to be reinforced with the gravitas of bands like Sonic Youth and The Ramones, even dabbling with occasional forays into psyched guitar ambience and coming up with re-sampled distortion drifts like 'Keechie' and the quasi-Animal Collective psych-skiffle of 'Things I Did When I Was Dead'. In the pop stakes, it turns out that ace single 'Eraser' was only scratching the surface of what this band are capable of; it's matched easily by the glorious thrash of 'Teen Creeps' and further on, 'Sleeper Hold', which just about embodies everything you could hope to find exciting in American indie rock: the tuneful incompetence of Pavement, the raw heart and soul of Dinosaur Jr recontextualised into the anything-goes roughness of today's DIY scene. The band save best till last though, cueing up 'Brain Burner' as a parting shot. It might just be the best rock song you'll hear in 2008. I realise in saying that sort of thing I'm only adding to the hyperbole pedestal upon which these guys are currently perched, but it really couldn't be a lot better. No Age also have great names: in real life they are Dean Spunt and Randy Randall. They are destined for stardom.