No Age: Minimalist Maximalists

The first question that comes to mind with No Age's sophomore release, Nouns, is "How in the world could two people make so much noise?"

The Los Angeles group's feedback-drenched guitar- and sample-based punk is actually a longtime work in progress from guitarist Randy Randall.

"I grew up in the suburbs of southern California being a big fan of Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine — more sonic experimentalism and noisier sort of stuff," he says. "Growing up with a four-track, I spent years compiling tapes and practicing feedback loops and things of that nature.

"That's what led me to overdriving amps and layering them all up on each other. It's just something I'd been a fan of: dense walls of sound that can be recorded."

Randall and drummer/vocalist Dean Spunt seem to be pushing the notion of what a duo are capable of producing with mostly organic instrumentation. Interestingly, Randall humbly says they're essentially working under the opposite pretense.

"There're certain things that are inspiring — the limitations of having only two people. In a way it's a restriction, but it also shows us where the limits are. I think as an artist, it's kind of nice to have a clear frame. Like, 'OK, we have to do everything we can, just using this.' Having too many options can be a negative because you never finish."

Nouns is also a special release for aesthetic reasons. The CD comes with a 68-page full-colour booklet that Spunt, Randall and their friend Brian Rodinger compiled while the band toured with Liars this past winter. What's just as impressive is that they were able to find a label — Sub Pop — willing to indulge them in the project's release.

"I think as we got to know them and we got to know the team that they have, they were able to offer a lot more fun opportunities, like the booklet that comes with the CD," Randall says. "It's something we'd wanted to do.

"Outside of playing music, our interests stem to a lot of other forms of art — you know, visual art and video. There are just other avenues we wanted to pursue, and I think Sub Pop was willing to help us out in whatever way they could on that. It was a chance to do more.

"Not specifically just a booklet, but many multi-platform avenues, and not really having any restrictions put on us, like, 'You can only use four colours.' Little things like that, things that, when they started to get placed on us, we were like, 'Well, why can't we?' And people would say, 'Well, it's cost-prohibitive.' And we were like, 'Well, there's gotta be a cheap way to do it.'

"I think we're always looking for new ways to do things — on a cheap level, you know, not just being wasteful, spending money to spend money. So we were just looking for someone to be collaborative with and someone to be supportive of us, and Sub Pop offered us that."

No Age play Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern with Abe Vigoda and High Places on Wednesday. They'll hit Vancouver's Richard's On Richards with Abe Vigoda and Mika Miko on July 24.