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THE (INTERNATIONAL) NOISE CONSPIRACY
Braving the Bravery
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Imagine, in this day and age, a band having the hubris to dress up in matching new-wave stage costumes, pull out every grand rock gesture they can think of (from Daltrey-esque microphone twirls to airborne karate kicks), borrowing every retro-mod hook in the garage-rock book, and then expect to be taken seriously. Oh and the singer even wears make-up. But that would be the Bravery, the neo-new-wave Killers, whom Sweden’s (International) Noise Conspiracy opened for last Thursday at Avalon. Funny thing is, take away the make-up and the synths and the difference between the two bands boils down to ideology. The Bravery are having fun capitalizing on the current nostalgia for the stylized pop of a certain era. INC, on the other hand (that would be the left hand), are a band on a mission with an anti-capitalist agenda. As they explain in their most recent mission statement: "The (International) Noise Conspiracy has no desire of being the leaders at the front of any political movement or any political party. However, we want to play our part in the movement that’s going to change the world . . . we want to compose the soundtrack to the fall of world capitalism and the crash of the stock market." Maybe that’s why Warner Bros., the band’s new label, haven’t gone out of its way to promote the band’s new Rick Rubin–produced Armed Love — and the label’s name is dwarfed by the Epitaph and American logos that dominate the disc. The disc itself plays up INC’s modish soul grooves and garage-rock riffs, sticking to the (George) Clinton-esque cliché that if you move their asses, their minds will follow, even as Dennis Lyxzén screams, shouts, and croons calls to arms peppered with a "Yeah baby" here, a "Hey, hey, hey" there, and more than enough Mysterian organ to satisfy ? himself. At Avalon, on their last night with the Bravery before heading out to join fellow Scandinavians Turbonegro in LA, Lyxzén called out the Bravery, though not by name: "It’s just a bunch of kids with eyeliner singing about nothing." At that, the hammering drums and staccato guitars of "A Small Demand," Armed Love’s opener, kicked in, and Lyxzén, jumping up onto a monitor for emphasis, cautioned, "Baby, what you want isn’t always what you need." Amen.
BY MATT ASHARE
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