Cassette Gods: NOXAGT "Live at Checkpoint Charlie, Stavanger 08.03.03"(Drip Machine Records)

This tape is fantastic - 11 songs of pure punk garbage can blast beats, a fuzzy electric Viola from hell and bass riffs heavier than tsunami waves. This Electronic three piece noise-core is similar to acts like early Arab on Radar and Maybe even dark tones similar to Wonderful Rainbow era Lightning Bolt. The bassist can get downright plunky funky like a more badass and less goofy Primus. The drummer shows a healthy range of ability and is free and competent. But it is really the Viola that makes Noxagt stand out as a strange, unique instrumental distortion laced jazz punk band.

I saw these guys in Providence opening for Lightning Bolt. It was Halloween 2003, not at the famed Fort Thunder, but a warehouse community punk house that was very similar called the Pink Rabbit. Here is photos of it from the Lightning Bolt website ---> http://www.laserbeast.com/photos/103103/ There were about 12 bands playing that night at 3 different stages. The whole place was decorated and looked like Pee Wee's Playhouse. It was like the entire Load Records roster was there. Wrangler Brutes played, so did Fat Day. Lightning Bolt was the last band and they were incredible. I was dressed as a bumble bee. The whole scene felt like some trippy anime movie, I loved it.

Anyway, Noxagt were radical that night. Their set was less pulsating than a band like Lightning Bolt but more menacing. The viola is used brilliantly on this cassette and in public. Their tonal range is smaller than a band like Melt Banana but more concentrated. The viola gives everything a "dead meadow" feeling ... it's really European over American in terms of the style in which is played. We're not talking a "cotton eye joe" viola. It is more sludgy like Melvin's frontman King Buzzo's les paul yet still reminiscent of something remotely classical.