"Noise is everyday fucking life," or at least it is according to the notoriously loud Kenny Millions, of experimental noise duo Death Fuk. And while Broward County is surely brimming with the sounds of "everyday fucking life" as well as contributions from a diverse range of talented and homegrown musicians, the 954 lacks a pulse on the noise beat that heartily thrives in Miami. It fosters festivals like the International Noise Conference, held annually for the past decade, or weekly series, like Be Creative or Die, where life becomes one big experiment in sound and performance.
Broward hasn't always played the discarded lover when it comes to such sonic exploration. In fact, this Sunday, May 19, the fourth (and unexpected) installment of the noise and art revue, Noise. Water. Meat. will reemerge at PRL Euro Cafe in Hollywood. A short lived tradition that began at the now defunct Roxanne's in Oakland Park, hosted by Richard Vergez (Mothersky, Drowning the Virgin Silence), combines performance art and installations with abstract sound concoctions that make up the noise genre.
It's an odd name to attribute to an event where visual art and aural art meet, but the moniker holds weight in the theoretical world of expression. Noise. Water. Meat. is a text that explores the history of sound in the arts in which William Burroughs, Yoko Ono, and Jackson Pollock become topics of discussion while author Douglas Kahn dissects theory, politics, and other reaches of art in an interdisciplinary effort.
"I checked this book out of the library when I was in school -- some pre-internet stuff -- and it was somewhere in the first few readings that peaked my interest in the connection between sound art and experimental performance -- ultimately leading to my higher education studies in the Dada and Fluxus movements," says Vergez.
The result of this brief moment of inspiration not only urged Vergez to explore the academic side of all this, but also practice such interests outside of school. This led to the production of the first of what should have been only three events (one for each element of the title), in an effort to bring these crucial movements to reality in his hometown.
"The main emphasis was to recall Fluxus -- having subjects execute mundane tasks as 'performance' with the concept being that anything can be art and anyone can participate." Vergez explains further the misconception about "noise" being abrasive. "It definitely can be, but I consider the term to be more encompassing, involving a multitude of genres including ambience, post-industrial, electronic, or otherwise. Like art, anything can be music with the right listener."
Part of multiple alternative sound projects, Vergez will be performing at Sunday's show as Drowning the Virgin Silence -- a project rooted in tape loops and collected field sounds like ripping paper. His noise is less abrasive than others based on sheer volume, as he's not "out to offend or confront anybody with sheer volume or profanity."
There will also be a visual aspect to his set as well. The latest in a habitual art of accumulation.
"I like to accumulate bulky, broken, and antiquated electronics. These machines fit my aesthetic and sound -- bulky and antiquated. The one on Sunday is based on a wave generator. A giant oscillator used in military practices."
Aside from what Vergez has to offer, Chrome Dick will also make an appearance on Sunday. Just one more in a line up full of Broward County, card-carrying, residential noisemakers.
"Hollywood is just plain weird," says Raphael Alvarez, a.k.a. experimental noise project, Chrome Dick, "so it is the perfect place to get a group like this together, especially at PRL."
Along with Brett Jason, a.k.a. "Last," Alvarez set out to book a show of this caliber in Hollywood and in doing so, decided the small dive bar was the best place for it and that Vergez was the right man to team up with.
"This will be my first Noise. Water. Meat. show. All I know is that it used to go down at Roxanne's in Oakland Park," Alvarez explains. "The show holds great significance for me because I get to make noise with my friends at a place that seems to naturally just fit the bill of a noise show. It's tiny in there. With strange people and delicious beer."
Working on his next tape, due out this year, and to be distributed by Brett Jason's label, Acid Casualty Productions, Alvarez's performances are about as volatile as Courtney Love's tweets, on a good day. And on the subject of unpredictability, he's pulling for "Chaos" to be the amended fourth element to the trio of nouns that define Sunday's activities.
"Mostly because Kenny (Millions) has multiplied into Death Fuk. Instead of one raving, loud as fuck madman, there seems to be two now."
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