Young Master McGowan is right! New York is about as Liverpool-y as it can get outside -- my hoodie is still wet from the half-mile walk to work. So let’s get on with some noise to drown out a meteorological malaise so intolerable it’d make Travis Bickle say “fuck it” and stay home.

That’s the Jesus and Mary Chain, one of the first groups to mix feedback and pop music. The band didn’t just inspire decades worth of shoegaze and noise rock, though. Five years ago, every other gentleman on North 6th Street looked like one of their understudies. J&MC are also famous for playing a twenty-minute-long set that devolved into a riot.

...and that was Wavves, the kid who went from living in a poolhouse to being reviewed by the LA Times in about eight minutes. He also managed to have a very public meltdown at a concert in Spain. But, hey, thanks to the age of YouTube (Hi! I’m boomer print media journalist!) the line between publicity and entertainment has vanished. I saw him play live this summer. For all the hate he gets for riding the noise-revival wave without having any “actual talent,” all I saw was a kid in a Chicago Bulls cap and a skateboarding cast on his strumming arm, machine-gunning three minute surf-rock tracks. Why even bother to ask for anything more?

(Panel from The Invisibles #1, 1994, Morrison/Yeowell)