Big Noise | Falling Underground: The Lost Album
(Steel Derrick Music)
In the 1980s, Big Noise ruled the Bard College live music scene. With their unrelentingly danceable, horn-dominated blend of funk, ska, no wave/punk, jazz, and Afrobeat, the collective packed ’em in at campus parties and the legendary Rhinecliff Hotel and other local clubs; played CBGB and other New York hotspots; and opened for likeminded acts the B-52s, Gang of Four, Pere Ubu, the Waitresses, They Might Be Giants, and NRBQ. During their 1980-1987 lifespan, Big Noise—whose secret-weapon saxophonists included Woodstock Creative Music Studio mainstay Peter Buettner and Tin Huey/Tom Waits baritonist Ralph Carney—released only one 45 (a video for the quirky A side, “College Student,” got MTV airplay) and a four-song 12″. This long-overdue archival LP, lovingly assembled and opulently packaged by drummer Nelson Bragg (who later played with Brian Wilson), adds those tracks to six unheard items for an ear- and eye-opening document of these essential Hudson Valley musical pranksters.
This article appears in May 2023.
