Nihilist Spasm Band: the forgotten progenitors of noise rock
‘Who invented noise rock?’ is a question you will probably never be asked unless your friendship circle is populated by elitist music nerds wearing Sonic Youth T-shirts (admittedly, it takes one to know one). However, the origins of the abrasive genre are deceptive, which means it’s difficult to give a straight answer. The musical mainstream often cites New York heroes The Velvet Underground as the first group to establish noise rock, while others cite its beginnings as coming in the wake of punk rock in the 1970s. The true progenitors, however, are far too often overlooked.
The band that would pioneer noise rock originated in the unlikely surroundings of London – no, not that one, London, Ontario in Canada. For much of their time together, the DIY band would remain virtual unknowns, legends of their local scene, but ignored by the masses. ‘Spasm bands’ date back to the 19th century but started to become more widespread during the skiffle movement of the 1950s. Essentially, a spasm band is a group that uses homemade or improvised instruments. The Nihilist Spasm Band certainly played into this definition, though they were creating a sound unrecognisable to any kind of skiffle or Dixieland.
When the band first formed, none of the members really took the idea of learning traditional instruments, so they would improvise on kazoos and modified instruments. The group learned their craft in the bars and open mics of Ontario, playing mostly for their own enjoyment; after all, they were hardly going to top the charts with track names like ‘Dog Face Man’ or ‘Destroy the Nations’.
In 1968, the group got it together to release an LP entitled No Record, which remains one of the greatest experimental albums of all time. It was also with this record that the group established many of the tropes that would later characterise noise rock. Within the eight-minute opening track, ‘Destroy the Nations’, for instance, you can hear the sounds of Les Rallizes Denudés, Merzbow, and even some early Sonic Youth tracks.
Granted, the album would not make it far outside of the confines of London, Ontario, but it seems as though everybody who heard it went and started a band of their own. The groundbreaking sounds of the Spasm Band would go on to influence everything from no wave to grunge and everything in between.
No Record was released to the world the same year as The Velvet Underground unleashed White Light/White Heat, thought by many to be the first noise rock album of all time. While it is probably true that The Velvets introduced the sound to a wider audience, their record feels somewhat tame in comparison to the bizarre and innovative sounds of the Nihilist Spasm Band. What is more impressive than the idea that they created a genre, however, is that they never really stopped.
It would be over a decade before the NSB followed up on their debut with Vol. 2 in 1978, but since then, the band have never split up or lost their passion for experimentation. For the most part, the line-up is exactly the same as it was in 1965, minus Greg Curnoe and Hugh McIntyre, who have passed away and Archie Leitch, who has retired from music. Their last release was the single ‘Nothing Is Hard To Do (But We Try)’ from 2021, meaning that the Nihilist Spasm Band are perhaps the longest-running noise band in existence, as well as being the ones to originally plant the seeds of the genre.
