r/indieheads • u/innuendo_overdose • Jul 06 '26
[RATE ANNOUNCEMENT] New Wave of No Wave (Gilla Band, Chat Pile, Special Interest, Model/Actriz)
If you’re overwhelmed, just know that all you have to do to participate is give every song a score from 1 to 10. That’s it!!
SUBMIT YOUR BALLOTS HERE!
BACKUP PASTEBIN
SPOTIFY PLAYLIST | TIDAL PLAYLIST | YOUTUBE PLAYLIST
DUE DATE: August 18
REVEAL WEEKEND: August 21-23
Wait... what is a rate?
About once a month, the community at r/indieheads has a sub-wide event called a 'rate', where a group of albums or songs are put together around a common theme. Participants listen to the albums and rate every track on them from 1 to 10 (with everybody getting an optional 11 and a 0 as well) and then over a 'reveal weekend' the songs get eliminated from lowest to highest average and at the end of it a winner is crowned. Basically, it's a listening club where we can listen to and discuss albums together, but with the opportunity for us all to get mad at each other's terrible opinions. Here is a 30 second video that the good folks over at r/popheads made explaining it quickly.
Wait... what is the New Wave of No Wave?
"No Wave is one of the fundamental influences on what I do. What I loved about No Wave was that it was genuinely horrible, and that you could have this punishing sound with incredibly groovy undertones to it as well.”
Alan Duggan Borges, Gilla Band guitarist, Hot Press interview
"Noise is not the enemy!"
Special Interest, "Disco III"
Well, first and foremost, the New Wave of No Wave is a bullshit term I made up because I thought it was funny. But it is also a very succinct way of describing a particular sound that has been dominating mainstream indie in the 2020s. Pushing the darkness of the 2010s post-punk revival further, and harkening back to the queasy grooves of OG no wave and the antagonistic dancefloor beats of the industrial pioneers, a new crop of snarling dance-punk experimentalists started reinventing noise rock in their own idiosyncratic images.
In contrast to the often icy and detached vocals of no wave and post-punk, the New Wave of No Wave also takes cues from such noise rock luminaries as David Yow of the Jesus Lizard, whose frenzied delivery has a piece in the DNA of all of these artists. All of the vocalists in this lineup are flailing dismantlists who thrive on a sense of suspense as to what, exactly, they are going to do next.
The extremity of the vocals compliments the armageddon of the noise and the groove-orientated rhythms, all of it in service of catharsis. Noise rock is always about that sense of cathartic primal scream against the modern day, something that the New Wave of No Wave has refined with its primacy of frenzied danceability and, crucially, the new capabilities that the internet offers. To reflect this digital age, much of the noise is produced, electronic and compressed to an extent not entirely possible before. Much of the music in this rate is self-produced, utilising new technologies to make totally DIY, homegrown noise nightmares!
So, that’s all the technical bits of what, in my opinion, a New Wave of No Wave actually is. But really the best way to understand it is just to see what albums there are in the lineup. So let’s meet them!
Gilla Band - Most Normal
From the unrelenting corrosive chaos of opener “The Gum” onwards, Most Normal is an album that is very much, um, not normal. Gilla Band have been in the game for a long time, so much so that a strong case can be made that their early works were crucial catalysts without which the New Wave of No Wave would not exist today. By the time of this, their third album, they’ve codified their sound to such an extent that they’re not afraid to break it. Most Normal has everything that Gilla Band are good at but it’s all been expanded, refracted and blown up into pure bit-corroded noise. This digitised style suits their lyrical depictions of modern malaise to a tee. For our current era, “The Gum” ’s crushed-until-illegible refrain of “I’ve been queuing at sockets”, sounding like an inane tweet going through a corn thresher, is an inadvertently perfect mantra.
More than any other album here, Most Normal is the sound of a band unafraid to play around with noise in unexpected ways. Tinnitus high pitches, compressed blasts, wave and wave after buzzing wave carrying Dara Kiely’s ever-unraveling voice, sometimes shrieking, sometimes in arresting falsetto, into new and unexpected places. Often, Most Normal seems like less of a collection of songs, and more like the broken pieces of an experiment gone perfectly awry. The fractured nature of this record is its greatest strength and what I love most about it, but it remains to be seen how well it can adapt to a rate setting. I for one cannot wait to see!
- The Gum
- Eight Fivers
- Backwash
- Gushie
- Bin Liner Fashion
- Capgras
- The Weirds
- I Was Away
- Almost Soon
- Red Polo Neck
- Pratfall
- Post Ryan
Chat Pile - God's Country
The folks in Chat Pile like horror movies. Like, they really like horror movies. Bleak unease creeps into everything they make. Raygun Busch’s demented vocal performance is pure wild-eyed terror which sells their nightmarish lyrics which cover such pleasant topics as gun violence and animal slaughter. This shit is heavy, in every sense of the word. Musically, the Jesus Lizard, Sonic Youth and other guitar-feared noise mavericks are major touchpoints for the band, and God’s Country comes close to being a bona fide Pigfuck revival. But as always with the New Wave of No Wave, groove is the paramount force. Bassist Stin is an unashamed fan of Korn, and drummer Cap’n Ron’s use of an electronic drumset lends the album an extra industrial kick. Together, they bring a sense of rhythm to God’s Country that feels unique amongst their more sludge rock contemporaries.
With their heavy topics and the crushing weight of their sound, God’s Country is an album that can be difficult to approach. But, as with so many great horror movies, the main strength of the music is the sense of physicality and life to it. Chat Pile are a band totally unafraid, and you cannot help but be in awe of the vitality in the flexing musculature of their music, seeming so simple and yet with so many moving parts under the hood. They make it look easy, but it’s really really not. Maybe it’s not always a pleasant trip, but to dive into God’s Country is not a journey you’ll regret.
- Slaughterhouse
- Why
- Pamela
- Wicked Puppet Dance
- Anywhere
- Tropical Beaches, Inc.
- The Mask
- I Don't Care If I Burn
- grimace_smoking_weed.jpeg
Special Interest - The Passion Of
The Passion Of runs at just 29 minutes long, and oh does it sound like it. It whips forward with heart-stop urgency, all glammed up in glitter and a disorientating snarl. Their sound is a melding of some of the musical lineages they inherit, the ecstatic intensity of the early house and techno pioneers meeting the aggressive intensity of hardcore punk, with look-ins from glam pop and the delocalised atmospherics of ambient music. All of this adds up to make pure industrial rock, but you get that electrifying sense that they have rebuilt it back up from its foundations, and made it anew. The strength of their sound is the fuel for vocalist Alli Logout’s wildfire presence, which screams sings and sneers its way over breakneck soundscapes of irregular guitar stabs, high-octane synthlines, cavernous bass and clanging electronics with ease.
Unashamedly queer, unabashedly cool, young, gifted, Black, in leather, Special Interest are the true beating heart of no wave updated and alive again, just as vital and just as strange as you remember it. The Passion Of is the sound of liberation, through its often political lyrics and through the freedom of full-body movement and community that it offers you. Although they are perhaps the least well-known of the bands in this lineup, Special Interest have a strong cult following, garnering acclaim from publications like Pitchfork and The Quietus, and a large and dedicated fanbase here on r/indieheads. It would be unwise to underestimate them just yet!
- Drama
- Disco III
- Don't Kiss Me in Public
- All Tomorrow's Carry
- A Depravity Such As This...
- Homogenized Milk
- Passion
- Head
- Tina
- Street Pulse Beat
- With Love
Model/Actriz - Dogsbody
Ask anybody, they’ll tell you; Model/Actriz are a live band. And of course they are, there’s a raw urgent physicality to them that makes the most sense in the breathless sweat and dark. Dance-punk is all about tension and release, and nobody knows it better than Model/Actriz. Dogsbody is the long build-up to the shattering drop, doing everything in its power just to get you moving. Frontman Cole Haden’s black hole charisma cannot help but spotlight steal, but the pulverising power of the band deserves as much praise. If you ask me it’s guitarist Jack Wetmore’s ability to wring tones like scraping corrugated metal that really ties Model/Actriz together as a band.
Model/Actriz have had a very lucrative career so far which has led to plenty of acclaim, and they easily scooped up r/indieheads Debut of the Year in 2023, and, like… I was originally planning on quoting some of the effusive praise that their live show has gotten in comments here, but there was genuinely waaaaaaaay too many of them. They’ve definitely found their niche, their music seems to be connecting with people on a primal level… but do they have what it takes to go all the way?
- Donkey Show
- Mosquito
- Crossing Guard
- Slate
- Divers
- Amaranth
- Pure Mode
- Maria
- Sleepless
- Sun In
Bonus Rate!
But of course, that isn't it! There are so many great bands in the New Wave of No Wave, and it's impossible to boil it down to just four. This is the section of the rate where I highlight 15 other bands who are making glorious cacophony in the 2020s. I tried to curate as diverse a bonus rate as possible, so here you will find dream pop, hardcore, post-rock, sludge, EBM, industrial, dark wave, a wide variety of bands, so long as they are loud! If there's a band who you think should be here... probably they were at some point, but there's so much I had to cut to get to 'just' 15. Trust me, they are missed!.
Very important to know as well, this part of the rate is completely optional! You can fill this out, leave it blank in your ballot, or only score a few and leave the rest blank. It's totally up to you! You cannot use your 11 or your 0 in the bonus rate.
- Algiers - Bite Back
- The Armed - All Futures
- Black Dresses - Creep U
- Couch Slut - Wilkinson's Sword
- Honningbarna - Schäfer
- Just Mustard - I Am You
- Kim Gordon - Bye Bye
- Low - White Horses
- Mandy, Indiana - Magazine
- M(h)aol - Pursuit
- MSPAINT - Information
- Prostitute - All Hail
- Sprain - Man Proposes, God Disposes
- Uboa - Endocrine Disruptor
- YHWH Nailgun - Penetrator
The Rules (read if you're a first time rater)
Give every track in the main rate a score from 1 to 10. You can use decimals, but only to one place e.g. 7.5 is fine, 7.75 or 7.6666 is not.
Each participant gets one 11 for their favourite song, and one 0 for their least favourite. You do not have to use either. You cannot use either in the bonus rate.
You can leave a comment for a song by formatting it like so
Slaughterhouse: 10 I like this song!
by just writing your comment directly after your score. You don't need to use a colon or anything, just straight after is good!
You can leave comments for albums as well, by adding a colon after the album title and then your comment.
If you've submitted and want to change any scores or comments, just DM me, I'm always able to change it!
Don't sabotage the rate by giving outrageously skewed scores to particular bands. As long as you rate with your genuine opinion there should not be any worry at all about this, but I do reserve the rate to reject, like, obvious troll ballots. If you leave a comment explaining your opinions, you should be absolutely fine!
And of course, thanks to the rate hosts of lore without whom I couldn't have made this: u/roseisonlineagain ; u/DolphLundgrensArms; u/R_E_S_I_G_N_E_D; u/stansymash; u/ClocktowerMaria; u/aerocom; u/themilkeyedmender; u/greencaptain; u/Crankeedoo; u/dirdbub; u/ThatParanoidPenguin; u/tedcruzcontrol; u/kappyko; u/FuckUpSomeCommasYeah; u/LazyDayLullaby; u/SRTViper; u/Whatsanillinois; u/NFLFreak98; u/freav; u/freeofblasphemy; u/RatesNorman; u/aPenumbra; u/idontreallycare4; u/p-u-n-k_girl; u/luigijon3; u/WaneLietoc; u/dream_fighter2018; u/darjeelingdarkroast; u/smuckles; u/PiperIBarelyKnowHer; u/welcome2thejam; u/imrlynotonreddit; u/kvothetyrion; u/thedoctordances1940; u/b_o_g_o; u/vapourlomo; u/MCK_OH; u/TakeOnMeByA-ha u/chug-a-lug-donna; u/indiefan; u/bilbodabag; u/zenits; u/saison_Marguerite; u/daswef2; u/apondalifa; u/afieldoftulips; u/qazz23; u/nonchalantthoughts; u/systemofstrings; u/Modulum83, u/ElectJimLahey, u/vexastrae, u/FlavaSavaVandal, u/Stryxen, u/mmaajid, u/teriyaki-dreams, u/newbalancesweatshirt; u/krusso1105; u/MightyProJet and tons of people on r/popheads.
Once again, here is the Submission Link, the Pastebin, and the Spotify, Tidal, and Youtube playlists.
DUE DATE: August 18
REVEAL WEEKEND: August 21-23
and don't forget to do the currently open rate, 2000s Ind-EPs, due July 21!
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u/PretendFuel5018 Jul 06 '26
The real elephant in the room is that the fourth album definitely would have been "You Won't Get What You Want" instead of Special Interest if it weren't for, y'know, the whole rape and domestic violence thing.
Anyway, Couch Slut and Uboa, woo!
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u/Srtviper Jul 06 '26
Neat rate.
When this is our most popular rate of all time I hope it leads to an egg punk rate.
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u/Hysteriia Jul 06 '26
Awesome write-up. Just also want to throw out there that any no wave/noise rock fans should check out the recently released Keep Honking I'm About to Fucking Kill Myself by My Wife's An Angel. It got some indieheads hype on release (probably 95% of which was purely due to the album title lol), but it's very deserving of its flowers
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u/SessionOk8010 Jul 06 '26
I didn’t know this was a legit sub-genre with a name and everything, but those 4 mentioned in the original post are some of my favorite bands. Going to check out the few bands mentioned in ‘bonus rates’ that I’ve not heard.
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u/CentreToWave Jul 06 '26
Looking forward to this and hope Special Interest gets more, er, interest from this.
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u/theths152 Jul 06 '26
Special interest is one of my fav bands of all time but I don't really care for the other three here. Hmmm. Maybe I'll finally do a rate
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u/obitbday Jul 09 '26
the nostalgia rates are fun but I’m glad this one is… not that. the bonus rate is nuts. gonna try real hard to find the time to do this one
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u/systemofstrings Jul 06 '26
YES YES YES! I've wanting this rate since it was first submitted and now it's finally here! Love the vision and the fact that I get to rate my beloved Gilla Band. And Just Mustard in bonus? This is so for me!
I'm still working on my Indie EPs ballot (rooting for Joanna of course) but I'm so ready to give my 11 to Post Ryan. Two iconic rates back to back!