You know that bright, dribbly, scribbly, slightly cute, collage-y, cartoony, fantastical, vaguely psychedelic style of popular contemporary art that makes you nostalgic for your youth even though you’re still young? Chances are whoever made it was influenced by someone stationed in Providence, Rhode Island, near the turn of the millennium, whether the artist knows it or not. And chances are that influence is somehow related to Load Records, the party noise/abysmal dronecore label Ben McOsker’s been running steadily and mostly quietly for almost 15 years.
Whether through album art or musical contribution, Load’s launched entire genres of cultural information—most notably Lightning Bolt, a mask-wearing entropic duo of bass and drums (in that order). The hype’s died considerably over the last few years, but for some time it seemed every noise nerd was learning to sew his own face cover and joining forces with his best friend.
“How can this not be good?” asks McOsker, though he admits he’s “not trying to replicate my success with imitation ... The label is really trying to advance viable alternatives to the cesspool that modern music has turned into with its endless retreads and mediocre bands.”
And thank goodness Load doesn’t aspire to a cookie-cutter aesthetic; the roster includes Chicago no-wave girl band Scissor Girls, abrasive whiners Arab on Radar, neon multimedia freaks Paper Rad, face blasterz Sightings, knitwear-and-fine-art collective Forcefield, witchy space-cases Metalux, dream killers Noxagt, skronky junkyard Coughs and Silver Daggers, pervy tornado desperado Prurient and on and on. This month look forward to releases from future caveman terrors Sword Heaven and whatever Andrew W.K. will sound like next.
It’s a knife’s edge between being popular because you’re good and being popular because you’re trendy: the ol’ chicken/egg conundrum. When that happens, it means you’re living in the present. Anyone who calls Load avant-garde just because it hinges on experimental doesn’t know what he’s talking about. No, Load is pendant-garde, the very essence of what right now sounds like.