If you're a regular FADER reader, then you'll know that from the very beginning we've been huge No Age supporters. It actually kind of bordered on fanaticism. Our memories from those heady days of ’07 are a little hazy, but we're pretty sure we saw them four times in one day once. They were just one of those bands that everyone agreed on. We wrote a Gen F about them, did a feature and then followed it with a separate cover story. We've probably posted almost everything they've ever done on this blog (conveniently accessible just by clicking the band's name in that first line up there). When they released Everything In Between last year, we listened to it almost constantly, but talked about it a lot less than Nouns and Weirdo Rippers because we kinda just wanted to listen for a change.
In the years since Weirdo Rippers was released in ’07, No Age have been one of the most quietly influential bands around. They released a shitload of singles on a bunch of different labels leading up to the release of Weirdo Rippers, and then proceeded to make skating around LA and listening to Sonic Youth while eating at vegan restaurants the most appealing lifestyle ever. No Age are the future uncles who will explain to you why Neil Young is cool. No Age will make tie-dye a thing again, if it somehow isn't in the future. Indeed, No Age's appeal is as much about how they present themselves as it is about the actual music—which is often great and at times pretty phenomenal. While Weirdo Rippers was a beautifully discordant singles collection, Nouns was pure pop fury in cohesive album form. Songs piling upon themselves in a super-quick haze of frustrated lyrics and controlled feedback. It's pretty safe to say that without No Age, the lo-fi/garage/whatever-you-want-to-call-it resurgence wouldn't have happened on the level it did.
But aside from the ramifications in the musical world, with Nouns, No Age made an album that's worth living in. It's endlessly replayable, and in a strange way, it's actually kind of perfect. Some moments are brighter than others, sure, but as a whole, it's an album we'd stick in our back pocket if we could. Something to give our kids in the hopes that they'll listen to it over and over, the world making a little more sense filtered through No Age's blurred vision.
