Here's a belated correction: In my 2025 in music list, two album blurbs were erroneously doubled up for SEXFACES' Bad Vibes OST. There must have been some kind of formatting snafu when I copy and pasted the text from Google Docs to Buttondown. Anyway, the second entry should have read:

BIRTH (DEFECTS), DECEIVER/MIRROR: Noise rock for noise rock nerds by noise rock nerds. There's a certain kind of toxic goo mutation happening here: Bleach-era Nirvana hooks, grueling Cherubs-style riffs, a persistent clang and skree of too many late nights listening to Japanese noise. In an alternate universe, these are left-field hits of a radio station that only spurts to life when everything's gone to hell. 

This oopsie presents an opportunity. 

One of the best sets I saw last year was BIRTH (DEFECTS) at Rhizome. The Baltimore noise rockers had finally released a full-length album and set out on a short, pre-planned farewell tour. The show felt like that "Kramer, what's going on in there" meme — gross, grungy and there was a guy slamming a chain on a contact mic connected to some terrifying effects. It was awesome. 

Afterward, Joey, the dude with the chain, shared a photo on IG Stories of a yellow piece of paper with a bunch of band names and album titles scrawled across it: Electric Eels, Flipper, Arab on Radar, High Rise. Hell yeah, I thought, I like all of those bands. At the top, underlined in all-caps: NOISE ROCK CRASH COURSE. 

"What's this about?!" I asked. Some kid at the show asked for a list of noise-rock essentials and this is what Joey and Sean (the singer) came up with on the spot. "Sean and I jokingly called it The Noise Rock Bible (although plenty is missing) and the noise rock NWW list." 

Nothing tickles the brain of a noise nerd more than a sprawling and somewhat mysterious list of obscure oddities. Once I had discovered the aforementioned NWW list some 20 years ago, my whole sonic world was completely ruined in the best possible way. Noise rock, too, can ruin your life; this list will absolutely destroy it. 

What I love about this noise-rock crash course from Joey and Sean, two of the most opinionated music nerds I have ever met, is that while it does feature heavies of the scene (Big Black, Brainbombs, Swans, Cherubs), there's an acknowledgement that noise rock is impossible to define, but has intention. Noise rock is the disruption and perversion of sound, taste, morality and convention. Like punk, noise rock is less of a scene or sound, more of an ethos. Does noise rock need body mutilation or uncomfortable lyrics? No. Does it even need to be loud? No, actually, because there's some music on this list that's unsettlingly quiet and lo-fi, but is more daring than most recorded music. 

There's also some noise-rock prehistory here: The Velvet Underground's amp-fried White Light / White Heat, Debris' WTF avant-punk, Christian Death's lunging and screeching death rock, and the sonic maelstrom of Japanese psych-rock bands High Rise and Les Rallizes Dénudés. All crucial building blocks of destruction. 

And, if you'll allow a brief rant, when a band just takes the sonic signifiers — a daisy chain of Rat distortion, EHX reverb and some boutique pedals — but does nothing to confront its audience, well, that's just false noise rock. Get it out of my face. 

Above, you can find the full list as written on a piece of paper, graciously provided by Joey; below, my best attempt to transcribe it. Not everything here is on Bandcamp (or even most streaming services), but I did make a Viking's Choice mixtape of what's available. Follow me on Bandcamp and check out previous mixes via Buy Music Club. 

NOISE ROCK CRASH COURSE (AKA THE NOISE ROCK BIBLE AKA NOISE ROCK NWW LIST)
By Joey and Sean of BIRTH (DEFECTS)

No Trend, Too Many Humans
Flipper, Album Generic Flipper
Brainbombs, Burning Hell
Stick Men with Rayguns, Grave City
Swans, Filth and Cop
Rusted Shut, Rehab
Drunks with Guns, Drunks with Guns
Cherubs, Short of Popular
Minimal Man, The Shroud of
v/a, No New York
Spike in Vain, Disease is Relative
The Crucifucks, The Crucifucks
High Rise, II
Zeni Geva, Desire for Agony
Mentally Ill, Gacy's Place
Happy Flowers, My Skin Covers My Body
Chrome, Alien Soundtracks
The Residents, Duck Stab! / Buster & Glenn
Christian Death, Only Theatre of Pain
Debris', Debris'
Fang, Landshark
Les Rallizes Dénudés, Live '77
Rema-Rema, Wheel in the Roses
Public Image Ltd, First Issue
Half Japanese, Calling All Girls
Big Black, Songs About Fucking
Stretchheads, Five Fingers, Four Thingers, A Thumb, A Facelift, And A New Identity
v/a, Dead Tech Sampler: No Wave from Japan
Electric Eels, Die Electric Eels
Kilslug, Answer the Call
Hose, Hose and Mogo
Blight, Blight
Saccharine Trust, Paganicons
Metabolist, [no album named]
Harry Pussy, What Was Music
Arab on Radar, Rough Day at the Orifice
Twin Stumps, Twin Stumps   
White Suns, Totem
The New Flesh, Parasite
This Heat, This Heat
Scratch Acid, Scratch Acid
JUKE/19, JUKE/19
Hammerhead, Into the Vortex
The Ex, History is What's Happening
Crass, [to quote the piece of paper: "Everything!"]
Skullflower, Birth Death 
The Stooges, Fun House
The Velvet Underground, White Light / White Heat
Yoko Ono, Plastic Ono Band