The Noise Revival Orchestra

YOU SHOULDN’T READ THIS REVIEW. ALL OF THESE WORDS AND SENTENCES ARE JUST CONVOLUTED INTERFERENCES TO THE REAL REASONS WHY YOU’RE STILL
READING. SO YOU’RE CURIOUS ABOUT
FINDING SOME MUSICAL VORTEX OF
DISCOVERY? MAY WE SUGGEST THE NOISE REVIVAL ORCHESTRA EXPERIENCE.
For those of you who have made it this far and pushed yourselves through the normal boundaries of conventionalism, you’ll understand why you
need to see this band live. It’s because you need
to know about music.
Lead singer-songwriter/guitarist Nathan Felix knows a lot about music. He denies it at first,
saying he was never classically trained or taught, but the fact remains. Whether through pure
intuition or an emotional connection with sound,
Felix and his 13-piece band help convey music in
a way that isn’t for the occasional ear. Their pieces
take sonically charged journeys through waves of
horns, flutes, synths, percussion and more. The
ensemble, which sometimes finds it arduous to even fit on a bar stage, isn’t your typical Friday
night band. They’ve definitely made their rounds in town, playing at venues like Lambert’s, Mohawk and The Tap Room, but Felix knows they need
a change. “I finally feel like we’re accomplishing something that most bands strive for but fail to achieve; being different and staying different,”
Felix says with conviction, “so most venues end
up booking us with bands that start off that way,
but are still nothing like us. It’s hard for us to find a
good place to play at.”
With most of the current local bands having
straightforward songs with formulated melodies
and the standard keys/guitar/bass/drum set-up,
it’s no wonder Felix feels like an outsider in his
hometown. But cerebral approaches to art are
usually harder for others to understand. NROE
puts more emphasis on the actual voyage of
music, rather than the destination of their sound.
And although they are far from experimental,
they’re even farther from conventional.
The development of that sound, which is inspired
by composers like Danny Elfman and local
musician, Graham Reynolds of Golden Arm Trio,
has resulted with three new releases, available on
their website (thenoiserevival.com). The songs,
which are timeless and dramatic, distinguish
NROE as an indefinable band. And in a city where
unconventional paves the streets and covers
sidewalks, seeing this band live should just be
the natural progression to an already established
mentality. am+e - Austin M&E by Sonya Gonzalez

The rock ’n’ roll performance as we once knew it is dead.

Blame it on MTV and manically paced music videos. Blame it on a generation diagnosed with a cornucopia of attention disorders. Blame it on friggin’ Rock Band. The day when performers simply stand onstage and play their instruments is going the way of the dodo.

At one time, only popular touring acts with egos to match their bankrolls could stage light shows, choreographed dancers, and syncopated pyrotechnics, charging exorbitant amounts for a ticket (ahem, Madonna and U2). Now, due to cheaper gear and a revitalized DIY attitude, smaller bands that play to modest club-sized audiences can get in on the action, incorporating complex, multimedia artwork into concerts, creating original and fascinating visual spectacles.

San Antonio music fans get their chance to see art and music combine for A Wicked Christmas at Limelight Saturday, December 13. The show features Blowing Trees and the Noise Revival Orchestra Experience along with traditional and digital artists collaborating with their sets.

Austin’s 13-piece Noise Revival Orchestra Experience asked members of ArtSlam!, a local collective that stages San Antonio multimedia events, to create Christmas-themed works as the band plays. It’s part of the band’s experimentation with its bigger-than-life persona, which has previously resulted in the band giving performances dressed as pirates, guests at a masquerade ball, and perhaps for this event, naughty elves.

“People are just trying to expand and test their artistic capabilities,” says Nathan Felix, founding member of the Noise Revival Orchestra Experience. “I know for me, I’ve been really bored by music the last three or four years. Don’t get me wrong; there’s a lot of great music out there, but I feel like I want more than just going to a show and not getting any curveballs.”

The affordability and accessibility of equipment is a big reason for the merging of the two worlds. Diego Chavez is a San Antonio-based digital graphic artist and music producer who works on art projects with Blowing Trees and under his own moniker, Aether. His tool of choice is the user-friendly Mac software Final Cut Pro, which enables him to splice graphics and film clips onto DVD, to be run through video projectors. Blowing Trees plans to exhibit his work at A Wicked Christmas.

“They say movies are 60 percent visual and 40 percent audio,” Chavez says. “Those two mediums have always worked so well together. You can sync up the images, look at them, and all of a sudden you have the music. It totally changes the atmosphere and mood that you’re trying to get across.”

ArtSlam!, founded by Robert Perez, now features more than a dozen members creating art at regularly planned events, each one with a different theme and genre, whether it’s hip-hop MCs, DJs, or alt-rock acts. The various artists create mixed-media pieces while live acts perform, completing several works by the end of the night.

“I think it’s more for your money,” Perez says. “It’s like, ‘Yeah, I saw that band last time.’ ‘But no, did you see them with four artists onstage?’ Each show would be a lot different. You might have the same songs, but you’re going to have a totally different experience.”

The melding of the visual and audio mediums makes for an all-encompassing, sometimes mind-blowing experience.

“It totally helps out with the live performances,” Chavez says. “People love the visuals. It brings people to the reality of your setting, the environment you want to set up in a show.” • - San Antonio Current by Johnston Farrow

Wouldn’t you know it? I stumble on the most photogenic social event of the season — and forgot my camera. It was the Rock Me Amadeus Masquerade Ball with Noise Revival Orchestra at the Beauty Bar on Friday was something to behold: Dozens of mostly young revelers dressed up in burlesque versions of carnival drag. Eighteenth-century wigs, bustiers, Venetian-style masks, frock coats — it was dress-up on a scale rarely seen on hipster Seventh Street.

Summoning the spirit of Florenz Ziegfeld, Erte or Busby Berkeley, one costume doubled as a gown and a draped pastry display. Among the first performers — after the Southern Comfort hot hour — were practiced burlesque dancers, one performing adroitly to a naughty Eartha Kitt song (is that redundant?). And where did all these women in their twenties learn the art of a performance form that died out 40 years ago? Did every high school in Texas stage “Gypsy” during the past decade?

Anyway, the show followed a vaudeville structure, climaxing with the marquee act, the Noise Revival Orchestra, a dozen or so young musicians who blend jazzy horns, soulful singing and an elevated soundtrack sensibility for long, symphonic songs. (One of the members dropped a flash drive on me at Ame Shillington’s D-List party earlier this year. Smart move.) By 1 a.m., I was totally hypnotized. My only complaint: The stage is too low for seated musicians. Only the first few people in the crowded club could see the whole action. - Austin 360 Out and About by Michael Barnes

"I hated band in high school. I tried as hard as I could to fit into the confines of such a limiting musical environment and failed miserably. Given this backdrop, it'd be incredibly easy for me to write the Noise Revival Orchestra Experience off as nothing more than a band geek wet dream, except for the fact that they are undeniably, unapologetically brilliant, not only to Austin but to the world at large. Nothing, and I mean nothing on the current Austin scene can even lay claim to being as iconoclastic and inspired as these ladies and gentlemen. Thirteen members strong, the Noise Revival is an eclectic and cohesive group, and by this I mean that no one is any more or less important to the ultimate outcome of their work. Everyone, from the horns, percussion, back up vocals and keyboards has a valuable impact on the outcome, and yet no one person can lay claim to being the "superstar". Maybe that's why I find them so fascinating, or maybe it's the simple fact that their music is just really great. Sure, you could take the easy route and say they sound like Godspeedyoublackemporer, Radiohead, Mercury Rev, or any daringly original band that's previously defied genre and easy description, but that would be a serious discredit to the fruits of their labor. And, if no one has taken a split second to stop and digest this simple fact, dear readers please take a second and realize that this is happening, right now, in the town you live in! Stop wasting your time on Ghostland Observatory (excellent band, don't get me wrong, but I've already been there) and stop hoping that Brit Daniels wants to be your friend. The NROE has a clarity of vision and sense of self that I have never seen before in any context, and they deserve your attention. Somebody wake up Austin Powell so that he can follow Chris Gray's legacy of eventually "discovering" the genius that I have the privilege of seeing first." - Victor - Whoopsy by Victor Hell