We all have different entry points into the Amherst houseshow scene, as both emerging performers and showgoers. The project began more broadly with an ethnographic interest in the stories and people of the Amherst DIY community, and then our focus sharpened to Noise as a provocative sensory experience that would lend well to a compelling audiovisual piece. Our intention was to create an impressionist sensory essay evocative of live Noise, instead of manipulating disparate moments to construct a narrative or prove an ethnomusicological hypothesis. Rather than dishonestly present an ostensibly pristine account of the events recorded, our video’s visual stylization makes obvious the technological mediation and artistic intervention inherent to the medium of film.
This film has emerged out of a larger project to create a digital video archive of DIY shows in Amherst and the greater River Valley region. The archives can be found at the Youtube channels of filmmaker Ben Goodbody and friend and collaborator Austin Wakefield:
- Austin’s Archive: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=austin+wakefield
- Ben’s Archive: https://www.youtube.com/@Hauzu_noise
We extend gratitude and appreciation to all of our collaborators in the DIY scenes. Thank you to…
- Fetal Anomaly: https://www.instagram.com/fetalanomalyband/
- Imp Say Glyph: https://www.instagram.com/impsayglyph/
- Letters of Marque: https://www.instagram.com/413.lom/
- Buglslam: https://www.instagram.com/bugslam/
- Bubble Scary: https://www.instagram.com/bubble.scary/
- Dishpit: https://www.instagram.com/dishpit666/
- Target Scammers: https://www.instagram.com/targetscammers/
- Dash Cam: https://www.instagram.com/dashcam.ct/
- 12,000 Fucks: https://www.instagram.com/12000fucks/
- Hauzu: https://www.instagram.com/hauzu_noise/
- Dialog Talk: https://www.instagram.com/dialog_talk/
About the Filmmakers
Anna is trying to capture affective and sensory experience through the audiovisual. She had never been to a Noise show prior to this project. Anna lives off a diet of toast and coffee. Occasionally she eats fruit.
Ben is a musician, filmmaker, and performance artist based in Western Massachusetts. He can be found playing shows with his band Hauzu. Please bring earplugs, tinnitus sucks.
Will is a frog pretending to be a human. He’s a happy frog 🐸 and he has decided that Amherst College is not a good place for frogs so he will be departing to a lily pad in a town near you.
Peace and love 💜🐐💜