Neptune

The local rock tirade goes extra big in '08

By Daniel Lopatin

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Let's face it—there's very few truly inspiring, fresh rock bands left on the face of the planet. At this stage in the game, I'm looking for tractor-beam rock, or exposed - zombie - cranium rock, or Apocalypse 3000 rock. Perhaps this is why I so often turn to weird music for an answer, which at its best seems to undo tired sonorous trajectories that have been hard at work since the inception of 'perfect' temperament. But at what point on the giant wheel that is Western music does the ethereal return from its place on the fringes of abstraction and become something pointed, palatable, semiotic? Imagine dense sound miasmas—some natural (the violence of a river) some synthetic (violent factory noise) are all equally human, in the sense that they inherit our politics the minute we observe them—we graft our dreams and our fears onto them. For local noiserock jammers Neptune, disjuncture and failure aren't imbued in dissonance; that derisive connection is forged by culture and history, and little else.

Neptune is a three-man sculpture/electrical engineering/performance team who build their gear by hand; a mess of barrels, blades, auto scrap and other miscellany both domestic and industrial, all modded with electronics. The resultant soul-of-Neptune is something akin to a scrap yard on fire, or Godzilla's drum kit. Founded by Jason Sanford in 1994, Neptune was a senior thesis project that would become a decade-and-a-half-long mission, culminating this month with a release on Jeff Hunt's glorious experimental Table of Elements label. TOE is also home to Tony Conrad, Faust, John Cale and Rhys Chatham—not bad company to find yourself in, and they deserve it after ripping their limbs off for music that no other band in the world dares to do with the same fervor, understanding and devotion. I'm serious. These guys are America's post-punk answer to Neubauten. Not Liars, people; Neptune. They don't use Game Genie, they make new games.

Their forthcoming record, Gong Lake, is a total monster, and one of the best sounding records from their extensive discography. Recorded at Machines With Magnets in Rhode Island with Kevin Micka (Animal Hospital), the album is equal parts Beach Boys and terrifying. "Black Tide" grabbed me right off the bat with its beautiful, somber melody that is just barely holding on—a zone where subdued harmony and negative space are nearly indistinguishable from each other. "Ebbing" ends the album perfectly—no lyrics on this one, just a single repetitive synth passage with clamorous, bubbling, sizzling decay strewn about. But what makes this record so especially different than their previous releases is that it feels like a complete studio effort, an album which demarcates a total sound world. Baritone guitarist/percussionist Mark Pearson says, "These weren't created to be performed ... some elements of the physicality of it didn't render itself live very well."

You don't actually have to go any further than Neptune's sonic approach to understand the pathos of the band. The instruments themselves are weapons—these dudes have been injured by them many times. "I used to play circular saw blades," says drummer Dan Boucher. "That's what really killed me the most." This acute sense of physicality resonates with Neptune, the performance artists. They are literally battling these instruments every night, getting them to go through with their plan, and a big part of the Neptune live experience is watching a rock band grapple with equipment that vehemently wants them to fail. Or, as Boucher puts it: "We work for the no money we get paid." Where Neptune abandons the beaten path of their noise brethren is that they are still the rulers, the overlords, the puppeteers of song. Neptune logically deploys blasts of noise, brackets chaos, syncopates trash, and does so in such a seamless and natural way that it's often hard to believe there's a master plan behind it. "People think that so much of our songs are whatever happens in the moment," says Boucher. "It's not that way at all. We get bummed out if it's off."

2008 will be Neptune's biggest and busiest year. Between the TOE release and a maniacal tour schedule, Neptune is going big. Says Boucher, "I have a personal goal to beat our record of 117 shows in 2006. So that's at least 118." In the coming months, Neptune hits SXSW, heads out to California for a slew of shows, comes back east to teach a class in upstate NY on instrument building, and then gears up for Europe. And fortunately, none of the label hoopla will have any effect on their devotion to handmade, private press releases which they'll continue to output. "We were the main distribution point for our stuff," says Pearson. "If you wanted something, you'd come up to one of us at our show. We know who's going home with what we've created." So when you see them, be sure to grip something directly from the band. Or ask them to wrap you in ventilation duct material and put chunks of gas pipe on your ears—you'll hear the ocean, I swear.

NEPTUNE CD RELEASE PARTY

W/ HELMS, WE ARE POWERS AND ANIMAL HOSPITAL

SATURDAY 2.16.08

GREAT SCOTT

1222 COMM. AVE.

ALLSTON

617.566.9014

9PM/21+/$10

GREATSCOTTBOSTON.COM

NEPTUNEBAND.COM