Out of the Dungeon VIII

Welcome to Out of the Dungeon, a many part series detailing a decade of NSFTM noise, hip hop, 'n' adventures from top No Sunlite for the Media scholars, historians, fans, 'n' collaborators. Medians share their thoughts on the absolute values of various NSFTM rekkerds, while we provide free audio streaming 'n' hi-quality file purchase of all the albums at our bandcamp page.

Out of the Dungeon VIII: They're Beaver MC's Now
Lungless Beavers as No Sunlite's Purest Statement
A Rant from A2K

[Lungless Beavers can be downloaded in full here]

Lungless Beavers…(I am going to keep this profanity free if I can…but I am not going to lie…I am fired up about this.)

So you remember when your favorite band used to bring it?… You remember when you found this album that changed your life?…You couldn’t wait for their next album to come out…You tracked down all their old demos, b-sides and outtakes. You told all of your friends and gave them bootleg copies, and you told them, "Just wait for their next album".

[Sales booth at the Lungless Beavers release night]

Then the next album came, and we all know what happened then…THE ALBUM WAS LAME AS SHIT…but I’m not here to talk about all the lame shit that NSFTM has been putting out for the past couple years…I am here to write about the realest album they have ever put out...
Lungless Beavers - Finally the day came that NSFTM put out an album. Yes, there were bootlegs before and live shows and demos…but come on, it was noise, scratchy samples and poor rhyming. The album finally came - sure, Math can only play his guitar loud and at varying tempos (I mean just listen to "Where We From" from the very top it's all over the place or "Down to the Gulch"), all Josh can do is rip rhymes all off Eric B and Rakim (check verse 2 from "Big Booty/Big Martha"), Martha wouldn’t know a rhyme if he played it on his banjo (no example needed or you can just check "Lil Pimp"), and Trippy Tim…well, when has he done anything of note then, now, or ever (I mean what is "It Takes More than Thousands of Miles to Hold Us Back")? But there is a rare point in time when all things come together and a great album happens.

There are def rhymes but with a message. Some of the most classic singles, samples and slapping all those beaver MC's in their faces appear on this album. Ask any casual NSFTM fan what their number one song is and the answer will be, no matter who it is, “Ninja Nuns”. But the album is not all based around just one track. This album is a social commentary on the state of the record industry. These beaver MC's are you whack rappers out there; those rappers and music makers that have fallen into that Reganomics outlook that rapping and music is all about making money and what you've got and the money you spend. That is not what music is about and not what NSFTM is about. They have constructed an album about what music is about and not about what HIP HOP is about.
It's about the music…it's about the people…it's about the energy…the rhymes, the beats, the samples - make the music.

But what makes up this album…what makes it so great…

"Big BBQ Bumble Bee Bites/Hearts Beats Green" - the samples «You ever been bit by one of them big bumble bees?»...the rhymes «Badgers vs. beavers/Bring on the battle»

"Big Booty/Big Martha" - the rhymes «I Don’t Battle With Rhymes…»... the heart «What you need are GLASS BOTTLES AND OILY RAGS».

"Down to the Gulch" - the acoustic folk...the lyrics «Who is afraid of a fluffy duck?»

"Learn to Defeat the Devil" - the passion...the realness...this is a real issue.

"Shake Yr. Fannies" - the danceability «Oh Dip Oh Dip…Shake Those Fannies!»

"Lil’ Pimp" - the lyrics «Heat cases steam, steam causes pressure, count the beats till the end of the message»...the message…what a sick sick sample and bass groove.

"To Shed Thee Monkey Body/Primate Reptile" - the sample, the backbeat...it makes ya just wanna boogie, and Jana loves it.

"Ninja Nuns" - the single.

"Round and Round We Go" - the lyrics that stood the test of time «The one who gives you hogwash; is he the hogwasher?» «Time is no longer an absolute»

"Oktopus, Oktopus" – the hit...the single...the lyrics...the message - gives you great advice for dating. I am still waiting for those Stooges.

[The Rhino-dominated era of NSFTM shirts was ending; on Lungless Beavers release night,
NSFTM also debuted the broken legged beaver design, still in use today]

The music is the word and the word is truth…this album came together to show the music world that you don’t need clear samples, rhymes about money, cars and drugs; you don’t need expensive drum machines or fancy gear. You need a passion, a mic and a mix. What have they done since…tons of albums and EP's...but none of them match the intensity, sampling and message that Lungless does…Spare yourself the pain and just stick with Lungless - the rest are WHACK…

-A2K/Andrew Rickel
Jefferson, MD
Nov. 2k9
Hip Hop Pool Party Style:

Out of the Dungeon VII

Welcome to Out of the Dungeon, a many part series detailing a decade of NSFTM noise, hip hop, 'n' adventures from top No Sunlite for the Media scholars, historians, fans, 'n' collaborators. Medians share their thoughts on the absolute values of various NSFTM rekkerds, while we provide free audio streaming 'n' hi-quality file purchase of all the albums at our bandcamp page.

Out of the Dungeon VII: Kollege Doesn't Have a "K"!
Better Than Kollege Fragments, What Are They?
Cold Hard Facts About This Dip by Math

Here's the brief rundown of thee Kollege-era No Sunlite dip:

1) NSFTM receives 7-Track. Without knowing how to use it, we make some tracks. The first song ever recorded, before NSFTM knew how to sync things or listen to previous tracks when overdubbing was "Point of thee Song".

2) Finally, a style is discovered involving rewinding tapes. We settle on this technique for 60 minutes of music mixed to a master cassette. This becomes Better Than Kollege, Vol. 1: 7-Track Kollages, which presents this entire project in chronological order (order recorded = order on the tape). [Download BTK1] [Read about BTK1]

3) NSFTM decides to loop up drumbreaks 'n' begin a hip hop phase. This becomes BTK2: Fi-Lo Hop Hip, which is never completed fully. "Mars Is Gonna Eat Ya" is thee first of this style, aside from thee "Rich Beats" series.

4) No Sunlite makes various noise collages to be released as BTK3: Noise for Boys. It also is never complete.

5) The pop songs from earlier (see "1" above) along with various other poppy recordings from the high-school years are slated to be released as BTK4: Purple Rubber Pet Sounds. It never happens. This includes early versions of "Rhino", "Octopus", 'n' "Dentist", the earliest record of Jana with the NSFTM gang, including Mikey Negrin.

6) Actual kollege begins 'n' Math decides to do the opposite of the BTK series 'n' do things all digital to make Kollege Than Better, Vol. 1. [Download KTB1] [Read About KTB1] [Read More About KTB1, if yr imagination can handle it]

7) Following this, No Sunlite continued to record various songs that would either fit onto the next full lengths, Lungless Beavers and Dungeon Records, or be left as remnants. These fragments became fodder for this blog 'n' eventually part of BTK5: Pieces.

This set also included various Christmas tunes, which would find themselves in limbo as well.

8) Along with this portion of the BTK saga was a long series of shows that NSFTM played as Bella Bagels' house band. At a Bagels performance was where NSFTM had its Lungless Beavers release show. Many songs were practiced 'n' performed first here.


9) What is the final fate of all these songs? Better Than Kollege, Vols. 2-5 have little chance of ever seeing the lite, so we decided to edit them down for Fragments and rerelease BTK1 with these all as a bonus 2nd disc to tie up all these loose ends. [Download BTK Fragments]

The BTK reissue album cover, showing Math 'n' Martha in their Dungeon habitat.

These Fragments helped complete a picture of NSFTM in transition, or rather constantly bouncing about from styles. Many of these rather shabby, one-take acoustic recordings butted up against full band freak psych. Not too unlike a regular NSFTM release, hey!

The Bikini Frog from BTK1 reappeared in
the 2xCD artwork to usher in the Fragments.

The only major sonic component of the No Sunlite puzzle that this compilation, along with the albums from the time, neglected was our Mar-Lu-Ridge Summer Camp theme song for pool parties, "Live Out Loud". Played on more 10 year olds' iPods than any No Sunlite song, surely, "Live Out Loud" was an unexpected monster - created in a mere hour, sparking all sorts of cannonballs 'n' even this camper-created home video:

Finally, a question of fashion. NSFTM silkscreen tees of this era were all one design: the early, booty but now highly sought-after, Rhino design. The rhino was barely recognizable, but the song was a hit, so the shirt is now everywhere. The design was remade a year later to correct the bad lines, tho this upset fans of the punk rock nature of the OG style.

I KNOW!

The rhino design screened on top of Beyonce shirts
was typical No Sunlite mashup design in 2k6.

Hopefully this detailing should give some background as to why you can find songs about octopi next to hymns next to noise collages next to Martha playing the organ next to hip hop soul searchers next to live acoustic jams next to whatever it is on Better Than Kollege: Fragments. & everywhere...that's NSFTM.

-Math
Annandale, VA
Nov. 2k9
That's Not thee Point:

Out of the Dungeon VI

Welcome to Out of the Dungeon, a many part series detailing a decade of NSFTM noise, hip hop, 'n' adventures from top No Sunlite for the Media scholars, historians, fans, 'n' collaborators. Medians share their thoughts on the absolute values of various NSFTM rekkerds, while we provide free audio streaming 'n' hi-quality file purchase of all the albums at our bandcamp page.

Out of the Dungeon VI: We Like Explosions
Kollege Than Better, Dissected
by MC SiD
[Kollege Than Better can be downloaded in its entirety by clicking here]

Explosions not only compose the skeleton of Kollege Than Better, they are it. Skulls shatter & synapses relapse back to staring deep into the abyss of an ever-clear reality, all in the context of vibrating skin flaps barely staying intact inside those same crumpled skulls. Exaggeration? Only if one refuses the objective impact & mania of such noises.

When examining a cadaver, the mortician begins at the head, that is, the snake cranium which beings our journey.

Sonicbooms.

“It’s only purpose is to bring you headaches.” Oscillating drum loops and Microsoft computer-generated speech of Fitter. Happier. reminiscence threaten to break the mach barrier before one even hears these sounds. In that way, the sonicboom has occurred a split second before the record has even begun. Such is necessary to soften the stirrups of one’s inner-ear to optimize sonic effectiveness. Within moments, Satan emerges to engage you in a war to the death. Only St. Michael the Archangel, with the power of God, emerges to defend you in the form of RomeWinkle.



“We are wack MCs.” Has the victory been won by the forces of darkness? Nay. The guitar distortion of righteousness penetrates demonic prowess and the album continues. (GO!) Cacophony of percussion initiates the victory feast over those powers, not to haunt you for the remainder of yr 15 minute listening experience.

Nuclear obliteration.

A period plunderphonic artpiece from NSFTM, Against All Girls,
laying the artistic foundation of Kollege Than Better.

A real test of yr will comes as blastsuit blasphemy brushes past yr bangs. Unquestionably, the triad of tracks here are intended to test yr worthiness. No time to have sex indeed. Time is no longer an absolute in these darkened corridors. Only yr pocket compass, the relentless continuing presses you forward. Dare you continue down the path of explosive pilgrimage becoming clearer by the light of reason? Let’s play a song & find out.

Gun-muzzle eruptions.

Point-blank wasp-stinging or heat-flashing charisma? Coincidence that Boogie Down Productions predicted this album with the cover of Criminal Minded 18 years before its fulfillment in Kollege Than Better? Think again & again & then more more time & then more times than yr friends. There is every escape, but dare you dodge the bullets to get there rather than plunging headfirst into the gunpowder?

Solace.

Weed does not exist. All is well with the world. All is peace in this realm of dim rumbles. It does not last. It does not first. It frees.

Celebratory symbols.

Time is counted as yr years increase. “Happy birthday: to you.” Become one with a birthday pony, but only in the labor sense. Exploitation? Strictly explosion. But a last plunge into despair prepares you to come from the cave of explosion back into the reality that has now become obvious: “You end up working for the money.”

-MC SiD
Mt. Airy, MD
Oct. 2k9
Criminally Out of Mind:

Out of the Dungeon V

Welcome to Out of the Dungeon, a many part series detailing a decade of NSFTM noise, hip hop, 'n' adventures from top No Sunlite for the Media scholars, historians, fans, 'n' collaborators. Medians share their thoughts on the absolute values of various NSFTM rekkerds, while we provide free audio streaming 'n' hi-quality file purchase of all the albums at our bandcamp page.

Out of the Dungeon V: You Don't Like My Dream?
Kollege Than Better as a Narrative for our Personal Demons
by Neb

[Kollege Than Better was meant as an all-digital companion/opposite piece to the all-analog Better Than Kollege. All sounds were produced thru a secondhand laptop with no mics 'r inputs. Download it here.]

Had a dream the other night. Yup. OK...well just have a listen n if it bores you then tell me to shut up or somethin, cause I know most of tha time it just sucks listening to other peoples’ dreams unless there's somethin there you know about or can relate to. OK, good so here goes it...

I got thrown into the scene, me n Dr. Dre were just chillin there in his bedroom. He was on a laptop n I was just sitting on his bed staring at all these posters on the wall of chicks bent over motorcyles in short skirts next to his framed platinum records from the moronic RIAA. He turns around to talk to me and I freak out at his voice...it’s a freakin robot voice n after all those years of rappin he lost his real voice...try to have good flow with a staccato-y robot voice...not happenin...See, he had a computer hooked up to his brain and speakers under his shirt to project the sounds...n he would move his mouth to the words so it looked like he was talking...but it was just speakers under his shirt in the end. Anyway, what he said to me was this: "Yo, neb, let’s check out a haunted house. It’s almost Halloween. OK, it’s October 23rd n that’s only 8 days away n I'm tryna get scared r somethin."

I didn't know anythin could scare Dre cause he always comes across as a pretty tough guy...but i guess deep down he’s a softy. So we hit up the local haunted house n there were all these spookish ghosts and ghostlike trolls n stuff jumpin out of trash cans n kitchen sinks...See it was a normal house with all the lights on, not some dark one with a vampire in the attic at the end or whatever...and so we just ate dinner there n I wasn't even scared the whole time, not even when this wizard came out n turned his beard into flames so we could roast our chicken on a stick on it, but Dre was scared. That was until Satan came out, and he was demanding all this weird stuff like a mobile home and a bucket n he was trying to rap it I guess to impress Dre, but he sucked, n i was scared cause I didn't have any of that stuff and didn't want to make Satan mad.
So Dre called up his boy Ice Cube who came in n immediately defeated that whack MC Satan n I'm glad he did too. I wouldn't have known what to do otherwise...Dr. Dre is a great friend that way in that he always is lookin out for you against Satan n stuff.

We left there n Dre wanted to go downtown for the night. I was a bit hesitant cause there's always all these people down there tryin to peddle you stuff, like this one time I went down n some half drunk doofus had called up a payphone, so i answered it cause I like to answer ringing pay phones cause nobody uses them anymore cause everyone has stupid cellphones, so it’s bound to be an interesting person on the other line. But it was just some half drunk doofus trying to peddle me some wasp jerky...he said it was USDA approved which I SERIOUSLY doubt because wasps are dirty animals, but he wouldn't leave me alone n just kept callin back...finally Dre got up on the mic n told the guy he had a gun n would shoot him...he was being seriously weird. I hope he doesn't call again.

The inner liner notes of KTB. All typewritten liner notes
describing a story to the soundtrack, much as Neb is doing here.

So Dre was upset after that n wanted to go to the barber shop n get his hairdo worked on. He wanted that thing poofy n so we walked in n they were listening to Belle n Sebastian in there n i seriously began puking all over the floor....I felt bad cause we had only been there like a minute and hadn't given them any money yet.

They said they had a good remedy for a sick stomach in the back n took me back there n sat me down n handed me a fat blunt n I was like, “What is this?” n they said it was marijuana...I didn't even know that stuff existed so I took a little puff n immediately felt great.

Neb gets wild in his NSFTM fantasy world.

It felt like it was my birthday n everybody in the whole shop just started singing to me and stuff and it was awesome....but then all the sudden I started to have a bad trip n all these sharks swimming out of the mirrors right through the air tryna bite my behind and they had this really questionable look in their eyes like I had never seen a shark before.

Then I woke up.

Crazy dream huh?
Oh...you didn't like it that much?
I told you to stop me if you were gettin bored.
I guess you just didn't get everything that was goin on in it...which is OK I guess...cause if you were me you would love it.

-Neb
Lancaster, PA
Oct. 2k9
By All Means Necessary:

Out of the Dungeon IV

Welcome to Out of the Dungeon, a many part series detailing a decade of NSFTM noise, hip hop, 'n' adventures from top No Sunlite for the Media scholars, historians, fans, 'n' collaborators. Medians share their thoughts on the absolute values of various NSFTM rekkerds, while we provide free audio streaming 'n' hi-quality file purchase of all the albums at our bandcamp page.

Out of the Dungeon IV: Exploring Better Than Kollege
Brickly Bodies Reading New York Times
by Trouble-T Trip

Outside you can’t escape sounds of moving metal,
Vehicles with horns, human chitter-chatter, and bird twitter-twatter;
Your earholes are flooded with both Media and Sunlite.
The only safe way to hear that is with headphones on.

In the Spring of ’05 NSFTM came into ownership of a 7-Track Cassette Recorder (extremely rare, since most will have 4 or 8), allowing their earlier freeform noise experimentation to ‘mature’. The result is Better Than Kollege Vol 1: 7-Track Kollages [download in its entirety here].

The "Bikini Frog" art for all of these cassettes was Math/Martha-drawn with
Rose Art colored pencils with variants on every copy, though colors were preserved.

To move from freeform experimentation to pre-written recordings of hip-hop/folk songs (see later NSFTM material) is not ‘evolution’ or ‘maturation’. Attempting to use Australopithecus afarensis or puberty as metaphors in this scenario would be lame and unclever, because what is being discussed is no more than a different approach to making sounds. Within headphones a musician can create whatever place they want. Here, No Sunlite have created a closet full of humans and machines which can open up without warning, expanding into a misty valley and a voice on the far ridge is crying “…yer a visionary man.”

As much as recording can be considered a creation of imaginative space through sound, No Sunlite was getting more and more into the delightfully strange art of sculpting the air. In short, the Medians learned multi-track recording techniques and fancy stereo panning and this EP came into being- ho hum.

…But these hos certainly can hum.

The inner-liners, also hand-drawn 'n' crammed.

ALL sounds were produced by microphones and tape decks (only). Technically, that’s all there is to say about this recording. Microphones were crowded around and spittled on by energetic youngsters, beaten on and beat-boxed on, and the resulting phrases and rhythms are manually looped live (note the extensive use of the rewind button). What a sight, Math with the biggest smile he will ever smile in his life, gingerly cradling a handheld tape recorder within a throng of official Medians, each one excited by their chance to spill words from their mouth overflowing with characters and stories.

How can you witness this and not play a rousing game of Xtreme Schoolwide Hot Potato, careening through the halls – we who are about to die salute you - and swarming like killer bees? The editing was surely as open-minded, but more inwardly focused. Though I did not participate in any mixing of which I can recall, I was for sure in on the mixing of the fi-lo hop-hip tapes to be recorded in the following days. Master in one deck, fresh one in another, hit play and then each person better grab a volume or panning knob and start sculpting.

The treasured "Rich Beats" CD-R from which NSFTM dubbed many
quality beats to give names to cassette compositions of the era.

After each collage would come the B-Side Wins Again, true to the Public Enemy song. You get a slice of life and then you get it backwards, just to make sure you heard it right. This technique in shifting perspectives was lifted from Japanese culinary texts, which instruct for following a dish with a colder, smaller, upside-down portion of the same dish.

Whether it Wins Again or not, the actual B-Side does keep it fresh. It comprises not a mash-up of the reversed tracks from Side A, but a whole other piece based on homemade experiments in the extirpation of Brian Eno and Aphex Twin recordings- N.O.B.E.A.T. In its vastness it contains the pressure shift before an electrical storm, as well as the pressure of 7 fingers on 7 buttons juxtaposed with the patience of a young man listening to Selected Ambient Works Vol. II.

The reissued artwork, keeping the color scheme and Bikini Frog,
but this time designed with sharpies 'n' cardboard.

As for insight into how we were living during this period, simply listen to the tape. Yes, these are the topics we were discussing (‘what makes girls hot is the size of their earlobes’). Yes, these are the tunes we were listening to (ODB, Notorious B.I.G.), This is what we were eating (peanut butter, macaroni). These are the jokes we were making (‘I’m Ronald Reagan’). Yes, we did understand the complexities of the human mind. It’s all true. That’s what happens when you’re playing wallball with Ev every day at O’faye Stadium. You know the youth are out there reading the New York Times, seeing brickles instead of nipples, and completely ignoring the crystals, the moments everyday that float around our thick bodies, waiting to be appreciated as distorted blasts of echoes that fall around us as we confidently, wistfully, say with a swagger-

“I once met an Apache warlord… he gave me do-si-dos…”

-Trip Tim
Harrisonburg, VA
Oct. 2k9
Trippy:

Out of the Dungeon III

Welcome to Out of the Dungeon, a many part series detailing a decade of NSFTM noise, hip hop, 'n' adventures from top No Sunlite for the Media scholars, historians, fans, 'n' collaborators. Medians share their thoughts on the absolute values of various NSFTM rekkerds, while we provide free audio streaming 'n' hi-quality file purchase of all the albums at our bandcamp page.

Out of the Dungeon III: Shirts 'n' Yearbooks
Cultural Artifacts From the First 4 Years
Tuba time with NSFTM. Note Peter Andre's quotte here as well -
this is a reference to an infamous NSFTM gig with his band in which

Ev simply played "Hot Cross Buns" the entire set.[Everything in the universe is made of one element, which is a note, a single note. Atoms are really vibrations, you know, which are extensions of THE BIG NOTE, everything's one note. Everything, even the ponies - FZ, "Lumpy Gravy"]

A brief glimpse at some of the NSFTM lore from the First 4 W.T. Woodson years. The mentality was in place, as well as the methods, so maybe there haven't been too many changes, just one note. As for the fashions of the era, here we'll let loose some of the old school, not-many-existing shirts with which we tried to bombard the people. Needless to say, none of these designs are still printed, 'n' very rarely do humans own these that still fit.

Originally, there were only 3 NSFTM shirts; they all looked like this.
Ted drew 'em, with this handwriting 'n' thee OG members of the crew got 'em.
This cemented the celebrated NSFTM font 'n' X'ed out O's.
The shirts existed before any recordings or live performances.
The first silk-screened No Sunlite brand tees promoted crew member
Mikey Negrin over his brother Matt Negrin, part of a rival band.

Additionally, Mikey Negrin directed the first No Sunlite foray into film: Revenge of the Father of the Sun, a tale about the sun gone mad, his Father battling him, 'n' the sunflower solution. Due to the "for a school project" nature of the film, much of the sloppiness 'n' bad acting could've been rectified with effort 'r time.

There's also an intensely offbeat soundtrack which was not syncing properly with the movie - though when it is on, it's quite intense. No Sunlite did win the class award for "Best Sound", still, 'n' subjecting the freshmen girls 'n' macho dudes to 20 minutes of feedback made the agony worthwhile.

To counter the Coffeehouse at WT Woodson (which NSFTM never played at, despite rumors)
these sloppy silkscreened shirts advertised our guerilla concert series Tea-House,
a tribute to ODB's death 'n' featuring the obscured noise bands of our scene.

Speaking of Tea House, tapes of the various events were eventually compiled onto a 90 minute behemoth Tea House Sessions mix, with commentary mixed in from play practice, one-take studio jams 'n' many performances of NSFTM live.

Thee most famous of these shows, Tea House 3, Live at Atwell's, was broken up by the cops before NSFTM had finished even opening the concert due to the excessively loud, confrontational 'n' outdoor nature of the performance. You can download here to hear the cops arrive, the beats go wild, Ev scream, 'n' Trippy throw his guitar everwhere.

It was eventually reissued on CD-R, for some reason remaining quite limited even in that form. These Tea Houses would lay the foundation for the first real studio experiments/releases coming in the next year, the Better Than Kollege era, which will be explored thru fan research papers in the upcoming week here on this page.

It'll only get wilder from here...

-Math
Annandale, VA
Oct. 2k9
Still Representing for Frodus 'n' muffins:

Out of the Dungeon II

Welcome to Out of the Dungeon, a many part series detailing a decade of NSFTM noise, hip hop, 'n' adventures from top No Sunlite for the Media scholars, historians, fans, 'n' collaborators. Medians share their thoughts on the absolute values of various NSFTM rekkerds, while we provide free audio streaming 'n' hi-quality file purchase of all the albums at our bandcamp page.

Out of the Dungeon II: What Old Style?
The 2 Popular Live Bootlegs as Precursors to NSFTM Today
An Essay by L!Z

Most popular music, from Chuck Berry to Barry White to the Cranberries, encourages a head nod or a foot tap and maybe provokes deeper thought when successful. But every No Sunlite For The Media noise composition skips over the catchiness of pop to beg the questions: How? Why? Who? And, most especially – WHAT?

While No Sunlite For The Media’s band members and identity consistently fluctuated since the band’s creation in the early 2000s, nothing was perhaps more irregular than the band’s makeup in their early live shows. Though veteran member Matthew Horne has guided the band’s musical direction and artistic vision throughout the entirety of No Sunlite’s existence, and Horne’s co-founding members Ev Smith-Francis and Ted Gordon regularly participated in the band’s noise albums, it was not uncommon for No Sunlite to obtain band members who only played on certain albums, appeared at certain shows, or went years until resurfacing in the NSFTM lite. This is particularly evident when retrospectively examining two NSFTM bootlegs, Live at WMUC and Live and Lying in It.

Live at WMUC, which was recorded August 21, 2003, is comprised of 14 tracks, about 70 minutes in duration and bursting with intellectual and improvisational noise [download them here]. The liner notes and album art for Live at WMUC arrest one’s attention immediately. The album features simplistic Thrunjubar art drawn with a #2 pencil, a primitively inaccurate spelling of the band’s name (“No Sunlight Fer Tha Media” instead of the correct “No Sunlite For The Media”), advertising for their defunct first website www.geocities.com/mfxrkrds, and an extraordinarily detailed libretto for each track. The classic Thrunjubar figure is also featured on some of the original NSFTM tees, which were also a product of this era. The tees featured iron-on fashions with designs created in MS Paint. The foreign spelling of the now familiar name finds its source when producer John Wood slipped up and mixed up the name, knowing that spelling errors existed, just not in the right places. At this point in their history, the band had neither the monetary ability nor care to correct the mistake. That is just what happens in the underground.

NSFTM's Thrunjubar Tee was produced in limited quantities.
Here L!Z wears this vintage garment, while holding her copy of Live at WMUC and other gear.

Live at WMUC’s liner notes are presented as some sort of theatrical performance, with a “cast” consisting of Ted, Ev, Math, John, Russ, Mike, Sam, “Various Artists” and “NSFTM Tape” and a “script” that is so exhaustive one would be able to recreate versions of the songs to the same extent that John Cage’s 1952 notation for “Williams Mix” could be reconstructed. The liner notes also list every instrument, toy or item used during the recording – highlights of which are Ev’s Nintendo Mouth Effects, John’s Toga and Sam’s Two Hands Where Needed.

Live at WMUC (sometimes referred to as Live Radio Broadcast Rekkerding or NSFTM Live at the University of Maryland) contains tracks with lengthy song titles evocative of Panic! at the Disco’s song titles. Unfortunately for Panic! at the Disco, No Sunlite released Live at WMUC a year before the Las Vegas band even formed.

While the better part of Live at WMUC is formed out of the formless, the album is not entirely abandoned to live in a world of just noise. Just after the first two minutes of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer Did Not Approve of the US’s 6 Week Occupation”, a guitar riff meets muffled drums, cymbals, and eventually Ev yelling “Awww” in order to create catchy rock and roll that foreshadowed much of No Sunlite’s later music. This catchy melody even continues into the following track, “A Scooter Now Being Sold on Amazon.com,” which eventually morphs into something like an ice cream truck in the middle of a space battle before transforming back into chaotic struggle.

The opening lines Ev yells in “Department of Peace Gives You a Quick Killing Cancer” self describe the environment, “musicians everywhere play instruments everywhere; it sounds something like this.” These lyrics also work to disagree with critics who refuse to recognize noise music as legitimate. No Sunlite considered indeterminacy and atonality as important to music as specificity and tonality. Also, on this track NSFTM introduce an avant-garde form of sampling as Ev sings the Super Mario Bros. theme song, simultaneously dipping into the tonal world and shouting out to Nintendo users everywhere.

Much like the title implies, “He’s Rapping/Singing,” foreshadows songs from the later No Sunlite release from 2006, Dungeon Records, which is heavily comprised of hip hop and folk. While this full crossover of genres did not occur for a few more years, it was well on its way on Live at WMUC.

WMUC DJ 'n' one-time NSFTM collaborator Mike pictured here with Ted (arm) offering him money,
at the Record and Tape Exchange, where they both worked. A sellout for NSFTM?

“We’re No Sunlite For The Media and we’re from Annandale,” explained Math Horne as NSFTM began one of its earliest gigs of the band’s history, on February 24, 2004. This noise experience was recorded half a year after Live at WMUC. Live and Lying in It, similarly to Live at WMUC, had a more than sizable band attendance [download this bootleg here]. 13 musicians crowded into the tight Plier family basement in Annandale: Alex Atwell and Jay Richardson represented percussion, Tyler Campbell on the xylophone and can ‘n’ pipe, Ted Gordon on the guitar, Liz Horne on the tuba, Math Horne with the vocals and recorder, Katie Jabro on the trumpet, Leah on the piano (her last name was never in print), Neal Livesay on the bass, Big “Brad” Martha on keyboard, Rob Plier on the drums, Ev Smith-Francis on the recorder and maracas, and Molly Wacek on the French horn. By this time in NSFTM’s career, Math, Ev, and Ted were no novices to the world of noise music. But, other band members for the show were much less experienced in the field, such as Wacek, and Liz Horne, whose previous experience had mostly consisted of playing classical music for the Frost Middle School Symphonic band, or Plier, who was also lined up to play for another, more traditional punk band that night.

The feedback-filled live recording was originally distributed via cassette tape, and is arguably some of the lowest fidelity music NSFTM has ever released (No Sunlite’s 2009 cassette release, Noise Dogs, comes close, but misses the mark). This version was then remastered with the efforts of Wood once again; this time he spelled the band’s name correctly. The Original and Official Version both appear on the CD release of Live and Lying in It. The Edited Official Version cuts off over a minute of music from the Original Bootleg Mix, 30 seconds of which is blank sound anyway. Both tracks hover around 20 minutes in duration. The liner essay calls the Edited Version the “perfected form,” stating, “[w]hile the Original Bootleg Version allows the listener to hear the ensemble as if from a step back, looking on bewildered, the Edited Official Mix actually thrusts one headlong into the minds of the players and paints a more accurate picture of how the music sounded to each individual member.” However, this viewpoint was met with contention among fans, many of whom contend that the original recording is the more sincere and authentic recording of what happened at the show that night.

Promotional button for NSFTM's Live and Lying in It, issued on Malfunxion Rekkerds after the bootlegging.
These are still (scarcely, but still) seen on backpacks in the Metropolitan DC area.

The Edited Official Version sounds more electronic and trippy than the Original Bootleg Mix. The vocals are even more distant in the Edited Version than in the Original, which is surprising considered the vocals are covered with feedback and rather remote in the Original Mix. Also, the distortion in the Official Version make the brass parts sound more mechanized. This contrasts with the Original Bootleg Mix, where the brass musicians merely sound like they are in an alternate reality of perpetual tuning.

In “Saltine Crackers Pts 1 and 2,” the Edited Version provides sounds that one could imagine sneaking out of a thick forest with nightmarish voices arising from the dark. However, the original “Saltine Crackers Pts 1 and 2” sounds more like the noises that result from fast-forwarding a VHS tape with a recorder layered on top rather than overwhelming doom. This difference in perception is precisely what the album explains to be the distinguishing factor of the two tracks.

Regardless of which edition, the harsh yelling of “Bhahdnjohha” is easily suggestive of NSFTM’s December 2006 assemblage of Vytautas Swordblade, which came out almost three years after Live and Lying in It. No Sunlite’s ability to use jazz instruments to generate black metal is promising of their future, where they would continue to fuse styles in order to eliminate potential genre stereotyping and continually challenge themselves in innovation. What Steve Reich has done for minimalist music, NSFTM has done for noise.

Eight years after No Sunlite For The Media’s birth, they continually look back to their early years of Live at WMUC and Live and Lying in It to stay tied to their roots. Even as they modify their sound, they are not turning their backs on the method.

-L!Z
Williamsburg, VA
Oct. 2k9
Alive 'n' Lying in It:

Out of the Dungeon I

Welcome to Out of the Dungeon, a many part series detailing a decade of NSFTM noise, hip hop, 'n' adventures from top No Sunlite for the Media scholars, historians, fans, 'n' collaborators. Medians share their thoughts on the absolute values of various NSFTM rekkerds, while we provide free audio streaming 'n' hi-quality file purchase of all the albums at our bandcamp page.

Out of the Dungeon I: The First 4 Years | Early NSFTM

Who knows what cretin-hopping Noise Ramones would emerge from the depths of WT Woodson's drama room in the 1st semester of the 01/02 school year, dedicated to making better music with their mouths than the radio could make with a multi-billion $ budget? If you said No Sunlite for the Media - yer right...

Math 'n' Ev discuss the media in drama class, 2k1.

The concept of being overly bombarded with televised bogosity from 9/11 horror sales 'n' our new discoveries of various underground forms of communication rang true for this group of media assassins, so the project gained its name. It was first Ted, Ev, Math, before we proclaimed that everyone on Earth was, in truth, a member of No Sunlite for the Media. & the musical dubachery began.

The shoddy, skippy kitchen/bedroom studio recordings that followed for the next few years incorporated mainly vocal noises, jokes, acoustic guitars, 'n' percussion (captured on CD-R 'r cassette 'n' traded to classmates, bearing such titles as No One's Best Nightmare, If You Can't Play it Just Break It, The Wu-Tang Clanjubar, Positivwater: Return to Boise, 'n' Victorious Overgrowth). An everything in the pot celebration of non-catchy aspects of all our favorite punk heroes 'n' noise artists, most of whom we only emulated based on reading, research 'n' a few snippets of sounds since we were too allowanceless to purchase the rare titles. We dreamed of rhythmlessness, music as humor, punk messages, noise over nothing, buttmics, 'n' pop covers shot thru malfunxioning devices.

The live shows we could manage to wrangle then (parties, basements, taking our equipment to McDonald's - similar to the places we go today, hmm?) contained a chaos that rarely included written songs, 'n' often forced us to play with instrumentation 'n' electronics with which we were unfamiliar. This only increased the oblivion to which audiences were thrust. We never rehearsed. All of these first live shows ended up bootlegged, eventually tossed around as NSFTM is Yr Face: The First 6 Live Shows, the recordings of which show an unexplainable genrelessness (none of the live shows sounded at all similar, because of the radically different line-ups/set-ups/atomspheres), but yet the presentation was always a very-NSFTM manipulation of lo-fi, spirited...absurdity. & here the NSFTM habit of getting shut down by police 'n' angry venue-operators was born.

The 2 Big Live Bootlegs That Sealed Up This Style

The first major exposure for NSFTM came under the weirdness of getting to perform live on the college radio station of the University of Maryland, WMUC. The CD edit of that sessions represented a weird DC area noise/rock/monster sound 'n' the first satisfactory recording of NSFTM. Perhaps you had to be there, or maybe yer just too square if you don't get it. Either way, we've made it available to download here. August 2003.
In the same vein, although more noisy/confrontational, the Live + Lying in It recording was NSFTM's most brutal venture into noise, created a few months after the radio tape. Have a taste here if you dare. February 2004.
These 2 recordings will be explored in depth by No Sunlite archaelogist L!Z in the upcoming week on this blog. After those live leviathans of noise, NSFTM moved to an even stranger combination of sounds with the Tea House/Better Than Kollege eras, gaining a structure 'n' a wider spectrum as opposed to straight goofnoise. But these early years will always stick out as image-forming 'n' wild rabid bonkers. To stay as true as that without selling out, while becoming more accessible 'r meaningful, would prove the task of No Sunlite for the Media from here on.

-Math
Annandale, VA
Oct. 2k9

Noise Dogs

Welcome Noise Dogs

Psalms From a Dungeon is ferociously ruining stereo systems everywhere, since its unveiling a few weeks ago. Thee hymns, raps, 'n' noise just seem too much for ya'll to handle. At the rekkerd release, things went a little hectic as NSFTM began a retrospective look at their decade of providing noise to the masses.



With that party in full swing, No Sunlite silently distributed a few tapes of their first rock 'n' roll recordings, the legendary Noise Dogs session. Styled after Wire, Stooges, 'n' Guided by Voices, the tape sees NSFTM at its most crunchy, indeed. 20 of 'em were pressed, a few still exist if you can find one in a local rekkerd store. A mythological entry into the rare NSFTM canon of...rock? Yes, rock. No hop hip, folk or otherwise on this one.

So keep yr eyes peeled as this blog here begins a look back at all of yr favorite NSFTM moments of the past decade, including streaming albums 'n' available downloads at nsftm.bandcamp.com for those who may have missed a piece of the Sunlite Free puzzle. Any writers wanting to contribute or listeners needing some vinyl can mail nosunliteforthemedia@gmail.com.

Dungeoid 'til we die,
NSFTM

Psalms from a Dungeon

Just when you thought it was safe to leave thee Dungeon...

Buy yr turntables back from Goodwill, ya'll; vinyl rekkerds are not going away any time soon. No Sunlite for the Media is releasing another one, anyhow. NSFTM-219: Psalms from a Dungeon.No digital files to share this time, all lo-fi scratchy vinyl available at various thrift stores, rekkerd shops, 'n' from good old gmailing or paypaling nosunliteforthemedia@gmail.com. Limited to 100 handscreened copies with various fliers, inserts, 'n' an official NSFTM garment to be destroyed.
What's it sound like then?
...Space folk for a tired generation? Some.
Church Latin performed by toddlers just learning how to play drums at a bicycle race? Lots.
Lo-fi hop-hip combined with chemical experiments 'n' group shouting? Of course.

It sounds like us, moreso than anything else we've done. NSFTM.

I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice, I have grasped you by the hand; I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations, To open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness. (Is 42:6-7)

Show on May 9th for ya'll as sunlite gets dimmer...

Lithuanian Hip Hop Noise Folk
in the flesh May 9th at KC's!

More public than enemy: NSFTM to appear at Fredericksburg hellhole to smash yr face in.
That's true, mega NSFTM show at KC's on Saturday May 9 8PM.
Yeah we aren't on thee flier for Theoffesetband's show on thee venue site, we keep it underground, see this one:

[sic sic sic]

Recent live outings have been well received gonzo-wildness. New CD (see below) is selling astronomical units 'n' pleasing pop fans nationwide. NSFTM resurgence 2k9; beware thee future LP of church hymns rewired to praise higher.

Or get punched, punk.

A Child's Introduction to Money and the Instruments of the Media

Dinosaurs and other such memories come flooding back, reminding us that rainbows still glow 'n' the sunlite still feels a bit too bright. So we sewed a bunch of bags, crafted more beats 'n' attempted to dismantle the structure again. Who knows if it worked...we know it helps us stay sane amidst the downpour that's making it hard to drag our soggy bodies thru.

We cast this spell while you cast votes early, often, 'n' fruitlessly. & we still find more ways to have fun with rekkerds than just playing them or jacking breaks:

Translation: New NSFTM disc. Goofy packaging. Goofier songs. Goofiest sales.
Paypal for 8$ to mhorn8dg@umw.edu

Cast Spells, Not Votes

The beatbox not the ballotbox.

We're not gonna say vote. In fact, we're gonna say not to vote. New NSFTM t-shirt design, when we party, we 3rd party. There's something going on 'n' we don't like what it is.

Oh yeah, 'n' Media Tricks is no more, it does not exist. There's a few copies of Hellgrammite left. That's it. No Sunlite is dead, thee 2 party system is dead, hop hip lives.

There's No Such Thing as Washer Fluid

Hellgrammite is getting scarce, tho some copies may be hiding in yr local washer fluid bin. NSFTM is dead, long live No Sunlite for the Media.

Hip Hop

Hip hop gates are closed. When will they market "Fi-Lo Hop Hip"? Backpacks backflipped, too.

Don't Those Kids Have Some Radios to Turn Off?

When yr heart has been turned by their crashing sound, "dumb intrigued by the drum", please we ask - turn it off. It's better to never have heard than to be too late to reject cos its infection has struck/stuck. We'll silkscreen you a new set of ears 'n' burn you lo-fi sounds that's how it's supposed to be, maniac. You think Satan would lie to you 'n' make it hard to understand 'r difficult to digest? Chewed up 'n' spat out, lukewarm 'n' top 40. There's no air in radiospace. (Suckers never play).
You buy what you eat. You buy what you eat. When it's checkout time, can you throw up what you've already absorbed?

Songs From a Dungeon

We're still sticking with hope. Sounds still lo-fi, create what you must 'n' infest what they hand you. So we spraypainted a dozen 'n' a half cigar boxes discarded by old smokers 'n' stuffed 'em with a cassette 'n' a CD of anti-popo 'n' pro-Papa folk songs. Songs From a Dungeon. (Click for a listen or two.) Not to break open skulls 'r force listeners, but because we must create. Who knows, one of them may be lying around in yr town. Just ask. No big distribution deals this time. Hellgrammite's still around too. Media Tricks is scarce.
So we enter Lepidopteran phase of thee 219 manifestations available.

No Sunlite for the Media. 219.

No Sunlite for the Media. No 5-0.

187 on the Media.

No Sunlite Again 'n' Again 'n' Again 'n' Again.



NSFTM.



NSFTM.



NSFTM.



NSFTM.



NSFTM. TV's off 'n' hands up.

Hellgrammite

Sorry for the blogdormancy; tho in realworld terms NSFTM has been squirming, kicking basements in, affixing our logo across the shirts of thousands, 'n' recording frantically. & here is a result...

NSFTM is proud to announce our first vinyl release, 45 minutes of collective singalongs 'n' hop hip reconstructions: Hellgrammite.Looking to move past old forms, song structures, CD-R's, earth itself...No Sunlite for the Media deliver a new take on our rip out the system mentality. Each rekkerd cover comes hand-silkscreened with a demon tree backed with a face covered in dobson flies. Larva to beast 'n' back again. Also included is a 4 foot square poster of collages, information to prevent against dobson attacks, photos, lyrics, spraypaint, more silkscreening 'n' much media reworked. All told, there were 25 people grabbing for mic time on this disc 'n' that spirit manifests in what is clearly NSFTM's most maddening strike yet. As critic Nicholas Vane writes in the liner notes:

"This is not eclecticism for its own sake, an assemblage of dead culture's clothing and rote remembrance's display. There be no zolo ostrich-masks here...I hear a whole sick crew - as pinned as quantum particles - dragging a culture into the sunlight of reason and joy."

It's quite unclear how one clip will convince you or ruin it for you or whatever, so click at yr own risk.

None of it sounds like itself, Hellgrammite doesn't cater. We hope you'll join us.

10$ paypaled to mhorn8dg@umw.edu or sent to 4924 Andrea Ave
Annandale, VA 22003

& 5 for the new hellgrammite tree or dobson fly shirts. A few copies of Media Tricks still left.

Keep it simple, wax forever. - NSFTM

Dungeon Records OOP

Why do we break sales rekkerds?

Dungeon Records can no longer be purchased thru our mailorder/paypal unit. 219 of 'em have now dispersed. It's gone, along with thee Vytautas Swordblade cassette. If you have 'em, count yerself lucky. Now commence massive price jacking thru ebay.

There are however, still a few copies of our new CD, Media Tricks available for $6 paypal postpaid (+2$ overseas) to mhorn8dg@umw.edu.

& if yer too cheap, steal these free mp3s from an NSFTM show bootlegged last weak:

Sanctuary
Bees
Round/Legs/Scruffy Megamix (Fastword Mix)

Yer never to young to ask: Why do you break yr legs?


Or if on thee other hand, yer rolling in dough, send for an NSFTM shirt. Our brand new design for thee Media Tricks disc is fully operational 'n' selling to kids all over these tectonic plates. It bears an angry No-Sunlite sun face with a flaming mohawk in thee shape of thee word "MEDIATRIX", as seen in this photo. 5$ name yr size/color 'n' we got all our other designs too.

Thanks for those who bought our rekkerds 'n' came to our shows, be prepared as high quality new material will soon be dropping.

- NSFTM

Album Release

Immediate newsflash: NSFTM has finished a brand new 80 minute piece of hip-hop folk. So don't throw yerself over to those Niagra Falls, obscuro psych fans! Do you want a sneak preview snippet? ...

Footbinding

9 months in thee making, after 9 months in Tha Dungeon, No Sunlite for the Media is proud to present Media Tricks, our simple quixotic/symbiotic attempt to shed light where thee sun won't shine in 3 parts. Complete with thee usual unusual handmade packaging 'n' stamped out artwork but with new lyrical themes 'n' new musical methods of stopping thee industry demons 'n' soulless lites.Media Tricks is 6$ paypaling us at mhorn8dg@umw.edu or mailorder it like you did for last year's Dungeon Records. Limited edition of 219 but hopefully it'll provide some unlimited genre exploration 'n' melodic tampering. Still one step ahead, NSFTM.