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People Noise is a name that constitutes sound, and a lot of it. They began making music in early January of 2006 after a ten year involvement with VHS or Beta came to a halt. One of the founding members of VoB, Zeke Buck, together with Matt Johnson on drums, have set out to do some of the things that they were never really able to do before in past groups.
There is a very human and somewhat introverted playfulness that appears on songs like 'A Million Lives' & ‘The Sun & The Moon, The Moon & The Sea’. Desperate and spirited Aphex Twin like moments which at very times breaks in an external guitar driven frenzy. It gives quick glimpse to some of the earlier songs on their upcoming album (songs like 'Sedation', and 'Harrison Bergeron'). Their range recalls some of the earlier alternative rock days of bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana & Radiohead, yet still birthing a sincerity and un-retro quality altogether its own. It shows an interesting voice of internal & external relationships, revealing a dynamic of textures and color not found on many albums today. "We want to make a record that is altogether more human. Something that is at times awkward and stumbling, and at other times, alive with a determined ambition." The result is an expedition into sound and self. A rock band like few others. Stay tuned to their site, and watch a band surely poised to take off.
Alternative Press
PEOPLE NOISE
***½
Ordinary Ghosts
Let them haunt you.
Vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Zeke Buck was a co-founder of disco-funk dance machine VHS Or Beta, but don’t expect his new project, People Noise, to inspire any sort of discotheque insanity. As the evocative music on Ordinary Ghosts demonstrates, the Louisville, Kentucky, band are the latest addition to a crop of artists (see also: Asobi Seksu, Autolux) who are bringing back shoegazing – a style of music characterized by sculpting beautiful music from chaotic noise. (In People Noise’s case, think early Smashing Pumpkins and Radiohead – or ask your parents about Swervedriver and Ride.) The best songs on Ghosts (the molasses-like slow burn *The Killing Fields,* the Muse-meets-Verve title track) temper swirling reverb and fuzzed-out guitars with sections of tranquility; another highlight, the string-sweetened *Turn Around,* is a laid-back slice of psychedelia featuring Buck’s Thom Yorke-esque croons. Ghosts drags a bit in its midsection, but the pair of squall-pop gems (*Harrison Bergeron* and *Sedation*) are the catchiest bits on the album.
(SELF-RELEASED)
Annie Zaleski
CMJ
VHS Or Boom Bip
People Noise, formed by former VHS or Beta guitarist Zeke Buck and Boom Bip's Matt Johnson, will make their recording debut with the June release of Ordinary Ghosts. Citing influences from Black Sabbath to Björk, the Louisville, Kentucky band are currently underway with a nationwide tour - Taylor Mason
Wonka Vision
Rating: 4/5
People Noise has the focus on instrumentals that is generally a requirement in this style, but the band also adds in touches of music that is a little bit more aggressive. Because of this “Ordinary Ghosts” is the kind of album that can be enjoyed even by those who don’t normally look to shoegaze for their new favorite band and by shoegaze enthusiasts alike. - Cassie Gressel
My Old Kentucky Blog
Their new sound is a shoegavey-reverb-heavy-fuzzout. It's very Smashing Pumpkins, Jesus & Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine-esque. - Dodge
Eureka Times Standard
People Noise might be described as the gap between Alice in Chains and Radiohead plus a little something extra. - Sarah Sullivan
Key Club Hollywood, CA
Remember VHS or Beta? Well Zeke Buck, along with Matt Johnson on drums have a new band called People Noise. These guys are sure to be big so make sure you check them out while they’re still growing.
MusicForAmerica.org
Together they revive the power of the alternative rock beast of the early 90's as People Noise, but bring it into modern times. Ordinary Ghosts (S/R) will appeal to those who loved the heaviness of such bands as Smashing Pumpkins, Poster Children and Jawbox, where the hard guitar rock stuff united with the pretty side of pop to create music that was quite charming and heady at the same time. While People Noise do not sound like the Foo Fighters, both bands push for a need to combine lyrics that touch on the realities of life ("a million lives left and we're so tired/don't worry, we'll leave our lives here in just awhile/for now it's all you can do to just survive/maybe we'll stop here for a little awhile") with a kick-in-the-nuts approach filled with melodies, riffs, and hints of feedback and distortion. Buck's lyrics will appeal to anyone who has ever loved, lost, longed, and loved again, in a fashion that would fit in a live setting in some cramped club. While their sound owes a bit to some of the "alternative music" of 15 years ago, it's a sound that has continued to develop in that time period and will find a following from today's audiences who demand good, emotional loud ass rock.
All Music Guide
***½
Having come together from two separate bands with their own cachet, VHS or Beta and Boom Bip, respectively, Zeke Buck and Matt Johnson likely felt a little pressure to come up with something that could match those group's efforts. Funny thing about People Noise's debut album Ordinary Ghosts -- they might well have exceeded those earlier efforts already. If the approach of drummer and person-who-does-everything-else is now an established one in rock & roll, it's all about what one does with that approach, and Buck and Johnson make a great team, bringing in all the huge scope that the current indie rock seems to love but also providing something too often left out: actual, loud guitars, smeary but still focused on stick-in-your-head riffs. Johnson's drumming is equally full-bodied, playing around with more than standard rock beats here and there but never anything less than commanding. Combined with the fact that Buck's singing is more contemplative/shoegaze instead of singalong drama club, it makes People Noise alternately a throwback or a welcome relief, but more accurately a bit of both. Without quite sounding like either one of them in specific, they're a pretty thorough recombination of any number of '90s group styles, with more than a little Smashing Pumpkins and Radiohead (or more accurately those cherubic bands that enjoyed following in Radiohead's wake like Geneva and Kent -- though the piano and guitar start to "The Nothing Place" sure sounds like the source band in particular). As such, Ordinary Ghosts doesn't rewrite rules, but it does just plain rocks and sounds great. That's reason enough.
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