What About Me: The Rise of the Nihilist Spasm Band

These guys are from swingin' London–swingin' London, Ontario, that is. The other Guy from London was Guy Lombardo, born in 1902, exactly sixty–three years before the birth of the Nihilist Spasm Band, an antidote to all the Guys of this world. When the NSB was born, allegedly to create a soundtrack for the film No Movie, they had between them not an iota of musical training. But an innate sense of anarchy, some scavenged instruments, and a desire to pierce the din of Canadian complacency turned them into a seven–member ensemble of clockwork chaos. Noise, boisterous roiling noise, was what they produced–it wasn't a style or a movement, but more an allegation. Regular Monday–night gigs at a local swill–pit have continued unabated for more than three decades, and as of late, the Nihilist Spasm Band has become the sound célèbre of those who adore the agitation of electric kazoos, homemade violins, and heavy metal pots. Zev Asher's delirious doc interviews six original band members and proffers plenty of palpitating performance. Thirty–five years later, these aging anarchists are still at it, lobbyists for the loud and loopy.

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