It warms the heart to see the exposure and acclaim that’s coming to Randy Randall. Randy and his No Age bandmate, Dean Spunt, have grown into first rate indie rockers. Their album, Weirdo Rippers, which is a collection of tracks from a handful of hard-to-find EPs, has garnered them some serious praise. Their success is a marvelous thing to see.
Randy and I worked together years ago at Rocket Video in Hollywood and then again at Amoeba Music. You couldn’t meet a more humble and sweet-natured guy. And dedicated. The reason he’s gotten where he is today is because of his dedication to and love for the music. Indeed, he left Amoeba because his touring schedule kept getting in the way of having to shuck dvds. The hard work seems to be paying off. Weirdo Rippers is making appearances in the upper end of year-end Best Of lists and the cover of the album, which features their L.A. venue of choice and they stage on which they cut their teeth, The Smell, is fast becoming ubiquitous across the indie music blogosphere.
The music is a logical next step in evolution from the stuff Randy and Dean pounded out in their last outift, The Wives. Whereas that was a blistering punk effort, this one leans more towards an atmospherric blend of knife edges and soft breezes. It’s the sort of approach perfected by Deerhunter and the reason why I like the album so much. I love musical contrast, so when I get expansive breathers like “Every Artist Needs a Tragedy” pushed smack up against pounding factory-setting scorchers like “Boy Void” I get excited.
They’re doing well. It warms the cockles of my heart, and as Woody Allen says, “There’s nothing like hot cockles.”
The video below is something I stumbled across over at the Forkcast. It’s part of a series of taped presentations that will be coming from New York music purveyors, Other Music. Enjoy.
No Age: purchase, Pitchfork Review (8.0), label page, Fader article
