Brain Melters - Bob Bellerue

Contrary to the popular saying, there are in fact three things in life that are certain. There's death. There's taxes. And there's the fact that whatever city you're in, there is a small group of freaks making horrible screeching noises in a basement and calling it art.

No matter whether it's New York City or Albuquerque, experimental scenes are always small and tight knit. Bob Bellerue, who has paid his dues in more than a few scenes in his day, launched a Kickstarter to fund his second annual Ende Tymes festival. An event of "experimental liberation", Ende Tymes does the best job I've seen of bringing many of the nation's noise cliques together under the same roof for one beautiful clusterfuck of a weekend. This year, Secret Project Robot and Outpost are hosting the fest from May 17-20th.

Michigan, the state that birthed American noise, is well represented at Ende Tymes with skuzzy homebuilt electronics from Tarpit, and seasoned vets like Andrew Coltrane. The fest is repping the North-East, with Crank Sturgeon, who wears insanely ornate trash costumes and makes schizophrenic rants, and electronics wizard work/death. Florida, which is the home of the similarly minded INC festival, is touring up with Rat Bastard's Laundry Room Squelchers. Even states lesser known for their noise scenes like New Mexico, Delaware and Texas are included.

Yes, this same Narcissister from America's Got Talent will be playing at Ende Tymes 2012.

I was lucky enough to help organize Ende Tymes last year and I'll definitely be volunteering my services this year. Last year's fest was my favorite kind of show, where so many people were there to think hard about music, but were also down to get crazy and have fun. I saw folks from all different age groups, walks of life and levels of nerdiness, all trying to wrap their brains around the rapid succession of anti-musical concepts. Last year, Crank Sturgeon was a big highlight - he strung up electrified metal cables throughout the room, racing through the crowd as he turned the room into a massive string instrument. Id M Theft Able also blew my mind, with a set involving movable metal sound sculptures and an impromptu, creepy song about peering at everybody's "summer legs". The weekend was a total blur of friends and feedback.

The reason Ende Tymes is so awesomely curated is because Bob Bellerue has been a thoughtful musician and label proprietor for years running. Bob's label Anarchymoon has a thorough discography of talented avantists, but isn't too snobby to put a bunch of photoshopped asses on the cover of a record. I remember seeing Bob play a set where he horizontally placed a guitar and attached several contact mics to it. Contrary to how the instrument was intended to be played, Bob never fretted the strings or strummed a chord. Instead, the natural resonant frequencies or the instrument rang out as Bob adjusted the volumes and positioning of the contact mics. Bob was playing the room itself as an instrument. His set was incredibly loud that night, although the low frequencies didn't hurt your ears as much as they rumbled your guts.