Artist description Radio Noise has a pedigree, and our own brand of vibe.We are former members of Bad Manners, Let's Go Bowling, Zulu Spear, The New Morty Show and the Playtonics, converging on the defenseless art of songwriting.Our tastes have nothing to do with common sense or propriety so if you're looking for the latest Matchbox 20 release, you've come to the wrong place. We do Ska and Reggae-influenced hodge podge, and we're very proud of it.The Guardian called us "a buckshot of sound" which is the truth. We have some Elvis (Costello, not the fat OD victim from the south) and some English Beat. Some Toots and some John Cougar. We are nothing if not diverse. Ask someone who has been to a show, and then ask yourself why you haven't come to one yet."Singer", lyricist and bad harmonica player, Erik Noyes is older and none-the-wiser. Please, listen to the lyrics and make him happy that someone besides him knows any of the words to these songs. Everything will go a lot smoother if you do. He currently plays keys with east bay punk gods, The Mr. T Experience, and the Reno-based ska band, the Mudsharks. He also toured with Bad Manners for far too long,a nd it shows.Dede brings a level of groove previously unknown to anyone on Earth. His resume includes many bands, including Zulu Spear. Veteran Playtonic, Hud Bixler, sops up every last morsel with a pair of sticks.Mike Yoffie has involved himself in many (more or less) musical endeavors, including a stint with Sting (arrested, but never charged, solicitation in Modesto), some time with "The Police" (arrested for public drunkeness in Fresno). To add to his fame, Mike played backup a disgruntled horse trainer on They Might Be Giants's last album. A man of many talents, please help me welcome Mr. Michael Yoffie. (applause)Shall I go on? Our way too enthusiastic bone player is none other than, the inimitable (who wants to?) Daryl Burch of the Hill People. He helped resucitate such bands as Undercover SKA and the New Morty Show, for which he was summarily axed. Well, you're safe here, Daryl. Dave has decided you can stay for a while (until he gets bored of playing bass, anyway...).Next on the mic is my man Matt Lacques. Band funny guy. He has played in many top notch bands incuding Zulu Spear (so he's slumming with us, I guess). One night at rehearsal, he notified us all that he was going to have to get back in touch with the "ska idiom". We're all like, "you mean you weren't playing ska all this time? Well, whatever that was, professor, keep doing it..." He's got his own brand of playing called Afrobilly. See it once and understand why we just let him do whatever the hell he wants.The horn section is all butter, no bread. In addition to the aforementioned Mr. Burch, you have Dan "I Won't Sing" Falsetto on trumpet. Recently of east-bay anthem rock band, Psychobabble, Dan is also a world class chef who has his own cooking show.Anders "What's All That" Noyes on bari sax will play any instrument he wants to. He has played with such seminal ska bands as Como Se Llama as well as being a founding member of the Radio Noise legacy.It's all there, so where are you?

Music Style Ska and Reggae

Musical Influences English Beat, Equators, Elvis Costello, Police, UB40

Similar Artists Elvis Costello, Police, English Beat

Artist History Mom always says to speak from the bottom of my soul, so if you raised yourself up in a world of jazz, modern rock and ska, then Radio Noise is the barrage. "It's not just a life, it's a lifestyle..." as Ari would shout at the top of his lungs in a southern California way at KUCI, home of the infamous SKA PARADE. It's not as if you can choose what type of music comes out of you. There is only hindsight and understanding. Things happen above and beyond, paths intertwine, people spill things and the Great Carpet of History absorbs the years of sound and smell. Let's wring out the shag and rediscover the footprints, where they lead... The history is as long and involved, as it is shrouded in mystery. Mary Anne was probably a mass murderer, and she probably caused the shipwreck to hide out from the FBI. You just never know about people...Back from Digression Land, Lead Singer, Erik Noyes starts the odyssey in 1981 "...with Erik Forsyth (the only Monkey Man) at an eighth grade party. Walkmans are in at that point, and Erik and I have ripped his headphone set apart, Monkey's on left, I'm on right. There's this song, unlike anything we've ever heard, yet common to everything we've ever heard." Here's The Setup...Rapper's Delight hits the year before, changing everyone's life instantly. Erik begins to memorize lyrics with the ferocity of a rabid dog. Strutting, popping and locking are the current thing. "What's Happening" is all about Rerun and his crazy jump-step. Breakdancing is on the horizon. A commercial sell-out is imminent. And all of a sudden, the English Beat appear, heavily distorted through a full-blasted Walkman headphone and barely audible over the din of eighth graders listening to Chic, Commodores, Earth, Wind and Fire, and Sister Sledge. The Beat were everything good about music: rhythm and kick ass lyrics without fitting neatly into any commercial pocket. Somewhere way down deep, the intent was very clear and life as we knew it, was over. "Just Can't Stop It" opened the doors to many alternatives for which the Quake (KQAK, the station when KITS was a fuckin' hot hits station) carried the flag. A whole movement had opened its massive doors. Timing is everything, so when the Beat came through with the Blasters and the Bangles later that year, the downward-spiralling path was chosen. Erik and Monkey were no longer accessible by those breakdancing, disco-skating legwarmer wearing headband wrapped pop-culturites. The down escalator extended into high school and the beyond. Exit Monkey to another school, enter Wil and Steve Rodriguez, eventual bass player, and the world of uncontrollable teenage awareness. Monkey would cut class to come and hang out, but things were changing. Wil and Steve were from a different time. They were like at the end "The Wanderers" when you see Bob Dylan, playing guitar and you go, "whoah, where did this guy come from?" The inseparable three would cruise Wil's Mustang, blaring the Scorpions and Eddie V, from a time before Roth left the band to do girlie videos. "This was a new twist, and I dug it for what it was. That year, 'Eruption' came out. Learning to air solo the whole thing was our first formal music education. Boredom and long weekends brought Steve, Wil and me together. Modern Rock eventually took over, and kept us together. The Beat and The Specials became a staple food, like the hallowed Frosted Blue Pop Tart. There was always a new mix tape of modern rock to introduce at gatherings. Where did that last great mix tape end up? It's probably on the floor of Wil's Mustang (now sold, and replaced by a truck (he's married now)). The scene changes, and fall of '88 sees the beginnings of band life. The Beat's last great show at the Greek was the pinnacle of awareness. Slowly and surreptitiously, suburban guys with eyeliner and polo shirts were starting to infiltrate. Things were coming to a grinding house beat halt. Todd the Lovester was the guitarist (he is in Japan now, doing Elvis impersonations for big money). Bob and the Humanities is not a good thing, it's a Bob Marley, Elvis, Beatles, Charlie Parker thing, but it's fun to look at. Enter Ari G. in da place ta be, from the southland to blow drums on the impervious blue sparkle skins. "Bands are complex...but then there's practical, soft-spoken Steve (driving the no-driving me to rehearsal) who was already being subjected to an experimental phase in music, in Ari's 8 X 8 bedroom). The band puts the bass to Steve, and that marks the beginning of something large. Todd moved to the southland to start up a neoprene line of visors called Duck Products, and then there were three and music." Three A.M. was a good idea, and they actually gigged pretty heavily for a no-guitar power trio. They added more originals, played a horrible version of Smoke Two Joints. All was well. D'Armous Boone (of the Quintet of the same name) was there, adding respectability to an otherwise simple sound. The gigs got bigger and better reaching an apex at Queen Adah Hall in a support slot for the Skelatones and Let's Go Bowling. Miraculously, the egoes remained at their normal epic proportions, Until The Chan enters the scene. The Chan brings heavy metal and ego to new heights. He wants to make ska into a new beast, adding the Peppers and some Night Ranger. He gets bored and leaves, after being forced out... Then comes Geoff to blend his pop with ska to make something good. (The Dark Years: All the years on the offshore colony with L. Ron will remain "the past.") In musical development, ¿Como Se Llama? becomes and expands to horns and a female vocalist. ¿CSL? makes it to Slim's on July 3rd, 1992 and disbands immediately thereafter due to the achievment of everyone's threshold for pain. Band politics and relations between the sexes make it not fun, and everybody leaves. Erik begins to gig regularly with Undercover SKA as keyboard player and vocalist, until February, 1993. From the country with bad teeth, Douglas Trendle (aka Buster) of Bad Manners calls up. Erik quits his job and goes on national tour for four months, and then moves to London to be with the band as musical director and co-tour manager with Dion Watts. After 8 months with the band, Erik's wheels started spinning and suddenly he was back with a new band. Steve and Geoff were back in the line-up with a barful of accomplished Bay Area musicians on tap, including ex-Hoodlum Empire guitarist, Gennaro Cannelora and Let's Go Bowling's big trombone, Dave Wiens, as well man of many words, Mike Yoffie, Eric (skins blower from the Liquidators) "drums on" Halladay, Trumpet Boy (regular with Big Bones and Mars Villa), OG Marc Frochtdog of the Bedpans (now we're reaching), and the Skalendar Girl, Linda Breen sawing wood. Big brother Anders sent vibrations through the floor with his baritone. Okay, so the two easiest ways to break up a band are to 1) put out a CD, or 2) take a band photo. Needless to say, we did both in that magical year of 1995. Differing opinions and irreconcilable difference gutted the band. A small nucleus remained, Erik and Anders, Gennaro Cannelora and David Wiens were then joined by trombonist Daryl Burch, drummer Jake DeMoe, and trumpet player Dan Falsetto. The sound mutated into a kind of Latin-surf-go-ska. The saga continues. Gennaro and most of humanity do not see eye-to-eye so he moves on to become the "Greatest Guitarist in the World." Not willing to give up quite so easily, they enlist the aid of Matt Lax of The Nearly Beloved and Zulu Spear. Jake hooks the band and Matt up in his last best move as the Radio Noise drummer. Jake heads way south to take up with the locals in Chile, Ecuador and points beyond, and once again, Radio Noise has gone nowhere fast. RoboWiens moves on to play with the Playtonics, and Anders decides to make an occupation out of having kids. Three boys later, the only ones left are Mike and Erik, Matt is fringing in a good-natured way, and RoboWiens helps out with tryouts. Let Matt tell you about the potential drummer who brought his snare, a hi-hat and a forty to audition, and you'll get a sense for why CD #3 has taken such a long time to start on. Finally, we talked Playtonics drummer, Hud Bixler into sitting in for awhile. Soon, we can't let him go and he can sing to. Now, all we need is the bass playing chops of NorCal's finest, ex-Zulu Spear veteran of touring wars, Dede. The band is set. The horns are back in place, with Daryl and Dan leading the charge. The saxophones are back with Anders on Bari and a combination of Nancy Boyles and Clayton Yong on tenor. New songs are spilling out of the rehearsal space like the rain through the roof. I'll say it once, and then you have to see it for yourself: Radio Noise is the gravy you sop up with a biscuit.

Group Members Erik Noyes, Mike Yoffie, Hud Bixler, Daryl Burch, Matt Lax, Dede, Dan Falsetto, Anders Noyes, Nancy Boyles, Joe Horde

Instruments Drums, Bass, Hammond B3, Piano, Guitar, Trombone, Trumpet, Tenor Sax, Baritone Sax

Albums Soul to Sleep, Bright New Day

Press Reviews Spirit of RadioIt was another busy Friday night in North Beach. When asked to describe Radio Noise to a potential patron, the bouncer at the Lost and Found Saloon replied, “It's like reggae with horns.” Though this remark was accurate, Radio Noise was so much more. Their energetic set spanned the FM dial.Comprising former members of Bad Manners, Undercover SKA, Let's Go Bowling, and Hoodlum Empire, Radio Noise know how to entertain. Whether it was the danceable ska of “Smarter Man” or a cover of Elvis Costello's “Radio Radio,” people were either on the dance floor attempting to skank or hooting their approval between songs. “Not to Do” gave drummer Jake DeMoe room to shine, showing him to be quite proficient in the reggae idiom. The rest of the band rallied behind DeMoe and made the song a smoldering slow-dance number.Singer Erik Noyes fired up the dance floor with “Jack Friday,” a song in the vein of Buster Poindexter's “Hot Hot Hot.” On that song Noyes donned a serape and mingled with the crowd as far as his microphone cord would allow. Guitarist Gennaro Cannelora took the limelight for “TaKillYa,” a surf instrumental that showed his chops to be on par with those of any G.I.T. grad. A mock-flamenco intro soon gave way to all-out guitar madness, with fleet-fingered Cannelora ending up on his knees, shaking his guitar for its last wail. Radio Noise are a buckshot of sounds, so purists probably should stay away. But if you're in the mood to party, these guys are awful fun to watch.Howard Mynt, Bay Guardian June 3rd, 1997

Location San Francisco, CA - USA

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