Kalistani Major History

[Doc]

Noise Alternative returns to the Airwaves
New Blues Punk band Jon Becker Sonic Overload releases loudest rock album in a decade
Kaliburg, Ananto
April 7, 5359


JBSO, the Noise Alternative trio from Luxon, debuts at Number 10 on the weekly Album Poll

Fans of Noise Alternative, the mix between alternative and art rock that was the main trend in Kalistani Music a quarter of a century ago, were thrilled that the genre has returned to the Kalistani Album charts with the debut of the self described "blues punk" trio known to locals as the Overload. More correctly, the band, Jon Becker Sonic Overload taps deeply into blues rock traditions, and may just be the most purely rock and roll act to appear in the Kalistani Rock scene in decades.

"Well, I mean, its basically blues rock played with loud guitars and loud drums," said the band's eponymous leader Jon Becker, who plays rhythm guitar and sings. "We ain't doing anything but playing straight, dirty gritty fundamentalist rock and roll. It's the Overload baby!" This was the first mention that Becker made to his band's name in the interview, but it certainly wouldn't be the last. As a matter of fact, Becker makes it a point to mention "rock and roll" or "The Sonic Overload" at least once in nearly every song on the bands self titled debut--itself an apropos title for one of the most self referential bands in Kalistani rock and roll today.

"I don't get this Noise Alternative moniker" said lead guitarist/bassist (such as it is) Ari Berkholtz. "We try to just keep it simple and straight forward, balls out. This ain't alternative- its what rock is supposed to sound like." Drummer Terrence Samson agrees: "If a band isn't breaking five or six heads a night he ain't playing hard enough." In fact, Samson is famous not only for breaking drum heads, but playing on broken heads and cymbals. "I mean, I have a snare, a floor tom and a bass drum, a crash and a hi hat. If I had any more in my kit, things might get a little expensive."

That sort of loud music has taken a back seat to drum loops, samples, and hip hop lyrics on Kalistani radio and music television in recent years. Audiences were impressed with the progressiveness of hip hop production led by the Addisjah movement and promoted world wide by LCR. But in recent years, as hip hop became closer to pop, and more R&B influences were making their way into hip hop, lovers of innovative music styles began returning to rock venues, and pushing rock and alternative acts to be loud again. Becker started as a front man for the band Elephant at the beginning of this move back to alternative. Elephant was an art electronic band that toured clubs and medium sized venues in Kaliburg, Sulari and Port Swedes. But Becker wasn't happy: As he reports it, he had a revelation one day while listening to a Baltusian blues act that was visiting Yoshimi one evening.

"It hit me, like a bolt of lightning," said Becker. "It was an uh and epiphany for me. Like we're talking about going back to basics. Stripping all that nonsense out, clearing away all the extra stuff. And just playing Rock and Roll." Becker immediately quit Elephant, breaking the band up and hired Berkholtz and Samson, who had been playing as session and pickup players for local Kaliburg bands to form The Jon Becker Sonic Overload. They experimented with different sounds, and self produced the Flavor EP, which was blues rock with art rock, hip hop and noise influences. Becker and Co. released a single from that EP called "Whale" in 5356. Lacking label support and Republic-wide distribution, the EP and the single failed to chart.

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIgz9HvsVjA]
"Whale", from JBSO's debut Flavor EP

When the Flavor EP failed, the Sonic Overload stripped even more elements out of their sound and came to a simple, and fundamentalist hard rock sound. Turning up the amplifiers and keeping the avant garde feel of their earlier explorations led them to gain attention from older fans who were still hanging on to Noise Alternative as well as KMI who was in the market for a new rock band to compete with LCR on M7 and Radio 1. Becker was signed following a show in downtown Lolla that ended up inciting a riot that was blamed on Becker himself. Following the show, Becker was arrested and held in jail overnight before he was sentenced with inciting public disturbance and was ordered to pay restitution for damages that his band had caused. Becker was given 10 days to make full restitution, and the Sonic Overload held a benefit concert on the Mall for 9500 people, with a free will donation which allowed Becker to pay the club owner for the damage done to his establishment. The Sonic Overload was also signed by KMI that day.

The band immediately went into the studio and the self titled album was completed in less than a week. "We play simple songs," said Berkholtz. "They are pretty easy to record. Plus we've been playing them for like ever." The band brought in session keyboardist Michelle Hanlan, who also played a Theremin on the record. "It don't take long to record like 14 4-minute songs." The record mastered and pressed in another week, and KMI almost didn't have any time to do any promotion for the record.

"No worries," said Samson. "Becker is so self promotional that at every single show, during every single break, he would do a little commercial for the record. It got to be kind of a joke." KMI booked the band on M&'s popular afternoon show, "Pop Today" where the band played two songs from the new album, "Kickin Rock in the Junk Tonight" where Becker mentions "Rock" "Rock and Roll" "Rave On" or "The Sonic Overload" 18 times in 2 minutes and 53 seconds, and the first single from the new album "Something is Wrong", which is a blistering barnburner of a sing talk song that might represent the hardest rock on the entire album, and is actually the song that incited the aforementioned riot (though Becker did not encourage fans to "tear this f--kin place down and worship the Devil" on M7 the way he did in Lolla.)

All this attention led to a debut at Number 10 on the Album chart, the highest chart position for a noise alternative album in more than a decade. The Sonic Overload hasn't been able to displace hip hop on the charts yet, and album sales have plateaued, so it is likely that without a major push by the label, this record will likely stall out in the mid teens before beginning a decline, but there appears to be no limit to the energy of Becker and the Sonic Overload. So this will likely not be their last, or even loudest album.

Check out the debut single from the S/T from Jon Becker Sonic Overload, "Something is Wrong", now out on KMI.

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VcXre-u9hQ]