Photos: Inside Miami’s Raw and Unapologetic Noise Scene

If Miami’s noise scene can teach us one thing, it’s that anything can be turned into a musical instrument, and we mean anything. From a baby doll to a goat skull to a chainsaw. For more than 23 years, Miami’s underground music scene has embraced noise experimentation, claiming Churchill’s Pub as ground zero.

As musician, producer, and driving force behind the Magic City’s noise scene Frank Falestra (a.k.a. “Rat Bastard”) puts it: “There is no such genre called noise; therefore, genre is obsolete. The term may be used at times to give a heads-up, like the sign ‘slippery when wet.’” This spot-on analogy was shared in a work thread addressed to the venue’s internal management staff before this year’s International Noise Conference (INC), which took place in February. Although there is a specific week each year dedicated to celebrating the unapologetic sound of self-expression, Churchill’s serves as a platform for these sonic alchemists year-round.

It may be no surprise to locals, but it might come unexpectedly to outsiders or newcomers that Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth has not only spontaneously graced the INC stage on multiple occasions, but has also long been a fan of Miami’s noise scene and its founders. Earlier this year, New Times contributor Bob Weinberg spoke with Moore while he was promoting his most recent book, Now Jazz Now: 100 Essential Free Jazz and Improvisation Recordings 1960-80. Moore then took readers down memory lane to the ‘80s and ‘90s, when he performed with Sonic Youth at South Beach venues like Cameo Theater and Club Nu.

At the time, Miami’s local noise scene was taking shape thanks to Tom Smith and Falestra himself, whose bands included Harry Pussy and To Live and Shave in L.A. “It was Tom who sent me VHS videotapes of early Harry Pussy gigs in and around Miami, which I was able to broadcast on 120 Minutes on MTV back then,” Moore says. “He, Rat, and I had a mutual fascination with lo-fi, lo-brow, lo-down noise experimentation and Dada avant-garde everything.”

“In a lot of ways,” he continues, “Miami always had the weirdest, wildest purveyors of this genre, particularly Rat himself, and of course Harry Pussy, along with just about every strange-oid noisenik walking through the doors and onto the stage at Churchill’s, which Rat curated masterfully. Rat’s International Noise Conferences are legendary, and again, some of the most killer shows were Miami-based acts.”

Some of the acts Moore mentioned during that conversation continue to perform today, including Otto Von Schirach and another of Falestra’s projects, Laundry Room Squelchers. During the last International Noise Conference in February, Florida-based Cuban-American photographer Hydee Mustelier captured the energy and moments that make INC — and Churchill’s in general — the place in Miami where creativity runs free, shock value earns extra points, and musicians can test whether that object they found by the train tracks can really make an interesting sound.

Over the course of nine days, with an average of 30 acts performing daily — you can do the math, since I’m a letters girl — Mustelier photographed both the musicians and the crowd using a DSLR and 35 mm film.

Mustelier, who is a resident photographer and designer for Churchill’s Pub and Las Rosas, named Kae Scream, Michael Freiwald, and the Laundry Room Squelchers among her favorite acts of the latest edition: “I was photographing their set and he somehow got me to go up onstage and play the guitar. A bunch of other people joined in as well, and I think it actually ended up being one of the crazier sets of the entire conference — quite a spectacle.”

Although Miami’s noise scene has long centered around a few local legends, young and new musicians are always welcome, allowing experimentation to run free while ensuring survival and fresh sources of inspiration for anyone willing to listen, sweat, and be surprised in a judgment-free zone. Just one word of advice: don’t forget your earplugs.