SXSW: Norway’s Megaphonic Thrift

The Megaphonic Thrift

Depending on how you decode The Megaphonic Thrift’s puzzling name, you might expect either an abundant or economical usage of the peculiar vocal device, the megaphone. As it were, there seems to have been no megaphones used in the making of Decay Decoy, the band’s new release on Sonic Unyon, though one can’t really be sure what exactly is going down during the feedback freakout at the end of “I Saw The Silver Line.” Owing (and admitting) a debt to both Sonic Youth and the local Bergen, Norway, noise scene, Megaphonic Thrift is more melodic than you might expect. At times they rock spiky guitar licks like The Strokes. Most often, though, they take the fundamental underlying guitar idea of Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979” and re-purpose it for electric guitar in a number of inventive ways. “Neues” puts the angular guitar line out front, while some interesting atmospheric noise builds up in the background. By the end, everyone’s hanging on to the melody for dear life as the song rushes to a climax, then crashes into itself. The band will visit Austin in March for the second year in a row to play SXSW in 2011.