New York City

New York's noise rock lineage is older and deeper than outsiders give it credit for. It starts with No Wave in '77 — Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Contortions, Mars, DNA tearing rock music down to studs in five short years. Sonic Youth pick up the aftermath in 1981 and turn it into a thirty-year career. Swans arrive in '82 with Gira's slow-motion sledgehammer approach. Then Unsane in the late 80s picks up the filthy end of it and never lets go. Cop Shoot Cop, Helmet, Prong, Pussy Galore, Foetus — all of them working in and out of Manhattan and Brooklyn. CBGB, the Knitting Factory, Brownies. Matador runs it out of a tiny office and somehow builds a catalog that could rival any indie in the country. NYC noise doesn't sound like Chicago — it's greasier, meaner, more claustrophobic. Makes sense. So is the city.