A History of Chattanooga Noise

by Jerry Reed (Rurnt)

June 1, 2024

Roots

When asked about doing a timeline of Chattanooga noise, I knew where I had to start. They might not be the first, but the names that immediately came to my mind were "The Shaking Ray Levis" and their eponymous "Society". These people were putting us on the map well before most of us knew what a contact mic was. Although not "Noise", they have been lifelong travelers along the weird, wild path we all are now gladly taking. In fact, the SRLS put my old noise act on a bill when no one else would.  

I would be a damn fool to not mention "Cult of The Dead Wizard" from this time as well. Total outside weirdos who eventually connected to one of the best bands ever from our area, "The Tracers". Due to them, my first exposure to live noise was a friend (sup Robby) of theirs opening for them with some tape noise at a Pizza Hut in Ringgold, GA.

Noise in the Valley

In the early 2010s, some of us got the itch to have feedback flowing here in the Scenic City. Being the only venue that understood noise is more than just that, Sluggo's welcomed us with nonjudgmental arms. Sluggo's openness along with an influx of new blood in town created a thriving scene. This just shows how important having a dedicated venue (sup Stove Works) can be. 

I have to name names for this era. It is when we had such acts as Secret Guilt, Torschlusspanik, Segaworms, and many others. With all this activity, I couldn't help but follow the advice of Peter J. Woods, "Book a bunch of acts and call it a fest. People will come." This led to the annual LEAKEY SOCKETS FESTIVAL. It ran for 5 years straight and brought a lot of out-of-towners here. It especially helped to connect the Chattanooga crew with the Tri-Cities area (Johnson City, Kingsport, and Bristol TN) noise scene, which is still running to this day.

A New Era

Sadly, with the end of LEAKY SOCKETS and Sluggo's shutting down their venue space for a bit, things died down. This crawl led into the COVID lockdown era. That obviously didn't help. Things got quiet. The feedback faded from the valley. Ears weren't ringing. No metal was clanging. 

Out of nowhere (at least for me) there was a rumbling of a new group of people making a racket down at Stove Works. With this knowledge, I made the trek. Lo and behold, it was true! And they were nice people at that! I was lucky enough to get on an early gig, and it got me back into doing my project. Not just that, but the new blood brought new sounds. Hell, they're the ones responsible for this blog and this article. They also had a constant stream of out-of-town acts. The weirdest part was they had all of this and the best PA system in the area!!!

I personally am thankful to the C.N.N. crew. I feel they are doing our town (hell, state) a service by doing this. 

Come on down! Get involved!! You know you want to! 

LONG MAY THE VALLEY RING WITH THE SOUNDS OF FEEDBACK AND TRUTH!!!!!