Another Swedish band (see above) — this one is swathed in farfisa organ, mod haircuts and Marxist politics. The INC grabbed a bit of buzz at the cusp of the ’60s-ish garage revival back in 2001, but their influences are much more current than the usual Nuggets names. In fact, the band’s story mimics that of its main influence: the amazing early-’90s Fugazi-Stax hybrid from D.C. called Nation of Ulysses.
The founding members of International Noise Conspiracy cut their teeth in the late ’90s as the more spastic Refused, who were a near copy of Ulysses except that, since they were Swedish, their socialist sloganeering didn’t require irony. Then, just after Ulysses morphed into the decidedly ass-centric Make Up, Refused became the dancier Noise Conspiracy. And despite their well-made, doggedly leftist mod punk, they nonetheless came off as a fan-club version of Make Up.
The roads are finally diverging. Make Up has morphed again into the weed-centric Weird War. And International Noise Conspiracy has remained focused. Despite the political connotations of uniforms, their adherence to the matching outfit/nice haircut image is looking more like market branding than anything else. All of this is probably a moot point to fans, who were memorizing multiplication tables when Nation of Ulysses was touring, and to whom branding long ago trumped ideology.
This article appears in Apr 22-28, 2004.