Infernal Noise: Sowing a Propaganda of Sound
Jennifer Whitney
This chapter examines the history and tactics of the Infernal Noise Brigade – a marching band founded to provide “tactical psychological support through a ‘propaganda of sound’” for the mass direct-action protests against the 1999 World Trade Organization summit in Seattle. The band continued acting as an accelerant to radical social movements until its self-immolation in 2006. This piece documents the challenges and exaltations the INB faced as it grew and endeavored to be musically challenging-yet-danceable, tactically relevant, propagandistically bombastic, and increasingly collective, while seeking to surpass the audacity of its previous anticapitalist deployments.
The author elaborates on lessons learned, principles adhered to, and organizational details which drove the success of the INB’s multinational actions, and provides an overview of the band’s influences – from French situationism to Carnival and military traditions from ancient Lupercalia and Turkish Janissaries; from radical ecology and labor movements to London's Reclaim the Streets; and members’ international solidarity-driven politics and travels to Morocco, El Salvador, Argentina, Brazil, India, Chiapas, Mexico, and beyond. More than a historical record, the piece aspires to incite innovation in bands seeking similar aims, and to sow the seeds of aesthetic and effective radical street band culture and praxis in ever-widening circles.
Jennifer Whitney is a long-term student of global-justice movements; metamorphosis; liminal spaces; plant intelligences; odd time-signatures; and expressive patterning of music, nature, and the mind-body-spirit. She plays with two New Orleans marching bands, grows food and medicine, practices classical Chinese medicine and yoga, and regularly endeavors to delve into and articulate the ineffable.
Jennifer Whitney
This chapter examines the history and tactics of the Infernal Noise Brigade – a marching band founded to provide “tactical psychological support through a ‘propaganda of sound’” for the mass direct-action protests against the 1999 World Trade Organization summit in Seattle. The band continued acting as an accelerant to radical social movements until its self-immolation in 2006. This piece documents the challenges and exaltations the INB faced as it grew and endeavored to be musically challenging-yet-danceable, tactically relevant, propagandistically bombastic, and increasingly collective, while seeking to surpass the audacity of its previous anticapitalist deployments.
The author elaborates on lessons learned, principles adhered to, and organizational details which drove the success of the INB’s multinational actions, and provides an overview of the band’s influences – from French situationism to Carnival and military traditions from ancient Lupercalia and Turkish Janissaries; from radical ecology and labor movements to London's Reclaim the Streets; and members’ international solidarity-driven politics and travels to Morocco, El Salvador, Argentina, Brazil, India, Chiapas, Mexico, and beyond. More than a historical record, the piece aspires to incite innovation in bands seeking similar aims, and to sow the seeds of aesthetic and effective radical street band culture and praxis in ever-widening circles.
Jennifer Whitney is a long-term student of global-justice movements; metamorphosis; liminal spaces; plant intelligences; odd time-signatures; and expressive patterning of music, nature, and the mind-body-spirit. She plays with two New Orleans marching bands, grows food and medicine, practices classical Chinese medicine and yoga, and regularly endeavors to delve into and articulate the ineffable.
Link 17.1 HonkFest West Symposium--Greg Filastine of Infernal Noise Brigade, videography by Charles Daniels
Supplemental Resources:
Hall, Emily. 2001. "Monoliths & Manifestoes: The Infernal Noise Brigade Makes Protest Fun!" The Stranger.
https://www.thestranger.com/seattle/monoliths--manifestoes/Content?oid=6192
