There's a curious irony running all through the new record from When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, Not Noiice. The band's name comes from the old B-movie of the same name, but it also references the terrible, prehistoric force of the group's lumbering rock. Singers Jesse Hodges and George Dishner don't so much sing as grunt and scream their way through the record's eleven riff-laden tracks. The dead giveaway as far as the band's M.O. doesn't happen until the record's closing track: the relentlessly self-referential "Finally Grunge". Based on what came before, we had an idea that When Dinosaurs are a group of beer-swilling dudes who love the Melvins and other Aberdeen rednecks, but that title clinches it. That's not, however, all they're up to. Their ham-handed heavy guitar touches have firm roots in both late-1990s stoner sludge and, surprisingly, in no wave, especially on cuts like "It's Casual" and "Hairvest".
But what's in a name? When Dinosaur's first record, Snacks, was all about mindless fun-- punk like the Minutemen with a slipped disc, or maybe Slint's retarded cousin. With their new album, the band seems somehow more focused. But while their song titles are fun, they seem to be playing itinerantly to genres rather than really rocking out. Not Noiice has been blessed with a title that indicates a curious and blank-slated sense of irony, but the fratty reference game played on record displays no such deft logic.
Whether or not listeners get the movie reference in the band name, they certainly understand the sentiment behind the moniker, and the second word in the title Not Noiice will click as a portmanteau of Nice and Noise. Unfortunately, this sort of recognition can typify the problem with the record: it's a known quantity. While there are some great instrumental jams, some nice riffs, some mesmerizing spoken-word bits coursing through, the album is as constricted as the media on which it was pressed, spinning around itself, never really going anywhere. When Dinosaurs are at their best when they're at their most enigmatic, as on "Big Fuck Party" and "Hypnotic Locks", where they seem willing to let the interplay of their chaotic elements guide the work. There's something here that almost offhandedly threatens to be really special, so once they manage to sort out where their sludgy irony belongs and where their ecstatic sincerity can shine, they should have something that's really noiice.
