Source: Boston Globe

People are pretty quick to point out the myriad noise-punk influences that No Age brings to the stage and its DIY ethos: Sonic Youth. My Bloody Valentine. Lightning Bolt. But an unsung 1970s pop band called the Nerves, led by a pre-Plimsouls Peter Case?

“When we were writing songs for the record, we were listening to a lot of obscure ’70s power-pop stuff like this band called the Nerves,” says No Age guitarist Randy Randall, who is half of the noisy, experimental Los Angeles duo. (Singer-drummer Dean Spunt is the yin to Randall’s yang). “They were just really simple, catchy, power-pop ballads. They were so fun to listen to that I think a lot of that just seeped in to what we were doing.”

Indeed, what No Age - its name comes from a 1987 SST Records compilation of instrumental music - has been doing, lately at least, is making high-energy rock music whose buzzing, barely contained abandon comes from punk, but whose unerring sense of melody and concision surely comes from pop.

“Nouns,” the band’s recently released sophomore record, darts with mad glee from the crash-bang-pop of “Cappo” to the jaunty Strokes-ish sense memory of “Ripped Knees” to the fuzzed-out Weezer-tronics of “Teen Creeps.” Technically, the disc is No Age’s first full-fledged album after a series of EPs; a subsequent compilation album of those works, titled “Weirdo Rippers,” came out last year.

“I write songs that I like to listen to - I don’t really know how to be in a band any other way,” Randall says of the influences that inform No Age’s mix of melody and mayhem. “We were trying to make the songs complement each other, so we always kept the question in mind, `What does the record need?”‘

So far, the band has been taken aback by the enthusiastic reception it’s been getting on its headlining tour. “It’s totally surreal,” says Randall, en route to Atlanta after what he describes as “an amazing show” the band performed at an art gallery in Jackson, Miss. “I don’t think there was any way of planning this sort of stuff. We’re not ones to really puff our chests out, so this is very strange and unusual for us.”

Since No Age first burst onto the scene at the Smell, an all-ages club in LA where they also helped book shows and run the soundboard, the twosome have become one of the linchpins of a local underground art and music community that also includes their friends and tour mates Abe Vigoda (yes, there is a band named after the octogenarian actor who played Fish in the TV series “Barney Miller”) and Lavender Diamond.

“We definitely wouldn’t even be a band without the Smell,” says Randall. “It was such a free and supportive environment. We’ve done various things over the years to help keep it standing and keep it away from the fire marshals - doing just enough work so that it looks like it’s all up to code.”

No Age with Titus Andronicus and Soft Circle

Gargoyle, 6465 Forsyth Blvd.

Doors: 7:30pm, Show: 8:00pm

Free with WU ID, $10 for public