This May 5—the last day of the upcoming New Orleans Jazz Fest—marks the eighth time NOizeFest will be hosted in my Bywater backyard. This celebration of noise music and other nontraditional genres was started a decade ago by Keith “Deacon Johnson” Moore. Shortly after Katrina, Keith was shot in the chest and killed while buying drugs, and we’ve continued holding his festival in his honor ever since.

Many of my New Orleans friends are insane, yet so unique and enriching. It’s worth it to suffer for their friendship. I first met Keith at musician Ray Bong’s birthday party in 2004. Without knowing the guest of honor, Keith set up a T-shirt booth, blew an airhorn over our band’s music, and commandeered my microphone several times to announce his upcoming project: “Ambient Wars part two! A sonic catfight between DJ Beatgrrl and DJ Miss Mass Destruction!” After the show, Keith assigned me to write about his upcoming 20-act NOizeFest, then proceeded to call me every single day afterward to confirm his interview date and discuss his ever-evolving plans. A little intense. But I appreciated Keith’s weird drive. So out on my porch one night, I let him fill an entire 60-minute tape with his monotone “noise manifesto” and his musings on ambient techno versus “Jazz Fest’s blues whores and crappy jam bands.” CLICK HERE to read the entire piece at VICE…

Or watch this video of Michael Amason giving himself a tattoo during his performance: