Noise Addict

Noise Addict came together in 1992 on Bondi Beach as an Australian teen pop act. Singer and songwriter Ben Lee, then only 13, headed the group whose original members included guitarist Doron Kalinko, bassist Daniel Mapp and drummer Saul Smith. Once a demo had been cut, the band played its first show and was spotted by promoter and Fellaheen Records head Steve Pavlovic, who forwarded the tape to Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore. Moore elected to release the recording on his Ecstatic Peace label, issuing the 1993 EP DEF. Later that year the band followed with the EP The Taste in My Eyes. Lee’s track “I Wish I Was Him,” a pointed satire aimed at the Lemonheads’ Evan Dando, then reached Beastie Boys member Mike D., who promptly signed Noise Addict to his Grand Royal label and oversaw the release of 1994’s Young and Jaded. Lee delivered his solo debut Grandpaw Would the next year, yet even after Kalinko exited and Romy Hoffman stepped in on guitar, the group completed its first album, Meet the Real You, still in 1995. Following a tour supporting Sebadoh the band broke up, though Lee carried on alone and issued Something to Remember Me By in 1997.