June 1, 2013
Noise Free America
For immediate release
Contact:
Ted Rueter
877-NOISE-NO
[email protected]
Chapel Hill: Derek Wunder of Mendocino, California has won this month’s Noisy Dozen award from Noise Free America for creating the “Rockbox,” a 24-foot long art car “that looks like a giant retro boom box.” It blasts 125 decibels on wheels, and is “capable of getting any party started with its giant speakers.” The “Rockbox” is built on a 1987 Dodge one-ton van with a 318 V-8 engine, and holds up to 50 people.
The Rockbox “comes equipped with an impressive 10 kx onboard generator, inbuilt DJ decks a rotating LED beacon antennae, and LED lighting (which makes it easy to spot in the dark).”
Wunder is very proud of his creation: “My Rockbox is a party literally every time you park it and music is playing.” It is much more powerful, he says, than the boom boxes of the early 1980s. Wunder spent seven months and nearly $20,000 to build his noisemaking machine on wheels. He calls it the “ultimate party bus.”
Wunder notes that despite its mammoth size, the mobile speaker set is “not that tough.” He noted that “you can even DJ while you drive the car if you really think you have to, although I don’t recommend it.” Wunder concedes that the Rockbox is not legally allowed on roads. Wunder has been bringing his monster boom box to the Burning Man festival since 2007.
Now, with the impending responsibilities of fatherhood and new-found maturity, Wunder is being forced to sell his beloved creation. His Craigslist.com ad notes that the replacement cost for his obnoxious noisemaking equipment would be $30,000.
Of course, many noisemakers are very enthusiastic about Wunder’s monstrosity. One reporter stated that “this boom box can’t help but put a smile on others’ faces.” Posters to bulletin boards stated, “That’s pretty epic!” and “I need this!”
Ted Rueter, Noise Free America’s director, stated that “the Rockbox noisemaking machine is an outrage. First it was boom boxes. Then it’s loud car stereos. Now a noise-loving nut has created an entire bus which is a boom box. What will be the next ridiculous noise-making invention?”
“Unfortunately,” Rueter noted, the desire for peace and quiet is always outdone by the forces of noise and destruction. My quiet cannot drown out the noise of others. People who love noise are always on the lookout for new and more ‘creative’ ways to destroy the peace. The Rockbox should be banned as a public nuisance.”
Noise Free America is a national citizens’ organization devoted to noise reduction. Past “winners” of the Noisy Dozen award include the manufacturers of the Howler, the Hornblaster, and the motorcycle noisemaking bicycle horn.