HUMAN PYRAMIDS

SXSWTF: This Year's Thing and a Response to the Stuff That Was Said

2011-04-05T00:57:00.027-04:00

Wye Oak doing an acoustic set at Lustre Pearl.

PART 1: THIS YEAR'S THING

Right now I am in Iowa City. Wye Oak hired me to sell their merchandise for a five-week tour of the US and Canada with Brooklyn band Callers, so here I sit, behind a card table listening to an opener named Alexis Stevens strum out some earnest chords at The Mill (est. 1962). Last night we were all in Omaha, where the local weekly published an article about Jenn and Andy, the content of which focused primarily on What It Is Like To Be A Band At SXSW.

Whenever I go to SXSW I’m relieved that I don’t have to “work” it, even though I may be present. Once, Monitor Records brought me down for free because I was working for them for free. I sunburned my entire face and got locked out of the hotel room. A few years later, I went down to perform in a few different capacities (solo and with Lexie Mountain Boys). I’ve never had to play more than 4 shows in the weekend, nor have I had to schedule meetings about overseas music licensing for advertisers nor have I run across South Congress with a guitar in my hand trying to make it for my slot at a bookstore barbecue. Someday, maybe. I am not complaining; I’d like to preface this screed by stating that I was present for SXSW this year in an unprofessional capacity. Perhaps "improfessional" is a better way of putting it. Informally non-professional. I didn't have to attend any conferences, put it at that. I hung out with Jenn and Andy while they played their shows. It was fun.

When we first got to SXSW, three things happened within 20 minutes of each other. Seeing this was the first.

This year, most of the people I spoke with who actually did have to "work it" seemed to be in high spirits despite the gloomy forecast for moving units across the US and beyond. The nature of music manufacturing and broadcasting is being redefined, the strictures for artmaking and cultural support are tighter than ever, and music listeners are absorbing more product than ever while paying less for it than ever. It is this type of environment that forces artists and industry-types to reinvent themselves while riding the rails of the old ways; the demands of SXSW require heavy gasoline usage, regardless of how many semi purposeless “Green Zone” tent villages are erected. Vans, generators, trailers, motorcycles. A thousand pedicabs couldn’t hump all the equipment passed from hand to hand all night & day, up and down staircases and across innumerable thresholds. What use is a Green Zone in a parking lot if there aren’t enough trash cans and everyone is ankle-deep in empty little plastic spring water bottles and greasy taco foil?

So Austin is awash in trash, shirtless fistfights and barely audible streetcorner gypsy bands competing with the omnipresent blare. There seems to be no weight or value to anything because the whole thing is everything and the diffuse effect of all things promoted simultaneously creates a near-total wash; the “where are you?” heard over and over is the cry of echolocation and the answer should always be “it doesn’t matter” or “everywhere”. This mass, unchecked washout is a microcosm of both the tour experience and the American experience. A blur of city-states, a dazzling endless skyline of signage two stories off the ground, a situation bolstered by live musicians who are largely underpaid (if paid at all) and a situation that can barely support their weight when it comes to the execution. A desperate communal scrabbling towards something greater, something more effective, more what it needs to be. A mindless bacchanal shitstorm streaming shreds of bathroom tissue, filthy tears, ice cubes, dried vomit, cameras: a staring contest between thousands of participants. A party of darkness and light fighting for supremacy.

Number 2: Return of Josh T Pearson, pictured here (l - r) with a hobbit and Jean Rose.

PART 2: A RESPONSE TO STUFF THAT WAS SAID

We drove out of Austin on Monday March 20. We read articles written by Baltimore journalists, bloggers, record company owners about the SXSW. Twitter accounts of a fake parallel festival (#southbysouthwendys) featuring Narwhalz & Juiceboxx, where the Mooney Suzuki was hogging all the honey mustard, sounded awesome, especially since it was fake. Some articles, however, were exasperating.

Many (OK, ALL) of the articles that drove me up the everloving wall were written by Baltimore's Sam Sessa, whose "main reason for going was to find out why Austin (the "Live Music Capital of the World") has such a great music scene, and what Baltimore could do to help make ours better." I couldn't believe it, especially in light of the actual blog entries. My response to these articles is threefold.

Number 3: A reminder that partying hard can happen before noon.

1. Make sure you are actually seeing Baltimore bands. More than two, preferably. Especially when a thorough list of Baltimore bands and when and where they were playing was published on the same blog you are writing for. Not one but TWO Baltimore media outlets (Baltimore Sun and WTMD) send you to Austin and the thing you have to report is that you shook Rachael Ray's oily mitt and you didn't get in to see Das Racist? Sam, call me and I will take you to actual Baltimore shows with Baltimore bands playing them. My phone number is the same.

All that stuff went down on our walk from Lustre Pearl to Wye Oak's IFC filming.

2. Drawing comparisons between Baltimore’s music scene and the music scenes in other places in America, especially Austin, is useless. Why does one thing work and another thing not work? Because nothing is precisely the same. Just saying that Austin has a great music scene does not automatically make it so. Baltimore’s music scene and its relationship with the city legislature is best served when it highlights its own strengths in order to rebuild and redefine its needs, not when it bemoans its lack in comparison with other places. How can we capitalize on what we have in order to create a situation advantageous to the city and its artists in particular? It doesn’t benefit Baltimore’s cultural entities to know that Austinites think its fucked up to not allow bands to play all over the place all the time. Additionally, who's to say that Baltimore bands want Baltimore to be more like Austin? Baltimore has one of the spiciest scenes in the country now, due in no small part to the fact that Baltimore bands have to be creative and inventive. When there is no SXSW, Austin's scene can't hold a taco to Baltimore's action. MAN AM I WORKED UP!

I drank a Miller Lite and ate caramels in the green room. Here is Jenn wishing she could do the same, via the IFC.

3. Journalists need to know that it is fucking boring to read about bands talking about SXSW. As a fan and someone interested in the lives of musicians and their artmaking processes, the last thing I want to read is a two-minute opinion about something as sprawling and grotesque as SXSW. The only person there who is going to tell you he hates it outright is Cass McCombs, if you can get him to talk to you at all. Did you know people actually move out of Austin when SXSW happens? No business owner is going to tell you they don’t like it either, because the festival is precisely the boost that post-holiday retailers, restaurants and vendors require to make it into summer. The Stranger's Line Out blog is a perfect example of what kind of thing people want to see when it comes to articles about SXSW: a blend of gore and triumph. Pictures of carnage (toilets at Red 7, anyone?), real surprises, weird stuff, good pictures.

"Can't wait to try that raisin pie from craft services..."

This year, Ben Weasel punched two women in the face in a move that caused his entire band to quit (albeit only after the internet comments jumped off). YOKO ONO performed, sparking a rumor that LADY GAGA was going to make an appearance (she didn't). Bands from Africa played. AFRICA. Every year, every day of that particular weekend someone wakes up thinking “Did that happen to me, to us?” Did I just drive all the way across town through the hellish mobs and steaming gridlock to the late show and then load in after the obvious headliner just to be told they would only have five minutes to play so why bother and get out? Did I just enter a “gifting suite” that smells like a cardboard box and take my pants off to see if these other hard new pants fit? Did I, drunk and stoned, hop a fence at the edge of the yard of a person I just met, to cry into a neglected dog’s lion ruff? Did my life just look like that for a moment, pure hedonistic transcendence so fierce-feeling and tender and wide-open that it could not possibly be mistaken for anything else than reality? My dreams often look a lot like SXSW: crushing waves of strange bodies, familiar faces swimming in and out of focus, buildings that look like one thing turning into another (“Is this a textile factory, a bar or an amusement park?”). Mutability, potential, heartache. Come on, that's got to be interesting to write about. Oh wait.

Dr. Waz, Post-raisin pie glow in Waterloo Records' Official Tito's Vodka and Brioche French Toast Airstream.
All photos in this article taken by Lexie Mountain.
wyeoak's dot com

Essay Rejected by McSweeneys: My New Job (Now Old News)

2010-12-27T21:19:00.000-05:00

The bosses are brothers, and they bring their matching-eyed dogs to work. The dogs look like reptiles because of these yellow eyes. It makes them appear confused and ancient. There are two, and they ignore each other. One, a silken monkey food-stealer spaniel thing, barks hysterically at strangers. He lounges in the hallway, looking up with an expression of inexplicable terror. The other is a horse-pill shaped tick of a dog with respiratory problems that causes incessant and periodic honking on the exhale. When one of the bosses introduced her, he said “This is Funny,” in a most un-funny tone of voice. I was looking at the dog, stroking its throat, and I thought my new boss was referring to the sheaf of papers he was holding. Then I realized he too was looking down at his dog. He said it again. “This is Funny.”

From my desk, in a windowless half-office, I can hear the rhythmic honking rise and fall as Funny lumbers up and down the carpet, searching for someone to smell her breath and comment on her Flying Nun ears. Sometimes she catches a whiff of something interesting and her breathing becomes its own drum fill, a shuffle-ball-change that might be snappy if it happened at regular enough intervals. Snuffly-DOO-snuff-AH!

The dogs generally keep to themselves, or are ignored. Ignoring the dogs is an athletic act because we have to prove, on a regular basis, that we are in fact ignoring them. Regardless of how severely we ignore, one of the brothers is convinced we are going out of our way to feed his dog our celery or hummus or whatever. “I swear someone is feeding him,” he announced (yelled) a few days ago through a particularly noisy faceful of wasabi peas. Today he banged his sunburned forehead against the wall of my office very slowly, almost a dozen times in a row. DONK. DONK. DONK. I don’t know why, I think it was because I asked about something. His dog is the silky one, always appearing slightly jealous, lurking in doorways waiting for the sound of a spoon against the walls of a single-serving yogurt container. His name is Newman, and I cannot help but think when I look into his brass-button eyes: “New man.” Sometimes I say it aloud. Sometimes, for no apparent reason, someone else will say one of the dog’s names aloud.

Newman was absent from the company picnic; Funny attended at the end of a length of clothesline. The line stretched from her owner’s belt loop to wherever the closest morsel of barbecued meat might be, which was basically everywhere on everyone’s paper plates. She made new noises, one of which was a snort-honk-grunt combination that actually startled people. We were told, while lying on sheets at the edge of the disc-golf course, that Funny is 75% Beagle with a quarter of indeterminate origin. Her owner had her DNA tested. Newman was submitting to the exact same background check, and the results came back totally Spaniel-free. Smallish shiny completely brown monkey dog wasn’t listed in his chart either: evidently there wasn’t much on his chart due to the complexity and completeness of his genetic emulsification. The afternoon was hazy with the moistness of a nearby hurricane, and yellowjackets hovered around everything.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could harness this listlessness, this hunger for whatever? How much energy could be generated by aimless dogs? A dog gym, a facility of treadmills hooked up to generators, could easily power one house, perhaps two, or a small factory’s lighting needs. Run, little things, run.

STEPHANIE BARBER: Eternal Dialog

2010-10-18T23:21:00.000-04:00

Stephanie Barber makes films, writes poetry, co-curates Transmodern Festival, and teaches at MICA with whatever spare time she invents out of thin air. She currently resides in Baltimore where everyone is the better for it, as evidenced by her collusions with Theresa Columbus, Geodesic Gnome, Performance Thanatological Society, Dan Conrad & Jenny Graf and recent readings at recent literary events about town (WORMS!).

What do you do? What are you doing the most lately?

i make art. film, poetry, music etc. i talk about animals.

mostly right now i am making videos and writing a lot. i'm interested in making a something in a certain medium which manages to sidestep the concerns of that medium--or like a plain cardboard box might begin to sprout wings and armadillo shells, prehensile tails and the goofy smiles of human children with down's syndromes--so a film can be considered as a poem and a song can be considered as a film and a poem can be considered a cross country ski competition and hopefully the best pieces can be considered just pieces of art.

Lawn Poem installation by Stephanie Barber at The Poor Farm

How long have you done these things? How have the things changed?

i have always been writing and for half of my life i have been making films and very recently i have been making videos. my music making is sporadic and unfocused but like a miracle when i wind up inside of a musical project. the most enjoyable.

things have changed in that i am working within myself right now in a very particular way. i mean that i am pushing against my own ideas and my previous work in a way that was maybe not as possible to do when i didn't have such a large body of work. it is a very subtle feeling. like artistic proprioception. an interoceptive awareness of where i am in my art. this is a simultaneously abstract and specific feeling.
i'm unsure of how i feel about this morally. there is something about the hardcore individualist motivation in working like this--responding to previous work i have made--avoiding the tropes of previous stories--etc.--something about strident individualism which feels tawdry and propagandistic. the alternative seems either like being tossed around in the giantest ocean slammed by rocks and unnamed sea creatures or being in harmony and eternal dialog with all art ever made and about to be made.

stephanie barber's 'in the jungle' with dan conrad and jenny graf

Why do you do these things? What's it like when you are unable to do these things?

probably to make someone love me or hear me (same). ideally everyone. a deep sort of love which has to do with being known--a childish unattainable eradication of the aloneness of a life.
also because maybe i feel like it is 'the good work'. i am a religious fanatic without a religion.

it feels terrible when i am unable to make work. sometimes i don't work for a little while as a way to make myself feel awful and worthless and unloveable. then i realize i am doing it and quickly stop. i have tried to think about worth outside of the creation of something poetic, or moving or funny or lovely--then i imagine i could be a monk and this seems like it could possibly be fulfilling (or a jogger--sometimes i think about jogging) but i think, for me, it would not be (or would cease to be after a certain time). art work is spiritual charity. both internally and externally.

When was That Moment in your life that told you you would become what you are?

i don't think there was a moment. i've always been what i am.

Another still from "In The Jungle", this time courtesy Kelly Kuvo

How has your life changed to accommodate That Moment's effect on you?

my life is really hard. probably a lot of lives are very hard and much harder but sometimes i think the way i live is a bit too uncomfortable. the hairshirts of financial destitution and ascetic self flagelation of expectation.

no, my life is super easy and like a soak in a never cleaned hot tub in the post swinger mountains of colorado. it need not accommodate.

How has your work affected your life in return?

my work affects my life in that i wish for it to be as multifaceted as i try to make a film or poem or video. how something can be crass and tender simultaneously or funny and sad, or academic and cheap joke..............i guess in life you have to pick something and i am not so good at doing that--i feel let down by the lack of dynamism in lives and jobs and towns and loves................or maybe i am terrified by the actual dynamism? more moved by the architectural angles and armatures of contrast and collusion suggested by challenging art than the messy, cruel way that these sorts of dynamics play out in life and interpersonal relations.

What do you think of the future?

i think it is going to come and i think it is already here. i am a self aware substructure and as such am (though pessimistic) a believer.

What do you think of when you think of David Lee Roth? Why?

i think he is super. i love the way he and eddie van halen play fast and loose and funny with their super-talents. he is as brilliant a physical comedian and dancer as fred astaire and steppin fetchit. his radio show in ny is ok too. he's sharp.

http://stephaniebarber.com/

MICHAEL ANDREW TURNER: A Muscle Car Out of Cockroach Parts

2010-10-18T22:35:00.000-04:00

Mike Turner! Oh man, where to start? Lexington Kentucky's own Mikey T plays solo musics, all lonely thready guitar ragas, and sometimes with his band Warmer Milks shows happen. He's always got a new chapbook or cassette, weird job or exciting and confrontational place to live. He's a poet, a real dreamer and the kind of conversationalist who can talk the paint off a tank. In the past year or two he's also taken a stab at bent journeyman noir with duo Cross aka The Sound of The Rat Vex. Warmer Milks played at the old True Vine space, where the shows were perfumed with the night air of Hampden, a burned feathers smell that was romantic and even mouthwatering. Eventually someone, probably Ian Nagoski, silenced any curiousity about the delicious nature of the odor in revealing that it came from the late-night crematorium down 36th St towards Ash. That one night, though, in that charring air, Mikey said to me "You should have a band called Lexie Mountain Boys" and then laughed his ass off. 2005.

What do you do?

I write a lot of poetry and fiction. A "lot" could be small as well but I guess it depends. Some things I've written have appeared printed but I can't recall off hand where but that's irrelevant. I'm bad at keeping up with that stuff anyway.

I suppose I've more so "known for" within underground circles as someone who plays guitars. Electric and acoustic ones. I write songs on them and then either perform/record the songs with other people under the guise of "band" or by myself as "solo". I've also played around with many other instruments throughout the years but guitars are my "candy" for sure. That sounds ridiculous doesn't it?

What are you doing the most lately?

The past seven months have seen me acting out in the group Cross as well as under a variation of my own name, Ma Turner. Cross toured for a couple of months over the summer, tried to move to California then gratefully came back to Lexington, KY. The past few months we've been writing a new record to be recorded early 2010 in a hair salon/art haus here in town.

The past two weeks I've been playing with open tunings on my acoustic here at the house. Elaborating on chord sequences and scales, warping them into songs. Also sketching out my next short story while my first one is coming out early 2010 via issue one of Heavy Bombardment (Rampart Tapes).

How long have you done these things? How have the things changed?

Writing has been a part of my life since I could first hold a crayon in my hand. It is what I know how to do more than anything else. Talking to God through writing. It is my way. The majority of my writing has been poetry but the past few years I've been writing short fiction. What a thrill it is! With poetry, I stay pretty free form and but since I've been tackling short fiction, I've grown more accustomed to structure. Being torn apart via editing is an amazing feeling. I get to hang out with the words longer. It is starting to rub off on my poetry and music as well.

I have played guitars with other people since the early nineties. At first I just made sounds on them, then almost a year in to owning a guitar (around ninth grade), my mother got me into some guitar lessons. I learned most of the basic chords as well as some "rock" tricks. After writing a couple songs on my own, I quit taking lessons and sat in my room combining the sounds I was making beforehand with the stuff I'd learned through lessons. Early on I knew it was all about writing my own songs.

Unfortunately I lived in a area where I didn't meet that many people who thought very much like me (Nicholasville, Jessamine County, Kentucky) so my songs were confined to the bedroom. Meanwhile I played in a few high school bands but none of them were really up the alley of what I wanted sans one group called 'Sunburn' which leaned towards grittier 'pop' music that aligned with my interests and I think we actually played one of my songs. I remember being laughed at for wearing a Depeche Mode shirt and not being familiar with the high from marijuana. I believe this was 1993 0r 1994. A beautiful time. Memorex cassettes with "Fire in Cairo" and "Divine Hammer" blasting in my headphones. So tender and wide eyed. I'm closing my eyes right now and thinking of it. I can still be there. So nice.

I'm not sure that me playing guitar has changed as much as progressed. Writing songs is still the point but now I suppose my idea of a song has opened up larger. Perhaps I've always known a song can be anything I want it to be but now because I've been playing around with a guitar for roughly nineteen years, I have many different angles to work with. More tools, more colors, it's easier to pull an idea out of my head now and mold it into what I want it to be. However, I go through moments of unlearning where I just fall into the space I was in as a kid, "DUNH, DUNH", bar all of the strings on one fret, bang on it in time with a personal vibration no one else is getting but myself.

In the realm of acoustic guitars, I've been sitting around with one since I was very young. 'Ma Turner'. The 'a' is my middle initial but I like Ma because it is obviously feminine, MOTHER. I dabbled in that with the name 'Warmer Milks'. Ma and WM are similar in their beginnings. Writing songs on acoustic guitar about love and life but as I get older I allow more tradition to trickle in as well as space and abstractions. Don't get me wrong, I know how that "trad" word sounds but in all seriousness, I'm friendlier with folk and country then I used to be but I also have no interest in nostalgic torch music. Like any other music I play, it feels nice to leave the door open in every room. It comes down to more emphasis on song and it happens to be kind of handed down from the past but yet still moving into the future.

Playing in Cross, I'm going back further into a high school mind, a kind of guitar hero worship, MOVES, occult sexual possession like Page slides and Jagger hips but Ginn on his tip toes heckling the football team. Total Television Personalities pulsating lack of//major sophistication. I dunno, just wanting to fucking boogie again feels amazing. It's me and three other guys, a total team effort. I write riffs and bring them to practice, so fun. The group in turn, puts it all together and it becomes it own thing. In my early twenties I played in what people would consider a "street punk" band but in actuality it was a hybrid of like Motorhead and some southern rock spiel but the skinhead/punker scene ate it up. We toured a bunch and made a record that I'm super proud of and (it) did really well in that world. When I wasn't jamming in this unit, I'd be at home listening to Jim O'Rourke or some shit like that. I think it was the Gastr Del Sol record 'Upgrade & Afterlife', a total masterpiece of insanity and beauty. At the time, I was really torn up and confused, like I thought I was cheating on that album by playing rock n roll so eventually I quit. A few years later I was playing music that could be compared to some boring ass Archers of Loaf water. Jesus, the REAL rock n roll band I left was so much better. I suckered myself into empty ideas of what is and isn't art. Fuck art! Have fun! Luckily I started Warmer Milks and we just did EVERYTHING that came to mind for around six years. Art or no art, I projected a new manifesto for that thing every other minute and actually followed through with the majority of my (for better or for worse) ideas. People I played with, hung around or performed for either got stoked or bummed on that deal but I am so proud of it. I learned so much about myself in that period of time and wouldn't take it back for anything. Warmer Milks ended last May and I'm really stoked that it is over. It was time for a change.

Why do you do these things? No, really, why? How does it make you
feel? What's it like when you are unable to do these things?

Like I mentioned earlier, writing was my first true form of creative expression. I've written a lot of poetry. Started when I was 5. I write at least two a week, rarely skipping out on said activity. I've thrown away a good 80% of the stuff I've written but haven't forgotten any of it's essence. I keep writing the same thing over and over again. Just want to improve. I also said earlier that I'm writing to God and if I can't write to God then I feel as if I'm dying. I want to channel this into my short fiction and I think that it's happening. Communicate to to a higher plane through some short story about a kid with down syndrome that builds a muscle car out of cockroach parts. Amen.

I play music because it feels so good. It has been the one thing externally since day one that has been a constant turn on, total passion, relentless form of expression. I always walk away with a sense of adventure, curiosity, wonderment, excitement but yet it also makes me nervous, anxious and often times frustrated because I love it so much and like any other powerful relationship in my life, have had some extreme ups and downs with it. There are times I've allowed other aspects of my life to steer me away from music or writing and that is something I will never let happen again because it is weak on my part and causes major sadness inside. I've arranged everything in my life at this point to compliment my love for playing music and writing and I'm thankful that I am at a place where I can always participate in those activities and nothing can touch that.

When was That Moment in your life that told you you would become what

you are? What happened? Please elaborate.

The Moment with writing was the first time I ever tried to write a letter. My parents were fighting and I attempted to write them a letter explaining that they were scaring me but it was just scribbles. I knew those lines didn't exactly translate out to the world what I was thinking but it sure made me feel a whole lot better and I haven't stopped since.

With music, a combination of situations really. My mother's record collection blasting on the stereo when I was four. The two of us would dance to Neil Diamond, Simon and Garfunkel, Carpenters, Beatles as well as countless awesome christian rock albums from the seventies and early eighties. It truly warmed my heart. Watching MTV at it's inception. Just taking in the visuals (haircuts, outfits, stage set ups) and obviously the pulse of electronic drums and synths shook me intensively. It truly felt like alien music and I knew I wanted a part in that which went hand in hand with 1980's fm radio. Stuff like Billy Idol and Wham! struck me as so intense and I loved beating on my kiddie drum set along to their songs in my bedroom after school.

I suppose the "super reality connector" between me and music was hearing:

a) Black Flag via a dub from some asshole in junior high (1990) (he thought it sucked so he gave it to me because I was a nerd)

b) Nirvana on Z Rock several months later and wondering what the fuck was going on (I promptly grabbed a baseball bat and played along, it was like someone set my house on fire).

BUT

c) The fire was completely lit when local college radio (http://wrfl.fm) was added in the mix shortly thereafter to fill in the gaps of underground musics and helped me along Self Highway. I found a copy of their zine (RiFLe) and it had an interview with Mike Watt. Floored for life.

How has your life changed to accommodate That Moment's effect on you?

The impulse to create constantly jerks me around from place to place, back and forth through time, in and out of conversation, etc. so I guess in the end The Moment controls my every move. Good job Moment!

How has your work affected your life in return?

Not to be cliche but my work IS my life. That being said, everything else around me plays into the moment I make up something musically or through written/spoken words. It can be scary for sure but for the most part, my life is full of joy because of my guitar. Jesus, good grief.

What do you think of the future?

I love the idea of getting older. Improvement. The future is great. A constant shift. Go Future!

What has David Lee Roth meant to your life? Please elaborate.

David Lee Roth has a lot to do with the future for me. The older I get, the more I appreciate and respect David Lee Roth as lead vocalist in Van Halen circa 1980's. DLR now? Absolutely no clue what he means to me NOW? As a kid, his thing kinda got under my skin for some reason, especially his solo situation. It was too campy for me at the time. Now, I can handle it but put on the first Van Halen lp and there is some serious rock n roll going on and that is the essence of DLR to me.

I wrestle with the idea of worshipping "classic rock" icons, groups, songs, etc. but regardless, I find myself back in the middle of it, studying up on whatever I can about it and David Lee Roth plays into that, of course! As much as I wish I could just focus on something eternally cool as Whitehouse forever and let go of VH, I can't. But Whitehouse IS cooler.

MIKEY ALIVE: http://www.myspace.com/worldofmaturner

MIKEY VS LARRY D: http://www.blastitude.com/19/WARMERMILKS.htm

CROSS: http://tombstonegravy.blogspot.com/

TONY RETTMAN: Do Less, Be More

2010-08-23T20:23:00.000-04:00

Portrait of Tony by Ben Chasny

Tony Rettman is a music journalist and radio personality, which is saying very little about someone who's experienced so much. He's been to more shows than most people you know, which at this point makes him something of a music historian. Tony is also one of the few to weather the change from zines to blogging with elan: Revelation Records recently published his book "Why Be Something You're Not: Detroit Hardcore 1979-1985", and he can be heard on WFMU like crazy.

What do you do? What are you doing the most lately?

I work a lot for a major financial entity and occasionally write stuff about music that people seem to enjoy. Lately, my time is taken up by whining about my job to my girlfriend, trying to tie up loose ends on a book I've written and cooking decent meals.

How long have you done these things? How have the things changed?

I've worked all my life. I've written all my life (sorta). Nothing has changed with the work as far as I can see. It just gets more demeaning and crappy as it goes on. The writing has changed on many levels. First off, if you do anything for a long enough amount of time, it's just going to get better. So I think plugging away at it for so long has made it qualitatively better. I'm happier and less embarrassed of stuff I turn in these days. The subject matter has sorta stayed the same as far as being based on music, but the actual...(uh...) 'genres' of music have slipped around to different stuff. I started out doing a Hardcore punk 'zine when I was 14 and sorta went through the musical 'coming-of-age' alotta people did and explored other sound avenues in my late teens/early 20's and wrote about it in various fanzines I self-published. Strangely, I've got back into writing about Hardcore as it's kinda the only thing people ask me to write about when it comes to paying pieces. So, I've just come back to where I came from sorta, just with better referential ammo than I had when I was a kid. The writing has also changed in that I think I use it more as a vehicle to wrestle with words than hip anyone to some new crazy sound. I guess I'm 'trying' less these days. It's just like Brother JT said, 'Do Less, Be More'.

Why do you do these things? No, really, why? How does it make you
feel? What's it like when you are unable to do these things?

To be honest, the reason I do most writing these days is to earn some extra loot. The intial reason I started writing I guess was because I was bowled over by the fanzine culture of Hardcore when my brother started taking me to shows. I was very inspired by merely holding these things in my hand. The idea of being interested or inspired by someones' writing style or musical taste came much later in my life. As stated in the previous answer, the writing - these days at least - is more of a thing where I graple with the words to get them to submit to what I'm trying to convey. I like twisting them into my own definition. I also like working with editors as well, which I'm sure most writers will think I'm crazy for stating. Some really do push you to come up with some great stuff. They really help in trying to convey certain things that might be lost in the cobwebs of your mind. I only get frustrated when I am unable to write when I have a deadline looming. Other than that, I can take or leave writing.

When was That Moment in your life that told you you would become what
you are? What happened?

I don't think I really know that moment. Whenever I read or see someone in some documentary/book say something like 'And when I saw (fill in the bands name) my life changed', I think they are full of shit. No one goes around documenting their lives for themselves like that. If they are, they're fucking nuts! I hate to keep going back to this, but I guess the first couple times my brother took me to Hardcore shows, I kinda got a feeling of defintion in myself. It made me feel it was OK to be a bit twisted. There's a few things that are popping into my head now...First time seeing Black Flag...First time seeing Youth of Today...My brother playing me 'Space Ritual' by Hawkwind, 'Psychedelic Underground' by Amon Duul and 'Patty Waters Sings' all in one sitting during a snowstorm...Seeing NNCK for the 1st time... These are some things that flash into my head that made me think about the power of sound in ways I couldn't fathom before hearing them.

How has your life changed to accommodate That Moment's effect on you?

It's made me into a bum!

How has your work affected your life in return?

It's made me into a bum!

How does your location affect what you do and who you are these days?

My lady and I have moved out to the North Shore of Long Island. To most outsiders, anything related to L.I. is bad news, but this area is very, very quiet with a sparse population and a low amount of football jerseys and gold chains. We are near the water and it's so quiet around here, some times all you can hear is a train whistle. I think the new location has really helped the writing as far as letting me get (as corny as this might sound) lost in my own thoughts. When we were in Brooklyn, I was always trying to find some quiet while drug dealers and general retards prowled in front of my window. Here, I can see or think one little thing and I just start flying. Personally, the location has just helped me be more at peace with myself and Danielle. I have to prepare a slow cooker meal everyday before I leave for my hour long commute to work, but I think it's worth it.

What do you think of the future?

For the first time in a long time, I look forward to it. By the way, my hope for it has nothing to do with political climate, social climate, actual climate, etc. I just feel good about it...that's all.

What does David Lee Roth mean?

He is a celebration of the self.

TONY RETTMAN IS ALL OVER THE INTERNET:

Tony Link on WFMU Blog

Articles by Tony for SWINDLE

Tony's WFMU playlists & archives

Tony's blog of the magazine he used to make

WHY BE SOMETHING YOU'RE NOT

Deodorant Isle: A List of Promises

2010-08-15T19:15:00.000-04:00

Promises made by deodorant and anti-perspirant, many of which are applicable to Joaquin Phoenix, Kanye West, the military or small dogs. Interspersed with the dogs that appear when the words "lexie deodorant" are your google image search criteria.

Extra responsive in emotional moments.
Responds to increases in adrenaline.
Shave less often.
Feels dry in seconds.
Dare to wear black.
Unbeatable on white marks.

Sized for airplane travel.
Smells like wilderness, open air and freedom.
Fast drying technology.
Irresistable like chocolate.
Non-irritating.

Round Robin 2008: The Movie

2010-08-07T17:00:00.000-04:00

When Baltimore's 2008 Round Robin tour came to Oberlin College, we were given a conference room replete with shower stall and chalkboard to post up and eat pizza in. There, controversially and at great length, ROUND ROBIN: THE MOVIE was cast...

Shaun Flynn: Sylvester Stallone (or Vincent Gallo or Cillian Murphy)
Donovan: Flea
Olivier: Steve Guttenberg
Ed Schrader: Christopher Walken
Adam Endres: Bobcat Goldthwaite
Dan Deacon: Abigail Breslin
Lexie: Kirstie Alley in Cheers
April Camlin: Carol Burnett
Benny Boeldt: Conan O'Brien
Max Eisenberg: Steve Buscemi
Frank: Gary Oldman
Height: Glen Danzig
Jones: Snoop Dogg
Josh Kelberman: Haley Joel Osment
Lizz King: ~~Hilary Swank~~ Punky Brewster
Mark: Adrian Brody
Robby Rackleff: Christian Bale
Rose Chase: Diane Keaton
Justin Frye: Keanu Reeves
Kate Levitt: Mary kate Olson
Stefani Levin: Julia Louis Dreyfus
Alex Scally: Billy Crudup
Dan Franz: BJ Novak
Victoria Legrand: LiLo
Pete O'Connell: Paul Giamatti
Kevin O'Meara: Heath Ledger
Jim Triplett: Michael Cera
The Death Set: Blink 182
Dave Zimmerman: David Cross
Conor Kizer: Tom Green
Nolen Strals: Vin Diesel
Bruce Willen: Jeff Goldblum
Gerrit Welmer: Chris Martin
Sam Herring: Jack Black
Will Cashion: Philip Seymour Hoffman
Greg Fox: Alex Winter
Andrew Burt: Emilio Estevez
Jana Hunter: Jodie Foster
Geoff Graham: Chuck Norris
Lesser Gonzales Alvarez: Mark Ruffalo
Sam Garner: Elizabeth Taylor
Amy Harmon: Drew Barrymore
Katherine Hill: Uma Thurman
Amy Waller: Dakota Fanning
Twig: Michael Richards
Carly: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Ben Beast: Kevin Spacey
Bob O'Brien: Dan Aykroyd
Devlin: Kurt Russell
Dan: Charles Bronson
Chester Gwazda: Chevy Chase
Donny: Orlando Bloom
Rob: Kurt Cobain

Directed by Mel Gibson (or Alejandro Jodorowsky)
Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman

2010-07-08T15:43:00.001-04:00

, originally uploaded by Radarredux.

DRAWING OUT

2010-07-01T14:02:00.001-04:00

DRAWING OUT, originally uploaded by Mountain Lex.

works by
SARAH JABLECKI
ANDREW LIANG
XAVIER SCHIPANI
DAVID LEE SPELCE
ALEX WORTHINGTON
YU ZHANG

Opening Reception July 15 6pm - 9pm
July 15 - August 14 2010
THE HEXAGON
1825 N Charles St Baltimore MD
hexagon.com

Exhibition of drawings curated by Lexie Macchi for Mountain Lake Things.

S'MORRISONS MENU

2010-06-27T20:33:00.001-04:00

Light My Fire

A flaming kabob of five mini s'mores! If we can’t successfully set it on fire, you better believe the marshmallows will be good and burnt out, much like Morrison himself in the early 70s far before his death from “heart failure.”

Ba-con through to the other side

Chase your pleasures here, there and EVERYWHERE with this classic s’more, all shook up with bacon flavored chocolate! Yeow!

The End

Kick down the doors of perception with this double dose of carcinogenic charred marshmallow magic on a hemp-encrusted nutella biscuit.

SOLD OUT DUE TO POPULAR INTEREST IN PSYCHEDELIC SWAN SONGS!!!

Hello, I Love You

It's love at first sight when you feast your surprised eyes on this

towering pyramid of 14 stacked s'mores with your choice of three additional toppings. Much like the Lizard King's muse, Pam Courson, this thing of beauty will probably find you dead in a bathtub from heart failure.

For s'more information about the outlaw party-time whereabouts of Austin's own S'Morrisons smore cart, email thesehippieshavenoborders@gmail.com

Lexie Mountain Boys West Coast Oprah Vibrations

2010-06-07T11:42:00.000-04:00

JUNE 2010
12 - Austin, TX @ Discovery Village w/ Low Red Center & Telepathik Friend
13 - ABQ, NM 9pm @ KUNM, 10pm @ Tree House 1323 Coal SE w/ Albuquerque Boys Choir & Occasional Detroit
14 - Santa Fe, NM @ The Process presents at Corazon w/ Lulacruza & Sources of Light
15 - Salt Lake City, UT @ 1471 S. Richards St w/ Silver Antlers, Swet
16 - Boise, ID @ Visual Arts Collective w/ With Child & Bales of Hay
17 – Seattle, WA @ The Triple Door w/ Matmos & So Percussion
19 – Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret w/ Matmos & So Percussion
20 – Portland, OR @ Holocene w/ Matmos & So Percussion
22 – San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop w/ Matmos & So Percussion
23 – Los Angeles, CA @ Rec Center Studio w/ Matmos & So Percussion
25 - Joshua Tree, CA @ Mt Fuji General Store, 8:30pm

KARI ALTMANN: Zoomed-in View From The Trenches

2010-05-14T11:51:00.005-04:00

Kari Altmann's knack for illuminating technology and its psychic imprints is impressive. Her real-time gif collages for Double Dagger drummer Denny Bowen's solo dance/pop mashup project Smart Growth were elaborate and clever without being self-congratulatory -- only the tip of the iceberg. A prolific artist immersed in the narrative possibilities of ephemeral imagery, Altmann DJs as Blackmoth.org, creates videos, and shows her work regularly around the globe. Her epic collection R-U-IN?S highlights the intersection between permanence, obsolescence, and the alluring constructions of the unreal. R-U-IN?S is a testament to its own double meaning as much as it is a challenge; all comers are invited to participate in the catalogue, to submit or remix. Plans are currently underway for a R-U-IN?S kiosk at Shanghai's World Expo. Here, Altmann responds to a question that's been on her mind for some time.

What are you doing the most lately?
Reading a.aaaarg.org and making a lot of videos, mixes, and tumblrs, it's winter. I spend most of my time emailing and ftp'ing files - I want a long computer hiatus this spring and I want to run away to some facsimile of Ibiza this summer. But today I'm excited about the igloo we're going to build behind our apartment (I'm answering this during Baltimore's "Snowpocalypse 2010")

How does your location (Baltimore) affect what you do and who you are these days?

Importing what I can't get locally to a city full of empty warehouses.
It is more convenient to go to Manhattan than to the suburbs.
Right now I think I attend more events in New York than locally, and I definitely seem to show my art everywhere else but here.
People think I live in New York.
I'm just bouncing between here and there, something more artists seem to be doing
I want the world tour lifestyle that all these musicians have but only my files seem to get it.

http://r-u-ins.org/

I feel really lucky to have moved here in 2004 and witness some magical years, but I'm not in a musical act so the ride on the wave was a little different. Mostly it was a spectacle to learn from - an education. I think of it almost like a research residency on the culture industry: watching things be planted, cultivated, then exported to the world. I actually saw it happen from start to finish, with varying degrees of success. I'd seen a little bit of that before but never with this intimate social intensity. In a place this raw with currents this dark it seems like viruses have the time and space to grow very carefully, in a unique way - so that if they get swept away to other places or hit that exponential dispersion they are almost invincible.

While all this was happening I was at MICA learning critical theory and art history, trying to maintain some kind of perspective on it all but still wanting to participate. It was a tricky balance. After watching people around you deal with fame and self-branding so many times, you really learn what you want and don't want, but more importantly you see new possibilities for yourself. Baltimore has made me understand freedom. It has made me tougher in a different way than New York, by testing what I do with that freedom. Not everyone flourishes under these conditions.

DREAMCAPTCHA #006 from Kari Altmann on Vimeo.

I moved here from Dallas which is the opposite of Baltimore in a lot of ways, so it has always felt like an escape. When I came here I was definitely on the run. At first I took advantage of school loan money and the cheap cost of living and just travelled all over the world every time MICA was on break. The transition was a little rough. Eventually, though, I settled down and got more invested in Baltimore itself, which is when it rewarded me with an ideal quality of life. That tribal experience people fetishize - we actually had it for a minute, with all its ups and downs. I took a net hiatus and spent my time raving and surrounded by people. I didn't care about blogs or a career. It was like the ideal end of college situation amplified by 200 percent.

Now I feel pulled back out of that experience, more zoomed out again. My website went back up. This is a great place to get some projects done, but you basically have to export those products everywhere else once they're finished. It's like MVP/Bolt Bus and Wimax are singlehandedly responsible for more MICA graduates staying and surviving.

ADSPACE (2008) from Kari Altmann on Vimeo.

More importantly though, it's a good place to experience the raw and hidden elements of America, if you can handle it. If you use it to educate yourself you become able to see the things at work behind a lot of the larger forces in the world. If New York gives you eagle-eye vision, Baltimore gives you the zoomed-in view from the trenches. And there are times I still get that dystopian/lost city/end-of-the-world feel from it all which is what seduced me in the first place. People here are creating their own utopias, whether productive or destructive, among the burnout. Those forces keep eachother in balance. These people are part of a network of post-industrial American settlers experimenting with a cultural "next wave" in cities all over the country, with the aid of the internet. Sometimes it's the second wave, sometimes it's the sixth. Since most of the music and art from these cities is accessible via internet, touring, or exportation to New York, you can actually feel the current of a "Post-Millenial American Frontier" which can motivate you. Not to suggest it's only coming from America though, it's happening all over the world and has been, in cycles, for a long time. It's just that the internet is uniting and diversifying it more than ever before. In 2012 my only dream is to have some huge mega-rave that pulls all of these art/music/party initiatives together, to actually feel this current frontier in one place at one time.

I don't know if I'll stay living here this year - a move is feeling more and more inevitable - but what I've learned in Baltimore, first-person, is invaluable.

What do you think of the future?

Look Up, Look Out

karialtmann.com

blackmoth.org

r-u-ins.org

netmaresnetdreams.net

DINA KELBERMAN: Dancing However You Want

2010-05-13T14:30:00.007-04:00

Dina Kelberman lives in Hampden and works at Atomic Books. She emigrated from Purchase, NY with a group of friends who became what the outside world recognizes as Wham City, and if anything Dina embodies the principles of Wham-City-ness as much as any of her more outgoing peers. She draws a serial Important Comics strip for Baltimore Citypaper because she won their comics contest in 2009, regularly releases The Regular Man and Aperiodic Comic, creates posters and album artwork, designs websites & t-shirts and frequently exhibits her bold non-sequential work in group shows. Her website Important Comics is a cavalcade of varied, exciting work in a wide array of fields and a spectacular archive of her work over the years.

What do you do? What are you doing the most lately?
I make comics and draw stuff and paint and update websites. I am always mostly updating websites, presumably because I enjoy it, although that seems retarded.

How long have you done these things? How have the things changed?

I've been drawing comics for about 10 years, not that seriously for most of that time. So I've gotten more "this is what I wanna do" about it, and I've definitely gotten WAY looser about it, I used to spend forever just drawing boxes that were perfectly square. Now I just slosh shit on the page as fast as I can. It's all gotten way more "painterly" if I can get away with saying that without sounding like a douche. (I can't.)

Someone got a tattoo of one of her comical characters!

Why do you do these things? What's it like when you are unable to do these things?

It's really fun. I like to write down the stupid tiny conversations I have in my head constantly. It makes me feel triumphant. I love looking at colorful shapes.

It is rare that I am unable to draw comics. If that's happening it's probably because i'm updating a website. There is never a time when making things is not an option, which is the best part of making things. I don't know if this is relevant, but i thought this might be a good time to mention that I love office supplies SO MUCH.

Have you ever had an epiphany about your true purpose?

Ummm, no real epiphany i guess . . . but going to Purchase College definitely changed me, in that I realized there were other people who were total weirdos and I could actually be myself around them, and we all fell in love with each other. Also I learned there that dancing however you want feels great.

Album artwork for Ed Schrader, The Choir Inside

How has your work affected your life in return?

It makes me feel awesome when people like my comics. It makes me feel awesome to look through my sketchbooks at all the shit I've drawn over the years. Making things makes me feel awesome. There is no single better feeling than making things. Are these answers?

How does your location affect what you do and who you are these days?

Baltimore is the best because of all the reasons everyone knows: supportive awesome community of crazy dickweeds doing things. My house is very comfy and my landlord accepts most of my interior designs. Sometimes I think I should leave and go somewhere by myself, cause i'm too addicted to my friends. But fuck that.

Part of the Wham City Paper

What do you think of the future?

Who knows? Hopefully good. Can't wait for nothing to happen at 2012!

Do you have anything you'd like to ask me?

How'd you lose that tooth?

It fell out when I bit a piece of bread because it was still a baby fang I had since my first teeth. The adult one is there now, but more crocodile style.

IMPORTANT COMICS
WHAM CITY
IMPOSE MAGAZINE article about Dina/ Important Comics

How We Lost the Van

2010-05-07T16:28:00.012-04:00

April 27, 2010

Everyone is asking what happened.

Nate and I bought a baby blue 1993 Toyota Previa. We filled it with Crazy Dreams Band and made our way up the east coast, through the megalopolis and New England into Canada and down into the midwest.

Two hours outside Detroit, the van overheated. We were en route to Chicago when the Check Engine light came on and the van’s engine temperature pinned at H. Jon pulled the van over to the shoulder of 94W, an exit sign for Parma visible yards away. The periodic hissing he heard when we were leaving Detroit was now a steady, steamy chuff-chuff-chuff and when we popped the hood we saw vapor escaping from the coolant cap, and no coolant.

We called AAA, thinking we had it in the bag: “Bring some coolant!” Our tow truck driver was affable. He did not bring any coolant, but he was prepared to bring all four of us in his truck to his garage, Jimmie’s Towing of Jackson, Michigan. During the tow, he pointed out local landmarks like the Mystic Restaurant (“Don’t eat there, it sucks. Their chicken tastes like steak.”), Michigan Ave, and how it was the same road as the one in Detroit (from there, you can take it to Aberdeen, Washington).

Jon (L) and Jorge take in the scenery

For some reason, spirits were high. Jon and Jorge bought tallboys from the convenience store across the street from the garage and drank them from paper bags while we awaited the verdict. To kill time, we wandered up Michigan Ave, checking out the used vans for sale at neighboring lots, inspecting an abandoned seafood restaurant and peeing in the shrubbery.

It was almost 6pm and we were still 3 hours outside Chicago. Jimmie’s called. The head gasket was blown. The cost: $1650. Parts: arriving in two or three days.

Nobody in Jackson was able to rent us a vehicle that night; most places were closed, wouldn’t rent one-way out of state, or didn’t have a car large enough for all our gear. The folks at Jimmie’s recommended an affordable hotel and taxi company, then let us store our van, and all the gear still in its trunk, in their lot overnight. We were tired, punchy with cheap beer and confusion, and feeling thoroughly helpless. I called the venue in Chicago to cancel, hugged the filthy van and wept.

Jimmie's Towing of Jackson MI

Our cab ride to the hotel-formerly-known-as-Super-8 took us through the outroads of Jackson, past Cracker Barrel and Red Lobster, to a snarl of freeway ramps. Sadly, we recognized the rest stop up the road from our America’s Best Value Hotel Thing because it was where the Frappuccinos we enjoyed while waiting to be towed to Jackson were purchased. A half-dozen people were tailgating in the hotel’s parking lot, barbecuing on a Hibachi in the bed of a pickup truck. Our concierge, Britney, also felt our pain: “Jackson blows!” She gave us a room with a view of the better hotels, a dumpster, a puddle and a garbage bag stuck in a tree.

Accessing dinner required crossing five lanes of speeding traffic, navigating a barbed wire fence and trolling beneath a highway overpass. The options were, like much of Jackson, bleak. Nate remarked that times like this were why laughter was invented. We passed up Ground Round (“That still exists?”), Old Country Buffet, Panera, and Quizno’s for Outback Steakhouse, which turned out to be the most expensive, most disgusting meal of tour. The ribs made Jorge sad, my side of mixed vegetables were better described as “depressed and oddly sugary” rather than “garden fresh” and Nate, amazingly, couldn’t finish his chicken quesadilla (not so much “stuffed” with chicken, bacon and mushrooms as “oppressing” said items amidst its cheesy paleness). Futility, depression, and queasy fullness bloomed within us in a completely non-ironic, unfunny way.

Nate, Rick Olney and the new trucks

Our walk back to the hotel in the complete dark was quiet and scary. We dug into a case of Milwaukee’s Best and watched TV. A jingle invented by Jackson’s Fox News affiliate pertly chimed “Buy local, Mid-Michigan!” No amount of trademark asterisks could better highlight the endangerment of Jackson’s economy and culture than our meal excursion. The only other local restaurant we came across in Jackson besides the abandoned surf-n-turf shack, the salad bar in the airport and the Mystic (which “sucks”) was closed at 2pm. The Outback Steakhouse, however, was packed.

Jackson’s Fox News lead story of the evening told of a University of Michigan employee caught propositioning a cop posing as an underage girl on the internet; the image of a screen name being typed over and over flashed repeatedly, intercut with blurry shots of the man in question walking away. The same images, edited together, repeated over and over. Before the cut to commercial, a teaser blared “The dangers of texting while driving! Next!” over clips of people texting while driving, including the cameraman. Clearly people were asked to text while driving in order to collect footage for the segment on the dangers of texting while driving.

We awoke to a bright sun, artificially malted hotel waffles, and a phone book full of rental agencies still unable to help us no matter how early our start. The closest assistance was in Lansing, 45 minutes away. We reached out to our Michigan brotherhood network, and by the time we checked out of the hotel, cabbed back to Jimmie’s, and checked in on our fallen soldier, John Olson planned to come to Jackson to rescue us later that afternoon. Additionally, Rick Olney would buy our van from us for scrap prices. The son of the owner of Jimmie’s and a professional towman for decades, Rick scoped out a 1997 Ford Windstar with a smashed hood, popped airbags and faceless CD player. Options blossomed as quickly as they had dwindled the day before. The Windstar was bumper-car purple, and Rick offered to replace the hood, cut the airbags out and do some other small repairs so we could have it for $1000 and the Previa.

Trailer wreck courtesy Jimmie's archives

While we mulled over whether or not we should purchase a van we didn’t know anything about (didn’t stop us in the first place) and couldn’t really afford, Rick showed us around. Next to another Windstar was a smashed hearse, having reached its final destination whilst delivering someone’s earthly remains to their final destination. In a warehouse adjacent to the lot of wrecks, Jimmie’s Towing’s latest acquisition loomed large and shiny: a 50-ton Freightliner wrecker. In yet another warehouse, the first truck The Olney family purchased for Jimmie’s rusted gently away. Rick explained that the towing with this truck required more skill because the entire hydraulic system had to be manipulated by hand, unlike modern automatic winches.

Jorge and Jon played catch with a water bottle while Nate & I listened to Rick’s tales. Jimmie’s waiting area consists of car seats a box of old photographs, and almost a half dozen scrapbooks filled with various wrecks of yore and towing triumphs – a boulder, an army tank, another tow truck. The garage has been in service since the 50s, and the Olneys acquired it in 1972. They are probably one of the oldest local institutions in Jackson.

The Previa.

Our options were to purchase the dubious frankenWindstar with money we didn’t have, play Cleveland and then set off to Baltimore at a leisurely pace, completely at the mercy of a potentially fickle chariot. Or rent a reliable, phenomenally expensive minivan and take it straight home. I felt as if all cars on the road were mocking me, “Look how driving around I am.” It was simple and sad to decide. Getting into John Olson’s oddly clean and spiffy little black Honda thing with its decent stereo and Band-Aid colored upholstery caused a pang of sadness and regret to tingle through me. We sped safely and incident-free into Lansing, chatting about The Wire, Treme, babies on the brain and Lansing. Our destination: Lansing International Airport, where, for a price, Avis would give us the keys to a minivan and make it ours until 2PM the next day. Once there, keys in hand, we were relieved to note that not only would our equipment fit in the Kia Sedona we were given, we would be treated to a plentiful cup holders and satellite radio.

After thanking the shit out of John, we drove back to Jackson for our gear. Cleveland was not far away, I reasoned; there was time enough that we could play our set, drive home and still return the van within 24 hours. I even offered to drive that long, light-leaning leg of road. Thus emboldened, we went to Cleveland where we were met with PBR, pizza, friends and a screening of Nukie. After a thoroughly decent set and kind words from the assembled, we waved goodbye to the Cool Ranch and threaded our way across Pennsylvania’s harrowing Route 80 to meet Baltimore’s strange, bright morning of home.

Jimmie's Towing

Images from Jimmie's Archives

JOE DENARDO: Confusion is Not Easy

2010-03-16T19:13:00.005-04:00

Joe DeNardo lives in Brooklyn and has a van for sale. Its a red 1989 Chevy van 10 with a V8, a short wheel base, 80,000 miles on the dash, newly rebuilt transmission and a moonroof. While there's some rust on the body, it runs great, passed New York State inspection and is thus available for test drives weeknights. Additionally, Joe makes films, collages, photographs and plays guitar in Growing.

What do you do? What are you doing the most lately?
I follow major league baseball, play music, watch movies, and drink.

How long have you done these things? How have the things changed?

A pretty long time. Each of the things have gotten better and better, but harder and harder.

Why do you do these things? What's it like when you are unable to do these things?

I get a nice FLOW when I'm doing these things. Sometimes I feel really good, and most times I don't worry as much. When I can't do these things I get anxious and angry.

You're from Chicago, where baseball lives in the Cubs & The White Sox. Could you tell us about what these teams mean to you?
Chicago is a Cubs town. Even the White Sox admit that. If the Cubs ever won the World Series again they'd paint the town cubbie blue. The White Sox are some bastard American League team that doesn't play true baseball that showed up 40 years later under the original moniker of the Cubs (the white stockings). How unoriginal.

Could you talk a little bit about what you do & why?

I like to take pictures and shoot motion picture film. I pretty much just really like what lenses do, and how you can combine what lenses make (pictures) in different ways, moving or still, and how all that can render dimension. I wish I could spend more time on it.

When was That Moment in your life that told you you would become what you are?

I don't think I've had That Moment yet, unless That Moment is just the series of daily moments that continually tell me what "I'm not".

How has your life changed to accommodate That Moment's effect on you?
I've become comfortable with being dissatisfied. But confusion is not easy.

How has your work affected your life in return?

Keeps me going.

How do you relate to David Lee Roth?
Don't know him.

Favorite book & movie?

I don't have an all time favorite book or movie, but I was impressed with THE MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE LA TOUR DU PIN, which I just read, and I recently rewatched PASSE MONTAGNE by JF Stevenin, and realized its really a favorite of mine. So many images!

What do you think of the future?
I like it because it hasn't happened yet, but don't think I'll like it much once it has.

All images by Joe DeNardo.
Top to bottom: CCHM 2009, Moving Picture Left, New View, Subtractive Notation
GROWING
Films by Joe

Stephanie Barber's Freshmen Pyramids

2010-03-12T17:24:00.005-05:00

Today I made a presentation to Stephanie (top row, left) Barber's class of MICA freshmen. After showing some Lexie Mountain Boys video and discussing the Human Pyramids sculpture/ performance project, we formed some pyramids of our own. The students were really good sports; they took off their boots and after the briefest hesitation subjected themselves to all sorts of lumbar compromise, giggling fits and premature carpal tunnel syndrome. Mostly, though, I made sure to get them good & ready for any spring break photo ops. Remember to go quickly and keep your heads up, lil buddies!

This is the pyramid everybody was in, except for Stephanie.

Not bad-- we ended up with 6-5-4, sort of a human trapezoid. Stephanie took the pictures from a tabletop in the studio.

Below, another attempt at involving everyone in the class. Here, we were able to get everyone except one using the cheerleader thigh stand lift. Interestingly enough, one person in the class is a real-life actual former cheerleader and if they didn't volunteer their identity during the course of the presentation I'd never be able to guess which one had no qualms about the thigh stand.

We didn't have too much time to work on weird formations because I showed the Petals the Party Dress vid that N.O. Smith shot of Mt Boys at Current Canyon Festival. If we had more time, it might have been cool to try some yelling/pyramids, or some moving pyramids (groups of 3 moving around bumping into each other). Anyway, thanks dudes and hope to see you out there soon! Stay in touch if you want to, and great job today.

SOPHIA DIXON: A Different Kind of Nerd

2010-02-18T14:39:00.006-05:00

Artist, curator and video maker Sophia Dixon was born in Baltimore, parked her car for a while in Providence and New York, and now currently resides in Chicago. Her father is novelist Stephen Dixon; her younger sister Antonia is also an artist. Soft-spoken and intense, Sophia is no stranger to thrilling detail, focus and magical feminism. Her favorite color is green, she likes borscht, biscuits, hot chocolate with whipped cream and her favorite animal is the cat. It is not surprising that her favorite books are Nabokov's Ada or Ardor and Charles Burns' graphic novel Black Hole, nor that her favorite films are Holy Mountain, Hiroshima Mon Amour and San Soleil. About books, she has this to say: "The most recent books that I read and recommend are: “The Diary of a Teenage Girl”, by Pheobe Gloeckner, and “The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsky”, by Alejandro Jodorowsky." I forgot to ask her a David Lee Roth question, and I still have a Chekhov book that belongs to her dad.

What do you do? What are you doing the most lately?
I’m an artist. Mostly, I make graphite drawings, and lately I have also been writing very short stories about uncanny everyday events that happen to me, and making videos with my friends Lauren Beck and Ana Nersessian, and my boyfriend, David Cook. Collaboration is a new and wonderful thing for me. I also sometimes curate art shows, like “Glowworms”, which you participated in, back in 2007. For the last year and a half, I have been going to graduate school at the University of Chicago, working towards getting an MFA. It is a very small program, only nine students, and I have been able to take really terrific academic classes in other departments: English, Art History, Gender Studies. It seems that because there are so few of us MFAs, we are able to structure our own educations, and so graduate school has turned out to be primarily a place for me to read and write in ways that I don’t ordinarily.

Triangle Room II

How long have you done these things? How have the things changed?
I was always a child who drew. I would play drawing games with my sister, Antonia Dixon, who is also an artist, where we would make up a cast of characters and then simultaneously talk through and illustrate their adventures. They would often end up on a cruise ship, where there would be a night of skinny-dipping. Pre-adolescence, I got more into theater, but my parents convinced me to apply to the local arts magnet school for art instead of drama, thinking I’d have a better chance of getting accepted. It was lucky, because I was introverted and socially awkward and I don’t think I would have made much of an actor. I considered myself a painter all the way through college, but after college, my work quickly became almost entirely drawing, first ink, watercolor, and now pencil. In the last couple of years I had been looking for a way to make work that didn’t require a studio, since I’ve had the traveling bug, which is maybe where the impulse to make videos and write stories came from, although I think that that was also a lot about looking for different ways of story-telling.

Why do you do these things? What's it like when you are unable to do these things?
I’m finally coming to terms with the fact that a big part of why I make art is that I am pretty compulsive and need a lot of time alone. It calms me down to lie on the floor, with headphones in my ears, staring at a piece of paper and making repetitive marks that accumulate very, very slowly. Making art also makes me excited and helps me get up in the morning; even though I work slowly, it gives me a thrill not to know how a drawing or video is going to turn out, but to hope that it could, maybe, be something alive and amazing. I have the desire to make other people feel things, and I might also have the desire to make people uncomfortable; I’m not sure about that . When I can’t draw for a while, I start to get restless and unfocused and irritable, and then if it continues too long, I begin to feel empty and wonder why I’m alive.

An Imagining

When was That Moment in your life that told you would become what you are?
I remember there was a moment in my senior year of high school when I started to like my own artwork for the first time. I think it was when I was making a big painting of my sister reading in a red armchair, surrounded by clothes and junk on the floor and with postcards and photos taped to the walls behind her. It was the first time that I had felt like I was making the art that I wanted to see.

How has your life changed to accommodate That Moment's effect on you?
Up to that point, I had always gotten the most pleasure out of reading, so I had thought that I would go to college to study literature, and then get a PhD and teach at a university, like my mother. When I started to like my own art, that immediately changed, and I began to think of myself as an artist. I think that if I had become an academic, my life would have felt a lot more structured. As an artist, there isn’t a clear path to follow, and the only way to figure out what to do next is to be really open to yourself and to everything around you, which can sometimes be overwhelming. To compensate for this instability, I create structures for myself, and since these generally involve staying home or in my studio and being silent for hours or days, I am no longer the articulate, precocious nerd that I used to be; I’m a different kind of nerd now.

Sophia with Antonia Dixon (left) and Lauren Beck in Maine.

How has your work affected your life in return?
Louise Bourgeois said something like, “the blessing and the responsibility of the artist is to stay in touch with their unconscious, like a child”, and this seems true to me. It is a prolonged adolescence, in the sense of continuing to search for my true desire, and having my identity undetermined, always open. I think that’s great. Being an artist means reconsidering what I do all the time, and so I nearly always feel a little unsatisfied with myself, like I haven’t yet actualized what I want, because I don’t yet know quite what that is. It’s like being in psychoanalysis all the time. I’ve started to think of spaceyness as an occupational hazard; I daydream in the middle of conversations and stare blankly into space. And being at the University of Chicago, I’ve become close to really brilliant and creative people studying literature, and realized that I didn’t actually diverge from my original life-idea as much as I had thought. I’m still deep in an esoteric world, obsessing over details, trying to see and show things in a new way.

How does your location affect what you do and who you are these days?
Although my life has changed a lot since moving to Chicago, it has less to do with the city than with being in grad school. I have a couple of really close and supportive friends, but I miss the extended social and artistic community that I have on the east coast. I read a lot more theory than fiction, which is unusual for me, and I have a more uncertain relationship to my work. It feels more charged with potential, but also way less comfortable.

"Shooting my first video "Dreams in the Witch House" with Cassie Kaufmann and Megha Gupta in Colorado."

What do you think of the future?
I like how the tarot is a means of assessing the present, which can itself be so obscure, rather than reading the future, which is impossible. In terms of my own future, for a while I wanted to go live in the woods after I graduated, or to be nomadic and travel around working on farms. But I didn’t keep track of my bank account and one day was surprised to see that all my savings were gone, so now it looks like I’ll have to save up some money before pursuing these plans. Also, I live with a really old Himalayan cat that I’ve had since I was eleven, and so I need to have some sort of home for her since she is not a wanderer. I’ll probably move to one the coasts, apply for some adjunct teaching jobs, but end up as a nanny again. I am also thinking of applying to psychology grad programs in the next few years, and becoming an artist/therapist.

http://www.sophiacaradixon.wordpress.com
http://www.imaginingagirlrevolution.wordpress.com
all images courtesy Sophia Dixon

TOM GREENWOOD: This Infinity Thing

2010-01-29T15:13:00.005-05:00

Tom Greenwood was born in South Dakota which accounts for his largeness and blondness. He cut some teeth in Baltimore and upstate New York, did booking for underground clubs before it was cool to do so, and scooted out to Portland OR to settle for good and give his never-ending rotating-cast musical entity Jackie O Motherfucker a place to call home. He's been releasing handmade CDRs, serving residencies, and making exhibitions (including a solo show coming up in March at New York's Cue Foundation) since forever. Most recently, Jackie O Motherfucker's latest release Ballads of the Revolution is now available from Fire Records.

What do you do? What are you doing the most lately?
navigate, document, accumulate and edit. smoke a lot of cigarettes in between...
lately i'm editing... it's the fall, time to bring in the crops, see what's been collected this past year.

How long have you done these things? How have the things changed?
my whole life, at least since i can remember. maybe since 1970 when i was 4.
the territory i travel has gotten larger, the documents more precise, the accumulation- is getting smaller, as the editing gets more fluid... the transitions are smoother.

Why do you do these things? What's it like when you are unable to do these things?
i'm working on my line. something identifiable, to establish it's origin.
there are so many of us on the planet. i just want to work on something peaceful.
we're all very similar collections of cells, yet each of us has a different fingerprint.
it's worthwhile to me exploring this snowflake, infinity thing...

When was That Moment in your life that told you you would become what you are?
i was on top of mt. leconte in the smokey mountains, maybe 1987. i had found this salamander under a rock, it was beautiful, black with very unique spots on it. i think they were orange. i took it with me to the other side of the mountain, and let it go.
later on i looked under the same rock, and there it was again. so, i took it to the other side of the mountain again, and let it go. later i looked under the rock again, and there it was... i did this all day, and it became horrifying. this infinite identity of individuals in space... i guess i was tripping.

How has your life changed to accommodate That Moment's effect on you?
well, that was a very enlightening journey. it was summertime, and i was on the loose, hitch-hiking around. i discovered many things, and the darkness of it all overwhelmed me i guess. when i returned home, i became more politically active, making a lot of audio and film documents of local demonstrations against US activities in central america. i eventually got arrested and jailed for these documents, and many of them were destroyed by the authorities. when i was released, i had to let in some pretty negative allies in order to cope. they stayed with me a long time, maybe 20 years or so... finally i was able to remove them, and i was left with a really beautiful and complex skeleton which was formed at that time.

How has your work affected your life in return?
my work is the ground i walk on... it's given me a way to structure reality, so that i can exist in it. when i was younger i saw no way that i could be a part of all of that i saw around me, and it was scary. so slowly and slowly, i started to accumulate. i worked guided by intuition, objects next to each other create a new entity, and by documenting and editing with intent, you can create narrative, and build your own story...

What do you think of the future?
i feel incredibly blessed to be surrounded by so many creatively evolved, enlightened, and intelligent beings, who are doing their best to better themselves and their communities. for this, i feel hopeful...
however, for greater society, for people who have depended on an imposed structure and placed faith in the actions of dominate social leaders, i am not so hopeful. i don't really know what's in store for them, but i know change is possible, if you want something different.

How does David Lee Roth affect your life?
david who?

all images courtesy Tom Greenwood

JOMF myspace
JOMF WIKI

Michael Farley's PARTS & LABOR

2010-01-29T14:45:00.002-05:00

I WILL DO YOGA FOR FRIES: Sam Garner & Amy Waller McArtscape, 2009

2010-01-29T14:25:00.006-05:00

All images courtesy Marcin Balicki.

AMY WALLER: Giant Dick Eagle

2009-12-28T15:17:00.007-05:00

Waller in action at Current Gallery, 2007

Oklahoma-born, Baltimore-bred Amy Waller is a true and naked frontier spirit, blessed with a swift mind carried by anti-establishment wings. As member of Lexie Mountain Boys, fearlessly adventuring into realms of expansive embarrassment experimentation remains her particular hallmark. As band costumer and seamstress, she is responsible for Petals the Party Dress, a gigantic pink maypole-cum-parachute dress machine requiring no less than 12 people to operate. As a resident of Austin TX since 2009, she is a pet-sitting pedicabber on a bicycle trip to Mexico with a plan to teach English in South America. She is vulgar yet adorable, and she likes to make her own fun.

What do you do? What are you doing the most lately?

I make people perform in situational plays.

How long have you done these things? How have the things changed?

Since my little sister was born. I made her dance while I played the piano. Made and directed plays and dances in the neighbors’ basement. Took over large scale productions of pep rallies in high school, getting away with a lot and casting people in different roles. The volleyball team was Ewoks in the Star Wars pep rally. I spent my entire night of my 16th birthday constructing a giant shark to eat the entire basketball team for the Jaws pep rally. The most memorable pep rally idea that I got away with (I have no idea why)? The premise was that the opposing team’s gym sock had been left in the locker room and rotted so much that it turned into a giant mutant gym sock. The cheerleaders were some how then a box of Cheer detergent that the sock was washed in and destroyed. I constructed a giant sock and cast Nathan Stambaugh as the sock. Aaron Huth, my best friend and creative rival, was casted as the wimpy gay runner who after running a bunch of laps around the gym ran into the gym locker room and was then attacked by the mutant sock. The sock comes out and of course looks like a giant condom, and then my best cheerleader friend Tiffany comes out to save him in the eagle mascot outfit but puts it on backwards and the tail ends up in front like a giant dick. So the giant dick eagle is fighting a giant condom at Harford Christian School. Luckily I did not get in trouble and they did not start harassing me until the end of my senior year, but did they think we staged this on purpose? Probably we were all in drama class together that year and had a great time.

Amy Harmon, left, and Waller in Bremen, Germany, 2009

Why do you do these things?

It makes me feel happy, and helps keep the imagination cooking. Luckily I haven't been in a situation where it’s been completely impossible not too.

When was That Moment in your life that told you you would become what you are?

I never had that moment. I would say if I started making films or working in plays I would say, oh okay looking back I've always been meant to do this, but I really feel like I enjoy doing things on such a low budget level that its a hobby that I've been lucky enough to always find people to collaborate with.

How has your life changed to accommodate That Moment's effect on you?

I don't know that my life has ever changed, but if I can talk most directly about our relationship. When I met you I knew we were going to be a band together. I remember reading the Friendster “roomate wanted” [post] and I think at that time we had already sung Marilyn Manson's "Tainted Love" at a Valentine’s Day party. And I knew when I moved in that it was going to happen. For some reason I pictured us like covering bible hymns and actually playing instruments. But I'm really glad the "Lexie Mountain Boys" project has turned out like it has.

Bob Weir's Rat Dog jamming beneath Waller's American Flag, made for the cover of Akron/ Family's 2009 album "Set 'Em Wild Set 'Em Free"

How has your work affected your life in return?

Well it’s made me pretty confused as to what I "should" be doing job/career wise but I think I'm slowly figuring it out. Your advice of "Yeah, but there are so many normal people to do normal stuff for you” has really been helpful. But I have found doing something that is sort of technical and dry does help the art come out in short of a rage.

How does your location affect what you do and who you are these days?

Yesterday my friend Grant and I wrote a script for "The Bonafied Gentleman," Austin's original male fantasy cooperative. Basically a strip-club run by insane feminists. The gist of my character is that I get up and say really sassy like a phone sex operator "I'm the ultimate enlightened male fantasy, I do whatever I want." There is going to be a lot of making boys do things that are "what I want to see" sort of like a tit for tat ridiculousness. Like straddle them but then eat a bag of cheetos and get offended if they are not turned on, but offended if they are. Just ridiculousness.

Harmon & Waller prepare for a rare live stage appearance with Akron/Family somewhere in fucking Texas

What do you think of the future?

I'm a huge fan of the future, and could not be more happy to be living in the era that we are in, and also could not be more pleased with my generation most specifically the "class of 2000". I do find it interesting that when we met America was sort of at the height of having the dumbest of things, and it’s been really crazy how fast its taken a dive.

What do you feel you have in common with David Lee Roth?

Well in all honesty. I find that when I go out I am not entertained unless being some sort of a hole. An evening ago I danced topless all night just to see what would happen with the frat dudes. One dude approached me and said you are "crazy wild bitch, lets go right now me and you lets get our fuck on. " I was laughing hysterically the whole time. I figured he was about 19. Roseanna my roomate then came to save me as he was grabbing my hair. He said "okay, you two my house. I want to see one of you gagging on my balls and another one on my dick." I got to work on the stripper character so I said, "okay, okay whip it out, whip it out. Let me see this pathetic thing." It came out and then Roseanna poured a beer on it. He got angry and of course was yelling. "That went too far, that went too far." I looked at him and I said "really?" And he was in the same minute said "okay, I guess it was funny."

AMY WALLER IS DEFINITELY ON FACEBOOK

JEREMY HARRIS: Thru Earth With Time

2009-12-27T13:37:00.009-05:00

Jeremy Harris occasionally lives in Providence RI and has been making music as Lazy Magnet, a bent-out-of-shape pop/electronic-noise project, since age 16, either as a soloist or leader of group entity. Lately he's been wrangling a project called "Adventure Hippies", wherein friends who donated money towards his return to the US from France are paired up for musical collaboration. Jeremy is extremely prolific and dedicated to his craft of complete immersion and possession. Like many great men, he was once a dishwasher.

What do you do? What are you doing the most lately?

- reading every philip k dick book post-"man in the high castle"
- playing a korg poly 800 and a roland tr 505 thru a boss DM2 delay pedal
- writing fiction to come to terms with a life of failure
- walking 19 blocks to wilson hall in nashville, tennessee and participating in psych studies for 10 dollars an hour
- experimenting with having sex with people i'm not attached to romantically

How long have you done these things? How have the things changed?
a couple weeks...
- i finish and start diffrent titles.. this week: a maze of death and counter-clockwise world
- tapes of jams are being reworked into new songs for the next lazy magnet album due out on corleone records
- the latest story is taking shape as a play to be performed next month in nashville and an animation collab with jo dery
- slowly making the money i need to pay back the people who bailed me out after last european tour tanked financially
- i'm not into it... so i stopped

Why do you do these things? No, really, why? How does it make you feel? What's it like when you are unable to do these things?
- this particular writers voice is a welcome friend in an otherwise lonely universe. try as i might i cant finish any other writers books that i start....
- i want to top my last record. "to exist in the fullness of possesion and at the height of power"
- jo asked me to write a story about something specific.. in the process of trying to articulate free-associative ideas i recognized somethings about the last year that i hadnt thought all the way though until that moment.. and so decided that writing could be usefull.
- since i was kicked out of my moms house on my 18th birthday i've been poor. i need money to survive. it's nice to walk. i dont own a bike since moving back from paris

Lazy Magnet live 2008, photo by Kevin Pelrine

When was That Moment in your life that told you you would become what you are?
... it has something to do with listening to iron maiden really loud when my parents would leave the house when i was 7 or 8... and thrashing around my living room like an extra in an anthrax video...
... and the part of the woodstock soundtrack where the guy is yelling at the crowd to spell "fuck" -- i used to listen to that over and over again when my parents werent home...
... and maybe watching a video of myself playing drums with fingerless leather gloves on when i was 11...
... and playing tapes of my own home recorded music for friends in their cars and feeling like i was special.. an outstanding, special person and that i had a special talent that deserved attention.. from my self as well as from others

How has your life changed to accommodate That Moment's effect on you?
- i've always followed my own star

How has your work affected your life in return?
- i've remained poor..
- i have made many friends..
- i've created things that i feel reflect my essential being and nature to a primitive and basic degree...

Jeremy at WFMU going live for Jason Sigal's Talk's Cheap

What do you think of the future?
- totally, totally psyched ... i want the chip in me.. technological telepathy thru wifi mind meld... 4 d cube slice thru earth with time

What's the best thing about David Lee Roth? What's your favorite thing about him? Least favorite?
- i love diamond dave.. absolutely.
- the cover to eat em and smile rules..
- the video for just a gigolo was really important to me when i was young..
- the fact that he secretly financed a punk club in los angeles in the early 80s rules.. and his reasons for keeping it secret.. um, rule... i wonder if he has an autobiography.. most likely.. little richards autobiography is great...

David Lee Roth's totally bonkers and uncontrolled rant disguised as an autobiography is called Crazy From The Heat.
It raises questions about his sexuality in ways you may not expect.

The Lazy Magnet set on WFMU is really great. Here are other places:
ADVENTURE HIPPIES
LAZY MAGNET
Lazy Magnet on Myspace
Corleone Records

IRENE MOON: What Seemed Simpler

2009-12-21T17:17:00.007-05:00

The unbelievably prolific Irene Moon currently resides in the North Carolina home where she grew up, amidst collections of rescued ferns, elf homes, rare pottery, toy horses and devil's-head jugs. Her theatrical and musical output exhibits an equally bewildering array of influence (from a lifelong passion for insects to stark allegories of the subconscious,) characterized by blend of dark humor and childlike enthusiasm.

What do you do? What are you doing the most lately?
I inhabit universities. I am an entomologist…I study insects. I program web content. I facilitate free dispersal of biological information. I create music that is theatrical in nature. I create recordings and release them. I build things.

How long have you done these things?
Insects—all my life
Music—since about 1996 or 97

Why do you do them? How does it make you feel?
Mostly I do it because its fun. When it is no longer fun than I guess Ill move on to something else.

Irene performing Conjur Auk at the Midway Cafe, Jamaica Plain MA. Photo by Bill T. Miller, 2005

When was That Moment in your life that told you you would become what you are? What happened?
That moment happened a few times…moments of choice between what seemed like a harder path and what seemed simpler.

My first year in collage a lot gelled for me. I was taking courses in zoology along with design school classes. I was discussing with my advisor about how I wanted to get a merged degree, one involving the design of organisms. He said I couldn’t do that, so I quit that university, hitch-hiked to Athens GA, got a job in the Entomology Department, accepted to art school and started performing musical scientific slide show lectures.

The moment happened again after graduating from art school I decided that if I wanted to do science related art I needed to actually work in science. To experience it, not just imagine the experience. So I left Athens and got my masters degree in the Entomology Department at the University of Kentucky.

How has your life changed or not changed to accommodate that moment's effect on you?
My work is all I think about and I am sure I'll die early because of it. Personal and family relationships have suffered. I only own music gear and a few pillows I really like.

Auk Theatre press photo

How has your work affected your life in return?
I can talk about how much I love Black Sabbath for hours without getting bored. My favorite thing in the world to do is listen to ELO while programming. I am pretty good at giving a lecture, scientific or musical.

The best thing is the number of friends I have made. People of similar drive both in music and entomology who have a creative and strong desire to uncover some hidden truth.

What does David Lee Roth mean to you?
Everything. I even have a Van Halen velcro wallet.

Incredibly thorough Irene Moon websightings:

http://begoniasociety.org/

Irene Moon Wikipedia page

TOM BORAM: Swimming Up the Spirit Vacuum

2009-12-19T18:08:00.007-05:00

Baltimore's Tom Boram: social worker and respectable neighborhood husband by day, freakbeat multi-instrumentalist when the sun goes down. As one-third of space-prance trio Leprechaun Catering with Jason Willett & Dan Breen, one-half of foodsperimental snazz excursion SNACKS with Dan Breen, or some mysterious fraction of two ingenious, oppositely purposed cover bands (The Louie Louise and Baltimore Afrobeat Society), Tom is a highly inventive performer and cultural participant. The editor of the Baltimore City Paper once called him a "crazy straw." He wears stripes, smokes pipes, and lives in Waverly with his wife, artist Jackie Milad.

What do you do? What are you doing the most lately?
I guess I can say "I do this, I do this too, I do this..." but I don't want to be a buffet. Maybe I might like buffets, but I don't want to operate one. I'm trying to make a big weird casserole or build a genius sex kitten out of spare parts like in "Weird Science". I don't want to offer my peas, my banana pudding or my sex kittens in separate containers. I think I'm a "musician" by default because I'm only about 50% auto didactic with music compared to 90-100% with everything else I regularly engage in. I mean, for someone playing music as long as I have, I'm far from virtuosic, and I barely register as practiced, but it's my lens and the springboard for everything else I do.

Lately I've been making a (relatively) ambitious film with my Snacks constituent Dan Breen. We're co-starring, co-directing, co-scoring, co-editing, co-sound-designing, co-art-designing, co-gripping, co-gophering, co-hatchetmen etc etc. I'm not as interested lately in playing "music" at "shows". I'd rather commit my energy to the aesthetic and technical yoga required to completing this single project that yolks all or most of my interests and philosophies.

How long have you done these things? How have the things changed?
Well that's the thing. If I'm a "musician", I've been playing piano as long as I can remember anything. I'm 35 years old. I sang in church choirs, played trombone in my childhood. I've been playing guitar for 22 years. Guitars and 12-tone keyboards pianos feel as much a part of my body as my ass. But, for all my conventional instrumental background I spend as much, if not more time making "music" with knobby, buttony, patch-cabley machines...and, God help me, computers. I strive constantly for the sensation of being self-taught, so I've been seeking electronics and esoteric instruments to keep me padded in a state of relative naive discovery in spite of my long music background. In my film, or performance, theatre, dance, foodie forays, I do it for better or worse without tuition.

I just got back from Europe, and after having a lot of conversations with experimental musicians there, I see even more clearly how the "classical" sense of music/art informs everything there, including much the "avant garde". Generalizing, I think that in Europe artists/musicians hold to the classic model of "virtuoso", one who specializes and refines their most obvious talent as a career. America, being a bastard young of Europe has a good bit of this same mentality but is slightly more permissive to mutants, and to rich sensibilites that come housed in less "baked" technical constructions - what Euros term "art brut".

What's changed in me is that technology (both current and obsolete) and multi-media platforms have allowed me to express my "music"-filtered but non-music ideas. I would need a very unusually formatted band or concert to even want to see live music these days. I like elements of drama, or theatre, or sculpture, or absurdity to creep into live music performance. Cross platform creating is very interesting to me now hence all the jabber about buffet vs casserole.

L to R: Tom Boram, Dan Breen. Photo courtesy Tom, 2009.

Why do you do these things? What's it like when you are unable to do these things?
There is a strange combination of pleasure and spiritual growth made possible through art doing. When I feel myself growing I'm satisfied that the universe is dynamic and exciting. When I feel pleasure I'm satisfied that the universe rewards effort and consideration. When I'm not growing, obviously I'm very depressed and feel on the fritz with creation. The total lack of a single creative outlet would result in suicide. God forbid this very unlikely possibility.

When was That Moment in your life that told you you would become what you are?
When I was 19, and on a break from college, I set out one night from my parent's house in the woods outside of Bmore on about 3 grams of psilocybin mushrooms. It was cold and clear, but the past week's 18 inches of snow were still on the ground. I soon realized that I was going to trip in a far more profound way than i ever had, in spite of tons of psychedelic trips. I went into my first ever "white out". Being alone without friends to ground me, I completely recessed into my mind - all sense of ego, proportion and orientation completely erased.

I went through a death experience, living a micro lifetime with no identity in a place where form can be anything it wants and change at any rate it wants. I was in this state for hours. As I was starting to come down i got the impression that I was a fetus, being born into a "new" person. A bit like the star chamber sequence in 2001, where the fetus hovers above the earth, after having its soul chewed up and fractalized by unbelievable technology. Eventually, my psilocybin paralysis wore off enough for me make an active decision, and I pulled my "embryonic sack" apart to discover that I was in fact in my bed. I had somehow gotten back up to my room from out in the snow, took off all my clothes and climbed into bed. I was amazed - I had been merely my familiar young adult self all night, tripping and naked crouching like a fetus in a blanket womb, not a dead mind swimming up the spirit vacuum into someone's uterus.

I was happy that I had not been dead, but I felt invigorated that I had felt so vividly the sensation of dying.

Set of GASA. Doppelganger club's house band.
L to R: Spoon Popkin, a lion, Virginia Warwick, April Camlin.
Lower left-hand corner features Tom & Eric Franklin's forehead. Photo by Lex, 2009

How has your life changed to accommodate That Moment's effect on you?
It made me realize the importance of growth and evolution. For a person to not actively pursue their total reality is a real shame. The things inside of us are unspeakably fantastic and terrifying.

How has your work affected your life in return?
My creativity is to my life what the word "fart" is to the "thing" fart.

How does your location affect what you do and who you are these days?
I'm a born and bred Baltimorean. I find Baltimore to be an interesting yoga. It's pretty pleasant, it has history and character(s). It's also brutal, bleak and capable of lending up some serious ignoramuses from across its demographic carousel. Occasionally it feels incredibly provincial and too small, lacking diversity. I enjoy the love/hate I feel towards Baltimore, though. You really need to be intimate with a thing to see a depth of variety, the wonder and the loathing. This is a great meditation for me, seeing the duality of my home. It's a fine place, to be sure, with a discriminating artist scene to keep things fresh and it can inspire with the occasional display of the truly bizarre. I met my delightful wife Jackie in Baltimore, so it's given me some great gifts.

SNACKS @ True Vine, 2005. Dan Breen is on the right there, amplifying a pretzel slurpee. Photo by Lex

What do you think of the future?
I'm glad that America is sliding off, 'cause i think that will allow more alien cultural and technological things to influence and morph the "western" mainstream. I look forward to learning much from the junk/pop imports that will flood the waning "First World" from Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, as well as the genuine innovations that will come nestled amongst these pop land mines. I'm not dystopian or utopian. I view technology as a continuum - pretending to make life easier while keeping it more or less at the same amount of inconvenience, but succeeding at least in creating new contexts. For me and for creative people generally, I think new ideas and formats are always exciting, and new ideas will be aplenty, exponentially dividing. On the down side, abominations will not restrain themselves from trampling decency aboard new technology. Also, the obsolescence of once new and/or great movements and/or technology is always sad.

See David Bowie's "Oh You Pretty things" for an approximation of my feelings about the future. The future is the present, but splintered and origami'd.

Tom, after SNACKS set, karaokeing "Jump". Or "Panama." L to R: Jake Freeman, Tom, Reba. Photo by Lex, 2005

What has David Lee Roth meant in your life?
David Lee Roth is completely utopian 80s magic. The video for "Jump" signified millennial joy to my 10 year old brain. Clearly a video whose production costs were far disproportionate to the amount made by the song it represented --- just a bunch of strangely attired California nouveau rich, top lit, dancing around like hyenas and pretending to play a Van Halen song. But I think the meaninglessness and shiny hubris of that song and video is iconic. MTV was naive joy and cardboard futurism in 1984 and that vid played big on the hour throughout.

SNACKS movie blog
SNACKS artist page
Leprechaun Catering
Lee Gardner interview with Tom, 2001

ROBERT RYAN: Baphomet & Shangri La

2009-12-16T14:14:00.003-05:00

"Love is All", Robert Ryan

I first met Robert "Bink" Ryan when he set up a show for Crazy Dreams Band in his one-room studio slash gallery slash third floor walkup off one of Asbury Park's Cookman Street. His walls were covered in gorgeous framed works in a metaphysical-flash style and a third of one wall was entirely given over to a monochromatic cosmos mural by Daniel Higgs. Nobody at the party seemed particularly interested in our music, but Bink's fridge seemed to grow beer and everyone was pretty nice. The next day, I walked miles in a freak hailstorm to Robert's tattoo shop one town away where I received a rainbow ice cup and my clothing was dried in a laundry room filled with Chihuahua figurines. Asbury Park, New Jersey is sort of a magical wasteland in itself, and now Bink lives in the neighboring village of Ocean Grove, a plot of mansions and cottages on Methodist-owned land that closes its gates at midnight. He spearheads the musical entity Harmonize Most High and continues to execute dazzling works of art for flesh and paper.

What do you do?
I make paintings and tattoos and try to work on music as much as the painting and tattooing will allow for me to do.

What are you doing the most lately?
I feel like I have been traveling a lot lately and studying. I have been working with plant medicines and working on my posture and breathing. Of the aforementioned things I feel like tattooing has been occupying a big spot because that's what pays the bills.

How long have you done these things?
Tattooing for 14 years. Painting for about 16 and playing music for about 23 years.

How have the things changed?
Well I feel like its always expanding and contracting. Its always growing I'm always purging expelling all the bullshit that attaches itself to you on these paths. Earthly snares and such.

Why do you do these things?
For the Love

How does it make you feel?
Like my hero Sun Ra said "Music can be your greatest ambassador or your worst nemesis."

What's it like when you are unable to do these things?
I feel like I imagine a worried mother must feel like.

When was That Moment in your life that told you you would become what you are?
When I was young I used to live in an old house that belonged to Eugene O'Neal's widow and daughter, Agnes and Una. They lived there after Una divorced Charlie Chaplin. One night my cousin and I were playing in the yard and we both saw what we thought was Eugene O' Neal's

ghost walk past us. At that moment my mind was open to anything. I was Eleven.

How has your life changed to accommodate That Moment's effect on you?

Well I figured out right away that I wasn't taking the easy way out. To see ghosts and UFOs and consume LSD or live in Hare Krishna temple might be hard to explain to your friends and loved ones yet is still worth the experience.

How has your work affected your life in return?
I could be the poster child for what you should or what you shouldn't do with your life. It all depends on who you ask. Tattooing has shaped me as well as destroyed me, like my psychic baphomet. Music on the other hand is my Shangri La and painting might be the strongest of my personal connections.

How does your location affect what you do and who you are these days?

As you know I live between "Gods square mile" Ocean Grove & "The city by the Sea" Asbury Park. I feel as though I'm very lucky to work with some of the greatest people I know, I live four blocks from the beach and I play Frisbee with my dog almost every morning. The music scene here is so backwards and the art scene pretty much sucks despite the fact some of the best illustrators and painters I know live within 10 minutes of here. We all just exist outside our locale and I think there is something to be said about that.

What do you think of the future?
I think its an oblong oblivion.

What has David Lee Roth meant in your life?

He is like my favorite rock roll trickster. Giant Surfboards, Samurai Swords, Assless Pants, High Kicks, Monster Trucks! The guy is a Titan guarding the temple of Rock and Roll but then he gets busted buying dime bags of downtown julie brown ( middle school jersey weed slang) in Washington square park? This was a task I mastered in the 10th grade. He really is mystifying. I spent a whole summer surfing and watching the "Just a Gigolo "and "California Girls" videos on what felt like a perpetual loop.

Do you have anything you'd like to ask me?
I would like your advice on my retirement idea. Dig it! A small shack, One man (or woman) in a hazmat suit and a dogbowl on his head. He makes burritos named after the famous songs of one of the most important rock and roll bands of our generation DE EVOLUTION BURRITO! Customer: " I would like one Mongoloid with medium salsa please and can I get cheese on that? Burritista: "Yes sir we can whip it." Customer : "Oh then whip it good"

All images courtesy Robert Ryan.

www.sanitaryelectric.com
www.myspace.com/americancloudsongs

Robert Ryan works at Electric Tattoo
314 Main St. Bradley Beach NJ 07720
p: 732- 988-8882
www.electrictattoonj.com

ERIC ALLEN HATCH: Separate Violent Accidents

2009-12-15T18:41:00.005-05:00

photos courtesy Eric Allen Hatch, shown here behaving allegorically

Eric Allen Hatch was an original member of the Red Room. Which sort of makes him partway responsible (along with many other unsung and semi-sung heroes) for Baltimore's Cultural Landscape in The Naughties today because, musically speaking, The Red Room opened the floodgates for modern experimentalists and improvisers to enter Baltimore, and thus for Baltimore to enter them. He was part of the trickle that opened out, decades later, into a rich, rank, silty delta of radical. More recently, his Free First Thursdays Film Series (Oct 2006 - Aug 2008) at the Baltimore Museum of Art was "a mixture of truly adventurous films ... focusing particularly on the visionary film explosion of the 1960s and '70s", with a programming emphasis on the rarely-screened. These days he programs the Maryland Film Festival, ever hot on the trail of helping out the city he calls home by watching movies all day and being nice.

"this is me and my friend evan 16 years ago"

What do you do? What are you doing the most lately?

I’m a film programmer; my year-round day job is with Maryland Film Festival. I sort through hundreds of entries from filmmakers to select films for our festival in May, and travel to other film festivals over the course of the year (like SXSW, New York Asian, and Toronto International) in the hopes of luring gems back to Baltimore.

Prior to this I founded, programmed, and hosted the Free First Thursdays Film Series at the Baltimore Museum of Art (which ran from ’06 through ’08 and favored ‘60s and ‘70s world cinema).

Some people also know me as a former music and film critic for City Paper, and/or as a former manager of the Charles Village Video Americain.

Back in the day I used to DJ around town. In case you missed out on that, spend an evening listening to “Push It,” “It’s Tricky,” “The Humpty Dance,” and “Me So Horny” in a continuous loop, and it’ll be just like you were there.

Most often in my waking life I am listening to music (5-10 hours a day), watching movies (1-4 features a day), walking (3-10 miles a day), record shopping (all my $$$), or reading (data fluctuates wildly).

l to r: Eric Allen Hatch, Scott Braid, Skyzz Cyzyk, John Waters

How long have you done these things?

The BMA series launched almost 4 years ago (R.I.P.); I started working for MD Film Fest full time in January 2007. Before that, I’d done a spot of programming here or there (see “Moments,” below).

Why do you do them? How does it make you feel?

It makes me feel great to connect positively with other people, and one way to do this is through my cultural tastes.

"this is me playing dr dude"

When was That Moment in your life that told you you would become what you are? What happened?

Lots of slow-burn, lowercase-“m” moments: curating a 16mm film night at the Red Room nearly a decade ago; working as a member of the MicroCineFest screening committee under Skizz Cyzyk (one of Baltimore’s real cultural heroes); discovering the work of favorite directors like RW Fassbinder, Frederick Wiseman, and Claire Denis; attending double features at the Orpheum and the Satyajit Ray retrospective circa ’96 at the Charles; watching an average of 3 movies a day, 365 days a year from 1998-2004.

How has your life changed or not changed to accommodate that moment's effect on you?

With both film programming and critical writing, my life has become about connecting other people’s artistic accomplishments with audiences. My life’s goal had previously always been to find a way to make a living, however meager, via writing fiction (or maybe screenplays). In the long-term, I’ll have to figure out if that dream has been scrapped or just put on hold.

How has your work affected your life in return?

I have enormous amounts of free time in the summer and absolutely no free time from late February through early May. I get to New York more often and I’ve gotten to know Toronto fairly well. I drink a lot of coffee at Red Emma’s. I’ve met a lot of filmmakers, most of whom are really cool (with a couple of douches in the mix).

What do you dream about constantly?

Launching a gatefold-cover, 180-gram vinyl record label devoted to new Baltimore music; programming and managing a restored single-screen movie theater such as the Parkway on North Avenue or the Playhouse on 25^th Street; living in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco; becoming a Hollywood script doctor to raise money for any/all of the above; making a living as a novelist in Baltimore or even New York City; experiencing a Baltimore City with a subway system as extensive as DC’s Metro.

"this is me when a monkey visited the film fest office"

Some true, little-known facts about you?

Both of my grandfathers lost pinky fingers in separate violent accidents, decades apart.
A friend of the family named her child Eric Hatch Kim after me, shortly before the entire family was deported.
I was reared without a television from birth until, fortuitously, the month “Twin Peaks” was first broadcast.
My middle-school English teacher took a letter grade off a paper for my use of the phrase “Tom Sawyer was raised…”, and asked to see me after class – at which point she angrily shouted at me, “Human beings are REARED; livestock is raised.”

What advice would you give David Lee Roth if he was in the midst of an existential crisis and he came to you and only you for help?

He’s only a name to me, but my gut says move to Baltimore and start a band with Lexie. In general I am happy to listen to people’s problems.

JUSTIN SIROIS: Completely High

2009-12-15T18:26:00.003-05:00

Justin Sirois is founder and co-director of Narrow House, an experimental writing publishing collective. His poetry is wicked. He received Maryland State Art Council grants for poetry in 2003 and 2007. His books include Secondary Sound (BlazeVOX Books) and MLKNG SCKLS (Publishing Genius). He is a designer for Edge Books, and he's also responsible for the original Taxidermy Lodge (now known as TAX LO) dance parties. Currently, Justin is trying to find a publisher for his first novel written in collaboration with Iraqi refugee Haneen Alshujairy about displaced Iraqis living in Fallujah in April of '04.

What do you do? What are you doing the most lately?

Writing stories. I just finished a novel about two young men in Fallujah (Iraq) that I wrote in collaboration with Iraqi refuge Haneen Alshujairy. She’s amazing. We met on the internet and now she lives in Cairo. We’ve never met and she’s beautiful. A small press is reviewing it right now and I’m hoping they’ll publish it, but you never know. It’s tough, getting published and all.

Publishing Genius just released MLKNG SCKLS, the “deleted scenes” from that novel. People seem to like it a lot, especially the story where Salim, the main character, “uncooks” a meal for his girlfriend. It’s endearing and gross at the same time. Dehumidifiers line the kitchen counter. Everything sounds “undelicious”.

I’m about 2/3 finished with a new novel about two metalhead brothers growing up in New Hampshire in 1993. It’s a pretty sad story about disappointment (much like my other novel… oops), but it’s more about admiring the wrong people for the wrong reasons and realizing that before it’s too late. There are a lot of D&Dish hallucinations in the narrative – and the main character imagines he’s having sex with the drawings from The Joy of Sex.

It might upset my parents.

How long have you done these things? How have the things changed?

I’ve been writing all my life, I guess. I wrote a comic book when I was six and the spelling was so bad that my dad would read it to my brother and me and we’d fall on the floor laughing. Through high school I drew and wrote a comic/music magazine that I hope no one still owns, but people back in Florida mention it sometimes. It was named after a Sound Garden song. Yikes. Let’s forget that. Completely.

I wrote poems mostly between the ages of 18-28. They were easier to compose and manage. They changed a lot – confessional to language based then a combination of the two and then whatever. BlazeVOX published my book Secondary Sound in 2008. It’s about piracy and copyright law and sampling. But I always wanted to write stories. Now I’m trying to do that mostly. I’m a bit happier.

Why do you do these things? No, really, why? How does it make you
feel? What's it like when you are unable to do these things?

Because it’s absolutely absorbing and it’s impossible not to get these ideas/images/characters/issue out on paper. It’s good therapy. And it’s the closest thing to religion that I have at the moment. There’s no better feeling than writing a beautiful sentence or finishing a solid story. It’s literally the best feeling I’ve ever had. And if writing brings me closer to people – understanding and empathizing with strangers, observing behavior, both negative and positive – then it’s the best thing in my life.

Writing fiction is the only creative act that I can concentrate on for longer than an hour or two, everyday, no matter what. A disciplined schedule is essential if you’re working on one project for 10 months or longer – sometimes much longer. Between projects I won’t write for months at a time and it feels terrible; it’s close to feeling directionless and useless. Drinking happens more. Video games, too. Man! What a time vampire those video games are.

During that down time, I try to research as much as possible. Reading helps, of course. Eventually the next project bubbles up and I’m back to normal.

When was That Moment in your life that told you would become what
you are?

I think it was when I finished the first draft of Falcons on the Floor, that first novel. I felt completely high. It was a, “did I really do that?” kind of experience that built and built after two years of work.

Now I know I can do what I’ve always dreamed about, but with that realization comes a whole lot more pressure on myself to keep going.

How has your life changed to accommodate That Moment's effect on you?

Dramatically and not at all. Now I know I have the discipline to sustain a rigorous work schedule, I can stay motivated about a project no one knows a thing about, and there’s a building community of strangers who want to read my work, but, that said, I’ll always be suspicious of the quality of the work. It’s that inner voice that constantly tells you, “Man, you have nothing to offer… you’re so cliché.”

All creative people deal with that insecurity. You just have to work through it – keep making and loving and caring about what you do. Falling in love with your labor is just as important as loving your language.

How has your work affected your life in return?

I can’t imagine my life without writing. My best friends are in the creative community and I’d rather have massively great creativity surrounding me than a sweet house or car or whatever. I feel like I have the absolute best quality of life and I share it with the most interesting people in one of the best cities in the States.

What do you think of the future?

I’m excited about the new XBox hands free controller because I won’t have to buy a gym membership. Lifting Cuba’s embargo will be a beautiful event; generations have suffered for something they had nothing to do with. Maybe gay marriage and pot smoking will be legal one day – everywhere – even on airplanes. Gay marriage on airplanes, you ask. Yes. The Future. Goodness! I don’t smoke pot.

The future isn’t as bleak as people think. Now that DIY is mainstream and nerds are cool, life is better for creative people. We can make books or albums on the cheap and post them for free and if it’s good work people will pay attention. Wars are essential because they’ve always happened. That sucks. The planet is suffocating under the stress of irresponsible consumption. That sucks, too.

Would you vote for David Lee Roth in an election? Why or why not?

It depends what he’s running for. President? No. Sorry. NFL Commissioner? YES. Oh hell yes. I saw this YouTube video of an old interview Roth did for MTV and he was soaring on coke or some narcotic from another planet and I was like, “That man should be running the NFL.”

secondarysound.blogspot.com

SIZE MATTERS, Dec 3 - 20 @ Load of Fun

2009-11-23T21:34:00.001-05:00

size matters, originally uploaded by Mountain Lex.

Load of Fun Gallery
LOUDLY PRESENTS

SIZE MATTERS
a show of porous proportions
featuring the work of
Dan DEACON
Samantha GARNER
Katherine HILL
Twig HARPER
Anne ISRAEL
Jordan KASEY
Jen KIRBY
Irene MOON
Asa OSBORNE
Dennis TYFUS
Andrew Jeffrey WRIGHT

Curated by Lexie Macchi/The Mountain Lake Thing
Opening! December 3, 7- 10pm
and join us in the Load of Fun Theatre
for a sweet party featuring
The Stand-up Comedy of Andrew Jeffrey Wright
CEX
Fresh juice by Sam

Load of Fun Gallery
120 W. North Ave
Baltimore MD

Service Anxiety meets Long Live Death, forms human pyramid

2009-11-23T13:01:00.006-05:00

top tier left to right is Theo and James Sarsgard.
In 2003, James and I were on tour with Long Live Death.
James played the saw, I booked the tour and did backup singing.
James is now Noble Lake with Jen & Andy of Wye Oak.
We did this in Icky's backyard after Long Live Death performed a green kool-aid show at Trumbullplex in Detroit with Chicago's Service Anxiety.
Theo was in Service Anxiety with the dude on the bottom row, all the way to the right,
and one or two of the other Service Anxiety dudes are in this pyramid.
Someone please tell me what their names are.
Icky is bottom row, on the far left.
In the morning everyone ate potato pancakes.

I found this ol' thing because I started uploading actual photos to an actual flickr page after almost 5 years of ignoring it completely. Stay tuned here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/58621716@N00/

ANGELA SAWYER: One Fantastic Record At A Time

2009-11-23T11:45:00.004-05:00

Angela Sawyer runs Weirdo Records in Cambridge, MA. She's a dedicated musician with a weak spot for Julie London, a yen for the ukelele, and a skull tattooed on the back of her hand. She used to work for Forced Exposure and Twisted Village, played in Life Partners and created the pop-collage band The Phenomenological Boys. Her unique voice is as comfortable carving catchy melodic layers as it is hooting and swooping like Tiny Tim in Farsi. She used to run Weirdo out of her house as a largely online venture, but recently she moved into a storefront on Massachusetts Avenue where she specializes in the ultra-bizarre and hosts performances in the tiny shop space. Below, she tells us what its like.

I am a record collector & run a record shop that just moved into a proper storefront about 6 months ago. So lately, I've been working like a nutbomb, up to my eyeballs in it about 12-15 hours a day 7 days a week. And by it I mean records, and I mean a fucklot of them. And not just your run-of-the-mill records either. Nope, the name of the shop is Weirdo and it's the name for a reason. Freaky garage psychedelia from Bolivia. Soundtracks to French VHS pornos. Housewives in green pancake makeup sitting on the floor of their kitchens, banging pots & pans & shrieking at the top of their lungs. One sided 78s about baseball from 1904. Cocaine-damaged open-mic-night songwriters who wish they were rock stars. Singapore's answer to Nancy Sinatra. Off-key opera singers, mysterious bleeping boxes, jazz solos played on drinking straws, Beatles covers from Thailand, instruments that you wear like a shirt, nose flautists, tangles of cables plugged into unidentifiable objects, Hendrix fans from Zambia, one armed fiddlers, soundtracks to movies that were filmed in languages no one can speak, souped-up player pianos, and on and on and on. That's my meat & potatoes.

Now most people think they like music, same way that most people think they're funny or think they can hold their liquor. But there are some people, a small percentage of people, who organize their every waking moment around music. They give up relationships over it, pass on decent food & housing in order to afford it, and they rarely talk or think or dream about anything else. Some people do this, not just for six months while during a phase in college, but for years & years & years on end. Not only am I one of these people, I can't remember the last time I had a conversation of more than 5 seconds' length with someone who wasn't. Typical modern-day skills like cooking chicken, using a bank, or putting a band-aid on the knee of a child have, in my case, atrophied away to nubs. While I effortlessly sport seemingly esoteric skills like gargling coca-cola while using an electronic bullhorn, or remembering that Ananda Shankar & Laurie Johnson are men, while Blind Willie Dunn was not blind.

Why? Well, here's the thing about being a record collector. It's a lot less about owning stuff. For example, it's practically impossible to "invest" in records like you can in the stock market. People occasionally try some variant of investing with music (buying it 'for their kids' or for ebay), and they are a small source of amusement to collectors in their midst, until a few months later when the money runs out & they disappear. In fact, if you spend your life connected to records, you are conscripting yourself into a life of poverty, gar-un-teed.

Sam & Angela

People ask how I got here once in a while, because they usually don't know anyone else who thinks a decent selection of nose flute recordings ought to be as handy as spare batteries. I usually tell them, 'one fantastic record at a time'. Because that's the truth. The world is stuffed to the brim with meaningless drivel. It's often unsparing & ugly & desperate. Records are a corner of it where things mean something, where people care even a tiny bit, where what's precious is venerated and what isn't is left to the wind. I feel extremely lucky that I get to spend my time, say, tracing the hundred years of phrasing history that led to Ella Fitzgerald's intricate vocal acrobatics instead of... what? Some crap like mutual funds?

The thing that people ask a lot more often than how I got here is, 'how do you stay in business?' Seems funny, because I hafta tell you. I see lots stores that sell stuff no one actually likes, and lots of people whose faces light up with what they hear when they're here. The answer there is therefore: when you need your insurance, go see the insurance guy, and when you need your teeth cleaned, go see the dentist. When you need to be bowled over by something beautiful and genuinely unique, I'll find you.

See, instead of playing the violin, some folks like to turn the violin upside down & play it backwards. Other folks would like use the violin to imitate a scuffle with an injured cat. Still more folks would prefer to just put the violin down, then walk to the nearest pond & joyfully throw a bunch of rocks in it. All of these people are sort of 'my people'. And they are not most people's people. Definitely not. Even amidst friendly sorts who like to think they're quite open minded or quirky or curious by nature. Not most people's people. Definitely not.

Brendan Murray & Angela behind the counter, photo by DJ Ning Nong

But few collectors mind, because they care a lot more about carving out an aesthetic goal. They want to know. Is it possible to write a song that is both musically and politically urgent? Are funny songs automatically less profound? What is the secret ingredient that turns a mess of unformed noise into something meaningful? Is dancing a mode of appreciation or detrimental to it? Can a serial killer write a good song? How about a two year old? Are some chords better than others? Are some guitar sounds always cooler than others? What about the different kinds of listening that you do when something is live vs. when it's recorded? Or when something is a hundred years old vs. released this week? Memorized it from when you were a kid vs. never heard it before? These questions are not rhetorical. They have answers. Long, detailed ones. Because even if they never articulate such questions (some of them are nearly autistic, after all), record collectors define & delimit good music to themselves, by saving the worthy & pushing away the dross. Like a gardener, little by little, they weed garbage, plant seedlings, expand, upgrade, re-landscape, and continually focus, tighter and tighter, on the myriad number of ways that good music takes place. And they get to savor it along the way too.

So when people ask me how I got into my job or one of the bands I play in, I usually answer 'one record at a time'. The Four Freshmen & Lambert Hendricks & Ross convinced me not to go to grad school. The Beach Boys got me out of bed & to a doctor that time I had a 104 degree fever. I decided not to move to Chicago after all, because I was gripped by a fever for Emmett Miller yodels & figured it would take months to meet anybody I could talk to there. I nearly got arrested throwing things at a passing train because I was so hopped up on the Music Machine. Lord knows the gossip or bargains or morning coffees I've missed because I couldn't stand to be in a room with Carol King's 'Tapestry' for one more second. How many times have I freaked out my neighbors trying to sing along to Joan La Barbara records, or whistle to Evan Parker? And how about the recent risks in identity/postal theft in order to buy obscurities from Bangkok or Lebanon or Istanbul?

844 Massachusetts Avenue

A lot of people who collect records get started before they're 15. Sometimes an older brother leaves a collection on the way off to college. Many have fond memories of playing with turntables at age 4 or 5. I learned how to read from Disney read-along 45s, memorizing their sound & following along in a book until I had the book memorized too. Preferred it to being read a story by a parent, so I've been told. But I didn't have an older brother or a hip pal when I was a teenager, so I didn't get introduced to music that wasn't on the radio or tv until I was already in my 20s.

Which brings me to David Lee Roth, musical giant of my junior high & high school days. DLR is the epitome of what popular music can do. This is not to say that Van Halen makes the best music in all of popular music history. Doris Day, Steve Allen, or even the Ink Spots, for example, could all wipe the floor with Roth's bony white ass any day of the week. It's more that Roth's voice is uniquely textured and skillfully applied enough (don't think that there's no talent to emitting a sound like ripping sheets from your throat while in mid-karate kick, eh?) that it can answer any musical question: like the 8 ball can answer any question about your future. Sure, you can look at the guy and see a coke-addled, falsely exuberant jock who rips off Louis Prima (badly, no less). This would not be a mistake. On the other hand, just one step beyond the party persona, DLR can open a door for the uninitiated: to doo wop, extended technique, off-the-beat phrasing, the syllabic turns of foreign languages (yep, he recorded in Spanish & there's an acapella mix), 60s folk-pop (John Sebastian cover), the history of vocoders (don't ask), and so on ad infinitum. It would certainly be a shame if listening to David Lee Roth kept people from listening to say, Mohammed Rafi. But there's time enough for both so long as you're not wasting yours with mutual funds, and Roth is as fascinating as a car wreck, every time.

These days, I'm glad I got started collecting a little late. I vividly remember the sense of discovery when I realized that other people who did not fit in, musically or otherwise, had a place to go & congregate. Like the island of misfit toys, for burgeoning adults. Amazing! And I learned that these wonderful places were called (say it with me now) college... radio... stations. I worked at one (lived there between apartments even), and doing so helped me get a job at a record store in the early 90s. Didn't know much when I started, but loved having the top of my head ripped open day in & day out by mysterious black slabs of Pierre Henry or Albert Ayler. Experiences akin to seeing the face of Jesus on a piece of toast- except that it's as real as the hand on the end of your arm. One day another employee mentioned that a particular indie rock band was boring. I think I actually sucked in my breath, as although I'd heard plenty of guys in doc martins & hair dye knock Eric Crapton, I'd never heard any of them disparage some poor, tiny band of freaks. I slowly realized, that what makes music good is neither it's popularity nor it's obscurity, but simply it's quality. And that this was something you could learn to figure out, without the help of glossy magazines or tv specials, or even any local blowhards who might like to hold court. In a world overrun with crap, advertising, fear, etc., developing your own ear is a defense against meaninglessness, ugliness, shallowness, and idiocy. And here in my fortress, hidden behind my mounds & piles of music, I'm happy to say that I'm all loaded up & ready to shoot.

This month, the record shop I run is having a sale, because it's November and that's what I think should happen when people are thinking about getting their friends Christmas presents. It's not how most shops work- but I like to think of this shop as a place that zigs when everybody else zags. It's not a bad way to be. There's no money in it of course. I scrape for change & put things back on the shelf every time I go to the grocery store, and I try to stretch between trips too. But there's a lot of fun to be had. This autumn I learned to improve my duck call blowing, got a teensy bit better at the ukulele, accidentally whacked a guy in the balls with a mike stand while visiting Chicago, received several odd objets d'art from pals (one blew bubbles!), attended a Balkan-themed dinner party... And the records! Oh, dear me what sounds have been flying around in the air here! Columbian cumbias, zombie groans from Germany, field recordings of wallabies playing in waterfalls, the funny fartings of Danish policeman, drunken Peruvian teenagers on juvenile delinquent rampages. And you can bet that's just the short list.

please find Angela & company at:
WEIRDO RECORDS
844 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge MA 02139
857-413-0154
Images from Weirdo Records
Angela's Bands:
EXUSAMWA
DUCK THAT

GARY PANTER: Future Selves

2009-11-18T19:29:00.008-05:00

Gary Panter is why the television show Pee-Wee's Playhouse looked the way it did. As a designer, artist, light show specialist, and musician, he's incredibly prolific, almost compulsive. The corners of his comics fill with flotsam, the walls of his gallery installations become quilted with years of collected ephemera, paintings throb eye-crossing patterns, and the landscapes of his graphic novels teem with leaning towers, scuttling creatures, smoke puffs, dinosaur goons. His cartoon language is self-referential and smart without being smarmy, and his sketchbooks are so plentiful they occupy about half of Picturebox's recent 700-page epic Gary Panter: The Book. Looking at his silkscreened small-run art books from the eighties makes one feel like he invented weird, or at least taught pop-art how to throw itself up; he prefigured artistic movements of the early twenty-first century by nearly two decades. Even though he's allergic, he has three cats: Triscuit, Squeaky and Roofie. His favorite movie is Call Me Genius starring Tony Hancock, his favorite book is Flann O'Brien's At Swim Two Birds and his favorite color is "all."

What do you do? What are you doing the most lately?

I am always drawing, painting and playing guitar.

How long have you done these things? How have the things changed?

Since I was little.

One of Gary's weekly strips, from garypanter.com

Why do you do these things? How does it make you feel? What's it like when you are unable to do these things?

I can enjoy life, but I love to make something out of nothing.
I would become unhappy if I couldn't do those things, but I would try to go on.

Its JIMBO!

When was That Moment in your life that told you you would become what you are? What happened?

I drew with my father since I was little and watched him paint cowboy and Indian paintings, so that was generally formative, but...

A moment that told me that I would get old hence, become, was:

One day in Brownsville Texas, in my yard of dirt, in 1956, I saw a tin washtub full of water, with glimmering reflections of the sky.
I picked up a stick and stirred the water and all my future selves that recall that moment appeared and were watching me.

How has your life changed to accommodate That Moment's effect on you?

It was a flow and not a change.

How has your work affected your life in return?

I get petted by people who like my work and reviled by folks who don't like it.
I like it, so I am not worried.

Totally mind-altering piece of Gary life-evidence from his blog

What are your thoughts about being Choctaw?
My father and Grandma were very much native americans to me growing up. My grandparents lived in Talahina, Oklahoma and worked at the TB hospital and at the Indian Hospital. At the Indian hospital the old people still spoke Choctaw. It's cool having some clue about where you come from. It was rustic --everyone chewed tobacco or dipped snuff. There were tornadoes and forest fires and giant hail, croaking frogs and bible thumping.

Where do the animal stories on garypanter.com come from?

The short stories on my site are attempts at writing-- heavily influenced by the writing of Donald Barthelme, Gilbert Sorrentino, Robert Coover, Byron Coley and others.

What do you think of the future?

We will be cave men for a long time. Then we will become fancy seals and gophers with TV skin.
After that, the skies the limit. If we get nice enough aliens will reveal themselves.

What do you think of David Lee Roth? Have your thoughts changed or evolved over the years?

He reminds me of Soupy Sales. No, he still reminds me of Soupy Sales.

Do you have anything you'd like to ask me?
Have you heard Devin Gary & Ross?
No! Tell me about it.
Devin Gary & Ross is comprised of Devin Flynn, creator of Ya'll So Stupid cartoon formerly on Super Deluxe. He has been in various bands, for instance, Plate Techtonics and Gangstuhs Wit Gats. Ross Goldstein has a solo album called Free Dumb and he has made music with various people including Dearraindrop. They are both multi-instrumentalists. I play guitar and trumpet kinda. We do our own stuff and covers of neglected psychedelic pop tunes. We are into concrete music and vocal harmonies and the whole thing is a fucking blast! We played Issue Project Room, Market Hotel, Santos, Cakeshop and Providence this year. There is some early stuff of me and Devin on youTube, but nothing like what the three of us are doing now. There is a CD of Devin and Gary on Ecstatic Yod/Picturbox from before we found Ross.

Exhibition view, Gary Panter: Pictures From the Psychedelic Swamp 1972 - 2001
image thanks to Clementine Gallery, NYC

Everything:
garypanter.com

JASON URICK: Avoid Cleaning or Jogging

2009-11-18T15:08:00.008-05:00

Jason Urick lives at Floristree space, loves football, beer & Camels, used to perform as Moonstealingproject, and has had white hair since adolescence. He spearheaded festivals, a record shop, an underground venue (slash home), and participated in projects such as Spirit Stallion, a pastiche band comprised of a varying cast (including OXES' Mark Miller) whose often-hilarious performances poked fun at the music industry's more self-important side with Guitar Center pranks and PowerPoint presentations. Lately, his solo album Husbands has been garnering loads of positive attention, a split 7" with kindred Baltimorean Jason Willett appeared last week from Wildfire Wildfire and a trip to Europe is in the works. Jason is a lighting rod for Charm City's musical climate; his longevity in the scene and knack for storytelling makes him a griot of sorts, his charm and humor draws people to him, and his expansive taste and enthusiasm keep him thirsty for everything the music interworld has to offer.

What do you do? What are you doing the most lately?
I do what I do, and sometimes I forget I do it. I make music but have never been a "musician"... but I do it because I don't know how not to. I book shows at Floristree, but I'm trying to do that less. I used to do owning a record store, running the Once.Twice Festival, rooting for the Redskins, playing in Wzt Hearts and living in Chicago... but I no longer do those things for various reasons.

Lately I have been doing putting out my first solo record, trying to figure out how to a be a laptop performer without boring myself and paying spectators alike, rooting for the Ravens and not booking shows (sorry everyone who has been emailing me for shows).

Jason's new album Husbands, out now on Thrill Jockey Records

How long have you done these things? How have the things changed?

I've been making music for about 14 years now... I started late. I tried to learn guitar in 8th grade... errrr... I tried and succeeded in learning how to play the intro to Crazy Train on guitar in 8th grade and assumed that's all there was for me to do on that instrument. Wait, I actually also had a short lived "band" in 6th grade called Arcangel. We had one friend with a guitar, and I made a "bass" out of a shoe box and 3 rubber bands with a Fisher Price tape machine mic inside to amplify it. Our drummer had buckets... we "practiced" twice. We did have a cool logo that we drew on our binders. Our influences were mainly Faith No More, D.A.D., Anthrax and Bang Tango. If I knew then what I know now I would've named our band the Shitty Tinklers, because thats how my memory of it sounds.
I didn't tackle music again until after High School when I decided that I could easily be that dude in Pavement that played a snare drum and made weird sounds on a synth. I got a Roland Juno 6 for my birthday and made my guitar whiz friend Jeff Kmieciak and co-worker Zach Mason start a band with me. We found a drummer via the City Paper, his name was Ferdinand and he was a 30 year-old Phillipino guy. He was really rad and live in the basement of his parents home amongst like 8,000 CDs. We called ourselves Fashionable Kitsch and turned down both shows we were ever offered. We practiced for about a year, but I quit when we started playing songs the same way more than once. I wouldn't be in a band again until Wzt Hearts which worked because we didn't even like to practice at all, so there was no way we would have to play the same song twice.

I don't like to practice... I should've listed that in the first question as something I don't do.

Why do you do these things? No, really, why? How does it make you feel? What's it like when you are unable to do these things?

I do these things because I wake up thinking about doing these things often, and other times I go to bed thinking of doing these things. I don't know why. Some people wake up thinking that that they need to clean their room or jog. If you know me well I rarely think of these things when I wake or go to bed. Therefore I make music instead of cleaning. Maybe I do it to avoid cleaning or jogging... I never really thought of that until just now.

It sucks when I am unable to do these things because that means I am possibly cleaning or working or jogging...wait, that's not true, I never jog. These things I like less than making music. It feels good to make music when I'm making it because it relaxes me,... it feels natural when it's going well... I don't think of anything else at that moment.

Jason Willett (left) & Jason Urick, photo by Devon Daimler

When was That Moment in your life that told you you would become what you are? What happened?
Is this a nature/nurture question? It feels like a mind trap... I'm not sure when that moment was or rather I am possibly unable to gather all the little moments that added up to make me what I am.... I would have to start early with something that happened in childhood like getting beat up in 2nd grade or seeing a Devo video on MTV, but I'm not sure if they mattered or if they actually happened. Though for sure at some point in early High School I realized that I liked music more than I liked most things but it was more like I always knew it but didn't know I knew it.... if that makes sense. I think maybe once I realized that Arcangel wasn't going to ever match the success of Guns N' Roses I put away this knowledge but once I saw Fugazi at Ft. Reno and they were walking around drinking lemonade with the crowd before and after the show, I guess I realized a world where the boundaries were more blurred.

I always imagined my role would be as a record store owner, or running a label or promoter. And it was for a while... it wasn't until Wzt Hearts were I felt more comfortable with the idea that I'd rather be making the music above all else.

How has your life changed to accommodate That Moment's effect on you?
It's hard to say because I don't know any other way. My life before what we have maybe pinpointed as the general time period that The Moment may have happened was most likely was spent mostly going to Junior High School, and watching Fresh Prince Of Bel Air while eating pizza bagels... now I watch thrift store VHS tapes (last one was Gladiator) while eating homemade pizza.

How has your work affected your life in return?

Well, I think it changed in mostly positive ways. I feel like the sense of community that you get from being involved with music has taught me a lot. I'm not sure what lead to what, but I feel like I need less to be happy than people I see that don't have that sort of community available to them. I dunno....

What do you think of the future?

I've been angry at the future ever since it failed to live up to the promise of hover boards by the year 2000. I'm also angry at the future for living up to Orwell's 1984 a little too much.

What does David Lee Roth mean to you?
A superior 1984 in some ways to the previously mentioned one.

Do you have anything you'd like to ask me?
Remember when Floristree dressed up as the Lexie Mountain Boys? That was cool.
I remember this as the best thing that happened to me that I wasn't there for. Same as being born! That was cool and about time too. Do you like how I just coined the word "interworld"?

Jason Urick/ Jason Willett 7" on Wildfire Wildfire
Jason Urick Husbands on Thrill Jockey Records

1 - 10 of about 1,900,000 (0.12 seconds)

2009-11-18T14:21:00.004-05:00

The Doorway to Diamond Dave: "Bid on David Lee Roth now!" This Welcome Mat of Legging Otherness is where we can see true results. Not included: the 2010 Tour, a Twitter account of questionable provenance, the mirror that appears when gluing these invisible shards back together.

BONNIE JONES: Foods, Toothaches

2009-11-10T17:09:00.012-05:00

Bonnie performing at High Zero Festival; photo by Michael Anton Parker

"Born in 1977 in South Korea, Bonnie Jones was raised by dairy farmers in New Jersey, and currently resides in Baltimore, MD. In sound performances Bonnie plays the circuit boards of digital delay pedals. Her primary sound collaborators are Joe Foster in Korea (as the duet “English”) and Andy Hayleck. She is also a member of the Performance Thanatology Research Society, a interdisciplinary performance group dedicated to the advancement of a higher histrionics brought on by imminent finalities. Bonnie has performed at the Kim Dae Hwan Museum, the Ontological-Hysteric Theater, the ErstQuake Festival, and the 14 Karat Cabaret. She is currently an MFA candidate at the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College." She's obsessed with the microtonal and the microsyntactic, but she parties like a bear in a stream, is always ready with a joke and will roast you a chicken any day of the week. Whether its wearing fake teeth at the 14Karat Cabaret while Blaster Al Ackerman tosses red glitter about in a dental monologue, or masterminding elaborate, sophisticated events, Bonnie's body of work is varied, exciting, and, best of all, just begun.

English: Bonnie Jones & Joe Foster

What do you do?

I make music with broken digital delay pedals and microphones. I make sound/text compositions. I sometimes perform these sound/text pieces. I write a little prose and a little poetry. Lately I've been practicing my variousness with seriousness.

How long have you done these things?
I've been inputting for 32 years and outputting at a low frequency for about 20 years and at a higher more accessible frequency for about 10 years.

Why do you do them? How does it make you feel?

I do these things because it makes me feel human and closer to other humans and helps me understand things - My things and other people's things and non-human things. I feel pretty good about it on the whole. Sometimes though it's better for things not to be understood. That's also what I'm learning these days.

When was That Moment in your life that told you you would become what you are? What happened?

I'm not so sure yet what I am to become so that's a hard question. There might instead be a series of self-defining moments - one after the other after the other in a rapid motion through time. Oh this is what it's going to be like, oh this is what it is, oh this is another one. The last one I remember was when I realized I wanted to stop thinking about everything as a problem to be solved. First off - everything is not a problem and every problem doesn't need to be solved.

How has your life changed or not changed to accommodate that moment's effect on you?

To the last moment, I'm taking a lot more time experiencing things. People, sounds, foods, toothaches, closenesses and farnesses. I'm starting up an old machine that is latent in me called - experiential living. Also - I'm thinking about how if I want to make things that are very fast, complicated and layered --- how they can really communicate this idea of slowing down and paying attention that I find to be so intriguing these days.

How has your work affected your life in return?

Every time I make something I wonder.

Bonnie atop a human pyramid during a Lexie Mountain Boys performance for Sophia Dixon's Glowworms at Current Space, Baltimore MD 2007.
L - R, top to bottom: Bonnie, Samantha Garner, Lauren Bender, Nicola Knight, Amy Waller, Liz Flyntz, Megan Reid, Jen Kirby

How does David Lee Roth make you feel?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgo-ks37M2s

Do you have anything you'd like to ask me?
I'm wondering how you do your hair? Or what your hair routine is like each morning/evening/every other day? Also I'm wondering what you're working on these days.

Wash with a mixture of pearls and enchilada sauce, comb thrice with cat's paw to increase shine, apply coagulated salve of baby tears beneath a fountain of cold running water and upon drying much prayer is necessitated so any curl will hold even after the sun has set. The trick is never changing the basic shape ever for years and always making sure it looks like David Lee Roth in the darkness but without the balding part and the shameful cutting of the locks once he reacheth fifty. Tender shampooing is always careful, on the condition that one does not transmit head lice to a family of four in Portsmouth, NM. Including dog. Some things cannot be helped, and the itching persists for years. Nature's Gate opens the herbal way to a deep shine on my checkbook, ordered by the gallon and biotin its cousin and friend also soaking me for the long run. DO NOT BRUSH WHEN WET!! Do this every other or every third day as the weather and smell in the air dictates. Lately, I've been working on a remix of a song and it will be debuted at Mirkwood sometime this month of November 2009.

baltimoreperformance.com/lossolos
bonniejones.wordpress.com

IAN NAGOSKI: Exciting Monkey Times!

2009-11-05T17:45:00.006-05:00

Ian Nagoski & daughter June

Record collector Ian Nagoski has been many things: experimental musician, vocalist, trader, journalist, cabbie, and part of the brains behind the first years of True Vine Records in Baltimore. These days, Ian's time is given over to his beloved 78s; collecting slabs of the fragile format, trading with other enthusiasts, and sharing his knowledge of the music's histories at occasional listening parties. After the success of The Black Mirror, Ian's extraordinary and thorough compilation of global music on 78s, he formed Canary Records. He remains a font of enthusiasm for the world of endangered song, deeply committed to the genuine experience of music.

What do you do? What are you doing the most lately?
Dream into sound... Hustle sides...Like a lot of artists and many other people, I'm trying to re-balance a world out of balance. There are mistakes to rectify and lies to be replaced with truth. I'm one of those who sees their purpose in working from deeply held beliefs toward adjusting the course of things. For me, it's music and the ideas and stories that surround it and the qualities of the pleasures it can give, particularly the pleasures of the operation of memory, that keep engaging me. Lately, over the past couple years in particular, I've been learning the stories and musics of good musicians, long dead, to answer questions about the recent cultural problems of group relationships in the U.S. - the problems of "us-and-them." I'm trying to create feelings of compassion and wonder by presenting old recordings and suggest irreducibility of human dignity through the meaning of the brief lives of the performers - heartening evidence of universal human genius and a question about where feelings come from. What are they? Shortly, there will be another expression of my own sound to finish, but those things take a long time for me.

How long have you done these things?
I liked studying and listening to music since I was a little kid, and somehow I was identified socially pretty early for my passion for it - certainly by 11 or 12. Through my 10s and 20s, I mostly worked on my own music, wanting to be given appreciation and understanding for it. Even through that time, I gathered stories, wanting to be educated, and celebrated people who I thought ought to celebrated.

Why do you do them? How does it make you feel?
It makes me feel a little less like a pair of eyeballs floating in space.

When was That Moment in your life that told you you would become what
you are? What happened?
There are many, but the first one that jumps to mind: I remember watching the film of the Coltrane quintet with Dolphy in Europe in '61 when I was in my late 10s, sitting at a monitor in the library and thinking that I understood dignity and grace and honesty for the first time. "That's how a person should behave," I thought. It was as if they had invented themselves. It just seemed obvious that every person would want to play a sound that was like that, full of crying out and deeply intelligent, and make statements as bold as that.

How has your life changed or not changed to accommodate that moment's effect on you?
I've given myself over to those feelings and that image in my mind, totally.

How has your work affected your life in return?
It has given me purpose and comfort in the face of death. It has been a good way to open lines of communication with people. And it has opened me up to the world experientially and intellectually.

David Lee Roth?
= exciting monkey times!

Do you have anything you'd like to ask me?
Knowing that you're Lebanese, I've been meaning to ask you about your family history. You sister told me about your grandmother and her hand tattoo, which was wonderful to hear, although I didn't quite understand the story. But it made an impression. Can you tell me that story? Were you raised in the Eastern Church? Can you tell me about the Maronites? Were you exposed to music in Arabic in Massachusetts?
It was actually our grandmother's mother who had tattooed hands; according to Kadra family lore at the age of 15 she bore five children and when they all passed away she traveled to the Unites States and had five more. Our grandmother Julia was one of the last surviving members of this family; she herself passed away before I was able to get much out of her besides the above story. She was Catholic, and since the man she married was Catholic and Italian-Irish to boot, she went with him to his parish St Tarcisius in Framingham, Massachusetts. They are both interred in that church's yard. She never mentioned the Maronites, didn't speak any Arabic, listened to Nat King Cole and preferred the Pope above all. She did, however, tell our father that we're related to Kahlil Gibran, and as far as her cooking goes she made a mean kibbeh. Raw, with the fist print in it and everything.

Black Mirror/ Canary Records

www.myspace.com/theblackmirror
www.facebook.com/iannagoski

MARK RICE: A Little Hungry

2009-11-04T19:44:00.006-05:00

Mark Rice, 2005

Mark Rice used to live in Bloomington IN, where he was well-known for his artistic and musical contributions to the sleepy city's generally transient and collegiate culture. He's toured the world, intermittently exercised some songwriting muscle, and as co-founder of Art Hospital (a Bloomington music venue and art gallery) he regularly showed his paintings, drawings, packages and installations. He once tried to fly off a roof with wings he made, and regularly frequented the same Subway sandwich shop as Jared. These days Mark performs as THIT and pursues graduate studies at RISD.

What do you do? What are you doing the most lately?
As of right now, I am listening to Oneida's record Come On Everybody Lets Rock. It sounds exactly like you think it would sound.....satin-y smooth.....Tonight is the night of my going away party. I am leaving my home of 11 years for the the east coast, specifically Providence, RI to go to graduate school for printmaking. So to answer this question, I would have to say that I am moving...To all who have moved or are planning to move, I have realized something about the entire process....The first is rather elementary....it sucks...bad...Its nostalgic and physically demanding, not to mention, if you are a pack rat like me that loves to write run-on sentences, then it is also, heart-wrenching and frustrating. The second part is rather difficult to realize when YOU, the mover, are caught in the depths of a powerful MOVE.....It is not only boring to discuss to friends who ask,"how's the move going?" It is boring to the speaker of the lumbering complaints that follow such a question...Its strange to hear yourself boring yourself to death....So, to answer this question in the public forum in which I have chosen to participate, I will answer a different version the question......"What are you planning to do?" Many things actually, thank you so much for asking!..........I will describe 2....considering there are many questions to this interview, this only the first question, and that I don't type very fast....The first will be my VERY first solo music performance. This with happen in Providence, RI on October 1st at the RISD Museum. It is part of a group show curated by RISD grad students entitled "This Show is About Rock n Roll." The second is a project that is in the planning stages entitled "The Private Self-Assurance of Poor Paul Portmoy." It is an interactive sculpture featuring music by Jordan C. Geiger of Minus Story and Hospital Ships (Lawerence, KS) It has to do with self-image, lies, and how not EVERYbody has a good sense of humor or is good in bed, but we all think we are, or have to think in some way that we are special....Also, for the last 10 years I have been in both national and multi-national music bands. In the past six years, you say that music was my job...although I was always terrified of thinking of it as that. Previous and current bands include: Magnolia Electric Co., The Coke Dares, The Impossible Shapes, The John Wilkes Booze, Ativin, Early Day Miners, and some more.... boom boom bam! NEXT!

THIT

How long have you done these things?
My mother, Judith Ann Rice, is a Renaissance Woman in her own right. Sculptor, printmaker, painter, ceramicist, teacher, and puller of amazing salt water taffy, just to name a few. Her and my father have always been more than supportive of not only creative ventures, but being true to yourself no matter what the consequences. I know that last one sounds a little cheesy. I'm a little hungry right now. I get a little hectic and sappy when I get hungry.....Long answer SHORT......I have been making things in someway or another for the entirety of the memorable part of my life.

Why do you do them? How does it make you feel?
Ummmm.....A seemingly easy question....I suppose I prolly do it (this is real deep down now) because of control. I like a little tiny area that I get to be GOD. I do it for many more reasons now, but that one has definately been a long runner. I spent a lot of time alone and made little cities. Being able to get lost in something and have hours go by.....This can happen with anything (lawn care, cake baking, CLEANING, staring, etc.) Now that I am getting a bit older, I try to put this Zone to good use in the music, art, or the curation or organization of each, respectively. I really like the Zone, the concentration mode that when you emerge you get to step back and see exactly what Mr. Hyde happen been working on. Feel? Well, I feel nothing in the Zone. If all is going well, I feel nothing in the Zone. Exciting Pressure? It might be called that....I guess I dont know...NEXT!

THIT stage

When was That Moment in your life that told you you would become what you are? What happened?
I am constantly oblivious. Only in retrospect to I usually realize what big "life trends" like that mean. I really didn't even know you could go to school for Art until halfway through my undergraduate degree. If I'm not having to make money to pay the bills, sleeping, or doing some sort of simple math, I am prolly making something or thinking about making something. It not usually a very intellectual process nor is it a strenuous one, nor does it happen always the same way...been little baby steppers towards a product and hopefully that one inspires another one and so on....Let me think a little more, but I really don't think I have a "Moment." Lots of little ones...

How has your life changed or not changed to accommodate that moment's effect on you?
Well, I slowly started living in buildings and homes that have less of a focus on comfortable living space (kitchens, beds, couches, cable tv, reliable gas/heat/electricity/water, etc.) into spaces that accommodate a larger range of projects (i.e. trailers, warehouses, tarp houses, garages, etc.) And also, learning to live on a fluctuating and low income (bartering, recycling, simplifying, etc.).

How has your work affected your life in return?
Well, I have only lived once that I remember (sometimes) so the only other way to answer would be to compare my life to someone else's life and I feel that to be a dangerous and weak argument. I am happy when work is going well and I am frustrated and annoying when work is going bad. Mostly happy though. HAPPY!

Does David Lee Roth affect who you are? If so, how?
I respect the man's taste in fashion. If he is a sex symbol (is he?) that is heralded by heterosexual women and he will choose to wear say, a woman's one-piece bathing suit, wear his hair like a WWF skydiving instructor, and paint his face like a sun-burned Avon lady then, shit, man.....Now that I think about it he has inspired me a lot!

Do you have anything you'd like to ask me?
That "Moment" question really got me......can you answer that one for yourself? I would like to hear that....and then when you are done could you answer it for me?
When I was 15 I was listening The Clash London Calling for the first time ever through walkman headphones and when the first bars of that song came on, I looked up at the sky which was perfectly blue with Octobery colors drifting all around and I thought "YES" just like that in big large letters and felt whole and thrilled by it.

HILARIOUS MARK STUFF:
www.goatmother.com
goatmother.blogspot.com

HEIGHT: The Hairy Life

2009-11-04T18:29:00.000-05:00

Height with Friends. l-r: Jones, PT Burnem, Heightman, Mickey Free, King Rhythm, Emily Slaughter

Height, AKA Dan Keach, is Baltimore's gentle forest creature of rap music. While offstage he is placid in demeanor, retiring and often almost camouflaged (an amazing feat considering his formidable stature), Height's performances highlight his intense and imposing presence. Sometimes downright spooky. Like the peers and co-conspirators of his Friends, Height's wordplay is magnetic and his ear for tracks is sharpened and tuneful. If it can be said that there exists a Baltimore County Native Hip-Hop style, Heightman then would rest amongst its innovators.

What do you do? What are you doing the most lately?
I rap in Height With Friends. We just finished up our new record, and we're trying to find a good home for it. We just released a free remix album at auralstates.com, and we're dropping the first in a series of free EP's on November 17th. I'm also getting ready to play a lot of shows.

How long have you done these things?
I've rapped since middle school, but the first Height record came out in 2000.

Why do you do them? How does it make you feel?
I've never been able to figure out why I feel the need to do all this stuff... My biggest hang-up is that I feel this obligation to be a helpful member of society, and I doubt that making up songs about my feelings is the best way to contribute. However, deep down, I know this is the one thing on earth that makes me feel okay, and that you have to do the things that you have to do. To sum things up, I guess I couldn't really live with myself if I didn't try to do this thing that's obviously important to me.

I can't claim that making music makes me feel one particular way. It's really the only thing I do besides work, so it's just my life, which has a whole spectrum of experiences.

When was That Moment in your life that told you you would become what you are? What happened?
My moment was when I started rolling heavy with my pal Mickey Freeland.We had hung out a little in second grade, but we met again in art class in sixth grade, and I thought he was the funniest person on earth. He would talk about music and movies with a crazy excitement that was totally foreign to me, and he was kind of like an adult in some ways. Him and his brother Chris introduced me to the whole world of artistic/creative things, and I helped show these things to other cool dudes, like Shields and Jones.

The kids I had been around before didn't seem to really have any thoughts about music or the things going on around them, except like "Metallica rules," or "fuck it." I was never able to play the role of a degenerate kid, but I wouldn't have had the vision to know I wanted to do music at a young age if I didn't know Mic.

How has your life changed or not changed to accommodate that moment's effect on you?
It wasn't like that. It's been an uphill battle.

l - r: Mickey Freeland, Height, Emily Slaughter

What do you mean by "uphill battle"?
I feel like I've been running in place or something. I'd like to try to make this into some kind of career, but the pieces don't ever seem to come together. I put out a lot of records, but they seem to get lost in the shuffle. I've toured a ton, but I haven't built up much of a fan-base. I don't want to bitch and moan, because I'm so grateful towards the people that do care about what I'm doing. I consider myself so lucky for knowing the people that I've met through music, and for the experiences I've had, but an uphill battle is what it's been.

I will say that things are coming together in some ways. The new Height With Friends live set is fire. I can feel that our set is gaining the interest of people who may have dismissed us in the past. It's something that's been slowly coming together over years of playing to all kinds of audiences all over the country. It was shaped and pushed forward by many people who have toured as a part of my set over the years. Our forthcoming full-length is another encouraging thing. It's our best record, and I can't help but think it will help us get somewhere new.

How has your work affected your life in return?
My work has made my life pretty hairy. I feel like I neglect every other aspect of my life, because I'm so focused on doing all I can with music, while I'm able to do it. It doesn't really matter though, because this work leads to my life being filled with the kind of things I wish to experience.

What does David Lee Roth mean to you?
I never really felt Van Halen, but I have more respect for him than I do for people who are just screwing around in life. He changed the game, plus he killed it by being an EMT in the Bronx.

HEIGHT Discography

(Self-Titled)-2000
I Have A Gun-2003
Utility Fog-2006
Winterize The Game-2007
Utility Fog 2- 2007
Utility Fog 3-2008
Castle Raps-2008
Baltimore Highlands-2009
Utility Fog 4-2009
Baltimore Highlands Remix Album-2009

photos courtesy Height

www.myspace.com/height
heightwithfriends.blogspot.com

What, This Old Pyramid?

2009-11-02T17:10:00.000-05:00

DIRTY PROJECTORS ca. 2005
Boring MD Memorial Day party pitstop on DP's "Getty Address" tour. In the blue is Sam Garner, 2nd row l - r is Annelie, Emily (VUK), James Sumner (who made the amazing Getty Address videos), bottom row l - r is dude who's name escapes me, Dave Longstreth in his Rollins-wear period, me, Nat Baldwin and then standing well I forgot his name, but he was the Getty Address tour drummer.

LEXIE MOUNTAIN BOYS GOLD TOUR 2006

In Brooklyn at the Bagel Shop with GROWING. Left to right, top to bottom: LM, Kevin Doria, Joe Denardo, Katherine Hill, Amy Waller, Sam Garner. OK so not an official pyramid happening but it counts as we are pyramid-shaped in our aggregation.

In Boston at Eric Shaw's house. Backyard bonfire.
Top to bottom left to right: Katherine & Amy Harmon flanking Koko, Sam Garner, Amy Waller, Red Hunter, LM, Geoff Graham.
"Sleeveless" Geoff, Jana Hunter's current bassist, is now in Antarctica with Cricket Arrison, whose blog about the experience is now happening in a major way:
http://iciest.wordpress.com/

In Montreal at Le Divan Orange.
T-B, L-R: Amy Waller, Amy Harmon, Katherine Hill, Sam Garner, SIMON!!, LM

BROOK SEITINSONS' BACKYARD, ca. 2006
God help me I don't know the names of a single person in this picture other than myself. Please feel free to let me know if anyone here is you.