The Bad Dads show was wildly successful and the 3rd installment of the trademark exhibit is scheduled to take place later this year.  With the aid of consistently impressive themed group exhibits, such as the Quentin VS Coen series, Spoke-Art has continued to establish themselves as one of the top underground contemporary/pop-art galleries on the West Coast.  Not only has Timothy Doyle been along for the ride but, with his -typically multiple- contributions to these shows, he’s remained one of the major contributing factors to Spoke-Art‘s success.  Nakatomi has found continued success in it’s own right and Doyle‘s art has continued to pop-up in such places as Gallery 1988 and on poster work for the infamous Alamo Drafthouse.  Still, for whatever reason, we’ve yet to really see Tim shine in a full-on show of his own.  Now, as with Serge Gay Jr. before him, Spoke-Art is honoring one of the artists who’ve helped them to become what they are today, by playing host to Tim Doyle‘s very first solo art exhibit.

For “Unreal Estate“, the printmaker has chosen to direct his focus towards the many destinations and landmarks that we, as a television viewing society, have only ever been able to visit on the small screen.  By doing so and providing a more “realistic” take on many of these environments (Sesame St., Arlen Texas, Springfield… somewhere), an unspoken conversation is created about where the lines of reality and personal truth truly begin and end.  Is the relation to and histories that we have with these pseudo-fictional locations any less authentic than the ones that we visit or pass through without any personal attachment or acknowledgement in our every day lives, or could they be even more authentic than any of them?  By creating art that imitates reality, when the reality that’s being imitated is art and the imitation is more reality-based, it not only makes for me typing this ridiculously confusing sentence that you’re currently reading, but it also provides the potential for Doyle‘s solo exhibit to turn the magnifying glass back on pop-culture and plead a case for it’s continued relevancy as a muse in the contemporary art world.  More than just an excuse to do something like paint cool pictures of action figures, “Unreal Estate” reminds us that, regardless of how much corporate marketing or product branding lifts their metaphorical legs to drip their pungent territorial markings over every square inch of our living environments, something tangible and meaningful can permeate through the cracks and become very dear to our identities as individuals, even forming bonds on a communal level.  In the end, whether it’s intentional or not might not even matter.

ADMISSION IS FREE!

Here’s the lowdown…

DETAILS:

What:
Tim Doyle’s “Unreal Estate”

When:
Thursday February 2nd 6pm-10pm (opening night)

Where:
Spoke Art Gallery -
816 Sutter Street, San Francisco CA 94109

Website:
http://www.spoke-art.com

Show will be on view through Thursday February 23, 2012

As an added bonus, the artist will be in attendance for the opening and we are happy to announce that the first 100 guests will receive a complimentary limited edition screen print.

RSVP here – http://www.facebook.com/events/233654490049532/

From my own personal experience, artist statements have historically been “the worst.”  Far too often, they seem to be nothing more than an opportunity for someone to try to convince you of their greatness and relevance that, if authentic, should already be obvious in their work.  Contrived little write-ups, they offer a forum for some pretentious goon to explain how they are providing you with perspectives that come deep from within their haunted souls; perspectives that are unique to them as extraordinary beings.  Perspectives that are important to the world and perspectives that you could have never witnessed or experienced without them.  Rarely passionate, they instead focus on ideas of passion and result in little more than far-reaching claims and pleas for acknowledgement.  Generally, I hate artist statements, because it’s far too rare that I actually feel that the artist is trying to actually connect with the reader and it’s far too rare that you can actually sense their passion or reason for creating anything.  It’s about talking over your head.  It’s about a need for a pat on the back and not passion for the topic or subject matter, but for their own egos.  The following artist statement shatters that mold and, because it reads as genuine, honest, and unpretentious, we’ve chosen to go ahead and post it this time and allow Tim Doyle to tell his own story about what the exhibit is all about.

Artist Statement

“Unreal Estate” by Tim Doyle

Last June, after the opening reception to the Quentin versus Coen show in San Francisco, the founder of Spoke Art, Ken Harman, invited me to have a solo show at his gallery later that year.  I was immediately flattered- and then the fear set in. If it’s just me, not only was I looking at months of work in secret- but the success or failure of the Gallery that month was up to my ability to create and be clever.

I initially was going to do a very diverse show with a bunch of unconnected works, essentially throwing the visual parts of my brain up on the wall and hoping people liked what they saw.  But after talking to Ken for a while, he seized on a couple of ideas I had and did what a good gallery owner should do- focus his artist.  This is the show that came of that.

“Unreal Estate” is a collection of locations that many of us know and have been to on a weekly basis at times, but we can never actually visit. These places are in our memories- transmitted and entrenched there through a cathode-ray tube.  Some of us have been going to these places for decades- some of these places were taken from us, way too soon..

It’s weird to think about a pop-art solo exhibition as an intensely personal show, but I’ll do my best to explain it here.  Over the summer as I was preparing for this show, I did some research on “All In the Family” (a print I hope to get to in the future) and how the exterior shot of the house was a real place given the fictional address of 704 Hauser St, in Queens. Surprisingly- in the early 90′s, “All In the Family” creator Norman Lear had a show called “704 Hauser” featuring a new family living in the same house, occupying the same fictional location.  Reading about that was an odd revelation to me.  See- I always felt like “All in the Family” was like a televised echo of my maternal Grandparents in a way- an East coast blue collar family living in a row-home, a loveable but gruff father figure, a loving if slightly crazed mother- all dealing with a world that was changing rapidly around them. It’s not a perfect fit, but the themes were there- the show FELT like a visit to my Grandparents, if that makes sense.  Last Summer I had driven by their old house in Delaware for the first time since my Grandfather’s funeral in 2001-ten years had passed, and it was a heady mix of emotions seeing the house still there, but now occupied by strangers.

Also, that summer I read the news that “The Simpsons” might be ending over a labor dispute, and found myself strangely affected by that probability. (I sided with the talent, obviously.) I had been there in the late 80′s watching their proto-versions on The Tracy Ullman Show and when they finally got their own program, my family and I made our weekly pilgrimage to Springfield.

The thought that the show might be leaving us, considering that I had spent more of my life watching Simpsons than NOT at this point, was a big deal. I thought of Springfield’s more famous locations- how all of us (in the western world, at least) know where to get a Squishy, grab a Flaming Moe, or remember when Jebediah Springfield lost his head.  And I realized these completely fictional physical landmarks of television shows are a kind of cultural geography.  A shared mental construct that we all participate in- and like actual buildings they will one day be torn down, their time-slots paved over, or we will maybe find new people living in those exact same addresses.

So this was the ooze of pop-culture and melancholy that I had kicking around in my head when I dove into this art show.  Artistically, I wanted to move away from what my audience would normally expect from me- big bold colors and a comic-book line quality.  I wanted to do these pieces in a more brushy, illustrative style, with more muted tones and colors that reflect a mood or time of day. My tried and true 4-color pop of past prints like ‘The King of Crabs‘ was going to have to take a back seat while I try something newish.  I wanted these to look more like my Ghostbusters “Ready to Believe You” or the American Werewolf in London “Stay off the Moors” prints did.  It was a style I really like working in, but is definitely more time consuming than my normal deadlines allow.  The lead in time I had for this show afforded me the luxury to experiment more with my style.

“Night over the SNPP”

16×20, Signed and numbered edition of 100.

The first three prints I created for the show were all inspired by The Simpsons- I knew I had to kick them out of my head up front and move on, as The Simpsons could very easily dominate the entire exhibit if I let it. I purposefully set these three images at night or sunset to force the color scheme away from the pastel and neon palette of the show.

I remember my Dallas-suburb Middle School placing a ban on Simpsons t-shirts in the late 80′s, as the show was considered a bad influence, and Bart an animated public-enemy #1. Now, the show is an American monument- a purple and green and yellow Mt. Rushmore in time and celluloid. The Simpsons is probably one of our most enduring exports- it’d be hard to go to a country on the globe where the characters aren’t recognized. Even in 1992 my young mind knew how out of touch the then-campaigning George Bush Sr. was when he said that Americans “…needed to be closer to the Waltons than the Simpsons.” He lost that election to the more media savvy Bill Clinton- pop culture affecting Presidential politics. Mr. Plow predating Joe the Plumber.

“Amanda Hugginkiss”

16×20. Signed and numbered edition of 100.

This one is my favorite of the bunch- the blue to pink split fountain echoing the setting sun.

The problem with starting a series like this is that you might write up a list of all the pieces you want to do, but once you’ve got a few images in, you’ve already thought of a whole list of brand new images you want to do first and the original ‘sacred cows’ you wanted to hit get bumped further and further down. (All In the Family is a casualty of this process.) This two part print of America’s favorite street is one of the ones that popped up and refused to wait it’s turn.

“10 cents gets you nuts”

18×24 signed and numbered edition of 100.

Next up, I went a little bit more contemporary with the Bluth Banana stand. This show wormed it’s way into me post-cancellation, I’m embarrassed to say. But I’d guess that’s the case with the vast majority of AD‘s fans today. As I was working on this print, the news broke that Arrested Development was in fact coming BACK to television, albeit through the subscription service Netflix, and later into theaters in a long-rumored film. This is fantastic news- and what I believe is a first for network TV- the internet spoke as a collective and WILLED this show back into production. This isn’t the case of some stiff in a suit saying “You know what was popular? 90210. Let’s do that again, even though no-one ever asked for it.” The only reason Dallas is back on the air is because people recognize it as a BRAND, not as a show anyone was dying for more of. But this is something…else. We weren’t done with the Bluths, and we demanded a family reunion. And we’re getting it. Now, who wants to start a Kickstarter to get Firefly back? The internet has spoken.

“The Big Salad”

18×24, signed and numbered edition of 100.

I don’t think there’s been a show as socially changing as Seinfeld, at least not for my generation. It had a cultural ubiquity that hasn’t been found since. The diversification of media and the multiplication of viewing options that cable afforded after this show took it’s bow pretty much guaranteed that. I believe it was truly the last great hurrah of the network comedy. I’m reminded of a quote from Alec Baldwin’s Jack character from 30Rock, where the show’s version of NBC’s business strategy was to “make it 1997 again through science or magic.” That ship has sailed, though- for if there was any justice in the world, Curb Your Enthusiasm would be just as popular as Seinfeld ever was. Seinfeld’s crowning achievement, I think, was to bring neurotic, New York Jewish comedy to middle America- something that not even the great Woody Allen was able to. It was a sit-com that injected stand-up culture into the living room in a way that Carson and Letterman couldn’t. Seinfeld was a comedy about the small things, waiting in line, ordering soup, licking an envelope- the narrative stuff that stand-up is made of. I would say the brilliant Louis C.K.’s Louie is Seinfeld’s direct descendant, with it’s seemingly free-form episode structure and stand-up framing device. While Seinfeld’s main competitor in the show’s early years was the overly sentimental and catch-phrase heavy Tim Allen vehicle, Home Improvement- in a few seasons Seinfeld would become a dominant cultural force and Home Improvement merely a footnote. The show made meanness funny, and all other shows seem tame in comparison. The ‘cool’ kids watched Seinfeld. The normal kids watched banal crap like Full House and Perfect Strangers. (I have to admit to watching both shows in my youth.) My group of friends was glued to Seinfeld every week, and it was all we talked about over lunch in the school cafeteria the following day. I don’t know how many inane conversations I had to endure of people trying to force a group of friends into the roles of the principals on the show. Consensus always made me come out as George- but at least no-one in my group was trying to figure out who was Chandler and who was Monica. I would have murdered everyone involved in that discussion. Even the language of the show entered common usage like a virus- if I say “Master of my Domain” you know what I’m talking about, regardless of whether you’ve see that episode or not. I could go on endlessly about the show, but this is an article about an art show about television. So-

For a show based almost completely around interior locales, there is one stand-out exterior shot in Seinfeld- the restaurant. Unlike the other prints in this series, the restaurant is an actual location you can visit and touch- reality and fiction intertwined. While the diner is called ‘Monks’ in the show, it is in fact Tom’s Diner (of the Susanne Vega song) on 2880 Broadway in New York. Fun fact I learned while researching this print is that the exterior of the actual diner in no way matches up with the set that was built in LA.

“Unreal Estate” opens up on February 2nd at the Spoke Art gallery on 816 Sutter St in San Francisco. Prints unsold at the opening will be available online the day after.

Thank you for reading this admittedly rambling run-down of the show.

-Tim Doyle

Here are some sketches/detail images of the same select sample images featured above…
[click images to enlarge]

In the world of electronic music, Kieran Hebden (aka: Four Tet) is one of the good ones.  Timeless, incredibly consistent, and impervious to trends, it’s always worth looking into anything new that is released with the Four Tet name stamped onto it.  Highly respected as an innovator in his field since the late 1990s, albums like 2001‘s PAUSE -his breakthrough sophomore release under the Four Tet moniker- showcased Hedben‘s continued reimagining of the genre through the incorporation of acoustic instrumentation and such unorthodox samples as clicking typewriter keys.  It also resulted in the media pinning Hebden as the posterboy for another catchphrase movement that was being referred to as “Folktronica.”  A decade later, he is still the one to watch.  Even when the musician/producer isn’t releasing his own solo material or working with Fridge (his pre-Four Tet post-rock outfit) he’s remixing music by everyone from Aphex Twin, Madvillain, and Battles to Beth Orton, Explosions in the Sky, and Black Sabbath, or collaborating with the likes of Burial and Thom Yorke.

His latest work, “MOMA” [posted below] is an exclusive track created for an upcoming Japan benefit compilation curated by Blonde Redhead‘s Kazu Makino.

Titled, We Are the Works In Progress, the album was not only compiled in benefit of Makino‘s homeland of Japan, but it features one of the most impressive lists of talents that I ever remember seeing on any compilation; benefit or otherwise.  Along with Four Tet’s lead off track, other compilation-exclusive tracks have been donated by artists like Deerhunter, John Maus, and Nosaj Thing.  There’s even an appearance by experimental minimalist composer/legend Terry Riley, who offers up an exclusive complete reworking of one of his older 1970s tracks.  Many Westerners may have already forgotten about the horrendous tragedies that struck Japan earlier in the year, but there is still an endless amount of post-tsunami aid that needs to be given to the country and purchasing an incredible album that you should probably be picking up anyway is a great way to do it.  The fact that all profits will be going directly to Japan relief is only a tremendous bonus.

The album is 14 tracks deep and will be released in both digital and double vinyl formats January 10th 2012.

Pre-order the vinyl through THIS LINK.

Here are the complete details (via the press release):

WE ARE THE WORKS IN PROGRESS is a 14-song benefit album to support Japan and it’s ongoing efforts to heal post-tsunami. Born in Kyoto Japan, Kazu Makino wanted to help her homeland and turned to her friends and colleagues to ask that they donate tracks for the album. The response was unbelievable, and Kazu has collected an amazingly cohesive group of songs.

The album is the first release on the Asa Wa Kuru label, which Blonde Redhead created together for this album. It is Japanese for “Morning Will Come”.

Proceeds from the album will initially go to Japan Society and Architecture For Humanity, and more will be added. It’s important to Kazu to add additional charities as the situation keeps developing and worsening, and people’s needs keep changing. Her hope is that they can work with agencies that also help changing the way we live and think and help us become less reliant on nuclear power.

Kazu writes: This album contains exclusive material by artists that I admire. It took a while to make it this way, but it was worth the wait. We wanted it to be something special – something you don’t normally put on and album, and therefore many of these tracks are works in progress….hence the name. They are ideas that we became very attached to…versions of music that aren’t right for release, but ones that we love. Unfinished things often carry more energy….the possibility of it eventually becoming something great is infinite without having to be quite yet. I’ve noticed that each songs relates to one another. Like my friend Scott Mou said, “it sounds like each song is passing a baton to the next one”. I feel the same way.

TRACK LISTING

1. MOMA – FOUR TET exclusive

2. NO FACE – KARIN DREIJER ANDERSSON Fever Ray/The Knife, exclusive

3. G SONG – TERRY RILEY exclusive reworking of a song from the 70s by Terry himself, including new vocals

4. NIGHTCRAWLER – NOSAJ THING exclusive

5. BERCEUSE – JOHN ROBERTS exclusive

6. PENNY SPARKLE – BLONDE REDHEAD Drew Brown exclusive remix of album track

7. BIRD ON A WIRE – PANTHA DU PRINCE exclusive

8. IN HERE THE WORLD BEGINS – BROADCAST re-release of a tour vinyl-only track

9. DRIP – LIARS/BLONDE REDHEAD previously released track remixed by Blonde Redhead

10. CURVE – DEERHUNTER exclusive

11. STALAGMITE – STALACTITE Susumu Mukai of Zongamin + Drew Brown, exclusive

12. CASTLES IN THE GRAVE – JOHN MAUS exclusive

13. BAMBOO HOUSE – DAVID SYLVIAN/RYUICHI SAKAMOTO previously released

14. SONG SEVEN - INTERPOL previously released b-side

Prior to October of last year, we had never even heard the name Serge Gay Jr.  Since then, we’ve conducted/published an interview (March ’11) with the artist here on the site and I’ve personally purchased 2 of his works (an original piece and a giclee print).  The last year has shown itself to be quite successful for Gay, finding him earning a Grammy nomination -shared with director/frequent collaborator, Matt Stawski- for his work on Cee Lo Green‘s “Fuck You” video.  As the Bay Area gallery/publishing house, Spoke Art was launching themselves into the art world with their breakthrough Wes Anderson-themed art show, Bad Dads, Serge was catching our attention with his standout contributions to that exhibit.  Since then, Gay and Spoke Art have proven to be mutually beneficial to each others success, as the San Francisco-based painter has continued to submit impressive piece after impressive piece to such Spoke Art events as the multiple round (NYC, SF, LA) “Quentin vs. Coen – An art show tribute to the films of Tarantino and the Brothers,” the Pangaea Seed-curated shark exhibit/benefit “Sink Or Swim,” and  “Bad Dads II.”  This Saturday, the two of them will work together yet again; this time with Serge Gay Jr‘s work finally taking center stage in a solo exhibit of his own.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Not unlike the Haitian-born artist that paints them, Serge‘s work is multifaceted.  His strokes seem as carefree and fluid as flowing water, but the imagery is still incredibly bold an defined.  There are clearly political elements and the pieces can be fueled with plenty of social commentary, but, miraculously enough, they never feel heavy handed.  Some of the figures possess comic-like characteristics while, simultaneously, displaying a remarkable realism.  The subjects pronounce themselves, breaking outward from their framework and accentuating the depth that unfolds in the background.  Transparent ghostlike figures, objects, and text provide narration, breathing life and spirit into the work, providing interplay for the more solid and static figures and objects within it.  The compositions are undoubtedly engaging, but they still retain a high level of ambiguity in their interpretation.  There is nothing flat about the worlds created in Serge‘s paintings.  They possess a cinematic quality in relation to the way that they operate within time.  Sometimes it’s a CSI freeze frame  and the aftermath of a grimy hotel room.  Maybe it’s a slowly stirring clutter of figures.  Other times, it’s an airy surrealistic landscape that’s more cotton candy than concrete.  Their motion can be both stone and erosion… dust and wind.  The figures don’t always move at the same rate or even seem to appear on the same plain, toying with depth and compartmentalization like a diorama.

The subject matter is extremely personal, but maintains a universality.  This is most likely due to the many different defining aspects of Gay Jr‘s personality, as well as in spite of them.  He paints imagery relating to his birthplace in Haiti, as well as architecture and life that is clearly influenced by his current home in San Francisco.  Gender identity, racial identity, global destruction, personal morality… all of these things are addressed, but they don’t seem to create a conflict with Serge as an artist or seem out of place when grouped together in one singular presentation.  As a young artist, he has already managed to avoid the pitfalls that can be faced by the many who choose to limit and define themselves by any one of these particular subjects alone.  Serge is a black artist, who isn’t afraid to address some Afro-centric subject matter, but he’s more than that.  He’s more than a civil rights activist or a San Franciscan, a Haitian, a music enthusiast, a painter… any of those things.  He’s a human being, who’s aware of each of the components that make him a 3-dimensional personality and that’s why his imagery becomes so emotionally soluble.  Whether you’re a black artist, or an Asian artist, a gay artist, a female, an environmentalist,  or a political activist, it doesn’t matter, because if you continue to define yourself or your art by nothing else beyond that one singular aspect, while never broadening the interpretation of that experience, but expecting others to view you or your subject matter as something more than that, it’s unlikely that you or your art will ever present itself as anything more than the stale one-dimensional caricature that you’re trying to avoid.  Serge‘s solo exhibit -titled “Absolute Happiness“- is a great opportunity to finally catch a larger collection of the artists work in one place and to obtain a more well-rounded idea about his voice, what he’s capable of, and why he’s an artist worth watching as he develops throughout the future.

Here’s what Serge Gay Jr. told us, regarding the theme behind Absolute Happiness:

“The theme of the show is called “Absolute Happiness” because I wanted to showcase what the meaning of happiness is to me in all it’s different juxtapositions and trying to search for true happiness. Some people often define happiness as “living a good life” but to me it’s simply defined as an emotion as well as the little things in life when you can’t have it all. Not everyone is born with concept of “mental state of well-being”, but I’ve learned we can learn how to bring more meaning and satisfaction into our lives with what we have, to bring joy. For those, there are no absolute, and for some, it’s a never-ending quest. So I wanted to create a series that invites viewers through my eyes on this quest and most private journey ride to my very surreal, dream-like mind. Similar to a diary, my Art does tell a story of my everyday life of experiencing if it deals with tragic, love, lost, views, politics, travels, friendship, and happiness. As I create this surrealist expression movement that opens philosophical minds and understand my own social theories, I welcome viewers to see a world that I found out to be very unreal in all its complexities. In the end, you still have to go back to the root of it all and find what makes you happy.“

The opening reception for Absolute Happines” will take place at the Spoke Art gallery in SF from 6pm-11pm and will run until the end of the year.  Beyond the obvious reasons to attend the art opening in person, we’ve recently received the following information which pertains to an added benefit…

Opening Night Raffle

As an added bonus for attendees at this Saturday night’s opening, Serge Gay Jr. has generously decided to give away the above-featured painting, “Aperitif” during the night.

Spoke Art will be hosting a raffle for the original work, tickets will be $5 each, and 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the non-profit organization, Hand in Hand for Haiti. A small selection of signed and numbered prints will also be given away to raffle ticket donors.

More info on the organization here:
http://handinhandforhaiti.com/index.html

ADMISSION IS FREE!

Here’s the lowdown…

DETAILS:

What:

“Absolute Happiness”: Solo Show by Serge Gay Jr.

When:

Opening:
Saturday December 3th: 6pm – 10pm

*Show on view until December 31st*

Where:

SPOKE ART
816 Sutter St.
San Francisco, CA 94109

LINKS:

Serge Gay Jr: http://sergegayjrart.wordpress.com/
Spoke Art: http://spoke-art.com/
Facebook Event Page: http://www.facebook.com/events/272075719495243/

The following is a small selection of advanced images from the upcoming exhibit.

[CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE]

Brick by Falling Brick

36″ x 48″

One Third

16″ x 20″

Joe Blow

16″ x 20″

Over Flow

18″ x 36″

Gold Fishs

6″ x 8″ each

Color Me Black

20″ x 24″

EL-P (aka: Jaime “El Producto” Meline) is, arguably, one of the most important hip-hop producers of all time.  I use the term “arguably” because, I’m personally willing to argue that fact, if anyone really wants to get into it.  In the 90s, Meline started the highly influential rap crew Company Flow and released the doom-laden classic Funcrusher Plus (an extended version of their independently produced Funcrusher ep), the very first album ever put out by the then-upstart “underground” rap label RAWKUS Records.  Eventually, EL-P told RAWKUS to eat a dick and bounced, opting to form Definitive Jux, with the intention of maintaining an artist friendly label, helping to develop the artists’ careers while making sure that they received both the credit and monetary compensation that they were owed (something that he didn’t feel was happening with RAWKUS).  Using DEF JUX, EL-P went on to help make household names out of artists like AESOP ROCK and RJD2, while releasing 2 remarkable and highly innovative solo albums of his own.

A little over a year and a half ago, we posted an article which included a statement from EL-P announcing his intention to officially and indefinitely place Def Jux on hiatus.  Part of his main reasoning behind the decision was to focus on becoming an artist again, because all of the time and effort put into producing albums for others and running a label was beginning to interfere with his abilities to do so effectively.  The silver lining for Def Jux fans is that EL-P has been making good on that promise.  Since the announcement, Company Flow has reunited to perform Funcrusher Plus in it’s entirely for ATP in London (plus, a few other select dates),  Producto has released another mixtape, and even produced and/or appeared on tracks for artists like Killer Mike and Das Racist.  Seeing as the rapper/producer hadn’t released a proper solo album since 2007‘s I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, the main question for a lot of us was when that was gonna happen.  That answer came back in August with the news that EL-P had signed to Fat Possum records for a 2012 full-length titled Cancer for Cure, and the free download of the sample track, “Drones Over Bklyn.“  Now a remix of Drones has arrived with an extremely well-known and recognizable sample; one that Meline never bothered to disguise in the slightest.  What’s more is that he’s actually openly selling it -albeit for for charity (Mr. Dibbs hopital fees)- without ever getting the sample cleared and, thanks to a new service known as LEGITMIX, he may not even have to.

This new remix, “RUSH Over Bklyn“, features a very blatant sample of the Rush classic “Tom Sawyer“.  That alone is a fascinating concept, because EL-P is known for digging pretty deep to pull out/use samples by more obscure artists like 1960s cult psych phenoms, Silver Apples and early electronic pioneer Raymond Scott.  There’s something refreshing about hearing him take such a classic sample of a rock epic as famous as “Tom Sawyer“, especially since it seems like one of the last songs that someone would be able to easily get cleared for use.  “RUSH Over Bklyn” is a great reminder that, if you’re good at what you do, it doesn’t matter if you use what would seem like an, otherwise lazy sample.  Producto uses a fairly straight ahead approach with the remix by swiping the infamous phaser blast intro outright and lyrically stomping across it, while still magically making it his own.

Obviously, sampling an already legendary track for a rap song isn’t the most revolutionary concept.  The groundbreaking aspect comes with the fact that, although LEGITMIX isn’t an entirely new process, no one’s really been willing to test out the copyright laws and use it in this manner; chopping up an uncleared track like this and then immediately trying to turn around and sell it.  Up until now, songs that have been created with “borrowed” material like this have been doomed to limited distribution -if any, at all- made solely to be spread amongst friends or for free mixtape downloads.  The LEGITMIX mission statement and software approach the idea of sampling and copyright laws from a really unique direction, more or less, circumventing the system and the need for clearance on copywritten audio material.  This is great but, until their ideas are actually put into practice, it’s little more than a theory and no one has been willing to step in as the guinea pig.  That’s where EL-P comes in.  And if he’s gonna test out the legality of swiping a samples, he might as well go really big and use one of the most famous rock songs of all time.  In fact, he goes so far as to unabashedly chop up Geddy Lee‘s vocals right into the song, as well.  Sure, it seems like a ballsy move, because… how can this actually be legal?

Here’s how LEGITMIX describes both the use of their service/software and how it works with EL-P and this particular project”

“When a consumer purchases “Rush Over Bkyln”, the browser-based Legitmix software searches their computer for the “Tom Sawyer” track. If they don’t have it they can purchase it from Legitmix or any online music store. With a few mouse clicks, the Legitmix software recreates on the binary level “Rush Over Bklyn” on the consumer’s computer using their copy of “Tom Sawyer”. The price of “Rush Over Bklyn is $0.70 plus the retail cost of the “Tom Sawyer” track (if the consumer doesn’t have it).“

as well, as…

“Normally, “Rush Over Bklyn” would have been leaked on the Internet or left on some dusty hard drive. Now with Legitmix, El-p can sell his creative work and generate new sales for Rush. For this pioneering releasing, El-p has chosen to help out a friend in need and is donating all proceeds from the sale of “Rush Over Bklyn” to a fund established for the legendary DJ/producer Brad Forste aka DJ MR DIBBS who is battling liver disease. As hospital bills rise, El-P and Legitmix hope to relieve the burden of family and friends that a half a million-dollar debt can produce.“

So… basically, as I understand it, you’re not technically buying a song with a sample of RUSH‘s music in it.  Instead, you’re actually just purchasing the ingredients or framework around the sample, minus the sample.  From there, the song is being generated on your computer by using a copy of the sampled song that you already own with the LEGITIMIX software, as it incorporates and processes the corresponding segments into that framework to create the same finished product of the song that you want which is featuring that sample.  The reason that RUSH, or any other band being sampled, would benefit financially from this, is because, if you do not already have that sample of their track, you’ll need to purchase the song from the artist, so that it exists on your computer and can be siphoned and mixed by the LEGITIMIX software.  The software just takes what it needs from the copyrighted songs that you already own in your digital library to fill in the necessary samples to recreate the tracks with your own computer.  It’s a lot like that Eighties movie KidCo, where the kids create a highly successful company selling manure and, after their corporate rivals try to get them audited by the IRS, they win the case by convincing the courts that they shouldn’t have to pay taxes for the feed that their parents already purchased and paid taxes on, all over again, just because it’s been processed through the excretion of the horses they own.  In this case, your copy of “Tom Sawyer” is the feed and the LEGITIMIX software is the horse’s digestive system.  At least, that’s what I’m gathering from reading these explanations.  This is a concept that could only ever work in the present digital music-based age that we live in.

With “RUSH Over Bklyn,” EL-P and LEGITIMIX are setting a precedent and could be signaling a huge shift in the manner in which sampling and music copyright laws operate.  By formatting the system in a manner which the sampled artists themselves are making money, this could pose a win win situation for all parties involved.  Of course, it’s only a matter of time before someone does something like sample a hardcore Christian artist with the intention of creating a demonic, beastiality, murder ballad to insult and offend them with the use of their own music (feel free to use that one.)

We encourage everyone to listen to the track below and then to go purchase it from the link which will be provided below.  Not only will this show support for the LEGITIMIX project as a whole, but all of the proceeds will go directly to help with the medical bills accrued by Meline‘s friend/fellow-producer Brad Forste (aka: MR. DIBBS).

Here’s what EL-P, himself, has to say about his participation in the project:

“I did this because I think it’s an interesting idea and approach to the sample clearance issue. Most importantly I hope this raises awareness and money for my good friend, collaborator and hip hop legend Brad Forste aka DJ MR DIBBS. He is suffering from cirrhosis of the liver and (like so many of us) uninsured. He has racked up almost a half a mil in hospital bills after just one month, and he needs help. All proceeds from this song go to him.“

Check out “RUSH Over BKLYN” below.

To purchase the track and help out MR.DIBBS, please use THIS LINK.

DONATE TO PAYITFORWARD2MRDIBBS

http://www.facebook.com/pages/PayItForward2MrDibbs/231083543618198

To donate with PayPal click “Send Money” and the email address: hellkitchen@netzero.com. The email address belongs to Kristin Rose. She is Mr. Dibbs’ wife. For those who don’t use PayPal you can send a mail check or money order payable to Kristin Rose. Address envelope to: Brad Forste 4830 Poplar St Cincinnati, OH 45212

When I was growing up in the 1980s, it was nearly impossible to think about sharks without thinking of the movie JAWS.  Although the original film was actually released in 1975 -the first 80s sequel wasn’t until JAWS 3D (1983)- it was such a groundbreaking cinematic accomplishment and it permeated our culture to such a degree that it was difficult to see imagery of a shark swimming without instantly hearing that infamous John Williams tune doom-thumping through your skull.  JAWS helped launch Spielberg‘s career and has even been credited as the father of the summer blockbuster.  The film transcended the horror movie genre in such a way that the idea of a killer monster shark not only felt like a plausible storyline, but it also felt as it were a real life inevitability.  Those of us who were not marine biologists -especially, those of us that were incredibly young- accepted the idea of JAWS as the quintessential interpretation for the cartilaginous fish and often internalized it as a reality.  What it taught us was that, completely unprovoked, a shark will eat your ass whole.  Even more, they just might jump up onto your boat or simply bite the goddamn thing in half.  In 1987, the Discovery Channel began airing their annual shark week series to help us regular folk gain a wider respect and understanding for these majestic animals of the deep, which had been striking unwarranted fear into the hearts of so many for so long.  It’s fair to say that, over these last 2.5 decades, leaps and bounds have been made in the way of remedying the PR disaster which began for shark kind in the mid-70s, but logic and fear can not always co-exist on the same plane and it can still be difficult to shake off the impact made with those original negative impressions (not unlike with the HYUNDAI EXCEL).  In reality, humans are a great deal more of a threat to sharks than they have ever been to us and many species of the animal have become increasingly endangered.  According  to NOAA Fisheries, “over 100 million sharks are killed each year” by humans, both accidentally, as well as intentionally.  Fortunately, organizations like PangeaSeed have been erected to help reverse this trend and, in association with San Francisco‘s SPOKE ART, they are presenting a new group art exhibit with the hopes of raising some money to help aid in that endeavor even further.

Based out of Tokyo, PangeaSeed is a non profit organization who’s mission is “to bring to light, and eventually an end, to the cruel practice of global shark finning.“  To raise money for the cause, the organization has produced and curated a new group exhibit called SINK OR SWIM, which will be opening tomorrow night in San Francisco.  Hosting the event will be the Spoke Art gallery; masterminds behind such highly successful exhibits as “BAD DADS” : A Tribute to the Films of Wes Anderson and “Quentin vs. Coen” – An art show tribute to the films of Tarantino and the Brothers.  As could be expected by any Spoke Art event, PangeaSeed has recruited an impressive list of talent to be a part of SINK OR SWIM, each of whom is contributing new original works or prints to the exhibit.

Here’s the full list of contributing artists:

Dave Kinsey, Josh Keyes, Jeff Soto, Jim Phillips, Rhys Cooper, Brad Klausen, Natsuki Wakita, Shark Toof, Akinori Oishi, Mike Stilkey, Rah Akaishi, Faunagraphic, Tim McDonagh, Clint Wilson, Mario Wagner, John Fellows, Spencer Keeton Cunningham, Matt Dye, Yoh Nagao, Wrecks/Nao Harada, Cupco, Paul Chatem, Skount, Koji Harmon, Jessica Ward, Michael Glinski-Gale Hart, Skinner, Claudio Ethos, Alison Sommers, Nathan Spoor, Dan May, Roland Tamayo, Ingri Haraldsen, Jen Lobo, John Malloy, Josh Hart, Kaitlin Beckett, Ben Wilson, Serge Gay Jr., Tapecat and Kevin Earl Taylor.

And here are the specific details about the event:

EVENT:

SINK OR SWIM – A Benefit for Sharks and Oceans

OPENING RECEPTION:

Friday September 23rd
6:00pm -10:00pm
(show will be on view until Sunday, September 25th.
Times: Fri 6PM – 10PM, Sat and Sun 12PM – 7PM)

LOCATION:

Spoke Art Gallery
816 Sutter Street
San Francisco, CA

For official Facebook event page CLICK HERE.

Below is a selection of sample works from the exhibit, selected for preview specifically to show the variety and quality that this exhibit has to offer.  All works are available for purchase with all proceeds going to the PangeaSeed non profit.  All sales are on a first come first serve basis, so attending the opening and/or visiting the exhibit this weekend is the best way to insure that you get your hands on any piece that you might have your eye on.

*Following the opening weekend, remaining original works and prints will be available through PangeaSeed, so please be sure to sign up for their mailing list for more info and updates.*

Make sure to visit Spoke-Art.com and PangeaSeed.com for updates.

To inquire about purchasing a particular piece, whether listed below or featured on the Spoke Art website, please use the following contact information:

EMAIL: SpokeArtGallery@gmail.com
PHONE: 415-796-3774

[click images to enlarge]

Alison Sommers

“Herd”

Roq La Rue is an internationally renowned pop-surrealist/contemporary art gallery located here in Seattle.  Along with her work compiling and editing the “first comprehensive survey of the Pop Surrealism/Lowbrow art movement”, Pop Surrealism (Last Gasp, 2004) Roq La Rue owner/curator, Kirsten Anderson has made a name for herself as the editor at large for Hi-Fructose Magazine and for the consistently awe-inspiring and high quality exhibits presented at her gallery.  This week, the venue launches their latest show, which not only places it’s focus on an outside publication, but also features an outside curator: Monte Beauchamp, founder of BLAB! Magazine.

Since it’s humble beginnings as a self published zine in the 80s, BLAB! has gone through a handful of changes and risen into a highly respected annual anthology of comics, as well as a vehicle of exposure for talents in the contemporary graphic design, illustration, printmaking, and associated art worlds.  This year’s BLAB! SHOW will showcase works by many of the artists who have been featured in both Beauchamp‘s publication and Anderson‘s gallery in the past, respectively.  Among the 26 contributing artists are such Monster Fresh favorites as Travis Louie (previously featured here) and past interviewee, Brian Despain.  More than just a simple assemblage of some of the “underground” art world’s elite, the BLAB! exhibit will actually be a themed group show, with the mythical European Christmas figure of the demonic KRAMPUS operating as the muse for those crafting and providing pieces.

Chances are that, if you spent your youth within the borders of the United States, you probably grew up with little to no reference of the character known as Krampus.  Those who live in countries like Austria or the Czech Republic, on the other hand, are likely to have been spooked into fearing the merciless, goat-like creature at some point in their youth.  Often shown as a horned demon, shackled with chains and/or wielding a switch of sticks, the Krampus takes Dr. Seuss‘ infamous green curmudgeon and raises the holiday gloom factor exponentially.  While kids in the US may be threatened with the fear of receiving stockings full of coal -a useful energy source- in place of “real gifts”, the Krampus threatens to employ such malicious tactics as beating misbehaving little ones with his switch, tossing them into his sack, and abducting them.  Instead of stealing Christmas, he’s just stealing the children, themselves.  The concept of this beast may seem like the antithesis of Santa Clause, who goes around providing treats and joy to families everywhere, and in many ways he is, but it’s important to remember that, although the Alpine countries include both Krampus and St. Nicholas (aka: St. Nikolo) in their mythology, the two are not enemies.  In fact, according to the tales that I’ve become familiar with,  Krampus is actually a bound demon who accompanies St. Nick on his travels -often in disguise- and is actually a minion unleashed by Father Christmas himself, after the children have proven themselves naughty.

The following description of the exhibit and Krampus comes via Roq La Rue:

Roq La Rue is pleased to present a group show curated by the illustrious Monte Beauchamp of Blab! Magazine fame. Monte is bringing us a dynamic and fun exhibition featuring a varied assortment of artists and illustrators, whose work all around the theme of Krampus. Who is Krampus? In Alpine tradition, Krampus is a creepy devil figure who accompanies St Nicolas during the holidays…if you are good, St. Nick gives you presents, but if you’re bad then you might wind up in Krampus’ sack and beaten with a switch! Krampus has become an object of counterculture curiosity and this show reflects both the scaryness as well as the wonderful camp factor of Krampus. But wait- why are we having a show based on a Christmas demon in August? All we can say is Roq La Rue didnt get where we are today by following the rules! So pop on some devil horns and join us for a festive opening on August 12th at the gallery!

Check out this official flier for more details and a full list of contributors…

Opens Friday August 12th 6-9pm!

We, of course, suggest hitting up the opening this Friday, but, for those who will not be able to make it, the exhibit will be available for public view until September 3rd.

With such a great theme and such an impressive list of contributing artists, this show is already yielding some solid interpretations.  Thanks to Kirsten at Roq La Rue, we’ve been provided with the following preview images to give you a taste of what you can expect to see from THE BLAB! SHOW, beginning this Friday.

[Click Images to Enlarge]

Yoko d’Holbachie

Marc Burkehardt

Nicoletta Ceccoli

Martin Wittfooth

Owen Smith

Ryan Heshka

Andy Kehoe

Ana Bagayan

Chris Buzelli

“And the Children Shall Inherit the Earth”
24″x36″
oil on panel

To view some process and detail images of Chris Buzelli‘s “And the Children Shall Inherit the Earth” piece, visit his site by clicking through this link.

Quite a few weeks back, I received a Facebook message from a friend of mine that read, “I just saw this and it immediately seemed like something I should post to your wall.“  Accompanying that comment was one of the most surprising videos that I have seen in a long time.  It’s true that there’s always gonna be new footage of some random goon snapping off their leg grinding a rail, a toddler stealing a car, or some ignorant bastards blowing shit up that they didn’t intend to blow up, but this was different.  It wasn’t a pet with a box on it’s head or even of one mock playing an instrument -let’s face it, Youtube is the America’s Funniest Home Videos of the new millenium.  What I was sent was a simple music video.  It didn’t have amazing special effects or a groundbreaking, elaborate storyline, either, and it wasn’t some young new tween talent to discover, who will inevitably get signed by someone like Ellen Degeneres or wind up starring in some traveling Broadway fiasco.  In fact, the production quality looked budget as fuck and the “vocalist” of the “group” was anything but “accessible”.  Even more surprisingly, it was a rap video; a genre that seems all too content with riding auto-tune until the wheels fall off.  The surprising part was that this track felt real, both in intention and in delivery.  Shiny chains, ridiculous wealth, and terrible pop hooks are like drinking gallons and gallons of warm milk, these days.  The sheer fact that what I was witnessing was the antithesis of that, might have been enough to draw me in at first, but after researching more and more and discovering more and more about what the creators, DEATH GRIPS,  have to offer, I can easily say that this crew is producing some of my favorite shit right now, hands down.

The title of the video was: “Death Grips – Guillotine (It goes Yah)” and both the visuals and audio were beyond raw.  The footage was of a thugged-out-looking cat with a wild Kimbo Slice beard and tattooed forearms, rolling around in the passenger seat of a nondescript sedan, while the driver apparently filmed him.  Patches of the frame were missing like that data-moshed Chairlift video, but instead of being stacked with alternate/overlapping coding, it looked more like the blotches from a bad green screen effect were filled in with the noise created from poorly functioning bunny-ears on an old shitty black and white TV set.  The beat was sluggishly drawn out with pockets of crater-deep thumps and accented with the occasional robotic glitch.  The lyrics were delivered aggressively in less of a cadence than the sporadic urgency of a junkyard dogs warning barks.  This dude looked so bugged out that it felt like he was the type of guy that could lose his shit at any moment.  He looked both paranoid and in control… or… maybe it was more like how feeling paranoid might make someone try to take control.  It was as if someone had video-taped him going through one of his psychotic rants and built the beat around it on an old 4-track tape recorder, after the fact.  “Who the fuck made this?!“  I didn’t know, but it was just good enough for me to go on a quick mission to find that out.

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Tie the chord kick the chair and your dead – yah…”

“…Head of a trick in a bucket
Body of a trick in a bag
And thrown in the fire like fuck it
Gotta burn it before it goes bad….“

Considering the lyrical content and having no other material to go on, I realized that the quality of whatever else DEATH GRIPS had to offer -if anything- could go either way.  The horrorcore genre can often play itself out quickly, sounding way too cartoony and overly ridiculous.  With a video that looked like it was filmed on a busted outdated Hi-8 camera, I could have just as easily assumed that the project was old and/or that I wouldn’t be able to find much else, except that the end of the video was labeled with the words “Ex Military Mixtape (April 2011)” and the website “thirdworlds.net“.  The site didn’t hold much information and absolutely nothing in regards to the background or members of the project.  What it did have, however, was a tab that said “Ex Military Mixtape” which featured a full-soundcloud stream of all of the tracks and a free download of the entire album.  That would do.  I downloaded it from the site, uploaded in to my ZUNE, and then went to sleep, planning to listen to it throughout the following day.

Song one of the mixtape begins just like Jane’s Addiction‘s debut studio effort, Nothing Shocking, with the bassline to their opening track “Up the Beach“.  However, it is made substantially more ominous by layering audio from an old Charles Manson interview on top of it.  Admittedly, I identified the interview sample immediately, even before recognizing the unaltered bassline… (honestly, not sure if I should be proud of that one or not).  This introduction is incredibly effective and establishes a few things about the project.  One is that they know how to sample.  These days it’s easy to deny/forget that Jane’s Addiction were ever worth a shit and much harder to remember when they were.  This is a dark and classic intro and, without altering it, DEATH GRIPS manages to make it their own.  So much so, that I feel that I’d now have trouble listening to the original track without expecting to hear the notorious psychopath claiming that he “runs the underworld” and “rolls the nickels“.  Manson‘s rant in the opener also establishes that shit’s about to get dark and, whether intentionally or not, it helps to address the constrictions of the music industry and to the adherence to any structural limitations outside of ones own creative visions.  The chant of “I am the beast I worship” throughout the chorus doesn’t hurt to make that point either.

After “Guillotine” is a track called “Spread Eagel Cross the Block” and, like most of the shit that DEATH GRIPS is offering up on this release, it reveals itself as more and more brilliant the more that you listen to it.  The first thing to mention is that the base of this song, unexpectedly, floats on the dusty methadone cloud of Link Wray‘s classic instrumental surf groove, “Rumble“.  As for the lyrics, they seem to be about exactly what the title would suggest, some skanky hoodrat.  The slut that he’s talking about is music itself.  “I fuck the music. I make it cum.  I fuck the music with my serpent tongue.”  This isn’t the first time that someone’s taken to addressing the decrease of quality hip-hop by relating it to a chick that disrespects herself by geting around too much -Common did it with his classic “I Used to Love Her” back on Resurrection (1994)- but the approach here is noticeably different.  Plus, Common hasn’t put anything respectable out in forever; that guy’s complete trash these days.  DEATH GRIPS don’t offer a lament for dead hopes or guidance for a musical artform that has lost it’s way.  Instead, they just tell everyone to get the fuck out of the way, so that they can handle their own business.  They might reanimate certain structural elements of rap, but they’re perfectly happy with letting that zombie corpse mob around and vomit blood on everything.  When they put mommy in the pet cemetery, they don’t expect her to come home to read them bedtime stories and make them a home cooked meal; they expect her to be wielding a bloody kitchen knife and fall face first through a glass coffee table, while maggots eat through the back of her rotting skull.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This raises another important point: conscious rap isn’t only dead, it barely breathed as a fully formed, full term creature in the first place.  When you have people that have fancied themselves as intellectuals folding under their whole marketing angles to rap about parties and money, that’s the first sign that something’s wrong with your movement.  For me, the label of “conscious” rap is an issue in itself, because the implication is that, if you listen to anything else, you do so out of ignorance.  The reality is that most folks who are content with labeling themselves as “conscious rappers” don’t really say much more than most gangster rappers these days.  In fact, most gangster rapper’s don’t even rap about gangster shit anymore, either.  They rap about havin’ thangz and living in neighborhoods next to CEOs and plastic surgeons.  Conscious rappers basically just tell other people to be “conscious” and listen to “real” hip-hop, but, far too often, they don’t really offer anything of detailed substance.  More so, they just talk about how they are about to say something deep, just like how some rappers would rather rap about how they have skills, instead of simply demonstrating them.  DEATH GRIPS comes at everything hard with the knowledge that what they’re creating comes from a real place, being enough.  “That’s right it’s all mine.  It’s all mine never was yours.  Like how you wait in line.  While I walk straight through the door.“  In reality, they’re not walking through the door, so much as they are kicking it off the fucking hinges.  These guys are making their own entrances.  Nonchalantly knocking out walls that happen to be in their way, they just keep moving forward like a pack of mangy wolves.  This work is cinematic as all get-out and the final product paints such dark visual landscapes and evokes such raw emotion that it doesn’t need to waste it’s time talking about key grips and lighting structures behind the scenes.  We’re making a movie here folks, not holding a board meeting; creating imagery in the same way that a classic novel would.  If it’s working right, the texts become pictures and the words become more than just sound.  To quote Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon, “Don’t think, FEEL.  It’s like a finger pointing to the moon. If you concentrate on the finger you will miss all that heavenly glory.”

The album continues to mix in the most unexpected samples and venture into incredibly varied territories, while never feeling overly contrived or having its fluidity suffer.  Just throughout these first 3 tracks, DEATH GRIPS has already presented sounds that touch on the demon rap equivalents of stoner sludge metal, post-apocalyptic dubstep, and the musty lo-fi of projects like Dirty Beaches.  “Lord of the Game” starts with the glitchy, rapid reggaeton vocal hiccups of an M.I.A. track and pairs it with a sample of “Fire” from the notoriously macabre, Arthur Brown.  The anti-police sentiments in “Klink” ride on a sample of “Rise Above” by Black Flag and outros with The Castaways‘ solitary hit, “Liar Liar“.  The ending blends smoothly into David Bowie singing the words, “so softly a supergod dies” from the end of his song “Supermen“.  This is the beginning of a standout track called “Culture Shock“.  The Bowie sample wafts in and out of the industrial clanks and hydraulic warps that can only be likened to the soundtrack of a factory dedicated to the production of cybernetic war machines.  Also weaving in and out of the track is audio taken from a video message by a group of energy channeling light-workers who call themselves “Galactic Federation Of Light Ashtar, Sheran and Intergalactic Fleet“, who are instructing listeners to transcend their conscious minds, access their inner light and chakras, and letting them know that they “need to vibrate higher“.  The lyrics also refer to the current and future infiltrations of technology on our human vessels and psyches.  The music drops out at the end and, as the sample continues to speak about ascending to the 5th dimension, it segues into the brief 43 second instrumental “5D” that’s basically just a Pet Shop Boys loop from “West End Girls“.  Without warning, “Thru the Walls” abruptly drops in with it’s ridiculously heavy Reggaeton thumps and lyrics like, “Feel my fists push black holes.  Through your bitch ass decor“.  Earlier track, “Takyon (Death Yon)” further addresses scientific phenomena and the transcending of time/space/light, while launching off with the words, “Triple six, five, forked tongue.  Subatomic penetration rapid fire through your skull“.  These tracks -along with those lines in particular- provide a great example of the type of grimy, bleak, futuristic, demonic, murderous, environments painted on Ex Military.  There are moments that evoke imagery of desolate anarchic Beyond Thunderdome wastelands or the dark sleek back alleys of Blade Runner, but it isn’t as simple as a one-dimensional space rap effort or even a release about the end of times.  This album is just as much about modern day poverty, desperation, and empowerment as highlighted in films like City of God or even on classic rap releases like Straight Outta Compton and Enter The WU-Tang: 36 Chambers.  It’s definitely not a release that can be solely identified by elements of “consciousness” and spiritual elevation or even gangster rap, porno rap, or horrorcore, but aspects of each are present.  It’s the way that everything seems to have been effortlessly melded into one unique vision, the likes of which don’t really resemble anything that I’m ever come across.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I listened to Ex Military over and over for weeks, never knowing much more about the project than the music it birthed and the image of the frantic vocalists in the video.  After pulling espresso shots all day, this is the type of aggressive shit that I like to blast throughout a place of work, the minute that I lock the doors.  One night when the head roaster had stayed late, I was closing with the album cranking through the speakers.  He kept asking me questions about the release and I didn’t have many answers to give.  “It sounds like some grimy hood shit.  I’ve been guessing that it’s from somewhere like Detroit.“  He didn’t think so.  It reminded him of the grime music that he’d heard, so he was convinced that it was coming from somewhere in the UK.  For me, it sounded more like the “acid raps” of Detroit rap pioneer, Esham who -beginning at the age of 13- helped to pioneer the horrorcore and rap metal genres with his doom-laden beats and lyrics about hallucinogenics and Satan.  The more lo-fi elements and blunt, honest vocal delivery were reminiscent of the old homemade Southern Rap tapes, where you could hear some reckless thugged-out bastard like Tommy Wright III openly threaten to murder someone on a track, while providing detailed directions to their mother’s house.  The one other region that came to mind was Sacramento, with Black Market Records in the 1990s and Brotha Lynch Hung‘s baby eating, subterranean, hardcore gangster rap classic Season of the Siccness.  He couldn’t help himself anymore, so the roaster went in the back to check the internet and see if he could find out more.  When he came out, he told me that he couldn’t come up with anything substantial about the group, other than the fact that he was wrong about the UK affiliation.  The project did in fact come out of Sac-Town and involved “someone by the names Zach Hill“.

For those who don’t know the name, Zach Hill is one of the craziest drummers alive right now.  Among other projects, he is known for making up 1/2 of Sacramento‘s experimental, high-octane math rock duo, HELLA and supplying the hyper-technical rhythm’s that are interwoven with Marnie Stern‘s guitar shredding on all 3 of her releases.  Hill‘s inclusion on a recording is generally something that’s immediately noticeable, but this album is different.  After learning that he was affiliated with the project, however, it wasn’t overly surprising.  His production can be heard through some of the more unorthodox time signatures on the mixtape and, in the past, Hill has even gone to the length of paying tribute to the Brotha Lynch classic by posting his own remixes of tracks from Season of the Siccness.

Even less surprising, however, was the discovery that DEATH GRIPS was coming out of Sacramento. At the age of 18, I spent the summer of 1997 living in and around the state’s capitol; primarily out of a 1980 Datsun 510 wagon.  A lot of LSD and pizza were eaten in dirty trash-ridden parking lots and everything seemed to have a consistent film on it, during those muggy heat-drenched weeks.  Along with Season of Da Siccness, albums like Xorcist – recorded over the phone from Sacramento County Jail by fellow Black Market recording artist,  X-Raided, while he was awaiting a murder trial; of which the prosecution’s case was based heavily on the detailed lyrical content and a murder weapon featured on the cover from his previous release- were still a major source of pride, in heavy rotation among the Sac-Town youth.  We watched films like High on Crack Street, smoked unreasonable amounts of bammer, and made low-quality 4-Track recordings in random apartments.  On the first of the month, droves of welfare recipients would line up to collect their checks at a spot that was located next to a little shop that almost exclusively sold shirts with images of cholo clowns and the Virgin of Guadalupe cruising in low riders.  They would immediately go next door to cash in at the same pizza joint that we would record upstairs in (they accepted food stamps).  A man with a wadded up newspaper offered to spread the dead gnats around my windshield with some watered-down, budget glass cleaner, for a small fee.  Regardless of where we were, there always seemed to be a shopping cart within shoving distance.  Word was that Shock-G (aka: Humpty Hump) lived in the area.  A kid we knew bought me some Wiener Schnitzel for picking his ass up, after he got into a meth related ordeal.  Another guy that we crashed with sometimes would randomly get into any parked, shitty Honda‘s and unsuccessfully try to steal it, without warning, no matter where we went.  We walked in a group to the local mini-mart to buy a copy of High Society that promised images of nude Spice Girls.  The whole town had the aesthetic of a busted television.  Grit in my teeth, a rock in my shoe, thick unwashed jeans,  denim lint in metal resin-caked weed pipes, pizza grease, 2-liters of generic soda,  layers of sweaty skin rubbing off in my dirty palm, and a 3-legged dog drinking the malt liquor that had been poured generously into his bowl. I’m aware that this is, most likely, no more than a poorly rounded impression of an area, stemming from limited reference and chemical-based nostalgia from 14 years ago, but that’s how I remember it… and I swear that I can feel that residue smeared all over this mixtape.  For something that’s only been released in a digital format, there’s something remarkably tangible about this music.

Earlier I implied that, after viewing the “Guillotine” video, I needed to know who made the music for it, but it turns out that wasn’t entirely true.  All that I really wanted was to know was where I could hear some more, because, after getting my hands on the 13 track mixtape, the actual individuals behind the music became immaterial to me.  I didn’t continue my search into their background, rather opting to delve deep into the fruits that their focus and energy had yielded.  I’m not so sure that DEATH GRIPS would prefer to have their work received any other way.  Everything from its title to the anonymous weathered figure on their equally weathered cover art, feeds into the same damaged, yet resilient energy behind the release.  Like an aimless, mentally unstable soldier set loose in a society where everything that he’s been trained to do and his primary purpose have not only been rendered obsolete, but forbidden, the tension rests under the surface of the tracks and personal identities take a back seat, being misplaced and smothered by a complex intermingling of energy, abstract pseudo-realities, and thick emotions.  Still, regardless of how unnecessary the actual names of each singular participant are, or the fact that there is no mention of their identities on the site, it would be irresponsible to insinuate that Zach Hill is the primary driving force behind DEATH GRIPS, because he’s not.  He’s just the most recognizable name.  Based on my current understanding, the crew is a total of 5 members deep, with Hill providing production work along with founder/producer, Flatlander [also responsible for directing all of the crazy low-budget videos that they've been consistently churning out] and co-music/video producer, Info Warrior.  The other 2 names that have popped up in correlation to DEATH GRIPS are Mexican Girl (featured prominently on “Lord of the Game”) and the most public face of the operation, MC RIDE.

The troupe represents themselves as a collective, concerned more with the collective results of their collaboration than in hyping the members individually.  Regardless of their respective roles, MC RIDE is the one spitting out the vocals, the one whose face is appearing in videos, and the one who’s position as the “voice” of DEATH GRIPS (in the most literal sense) will garner him the most individualistic praise or critique.  As for the aptness of his adopted moniker, the MC does manage to unwaveringly absorb whatever chaotic assault is thrown at him beat-wise, and ride it out admirably.  But RIDE isn’t a  Twista or Busta Rhymes style rapper, skipping along with each break and agilely surfing on any twists in the instrumental.  It’s much more like he has dug his heels in, while everything -including a few kitchen sinks- is dumped down all around him in clusters, like jacks or a collapsing metropolis, “à la Inception.  Somehow, without any recognizably intentional assimilation on his part, the music actually feels like it has adapted to RIDE, as opposed to the other way around.  Like a less conflicted and much more ragged version of Magneto or Darth Vader, the rapper plants himself firmly as the eye of the tornado, while a dust storm of shrapnel, rusted appliances, noxious fumes, rotted animal carcasses, and wire-frayed/short-circuiting gadgetry swirls around him in a curiously controlled suspension.  This electrical storm of sound both engulfs and magnetically clings to RIDE‘s verses like static.  Even moments which may come across as disjointed, sporadic frenzies, gradually unveil themselves as much more aware and as calculated production elements, upon additional listens.  It’s as much focused, highly-concentrated moonraker beam as it is scattered buckshot.  It’s raw, but that doesn’t make it lazy or ignorant.  There are no accidents here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

My enthusiasm for DEATH GRIPS and Ex Military is simple: the project and release epitomize much of what the major purpose of this site is, altogether.  My desire to create a forum for us to help highlight projects, conduct interviews with artists, etc. goes hand in hand with the obsession to find new music, film, art, and information, while maintaining an awareness about how many people/sources have introduced us to such things and the assumption that there are others out there who are on a constant mission to unearth any new, innovative and/or quality work that may exist out there.  Far too often, both media and general enthusiasts are forced to settle on something that falls short, but edges out the majority of the other offerings just enough for it to be hailed as a “triumph” or the “future” of the genre.  Rarely, if ever, are such bestowments warranted, if only comparatively to the other more obvious trash being produced.  It sounds so cliche and disingenuous, but it’s with much forethought that I feel that I can honestly make the claim that I’ve never heard anything quite like the music coming from this Sacramento 5-piece.

Being a sample-based release, featuring a black man with an “MC” title screaming lyrics over the beats, will undoubtedly find Ex Military being filed under the general category of “rap“, but once one tries to narrow things down any further, that’s when things become a bit more murky.  “Hardcore”?  Maybe.  The term is generic enough to encompass a lot of things and this album is definitely “hardcore” something.  Ironically, as the album successfully avoids simple categorization, it also offers up some of the most effective elements from any of the genres that it seems to defy.  It’s too well rounded to be a straight up gangster rap album, but there’s definitely some hood shit on here.  It’s not a straight ahead horrorcore album, riding extensively on Freddy VS Jason style dramatics, either.  Instead, there are some legitimately frightening moments on the release that seem to cut a lot deeper than movie makeup and blood packets.  It’s not a Space Rap album in the typical sense, offering up imagery of neon, split level New York flat tops, floating hover cars, laser gats, and da club as a modified space station.  The futuristic references on here are often as technical and scientific as they are bleak.  Perhaps that’s what really helps set it apart from most hip-hop releases that you’re going to come across, the lack of steam-cleaned, chrome-plated imagery.  It’s cinematic, sure, but it feels more like a gritty documentary than a script that’s been raped to death through the manipulation of hollywood producers, product placement, CGI, merchandising, and auto-tune.  With all of the cooks in the DEATH GRIPS kitchen, there is a surprising cohesion in this work.  Even I Want It I Need It (Death Heated), the one song on this album that IS about getting fucked up at the club, samples the early Pink Floyd cut, Interstellar Overdrive, mentions a slew of drug references that are not typically brought up on a hip-hop track (DMT, LSD, MDMA ), and is more about trying to hold your shit together than having it together.  Clearly, the violent content, occasional sexism, and lack of remorse, would never find Ex Military being embraced as a “conscious” rap album, or even a backpack rap effort.  It’s too intense.  However, at the deepest level, there are moments that actually outmatch the heady, spiritually focused, new age, bike riding, tree planting, Mother Earth warriors at their own game.  When DG gives nods to energy and spirituality, they do so on an accessible level that doesn’t feel contrived or pretentious.  In fact, it actually makes you consider what they’re saying, as opposed to simply hoping that the purchasing of their MP3s and the throwing up of your hands for “real hip-hop” will operate as a suficient moral equivalent to carbon offsets .  Perhaps, even more impressive is the fact that it, somehow, doesn’t feel like a conflict when DEATH GRIPS are singing about murder, rape, or drugs shortly afterward.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I live in Seattle, a town that some would say has a strong hip-hop scene.  Most of the people who would say that are actually from Seattle.  I, on the other hand, am not one those people.  The latest, and arguably biggest, hype is a group called Shabazz Palaces, featuring Ishmael Butler (aka: Butterfly) of Digable Planets fame.  After the rough reception of Butler‘s post-DP project, Cherry Wine, his career wasn’t looking as amazing as it could have.  Early hype for Shabazz Palaces spoke of how Butler was keeping his identity shrouded in mystery, how the album had “leaked” via a few select outlets (the biggest local outlets available, mind you), and how the new project was so “innovative” that it marked the “future” of Seattle hip-hop and the entire rap scene in general.  Days after the first local performance came (the first week of last year) it was already mentioned on the front page of THE STRANGER, which hailed it as the best show that was destined to happen all year.  I was at that show, wasn’t permitted photography access, and received no response to review a copy of the CD.  Hiding your identity is simple -the Residents have been doing it for 40 yrs- and the show was mediocre at best.  Their music has a few interesting elements to it, I suppose, but their approach comes across a little forced and a little too Allen Payne from CB4.  Their biggest flaw is that, instead of simply representing themselves with their music, they’ve marketed themselves as some new revolutionary, groundbreaking force and they haven’t come close to living up to it.  Whether it’s underground, party, gangster… whatever, acts tend to paint themselves into corners that they can’t get out of.  It happens with all forms of music and art.  I’ve heard a little of the work by Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All and, at first, it seemed intriguing.  Unfortunately, I’m not that well versed on their material.  I’ve heard great things but, after listening to the Tyler the Creator album, Bastard, I wasn’t impressed.  The lines between vulgarity, humor, and delivery got blurred too much and he came across sounding like a kid telling bad poop jokes and his comments about murdering women just seemed like they were there for shock value.  MC RIDE, on the other hand, comes across as a legitimate threat and that’s a testament to his ability to present himself as genuine.  Another rapper that has really impressed us over the last year or so is Freddie Gibbs.  He offers a more straightforward approach to vivid 2PAC style gangster rap, with a solid cadence, remarkable lyricism, and, for the ridiculous amount of music that he’s been able to release in a short period of time, it all seems to be quality stuff (“All killer, no filler“).  He comes from a legitimately rough background and openly takes offense to people like Rick Ross who he claims are full of shit and appropriating that lifestyle.  Gibbs‘ music works, because he knows his role/strengths, is true to his identity, and focuses on being the best at delivering just that.  Part of DEATH GRIPS‘ skill-set involves their ability to move seamlessly from one approach to the next.  Lyrically, they are a completely different animal, but they’re able to provide the same realism and potency of a Freddie Gibbs, while incorporating more unorthodox aspects that can often make lesser groups come across as gimmicky or simply misguided.

So… does DEATH GRIPS represent the” future of rap”?  I’m not even exactly sure what that means, but I know enough to know that, if people are constantly asking questions like that, then it’s clear that they have been hungrily awaiting something new.  I’m also aware that I’ve been hoping for something different and interesting to come along, but I’m not sure that I was really expecting it to happen.  So, perhaps better questions to ask would be if these guys are actually offering up something new and if what they’re offering is something that’s worth while.  My answer to both of those questions is a “definitely“.  OFWGKTA has also been labeled with the “future” of rap title, and I think that might be more accurate.  At the very least, I can see kids beginning to adopt similar subject matter as the young Los Angeles rap collective.  That’s not to say that their imitators won’t be exponentially worse.  The real innovators might kick down doors, but they can’t be concerned with the future of a genre, only with forging their own paths, and with their own personal growth and resiliency.  For example, I’ve yet to see another WU-TANG Clan come through, because they are impossible to clone and, if anyone tries, it would just look incredibly corny.  EL-P is another very unique voice that I have tons of respect for, but elements of his “sound” only spread because of the amount of production work that he’s provided for other artists, both on his own label, as well as for Rawkus before it.  Comparisons will be drawn between EL-P and DEATH GRIPS for their gritty futuristic elements, left field approach to beat making, and their crate digging enthusiasms -for the song “Deep Space 9mm“, EL-P sampled the song “Water” by cult 60‘s experimental, electronic psych duo, Silver Apples, for chrissakes!  However, while the DEF JUX label-head is more of a story teller, unfolding scenic details while he hovers in a low-key spaceship over an urban cityscape at night, DEATH GRIPS almost feel more like they are down in the filth, slightly less focused with foresight or hindsight and spewing more about immediacies.  How do you imitate something like that, without sounding like an imitation?  It’s not as much about the physical sounds being created, the subject matter being addressed, or even the samples and structures that are present, as much as it is about the overall feeling being emitted through this crazy collage of ingredients.  The, otherwise disjointed, pieces of the jigsaw click together so well that any borders virtually dissipate.  It’s like one of those digital mosaics, made up of thousands of tiny pictures of Max Hedroom, shotguns, drunken vagrants, sensory deprivation chambers, junkyards, and radioactive mutants.  There are some old-school Sixties samples and futuristic elements in the mix, but neither terms like “throwback” or “future of rap” seem to play much into the agenda of a group like this, who appear to be more focused on creating something much more original.

You’ve just read through another overly lengthy piece that began with the original intention of throwing up a very short post and a download link.  For me, the most difficult stuff to describe often proves to be the most compelling and the most satisfying.  Still, even with all of the rambling and over explanation, no one can really describe the group better than the sentiments expressed through their own music.  Their disinterest in leading a new one-dimensional rap movement or being redundant  is laid out nicely on the track “Known For It“.  Not only does it contain a sample of “De Futura” by French jazz/prog outfit Magma (a group that invented their own language, as well as shaped their own genre, “Zeuhl” and helped influence early black metal), but the following lyrics as well:

“Keep em guessin endlessly
Never let em know where your headed
King of the unknown cloaked in mystery
How ta show em they don’t mean shit ta me“

Something else that really epitomizes their work for me are the following lines that finish off the song “Lord of the Game”:

“…Don’t waste my time even one more time
When you know that shit is whack
Don’t make me remind of you of the last time you
Said you’d never go back.

Fuck where you’re from,
Fuck where you’re goin,
It’s all about where you’re at“

With most of us spending the majority of our existences focused on the preparations for some future event or living in the wake of some past triumph or tragedy, I don’t feel that it’s overly absurd to make the claim that we rarely ever exist in our own time.  We were young once and one day we’ll be even older, but, although our bodies are currently and slowly decomposing as you read this, oxygen is also entering into your system, feeding your cells, and rejuvenating your life force.  It may not be living up to your anticipation and it won’t likely resemble much more than a shadow of itself once it hits the history books, but RIGHT NOW is happening, regardless.  If nothing else, it’s refreshing to hear a project created by people in the moment; swooping up the shrapnel of the past, mixing it with the technology of the present, and creating something that’s genuinely new, which reflects it’s own image.  If there’s one concept that DEATH GRIPS has left for me with Ex Military it’s simply that they exist.  It doesn’t work as a bad reminder that we do, either.  Go create something.

CLICK FOR FREE DOWNLOAD!

Death Grips – Exmilitary by deathgrips

TOUR DATES:

Death Grips have recently started playing out and Zach Hill has been bringing his drum kit along for the RIDE.  Make sure to catch them if you live in one of the select locations

AUGUST 5th
Santos Party House
New York, NY

AUGUST 20th
MAD DECENT BLOCK PARTY
Premiere Event Center
Los Angeles, CA

SEPTEMBER 23rd
POP MONTREAL FESTIVAL
Club Lambi
Montreal, Quebec

The winning entry was sent in my “WF” and was comment number 11.  Although it may seem that his entry didn’t provide the exact details that were relayed to him, in regards to how certain events might set about the apolcalypse, the sheer fact that the person that relayed these concepts to him even exists is enough to infer that there is a hair triggered paranoia on the loose which may, in turn, prove to create some self-fulfilling prophecies for our imminent demise.  Plus, the character in his entry reminds us all of our pal GRANT and, if I wasn’t already entirely sure that he was on the other side of the planet right now and that the gun mentioned wasn’t a certain 357 Magnum, then I’d half assume that it was him.  We miss you pal and… congratulations WF.   Our thanks to everyone that entered.

To keep tabs on our future contests, make sure to add us on facebook, by clicking the “LIKE” button on the box in the sidebar to the right  >>>>>>
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Recording under the moniker of “(SMOG)“, throughout the entirety of the 1990‘s and much of the Two-Thousand-Oughts, Bill Callahan eventually began releasing albums under his own name, beginning with 2007′s Woke on a Whaleheart (Drag City).  While his earliest works were much more disjointed and “experimental” lo-fi  home recordings, his music has continued to develop over the years into something quite different.  As his work approached the end of the millennium, he continued to utilize the studios and equipment that he now had available to him with a progressively more polished sound.  After that, his songs seemed to retreat back into a more personal, yet refined, delivery, supported by his somber baritone and delicate but inviting guitar strums.  Still, Callahan isn’t the type of artist that I feel that I could accurately describe as dramatically shifting gears or even taking on overly-challenging new directions from one release to the next.  The songwriter isn’t the sort to concern himself with trying to dip his toes into every genre possible, in a calculated attempt to evoke implications of versatility or because it might come across as risky.  He isn’t Beck or Dangermouse… or even Rick Rubin.  He’s Bill Callahan.  Like the musical equivalent of a Philip Seymour Hoffman, there’s no checklist to cross off for his career milestones such as, “play a homosexual character (taking the job from a homosexual actor), then someone that is mentally disabled, drastic weight shift, next try comedy, do an indie film, aim for a block buster, make a techno album, get Rhianna on this track…etc.”  There’s no need for Callahan to try and make overt statements about trying new and risky approaches, because everything that he delivers emits a sense of inherent risk, already instilled within it’s core.  He presents both fragility and strength.  Every direction that he takes with his music feels like an organic one and, while he continues to grow with his craft, his experimentation comes from the inside out, not vice-versa.  While fucking with tape-decks and exploring alternate recording methods can be interesting and have their place, Callahan somehow presents work that exhibits an exploration of himself and a presentation of what he’s discovered, simultaneously.  He experiments without the effort; taking a gentle peek inside and casually holding the door cracked open to share the view.

Bill Callahan is an anomaly in the music world.  After 2 decades of work, he is not only still creating consistent work, but he’s also getting consistently better and more in touch with his own abilities.  He’s a prime example of why Drag City Records is such an amazing label and he easily draws similarities to fellow label mates as David Berman (Silver Jews), with his deep voice and remarkable lyrical talents, as well as Will Oldham (aka: Bonnie “Prince” Billy) with his consistent growth and prolific output.  His humor is displayed in tracks like “Dress Sexy At My Funeral“, off of his hilariously titled SMOG release, Dongs Of Sevotion (Drag City – 2000), while a song like “Rock Bottom Riser” from A River Ain’t Too Much To Love (2005), is powerful enough to evoke tears.  He’s a musician’s musician and the type of craftsman that makes legends wish that they could have written his songs.  In fact, the title track from the late/great Gil Scott-Heron‘s 2010 highly-acclaimed swan song, I’m New Here, is actually a cover of a Callahan song, also from A River Ain’t Too Much To Love.  With his latest effort, Apocalypse, released in April, Callahan has once again outdone himself by creating what is among the very finest albums to come out this year.  Fortunately for us, he’s decided to embark on a nationwide tour to support it.  Fortunately for you, our friends at NEUMOS Crystal Ball Reading Room are providing us with a pair of tickets to his Seattle stop on June 21st, 2011, that we’ll be giving away to one lucky winner.

Watch his latest video for the track “Riding for the Feeling” off of Apocalypse, now.
Scroll down to see how to enter to win tickets!

Click here to view the embedded video.

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THE CONTEST / GIVEAWAY:

*One winner will receive a a pair of tickets to see Bill Callahan perform live @ Neumos in Seattle on Wednesday June 22, 2011

HOW TO ENTER:

This contest will revolve around the title of Callahan‘s latest album, Apocalypse

#1)

We’ve all heard it said time and time again… every time that something that is beyond reprehensible,  was formerly unimaginable, or is just outright ridiculous goes down, somebody jokingly makes the claim that it must be a sign of the apocalypse.  Your goal is to give us an example of something that you think must be a sign of the apocalypse.  It can be something as simple as the invention of bacon soap and the excessive overuse of auto-tune, a story about how you ran into 2Pac buying a Thirsty-Two Ouncer at a Circle K last week, or something much more elaborate, conspiracy-based, and/or involved.  It’s up to you.  It’s your entry.

#2)

Post your answer in the comment section below.

#3)

There is no part 3.  That’s all there is to the contest.  It’s pretty easy… but you should probably read the fine print.

The Fine Print:

All entries must be received by Saturday June 18th at 11:59 pm to be eligible.

You can enter as many times as you want but, use a valid email so that we can contact you.
Winner will be chosen arbitrarily, based on our personal “favorite”, so try to be interesting.
If we are unable to contact the winner in a reasonable amount of time, a new winner will be chosen.

[If you have any intentions to post comments asking us to pick you, or asking when the winner will be announced... how about, just don't do it?  It's pretty fucking obnoxious and it won't help your chances.]

These days, MTV rarely even plays videos or music related programming at all.  Instead, the station has opted to place their focus on terrible reality shows about knocked-up underprivileged teens and self-involved over-privileged teens.  This downfall started back in 1992 with the premiere of The Real World, which, in turn, helped to spawn the reality show craze that continues to poison television programming and culture at large.  It might be easy to forget now, but 120 Minutes and Liquid Television weren’t the only MTV original programs that were not complete trash throughout the 90s.  In fact, around the same time that The Real World first aired, the music channel was also taking a stab at launching a handful of now-historic comedy programs.  The original version of The Ben Stiller Show began with MTV, but later moved to the FOX network where it grew into a full-blown sketch comedy show, featuring the writing talents of Judd Apatow and future Mr. Show creators, Bob Odenkirk and David Cross.  It ran one season before being canceled.  Jon Stewart also hosted a talk show on the network, but it was later syndicated out, replacing the old Arsenio Hall time slot.  That had an even shorter run.  Of all the shows that came out during this time period, however, my favorite was probably the sketch comedy show THE STATE.  The program starred  a comedy troupe of the same name that had found previous work recreating the details of viewer letters in MTV‘s You Wrote It, You Watch It, also hosted by Stewart.  Like the other programs, The State didn’t last very long, but the talent involved went on to create such shows as Viva Variety, Stella Comedy, Reno 911, and Michael & Michael Have Issues, as well as to be involved in Adult Swim programs like Super Jail and Childrens Hospital.  Sure, not all of those subsequent ventures by THE STATE troupe were necessarily “successful” hits either, but that doesn’t make them any less awesome.  Perhaps one of the most simultaneously unsuccessful and awesome attempts by the gang came with the 2001 film, Wet Hot American Summer.  Coincidentally, it’s also one of my favorites.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Wet Hot American Summer is set at a Jewish summer camp in 1981 and, as you could probably tell by the trailer (above), it parodies such movies as Meatballs and Little Darlings, from that time period.  Starring and co-written by David Wain and Michael Showalter, the film also features other cohorts from The State like, Michael Ian Black, Ken Marino, and Joe Lo Truglio.  Further contributing their improv/sketch comedy talents are Molly Shannon (SNL), Amy Poehler (UCB, SNL), Janeane Garofalo (The Ben Stiller Show), and A.D. Miles (Dog Bites Man, Late Night w/Jimmy Fallon, ).  Rounding out the cast are future 30 Rock cast members, Judah Friedlander and Elizabeth Banks, as well as a varied selection of actors that range from Paul Rudd (Anchorman, 40yr Old Virgin) and David Hyde Pierce (Frazier) to Bradley Cooper (The Hangover) and Christopher Meloni (Law & Order: SVU).  It was an all-star cast, before they were all stars, and, while the ensemble is undeniably impressive and the film was great, it was still a critical and commercial wreck.  There was no surprise there, everything else that I ever seemed to like tanked just as hard.  The Big Lebowski was also considered a failure when it was first released but, unlike the Coen Bros‘ cult classic, I was never fully aware that so many others were so fully aware of the summer camp comedy, or had even heard of the film at all.  Now, with 2011 marking it’s 10 year anniversary, the folks behind Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles are finally giving the film the recognition that it deserves in the form of a WHAS-themed group art exhibit.

You may recognize the name Gallery 1998 from other art exhibits from them that we’ve posted about in the past.  Focusing on pop-culture-centric artwork and emerging talent, the gallery has consistently managed to curate one impressive exhibit after another, while drawing from a pool that consists of some of the finest contemporary pop artists in the game.  Along with their growth came an additional Los Angeles location, affording them the ability to run two completely separate exhibits simultaneously.  The “Camp Firewood” group show will bring together over 65 individual artists to contribute their own unique interpretations of Wain and Showalter‘s classic, Wet Hot American Summer.  The opening night will be held this Friday night, June 10th, and will take place at the Venice location.  Among the participants are names like Augie Pagan, Brandon Schaefer, Jeremy Tinder, Ian Glaubinger, Dave MacDowell, Dave Perillo, Derek Deal, Rich Pellegrino, Phantom City Creative and many others.  The show will continue to run until the 29th, but we recommend making it out for the opening night to anyone that has the ability to do so.  Director/co-writer, David Wain will be hosting the event and there should be plenty of more surprises on hand.

EVENT:

“Camp Firewood:
Celebrating the 10th anniversary of Wet Hot American Summer”
June 10 – 29, 2011
Gallery1988 (Venice)

OPENING:

Hosted by David Wain
Friday, June 10th from 7-10 PM
G1988:Venice

LOCATION:

Gallery1988: Venice
214 Pier Avenue
Santa Monica, CA  90405

Gallery 1988 graciously sent over a sample of some preview images for the event that we’ve posted below for your viewing pleasure.   We’re sure that those of you who are familiar with the film will agree that it appears to be shaping up rather nicely, with another standout piece by New York-based painter, Casey Weldon.  Still haven’t seen the film?  Well… there’s a related event being held this Thursday at the Los Angeles film school, which will include a free screening of WHAS and a Q&A with Wain and podcaster, Jeff Goldsmith.  You can find out more about that event HERE.

(click images to enlarge)
Aaron Jasinski

Adam Limbert

Andy Suriano

Casey Weldon

Justin Santora

Justin White

Rich Pellegrino

Shannon Finch

The French production team of Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay (aka: JUSTICE) first came onto the electronic scene around 2004, but it wasn’t until their debut full-length in 2007, that they really began to gain widespread international prominence.  The album was simply titled † or “Cross“, due to it’s black album cover, which featured the silhouette of a giant 3-dimensional cross outlined in gold, not unlike the artwork  from T.REX‘s Electric Warrior.  The songs were driving, fragmented and crushing disco house dance mixes with heavy robotic warps and laser blasts in the vein of incredibly influential predecessors and countrymen, DAFT PUNK.  The DAFT PUNK comparisons were unavoidable for the duo and Kanye West found no issue with biting elements from either of the groups, adding irony to his pre-Taylor Swift stage crash at the 2006 MTV EMAs in protest of losing to the Justice VS Simian “We Are Friends” video.  Over the last 4 years, their stock has continued to rise along with their fan-base, they’ve played large musical events like Coachella and the Reading Festival, and even took home a Grammy.  This year Justice is slated to release their sophomore effort.  It’s already one of the most anticipated releases of the year and we have just received a fairly impressive video for the first single off of their follow up entitled, “Civilization“.

Technically, the track for “Civilization” was released back in March, but this new video for the single makes things a hell of a lot more interesting.  The video is, more or less, based around the destruction of famous religious, historical, and governmental imagery.  A giant hole in the sky makes way for an angelical beam of light to shine through to the Earth, which is visibly divided by it’s latitude and longitudinal grid-lines.  Slowly, infamous statues and sculptures from around the world begin to collapse one after the other, while herds of bison run from enormous rock-slides and toppling disasters.  The planet rotates upside down, until some other-worldly deity (as they all are, I suppose) exposes itself through the illuminated portal that started it all.  Some of the statues featured, like the famous “Cristo Redentor de Corcorvado” of Rio de Janeiro and Buddha, come from religions iconography, while images like Stonehenge and an Easter Island head are simply wonders and anomalies that continue to puzzle scholars the world over.  Then there are statues like Lady Justice and Mt. Rushmore with their own social and political implications.  For a duo that calls themselves Justice and performs with a giant glowing version of their adopted cross trademark on stage with them, such focus on symbolism is definitely a reoccurring them with these guys.  Beyond their simple use of religious imagery in their logo and title, their last album featured songs with such loaded titles as “Genesis“, “Let There Be Light“, and “Waters of Nazareth“.  In fact, even with the track “DVNO” -which Rosnay has explained is titled “Divino” by saying “In most suburbs of the world, in every city, there’s most of the time, a nightclub called El Divino…sometimes… Clubs where you have to wear a white shirt to get in, half the time.“, the term “Divino” still translates from Spanish into “To The Divine“.

Religious or otherwise, I can appreciate watching shit collapse while swarms of bison attempt to avoid the destruction.  That’s sort of entertainment is just universal.  Plus, this video is visually stunning.  “Civilization” definitely does evoke an end of times feel to it, however, I’m not sold on what should, perhaps, be the most important element of the piece… the music, itself.  If this track is an example of what’s to come from the full release later this year, Justice has definitely taking a sharp turn in their sound and direction.  This first offering  features effected, yet clearly discernible, vocals mixed with a beat that makes it sound quite a bit too much like a Seventies Rock Opera for my taste.  They made statement regarding † that the entire album was disco-based and that, if you didn’t hear that element in all of the songs at first, they would eventually present themselves with repeated listens.  One strength that is often overlooked with the art of video is that, if it’s good enough and engaging enough, a good music video can draw the viewer in with enough repeated listens that the song might actually have time to unfold for them and/or get caught in their heads.  The “Civilization” video is definitely of that caliber, but the song still has to have a solid enough core within it and contain enough complexity and levels to actually be able to expose itself to the listener over time.  On the other hand, if there’s nothing there, it won’t matter how many times you hear something mediocre.  For now, we still have a pretty crazy video to watch and time will tell if Justice is still operating ahead of their time or if they’ve simply shrugged and dropped the ball.

Click here to view the embedded video.