Art News NonstarvingArtists.com - Zaph Mann on Art

Siberian: Interview - Intelligent Evolution

2008-05-13T19:34:53+00:00

Siberian are full of it. Not bulls' it. Nor the it Lou Reed was sick of. Siberian are full of the it Peter Gabriel famously wrote of on the closer of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. Few bands emerge from the swamp of indie-rock without an annoying copycat stench about them, so when something original pops up, it is worth tracking.

Three of Siberian's 5-piece (Finn, Colin & Zach) joined me backstage.

Someday Lounge, Portland, May '08

ZM: Surprise or Anticipation?

Zach: Surprise.

Finn: Why?

Zach: The things you anticipate are more expected, muted.

Colin: [Colin said something here that was my first exposure to his multiple mindset, postulating about six sides to every viewpoint. Naturally my notes were as surprised as I was]
Zach: Yeah, I agree [with Colin], it made me think of going into work that day with a hangover.
Colin: It's a perspective shift.
ZM: Your going into work with a hangover was a surprise or anticipation?
Zach: I anticipated the hangover, I was surprised how pleased I was that day.
ZM: OK, what do you find ironic about the Alanis Morissette song "Isn't It Ironic"?
Zach: [in a flash] There's absolutely nothing ironic about it, not a lick.
Colin: It should be called "Isn't it unfortunate".
ZM: What do you always forget to take on tour?
Zach: Your passport [to Finn]
Finn: Yes, going into Canada...
Zach: Our dignity and self-respect
Colin: Not for me, I'd rather it [touring] be an extension of my regular life, not something else that I'd have to crash back out of.
Zach: I actually had the idea that I would transform myself on the tour [just finished], of course I didn't.
Finn: We had an insane response, there were small crowds but people were so amazing, like in Phoenix, I'm surprised how supportive and nice people are.

Finn, despite being the front man and writing all the songs, is quiet and unassuming (at least in the company of the band's keen-witted guitarists). His relaxed nature seems to stem from being born and brought up in Hawaii, which he still misses.

Although Finn writes the lyrics and base melodies they all emphasize the collaboration on song structure and sound:
Building songs to crescendos was conscious, as Zach put it: "We like loud and emotional music as much as anybody, but now we're as interested in space, in dropping things out."

ZM: So Finn, where do these words come from? (Islands Forever opens with "On the coastline, under moonlight, we'll drive our cars into the lake and drown")
Finn: I don't know, I listened to Leonard Cohen a lot and somehow it comes through, but not directly, I don't... perhaps in the melody or feeling...
ZM: I think it's in the timing, the delivery of words.
Colin: His words are moody, bordering on the dark, we add the atmosphere.
Finn: I write around moods, I prefer something that explains... but not too literally, so people can interpret it, imagining some kind of image, but not from nonsense.

The band is critical of their 2007 CD 'With Me' but many critics, including myself, rate it as one of last year's best. They're looking forward though, to the next recordings, still evolving, into potential.Finn: Islands Forever was the last song we recorded and is more the way we're evolving. I put it down to communication inside the band.

Colin: Being together for 4 years is working. We trust each other.
Zach: Yeah, you can't just take a sonic idea in your head and tell everyone do this, do that. It doesn't work.

ZM: Given free unrestricted travel, where would you go?
Finn: Africa.
Zach: Prehistoric Africa. I want to go to another galaxy. Back in Time, or forward. I don't know, maybe I'd just like to go to yesterday and know what's going to happen and fuck with Colin's head all day.
Colin: That would suck.
ZM: So what would you do?
Colin: I don't know, for the band? Is it one choice? Can you change your choice every day? It always changes, how long does this last?

ZM: Colin, What do you remember from when you were nine years old?
Colin: What grade was that?
Finn: Twelve is six.
Colin: On that prompting, my teacher, my classroom, but nothing really - something I realised when I was 18-19 was that I hardly remembered anything about my childhood...
Zach: It gets blurred, like that Oliver Sachs documentary where he's going month to month documenting everything he remembers from '82 onwards...
Colin: Yeah - and that character Sachs studied - who can conduct a whole orchestra but doesn't remember 7 seconds later... and there's some woman, she remembers everything, they're studying her...
ZM: It sounds like your tours are spent listening to the BBC & NPR [National Public Radio]
Colin: Yes, yes! We're very boring.

ZM: What are a few of your favourite things?
Finn: Sunshine....then a list of...music, experience, headaches(?), beautiful women ,

A Siberian Woman

scotch (meaning Scottish Whiskey), change, Taco Bell... religion...
Z Religion?
C Yes, no. We have fun, no we ridicule it but we discuss it too.
ZM: Are any of you influenced?
Colin: Ah, yeah, I was raised Jehovah's Witness
Zach: [Emphatically] It's a blight on society and we all know it.
Colin: It's a ridiculously easy way out.
Finn: Freud said it was a way to console yourself with fate.
ZM: I don't think we'll bother to try and make that scan...

ZM: What's the best use for WD 40?
Colin: Spraying in UB40's eyes.

ZM: Colin, tell me about Mexico & you
Colin: [Momentarily lost for words]... I had a friend who went there.
Zach: That's great: "I had a friend who went there"!

Finn's voice: Was the thing that most impressed Zach, even in a garage. Colin too, until the CD recording when Finn swayed a little towards that Tom Yorke slur... that's never happened before or after said Colin. I asked Finn if he imitated? Was he good at Karaoke? "No, I'm terrible at Karaoke, I'm self-conscious and get a little subdued."

ZM: Do you know how to dig a pony?
Colin: Dude, no. There's no way to dig a pony, it wasn't meant to mean anything.
Zach: I dig ponies, little horses.
Colin: There's that thing about the tramp in Lennon's garden who thought it was all written for him, and Lennon saying it was nonsense. It's a language problem - look how frustrated Gertrude Stein became, she wrote books with the intention of not making sense and still people found meaning in them.

ZM: Best Gig you ever were at?
Colin: What pops into my head is Andrew Andrew Bird at the Showbox in Seattle.
Finn: I was going to say the same thing, but otherwise Fugazi, in Hawaii.
Zach: I saw Robert Pollard recently and it was certainly memorable - he drank at least ten beers and 3/4 a bottle of tequilla and was staggeringly incoherent, except when he sang then it was perfect pitch.
Colin: It's like another Oliver Sachs thing; about the man with no memory (7 seconds in fact) who can still conduct orchestras.
Zach: Yeah, that could be what's going on, an automatic musical memory.

ZM: Finn, did you ever think the moon really was made of Cheese?
Finn: No, but I thought there was a man on the moon.
ZM: You mean the face or an actual man?
Finn: A man, an astronaut.
Zach: What do you mean, you think they just left one behind?
Finn: Well, I was 12.

ZM: So how are you feeling about tonight's show?
Colin: I have no expectations, not low expectations - no expectations, I don't want to be disappointed. It comes back to that anticipation/surprise thing... anticipation limits your potential experience.

As it tuned out the show was even better than expected, Someday Lounge soundman Ryan Oleson balanced things expertly, matching the punchy rhythm against the searing harmonics, all the musicians and vocals stood out. I didn't hear any copycat Yorke drawl the band is wary of, maybe an occasional Lloyd Cole-like inflection, and I'm still unsure what it is about Siberian that differentiates, maybe it is just the underlying intelligence. Go see Siberian live, I say... but then I shouldn't be building up any expectations should I, in case that anticipation factor spoils everything...

Siberian are: Finn Parnell (Vocals, Rhythm), Zach Tillman (Bass, Vocals), Colin Wolberg (Lead), Aaron Benson (Drums), Adam Galbraith (keyboards)

Loch Lomond: Interview - A Depth Charge

2008-05-06T00:12:14+00:00

A Scot named Ian Anderson once wrote "Closing my dream inside its paper-bag. Thought I saw angels... waving me through to cry you a song. That came before the pomp of rock stardom took its "Tull". Anderson could have been portending the music of a new phenomenon with a Scottish name. - In Depth Interview with Richie Young as his band Loch Lomond go on tour in support of their new release.

Loch Lomond's music is not typical of contemporary music, it's not typical of anything really, it's hardly reference-able - classical musicians, folk melodies, a chamber orchestra backing a singer songwriter... And, importantly, it's not a mess, not at all - the music's coherent and the musicians are strikingly good. Then, once you dare to check the lyrics, comes the devastation - the gorgeous vocal harmonies, tripping melodies and sweeping orchestrations are woven with a text of tears. Not since Kurt Cobain have I heard such wrenching and yet unaffected lyrics: "I had a thought, that I was a vein, running up your leg, infecting your heart". I asked Richie Young where these words came from:

RY: That's from Stripe II, a remake from the first release. I had a year of vivid dreams and I used to document them immediately when I woke up. This dream came after a good friend's Father died of a heart attack, he was an arsehole - a Dick Cheney type, but I had feelings for her. I dreamt I was the actual clot in his body, traveling to his heart and killing him, I was part of him and together we disintegrated into the floorboards. It was like a circle of life and it was my job as the clot, to kill him. The first record was all written from dreams.

Z: What made you stop using dreams for material?
RY: I had this amazing 'Epic' type dream where everyone in the streets was singing with me and I woke up with the tune still in my head. But because I had to go to study [at 28 then, he's 33 now] I had to wait until I got home to work on it. Then I sat down and realised the tune was Meatloaf's "I would do anything for love"... [grimaces] so I figured it was time to abandon the dream experiment.

Z: Are you comfortable as the front man? How do you feel about performing?
RY: It's like some kind of aesthetic (or authentic) purging - I shut off in an intensity [necessary to communicate the songs], I used to stay zoned out from the beginning to the end of the concert. Now I'm more aware, becoming more comfortable, I try to 'pop out' between songs - I know stage presence is not my strength but I'm slowly getting comfortable with it.
Z: And you're OK with the new publicity shots that present you clearly up front, with the band in background?
RY: I really didn't comprehend what people wanted, the band is egalitarian, I'm not a dictator or control freak but I've learnt that there's a need for presentation, a desire for personalization.
Z: What's behind the name - Loch Lomond, any Scottish connection?
RY: In the original project we were going to be called 'The Mountains' - I was working with Rob Oberdorfer (who I credit with improving my singing, he played back tapes over and over showing me my mistakes) and Rob had bought up old 1" reel-to-reel tapes because of a supply scare. The old tape we used for master had the brand "Loch Lomond" on it and the master became known as Loch Lomond, then at some point I realized it was a better name.

Loch Lomond is a beautiful but somewhat desolate loch in the southern Highlands of Scotland, somewhat fitting the bleak yet beautiful music of the band

Loch Lomond's final performance at the acclaimed Mississippi Studios (before it gets rebuilt) was as powerful as their recordings, bringing several of the audience to occasional tears, sweeping them away with wands of musical majesty, all the while presenting themselves as they are: simply and ordinarily down to earth.

Z: Back to the song-writing, what would you say your songs are about - the personal? Political? Existential?
RY: Probably existential - I don't write love songs and I don't write social/political songs as they date so much. The second release, the EP, came when I was depressed, although I didn't really realise it at the time: My dips went deeper than my peaks rose and I even prepared my life as if there were only 3 months left. I'm normal now, usual ups and downs.
Z: But the words remain bleak. I find some devastating. Without the dream influence, where does the imagery come from? For example "he's sleeping with bark chips on his tongue, and he's dreaming".
RY: I don't know where it comes from, it just does. If I sit and try to write, I can't, then I'm the world's worst...
We're been joined by the delightful Laurel Simmons [piano, celeste + vocals and percussion.], she comments to Ritche: "But you talk that way - in those strange ways - your take on things is different to others - in linguistic detail, like your movie idea.
RY: Oh yeah - 'Swim Kit' - I want to waste all the money I make on making that someday.

Q & Eh?
Q&E: Given free unrestricted travel, where would you go?
RY: Take the whole band to Spain on tour & then across to Mexico.
Q&E: Why Spain?
RY: It's a vision I had, now it's a goal - goal set - not yet done.

Q&E: What do you remember from when you were 8 years old?
L: Losing teeth - it's difficult to remember - oh! we got our dog Winston, a Springer Spaniel; English... he just died.

Q&E: What's your solution to the energy crisis?
L: That's funny [coincidentally] on our last tour it was a big issue, how could we do anything about it?
RY: Look to Brazil: They will be free of external energy needs by 2018, keep it close, sustainable...
Q&E: What about here?
RY: Shut down the military-industrial complex [Eisenhower], then an elected leader would be free to make rational decisions.

When did you last run, and why?
L: (laughs) Across the street today, why - because that car would have hit me.
RY: Five days ago, I needed some exercise, and that pretty girl in the clothing store, I ran because I needed it but also because of her, I wanted to see her and instead of running indirectly I ran straight to her store.

Q&E: What are a few of your favourite things? + Can you make it scan...?
L: MY guitar, my photos, my sewing machine, my Grandmother's ring.
RY: I only own two things - my guitar, my clothes. Oh and the paint-by-numbers pony which Pia & I fought over at a garage sale - it's in storage.

Q&E:How many swans do you recommend, per bathtub?
L: Just One
R: Just One also
Q&E: Why one?
L: More can get messy
Q&E: You have experience with this?
L: Yes, well not... it was a chicken... (laughs and declines to say more)

Q&E: What do you always forget to take on tour?
L: Enough money, I don't worry about forgetting things, I get by with whatever I have.
R: ... I know - phone chargers!
L: Yes!
R: It seems like all our tools are on cell phones.

Q&E: Anticipation or Surprise?
R: Anticipation - oh man, I like it, it's the best part, even if whatever it is doesn't turn out to be good.
L: I was going to say surprise, because it's easier to deal with but after hearing that...
R: Like waiting to kiss someone... or to jump out of a plane

Z: How do the songs evolve?
RY: Once I have a lyric and a basic tune, I usually work with Amanda [A. Lawrence: viola, vocals] I play her melodies or hum them, and she develops them adding more ideas, as do the rest of the group.
Z: They show great restraint within the songs, no egos demanding solo spots. On the song Carl Sagan for instance, it's typically simple to begin with, then instruments fill in more and more in layered textures - it reminded me of a rain that started off spotting, stirred up, then rose to storm.
LS: All of us agree that it's about building the song, not rocking out. It's become easy now; the interactions - this approach seems so much more powerful.
Z: And not only instrumentally, there are lovely harmonies, choral progressions, even rounds...
LS: Yes, everybody can sing well and it sounds beautiful whether we're rising to multi-part harmonies or in unison. It's a wall of sound.
RY: We do love to do that, but try to vary the music... though nothing punches through as much as a wall of vocals.

Above photos by the 'magnificient' Alicia Rose

Z: Laurel, what does the band think of all these dark lyrics Richie writes?
LS: It's only through interviews like this that I learn what's behind the songs. There have only been a few times I've known exactly.
RY: It's more important that people interpret the lyrics for themselves, finding their own meanings. Songs can be ruined by finding out...
Z: Maybe, but I still want to ask you about another song on your new album - A Field Report, on it you sing "A field report to you oh my god", this is America so I need to ask, is that "Oh my God!" the expression or is it directed to an actual God?
RY: It's directed to a God idea, I'm somewhat agnostic.
Z: And you sing phrases like "sounds of children laughing make my eyes bleed" & "teeter-toters and daughters are things I'll never have in my back yard"
RY: Well, I was struck by this Mother as I was rummaging in some charity bins - her child was screaming, squirming, she was exhausted, but somehow it seemed to be what she wanted. I found a toy trumpet, a dirty diaper and a $5 note (which paid for the trumpet). And a few of the band intend to have children, but not me. Although I sort of know what it's like, because when I was growing up my Father was always working and my Mother was very depressed, staying in bed. I'm the oldest of four sons and with my next brother we sort of raised the others. [Note - I also asked brother Dillan, (the three younger brothers form the band 'Brothers Young') about his oldest brother's lyrics. He said yes, he could understand where they came from].
LS: Well this [Loch Lomond], is our baby.
RY: Yes, but I'm kind of sad. Maybe I do have it in me: Once I nearly drowned, & as I was taken out to sea I bargained that if only I survived I would go back, get a girlfriend, get married, have a family. As the current turned and I got swept back to land I gradually unwound the bargains... OK I'll get married, but no family - then it became, I'll have a relationship, but no marriage... by the time I was ashore, everything was as it was.
The other thing Young's brother Dillan told me was that it's trendy to be dark and bleak, but most of that was phony but his brother was real. I agree, Richie Young is the genuine article, and the exceptional talent behind him are the perfect foil. I found 16 year olds that latch onto it because of what it says, and 70 year olds who love the beauty of the music. Loch Lomond really is a deep, isolated but ultimately unforgettable and serene place, and so is the loch that shares the name.

Loch Lomond are: RITCHIE YOUNG: vocals, guitar, percussion; SCOTT MAGEE: bass clarinet, drums, vocals; LAUREL SIMMONS: piano, celeste, vocals; HEATHER BRODERICK: cello, piano, celeste, vocals; JADE ECKLER: vocals; AMANDA LAWRENCE: viola, vocals; DAVE DEPPER: bass, vocals; PIA DA SILVA: vocals
With much assisitance from: NICK JAINA: accordian, trumpet, vocals; DOUG JENKINS: inspiration, cello. Their recordings are highly recommended.

The Eels: Three little words towards a slippery slope?

2008-04-28T23:29:16+00:00

As the Eels tour "An Evening With Eels" winds on through Australia, the question of whether the great Mark Everett could sustain his brilliance raised it's ugly head. Read how The Eels came through the test:

Once you've been watching live rock acts for a number of years you learn to be wary of any performer who announces not a show, but "An Evening With...". This usually signals that the artist has reached such a peak of acclaim that they feel they can indulge their loyal fans with all manner of personal trivia instead of actually playing music. It can also mean that they don't have any new material, or that they are bereft of new ideas and are bored with the stuff that made them big in the first place...

Yet another worrisome indicator ahead of this performance was that Eels official web site still seems to weigh heavily on the 2000-2001 albums (both brilliant btw), the last new stuff coming in 2005 - newer releases being either live or old out-takes.

So it was with some trepidation that I caught the 2008 Eels tour, not wanting to be witness to a possible fall. Surely Everett couldn't be as bad as Elvis Costello was in London that time: Costello cosied up in smaller theatres with no band, talking, showing pointless holiday snaps, using a silly 'wheel-of-fortune' for some game he thought up while only playing occasional medleys of songs and completing none.

Making your 'An Evening With' tour work could be a bigger challenge than making it in the first place.

If you don't know it by now, Everett is the son of a famous quantum physicist who proposed the possibility of parallel universes & exchanged letters with Einstein. In true 'An Evening With' otherworldliness, the show opened with a one-and-a-half hour documentary... Yes at least that long, and of course it was our hero going about rehashing his famous Dad's theories with numerous scientists... it was pretty interesting, gave me time to pop out for a beer and at least he didn't break into song, no Informational Science Musical.

Next came the set and SUCH relief - he didn't screw it up like others have. His chat was concise, the wit was sharp, the altercations with one loudmouth never disintegrated in the way Costello's had (Elvis was so affronted he spent 10 minutes publicly humiliating a man who was justifiably asking for his money back) AND The Eels played music.

Like the website, the playlist relied heavily on the DAISIES OF THE GALAXY and SOULJACKER albums for highlights. On stage was a full array of instruments but the only support came from 'The Chet', a hyper-talented multi-instrumentalist, playing in his home town to great acclaim. They were so competent and confident in their work it almost seemed distant, like another dimension... no. No complaints they played and played well. It should be noticed that despite a few meatier Beck-like tunes, and the hard image of Souljacker, Everett is mostly a quiet, thoughtful songwriter, more akin to Randy Newman. His touch and insight have produced many - more than a dozen, truly magnificent songs. Lately he's been doing other stuff, resolving his Father's legacy, experimenting musically and writing a bio - oh yes that was a banana skin, the Chet reading from Everett's autobiography was naff, but my abiding memory will be of them pulling off one of the slickest stage tricks I've seen; seamlessly switching from drums to piano 3 times within the song Flyswatter - literally replacing each other that is, in a truly multi-dimensional doff to his Dad - a very special moment.

Georgie James: Interview - The sound of chalk with cheese

2008-04-20T17:27:16+00:00

Georgie James - intriguing, pop yet not, fresh act but proven class, soft rock with a hard edge? I caught up with the contrary duo, Laura Burhenn & John Davis, on their West coast radio and TV promotional tour, and for a minimal set - live at the Artistery, Portland.

Photos by Shervin Lainez

OK, you're melodic, you have great harmonies, and pop influences going back to the 60's - but why do I like your music? Where does that edge come from?

John: I have a background in punk, and love all that freak-beat energy, The Jam, The Who etc. I think I've maintained what I wanted of the energy and edge that was there with my previous band Q And Not U.
Laura: And I wanted 'louder', I was fine with what I was doing, but we have more to offer together.

But there are also many neat twists of tempo and switches of attack in your music, sort of like XTC...

J: Drums and Wires, English Settlement and Black Sea, especially, are among my all time favourites, yes they're an influence too.
L: I dislike talking about influences, of course they exist but for me they're absorbed - processed not catalogued. Songs emerge from everything that's in there... I feel music is the core way to communicate.

Both Washington D.C based Laura Burhenn & John Davis are no novices - Davis has almost a decade of touring and recordings, particularly with former band Q And Not U. Burhenn was an established singer-songwriter who released 'Wanderlust' on her own label before joining up with Davis.

Q & Eh?

How many swans do you recommend, per bathtub?
J: Zero, I need my space.
L: Two, because they travel in pairs don't they? Don't they mate for life like crabs?
Maybe, but you don't want crabs in your bathtub...

Which of you has the greater corporate management potential?
J: (points at L: ) Her, definitely.

Tell me about Mexico & you
L: I don't know what you're talking about.
J: I've never really been there, but I'd sure like to go...

Best Gig you ever were at?
J: Fugazi - either April '92 at the Sanctuary Theatre in DC, it was my first experience of a real punk show, it was scary or again at the Washington monument Aug '93, seeing Fugazi was a life changer, it was scary.
L: P.J.Harvey - I'd seen her in a festival performance, she was experimenting and it was terrible - I was really disappointed, but later at a small venue I saw her again.
Just the three piece and her with the red Gibson?
L: Yes, and she's so small yet her voice was so great, I loved it. Oh and Lou Reed, that has to be up there.

Do you know how to dig a pony?
J: No. But I like the song.
L: I don't even know what that phrase means.

Did you ever think the moon really was made of Cheese?
L: No
J: No

What's your favourite Myth?
L: I never got into the whole Greek/Roman myth thing... even though I have degree in Lit. There was a trivia question, about Icarus, & I love that myth, it was 'What sea did he fall into?' and I couldn't remember.
J: The Aegean.
L: Yes, I worked that out of course. It's more that I didn't know right away. I was raised in a religious home, so our myths were more biblical.
Does the American propensity towards religion show up in your music?
J: No, I'm not religious... but I like the themes of devotion, passion. betrayal... especially in older religious music.
L: I could talk for days about this, my Grandfather was a Methodist minister, but I gave up church at 13 because of an incident [of hypocrisy].

Have you collected, or do you collect, anything?
L: I have never collected anything, ever. And now I seem to want less & less.
J: Yes: as a kid, the usual stuff - baseball cards, comics. Now records and BOMP magazine.
L: But sometimes I think I should have, I see people with these amazing collections of things...
But you wouldn't do it, would you?
L No, it's just not in me.

Many Cd's have just a couple of good songs, 'Places' by Georgie James (Saddle Creek Records) - offers much more: The interchange between the duo's vocals, the strength of the melodies and the tasty harmonies mean that even the weaker songs grow on you. Not too experimental, but constantly shifting to keep interest, this is a well recommended buy.

Your lyrics seem important - some serious subjects dealt with indirectly?

L: Yes, that's right, for instance on songs like Cake Parade -, serious but with uplifting music.

Stunning track - one of the best concerning war. Up there with "Melt The Guns' - even 'Universal soldier'. And John, I noticed you like Ricky Gervais

J: Yes, it's like sarcastic fuel, and I like inside jokes, personal embarrassments.

Your 'Need Your Needs' video features a book, do you take any inspiration from novels?

L: I'm definitely inspired by literature and art; and John reads millions of books, so it has to have an effect.

J: Yes, but I can't think of any specific song that directly relates to a book. I'm more inspired by albums, I remember discovering a Bread LP in a [charity shop]. My Father hated it, but I was hooked.

You know they use Bread for Muzak these days?

J: Yes, but there's something about David Gate's writing, all the hits were his.

No writing conflicts then, between you?

L: No, we're fine.

How about More Lights, which I particularly like, who did the writing on that track?
L: We both wrote parts of it, it's John's song and I wrote the part where I sing... that's typical of how we work

J: That's one of the songs I like least. It doesn't express enough of what I wanted to say.

L: I'm surprised that John doesn't like it, for me it works perfectly, the juxtaposition of light and dark - and co-incidentallly, just after we recorded that I went out to find my car had been broken into in a dark alley and cursed the lack of a streetlight, then realised, that's the song.

But as you both write within each song there's less division of credit, sort of like Lennon & McCartney?

J: I liked that about how their songs were credited, we just took it a step further with our name.

Despite their experience of big venues and media exposure, the band enjoyed playing at the community based, all ages venue The Artistery, Portland: "These places are great', said Davis, 'they listen, they really care, and I started out in places like this, so I appreciate what they do.

What about the name being a kind of androgynous merger?

J: We have a few stories about the name. Yes we wanted something neutral, first we came up with Georgie, then we wanted a great pop second name (you know like Idol, Star etc.) but Fame was already taken of course.

So the name was actually inspired by Georgie Fame?!

J: Yes, absolutely.

Le Loup & Ruby Suns: Less is more.... more or less.

2008-04-06T23:05:36+00:00

Two emergent bands opt for decidedly different approaches to delivering their swirling polyphonies of sound.

Holocene, Portland 4/08: Ruby Suns and Le Loup

Sam Simkoff leads 8-person Le Loup on vocals, he writes the songs, fiddles around on banjo and delivers an odd pants-down coiled-snake energy. And, you can't get away from it, Simkoff embraces the stare over rim of an emaciated Elvis Costello, Sam can't stand up for falling down.

Remarkably, considering the evident familial affability of the band, he pulled it all together from Craig'slist just last year. But are there too many parts for a coherent whole? In these very cool, but 'honest' venues like Holocene, no fancy lighting hides inactive players, and the stage crams large bands at close quarters, hard-lit. There's visual distraction and interest everywhere: During the all-in crescendos they're all involved, but is it tight enough for complex polyphonies? And how do you become inconspicuous during quiet interludes wafting like incidental plants at the fence-line?

Q & Eh? Le Loup

Would it be fair to compare you to the band Boston?

May: Flattering
Nicole: I like Boston, I listen to them every morning and dance...

How many swans do you recommend, per bathtub?

Nicole: Fifty, I have fifty.
So you have a big place?
Nicole: Yes, back in Washington DC...
A house?
Nicole: yes, a big white...

Do you use an alarm clock?
May: My cell phone
Nicole: Me too. All of us.
So you all wake up with cell phones?
Nicole: Yes we all sleep together, in one room.
And all your phones go off in unison?
Nicole: I'm not kidding, touring's hard.

What's the first logo that springs into your mind, and do you like it?
May: Shell... is that alright?
It's what it is.
Nicole: Pepco - that's a gas station too isn't it?

When did you last run, and why?
May: Green Lake - to keep in shape.
Nicole: Lake Austin
Bit of a coincidence that, both lakes, and why?
Nicole: I was running from our hordes of fans
Ah yes...

What are a few of your favourite things? + Can you make it scan...?

May & Nicole joined by Dan:
Hot chocolate, yoga, and a lay-down seat in the van;
Quaaludes, coffee and micro-brew and sleeping in my own bed.
Add that verse next time you sing it, thanks.

May Tabol (guitar and violin) says that Le Loup aim to keep their multiple parts in order by orchestrating simple contributions, and it's evident that there aren't many competing egos in the band, no dueling soloists. The delightful Nicole Keenan on keys also played the French horn skillfully, but all too elusively.
More horn, less banjo then Sam?

Well no, because on the CD Simkoff's banjo flits like whimsical dancer and a sound approaching Mercury Rev's emerges.

Despite the title, Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millenium General Assembly, the songs are well-penned, but oddly themed with endings and gods and worlds, a bit like an inverse of early Hawkwind albums. That the printed credits don't list the band members, inferring a near solo effort by Simkoff, but it is well worth buying, and includes a great hope and hook closer that would befit A-House. On it Simkoff sings "This is the end... and restless potential"; that's what they have, that's what's there to be resolved.

In contrast, The Ruby Suns have trimmed down to a 3-piece, yet they are anything but sparse. If it is sometimes a luxury to see each part played live, that's not something that Ryan McPhun sees as necessary. This night he played the drum-kit, standing up, in occasional explosive bursts, but is happy to use pre-recorded beats in other shows. McPhun and the two New Zealanders Amee Robinson and Imogen Taylor, all sing and layer synthesized sounds expertly. But as guitars switched hands and bodies nudged around all the other bands' gear onstage, reaching to hit loop feeds and grab this and that there was an inevitably a phrase or two chopped short.

Not that it mattered much, even though McPhun was unwell, he forced a nice pent-up performance out of himself and as the band moved between songs they huddled in pairs like laboratory technicians discussing progress or test results, while the layered sounds swelled, sometimes indeed, rather like Stereolab.

Q & Eh? Ruby Suns
What do you find ironic about the Alanis Morissette song "Isn't It Ironic"?

Amee: It's not fucking ironic. She doesn't know how to use the word.
You're the first person I've asked who realises that.
Amee: Yeah, all those things are just coincidences.

Have you ever thought of having a pet pig?
Yeah! I'm a big animal fan, and in New Zealand you can get minature ones, and they behave like pet dogs.

Potatoes or rice?
Brown rice.

What do you always forget to take on tour?
... [lots of blank space...]... more blank space]...
OK let it go...
No. MARMITE! Oh! I have a hangover and I want marmite - marmite on toast.

The rest of this Q& EH was snatched by an avid fan (let us know what it said luv....

McPhun led on most vocals, but all three have excellent vocal control and fine sense of harmony as well as rhythm - Robinson's voice, in particular was delightful when more prominent. On the latest CD, Sea Lion, there are strands of the Go Betweens strewn like fallen sheets, also, from the first stumble on stage McPhun reminded me of David Byrne, and on songs like Oh Mojave there it is, what you wish Byrne was doing now.

The Ruby Suns joined Le Loup's on stage for their closer, a big acoustic party and a big happy troop. The Ruby Suns, with a couple more years behind them, have trimmed and emerged with a fine sound. Lets hope Le Loup can advance without breaking up the family.

Le Loup contact INFO {at} LELOUPMUSIC {dot} NET
Simkoff photo: ronan thenadey - photographe

Ruby Suns appear on Lil Chief records http://www.lilchiefrecords.com/FUN website at http://lilchiefrecords.com/therubysuns/ drawn by Amee!

Brainwave: Common Senses

2008-04-04T16:09:51+00:00

Brainwave: Common Senses Exhibit at Exit Art Center, New York

Brainwave, exercising your common senses.

Upon visiting the Brainwave: Common Senses exhibition at Exit Art in NYC there is quite a diverse collection of pieces ranging everywhere from paintings to artificial environments and much more managing to somehow touch on different areas of the brain. Some actually reaching in and tugging at memories using stimuli within the piece, others using interactive technology to present hallways to recollections, and more, some which even incorporated the use of actual brainwave activity to convey an idea. Brainwave's exhibits explore sense perception, memory, emotion, and logic through art, music, and other ideas. In selecting artists and pieces for the exhibit, Co Founders Jeanette Ingberman and Papo Colo sent out open calls to artists and also included a few whom they had been researching.

The artists whose works are on display include:

Suzanne Anker, David Bowen, Steve Budington, Phil Buehler, Andrew Carnie, George Jenne, Daniel Marguiles and Chris Sharp, Fernando Orellana and Brendan Burns, Jamie O'Shea, SERU, Devorah Sperber, Naho Taruishi, Dustin Wenzel.

Among the pieces leaving a lasting impression on the brain is Brooklyn, New York Artist George Jenne?s Mechanism for Innocent Obscenities (2008). The piece which is constructed using a system of rotating gears and objects referred to by the artist as ?tokens? are cast in a neon green plastic and set against a black background,

catching the eye at first because of the color contrast. Taking a deeper look, it triggers pieces of memories from different moments in ones life. The memories at times being both exact moments and others being memories of feelings unable to be pinpointed visually or directly. A few random objects in the piece set off individual bells, as did the combination and juxtaposition of the objects as well. This piece was able to exercise the use of the three steps of the memory process, which include encoding the chosen material, storing the information either in long term or short term memory, and the third stage being retrieval of the memory.

Sleep Waking (2008) by Fernando Orellana and Brendan Burns is a 15?tall bipedal robot which determines its movements by using recorded brainwave activity during rapid eye movement (R.E.M.) sleep. The robot performs a series of different movements varying from sedentary positions to what looks like theatrical dances and even some that resemble karate moves. Watching the robot in action leaves one wondering about the connection between dreams and sleep, dreams, sleep and the waking self, and what really goes on in our mind when low voltage brainwaves and irregular heartbeats take over during R.E.M. What also is of interest in this piece is the relationship between humans and robots. As we find robots and robotic technology more present in our everyday life, it brings up the question of just how human, or humanly capable are robots, and even what role they will take as the evolution of ?their kind? progresses.

Approaching Phil Buehler's installation entitled Windows of the Soul (2008) Without first reading the information surrounding the piece, is a bit disquieting. A huge video projected on the floor of various peoples faces whose eyes are blacked out with a narrow line, the eyes being redirected to a narrow horizontal video screen which is suspended above the video of the faces. The video lasts about five minutes projecting images of numerous psychiatric patients who were committed to a psychiatric hospital in the 1950?s. The images came from the original photos taken upon admittance into the hospital. The video projection of the photo montage bestows an uneasy feeling, somehow viewing the images prior to knowing what was being conveyed is still eerie, the black and white photos grainy at times leaves a sort of haunting in the atmosphere. Reading the details of the piece confirms the uneasiness but also somehow forces the reexamination of the human being lost at times when people become labeled, categorized, and generalized to one specific aspect of who they are. Viewing the images both from the front view and the back view is the same except for the elongation and slight distortion of the floor projections showing the actual faces, the eyes remain the same suspended above, but the contrast of the slightly distorted image as opposed to the front normal view brought out another aspect of the exhibit, conveying the idea that this is in a sense how society views the ?insane?. Phil Buehler has definitely mastered the art of capturing a feeling in ruins. It almost feels as if he is able to transport you for a moment to another time and place, weather it be on Ellis Island or to an Airplane Graveyard, or in this case through this photo collection Windows of the Soul arranging them so as to ask, are you able to read madness in the eyes.

For a truly personal take on the brainwave exhibition Naho Taruishi?s Close your Eyes (2007) comes closest. Utilizing the eyelids as an internal projection screen. Questioning the idea of actually ?seeing?. In this piece to see one must close their eyes. Therefore in a sense we are viewing blindly. By incorporating the studies of color theory and consciousness Taruishi?s work plays on the association between darkness and light flickering at different speeds to explore the way one perceives internal and external phenomena, simultaneously. As reflecting light is projected upon the retina, using it as a video screen so begins the process of seeing. The retina being comprised of the photo receptor, bipolar, and ganglion layers of neurons sends signals that generate electrical impulses which in turn are sent to the brain via the optic nerve where they are decoded into comprehensible images creating an individual vision. Viewing this piece at first is quite different, where the individual viewing is actually the conductor of their own movie of memories and visions of sorts, originated by Taruishi?s single channel video. You can almost feel the movie, one without words or sounds, without perfected images or a defined plot. A movie that is none the less intensely powerful.

Exit Art?s Brainwave exhibition is an interesting and personal test of the senses. It is a vast array of different feelings and emotions using the senses to channel them out. The artists works are amazing to view up close and again at times to interact with. Papo Colo and Jeanette Ingberman?s Art Center is definitely worth visiting.

Special Thanks to Lauren Rosati Assistant Curator at Exit Art.

http://www.exitart.org/site/pub/main/index.html

Pig Whipped Punk Blues

2008-03-27T15:31:22+00:00

Hillstomp - On Tour, McMenamins Grand Lodge, Forest Grove The hype around Hillstomp is all about fun - "Cans & buckets drum-kit & rambunctious slide guitar" - But this is no noisy mess; it's the blues with a whip, hill-punk with melody; Hillstomp burst out of the garage like wild horses, whinnying new songs that you'd swear were great old ones.

Think Bron-Y-Aur Stomp from Led Zeppelin III and you're inside the blues-inspired dimension of Hillstomp; throw in anything percussive that gets thrown out, plus an old kitchen sink... but then notice it's not only loose, it's all hanging together like a master puppetry, it's a cacophony of quality.

I used to live in the same London flats as The Pogues, a band Hillstomp have two things in common with. Both got hold of a music genre and whipped it up into a more energetic, sometimes frenzied, form. And just as most Pogues songs weren't old classics vamped up, but originals out of Shane MacGowan's
head; so too, Hillstomp do a few covers (especially of R.L. Burnside), but most are originals. Their songs just sound like time-worn classics. Time worn, yet timeless.

Q & Eh? - Hillstomp

Would it be fair to compare you to the band Boston?

John: God I hope not! Henry: I really hope so, I have a deep love for Boston, why, it was my dream when I started this band that we'd become the new Boston... etc..
Have you ever thought of having a pet pig?
Henry: No. John: Yes, we've discussed it, but only if it stayed small.
Potatoes or rice?

John: Potatoes, definitely. Henry: Rice, I'm watching my waistline for the ladies, brown of course.

Brown what, brown ladies, brown rice, brown hippies?

Henry: Hah, ladies, both I mean & brown hippies.
How many swans do you recommend, per bathtub?
Henry: No fewer than six... (grins)... it's a very large bathtub

In your mansion?

Henry: Yes, it's MC Hammer's old place... we had a chance to acquire it, and... you know...
Do you use an alarm clock?
Henry: No, I don't need to get up, I'm a nightworker John: Always, every day, but I never get up.
Beer/Wine/Whiskey or?
John: Any and all, but not anymore... that was then Henry: IPA. Favorite is Bridgeport, some are too hoppy
Given free unrestricted travel, where would you go?
Henry: Australia! I don't know why, it just feels like a last frontier

You mean the outback then?

Henry: All of it: I'd go all around the outside and then into the outback. John: Ireland, I'm drawn to it, the music, the people.
What's the first logo that springs into your mind?
Henry: Pet pig! Pig in a cage...

Whose logo is that?

Henry: Ours, it could be...
What's the best use for WD 40?
Henry: Gears on a bycycle, that's what I use it for

You still ride a bike?

Henry: Yep, all the time. John: (Hesitates) Henry: Remember this is a family show. John: (self censored ).... flamethrowing

Really?

John: don't try it.

When did you last run, and why?
John: Four years ago - in an attempt to make last call at a bar down the road.

Kammerer sings "NE Portland 3am; running from the ghosts again, I cannot tell the ghosts from men." But uncannily, this still sounds like an ancient lament, with other lines like "nothing sweeter in this world, than a blue eyed Carolina girl; the men in Carolina know, you love them well before they go." only the Portland reference gives it away. Although blues phrasing doesn't readily accommodate rambling storytelling, Hillstomp's conjured up street scenes and imagined journeys are worthy of comparison with Tom Waits's, a pared-down Waits perhaps.
Photo left and above: Desiree Fredenburg

Most of the lyrics and song ideas are Kammerer's, heavily filtered and adorned by the deceptively musical Johnson - you can't make bashing on found objects sound that good unless you are steeped in a music background as he is. By contrast, Kammerer is a self-taught, bedroom, 'I needed an art credit' guitarist; quirkily using his index finger for slide rather than his pinky. They create a surprisingly big textured sound using no pre-records. But It's that songwriting that set Hillstomp apart from other lo-fi blues derivative forerunners like Doo Rag who got snared in a limited sound.

The CDs:

I recommend buying each of their first 3 CD's; 'One Word', 'The Woman that Ended the World' and 'After Two but Before Five'(live), they're fairly lo-fi recordings, but are sure to become collectibles. When the current tour ends in summer they band are going back into the studio with more money to spend on quality sound, it should be good. As far as future plans, they'll stay a duo for now, convinced they have 2-3 more full length albums in them yet .

The band use harmonica mics for their vocals, Kammerer insists that modern vocal mics have too many rich tones and that old broadcast, or harmonica mics, are actually better for picking up lyrics. It seems he's right, it sounded great live - however, I wish they'd use a normal mic for the between song chatter, so they don't sound like Steven Hawkins all show.

Nothing lasts for ever though, so catch Hillstomp soon, enjoy their contraptions, the energy, the trance-blues mixed up with hillbilly punk, so you can say you were there; because this band is something. As Kammerer replied when I remarked that the ramshackle image was a little misleading, "No, this, I'm taking really seriously" and Johnson... well he just stinks of rhythm and magic buckets.

Support Footnote:

Opening for Hillstomp was the solo incarnation of Rollie Tussing, a brilliant guitarist and dazzlingly knowledgeable regular on the local Portland scene. For this performance he was a one-man band playing up-tempo blues, and he warmed things up perfectly. Tussing struggles a little with vocal range, and occasionally uses a kazoo - which isn't my favourite instrument - yet occasionally finds a perfect voice. On his myspace he cites the aforementioned Tom Waits as an influence, and he almost settles on a Waits type vocal at points. But it's the mastery of the guitar that grips the audience - you get the impression that he could play anything well, and that he's as one with his instrument (careful how you quote that one...). Tussing told me he has several other musical threads, too many, but whatever he's doing next time around it should be worth a night out.

Death For No Reason

2008-03-06T17:43:59+00:00

Are sophistic arguments sufficient defence for artists who gain notoriety by ?documenting? animals? deaths? Can the capture and starvation of an animal in exhibit be justified by its oblique commentary on society? What, if anything, is being said under the cover of art? As another show with dubious animal death content opens in San Francisco there?s a different question to ask, one that the artists should ask of themselves.

A dog is tied up in a gallery, deprived of any food or water and left to die. A photographer cuts and pastes animal heads on other objects digitally, but bizarrely, only after she has killed them. Another artist records video clips of six animals being clubbed to death by sledgehammer.

This is irritating moral territory, one doesn?t want to provide artists and their sponsors publicity for work that?s of no artistic value, but if the exhibitions are ignored there is a tacit acceptance of them. Therefore it?s necessary to identify that the dog was captured, tied up and exhibited to die by Guillermo Habacuc Vargas; that the woman who finds it necessary to kill various animals before photoshopping them is Nathalia Edenmont; and that it?s Adel Abdessemed, as announced in this publication?s news last week, whose exhibit includes videos of animals being clubbed to death.

Adel Abdessemed, Don�t Trust Me,
2008. Video still. Courtesy of the
artist and David Zwirner Gallery.

The argument has been made that these kinds of exhibit are justified if they challenge our sensibilities or confront our social, political and cultural norms. This is undoubtedly true and is sometimes valid. There is a case for shocking people so that an artist can intercede a new slant on some situation, directly or obliquely. But this can be done, and has been done, very effectively and many times, without having to kill anything anew. There is plenty of death out there to work with.

Nathalia Edenmont

What is Edenmont?s point? Her promoters have even extended the usual justifications, speciously claiming that her work advances animal rights (a nonsense calmly and thoroughly debunked by Ellie Maldonado here). It?s seems that Edenmont?s work is ultimately so weak without the sensationalized fact of her slaughtering her subjects that it otherwise doesn?t merit much attention.

Vargas, who is one of six chosen artists for the Central American Biennial in Honduras, defends himself by stating that the dog was unwanted; a nuisance around the makeshift corrugated homes in a shantytown, and that he paid some children to help capture it. So what? Is he saying that because nobody cares about the dog he should be able to prove how little that matters? Whether or not he meant to, Vargas does almost make a point about indifference ? the photograph of the emaciated dog in it?s last throes being ignored by gallery goers chatting, sipping and posing around, is disturbing. Point made, but justifiable? Where can you take this line of reasoning? There are plenty of people who no one seems to care about, some people don?t care at all about Sr. Vargas. And again, the art, the rest of the exhibit, the tomatoes and fruits, are of little artistic merit.

"Natividad"
The dog starved to death by Guillermo "Habacuc" Vargas. Securing
Vargas a space representing Costa Rica in the upcoming Central
American Biennial in Honduras.

Only Abdessemed backs off the killings by saying that they ?were to happen anyway? and that he could not have prevented them. Hmmm, are we supposed to swallow the story that some farmer routinely slaughters an peculiarly odd mix of animals by sledgehammer? (Abdessemed ?chose? the six - a sheep, a horse, an ox, a pig, a goat, and a doe ? from a wider number of animals ? is this some sadistic ark?). This is guff.

Think how many blows would it take to kill a horse or an Ox? Even a goat would need several direct smashes on the skull to kill it. Abdessemed doesn?t claim to be exposing any cruelty that might be worthy of art, instead the press release from the San Francisco Art Institute in sickly prose declares that ?the multiplicity of stimuli imbue the work with an instantaneous efficiency that circumvents categorization, making typical moral and cultural constraints seem beside the point.?

Beside what point? Not ?social, cultural, moral, [or] political implications? the blurb states, no? because ?such questions [are] now verging on irrelevance?; oh really?

Better then to quote Morrissey of The Smiths, ?It?s death for no reason and death for no reason is murder?.

Looking at this critically and realising what?s wrong here doesn?t require extreme animal rights activism or vegan sensibility. It?s the selfishness.

It?s been called psychotic narcissism but that gives it too grand a gloss for these sorry exhibits by artists who may be nothing more than sadistic fools. It?s selfishness through arrogance and self-glorification. The artists should ask themselves a simple question. Why not put myself in there, in place of the animal? Too shocking? Yes, and just as stupid, but without the shock these artists wouldn?t matter, and that? is their real fear.

"The Dark Lord of Photoshop"

2008-03-07T20:02:39+00:00

Mexican photographer, Javier S. Sanudo (Frodo 47 on Flickr), balances a trained eye in the classic beauty of portraiture, with his own dark imaginings through the creative use of photo-manipulation.

The best way to describe Frodo 47's photography is simply, 'finding the beauty in darkness'. Sa�udo's personal photo series "Creacion de Imagenes" was inspired by "images of madness and indifference you see on the streets." He then twists the images until they take the form of his sometimes nightmarish imaginings.
"I have always preferred to be alone, creating my own 'bubble' in my mind."

Frodo 47, a.k.a. Javier S. Sa�udo, was born in 1981and has lived all his life in Mexico City. Like many artists, music was the artist's introduction into personal creativity. "Since I was very young, music has been my curse, I've been playing guitar and listening to music all day and night. For more than eight years, I used to play in Death Metal bands," says Sa�udo. He says he has always been interested in images like photography, paintings, video clips, movies. But, it was not until he saw Joel-Peter Witkin?s photos that he got became interested in taking photographs as a main means of expression. "The way he shows human ways of being made me try to do the same, but in my own way."
Sa�udo is also influenced by H.R. Giger, John Santerineross, Herr Buchta , Jeffrey Scott, Floria Sigismondi, Misha Gordin among others.

Sa�udo studied photography at Escuela Activa de Fotograf�a (EAF), taking courses about digital photo, developing personal projects and image analysis. He says he learned from the technical matters there, but has learned much more by by constantly viewing photographs, and practicing on his own. Sa�udo says, "I'm always trying to get the best the shot, factoring the lighting, interesting perspectives and meaningful symbols."

Now days, he pays the bills as a free-lance commercial photographer, doing fashion shoots and band promotion. But don't let his day-job fool you. Although, the images are stunning in composition, it's his personal work that is his art. Sa�udo states, "I take some photographs to make money. The more commercial stuff, I enjoy doing for the technical matters. But, I don't enjoy it as much as I do with my personal work because of the meaning in it.

Sa�udo is still very influenced by music, I'm always listening to music while I?m shooting or working on the computer. I also enjoy working with bands, taking live concert photos, band photos and artwork for their album booklets. "I combine what I feel with the music I listen to when I'm working - sometimes taking the lyrics from some of my favorite songs and make my own representation of them."

Nudes are essential in Sa�udo's work because, "nudity is the most pure and vulnerable way of existence. I've tried to get some actors, professional models, friends and even myself as model. I?m also starting to work on some portrait projects with real people who have suffered - had difficulties in their lives that make them do really strong and painful acts."

When asked why so many of his works are untitled, the artist responds "Normally, I prefer to not put titles to my work. it?s very interesting for me to know what people think and feel while watching my work unless they?ve misunderstood totally what I?m expressing. That?s my game when I leave my works untitled, and I?m ready to play it."

Sa�udo explains the benefit of photo manipulation. "Sometimes having money is not enough to get a lot of production, locations, etc. Sometimes I want my photos to look surreal and match the ideas I have, so that's why photo-manipulation has been a great tool for me. I use photo-manipulation as a creative weapon, not a corrective one. I'm trying to be able to express what I'm interested - fear, pain, suffering, death, mental diseases, human behavior, anti-religion and psychology."

While his images are now represented on the Saatchi Gallery website and are gaining popularity, Sa�udo remains humble. "I'm not bringing any important messages from outer space or anything, it's just my way to express myself through my main passion. I prefer to leave my work to the open interpretation of the viewer. I'm just working on representing surreality as realistically as I can. I'm glad that people are interested in what I do."

See more of Frodo's work at

www.flickr.com/photos/ciphoto

www.ciphotodesign.com

or on the Saatchi gallery website http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/photographers

St Vincent: Spellbound - Annie Clark, a new sorceress.

2008-04-12T17:06:33+00:00

St. Vincent & Foreign Born, Doug Fir Lounge, Portland 3/08: While the USA frets over the possibility of a woman running for the presidency, several other women with creative genius or determined talent have transformed the female presence in rock and popular music. You might pick Chrissie Hynde, Annie Lennox and Alanis Morissette; but it's a more edgy feminine triumvirate that compares obliquely to a new major talent.... St Vincent & Foreign Born live at the Doug Fir, Portland, Oregon

Here?s a chance, a rare opportunity, to catch someone who is truly exceptional performing live before they get famous. If you are among those of us who consider Kate Bush, Bjork and Polly Jean Harvey to be three of the more outstanding female artists of the last three decades, then get ready for an heir apparent, Annie Clark, who?s touring now.

St. Vincent is the band of Annie Clark. A 25-year-old is also guitarist for two The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Steven's touring band. ?Marry Me?, St. Vincent's debut record, is now available on Beggars Banquet.
The touring line-up includes ?billy?, ?daniel?, and ?walker? who are drums, violin and clarinet+bass+keyboards, each quality musicians who sail through the complexity of Clark's songs breezily.

Clark, who wrote and performed all the music on her first release ?Marry Me?, calls herself St. Vincent? after the small Caribbean island of St. Vincent? But she?s a Texan, so perhaps it?s where Mom comes from? Anyhow, it?s where her music comes from that?s more of a wonder - look at the comparisons:

- Yes she plays lead guitar, as PJ Harvey does, but not LIKE PJ Harvey does, more like Hendrix - but in raging bursts amid some enchanting kaleidoscope of mostly delicate sounds. Or, on the only ordinary song in the live show, nailing blues-rock like The Groundhogs? Tony McPhee incarnate!

- And yes, that complexity of weaving sounds is Bjorkish (you heard that here first), but it?s less ?weird effects? - more consummate timing: using space and surprising combinations to literally stun the crowd.

- And her voice, as clear as Kate Bush but without that screech. The songs? Clark's first offering is already better than most of Bush?s, Kate relied on occasional inspirational songs: If Annie Cook finds one soon she?ll rocket to fame.

St. Vincent has been nominated
for best female artist at
www.plugawards.com
- she has my vote

Even John Zorn or Xeena Parkins might perk their ears up at St. Vincent?s bursts of noise, but the key difference is that Clark isn?t discordant and she resolves her songs. Whether it?s bells or sudden outbursts, the brief excursions complement the songs like peircings; and you hold on, in suspense, knowing she?ll bring you back to the charmed space, to be spellbound again.

* * *

Less unusual, but also a bit special are the opening band ?Foreign Born?.

Foreign Born
Apparently four scruffily bearded lads from the some California redwood forest, but probably LA and wherever they were I think they were holed up with a stash of old Iggy Pop LPs.

Despite, or maybe because of, some over-echoed mixing (which Annie Cook complained about too) the band?s sound took me back in time to The Hacienda in Manchester early 1980s. ?Wedding Present? with a real singer? I couldn?t pin them down, but impressive they were.

Their latest album ?On The Wing Now? is well worth buying ? Matt Popieluch has a Shastaesque vocal scale, the band is tight, the bass and drums are punchy and the guitar lifts and echoes emotionally without any of that dodgy rock posing. Like Iggy there is simple, good writing: matter of fact songs like ?Don?t Take Back Your Time? and others that extract stark filmic scenes and incident from these men?s lives with economy. The album closes on ?Never Wrong? (an ?anthem-in-waiting? given air-play) and I was drifting back again ? but it wasn?t Manchester, it was down the road to Echo and The Bunnymen. ?Never Wrong? gets better on each listen, and although it is not the kind of song to suit Annie Cook, everyone needs a big song to be running up that hill?

trail of destruction

2008-02-18T00:34:15+00:00

Detailing conception of the peculiar art of pianist errantry, as well as the inadvertant smashing of a sports car by the piano truck.

Over the piano my fingers flew, twirling and glancing like rays of summer sun on a rippling lake, yet it was a moonlit winter evening on a jaded Florida beach. Pianist errantry was afoot, and I was completely submerged in the Chopin I was playing. The keyboard was a map to the canyons of my mind. I shut my eyes and cut acoustic swaths through the ravines and chasms of the instrument. People were around me, yes, I felt them through the warm, wet curtains of sound that howled out of my piano, but where exactly I was did not at the moment matter. The pianist errant cannot be concerned with such things while playing for it is his exclusive obligation to devote every faculty to revealing the glories of the classical piano to those in need, to those who have never heard it, and to those who cannot afford to hear it. The pianist errant is bound by moral and natural law to give himself completely to the music wherever in the world he may be, indoors or out, and so I played on with equal disregard for the caressing breeze and the twittering garble of my surprised and unsuspecting public. I played on, lost in the sweeping sounds of Chopin, absolutely ambivalent to the physical world around me. I played on, absorbed in the glittering energy of the stars, sublimely unaware that behind me my lime green pickup truck had loosed its parking brake and was picking up speed as it rolled down a slight incline towards a shiny convertible. You may think I am making this up but I am not.

The snappy sports car was not the first windmill tilted by the pianist errant. The peripheral story, the sideshow, the ulterior narrative to the tale of pianist errantry has always been more interesting than the long droning sound of practicing and planning and pondering. The people met on the path, the corners of the world it winds through, and the changes they engender, make for the real tale. A year sailing the world with injured hands, a few months drinking looted whiskey with a Fijian rugby team after a military coup, an hour throwing buckets of water on a flaming piano in the Casbah of Tangier?all were part and parcel of my pursuit of the piano. Exactly what sort of pianist I was going to be only seemed to come into focus through these scratched and cracking lenses.

I found classical music at the late age of twenty, only after illness woke me from dreams of professional cycling. As a teenager I had taught myself a little ragtime piano, to amaze my friends and friendly females, but it was just an amusement. I never suspected how much, as my youth ebbed, the music would flow. I was studying architecture without much enthusiasm at Rice University when my hopes for the Tour de France departed and left me with just the piano in my dormitory common room. I gravitated to the instrument within a few days of quitting cycling and began to play a few of the old Scott Joplin rags.

Within a week I was playing all day long, not going to classes, not doing anything else aside from the occasional game of pool. Within two weeks a piano performance major from the Shepherd School of Music (Rice?s conservatory) lent me a score of the Chopin nocturnes ? the first classical music I ever read. Within three weeks I was practicing up to ten hours a day and it slowly yet swiftly and maybe immediately dawned on me that I had to be a pianist. My solitary and perfectionist nature, honed over years of national class cycling, told me that I would do it on my own. I bought and borrowed and burned hundreds of CDs of the classical piano repertoire, often with many pianists? readings of a single piece, and began what would become years of unremitting listening. Within a month my formal university studies, life as I knew it, and the future as I had imagined it were over. I withdrew from school, went out into the world, and began to do whatever I needed to do to support my practicing. The journey towards pianist errantry had begun.

A few years later I was reading Don Quixote on the ferry from Spain to Morocco, and an idea of what I would do with my life was planted within me:

Indeed, his mind was so tattered and torn that, finally, it produced the strangest notion any madman ever conceived, and then considered it not just appropriate but inevitable?he decided to turn himself into a knight errant, traveling all over the world with his horse and his weapons, seeking adventures and doing everything that, according to his books, earlier knights had done?and in a transport of joy over such pleasant ideas, carried away by their strange delightfulness, he hurried to turn them into reality.

- Don Quixote, vol. 1, chapter 1

Over the course of the next several days, over the next several hundred pages, it came to me with such startling clarity that it almost seemed like I had come up with it myself. I would mount a piano on a frame, and mount the frame onto large wheels that could handle cobblestones, dirt roads, curbs - anything people might reasonably walk across. I would put the frame in a truck or a van and travel the world. I would bring the music --the purest prism into the human soul-- to all those who had lived their lives without knowing such power and beauty existed. I would play outside for people from all walks of life, not to be retained exclusively by the elite, but to share music in the universal spirit in which it was written. Just as Don Quixote was no real knight errant until his books of chivalry convinced his torn and tattered brain otherwise, so had I spent so much time with my recordings and my instrument that the same conviction grew within me as well: I may have been no real concert pianist, but the beauty of my weapons convinced me otherwise and I slowly became one, preparing to travel the world with my horse and my lance, a pianist errant?

The crash was loud enough (since I am but a novice pianist errant) to shake me from my reverie upon the keyboard and induce me to gaze pensively upon the wreckage as the hysterical screams of the car?s owner began to pierce the gathered crowd. Oh jeez. She was pissed. She was crying. She had owned the car for less than a month. She had saved for years and paid cash. She was calling the cops. I got up and sort of sauntered through the crowd, receiving glances of pity and repulsion and sympathy and confusion, to inspect the damage, which was hidden by the ass end of my truck buried deep into the side of the roadster. I looked at the wound and pulled away, recoiling at the screams a mother would scream if her first child came out an oily, three-headed chipmunk. Oh yes, there would be body work. But what could I do aside from give over my insurance and say I?m sorry? The cops arrived and when they found that neither vehicle had been occupied at the time of the accident --that there were no injuries-- they actually started to laugh. Then everyone else (except the owner of the car, who, it turns out, would have to wait an entire week before it was returned in mint-like condition) started to laugh. I felt awful, really, but a smile came through. My piano still held down the moonlit beach. The pianist errant had work to do. Chopin was needed.

Mad For Cars

2008-02-10T23:07:08+00:00

Author Wallace Wyss may be more well known for his books, articles, and photography on fine automobiles, but did you know about his cross over into fine art? Wyss describes the transition as accidental, and perhaps in auto racing accidents are bad, but as the late Bob Ross has often said, "In painting there are no mistakes, only happy accidents." In this interview veteran author Wallace Wyss talks about his first steps as an emerging artist.

"Scarab 063A" Wallace Wyss, Giclee on Canvas 18"x24" Available
through ArtShows@msn.com

Artist Wallace Wyss, a native of Detroit who has lived in California since 1969, explains his passion for depicting cars in his art.

?If you grow up in Detroit, it seems that everybody is connected with the auto business in one way or another so it?s just expected you?ll aim your career toward one of what used to be known as the ?Big Three.? ?

As it turned out, when Wyss graduated from Wayne State, he went into advertising where he wrote ads for Chevrolet ?muscle cars,? i.e. high-powered cars.

He later moved to California where he worked for car magazines like Motor Trend.

His writing career took up the next few decades. It was only in June, 2007, by sheer accident, that he discovered he had talent as a painter.

?I backed into the art field accidentally,? says Wyss. ?What happened was that I was doing a book signing at a car show and made a watercolor painting of race driver Carroll Shelby to draw people over to my booth. A Miami publisher saw the painting and bought it on the spot. I decided then and there to make prints available of future paintings so more people could enjoy them.?

His first half dozen works are all Ford-themed, on purpose so that they connect with the three books he published in 2007, all on Fords. ?Two were on Carroll Shelby?s cars-- the Cobras and the Shelby Mustangs--and one on the GT40 race car and its later street descendent, the Ford GT.?

2006 Haritage Livery, Wallace Wyss Giclee on Canvas
18"x24" Available through ArtShows@msn.com

With no art education to speak of , Wyss definitely counts himself to be in the "Raw Art" camp. Says Wyss: ?Like Granma Moses, I?ve had no training, but just paints them as I sees them, you might say.?

He uses both low-tech and high-tech methods. He starts from a photograph, possibly one of the 10,000 he took for his car stories, and paints a watercolor. Then when he reaches the limit of his talent with a brush and paint, he scans the painting into Photoshop and refines the picture further.

When he?s satisfied it is ready to print, the next step is a transfer to canvas using a giclee method. The usual dimensions for the finished product are 18? x 24? gallery-wrapped.

?So far I?ve done more cars than racing personalities,? says Wyss, ?I think that?s because maybe I?m a frustrated car designer.?

His favorites are the cars of the 1960?s , especially those that raced in endurance races like the 24 Hours of LeMans. ?I liked the curves sports cars had before the shapes began to be dictated purely by wind tunnel testing,? he says. ?Today many endurance racing cars look the same but back then each marque?Ferrari, Porsche or Cobra, for example?had its own distinctive styling.?

So far one gallery in Carmel,CA has displayed his works, and currently World Class Motoring, in Agoura, Calif., has five of his giclees on display. They can also be ordered straight from his printer (ArtShows@msn.com)

?What?s holding me back is time,? says Wyss. ?it takes 15-20 days to get to that first print. And there?s so many cars that are my favorites, that I don?t know which ones to choose as the subject for the next work. But I know one thing?if I do the ones whose styling appeals to me most, there?s someone somewhere that will appreciate my choice.?

With Webbed Ears, What Will We Hear?

2008-02-09T11:06:47+00:00

Music from the internet; coming faster, more smoothly and to you, soon enough: Sod the technology ? we know about ?wired? space, Ipods and webmusic. Soon ROKU?s spawn will put music into everything small enough to hold. But will the music be worth hearing? Will it be more of the same tightly controlled FM crap? As web streamed music usurps radio, will we be liberated or not? Will old rock and rollers really NEVER die? Can good DJs stay in the business to save us from committees and computers?

You may be brain dead?

The legendary British radio DJ, John Peel, said that when he got his first break (in the US), he was amazed that he was expected to play from a list of 40 songs. Peel went on to fame by doing just the opposite.

Experts tell us that the music we like the most is the music we heard during our formulative years. The pop of our time, whatever it was during our first years of sex on rugs and raves on roll-ups, is burnt into our brains. Forever thereafter we like that music, we?ll even defend real rubbish, because we get taken back subliminally? emotionally, to a time, a place, a situation (this may explain why your friend of a slightly different age sometimes has such appalling taste).

It?s also said that we only like the new music that sounds like the old, and perhaps we get into new music just like anything else that?s an ?acquired taste?, maybe it?s an exercise in intellectual cool. Typical FM radio targets the hordes who can?t be bothered, and churns out narrow-beam genre channels with play-lists of 100 songs (or even less) for the whole station. Dead-heads who stay tuned into such stations invariably complain that there?s no new music that?s any good: How do they know? What new music do they ever hear?

Corporate radio is counting on everyone sticking to what they know - I?m counting on it all breaking apart.

Peel, on the BBC and its World Service, aired bands that no one had heard of, then only played them again if they stayed fresh with more left to say. On Peel, you heard stuff that would be big a few years later (Pink Floyd, The Cure, Radiohead and this bloke... the list is long - and your favourite is on that list). In addition to pop and rock, Peel gave exposure to punk, techno, noise, reggae and hip-hop, all before they crossed over into the mainstream, and we listened even though it wasn?t our ?groove-thang?. Knowing what Peel was playing made you cool, keeping track bent a few new brain synapses, Zappa style.

Where?s the next JP?

When Peel died in 2004 it seemed, on reflection, to be an appropriate time for the man to pass. For decades Peel had been all about new music, but by 2005 the scene was suffering; everything was derivative: Franz Ferdinand were just The Gang of Four?s sound with The Jam?s look; That new Dylan must be new Dawn number 65; yes there was Will Oldham, but he?d been around ten years already.

The time had come, music had emptied to make room for overproduction: P.W.E.I. had debauched to become Pop Will Regurgitate, and eat itself, again and again. The big music labels formed bands based on sexual appeal; 21st Century teenagers with nothing but ?classic rock? stations were ?into? 70?s rock without ever having heard Twentieth Century Man covered by Catherine Wheel, and even these already mind-numbing radio offerings were being further depleted by Clearchannel?s consolidation and domination of the airwaves. In the USA new ?local? radio stations are now run from one central national location, each looping inside the same straitjacket playlist. How could ANY new music emerge from this?

Even the BBC, first to the web with some of their great music programming also started scaling back; dumping the brilliant ?Mixing It?; a program which played and discussed the strangest in innovative music. Things were bleak, but things were changing, they still are. Out there on the net there are new venues and DJs with expansive tastes, soaking up all that is new and producing broadcasts well worth a listen? it?s time for us to get behind the good things that are happening.

The Stones Are Even Shorter On The Internet

On stations like WOXY and OPBMusic you won?t hear any Stones, Zeppelin or Santana. Apart from bands like Radiohead, who still have originality, the music is by new and lesser known acts. You want singer/songwriters? Check out Kate Nash or Jose Gonzalez. Something with that XTC smart complexity? Try Yeasayer and Helio Sequence. No? ? you just want strange? Hey there?s Moldy Peaches & Baby Dee &?. It?s a revitalizing experience no matter how your head got wired.

Caught in the web or let out of the box?

WOXY.com went off-air and was rescued in late 2006 by entrepreneur Bill Nguyen ? Crucially the DJs retain editorial control. And for 2007 the station was anounced Internet radio station of the year again (after winning in 2005).

Apart from WOXY, it?s been hard to find good internet music sites: Webradiolist.com lists dozens, but many of these are just feeds for ads, or offer very limited music that imitates the worst about FM.

MusicSojourn.com (now Coolstream) has had music programming on the web since ?98. Coolstream?s statement says they are formed ?for the purpose of expanding the concept of providing the highest quality music content free from the dictates of commercial pressures and influence.? Laudable, but what is the purpose of ?expanding the concept of providing? anything?

Perhaps the most unique thing out there is Pandora.com. It?s ?a music discovery service? that?s come out of the Music Genome Project, at their site you enter an artist and it builds a stream of related songs, you can then influence the stream by rating songs as they come along, so you basically have a music station tuned to your taste.

After struggling to survive on memberships & ad revenue most sites now sell CDs to bolster revenues, but dealing with Internet Royalties can be tricky and often restricts broadcast to within national boundaries.

The ?Orygun? Trail

Opbmusic is an offshoot of Oregon Public Broadcasting, programs are via web and HD Radio? around the clock. (HD Radio is digital, eliminating signal interference)

Opbmusic.org, like Pandora, offers listeners real interaction, but keeps the DJ steering the programming, which adds a dimension. The connection to OPB has some big advantages: OPB is one of the largest public radio stations in the USA, and presumably it has created opbmusic to attract a new younger generation of paying members, this translates to plenty of dosh for opbmusic and no royalty issues. If Opbmusic can stave off OPB?s notoriously dodgy programming interference, and be left to present new, touring and local music, it could become the best thing since Peel himself.

Petersen In studio with Jose Gonzalez
Currently, opbmusic.org has a 24 hour stream and just one DJ?d program - the excellent In House that?s produced and ?hosted? by Jeremy Petersen ? and the In Studio interviews featuring live performances (can be too much chat for Saturday night party crowds, but illuminating and invaluable when you can listen whenever you fancy).

Petersen has the right initials to fill the Peel void, but this budding JP is modest and reverent of the great one - the similarity is in the love of music and helping to keep it vibrant and alive.

I asked if there might be tension between opbmusic?s local strategy (the site header says ?Music from and for Oregonians?) and the web-wide reach ? what if someone at OPB thinks they can become the next BBC? But Petersen and his boss, David Christensen, aren?t planning to conquer the world, they hope opbmusic evolves ?in partnership with independent music?, and ?becomes more than a channel, presenting and sponsoring shows?. Already, at the website, there is more interaction than you?d expect - punters are free to review and rate the music. Particularly useful, and welcome, anywhere that bands are touring, is Petersen?s Sunday program when he showcases acts that will perform in the Pacific Northwest the coming week.

Opbmusic?s 24hr stream is geared towards the active concert-going music fans with a taste for the rock/alt segments of indie music plus a sprinkling of the folksy, roots and the soulful. But still it?s pop - lot?s of great stuff, but not too weird or edgy, you won?t hear rap, hip-hop or techno. Petersen though, knows his stuff, and slips in some great extras during In House. Let?s hope for more of that as new programming is added.

Until 2007, OPB had another exceptional DJ in Steven Cantor; he hosted an eclectic show called Beats and Pieces. Cantor?s taste and knowledge added jazz, trance and avant-garde to the ?indie? faire. But, as brilliant as Cantor was, some disliked the big shifts in the mix (I found his half hour excursions into ?new? pop/disco soul hard to tolerate, some things should be left buried in the 70?s disco experience).

Cantor, who reminds me of the great Charlie Gillet, moved on to a smaller FM jazz station KMHD, also on the web, but only streaming ? no on-demand, and he has honed Beats & Peices to cover the jazz/world/new-classical range ? just the type of show opbmusic might need in the future.

For better or for worse?

The way we hear music is changing, if the people at ROKU succeed in delivering wifi internet radio stations to our increasingly small and ubiquitous devices, we?ll be able to stream music almost anywhere, Pandora already have deals with two cell phone companies. Will we let this chance slip and end up with the same old 40 song slop, or will we embrace these pioneering new stations in sufficient numbers to keep them alive?

Ray Davies, of Kinks fame, said last month that he only started in rock because as an art student in the 60?s he realised there wasn?t anything left to do in Modern Art. Davies thinks that point has now been reached in music. Maybe, perhaps everything will be somehow derivative hereon, but if that was all it were, nothing would sound as fresh as the current music scene does, we just need to get to hear it.

Petersen recently played a cut from Arcade Fire?s latest and noted a Springsteen feel to it. I hadn?t realised that, but yes it was there. I?d been noticing the Joy Division influence in the drumming as Arcade Fire reminded me of a wilder Teardrop Explodes? then, were those the distant strains of Echo & The Bunnymen?? Yes it may be derivative, but you can?t deny stuff like The Arcade Fire, it?s new and it?s hot.

Troika has been commissioned by Artwise Curators

2008-02-03T01:29:24+00:00

I love finding well done art in public places. Pieces that serve a function as well as make our experience of walking through the world more enjoyable often go unnotieced. If you happen to be traveling through Heathrow airport you may want to make a quick detour to Terminal 5 and check this piece out.

"Troika has been commissioned by Artwise Curators to create a signature piece at the entrance of the new British Airways luxury lounges in Heathrow Terminal 5. We created for them ?Cloud?, a five meter long digital sculpture whose surface is covered with 4638 flip-dots that can be individually addressed by a computer to animate the entire skin of the sculpture."

Art From The Heart, Head, and Other Places

2008-02-01T18:57:09+00:00

Artists Marc Quinn, Wenda Gu and Andres Seranno make art from very personal places.

An object is just what it is, but I believe everything perceivable or imaginable can be art. It is each of our singular perceptions that give it meaning. The role of the viewer is to question the work as to why he/she is emotionally affected by it, and the artist?s job is to take risks in expressing something unique and genuine. Whatever the message, successful work does whatever it needs to do to get itself across.

Here, the use of human-derived materials makes a undeniable statement that undoubtedly attracts attention, even controversy. The artists have taken purposeful risks, in using unusual methods and materials, that might have jeopardized their credibility. I think that?s a successful work in itself.

The use of blood would seem a distasteful art medium, but for Marc Quinn, UK sculptor and member of the Young British Artists (shock-driven conceptual artists originating from the Saatchi gallery.) It has been as powerful than marble. Quinn emerged in 1991 with his signature work ?Self?. This frozen sculpture of the artist's head was made from 9.5 US pints of the artist's own blood taken from his body over a period of five months. In this case, the materials are what literally convey the message- so much of what the artist is made of goes into his/her craft. The eye-widening work is almost anxiety provoking since it is as life-like as it is temperamental- it's temperature must be maintained at -12C/10F. The artist remakes ?Self? every five years, but for the Tate Liverpool's exhibition he took the work in a new direction by, this time, recreating his baby son?s head.The role of the viewer is to question the work as to why he/she is emotionally affected. Successful art comes from a perspective and unique process of the creator.

Quinn has produced a diverse range of work, most of which is preoccupied with the changing physical states of the body, and addresses ideas about the beginnings of life, nature and death. Quinn is also known for a series of marble sculptures of people either born with limbs missing or who have had them amputated. This culminated in his most famous work, a 15 ton marble statue honoring a pregnant Allison Lapper, an artist who was born with no arms and deformed legs. It sits on a column in the fourth plinth of Trafalgar Square in London.

Multi-thousands of individual human hairs comprise Chinese-American artist Wenda Gu's "United Nations" project, which he began in 1993. The massive installation pieces are "monuments" made from the discards collected from barbershops across the globe. He presses or weaves the hair into bricks, carpets, and curtains- as in "Kilometers" where Gu constructed a "temple" using thin, colored braids. These hair structures are often placed in conjunction with stone carvings, ink drawings and engraved metal pieces often including unintelligible text from his own imaginary, hybrid language.

"United Colors" is a braid roughly 71/2 miles long and made of hair purchased from wig factories in China and India. It rises from a coiled mass and hangs in long loops with stainless steel medallions attached to sections of the vividly dyed sculpture. Each medallion bears the name of one of 207 countries written backward. The purpose of blending hair collected from different nations is to show a metaphor for the mixture of races that he predicts will eventually unite humanity.

"The Green House"-one of his most-well known pieces- is an 80ft X 13ft banner in the Baker-Berry Library of New Hampshire?s Dartmouth College. It runs the length of the vast foyer with its bright green lettering. The hair for this piece was collected over several months last year from over 42,000 haircuts of Dartmouth students, faculty and local residents in Hanover. This amounts to 430 pounds of human hair which was shipped to China, where workers in Gu's Shanghai studio dyed and shaped the locks into paper-thin panels held together by a film of Elmer's glue and tied together with twine. The banner spells the words "educations" and "advertises" superimposed on each other in an effort to show that education and capitalism are inseparable. Through imagination-defying works, Gu's message expresses the ideals of the Cultural Revolution in Mao-era Communist China.

The notoriously controversial photograph ?Piss Christ,? by Andres Serrano, is of a small crucifix submerged in a vessel of the artist's urine. Sadly, it is seen more as only the question it poses regarding artistic freedom, and not for what it actually is- an otherworldly photograph. The color filter effect of the medium and the angle of lighting lend an eerie amber translucency to one of the most prevalent images in history. It suggests many possibilities of interpretation to its viewer, not simply the commonly perceived concrete message of disrespect by an artist raised Catholic.

The piece caused a scandal when it was exhibited in 1989, with opponents accusing Serrano of blasphemy and others raising this as a major issue of artistic freedom. The piece was a winner of the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art's "Awards in the Visual Arts" competition, which is sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, a United States Government agency that offers support and funding for artistic projects. Since the award is technically sponsored by taxpayer dollars, this caused grounds for outrage among conservative politicians. The year of its release, Senator Al D'Amato tore a reproduction of the photograph into pieces in the US Senate. While on the other side of the issue, famous art critic and devote Catholic Sister Wendy Beckett expressed approval of "Piss Christ". She regarded the work as a statement on "what we have done to Christ" - the way contemporary society has come to regard Christ and the values he represents.

The subject matter of Serrano's other photographs are similarly complicated and include aborted fetuses, the Ku Klux Klan and post-autopsy corpses.His work has continually provoked outrage, particularly among America's Christian Right, and even led one anonymous man to attack his work with a hammer during an exhibition.
Serrano?s creative mind delves into controversial subjects and his work demonstrates this. But we are left to wonder if it the subject matter is primarily for the sake of exposure, and does its statement outweigh the actual art. The image makes us so uncomfortable that we can't help but neglect to see the photograph.