Punks Make Art #2

 Robert Ryman's Social Conscience (jk). White-out, Xerox, 2011.

On March 11th I showed some drawings, paintings and prints at The Doll House in Chicago, Illinois. The occasion was the second installment of 'Punks Make Art,' an ongoing series of music shows with art accompaniment that is curated by Matt Walsh and, I believe, Ramsey Beyer. Musically speaking, The Boy Who Could Fly, Paul Baribeau, Al Scorch and Muchas Gracias played songs to some 100+ people. And 100+ people sort of stood around, packed like sardines, blocking the art on the walls from being seen - tipi punk.

 See photos and scans of the artwork I displayed below. 

The Boy Who Could Fly - Brain Cloud

The Boy Who Could Fly, aka Kari Jorgensen, just released a new album entitled Brain Cloud. Download/listen to it here. It is superb. Kari and I were once in a band together called What's Wrong With Us. She's been involved in much better productions since, like the Provo outfit Crumpler and her brother's band, Ok Ikumi. EDIT: I think Brain Cloud is a Joe vs. The Volcano reference but Kari won't respond to my emails to confirm/deny. The Boy Who Could Fly plays with Paul Baribeau, Bad Heart Bull and Ryan J. in Columbus on February 1st at Ville Villekula on 2623 Neil Avenue.

Party Pics

Party Pics

Fucking Life

In June of 2008 I curated a show entitled Fucking Life for the Sporeprint Infoshop. Artists included Andy Hinton, David Leighty, John Malta, Andy Plank, Carlos Ruiz, Ben Scarbro, Stacie Sells, Nichole Senter and, in a fell swoop of narcissism, myself. Lisa Dorazewski, Sara Drake and Randy Hunter were supposed to participate and did not. Cars Can Be Blue, from Athens, Georgia, played music.

Wes Flexner blurbed about the show, which was also a release party for Punk Zine, on Donewaiting.

I remember constructing a fake wall with Ben for the show and it being laborious but "worthwhile" - a good learning experience. I was surprised by how nice everything looked together, which these photos hint at. I didn't document the event properly and apparently the only person that did was Kari Jorgensen. She just sent me these photos. The rest of them are after "The Jump" as is the flyer.

What's Wrong With Us? Discography

                                  I didn't know who Geoff McFetridge was. Sorry.

In 2008 I was in a short lived band with Kari Jorgensen of Crumpler and The Boy Who Could Fly fame. We were originally called "Young People" until I found a 7 inch at Magnolia Thunderpussy by a band called Young People. Then we were called "What's Wrong With Us?" which is probably the best band name possible. I played bass through a brokenish guitar amp which made it sound high and fuzzy. Kari - I think - taught herself drums for it. We both sang. We had, like, 3 other songs. We played once with Toby Foster in the upstairs of the Monster House and once at the Punk Porch with either Black Rainbow or Dead Dog. I remember thinking that was the worst show I ever played in my life (including Hot Date shows). I think we played one or two other times in the basement of the Monster House. I think maybe with Forever and Tacocat. I don't remember when or why we stopped playing which sort of means that we are still a band, just on hiatus, like Fugazi. Kari is in Utah now working at an art museum and playing guitar in a band with Amy Farina.

1. Untitled (Beat Happening)
2. Untitled (Carrie Nations)
3. "Get Over It"
4. East 5th Avenue

PARTY PICS

Top 5 of 2000s: Bitter Homes & Gardens

"Perhaps human beings weren't made to be happy and free all the time, we're always trying to enslave ourselves one way or another, if it's not through a career it's through a relationship or it's through kids. It just doesn't seem to be the natural human state. We go through a good phase then we regress. I'm really glad you're happy just be prepared because tomorrow you might be thrown on the scrapheap." - Richard Linklater's Slacker.

Bitter Homes and Gardens' single album is dark gray. A dark gray manifesto in favor of admitting reality during the mid 2000s reign of unreal happy punks. It's music for those that refused to drink the Kool-Aid of folk-punk and bike rides and holding hands. The sound is bass heavy and shitty. The lyrics are saturated in self-loathing; personal excoriation permeates each and every song - a total rejection of the affirmative utopia that Bloomington signified on message boards across America. The first song on the album is actually called "Bloomington," an appropriate opener as the rest of the album can be thought of as the answer to one of its first lines:

"Do you think a person could just disappear on the walk from Seventh Street down to Town Square?"

Amelia - Complete Discography

                                                  Photo by Dana Curran

Amelia was a band I played bass in from the time I came back from Paris in the beginning of April until the middle of September when we broke up. We released a tape split with Pheramones, went on a short tour with Delay and played Berea Fest in Berea, D.I.T Fest in Kent, and (sort of) Southwest Folk Fest in Chicago. We had plans to release a seven-inch of some sort with rerecorded versions of some of the following songs. It should be noted: we had one more whole song, never recorded, and two more songs in the works, also not recorded. Ryan is now playing in Slugging Percentage and something with Austin Eilbeck, I occasionally sing for Lose The Tude and Maryn still plays solo.

Maryn's original recording of "Shapes."

1. Shapes

Ryan and Maryn's original demo:

1. Little Flower
2. We'll Land

Amelia's practice demo (recorded on my digital voice recorder):

1.  Little Flower
2.  I Just Can't
3.  "The Fast One"
4.  Bridges
5.  Heart of Mine
6.  We'll Land

Kari's recording (our side of the tape split with Pheramones).

1. Little Flower
2. I Just Can't
3. Heart of Mine
4. We'll Land
5. Bridges
6. Shapes

After "the jump" a list of all the shows we played: