FREE FRISBEE Poster Project in L.A. - my work in this show

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FREE FRISBEE Poster Project in Los Angeles

Opening Reception Thursday January 18th from 7-9PM

Circus of Books
8230 Santa Monica Boulevard
West Hollywood, CA 90046
Thursday January 18, 2007 thru February 28, 2007

Live Performances by Revent, Trevandhammerhead, Michael Bauer + Rachel Mason

The Circus of Books is pleased to invite the FREE FRISBEE Poster Project to
create an installation in the West Hollywood store from posters originally
made for a guerrilla intervention that infiltrated the streets of Miami
during Art Basel 06‚. The posters consist of an eclectic assortment of
hand-made originals to mass-produced multiples from silk-screen, drawings,
mirrors, Xeroxes, lollipops, photographs, and postcards.

FRISBEE is a nomadic curatorial project that aims to create an ideological
event, which finds its basis in the realm of non-commercial ephemera.

Frisbee Poster ARTISTS:

Amy Sillman, Michael Queenland, Michael Bauer, Oscar Miguel Santos, Angie
Lacerenza, Rachel Detroit, David Horovitz, Peter Coffin, Amy Granat & Ann
Craven, HEEB, Jonah Freeman, Rachel Mason, Michael Phelan, Justin Lowe,
Michele O‚Marah, Tobias Bernstrup, Colleen Asper, Craig Kalpakjian, Art
Design Office, Ana Wolovick, Annika Larsson, Melissa Brown, Sigrid
Sandstrom, Hans Isaksson, Gordon Hull, Samuel Nyholm, Michael Bilsborough,
Carlton DeWoody, Adriana Farmiga, Alix Umen, Jonathan Van Dyke, Chris
Verene, Mike Egan, Josh Mannis, Peter Mandradjieff, Timothy Marvel Hull,
Mike Skinner, Martabel Wasserman, Mike Cooter, Cordy Ryman, Lisa Sanditz,
Megan Whitmarsh, Ben Ruggerio, Uudam Nguyen, Clayton Colvin, Sean Raspet,
Mark Golamco, Marie Lorenz, Jessica Slaven, Mike Taylor, Matten Vogel,
Celeste Tabora, Gareth Spor, Joerg Lohse, Lia Trinka Browner, Josh Kline, Emily Anderson, Michelle Weinberg, Nick D, Greg Santos, Caitlin Masley, Erik
Lang, COOPER, Michael Greathouse, Brad Greenwood, Aisling Hamrogue, Lisa
Kirk, Joe Lewis & Francis Spitta, Ferran Martin, Aimee Jones, Rodrigo Mallea
Lira, Jesse Nicely, Ryan Mrozowski, Elizabeth Huey, Jill Magid, Helena
Fredriksson, Iva Simcic, David Raymond, Rainer Ganahl, Susan Lipper, Anna
Henriquez, Asaf Ebgi, Ryan Compton, Adam Ogilvie, Franklin Evans, Ylva
Ogland, Patrick W. Welch, Patrick Golden, Liz Jonckheer, Ilya Lipkin, No
Mas, Louise Erhard, Abbey Williams, Slow Jams Band, House of O‚Dwyer, Kelly
Lamb, Andrew Schoultz, Kate Gilmore, David Wasserman, Nick Stillman, Peter
Svarzbein, Sabrina Gschwandtner, Fia Backstrom, Ernest E. Gibson III, Justin
Hansch, Taylor Jacobson

WPS1 Art Radio and WVUM Miami hosted a panel discussion with FRISBEE live
from their satellite station on Miami Beach. Hear it on WPS1 archives:
www.wps1.org

Documentation of each artist‚s poster and installation shots from Miami and
Los Angeles can be viewed on the website: www.freefrisbee.com

Curator Anat Ebgi and Artist Jen DeNike founded FRISBEE in 2004 as a
curatorial project during Miami Basel on the first floor of the Cavalier
Hotel. Artists, performers, and galleries were invited to fill 14 rooms of
the hotel. During Miami Basel 2005, Frisbee was re-installed at the Cavalier
and focused on solo artists, performance artists, and independent curatorial
projects. FRISBEE was born in a spirit of collaboration with no budget to
create something raw and different.

the pAper chAse - "We Know Where You Sleep"

“…the pAper chAse is quite possibly one of the most astoundingly eyes-bugging-out mindf*ckingly awesome live acts going today…”
-superstarcastic.com, January 2007

The Paper Chase's signature sounds--strangled guitars, bombastic percussion, terror-stricken strings, bizarre samples and crashing pianos--are firmly in place on their latest endeavor, Now You Are One of Us. Here, the Dallas quartet creates the sonic equivalent to George A. Romero's classic zombie films, in which one and all inevitably become "one of them."

Songwriter/singer/producer John Congleton examines the ways fear can be utilized as an instrument of control, even as it spreads like a plague across the land. Possessed by fear of pacification, domestication and ultimate dissolve, the songs' characters struggle to retain their identity. Layers of trepidation are aurally peeled away and scrutinized while a looming unknown lies just below the surface. Beyond the fear of death, is the characters' dreadful realization that perhaps they never even existed. The sound of ghostly forces opening and closing squeaky doors becomes eerily significant, and Congleton's trademark desperation is at its most crucial as he exclaims, "We will show this cruel word we were here."

Despite the disturbed poltergeists that are its roommates, The Paper Chase sounds right at home in its self-wrought haunted house. Over the album's seamless course, the band not only offers battle anthems for those who won't go down without a fight, but also the sadistic theme songs of their bloodthirsty attackers. Another histrionic epic is rendered, but we wouldn't expect anything less from Congleton and his crew.

Tour Dates
1/22 - Oklahoma City @ Conservatory
1/23 - Lawrence @ Jackpot
1/24 - Lincoln @ Knickerbocker's
1/25 - Dubuque @ The Busted Lift
1/26 - Chicago @ Subterranean
1/27 - Columbia @ Blue Note
2/1 - Austin @ Emo's
2/2 - Houston @ Walter's
2/3 - Denton @ Rubber Gloves

The Paper Chase - official site
Kill Rock Stars

[mp3] The Paper Chase - We Know Where You Sleep [/mp3]

Gloria Jones' "Tainted Love"

You know, blasphemy or not, I am growing tired of Soft Cell's version of Tainted Love, and all the covers that I've heard thus far. Not since Gloria Jones' first single have I felt that "Tainted Love" had its original essence. (Not always the case with covers...) Since I ripped the compilation "Beg Scream & Shout! The Big Ol' Box of '60s Soul" (Scream 1) (Disc 4) from Tasha, I was happy to be able to hear this hit whenever I damn want to...

From wiki: "Gloria Jones (born 12 September 1938 in Longview, Texas) was an American singer. She recorded the 1964 northern soul classic "Tainted Love", later a hit for the British synth-pop duo Soft Cell. She was also the girlfriend of T. Rex singer Marc Bolan with whom she had a son, Rolan Bolan. She sang backing vocals with T. Rex from 1973 to 1977. She was the driver of the car, an Austin Mini, that crashed and killed Marc Bolan on September 16, 1977."
Here's an album cover of a track they did together.
And a picture of Gloria and Marc's son Rolan. Yep, Rolan Bolan... ("Zowie Bowie!" someone cries...)

[m4a] Gloria Jones - Tainted Love [/m4a]

Buy Gloria Jones here

The Pity Party

Julez, Jeff and I went down to The Silverlake Lounge to catch the first day of The Pity Party's residency. Jeremy (also a contributor here on the blog) met up with us shortly after we arrived there. I was elated to see The Pity Party play finally, as I missed them by an hour or so when they played The Echo with Great Northern, Division Day, and Light FM due to a misleading flyer.
(Tsk!) It was fine though, Division Day is one of our other contributor's (Oliver) favorite L.A. bands and some friends of mine went to see Light FM too. (All around a great show at The Echo that night.)

Anyhow, back to last night... as I was saying I was happy to finally see The Pity Party. Heisenflei (aka Julie whose sibling is in an equally interesting band and was previously in another rad band) and I met almost a decade ago, and I have always appreciated her voice - even when we were just singing aloud in her charcoal grey Jeep Cherokee. The comparisons to Blonde Redhead, though an accurate quick-fix, completely discount the Quasi, Sleater-Kinney elements. (Also missed: early that dog. and more recently Pit Er Pat.) They have pretty great documentation of their local press coverage in their myspace blog, if you're interested.

Oh! I almost forgot - The Pity Party's EPs are available at Sea Level and are only $5. They're very cool and the sleeves are handmade from cereal boxes donated by friends and fans. Actually, I don't know for a fact, but it seems to me like all The Pity Party related merchandise is hand-crafted. Which makes sense since creative Heisenflei also runs The Little Knittery in Los Feliz. The residency also offers a limited amount of these 'zine + cd compilation of all the bands throughout the residency + quarter (for good measure) - for FREE! Totally worth the trip to a free show at the dark and intimate The Silverlake Lounge on a Monday night.


If you live in/around L.A. or are going to be in L.A. in January - The Pity Party are playing The Silverlake Lounge every Monday this month for free:

[mp3] The Pity Party - The War Between Eight And Four (Radio Edit) [/mp3]
[mp3] The Pity Party - Lullaby [/mp3]
*MP3s are only available for the first 100 downloads.

Click here to add or listen to The Pity Party on myspace.

Tigger strikes back

Are Disney characters the new Postal workers?

The Science of Sleep soundtrack

When I saw the movie for this soundtrack I was packing up to move back home to L.A. from Chicago, it was at a screening and of course I showed up later than everyone else so we ended up in the first row, but it didn't steer me away from ultimately loving Gondry's latest flick. In fact, the disorienting strain of watching a moving picture from the very front row of the theater worked well with this picture - given its blurred dream-vs-reality state. I'm not quite sure it would work with another film, even Amelie - which I've used as a reference point when asked for a short summary of this one,http://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif stating "It's Amelie from a boy's perspective."

I'm assuming it's either out on DVD or coming out soon, so I'm making a plea for you to see it soon if you can! Escape! Really!
Interestingly enough, I was sent the soundtrack a day or two before I saw the movie and it's lovely.

Here's a couple tracks from the peak of cuteness:
*Files only available for first 100 downloads

[mp3] If You Rescue Me (A Cappella) - performed by Linda Serbu; music by Lou Reed [/mp3]

[mp3] If You Rescue Me (Chanson des Chats) - performed by Gael García Bernal, Sacha Bourdo, Alain Chabat and Aurelia Petit; music by Lou Reed [/mp3]

Purchase: Amazon | iTunes

John Wang's "Nebraska"

My fantastic pal Rachel sent this to me; Her cousin wrote and directed it... Curious, I watched it and it is cute and funny! Not to mention the theme song is amusing a la Beverly Hillbillies... So, naturally (natch) I'm going to share it with you lovelies!

Album Covers Gone Wrong

The challenge was called "Album Covers Gone Wrong" (This challenge is now closed). The directions were: Take a classic album sleeve, alter the title of the record to give the disc a whole new spin, then 'shop the results.
Here's my favorite four:









More here: http://www.b3ta.com/challenge/album_covers/

An mp3 for good measure:
[mp3] Black Sabbath - Changes [/mp3]
*File available to the first 100 downloads only
Buy the album on Amazon or iTunes