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RVA #2 / SUMMER 2010 / RICHMOND, VA USA
IN THIS ISSUE
14 The Strange Origin of GOTBH 16 Afrofuturist Kombo Chapfika 18 My Friend Kemper 20 Diamond Black Hearted Boy 22 Art Is Not A Big Deal 24 Miserable Mornings, Neverending Nights 28 Pharrell 34 Erik Jones 38 Bryan Woodland 42 Will Towles 48 Remembering Punchline 54 East End Fellowship 58 Record Reviews RVA MAGAZINE ARTICLES ARE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT RVAMAG.COM. “PHARRELL” cover photo by Shahan Jafri “FlASH” cover photo by Joseph Talman
THE STR ANGE ORIGIN OF GOTBH WORDS by DAN ANDERSON PHOTO by KIMIE JAMES
START TRANSMISSION Long ago, when humans still lived in caves and back hair was not only stylish but also practical, a technologically advanced race of giant inter-dimensional entrepreneurs known as Bobblers visited earth. The Bobblers were as old as time. Though they were technologically superior to humans, their laziness and greed had caused their brains to devolve to the size of a poppy seed. The Bobblers possessed good intentions. Exiled from their galaxy, they migrated to earth. They brought with them things like Crystal Pepsi, Ovaltine, Kenny G’s Greatest Hits, and the Slap Chop; the same products and ideas they used to exploit so many other worlds. The ‘Bobblers’ lone enemy was an evil alien collectivist clown known around the universe only as Gobblenuts. Gobblenuts had a tiny head and suffered from raging head envy, a rare but violent disease. Gobblenuts hated the Bobblers and wanted nothing more than to destroy them wherever they lived. The Bobblers were safe on earth briefly. They spent their days 14
building pyramids and opening fast food franchises around the planet, while using their technology to maintain influence over our primate ancestors. By crossbreeding with monkeys, the Bobblers created a hybrid race of bobble humanoids called Bobbleheads. Eventually Gobblenuts tracked the Bobblers to earth, and a great slap fight ensued. The Bobblers’ oversized heads made excellent targets for the Gobblenuts’ gigantic hand, and he soon destroyed all the Bobblers. Gobblenuts considered destroying earth, but was distracted by something shiny in the sky and left immediately. Gobblenuts had overlooked the Bobbleheads. In his absence they thrived and built civilization as we know it today. The cosmic energy readout of earth grew in parallel with the technology innovations of the Bobbleheads. Soon Gobblenuts noticed that earth was emitting strange wavelengths. He observed the planet from a distance and learned that the Bobbleheads could be controlled through mediums of mass communication like books, music,
radio, film, TV, and the Internet. Gobblenuts sent minions to earth. They disguised themselves with the intent of taking over the Bobbleheads by manipulating every medium of mass communication. Oprah, one of his minions, quickly conquered several demographics of Bobblehead beings through a TV show and a magazine. Rupert Murdoch was another minion who wasted no time building a powerful mind control empire. Gobblenuts’ minions filtered out into the Bobbleheads system till they had overtaken every communication outlet and brainwashed the Bobbleheads into mindless consumers of terrible products and ideas. The Bobbleheads soon found their souls drained, all the while unaware they were being controlled by the minions of the long gone Gobblenuts. Small pockets of Bobbleheads resisted the brainwashing. They kept to themselves reading the texts of old and listening to soulful music that had been kept alive despite the efforts of the minions. Several creative beings began to organize and took control of
their own mass communication devices. They procured a radio tower, an Internet server and the support of several print and film entities in central Virginia. They became known as Bobble Gods and began to awaken the tired minds and souls of the brainwashed Bobbleheads. More and more Bobbleheads began tuning into the Gods’ transmissions. The minions of Gobblenuts are complacent and smug with their victory. The little known Gods, Dan Ando Anderson and John E Cab, have recruited several others and are growing stronger each day. The takeback has begun. Listen live to The Gods of the Bobble Heads Radio Show every Saturday from 8-10pm EST or download the podcast so the Bobble Gods can spread the laughter and counterculture needed to save the planet. People of earth! Your destiny rests in your hands. The only option now is to tune in to www. bobblegods.com and prepare for the revolution… END TRANSMISSION
A CONVERSATION WITH KOMBO CHAPFIKA WORDS by ANTONIO BUSAN
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Kombo Chapfika caught our attention at Ghostprint’s FLUX exhibition. A combination of street art and painterly brushwork, Kombo makes bold statements on American culture and infuses them with his African roots. His blog introduced me to the idea of Afrofuturism, and I wanted to find out more.
ANTONIO: How did you find out about FLUX at Ghostprint Gallery in Richmond? What interested you about the idea behind it? KOMBO: I found out about Ghostprint and the FLUX show when Geraldine
Duskin contacted me about participating in the show. I was interested in participating because I liked the other artists’ work and I had never shown in Richmond.
ANTONIO: Your work has a raw, gritty street art style. Where did this come from? Is this how you started? KOMBO: I first started drawing, and like most boys that age I was obsessed with
super hero comic books. I later grew to like the brazenness of street art, and that was of my time. I also like good craftsmanship and trying things out without worrying about getting arrested, so I mostly paint on canvas.
ANTONIO: Can you tell me about Afrofuturism and how it applies to your work? KOMBO: Afrofuturism is an idea I return to with some of my pieces (Darfur
Disco, Candy Mountain, Gaze, All You Can Eat Buffet). I was born and raised in Zimbabwe and have studied and lived in US as part of the diaspora. Many of my friends and family members’ stories parallel my own. Distilled to a single, grammatically incorrect sentence, Afrofuturism is my ongoing attempt to create an aesthetic, and series of works that are aware of my personal history (and by extension, my generation), the present state of affairs, and to fantasize about the future. My motivation comes partly from conversations I’ve had with people who felt there was a stasis and backward looking mindset to much of the work either about Africa or by Africans. I don’t see such a stasis, it’s simply a matter of doing a little digging to find what’s alive and of this time. I love Femi Kuti AND Die Antwoord AND District 9. People should do what’s close to their heart and not be excluded for not simply mimicking the dominant canons of work. In today’s thickly interconnected world, there are no islands. Most ideas are often influenced by or in some way resemble ideas from seemingly disparate sources. I know personally, I love a lot of work by people from different continents with totally different histories, and I feel this only makes my own work richer. In Zimbabwe, stone sculpture is the most traditional medium, but I paint, and felt for a long time that I had to look far and wide to find kindred spirits. This search is becoming increasingly easy as like-minded people come onto my radar. Not all my work directly correlates to Afrofuturism. Looking through it, much of it is about consciously experimenting with texture, patterns, portraiture and the female form. For the longest time I intentionally avoided explicit themes because few struck me personally or intuitively. Two key experiences that distilled things for me were a conversation with a stranger wherein he described a 3D sculpture of a black woman’s face as Afrofuturism, and getting older and feeling the need to affirm my experiences in a broader context.
ANTONIO: Can Afrofuturism be boiled down to recognizable American icon/ creation mixed in with African texture/patterns like hip hop group Die Antwoord? Or Kehinde Wiley’s paintings hanging at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts? KOMBO: I wouldn’t boil it down to just American iconography and African pat-
terns, though I think this applies well to some artists. My influences include a few English artists who mix painterly brushwork with a gritty street art sensibility, someone like Conor Harrington would be a good example of someone who’s work I like and which fuses street art sensibilities with some more classical references. In this regard I’m a bit of an Anglophile, like most people I grew up with, we followed the English Premier League and knew quite a few British expats. It’s natural that some things rub off. I love hip hop as much as the next person, but I love other things at least as much. I love tennis, and play about once a week, it’s fun. What does hip hop even mean these days? It seems really vague to me.
ANTONIO: Is this a way of African Americans to continue creating their own American identity? KOMBO: I think of it more as a personal process, informed by my own experi-
ences. If someone wants to appropriate an idea, that’s fine and natural. There’s no homogenous Black identity, people have their unique backgrounds and histories and can empathize with one another even if they don’t share many experiences. I don’t identify myself as African American, it just doesn’t feel right. I grew up in Zimbabwe, it’s got its own evolving culture, but I’ve been in the US for several years and if that’s the technical term assigned to me, then fine. I’d prefer Black, personally.
WWW.KOMBOCHAPFIKA.COM
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MY FRIEND KEMPER WORDS and PHOTO by JONNY SISMANIS
I love playing shows and touring and stuff, but I think I might actually prefer practicing over playing out. Says Kemper Blair, with a signature chip-toothed smile and a chuckle. Since the year 2000, Kemper, alongside Stuart Holt, the Watson to his Sherlock, has practiced with over a dozen bands, many of which he was actually in. We’re sitting by the window at a local burger joint, chatting about his musical past, when Kemper modestly comments I haven’t really been in that many bands. Since 2005, there was Rabbits, Dead Goats, Cubscout and the Rhinocerous, Country Club, Sports Bar, and Novios. This is not completely true. In addition to those mentioned, other projects of Kemper’s have included, but are not limited to, Dr. Hell, Blonde Jeremy, Jean Cocks, and Leggz, an electronic concept group who’s main opus is a yet to be completed rock opera about space pioneers trying to save the universe and a planet called Alberta. Kemper currently writes, plays bass, and sings for Sports Bar, which was formerly known as Shart Attack. It 18
try Club and Novios. Novios only plays on special occasions, which so far have included one wedding and two Thanksgivings. They were also scheduled to play a room in the Jefferson while guests were given massages, but for unknown reasons, the gig fell through. Country Club is thus far a closely guarded secret, but I did manage to get Kemper to spill a few of the beans: Country Club will eventually be the best band to ever exist. It’s still in the idea stages, but it’s going to be the band to save every other band from sucking.
was called Shart Attack because everyone in the band except Stuart and Cliff has IBS (Note: Stuart and Cliff Boyd are the only other members of the band). We changed the name from Shart Attack to Sports Bar because we really like sports, and we really like bars. I asked Kemper what each band sounded like, to which he responded, It’s all rock n’ roll, man. It’s just expressed in different ways. They all have the common theme that nobody likes them except me and Stuart. In regards to his longtime band-
mate, Kemper notes that Stuart and I have been playing together, not necessarily musically, since 1985. It’s funny, ‘cause I’m three years older than Stuart, so I’m kinda like a father figure. He adds One reason I’ve been in so many bands is that Stuart and I can’t commit to a band for more than a year. If we ever pass the one year mark, we’ll consider it a great achievement, maybe our greatest achievement. In addition to Sports Bar, Kemper and Stuart also have two works in progress, the aforementioned Coun-
All jokes aside, at twenty-seven years old, with the sheer volume of bands he’s not only played in, but co-written the majority of the music and lyrics for, Kemper truly may be the most prolific Richmond songwriter you’ve never heard of. He’s got pop sensibility, grit, and a hell of a handle on how to write a rock n’ roll song. You can find much of his music on Myspace, or just see Sports Bar at any of the numerous houseshows and venues they play around town, so check him out, before he starts a new band.
AN INTERVIEW WITH DIAMOND BL ACK HEARTED BOY WORDS by SHANNON CLEARY
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To describe Diamond Black Hearted Boy as simply wild and exciting would appear to be an understatement. These two aspects are certainly at play. Yet it is the variety of performances and reactions set in motion within that speak volumes. They are deliberate attempts at challenging any preconceived notions an audience or an artist has when it comes to what the limits truly are in any artistic expression. Chino Amobi’s intentions at each show fluctuate and the end results are simply fascinating. Take for example, a performance at the Commercial Taphouse with Bermuda Triangles. For the entirety of his fifteen-minute set, Amobi remains hidden from the audience under a garb as he randomly pounces at a drum kit while a sample plays. All those in attendance cannot take their eyes away from what they are seeing even if they find it difficult to understand what they are witnessing. On another occasion, his performance at Club Down and Under would provide Amobi with the outlet to dish out an inspired set of dance numbers entitled “Fuck Yeah,” “Shut Up” and “Get Off My Dick” that come off surprisingly confident for the performer.
SHANNON: You recently went on tour with Bermuda Triangles. Was this a first for you? I have seen you both on several bills together. What drew you to wanting to venture out on the road with them, and what other bands in Richmond do you feel inclined towards stylistically and musically? DBHB: Unfortunately, I was unable to join Jason Hodges and the boys on the east coast tour. I had to handle some unforeseen business with my Nigerian connects overseas. Yeah, but that wouldn’t of been my first tour. Last summer I went on a tour with TMTMTMBOY from Chicago. It was so epic. Chicago is such an awesome city. The kids up there are doing some truly original and inspiring things with music and dance. LISTEN TO JUKE MUSIC. Kansas City is an awesome city as well. I love to be on the road. It is so unpredictable, especially when you are venturing to a place you have never been before. Stylistically and musically, I feel a connection to the bands in Richmond that really don’t give a damn. From The Darkest Part of The Woods, Head Molt, ChiChi The Kid, The Young Richmond Outkasts, Mike Ezie (RIP), Messi, MUTWAWA, The Amoeba Men, Leo Heinzel, and Dylan Languell to name a few.
Amobi’s performances are spawned from whichever place he decides to pull inspiration from as well as the type of show. While still maintaining a level of self-awareness, there is nothing tired or exhausted when it comes to his approach. This isn’t simply music. This is an artistic expression being tossed on its head and seeing how much it cracks open for us to examine what spills out. This is Diamond Black Hearted Boy.
SHANNON: The name of this project is a reference that I’m aware of, but perhaps our readers wouldn’t be. Where did the name stem from and what drew you to it? Does its origin reflect in anyway your musical aspirations and inspiration? DBHB: The name derives from the lyrics of a Fiery Furnaces song. I was drawn to the name because it relates to what I am expressing both visually and sonically. It basically has to do with the idea of candy-coating something seemingly awkward, ugly, and embarrassing with a thick layer of glimmer and gloss. It reflects the way in which my music and live performance can be simultaneously standoffish yet seductive. SHANNON: I really respect your approach to live performance and songs in general. I wonder how does the thought process begin for both of these outlets respectively? I have seen several videos of past shows shot by Silver Persinger that show a range dynamically in your live performances. Does the venue play a big part in how you encounter a show? Houses against bars essentially? DBHB: Thank you and Thank God for Silver Persinger. He should be the Mayor of this city, for real. Imagine that. Yeah but as for the live performances, it really depends on a number of factors. How I’m feeling that week, what type of music have I been listening to lately, who I am playing with, how loud the sound system is gonna be, what type of demographic is going to be there. I really just play it by ear and let the moment decide. I’ve been really interested in getting girls to shake their booties recently so that has been an incentive. If I know ahead of time that there aren’t gonna be some girls at the show ready to get buck then im not really that excited about it. I don’t mind playing bars, but if I know that im gonna be playing in front of a bunch of old white crusty geezers reminiscing on the good old days, well then my set’s gonna be pretty much inverted. I can be a lil’ bitch in that way. SHANNON: I sense that the majority of your recorded output is all done at home. Does this make it easier for you to continue writing prolifically or is there a desire for you to enter a real deal studio and make something drastically different? DBHB: Yeah, the whole home recording thing is basically born out of necessity because I’m flat broke and don’t have anywhere else to record. It’s fun though cause I can do whatever I want and do it at my own pace, and it’s free of course, but its limited. I have a lot of visions and ideas musically that I cannot fully realize by just recording out of my laptop. I would like to work with choirs and collaborate with producers in studios that actually know something about music and music technology, because I don’t. All I know is up-down, up-down. I know enough to get by. So yeah, if any producers, DJs, musicians, or anyone with a studio is reading this and would like to work with me lets do it. chinoamobi@gmail.com. We will make super saiyan suicidal slug jams together. I can guarantee you that.
SHANNON: I feel as if you break past just typical songwriting and incorporate multiple outlets of media in your creative output. What are your best experiences with that, and also what would you enjoy doing that could further this involvement with alternate sources?
DBHB: Well the breaking past typical song writing is mainly due to the fact that I don’t know anything about music. I mean, I understand rhythm and swing, I just don’t know anything about song structure or how to write a song. I can identify it when I am listening it, but to recreate it is a whole ‘nother rabbit hole. I love traditional popular songs, but I am also really into psychotically repetitive music as well. African chant and Nihilistic repetition is basically the skeleton of my musical palette. As for multimedia, I believe that all stimuli is democratic, so I have no problem augmenting my music with various visual and/or aural detritus of contemporary or past cultures. It’s the free play of signs and signifiers. In the future, I would like to collaborate with more people on multiple platforms to expand the vision exponentially. SHANNON: What does the rest of the year contain for you? DBHB: Well, nothing is really fixed. It’s pretty hazy right now. I got some music shows lined up through the summer, mostly local. I have a solo art show coming up this October in Brooklyn at Like The Spice Gallery. I’m also planning a European and Asian tour at the beginning of next year with a small French label Steak Au Zoo who I am releasing a cd-r with in September. Yeah, I’m basically just playing it by ear. WWW.MYSPACE.COM/DIAMONDBLACKHEART
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ART IS NOT A BIG DEAL WORDS and PHOTOS by JONNY SISMANI S
I’m seeing Athens, Greece, from the back of a moped, watching the kilometers per hour climb higher and higher on the speedometer as we fly through streets clogged with taxis, buses, and pedestrians. It smells like exhaust and trash, with the occasional fleeting scent of cooking meat and baking bread. The streets are a zigzagging maze cut through a sprawling mass of homogenous, towering, buildings, all jammed together into one seemingly endless city. The colors rarely stray from gray and white, and after a while each block starts to blur into the next, until I start paying attention to the writing on the walls. The graffiti in Athens is omnipresent, block by block covering bus stops, newsstands, garage doors, and blank walls. Delivery trucks roll by plastered with giant throw-ups. The freeway is like a high-speed art gallery. It’s the kind of thing that is so prevalent it is easy to ignore. A lot of it, the majority even, is quickly scrawled or shabbily painted tags, not so memorable, but if you hit the right block, turn down the right alley, or drive down the right patch of freeway, you’ll find the occasional piece obviously put there by veterans of the city. Sometimes there’s even a web address written nearby. Citizens for the most part take little notice of the graffiti, going about their day-to-day tasks without thinking twice about it, but it makes me think. That street art is basically a commonly accepted reality here, at the worst a mere nuisance, stands in stark contrast to its perception back home in Richmond, where the average street artist is a criminal, a public menace hunted down by police task forces and up-standing citizens alike. I talked to one Richmond graffiti writer recently who was caught painting an alley in the fan. According to the individual, a nearby neighbor spotted him and called the cops, who showed up with eight officers that arrested him, took his photo, and hauled him off to jail. There, he was allegedly kept handcuffed for nine hours, three of which were to a chair; his house was raided, hundreds of dollars worth 22
of personal property was confiscated (and not returned); and his name and picture were released to the media soon thereafter. Ultimately, he was sentenced to 10 days in jail, 1,000 hours of community service, $4,000 in fines (on top of lawyer fees, court fees, etc.), and was banned from all city parks. Why, I ask myself, is graffiti such a serious infraction of the law back home while simply a fact of life elsewhere? Having looked through several Richmond forums where one of the main arguments against graffiti is its illegality, is it that an overwhelming portion our mainstream culture has positioned itself so closely with the law that they have lost the ability to see merit in anything outside of it? Or do places like Athens just have bigger fish to fry? The fact that Richmond is not without its problems in regards to crime makes me doubt it. Furthermore, is art not part of human nature, dating back over 30,000 years, and is graffiti not art? And given that graffiti can be traced back to the Vikings, the Mayans, and even as far back as Ancient Greece, could graffiti itself not be considered part of human nature? I keep these questions in mind as I walk up the hill from my apartment to the local Polytechnical Institute, where, like all university campuses in Athens, no police are allowed. I make my way past a bum taking a nap in the shade and a couple of kids waiting for a bus, to the main parking deck, which is covered inch by inch in some of the best work I’ve seen. Now I know American graffiti and European graffiti have their distinct differences in style and preference, but most of what I see has been given all the care and attention that the artist has. There were no time limitations, and no hassles, and it shows. It is in this parking deck that I meet Stoyan and Panos, two local kids painting side by side. They gladly let me hang out, talk, and take pictures, and even show me the best spots on campus. Whereas else-
where, the two would be working hurriedly, with one eye over their shoulders, here there are no worries, and we talk for a couple hours while they finish their pieces. They fill me in on what the scene is like in Athens, and laugh when I tell them people back home get put in jail for graffiti. They’ve had their asses kicked by the cops once or twice, but they’ve never gotten in any real trouble over graffiti. They don’t fight with other crews because the rules are straightforward: if your work is good, it’ll stick around for a few weeks or more, if not, it’ll get covered up sooner than that. Especially in a spot like this one, the nature of the game is one of transience, like some kind of urban Zen Garden. You take your idea, a little imprint of yourself, you throw it up on the wall, it lasts a little while, and then it goes away, replaced by someone else’s idea. When their pieces are done, Stoyan gives me a framed print of his artwork as a souvenir, and I leave the parking deck. I’d experienced something simultaneously special and inconsequential; I got to see one average kid take a bit of himself and put it up for the public to see, a rare occurrence in what I had previously known as the anonymous world of graffiti. As I make my way back down the hill, it still seems odd to me, the nonchalance of the graffiti game in Athens, versus the severity it is met with an ocean away. While I doubt that the extent to which graffiti’s presence is accepted in Athens would be desirable elsewhere in the world, this example forces me to question the effect a more moderate level of acceptance would have in Richmond. Would leniency on graffiti artists reduce Richmond to a city scrawled over with obscenities and gang tags, or would it foster the emergence of more color and creativity within the greater community, in addition to what could be some truly emblematic, culturally significant, public works of art?
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MISERABLE MORNINGS, NEVERENDING NIGHTS
PHOTOGRAPHERS: Joe Talman & Phil Bowne ART DIRECTION/STYLIST: Casey Longyear
MODELS: Summer Lambert, Rachel Griffin, Brandon Ellington, Luke Tilghman HAIR/MAKEUP: Audrey Tyree ASSISTANTS: Saphire Anderson, Amanda Pong, Lydia Teffera
PHARRELL PHARRELL of N*E*R*D and The Neptunes of N*E*R*D and words TheandNeptunes photos by Shahan Jafri words and photos by Shahan Jafri
PHARRELL It is around 3:30PM and we’re in South Beach Studios in Miami Beach, Florida, shooting a music video with Pharrell Williams. Alex Germanotta, the DP of the video and I began talks with VA natives Clipse a little while ago. We wanted to shoot a video off of their album “Till the Casket Drops”, which features Pharrell, and fellow Virginia native Kenna. To say we were excited would be the biggest understatement ever. Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes, media mogul, fashion icon, soundtrack composer. We had shown up a couple of hours earlier to set up and were doing test shots when we got a call from Pharrell’s personal assistant, Mick. Mick could arguably have the greatest job in the world, seeing as he stays with Pharrell ever ywhere he goes, whether it be South Beach or the French Rivera. Mick’s call is simple and shor t, he notifies us that Chad Hugo will be coming by the studio, so if we want we can shoot with him as well. A pleasant surprise, Alex and I began to look for shots to incorporate him, and ended up on the roof getting these photos of Chad messing around. It’s a weird flashback to a middle school band room, as Williams and Hugo have known each other since they were 12 years-old, and their relationship has evolved from competitive to collaborative. They formed the producing group ‘The Neptunes’ sometime af ter high school, and the rest is histor y. They both grew up in Virginia Beach, and Pharrell will tell you it was not the easiest of times, but a blessing in disguise.
“The thing in Virginia is we did not have a musical outlet in the sense of a music industr y, in the same way that people today get,
changing, life is changing, life as we know it is changing, you know what I mean?” And what Virginia meant to him? “When I think about VA, I think about home, its the place that raised me and made me what I am, a huge influence. But at the same my hear t always goes out to the effor t of just making sure that education is much more readily available and accessible to the kids, because for whatever reason, ever ything in the world is based on perspective, and if your perspective is off, then probably most of your endeavors and your life will be too. So I think that there is a big disconnect there, in your education and how much it means to your future. I would like to make education the coolest thing there is, because it is the ver y means to your success, at least the way I have learned it.” For the album’s first single with Fur tado the group got to collaborate with renowned music video director Jonas Akurland. Jonas can be accredited for past and present video classics such as Prodigy’s ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ and Lady Gaga’s ‘Paparazzi’, and currently has a MT V VMA nomination for video of the year for ‘Telephone’. “Jonas is a genius, and I told him what I wanted to do and he totally got it, and totally took it to the next level. It was a just a pleasure to work with him”. The man is ever ywhere. Along with collaborating with Jonas, he recently got to do his first score for a major motion picture. He is accredited alongside composing legend Hans Zimmer for doing the score for the movie ‘Despicable Me’. “Hans Zimmer was amazing to
When I think about VA, I think about “home, its the place that raised me and
made me what I am, a huge influence...”
so i guess it trickled down in a different kind of way. We approached making music by changing the feeling and, you know, almost hav ing the par t that is psychological, and thinking that [you’ll] never have the oppor tunity, so when you get the oppor tunity it’s all coming from a place of inspiration and nothing else. Now depending on the area, they want you to be an athlete or a rapper. During that time when we star ted out ever yone wanted to be athletes or hustlers, and then you had the kids that were into education. That seemed a little bit more hopeful and promising because we had seen it happen before. As far as music we didn’t think that it was going to be that way. So I feel like if I had known (about music) I would have taken a ver y different approach and it would not have lasted as long as it has.” It has lasted now for more than 15 years and is possibly as strong as ever. Recently Billboard Music named The Neptunes Producers of the Decade, beating out fellow Virginia native Timbaland. Aside from being one half of the Neptunes, Pharrell is a lead member of N*E*R*D, which have made who have made put their stamp on today’s music with profound clarity. On the eve of the 4th album installment for N*E*R*D entitled Nothing, with the latest single ‘Hot n Fun’ featuring Nelly Fur tado, Pharrell expresses that this album can best be described as a conversation about society between N*E*R*D and women.
“This is just a sign of the times man, the world is changing, and I just wanted to make an album that reflected that, thats all. The world is
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work with. I was just talking about him today because he also did ‘Inception’, so we have the number one and number two films this past couple of weeks, and thats been really awesome.” With this new box on the list of potential creative endeavors recently checked, who is to say except Pharrell himself where his relationship with cinema will lead? It’s fair to say that it looks like it’s going to be something to watch and appreciate. Even with all these mediums at his disposal, and all of his commercial success, Pharrell is making time to promote education, and to reach and positively impact the youth. “We just got to make education as cool as the iPod is. That is the one way the iPod was made. Education had a huge impression on someone and they made that. You know? All great things in the world, some things come from pure inspiration, but the refinement of all inspiration is through education.” To walk the talk, he recently launched Kidult.com, a site orientated around getting proper, relevant news to kids 14 and up. “Well I think the biggest thing with Kidult for us is, to continue with what I was saying before, is that the world is crazy, man, and each kid deserves that oppor tunity, and if we don’t give it to them then who will?” It is refreshing to see that someone is making such an inspired and substantial push for the youth. Kidult.com is a way for kids, anywhere in the countr y and around the globe, to get their next dose of information about politics and news.
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PHARRELL
I saw firsthand how Pharrell is with kids while watching him work later that day. During a recording session in the studio, one of his friends stopped by and brought along his 9 year-old son. The young boy was in awe when he met Pharrell. He shook the young boy’s hand and told him he was allowed anytime he wanted to come hang out, but the only way his body guard would let him in would be with his good grades. Back to the video shoot, Alex and I were nervous but excited. We had set up lights. We cued up the hook for him on four different exchanges. Ever ything was ready and as soon as we hit record and pressed play on the deck, he changed. He went from cool, calm and collected to fast and funk. He did his four takes, paused, then told us he didn’t like them and for us to do it again. He said “I’m going to give you more on this one” . Obviously, we did not have a problem with that, and when I hit the play button again he gave us something new with even more energy. Af terwards he said “those were all good takes.” That’s all we needed to hear, and af ter getting some coverage and B-roll shots, it was done. Later, on the phone, I asked Pharrell what his most memorable moment in the studio was. Without missing a beat he said “I was working with Justin (Timberlake) and Michael called. I thought it was someone prank calling me so I hung up on him multiple times but he said ‘No it’s really me.” And I thought, come on man, somebody’s playing a joke. Michael Jackson does not want to talk to me, but it was, and it was the coolest thing in the world.” Looking back, I realized I didn’t ask what they talked about. I really wish I had. I followed up with the most generic question ever to grace an interview: “What’s playing in your car or on your iPod at moment?”
“Right now? Old Beatles and Stones records, and of course theres always room for Roy Ayers and Donald Byrd and all of my cast of people that I love and respect.” Af ter the last question and before we hung up, I asked when Pharrell or N*E*R*D were coming to RVA, to which he replied “on this upcoming tour.” I quickly mentioned to him the craziness of what is unfolding at RVAlution, thanked him for the interview, and told him we’d would love to hear from them in the future. “Thank you so much man. We really appreciate it. I love Richmond, and Virginia is home, man.”
WWW.N-E-R-D.COM
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Girly Man Illustrator Erik Jones is Changing Comics, One Pretty Girl at a Time By Rosswell Saunders Before there were gentlemen’s magazines, men had another way to satisfy their wandering peepers -- pin-up ar t. We’ve all seen it, illustrations of scantily clad and semi-nude girls striking suggestive poses in calendars and magazines from the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. For years, pin-up ar t was a staple component of the male condition. But golden ages never last forever and it wasn’t long before pin-up ar t faced serious competition for the eyes of its audience. As social norms became more lax in the latter half of the 20th Century, the popularity of pin-up ar t began to wane. The suggestive, stylized depictions of pin-up gave way to the more openly lurid images of the modern porno mag. The golden age of the pin-up was over. Never theless, some elements of the style managed to persist, thanks in large par t to alternative media such as comic books. Then suddenly, just like it had decades before, the culture shif ted again. The growth of the internet exposed a new generation to pin-up and paved the way for the ar t form to establish its place in digital altculture. Enter illustrator Erik Jones. Jones has been completely captivated by pin-up ar t for most of his life. He’s even gone so far as to build a career around it, channeling his ethereal, of ten haunting work through the genre’s two biggest media, comic books and the internet. Erik’s latest work, along with the work of fellow illustrator Jason Levesque, is featured in the new exhibition Pretty Girls, on display at Ar tGallery in Norfolk, VA from July 10-August 21.
ROSSWELL: High school guidance counselors aren’t exactly pushing students to make ar t their profession. What led you to become an illustrator?
ERIK: Actually, mine kinda did. I was in music for a while, actually a long time, and I always drew. In fact, I went to an ar t middle school and high school and I did music and ar t at both. Af ter high school I was in a band for a while and it wasn’t going anywhere. I was dating a girl in Sarasota at the time [ who ] convinced me to go to [ Ringling College of Art and Design ]. So I went to ar t school and now I’m backed up in so much debt that I actually have to use my degree. [ Note: little known fact, the guy who first said, “payback’s a bitch” was referring to his student loans. ] But I’m in the industry now and I’m loving it, you know? I’m actually doing shows and I’m getting work so it seems to be working out so far.
ROSSWELL: You’ve established yourself as a pretty successful comic book cover illustrator. How did you find your way into comics? Did you find comics or did comics find you?
ERIK: Well I graduated in 2007. Right af ter school, I got represented by a comic book rep in New York, and he was getting me some comic work. I have yet to have a normal job since I graduated so [comics] is my primary job... well, actually, it’s my only job.
ROSSWELL: So your first break was hooking up with a rep? ERIK: Yeah. The way I went about it was I went to a bunch of comics shows and just kinda caught the eye of some editors and stuff, but I was doing everything myself and it just seemed like having someone look out for me was the best way to go. About four or five different reps wanted me, so I just kinda chose the best one.
ROSSWELL: So basically you worked the cons [ short for conventions ] until you were able to make the contacts you needed.
ERIK: Yeah. If anyone wants to get into the comics industry, that’s the way to do it. It really is. Go there, meet these people face-to-face, and get to know the fans and everything there. If you have the talent, it’s hard not to get noticed at those things.
ROSSWELL: So you were interested in comics right from the star t. ERIK: Actually, no. I don’t even read comics. [laughs] I never have. I just like straightforward, painterly type ar t put together in a very comic style, so my work lends itself to comics. I don’t do sequential at all or anything like that. I just do the covers. [ For the uninitiated, sequential art is the industry term for the way comics tells stories through the juxtaposition of related panels/images. If you’re interested in how this works, see Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. For an even more scholarly analysis, check out Will Eisner’s Comics and Sequential Art. ]
ROSSWELL: You don’t do any sequential, so no plans to draw your own book?
ERIK: No, no... well, I guess I do, but the cover work is so great. [Sequential ar t] is not something I know. I mean it would be fun to do, but one “panel” for a cer tain amount of money as opposed to say 400 panels, there’s nothing comparable, you know?
ROSSWELL: I completely understand. It used to be that comics illustrators penciled these books their whole careers trying to work their way up to the cover work. Obviously, your experience has been different. Does that mean that system is no longer in place?
ERIK: I mean, it is and it isn’t. When I first got star ted, back when I was doing the cons, I would go up to editors of companies and ask, “How can I get cover work?” and it was pretty much the same thing every time. “Oh your stuff looks great, but it’s really competitive and you need to put in your dues.” And so on. So I think the cover ar tist is kind of a new thing, as far as comic books go. But like I said, I don’t know a lot about comics, so I could be totally wrong. That just seems to be what’s going on.
ROSSWELL: Could you describe your process for creating a cover illustration?
ERIK: Most of my cover work -- well maybe not most of it, more like 60-75% -- is digital work. Anything that goes to print I like to do digitally because I’ve got someone on the other side telling me to change colors or change backgrounds, so if it were actually physically painted, it would be a lot harder to change. So the first thing I do is get reference. I get a model, and I shoot the model, and then I draw from the photograph. Then I scan in my drawing. Af ter that, I just star t rendering it in Photoshop. If I’m doing it traditionally, like gallery work or something like that, I basically use the same initial process except, instead of rendering it in Photoshop, I do a color study on the computer. Then I print out the color study, a small version, and I put that next to my painting and that’s what I go off of. 35
ERIK JONES ROSSWELL: You illustrate almost exclusively women. How did your work get so focused? ERIK: I’ve been obsessed with pin-up ar t ever since I can remember. Like I said, I’ve never been a comic book person, but I saw Gen 13 and Danger Girl done by an ar tist named J. Scott Campbell and I became obsessed with those images. I had a bunch of friends that had those comic books and I would look at them while sitting in school in awe that someone was drawing women like that. And the more I researched pin-up, I found a lot more ar tist that I liked. There wasn’t anyone in [Ringling] at the time that was doing pin-up ar t, or anyone that I knew at the time that was into that, and I just focused on it. I’m actually doing more guy covers now. Tonight I actually have to finish one. And it’s fine, but there’s more of a challenge with women, making them beautiful. Drawing a beautiful woman is hard. Drawing a guy is pretty easy. They’re just rugged. Women are beautiful and sof t. It’s harder to capture that. And when you do it and you do it right, it’s just an incredible feeling.
ROSSWELL: It’s interesting that you mention Campbell since, like you, he is best known for his depictions of women. Do you think that your focus on female subjects limits your marketability or does your specialization make you more sought-af ter?
ERIK: [Ross] is one of the best comic ar tists ever! The guy’s insane. I mean who the hell puts that much time into panels like that? I can’t even imagine doing a book like that! It’d be ridiculous. They’d have to pay me so much money.
ROSSWELL: Speaking of getting paid, do you consider yourself a fine ar tist or a commercial ar tist and do you think that distinction is relevant anymore? ERIK: Well, my definition of fine ar t is gallery ar t. Take James Jean who’s a comic book illustrator. He took his covers and put them in a gallery. Now they’re fine ar t. For me, I guess I’d say I’m both. I do work for galleries. I do work for book covers. Fine ar t is great because it’s all you. Cover work is more about what the client wants. That’s how I would make that distinction.
ROSSWELL: How long have you been showing in galleries? ERIK: I think 2007. Right af ter I graduated, I star ted doing the gallery scene. Nothing major, but galleries here and there. Sor t of all over. Not so much the West Coast, but all over the East Coast. Gallery work for me, so far, is not very profitable. It’s more just fun.
ERIK: I think that really has to do with the ar tist. I market myself to
ROSSWELL: How did you become par t of your latest show, Pretty
editors and clients that want pin-up ar t, so you just have to research your market. I think for sure it limits how many companies I can get jobs with, but the companies I want to get jobs with seem to like my stuff a lot. So I mean, you know, having a niche can be complicated sometimes, but if you do it well, people notice it and if you focus on what clients you want and go af ter them, you’ll get them. For me, I think having that focus on the female figure and doing that type of work has made myself better rather than just being all over the place. So yes and no.
Girls?
ERIK: Jason [Levesque] contacted me at the last comic show we were doing, about a month and a half ago, and asked me if I wanted to do a gallery show with him. I was expecting sometime at like the end of this year. He called me up right af ter the show and was like, “Hey are you free now?” And I told him no problem. I have work. It was kind of that simple.
ROSSWELL: Very decisive.
ROSSWELL: I understand you’re showing nine pieces. Are they all original or are you selling prints?
ERIK: Thanks.
ERIK: They’re all original. I will be selling prints too, though. Jason
ROSSWELL: I’ve noticed you’re doing a lot of work right now with
also wanted me to bring one in progress, which is perfect because I have one.
Boom! Studios. How did you get hooked up with Mark Waid and company? Was it through the cons?
ROSSWELL: Do you have any new projects on the horizon?
ERIK: That was actually through my comics rep. I love working with
ERIK: I’ll be working on several new comics. I can’t really say much
Boom! They’re one of the only comic companies that kind of just let me do what I want to do. I get like a loose outline. The editors there just really like me and trust me. It’s a lot of fun to do stuff with them. But, yeah, we’ve got a really good work relationship. They like what I do. I like what they do.
about them. They’re similar to The Unknown and Nola kinda stuff where it’s a shor t body of work with a limited number of issues. It looks like I’ll be working on those. And I’ve got the Tata Gala coming up this year. In fact, as soon as I’m done here, I have to call someone about that. Tata Gala is a show I do every year with the profits going to breast cancer research. This will be its four th year and it looks like both Juxtapoz and ImagineFX are going to be sponsors for it and running stories about it, so it’s going to be very cool. This year we’re going to do it in Sarasota, which is where I’ve done it for the last three years, and then the best work will go to New York for the Best of the Breasts show.
ROSSWELL: Very cool. The time has now come for me to have my personal nerdy comic book moment and ask you what it’s like to work with a legend like Mark Waid. So? ERIK: [ laughs ] It’s pretty crazy! Like I said earlier, I was never really into comics, so when I first got the job, I didn’t even know who this guy was. And then the more research I did, I was like “ Holy crap! This is a pretty big deal!” He’s absolutely fantastic. It’s a trip, man. It’s pretty cool. And he seems to like me a lot. I talk to him on the phone and he’s ridiculously nice to me and compliments me so much. I’m pretty flattered to get such high comments from such a person.
ROSSWELL: He’s worked with some of the best so he should know, like Alex Ross on Kingdom Come .
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PRETTY GIRLS, JULY 10-AUGUST 21, 2010. ARTGALLERY, NORFOLK, VA. FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT LORRIE SAUNDERS AT LSAUNDERS@ARTGALLERYLS.NET OR 757-635-1162 OR 757-627-9808.
ARTGALLERYLS.COM FACEBOOK.COM/ARTGALLERYLS THEIRISON.COM TATAGALA.ORG
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DON’T SLEEP SLEEP DON’T AnInterview Interview with An withBryan BryanWoodland Woodland AnthonyHarris Harris ByByR.R.Anthony There are three types of people in this world: those who make things There are three of people in happen this world: those who make things happen, thosetypes who watch things and those who wonder what happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder happened. I would put Bryan in the first category. As a designer for what happened. I wouldand putco-conspirator Bryan in the first category. As a designer Dominion Skateboards with troublemakers, forscenemakers Dominion Skateboards and co-conspirator with troublemakers and Audio Ammo, the guy gets around. Always making shit scenemakers Audio Ammo, the guy gets around. Always making shit happen with multiple projects on deck, this guy is like a shark that happen with multiple projects needs to keep moving to live. on deck, he needs to keep moving to live. TONY: You were telling me about Commonwealth, the retail outlet downYou South. didme you get involved with them and were you TONY: wereHow telling about Commonwealth.. How didwhat you get involved doing? with them and what were you doing? BRYAN: Well, I went to school for Graphic Design at VCU 2000-2004, BRYAN: Well, I went to around, school forwent Graphic and then and then I traveled out Design west forataVCU bit. 2000-2004, Went out to I traveled around, went out west for a bit. Went out to Portland, Oregon. Portland, Oregon. I had been hearing about this boutique that I had been hearing aboutup thisinboutique actuallyCommonwealth. opened up in Norfolk, VAI got actually opened Norfolk,that VA called When called Commonwealth. When I got back from Portland, I went to an art show back from Portland, I went to an art show and met the owner and a and met the owner and a couple cats that worked there. Just told them what couple cats that worked there. Just told them what I wanted to do. AI wanted to do. A couple days later they asked one of my homies Matt— couple days later they asked one of my homies Matt—basically got a basically got a recommendation fromwere him. They were likeup “what’s up with this recommendation from him. They like “what’s with this dude?” dude?” And then asked me to work for them. I started working with their online And then asked me to work for them. I started working with their online store, likeLike orders, shipping, and stuff that, wanted to design store. orders, shipping, andlike stuff likeand thatI told andthem I toldI them I wanted they started kickin’ me little projects here and there, kind of getting the feel for to design. They started kickin’ me little projects here and there. Kind of how I work. And basically I worked my way up to lead graphic designer. getting the feel for how I work. And basically I worked my way up to lead graphic designer. TONY: Was that right when they opened? TONY: Was that right when they opened?
BRYAN: they were open for afor little They were a real BRYAN:Yeah Yeah they were open a while. little while. Theyinwere in small a realretail small space, while I worked theythere moved intomoved a largerinto location in Norfolk. The retail but space but while Ithere worked they a larger location online store really boomed. Took off like crazy. Then upThen Commonin Norfolk. The online store really boomed. Tookthey off opened like crazy. they wealth D.C.,up then the Stussy Store and Thethe Greater Good on the opened Commonwealth D.C.,For then Stussy Storealland For same The block. Greater Good all on the same block. TONY: I saw that were doing full displays. Wassomething that something TONY: I saw that youyou were doing full displays. Was that you you enjoyed? Working that large scale? enjoyed? Working that large scale? BRYAN: Yeah that was actually one of my biggest accomplishments BRYAN: Yeah that was Started actually off onewith of my biggest while while working there. flyers, thenaccomplishments I was doing apparel, working there.like Started withwe flyers, I was doing apparel, adsDC. things ads things that.off Then didthen a collaboration shoe with Forlike the that. Then of wethat did a collaboration shoe the release thatin shoe release shoe they asked mewith do DC. the For gallery displayofboth D.C. they asked me do Being the gallery bothfrom in D.C. and in Being able and in Norfolk. abledisplay to do that sketch toNorfolk. finish was a lot of to dofun. thatSeeing from sketch to finish was a of lotpaper of fun. to Seeing that from a piece of paper that from a piece the large scale was great. to the large scale was great.
TONY: From there I remember you sending me an email. Then I heard that you were to Richmond andme then kind of lost touch I TONY: From therecoming I remember you sending an we email. Then I heard that don’t really know what happened. Then I guess you got involved with you were coming to Richmond, and then we kind of lost touch, I don’t really Audio Ammo, which is a crew out of Richmond, kind of blew up over know what happened. Then I guess you got involved with Audio Ammo, which the last year. How did you meet those dudes and what was it like being is a crew out of Richmond, kind of blew up over the last year. How did you meet part of the scene as it got bigger and bigger? those dudes and what was it like being part of the scene as it got bigger and bigger? BRYAN: I met Long through skating at VCU, then we kind of lost touch
and I had known Doddie as well from VCU and through BRYAN: I met Long through skating at as VCU, then kindofofhad lost touch, and Commonwealth. He worked there well. Sowe I kind an idea of I had Doddie well from worked theknown people that I as wanted to VCU workand withthrough when I Commonwealth. moved here. ButHe then it there well. So I kind of had ancoming idea of up the here people that weekend I wanted tohanging work with wasasjust weird… I had been every when moved here. But then it was justI was weird… I had been upThen here out.IAnd I told a few people that thinking aboutcoming moving. every out.and Andsaid I told fewlooking people at that I was thinking about oneweekend, day Longhanging hit me up yoaI’m this place, do you moving. oneroommate. day Long hitI was me up said “yo looking at know this place, wannaThen be my likeand “yeah.” He I’m didn’t even I was doayou wannaatbe mytime roommate.” wasthrowing like “yeah.”allHe didn’tparties, even know designer the and he Iwas these so ofI was a designer the time anddon’t he was throwing theseall parties, so of course I asked course at I asked “Why you let me all design your flyers.” Basically “Why don’t you let me design alloff your flyers?”throwing Basicallyait monthly took off from there. took off from there. Started small… party. Then
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BRYAN WOODL AND
we started doingthrowing two, first then this party called Started off small… a Friday monthlyparty party.and Then we started doing two, Brain First Drain. For a while we were doing it and it was just him and I. Then we Friday party and then this party called Brain Drain. For a while we were dogot and Alex They Audio and I had ing itDoddie and it was just himinvolved. and I. Then we formed got Doddie andAmmo, Alex involved. They all creative direction with that. It was cool to see it grow. We were doing formed Audio Ammo, and I had all creative direction with that. It was cool to it for for We something to do. first startedtopeople were hating seefun, it grow. were doing it forWhen fun, forit something do. When it first startedon it. People were like “fuck it we’re over this shit” as they always do. So we people were hating on it. People were like “fuck it we’re over this shit” as they took a summer off. Then came back and our numbers doubled. Then always do. So we took a summer off. Then we came back and our numbers worked the year. Took break came back andback numbers doubled.through Then worked through thewinter year. Took winter break came and doubled again. Its kind of been the same ever since. I’m proud of it,of it, numbers doubled again. Its kind of been the same ever since. I’m proud being abletotowork workwith with some good friends are hard working being able some good friends whowho are hard working passionate passionate people. It’s dope. There’s a good comradary between us. people. It’s dope. There’s a good comradary between us. TONY: thinkone oneofofthe thefirstfirst things that caught my eye withposters the posters TONY: II think things that caught my eye with the was was the typography, you wereearlier talking earlier aboutletters. creating the typography, you were talking about creating Haveletters. you Have always it that way? alwaysyou done it that done way? Like as a kid? Like as a kid? BRYAN: Naw,basically basicallyI started I started that because looking a BRYAN: Naw, that because I wasI was looking to doto a do typeface typeface that wasn’t on the computer. I try to get away from the that wasn’t on the computer. I try to get away from the computer as much as computer muchI’masan possible you I’m an artist, notdrawing just a and possible youasknow? artist, not justknow? a designer. I just started designer. I just started drawing and looking at these things on my desk looking at these things on my desk and it took off, it was fun. I like doing that and it took off, it was fun. I like doing that stuff. To sit down and justado it stuff. To sit down and just do it and create a typeface just for fun, it was new and create a typeface just for fun, it was a new thing really. Started last thing really. Started last year I don’t know where the inspiration had come year where thedraw inspiration had comesofrom. was like “oh it from. II don’t was likeknow “oh I’m gonna this”. It just worked I keptI doing it. And I’m gonna draw this”. It just worked so I kept doing it. And it kept kept working so I kept doing it. working so I kept doing it. TONY: I like how you throw in aspects of Richmond. A lot of the stuff you’ve TONY: like how you in aspects Richmond. I lotI thought of the stuff made is Igrimy, there arethrow cigarettes in it, ashoftrays, dead rats. there you’ve made is grimey there’s cigarettes in it, ash trays, dead I just was a good style to it and it really started to put a brand to the crew.rats. Helped thought there was a good style to it and it really started to put a brand it grow, and you know people caught on to it. Had people looking forward to tothe crew. Itand feels helped it grow you know people caught on to these posters to like the itparty. it. Had people look forward to these posters and to the party.It was good man. Basically I just put my style out there with those BRYAN: posters. Everything you saw was something that was just laying around. I
BRYAN: It was good man. Basically I just getting put myinto style could hear a conversation about someone a out fightthere and I with would those posters. Everything you saw was something that was just laying put that in the poster. “Kick that dude’s ass”, then I’d use teeth or something around. I could a kids conversation someone getting into aI like that. You knowhear these try to comeabout in, moving in on our territory and fight and I would put that in the poster. “Kick that dudes ass”, then I’d
40
usetoteeth or something likefuckin that. You know kidspeels try toare come get thinking these guys are “slippin”. Sothese banana in thein, postmoving in on and I get to Ithinking these guys er. That was my our wayterritory of getting at people. didn’t need to say it, are I justfuckin showed it. “slippin”. So banana in the poster. That was my way of People caught on and peels if they are didn’t, oh well. getting at people. I didn’t need to say it, I just showed it. People TONY: stillif skate? Are youoh stillwell. involved in the scene? Obviously you caughtDo onyou and they didn’t, work at Dominion now, so you see it everyday.
TONY: Do you still skate? Are you still involved in the scene? Obviously you work at Dominion now, see itworking everyday. BRYAN: Yeah, it’s weird as soonsoasyou I started at Dominion I kind of stopped skating, but I still get on board. You know, I have to. Its something I’ve BRYAN: Yeah, it’s weird as soon as I started atbut Dominion I kind done forever. I’ve been a skating enthusiast… still inworking the know right now, basiof stopped skating, but I still get on board. You know, I have to. Its cally I have to choose priorities. Right now my work is more important but I still something done I’ve been a skating enthusiast… still in the get on boardI’ve every now forever. and then.
know but right now, basically I have to choose priorities. Right now my work isWhat moredo important I still get on board every now andit’s then. TONY: you think but of the Richmond skate scene? You think growing?
TONY: What do you think of the Richmond skate scene? You think it’s growing? BRYAN: You know, I feel like the city is holding it back. The city doesn’t want it to get bigger . Dominion is one of the best shops on the east coast. Definitely BRYAN: You know, I feel like the city is holding it back. The city doesn’t the best shop in VA and it offers a lot. It’s authentic and everyone that works want it to get bigger . Dominion is one of the best shops on the east there is dope. All the employees put together a strong team. I don’t know coast. Definitely the best shop in VA and it offers a lot. It’s authentic what’s going on with skating right now though… honestly its like it might be a and everyone that works there is dope. All the employees put together little saturated maybe the trend is dying down. Which to skaters isn’t a big deal a strong team. I don’t know what’s going on with skating right now to have it be like that.
though… honestly its like it might be a little saturated maybe the trend is dying down. Which to skaters isn’t a big deal to have it be like that. TONY: Rather have it be a little more underground. TONY: Rather have it be a little more underground. BRYAN: Yeah, the 90s was the best time. Even though it can’t really go there now causeYeah, of the the corporate sponsorship, but with it dying down a littlereally bit we’d BRYAN: 90s was the best time. Even though it can’t go like to get some of the posers out of there. there now cus of the corporate sponsorship, but with it dying down a little bit we’d like to get some of the posers out of there. TONY: Do you think a skate park in the city would be a bad thing or a good thing? TONY: Do you think a skate park in the city would be a bad thing or a good thing? BRYAN: It would be good, we need it man, there needs to be something. Kids BRYAN: It wouldinbe good, need it man, there needs be be good are taking matters their own we hands. Just a public skate parktowould KidsThere’s are taking matters their own hands. Just ait public tosomething. have around. a couple shitty in but we need a skatepark, helps build skatekids. park would to have around. There’s a couple shitty good You knowbe it’s good a training ground.
TONY: out of trouble. but weKeeps needthem a skatepark, it helps build good kids. You know it’s a training ground. BRYAN: Yeah, keeps them out of the streets. They need somewhere they can skate that’s actually good getting harrassed. TONY: Keeps them outwithout of trouble.
BRYAN: them out of Dominion the streets. need TONY: So Yeah you’vekeeps been working with for They awhile. Whatsomewhere other projects they can skate that’s actually good without getting harrassed. would you like to get on, get going on your own? TONY: So beena working with Dominion for awhile. other BRYAN: Youyou’ve know that’s good question…it’s been good so far.What I mean projects would you like to get on? Get going on your own. through Dominion I worked on the Mountain Dew Green Label competition. That was big. That was really cool.
BRYAN: You know that’s a good question…it’s been good so far. I mean through Dominion I worked on the Mountain Dew Green Label TONY: You know Adam Juresko was on a Mountain Dew can with his cut out competition. That was big. That was really cool. collage style. TONY: You know Adam Juresko was on a Mountain Dew can with his BRYAN: He had characters with a camera head or something. Yeah that was cut out collage style.
TONY: I heard about that.working with this hip-hop organization. BRYAN: I’ve also been BRYAN: there’s TONY: They’re I hearddope, about that.some hardworking passionate people espe-
cially this kid Arnold who basically started it up. That kid, he’s smart man, I really BRYAN: They’re dope, some hardworking passionate people appreciate what he’s doing,there’s he’s been hitting me up to do some projects. especially this kid Arnold who basically started it up. That kid, he’s We’ve been working on this brand book right now. It’s good man. I feel likesmart man,definitely I really appreciate he’s doing, he’s been hitting me up to they’re going to be what successful.
do some projects. We’ve been working on this brand book right now. It’s good man. I feel like they’re TONY: My old intern Neil works with definitely Arnold. going to be successful. TONY: I My intern works with Arnold. BRYAN: kickold it with Neil.Neil We’ve been trying to work this book out man, it’s tight. I recently met him. Arnold brought him on to do some writing copywriting stuff BRYAN: kick it with Neil.it’s We’ve been toprocess. work this man, like that butI it’s a big project proven to betrying a long I’vebook neverout done a it’s tight. I recently met him. Arnold brought him on to do some writing full book. It’s basically a brand book, less interviews with new graphics on every copywriting stuff likeIt’sthat butbut it’sitsa good. big project it’stoproven bemind a long page or every spread. tough It’s good exercisetothe like process. I’ve never done a full book. It’s basically a brand book, less that, so I’m looking forward to that getting done.
dope. Been working on a Spitfire/Dominion collaboration wheel. Which was cool. BRYAN: He had characters with a camera head or something. Yeah
interviews with new graphics on every page or every spread. It’s tough but its good. to exercise that, so I’m looking TONY: So yourIt’s life good is project to projectthe rightmind now.like Whatever comes up. forward to that getting done.
that was dope. Been working on a Spitfire/Dominion collaboration TONY: actual wheel? wheel.An Which was cool.
BRYAN: Yeah usually they overlap, I try to have a project lined up you know TONY: So your life isI project now.tryWhatever comes and in between there… work on to littleproject stuff butright I always to have one big up. project that I’m working on then try and fit in little things here and there. So I’m BRYAN: Yeah usually they overlap, I try to have a project lined up you pretty busy man.
BRYAN: Yeah, an actual Spitfire wheel that wil be available at the shop. TONY: An actual wheel? TONY: So Yeah, I am guessing you want wheel to continue working on skateboards or BRYAN: an actual Spitfire that wil be available at the shop. something like that.
TONY: So I am guessing you want to continue working on skateboards or something like that. industry but its so small I’d rather work to a broader BRYAN: The skateboard audience. I think that would be more important you know? It’s like I love skateBRYAN: IMan, I would love to…. that’s wanted boarding. like projects here and there but where I’d like toI started. work withI always some bigger to work in the skateboard industry but its so small I’d rather work to a companies to reach more people.
broader audience. I think that would be more important you know? It’s like ISo love skateboarding. I like projects hereAmmo, and there butthey I’d are like to TONY: actually you are still working with Audio I mean work with some bigger companies to reach more people. getting recognition outside of Richmond. You’re working with Dominion, to be honest it seems like you’ve got options man, seems like a good time.
TONY: So actually you are still working with Audio Ammo, I mean they are getting recognition outside Richmond. You’re working with BRYAN: I’ve also been working withofthis hip-hop organization. Dominion, to be honest it seems like you’ve got options man, seems like a good time.
know and in between there… I work on little stuff but I always try to have one big project that I’m working on then try and fit in little things TONY: That’s why I’m interviewing you man. I definitely see your work everyhere and there. So I’m pretty busy man. where.
TONY: That’s why I’m interviewing you man. I definitely see your work BRYAN: I just want as much work as I possibly can do. That’s all I want to do everywhere.
really. It’s kind of weird, it takes over. I’ll be hanging out with a girl and I’m like I gotta go. I Igotta work as on much this project. like what?! I’mdo. like That’s yeah, sorry. But BRYAN: just want workShe’s as I possibly can all I want yeah it takes over to do really. It’sman. kind of weird, it takes over. I’ll be hanging out with a girl
and I’m like I gotta go. I gotta work on this project. She’s like what?! I’m TONY: It’s good be yeah focused. I appreciate the time Bryan. like yeah, sorry.toBut it takes over man. Tony: It’s good to be focused. Well, I appreciate the time Bryan. WWW.BRYANWOODLAND.COM WWW.BRYANWOODLAND.COM
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Heavy Metal Robot Cannibals
An Interview with illustrator Will Towles words and photos by Todd Raviotta
In meeting Will Towles, I was introduced to his wife and son as they stepped out for errands. In that immediate moment of everyday conversation, I could tell how much Towles’ life had changed from late night metal shows and all-nighters hanging out with musicians to something far more focused. Showing off his young son’s room, he talked of its former glory as his drawing studio. Stepping into his new, much smaller, more cramped studio space, we connected on our shared love of heavy metal album cover art, the process and inspiration of creating it, and his mountain of sketchbooks.
TODD: How did you get started with album covers, where does that go back
to?
WILL: Being at parties, going to shows, being in art school, and one day i just got up the nerve and was like, “Hey I can draw that.” I did a bunch of garage band stuff in high school and early college. I can’t even remember some of the names of the bands. I got fairly lucky early on, and one of the first people I started to talk to was Ryan from Municipal Waste. I did a couple of things for them when they were first starting up, and that was pretty much everywhere all of sudden. TODD: When did you meet them? Was that through school? WILL: [laughs] Um.. no, I was working in a call center, and his girlfriend worked
there, and I was hitting on his girlfriend. She thought we would hit it off really well. We had lunch, and we did. I would hang out, drink, and listen to records with him. He even pulled me outside when we were getting to be close. He told me, “You were so scamming on my girlfriend.” We got a big laugh out of that. It was really sad though, we were really tight for about 6 months and then I moved to Baltimore, and did the same thing in Baltimore. I mean, the reason I knew that this was going to be something that was going to propel my artwork was because it was a smaller local band at the time and their record was in the record store in Baltimore. That told me that I could do these drawings and
show them everywhere. I wouldn’t have to deal with the pressure of putting on an art show.
TODD: The repeatable canvas becomes the album cover that someone picks up and the work goes with it. WILL: I could do something and not have to go through the pressure of selling that one, and then selling a bunch of them. Everyone sees it, all over the country. That to me seemed like a little less legwork at the time. TODD: Are there album covers, album cover artists, or band art that you still
like?
WILL: That’s kind of how I view artwork through record covers. It was how I was exposed to artwork. Art was all the cool record covers. You’ve got the standards like Pushead and Repka Dan C Graves that did all the gnarly death metal stuff. Mad Marc Rude that did the Misfits Earth A.D. covers, and Battalion of Saints. I think I look more like his stuff, he’s a little bit more crude of an artist, but there’s a little bit more feeling to it I think. There’s so many and those were the guys that I looked at for art, and a lot of comic book artists like the guy who did Akira, Otomo Katsuhiro. Geof Darrow that did Hard Boiled. The guy that did Rusty Kid Robot. And GWAR, I have GWAR to blame for a lot of this. I was really into science and I thought that was what I wanted to do with my life. 9th grade I was into school then I saw GWAR, the first heavy metal concert I went to.
TODD: Where was that? WILL: It was at Floodzone, which is now Have a Nice Day Cafe. That used to be a rock club. They were awesome, and their bass player stripped down to a G-string and the singer took her shirt off and I was like 17 and yelled at the bouncer to let me in. That was it. After I saw that I realized that was more exciting, the fire and blood, naked women and decapitating celebrities. That was a lot more exciting than anything else. TODD: Than pure science? WILL: Pure science or anything school had to offer me. I was a pretty decent as an artist, so I decided to do that instead. 43
WILL TOWLES TODD: Where did you go to college? WILL: VCU. 1995-2000 painting and printmaking.
.
TODD: Were there any professors that left a good mark? WILL: [pauses] Um…Freed was really cool. There were a lot of professors that
I got something from. I don’t want to be too sour about it, but at the time I felt like I had to kind of hide. Any time I brought comics up someone would get mad. The last year, I did a lot of abstract work ‘cause it was quick and easy. I could do a lot of it and they responded to it better so way down in my portfolio I have a bunch of abstract crap I just churned out to keep them happy. Doing artwork was a way to keep the ball rolling. I could go to certain places and talk to people about “well I did this” or “I’ve done this” and they’ve seen that. I was just more into the shows. I’m usually more interested in the music scene than art scene. Which has always been to my disadvantage.
TODD: So what new projects are you working on? WILL: Let’s see, I’m really interested in doing comics. I think a lot of the band stuff has been really good to me and I’m gonna keep on doing it, I’m still doing some band stuff right now. This is kind of like the jumping point to the next chapter. Comic books, definitely. I’m working with the guy Eric Miller. The guy who did Mark of the Damned and just finished Taste of the Blood of Frankenstein, and we’ve been talking and trading ideas for about a year and some change. The timing wasn’t right for me to get started 6 months ago because of the kid but I think things are going to start coming together in the next few months... comics are a lot of work so don’t hold your breath. TODD: Now with going into comics, do you find there is a difference? WILL: With a record cover, especially with heavy metal, they want something that will take a whole weekend to do. Pretty much a record cover represents a weekend I didn’t go out. With comics I’ve learned you have to go along, you have to teach yourself to draw as fast as you can. I’ve changed the stuff that I draw with and the way I draw. The past year I’ve been just drawing characters over and over again as many times as I can so I can get them as quickly as I can. So it’s a kind of night and day discipline between the record cover stuff and the comic book stuff. TODD: Have you gone to see or meet any comic book artists or watch their process? WILL: Once in a while I do. Ah, who did I meet? This is kind of a dark story, I met the guy that drew Kudzoo about two years ago, and the week after he signed my sketchbook he died in a car wreck. The cool thing is I can reach anyone I want to now because I have the guts to do it. 20 years ago you couldn’t email Jim Lee or Jack Kirby and say “hey I really like your stuff”, but now I have all these guys’ emails and addresses. I really want to email and write Jaime Hernandez …. I want to write him a letter saying gosh damn what a great artist and how much I like Loving Rockets and there’s a guy named Don Simpson that I worship. He did Megaton Man and Bizarre Heroes and a bunch of porno comics. That guys is like… God… The past few months I’ve looked at his stuff and just copying his work and looking at his work has made me a 100 percent better artist. That guy is amazing. Yeah, Eric Miller has been really great about dragging me out. There’s a great comic and horror movie convention down in Chesapeake VA in a library, they do it twice. That is the most amazing place ever. I’ll let RVA know when that happens again. Anybody who likes horror movies or science fiction or fantasy should go there cause its a great convention, it’s all day and it’s in a really great library. Then they have a 24 hour film fest. It’ll just melt your heart with all the movies they’ve got. It’s so good... so good. TODD: Is Eric working on writing or just character development for it? WILL: We’re kind of operating in the Dawn Of The Dead universe. Like his
whole world, and if anybody has watched that movie or experienced Eric Miller there is a huge vast universe of a million characters and worlds and sub worlds. So I could be doing that forever. That’s what we’re doing. This one got used for the first Hard Winter Fest, it’s a Richmond black metal festival
TODD: When was that? WILL: I think 2009, 2008? Terrible with dates. The next level is to date them. I usually just finish them and toss them aside as quickly as I can and move on to the next one. This one is from some band Attackula from Brooklyn, New York. TODD: And this would’ve been an album cover? WILL: I think this was on the inside of one of the records. I never got this one. This is one of my more favorite drawings and I like that band a lot. I think I even did this one for free and they never even sent me a record. I learned early on and you can’t take things personally when people aren’t the way you like them
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to be. I did something for Earache Records I was really really excited about. I’ll show you the record. it was a record. It was the first time I did that.
TODD: Show me the record. WILL: Okay, I didn’t know how to use photoshop at the time… and they were like “ do you know how to do this?” [And I said] “Sure i do.” I taught myself photoshop to do this job, and it came out and I was really excited about it, and they had a lot of bands that I really liked on it. And it’s not the best in the world, it’s kind of a mess but I was super proud at the time of it. When the review came out this one reviewer said it’s just crap as far as the artwork. I was really crushed I felt really mad for a couple weeks, I mean critics are going to say stuff like that. TODD: Did you ever catch anything on fan boards or anything positive? WILL: Well one of the coolest things was my favorite band that did the compilation is this band from Brazil called Violator, and I emailed pretty much every band on it. And they wrote back in pretty much broken english “you’re the guy… I’m gonna get that tattooed on my arm.” I don’t know if he ever did but man… this was a treat to do and I really busted my ass on it. It’s funny enough if I did this now--I mean this took about 3 months of me working all the time, doing it the hard way. TODD: Do you know what year that was? WILL: That was like 2005 or 6? I think Phil Hall got me this. Pretty much someone asked from Earache if they knew an artist to do it. I think Phil sent them my way, Merciless Death. I was really excited they, sent me a really nice letter back, Toxic Holocaust, really excited. Mutant from U.K. I talked to about it, Mutant got the same review, said something stupid about Mutant’s music. And Violator, that was the sell. I would’ve killed to get on this knowing that they were on. Really excited. [Cannabis Corpse album shown] Think this is probably the one that everyone’s seen. And I’ve done a t-shirt for Battlemaster, and right after that I was at a party and one of the guys talked to Phil when they were starting it, and that’s how it became.
TODD: What is the 213? WILL: It’s Jeffrey Dahmer’s apartment number. We had no idea. I left that part blank and right before I scanned it in a I called up Phil and told him “we’ve got this spot and I want to put a tattoo on him” and Cannibal Corpse is all about serial killers and he thought Jeffrey Daumer would be appropriate. [Municipal Waster Cover] This is kind of what started a lot of it. This is a mess… they wanted it in color and I was in someone’s living room sleeping on a couch, and there were magic markers, and they bugged me about it so much I just colored it in with magic markers
TODD: It definitely has a feel of one of the early Maiden covers WILL: Yeah it’s on that scale. to me, now looking at it, it looks like some of that Cryptic Slaughter stuff those records, they really looked…what’s the word… like novice art, like they got the best kid in art class to do it. And it’s kind of a mess but I think that’s what I like about it. I think sometimes the stuff comes off too polished and too professional, and it kind of loses what was exciting about it. But man, I just... I did the crappiest job. I mailed this in a tube to the printer and I didn’t even know how to scan it in, no clue about any of that stuff. There’s that much [about 2 inches] more artwork on all sides, someone just saw this and just slapped it on the printer, and printed it as is. And I talked to them about it a lot. and we were just like “yeah our music is pretty much the same way, we all did what we wanted to do and just forgot about the rest.” TODD: I think that’s some of the beauty of indie media. WILL: Yeah, I’m usually the guy the band gets to do their first record cover or first t-shirt and I’m definitely not the greatest artist. There are people who are a lot more talented, but I capture something, I capture what that feels like. Eventually the band will go on to get a couple grand for their next recording and get a van and get some artist that the record label will send a few thousand dollars to and it’ll look really slick and nice. TODD: How do you feel about having your work on vinyl? WILL: It’s the best, that is the best. The other thing that I need to get, now they are doing tapes, Cannabis Corpse is on cassette tape. I’m really excited bands are doing tapes again. TODD: You get the folded stuff? WILL: Yeah, but like CDs, when the CDs started it was good, but they are junk now. I still buy CDs, I still listen to them, but vinyl is a piece of art and it’s an object.
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WILL TOWLES WILL: It was kind of the rubbishy kind of art that I didn’t think was cool, like him and Kirby… didn’t get them at all. One day I was working at Slave Pit and I asked Bob Gorman “What’s your favorite artist who inspired you all?” And I remember Hunter Jackson saying it too… and he brought me upstairs, he had a lithograph of one of Kirby’s which was really nice, looking back and I remember at the time and thinking… this is junk. I mean it looked like crappy comic book stuff, so I can understand when people see that and say that. It’s fun for me to thumb my nose at it. TODD: It’s like the stylization becomes like… “oh i get the style.” WILL: Yeah, well I think what people see is, when they don’t like it, and I’m not going to kid myself thinking it doesn’t exist, is that this art form is directly tied into commerce, where fine art likes to pretend and likes to be something elevated. TODD: And it’s just elevated commerce, because if you talk to an art dealer… WILL: Yeah, they’re just making way more money than we are. We are living check to check and piece to piece, and kind of hand to mouth. And they are making yacht money and chateau money. And we are making rent money and baby food money. But yeah, I can understand that and not understand that. Another artist I really like, a really big influence is Basil Wolverton, the guy that did all the stuff for MAD Magazine. Now, when I’m older, I start to see the beauty in all that stuff I thought was… I used to think, Franzetta, Kirby, old MAD Magazine, old crime tales and creepy comics, it seemed like typical comic stuff that I wanted to rise above, and now that I’m older and gotten over myself I look at it and realize they are so much better than I’ll ever be, I just want to bow down to those people.
TODD: Remember the CD long boxes? That almost like, created the artwork for it. I remember I used to cut them out and put them in my locker. WILL: Yeah I used to put them all over my notebooks. looking back I wish I
hadn’t. I wish I had all my long boxes. Agoraphobic Nosebleed, a band from Northern Virginia, put out a CD with long boxes. I think more people should do that. This is one of my lesser known, but one of my top 5 favorite bands I did artwork for, top 5 favorite records. I did artwork for these guys, they came to my house, couldn’t get them a show so we watched Friday the 13th movies and drank beer all night.
TODD: Where are they out of? WILL: Somewhere out of the Midwest I wanna say? And I was hiding my dog’s name on a bunch of my record covers and I got this a couple months after my dog died. So when I got it I had forgotten and I was really excited ‘cause its a big record and its really nice. then I saw my dog’s name, Baby Girl on there… and my heart started melting. These guys were really cool and really up front to pay me, really nice to deal with, I think we’ll be doing stuff again pretty soon. TODD: What did you think of Frank Frazetta and the selling of the Conan painting for millions? WILL: A week later Dio died. I listen to NPR a lot and and they said something about Dio dying and they got so much hate mail…about “why would you talk about heavy metal artists on NPR? what are you doing?” I think it was why NPR never mentioned it when Frank Franzetta passed. But I can imagine that will be something they talk about on monday and you’ll have the same amount of high brow people “ why would you want to talk about…..” TODD: Once you go through all that money it becomes high brow. WILL: Yes, it becomes high brow TODD: His patrons to some level had been George Lucas and Clint Eastwood, when they would buy his work for the extravagant fees, but then again it’s the artist stamp of debt that it’s just strange.
That was the signature move for so long especially, Rob Liefeld, he would do these big cylindrical boots and then a little foot coming out of them. I got printed in one of the MAXX issues, 26 or 27 of MAXX. That was before I was doing any of the album cover stuff. That was like the big thing.
TODD: Awesome. I probably have the issue. I’ll check it out. One of my students actually got printed in the letter section to MAXX. He was like “I was at the Red Lobster and your MAXX comic was awesome.” WILL: Yeah the guy liked those kind of letters TODD: Yeah he was like… so you like Red Lobster huh? WILL: Yeah they like those, it’s funny because I was in college and I didn’t tell my teacher, she was one of those like “pif” and someone in class had it and didn’t get that I did it. And then a third person who knew me and knew I drew something for MAXX saw it and it came out, and she was really proud of me. I was trying to play it off, I just didn’t want any more of the comics argument, but she was really nice and really proud of me. Just makes me want to beat people. It’s like the George Carlin thing about shell shock versus battle fatigue, where it takes comic books away from comics and makes it into something that it’s not as a ploy to sneak it into libraries. My wife is really good about getting comics, she actually got in trouble because the “F” word was in a comic and she didn’t catch it. And some mad mom came in and pitched a bitch. I mean that’s a way to get in, I have mixed feelings about it. It’s easy for the movie execs to pitch an idea if its written and drawn out and it’s already got a backing behind it. But they always junk up the story. Alan Moore, a big hero of mine, said it’s a comic book, it’s supposed to be read it’s supposed to exist in your mind, it’s supposed to take you a long time, and its supposed to be an experience. And a movie is an hour and a half, two hours, then it’s done and you can forget about it. It’s not the same thing. If I didn’t go to art school, yeah I look at certain things and I can tell who didn’t go to an artsy art school and you know, have some teacher who only likes abstract stuff or only likes this or only likes that. And not to have to fight with them and have your stuff torn apart and have someone be like “oh you like Jack Kirby puff. And that’s fine if you want to make t-shirts for teenagers to buy at the mall. but this is for real art. this is for real artists.” Anyone who gets into art needs to get their shots in, needs to get scuffed up and their egos bruised, because if you don’t, once you get started you’re gonna be all chewed up. Even when you do something good. Especially for comics… it’s the whole culture of people pointing out little tiny nit picky things. Or the heavy metal world, its like a Roman coliseum. Everyone wants to tell you that you’ve lost your edge and you’re no good anymore. The last you thing did… that was good and the stuff you are doing this year...
WILL: I mean you’re never going to get away from that, just like the story I told about the comic book artist, I can’t remember his name either…I was like “Oh he’s dead, my sketchbooks are worth something now.” I mean with Franzetta, he was fantasy pop culture. It would be hard to think of something in the 50’s, 60’s 70’s, 80’s that he didn’t have a hand on. He did posters for Battlestar Galactica. Any movie you think of, even novels that went on to become movies, if you look back he did stuff for the novel, not so much the movie.
Thanks to Will Towles and his family for letting me share a part of his story and for sharing his awesome artwork and connecting two metalheads. Thanks to Casey Longyear.
TODD Do you remember what your first printed Franzetta work would’ve been?
WILLTOWLESSARTANDLIFESTYLERANT.BLOGSPOT.COM
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PUNCHLINE
A conversation with Pete Humes, creator of the funny, irreverent alt-weekly that laid the groundwork for local independent media that followed. by Preston S. Duncan In August of 2002 I moved into a dorm on Monroe Park. An incoming freshman at VCU, I remember thinking this place looks like a fucking wasteland as my parent’s car passed through an apparently inexplicable alternating current of historic urban mansions and dilapidated tenements. The city looked dirty and abandoned, like a pair of cheap high heeled shoes you’d see in the gutter on Saturday morning. I couldn’t imagine anything worthwhile actually happening in such a desolate landscape, one that seemed populated entirely by oldmoney gentry, bums, and college kids. A print journalism major (for a minute), I went straight for a copy of the school paper, only to find some glorified newsletter that made my high school paper look professional. One day and a bad frat party later I was walking to the dining hall for the first time, and stopped at a newspaper box. It wasn’t an especially holy moment. The box wasn’t some shimmering beacon of hope, beckoning like fate from the sidewalk that twisted around the cathedral in front of Shafer Court, and I wasn’t mysteriously awakened by the sensation of the inky newsprint in my hands. But I did get the feeling that there was something I had overlooked my first, hastily judgmental appraisals of Richmond.
Punchline had an immediately apparent character, one that seemed radically unique, irreverent yet with discernible local pride, and possessed a voice that spoke as though it never considered existing anywhere else. And it was damn funny. I first fell in love with Richmond’s rooftops and alleyways, but I got the impression that there might be something here worth loving while reading Punchline. Four months later I was an editorial intern, operating under some Almost Famous induced delusion of imminent renown, writing art review blurbs from press releases while the office whirled in chaotic routine around me. Three months after that, Punchline went out of print. It had run from 1997 to 2003, and in that time grown to embody and embolden the vaguely subterranean stirrings of an inertial creative class that is coming to define Richmond today. Now, over seven years later, I find myself in the backyard of a baller-worthy house in Northside, siting in remarkably comfortable lawn furniture across from founder and editor of Punchline, Pete Humes. Pete lights a cigar and leans over the small patio table between us, takes a sip of coffee, and looks out into the dusk for a minute.
Actually the main inspiration was a paper in Richmond that was around for a little while called the Richmond Funny Paper. It was around in the mid nineties, and this guy out of Charlottesville did it. It was just a tabloid that ran syndicated cartoons, and I illustrated covers for it. The paper went out of print and Pete began designing onscreen ads for the Byrd Theatre. After a few talks with Duane Nelson, who was running the theater at the time, the two decided to attempt their own publication.
I told him we could definitely make money from the first day. I didn’t know shit. But I just really wanted to do something different. And I tried to get all the things lined up and he was like “well, if you can sell the ads, you can do it.” So I went out with my little book and backpack and tried to sell something that didn’t exist yet to these people, and most of them weren’t buyin it. But a few did, and after some wavering, they began producing a monthly cartoon paper.
When it first started out, you could see in the first few issues, it was really like this one man show, where I was sifting through all these comics, and I would just pick out which comics I thought were funny and put them in. Or I would run humorous stories that I thought were funny. I drew all the covers, or designed the covers. So I set the tone, but then as more people became involved, it really just took off, and took on this life of its own. And I think looking back at the whole run, that’s what defined its success. We did that monthly for about six months, six or seven, and then it just sort of morphed into this, as more people came on board, it became like a weekly paper kind of thing, kind of inspired by The Onion and The Stranger in Seattle.
With Nelson keeping the project afloat, supplementing what costs weren’t covered by advertising, Punchline began to attract the attention of like-minded creatives in Richmond. One such contributer was Chris O’Keefe, who initially came onboard as an ad salesperson. O’Keefe was a driving force in the evolutionary shift of the publication towards a broader, more community-oriented format. Heavily influenced by City Paper, his push for the inclusion of articles and comprehensive band listings was the catalyst for Punchline to begin fulfilling its own unseen potential.
So it just kinda warped from there, and eventually another big push came with John Goldberg, he was the graphic designer. He got involved and took the look of it up a hundred notches from me just throwing shit together. He put a real signature design on it, put a lot of his voice into it, and we just started building up steam, selling more ads. And we eventually went from monthly to bi-weekly, we took that jump, and then we went to weekly in ‘99. But it was just a group of people getting together, no fuckin idea what they were doing, and just going with it. Pete’s words vibrate with personal relevance, and not because I get the sense they were lost in an unfamiliar world they had inadequately prepared themselves for, but because he seemed to impart a sense of dedicated vision, of an unwavering belief that there was somewhere to go and they would sure as shit get there. Even if they weren’t quite sure where that place was.
I think all those other things sort of laid the groundwork, Throttle and Caffeine [magazines], and the music scene, it was all there, it was all fertile. I don’t think we pulled off any great miracle. We came around and we were like “oh look at all this shit in the soil.” It made it ripe for planting. And I think the fact that we were so open-doors, we let a lot of different voices come in, and we were open to a lot of stuff. I wanted it to be reflective of everything that was going on. Richmond has a habit of bitching about its own insufficiency, like an infant unable to change its own shitty diaper. But sentiments of inadequate cultural vibrancy in Richmond today can’t hold the bug-repellant candle on the table up to the esoteric state of local culture when Punchline adopted the responsibility for mining it.
But I can remember it was very, very hard to find.... you had to look for the scenes. You had to look for the clubs, it seems like now it’s just everywhere. We would have lost our minds if the National was around. But in terms of the acts being in town, to me it’s phenomenal. But it can go either way. Because then it was harder to find things going on, but in a way it was also more interesting when they did go on, because you had to fight. I don’t know if that makes sense. The amount of stuff that had to come together for the New Year’s Eve thing to have ever happened is incredible to me too. But stuff like that, right place, right time, everybody wants something to happen, but it’s always Richmond, so there’s always something that will fuck it up, or twist it up. And Punchline wasn’t exempt from the notorious resistance of our fair metropolis to the establishment of a steady, well reinforced foundation for the support of its creative citizenry. Culture in Richmond travels through time in much the same way as that first car ride into the city passed through the trappings of affluence and poverty. Waves build and crash, these asphalt shores are always wet with the residue of collapsed movements, dismantled designs, the scattered breath of something that was sure it would never run out of air.
I mean at the time, we really hit on something. But the people, and I don’t mean to repeat myself, but having some distance from it, looking back, it’s all these people that added to it. Jeyon Falsini, he’s booking shows in Charlottesville right now, and he’s the kinda guy who just came in and worked his ass off for free. We drove around town and distributed the paper in his Trooper every Thursday with these dirty papers until the fuckin thing blew up one day. And he compiled all the club listings, and we tried to get everybody in. The Midway Lounge and every fuckin open mic and jazz place, he was adamant about getting everybody in. But that’s the type of thing that kept us afloat, all these people that came in at the right time. It was this serendipitous confluence of forces, the right moment, the right people with the kind of vision necessary to recognize and act upon it, that birthed Punchline, which in turn set in motion the social machinery of growth and change that can only run on a certain type of elusive youthful energy, the uncommon inspiration that radiates from every formidable artistic, political, and cultural movement.
The freedom is amazing. The freedom of doing that for yourself, and knowing that that issue, and that thing, is the most important thing. I miss the all nighters. I would just stay, and I watched the sun come up so many times. And I’m not saying that’s because we were working so hard, we usually left stuff to the last minute, but it was a lot of fun. And I think we could only do that in that specific time of our lives. I’m married, Liz and I are married and we have kids, and me doing that is not 49
PETE HUMES & PUNCHLINE
possible now. But when you’re out and you put an issue to bed at 1 am and go hit last call, drink too much, come back in hungover and distribute the papers, that was fun. But I think RVA has picked up the reigns beautifully, and it seems perfectly natural. And I don’t even want to say passing the baton, because I didn’t, I dropped the fucking baton. But there’s gotta be a place for that, especially in this town. And in the current economic climate, those are some slippery reigns. We’ve seen a dramatic shift towards immediately digestible soundbites, and a profound decommodification of information. The true journalist, at least in any professional sense, is fast becoming an endangered species. The desire for physically tangible, reputable sources for news and entertainment has been replaced by the instant gratification and rapid accessibility of free internet sources, often provided by the general population casually, as on Twitter and Facebook. It’s like the great American fast food movement, but with cheap and easy words and images instead of victuals purposed to be convenient rather than nourishing and well made. And in a way it’s good; it empowers the average person to partake in a larger dialog, to feel, and actually be, heard more loudly than ever before, just as eliminating the mealtime ritual had the benefit of allowing people to spend more time on productivity and recreation. But just as a popular weariness of shitty, unhealthy eating habits has given rise to the slow food and locavore movements with their emphasis on gourmet quality, sustainability, and care in preparation, I have a theory that we’re heading towards an equitable shift in the consumption of information. No, Twitter isn’t going anywhere and neither is Burger King, and I don’t want them to, but eventually people are going to ache for the well-crafted writing, high quality design, and physical presence of actual news and entertainment publications. A movement of well cultivated literary insights, of technically sound images rather than the microwave immediacy of camera phones. At least I fucking hope so. Either way, certain things have their moment, and if it’s possible that we’re now approaching a renewed collective interest in print media, Punchline was fighting for survival when the rest of the world was beginning to pull away from traditional sources of information, and at the same time Richmond seemed to be stuck in one of its characteristic lulls.
Richmond has this weird roller coaster history. Stuff is here for you and then it’s gone, and then it’s here and then it’s gone, and we were begging for so long for something to come around and just stay, just stick around. And I guess that’s just the way Richmond is going to be. Peaks and valleys. As with any independent publication, Punchline relied on the culture it documented and perpetuated as much as it did on its own balance of business and, as Pete (and countless significant others of RVA Magazine staff) referred to it, clubhouse. You have to balance out the shit pay with a casual approach, the casual attitude with solid business practices.
Part of the reason that we stopped, is we were really tired. We were tired and the money issues caught up with us, and we couldn’t fight for that anymore. Regret wise, I really don’t have any. It was great fun, and I love the fact that it marks this period of Richmond. I’m really, really proud of that, and it was a blast to be a part of that. But you know, aside from when people don’t have you on the list, it’s really sort of invigorating to be backstage in the city, where you’re like, “I’m writing about this.” Or “I’m getting behind this, I’m going to figure this out and present it to people.” And you’re sort of backstage, while the show is going on. So we liked that a lot. When Punchline closed its doors it was between issues, so there was no formal farewell. One week it was cranking out papers, the next their boxes sat empty. I didn’t keep in touch with anyone from Punchline, but years later I heard that Pete was taking the Editor-in-Chief position with a Media General “alt-weekly” called Brick. Ever wary of corporate approximations of indie culture, I was nevertheless excited to see what would come of the magazine with him at the helm. But it became immediately apparent that something essential was missing from Brick, and that no matter how much talent it attracted, it could never be the thing it aspired to. Pete didn’t stick around long, and the magazine went out of print unceremoniously, to nobody’s great surprise.
Yeah, I can’t believe it wasn’t gone... and I’m not saying because of me, but it wasn’t working for them from fuckin day 1, so I can’t believe it lasted so long. But I think the newspaper is going to die out. Because what happens is, you just need to be relevant, you need to be unique, you need to be your own voice, and there was nobody that had that vision for that thing. What little vision I had while I was there, because my mind and my heart wasn’t in it, you know, I just did it because I had a big ego, and I was like “I can fuckin do this
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again.” But Liz was pregnant, I was older, I wasn’t going out, I didn’t know shit, I didn’t feel like staying up all night to put this thing together. So that just sort of fell apart. But there was no vision for it after I left. There was nobody picking up the reigns. You guys had Tony starting it from the beginning, who’s got this “I’ll fuckin die for this thing,” attitude, and you absolutely need that. And I think that when a publication of any kind loses that focus and that drive, it’s just a matter of time. With the evolution of information technology destabilizing the homogeneous, conservative juggernaut of corporate news institutions, the void left is a rare opportunity for the Punchlines of today (and I’m not just referring to RVA Magazine here) to rise into prominence. If the major daily paper is unsustainable and low in demand, and the Twitter feeds and blogosphere are insufficient, what’s left is to channel the collective consciousness represented by the internet’s marketplace of ideas into periodical art, something more connected and accessible to the community than the Times-Dispatch, something more focused, radically identifiable, and passionately cultivated than a hashtag search.
It’s kinda crazy for anybody to think about doing it. I hate the fact that there’s 40, 50 free pubs every restaurant you walk into, it just becomes trash. And it’s almost like people create these things to hold up advertising, and there’s nothing in them. That’s kind of frustrating. I would like to see more sort of coalescing of stuff online. I really like what RVA News has done, bringing these people together, but there’s still like a million voices out there, and I think someone coming up with a strong online presence would be great. But the tangible stuff, there’s always a spot for that, especially people like me are going to be getting older, or we are getting older, we still have a fond memory of that stuff, and we want to see something. That’s what always blew me away, people always saved Punchlines and collected them like little pieces of art, and I liked that, because we put it together like it was a piece of art, for the most part, as best we could. So I don’t know, I’d like to always see something tangible. It seems like there’s so much, besides RVA News and RVA Magazine, there’s a lot of fractured stuff going on, and maybe people could realize that there’s strength in coming together. A couple people that can be really strong ringleaders to create these scenes. Maybe we need that, maybe we need more sort of leaders, cultural leaders in the city that can bring that stuff together. Pete describes Punchline as being something of a middle finger to STYLE Weekly, and it makes sense for a thing like Punchline to grow out of a certain discontent for what’s available and accepted. So long as there are mainstream publications content to scrape the easy cream from the top of the Richmond scene and feed it to the mild interests of passive consumers, there will be alternative publications diving deep to find the rest, and bring it to the hands of the insatiable, the restless and impassioned, to the makers and dreamers, and to help create the sense of unity and momentum necessary for them to make something more. And maybe that’s the most important aspect of putting together a magazine in a place like Richmond; not some egoistic showcasing of individual talent, but the building of not only the community being documented, but also amongst the documenters.
Don’t try to please everybody, you know? And that sounds corny as shit, but enjoy yourself, write the things that you want to read, tell the jokes that you laugh at, cover the bands that you like, and if you’re not crazy, people will follow, or you’ll attract people that want the same thing. Surround yourself with good people. That right there is the fucking key. If you want to do something, don’t do it all yourself. There are plenty of people. Even with Brick, we went out with our hands open and said “we need covers, we work for a major paper, but they’re not giving us any money. We can give you this, will you do a cover for us?” And we had some illustrators that won awards for doing their stuff. So you make yourself look better by surrounding yourself with really good, passionate people. Don’t do it yourself. Richmond is a medium, the unfired clay of an ancient and haunted sculpture of distorted ghosts and undeveloped visions. It is an exhausted and tireless landscape caught between the echoes of long dead ideals and the stifled voice of incubating potential. There is an energy always threatening to wane, an undulating capacity for stagnation just below the restless surface of a building tide. And there’s something in this that makes independent media profoundly important, both as a record of what’s happening, and a catalyst to perpetuate it, and, particularly in Richmond, for the use of a traditional medium in the creation of something unconventional.
You can read old issues of Punchline at www.lestercat.net/punchline
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EAST END FELLOWSHIP EAST END FELLOWSHIP by CHRIS DOVI photos by IAN M. GRAHAM by CHRIS DOVI photos by IAN M. GRAHAM
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The rattle and snap of the snare drum rolls over a rock gospel chorus, humming across the pale-yellow stuccoed walls of the recently reborn Robinson Theater on Q Street in Church Hill. Joyful music is the melody of the day. This Sunday, as with every Sunday for the past two years or so high up here on the hill, the song echoing among the members of East End Fellowship church has been about rebirth: Rebirth of a neighborhood, rebirth of a community, rebirth of possibility. It’s hot outside, and dry; 100 degrees in the shade of the Robinson’s art deco portico where a group of men -- young and old, black and white -have gathered to be part of the very movement that helped bring about this rebirth. And in a few hours they’ll witness another rebirth. It’s one of many they’ve seen recently, but it’s just one more hopeful sign that the church and its mission of community healing is taking hold. Chris Schofield, 14, grew up in this neighborhood, in Jefferson Townhouse apartments on Moseby Street. In his short life, Chris watched his father beat and abuse his mother. He hid from the hitting. He cried as he struggled to understand how he could love someone so much even through the abuse. And Chris cried again when his father was killed as violently as he lived. Shot while he was driving, crashing into a tree and dying by the roadside; he was another victim of the neighborhood. Today, Chris will shed no tears as he is baptized into East End Fellowship. In baptism, he accepts that he is a child of God, but he knows that he will be no less a child of this neighborhood. But he will not be a victim. In fact, as Chris sees it, his own rebirth is a big part of what will someday help Church Hill compete its own healing, spiritual rebirth. This is a neighborhood in transition, in many ways transected by the arrival of whites and middle-class blacks who have begun to return to Church Hill. Many have come for the wealth of cheap, beautiful old houses. But with them they’ve brought a new kind of discord to the neighborhood. “There’s like a split,” says Chris, a rising sophomore at Richmond Community High School, who is tall, lanky and clean cut in his earnest seriousness as he expresses a deep understanding of the open wound that has hurt his neighborhood, and that hurt him. He thrusts his hands into his crisp blue jeans before continuing. “There’s a lot of splits between neighborhoods, between Mosby and Church Hill, between blacks and whites. We just need to bring it together.” 56
Bringing it together is the whole mission of East End Fellowship. A church that’s in many ways its own rebirth, it is a church community born from the remains of White Flight and the urban decay and rot caused by five decades or more of neglect. Blatant racism and classism were the underpinnings of the Massive Resistance policies that crumbled Richmond’s schools and older neighborhoods in the 1950s and 60s, and they hit Church Hill perhaps hardest of all. In a neighborhood populated and named for a proliferation of God’s houses, there was a time when God, too, seemed to have decided only to drop by on Sundays. “The reality is the great majority of churches in this community are commuter churches,” says the Rev. Corey Widmer, co-pastor of East End Fellowship, and part of a movement to bring those long-time commuters back to Church Hill, to reinvest more than just an hour or two on Sunday mornings in this neighborhood. “It’s like a parking lot up here on Sundays.” East End Fellowship’s parking lot is different. There are cars here, sure, but most have come only a few blocks. And standing outside the church before service begins, it’s clear that most people walk here. “We want to be a church not only made up of the neighborhood, but formed for the sake of the neighborhood,” Widmer says, explaining the concept behind East End Fellowship as finding its genesis in the “Rev. [Martin Luther] King’s famous quote that 11 a.m. on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in America,” but also in the later work of the Rev. John Perkins, an African American civic reformer and church leader. “[Perkins] was especially questioning how these churches and Christians were seeking to help these blighted areas,” Widmer says, of the old parachute model of dropping in to run soup kitchens or outreach ministries, but then bringing plenty of hand sanitizer to wipe their hands of the mess as they headed back to the suburbs. “He found it faulty.” So did this young, white University of Virginia graduate, who moved to Richmond--- directly into the heart of Church Hill. “[Perkins] basic thing was, look, it’s not going to help for churches to stay outside and just send in missions,” says Widmer, who is also humble about what white suburbanites offer the neighborhood other than economic stability. In fact, he says, often it is the poor. black neighbors that the suburbanites come to rescue that often do the rescuing: “They have taught us more about how to be good neighbors than we could ever have taught them.”
Arriving in Richmond, Widmer found fast affinity for East End Fellowship’s other pastor, the Rev. Donald Coleman, a longtime Church Hill resident who’d watched the turmoil caused by gentrification as whites arrived and pushed blacks out, and saw opportunity rather than more disharmony in encouraging Widmer’s family to come here: “Don said, I’ve been praying for people like you for two decades, Why don’t you move into my neighborhood?” Coleman’s invitation was a selfish one, he admits, extended in hopes of changing lives like Chris Shofield’s. East End was started about three years ago, first as a meeting at houses like Coleman’s or Widmer’s. Eventually, it grew into the Robinson Theater, where it has flourished. “It speaks to the community, that what we’re doing here is not in vain,” says Coleman of Shofield’s baptism, but also of the rebirth of the very building where his church meets. “Economically, it didn’t make much sense, but what it’s done for the community, you can’t put into words. That kind of commitment, as a city, that’s when we’re going to see things turn around.” The Rev. Widmer’s other church, where he is an associate pastor, is 3rd Presbyterian. The church, which is now located on Forest Avenue in the comfortably suburban West End of Henrico County, was one of the many congregations that fled Church Hill in the 1950s, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision set in motion school desegregation and its wicked Virginia response of Massive Resistance. But the West End is far from where Widmer goes for his Monday morning coffee. From an overstuff easychair at Captain Buzzy’s, Church Hill’s popular neighborhood coffee joint, Widmer sits just a block or so away from the once-hallowed sanctuary of 3rd Presbyterian’s old church building on East Broad Street. There’s irony in the long-empty church building’s recent conversion to condominiums, but there’s also irony to the fact that many of Widmer’s congregation at East End Fellowship followed him back to their congregation’s spiritual home in Church Hill. “It is this great act of irony that we’re back here - maybe as a form of repentance,” says Widmer, a studious, bespectacled 33-year-old with a Princeton University divinity school pedigree but a lack of pretension that makes him fade into crowd of the racially and economically diverse congregation that he helps lead. As easy as he fits here, so too does the Christian message he holds dear. Jesus, after all, spent his ministry in cities, not in the suburbs. “The city is a very important image in the Bible,” he says. “Even in Revelations, the last
image in history is a city coming down to be a perfect urban community where all people live together.” At Captain Buzzy’s on a Monday morning, there seems little doubt that East End Fellowship is committed to that goal of returning to help heal the hill. Across the room at a table near the shop’s broad plate window, a group of 20-somethings sit pouring over Bibles, talking and sipping lattes. These are interns at Church Hill Activities and Tutoring, a religious-based youth organization literally accidentally founded about a decade back by Percy Strickland, then a campus minister at University of Richmond, and his wife, Dr. Angie Strickland. Both are members of East End Fellowship, and their own ministry is loosely -- but inextricably -- affiliated with the church. It was Strickland’s group that served as the saving grace for Chris Schofield. As Schofield comes forward to stand before his adopted East End Fellowship family on Sunday, the hall fills with again with the joyful music -- not white rock, not black gospel, but neighborhood soul -- Shofield walks forward with a maturity that’s beyond his brief 14 years. Taking the microphone, his words are powerful. “I saw very little of him,” Shofield says of the father he knew, but never knew. “He was a very violent man, but he was my father and I loved him.” The night his father died, his son recalls a sudden flood of memories -good memories. Playing video games, laughing. “I remember going to my mother that very night and saying, I don’t want to die. He had left me to deal with death on my own.” Years of turmoil, thoughts of suicide, followed. “By the grace of God, I found people who cared about me,” he says, standing up as one child of Church Hill who has found a way to heal himself -- and maybe, too, the neighborhood. “I love my father, but I sleep peacefully knowing I will never be my father,” he tells the silent room where he found love. “Thank you for helping raise his son.”
Dovi has reported on the Richmond community for 10 years, including a combined seven years as a staff writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch and Style Weekly. This is a continuation of his series on the many faces of faith in Richmond. 57
RECORDS by ANDREW NECCI
ACID REFLUX Moves EP
BORIS/TORCHE
DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN
HOW TO DESTROY ANGELS
Walking the line between punk and hardcore, Acid Reflux play fast, energetic music but keep their guitars jangly and undistorted, which allows a melodic sense to creep in, even underneath the vocalist’s unrestrained bellowing. Tons of bands sound like this, but few are this good at it. Get this record.
A song apiece from these excellent stoner metal bands. Boris’s psychedelic black metal epic gets the gold medal. Torche’s song is decent, but unfortunately doesn’t capitalize on the sonic advances they made on Meanderthal. Overall a worthwhile purchase for fans, but not the best introduction to either band.
The old DEP is in there somewhere, and occasionally reveals itself in 30-second thrash workouts. However, spastic, technical metalcore is a minority element in their arsenal nowadays, overshadowed by emo, post-grunge, and outright pop segments. How you receive these added elements will determine your enjoyment of this album.
Trent Reznor’s first actual band sound a lot more like industrial music than NIN ever did, mixing an early-90s Ministry/ Wax Trax vibe with a gloomily melodic feel that is most comparable to Goldfrapp and Portishead. The female vocals make those comparisons even more apt. A decent beginning.
(No Way)
Chapter Ahead Being Fake EP (Hydra Head)
BEST COAST
DEAD MEADOW
THE ERGS
IN CIRCLES
Lovelorn girl-group sounds updated for the indie era by stoners with Phil Spector-esque, reverbed-out production and a flawless sense of melody. If you’ve ever wished that the Shangri-Las played basement shows, or that Tuscadero smoked more weed, you need this record.
This mostly-live release has enough blues-based guitar pyrotechnics to pull in Zeppelin-loving classic rockers and enough down and dirty heaviness to make Dead Meadow’s traditional, herballyenhanced audience happy. If you’ve liked either of those styles in the past, Three Kings will definitely keep you satisfied.
The Ergs normally play pop-punk, but this posthumously-released one-sided 7” gives us five thrashy songs in about three minutes. It’s an unusual sound for them, but the songs are still great, most resembling the speedy sound of mid-80s California hardcore. I only wish it was longer.
Richmond natives play a style I’ve come to think of as post-American Nightmare-personal lyrics, passionate vocals, but over music that is still undeniably heavy. Think Modern Life Is War, or recent Blacklisted albums. It’s emotional hardcore without being emo, and In Circles are very good at it. Recommended.
DEAD WEATHER
THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM
INTER ARMA
The second album in two years by Jack White’s third band should probably seem rushed or phoned in, but instead, it’s full of excellently heavy stoner-garage grooves, driven by White’s funky drumming and the essential contributions of The Kills’ Alison Mosshart and QOTSA organist Dean Fertita. Play it loud.
The Gaslight Anthem have hit their own personal sweet spot. They’ve perfected their mix of two very different but equally melodramatic genres--emo and heartland rock--but haven’t yet reached the point of diminishing returns. Their Bruce Springsteen/Hot Water Music hybrid is at its apex here. Don’t miss it.
Inter Arma’s music is full of ideas, and they cram enough for an entire album into each one of their lengthy songs. Angry hardcore, swamp sludge, ambient prog, black metal--all extremes of the spectrum of heavy music make their appearance here, all perfectly integrated into a brilliant, unified sound.
Crazy For You (Mexican Summer)
BIG BOI
Sir Luscious Left Foot (Purple Ribbon/Def Jam)
A gift for all of those who loved Stankonia but weren’t as happy with Outkast’s more experimental material that followed, Sir Luscious Left Foot is the most consistent work from either Outkast member in a decade. Funky, hard-hitting, and featuring tons of excellent guest spots, it’s an instant classic. 58
Three Kings (Xemu)
Sea Of Cowards (Third Man)
Option Paralysis (Party Smasher/Season Of Mist)
Thrash Compactor EP (Grave Mistake)
American Slang (SideOneDummy)
How To Destroy Angels (howtodestroyangels.com)
Reciprocity (Evil Weevil)
Sundown (Forcefield)
MALE BONDING
LIZ PHAIR
THE ROOTS
TIDELAND
Male Bonding’s underproduced, rough and ready sound adds a decided edge to riffs with indie-rock undertones. The fuzzy guitar tone and speedy tempos help offset the more melodic moments here and push this entire album over to the punk rock side of things. A thoroughly enjoyable listening experience.
Certainly not a good album in any conventional sense, Funstyle switches between straightforward singer/songwriter tracks and bizarre song-skits in which Phair lampoons urban bourgeoisie and the music industry in goofy voices. Mediocre, hilarious, appalling, but always compelling, this album is worth hearing once (if not necessarily multiple times).
Maintaining a similar mood over an entire album is hard to do well--if you’re not careful, it can get monotonous. The Roots pull it off here, though, filling How I Got Over with pensive, soulful music tinged with regret but containing hope for the future. A beautiful, inspirational listen.
Somewhere on the border of post-hardcore and indie-rock sits Tideland, a band whose overt, pleasing melodies contrast with the volume and energy they put into playing their songs. Think Unwound meets early My Bloody Valentine. The unadorned production just makes the whole thing sound even better. This rocks.
Nothing Hurts (Sub Pop)
MIA
Funstyle (lizphair.com)
PRINCE RAMA
How I Got Over (Def Jam)
SUN KIL MOON
Shadow Temple (Paw Tracks)
Admiral Fell Promises (Caldo Verde)
MINUS THE BEAR
ROBYN
THOU/MOLOCH
Back when they started, Minus The Bear’s thing was mixing elements of that early 80s soft rock era that people nowadays call “yacht rock” into a melodic post-emo sound. Sometime between then and now, though, they became indistinguishable from yacht rock. And that’s when they stopped being good. Avoid.
The latest from veteran Swedish techno-pop princess Robyn is extremely concise, cutting down on filler and resulting in what might be her best work: a concept album about feeling lonely even in huge crowds. Insightful lyrics, irresistible dance grooves-overall, a strong contender for album of the year.
Thou and Moloch make ideal partners on this split LP. Both bands play the heaviest of doom metal, but while Thou’s sound is high and laced with feedback, Moloch create a lower-frequency pound. The occasional grooves provide only temporary relief from the tortured, crawling sludge that dominates this album.
Maya (XL/Interscope)
The beats on MIA’s third album are harsh and noisy, distancing her from the sound that made her breakthrough single “Paper Planes” so infectious and successful. The agitprop lyrics are often just as harsh; this is MIA’s defiant political album, and as such, catchiness is often sacrificed. Listener beware.
OMNI (Dangerbird)
This deeply psychedelic album is based around Eastern chants and tribal drumming. Tracks aren’t so much songs as long, free-flowing grooves. The cumulative effect is somewhere between that of the one-chord pulse of Krautrock, Balinese gamelan music, and horror movie soundtracks.
Body Talk Pt. 1 (Konichiwa/Interscope)
I usually prefer Mark Kozelek’s electric full-band efforts, but Admiral Fell Promises works for me in a way none of his other acoustic albums have before. The intricately picked guitar melodies are hypnotic, and help to create an intimate atmosphere for Kozelek’s quietly beautiful singing. Perfect late-night listening.
Tears That Soak A Callous Heart (Perpetual Motion Machine)
Asleep In The Graveyard (Robotic Empire)
ULTRA DOLPHINS Alien Baby (Rorschach)
This is the most accessible Ultra Dolphins release yet. Guitars ring rather than crunch, and vocals are consistently melodic and discernible. Ultra Dolphins now seem more quirky-indie than quirkyhardcore--Les Savy Fav rather than the Blood Brothers. Still, Alien Baby is every bit as good as previous work.
WOODS
At Echo Lake (Woodsist)
Former members of Meneguar dive fully into the lo-fi indie world. This album dabbles in a variety of genres, but it owes its charm to the primitive recording style used throughout, which helps create a unified sound from the wide range of songwriting styles explored herein. 59
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