The CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH self-titled debut CD from summer 2005
is one of the stongest and most uplifting independent disks of last year.
It’s funny how the lead vocalist sounds like the lead singer from James –
that great English group from the early 90’s. How refreshing to come across
an Indie group that can really rock on, as in “Upon This Tidal wave of Young Blood”,
one of the best songs on the CD, and possibly one of the best rock+roll anthem
songs ever, period.
Another great song in the same vein is “Let The Cool Goddess Rust Away”.
While “Details Of The War”, “Over and Over Again (Lost and Found)”, and
“In This Home On Ice” are not as hard driving, they are totally amazing in
their own right.
I also love the two sweet instrumental cuts, “Sunshine and Clouds (And
Everything Proud)”, and “Blue Turning Gray” – that are placed at the right
spots. “The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth” is another awesome song
that shows the early Talking Heads influence to great effect.
All you rockers out there: listen and weep; hopefully in celebration !
Art: Dasha Shishkin
Design: Robbie Guertin
ALL SONGS: 2005 CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH
clapyourhandssayyeah.com
~Clap Your Hands Say Yeah |
Posted in Indie Music Reviews | By Simon Cerigo | August 29th, 2006, 9:48am
above image: ‘Kudzu Devouring Building, near Greensboro, Alabama, 2004’
Photo by WILLIAM CHRISTENBERRY – & – the front image on …
.. the card for the exhibit: ‘WILLIAM CHRISTENBERRY – Photographs 1961- 2005’
‘A poetic documentation of the American South’, the summer exhibit at:
APERTURE GALLERY, JULY 7 – AUGUST 17, 2006
above image scanned from the aperture SPRING 2006 BOOK catalog – front cover
Photo: WILLIAM CHRISTENBERRY, ‘Palmist Building (Summer),
Havana Junction, Alabama, 1980’ – from the publication William Christenberry
WILLIAM CHRISTENBERRY (center, in white suit) at the opening of his
summer 2006 exhibit, ‘WILLIAM CHRISTENBERRY – Photographs 1961-2005’
at the Aperture Foundation Gallery, Chelsea, NYC, July 6, 2006
Photo: Nancy Smith
William Christenberry was born in 1936. That makes him 70 and he’s
totally sharp, right on and super relevant. He has been a professor at
the Corcoran College of Art and Design since 1968.
One of the more interesting technical aspects of the show, were
the archival ‘snapshot’ KODAK BROWNIE camera prints.
Back in the day, ca 1940-50, first in black and white, and apparently in
color on thru the 60’s, young kids, teens and famillies, used the
‘amateur’ BROWNIE cameras, to take ‘snapshots’ – the way cell phone
and digital cameras are in use today. Mr. Christenberry went on to
use 35mm and 8-by-10 cameras. It’s super interesting to see the
different final photo productions from the varying photo equipment
and film processing.
note: PHILIP GEFTER wrote a very compelling and informative article for this
exhibit in THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, JULY 2, 2006 – if you missed it –
here’s how it began:
“Mr. Christenberry was born in 1936 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, not 20 miles
away from the migrant farmers (Walker) Evans photographed that same year
and later published in “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men” with text
by James Agee.
“The sharecroppers in Evans’s photographs lived in a house across the
cotton fields from the farm owned by Mr. Christenberry’s grandparents.
By the time Mr. Christenberry discovered the book, in 1960, he was a
young artist. When he moved to New York the next year, it took him
months to work up the courage to call Evans, then picture editor at Fortune …”
.. anybody out there relate to this !! Apparently it was a good experience.
Evans encouraged Mr. Christenberry, even to the extent that he told him to leave
New York and return to the South and continue his work. Mr Christenberry,
for his part, was smart enough to heed really good advice when he got it,
and by 1962 he was back South in Memphis.
more photos from the opening
Aperture
~ WILLIAM CHRISTENBERRY/aperture |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | August 15th, 2006, 12:21pm
TIM BARBER and his tinyvices project took a big
step forward in the Spring 2006 season, with a big show at Spencer Brownstone and
a wall installation at 25 Bold Moves. of interest to street cult ‘hardcopy’ magazine fans,
and photo aficionados – Tim Barber recently left a 2 year stint as photo editor
of Vice magazine.
more photos of TIM BARBER & the 25 Bold Moves, May 4, 2006 installation
the above photo is a photo of a photo that was part of the tinyvices
installation at 25 Bold Moves, May 4, 2006
Photo: Nancy Smith
~TIM BARBER/tinyvices |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | August 15th, 2006, 12:13pm
this is a scan of the decal JASON RHOADES produced for his ‘MECCATUNA’ exhibit,
which ran from September 12 thru October 25, 2003, at the DAVID ZWIRNER Gallery,
in Chelsea, NYC. The original is 8 x 8″. It was also the image for the show’s card,
and was identified as: “Neon transformer label, altered and translated, 2003”
UP-DATE: TUESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2006:
In CALIFORNIA – the Code of Civil Procedure denies public access to autopsy reports.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 2006:
The official cause of death is: heart attack. Everybody is waiting for the autopsy
results, though it is rumored that they won’t be released to the public. not sure of
the finer legal journalistic workings here, but supposedly Walter Robinson over at artnet
has a buddy in L.A. who’s going to get them to him, as soon as they surface.
guess we have to start reading artnet again.
Despite the DAVID ZWIRNER Gallery’s notification that the ‘BLACK PUSSY’
soirees had wrapped over a month ago – reporters are interested in the
autopsy because they feel a need to be vindicated for relating the facts of
the matter as that the death occured at a nightclub performance of a ‘Black Pussy’
event. Being told that the misinformation hurt the family’s feelings was a little
much – since it was the artist himself who put forward the shocking and
controversial title in the first place. At any rate, no disrespect here, Jason was
rumored to be a very intense and party hard kind of guy – in other words: –
when it came to ‘in-your-face’ – he was all there .. and it obviously
took its toll – just specifically how – is what everyone is interested in – especially all
the more the gallery tries to whitewash the whole story – which is the general
feeling that is buzzing from the street up. For example: although it doesn’t
make the facts any less sad or less of a loss for those close to him, his family
unit was not as ‘typical’ as the gallery had made it out to be – reportedly Jason and
his wife were seriously estranged for over a year now.
Reports were also surfacing that Jason’s last two event/performances, including
the recent, now notorious, ‘Black Pussy’ soirees, did really well and he was
rolling in dough. even buying real estate interests ! It was not an
exaggeration to say he was on the brink of (mainstream) success.
In fact, the 2003 ‘MECCATUNA’ exhibit in NYC, did really well too.
although street lore has it that Zwirner was initially
reluctant to put up the initial (high) production costs.
… for those of you who are as clueless as this writer, ‘MECCATUNA’ was
a stand-in for ‘MECCAPU**Y’ – the story being that Jason (or his gallery)
didn’t think you could say ‘MECCAPU**Y’ and live.
As one art wag, recently opined, maybe you can’t get away with saying ‘BLACK PUSSY’
in south central L.A. either ! – who knows what took him down – ? Quentin Tarantino
could have a field day, in fact here’s a vote for MICHAEL MANN to helm the movie bio..
the NY TIMES Obit came with a super photo of Jason leaning back in a chair, in his
studio, very reminiscent of that famous last late photo of Jean Michel Basquiat,
except Jason’s suit was Miami Vice – white, not NYC black…
and WE ALL KNOW what happens to artists who are lucky enough to go out
in a ‘party down’ mode – JEAN MICHEL BASQUIAT move over – there is going
to be new competiton at the art auctions.
~JASON RHOADES/update/&/MECCATUNA DECAL |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | August 10th, 2006, 1:22pm
JASON RHOADES at the opening of his one man show, ‘Meccatuna’,
DAVID ZWIRNER GALLERY, CHELSEA, NYC, Sept 12, 2003
Photo: Nancy Smith
Los Angeles based installation artist JASON RHOADES dies at the age
of 41, on Tuesday, August 1, 2006. According to the DAVID ZWIRNER GALLERY,
Jason fell ill at home and was brought to the hospital, where he passed away.
An obituary
by Diane Haithman, LA Times Staff writer, was published on August 3.
One of the saddest notes in the article was the fact that .. “according to
the David Zwirner Gallery, Rhoades is survived by his wife, artist Rachel Khedoori,
and daughter Rubi, 3.”
There were immediately rumors circulating that Rhoades had died of a
heart attack, but cause of death has not been officially confirmed. According
to the obituary, an autopsy is pending. Other rumors circulated that Rhoades
died of a heart attack at a club, and specifically at a club performance, or the
installation of one of his recent “Black Pussy Soirees” but the David Zwirner
Gallery reports that he was …”not at a club, nor was he at one of his Black Pussy
soirees … the LA ones actually wrapped up in LA a month ago” – guess art fans
couldn’t resist the provocative associations, but it seems the gallery took
offense at the rumors, and said they were hurtful to his family. But getting
‘in-your-face’ seems to be an aspect of his work that was just truly taking off,
and successfully so, on many levels, garnering him not only critical acclaim,
but mainstream media attention as well. It was more a case of …wanting
to visualize him ‘going down with the ship’ …than anything really malevolent
on the part of the rumor mongers.
His ‘Meccatuna’ show in 2003, in NYC, at David Zwirner was pretty tame, visually,
even though conceptually it was very controversial .. because of Islamic references.
The highly detailed production, realized in a playful spirit, and as a site-specific installation,
had at its core – the issue of women in Islam.
The overall effect although purely visual, was based on consumer products and
logos – the big center of attention, a room-sized block constructed from
toy ‘legos’ – at first impression, hardly the stuff of controversy – was in fact,
a representation of the most sacred object in Islam.
When a talented artist dies too soon, especially right on the
brink of mainstream success, its shocking … but if Jason Rhoades could look down, I’m
sure he’d find something awesome about an obit that had to deal with
his recent performance in LA like this …
“…Los Angeles art lovers may connect Rhoades’ name most recently with
his series of interactive art exhibitions this year that he dubbed “soirees”.
The series included such provocative and provocatively titled invitation-only
events as the “Black Pussy Soiree Cabaret Macrame,” a combination
exhibition and dinner party that featured violet neon signs with
African, Caribbean, Creole and hip-hop slang for female genitalia”.
– Diane Haithman, LA Times Obituary, Aug 3, 2006
further, in the obit it states: …”At the time of his death, Rhoades
was preparing a live event for Aug 12 in Portland , Oregon with
curator Majories Myers. It was to feature a wrestling match involving
homeless teenagers wallowing in a plastic pool filled with bath soaps, lotions
and sexual lubricants.” … sounds like sometime we’d like to experience
‘head-on’ …not just imagine from the depths of an obituary … looks like
there is a big sadness, and loss, in the artworld, today.
artist JASON RHOADES, with MONICA ZWIRNER, the wife of art dealer,
David Zwirner, at the opening of his one-man show, ‘Meccatuna’,
David Zwirner Gallery, Chelsea, NYC, Sept 12, 2003
from left, gallerist ANDREW KREPS, and sculptor, RACHEL HARRISON,
center, JASON RHOADES opening, ‘Meccatuna’, David Zwirner Gallery,
Chelsea, NYC, Sept 12, 2003
young artists, JUSTIN SAMSON and ROSSON CROW, at the JASON RHOADES
opening, ‘Meccatuna’, David Zwirner Gallery, Chelsea, NYC, Sept 12, 2003
Justin Samson worked as a production assistant on the installation – in fact he helped
build the giant ‘lego’ toy building block construction.
All above photos: Nancy Smith
davidzwirner.com
~JASON RHOADES dead at 41 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | August 3rd, 2006, 4:56pm
