Kicking off at the +44 141 Gallery in SWG3 studios this month is ‘Now I Know My ABCs’, an exhibition of work produced by 2009 graduates of Glasgow’s various art learning institutions, including Angus Cameron, Carrie Skinner and Jake Rusby.

The event runs from July 18 until the 26th, with a preview and after-party on Friday 17. It is curated by Simon Gowing. More info available at SWG3.tv.

I stumbled across this 1994 documentary Watch The K Foundation Burn A Million Quid on Google Video, which follows a two-man art group as they burn — wait for it — a million pounds. More info on the documentary and story behind it from this post at Chaos Radio:

“On 23 August 1994, the K Foundation (Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty) burnt one million pounds sterling in cash on the Scottish island of Jura. This money represented the bulk of the K Foundation’s funds, earned by Drummond and Cauty as The KLF, one of the United Kingdom’s most successful pop groups of the early 1990s. The duo have never fully explained their motivations for the burning.”

Some pioneering music video-art from a pioneering music video-artist, Bruce Conner, circa 1981. The music is Mea Cupla, by Brian Eno and David Byrne.

Via Rhizome

Previously:

Bruce Conner, 1933-2008

mattdye.com, via changethethought.

I’m loving this video for the tune “Mirador” by Efterklang. It was based on stunning artwork by Hvass & Hannibal and UFEX. Since hitting Youtube back in October 2007 it has had over one million views! Thanks to the good folks at The Leaf Label (home to the likes of Wildbirds & Peacedrums, A Hawk And A Hacksaw, and volcano!) for letting us know.

Thanks to Robert at cowsarejustfood (an excellent music/ranting blog) for letting us know about the sadly departed, no-nonsense journalist and cultural critic, Steven Wells who died last week. Wells’ pieces were known for being lively, humorous and against the grain. A Philly.com obituary has described him as an “irascible commentator” with an “in your face style”. During his career Wells wrote for the likes of NME, The Guardian and 90Minutes, and also co-founded a video production company, GobTV, and founded his publishing company, Attack! Books. Lately Wells wrote about his experiences suffering from Hodgkin’s lymphoma for Philadelphia Weekly. Here is an excerpt from one of those features.

Hospitals hate sleep. After a night in which you’ve been rudely ripped out of your every Temazepam-addled drug dream by some fucker’s IV alarm going off, or some utter bastard wanting to prick your thumb or take your blood pressure or stab you violently in the thigh with a syringe the size of a space rocket—every morning at 7 on the dot, in trot the junior surgeons who turn on the retina-raping top light and start shouting.

I’m going a little stir crazy. My wife and a nurse discuss my case across my still-breathing body.

“For fuck’s sake, I am actually still fucking here!” I roar.

A friend brings in a homemade needlepoint.

“Wait, does that say what I think it says?” gasps a nurse.

It says “FUCK CANCER,” a slogan popularized on T-shirts and baseball hats by Hodgkins lymphoma survivor Steve Saltman, a dude who knows that subtlety is found in the dictionary between shit and syphilis.

The “FUCK CANCER” phemon has its critics, but you know what? Fuck them, too, especially when so much of the rest of the cancer-culture crap is mumbo-jumbaloid spiritual sewage, like the book Chicken Soup for the Cancer Survivor’s Soul. It seems every touchy-feely Christian fruitcake and magic crystal-clutching New Age ning-nang-nonger who’s ever survived cancer has written a book about it. It almost makes you sorry for the poor little cancers, having to share body space with such total flaming idiots.

“Cell Out — Looking for dignity in the fight against cancer”, by Steven Wells

UPDATE– Since I posted this the price of Steven Wells’ reportedly-sidesplitting book, ‘Tits-Out Teenage Terror Totty‘, has rocketed on Amazon, with one new copy going for an insane £157.34. The verdict? There’s nothing like death to raise one’s profile.

“The special issue has been edited by esteemed Brazilian curator, William Baglione. The mag features covers by street and fine artist, Herbert Baglione. Herbert has exhibited extensively in the United States, as well as a recent show at the massively influential Lazarides Gallery in London, England. The Brazil issue also features internationally exhibiting artists Tinho, Calma, Sesper, Os Gemoes, Choque Photos, Lost Art, Marcelo Cidade, Carlos Dias, Titi Freak, Bruno 9Li, Eduardo Recife, Pato, and many others.”

Buy Juxtapoz #102 — All Brazil special

The Garden Party 2009: an unknown DJ rocks the booth at the Viewpoint stage. Photo: Martin Skivington.

Set in the beautiful hills and glens of The Kelburn Country Centre near Largs in Scotland, home of the world renowned Graffiti Project, the perfect setting; this two day festival with three stages and over fifty acts was a definite highlight of the year for me. Organised completely independently by David Boyle — the Viscount of Kelburn and festival director, and a whole team of volunteers and Kelburn employees — the crowd were treated to fantastic performances including Mungo’s Hi-Fi Soundsystem, Bonobo, Joe Acheson Quartet, James Yorkston, Samba Ya Bamba, bombskare, The Aliens, The Bays and many more, a full bar and cocktail bar were available, with good food and adequate facilities all round. Plenty of camping space turned the site into one big party, without even going to the stages yet.

From chilling out during the day and just watching the festivities develop, to dancing the late night and early morning away with Martyn and Tom Middleton, I found the atmosphere extremely relaxed and peaceful. A world away from any of the big corporate festivals you can catch in Britain; a true spirit of independence.

From the organisers point of view I believe that the number of attendees was too low to call it a true financial success, however it is clear that the potential to develop year by year into a top festival is there. I just hope there was enough of a profit in the stalls and ticket sales to make it possible to do an independent 2010 Garden Party. It is a real disappointment that such a small amount of people made the effort to buy the ticket and take the ride. Those who heard about this and didn’t come, missed out big time. If another festival happens here next year then anyone who can make it would be crazy not to. I spoke to a load of people at the end of it all, and no one was coming away without having had a great time and loads of happy memories. Some said it was the best festival they had been to, and these were some hardcore festival goers.

If independent festivals like these can’t make it year after year then it’s not just the organiser’s loss, it is everyone’s. The central drive and the momentum are all there, it just needs more people to turn on to The Garden Party.

Sitting at the back of the crowd, when Bonobo played the Garden Stage, was the central memory that my whole experience seems to revolve around, some of my favourite songs of all time are by this artist and they played them all: Between The Lines, Recurring, Gypsy, and Nightlight were all played with a grace and style that for me summarised everything that was good about this festival. Being their first performance in Scotland as a full live outfit, this was a totally unique moment, in a totally unique festival environment.

Bombskare had the crowd jumping and Ska dancing all around the Garden stage, with a raw and heart pounding sound. This is a band I hadn’t heard before, but now I will be buying their music and doing some bedroom Ska dancing of my own. There wasn’t a single band I saw that didn’t deliver the goods.

There was plenty of variation to suite all tastes from dubstep, reggae, folk and blues, and hip-hop, and this was definitely the main strong point of this festival over many others. You didn’t have to be of a certain style or persuasion to enjoy the event.

The security were friendly and outgoing, and yet stayed in control of the crowd, ensuring glass bottles and cans weren’t allowed near the stages and that people weren’t sneaking in or causing trouble. The police were totally chilled out, no hassle at all. As far as I’m aware there were basically no arrests or charges over the entire weekend, which goes to show this really was a peaceful and worthwhile event for the local community. Most people who travelled here from around the country, stocked up at local stores, and used local train, taxi and bus services to get to the event, which clearly brought money into the town.

Some of the coolest, laid back people I have ever met had come to this festival, and if it goes ahead next year there can only be more.

Links:

Kelburngardenparty.com

More from the Garden Party:

Preview: The Garden Party, Kelburn Castle, 20-21 June
Podcast: The Kelburn Garden Party / Compunctio Records

From Elsewhere:

Kelburn Garden Party Preview (Radio Magnetic)
Kelburn Garden Party Festival (Chuggabug)

“The Willkommen Collective“. Photography: Rosie Reed Gold

The Union Chapel is a truly wondrous place. This huge Church on north London’s Upper Street is cavernous, visually stunning, and with a huge roof that stretches up as far as the eye can see. Candlelit, and kitted out with some bizarre props of various animals that gives the venue a slightly strange Wicker Man-type vibe, it’s certainly a unique atmosphere to play in. The Bull & Gate it isn’t. Somehow you suspect that the likes of Sum 41 or Bowling For Soup won’t be invited to play here.

Instead, the venue more often than not plays host to more refined acts, such as Low and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. And tonight’s bill of acts is perfectly suited to the reverb-heavy surroundings of this most special of London venues. The Willkommen Collective and record label are a mostly Brighton-based group of musicians who operate in a scene of related, actively gigging bands. In conjunction with promoters Arctic Circle, they’ve put on this night of acts, which kicks off promptly at seven with Rowan Coupland, acoustic guitar in hand, leading a choir of people rather bizarrely in a procession from the floor at the side of the stage and onto the stage itself, like something from a Nativity play.

Shoreline are better, with a folk-rock style reminiscent of vintage Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, and more recently, Adem and James Yorkston, embellished by strings and a double-bass.

Sweet Billy Pilgrim, meanwhile, are the only act on the bill that are not part of the Willkommen Collective, and therefore remain the odd one out. Then again, their hushed, stately set fits perfectly in the venue, with the band surrounded by blue smoke and candlelight, the Union Chapel’s acoustics working especially well with Alistair Hamer’s cavernous drum sound, which reverberates around the auditorium. The last song, involving only singer’s Tim Elsenburgh’s voice and a harmonium, is particularly spellbinding, a lament similar to Nico’s solo work or recent Current 93.

“The Willkommen Collective“. Photography: Rosie Reed Gold

They’re followed by the chamber-pop of Sons of Noel and Adrian, who feature a roughly re-gigged line-up from Shoreline, with a similar rotating pool of musicians. This time, though, a different frontman who previously took on backing vocals takes centre stage, banging his shoes on the floor in time to the music during the dramatic dynamics of the set, his throaty vocals belying his age. It’s particularly spellbinding on the sailing song “The Wreck Is Not the Boat”, with its lyrics of an old captain and his “aching limbs”, and the mesmerising finger-picking of “Indigo”, embellished with female backing vocals and sparse, pounding percussion. Their patchwork of folk-rock textures and swelling multi-chamber orchestration brings to mind Phosphorescent, Damon & Naomi and even the pastel reveries of Movietone, and climaxes with all members singing in unison. As ghostly images project on the walls of the venue, it’s a brilliant moment that caps the best act of the night, and one that – for all their traditional instrumentation – fit well in a current scene that venerates the likes of Devendra Barnhart, Grizzly Bear, and Joanna Newsom.

After that, The Leisure Society can’t quite emulate the success of the previous acts. A more straightforward indie-rock proposition than the rest of the night, they have the unenviable task of bounding onstage with only fifteen minutes to play, though the venue ultimately allows longer. Their songs in comparison don’t quite have the weight or substance, with the sound being drowned out by the venue’s acoustics rather than embracing the reverberation. Things perk up with a cover of Gary Numan’s “Cars”, though – one song that, somehow, you can never imagine hearing at the Union Chapel. And there is an encore with all acts except for Sweet Billy Pilgrim back onstage.

While the main area is closed, upstairs in the bar area, as people lounge on large sofas, a few members of Shoreline and Sons of Noel and Adrian – particularly the silent bearded violinists and cellists, who have been omnipresent all night – guest with The Miserable Rich on a small stage in the corner of the room. Their languid, Tindersticks-esque orchestral ghostly ballads are perfect in their intimacy after being exposed to such a huge main space. Full marks too for their note-for-note cover of Hot Chip’s “Over and Over”. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they’re all wearing suits.

The Laish Quartet, meanwhile, with a curly-haired Daniel Green keening away, follow them at midnight to a bedraggled audience and finish the evening with some simple folk-pop tunes and some beautiful female backing vocals. A final thank you from the band at the end to the faithful who stayed caps a triumphant evening, weird animal props and all. It’s nearly one in the morning when the last revelers stagger from the venue.

Photography by Rosie Reed Gold. Stream music at the Willkommen Collective Myspace and check willkommenrecords.co.uk for current news, tour dates and releases from the collective.

Steve “Kode 9” Goodman is not only a renowned producer, DJ and label boss, but also a scholar as his latest work shows. Goodman’s forthcoming book, “Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear“, will be released on MIT Press this December and explores the past, present and future usage of audio as a weapon.

“Sound can be deployed to produce discomfort, express a threat, or create an ambience of fear or dread—to produce a bad vibe. Sonic weapons of this sort include the “psychoacoustic correction” aimed at Panama strongman Manuel Noriega by the U.S. Army and at the Branch Davidians in Waco by the FBI, sonic booms (or “sound bombs”) over the Gaza strip, and high frequency rat repellants used against teenagers in malls. At the same time, artists and musicians generate intense frequencies in the search for new aesthetic experiences and new ways of mobilizing bodies in rhythm. In Sonic Warfare, Steve Goodman explores these uses of acoustic force and how they affect populations.”

“Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear” (via Fact Magazine)