Peter Lunenfeld is the director of the Institute for Technology and Aesthetics (ITA) and teaches in the graduate Media Design program at Art Center College of Design. He is considered one of the preeminent critics and theorists of the intersections of art, design, and technology. Afterimage referred to his edited collection, The Digital Dialectic: New Essays on New Media (MIT Press, 1999) as “the first printed book you read about the virtual world that does not merely describe it, but puts you there.” Continue reading “Peter Lunenfeld: Critic as Curator”
Weasel Walter: Killing Music
The deconstruction of organized sound put forth by multi-instrumentalist composer and improviser Weasel Walter is fiercely aimed at destroying the complacency of music and musicians. This is nowhere more evident than in his rotating cast of characters known as the Flying Luttenbachers. He describes the working plan of the Luttenbachers thusly, “The nature of operations has been to utilize the most appropriate people available — pushing the resulting chemistry as far as possible — and finally to abandon the formation when creative stasis has been reached.” Though he renounces all classifications of genre, the Luttenbachers are a manifestation of the attitudes inherent in free jazz, death metal, and punk rock: a sonic maelstrom of hate and disdain tempered with skills in spades. And behind all of this cacophony is a broader worldview than most drummers can shake a stick at. Continue reading “Weasel Walter: Killing Music”
Erik Davis: Mysticism in the Machine
Surveying the overlapping regions of mysticism, religion, media theory, postmodernism, and cyber-critique, Erik Davis makes maps of new mental territory. His book, Techgnosis: Myth, Magic and Mysticism in the Age of Information (Harmony, 1998), is a journey through the varying and plentiful connections between old-world religions and New Age technology — connections few noticed before Erik pointed them out. As Peter Lunenfeld puts it, “Davis performs alchemy, fusing disparate strands of techno-hype, mystical speculation, and hard-nosed reporting into a Philosopher’s Stone, unlocking secrets our culture doesn’t even know it has.” Continue reading “Erik Davis: Mysticism in the Machine”
Shepard Fairey: Giant Steps
You’ve seen them: “Andre the Giant has a Posse” stickers, “Obey Giant” posters, Andre’s face covering entire sides of buildings. You’ve seen them and you’ve wondered what it was all about. And once you found out, perhaps you wondered why.
Nearly the entire world has unknowingly fallen prey to Shepard Fairey’s phenomenological street-media experiment. Long-time friend Paul D. Miller recently described Shepard’s postering activities as “obsessive.” Continue reading “Shepard Fairey: Giant Steps”
Mike Patton: Life is Good
Though his time with Faith No More is undoubtedly one of the least interesting things about him, the story goes that when Mike Patton joined that band, they had their entire next record written — except for the lyrics. Patton wrote the lyrics to fit the music for their soon-to-be-multiplatinum third record, The Real Thing: no small feat. This record and the subsequent hit single/video “Epic” brought the rap/rock genre-hybrid blaring into the mainstream. Love it or hate it, popular music is still haunted by it.
The band’s masterwork, the follow-up, Angel Dust proved that the previous record’s ad hoc situation obviously held Patton back. As critically-acclaimed, expansive and beautiful as the record was, it marked the beginning of the lengthy end for Faith No More.
No matter, Mike Patton was deconstructing every other other genre in his original band Mr. Bungle. He was also kicking around solo experiments with John Zorn and by the time Faith No More finally disbanded, he had several other music projects headed in several other directions and eventually started his own record label, Ipecac Recordings (which has since released records by such artists as Kid606, dälek, Melvins, James Plotkin, Isis, and Skeleton Key, as well as Patton’s own projects Tomahawk, Fantômas, Peeping Tom, etc.).
Patton maintains an almost cartoonish public facade. If you’ve ever witnessed Mr. Bungle or Fantômas live, you know exactly what I mean. “He’s crazy,” is often said in reference to him. Under the mask though, is a true artist in ever respect of the word.
“Mike Patton is one of those guys who does whatever he wants,” Rob Swift of the X-ecutioners told me recently (Rob and the X-men are working on a record with Patton for Ipecac). “As crazy as it may sound, as goofy as it may sound, he tries it. Working with him has helped me be a little less inhibited about trying things that may not be what people are expecting.”
By now, fans of Mike Patton’s work have come to expect anything and everything. The following brief interview keeps coming back to the same point: Mike Patton does what he wants, unfettered by anyone’s expectations.
Roy Christopher: You’ve seen just about every side of the music industry — from heavy rotation on MTV and SPIN cover stories to decidedly obscure sonic experimentation. Do you see the current musical milieu as one where artists — if they so choose — can truly express themselves and gain exposure at a level where potential listeners will find their output?
Mike Patton: I think you are looking at it in a different way than I do. As an artist, I think it is important to focus on the art. There are too many that don’t and that is what creates boring art. I really just try to recreate the ideas that come to me. I’m not setting a sales goal or targeting a demographic. I just do what I do and what I can do. I am having a great time doing it. It can be done.
RC: With your many musical projects — especially the solo vocal releases and the work with John Zorn — what is it that your looking for or trying to express?
MP: Once again, I did not have a goal in mind. John offered me an outlet to experiment and I did. It was a great creative outlet.
RC: What are your goals with your label, Ipecac Recordings?
MP: To put out interesting releases, that we enjoy. To treat artists with the utmost respect. To be unique. And of course to have a proper home for my music.
RC: Do you consider the cultural ramifications of your output when making music?
MP: Christ no! My music has no cultural ramification. It is entertainment for others, work for me. I’m not recreating the wheel or curing a disease.
RC: Are you just having fun with whatever comes to mind?
MP: Life is good.
RC: Is Mike Patton a scholarly fellow? Do you read a lot, and if so, what do like to you read?
MP: I’m not scholarly, but I do like to read. I read a bit of everything. I enjoy both fiction and nonfiction.
RC: Given your obvious penchant for various musical styles, who are some of your all-time favorite artists?
MP: This is always a tough question. How ’bout Sinatra?
RC: Mr. Bungle and Fantômas put on the most intricate live shows I’ve ever seen. How extensive are your rehearsal sessions for tours and recording?
MP: Rehearsals can be pretty long and hard. That is why I always try to work with hard working musicians who are good players and can think on their feet.
RC: Is there anything else on which you’re working that you’d like to bring up here?
MP: I’m working on a lot. The first Peeping Tom record, new Fantômas & Tomahawk records, a record with the X-ecutioners and just finished an Ep with Dillinger Escape Plan. Of course for all the latest dial up www.ipecac.com.
Steven Shaviro: Stranded in the Jungle
Steven Shaviro is a postmodern seer disguised as an English professor at the University of Washington. His books and various other writings slice through the layers of our mediated reality and show what factors are at work underneath. He cuts open the tenuous sutures between academic fields and dissects contemporary culture like the slimy animal that it is. His book Doom Patrols: A Theoretical Fiction About Postmodernism (Serpents Tail, 1997) roams the land between the lines of traditional fiction and cultural commentary and comes back with dead-on insight and understanding. Continue reading “Steven Shaviro: Stranded in the Jungle”
One Song
Though I haven’t been keeping up with the actual lyrics, I do have a passing awareness that there’s currently lyrical beef between Nas and Jigga. This is only relevant to the following in that as much as I respect Jay-Z, he and everyone else has now fallen behind. Continue reading “One Song”
Mourning Unwound
Another one gone… Steve Albini says breaking up happens to too few bands, and usually I agree. Usually band breakups don’t bother me, but this one does. After over 10 years together, Unwound were still making some of the best music out there. And now it’s over. I am truly hurt and the music world is poorer for it.
Unwound was easily one of the best meldings of mind and sound ever to come together on stage and in the studio. Whatever alchemy it takes to make the space between the nebulous possibilities of drums, bass, guitar, voice, emotion, timing, rage, and countless human and other factors, Justin Trosper, Vern Rumsey and Sara Lund had it in spades. Their catalog — not to mention their live shows — is absolutely phenomenal. And the last entry, Leaves Turn Inside You, was a candidate among many for their best yet. They were at the top of their game and still breaking the rules and expanding what it meant to play music.
Here’s to another band that will never suck. Even though it sucks that they’re not still together. Unwound, you will truly be missed.
Unwound: 1991-2002
Jared Souney: By Design
From riding flatland, ramps and street on his BMX bike to designing magazine layouts and T-shirts as well as stealing many souls from behind a shutter, Jared Souney is many things to many poeple. Those in the BMX world know him as a rider from New England who made the move to the Left Coast to do design work and shoot photos for Ride BMX magazine and beyond. Continue reading “Jared Souney: By Design”
David Weinberger: Small Pieces Loosely Joined
With ninety-five theses that redefined online markets and their prospective web consumers, The Cluetrain Manifesto (Perseus Books, 2000) dropped a virtual bomb on the virtual world. David Weinberger was one of its four authors. Therein he stated, “The web is viral. It infects everything it touches and, because it is an airborne virus, it infects some things it doesn’t. The web has become the new corporate infrastructure, in the form of intranets, turning massive corporate hierarchical systems into collections of many small pieces loosely joining themselves unpredictably.” With his new book, Small Pieces Loosely Joined (Perseus Books, 2002), Weinberger expounds on this idea. With insight and authority, he claims — among other things — that the web hasn’t been hyped enough. Continue reading “David Weinberger: Small Pieces Loosely Joined”