Free Music: Solid Melts’ Summer Compilation 2010, An Empire of Fun

art by George De Moura

Solid Melts, a local indie label, recently released a free compilation of some of the best lo-fi music from the Lawrence/Kansas City area entitled An Empire of Fun. The compilation certainly lives up to its name and provides an excellent introduction into the wide array of music our local scene has to offer. We’ve uploaded a few of our favorite tracks so you can preview the awesomeness that is An Empire of Fun before you download it.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Tracklisting
1. Bird Names – Peace for Recorder
2. Viking Fuck – 21
3. Yuppies – 665
4. C V L T S – corpus dei
5. Coasting – Discover
6. TEAADORA – Languageless Pre-agriculture Culture
7. Katrina Stonehart – overpass
8. Prussia – You Don’t Mean That Much, Relax
9. Big Dogs – Ralphie
10. Vehicle Blues – Campbell and Potomac
11. Expo 70 – Electric Waves
12. Lazy – Who Could Break Your Heart
13. The Great Valley – My House
14. Erasers – You Can Take Better Care Of Yourself
15. Julian Lynch – Sifflements, Ronflements, et Renâclements
16. Back To The Future The Ride – To Truly Know The Past
17. Swimsuit – Mongoose
18. EarthMasters – Deathcult
19. Hermit Thrushes – Little Crow
20. Royal Osprey – The Tower
21. The Tanks – I Can’t Believe I Broke Edge Again
22. GOODWILLIES – ON THE FOURTH LEVEL
23. Cloud Nothings – Dead People
24. Kevin Greenspon – Sundowner Lane
25. Baby Birds Don’t Drink Milk – Freesoup

Download An Empire of Fun here (120.45 Mb)

posted by: Harold Johns III

Style Photo File: Camilla Åkrans

Camilla Åkrans is a fashion photographer from Sweden currently working in New York. Click on the photos to learn more about where they were originally published and check out more of Camilla Åkrans’ work

on Models.com
on LUNDLUND
on The Fashion Spot

I also became a little obsessed with her editorial for the June-July issue of Harper’s Bazaar US, I literally tore out every page for my wall. See the images here.

posted by: Tricia Rock

Art Roundup: July 9, 2010 to July 15, 2010

Weekly roundup of the best art shows and art related events in and around the Lawrence/Kansas City area.

FRIDAY JULY 9

Sonic Youth – Sleeping Nights Awake (Documentary) Michael Albright

• SONIC ORPHANS: Lost Music Films 1965-87
Wonder Fair: Art Gallery, Shoppe & Studio
(803 1/2 Massachusetts Street in Lawrence, KS)
Friday, July 9, 7-12pm
From the organizers: SONIC ORPHANS is a compilation reel of lost and found clips projected on 16mm, mostly silent, of some rare celluloid gems that have been seen by almost no one and have never seen the light of youtube. Most of this footage is truly orphaned film— abandoned, lost, found, and now presented raw without editing. The videos feature The Beatles, Avengers, Huns, Boy Problems, Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers, and Johnny Cash. The presentation includes a discussion of “orphan films” as they are called by archivists, a one-night photo exhibit & live local music by Kansas City’s LAZY. $5 at the door.

SATURDAY JULY 10

Wild West Film Festival 2010 Promo Video

• Wild West Film Festival
Liberty Hall (644 Massachusetts Street in Lawrence, KS)
Saturday, July 10, 7pm
From the organizers: The Wild West Film Fest is a 48-hour marathon film fest that anyone with a video camera can enter. We hope to raise money and awareness for a good cause while getting people excited about local film making. We provide a secret theme and you have 48 hours to create a working short film – no longer than 5 minutes. You provide us with the short films and we provide you with a great venue, judges and prizes for the winners! Proceeds from our ticket sales benefit local organizations such as Habitat For Humanity, Halo Foundation, and Children’s Mercy Hospital. The judges were blown away by the quality of films this year. Along with the typical gang of local judges, we also enjoyed the company of local comic book writer Jai Nitz. He has written several comics for D.C. and Marvel. He is currently working on Hollywood movie comic tie-ins, such as the upcoming Green Hornet. There will be a costume contest during the festival, the most heroic hero or vile villain will receive a cash prize and a DVD of the films. Tickets are only $7 for general public and $5 for students.
www.wildwestfilmfest.com

posted by: Scott Stewart

Music Archive: The Band “The Weight” (Live 1976)

The Last Waltz is a concert by the Canadian rock group The Band, held on American Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. The Last Waltz was advertised as the end of The Band’s illustrious touring career, and the concert saw The Band joined by more than a dozen special guests including Paul Butterfield, the Staple Singers, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Emmylou Harris, Ronnie Hawkins, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Wood and Neil Young. The group backed Bob Dylan in the 1960s, and Dylan performs with The Band toward the end of the concert. Because they were simply referred to as “The Band” by Dylan and their friends and neighbors in Woodstock, New York, they figured that was just what they would call themselves, instead of other lesser options like The Honkies or The Crackers.

The event was filmed by director Martin Scorsese and made into a documentary of the same name, released in 1978. The film features concert performances, scenes shot on a studio soundstage and interviews by Scorsese with members of The Band. A triple-LP soundtrack recording was issued in 1978. The film was released on DVD in 2002 as was a four-CD box set of the concert and related studio recordings.

Many consider The Last Waltz to be the greatest concert film of all time, I personally think Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense is better but The Last Waltz is a damn close second.

According to songwriter Robbie Robertson, “The Weight” was inspired by the films of Luis Buñuel, about which Robertson once said:

(Buñuel) did so many films on the impossibility of sainthood. People trying to be good in Viridiana and Nazarin, people trying to do their thing. In “The Weight” it’s the same thing. People like Buñuel would make films that had these religious connotations to them but it wasn’t necessarily a religious meaning. In Buñuel there were these people trying to be good and it’s impossible to be good. In “The Weight” it was this very simple thing. Someone says, “Listen, would you do me this favour? When you get there will you say ‘hello’ to somebody or will you give somebody this or will you pick up one of these for me? Oh? You’re going to Nazareth, that’s where the Martin guitar factory is. Do me a favour when you’re there.” This is what it’s all about. So the guy goes and one thing leads to another and it’s like “Holy Shit, what’s this turned into? I’ve only come here to say ‘hello’ for somebody and I’ve got myself in this incredible predicament.” It was very Buñuelish to me at the time.

posted by: Harold Johns III

Tree Mountain: 11,000 Trees, 11,000 People, 400 Years

click photo for a larger version

Between 1992 and 1996, environmental artist Agnes Denes created Tree Mountain—A Living Time Capsule.  The project consisted of a series of architectural renderings on vellum featuring designs for a new forest to be planted in Pinziö, near Ylöjärvi, Finland. These works  on paper became planning documents after the Finnish government decided to make Denes’ project its official Earth Day contribution at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, 1992.  This major earthwork and reclamation project was designed by the artist as a community building project that also made use of waste from a nearby gravel pit.  To accomplish the massive undertaking, Denes invited 11,000 people to plant a tree. Each person became the custodian of a tree and received a certificate recognizing their role in the project. The forest, which is to remain a living legacy for the next 400 years (20 generations), has spawned additional projects in Australia and the Netherlands.

The 11,000 trees were planted according to an intricate mathematical pattern derived from a combination of the golden section and sunflower/pineapple pattern designed by Denes. The tree mountain is 420 meters long, 270 meters wide and 28 meters high.

See more of  Denes’ work via Chelesa Art Museum

posted by: Brent Carter