More on the whole "House" metaphor

Just when I think I'm about to lose steam, Sean comes along to hit me over the head and kick me in the ass with some insight and expansion on the "house" metaphor. I can't express my gratitude enough for those folks who are as invested in documenting homemade album covers as I claim to be. Sean wrote so trenchantly that his side of the conversation deserves a spot on the blog. Pay special attention to the last paragraph.

I've been purposefully avoiding describing my own involvement with the production of homemade covers (Sean and I are in Viceburgh together, and I screen-printed 300 double 7" covers for our "Diversity" album) in an effort to challenge myself to think outside my own experiences. I believe Sean's assessment of my own work is helpful to this project because he isn't as close to the work as I am. More discourse is highly encouraged! Thanks, Sean.

Check this out:
"I forgot that I hadn't given you my address and was sorely disappointed when I read your blog and realized I still needed to send it to get sweet records. Shucks.

Here are some more thoughts that came to mind after reading your blog. If we want to call homemade record covers houses than what type of houses are they? Furthermore, ideologically, what lives and resides in these houses?

It seems that you have established a blueprint for the homemade record cover as a house. It is built to contain music, ideas, history, and individuality. Mass-produced records may contain some of these things. However, what you have struck upon is that concept of an open-door that is built into the homemade covers that separates from most commercially produced covers.

As for what resides in these houses, I think it might be good to start by reflecting on our own experience making a homemade record cover. First, we wanted full artistic control over the production of our record. While this meant spending our hard earned bucks, with little hope of recouping our investment, it also gave us an opportunity to learn. And, what did we learn? We learned where to go to get records pressed and about the process of pressing, you were able to practice and refine your printing techniques, we found out which materials worked well, and we began to explore the history of homemade and DIY records.

Furthermore, what we entered into was an open-ended dialog with a community of artists, musicians, recording engineers and producers, and music fans that allows creativity to thrive. To me the reason, at least for the moment, why people make homemade covers, and why people buy them, is three-fold. First, it supports an ideal that allows for greater ingenuity, innovation, and permutations of the form. Second, it gives people a skill-set and network, so they are able to rely on themselves and a community of others instead of being for into the
nameless and faceless regions of commercial production. Finally, it pays homage to a history of record production that focuses first on creativity and social capital and second on homogenization and economic capital.

If we think about the history of record production as a metaphysical space, in which different houses are built, we can more clearly observe the importance of DIY/Homemade production for the development of culture. Mass-produced records, at varying levels, are subject to the ideologies of companies that make their money by making safe, accessible products that, primarily, work to affirm accepted beliefs, rather than challenge them. This means that politics and creativity will be utilized only to the degree that they help sell the image of the product. This makes mass produced records of music, for the most part, passive forces. DIY/Homemade records on the other hand are active in that they are able to not passively signify cultural changes but, albeit on a necessarily smaller scale, actively create cultural changes."

On a side note, I uploaded more photos. I also have more sweet records to send if people are interested!

all my love,
James