Secret Project Robot, NYC, Princeton

Greetings from Eugene V. Deb's house, student co-operative in Ann Arbor, Michigan! For those of you who don't know Mr. Debs, he was the Socialist candidate around the turn of the century who ran for president from the can (not the shitter) four consecutive times. What did they pin him with? Being a Socialist, of course.

Thanks to those who yielded to my pleas to vote on whether specific mediums of record covers are handmade or not. Voting ends in 5 days! I know it seems common practice today, but don't rig the elections!

Thursday I met up with Erik and Rachel, the directors and founders of Secret Project Robot, a gallery space in Brooklyn. It was amazing to see these folk, because last summer they curated "Art of Music: a show of handmade record covers." Right up my alley, eh? Naturally, I've been entertaining the idea of throwing up records on walls to showcase this strange phenomenon. But how to organize them? Any which way would certainly be interesting: chronologically to show how they've changed through time, from shoddy xeroxes (out of necessity) to intensive embroidery (for fetish's sake); geographically to show how certain artists and musicians have direct influence on each other, cultivating a local flavor; by medium, grouping xeroxes with xeroxes and kits with kits; by label; by genre; by artist; and by type (i.e. CD, cassette, 7", 12" other odd sizes). Erik and Rachel, on the other hand, organized the records by collector. Genius!

Rather than soliciting bands, artists, collectors and designers for material, a process that would certainly be exhausting, they solicited their own collections and others'. As keen readers are certainly aware of, collectors can be fetishists as well as hubs for handmade covers. As a hub, they metaphysically represent certain social and artistic circles; as a fetishist they represent perhaps an affinity for a certain aesthetic. Layers, Dear God!

Here's another interesting thing these two pioneers touched on: the devaluing of art brought on by the existence of handmade records. Several people, including Rachel and Erik, mentioned that band members in Brooklyn frequently double as artists, writers, filmmakers and designers. Covers done by band members/artists whose prints sell for thousands of dollars in Chelsea sell for normal record prices. Whoa. Is their record cover not just another one of their prints? As soon as you put a piece of vinyl in it, the value plummets! The parasitic record sucks the value from the art within $10-15 of its life.

Are you with me? Good. The issue of value goes deeper. The two curators agreed with me that usually there isn't much money, if at all, for bands to make on their homemade covers. As mainstream record labels continually co-opt aesthetics and sounds from the folk, they will never release three million hand screen-printed Nickelback records because they wont be able to make any money off it. I'm certainly of the opinion that blogs are not the place to talk trash and knock people, but get real, Chad Kroeger. ooops. By gosh, my delete key ain't workin'–I'll be damned!

Good stuff, good stuff. As for the Princeton Record Exchange, the "largest record store in the East," it was a bust for homemade stuff. There were a few things there, like 2 Avant Garde Jazz records, one of which was part of an edition of record covers made in hotel rooms across the world by Steely Dan's trumpet player. See for yourself–I threw them up on the "more awesome records" link in the sidebar. Check out the Academy Records collection, as there were a few cool ones from the hip part of Brooklyn.

I'm off to my grandparents' house tomorrow for a few days, and I'll be lucky if I have a cell phone signal let alone inter-web. I still have a few things to blog about, so this is not the end, though I'll be home soon. I've been hoarding ideas for mass-produced homemade record covers, so I may post some freebies for those interested in making your own.

Glad to be back up North,
James

P.S. in the words of Diddy, (he's just Diddy now, right?) Vote or Die!