Listen to the romantic opener – Throw My Ashes From This Pier When I Die: [audio:http://www.endlessnest.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/01-Throw-My-Ashes-From-This-Pier-When-I-Die.mp3]
Empty cellar is excited to announce Sonny & The Sandwitches, a new 7″ e.p. by Sonny Smith (out 12/14). You can pick up your own personal copy here. Pitchfork and a slew of other online hot-sheets beat us to the punch, but for those of you who haven’t heard… here is the full story:
Not long ago, Sonny Smith (Sonny & The Sunsets) survived a near-drowning off the coast of northern california. The experience affected him profoundly and led to a wealth of output including a play, a novel, and a stack of songs. Sonny’s critically acclaimed “100 Records” project is itself a direct product of Sonny’s fight with the sea. A novel he began, “Adelard the Drowned”, broke into 100 pieces. Four of those pieces come as songs on this 7″ e.p., each bound to the next by a twisted braid of water and death. Through the fog and the haze, however, there lies in these songs a shared sense of redemption, transformation, or reawakening. Featuring appearances by Heidi and Grace of the The Sandwitches and a long-lost band called The Transients, this record features Sonny’s songwriting at its strongest, staring death in the face. Perhaps, this is in part why the ocean gave him back. Recorded in San Francisco and mastered by Paul Oldham, each record includes a comic book, four full-color album covers, and a high-quality digital drownload.
Preview the intensely personal comic penned by Hank Champion and illustrated by Teppei Ando:
Gallery 16 is pleased to welcome San Francisco based artist, musician and playwright Sonny Smith to his first solo show with the gallery. 100 Records is a dauntingly ambitious project that bridges his interest in art, music and dramatic form. Smith invited 100 artists to produce artwork for the record covers of fictional bands. Smith concocted the personas of each 100 fictitious bands, then wrote and recorded two hundred songs (the A side and B side) for each. All of the original artwork will be on display as well as a jukebox that plays all two hundred songs recorded by Sonny Smith and other notable musicians. Artists include, William T. Wiley, Mingering Mike, Chris Johanson, Reed Anderson, Jo Jackson, Harrell Fletcher, Chris Duncan, Tucker Nichols, Paul Wackers and 91 others!
…and in Sonny’s words:
This is a year long project that began at the Headlands residency last march. I’ve written 100 songs for 100 record jackets hand made by a shitload of artists. Also there will be a handmade jukebox to play all the songs. there’s gonna be a Volume 1 limited edition box set put out by Gallery 16 available for sale with some limited edition reproductions signed by some of the artists. This thing is a sight to be seen. Later in the year there will be a volume 2, 3, 4 etc.. Which is exciting and I will tell you more about
that soon enough.
100 records, 100 artists, 100 songs, 1 year, 1 opening, 1 jukebox, 1 you, 1 me, 1 gallery. My birth year adds up to 1 btw.
This project incorporates all that i’ve ever been working on all these years: literature, visual, music, collaboration, fictional characters.
It is my year of Individuation: those processes through which differentiated components become integrated into stable wholes. Coincidentally I couldn’t have completed this oneness without lots of people’s help.
So don’t be afraid to celebrate this oneness of one-of-a-kind togetherness/oneness with five or six glasses of (free) wine.!!!
…and in the immortal words of Endless Nest:
THIS RULES!
Keep your ear to the ground for beautiful limited edition 100 Records releases from Turn Up! and Empty Cellar records.
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