Shaun O’dell of Sword & Sandals’ Busy Week (Sonny Smith guest appearance)

Last night in Berkeley, Shaun O’Dell of Sword & Sandals and WR/DS (words) debuted a series of new prints on paper at Paulson Bott Press. The opening was accompanied by a live musical performance by WR/DS (Shaun O’Dell, Randy Lee Southerland & Jeff Anderson) pictured below at an opening for Daniel Higgs and Kyle Ranson. You can read more about the opening and the prints HERE. If you are in the Berkeley area then make your way over and take them in.

Then on THURSDAY January 20, 6-9pm, Gallery 16 will “attempt the improbable”. In their left hand they will present a new exhibition of prints by artists Amy Ellingson, Stefan Kirkeby, Shaun O’Dell and Inez Storer. While those balls are in the air, their right hand will attempt the ambitious book signing for the release of the long awaited book, These Are The People In Your Neighborhood, also featuring Shaun’s work. Empty Cellar artist Sonny Smith will provide the sonic backdrop for the evening.

Read more about that opening and book righta here.


Shaun O’Dell of Sword + Sandals and WR/DS Book Release Tomorrow

San Francisco artist Shaun O’Dell painted the monad-aperture that was reproduced for the Endless Nest logo. Thank you Shaun. Here we are transporting the piece between his house and ours.

He is also one of the three eminent forces on, and album artist for, the Sword & Sandals debut LP, Good & Plenty.

Tomorrow, Thursday 10/30, he will be celebrating the arrival of his new artbook. This book is the culminating project of his Tournesol residency. O’Dell is 7th artist to receive the prestigious award, which provides a Bay Area painter with a year-long residency at Headlands. You can preview the book and read an excerpt from Shaun’s interview with curator Tara McDowell HERE. The book (initial press limited to 1000 copies) will be available for purchase at the event and will also be available at the Park Life Store.

Shaun O’Dell, Co-published by The Headlands Center for the Arts and Park Life, Design by Boon. 7.5″ x 9.5″, 64 pages, prefect bound.

Shaun will be performing at the event with Randy Sutherland (also from Sword + Sandals) in their two-piece WR/DS.

Official Book Release at Park Life Gallery
Thursday, September 30, 6 – 8PM
220 Clement Street
San Francisco

Finally… we thought we would attach last week’s San Francisco Bay Guardian interview/feature on Shaun O’Dell, Sword + Sandals and WR/DS: Horns of plenty


“Good & Plenty is definitely channeling the spirit of those BYG Actuel release from the late sixties from the likes of Don Cherry, Sun Ra or Sunny Murray. The dueling dynamic of O’Dell and Sutherland’s horn interplay is not one of willful free jazz cacophony, but a means to reach a harmonic connection through disparate starting points, often sounding like the horns are worrying back and forth over the same small tonal point creating a tense movement of sound. But unlike their live shows and recordings, the horns are not always locked in battle. The overall flow of the record tempers the noisy urgent moments with quieter moody tracks of looser and more playful rhythms, sometimes ramshackle and other times more marital with strange washes of bell sounds, out of tune piano, weird bleeps, and minimal plaintive horn drones. It’s one of those records where the band has finally come into their own, harnessing the ferocious energy of their live shows into something deeper and more reflective and at times quite beautiful. Highly recommended!” – aQuarius recOrds


Sword+Sandals Release Celebration Part II: Joseph Childress, WR/DS, Pillars & Tongues, The Up Died Sound

Come celebrate once more the release of Sword + Sandals debut studio LP, Good & Plenty tomorrow night! It will be a super night for Empty Cellar, with three label artists on the same stage. In a way, it is a double record release show between Sword + Sandals (represented by WR/DS (words)) and Pillars & Tongues (on tour from Chicago in support of Lay of Pilgrim Park). The night will also feature Joseph Childress and New Yorkers, the Up Died Sound. The evening will be capped with the debut screening of the latest Chasing the Moon Video Podcast featuring Birds and Batteries; so in a way, it is a triple release show.

8:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Wednesday, September 22nd

The Up Died Sound (NYC)
Pillars & Tongues (Chicago)
WR/DS (Shaun O’Dell & Randy Lee Sutherland of )
Chasing the Moon Video Podcast debut of Birds & Batteries at Hyde St. Studios

Viracocha
998 Valencia st. @ 21st st.
San Francisco