Thursday, October 29, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
The Guardian writes about travel to Nashville ...including Twist Art Gallery
A little bit country, a lot more rock'n'roll
Nashville is kicking off its cowboy boots. Its bars, gig venues and restaurants are as hip as the city's band of the moment, Kings of Leon. Wyndham Wallace explores the Bible belt's shiny buckle
Wyndham Wallace
The Guardian, Saturday 28 February 2009
Nashville home boy, Caleb Folliwell of the Kings of Leon. Photograph: Simone Joyner/Getty Images
Under a brutally bright sun, Nashville's alternative music community is sipping cocktails on the roof of the Icon Building in The Gulch, a former warehouse district increasingly populated by sleek high-rises and buzzing restaurants. Pant-suited Americana singers, drainpipe-jeaned punks and flannel-shirted indie rockers are gathered to celebrate the Next Big Nashville, an annual event designed to highlight the wealth and variety of bands in a place that, despite being labelled Music City USA, is renowned for country music and little else.
To outsiders their presence is probably unexpected. Nashville is best known for squeaky-clean residents like Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire and Miley Cyrus (daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus, aka Hannah Montana) and honky-tonk bars and barbecue shacks. But the city, like its skyline, is changing. It is attracting celebrities from beyond its former cultural reach, with the White Stripes' Jack White moving here, cult director Harmony Korine returning to his former hometown, Nicole Kidman settling down with husband Keith Urban and Robert Plant recording the Grammy Award-winning album Raising Sand with bluegrass artist Alison Krauss. Formerly down-at-heel neighbourhoods are being revitalised, new restaurants and bars open weekly, and the city's country music heritage is finally competing for attention with the likes of pop rockers Paramore and 2009 Brit and NME award-winners Kings of Leon.
This burgeoning scene may be cool but the city's unpretentious lifestyle and warm southern welcome mean it is also very accessible, making Nashville one of America's most attractive destinations for those seeking an alternative to the homogenous mall culture of most of its big cities.
Music
While honky-tonk bars remain popular down on Broadway, and Music Row continues to shelter an industry largely focused on country and Christian acts, elsewhere a vibrant alternative scene is emerging. Next Big Nashville's annual festivities (nextbignashville.net) provide an opportunity to catch many local favourites, from the pop-punk of the Privates to the Dynamites' retro-soul, while clubs such as The End (2219 Elliston Place) - a run-down, dark and beery space with a fondness for punk rock - and The Exit/In (2208 Elliston Place, exitin.com), the larger and smarter venue, showcase native and out-of-town talent year long. If it's established acts you're searching for, the Ryman Auditorium (116 Fifth Avenue North, ryman.com) is the place to go. To catch emerging talent, keep an eye out for MySpace bulletins and leaflets in local record stores. These leak information about the city's booming house party scene, centred around local label Infinity Cat's leading acts Jeff and MeeMaw, with the latter regularly hosting chaotic shows in the basement of their home.
Best music shop in town
Grimey's New & Preloved Music Store, with co-owner Mike Grimes second from left, Nashville
London has the Rough Trade Shop, New York has Other Music, but Nashville presents stiff competition with one of the world's best independent record shops, Grimey's (1604 8th Avenue South, grimeys.com). Co-owner Mike Grimes established his hipster credentials with the Slow Bar in the then no-go area of East Nashville in the 90s, but when the previous site of his record shop proved too small, and rising rents - arguably, initiated by the success of his enterprises - forced him out, he upped sticks and opened a shop just south of downtown, where he also started booking shows in The Basement below. His determination to offer alternatives to mainstream country ensures the store, staffed mainly by local musicians, offers an enviable selection of underground sounds alongside a sizeable assortment of "pre-loved" CDs and LPs. The staff will also recommend and provide tickets for the best shows downstairs. Such is the reputation of both the store and the club beneath that, after signing records upstairs, Metallica performed an intimate show in June last year for just 150 fans.
Bars
The Family Wash (2038 Greenwood Avenue, familywash.com), an intimate bar, restaurant and venue in East Nashville, was built using material from a launderette that formerly occupied the land. The speciality, shepherd's pie, is eaten at small tables clustered in front of a tiny stage that showcases local musical talent. The Red Door Saloon (1816 Division Street, thereddoorsaloon.com) is a more rowdy affair with a traditional roadhouse bar vibe, favoured during the week by studio workers from nearby Music Row checking out the sports results on TVs over the bar and at the weekend by younger city residents letting their hair down. But the Springwater Supper Club (115 27th Avenue North, springwatersupperclub.com), a former speakeasy frequented through the years by Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt and these days by the many members of local musical heroes Lambchop, remains the most popular indie-rock hangout. Harmony Korine even chose its dive bar surroundings as the location for the recent Budweiser adverts featuring eccentric regular Dave Cloud.
Restaurants
Despite its retro leanings, Nashville is not afraid of the modern. In the once sleepy neighbourhoods of East Nashville, a burgeoning drinking and dining scene has sprung up, centred around the Five Points crossroads where Jack White's favourite restaurant, Marché Artisan Foods (1000 Main Street, marcheartisanfoods.com), stands across a car park from Gillian Welch's Woodland Recording Studios. Also offering specialist grocery and delicatessen items, Marché concentrates on freshly prepared Mediterranean-inspired cuisine served in a light and airy dining area. Welch has herself been lured out of recording sessions by nearby Rumours East's (1112 Woodland St, rumourswinebar.com/east) impressive wine list, beautifully presented food (including plenty of fish) and spacious patio. Those looking for something a little less pricey, however, can take advantage of the city's multicultural riches. A third of Nashville's citizens are non-white, including America's largest Kurdish population, which means there's a wide choice of international cuisine, with increasingly popular Ethiopian establishments alongside plenty of Japanese and Italian. Mexican food is hardest to beat - La Hacienda (2615 Nolensville Road, lahaciendainc.com) was first and remains justifiably packed - but City House's (1222 4th Avenue North, cityhousenashville.com) contemporary Italian also attracts high praise, with Robert Plant among its regulars.
Cafes
A thriving independent cafe culture means you're never far from a good coffee. Especially favoured is Nashville's original coffeehouse Bongo Java (2007 Belmont Blvd, bongojava.com), winner of local paper Nashville Scene's Best Coffeehouse Award from 1994-2007 (it dropped to second place in 2008 behind its sister cafe Fido) and creator of the internationally famous Nunbun, a cinnamon bun that looks like Mother Theresa. They also roast their own coffee. Newly opened Crema (15 Hermitage Avenue, crema-coffee.com) is arguably the most adventurous establishment, offering concoctions such as Café Tom Kai (a blend of coconut milk, Kaffir lime syrup and espresso), but Portland Brew's (2605 12th Avenue South, portlandbrewcoffee.com) deliberately sparse and indie-rocker-friendly premises is the place to rub shoulders with the likes of Jack White's Raconteurs.
Boutiques
Mainstream Nashville fashion may have changed little since Dolly Parton worked 9 to 5, but a number of local boutiques have set out to combine retro themes with a contemporary twist. 12th Avenue South houses a variety, from the mildly hippy Serendipity (2301 12th Avenue South, serendipity12th.com) to Local Honey's (1207 Linden Avenue, localhoneynashville.blogspot.com) vintage threads. But Two Elle (2309 12th Avenue South, twoelle.com), a cosy store established in a grey clapboard house set back from the street, is the most cutting edge, stocking affordable designer clothes sourced from across the US alongside vintage sunglasses, jewellery and chocolate. It specialises in the informal but chic look favoured by those too hip for Urban Outfitters, and its liberal credentials were confirmed by a 10% discount for anyone registering to vote in last year's presidential election while at the store.
Galleries
The community spirit isn't restricted to music: on the first Saturday evening of every month, galleries in the 105-year-old Arcade (224 5th Avenue North) - a short line dance from Broadway's honky-tonk and bluegrass bars - open their doors for the free Art Crawl. Around 1,000 people visit the Twist Art Gallery (twistartgallery.com) and The Showroom for a mix of contemporary installations, painting, sculpture and photography. Crowds spill across Fifth Avenue to visit The Arts Company (215 5th Avenue North, theartscompany.com), one of the downtown district's most enduring visual art spaces, along with newcomers like the Rymer Gallery (233 5th Avenue North, therymergallery.com) and Tinney Contemporary (237 5th Avenue North, tinneycontemporary.com). The Frist Center For The Visual Arts (919 Broadway, fristcenter.org) provides a more mainstream approach while presenting some of the city's most ambitious visual art programming. Recent exhibitions have featured everything from Rodin to the modern artists of the Société Anonyme and the stunning large-format photography of contemporary Australian artist Rosemary Laing.
• Flights to Nashville from Heathrow start at £373 inc taxes through Trailfinders (0845 050 5892, trailfinders.com). Doubles at Hotel Indigo (001 615 329 4200, ichotelsgroup.com) from around $99 per night plus tax. The Next Big Nashville (nextbignashville.net) is on 7-11 October.
· This article was amended on Monday March 2 2009. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' Grammy Award-winning album was called Raising Sand, not Please Read the Letter. This has been corrected.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009
Nashville is kicking off its cowboy boots. Its bars, gig venues and restaurants are as hip as the city's band of the moment, Kings of Leon. Wyndham Wallace explores the Bible belt's shiny buckle
Wyndham Wallace
The Guardian, Saturday 28 February 2009
Nashville home boy, Caleb Folliwell of the Kings of Leon. Photograph: Simone Joyner/Getty Images
Under a brutally bright sun, Nashville's alternative music community is sipping cocktails on the roof of the Icon Building in The Gulch, a former warehouse district increasingly populated by sleek high-rises and buzzing restaurants. Pant-suited Americana singers, drainpipe-jeaned punks and flannel-shirted indie rockers are gathered to celebrate the Next Big Nashville, an annual event designed to highlight the wealth and variety of bands in a place that, despite being labelled Music City USA, is renowned for country music and little else.
To outsiders their presence is probably unexpected. Nashville is best known for squeaky-clean residents like Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire and Miley Cyrus (daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus, aka Hannah Montana) and honky-tonk bars and barbecue shacks. But the city, like its skyline, is changing. It is attracting celebrities from beyond its former cultural reach, with the White Stripes' Jack White moving here, cult director Harmony Korine returning to his former hometown, Nicole Kidman settling down with husband Keith Urban and Robert Plant recording the Grammy Award-winning album Raising Sand with bluegrass artist Alison Krauss. Formerly down-at-heel neighbourhoods are being revitalised, new restaurants and bars open weekly, and the city's country music heritage is finally competing for attention with the likes of pop rockers Paramore and 2009 Brit and NME award-winners Kings of Leon.
This burgeoning scene may be cool but the city's unpretentious lifestyle and warm southern welcome mean it is also very accessible, making Nashville one of America's most attractive destinations for those seeking an alternative to the homogenous mall culture of most of its big cities.
Music
While honky-tonk bars remain popular down on Broadway, and Music Row continues to shelter an industry largely focused on country and Christian acts, elsewhere a vibrant alternative scene is emerging. Next Big Nashville's annual festivities (nextbignashville.net) provide an opportunity to catch many local favourites, from the pop-punk of the Privates to the Dynamites' retro-soul, while clubs such as The End (2219 Elliston Place) - a run-down, dark and beery space with a fondness for punk rock - and The Exit/In (2208 Elliston Place, exitin.com), the larger and smarter venue, showcase native and out-of-town talent year long. If it's established acts you're searching for, the Ryman Auditorium (116 Fifth Avenue North, ryman.com) is the place to go. To catch emerging talent, keep an eye out for MySpace bulletins and leaflets in local record stores. These leak information about the city's booming house party scene, centred around local label Infinity Cat's leading acts Jeff and MeeMaw, with the latter regularly hosting chaotic shows in the basement of their home.
Best music shop in town
Grimey's New & Preloved Music Store, with co-owner Mike Grimes second from left, Nashville
London has the Rough Trade Shop, New York has Other Music, but Nashville presents stiff competition with one of the world's best independent record shops, Grimey's (1604 8th Avenue South, grimeys.com). Co-owner Mike Grimes established his hipster credentials with the Slow Bar in the then no-go area of East Nashville in the 90s, but when the previous site of his record shop proved too small, and rising rents - arguably, initiated by the success of his enterprises - forced him out, he upped sticks and opened a shop just south of downtown, where he also started booking shows in The Basement below. His determination to offer alternatives to mainstream country ensures the store, staffed mainly by local musicians, offers an enviable selection of underground sounds alongside a sizeable assortment of "pre-loved" CDs and LPs. The staff will also recommend and provide tickets for the best shows downstairs. Such is the reputation of both the store and the club beneath that, after signing records upstairs, Metallica performed an intimate show in June last year for just 150 fans.
Bars
The Family Wash (2038 Greenwood Avenue, familywash.com), an intimate bar, restaurant and venue in East Nashville, was built using material from a launderette that formerly occupied the land. The speciality, shepherd's pie, is eaten at small tables clustered in front of a tiny stage that showcases local musical talent. The Red Door Saloon (1816 Division Street, thereddoorsaloon.com) is a more rowdy affair with a traditional roadhouse bar vibe, favoured during the week by studio workers from nearby Music Row checking out the sports results on TVs over the bar and at the weekend by younger city residents letting their hair down. But the Springwater Supper Club (115 27th Avenue North, springwatersupperclub.com), a former speakeasy frequented through the years by Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt and these days by the many members of local musical heroes Lambchop, remains the most popular indie-rock hangout. Harmony Korine even chose its dive bar surroundings as the location for the recent Budweiser adverts featuring eccentric regular Dave Cloud.
Restaurants
Despite its retro leanings, Nashville is not afraid of the modern. In the once sleepy neighbourhoods of East Nashville, a burgeoning drinking and dining scene has sprung up, centred around the Five Points crossroads where Jack White's favourite restaurant, Marché Artisan Foods (1000 Main Street, marcheartisanfoods.com), stands across a car park from Gillian Welch's Woodland Recording Studios. Also offering specialist grocery and delicatessen items, Marché concentrates on freshly prepared Mediterranean-inspired cuisine served in a light and airy dining area. Welch has herself been lured out of recording sessions by nearby Rumours East's (1112 Woodland St, rumourswinebar.com/east) impressive wine list, beautifully presented food (including plenty of fish) and spacious patio. Those looking for something a little less pricey, however, can take advantage of the city's multicultural riches. A third of Nashville's citizens are non-white, including America's largest Kurdish population, which means there's a wide choice of international cuisine, with increasingly popular Ethiopian establishments alongside plenty of Japanese and Italian. Mexican food is hardest to beat - La Hacienda (2615 Nolensville Road, lahaciendainc.com) was first and remains justifiably packed - but City House's (1222 4th Avenue North, cityhousenashville.com) contemporary Italian also attracts high praise, with Robert Plant among its regulars.
Cafes
A thriving independent cafe culture means you're never far from a good coffee. Especially favoured is Nashville's original coffeehouse Bongo Java (2007 Belmont Blvd, bongojava.com), winner of local paper Nashville Scene's Best Coffeehouse Award from 1994-2007 (it dropped to second place in 2008 behind its sister cafe Fido) and creator of the internationally famous Nunbun, a cinnamon bun that looks like Mother Theresa. They also roast their own coffee. Newly opened Crema (15 Hermitage Avenue, crema-coffee.com) is arguably the most adventurous establishment, offering concoctions such as Café Tom Kai (a blend of coconut milk, Kaffir lime syrup and espresso), but Portland Brew's (2605 12th Avenue South, portlandbrewcoffee.com) deliberately sparse and indie-rocker-friendly premises is the place to rub shoulders with the likes of Jack White's Raconteurs.
Boutiques
Mainstream Nashville fashion may have changed little since Dolly Parton worked 9 to 5, but a number of local boutiques have set out to combine retro themes with a contemporary twist. 12th Avenue South houses a variety, from the mildly hippy Serendipity (2301 12th Avenue South, serendipity12th.com) to Local Honey's (1207 Linden Avenue, localhoneynashville.blogspot.com) vintage threads. But Two Elle (2309 12th Avenue South, twoelle.com), a cosy store established in a grey clapboard house set back from the street, is the most cutting edge, stocking affordable designer clothes sourced from across the US alongside vintage sunglasses, jewellery and chocolate. It specialises in the informal but chic look favoured by those too hip for Urban Outfitters, and its liberal credentials were confirmed by a 10% discount for anyone registering to vote in last year's presidential election while at the store.
Galleries
The community spirit isn't restricted to music: on the first Saturday evening of every month, galleries in the 105-year-old Arcade (224 5th Avenue North) - a short line dance from Broadway's honky-tonk and bluegrass bars - open their doors for the free Art Crawl. Around 1,000 people visit the Twist Art Gallery (twistartgallery.com) and The Showroom for a mix of contemporary installations, painting, sculpture and photography. Crowds spill across Fifth Avenue to visit The Arts Company (215 5th Avenue North, theartscompany.com), one of the downtown district's most enduring visual art spaces, along with newcomers like the Rymer Gallery (233 5th Avenue North, therymergallery.com) and Tinney Contemporary (237 5th Avenue North, tinneycontemporary.com). The Frist Center For The Visual Arts (919 Broadway, fristcenter.org) provides a more mainstream approach while presenting some of the city's most ambitious visual art programming. Recent exhibitions have featured everything from Rodin to the modern artists of the Société Anonyme and the stunning large-format photography of contemporary Australian artist Rosemary Laing.
• Flights to Nashville from Heathrow start at £373 inc taxes through Trailfinders (0845 050 5892, trailfinders.com). Doubles at Hotel Indigo (001 615 329 4200, ichotelsgroup.com) from around $99 per night plus tax. The Next Big Nashville (nextbignashville.net) is on 7-11 October.
· This article was amended on Monday March 2 2009. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' Grammy Award-winning album was called Raising Sand, not Please Read the Letter. This has been corrected.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
interview from super cool blog... Joe Nolan's Insomnia
http://www.joenolan.com/2009/09/bridge-on-river-why.html
This post is actually an interview with Nashville photographer/musician/bon vivant and raconteur, Tony Doling. We discuss Halfway Across A Bridge: Super8 Stills, his latest exhibit at Twist Art Gallery in downtown Nashville's historic Arcade building.
JN: Why don't you tell me a little bit about your new exhibit. How did the concept evolve?
TD: I've been thinking about this show for a couple of years now. I lived in Marin County from 1999-2000. LA for 2 months in 2000. I lived across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco for almost a year, and crossed that bridge probably 50-60 times. For an individual who would like to consider himself an artist/photographer, I never took a single photo of that bridge. I mean, why bother? It's all been done. What I did do is shoot about 10 seconds of black and white Super 8 film footage by sticking my camera out of the window of a moving car while crossing that bridge. For some time now, I've wanted to display the random, incomplete images that came out of these 10 seconds. After a stunning amount of time scanning tiny little frames, that's the show that I came up with.
JN: Obviously, in Marin County the bridge takes on a number of practical, symbolic and historical meanings. How did the bridge figure into your world view during that time?
TD: As a guy who grew up in Louisiana, I was clearly affected by all the many definitive images I'd seen across the rest of the country (The Golden Gate Bridge, The Chicago and NYC skylines, The Seattle Space Needle and on and on). My only relationship was to see something become more beautiful and majestic in person than any of the media images could have attempted to portray.
JN: Still, the images of the bridge color the perception of the real thing. The real thing can sometimes become almost unreal once we have been saturated with mediated messages about what something is. In this case, images of the bridge are a cliché. What made you decide to shoot your footage at that moment? What made you roll down that window?
TD: We were shooting a lot of Super 8 at the time (my brother, Shane and I, when we had common days off) and I had a camera loaded with film and didn't want to turn around to get a legit shot, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to capture the fact that we had actually seen the thing in person. Not a lot of foresight involved.
JN: Its one thing to create some work, its another thing to put it on display. You've started showing more work formally in the last year, but what made you decide to pursue getting this show together?
TD: Again, to be totally honest, an opening came up for the main gallery at Twist, and, given the age of the footage and concept, I realized I would probably never do it if I didn't force myself to do it now.
JN: You've displayed your photos before, but this is more of a conceptual installation. Does this show represent something new in your opinion? A step up? A step out?
TD: I don't know the specific term I would give it, but it is an artistic risk for me. I like to consider myself a simple, no frills guy who doesn't take himself too seriously. I never had a "Master Plan" for this when I shot this. I was just glad to have a day off. The biggest fear for me doing something different than I've done before is that the reaction may be "Who does this guy think he is?" There's definitely a worry that people will think I'm intentionally trying to do something conceptual out of context with my character, and that the result may be insincere. I hope it's not.
JN: At first, I began to suspect that your ambivalence regarding this show was disingenuous, especially given your confidence regarding your musical projects. (Doling is a composer/musician with the Nashville-based pop-collective, Bulb). However, I was fascinated to find out that you look at this show as something separate from your other projects. And you're genuinely worried about it! (Laughs). Tell me a bit about how this is "something different" from your musical efforts.
TD: Well, first of all, I've been playing music for so long, I don't really even have to think about it. In the work I do with Todd ((Greene), a great artist here in Nashville, as well) in bulb, it's so collaborative. I write most of the music and he writes the lyrics and melodies. It's a kind of assembly line in regards to the specialization and by far the most collaborative thing I've ever done. It's a unique way of doing music, but seems to work as we are just wrapping up our 15th album. www.bulbmusic.com (thanks for the plug, Joe). With the Twist show, although I've used many great suggestions from friends, it's still just my name on it - so I feel alot more pressure. There's always a worry in my new ventures into visual arts about the fact that by displaying your work, you have to be willing to let people like it or not, and maybe even tell you that they don't like it. I need to get used to that and be okay with it.
JN: We all certainly have to find a way to continually take ground despite criticism, rejection or - even worse - disinterest. I think my solution is always to stay so busy that I don't have time to consider how others might perceive a given effort. It helps to be immersed in an expansive project. Have you been looking for a bigger project to do or did the material inspire the show?
TD: The accidental nature of the footage and the question of what to do with it definitely inspired the show. The "something bigger" idea scares the shit out of me.
JN: Will you be pursuing similar ideas/projects in the future?
TD: I have no idea where to go now. Any ideas?
JN: What will make this show “successful” in your eyes?
TD: I hope that some of the girls at the after-party might talk to me since I had stuff at the Gallery Crawl.
Doling's project will open this Saturday night, October 3 with an artist reception from 6 – 9 p.m. at Twist Gallery's space at 73 Arcade.
This post is actually an interview with Nashville photographer/musician/bon vivant and raconteur, Tony Doling. We discuss Halfway Across A Bridge: Super8 Stills, his latest exhibit at Twist Art Gallery in downtown Nashville's historic Arcade building.
JN: Why don't you tell me a little bit about your new exhibit. How did the concept evolve?
TD: I've been thinking about this show for a couple of years now. I lived in Marin County from 1999-2000. LA for 2 months in 2000. I lived across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco for almost a year, and crossed that bridge probably 50-60 times. For an individual who would like to consider himself an artist/photographer, I never took a single photo of that bridge. I mean, why bother? It's all been done. What I did do is shoot about 10 seconds of black and white Super 8 film footage by sticking my camera out of the window of a moving car while crossing that bridge. For some time now, I've wanted to display the random, incomplete images that came out of these 10 seconds. After a stunning amount of time scanning tiny little frames, that's the show that I came up with.
JN: Obviously, in Marin County the bridge takes on a number of practical, symbolic and historical meanings. How did the bridge figure into your world view during that time?
TD: As a guy who grew up in Louisiana, I was clearly affected by all the many definitive images I'd seen across the rest of the country (The Golden Gate Bridge, The Chicago and NYC skylines, The Seattle Space Needle and on and on). My only relationship was to see something become more beautiful and majestic in person than any of the media images could have attempted to portray.
JN: Still, the images of the bridge color the perception of the real thing. The real thing can sometimes become almost unreal once we have been saturated with mediated messages about what something is. In this case, images of the bridge are a cliché. What made you decide to shoot your footage at that moment? What made you roll down that window?
TD: We were shooting a lot of Super 8 at the time (my brother, Shane and I, when we had common days off) and I had a camera loaded with film and didn't want to turn around to get a legit shot, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to capture the fact that we had actually seen the thing in person. Not a lot of foresight involved.
JN: Its one thing to create some work, its another thing to put it on display. You've started showing more work formally in the last year, but what made you decide to pursue getting this show together?
TD: Again, to be totally honest, an opening came up for the main gallery at Twist, and, given the age of the footage and concept, I realized I would probably never do it if I didn't force myself to do it now.
JN: You've displayed your photos before, but this is more of a conceptual installation. Does this show represent something new in your opinion? A step up? A step out?
TD: I don't know the specific term I would give it, but it is an artistic risk for me. I like to consider myself a simple, no frills guy who doesn't take himself too seriously. I never had a "Master Plan" for this when I shot this. I was just glad to have a day off. The biggest fear for me doing something different than I've done before is that the reaction may be "Who does this guy think he is?" There's definitely a worry that people will think I'm intentionally trying to do something conceptual out of context with my character, and that the result may be insincere. I hope it's not.
JN: At first, I began to suspect that your ambivalence regarding this show was disingenuous, especially given your confidence regarding your musical projects. (Doling is a composer/musician with the Nashville-based pop-collective, Bulb). However, I was fascinated to find out that you look at this show as something separate from your other projects. And you're genuinely worried about it! (Laughs). Tell me a bit about how this is "something different" from your musical efforts.
TD: Well, first of all, I've been playing music for so long, I don't really even have to think about it. In the work I do with Todd ((Greene), a great artist here in Nashville, as well) in bulb, it's so collaborative. I write most of the music and he writes the lyrics and melodies. It's a kind of assembly line in regards to the specialization and by far the most collaborative thing I've ever done. It's a unique way of doing music, but seems to work as we are just wrapping up our 15th album. www.bulbmusic.com (thanks for the plug, Joe). With the Twist show, although I've used many great suggestions from friends, it's still just my name on it - so I feel alot more pressure. There's always a worry in my new ventures into visual arts about the fact that by displaying your work, you have to be willing to let people like it or not, and maybe even tell you that they don't like it. I need to get used to that and be okay with it.
JN: We all certainly have to find a way to continually take ground despite criticism, rejection or - even worse - disinterest. I think my solution is always to stay so busy that I don't have time to consider how others might perceive a given effort. It helps to be immersed in an expansive project. Have you been looking for a bigger project to do or did the material inspire the show?
TD: The accidental nature of the footage and the question of what to do with it definitely inspired the show. The "something bigger" idea scares the shit out of me.
JN: Will you be pursuing similar ideas/projects in the future?
TD: I have no idea where to go now. Any ideas?
JN: What will make this show “successful” in your eyes?
TD: I hope that some of the girls at the after-party might talk to me since I had stuff at the Gallery Crawl.
Doling's project will open this Saturday night, October 3 with an artist reception from 6 – 9 p.m. at Twist Gallery's space at 73 Arcade.
Twist Art Gallery takes part in Nashville sound crawl october 3 2009
nashville scene
SoundCrawl: Nashville at Various Galleries
Now Hear This
Joe Nolan
While Nashville art-abouts may be caught off guard by eye-catching finds during this Saturday’s Gallery Crawl, it’s likely that they’ll be surprised by what they hear as well. In addition to the visual art packing the Fifth Avenue and Arcade Galleries, this month’s Crawl will also play host to an international exhibition of sound artists whose work will be heard throughout the event, inviting viewers to become listeners, experiencing the way that sound can create mood, define space, imply movement and more. Curated by Nashville composers Aaron Hoke Doenges and Kyle J. Baker, SoundCrawl will feature sound artists from around the globe and will be hosted in various spaces, but our money is on the Sanctuary and Chapel spaces at the Downtown Presbyterian Church, where the amazing acoustics and quiet settings should lend to a long, loving listen.
SoundCrawl: Nashville at Various Galleries
Now Hear This
Joe Nolan
While Nashville art-abouts may be caught off guard by eye-catching finds during this Saturday’s Gallery Crawl, it’s likely that they’ll be surprised by what they hear as well. In addition to the visual art packing the Fifth Avenue and Arcade Galleries, this month’s Crawl will also play host to an international exhibition of sound artists whose work will be heard throughout the event, inviting viewers to become listeners, experiencing the way that sound can create mood, define space, imply movement and more. Curated by Nashville composers Aaron Hoke Doenges and Kyle J. Baker, SoundCrawl will feature sound artists from around the globe and will be hosted in various spaces, but our money is on the Sanctuary and Chapel spaces at the Downtown Presbyterian Church, where the amazing acoustics and quiet settings should lend to a long, loving listen.
Nashville Public Radio “Sound Crawl” (transcript)
Nashville’s “Sound Crawl” (transcript)
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
By Kim Green
In an industry town that polishes and packages its sound to perfection, it can’t be easy to get folks to rethink their ideas of what music is. But for composers Aaron Doenges and Kyle Baker, experimental digital sound like this is as vital a genre as country and bluegrass. That why they’ve launched SoundCrawl: Nashville — a festival featuring sound art by composers from all over the world . WPLN’s Kim Green reports – For more information: www.soundcrawlnashville.com
Audio for this feature is available here.
GREEN: Composer Aaron Doenges finds music where you least expect it.
(SOUND: coins spinning)
DOENGES: “That’s a sample that I’ve created myself of a quarter spinning on one of the end tables in my house.”
GREEN: Doenges calls himself an “electroacoustic” composer. It’s a broad category that basically means music produced digitally, using anything from synthesizers to theremins to recordings of everyday sounds, manipulated using audio editing software. (SOUND: coins dropping into a machine)
DOENGES: “Another sound enters that is a coin being put into a slot machine or a vending machine of some sort.”
GREEN: Coins. Thousands of them. This is one of Doenges’ compositions. It’s called “The Suicide of Freddie Mac,” and it’s featured in the festival. By manipulating recognizable sounds that connote money, the piece journeys through recent economic history. The clanging of slot machines and the Wall Street bell build towards a giddy climax. A crowd cheers as an ATM dispenses easy cash, evoking an era of feverish speculation. Finally, the bubble bursts. :25
DOENGES: “…and then suddenly you get that kind of alarm sound, // when the ATM doesn’t give you money. And every time that happens, the crowd kinda boos. Until it gets to a breaking point where there’s a gunshot // and then the ATM sounds turn into a heart monitor like you would hear at a hospital, and then it’s back to that initial quarter spinning.”
(SOUND: coin spins)
GREEN: Doenges and Kyle Baker, both recent grads of Belmont’s masters in composition program, dreamed up the SoundCrawl festival as a way to showcase and advocate for the kind of experimental work they do— which often has a hard time finding an ear outside the academic music world. One night last summer they posted a call for submissions online.
BAKER: “And we woke up the next morning at eight and we had six emails with submissions, and none of them were from the United States.”
Ambi: “Grinny Memories”
GREEN: This piece is called “Grinny Memories,” by a Lithuanian sound artist who goes by “Gintas K.” It’s one of thirty-six chosen for the festival from nearly two hundred and fifty pieces submitted. Some are tranquil soundscapes. Others use ordinary sounds to transport you to a place.
(SOUND: farm sounds – mooing, neighing)
GREEN: — and then bend and distort the familiar into something new.
(SOUND: Farm sounds change to more jarring electronic noise)
GREEN: A few entries feature recorded voices, rendered abstract and poetic by repetition. Like this piece, which Kyle Baker created using verses from an audio Bible.
(SOUND: “Hate what is evil. Cling to what is good…“)
GREEN: On Saturday night, during Downtown Nashville’s monthly Art Crawl event, the sound pieces will be playing at seven downtown galleries, most of them in the Arcade. By associating SoundCrawl with a popular gallery tour, Doenges and Baker hope to harness an audience that’s already open to experiencing something unconventional.
(SOUND: “Tranquility”)
GREEN: Still, they know they’re taking a big risk introducing this kind of avant-garde work to new ears.
BAKER: “We tried to select pieces that moved pretty quickly, knowing there are people who’ve never heard anything like this outside of maybe Bjork or Imogene Heap or something. And this can open up their eyes.”
(SOUND: “Tranquility” up full)
GREEN: What’s opened Doenges and Baker’s eyes is the response they’re getting from the local creative community as word of the festival gets out. Even after the deadline, audio engineers, technicians, and all kinds of folks who usually help others make music, keep submitting pieces. Baker says these are the people whose creativity he wants to encourage. People who engineer Bob Dylan’s album at their day job, and then play with their digital audio software in the basement at night. These are the people who push the envelope —
BAKER: “..the tinkerers and the entrepreneurs and the inventors, because they’re exploring just to explore, they are valuable to the rest of society as explorers. And you’ll see things move from an avant-garde piece to a pop album in two or three years, and that space is getting closer and closer and closer.”
GREEN: As with any vanguard movement, some experiments and innovations will always fail. But the ones that succeed will likely blaze the trail for a mainstream culture following closely in their wake. For Nashville Public Radio, I’m Kim Green.
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
By Kim Green
In an industry town that polishes and packages its sound to perfection, it can’t be easy to get folks to rethink their ideas of what music is. But for composers Aaron Doenges and Kyle Baker, experimental digital sound like this is as vital a genre as country and bluegrass. That why they’ve launched SoundCrawl: Nashville — a festival featuring sound art by composers from all over the world . WPLN’s Kim Green reports – For more information: www.soundcrawlnashville.com
Audio for this feature is available here.
GREEN: Composer Aaron Doenges finds music where you least expect it.
(SOUND: coins spinning)
DOENGES: “That’s a sample that I’ve created myself of a quarter spinning on one of the end tables in my house.”
GREEN: Doenges calls himself an “electroacoustic” composer. It’s a broad category that basically means music produced digitally, using anything from synthesizers to theremins to recordings of everyday sounds, manipulated using audio editing software. (SOUND: coins dropping into a machine)
DOENGES: “Another sound enters that is a coin being put into a slot machine or a vending machine of some sort.”
GREEN: Coins. Thousands of them. This is one of Doenges’ compositions. It’s called “The Suicide of Freddie Mac,” and it’s featured in the festival. By manipulating recognizable sounds that connote money, the piece journeys through recent economic history. The clanging of slot machines and the Wall Street bell build towards a giddy climax. A crowd cheers as an ATM dispenses easy cash, evoking an era of feverish speculation. Finally, the bubble bursts. :25
DOENGES: “…and then suddenly you get that kind of alarm sound, // when the ATM doesn’t give you money. And every time that happens, the crowd kinda boos. Until it gets to a breaking point where there’s a gunshot // and then the ATM sounds turn into a heart monitor like you would hear at a hospital, and then it’s back to that initial quarter spinning.”
(SOUND: coin spins)
GREEN: Doenges and Kyle Baker, both recent grads of Belmont’s masters in composition program, dreamed up the SoundCrawl festival as a way to showcase and advocate for the kind of experimental work they do— which often has a hard time finding an ear outside the academic music world. One night last summer they posted a call for submissions online.
BAKER: “And we woke up the next morning at eight and we had six emails with submissions, and none of them were from the United States.”
Ambi: “Grinny Memories”
GREEN: This piece is called “Grinny Memories,” by a Lithuanian sound artist who goes by “Gintas K.” It’s one of thirty-six chosen for the festival from nearly two hundred and fifty pieces submitted. Some are tranquil soundscapes. Others use ordinary sounds to transport you to a place.
(SOUND: farm sounds – mooing, neighing)
GREEN: — and then bend and distort the familiar into something new.
(SOUND: Farm sounds change to more jarring electronic noise)
GREEN: A few entries feature recorded voices, rendered abstract and poetic by repetition. Like this piece, which Kyle Baker created using verses from an audio Bible.
(SOUND: “Hate what is evil. Cling to what is good…“)
GREEN: On Saturday night, during Downtown Nashville’s monthly Art Crawl event, the sound pieces will be playing at seven downtown galleries, most of them in the Arcade. By associating SoundCrawl with a popular gallery tour, Doenges and Baker hope to harness an audience that’s already open to experiencing something unconventional.
(SOUND: “Tranquility”)
GREEN: Still, they know they’re taking a big risk introducing this kind of avant-garde work to new ears.
BAKER: “We tried to select pieces that moved pretty quickly, knowing there are people who’ve never heard anything like this outside of maybe Bjork or Imogene Heap or something. And this can open up their eyes.”
(SOUND: “Tranquility” up full)
GREEN: What’s opened Doenges and Baker’s eyes is the response they’re getting from the local creative community as word of the festival gets out. Even after the deadline, audio engineers, technicians, and all kinds of folks who usually help others make music, keep submitting pieces. Baker says these are the people whose creativity he wants to encourage. People who engineer Bob Dylan’s album at their day job, and then play with their digital audio software in the basement at night. These are the people who push the envelope —
BAKER: “..the tinkerers and the entrepreneurs and the inventors, because they’re exploring just to explore, they are valuable to the rest of society as explorers. And you’ll see things move from an avant-garde piece to a pop album in two or three years, and that space is getting closer and closer and closer.”
GREEN: As with any vanguard movement, some experiments and innovations will always fail. But the ones that succeed will likely blaze the trail for a mainstream culture following closely in their wake. For Nashville Public Radio, I’m Kim Green.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
party for My Mom and Halfway Across A Bridge: Super8 Stills at Twist
Nashville Scene critic's pick
Party for My Mom and Halfway Across A Bridge: Super8 Stills at Twist
Golden Gate Mommy Party
Joe Nolan
This month, Twist opens two shows with fundamentally different origins. One is born from a connection with one’s own primal beginnings, and the other is an afterthought in slow motion. Mandy Stoller’s multimedia work invokes family, cats with spaceships and Japanese movie monsters to delight and disturb. Stoller’s Party for My Mom will celebrate “the most frickin’ amazing person in the whole wide world!” at Arcade 58. Tony Doling’s Halfway Across A Bridge: Super8 Stills, presents single, successive, black-and-white images from eight seconds of film the photographer shot from the window of a car crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, the most photographed bridge in the world. Is this an ironic gimmick or a kind of haphazard poetics that teases the transcendent from the tiresome? Find out tonight at Arcade 73.
Opening reception 6-9 p.m., Oct. 3.
Party for My Mom and Halfway Across A Bridge: Super8 Stills at Twist
Golden Gate Mommy Party
Joe Nolan
This month, Twist opens two shows with fundamentally different origins. One is born from a connection with one’s own primal beginnings, and the other is an afterthought in slow motion. Mandy Stoller’s multimedia work invokes family, cats with spaceships and Japanese movie monsters to delight and disturb. Stoller’s Party for My Mom will celebrate “the most frickin’ amazing person in the whole wide world!” at Arcade 58. Tony Doling’s Halfway Across A Bridge: Super8 Stills, presents single, successive, black-and-white images from eight seconds of film the photographer shot from the window of a car crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, the most photographed bridge in the world. Is this an ironic gimmick or a kind of haphazard poetics that teases the transcendent from the tiresome? Find out tonight at Arcade 73.
Opening reception 6-9 p.m., Oct. 3.
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