shelflife by visitor

Nate traded me this lathe a few years ago for some Wolf Eyes footage I shot for them. Whenever they tour, it’s guaranteed that Wolf Eyes is hawking epic, editioned, handmade tour merch. They do it so frequently, that they lose track of the editions as they become superseded by newer output. I brought up the Mangled Mess lathe this weekend before the band played the final McCarren Park Pool show. Nate instantly recalled the edition from a description of the artwork, but was foggy on some specifics. He had cut each record into cardboard-backed and decoupaged plastic ice-cream lids on his Presto lathe. The cardboard jackets were open on two sides–the result, apparently of just having cut up and spraypainted over old 12″ jackets. Each record was enclosed in a different hand-collaged cover and etched onto an ice-cream lid with a uniquely collaged back. Mine has some pencil-written text–spraypainted over and then topped with fishnetted and booted legs.

Classic Olsen, Young, Dilloway lineup right at the height of their Ayler moment–free-noise on a sensible grid. For a minute, Wolf Eyes was rummaging around in the smoldering foundations of everything they’d gotten so good at annihilating–piecing the ruins back together again into something more elegant–cross-legged but panty-free, draped in noxious layers of soot and dust. Drop-dead visionary.

Shotgun Rorschach’s a glimpse at that. I shot the footage one night at Tonic. They had all of the lights out, which always makes for super-watchable video. The sound, however, was entirely other and compelled me to use it. I picked all of the moments where flashes, flashlights, flickers and lamps flowed into frame and dragged them out forever. This is an excerpt of the final collection of those frames. Insomnia? Try this. It’s an oxycontin lullaby.

note: There’s a possibility that the full-length DVD, some bonus objects and a special packaging concept may be forthcoming via a collaboration with Nate and Alivia at Aryan Asshole Records.