Interview with May artist Troy Ayala

Introducing Troy Ayala, local artist and musician of the bands Stickers and White Coward, and Cairo's featured artist of the month!

Troy's show, titled Pussy Light: Wicklified, kicks of TONIGHT, May 9th, from 7-9 PM. 

Read up on Troy's influences and art practice, and then come tonight for art, drinks, and conversation!

Tell me a little about the art in this show.

The art in this show mostly consists of collage work based off of old magazines and books (lots of vintage penthouses) mashed together to form disturbing, crass, and funny characters with a little drawing included to add to the eye candy.

Who/what/which other artists inspired this work? 

My work has been influenced by the hilarity I find in vintage advertising, celebrities, and nudie magazines.  My primary influences are Art Chantry, Omar Pierce, and especially for this show Emily Denton, Gabriella Page Fort, and Colin Dawson...aka close buds and bandmates.

When did you start making art? 

I started making art about five years ago when I had a ton of free time on my hands and thought I was capable of making art just as good as other artists I'd watched over the years.  I'd always doubted my technical abilities but had the realization that it wasn't the most important attribute when creating something.

How would you best describe your creative body of work, thus far? 

I consider my work to be taken pretty lightly as I aim to make people have a giggle when they see it.  I just really enjoy making weird, awkward, sometimes crass characters that people can stare at for a long time.  I don't take myself too seriously and currently think of myself as the Riff Raff (rapper) of the Seattle art community. ;)

What is a medium you would like to try, but haven't yet?

I would try my hand at making and editing videos and I'd love to get back into photography which is something i used to love to do.

How has this city influenced your work? 

The city has really given me confidence to show my work in public and just be free to make anything that my brain wants to cook up.  I've had some amazing encouragement from amazing people throughout the years and am so thankful for what Seattle has done for me...it's pretty much made me not give a fuck in the best way ever.

See you tonight!

VIBRATIONS Saturday August 25th in Volunteer Park

SO HYPED to announce Vibrations 2012, the second annual Music & Arts Festival in Volunteer Park.  9 Bands, Art & Video Installations, Readings on the lawn, Vending by the best local artists, food, coffee, FREE popsicles, random tent building, and much more.  Over the next month we'll be releasing a series of mixes and interviews involving all of the artists you see below.  Check back often, or friend us on Facebook to keep up to date.  SEE YOU IN THE PARK!

Cairo is proud to Present Vibrations in Volunteer Park, sponsored by Whole Foods, KEXP, The Stranger, and Land Management

2012 Band Line-up:

Dantasia (a special project by Truckasaurus)
King Dude 
Night Beats
White Rainbow & O.C. Notes (special collab set)
U.S.F. & Secret Colors (special collab set)
Witch Gardens
Stickers
Erik Blood
Detective Agency

We will have Video Installations again by I WANT YOU (formerly Dumb Eyes).  Check out their video round-up for Vibrations 2011

Memories of Vibrations Festival from Dumb Eyes on Vimeo.


We are very excited to announce the addition of Max & Graham this year, who'll be providing some epic art installations.  More visual artists to be announced in the next few weeks.

Also new this year will be a series of readings on the lawn between bands hosted by the fine folks at Mixtape Readings & April.  Full author line-up forthcoming....

Come chill in Seattle's most gorgeous setting, bring a blanket and some cash, we'll have vending by Cairo, Prism, &. Co Jewelry, Patty Pan Grill, Analog Coffee, Wave Books, High Five Pies, CMRTYZ, ggnzla RECORDS, Highfives and Handshakes Records, and many more.

ALSO available for the first time EVER will be the second edition of the Cairo Tape Club, a limited edition cassette series (numbered to 100), featuring three of the artists performing at Vibrations 2012 (U.S.F., Secret Colors, White Rainbow) as well as never before released 20 minute epic jam by Mark McGuire.  All sets recorded and mastered by Dylan Wall.

You can stream Cairo Tape Club #1 here:



Or buy one of about 10 remaining copies from our website

LONG LIVE SUMMER.

Band Practice: FOOTWORK + JBVM

I have another reason to like The Chophouse practice space... Footwork + JBVM: the most current generation of Cairo favorite band Footwork. 

Footwork's current addition of lead vocalist/performance guru of Seattle's former Wet Paint DMM, Jamey Braden Von Mooter, is bringing a new twist to Footwork's established sound. 

I got to crash their practice last week to take a photo and ask a question. 

This is what they look like: 

(FTWK + JBVM)

(JBVM + TW) 

 (MP + JS)

And this is the last song they would listen to before the end of the world on Dec 21, 2012:
James-- "My Ship is Coming In" by The Walker Brothers
Jamey-- "Stop It" by Pylon AND "Push It" by Static X
Pelly-- "6 Underground" by Sneaker Pimps
Taylor-- "You Will Never Never Never Know Me" by Das Oath


Footwork + JBMV are making their Seattle DEBUT at CAIRO this Saturday, Feb 18th, with Seattle babes STICKERS, and Portland bands PSYCHIC FELINE and FORMICA MAN. You DO NOT want to miss this show. See you then!

**thanks to Pelly for editing photo #1!

Irony Ends Tonight 5/13/11

Weekend concert update: good news/bad news edition.

The good news: tonight, Cairo's bringing you an amazing show, featuring local dance-punks Footwork and Stickers (read about them here and here) and LA's resident mad scientist of musical potpourri, Captain Ahab, whose new album The End of Irony dropped last month (that's Brian Miller of Foot Village and Back to the Future the Ride with the, ah, umbilical cord there). Doors are at 8 pm, and admission is $5 but the vibes are going to be free, you feel me?

The bad news: tomorrow night's scheduled show with Wet Hair, Same Species, and U has sadly been scrapped due to an injury and tour cancellation. Our apologies to everyone who was looking forward to that show, it would surely have been amazing.