Interview With September Artists Bryan Ray and Devon Varmega

Cairo is excited to announce September art show titled Bummer Vibes, a duo show featuring local artist Devon Varmega and California artist Bryan Ray.

According to the artists, Bummer Vibes is the celebration of our life experiences that, in one way or another, bum us out.  Love lost, waves missed, landings come short, sunsets unseen, songs unheard, downer times, and wanton hurt; without these moments, life would be too peachy. What begins as a negative experience forms a catalyst for creativity that is otherwise unattainable. Life is never quite what we expect, and a complete bummer at times, but out of it all comes a unique and welcome opportunity for a greater depth of self-expression. We all suffer the joy that is bummer vibes.

Each artist will be showing individual collections based on this topic, as well as limited edition printed shirts and tote bags.

I was able to interview the two earlier this week to get a little insight into their individual inspirations. Check out the interview now, and the art TONIGHT!

The Interview

Tell me about your show, "Bummer Vibes".

DV Me and Bryan haven't been friends for that long, but we really wanted to do a show together. We each have very  different styles. The name is a common term in skate and surf culture. 

BR Yeah, my inspiration comes from a different place than [Devon]. I think the name came from the process of making art. its something we enjoy doing but there is also a very emotional part of the process--there are always other things in play when making something. 

How would each of you describe your personal artistic style?

BR I think my process and style changes quite a bit from collection to collection, and thats always been the case for me. I don't really like that, because in order to be a reputable artist, your work has to be recognizable. I've been doing fashion design for the past six or seven years, and I really pulled from that influence for this show. The idea of picking a theme for a specific collection was something I pick up from that experience. 

DV I'm generally just inspired by a lot of different styles of art. I like to use repetitive lines and symmetry and to jumble them up. I like trying different mediums like screen printing and drawing. 

How do you think they compliment each other?

BR I think that there is some similar inspiration. We draw from the same geometric patterns, as well as balance and symmetry. 

How did each of you get started? 

DV I used to do art contests as a kid. I never won them, because there was a girl whose mom was the judge, so she always won. It really damaged me. Then I started doing show posters for the Old Redmond Firehouse, I asked Nat Damm if I could do a poster. Later, I got involved with The Vera Project before they had a silkscreen ing studio, so we made a makeshift studio in the back. 

BR I feel like I've always made stuff. I've never stopped making stuff. By the time I was in highschool I was already making doing graphic design and working on websites. As far as my art, I tend to take breaks-- I haven't done a show in the last four years. 

What are each of your artistic greatest influences, for this show and otherwise? 

BR A lot of the old masters. In more recent artists, Dali's art has had a huge influence on how I see things. As far as my artistic influences, I draw mostly from my friends and the internet, unfortunately. 

DV Henri Matisse,  Hisham Bharoocha (formerly of Black Dice), a lot of 80s and 70s skate magazines, and the Cascades.

What are you listening to right now?

BR Bob Seger and Future Islands

DV Real Estate, Girls, Leonard Cohen

Thanks to the boys for the words, and see YOU all TONIGHT, Thursday, September 13th. 7-9 PM @ CAIRO. 

Photos from Vibrations

It's been a little over a week since our second annual Vibrations Music Festival took place, and we're pleased to see photos are still rolling in. Take a few moments to relive the momentous weekend and glance at some of the photos and write-ups from local press. 

The Seattle Times' Andrew Matson captured some good Vibrations moments with photos and a few personal highlights. 

"There was a general enchanted feeling in the air, especially at night when the nearby wooded grove lit up with rainbow colors, projected on dresses and sheets hanging from trees. With no disturbances or major hiccups, the whole thing ended promptly at 10 p.m."

You can read his entire article here. 

Our media intern Kate Davis captured the afternoon in a slideshow of photographs for Impose Magazine.

You can view here and even here.

Capitol Hill Seattle stopped by and took some great photos. 

                        See them on the CHS Blog and Facebook page. 

Photos from the Cairo photobooth are up! If you haven't glanced at the album, it's totally worth a visit. While your there, go ahead and tag yourself and your friends!

View them here.

Next Silkscreen Workshop is Tuesday, Sept. 4 at 7 p.m.

Make your own t-shirts, posters and more! $45 gets you this great workshop, teaching you the basics of silkscreening shirts and posters + 1 month's worth of 7 day a week access to our studio to create your very own goodies. Stop by or email alchemy.of.time (at) gmail.com to reserve a spot!

Truckasauras talk DANTASIA with Robin Stein

Truckasauras will be closing out Vibrations festival this year with a three-channel VHS  masterpiece: "Dantasia,"  which has only been performed once before at Vermillion to a small and unwitting crowd.    

Truckasauras continually push to the periphery of the expectations put upon them as Seattle band, or even the expectations of what it means to be a band. Having easily maintained a regional reputation as a raucous speaker-blowing analog-authentic outfit, and for their impromptu street throw-downs ;  Truckasauras' reach and identity has gone further - being featured recently in the exhibition Soundworks at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art) in London.  Bothell Trance -  their exploration of phasing in superimposed rhythmic structures - was featured as part of a companion exhibit to the ICA's staging of a major Bruce Nauman sound installation. Perhaps this pairing is just as appropriate as performing with Flying Lotus or Egyptian Lover. 

Dantasia is merely one portion of the multi-part unveiling of Truckasauras 2012, which is to culminate in October with the release of their third LP on the equally adventurous brooklyn-based label: The Journal of Popular Noise. 

I had Tyler Swan of Truckasauras to answer a few questions about what they are going to be doing on Saturday evening. 

Robin Stein: Can you explain what Truckasauras 2012 is?

Tyler Swan: Truckasauras 2012 is a series of local events we put together to exercise ideas that don't necessarily work in a normal tour type show. Culminating in the release of our new album.

RS: Can you describe a bit what you're going to be doing for Vibrations festival? What is Dantasia  and The Ultimate Beginners?

TS: For Vibrations Festival we are doing an encore presentation of Dantasia featuring The Ultimate Beginners which is an audio/video presentation done with two VCR's, a video sampler and three projectors. 

RS:  What was the process for composing these videos and songs?

TS: It's all made out of samples from an instructional music VHS series called The Ultimate Beginners. Chopping them up to make songs then matching the video sample to the audio samples used.

RS: What led you to working with The Ultimate Beginner tapes and what influences went into the process of creating Dantasia?

TS: Danbo [Dan Bordon] made a video back in the day by chopping up the vocal instruction tape and it kind of became a Truck classic. He kept finding tapes from that same series at different thrift stores until he had a whole stack. Keyboards, drums, bass, guitar, vocals. This gave Dan the idea to chop up and combine them to make a full band. We call this band The Ultimate Beginners.

RS: What's unique about using only The Ultimate Beginners series as source material for making music and videos?

TS: It's cool, it worked really well. All the tapes are like the intro first lesson for each instrument. They all teach the same stuff. It's all blues scales, open chords, C major, A minor type stuff. So they all went together really well with tempo and harmonics. It's like they were already playing together.

RS: Can you talk about the constraints of your equipment (synching VHS tape decks,   the midi video deck, only using a single source material…) and how it informs the way that you guys create this kind of piece?

TS: It falls into what the whole Truck thing has been. Limitations of gear creating a style. You can try out different styles and ideas and that limitation kind of keeps a cohesive thing. Also we have been experimenting with having no sync and the chance occurrences with that. The VCRs are cued manually creating a slightly-different-every-time type of thing.

RS: In the process of doing Truckasauras 2012, what are some things that you have gotten excited about (music, art, whatever...) as a product of this project? Things that might inform what you see coming up for you as a band.

TS: During all of this, Ryan has really gotten into building a modular [synth] and a lot of ideas have popped up with that. Also the Dingus and the Buttfucks[*] , live drum stuff has been inspiring.  

[* Dingus and The Buttfucks - an all live drums incarnation of Truckasauras]

Chocolate Grills & Bananas Arrangements: an Interview Between Erik Blood & OC Notes

With collaborations being something of an unofficial theme with this year's VIBRATIONS festival, we thought it would only be proper to curate a collaborative interview between two artists involved. So we had Erik Blood & Otis Calvin (OC Notes) hook up to pick each other's brains a little bit. Take a glimpse into the minds of two of Seattle's perennial musical geniuses, who just so happen to be making a record with each other! 

Erik: So you came up in the south end like me. Black mother, white father, like me (or is it the other way round?). When you make your music, you do it alone, like me (though I have my people who I rely on for drums and extra ears). Here's my question. Why haven't we started a religion together so that we can make some real money and stop living like poor people? I think we could bring a lot of peace to this world, no?

Otis: Both of my parents are actually black, my grandfather was adopted in the midwest and there is a suspect unclear history on that whole situation.  Either his mother or father was white but we can’t get the adoption records so we will never know.  I dont care anymore.  All I know is that my light skin has been an epic headache in my life.  I’m hated on by whites and blacks, I’ve always felt like an alien.  Starting a religion has always been a back up plan of mine.    Growing up in church with a preacher dad I feel like I have learned the game.  No disrespect to the church but I’ve seen a lot of hustlin & hustlers in church, I think my church swag is pretty hard.  Reverend swag on a million.  I think we could have one of the most loving and effective churches in the game.  I’m all about love, peace, & taking care out your earth brothers and sisters.

 Erik: I'm right there with you. My whole life people think I'm trying to "pass for white" like it's the fucking 1950s or they're steadily trying to figure me out. Had a guy come up to me in a bar and say "what's a nice Jew boy like you doing in a place like this? I could tell by your nose." ?!?!?!?!?!?! But we learn to not give a shit. Just being is all we can do.

Not to bring up old shit, but when I first heard your record Secret Society, I though you'd been spying on my dreams. That track "Nowhere" is one of those jams that made me jealous as fuck. But since then, you've put out three more records (maybe 4?) and your sound keeps evolving. How the fuck do you make so much good music and never repeat yourself?

Otis: good question.  I enjoy makin music, I make music no matter what my mood is. I do it because i like it and its fun to me, it makes me feel good.  I dont like sounding the same.  I’m influenced by far too much sound to stick to just one sound.

Erik: Yes! No one should survive on a steady diet of one sound.

 Art=god. Music=my religion. For me, Prince=Jesus. Who's your Jesus?

Otis: The one from the Lebowski movie.  Him or ODB. Swag.

Erik: I know we gotta get back to work on our collaboration soon. But what's this thing you're doing for VIBRATIONS and what are we going to hear from you the rest of 2012?

 Otis: I guess I’m doing some sort of improvised collaboration with the white rainbow cat Adam.  Should be dope. He's a boss.  As far as the rest of 2012 goes, I’e got a record comin out entitled "pre future post modern love songs: aka alien booty bass" I’m very excited about the record. No samples, a lot of singing.  I wrote and played all the music on the record, I’m really proud of this one. That & our collaboration are the 2 things I’m most excited for this year.  I want to perform more this year outside of Seattle too. I can’t tell you too much though, next thing I know somebody in the town will start bitin.  Chocolate grills.

Erik: Can't wait to hear that new shit. And our collaboration is going to blow some minds. Honored to be working with you.

Otis: You’re in the top 3 nicest people I’ve ever known in my life, you’re also one of the most humble ninjas I’ve ever met. How did you end up meetin Shabazz and what was the first meeting like?

Erik: Aww. Thank you, sweetie! I met Ish through my good friend and mentor Bubba Jones while they were working on Cherrywine. I dropped my copy of Blowout Comb at his studio for Ish to sign for me and while he did that, Bubba played him my old band, The Turn-Ons, album "East". I didn't meet him in person until a Spiritualized show a few months later and I was a straight up starstruck nerd. He was a hero (still is) and he was so gracious and cool to me. After that we talked about working together for a couple of years until we started the first Shabazz sessions. 

Otis: You grew up in Tacoma durin the lawless 90's in its prime time.  What was it like growin up around so much gangsta shit as a spirit in the package of Erik Blood?  I feel like you would have gotten mad love from OG's since you’re such a genuine and unique spirit that doesn’t front, was it like that or am I totally wrong?

Erik: Tacoma was a strange place then. The violence was becoming not only commonplace, but admired by stupid ass kids. I had a gun pulled on me by a kid who "thought I was someone else", got hit in the head with a rock and my jacket stolen a block from my house, and had to be careful who called me by my full name in public. That said, I had people around me all the time who weren't into being a part of that shit. I just stuck to the sidelines, played video games, and made music. 

Otis: Were you in any bands as a youngster, if so, what was your first band, what instrument(s) did you play, & what kind of music did you play? Cover songs? Original tunes? Were they good or bad?

Erik: I did a lot of bedroom recording as a youngen. For a very short time I made shitty beats for my friends who rapped. I had a short lived hip hop crew called Young, Gifted, and Black that was...of a time. Middle school. Picked up a guitar after hearing Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine when I was 16 and retrained my brain. No bands until I was 21 when I joined Mountain Con and was their DJ/producer. That's my sorted past. 

Otis:  I listen to your records all the time, I feel like you make the music that I hear in my head but I have trouble getting it out. Your sound is lush as fuck, your arrangements are bananas. How do you manage to make it all happen?  Is it difficult wranglin up musicians to play your music & do you have trouble sometimes gettin cats to figure out the parts to your songs?

Erik: Again, thank you and right back at you. I don't know how it happens. I sometimes hear a complete song in my head for weeks and then I just put it down piece by piece. Usually it's not exactly what I had in my head originally, but that's how it goes. Other times I just sit down and let shit come out. I've worked with so many cool cats who play music really well, so I just try to get them to play with me. My whole band is poached from bands I've recorded. Sometimes it's a little hard to get people to learn my shit, but the folks I fuck with are the real deal so they get the hang of it. I'm eternally grateful to them. 

Erik Blood and OC Notes are playing Cairo's VIBRATIONS festival on August 25th at Volunteer Park! Thanks for your time guys. IKJ

Interview with Vibrations Band DETECTIVE AGENCY!

One of the many awesome bands playing at Cairo's Vibrations Fest is Detective Agency, a local four-piece band inspired by 1960's girl groups, ABBA, and Elvis. 

The band stopped by Cairo the other day to drink champagne, answer some questions, and try on some sweet gear. Check out their photos and read their interview below, and come see them perform TOMORROW at Vibrations! 

 Nate, Gwen, Uli, Amy

Have you ever played a festival before? 

Yes! We've played SxSW twice, and BeachTreat 2011, up at Golden Gardens. 

What was your best tour memory?

Uli-- I liked it when we played in Vancouver at 3:30 AM, at this place when everyone was on drugs in a big warehouse. It was so sweaty and it smelled like garbage. But it was really fun!

Nate-- my favorite memory was going to this random dude's apartment-- he said it was a "business", but really it was a guy sitting on the couch watching Point Break. nice guy tho. 

Amy-- I liked playing Bellingham. It was in a house of people I used to know and a lot of new people. I really like playing in houses. 

Gwen-- Probably when I played with you guys for the first time at SxSW. I was trying to be all tough wearing all black and playing keyboards, when I didn't really know what I was doing. 

Biggest individual music influences? 

Uli-- I really like ABBA. Madonna's first album. Teenage Fanclub. 

Nate-- Elvis, The Anniversary's second album. That's when I started wearing tight jeans. 

Gwen-- Don't say that, it's so cheesy! I love Gun Club, The Clean, and The Normal. 

Amy-- I really like 60's girl groups. I listened to The Cure, The Pixies, and The Smiths growing up. 

How did you all meet and start? 

Uli--We started as a real detective agency! We were a detective agency because I really wanted to solve some crime. We all lived in Ballard and it was such a small neighborhood and we just wanted to solve mysteries. We wanted to put ads in Ballard in little newspapers and actually get cases. 

Amy--We started as a band here at Cairo! We added the name on the band map and decided to start playing music. 

What are your signs? 

Amy-- Sagittarius.

Uli-- I'm a cusp of Scorpio Sagittarius. 

gwen-- I'm a Taurus.

nate- Libra!

First concert? 

Nate-- Less Than Jake 

Amy-- David Bowie at the Tacoma Dome 

Uli-- I went to The Lemonheads. They opened for Soul Asylum. 

Gwen-- I don't wanna talk about it. I'll tell you about the time I snuck in to see Joe Strummer play at The Showbox, when I was 18. It was the first time I used a fake ID. 

What are you most excited about for Vibrations?

Uli-- To play outside and hang out with cool people and all the cool bands that are playing. 

Nate-- I am excited about all the good vibrations. 

What is next? 

We are playing with Dead Ghost, then take a break and record. We'll be playing more shows in late fall. 

Come watch Detective Agency tomorrow afternoon at VIBRATIONS in Volunteer Park! See you then!

VIBRATIONS 2012 SURVIVAL KIT!

With VIBRATIONS snapping at our heels, its time to start thinking about packing your bag for the festival!

Here's what we came up with:

• Protection from the sun. Stop by Cairo for a hat and shades, and bring sunscreen. 
• Cash. Bring some dolla-dolla billz for buying snacks, treats, and goodies at the festival!
• Disposable Camera. For making memories.
• A Friend. For making memories with others.
• A Smart Phone. For instagramming, recording live bands, texting yer friends to come to Vibrations, and Googlemapping the closest bathroom to the festival grounds. ;)
• Snacks. We will have healthy and delicious food options for sale, but it doesn't hurt to bring some apples and nuts in case you're feeling a bit peckish!
• H20. Durrr, bring water, 75 degrees and sunny ALL DAY.
• Blanket. Bring a blanket. We have them for sale at Cairo. It's going to be a long day of fun, so stop and rest awhile!

Stop by Cairo before Saturday to bask in our excitement for the festival, or bring your own to VIBRATIONS at Volunteer Park! Hurrah!

CAIRO TAPE CLUB #2 gets release during VIBRATIONS 2012

Cairo is proud to bring you the 2nd volume in the Cairo Tape Club series. In conjunction with the Vibrations Music Festival, the tape features live recordings from Mark McGuire, White Rainbow, Spencer Clark, and a special collaboration by U.S.F/Secret Colors. All songs were recorded live at Cairo by Dylan Wall and are limited to 100 copies.  

Stream it now, or PRE-ORDER yours today.  We'll have them on hand at the Cairo booth during Vibrations!  

Cairo is also offering a free download of the sold-out Cairo Tape Club #1. The tape features live recordings from Expo 89 and will only be free for one day only. (August 24^th, 9am-9pm PST which is when the "cost" of the download will go from $500 to FREE).