PIAPTK & Lathecuts.com UW Henry Art Gallery Residency

[piaptk]

This probably belongs in the Gigs or Our Cutters section, but I'm gonna put it here anyway... I've had the great fortune to be invited by the University of Washington's Henry Art Gallery to help curate the opening week of The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl, a traveling art exhibit put together by Duke University.

They asked me to help arrange the secondary gallery display (*I pulled out my collection of vinyl toys and ephemera from days gone by (pics to come)), and to participate in a residency where I cut records for five days!

Apollo Masters is a greatly appreciated sponsor, and worked with us tremendously to make this extremely expensive event come to life for this great Non-Profit museum.

Here is the press release... I'll get you some pics soon!

To celebrate the Seattle opening of The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl touring exhibit, Michael Dixon, founder of PIAPTK Recordings, has been offered an Artist In Residency opportunity by the Henry Art Gallery of the University of Washington. Dixon will spend the five-day residency cutting records in real time as a part of the “B-Side” exhibit in the front wing of the gallery.

The residency is comprised of three parts:

Friday, July 13th – Opening Night –The Hive Dwellers (Calvin Johnson of K Records and Beat Happening) and Slashed Tires will perform while records are cut live on a vintage record lathe. Henry members will receive free admission and will be entered in a drawings to receive one of the records as they are cut. Complimentary snacks and beer (courtesy of Hales Ales) will be served. Non-Member Admission is $10.

Wednesday, July 18-Friday July 20th – Lacquer Dub Record Lathe Cutting
Three Pacific Northwest Artists have donated new, unreleased recordings to be cut live and sold for $75.00, with proceeds to benefit the Henry Art Gallery (A 401c3 Non-Profit Organization). Only 40 copies will be sold, with 20 copies being made available for internet preorder at http://www.henryart.org/ at 6pm on Friday, July 13th. The remaining 20 copies will only be sold in-person at the Henry during the residency. Each record will be cut in real-time on a 1930’s Presto 6N mono record lathe (the same model that Sam Phillips used in the Sun Records studio to cut early records from Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, etc). Each record has been autographed by the artist, silkscreened on the B-side and includes a digital download of all three records. Attendees are welcome to ask questions about the cutting or pressing process while they watch the records being made. Many thanks to Apollo Masters for their support!
Artist for Wednesday, July 18, 10:00am-4:00pm – Joe Plummer – Plummer is currently the drummer for the Shins, but has also spent time in Modest Mouse, Blackheart Procession, Magic Magicians, Mister Heavenly, and Caustic Resin, amongst dozens of other bands. Plummer has contributed three songs on which he recorded all the instruments.
Artist for Thursday, July 19th, 10:00am-4:00pm – Grand Archives – Consisting of Seattle indie rock veterans Mat Brooke (ex-Band of Horses/Carissa’s Weird), Curtis Hall, Jeff Montano, and Thomas Wright, Grand Archives contributed two unreleased demos that were recorded in preparation of their upcoming album.
Artist for Friday, July 20th, 10:00am-4:00pm – Eric D. Johnson (of the Fruit Bats) – Johnson is the main force behind The Fruit Bats but has also performed in bands such as Califone and The Shins. He has also recently been focusing scores for films such as Our Idiot Brother and Youth in Revolt.

Saturday, July 21, 12:00pm-3:00pm – Ipod-to-Lathe live cutting event – Bring in your own recording on an MP3 player and watch as your tune is cut straight to a record in real time! Then take it home! You may also bring in your guitar or other instrument and record as it cuts!

[piaptk]

[Angus McCarthy]

Silkscreen lacquers and then cut through the design? Or is that a blank B-side?

Wish I could attend, but ya know, other side of the continent. Congrats!

[tragwag]

this is a great thing!
wow!
my girlfriend does fine art, and she's been trying to help me get started in helping some of her friends out.
I wish I could be there.
Hope it goes well.

[piaptk]

The B-side is blank (except for the smudges of ink that got on some of them, and will be cut through).

I love incorporating art and cool covers with records... that is my jam, and the main reason I run my label, and started cutting. It's hard to make 500 copies of a record and do something really cool. But, making 30 copies of a record and making it really cool is EASY. There is a killer art-supply thrift store in Portland called Scrap that always has incredible stuff to make record covers out of, and I am a member of a local letterpress studio. If this sounds interesting to anyone and you have checked out PIAPTK records, you should... http://www.PIAPTK.com.

[Jccc]

those records look soo cool! What kind of ink are you using to screen on the record?
Is it water based or oil?

i wish i could make it to that event.

[piaptk]

Its an acrylic ink... But ive screened textile inks on lacquers and poly before and it sticks ok. You just have to do a test first, because ive also made the mostake of screenkng 50 recprds only to
Find that the paint flakes right off!

[Steve E.]

bravo!

[piaptk]

Cutting live while Calvin Johnson (Beat Happening, Halo Benders, K Records) performs at the exhibits opening night...

[piaptk]

http://hankblog.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/living-to-lathe-interview-with-resident-artist-mike-dixon-of-piaptk-records/

[Steve E.]

Ok, that's just too cool.

[Chris]

Great!!

Doing the live recording is proper! Love it!

[Serif]

Double plus good, big ups on the liveness, too, MD! Obviously a PersonIAPTK.

Takes stones. ABG would dig that get er done moxy, Michael.




- Dubbel Linn

[piaptk]

It was super fun... It was like getting paid to talk about my kid for 5 days! Except that people were actually interested in what I had to say!

[Jccc]

Awesome!! What cutting shank were you using to cut on those plastic sheets?

[tragwag]

this is awesome.
I bet people were utterly confused that you weren't PLAYING records, you were CUTTING them.
Those pictures are really cool.
Great job Mike!

[piaptk]

I was using a backwards 462. They only work right after they have been worn down. They should be noisy on a lacquer, but not appear broken or chipped under a scope.

[dietrich10]

very cool mike

[piaptk]

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