Art-Punk Avatar: Jowe Head
by Peter Aaron
...I will admit to drawing from elements in imagery from Ancient Egyptian imagery, Aztec and Mayan sculpture, medieval alchemical texts and so on. I have an equally exotic taste in music, so I love guitar sounds from Mali, Balinese gamelan, Latin-American music and Asian flavors.
Before you hit our area, you’re playing in New York with Hamish Kilgour of New Zealand DIY legends The Clean, who were obviously very much influenced by the Swell Maps and the Television Personalities. Is that how you know each other? Have you worked together before? Any chance he’ll be doing the Phoenicia gig with you?
I met Hamish Kilgour through his partner, Lisa Siegel, whom I met at a TVPs show in New York City, I recall. They have their own band based in Brooklyn called The Mad Scene. With me, Hamish is playing drums and Lisa the bass at a radio session for WFMU and shows at the Cake Shop, and they are planning to join me up in Phoenicia. The three of us played together at shows I did in New York in 1996, which was great fun. We are being joined again by guitar genius William Berger, formerly of local band Uncle Wiggly and an incarnation of the late Arthur Lee’s band, Love.
Have you played in many situations that blended visual art and music before? Are people any more open to these types of events than they were a few decades ago, or is it the other way around? The same?
I have performed at art galleries before one way and another, and prepared music for exhibitions. Most galleries are quiet places and have an awed hush to them, like a library, so it is nice to liven the place up a little, even if only for the opening night. It’s interesting, because some of the people who go to galleries would never be seen dead at a “rock show” and some music fans hate galleries, so it’s nice to try to bring these two sets of people together somehow...
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