Pieter Schoolwerth (of BLOODYMINDED, Wierd Records)
1. What have you been listening to lately?
Hmm, as I try to clear a path from the couch to the fridge through the piles of the past month's new amazing music the current crop of frozen cold pleasures in front of me includes: Opera Multi Steel orig. K7s, Remote Viewing Volume II K7(1982) - best ever Comp. of UK minimal electronics!, killer debut 16 track Retrospective CD from Opus Finis, Steve Kenney new soon to be released solo LP which has been the official chez WIERD on repeat painting soundtrack, New M. Canterel demo trax for first proper LP in over 2 yrs, Robert Turman 'Way Down' Rough Transfer CDr Aaron burned for me and someone should release on vinyl asap!, Hive Mind/Damion Romero 'Return to Steam' 2 x tour K7, Pharmakon utterly terrifying kickass Debut CDr - prepare for the new ice-encrusted 'witchy-wave' of death industrial!, Luasa Raelon 'House of Flesh' CD, Josh Lay 'Asphyxiation Worship' 7", A Sordid Poppy tapes retrospective CD on Brouillard Definitif/FR, and of course the countless streams of the Animal Law WHPK Demo...VR. Fans of Early Swans and Godflesh get down on yr fukin knees! : http://www.last.fm/music/Animal+Law/Animal+Law+-+WHPK+Demo
2. Have you been to any interesting concerts recently?
Apart from the many seemingly countless excellent WIERD Live Series shows recently honestly I haven't had the time to leave the house much in the past month as I'm slaving away to finish my new painting show entitled 'The Z-Axis Series' opening next Sunday night February 1st 7-9pm at Miguel Abreu Gallery in the city(shameless plug :) ) - http://www.miguelabreugallery.com/. But when this babbling paint-encrusted 2 yr old has left the house lately I've really dug live sets by the brand new generation of young all-live Brooklyn minimal electronic bands including Further Reductions, Silk Flowers, and Nathan Antolik.
3. Can you name a favorite film, or two (or a television program), from the last few months?
Seeing as the Australian Open is now down to the round of 16 my remote is locked away and no other moving images will be allowed in-house, I would officially just like to say it looks like the one-handed backhand dropshot is back thanks to the new crop of Spaniards ruling the 110 degree plains of Melbourne, hopefully this will put all the post-everything 2 handed forehanders to rest once and for all...Secretly I think BTW there's a connection between all the pathetic practitioners of the 2 handed forehand and the endless free download torrents in 'Russian' cyberspace who have given away 10s of thousands of my records...Viva the Spanish Armada!
4. Have you read a good book lately?
Think I can safely say I've devoured just about every great museum catalog essay of Picasso's all-VRimportant work of the 1920s and 30s lately, particularly noteworthy are the texts included in 'Picasso and Portraiture: Representation and Transformation'(MOMA NY, 1996) and 'Picasso: The Early Years 1892-1906'(National Gallery of Art, D.C. 1997).
5. Have you attended any recent art shows worth mentioning?
5. Have you attended any recent art shows worth mentioning?
The most recent NYC gallery shows by Raha Raissina and Neo Rauch were both fantastic and provided hope for visually aggressive, well-crafted intuitive painting to reemerge in 2009 amidst a cerebrally-fetishistic undersexed art world where 'the new conceptualism' has been all the rage now sadly for 3+ yrs...zzzzzzzz....
6. Do you have any current obsessions of note?
6. Do you have any current obsessions of note?
Above all musically I'm particularly excited about the new wave of French-speaking minimal electronic bands reviving the spirit of Rennes, Lyon, and Lille circa 1983-6. Extremely impressive are recent demos I've received from Automelodi and Arnaud Lazlaud from Montreal and Frank(just Frank)/Paris. I'm very excited to be bringing all 3 bands to NYC in April for the WIERD Presents - French Invasion concert series!
Hmm apart from that the new Volkswagen and Verizon 'meta-commercials' as I call them(too much to get into here :) ) are quite intelligent, and the new level of extreme vulgarity demonstrated in the plethora of new VH1 and TLC reality series have above all affirmed my age-old theses that Public Humiliation will be the most viable capitalist 'object' for the 21st century, don't argue with me on this one please, I've wasted way too much time in my epically VRigorous theses.
7. Please tell me what recordings, projects (any medium), etc., you are working on right now, if anything
7. Please tell me what recordings, projects (any medium), etc., you are working on right now, if anything
I'm very pleased to say the first Blacklist single and debut LP/CD entitled 'Midnight of the Century', which has been 2+ years in the works, seen 3 studios and engineers and I've produced enough paintings to fill a gallery or two in Chelsea for will FINALLY both be released in late March on WIERD Records. Soon to follow this release Sean and Liz are nearing completion of the long-awaited debut 12 tack LP/CD from Xeno and Oaklander. A few more label solo releases are in the works beyond that and I'm slowly beginning the curatorial process to determine exactly what the 'WIERD Compilation Volume III' tentatively entitled 'Cold Waves and Minimal Electronics' will look like...?
8. What do you hope to accomplish this year?
8. What do you hope to accomplish this year?
Spend more time perfecting my hula-popper and dis-jointed Jitterbug surface lure techniques to increase the likelihood I can truly one day become the bassmaster king of south central New Hampshire if I live beyond 40, enjoy more long afternoons of friendly strict-all-white-dress-code-enforced-and-eminently-enjoyed singles tennis matches with M. Canterel in Greenpoint/BKNY, deal with the confusion of my apparent addiction to non-alcoholic beer provides and my undeniable status thus as the world's first 'non-alcoholic'(WTF???...help!), and definitely do another full-scale US WIERD Records Tour which will this time hopefully be 2-4 bands and make it all the way to CA and back, soon to be followed by a full-scale European tour already in the planning stages for next fall.
...oh and above all I'm thrilled to say I'm currently at work on putting a series of high end night vision hidden cameras in the guest room of chez WIERD to videotape and set-up the world's first porn site where one can watch a constant live stream of the all-stars of the Midwest and West coast noise scenes get it on in the cold green light...night after night...yeah!...eat yr heart out Kim Kardashian I got Greh and Wiese in action! :)))
9. Is there anything else that you would like to mention, announce, or hype?
On behalf of WIERD Records I feel obligated to let everyone know I was just informed Barack Obama is now friends with The Blue Man Group.
I would like to remind you all Barack is 'Black' though he is IN FACT half-white. The Blue Man Group is Blue, but no one knows what color they IN FACT 'are', though my secret connections to certain behind-the scenes VRindividuals at 'Shrek: the Musical' tell me 2 of the 3 members IN FACT voted McCain so they are IN FACT red, while as of last Tuesdaze pleasures in D.C Obama's blood is now pure blue through and through...so...who is who??...
