Jodi, My Dear...

Eeeee! I'm so pumped for tonight's Alive After Five with the Dodos. I've been obsessively playing their 6 songs on MySpace the last few months but had no idea they were coming to Boise until last week...

The Dodos are an art-folk two piece from San Francisco whose new album, Visiter, has the echoey acoustics of the Hlavni Nadrazi train station in Prague. Logan Kroeber's percussion--which includes tambourines strapped to his Chucks--is the closely watched, steadily approaching train.

http://www.frenchkissrecords.com/audio/the_dodos/jodi.mp3

I'm not sure who's responsible for booking at this year's Alive After Five, but the acts are top notch, and from what I hear, considerably less vanilla-bluegrass than years past.

For those who caught it, The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band was a rolicking, crazy show complete with washboards, metal gloves, and stage-shaking, foot stomping blues melodies. The South Austin Jug Band, coming up on August 20th, promises to be an equally entertaining throw down.

So, dog-ear "The Origin of Species" and come check out the Dodos in the flesh. BW's Coldest Beer hit the stands today, too, which means extinct birds and free beer bottle openers for all!

Slip into Something a Little More Comfortable...

So, it finally feels like summer. And by that I mean: sitting on the couch in my bathing suit with no A.C. watching Cheech and Chong's Nice Dreams.

Enter The Slip and Slide, on sale at Rite Aid for a reasonable $10.99. Just unfurl this plastic beauty, hook up the hose, throw on some Paul Simon and start slip slidin' away. The summer heat melts away like a Modern English song.

Now, I just need to save up the $300 it'll take to upgrade to this sweet Slip and Slide Oasis...uh, and it better come with the airbrushed background.

The Opposite of an Article is an Antarticle

So, I just wrapped up a piece on Matt Bodett, an artist who currently has a show up at the Visual Arts Collective. Matt was diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder a few years back, but you'd have no idea by talking to the guy. He's really down-to-earth and super engaging.

Speaking with Matt got me thinking about the classification "outsider artist." It seems like the art world feels this need to marginalize artists with mental illnesses to separate their work from the mainstream art market. I can't shake the feeling that labeling somebody an "outsider artist" is somehow a marketing ploy, a shallow attempt to cutesify or discredit.

When I had my first (and only) art show in college, the whole gallery seemed to sling this term around. It made me wonder, what makes someone an insider artist? Who signs the form that makes you Official? And even if you go to art school, have your thesis show, and score a solo show in a gallery, like Matt, are you still an outsider because you've been diagnosed with a mental illness?

I say no. Art is art, dammit. Especially when it comes from a unique perspective.