George here (Yvonne’s brother). I have been doing a music podcast for a while but this is the first full-on interview I’ve done. Nate Denver has illustrated and written books for La Mano and we go way back in the San Francisco music scene as well. He just completed a kickstarter project for his next illustrated book/cd “Haunted Armor”, so I thought it was as good a time as any to catch up with him!

a page from "Wait, You're Not A Centaur" by Nate Denver

I’ve been on tour all over Europe for the last six weeks (with my bands Chen Santa Maria and Common Eider, King Eider) and it’s been an eye-opening experience. Lots of ups and downs, but I was thoroughly inspired by a few people I met that managed to set up shows, run record labels, play music and do their own designs and silk screening.

Elaborate origami sleeve

Did you know there was a noise scene in Milan? Neither did I, but it all seems to be based around this hub of Hundebiss, a label, distro, and venue that specializes in esoteric and experimental acts. Some of their beautifully printed and designed fold out packaging has been done in the service of American weirdos like Hair Police, Mudboy, and Aaron Dilloway. It’s also German for “dogbite” and has a German Shepherd logo. Simone was out of town Barbara and crew were a delight and amazing hosts.

I could only find a Gigposters site for Johann from Laser Poodle. He makes a lot of amazing posters for OCCII in Amsterdam, including this one from a show we played with Wolf Eyes:

Johann's OCCII poster

We ended up playing with Laser Poodle and Moemlien and Eva Rodbro‘s films at this amazing venue/bookstore/printing facility called Extrapool in Nijmegen. I still don’t understand Knust stencilprinting, but the colors pop out and never quite dry and I got to look at the machines in their amazing store filled with consignment records, zines, shirts, and DVDs. They also print their own wallpaper panels and each floor and bathroom has a crazy design, and there’s an elaborate color ribbon wrap going up the spiral staircase. Plus we had an amazing meal – home cooking from a professional chef!

Eva’s short films document teenage life in a way that is voyeuristic but contains poetic moments, foregoing any kind of narration. I don’t know if they are part of an ongoing series, but back-to-back they make for an interesting mix. I imagine how she ingratiated herself into these Texas kids’ lives and how they must’ve enjoyed being the subject of a film, but she includes a lot of cuts where the subject is suddenly aware that they’re on camera and become extremely self-conscious. There are some arresting moments in the photobook that accompanies her Greenland trip, Fuck You Kiss Me, some of which will freak out animal rights people.

Back to record nerding – the good people of Ghent are blessed with the events and art produced by Levi and Wouter’s Smeraldina-Rima record label. We met Wouter on the day he completed an intern program in arts education, so the chances of even crazier Belgian graphics in coming generations are pretty good with this guy warping young minds (apparently even Denis Tyfus lectured at the art school in town). 

Wouter’s drawing style totally blows me away, I think I’d seen his stuff in RUIS before and thought they were weird 1800s illustrations gone terribly awry and surreal. Check out this cover artwork from their pervious label audioMER for this Mauro Antonio Pawlowski record that Wouter drew and Levi designed and printed. The new releases are from Panicsville, Nate Wooley, and a collaboration with Talibam! and Peeesseye.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Bill Kouligas’ Pan label. Based in Berlin, Kouligas records his own project Family Battle Snake and has a series of LPs that have screenprinted outer plastic sleeves, creating graphic combinations like this Joseph Hammer cover art:

Joseph Hammer - I Love You, Please Love Me Too LP

I’m also bringing a handful of these records back to the States to help distribute. Oh yes, there was other music as well, but one thing at a time. I’m going to try and include some of my findings in the next podcast I do, which you can find here.

I’m going to try and hit the Bongout gallery while I’m in Berlin and report back! Gregory and I were able to check out this Michael Snow video/sculpture with four screens of projected piano, and I’m going with Lart to see this Olafur Eliasson show.

You may or may not be aware of the fact that Yvonne and I (George) ran a record label together for nearly ten years, or just about there – starting in 1998. I took the label on as my own joy/burden last year, but Little Otsu still carries some Zum releases, and there are a few new ones available right now.
The Weird Weeds “Hold Me” LP is limited to 300 pressed on black vinyl, with covers screened by Michigan’s VGKids from Lauren Pakradooni’s amazing artwork.

I’ve been a fan of the band since hearing mp3s of this album while on tour in 2005.
Aaron Russell was in Nitre Pit and The Teethe with Greg Saunier. My bandmate Miya was in The Teethe also, and we were stuck in Gallup, NM in a hotel after our van died, listening to music to entertain ourselves. “Hold Me” originally came out as a self-released CDR, but lo these 4 years later it’s finally on an “official” format.
We also have a split 7″ with Zs and Child Abuse that has a fold out 7″ x 14″ reproduction of a painting/drawing by John Dwyer.

The juxtaposition of visual art with vinyl product is one of the fun “curatorial” parts of putting out records. I asked my friend Matt Hart to screen the cover art for the split 7″ between Abe Vigoda and Mikaela’s Fiend. We actually sold out of that initial pressing of 500, so we re-pressed that single on mixed color vinyl and converted Matt’s art to an offset printing. You may have seen or heard Abe Vigoda on NPR the other day.

Next up is a 7″ by Mark Evan Burden’s Silentist project. The cover art is by Lanie Fletcher of the infamous “The Ripper” zine.

Other news – there are a handful of copies left of my drawing zine, “Shank”, at Little Otsu. Collected drawings from flyers and mixtape covers and just random gags from 2003-08, photocopied and bound with a stylish rubber band. I also started a Twitter, am doing a bunch of shows in SF soon with my band Chen Santa Maria and doing a stand up comedy set with Sam McPheeters at Adobe Books on the 20th.

I bought a button maker and have been making one-of-a-kinds and a few small repeating designs. The end product of which is available at the store in SF.

Fun with paper and blades…I like making stencils, and some times just flyers. Also in this picture was my proposal for metric time, which might need some refining.

Another tip from Russell Etchen, Garfield Minus Garfield photoshops out the titular character in the series and leaves its human protagonist in an existential, schizoid crisis. As any cat person can attest, this is not too far to fall. This interpretation would have been helpful when casting the movie – Breckin Meyer as Jon Arbuckle misses the desperation that would have been great for Jeff Goldblum to take it to in terms of neurotic physical comedy.
What is it with Garfield as this generational icon? I don’t know what he represents to Generation Y other than sloth and solipsism, or as just a stand in for ’80s nostalgia. He is all over the PaperRad DVD on Load, and I have seen semi-ironic love for Garfield on oversized Tshirts in Portland and in the Bay. As a youth, Garfield was one character that i loved to draw because he fit such an easy formula of repetitive circles. If forced to draw something spontaneously on the spot, the pattern for early ’80s Garfield is hardwired into my neurons and unfurls through my hand with less thought than my written Chinese name.

Montreal’s design and silkscreen posse SeriPop were kind enough to design this Tshirt for some illicit objects (records okay?). We met Chloe and Yannick when they came to Oakland with their band AIDS Wolf, who rule.
US / Canadian relations have been tense of late – SF’s own NRSZ got held up at the border for some reason unknown to me, but we can bridge the friendship border with some of youse out there purchasing this Can/American collaborative Tshirt, printed by Emeryville-based YesPress.
This is also a promotion for the label that Yvonne and I started, Zum. We have done a few shirts in the past but this is the most elaborate design so far!
These are available in the Valencia Street store, along with a few of the super limited (only eight!) American Apparel tote bags pictured here, sans the Ben Grimm color scheme. The shirts are printed on mint Fruit of the Loom cotton.

I find myself sick upon returning from Austin. After a long layover in Las Vegas, talking to a girl freaking out that her medication is swelling up her ankles. It’s a mirror to taking the red eye from Oakland to Houston, where a woman on the plane starts swearing and moaning in pain, saying her eyeballs are going to pop out of her head from the pressure (much as I picture Arnold Schwarzeneggar in Total Recall looking like a squeeze toy). So I caught something, surely, if not just a psychosomatic hypochondria from these drama queens of the skies. A cough that moved its way all around my head systems so now my eyes are overproducing their eye fluids. Sorry for the imagery.
Was it worth it? I actually found this SXSW, my third, to be the most enjoyable. Perhaps because I was not constrained by job obligations this time around, the pace seemed easier. Nothing blew me away but then again I was happy to have my expectations low and met.

When I first arrived Thursday morning, I took the bus to meet up with my friend Russell, who is starting up the Austin extension of his Houston bookstore Domy. We run into each other at APE sometimes. Russell used to book shows in Houston, but he’s happily given up the music game to concentrate on running the store and gallery. It’s a pretty raw space right now, but he was talking about a possible Gary Panter signing. Seems like Austin is ripe for this idea, no one is doing quite what they are doing. It’s also in an old liquor store across the street from a soup kitchen and a block away from a methadone clinic.

After getting some food with Domy’s owner Dan, we ended up at Mrs. Bea’s outdoor Todd P party. I saw the much-discussed and thankfully lived-up-to-its-hype Ponytail from the excessively-hyped Baltimore music scene.

The guitarist used to play in Ecstatic Sunshine and I had seen the drummer before when he toured with Ultimate Reality. I could barely hear the singer and she was standing comically distanced from the rest of the band. They tore it up though. Ecstatic Sunshine played immediately after and were drastically different than last year when they were just duelling electric guitars. This time around it was just the red-haired guitarist with two accompanying noise makers crouching low, one of whom was hitting a drum pad. Gowns were next and they brought along Yasi for the trip which was a pleasant surprise. Yasi and I are in a band called Walt Disney with a rotating cast of random Bay Area people, mostly Tomo (Tussle), Cora (Tarpita Fleisch), Jorge Boehringer (Core of the Coalman), and Steve Santa Maria. It was nice in the first five minutes or so of arriving at Mrs. Bea’s to see familiar faces from all over like Jessica Espeleta, Jim Smith, Fred Thomas, Karen and Todd, and the Meneguar dudes…
The rest of my time will be described on my new blog, entitled Californiageddon in honor of New Bad Things…