Jul. 22, 2009 - Issue #718: Real as an Animal
The Famines
Another seven inches: Duo presses forward with a new Sales Technique
So sums up the one-two punch that Raymond Biesinger employs when discussing the M.O. of his band, the Famines. And it's not because he doesn't know what he's talking about; as a commercial artist and illustrator, Biesinger speaks at length about the specific differences between simply crapping out digital poo and producing "art."
"[The Famines'] first release was a double seven-inch record; our second release was a seven-song cassette coupled with a 320-page cover liner notebook ... the reason being I thought we needed to give context to that recording. It was exhaustive and pretty ridiculous.
"The recording that went into that cassette was very live sounding, it was very dirty and gross, documenting the specific time and place," he continues. "With this record, I suppose we could have crammed the artwork onto a CD-sized cover, but I just like the idea of a larger surface for the art to go on."
"It's all purposeful; to me, I come to a lot of things through an aesthetic sense, and it's a lot more fun to make an interesting-looking package to accompany the music if you have more than a CD package."
So given this penchant for eccentric niche marketing, I playfully insist that this is nothing other than high art. Biesinger refuses to be goaded, however. "The [320-page] cassette book could be taken as high art; people have described it as a small installation piece, but I don't think just the format itself makes it [high art]. With the vinyl, it's a joy and pleasure to work with. Musically, [the Famines is] not perfect, and we don't need the sterile flawlessness of the digital realm to express our songs." V
Fri, Jul 24 (7pm)
The Famines
With the Mitts, the Wicked Awesomes
The Hydeaway, $10
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