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Fifty Posters About Souled American

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Souled American is a Chicago area band.[1] It made three acclaimed recordings for US Rough Trade: fe (1988), Flubber (1989), and Around the Horn (1990). The band toured for a few years with apparent frequency.[2] Witnesses recall Souled American's uncanny, near-telepathic ability to improvise on the stage as a cohesive unit,[3] and how the band's unpredictable concerts forever featured last-minute alterations to a song's key or tempo.[4] After 1990, however, Souled American seemed to vanish; its recordings[5] from these years--Sonny (1992), Frozen (1994), and Notes Campfire (1996)--sounded like disappearance and were only released in Europe:[6] no one distributed them, reviewed them, promoted them, mentioned them, photographed them, etc.[7] Lacking journalistic clarifications, the story of their career became infested with rumors and unrelentingly enigmatic choices.[8] "Obscurity, verging on unsustainable neglect, was essential to understanding Souled American’s music. They were so unknown that the writer Camden Joy once wheatpasted posters about Souled American around New York City in an attempt to remediate the problem..."[9]

Goal[edit]

Early in 1997, street ranter Camden Joy (aka Tom Adelman) decided to conclude his infamous NYC postering projects with an appreciation of Souled American.[10] His projects had grown increasingly collective-ized, broadening their perspectives and purpose, growing in expense, aesthetics, and optimism, from his solo manifestos of 1995 and anti-Mac Fest posters of early 1996 to the controversial CMJoy Gang later that same year (which plastered open "letters of protest" during the College Music Journal festival in NYC.)

Joy's goal for his finale appeared at first a lofty one: form a collective to write and mount fifty posters about Souled American.[11] He recruited Mark Lerner of Rag & Bone Shop to design "something like the Declaration of Independence."

Installation[edit]

Joy rented a post office box at Radio City Station in midtown and sought like-minded fans by advertising in newspapers and wheat-pasting flyers.

Joy sought fellow fans.

Ultimately he received contributions from eleven artists, ranging from Joy's resident genius/wizard Lerner to journalist Richard Gehr to graphic artist Hope Windle, to humorist Jay Ruttenberg to media installationist SE Barnet, to painter and calligrapher Nancy Lynn Howell to songwriting insurrectionist Mark Donato, to authors Janet Steen, Erik Huber, and Jonathan Lethem.

A total of sixty-four posters were composed for the Fifty Posters... project. (Four-fifths of them were written by Joy.)[12] The posters were stuck up all over New York City during the summer of 1997.[12]

Second Avenue near 7th Street, July 1997.

Some were glued on the base of electrical posts.

Second Avenue at 13th Street, July 1997.

Some were glued on scaffolding and construction panels.

St. Mark's Place, across from The Gap, August 1997.

Some were glued on postal storage units.

They were next gathered into a book entitled, Make Me Laugh, Make Me Cry.[13] This book was mailed to music journalists across the country.

The posters attracted attention.

Consequences[edit]

A group reading of the posters in New York was organized. Contributors read while Souled American songs played softly in the background.

Contributors read their posters.

Afterward, several in the audience approached Joy, expressing doubt about the band's actual existence.

Souled American announced its first concerts in many years.[6] Soon after, Checkered Past Records issued its last two CDs (never before domestically released). In San Francisco a record store clerk who read Make Me Laugh, Make Me Cry was inspired to create tUMULT Records in order to re-issue its first four (long out-of-print) CDs.

The band expressed pleasure. Joe Adducci observed, "You're locked in your shell; you're not playing out a whole lot; you're coming up with material and making albums. To see the effect that some of those have on people. ... We were quite moved by that."[14] Chris Grigoroff told The Oakland Yak (Issue #4, November 1997), "That was something that just came out of the blue... A lot of it is inspired writing, that's the part I like the best: something inspired something. In a way that's the whole connection between artists."

Joy reissued some Souled American posters in his 2002 collection Lost Joy.[15] Reviewing the book, Riverfront Times affectionately described the author as "some crazy-genius fanboy who can't stand the thought that someone might go through life without recognizing the genius of Souled American. Haven't heard of Souled American? Doesn't matter. Joy never preaches to the choir..."[16]

References[edit]

  1. admin (2021-04-09). "Souled American". Musician Biographies. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  2. admin (2021-04-09). "Souled American". Musician Biographies. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  3. "LISTEN UP, FOLKS". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  4. "Spare Songs From a Diminished Land". Believer Magazine. 2008-07-01. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  5. Radio, N. T. S. "Souled American | Discover music on NTS". NTS Radio. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  6. 6.0 6.1 chicagoreader (1997-07-17). "Life in the Slow Lane". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  7. "Souled American". Trouser Press. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  8. "Spare Songs From a Diminished Land". Believer Magazine. 2008-07-01. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  9. "Swinging Modern Sounds #68: A Way of Life". The Rumpus.net. 2015-09-29. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  10. chicagoreader (1997-07-17). "Life in the Slow Lane". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  11. "Souled American". bostonphoenix.com. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  12. 12.0 12.1 "Books". bostonphoenix.com. Retrieved 2022-07-23.
  13. "Souled American". bostonphoenix.com. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  14. Stark, Jeff. "The Lonesome Death (and Life) of Souled American". SF Weekly. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  15. "loud paper · Signals and Static: loud paper interviews Camden Joy". www.loudpapermag.com. Retrieved 2022-07-19.
  16. "Glorious Glut". Riverfront Times. Retrieved 2022-07-18.


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