Into the Groove

Space 1026 co-founder Max Lawrence launches his own limited picture-disc line.

by Andrew Parks

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Published: Oct 18, 2006

Says Lawrence, "I hate to make it sound sagelike, but he was like, 'It's not the things that you say yes to that define you; it's the things you say no to.' I was like, 'Word up.'"

MacKaye's advice rings truer than a bell tower in our current times, where the term "sellout" sounds so 1992 and tomorrow's rock star isn't necessarily a musician; he's a graffiti writer, sneaker designer or streetwise artist like Shepard Fairey, Ryan McGinness and Futura. The co-opting-the-cool-kids trend has become so widespread that The New York Times Magazine recently devoted a cover story to it called "The Brand Underground."

Lifestyle companies (think arbitrators of hipness like Urban Outfitters, Diesel and Nike) have already targeted Space 1026 several times but Lawrence insists, "We never had to take [outside money] before, so why take it now?" The multimedium artist admits he did, however, say yes to one bizarre project recently: scoring a porn film for Savanna Samson, a DIY skin flick vet who recently launched her own sommelier-acclaimed wine (Sogno Uno, which received 91 out of 100 points from respected critic Robert Parker).

"I said to myself, 'She owns her own company so I'm comfortable with the fact that she has an 18-inch cock in her ass sometimes,'" explains Lawrence. "I wasn't sure what it should sound like, though; I mean, if it was a gay porno it could be set to house music, but this?"

According to Space 1026's rather extensive mission statement, it's a "community — a creative community — not an institution," a "seven-year experiment ... developed from a handful of founders to dozens of co-conspirators." Since Lawrence is among the handful of founders, he's made major efforts to expand the collective's work worldwide so that it won't ever have to rely on billion-dollar companies to continue growing. As of late, that's meant his Free News Projects record label/book publisher and its "Long Division" series, a line of limited picture discs so involved and TLC-kissed that they could hang on your wall after a couple spins.

"Although we rep a lot of Philly projects, we don't want to be Philly-centric," says Lawrence. "We'd like to get Philadelphia outside of Philadelphia because that's the only way to survive. The second you start depending on this city to support you, they don't have the financial resources."

Considering the buzzed-about musicians involved in this fall/winter's first run of discs (the Revenge of the Nerds party rap of Plastic Little, the fuck-a-guitar insanity of Man Man, the friggin' Lilys), it shouldn't be too long before vinyl fetishists from California to Japan are online ordering copies. Especially since the artist side includes noted graf writer/illustrator Steve "ESPO" Powers and universally acclaimed Brooklyn painter/printmaker James Marshall, who produces his popular line of vibrant "Space Monkey" pieces under the name Dalek.

Meant as complete artist/musician collaborations, each picture disc is born out of mutual admiration, such as Marshall's love of the local thrash-a-bout hardcore band Blacklisted. "The whole reason I got into graf [writing] was hanging around hardcore kids that painted, so I was very pleased Blacklisted said yes to doing this," he says. "I never got the whole hip-hop and graf connection — every writer I know is into other forms of music aside from hip-hop."

As for Powers, he initially met Plastic Little at an upstate Steady B/Cool C show a few years ago and wrote about them in the magazine On the Go, saying "Plastic Little is like Morrissey/Marr mixed with Allahu akbar." (The Muslim phrase, meaning "God is great," is written on the center of the Iraqi flag and can be used as an expression of approval or as a battle cry.) Once he spent some time with Jayson Musson, the pair made a gentleman's agreement to work together in the future. Powers has already completed the CD cover of Plastic Little's new LP, She's Mature, but is taking his time with the vinyl version.

"I'm meditating on it until it reveals itself," he explains. "The music demands it."

Musson doesn't mind — an illustrator himself (he currently has an exhibit at Space 1026 called "Too Black For B.E.T. Episode 2: The Black Boy George"), he considers Powers an "art hero" and says he wouldn't have worked with anyone else.

"I've always loved his shit," says Musson. "Any of us can do a cover (Musson's fellow MCs are also artists — Jon Folmar is a painter and Kurt Hunte is a graphic designer), so letting someone else do it was like relinquishing control and a little weird."

Originally envisioned as a line illustration of a horse next to the frontal profile of a woman by Musson ("I don't know where the hell that idea came from, but it's still in my head," he says), the jacket is now an inspired spin on the sleeve to the Smiths' single "This Charming Man."

"The thing isn't just a blank image or a product shot," says Lawrence. "It's the kind of thing that involves actual thinking and makes you laugh to stop from crying because 'that's ... fucked ... up.'"

In other words, it's a throwback to the pre-iTunes era, when album art was tangible and treasured rather than a window in the lower left-hand corner of your computer screen.

"My personal feeling is fuck downloads," says Marshall. "I like the physical object — the connection between the music and the images/words/art that come along with it. The stacks of vinyl and CDs in my home are what gave me a constant connection to the [art] path through life. A computer can't give you that."

(a_parks@citypaper.net)

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