Music Gallery Editions - Archiving Spontaneous Music

Aaron Levin and Jesse Locke take a deep dive into Music Gallery's vinyl imprint Music Gallery Editions (1976 - 1983). The discussion is split into a dual interpretation of the label: from the perspective of a used record dealer (Aaron Levin) and modern music fan (Jesse Locke). A listening session followed.

This is a presentation given at Toronto's Music Gallery as part of Weird Canada's Wyrd IV showcase (2013-05-11).

Transcript

1. Music Gallery Editions Archiving Spontaneous Music Created by / with / for / Aaron Levin @aaronmblevin Jesse Locke @wipeoutbeat Weird Canada @weirdcanada
2. It's Saturday afternoon Why are we in a church? Because Music Gallery Editions As seen through the eyes of: 1. curmudgeonly record hoarder ("archivist") 2. modern music fan
3. About Aaron MSc. Pure Mathematics
4. About Aaron MSc. paid by dealing rare records (kind of). (Yes, even Music Gallery Editions LPs)
5. About Aaron Founded in 2009. Weird Canada encourage, document, and connect creative expression across Canada
6. About Jesse Locke Writer / Editor / Music Fan
7. About Jesse Locke Lifelong Music Obsessive
8. About Jesse Locke First contributor for Weird Canada
9. Aaron Levin rare records
10. When you buy a lot of used, Canadian records ... some themes emerge
11. Theme #1 Not A Lot of Private / DIY Canadian LPs in the mid-70s
12. Theme #2 A Lot of Canadian soft-rock.
13. Theme #3 What are all these Music Gallery Editions albums? (this is pre- for all the kids out there) discogs
14. After a while anti-patterns emerge
15. Free Jazz?
16. Electronic?
17. Experimental?
18. Ethnographic?
19. New Age?
20. Glass Age?
21. Tape Age?
22. *I need a copy of this*
23. These Guys?
24. WTF?!
25. From The Outside Music Gallery Editions represents The documentation of "Spontaneous Music"
26. So What? *reasonably Music Gallery Editions represents one of the only completely* documented vintage music scenes in Canada
27. But More Importantly Music Gallery Editions = Community bound by desire to capture, witness, support, and proliferate Spontaneous Music
28. Jesse Locke Music Fan, not a Pokemon
29. MGE Impresses in Three D 1. Diversity 2. Documentation 3. Discovery
30. So...
31. What Can We Learn? 1. Publishing music is preservation 2. Importance of being Non-Insular & genre-agnostic
32. What Went Wrong? 1. Too Academic? 2. Too Serious? 3. Not enough funky?
33. And Now We Listen
34. Lubomyr Melnyk Lubomyr Melnyk Performs KMH (1979) 1. "fastest piano player in the world" 2. Created "continuous music" technique 3. Still going strong and selling recores from his Winnipeg home!
35. Interspecies Music Whalescapes (1977) First found LP at terrible record store Owner would not let it go (it was too "mysterious") "just give me the damn whale sounds!"
36. Nihilst Spasm Band Vol. 2 (1979)
37. 1. Follow-up to their classic No Record 2. Creating spontaneous music (almost) every Monday since 1966 3. Huge gateway band for me 4. Wrote liner notes for the reissue of No Record 5. Honorary member of the Nihilist Part of Canada
38. The Glass Orchestra The Glass Orchestra (1978) 1. Glass is cool, so lets make music with it! 2. There exists a Glass Orchestra 7"! Top of the charts!
39. CCMC Volume 1 (1976) 1. That which started it all 2. Catalog Number: CCMC-1002 3. Later catalog numbers prefixed with MGE
40. Thank You / FAQ & & made from the love of ( ) ( ) Aaron Levin Jesse Locke @aaronmblevin @wipeoutbeat Weird Canada @weirdcanada Music Gallery @musicgalleryTO