The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 202

ism Jim Shaw, left, and MamieW right are visual artists who have recorded thelHerer" are rehearsing with musician Art Byington. Art Rockers Continued from Page 3 es these interrelationships." Cuccuro says many distributors on't seem to comprehend that Blast First presses the vinyl LPs as a rich format for the visual as well as aural talents of its "They keep asking when we're going to produce them as CDs," she says. "This is especially true of distributors in L.A. who are inun- dated by corporate opinion. We don't care.

People who know Blast First don't listen to what other people think is important. We got a call from some auto body shop in Wisconsin for the Robert Williams record after it got reviewed in Rod and Custom magazine." Blast First is primarily a record company, releasing albums and CDs of such rock acts as the Mekons, Lunachicks and Butthole Surfers. It considers the picture discs to be limited-edition works of art appealing to a subculture ence. "We're a record label, not an art house, but we're making the logical interface between records, performance and art," Cuccuro concludes. If the worlds of art and music are relatively small, their overlapping orbits constitute something of a clique with many interchangeable players and factions.

Paul Smith, founder of Blast First, knew of Pettibon through Sonic Youth and initially approached him with a proposal to compile a selection of his favorite songs and have Pettibon do the visual art. The artist felt that most of his favorite songs would be of little interest to any audience. "They certainly wouldn't be rock songs," he says. Instead, he wrote lyrics and "delegated the music" to some friends, who spent a couple of days putting them to music. The results recall the spontaneity of earliest rock recording.

Uncomplicated in structure or melody, the songs are often covers or parodies of a variety of rock genres such as the country-rock lament "Losers, Boozers, Heroes" or the surf-rock tones of "Pablo Casals (A-daddy-O-for-Strings)." On "Torches and Standards," visual artists Mike Kelley and Richie Lee sing and play drums and bass, respectively; friends like filmmaker Dave Markey and musician Art Byington arranged the rest of the musical parts. Abby Normal, from the Rails, came up with the female vocals. "Most of the songs on this record are parodying styles of rock because I wanted to do my own versions of songs," Pettibon says. "At least, I'm bringing something to it outside of what you'd get in rock music. It invigorates the form.

"You can't escape the power of pop music," he continues. "Even if you don't keep up with it you're likely to recognize what's on the charts. If you accept Springsteen as the highest level of rock as poetry, it debases the future of what the field can do." Artist Jim Shaw issued a 45-rpm record to accompany his show last spring at the Linda Cathcart Gallery. His players included Byington, Kelley and Lee, as well as artists Stephen Prina on keyboards and Eddie Ruscha who has his own band on bass. The record, by the fictional group the Dogz, includes "It's Easter in My Brain" and "Willy Nilly." The latter-a rearrangement of a tune that was sung by Charles Manson's devoteesis performed by a number of women artists, including Liz Lar-ner, Cindy Bernard, Martine Tom-czyk, Laura Graham and Maija powerful." Spinout's first record is rife with songs like "Hot Rod to Hell" and "Girlfriend's a Bitch." Henry says that if it takes longer to write a song than the wait for a traffic light, he figures it's forced.

The lyrics reflect this and are obsessed with the perennial preoccupations of rock 'n' roll girls, cars, parties. As one observer put it: "Their video is so sexist, it could only be a reaction against the years of feminist teachers at CalArts." The group's label, Delicious Vinyl, is primarily to rap acts. This has led to confusion on the part of radio programmers and the press, according to Henry. He and cohorts hope for better results with their second LP, tentatively titled "Race With the Devil." "We work really hard at this. It's something I believe in as much as, if not more than, art," Henry says.

"The parallels between the art business and the music business are amazing in terms of the artist not being in control of his destiny. I never thought I could be in two such frustrating businesses at the same time." Performance art, which developed out of a need to integrate personal experience with the formal framework of visual art, grew in part from the narrative impulse. It has been an important medium for women, and many have turned to rock music to express their ideas. Carole Caroompas' performances incorporated songs with lyrics that related to her paintings. "I liked the idea of taking the same subject matter and being able to play with its transformation from static to non-static," she says.

In 1980, the songs were collected on an album, "Target Practice," which corresponded to a performance and exhibition. The music is simple accompaniment to Caroompas' vocals, which lean on blues or country styles to underscore the narrative concerned with relationships and gender roles. Her most recent record, "La Lucha," is more complicated musicallywith Tim Biskup as percussionist and Chas Smith on keyboards and pedal steel and is sung Beeton. With its psychedelic cover design, the record corresponds to the teen-age traumas that constitute the larger theme of Shaw's episodic visual project "My Mirage," which takes its title from an Iron Butterfly song. "I wanted to work in variations on '60s aesthetics, and doing a single seemed important in terms of those aesthetics," Shaw says.

"On the one hand, rock music reflects the Angst that kids feel, and on the other, it gives temporary answers in their language. My age group listened to Dylan. Today, they listen to Morrissey. "I'm addicted to music," Shaw admits. "For me, it's not an entirely healthy drug, because the music I like best makes me sad.

It moves me in a way art rarely does. My job, that of a two-dimensional artist working mostly on walls, just isn't that moving. I try to work emotions into it through the narrative, but there are some limitations in the art world. The art world doesn't want to get too obvious or specific about anything. It wants to maintain an approach of abstraction that allows them an out from utter sincerity." Shaw, Pettibon, Williams and Kelley are included in the "Helter Skelter" exhibition, which acknowledges these artists' ongoing associations with rock 'n' roll.

Rock is still the anthem of adolescent rebellion, a posture that fine art can no longer sustain. At Cal-Arts where many of these artists studied and at other art schools, the idea of art as raw self-expression has been thoroughly discouraged. Rock, less confined by critical theory, embraces the qualities of rage, sex and adrenalin no longer available to the art world's knowledgeable and self-conscious elite. Richie Lee, who plays bass, guitar and percussion and does backing vocals on Pettibon's and Shaw's records, exhibited last fall at the Linda Cathcart Gallery. One of the paintings hearkened to his rock alter ego: It was a precisely rendered Motorhead logo surrounded by a frame of steel chain.

Lee has a parallel career as bass player in the hard rock band Spin-out. Spinout's eponymous first record was released last year by Delicious Vinyl. Two band members were painting producer Michael Ross' house and persuaded him to come hear them play; he signed them, produced their first record and sent the band out to tour nationally last summer. Spinout regularly plays such L.A. venues as Club Lingerie.

All band members are graduates of CalArts who perform under rocker pseudonyms. Lee (a.k.a. and lead singer-songwriter Tom Henry III Joe are both painters; the drummer, Steve Hadley and the riveting guitarist, Mark Lightcap both graduated from the music school. "My first aesthetic understanding of anything was rock 'n' roll. It's the reason I went to art school," Lee says.

"Music is a more physical and direct kind of high than art. The satisfaction is the same, but while doing it the rock is more immediate, the art is far more intellectual." Lee adds a practical note; "Rock 'n' roll is cheaper. People can buy your records. You can afford to make your records. It's not that weird, specialized elite quality of art." Henry recalls his musical beginnings while enrolled in the intensely political and theoretical curriculum of CalArts; "I hated the whole system there, but one of the things I learned was how to rock.

It was the best class I had, and I was the teacher and the pupil." Henry and the other band members do not integrate their visual art and performing art careers. Explains Henry: "I didn't start making music out of art. It came out of boredom and wanting to be on stage." Yet, rock 'n' roll is the overwhelming influence behind his wall-size, Day-Glo canvases lettered with names of hard rock bands Motley Crue and VanHalen. "I made art about one of the most powerful things I knew rock 'n' roll," he concedes. "When I saw Aerosmith in concert, I was mesmerized.

There's no way I can ever hope to make a painting that Fridays in Calendar Start Packing! Turn to "Weekend Getaways" in Calendar each Friday. You'll find a variety of suggestions. From bed and breakfasts to resorts. And beyond. Cos Ancles Sftmes The Buy that Sells Southern California For advertising information, call Wayne West at (213) 237-7324.

SOy SUNDAY) MARCH IWl LOS'lVKOH-ESTtWESiCALENbAR.