SELL OUT
The other morning half-awake coasting down Ossington Ave. on my bike I noticed a series of wall postings advertising a Wilco concert held at Massey Hall in Toronto, on it printed in huge stamp letters read “SOLD OUT.” I thought how assuming this message was then recognized the impact of it, it’s expecting you know just how fucking great Wilco are live and how their ravenous fans follow them around like sheep -- and clearly you’re not getting a ticket because they’re sold out. I wanted a ticket after that.
Robert Pollard (Guided By Voices) licensed a song from one of his landmark albums Propeller for a television spot advertising cars. He got residuals each time the commercial ran and it bothered me for some reason knowing he would sell a song to a car company in the first place, sacrilegious as hell I thought. Then one afternoon as if waking from some distant fog my mindset got reversed, I thought how it could help him subsidize his love for making music and since he releases every single song he’s ever made this means more and more output (if you know anything about RP he’s prolific as hell) and can remain truly Guided By Voices.
Okay so there’s a flip side of this, what about the struggle, the martyr, the tortured artist? Let’s say you never sell your art, never talk about it never show it, does that make you a purist and a truly independent thinker? Does relevancy even matter? I imagine popularity would breed a certain contentment and if it goes to your head eventually a sullen mediocrity will engulf your art or your process. Personally I love the idea of creating a handful of shows producing a series of things, limited things, paintings, LP’s, cassettes, clothing, little gems that get unearthed by our own curiosity.
If art spreads like a flu-shot honestly is there anything left to be discovered?
~ c
