Tag Archives for Fort Thunder

CF/Chippendale/Fraction interview

CF and Brian Chippendale came by Floating World last month as part of their book tour for Powr Mastrs 3 and If ‘n Oof.  It was great to meet these Fort Thunder legends in person.  We started the evening with each artist doing a slide show presentation as they talked about their work.  Brian shared a lot of really cool early drawings, zines and sketchbook stuff that we’d never seen before.  CF gave a preview of some new paintings he’s been working on.  It looks like CF is ready to start experimenting with some new styles.  I also admire that CF was really comfortable talking about some of the more abstract, subconscious philosophies that go into being an artist.  His mystic personality balanced nicely with Brian Chippendale’s sweet punk personality.

Then we were joined by superstar comics writer Matt Fraction (Casanova, Invincible Iron Man, Thor), who moderated an interview with the boys.  It was a a great comics crossover to have one of the top mainstream writers meet with two of the best creators from the avant garde experimental comics world.  We found that CF and Chippendale are actually working in the action genre and Fraction said they were representing the weird comics power of Jack Kirby better than anyone in the mainstream comics world.  For your pleasure we recorded the 60 minute conversation in its entirety.

CF Chippendale Fraction interview 11/19/10 (pt. 1/4) from Floating World Comics on Vimeo.

CF Chippendale Fraction interview 11/19/10 (pt. 2/4) from Floating World Comics on Vimeo.

CF Chippendale Fraction interview 11/19/10 (pt. 3/4) from Floating World Comics on Vimeo.

CF Chippendale Fraction interview 11/19/10 (pt. 4/4) from Floating World Comics on Vimeo.

C and D from Arthur No. 13 (cover date Nov 2004)

This C & D session was originally published in Arthur No. 13 (Nov. 2004)…

C & D
Two confirmed schmucks grapple with the big issues—and an unexpected female visitor.

PICK A WINNER dvd
(Load)
C: You’re not going to believe this.
D: Try me.
C: [delicately loading DVD] Like an hour’s worth of charmingly bonkers/whimsical low-tech animation to go with homemade psych-crunge by the usual Fort Thunder-plus suspects… [Reading the sleeve text] “Dual formatted, double dipped and extra-whipped. Technicolor-laced acid flakes are on the table. Dig in! 18 trips of sound & sights are poured into K-Holes of dubious dimension from tonz of Load bands and video tribes with this new DVD/CD powered pellet.” Amen to all of that.
D: [looking at screen] Whoa.
C: Lightning Bolt, Black Elf Speaks, Wolf Eyes, Neon Hunk, Pink & Brown…
D: [eyes pinwheeling] I don’t believe it. I mean, I do believe it. I am believing it very hard.
C: Party video of the year. People are gonna be getting mandala’d all winter long to this thing, man. Plus there’s a CD in here too.
D: Do you have any mushrooms?
C: No.
D: I’ll take a spray paint can and a plastic bag at this point…

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C & D interview Jimmy Joe Roche and Dan Deacon, review AC/DC, more [Arthur No. 27/Dec 2007]

C & D
Two guys who will remain pseudonymous reason together about new music “product”

Originally published in Arthur No. 27 (Dec 2007)

ultimatereality

DAN DEACON & JIMMY JOE ROCHE
Ultimate Reality dvd
(Carpark)
C: State-of-the-art psychedelic film with music composed by electro-dance party joker Dan Deacon and visuals by Jimmy Joe Roche, two guys from Baltimore’s Wham City operation. It’s constructed from clips from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career—Conan the Barbarian, Terminator, Total Recall, Kindergarten Cop, Predator, Junior—collaged and layered and doubled together into something altogether overwhelming at 35 minutes in length.
D: This is Arnold’s mind on drugs. Arnoldelic, baby!
C: Absolutely gorgeous, seriously funny, weirdly poignant and possibly seizure-inducing. This is a landmark work. It’s the first time someone has taken the stuff those Fort Thunder and PaperRad dudes were (or are) doing—bright color-saturated, warped psychedelia incorporating pop iconography—and thrust it forward into a new realm of…of…beauty, really. Watching this right now is for me like seeing “Wonder Showzen” for the first time, or Chris Morris’s “Blue Jam”: a breakthrough on many levels, by somebody pretty much out of nowhere.
D: [reading from Arthur Magazine office rolodex] Or Baltimore…
C: [mischievously] Hand me that. Let’s make a phone call. [Dials on red phone…] Hello? [In Howard Cosell voice] Yes, this is Arthur magazine. We are seated here drinking kratom-powered smoothies having just watched “Ultimate Reality,” and we had a few questions for the filmmakers. [turns speaker phone on] So, Jimmy, what exactly is Wham City and you guys must know the Fort Thunder guys, right?
JIMMY JOE ROCHE: Wham City—the space—was a dingy, insane warehouse, then another one. Me and Dan and Dina and Adam and some other kids lived together at SUNY Purchase, all graduated in 2004, and we had this sort of unfigured-out energy. We knew we wanted something, we had a vision undulating out of control, and those guys wanted to move to Baltimore, because it’s cheap as hell. It seemed like it was a potential void where someone could come in and do art, totally fresh.

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MINDFLAYER

19 MARCH 2004

 

Mindflayer

Its Always 1999

LOAD 059 CD

Robo generated psychic booty
pulse coupled with metro scrambled drumstick action. Battle station personnel
on this disc includes Brian Chippendale of LIGHTNING BOLT and MEERK PUFFY
of FORCEFIELD. The duo have oscillators working overtime in the psychic
war deck and gabba friendly drums. This CD is a re-release of a barely
available record from the Ooo Mau Mau record label from 2001. The record
was recorded in the halls of FORT THUNDER, a deserted cultural bunker/state of the art Dunkin Donuts
in Providence, RI. The record has been re-mastered for loudness and delicacy,
so pay heed.

   The sounds
on this record are the hustle and bustle of bass-bin boom on the space
throughways of the Milky Way circa 3167 A.D. Slowed beats with the force
of tree roots hitting supertanker hulls. Vast radio dish networks with
squelch and pulse tremors using solar systems as tweeters and white dwarfs
as shredded woofers. Your head is caving in, your eyes are melting. Time
is space and colors are sound. All is brown, hail the ramparts, to the
battle stations!