Hello! This is a special one. I’m turning this edition over to my very dear friend and collaborator, Eric Boam. Fittingly, this one is devoted to the polymaths. Those creative souls that aren’t bound by medium, genre, or tools. Instead they range across the landscape, sometimes succeeding, often times failing, but always fascinating. Eric is certainly one of these. He’s a consummate designer, a world-class storyteller, a musician, and importantly for us here today, a music fan. His ten-year project to document the music (all the music) he listened to is singular in both its rigor and its artistic merit. It produced some remarkable documents, which I sincerely encourage you to explore.
Eric [EB] kindly agreed to assemble a set of artists and their work whose feet are firmly planted in both the world of music and visual arts. The background and commentary below is all his - with an occasional interjection from me. We hope you enjoy.
Peruse past Y.S.O.A. Editions here | Follow the Y.S.O.A. Instagram here | Someday, I’ll figure out what to do with the website
EB: Music and visual art have been intertwined since humans started building venues specifically for the performance of music. In the age of recorded music, artwork as album covers became necessary to entice listeners to try out a new song. From there it was off to the races with show posters, music videos, t shirts, and visual production during a concert.
Mediums, styles, formats, and genres are labels put on art after the fact to categorize and organize it. Rarely does an artist put those labels on themselves, especially before making art. Artists will find whatever way possible to create and express themselves and their ideas. And so there are many artists out there whose work spans categories, even moving between the visual arts to the sonic arts. Polymaths, if you will.
This is dedicated to those who make art and music. And in a special twist it has both visual art as well as music you can own from each artist—playlist included.
Tunde Adebimpe
A picture of Babatunde Omoroga Adebimpe is in the dictionary next to the word polymath. A musician, songwriter, actor, director, stop-motion animator, and visual artist. He is most known as the lead singer of TV On The Radio, an indie rock band that rose to prominence during the Meet Me In The Bathroom era of New York City. He also released music under his own name that you can own on Bandcamp.
As for his visual art, this issue of Frontier is full of it. And it is yours to own! I am drawn to the colors of this portrait, with the greens and blues as the primary hues. But the way he treats the hair, both atop the head and the beard is the chef’s kiss for me. Simple strokes that bring texture and life into the composition.
If you’re looking to own some TV On The Radio music, I would suggest starting with their first release, The Young Liars EP, which you can get on vinyl from Amoeba Music here. The second track on this EP is my favorite TV On The Radio song. It starts with Tunde’s distinctive falsetto harmonizing over some found audio before a driving bass guitar comes pulsing in under the vocal harmonies. Then the lyrics kick in as Tunde sings “Cross the street from your storefront cemetery.” A frenetic guitar starts as the vocals alternate from falsetto to distorted to deep-sounding. This layering and building is something TV On The Radio do so well and this song is a perfect example and worth of owning on vinyl.
Tunde’s Instagram
Tunde’s website
Hannah Hooper / Grouplove
Hannah is one of the founding members of the Los Angeles alternative pop-rock band Grouplove. They have released a number of albums over the last decade or more. Whether you realize it or not, you all know the song Tongue Tied. It’s infectious pop that was made ubiquitous by an iPod commercial 10 years ago. In addition to lead vocals and keyboards, Hannah has also been creating the artwork for the band’s album covers.
Her visual art covers a broad range of styles and ideas. This piece is one of my favorites. It’s so messy and gestural. There is only just enough definition to make out a human face, yet there is motion and energy that brings it to life. I also love that there ins’t really a color palette to it. The way it is framed with the hand written letters, it looks like it could be an album cover.
Grouplove have continued to making pulsing, upbeat, danceable music. In 2020, they put out an album called Healer, which you can own on vinyl. The opening track, titled “Deleter”, has such a great groove to it. It has a well placed string of filler syllables late in the chorus with a bunch of “nah, nah, nah’s” and “no, no, no’s”. Perfect for singing along to in the car.
Hannah’s Instagram
Hannah’s website
Will Johnson
Will has been making music for decades, both as a solo artist and as a prolific collaborator. He is the frontman of the North Texas rock band Centro-matic, was 1/4 of the New Multitudes tribute to Woody Guthrie with Jim James and Jay Farrar, and made a beautiful record with Jason Molina of Magnolia Electric Co fame. He tours frequently, often playing intimate living room shows.
Will is also an accomplished visual artist. His paintings are primarily legendary or lesser known baseball players from the distant past, like this one of Saul Henry Davis. Each portrait is the same. One half of the upper body painted in uniform surrounded by the most beautiful hand lettering to tell the story of the subject. Will also does commissions which cover a range from wrestlers to basketball players to coaches to musicians. They all follow the same format — a half figure with a hand lettered story about the subject. I can’t get enough of the hand lettering.
You can’t miss with any of Will Johnson’s music. I might suggest starting with one of his recent solo albums, Hatteras Night, A Good Luck Charm. The album kicks off with “Childress (To Ogden)”, which is a quiet and beautiful song with a simple acoustic guitar, a brushed drum beat, and a haunting pedal steel guitar track underneath Will’s oaky vocals. But my favorite song on the album is Predator. It’s the same set of instruments but this time more upbeat. I love how the instruments drop out at the start of the last chorus, lettings the vocals and a light guitar draw you in before building the sound back up to finish the song. If you’re going to own one, this is it.
Will’s Instagram
Will’s website
Alexandra Mackenzie / Petra Glynt
Most musician/visual artists don’t stop at just two creative mediums, if you haven’t picked up on it already. Alexandra Mackenzie is no exception. She has been making art and music for over a decade while also a brilliant tattoo artist and film score composer. She makes music under the name Petra Glynt and everything else is Alexandra Mackenzie.
This drawing, titled “Ascension”, has me entranced. I love the colors, the textures, the detail. I love how this neon, glowing shape is confidently emerging from the melting pile of chaos below. The contrast in texture is striking and the way she uses the softness of the colored pencil gives it a glowing feeling. And then there’s the winding rainbow path leading up to top. There’s an entire universe of story along that path.
You can own her adventurous electronic art-punk album, This Trip, on cassette! It features on of her drawings on the J-card insert and has a rad single color screen print on the clear plastic cassette itself. But you shouldn’t own it just for the looks, it has great songs as well. “Fell In A Hole” is a funky, beat driven song with as much going on in it sonically as the drawings have going on in them. Deep bass-y synths and manipulated vocals are peppered throughout the track keeping it infinitely interesting.
Alexandra’s Instagram
Alexandra’s website
Daniel Johnston
Daniel Johnston is a folk hero among musicians. Adored by the likes of Tom Waits, Jeff Tweedy, Beck, Jack Antonoff, and Kurt Cobain, to name a few, Daniel’s songs have been part of the fabric of music for over four decades. His work was mostly obscure for the first 10 years of his career. All of his music was recorded at home, dubbed over any cassette he could find, and then sold at Waterloo records in Austin. And then Kurt Cobain started wearing a shirt featuring the cover art to Hi, How Are You and it launched Daniel’s musical career. His song making was prolific, matched only by his art making. Over time his art became more recognized, culminating in a show at the Whitney in 2006.
Most of Daniel’s art was done on 8 1/2 x 11 in cardstock. The exceptions to that format are the hand drawn covers of his homemade cassette tapes. There are a lot of recurring characters in his work — Captain America, the Frog of Innocence, ducks, bats, vampires, Joe the Boxer, and female torsos. This drawing, titled “You’re Next Buster,” is an iconic piece. It features famous characters and tells quite the story in a single image. Frog of Innocense has been defeated by Vile Corrupt, who is then coming for the empty minded Joe the Boxer. It’s a surrealist scene that rivals even the best Salvador Dali. It’s the details that draw me in. The shadows between the feet of the pugilists. The jagged edges of the speech bubble. The perfectly imperfect stars filling the sky. You can own a print from the Whitney show here.
It’s difficult to find one of his handmade cassettes but you can still find his music in physical form through various reissues. I would suggest this reissue of Welcome To My World. It features his most well known songs like “True Love Will Find You In The End” and “Devil Town.” And it has my personal favorite “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down,” which takes the conventional wisdom of avoiding going to be angry and turns it into a beautiful song set to an accordion or harmonium. It’s as earnest as it is simple. And like his art, it’s the details that draw me in. The low fidelity recording.
Daniel’s website
Sadly, Daniel passed away in 2019 so he doesn’t have an Instagram. However, there is a foundation in his honor focusing on mental health.
John Lurie
John has done done it all. Made music as part of many bands (most notably the legendary jazz ensemble The Lounge Lizards), acted in 19 films (most notably Stranger Than Paradise), been nominated for a Grammy (for the soundtrack to Get Shorty), and he also paints (most notably on his own HBO show called Painting With John).
This painting titled “Abandoned Amusement Park” does a lot with a lot. There is the detritus strewn about. Plants are coming up through the ground. Gray streaks are dimming the once vibrant yellow backdrop. The rollercoaster track is incomplete. There’s a world inside this painting and you’re transported to it instantly.
While the Lounge Lizards are the most well known of John Lurie’s music, the most acclaimed album he made is under the pseudonym Marvin Pontiac titled The Legendary Marvin Pontiac: Greatest Hits. Playing on the record are some of the biggest jazz luminaries: John Medeski, Billy Martin, and Tony Scherr. Most importantly it is the only album that features John Lurie’s singing. “Small Car” is one of my favorite songs on the album. It’s got a looping guitar part over a rumbling blend of percussion (some of my favorite recorded marimba is blended into that percussion section) before the deep voice of John Lurie as Marvin Pontiac comes in over the top. And I really love the background singing of the supporting septet of vocalists. Pick up the CD if you can.
John’s website
John’s Instagram
Jesse Draxler
[Aric, here] I first encoutered Jesse through his artwork. His photo collages are beguiling, disturbing and elegant. He’s also a musician whose music I’d describe as gritty and industrial. In “Reigning Cement”, a project released in 2020, he invited other musicians to create work on top of 34 recordings of the industrial environment surrounding his studio. The album came with a book of photography evoking the environment.
You can find the album on Spotify and Bandcamp. You can find some of his artwork here.
Jesse’s Instagram
Jesse’s website
That’s it for this edition. I really hope you enjoyed it. I’m so thrilled that Eric agreed to pull all this together for us. Please be sure to check out his work. And, if you have any thoughts for themes or other collaborations, please let me know.