Thursday, May 7th: Doors 7pm / Show at 8pm
18+ / $7
One of the finest curated labels on the scene is Mississippi Records out of Portland, Oregon. Their work in bringing under-acknowledged blues, gospel, soul, punk and all kinds of roots based music from around the world is second to none. All of our record collections are greatly enriched by their efforts. Let us be clear, we are big fans.
Well, Mississippi Records has a new concoction called A Cosmic and Earthly History of Recorded Music According to Mississippi Records. This live presentation from Mississippi main man Eric Isaacson, is a combination of film, slide show, lecture and soundscape. It instinctively and idiosyncratically illustrates an entire history of recorded music (focusing on Eric’s patch, North America!), from the birth of the first star in the universe all the way to the dark ages of the 1980′s. We’ll be hosting Eric and the Cosmic History here at Third Man in our Blue Room on Thursday May 7th.
The ultimate intention of this travelling exhibition is to give the audience a sense of wonder; that anything is possible and art is worth doing. Tonally, the presentation navigates into the outer reaches, bypassing academic stuffiness in favour of entertainment value and immediacy. All materials will be from Mississippi Records vast and seldom seen archive of film, music and art.
This whirlwind 90 minute sound and visual representation will attempt to sum up as many important points in the evolution of recorded music that can be done in such a short amount of time. Subjects hit upon include:
- The cosmic patterns that resemble music generated by stars being born and dying.
- The musical patterns in the natural world that work on the same principals as music.
- The untold early history of recording technology (including tales of Archeoacoustic technology that allows us to hear recordings from 2,000 years or more ago, cat pianos, the phonautogram which reproduces sounds from dust and much more)
- The rise of the blues, rock and roll, and other revolutionary American music forms and their subsequent destruction by the powers that be
- Hopeful messages about the future
- 45 minutes of incredibly vibrant archival footage of some some the greatest musicians on Earth (as well as some novelties) including Bo Diddley, Rosetta Tharpe, The Collins Kids, Gary Davis, and the Staple Singers.
