Me & my friend Eric Wielander, who did the classic Village Noize fanzine back in the day, recently assembled a Demo Tapes exhibit in NYC. It showcases some classic HC/Punk/Metal demos from '82-'92. Here's an excerpt from the essay for the exhibition, along with some pictures.
The demos will be up for the display through the month of July @L'asso EV on 107 1st. Avenue, open to the public from 11am to 11pm every day.
"In the mid-1980's. Freddy Alva and Eric Wielander were growing up in the New York independent music scene, producing compilations, publishing fanzines, watching scores of Punk and Hardcore bands perform, and reviewing releases. At the same time, bands were self-releasing their recordings (from approximately 4 songs up through album-length material) on cassettes a/k/a "demos". With these releases, with a run of anywhere from 30 to several hundreds if not thousands, teh sleeve art was put in the hands of whichever band member was graphically gifted, or turned over to a friend."
"DEMO-LITION explores the artwork of demo tape/cassette releases from the Hardcore/Punk/Metal scenes circa 1982-1992. Like any release before or after its time, we judge a record by its cover, and we thought it was long overdue to assemble as many covers as we could find to showcase the art that came out of these small-run releases. Some put tremendous detail into the art, most with hand illustrations. For others, the art was an afterthought, it was all about that 4-track demo that was being cut at Don Fury's which would wind up getting duped on a Maxwell LN 60 and put in the hands of some kids at Some Records."
Here's the link for individual photos of the Demos:
Here's a review of the opening night on 5/31/12
http://unitedbyrocketscience.blogspot.com/2012/06/demo-lition-opening-night-images-and.html?spref=fb
This exhibit would not have been possible without the following people who loaned their personal collections: Chris Wynne, Charles Maggio, Chris Bade, Ryan Sikorski, Lewis Dimmick, and Loizos Gatzaris.
Special Thanks to John Woods and Michael Scondotto for Djing the party
Todd Wolenski from Baldy Longhair Records for tapedeck and schwag.
Greg Barris and Robert Benevenga @L'asso EV for the walls.
