RETURN TO SENDER

You know what's super exciting to me? That I get to write about my guitar-hero of a friend, Marissa Paternoster, in a way that highlights one of her other major talents. She's a rad artist, in case you've been under a rock for the past two years. Her work with Doodle Drag and otherwise has been popping up in my posts at Hyperallergic of late.

It’s been nearly a month since we dismantled our mail art show, Presents: Three Months of Mail Art for Hyperallergic HQ, here at Hyperallergic. The show was a first in a lot of ways: me and Hrag’s first collaboration, Hrag’s first zine-making experience and my first time curating a show outside of my own initiatives.

Hrag and I responded to the temporality of mail art by placing a rule on our exhibition catalogue/zine: patrons were not able to receive the zine in person, they had to get it through the post. We sent out our entire first edition within a week of the show opening, which sold-out quite fast. We even sent our copies of the zines to each other.

Read the full story here.

PEN MEETS PICK: SCREAMING FEMALES & DOODLE DRAG

Last month I ventured to Hoboken to check out the Screaming Females & Doodle Drag show. I wrote about it for Hyperallergic, and the piece went live this morning!

When the time came to start the show, Screaming Females squeezed onto the relatively small stage at Maxwell’s, just to the right of a blank sheet on the wall, which served as a projection screen. “We’re Screaming Females!” Paternoster squeaked out, and as the lights went down, she introduced the first artist: Tiffany Cheng, who illustrated the song “Wild,” off of the band’s latest LP,Castle Talk. The work projected onto the sheet ranged from photograph-based and stop-motion animations to felt pen drawings, grotesque and beautiful all at once. The artwork suited the music — dark, jubilant, fun, neurotic — visual and audio codes that we forget to interpret because we’re so busy enjoying it.

read the full article here.

I'm really excited to have something up at Hyperallergic, I am a fan of the work they do. Here are some photo outtakes from the evening.

SCREAMALES BEST OF

Jarrett D., friend of Cheeky and infamous drummer of Screaming Females, named "What the Heck" one of the best albums of 2009. Thanks Jarrett! We love ye!

ON SCREAMALES & ROCK RELEVANCE, ETC

(clearly a g-chat conversation between Ali & myself)

me: omg, i wish you could have seen screaming females last night it was SO EPIC.

me: like, so, so so epic

Ali: oh yeaaah

me: they play with these tiny amps but because it was in that place it was all mic'd up and they sounded so fucking heavy

me: it was like the perfect sound for them

me: best i've ever heard them

me: and the applause was insane i was like, holy shit, if people didn't like them before...

me: it was straight up insanity

Ali: that is awesome, how was dinosaur jr?

me: they were good, but seriously it was like, such a hard act to follow! they played for an hour and a half which was soooo excessive

Ali: wowww

me: and they didnt play "in a jar" which was a total bummer

me: you know, it was total dino jr though, they were tight, super shreddy

me: just... its hard seeing bands like that when what theyre doing is "old" - screaming females are just so relevant, it was hard to juxtapose the two and see dino jr and not just think what theyre doing is kinda self-congratulatory

Ali: interestinggg

Ali: yeah that makes sense though it's often weird seeing older bands alone let alone with a super strong opening act

me: yeah, absolutely especially when theyre playing like that, for so long - and how SO many bands from that era are doing this now

me: these reunions and new albums and tours

Ali: totally like sonic youth too they have a new album and touring

me: THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I COMPARED IT TO haha

Ali: it's good but like i dunno i feel like i need a break from them or something

Ali: i saw them last summer at mccarren and in LA when they did daydream nation

Ali: i just dont need any new music from them

Go! Magazine

Liz Gold wrote about Cheeky and our friends Screaming Females for Go! Magazine's August music feature. Marissa said, "Wait, why are you allowed to be in it?"

http://www.gomag.com/article/out_artists_on_the_rise2/

TOUR PHOTOS: Carolinas back to NY

The final installment is here!

Sullivan Island, outside of Charleston, SC:

Greenville, NC:

Schleyer does stand-up on the sly.

The Screamales from above the Spazzatorium:

Richmond, VA with Adrienne's awesome dog Mable:

And finally, a portrait of Schleyer, post a drive from DC to New Brunswick, post stopping for 3/$1.00 pretzels in Philly, PA. So when do we get to go again?

TOUR PHOTOS: Florida

As per Marissa's request, tour photos, installment 3.

Gainesville:

Brian and King Mike air guitar battling.

Orlando:

Okay, I know this picture kind of sucks but it needs some explaining. This is outside of the Black Box Collective in Orlando. There were a bunch of kids spraypainting the buildings in the area, in plain sight during the day. When we arrived here, there was also an accidental? bonfire in the field in the back. The fire department came, and upon seeing the kids doing grafitti didn't stop them, rather, the firefighters went over and hung out with them. They also came into the show and apparently loved Screaming Females.

So basically, the photo is of one of the firefighters getting his uniform jacket spraypainted by one of the kids. And King Mike chatting with them.

My parents have a timeshare in Orlando and they booked us to stay there for one night. We could not deal.

MIKE GOT TO RIDE A SEGWAY.

TOUR PHOTOS: NC to GA

So now it's time for tour installment part II. Starting with Chapel Hill and Carrboro, NC.

A secret pool in or near Carrboro. ADULTS SHOULD NOT SWIM ALONE.

We found this amazing lake off of Route 85 on our way from South Carolina to Georgia.

Then we made our way to The Hangar in Athens, GA.

Marissa gave King Mike a stick n' poke of the Screaming Females van.

The king and his castle.

TOUR PHOTOS: Philly, PA

I have a whole bunch of photos from tour, and from other fun things this summer. Tour photos will be updated in installments because it just takes too damn long to post 'em. So here goes!

CHEEKY + SCREAMING FEMALES TOUR 2008

Philly, PA

Ice cream before the show at JR's. La Krista was our roadie, the best roadie.

We got to preview Perry's art show before it actually went up. You may recognize him as the roadie for Screaming Females on our 3-day weekend tour. You can see his art stuff here.

This is my girl Sonrisa. She took us to where the fresh pretzels are, 3/$1.00 at midnight. You should get on that if you're ever in Philly. We went about an hour out of our way and stopped there at 4AM on our way home from DC.

That would be Perry's awesome dog, Benny.

CHEEKY TOUR (POSTER)

YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO! CLICK ON THIS BABY AND HANG OUT WITH US SOMEWHERE ALONG THE EAST COAST.