I was absolutely taken aback by Jim Roche’s piece “Hippy’s are living proof”. It was retardedly offensive and to be quite honest I do not understand how he can even be considered a sound artist. Sure, the way he sounded was kind of weird, sure the beginning had weird funky sounds, but how can someone who is just talking and spreading a whole bunch of redneck ideas be considered a sound artist? While I was listening to him I was just trying to figure out whether or not he was serious, whether or not he would make a joke out of what it was he was saying and whether or not it was ever going to end. Yet all I could hear him saying, sorry, singing was “Hippy’s are living proof that a nigger will fuck a dog”. He is a racist and a sexist and it actually took me some time to find websites who would give me some more background information on him. During my furious search for an explanation as to why he would compose such a piece I found out that he was a performance artist from the deep South (explains the racist comments) during the 1970’s. He moved his way up towards New York where he apparently would go into trans-like states and channel redneck characters from the south. Whatever his explanation may be I was actually disgusted by him. God knows what influenced him, maybe it was his experiences from the South maybe he was just trying to be weird. I don’t know. What I do know is that he is completely different from all other sound artists I have encountered thus far. He is one of few who actually uses words. He is one of few who is sending out a message that we can all interpret in the same way. He is one of few who is not helping us to hear sounds in a different manner in order to discover that sounds can be beautiful regardless of whether or not there are actual notes involved. I guess maybe he can be similar to other sound artists because he is technically doing something different with his music: he is screwing around with his voice and pissing everyone off. Jim Roche is a hateful man and I completely understand why many people are furious with him. For those who enjoy his work…good for you.
http://ubu.artmob.ca/sound/roche_jim/Roche-Jim_Learning-To-Count_01_Hippys.mp3
I am sorry you feel the way you do. You were not there during the early 70′s when the audio characters I recorded were around. The country was at complete odds with itself, upheaval was everywhere. The characters that I did audio tapes about were real. Life is real. Artist observe and give back what they see. You are only looking at one small fragment of my work. Hippys are living………………… was text taken off the wall of the Red Hot Truck Stop near Arkadelphia, Ark. in 1970……….and it became the subject for a artist to interpret, which I did. I love spoken word and we did not have the fancy equipment you guys have now. We had to make it work. Please look at my work in total and try not to pass out such untrue comments about a person you have never met. Enjoy your days but research you thoughts more. Thanks for your time.
How long do I wait for moderation? You offer free rein to another who would tear down my audio efforts…………but wait quite a while before I can defend my work of 40 years ago as I have posted above……….why? Jim Roche in Tallahassee
Looking back on my post I see how you would take offense, and I want to apologize for talking about you as a person. I am sure you are a lovely person; a lovely person whose art I do not like and would not recommend. I am sorry that you feel that you were misrepresented. However this is a personal blog made for a class that I once took, everything I reviewed was my personal opinion. Your art did not appeal to me. I personally was disgusted. I cannot alter my reactions to the sounds. I have long since abandoned this blog, however due to the fact that you feel the need to defend your “audio efforts” I have come back to this blog to allow for your comments to be posted. And in response to your comments about not having done adequate research, I would just like to say that I did. Extremely well in fact. If you are so convinced that I didn’t, I suggest that you research yourself and see the things that you find. My “fancy equipment” led me to other people who feel the same way I do. I suggest commenting on their blogs as well.
Thank you Lioness, and I would like to respond to any work that cast me in the light that you see me in. Please, when time allows, send me some of the other blogs that see me so slanted. I accept your opinion of personal disgust, but would continue to wish that you would see the role and job of a artist to record, analyze, expose, and fix if possible……..the culture around them. It is our job and the audio performances I did on the learning to count double record album were all accurate, non-exaggerated, glimpses at the characters around the country at the time. Those tape were done between 1972 and 1976. Curious as to how old you were when these tapes were made, and how much of America you had seen by that time.
I am doing some audio only works right now that seem to grate hard upon the ears their words and sounds have made it to. Please enjoy life and keep in touch over time. I have a double DVD of video performance out that you may can get a copy of and will soon have some audio work out. I am getting my best sound and voice effect using a Sony professional portable DAT audio recorder with a dual stereo mic. Take care and thanks for the exchange.
If you see the film from a few years back, “Rachel Getting Married” or even the trailer from it, you will see me and recognize my voice.
Peace for Food.