- Playing
- Scab Artist
- From
- Sean McCandless
Scab Artist is a modern form of storytelling, using music, poetry, prose, stories, sound effects and editing techniques to reach from one person's point of view to a mass audience through art.
The author and "actor" in this piece, Sean McCandless, mixes together his many influences, radio drama, electronic music, film noir, the Celtic bardic tradition and the effects of his generation, to make sense of the time he spent living in San Francisco in his early 20s. In this installment, he visits 6th st, or "skid row", a Victorian in the Mission district, the sidewalks and cordoned off construction sites that he comes across, but these scenes flow from one to another with great fluidity, underscored by ideas flying above his head and music shaping his mood.
This is a piece that can catch listeners and sweep them along easily due to the precise fades and edits that give order to the piece as a whole. There is a narrative, and it is not always linear, as there is a certain abstract flow and logic that create an open field of interpretation that merits repeat listenings. If it could be compared with anything it would be like reserved slam poetry in a nu-noir style, with the occasional feeling of friends around a fire.
Featuring music from Sleep, Dj Krush, Alan Stivell and more, stay tuned for the 2nd installment...
More from Sean McCandless
Beckett's EMBERS
(00:29:01)
From: Sean McCandless
A modern interpretation of Beckett's original "soulscape" radio play
Discussion of Radio Drama in Santa Cruz
(00:35:52)
From: Sean McCandless
An interview segment on "Hear Me Out", a radio show dedicated to helping people to love listening
Leningen VS. The Ants
(00:25:07)
From: Sean McCandless
Amazonian plantation owner Leningen battles an army of jungle ants!
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Piece Description
Scab Artist is a modern form of storytelling, using music, poetry, prose, stories, sound effects and editing techniques to reach from one person's point of view to a mass audience through art. The author and "actor" in this piece, Sean McCandless, mixes together his many influences, radio drama, electronic music, film noir, the Celtic bardic tradition and the effects of his generation, to make sense of the time he spent living in San Francisco in his early 20s. In this installment, he visits 6th st, or "skid row", a Victorian in the Mission district, the sidewalks and cordoned off construction sites that he comes across, but these scenes flow from one to another with great fluidity, underscored by ideas flying above his head and music shaping his mood. This is a piece that can catch listeners and sweep them along easily due to the precise fades and edits that give order to the piece as a whole. There is a narrative, and it is not always linear, as there is a certain abstract flow and logic that create an open field of interpretation that merits repeat listenings. If it could be compared with anything it would be like reserved slam poetry in a nu-noir style, with the occasional feeling of friends around a fire. Featuring music from Sleep, Dj Krush, Alan Stivell and more, stay tuned for the 2nd installment...
Broadcast History
Airplay on KZSC, Santa Cruz, CA
Musical Works
| Title | Artist | Album | Label | Year | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Center of a Hostile Planet | Sleep | 00:00 | |||
| Track One | Dj Spooy | UNDR THE Influene. | Sx Degrees | 00:00 | |
| Track Four | Dj Krush | Jaku. | 00:00 | ||
| Track Five | Alan Stivell | Reaissance of the Celtic Harp. | 00:00 | ||
| Track Three | Delai Gonzales & Gavin Russom | Days of Mars. | Astralwerks | 00:00 |
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Chris Gang
Posted on November 06, 2007 at 08:45 AM | Permalink
Review of Scab Artist
This is a fascinating and challenging listen. I absolutely loved the first few minutes of the piece for its experimentalism and its honesty, but I soon came to worry that I wasn't "getting" it. Still, if you're looking for a meandering but intensely personal document of a young man's life in a harsh city, you'll like this.
The piece opens with choppily-edited voices repeating different definitions of the same words, honest, depressive-sounding rap, and a rambling, off-the-cuff description of the narrator's life in a dirty, crowded city. The piece oozes dark cynicism: the first narration ends by saying, "I'm alive, I guess."
The stories that follow are oddly fascinating, and some of the writing is poetic and image-rich: moldy chili that grows back, pizza that serves as "sudden and satifsying grounding in reality". But much of this seems thrown together at random, as if the narrator wanted to include what he considers key elements -- drugs, crazy people, fetishist neighbors -- in an attempt to gain non-conformist credibility. (What a concept!) "I am the underground," the narrator tells us, cynically saying it's only because he doesn't have enough money to buy into consumerism. It's unclear how sincere he is.
The central metaphor -- that a residue of life builds up, crustily, around each of us from our interactions with everyone else, like a scab where blood meets the air -- is promising but seems under-developed. At times it seems like the piece is merely an attempt to lend meaning to a set of otherwise less meaningful experiences. But, the cynical narrator would argue, isn't that all that life is?
It sounds great, though. The echoed, repeating phrases and the use of music are both really well done. McCandless is certainly right about one thing: the story does merit repeat listenings, even if that's only because it's so non-linear and potentially confusing the first time through. I had to listen again, because I wanted to "get" it.