Various
I.d. Art #2
Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS) formed in the mid-1970s as a loose-knit experimental music collective and multimedia publishing vehicle. Founded by teenage Le Forte Four members Chip Chapman, Joe Potts and Rick Potts and soon joined by Tom Recchion of Doo-Dooettes, LAFMS incorporated free improvisation, modular synthesizers, tape music, sampling, musique concrète, homemade instruments, noise, mail art and avant-rock in permissive and anarchic sessions at the Raymond Building and Poo-Bah Record Shop in old Pasadena. Inspired by The Residents, LAFMS self-released records and periodicals, organized performances and connected with fellow outsiders via post in the years before punk. Their uninhibited, egalitarian ideal of music-making and DIY distribution would influence generations of underground artists. LAFMS primarily reached outside Los Angeles via word-of-mouth and the United States Postal Service, foreshadowing the self-publishing and cassette trading networks of post-punk and industrial subcultures. In 1976, Joe Potts solicited recordings from LAFMS affiliates and admirers to edit and compile 'I.D. Art #2,' utilizing correspondence art's technique of "assemblings." (The first installment in this series was a magazine, and the third was a coloring book.) Potts received dozens of pieces by members of Le Forte Four, Doo-Dooettes, Smegma and Ace & Duce as well as painters, filmmakers and non-artists with few recording credits to their name, creating a delirious, winking sound-art collage of field recordings, voicemails and improvisations. Participants purchased time on the record and received one copy each of the finished LP, realizing the philosophy contained in LAFMS' motto: "The music is free, but you have to pay for the plastic, paper, ink, glue and stamps." This first-time vinyl reissue is limited to 500 numbered copies. Comes with insert. TRACKS: 01. Mac McCloud - Untitled 02. Harold Schroeder - Silent Rituals 03. Greg Neutra/J.D. Elliot - Grieg Fatigue 04. Smegma - Rrose Selavy Will Wait For My Washing Machine, Even/The Andalusian Dog Often Digs Into The Furniture With Onyx Fingers 05. Smegma - Potatoe War 06. Fredrik Nilsen - You Can't Hide From Aldehyde 07. Miles Forst - Art, Art, Art 08. Smegma - One Moment 09. Smegma - Pigface Blues 10. Doug Henry - View This Command As A Verbal Enactment Of A Command 11. Josie Roth - Heal, And Another Little Time 12. Joe Potts - I Don't Want To Go To The Farm 13. Otto Fick - Untitled 14. Smegma - Excerpt From: I'll Have Julie Nixon-Eisenhower For My Appetizer (Sour Lungs To My Surprise) 15. Karen Kato - Xmas 1952 16. J.J. Allen Vargas - Victim Of Racism 17. Dennis Guy Mehaffey - Busta Nosa 18. M/R/Zuniga - Vulnerability: Rape, Male Vs. Female 19. Mike Green - Martin Heidegger Revisited 20. Mehaffey - Introduction By Buckminster Fuller/I Stumble/You Laugh 21. Jules Lemelle - Untitled 22. Maureen Abbott - Untitled 23. Smegma - Take One 24. Dan Weiss/P. Hamilton Ross - A Bicentennial Tribute To America's Freight Trains 25. Mr. Foon - Timeless #1 26. Bertil Petersson - Monologue To Henry VIII 27. Amrein & Stoll - Untitled 28. Ace & Duce - Dogs Are Barking 29. Irene Dogmatic/Rose Tatoo - Untitled 30. Gordon Shields - Cotton Duck, Up And Back 31. Gary Beydler - Record Stick 32. Tom Kemp - Pasadena Subway Station Poetry Stills 33. Donald Spaulding - I Don't Want This To Happen 34. Janice Felger/Joan Hugo - One Minute Of Art News Update In 30 Seconds 35. Sue Farthing - Untitled 36. Waynna Kato - White/Noise 37. Jim Abuan/Peter Muzzey - Why Does Love Have To Be So Sad? 38. Juan Gomez - This Is My Country 39. P.J. Campbell - Untitled 40. Kathe Schreyer - Don't Make Me Laugh 41. Mary Dana Chodzko - Patty Smith By Mary Dana Chodzko 42. Gary Laskin - Have Sex With Rex 43. Jean Koller - Dream 44. Le Forte Four - Discarded Portion Of The Soundtrack For Rick's Film "Burger Madness"/From "The Origin Of Largie Schrapnel"/I Haven't Heard You For A Long Time/Fat Ape