Ony's Bands - Autocorrect & the Jasper Release Concert Thursday Night at Art Bar

  Autocorrect describes themselves as a “post-human experimental rap choir,” blending performance art, hip hop, and internet content. From their name alone, one gets the impression that they are calling attention to the ways in which technology affects how we communicate. Their songs address this issue in varying ways. The group consists of Cecil Decker (rapping, drums, sampling, programming), Chris Johnson (vocals, synths, guitars), and Moses Andrews III (bass, vocals, synths).

 

Decker explains that their main goal is to “explore the way modern communication and technology fractures identity.” He says, “There’s an interesting duality with social media, where it can unite and divide people.” Autocorrect explores this divide and how it affects the individual. They’ll be performing at Jasper’s Fall 2016 release on September 29 at Art Bar, with other performances by The Moon Moths, King Vulture, and a DJ set by Tyler Digital.

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Can you tell me a little bit about your band and how/when you formed?

Autocorrect, neé Salvo, spawned in 2014 from colliding noise/rap/ambient projects between Cecil, Chris, and Sean. They trapped Cecil’s then-roommate Moses—the funkiest person alive—in a dank meme ritual. Initially a recording project, Cecil’s propensity for performance art combined with the rest of the group’s classical music training turned the one-off idea into an exhilarating live band.

Can you describe what your music is like? 

We are a post-human experimental rap choir. Student loans, minimum wage, tweetbots, and crippling depression. There has never been a better time.

 

What are some of your previous releases? Are they available online?

Our newest album, as it is, will make you cry into your drink while you bust a move on the dance floor. All of our records/EPs/etc are available at http://autocorrectsound.bandcamp.com.

 

What is your songwriting process like?

We assemble in the smallest room possible, gathering our chaos magick underneath an extensive and relentless pile of electronics. We stare at each other in silence until someone has an idea. Then, we spend the next 6 hours making a song.

 

Who/what are some of your musical influences?

El-P, John Cage, Pino Palladino, Koji Kondo.

 

What are your goals for the band/its future?

Our imperative is to always make art that challenges us and the audience. Right now, we want to start absorbing every other kind of music into our collective body. So we’ve scheduled sessions with local superstars, like the Post-Timey String Band, in order to suck the music juice out of their brains.

 

Building Bridges: Artists enable a new conversation within the African-American community at Sumter County Gallery of Art by Jackie Mohan

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Isaac Newton once said, “We build too many walls and not enough bridges.”  The two newest exhibitions opening at the Sumter County Gallery of Art this September work to build more bridges as they explore an important issue: African-American identity and community.  Question Bridge: Black Males uses video to create a conversation among African-American men about issues important to their view of themselves and of their world.  The second exhibition, BLACK, BURST and BOOM! utilizes mixed media to explore these issues even further and the inner conflict these issues provoke.  Together, these exhibits strive to bridge the many gaps that face society today, from social status to age to the issues that haunt the entire community.

An official selection at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Question Bridge: Black Males is a collaborative video project seventeen years in the making by artists Hank Willis Thomas, Chris Johnson, Bayeté Ross Smith, and Kamal Sinclair.  Johnson first imagined the concept in 1996 in San Diego, seeking a way to build a conversation within the African American community across boundaries of socioeconomics, generations, and distance.  All four artists spent the past few years traveling the country, accumulating videos of over 150 black men answering and asking questions across twelve cities.  The result is a compilation of 1,500 questions and answers.  Altogether, these videos form an inner look at black male consciousness and act as a conversation about issues including love, family, community, violence, interracial relationships, and the past and future of black men in America.  Question Bridge is a five-channel video installation that provides a transmedia exchange for African-American males about issues that have often divided but also united.

The Sumter County Gallery of Art is also hosting the exhibit BLACK, BURST and BOOM! by Stacy Lynn Waddell, an engaging complement alongside Question Bridge.  Created using mixed media, the installation features techniques including collage, drawing, and the burning and singeing of paper and fabric.  Through these innovative means, Waddell explores issues in the African American community including inner conflict, cultural history and heritage, and personal identity across generations.

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Karen Watson, director of the Sumter County Gallery of Art calls both installations “two of the most important exhibitions the gallery has ever presented.”  Question Bridge: Black Males and BLACK, BURST and BOOM! open at the Sumter County Gallery of Art on Thursday, September 5, with an opening reception from 5:30 – 7:30 pm, and both exhibits close on November 1.  For non-members, there is a $5.00 charge for the reception.

A Conversation with Stacy Lynn Waddell, with Frank Martin, will be on Thursday, September 19, 6:00 – 7:30 pm.  Panel discussion Question Bridge: Black Males – Blueprint Roundtable between nine local African American men, ages 16 to 91, moderated by Rick Jones, director of the Millican Foundation, with artist Bayeté Ross Smith, will be on Thursday, September 26, 6:30 – 8:00 pm in the Patriot Hall Auditorium.

The Sumter County Gallery of Art is located at 200 Hasel Street in Sumter, adjacent to Patriot Hall Auditorium.  For more information, visit sumtergallery.org.

 

-- Jackie Mohan, Jasper Intern