Penny-Ante 
V.A. : Penny-Ante...Book#1(US,2006)**° -book!-
I was curious about this book because of the contribution of some psych-folk related artists which I have reviewed before, like Robin Crutchfield who is more known from his former dark indie groups (DNA, Dark Day), but who now is an acoustic artist. He added here a self-penned fairytale. (The photograph from the book I added to the previously published review, in colour). Other psych-folk & weird folk related singer-songwriters are Josephine Foster, Devendra Banhart, -with his recognisable artwork (in a similar style to his album covers)-, Marissa Nadler, with a nice detailed carbon study, Richard Swift, and Woman & Children (Kevin Lasting). Also listed is lo-fi folk artist, Leslie Q, and singer/songwriter Eleni Mandell. Further we have chaotic psych artist Ariel Pink (with some artwork). Also listed is chamber rock group Tarantula AD (from which I reviewed an early work). They contributed some artwork. Most other musical groups listed are independent & noise/punk rock bands like Xiu Xiu (with artwork and erotik haikus by Jamie Stewart), Aids Wolf, Eux Autres (interview), The Double, Slumber Party, The Germs (artwork by Don Bolles), Lion Fever, My Morning Jacket (with a short story by Jim James), 7 Years Rabbit Cycle, Dungeon Majesty, Part Time Punks, Rua Minx, XBXRX, and equally less known indiepop names like Six Part Seven, Future Pigeon, Coby Ellison, Little Claw, Slumber Party's (with some song lyrics), plus a few modern electro-pop artists like DJ Daedalus & Monolaters (both from the Ninja Tune label), and also some performance artists like Jean Sebastien-Tacher, and Art of Bleeding. Besides musicians there are many more writers, poets and visual artists listed and some organisers for mixed art (333 Empire), or with a good purpose.
The intention of this 300 pages book was to stimulate 'independent culture'. Each page is an offset black & white print of the contribution, which often looks like they have been taken from sketches from a notebook, with some layout vision, as if from a magazine. This is not just like any independent artwork print, but has some real content that makes the book suitable for more in-depth reading, looking at pictures and so on, just like a very thick and interesting magazine. While in general and often independent prints and sketches tend to nonsensical hasty chaos, this book has enough to spend more time upon, while its randomness is a great variety. Of course there are fragmentary occasional art visions, the book ties this together thanks to alternating it with interviews, literature and art. The real intended idea behind the book print was also to show the multiple talents of artists and to bring independent artists and the different communities in which they express themselves together. This goal was successful, and is also proven by the fact there was enough reason for it to be reviewed on my music related webpages. Much of such a book is in fact more multidimensional, because it's scope and associations reach also outside this book, like through many WebPages on myspace, to start with. I can see how the taste of the compilers of names is mostly very 'independent'. Personally, I found most of these groups, rather ok but not many of them show me much in the way of enlightened musical visions. It is nice to see how people develop an independent music expression, but it takes much more work, discipline, time and professional impact to make it into something of genius, a real artwork or a concept with a vision. In general I must still admit that the general artistic expression level of many people using pages like myspace and so on, is on a rather high amateur level, close to that of a last year art student, which is pretty amazing in fact for this new generation, who quickly adapted the skills, tricks and ideas through the internet. The same can be said about the contributing artists who came often from music area that the line between the amateur and the professional can often become rather thin, (with a bit of help from layout of course). So, while trying different disciplines, something of a different content (music mostly), seeps through. We must not forget that a compiler himself can make it look like miracles. The artist's expressions are always given the best attractive black & white presentation.
It does not really matter if I add who my favourite contributors in the book are and why. I prefer to conclude that the book is very suitable as a night closet book to browse and read in it now and then. The format of a book therefore is definitely better than that of a magazine. I only hope in future they will also be able to submit a CD or eventually CD ROM with it, to widen their own disciplines.
This is a non profit print sold for only 10 $ !!
