Canned Art: Sun King Brewing Canvitational Preview
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on defunct, Central Indiana arts website Sky Blue Window on September 18, 2014. Some content, style, and formatting may differ from the original version.
Saturday a party will descend on Georgia Street. Beers will be consumed. Good times will inevitably be had. Downtown Indianapolis will be on display for an excited group of out-of-towners. No, it’s not the Super Bowl in September. The second annual CANvitational, hosted by Sun King Brewing will take place.
“Clay wanted to do this so that it would give us a chance to invite some of our friends to come and play, and really highlight Indianapolis and Indiana as a craft beer state,” Director of Promotions and Sponsorships Beth Belange says of Sun King cofounder Clay Robinson.
Courtesy of Sun King
The CANvitational will bring at least 40 breweries from all over the country to Indy for a celebration of craft beer and the aluminum vessels that house it. Previously, cans served as the preferred vehicle for cheap, mass-produced domestic beer, until the craft beer explosion of the last half-decade. “It was sort of a perfect storm of people slowly coming around to the idea of a can. Mobile canning came around. The canning-line manufacturers produced better, cheaper, smaller canning lines. All that stuff just happened all at once. With 2,000 breweries in the country and a lot of craft beer fans, it was kind of the perfect amalgamation,” says Russ Phillips, author of Canned!: Artwork of the Modern American Beer Can and the writer behind craftcans.com.
“We were actually the 56th American craft brewery to can when we started five years ago,” Belange says. “Now, there’s upwards of 500 American craft breweries that are canning.”
As one might guess, this influx has fostered a boom of creativity in the packaging and design of cans as independent brewers attempt to carve out an identity in a growing market. “I think cans, over the years, have really changed. When canning first started, you saw a lot of cans with the same logo on both sides,” Phillips says. “There are so many great designs now. Some of this stuff is so creative and so ridiculous at times that it’s almost hard to pass up.”
Courtesy of Sun King
With this in mind, Sun King partnered with Arts Council of Indianapolis to further the CANvitational’s focus on the artistry behind the can for its second year. During Friday’s brewer’s reception in Indianapolis Artsgarden, local artists will showcase works aimed at transforming the can designs from several of the festival’s participating breweries. Tickets to the event, dubbed CAN’d ART were available for a standalone price of $10 or $5 with a ticket to the CANvitational. (Though just prior to posting this article, Sky Blue Window learned this event is now sold out.)
“There’s not a whole lot that I don’t like about what I do. I’m able to be creative. I’m able to explore different things, try different things,” Sun King art director Shane Brown confesses. “It’s like I always tell everybody, I’ve got the perfect job. I drink and draw for a living, you know? Come on dude [he laughs].”
Brown’s creative involvement with Sun King began at the ground level when Robinson approached him to design the company’s logo. Since then, he has overseen the design of nearly all of Sun King’s can line and branding of everything from truck wraps to T-shirts. With more than 8 million cans sold to date, Brown’s work has been seen by as many people as any Hoosier artist in the past five years.
“It’s pretty nuts. It really is,” Brown says. “We were in Colorado when we went over there to do the [Ball Corp.] cans for Fistful of Hops. Even there, Clay would introduce me as his in-house artist. They were all like, ‘I love your designs!’ and I was like, ‘Whoa, hold on! This is Colorado for God’s sake, and you’re digging my stuff here?’ That’s killer, you know?”
Courtesy of Sun King
Phillips believes beer can design proves much more complex than the process for bottling. “With a bottle, you’ve obviously got a label, but you’ve also got a six-pack holder, which gives you a peripheral billboard to put artwork on. For the most part with cans, the can itself is your billboard,” he says. “The biggest limitation with cans is the way the printing is done. That kind of printing requires the artist to use a set number of colors … You can’t just take a bottle label, put it on a can, and expect it to work out exactly the same. So, there’s actually quite a bit of talent that goes into making something similar or just coming up with something from scratch that uses a limited number of colors. Some of it is pretty amazing.”
For his part, Brown loves the challenge. “I’m an artist, so if I’m not creating or doing something, then I’m going to get bored and go crazy,” he says. “Even on my off time, I’m doing chalkboards at different bars. This weekend I did a big piece for ORANJE. I’ve got to be creating and constantly evolving, otherwise I’m not happy.”
In addition to the artistic offerings at CANvitational, Sun King will debut a collaborative can with Illinois’ Solemn Oath Brewery. It’s the first foray into canning for the brewery, which focuses on Belgian-style beers. For CANvitational Sun King and Solemn Oath partnered on a session IPA, which the duo is calling “30 Minute Coma.” This focus on collaboration is a carryover from the inaugural event, when Sun King partnered with Three Floyds on its Three Kings Pale Ale.
Written by Rob Peoni
Master of Destruction: Mike Wiltrout on Art vs. Art
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on defunct, Central Indiana arts website Sky Blue Window on September 23, 2014. Some content, style and formatting may differ from the original version.
This Friday night 32 paintings will compete head-to-head in the annual battle royale known as Art vs. Art at The Vogue. In anticipation of this celebration/destruction of local arts, Sky Blue Window sat down with the event’s longtime master of ceremonies, Mike Wiltrout. Wiltrout is the former front man of Indy’s favorite funky punks Johnny Socko and current lead singer of The Leisure Kings. “You know, I’ve been a professional musician for 25 years,” Wiltrout says. “If people come up to me and recognize me, it’s almost always for Art vs. Art, which is hilarious. I love it. At least they’re not recognizing me as the guy ran over their dog. I think it’s cool to be recognized for anything.” Scope the full interview below for an explanation of “The Dirty Sanchez” and other Art vs. Art essentials.
Courtesy of Art vs. Art
Sky Blue Window: How did you get roped into this gig?
Mike Wiltrout: That’s a great story. When they first had it, it was held at Birdy’s. I had gone to one, and I really liked it. I might’ve spoken with somebody about that. Back then it was being hosted by Russell Johnson [aka] Rusty Redenbacher. He was doing a really good job, but the following year he was sick and he took a bunch of cough syrup. I don’t think it was recreational taking of cough syrup. It was medicinal, but it kind of put him off his game as emcee. So, the following year, which was the first year they held it at Fountain Square Theatre, they asked me to do it, and I was really psyched because I really liked the event. I think mainly it was on the strength of having been in Johnny Socko for many years and being known as kind of a ham on stage. I didn’t actively campaign for the job, but being a game show host in any way, shape or form has always been kind of a secret dream of mine. So, I jumped at it, and I’m holding that job in a death grip.
SBW: Is there anything going on this year that’s different from years past?
MW: I think a lot of the stuff we change is such minutiae that people who haven’t been to the event before aren’t going to know what I’m talking about.
SBW: Explain the Wheel of Death to someone who hasn’t attended to Art vs. Art.
MW: Okay, so these paintings go up against each other head-to-head, and we have a decibel meter. The crowd cheers for whichever one they like the best. The one that wins goes onto the next round. The one that loses faces the Wheel of Death, which is an enormous, game-show type wheel that’s mounted on this big wrought-iron, scary contrivance. It has horns and skulls and I think a fog machine. It’s probably about 8 feet tall.
SBW: That sounds disturbing.
MW: It is. It’s very disturbing. So, I spin that Wheel of Death and whatever section of the wheel it lands on, that is how the painting would die, if it were to die. Then they give the audience a chance to bid to save it with an auctioneer. The minimum bids goes up with every round. They’ve gotta lay up some pretty serious cash. In the later rounds, I’ve seen some paintings go for $800.
SBW: Do people get upset when their art gets destroyed? Have there been any rough reactions over the years?
MW: Nobody has ever thrown anything at me. It’s been around and people have known the drill for 10 years now. I think everybody that enters it understands that it’s an honor to get your painting destroyed on stage. People are cheering for that. I remember in the earlier years, there was a little bit of outcry. I think it was just one guy, so I don’t even know if that counts as an outcry. That’s like an in-cry. Somebody wrote an editorial in NUVOrailing against the destruction of art, but by and large it’s pretty embraced. People get into it.
Courtesy of Art vs. Art
SBW: You’re a musician. Have you ever played in the battle of the bands?
MW: I’ve never played in a battle of the bands. One time, when I was down on my luck, I had left my old band and gotten a divorce and gotten off the road for the first time in a decade, I entered a karaoke contest. The first prize was 2,000 bucks, so not quite the $4,000 from Art vs. Art, but it looked like a lot of money to me back then. It was held at Metro, the city’s premier gay bar. It was fantastic. I remember going to it as a spectator the year before, and people would go all out. I mean, not just the singing but the costumes and the special effects. Karaoke wasn’t as widely accepted 12 years ago, at least not by me. I had been in a band for 10 years before that, and the thought of people getting up in bars and singing along to a track was lame. But the siren call was 2,000 bucks. It lured me in, and I actually won it.
SBW: Do you remember what you sang to win?
MW: Well you sang three songs every round. It was ridiculous. It took place over the span of like three months. I think there were like, 200 people in it. People came from other cities. In the final round, I did “Come Sail Away” by Styx, and I did “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” by Stevie Wonder, and I did a piano and drums lounge version of “Gin and Juice.” I think that was the one that clinched it.
SBW: $4,000 is a lot of cash for the Art vs. Art winner … Have the reactions been pretty crazy over the years?
MW: Personally, I always thought people would flip out, but they’re always just a little bit stage struck. Plus, they have to slog through this event that goes for three or four hours. So, they’re a little glazed by the time they get up there. Again, these are people who are probably pretty introverted — most of them. So, it’s not a world they’re familiar with being cast in.
Courtesy of Art vs. Art
SBW: Any other crazy stories, disasters or awesome memories?
MW: Sometimes toward the end of it, when we’ve already gone through all the modes of death and a painting is going to die, I’ll mix in two different modes of death. One of them that’s really been popular over the years was called The Dirty Sanchez …
SBW: Describe The Dirty Sanchez.
MW: Well, you have a bucket of stuff that looks like feces. It wasn’t, but it was something they had mixed up from discarded paint and degreaser — I don’t know, it was foul. In fact, they kept the exact same bucket for a decade. They just put a lid on it.
SBW: So you’re telling me somewhere in Primary Colours’ basement, there’s a glory bucket of Dirty Sanchez material?
MW: Oh, yes. Yeah. I promise you it’s there. So, when a painting gets “Sanchezed” if it’s a portrait, they use a paint brush and they paint the simulated feces onto it like a mustache. Then they end up just kind of slathering it all over. Well, I had the bright idea of combining The Dirty Sanchez with The Chainsaw. You know, just mixing it up. The chainsaw spit and sprayed what they call “the doo-doo butter” all over the place. I have a smoking jacket that I wore while hosting that year that still has little brown globules on it. It just got on there and dried. I mean, I’ve tried to have it dry cleaned. It’s not going anywhere.
SBW: I imagine the crowd was horrified when the doo-doo butter went flying?
MW: Yeah, I think we all were. It was a lesson in physics at the time when you least expect it.
SBW: Is there a formula for success in terms of what the audience tends to love over the years?
MW: It’s always the weirder stuff. There is a formula. But it’s not hard-and-fast. It’s not 100 percent. If you paint something that’s cutesy, but then there’s an element to it that turns the cutesy thing on its ear — like, a cute, cuddly poodle, but he’s shooting heroine. That always seems to go over very well. That kind of a thing: Cuteness perverted seems to be a very common thread.
I don’t think enough art gets destroyed. That’s the only flaw in Art vs. Art. Maybe they need to raise their minimum bid prices, even if it’s only for paintings that really, just kinda suck. Maybe they got their friends to stuff the ballot box or whatever, but those paintings ought to be destroyed. There’s always somebody who’s the artist’s mom or uncle, and they’ll make the minimum bid and nobody else will bid on it, and everybody else is just furious at them. ‘Come on!’ … I mean, good for them because they got some money, but it’s a bloodthirsty crowd. You don’t want to disappoint them.
SBW: So, more destruction is your professional opinon?
MW: I think so. I think so.
Written by Rob Peoni
Keeping it Reel: Cassette Store Day 2014 Preview
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on defunct, Central Indiana arts website Sky Blue Window on September 26, 2014. Some content, style and formatting may differ from the original version.
By now, even casual music fans have likely heard of Record Store Day, the annual celebration of brick-and-mortar sonic purveyors and all things vinyl, which takes place on the third Saturday of April each spring. Listeners may be less familiar with the holiday’s younger sibling, Cassette Store Day, which returns for its second installment this Saturday.
On the surface, Cassette Store Day may appear gimmicky or misguided to those old enough to recall the frustrating process of reeling in a tangled ribbon of cassette tape with your pinky finger. However, the format has seen a minor resurgence in recent years as independent musicians seek to provide listeners with a tangible release at a fraction of the cost of vinyl or CDs. With cassette duplicators available at an affordable price point, musicians can produce a limited-run tape without bothering with the added cost of a third-party manufacturer.
Indiana cassette labels to look for on Cassette Store Day:
– Auris Apothecary
– Chapel of Crimes
– Headdress Records
– Holy Infinite Freedom Revival
Several local record stores will host festivities related to Cassette Store Day this weekend. LUNA Music has planned a sidewalk sale, a guest DJ set from Musical Family Tree’s Jon Rogers, and a pop-up shop from Little Super. Around the corner, Vibes Music will host live performances from local artists such as Chives, Hair Peace and Golden Moses, along with a DJ set from Jorma Whittaker. Both events are for all-ages.
For those unable to partake in Saturday’s festivities, Indy CD & Vinyl will host its monthly KIDS DAY this Sunday, featuring an all-ages performance from Mr. Daniel, better known as longtime local musician Daniel Paquette. All in all, this weekend offers a laundry list of reasons to hit your friendly, local record store.
Prep for your weekend sonic adventures with this video of Jon Rogers’ alternate persona Golden Moses from his recent album release party for Face Boot, which was held at Joyful Noise Recordings. The video was shot by BrainTwins.
//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js
Written by Rob Peoni
Thought on Tracks 