Heresy Museum

audio, visual and text works created and compiled by Jesse S. Dewlow

Alfred P. Sebastian Photography Archives 1969 – 1995 (coming soon)

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12/14/2021 – Thank you to all the folks overseas that helped facilitate our travels and to everyone that took the risk to attend events this past lingering Covid summer. Was a pleasure to connect during such a strange moment. Great to confirm there are still some not so remote places that are far less afflicted than the States.

On the last leg of the journey Rotterdam’s Operator Radio presented a mix which served as a sonic bookmark for the trip including live recordings of friends sets along the route, as well as unreleased tracks from People Skills, Eyes of the Amaryllis, and Employees Of The Month (an ongoing collaboration between Dan Melchior and myself).
The mix entitled “Elek Crossroads” was lovingly presented by our friends at Zenevloed.

Forthcoming releases which will all be out very soon include:

• People Skills – Repeat Performance 377 c47 is out tomorrow (12/15/21) on Cost Of Living, a new sub-label from the fine folks at Digital Regress. It’s an album of cover songs as much for those reticent towards nostalgia, as it is to fans of it. Music video for the opening track in the visual section of the website.
  
• People Skills – Tricephalic Head c47 reissue via Valencia, Spain label Mascarpone Discos shipping early January 2022. Featuring 4 unreleased tracks from 2013. Release limited to 50 copies. Pre-orders and streaming up December 20th at Mascarpone Discos.
  
• Eyes Of The Amaryllis – Sift lp release date scheduled for January 28th, 2022. Stay tuned for music video and updates via Horn Of Plenty.

-j

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8/6/2021 – The first People Skills interview was recorded on Radio Vilnius in July. Unreleased Primitive Radio Gods, Linda Smith and Third Eye Blind covers as well as the full interview now archived at: https://radiovilnius.live/772-2/

8/5/2021 – Some new dates have emerged, updates added to flier below. Feel free to email heresymuseum@riseup.net for details about specific events.

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6/13/2021 – Hello. Time moves strangely this year. Glad to say some things seem to have changed since the last update here and I hope this message finds you all doing better than last summer.

News since the previous update includes a flurry of releases, a mix, and some exciting forthcoming releases. Most notably though, this year of isolation has led to a renewed appreciation for collaborative music.

• One of which collaborative release is a band that emerged during a stay in Porto, Portugal in the summer of 2013. The recordings taken along with visual artists Tomè Duarte and Sara Graça of the few sessions and single show we performed materialized and finally made their way out into the world as a full length cassette with the help of Berlin label Kashual Plastik. Frumpalise – FR Another World c40 was released in November 2020.

• While working on the Frumpalise tape, Kashual Plastik label head Franz showed interest in some of the more rhythmic material on the 2016 Blackest Ever Black LP, People Skills – Gunshots at Crestridge. His suggestion led to revisiting some cherished remnants of the record and the first People Skills CD began to materialize.
  The release was only casually referred to as a sequel to the Blackest Ever Black record, but truly that should have been the punchline. The full length CD was made entirely with music from that time that for some reason did not make the cut in sequencing.
  
  People Skills – As Thru Days of Endless was available to purchase through Kashual Plastik in February 2021 as a limited edition CD with sandpaper cover, and is now available to stream or to download.

• In March Kashual Plastik extended the invitation to prepare a mix for Belgian Kiosk Radio’s Outsiders series. The mix was inspired by nostalgia for live music after the year in isolation and was titled That Was You. It aired on April 12th and runs for the final hour of the program which Kiosk uploaded to their Soundcloud. The mix was compiled entirely from live performances I had recorded in Philadelphia over the last 10 years. Please take note of the track list of inspiring pals below, and the accompanying cover image from the Alfred P. Sebastian Archives.

• In late April 2021 the debut of new garden band Eyes of the Amaryllis was released. Featuring confidants Jim Strong, Esther Scanlund, Goda Trakumaite and myself, Eyes of the Amaryllis untitled c42 included handmade sewn recycled tyvek case and accompanying collage zine via Jim’s great Cor Ardens label. You can read about the release on the Cor Ardens website and you can stream and download it for free from this web address which serves as the digital representation of the release:
  www.eyesoftheamaryllis.com
  
  ***Stay tuned for more information about the forthcoming EotA LP which is in the works compliments of the wonderful Horn Of Plenty label***

• In other forthcoming news a massive double lp compilation from, you guessed it Kashual Plastik, in their usual stylish handcrafted guile will be available soon. Labyrinth of Memories contains a recently recorded People Skills track alongside 30+ other homespun heavy hitters from the likes of Mosquitoes, Suburban Cracked Collective, Bobby Would, Pumice, Loopsel, Brannten Schnüre, Stefan Christensen and many more. Be on the look out for it later this month.

• Last but certainly not least, the Alfred P. Sebastian Memorial Gallery has opened its doors in the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey. On display are more than 40 original prints from the artist’s private photography archives, most on public display for the first time ever. Showings by appointment only. To schedule your visit please email heresymuseum (at) riseup (dot) net

Additional Updates:

• Effective February 2021 100% of proceeds from the sale of all People Skills material will be redirected to local harm reduction and mutual aid groups in Philadelphia. For a full list with links and descriptions of the groups supported, click the more info button under Digital Album on any release.
  
• Select performances dates for People Skills in Europe summer 2021 to be announced soon. (Please reach out if you’re able to help connect the dots to unusual EU booking people, or if you’d like to collaborate on any level of low-key outdoor or indoor music event.)

That’s all for now folks.
Thanks for reading.

-j

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8/11/2020 – Greetings from across the unraveling. A few releases from
the past year have been added to the ps listening booth**:

• Newly recorded material released digitally in May 2020 via Jon Abbey / Erstwhile‘s Amplify 2020 Quarantine Fest. Ostensibly the first People Skills ‘full length’ of newly recorded material since 2018. People Skills – Zoom Meeting.
• A stand out unreleased track from the 2016 Gunshots at Crestridge material. Presented on the new BUFMS Fug Gum Vol. 3 compilation. (headphones or decent speakers suggested)
• Also on Fug Gum Vol. 3 is a reworking of a Jim Strong, Tom DeAngelo, Jesse Dewlow – Melkings performance recorded at Areté Gallery in nyc August 2019.
• Lastly, the previously not digitally available, People Skills – Magnet Hill 7″ from last summer on I Dischi Del Barone. Complete with simulated lockgroove.

**on the topic of Bandcamp, while we are all here in 2020, rife with political engagement, here’s a brief psa about why I ask people interested in purchasing my music to contact me directly via email, and to use my bc for free listening / downloading.

It’s not that I think Bandcamp doesn’t offer a useful service for artists, or that their fee waving isn’t generous, I’m just not willing to let that overshadow what I see as a conflict of interest. Bandcamp boasts 80% of each purchase paid directly to artists. Equating to more than $555 million paid to artists since their launch in 2007. That’s a great accomplishment. What it neglects to quantify though is the other 20% that’s roughly split between them and payment processing monopoly Paypal. Based on these figures from bc’s website that means independent musicians have contributed more than 55 million dollars to Paypal via Bandcamp. And more than $2 million in the past 30 days of intermittent fee waving alone.

As if Paypal’s treatment of Soulseek wasn’t enough to have you shaking your fist in scorn, flip through the Paypal wiki and ask yourself why we’ve all accepted pumping millions into this nefarious venture capital giant for so long. It’s clear now more than ever that it is in no ones best interest to passively enable the wealth that billion dollar companies have accumulated. Multinational conglomerates and Nike execs should have nothing to do with antisocial music.
Surely there are much bigger fish to fry right now, but that doesn’t mean it’s too much to ask for Bandcamp to put their grassroots, ‘for the artists’ pr to action and make a concerted effort to (at very least) offer alternative payment processing options.

In defense of Soulseek, file sharing constituents, hackers and creative autonomy universal, stay asking questions and push for companies marketing social awareness to take real steps to do better.
-j

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contact: heresymuseum at riseup dot net