Telecorps "Reaching Out" Bootleg audio cassette

this audio cassette from 1992 (or 1991?) was the first self-issued Telecorps release--even though we called it a "bootleg." it was our attempt to make a live record as shitty as "Confusion Is Sex." we succeeded hugely. it is pure shit. it consists of audio edits of Telecorps rehearsing in the living room of the band house on Hobart Street in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. i made these edits using the shittiest tape decks available and without listening to the source material nor what i was editing.

our friend, songwriter/guitarist Gary Anderson who could never quite grasp what Telecorps was ever trying to do, commented on over-hearing these rehearsals that it seemed we were "really reaching out." hence, the title.

House of Duh was a conceptual and real noise and rock label run by Ray-C-Ray of the bands Propane Beef Dog, Salt Chunk Mary, Telecorps and Infinite Slab of Electric. this release is House of Duh 98.

the cover design and song titles are by Markus P. Spanglestein of Revo/O.R.I. (Edgar Um Bucholtz may have assisted.)

the only time Telecorps played State College (on the "Healthy Lifestyles" mini-tour with Fly Wallpaper a.k.a. Giorgio, Salt Chunk Mary, and Tiny Little Help featuring Duane Jones), we gave away or sold this fake bootleg cassette. Edgar Um Bucholtz's step brother, John Archer, was at a house party in State College a few years later and found one of these cassettes underneath a bathroom sink. or maybe it was a toilet.

listen at your own risk.

"Life In Aliquippa" (1993)

This is video cutup primarily features footage of Michael Johnsen, Brian Dean Richmond and Edgar Um Bucholtz performing in Aliquippa, PA in 1993 as part of Michelle Illuminato's Aliquippa Embraces Art. The venue for this trio performance was a large empty, decrepit department store in downtown Aliquippa.

For his performance, Edgar Um Bucholtz spent many days researching the story of the town of Aliquippa (at the Aliquippa Library, at the Carnegie Library in Oakland and in the Labor archives at Hillman Library.) For example, he learned of Queen Aliquippa (for whom the city is named and whose name translates as "large hat" for which she was famous for wearing), a leader of the Seneca tribe of American Indians who became an important British Ally leading up to the French and Indian War. He learned of the many African-American families who were moved en masse to Aliquippa in the 1970's to work at the Jones and Laughlin Steel Mill--only to be left mostly without jobs after the collapse of the Steel Industry in the 1980s.

In the performance, he read this text he compiled about the origins and history of the city of Aliquippa. He sat at a table in the middle front of the large space. His voice was sent via microphone and cable to the very back of the room into a 30 second delay and then into an amplification speaker system. The very apparent delay between his live reading voice and his amplified delayed voice was disorienting.

Michael Johnsen also sat at the table with a brass microscope & some video equipment (all equipment, including Bucholtz's was powered via one dangerously warm 200 ft blue extension cord dressed through the wet and sagging floor). On a small monitor, visitors were able to observe the teeming microscopic "Life in Aliquippa" contained in sample of ditchwater collected behind the venue. These were tough times for people in Aliquippa, reflected in the general tenor of the other work in the show, but the protozoa seemed to be doing quite well. Some children asked if "they" were predicting the weather.
Michael also projected a 16mm black & white film loop of sow bugs.

After Edgar Um Bucholtz finished reading his text, he, Michael and Brian Dean Richmond repeatedly played and improvised on three tone rows. Michael played clarinet. Brian played trombone. Edgar played cornet. Edgar Um Bucholtz derived these tone rows from the letters in the various spellings of the name Aliquippa using a alpha-tonal transcription method he devised.

This video cutup also also features bits and pieces of a video by Edgar Um Bucholtz called "Noise In System." The video ends with a bit of Christian evangelical TV re-edited by Edgar Um Bucholtz.

Fuck Telecorps "RedGreenBlueWhite"

video, audio and edit by Edgar Um Bucholtz, 2009.

this video was shot and edited in Pittsburgh on Monday July 6th 2009.

the audio soundtrack consists of edits of solo improvisations on multi-various electronics by Edgar Um Bucholtz recorded in 1994-1996 live on WRCT 88.3 FM Pittsburgh.

the audio was edited for video on Monday July 6th 2009.

this video was produced to be the Fuck Telecorps set of a concert organized by Mike Kasunic at the Nerve featuring Caboladies, Tusk Lord, Sundogpeacehouse and Fuck Telecorps. at the concert the video was projected on a white wall. the audio was played loudly through a stereo PA.

this video is dedicated to Mike Kasunic, Marcus Kim and Lauri Mancuso.



flyer by Mike Kasunic.