music
He used to play his spoons on the streets of Seattle. Then he hit the road. Now he's a legend in his own time after Soundgarden wrote a song about
him.
Right: Artis, the Spoonman, plays the spoons during a performance art piece at the Bottleneck. Below: Artis uses different spoon types and body parts to create his style of music. Photos by Melissa Lacey
Spoonman
Story by Jenny Brannan
rtis, the Spoonman, stood center stage with the spot
center stage with the spot lights shining off his shaved head during a sound check Monday night at the Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St. At his feet were several spoons strategically placed on a blue cloth — some wooden, some metal, some small, some large. When the drum began to beat, he picked up two spoons, placing one between his thumb and index fingers and the other between his middle and ring fingers and began to knock them wildly across his knees, hips and chin.
Arts, are you hurting yourselves yet?" asked Alex Skull, the monitoring engineer, from behind his booth of blinking lights and knobs.
"Not at all, not yet," Artis, 46, replied. "I'm so close to getting this thing right." Artis has been making music by hitting spoons together on different objects for 36 years.
She bought the spoons at Peterson's Five and Dime, a toy store in Seattle. His talent has taken him to New York to play on "Late Night with David Letterman." He has also played with artists such as Jimmy Page, Frank Zappa and k.d.lang.
The band Soundgarden wrote a song about Artis, called "Spoonman," for its album "Superunknown." Artis performed in the song's music video in 1993 at a naval shipyard in Long Beach, Calif.
"My mom bought me a pair of musical spoons when I was about 10 years old," he said.
Music is not about fame and fortune for Arts. It is a way of life.
"Right on for them presenting to the world a living myth," Artis said about "Spoonman." "It's not about me; it involves me. It's about how music saves people."
He said that he liked to play on the childrens' hands after the show. When he went up to one girl, he noticed that she only had three fingers on each hand.
His most satisfying performance was in a children's hospital in 1975 in Seattle.
"I took her little hand in mine and started to play, but, sure enough, I missed a beat," he said. "I was so upset I had to regroup."
He said he also liked to teach children how to play spoons, so he went to the little girl first after he was done playing on the other children's hands.
He said he taught her how to play with the two small spoons intertwined between her three fingers.
Artis said he bought his spoons at Goodwill stores for about 50 cents each.
"In a minute, or less than three, she had it," he said. "When I left, her eyes were sparkling. When I came they were blurry — like she had a sheet over her eyes — but when I left, they sparkled. It was my most valuable show."
"I want to make sure that people realize they're the same as people have at home." he said.
He is always looking for stronger and better spoons with a unique pitch.
"My favorite ones are, of course, the ones that break," he said.
Artis has been on the road since 1974, when he quit his job to hitchhike to the Mount Hood Blue Grass Festival outside of Portland, Ore., for the Fourth of July weekend.
He had been playing spoons steadily for two years before that but only in his spare time.
"I worked in a café in Seattle in 1972, and when it wasn't busy I'd take two teaspoons out of the tray and play on the jukebox." Artis said.
Even though life on the road can be rough, Artis said he would not have it any other way.
"The difficult part is to believe in your earliest aspirations regardless of the condition you're living in now," he said.
The father of five and a grandfather of three, Artis said he had given up a permanent residence — aside from a post office box in Seattle and a yellow school bus parked somewhere outside the city.
"I haven't slept in the same bed for seven days in a row since 1990," he said. "Well, once I did but that was because I was stuck. My car broke down."
Artis spends as little time in bars as possible because he does not like the atmosphere of smoke and drinking.
In addition to performing with spoons, Artis also writes songs and poetry, which he includes in his show. He has released two tapes of his music and written a book about his life called "Artis: Aspirations to Manifestations, From the Womb to the Void."
"I never pursued me on stage. I wanted it, dreamed about it." Artis said. "My whole career has been based on reputation and referral — never pursuit."
He has never gone looking for stardom.
Artis said he was once playing on the street with a friend in Seattle, and they were in the middle of a song when a well-dressed woman walked up to him.
"Do you have the kind with handles?" she asked, politely "Because my dad
invented the kind with handles."
Arts said he stopped her and asked her about her father, who invented his first set of molded-together spoons with a turquoise plastic handle. She said he had died a few years earlier.
Artis said that he still got scared before each performance.
He didn't look scared Monday night on stage as he fiddled with the five microphones that were surrounding him on all sides. Standing upright, alone on stage, he raised the middle microphone up an inch or two to his mouth.
"If I'm talking like this," he began in a soft voice.
"Can you hear me? Am I all right with this?" he ended in a roar.
"OK, that's good," he said, back to a normal voice, before he stepped off the stage to disappear until his show.
Loaded in Lawrence Again
It's not another Saturday night. It's the second compact disc of local music.
Kansan staff reporter
By Jenny Brannan
Brian Byers, owner of Mercy Record Studio, sat with friends Saturday night at a table near the back of the Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St., enjoying the result of a local project he's been working on since February—the release of the second annual "Loaded in Lawrence Again" compact disc, which features 15 local bands.
"It's not a best of Lawrence." Byers said.
"It's a taste of Lawrence."
Fifteen local bands were chosen to record any song they wanted at Mercy Record Studio, a local recording company. The songs were compiled to make the "Loaded in Lawrence again" compact disc, which can be bought at any local music store. A party celebrating the release of the compact disc was conducted Saturday at
The first "Loaded in Lawrence" compact disc was released last year to celebrate the one year anniversary of Mercy Records, 735 1/2 New Hampshire St., and the fifth anniversary of the Bottleneck.
the Bottleneck. The party featured live music from some of the bands on the compact disc.
Byers and the owner of the Bottleneck, Brett Mossiman, chose bands that they thought sounded good on compact disc and that represented Lawrence well.
"It gives the bands a chance to be heard," said Jim Sammons, Mercy Records manager. "It's good exposure for the bands on the first level, and it's a good chance to get something on disc for the bands that can't afford it otherwise."
The 1994 compact disc will be distributed nationally thanks to the success of last year's product.
Lovell said he also liked the fact that the bands were able to be in the studio while the Mercy engineers were mixing the songs for the disc.
Danger Bob bass player Jason Lovell said the compact disc would expose people who didn't go to bars to his band's music.
"It's our most popular compact disc for Mercy Records," Sammons said. "It was in demand so much, we did another one."
"It actually shows that we're legitimate," Lovell said. "They know we're out here; we're good, and they should give us a shot."
Bob Cutter, lead guitarist for Slackjaw,
said the compact disc was a crosscut of
Lawrence's music scene, but there were
other bands in Lawrence.
"One thing I like about these compilations is it documents what's going on in Lawrence," he said.
The Bands
Byers said Mercy would like to make the
Shower Trick
Coffee House Burns
Hatful of Rain
Crap Supper
John Brown's Undergroun
Common Ground
L.A. Ramblers
Monterey Jack
Nic Cosmos
Mountain Clyde
Sunday Drive
Slackjaw
Spamskinners
Danger Bob
Salty Iguanas
PAGE 6B
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
compact disc an annual tradition.
"We're going to keep doing this until Lawrence runs out of bands, or we run out of sequel titles," he said.
SEPT.21,1994
Calendar
EXHIBITIONS AND LECTURES
Exhibition-Holocaust Display, Sept. 26-Oct. 16 in the Lobby of the Center for the Performing Arts, 50th and Cherry streets, Kansas City, Mo. Exhibition-Shuttlecocks: The Making of a Sculpture, July 8-Oct. 6 in Gallery 136 at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 4525 Oak St., Kansas City, Mo.
Exhibition-Kansas State University Graduate Student Art Exhibit, 1-4:30 p.m. Sunday in the Art and Design Building Gallery.
Exhibition-recent works of Osage Indian artist Chris Musgrave, Sept. 9-Oct. 5 at the Lawrence Arts Center, 200 W. Ninth St.
Ethanity Community Theater presents "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Lawrence Community Theatre, 1501 New Hampshire St. Tickets are $11 for the public, $10 for students and senior citizens on Fridays and Saturdays; $10 for the public, $9 for students and senior citizens on Sundays.
The Lied Center presents "Stars of the New York City Ballet," 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Lied Center. Tickets are $25 and $30 for the public, $15 and $12.50 for students.
Exhibition Jennifer Bartlett: A Print Retrospective, Aug. 21-Oct. 16 in the Southwest Mezzanine Print Galleries at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 4525 Oak St., Kansas City, Mo.
Exhibition-group art show by the Douglas County Senior Center, Sept. 1-30 at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont St.
Renegade Theatre presents East Side Comedy Shop's "Night of the Amazon" 8 p.m. Friday, 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Saturday at the Renegade Theatre, 518 E. 8th St. Tickets are $6 at the 8 p.m.
show and $4 at the 10 p.m. show.
Exhibition- Kid's Art Showcase, Sept. 26-0ct. 3 at Lawrence Riverfront Plaza, Sixth and New Hampshire streets in downtown Lawrence. Kids ages 1-16 may bring original artwork (paintings, sculpture, short stories, poems, photographs, etc.) to be part of the display from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Monday.
Music Festival- KY-102's Radio Free Westport Alternative Music Festival, 1 p.m. Sunday in the parking lot south of Muldoons restaurant in Westport.
Art Festival- The Third Annual Harvest or the Arts, Sept. 26-Oct. 2 around downtown Lawrence and in Watson train park, Sixth and Tennessee streets.
PERFORMANCES
AUDITIONS
The Lawrence Chamber Players, Lawrence's only community-based chamber orchestra, will be holding open auditions for the 1994-95 season 7 p.m. Tuesday in Trinity Episcopal Church, 1011 Vermont St. Auditions are open to all musicians. For more information and to schedule an audition time, call Leslie Vining, manager, at 841-8617.
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