Pitchfork Checks Out 100 Records

Sonny Smith's 100 Records at Gallery16 in San Francisco

Sonny & the Sunsets Frontman Launches Crazy Art Project

Sonny Smith, frontman for the starry-eyed Bay Area garage-pop group Sonny & the Sunsets, has put an ungodly amount of work into an art project called 100 Records that’s currently running at San Francisco’s Gallery 16. He made up names and song titles for 100 fictitious bands, then sent them out to 100 different visual artists, who made up fake record covers for all the fake artists. Then Smith recorded 200 different songs (A-sides and B-sides) for each of these fake artists. Which is nuts.

The 100 Records exhibit, which runs through May 28 at Gallery 16, features all the original artwork, as well as a jukebox with all 200 songs. Smith recruited people like Ty Segall and Bart Davenport to help him record the songs. Artists behind the record covers include William T. Wiley, Mingering Mike, Chris Johanson, Reed Anderson, Jo Jackson, Harrell Fletcher, Chris Duncan, Tucker Nichols, and Paul Wackers.

http://pitchfork.com/news/38723-sonny-the-sunsets-frontman-launches-crazy-art-project/

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Kiss Your Feet Video

KQED checks Out The 100 Records Show at Gallery 16

Kiss Your Feet Live

The Sandwitches As filmed in Brooklyn!

The Sandwitches // Kiss Your Feet [Part 1 of 2] from Ray Concepcion on Vimeo.

Land Otters Uncovered!

S.E. Land Otter Champs 7" on 100 Records Blog

Check out this post on the 100 Records Blog where they’ve discovered a 7″ from one of the great white north’s lost classic bands “S.E. Land Otter Champs”.  Sonny Smith tells me that this little 7″ is a gem of a record.  I can’t wait to check it out.

Jonesin’ for a Love Triangle

Jonesin

Happy Hollidays?

James Finch Jr. capures the spirit of the Holidays

James Finch Jr. (one of our, dare i say, “staff” musicians) has created this haunting version of Silent Night with the help of our great San Francisco talented buddies including Sandwitch Heidi Alexander.  Beautiful!

The Guardian Talks To Sonny About 100 Records

Sonny Smith Singin in the Hit Pit

Solar flair

The sun rises on songsmith Sonny Smith and Sonny and the Sunsets

By Johnny Ray Huston

Sonny Smith knows how to write a song. He better, because he’s writing a lot of them. The Oakland resident is currently shoulders-deep in a mammoth project titled “100 Records” that combines music he’s composed and recorded with cover visuals by a not-small army of Bay Area artists. Anyone who has heard Smith’s 2006 album Fruitvale (Belle Sound) or read his column for the Examiner is aware that he has a direct, colorful way with words. Anyone who has found a copy of Tomorrow is Alright (Soft Abuse/Secret Seven), the new album by Smith’s group Sonny and the Sunsets, realizes he has a gift for classic melody: “Too Young to Burn” is worthy of Ronnie Spector; “Death Cream” is a balm; and “Planet of Women” is the kind of music that will give you that summer feeling on Christmas Day. In the immediate wake of Tomorrow, I asked Smith some questions.

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