Pittsburgh’s premier gay-centric house and techno party, Honcho; and Chicago’s infamous gay party, Men’s Room. Queer culture has never really been a stranger to the club scene, but VIA capitalizes on the subcultural shifts within gay hip hop. This year, the festival brings that support by way of innovative Chicago queer hip-hop collective Banjee Report, which includes the artists aCcb00mbaP (pronounced “Ace-BoomBap”), 1wo (pronounced “One Two”) and Mister Wallace. Banjee Report hosts regular parties in Chicago and runs a podcast. “I definitely feel like queer artists are at a point, just like Mykki [Blanco], with Le1f, with us — you don’t have to be defined by the queer aspect anymore,” aCcb00mbaP says. “Yes, we are queer. That’s the background we’re coming from, but I feel like we’ve honestly reached a point where we can just make music and be respected for that music.”
“I THINK KIDS FEEL LIKE THEY DON’T EVEN HAVE TO IDENTIFY SEXUALLY, WHICH IS GOOD.” Currently, mainstream hip hop still struggles to reach the kind of lyrical importance that it once had. Even Mackelmore and Ryan Lewis’ VMA-winning music video for “Same Love” — a song about a gay man coming out to the world — was criticized by former VIA artist and rising star rapper, Le1F. He stated in a tweet that was widely reported after the VMAs: “news just in: gay people don’t care about your video about gay people.” “Besides Kendrick Lamar, who’s been kind of stepping it up lately, I just feel like [hip hop] has been so dumbed down for so long. So it’s nice to be in a position right now where we’re basically just telling our stories from our viewpoints,” aCcb00mbaP says. “It is a subculture. We tap on some things that even mainstream people don’t really grasp, or understand, or want to know about the culture. We’re here to talk about those issues.” With marriage equality and other gay rights in the national debate, such issues are more important than ever before. However, aCcb00mbaP does have a positive outlook on how younger generations understand sexuality. “It’s definitely different generationally. Today, it’s younger and younger,” he says of coming out and identifying as gay. “I think kids feel like they don’t even have to identify, which is good. I’d like to
OPUS ONE PRESENTS
Art by Kevin Ramser of h3d Space
VIA VISUALS {BY KATE MAGOC} VIA’s focus on the visual-electronic arts is sometimes overshadowed by the music lineup (especially since we’re writing about it for the music section of the paper). But the festival organizers are equally dedicated to both aspects of the experience, drawing talent both locally and internationally. And the multimedia events frequently offer a kind of art that can’t fit neatly inside a frame or on museum walls. Parts of the visual experience edge more into academic realms than the party sphere, but there’s always overlap.
This year, VIA is taking the audio-visual element beyond the past format of one visual artist to one musical artist. Instead, the festival is building what Goshinski referred to as a “super team of artists.” The “super team” consists of h3D Space, which will span all of the Friday and Saturday events. Arguably VIA’s most ambitious and all-encompassing visual-arts project to date, h3D Space is a combination of curated, live and crowd-sourced imagery with virtual appearances from artistavatars. Each night, CGI video content and the real-life/virtual-presence dichotomy will be presented from a different angle. Also expressed: a fascination with the tension between high-gloss spectacles and the inherent imperfections in 3-D technology. Beyond the h3D, VIA feature screenings and new media performances from artists including: Casey Jane Ellison, of the Internet-famous “What the F*shion”; Peter Burr, with a multimedia performance called “Special Effects”; Jose Hamilton, who makes online artwork using the Tumblr platform; twohundredfiftysixcolors, an experimental film that charts the evolution of the GIF; and many more. For a complete schedule, see www.via-pgh.com. INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
10/12 CITIZEN COPE (AGES 21+) 10/22 MINUS THE BEAR 10/23 BEATS ANTIQUE 09/26 THE RAGBIRDS 09/27 ERICA BLINN & THE HANDSOME 09/27 09/28 09/28 10/02 10/03 10/04 10/05 10/08
MACHINE (EARLY) THE BOOGIE HUSTLERS (LATE) NATHAN ANGELO (EARLY) MELVILLE WALBECK (LATE) THE DEFIBULATORS DAVID WAX MUSEUM CABINET & HOLY GHOST TENT REVIVAL MEAT PUPPETS HEY MARSEILLES
TICKETWEB.COM/OPUSONE | FACEBOOK.COM/OPUSONEPROD | TWITTER.COM/OPUSONEPROD FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF SHOWS VISIT WWW.OPUSONEPRODUCTIONS.COM
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