A Weekend with Exploded Drawing

by Robert Griswold

I had a pretty kick ass weekend with some pretty kick ass people last week. I started my Saturday morning by picking up Andrew Brown AKA soundfounder and then heading to Jonwayne’s hotel; from there we were en route to the Juiceland at 45th and Duval for some breakfast and vinyl digging. Jonwayne had an eventful night with Boombaptist one of Austin’s premier produces, and needed something healthy to recover. soundfounder returned with a shot glass of a fluorescent red cocktail that looked and smelled sort of like Sriracha; called a ‘Medecine man’ and guaranteed it would heal the nastiest of strip club hangovers.

He threw it back with a grimace and likened it to the ‘wake up juice’ Marty funnels into Doc Brown’s mouth in ‘Back to the Future’.

Jonwayne then began sifting through records while Andrew chatted with a man sitting on the couch reading a book, who we later found out was the Producer of a few Spoon records and other successful Austin bands. A Gentle Giant record caught Jon’s eye a long with a few vintage Korean lounge records.

Soon we were on our way to first Houston edition of Exploded Drawing. Jonwayne was in charge of the music and played some pretty hilarious stand up and then moved into some classic prog rock including Gentle Giant and Pink Floyd. We learned before he was a rapper he actually pursued a career in stand up comedy. After this trip I can believe it. The dude is hilarious.

Lo-phi at the wheel

When we arrived we had a few hours to kill so naturally we bought some beer and began to track down a Nintendo 64 and a copy of super smash brothers. Jon put a call out on twitter and almost immediately a fellow named Nick responded. “I found some one with an N64! His name is Nick and he seems like a very nice boy. Guys be nice to him.” Jon excitedly told the group.

Sure enough Nick came through with what is arguably still the greatest gaming console to this day, and it began…

He played as Donkey Kong and he went undefeated until I joined the game. Now I’ve met Jon a few times now but it wasn’t until I had beat him in Super Smash Brothers that he learned my name. I had earned his respect in the most sacred and time-honored way a man can. The story will be passed down from generation to generation in the Griswold Family.

Soon it was time to head to the venue where we encountered enormous busts of American Presidents and the Beatles.

Jonwayne’s head barely Reached their shoulders to give you an idea of how massive these things were

It was held in a huge cement room that resembled a parking garage. The venue is an Art studio by day and DIY venue by night. There was an immense amount of natural reverb which kind of enhanced the sound in an eery cavernous way making the whole event feel literally underground.

Here’s a video from the event featuring performances by Lo-Phi, Rez, Falcon Fucker, Sampler and Son, Sound founder and Jonwayne.

[vimeo 71949154]