Perhaps you celebrate the 4th by visiting Canada?

If that’s the case, then you might want to check this out:

Ear to Ear

Friday, July 4th to Sunday, July 6th (three days only!)
Or Gallery, Vancouver
Curated by Jeff Khonsary

Conversations: Saturday, July 5th, 5 – 7pm
Closing Party: Sunday, July 6th, 8pm
Gallery Hours: 12 to 5pm

Cornershop Projects, in conjunction with the Or Gallery, Vancouver, presents Ear to Ear, a community-based, ad hoc archive of contemporary popular music and music ephemera.

Despite a clear antagonism, the relationship between the legal and the illegal distribution of popular music in the West has been formed through a dialectic process. Recently, as major music labels have begun to adapt in response to market pressures, mainstream interest in the illegal distribution of music has become increasingly acute — focussed almost exclusively on emerging peer-to-peer technologies. While rooted in older, less formal systems of distribution, these now pervasive, illicit distribution networks differ considerably from their predecessors in that they enforce a strict distance (both physical and emotional) between contributing users.

With all this in mind, Ear To Ear hopes to establish a temporary, non-virtual community interested in popular music. Through a collection of visual, auditory, and printed materials, the project focusses on informal and/or illegal networks of distribution and communication within various music subcultures. Taking cues from exhibition based projects such as Christoph Keller’s Kiosk: Modes of Multiplication as well as mix tape and fanzine culture, Ear to Ear was developed as a hypothetical framework rather then a fully realized archive — and as such is expansive and open ended.

CD Mixes: At the heart of Ear to Ear is a series of 29 specially commissioned mixed CDs that will be redistributed freely during the run of the project. Participants include: Jeff Derksen, Eric Fredericksen, Andrew Lison, Adam Locke-Norton, Johan Lundh, Alan McConchie, Ceci Moss, Christopher Olson, Kristina Lee Podesva, Mark Soo, Jared Stanley, Jordan Strom, Saelan Twerdy, and Courtenay Webber.

Conversations: Please join us Saturday, July 5th at 5pm for a conversation on issues related to the project. Guest speakers to include: Robert Dayton, Eric Fredericksen, Jeff McCloy, Christopher Olson, Kristina Lee Podesva, and Saelan Twerdy.

Fanzines: On view in the gallery will be a large archive of local and international music fanzines and small press music magazines. Publications include: Slash, The Cimarron Weekend, FILE, Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll, The Offense, Rollerderby, Ugly Things, The Drippy Gazette, Beikoku-Ongaku, and dozens more.

Closing Party: A closing event & dance party will be held Sunday, July 6th at 8pm. This will be the final event at the Or Gallery’s Smithe Street location. Guest DJs TBA.

An essay by Jordan Strom entitled Scuttering through the First Measure will be available at the gallery during the length of the project.

• Or Gallery
• #103 – 480 Smithe St.
• Vancouver, BC
• Canada V6B 5E4
• orgallery.org