Schedule Is Up

The Fourth Annual Rock Can Roll Festival schedule is online.
Check it out here:

Rock Can Roll Schedule

photo above by Rhonda Pelley

Rock Can Roll Festival 4

The Independent Artists Cooperative team up once again with Rock Can Roll to present the Fourth Annual Rock Can Roll Independent Music and Media Festival and Conference - October 23 - 26, 2008 in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada.

Founded in 2005 the Rock Can Roll Festival was designed to celebrate the St. John's rock music scene and the spirit of independence that drives it. Rock shows will be happening throughout the weekend at our Festival venues: The Ship, The Rock House, Distortion, the Rose and Thistle. Eastern Edge Gallery is the site of our Conference. All venues are located in downtown St. John's.

Our focus for the conference this year is "New Media and Alternative Spaces". Instead of the usual panel discussions we are formating our the event as a series of artist talks, demonstrations, screenings and special presentations. Some of our featured performers and presenters include: Magali Maegher (the Phenomes/Blocks Recording Club, Toronto, ON), From Outer Space (Cornerbrook, NL), Texas Chainsaw Massacre (St. John's NL), Iron Giant (Moncton, NB), Errand Boy (St. John's, NL), Swords (St. John's, NL), Bob Wiseman (Toronto, ON), Noisefold (Santa Fe, NM, USA), Jill Porter (St. John's, NL), Johnny Hardcore (St. John's, NL), the Satans (St. John's, NL), Avatar Orchestra Metaverse (International Online Orchestra), Danny Keating (St. John's, NL), Glenn Gear (Volatile Works Media Collective, Montreal), Maggie Meyer (St. John's, NL), Pathological Lovers (St. John's, NL), Class War Kids (St. John's, NL), Second Front (International Online Collective), Map to Temenos (Mount Pearl, NL), Amusia (St. John's, NL), Rhiannon Thomas (St. John's/Toronto), Lizband (St. John's, NL), Jigger (St. John's, NL), Two Guitars Clash (St.John's, NL), Blood Shot Monk (St. John's, NL), Sports (St. John's, NL) Matthew Hare (St. John's, NL) and many more.

Stay Tuned here as we announce schedules and details.

photo above - The Satans - photo by liz solo

Live Performance

First Virtual Installation Closes

This Month at the Co-op
Thank you to all who came out to see and support our first Second Life installation project "White Box", presented on Odyssey Island in Second Life. The installation ran for six weeks and featured rotating work by Anthony Brenton and Luke Power (live poetry/video/installation), Rock School For Girls (Video), Steve Abbott (painting/installation), and Liz Solo (video/installation) with build by Liz Solo.

During the gallery run we also presented five live performances including two live readings and musical performances simultaneously in the real and the virtual recreation of the Reject Room as well as live band shows simultaneously in the virtual and the real Ship Pub. We have also presented musicians Liz Solo, Mike Kean and Steve Abbott in live musicial performance in Second Life, most memorably at the SubClub. During that performance Ian Nightengale and Jenny Skywalker operated the avatars for Mike and Steve who's hands were busy playing live:



In the Studio
Liz Solo and Jen Skywalker are currently working in the co-op studio space on various projects. They are maintaining an open build space on Odyssey Island. Liz Solo is working on her Machine I Am project - merging machinima with other media in a narrative form. Jen is working on her newest play "And As For Her" and rehearsing her set of songs. The Sketch have just recorded a quick 12 song demo. The Black Bags are re-grouping and writing new material.

Anthony Breton, when not writing, is busy seeking paid employment as a writer. Should you be seeking a copywriter, art critic, rock show reviewer or brilliant poet for any reason - Anthony Brenton is your man. E-Mail us

There are many big projects on the horizon for the co-op, including more virtual presentations in Second Life. Please stay tuned.

Congratulations to Discriminating Gentleman's Club

Team Rock Can Roll and the Monster Psionics League would like to extend their congratulations to the Discriminating Gentleman's Club for their victory in the World Telekinesis Competition (a project of Noxious Sector and Deluge Contemporary Art). Both Newfoundland based teams had a great experience participating in this year's WTC - the first annual! We look forward to next year's competition.

Please visit Noxious Sector for lots of wonderful documentation on the World Telekinesis Competition, including photos of the installation and a video of the final winning match.

Pictured here is the WTC winner's trophy.

Team Rock Can Roll Are Triumphant!

Team Rock Can Roll have won their first round in the World Telekinesis Competition , held at Open Space gallery in Victoria, BC, hosted by Noxious Sector and Deluge Contemporary Art. The image above shows the official gameboard from the competition. As you can clearly see from the wax distribution on the board Team Rock Can Roll were victorious! Team members Anthony Brenton, Brigggs and Ron Anonsen (with familiar Clementine) cite deep breathing techniques and extremely remote influence as their strengths in competition.

Team Rock Can Roll defeated competitors Team Xirony who put up a valiant fight in a round that has been described as "no cakewalk." Next week they will go up against the infamous London United Psychic Club. From Rock Can Roll Headquarters in St. John's the team's manager, Liz Solo, had this to say about next week's round:

"The London United Psychic Club is a powerful group but our team members are not intimidated by the competitors reputation, nor are they allowing their recent victory go to their heads. They are keeping their focus. Everyone here at Rock Can Roll has full confidence in them. We want to bring that trophy home to Newfoundland. "

Team Rock Can Roll are the only Newfoundlander's representing after the defeat of Monster Psionics League in last weekend's competition. They will be competing next Sunday, May 25 at 4:30 P.M. Newfoundland time. Stay tuned for results.

To find out more about the World Telekinesis Competition and the people who sponsor it please visit Noxious Sector

Monster Psionics League Suffers Defeat

Monster Psionics League gave it their all but were defeated by Team Psychobirds in the first round of matches in the World Telekinesis Competition. Liz Solo, Burt Everest and Peter Duchemin/Gzorak the Alien Beard are pictured above focusing their powers. The labyrinth was built for this competition out of native Newfoundland stone.

"Monster Psionics League have been training for weeks," said a spokesperson for the group, "They are still trying to assess what happened and determine what went wrong."

The theory is that their defense was not as strong as their offense. They employed a barrage of techniques, including using their telekinetic "power blast" and creating folds in the fourth dimension. They were "perhaps a little overconfident" the spokesperson said. The team also noticed that several cats appeared on the property during the event.



"Possibly agents of the Psychobirds, we can't be sure", their spokesperson said. "A brilliant tactic, actually, using animal familiars. Wish we had thought of that. What ever the case team Psychobirds won fair and square, and they are to be congratulated."

All hopes are now pinned on Team Rock Can Roll, the other Newfoundland contenders, representing tomorrow, going up against Team Xirony.