Victor Wiley and Towncraft Documentary

[seti]

A local Little Rock musician just passed away at
the young age of 37, Victor Wiley. This is a guy who had a stage
persona on par with Iggy Pop and David Bowie but had the ethics of
Bono. Within seconds of seeing Victor on stage you knew he had "it" and
that the show was going to be a real treat because it didn't matter if
there were 5 or 500 in the audience it was a balls to the walls
performance. He worked with various incarnations of bands and made
approximately 20
albums with friends which I hope gets turned into a compilation cd. As an individual he was a true modern punk rock romantic artist.
On most Sundays you could find Victor feeding the homless under a
freeway bridge at a Peoples Picnic and later under the national title
Food Not Bombs. I didn't know him that well but I went to their punk
rock club on Main St in the early 90s, saw him perform at least a dozen
times and chatted with him many times over the years at parties. He was
an original and will will be missed.

Arkansas Times article

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Victor Wiley, 1969-2007.



Central Arkansas lost one of its most prolific and important artists
and musicians over the weekend. Victor Wiley, 37, died on Sunday from
complications related to congestive heart disease.



Its hard to conceive a more electrifying performer. The front man for
dozens of local bands over the last two decades, Wiley channeled a kind
of primordial joy onstage, an unhinged, pure burst of creativity that
longtime friend and band mate Andrew Morgan describes as funny,
frightening, and always intense.



He set things on fire, took his microphone deep within the crowd, and
contorted his body in almost impossible ways. He was always arresting,
Morgan says, no matter who was in the audience or how big it was.



He played in bands called the Stranger Steals, the Ventilators, the
Third Sleeper Is the Brain, Uptown Prophets of Armageddon, High School
Pusher, Sex, Fu-Yu, the Looks, Three Beats Box, Agua Azul, Flowers of
Romance, High Tension House and Clicking Beetle Bad Omen Band. Those
groups feature dozens of players and many of them sound wildly
different, but with Wiley as a unifying factor, almost all sound
brashly experimental, but visceral challenging music that always
manages to transcend.



Perhaps thats a testament to Wileys vocals. The musician played
everything from a saxophone to an altered record player he used to make
beats, but worked no instrument like he did his voice. Noise factored
heavily in a lot of his groups, and accordingly, he sang loudly and
aggressively, but within that tone, he could manage a wail that was as
haunting and soulful as the deepest blues.



Art always factored into Wileys performances and life, friends said.



To be in a band with him and to be his friend, you were always
surrounded by stuff he was making and had made, said Stacy Mackey, a
longtime friend and sometimes girlfriend. Youd become part of it.



Mackey met Wiley in the early 90s when she was a student at Hendrix and he was a sculpture major at UCA.



A lot of people know him as being really thin and fashionable, but
when I met him he was this broad-shouldered big guy, who was really
athletic and a great skateboarder.

He drove a car and the front seat was gone, she said, laughing. He
sat on a milk crate. There were other things missing in the car, but it
just gave him more room to store his art supplies.



When Mackey and Wiley moved back to Little Rock after college, Mackey
said, they hungered for the kind of art and music resources college had
afforded them. After a year or so of planning, they opened Das Yutes a
Go-Go, an all-ages performance space that helped foster the citys
vibrant underground music culture of the day. The fire marshal forced
them to shut down the venue after only eight months when he said it
wasnt up to code.



As early as 1993, Wiley and Mackey started feeding the homeless on a
weekly basis, first as the Peoples Picnic and later under the
nationally recognized name Food Not Bombs. The project, Mackey said,
came from the idea that theres so much excess in the world coupled
with so much hunger.



Friends say Wiley was passionate and earnest in his art and music and volunteerism, but always with a sense of humor.



It felt like we were always doing something for a laugh, said Ai Lien
Draheim, another longtime friend, even if we were doing something
completely serious, like Food Not Bombs. He worked hard to ensure that
a good time was had by all.



He was a total goofball, Morgan said. Ive been trying to think of
recent conversations wed been having, and I cant quote him, I can
just hear him laughing. He had like 10 different laughs.

************

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Towncraft

There is a documentary regarding the DIY Little Rock music scene called Towncraft which can
be purchased or downloaded for free of dvd quality. It is about part of the
underground music scene in Little Rock from the late 80's and through
the 90's. Victor is featured in the film and one of his bands was supposed to
play during the week long reuniun of bands featured in the doc but his heart gave
out before he could play a final show as he planned. Locals like to
think his heart was just too big. I wish I had a youtube link to post
of Victor but I imagine there will be one posted soon.

This documentary offers a very interesting insight into local rockers creating their own bands, clubs, record labels, and subculture to fill the cultural void that many towns the size of little rock often have. Even if you do not dig the music of these bands it is easy to admire what they all created.

Towncraft http://www.towncraftmovie.com/

http://www.localistmagazine.com/towncraft.htm

[oldbuckster]

Kinda' like ROOT BOY SLIM and The Sex Change Band, and his views on helping the homeless, not a popular subject, but they are still humans beings that need help...............