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Normal History Vol. 269: The Art Of David Lester

Every Saturday, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 29-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.

The music and art of Mecca Normal (Jean Smith and David Lester) are part of the 2014 Whitney Biennial (March 7-May 25, 2014) in New York City. The exhibit, Public Collectors: Malachi Ritscher, was organized by Chicago-based artist Marc Fischer.

A Mecca Normal set at Chicago’s Empty Bottle was one of more than 4,000 performances Malachi Ritscher recorded during a roughly 20-year period. He recorded the Mecca Normal set on Nov. 11, 2002, while David and I were artists in residence for the better part of a week upstairs at the Bottle Cap. Our two-person art exhibition featured David Lester’s Inspired Agitators poster series and my Pint Glass series of paintings referencing my then two years of sobriety. The event was one of the first in our ongoing classroom and art-gallery presentation called How Art & Music Can Change The World.

The 40-minute recording is available at a listening station at the Whitney. Most of the songs are from The Family Swan (Kill Rock Stars, 2002)
1. What About The Boy?
2. Every Wrong Word
3. Revolution#Pine
4. In January
5. Family Swan
6. No Mind’s Eye
7. The Glasman
8. Ice Floes Aweigh

David Lester’s Malachi poster and the back and front covers of Mecca Normal’s seven-inch record with the song “Malachi” are also part of the exhibit.

“His Own Madness,” from The Observer (Kill Rock Stars, 2006) (download):