Home, home on the range with Chad. Photography by Jeff Thorburn

WEDNESDAY 3 AUGUST
Bitterzoet, 19.30, €12  (with Ringo Deathstar and Neon Indian)

LIFE IS BUTTER DREAMER
2 – 21 AUGUST
Opening 2 August, 18.00
Andenken Gallery
Bilderdijkkade 60
www.andenken.com 

In this age of seemingly endless celebrity-driven, talentless tripe, it’s good folk like Chad VanGaalen that make us remember why we fell in love with music and song in the first place, oh-so many years ago. Honest, intelligent, humble and extremely original pop songs are the hallmark of this somewhat reclusive yet very enigmatic songwriter/video maker/illustrator from Calgary, Alberta. With his latest release Diaper Island setting many critics’ saliva glands on drool, this modern-day renaissance man has offered up his latest slice of life for our troubled times. Where his three previous releases Infiniheart, Skelliconnection and Soft Airplane were bound together by their lo-fi charm and DIY quirkiness, for his latest, recorded in his swanky new home-studio, VanGaalen has perhaps produced his most sonically cohesive record to date and, dare we say, given the world something resembling a rock album! No matter which category he’s put in (and this is hard to do with VanGaalen), the music is unassuming, charming and utterly fantastic and that’s worth so much in these dark, dreary X-Factor days.

And to complement this show at Bitterzoet, this talented young man-in-motion will also be showing illustrations and animation cells at his exhibition Life Is Butter Dreamer, at Andenken Gallery, with an opening reception (with the artist) on 2 August, 18.00. Having illustrated his own records for years, it was the 2005 release of the video for his song ‘Clinically Dead’ that brought VanGaalen international acclaim for his visual and illustrative style, while the video itself went on to win numerous awards in the music industry.

Music and art. The records so far...

The exhibition will feature cells from J. Mascis’ (Dinosaur Jr.) video ‘Not Enough’ and a screening from this and other animated films by VanGaalen will accompany the drawings and illustrations in the show. There will also be an acoustic performance by VanGaalen at the opening and the chance to win tickets to the Bitterzoet show on 3 August. What more could one want at an art opening?