Never Can Say Goodbye

What We Do

Never Can Say Goodbye

625 Broadway at East 4th St, NY NY 10012

Description

On Friday, January 15, 2010, No Longer Empty re-opened the legendary Tower Records store with a multi-media art exhibition: Never Can Say Goodbye. Spotlighting more than twenty artists working with sound, light, and image, Never Can Say Goodbye celebrated the store’s historic role as the locus of the community-- the old way to meet people face to face and share music and information.

Spotlighting more than twenty artists that work with sound, light, and image, Never Can Say Goodbye recreated a fantasy version of the now defunct Tower Records store with Never Records by Ted Riederer- an installation complete with record bins, album covers, music posters and a performance stage. Works by Meredyth Sparks, simultaneously critique and revere the flat glamour of icons such as David Bowie and half-nude eighties models. Artist Siebren Versteeg presents custom installations that re-invigorate the space with music memories and the pulse of his contemporary art practice. Ryan Brennan bounces sound through an eight-boom box installation offering an audio tour of Hip Hop. Other interactive installations celebrate the store’s historic role as the locus of the community-- the old way to meet people face to face and share music and information.

Never Can Say Goodbye illuminates the economic and social changes caused by the emergence of the Internet as the dominant means of music distribution. In its heyday, Tower Records was sales central for indie and contemporary music, as well as a gathering place for musicians and music lovers. Today, in its place, is a virtual landscape without architecture, sales staff, and community traffic. Freely downloading selected songs have created an empty space where a music store once thrived.

Each week a variety of music performers captured the fleeting opportunity to play live in the ex-Tower Records space. Music performances included Broken Mirrors with John Miller, Cleopatra's, ((audience)), The Metropolis Ensemble, The John Herington Band, Azita, Disco Monkeys, Steve Conte (New York Dolls Guitarist), among others.

On Tuesday January 26th, Discs to Downloads gathered a panel of music industry representatives to discuss how technology has transformed art, and how contemporary gadgets and the Internet have impacted contemporary music production, listening and consumption.