MetaFilter posts tagged with junkyard

Reuse, Recycle, and ROCK

ocherdraco — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:07:59 -0800

Electric Junkyard Gamelan is the brainchild of bandleader and composer Terry Dame, and fuses Dame's passions of composing, inventing and building. Originally inspired by traditional Gamelan music from Bali, the group recycles and repurposes everyday objects into musical instruments. While some of their songs do indeed resemble the hypnotic percussive melodies of a Balinese/Javanese gamelan orchestra (The Nutbutter Challenge), other tunes strike out into new, distinctly urban American directions (Ode to Fred Beans). Following the band's motto, "Reuse, Recycle and ROCK," instruments are fashioned from coat hangers and rubber bands, bed frames, old farm equipment, turntable platters, clay pots, saw blades and truck springs. The "Big Barp" rubber-band harp makes a particularly unusual sound. Watching the band play is a fundamental part of enjoying their music:

At the Cleveland Bridge Project (Part 2, Part 3)
"Cark Nogg" and "Big Barp" in Baltimore at the Metro Gallery
At the Chicago World Music Festival in Daley Plaza

Brooklyn Independent Television interviewed the band, with lots of great description about how they play; there's another great interview (with lots of great music) with David Garland on WNYC's Spinning on Air (where I first heard of the band). You can find photos of the band on Flickr to get a closer look at their instruments. Electric Junkyard Gamelan has three albums (Life on Marz, Live from HERE, and the self-titled Electric Junkyard Gamelan). Live in New York? They're performing tonight at Joe's Pub. Sources for the descriptions in the main part of this post: EJG's about the band page, this post on Music for Maniacs, and yesterday's epsiode description at Spinning On Air.

The end of a historic car graveyard in Kaufdorf

kudzu — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:09:19 -0800

A car graveyard in Kaufdorf, near Bern is home to 500 abandoned and decaying cars mostly from the 1930's to 1960's. It has not been touched for over 30 years and has some rare flora and founa. The opportunity to take stunning photographs is unparalleled, but it is causing environmental issues which results in an auction this September. It was a struggle between history, nature and European law. History and nature lose. Flickr hyve mind photo's.

The Demure du Chaos

elpapacito — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 06:54:35 -0800

The Demure du Chaos (french language) in Lyon looks like something in between a junkyard, a museum, a work of modern art, a manufactured tourist attraction and a black hole of attention grabbin' for his allegedly wealthy, outofordinary owner ; who just got a €200000 fine from a Lyon court for violating town planning laws ( here a direct link to a photoset of DdC). How could a neighbor possibly be pissed by that ?

Zombie car raised from dead

planetkyoto — Wed, 30 Mar 2005 08:19:23 -0800

The Aurora (mostly pictures, slightly more info here). One car, two men, three decades of rust. Guy buys truly hideous 1957 prototype car from junkyard, restores it to gleaming unsightliness. Conne_ticut?

Full Metal Challenge

KirkJobSluder — Wed, 18 Dec 2002 08:27:27 -0800

Pehaps one of the advantages of massive cable channel proliferation is the market for geek sports. Full Metal Challenge is the latest creation of Cathy Rogers(slashdot) who also produced Scrapyard Challenge/Junkyard Wars. (Previously discussed here almost two years ago.) Contestants are given $3,000 and a month to build their own vehicle to compete in a variety of challenges with names "sumo", "wetropolis", and "hall of mirrors." One of the things that makes this show work is the color commentary by Rennaissance punk Henry Rollins.