Love OD Communications

Peace is free.

eBay – as part of the current global financial system – will not allow anyone to give away anything for free.

In order to get any item listed here you are required to generate a profit of some kind.

The current global financial system is therefore an inadequate channel for creating peace.

The auction is open until 1200 CET Monday the 27th of December 2010, and you can place your bids above the starting price of 0.01 USD at this link.

Following the actions of Tied Revolverman’s brother in DNA, electronic artist Mental Overdrive, who has now openly announced his support for controversial global journalist network Wikileaks by dedicating his new single to the organization, the Revolverman feels that he has to take some precautions:

In order to avoid making life too difficult for those who might consider such support troublesome, and therefore would like to keep an eye on such an openly-speaking citizen of the free world, the object for sale in Sellout#006 – “WISDOM” is a recently removed wisdom tooth from Tied Revolverman/Mental Overdrive’s own mouth.

This way – in case a DNA-sample should be needed by any of the investigating authorities – it can simply be aquired upfront here and now through eBay at a minimum price equal to the actual cost of removing it at the dentist’s office earlier this autumn.

The auction is open until 1200 CET Monday the 20th of December 2010, and you can place your bids above the starting price of 175.30 USD at this link.

Mental Overdrive would like to announce the following statement:

Due to the overwhelming reactions following Wikileaks’ revelations over the last couple of weeks, I feel that I – both as an individual and as an artist – have to stand up and make my opinion known.

I think that the totally unheard of attempts by various authorities in trying to silence the messengers in this case is totally out of place in our day and age, and would like to dedicate my latest single “Darklight” to the Wikileaks organization and its global network of investigative journalists.

I think anyone who have the slightest love of freedom for themselves and their loved ones should make their opinion known by showing their support in any way possible – one should be very cautious towards the kind of powers that try to silence their critics. Such forces should be opposed as loudly, openly and clearly as possible – by as many as possible.

Keep silent, and soon there might not be many such voices left.

Tromsø, December 13th 2010

Per Martinsen AKA Mental Overdrive

The fifth item in the “Sellout” series – Sellout#005 – “Pong” – is the actual Pong machine as described in chapter 12 – ‘More about shapes and structures’ in the novel ‘Earthbound – Surfing the Apocalypse‘, and featured as part of the ‘Earthbound’ exhibition at the Tromsø Gallery of Contemporary Art in October/November 2010.

The auction is open until 1200 CET Monday the 13th of December 2010, and you can place your bids above the starting price of 3000.00 USD at this link.

The fourth item in Tied Revolverman’s “Sellout” series – Sellout#004 – “Word” – is the last one in a limited run of 30 signed and numbered printed copies of transmedia novel ‘Earthbound – Surfing the Apocalypse’ in A4 format, containing 289 pages.

In addition, a CD promo copy of the ‘Earthbound…’ virtual soundtrack is included, as well as a printed card from the October/November 2010 exhibition at the Tromsø Gallery of Contemporary Art, a badge with an image of the “Elsewhere” installation from this exhibition, and a ‘The Apocalypse has been cancelled’ sticker.

The auction is open until 1200 CET Monday the 6th of December 2010, and you can place your bids above the starting price of 50.00 USD at this link.

The third installment in Tied Revolverman’s “Sellout” series – Sellout#003 – “Grounded” – is a 81,5 x 49,5 cm colour print of a montage of the Revolverman himself in front of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökul during its 2010 eruption.

These eruptions brought the world’s aviation fleet to its knees for days, and reminded us yet again that our entire civilization is extremely vulnerable to natural forces.

This image will be printed in no more than 5 numbered and signed copies.

The auction is open until 1200 CET Monday the 29th of November 2010, and you can place your bids above the starting price of 10.00 USD at this link.

The second item in Tied Revolverman’s “Sellout” series consists of exclusive access to the advertising real-estate that is a patch of his own living, breathing skin – pure and simple.

This means that as of today you can place your bids for the very special placement of your logo – permanently tattooed on his upper left arm. (This is the spot that usually is most visible in any public appearance or stage presence that involves TR’s parttaking, and therefore the most valuable in marketing terms.)

The image shall be no more than 5x5cm of size, but in the colour of your own choice.

If graffiti can be viewed as the opinion of the individual “invading” public space (i.e. commercially regulated property), then this will be quite the opposite: This is an exclusive opportunity for the corporate brand and its message to the market to invade an individual’s body – for life-long exposure.

Exception:

Initially, the idea was to have an exception. This exception would be that anyone representing “unethical” companies or industries were not to be allowed to place their bids at this auction. After all this particular Revolverman is of a rather trigger-unhappy and environmental-friendly nature.
But after re-thinking this, it was decided that this would be wrong. This because in the world of hard cash – the world where the entire “Sellout” series belong – there’s nothing more valuable than that of an “unethical” nature. The “unethical” is in fact the very essence of global capitalism.

We (i.e. you, me and everyone we know) have decided through our democratic processes and free market consumer choices that anything that is of a destructive nature should be considered far more valuable than anything that’s not. Thus, weapons, environmentally damaging products, destructive technologies, synthetic drugs, unhealthy food etc. etc. have been collectively decided to have a far higher value than such banalities as love, compassion, music, natural health, peacemaking etc. etc.

This is something we are all consolidating day by day and hour after hour by upholding our personal support towards this system. This is not decided by someone “other” than ourselves – the consumers.

The Revolverman has therefore decided to rather accept this collective voice of the people, and won’t mix his personal convictions into a business matter like this. In fact, it would be totally un-democratic and an act of bad ethics in itself to exclude anyone from bidding. You are therefore most welcome to place your bids, even though your trade is in death, pollution, destruction or pure greed – if you have the dough.

If you’re “nice”, and have more cash than the bad guys, you’re also welcome.

After all – this is capitalism.

Any resemblance to the ultra-commercialism of Damien Hirst is highly coincidential – there lies no tribute to him whatsoever within this work.

This auction is open until 1200 CET Monday the 22nd of November 2010 at this link. Starting price $25.000 (including ink).

As of noon today, Monday November the 8h 2010, Tied Revolverman will open the highly commercial auction series “Sellout” through eBay.

In “Sellout”, the rules are simple:

ANYTHING CAN BE SOLD

“Sellout” will put one item, or a group of closely related items – one at a time – up for sale on eBay. This will repeat every Monday at noon (CET), and each item will be open for bids until noon the following Monday, when a new item will take its place. This will continue until:

a. There are no more items to sell

b. The global financial system collapses

c. The Internet ceases to exist

d. Civilization as we know it comes to an end.

As “anything can be sold”, any item that is in Tied Revolverman’s possession can be put on offer – whether it is his works of “art”, clothing, furniture, electronic instruments, thrash, found objects, documents, food, body parts, photographies, personal memorabilia etc. etc.

But as with all good rules, there’s an exception:

As it would be an act of total stupidity to get oneself banned from eBay in the middle of this campaign, no illegal substances or items will be put on offer here.

All items will be posted with a minimum asking price that reflects the value Tied Revolverman himself consider each item to possess. If an item fails to sell it may be put up for sale again at a later stage, as failing to be “in the right place at the right time” is not considered a valid reason for failing to make a good deal in Tied Revolverman’s book.

Each piece will be given a genuine number, starting with “Sellout #001″, which will be a size 94x105cm colour print of the montage “YEAR ZERO” (as pictured above). This will be printed and sold in no more than 5 copies, and any resemblance to the works of Richard Prince is highly coincidential – there lies no tribute to him whatsoever within this work.

So, join us in this fantastic celebration of capitalism! New items will be announced every Monday, and the announcements will be made at Tied Revolverman’s blog. Items will also be announced through the Love OD newsletter and website.

This week’s auction can be attended here.

Mental Overdrive would like to announce the following statement:

The transition of music back to it’s original state – i.e. freely flowing throughout any culture despite its geographical placement or social or economical rank – has now almost been completed, and thus rendered most recorded music near commercially worthless.

It’s been a bumpy ride, where many artists who have chosen music as their main means of communication have faced great obstacles, such as the gradual loss of their ability to support themselves economically. In one sense this has left only those who are willing to adjust their artistic output up against certain commercial parameters, or push the right buttons in making themselves visible in the marketplace to be able to keep their activities as musical artists a “full time job”.

And this doesn’t refer to “commercial” artists only – every “underground” (whatever that is) artist have also had to face these same challenges.

Anyone reading this far will notice that there’s both “good” and “bad” news contained within the above: The quest to find a “new economic model” in this changing picture has been a frustrating one for many, although it has left room for much creative experimentation – which is “good” from a creative point of view. It has made others do completely desperate things to try to keep things as they once were – as might be considered “bad” from a personal, humane point of view, as no-one should need to be left in desperation.

Mental Overdrive’s ride here has been both good and bad, which, according to Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, is “in everyone” – and therefore isn’t such a disaster after all.

Living in one of the few places on Earth where bottled water is considered one of the silliest ideas ever (the quality of the tap water here is far superior to that being sold in bottles), the only time one needs to pay for water is if one wants bubbles in it.

The analogy to the world of music is obvious and this has been seen coming for quite some time now, even though experiments along the way such as the single copy record and other experiments have been fun enough to do.

In December 2009 it was decided that Mental Overdrive would stop releasing albums, which was marked with the “unrelease” of the ANTI-LBM. Instead, an ever-evolving live-set was to be made available at gigs only – hopefully making the experience one of the moment and never 100% identical from time to time. These sets may be recorded and made freely available on Soundcloud etc. That’s not the point. The point is that every gig would be a glimpse into a constant work in progress, making it far more exiting both to create and – hopefully – to experience.

As of now there’s another twist to this programme:

Mental Overdrive will no longer charge money for doing these gigs. The silly myth of “what you lose on downloads can be obtained from gigs instead” deserves to die a sudden death here and now, as all artists on the globe suddenly seemed to get this idea simultaneously, and thereby made the competition on the gigging circuit so hard that most have to play for very little money to even get a slot.

Luckily not so with Mental Overdrive – yet – but that’s not the point either.

The point is that the new economy in the world of music  - at least for this artist – is to be based solemnly on barter from now on. This means that if you want to book an exclusive live set by Mental Overdrive for your club, you have to simply put food on the table. (Regrettably but also quite inavoidably: if your club is not situated in my hometown, you have to pay for transport and accommodation also.)

But the main point lies in the meals: I will simply play my music in return for a nice local meal, maybe coupled with a glass of wine, and a warm bed after the gig. If the size of your operation allows it, I might also bring family members along to sit at your table (I have one wife and two daughters), as they also need food from time to time.

This way, we will eventually break totally free from the confinement within the financial system that music has been held in for the last century or so.

If this tickles your fancy, you can drop a mail to Love OD Communications to discuss the possibility of an event. If this outrages you, you can do the same.

Finally, as the transition mentioned in the introduction is not 100% complete yet, there will still be the sporadic single release. First up is the brand new track “Darklight” which can be previewed here. It will be available from all digital stores from December 10th (no, it’s not a “Christmas single”). The Mental Overdrive back catalogue will also still be digitally available.

Tromsø, October 29th 2010

Per Martinsen AKA Mental Overdrive

We have now got a mailorder service set up for our very limited CD and vinyl releases. To place your order, click the link ‘LOVE OD MAILORDER’ (under ‘BUY CD’s/VINYL’ on the top left of this page). All special editions will be made available here first, and we will also offer a special subscription service shortly.