Need To Know: Famous Swords

By Cassie Marketos

Famous Swords is a self-described “schizophrenic squid” of an art collective — a happily mis-matched squad of artists, writers, musicians, and others who get together to make things, and try to attract others of their kind. On Tuesday, September 30th they’ll be curating a multi-media event called Castle of Spices at infamous DIY space Glasslands, which is a prime arena to accomplish their ilk-attracting aims. The night will feature work from notables like Greg Saunier of Deerhoof, Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz, Adam Schatz of Man Man, and Amy Klein of Hilly Eye, in a variety of mediums from video art to photographs and belly dancing. You can still buy tickets here. (But hurry, they’ll go quick!) More on the event, and our interview with co-founder Alyse Lamb (pictured above), after the jump.

Tell us about Famous Swords. How many people are part of it? Famous Swords is a group of people who make things led by Alyse Lamb and Chris Mulligan. In short, we are a giant schizophrenic squid who wants to meet and inspire other squids.

What kind of stuff do you guys work on together? We throw parties, we have a band called parlor walls, we do live scores for short films, we make hand-drawn shirts/hats/leotards, and we use computers and phones to make videos.

What catalyzed Castle of Spices? What do you hope people to take away from the experience? This is for people who need to shed all the overwhelming anxiety that comes with living in the city. Castle of Spices is set up to flow non-stop from beginning to end so it hopefully feels like you are transported to another place. We will have a specialist on hand to recommend different dance options. You should just come and feel good, we’ll be selling chicken soup for the teenage soul, half price.

What do you guys most look forward to seeing in action at the event? The way the different acts overlap is exciting. There will be some pretty bizarre contrasts from industrial clarinet-fused spoken word to a power-suited lady dog getting down to punk rock.

Get your tickets here.