Inside Silent Music, an exhibition straight from the storage boxes of "accidental rock ephemera collector" Lee Reymore

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Silent Music opens tomorrow, July 14th, and runs until August 14th. Opening reception at 8pm, live music by The Fresh & Onlys - at Vacation - 651 Larkin Street in the Tenderloin - ON FACEBOOK
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Lee Reymore was once called San Francisco's doppelganger of Jarvis Cocker, and he's got a tantamount of wit, edge and thick-rimmed glasses to match. Omnipresent in a lineage of R&R since the late 70‘s, Lee has traversed through multiple city scenes, from witnessing only one of two Throbbing Gristle North American shows before their break up in 1982, drug interactions in the green room with Bobby Gilespie on the 1991 Screamadelica tour, to living in Edinburgh and modeling colonial outfits with Shirley Manson way before Garbage, and catching plenty of live debuts from buzzed San Francisco garage rock in the late 2000's.

Silent Music, curated by Reymore and installed by partner Randy Walker, is a manifestation of the musical ephemera Reymore has accumulated through his time spent backstage, in the pit, and in the record store. Some are scored secondhand through his connections as a rare book dealer, or just by having an innate eye for scouting his taste.

"I was a thirteen year old stamp collector nerd as a kid. I had this sort of collector mentality early on. I started collecting Samuel Beckett first editions when I began working in the book industry. But I didn't set out to collect art or music ephemera. I just ended up accumulating all of this stuff and not getting rid of anything."

Reymore remembers his first acquired gem of ephemera, caught at 1979 Clash show in his hometown of San Diego on the bands first American tour. It was ripped directly off the back of Joe Strummer himself, in the heat of an intense pit moment. Twenty years later Lee saw Strummer during an in-store at Amoeba, and gave him a handmade sign to pose with that reads "I want my patch back!" Both the original patch as well as the photograph of Strummer with the sign are placed side by side in the show.

The show, on view at Tenderloin vintage boutique and gallery Vacation, is focused on multiple trajectories in Rock N' Roll throughout the years: an eclectic mix of Late 70‘s UK industrial, 60‘s San Francisco psychedelic, mid 80‘s SoCal punk, New York new wave, and present day San Francisco garage rock.There is a variety of mediums in the show: LPs, cassette tapes, handbills, posters, paintings and prints. And through running his own rare and arcane book business Modlit Books he has included in the exhibit selected music biographies and poetry anthologies from the likes of Patti Smith, Nick Cave, and Jim Morrison.

Each item of ephemera in the show comes with a unique backstory behind how he got it. "I had all these great original punk rock fliers from San Diego and Los Angeles from my period living there, and using, like many people do, their parents garage as storage space. My mother threw it all away. I was really pissed. So I have sought out original [1980‘s] San Francisco punk fliers and posters from the people that distribute them back then, for that fact that all my original ones are gone."

Some of the work is made by the musicians themselves, such as paintings or writings that necessarily the focus of their career. Did you know Ian Curtis may or may not have cut the sandpaper used to write the liner notes for a Durutti Column album? Or that Frank Sinatra could sketch a drawing inside of a book he signed?

Silent Music is dedicated to the late renowned San Francisco ephemera collector, writer and curator Steven Leiber. Reymore was invited to visit Leiber's garage, a Mecca of ephemera from artists familiar and obscure. Leiber would keep files on every artist from whom he collected, their paintings, prints, even gallery invitations. "He was interested in the full depth of the artist," says Reymore. In collecting related work beyond just the physical LPs or cassettes, Reymore shares this interest in depth and variety as well.

Their visits exploring this basement-sized treasure chest of art continued until Leiber passed away earlier this year. "We would just talk for hours and hours and I would learn so much about this artist or that artist, some I had never heard of. He had worlds of knowledge, and a genuine passion for what he did."

Leiber's collection generally was not music minded, and most of the music related pieces he did carry were purchased by Reymore, such as the original punk fliers. But for Reymore, Silent Music emulates the experience he had of viewing and learning about Leiber's collection of ephemera, yet curated with his own aesthetic and tailored to his own taste.

"None of us have the same taste, but having said that I don't think I could ever move in with someone and not be controlling the artwork on the walls. That would have to be me."

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Silent Music opens tomorrow, July 14th, and runs until August 14th. Opening reception at 8pm, live music by The Fresh & Onlys - at Vacation - 651 Larkin Street in the Tenderloin - ON FACEBOOK
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Vacation, opened this past June, is a vintage boutique curated by Kristin Klein, who previously manned a former Vacation storefront in Atlanta. Klein, a tour manager in the indie and garage circuit for several years, chose to intersect her passions for art and music in Vacation. The space will host an ongoing series of gallery shows and carry releases by local bands in addition to fashion.