Album Notes

Paul Kotheimer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul Kotheimer (born October 25, 1968, Evergreen Park, Illinois) is a U. S. singer-songwriter, activist, recording artist, and performer of DiY/acoustic, indie rock, and political folk music, performing since the late 1980’s, based in Urbana, Illinois. Kotheimer is also the founder of the DiY/folk and acoustic recording company, the hand-made record label.

Kotheimer’s DiY/acoustic and indie rock songs are characterized by vividly narrative and poetically expressive lyrics and by an eclectic blending of various popular music genres and styles. His recording techniques vary from the most sparse and lo-fi solo demos to full-band arrangements in which Kotheimer himself performs all instrumental and vocal parts as overdubs. Many of Kotheimer's political folk songs adapt updated lyrics to traditional American folk and protest songs. Kotheimer’s political subject matter includes commonly addressed 21st Centrury left-activist themes: Songs against war (specifically, the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq), U.S. imperialism, corporate globalization, biotechnology, urban gentrification, and consumerism (and particularly, against Wal-Mart); along with songs in favor of direct action, ecodefense, organized labor, and feminism.

Career

In the Spring of 1988, Kotheimer recorded solo acoustic demos at Burton-Judson Courts at the University of Chicago. In 1990-1992, he performed bi-weekly sets at the Green Street Café in Chicago’s University Village neighborhood, where he was frequently joined onstage by multi-instrumentalist Oliver Steck. Later the duo performed at the Torchlight Café in Chicago’s Roscoe Village neighborhood.

From 1993 to 1996, Kotheimer was active in the Red Herring Coffee House on the campus of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. In 1994, Kotheimer released Essential Demo Recordings, the first publication to bear the hand-made record label name and logo.

From 1995 to 1997, Kotheimer performed as songwriter, lead singer, and rhythm guitarist in the band Herring Boys (with Andy Gricevich, guitar/vocals, and Nathan Otis, drums/vocals; later joined by Aaron Barr, bass guitar). In 1997 and 1998, Kotheimer performed as bassist/guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist in The Prince Myshkins (with Rick Burkhardt, primary songwriter, accordion and vocals, and Andy Gricevich, guitar and vocals). In 1998, Kotheimer toured extensively in the U. S. and Canada and performed at South by Southwest, CMJ, and other independent music festivals.

In 1999, Kotheimer participated in the N30 direct actions against the World Trade Organization in Seattle, Washington. His song, “Wal-Mart Associates’ Mandatory International Anthem,” as performed by participants of the School for Designing a Society, appeared in the documentary 30 Frames a Second: The WTO in Seattle. In 2000 and 2001, Kotheimer collaborated as one of approximately a dozen co-founders of the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center. From 2000 to 2002, Kotheimer submitted a wide variety of poems, articles, and song lyrics to the NewsPoetry project. From 2000 to 2003, Kotheimer served as a participant-in-residence at the School for Designing a Society. From 2003 to 2006, Kotheimer performed and recorded as bassist and arranger in the band Theory of Everything (with Darrin Drda, vocals/guitar, David Tcheng, multi-instrumentalist; and various percussionists).

Recent Activities

In August 2006, Kotheimer completed rough demos for his song cycle, A Martian Sends A Postcard Home: Nine Poems Set to Music. In that same month, Kotheimer published the political folk song “Trouble in the Water” as an mp3 on the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center website. The song, set to the tune of the traditional American spiritual “Wade in the Water,” was written in September 2005 to addresses the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina.