Videovore Joshua Hedges Compiles a Radical Assortment of Ex-Rental Video Store Stickers in His Indie Print Zine VIDEO RELICS! Read On for a Groovy Exclusive Announcement from LUNCHMEAT!
A look at the cover art for VIDEO RELICS zine. You know we can dig it.
Tell us a little about yourself and your creative history, man. When did you start getting into VHS? Well, it all started when I was super young and watching tapes with my older brother who was really into horror / sci -fi movies. We watched a lot of Ft13, Toxic Avenger, Creepshow 1 & 2, Silent Night Deadly Night, and ya know, a lot of stuff like that. I lived through his collection. VHS and tons of cassette tapes of speed metal: Slayer, Body Count, S.O.D, DJ Magic Mike, and tons of others. Older I got, the more I started getting into going to the rental store and grazing the horror, sci-fi, animation, and cult sections. Eventually, I would start collecting VHS. Oldest memory of a movie that stuck was Basket Case; I remember watching it in the complete dark with a babysitter and a few other kids and it was incredible. We must have been 6 or 7, it seems. Creative history I would put at around 1999 when I started making weird, harsh experimental music with another friend of mine. It kinda opened up my need to start archiving and backing up songs that were being made and after years of it and collecting tapes I realized I really love archiving all types of art and media whether it be VHS, pictures of shows, live band footage, DIY CD-Rs, cassettes… I just dug it all.
A sample page from Hedges' VIDEO RELICS zine. There's a lot more with this came from, Tapeheads.
Tell us about the conception of VIDEO RELICS. What people can expect when they flip through it? The concept is that I want to preserve a part of VHS that is usually thrown away e.g., the old rental stickers, home made labels, and just whatever was slapped on the tape itself or on the outside box.
Another sample page from VIDEO RELICS. The VIDEO UPDATE "PLEASE REWIND TAPE" spine sticker? A must.
Do you have a favorite sticker that you’ve found in the wild over the years? There are just so many, man… Stickers for Thomas Video, Liberty Street Video, and I have one that says SUPER LASER VIDEO on the side that I only have one of. Also have one that says cult on the side, but it’s written in speed metal type lettering...
Here's a groovy little double store sticker find I dug out a few days ago. Crown Video must have let this one go, and Express Video snatched it up for their stock... Or did Crown Video turn INTO Express Video? Obscure home video history hints abound, man.
Speaking of it essentially being an endless ocean of these video store labels and stickers, do you plan on doing another volume of VIDEO RELICS? Where can we keep up with you? I do plan on doing a few more volumes, yeah. I only scanned a small portion of my tapes and could really do a bunch more. Keeping up with me is kind of different because I do not really have an outlet were I do the VHS related stuff. I usually just share it with pals on Facebook, so I guess just add my name on there and you will be looped in. I have been putting more things on VHS for very small runs of music videos and experimental videos I make with circuit bent video processors and such. It is all released under the almost non existent label called THIRD EYE that I started as an archive for what I do. I will put the Third Eye logo on the small batch runs I do. Anything else you wanna shout out to all the Videovores in Lunchmeat Land? Yeah, next time you go to throw away or donate the VHS you think is junk, make sure your old favorite rental stores logo isn’t on there, and if it is, scan it so you can have it forever. You’ll miss it.Ain’t it the tape-lovin’ truth, man!! Josh really nails it when it comes to understanding the importance of preserving the virtually endless array of video store stickers out there, Tapeheads. As the years roll on and the presence of physical rental stores continually dwindles in the wake of a digital streaming takeover, the multitude of memories surrounding the once incredible presence of heavy hitting and Mom n’ Pop rental shops will only be saved by the documentation and distribution of their markings and traces left on the tapes. Here in Lunchmeat Land, we couldn’t agree more that it’s absolutely vital to try and preserve this most nostalgic and essential aspect of vintage VHS culture, so (cue the groovy announcement!) Lunchmeat will be teaming up with Josh to create an expanded edition of VIDEO RELICS, jam-packed with rental store sticker bliss taken from Josh’s collection alongside VHStuff from the Lunchmeat VHS Archives, it’s due out by the end of the year! What’s that? You’ve got a killer video store sticker that you think needs to be a part of this printed collection? We thought you might! We’re taking submissions up until mid-December 2015, so if you’ve got a favorite rental store of yore, one of those radical Grim Reaper Horror genre stickers, or anything else that you think needs to be represented in the upcoming expanded edition of VIDEO RELICS, send a hi-res scan of the sticker(s) to TheButcher@LunchmeatVHS.com with the subject line VIDEO RELICS VHSUBMISSION! – we’d love to VHSee your Mom n’ Pop memories and VHShare them with the rewind-inclined world, Videovores!!
Groove and Groove and 50 Cent Charge if Not Rewound!
Josh Schafer