| Bio: |
Photographer, Archivist, Documentarian, Filmmaker, Visual Artist, Videographer, Producer, Writer, Dedicated Historian...
Founder: Boston Archives and VirtualVagrant.com
Photographer of portraiture, humanity, zealots, counterculture, controversy, musicians, nudes, reptiles, birds, objects, and nature...
Audio recording project 1979 through present in the clubs and bars of Boston's underground music scene; video, 1984 to present. Approximately 3000 Hours...
Project installations, exhibits, etc.:
Ascent of Western Civilization: American Independent Rock, 1976-1991 at the Thread Waxing Space, NYC, September-November 1997 (Project installation)
Second Annual Berklee Career Fair: Boston Archives; Music Video Production
"The Lady and the Serpent", "The Hollywood Dead" trading card sets; Mother Productions, 1993 (Photography credits)
Streetshots at the Johnson Art Gallery, Boston, MA, April 3-25, 2003 (Photography exhibit)
Street Legal at the Zetigeist Gallery, Cambridge, MA, December 29, 2003-January 5, 2004 (Photography exhibit)
Benefit for the homeless; December 3, 2003, Johnny D's, Somerville, MA (Speaker & exhibition of photography)
Press:
Noise: November 1989
Boston Phoenix: July 14 1989 & December 11 1992
Boston Globe: July 18 1991 & October 16 1992
Casting News Boston: October 23 through November 5 1992
N.E. Performer: February 1993 & July 1993
Providence Journal Bulletin: June 17 1993
Maximum RocknRoll: October 1994
Boston Herald: May 9 2003
Spare Change News: March 4-17 2004
Partial discography of credits on records and cds:
recording credits:
Real Kids Senseless live CD recorded in entirety
Real kids Outta Place 2 songs live
Mighty Ions Face Rakin' Rock 4 songs live
Stains Stains 2 songs live
special thanks credits on:
Darlings
Swinging Erudites
Classic Ruins
Nervous Eaters
Neighborhoods
Real Kids
Two Saints
LaPeste (wrote liner notes on back cover)
Concert conception, production and promotion:
Lyres, Unnatural Axe (reunion), Mighty Ions (reunion), Last Ones
Club 608, June 22, 2002
Real Kids, Classic Ruins, Last Ones
Midway Cafe, September 20th, 2002
More and more, you see video cameras at local rock shows manned by pros from cable stations, or camera jockeys commissioned by the clubs (the Middle East, for example, routinely videotapes shows). If you spot a stout guy in a Hawaiian shirt with a camera on his shoulder, it's probably local audio/video archivist Art Freedman.
Freedman started dragging a tape recorder and microphones to clubs almost 10 years ago to capture performances by friends in sprouting garage bands. He bought his first video camera in 1986, and he's taped nearly 300 sets in the past three years. Today, his basement room in Newton is stuffed with cassettes and videos of local notables like Mission of Burma, the Neats, Nervous Eaters, Lyres, La Peste, Vitamin, and Human Sexual Response. His collection includes priceless recordings of SSD's first show in 1981, early Rumbles, and a drinking competition between the Real Kids and the Del Fuegos at Cantone's.
It's a labor of love, and Freedman has spent thousands of dollars on cameras, tape and film over the years. Occasionally a band will slip him a few bucks to copy a cassette or a video. He is currently scavenging for a grant that would enable him to back up and safeguard his archives, put together compilation videotapes, and possibly start work on a multimedia retrospective of Boston's halcyon garage days.
His enthusiasm hasn't flagged; last month alone he filmed 28 shows. Regular clients include the Neighborhoods, Willie Alexander, the Bristols, Big Train, and the Dawgs. He's recently catalogued his treasures, so ask to see his collection.
Kris Fell, Boston Phoenix, July 14, 1989
...Someday, Chuck White will write his history of Boston rock and it will be accompanied by a video compilation culled from Artie Freedman's archives...
Billy Ruane, The Noise, 1998
Glory days were back at The Rat last Saturday night. The Kenmore Square club... found it's perfect match in the stripped-down sounds of the Real Kids, who staged a reunion that actually mattered... Longtime video archivist Arthur Freedman was also there to capture the show...
Steve Morse, Boston Globe, July 18, 1991
BOSTON VIDEO ARCHIVES: Anyone who has frequented a local rock club in the past 15 years has probably seen Artie Friedman taping the performance with his video gear. No one has worked harder to preserve Boston Rock in video form. Friedman is now marketing a number of his tapes. Here are just some of the bands he has caught -- Bristols, Classic Ruins, Dawgs, Fabulous Billygoons, Macey's Parade, Nervous Eaters, Nor-Easters, Prime Movers, Real Kids, Slaves, Trojan Ponies, Unnatural Axe, Volcano Suns, Voodoo Dolls, Well Babies, John Lincoln Wright, and ZugZug. And that's not counting a zillion other bands, many of whose names are mere asterisks in rock history, but who still have a place in Friedman's formidable archives. For an order form, write to: Artie Freedman's Boston Archives.
Steve Morse, Boston Globe, October 16, 1992
Candid Camera Dept.: Artie Friedman, ubiquitous videographer, has thousands of hours of historically important videotaped sets...
A.J. Wachtell, Casting News Boston, October 23-November 5, 1992
BOSTON ON VIDEO. If you've noticed a big guy with a video camera at all the shows you've been to in recent years, it was probably Artie Freedman, who's accumulated one of the area's largest collections of local bands on vid. In recent months, he's been selling selected gigs on video, with royalties paid to the bands. Freedman has some real treasures in his collection, including the Volcano Suns' farewell show, the Prime Movers' final reunion, and live tapes by long-defunct bands including the Well Babys, Underachievers, and Rubber Rodeo. Audio and video quality is uniformly high on the tapes I've seen, and the Xmas possibilities, as they say, are endless -- Upsidedown Cross for your grandmother, perhaps, or the Peecocks and De Sade for your weird uncle? (Available from Artie Freedman's Boston Archives)
Brett Milano, Boston Phoenix, December 11, 1992
Boston Archives is a huge supporter and provider of local band recordings. They have made certain audio and video tapes available to the public, that may be otherwise hard to get a hold of -- maybe impossible. A list of all of the available recordings and videos can be obtained by writing to Boston Archives. And just so you know, Boston Archives never releases a performance without the band's written consent, and the bands receive a percentage of the profits from all of their tapes that they sell. Write to Boston Archives for more information or an order form.
Mickey O'Halloran, New England PERFORMER, February 1993
Boston Archives. If you're looking for a video of the Volcano Suns farewell show, or perhaps a 1988 unplugged Rubber Rodeo performance at Axis in Boston, you're in luck. Arthur Freedman, who has been recording and videotaping the Boston music scene since the early '80's, has established the Boston Archives, and is making some of his library available to the consumer.
And just to keep things on the up-and-up, Freedman obtains written releases from the bands involved, who get 25% of the profit.
"It's a love affair with Boston rock'n'roll," said Patricia Pelland, who calls herself "Minister of Propaganda" for Boston Archives. "I looked around Artie's apartment, and I said, "You have all this treasure, why are you just sitting on it?"
Most of what Freedman is offering in his catalogue is of recent vintage, although there is some older material -- including a 1988 performance by Boo Radley (featuring ex-members of Rubber Rodeo) at the Rocket in Providence and some audio tapes that go back to the early 80's (The Stains, for example).
Andy Smith, Providence Journal-Bulletin, June 17, 1993
Please note; Tapes are no longer available for purchase as Boston Archives is undergoing a complete transformation... Check on Myspace/artiesbostonarchives for further information and updates...
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