The COMP Magazine Ray Ellingsen – Chicago’s D.I.Y. Scene

Ray Ellingsen Memorial & Celebration @ the Empty Bottle
Featuring Unmanned Ship / Mayor Daley / Toupee / The Hecks *Free Monday*
Monday, May 18at 9:00pm
1035 N Western Ave, Chicago, Illinois 60622

Ray Ellingsen, Self-Portrait, after 2011

For years, RAY ELLINGSEN was a beloved figure in the Chicago underground music scene. He attended hundreds of shows and was often one of only a handful in attendance at obscure house and basement gigs. Ray was an ardent photographer of the bands that he loved and was rarely seen without a camera at shows, forming a connection to his earlier years of Grateful Dead concert photography. Ray’s wide-ranging taste in art and music reflected a larger perspective on the DIY community, one that he stated to the Hairpin Arts Center, where he exhibited his music photography in 2012: “They aren’t trying to make commercial music to make money. They make music for the art. It is total self-expression.”

Ray Ellingsen, Kyle Reynolds of Oozing Wound

Ray will be long remembered for his spirited support of many transient underground music spaces, such as Mortville, Mr. City, The Mopery, Ball Hall, Situations, Roxaboxen, and The Plaines Project, as well as his fondness for the BitchPork Music Festival, and many other fittingly obscure art projects and exhibitions. His love for DIY music and shows extended to more “traditional” venues, as well, and we were always happy to see the kind, generous and enthusiastic Ray at the Empty Bottle. Tonight’s Free Monday is a very special tribute to our dear friend Ray, who sadly passed away in October of last year. Chicago’s underground community has put together a special show that will showcase Ray’s photography, ephemera and memorabilia on the walls of the Empty Bottle. The evening will also feature The Grateful Ray Altar, a psychedelic installation crafted by Chicago tattoo artist and screen-printer Carrie Vinarsky, where attendees are encouraged to leave specially chosen offerings to Ray.

Ray Ellingsen, Rotten Milk at the Cave, 2010s

Ray Ellingsen – Chicago’s D.I.Y. Scene

Alongside America’s commercial music empire – so far below the media radar that it doesn’t exist, thrives an artistic musical subculture in Chicago and nationwide, called the DIY scene.

Not under the restraints of making music to sell records to the masses in a profit driven environment, the DIY scene is based on total freedom of expression, supported by a likeminded community – independent and self-sufficient of anything else that exists today.

My search for new music from around the world helped me discover new culture, right in my own backyard.
I began to photo document this little known American experience, where creative, artistic people meet in secret locations: with a sense of occasion, acceptance, love of everything new – and music is the medium for this happening.

Staying true to one’s musical vision, playing what one feels and not altering it to be commercial, creates a new artistic optimism – a new creative freedom by “Doing It Yourself”.

– Ray Ellingsen

Ray Ellingsen, Anonymous, 2010s

Notes from Ray Ellingsen Memorial & Celebration @ Situ@tion$, 4/25/15

There was art, sounds, and words. Attendees witnessed and contributed to the remembrance of Ray Ellingsen’s beautiful spirit. Spoke, sang, barked, brought: art, food, whatever.

Chill sounds: Meester MagPie, Vechicle Blues, Charles Joseph Smith

Performances by Wishgift, Bitchin’ Bajas, and Rotten Milk.