Music: Street Performers: RV&OI:

Retrovirus & Opportunistic Infection Chances are, many of you have seen RV&OI, or evidence of them, whether you paid attention or not. Their many albums, mostly cassette-only, have been found in almost every county of the state, sprinkled around bus stops, public restrooms, and even tossed in the open windows of parked cars. The total antithesis of megastars who strive to sell a million copies of one album, RV&OI choose to make their place in history by giving away ten copies each of 100,000 different albums. Actually, the estimated number of different albums RV&OI have issued is around two thousand, being inclusive and counting variants. Very few copies exist of each one, though the material often overlaps, and numerous different re-recordings of their many recurring "standards" exist. All are recorded with the most primitive equipment ("a cheap walkman with a microphone the size of children's aspirin", according to one tape's liner notes) and instruments. Out-of-tune unplugged electric guitars are the norm, but banjos, pianos, cardboard boxes, plastic mail crates, and aluminum pots and pans have all made appearances in the mix. RV&OI's hillbilly-dadaist material is almost always conceived spontaneously. Retrovirus once said in an interview in an early-90's Lexington zine called Creeps: "We walk around and look at stuff. We spout about whatever pops into our heads at that moment. We record it all. We pick out the best ones and put them out. Then we pick out the worst ones and put them out too." Since they've been plying their art since the 1970s, they've managed to capture a lot of local history along the way. Many places immortalized in their songs no longer exist and for some reason, we feel a little bit better knowing that RV&OI stood in these places and jabbered squeaky noises into a boombox there for posterity. Examples of their oeuvre include "Big Pile of Tires", which is a heartwarming ode to, well, a big pile of tires they found. There's "Mollusk Man", which sounds like a cross between Captain Beefheart and Hasil Adkins, in which only about every tenth word is intelligible. "Dracula Needs A Microscope" is a bizarre acoustic stream-of-consciousness rant which may be a comment on the AIDS epidemic, or, more likely, is just pure surrealism. "Searching for Pepsi (pt.2)" is an audio-verite recording of the boys making a purchase from a soda machine, complete with the clinking of change and the clunking of cans coming out. Indie label JLK Records has been giving their homespun head-scratchery more prominent exposure lately, releasing actual compact discs of their music, with actual distribution. Not only that, but a comic book company called Moist Doorknob Comics has been printing RV&OI Comics, a primitive minicomic that suits the duo's low-budget worldview perfectly. The comics, like the tapes, are also liberally littered around the landscape. Phone booths and ATMs seem to be the most popular spots for these. Have you found RV&OI comics, tapes, CDs, or other items laying around in odd places? Or spotted them performing on the street? e-mail us and let us know, and we'll post it all to our RV&OI Sightings Page!