Bucks Burnett’s Eight Track Museum opened in Deep Ellum on Christmas Day. (In case you missed it, here’s the KERA radio story we did to mark the occasion.) But since that day, museum admission has been by appointment only.
That’s no longer the case.
The museum sends word today that it will be open Wednesdays and Sundays from 2-6 p.m. and also by appointment. In fact, the museum has plenty of news to pass along, including a couple of very special eight-track tapes it will be producing. Read on for the full release:
The Eight Track Museum, conceived and realized by visionary cultural provocateur and the world’s first “formatician” Bucks Burnett, will at last be open for visitors on a regular basis starting Wednesday February 16th. To herald this auspicious circumstance that follows the Museum’s one-day only (but it was Christmas) “soft” opening, a celebration has been set for Valentine’s Day as a love offering by the Museum in recognition of its official opening and debut of the Cloud 8 Gift Shop. Cloud 8 offers an array of unique offerings including Eight Track Museum shirts, vintage LPs, 8 tracks and CDs for sale. Burnett’s Earotica Music record store located on Haskell Avenue within the Dolly Python complex at 1916 N. Haskell Avenue has been renamed Cloud 8 in solidarity with the Museum’s retail division. http://EightTrackMuseum.org Video tour of The Eight Track Museum: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDueID5krPY
Commencing at 7 PM on Monday, February 14, the evening’s events will be highlighted by an in-Museum performance by Dallas’s own The O’s whose new album, Between The Two on the Idol label will be released in a limited 8 Track edition on that day. The band will be happy to sign as many as eight copies (total press run) of the album at the event following their set. Opening for The O’s is young Dallas songwriter Stu Dicious who promises to woo the crowd with his classic sounding, Stiff Records-inspired originals. Admission to the Cloud 8 Valentine’s Party is a mere $20.00.
Also on hand will be Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, one half of the Talking Heads and the nucleus of Tom Tom Club. The just-out Tom Tom Club album, Genius of Live is being released on 8 track through Cloud 8, Burnett’s “dead format” label by arrangement with Frantz and Weymouth’s Tip Top label and Nacional Records which has released it in other (non-dead) formats through a licensing agreement with Tip Top. Frantz and Weymouth will be happy to sign copies of their band’s 8 Track purchased at the event. These will be signed and numbered and limited to just 30 copies, a reflection of the 30th anniversary of the band’s founding. The couple issued the following statement regarding their participation in the evening’s events: “We feel inspired and astonished that in our thirtieth year, Tom Tom Club’s Genius of Live will be available through a technology platform that is clearly on the rebound from obscurity to its rightful place as the transcendent format of the 21st century. Respect to Bucks Burnett and The Eight Track Museum.”
The Eight Track Museum’s inaugural exhibition “Conceived In Cars / Birth Of The Eight Track 1965” underscores the mobility the format afforded music consumers long before the era of the iPod. Hundreds of 8 track cartridges including all Beatles albums released in the format will be displayed as works of art as well as the super-rare and quasi-priceless folding 8 track, introduced in response to the audio cassette and marketed for only a few months in 1970 after which this particular variation on the 8 track format “folded,” so to speak.
It is expected that, along with Dealey Plaza, grassy knoll notwithstanding, the Southfork Ranch (which is actually in Plano), The Eight Track Museum will be one of Dallas’s premiere tourist destinations drawing visitors interested in adventure travel, cultural anthropology, time travel as well as music archeology.
Manifesto/mission statement:
As CD sales continue to fall, and LP sales continue to increase, and mp3’s dominate the world music market, there is at last a place for the preservation and historic presentation of all music formats, under one roof; The Eight Track Museum.
From Thomas Edison’s wax cylinders of the 1800’s, to Steve Jobs’ iPod in the 2000’s, all formats are now represented in a permanent museum setting. Living up to its name, The Eight Track Museum collection is centered around a well-curated display of over 2,000 8 track tapes, assembled by Museum founder Bucks Burnett. Other obscure tape formats are included, such as the 4-track tape, the 2 track Playtape, and a sampling of quadraphonic formats including LPs, 8 Tracks, Reel-to-Reels, and even quadraphonic 45’s.’
At the age of 45, the 8 track tape now deserves a historical setting. The Museum has started a dead format music label, Cloud 8, to keep the hits coming in the form of limited edition 8 tracks, with other formats planned as well for the label. Nowstalgia is in, and the future is then. The Museum’s motto: No Track Left Behind.
Location: 2630 E. Commerce Street, Dallas, TX 75226 in the heart of the Deep Ellum Community Arts Building, just west of downtown.
Phone: 469.867.4074
Shop online at The Eight Track Museum’s Cloud 8 Gift Shop: http://www.eighttrackmuseum.org/gift-shop.html
Website: http://EightTrackMuseum.org
Hours: Wednesdays 2 – 6 PM; Sundays 2 – 6 PM (8 hours per week) and by appointment
Admission price: $10 / Valentine’s Day reception: $20.00
About Bucks Burnett:
Dallas born, started the Mr. Ed Fan Club in 1975; the members of Monty Python were its first members. Organized “Edstock” Festival in 1984 starring Joe Ely, T Bone Burnett (no relation), Tiny Tim, Alan Young who played Wilbur in the series. Andy Warhol joined the club in 1986; Alice Cooper in 1990. Produced Tiny Tim-Brave Combo CD released by Rounder in 1996. Founded “dead format” label Cloud 8. Is wrapping production on “Spinal Tape,” a documentary about 8 Tracks with commentary from Jimmy Page, Tiny Tim, (all four) Talking Heads, Sterling Morrison of Velvet Underground and (of course) Black Oak Arkansas’ front man Jim Dandy Mangrum and a host of others.
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