Bucks Burnett’s Eight-Track Museum To Hold Grand Opening on Valentine’s Day With Some Help From The Tom Tom Club and The O’s.

Turns out the Christmas Day opening of Bucks Burnett’s Eight-Track Museum at 2630 E. Commerce St. in Deep Ellum was just a soft one. The grand opening, we now know, will take place on another holiday — Valentine’s Day, which, in case you’ve somehow forgotten, takes place on Monday, February 14.

And, oh, how grand it will be: At 7 p.m. that night, Bucks will open the doors to his museum (which will start being open for regular visits on Wednesday, February 16) with the help from some special guests. The O’s, who will be releasing eight eight-track cassettes of their new release, Between The Two, through Burnett’s dead format label, Cloud 8, will perform a set that night in the museum. So will local goofball singer-songwriter Stu Dicious. And, also on hand that night? Half of the Tom Tom Club, who are also releasing a new eight-track with Burnett’s help, a live album called Genius of Live. Both the Tom Tom Club and The O’s will be signing copies of their eight-tracks at the event as well.

So, yeah, it should prove quite the affair. And it’s not a terribly bad take at $20 a head to get in. More details, in the form of the press release announcing the grand opening, can be found after the jump.

THE EIGHT TRACK MUSEUM GRAND
OPENING RECEPTION WITH THE O’S, TOM TOM CLUB SET FOR VALENTINE’S
DAY

REGULAR HOURS
ANNOUNCED

CLOUD 8 MUSEUM SHOP
OPENS

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 16^th.  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
30^th 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.