Music / Visual art / Literature
Cary Loren
born 1955 · guitarist, filmmaker, photographer, bookseller
Detroit-born filmmaker and guitarist who co-founded Destroy All Monsters and has run the Book Beat, an Oak Park bookstore, since 1982.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Detroit years
- 1955–present
- Field
- Music, Visual art, Literature
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Cary Loren was a young filmmaker and photographer in Ann Arbor when he joined University of Michigan art students Mike Kelley, Jim Shaw and Niagara to form Destroy All Monsters in 1973. The original group, which he played guitar in, set up for free at parties and a comic convention and made noisy, anti-rock tapes rather than records. He edited six issues of Destroy All Monsters Magazine (1976–1979), filled with collage and student art, and later co-compiled the band's three-CD archive with Thurston Moore and Byron Coley in 1994. The original lineup reunited in 1995, including a show at Ferndale's Magic Bag, and later made art installations about Detroit's underground culture shown in Rotterdam, Seattle and at the Detroit Institute of Arts. In 1982 he and Colleen Kammer opened the Book Beat in Oak Park, a shop for literature, art, photography and Detroit history.
Highlights
- Co-founded Destroy All Monsters in Ann Arbor (1973)
- Edited Destroy All Monsters Magazine (1976–1979), reprinted as Geisha This (1995)
- Co-compiled the 3-CD set Destroy All Monsters: 1974–1976 (1994)
- Co-founder of the Book Beat bookstore in Oak Park (1982)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 3
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Founded · 1982–present
Book Beat
Independent bookstore he co-founded with Colleen Kammer, known for literature, art and photography books, Detroit history and rare books.
Performed here · 1995
The Magic Bag
Ferndale club where the original Destroy All Monsters lineup played a reunion show in 1995.
Related place · 2001
Detroit Institute of Arts (Friday Night Live!)
The band's installation Strange Früt: Rock Apocrypha, about Detroit culture, was shown here in the 2001 exhibition Artists Take On Detroit.