There Were Wolves by The Accidental
May 16, 2008 | Categories: Illustration / Music


I Can Hear Your Voice by The Accidental


Slice Open The Day by The Accidental


Time and Space by The Accidental

Sometimes judging a book, or a record in this case, by it’s cover is a good decision to make. I saw the cover of The Accidental’s new album, There Were Wolves, and was immediately curious and had to listen to it right away. I knew nothing about them but as soon as a I put the first song on I instantly liked it. I listened to that first song a little more though, and all of a sudden I heard one of the male vocals and freaked out! It was Sam Genders, lead singer of Tunng! Turns out The Accidental is one of those awesome side project kind of bands, somewhere between The Postal Service and The Reindeer Section.

Like I said before there’s Sam Genders from Tunng doing most of the vocals, Stephen Cracknell from The Memory Band, Hannah Caughlin of The Bicycle Thieves, and Liam Bailey rounding out the bunch. The band came together pretty randomly, but it turns out they sound amazing together! For those of you who’ve heard of Tunng, this is a lot like that, mostly because of Genders’ vocals, but The Accidental is even better. The songs are more melodic, Hanna Caughlin’s vocals lend some lightness to the album, and the string arrangements are awesome. There are also a couple of instrumental tracks as well, which I always enjoy.

You can listen to the entire album over on Last.fm, which I highly suggest you go and do. I mean, what do you have to lose? If you’re a fan of folk sounds or music that’s really layered and well produced, definitely give this a shot. The album is out in the UK already, and will be released on June 3rd here in the States.

Bobby

Piece of Me, Piece of You
May 16, 2008 | Categories: Art / Design / Films / Music / Technology

Poor Zune, you try so hard but never really get anywhere in your battle against Apple. Hell, one of my co-workers hadn’t ever heard of a Zune before! But like I said, you do try, and this new video by Three Legged Legs is proof positive that you really do care. The video is called Pieces of Me, Pieces of You, and features zombie puppets! The puppets were created the awesome Adam Parker Smith, who is a damn pro on creating creepy, zombie puppets. Imagine Thriller with puppets and a Chromeo soundtrack and that’s what you’ve got.

Be sure to stop by Three Legged Legs behind the scenes post which shows you pretty much the entire process from concept to finished product. They even have sketches, photos of the puppets, storyboards, and test zombie movement footage. I want one of those zombies so bad, him and Wall-E could hang out!

Found through Shape + Colour

Bobby

Today Is the Day
May 14, 2008 | Categories: Blogs / Design / Music / Photography


Today Is the Day by Yo La Tengo

For some reason I woke up this morning with a hankering to hear a certain Yo La Tengo song, but I couldn’t remember which one it was. I finally remembered that the song was Today Is the Day, a song that was off of their album Summer Sun. But they released a Today Is the Day EP as well, and instead of putting the original version on there, they put this amazing sped up version that destroys the original. Seriously, if you don’t want your ass kicked by Yo La Tengo right now, don’t listen to this.

On a sidenote, I made that cover above because I couldn’t find a large image of the original. The background and letters are made up of images from Michael Surtees’ New York City Colour Study project. Basically he takes a picture of the sky over Manhattan every morning around 7 am every day, documenting how different the sky can look day to day. I figured since the album was titled Today Is the Day it was kind of fitting. Also, Yo La Tengo is from Hoboken, New Jersey which pretty much shares the same sky as Manhattan, so it works for me. Probably not the most creative of the covers I’ve made, but it’s very conceptual, something I don’t do often.

Also be sure to check out Michael’s blog DesignNotes, it’s a good read.

Bobby

UT LOOP!
May 9, 2008 | Categories: Clothing / Internet / Music


OMG, this is way fun for a Friday afternoon when you know all you want to do is go home. UT LOOP! is the newest creation from the folks over at Uniqlo, one of the finest Japanese clothiers. They also happen to destroy when it comes to viral marketing, as you can see above. UT LOOP! is basically sounds made by 9 different folks that you then combine to turn into little ditty. It’s like the music editor in Mario Paint but for the 21st century.

My loop is silly, but I like the rhythm of it. I also like ending with the fun UT kids, they were kind of my favorite sounds. I also love that the video of them making the sounds plays along as well, a nice detail. Go take 10 minutes and make yourself a loop!

My loop isn’t working, I don’t know why, but that’s rather annoying.

Bobby

Music From The Forest, A Podcast by James Pants
April 28, 2008 | Categories: Music

Being a big fan of Stones Throw Records I subscribe to their podcast, especially because they consistently release them and they’re made by awesome guys like Madlib. I was excited to see that they released a new podcast over the weekend featuring James Pants called Music From The Forest.

James’ story of how he got onto Stones Throw is probably the best part. The night of his prom he and his date went to a rave where Peanut Butter Wolf, head of Stones Throw, was spinning and asked if he could take PBW record shopping. From there James ended up getting an internship, and now he’s gonna’ have an album coming out on May 27th. talk about lucky.

The podcast itself is all over the place, from Kraftwerk to old sould hits, it’s well put together and totally made my morning. If you’d like to listen to it, head over to the Stones Throw Jukebox where you can listen to it there or follow the iTunes podcast link.

Bobby

Vasco Cesaretti
April 24, 2008 | Categories: Music


Look Up, For We Are No More by Vasco Cesaretti (mp3)

In The Car by Vasco Cesaretti (mp3)

At the office where I work we have several interns, one of them is this 17 year old guy named Vasco Cesaretti. He reads the blog every now and again, and a few weeks ago he asked me to post about him. So I asked him, “What would I write about?”. He told me that I should write about his music. I sort of laughed it off, but told him to send me some, that I’d listen to it, but inside my head I’m already thinking, “Oh my god I’m gonna have to lie to him this is gonna be sooo awkward.”

He sent me a couple songs that night after I went to bed, so I woke up with them in my Inbox. I started to play them, and began to FREAK out. They were really good. Not even really good, they were amazing! I was dumbfounded. I was sitting in my underwear under a blanket grinning from ear to ear in total shock that the 17 year old intern at my work could make music like this.

Vasco currently goes to an ‘arts school for creative people’ that he hates, he has dual citizenship with the US and Italy, he likes to watch neo-realist and new wave films, and plays cello, guitar, and piano. Musically though, he sounds sort of like Grizzly Bear, I guess? It’s kind of electronic, kind of acoustic, so I dunno. I think the best thing to do is listen to his songs, download them, and decide for yourself. Also be sure to check out his Last.fm page which I made him make, haha…

Let me know what you guys think!

Bobby

Ghostly Swim
April 22, 2008 | Categories: Design / Music


Then It Happened by Milosh

Jam of the night tonight is Adult Swim’s newest musical release, Ghostly Swim, an audible outing teaming up with the folks over at Ghostly International. Adult Swim made some waves with their work with DangerMouse, although this time their effort is a much more electronic one as opposed the hip hop influenced albums of the past.

There aren’t a whole lot of big names on the album, but you may recognize Matthew Dear and Tycho, who’s better known as Scott Hansen of ISO50 fame. As always the album is free to download and comes with the beautiful art you see above. You can’t beat free.

Bobby

Copenhagen Jazz Festival 2008 Poster by Kasper Eistrup
April 18, 2008 | Categories: Art / Design / Illustration / Music

Good morning everyone! First off I just want to say that I think today is going to be a really good day. Last night I signed the lease on my new apartment, so that stress is gone. And then after that I met up with my friend Max and we talked about some upcoming business with the blog, and I also randomly got to see my friends Kyle, Michael, Aron and Elliel as well. Then this morning I actually woke up rather early for a change, and I’ve already come across something awesome to post about!

The poster you see above was created by Kasper Eistrup, a Danish musician who is in the band Kashmir, one of Denmark’s more popular bands. For years now he’s done the covers and music videos for his band, but in 2006 he took the time to create enough work for a one man show at the Falkener Gallery in Copenhagen. Because of his obvious talent, the folks at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival commissioned him to create this years poster, and I would admit that it’s incredibly rad. The poster features a random jazz fan, it’s really no one in particular, which was Eistrup’s point:

”I have chosen to shift the focus away from the performing musician and his or her instrument, and instead portray an ardent music lover as he stands before a current of sound waves. I wanted to create a picture that was steaming with music, without directly using the usual symbols to depict it. It turned out to be a harder task than I’d expected, since a saxophone or well-know jazz figure would have given an instant, clear signal, but my objective was to achieve the same effect without them. As to whether or not I’ve succeeded, I leave that up to the observer.”

I’m absolutely in love with the “current of sound waves” behind him. And so you know, the poster is watercolor or gouache, I can’t really tell, but it’s all hand-painted, which is really nice to see these days. The color choices and the lighting is also extremely spot on, like in my mind this poster couldn’t be any better, it’s as close to perfection as you can get.

To see a larger version of the poster, you can click here, or to buy for yourself, take a visit over to here.

Found through Dansk Dynamit

Bobby

Swimming / French Kicks
April 17, 2008 | Categories: Music


Carried Away by French Kicks


Sex Tourists by French Kicks

I first heard the French Kicks about 6 years ago when they opened up for Hot Hot Heat back when I lived in Sacramento. I hadn’t ever heard of them before that, and up until a month ago I hadn’t heard from them since. But now they’ve released a new album called Swimming, and I swear that this album is going to make them huge.

French Kicks is made up of four guys, Jamie Krents, Nick Stumpf, Matthew Stinchcomb, and Aaron Thurston, and the band has had several different incarnations. Around 2004, Nick who played drums started to sing at live shows, which is how Aaron got into the band playing drums in his absence. Now though the band sounds amazing, with hints of the past influencing their new sound.

When I put the record on for the first time, my jaw literally dropped. It’s a weird description, but it sounds like a classic. Their sound is obviously influenced by the 60’s and 70’s, but it doesn’t sound dated, it sounds really timeless. Nick Stumpf’s voice is layered and melodic, and it sounds perfect. The music itself though is mixed kind of odd, I guess in a way that makes it sound older. Nothing is crisp and precise, it just sounds like they got together and decided to record some songs. This album is going to play non-stop this summer, it’s an amazing album that I think will be a classic for years to come. I’ve posted my two favorite songs from the album above, Carried Away and Sex Tourists. If you like these songs you’ll love the rest of the album.

Bobby

Sasquatch Festival 2008
April 10, 2008 | Categories: Music

Though I’ve never been, I’ve always wanted to go to the Sasquatch Festival. For those who haven’t heard of it, it’s a lot like Coachella or Reading, but set in the woods of Washington. This year’s line-up looks pretty awesome, probably the best one I’ve seen in a while:

Saturday: R.E.M., Modest Mouse, M.I.A., The New Pornographers, The National, Beirut, Okkervil River, Destroyer, Grand Archives, and David Bazan.

Sunday: The Cure, Death Cab for Cutie, Cold War Kids, Tegan & Sara, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, Mates of State, and Rogue Wave.

Monday: The Flaming Lips U.F.O. Show, The Mars Volta, Built to Spill, Jamie Lidell, and Battles.

I’d honestly go just for the first day and die happy. I’d like to see Modest Mouse just to say that I’ve finally see them play live, although I know I’d hate everything they played, unless they decided to play nothing but pre-2000 songs. But seriously, that looks likea really great line-up. There are even more people playing, but I only listed the ones I like, so check out the official list for more. Also be sure to check out the really fun (and well done) intro animation, it made me smile.

Tickets are on sale right now, and go anywhere from $56.50 per day, to $750 for a Superticket (I didn’t make that up) which you have to buy in pairs (also not made up), but it does get you a camping spot, V.I.P. access all weekend, and an honest to god sasquatch (that last part might be made up). Like I said, I’d LOVE to go to this, but I sadly don’t have a spare $1000 lying around!

Bobby