After almost 30 years of being on the air, MTV is finally getting rid of the words ‘Music Television’ from under it’s iconic logo. I’ve seen that some people are annoyed that they got rid of the words, but this makes sense to me on a couple of levels.

The first and most clear reason is that they’re no longer a music-centric cable network. These days they cater to mostly 13-24 year olds who devour reality television, a vast departure what was on 10 years ago, let alone 30. But that’s the nature of large companies, they shift their focus to continue to making money and stay in business. Look at Nintendo for example, they started making playing cards back in 1889, dabbled in instant noodles and “love hotels” in the 60’s until finally releasing the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. Nintendo now makes money creating games and gaming consoles, as MTV makes money with properties like Jersey Shore. MTV can’t go back to showing videos all day long just as much as Nintendo can’t go back to creating playing cards.

The second reason is that MTV has become a household name, those three letters alone. I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone call it Music Television before and I grew up in the 80’s. It’s the same as other major networks. You don’t get your news from the Cable News Network, you don’t tune into the Home Box Office to see True Blood and you don’t hate the National Broadcast Company for screwing over Conan. These three letter acronyms are culturally built-in at this point and after almost 30 years MTV deserves the same treatment.

As for the treatment itself I think it’s nice. It certainly doesn’t knock my socks off but it accomplishes it’s goal, using the logo to frame their content. The TV on the front were also redrawn a bit and look cleaned up and less janky as they have in their previous versions. I think this is a step in a good direction for this mega-company, but I’ll guess that people will hate it simply because they hate change.

Bobby

So I tried really hard not to post this video, but this song has been stuck in my head for days now and I need to deal with it. This South African group is called Die Antwoord, which is made up of Ninja, Yo-landi Vi$$er and DJ Hi-Tek. They make next level beats and are one of the best things I’ve seen in a while. My roommate thinks it’s like an Ali G kind of thing, but I’m not convinced.

What I do know is that they need to make these characters into a movie and call it Gummo 2. You could have Jeremy Scott play Ninja, Chloe Sevigny as Yo-landi Vi$$er and that Hurley guy from Lost as DJ Hi-Tek. Then all you need to do is grab Harmony and some old 35mm cameras and fly to South Africa and boom, instant success.

On a side note, I think it’s weird that there are no aliens in South Africa now that I’ve seen District 9. I kept imagining prawns to be lurking in the backgrounds of some of those shots. Oh god is that racist?

Bobby

Last week I chose to profile just some of the artists I listened to from the previous week so I think I’ll stick with that formula again this week. The number one most listened to band of last week was The Go Find, who was suggested to be by my friend Sam. They’re a Belgian band who just released their newest album Everybody Knows It’s Gonna Happen Only Not Tonight, and I can’t stop listening to it. I’d also suggest you check out the beautiful cover art which was done by Julia Guther. I might just run a separate post on her, she’s really great. They kind of remind me of The Rosebuds a bit, but that’s the best I got.

Then we had some Travis mixed in their, who I could probably say are one of my favorite bands of all time. I was hooked as soon as I heard Why Does It Always Rain On Me? when I was in high school and I’ve been loyal since, even through the mess of 12 Memories. If you’ve never heard anything by Travis before I’d suggest starting first with The Man Who, then jumping up to The Boy With No Name.

After that I wanted to talk about Hot Chip and their new album One Life Stand. I wasn’t a big fan of the last album, but I really loved The Warning. I’d say this is more in line with The Warning, just a fun dance record that doesn’t take itself seriously. There are a couple tracks I’m not hot on (Slush and Take It In) but I’d still consider it to be an outstanding album. Anyone know who did the artwork for the new album?

As usual feel free to add me on Last.fm by clicking here.

Bobby

My good friend FW has recently updated the portfolio for his company unfolded and he has quite a few really fun projects to show for it. Browsing through I found two that I really caught my eye. First up is a poster they did for the Zurich University of the Arts, which promoted their fine arts, photography, media arts and theory programs. I love the giant, graphic photo you discover as you begin to unfold the poster, it would certainly grab my attention.

The second one I really liked was this birth announcement for a little girl. They folded together some rather geometrical looking balloons and shot the photo from above. In the end the little girl appears to be floating by, supported the balloons. Totally cute and charming idea.

Bobby

It’s been a while since I’ve posted about clothing, especially expensive stuff, but as soon as I spotted the spring/summer 2010 collection by Gitman Vintage I knew I had to post it. This collection was inspired by their collection from 1984, obviously everything old is new again, but I don’t think you’d be able to tell that by looking.

I’m pretty sure the patterns are the same but it seems like the colors and fits have been updated for a more contemporary feeling. Personally I’m totally in love with the Cotton Madras shirts, but there are some other good looking ones in the Cotton Popplins and the pastel colored Chambrays. Now they need to start putting these out into shops so I can start buying them. Sorry South Willard, I’m gonna be emailing you weekly.

Found through SwipeLife

Bobby

I love when I get emails from younger artists, people who are still finding their style but you can see the absolute potential they have. That’s what I think of his Sean Lewis and his paintings. Sean is a 21 year old illustrator/art student who currently lives in Toronto. He has this really raw, graphic style that is extremely expressive in every piece he does. There’s also a lot of detail and chaos to his work but it just ends up looking really exciting. I think his work is really impressive already, but I can’t wait to see it in a few years when he gets even more skill and confidence.

Don’t you think he should make a print of the top image? I’d buy one.

Bobby

The video above is a combination of old cameras mixed together with modern day sound and video editing to create a juxtaposition. It’s called Digital Analogue and was directed by Lu Sisi, a Glasgow School of Art student who made this beautiful stop-motion video out of over 6,000 photo stills. Not only that, but all of the sounds you hear in the video are taken from cameras, edited together to create a soundtrack of sorts.

I can’t even imagine how long it would take to edit something like this together. There’s so much going on it almost becomes abstract art. You can’t even tell that you’re looking at cameras half the time. It also reminds me of a giant clock, with lots of gears moving in unison to power one larger object. I have to say that my favorite part is when the focus starts to rise around the 1:15 mark and then stutters with the music. Too cool.

Thanks to Alec

Bobby

I can’t believe it’s already Friday. This week moved by so quickly and so many great/busy things happened that it flew by. Thankfully I have a couple of huge things to show for it, which hopefully in the next couple months I’ll be able to share.

For this week’s Mixcast I decided to go with a mini-mix format again, so you’ve got a hair over 40 minutes of music to listen to. What’s the theme you ask? Icelandic and Japanese musicians with a Swede and a Belgian thrown in for good measure. This is honestly what I’ve been listening to for the past week or so anyhow, they just happen to fall into those two main groups rather well.

The artwork was inspired by their countries, sorta, so I just went with simplicity. The woodgrain and pinkish red color remind me of Japan while the pattern is something that you might see on a sweater in Iceland… sound good?

Here’s this week’s tracklist:
Carry Me Up To Smell Pine by Sin Fang Bous
Running Mates by The Go Find
Brand New Season by Cornelius
Við Spilum Endalaust by Sigur Rós
If It Is Growing by Fanfarlo
In The Park by Teruyuki Nobuchika
Cat Piano by Seabear
Til Eru Fr by Beni Hemm Hemm
I Hate Mornin by Sugar Plant
Will The Summer Make Good For by Múm
Come March by Takagi Masakatsu

Bobby

The new Gorillaz album is going to come out in about 3 weeks and I’m really excited to see what happens next in their epic saga. The new album is called Plastic Beach, and to further illustrate this, it seems like Jamie Hewlett has created an entire island refuge for the band, one I’m guessing we’ll be able to virtually explore like in previous incarnations of their website.

The line-up for the album is al over the place, and I might be a touch skeptical, but I trust in Mr. Albarn to bring it all together:

1. “Orchestral Intro” (featuring sinfonia ViVA)
2. “Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach” (featuring Snoop Dogg and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)
3. “White Flag” (featuring Kano, Bashy and The Lebanese National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music)
4. “Rhinestone Eyes”
5. “Stylo” (featuring Bobby Womack and Mos Def) 4:33
6. “Superfast Jellyfish” (featuring Gruff Rhys and De La Soul)
7. “Empire Ants” (featuring Little Dragon)
8. “Glitter Freeze” (featuring Mark E. Smith)
9. “Some Kind of Nature” (featuring Lou Reed)
10. “On Melancholy Hill”
11. “Broken”
12. “Sweepstakes” (featuring Mos Def and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)
13. “Plastic Beach” (featuring Mick Jones and Paul Simonon)
14. “To Binge” (featuring Little Dragon)
15. “Cloud of Unknowing” (featuring Bobby Womack and sinfonia ViVA)
16. “Pirate Jet”
17. “Pirate’s Progress” (Japanese Bonus Track and non-Japanese “Experience Edition” Bonus Track)
18. “Three Hearts, Seven Seas, Twelve Moons”

If you want to see more previews of the island you should check out the Gorillaz YouTube page and if you want some music to listen to check out Murdock’s Pirate Radio. I’ve been listening to it for about 10 minutes and so far I’ve heard Dead Weather and Kirk Douglas… yes, Spartacus.

Bobby

I’ve never been more excited about a movie that seems so contrary. Avatar: The Last Airbender is new movie that is directed by M. Night Shyamalan based on a children’s cartoon about a boy who can control the element of air. The first oddity is M. Night, who’s last great film was Unbreakable (though some will argue this) which was released back in 2000. The second weird thing is that it’s a live-action movie based on a cartoon that I definitely didn’t grow up with, and I’ve only seen two episodes ever. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed what I saw, in fact based on the trailer above I think I saw the episodes that the movie is based on.

But like I said, I’m really excited for this. I think as long as they don’t stray too far from the original and make it have a bunch of fun, action-y stuff, it should be great to watch. I also think it’s great that Mr. Shyamalan cast Noah Ringer as the main character Aang, a kid from Texas who’s just an amazing martial artist, instead of trying to stuff some B-list Disney star in a gi.

Bobby