Archive for January, 2009

Some classics via Helloairecords. It always amazes me to see such forward thinking design from this period. It’s 1955 and design this evolved already exists, it’s incredible. Of course, this is Europe. Unfortunately, most of us in the states were too concerned with Elvis and Marilyn Monroe to appreciate the finer points of the grid system or minimalist design theory. There is something very pleasing about such simple shapes and colors modulated by the quirks and imperfections of the analog printing process, it really brings life to the composition.

One of my favorite records that I loved playing out when I DJ’ed was Four Tet – Pause because it had so many good dj set starters no matter where you played. Lately all i’ve wanted from Four Tet is for him to stop collaborating with other musicians and start on another record like Pause or Rounds, just a detailed melodic driven 180 gram colored vinyl that I can stare at and listen to all day.

I just posted Bon Iver a couple weeks ago but another EP popped up which was decent, could of been amazing but there’s this song called
“Woods” on it that I couldn’t handle to the point that I just threw that track away. As for this track “Blood Bank” I think it might be better than any track off his recent LP.

Junior Boys just announced they have a new LP slated for April 7th in the US, the album is called Begone Dull Care. I’d put Junior Boys down as the most listener friendly cross over band to play when you have a variety of friends over. “Under The Sun” is one of the more simple songs the Junior Boys have done but its so rewarding.

I don’t know much about Damn Arms besides remixes, as for dance music its pretty similar to your Cut Copy, College, and Midnight Juggernauts. The thing I do like about this song is the flute, i’m not gonna lie it grabs my attention and also reminds me of this Paul Simon video.

Four Tet – You Could Ruin My Day

Bon Iver – Blood Bank

Junior Boys – Under The Sun

Damn Arms – Destination Pt. I

I’ll be driving up to Sacramento for the Dusty Brown show on Sunday, should be a good one. Word is they’re going to have a live drummer so definitely try to make it out if you can. Here’s the details:

Dusty Brown LIVE
w/ Musical Chairs
CLUB POW! @ Press Club
2030 P St. Sacramento, CA 95814
Sunday, 01-25-2009
Cost: $3

I can’t add much to what has already been said on the internet/reviews/interviews of all of Mark Kozelek’s projects. If you haven’t listened to Red House Painters before then be warned its some of the saddest music. This song “Mistress” is actually upbeat compared to everything else plus he has some distant distortion going on that really works out nicely.

Windy & Carl don’t get the credit they deserve, I mean they run a wonderful record store called Stormy in Michigan, they release on Kranky and have been doing this sound longer than most that are still in the game, the noisy and lovely post rock game.

This High Places song is everything I wanted Mum to do after their first record, this is a very well written about band that deserves all the love they’ve received. Highly Recommended.

Red House Painters – Mistress

Windy & Carl – My Love

High Places – From Stardust to Sentience

Update: The L.A. installment of the show has been set for Sunday Mar. 8th. More info is on the events page, get advance tickets here.

Ghostly International’s 10th birthday is fast approaching and they’re having anniversary shows in San Francisco and Los Angeles to celebrate. I’ll be playing the first date on Friday, March 6th, 2009 at Mezzanine in San Francisco. As far as I know, the line up will be the same for L.A., but I don’t have all the details for that show yet. This should be a great night filled with a lot of great performances by the Ghostly crew. You can snag some advance tickets for $5 off here. Hope to see you all out, here’s all the details:

GHOSTLY and MEZZANINE present

Mezzanine
444 Jessie Street @ Mint
San Francisco, California 94103

Self Titled Magazine posted an amazing mix that was done by Michna and curated by SV4(Owner of Ghostly International), here is what they said:
“It all started with a record sleeve, a minimal blend of Michael Segal’s Boy Cat Bird characters and a Pacman-like logo plastered across a stark black background. Weighing the potential purchase based on nothing but a record shop recommendation and the cover’s simple, striking design, we scooped up Ghostly International’s inaugural Idol Tryouts compilation despite not even knowing who Dabrye or Matthew Dear were.

With Ghostly’s 10th anniversary looming on the horizon this year and School of Seven Bells just weeks away from gracing the cover of self-titled’s third digital issue, we thought we’d ask one of the label’s most promising new signings (Michna, a beat conductor/DJ/former Secret Frequency Crew member who also goes by the name Egg Foo Young) to craft a mix of Ghostly’s scene-spanning influences. He’s joined by Ghostly founder Sam Valenti IV (a.k.a. SV4), a sometime DJ who helped curate Michna’s crate. Together the pair emerged with a heady 60 minutes of melancholic dance music (Pantha Du Prince, Sascha Funke), Italodisco (Giorgio Moroder), essential electro (Kraftwerk), and an ambient house anthem (Orbital’s “Halcyon & On & On”) that left self-titled scrambling for our old copy of The Brown Album. Indie kids are encouraged to uncross their arms and join the fray, as the set ends in a mascara-smeared trifecta of the Depeche Mode, the Smiths and the Cure.” Read more here

Orbital – Halcyon & On & On (FFRR)
Joey Beltram – Enegy Flash (R+S)
The Persuader – What’s The Time, Mr Templar (Svek)
Sascha Funke – Safety First (Kompakt)
Pantha Du Prince – Suzan (Dial)
Klein & MBO – Dirty Talk (Zanza)
Gino Soccio – Remember (Atlantic)
Giorgio Moroder – The Chase (Casablanca)
Der Zyklus -Elektronisches Zeitecho (Gigolo)
I-F – Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass (Interdimensional Transmissions)
Kraftwerk – Numbers (WEA)
Air – Le Soleil Est Pres De Moi (Dopplereffekt Mix) (Source)
Depeche Mode – Everything Counts (Maxi Single Live Version) (Mute)
The Smiths – Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before (Rough Trade)
The Cure – Close To Me (WEA)
The Cure – Close To Me (Closest Remix) (WEA)

DOWNLOAD THE MIX HERE

Seeing Colors – Mixed by Michna/Curated by SV4

Beamer turned me on to the new Akai APC40 last weekend. It was just announced at NAMM and looks to be a great alternative to the Monome for Ableton Live. Seems like a safe bet as a VJ app controller as well. More Info

A couple more brilliant works from one of my favorite designers, Jacqueline Casey. Images via Eye Magazine’s Flickr

Since we’re coming down to the final days for the ISO50 snowboard giveaway we thought it might be nice to do giveaways periodically. This one is simple, the first person to comment with all the correct artist names and song titles for all 4 songs below receives 2 free Tycho song of their choice. As for the image above, it has no relation to the post, just a photograph/invitation by Icecrasher on deviantART.

Please note iPhone app geeks: You can’t use Shazam!

Isley Brothers – Footsteps in the dark

Smashing Pumpkins – Rhinoceros

Joe Jackson – Steppin’ Out

Edwyn Collins – A Girl Like You

Adolphe Jean Édouard-Marie Mouron is one of my favorite commercial poster artists. Unfortunately, he went from running a successful advertising agency (Alliance Graphique who’s work includes the Yves St. Laurent logo), to losing it all and serving in the French army in World War II, to doing set design to get by, and finally suffering from depression and committing suicide in 1968. It’s very sad to think this was the fate of a man who contributed so much to design. You can find more information on Cassandre here and here.

Perhaps his most recognizable work, the Dubonet Wine poster is all but ubiquitous in vintage poster collections these days. This style of poster art is sort of a bittersweet thing for me. I really do love it, but once you start seeing something sold at Target it’s hard to take it seriously as art. I have a few old advertisement posters from this period around the house (all reproductions), but I really want to start focusing on later modernist stuff.

Images via Alki1