Archive for May, 2009

So the BBC Radio seems to be the best known radio station in the world for exclusively having songs and being able to play them first and its no different in this case. Domino Recordings handed them a great remix of Animal Collective’s Summertime Clothes which included this Dam Funk remix that pretty much nails the remix if you love synths and funk at a uptempo pace, the remix has such a natural feel to it, it’s so unforced seems like it should be an original.

You may have already heard about the Animal Crack Box and how its only limited to 1000 pressed and how some someone already dropped 2,400USD+ on a copy on ebay. I have been listening to it, its pretty good, i’d maybe pay 40USD tops for a copy of the vinyls at most just for the collection aspect of it. This release just makes me think how much of a crackhead my parent’s thought I must of was collecting hockey cards and having to wake up on the weekends to drive me to the card shows so I could look at the 1000USD limited hockey cards that 45 year old men sold with their stained sweatpants and too small of New York Rangers matching sweatshirts and their bellies partially showing while I spent my allowance on mystery packets of a random collection on pieces of paper that i’d just organize and store later in the evening. I hope they didn’t think I was going to turn into one of those guys but i’m sure it crossed their mind more than once. ok. back to music.

Terrence Dixon, someone once called him the Aphex Twin of Detroit Techno, he is a minimalist not that minimal techno stuff but a true minimalist and a care taker of melody. If you sit and listen and hear what he repeats its pure gold, the magic really lies in the subtle panning of certain parts of the song and well placed additions that pop up perfectly, A must have in your collection if you like to just space out into your design work while the song is chopping away at the waves like your cruising in 1st place in a sailboat race.

So I just found about this Pink Floyd band, just kidding.

Animal Collective – Summertime Clothes (Dâm-Funk Remix)

Animal Collective – Don’t Believe The Pilot

Terrence Dixon – Emergency

Pink Floyd – Run Like Hell

Big Ant International created these posters for the Global Coalition for Peace. The series has garnered significant recognition of late, including a Silver Pencil at the One Show Awards, and nominations for both the D&AD and CLIO Awards 2009. The posters are wrapped around street poles and achieve that ever so illusive “aha” moment when viewed in this circular manner.

I would imagine a poster series depicting soldiers essentially pointing guns at themselves is bound to be met with some controversy, but it seems clear to me that the “target” of the campaign is the US foreign policy and not the soldiers themselves. The metaphor is clear. Hopefully as the work competes for further acclaim, opinions about the message won’t get in the way of recognizing the work as a successful piece of graphic design. The series is a great example of a simple and brilliant concept executed very effectively.

See the rest of the campaign here.

Ten years ago, I was a lowly, heartbroken college freshman, working with my friends Disco D and Matthew Dear on our first single, “Hands Up for Detroit”. Now, after a decade of hard work, finding an amazing team, and a little bit of luck, we’re fortunate enough to celebrate with our artists and friends.

And the Ghostly 10-year hit parade continues. After we bring the venerable Telefon Tel Aviv to this week’s Detroit date, we’ll be hitting Toronto with Ghostly favorites Tycho, Lusine (who has a bomb new single coming], and Michna along with our very good friend and collaborator, Milosh.

Toronto will be a special date: the Drake Hotel is one of Tycho’s favorite venues (Scott said it was one of his best shows yet.) We always have a great time whenever the team plays there. Tickets are on sale now and discounted here.

Here are a few tracks from each of the Toronto show’s artists – including a Tycho debut.

Lusine – Two Dots

[audio:twodots.mp3]
Lusine has a new album on the way, and (perhaps non-objectively) I’d venture to say it’s his best.
Here’s the first single, featuring the lovely voice of Vilja Larjosto.

Secret Frequency Crew – Neon Bridge

[audio:neonb.mp3]
Here’s a song from Adrian Michna’s old group, Secret Frequency Crew, who were on the classic Schematic label. Forest Of The Echo Downs really caught my attention and made our best-of-the-year list back in ’04. It was a good preview of what was to come (busted jazz, stabbing horns, skittering Miami machinedrums) with Michna.

Milosh – Move On

[audio:moveon.mp3]
Mike Milosh occupies a very distinct space in electronic music with his subtle programming and weak-in-the-knees vocals. He just released a new EP with Paul Phisterer which will make you want to plant a tree it’s so pretty.

Tycho – Coastal Brake (Manual remix)

[audio:cbmanual.mp3]
There’s this guy Tycho who’s pretty good too. He’s got a new single coming out this summer with some great remixes. Here’s an exclusive debut of Manual‘s remix of the forthcoming “Coastal Brake.”

The Back in Black show last night in Tampa was amazing, thanks to everyone for making it out and thanks to the Back in Black crew and Merchline for having me out. The picture above does a better job of summing up the vibe of the show than words ever could, so I’ll leave it at that.

Just flew in to Miami for some R&R before heading up to Detroit and Toronto for the Ghostly shows. (Detroit 5/23 , Toronto 5/26). Hope to see you up there.

Some cool alternate takes on US currency over at The Dollar Redesign Project. I’ve always admired the more colorful, better designed currencies from places like the UK and Canada so it’s nice to see people apply those design ethics to the good old greenback. Honestly, anything is better than our new stuff with the pink and the huge heads, looking more and more generic by the day.

via @trashrockx

Muxtape is a new platform for bands to create profiles and showcase their music. It was originally designed as a place for users to upload MP3 mixtapes (like Apple iMixes) of their favorite music. This didn’t fly with the RIAA, and Muxtape had to shutdown in August of 2008; the year’s “most heartbreaking death” according to Wired. Rather than spend all of eternity in a futile legal battle, creator Justin Ouellette decided to switch gears and develop a new Muxtape centered around original content.

I haven’t had a chance to use it myself (new bands can only be invited by participating bands), but I see great potential for Muxtape. As a musician, I am constantly frustrated by the chaotic mess that is Myspace. If it wasn’t a necessary evil in the pursuit of a successful music career, I would gladly never visit Myspace again. The possibility of a new (and aesthetically pleasing!) platform is definitely exciting.

The layout of each Muxtape page is very simple and works off a strict three column grid. This creates a pleasing consistency between pages, and still allows a band’s personality to come through with creative implementations of the grid (without crashing my browser *cough* Myspace). It will of course be very difficult to compete with the reach and popularity of Myspace, but I think the simplicity of Muxtape’s design might be refreshing enough to draw a substantial number of users away. Some may miss the social networking component, but I like how Muxtape puts the focus back on the music and doesn’t allow for as many unnecessary distractions. Good luck Muxtape!

(via Subtraction. Great Article Khoi!)

Today’s 4 picks might be my favorite in a while, all 4 tracks contain what I’d like to hear all summer while canoeing with friends, a road trip on a breezy tornado weather afternoon or maybe some pick up wiffle ball at McCarren Park.

Tom Croose set the pace on this edit he did of Beirut and with just a few additions the track becomes abit more head noddy. If you’re listening Zach Condon I truely think you should press this on a nice heavy weight 7 inch, with a spine sleeve, on a waxy satin stock and maybe some clear/slate grey marble vinyl, just a thought but i’m sure it’ll sell if you do it, count me in for 2 copies.

The small amount of City Center i’ve heard i’ve fallen in love with, he might instantly have noticeable hints of Animal Collective but without that need making it crazier than it needs to be. Fred Thomas pushes thru Bleed Blood giving us what exactly we want to hear for 6 and half minutes which are the underlaying field recording style vocals and distant surf guitar, echoed woodblocks, a woodsy atmosphere that sounds like its sucking itself inside itself and his entrancing serenade.

Read this in 2 years and i’m going to still have to say I really enjoy this song and i’m sticking to it by “Indietastic” Passion Pit. It has a familiar M83 elements to it but clearer and without the need of the synth taking over but pure good song writing for what it is which is an EPIC indie-electronic pop song.

Are you ready for this Nacho Patrol song? Legowelt aka Nacho Patrol just nailed a genre no one is covering which is the sound of 60’s Johnny Quest meets grainy psychedelic snake charming disco off the coast of an unknown island in South America. I mean come on! when I heard this on Tim Sweeney’s Beats In Space Radio I would of put money down that i’d never find this record because in my mind it was just some hard to find dirty 45 that was found magically at a Florida garage sale under a table sitting on the astroturf and nearly melted in the sun and reeking of some old women’s sun tan lotion.

Beirut – Venice (Tom Croose’s City Of Water edit)

City Center – Bleed Blood

Passion Pit – Moths Wing

Nacho Patrol – Africa Space Program

After a very early flight this morning I made it into Tampa, FL this afternoon. Loving the weather, hopefully it’s a little sunnier tomorrow though. I’m in town for the Back in Black 2 T-Shirt Exhibit which is going down this Saturday (May 16th) at Czar’s in Tampa (Ybor City). I’ll be playing a Tycho/ISO50 live set around midnight to cap the event off.

The event will feature special limited edition shirts from several artists including myself. You can check out all the shirts here, they’re only available through the end of the month so get yours while they last. The shirts can be had for $25 online and $20 at the event.

Click here for full event info

On a side note, I’d like to thank everyone or the kind comments in the 1000th post, it means a lot. Good luck with the giveaway!

Update: Congrats to the big winners: Luci (Lucizzle), Rob (norby), and Bill (serrano). You’ve all been contacted, let me know via the contact page if you don’t get the email.

Last night I hit the publish button on the Buamai post then glanced at the overall post count and noticed it read 999. So that would make this the 1000th post on the ISO50 Blog. Pretty amazing, I never would have guessed the number was that high. I am really good at missing milestones (birthdays, weddings, holidays, anniversaries, etc..) and somehow I missed it when the blog turned 1 year old. So I’m glad I caught this one, seems like a nice round number to celebrate.

I want to sincerely thank everyone who has visited, commented, and supported over the past few years. It’s been an incredible learning experience for me and I’ve really enjoyed hearing all of your thoughts on the various subjects we post on. I originally started the blog simply because I wanted an easier way to update the small news section that was on the old ISO50.com, but since then it’s grown far beyond that initial scope. I can’t say for sure what the next 1,000 will bring, but there are a lot more upgrades and features coming, along with all the usual posts and music, so stick around!

So now on to the festivities: Drop a line in the comments, then sign up for the RSS Feed or the Newsletter and you’ll be entered to win 3 shirts, 3 posters, and a CD of your choice from the ISO50 Shop (be sure to include an email so we can track you down if you win). If you’re already a subscriber, then just add a comment and you’re set. Two runners-up will get 1 shirt, 1 poster, and a CD. The winners will be chosen from the comments at random in a week (May 20th).

So again, thank you all for your support, it’s always appreciated. I also want to thank Jakub, Alex, Beamer, and Sam for all their great posts, you guys are always on point! And as always, I value your opinions so please feel free to take this as an opportunity to make any suggestions or maybe just list your all-time favorite post(s).

Update: Thanks everyone for the kind words! I’ve been on the road so been hard to get the drawing done, thanks for your patience. I will pick a winner today hopefully and get in touch.

Social image bookmarking sites are a dime a dozen these days (think ffffound, Dropular, and their ilk) but Buamai takes the concept to a new level. The brainchild of Michael Paul Young (co-creator of Youworkforthem), Buamai has thus far kept their contributor list closed — something I think is a must if you’re going to keep quality up. It seems that free-for-all sites’ content suffers incrementally as their user count rises. Buamai also has some novel sorting features along with the “Destoy” and “Mutate” options that make for some interesting modes of discovery. Here’s to hoping for an invitation. Buamai