Archive for March, 2010

Hot Chip | MySpace Music Videos
Is this genius? I think yes. Maybe even on a Tim and Eric tip?

Every time I’m at Faye’s Video (btw they’re not just about VHS tapes and employee film ratings, they make awesome espresso too) I notice the cover for Jaques Tati’s Trafic. I’ve never seen the film but the cover art is striking to say the least. I finally decided to look it up to get more info and came across this post at Balduin about the various versions of the poster for international release. While the cover is great, I was really blown away by the titles (second image), that’s got to be my favorite part. Now I’ll have to rent the DVD just so I can screenshot it and print it out.

Via Balduin

As promised here are the results for yesterday’s contest:
Mux Mool – “Skulltaste” CD Winners:
Chad, Erika, Spencer (I have emailed you guys)
Thanks to everyone that played! i’ll line up another free giveaway very soon, hopefully its something we will do frequently on ISO50.

Black Moth Super Rainbow I think is one of those bands that fits perfectly on the blog, they have their melodies down, always impressive synth work and dynamic range on the noise and crazy sequencing. With the addition of the vocals from the Air song, this should be a must have for the veteran and newbie listeners.

I’ve been meaning to post a Millionyoung song, he reminds me of Washed Out but a version that you might hear going out instead of home listening. The digital synth work is laid on heavy but his voice evens it out nicely.

France’s Kavinsky is probably one of the only Ed Banger artists I still listen to besides older Mr. Oizo. I can’t get away from his sound, he doesn’t always go overboard and I love the 80’s night cop chase feel and strong artist branding behind the project.

These New Puritans song is too short, even though it rides a thin line of something i’d probably never listen to(I think its the piano part and voice combo) but the horn and vibraphone playing totally redeems it!

H&FJ just put out a really cool article on combining fonts. They break it up into four lessons and provide visual examples and typeface options. All the examples use their fonts, but the lessons carry over to usage with other typefaces easily.

I found the article to be especially inspiring, or at least liberating. I have a weird mental block when it comes to combining typefaces. I’ll often use two different ones, but never three without a huge mental commotion. I don’t know what it is, but I get really stressed out trying to finagle more than two typefaces into a design. Of course it depends what type of design it is. I guess I always felt like there was this mystical over-arching design rule that prevented exciting combinations of type (I know that sounds ridiculous). Anyway, something about their examples opened things up for me. It’s nice to hear it from the high authorities that this sort of thing can be this effective.

I’m also consistently amazed how good they are about talking about type; the adjectives they use are always way out of left field but completely spot on. Calling Gotham Rounded ‘cheeky’, for example, wouldn’t have come to me right away but makes complete sense once I hear it. If you recall their scene in Helvetica where they rattle off some rather satisfying descriptions of type — that was awesome.

I’ll be giving a talk at the Academy of Art in San Francisco this Thursday evening, March 18th. I’m going to be covering a lot of ground — the talk is 2 hours — mostly talking about background, inspiration and process along with a question and answer period. The talk is limited to students (AAU students get in with ID) but the Academy has given us 20 additional seats to give away on the blog. If you’re interested in going just comment on this post and be sure to leave a valid email in the “email” field (email will not be published). We will then contact you with full details for the talk and get you put on the list.

Please only enter if you intend to go, spots are limited. Also, if you’re reading this and there are already 20 comments below, don’t give up! You’ll be put down as an alternate for people who end up not being able to make it (in our experience a lot of people either drop out or are unreachable via the email they provided.)

Good luck! Hope to see you Thursday.

Loving this 1967 Pontiac brochure from the Old Car Brochures Archive. Check out that type on the right of each page, so nice.

I haven’t even begun to dig over there but it looks like it gets pretty deep.

If you visit the site a ton you might see me post a good amount on Mux Mool because he donates his sweet production to us here at ISO50 and has done some amazing covers, remixes, given away a FREE EP, and even an edit of Carl Sagan. Today his first LP drops called Skulltaste:

“Skulltaste is an old-fashioned epic, and its diversity—both track-to-track and within the songs themselves—is hard to measure. Lindgren’s taste roams all over the map, but it’s this attention-deficient approach that makes Skulltaste such a smorgasbord of an album, tempting the listener with one tidbit after another. Opener “The Ballad of Gloria Featherbottom” hits a quintessential balance between giddily spiraling samples cooled by monstrous slabs of ice-water synth; later, “Get Better John” has a teary-eyed uplift, conjuring a mood somewhere between ‘90s R&B and the Chrono Trigger soundtrack; and the entertainingly titled “SFW Porn” pairs a boom-clap beat to clear-blue keys and a lazily scribbled guitar line. On Skulltaste, Mux Mool tirelessly doles out 20 tracks in 80 minutes, with not a moment of filler. ”

THE GIVEAWAY PART: Since the CD version isn’t going to hit the stores until next week and I have a few copies here we’d like to giveaway the Skulltaste CD(I know CD’s right? so old fashioned) to 3 people on the blog. All you have to do is post 3 songs in the comment section that you like from the Skulltaste LP and we’ll randomly pick the winners, here’s a link to the LP, i’ll announce the winners in Wednesday’s music post, good luck.

Mux Mool – “Skulltaste” CD Winners:
Chad, Erika, Spencer (I have emailed you guys)
Thanks to everyone that played! i’ll line up another free giveaway very soon, hopefully its something we will do frequently on ISO50.

A new Casino Versus Japan was recently released on Freescha’s Attacknine label, I looped this interlude about 15 times the other night, it made falling asleep easier than ever, such a rich sound.

One of the most underrated Warp artists has to be Gravenhurst, She Dances veers off into more of a darker tone that’s less folk which I know them for and its more like early Broadcast with a hint of Pavement like guitars.

Time for crowd friendly indie, a youthful pick me up and Sister Crayon is the band behind it.

I’ve only heard 2 songs by Keepaway, both have been impressive and so was their live show, again there is the Animal Collective comparisons in the sound but they wear them proudly i’m sure. I do really enjoy the way these guys sing “and I got 5 rings” i’ve been saying it over and over all weekend long.

Support Structures by Céline Condorelli “exposes an almost complete absence of literature or theory on what constitutes ‘support’,”. Sounds like an interesting concept, but honestly I would buy based on looks alone.

Via BLDG | More Info via Steinberg Press

The little penguin made his iPhone debut last week with the release of the Plancast iPhone app. Everyone is at SXSW right now spreading the word and drumming up support. I designed some emergency t-shirts and business cards for the excursion and I’m excited to hear how it all went. Should have some pictures of that material this week — I’ve yet to see them in person due to the time/production constraints. Plancast also had a big article in the New York Times a few days ago which was exciting to see. If you look closely, you can see a wee version of the logo in the screenshot. Too bad the penguin didn’t hit the front page!

When I wrote about this project last week, I forgot to mention how different the post-production time has been compared to my normal project routine. For just about every one of my process posts I’ve written here, the work has always been completed in school for an assignment. Once the project is complete, it’s over as far as just about everyone is concerned. It’s been exciting to see this one continue to evolve in the real world — like winding one of those wind-up toys and setting it on the table.