Archive for May, 2010

Don’t hang me for not completely loving The National’s previous releases more than this new single that I prefer and has me excited for this new record. I can hear the super talent here and all the reason people love this band, i’m happy to be converted but I don’t know if I can handle a whole show yet.

Fur is on Waaga Records who really has their finger on the pulse of what I think will keep this instrumental indie in people’s face because of the undeniable catchy music coming from them. Fur has a great ear for synth choices for me personally which they touch on less lo-fi BoC meets that airy sound that was the backbone of IDM yet still has indie rock palette somehow here.

Via Tania recently released a EP that included good remixes from The Juan MacLean and Lemonade yet somehow I don’t think were as good as this original.

L.A. based influential heads Flying Lotus & House Shoes collab to make a respectable J Dilla like beat which is hard to do these days, i’ve had this playing pretty much every day since the sun has showed up here in Brooklyn.

The normal, non-secret Nikonos RS

This Nikonos was a total mystery. A secret that not many people knew about until recently. In fact, its existence was repeatedly denied by the manufacturer, even after the US Navy published this photo, showing a member of SEAL Team One equipped with one and the following caption:
980608-N-3236B-003 NAVAL AIR BASE CORONADO, California (June 8, 1998) — Navy SEALs attached to SEAL Team One, Naval Air Base Coronado, CA, conducts training using the Nikon/Kodak DCS 425 underwater digital camera which can send real time digital images to decision makers, and an LPI LPD tracking device uses brevity codes to send both mission status and precise longitude/latitude. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer Mate 2nd Class Ted Banks. (RELEASED)
– Gizmodo

Pretty interesting stuff and kind of odd to see the branding intact on the model used by the SEALs. The Gizmodo article makes a good point that it’s a shame the consumer version was discontinued; even if you don’t do underwater photography, it would make for an excellent no hassle all weather setup. More info and links can be found in the original article.

Apparently there’s a pretty good used market for these; all you aspiring SEALs can start planning your beach assaults with a nice rig like this. I’d like to see a digital model, but aesthetically I’m still partial to the original 35mm version:

Image via Dive Matrix

Via Gizmodo

Paige Maguire runs Flux-Rad which is a solid music blog if you need music from someone that has their finger on the pulse of what is going to be trending. I personally enjoy the zips of goodies that she curates and the art she picks for each mixtape that’s gathered. I selected a few that really caught my ear from a recent collection.

TRACKLIST
Golden Ages – “Be Cool”
Spirit Spine – “Flashes”
The Ruby Suns – “Cranberry” (Radio Edit)
Keepaway – “Yellow Wings”
Pure Ecstasy – “Easy”
Small Black – “Despicable Dogs” (Washed Out Remix)
Lawrence Arabia – “The Undesirables”
The Silent League – “When Stars Attack!!”
Expensive Looks – “Living Scene”
Memoryhouse – “Sleep Patterns”
Seams – “Nightcycles”
Holiday Shores – “Air-Glow”
Dam Mantle – “Grey”

DOWNLOAD THE ZIP HERE

Overnewsed but Uninformed is a collection of infographics and by Stefan Bräutigam. When I first saw the title, I misread it thinking it said Overnewsed and Uniformed, which could also have made sense strangely enough. As it is, Stefan point is something we all can relate to: feeling overwhelmed with incoming “news” while actually learning nothing at all. At least that’s what I can gather, some may be lost in translation. Either way, the design is pretty brilliant.

via information aesthetics

The best thing about this residence is that it was built over thirty-five years ago by Bates Masi Architects and was recently restored back to its original simplistic form. This would explain why the exterior wood paneling is so perfectly aged in relation to the interior paneling of the house.

The wooden panels alongside other elements of the house, were re-used in the restoration. Nearly all of the panels both inside and outside of the house are twelve-inch wide cypress boards. These knot-filled boards to me seem like the perfect fit when viewing the house in its surrounding environment.

I came across a beautiful set of The Paris Review covers over at Belacquashua’s Flickr today. The Paris Review is still around (see current site here) but apparently they fired their art director around 1970, because this isn’t exactly moving design. Just another casualty of the age of desktop publishing I guess. I have two theories relating to this sort of phenomenon: either quality design has just become too expensive for smaller publications to employ or the owner’s son downloaded Photoshop and he decided to “do everything himself because those designers never listened to me anyways”.

What’s most interesting is that the modern covers seem to be sort of cheap ripoffs of their own 50’s era covers. Another culprit in this mess might be digital photography. You’ll notice that a lot of the newer ones (example) aren’t bad at all design-wise but they have a completely raw, coldly digital photo where the beautiful, hand-drawn illustrations used to be. I guess illustrators are pretty expensive these days too.

Has anybody here studied this phenomenon in depth? I know this is a somewhat isolated case, but from my own subjective observations, the decline of quality design in magazines and books seems to be a constant across the board. Please let us know in the comments if you have any thoughts on this trend. I’d love to know what’s driving this.

Images via Belacquashua

Many of you probably may have heard or have bought the new Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma LP that came out this Tuesday. Along with the launch Flying Lotus / Warp have developed an application for the PC and Mac called Fieldlines which you can download for free and try out:

“Cosmogramma Fieldlines is a free augmented reality application to celebrate the imminent release of the new Flying Lotus album ‘Cosmogramma’. It can be controlled with your webcam or mouse.

Cosmogramma Fieldlines was developed by Aaron Meyers with sound design by Flying Lotus and harp by Rebekah Raff. Based on the artwork by Leigh J. McCloskey.”

I’m so happy to hear that Recoiled is out on the LP, i’ve heard this songs ending sped up in his live sets and I always got wide eyed tried pulled out my hair it was that good each time.

We think far beyond the car as such, with a focus on mobility in general. We do this regularly in concept teams made up of specialists with a mission to look into the future and give up existing conventions. – Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg

The two wheeler above is Volkswagen’s latest bid in their mission to become the most innovative and environmentally friendly car maker in the world. Of course the VW Bik.e looks just like a bike, though I didn’t notice the lack of pedals at first (indicates how often I ride a bike). This folding contraption is battery powered and has a range of 12.5 miles, with a top speed of 12.5 mph (apparently allows legal helmet-less riding). Given these specs it’s definitely intended as an supplement to your car. In its collapsed state, it easily fits inside the spare tire compartment in your vehicle. Check out the video below for the animation showing it going from bike to tire. Sounds like it might actually be for sale too, eventually.

As an idea I am skeptical. I don’t like the reliance on cars to get you to a place where you can practically bike about. If you don’t live in a dense city or a city center, this solution is always going to be a car + bike situation. While the design is obviously a step in the right overall direction, I prefer urban mobility solutions that remove cars from the equation completely. That said, this is definitely the coolest looking folding bike concept I have seen. (Here is another one if you are interested, this one with pedals.)

Yep, that’s right. You’d better believe it, Canon is actually introducing a Jackie Chan edition of the EOS 550D. When I first came across this I didn’t know what to think. I’ve been a Canon user from day one and I’ve seen a lot of the seemingly pointless releases Canon has done in the past. I’m sure some of you can agree with me when saying that, but this release is seems to be something slightly more unique. However, in my mind I would much rather see Canon add some more lenses to their current L series lineup than to see another entry level camera. But of course I’m a bit biased as I shoot with a 1dmkII.

With my initial thoughts aside of how this edition may just be another pointless release, I could start to see some of the value in this product. It wasn’t until I started poking around for more images that I realized the user manual, neck-strap and wrap-case were also actually somewhat enjoyable. The case, in it’s own way, seems to be a nod to the old leather film camera cases and the gold/greenish colors that Canon adapted into this set, gave me an impression that they are trying to reflect back on the era of film.

Fortunately, those small features aren’t enough to win me over so the big question still remains: At $1465 for the set, would you buy this or a 7D?

Images via Canon Rumors.

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Excuse the label promo “watermark” at the beginning, the song actually plays in full after that. Stereogum premiered the new School Of Seven Bells LP yesterday where you can grab the song for free. The band has taken a more upfront direction for these tracks, the tempo is more driving and its catchier more than ever. Imagine Stereolab at its best dropped into a finely widdled down dream pop song with big rock elements, definitely lovely.

Weed Diamond is a Colorado band that is keeping Garage Rock something that is always in front of us because it keeps getting better. I find the looping guitar and rawness of it something I want to hear over and over, sometimes some blog digging is really rewarding.

Seems like everyone is really loving Zola Jesus, I can hear and see why, 2010 is turning into a very unique year for darker material that has beautiful characters, Fever Ray now its your turn.