Archive for September, 2010

Do yourself a favor and watch this video right now. It’s filled to the brim with absolutely breathtaking shots — so many that I can’t believe they were taken all by the same team. The Planet Earth folks need to hire this guy RIGHT away. Honestly I’m speechless. This is an amazing piece of film. An amazing piece of art. Congratulations to Mickey Smith and Allan Wilson for making such a brilliant piece. And all for Relentless Energy — who knew.

“Still look forward to gettin amongst it” – The Dark Side of the Lens.

I should also mention that I love this video because I LOVE the ocean. I am terrified by the sea, but I love it. Of course I like the way it looks, but I also am constantly taken by its incomprehensible size and power. I am not a surfer (you should have seen me try in New Zealand), but I have always felt the same connection to the sea that I often hear the surfer describe. I like to sit in it, lay there, do nothing. My favorite thing in the world is getting tossed, turned and pummeled by waves — salt water filling my head every which way — then rolling up on shore and lying in the sun where the sea meets the sand.

Display is a curated collection of important modern, mid 20th century graphic design books, periodicals, advertisements and ephemera. Documenting, preserving and providing public access to these original materials will raise the profile of Graphic Design as a source of educational, historical and scholarly analysis for teachers, students, designers and independent researchers. [link]

This is one of those sites I’m hesitant to blog about because I’m afraid you all will go there and buy all the books before I can. Of course Display is more than just a store: their collection is a terrific source of inspiration and history. I’m really impressed with how thoughtfully put together the whole site is; extremely well curated. Seriously you must visit this site — I am having a terrible time picking images for this post because they are all amazing.

Joe Lapaglia is a native of Niagara Falls that has made me realize I should dip into more of this dark experimental folk. The fusion of folk and drone is soo appealing, it keeps things interesting when you listen to his album, you get a sense of how tense he wants you to feel after a string of his lyrics, grab a free song here from his LP.

Foxes In Fiction and Weed team up for a cross country(Vancouver – Toronto) cover to make Katy Perry’s hit single a lo-fi bedrock must have, download it here for free.

I liked No Age live more than on record, their new LP gets me excited to see what they do next on stage. This additional ethereal intro in Sorts should hopefully grab new ears for the bands already impressive recent success.

I gush over new Tim Hecker, its the most interesting noise in my opinion, to be able to grab this one track off iTunes for just $.99 is just robbery.

Pascal Tremblay aka Makeshift is a graphic designer based in Montreal. I am usually not a fan of anything resembling postmodernism, but Pascal’s eye for color and composition make him an excpetion for me. I am not sure how Pascal renders his images, but they sure look hand done, at least for some of the watercolor-like textures.

I also noticed you can most of his work here, sometimes at really massive sizes (yet still affordable).

With all different kinds of 80’s revival sounds going on I can’t help but fall in love with most of them usually because of their easy going pace or lush melodies. Soft Powers not only has both but this memorable effect on the singers vocals, download their full LP here.

Washed Out, Animal Collective, Daft Punk and Memory Tapes have helped spawn an avalanche of similar artists, most people complain but hey I like those sounds so I just sit back and keep finding new music to pick thru and enjoy. Waskerley Way might wear their recently found influences on their sleeve but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the hell out of this song.

New Mux Mool, you know I love it, you know you’ll probably love it, it has a hint of a 2Pac West Coast vibe, channeling Dam Funk and just a sound that in my mind is a fusion of all things Mux.

I trust the Danish you know why? because they are the home of Delsin Records a label that puts out solid deep melodic/house/IDM compilations. They’re always a go to for nights when you think you’re the only one up at 430am and you just want to space out on something with abit of kick.

All of this recent hype about the FujiFilm X100 has really forwarded my attention towards Leica and some of their compact cameras. Namely the M8 and M9. Sure they may be expensive but it’s definitely on my “to own” list.

If you’ve used one of these or better yet own a Leica then I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Images via Ffffound

There I was, minding my own business watching Sunday morning football, when these sexy pieces of design snuck up on me. Typically my brain turns off at the first sight of a car commercial, but this 2010 spot for the BMW 3 Series is a breath of fresh air. It’s great to see a company going back to their roots. Interspersed with the requisite this-is-a-car-commercial-and-we-are-driving-on-a-closed-road-that-doesn’t-exist type shots, there is some really terrific graphic design. Watch it on the BMW homepage for the highest quality version I could find (header image 2 of 5).

It’s not the first time BMW has impressed us with their design sensitivity, check out these vintage ads as well.

Recently I saw André Obin open for School Of Seven Bells, he is also scheduled to open for Tycho in NYC this Wednesday. He has a unique live show, he doesn’t do synth pop like most synth pop acts, he gives off this darker club vibe and its not a trendy direction either, its just a passionate early Kompakt feel with vocals, I don’t see very many American artists trying to do this. Grab this track up for free

Oh Blondes, when can I see you live, I hear great things and their EP Touched is a solid listen, can’t wait for an LP.

I didn’t know what to expect from Flying Lotus, I was hoping for loose psychedelic beat EP that would compliment his live show and extend the hype and I think he did just that. Clay is definitely my favorite track off the EP, the last 40 seconds show why he’s known for great composition and beat making.

I don’t know much about Karaocake to be honest but I picked it because it just reminded me of all the good mid 2000’s indie girl bands like Lali Puna, Broadcast, etc. that I don’t listen to much anymore.

I just put together this flyer for Tycho Toronto show at the Drake, which, as it turns out, is a free show as part of Scotiabank Nuit Blanche. I’m not sure if they’re printing them or if it’s web only.

Hope to see some of you out: Seattle 9/26, NYC 9/29, Toronto 10/02

I believe this is a catalog for Aries Kits, a company which manufactured modular synthesizer kits during the late 70’s in Massachusetts. I love how the limitations imposed by 1970’s printing technology actually fostered good design in a lot of cases. I wonder if the designer put much thought into the layout of top portion; it looks very purpose-driven. That “Explore Sound” wire-frame logo was probably super high tech at the time.

I forgot where I found that image, any ideas? (Tineye was down at the time of this posting)