Archive for December, 2011

Turn down the lights, fire up the projector and light a candle if that’s your style…here’s my picks for the Top 15 Music Videos Of 2011. I tried to encompass a lot of image styles and music in this list. There’s all types of directors and production scales ranging from Canon 7D equipped bare bones budgets to freaking Michel Gondry shooting stop motion on a Bolex (or so I read). I think that’s what’s crazy and great about being a director and designer in this time. If you want to, you have access to pretty much everything (visually speaking) if you put time into it. Hopefully some directors, DPs and photographers are inspired by this, it was a good year for the moving image and I suspect it to only get better and more creative in 2012. Hope you all dig the list and if you make it through each video all the way through, no skipping…you can rule out any form of attention deficit disorder.

I haven’t listed any of these in a rank, only because they’re all good at specific things. However, if I had to pick one favorite, it’d be Eric Epstein’s magically haunting work for Memory Tapes.

View all the videos after the break (more…)

Came across Stiknord recently and have been obsessed every since. It’s a beautiful collection of Nordic cultural artifacts and photography. The project come from the Kolding School of Design, their own description of the site follows.

The idea behind this blog was to produce a digital mood board to be used as a part of an on going project at Kolding School of Design. By building a collection of texts and imagery dedicated to the aesthetics of the North, we want to ease the often repetitive, time and money consuming process of constructing tactile inspirational material for each and every project.

Stiknord

Here it is, I hope you all like it, as always any feedback is great, I know I might be missing your favorite song but maybe you’ll enjoy this listen, thanks again. Tomorrow i’ll do Honorable Mentions.

IN ORDER:
25. The Drums – Money
24. ASAP Rocky – Wassup (Prod. By Clams Casino)
23. Walls – Sunporch Reprise
22. Austra – Lose It
21. Deepchord – Balm
20. Cut Copy – Blink and You’ll Miss A Revolution (Tornado Wallace Remix)
19. Sepalcure – Pencil Pimp
18. Peaking Lights – Amazing and Wonderful
17. High Wolf – Free Your Energy Field
16. The Field – Is This Power
15. Beirut – Port Of Call
14. Holy Other – Yr Love
13. Keep Shelly in Athens – DIY
12. Hype Williams – RIse Up
11. Warm Ghost – Myths on Rotting Ships
10. James Blake – The Wilhelm Scream
9. Benoit & Sergio – Boy Trouble
8. Toro Y Moi – I Can Get Love
7. Neon Indian – Polish Girl
6. M83 – Midnight City
5. Real Estate – Green Aisle
4. Gang Gang Dance – Glass Jar
3. Belong – Perfect Life
2. Gotye – Somebody that I used to know
1. John Maus – Streetlight

“Svpply helps you find the products you love, from the people and stores you find interesting.”

When I read that it sounded pretty appealing, then I noticed some of my co-workers using it and I dug in deeper and really enjoyed it since I want to bring in more product reviews onto the site next year, especially well designed ones.

Some people MIGHT write it off as “well this is how rich people shop” but a lot of this stuff is in a good price range plus it helps you pick something worth saving your money for.

If you guys join, let me know, here’s my acct: Heathered Pearls / SVPPLY

I had a lot of fun making this years Top 50 songs of 2011, before you say anything lets all agree to disagree, these songs are all songs that are my go to for when I work, DJ, or share on mixtapes, they might not match up with ever other blogs lists which is a damn shame, oh well 🙂 enjoy!

IN ORDER:
50. Sun Glitters – The Wind Caresses Her Hair
49. Poolside – Harvest Moon
48. Loscil – Fromme
47. Kolombo – Waiting For
46. Trouble Books & Mark McGuire – The Golden Waste
45. Dolphins Into The Future – On The HIgh Seas
44. Ford & Lopatin – Channel Pressure (Instrumental Version)
43. Dirty Beaches – Speedway King
42. Radiohead – Feral
41. Gatto Fritto – Hex
40. Implodes – Oxblood
39. Craft Spells – You Should Close The Door
38. Midnight Televison – All Night
37. Braille – Riverbed
36. Active Child – Playing House (Feat. How To Dress Well)
35. Tiger & Woods – Love In Cambodgia
34. Oneohtrix Point Never – Up
33. Tim Hecker – Hatred of Music I
32. Selebrities – Time
31. Nacho Patrol – Stratus Chant (Live @ Paradiso 2010)
30. Bibio – Mind Bokeh
29. Daphni – Mapfumo
28. Soft Metals – Psychic Driving
27. Washed Out – Eyes Be Closed
26. Machinedrum – Listen 2 Me

Happy to announce Tycho will be playing at XOYO thanks to Songkick and the London fans for helping out and getting the band there.

We wanted to offer 2 pairs of tickets to the readers of the blog that live in London, all you need to do is let us know what Tycho song you’d like played as an encore and post it below, please include your email so we can contact you, thanks and see you Wednesday.

EVENT INFO
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
XOYO, 32-37 Cowper Street, London EC2A 4AP
Support acts: Visions of Trees + I Ching

UPDATE:

thanks for contributing, see you tonight

Jack Chambers (1931-1970) was a Canadian painter and filmaker who shifted from surrealist to photo-realist during his career. I was turned on to Chambers’ work via this article in Walrus Magazine about his unfinished masterpiece, Lunch (1971), which after working on for ten years, Chambers died before completing.

Chambers completed six films between 1960 and 1970, I tried to find footage online from one, The Hart of London, but they were taken down. I did find some excerpts from a movie about Chambers’ work and life here.

A couple other photo-realists working in a similar I’ve posted on previously are William Eggelston and Mike Bayne.
http://www.ccca.ca/videoportrait/english/chambers.html?languagePref=en&
http://c4gallery.com/artist/database/jack-chambers/jack-chambers.html

The Arco system was designed by Studio BBPR for Olivetti in the 50’s and 60’s. The desk alone looks like it’s going for around $2500 on the used market. Way too much for a desk, but would be nice to have such a classic design as inspiration every day.

Some details on the desk from this auction:

Olivetti
Italy, 1963
lacquered steel, vinyl, plastic
63 w x 66 d x 30 h inches
Desk features three locking drawers and return features five shallow drawers. Signed with molded manufacturer’s mark to desk drawer: [Olivetti Arredamenti Metallici].

Some images via 1st Dibs

I don’t know if these are tangible or just mock ups, I guess we’ll have to ask Kim Holtermand, if they aren’t physical then someone needs to print these up because i’ll order the set right now.

via Behance by Benoit Berger

Fellow San Francisco band Seventeen Evergreen have just been announced as the opener for the Tycho show this Saturday at The Independent. They recently released this Terri Timely directed video for Polarity Song. Incredible color and definition in this. Not sure how it was shot but I’m assuming some high end HD DSLR and a healthy amount of post. Beautiful stuff.