The Mid-Century Modernist has remodeled their website with a new and refreshed look. A few new features were added, one of which is gallery displaying a nice grid of vintage designer furniture that can be purchased from eBay. I find this feature particularly cool even though the price tags are pretty hefty for most of the items.

A couple updates from The ISO50 Shop for you. First up, a new shirt is now available. The summer edition of the Syv shirt in white on American Apparel 50/50 is now available. The 50/50 is a light, flexible cotton/poly blend which is nice and breathable for the hot summer months ahead. It has a very tailored fit with a perfect length. Get your size while they last here.

We’re also having a 20% Summer Sale going on now at the shop. Take 20% off most items in the shop (excludes giclee prints). The discount will be reflected in your checkout total, not on the individual pages. The sale runs for a limited time only so get on it!

The ideas for the artworks have actualized while processing time spent absorbing French Culture, exploring the City Of Lights, the vibrant colors, the exaggerated geometry, and the diverse architecture and fashion of Paris. These paintings were created entirely with spray paint, one of Matt’s favorite mediums. But the designs are very clean, and appear almost digital in their precise details and craft. An honest, analog attempt to achieve the same depth and abstract geometry of his digital “Vectorfunk” style. [Link]

Color! What more do you want? These paintings are by Matt Moore and are called Crystals and Lasers. At the bottom of that page he also has a cool collection of iPhone photos that he took of inspirational items while in Paris creating the series.

Update: Sangki Kim of Kee Utility writes: “Desk Phone Dock has been modified to fit iPhone 4. The product will be available from July in some countries.”

With iPhone-Frenzy-2010™ in full swing I thought I’d add some fuel to the fire with this beautiful, yet suddenly obsolete, little peripheral from Korean design firm, Kee Utility. Of course, it will never see the light of day in this form — for some reason, concepts never do — but at least we have this nice model to salivate over. Couldn’t find any word on pricing or availability other then that it was supposed to have debuted at the China Sourcing Fair in April, 2010.

While it’s definitely a looker, there’s not much in the way of originality going on here — the dock looks straight off the cutting room floor of Apple’s design lab and hits all the cues from Cupertino pretty much on the mark. Kind of unfortunate timing to be releasing something like this when they did; apparently they don’t read blogs. I’d like to see Kee do a redesign based on the more angular aesthetics of the iPhone 4. The current base seems a bit overwhelming, I think it could do well without the curves.

Via Geeksology

On a side note, after trying to act all hard saying I was going to defect to Android for the past 2 months, I used Beamer’s iPhone 4 today and immediately purchased one for myself. I couldn’t resist, that thing is incredible. I also bought a pair of rubber tongs to hold it with in light of recent developments.

I always try to figure out why I listen to soo much music that has a soft flow to it, then I think about what songs I wanted to hear the most out of my mom’s music collection. She always seemed to have these great low key parties with close friends when we came to the States, I remember just laying there in the dark with the light and sounds coming from the cracked door, the tone was perfect, especially an uninterrupted front to back listen of The Police.

I really didn’t get to hear any Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Miles Davis, Fleetwood Mac, etc that I can remember, some would say I missed out but its okay with me, I just wanted to thank my mom real quick ha! it was mostly this. Maybe because we came from Poland and this is what was popular in the mid 80’s-early 90’s? What did your parents love that just gets you every time still? I’m not going to lie I think my play count of early Sting is in the 100’s on iTunes. On a side note on this Enya song, make fun of it all you want BUT what production, its maybe cheesy for most but thinking of it as a new song i’d be really impressed from a solo artist to get this sound out of them.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnOZcEsamcM
I am about as big a fan of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim’s work as exists on this planet. So it was a very, very pleasant surprise to see that [adult swim] (the network that features one of Tim and Eric’s greatest works: the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! show) was running a bump featuring Cloud Generator and a shout for the Past is Prologue digital reissue after the show. If anyone from [as] is reading this, thank you!

adult swim has run some other bumps in the past featuring Tycho tracks, you can check them out here. Was cool to find all of those, I had only seen one and didn’t know the rest existed.

It’s certainly safe to say that a large number of people (myself included) have been plagued with an acute case of the “wants” when it comes to iPhone 4. Some of the new features are just downright awesome—Facetime, multitasking, HD video, 5 megapixel camera and the list goes on. We’re seeing all these cool new features, but at what cost do they get included?

During Apple’s keynote, some of the new technology was explained, one of which was the new antenna. The new iPhone chassis was designed not only to provide a more rigid body for the thin, refined design, but also to function as the antenna. As Steve Jobs mentioned during the keynote, the antenna is a metal band wrapping the phone and is comprised of two parts. One part for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS; the other for UMTS and GSM.

After reading this article, I began to question whether or not this new antenna was really executed that well. A prime example is shown in these videos: iPhone 4 losing reception when placing your hand over the antenna band. Have I seen this happen in person with iPhone 4? The answer is yes. It’s like magic; something that only Harry Potter should be able to do.

Just to clarify I’m not talking smack against Apple here, I’m just questioning how such a huge oversight like this could occur here. Some folks are suggesting that the phones tested were using the suggested* rubber case (which solves the problem), but I can’t seem to grasp the idea that, in all the testing that was done, no one seemed to notice this reception issue? Perhaps it was noted, but at that point did the rubber case become the solution to the problem? With past iPhones I’ve experienced drop calls which also makes me wonder if this whole time its been the actual design of the iPhone that has inhibited the reception and not AT&T (hard to believe).

On that note while I have your attention, I thought I’d ask for your thoughts.

Would you still buy iPhone 4 even though they are experiencing this issue?

Do you think Apple knew about the reception issue of iPhone 4?

I’ve been in love with the label Service lately, they have a strong catalog and specific sound that usually catches my ears even if I go back to the early releases. Their latest release is Ikons who’s self titled LP has playing on repeat since last week. The sound is dreamy and druggy with sweet underlying texture that flows in and out of the vocal style, should be a great release.

New Blonde Redhead, you should just check it out and give it your attention.

The first time I heard Actress I was with Scott, I think I freaked him out because I probably sounded obsessed over a sound that might of sounded raw and unfinished but it hit on this sound that touched on Detroit roots that probably wouldn’t appeal to many others, this LP Splazsh is so damn good.

Some people will maybe call it Witch House or something like Horror Beat but without putting into a new sub genre this stuff by Salem is pretty thought thru, i’m really impressed on how fresh, dark and big it is and how no one has done this.

If the word ‘melancholy’ does not appear in this post, I am not doing my job. Sure the photographs of Garmonique are a little on the gloomy side, but that doesn’t stop them from being absolutely gorgeous. The color and composition of each is tremendous. (Can color/composition be described as tremendous? Probably not, but these shots are great enough that I willing to bend any vocabulary rules you might subscribe to.) He captures a very specific mood. I feel lost and lonely — but in a good way. Mysterious, dark and yes, melancholic indeed. That one image of the ocean reminds me a lot of the Hiroshi Sugimoto shot used for U2’s last album cover.

A bunch more on his Behance.

Cover Art for The Bridal Shop - From Seas EP

I found The Bridal Shop by trying to find a Tough Alliance song that I wanted but no luck, I love when a good digital retailer sets up trails that makes you check out 10 or so new bands.

Ariel Pink steps it up like The Horrors did in this new driving direction, with huge praise from Pitchfork, this record will end up on a ton of Top Ten album lists. What I really like is the extras going on in the song, if it was straight forward I wouldn’t of shared this song with you, I would of just post some Joy Division.

More dreamy echoed out goodness, I just think this sound will be something i’ll always like, I guess I can blame growing up listening to a certain few spaced out tracks for that.