Dusty Brown will be playing live this Friday (May 28th, 2010) at Harlow’s in Sacramento. Their shows are always worth checking out — few can match the intensity and raw emotion they exude on stage — but this one promises to take things a step further. They’ve put together a full band and reworked all the songs with fully live arrangements for this set. It’s always interesting to hear how predominantly electronic music works in a live context, particularly with a drummer. I saw Caribou and Toro Y Moi last night here in San Francisco and that was certainly a treat to hear how the songs had changed between the studio and the stage (more so with Toro Y Moi as Caribou’s records are essentially rock at this point anyways). I’m looking forward to the same from Dusty and co. on Friday. Hope to see you out there.

More Info here

Awesome photos by RA OUL – Check out the rest of the set on his Flickr

These reconfigured typewriters are by Tauba Auerbach. Olivettis looks awesome to begin with, so these souped-up specimens take it to the next level. I can’t make sense of the altered readouts of these machines, but apparently there is a system at work:

Auerbach often bases her work on these sorts of solvable codes or systems. In one of her works, a series of reconfigured typewriters, she alters the keys so that their letters and symbols no longer correspond to what appears on the paper. The typewriters are painted with clues to the logic of their new operating systems; once each code is cracked, the machine becomes functional again. Link

She’ll show in the Whitney Museum in NYC until May 30th 2010.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CVKU3ErrGM

The Fallingwater house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built during 1934-1937 in Mill Run, Pennsylvania. The house was originally a weekend home for Edgar Kaufmann and his family. Over time the house has become a historic landmark and also known as one of the most well known residences in the United States by the American Institute of Architects.

Wright’s goal for this house was to make man and nature harmonious, much like Japanese architecture. Instead of building the house alongside the waterfall like the Kaufmann family originally had planned, Wright designed the house to sit directly on top of the falls. The house then became part of the falls; the sounds of the water echoing throughout the entire house.

Images via Arch Daily.

The Sight Below recently compiled an amazing tracklist for a Fact Magazine Mix, check the song list below, its packed with lush distorted dream pop from the 80’s and 90’s. I saw The Sight Below play 2 nights ago, it felt like I was falling back slowly for about 45 mins, it was perfect, I kept asking myself why do I listen to anything else. I’m putting this mix on repeat while I pack up and move today, enjoy your weekend.

slowdive \ slowdive \ slowdive \ creation \ 1990
chapterhouse \ treasure \ whirlpool \ dedicated \ 1991
franke \ jag älskar dig \ aldrig förstå ep \ luxury \ 2003
joy division \ isolation \ closer \ factory \ 1980
echo & the bunnymen \ do it clean \ crocodiles \ korova \ 1980
spacemen 3 \ take me to the other side \ the perfect prescription \ glass records \ 1987
cocteau twins \ lorelei \ treasure \ 4ad \ 1984
kate bush \ hounds of love \ hounds of love \ emi \ 1985
iggy pop \ nightclubbing \ the idiot \ rca \ 1977
teenage filmstars \ loving \ star \ creation \ 1992
seefeel \ more like space \ more like space ep \ too pure \ 1993
clan of xymox \ no words \ clan of xymox \ 4ad \ 1985

DOWNLOAD IT HERE

Toro Y Moi has a new 7 inch coming out on Carpark Records, he went with a new recording style which included leaving all the electronics out, definitely on a 50’s pop tip, i’m interested in hearing the rest of it.

I saw Janelle Monae on David Letterman the other night, she blew me away and usually I don’t care for lyricists, anyone have any thoughts on her? I think she’s the prettiest top 40 artist i’ve seen in awhile with great taste. I’m not a Outkast fan so the Big Boi guest spot doesn’t do anything for me, it’s disappointing that that’s the way major labels have to break new artists.

This Teen Daze song should just be the Toro Y Moi song, am I right?

Oh Ellen Allien, I want to love you but what are you doing? guitars? really? just do what you do and if you experiment maybe pick a new moniker because if you grab a guitar then your in a whole new world of good guitar music coming out and this just doesn’t seem to hold up next to them.

I came across this gem the other day but haven’t been able to find any better shots of it. The Galaksija was an early 80’s Yugoslavian DIY computer kit designed by Voja Antonić. I found the top shot — which I believe was taken at some sort of computer museum — at Avian’s Blog. Given that this was a DIY kit, the external appearance of each unit differed and most weren’t all that interesting. But that top one is incredible; I don’t know what I’d do with it, but I want it in my studio. Anyone have any other shots of this particular one?

Bonus: “High Resolution Graphics” on the Galaksija
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IhIGAo21JY
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkQ5yS2HIpM

I’ve sort of had my head down for the past couple months really digging into the recording of my next album so I thought I’d post up some shots from various sessions. Recently, guitarist Zac Brown (of Dusty Brown and DoomBird) has been coming in and contributing parts to some songs. It’s one of the first times I’ve collaborated with another musician and it’s been a great experience. It’s also been fun to wrap my head around recording guitar amps, something I had limited experience with before as most of my songs are written and recorded on my acoustic guitar with the keyboard and drum parts added later. It’s always exciting to find a new sonic texture to work with and it’s definitely an inspiring process to see your vision for a song expanded on by someone else.

If you’ve been following along with the album’s progress, you might have noticed the somewhat protracted nature of the whole thing. It’s been a test to say the least trying to keep on track with music while staying on top of the ISO50 side of things. There was definitely a long period where all I wanted to do was write new songs but not finish them, which is the hardest part for me. The good news is that because of this I now have a few albums of solid material, but the bad news is that it delayed the process of this one getting out. But that’s all behind me now and the past couple months have been the most productive of my musical life. The only problem is that I now have this self-imposed feeling that I’m behind and when I’m feeling that way I can sometimes forget to relax and enjoy the process of creating. It’s funny how much design and music differ in this way for me. While I see the processes of creating both as very similar, I don’t feel I can really sit down and just get music done in the same way as my visual work. It’s easy to say I’m going to devote three nights to a poster and be pretty confident it will get done and I’ll be happy with it. With music it’s always a much longer and drawn out process with more intangible milestones along the way.

The beauty of this entire process and the time devoted to it is that I’ve been allowed the luxury of perspective, something that’s very hard for me when I have to be neck-deep in a project from beginning to end with no breaks. The time has allowed me to continually reevaluate what the work is supposed to be and how best to do the material justice. Most of my songs start out as very small sketches, usually a guitar part and a keyboard part recorded quickly. I then set it aside and move on to something else. When I finally come back to an idea to develop it into a full composition my biggest fear is that I will somehow lose the meaning or the soul of it in the process. The problem is that as I’m adding new parts I start to go on tangents and the song can become something completely different. Sometimes this can be a good thing, but in other cases it takes time to be able to look back and realize that the original idea has been muddled in some way by the initial excitement of discovery. Problems like this tend to disappear when I allow myself to revisit work over time.

Overall, I feel close to wrapping up the production/arrangement phase but then comes mixing and mastering which can be time consuming. My goal is to have things sewn up by, at the very latest, end of summer. But putting time-lines on things doesn’t exactly serve the artistic process, at least not mine anyways, so I’m trying my best to pretend that goal doesn’t exist.

I’ll try to post some more pics / videos as things progress. And on a related note, Yourstru.ly has been filming a piece on the making of the album so there should be some interesting stuff by the time that’s done.

I don’t know if you’ve been to the Electronic Page on iTunes this morning but its all things LCD Soundsystem everywhere. The new record sets a new pace for indie dance rocks every changing style. After giving this record a listen I trust James Murphy to the point i’ll just click buy on his next lp without sampling.

Talib… Kweli…

Dust off those subwoofers for this Skream cut, its dubstep in a more 8 bit world without the wobble but plenty of low end.

It warms my heart to here raw recordings these days, this track by Terror Bird melts like a goth candle over a Crow DVD with passion and enjoyment. The harmonies aren’t the bee’s knees here but these efforts can’t be denied, had to share.

I was really taken by this poster by Jason Hill. All of the elements are appealing to me; the type, the illustration style, and even the words chosen. I would imagine anything held at the “MonOrchid gallery” must be kind of awesome to live up to such a sexy name. I wasn’t familiar with Jason’s work previously, but he has some really interesting pieces in his portfolio. His Dreamscape series is pretty rad.

I can see Tame Impala being a very free spirited band, their love for lively psychedelic sounds is present in every song i’ve heard. Their cover art grabbed my eye but their music made me want to share the song with you, hope you enjoy, this one is on a crazy Caribou tip.

Brooklyn’s Weed is a lo-fi bedroom rocker that lays down easy to listen to guitars that are perfect for dry summer days, grab his free EP here, i’ve had it on repeat.

I’ve posted Charles Trees before on the blog but nothing like this before, if you were a bit disappoint by the Flying Lotus LP for not being chunky and rough enough well then this should feed your need.

I found Hooray! out on a whim and i’m so happy I did, I hope more indie rockers can hear some of this lush 4/4 material because what is being fused together here is exactly what I love. Keep checking Wonder Beard Tapes for a release date of the LTD 100 tape release.