The new Caribou LP Swim drops Tuesday 4.20.10, if you haven’t preordered it I highly suggest it, if not pick it up at his merch booth, I hope he has another tour CD to give out this time around. The record has been on repeat and one song that stands out for me over the singles that are leaking is this Hannibal track, the melody is addicting and the horns in the breakdown are spot on.

Matthew Dear has been on a roll, just finished remixing The xx now onto Charlotte Gainsbourg, I keep looping the first 15 seconds over and over.

Poor Beach Fossils I feel like i’ve posted all their songs that I can get my hands onto ISO50. With bands like Beach Fossils, Real Estate and ARMS we will have a nice soundtrack to sunny summer evenings.

I saw our resident DJ Slow Hands play the other night for the 99% design conference here in New York, he dropped this remix of Phoenix that made me end up looking over his shoulder every 5 minutes.

This is absolutely everywhere on the internet right now because it is absolutely awesome. The Nike Music Shoe video features Tokyo DJ duo Hifana playing different Nike shoes via bends, bounces, and slams. Easily one of the most creative branding videos I’ve seen in a long while. The last time I got this excited over a soft sell video like this was probably Only the Brave. Talk about inspiring too. After watching Music Shoe I want to run, paint, jam, fly and do just about everything creative I can possibly do.

UPDATE: Wow. They actually were playing the shoes…

PART THREE: SCOTT HERREN aka PREFUSE 73

For those who missed the early posts on DNTEL and CARIBOU, i’m just trying to collect my thoughts on why I listen to this music and not other music that’s out there. There’s definitely a sound for the ISO50 blog and posts like this hopefully just show the origin or what planted the seed. Below is a link to Guillermo Scott Herren’s FREE Tour CD from 2003 called Sleeping On Saturday And Sunday Afternoon, its full of instrumental micro electronic indie rock and experimental sounds that really paved the way for some guitarists to leave rock and get more into electronic home studio recording.

I love bikes. I almost love how a beautiful bicycle looks more than riding one, but not quite. In San Francisco we have a pretty solid bike culture so you get to see some nice ones around the city now and then. But of course it’s nothing compared to Amsterdam where bikes run the city and they know how to build them right. Sure, there are a ton of junkers but the overall style and pragmatic design of most is something I really appreciate. Every time I go there I resolve to find a nice bike in the Dutch style when I get home but I can never seem to find anything.

That’s why I got really excited when I first saw Vanilla Bicycle’s site. These handcrafted bikes from Portland, OR (of course) are beautiful examples of classic design and everything I’d want out of a bike. Vanilla’s attention to detail and reverence for classic styling is breathtaking. So yeah, I’m really excited at this point.

Then I checked out the ordering page. THE WAIT FOR ONE IS FIVE YEARS. 5. Of course. And of course, any time you have to wait that long for something you can go ahead and multiply the number of years times 2000 and you’ll probably get close to the price (but actually, probably nowhere near it). Also, if they don’t list the price on the site, you can’t afford it. So that’s settled, I’ll never own, see, or be within a mile of a Vanilla Bicycle, but fortunately they’ve provided us with some beautiful photos of the bikes shot with a Canon 5D so we can dream a little. If they sold posters of these I’d buy all of them. The site is a bit confusing but just click around and you’ll start finding some galleries of various custom jobs they’ve done: Vanilla Bicycles Site

There’s also a short documentary on them here.

P.S. Is anyone else getting all nostalgic lately for the original 5D? It might be the first classic DSLR. I need to get one. In 25 years indie kids will probably be hanging out backstage at shows talking about their Canon 5D MK1 and how it “just has that feel that you can’t get with holographic, man…” Then you can start picking up Hasselblads cheap on eBay and the cycle begins anew.

A new Onra single is out, for some it might just sound like the Casino level in Sonic The Hedgehog on Sega Genesis but to many of the heads its a solid ode to 90’s R&B.

A sneak peek at the upcoming Solvent LP coming to us via his single that drops next week digitally. Less stiff than previous Solvent releases and a lovingly tame style fills the Lost For Words track, should go over big with new and old Solvent fans.

Samiyam has something that a good chunk of the new wave of beat makers don’t have is the attention to choice samples that makes a song feel like he owns a sound. Samiyam keeps things rough, loose and most important honest, he still makes music he wants to hear and it shows release after release that he’s one of the better beatsmith’s out there.

Can we talk about how genius Eric Wareheim is? just taking an idea that is so simple and embarassing and just running it thru the mud in front of your grandma, this kind of humor will never die.

One of the very first articles I ever wrote for this blog lamented the careless proliferation of Archer, the slab serif from H&FJ. At the time, I was specifically reacting to the unfortunate redesign of the San Francisco Chronicle. That was in February of last year. Since then, the typeface has spread itself ever further, and continues to pop up just about everywhere.

Lauren Adams wrote a article about this very topic over on the AIGA blog. She states, “Archer’s instant stardom raises questions about its appropriateness. Can a font with such a defined character properly suit so many purposes?” She goes on to point out numerous recent examples of Archer’s continued domination of the ‘friendly’ typeface sphere. I was excited to see her article, as this issue continues to bug me the more I spot those little ball terminals. (Be sure to check out the blog she mentions, Archer Alert, for recent examples of Archer in the wild.)

At the end of my article back then, I asked if “Archer was the next Papyrus” — a polarizing contention to be sure — but maybe now my question doesn’t seem so far fetched. Before you get all crazy on me, let me say again that I am a *fan* of Archer. It looks good. I have nothing against the way it is drawn and actually think that it is quite amazing (like all of H&FJ’s work). Though as Lauren states, “an elegant typeface doesn’t simply translate to universal functionality.” I would add that such a distinctive typeface shouldn’t translate to ubiquity.

Like Papyrus, Archer shares a unique personality and the aforementioned “defined character”. Just as Papyrus became the go-to font for “exotic” or “earthy”, Archer has become the easy choice for “friendly” and “approachable”, which makes its misuse all the more prevalent. The more Archer is used in scenarios where it’s vaguely appropriate, the less effective it becomes in situations where it actually makes sense. As Christopher Simmons points out in the comments over there, “In unskilled hands even a Stradivarious will only make noise”. With Archer being clumsily wielded as frequently as it is, it’s this “noise” that has rendered unbiased viewings of the typeface impossible.

So I’ll ask again and this time duck for cover, is Archer the next Papyrus? Is it just a matter of time before the next summer blockbuster uses Archer for the movie poster?

You probably won’t hear a record like that using guitars that is this good ever in your life I bet, The Sight Below marries devastation with beautiful at a syrupy tempo, a must have for late night no talking get togethers.

A new album from Eluvium is always welcomed with open arms by my ears, here’s a short and fluttery piano piece by the highly talented artist, also make sure to pick the LP for the vocal material as well.

Kaito‘s makes trance okay to listen to because he sounds educated to the sounds he chooses, its not clubs and bad taste here its about a lush composition, i’d go as far as just demolishing the whole genre and letting Kaito just own it and if you want trance you just have to put on a Kaito record.

New York’s Post Wave Wierd Records has a solid artistry and newly added all analog(yes, thats right no computers just synths and even hardware sequencers) Led Er Est was a treat to see live the other night. Their sound expands way beyond this CC Exit track but I had to post it because they ended with it in an epic manner by speeding up every synth until it was just a wall of sound, I hope to have more material for you soon to expand on this.

Saw this set of Cintiq unboxing photos on Engadget today and even though the concept of documenting a retail product unboxing seems ridiculous, I couldn’t resist. Ever since I saw a Cintiq (a combination LCD display and tablet) on demo in Barcelona (OFFF) a few years back I’ve been wanting one. I’m not sure that it would benefit me that greatly but it would be fun to find out. Maybe not $1,999 (msrp) worth of fun, but definitely something I’d like to try.

The problem is that this kind of device relies on a mode of interaction few of us are very familiar with so it’s tough to make the leap without knowing if it will work for you. It’s not like you find these on demo anywhere; the only place I know of that stocks them in San Francisco is Calumet and they have them tucked away in some back corner, there’s not even a floor model out much less a working display last time I checked. I wish they had some sort of trial period but I suspect that would be a bad thing for me; I’m pretty convinced if I really spent some time with this thing I wouldn’t want to give it back. The only drawback I heard was poor color representation due to the touch surface over the screen, hopefully they’ve remedied that issue with this latest iteration.

Some questions: Anyone using one of these? Care to share your feelings? Everyone else: Are you planning on getting one? If not, would you use this if someone gave you one? How much cheaper would it have to be to make you consider it? Current Wacom users, does this seem like an improvement or would you rather stick with your regular tablet? Discuss in the comments

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As you can see guys and gals i’m a photoshop ninja, give me a project and i’ll make it happen, you want a dorky kid to look like a jackalope? no problem, you want ferns cut out in 2 minutes using an eraser at 48px? no problem, rocking CS3 over here and using it to about 1/1000th of its potential, don’t blame Scott or Alex for the bad design work here please hah.

So, yes thats me above, I did this mix of some songs for The Mixtape Club that were all at 94 Beats Per Minute, a short mix that is only clocking in at about 34 minutes. I named it The Black Bear Caught The Crystal Deer Surfing With A Pitchfork because all the hip bands have some key words in their names. You see if your band was Flamingo Fantasy you probably won’t get much love, maybe in 2014 when flamingos get really cool but for now you better have a surfing bear or make noise and use the word hair in your band name, that way you can take cuts and get on some reviewers priority piles. Well enough with my banter, here are some great songs that I have posted already probably in the past month or so that I like as a collective, as always thanks for reading and listening to the material on the blog.

NOTE: There’s an exclusive track on here, the last song by Shigeto who recently remixed Tycho, it will be out on 4.20.2010 on Ghostly International.

DOWNLOAD THE MIX HERE FOR FREE

High Wolf – Don’t Fuck With The Tropics
Paul White – Highlife
Phantogram – As Far As I Can See
Kerri Chandler – Crazy Bonus
Jay Electronica – Exhibit C
Mux Mool – NAFE
Alan Parsons Project – I Robot (Pilooski edit)
Gorillaz ft. Bobby Womack & Mos Def – Stylo
Giorgio Moroder – To The Bridge
Shigeto – Embrace The Cold

A few weeks ago, Scott gave a lecture to my fellow Academy of Art students. The talk was part of the Designspeak lecture series and was open to students and faculty (and 20 lucky blog readers). The room was jam packed, with a bunch of people even crammed in on the floor. The talk covered a wide range of topics: early influences, current design process, Tycho, the blog, and much more. We even got a glimpse of the first poster Scott ever designed!

The lecture was about 1.5 hours long, with a 30 minute Q&A at the end. In addition to the Academy film crew, I was on hand with my 5DMKII to capture some of the evening. Given the massive file size, and limited continuous shot duration on the 5D, I only recorded sporadically, and wasn’t able to capture everything I would have liked. I shot until my memory card filled up and was able to capture a total of 30 minutes of the talk. I selected the shots you see in the video above from this sample.

As I said in my intro that night, it would be hard for me to convey how much I’ve learned from Scott over these last two years interning at the studio. I consider myself enrolled in two design schools (Scott’s, and the Academy) and it was really exciting for me to see these two worlds combined. I’m very glad that everyone at the Academy was able to get a glimpse into Scott’s world and I’m also really excited now to be able to show you all at least a little bit of the talk. If you haven’t been fortunate enough to see one of the talks in person, I highly suggest you make that happen (I think Toronto is your next opportunity). In the meantime, hopefully this video will tide you over.

Recording the talk was another great test run with the 5D and I learn something new each time I take it out. This time, audio was the main issue as I wasn’t able to find a suitable solution before the talk. What you hear through most of video was from the Academy microphone — at the end is what it sounds like off the internal mic on the 5D. Basically the on camera mic is completely useless. It helps for syncing external audio to the video, but that’s about it. For future excursions I am definitely going to look into some form of either a mounted shotgun mic or wireless LAV.

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