As some of you maybe already know, Charlie Cooper — one half of Telefon Tel Aviv) — passed away last week. We just wanted to pass on our sincere condolences to his close friends and family. Charlie, your genius will be missed.

Eley Kishimoto make some very well designed fabrics and wallpapers. Self-described “surface decorators”, the London based firm has been designing textiles since the early ’90’s. More info at their site and their blog.

The top two are meant to be wallpapers and while they’re incredible to look at, I’m not sure I could handle that pattern going on all day. Maybe one small wall in the studio?

Todd Hido’s photography grabbed me right from the first image I saw, it first reminded me of Nadav Kander and also Gregory Crewdson who shot that Yo La Tengo cover awhile back.

I stumbled across this incredible piece by Michael Paul Young today. Young — the man behind Designgraphik and co-founder of We Work For Them — created this image for the band Omega Code. More info on Young and this piece can be found here. Always nice to see such incredible print work still being produced; sometimes I feel like the only good stuff is decades behind us and then something like this pops up.

I feel like i’ve used up all the adjectives that describe dreamy post rock already in this blog so its really hard to explain how beautiful this song is without using the same old ones. Can you just imagine being back in the mid 80s and just watching VHS’s of Cocteau Twins live shows in poor quality and driving around listening to this on cassette and sharing it for the first time with friends? so so good.

This has become my favorite Deerhunter song after going thru their catalog over and over. Listening to all the parts that make up the song, i’d be even content with just the hand claps and the pitched up synthesized voices that go thru the whole song.

I don’t think Ariel Pink gets your attention right from the beginning if you put in one of his records. It’s a sound that grows on you, this song has this early 90’s local cable recording quality to it and how he sings the chorus is addictive to listen to.

The Sundays at times ride this thin line of something you wouldn’t play for friends but you just can’t deny the songwriting and musicianship here, if I heard this live and at this quality i’d think they’d be one of the best band around.

Cocteau Twins – Sugar Hiccup (BBC Sessions version)

Deerhunter – Dr. Glass

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – For Kate I Wait

The Sundays – Goodbye

A while back Computer Arts magazine asked me to write an illustration tutorial for an issue which focused on textures. The idea was to revisit the classic Bob Dylan Blowin’ In The Wind / Mister Tambourine Man poster. I really enjoyed the project and ended up using the resulting image as the basis for my Progress Austin concert poster. Computer Arts has made the entire article available on their site as a PDF which you can download here. They’ve even made the original source files available so you can follow along with the tutorial. If you have any questions feel free to post in the comments and I’ll try and fill in any blanks.

Here’s an excerpt from the introduction:

Raster and vector collide

In this tutorial we show you how to bring together both vector and raster elements to create a seamless piece that sits well in both worlds. The concepts we explore will lend a timeless, weathered feel to what would otherwise be a rather stark design. Relying on Photoshop’s powerful raster tools and quite adequate stable of vector tools, we can tap the strengths of both without leaving the familiar realm of Adobe’s most powerful graphics app. We can unite two styles of design by employing Photoshop’s powerful blending mode options along with advanced gradient masking techniques to produce an illustration style that is truly unique.”

Download Tutorial PDF
Download Support Files

Some classics via Helloairecords. It always amazes me to see such forward thinking design from this period. It’s 1955 and design this evolved already exists, it’s incredible. Of course, this is Europe. Unfortunately, most of us in the states were too concerned with Elvis and Marilyn Monroe to appreciate the finer points of the grid system or minimalist design theory. There is something very pleasing about such simple shapes and colors modulated by the quirks and imperfections of the analog printing process, it really brings life to the composition.

One of my favorite records that I loved playing out when I DJ’ed was Four Tet – Pause because it had so many good dj set starters no matter where you played. Lately all i’ve wanted from Four Tet is for him to stop collaborating with other musicians and start on another record like Pause or Rounds, just a detailed melodic driven 180 gram colored vinyl that I can stare at and listen to all day.

I just posted Bon Iver a couple weeks ago but another EP popped up which was decent, could of been amazing but there’s this song called
“Woods” on it that I couldn’t handle to the point that I just threw that track away. As for this track “Blood Bank” I think it might be better than any track off his recent LP.

Junior Boys just announced they have a new LP slated for April 7th in the US, the album is called Begone Dull Care. I’d put Junior Boys down as the most listener friendly cross over band to play when you have a variety of friends over. “Under The Sun” is one of the more simple songs the Junior Boys have done but its so rewarding.

I don’t know much about Damn Arms besides remixes, as for dance music its pretty similar to your Cut Copy, College, and Midnight Juggernauts. The thing I do like about this song is the flute, i’m not gonna lie it grabs my attention and also reminds me of this Paul Simon video.

Four Tet – You Could Ruin My Day

Bon Iver – Blood Bank

Junior Boys – Under The Sun

Damn Arms – Destination Pt. I

I’ll be driving up to Sacramento for the Dusty Brown show on Sunday, should be a good one. Word is they’re going to have a live drummer so definitely try to make it out if you can. Here’s the details:

Dusty Brown LIVE
w/ Musical Chairs
CLUB POW! @ Press Club
2030 P St. Sacramento, CA 95814
Sunday, 01-25-2009
Cost: $3

I can’t add much to what has already been said on the internet/reviews/interviews of all of Mark Kozelek’s projects. If you haven’t listened to Red House Painters before then be warned its some of the saddest music. This song “Mistress” is actually upbeat compared to everything else plus he has some distant distortion going on that really works out nicely.

Windy & Carl don’t get the credit they deserve, I mean they run a wonderful record store called Stormy in Michigan, they release on Kranky and have been doing this sound longer than most that are still in the game, the noisy and lovely post rock game.

This High Places song is everything I wanted Mum to do after their first record, this is a very well written about band that deserves all the love they’ve received. Highly Recommended.

Red House Painters – Mistress

Windy & Carl – My Love

High Places – From Stardust to Sentience