The first time I heard Funeral it blew my mind, it still does and I think this was the first track that really hooked me. 

Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)

About to catch a cab down to LX Factory to get the OFFF booth setup, see you out there.

We just got into Lisbon, already amazed. We had the good fortune of sharing a bus with the KDU on the way to the hotel, good people. I’m traveling with my youngest brother this time around, that’s him up there in the pics. This place definitely looks like a great town for photography so I’ll be doing my best to bring home some good shots. We’re here for the OFFF which starts tomorrow, we’ll be at the ISO50 booth all day so stop by and say hello if you’re in the area.

Chris clark, to me, is like Boards Of Canada, Aphex Twin, and a bit of Autechre thrown in for good measure (no wonder he’s on Warp, right?) His album Clarence Park is pretty much solid wall to wall. This track is a stand-out if not only for it’s Aphex slant. Sorry for the small cover art, couldn’t find a proper sized version. Also, I’m at Newark airport having some beers with my brother so not all that concerned with Jpeg resolutions at the moment.

Chris Clark – Lord Of The Dance

[audio:clark1.mp3]

Headed out for Lisbon tomorrow morning for the OFFF. I’ll be bringing my camera and hopefully getting some good shots. I’ve never been to Portugal, just heard a lot of good things. If it’s anywhere near as great as Barcelona I’ll be happy. 

There will be an ISO50 booth at the OFFF Festival complete with shirts, prints, CDs, etc. Stop by and say hello if you’re in the area, the Mercadillo is free admission. See you out there!

Photos via rabataller, Matilde B. & rabataller respectively.

Some cool icons from crabstick via FFFFOUND.

70’s prog-rock band Yes are really hit and miss for me. I enjoy a lot of their earlier work but they shifted gears later on and started making the sort of music we now mock when lamenting the cultural shortcomings of that polarizing age known as The 80’s. That aside, they have contributed some amazing work over the years; their eponymous first album is largely considered to be the first Progressive Rock album and it’s certainly a classic.  One of my all time favorite songs is the track Survival from that very same album. The production and musicianship on these earlier songs is, to me,  perfection. It’s these sort of songs that really make me miss the hot summers of my home. It’s funny how the context of your first experience with a song colors your perception of it from that point forward. Although it is an incredibly beautiful song, hearing Survival usually gets me a little down, I start missing home and getting all nostalgic. The first minute is something altogether  transcendent. Being an electronic musician who doesn’t use traditional vocals, the instrumental parts of songs like this are great reference points for building emotion into a song without the need for vocals.

Yes – Survival

Yes was also a visually interesting band. The top five images are paintings by Roger Dean, some of which were used as Yes album covers. The second image is some random shot I found on Flickr while searching for Yes covers. This guy came prepared for whatever he’s about to get into: Portable tape recorder, box of tapes, joint, football, paper towels and of course, a Yes T-Shirt. The final image is from a series of Yes logos also by Dean.

This one’s for Zick, I bet you have this in a glass case somewhere: Save Frank’s homage to the Foo Fighters.

Cool Atari-esque concert poster by Shannon Palmer for Colour Revolt. Via Dusty Brown.

It really doesn’t get much better than this poster by Tribal DDB Senior Art Director Sergio Moctezuma (Gigposters User: Moctezuma). I am having  a tough time figuring out whether the type on the face is done by hand or if there is some complex type on path / warping being done in illustrator.  Any ideas? Via FFFFOUND via Panopticist.

Seeing such talented artists spending most of their time working at massive corporate ad agencies always makes me wonder what could have been.  What if a guy like this had spent the past 10 years creating posters and honing his craft, what sort of incredible art would have been contributed to the medium?  That’s not to say people like Sergio aren’t contributing to our world doing what they do at the agencies, I just happen to enjoy this sort of work more so in my own selfish way I wish they spent more time on this sort of thing.

Some more ads for the venerable Olivetti Valentine via Pink Ponk.