I have been meaning to get a watch, lately I kept searching for the older gold Casio watches with the calculator on them but then I took the search a little more serious and narrowed it down to 2 brands NOOKA and VOID. First off this pretty much is a aesthetic competition in my opinion since not many people buy watches at this price range are looking for a Rolex plus their both digital. Nooka offers an attractive layout with a good amount of information and with a very clear face. Void attracts me because of the color of the digital light, finish, and that VOID font couldn’t of been picked any better with that style of watch. Which one appeals to you more? I think it would interesting to hear what you have to say because when I look at each watch I think their each made for a different kind of person.
Also, had to pick out some decision making music.
Low Motion Disco – The Low Murderer Is Out At Night (Mark E Edit)
After what was perhaps the most arduous musical experience of my life, I’ve finally wrapped the new Tycho single. It’s a rather dense arrangement so getting everything to work together ended up taking 3 mixing sessions in SF and LA. I definitely learned a lot though, first, SSL is the most useful, greatest sounding EQ and compression I’ve ever used. Second, my monitoring situation at home is garbage. Time for some more Auralex and Adam A7s. Anyways, it’s done, and I’m done…for about a week or so then it’s back to work on the album.
I spent the free time I had between mixing sessions last week creating the cover art for the single, luckily that process ended up being a bit less stressful (you can see a small snippet of the artwork above). All the details will be coming shortly, the estimated release date is looking like late January. As always, you can keep an eye out here or subscribe to be notified when more info is available.
I hope some of you are sketch comedy fans here, i’m sure if Scott and I could add one more element to the site we would post youtube videos of Tim and Eric or other Adult Swim shows. For me comedy started with the Canadian show Kids In The Hall that was produced by SNL’s Lorne Michaels. The theme song to this show was by a group called “Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet” I’m sure many of us here that grew up close to Canada can hum the bassline to this theme song flawlessly.
I usually check out every release on Plug Research since they put out quality artists like John Tejada, Dntel, etc. I found this classic jam really catchy, it would of probably been huge in the 70’s but it reminds me alil too much of the song “We Will Rock You” but if you can get over that then this track has some parts to offer.
I look back and I don’t think I posted one Animal Collective song here and that blows my mind alil. So without posting one of their hit singles here is “Visiting Friends” a 12 min entrancing psych-folk song.
Small Sins is a very easy listen, super simple for a indie rock song in my opinion and I can’t help myself comparing the songs to Yo La Tengo or even Brendan Canning of Broken Social Scene.
Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet – Having an Average Weekend (Kids in the Hall)
Just a heads up that Adobe finally switched it’s trial downloads section to CS4 over the weekend. All of the CS4 apps are available via a Java downloader, and all are fully functional for 30 days. Link via 9to5 Mac
Poladroid is a new app that filters and effects your photos to make them look like, you guessed it, Polaroids. I would normally file something like this under gimmick and move on but I can’t help but appreciate the vignetting and color shift that the app lends to your digital photos, for an automatic filter it’s actually not that bad. Unfortunately it looks like you have to put up with the pretty fake looking border and drop shadow to get at that color shifting goodness, but it’s free so I can’t really complain. Check it out it at Poladroid’s site. All photos from Poladroid Flickr Group.
I hope you don’t mind if I go on a tangent here? I know the baseball season is over but enough is enough on these redesigns that look like the Mountain Dew logo. Who are the graphic designers that are doing these? The new logo looks like its going 80 miles per hour. The old classic Toronto logo had such strong pieces holding it together especially the color scheme, separated shapes and the leaf. The new one strips away the only Canadian element about it the maple leaf and even the color red, what on earth was the designer thinking?
This student project by Ryan Hageman caught my eye today. Very nice color / typo interaction and a clean, direct style. There’s more over at his site notfreelance.com
Today marks a day of variety, we put up a cover of an old Chemical Brothers track reworked by Japan’s Shinichi Osawa. One of my favorite label’s Delsin delivers a deep and soft house cut from the mysterious Newworldaquarium. Caribou goes in a whole new direction with a Kelley Polar track that hints at he has been listening to a lot of electronic music and not just The Beach Boys. The Mountains seal the deal at the end with a gentle sleeper filled with layer upon layer of guitar.
Also, at the end there’s the original “Star Guitar” video by Michel Gondry just so you can pick if you like the cover more than the original, personally I don’t but its a wonderful effort by Mr. Osawa and featuring Au Revoir Simone never hurts. Chime in on the picks today since they’re all over the place and i’d love to hear if there’s something you like more than the other.
Shinichi Osawa – Star Guitar (feat. Au Revoir Simone)
[audio:starguitar.mp3]
Newworldaquarium – Tresspassers
[audio:newworld.mp3]
Kelley Polar – We Live In An Expanding Universe – Caribou Remix
[audio:polar.mp3]
Mountains – Blown Glass Typewriter
[audio:typewriter.mp3]
Chemical Brothers – Star Guitar – Video by Michel Gondry
After what was perhaps the most arduous musical experience of my life, I’ve finally wrapped the new Tycho single. It’s a rather dense arrangement so getting everything to work together ended up taking 3 mixing sessions in SF and LA. I definitely learned a lot though, first, SSL is the most useful, greatest sounding EQ and compression I’ve ever used. Second, my monitoring situation at home is garbage. Time for some more Auralex and Adam A7s. Anyways, it’s done, and I’m done…for about a week or so then it’s back to work on the album. 
Just a heads up that Adobe finally switched it’s 
Poladroid is a new app that filters and effects your photos to make them look like, you guessed it, Polaroids. I would normally file something like this under gimmick and move on but I can’t help but appreciate the vignetting and color shift that the app lends to your digital photos, for an automatic filter it’s actually not that bad. Unfortunately it looks like you have to put up with the pretty fake looking border and drop shadow to get at that color shifting goodness, but it’s free so I can’t really complain. Check it out it at 
