ITunes has a decent layout, I mean you can’t do much especially if you end up updating it weekly and the artwork can range from pretty good small album art icons to just awful ones. One way of making the pages on iTunes more appealing is these custom artist pages that iTunes staff picks out, the photos seem to be exclusive which is always a nice addition.
Bradford Cox of Deerhunter has a great blog for a musician, it might be one of the best if you like humble, talented and informative people. I’m guessing he makes these mixes on the computer because there isn’t much mixing going on but the eclectic tracklist caught my eye even if the mix is a few seasons old.
TRACKLIST
Beach Boys – Three Blind Mice (Smile Demo)
Lee Hazlewood – My Autumn’s Done Come
Bobak, Jons, Malone – On a Meadow Lea
Telepathe – I Can’t Stand It
Supremes – Where Did Our Love Go
Residents – Is He Really Bringing Roses?
Suicide – Cheree
Evie Sands – I Can’t Let Go
Autechre – Drone
Nico – Camera Obscura
Aaron Neville – Tell It Like It Is
Shugie Otis – XI-30
Alvin Curran – At Harmony Ranch
Robert Wyatt – Little Red Robin Hood (Hit the Road)
Still relaxing in Miami before heading up to Detroit for the Ghostly 10 Year show at Magic Stick this Saturday. I’ll be playing with Telefon Tel Aviv, Deastro and Michna. You can score tickets early for $15 ($20 @ the door) here. Hope to see you out.
After that I’ll be heading up to Toronto for the Wednesday (5/27) show at the Drake. You may have read Sam’s earlier post on that show, but in case you missed it he included a preview of the next Tycho single in the form of Manual’s superb Coastal Brake remix. Check it out!
A few illustrations by Jonathan Calugi. I first came across his portfolio when he was featured on Behance, and have been following him ever since. The majority of his work is illustration based, but he also has created a few custom typefaces consistent with his whimsy aesthetic. His style reminds me a bit of Sanna Annukka (especially her Keane project), but with a little more playfulness thrown in. I love how random and awesomely weird it is. See the rest of his portfolio here.
Side note: I am currently blogging this on a WiFi equipped airplane, which i have to say, is pretty awesome. It’s actually a faster connection than my one at home (sigh). I usually hate flying, but Virgin America continues to make it easier and easier.
So the BBC Radio seems to be the best known radio station in the world for exclusively having songs and being able to play them first and its no different in this case. Domino Recordings handed them a great remix of Animal Collective’s Summertime Clothes which included this Dam Funk remix that pretty much nails the remix if you love synths and funk at a uptempo pace, the remix has such a natural feel to it, it’s so unforced seems like it should be an original.
You may have already heard about the Animal Crack Box and how its only limited to 1000 pressed and how some someone already dropped 2,400USD+ on a copy on ebay. I have been listening to it, its pretty good, i’d maybe pay 40USD tops for a copy of the vinyls at most just for the collection aspect of it. This release just makes me think how much of a crackhead my parent’s thought I must of was collecting hockey cards and having to wake up on the weekends to drive me to the card shows so I could look at the 1000USD limited hockey cards that 45 year old men sold with their stained sweatpants and too small of New York Rangers matching sweatshirts and their bellies partially showing while I spent my allowance on mystery packets of a random collection on pieces of paper that i’d just organize and store later in the evening. I hope they didn’t think I was going to turn into one of those guys but i’m sure it crossed their mind more than once. ok. back to music.
Terrence Dixon, someone once called him the Aphex Twin of Detroit Techno, he is a minimalist not that minimal techno stuff but a true minimalist and a care taker of melody. If you sit and listen and hear what he repeats its pure gold, the magic really lies in the subtle panning of certain parts of the song and well placed additions that pop up perfectly, A must have in your collection if you like to just space out into your design work while the song is chopping away at the waves like your cruising in 1st place in a sailboat race.
So I just found about this Pink Floyd band, just kidding.
[audio:funkclothes.mp3] [audio:pilots.mp3] [audio:emergency.mp3] [audio:runhell.mp3]
Big Ant International created these posters for the Global Coalition for Peace. The series has garnered significant recognition of late, including a Silver Pencil at the One Show Awards, and nominations for both the D&AD and CLIO Awards 2009. The posters are wrapped around street poles and achieve that ever so illusive “aha” moment when viewed in this circular manner.
I would imagine a poster series depicting soldiers essentially pointing guns at themselves is bound to be met with some controversy, but it seems clear to me that the “target” of the campaign is the US foreign policy and not the soldiers themselves. The metaphor is clear. Hopefully as the work competes for further acclaim, opinions about the message won’t get in the way of recognizing the work as a successful piece of graphic design. The series is a great example of a simple and brilliant concept executed very effectively.
See the rest of the campaign here.
Ten years ago, I was a lowly, heartbroken college freshman, working with my friends Disco D and Matthew Dear on our first single, “Hands Up for Detroit”. Now, after a decade of hard work, finding an amazing team, and a little bit of luck, we’re fortunate enough to celebrate with our artists and friends.
And the Ghostly 10-year hit parade continues. After we bring the venerable Telefon Tel Aviv to this week’s Detroit date, we’ll be hitting Toronto with Ghostly favorites Tycho, Lusine (who has a bomb new single coming], and Michna along with our very good friend and collaborator, Milosh.
Toronto will be a special date: the Drake Hotel is one of Tycho’s favorite venues (Scott said it was one of his best shows yet.) We always have a great time whenever the team plays there. Tickets are on sale now and discounted here.
Here are a few tracks from each of the Toronto show’s artists – including a Tycho debut.
[audio:twodots.mp3]
Lusine has a new album on the way, and (perhaps non-objectively) I’d venture to say it’s his best.
Here’s the first single, featuring the lovely voice of Vilja Larjosto.
[audio:neonb.mp3]
Here’s a song from Adrian Michna’s old group, Secret Frequency Crew, who were on the classic Schematic label. Forest Of The Echo Downs really caught my attention and made our best-of-the-year list back in ’04. It was a good preview of what was to come (busted jazz, stabbing horns, skittering Miami machinedrums) with Michna.
[audio:moveon.mp3]
Mike Milosh occupies a very distinct space in electronic music with his subtle programming and weak-in-the-knees vocals. He just released a new EP with Paul Phisterer which will make you want to plant a tree it’s so pretty.
[audio:cbmanual.mp3]
There’s this guy Tycho who’s pretty good too. He’s got a new single coming out this summer with some great remixes. Here’s an exclusive debut of Manual‘s remix of the forthcoming “Coastal Brake.”
The Back in Black show last night in Tampa was amazing, thanks to everyone for making it out and thanks to the Back in Black crew and Merchline for having me out. The picture above does a better job of summing up the vibe of the show than words ever could, so I’ll leave it at that.
Just flew in to Miami for some R&R before heading up to Detroit and Toronto for the Ghostly shows. (Detroit 5/23 , Toronto 5/26). Hope to see you up there.