Alexandra Valenti has a very diverse portfolio of photography. Two of my favorite things — Hawaii and recording studios — are frequently portrayed. Her work reminds me of what I imagine to be the perfect day; adventuring around some abandoned island all afternoon, then coming inside and recording deep into the night. What a combination.
The chosen subjects and processing style remind me a bit of some of Neil Krug’s work.
This is one of those things where I am in awe of the technical achievement but the whole idea behind it makes me want to drive off a cliff in a ’78 Blazer playing Sgt. Pepper’s on 8-track. It’s easy to say John Lennon would be rolling over in his grave if he saw this, but then again time does funny things to people. At any rate, The Beatles have always been idols of mine so this is still a treat, even if it is some cynical alternate reality where they’ve all been recast (two posthumously at that) in their prime as hucksters for some half-assed video game cavorting around with Hollywood-extra hipster stereotypes and generally making my whole childhood feel nauseous.
Anyways, it’s worth a watch as long as you hit stop right around the 22 second mark at which point is devolves into the zombie-mation 3D stylings that are the reason Rock Band makes me cringe. Although it could be worse, far worse.
Via Sorry Mari
I just came from one of the most delightful shows I could ever even dream of seeing and hearing which was a small show with Kings of Convenience live with about 15 people in the crowd. To be honest I can’t even describe how good this album is going to be in October, if you have tickets to the Bowery Ballroom tomorrow then you’re in for an amazing time, i’m still soaking in what I just heard. Erlend even came up to me and told me “hey look its you” and pointed to his shirt of a drawing of a boy with glasses on and I kinda laughed since I KINDA have pink glasses similar to his. At one point there was this high pitch sound coming from the walls or piping in the room and KoC just decided to take the private show into the staircase and played an encore in the stairs which sounded really good for some reason for how huge this stairway was.
Sorry for the fanboy post but it had to be done, i’ll never lose that star struck part of me when it comes down to true talents.
More songs from Kings of Convenience’s LP here
[audio:boatb.mp3]
The Ghostly Discovery App has been garnering all sorts of praise and even more downloads since it’s July launch. When we first posted on it a lot of you had noted that it was not available overseas. Well the announcement just came down that with the release of version 1.05, the app is available internationally. The best part is that it’s still free! Get yours now
After writing last month’s post on the Swisscom rebrand film I stumbled across this page at Moving Brands’ site containing the images you see above. I have to admit that it cast the project in a whole new light for me. I still can’t say I’m a fan of the core logomark in all it’s gradient-clad glory, but on a large scale across various formats I think the branding system is very strong. I’m really enjoying how the logomark works in 1 color mode, looks sharp and far more focused. At any rate, I just thought these photos were great and really capture a nice aesthetic that I hadn’t fully appreciated the first time around. And of course the hot air balloon seals the deal. There’s something about well designed hot air balloons and sails; that’s about as good as it gets. Swisscom should all pitch in on a yacht and make a badass sail with the logo on it and they could all wear these.
I noticed some people weren’t too keen on the logo when I last posted on it, do these images change your mind? Let us know in the comments
Ghostly 10 Year Seattle handbill
You can see the flyer for the show above. I went with a slightly modified version of the Chicago poster / Ten Year Print to change it up a little. With this one I was going for more of a flyer/handbill feel as opposed to a poster.
Here are all the details, hope to see you out there…
Location:
Seattle Art Museum
1300 First Avenue
Seattle, WA United States
Performing:
Lusine
Tycho
Michna
The Sight Below
September 24, 2009
6-9 PM All Ages
$10 Buy Tickets
Ghostly celebrates 10 years at this years Decibel Festival.
The 2009 edition of Seattle’s Decibel Festival takes place September 24th through the 27th, and Ghostly is kicking it off at the SAM for the opening gala on Thursday the 24th.
I’m almost certain that everything Bradford Cox from Deerhunter does turns to gold, the guy is so kind and unreal, even on Vox Celeste 5 which sounds like such a simple song laid out but his tweaks and additions are what set him apart from the rest of the pack of rock bands out there.
I’m sure many of you remember a label called Eastern Developments, it was run by Prefuse 73 and they put out a lot of talent like Eliot Lipp, Daedelus, etc. back in 2003 and 2004. One album that I still listen to today is Instrmntl by Dabrye, the song “Won” is my go to, that clap with that low muted synth bass always gets my head nodding.
I ran into David Byrne this weekend at Warp’s 20 year anniversary during the Battles show, he might be the best dancer in New York no joke. I pretty much stood there for about 10 minutes until my friend Danny was like “just standing next to David Byrne, no big deal.” Man! you really got to hand it to him he’s a musical genius, all that I spit out to him was “The Catherine Wheel soundtrack might be the best musical piece of work ever made, will you take a picture with me?”
I’m always on the hunt for new or old Dubstep, when I first heard Skream I wasn’t a fan but I must of heard the wrong songs because he’s throwing down some of the best elements I love in dubstep on Rutten, i’m even down with that flute right now.
[audio:celeste.mp3] [audio:won.mp3] [audio:flippy.mp3] [audio:rutten.mp3]
826LA has released a second round of Time Travel posters, on sale at their Echo Park Time Travel Mart. You can view the first series on this page as well, just scroll down a touch. Both were created by Los Angelas based illustrator/designer Amy Martin. As Amy notes on her blog, the sans-serifs at work are Turnpike and Featured Item. The script face is Vitrina.
I love both editions — can’t really decide which set I like better. I think they each have their strong points; for me, the illustrations of the first series and the typography of the second are the standout features. If there were some way to make a super amazing hybrid of the two I’d be all for it. At the end of the day, they are both great — terrific concept and strong execution.