PL7: A summer companion to combat music mediocrity

Always new exciting & sounds coming out. I put together a new mix of summery jams. Highlights include Party Machine from master of strange-fi: Bruce Haack, Deerhunter’s raging new track Monomania from new distortion-centric LP: Monomania [out now], Shabazz Palace’s exquisite remix of Animal Collective’s New Town Burnout, Daft Punk’s collaboration with Noah Lennox (Panda Bear) in soaring nighttime anthem Doin’ it Right, a pumping new track from Sweden’s The Knife, Lana del Rey’s epic Young & Beautiful from The Great Gatsby OST and one nice lick from Mac Demarco (pumped to see him perform this summer at Union Park for Pitchfork Music Fest) plus many more.

Stream/download the whole thing below via Soundcloud. Track list is below that. Enjoy the soundzzz.

Party Machine  – Bruce Haack (0:00)

A tout a l’heure – Bibio (8:37)

Boe Zaah – Mac Demarco (12:40)

El Aparecido – Victor Jaras (14:20)

Doin’ It Right [feat. Panda Bear] – Daft Punk (16:32)

The Payback – James Brown (20:40)

New Town Burnout – Animal Collective {Shabazz Palaces RMX} (25:55)

Raging Lung – The Knife (33:46)

Sleepless– Andy Stott (42:30)

Casino Lisboa – Dirty Beaches (48:10)

Monomania – Deerhunter (51:52)

Young & Beautiful – Lana Del Rey (55:08)

The master of metaphor, the Nostradamus of non-sequitars, the story-telling-est Apollo Kid, the real Tony Stark: the Ghostface Killah tore it up at the Bluebird last night. Our very own Okie-Texan, by way of Shanghai, Surfwaco delegate, Zachary Carlisle Davidson was on the scene. Below are some of the photos of the show which involved an entire dramatic aspect to the performance. I’m glad to see contemporary rappers taking it beyond just the music. Makes me think of Seattle’s Shabazz Palaces (new remix below) and Fever Ray (1/2 of Sweden’s The Knife–one of the best releases of 2009 by far–also a video below–arguably her best–). Below is Killah & Adrian’s racy video for new track, Rise of the Ghostface Killah, from their new album Twelve Reasons to Die available everywhere.

Rise of the Ghostface Killah – Ghostface Killahg & Adrian Younge

Ghostface & Adrian narrating the story before Ghost dies and comes back after an interlude by Adrian and Delfonics. Adrian switches from bass to keyboards.

Adrian Younge

Ghost and Delfonics

Killa Priest. This was towards the end, everyone was wild by then.

New Town Burnout – Animal Collective (Shabazz Palaces RMX). This will be on a remix release, Monkey Been to Burn Town out May 28th via Domino.

When I Grow Up – Fever Ray

Had a wonderful photo-hunting nature exploration session yesterday with Surfwacoette, Julia. We shot through several rolls of 35mm film and exposed several Polaroids. The highlight of the trip was the discovery of a giant concrete custom skate pool in the middle of the woods by a small pond. It gets better…we then uncovered an abandoned mausoleum of skate decks and paraphernalia set within a mini cabin. Continuing on, we discovered a small village of isolated cabins big enough for at least a half dozen close friends. We both decided that our lives were just made a little bit more uncool and we must meet the founders of this sweet, secret skate utopia. Shots of our discoveries via Polaroid and iPhone are below. 35mmers to come once they get developed. Individual Polaroid scans to come soon…

“I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”
– Jack London

One of the advantages of being at a “RESEARCH ONE INSTITUTION” are amazing on campus resources like a dedicated cinema that shows rare, indie and international films. I caught “Dont Look Back” a docudrama about Bob Dylan’s 1965 tour of London. The film was gorgeous, partially because of the film grain and high contrast. It gave you an honest perspective of his life during the tour (stressed/constantly under questioning and ridiculing). The typography at the beginning of the movie was excellent. A big bold black title rested in the corner of the screen which was barely readable near Dylan’s wiry frame dressed in all black. The director’s name followed, stretched across the screen and completely unreadable. This all happened shortly after a quick snippet of “Subterranean Homesick Blues” that featured a cameo by Allen Ginsberg. If you haven’t seen this video, watch it below. If you have, watch it again!

A lecture preceded the film which mentioned Dylan being in a state of complete mental and physical dissolution by the time he left London. It was also mentioned that Dylan was convinced he would abandon songwriting all together after the experience in favor of a career in prose. However, after discovering one of his songs covered electrically by a British group hit #1 on the pop charts, wrote and recorded “Like a Rolling Stone” within 2 weeks of his return State-side and the rest is history.

One of the funny aspects of the film was this ongoing rivalry with an English singer songwriter by the moniker “Donovan.” He plays a great song while hanging with Dylan and his compatriots (he is obviously borrowing “a little” from Dylan’s songwriting style and presentation, regardless it’s a catchy well-written song). Watch a video of the track below.

Overall, if you like Dylan, see this film! It has been released in all the chrome on blu-ray. My favorite parts: a raging Dylan over the behavior of his hotel room guests surrounding throwing of glass bottles out of the window to the streets, Dylan’s exceptional one liners (“Give the ‘Anarchist’ a cigarette!”), anytime Joan Baez sang and Dylan’s irritating conversation with a “science student” who is a total gimp with no social skills (this guy actually grows up to be a big whig in the music industry who discovers Blondie).

Lately, I’ve been addicted to Angel Eyes, a moniker adopted by Melbourne based lo-fi guru, Andrew Cowie. I love the way he uses his voice amongst the clashing and clamoring of digital noise. This is some of the only music I feel I can meditate to. I envision an alternate universe of pyramids and sunsets in a ancient world long forgotten. Buy Cowie’s first release, Dire Dish, over on iTunes, highly recommended. His new release, Vice to Vice is out on cassette via Moon Glyph. Grab it here. Listen to some select tracks via YouTube/Soundcloud below.

“Flicked Bottle Tops”

“Do Away With”

Untitled I, 3.5″ x 4.25″, PX 680 Color Shade

Untitled VII, 3.5″ x 4.25″, PX 680 Color Shade

I posted a new set of summery Polaroids courtesy of fellow instant lover Mo. Check out the full set over on the Polaroid page.

I went for a very exciting visit to BlackHare Studio last week for some lessons in letterpress. My goal was to produce some personal business cards. With the help of VGreen Design, I came out with hundreds of cards and a handful of one-of-a-kind monotype letterpress prints.

An impressive collection of metal and wood type of all shapes and sizes

A vast collection of wood furniture

The studio was located in a downtown strip and was fully equipped with several large letterpress units. I printed my business cards on a small, but effective table top press.

I blind debossed my logo into my cards first using custom photo polymer plates. I printed my cards three-up on a page to save time with printing.

My custom photopolymer plates mounted on a form

I hand set all of the letters and numbers on my card…three times…using a modern sans serif typeface (Spartan).

Business card type set in a composing stick

I printed the rest of my information with a blue-green ink.

Business cards being printed on the tabletop letterpress

The cards were then cut down to the standard 3.5″ x 2″ size using a large papercutter.

After my cards were finished, we printed a handful of letterpress monotypes using an old U.S. Feed sign and some brayers on one of the large Vandercook presses.

I then dove into BlackHare’s collection of orphan type drawers to create an original letterpress poster for Surfwaco.

If you’re a fan of printmaking and graphic design, I suggest a visit to a letterpress shop. There are a lot of great ones across the country including, one of my favorites, The Firecracker Press in St. Louis, MO.

Madvillian–Madvilliany

Tokyo Police Club–Smith EP

The Shins–Port of Morrow

Psyched about Matthew Dear’s new LP coming out next month (Beams). 2010′s Black City was incredible. Buy it if you don’t have a copy. Below is the video for new single “Her Fantasy.” Strange but amazing…just like his music.

(Via Ghostly International…)

“Her Fantasy,” the highly praised lead single––and dare we say summer anthem––gets a very fitting video treatment. Director Tommy O’Haver’s video takes us on a journey through bizarre sequences of debauchery and seduction with a hint of humor, as he pays homage to Avant Garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger in a self-described “mash-up”. Tommy brings out the dark side of the psychedelic pop synth track by using pulsing lights, dim colors and exotic subjects. Featuring a pink-haired geisha, a slow-moving harlequin clown, and a smiling lady with a cage over her head, “Her Fantasy” is a very weird trip. Also, check out the Australian producer Tornado Wallace’s remix of said single. Beams is available August 27th & 28th. Pre-order now.

The Dark Knight Rises by Midnight Marauder

Batman by Midnight Marauder

I join the throngs of super fans who cannot wait for Nolan’s 3rd installment of everyone’s favorite brooding caped crusader. I watched a new preview while watching The Amazing Spider-Man yesterday (which was really good by the way). Try to keep yourself from drooling. Join me  for the midnight showing nationwide on July 20th at 12:00 AM. Tickets are available here.