I saw Band of Skulls 4 times in 2009 and I still haven’t had enough of this UK trio. I’ve RSVP’d for a couple parties @ SXSW so hopefully I’ll be able to catch them sometime soon. I need my fix! Here’s there new video for the song “Friends” from the New Moon Soundrack.
Happy Hearts Beneift for Haiti
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10
BOOTLEG THEATRE 2220 Beverly Blvd. Los Angeles, CA
(free parking behind Praise Christian Church)
$15, 18+ (Buy Tickets)
The Fold presents… a Benefit for Haiti featuring:
PETE YORN
TIM KASHER (Cursive)
CRAIG WEDREN (Shudder to Think)
+ Special Guests
The event will be hosted by the hilarious NICK KROLL(The League), DAVID WAIN(The State, Stella) and NICHOLAS SHUMAKER and more. Proceeds go to benefit Happy Hearts, an organization that specializes in secondary response efforts.
In L.A. you are encouraged not to acknowledge a celebrity’s existence —certainly don’t say anything to them, that’s what tourists do! It’s understandable why. After all we are all human beings who wish to be rewarded for our deeds but allowed our personal freedoms including the right to peace and privacy. But I’ll have been a citizen of the The City of Angels for 3 years come Valentine’s Day (romantic I know) and I don’t give a fuck what you say, if I want to talk to someone regardless of who they are…I’m gonna. Of course even I have my rules and standards. You never, ever bother a famous person with their kids or at dinner…EVER! And I want it very clear that I’m not trying to bother anyone just because they are famous. It’s ALWAYS about WHAT they do, which is why they are famous to begin with unless they are a non-celebrity like cast members of The Hills*. I’m not going to say something unless I really have something to say. Problem is, you always think of something to say out-of-the-blue 5 minutes later. Fortunately this afternoon. I had just such a 2nd chance.
You should know that I have an EAGLE-EYE for personalities. Some people just have that “glow-of-importance” to them. Maybe I can subconsciously observe their aura. I know that sounds ridiculous.** I have no real explanation for it. When I first moved to California my inner dialog after a quick glance at someone was always, “That person looks a lot like _________.” only to realize at 2nd glance that it most likely was that person, just doing whatever. I’ve learned now to accept that it probably is that person as it proves true more likely than not.
Saddle Creek recording artist Orenda Fink (of Azure Ray, wife of Todd Fink of The Faint) has made her 2005 debut album Invisible Ones available for free download on her website now through the end of January in an effort to encourage relief effort donations for the current crisis in Haiti. In a very personal letter posted to her site that recounts her time in Haiti spent making music, art, and – most importantly – friends, Orenda asks that people make a donation to a relief effort organization in return for downloading the album. Invisible Ones, her solo debut, was inspired by and mainly written during her travels there in 2003.
I’ve seen Shep around L.A. a couple times but never said hi.
What do you say to someone that good?
He knows he’s good, his presidential portrait is hanging in the Smithsonian.
It’s like he took everything that Warhol ever said about Art but could never actually do and fucking did it.
From Arkitip via popwhore via Design You Trust
Ali always says, “This one’s going in the Spank Bank.” so from now on The Spank Bank is a category for anything worth touching yourself over. Go ahead. We don’t judge.
NakedGirlsInOurBed.com is a website started by Lucky B (Lucky Bastard), a photographer in San Diego and his girlfriend Eloise where simply enough girls stop by and they do a photoshoot in their bed. Most of the girls are tattoo’d, pierced and very hot. The girlfriend is cool with it and the photos are magnificent and very tasteful.
Simple. Brilliant. Sites like this are there for nothing more than the betterment of society.
(photo by Lucky B. {Keith Allen Phillips}, used with permission. Be sure to check out his other photos. DO NOT USE WITHOUT PERMISSION.)
Greetings from Nebraska. My friend Duck showed me this. Great to see a song being put together and this girl has a good smoky voice.
http://www.myspace.com/natalydawn
http://natalydawn.com
http://myspace.com/pomplamoosemusic
Omahan Conor Oberst has announced a lengthy solo tour to accompany his impending solo LP due out August 5th.
Why even drop the name Bright Eyes? Bright Eyes is Conor Oberst. No offense to Mike Mogis and Nate Wolcott, they are both very talented but everyone else on stage with Conor is just “you know, those guys in Bright Eyes’ band”. And actually he is still bringing Nate with on this tour, along with Maria Macey Taylor, Taylor Hollingsworth, Nik Freitas, and Rilo Kiley’s Jason Boesel in his band called the Mystic Valley Band. I’m guessing this naming followed a couple days visit with Mescalito.
You can stream 2 of the tracks on ConorOberst.com now. Let me know if you get a pre-release.
So dare I shell out 40 bucks tomorrow morning to see him at the Trubadour August 5th? A CD release show of sorts? Probably not. He seems to loathe his audiences and never fails to play exactly what nobody else wants to here. I’ll wait for a smaller Bright Eyes show.
9/25 Tulsa, TX Cain’s Ballroom
9/20 Omaha, NE Anchor Inn
9/21 Nashville, TN Ryman Auditorium w/ Jenny Lewis
9/23 Fayetteville, AR George’s Majestic Lounge w/ Jenny Lewis
9/24 Oxford, MS The Lyric w/ Jenny Lewis
9/25 Tulsa, TX Cain’s Ballroom w/ Jenny Lewis
9/27 Austin, TX – Austin City Limits
via Moma.org: Bees have a sense of smell fine enough that they can detect some Cancers and states of fertility and ovulation. Does this sound as impossible to you as it does to me? Well as part of a modern art exhibition —you know what, I think it’s witchcraft. I’ll just copy the text from the website:
Precise Object, from the BEE’S project: New Organs of Perception. Prototype. 2007
Susana Soares (Portuguese, b. 1977)
Design Interactions Department (est. 1989), Royal College of Art (UK, est. 1837)Soares has conceived a series of alternative diagnosis tools that use trained bees to perform health checkups, detect diseases, and monitor fertility cycles. “Bees have a phenomenal odor perception,”
explains Soares. “They can be trained to target a specific odor.” The Face Object has two chambers. Bees that detect certain odors in the breath—some of them even connected to forms of cancer—will go into the smaller chamber if they sense them. The Fertility Cycle Object has three chambers: The largest corresponds to the ovulation period, the second to preovulation, and the third to postovulation. The bees will fly into the relevant chamber. The Precise Object has an outer curved tube that prevents bees from flying accidentally into the interior diagnosis chamber, making for a more precise result.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go to Walgreens and pick up a bee chamber.
OMGz. I need to stop clicking on this site. Whenever I do I get trapped in it’s never-ending web of eyegasming art images and ephemera.
The site works by its users bookmarking images they dig on the web and adds them to their list of photos on FFFFound. Im just trying to fill space so that the link on the right doesn’t spill over into the post under this one. Since I am just spouting off random words then I might as well tell you that I started a forum on this site. Under the header where it says FORUM, yeah, click that and start posting. Post whatever, i praise wierdness.
These were either done with a stencil and a vacuum or an empty tattoo needle (i’m guessing vacuum). Either way I think the concept is rad. These images come from the Skin series of photographer Ariana Page Russell. The image on the left is what led me to the website, a pattern of lace embossed on the skin. Its like skin wallpaper or an accessory that you don’t take off… until it heals.
She can’t play an instrument, her performances turn to shit, she has no stage presence, she’s a goddamned junkie, and it seems that her whole album was Mark Ronson
I stopped watching the Grammys a few years ago. I should say rather, that I stopped beliving that they mean anything. They really don’t.** The industry is dead (thank god) and it seems that only Major Label Artists get any props for the music of 2007. Well, what the fuck? Cassadaga came out last year and all it won was for BEST PACKAGING? (It is pretty fucking sweet if you haven’s seen it.) But the point I’m making is that there are Hundreds of AMAZING bands that made some amazing music last year and some worthless assholes in the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences are trying to tell you that Amy Winehouse made the best achievements in music last year. Go Die.
I’m not trying to be pessimistic but I hung out with too many musicians last year that treated it all too much like a job. It’s not. Its better than a job, its what you are! Be professional but HAVE FUN! Thats the reason that you got into it in the first place, right? If not then STOP DOING IT! I was fortunate enough that I also hung out with plenty of musicians that worked their asses off, made great music, put everything they had financially, emotionally and physically into their music and they got little to no recognition outside of Pitchfork.com. I guess more importantly is that they have a connection to THE FANS and people who came to see them live. And thats what’s really important. Awards are ridiculous; the next time you hear about one, spit on the ground.
I don’t even care that the death of the music industry has snuffed my dream of designing album artwork for a living. At least I’m still doing packaging that millions of people see and I’ll still be alive with a career next year (hopefully). Hey Amy, here’s Renfro’s dealers’ number, give him a call when you come to L.A.
*Lily Allen
**Congrats to The Flight of the Conchords
Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s have been named one of Spin’s bands to watch this year. I caught their performance at SXSW last year and it blew me away. I have long ago been hardened by the malaise of catching way too many shows but the magic was definitely there with these guys. Its a little folk with a touch of the indie orchestra. Most of what I was told about them consisted of rumors that someone heard while staying at their Indianapolis commune (of sorts). Half truths like: “They have bunk beds stacked to the ceiling and sleep 9 to a room.”, “They all fuck” and the best was “Their percussionist is always TRIPPING!” During the live show his very energetic and interpretive dance seemed to be evidence enough to support that claim.
Rumors or no, the fact is that they are amazing on record as well as live. Go get their 2006 album, The Dust of Retreat, and it may change your life. A follow-up record is coming soon (being finished as we speak).
