Album Art

So you wander into some record store (and if you're me, it's probably either Smash! or Crooked Beat (partially because that's really all there is in DC, and partially because the two are both pretty awesome and right next door to each other) and you're just lookin around. Probably browsin' through the vast quantities of used records, "organised" alphabetically (questionably), and tryin' to find something good. You're flippin' through them pretty quickly, because there are just so many, so how do you know if you see something good? The album art. And that's what this post is about.

Mainly though, it's just some of my favorite album covers with maybe a lil' blurb about them (it's not as if I could analyse them or anything).

First up is Beirut's debut album Gulag Orkestar
This is just such a great photo, and probably one of my fave covers. It really fits the sound of the music, and, at least according to the liner notes, Zach Condon found them ripped out of a book in a library in Leipzig.
Then we have Beat Happening's Beat Happening. Twee as fuck. That's really all you need
Hi, How Are You? by Daniel Johnston. iconic and amazing. When he used to work at McDonald's he would just randomly put tapes into people's bags. lucky folks, most probably hated them unfortunately.
Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven - Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Like the album, it's simply amazing. I am super psyched to finally be able to see them live. They have a history of pretty sweet album art. Their album Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada has a really interesting cover too, all it has on it are the hebrew characters for "chaos". It doesn't even mention the band, or anything else, anywhere on it.


Joy Division's Unkown Pleasures. A graphic of successive pulses from the first pulsar discovered.
(a blurb should not be necessary here)
Loveless - My Bloody Valentine. It just captures the feeling and the sound of the album perfectly.Sonic Youth's first album after "selling out". Sweet cover by Raymond Pettibon

That's it (for now at least) but my stopping is really just a matter of space. There are soso many great ones out there.

-Alec

Comix

So how about an update, hey? Alec, our friend Emily, and I went to a OneNation, a rally in DC, on Saturday. It was a ton of fun; we met a lot of socialists and were handed a pretty hefty amount of literature. While we were in the city, we also hit up the National Gallery of Art and poked around about. Alec and Emily were interested in seeing the Mark Rothko exhibition, and I'm really glad they were. From hearing them talk about it briefly a few days ago, I was not really excited to see it, but ended up absolutely loving his work. The main room of the small exhibition featured five of his immense black on black paintings. They are tricky to explain, and pictures of the paintings really miss the point, so I can only encourage you to check them out for yourself, and give them a chance before writing them off as typical, cynical modern art.

Also, if you haven't noticed, we've added a little box for comics that both Alec and I draw. I just put up one about Benjamin Franklin or skateboard culture. I just got my Bamboo Fun (pen tablet) set up after receiving it last Christmas(Thanks bro!) So, I have been playing with it a lot tonight and felt like drawing a comic idea that Alec and I came up with. Enjoy those comics and thanks for reading!

Daniel

I made this.

This animation is part of a project with the requirement that it must start and end with a line. Later, we will string together all of the classes animations. My hopes are not high for the end result, but here's my part.

-Daniel

Halcyon Digest

Halcyon Digest as you otter know is the new Deerhunter album. Now this is my first "record review" and I'm not really sure how it's gonna go. To be honest, I don't even like record reviews very much. It's really opinion based and often a lot of stuff that is written off as being mediocre or even bad I really enjoy and the same goes for the opposite.

Anyways, Halcyon Digest is really, really good. If this is your first listen to Deerhunter since Cryptograms (or maybe even Microcastle) you might be suprised. Their sound has changed a lot. However, if you've heard Rainwater Cassette Exchange/seen them live somewhat recently it won't come as much of a shock, as the progression seemed somewhat natural. It's definitely a different sound, less experimental and more garage-y, but it is definitely still Deerhunter (and it's awesome).

Before going more in depth, why dont'cha click on the following link and stream it from NPR so that if you haven't heard it, you can listen along with reading.

Halcyon Digest kicks off somewhat slowly (but surely), with the song "Earthquake". Looped drum samples, swirly swirly ambient sounds and guitars, dreamy reverb-drenched vocals. It lures you into the album, but don't be fooled. "Don't Cry" the next song is more fuzzy-buzzy, washed out garage sounding (no long ambient opening songs like on Cryptograms). It's really got a 60's vibe I think and it's a pretty good listen.

"Revival" the first single released from the album falls into place as the third track. Despite being released way before the actual album came out, it's pretty clear it was written as part of the album and not just a single. Sure, it's catchy, poppy, fun and only a little bit over 2 minutes. It transitions pretty seamlessly from "Don't Cry" and to be honest when I first listened to the album it was a little hard to tell that a new song had started (this is a good thing).

"Sailing" follows next, and it's a sort of abrupt change from the song before. It's an aptly titled song, that drifts along and lulls you into a state of calmness and contentness rather like I imagine taking a boat out onto calm waters on a nice day for a sail and just kicking back and relaxing and maybe with some napping thrown in there would. While a good track, it is a little long and really very sparse, comprised of just vocals and guitar (although the guitar is not continuously present). It actually sounds like it would be more at home on at Atlas Sound album, and doesn't quite mesh with the rest of the tracks.

"Memory Boy", another short, guitar-driven song follows. It's fun, but overshadowed by "Desire Lines", the next track. With an opening that strongly recalls Arcade Fire's "Rebellion (Lies)" It soon splits off into a more recognizably Deerhunter track. Guitar lines shimmer over chords, drum beats, and a pulsing bassline, bound together with great vocals by Lockett Pundt. The song as a whole is great, but ends with a somewhat disappointing jammy ending (reminiscent of someone practicing scales). It's the "Nothing Ever Happened" of Halcyon Digest and it's awesome. I'm sure that live the jam would be loads better. Possibly my fave song off here.

"Basement Scene" is more of a traditional Deerhunter tune and would have been right at home on Rainwater Cassette Exchange or Weird Era Cont. The vocal melody is great, for the most part and Bradford repetition of "I don't wanna get old" while lamenting that "in the clubs they know my name" , but that "my friends will not remember me" voices the worry of being known, but not really having close relationships with anyone or making an impact in peoples lives.

"Helicopter", another song realeased early by the band, follows. It starts off a little iffy, but gets better and better as it goes along. Shimmery, swirly echo-y guitars, sampled drums, and Bradford's singing all add up to form an uncharacteriscly sad song, which (i am told, but unsure if this is true) is about the true events that formed the death of a teenage gay prostitute in Russia.

"Fountain Stairs" and "Coronado", the next two songs, are both more up-beat, simple guitar based songs. They're both enjoyable but not exceptionally remarkable. What is especially noticeable though (and this is a common theme on the album, but most defined on these two tracks) is that the singing seems to be channeling Julian Casablancas. Is this a good thing? I don't really like the strokes, but the singing definitely works for these songs, especially "Coronado". One thing that sets "Coronado" apart from basically everything else Deerhunter has done is that it has some raging sax in there. It's kinda weird, but actually fits in pretty nicely.

Well, there's only one track left: "He Would Have Laughed". It's a doozy. Definitely a great closing track and incredibly sad. While maybe not the saddest song if listened to somewhat skimming-ly, once you know that it is dedicated to (the late) Jay Reatard and actually listen to it, you realise that it is a lot more than just repeating arpeggios, delay-filled swirly guitar lines, and ambient glow in the background. I don't want to try to go into it more, I feel like I might ruin it. At 7 and a half minutes long, it's by far the longest song on the album, but you ought to find yourself wishing it was longer. It really wraps the album up nicely and is a great closer to a great album by a great band with a consistently great output.

It comes out on September 28 (along with a lot of other albums, including No Age's Everything in Between (it also happens to be my birthday) but once again, you can stream it here (from NPR) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129866612 in the meantime. It leaked a little bit ago, but I would really ask you to not go and download it. Bradford has shown in the past that he really doesn't appreciate leaks at all and that it can be really disrespectful to artists to download their work before they planned. Also, you should definitely go out and buy this record. It's amazing. Recommend it to all your friends.

- Alec

P.S. Hope you are enjoying the new layout. Daniel really did a great job with the new banner, so props to him.

Reformat!

Excitement! Intrigue! Alec and I decided it was time for a change, so we restyled the page. I'm working on a new banner, and we're going to be changing more than just the look of the ol' blog, so get pumped for some freshness!

-Daniel

Olivier Kugler

Heya,

So, the school year's started, and hopefully it will bring some kind of regularity with it. I've got my plate full with arts and whatnot, so maybe look forward to seeing some of my better arts, unless you're not into that kind of stuff, in which case, you can just skip those posts- whatever works. In the meantime, I somehow found Olivier Kugler.


As he states on his site, Olivier loves to draw on location or from his own reference photos, and he does it very well. Most of his illustrations are simple portraits or very photographically framed scenes(if that makes sense). I really like his portraits; I think the best way I could describe them is as unmistakable approximations(if that also makes any sense). To expand on that, I guess you could say they don't precisely represent the people they depict, but the drawings are still pretty unquestionably them.

This picture is bigger than I'd like to include, but I like it too much to leave it out, so if you haven't clicked it yet, please do yourself the favor of clicking it. I find it really striking for the amount of detail and the annotations that really insert you into the scene. I also love the way the scenes bleed into each other, and how certain areas are a lot more developed than others;I think that in on-location drawing, the selective development of parts of the scene can be especially effective at drawing attention to certain subjects, and conveying a sense of motion or even stillness, from the apparent passage of time.

Okay, transparency issues are making this next pic. come out strangely, but I think it's worth the click.
Also, a pretty gnarly map:


Definitely check out this set of his illustrations if you've got some time to spare! LINK

-Daniel

XO Kid / Emily Reo

hey there





First up is XO KID. I am maybe a little biased because I am actually friends withe this guy in real life, but hawt dang his music is good and underrated. He makes some good ol-lo fi pop filled with distored keyboards, sampler stuuuf, and even a lil' bit of guitar here and there. Some of his stuff is more "beat-like" (and it's good too) but his songs with singing are better than his instrumentals. Best of all, his music is free!!! FREE!! download it here: http://www.mediafire.com/?c4h192ieijgwjzp


Make sure to check out "Bleach" and "The Air Was Cold but the Sun Was Hot" (my personal faves.

Next up on the agenda for today is Emily Reo

She is some gal from Orlando, Florida who (i assume alongside with that fellow playing the drums) makes some absolutely great, lo-fi, hazy, synth-filled, dreamy-dream-dream pop songs. Her music sounds a lot what a super-stripped down, "poorly recorded" Beach House would sound like. There are synth-y organs, soothing reverb lady voice, and some interesting drums and guitar too. Similar to XO Kid, her music if FREEFREE! (well sort of, her newest realease (Witch Mtn requires payment). You can download her album Minha Gatinha here on her bandcamp: http://emilyreo.bandcamp.com/album/minha-gatinha As well as a pretty awesome cover of Built to Spill's "Car".

- Alec