G Bear's Return.

Grizzly Bear is back, and you must listen. You owe it to yourself. They're one of my favorite bands from back in the day and I'll never forget the first time seeing them in a little club in Buffalo. I might actually get the chance to see them again in a few weeks in Paris but more about that as the plan solidifies.

You can get a first listen right now over at NPR!
Definitely check it out & when that expires get yourself on Spotify for free listens whenever you want. 
Or go buy the vinyl. That would be even better. 

If live is more your thing. Check this.

Dustbowl

Other Lives - Dust Bowl III

This blog might turn into a place to find dope vimeo vids. This video is amazing.
Truly a great example of visual storytelling. And the song is amazing. Watch this.

Imagery, sound, editing, acting, props, location. All superb.

Chicago

Drive.
Beach House.
Lake.
Grant Park.
Crystal Castles.
G Talk.
Black Lips.
Deep Dish Drums.
1979.
"Rich Kid Blues"
MMJ
Kudi, Cold War Kids. Deadmau5.
'Attack the Block'.
The L.
Cubs.
Old Style.
City.
Train.
Beach.
Drive.

Crystal Castles - Not in love (ft. Robert Smith)

My Morning Jacket - Gideon

Deadmau5 - Ghosts & Stuff

First time using my Holga. Love film.

Europe

Well I promised a bit of a summary of my trip to Europe. So here goes a summary...

So, last summer I spent about a month in the U.K. and France and had a bunch of educational/fun/crazy/ adventures. From spending weeks with my good buddy interning at a design firm in London, to getting stranded, literally, in Paris, to insane late night runs through Scotland, it was an amazing time.

I'll have a post for each place but until then, here's a song that will always remind me of late night designing and moscow mules with my friend Josh in London.

Trip

Well, my trip is coming to a close. Been over in Europe a few weeks now. Didn't go exactly as I had planned, but that's kind of the fun right? Plus, some amazing things happened that wouldn't have if my "plans" worked (back in London, stories to follow).

Anyway, Sooooo much inspiration the last few days. Just got back back from NewDesigners, a fantastic exhibition showcasing the best designers from the top art/design schools here in the U.K. It was really inspiring (and sometimes intimidating) to see how good these kids were. At the end of the day though, got super excited & inspired to better myself as a designer, go home and illustrate again, and started a great project with my buddy Josh. Design is so good, seriously.

Ok so if you haven't listened yet, go check out that tune by Benjamin Francis Leftwich. A fantastic tune from the young, 21 year old Brit. Excited to see where he goes. 


Ok long typing, next post will be a bit more pictures and stories from my trip. Hope all's well with er'one.


Cheers.

Leaving

Hey guys, so I apologize early if I don't post often for the next month or so. Leaving in about 3 hours for London (and from there who knows!). These past few months have been a bit crazy, working, interning, graduating college, looking for a full time job, new roommates, etc. Buuuuut, I decided that this is the perfect time for me to take some time for myself and travel.  Luckily everything fell together quite nicely.

Although this blog is in no way a travel blog, and even though I'm not sure how often I'll be able to post while I'm gone, I look forward to gaining more knowledge and experience in art, music, and film (and hopefully pass some of my discoveries on to you guys).

I hope you guys are having a fantastic summer and hopefully I'll return soon with new stories and experiences. See ya soon!

Sarah Elizabeth Blais

Sometimes you need a muse.

Sarah Blais' work is pretty sweet. She's def got a cool style and is worth checking out. Enjoy!

FOLLOW UP - got the EMA vinyl for Past Life Martyred Saints  the other day and I must say it's even better than I thought it would be. 2011's first must listen for sure. Get hooked. Here's another taste of this fantastic album. Moody 90's at it's finest.

uploaded by AwkwardSound

EMA

So I was just listening to the new My Morning Jacket album (which is fantastic) on NPR and I stumbled across the music of Erica M. Anderson, EMA. Formerly of the Gowns, Anderson is killing it under her new alias. "The Grey Ship" was my first introduction to EMA and I'm hooked. 7 minutes of just fantastic. Her new album Past Life Martyred Saints was released on May 10th and just reached the peak of my must haves. A must listen and as the folks over at NPR say, "enjoy your 7 minutes of catharsis."
-The Grey Ship

Damn, the transition at 3 min is epic.
Enjoy this tune. I'm off to buy the EMA record. Keep you updated.

Shit Robot

Shit Robot - Losing My Patience from DFA Records on Vimeo.

Shit Robot is pretty awesome. If you haven't heard of him before, Shit Robot consists of Marcus Lambkin, an Irish electro-house producer. While living in NY in the early aughts (2000's) Robot befriended James Murphy (later of LCD Soundsystem) and had a DJ partnership with him for a time.

In '04 Robot moved to Germany and started producing his own music and released his debut album From the Cradle to the Rave last September (2010). The album features James Murphy as well as Alexis Taylor from Hot Chip and is recommended. Perfect to listen to on a rainy spring day.

You can stream the album for free here. Enjoy!

Russ Chimes

Check out this video for Russ Chimes by Saman Keshavarz. It's pretty awesome.

So I'm loving the way that trend now to make music videos is to mix narrative and a unique film style in order to garner buzz. It's just much more entertaining and effective than having a couple kids dancing around quirky places and mouthing the music. This in no way is something completely new, but is completely awesome.

Keshavarz has done some awesome stuff and you def check out his stuff. This short film (slash music vide) is the final portion of a trilogy but I sorta loved watching it first. It was really entertaining to piece together the story as I watched and so I wanted to present it that way here. He's also done a music video for !!! as well as some work for Canon. Def a dude worth checking out if you liked the video. Enjoy kids.

Das Racist

What to do tomorrow (Saturday) night in Buffalo?

Go see Das Racist. 

I know a lot of you remember This Song from last year; an awesomely repetitive/memorable tune with this possibly intentional (or unintentional?) comment on contemporary American consumerist culture. Ok that sounds lofty and maybe they were just having fun, but I think they knew what they were doing. Either way, it polarized listeners with it's style but in my opinion, was awesome. Since then they've released two mix-tapes; Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man. They even let ya download the entire mix-tapes for free right off their website, so there's no excuse not to check em out if ya haven't.

These Brooklyn-ites have a unique style of flow while combining their signature mix of comical and serious content. Their new stuff is pretty solid and def worth checking out. And if you're around BLO this weekend looking for something to do, def head out to Soundlab (110 Pearl Street, Buffalo NY 14202) and check out this show. It's gonna be awesome.

Oh and listen to this tune on the drive down.
-Hahahaha jk

Beach

Dirty Beaches is fantastic.

You have got to check out this tune

-Lord Knows Best

Dirty Beaches is made up of Alex Zhang Hungtai and a bunch of eerie sounds and awesome vocals. He's surfy, Springsteen-y, spookie, and Presley-y. I'm sure you could add a few more comparisons but what's the point? All that matters is that it's damn fantastic.

When I listen to him I tend to think of that post-fight scene from a Tarentino movie where the camera is slowly panning over a room with broken lamps, tables, clocks, etc. with the surf crashing in the background. Weird right? Ha maybe I watch too many movies, but despite that (or perhaps because of), I know you'll enjoy.

Anyway, If you like what you hear his new album Badlands is getting released on March 29th. Till then enjoy some of his tunes.

-Sweet 17

-The Singer (Johnny Cash Cover)

Fall Again

I love the fall.

Things are just beautiful and awesome. It's my final semester of classes, I got my show opening coming up, and all I wanna do is go off to the woods and walk around. So, I took a day off from school, and worked a short project into a little day trip. Got to take some fun pictures and got to just spend some time away from everything. Little sick of looking at a computer to be honest.

Anyway, didn't turn out exactly how I wanted as I sorta ran outa time. But it's all good, check it out:

Beauty

It's been a while but i found this, and it needed to be shared. This is beautiful.
I cannot wait until I am done with school and perhaps I will go this direction. Agencies need film too.

autumn by the lake from Bart van der Gaag on Vimeo.

yesssss

'All the kids have always known that the emperor wears no clothes… but they bow down to him anyway, ‘cause it’s better than bein’ alone.'

The Arcade Fire are my heroes.

The new album (released Aug 8th) is fanfantastic. This is a band I fell in love with when Funeral came out, and was surprised but really pleased with Neon Bible. Bands often choose to remain stagnant but this is once again not the case with the fire. They choose to move forward with their artistic inspiration and insight and created another wonderful piece of work that gets better with each listen. Not only are their sounds so pleasing but their lyrical compositions don't fail to inspire (as seen above from my favorite song of their album, so far, "Ready to Start").

Each of you should check out some of my fav tunes below and then you should prolly go out and buy the album or go see them live many times.

-Month of May

-Ready to Start

Back

Back in action.

Saw music, saw Chicago. Wanted to start blog'n again. Miss ya, blog.

Food

Friends

Chicago

Awesome time. Missed music. And going new places. I could def see myself living in Chicago someday. Ok, so listen to music from the fest, reaaaaaady, GO.

Surfer Blood

-Swim

LCD Soundsystem

-I Can Change

Vid of Titus from Pfork

WWF

So I've posted this all over facebook and tons of people's walls, but I think it's cool enough for people to check out on my blog too. Love this video, you need to watch. So do it :)

Space Monkey from Leo Burnett on Vimeo.

For art, for beauty, for earth.

Tune it

Song of the Day

Prefuse 73 & School of Seven Bells - The class of 73 Bells

Shear

Song(vid) of the day

Shearwater

This is a fantastic band I heard of courtesy of my buddy Aron. If you're not familiar they were started by Jonathan Meburg and Will Sheff of Okkervil River in 1999. I think I'm gonna go check em out in Ithica, NY next week. Should be awesome, let you guys know. They just released a new album on Feb 23 entitled the golden archipelago which i completely reccamend you all listen to. Till then enjoy the vid and listen to them via myspace.

Shearwater Link

Dark Night

Dark night of the soul.

Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous has committed suicide.

I don't know how many of you listened to his tunes, but he made some great ones.

He's been working on an epic album with Danger Mouse, David Lynch, and numerous other musicians. Pretty sad day, another great artist gone.

This is from the album he was working on, "Dark Night of the Soul". Listen.

Sparklehorse

-Dark Night of the Soul