If you weren't aware, there's been some new stirrings in the Protomen camp, namely a new cassingle for "I Drove All Night" designed by version industries. Their blog has a nice writeup on the mindset behind the design and the overall intent of how this Roy Orbison cover fits within the realm of the forthcoming covers LP. As usual, I'm intrigued by the work of version and how they apply pieces as a larger narrative to an overall project. Moral of the story: go get a copy while supplies last.

The paintings of Scott Listfield, aka Astronaut Dinosaur, are reminiscent of the work of Brandon Bird, in so much as they both feature well executed, technical, painting ability with ridiculous and absurd subject matter - often pulled from pop culture. Maybe that's an unfair comparison but it's not bad company to be in. Fortunately, the Listfield work doesn't require itself to try and good.

via Jim.

Smash TV

Tristen is looking to raise money for the manufacturing and release of her forthcoming record C A V E S. It's all already recorded, she just needs to pay the musicians and engineers who worked on it as well as actually bring the physical product into being. It's a lofty goal but her Kickstarter is already off and running.

While the new record won't be like her previously released album, Charlatans at the Garden Gate, you can take this time to refamiliarize yourself with her ability to write great songs like Baby Drugs, Heart and Hope to Die and Eager For Your Love.

ildatthegaslight

$20k is crazy lofty for an album release but after having looked at the rewards, it's legit. And I am sure it's a phenomenal record.

ifc

Rugburn

I was just complaining that it seems a shame that Short Films often don't get the proper homes they deserve on the web. It's hard to track them down and, often, they're just lumped in with all the other riff-raff on the streaming video services. Enter Elevision, a freshly launched service that showcases a handful of quality short films and lets you buy & stream them right there. So, you're enabling the filmmaker to keep going and you get yourself a treat of a mini-movie.

The content is great right out of the gate - Quentin Dupieux's Wrong Cops with Marilyn Manson and Eric Wareheim (among others), David Lowery's Pioneer with Will Oldham, The Arm, A Pretty Funny Story, The Kook and a bunch more. I think it's great that there's a curated home for these films and I look forward to watching the Elevision library grow.

The Sundance animation shorts selections were great - I highly recommend tracking down Marcel, Feral, Pendleton Ward's Thank You, TRAM and whatever else you can find from that list - especially Oh Willy.... That short in particular, from Emma De Swaef, boggled my mind. The animation style is just perfect for the somewhat dark storyline being weaved. It's a bummer that it's so hard to find these films online but set yourself a Google Alert, it's worth finding a way. Watch the trailer, you'll see.

"This is a work of scientific and artistic exploration to pique the interest of both the intellectually and imaginatively curious" is a helluva description for a book to claim but The Where, The Why and The How manages to deliver just that. As you can tell from the trailer it's a book tackling 75 different scientific mysteries through the pairing of beautiful illustrations from the likes of Jen Corace, Lisa Congdon, Jeremyville (and tons more) along with factual explanations from working scientists. Lovely work all around.

Over the past few years there's been a real groundswell resurgence in garage rock - some of which I enjoy but, mostly, I have a hard time getting into. So, when I saw that Nashville's own D Watusi had a record coming down the pipe, I was skeptical that I was going to be able to fully immerse myself in it. A bummer because their label, Nashville's Dead, also double's as highly enjoyable blog. As usual, my apprehension was all for naught. The album, Dark Party, is now available and it's a real gem. There's certainly garage rock influence but it goes well beyond that. If you need an easy introduction, start with Brother & Sister but you don't want to miss the long burn of Little Heller or the perfect pop of Danny Kokomo.

Long story short: Great record.

The idea behind the PaperKarma app should be appealing to anyone with a physical mailbox - they aim to stop unwanted paper junk mail with just a few clicks. You setup an account, snap a photo of your unwanted junk mail and, theoretically, it stops arriving in the next 6 weeks. I'd say it sounds too good to be true but I have friends who can attest to it actually working. Even better, it's for iOS, Android and Windows phones - everyone can stop their junk!

Gruff Rhys + Boom Bip have another concept record coming up.

from the Tim Hardin tribute album

I know I have posted about the vinyl collector / culture blog Dust and Grooves several times before but every time they post up a new profile I'm just as compelled by the content as the first time I encountered the site. The latest interview is with Ben Blackwell - a Nashville, TN based collector that, among other things, works at Third Man Records and helps to push their insane culture of vinyl to the level that it currently resides. His personal collection and attitude towards collecting is great. I suggest queuing up his accompanying original mix and then reading the entire interview. I love this attitude on collecting:

Q: What do you look for in a record?
A: Lately I've been looking for things that don't make sense. Records that shouldn't exist. Releases that seem stuck in a vacuum or created via time machine. But overall, a record should captivate you. It should elicit an emotion. It should tell a story. There's no better format for the dissemination of a song that the 7" 45rpm record. That will never change.

It's an inspiring talk that makes me want to push my own experiment a lot further.

Thanks to Sundance, over the past week I've been exposed to a lot of original films, shorts, documentaries and new technology. One such discovery is Watch It - a movie list compiling web application not unlike Letterboxd but with one distinct difference - Watch It has a notification system in place that will alert you when a particular film is available to view on a number of platforms. They even partnered with Sundance to provide a list of all the films so you can quickly add them to your notification queue. For me, this won't overtake Letterboxd as my main "film journal" destination but I am really loving the notification feature and think it'll fit in nicely to my forgetful lifestyle.

major scaled

the first new song / EP I've given a fair shake from these guys in some time. The cover art is compelling!

second track from forthcoming album