Jazzanova Remix Contest

Soul group Jazzanova are doing a remix contest for their latest extravagant single, I Can See, on SoundCloud. You can download 18 stems from the track including vocals, guitar, bass, and strings, for free on the website. Once you've made the remix, just send it to their DropBox by December 15th, and check out the Jazzanova or SoundCloud website to see who the winner is. In the mean time, check out the music vid for the original track, and if you want, send your remix to my DropBox and I'll do a post on it.

Beautiful Losers

OK, so I know I said I wouldn't be posting for the rest of the week in honor of turkey day, but I've been finding too much cool stuff not to post about. This is the trailer for an art documentary called Beautiful Losers, I found over at the Mod Blog. It looks really cool, and I'm hoping to see it on the big screen. If you want to catch it, you can request a screening in your local city. Just shoot them an email at bl@sidetrackfilms.com. So far, they've mainly been touring in good old America, but I'm sure they're looking to expand their horizons. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

That's it for Danish Poet for the rest of the week. Enjoy the turkey!

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DM Stith - Thanksgiving Moon

MPPA - The Freeep

The New York indie pop band Matt Pond PA, just released a free EP, titled The Freeep, via their website. For a free download, it's actually really good. It's got some catchy beats and melodies that really keep it going.

The EP's also been titled: The Dawn before the Dark Leaves or Water off a Black Dog’s Back or Amazing Life or Butterfly Mornings and Wildflower Afternoons or May we never go go mental, may we always stay stay gentle or The Fear of not Being Afraid or The Warmth Within the Warren or Dreaming of Sleeping or Saying It to Keep It From Happening or This is not the Dark Leaves or Living for Liv Ullman or The Odds of a Sunrise or Whispering Pines or You’ll be the Rhythm and I’ll be the Beat and I’ll be the Rhythm and You’ll be the Beat or The Grass Harp or Goodbye Barcelona or Why is my copy of the Moviegoer Floating in a Puddle Beside the Car. All appropriate titles for the feel of the album.

I think you'll enjoy it, cheers!

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Matt Pond PA - The Freeep

Track Listing:

1 Hearts and Minds

2 Our Braided Lives
3 Five
4 One and Only
5 Imperfect
6 Three
7 First Light
8 Amazing Life
9 One

Music Video Update: Gong

This isn't the official music video for Sigur Ros's masterpiece Gong, but it should be. Eric Lerner, the mastermind behind the vid describes it as a "Short film/unofficial music video for a track I love." Sigur Ros's unique vocals give the film an epic quality, and though it may take you a while to get the whole idea of the film, once you do, it's fantastic. 

Sigur Ros - Gong

In case you haven't heard of him, Eric Lerner's the creator of ads like Coke Olympics and the cute and catchy Mr. Citymen series. Great stuff. 

Tonight: Franz Ferdinand

Franz Ferdinand are set to release their third album January 26, with a 1930's crime scene styled cover shot and a the first single titled Ulysses. The album's titled Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, and the track's already been leaked along with the cover art (above). So here it is, in all its Franz Ferdinandy glory. 

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Franz Ferdinand - Ulysses

Preorder the whole album here. Until then, here's the track listing:

01 Ulysses
02 Turn It On
03 No You Girls Never Know
04 Twilight Omens
05 Send Him Away
06 Live Alone
07 Bite Hard
08 What She Came For
09 Can’t Stop Feeling
10 Lucid Dreams
11 Dream Again
12 Katherine Kiss Me

Looks like their also going on their Tonight tour in December. Too bad they're not coming around New York...

12/3 Montreal, QC La Tulipe
12/4 Toronto, ON Lee's Palace
12/6 Boston, MA Orpheum Theatre (WFNX show)
12/8 Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom (KNRK show)
12/9 Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom
12/11 Oakland, CA Oracle Arena (Live 105 show)
12/12 Las Vegas, NV The Joint (KVGS show)
12/14 Los Angeles, CA Gibson Ampitheatre (KROQ show)
12/15 San Diego, CA Canes Bar & Grill

Deerhunter Vs. SMD

The Simian Mobile Disco team just released their edit of Deerhunter's Octet, off of the '07 release Cryptograms. Here's the download, found it over at WLI.

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Deerhunter - Octet (Simian Mobile Remix)

Coldplay Gives Lyrics and a New EP

I'm sure many Coldplay fans felt jipped when they didn't get to hear Chris Martin's voice in Life In Technicolour, one of the many hits off of their latest album, Viva La Vida. However, Coldplay doesn't dissapoint - they've made a sequel to the track with lyrics and all. Download Life In Technicolour II for free below, along with the title track off of their yet-to-be-released EP, Prospekt's March/Poppyfields. The EP in its entirety will be stocking the shelves tuesday, but we've got the first track for free download below. Enjoy.

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Coldplay - Life In Technicolour II

Coldplay - Prospekt's March

Lambchop Covers Dylan in a Cab

Winter's coming. It's getting cold, it's getting dark. What better for another rainy day in England, than Lambchop's Kurt Wagner covering Dylan's Your A Big Girl Now, in a black cab? 

You should really check these guys out. Black Cab Sessions has gotten some familiar, and unfamiliar indie faces in their taxi, some of which include Death Cab for Cutie and Peter and the Wolf.

Metric - Help I'm Alive

Canadian alternative/rock band Metric hasn't come out with a hit since Monster Hospital in 2005. However, they've recorded their next album, set to release in January of '09, and the first single's already been leaked via their website. The track's titled Help I'm Alive, and we have it for free download.

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Metric - Help I'm Alive

Metric's going on their "Help I'm Alive" tour in conjunction with Jingle Bell Rock this December. Check out the dates below:

12/12 - Toronto, ON Sound Academy
12/13 - Toronto, ON Sound Academy
12/15 - Winnipeg, MB Burton Cummings Theatre
12/16 -Saskatoon, SK Sask Prarieland Ex & Trade Centre
12/17 - Edmonton, AB Shaw Conference Centre
12/19 - Calgary, AB MacEwan Hall
12/21 - Vancouver, BC Vogue Theatre

12/22 - Vancouver, BC Vogue Theatre

Stream Day & Age

The Killers' new album, Day & Age, is up for free stream before its official release on November 25th, via their MySpace. Check it out now! Are we human, or are we dancer...

Music Video Update: Weird Fishes

After another In Rainbows contest, Radiohead's announced the winner for their Weird Fishes music video competition. Radiohead's released some pretty original music videos in the past, but none of them amounts to this one's creativity. Created by artist, musician, and Fleet Foxes fan Tobias Stretch, the video, (a short film in its own right) tells a tripped-out story conveyed through fantastic imagination, perfect stop-motion filming, and an overall beautiful setting. His brilliant creations come to life in a beautiful world, all to the tune of Radiohead's Weird Fishes. Watch and be amazed. 

You can stream some of Toby's music on his website, or check out a slideshow of stills from the creation of the music video. You can also watch one of his more popular videos, entitled Illuminant, here. 

Artist of the Week: Kristofer Strom

Kristofer Strom is both an artistic and musical genius. There is little known about him, other than that he is a Swedish artist who not only makes fantastic videos, but creates all the music for them himself, under the name of Ljubilden & Piloten. Of course, the above image is one of his paintings. You may be more impressed when you find out that he created that painting with Facebook Graffiti. Strom's done TV ads, some of them high budget, and some of them not so high budget, but either way, his work is brilliant. Below is a video of one of his more popular animations, which is even longer on DVD. 

On his MySpace, Kristofer's music is explained as both ambient, folk, and experimental, his record label's Norsodo, and he's also got a whole slew of creative video masterpieces on his sidebar. The next vid I want to show you is something I found on his Vimeo channel, which successfully combines raster video with vector animations. 

The Hours - See The Light

Well, there's been a music video floating around the blogosphere lately, titled See The Light, by The Hours. I've never heard of them before, and I don't think I'm the only one, but apparently they've worked with  legends Joe Strummer, Shaun Ryder and Jarvis Cocker. After releasing their debut album in '06, they've now been playing off their latest single, See The Light, with a remix by Calvin Harris (of course). The original song I must say is something to appreciate, with its dramatic echoes and ballad-y piano. Here's the download for Calvin Harris's take on the track:

DOWNLOAD 

The Hours - See The Light (Calvin Harris Remix)

And here's the legendary music video, directed by Tony Kaye and staring english actress Sienna Miller. It'd definitely slightly creepy, if not more, but it's also pretty thought provoking and creative. 

The See The Light single will be released December 8th, via digital download or a sweet 12" vinyl designed by english artist Damien Hirst himself. This band's shooting high.

Music Video Update: Swissex Lovers

Fight Bite just released their music vid for Swissex Lovers. Made by layering archival film commercials and news reel footage, Fight Bite's put together one of the most ingenious, creepy, yet beautiful music videos I've seen in a while. To some it might just be a cheap mish-mosh of layered videos, fading in and out of each other like some music video a low-budget 80's band would come up with. To me, this is a truly and arguably a work of indie art. You don't find many videos like this, though you do find videos that try to achieve this. Just for a heads up, it'd definitely long and drawn out, but it's worth a watch. And hey, it's got some claymation!

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Fight Bite - Swissex Lovers

Chromeo Remixes Vampire Weekend

Last Wednesday at MTV U's Woodie Awards, Chromeo took on the stage with Vampire Weekend, and put together The Kids Don't Stand A Chance (Chromeo Remix). Chromeo won an award, and you can check out some photos of electronic duo with Vampire Weekend on the website. The Remix is kinda sorta like the original, except with beats instead of strings. It's also featured on their The Kids Don't Stand A Chance single, which you can buy here.

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Vampire Weekend - The Kids Don't Stand A Chance (Chromeo Remix)

Animal Collective Excerpts

Fact Magazine's got some excerpts from Animal Collective's new album, Merriweather Post Pavillion, due January 20th via Domino. Listen to them here, and quickly! They're only up for a limited time. Animal Collective's also playing at the Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom, the day of the album release. Go here for tickets.

Hercules & Love Affair Remix Cut Copy

The electronica band hipsters Cut Copy are about to release their new single, Far Away, featuring remixes by Hercules & Love Affair, Damn Arms, The Golden Filter, Aeroplane and Knightlife, and the new track Sands of Time. Everyone's been looking forward to Cut Copy's sophomore album since In Ghost Colours, but while your waiting, here's Hercules & Love Affair's disco twist for you. 

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Cut Copy - Far Away (Hercules & Love Affair Remix)

Music Video Update: Half Full Glass Of Wine

Tame Impala just came out with the music video for their jammin' track Half Full Glass Of Wine. The video's directed by Special Problems, the creative minds behind this psychedelic The Shock Of The Lightning-esque trip that includes monkey heads, colorful doves, and a whole mess of trippy, psyched-out collages. 

Tame Impala's on their world tour - check out dates via their MySpace. 

Okkervil Sing an MTV Interview

For a fairly popular band in indie rock, interviews can get boring sometimes, especially when you've done a lot of them. Fortunately, creative bands like Okkervil River keep it interesting. Singing their responses to an MTV interview, they could make a whole new album just with interview responses. Here are two of the couple I found over at Stereogum. 

Danish Poet Autumn Mix

Just DJ'd some songs together for a 13 minute autumn mix. Thought it might be kind of cool, incase you're throwing a party and need a soundtrack. It has a lot of little snippets from a couple of different tracks, all of which came out this year. The two main themes are from Aer Obama and The Human Touch, both totally epic songs. 

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Ian France - Danish Poet Autumn Mix

Autumn Mix Tracklisting

1 Heads We Dance - The Human Touch
2 Daft Punk - Aer Obama (Adam Freeland Remix)
3 Of Montreal - I'd Engager
4 Tokyo Police Club - Nature Of The Experiment (RAC Mix)
5 Ladytron - Black Cat
6 The Kills - Cheap & Cheerful (Faux Rock Remix)
7 The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name (LA Riots Remix)
8 Architecture in Helsinki - That Beep (Radioclit's French Mix Ft. Marina)

What's With All These Weird Videos?

I don't know about you, but just recently I've been noticing a serge of freaky videos that make you want to say WTF? Between Final Fantasy's new vid, and another Deerhoof's attempt, I'm beginning to wander if there's something I'm missing. Watch the videos below, and you'll get what I'm talking about. 

Final Fantasy - Blue Imelda

The Bloody Beetroots (ft. Congorock) - Rombo

Deerhoof - Basket Ball Get Your Groove Back

CTDK - We Love Techno

Clash The Disco Kids (CTDK), just released their remix album We Love Disco. The album includes remixes of CSS’s Alala, SebastiAn’s Motor and even has little Adam Freeland mixed in their, along with plenty fantastic DJing. Download the whole album below.

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Clash The Disco Kids - We Love Disco

We Love Techno Tracklisting:

01 Patrice Baumel - Roar
02 Citizen Kain - Get Fat
03 Wippenberg - Drumster
04 Popof - Elektric Circus
05 Mescal Kid - Magic (Second Mix)
06 A-Trak - Say Whoa (Boys Noize Remix)
07 ZZT - The Worm (Database Rework of Erol Alkan’s Work)
08 Tiga - Mind Dimension (Short Edit)
09 Guns & Bombs - Riddle of Steel
10 Proxy - Raven (Les Petits Pilous Remix)
11 Format: B - Edding 850
12 Deadmau5 & Jelo - The Reward Is Cheese
13 Digitalism - Home Zone (Proxy Remix)
14 Zombie Nation - Forza (Fukkk Offf Remix)
15 The Presets - Kicking And Screaming (Bang Gang’s E is for Edit)
16 Streetlife DJs - We Love The Disco Sound (Cut’n'Run Dub Mix)
17 Housemeister - Inordertodance (Boys Noize Remix)
18 Cubic 22 - Night In Motion
19 Ravex - I Rave U
20 Modeselektor - Black Block
21 Laidback Luke ft A-Trak - Shake It Down (Acapella)
22 Devilfish,Roel C Salemink - Manalive (Jon Rundell Remix)
23 Jokers of The Scene - Baggy Bottom Boys
24 Adam Freeland - We Want Your Soul (Acapella)

Interview With Love Is All

I just recently had the pleasure of interviewing Nicholaus Sparding of Love Is All. For those of you not familiar, Love Is All is a fantastic indie/punk rock group made up of singer/keyboardist Josephine Olausson, singer/guitarist Nicholaus Sparding, saxophonist James Ausfahrt, drummer Markus Görsch, and bassist Johan Lindwall. They originally rose from the ashes of Swedish rock band Girlfrendo, and are famous for their both sloppy yet catchy, gorgeous punk pop. This is it. 

You were originally in the band Girlfrendo, before becoming Love Is All. What first inspired you to even be in a band?

Nicholaus: I've been in different bands since I was 13 and I guess the easiest answer/reason for starting bands is listening to music and wanting to do the same thing. The possibilities of creating something for someone else to dig and hopefully loving what you do. But at the same time I think it is inevitable for some people to make music - any kind of music really - in a therapeutic kind of sense. So when you get a nice bunch of people together and all of a sudden discover that you love what's happening with the mixture of everyone's radically different ideas and musical preferences - what can you say? You just smile and continue. What a silly answer, but it's from the bottom of my heart, hahaha...

What is the difference between Girlfrendo and Love Is All, in your musical style?

Nicholaus: I would say the biggest difference is the songwriting process. Even though there's almost always a primal songwriter for each song we keep arranging and rearranging til our ears bleed with love is all. And there's also a crazy creativity going on (not always for the better) which we lacked in Girlfrendo.

Then there's also a huge difference between how the bands sound, right?

Your debut album, Nine Times That Same Song, was received very well by critics. What was noticeable about the album however, was your choice to use the saxaphone, which strikes many as an odd instrument for an indie rock band. What were your influences, not only in choosing the saxophone as a major instrument, but in your musical style all together?

Nicholaus: The saxophone was a piece that we wanted to try for a couple of songs just to get away from the obvious indie rock/punk sound. We've always been really careful in that sense. Turned out it made all the difference we could dream of so here we are, stuck with Åke, who's by the way the most fun and exciting sax player on earth. He knows how to swing it.

You just came out with your second album, A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night. What was it like recording it? Was it harder then recording your first, or easier because you'd already been through everything?

Nicholaus: It was tons harder. first of all we didn't really record an album the first time (9 times..). We just put together a couple of allready released 7"s and added some songs. Then all of this weird shit started to happen. "A hundred things..." was more of a struggle in many ways. There were interference from labels, we didn't really know in what direction we wanted to go, our sax player (Fredrik) quit the band and everything was kind of left hanging on the loose. Luckily it turned out to please everyone in the band but there was a lot of struggle involved. We didn't like the first mix of the album so we decided to do it ourselves together with Wyatt Cusick and in the beginning it worked out well but after a whila it turned out to be to much of a mess to be all of us in the studio, mixing since we had so many different takes on how we wanted it to sound. At least we didn't share the same interpretations of words to describe music. So it ended up being Wyatt and the others (mainly Markus and Johan) that finalized the mixes. I wasn't very involved. But I guess that was a good call.

On your blog, you wrote a post about waking up like a child on the morning of his/her birthday being that you had just released A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night, and listed both good and bad reviews of your latest album. How do you react to critical feedback? Do you feel that critical feedback helps you improve?

Nicholaus: I love reading bad reviews cause they reveal how different we all react to music. People who want it to be perfect will never like us cause we're working in a field where the spontaneous meets the ever so hard work making arrangements. And if you want to make that kind of music you just have to let go of any perfectionist ambitions cause it just won't mend together. And all of the bad reviews I've read have been focusing on that and vocals that are out of tune etc. Totally uninteresting cause the reviewers wouldn't have like it better even if everything was perfect, I'm pretty sure. I love perfection too here and there, but has to corallate with the soul of the band. Silly again...

Do you have any plans for another album?

Nicholaus: Yes, we're planning on writing/recording early next year. Thre's also a brand new ep coming out in february (maybe later) that we're all stoked on.

What music are you currently listening to?

Right now I'm listening to old favourites like Spiritualized, the Cure, Fleetwood Mac, Comet Gain. It's the rain period in Sweden so I need to feel safe somehow...

Love Is All just released their latest album, A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night, yesterday. Download it on iTunes here. 

Music Video Update: Tape Song

This is the latest music video from The Kills for the track Tape Song. It's on their latest (and probably their best) album, Midnight Boom, which was released earlier this year. There's no other way to describe it except as another ingeniously, yet beautifully warped Kills video. It even features footage from when they went on tour with The Raconteurs. That explains why Alison Mosshart is playing pattycake with Jack White. 

The Kills - Tape Song

Rfinery 29's Autumn Passing Playlist

Refinery 29 just released their Autumn Passing seasonal playlist, including Deerhunter, Air France and Department of Eagles. It's got some familiar, and unfamiliar names on the list, but here are my two favorites:

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Final Fantasy - The Butcher

Department of Eagles - No One Does It Like You

Download all of the sixteen tracks on the Refinery 29 website, now. (Pic)

That's Disturbing Ozzy

Ozzy Osbourne just did a commercial recently for Samsung Mobile which shows a very quiet Ozzy Osbourne, mumbling to much to be heard, and as a result texting what he has to say. Quite a funny contrast to the Black Sabbath Ozzy we all know and love who bit off a bat's head. Either way, it makes for a good ad campaign. 

Heads We Dance - The Human Touch

The Human Touch is the latest single by the space-disco, pop/club, Daft Punk-influenced techno band, Heads We Dance. It'll be released November 24th via Gold City Records, but I've got the five minute single here for free download. At five minutes, the average dance song would normally become repetitive, but Heads We Dance keeps the track grooving between quick electronic stabs and contrasting dream-like synth breaks. Overall, the single doesn't disappoint. 

DOWNLOAD

Heads We Dance - The Human Touch

You can also get their extremely limited 12" vinyl, 7" Ltd, or digital download via their MySpace page. Thanks for the tip, Big Stereo.

Fleet Foxes Find the Echo for La Blog

La Blogothèque threw a party at the end of May and invited the Dodos, Vandaveer, Essie Jaine, Noah And The Whale, and lastly, Fleet Foxes to play. The day after their shadowy Winter Hymnal celebration, Vincent Moon led the crew out into the Grand Palais to film them doing Sun Giant in a field, and Blue Ridge Mountain, in an abandoned wing of the Palais. What was born from this was pure, beautiful, genius.

Read more at the La Blog page on how they found the echo.

American Cut Copy Tour Announced

Cut Copy are going on their final run through North America in support of their album In Ghost Colours. After this, they'll be back in the studio, recording some more genius. However, they're not going out without a bang. Brooklyn's happy couple Matt and Kim will be joining them on this 17 date trek, as well as an awesome light show, and a surprise DJ.

All dates go sale this week:

03.06 AUSTIN, TX @ Stubb’s BBQ
03.07 DALLAS, TX @ Granada Theater
03.09 POMONA, CA @ The Glass House
03.10 LOS ANGELES, CA @ Henry Fonda Theater
03.11 LOS ANGELES, CA @ Henry Fonda Theater
03.12 SAN FRANCISCO, CA @ The Fillmore
03.13 LAS VEGAS, NV @ House of Blues
03.15 DENVER, CO @ Bluebird Theater
03.17 ST. LOUIS, MO @ The Gargoyle
03.18 CHICAGO, IL @ Vic Theater
03.20 TORONTO, ON @ Circa
03.21 NEW YORK, NY @ Terminal 5
03.22 BOSTON, MA @ House Of Blues
03.23 WASHINGTON, DC @ The 9:30 club
03.24 CARBORRO, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
03.26 ATLANTA, GA @ Masquerade
03.27 ORLANDO, FL @ Club Firestone

Thanks for the tip,  We Like It Indie. Got the pic via Time Out - good magazine. 

No One Womanizes Like You

The Hood Internet, one of the greatest mash artists out there, has done an unholy thing: mixing Department Of Eagles's No One Does it Like You, and Britney Spears's Womanizer into a strangely perfect mash-up. Play the stream below to experience it, and while you're at it, check out The Hood Internet's music playlist on imeem too.

Broken Social Scene In the Name of Chocolate

Cadbury Chocolate has just released an ad featuring Broken Social Scene's Stars and Sons track. The commercial below, like many ads, is based off the idea of one thing leading to another. Not unlike Jack White's Coca Cola commercial (no, not the James Bond one), the below vid's definitely enjoyable and cute. But how on earth did they get that guy out of the cooler?

Of Montreal Covers Franz Ferdinand

After already covering Nirvana, Of Montreal performed Saturday night at the Tabernacle in Atlanta, and covered Franz Ferdinand's biggest hit, Take Me Out. The below vid is pretty long, so you might want to fast forward through the guy flailing his arms about to watch Kevin Burnes play "one more song". 

What I love most about the video is how the crowd sings along at some points. Overall I think oM did a pretty good job. If for some reason Alex Kapranos happened to drop out, Kevin Burnes wouldn't be a bad replacement. 

New Ian France: Interlude

I know the posts have been kind of slow - been working on my music. Just finished a new song, you can download it over at the website. I'll be updating from now whenever I make a new song.

Sunday's Song: Dying Is Fine

This Sunday's free download of the week is Dying Is Fine, the hit track off of Ra Ra Riot's latest album, The Rhumb Line.

SUNDAY'S SONG DOWNLOAD

Ra Ra Riot - Dying Is Fine

Banjo or Freakout - Exclusive Covers CDs

After accomplishing his mission to record 20 covers, Banjo Or Freakout's released 150 exclusive cover CD's, with 11 of the 20 covers he's made, including All I Need, Archangel and Cape Cod. Every CD is "handmade spraypainted freakout artwork", priced at £5 each. If you want to order one (like me), just email him at banjoorfreakout@gmail.com. 

Please Tune Your Violin...

I've finally made my first song, Recital. My band, Ian France, has it up for free download on their website. I'm hoping to come out with some new tracks soon. As soon as I'm finished with them they'll be posted on the site. 

Music Video Update: Mystery Man

This is the official vid for Gnarls Barkley's new single, Mystery Man, which will appear on the Who's Gonna Save My Soul EP coming out November 11th. The simply drawn animation matches the song's lo-fi, b-side feel, and evidently, Superman sucks. 

Gnarls Barkley - Mystery Man

Radioclit Remixes

London's Radioclit, of The Very Best, has been pretty busy lately. Architecture In Helinski released Radioclit's remix of their new single, That Beep, on AIH's website. You'll be able to buy the official single on Australian iTunes, November 22. Radioclit's also been doing work with Sweden's Teddybears, and remixed their hit track Cobrastyle, featuring Mad Cobra. The song actually uses riffs and elements of older songs you might know, including Bomdigi, by Erick Sermon. It's a great song, the original was featured on the Employee of the Month soundtrack. 

DOWNLOAD

Architecture In Helinski - That Beep (Radioclit Remix)

Teddybears ft. Mad Cobra - Cobrastyle (Radioclit Remix)

Check out !tashed music blog to download Cobrastyle (Diplo Remix) and a cover of the track by Robyn. Apparently, the above album cover was a fake photoshop copy done by a degenerated old man. 

Dustin O'Halloran Live @ the Tilles Center

American pianist Dustin O'Halloran has worked with Sara Lov for Devics, had two scores featured on the soundtrack to Marie Antoinette, and has also worked on the score for the movie Boy of Pigs, which premiered at the Zurich Film Festival in September. Even though he was american born, he currently resides somewhere near Bologna, Italy, after discovering the "love of his life, a tall, dark, piano." A couple of nights ago I saw him live, at the Tilles Center. He played a mix of songs from his two, only albums, entitled Piano Solos Vol. 1, and Piano Solos Vol. 2. Creative, right? Well, even though almost all of his songs are called Opus something er other, his music is beyond words. He does not sing, as you may have guessed from his album titles, all of his works are piano solos. I have never heard someone create such an intense feeling in the air, as Dustin did. He is even better live, for after buying his second album and listening to it, I soon realized that, though the album is fantastic, when he performs live it's as if you are feeling every note sink into your soul. Oh, and it also puts you to sleep. When I was at the concert, I heard a man snoring a few chairs away from me. It's not that it's bad that the music puts you to sleep, but it drains out every ounce of energy left in your body. Never listen to it in the car. 

He walked on stage, a thin, lanky 37 year-old, and happily greeted the audience. After announcing the names of the first two songs he was playing, he hunched over in deep concentration, and began to play. 

Most piano teachers would tell you to keep a straight posture while performing, not to bend your back so far that it seemed your nose was going to touch the piano keys, like Dustin. As a child, O'Halloran had practiced piano, but stopped for a decade. When he decided to start up an old hobby and create music with Sara Lov, he quickly became an accomplished pianist, famous for his dreamy, atmospheric melodies and raw, graceful tunes. 

Halfway through the concert, after another opus, he faced the audience and stated "Now this is the exciting part of the show." and proceeded to take off his jacket and throw it on an amp. The audience whooped, and O'Halloran bent back down and began another melody. After a few more songs, he said goodbye and left the stage. I was fortunate enough after the concert to receive a signed copy of his second album, Piano Solos Vol. 2, and meet him in person. 

You can download Dustin's latest album here, or if you want to see him live, check out some of his upcoming tour dates below:

11/08 (sat) Denver, CO Temple Buell Theatre
11/09 (sun) Santa Fe, NM Lensic Theatre
11/11 (tue) Mesa, AZ Ikeda Theatre
11/12 (wed) Tucson, AZ Centennial Hall
11/13 (thu) San Diego, CA Symphony Hall
11/15 (sat) Oakland, CA Paramount Theatre
11/22 (sat) Los Angeles, CA Benefit for Ari Bhod Foundation for preservation of Tibetan Culture

Music Video Update: I'm Outta Time

A new conceptual clip by Oasis follows the psychedelic trip on The Shock Of The Lightning music video. This is the I'm Outta Time music video I found out about via Stereogum. Really original - only Oasis could pull this off. 

Oasis - I'm Outta Time

Obama Has a Posse

Found this over at Barack Obama's fan website. Remind you of something? Apparently, Shepard Fairey got something started when he made his famous, screen-print Obama posters. Heck, he got something huge started. Thanks to Shepard Fairey and hundreds of other designers and artists alike, Barack Obama's political campaign has become one of the most "visually successful" presidential campaigns of all time. 

Found this interview with Shepard Fairey over at Supertouch. 

Supertouch: "How is it even remotely possible that a graffiti artist with a lengthy arrest record and a history of breaking multiple laws in the name of “art” is branding the most visually successful presidential campaign of all time?"

Shepard Fairey: "I was impressed with Obama’s speech at the 2004 DNC and I started paying attention to him. When he announced his presidential candidacy I thought it would be great to make an image in support of Obama. However, with my rap sheet and my body of work critical of U.S. policy, I was worried my endorsement of Obama might be an unwelcome affiliation. I wanted to help, not be a liability, so instead of my usual “act now, apologize later”, I asked through some friends if I could get the OK from the Obama campaign. I was finally told by Yosi Sergant in mid January, after asking at the end of Oct. 2007, that it was cool for me to make a poster on my own. I figured I should act quickly because the often-decisive Super Tuesday was Feb.5. I illustrated my Obama image the day I got the go ahead, and had the poster in production the following day. I wanted to get the posters out in my usual ways and I was not thinking the image would be much different from any of my posters except that I did intentionally make the image more reverent and patriotic with the hope that it could transcend my counter culture niche because Obama was guaranteed to have the support of the counter culture anyway. My hope was that the image would be able to pique the interest of moderates."

This is a pic of Shepard Fairey standing in front of his famous Obama screen-prints. Obama has a posse.

Circular Painting

Circular Painting is a timelapse, artistic, masterpiece, painted on a circular piece of canvas and made for the Discovery Channel in South Africa. The theme was the environment and the artist's responses to it, or, "the fate of the earth". Various artists, musicians and animators contributed over a non-stop twelve hour period to make this two minute film. What I personally find amazing about this video, is that you can see how each artist's unique style contributed to it and how it all fit together beautifully. Not to mention how the vid conveys an important message so creatively. 

Conceptualized and directed by Bryan Little, of Fly on the Wall media, definitely one of the more creative and insightful media production agencies out there. Check out their vimeo channel here. 

Artists:

Bryan Devlin
Luis Tolosana
Warren Lewis
Ree Treweek
Daniel Ting Chong
Mike Morocco
Toyah Moon Humphreys
Paul Ressel
Josh Ginsburg

Sunday's Song: Sex On Fire

I've decided to do something every sunday called Sunday's Song, in which I'll post a hit track off of a contemporary artist's latest album for free download. This Sunday's Song will be Sex On Fire, the major hit off of Kings of Leon's latest album, Only By The Night.

SUNDAY'S SONG DOWNLOAD

Kings of Leon - Sex On Fire

The de Wildes in Morrison Galleries

The Morrison Hotel Gallery in Soho has released an exhibition entitled Autumn and Jerry de Wilde: Two Generations of Counterculture Photography, featuring the work of only Autumn de Wilde and Jerry de Wilde, two of the greatest band photographers from two different generations. Autumn de Wilde is better known for her photography of modern artists like The White Stripes, Beck, and Death Cab for Cutie, while Jerry has photographed the many stars of the 60s and 70s, including Jimi Hendrix, the Who, and even Ravi Shankar. Combined, they've photographed more than half a century of iconic people and historical events, which will be on display in Morrison Galleries until the end of this year.