Music Video Update: 1234

Feist's 1234, the hit from her latest album Reminder, became most popular after it was featured on Apple's 3rd generation iPod Nano ad. It's certainly a creative music video simply in its coordination and choreography, but I do agree that Feist does seem to be loving herself a bit too much.

Feist - 1234

Artist of the Week: OBEY Obama

You probably recognize the poster. Barack Obama's face colored in red white and blue, and the either the words progress, hope, or change, written below. Shepard Fairey's propaganda style Obama screenprint posters sold out within moments of its release, and no more editions are planned to be released. Shepard Fairey, Rhode Island School of Design student and original creator of Obey Giant, has been releasing designs since 1989. 

The Andre the Giant Has a Posse street art campaign first started out as an inside joke directed at hip hop and skater subculture, and was based on the french wrestler and actor, Andre the Giant. The design was originally distributed by the skater community, as vinyl stickers and paper posters. However, the "propaganda" spread, and today it has become a world-wide movement. The stickers and posters were placed in major cities across the world like New York, Boston, Paris, Japan, Greece, and more. However, after a lawsuit in '98 from Titan Sports Inc., Fairey was forced to change the trademark name of Andre the Giant to the iconic OBEY brand. He used the wrestler's face in a star for his logo, and Obey Giant, or OBEY, was born. Shepard Fairey's latest and most popular release has been the Obama screenprint which were released in January of 2008. 

Graphic designer Shepard Fairey poses next to his artwork.

Oasis Remixed For Dig Out Your Soul

The long-awaited Oasis album Dig Out Your Soul, has finally been released. After its decline in popularity, many long-time fans are glad to hear that Oasis is back. With a psychedelic cover that matches the 60's retro feel of the album, Dig Out Your Soul is already directly behind Coldplay's Viva La Vida, as the most popular album of 2008 in Britain. Guitarist Noel Gallagher gives his views on the album for NME - "All the tunes I've written recently have been on the kind of acoustic side, you know? But for the next record I really fancy doing a record where we just completely throw the kitchen sink at it, we haven't done that since Be Here Now. I'd like to get, like, a 100-piece orchestra and choirs and all that stuff. I think since Standing on the Shoulder of Giants we've been trying to prove a point of just bass, drums, guitar and vocals and nothing fancy. But I kind of like fancy! I'd like to make an absolutely fucking colossal album. You know? Like literally two orchestras, stuff like that."

However, Oasis hasn't been the only one working on the songs for the album. The Chemical Brothers, the electronica duo behind We Are The Night and Push The Button released their remix to Falling Down in September as a B-side to the album and the first, official Oasis remix. Primal Scream cohort and Reverend And The Makers producer Jagz Kooner, has also remixed The Turning and the pre-released album single, The Shock Of The Lightning, which is available on the Dig Out Your Soul Box Set along with Richard Fearless's (right) To Be Where There's Life remix. 

It seems so far, that Oasis has restored itself to the way it once was. Not only has it returned to its stripped-down rock roots, but it is once more an unpredictable band. In a good way.

Please... Just Don't Vote

This is a great vid I found over at Stay.Tuned blog. 

The message is clear. Unless you don't care about abortion, terrorism, global warming, or you're rich and don't give a sh*t like Jonah Hill, don't vote. What this vid really reminds me of though, is that New York Times Weekender commercial, except five minutes long. 

Music Video Update: Reckoner

After another Radiohead competition was held, this time for the best animated video to go along with a song from the album In Rainbows, the winner was Clement Picon's fascinating, beautiful masterpiece of evolution and destruction as the music video for Reckoner. Here it is.

Radiohead - Reckoner

Banjo or Freakout Covers Vampire Weekend

Banjo or Freakout is a modern, psychedelic, experimental band made up of one man and his computer. Reminiscent of Elephant 6, these surrealistic tunes stand on the border of reality and surreality, occasionally revealing a catchy beat, or a pleasant melody. Alessio Natalizia, the one man band, has recently covered a Vampire Weekend classic, Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa. The only thing similar to the Banjo or Freakout cover, and the actual song, are the lyrics. To download the song, you can go onto his blog or click here. 

Artist of the Week: Banksy

A true rebel, Banksy is a witty, british, guerilla artists most widely known for his brilliant street art. He was born in 1979 and has chosen to remain completely anonymous. Although he is most famous for his graffiti art, he also draws and paints, mostly ironic, anti-war sketches. Here are some examples of his graffiti art:








Here are some examples of his indoor art:




You might recognize this one:

Some know Banksy as a criminal, destroying public property and the environment, while shying away from the camera. To me, he is a talented painter, graffiti artist, and drawer. He's even made some videos. He's leading in the field of underground art and has done work in London, Los Angelos, Jerusalem, Pakistan and more. He also has some of his artwork on his website, for downloadable for print.

"If you don't own a train company then you go and paint on one instead. It all comes from that thing at school when you had to have name tags in the back of something... that makes it belong to you. You can own half the city by scribbling your name over it."
- Banksy

Music Video Update: A-Punk

This is the music video to the hit by Vampire Weekend, entitled A-Punk. A perfect way to describe this song was written by a viewer who commented on the video on Youtube. He said "This is my type of song, because I'm punk, and prep!" 

The video itself is extremely original for its creative use of speeding up video. It is also remescent of Interpol's Slow Hands music video, in which everything is slowed down. 

Vampire Weekend - A-Punk

Radiohead Does It Again

Remember that post I wrote about Radiohead's Nude Remix competition? Well, they've done it again, only this time with the second most popular song of the In Rainbows album - Reckoner. As of the moment, they're selling stems of the vocals, bass, guitar, piano, strings, and drums from Reckoner on iTunes, for just 99 cents. Anyone can submit their remix of the song here. 

Click on the play button below to play the most voted remix yet, and if you like it, you can vote for it. 

Post-It Notes Movie

This is a video that EepyBird blog did called EepyBird's Sticky Note experiment a fascinatingly creative video that was made with exactly 280,951 sticky notes.  

EepyBird has already praised for their amazing Mentos Coke video. Just goes to show how far a little imagination can get you.