Yeah this is happening and I couldn’t be happier. I moved to LA 9 years ago, Stones Throw Records moved into my heart 15 years ago, so seeing that this is coming together I’m all over it.
I”ve given STR plenty of my money over the years, so might as well give them some more. Stones Throw Records have put together a Kickstarter campaign to put this all together. I’ll let them explain it themselves:
THE FILM:
OUR VINYL WEIGHS A TON (THIS IS STONES THROW RECORDS) is a feature-length documentary about avant-garde Los Angeles-based record label Stones Throw Records. Under the direction of founder and world-renowned DJ Peanut Butter Wolf, Stones Throw has consistently released critically acclaimed, left-of-center albums since its founding in 1996.
Catalog highlights include hip-hop classics like Madvillain’s Madvillainy, Dilla’s Donuts and Quasimoto’s The Unseen. They also include retro-soul hits such as Mayer Hawthorne’s A Strange Arrangement and Aloe Blacc’s Good Things, Dam-Funk’s boogie-funk masterpiece Toeachizown, and the oddball works of James Pants and Gary Wilson. Drawing on live concert footage, never-before-seen archival material, inner-circle home video and photographs and in-depth interviews with the folks who put Stones Throw on the map, OUR VINYL WEIGHS A TON will delve deeper into the label’s enigmatic artists, history, culture and global following.
Great interpretation by Arev Manoukian of the standout “Devil’s Den” from Skrillex & Wolfgang Gartner. An erotic descent into the Devil’s Den.
From Manoukian:
This film is the hauntingly dark journey of a newly married man trapped in a deep erotic dream. The dream quickly turns into a nightmare as he spirals down into The Devil’s Den.
Last week I had the opportunity to see my girl’s best friend’s son graduate from Highschool, its not your average highschool mind you, its a top end performing arts highschool in Los Angeles. Having attended a handful of their events in the past have always yielded a handful of recognizable names and faces from entertainment, who have kids or extended family attending LACHSA. And on top of that the kids are fantastic and enthusiastic, aspects that are often lost when dealing with the cynicism of the industry and artists at large.
Well all of that was ignored as their dean of students walked out to announce a very special performance. Most everyone in the audience up to that point had noticed the lone man in sunglasses inside the Frank Gehry designed Walt Disney Concert Hall, Stevie Wonder. Let me say that again . . . Stevie . . . Wonder. . .
He takes his seat at the piano addresses the audience and most importantly the students and starts. Below are the moments I captured on my camera (the stellar Olympus OMD EM5 w/ 12 – 50 lens) between cheers, claps, and exasperated breaths of “oh fuck thats Stevie Wonder.”
Not much more you need then this; a serene night, powder, your board, & LEDs. I haven’t snowboarded in close to 10 years, but watching this is enthralling.
Coming Nowness.com Fashion photographer talks about his inspiration for this project:
Fashion photographer and filmmaker Jacob Sutton swaps the studio for the slopes of Tignes in the Rhône-Alpes region of south-eastern France, with a luminous after hours short starring Artec pro snowboarder William Hughes. The electrifying film sees Hughes light up the snow-covered French hills in a bespoke L.E.D.-enveloped suit courtesy of designer and electronics whizz John Spatcher. “I was really drawn to the idea of a lone character made of light surfing through darkness,” says Sutton of his costume choice. “I’ve always been excited by unusual ways of lighting things, so it seemed like an exciting idea to make the subject of the film the only light source.” Sutton, who has created work for the likes of Hermès, Burberry and The New York Times, spent three nights on a skidoo with his trusty Red Epic camera at temperatures of -25C to snap Hughes carving effortlessly through the deep snow, even enlisting his own father to help maintain the temperamental suit throughout the demanding shoot. “Filming in the suit was the most surreal thing I’ve done in 20 years of snowboarding,” says Hughes of the charged salopettes. “Luckily there was plenty of vin rouge to keep me warm, and Jacob’s enthusiasm kept everyone going through the cold nights.”
When I first ran across this on Jay-Z’s Life and Times site, I was both drawn to the concept of immortalizing such an apparatus of music history and also thinking “Don’t all boom boxes look the same though?” I may have been born in the 80s, but started paying attention in the 90s; so I’m of the walkman era and boom boxes just weren’t an everyday occurrence.
Having looked through a few pages and the video below tis crazy some of the styles that were put out back in the day; and that for most part they are just going to go to waste. So shout outs are in order for Lyle Owerko for his collection and putting together this fantastic book.
I came across Sagaki Keita’s work and thought it was some of the most amazingly psychedelic art I’d seen in some time. The precision on the macro scale down to the seemingly haphazard and spontaneous nature of the micro is amazing. I’m always a bit taken a back that he doesn’t lose his way when creating these pieces.
The interview was done via email. Sagaki speaks little english and thus the text has some hiccups here and there. I’ve kept it as is, with little alteration as not to misconstrue or misrepresent Mr. Keita’s words.
I don’t post much electronic on here, I don’t know why not, but just haven’t I’m definitely a fan of the genre. One of the guys who always wow me with each successive album is Amon Tobin (I even went on a purchase spree to fill gaps in my catalog). Found sound paired with his ingenuity behind the boards makes an Amon Tobin something else to experience.
Check out his track by track commentary on ISAM here.
I’m a bit of an inforgraphic nut, so when these came on my radar I knew I had to repost these. These must have been a painstaking endeavor to complete, but they turned out better than the creator could have hoped. To see more head over to Pattern Matters.
About Pattern Matters:
AUGMENTING THE ROLE OF PATTERN IN GRAPHIC DESIGN THROUGH TACTILE EXPLORATION
Pattern Matters is a graphic design-based project inquiring on possible ways to augment the role of pattern by looking into the design process and tactile exploration through pattern making. It demonstrates the way of how this design element of pattern can be adopted differently on various platforms in graphic design. The main objective of this project is to inspire designers to look at pattern in every possible angles. Pattern Matters also aims to demonstrate that pattern is a crucial form of design element in graphic design which eventually evident that pattern is not merely a decorating tool.
Stanley Donwood, who has been at the helm of every Radiohead cover to date, linked up with @creativereview to explain the art and concepts behind Radiohead’s latest King Of Limbs Newspaper Album. I’ve provided some choice pieces and quotes; you can grab the full piece here.
The artwork is designed in the guise of a Sunday newspaper, complete with plastic packaging printed with the album name and imagery. It contains two 10-inch clear vinyl records in a sleeve, a CD of the album, a perforated blotting-sheet artwork, and a newspaper containing art and texts by Donwood.
The newspaper was printed in the US, and uses a standard US newspaper format, which conveniently folds down to approximately album size.
“In Rainbows was a great big, solid cardboard thing, if you were determined you could probably kill somebody with it, it was very heavy, and almost like a definitive statement,”
The King Of Limbs artwork is to be in complete contrast to that of In Rainbows, a figure that’s not rigid and finalized just as the news is; as Donwood says:
“It’s not like the news stops when a newspaper comes out,” he continues. “It’s just ‘this is what’s happening today’. So this is released into the world on this day, and this is where this band are right now… it is a continuing thing.”
Donwood on the CD Packaging: ”If it could have been any worse, it would have been . . .” Meanwhile the vinyl sleeve is made up of a series of oil paintings by Donwood and the band.
