J. Cole – “See It To Believe It”: Woofer Worthy

J. Cole - Seeing

Some fresh new Cole for the listeners, been a minute since I put a Woofer related post up, well changing that bitch up presently. Enjoy, Cole debut releasing this summer and this is just another solid warm up.

J. Cole – See It To Believe It

Read more

@Elzhi Remixes Nas’ “Halftime” – Video

elzhi-spit

Elzhi is one of the nicest going right now, and only fitting he drops his own take on a Nas classic “Halftime” Look out for ELmatic!

Read more

Tyler the Creator Sits Down with YoursTru.ly

Tyler, de facto lead of Odd Future, links up with YoursTru.ly to get at progression and what he gets out of making music for himself.

Read more

Nadwuar vs Lil Wayne

So Nardwuar for all intents and purposes is my idol at this point.  Great interviewer with top notch material, questions, and does it in his own style.  Now he’s wrangled another of the music world’s biggest stars, Lil Wayne.

Read more

Radiohead King Of Limbs Newspaper Album Explained By Stanley Donwood

King Of Limbs Package

Found at Creative Review

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.

Head to Creative Review for more pics & info.

Get To Know The New Boyz: Full Interview

new boyz

More of me @LP33

Other than looking drunk in the thumbnail preview this was a solid interview with the guys.

PREVIOUSLY -
Things To Do In LA When You’re Brock Jones: New Boyz – “Backseat ft. Dev & The Cataracs” Behind The Scenes

Read more

Social8gency Presents: Behind The Video W/ Dustin Chambers (@dustchambers)

Screen shot 2011-03-06 at 9.58.51 PM

I caught with one of the young guns in music video directing, SMKA affiliated Dustin Chambers, and all around top notch dude.  One of the guys that I’m expecting to see a lot from this guy in the future so good to drop into Dustin Chambers & The SMKA Experience.

Was directing always where you felt you wanted to be?

Yes and no. When I was a kid, I really wanted to be a director, then in college I wanted to be a documentary photographer, and at this point I do about 50% video and 50% photojournalism. They’re two very different types of storytelling, though I find that my documentary photo style seeps into my music videos quite often. I’ve always connected less with directing narratives and more about creating rhythmic visuals.

Where are you originally from?

Atlanta, GA.

Has your hometown/how you grew up affected your outlook on filmmaking at all?

I grew up in a very visually literate family; my mom is a painter and my dad is an advertising photographer, so I was always around it. As I got older we would pick apart commercials and photos as we saw them in passing, so I really learned what a successful visual was, what an unsuccessful visual was, and most importantly, what elements made them each that way.

Who inspired you to get into the field?

It’s hard to say. I of course have my favorite directors, but in terms of music video, I really got into it when I got iMovie in Junior High or maybe even earlier. My first video was some stuff I filmed at a July 4 parade in a friend’s neighborhood; I cut it to Born In The U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen, and it was really magical to discover the power of making a cut as a beat in the song hit. Great editing is still the most important thing to me. Also, a huge inspiration in music video editing is a little movie called Interstella 5555, an anime set to Daft Punk’s album Discovery. It’s unbelievable. Every single movement, flash, cut, blink, etc. syncs with the beats of the album.

What has been your greatest tragedy and triumph in the business thus far?

Hmm, tragedy? I generally avoid tragedy at all cost. I guess as I still feel like I’m starting out, budgets are very low, and there’s no money to rent lighting equipment. This is fine, fortunately cameras these days allow to shoot in very low light while still looking pretty damn great, but it’s definitely a crutch. Directors, including myself, aren’t learning to light their scenes, and I feel that’s really crucial to the next level. So. That’s relative tragedy.

Triumph. I guess being lucky enough to be affiliated with and respected by SMKA. They’ve definitely got a huge movement going on in Atlanta and I wouldn’t be anywhere near it without them. If you’re trying to learn how to come up in the game as an artist, producer, or manager, watch them, they’re smart and tasteful.

I’m also very thankful that Aleon Craft was the first artist I got to work with extensively.  It meant a lot to fall in with someone who was willing to have fun, be weird, and try stuff that most rappers wouldn’t.  Don’t get me wrong, Craft has got swag, but he’s not afraid to let his guard down and be human.  I’m tired of rappers trying to fit into that tired old bling mold.  It’s not about that anymore.

Favorite 5 movies & why?

This is always tough. Excuse most of these answers being based on the visual aspect of movies:

City of God – For all reasons good movies are good. Cinematography is gorgeous, but the kicker is the editing. Just watching the opening scene, from the sharpening of the knife to chasing the chicken in the alley, it’s all perfectly executed.

Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark – Childhood favorite. Like all older Spielberg, the cinematography is epic and unlike most movies today, it’s all real! No shitty green screen and CGI backdrops.

Barton Fink – I’m a Coen Brother fanatic. This is a weirder one, but all the performances are great.

Chicago – What? A musical? Yes, a musical. I love this every time I see it. Great actors, great music, great choreography. I like most anything that feels like a really long music video.

Spirited Away – Hayao Miyazaki is in another world.

Favorite 5 albums/songs & why?

Babylon” – OutKast – Ultimately my favorite OutKast song. The humming on the beat. Big Boi’s coming-of-age verse. Incredibly relaxing.

Grizzly Bear – Yellow House – A great album to put on and tune out. One summer I listened to this and played Earthbound, my favorite SNES game as a child, a whole lot. Now when I hear it I see little flashes of the 16-bit characters walking about. Maybe that’s bad?

Pixies – Doolittle – Nonstop jams.

The Roots – Phrenology – This was my first Roots album, lots of high school memories attached to it.

The Beatles – Rubber Soul – My childhood jam. I listened to a lot of Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, and Beatles when I was little thanks to my pops.

Where do you believe your strengths are in this game?

My strengths…I’d say my strengths in terms of video is editing. I can polish a turd pretty well. In terms of “the game”, probably just practicing good business. Communicating well with others.

To up and coming directors what advice can you give them about focus, how to get into the industry, etc?

I’d say practice like hell. I know I keep going back to the editing bit, but it’s so important. Filmmaking is relatively very very cheap these days; you can be a one-man studio. It’s what I do. To be able to edit in Final Cut efficiently, so you can translate what you have in your head to your sequence as easily as possible, is imperative. This will also teach what works in terms of flow and what doesn’t. Find people to make free videos for so you can keep practicing. Setup a website with WordPress or whatever you want that showcases only your content. Be a nice guy, people like nice people. Call people back, respond to emails quickly. Reach out to people you want to work with, more likely than not, they’ll be down for at least a beer.

What are the craziest moments you’ve had on set?

I can’t say there have been really crazy moments on set. Shooting Aleon Craft’s video for “Sunday” was just a crazy two days of driving around in a Bronco. We would find ourselves in someone’s neighborhood, pick them up, drive around for a take or two, then move on. It was a blast. There was a moment when I was like, wait, is this my career I’m carrying out right now?

Where do you see your future leading you?  What is the endgame for Dustin Chambers?

I honestly have no idea. I have a lot of very different things going on. I’ve come to the realization that I’ll eventually have to choose a path and stick with it, but for now I’m just working really hard and having a lot of fun.

You’ve had a diverse clientele (Nat Geo, Adult Swim, @SMKA, etc) what do each of them bring to the table for you which made them appealing and vice versa?

I mean, they’re all really great companies. Most importantly they bring new experience from which I learn a whole lot. I feel like I’m generally winging it and hoping for the best.

You’ve done a lot of work with SMKA, how’d that relationship come together?

I was in high school with all three original member of SMKA(shout out to Paideia), though they were all a couple years older than me, so I never really knew them well. When they dropped SMKA Experiment Vol. 1 during my senior year of college, I was amazed by it. I couldn’t believe I semi-knew the people involved with it. I decided they’d be great to work with once I got out of school, so I shot Mike an email saying that I’d like to do photo or video with them and nearly a year later he called about doing the first Aleon Craft viral, “Strange“. It’s been love ever since.

How would you describe your style?

My video style is colorful and clean I think. A little heavy handed on the editing. They look like they were made on the spot, but are executed well. I’ve found myself using whip cutaways a lot, you can see a lot of them in Kyle Lucas’ Funeral video. Something about handholding the 5D makes it such an easy and effective camera move, especially when you do it at the right time.

What’s the equipment you most cherish?

I gotta say the Canon 5D Mark II. I just wouldn’t be able to make anything without it. No photos, no videos. It’s an expensive little box that my career depends on.

Lyric Jones’ Tour Through SXSW: A Hip Hop Checklist

My home girl in the field Lyric Jones, who I caught up with at @A3C this past fall (interview), put this together of her time in SXSW 2011 in Austin, TX. If you need a primer on a few of the young thundercats getting into hip hop Lyric is giving it to you.

Read more

9th Wonder “The Wonder Year” Trailer Released, Certified Dope

When I linked up with Kenneth Price earlier this year for the Behind The Video Series, he made mention of “The Wonder Year” soon to hopefully see the light of day, and below is the trailer for Ken Price’s year chronicling the great Grammy Award Winning Super Producer 9th Wonder.

Read more

420 Special: Snoop Dogg & Willie Nelson “Superman” Video

Stoners.

Read more

Pusha T Releases “My God” Video

Pusha dropped his Fear of God mixtape last month and its another in the line of top notch material from their camp, now we have visuals to the lead track “My God”.


The video is fittingly similar to “The Funeral” from the duo’s shelved debut album Exclusive Audio Footage

Read more

John Gomez of The Summer Set Is 1/2 of the Bagel Bros

One of the peoples and soon to be UCB graduate Jeremy Burke put this together for his new endeavor Loud Village, where Alternative Music Meets Alternative Comedy. I was on set for this one and make an appearance in another episode in the series (below).  The Bagel Bros consist of Jeremy Burke and John Gomez from The Summer Set.

We had a lot of fun with this, making it was a mess; at some point we were all a bit too inebriated to function reasonably while wading through mounds of demolished bagels but we powered through it. We’re bosses, so that’s expected.

See me after the jump.

Read more
© 2011 Social8gency - Music Culture Design Media, Life