BEAK> were formed in January 2009 by three Bristol musicians, Billy Fuller, Matt Williams and Geoff Barrow (Portishead). This is the lead track from their album to be released on 19th October 2009 on Invada Records Europe and ipecac in North America. Buy (pre-order) the album here.
If you like them, help spread the word. More on The Autumn Film here.
I first posted about this here. Well Tobias Stretch won the competition. It’s my favourite track on In Rainbows and what an awesome video Stretch has made.
According to research, heavy metal fans are gentle, indie music listeners lack self-esteem (I assume this refers to the shoe gazing crowd) - and this is the part that makes me laugh - lovers of pop music are uncreative. Read more here.
John Pasche, 1970.
Purchased at the cost $92,500 for the permanent collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Beginning with Sticky Fingers, Rolling Stones has used this design continuously until today.
“When I was 15, in the North-west of England…. the record cover to me was like a picture window to another world. Seeing an Andy Warhol illustration on a Velvet Underground album was a revelation…. It was the art of your generation… true pop art.” - Peter Saville.
In little more than one square foot, the album cover captured the dreams, hopes and fears of a music-loving generation. If CDs left the record sleeve mortally wounded, downloading has performed the coup de grâce on album artwork. Read more here.
Designer Peter Saville, whose Factory Records artwork included Joy Division and New Order album covers curates Spin: The Art of Cover Design. In this exhibition, Saville has chosen some of the best LP cover art of the past 40 years of work by former students of University of the Arts London.
Aoki Takamasa’s Mirabeau (from the Parabolica album). Visuals by Ryoichi Kurokawa.
See the higher resolution podcast here.
Everything That Happens Will Happen Today by David Byrne and Brian Eno is available from today. It’s their first collaboration in 30 years and the album is available in 3 versions:
Buy it here.
Here’s the streaming player for the album.
Teaser of hillmancurtis’ film
In an industry that’s been on the downward spiral since the advent of digital music files and P2P sharing, Radiohead has stood out for its embrace of the Internet and what it has to offer. In Rainbows - which was not only released online but also with a pay-what-you-please price strategy - earned the band an average of £5 per album, more than twice of what they would have received if they were still tied to a record label.
Carrying on down this path, the band organised the In Rainbows Music Video Contest (together with aniboom) for fans/animators to develop a video for a track from In Rainbows. Submissions were voted for online and four winners have been picked. These animators will receive $10,000 to finish their videos but the band hasn’t committed themselves as to which they will release.
This one’s by Tobias Stretch, a favourite that’s been making its rounds on the Internet. I’m looking forward to seeing the completed version of this.
“Brian Eno and I recently finished our first collaboration in about 30 years. For the most part, Brian did the music and I wrote some tunes, words and sang. It’s familiar but completely new as well. We’re pretty excited. In August the music will be available via this Web site, free for streaming and it will also be available for purchase as both a download and in physical formats. One of the songs will be available free of charge.” - David Byrne.
Album scheduled for release August 18. More info here.
Just how compelling can you make the physical release of an album that has been downloaded (for free) 1.6 million times since May 5?
Nine Inch Nails‘ The Slip is now available as a limited edition CD with bonus DVD. This will be a one-time only worldwide run of 250,000 individually numbered digipacks. Each digipack art directed by Rob Sheridan (whose portfolio is worth checking out in its own right) features a six-panel layout, 24 page booklet and athree sticker set. The bonus DVD includes 5 live performances filmed during rehearsals for Nine Inch Nails’ upcoming tour, including album tracks Echoplex, 1,000,000 and Letting You.
Vinyl fans however, will have to wait until August. What’s in store is a gatefold vinyl version of The Slip which contains one 180gm vinyl LP and a 24-page booklet.
Black Metal is a genre that I could and would never get into. But this photo essay by Peter Beste of the movement in its traditional home of Norway is both compelling and intriguing in equal measure. It sheds light on what is perhaps the darkest form of musical expression today.
“In the last two decades a bizarre and violent musical subculture called black metal has emerged in Norway. It’s roots stem from a heady blend of horror films, extreme heavy metal music, Satanism, pagan mythology, and adolescent angst. In the early-mid 1990’s, members of this extremist underground committed murder, burned down medieval wooden churches, and desecrated graveyards. What started as a juvenile frenzy came to symbolize the start of a war against Christianity, a return to the worship of the ancient Norse gods, and the complete rejection of mainstream society. I have spent the last 7 years photographing in this insulated and secretive community.” - Peter Beste
Directed by James Frost, Track from In Rainbows.
“In Radiohead’s new video for “House of Cards”, no cameras or lights were used. Instead, 3D plotting technologies collected information about the shapes and relative distances of objects. The video was created entirely with visualizations of that data.” And btw, the song is awesome too.
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