The Society Of The Spectacle

It’s a year ago this week that I had the profound privilege of being at Madison Square Garden (and the ridiculous after party at the Tribeca Grand Hotel), and saw the final ever gig of LCD Soundsystem. The band that pretty much documented my 20′s in the mid 2000′s. Even from their earliest records, LCD (and James Murphy) always felt like musical kindred spirits, the soul of crate diggers everywhere, and fundamentally hard-wired into the greatest city on Earth. So it was only appropriate that their final gig was a 20,000 people 4 hour barn stormer, packed with unforgettable moments.

While my memories will always be unique, it sent a glorious chill down the spine to know that there was a film being created of that night. ‘Shut Up And Play The Hits’ in fact does more than just become a memorial of one night, but, as this interview with the directors (Via The ever excellent Creators Project) explains, is also a mediation on that all-too-rare ability these days to go out at the top of your game. What happened when the sun rose at the Tribeca Grand? the drink had been drunk and the records had been played? I know I felt a state of shock, so god alone knows what is was like for James and the LCD Gang.

It’s a novel approach, the trailer (see above), gives you a pretty good sense of what that night was like. But for prosterity’s sake, here’s a couple of videos from the final song (and the emotional ‘New York I Love You’) as well as some after party madness that showed that New York, and the world weren’t quite ready to give the band up that easily.

I cannot wait to relive it again.

Shut Up And Play The Hits premiers at Sundance Festival

I love Brazil. I love the music, the culture, the history, the sounds of Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joao Gilberto, Marcos Valle and beyond. I recently bought a book from Soul Jazz Records compiling much of the artwork that graced record stores in 1960′s Brazil, and in the extensive notes detailing the history of the Bossa Nova scene, the magic and power of the carnival was integral to how Brazillian’s evolved their musical language. (Samba, the principal music of the carnival, had come from the countryside, and Bossa Nova was the urban distillation of the Samba sound).

So it’s pretty easy to marvel at the magic of this video. Combining the classic visual cues of tilt-shift and time-lapse, it paints a picture of a city, and country in thrall to it’s heritage, and a vibrant place to be. This is best watched on a rainy day, where you can lose yourself in the sunshine and culture of a city and country reborn. (And it’s probably worth sticking this song on while you watch it too…)

(Via Fubiz)

A neat project from New York Based Graphic Designer Mike Joyce. Combining a love of Swiss Graphic Design and Punk, he’s created a poster series of famous concerts from the time period, remixed in the Swiss style. I love how incongruous some of the design is to the tone of the music. I’m sure many purists of the music would vent that the energy and fury of the original has been removed in an experiment like this. But in it’s place you can see how Modernist principles were twisted themselves with the evolution of design in the early eighties. (Examples of which are on display in the excellent Post Modernism exhibition at the V&A, more on that this month). But it got me thinking what other styles you could start mashing up. Blue Note meets Psychedelia? Or Factory Records meets Country? The genre splicing fun is endless (I might give one a go and see what the result is). A lovely simple idea, beautifully executed.

See the full collection here. 

A prime slab of 1980′s nostalgia spliced and diced over the top of an excellent electro-house-disco style mix that The Magician does so well. (Or as the Vimeo blurb puts it: “Koyaanisqatsi for a generation raised on late night television and B-movie VHS tapes” Well worth a watch, and well worth a listen. Lots and lots of cool visuals here, they really bought the pain in the 1980′s…

(Via Coops)

(Photo by Matrixsynth)
Just discovered this awesome and insightful post on the 40 noises (e.g instruments) that built modern day pop. As a collection, they make up a hugely varied and fun collection. Even better that some of these sounds, and therefore their assimilation into popular culture, were the products of accidents. Like most great innovations it seems.

This post seemed primed for a bit of a Spotify playlist action, and so, I’ve put it together. Enjoy!

Creating new spins on retro styles is nothing new. So the question is how do you hold someone’s attention with something they are already familiar with?

Well, in the example of these two videos, the answer is simple. Craft. The first video is a music video for the concert season at Bellavista Social Pub (Jesus, what a name…). Ignoring the lameness of the name, the Jazz theme of the season has led the team to create a supreme re-interpretation of some of Blue Note records most beautiful record covers. The attention to detail is exquisite, and I mean exquisite. Even if you aren’t familiar with the content of the records themselves (although I would highly recommend you check some of these out). You cannot fail to be impressed with the level of homage, as well as the bravery of taking this design/moving image challenge on.

While the classic designs of Blue Note were getting a makeover, there appeared another video that took it’s cues from a lower form of entertainment, but nailed this homage just as brilliantly.

A speculative music video made for Buck 65 by Travis Hopkins, it reinterprets the lyrics of this rapidfire tune into a visual assault of the senses taking it’s cue from the 1960′s/70′s/80′s Exploitation scene. There’s so much pop cultural referencing going on here that really, you just have to watch it. But again, the craft, the dedication and the sheer nuttiness of it makes it really stand out.

Inspiring stuff.

More great work combing music (from the band Mathon) and gesture technology to create a multi-touch sound visualisation. There are some nice touches here, and is a cool example of how technology and music are converging in more and more diverse ways. Would love to have a play of this, but for now, we’ll just have to work with the video above.