Twirk Ethic

I was immediately attracted to the use of clean type and noisy photography in the album art for Brian Gossett’s, The Heist Series. However, the series goes deeper than just the pretty covers, it also has a great concept. Gossett’s love for the heist film genre becomes apparent through his vast knowledge of the films’ scores and his ability to compile the compositions in a cohesive manner. Check out his site, where you can download the mixes and read his wonderful accompanying descriptions.

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Dark Night of The Soul, an upcoming collaboration from David Lynch, Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse, Flaming Lips, Gruff Rhys, Iggy Pop, Suzanne Vega, Black Francis, Vic Chesnutt, Julian Casablancas, Jason Lyttle, Nina Persson, and James Mercer, is set to release this summer. The album will be accompanied by a book, featuring 100 photos by Director David Lynch.

*5/15/09 – The entire album is now streaming on NPR Music.

Via Pitchfork.

I’ve seen several “design remix” projects (including the video game/book covers by Olly Moss) but Logan Walters’s Wu-Tang / Blue Note Record covers manage to breathe some new life into the trend. Walters did a great job of capturing Blue Note’s design style and the application succeeds in looking like Wu-Tang’s music sounds, gritty and bold.

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The trailer for Spike Jonze’s big screen accompaniment to Maurice Sendak’s childhood classic, Where The Wild Things Are, has finally arrived. The cinematography looks incredible, I particularly liked the use of Arcade Fire’s Wake Up as the score for the preview.

Bonus: You can find desktop wallpapers of some of the scenes on the movie’s fansite.

I’ve never actually heard any of The Chariot’s music, but I recently saw that the band members are hand-stamping the art onto their new album, Wars And Rumors of Wars. They’ll also be signing and numbering each of the 25,000 copies. This is a great way to reach their fans and give incentive to go out and actually buy the CD. Plus, the texture created by the process of stamping gives makes the design look as if it were printed in an old newspaper, which plays nicely off of the album title.

Watch the video of the stamping process.

Via Heavy Eyes.

A friend of mine at BPM The Street told me about this new mix by Funky Good Time resident DJ, Bowls. The all-vinyl 80’s-themed boogie/disco/funk mix is sure to please audiences with a taste for the somewhat obscure, as well as those who take their music with a side of lightheartedness.

(Artists featured on this mix include Rene & Angela, Fatback, Roy Ayers, Kraftwerk, Evelyn “Champagne” King, Surface, One Way, N*E*R*D*, Zapp, and many more.)

Download the mix!

This collection of cassette tape inserts on Flickr is a great reference for 70’s and 80’s design vernacular.

Via The Ministry of Type.

This informative video illustrates the widespread appropriation of a 6-second drum break from 1969. The song from which the break was sampled was a B-side to a somewhat popular song from the time period. These six seconds have been repeated countless times in both popular and underground music over the course of the last 20 years, with the invention of the sampler marking the initial instance. This video is a must-see for anyone who likes sample-based music or contemporary music history.

Via yay!everyday

3 Years after the passing of James “J Dilla” Yancey (one of hip hop’s greatest producers), Carlos Nino & Miguel Atwood Ferguson have collaborated to create a 4-song EP which features orchestral renditions of some of J Dilla’s greatest work. The concept seemed a bit corny at first , but after listening to an orchestral version of Slum Village’s Fall in Love, I was moved by how beautifully this work has been excecuted.

Listen to Fall in Love at okayplayer >>

The Skeleton Boy (by Nexus Productions) video looks like it was created with CG, but it was actually executed with double-sided tape, little styrofoam balls, and fans. What a great music video concept.

Via Boooooooooom!