More recently and in keeping with the pre credit crunch tradition of wasting money on useless objects, Jesse created a lovely looking range of designer toys out that are available through Kidrobot.
Jesse's work can currently be seen up close as part of the 'creature Comforts' exhibition in Tokyo's super hip Sunshine Studio.
Below is the winter warmer 'Pink Bullets' by The Shins. The director was Adam Bizanski who also directed promo's for Wolf Parade and Arcade Fire.
The only reason I heard about these good ol' boys was when Dead Oceans sent out their new album list and this was on it, I'm not sure when they don't get much press but this is a simple and unpretentious band who make Wilco look like X Factor contestants.
Its actually a national embarrassment that here in the United Kingdom, the unfortunate Kings of Leon are sighted as wholesome farm boys turned good, in some hideous Gone with the Wind oh aren't Americans who vote Republican and chew straw cute kind of way. When in actual fact they are shallow mirror loving sex pests who can't write more than one tune per album. There's a million great bands out there if you fancy a bit of banjo played by some buff beard boy who strangled his father for striking his mother for scolding him with coffee, like these lads.
The most original country jazz soul tinged Americana which is yet to be realized by any record label and is thus one of the major tragedies of 2008 alongside the market collapse of November and subsequent economic recession. If you can handle an hour or two of Akron/Family or Megafaun then this is so up your street its your neighbour, so check it out and buy their album for $10 from their Myspace.
Some of you may have been fortunate enough to see new Leaf signing Wildbirds & Peacedrums with Caribou earlier this year, others may be looking forward to see them support the highly overrated and somewhat annoying Lykke Li on her forthcoming tour. Either way I imagine and will bet my Christmas dinner than these guys are playing some serious festivals this year. By serious festivals I don't mean a lot of festivals I actually mean those festivals that are all serious n shit like Greenman, ATP etc.....arf.
As if completely forgetting about the last post we did, here's the first of our best of's (sorry)....
One of my favourite discoveries of 2008 was Some Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, I honestly thought they would be one of the big breakthrough acts on the indie scene this year but unfortunately people would rather buy a record by the Ting Tings, what the fuck is that about? Anyway SSLYBY are superb and their live stuff is totally on point, check out their Daytrotter Session from March this year the week after they played SXSW, splendid.
It would be hard to not mention Fleet Foxes in a best of 2008, so rather than go on about their album, which in my opinion isn't half as good as hearing them live, I'd post this some what overlooked live session recorded in April before they blew up. They player slower than they do on record when they play live and I prefer it like that.
Another brilliant find from SXSW 2008, me and my friend Harry met him and his girlfriend on the first night and went to see The Felice Brothers, then checked AA out at the Brooklyn Vegan showcase with Deer Tick (who looks like Matthew McConaughey). Anyway this is beautiful country songwriting and deserves a few listens.
Much written about but seldom seen Blitzen Trapper have a slightly unassuming aura about them, I expected them to be all loud and aggressive in session for some reason but its super restrained and sounds like they've been doing their mountain music for decade's, a great great band.
However, I am definitely down for the Malloys, the chaps that directed the vid as they have churned out a bunch of good work, including some seriously good surf movies and one of my favourite videos from this year, Goldfrapp's 'Caravan Girl':
Hmmm. Maybe we should get on the bandwagon and do one of those end-of-year 'best of' lists...
Below (Your parents will recognise this, its called a Record Player)
Last week one of the biggest music distributors in Europe closed, Pinnacle, this is probably the worst news any record label or shop could hear. It means that all the labels that Pinnacle distribute, now have no way of getting their stock into record shops before Christmas. In basically could mean the end of some labels, I'm not exaggerating. A few weeks ago Woolworths announced it was to close after 120 years of trading. Not only had Woolworths become one of the longest running family owned retailers but they also have a huge distribution company which goes by the name of EUK. EUK distribute to the second largest UK high street retailer, Zavvi. Zavvi now have announced that in the near future the only high street music retailer could be HMV, DOH!!
On the bright side, if you love music and aren't too nostalgic about where you buy it from or what format it comes in, you probably are in the best position at the moment to expand your music collection. This year Nokia announced their latest project, 'Comes With Music'; a strong contender as an iTunes competitor and run by a company who definitely knows hows to tap in to the music-loving public's sense of loyalty... ...free music! Correct, free music. The new Nokia music store and software allows the customer to download up to 3,000.000 songs (Three Million, you read correctly) and keep them on your new Nokia phone. The thing is, the phones are no bigger - in fact they probably smaller than an iPod. Carphone Warehouse, 3 and Nokia are current retailers for the phones, but the music you download online from the shop. The software is just as easy to download as iTunes and takes up very little space on your computer.
The Iron Wagon have got their hands on one of these awesome handsets, along with a card which allows you to download as many MP3s as you possibly can. To get your winter mitts on one answer this question and email the answer and your daytime address to ash@theironwagon.co.uk
Q: What is the industry standard bit rate setting for MP3 or MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3?
The winner will be notified this Friday 12th December and receive their phone on Tuesday morning next week. Some Telephone, MP3 related MP3s
As we have mentioned before, it would seem that Shephard Fairey's star is firmly in ascendance; everyone appears to be getting in on his shit.
For example, have a look at this video for a tune called "Money" by NASA (aka Squeak E Clean and DJ Zegon) featuring a whole host of groovy guests including David Byrne, Chuck D, Ras Congo, Seu Jorge and Z-Trip, and a whole bunch of animated versions of Shep's artwork:
We're sure that all you super-cool streetwear enthusiasts were aware that the legend that is Kermit The Frog was the star of Supreme's Spring/Summer 2008 campaign, shot by none other than unbelievably-hot-right-now and US President Elect-approved photographer Terry Richardson.
Here's a little video of the shoot:
Anyway, the point being that we all know that Kermit is cool; further proof can be found in this video for LCD Soundsystem's epic 'New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down' by director Simon Owens. Absolute genius.
**BOGUS LEGAL SHIT ALERT**
It would appear that the suits in the EMI legal department have had some sort of paddy and demanded that the videos have been removed from YouTube & Mr Owens' site since we originally posted this... Wankers. But hey! we found it again for you all to enjoy.
You could also checkout Sad Kermit and witness Kermit expressing his angst in a series of covers of "some of the most depressing songs of the 21st century".
However, it really doesn't get much better than this:
The amazing production skills of Flying Lotus aka Steven Ellison also extends to superb song choice too. The great nephew of Jazz legend Alice Coltrane recently hit up the boring, always play it safe, post John Peel slobs at the BBC Radio One studios to bless them with the ill shit, believe! This guy is from the future..... XLR8R TV feature on Flying Lotus
"Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon" - Woody Allen
Woody Allen, possibly one of the best comedy writers and directors around is 73 today, 1st December. There's not a lot to say about this man which he or someone else hasn't said before and better. So here's a personnal birthday message for him from Henry Rollins, also some songs which are inspired by Woody Allen.
Those of us that mourned the passing of John Peel have also been missing out on Peel's annual roundup of excellence, the Festive 50... but have no fear, dear reader, for it is back back back.
Those excellent folk at Dandelion Radio, the online radio station dedicated to keeping the spirit of St. Peel alive, are compiling a list for this year, to be broadcast for a month from Christmas Day. The reason for telling you this is that you too can have your say: vote for your top three tunes of 2008 here and peruse Dandelion-generated Festive 50s from the last few years.
The reason for the urgency is that polling closes on 30 November, so that gives you over the weekend to mull these choices over...
Matthew Houck's latest offering is entitled 'To Willie' and its fantastic. He is better known to the music world (or at least some of it) as Phosphorescent, a charming and bewildering musician who delights on singing songs dealing with loneliness, depression, alcohol abuse and ex-girlfriends. Not the best album to release after Christmas and during these hard times, but I've fond solace and hope in this album. If you're a new comer to Phosphorescent I would recommend his previous release PRIDE as it comes with many different styles, one of which is experimentation, whereas this album concentrates more on honesty and lack of honesty to those the songwriter loves. Mr Houck has something to hide outside of his Phosphescent shell and here its clear that he knows he needs to come to terms with a few things. A few people will compare his new album to Kris Kristofferson's 70's stuff or any of the Outlaw Country stuff and you would be right to, as this album is actually all songs written by the fantastic Willie Nelson, but its still a Phosphorescent album to me. If these songs didn't mean a hell of a lot to Matthew he wouldn't have covered them and taken the trouble to do them justice so you can accept this album as a covers album or a Phosphorescent album, either way you'll be fully stoked on it.
Something of a curiosity here; recently my eye was caught by this new release from former Dresden DollAmanda Palmer, inexplicably* called "Leeds United". A few minutes Googling away reveals that this is the lead single from her debut solo album, 'Who Killed Amanda Palmer?', produced by uber-nerd and Elton wannabe Ben Folds, which would explain the stomping piano riff on the record. Anyway, it would appear that both Amanda and the song have fuck all to do with the fair city of Leeds, so what prompted this tribute to its football team? As far as I am aware, polysexual Brechtian punk-cabaret isn't that big on the terraces of Elland Road...
I have no idea, but like with so many other things, I am holding Kaiser Chiefs responsible.
*reports in from our spies reveal that this song is (allegedly) about Ricky...
Here's the video:
And an MP3 of the song can be found here, courtesy of those good folks at Nevver.
One for you vinyl junkies: a short documentary by Sean Dunne about a bearded gentleman from Pittsburgh named Paul Mawhinney, who apparently has the world's largest vinyl collection... or did have, anyway. Circumstances have forced to him to sell his beloved records... rather him than me.
Regular readers of the rubbish that we knock out will probably be aware of our nerdish interest in the worlds of art & design, and in particular the now-sadly-dying art of album cover design. We could wax lyrical about how the 12" sleeve, particularly the gatefold version, gave designers and artists a large canvas to construct beautiful and imaginative artwork blah blah blah, but we figure it's been said rather a lot as it is.
Instead we would like to draw your attention to Sleevage, an album-sleeve blog basically devoted to showcasing the best designs daily. It's all searchable, but it is in beta at the mo so there's not a right lot on there at the minute... but this should change.
Before you lament the absence of, say, The Toy Dolls'"Nellie The Elephant", don't despair; they are looking for people to contribute to the blog with suggestions of their own, so why not get involved? Then you won't be able to leave smartarse comments to the effect that the seminal work for the Poppies by The Designer's Republic has been overlooked...
Oh - while we're on the subject, Sleeveface is always good for a laugh.
Jake Thackray was a singer and a songwriter born in Leeds in 1938 and sadly passed in 2002, the anniversary of his death is Christmas Eve next month, so here's a little tribute to the rarely blogged about master of cool and innuendo.
Arthur Russell was a composer, cellist, singer, Disco producer. Unfortunately he died of AIDS in 1992 leaving behind him a wealth of undiscovered classics, underground hits and a legacy of pure genius production. He was the man behind New York white disco punk funk acts Dinosaur L and Loose Joints. Thankfully Matt Wolf has put together a film documenting as much interesting and relevant information about Arthur as is possible in such a short space of time.
The film is availble to purchase now from the below link and is also showing at Leeds Film Festival.
LDN scenester and professional mockney Lily Allen is back, apparently. The video for new tune "Everyone's At It", featuring a load of coke-related celebrity shenanigans, was leaked onto YouTube a day or two before she added it to her oh-so-popular MySpace page. We did post it, but unsurprisingly record company bigwigs must have freaked hard and had it pulled from YouTube pretty swiftly. Instead, why not listen to the whole tune accompanied by a lovely picture of Miss Allen:
The same point was articulated in verse over a decade ago by posh performance poet Murray Lachlan Young with "Simply Everyone's Taking Cocaine" on his 1997 album 'Vice & Verse'. There are white labels out there with loads of drug-themed remixes, but the album version is pretty damn good if you ask me. However, here is a video of Mr Lachlan Young performing the composition a capella...
It would seem that they are dropping like flies... Gideon Baws, Levi Stubbs, Dolemite... and now, The Clash's official "war artist" Ray Lowry has sadly shuffled off this mortal coil.
It was Ray who had the idea to use Pennie Smith's photo of Simonon smashing up his bass for the cover of 'London Calling', as she apparently thought it too grainy to blow up. Anyway, if you don't own it, you should. Or at least listen to it.
Typically, it didn't go entirely to plan, but we all had a good time making it.
We (The Iron Wagon media conglomerate and Dave Lynch of Nicely Sliced) managed to rope in Doug McLaughlan from Gentlemen's Pistols & A Third Foot and local rotter Avid for the stunts, and even the mighty Snoz rocked up for a bit of a session...
The tune is available by download only from iTunes from November 10, but if you check out the band's MySpace or the Bad Sneakers site you may be able to get hold of it for free...
For those of you sick of the fuzziness of YouTube, a Quicktime movie of the vid can be viewed here.
Jonathan Glazer, all-round visual genius, showed this video of his parents' opinion of his work at last week's MVAs where he was given the Icon Award by none other than his former client and uber-scenester James Lavelle.
It is with considerable sadness that we learn of the untimely death of Gideon Baws, one of the highly talented animation collective Shynola.
Most of you will have seen a Shynola project, be it one of their early videos for Mo'Wax, adverts for Orange, a barrelload of promo work for Radiohead's Kid A, the title sequence for Channel 4's The IT Crowd or their animations for Garth Jennings' recent adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.
A tribute to Gideon by his friend David O'Reilly can be read here, and an interview with Gideon and Richard "Kenny" Kenworthy from 2004 can be heard here.
As our own tribute to Gideon's work, we would like to post this, possibly their finest promo, the video for Lambchop's 'Is A Woman':
Fleet Foxes are everyones favourite and even my mum digs them, but who cares? they are awesome and deserve more coverage than a Sarah Palin nudie flick, any way here it is (the Fleet Foxes video not the Sarah Palin video).
Continuing our occasional series of posts relating to the internet mixtape phenomenon, and following on from "The Dark Knight" smashing the shit out of box office records this summer, here's one for all the comic geeks out there: Batman: The Animated Album courtesy of mashup wizard Blame The Kid.
Romain Gavras is the paris born and son of famous Greek film maker Costa Gavras, he is also a film maker in his own right. He recently came to our knowledge after producing DJ Mehdi's Signatune video, then caused some friction with his Stress video made for Justice, which depcited inner city youth battering the crap of of tourists and busy bodies. He is now working on a live/tour documentary with So Me (Art director and video producer of Ed Banger stardom) and Xavier De Rosnay & Gaspard Auge (Justice), which will be released to coincide with their forthcoming tour which hits towns and cities in two weeks time, starting with a night at Makuhari Messe in Tokyo and ending four weeks later in Amsterdam. I can't comment on any of the footage in the DVD as I obviously haven't seen it yet, but I've located the trailer below for your perusal and subsequent enjoyment.
We've been slacking a bit of late (only on the blogging - we're actually super busy right now) so we figure there's probably no harm in nicking some stuff from other sites. Having been posted on a host of blogs, including Antville, It's Nice That and the daddy of 'em all The Creative Review Blog, this stunning and slightly nauseating video for our chums Wild Beasts by visual geniuses One in Three should be checked out by one and all...
While you're killing a bit of time, you could do worse than peep the original by local hero and top pop artwork dude Nick Scott:
"Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants" is back out on October 13 so all you latecomers can get on board the iron bandwagon... and as we have mentioned before, the chaps are supporting the so-hip-it-hurts Foals on their tour and playing The Barbican supporting everyone's favourite cannabis psycho Tricky as part of the Domino Crystal Anniversary show on October 6. If that wasn't enough, they head back to the big smoke to play the Roundhouse as part of the BBC's Electric Proms shindig on October 22.
It would appear that those London media types can't get enough of 'em...
Vice magazine described them as 'timeless', however I think that's a little over the top. YO MAJESTY are a proud pair (quite literally) from Florida who have filthy mouths and no table manners. In the spirit of The Real Roxanne and Ms Melodie they pull no punches with their Hip Hop and don't really give a shit about upsetting people. In that respect they are completely credible and I hope people understand where they are coming from. Obviously their gigs will mostly be attended by middle class white students who thrive on the knowledge that Neon Neon is more the brains of Buck 65 than the pot smoking hippie from SFA, but how long Yo Majesty will be going is anyone's guess. I can't see them opening for Live Aid 2012 but I suppose I wouldn't want to. They get people talking and that's idea, plus they have huge amounts of fun (in their bras).
Jazzy new interactive video for "Walk It Off" by everyone's favourite twin-sister beat combo The Breeders, taken from the album "Mountain Battles". Click on the numbers to change the perspective of the video...
We love a good blog here at The Iron Wagon; so much so that we are often found neglecting our duties on our own. One such distraction is the impressive Nevver, a mysterious blog based on the principle of 'one.img + one.mp3' per day, and both the image (nicked from a whole host of movies) and the mp3 are generally rather good, so go and check 'em out. I got a storming live version of "You're Gonna Miss Me" by the mental Roky Erickson off their site a while ago, and I'm still rinsing it.
Another oh shit moment courtesy of something to do with MF Doom...
I'm not sure why everyone I know harbours an an unhealthy obsession with MF Doom, but he seems to be the object of some serious fixations, whether it's record labels, producers or simply b-boy fan boys who want to share their love with the world. This is the latest and greatest moment in recent mixtape history... It's a semi-underground retrospective insight into Doom's unreleased guest appearances that have yet to be unearthed or simply have slipped under the radar. Sit back, grab a blunt (or a cup of tea) and bathe in the lyrical genius of Mr Doom, Esq.
Download the mixtape here care of the fantastic illroots site.
I'm so happy Burial or Neon Neon didn't win this - not that I dislike Neon Neon, I just thought their album was a little dry in places and Burial was a bit too obvious for me. Elbow really deserve the award and it will make a difference to them, they been around for years and years and they have earned this award.
The above video is a trailer for a short DVD entitled 'The Foreigners' for Altamont Clothing, filmed and edited by smiling Randy Randall, one half of your favourite skart-rock combo No Age, and is soundtracked by their music. You can apparently pick up a copy of "The Foreigners" gratis from Altamont stockists if you are at all curious...
The only guys round these parts that have Altamont are our friends over at Endemic, but they do mail order so you could do worse than hit them up if you want to dress like Andrew Reynolds...
Sub Pop recently released the second single from the Band of Horses second LP 'No Ones Gonna Love You'. The diamond here though is the cover version of Them Two's track 'Am I a Good Man' which is pretty hard to find except if you buy this single. But I've located a fantastic version of it recorded for KEXP 90.3FM. I've posted the link below so make sure you check it out.
And a particularly fine lifestyle magazine (and FREE!) out there is the excellent +1 magazine.
Now up to its sixth issue, initial fears that it may have been an inferior version of the cultural colossus that is Vice have been replaced by admiration and anticipation for each issue. Actually, I should have known better than to have doubts, as the people behind +1 are the same dudes that publish the rather good Document.
Last month's cover was provided by committed death metal enthusiast and reasonably-hot-right-now illustrator Richard Sayer aka French, and this month's issue (available to download from the +1 site, or from what is known as 'participating retailers') features an interview with grumpy Manc Rick Tomlinson (not Jim Royle), who is probably better known as guitar wizard Voice Of The Seven Woods, and a double page spread of uber-jazzy snacks. You should check it out for yourself; it's free, so why not?
I think part of the reason for my enthusiasm for +1 is that it reminds me of the short-lived Phat Magazine, the genius early nineties lifestyle mag that lasted all of three issues due to offending the WHSmith-visiting moral majority with contentious covers such as the Glock-brandishing 'Teenage Gangsta'. If I could be arsed to rummage through my magazine collection, I would take a photo of the three issues. Ah well... maybe another time.
Despite billing itself as "for young gentlemen of the hoodlum persuasion", Phat was actually a rather intelligent and culturally literate publication aimed at the then much smaller skateboard demographic. Nowhere near as offensive as the brilliant (but utterly scatalogical) Big Brother, Phat would frequently feature contributions from the late Gavin Hills, who is, in my modest opinion, the closest that we have had to a 'voice of a generation' in contemporary magazine culture. A collection of his best writing, entitled "Bliss To Be Alive' has been kicking around for a while now.
Two of my favourite artists at the moment Wes Pentz aka super producer DIPLO and avant garde wierd jazz rock collective DARK MEAT have combined forces like China and Russia to create a mega music explosion to melt your faces. Here's a seven minute video with ataste of their tour. Its directed by Jason Miller and its rad.
Well, you may have gathered that we went to the Leeds Festival yesterday; we did so in the always good company of the fine young men known as Wild Beasts and watched them play a storming lunchtime set to a sizeable crowd on the Festival Republic stage - epic tunes, excellent musicianship and debonair sense of style all on full display. Needless to say, in these fast-moving digital times, this review appeared online about 20 minutes after the boys came offstage...
They are playing Reading tomorrow, but don't fret if you haven't got a ticket; there are further opportunities to see them supportingFoals at the end of next month, so get on it.
To give you a flavour of the chaps' live show, here's some ghetto bootleg cam footage of their next single, the already-classic 'Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants' from last weekend's Green Man Festival. Enjoy...
Malawi born Eau Mwamaya moved to the UK around ten years ago and runs runs a second hand furniture store in Clapton, East London. However, I'd be surprised if his fame and fortune lies in selling chesterfields to pub landlords as Esau is one talented guy. You can catch him at teh Radioclit soundsytem this weekend at Notting Hill Carnival should you wish, I highly recommend that you do. If you're in any doubt please check the below video he'll blow your mind, a serious talent indeed.
The above photo was taken yesterday at Leeds Festival by a dear friend of mine Danny North, who is probably one of the most sought after live photographers around at the moment. He only started taking pictures a few years ago but he's already published a book of his work and had numerous pictures published in Spin and NME, he's even had his pictures on the NME front cover which is quite an accomplishment.
Aw man this looks so nice, everything I love that's shallow in my life, like t-shirts, comics, white boy hip-hop, pointless boxes and stickers are all represented here. I swore not to look too much into this but I'm literally bumming the computer screen and salivating over this sweet thing that's entered my life.
