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.
