Dude. Why the fuck isn’t Jeffrey Jerusalem world famous yet? It can’t be just me who sees that his shit is untouchable… I’m not just blowing smoke here guys. Jeff’s first release, Grimace, was a glitchcore disco hybrid that made your average I’m-too-cool-to-dance bro go out and buy a tambourine with LEDs all over it and shake it like he was trying to ward off electronic demons. In short, it ruled. Now he’s returned to us with a whole host of freshy bangers, most of which, however, will seem familiar to some of you. The tracks that appear on Jerusalem’s second release, This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, are all remixes of Portland artist’s tracks. Jeff has dug in to the soul of each one of these Portland gems and extracted the electronic nervous system within. Each track varies incredible from one to the next. His mix of Penguin Prison’s A Funny Thing is a soulful disco ballad as seen trough the eyes of Daft Punk. Jeff takes on All God’s Children Can Dance by Portland dirty dance thieves, Guidance Counselor and transforms it into the glitchiest most awesome freak out fest since The Mockery off of ‘Grimace’. If you like the over-produced chopped and served glitch as much as I do you’ll also love his cut of Atole’s Strike Zone. Check ‘em out below.

So yeah, go see Jeff play at your earliest convenience (most likely when he gets back from touring Europe alongside LCD Soundsystem playing percussion for supporting act, YACHT) cause next time his solo show might be sold out. Holler.

Buy this record from LaserCave please.

Jeffrey Jerusalem – All God’s Children Can Dance (Guidance Counselor)

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Jeffrey Jerusalem – Strike Zone (Atole)

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The collaboration is finally finished. One of my best friends, Will Schneider, and I have been collaborating across the world for the last four months to put together this all-ukulele Beatles cover album for your listening pleasure. Have a listen to the samples below and if you like what you hear, head over to the offical website for the full album experience.

If I Fell – Royal (Me)
Please Please Me – FWS4 (Will)

It’s been a while since the last update of my New Zealand status, I know. This is mainly due to the fact that I’ve been sedentary for some time, specifically the last 2 months. I’ve been living in Wellington, the nation’s capital, holding down a job at a bar, serving locals their beverages of choice. Well, I tired of that so I quit. Wellington was great to me but it’s time to move on. And plus, my very good friends Liz and Patrick are visiting me from Oregon so I’ve since been on a little holiday within a holiday. Here’s a tiny recap:

After they arrived in Auckland I scooped up my guests and together we shot down the length of New Zealand’s North Island making stops at select points along the way. Above is Mt. Ngauruhoe, a key feature on the Tongariro Crossing.

Here’s is a dead bird in a beautiful pose. Photographed by Liz at Ruapuke, a beach outside of Raglan.

This is the view from a stop along a gravel road north of Palmerston North where we decided to spend the night. The only thing nicer than ending the day with this scene was waking up to the same one.

That night we played around with long camera exposures and writing with Liz’s LED headlamp. Beautiful stars that night. Here’s my ‘Royal’.

After racing down the length of the North Island we jumped a ferry and landed safely on the South Island. This is my first visit to what’s said to be New Zealand’s better half. Above is Liz having a successful run at driving on the wrong side of the road with Patrick in shotgun. I have to admit it’s a luxury to be driven around in the back seat of such a fine automobile.

We made a bolt to Abel Tasman National Park to get in some more beach time and do a bit of the world renowned track within. This is Patrick standing next to a tree on a rock. My words don’t quite do justice, do they..?

And for the finale, a lovely shot of me and my BRAND NEW BIKE, Buddy. I built Buddy at a free bike collective in Wellington. He and Gerty are getting along just fine, so far.

That’s all for now. I hope everyone is well and getting ready to enjoy their respective holidays.

And here’s what I’ve been listening to:

Stardeath and White Dwarfs – New Heat

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Neon Indian – Deadbeat Summer

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I’ve just finished the artwork for The Chairy Arms upcoming release, Amber Street Lights. Keep yer eyes peeled for the actual, tangible release coming this winter.

The Chairy Arms Myspace

Front Cover

Inide Left

Behind the CD

CD Face

Rear Cover

Hi everyone. Sorry it’s been ages since my last post but often when I don’t publish for some time I get stuck in a writer’s block cycle that’s difficult to break.

However, the recent news has prompted me to return with a tiny ice-breaker. Hopefully you’ve all heard, but just in case you didn’t, I’m happy to be the first to tell you.

Scientists have confirmed the existence of water on the Moon. The above picture (although not too exciting itself) is a photograph of the plume of water and ice made by the probe that NASA shot into the Moon.

Now, I can already hear some of you saying, “So f-ing what?” I’m not gonna gush on here to try and convince you of why this is a tremendously awesome discovery… instead, I’d just like to point out that this is an incredibly substantial feature about our Moon that humans, before like yesterday, we’re not aware of. This means that from this day onward, it is every human’s task to change the way they think about the Moon. It is, in fact, not a desolate, barren rock desert like we have all been led to believe for the last century. This epic discovery shows us that the Moon is a truly dynamic and active celestial body that is worthy of our foremost attention and respect. Plus, water equals the ability to sustain life. Ever entertained the idea of living on the Moon?.. well it’s about 9 million times more reasonable a concept than it was yesterday.

I’m getting to a point here…

To elaborate on my point a bit further, I present Topic B; dinosaurs. The above illustration is of Dilong paradoxus, a tyrannosaur. You will note that it is covered head to toe in feathers. This may look strange to you because dinosaurs are supposed to have scaly, leathery, brown and green skin, right? No. Actually, surmounting discoveries over the last decade plus have taught us that a large, LARGE portion of the dinosaur kingdom was elaborately feathered. Household dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus Rex and Velociraptor had grand displays of vividly colored feathers covering their entire bodies. Fact.

Now, I can already hear some of you saying, “Big f-ing deal.” What I’m trying to point out is that we humans all share a collective understanding the universe. This collective knowledge, what we call fact, is an ever-evolving, rapidly shifting awareness that we have to be on top of. Humans have to be prepared to abruptly rework our understanding of the way things are, the way things were, and the way things will be. It is imperative to our growth as a species to have the ability to accept a multitude of realities as they present themselves. Question everything, understand the facts, and do your homework. There’s a lot to learn.

Here’s what I’ve been listening to:

Julian Casablancas (Dude from the Strokes) – 11th Dimension

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The Dirty Projectors – Ascending Melody (B-side)

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Dead Man’s Bones – My Body’s A Zombie For You

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Brilliant. R.I.P.

I’ve been meaning to write about this album for a while now. Recommended to me last summer by FWS4 it immediately presented itself as a glimmer of genius. Three descriptors come to mind when speaking of Apes and Androids’ Blood Moon; over-the-top. This record is perhaps the only existing example of glam-psyche-rock trip-hop pop. Lead by heavy bass synths and layered falsetto vocals, Blood Moon sounds like the record aliens from the 70′s would listen to while they construct a city on their newly conquered planet. Most of the songs are danceable but you’re not gonna feel too good about yourself whilst dancing… you might feel a little underdressed. The whole record has a lovely element of theatrics, from the overt vocal delivery to the robot/spaceship take-off and landing sounds introducing and leading the record out. Give this one a go for some fresh, blindsiding, nonsensical awesomeness.

Apes and Androids – Hot Kathy

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Apes and Androids – Make Forever Last Forever

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Apes and Androids – Golden Prize

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The premise of this film will revolve around a very loose story-line which follows one main character on a romp through a non-sensical, visually overloaded, psychedelic clusterfuck. The first half of the video begins in a fruitful, stable wonderland and shows the piece by piece destruction/dismantling of the universe completed at the hands of said protagonist. At the climax, the world has been rendered a desolate, destroyed, baron, grey, wasteland due to the actions of the protagonist. At this point, the main character is struck with a visceral realization that the world stripped of everything is no good, presented as a bombardment of color and psychedelia. He proceeds to build and plant and re-implement color and chaos to return the world back to it’s original state but is quickly overwhelmed by a rapid acceleration in his restoration results. In the end he is smothered by to much stimuli.

The idea is to represent the necessity of balance. Simply, the destruction/removal of things is the negative and replacement/addition of things is the positive. When the negative/dark is over emphasized the world becomes hollow and when the positive/light is restored it is overshot and smothers, thus outlining the importance of the balance between the two.

SO, with all that being said, the visuals:

This was an attempt at capturing what the universe would be like in the beginning of the video when things are still balanced… kinda creepy but with accents of bright whacko colors. The scale of things in this world is also outta whack (beetle to human ratio).
This short running loop is our main character attempting to eliminate a rhinoceros beetle with a magnifying glass. For this particular shot I imagine the beetle being zapped quite quickly and turning into a puff of smoke. The the main character would turn to his next target in a fast-paced fashion leaving little time for the viewer to process what had just happened and allowing for a rapid change in environment. Think; pulling pins out of machinery, knocking stars out of the sky, black paint on colorful flowers, stopping the movement of windmills… frying beetles with magnifying glasses. Any negative action could work here.

Here are some reference images I thought were cool conceptually for what the world would look like once everything is removed. They’re not my drawings but I quite like the rigid, dark, obsolete style used.

And this is what the epiphany will look like. It is the climax, the realization that when everything is eliminated, the world is no good. It is the urgency to recreate what had been removed (sorry i forgot to tack music with the upload).

I want to render this entire video in stereoscopic 3D. Like, 3D glasses 3D. I have been doing preliminary testing with the above footage and the results are mesmerizing. The amount of added depth you can get with this technique is outta this world and I’ve been trying to experiment with it for a while now.

The sorta issue with making such films is that they are impossible to fully test without a functioning stereoscopic projector and a set of glasses. This makes testing shots a pain in the ass but I have a ghetto work-around. Essentially, you render the two stereo angles on a small scale and place them side by side. You look at them from a little distance and cross your eyes until they overlap and you can see the 3D effect. I know it’s whack but it works and will allow me to test my shots until I can get into an actual screening room. Below are some stereo stills you can try it out on. It takes a sec to get used to but it works and it’s worth it.

The other inherent problem with creating 3D films on an independent level is that venues at which you can showcase such works are limited. Fortunately for us the only independent theatre/gallery with a stereo projector in the western hemisphere is in NW Portland… and I’m buddy buddy with the VP. I’ve already sent out an email asking permission to screen there. I’m sure they’ll let us because I know they’re hungry for content.

So yeah. Let me know what you think. I am more than open to comments/suggestions/criticisms/ideas/questions so fire away. I’d love to elaborate on the concept more or explain stereo techniques further but I think we’ve gotten a bit wordy here as it is.

Andrew

At first listen, it was easy for me to brush off Family, the newest release from Le Loup, as another choral, reverb-soaked, vocal-driven indie-mush record, ready to go up on the shelf with Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes, My Morning Jacket, and Co. But, much like the latter recording artists, over time the true beauty underneath the way-too-commonly-used production style, shined through. I’m obviously not here to celebrate Family as a work of pure genius but it certainly deserves a bit of praise and definitely a good listen. Le Loup has done a wonderful job layering soft, jubilant melodies over more and more layers of polyrhythms. A friendly banjo guides listeners into many of the arrangements, reminding us that we don’t HAVE to cry if we don’t want to. And, yes, the vocals are drenched in puddles or reverb, but these cathedralesque hymnals won’t drown you; these are the positive kind of hymns. Give Family a try and I bet it’ll probably stay off the shelf for the majority of the winter. Also, go see Le Loup when they come to your town cause chances are they’ll be playing with Nurses.

Le Loup – Grow

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Le Loup – Saddle Mountains

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Le Loup – Sherpa
(takes a sec to get going but shows another side of the record entirely)

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Dates:

10.08.09 – Princeton, NJ – Terrace Club
10.09.09 – Baltimore, MD – The Ottobar ^
10.10.09 – Philadelphia, PA – Kungfu Necktie ^
10.11.09 – New York, NY – Mercury Lounge ^
10.13.09 – Cambridge, MA – TT the Bear’s ^
10.14.09 – Montreal, QC – Il Motore ^
10.15.09 – Toronto, ON – The Drake Hotel ^
10.16.09 – Chicago, IL – Schubas ^
10.17.09 – Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry ^
10.18.09 – Omaha, NE – Slowdown Jr. ^
10.19.09 – Denver, CO – Hi Dive ^
10.20.09 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court ^
10.22.09 – Vancouver, BC – The Biltmore Cabaret ^
10.23.09 – Seattle, WA – Chop Suey ^
10.25.09 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge ^
10.27.09 – San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill ^
10.28.09 – Los Angeles, CA – The Echo ^
10.29.09 – Costa Mesa, CA – Detroit Bar ^
10.30.09 – San Diego, CA – Casbah ^
10.31.09 – Tucson, AZ – Plush ^
11.02.09 – Austin, TX – The Mohawk ^
11.03.09 – Dallas, TX – Cavern Ale House ^
11.05.09 – Atlanta, GA – Lenny’s Bar ^
11.06.09 – Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506 ^
11.07.09 – Washington, DC – Black Cat ^

^ – w/ Nurses

AIR MUSIC VIDEO SING SANG SUNG from MATHEMATIC SAS on Vimeo.

Directed by : Mrzyk & Moriceau @ El Nino
Producer : Jules Dieng
Animation & exe : Mathematic Studio

I will most likely rip-off the majority of these concepts in the future.