Up There

If you live in New York, you're sure to see large signs, advertisements, sometimes stories tall, painted on the sides of buildings...many bright and new and many more faded relics of times past. "Up There" is a pretty great documentary on the trade of sign painting. This is a trade that is held dear to the people who create the signs but also a trade that is in danger of disappearing completely in favor of cheaper but less visually appealing vinyl signs. The doc features two Album Leaf songs which, along with the excellent mixing, really add to the story.

Via Thunder.

Deepwater Horizon & a clean future

A good pal of mine over at Greener Media has put together an interesting video using the current shitshow in the gulf as a propellant for greener thinking and awareness. I'm told that no computer trickery was involved in the making of this. Good stuff!

Check out more Greener Media productions HERE.

Preview: Arcade Fire x "The Suburbs" b/w "Month of May"

Arcade fire, more than any other band right now, uses the web to entice would be listeners to jump into their albums, even when said albums do not have a release date set (see: "...even when said albums have not leaked").  The sites the band sets up for their releases force the audience to interact with the screen.  There is usually a bit a mystery as to what you might be looking at or even hearing- but in the end you know that enough page refreshes will lead you to details on new music.  A great record needs more than fleeting blog hype to stay with people.  A great record should be an experience.

Video: Julian Lynch "Seed"

I just discovered this video for "Seed," a song off of Julian Lynch's Orange You Glad LP that came out last year. "Seed" teems with muted and sleepy bedroom psych and the video is a good companion to the piece. I am super stoked to hear Julian's new LP, Mare, which will be out sometime later this year on Olde English Spelling Bee.

Atlas Sound: "Attic Lights" (Live on Cemetery Gates)

Pitchfork and Bradford Cox have put together a stunning production of Atlas Sound's "Attic Lights" on the 'fork's Cemetery Gates live performance web series.

The LinnStrument

I have always preferred music originating from the more classic acoustic side of the instrument spectrum- be it unadulterated or processed a million times beyond recognition. To me, there is an emotion and energy that comes from a musician's interaction with an instrument that is an important part of the overall sound and performance - something that is absent from computer music. With that being said, I bring you the LinnStrument. This piece of technology is interesting for sure, but it won't be taking the place of the guitar any time soon...however, it would be pretty amazing to see a band playing these things strapped to their torsos.

Learn more about the LinnStrument over at Roger Linn's site.

This guy has managed to justify something that has gone down at parties (good ones at least) since the beginning of time...all for the sake of urm, partying...and recycling. Check it!

(Maximize the video to get rid of the advertisement that plagues the lower section of the screen.)

The Bloom Box

Check this out- A researcher in Silicon Valley is claiming to have created a reliable fuel cell, the Bloom Box, that produces energy in a cleaner and more energy efficient manner than the electrical grid system which we currently use to generate and transport electricity.
The basic idea behind this invention is to eliminate the need for a power grid by producing electricity at the site where it will be directly used. The Bloom box takes two inputs, fuel and oxygen, and creates electricity which is immediately usable. Because a fuel is needed to create electricity in this system, the user would still be dependent on a fuel source, but that fuel could come in the form of biofuel, natural gas, etc... and the Bloom Box would only need a fraction of that fuel to what the power grid uses to produce a unit of electricity.The technology is currently in use at major California corporations like Google and Ebay (partially due to California's green initiatives that give companies 20% in subsidies and up to 30% in tax breaks as incentives for using green technology).
Yes, be very skeptical of this technology, but also think of it as a step in the right direction and as an infant technology that will be further developed.

An Infographical Representation of the Impact of the iPod

I remember thinking back in 2004 when I plugged in my first iPod that it was up there on the list of landmark inventions...just below the sandwich. Mashable has a fun infographic which points out Apple's market dominance, shows just how far the device has come along since its inception and even relates the iPod's popularity to increases in U.S. robbery rates. Click HERE to check it out.

Admiral Radley: "I Heart California"

Click below to download the title track from Admiral Radley's upcoming full length due out 7/13 on The Ship. Jason Lytle still has a way with a vocal hook.

Wild Nothing: "Chinatown"

The video for Wild Nothing's Chinatown adds an innocence to the song much like Cyndi Lauper did for The Goonies- needless to say I dig!

You can find Chinatown on Wild Nothing's new record, Gemini, out May 25 on Captured Tracks.

Bike Polo - 05/02/10

Bike Polo in the LES on Sunday- these dudes were pretty serious.

Tonight: Text of Light (Lee Ranaldo x Alan Licht )

Tonight Lee Ranaldo and Alan Licht will be generating some noise over at the 30 Days NY space in tribeca. Gary Panter and Joshua White will be doing the visuals.