The Last Vehicle

March Mixtape

2010-03-09T00:56:00.002+11:00

(photo by Oliver Lang)

'Been seriously busy trying to get my PhD done. It ain't over yet and I'm already looking back on it. Preemptive nostalgia or something.

Anyway, here's a short, kinda sad mixtape. Made to accompany my rereading of Michel Serres's Genesis. Well, sorta.

Aside: Should I just be posting mixes with mostly 'new' stuff? I've been away from the blogosphere for a while (read: marking 'all as read').

Track Listing:

Cheju - Moody Copy
Kimonophonic - On a Mountain Instrument
Verbose - The Last Lizard
Dunaewsky69 - Shkaf
Tycho - The Daydream
Sun Araw - Live Mind
Loscil - Dub for Cascadia
múm - K/Half-noise

http://www.mediafire.com/?mtwqmmcmjhm

Ecstatic Sunshine, "Turned On"

2009-12-16T18:48:00.001+11:00

"Outside the record there are many sounds. Some of those sounds were moved, through memory, into the record. We would hear soft bass through the windows of a car, or listen to birds waking up before dawn, and learn to remember those sounds and later draw them out of synthesizers or guitars. In this way we could hear the record before it was made. It is like John Cage’s ideas about incidental sound, except instead of composing with those sounds, we composed for them. The record is an homage to the Everyday. It is music that happens, and is heard, and then said." - Matthew Papich on the new album, Yesterday's Work

Mixtapes: MEL-SIN-MNL

2009-12-15T21:54:00.004+11:00

(image via milkpack)

This is coming a bit late, but I wanted to share the mixtapes I made out of my flight playlists for this trip back home. There are two (more-or-less coherent) mixes here, mostly made up of the stuff I've been really into over the past couple of months/year. Will hopefully make the mixtapes a regular part of the blog.

Tracklisting

Small Black - Despicable Dogs (Washed Out Remix)
Taken by Trees - Watch the Waves (Memory Tapes Version)
Memory Cassette - Last One Awake
Au Revoir Simone - Shadows (The Teenagers Remix)
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Higher than the Stars
M83 - Teen Angst
Moscow Olympics - No Winter, No Autumn
Wild Nothing - Summer Holiday
Asobi Seksu - Pink Cloud Tracing Paper
The Morning Paper - Always Real
Washed Out - New Theory
Memoryhouse - To the Lighthouse
Beach House - Take Care
Cold Cave - Double Lives in Single Beds

http://www.mediafire.com/?gzit4yzjr2h

Tracklisting

Le Loup - Forgive Me
Bear in Heaven - Wholehearted Mess
Fluffy Lumbers - Harry Dolland's
Andrew Cedermark - Hard Livin'
Surf City - Autumn
Girls - Lust for Life
Papercuts - Future Primitive
Kurt Vile - Overnite Religion
Thao with the Get Down Stay Down - Know Better Learn Faster
Holiday Shores - Phones Don't Feud
Best Coast - Sun Was High (So Was I)
Real Estate - Snow Days

http://www.mediafire.com/?3wdtemwr2uw

Memoryhouse

2009-12-01T11:55:00.007+11:00

I'm flying home soon and really couldn't ask for a better time to discover Memoryhouse and, in particular, their track "To the Lighthouse." It's a perfect song for long drives and idle time in airports, things we tend to associate with "supermodernity," but which I've always linked to older forms of travel like sailing.

Memoryhouse - To the Lighthouse

Also check out the Memoryhouse cover of Grizzly Bear's 'Foreground' on MySpace.

The Morning Paper + Moscow Olympics

2009-11-26T02:56:00.009+11:00

The Morning Paper is the amazing one-man shoegaze project of Swede David Khylberg. He's been putting music out since 2004, but his work's actually somewhat hard to track down, as it's been distributed on a number of labels, most notably, Skipping Stones Records (which released the album It's Getting Better) and the Japanese label Xtal Records (which released his other album What We Wish). Curiously, What We Wish was (apparently) re-released earlier this year by Universal Records in the Philippines, a label which is, um, not exactly known for its discriminating taste.

I don't know and can't really figure out what Khylberg's connection is to the Philippines, although it is worth noting that his most recent release is the split single "Always Real," with the equally amazing Philippine band Moscow Olympics. Ironically enough, that single, like Moscow Olympics' great album Cut the World, has not been released in the Philippines. (Actually, as far as I can tell, Moscow Olympics is better known in the blogosphere than they are in Manila.)

I guess none of this label stuff really matters as long as we're able to track down the music. I've put down a track each from The Morning Project and Moscow Olympics here, but it's definitely worth buying the rest of both bands' stuff if you're a fan of shoegaze.

On a related note, I'll be flying to Manila for the holidays and thought it would be nice to put up a series of posts on local bands here to coincide with my trip. I'll probably start that series next week.

The Morning Paper - Always Real

Moscow Olympics - Still

Jason Eppink's Pixelator

2009-11-11T16:07:00.039+11:00

(via Twitter friends)

From Jason Eppink's website:

Pixelator is an unauthorized on-going video art performance collaboration with the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority, Clear Channel Communications, and its selected artists.

Since 2003, the MTA has made available for exhibition purposes 80 LED screens located at subway entrances across New York City. Unfortunately, the high cost of exhibiting (an estimated $274,000 per month per screen) prevents most artists from having access to these facilities. While the MTA's effort to create more opportunities for video art exhibition in public spaces is to be commended, selected works remain wholly fixated on commercial goods and media conglomerate events, a short-sighted curatorial choice that regrettably ignores the full potential of these promising exhibition spaces.

In an attempt to broaden the scope of MTA's video art series, Pixelator takes video pieces currently on display and diffuses them into a pleasant array of 45 blinking, color-changing squares. Since the project is an anonymous collaboration, the resulting video is almost entirely unplanned and unanticipated, with the original artists helping to create new works of art without any knowledge of their participation.

(Translation: Pixelator turns those ugly, blinding video billboard ads into art.)

Eppink also provides instructions on how to replicate the ad pixelator here!

Memory Tapes

2009-11-11T10:27:00.004+11:00

Radio edit of Memory Tapes' Graphics, from Seek Magic, definitely one of my favorite albums of the year. Actually much prefer the album version, but the more futuristic feel of this is interesting, I guess. Great b-side also up on Stereogum.

Memory Tapes - Graphics (Sci-Fi Edit)

Best Coast

2009-11-11T10:06:00.006+11:00

New Best Coast Black Iris 7"

Best Coast - When I'm with You

Julien Pacaud

2009-11-10T18:07:00.005+11:00

Julien Pacaud is a French illustrator and, apparently, a former astrophysician, international snooker champion, hypnotist and esperanto teacher. So basically, he's the coolest guy on the planet. Check out the rest of his work - all vintage-inspired and some great themes like giant people destroying stuff with lasers.

(via Vectro Ave)

Mato Atom

2009-11-10T00:59:00.005+11:00

Too busy to post anything substantial these days (thesis lockdown), but here's a great little vid from Mato Atom. More of his work here.

Cold Cave - Love Comes Close

2009-10-21T13:47:00.003+11:00

(via Stereogum)

Directed by Art Boonparn, who also did The Pains of Being Pure at Heart's Everything with You and Young Adult Friction. It's pretty amazing when two of your favorite things come together.

Untitled Fragile Machine - Arthur Ganson

2009-10-18T23:06:00.002+11:00

"Long before making sculpture I dreamed of being a surgeon. The challenge of working so carefully with my hands was satisfied by the creation of very fragile machines. A machine with no utilitarian purpose, this is as close to drawing or painting as I can get. After giving myself a starting point, the machine grew organically. The actions and movement of parts are meaningfully trivial."

Ape School - 'Wail to God'

2009-10-18T21:34:00.001+11:00

"Wail to God" Music Video from Anthony Schepperd on Vimeo.

Weekend

2009-08-28T11:23:00.014+10:00

"The ferocity of punk, the drama of shoegaze, the ambition of Springsteen and the textures of noise." - That's the description on Weekend's blog and it's pretty accurate. I'm quite quick to like anything shoegaze or shoegaze-y, but Weekend's a standout I think. Just have a listen. 'All-American' is a real gem. 7" expected this November via Mexican Summer.

Weekend - All-American

Weekend - Coma Summer

(via MBV)

Mark Jenkins

2009-08-28T02:44:00.002+10:00

I'm a big fan of the work of DC- based Mark Jenkins. I'm particularly fond of the pieces that use human figures. The way he puts private moments on display and is able to convey affective experiences using bodies with obscured faces is really impressive.

Here's a quote from Jenkins:

"There is opposition, and risk, but I think that just shows that street art is the sort of frontier where the leading edge really does have to chew through the ice. And it's good for people to remember public space is a battleground, with the government, advertisers and artists all mixing and mashing, and even now the strange cross-pollination taking place as street artists sometimes become brands, and brands camouflaging as street art creating complex hybrids or impersonators. I think it's understanding the strangeness of the playing field where you'll realize that painting street artists, writers, as the bad guys is a shallow view.“ -Mark Jenkins (via My Modern Met)

Do Make Say Think + Múm

2009-08-27T11:49:00.005+10:00

Looks like some old favorites are back in action. Toronto's Do Make Say Think are releasing their 6th album, 'Other Truths', on Oct. 6 and earlier this month immortal Icelandic collective Múm dropped their 5th album, 'Sing Along to Songs You Don't Know' (if you get it from gogoyoko, 10% of the sales go to refugees). To be honest, the Múm track bores the hell out of me. And I like to think that I've got a lot of patience for boring music. I think it's because I assess all music based on how they fit into my imaginary life soundtrack and I really can't imagine any scene where this would be playing. The DMST mp3 below is actually a sampler for the entire album, which is just four tracks ('Do', 'Make', 'Say' and 'Think' - how clever). I'm really liking it, especially the first track. 'Sounds like something I'd put on while getting dressed. Yep, that's the extent of my critique. I've got to save brain space for my thesis.

Do Make Say Think - Other Truths (album sampler)

Múm - Illuminated

Deerhunter + Atlas Sound Live

2009-08-27T11:09:00.000+10:00

La Blogotheque got some great footage of Deerhunter at La Route du Rock in St. Malo, France. The video also features Bradford Cox doing a bare version of 'Kid Climax', a track off the forthcoming Logos (Oct 10 from Kranky). I actually saw Deerhunter live earlier this year in Melbourne and they were really incredible. Video also includes Marissa Nadler and Delano Orchestra.

Here are a couple of Atlas Sound bonuses:

Stream: Attic Lights (via Stereogum)
MP3: Attic Lights (live at The Earl) (more here)

Nosaj Thing

2009-08-26T12:48:00.002+10:00

Nosaj Thing Visual Show Compilation Test Shoot from Adam Guzman on Vimeo.

Adam Guzman and Julia Tsao collaborate on the Nosaj Thing visual show. The result is awesome.

The Nextdoor Neighbors

2009-08-26T12:28:00.003+10:00

I'm a little bit in love with these tracks from The Nextdoor Neighbors' 'folktronic'/'organically-grown bedroom pop' album, Magic Vs the Machine (Bicycle Records). They make me feel like a teenage girl. They're all simple and pretty. And I don't mean that in a patronizing way. At all. It's exactly the kind of stuff I'd be listening to on a Sunday afternoon, if, you know, I didn't spend my Sunday afternoons getting killed by my PhD thesis.

As if the tracks weren't enough reason for me to love them, here's a description of what went down during their album launch:

Saturday night was the duo’s CD release party for their debut album Magic Vs. the Machine (Bicycle Records) at the Vera Project, with the most opportune word in this sentence being 'party'. The band was perfectly lovely, striking a balance between being ready for their big night and being overwhelmed by it. The room at Vera was packed with teenagers, and you could guess most were friends. Between songs, Kathy (Cote) and Jessie (Hill) tried to thank everyone who showed up and it felt like an Academy Awards acceptance speech during every break: rushed for time and afraid that someone would be left out and not thanked (but they did control when the music started). I think Cote wanted to delay the start of the set (from 8:45) by a few minutes so that her brother could make it, who was driving up from Vancouver, WA to be there. He eventually showed up about 10 minutes into the set. (via Three Imaginary Girls)

Seems really 'real'. 'Wonder if they'll turn into assholes if they make it big.

The Nextdoor Neighbors - Anti-Lullaby

The Nextdoor Neighbors - Cultural Revolution

The Nextdoor Neighbors - Magic Vs the Machine

Memory Tapes / Fool's Gold

2009-08-26T02:15:00.007+10:00

I feel obligated to blog about the Memory Tapes remix of Fool's Gold's Nadine, 'coz the whole world is blogging about it. Half-joke. I think Memory Tapes/Memory Cassette/Weird Tapes is my most favoritest discovery of the year (and probably every other person's). Yeah, in case you didn't know, it's all the same dude, though I read somewhere that Memory Cassette is supposed to be the feminine version of Weird Tapes, which was Dayve Hawk's first monicker. I'm not sure if I really 'get' that from the tracks or if I'm just hearing it coz I read about it. I'm also not sure if my queer-theoried brain really dislikes Hawk for even thinking about that split, though I suppose the fact that the full length Seek Magic is coming as the hybrid 'Memory Tapes' is reassuring.

Fool's Gold - Nadine (Memory Tapes Version)

Memory Cassette - Surfin

Return as an Animal

2009-08-24T00:32:00.011+10:00

(via Changethethought)

'Return as an Animal' is a short film by motionographer/animator Bruno B. Dicolla. It's supposed to be about the myth of the eternal return of life after death. I like it because it lets me watch two of my favorite things at the same time: neon animation and semi-idle animals. Seriously, I used to spend hours watching things like 'Untamed Africa' on Discovery Channel. I especially loved it when they gave big cats names and followed them around for months (e.g. "Nala is beginning to distance herself from her cubs, who must learn to fend for themselves blah blah.") I generally just lost interest when the program was about birds. Go figure.

Anyway, Dicolla was also featured in the Floating World Animation Festival last June. Check out the neat promo vid they used for the festival here.

PS Got a heads up that I put the wrong link for the Washed Out track. It's all fixed now.

Manila + Melbourne / My Cities Meet (via SM)

2009-08-23T11:29:00.025+10:00

(via Coolhunter/twitter friends)

Coolhunter 'found' the bowling alley at SM Mall of Asia in Manila. Yep, SM is 'officially' cool. For those who don't know, SM is the largest chain of malls in the Philippines. It used to be where everyone went to go shopping, back in the 80s and early 90s, before Ayala Malls realized there was money to be made by rebuilding the 'first world in the third world'. Well, it looks like SM's really onto that game now. This bowling alley is by Melbourne's Architects EAT, which is apparently also redoing the annex of SM North EDSA. Or have they done that already? I've got an image of the scheme below, but I'm not sure if that's already been constructed or is in the process of being constructed.

Normally, I'm really against major renovations, at least in Manila, where there's a bad habit of tearing down perfectly nice buildings to build monstrosities. Just look at what they did to the amazing Greenhills buildings. Now Vira Mall looks like any other crappy mall.

Actually, now that I think about it, I dunno how this new SM North makes me feel. It's kinda stepping on my childhood memories. I got lost in that annex when I was 4 or 5 'coz I was staring too long at some window display and the maid didn't notice that I stopped trailing her. I was probably checking out shoes. And my mom probably fired that maid, 'coz you know, in the third world, maids, not parents, are responsible for kids. I've got loads of other amazing memories set in that mall. When I was a bit older, I used to get a Frosty from the Wendy's across Yamaha every Sunday while waiting for my bro and sis to get back from their voice lessons. The woman who taught them also trained Banig (Check it, her eighties moves and outfit are awesome!). And in high school, my 'straight' friends and I actually went there looking for fabric so we could make a cape for this presentation we were doing. And no, we didn't think we were being 'faggy', just 'artistic'.

New Washed Out

2009-08-22T12:11:00.004+10:00

This just out. Fresh track from Washed Out, off the upcoming cassette 'High Times', from Mirror Universe. I don't know where all this 'coastal' stuff is coming from, but I'm pretty hooked on it. On a related note: After three years here in Oz, I'm still kinda pissed that our seasons are reversed. The music and clothes are never in sync with the rest of the world (read: 'America').

Washed Out - Belong
(via Fader)

The First Days of Spring

2009-08-21T10:56:00.004+10:00

The First Days of Spring Official Trailer from charlie fink on Vimeo.

Noah and the Whale are releasing their second album, 'The First Days of Spring', with a film. Or rather, they're releasing an album and a film and they're both titled 'The First Days of Spring'. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Ambition kinda grosses me out (self-loathing). And I kinda hate films which have those long pauses where someone's just sitting on a bench or standing in front of the ocean or staring at the mirror or some other reflective/meaningful/overly dramatic moment that we're supposed to be able to relate to. But yea, I'll probably watch this and like it.

Bonus: Black Cab Sessions and Remixes

Noah and the Whale from Black Cab Sessions on Vimeo.

mp3: Noah and the Whale - Blue Skies (Twelves Remix)
mp3: Noah and the Whale - Blue Skies (Yacht Remix)

Data Portraits

2009-08-20T11:18:00.004+10:00

(image via Swiss Miss)

The Swiss Miss posted this great link to a project by some nerd/fellow PhD freak named Aaron Zinman at the MIT Media Labs. The project, Personas, basically goes through the web, draws info using a mysterious algorithmic process and puts up a 'seemingly authoritative' profile. Here's the underlying philosophy:

In a world where fortunes are sought through data-mining vast information repositories, the computer is our indispensable but far from infallible assistant. Personas demonstrates the computer's uncanny insights and its inadvertent errors, such as the mischaracterizations caused by the inability to separate data from multiple owners of the same name. It is meant for the viewer to reflect on our current and future world, where digital histories are as important if not more important than oral histories, and computational methods of condensing our digital traces are opaque and socially ignorant.

Try it here.

Cold Cave

2009-08-20T02:11:00.010+10:00

I've been pretty obsessed with Cold Cave for a while now, but more and more I've been listening to the mega-infectious 'Life Magazine'. 'Think it might be my way of coping with self-imposed 'exile'/PhD hell/hibernation in my private cave (cave! get it? yea, getting a PhD strips you of your sense of humor).

Cold Cave - Life Magazine

Here's the title track from the LP.

Obama Vs Daft Punk

2009-01-19T21:17:00.005+11:00

In honor of Obama's inauguration, here's the awesome Obama clip from Daft Punk and Adam Freeland. Lots of change in the air, but Daft Punk still makes the coolest videos.

I wish all world leaders had tribute vids like this.

Music for Non-places

2009-01-17T19:21:00.004+11:00

I'm not one of those people who constantly have music on. I can't write or read with music or do anything productive, really. Even when the music is atmospheric, I prefer listening to it while doing nothing else. That's how shitty a multi-tasker I am.

But if there's any kind of music I can work with, it's stuff like this, from South London's The Inventors of Aircraft. Slow, space-y, full of micro-sounds that can be appreciated as background noise but which also deserve to be paid attention to when the right mood strikes (read: late at night, in a car on an open road).

If you've got shit speakers, use headphones. And turn the volume up!

The Inventors of Aircraft - Time Vanishes.mp3

Download the whole album, Unknown Language, as a zip file here.

The Mess Inside

2009-01-16T11:35:00.004+11:00

I passed by the Guildford Lane Gallery yesterday and caught this multi-channel installation by Lucy Benson. Unfortunately, she was having some technical issues and had to turn off the projector and the sound. So I wasn't able to really take in the piece as a whole. Still, I really liked the videos programmed into the smaller screens, particularly the kaleidoscopic hand images that opened up into static.

Ratatat!

2009-01-13T14:11:00.006+11:00

I''ll be seeing Ratatat live in a few months. Judging from this vid of them live in Paris (courtesy of Grand Crew) the show's gonna be pretty amazing.

Bonus mashup by Bearbot.

Justice/Ratatat - We Are Your Friends (Bearbot MashUp Remix).mp3

When I Grow Up, My House Will Be This Awesome

2009-01-12T21:15:00.003+11:00

Opening Performance, Ars Electronica Center in Linz.

Light art? Sound art? Architecture? An incredible waste of money? Vegas? The new version of Flying House? A department store holiday display? Seriously though, I think it's hard to underestimate what a piece like this does in terms of crossing boundaries between art space and public space and even between art and art space. Plus, it's just really cool to watch.

Back in Melbourne, as a Narcoleptic; or, Missing JD Samson

2009-01-11T23:34:00.013+11:00

'Arrived back Friday afternoon. My brain was only three hours behind, so I wasn't jet lagged or anything, but I fell asleep anyway and ended up missing a friend's farewell picnic. 'Was gonna catch up with him at the Toff to catch JD Samson's DJ set, but the tickets actually sold out. Crazy.

I've actually been sleeping weird and missing stuff since the holidays. It's kinda strange coz I'm normally not even capable of napping. It's pretty awesome though coz I usually remember my dreams and they're often a bit messed up. The last great one had a glowing panther and midgets on Harry Potter-style flying broomsticks. Not kidding.

Since I missed out on JD Samson's set, 'thought I'd put up an old remixed gem from Le Tigre (ignore the gross bit in the middle). And since I'm back in Melbourne, 'thought I'd add something newish by Melbourne act ZZZ, remixed by the Bag Raiders from Sydney.

Le Tigre - Deceptacon (DFA Remix).mp3

ZZZ - Lion (Bag Raiders Remix).mp3