suburban kids with biblical names

these nerds are on repeat.
they sound like magnetic fields + jens lekman. it's music i would i like to write.



there is something fascinating about those subtly subtle pans. i like.
it's also worth it to listen to these:
loop duplicate my heart (uber nerd song)
trees and squirrels
seems to be on my mind

(time to eat taro ice cream!)

tunes: future song - mkf and the itchy heads

here's a recording of me and my band, the itchy heads, performing a little ditty called, 'the future song (i'm old)'! i wrote it a while ago for one of the monthly art shows that we used to hold, but i never recorded it. the theme of that particular show was "portraits of your future self" so when i started to think about the future, the first thing that came to mind was that my parents were going to die, and it took off from there.


future song (i'm old) from mk f on Vimeo.

i have a 500mb quota on vimeo, so i'm slowly uploading videos from last saturday's show. check back for more in later weeks.

EDIT: just uploaded the whole show on my youtube. i'll eventually get it all on vimeo though! make sure you watch it in higher res so you can see how handsome my itchy heads are.

http://www.youtube.com/user/antoineetmoi

tunes: love criminal

holy moly.
me and jimmy co-wrote this 80s song about a stalker/rapist. chris added his sweet synth magic to it and it's everything we ever hoped for -- epic and creepy. he just sent it over and i'm totally pumped!

download love criminal.mp3

KCRW Today's Top Tune

The above mentioned podcast gives out a new mp3 every day and about a 3rd of the time presents a great song. A few weeks back I came upon a song by Emily Wells called Requiem/Fare Thee Well. I can't find a good link to embed, so all I can recommend is to go to:

http://www.myspace.com/emilywells

The first song that comes on is my favorite.

But here's another entirely instrumental work:

theremins rule

at band practice last night, theremins came up. it was totally random, so we wiki'd it, and i'm pretty fascinated. these instruments sound sad. like a wailing ghost. and how nerdy! the sound is produced by radio frequencies and electrical currents, so you wave your hands around two antennae to control pitch and volume, and you get sad ghost sounds. apparently it's one of the earliest electronic musical instruments. it's really quite beautiful and lovely to watch (good) performances. i love wailing ghosts. i really want one. and i want a theremin. hahaha.

here's a big nerd on youtube to tell you all about the instrument. and he'll even play you 'video killed the radio star' (but not very well).



but here's a beautiful example of theremin playing by clara rockmore who is apparently one of the greats in theremin playing (and is a totally rad old lady). watch her hands and the expression on her face; listen to the phrasing and the dynamics in her playing. that's a performance.

"True Affection" - The Blow

Here's a song Chris sent me. It's a cute, mellow synthpop song, with wispy vocals and a simple beat. Kind of reminds me of Freezepop's low-tempo songs. Except with less synth, more Casio.

As far as song content goes...I'll let the lyrics speak for themselves. The video itself reminds of my Animation Basics class. Lots of simple, low-budget stop-motion and puppetry. I'd be thrilled to be the squid that nabs that cupcake.



P.S. Speaking of Freezepop, here's a classic song about everyone's favorite "boy" (whatever he is) known as Phillipe. (HUGS!)

Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog

EDIT #1: Because I want to spread the love, and because you (dear, slow reader) missed the boat on this fabulous musical, it is still online at WhedonTube.com. But you should still support creativity by getting the DVD (apparently the director's commentary will be sung!).

EDIT #2: If you've already watched the episodes, but can't get those catchy songs out of your head, the official soundtrack is coming out later, I believe. But if you absolutely need your fix NOW, I'm sure there are streaming-quality rips available for download somewhere.

During the Writer's Strike 2008, Joss Whedon (of Buffy and Firefly fame) got bored. So instead of twiddling his thumbs and worrying about his next paycheck, he decided to get creative. He made a short series of low-budget video "blogs" chronicling an aspiring supervillain, Dr. Horrible; his crush from the laundromat, Penny; and his (douchebag) superhero nemesis, Capt. Hammer.

What makes this different from any other internet video blog is that it's a musical. Also, did I mention that Neil Patrick Harris is the main character? The series is posted for free on the Dr. Horrible website for a week; after that, it gets taken down and is available on iTunes or DVD.

And in case you were too slow, here's a trailer to whet your appetite (or to salt a wound).

philip glass for sesame street

i can't believe i watched this as a kid. i remember seeing it and being a little creeped out by the song, but at the same time it was kinda mesmerizing. now, with a thorough graphic design education, i have such a greater appreciation for this! i was actually being fed something pretty complex in terms of graphic systems, color, and music. it's really quite wonderful. i don't know how much influence philip glass had in the visuals or if he had any say at all on what it was supposed to be, but i think it's really cool how sesame street managed to expose kids to artsy conceptual things like philip glass and design principles without them really knowing.

totally rad, i say.

"House of Cards" - Radiohead

Here's something for the smart (and savvy SIGGRAPH!) crowd.



Radiohead just released a new music video for their song "House of Cards." Unlike most music videos, this was not shot with a camera, nor animated, nor mographed. Instead, the whole video was shot and made made with LASERS. And cold, hard MATHCODESMARTS. In fact, it's a lot like a scanner that effects studios use when scanning maquette models (i.e., Weta), except the output looks like a Winamp visualization.

From the Washington Post article:

It's definitely not your average video considering that there were no cameras or lights used: it's all data. The video uses real time 3D recording, utilizing structured light and laser-enhanced scanners. Google is hosting the interactive video application at code.google.com and providing an iGoogle gadget for the video and application.

Definitely go to the Google site. Not only can you download the source code to make your own visualizations, but you can also check out the "Making Of..." video and see how they actually did it.

http://code.google.com/creative/radiohead/

tunes: mkf

i have my reservations about posting my songs. but why not? i realize it might be a little weird to listen to my songs like i would any other band i fancied – almost as if i were being conceited. it used to be an issue when i wasn't used to hearing my voice, but i'd listen to it objectively, try to improve the sound, and i eventually got comfortable with it. i actually quite like it now.

about song writing, i really like to keep it simple. it's super hard to write lyrics for me when i'm not inspired by anything. i had a dry spell for about 1.5 years, which is a really long time. also, they tend to coincide with some frustration with my love life, hahah – so they're all pretty much true stories! the words start out sad, or just the theme in general, but the melody is characteristically happy and "cute." i find that the two emotions merge successfully together in my songs and i like to think that that is what makes it so catchy to people. for instruments, i like to use whatever is around me.. nothing too fancy, and that also adds a humble, d.i.y. feel. i've slapped my belly on one of the recordings as percussion. thankfully, 10 years of piano has helped me a lot in song making. oh! and music tech 1! hahah

someone was really excited about my songs and asked me about my process, as if he could learn something from me.. and i really don't have a real process like i do for designing something. honestly, it starts off with something that comes from above and from within, as horribly cheesy as it sounds. but i think that's what makes it art.

again, my intention was not to toot my own horn, if it actually came across as that. feel free to let me know! haha. i just thought i'd emphasize that one last time.

listen
http://www.myspace.com/mkf