Happy Birthday

Photo by Kate Charlesworth
kateyamate38@hotmail.com

On a New York Street

On a London Street

What Us British Produce

No.34

Brick Lane

Video Video Video

More Video

HEARTSREVOLUTION - 薔薇と彼女の王子 (The Rose And Her Prince)

This Way Up

So my design below grew from the 'This Way Up' signs you get on boxes. When I was researching I came across this amazing short film by Smith & Foulkes. Really funny, great animation, poor woman!

Hidden Art Forum

This is new from me and hot off the press. It's aimed at furniture and product designer's mainly but could be useful for anyone that's interested. You can find out more at www.hiddenartlondon.co.uk

"Try solving this one in 3 seconds Rain Man"

Rubik's Cube Type Stamp designed by Jas Bhachu

Courtesy of Louisa. Read all about it at CR Blog

teepay

teepay.comThis is a great website that I've just discovered. You get to upload T-Shirt designs for free. They get posted on the website, priced at £25 and if you get enough orders then Howies produce them and you get a cut. It's is a great opportunity to get out those designs you've been sitting on. But beware you need to use Safari to upload them otherwise it all goes to shit. Above are my entries. If you really like them, you can order here. Below is a range I screen printed myself last year.

Eric Engstrom

Abandoned Motel Sign, Scoulee City, WA
by Eric Engstrom

A painting/collage that I stumbled across on the Artists Wanted site.

Anti Smurf

Hahahaha. Gummbah

Atoms For Peace

The Four Tet remix of Thom Yorke's track - Atoms For Peace

Field Day

Although it pains me to type it, I'm taking a year off from Glastonbury this year and I think Field Day will be the next major event for me. Mogwai, Four Tet and Errors are enough to lure me. I'm praying that they must have sorted out the queues by now. Nice flyer.

ATP

...went a little something like this:



Everyone I watched was awesome and apparently so was everyone I missed. Well done The Breeders. My faves - Gang of Four, Holy Fuck, Shellac, Pit Er Pat, Foals, Bon Iver, Yann Tiersen. Strange place, sick bands.

Full Fat

I noticed this lazy milk fiends collection from the coach window on my way down to ATP last weekend. It amused me enough to cycle all the way back over to Hammersmith from Camberwell yesterday to take this snap. Just use a bin.

Further Complications

The new album from Jarvis Cocker. Haven't listened to it properly yet but I like what I have heard and it's pretty much guaranteed that anything that comes from this mans head is pure gold. Here's a link to his website where you can get a sneaky preview listen of the whole album - jarviscocker.net. It's out on Monday 18 May.

Nice website, nice 3D type, nice album cover, nice trumpet.

Artists Wanted

I have recently just entered this competition online. It's billed as 'Art' vs 'Design' and you submit a portfolio of four pieces, under the title of either 'Art' or 'Design'.
As you would imagine the division is not quite so black and white, but I guess that's the point. It's fun, cheap to enter and is a good way to get some work out there.

You can check out my stuff here.

No One Does It Like You

One last thing...

As promised here is another track from the Thom Yorke RMX album, fittingly remixed by Modeselektor.

Skip Divided - Modeselektor Remix

Moderat

I'm a big fan of Modeselektor, who forms one half of this duo (Apparat forms the other half), but have never heard of this project until now. Apparently they've been doing this since 2002 and from the sound of their awesome new release on Ellen Alien's Bpitch Control label, I've been seriously missing out. It's awsome. Experimental, dreamy and dramatic soundscapes paired with low key techno. Oh and a very cool logo.
myspace.com/moderat
www.bpitchcontrol.de/Moderat/

Clip Stamp Fold

Whilst on the subject of bitchin' bands, I saw these guys play at The Good Ship in Kilburn last night. A London based four piece who were only playing their 3rd gig together. You couldn't tell.

There were many influences floating on the surface, but their complicated and layered songs ensured that they somehow managed to sound really quite unique and original. The set was perfect, the sound was great and it was refreshing to watch a band who were far from 'scenesters', concentrating hard on playing their music, enjoying it and themselves. They have a bright future ahead of them.

The frontman delivered his clever lyrics with an angsty strain reminiscent of Ian Curtis, with a bit of David Byrne thrown in for good measure. A good mix for sure. His vocals and guitar solos were complimented perfectly by the Albert Hammond-esque guitarist on his right, who was a picture of concentration throughout, switching effortlessly from gorgeous melodies to thrashing, fuzzy riffs. The SG weilding pair seemed to have an unspoken understanding between them that comes naturally in all good bands. They were supported by a solid Metalhead bassist sporting what looked like a Spice Girls T-Shirt and a relentless, hard hitting drummer. Each part complimented the other perfectly and their well thought out and catchy songs had a crowd growing with excited interest until it spilled over into a frenzied orgy by the last track, which is a surefire hit.

It was a genuinely brilliant show and I'm looking forward to seeing them the next time.

myspace.com/clipstampfold

Blk Jks

I have meaning to blog these guys for a while. I saw them supporting Errors at the ICA last month and was blown away.

I read somewhere that as Vampire Weekend were dubbed as a New York Indie band doing African, these guys are the other way round. I'd say that was true and then some. Their dreamy, psychadelic dub-rock transpires to a much more complicated and deep sound than that label gives them credit for. If you can make any of their shows I seriously suggest that you do. And the drummer's an animal.


myspace.com/blkjks
blkjks.blogspot.com

Black Garlic

Yeah baby! If you love food and Garlic in particular then I imagine you are pretty excited already. I discovered it on Coolhunting when searching for stuff on Neal Small. I haven't tried any yet but am tres excited.
www.blackgarlic.co.uk

TerraSkin

This is a snazzy invite I received for Material ConneXion's new headquarters grand opening. It is made from TerraSkin paper. It's tree-free and made of stone. It has a really nice matt white finish, is water resistant and fully bio-degradable. It is quite heavy for it's thickness, a result of being made from stone I'm sure!

The event also includes the first retrospective of seminal 1960's designer Neal Small.

You can find out more at www.materialconnexion.com

Friday 7:20pm

A discarded sofa I noticed on my way home from work.

View from sofa.

Parasol unit

An invite I received from the Parasol unit; foundation for contemporary art.
www.parasol-unit.org

Half Full

A billboard that I liked the look of, found between Elephant and Castle and Borough.

Check this shit out

by Marion Bataille

Also listening to...

"The kids in Bristol are sharp as a pistol

When they do the Bristol Stomp

Really somethin' when the joint is jumpin'

When they do the Bristol Stomp"

The Bristol Stomp

Courtesy of Miss. Raben, for Mrs. Raben.

Also looking at...

Villa d'Este, Lake Como, Italy 1975 by Helmut Newton

This is my desktop image and was going to be my first ever post but Gummbah jumped the queue. It's the cover image from Helmut Newton's brilliant book White Women.

Looking at...

More than 200 top contemporary artists, including Dinos and Jake Chapman, Antony Gormley, Peter Blake, Damien Hirst and Gavin Turk, have donated new work to a fundraising auction that celebrates drawing. The Drawing Room is at Tannery Arts, Brunswick Wharf, 55 Laburnum St, London E2 8BD from 30 April. The auction is at 6.30pm on 20 May.

Two of my favourites:

House for Kate Moss by Lothar Gotz




did you steal my fucking eye? by Jake and Dinos Chapman

You can check more out on the Guardian website.

Listening to...

A few things that I'm listening to on this bank holiday weekend:


- Akron/Family - There's So Many Colours
From the album - Love Is Simple
- Lo Borges - Aos Baroes
One of any track I could have picked from Kitsune's new brilliant compilation put together by Phoenix.
- Joe Gideon & The Shark - Harum Scarum
Title track from this brilliant brother/sister bluesy, atmospheric, grunge duo. Apparently one of Nick Cave's favourite bands. Nick knows best.
- Thom Yorke - Black Swan (Cristian Vogel Spare Parts Remix)
Taken from a Japanese import of Remixes from Thom Yorkes favourite doodes. Every track is epic and it's a real grower. I could have picked any one to post. In fact maybe I'll post every one. Keep an eye out.

Akron/Family

Sexy ligature. Although I guess it's strictly not a ligature, just a decorative element or an extravagant slash, but I like it. A seriously good band too. Tickets to the ICA show are £12.50. You can listen to a sample below.

And if you ever find yourself in Amsterdam

At this time of year then you are very lucky. I saw this picture of Amsterdam Tulip fields in bloom on the style files. More there. Incredible.

Click on a cock

Cami also told me about this restaurant. If you ever find yourself in Philly then you must visit this restaurant. It looks amazing. The website is very cool also.

Check it out - www.distritorestaurant.com

Speaking of beautiful women

An extremely beauitiful woman named Cami sent me a link to this video. The music is not really my thing, but really catchy and the clip is worth watching for the ending alone.

Matt and Kim - "LESSONS LEARNED" (OFFICIAL VIDEO) from FVMMO FILMS on Vimeo.

Playing guitar is much like making love to a beautiful woman

More type. This is the identity for Gary Moore's '09 tour. I was fortunate enough to catch him in concert last Tuesday at Bristol Colstan Hall. It was amazing.

For those of you that don't know, Mr. Moore was guitarist for Skid Row and Thin Lizzy and has had a lengthy solo career since. Seminal 1990 album Still Got The Blues is a work of pure genius.

Below is a little taster...



The impatient ones should play this clip from 3:45 to witness the man at his best.

They don't make em like they used to...

This is the cover of a catalogue for S.P.C.K. Book shops from 1951. B-A-D. It's actually a religious Christian book company. Awesome design and lovely type but a touch aggressive for selling Christian books? Who knows maybe it worked. I picked it up at Greenwhich Market a few months back, which is now sadly no more. R.I.P. Long live Deptford.

Life Story

by Tennessee Williams

After you've been to bed together for the first time,
without the advantage or disadvantage of any prior acquaintance,
the other party very often says to you,
Tell me about yourself, I want to know all about you,
what's your story? And you think maybe they really and truly do

sincerely want to know your life story, and so you light up
a cigarette and begin to tell it to them, the two of you
lying together in completely relaxed positions
like a pair of rag dolls a bored child dropped on a bed.

You tell them your story, or as much of your story
as time or a fair degree of prudence allows, and they say,
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
each time a little more faintly, until the oh
is just an audible breath, and then of course

there's some interruption. Slow room service comes up
with a bowl of melting ice cubes, or one of you rises to pee
and gaze at himself with mild astonishment in the bathroom mirror.
And then, the first thing you know, before you've had time
to pick up where you left off with your enthralling life story,
they're telling you their life story, exactly as they'd intended to all
along,

and you're saying, Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
each time a little more faintly, the vowel at last becoming
no more than an audible sigh,
as the elevator, halfway down the corridor and a turn to the left,
draws one last, long, deep breath of exhaustion
and stops breathing forever. Then?

Well, one of you falls asleep
and the other one does likewise with a lighted cigarette in his mouth,
and that's how people burn to death in hotel rooms.

Welcome

So this is where it all begins. Courtesy of a sick (in every sense of the word) dutch cartoonist who goes by the name of Gummbah. You can check him out here. I highly recommend his book entitled 'Meanwhile, Between Two Eternities of Darkness' which sums up what's to be found inside pretty well. If you share a warped sense of humour then well worth a look.

This blog is an off-shoot of my web site thehinterland. I am a young creative living and practising in London and through don't-forget-your-hat I will post regularly things that interest me, with particular focus on Typography and Graphic Design.

Feel free to come back whenever you like.

Enjoy.