Just saw these pics last night and it blew my mind away. On Thursday night, Animal Collective, along with Danny Perez (their visual mastermind), transformed the entire Guggenheim Museum in New York into an audio/video art installation. No, there wasn’t a live performance but band members Avey Tare, Deakin and Geologist were there (no Panda Bear). I also read that there was an impromptu 11PM group scream. ow!

photos by Rez Avissar

Photo via Ithaca Times Art Blog

On March 1st, OK Go released its RGM video for the single, “This Too Shall Pass” off their newest album Of the Blue Colour of the Sky. Known for their outrageous, low-cost, and highly innovate viral music videos, OK Go, surprised us yet again with their collaboration with Synn Labs. The video was shot in a two story Echo Park warehouse and was directed by James Frost. One of the most elaborate and complex Rube Goldberg machines I’ve ever seen…(Didn’t know it had an official name and its own wiki page!)

What an amazing feat.

Even better! There will be an official launch party for OK Go THIS FRIDAY @ LACMA! Tickets are only $20 and can be purchased here.

This show last Saturday was pretty amazing. Shows at The Disney Concert Hall are automatically in a high caliber–the acoustics there are incredible. The LA Phil opened up for the first program. After the intermission, Brooklyn based, Dirty Projectors came out and performed with experimental musicians, Alarm Will Sound. A truly special performance with a full ensemble of musicians.

Here is a video of the Dirty Projectors encore performance. They cover Dylan’s “I Dreamed of St. Augustine” and follow with a track that is unrecorded, “When The World Comes To An End”. The two songs span a little less than 10 minutes, but, worth it… so watch the whole thing!!

After the show, a short walk down to Coles Diner… friends, french dip, spicy fries, pecan pie, and beers. Love LA.

Angie digging her root beer float. Pam there is a film archivist, and organizes screenings like Home Movie Day, a national event that screens your family 8mm and Super8 film.

Aya Nakamura of San Francisco band, Scrabbel.

Photographer, Myleen Hollero

Our friends Han and Sadie of The Invisible Cities released their newest video last week. Killer video of stop animation, toys, paper, stuffed animals, legos and fun fun fun! The video was directed by Melissa Hung, and is part of the DIY Music Video contest put on by Locus Arts and the Center for Asian American Media. The video with the most views gets into the SF International Asian American Film Festival. Watch the video, click on “Menu” and Vote!!!

Here is our friend Melissa Hung… the director of the video and former editor Hyphen Magazine! Hyphen is a magazine we always support, so check it out.

We’ve been listening to a lot of “Little Dragon” in the studio lately. Yukimi Nagano’s voice, slightly withered, and her soulful falsettos is hauntingly beautiful.

While “Indie” is a total understatement, and would not do their music any justice, they also kind of float in between soul, dance, rock, and reggae. It doesn’t really matter, I’m really just using this blog post as an excuse to show the band’s talent.

Fortune

Twice

I’ve really been digging their older stuff, when it was more soul and r&b inspired:

Constant Surprises

Can’t wait to see them at Coachella!!!

I don’t even know where to start with this post. The videos pretty much speak for themselves. NAKeD COMPAGNIE a motion design company based in Paris that create STUNNING visuals for concerts and live shows. I’ve never seen anything like it. Their strengths definitely lie in their ability to capture the essence of dance music, with technology and visual art. Many of their collaborations so far have been in Europe, but I pray that they do more events in the States, especially at dance clubs.

You bobbed your head a little, didn’t you?

Come celebrate opening night with The Wild Up Modern Music Collective–a 24-man group of musicians coming together to create a unique atmosphere of art and music. Tonight’s premiere will be a progression of classical music to present-day with a program consisting of J.S. Bach – Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, Igor Stravinsky – Dumbarton Oaks, and John Adams – Chamber Symphony and a few outstanding orchestrations of Radiohead, by Joshua Bornfield.

Here’s a little taste of Joshua Bornfield’s beautiful music doing his acoustic rendition of Villa-Lobos Prelude No. 5:

What an awesome way to make classical music relevant and interesting again. I’ll be there tonight. It should be a perfect ending to your hectic week!

Eclectic Method takes anything, everything that is on a recorded medium and mashes and remixes to create a whole new form of art. They travel the world, producing killer sets by mixing snippets from movies, soundbites, beats, one note sounds–they mix and scratch all of these that are originally on dvd, cd, mp3s movies… seriously, whatever is recorded I’m sure is in their arsenal of sounds. Their site has video clips and tons of free audio mixtapes and remix downloads.

Check this one out, Eclectic Method gives a big shout to Wu-Tang Clan… mixing video interviews, sounds, and beats mashed together in a new way.

Eclectic Method - Wu Tang Clan Mixtape from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.

Eclectic Method was just featured in a documentary, “Copyright Criminals”, presented by Independent Lens. “Copyright Criminals” is about the history of sampling, not only the creativity, but, also recent laws surrounding sample based music and its effects on making music. It was interesting to find out that important albums like early De La Soul, Tribe, and Beastie Boys could never be produced today because of the sheer cost of paying royalties on mere seconds of samples.

On a side note, I used to work for post production company that did all of the editing and packaging for Independent Lens. It was exciting to see something rad like this come out of that series.

Copyright Criminals Promo Video from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.