Listen: Yuck - Shook Down

Been playing this like crazy.

Well Yuck are a really great band, grossly underrated. They were at Laneway a few weekends ago, and I was watching a friend's friend's Laneway vlog (which is... 47 minutes long, and is mainly composed of Laura Marling with seven other acts around her set) so I thought I'd go back and give them a listen.

Love Yuck. Lovelovelove Yuck. And Mariko Doi, the bassist. 

Thanks to Laneway I also know about WU LYF and Twin Shadow and Girls and Cults. I've still not listened to The Horrors or The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, nor Feist and M83's older albums yet but I've not the time for that these days :-(


Looked like quite a blast. Bah, there's always next year. As usual.


Cheers,
Darren

Listen: Nike & the Dove - The Fox

Got this off the wonderful Sloh.

Fucking bizzare!

Niki & the Dove are an electropop (they describe themselves as "flamboyant pop" musicians) group from... Sweden! And this track is all kinds of weird, from the random progressions to the shouty chorus. But the music video for it has to take the cake.

Think... those Chinese "men of a thousand masks", those that change masks really quickly? But all done while free-falling off of a cliff. Apparently it's meant to signify dreams or summat. Beautiful scenery though, and I do like those random pulsing shapes in the wild. Everything about the video just screams "STRANGE", but it works, somehow. The song is quite listenable, plus that deep, guttural (guttural?) guitar sounddddddd (which I cannot seem to describe) just sticks in your head.


Bah. I've just been loading up on the music posts because they're short. I've been hella busy for the past week, and when I haven't been hella busy I've been wasting my time procrastinating. Like how I'm updating my blog when I have an article five days overdue. I was going to do a few football-kit posts but meh uploading photos takes time.


Cheers,
Darren

8-Bit Daft Punk

Got directed to these gems by Davina Goh. DAFT PUNK! 8-BIT! 8-bit is basically something like 8-bytes? I don't know for sure, I do know that there was an 8-bit version of the Universal theme song before Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

I think we can call it Nintendo/Game Boy sounds. Yeah summat like that.

Anyway, enjoy! Daft Punk remixed as 8-bit tracks by the French trio known as Da Chip.



Check their website here, where you can also download Da Chip Volumes 1 and 2. I'm already almost done with the first one.


Cheers,
Darren

Stream Sleigh Bells' New Album

Pitchfork directed meh to The New York Times, which have recently run an article on mah fave noise pop duo (ahead of my twin 3 year-old cousins, who make lots of noise and...poop. Not quite noise pop per se, but hey, it's meant to be a joke. Now laugh.) Sleigh Bells. They're releasing a new album, titled Reign of Terror, and the full album is available to stream right there! On the New York Times!


They've already launched two singles, "Born to Lose" and "Comeback Kid", and the latter's kinda grown on me since then, because from what I've heard, the new album's pretty lightweight. Less emphasis on the throbbing beats and bendy guitar riffs, and instead we get more easy-listening, pop with Alexis Krauss' soft-spoken vocals. It's slightly different, and I'm quite disappointed that there isn't an equivalent to "A/B Machines" on Reign of Terror (nor even an "Infinity Guitars"), but it's still quite good.

DUMB WHORES. BEST FRIENDS.

There's also a great accompanying article on Miller and Krauss, which explains their direction for the new album as such:

The new record is unmistakably Sleigh Bells, with dense but bigger production that puts Ms. Krauss’s voice into sweet relief over Mr. Miller’s dark metal peals. It is even more guitar driven — Mr. Miller discovered a model, the Jackson USA Soloist, that he loves — and more narrative and lyrical, with a crisper focus on arrangements and harmony over beats.

The loudest one on the new album is arguably "Leader of the Pack", where the distortion sounds pretty obvious. If I had to choose though, a few of the other standouts for me would be "End of the Line", "Crush", and "You Lost Me", which all fall within that easy-listening category, if you ask me.

By the way, I'd link to those songs but the videos of them on YouTube have been removed. 

This isn't meant to be one of those album reviews I do though, but I fear that I won't be doing one anyway since I've already written so much about it here. Either way, I'm glad they've a new album out, though just slightly disappointed with the content, even though it's pretty ace. Second album syndrome, maybe?

They've even been on Saturday Night Live! 

Full report on Pitchfork Media, where you can also find videos of their performance of "Comeback Kid" and "End of the Line". Oh, and Justin Timberlake impersonates Bon Iver too. 

Cheers,

Darren

Eye Scream Sunday

Yet again, Fyona's led me to another great design thingie. This time, it's called Eye Scream Sunday, a design project by Aakash Nihalani. He doesn't give much away on his Tumblr, nor his website, but what I can gather from it is that the man loves his cuboids. 

Oh wait! I've just found the equivalent of his "About Me" section. However, it seems to be in Flash format, so I can't copy and paste it here. The gist of it is something like, "My street work consists mainly of isometric rectangle and squares. I selectively place these graphics around New York to highlight the unexpected contours and elegant geometry of the city itself." 

This is probably a prime example of his work. I like it.

Deceptively simple, squares and rectangles. But Nihalani creates complex patterns with them, and even interactive ones, as seen in the image below:

Incredible. 

It looks like an orange-coloured sticker tape was pasted onto the wall.

Here are some examples of his seemingly minimalist pattern prints:

Love this. I'm also kicking myself for not coming up with it. I mean, just look, it's basically a square being repeated over and over again. That he can come up with such a creative arrangement of a square is rather interesting.

3D boxes in the woods!

He's even gone and collaborated with Patrick Stump, the newly-slim former lead vocalist of Fall Out Boy. They used to be one of my favourite bands when I was a teenager, and now he's forging a solo career with some random new genre called "Soul Punk", whatever that is. 

His album cover.

GIF of the prep process. The boxes look 3D but they actually aren't!

And yet another creative print. Why hadn't I thought of this?

Quite like his work. As mentioned, it's deceptively simple. Plus, he actually implements it into normal everyday life for most Americans. Click on the link to his blog in the first paragraph of this post for a full sample of his projects so far.


Cheers,
Darren

Cover: Birdy - Skinny Love

Birdy. What a bizarre name. Particularly if you want to be taken seriously in the music biz. I'd actually heard her on the radio earlier today. Unsurprisingly, it was Traxx fm, the only one in Malaysia that doesn't play mainstream shizz over and over and over and over again. I'm fucking sick of Adele, by the way, thank youuuu Malaysian radio.

Anyway, I had to SoundHound her track because it sounded suspiciously like Bon Iver's "Skinny Love", but with a piano arrangement instead.

It's actually really good. Piano adds a touch of emotion to the song, plus her vocal ability's no slouch either.

Had a look around, and her YouTube channel's also posted videos of her covering... "White Winter Hymnal", "The A-Team" by Ed Sheeran, and.... "Shelter" by The xx. And she's got pwopah (proper) music videos for some of them too!


Odd why she'd use such a stage name. Apparently it's a nickname her parents gave her because when she was young, she used to open her mouth wide while she was being fed, like a little bird. Her real name's Jasmine van den Bogaerde, how posh!

And I just found out from Sloh that she's... 15. Crazy shit. She's got a great voice! Plus, she's already got a self-titled debut album out, with 11 tracks! Includes some good original songs too, like "People Help the People", which is currently in the Top 10 in Holland, apparently.


Either way, it's quite nice to see someone so young with genuine talent. Enough autotune and rapping 'bout bitches and hoes.


Cheers,
Darren

Nike Drop Some Euro Away Kits

Whoops, sorry for zeh late posts, but I've been real swamped with work and trying to fit in some socialising here and there this week. But hey, it's the weekend so here's like, one blog post.

More kits! Whehey. Euro 2012's just around the corner (well, four months away), and Nike have somehow dropped a few of their special away kits. I say "somehow" because they haven't officially launched 'em like they normally do. These are just up on FSC, haha

First up are the Portugeezers, led by the perma-tanned beacon of hair gel, Cristiano Ronaldo.

Quite literally a beacon, here.

That photo's sorta in line with Nike's recent kit posters and promos, as seen in the photos for their new Brazil kit, where they've got bright light straining to get out from Neymar's armpit area.

Up close with the... fabric?

These ventilation holes below the armpit seem to be causing that strange light. Maybe they've put LEDs in there? No.

I'd actually come up with a design like this YEARS ago for a prospective Nike England kit, with the red St. George's cross on the front against their customary white shirt. But I sketched it in one of my school textbooks, and somehow forgot to mail it to them blokes at Nike.

Moving on, some love for France:

Mamadou Sakho, in tight shorts.

This basically looks to be a white version of their current navy home kit. Quite disappointing, as the ones floating around the Internet have made it to be something like a mime's shirt.

Next up, the Dutch:

Sneijder has shiny pits too.

Pure orange on black for the Netherlands, kinda like the one they had in 2002. 

Seriously, would be awesome if they actually came with built-in LEDs. And lasers! LASERS!

I quite like this idea, that the numbers will be square-ish and as wide as the orange panel, almost like a continuation. 

Righto, these aren't officially released, but fair to say that they're the real deal. Can't say the same for this leaked photo of what are supposedly Arsenal, Barcelona, and Manchester United's new home kits for next season. Black socks for Arsenal? Red ones for United? TARTAN?! Outrage!

Photos via FSC.

Cheers,
Darren

Poorly Drawn Lines

Found this on Fyona's Tumblr, it's Tiny Hippo!

I love the ending.

Checked out their website, and though there were a few unfunny ones, there were also (surprisingly! Not really) some funny ones. Like this:

This was so @WeirdHorse.

And this is one of my favourite ones so far:

They're alright, not overly elaborate but still funny. The male figures remind me of the characters in Studs Up, for some reason. But while The Oatmeal isn't being very productive with his output, and with Allie Brosh MIA, this will have to do for now, I guess.

Do check 'em out if you like, ovuhhhh hurrrrr.


Cheers,
Darren

Birthday Gift Idea 2012

Y'know.... it's my birthday real soon, and the main thing I'd wish for is:

Some Ray-Ban Wayfarers. Have had my eye on a pair for ages now and was going to buy a cheap pair in Bangkok but the lack of UV protection would probably blind me eventually. #firstworldproblems

They're... $155 online (as seen here, on the official site) but I haven't been to check out the store in Gurney. Either way, that's RM600 or so. What a pricey pair of sunnies!


Yes yes, very materialistic, but hey it's not like anybody's going to take this seriously and deliver a lovely pair right to my doorstep, hmmm?

*reverse psychology*

Cheers,
Darren

Luis Suarez, twat.

Boy, the internet is FAST. No sooner had the big game earlier finished, then photos of its biggest "talking point" began to surface. 

The big game was of course, Manchester United vs. Liverpool, now with added spice, thanks to Luis Suarez, making his first start since being banned for eight games for racially-abusing Patrice Evra. I didn't manage to catch the match, as I was out for dinner, only coming home in time to watch the last five minutes plus stoppage time. 

By then, it was 2-1 to United, and that's how it finished. Then the commentators started talking about how Suarez snubbed Evra during the pre-match handshake, while Rio Ferdinand did the same to the racist bastard Uruguayan. 

That wasn't totally unbelievable. Kenny Dalglish had said before the game that Suarez will "shake the hand of Evra and the other Manchester United players before the game", so Suarez must've lied to the boss or somethin' somethin', because he skipped the United skipper completely, almost as if he wasn't there! 

Evra grabbed his wrist in response.

And here's a GIF of the incident, courtesy of Pies. See how fast the Internet is, so fast! 

What a massive twat.

For the record, Evra is the victim, while Suarez is the abuser. He admitted to using the word "Negro" more than five times during the league meeting at Anfield between these two teams back in... October (?), and was banned for eight games, decided by an independent panel. I don't know about you, but if you called a black person a negro on the street, you're asking for trouble. Evra showed class and forgiveness by agreeing to shake hands in the first place, but like a child at the playground, Suarez yanked his hand away. Just imagine what Evra must've felt. You find it in you to put aside your differences with someone who has racially abused you, and he does the equivalent of a spit in your face.

At least Rio didn't want to shake the bugger's hand.


Just pathetic, man. Pathetic.


This is the same person who bit Ottman Bakkal on the shoulder, handballed on the line to deny Ghana a World Cup semi-final spot, and kicked Scott Parker in the gut a few days ago, amongst other discrepancies.  How Liverpool and its fans keep finding excuses for his horrible behaviour is beyond me. If there's a plot to get him fed up with life in England (as claimed by scores of paranoid Liverpool fans), then so be it. Get rid of him. It's not like he's particularly spectacular. Sure his play can be quite exciting at times, but his shot-conversion is terrible this season. At least when Cristiano Ronaldo was jeered for being a general berk (for going down to easily, and his strops), he was one of the Premier League's best players. Ever. Plus, he didn't come with so much baggage.


To be fair, Evra was over-exuberant in his post-match celebrations as well, whooping and beating his chest all around the pitch, gradually gravitating towards Suarez. Human Squirtle Martin Skrtel had to be restrained, while the equally-bald Pepe Reina was seen complaining. Bahhh.


And after the game, both managers offered differing views, as per usual. Fergie said that Suarez was a disgrace to Liverpool Football Club, while Dalglish was rather defensive (again), attacking the BBC for "blaming Suarez for anything that happened here today." sighhh what's new. Watch the videos on Pies.

Photos and videos via Pies and Dirty Tackle

Cheers,

Darren

More Creative Nike Packaging

I'm a sucker for good design, and Nike've been at the forefront of all that groundbreaking shizz for aeons now. Adidas? Good, but boring. 

Check out the Swoosh's presentation for SC Internacional's new kit. Y'know how sometimes brands package their jerseys in commemorative boxes, particularly if they're limited edition? Nike's latest seems like a normal shoe box:

Until you take the lid off.

According to Footy-Boots, Nike unveiled their latest slew of kits for their Brazilian clubs last Friday. But for some reason, they've gone and done something really special for Internacional fans.

It's literally a bloodbag!

The box itself is actually styrofoam (which... isn't very environmentally-friendly. Sorta goes against their latest green initiative, to have their new jerseys recycled out of 7 plastic bottles each. But then again, this idea is pretty cool. 

Inside is a small mound of ‘ice cubes’ made out of gel, protecting a blood bag which contains the new shirt, complete with vacuum-sealing, hospital-style labels and tubes which will likely make anyone with a fear of needles start to get that uneasy feeling.

Apparently this continues Nike's theme with Internacional, which involves "giving blood" for their beloved team. As you can see from the promotional poster below, featuring Argentinian star Andres D'Allessandro (formerly of Woflsburg and....Portsmouth, and one of those "new Maradona" dudes), who's the captain of Internacional. 

He's literally squeezing the blood out of his shirt! Either that, or he's gripping a penknife really tightly.

Apparently, the text reads, "Your blood carries the story. Every cup, every tear”. I didn't know so many Portuguese words get translated into such a short English sentence.

Nike also took the opportunity that they've taken over from subsidiary Umbro as sponsors of the legendary Brazilian club Santos, where Pele played, and where Neymar and Ganso currently ply their trade. Speaking of Neymar and Ganso, they were also at the unveiling of Brazil's new 2012/2013 home and away kits. Why they need another one so soon after the previous one was launched, beats me.


Cheers,
Darren

Cover: Cults - Everybody Knows

I LOVE Cults. Alt bro and bb bringin' the hair flair back to indie. Not that it left in the first place. I'm not sure actually. BUT YAY! Madeline Follin's a cutie and Brian Oblivion has a really really awesome surname.


Anyways, they've done a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows" (released back in 1988!) for Columbia Records' Vimeo project called Old Ideas with New Friends, in celebration of Mr. Cohen's latest album. It involves contemporary artistes performing covers of Cohen's old tracks. Other coverists (is that a word?) so far include Bradford Cox from Deerhunter, Cold War Kids, and some dude from The New Pornographers.

They chose it because "It's one of his later songs which has bigger arrangements, which is more fun for us to play with and work on."

The piano bit's great, but honestly the song is a little flat. I did enjoy the intro though. Follin doesn't sound too good here either, her tone's far too low,  in comparison with the tracks on their debut album. I haven't exactly heard the original version of "Everybody Knows", the only Leonard Cohen song I know is "Hallelujah", so I'm not exactly qualified to uhhhh... comment.


Cults have already performed this cover live, at a concert in January. And they're coming to Singapore! For Laneway 2012! Which is happening in exactly a week! Let the moping commence!

Video via Pitchfork Media

Cheers,
Darren

Videos: Flipper Football, Hop Ball Football

Been loading more Golden Goal videos. Lads have some good ones up on YouTube, I'd totally tune in if they were on the tv.

FYI, they come up with ways to make football better. Usually kooky ways. They've already done electroshock football (with a dog collar strapped to the players' thighs to shock them if they make a mistake), hill football (on a slope), even a three-way football game where three teams play each other simultaneously on a triangular pitch. 

Here are more great picks:

I don't the exact name for this, but I'm guessing it's Flipper Football. The lads go play football on a beach, but it's anything like beach football. For one, they're sporting underwater gear. The only thing missing would be a tight wetsuit and an oxygen tank.

If you thought running on sand was hard, try running on sand while wearing flippers.

Siamese Twin Football, I think. In it, they tape one of their legs to their partner's, sorta like a three-legged race, the one kids participate in on Sports Day or summat. Definitely doesn't look easy, plus the tape kept coming off.

Plus, former United striker Mame Biram Diouf took part! At least I think it was him. It sure did look like him. His partner was Pape Diouf, who is of no relation to the first Diouf. 

This is easily my favourite one so far, almost as good as the Electroshock Football one. Players play football on a hop ball. 

Looks fun! And incredibly tiring! Imagine having to muster the energy to bounce around after a ball. To make things even better, Manchester United goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard takes part! And he plays up front! And he scores a goal!

Do watch it. Some of the bits in the video are pretty hilarious.


More to come!


Cheers,
Darren

Cover: Oh Land - White Winter Hymnal

Danish lass Oh Land covers "White Winter Hymnal" by Fleet Foxes, it was insanely popular for a while (not amongst normal people) but is still known as a "lullaby for adults". Not that it's boring or anything. Just CHECK IT.

Kina Grannis did a cover of the same song a while ago. I can't really remember any other big names doing one, am too lazy to type it into YouTube's search bar, even though by typing this sentence, I'm already uhm proving myself wrong.

I always misspell Kina's name, end up typing "Kinda" at the first go. 

Cheers,

Darren

Album: Oh Land - Oh Land

Originally named Nanna Øland Fabricius, she's better known as Oh Land, yet another electronic female popstar to emerge from Scandinavia. Well the most famous one has to be Bjork, with Lykke Li and Robyn coming into the picture in recent times. 

But back to Oh Land! I can't quite recall how I got to listening to her music, but I think it was something to do with Twitter... Katy Perry retweeted her? Because she was supporting her California Dreams tour in the UK last year. 

Oh Land plays synthpop, with a few shimmers here and there, some piano too. Being Scandinavian, she speaks English with a slight accent, which is kinda adorable.

Plus, she looks like a young Heidi Klum:

She was formerly a dancer, being a student at the Royal Danish and Royal Swedish Ballet schools, but a slipped disc scuppered her career in dance. So she turned to music.

Probably her biggest single yet, "Sun of a Gun" is part kooky, part synthy, part pop. The video's rather bizarre (ala Lykke Li) as well.

So hippie! So prettie! So carefree! I love! 

Her first album Fauna was quite a dud, but her self-titled sophomore effort has been much better. Pleasant to listen to, but it doesn't leave much of an impression, except for a few stand-out tracks, like the ones listed above (and below):

1. Lean [The classical music arrangement really shows off her vocal ability.]
2. We Turn It Up [Bubblegum pop]
3. Rainbow [Pop]
4. Wolf & I 

She's been steadily getting more publicity, MTV even had her as their MTV PUSH Artist of the week for... April 2011. Somehow, Oh Land has also gotten her fans to call themselve "Narwhals", those Arctic whales (porpoises?) with a tusk on their forehead like a unicorn does? They even have their own Tumblr. Oh Land fans, I mean, not narwhals. 

Cheers,

Darren

Listen: New Warpaint Songs

What up homies Warpaint have some new tracks whooooooooooooo! The girls have been working on a new album, and they played some material from it at Space 15 Twenty in Los Angeles, a few days ago.

Some nice bloke was kinda enough to record it all in grainy greyscale. Sound quality's pretty decent too, which isn't all that common with a gig video.


The first track's called "Hi":

Decent song, but I don't like it. A bit dull, and the main chorus isn't catchy in the slightest. Not a fan of the "In the middle of the day" line being repeated so often, though my mind might change once the proper record drops, when you can hear the bass and guitars properly.

Second one's called "Chic U", I assume it's pronounced "Sheikh yoo".

This one I like! Has that trademark Warpaint vague storytelling, and Jenny's bass. Though the guitar bits sound a bit similar to this !!! song, I think it was "Hello? Is This Thing On?". Regardless, this one sounds goooood.


As far as the new album is going, a sure bet for inclusion would be "Jubilee", which was originally a demo (and what a great instrumental demo it is!) but they've been playing it in festivals and concerts over the last quarter of 2011, so it's almost definitely going in.


Oh, excite excite!


Cheers,
Darren