caribou + video marsh: odessa.

There are very few things I’m as excited about this Spring as Caribou’s upcoming “Swim”, scheduled to drop April 20. Caribou (and now drummer Brad Weber’s amazing, percussion-crazy side project Pick A Piper) is one of my favourite musical entities ever. I hesitate to call them a “band”, because I feel that they’re more than that. An evolution of instrumentation and style that puts them one step ahead.

The “Odessa” mp3 was released online a little while ago, but I’ve been waiting for the video before posting. Happy days are here, thanks to Video Marsh, with a hazy, soft, memory-filled video. The video is very open to interpretation, which I like; it’s evocative but extremely unspecific. To me, it’s like the feeling you get from a smell: undeniably strong but hard to necessarily put into words.

I’m sure Caribou (or any artist really) doesn’t want to be categorized or pegged to a nationality, but I love how Canadian this footage is. They’re not playing stereotypes but they’re not shying away from the winter-ness that we all intrinsically know.  It’s our secret handshake, and they’re offering a hand. Like looking at an old $2 bill; nobody would totally get it but us.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Via Stereogum

// [tweetmeme style=compact]

: : : : :

01.28.10: sia, kent rogowski, y∆cht & the straight gaze, home video.

A quick list of some awesome things:

+ The incredible Sia announced her Spring North American tour. Sia is one-of-a-kind live, and  “The We Meaning You Tour”, including a stop at Coachella 2010, is a must-see. I. Can’t. Wait.

+ One of my favourite artists, Kent Rogowski, has two killer new prints from his hugely-popular “Bears” series up for grabs on 20×200.

+ I’m super psyched for this. One of my luckiest musical finds of 2009, Y∆CHT & The Straight Gaze, announced their spring “New Mystery Moods” tour, and are hyping it with a killer promo video:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

+ Home Video dropped a killer remix of Wave Machines’ “Keep The Lights On.” You should Download it.

kristopher grunert: year of light calendar.

For design snobs like me, the beginning of the year usually involves an arduous search to find the right calendar. Not too ugly, not too scheme-y, not too kitschy, but something just right. The Goldilocks of calendars. Which was why I was really happy when one of my fave photographers, Canadian Kristopher Grunert, solved the problem for me with his “Year Of Light” 2009 screensaver calendar series.

His work, as always, is stunning: graphic, glowing, geometric, effusive. Like the title suggests, each month is imbued with light and, yet, is dark enough that you can still see icons on your screen. Perfect.

Even more perfect, Grunert is offering it up for free. You can get your hands on it here.

headless heroes + mirnikana: just like honey.

Expansive, aching video for the cover version of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s 1985 track “Just Like Honey” by Headless Heroes from their cover album “The Silence Of Love”.

The video was created by directing team Mirnikana (a.k.a. Nina Spiering and Mirka Duijin).

Vodpod videos no longer available.

michael robinson: girl by firelight + candela latitudes.

“Girl By Firelight” is a beautiful little glimpse into colour and motion by animator and  filmmaker Michael Robinson, who says the piece is a  “color study made entirely with light, entirely in camera. All motion of color elements were created solely with hand movements.”

Vodpod videos no longer available.

After looking through his series of work on Vimeo, I was also mesmerized by “Candela Latitudes”, created by “shooting lasers against different pieces of glass and recording the distortion with a DV camera… The globules of color were made by blasting light through different prisms directly into the lens of the camera. The materials were layered together digitally to create the end result.”

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Via No Fat Clips!

daft punk + adam freeland: aer obama.

Ok. Seriously. When was the last time you saw anything this sick celebrating the inauguration of a President? That’s right. The answer is never.

We’ve got some Dalek. We’ve got some McMullen. And we’ve got an intergalactic Obama typing out his name on a gigantic Speak & Spell while hurtling through space. You simply don’t need anything else.

(Director: GOLD. Production: Green Spot.)

Via Towleroad

daniel eatock: prismacolor pen print.

I loves me some Daniel Eatock, and his “Pantone Pen Print” back in 2006 quickly became one of my favourite things. In it, he balanced a complete set of Pantone markers upside down on a stack of paper and let gravity do the work. The colours, travelling osmosis-like down into the sheets of paper, created fascinating organic swirls of colour. There’s something so interesting about seeing how the shapes align themselves without the aided touch of the artist. Though, just like a scientific experiment, the amazing results wouldn’t exist without the initial idea of is creator.

For this follow up project, “Prismacolor Pen Print”, he created a diptych balancing a full set of Prismacolor markers upside down, inside indiviual glasses, on two stacks of paper for 5 weeks. The ink seeped through 31 sheets, creating 31 completely unique pieces. Just like with his previous project, the prices for each piece will be the reverse of how close it was to the top of the stack. #1, receiving the most colour at the top of the stack, will be £31, and #31, getting the least ink at the bottom, will be £1. Such beautiful simplicity.

Via COLOURlovers

paul robertson: hyper parsnip bitches.

Paul Robertson is one of those really exciting artists who’s either a total genius or completely fucking nuts. Either way, his work is beyond interesting. They are complete 8-bit arcade-inspired Japanimation pop culture mash-ups, featuring more rainbows, guns, blood, breasts, and things flying through the air then you can imagine. This is one of his earlier vids, 2001’s “Hyper Parsnip Bitches.” The title alone is worth the price of admission.

I’m not really sure how to describe this. It’s pretty much beyond description. That’s just how far beyond far this has gone.

Robertson describes it as “a short film parodying 2D side scrolling videogames, among other things!” I feel like now is the right time to tell you what one of those other things is. I have one word for you: Falcor. That’s right. Muthafucking Falcor is in this vid. And if you don’t know who Falcor is then I have nothing else to say to you.

Via No Fat Clips!

sigur rós: hoppípolla.

I was watching the trailer for “Slumdog Millionaire”, which looks crazy kick-ass and I’m hoping to catch it this weekend, when during the second part of the trailer I heard one of my favourite songs in the history of songs from one of my favourite bands in the history of bands: Sigur Rós’ “Hoppípolla.”

Simply put, this song is what it sounds like to fly. All of the light and happiness and unbridled optimism I can imagine are wrapped up in its melody. “Hoppípolla” is an Icelandic term for puddle jumping, and it’s easy to see how that same energy breathes in the music. That moment where you abandon responsibility and your feet decide, for no legitimate reason other than because it will feel good; to leave the hard, narrow sidewalk and dive, without caution, into water.

There is a great official video for the song, but my fave version of the song is from the trailer for their 2007 live double-DVD “Heima.”

And here is the full version of them performing “Hoppípolla” live from “Heima.”

If I ever got to see Sigur Rós live, in Iceland, huddled inside a vast grassy field surrounded by jutting grey mountains, together with a bunch of tall, blonde, wind-blown Icelanders, as the sun set into a million colours, I think I would absolutely fucking die.

When I do die, I want them to play this song while my ashes fly off a cliff and into the trees. It is beauty itself.

rune guneriussen.

Welcome to the magic flipside world of Norweigan photographer Rune Guneriussen. Here, everyday objects take on a pack mentality. They evolve, animalistic and social, into tribes and herds of living, thinking things. Flocks of phones. Gaggles of globes. Hunting them down and capturing them in their new natural environment, each image is more stunning and revealing than the last…