100! holler dawgs! hundreds of thousands more to go. here’s some things that friends are up to, cause theyre tight like titties. and i also am out of time so whatevs
It’s Friday, yall like fun? if in nyc, here’s a party:
conrad, wayne, and oliver’s new band Tijuana are playing their first show tonight in about ohhhhh right now.
As mentioned earlier, Texas is DJing at Beauty Bar tonight as well. Go for the babes, stay for the babes.
In related friend news super mega congratulations to Nick and Austin for making it onto VVORK. vvork’s this amazing art website that shows incredibly smart work, usually technology driven, and kind of loosely curates these ideas together into strange strings. Anyways, it’s always been a goal to get on it for us, and these two rad dudes did. meanwhile i’m updating a retarded blog. sweet.
ALSO! in other fun friend news, our good friend David decided to add himself to Time Out’s Date Our Friends section and he’s been found out! uh ooooohhhhhh hahahahahahahaha
AND…Blain’s show she’s putting together in Paris is coming along swimmingly and there’s now a beautiful flyer!
really lovely, blain.
ok kiddos, got to run, got to have fun, canweplease? yes we can! aaahhhh
here’s some more, there should be some other new ones on the way too. the funny thing is that these photos don’t actually sum up all the wildness and fun of this summer because i’ve just left all the picture taking to Ben Ritter and all of those are over here: http://canweplease.blogspot.com
so my camera hasn’t really been active, and these are just the shots i like and that i’ve enjoyed. therefore, many good things and people not specifically shown here that totally should and for that i’m sorry.
i’m in a lil bit of a hurry here cause there’s something terribly exciting going on, but it’s friday and you need to watch funny things so here’s a few gnar ones with very little commentary from me:
kenny v spenny - biggest fart
OMG…OMG….wow. the baby crying just makes it
GWB!! love this guy, love what he says
MK&Ash - I’m the cute one! there’s tons of drug refs in here!
I lumped Maya in with the other oddballs in that last post, if you remember from say, 2 seconds ago. but i was just sent a video clip of her from etsy and it’s pretty sweet/tight. she’s so chillllll.
I’m not sure what the point of this collection is, it’s a grouping of artists and musicians working within some neo-psychedelia, retro-futurism, day glo neon fluorescent trend. I can’t pinpoint where it all stems from (recently, not like…the 70s or 80s) but the effects have been felt worldwide. Starting small, then becoming a large art trend, then the neon fashion explosion last year, and all of the 8-bit pixeled art and music videos that have spewed out of its ass since. The aftershocks are still being felt, so i guess now’s a decent time to look at a little bit from it.
First, there’s definitely roots in the Japanese Superflat movement and Otaku culture (ie Takeshi Murakami…that work spreading like wildfire in the states from the Little Boy exhibition to the Louis Vuitton collab to Kanye to the Brooklyn Museum show etc, also hello kitty, sanrio, anima/manga)
Then there’s the Providence/RISD/Fort Thunder Collective, who were always way ahead of their time. From Forcefield, to Lightning Bolt to Paperrad, all the members in between and all the folks they’ve influenced since. An innovative group who collectively incorporated bright visuals, theatrics, noise, and psychedelia on speed.
Of course then there’s the influence of raves/drugs/gays/germans/spandex/magic/lasers etc etc
The whole notion of NewRave I think was fabricated out of thin air really and somehow the Klaxons were noted as the leaders- although on one hand they have nothing really to do with it, but on the other they certainly did embrace parts of it. The scene in London absolutely had a large role in that bomb of neon that went off around the world. It probably has something to do with the fact that all they do in London is trip on K and E instead of smoking weed like the rest of the world. damn ravers.
Without getting too into a thesis here, let’s not forget a few other key factors:
-digital revolution: easy and accessible software, programming hacks found online, simple (poor) creations of websites, images and animations
-backlash from digital revolution: childhood nostalgia (innocence), animated gifs, lo-fi animations and websites, simple solid colors, fear of robotic invasion
-WAR - creates reactionary art - in a tech/digital/hypersurveillance/1984 kind of world and war - the natural response has not been one of revolution or anger but instead fear and escapism —leading to arrested development among youth and greater amounts of excess in partying -spending -drug use- and capitalism, loss of identity (self and nation)
anyways, there’s more to be said about this topic and i probably will at some point but the following are the videos, ordered to some degree, unfortunately i dont feel like drawing a web to explain who and what connect to what else but you can get the idea:
forcefield - video 3
neon hunk
paperrad
Lazerlight show - Ryuji Takeuchi pink and green at the beginning is super tight, but get up to 2:21
pick a winner dvd (feat. lightning bolt, forcefield, paperrad, dearraindrop, wolf eyes. it’s like an hour long or something so pick and choose what you watch)
dearraindrop - the tar guys
takeshi murata-melter 02 clip
katamari damacy intro theme - highly addictive but very simple video game. at once just a cute video it also crosses between japanese kawaii sensibility and german playmobil figures
maya hayuk - forevers
maya’s a local williamsburg artist, who painted the mural on mollusk surf shop. i really dig all of her work not just the color patterns, but everything is super sexual, soft and vibrant
tussle- invisible cities
black moth super rainbow - count backwards to black
an example of a cross between intense color patterning and the faster pace of the wild vids, creating something meditative and interesting.
dan deacon - from wham city collective, kind of a poor man’s ft. thunder, like an afterthought. but there’s still some creativity brewing up over there and some interesting work being made.
Klaxons - Atlantis to Interzone
this is probably the closest to rave that they came, and even though i really dig the glowing ooze in the magick video, and golden skans is a gorgeous video, this one just seems to fit this group properly. note the special K logo on the drumkit.
natalie portman’s shaved head - sophisticated sideways ponytail. these kids piss me off to no end and yet i really like this video. super quality stuff in there
MGMT - Time to Pretend
this last one’s kinda the culmination of all of these devolutions in quality, mixed with talented animating and a decent budget. and pretty much amazing.
anyways, i hope that burnt some time away from your miserable day!
