plaaydoh are a Glasgow-based pop troupe showcasing refreshingly child-like music with a ton of tape-hiss and analogue noisiness. I discovered them via cowsarejustfood, who accurately pointed out that the above song- “farmies”- appears to be about working in Farmfoods.
plaaydoh are performing at the Ivy Bar in Glasgow on Sunday (27 Jul), and you can download a free EP & cassette rip over here.
PICTURE: [TEN KENS: Dean Tzenos (guitar), Dan Workman (vocals), Lee Stringle (bass), Ryan Roantree (drums)] VIDEO: [BEARFIGHT! PROMO VIDEO]
Meet Ten Kens, fresh out of Toronto, Canada. They want to avoid being stuffed in a genre pigeonhole, but for sake of explanation, their sound translates roughly as intelligent indie-punk, loaded with crunchy riffs, ethereal vocal refrains, and a heap of raw energy. After shipping copies of a self-recorded album out to some labels, the band were quickly snapped up by FatCat Records (Múm, The Twilight Sad, Animal Collective), who put them straight to work recreating the tracks with producer Colin Stewart (Black Mountain, Pretty Girls Make Graves). The end result is a self-titled debut LP primed for release in September, which should see Ten Kens appearing as a huge blip on the hip music radar any minute now. I caught up with Ten Kens for coffee, scones and an all-important chat about their music.
Earz Mag: “Welcome, Ten Kens! Do you have a mission statement?”
Ten Kens: “We offer one thing, the continual conception of magical auditory delights set to fuel hell’s perpetual fires…or something.”
Click to Read the rest of our exclusive interview with Ten Kens!
Quick round-up of music links from round about the net today!
Deerhoof leak new single…as sheet music [the Guardian]
Listen to guitarist / composer Sean Smith’s session [Wnyc.org]
Immortal Technique interviews at Urb Magazine & Prefix Mag
Dance crew remix entire of Portishead’s Third album
Courtney Love gets sued over Nirvana sale [Pitchfork Media]
Will Russia outlaw emo? [Prefix Mag]
Britain agrees plan to tackle online music piracy [Reuters]
Radiohead “House of Cards” video now in Hi-Res [Radiohead.com]
This is a ridiculous funny video where fonts are human. Comic Sans is the unlikely hero rescuing the kidnapped Courier, but the best part is when a restrained Wingdings busts through the door speaking total gibberish: “Pencil, telephone, hourglass! Diamonds, candle, candle, flag!”
Link to video @ CollegeHumour, via TechLounge.
For the second and final part in our series talking to young graphic design geniuses [link to part one- an interview with Diftype] we caught up with illustrator, photographer & photoshop trailblazer Chuck Anderson, known mostly to the design world as NOPATTERN. With a resume of clients that would make even the most established designers blush- from fashion brands and hollywood studios to drinks labels and A-list rappers- Anderson’s career recieved a helping hand early on from the internet, where his work has to date been published on literally hundreds of influential sites, including the Behance network and CoolHunting. Read on to find out Chuck’s opinion of Lupe Fiasco, and what has say about his online detractors.
I like this page from Mandrew Fitzgerald’s book entitled ‘STOP LOOKING AT ME OR I’LL HIT YOU’.
It kinda reminds me of Philip Vigil who I interviewed back in February.
Link at Daddisonish.
Feel free to mock me for being several moons too late, but I made an Earz Mag playlist on Muxtape, which is a fun way of sharing your music playlists with complete strangers online.
Link to my Muxtape page.
“No economy burgers!” declares the Limetree Festival website.
The Leeds-based get together is a return to traditional festival values, with none of the downsides that might blight your experiences elsewhere on the mainstream festival map - need I mention suspect bathroom facilities, power tripping security guards, the feeling that you are just another chicken in a battery hen cage earning the farmer lots and lots of money every time you buy an over priced beer?!
Smaller festivals achieve something that the large festivals can only boast about on over sized bill boards, they give us back a sense of community: a community with a mission: to go nuts, dance and celebrate the local talent showcasing their wares. Here we have an alternative to the musical cash cows whose talent, in many cases, is not in proportion to their hype. Give me B ‘n’ L Dubclub over Franz Ferdinand any day! Especially while I’m chowing down high quality meat!
More on the Limetree Festival at their site, Link. Burger pic: siansparkles.
WIN!: VIP Passes to the Limetree Festival, 1-3 August
We have 2 pairs of VIP passes to the Limetree Festival- worth £300 each- to gift to our readers. The exclusive packages include: A pair of weekend tickets, Free camping, Free parking, 1 Free therapy in the healing field, Free £20 cocktails voucher, Exclusive tickets to the after show party and a Limetree Goody Bag.
All you need to do to enter is leave a comment on this post, using a valid email address. Winners will be selected randomly from commenters and informed by email of their prize. The competition has been exended to Monday 28 July- get your entry in now!
In part 1 of this series of Q&As with talented young designers we spoke to Niklas Lundberg- better known to the world as 20 year old graphic design prodigy Diftype. A self-taught freelancer Based in Umeå (Sweden) Diftype- like the other artist in our series- has built a fierce reputation for his work through the internet, having been featured in publications like idN, Defish and Moloko Plus, not to mention around a trillion blogs such as Change the Thought & Kitsune Noir. Diftype works with stills, print, motion and interactive work, and generally produces highly technical & mathematically-inspiring visuals.
I have to give Radiohead their dues- they sure know how to make hypemen out of bloggers. This time they’re creating waves with an early release video for the track “House of Cards”, shot in stunning camera-free 3D plotting technologies.
The band have posted a depth of material and technical data on its conception here. The video itself is quite stunning- I look forward to the high-res version.
More from the archives: New Book of Radiohead Art
EARZ MAG is a journal on creative culture, music & art, based in Glasgow UK. Learn more about us or drop in & say hello.
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Design Q&A Part 2: NOPATTERN : Earz Magazine
Interview with the designer Chuck Anderson
Design Q&A Part 1: Diftype : Earz Magazine
Interview with graphic designer Diftype
MySpace.com - Kris Kuksi - 35 - Male - US -
Work of Kris Kuksi
Diftype\ 2008\
Liking Niklas Lundberg
whitney music box var. 1 - harmonics of 55hz
wow....simply....incredible
