Bands I sometimes forget exist but are AWESOME- #2 The Dears

I've been a long time admirer of Montreal's The Dears. During first year, in a whirlwind bout of enjoyment and bliss I discovered Gang of Losers (the album was short listed for the 2007 Polaris music prize). It was a little short lived though as a result of the abundance of music available as a result of DC++ (my life and death all at once, I miss it). Finally last year tragedy struck when my computer as well as music library perished in the great motherboard explosion of early '08. So the Dears were pushed to the back of my mind. However, earlier this school year Missiles was released and with it my enjoyment and bliss. At first it was one of those albums I kind of listened to, not really paying attention, more in the background. These past few days though the more I have listened to it, the more I like it. Money Babies is one of my current favourite songs (it changes frequently, but I think it could stick for a while), and Disclaimer and Missiles are also amazing. So The Dears truly fit into my 'Bands I sometimes forget exist but are AWESOME' category. Although I do feel that soon I won't be able to forget they exist at the rate I've been listening to them.

Damien Correll: awesome designer

Based out of Brooklyn NY Damien Correll is a freelance designer who has worked for Urban Outfitters, Nike, Yale University, K2, Rome SDS, Plug Research, Nickelodeon, Zoo York and Polyvinyl Records to name a few. He has also been featured in the New York Magazine, XLR8R, Juxtapoz, IdN, STEP, NOVUM, The New York Times Magazine, Faesthetic and contributes regularly to Swindle Magazine.
You can tell from his work that he really has fun with his designs. His style kind of reminds me of Mike Perry. Just like Perry he uses simple illustrations that are highly geometric and sometimes repetitive mixing it with photography and typography. Lots of patterns and layers are used to complete the aesthetic.

So check him out, his portfolio is overflowing with good design. Like most designers you can also buy stuff from his online store if you really like it.

We Feel Fine

Have you ever wondered what other people are thinking? Well this was shown in one of my lectures last week and ever since I've been playing around with it a little. We Feel Fine is an exploration of human emotion on a global scale. It is a site that tracks feelings posted on blogs (the system searches for 'I feel' and 'I am feeling') and puts them in a database. The interface is pretty easy to use and seeing all the feelings is really cool. There are many different ways to sort them so you can sort by correlating pictures, particular feelings, place, age, even weather.... anything really "Because blogs are structured in largely standard ways, the age, gender, and geographical location of the author can often be extracted and saved along with the sentence, as can the local weather conditions at the time the sentence was written. All of this information is saved."
It's really interesting to see different feelings around the world from different people. We Feel Fine is a really neat site that makes use of blogs, it's kind of a blog of blog feelings. It offers many interesting angles to seeing these feelings. I think it's cool that the feelings move and have colour and shape. It's almost hard to understand all the systems used, but I'll figure it out. As for me, I'm feeling nostalgic. Maybe it's looking at all these feelings, maybe it's reading week and being with my high school friends, but that's what I'm feeling. I wonder if that will make it on to the site...

Coraline

Tonight I am going to see Coraline in 'stereoscopic'3-d. If you haven't heard about it yet... listen. Coming from Director Henry Selick (of the Nightmare before Christmas) Coraline is a stop animation film hand made frame by frame. It's based on a book by Neil Gaiman.
I was intrigued by the ads a few months ago so hopefully it's pretty good!

Words Are Pictures

You may or may not have noticed my passion for typefaces (fonts, hand done, whatever) so I was happy to discover Craig Ward today. I've seen his stuff before on other design sites but never connected it.




















His work is centered around typography made by prints, cut outs, photography, found objects, anything really. It's very playful. I've found it very delightful. Here is a more complete portfolio.

My newest oldest favourite band

The other day I discovered something. The Beach Boys are AMAZING. Well, Pet Sounds at least. That whole album is amazing and it was only recently that I have realized how much it has influenced.

You can hear hints ofPet Sounds in bands like Of Montreal, Animal Collective, and many more. So if you think you don't like them, you probably do. So listen to them.

25 best love songs

Ohhh it's that time of year again. Red hearts and flowers everywhere. As much as I do agree that Valentine's day is over-hyped I think it is a great sentiment. I think every day should be a celebration of love and affection of some sort. Also I think Valentine's day is as much about romance as it is about surrounding yourself with loving people, showing them you care. Love doesn't have to come from a romantic relationship to be celebrated and appreciated. I don't like it when people are cynical around Valentine's, if you have ANYONE in your life you love and appreciate why be down?


Anyhow... that being said, here's a list of my favourite love related songs brought about not by Valentine's day (I guess it helps) but the main reason is my step-sister Annie who is getting married in August. I had the privilege of hanging out with her and my older sister last night when I got home (finally reading week!). Naturally some of the conversation revolved around Wedding plans and music so I decided to blog about some of my favourites along with some kind of reasoning...

1. Wherever I go- The Album leaf: I can't not smile when I hear this song
   
2. Postcards From Italy- Beirut: The happiest song about a wedding ever
   
3. Thirteen- Ben Kweller: story of a relationship
   
4. Aging Faces / Losing places- Broken Social Scene presents Kevin Drew: I think it's great
   
5. Sparks- Coldplay: " My heart is yours, It's you that I hold on to"
6. This is the Dream of Win and Regine- Final Fantasy: about the Win and Regine husband and wife from Arcade Fire, how can that not be awesome?
   
7. Falling Slowly- Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova: Once was an amazing movie.
   
8. On a Neck, On a spit- Grizzly Bear: " All my time, spend it with you now"
9. Love and Some Verses- Iron and Wine: Title says it all
   
10. Gold in the Air of Summer- Kings of Convenience: perfect summer weekend
    
11. Wrecking- Laura Veirs: finding love anywhere
    
12. Sleep Walking- Modest Mouse: Excitement
    
13. Stay Ups- Most Serene Republic: Simple but beautiful
    
14. Sometimes- My Bloody Valentine: Hopeless Romantics this bunch
    
15. Harvest Moon- Neil Young: Classic
16. I've got You and You've got me- New Buffalo: security in someone
    
17. Go Places- New Pornographers: adventures!
    
18. Glue- Page France: finding your soul, maybe about self journey
    
19. Uprising Down Under- Sam Roberts: Growing with someone else
    
20. I summon You- Spoon: Spoon's only ballad don't know if that's a good or bad thing
    
21. My Favourite Book- Stars: totally cheesy, totally great
    
22. Rake- Sufjan Stevens: Peaceful
    
23. When I get Up- Teagan and Sara: "I don't need company in the company of you"
    
24. Maps- Yeah yeah yeahs: this one is an obvious choice
    
25. Our Way to Fall- Yo La Tengo: my favourite
    

That's my list. There are others I had to cut. A lot of others. So Hppy Valentine's day everyone. Much Love!