If anyone out there is like me, you're driving the chilluns around, heading to work, and focusing on the everyday life... Suddenly, "uh oh...what's that sound? Why's my car making that sound?"  You try to block it out by turning up the radio, but it's too late... panic has taken hold. You feel every weird shimmy the car makes and deep down, you start to think about the very limited car knowledge that you possess trying to figure out what the friggin problem is with this stupid car, how much it's going to be, and when was the last time you had it serviced (you're pretty sure it wasn't THAT long ago). Every single detail of your mutual love/hate relationship with your car stands out in stark contrast from the amazing day you had planned.



Luckily, I have found a solution that will ease all of your slowly growing stress ulcers... meet Drivebot. Drivebot is a dongle that connects to your OBD-II (On Board Diagnostic port) that monitors your cars health and alerts you on your smartphone via Bluetooth when there's a problem. Upon detection, it provides simple instructions of possible quick fixes. Plus, it monitors your driving behavior and how to save gas with driving suggestions on how to save. Who doesn't like that idea?! Oh! And before I forget, for those of you who go on business trips and/or have to log your every move with your vehicle, Drivebot can export the data and email it to you as a report. Knowing what's wrong in advance can give you that much needed leg up when you bring your car to that scheister mechanic (who you totally know is trying to take you for a ride), and can help in avoiding the possible douchebag all together. Yay to that! With the proper mental preparation and new knowledge that you now possess, all your bad little thoughts and worries can ease away.

I'm a huge fan of Neuva Forma's monthly podcast's of there Listening Pleasures collection. So I thought I would share their newest addition #25. It was put together by there friend Jon Cox of WILDABOUTNOTHIN'. It's a little bit shy over a half an hour but what a way to get lost in that time. The emotional content of this playlist is a perfect blend of samples and cohesive song-mixing that makes the entire thing feel  like one beautiful song that ends much too soon in my opinion.

Check out Neuva Forma and find some amazing musicians and also check out other Listening Pleasures. You can even download and subscribe to their podcast. Enjoy!!!




Source: Neuva Forma

Scott Hansen, a graphic artist who makes beautiful ambient music as Tycho and maintains the equally amazing blog ISO50, has a singular vision of music and art. Everything posted on ISO50 ascribes to an almost soothingly minimal aesthetic feel with his music style. So with that being said “Awake” is the first single from Tycho’s new LP due out next year, Scott has also done the album art as usual. Check it out and let me know what you think.





Source: pitchfork

Damon Sheeley of The Bear and The Sea had released a couple of months ago his remix of Common's "I Used to Lover H.E.R." with the intention of slowly creating and releasing a handful of selected remixes as a FREE release. It was a tribute to the hip hop world through his hazy instrumentals that give a filter feel to his tracks. So here it is thanks to Nueva Forma the new EP Everything is Everything.  Download here for FREE or stream it below!

Tracklist

1.I Used to Love HER (The Bear and The Sea Remix) 04:39
2.Stakes is High (The Bear and The Sea Remix) 04:46
3.Blahzay Blahzay - Danger (The Bear and The Sea Remix) 04:02
4.Juicy (The Bear and The Sea Remix) 04:37
5.Fast Life feat Nas (The Bear and The Sea Remix) 04:44


released 23 August 2011 Remixes and album art by Damon Sheeley of The Bear and The Sea For more info, visit:nuevaforma.com/artists/the-bear-and-the-sea/
thebearandthesea.tumblr.com

I've stumbled upon SR692 and his large collection of retro Swissair poster designs today. I'm not going to lie but their are some seriously good designs up in this collection. Most of these poster designs came from the 30's to the 80's, which are archived on the site.

What I like about this collection is the simplicity of each design. They utilize the generic airplane icon, a headline and the Swissair logo making for a minimally designed style. You can't go wrong with that. If you want to know more on the Swiss Airlines logo. I know that Wanken did a whole post on Swissair: Behind the Logos interesting read. You can find it on ISO50.

Photo by: Tim Navis
Imagine being all by yourself in the pacific; just floating and listening to the sounds around you. While you’re surrounded by nature with large mountain cliffs off in the distance; the sun is setting and the tide is slowly retreating. This is the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the new track by Tycho. I have done many posts about his work; and I will continue because this man is my inspiration.

His new album "Dive" is due to be out on November 15th, 2011 and I cannot wait. But in the meantime, have a listen to his new track "Hours" and enjoy the new album cover from his fourth full length album.

Pitchfork has also made this track available as FREE download. Get your free track today. ISo50 also has made a special announcement that they are offering the pre-order lithographs featuring the album artwork, head over to the shop and grab one of the first editions. Plus, don't forget to check out ISo50 Blog, great stuff posted all the time.




Source: ISo50, Pitchfork

I had the pleasure of talking with the creator Marty Kenney about his Fake Album Covers website. Marty, also known as Mantis, designed a site that allows others to generate fake album covers and provides them with an outlet to show their designs.

The rules are simple since there are only three and they are as follows:

1. Generate a band name/artist based off a generated Wikipedia word/name
2. Generate an album title based off of using the last few words of a quote that is also generated by a link.
3. Generate album photo/artwork based off a limited number of flickr images that are also provided by a link.

In designing the fake cover, you can use any kind of editing software to create a square proportioned graphic; 685 x 685 pixels using the above method. You are also allowed to manipulate the photo; as long as in so far that the original image is for the most part, recognizable. Give it a try!

During the whole process of running through the rules and generating an album cover, I got a chance to ask Mantis a couple of questions concerning his ideas about the site. Here is what he had to say:

Mantis: I would like there to be enough submissions for there to be daily updates, and see the whole thing grow, and get as many people interested and involved as possible.

These fresh looking Iron Animals were created by a Blog called The Given Collective. There blog is a subsidiary of an online portfolio for The Given Collective. This series is one of their designs and the style is very interesting. The detail on each piece is very clear and eye popping. If you have more time head on over to The Given Collective and see what else they have.

I found a site that has a liking to things that are neatly organized. Things Organized Neatly is a website that showcases photos of things organized neatly. The concept for this site is pretty neat (pun intended). I look forward to submitting a couple of pictures myself since I'm a little OCD and like to organize things. If you have any pics that you would like to submit then head on over. If not then just check out some of the photos submitted. If you want to get a daily dose follow on twitter @thngsorganzdntly

The internet is filled with inspiration from a story to an image. We as people find ideas and inspiration in many avenues amongst the cloud that we call the internet. So today let me introduce to you Designspiration. It was founded by Shelby White, a Seattle based graphic designer and owner of Wanken Blog and co-writer on ISO50 blog.

Designspiration took Shelby about 10 months for his idea of growing a community full of inspiration. This minimalist designed platform seems simple but it is full of great features to help you find your inspiration quickly and neatly. Some of the features are the live type search, color search and easy keyboard navigation. After toying with this site I quickly added this to my favorites. If you want to read about Shelby's thought process then check out the post on ISO50.

If you would like to get involved in sharing your works on Designspiration it's membership driven by those who are already members. So send an email to to register AT designspiration.net with a link to your portfolio or the type of inspiration you’d be uploading.

Shelby will be doing a live broadcast on Tuesday, December 14th at 12pm(noon) PST to talk about the project and anything design or photography related. So if you have questions he will bring the answers. Happy hunting.

Vimeo has some great talent and interesting videos amongst their large collection. I came across this video "Crossover" while checking out the blog, The Fox is Black. This short film was directed by Fabian Grodde who had some amazing 3D artists. It took me a minute to realize that those bug weren't real. It looks really real though. I'm still not sure the meaning of the video but I will go with what Bobby from TFIB said. He said that it’s about the spread of Christianity in the world, specifically in less civilized areas. Of course this is all told through tiny stink bugs and a giant spider, but I’m sure you’ll see what he was talking about.





DIRECTED & PRODUCED BY:
Fabian Grodde
3D ARTISTS:
Alexander Schumann, Christian Brinkmann, Stephan Hempel
COMPOSITING:
Fabian Grodde
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY:
Rafael Köhler
SOUND:
Johann Niegl, Alexander Binder

Jakub from ISO50 posted about NPR streaming the new compilation "We'll Never Stop Living This Way" by Ghostly International. So I thought I would share this information as well. Since more than half of the artist on this label are favorites of mine. Ghostly International is a great label that has a plenitude of amazing and talented artists. You can listen to all these songs before the release on their site in 3 parts, it includes plenty of exclusives and some of the hit singles by the main crew of artists that have released on the Ghostly label. This is a digital-only release which will be available on Dec. 14, but it'll stream on NPR in its entirety until then. Please share your thoughts on the compilation and the label in the comments section below.



Tracklisting below:
1 GOLD PANDA – Peaky Caps
2 SHIGETO – Eternal Life
3 OUTPUTMESSAGE – Bernard’s Song
4 MATTHEW DEAR – Fleece On Brain
5 DABRYE – Jorgy (feat. Waajeed)
6 MOBIUS BAND – Multiply
7 TYCHO – Coastal Brake
8 DANIEL WANG – Berlin Sunrise (Diskjokke Version) [Unreleased]
9 SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS – Half Asleep (Lusine Remix)
10 AEROC – My Love, The Wave Break
11 LAWRENCE – Five Leaves
12 CHOIR OF YOUNG BELIEVERS – Hollow Talk
13 TADD MULLINIX – Exchanging Modes
14 THE SIGHT BELOW – No Place For Us
15 LOSCIL – Union Dusk
16 BENOIT PIOULARD – Little A Strongly More Go I
17 PALE SKETCHER – Dummy (Bahnhoff Version)
18 CEPIA – Tape
19 MIDWEST PRODUCT – Clarity
20 OSBORNE – Outta Sight (Luke Vibert Remix)
21 LUSINE – Double Vision
22 SOLVENT – Loss For Words (Solvent’s CompuRhythm Mix)
23 JDSY – Horizon Line
24 DEASTRO – Tone Adventure #3
25 MICHNA – Redline Flights
26 THE REFLECTING SKIN – Traffickers
27 MUX MOOL – Crackers
28 KILN – Flycatcher
29 KATE SIMKO – The Creative Part
30 COM TRUISE – Cyanide Sisters [Unreleased]

So after many hours of enjoying the listening pleasures of Nueva Forma's podcast, I'm excited to share it with all of you. Nueva Forma got it right with their podcasts. They not only have great album covers but a great choice in music. For the past nine months they’ve been creating these wonderful mixes featuring artists from their own label and also guest artists. One of my favorite things about these podcast is the added voice commentary at the beginning, middle and end of the podcasts. It gives it an added feel to the whole mix.

Their current podcast Listening Pleasures Episode 09 hands down is a fantastic podcast this month. This podcast has some amazing tracks by Blackbird Blackbird, Tanlines, Millionyoung and many more… It has the right balance from start to finish. Nueva Forma even made four tracks available as free downloads. Click on the download links in the tracklisting to get your tunes courtesy of A Gap Between, The Bear & The Sea, and Miori on the Nueva Forma website. If you like what you hear they have many ways in which to subscribe so you will only be a click away from good sounds. So start your listening pleasures.


Download Episode #9

Debbie Carlos who is a photographer from Chicago has an interesting collections of animals. In this collection which she calls "Human Nature". She took pictures of animals that were on display at Chicago's Field Museum. She wanted to capture the natural environment where the animals, long dead, are themselves placed and positioned in scenes that recreate their habitat. These images she captured of the life-like death of the creatures has a murky quality of lighting and has dark desaturated tones that gives these images a very dark vintage feel. I like her point of view on the reasoning why she took these photo's. She states that the images convey a sensuality and romanticism at odds with the sense of stagnant death that lingers in the cracked skin of 100-year-old taxidermied animals and birds strung up as though in flight with fishing line. Inside the museum, nature is labeled, classified, and static, turned into an object of knowledge. These photos attempt to capture the mystery and romance of this very pursuit—the sincerity of the scientific endeavor, the pathos of its visible failure, and the beauty of the attempt to engage with nature. If you have time check out her site and also her blog.

Denon is getting ready to celebrate their 100th Anniversary on October 1, 2010. This historical event can't go without a new product to commemorate this achievement. Denon goes back to it's beginning with the new Denon 100 Turntable($2,500). This high-end turntable features the company's high-performance direct-drive turntable technology, compatibility with the new DP-A100 cartridge, a five-year warranty, 100th anniversary logo badges, and a signed certificate of authenticity from the chief production engineer who hand crafted the device. So if you got 2,500 dollars laying around and you love turntables then this baby is for you.




via: studiddope

Before I begin I want to give a big thanks to Tycho/ISO50 Blog and FITC for giving me the chance to see him perform with his band in San Francisco. The FITC event was a private party so to be able to attend you had to attend the FITC Conference or be one of the lucky winners on ISO50's giveaway guest list spots. Although I didn't go to the conference I would have liked to have seen Scott Hansen's seminar on his background, processes, and theory's along with some walk throughs and presentations of his recent work. I did however get the next best thing and that was seeing the new band play out. Tycho's band did a great job of capturing the sound that is Tycho but also giving it a different yet more unique feel to the music. Each member of the band gave off the right energy and vibe to keep the crowd moving while satisfying our ears with great music. Overall I have to say that I was very satisfied by the end of the night with the performance and the presentation of Tycho's music and visuals. I hope that many of you will get a chance in the future to check out his band's set. Lastly, I want to give another big thanks to Raoul Ortega who I meet last night for allowing me to use his photos from the event. Raoul has done work with Dusty Brown and Tycho before so it was cool of him to allow me to use his photos. My camera was not taking the best of pictures last night, however, it did do a good job on the videos that I took which can be viewed below. I used my Samsung TL220 camera. If you want to check out more of Raoul photography which you should then check out his Flickr account and his Website.