Christmas Time

Merry freaking Christmas. I'm off to the pub for the next few days.

By the way, the below festive picture, is a 'light drawing' designed by a dude called Nils Voelker. It's a long story, involving robots. Here's a video of how it's done.

Kid Cudi on Conan

The Year In Culture

So, I've just got around to leafing through the 'new' issue of the Skinny (Wounded Knee is in it by the way), and it's inspired me to do a wee round-up of the year.

As you well know, the music side of things have been wrapped up already over at Elba, so I'll stick to other stuff.

Favourite Film of 2009 - I didn't watch any new films this year. Trainspotting is still good but.
Favourite Actor of 2009 - Him From Corrie With The Googly Eyes
Favourite Actress of 2009 - Kelly MacDonald
Favourite TV show 2009 - River City
Favourite Historical Figure 2009 - Robert the Bruce
Favourite Former Robot Wars Contestants 2009 - Robot the Bruce
Favourite I'm A Celebrity.... Contestant 2009 - Justin
Favourite New York-Based Post-Punk Legend of 2009 - David Byrne
Favourite TV Chef of 2009 - Gordon Ramsay
Favourite Footballer 2009 - Jason Scotland
Favourite Genre of Pie of 2009 - Scotch
Favourite Genre of Egg of 2009 - Scotch
Favourite Genre of Whisky 2009 - Scotch
Favourite Genre of Tape 2009 - Scotch
Favourite Genre of Mist 2009 - Scotch

That clears that up then eh?

I Vote Creed

Yeah, so pushing the 'Best shit of the year', 'Best shit of the decade' thing to the edge of sanity is the usually-credible Rhapsody blog.

They've weighed in with their Best Christian Album of the Decade, which you can shake your head in disbelief at right here!! Either it's satirical genius, or extreme stupidity.

El Baño

Whats up.

For the past few weeks, the guys over at Elba have been compiling the Elba Annual, a bunch of 'Best Of' lists from some interesting characters.

Well, today's special guest is...me.

Check it using this very link.

Twitter Round-Up

It's been a while since I posted up the highlights from our Twitter page, so here goes:

'California English Part2', by Vampire Weekend, which is the B-side to current single Cousins.
Click here

Some quite nice trainers - Nike Air Maxim +1 ND (via Freshness blog)
Click here

Lego wallet, designed by Colorbynumbers (via Designboom). I think 'pretty cool', everyone else thinks 'pretty camp'.
Click here

New Liars tune, Scissors (via Pitchfork)
Click here

RZA decides to mark the 20th anniversary of his career in the music biz by launching a slightly weird art project, seemingly based around him releasing a limited edition of 360 original prints
Click here

Monsterpiece Theatre Presents.....Twin Beaks
Click here

High-quality recording of Fox Gut Daata performing live at Concrete Streets, Dundee
Click here

Interesting 'Year in Names' type of article from Philip Sherburne (via Rhapsody)
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Why I love e-commerce
Click here

New Vans Vault Mocassin Chukkas. Pretty sweet. (via Format)
Click here

DJ set from The Field (via Allez-Allez).
Click here

Filthy Motherfuckers

Is it just me or is there a lot of NSFW music videos cutting about these days? From that Lust for Life by Girls, to Paradise Circus by Massive Attack to Yeasayer's Ambling Alps (and, also, there was that harrowing incident with Kevin Barnes that I don't even want to link to, thank you very much) there's been a lot of filth in 2009.

Which leads a brother to wonder whether there was something in the water.

Or, more accurately, it probably just points to the fact that most artists are now relying solely on the internet for publicity and promotion, and can now follow their artistic instincts to their logical (or illogical) conclusions, rather than worry about what will or won't be able to get aired on MTV etc. Maybe I'm over-thinking things. Maybe 3D just wants to see some more tits in his videos, the dirty bastard.

To prove my point, here's the new video from Raekwon, Pyrex Vision, which was taken from his latest long-player Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Part II. The very-much NSFW video features some homey-seeming ladies cooking up drugs. Lovely.

City Hopper

Yeah, I missed my first ever 'Music Monday' deadline. So, here's a Music Monday post, on a Tuesday. Fuck you I won't do what you tell me etc etc.

So, this week, it's not a new artist, but just a new song by a fairly well-known artist.

City Hopper is the first single to come from Joker's upcoming album (I think - I'm not sure - he's un-fucking-Googleable). It's full of big shiny synth riffs, and standard stuttery drum-patterns. I've really enjoyed what Joker's been up to this year (here's a wee mix he did for Rinse) as I'd been getting a bit bored of dubstep and wonky and funstep and glumstep, so it's just nice that someone's having a sort of new and cleaned up version of it.

Temperatures

I'm going to introduce a Music Monday type of thing. Simply because it's Monday and I'm going to write a bit about music. And also to convince myself to write here more often, and maybe get a wee bit more meat on the blog bones.

So, Temperatures, then eh?

Temperatures are a guitar and drums duo from England (I can't be more specific, since information is pretty thin on the ground) comprised of a guy called James and a guy called Peter. They've got a new record, Eksra, out this week on Ultramarine Records. It's an unhinged abstract noise record (they're so 'noise' in fact, that Thurston Moore is a fan), with lots of rumblings and mumblings. The vast majority of their output sound like it's been recorded underwater, with plenty of screeching feedback and mysterious obscured vocals (the vocals, as well as the flailing jazzy drumming, actually remind me of Vars of Litchi). Which should make them a fairly standard noise duo, but they're actually quite hypnotic and nice. Dark, but nice. Just have a listen. There are two free , untitled, tracks from their latest long player right here.

Diddy On The Shopping Network

WTF!

NOMA

A couple of interesting new releases from NOMA, out now on Kovorox; The Improvers of Mankind (KOVO-45), Mara (KOVO-46), Lenticular Thoughts(KOVO-47) and Hung By The Hair....The Music For (KOVO-48). You can buy them right here or, I'm assuming, the 'local noise' section in Monorail.

NOMA is a noise/drone artist from Glasgow who puts good use to anything to hand, such as razors, hairdryers (as heard on his Hairdryer Trio 1998 piece) and fans. Although he mostly performs and records solo, he has collaborated with other sick dudes such as Opaque, Rejectamenta and Black Sun.

Twitter Round-Up

Hm.....

So, I've been on holiday this week, so basically, the Twitter has been pretty quiet. Sorry.

For what it's worth, here's the Tweets:

Interview with champion dubstep guy Kode9 (via Pitchfork):
Click here

Sozawe Offices in Groningen, Holland, designed by NL Architects (via ArchDaily):
Click here

MP3 download: Wale - 'Beast':
Click here

So, uhm, yeah...sparse. Oops.

School of Saatchi

Watched the School of Saatchi last night; what a bizarre show.

On one hand, the idea of a talent show based around actual talent is quite alluring, but as usual, the contestants were all jazzy-handed messy-haired wankers. Apart from Suki, the sweet lassy with the slightly rubbish video installation that looked like a screensaver. It isn't really a surprise that they're tools since it is, essentially, a televised talent content. But still....

Also, to complicate things, Charles Saatchi (or to give him his full name: The Reclusive Enigmatic King-Maker Charles Saatchi) doesn't actually appear on camera! Which means that we're treated to his wee sycophantic assistant starting every sentence with 'Well Charles thinks....', and brilliantly, having a conversation with him on her mobile and sitting there saying 'yeah.....hm....uh huh....sure......yeah' as if she's talking to the banker on Deal or No Deal. It's ridiculous!

Like, I'll be watching next week. Some of the stuff they made was quite interesting if you just block out the idiots that made it. Oh, and Tracy Emin is fucking fantastic; my favourite new TV personality. She shouted at a guy for painting a wheel in his installation yellow and green! She was fucking furious! I thought she was going to lamp him.

I have no real way to wrap this wee bit up; I thought I'd just share my thoughts. Bye.

Episode 1 is on the iPlayer right here.

Stay High

I was just sent these photos by a friend of mine.

She doesn't know who did it, or where it is.

All I know is that someone has tagged a plane. Impressive.

Twitter Round-Up

Here's the highlights of what's been happening on our Twitter:

Fly recycled metal sneakers, created by Gabriel Dishaw (via Design Boom)
Click here

Lil Wayne's new mixtape No Ceilings has leaked.
Click here

Nice chilled dub mix right here by Silent Servant (via mnml ssgs blog)
Click here

Leica M7 Hermes Edition 35mm camera (via Highsnobiety):
Click here

Clipse - Popular Demand, feat. Cam'ron (via Blind I):
Click here

Steckelhorn 11 office building, Hamburg, designed by J Mayer H Architects (via wejetset)
Click here

Sweet new BBC t-shirt marking their Tokyo store's 4th anniversary; it has a dinosaur on it
Click here

Nike Sportswear Magma AC Quickstrike (via Slamhype):
Click here

Hiroki Tanabe: O Project (RT from Designboom)
Click here

Follow us on Twitter right here

Feltus Feltus

The last time I went off to the Arches for a visual art exhibition, it was a bit of a mixed bag. The exhibition, Chris Coleman-Smith's Burnt and Charred Surfaces, was a collection of 8 photographs, each sampled from, you guessed it, the remains of recently burnt buildings, which was actually an interesting insight into the past of the buildings. Now, given the sort of building that the Arches is (large, nooked, crannied) there was a real potential to make this a great exhibition.

But the works were just papped up in the weird lobby space, off the main reception, hanging off the walls like those creepy paintings of dogs that hang up in the waiting area of dentists. (Shit like this). Worse still, was that because I went during my lunch hour, about 1 o clock, I had to clamber between groups of people slurping lattes and talking about the previous nights edition of Coronation Street. It was just a fucking mess basically.

So, it was with definite trepidation that I went off this afternoon to see the new Feltus Feltus show, Two Gentlemen.

The exhibition, like Coleman-Smith's, was a collection of photography presented, rather unceremoniously, in the dimly-lit lobby area. Happily, the crowd were downstairs in the cafe bar, which meant that I was able to gawp away to my heart's content at the works. Which were alright I suppose. The main focus of the show was the juxtaposition (yeah? YEAH!) of the inner-self and the fabricated exterior, which meant that we were offered plenty of bizarre theatrics and psuedo-religious imagery (one piece in particular actually dropped the 'psuedo-' part and went all out, casting the Feltus brothers are deliberately terrifying bishops). Actually, the deadpan eccentricity and dark undertones only served to remind me of how good a film Roy Andersson's We, The Living is. Like I said, the exhibition was OK; nothing to get particularly excited about.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of the Arches; it's a great venue for club nights and they have a decent enough booking policy. Likewise a great, and innovative, theatre venue. I just think that 'One Of Europe's Leading Arts Venues' shouldn't really be squandering the potential of the fairly solid visual arts exhibitions that they book.

Dame Dash On Roc-A-Fella

Interesting video of Dame Dash talking about the ROC empire, and all the main players in it's rise.

Highlight: 'Those French don't fuck wit anybody.'



(video via mixtapemonster)

Seaton House

Oh hey.

Look! Frieze have decided to post an online version of a good article! Ususally the good shit is just for subscribers.

Douglas Coupland, that Canadian novellist dude, has granted Frieze access to his plush pad Seaton House, which he and his partner use partly as a second home and partly as an exhibition space for some of Coupland's own artworks.

Full article right here.

Lara Favaretto

The Tramway have uploaded a great free podcast to tie in with the Lara Favaretto exhibition which is on at the moment in the Tramway 2 space.

The installation is made up of kinetic sculptures (count how many times the presenter of the podcast uses that term), the central themes of which are disintegration and general glumness.

More info here, and download the podcast here.