I regularly pick up each issue of IDN but rarely dig into the DVD that’s included. The new issue, The Colour Issue, has quite a few great videos, but this one really caught my eye and led me to the work of Jarratt Moody. He’s got some very impressive video work on his site for Pepsi, Animal Planet, CNN and other clients. I really like the Wilson commercial (might just be a spec project but it’s impressive nonetheless) not only because of the visuals, but because my favorite Sigur Ros song is used for the music.

The Commonwealth, from International Designers Network Volume 16, Number 6

Wilson Commercial (Spec)

I caught the pilot episode for Fox’s new show, Human Target, last night and thought the intro sequence was really great. The music leaves a little to be desired, but visually it’s a stylish mix of what looks like digital water color and ink blot tests. Great collage feel overall; it might be one of the better intros for an action show in quite a while.

I found this over at QBN yesterday.  Apparently it was a competition to design new bank notes, as described on the Swiss National Bank web site:

As part of the planning process for the development of a new banknote series, a competition for the artistic design of the new banknote series was launched at the beginning of 2005. Twelve artists were invited to present their designs for all six denominations on the theme “Switzerland open to the world”. The jury met in November 2005 to evaluate the submissions and to decide on the winning designs. These were presented at a news conference in Berne on 23 November 2005. You can view them by clicking on the names of the individual designers.

Here are a few examples of the winning entries:

Some of then are very strange, such as this entry that looks like it was made with Microsoft Paint.

All results can be found here.

I’m currently watching a really great documentary on synthesizers in Britain that is an incredible look at the early days of synth-pop. As a kid I was hugely into Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, New Order, The Cure, and plenty of other UK bands that were using synths in their music, so this video is pretty much taking me down memory lane.

From the BBC web site:
In the late Seventies small pockets of electronic artists such as The Human League, Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle were inspired by Kraftwerk and J G Ballard to dream of the sound of the future against the backdrop of bleak, high-rise Britain.

Gary Numan’s 1979 appearance on Top Of The Pops heralded the invention of synthpop, which would provide the soundtrack as Britain entered a new, ruthless era in the Eighties.

Depeche Mode, four lads from Basildon, came to embody the new sound, while post-punk bands such as Ultravox, Soft Cell, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and Yazoo took the synth from the pages of the NME and onto the front cover of Smash Hits.

By 1983 the Pet Shop Boys and New Order were pointing to where the future of electronic music lay – in dance.

Contributors to Synth Britannia include Philip Oakey, Vince Clarke, Martin Gore, Bernard Sumner, Gary Numan and Neil Tennant.

For more information visit the BBC web site here.

A few weeks ago I finally upgraded to a new DSLR with a Nikon D90, something I’d been wanting to do all year. I’ve had a Panasonic Lumix TZ1 point-and-shoot since 2006 that has been a wonderful camera, taken some great vacation shots, and served me well at three Lollapaloozas with it’s 35-350mm range working perfectly when a DSLR isn’t allowed into the festival.

I’ve been really happy using the D90 so far and obviously I’m in love with this new versatility. So far I’ve got a Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 lens, and a Nikon 50mm F1.8. I’ve only had a few days and evenings to get around town and put it to use, but it’s great getting out and taking advantage of the lakefront, the great fall colors, the free Lincoln Park Zoo, and the downtown Chicago architecture. I’m definitely going to need a longer zoom at some point, though the 17mm wide angle of the Tamron is something I’m really enjoying. I’m looking forward to winter, lots of snow, and Lake Michigan freezing for some great landscape shots.

I’ve put up a gallery of some of the photos I liked most from the past two weeks. I’ll be adding to this here and there over the next few weeks.

Click here for photo gallery.

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Lollapalooza 2009 has come and gone, and it was another great weekend in Chicago full of the usual hot weather and great rock and roll. I was fortunate to once again have Guest passes from C3 Presents (Lollapalooza’s production company) and it made the weekend a pretty unforgettable event all the way around. This year, we discovered the “Fest Express” golf carts that took us from stage to stage along Lake Shore Drive, eliminating the need to trek back and forth through the crowds to rarely make the start time of a performance. One of my best friends and his girlfriend were up from Texas for the second year in a row, and we had an incredible time. I got to see plenty of my favorite bands, with White Lies being a huge highlight since I am terribly addicted to their debut album, To Lose My Life. I had stage access to about a dozen performances, allowing for some great photos and a much more up close and personal experience.

Nothing, however, beats my girlfriend randomly getting her arm signed by Snoop Dogg as we hung out in the Chicago 2016 backstage area after his show. He was surrounded by his security entourage, and was signing a few things for people while walking to a van. Even better, I got a photo of him while he was signing her arm. She’s got real street cred now!

Across all three days, I took in White Lies, Bon Iver, Crystal Castles, Thievery Corporation, Depeche Mode, Kings of Leon, Delta Spirit, Miike Snow, Atmosphere, Arctic Monkeys, Glasvegas, TV On The Radio, Lykke Li, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bat For Lashes, Kaiser Chiefs, The Raveonettes, Neko Case, Passion Pit, Cold War Kids, Snoop Dogg, The Killers, and Jane’s Addiction.

To view my photos from the festival, click the photos above, or click here. Enjoy!

White Lies are really one of my favorites out there right now. Infectiously good, great rhythms, great songs. Their set in the rain at Lollapalooza 2009 on Friday was one of my best moments of the festival.

Record label Ghostly International has just released perhaps the coolest and most unique iPhone music app ever. I just downloaded this to my phone today and have easily spent 3-4 hours today listening to some great selections from their catalog.

I came to know of Ghostly International through one of my favorite design and music blogs, iso50.com, which is the blog and portfolio of Scott Hansen. Scott is a musician on the Ghostly label, recording and releasing music under the name Tycho.  Scott and other blog contributors post a really great variety of music to the site, with quite a few Ghostly releases included here. The music covers a good range of electronic styles, and this is where the Discovery app really spreads it’s wings.

Using the selection screen pictured above, users choose a mood from the mood wheel, and can use a slider to blend the overall desired musical style. A custom streaming playlist from Ghostly’s catalog then appears based on these selections, and let’s just say I wasn’ t disappointed with a single thing I’ve listened to all day.

I’m not sure of any other record labels that have anything nearly as innovative as this (as far as apps are concerned) but this is certainly a model that could work for every label out there - though I think it serves its purpose best in something as wide-ranging as the electronic genre. I’m entirely impressed both with the creativity put into how it works, and the access to the label’s catalog. I doubt I would hear or discover 1/4 of the artists here if I were simply browsing their site.

I highly suggest downloading this app while it’s still free, but should they chose to charge for it I wouldn’t be dissapointed paying aroudn $5 for this. One catch: it appears to only work with a network connection, so you’ll need wi-fi to use it. My 3G connection would not allow the streaming service to begin.

As I always have with new Placebo albums, I was expecting something special. Meds, Sleeping With Ghosts, and Black Market Music were each consistently phenomenal albums, so naturally I expected Battle for the Sun to keep up that track record. Sadly, it does not. There is too much space; too much waiting for something to kick in. They have also grossly overused the soft/quiet formula here. The lyrics - usually a Placebo high point - feel very basic and lack the sense that a listener can really focus on them and do their best to figure out what Molko is singing about. Surprisingly, the loss of their longtime drummer in this current lineup really has nothing to do with the album’s shortcomings; the drumming is great, but overall the songs just aren’t there. I found myself watching each track queue up hoping something was about to blow my socks off, either sonically or melodically, but it never happens. I expected much more from such a great band. Honestly, I don’t think I can give this much more than a few listens.

The only song that really grabbed me was the very last track, In A Funk - apparently a bonus song on the itunes download. It’s wholly ironic that every song before this finds Placebo in exactly that.