A Band Called Quinn

Posted on 7:08 PM by James | 0 comments


I conducted this email interview with Louise Quinn from the Glasgow-based A Band Called Quinn some time back. I was busy with MOCA at the time, and I never posted the interview. I thought this would be an opportune time for it since their new album Sun Moon Stars is coming out March 16 on Tromolo Neon Tetra Records. The single "The Glimmer Song" is currently available for download.

Let's start at the beginning. How did the band come about?
Bal and myself met after he saw me busking in Glasgow and realized I was his Uni mate's wee sister (my brother had been bugging him for months to let me sing with his band!) We met Robert through a legendary Glasgow band called V-Twin that just about everyone has been in at some point. Steve was a stunt bass player for our previous player who never returned.

If you have to describe to someone what your music sounds like, how would you do it?
It's like putting your head in a tumble dryer at a Psychedelic Launderette.

The band is located in Glasgow. What are the advantages of being there? What's the music scene in Glasgow like?
Glasgow is amazing for all things art and music. From The Pastels to Franz Ferdinand, everyone knows each other and inspires each other. It's very cold and wet most of the time so there's a lot of time to kill and making music is a perfect way of doing that!

I guess almost as a follow up to the last question, what are some of your favorite bands in the scene? Well, perhaps even bands that you're listening to, ones not necessarily based in Glasgow. What's currently on your iTunes playlist these days?
Fleet Foxes; The Shins; TV on the radio; Regina Spector; The Young Fathers, Mia and Fiest.

How did you become involved with Kid Loco?
Bal was recording a record for The Pastels - Katrina sings "Love Me Sweet" on A Grand Love Story. We were huge Kid Loco fans so we got his address from them and sent him Inbetween Worlds and asked him to remix "Rising Star." Next thing he flew me over to Paris to sing on "Kill Your Darlings." Around that time Madonna was shopping for a French producer and expressed an interest in working with Kid Loco but he decided to come over to Glasgow and record Luss with us instead!

You have supported for the B-52s and Blondie. What were those experiences like?
Incredible; Blondie were the reason I wanted to be in a band and Debbie Harry is a total Goddess. It was amazing to see them perform all those classics live. I met Kate Pearson after we supported The B-52s; I think she has one of the best voices in the history of rock and I love her style. She said she thought we sounded great - made my life!

You have a new album slated for release soon. Can you maybe talk a little bit about it?
Sun Moon Stars is the culmination of the band's live experience. We started a night club in Glasgow called Club Tromolo with badgers playing jazz and burlesque mediums. We'd have a surreal cabaret followed by ourselves; another Glasgow band and then dance floor crowd pleasers til 3am. This album captures a bit of the atmosphere of the club; a bunch of people getting together to forget the everyday stuff or put it on ice and strut your stuff.

I guess this question is a bit of a personal interest, but any chances of ABCQ coming to perform Stateside? Perhaps doing some sort of American Invasion tour?
We'd love to perform Stateside; we have a lot of support there - who knows; maybe [this] year we'll arrive in town with Jazz Badger and The Govan Seer in tow....

Corrections: I previously said above that Sun Moon Stars will be out on Tromolo Records. But after this interview was posted, Louise emailed me to let me know that my original information was incorrect because of a change to a new label. The album will now be released on Neon Tetra Records. I have also linked to the video for "The Glimmer Song." The HD version can be found here.

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Feed The Animals

Posted on 4:29 PM by James | 0 comments

Feed the Animals has been out for awhile. It's the current album by Girl Talk (Gregg Gillis). Since then people have been creating music video versions of the tracks. I thought I would post all of them here for your enjoyment. Feed the Animals is meant to be listened as one long track. There is a list of the samples here.


Play Your Part (Pt. 1)


Shut the Club Down


Still Here


What It's All About


Set It Off


No Pause


Like This


Give Me a Beat


Hands in the Air


In Step


Let Me See You


Here's the Thing


Don't Stop


Play Your Part (Pt. 2)

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Kinky

Posted on 3:51 PM by James | 0 comments

fonda

My favorite band from Monterrey, Mexico is coming to Los Angeles this Tuesday. Their new album, Barracuda, is now available on iTunes. The physical CD is out on the day of the show. It seems like they have an album out almost every year. But that's just fine by me. I like hardworking musicians.

I saw them at the House of Blues in Anaheim last year. They are also playing there again on Wednesday. I didn't understand how the friend I had taken along wasn't into their music. Everyone that I have introduced the band to have all become fans.

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Kindle 2

Posted on 11:22 AM by James | 0 comments



I buy books constantly. You can say I am addicted to printed matters. I've said this here many times before. But one of the things I hate about books is the storage issue. I am overflowing with volumes and volumes of books I've accumulated over the years. To the point now that I am trying to slow down on purchases.

When I was using my Palm T|X, I was using the eReader to read some public domain ebooks. Most I obtained from Project Gutenberg. The problem came when I wanted to get new books. Their ebook store didn't have the books that I wanted to read.

The same is true with the MobiPocket Reader on my new Blackberry Storm. The reading experience with the UI is wonderful. But selection continues to be the main problem for me.

This seems to be less true with the Amazon Kindle. However, not all of my authors and subjects are available.

I'd love to be able completely transition to digital copies for the books that I read. Sort of the same way I did with my music several years ago. I rarely purchase a copy of a CD anymore. The same is starting to be true with movies as well.

The main deterant for buying a Kindle is the price. I'm not sure if I'm ready for a $350 purchase on an ebook reader. Especially when I still won't be able to get every single electronic version of all the books I will be purchasing.

But I am keeping my eyes on it. When I think the time is right, I may end up jumping it. But I have a feeling it won't be for awhile yet. And I think it's for the same reasons why the music industry was reluctant to enter the digital download market. The book publishers are all slowly coming on board. I'm sure there will be a day when you can find a digital copy of everything you'll ever want to read.

Aside from when you want something by The Beatles.

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M•A•C Hello Kitty

Posted on 8:47 PM by James | 0 comments


This commercial for the Hello Kitty line from M•A•C Cosmetics has just the right mixture of the weird and disturbing for me to be into it.

M•A•C Cosmetics has teamed up with Sanrio Global Consumer Products to create a Hello Kitty color cosmetics collection.

The line will arrive on M•A•C’s Web site Feb. 10, in North American stores on Feb. 12 and into overseas stores in March.

“M•A•C has been mining pop culture since the brand was founded,” said John Demsey, group president of the Estée Lauder Cos. Inc. “This is a sexy and innocent fashion line, and a true M•A•C moment. In these times, everyone can use a little fun — and a little Kitty.”

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Packaging Design: Shefa Young Wine

Posted on 2:42 PM by James | 1 comments

Shefa Young Wine
Shefa, originally uploaded by dklimke.

Last month my friend Matt and I got together for a night of dvd's at my house. We went to the local supermarket and played a game. We decided each to purchase a bottle of wine based on the aesthetic of the labels. The result wasn't too bad.

I wonder how these wine by Shefa are like. Because the packaging is beautiful. It's designed by Nine99design from Israel.

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Bon Anniversaire

Posted on 8:59 PM by James | 0 comments

I've really let this passed very quietly. But this past Sunday, February 15 was the fourth anniversary of this blog. When I first started I didn't really have much expectations. To this day I still don't. I started this blog almost as a hobby. Something I do for fun. That's how I've operated ever since.

This blog has never been about saying something profound or important. It has never been about gaining a wide readership. And in a lot of ways it didn't start out to cover only the arts. From the very beginning I set its parameters as wide as possible. This was to give me the freedom to say what I wanted to say. But since I'm involved in the arts, the posts naturally gravitated toward that subject.

If you read the original post from February 15, 2005, there was definitely a sense of all this self-awareness. Back then I used to write more. But over the years, as I branched out to images, and then videos, the writings became less and less. The blog became more about not what I had to say, but the things I discovered in the real world and on the World Wide Web. It has become a space where I share things I find interesting. Albeit with full knowledge that not everyone will have the same attachments to them.

And truthfully I have never been the best blogger. There are periods of time when I went without posts for weeks on end. Much like in the last couple of months. The post a couple of days ago was what I said to my friend Susie from the Pomona's Art Colonists. I think most bloggers will not admit a fact like that, but we all go through periods where we have nothing to say. Or we stop blogging simply because life takes us on a whirlwind that writing a post is the last thing on our minds.

In that first post, one of the things I talked about was this connection blogging has to the zine culture. Most zinesters I remembered following didn't really followed a set schedule for publication. But I do remember, when I noticed that a new issue was being listed in Factsheet Five, how excited I was. Most comic book artists I discovered in those years continue to operate in this way. Sometime a couple years will pass before I see something new from them. But when I do it is always a gem. Blogging seems to have this timestamps on it. Mainly because of its immediacy. And because of this we expect continued postings from the bloggers.

I have been thinking lately about what will happen to this blog in the future. For awhile now I've locked in the domain name for this blog. I never really pointed to it. But in the back of my head I've always been considering hosting this blog on my own server. I've been looking into WordPress installs and customizing the templates. Perhaps it's time I truely come up with a design for this blog. All the previous incarnations I've never really been happy with. The current one is servicable.

But I think this won't happen for awhile yet. I've found nice tutorials on migrating from Blogger to WordPress. I will consider this project another hobby to fill my time. I am gettng better and better with CSS by the day, but I am in no way a guru. Whenever I'm ready, you'll hear about the changes.

I have to say I am still very surprised to hear that there are people who actually follow my blog. If you happened to be one of those individuals, I really have to say I appreciate your readership. I may not always be consistent, but I do promise you continued posts. Hopefully for many more years to come.

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Lykke Li

Posted on 6:11 PM by James | 0 comments


Back in November my friend asked me if I wanted to go to this show. I have to be honest and tell you that I wasn't really familiar with her music aside from the one or two songs I've heard on the radio. But since I don't mind going out to live shows even if I don't know the bands, I said yes.

So last night, a couple of my girlfriends and I headed out to the Glass House to see her perform. Now I understand why people like her music. It's catchy elctropop. And I am always a sucker for that.

The above video has her perform a cover of A Tribe Called Quest's Can I Kick It? It was the final encore song, and I have to say a really nice way to end the show.

This was my first show of 2009. It has actually been several months since my last one. Partly because I became quite busy toward the end of last year.

Maybe it's because I've been out of it for awhile, but after this show was over, I felt incredibly tired. I've promised myself I won't do weekdays shows anymore. But I did buy ticket for The Airborne Toxic Event. And that's on a Thursday night.

Truthfully, do you keep any of your New Year resolutions?

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Out To Lunch

Posted on 6:09 PM by James | 0 comments



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