Free(?) Tunes

Looking for some new tunes to listen to while I work I decided to try a "free music" tag search experiment on bandcamp (by "new" i mean new to me!). I thought I'd share what I found. Some are no longer free to download, though I hope that shouldn't stop people from forking out a few quid for what you like. I should point out, I in no way condone illegally downloading music. Things like bandcamp are great for people to get their music out there, but at the end of the day, music is something many of us get huge amounts of joy and inspiration from and it requires a great deal of work, effort and time. If you like any of these bands and can afford to support them, please do. Anyway, if you're interested in discovering bands you may not have heard (or genres - throw pop, boxwave, swag-core?), here's a few note-worthy ones I came across;


Overhead, The Albatross - Instrumental, alt rock, little touches of electronica. Think Thank Thunk is a pretty good track, sort of starts off Rachel's meets Rednecks ends up around Amusement Parks on Fire/Explosions in the Sky. (Ed.Had these guys stuck down at the bottom, then listened to the track again. It's a goodie.);

Battle Ave. - Maybe just cause he sounds like he's crying and needs a hug. I'm a sucker for the emotion and a bit of feedback. Souled American's sense of genuine melancholy with Clap Your Hands/Shaky Hands style jangly indie rock. But with crashier cymbals. Pay what you want. I went for $4. 

Paws Genesis - Quite like this, ambient electronica, few beats, few melodies. Has that homemade, layered sampler pedal feel. Reminds me of Quality Fellow Sunburnt Jets. Freaky crying baby on Sleeping Song though, what's that about. Bought.

Grand Lake - This is pretty good. Folky, indie stuff, with that 60s vibe like a lot of whats going around these days. But I approve.

Air Cushion Finnish/Lichen Yes. This is my kind of stuff. Improvised, ambient, guitar-based electronica. Unfortunately the "free" tag was for "free improvisation", but I think I'll be handing over a bit of money for some of this.

Anez -  Eh....Soundtrack for a 1950's Hungarian sci-fi film about clowns from space? I actually downloaded this one. That's how I roll.

The Ugly Club - Uptempo straight indie rock. Decent tunes, not really my thing, but easy on the brain. Maybe if you're into the Strokes/Kings of Leon.



Other tunes;

Rupert Lally - The free download was Growing Up On Mars, but I linked the album Process, I think its a bit more interesting. Overall I don't like it, but some pretty cool sounds in there, few nice drones and ambiences. If he kept it striped back a bit, left out the cheesy distorted synth sounds, maybe. Intro to Process and Ampexia are nice though. After that it's pretty europop.

Scottish Fiction - Some very nice tracks. Compilation of various Scottish artists.

My Body Sings Electric - I used to have a secret love of My Chemical Romance and the surrounding pop punk scene, in a "If I were 16 again I'd totally be an emo" sort of way. I think I was cheated on that one, generation-wise. We were just coming out of a mix of grunge and goth, heading into boy bands and brit pop. It wasn't a great time aesthetically for youth culture. Not that there ever is... I digress. No shortage of this kind of music, but if you're into it, this is pretty decent, solid indie punk. Some very Incubus style guitar melodies and arrangements;

Ben k Adams Feels a bit forced. Sort of Boards of Canada, Xploding Plastic, but not quite as interesting. He has loads of other stuff on there though, so could be worth a look. You'll Die Regretting Everything is a good track with some pretty cool sample choices.


I'm getting through a lot of bands here, so I think I'll leave it at that and do another post later. Let me know if anyone is interested in this post. I don't use this blog any more, but I might as well put it to some use.

I no longer update this blog with art things. Check Facebook for that.

Shop updates and Inspiration

I've a few new watercolours available in the shop, it'd be awful neat if you checked it out;




Kaiser caimo's work has long been of strong influence over my own painting. But its worth visiting her tumblr for the writing as much as the art, which is concise but always eloquent and interesting.

She's also been introducing me to Alan Lomax, who spent his career making field recordings of folk songs. If you're a fan of delta blues and have an hour of nothing to do, here's a video. I particularly like this clip.

I have the utmost respect for people who's work involves great time and patience and skill. As well as presenting such discipline, this is also just a beautifully shot video.

Documentário Helen Rödel - Estudos MMXI (english subtitles) from Helen Rödel on Vimeo.

Check out these beautiful drawings from Sarah Kirk, her blog is here.



via illustration mundo

Inspiration: Amy Cutler, Kristen Bjornerud, Cherri Wood

amy cutler

I'm a big fan of this style of painting, that minimal but finely detailed contemporary folk. It makes me want to go have sketching days in Chester Beatty library.

Blog of the week, A billion tastes and tunes, led me to amy cutler (above) and kristen bjornerud (below). Great stuff.



Love this. Cherri Wood's blog;

trust us, originally uploaded by cherri wood.

and this is pretty amazing by myeongbeom kim;


(via artistaday)

Inspiration

First off, an update on the Red Cross sale, in aid of the people of Japan.

• €340 raised so far
• thanks to people who've been able to donate, and for anyone who's blogged about it (like mr euphiophone) or mentioned it on twitter and facebook.
  
• there are still a few available, and i'll still be continuing to add to it.
• i read an article about the importance of bullet-points. i can't remember what it said or where i read it. but i think my life would benefit from any form organisation
  

Twitter (specifically Myloveforyou) led me to a few art and photo blogs which i've been enjoying. check them out;
brown paper bag
how to make a baby elephant float
cusiousities & clockwork

and from artistaday;
not a huge realism fan, but Julio Reyes drawings and paintings are stunning.


Ruben Ireland has some lovely lovely illustrations (you can also find him here and here);



in other news, i put a linkwithin widget for the foot of each post, showing "You might also like" suggestions from the blog. it seems to makes no sense and the suggestions have little to do with the orignal post... but that may be my lack of organisational skills again.

Inspiration: Yeji Yun, Frank Gonzales, Lizzie Thomas

Very much liking Yeji Yun's illustration. Check out her Portfolio pdf. Lots of great images and detail and stories packed into her work.





Frank Gonzales's bird paintings are BEAUTIFUL. and i'm quite fond of his studio too;



lastly, love this drawing by Lizzie Thomas;

Islands, bears and marco wagner

growing increasingly fond of framing mount offcuts as drawing paper. the bevelled edges give the images a nice framed finish. i doubt the card would be great for acrylic or oils (though i'll be giving it a go), but they're perfect for drawing and light inks and watercolours.



put some new pictures up for sale on etsy. the laboured error series. there around the $44 to $60 mark pricewise (in euro, that's about €35 to €50). 50% of the sales go to the Gulf Restoration Network.




Also, been admiring the lovely work of Marco Wagner. Beautiful stuff. You must check out his paintings.

baby birch

i've had joanna newsom's sawdust and diamonds on a pretty consistent repeat since the summer. like much of her music, there's a wonderful mixture of childhood fairy tale and honest hardship, with a measure and manner that, for me, transcends notions of "song" or "musician" or "artist" and just lies comfortably in the undefinable. and where its not meant to simply entertain, but requires time and attention. its a quality in which i always hope to develop in my own work, especially with emily's story. which is why i'm mentioning it here. i would generally find a great deal of inspiration in music. but i don't think there's anything else i've listened to lately that makes me want to simultaneously pick up a guitar, a pen and a brush, with equal eagerness. in days of random playlists and the background drone of headphones (a habit in which i'm continually guilty of indulging) i find great joy in doing nothing else but simply listening to her music. lately baby birch has been the one to take many welcomed 10 minute chunks of my day. in fact, i was going to post some pictures, but instead i'm going to listen to it again now. with full attention....

atem books and no culture icons

booooooom has a giveaway on their facebook page from atem books of work by maria mantella. lovely looking books on the site. also quite fond of daniel mendoza and cendrine rovini's drawings. particularly like cendrine's work;



also, after some googling and link hopping, came across no culture icons, a collective of illustrators and artists, including the three mentioned above. i've only made it through m - z so far, but some really interesting work in there, worth a little exploration.

i was supposed to be doing some work, wasn't i....

Need Input

thought i might go for an old inspiration post.

i've mentioned her before, but liking ilex's latest tracks. an album will be awesome.

itstormy out there by ilex_

lovely post on But Does It Float of dan slavinsky pics, check it out. but through that wonderfully endless word of hypertext i was also led to Moonriver, not the song, but quite a nice art blog with a very promising "places i folllow" section, which i'm working my way through. for now though...

meant to mention evan harris before. lovely vibe to his work, like old fairy tales and folklore. and i have equal appreciation towards his attitude ; "Most would cringe at the idea of scratching or sanding something they spent hours upon hours painting, but that’s Evan’s favorite part- creating the appearance that this wasn’t made in the 21st century, maybe in the 20th. So, behind every scratch and claw mark, there is a story to tell."



lastly, i'm not sure why, but this has long been a favourite painting. heather horton;

The expendable adventures of emily

with hopeful purpose to focus my head toward the telling of stories, particularly that of our dear friend emily, i'm going to give myself a weekly deadline to post some form of comic/graphic story. there are no real specifics, it may be a single panel or series of pages, with or without text, they mightn't even have anything to do with emily, or bear any relevence to the over-lying story of hers that i'd like to tell, they just have to have something that resembles a narrative. i'm not good with structure or communications, so its really just for my own sake to train my brain towards embracing the idea of beginnings and endings. main problem with telling emily's story is that she does very little. a great deal of sitting, waiting, remembering. of course some days are more memorable than others...




(obviously this merely hints at the intense emotional opera magna to come...)

while we're on the subject.... thanks to a new graphic novel section in monaghan library, recently been reading stories by adrian tomine and guy delisle, and skim by mariko and jillian tamaki. adrian's books, "shortcomings" and "sleepwalk", i would especially recommend, whether you're a fan of graphic novels or not. "sleepwalk" is full of these short stories that are really simple on the surface but packed with meaning. he has an amazing way of dealing with the more sober anxieties and idiosynchracies of human relationships.

and from a regular source of inspiration, fallen fliers.

Independents Day 2010

Taking part in Independents Day 2010, an independent zines, and records fair on Sunday Nov 7th, in Newmarket Square. will have a stall and taking part in an art exhibition on the day. should be pretty cool!


also, if you haven't come across them before, check out Herakut. i think their work is amazing;

time for hibernation?

doesn't seem like i've been updating the site as regular as i'd like. but then i haven't been getting much work done. i'd resolved to use as little motorised transport as possible at the beginning of the year but in the last few months i seem to be on bus journeys every third day. its sort of depressing me. and not cooking my own dinners, buying crap imported food in centras (how hard is it to grow a bloody apple in ireland...) and sleeping on people's couches. feel like hibernating for the winter. try and finish some projects piling up in my head. i've also let the Gulf fund slide. I wasn't getting much interest or feedback, but I haven't been giving it the attention it deserves, I'll put something up tomorrow for it. The Laboured Error series, I had hoped to exhibit somewhere and have half the proceeds go to the GRN, but knowing my usual artistical agoraphobia, i might just sell them through the site.

Excuse the dreary tone. I'm a little knarky this week. so here's some good things;

this book looks amazing. so so pretty; I WONDER

I had never heard of Lu Cong before. shame on me. Check out his stunning portraits. And some lovely line drawings on his Flickr page.

here's some sketchbook things from the weekend;




playing with Bouts in Twisted Pepper for HWCH on Saturday night. It's part of the festival, so for anyone planning on going, you'd need to get a ticket. practice is going well, should be a good night. can't remember last time i played on a stage...

i'm now going to do some painting to the sound of the new Threadpulls album.

Bitter sweet

There's always something bitter sweet about infographics. Aesthetically, done well, i find them beautiful. but the noteworthy ones more often than not tend to relate very disturbing statistics. Here's one, found on GOOD. I've lately been reducing my use of plastic, which for me is primarily with food packaging, for several reasons. This is just one;



Juka Araikawa, via booooooom. I find these paintings strangely beautiful. It's not a style I'd normally go for (though feel myself heading towards) but something feels very right with her work.


as with this. grizzly bear. continues it's rolling around my mind.

And here's a lovely project by Caitlin Parker, featured on the ever reliable My Love For You;

4 Minute Excerpt from Caitlin Parker on Vimeo.

Inspiration

I haven't been posting much of other people's work lately. must remedy that. so, here's some things i've been enjoying this week;

first off, really liking vicki hartman's house sculptures. lovely simple shapes, something very reassuring about how solid they feel. plus i love how they're half sculpture, half canvas to these minamalist drawings. anyway, have a look.


There was a great series of work by Escif and Hyuro on Unurth about a week ago. Lovely stuff;


if you haven't already, download Low Flying Crow by Sunburnt Jets, latest creative output of Colin Boylan. He never fails to write the most delicious melodies and doing only interesting things with them. So far, personal favourite has to be Look Who's Laughing Now.


and lastly, some wise words from the most delightful and gorgeous of men :)

I also haven't posted a Gulf Fund picture in a while (I took a week off from communication a week ago, so I'm a bit behind with my interwebular duties), so I'll get one posted in a few days.

EFII - Share Your Illustration

There's a share your illustration feature over on escape from illustration island.

These are my personal favourites;

Jeannie Phan (some awesome stuff on her site)



Zelda Devon



and Jeannie Paske (who's been in my little inspiration pile for some time)


check out their sites for more lovely work on them.

Outside world

and catching up on some other peoples blogs and new works.

Stephane Tartelin did a lovely series for Elle magazine, check it out here


Check out Colin Boylan's track and chat over on Second Square to None's strings series. Really lovely stuff. That guy is awesome.

unurth usually have some pretty cool street art on their site, but this is particularly awesome.


loving geninne's blog. nice stylish collages, simple images but wonderful colour and composition and i absolutely adore her daily planner;


listening to caribou.

Craww

yesterday, i came across Craww's work at anewspace. they've a few lovely giclee prints of his in the shop. anyway, check out his work, it's beautiful. nice blog too.


totally wanna get my watercolours out...i've a few new sketches which i'm a little excited about. might post some later.

pretty pretty pictures

slightly hung over but caffeinated enough to function, there's little else to be doing on a sunday afternoon but look at lovely pictures. i happened upon leBasse Projects this morning. lots of brilliant artists, a handful i'd never seen before. particularly like andrew hem;



check out his brilliant gallery.
and while you're at it, linda kim, kevin earl taylor and yoskay yamamoto;


feel inspired to get my oils out. if my brain starts functioning later i might give my site a well needed overhaul....i can't honestly see that happening today though...

tran nguyen

deviantart is an awfully time-consuming space to wander through. once you start going through peoples "favourites" collections, whole evenings go by unnoticed.

can't remember where i first saw her work, but i happened again upon the lovely paintings by tran nguyen earlier, and they're just so good. love when you see someone's work and you immediately want to just create things. any thing!


oh, and here's her deviantart page.

considering balance

very excited about brian cox's new program starting on bbc this weekend, wonders of the universe. he's a professor at CERN, who does the odd podcast and video tour, here's a particularly interesting one that i recommend giving a listen, where he talks with The Very Reverend Victor Stock; science and religion.

and for TED fans, here's his talk on the LHC.


while we're on the science theme, found this earlier; math for adults with steven strogatz. awesome!

anyway, pictures! in various stages of completion... going for pen, chalk and watercolour on A3 at the mo.