Aww. This video for ‘Careless Teens’ by The Bilinda Butchers is really priddy and makes me yearn for a lazy sunny day where I can just do whatever I feel like. I discovered this band a couple of months ago when I first heard ‘The Lovers’ Suicide’, which also made me think of the weather. It was March and still snowing a lot in London, so it felt strangely appropriate to be listening to the lines: “Like a flower can’t bloom in the snow / We can’t hide, we can’t grow!”
Don’t you think that this video is almost like a lookbook for some kind of hipster fashion brand, like Wildfox or Cheap Monday, or something? When I saw it, I felt that it evoked a real girly ‘Tumblr’ aesthetic. Hopefully the maker of the video, Vanesa Capitaine, won’t be offended by that description – she does seem to use Tumblr a fair bit!
Posted in Beauty, Brands, Fashion, Film, Lifestyle, Music, Photography, Social Media, Writing
Tagged 2013, aesthetic, beauty, blogging, brand, Careless Teens, clothing, creativity, cute, dream pop, dreamy, fashion, feminine, film, fun, girly, indie, internet, lazy days, Leonie Cumiskey, London, lookbook, lyrics, media, music, music video, My Bloody Valentine, new music, photography, psychedelic, rainbow, seasons, shoegaze, social media, songs, style, summer sound, teenage girl, The Bilinda Butchers, Tumblr, USA, Vanesa Capitaine, video, Wildfox Couture, winter, writing, Youtube
HAERTS are female-fronted band of four guys and one girl, who hail from Brooklyn, New York. Their first single is a beautifully tender piece of lo-fi pop, set to a montage of home video-style clips. I’ve looked for other stuff by them, but this song is the only one I can find. I’m guessing that as it’s on Vevo, they are already on the brink of mainstream success. Judging by ‘Wings’, they sound pretty great and I hope the rest of their songs live up to expectations. Lead singer Nini Fabi’s vocals are sweet, but powerful – like a mixture of Gwen Stefani and Stevie Nicks.
This song is sort of what I was hoping for when I first listened to HAIM. Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed.
Posted in Culture, Film, Music, Writing
Tagged Americana, Ben Gebert, Brooklyn band, childhood, cinematography, creativity, Derek McWilliams, entertainment, female vocalist, Garrett Ienner, gritty, Gwen Stefani, HAERTS, Haerts band, HAIM, harmonies, home movies, home video, indie, Jonathan Schmidt., Leonie Cumiskey, lo-fi, love song, memories, music, music video, New York, Nini Fabi, nostalgia, opinion, pop, romance, small town America, Stevie Nicks, summer sound, sunshine, sweet, tender, USA, video, video montage, yearning, Youtube
Wow. This song appears to be over a year old, but I’ve only just heard it and it’s brilliant. I was looking for the original Bauhaus version when I discovered this one and – without wanting to sound disdainful towards MGMT – I was pretty surprised at what a good job they’d done of covering it. Don’t get me wrong, I really like MGMT, but they’re not exactly the kind of band that you listen to and then think: “Yeah, I can tell they’re big fans of Bauhaus.”
Better still, this exquisite video by Ned Wenlock really complements the track and conveys the song’s melancholy lyrics.
Posted in Design, Film, Music, Writing
Tagged 2D, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, Andrew VanWyngarden, animation, Bauhaus, Ben Goldwasser, bleak, blogging, cityscape, cool, cover, cover version, creative, creativity, cute, design, digital arts, factory, factory town, goth, illustration, indie, industrial, Leonie Cumiskey, media, MGMT, motion graphics, music, music and art, music video, Peter Murphy, SAD, snow, song, sweet, typography, UK, urban landscape, video, Vimeo
This video for Still Corners’ new single ‘Berlin Lovers’ is lovely. It was directed by Christian Sorensen Hansen and reminds me a bit of Christiane F, but without the heroin. Imagine that Christiane F. and Detlev are a lot more innocent – just two regular teens who don’t inject smack into their veins, or give strangers handjobs for drug money – and this is pretty much it. Considering the song is called ‘Berlin Lovers’, perhaps the similarities aren’t even a coincidence. Either way, I like it.
Posted in Film, Music, Photography, Writing
Tagged arcade, band, Berlin, Berlin Lovers, burgers, Christian Sorensen Hansen, Christiane F., cute, Detlev, director, disco ball, electronic, female singer, film, heroin, indie, Leonie Cumiskey, lights, love, music video, neon, nostalgia, pastel colours, rollerdisco, rollerskating, romance, single, Still Corners, Sub Pop Records, teenagers, twee, video, Vimeo, Youtube
Love this song. The accordion in it reminds me of ‘This Is The Day’ by The The…except I think I actually prefer this song by Dead Gaze.
Posted in Music
Tagged 2013, cool, Dead Gaze, entertainment, guitar music, I Found The Ending, indie, lo-fi, media, Mississippi, music, music video, new music, single, song, surreal, USA, Youtube
The new Black Rebel Motorcycle Club website is really cool – great design for a really simple idea.
Awful American-English spelling aside, I really like ‘Specter At The Feast’, too. I’m looking forward to hearing some of the new songs live at Brixton Academy later in the month. I think my favourites are probably ‘Lullaby’, ‘Hate The Taste’ and ‘Sell It’.
Posted in Art, Design, Events, Music, PR, Writing
Tagged 2013, album, American band, band website design, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Brixton Academy, BRMC, digital design, gig, graphic design, indie, Leah Shapiro, Leonie Cumiskey, London, magnetic tape, media, music website, new releases, Pete Hayes, psychedelic, recording, Reel-to-reel tape recorder, retro, rock 'n' roll, Specter At The Feast, user experience, vintage, vintage technology
Great new song from Unknown Mortal Orchestra – sounds a bit like Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, but it’s also got that funk groove to it that kind of reminds me of Al Green or Marvin Gaye too. Watch the video – the McLovin guy from Superbad takes on a hippie cult and gets smacked over the head with a bottle! That’s pretty much it.
Tagged Al Green, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, chilled, cult, cute, funk, funny, groove, hippies, indie, Leonie Cumiskey, lo-fi, Marvin Gaye, McLovin, music, music video, new music, opinion, psychedelic, SAD, single, sunshine, Superbad, UMO, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Youtube
‘The Throw’ is the latest single from Australian band, Jagwar Ma. It’s so euphoric and makes me excited for summer. The video is pretty cool, too – just what you’d expect from this upbeat psych-pop track. I only heard it today and I’ve already listened to it five times!
Posted in Music
Tagged Australian band, dance, entertainment, euphoric, exciting, fun, indie, Jagwar Ma, music, music video, new music, new music video, new single, pop, psychedelic, The Throw, video, Youtube
A while ago, I interviewed Sune from The Raveonettes for FAULT Magazine, ahead of their latest album release, ‘Observator’. The above photography is by James D. Kelly, you can read an excerpt from the interview below…
That’s all I can give you at the moment! You can read the whole interview in the latest issue of FAULT, which is out now. It’s available to buy at Books Magazines etc, along with FAULT back issues and merchandise, too.
Posted in Music, Photography, Writing
Tagged album, Danish music, FAULT Magazine, indie, interview, James D. Kelly, journalism, journalist, LA, Leonie Cumiskey, magazine, new music, Observator, print media, publishing, Sharin Foo, shoegaze, Sonic Youth, Sune Rose Wagner, The Raveonettes, writing
