Song of the Week | Watain-Black Salvation

Happy Halloween Weekend. Here is your soundtrack. The quick, truncated snare beat right at the beginning of the guitar riff is THE BUSINESS. Stay safe this weekend and make smart adult decisions.

2.42:2.46

Song of the Week | Warpaint-'Majesty' Acoustic

Warpaint, also known as your next favorite band, is releasing their debut full length 'The Fool' .his week. Its utterly fantastic. The album cover is not...but the music is. This is an acoustic rendition of the song "Majesty". I am especially fond of the chorus, at around 2:40, and the fact that Theresa sings in this song, as she is very pretty and also a pleasantly 'ok' singer. She can't quite reach the high register's here and it's kind of lovely. Feel free to explore their small catalogue, 'Stars' and 'Krimson' are real highlights from the earlier days.

Quietness & Assurance

Emeralds-"Now You See Me"

Song of the Week: Deathspell Omega-"Devouring Famine"

If all the contemporary metal bands disappeared off the face of the earth in a grim fog of death or whatever…Deathspell Omega would somehow manage to survive. This band has been incredible since the start, but it was really at the turning point that was "Si Monvmentvm…" that solidfied their place as masters of their Craft. Since that point in 2004 they have only grown more technical and utterly engrossing. Two years ago saw the release of the 20-minute epic "Chaining the Katechon", where much of the ambient interludes seemed to have been dissolved, leaving the buzzsaw guitars and breakneck rhythm and key changes to lead the assault. Music Hyperbole aside, "Devouring Famine" off of the new album "Paracletus" is an exciting taste of what we can expect from the proper album. For the terminally obsessed, Amazon has 30 second samples of the other tracks. Album of the year material indeed.

Grizzly Bear-About Face

'Squalor Victorian' Book

This is a little 4.5x6.5 book I made over the weekend, based on an essay about the National, basically taking the opening lyric of Terrible Love, and interperating it over the course of 20 pages. Live Photos by Mr. Cole Moss and myself are included. Just a quick little project.

Musicologies: Warpaint-'The Fool', The Sundays-'Blind', Women-'Public Strain'…

Bonfires for Nobody-"Moments Like These"

A couple months ago, I designed a couple album covers for my friend Jordan Leal's project, Bonfires for Nobody. He chose the one above to house his lovely album of music. You can download the record for free here.

I personally enjoy the track "Summer", the cascade of sparkling notes and the subtle frenzy of the drumming are really quite nice. This song's mood was a primary catalyst for the 'soft blue' colors and airy aesthetic of the cover. "High and Dry" is utterly perfect background music for anything, very reminiscent of the washes of sound created by Wolfgang Voight and The Sight Below.

Here are some other versions of the cover I made:

The Branding Mastery of Field Notes

I remember first seeing these Field Notes notebooks thanks to my classmate Mr. Sean Batac a year or so ago. It's a simple and pleasant little empty notebook, identical in shape to a plethora of others, but there is something about them that sets them very much apart. No, it's not the fact that they are all set in Futura (although it is gorgeously done) but something else. Visiting their website you can see that they have many variations of a similar style employing different colors schemes, themes, subscription services, pens, pencils and even a calender and a boxset(!) to create a diverse brand. Now, maybe my interest is tethered to our recent readings in our Design Theory class, but I think this company is a fantastic example of how powerful branding and good design are. They have taken are relatively dull little notebook and transformed it into an object of desire.

Part of what prompted my renewed interest was the fact that their "Raven Wing" series has recently sold out. As you can see in the link, it is the same design and layout as the other notebooks, but the website explains the differences "The outside cover is letterpress-debossed and varnished, black-on-black. The charcoal-colored inside cover is printed in black on a vintage offset press". That's it, just a change of color, vintage printing techniques and some debossing. The simple fact that this minor change contributed to the books being completely sold out, while the other numerous and similar options remain in stock is fascinating. Reading through the post explaining the process of making the books gives a narrative to the object, it shows how they were made and expands your experience with the notebook. This, I think, definitely contributes to peoples desire for the objects, plus they manage to make an already stylish item even more striking.




















It's really quite brilliant and I think one of the most poignant and uncomplicated showcases of the power of design and branding. If such an attention to detail and narrative can be applied to something as seemingly banal as a notebook...imagine what other fascinating things are in store for this company and the creative team behind it. Keep your eyes on these guys and pick up some notebooks for good measure, they are quality notebooks, paper and all.

























(All Photos are from the Field Notes Website.)

212.216,964

Song of the Week | Women-Locust Valley

A Brilliant track from a stellar record. I hear Television, the Beach Boys, Wire and The Velvet Underground all hanging out in a seedy backroom playing music while the T.V. features interviews with serial killers.

Horizon Lines...

After thinking about a website, instead of making one for some time...I have finally decided to take action. The above image is where I am at now. It's all very exciting. COOL.

Musicings: Women-"Public Strain", Belle & Sebastian-"Write About Love", Enslaved-"Isa", Chromatics-"Night Drive", Elton John-"Tumbleweed Connection", Cavil at Rest-"Flower of Rhodes"…

Thine is the Kingdom

Clean My Heart

Current Musicings: David Bowie, Belle & Sebastian, Tamaryn, The Rolling Stones, Cults, Enslaved, Townes Van Zandt

Heir/Hair

Heir/Hair, 2010
Web-sourced imagery, hair, text (walbaum)