“Billykirk” by The Scout
“Brothers Chris and Kirk Bray have been producing leather goods for the last ten years. They launched Billykirk from Los Angeles in 1999, learning their craft from a third generation leather maker. A simple leather strap kick started the business, a decade later their collection has flourished into other offerings that consists of bags, belts, shoes, wallets, hats and other accessories. Since expanding and moving their operation to the East, they’ve employed a group of Amish leather makers to produce much of their line, while wrapping up production in their studio. We visited the brothers over the summer to observe their operation first hand and to discover the beauty behind the process.”
» Nadinoo
Letting Up Despite Great Faults - “In Steps”
The opening track to Letting Up Despite Great Faults’ self-titled debut. It’s an album that’ll make you feel like a teenager again.
The Rock-afire Explosion - “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)”
» beingsnoyman:
A little sad that I missed the documentary about the Rock-afire Explosion last night. I have weird memories of these guys standing about a million feet tall in a darkened hall in a Chuck-E-Cheese on Sports Arena Blvd. Sometimes I wonder if they were real or if I was just in the midst of a fake cheese-induced pipe dream.
I think the lesson we can learn from this video is that the greatness of any song exponentially increases if the Rock-afire Explosion gang plays along.
The best thing about the Wikipedia entry for The Rock-afire Explosion is the section titled “The ‘break-up’”. This part right here is particularly rife with tension:
“…However, relations between the company that owned and programmed The Rock-afire Explosion, Creative Engineering, and ShowBiz soon began to cool. In fact, ShowBiz began toying with the idea of replacing The Rock-afire Explosion with licensed characters, such as Spider-Man or Garfield, and three locations actually retrofitted the robots at stage left into Yogi Bear and Boo Boo [1] (it is unknown what, if anything, was done to the other two stages at the aforementioned locations although it had been witnessed that Yogi and Boo Boo interacted with the band members on the center stage).”
I see the authors of this article fancy themselves a Behind the Music writer.
The Tori Paradox
“…the character of Tori Scott (Leanna Creel) was added in later episodes as an initial sparring partner and later girlfriend for Zack. Originally, the final season consisted of thirteen episodes featuring the original cast and the cast members’ contracts with the show expired after those episodes were completed with the final graduation episode. However, NBC ordered more episodes of the show and Thiessen and Berkley refused to sign new contracts. Rather than producing new episodes with only four cast members, a new character, Tori Scott, was added to serve as a replacement for Kelly and Jessie.
Oddly enough, the promos for the final season of the show featured Kelly, Jessie, and Tori together, despite the fact that the actresses never actually appear in an episode together. Rather, the network alternated between “Kelly and Jessie” and “Tori” episodes each week.
During the “Tori” episodes, it was never explained why Jessie and Kelly were not present and likewise for the “Kelly and Jessie” episodes, no mention was made of Tori. When the season aired in the UK, the episodes tended to be reordered so that the Tori episodes and the Jessie and Kelly episodes were shown together. This was scarcely less confusing, since no mention was ever made of Tori’s sudden disappearance and Kelly and Jessie’s equally sudden reappearance partway through the season.
Notably, Lisa wears her hair differently in the Tori episodes.
The term “Tori Paradox” is derived from Chuck Klosterman’s essay about the show in his book, Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto.” (via Wikipedia)
And that, ladies and germs, is The Tori Paradox.
McSweeney’s San Francisco Panorama
Never ones to run out of great ideas, McSweeney’s is putting out one-time only, Sunday-edition sized newspaper issue called the San Francisco Panorama. The issue took five months to create and is a collbaoration with dozens of reporters, designers, photographers and authors. The Panorama consists of four parts: a full-color broadsheet, a books section, a magazine and a weekend guide.
View more images of this impressive endeavor in their press release. You can pre-order an issue here.
» McSweeney’s Internet Tendency (via kottke)
The Dovers - “What Am I Going To Do”
Many of you will recognize this hook. It’s more infectious than H1N1. Thanks to Deli Sandwich for hunting down this track.
“THAO with the GET DOWN STAY DOWN IN MY LIVING ROOM” by Yours Truly
I have to admit that I never really gave Thao with the Get Down Stay Down much of a listen, but after seeing this video I totally feel like I’ve been missing out. She is one badass guitarist and a crazy passionate performer. Plus, you’ve gotta give the girl respect for knowing her Saved by the Bell trivia.:
“Thao was the subject of the very first Yours Truly piece; filmed in the Marina with rented cameras, borrowed time and absolutely no idea what the fuck we were doing. But Thao made it easy, busting balls and carrying us through that first experience, like a big sister. Two years later, the night before she left SF for tour: Thao, Willis, Adam, and some friends from the Lexington came over to drink wine, play Saved by the Bell the board game and watch Thao perform songs from her new album, “Know Better Learn Faster.“” (via Yours Truly)
Orange Juice - “Rip It Up”
» mmddyyyy: (via ronghorse: AGESOFTHEROD)
Nick Hess’ Drawing in Tape at the entrance of the Hammer Museum
For Broadcast’s encore last night, Trish Keenan brings on stage…wait for it…Vincent Gallo.
Pitchfork: Guest Lists: Kings of Convenience
You know how you’ve been scheming to “randomly” run into Erlend Øye one day and make him fall in love with you because he realizes how much you guys have in common? Well, your plan just got easier. Pitchfork invites the Kings of Convenience vocalist to share with us “which tracks they can’t stop spinning, what books they can’t put down, and what new bands they’ve caught on tour”. Conversation fodder to last you a whole afternoon.
Wow. What I just wrote was all so extremely creepy.
Atlas Sound - “My Halo”
To round out the excitement for tonight’s show, here’s an Atlas Sound track. I love how pretty the song gets about 1 minute and 30 seconds in. That Bradford sure knows how to make a beautiful arrangement.
Broadcast - “Come On, Let’s Go”
For me, Broadcast is one of those bands where I’ll find any excuse to post about. I’m seeing them play tonight with Atlas Sound at The Troubadour so, excuse: found.
