Bill Callahan
When I first heard the Bill Callahan — aka Smog — song, Rock Bottom Riser, I didn’t know whether I loved it or hated it. Loved it because it stuck in my head for a good hour and twelve minutes afterwards (not that I was counting); hated it because … well, that’s an awful long time to have one tune spinning around your inner ear iPod. In the end, I gave myself over to it completely; to its organic beauty; its sense of imperfect pleading; it’s purity and sentimental hopelessness. It’s a major chord lament with minor chord persuasions. Listen to it under the warm sway of a glass of Australian red and it’ll sit inside your heart like every childhood dream you never had.
Listen to Smog’s Rock Bottom Riser and watch the illustrated clip to the song.
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Also by ZOLTON
Crimea X is the coming together of two offbeat, disparate characters, DJ Rocca (Ajello, Super Sonic Lovers, Maffia Sound System) and Jukka Reverberi from 90s Italian glam cult rockers, Giardini di Mirò, who have often have been compared with the sound of Mogwai, Arab Strap, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. We asked them about their favourite music and they started with The Smiths song, Ask [listen below] ‘I saw them playing live on Italian TV. It was during the 80s when I was extremely young, and I’ve never stopped listening to this song’. Read the rest of Crimea X’s Secret Playlist.
I love the curated selection of abandoned swimming pool photos on Feature Shoot today, featuring work by Carlo Van de Roer and Albert Jodar, amongst others.
Win a set of Sony personal audio prizes
Thanks to Sony Australia, four Lost At E Minor readers will win personal audio prizes, including the new 8GB Walkman S series video MP3 player and the MDRXB500 Extra Bass headphones. Read more
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Graphic design and vintage book blog A Journey Round My Skull just published a fantastic post of Japanese graphic design from the past 80 or so years. Read more
On my recent visit to Barcelona, my love for Animal Farm led me to the Plaça de Geroge Orwell. There I discovered Oviso. The tiny café features hand painted walls and low wooden benches, where inhabitants enjoy great coffee for €1 and discuss music, beer, photography and the hordes of tourists that bustle just beyond the quiet square.
When my uber-creative and slightly eccentric twin brother announced one day that chainmail would be making a return, it only confirmed that he’d missed out on the fashion genes. But after checking out the fingerless chainmail glove in Toby Jones’ new collection — My hands are tied — it now appears he had a legitimate vision. Working a look straight out of a Mad Max scene, Jones’ designs will have us accessorizing in true post-apocalyptic style, using everyday objects as adornment. But you don’t need to be cruising around town in a black Interceptor to appreciate them. Be your own character with chain swinging padlocks and multi-purpose shoelaces. It’s about time you got your hands into something different.
I love Sam Weber’s illustration of Bjork. It captures the mischievous twinkle that seems omnipresent in her eyes whilst also presenting her in an environment which pays homage to her somewhat mystical musical approach. [more about Sam Weber]
Sometimes we need an ad to remind us of what’s important. Normal is beautiful. Keep our oceans alive. Vote. Be more fearless. The Whitehouse Post is an international post-production company whose projects are damn fine. In fact, they are the scary mix of wit and aesthetics that makes any message convincing. Long live Coca-Cola.
NASA has released some pretty amazing audio recordings of sounds from the moons of Saturn. The weirdest thing about them is that they actually sound like Theremin warbles and echoey whooshy sounds from ‘50s movies about space.
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Yum, yum, cupcakes are fun. These creations are so clever, so arty, so damn bizarre that it would almost be a shame to eat them. Almost! Read more
Check out Mike Stimpson’s Lego reinterpretations of classic photographs. Stimpson’s version of Malcolm Browne’s iconic 1963 photograph of the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc is particularly twisted. Read more
Hong Kong-based illustrator Man-Tsun draws dark and beautiful painterly images that look like they are straight off a high-end Japanese animated film. Read more
Our celebrity-saturated culture makes many of us irrationally hateful of the faces we see on our TV screens and magazine pages. Good thing there’s Celebrity PunchOut to let off some of that steam.
Scanners’ new single Salvation
I love this track by London based rock group, Scanners, which is off their latest album, Submarine. Having toured with acts such as The Horrors, The Wedding Present, The Charlatans, Electric Six, and Juliette & The Licks, Scanners could well blow up in 2010. Figuratively speaking, not literally. No, that wouldn’t be fun.
Thanks to Sony Australia, four Lost At E Minor readers will win personal audio prizes, including the new 8GB Walkman S series video MP3 player and the MDRXB500 Extra Bass headphones. Read more
This pendant by Portland designer Stephanie Stimek hangs from an eighteen inch 14 carat gold chain. Made from a Japanese quail egg, the entire shell has been coated in plastic for strength and is available for purchase through the Lost At E Minor store. Read more
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Lost At E Minor: Music, illustration, art, photography and more » Bill Callahan Woke on a Whaleheart said | 18 June, 2008
[...] Bill Callahan’s Woke on a Whaleheart is a little trip I take myself on every now and then when I’m looking to really sink myself into a piece of music. The album is packed full of sweet turns of melody, rich narrative – one of the most distinctive baritone voices around today – and a quirky, but highly original, quality that can be hard to find amongst singer/songwriters at the moment. If pressed you could pitch him somewhere in the massive spectrum between Jens Lekman and William Whitmore, both other-worldly yet very organic, as if his mind has been weathered by a few storms but still retains an edge of sharpness. It’s certainly interesting stuff, suited to those boozy evenings of introspection: a good experience, but not one you’d want every day. time savedtime saved [...]