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Music / Sam Sparro’s Black and Gold

Sam Sparro has been causing quite the buzz in the UK with his top five album debut, heavy BBC Radio 1 airplay, and a big thumbs-up from Mark Ronson (who brought him on stage recently at the Coachella Festival) and Chaka Khan (’Damn, that white boy can sing’). Sitting somewhere between Prince and Stevie Wonder, Hot Chip and Basement Jaxx, the 25 year-old creates ‘must-spin’ singles. And the guy has serious soul. Sparro has also mastered the art of melody and knows a killer chorus when he hears one. Just listen to the sublime new single Black and Gold for proof.

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Amy Winehouse re-released

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Tom Waits live in concert

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AirCurve

AirCurve is a cleverly-designed acoustic amplifier that turns your iPhone into a no-power-drain alarm clock on your nightstand, or a mini sound system that never needs batteries or adapters. AirCurve looks like a simple, elegantly minimal stand for your iPhone. But inside is a cleverly designed coiled waveguide that collects the sound from the built-in speaker of your iPhone, amplifies it, and projects it into the room.

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The John Henrys

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The Gibson Robot Les Paul Studio

The revolutionary Gibson Robot Les Paul Studio Limited Electric Guitar has some groundbreaking controls at your disposal. At first glance, the four control knobs seem to be indistinguishable from those on other Les Paul guitars. But look again. While the knobs do provide the standard tone and volume controls for each of the two pickups, the Multi-Control Knob (MCK) — the one with the illuminated top — serves as the master control for all aspects of the Robot Les Paul Studio Limited’s amazing self-tuning system. Which is kinda fun when you think about it.

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Skateboarding is fun. I know this because we have one in our apartment which we use to cruise across the polished floorboards to get from room to room. Though I should acknowledge at this point that I use the term ‘cruise’ liberally. Read more

Last week when the 2008 ARIA nominations were released, I was so happy to see the recognition of Melbourne’s Eddy Current Suppression Ring. Their album Primary Colours is pure, unadulterated Aussie rock, standing out from the numerous electro releases we’ve had this year. The band manages to capture that wonderful pub-vibe without any pretension or tragic nostalgia. Primary Colours speaks to people who still seek an existence that is all about wearing ripped jeans, loitering and punching people in the face … not in a violent way, but because your fist flailed in that direction while you were thrashing around front of stage.

Australian group Pivot have recently signed with the mighty Warp label and — even better (well, for us anyway) — have written a fun Secret Playlist for us. You can see where the many disparate influences have seeped into their latest recording, the beautiful and colourful, O Soundtrack My Heart.

We have a bunch of new playlists up on our sister site, My Secret Playlist, a music discovery website and weekly email publication in which we invite our favourite bands and musicians to give us the rundown on their eight favourite songs right now. Over the past few weeks, acts such as The B52s, Team Genius, Pivot, Jukebox the Ghost, Moby, Katy Perry, and the Dandy Warhols, among many others, have written about the music that inspires them. To sign-up to receive the weekly My Secret Playlist publication, just enter your email address into the website’s subscription box.

I was just recently introduced to the work of artist Misaki Kawai. I must say that my interest in her work has since become something of a creative obsession. Her trippy, child-like figures and animals, painted in the most expressive, perfectly satisfying candy colored hues, are more than enough to send me running for the bag of jelly beans and jolly ranchers hidden in my cupboard. Read more

Summertime at McCarren Park in Williamsburg is picturesque. It’s often filled with a mix of people, old and young, picnicking or sitting in the shade, running along the track or playing soccer (or football, depending on where you’re from). It’s also connected to a now defunct McCarren (swimming) pool which transforms into an outdoor concert space on Sundays during the summer. In the past, performers such as Leslie Feist, M.I.A., The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Broken Social Scene have performed. Read more

It looks like the New Rave movement is making a big comeback thanks to Carrie Mundane, designer of the UK-based fashion label, Cassette Playa. Read more

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YoaKustoms

Amanda Yoakum is the creative whirlwind behind YoaKustoms, customised sneakers which stand as ‘an artistic expression rather than just a factory look’. We dig these kicks like we haven’t dug kicks in a long, long time. Read more

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Trumbo

Dalton Trumbo was the first blacklisted writer to win an Academy Award. However, he could not claim the award until years later because he had been forced to write under a pseudonym. Trumbo was one of the Hollywood Ten and even spent a year in jail as a result of investigations into Communist influences in the motion picture industry. This documentary is fascinating not just for its examination of a bizarre period in American history where fear replaced reason and innocent men were jailed, but also for how Trumbo dealt with these hardships. Read more

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Kristin Baker

Kristin Baker’s paintings strike the eye like massive Hollywood blockbusters, but have the elegance of delicate watercolors. Reminiscent of Kazimir Malevich and the Italian futurists, Baker’s two-dimensional pieces abstract images of crashing cars, explosions, and other apocalyptic images to create unnerving and dynamic works that resonate with the uncertainty of our times. Read more

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Micah P. Hinson takes the good with the bad

We said a few weeks back that Micah P. Hinson is ‘like every rustic, broken down, and pieced back together country great that’s ever been. Only hipper and slightly less sombre’. With that in mind, we spoke to him recently and asked him whether his hometown of Texas was a difficult place for a young, aspiring musician to grow up in: Read more

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The Grind 2.0

The Grind 2.0, a charity auction show to fund construction of the Swift-Cantrell Skatepark in Atlanta, opens on Friday, October 10 at Atlanta’s The Rabbit Hole Gallery. The show features more than 60 hand-painted skate decks painted by some of today’s top underground artists from across America and Europe, and I couldn’t be more excited to be part of it! Other artists include Amy Sol, Dave Kinsey, Chris Stain, Jason Limon, Tara McPherson, Tessar Lo, and many more. The gallery is even offering an online bidding through their website.

Australian illustrator Moofus is just 11 years old. As he says, ‘my mum and dad won’t let me leave school to get a proper job, so I draw lots of pictures’. This limited edition print of Sydney’s Coogee Beach is printed on Epson heavyweight matt paper with archival inks and is just US$20 through the Lost At E Minor store. Read more

dear science poster

WIN

Happy, happy, joy, joy! We have a TV On The Radio poster designed by Tunde, as well as Dear Science on vinyl, to give away to a randomly selected Lost At E Minor subscriber who leaves a comment under this post telling us why they simply must have it.

WHAT YOU'RE DOING

  • Petit Vulcan is listening to Stop Play Moon

  • Petros is listening to Off Radio

  • Sarah is reading the New York Times

  • Christian is listening to The Revisionists

  • Sally is listening to Nuuro

  • Jess is reading My Secret Playlist

  • Ana is playing a good mood

  • Chanoa is watching Tabatha’s Take Over

  • Sindhu is spotting patterns in the sky

  • Rajasee is reading Garfinkel

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