
Plants & Animals interview
We checked in with Matthew ‘Woody’ Woodley, drummer and vocalist with Montreal group, Plants & Animals, and asked him what was in the water in their hometown that helped it consistently kick up so many unique bands: ‘Beer. But more specifically, the formula is cheap rent equals less time working and more time playing, plus a vibrant, multicultural town, plus tons of good musicians, plus plenty of nice venues, equals audiences who show up, support and enjoy, times media attention and sharing, times cross-pollination, all equals a healthy musical ecosystem’.
What was the reasoning behind taking an otherwise bare sound and lushing it up with strings on your debut album? ‘It took us two years to make the record because we tried so many things. We went forth with the notion that any idea is worth trying. If that meant invite a pro horn section in for an afternoon, or our friends over in the evening to play choir for beer, we just did. We kept a lot and let a lot fall to the wayside. With all that, naturally, the experience was exciting, tiring and fun. Mostly fun’.
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The bands Plants & Animals are listening to
We asked Matthew ‘Woody’ Woodley, drummer and vocalist with Montreal group, Plants & Animals, which bands he thinks are doing interesting things right now and he gave us the following list: ‘Grizzly Bear, Malajube, Yeasayer, Metro League and the guys in the Patrick Watson band’. To read about Woody’s favorite songs right now, check out his recent Secret Playlist.
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
YOU'RE SAYING (2)
pam said | 25 March, 2009
oh, I should note I wish it was more of an interview.. or am I missing something? way too short.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Shelby Fischer is a mixed media artist living in Central Virginia. Her work is beautifully realised, laborious in its detail and subtle in its colorings. ‘My mixed media collages and assemblages blend surrealism with otherworldly imagery’, she says. ‘Each work is a fragment of an intuitive story — odd and mysterious narratives that are familiar echoes of a long lost, often twisted fantasy or nightmare’. Read more
Tucked along one of Amsterdam’s many narrow, gorgeously paved streets, I.d.e.a. Living stocks a range of jewellery and homewares perfect for kitting out an outfit or apartment. Modern whites, splashes of strong colours, clean lines and a distinctively European style make
Do you want to be transported back to your childhood dreams? Check out Nike’s latest Dunk Hi for grrrrr girls. Pink, red, green, yellow, blue, white and, wait for it, a golden metallic orange. Oooohhhh. Be your own Rainbow Bright on a mission to save Rainbow Land. Just in time for the London sun, too.
San Fransisco-based artist Alexis MacKenzie must be patient. She has to be in order to create beautiful collages from the vintage books that she collects. There’s an amazing amount of detail in each piece. Elements are painstakingly transplanted from book to paper with scissors and glue. No Photoshop cut n’ pastes here.
Long before the franchise destroyed our fond childhood memories like Aunt and Uncle Beru on Tatooine, many of us born in the 70s were proud to own the many products associated with the Star Wars movies. Read more
Improv Everywhere strikes again with a spontaneous musical in a Los Angeles mall. Wireless microphones hooked up to the mall’s PA system ensured the feeding masses didn’t slip into Cinnabon-induced comas until after the show was over. Note especially the angry dude in sunglasses at about 2:51 — apparently he thinks nothing can ever top Rent.
His name echoes those of colonels and soldiers who fought in the American civil war. But far from that, William Fitzsimmons is actually an obscure songwriter from Jackson, Illinois. Read more
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST

Alex Passapera’s dizzying pen and ink drawings are cascades of images melting into one another, often looking like contorting, mutating creatures spewing blood-like ink splatters. Read more

Creative advertising packaging
Despite the intentions of many, it’s not so often that advertising — as an industry — truly thinks outside the box. Yet, when executed well, clever eye-catching advertising actually works. It does. As these examples will attest to. Read more

Charlie Immer’s pastel-pallete sometimes obfuscates the gory violence in his surreal images. At other times, it heightens the gut-wrenching and visceral effect of his work. Read more

Italian-born, New York City-based photographer Paolo Ventura creates fairy-tale like pictures out of amazingly constructed, miniature dioramas that almost trick the eye into thinking he’s a tilt-shift photographer. 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
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
Fragile Vases is a new collection of vases made from recycled materials by Itunube. All parts have been carefully selected and put together, so each vase is totally unique. So now it’s possible to give a second chance to old pieces instead of throwing them into the trash. We have a selection of these vases for sale in the Lost At E Minor store for just US$85. Read more
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pam said | 25 March, 2009
I like plants. I love animals. I like Plants & Animals. their new album is great- in the running for my favourite album of the year!