November 6, 2009 | New Trends | 
by Dave Mata 
|
I met one of the Chicago contributors of this New York, LA, Chicago collaboration site in front of a local bike shop this past summer. He was happily showing off his latest thrift store VHS scores to a mutual friend of ours. I slept on the “blog” he said he was collecting the tapes for for some time. Sometimes I make mistakes. Everything is Terrible is a brilliant library of all things unsettling. These are not posts of mindless YouTube anomalies. These are serious and hilarious documentations of what could be lost on most people were it not for these ironic excavators.
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November 4, 2009 | New Music | by Dave Mata |
From the surreal opening to the feverish end, Fate Unfolds captivates with a tonal palette that is both broad and gripping. Indie kings of the southwest, Tristeza, have been at it for slightly over a decade. Their latest full-length delivers without a drop of disappointment. Fate Unfolds is drenched with the seemingly long lost art of crafting an album that plays as one solid piece. I could pick several ’singles’ that I hear on this record, but to do anything but drop the needle and park it does a huge disservice to the artistry and arrangement of this record as a whole. Herein are huge washes of guitars and synths, layered with drums dubbing back and forth from programmed to acoustic with ease and a backbeat that is anything but ‘indie rock’. Read more
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November 2, 2009 | Video | by Dave Mata |
This band is one of the most promising acts to appear in Chicago in the past few years. Their live shows have set them apart from their stoner-spazz rock counterparts, with an elaborate light set up that they bring to each show. Yes, you see correctly, lead vocalist joe is ‘playing’ the lights. I can’t imagine these guys ever quit working being that they build their own amps, and drummer, Mizzola plays in like ten other great Chicago bands. Look out for Lasers and Fast and Shit’s new 7″, Introduction, out now.
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October 26, 2009 | New Products | by Dave Mata |
The Monome interfaces provide seemingly endless possibilities for combinations of aural and visual amazement. It’s a wonder to me that people are still using midi keyboards as trigger devices to elude the fact that they can’t play an actual instrument. With sleek design and eco-friendly packaging, its no wonder the first run in 2008 sold out in two minutes. Whether they decide to release one or two hundred devices, the Monome 64 is going to be available again in January 2010.
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October 21, 2009 | New Music | by Dave Mata |
To call Zombi a one trick pony would be unfair. They’re more like a one trick battle horse. They have a formula that works and they stick to it. The Pittsburgh duo channel original N.E.S, 80s horror films, and cinematic post-rock into a listening experience that kinda makes you wanna fight somebody. Their songs make me feel angsty in a way I wish more music did. Imagine writing a record with John Carpenter in the year 2012, then you are getting close to what’s really going on here.
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October 19, 2009 | New Art | by Dave Mata |
I had the pleasure of meeting painter Maria Calderon a few years back through some mutual friends. Even then her work was stunning. It seemed as though you could stand back and take in everything you thought you could, and if you moved up to a piece, you were pulled in to all the different stories, different landscapes, within a single painting. The vibrant colors and never ending spacial trickery really does it for me.
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October 15, 2009 | New Art | by Dave Mata |
Multi-faceted artist Tim Biedron is probably best known for his incredible tattoo work (which you have to book an appointment for about three months in advance). Although he’s very successful at inflicting pain in an incredibly beautiful way, he still finds time to paint and hash out the drawings that originally inspired his work on the human canvas. His drawings, in particular, have an off-kilter reminiscence of horror masked with simple images of animals, fish, and characters from his mind that at first appear harmless, until you realize there’s something just a bit off about them. Read more
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October 13, 2009 | New Photography | by Dave Mata |
Philippine born, Chicago resident, Miriam Fanger is addicted to coffee, and capturing moments that don’t exist with the reality of passing time. The subtle intensity she has, along with a tenacity for shooting, makes her work powerful and moving. Her photos seem to catch all people at a passing instant of vulnerability, and the posture and eyes of her subjects radiate with a chemistry that I rarely see in portraiture. Read more
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October 12, 2009 | New Music | by Dave Mata |
Anybody could roll down the list of bands that Mexico City’s Carlos Icaza is in, or credit him for his incredible work with the Vampi Soul people, but until you have met this brilliant, record collecting, drum-battering-anomaly in person, you have only read into a small semblance of what Icaza is all about. When I first met him, I had no idea who he was. He commented on a record I was playing at a bar and then a week later, my friends and I hadn’t missed a single gig he played in Chicago, including the loft party we all spun together the following Saturday. I have been addicted to this mix that he posted and it doesn’t even compare to his live sets. Who knew so many soul standards sounded twice as funky recorded in Mexico in the 60s.
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October 12, 2009 | New Events | by Dave Mata |
chicago based label numero group do it right: their packaging, the selection, and the attention to detail are beyond the comprehension of any casual music listener. I had the pleasure of attending last April’s Eccentric Soul revue at Chicago’s Park West, and honestly, I had never witnessed anything like it before in my life. Read more
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October 12, 2009 | Cool Websites | by Dave Mata |
Dude Mountain is ridiculous. I have this sinking feeling we are all a year out from television getting as ballsy and completely stupid as the attempted poignancy in these shorts. That said, I identified with and laughed at more than I care to admit whilst watching the episodes on this site that launched just a few days ago. My feelings aside about ‘the point’, there is an undeniable purity to seeing a couple of knuckle-heads just trying to make people laugh, as opposed to worrying about writing a joke based around a new Snapple product.
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October 11, 2009 | New Fashion | by Dave Mata |
I think Anne Geddes spent ten years in the desert with Dr. Seuss doing hallucinogens. She woke up one searing Nevada morning and decided her new name was Peggy Noland. Then she moved to Kansas City and released the line that is currently featured on her website. At least, that’s what I think.
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October 11, 2009 | Video | by Dave Mata |
This track came out a while ago on a beautiful heartshaped 7″ from the Stones Throw dudes. My buddy Esteban hipped me to it a week or two ago and I just can’t get it out of my head. Mayer’s vocals combined with the production on this track would be the perfect soundtrack to riding in a car with broken windshield wipers through a light rain, picking up the 45 and putting it back down, while all the while casually crooning. I love this video.
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October 8, 2009 | New Events | by Dave Mata |
Chicago artist Charlie Megna leads a simple life of skateboarding, painting, and drinking with friends. I envy him. Perhaps it’s this casual mid-west approach to urban life that provides him the tongue-in-cheek platform with which he pokes at modern life from. With content ranging from oil consumption to technological advances, state pride to abstract kitty cats, he can also draw a very pretty tree. A good number of Megna’s paintings are currently hanging at People Lounge in Wicker Park, and will be up for the remainder of the month. Read more
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October 8, 2009 | New Music | by Dave Mata |
Last time I checked, concept artist Puddle Jumper (known as Future Jared to his yester-friends) had recorded over 300 songs and was working on about ten more simultaneously. Glitch and drum and bass are not genres I care to even pay attention to, but the hooks and grooves found in Puddle Jumper’s current work is hypnotic and seductive, working playfully beyond the constrictions of four note synth verses found among his contemporaries. Puddle Jumper’s beautiful instrumental pieces translate like conversations — with sonic tension, pause, and response.
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Lily Gottlieb-McHale makes some pretty ingenious kinetic sculptures that incorporate the DIY ingenuity of Rube Goldberg contraptions with intricate and sophisticated sound experimentation. Read more
Located on an unassuming side street in central Madrid, El Mollete is a simple restaurant serving knock-out local dishes. Sliced potatoes cooked in olive oil are topped with salty, smoky, fried eggs broken just before serving to release their oozing, deep yellow yolks. Read more
Each one of these Bracelaces by Itunube is turned into an elegant drawing on the skin using different kinds of lace combined with leather, metal components and glass beads. They are just US$25 in the Lost At E Minor store.
Ok, some random news and observations about this thriving, jiving metropolis that is New York City. 1. There are that many tattoos around Williamsburg, Brooklyn that I reckon I’m making more of a statement by not having one! Seriously. People nod at me on the street as if to say, ‘cool man, I love that clean skin. Where’d ya get it done?’ Read more
Bunnylicious transcends cuteness and takes bunny worship to a another level. Squirrels are so passe. Read more
The very talented Jess Snow, the first video artist to be featured by Female Persuasion — the original site for provocative and political female artists — has created this ethereal short video for Lost At E Minor. We feel it. We love it. [see also the promo video Lifelongfriendshipsociety created for us]
I’ve just come across the music of Minneapolis band Cloud Cult, and their song Chemicals Collide in particular. Their sound is a mix of scratchy acoustic guitar riffs mixed in with staccato beats and airy harmonies, all infused with a beautiful sense of lyrical melancholy. Read more
WE'RE RESPECTING
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
Wheeeeee! This game is so freaking fun! You move your cursor over each dot to make them split into four smaller dots ad infinitum.
1970s and 80s Soviet Union buildings
Cambodian born photographer Frederic Chaubin is the editor of French magazine Citizen K. His photo series on bizarre buildings built in the former Soviet Union during the 1970s and 80s is absolutely fascinating. Read more
Amazing cake designs by Charm City Cakes
Baltimore company Charm City Cakes produces the most innovative wedding and party cakes on the market. Inspiration for these creative bakers comes from everywhere: art, fabric, furniture, architecture, landscapes, science, and music, and each cake is individually designed to match your personality, and the theme of the occasion you are celebrating. Don’t miss these cakey engineering masterpieces. Read more
With the recession still biting, it may be time to whip out the glue and the cardboard and make your next pair of cool kicks. Don’t know how they’d manage in the rain though? Read more
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
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
The Mission is part of a series of maps and images of Lauratopia, a fictional world that Brooklyn-based illustrator Laura Carmelita Bellmont has made up as a home for her imagination. The prints are archival, sized 8″ x 7″, and available for US$60. Read more
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