August 25, 2010 | New Events | by Jai Pyne |
Borne out of a desire to invigorate Sydney’s sedate CBD with some beautiful and engaging works of art, The Paper Mill is a new artist run space smack bang in the financial district, on Angel Place. I remember being dumbstruck by the majesty of Grizzly Bear this Sydney Festival, and looking next door to the rather nondescript Christian Book Store. Now I’m not sure if Jesus is all up on Twitter and the hard copy has gone the way of the music industry, but fast forward to today and four young artists with backgrounds ranging from art to graphic design and printmaking have taken over the space. Read more
March 31, 2010 | Video | 
by Jai Pyne |
I came across Darwin Deez when I was doing my daily trawling for new videos, no doubt procrastinating. He and his band were on Vincent Moon’s amazing Blogotheque site doing a live-one shot video. It’s nowhere near as good as some of the better work on the site: the sound is patchy and the performance is fun but not very good. But it still fascinated me enough to click on the MySpace link and discover that Darwin Smith is a talented and enigmatic youngster. He is a great example of Gen Y’s I-can-do-anything-and-everything attitude, making choreographed dance pieces to Passion Pit and short films about the ins and outs of boy-friend relationships (male friends, not lovers) as well as finding time to make an EP and an album of lo-fi pop on a friends PC. Read more
September 29, 2008 | New Music | by Jai Pyne 
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It was a privilege being able to sit down and listen to TV On The Radio’s album Dear Science from start to finish. An added bonus was the fact that I’ve been in the America for a month — the album sums up the atmosphere I have witnessed in the US: tension, money, a bigger gap between rich and poor than I’ve ever seen, a never ending far away war, and some vague hints at political hope. From the inset, TV On The Radio get bad ass on you, combining their trademark layers of barber shop vocals with criss-crossing handclaps over doomsday synth pads and screaming guitars on Halfway Home, which is like a grown up cousin of Wolf Like Me from their 2006 LP Cookie Mountain, easing you into the fact that beyond this point they are going to erase everything you thought you knew about TVOTR. But you should have expected that anyway.
December 20, 2007 | New Music | by Jai Pyne |
As head honcho of my band The Paper Scissors, I am in charge of many things both musical and menial, and then also the aesthetic and web aspects — artwork, blogs, and the whole identity of the band. Bands these days have to offer more than just a product, a CD, a clip and then a live show. There are people that have really embraced the change of the industry, not just the over talked MP3 killing the record industry debate, but the interactivity and dialogue that artists now have with their audience, through the web. One artist who I discovered recently and who epitomizes this is Lightspeed Champion, the solo project of Devonte Haynes, an English singer-songwriter. He plays very melodic pop with elaborate arrangements — Elton John meets Fleetwood Mac with a Jarvis Cocker-like vocal twang. Read more
Ben Grasso creates some of the most exciting paintings I have ever seen. He depicts exploding (or imploding, or disintegrating, I can’t decide) natural and architectural structures, often at surreal angles or amongst clouds. For me though, there’s something quite calming about the considered way in which these subjects are broken up. It’s all very beautiful. Read more
UK company Re-Worked turns rubbish into recycled products in an effort to reduce carbon emissions. Their latest effort is Çurface, a range of furniture (including coffee tables, appropriately enough) made from a mixture of used coffee grounds and polystyrene. The pieces can be ordered through their website and apparently they may smell like coffee grounds for the first few weeks. Sounds like a caffeine addict’s dream. Read more
Sufjan Stevens creates autistic music for introverts — soft, shy, naive, full of shadows, windows, and insecurities. Yet it all sounds slightly forced, his enigmatic songwriting as comforting as it is unsettling.
Seriously, all you need to know is about Bob Bob Richard is this: You press a button at your table, and these waiters dressed in powder pink suit jackets will bring you champagne. Go. Now. Just don’t have a break-up date there, the champagne doesn’t taste as good then.
Photoshop Disasters posts some of the most atrocious acts of Photoshop ever committed. It’s amazing how many horrible shop jobs make it to print. Read more
Tyr are a great Viking metal band from the Faroe Islands, a tiny nation between Greenland and the British Islands. They sing in Faroese, Danish, and English, crafting amazingly catchy songs inspired by Dream Theater, mid-era Metallica, and Black Sabbath.
You’d be hard-pressed finding a designer with a more impressive background than Jessie Hill. While most of us were waiting to outgrow our awkward teenage years, she was already on her way to Los Angeles. Leaving her Sydney home at just seventeen to pursue her love of fashion, it wasn’t long before Jessie Hill made a name for herself, styling cool kids like No Doubt and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Read more
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
It’s refreshing to see artists like Joe Kievitt who are contented to explore the beauty in simple forms and asymmetrical patterns. Read more
Francoise Nielly’s Yellow series
Parisian visual artist Francoise Nielly brings technicolour to the forefront in her latest series, Yellow. Featuring thick impasto palette knife strokes and trippy neon hues, Nielly captures the vulnerable expressions of her muses to a tee. Read more
Pencils made from recycled newspaper
The problem with awesome things like these pencils made out of recycled newspaper is that you almost don’t want to use them.
A little infectious lollipop rock anyone? Feel free to embarrass yourself singing along at the stoplight. If the other drivers give you that look, roll down the windows and spread the love.
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Matthew Dear’s Black City album totem
Our friends at Ghostly International are releasing Matthew Dear’s Black City album as a limited edition ‘totem’. A what? A totem – a limited edition metal bar used to access a private music chamber. Cool! Read more
Inspired by the aesthetics of architecture and graphic design, FAQ Clothing has a post-modern approach to design. Each collection is based on a conceptual theme: ranging from vintage comics to lunar phases. FAQ works with no boundaries, nor rules, which makes for a compelling line. Check out more FAQ products in the Lost At E Minor store.
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