Lost AT E Minor

WE'RE SUPPORTING

One thing we’ve lost in this MP3 culture is awesome album art. A few people on Flickr have started a group where people pose with their favorite record sleeves and the results are pretty amusing.

WE'RE LISTENING TO

These very sweet folks from Seattle supported Broken Social Scene on our last American dates of the Spirit IF tour. Although they haven’t quite hit their stride as a live outfit, the tunes from songwriter Grant Olsen have some very lovely moments that fall somewhere between Velvet Underground and The Everly Brothers. I think Arthur and Yu could take over from where Grandaddy left off, though with better songs. No offense to Grandaddy.

WE'RE THINKING

Preferring to focus on the content of her pictures rather than the style is a refreshingly honest approach to design. It’s worked out brilliantly for Swedish illustrator Alexandra Falagaras, whose works are easy to spot with their sharp graphic style. My favourite piece of hers is a contribution to The Book of Dreams, a project where kids’ dreams are collected then illustrated by artists.

WE'RE WEARING

It’s hard not to sigh at another vector face or skull and diamond combo. I’m guilty of skull overindulgence myself. But Six Letter Word — aka illustrator, Diogo Potes — balances skulls with other macabre themes to create art that actually looks fresh and interesting. Read more

WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

Located on West Houston, Alphaville is my favorite gift store in Manhattan. It offers a great selection of vintage objects, from Nixon’s campaign buttons, to Sesame Street 80s mobiles, 50s greeting cards and the original Mr. Potato Head and his friends. It’s one of those places I walk into just to look but always end up buying something.

I don’t care if Jimmy Hendrix was dragged kicking and screaming from where he lies, put through a torrid round of detox, and handed an invisible guitar – a Flying V carved out of the bones of Robert Johnson. It would still pale in comparison to this. Read more

WE'RE READING

DJ Spooky — That Subliminal Kid — is just about the deepest crate digger around, trawling the barrels of long-lost record stores for choice vinyl to spin in his wickedly dubby sets. He gave us the inside word last week on his eight favourite songs right now via our sister website, My Secret Playlist. This is what he had to say about Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s Panic in Babylon: ‘If there’s anything that the twenty-first century has told us, it’s that dub is the real original hip-hop. Lee Scratch even had to make it clear in 1965 by adding “Scratch” to his middle name. Take that, Grandmaster Flash!’ Read the rest of DJ Spooky’s Secret Playlist.