Filed under: Music | Tags: Andreas Nilsson, Fever Ray, Mikel Cee Karlsson, Triangle Walks video
Fever Ray have released the video for Triangle Walks, the third single to be taken from the debut album:. The video was directed by Mikel Cee Karlsson and captures the eerie vibes of the Fever Ray concerts. The man responsible for the look and feel of those concerts is Andreas Nilssons who also made the If I Had A Heart video.
LYRICS:
an apple and a berry plant
comes with a house
on the grass
who is that
to come by my house
stands outside my window
sucking on the berries and
eats us out of house and home
keeping us awake
keeping us awake
can i come over, i need to rest
lay down for a while
disconnect
the night was so long
the day even longer
lay down for a while
recollect
five AM
out again
triangle walks
magpies, i throw sticks at them
they laugh behind my back
getting a feeling
maybe i will dream again
having that feeling
when there’s no one awake
no no one awake
can i come over, i need to rest
lay down for a while
disconnect
the night was so long
the day even longer
lay down for a while
recollect
Dutch artist Helmut Smits came up with a great idea to make our cities a bit nicer: plant a tree in front of a billboard. It’s such a simple yet perfect idea to get rid of this urban pest. It’s easy and cheap to do and billboard companies won’t remove the trees as they will think it’s council property. Perfect!
Filed under: Music | Tags: Afreux, Gerard Leysen, Luisterpaal, Naïve records, The Hickey Underworld, VPRO
I know I’ve been mentioning The Hickey Underworld A LOT on the blog, but that’s only because they really are the bee’s knees (yes, I have thing for outdated expressions). Their superb debut album is working towards an international release and can now be previewed in full on the Dutch VPRO listening post. Do check it out if you haven’t heard it/bought it yet.
The band also launched a new version of their website which is the hummingbird’s elbows. The flash animation is based on the fold out artwork by Gerard Leysen which was featured on the limited edition first pressing of the album. To find the info you have to navigate with a piramid around a world full of black magic, animal sex, mythical figures and of course nuns with knives. In other words: a typical day at the office.
If you visit the site for a quick check of the news or the tour dates you’re pretty much fucked as you need some time and space to discover the location of said info. Other than that, this website is a feast.
Scene from the intro:
Scenes from the site itself:
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Aakash Nihalani, brooklyn, fluorescent tape, manhatten, Street Art
I really love the street art of Aakash Nihalani who sticks fluorescent tapes in all sorts of geometric shapes to walls, pavements, et cetera around Brooklyn and Manhattan. This way he livens up dull and grey streets and sidewalks with bright colours and makes people wonder what the hell these figures are doing there.
There’s a truck load of pictures and a video of Aakash at work below. Woohoo! (now make a little dance [NSFW - unless you wanna be laughed at by your colleagues])
Proof: the police have no sense of aesthetics whatsoever.
Filed under: Music | Tags: Fever Ray, fever ray live, Karen Dreijer Andersson, Polsslag
Saw Fever Ray play at the Polsslag festival yesterday. Not only has Karen Dreijer Andersson made one of the best albums of the year, the live show is equally mind-blowing.
While the album is a solo-project, live Fever Ray transform into a 5-piece band. Their instruments were spread across a very dimly lit stage filled with old standing lamps and loads of smoke.
The band were all dressed up in weird costumes, which makes the gig look like some creatures from a far-off planet in an early Star Trek episode have invaded your granny’s living room and are now scaring the shit out of her with their doom-electronics.
Underneath two laser beams that peer out of the smoke, Andersson enters the stage wearing a massive shaman-like head-dress. The whole set-up works perfectly as it manages to recreate the brooding atmosphere of the album.
As for the music itself, considering it’s a mostly electronic affair, it’s quite amazing how much of it was recreated on the spot. The sound was perfect and the bass was low enough to re-align your internal organs. I’m yet to locate my pancreas. If you’ve seen it let me know.
Pretty amazing gig for someone who “doesn’t understand the purpose of live gigs”!
If you only see one gig this year make sure it’s Fever ray. Go see them if you have the chance.
I recently bumped into the work of UK artist Laura Keeble (www.laurakeeble.com). She mainly does interventions around London where she adds things to a specific location to mock the location or what it stands for. Her modus operandi of bringing social commentary with the toungue firmy planted in cheek is very reminescent of Banksy’s work. Even her subjets are an exact Banksy copy: consumerism, religian, the royal family, the art industry, … So she doesn’t get much points for originality, but I really do like the work where she takes on Damien Hirst. A couple of years ago she made a replica of his famous diamond studded ‘For the love of God’-skull and at the end of the actual exhibition she put it- along with some trash – outside the Mason’s Yard premises of White Cube Gallery which had the real skull on display.
Filed under: Art | Tags: Kati Heck, Saatchi Gallery, Stella Lohaus Gallery, Vier Leute Passen In Ein Taxi
On Thursday Kati Heck opens a not to be missed exhibition of new work at the Stella Lohaus Gallery in Antwerp. This is her first exhibition at Stella Lohaus since she left Annie Gentils Gallery last year. A move which was much talked about in the art scene. After all, Kati Heck is one of the leading Antwerp artists and one of the few Belgians (ok ok, she was born in Germany) of whom the Saatchi Gallery bought several works.
The exhibition is called ‘Vier Leute Passen In Ein Taxi’ and the invitation has Heck with a green painted face lying on a mattress on a big heap of horseshit along with a enormous gherkin. Lovely!
Here’s one of Heck’s recently finished paintings:
Pablo’s Damon Auf Harz IV (2009)
The exhibition runs until May 2nd from Wednesday to Saturday between 14.00 and 18.00 at Stella Lohaus Gallery, Vlaamse Kaai 47, 2000 Antwerp.
Filed under: Design | Tags: BapeSta, ice cream, MY41, puma, PUMA MIHARA, sneakers
Remember these Bapesta sneakers? They just found their rivals.
These brand spanking new ‘MY41′ Puma’s - designed by Yasuhuro Mihara (say thàt 10 times fast) – are certainly as dazzling as the Bapesta sneakers.
And why do I suddenly feel a need for ice cream?
via: Knotoryus.com
Filed under: Art, Music | Tags: debut album, Future Words, HUMO's Rock Rally, Naïve records, The Hickey Underworld, VRMNSMR
The Hickey Underworld won HUMO’s Rock Rally in 2006 but failed to reach a large audience afterwards. Few people were able to see the brilliance of their songs and it wasn’t until a few months ago – when THU released the more accessible ‘Future Words’ as a second single – that they got some decent airplay and a larger audience. Meanwhile I had the chance to see them live 19 times over the past 3 years and to me they are nothing short of the best live band in the country.
Anyways, a promo of the soon to be released, self-titled debut album found it’s way into my paws and my god it IS good. I’m especially glad that for the most part they were able to capture the raw power that is THU live onto this album. Hats off to the Das Pop guys who produced the album.
My only disappointment is that ‘VRMNSMR’, the last song on the album and usually also the live set closer, has been cropped from a 10 minute behemoth to a 4 minute track. One can only hope they also release the full version as a b-side as it is one of the best songs ever written in this small country.
And do check out the excellent cover artwork (see top of this post) by Gerard Leysen, who if I’m not mistaken was also responsible for the great image that used to be the first THU website index page (see below).
The album is out March 8th on Naïve. Buy this puppy, you won’t regret it.
Track list:
1. Zero Hour
2. Sick Of Boys
3. Blonde Fire
4. Zorayda
5. Future Words
6. Mystery Bruise
7. Of Asteroids And Men
8. Plus added Wizardry
9. Blue World Order
10. Flamencorpse
11. VRMNSMR
Filed under: Music | Tags: 4AD, fotl, Future Of The Left, new album, the hope that house built
When Future Of The Left come out of hibernation (it was a short one though, Welsh winters aren’t what they used to be) it’s always worth a post at Weapon Of Beauty.
They just announced that their second studio album (but first one for 4AD) is almost finished and should be released late May/early June.
Expecting nothing else from Falco, the album will sport another bunch of excellent song titles: ‘arming eritrea’, ‘chin music’, ‘throwing bricks at trains’, ‘land of my formers’, ‘you need satan more than he needs you’, ‘that damned fly’, ’stand by your manatee’, ‘yin/post-yin’, ‘drink nike’, ‘lapsed catholics’ and ‘i am civil service’.
‘The hope that house built’ is the new single (see cover above) and physical copies of it will be out on March 14th. To prove that they really really love you, it will even have a b-side that is NOT a remix: ‘I have four names’.
Check the video here:
