lcd soundsystem NEWS!

A couple of weeks ago I posted some really interesting lcd soundsystem news. Well, a lot has happened in that time; Murphy has announced a tour, cancelled a DJ set and released a couple of new teaser videos:





Exciting stuff yeah?.... Well I have some even better news for you lcd fans (if you don't already know this shit).... THE ALBUM IS FINISHED!

So there you have it folks, just a little bit of filler while I try and post something nice and original. Just throwing ideas around at the moment but I have the idea of doing the old film critic thing and reviewing some of my favourite 70'- 80's cult exploitation films. I want to get in front of the camera and talk about them instead of just typing about them so watch this space.

I have new videos on the youtube for you all:
www.youtube.com/anotherclicheddesign

Have a great weekend!

.acdx

Lake District Post 2- The videos

Yeah I thought for my next post I would talk a little more about my weekend away in the gorgeous Lake District. This post is about some of the videos I recorded of my stay. Now you are gonna watch these and seriously wonder what the hell they mean, allow me to explain. I figured that there must be a whole load of well shot videos of the Lake District and seeing as I am not a professional cameraman (although I was one of the cameramen back in my skating days) I thought I would do something fun and original. Please enjoy the the videos:

Stairs:

The pretentious film maker film. I thought I would record the journey of the stairs in the apartment we where staying at. I just thought it was funny because it almost looked like the viewpoint of a dwarf. Don't ask me why! So, I thought I would put some nice BOC music to it and pay homage to Tim and Eric with the bit at the end.

Silent Hill Lakes #1:

For some reason beyond my reach I thought I would turn some of my videos into a satire/ homage to the brilliant Silent Hill series. This video was originally meant to be a tour video of our apartment along with the lovely (and misty) view. However, looking back at the video, Silent Hill 4: The Room came into mind so what the heck, I did it... and it's generally scary from the feedback of some people. Job Done! This one of a few Silent Hill-esque videos I made.

The Bible!:

This one I just HAD to do from the moment I discovered we had a Bible in our apartment! Some of you who read this blog or know me personally will know that I am an Atheist. Anything like this makes me laugh. I don't mean to offend anyone with my religion videos but come on, it is fun right!? The reason why I slowed it down is because you do not realise how cringe worthy my voice sounded normally in that video!

Satanist Bird Lover:

This video started off as a normal "ooo the lake looks nice today" video. All of a sudden I notice the man near the birds. So I thought how funny and random it would be to film a man near ducks and shit. Little did I know he was a strange man and I seriously don't know if he's talking to the animals or trying to hit them. I added Angel Of Death for comic effect... because I'm witty like that :p.

Leaving Silent Hill:

Another video that came about by accident. Whilst we where driving home I realised how foggy it was at the top of the hill so I generally had a fondness for it and figured it would make a nice video... all of a sudden... a stupid lorry comes and ruins the shot. So yeah this ended up as another Silent Hill video because that's the only way I figured the video would work.

Silent Hill Puzzle:

This was the original Silent Hill video. The paintings reminded me of one of the many puzzles found in all Silent Hill games. Plus, the fact that one of them had no name really made it feel like Silent Hill. This is the first and my favourite of the Silent Hill: Lake District videos I have made.

Comfy Sofa Bed Valentine!:

This is a result of boredom and my affection for the comfiest sofa bed I have slept on! The Valentines middle finger is genuine by the way. I was so depressed on Valentines Day this year, the fact that it was my 21st a few days before just added! So yeah sit on that... in fact why don't you and your other half take turns!........
Only joking!

So there you go folks and folkettes (?). Let me just explain my videos in general. I have a very strange sense of humour and I am heavily influenced by the genius of Tim and Eric so if you like stupid videos you should like these and teh rest of my vids as a matter of fact!

www.youtube.com/anotherclicheddesign

.acdx

Lake District Birthday Weekend

For my birthday last Thursday I spent the weekend in the lovely town of Bowness which is right next to Windermere in the beautiful Lake District. Initially I was supposed to be there with a couple of my friends but due to the fact that I am so timid that I didn't really want to to anything for my 21st I left everythin untill last minute and they couldn't get the whole weekend off so my mum and her boyfriend joined me instead. As you can tell from the photos above, I wasn't very inspired and I was very off my game photo taking wise! However, I did have a wonderful time in such a beautiful place. The only downside was Valentines Day. Yeah, 21 years old and never had a Valentine.... never had a relationship (yeah this stuff can saved for another time... or post). So as you can imagine, being in such a beautiful place with no one to share it with at a time like that is not fun but that being said, I still really enjoyed the peacefulness and the sights. I could do with that view of the misty lake right now. We didn't really venture out that much because we all just wanted to chill. Our apartment was gorgeous and uber cosy! I also recorded some video that's on my Youtube right now. It's not what you think but I hope you will find teh funny side!

So yeah, not really posted for a while so I thought I would share that with my small audience (I love you all by the way).

www.youtube.com/anotherclicheddesign

.acdx

My Late Thoughts On Stickman Sculpture

Yes I know it is rather late to be posting about this but I thought, seeing as I am a graphic designer; an artist, I need to give my opinion about stuff like this. Now, if you don't already know this already the picture above is of Alberto Giacometti's piece called L'Homme qui marche. Now if you have eyes like me, it's just a statue right? Wrong! That piece cost a whopping £65m! Now that, as you might have guessed (Why am I still talking to you as if you don't know anything about this story?) is a world record and of course it was a centre of a massive debate. Which is rightly so because we live in hard times financially and people are still willing to shell out these vast sums of money for something so trivial. As you have probably guessed, I am annoyed by this. Let me tell you why.



First off. Let's not beat around the bush. It's just a piece of sculpture. Yeah it's nice but it isn't really anything that special. ANYONE could have made this. I just do not see the appeal. Sure, it's a nice looking piece but maybe £50 would even be a stretch! I mean i too. I would be a bit annoyed if I had to pay £50 for this. This leads me onto another point. People seem to pay these stupid amounts for pieces because of the critics and the museums saying "This is a must have piece" and stuff like that. Why not pay £10 for something that looks nice instead of paying silly amounts for something that is priced based on a "professionals" opinion? There are a lot of pretentious people out there (just go to the Tate Modern) who have more money than sense. At the end of the day I personally feel 2 people with big wallets got into a debate war and it went a bit over the top. I think it is a stupid example of the human condition. If art is about expression and visual impact, why are we swarmed with this pretentious attitude? Where have the days gone where you would buy a piece that looks nice? Why are we living in a world where it always about status? That's just my opinion anyway. Nice piece but overpriced. Nonsense!

.acdx

Why I chose Christianity video

I hope you liked the DFA posts even though it wasn't really a weeks worth of DFA posts but more like DFA posts.... yeah I don't know what lol. I will probably do one more DFA post over the next couple of days about what my 10 favourite songs are from the DFA back catalogue. So apologies for that!

Anyway as you can see, I have a new video on my youtube account. Let me just say first off, do not take this video seriously. I am not Christian, I am an Atheist. I'm not attacking anyone in this video. It's more of a satire. So there.

This was such a seriously pointless post but hey, I am a pointless piece of flesh haha.

So enjoy the video, I know that most Christians do not follow the old testament so I'm not a clueless gimp lol.

Check out more of my videos at:

www.youtube.com/anotherclicheddesign

.acdx

DFA Week: DFA Remixes

(Wow, really original choice of picture to kick this post off Pete)

Yes, another late post. Apologies about that friends (yeah, got to apologise to the hundreds of readers..... what!?) but it's really hard blogging at times, you sometimes have the posts in your head but you can't get the info out. Anyways, I digress. Let's get down to it. Aside from having some amazing artists on the label, James and Tim also are the brains behind the infamous "DFA Remix". To me, the DFA remix is more than just changing a song around a bit. It's more than just adding a beat, adding some loops, changing the structure. The DFA Remix more than just turns a song into a floorfiller. James and Tim work their magic. It's hard to describe, it really is. They change the song into more than just a remix, it's as if they have gone back to basics and recorded the song as if it's their own piece. Every remix under the DFA name is completely original but seems to keep an underground 70's disco- experimental vibe. The live drums and gritty bass also seem like a throw back to like I stated in the first post; the disco-punk sound.



Most of the remixes can be found on the DFA Remixes Chapter 1 & 2 which came out in 2006 on 12" and CD format but with differing track listings. Here is the tracklistings of the CD versions:

Chapter 1:

1. Le Tigre – "Deceptacon" - 6:23
2. Blues Explosion – "Mars, Arizona" - 10:42
3. The Chemical Brothers – "The Boxer" - 9:36
4. Soulwax – "Another Excuse" - 7:58
5. Radio 4 – "Dance To The Underground" - 9:02
6. Fischerspooner – "Emerge" - 4:16
7. Gorillaz – "Dare" - 12:11
8. Metro Area – "Orange Alert" - 5:41
9. Hot Chip – "(Just Like We) Breakdown" - 8:32

Chapter 2:

• 1. Far From Home-Tiga
• 2. Shake Your Coconuts-Junior Senior
• 3. She Wants To Move-N.E.R.D.
• 4. Colours-Hot Chip
• 5. Hand That Feeds-Nine Inch Nails
• 6. Slide In-Goldfrapp
• 7. Destination Overdrive-Chromeo
• 8. In A State-UNKLE
  
  
  
  As you can see, the artists labeled on the remix CD's (they are the UK track listings by the way) are very varied. From Junior Senior to Nine Inch Nails via Metro Area. Other artists have been remixed by the DFA so you should just look out for them, a famous remix is the remix of Paper Planes by M.I.A which appears in the totally overly rated film, Slumdog Millionaire (yeah I said it!). So now you know about the awesomeness that is the DFA Remix, below I have put 5 remixes for you to listen to:
  
  Le Tigre- Deceptacon (DFA Remix
  Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom- Rise (DFA Remix)
  Nine Inch Nails- Hand That Feeds (DFA Remix)
  The Rapture- Sister Savior (DFA Dub)
  Black Dice- Smiling Off (DFA Remix)
  
  Enjoy.
  
  .acdx
  

DFA Records Day 1: DFA Appreciation!

DFA Records was started in September 2001 by Tim Goldsworthy, James Murphy and Jonathan Garkin. James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy first met in New York when they where both working on David Holmes's album Let's Get Killed. After recording the album Tim decided to stay in New York and with James started throwing parties in the Lower East Side. The pair wanted to start and run their own label but that only happened when they met with Jonathan who when told about the idea, left his event production job and the three started Death From Above.



DFA started out by releasing a serious of 12" kicking off with The Rapture's House Of Jealous Of Lovers and The Juan Maclean's By The Time I Get To Venus. Many releases where released in Europe through Trevor Jackson's Output Recordings. After releasing the full length album Echoes by The Rapture, the band left DFA and went on to sign with Universal Music Group. DFA then signed a distribution deal with EMI to distribute outside of America and signed various distribution deals for distribution in America.



Since it's birth, DFA has been going from strength to strength and it keeps on growing. Constantly relasing quality LP's, EP's, 12"'s and various compilations. DFA has releasedfor several artists and has even brought out releases through sub labels such as Death From Abroad (for artists outside of North America) and Supersoul Recordings. They have also re released cult albums by the band Pylon. Not only that but they have a strong army of acts on the label. It is also said that there was a day spent with Britney Spears writing songs.



Originally, the label was called Death From Above Records dating back to James' nickname that he received way back when he built a soundsystem for Juan Macleans' band; Six Finger Satellite but due to events of 9/11... it was deemed unsuitable for a New York based label to be named such a thing. People might not know that name disputes don't just stop at terrorism. There was also a dispute between the band Death From Above 1979 who after some kind negotitians from Murphy and the gang, they added the 1979 to end of their name.



DFA is also seen as the centre of the modern Dance- Punk scene. The Dance- Punk genre is almost like a resurgence of NY's underground scene between 1978 and 1982. Influence of bands like Talking Heads, Blondie and Liquid Liquid can be heard through DFA's back catalogue as well as bands like New Order. However, instead of just retreading old ground, the acts on DFA have taken live dance of the time but have combined it with modern recording/ music making techniques. Making the sound faster, heavier, dubbier, noisier and a lot mor intense than their influences.



Here is a list of DFA acts that you might know and SHOULD check out if you don't:

DFA
altair nouveau
black dice
black leotard front
black meteoric star
canyons
capracara
delia gonzalez & gavin russom
free energy
hercules & love affair
holy ghost!
hot chip
james curd
J.O.Y
the juan maclean
lcd soundsystem
panthers
pixeltan
prinzhorn dance school
pylon
runaway
shit robot
shocking pinks
still going
syclops
YACHT
walter jones

DEATH FROM ABROAD
altz
bot’ox
cage & aviary
gucci soundsystem
mock & toof
plastique de rêve
supersoul recordings
yura yura teikoku

RONGDFA
dj kaos
free blood
scotty coats & wes the mes
woolfy

So to conclude this post I thought I would tell you why I feel that DFA are probably one of the most important labels since the likes of Motown, ZE, Factory... etc... etc...
I have never come across a bad release from the label. Every song, video or remix is amazing quality. The people involved with DFA are very lucky and what else can I say!? Yeah sure, nowadays Ed Rec, BNR, Dim Mak (yeah you knwo the labels!) seem to rule the roost but DFA and their experimental, dancey, disco punk acts always are nice to come back to. Here are just a few songs that you should listen to:

lcd soundsystem- Losing My Edge
Black Meteoric Star- World Eater
Black Dice- Earnings Plus Interest

So there you go, the first post of my DFA Week. I was intending on posting once each day but I am so passionate about DFA so maybe I will post a couple times a day but I don't know. My next post will be looking at my personal favourite DFA act; lcd soundsystem.

.acd