exhibitart

BANKSY ACCOUNT

Long-time fans of the art of graffiti have had many, many underground heroes to follow and possibly emulate—but only a few make it to household name status, where middle-class middle-aged broadsheet readers may have a thick perfect-bound book featuring said artist on the coffee table. Here in Blighty, a completely anonymous chap from Bristol has certainly made it—at least, to the people waiting in line around the block for over two hours, he’s definitely made it. To say the Banksy vs Bristol Museum exhibit was impressive would be understating it a little.

Firstly, the setting. The Bristol Museum is one of those classically dusty old museums from yesteryear—well, 1905 to be precise—grand olde architecture, all stone and vaulted pillars spread over …read on

—Mark Noble, 31 July 2009

legendmusic

A QUARTER OF NICKELS

I can still remember the very first time I heard them. It was the same day I first met Neil Blender. 1986 or so. Neil was blasting their music over speakers in his living room when O and I walked in. My first question was, “Who is this?” Neil and O both responded, “The Minutemen.” I was dumbfounded. A few months later in a record store, my good friend Kevin Wilkins shoved a couple 12″ records in my hand and just said, “Buy these.” It was the Minutemen’s What Makes a Man Start Fires? and Double Nickels.

I purchased them both and my life hasn’t been the same since.

The Minutemen’s now iconic Double Nickels on the Dime has been floating in …read on

—Andy Jenkins, 30 July 2009

designtransport

HEAR ME WHIR

First there was the old Honda Insight, a car for every adventurous, early eco-nerd. Then came the Toyota Prius, a bland family hybrid that pro skaters used their newly-upped paycheques and trade-in money from their Honda Civics to buy. Next in the field of notable electrically-enhanced environmentally (less un-) friendly motors was that hotshot electric Tesla, priced beyond most people’s reach. And now, we’ve come full circle, back to a new Insight. Which looks like a Prius. A bit dull.

But the reasonably-heeled eco-conscious Kev and Sharon (perhaps that should be updated to Carter and Poppy) will soon be able to get in on the game with next year’s offering from Honda, the CR-Z. (That stands for “Compact Renaissance Zero”. Like, …read on

—Chris Noble, 28 July 2009

designpeople

YOU KNOW THE TYPE

How would you measure the success of a type designer? Through widespread coverage, the success of their typefaces, or the subjective quality of their work? Seb Lester’s answers to these illustrious career criteria would be the use of his custom Intel typeface on all of Intel’s branding and product ranges and his development of typefaces used by Barclays Bank, Dell, The Daily Telegraph, GQ, The New York Times, The Sunday Times and the upscale supermarket Waitrose, for starters. Lester’s Neo Sans and Soho Gothic are amongst some of the best selling modern typefaces, holding their own amongst classics such as Helvetica and Futura.

The use of his type is not only huge but continually expanding.

To vent some extra creative steam, he’s …read on

—Johann Chan, 22 July 2009

musicevent

ETERNAL YOUTH

Typically, if a band has been together for a quarter century or more, they stay famous based on their legacy. Most of their fans go to see them to hear “the old stuff.” Not so with Sonic Youth. Their latest, The Eternal (Matador, 2009) is as consistent and challenging as anything in their burgeoning catalog.

Now a five-piece—bass player Mark Ibold of Pavement and Free Kitten fame, who’s toured with Sonic Youth for the past few years, officially joined on this record—their live show is as blissful and blistering as it’s ever been. I saw them again recently at Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, Alabama. This time out, they ripped through most of the new record and a handful of tracks from …read on

—Roy Christopher, 20 July 2009

exhibitart

TIME’S UP

An 18th Century Tower, 1,111 ticking clocks and a Japanese sound artist. These things all come together in a new Exhibition from Yukio Fujimoto. The location is Perrott’s Folly, built in 1758, now interestingly caught between various types of inner city housing. It formed part of the inspiration for Tolkien’s The Two Towers and has only recently been re-opened after closing its doors twenty years ago.

Inside you’ll find a narrow stone staircase winding up to the first room which on entering appears to be empty and run down. With paint pealing from the ageing mouldings, the place has certainly seen better days. Then you notice a tiny clock softly ticking in the centre of the room, insignificant at first, …read on

—Lee Basford, 17 July 2009

exhibitart

JOYFULLY BEWILDERED

The third instalment of The Joyful Bewilderment’s touring exhibition recently opened in Bristol. It all began at Rough Trade’s Brick Lane space in London back in September, travelled north to Analogue Gallery in Edinburgh and has now found its way west in the roomy basement space of Here Gallery in Bristol’s Stokes Croft.

It’s an amazing collection of work from over 100 like-minded artists spanning the globe, all sharing a strong craft-based aesthetic and compulsion to create. Walking through the space, it’s almost too much to take in; you really have to slow yourself down and examine each piece as something individual and of itself before you move on to the next. The work varies from pencil drawings by James Jarvis …read on

—Lee Basford, 13 July 2009

legendphoto

TOTAL TRIPPIN

When I first saw Olympus’s wild new E-P1 camera, I froze. Because it looks just amazing. Brushed silver bodywork, a little patch of faux leather upon which to nestle your fingertips, an old-school flash hotshoe mount above the lens (no pop-up micro-flashes here which usually make a camera look like a Fitted 50:50 cap’s flipped up in a headwind), a proper round shutter release button, and another round button on the other side, chrome plate highlight lines… and a proper M-Zuiko lens stuck out the front. Just brilliant. Does retro get any better than this?
The E-P1 blows my skirt up simply because I have this camera’s film ancestor—its great-grandpa, if you will. My Olympus Trip 35 was the first …read on

—Mark Noble, 10 July 2009

peoplemusic

ROUGH DIVERS

The Vibe Bar, East London, 6th July 2009: I’m too old for reviewing bands. Sorry, dear reader, to immediately discredit the forthcoming paragraph but rather annoyingly (for some junior snappers in the customary elbow-off down the front certainly) in photographic circles, experience still counts for a lot. Juggling available light with flash exposures and a band with a long mic cable and little regard for the confines of the stage as a working area, I give you Dananananaykroyd.
Six Glaswegians with more energy, dedication, enthusiasm, talent, drummers and reverse stage divers than anyone ever before. Not that I’ve been counting especially. Go see them and understand. I have no idea how they translate to record but in the increasingly important …read on

—Tom Oldham, 08 July 2009

peoplemusic

THE MAN FROM MARS VOLTA

As the guitarist/composer for The Mars Volta and At The Drive-In, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez has had a regular outlet for his noisy but nuanced ideas for a decade and a half. Well, it seems that their regular output—The Mars Volta has released six records in as many years, with the latest, Octahedron, just out on June 23rd—is not enough. The guy has no less than a baker’s dozen solo and side-project records out, and they’re all good!

Well, they’re all good if you’re into proggy bluesy arty rock ’n’ roll. They’re all good if you’d like to hear what the edges around The Mars Volta sound like. They’re not out-take-ish though: these are fully formed musical onslaughts and they will broaden your …read on

—Roy Christopher, 22 June 2009