From their last full-length Crimes (there’s a new one on the way), These United States perform two tracks in NYC’s Washington Square Park, street busker-style. Folksy and spirited, please enjoy ‘Pleasure and Pain and Pride and Me’ and ‘Honor Amongst Thieves’. You might as well. I know you’re not actually setting foot outside today.

It’s a sci-fi movie that, from all accounts so far, hearkens back to the chilly, exploration-of-the-human-condition, in-depth character-study-type classics of the golden olden days. Oh yeah — and it’s directed by David Bowie’s son. Oh, and it stars Sam Rockwell. And also, Sam Rockwell. What?

Either way, there’s some real messed-up capital-S going down. It opens today in NY and LA. So, if you’re there, you know…go.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIexG8179K8 540]

A couple months ago, Louie came into the shop and, while we were twiddling our thumbs waiting for his iPhone to charge, struck up a convo about chiptunes.

the music! the lazers! okay, there weren’t any lazers.

He had his work cut out for him trying to school me on all things 8-bit. Luckily for him, a Gameboy says a thousand words. Louie pulled out a vintage sun-yellow 80′s model and showed me how he’d modified it to compose and play music. I may be ashamed to admit I’m this far behind the times, but let’s just say my mind was bliggity-blown.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARjcEpb7wxY 540]

Japanese chiptuners YMCK and their pixelated world o’ bloop

Yes, of course there’s a whole 8-bit, chiptunes scene that’s been thriving for quite some time. As an outsider, it’s easy to poo-poo away all that blipping and blooping as a nostalgia trip and not much more. As with anything new, 8-bit artists provoke a visceral reaction that ranges between love and hate, but the haters always come off sounding like our dorky old grandparents at their crotchety-est, griping that it’s just a bunch of noise, a poor excuse for music, etcetera, etcetera, as if they’re half a tick away from chasing those damn kids off their lawn.

On the strength of some cool projects popping up lately, however, 8-bit continues to build on its foothold in the music community. Take the following, just spawned from the mind behind waxy.org. Kind of Bloop, a chiptunes tribute to Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, is now in the works. From the Kind of Bloop page on Kickstarter (another bit of waxy.org wickedness that is too cool and involved to dive into now, so just read up on it here already):

What would the pioneers of jazz sound like on a Nintendo Entertainment System? Coltrane on a C-64? Mingus on Amiga? For years, I’ve wondered what “chiptune jazz” would sound like, but there are only a tiny handful of jazz covers ever made.

To satisfy my curiosity — and commemorate the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue” – I’ve asked five brilliant chiptune musicians to collaborate and reinvent the entire album in the 8-bit sound.

Go check out the Kickstarter page for info on the artists contributing to this project which, after fulfilling its funding requirements in the first few hours, is now officially on like Donkey Kong.

David Choe’s studio

Just a quick one I noticed via The Hundreds’ always-on-top-of-it blog — a couple favorites, James and Dave, in the same place in a two-day art-romp through the city.

Here they are, making a white-man sandwich out of Sam Borkson. I blog about these guys; the Hundreds crew goes to Pinkberry with them. James is cool. Dave is cool. That’s all I’ve got. And, for a foray into David Choe’s wild and great disjointed mind, The Hundreds puts us on to his blog, which careens from Mike Tyson to the late-great David Carradine to that awesome kid with the Russian name from Alpha Dog within a single post.

Fun for the whole family, really. Smoker or not, this is hilarious. And I already have trouble shaking the theme song. Someone please tell me I can actually buy this thing.

‘What’s wrong, Smokerman?’
‘Coff, coff…’
‘His one regret is a cigarette. Tries to fly, but he can’t go hiiiiigh…‘

Swine flu is throwing everything off. They keep closing schools, leaving working parents in Queens with kids on their hands and nowhere to stick the little brats. I say, strap these Yoriko Yoshida designs on the tykes and send ‘em back out into the wild. Kids love masks — just tell them it’s ‘Second Halloween.’ Kids…they’ll believe anything. Oh, and they don’t get any candy.

via Pink Tentacle

Chrome can be so beautiful, before it got so tacky with all the spinning rims out there. What about them Zumreed ZHP-005 by Dreams Japan (a pair of headphones that has been, quite literally, a magazine favorite – featured on Nylon, Teen Vogue, and many other via AudioCubes.com), now in mirror finish. We haven’t seen them in person yet, but since even USA Today picked up on the feed, we have a feeling personalizing electronics and accessories with chrome could the trend for 2009 and 2010, again.

[ GEDDEM via AudioCubes.com now ]