Monday, June 28, 2010

Astronautalis: Astronovelis

So this is why I love twitter:

Earlier today I was listening to Astronautalis while wondering why the hell I named my blog 'Rainbow Report'. I jokingly offered 'Astronovelis' as a potential title, being sure to "@reply" the rapper in my tweet. A couple hours later I receive this tweet from Andy 'Astronautalis' Bothwell himself:

@JanayKinney is that my book blog?

I told him it could be. Like most people that read my blog I am an avid reader and am always looking to add my list of books to read as much as my list of bands to check out. So I took the opportunity to find out what Astro (would he hate that nickname?) was reading as of late:

@JanayKinney "Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla" by Marc J. Siefer & "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville

I'll admit to being pleasantly shocked by the answer. Although I have no idea what I expected the answer to be. I've read the first few chapters of "...Nikola Tesla" before caving under the pressure to purchase and complete "The Lovely Bones" before it was released in theaters a few months ago. I'll definitely be getting back to it soon. And "Moby Dick", classic, not many original things I can think to say about it. It appears to be an old favorite of Andy's:

@JanayKinney i hadn't read it in over a decade...it is still great. my favorite author is a big Melville fan and so im going on a tear!

Astronautalis has a way with words. He spins them with art and I find myself obsessing over his lyrics the way I'm sometimes caught on a sentence in a book wondering "Wow...that was clever, how did they do that?". So when someone whose words effect me like that recommends something full of words they think are worth reading I take it to heart:

@JanayKinney Mark Helprin. greatest living writer. start with either "A Soldier of the Great War" or "The Pacific" THEN read "Winter's Tale"



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Photo by: Jaime "Wojo4hitz" Wojdowski (http://twitter.com/wojo4hitz)

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Crystal Castles: "Celestica" Video

So like every other blogger this week, I decided to embed this here to make it easier to find. Pitchfork did not want to share.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Sick of Sarah Unveils '2205'


Sick of Sarah has released the title and tracklisting of their new record. The new record will be called 2205, which every Sick of Sarah fan will find adorably sentimental.

And the tracks:

1. Overexposure
2. Simple Parts
3. Giving Up
4. Kick Back
5. Cigarettes
6. Kiss Me
7. One Night Stand
8. Shattered
9. Autograph
10. El Paso Blue
Only 10 tracks??? Yeah I know bummer right? Well, the beauty in that is, as with most indie bands SoS tends to release EPs every once in a while and they seem to always be writing so think of it as just more to look forward to; B-sides baby! Also four of the tracks you already know ("Simple Parts", "Kick Back", "Kiss Me", "Autograph") and I'm pretty sure you can hear some of "Cigarettes" and "Overexposure" in the band's latest "Making of the Album" upload on Youtube. Apparently some material was written over the time spent in the studio in El Paso, TX where the girls recorded. With this in mind I'm guessing "El Paso Blue" is about baby raccoons. No but seriously, there should at least be baby raccoons on the cover.

The band has been speaking on the album being darker, less poppy this time around since the demoing phase. From what I can tell, they're delivering on that. And I don't think that means we'll be singing along any less or that the songs will be less catchy. I just think this means less upbeat with more(complex)structure. Release date yet to be...released.

The first "single" (cause I don't know how seriously indie bands take that word) off the new record will be "Overexposure". Abisha (lead singer) tweeted that they plan to shoot the video for it next month. Also, having wrapped up the recording process I'm sure they'll be touring again soon, probably with Vanity Theft (that's just my guess). So lots to look forward to.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Behind the Lens: Angela Kendall

Feel free to geek out with me while reading this interview with the amazing Angela Kendall. She's the director behind those Tegan & Sara features we all love and an accomplished music video director. She's not any less amazing a photographer either. She has been crazy busy but took time out to answer a few questions!


How are you today? I can't see you so I just want to make sure you're in a good mood while answering these questions.

These questions are great and i am in a delightful mood (thank you for asking :)


So you just do it all: Photography, music videos, documentaries. Which do you find the most challenging?

Each have their own set of unique challenges. I would say I find music videos the most challenging because there are so many variables. First of all, you have to take someone's song and interpret it in such a way that you stay true to it while also creating something original and compelling. It's also getting increasingly difficult to be original because so many ideas have already been done. Directing the actual shoot is also very challenging. There's a lot of pressure to get the shots you want and you have to be able to think on your feet.


When you're editing footage how do you decide what to cut? For example, that teaser you made for Death Cab, it's about two minutes. You must've gotten quite a bit of behind the scenes/studio footage. How did you decide what to squeeze into the short clip?

It depends on what Im cutting. In that Death Cab Teaser I simply chose shots that I felt were my strongest, matched the mood of the song being used, and represented what you would see when you watched the full piece. In the general sense, you choose shots based on your criteria. For example, what music you're using, what story you want to tell, and what shots are your best. A lot of it, for me anyway, is instinctual; I just gravitate towards certain shots.


In An Horse's video for "Camp Out", Kate falls down a few times, which is a literal interpretation of a lyric in that song. As were the phone cords in Tegan & Sara's video for "Call It Off". Is that more of an interesting concept to you; to play with the metaphors in that way?

I like to pull some meaning out of the song, something that I can expand upon to give the video some depth and purpose. I do like metaphors because they can be so creative, and its gets you away from a literal translation.


One of my favorite videos of all time is the one you guys made for "Addiction" by Jets Overhead. It's one of those "mirror to society" pieces we so desperately need more of. How was that made? That footage didn't strike me as easy to find.

I like the way that video turned out too. The footage was not easy to find, and we spent countless hours scouring public domain archives to get suitable shots.


I just want to switch gears for a minute and talk about your photography. The nature shots on your site are beautiful, some hauntingly so. Could you tell us where some of those were shot?

It's hard to take credit for pictures of nature :) All my shots were taken in and around Vancouver with the really scenic ones coming from an alpine hiking trip I took in Keremeos last summer.


I found the "Urban" photos really sad. Not sure if they were supposed to be. Were those taken in Vancouver?

I never intended for the urban photos to be sad, but that's interesting you felt that. I wanted to focus on structural composition, so there is a starkness that comes with that. Most of them were taken in east van, where I live, so I guess there's an inherent sadness to this neighborhood that might have come through as well.


For the first time in a long time on the "News" page on the Transmission 2 site, I scrolled all the way down. The earliest update being from February 2004 and was about you guys beginning the shooting of "The Making of So Jealous". You've been working with Tegan & Sara for a long time, as well as Jets Overhead. When you bring ideas to people you've been working with for a long time does that make you nervous, I mean is there more pressure there? Or is it all just natural because you guys know each other so well?

It's all very natural by this point. We've been working together for so many years, that I don't feel pressure to give ideas. Beyond a working relationship, we're all friends, so that makes things even easier.


Speaking of Tegan & Sara, you're directing two new videos for their songs "On Directing" and "Northshore". Tegan tweeted a few pictures from the set. They're known for having some pretty quirky videos. However, the shots Tegan tweeted seemed dark in a few ways, mostly in a literal way. Without giving too much away, can you just tell us if these videos will be a bit more intense or darker than their previous ones?

I will say that these videos will be a departure from the quirkiness we usually see from Tegan and Sara. We wanted to do a couple videos that were immediate and accessible to a wide variety of people.


Do you and Brian have any projects in the works you can tell us about?

Both of us are working on two separate pilot tv shows, and I'm starting up an art project with a friend, but I can't really talk about it yet. You'll just have to wait and see :)



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