What the what? We got interviewed by cooler than cool Brooklyn boutique, Bird! Who knew? Check it out. Also of note on their blog, today’s post on a local families experiments in space. Totally awesome video. But mainly, look at us!
Lovely Monday to you, reader. We have to admit, here at the offices of KoR we’ve been on a bit of a singer-songwriter kick lately. Sure, the ‘hey, look I’m sad and I have a guitar’ thing can get old and a bit boring sometimes, but, when you think about it, it’s one of independent modern music’s most intimate presentations to an audience. Without all the bells and whistles and hoots and hollers and zing-a-bing-bings, a son’s that’s stripped down to vocals, clear, sincere lyrics, and a raw, basic musical skeleton of guitar plucking and piano lines can really speak to you if the writing’s strong, right? We think so. Which is why we’ve been digging things like the new solo album from Cursive’s Tim Kasher and the stunningly beautiful new release by Brooklyn’s Sharon Van Etten (that one’s a must). Newly added to the list: The self-titled debut by Fences, AKA Chris Mansfield. A friend of ours was kind enough to send over some press on the Pacific Northwesterner and we’re glad she did. Mansfield’s music is beautiful and his voice sounds more grey and sad and earnest than you’d expect from someone in his late twenties, but we hear it rains a lot over there, so what can you do. Check out his song, “My Girl the Horse,” as this week’s Song of the Week, and then head over to his MySpace page to hear more and his site to buy the whole album…or some other odd stuff, like signed wolf masks or “FOREVER BUMMED” totes…. It must rain a LOT, right?
It’s been a while since we brought you As the Crow Flies—our entirely irregular and themeless weekend guide—but, with so much awesomeness this weekend, we couldn’t resist. As a side note, though, we promise to bring back our semi-atrophied series chronicling personal stories on becoming vegetarian/vegan, Not Just a Phase,
Finally, we’re not fans of spec work in theory, but this poster, designed in a contest for one of our favo(u)rite bands, Foals, is pretty keen and worth mentioning. Well-played, Mr. Harry Wright. Well-played.
Just came across this searching for a file—A poster we did way back in 2003 to promote the brief foray Katie and I made into DJing. Yes, that is an awesome DJ team name. And yes, we did love color gradients.
Dont’ get us wrong. We’re still super into infusing liquors. We recently had a SUPERB cinnamon-infused vodka from our friends over at The Banquet, we wrote up a great recipefor habanero-infused tequila last fall, and we’ve even got a farm-fresh lemongrass vodka going right now. But sometimes a homemade flavored syrup can go a long way with your fancy-pantsy drinks, especially if, say, you’re hosting a party for all your friends and realize you don’t quite have the week or two necessary to fully infuse a liquor. So next time you want to mix up some nice cocktails, give a syrup a try. In most cases, you can just add a dab of these flavorful fillers to your favorite simple drink—say a vodka/gin + soda, margarita, or manhattan.
There aren’t many hard and fast rules to stirring up a simple syrup—basically, you can just heat some water stovetop while you add a healthy amount of raw cane sugar, allowing the mixture to slowly thicken in the pan (non-stick). It can boil, if you’re in a huge rush, let’s say, but watch that it doesn’t boil over and DEFINITELY make the mixture doesn’t get too too thick and cause the sugar to burn. That’s a mess. Trust me. Once you get that to a stable place—a gentle boil, let’s say—you’re ready to start experimenting. Our last party, we went with a brown sugar + cinnamon syrup (great with whisk(e)ys), a ginger + lemon syrup (nice with a citrus-based vodka drink), and a lavender + sea salt syrup (superb with gins). The winner of the night in my view was the lavender syrup. We just got the syrup itself going, added a healthy amount of seas salt (maybe 1 or 2 tsp.), and then threw in 10 or so spring of lavender that we had drying for a month or so and let everything cook down for about 10 or 15 minutes. It was a mad hit. The ginger + lemon syrup, as you might or guessed, just involved adding a couple tablespoons of lemon juice and some cut fresh ginger to the cooking syrup. And with the brown sugar + cinnamon, we’d just recommend switching the cane sugar with brown sugar and using real cinnamon sticks rather than the powdered kind. Some powdered cinnamon has a tendency to be so refined that it can form a weirdly textured semi-solid in the syrup that can be less than appetizing for anyone hitting the bottom of the container.
Another bonus with syrups over infused liquors? You’re non-drinking friends/random kids form downstairs can stir up a flavored soda. Sweet!
About three years ago, a very creative friend of ours—Agatha—started something called the Brooklyn Music Exchange, which basically boils down to getting a group of people who love music together and having them create and then distribute a new themed mix on a regular basis—in our case, every month. So, one person or couple or pair of roommates sends out a mix one month in the year and then gets eleven other mixes from their various friends on the list throughout the year. Kind of like an awesome pyramid scheme. Though it can be a bit of work and the idea’s evolved somewhat over the years—CDs have become a little less common that shareable MP3s and, after some Brooklyn exoduses, BMX now more accurately stands for Borough Music Exchange—we’ve discovered countless new bands and tracks that we may never have heard without BMX and we totally suggest giving it a try with your group of friends.
We wanted to quickly share our entry this year, built around the theme of old-school Choose Your Own Adventure books and a fantasy-style quest to find “The Ultimate Band.” Many who know me know that I’m a total nerd and, in addition to growing up on a steady diet of D&D games, I was a HUGE fan of the CYOA book series. Though Katie’s opinion on freeform roleplaying games differs a tad from mine, she also shared a love for the books in her youth. So we bought a collection of the actual old CYOAs from the 70s and 80s and designed new covers/jackets for the books, staying as absolutely true to the original designs, fonts, layouts, and writing style as possible. We used a combination of hand-sketching, in-Illustrator pen + blob brush work, and some other random illustration work to get the cover art and back jacket down. The result—Katie can conjure musically-inspired mystical energies and looks pretty damn snazzy in a hooded cloak and our cat has some bad-ass dragon wings. The books, which we sent out to the BMX list, each featured a call to visit a Web site we built to Begin the Rockventure!
Via our regular Music Monday, we now extend the invitation to you, dear reader. Don your feathered cap and totally tough tunic and enter the weirdly rock-nerdy musical world of our 2010 BMX—IF YE DARE!!! Out of respect for the artists involved and because….um….we’re not made of storage space, it won’t stay up for long, so check it out while you can. And, obvs, if you’re one of the artists involved and would like me take your tracks down, say the word.
Below: The entirely sensible site navigation diagram and full front-back jacket design. Click for larger versions.
Fellow Black Thumbs, rejoice! If you, like me, can barely remember to wear shoes, much less water your plants, we’ve found just the thing—AIR PLANTS! No, really! Air plants—more formally/smarty-pants-ily, members of the plant genus Tillandsia—are found in very arid regions and absorb their nutrients from the air itself via their leaves. So watering involves an occasional misting or, if that’s too much for you, running them under a faucet like once a week. Even I can handle that. Our friend and star dress-maker, Miranda, over at The Banquet on Atlantic in Brooklyn, gave us one recently and (drum roll, please) IT’S STILL ALIVE!!! I know, right? We named him Roger. Obviously. Stop by The Banquet and pick up your own, if you like. Just don’t name it Roger. That’d just be confusing.
I’ve often heard singer-songwriter, Shugo Tokumaru described as Japan’s Sufjan Stevens. Which I get—while he’s not quite as insanely prolific, he does EVERYTHING on his albums and pays all 100+ instruments on them, so a talented guy—but, with the layers of intricacies and sharp melodies, he reminds me much more of New York’s Mice Parade. Regardless of the accuracy of comparisons though, his music, with all it’s beautiful, dramatic sweeps and dives, is moving and captivating. Check out the new single from his most recent album—Port Entropy—“Rum Hee,” this week’s Song of the Week. The album’s only available in Japan for the time being, but I’m sure something this good will make state-side in no time. And be sure to check out his 2008 album, Exit, while you’re waiting.
When, after listening to this week’s Song of the Week, you realize that your Monday and, therefore, the rest of the week to come has been saved, know that you have Brooklyn’s Restless People to thank. Members of other fine NYC bands such as Professor Murder and Tanlines make up Restless People with the evident goal of having you cheer the fuck up to the tune of some extremely well-played electro dance punk. Check it out when you get a chance. You owe it to the rest of your week.
Kaight Comes to Brooklyn
