Continuing our monthly accumulations of new sounds, we present April mixtape.

We’ve been excited about most every song and band we’ve presented in these past few months since starting this regular piece, but this month we’ve got a few new finds we’re especially thrilled to share, chief among them, the Mark Ronson, Lorde, and Madonna-erndorsed French performer, Christine and The Queens, upbeat indie pop from Leeds, Marsicans, and Brooklyn band, LEGS, who we interviewed last week on the occasion of the release of their debut full-length.

Listen below or on our SoundCloud page. And enjoy.

We posted this photo a bit back via MooShoes Los Angeles’ Instagram account, but loved the shot so much, we wanted it to live here too.

Shoes by our house brand, Novacas; street art in Silver Lake by Mister Uncertain.

It’s been written by me on these pages many a time at this point, but, for years now—since my late high school/early college days, at least—artist Nikki McClure has been producing material to make both Katie + me swoon, be it in her vocal-forward, radically personal music in the early + mid nineties or in her later visual work with traditional paper cuts. We’ve spoken with Nikki before about her work and how much we appreciate it; on the occasion of her first exhibition in Los Angeles since we’ve lived here, we wanted to catch up again and find out how things are going for her, how her work’s changed in the past few years, and what she’ll be showing at the exhibition, which opens this weekend (details at the end of this interview and on Giant Robot’s site).

raven + crow: Alright, so, it’s been a little while since we last spoke. What’s been going on for you in the past four or so years?

Nikki McClure: Four years. I could have been President. But instead, I’ve been making dinner, getting the kid to go to school (today we took a walk and then went to school, late), making new books, books, books, sailed to Alaska, swam off Japan and Santa Cruz, learned to scuba dive, built a house, swam across the inlet, wrote cranky emails, made crankies, and witnessed eagles mating every one of those four years.

Eagle voyeur, eh? No, I’d personally say that beats leader of the free world. Who wants that kind of responsibility? We’ve been enjoying all of the book work you’ve been doing of late too. Our cat, Allister, very much enjoys How to Be a Cat and would like to know if a particular cat inspired the book.

When I bought a house in 1998, with every last dime I had, there was a cat left behind. “That’s Bud. He lives in the garage. Don’t worry, the neighbors feed him.” Well, eventually I fed him and even let him on my lap though he was a stinky tomcat, blind, with a festering wound that would never heal because he had cat AIDS. He was Bud. I needed to make some more dimes after buying the house, so I made a cat calendar to support myself. The calendar became the inspiration for the book. My publisher was happy to just reprint the calendar, but I had changed a bit since 1998, so I added a kitten to the story. I’m happy to hear that your cat enjoys it. People send me pictures of their cats with the book, often in a sunny spot. I’m not so sure if it’s the book or the warmth that the cats are digging.

Both, right? I noticed you’ve started doing a lot with large format prints—both digital + screen—and selling original paper cuts via BuyOlympia too—what inspired those moves?

Someone asked for a big print and BuyOlympia got a big printer and was already making prints for other artists. It seemed a way to make a nicer print than the offset mass produced ones that I sell. Plus, people have been framing the cheap prints and treating them like art, so why not up the ante and provide Art art for the people? The silk-screens are experiments with colors. I made some on wood for my last LA show. I will be making a silkscreen print for the Giant Robot show in LA of a 2016 calendar image. LA is Futureland, so why not? I discovered a cool printer here in Olympia, Justin Crawford. I liked what he was doing with color and ink and paper and images. It’s fun!

Yeah, I just took a look at his D.A.R.E. style shirt—nice. Is it tough for you to let go of those originals though?

Usually. But one of the first originals I sold was to a family with a little girl. My image would hang in their dining room. She would look at it every day for 12 years. It would become her visual memory, burned into her mind (I should laugh evilly here, but it makes me pretty happy and quietly humble). I keep one from every series. Now I let my son decide which one he wants. They will be his someday when I’m gone.

Aw. Well, that’s beautiful. The “Love: 15,000 Years Later” screen prints seemed really awesome—I read you did those for a trip to Japan? Can you talk about that?

I had Justin Crawford print them up. I wasn’t happy with the cover of the 2015 calendar. TOO YELLOW, yet I wouldn’t let myself freak out with colors like I really, really wanted too. I’m pretty strict about my image making rules: one piece of paper, all connected, color to add meaning, one color added. So the rainbow color pallet of sunset didn’t fit into the rules. And when I tried it on computer…it looked weird and computer-y. But I really wanted to give it a go in a manual way. Silkscreening gave me that chance. The colors started out vibrant, then faded over the printing evening, just like the real sky was fading. I like that it shows time through the printing process. It also seemed that Japan would understand.

I want to write a series of short stories entitled “Japan Would Understand”. Speaking of Japan…by way of LA, now you’ve got a show coming up at the Asian American punk, arts + culture zine turned gallery + store, Giant Robot here in Los Angeles. Congratulations, first off. How did that come about?

Eric from Giant Robot asked me. Plus, my son has been asking me “When are we going back to LA? You should have a show again at that cool place.” I’ve had a few shows there. I’ve known Giant Robot for many years. (A pause while I remember). Was it the mid-1990’s??? early 90’s?? WE GO WAY BACK. It was through music, then through art that we connected and have maintained contact.

Awesome! Los Angeles scores cool points with America’s youth! What are you planning to show at the exhibition this go ’round?

I’ll show the originals from In, my latest children’s book, reviewed in LA Times last weekend. I’ll also show some of the 2015 calendar paper cuts and then a few other mixed assortments of ideas for my next book. I will also have the new silkscreen print.

That all sounds really fun—we’re excited to see it all in person. And excited to finally meet you in person and have you visit our fine city again!

YES! That is the reason why I’m having the show, to go to LA to that cool store (and eat and swim and see beauty).

We can help you with all of that. Any other plans while you’re here?

Eat, swim, the Getty, maybe the Last Bookstore’s tunnel, get new Vans for the kiddo, hook up with friends who will also be in LA.

Aw, I’d tell you to come to the vegan shoe store we run in Silver Lake, but we don’t carry kids’ stuff. Definitely back you up on the Getty plan and the Last Bookstore. Nice choices.

It’s funny, I feel like places like New York, San Francisco, and around Portland + Olympia usually have fairly strong opinions of LA—they love it or they hate it. Most of my life in New York, I was running off some pretty out-of-date estimations of a city I’ve grown to love. Do you have any thoughts on Los Angeles?

I absolutely love it, for a few days. But after that, I never want to drive again and also want to leave before I see something violent (which I have lingered too long and too late and have seen in LA). LA is beautiful. There are avocado trees! And everything is so shiny and smiling and there is too much to do. I will notice the polluted air. I live in such a clean place. Portland is stinky and too many cars. Seattle is stinky and too many cars. Olympia is just right for me.

You make some pretty good points. Though I’d counter—visit our neighborhood, Beachwood Canyon. I just got back from a 6 mile run in the mountains with our dog. You can see all the way to the ocean and you’re surrounded by nature a short walk away from Hollywood proper. It’s amazing.

This might be a bit of a non-sequiter, but I feel like you’ve become this sort of ambassador to the idea of slowing down and enjoying life in a certain way. Did you reach a point in your life where you realized that had to become a priority? Or have you always had that perspective?

You are the second interview this week to think so…the fact that I have 2 interviews does not mean that I am busy. I’m just in a YES mood and 2 people were curious enough to ask.

Slow Life Ambassador? Hmmm…. It’s always been a priority to me to allow room in my life for spontaneity, to allow room in my life to LIVE. I’ve been lucky to find a way to be supported by so many people (all those calendar-buyers—thank you!). The work I do sometimes is Work work, but I can only physically cut paper for a few hours a day, and I can only think up so many creative thoughts before we have to go out to dinner because I’ve no creative energy left to think up what to make for dinner! There is no homemade pie those nights. I am addicted to gazing out windows or lying down on the sodden Earth and watching birds fly about. I have the only job that allows me to do that as part of my job! Slowing down, I haven’t pushed things along. I’ve let my life happen organically and that can be slow. Sometimes it is fast, things and projects sprout like mushrooms. Picking mushrooms and berries, swimming and hammocking: all these things take time and only happen one season a year. It would be a shame, and not living to let a season slip by without taking time, using time in other ways. I’ve said NO to a lot of things, but never NO to a walk, or swim, or blueberry patch.

I like that. A lot. It’s actually been a subject that’s been on my and my partner’s minds a lot lately—any advice for those of us trying not to buckle under the weight of everything going on in our lives? What do you do when you feel like things are getting out of hand or your spreading yourself thin?

Walk. Take a walk together. Make time to walk because when you are done everything will be better and you’ll do everything so much quicker that it will feel like you made time expand. Have a 3 minute dance party if it’s raining too hard or you have something due in 1 hour and it is freaking you out.

Excellent advice! Except that it never rains in LA…sadly. Speaking of doing too much though, we started up this retrospective online music journal with a partner + friend of ours called Forgotten Favorite, where we sing the praises of some of our favorite 10+ year old songs—you should totally contribute if you ever have any interest. Anyway, it’s had me digging more through my old music, yours included, and I keep meaning to write up a Nikki McClure favorite. I know it’s sometimes weird, but did you have a favorite of your own?

Ha! I’ve been trying to listen to the new Sleater-Kinney album, but my machine is shuffling all their songs from all the years. I am flipping back and forth in time and age. …God, it is so sunny. I might just ditch this interview!

Hah! Wait, beforee you do—I always loved that song you did for the 89.3 KAOS benefit, “EGD (Pop God)”, which I think you did with Tae from Kicking Giant (another one we want to write up). Do you still keep in touch with K Records + KRS crowd at all? Has everyone moved on to…I don’t know, home goods and design firms or is anyone doing music any more?

Yes, no. I picnicked with Lois under the cherry trees at the state Capitol last week. I sometimes see Calvin about. Kicking Giant is going to play in Olympia in May. Tae is a book designer. Rachel Carns makes Magic Kombucha. I made a t-shirt of Bud the cat for the new Sleater-Kinney tour.

OH MAN! Where can I get one of those shirts‽ I NEEED IT! Also, I love that Rachel Carns of Slant 6, The Need, and Kickign Giant now runs a kombucha company.

Back in 2011, we asked you about your apparent (and shared) fascination with crows. Since, we’ve moved to Los Angeles, where, in our area, we have an abundance of ravens, of all things. It’s awesome. But if you had to—had to—pick a favorite wild animal, what would it be? I’m guessing owl…..

The crows are calling “GOD DAMN DOGS!” That’s what they say here …or what I’ve taught them to say (that’s a long story). We feed them scraps of fishes and they are respectfully wild, yet curious about us in a way that is not quite tame. More equal in our animal-ness.

Oh, I still love crows. We do have a raven pair who who of shoof by in flight, two eagles too, and occasionally an owl. My son would vote owl or Bufflehead.

But those are birds…favorite of all animals? My husband, Jay T. and my son, Finn.

Now for the SUNSHINE!!! I might not need LA for sun after all. But I’ll go. I’ll swim in the warm ocean. Favorite swimming spots anyone??? Please share. Also Japanese food??? and ice creams. And another uniquely LA spots??

Ooh—the swimming’s only marginal, but the beach is amazing—visit El Matador State Beach if you can! And Japananese—Tastu near the gallery for ramen + Shojin in Culver CIty and in an awesome Japanese mall downtown for really good vegan sushi and super-nice staff. Then one of our favorite Brooklyn coffee + ice cream joints—Van Leeuwen—copied us and made the move out here. They’re still working on their west coast brick + mortars, but you can catch they’re truck around town. Check them out on Twitter for today’s as-of-yet announced location. They make my favorite vegan ice cream out of coconut + cashew milk. So rich + creamy.

Thanks so much for talking with us again—can’t wait for the show this weekend!

It will be fun. See you there.

15,000 Years Later, Nikki’s exhibition, opens this Saturday, April 4 with a reception 630-10PM at GR2 Gallery—Giant Robot’s gallery—located at 2062 Sawtelle Boulevard. Nikki will also be talking about her process at an Art Talk at the space at 5PM on Sunday, April 5. You can view + purchase much of Nikki’s back catalogue via long-time purveyor of all things Nikki McClure, buyolympia.com.

Below, Nikki’s studio + a work in progress; a storm water hatch cover she designed—”They are on all Olympia streets and my outdoor shower!”;  a new print; bucolic Olympia; a lovely looking pie made by Nikki; and the artist enjoying some walking + gathering in the woods.

I want to believe that the coming reboot of one of my all time favorite shows, The X-Files, is going to be good. I want to believe.

But I am oh-so-rudely reminded of my similar hope at the sad, sad arrival of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Plus the past few public appearances by show star David Duchovny have been a bit…rough, to say the least. He seems to have held it together with his recent appearance on David Letterman though. And who wouldn’t be excited about the return of Mitch Pileggi‽

The good news for Duchovny—he’ll evidently have a folk rock career to fall back on if this new X-Files doesn’t pan out.

Last summer, we stumbled across Brooklyn band, LEGS, and were immediately hooked. The 5 piece has some undeniable influences in the realms of funk and soul, but, most of all, their pop sensibility appealed to us as did the craftsmanship that went into their song-writing. Today the band celebrates the release of their debut full-length, ALTITUD, an album recorded in Ecuador and paid for through some good new-fashioned crowd-funding.

We got a chance to talk with founding member, drummer, and visual artist, Juan Miguel Marin about what it was like recording in South America, plans the band has for 2015, and how the city most of them call home has changed in the past few years. You can listen to the new album in full below.

Juan Miguel: Hi there friends at raven + crow… I’ve got to start by thanking you for the kind words about our album, but more importantly, for keeping in touch with LEGS.

raven + crow: Ah, it’s our pleasure. Alright, first things first, guys—the new album, it’s really great. Congratulations. It did exactly what I wanted it to do, which was take the feel of the EP and translate that into a bigger, deeper sound. How was writing for that? Were you pulling from material you’d pooled up over the years or was this a lot of new material?

Writing for ALTITUD started right around the same time our EP came out (Aug 2013). We had set a few goals for the band, including: 1. Developing our live set; and 2. Releasing a full-length before the end of 2014. So while performing around NYC, playing mostly the EP, we began adding to the set some of the songs we were writing. Songs that were still work-in-progress. Going through this process turned-out to be crucial (individually and collectively), because at the end there’s no way we would have arrived at so many conclusions if we had only workshop the material in a room. I remember clearly playing a loft party in Long Island City, where we were responsible for playing a really long set. We’d take these types of nights to test as much as we could. Really glad my phone wasn’t running out of battery all the time in those days, because it recorded the entire set and I cannot begin to tell you how much improvising from that night became new parts that ended up making the record.

But, short answer—all 10 songs from ALTITUD, were collectively written, from the summer of 2013, thru the days in the studio the following summer. Literally.

And you recorded it somewhere in South America, if I remember right?

That’s correct. We went to Graba Studio in Quito, Ecuador with producer Nick Stumpf for 8 days of recording.

How was it being down there?

It was an amazing experience, but 8 days wasn’t long enough. We pretty much went from the hostel were we stayed at (Boutiquito), to the studio for 8 days straight.

However, that forced us to make this album as live as possible—you know, the good old 5 musicians playing in the same room. Lunch and dinner breaks were really great though. It is very possible that we had ceviche everyday (the Ecuadorian kind), along with “maduros con Salprieta”, and the revelatory “best burger of my life”, according to the US American side
of LEGS. The place is called “La Burguesa”, if you want to know. My favorite—“La Frágil”.

Elaborating a bit on the “testing new material live”, the one thing we were able to do in Quito outside of the
studio and food, was to play a rooftop party that our friends from RadioCoCoa put together. We’ll never
forget that show…the thrill of playing for a new audience in a different country for the first time, combined
with the fact that we once again did things during our set that made it to the record—on songs that we hadn’t tracked yet, of course—certainly makes that rooftop show a moment we want to live again.

Not to mention that, we had the honor to share the bill with La Máquina Camaleön, an independent band from Quito, that sounds SO good.

Sounds like a very compressed, fun time. How did the crowd funding for the album go for you all? I feel like that can be so hard these days, when people are so saturated with asks from so many different people.

We are truly fortunate to had been successful with our Kickstarter campaign. Especially since we are a new band, and obviously due to the saturation that you mention.

Our plan was to run the campaign way sooner than we did, but different reasons, we ended up launching the last week of June, so the last week of our campaign coincided with our week in the studio. But hey, don’t judge our planning skills. It worked. With the help of our families, friends, and surprisingly a ton new people that are connecting with what we are doing, we reached and surpassed our 35k goal. So no kidney sale was required.

In the end, I think that as long as you are being transparent about your project, and actually reaching out to people about it yourself, crowd-funding is very much a viable alternative.

I do regret not having enough time to pull-off our highly anticipated “bike wash” fundraising event for the album.

Bike wash, eh? Is the album self-released then or do you all have someone helping out with distribution or pressing?

ALTITUD will be self-released, and we used a company out of California for the pressing. Short run of 500 copies.

Ah, cool. I can’t remember—were there any funny/overly involved funding rewards that you all set up? You don’t have to fly to Seattle to serenade someone’s ex do you?

All the backer rewards are grounded and realistic. There are a couple of private shows we need to do, but for the most part we treated this as a “pre-order” campaign. The sweet spot was definitely the digital download + t-shirt category. Followed by the vinyl.

Yeah, limited release vinyl is fun. And who wouldn’t like LEGS shirts? We’ve been meaning to ask you guys, though—where does that name come from? Always curious, from a branding/marketing standpoint.

The story goes like this—we were brainstorming names casually for weeks, aiming to also book a show by March/April 2013, but none had happened yet. Then Charlie shows up one day for practice and proposed LEGS, as suggested by his friend and roommate, Lane Koivu, who can be credited for naming the band. He also wrote the first piece of literature about the band. You know, the whole potencial side effects thing… he’s great, but don’t take my word for it and go watch our “Top of the World” music video. That’s Lane in the flesh, playing Teddy Z, host of the late night show “ The Big Deep”.

The name was an immediate winner for all of us. I guess we all felt that this project we had been putting a lot of hours towards, had legs. So went for it.

You guys forgot your instruments in that video! Also, Tito’s beard is getting outta control, man! That song, along with most of your others shows of a very funky, soulful sound but it’s not really derivative or a case where I feel like just recreating something from the past. Did that style develop organically as a group or all you all just big soul fans?

Our influences are all over the place and soul is certainly on of them, but our sound has been developing in a very natural way. Without overthinking genres and pre-establishing too many things before we hit our instruments.

Some band rules are good though. As LEGS we have a musical vision, but at its core that vision should translate in connecting with people just as much as we are making music for ourselves. 

Totally makes sense. I feel like there’s a pretty noticeable trend in both indie pop and mainstream pop for this brand of new soul, with bands like How to Dress Well and Autre Ne Veut and Rhye and even the newly sued Robin Thicke. Any insight into the origin of that as a trend? Or are we grouping too many disparate sounds together?

Avoid trends at all cost.

Well, I have to stand by the trend of brushing your teeth every day, but point taken. I can’t remember what clued me into you guys but I remember my first exposure was the video for “High Times”, which I thought was really beautifully done. And, having just moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, immediately made me nostalgic for rooftop parties in New York. You’ve got “Top of the World”—any other videos planned?

That was a fun video to shoot. Ironically, most people we talk to about that video think that it was shot on a boat. We see it now.

So far “Top of the World” has a music video, and there is one more (at least) coming out soon. No spoilers, but yes, there will be some music videos action happening.

How long have most of been in New York?

Jack has been here the longest since he studied Jazz at The New School. He’s been here for 8 years now. I moved from North Carolina in the fall of 2009. Tito (Jack’s brother), and Charlie moved to Brooklyn sometime in 2012. And Herman (my brother), was here in NYC from 2011 thru the end of 2013. He’s now based in Lima, Perú.

Whoa. That’s a commute. Do you feel like NYC’s changed a lot in the time you’ve been there?

Without a doubt. There’s so much new construction everywhere and neighborhoods shifting right before your eyes. Let’s just hope this city can find its balance between inevitable real estate development and the fact
that arts and the creative community are (amongst others) the ones who have made New York City an interesting place (to put it casually) through the course of history. And we all know that fancy overpriced housing is not the answer.

Only if you’re a developer. Did one of you do the new album cover? I remember at least one of you having a fine visual arts background.

I am a visual artist/designer, but the artwork for the album has a sweet collaborative story behind it.

The visual language for the new album takes cues from its title “ALTITUD” (spanish spelling for altitude). Right after we came back from the recording sessions in Quito—which sits around 2800 meters above sea level—the band went on its first Pacific-North West expedition. We played our first show in Seattle, then Doe Bay Fest in Orcas Island, and finished with an intimate show at this magical place space in Indianola, WA (hometown for the Ramsey brothers). Although the title for the album came to me while in Quito, it wasn’t until we came back to Brooklyn that I felt comfortable enough to pitch it to the rest of LEGS.

The idea of dropping the “e” from “altitude” (as spelled in spanish), and exploring an abstract mountainous landscape was part of my pitch to the band. We are a grateful bunch and wanted Craig Ward—who designed the EP’s artwork—to have a shot at the album cover. This time with a very modest but actual budget for it.

Craig got on board with the concept for the album and proposed involving Cedric Kiefer, who is a wonderful code artist based in Berlin.

Cedric crafted some sound reactive code in Processing, that creates a 3D render of a sound-wave, so Craig could run it with the songs from the record. And because he totally gets our sound (not electronic at all), Craig asked me to share any photographs of mountainous landscapes I had. Fortunately, there were some images from a recent trip that worked for his plan.

We loved what Craig proposed as the final form to be the cover of ALTITUD.

Make sure you look at the album art upside down.

If it doesn’t demystify the band too much, wondering about everyone else’s background outside of Legs. Got any cops? Stay-at-home dads? Craft brewers?

Without getting into specifics, there are music majors, art majors, and engineering majors. But more importantly, we are friends and lovers.

I guess we could also add “part-time dish washers” to that list. Did you have a dish-washing machine at home while living in NYC?

Hell no. What do you think, we lived in fancy overpriced housing? Though those are pretty commonplace here in Los Angeles. How did you guys meet initially?

I can tell you a really long version of this story, that involves a complex chain of events and people that I feel have part of making LEGS happen, but for sake of making some sense, I’ll share the more rational version…

Days before 4th of July 2012, Catalina (my eternal slumber party-mate, and talented photographer), had mentioned an invitation to one of her “client’s” rooftop party on the 4th. I wasn’t interested at all, but agreed to go under one condition—arriving early, so we could leave early.

We basically got there ON time, but you know that means an hour or two earlier than most people attending. There were no more than 6 people there (including the host), upon our arrival. Amongst those 6, there was Tito and his wife Irene, who had just moved to Brooklyn from Seattle a few weeks earlier.

To this day, I believe that if Catalina and I had gotten there at a later time, Tito and I wouldn’t have had a chance to talk the way we did. Just and hour or so later the place got packed (literally). Tito and I talked about music, that we were both working on tunes at home (on the computer), looping things, and the whole one man band myth. Then we realized that both of us had brothers (Herman and Jack), living in NYC, and that they also played instruments.

We left, exchanging our contact information and links to things we were working on. Soon after Tito, proposed a casual jam, where he also invited Jack, Herman, and more importantly Charlie, who was also living in Brooklyn, and knew the Ramsey brothers from way back.

That was the beginning of LEGS.

The big lesson—be on-time.

Nice! I don’t know if you’re this kind of band, but any specific goals or hopes for Legs in 2015? Hyper-fantasy dreams?

We do make lists of short-term, mid-, and long-term goals as a band. LEGS has big dreams (as should we all), but we are also aware that putting in the hours is the only way to get anywhere. Hopefully ALTITUD is well received and we can start doing some Summer Festivals and meeting some of the kind people who are listening to our music.

Yeah, we definitely wish you best with this. It obviously helps to have solid material—which you all do—but then so much of it these days is a combination of luck + work. I know you’ve got your record release at Mercury Lounge next Tuesday, but I’m assuming you’ll be doing some touring to support the album too, yeah? Playing LA soon, by chance?

ALTITUD dropped (how clever) today and we celebrate the release at Mercury Lounge on the 7th, and after that we do intend to tour in support of the record. Not sure yet how soon after this might happen, but I can definitely say, that LA is one of the cities we hope to visit in the near future.

Glad to hear it. Well, thanks so much for talking with us, Juan. Really excited to catch you live soon.

My pleasure, and we look forward to meeting you in LA. Will you take us to your favorite food spot?

I will! Though there’s lots to chose from these days. I’ll give it some thought and get back to you.

ALTITUD is out today and can be ordered directly from the band via their site or through iTunes if you’ve got a gift card burning a hole in your pocket. If you’re in or around New York, catch them at their record release next Tuesday at the Mercury Lounge; if you’re in my boat, check their site + like them on the Facebooks to stay in the know.

Not to rely on this crutch too too often, but we’re pointing over to our sister Web journal, Forgotten Favorite, today, where we’ve got a somewhat self-referential piece on my old band, Daytime Television, inspired by the 25th anniversary of our alma mater’s college radio station, WXJM. Give it a look + listen.

The other night, as I was in the process of beating what is, I must say, undisputedly the best video game ever—Super Mario Brothers—our friend and colleague, Paul Singh of the creative collective, Pel, was serendipitously responding to the following email I sent to him a little while ago:

Subject: Kind of Important Question
Message: How hard would it be to make our 404 page at raven + crow a playable version of Super Mario Brothers?

The answer came in the form of Paul writing on my victorious Instagram post—”check your 404″.

Which, before recalling my request to Paul, I took to be some sort of cool guy way to say “check yo self” or something…and, now that I think about it, I’m going to start trying to drop into my vernacular. “Check your 404, man. Sheesh.”

But, obviously, Paul meant he’d—awesomely—done as requested.

So, as of this week, any time you accidentally or purposefully visit a page that doesn’t exist (resulting in a 404 error or Not Found message), you’ll be able to play Super Mario Brothers. What’s more, you can play as Mario or a host of other early NES heroes, including Zelda hero, Link, Metroid, MegaMan, and more.

So get lost on our site, man. And apologies to your employer.

Note that this most likely won’t work on your mobile devices or in out-of-date browsers.

First time beating SMB without warping, by the way. Pretty proud of myself.

Los Angeles’ Skirball Cultural Center is currently running Rock & Roll Billboards of the Sunset Strip, an exhibit that features photographs of the hand-painted billboards that dominated the streets of LA for nearly two decades. As they put it:

“…this exhibition brings to life a unique period in the history of rock & roll and the fabled Sunset Strip, whose nightclubs were the birthplace of rock & roll royalty. Photographer Robert Landau traces the billboard phenomenon from the breakthrough promotion for the debut album by the Doors in 1967 to the advent of MTV in the 1980s, which signaled the end of an era.”

Poor MTV. Ever the scapegoat of shifts in pop culture.

The exhibition is up through August 16 and, judging by the examples here, well worth seeing. You can see more shots on the exhibition page.

Skirball is located at 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. near Manhattan Beach and open noon to 5PM Tuesday-Friday, 10AM-5PM on weekends, and closed Mondays.

Heads up to Los Angeles vegans and visiting vegans: We can report with sound hearts + minds that the menu at Commissary—Roy Choi‘s much buzzed about recent venture in Korea Town’s Line Hotel—is indeed navigable for those seeking cruelty-free dining.

Katie + I lunched there recently with an old friend in from out of town and were met with both affable, knowledgable advice from our server and a bevy of vegan and vegan-izable options, all of which were delectable. Call it over-hyped if you like, but the food we had was both creative and extremely good.

Despite the restaurant being billed as “a greenhouse with a focus on fruits and vegetables”, past reports of Commissary just after opening struck us as slightly intimidating—icon-dependant menus with less-than-cooperative servers unwilling to break down exactly what a dish represented by a drawing of a piece of broccoli entailed, for instance.

We experienced nothing along those lines, though, with a seemingly expanded, more visitor-friendly menu and a server more than happy to tell us what was vegan or able to be made vegan. Lucky for us, that covered most of the vegetables and many sides, which is more than it sounds like given the restaurant’s very LA focus on small plates.

As the restaurant themselves put it:
“It’s not necessarily a vegetarian restaurant, just good food and drink based around plants as the foundation. It’s also an homage to all the people and families here in So Cal that work on farms to bring food to our tables. Set beside a shimmering pool, it’s got all the amenities of a private club but created for the public. Come sunbathe in carrot juice, mack on a salad, or grab some eggs and toast. Commissary is your own little oasis where you can feel right at home and chill.”

On our visit, we opted for the wood fire-roasted carrots, the dried fruit quinoa salad, a vegan green curry coconut dish, and tempura multi-colored cauliflower, all complimented by fresh juices that were paired with a sweet vinegar base (and are recommended to be further paired with gin for those looking to Snoop it up).

Though that more than filled us up, we’re excited to get back soon and try the rest of the dishes open to us. We’d encourage you to do the same.

Somehow in the hustle + bustle of 2014, we 100% missed the long-anticipated debut LP from a Brooklyn newgaze favorite, Field Mouse.

The band was in the midst of hammering out album details when we last spoke with them in a 2013 interview and, luckily, they didn’t take any major detours in terms of the band’s sound live and on the many singles + EPs released leading up to that point. Noisey washes of bending, layered guitars give singer, Rachel Browne, a point on the wall to aim for as she sways back and forth between blended swoons and piercing, poppier, forward vocals, all setting a tone that both solidly nods to the early 90s shoegaze I loved and works to gain new ground.

By all accounts, the band made a pretty big impression at SXSW last week, so here’s to their success! The band’s been raising funds to help pay for a tour that’s led up to and continued on beyond South by, offering a host of fun rewards, among them, a new cover album they’re set to record. Check out details on the band’s Web site.

You can listen to the new LP, Hold Still Life, in full below and buy it in its various forms through their label, Top Shelf Records.