We’ve been doing in-store product + promotional photography for our newest, non-sit-in-front-of-a-computer venture, MooShoes Los Angeles over the past month or so and implore you to head over to Instagram and/or Twitter to check it you’re waiting in line at the DMV or pretending to listen to your mom talk to you about what Mr. Grady did the other day or, you know, just want to see some nice, cruelty-free footwear.

Better yet, come by the store and see for yourself. Granted, my camera’s pretty nice, but I bet your eyes are nicer. Why get second-hand seeing when you can get it first-hand, man!

We’re at 3116 Sunset in Silver Lake. Come by and say ‘hey’.

May you all enjoy a very ghoul’d evening tonight and, should you have party plans, we hope they go off without a Hitch(cock).

…puns were never our strong suit, but wishing you all a very happy Halloween! Get spooky, ya’ll!

We came across Wisconsin band Phox a while back and were immediately hooked by the band’s melodic pop and frontwoman Monica Martin’s beautiful vocals.

The band is preparing to play Los Angeles next week as part of Red Bull Sound Select‘s 30-day takeover of LA, featuring a different show at a different LA venue every day in November. We got a chance to talk with Matthew Holmen (second from the left above) about the band’s origins, what it’s like to live and write in small town, rural America, and how people are awesome. Give Phox a listen below and read on.

raven + crow: Alright, outta the gate—where does the name come from? It strikes us as an intriguingly unique one. What’s the story? Are you guys automated reasoning math geeks at heart?

Matthew Holman: It’s actually a long-running joke that no one seems to have cracked yet. It’s crazy, because we’ve been dropping clues all along. Maybe we’re being too obscure. We’ll ramp it up.

Hm. Now I’m truly intrigued. Is it PHOX, all caps then?

That’s a common stylization, much like koRn or Panic! Mixed case band names are much more likely to appear on Gorilla VS Bear, or CSPAN, and we’re not sure we’re ready for that kind of coverage.

Fair. To me, the two things that make your music really enticing are the beautifully crafted, earnestly wrought, yet still humble music and Monica’s truly unique, personable voice and the personality you can hear behind it.  Can you talk a little bit about how those things came together? I know the initial work for the band started out in fledgling form in the Bay Area, but you’re all originally from and now based in Baraboo, Wisconsin, right?

It began in two forms. The first was in Jason’s youthful imagination, as he thought combining various members of local bands would make for a real neat Baraboo supergroup. Around the same time, Zach had written a record under the name Sonntag, which Davey was producing. Zach had virtually every musician in Baraboo perform on the record, the result being the first collaboration of the soon-to-be members of phox. We didn’t form as a band until a couple years later.

History aside, the best excuse I can give for our music sounding the way it does would be the fact we all know each other outside of a musical context so well. For us, music and art are byproducts of living life, and it has only been through our knowledge of each other’s strengths (and weaknesses) that we’ve been able to sculpt tunes without totally trampling one another.

Nice. I’ve always thought that was the ideal environment for a band and good, collaborative song-writing, everyone being friends outside of the band, that is.

I know you recorded your full-length at Justin Vernon’s home studio—did he work on the actual album?

No, he was on tour with Volcano Choir, and returned during our final week. I think he was working on the Jason Feathers stuff in Studio B. He was very supportive, nonetheless.

I’m guessing you field this question a decent amount, but do you have any insight into the WI-MN indie music explosion in recent years? I mean, not just Bon Iver and you all, but also Volcano Choir, Gayngs, and Poliça (do they still do that weird c thing?)? …also, I just realized Justin Vernon’s a common thread in every one of those bands. Is it just that dude in a hamster wheel powering the whole scene?

I think having the confidence that we can do it, and having very legitimate role models has helped. There are a ton of great bands coming up right now. Dolores, We Are The Willows, J.E. Sunde (from The Daredevil Christopher Wright).

Oh, and who can forget Daytrotter? Sean Moeller has a fine ear, and he never stops looking for bands. The ones from the Midwest happen to be coming through the Quad Cities a bit more, so we get great opportunities. DAYTROTTER BEST WEBSITE ON INTERNET (-CSPAN April 21, 2013).

I don’t recall that headline, but I’ll take your word for it. I’ve yet to visit the great state of Wisconsin, but I adored Minneapolis when I visited…in the summer. What do you all like about Wisconsin and, in particular, Baraboo?

Who said we like Baraboo? hahaha I live in a retirement home here, which is pretty cool. Actually, the coffee shop is great. AND you know what? I do like Baraboo. I like that it’s a small town that is so supportive and proud of us. But it sucks that young artists might feel squashed in a town that doesn’t have many resources to support and encourage their creativity. It can be done, and done well, but it’s most likely to occur behind closed doors.

On another note, I love MN, WI because our people are kind and humble.

Yeah, I feel like I’m always drawn to living in urban centers in my life but I romanticize the pace and…openness of less built up, more rural places and the idea of creativity coming from that environment. Do you find that your environment influences your writing and musical style at all?

Of course! Winter is the best creative aphrodisiac. There just aren’t many distractions besides Netflix and beer, which you can certainly exhaust.

Mmmmm. Netflix + beer. No, I actually have a hard time pigeon-holing your all’s sound, which, for me, is good. Some of my favorite bands—People Get Ready, Purity Ring, Owen Pallett, Efterklang—tend to evade classification.  Plus it just seems kind of one-dimensionally offensive to be like “you guys are like a modern day these guys.” How would you all classify your sound though? Or who/what would you say influences it?

Oh good call! I’ve meant to save People Get Ready for some time. Done. Check. Cheque.

Anyway, having a classifiable sound is pretty beneficial for finding an audience. If you play into a genre-niche like hardcore, you’ll have somewhat of a built-in fan base, but it can be hard to differentiate from the horde. Unless you have, for example, something defining like good melodies.

For us, genre isn’t so much of a consideration as is dressing Monica’s melodies appropriately (or inappropriately, sometimes). Some songs, like “Calico Man” or “Barside” are better left to their raw form. Others like “Evil” work when spirited and live, and some songs we don’t even know how to do right, like “Laura” which was beautifully remixed by our friends in Kiings.

How was touring with Blitzen Trapper? Did they make you all sit around a fire and sing Civil War battle hymns? They seem like those type of guys.

They certainly shared their cheese platter, and Eric Earley had wonderful insight into production and recording. They are stellar musicians and even better gentlemen.

Did you all enjoy seeing a bit of the country? I feel like many of us are pulled from coast to coast to cities and centers of commerce most commonly for our work. It’s always struck me as really important and…freeing, kind of, to trek across the country and see the many, many other people and places that are just as much a part of the US.

Dude, you gotta see America’s mini-malls. They’re soooo sick. Mattress King? Game Stop? True gems.

But really, yes. Of course travel is enlightening and entertaining. Tourist traps in the desert are cheeky and refreshing. Every city has its own voice and every highway its own drawl, but the best thing, as you might guess, is the people. We love seeing old classmates (one of which seemingly lives in every city we play), or other musicians (why do they come out to our shows when they’re only home for a week?! just stay home and enjoy yer barcalounger fer cripe’s sake!)… Yeah. People, man. People.

They’re the best. And you’re playing Iceland Airwaves next month? That’s gotta be exciting. Iceland’s such a crazy Petri dish for insanely innovative music. We did a phone interview with Sindri Már Sigfússon—AKA Sin Fang, one of our favorite new artists out of there and he was telling us about the fest. Sounds so cool.

Sure does. They have heated sidewalks, so that’s impressive. And don’t they all publish books?

Pretty sure. Then you’re playing a Red Bull show in Los Angeles Tuesday with Courtney Barnett. Forgive me, but I keep getting notices about those Red Bull shows and I just feel like they’re creepy ploys by a corporation to commodify our online presence by enticing us with cheap shows awesome bands we love are playing. Tell me I’m missing something.

Hm. Cheap show with awesome bands… and what’s bad about that? Red Bull has been endorsing folks like that for a long time (remember this?). Google is reading your email anyway, why not get some cheap tickets out of it? We saw Dirty Projectors at Capital Hill Block Party in Seattle last summer, and it was tops. Totally worth your work email, right?

Touché. Who are some little-known bands you all like of late?

Definitely the MN/WI I mentioned. I don’t know if he counts as little-known, but please please please listen to Blake Mills‘ new record. And Moses Sumney. Oh another Baraboo band, Daniel and the Lion. And Foreign Fields!

Excellent shout-outing! Finally and most importantly—spirit animal(s)?

Richard Dunn, milkmen, using vinegar as a cleaning agent, narwhales, ex-girlfriends, and milkmen. Did I say Richard Dunn?

If you’re in the Los Angeles area, you can get tickets for Phox’s show at The El Rey Theatre by signing up with Red Bull Sound Select for their 30 days of shows in November. Otherwise, try to catch the band on the road and order their debut self-titled full length from their site or iTunes.

Forgive us if we’re late to the ‘accidentally vegan’ party with this one, but did you know Skittles are vegan? And fucking good?

Candy’s not really a big part of lives these days, so maybe all candy’s now skillfully designed by scientists and flavorologists (totally a word) off the Jersey Turnpike to trick our tastebuds into a addictively sugar-induced spiraling into morbid obesity. We don’t know. We just know these things are right tasty.

And, it should be noted, when we say Skittles are vegan, that is to say they no longer use gelatin—a collagen-based gelling agent obtained by breaking down various animal by-products like hooves and bones—in the candy and, of the many other, nigh unpronounceable ingredients listed, none seem to be directly related to animals. But, of course, Skittles’ parent companies, Wrigley + Mars, certainly produce plenty of other products that are far from vegan. So the overall impact on animals, the environment, and the public’s health is arguable, at best.

But, again—they’re really fucking good. Especially the oddly named Darkside Skittles. So, when choosing your candy this Halloween, why not reach for the hoof-and-bone-free variety?

Every little bit, man.

Another entry in the Stuff We Like category, these tall, spruce-scented candles from a collaboration between the good people at Good Candle + designer Brian Farrell.

Brooklyn’s Good Candle has been hand-pouring their candles in Crown Heights since getting their start at the ever-popular Brooklyn Flea in 2012. Sourcing American-grown soy wax and clean-burning braided cotton wicks, they number among the now deeply crowded field of sustainably made, craft candle-makers. You’ve likely seen their mason jar candles all around town.

But we love the artwork they pulled in for the glass from NJ-based, Minnesota-born, Rome-raised (that’s never before been written, right?) Brian Farrell, known for his oft-colorful, always intricate handmade decorative patterns. Most of his work tends to remind me of re-imagined hex signs from the Pennsylvania Dutch folk art tradition. My grandmother and her ilk used them, and I was never clear on whether it was more for the purely decorative sensibilities of them or for the superstitious uses. I’d like to think the latter.

Talismanic or not, these Good X Farrell candles are both beautiful and pleasingly aromatic, in that “I feel like I’m wandering around a pine forest” way, not in that “I wandered into a Yankee Candle at the mall and now I can’t breathe” way.

We got ours at Hemingway + Pickett, just up the street from MooShoes Los Angeles, but you can also order them online.

Saturday night, Katie + I attended KCRW‘s sixth annual Masquerade ball.

We’d never been before, so we didn’t really know what to expect, but we have to say—It. Was. Awesome.

The local public radio station took over the first two floors of the Legendary Park Plaza Hotel (we’re not sure why, but you’re required to call it ‘legendary’ in each and every instance), with DJs and live bands performing in five different ballrooms, roaming marching bands, Elizabethan stilt-walkers, pretty great food trucks in a back lot, and countless top-notch costumes among the night’s guests.

One thing we took note of moving from New York to Los Angeles was the striking difference between the two cities’ prominent public radio stations, WNYC + KCRW. In New York, it’s all Leonard Lopate and Brain Lehrer and Terry Gross and news headlines and politics, all of which we love, but it’s not exactly entertaining all the time. They even took their one music-oriented show—Soundcheck—off the air a couple years back, making Web-aceess only.

KCRW, however, is grounded in a culture of cool, basing nearly all of its programming on music+ entertainment. Draw whatever conclusions you want about those differences and what it means about New Yorkers and Angelenos, but we’ll give you one certainty from our view—they can plan a fucking party in LA. So make your plans for next year now—KCRW’s Masquerade is a must.

Above, our Hitchcock-inspired Birds costumes. If you get a chance, head over to Facebook and give us a like. We could win a costume contest!

From our photo archive, an old polaroid taken in North Carolina’s Outer Banks years back.

Earlier today, NASA did something to up their cool factor in this age of underfunding and zero moon-walking—they opened up their sound archive to the public, copyright-free.

Yes, this means being able to listen to and, say, include vintage ‘one small step’ samples to your next spoken word piece. Cooler yet though—chorus radio waves from the Earth’s atmosphere, beeping Sputniks, stardust from comets, sounds from the sixth-largest moon of Saturn, and lightning on Jupiter.

Oh, and this, which I seriously do not understand. Is it space-centric Christian rock? No idea.

Give some of it a listen below. You can browse the massive full catalog of sounds on NASA’s sound cloud page.

Back, say, seven or so years ago, Katie + I moved from the Park Slope apartment we called our first New York home down to the upper borders of Sunset Park. Lovely apartment but, sadly, not the nicest neighborhood, especially coming from tree-filled, idyllic Park Slope, a neighborhood now often associated with the yup-most yuppie living. We stayed in that new apartment for not even a year before moving up to Carroll Gardens, where we remained until picking up shop and moving west. Sunset Park was, overall, not a great move, but the location had its benefits too, among them, single-handedly turning our private backyard gravel lot into a raised-bed garden, gaining a sun-filled back office that allowed us to grow our design business, and meeting one Mr. David Goldman, photographer extraordinaire and our upstairs neighbor at the time.

Though it’s been years since we’ve all been neighbors, we all remain friends to this day and stay in close contact with David. After an admirable career in music-related photography, David has shifted over the past years to more humanitarian-driven documentary subjects, working with the UN and others to show the work being done to aid those in need in other countries and, more generally, to tell stories of other cultures halfway around the world.

Recently, David announced that he would be raising funds to support a month-long project documenting migrant sugar cane workers in India, traveling “by oxcart with migrant workers from their villages to the factory towns, learning along the way what motivates them and what are the challenges they face both individually and as families.”

We got a chance to talk with friend and gifted photographer, David Goldman, about fundraising for his coming trip, the inspiration behind it, and how he went from rock photographer to true photojournalist.

raven + crow: Okay, first question, friend: Can you tell us—in this day and age of everyone and their mother’s hair stylist hitting people up for money to pursue their new line of jewelry or the cat-themed coffee shop they want to open or their series reinterpreting each and every one of Michael Jackson’s music videos using only magnets and metal shavings—how does your project stand head and shoulders above the rest in such a very, very crowded field?

David Goldman: I suppose I don’t think my project is any more important than anyone else’s. I would hope that if you go through the challenge of asking, begging, pleading for support for a crowdfunded initiative that you fully believe in it. Like all those other people, I believe in what I’m doing. I’ve been lucky enough to do some traveling in my life and with that traveling I’ve realized in living color just how lucky we are to be living in North America. We have the freedom to grow, educate, and thrive with relative freedom. There are those who through no fault of their own face a life of struggle beyond anything that we could comprehend. I do feel we have a moral responsibility to be aware, at the very least, of how others live. If, in our awareness, we can adjust our lives in ways to help others then we are doing something right. I simply want to show how other people live and, in that, hope to create awareness amongst the people who see it. If one person can do something that in turn can affect someones life in a positive way then I will have done my job.

Well-put. So, how did you go from working primarily in the high-glam music photography biz, shooting album covers for Blink-182 and others, to shooting such humanitarian-fueled subjects?

About 10 years ago my best friend was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was compelled to help in whatever way I could. Unfortunately, I was living in NY while she was in LA, so I could not be right with her but I created sendyourbest.com. It was a way for people to reach out to her and let her know that she was not alone. Through messages and gifts, my friend felt the love and support of many people both known and unknown to her. She told me many times how all this support really helped her during her treatment. I thought if I could make SYB available to everyone in the world it would be pretty cool. Although SYB did not take off the way I had hoped, it got me thinking about ways as a photographer that I could bring awareness and attention to issues and causes. The next thing I knew, I had an opportunity to go to Ethiopia and do a project about obstetric fistula. I photographed two young women who had both lost their babies to fistula. I found myself helping to get them back to their villages. So, after hiring a driver and an interpreter, we set off on a 1000km drive. It was on this drive that I both shot and filmed a very powerful story. Through that trip to Ethiopia and the images that I created, I was then hired by the UN Trust Fund To End Violence Against Women.

Tell us about the work you did through that trust fund. What were you covering for them?

I was hired to show how the UN’s money was being used by four organizations they supported. I covered a story on dowery related violence in Delhi, then on to Sex worker issues in the Karnataka region, then it was off to do a story on Adivasi (indigenous) people. From there I traveled to Dhaka, Bangladesh to do a story on migrant workers.

What was that like, being immersed in those worlds that are so culturally foreign to our western world?

It is hard to describe to someone who has never been in that environment but you see many many injustices. Sometimes I would find myself getting upset and wanting to almost lash out physically against the men who had so badly mistreated some of the women that I met. Of course, I realize that it’s a systemic problem built into the culture, so beating up some guy would solve nothing and, in fact, he would probably not even understand why it was happening to him.

Yeah, that must have been really difficult + frustrating—seeing what you or I would perceive as individual injustices and not being able to really do anything about them. I know you write on your funding page, “(m)y feeling is that there is more to be accomplished by showing positive and inclusive imagery than divisive and controversial ones which often leave us feeling helpless and depressed.” Do you find that tough to do when you’re covering such unfair, terrible conditions? Do you ever just want to shake people here back west and just be like ‘LOOK at this. Stop what you’re doing and look at the things going on in the world, man’?

I find that a smile goes a long way but you don’t get that smile by just coming into a situation with your cameras out shooting photos like a machine gun. It takes time to build up trust and then to be welcomed into a community. Once you are welcomed you can get on with telling a more full story. If you can tell the full story you will get the positive images of hope. Of course, it does not mean you will not see the tougher images, but making sure that the story is balanced is important to me.

Do you have any favorite stories from that trip for the trust fund or your work in Ethiopia?

When I was able to return one of the girls to her family, the elder of the tribe gave me a live goat as a thank you. That was quite a gift. I understood it to be of great value and, although I had no use for it, I also knew that I must accept it. So we took it and gave it to another family in the village where we spent the night. They cooked that goat in the tent I was sleeping in and in the morning I woke up dizzy and no doubt with some carbon monoxide poisoning.

Ouch. So how did you get turned on to this story of migrant sugarcane workers in India?

While traveling from Bangalore to a small town—after a 24 hour train ride and 2 hour truck ride—on the way to visit the sex workers or the Karnataka health collective, I spotted a tent city on the side of the road in the shadow of a huge factory. This turned out to be where the migrant farmers who worked at the sugarcane factory were living. We stopped for about 20 minutes and I ventured into the area and began to take photos. I shot some portraits and when we continued on our journey up to the sex workers, I was told more about those people. I was fascinated by the efforts they underwent in order to do this work. I felt this would be a story worth telling.

And are you funding your trip entirely through your IndieGoGo page?

My hope is to fully fund it through the IndieGoGo.

So this is all you—no affiliation with the UN or anything on this project?

Correct, this is all me. As a photographer, I feel the need to create and, since I’m always interested in how others live and work, I felt that this would be a great opportunity to push myself both creatively and technically.

Very ambitious of you. Do you have any cool funding prizes for the various levels of support?

For a contribution of 1K, I will give two Skype sessions or, if you are in the Tri-state area, I will come to you for a private photography lesson. For 2K I’ll go anywhere in the US or Canada and for 5K I’ll take your grandmother to prom ( just kidding but there are some cool rewards).

I think you should keep the 5K-grandmother reward. Do you have an outlet in mind that you want to use to get photos out into the world after you return? Gallery show? Book? Broadway show?

My goal is to create a great interactive Web site that shows both motion and stills with written word as well. I’m hoping to talk to Andrew Lloyd Webber about a stage performance for early 2016.

Nice! And are you for real traveling by ox cart?

Yes, I will travel with some migrant farmers as they travel from their villages to the town where the factory is.

How long are you going to be gone for?

I’ll be there for a month.

Wow, that’s really awesome. Is there somewhere we can follow along with you from afar as you go? Instagram? Tumblr or something?

Yes, I’m on social media however, I’m not totally sure as to the internet access I will have. Still, my instagram is dibzy27 and my blog is blog.davidgoldmanphoto.com.

Great. Well, good luck! And thanks for talking with us Mr. Goldman.

Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Crow.

You can read more about David’s coming trip and contribute for the next 9 days, as of writing, on his IndieGoGo page. View more of David’s work on his Web site.

All photos, courtesy the artist.

Hot off the musical presses—whatever those are—this track from Dallas, Texas newcomers Valise.

The members of Valise met in school and “quickly dropped their studies” to pursue their musical careers and work on their debut album, Young Bloomer, expected next February. It seems to have done them well, though—the band shot to the top of the musical scene in Dallas, opening for godfathers of indie rock, Death Cab for Cutie at KXT’s Summer Cut concert series and gaining fans around the country with a reportedly energetic live show.

The first single from Young Bloomer, “Charlie Gray”, is sweepingly dramatic and string-filled, bringing to mind the upbeat chamber pop of Tender Trap, the aforementioned Death Cab, or maybe even early, when-they-were-still (kinda) cool Coldplay. But comparisons be damned, this song’s got us excited to hear more.

Listen below and, if you like it, download it for free. You can follow Valise on their Facebook page to stay in the know on shows and the coming album.