I found these chunks of Chalcopyrite in a store in Highland Park a little while back and couldn’t not pick them up.
Chalcopyrite is a copper iron sulfide mineral that—when exposed to air—oxidizes in a wide range of blues, purples, golds, and pinks that make it look like the Ziggy Stardust of minerals. Some claim they can relieve joint pains if held over an afflicted area for a time…but I just love the way they look.
Go, nature.
People are complicated. No one is any one thing and we change over time—we know this. And despite the best of intentions to reflect the reality of that, through an hour in conversion with singer-songwriter, Madi Diaz, one thing repeatedly springs to mind for me: Madi Daiz, above all else, is a story-teller.
Sitting outside of Intelligentsia Coffee in Silver Lake over two very intensely caffeinated iced coffees, Madi continually peppers our shop talk on the new record with stories of losing house keys in the rainy streets of New York, a series of movie posters someone re-designed using Comic Sans, and tales of the cities she’s called home most recently—Boston, Nashville, and, now, LA.
Austin’s South by Southwest is still fresh in her mind too. “It’s gotten soooo much bigger,” she says of the city-wide music festival. “It’s pretty bad. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful or negative. It’s still really fun. You know, the reason I went down there is because I really just wanted to see my friends. And be like—’Hey look, I’m still doing this. I do have a record coming out. I’m still playing music…. Tad-a!’ And I ran into so many people that I haven’t seen in years. Years. I mean, you can’t walk ten feet without high-fiving somebody.”
When asked to throw out some of the better, lesser-known bands she caught at SXSW, Madi names Canada’s Royal Canoe—who she’s opening for at The Satellite tomorrow—and Sydney’s Gang of Youths.
But with the festival expanding its brand over the past few years to encompass events in Vegas and recent concerns about safety and whether the festival’s grown too big for the city of Austin, I asked Madi to give her take on it all—is SXSW over?
“Okay, I’ve decided that this is the thing—It’s like the most fucking ridiculous obstacle course/marathon, and if you’re not shitty musician, you can still pull that off. Because you will either…you will fight or you’ll die…. Or you’ll fight and die…but you can still make it happen.”
She admits that, in general, festivals aren’t her thing though: “I don’t like festivals. They make me nervous. They’re too many people, they’re all…moving…at the same time…. At festivals it’s like, this guy’s tripping towards you and puking and, like, holding the hand of his girlfriend who’s, like, sitting on the ground eating a banana like the sky is falling.”
Plus, port-a-potties, you know?
For anyone who has yet to hear the music of Madi Diaz, depending on what era you hit her at, you’ll hear a fine balance of rootsy, folk-sinpired signer-songwriter stuff and straight-up, foot-tapping pop. Regardless of where particular songs or bodies of work hit on that spectrum, though, much like her personality, above all else, Madi’s work tells a story, and it’s always one with intelligent, undeniable hooks that keep you interested. Having been a fan of hers since first hearing her play with Keegan DeWitt, I was anxious to hear more about her coming full-length, due out later this year.
“It’s really different in that…I’m kinda letting myself go all the way there. I’ve been pretty reserved in my poppiness and textures…now it’s really lush and really true-sounding. And there are a couple of love songs, which is…different,” she explains, laughing. “Yeah, I started writing it when I was falling in love with my then boyfriend and wrote a slew of songs; I was feeling so good, I was like ‘This is crazy. I’ve never actually been light and happy, this is amazing.’ And then the shit hit the fan.” The result—a narrative that spans a relationship, from happy to sad to…done.
The exact release for the album’s still up in the air. “I’m pretty sure the rough album street date will be late August,” she says. “It definitely has summer vibes, but there is definitely a darkness to it. So I feel like it’s good for late summer/early fall.” Diaz plans to release one or two singles leading up to the album later this summer.
When asked why she feels like it’s still necessary to release a full album at all given the music scene, she responds right away—”Because I wanna tell my fucking story, man. Don’t cut me off. I love the idea of being commercially successful, I really do. I think that it is great and is obviously going to pay my rent. But at the same time, my favorite artists are people who have not started from that thought. They don’t conform to that thought. We’re artists, we’re in this to take a chance. So what else are we supposed to do?” She continues—”I definitely have written some of these songs to be universal because I do long for that human connection with my fans or with anybody—I hate the word ‘fans’; I feel like a douche bag saying it—But I do long for that connection with another person. So I do want to write something that is going to be palatable, but at the same time, I know that—being a fan myself of other artists—I would only want that person to express themselves at their truest.”
In addition to the new solo record, Diaz tells me of a new side project she’s doing under the moniker riothorse (photo, right, by Catie Laffoon).
“I started this side project band with one of my really good friends, Emily Green (Kissy Girls, Passion Pit). We kinda came together out here in the fall because we were both super-scorned women by bad boyfriends. And we’re finishing this four-song EP that we’ve been producing together.” She continues, describing how it compares to her solo work—”It’s not so much different as it’s…it’s just an art project. And it’s definitely girl vibes—it’s super-lady-time. We’re both singing in unison the whole time and just, like, really lush guitars. Kind of very haunting, spell-cast-y. As a musician right now, there’s so that I love sonically and that I think a lot of people love sonically and you can get at so much more of it than you used to be able to, that…it’s fun to wear different masks; it’s fun to try different things.”
Diaz is hoping to have the riot horse EP hit ay around the same time as her album, or as she puts it, “BLEH—This is everything! …Vomit on the world.” …in a nice way.
Madi Diaz plays The Satellite tomorrow night with Royal Canoe + Roses. Doors are at 830PM and tickets are $10. Her new album won’t be out until later this year, but check out her last two records in the meantime: We Threw Our Hearts in the Fire + Plastic Moon. The latter holds one of our all-time favorite tracks ever—the epically soaring “Let’s Go”.
Fare thee well, New York. It was great to spend some time together again.
And hang in there—the weateher’ll stop fucking with you sooner or later.
Quick—someone buy me these gloves.
Evidently, you can add ‘inventor’ to Imogen Heap‘s CV.
Working with a team of developers and fellow musicians, the signer has helped to design the Mi.Mu gloves, which allow users to “more naturally engage” with computer software and control and create live music in a more exciting manner than, say, standing in front of a computer pushing buttons for an hour.
Watch Deezen’s exclusive interview with Heap in her London home below and read more about the gloves and their myriad uses on the Deezen and MINI Frontiers blog. You can find out more about Heap’s Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the gloves on her Web site.
Being back in New York this week for a parade of work meetings, we’ve been exposed to a number of things that are now less-than-everyday for us living in LA. We’ve been able to spend some time with friends we haven’t seen in months; we’ve gotten to jaywalk again at long last; and—after a disarmingly pleasant weekend—New York showed her true spring self this week with torrential downpours, gale-force winds, and snow in the forecast.
We’ve also logged some significant subway time—mode of transit, not sandwich chain—allowing for one of my favorite New York pastimes, transit ad appreciation.
Having long had our fill of the ageless Dr. Z, we turned most notably to a new campaign for the National Peanut Board by Atlanta-based firm, Lawler Ballard Van Durand. They’ve tackled work for the peanut board in the past that was roughly along these lines—personal + information with a health-minded take—but these ads take everything a step further, visually, marrying the campaign’s facts, figures, and messaging with the powerfully direct photography of Chris Crisman and the elegant, movement-filled illustrations of Wendy Hollender and Rose Pellicano.
The New York Times recently covered the campaign in detail. The author of the piece, Stuart Elliott, quoted National Peanut Board President Bob Parker:
‘Although “we’re excited about the many studies out recently about the [nutritional benefits] of peanuts and nuts,” he adds, “we feel peanuts sometimes don’t get the credit they deserve.” One goal for the new campaign is to establish peanuts as “a good source of plant-based protein,” Mr. Parker says, at a time when there is “strong interest among consumers in alternatives to animal protein.”’
You said it, Parker.
The campaign repackages the peanut as a natural, ready-to-go super-food, boasting over 30 essential vitamins + nutrients, 7 grams of plant-based protein, and claiming to be the most popular nut in the US.
Were we more prudish, we’d debate them on that last one—the peanut’s technically not a nut, it’s a legume.
To top it all off, in addition to moms on the go, stern-faced little leaguers, and kids rocking out, the campaign also features two real life peanut farmers—Charles Hardin of Georgia and Jeffrey Pope of Virginia.
What’s not to like?
Read more on the New York Times’ campaign spotlight and watch Chris Crisman’s behind-the-scenes on his photo shoots on the National Peanut Board’s blog.
The light through the trees was doing some pretty cool stuff on the wall of the office patio Friday. We thought we’d shoot, play around with it a little, and share.
Light’s the best.
A quick shout out for the Parisian jewelry-maker who dreamt up these Rainbow Links, carried at the new lifestyle store on Abbot Kinney, The Piece Collective.
This one’s made of rose gold and wound in neon cotton thread, but pay them a visit over in Venice—they’ve got a variety of base metals and styles at The Piece Collective. In addition to the goods the store carries, the space itself is pretty covetable, with an awesome, bright yellow angular design on the facade and a calming, zen-like interior. According to TPC:
“We are a lifestyle concept store with an emphasis on the curation of product that we offer here. We carry a collection of fun and innovative ‘gift items’ that includes homeware/decor, accessories, apparel, and really any objects that are both innovative and aesthetically stimulating to us. The overall idea is that a customer gets to experience each product individually as they walk around the store but are also moved in some way by the collection of objects as a whole, giving light to the concept and name of the store, ‘The Piece Collective.'”
Akin a bit to NYC’s Kiosk—which we wrote up so long ago—in the sense that they’re presenting curated content with a narrative. Just much more sunny + beach in TPC’s case.
The Piece Collective is located at 1629 Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice. You can follow their visual adventures via Instagram.
If you happen to be in the LA area this week, drop what you’re doing and head to Blum + Poe in Culver City right now.
The gallery is currently wrapping up a solo exhibition by one of our all-time favorite pop artists, Yoshitomo Nara. We’ve written up Nara in this space before, and have seen shows of his in the past, but this one not only displays works in new mediums for the artist, it also serves to encompass the history and evolution of Nara as an artist.
Yoshitomo Nara debuted stateside with his first US show at Blum + Poe way back in 1995. This exhibition, which closes Friday, marks his seventh with the gallery and includes new, never before seen paintings; large-scale bronze sculptures (a new venture for the artist); a white fiberglass teacup fountain, fueled by the tears of a stack of cute, sad heads; and a survey of over 200 drawings from Nara spanning his career.
The new paintings especially impressed us. They’re recognizably Nara’s—cute, sad, anime-like with large eyes and large heads, and peppered with oddly disjointed, edgy text—but many, especially the portrait paintings, now show off a detailed, multi-colored dappling reminiscent of refracting light, especially with the hair + eyes.
Again, the show ends Friday, so do everything you can to get there post-haste!
Below, shots from the show, each of which can be clicked on for a larger view.
Photo of Yoshitomo Nara in 2012 at the Yokohama Museum of Art by Satoko Kawasaki for The Japan Times.
Dutch photographer, Ellen Kooi, creates theatrically tinged images that act as a window into a fairy tale world we never knew existed. Rather than present a finished idea or definitive narrative, each of her scenes has mystery inherently woven throughout, pulling viewers in repeatedly in futile efforts to solve the unsolvable.
Kooi first plans her photographs out in detail with prep sketches outlining her set design and subjects, treating the landscape like a stage. She then brings in lighting rigs and shoots the scenes during daylight hours with large format camera, giving the photos an eerie, otherworldly feel that effectively straddles the line between fantasy and realty. The end result are images that strike the viewer as oddly haunting and dangerously beautiful all at the same time.
Most are taken in the countryside around her home in Haarlem (insert Harlem joke here)—drawing from the often frigid-looking, barren environment—and the title of each piece is usually drawn directly from the name of its location, emphasizing close ties between landscape and subject. Above, Langerak – Blauwe Boom (2014)—which translates to “Langerak – Blue Tree”—uses a saturated palette and devotes a small portion of the visual real estate of the image to the subject, keeping the viewer coming back again and again to more fully examine the scene.
A native of Leeuwarden in the Netherlands, Kooi has exhibited throughout Europe + the states and currently has a show on view at the Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire in Paris, France. NYC—you can see recent work of hers tomorrow through Sunday at P.P.O.W.‘s booth at The AIPAD Photography Show (Booth 125), located at the Park Avenue Armory (643 Park Avenue). The show’s open to the public—tickets are $30 for regular admission, $10 for students with ID.
You see more of Kooi’s work on her Web site (click ‘ICONS’—it’s the better navigation).
Above: Langerak – Blauwe Boom, 2014
C-print mounted on plexi and museum board
35 ½ x 67 inches
Courtesy of the artist and P.P.O.W Gallery, New York
Below: Oosterplas – Reflection, 2012
C-print mounted on plexi and museum board
39½ x 36 inches
Courtesy of the artist and P.P.O.W Gallery, New York
This looked like art to us.
We’ll call it “Drying Shoes”.
