Monthly Archives: March 2010
Two Door Cinema Club
I’m sat here listening to this disc; the latest offering from French powerhouse label Kitsuné. I picked up this release a few days ago and am quite glad I’d held off listening to it until I was in such a mood as I am in now.
Thus, the record is quite good; if but a tad heavily produced. The album; Tourist History opens with track Cigarettes In The Theatre, which strikes as a somewhat upbeat tune -jovial and easy to digest, melodic while establishing a sound of the European summer in the vein of a Killers or early Franz Ferdinand B-side. Tracks 3 & 4 move through with a charm of melancholic repetition that is to be admired; admonishing earlier typecasting mentioned for Track 1. The sound digresses with the cruisiness that is Something Good Can Work; however the songs continue to wind up when one is just beginning to immerse oneself in its quaint yet rhythmic beauty.
The standout tracks are reluctantly Cigarettes, I Can Talk, Eat Up and Something Good -insomuch as this is an album that demonstrates an excellent continuity and is quite certain to further impress on repeated visits. Hear it for yourself, perhaps?
-Rock The Boat
MUTO
Here we have a breath-taking video, titled ‘Muto‘ which took something like a two and a half months to shoot and edit.
The work is by BLU, an Italian street artist who has been prolific since 1999; and he’s from Bologna (a very beautiful and happening city too, I might add). The video was produced in Buenos Aires and the artist has whitewashed every part of these walls as he went through creating this visual orgasm. He is well-renowned and has had many exhibitions globally, in cities such as New York, Berlin, London, Barcelona, Milan and in Palestine.
Music is by Andrea Martignoni and the painting was assisted by Sibe. Producer: Mercurio Film.
The clip has been doing the rounds on the internet and among those interested -for anyone else, here it is:
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-Rock the Boat
Earth Hour Bullshit
What irks me about Earth Hour is that it uses more energy. This is for 2 reasons: 1) Electrical devices use less power (and in particular, lighting) when they are constantly on. Whereas, everytime you turn on a light, the striking usurps more power in flicking it on, than if you were to leave the light on for 2-3 hours. I can verify this fact. And, 2) The point at which (concievably) millions of people in the one area, drawing power from the same station, turn on their power after the hour is up, all at once -puts such a strain on the power generation that the output is stressed to the maximum, thus burning many times the energy that these power stations would if the load was more evenly spread.
Think about it. Commonsense would probably enlighten you to these notions. And that’s but 2 examples that I know of personally.
In all, Earth Hour is about “spreading the word” -I believe the word is spread and we need to employ more practical measures that work; as opposed to counter-productive tokenism.
-Rock The Boat
Question Time
The member for Dickson will resume his seat…
This clip features an updated mix of the DeRael + Sideproject release from Theodicy Records.
The mix includes an Exclusive INFX Parliament mash-up from the fat boys up on Capital Hill.
PARLIAMENT vs. DeRAEL
-Rock The Boat
Nathan Jurevicius
I’ve finally paid off my Nathan J print after neglecting to get onto it for, what? 3 months. It wasn’t the money. It wasn’t that I wasn’t anxious to get it on my wall (I was and had to replace a tired albeit grand one taking up centre-stage in the loungeroom). It was simply laziness and the fact that I tend to be in transit whenever I’m cruising through the city -which ironically is most days. The point is I got the fucker home. And it was easier than I thought.
Nathan Jurevicius is a home-grown Melbourne talent and has been at the forefront since 1994, debuting at Outré Gallery on Elizabeth in 2004. He is a fine arts artist who permeates the world stage with the likes of your Mike Giant or Jeremy Fish. He is known as a producer of high-quality visual art prints, original artworks and has designed a range of vinyl figures that he is quite renowned for: The Scary Girl series.
Scary Girl is complemented by a graphic novel and a CD release that was produced to reflect the mood of the series. He also designs everything from t-shirts to tarpaulins and has a vast assortment of wares on sale; notably from said Outré Gallery. Anyway, I have the piece up now and thought to share it with you, followed by a clip from Scary Girl. Enjoy.
Photo by D'Dokta
Courtesy of Outré
Nathan Jurevicius b.1977 Melbourne, Victoria. Currently resides in Toronto, Canada.
-Rock The Boat
Element Omahigh
I am certainly a fan of the Hi-Top sneaker. Of which there are many -both good and bad. However, here we are witness to epic brilliance in regard to this particular model shoe.
This favourite is the Element Omahigh. These brilliant boots reflect all that is good for a pair of Hi-Tops; namely comfort, durability and aesthetic appeal. The Omahigh is inspired by Brent Atchley; one of Element’s sponsored pro-skater talents. The shoe comes in a range of colours and styles. Shown below is one of 3 limited edition releases: this being the SM Connect.
Personally, I have a regular pair of Omahighs that I sport on a regular basis. I’ve imported them from the US but they are still available around Melbourne -although the only colours I have spotted are white derivatives and lack the visual appeal of the many others on offer. Another one to avoid is the Kanji model, which is (luckily) one of the aforementioned limited releases that is almost entirely flourescent green -a shoe that will blind both your bank statement as well as your retina cortex.
Check out the SM version:
-Rock The Boat
Croatian Festival + Clown
The Labour Day weekend marked this year’s Croatian Festival at the Hrvatska complex in Footscray.
INFX long-time compére Ms. Geyer joined myself in perusing this Balkan-Australian community’s offerings. Although it was great to see an abundance of people (it appeared as though the entire community was present), unfortunately this abundance did not extend to the food and music. What little was on offer didn’t exactly impress, although after a peek in the VIP area we were convinced that only the privledged had the pleasure of the bountiful offerings attributed to this culture right here in Melbourne. Otherwise, I found the exhibits of mannequins modelling traditional dress interesting, although other artworks and photography on display were lacking in appeal.
Overall, it was a satifactory day out -with a splash humour amongst suburban Australians and their ex-pat relatives. This humour was namely a white albinoid rabbit on the back of a red bicycle, seemingly ridden by a sexagenarian clown. An anglo-saxon entertainer too mind you. Ms Geyer and I were lucky enough to stumble upon said clown later (after visiting a few old cranks at the nearby Publishing Museum). We stalked the clown and confronted it with a wide-angle lens…
Ms G: “Are You having a good day?”
Sparkle: “Yes, except that you’re not”
-Rock the boat w/ Ms Geyer
Guilty Simpson
Hailing from the socially bankrupt centrifuge that was formerly glorious as “the motor city“, Detroit- Guilty Simpson delivers some of the most bad arse raps known today, complemented with the ingenuity of the late J.Dilla and the production squad at Stones Throw. His break-out singles (and subsequent album) appeared in 2007 with the tracks Man‘s World and Getting Bitches, catapulting Guilty (or Byron Simpson) into hip-hop stardom.
Guilty Simpson has now surpassed the madness that was the album Ode to The Ghetto with the follow-up remix release/ collaboration in his major work with Madlib titled: Medicine Show No.1 - Before The Verdict, featuring Strong Arm Steady and Elzhi. With Madlib producing all tracks alongside ‘OJ Simpson‘, Medicine No.1 features remixes of the best tracks from Ode, coupled with a slab of new material. The release has thus cemented Guilty as one of the finest primo acts on Stones Throw records.
Want to see more? Then I suggest you buy the fucken album.
Or, simply check this Robbery reconstruction off the LP:
Stay tuned too, as Guilty is also producing a new release with long-time Black Milk collaborator Sean Price in an album titled Random Axe.
Black Cat White Cat
I recently regained a grubby grip on this film masterpiece. Emir Kusturica‘s depiction of the charm and chaos between a sprawling Balkans family consisting of rival ‘gypsy gangsters‘ never ceases to amaze. The film consistently cements itself in any respectable top 5 favourite film lists. The film opens on the banks of the Danube, with the seminal techno classic ‘(I‘m a) Pit Bull Terrier‘ -a track crafted from the minimalist group Zabranjeno Pusenje, long before downtempo anthems bum-rushed the Eastern European dance music scene. However, this is just an opening sequence.
Do not be fooled by these wanna-be gangster buffoons and their hilarious bumbling bastardry -the plot opens up as the head of the family, Matko Destanov, unites his mob to make sure his daughter is wed and wed in a proper & timely fashion. The outcomes of these endeavours are heartfelt and often ill-concieved but ultimately, when played out on celluloid they will have you retching with laughter. You‘ll be gagging on your incomprehension of the trials and tributaries (yes, waterways) that the wedding party encounter.
And War…
Having been fortunate enough to traverse Bosnia a few years back; Kusturica‘s film is certainly reminiscent of the uneducated madmen that roam the countryside. Somewhat similar to the bogan or twit, this cariacature of clueless peasants from the Balkans is as interesting and humorous as it is sad and disappointing; with Bosnia a country particularly dire in despair. A place that an 80 year old professor who I stayed with in Mostar deemed “it is everyone against Bosnia. They have us land locked and it is each for their own“. Upon asking how he felt about the Croats, Serbs and other socio-political groups: “How do you think I feel when 100,000 people were slaughtered in this very town during a 2-day campaign“. A chilling reminder of the devastation of war. And it was less than 20 years ago. A ‘contemporary‘ war.
