Animated music video for “Flairs” by Truckers Delight directed by Jérémie Perin.

Think Spielberg’s Duel + Russ Meyer’s Faster Pussycat Kill Kill! and Marc Dorcel’s wildest fantasies. All warped into an 8-bit Sega era style graphic.

Oh and watch this one at your own risk, some may be offended by the content.

via Drawn!

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“Monster Manual” by Mixel Pixel (song) and Dan Meth (video)

via Neatorama

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guest post by mikl-em

Above Mark Growden performs “I’m Your Man” (a Leonard Cohen cover) from his new, as-yet-to-be-released album Saint Judas. This just released video playing live with his quartet was recorded in July at The Red Poppy Art House in San Francisco.

Mark has appeared numerous times on this blog. He is a long-time friend of the mirthful cephalopod, who has performed at Squid-related parties, benefits and even in Scott Beale’s kitchen.

He’s been a fixture in the San Francisco music scene for more than a decade, who has shown his musical versatility as a singer/composer who plays banjo, guitar, accordion, sax, and just about anything else he decides to pick up.

With his upcoming album, assisted by his long time band and a top notch producer, plus a renewed focus on touring, Mark looks set to increase his national reputation in the very near future.

I talked to Mark recently about his new CD, the show he’s playing this Friday to celebrate its release, his influences, his instruments, and how & when he writes songs.

A lot of great stuff, click the link below for the whole interview.

photo by Helena Price

Q: For those who aren’t familiar with your work, maybe you can give some reference points: who are some of your musical heroes? Who inspires you to do what you do?

At the core I’d say my 3 biggest influences are Igor Stravinsky (especially his 3 great pieces commissioned by the Ballet Russe), John Coltrane, and prison work songs from the American South.

But who or what inspires me to do what I do? Really, I do it because it’s what I do. I feel called to do it. It’s a service thing. It’s my duty. I tried stopping for a few years, but it became absolutely clear that I needed to use my gifts in music to serve the bigger picture.

photo by William N.

Q: Your music is dramatic, pulling in a wide range of musical styles from song to song, but not limited by any of those influences. Is there a shorthand description when you are describing your music to others?

You know, I’ve had a really difficult time with this over the years but I’ve been working on it recently. It’s difficult to fit into the traditional “iTunes” genres. The best I can do there is something like “Americana Cabaret.” But recently I’ve called it “Soulful, nuanced, and deep americana noir.” A fan recently called it “Bar stool spirituals and carnal hymns.” I like that.

Q: Your new album is called Saint Judas. It seems like a major breakthrough for you. First of all, are you pleased with how the album came out?

Yes. Very much so. I think it’s my best work to date by a long shot.

Q: Do you feel like you are reaching some new levels as an artist?

Definitely. I feel like I’ve come into my own. I’m comfortable in my skin now. I wasn’t before. There was a period where I think my relationship to my work was clouded by lots of outside factors and influences. Now I’m more clear about why I do it and how I like to do it. I play music because I’m called to play music rather than out of ambition.

Q: Many of the shows I’ve seen you perform were in small theaters or in warehouse art spaces. I know you’ve also played the likes of The Fillmore in the past, but for many fans it may be the first time they’ve seen you in a well-appointed theater like The Cowell.

This concert is going to be really special. There is a set designer, a lighting designer, and it’s a gorgeous theater. And hopefully we’re going to sell out.
[fyi: buy tickets here]

Q: In contrast to the small venue solo shows, you’ll have a full band. It’s the same band as on the record?

Yes, exactly the same band. The lineup is: Chris Grady on trumpet, Alex Kelly on cello, Myles Boisen on Guitar, Seth Ford-Young on upright bass, and Jenya Chernoff on percussion.

Also the co-producer and engineer is Oz Fritz. He’s well known for his work with Tom Waits, Henry Threadgill and Bill Laswell. It is an honor to work with him. Actually, he’ll be doing the sound for the CD release concert as well.

Q: You are a true multi-instrumentalist; I’ve seen you make music on a guitar, banjo, accordion, baritone sax, even the handlebars of a bicycle. What was your first instrument?

According to my parents, my first instrument was percussion. They said that they kept a cupboard full of pots, pans and tupperware that I would play with wooden spoons. Apparently it was a favorite pastime of mine. But my first “real” instruments were lap dulcimer and recorder as a small child. I’ve always been a multi-instrumentalist.

photo by Steve Rhodes

Q: And then you had classical training, right?

Yes, I was trained classically on saxophone, flute, clarinet and percussion (especially timpani). I also started playing bass guitar in punk bands in the 80’s when I was in my teens. After that, I studied jazz improvisation and composing in college. After college, I went on to study Irish music (tin whistle and flute), Northern Indian classical music (bansuri), and Ghanaian drumming. Then when I was 24, all my wind instruments got stolen so I started singing. Soon after that I picked up accordion and banjo and began writing songs. If you had told me then that I’d have a number of albums out and be touring nationally as a singer/accordionist/banjo picker, I’d think you were crazy.

Q: How many instruments do you play?

Honestly… I don’t know.

Q: What is the most recent new instrument that you’ve added to your repetoire?

Piano. I’ve toyed around with piano since I was a child. But I’ve dedicated 2009 to studying classical piano. I love it.

Q: And does what instrument you write a song on influence its arrangement?

Absolutely. When people ask who my biggest influences are I generally tell them, “My instruments and the moment.” Each instrument brings out different qualities.

photo by durasoul

Q: Do you go through phases where you are intensely focused on writing new songs?

I do. But recently my priority is getting “Saint Judas” out. So I haven’t been writing much. Actually, let me clarify, I have gone through the inspiration/creative phase of writing on numerous new songs, but I haven’t sat down to craft and edit them. It’s just not a priority right now. Plus, beyond this album, I have enough material for another 2 albums already written.

But believe me, I’m looking forward to my next writing phase.

Q: Tell us a little about your approach to songwriting. Are your song ideas driven by musical ideas or by lyric or thematic ideas?

All of the above. Sometimes it’s words first, sometimes music. No set system. But I will say this, I try to keep the creative/inspiration phase separate from the crafting/editing phase. I treat a song like a brainstorm for a while, trying lots of ideas. Then I begin the editing and crafting. I enjoy both processes very much.

Q: I know that you’ve been on the road recently. How have the shows been?

The work has been received well. I’m returning to touring after a four year break and I was concerned that I maybe I had lost my fan base and would need to start over. But these last tours have been great for reconnecting with venues, fans, friends, radio stations, and musicians in cities I used to play on a regular basis. I’m happy to say that the fan base is still there.

Q: Where are you going in the near future?

A Northwest tour in mid/late November then down to L.A. for three months. And from L.A. I’ll tour the Southwest a couple of times. After that, I plan on doing residencies in various cities throughout the next year. People can always find out where I’m playing via the In Concert page on my website.

photo by Judith

Q: What are some things that will be different at the Fort Mason show, especially for folks who have seen you mostly solo and in small venues?

This show will feature my work in its full expression in an environment where it can really shine. The body of work on this album was written for a theater setting. And this is the most important show of my career to date. The SF arts community that Laughing Squid and I are part of knows this and has shown up in an incredible way. Lots of people are pitching in. Also, I’ll be joined on stage by my children Bela and Blue who will be singing backup on a couple of songs. Come on, that’s super special for me.

Q: And the CD is on sale at the show? But I understand that it won’t yet be available nationally, right? Can you give us those details?

Yes. The CD will be for sale at the show. This is what the label is calling a “narrow release”. It’s mainly to share my album with my local fans. “Saint Judas” will come out nationally in March (on Porto Franco Records). That’s when we’ll do our big national media push and when it will be available in stores and on iTunes and other digital outlets.

I hope to see both old and new faces at the show this Friday. I can’t wait for the San Francisco community to participate in what is such a special night for me.

photo by Eli Crews John

For more on Mark Growden, check out his blog, his Facebook page, and @markgrowden on Twitter.

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guest post by mikl-em

San Francisco musician Mark Growden is having a blockbuster concert event this Friday, November 13th at Fort Mason’s Cowell Theater to celebrate then release of his new album “Saint Judas”.

Tickets are on sale now for Friday’s show, and it is likely to sell out. Here’s a quote from a message that Mark sent to his mailing list last week:

This is the most important show of my career to date and I hope you can make it. It’s going to be special as it will feature my full sextet plus a beautiful set design by Isabella De Meulenaere and light design by Stephen Clifford.

Soon I will be posting some brand new footage of Mark performing a song off the new album and an interview that I conducted with him about the show, the new CD, and much more.

In the meantime, here’s a sample of Mark’s talent and musical inventiveness. A year ago, Doctor Popular filmed Mark playing bicycle handlebars as a wind instrument and talked to him about it–enjoy!

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Eclectic Method made a really cool remix of the band Phish’s list of “99 Albums”. The video premiered at their Festival 8 Halloween show in Indio, CA.

Taking Phish’s brilliant viral “99 Albums” online promotion to the next level, the London born/Brooklyn-based trio sourced content from all 99 albums, and remixed them into a single, profound, beat-driven AV collage, screened to the tens of thousands of fans in attendance just before the band took stage to perform their Halloween ritual of covering an iconic album.

via Boing Boing

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“Headphone Wall”, a hard rocking ad for the NYC electronics store J&R.

via Jason Laskodi

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“Fly In A Bottle”, a documentary about the avant-garde jazz trio Medeski Martin and Wood directed by their drummer Billy Martin, is scheduled for release on November 24th as part of the Radiolarians: The Evolutionary Set, now available for pre-order.

As an amazing finale to the entire box set, Billy Martin directed the first feature film in Medeski Martin & Wood’s history entitled Fly in a Bottle. Tirelessly working through footage of MMW in the studio and on the road, the film provides an extremely intimate portrait of the band. It highlights the trio’s intricate relationships with each other and with the music they have worked to create over their past 19 years as a band.

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Introducing the new Weezer Snuggie. Order now and they’ll throw in the new Weezer album “Raditude” for free.

via Nerdist

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ThinkGeek has a Electronic Rock Guitar t-shirt with a touch-sensitive guitar fret that you can actually play. A mini amp clips to your belt that you can turn up to 11.

The Electronic Guitar Shirt is not a toy that plays pre-canned musical riffs, it is a real musical instrument that allows you to play your favorite songs and sound great doing it. All major chords are recorded from a real electric guitar, and the included magnetic pick allows you to strum just like you would a real guitar. The included mini amp clips to your belt and gets plenty loud with great sounding amplification circuitry. The tone knob on the amp lets you adjust the sound just like a real guitar.

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An awesome tribute to Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes, the Cantina Band from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, doing a street corner serenade in San Francisco.

“Alderaan Road EP” photo by occlupanid

UPDATE: Steve Rhodes shot some photos of the Cantina Band playing around San Francisco on Halloween.

photo by Steve Rhodes

via SF Slim

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Inspired by the Total Eclipse Of The Heart flow chart, love all this created the Hey Jude Flow Chart to help you unravel one of The Beatles’ most complicated songs.

via Merlin Mann

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Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer presents 30 years of hip-hop history in five minutes on the banjo in his latest song “Chap-Hop History”.

See Also: Cup of Brown Joy by Elemental & Tom Caruana, A Teacore Rap Song

via Boing Boing

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Grocery Store Musical, the latest mission by Improv Everywhere.

For our latest mission, six undercover actors burst into song in a grocery store in Queens. Three minutes and lots of silly choreography later, they returned to their roles as shoppers and stock boys. The mission was filmed with hidden robotic, lipstick, and wearable cameras.

photo by Katie Sokoler

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photo by Bob Masse

West Fest, a free concert celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Woodstock, takes place from 10am-6pm on October 25th at Speedway Meadow in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The event will be live streamed via TodoCast.

42 bands, 3 stages and 26 poster artists. Solar domes, Alternative vehicles, Electric bikes, Native American Tipi Village, Sustainable Living Road Show, Conscious Art Gallery, Light Temple, Holistic Healing Section, Hooper Heaven, Rock’n Green Kids Zone and Eco Village vendors. Narada Michael Walden featuring Vernon Ice Black leading 3,000 guitar players and closing the show with the Hendrix Experience reenactment and Superstar Jam.

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During their October 10th show in at Park West in Chicago, Jonathan Coulton with Paul and Storm performed the 19 tracks from the 1990 They Might Be Giants album “Flood”. On his blog Jonathan explains that TMBG were in town the same night playing “Flood”, so they decided to perform the album as well so fans would have a less difficult decision when it came to choose which show to attend.

MrSctw has video of the show which they have uploaded to YouTube in 9 parts.

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“Sweet Frown”, the latest music video by My First Earthquake from their first full length album “Downstairs”, features a rockin’ reenactment of Marie Antoinette and her court. The video was made by Jesus Beltran and Zumpango Films.

My First Earthquake will be playing at the Earthquake 20th Anniversary Party this Saturday, October 17th at Hemlock Tavern in San Francisco, along with The Chop and Goodbye Nautilus.

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Gimme Something Better: The Profound, Progressive, and Occasionally Pointless History of Bay Area Punk from Dead Kennedys to Green Day is a new book by our good friends Jack Boulware and Silke Tudor, that chronicles the history of punk rock music in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Outside of New York and London, California’s Bay Area claims the oldest continuous punk-rock scene in the world.

Gimme Something Better brings this outrageous and influential punk scene to life, from the notorious final performance of the Sex Pistols, to Jello Biafra’s bid for mayor, the rise of Maximum RocknRoll magazine, and the East Bay pop-punk sound that sold millions around the globe. Throngs of punks, including members of the Dead Kennedys, Avengers, Flipper, MDC, Green Day, Rancid, NOFX, and AFI, tell their own stories in this definitive account, from the innovative art-damage of San Francisco’s Fab Mab in North Beach, to the still vibrant all-ages DIY ethos of Berkeley’s Gilman Street. Compiled by longtime Bay Area journalists Jack Boulware and Silke Tudor, Gimme Something Better chronicles more than two decades of punk music, progressive politics, social consciousness, and divine decadence, told by the people who made it happen.

photo by unknown

Litquake and Porchlight are hosting a book release party, Journey to the End of the Bay: Punk Rockers Spill Their Guts, on Monday, October 12th at Broadway Studios (the old On Broadway) in San Francisco.

The Litquake literary festival and Porchlight storytelling collaborate for true tales of punk-rock anarchy and excess. This huge tribute to the Bay Area punk scene features stories and music all night long, in the legendary On Broadway space, which helped give birth to punk rock on the West Coast.

Other events include an author talk and book signing at Booksmith in San Francisco on Tuesday, October 13th, a punk rock show at 924 Gilman in Berkeley on Saturday, October 17th and an author talk and book signing at Powell’s Books in Portland on Monday, October 19th.

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guest post by Doctor Popular

Cyriak has created “Meow Mix, a bizarre music video using audio and video from his cat. Obviously this sort of thing has been done a million times before, but Cyriak’s video is a little more… visually intense… than most videos. Cyriak has also made the mp3 file available for download.

See Previously: Bizarre & Surreal Animation by Cyriak Harris

Thanks Unwoman.

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While in Los Angeles last week we stopped by Vibrato Grill Jazz, a beautiful restaurant and jazz club in Bel Air owned by renown musician Herb Alpert. Our friend Tony Campanale is the manager there and during our visit he introduced us to Pat Senatore, a charming man, who along with being the music director of the club, was the bass player for Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass.

The band performing the night we were there was the Rick Vittallo Quartet and at one point Slim Jim Phantom from the Stray Cats sat in on the drums.

On our way out I noticed a series of jazz musician sculptures over the bar. I asked Tony about them and he said that they came from the lobby of A&M Records. Herb Alpert is the “A” in A&M Records which he co-founded in 1962 with Jerry Moss.

Herb Alpert and his wife Lani Hall are currently on a US tour.

photos by Scott Beale

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PS22 Chorus class of 2009 sings “Pictures of You” by The Cure.

via Lori Dorn

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