I did the fake album cover above with this fun little challenging design exercise:

1) Band Name

Go to wikipedia and hit the random link. The title of the first article you get is your band name.

2) Album Name

Go to Random Quotations and select the last 3 to 5 words of the last quote.(i linked to a different random quotes site, the other one i used sucked at randomization)

3) Photo

Go to Flickr and Explore The Last Seven Days. Pick the third photo, if it’s just completely lame or unusable, grab the second or fourth. If Flickr won’t let you save the photo, take a screen shot.

4) Typeface

I’d say this is a typographic design exercise more than anything, finding the right typeface and treatment to go along with the name and photo is where your design sense comes in. In this instance i decided to go with the lovely fashionable Didot, designed by Adrian Frutiger.

5) Texturing / Coloring / Vignetting

This step is optional, but i think it adds a nice touch to color correct or colorize your photo (Photoshop’s Hue & Saturation and Levels), add some vignetting, or play with texturizing. In mine i added some vignetting to make the text more legible, and the photo less flat. I also used the above texture from Lost & Taken in the overlay blend mode.

This one took me about 20 minutes. Time yourself and see how long it takes you to do something you’re happy with.

So i was doing a little spring cleaning on my computer this evening and I found this little poster i did back at my old agency. It was a belated secret santa gift for my good friend, and office manager, Brian Kerr. This last christmas i made an exodus to arizona and totally ditched the office festivities, and soon after my return, i was showered in well deserving guilt. Thankfully i was able to mend the friendship with a little extra time at work, i don’t think i’d be able to endure the holidays every year with the secret santa shame.

Brian also runs a great indie music label called Two Syllable Records, i recommend checking them out. They’ve got some great bands like New Villager on their roster.

After 15 years since his last release, a wicked new video and song By the legendary Gil Scott-Heron, off his new album I’m New Here.

I just recently dug up some more obscure gems (at least obscure to me, i’m no jazz expert) from the jazz monster that is Blue Note, i’ve posted some of my favorite covers from this batch. I’d have to say the color selection is definitly what does it for me with these covers. That orange is just kickin’. The patterns used on the Charlie Rouse cover compliment the latin twist on this album well, and stand out among a lot of the other Blue Note covers. I also love the clash of pink, red, and orange, normally a color theory no no, but it works here, running parallel with the energetic syncopated bossa rhythms.

I just rinsed Charlie Rouse’s Bossa Nova Bacchanal, such a great way to start swinging in the morning. Here is the first track on the album:

Charlie Rouse: Bossa Nova Bacchanal – Back To The Tropics

[audio:http://blog.thenorik.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/01-Back-To-The-Tropics-1.mp3]

The Golden Filter – “Solid Gold” from golden filter on Vimeo.

Last night was a blast. I was at Tribeca Grand in Manhattan to see The Golden Filter. A NYC based new wave / disco band. They had a live drummer, a guy on keys and floor toms, and a vocalist (pictured above). She was amazing, i think i have a little crush. Unfortunately the sound engineer seemed to have trouble bring up her vocals.

The Tribeca Grand is a crazy place. It’s a very fancy, well design hotel, with a large lobby / bar area, apparently a lot of similar shows happen there. Sad the crowd was slightly snooty and stiff, i was up front cuttin’ up rug, and every time i glanced back i was reminded that i was one of the only people dancing. Since when was disco about standing around looking cool in your cocktail dress not moving your bod?

I first heard The Golden Filter when i bought their remix of Cut Copy‘s Far Away, but for some reason had not reached out to their other stuff, i can’t believe i had been sleeping on these guys. Check out the video for Solid Gold above, the visuals are quite delectable.

Cut Copy – Far Away (Golden Filter Remix)

[audio:http://blog.thenorik.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Far-Away-Golden-Filter-Remix-1.mp3]

I just discovered this free album of wicked chilled out dubstep / techno. Considering how much of this type of music is delay and reverb, the album is ironically named Anechoic Chamber, which i remember learning about in my audio schooling.

This chamber is a room used in audio engineering (and other sciences involving other inaudible frequencies) that has absolutely no reverberation, no surfaces for sound to reflect. Since the room has no audible context apparently these rooms are so audibly unnatural for humans, that people can go nuts if they are exposed to Anechoic Chamber‘s conditions for too long. Sounds that we take for granted and sounds that are masked with the ambience of our environments, such as our breathing, heartbeat, and even the blood coursing through our veins become the only sounds heard in this padded room. I’d love to check one out one day, i think they are quite visually stunning as well.

Here is a sampling of Echo Dub’s Anechoic Chamber:

Beneath Me by Sines

[audio:http://blog.thenorik.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/06-beneath-me-1.mp3]

I normally avoid live albums, but this accompaniment to the documentary A Cross the Universe is quality, certainly following in the footsteps of Daft Punk’s Alive 2007, Justice has made a solid execution of mixing 3 things i really enjoy: funk, metal, and dance music.

We Are Your Friends (Reprise) is my favorite part, i love Simon Lord‘s vocals.

[audio:http://blog.thenorik.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/13-we-are-your-friends-reprise-1.mp3]

Fujiya & Miyagi was rockin’ our gear at the CMJ music festival in NYC last week. Now that Dave is rockin’ the Rosary, we can officially say he is a scientist. :D more