Thursday, February 21, 2008

New LOP Video


Yes, big news here. The boys at Folly Films just finished putting together a new video for 'the 70s', featuring me sitting at my desk at my day job for 8 hours. It's a time lapse video. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4UgH5OICdk

Honestly it turned out as well as I had hoped. You can't ask for much more than that.

Also, the Cavs ended the Larry Era. Tonight I shall partake in much merriment.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Wolcott


No joke - the past three days I've done nothing but listen to I Stand Corrected and Wolcott by Vampire Weekend over and over and over and over. Unequivocally the best album I've heard in over a year, with three utterly tremendous songs (the two I mentioned plus Mansard Roof.

I posted I Stand Corrected a few days ago. Here is Wolcott.

Wolcott

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Real-Time Video Edition


There is a video camera pointing at my face right this instant. Some filmmaker friends of mine (see the Folly Films link to the left) are doing a video for the song 'the 70s'. It may very well be the most boring music video of all time. Details to come later.

I am finding it easier to just post links on this blog - at least that way I update it more often. Here are some good ones.

First, and somewhat ironically, 'the 70s' has been posted on Sensory Overload as one of the top 5 songs of the week. There's no review or anything, just a quick mention of how I sound like Elliott Smith (yes, I've heard that before).

Second, there is a great, great article on Gamasutra about how the ongoing 'are videogames art?' debate is pointless. I couldn't agree more. The gist of the article is that anything, literally, can be considered art depending on how it is presented culturally. So, put a painting in a museum and - presto - people think it is art. Stick the same painting on the wall of a diner and it no longer has the same relevance. So the point is that the game industry should simply focus on 'framing' videogames in a more culturally significant fashion - like how in recent years symphonies have occasionally played the themes from prominent videogames. Just read the article, it's pretty great.

Last, this site wonders what Valentine's Day cards would be like if they were completely honest. It's hard to mess that one up.

Monday, February 11, 2008

El Paso Hot Button


This guy is an inspiration. I've struggled with finding competent bandmates the entire time I've lived in LA - that's why LOP is still a solo project. But this guy decided to be a total rocking bad ass all on his own, and has been doing it for like 5 years or so. Too cool.

(Question: how is the snare drum set up? Is it attached to the bass drum

I just did a random search and came across this guy playing Pachabel's canon (all 7 parts) solo via a looping pedal. There's all kinds of musicians that use these pedals to create full orchestrations.

Perhaps a synthesis of the two is in order...

PS: Whoa, this is CRAZY.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Two Songs


Relatively recently I've heard two new songs that are just killing me. They're incredible, and both share a minimalist aesthetic and textbook restraint. I am very jealous of these songs.

They are 'Burning' by The Whitest Boy Alive and 'I Stand Corrected' by super-trendy Vampire Weekend. I think they're the two best songs I've heard in like the past 6 months.

Burning

i_stand_corrected

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Breakfast of Champions


I visited some interesting websites today. Two in particular stood out:

This one is great
. It's called 'A Lazy Layman's Guide to Quantum Physics". Every now and then I read a book about quantum physics or look up information in the intraweb and then promptly forget it, so each time I always have to start over. This site should save me at least a little bit of time in the future.

This one
can only be described as genius. Not pure genius per se, but its simplicity and effectiveness is killer. It's a flash game.

The boys at Folly Films (link is to the left) are also geniuses, and last night they came up with the perfect idea for a LOP music video. Details to come when I feel like it.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Boutros Boutros Ghali


For some reason it is very, very easy for me to write posts for my new sports-related blog, but very hard to think of anything to write for this site. I guess since there is no pressing LOP news I'd rather not write a post about something random, like what I ate for lunch. That would not be very entertaining (particularly not today).

Well, Bioshock is easily one of the best games I've ever played. It's way up there. So is Rock Band.

In fact, when I first bought my Xbox 360 I half-jokingly thought to myself, 'there goes my free time for working on music'. But in learning to play the drums in Rock Band - in making the new neural connections, in cranking the gears in my mind - the opposite has come true. I've been writing and recording more than ever. In fact, I'm thinking about shopping around a new EP to some netlabels soon. No joke.