Sketch!

More fun with Gas Masks - don't expect to see any less of these.

How To Destroy Angels to release free EP

From the most recent update at nin.com...

How To Destroy Angels, the new band featuring Mariqueen Maandig, Trent Reznor, and Atticus Ross are releasing their debut EP as a free download on June 1st. If you pre-order you'll get one new track, 'The Believers,' immediately. A selection of merchandise is also available.

The EP will be released on CD July 6th, with a vinyl release TBA. For updates, follow @destroyangels on Twitter, or on Facebook here.

If you haven't heard of this band yet, get hearin'! Their first single "A Drowning" is available on Amazon's MP3 Store as well as iTunes, and their high concept debut music video for "The Space In Between" will give you chills here.


And for an interview with the video's director, Rupert Sanders, check out this article from Pitchfork.


Did I mention the debut EP is free this Tuesday? If you wanna throw the band a few bones, there's a pleasantly surprising amount of merch already available (and ready to ship by mid-June). Also, if you're a snobby iPad owner like me, there's a brand new app from Wired magazine in which they've essentially created a very sleek electronic version of their publication specifically for the Apple product. One of the features is an interactive article on the creation of a song by How To Destroy Angels. Read it here.

While reading through each step, you can listen to the element being described, culminating in the finished version of "The Believers" which might be my favorite track by HTDA thus far. As the Wired article points out, there's an unsettling and extremely satisfying combination of electronic and organic elements that make it so enjoyable. Imagine the glitchy noise of Year Zero with the marimbas of Ghosts and you've got a rough idea. However, this is probably the least NIN-sounding track to date, and the comparison to those 2 albums is strictly to illustrate what it sounds like. Granted, I'm only going off of one listen. June 1st being mere days away, I'd rather just wait to hear the song in context rather than burn myself out on it (which I could easily do).

Anyway, the point is "The Believers", more so than any of the songs released so far, hints at the true potential of How To Destroy Angels. In other words, it starts to make sense why it's an entity separate from Nine Inch Nails, and I can't wait to hear more.

Misc. Links:

http://howtodestroyangels.com/

http://www.facebook.com/howtodestroyangels

http://www.myspace.com/howtodestroyangels


http://www.youtube.com/howtodestroyangels

http://vimeo.com/destroyangels

http://twitter.com/destroyangels



And as an added bonus, Trent/NIN recently completed a song for the foreign film Tetsuo: The Bullet Man. Check it out here.


Make sure to listen to it loud. You might die from the epic-ness of it, but it'll be a good death.

Album of the Week: UNKLE - Where Did The Night Fall

Band/Artist: UNKLE
Album: Where Did The Night Fall

A band that has had a truly transformative journey, UNKLE have reached a point with their newest LP that seems to combine all their past albums to create something that could best be described as electronically informed psych-rock. A series of collaborations from the likes of up-and-comers and under-appreciated groups such as Autolux, The Black Angels, and more congeals into a simultaneously cohesive and diverse listening experience. Though the whole thing is fantastic, highlights for me include Follow Me Down, Caged Bird, and The Runaway - 3 tracks with 3 different though equally talented female vocalists. Follow Me Down features a stunning vocal performance by Sleepy Sun's Rachel Fannan that simply must be heard, while Caged Bird with Katrina Ford displays a similarly powerful performance, both women carrying enormous presence, though never at the expense of the song (quite the contrary). Perhaps on the other side of the spectrum is Lisa Elle, who goes in the other direction for The Runaway: what she lacks in terms of sheer power she more than makes up for in mood. Somehow she manages to convey menace, fear, and apathy all in the same song to ultimately come across like a severely disturbed Alison Goldfrapp. Great stuff. Probably my favorite song on the album.

Check out Lisa's day job at the below links:

Official Site
MySpace [<--"Alone" in particular is great]
Facebook
Twitter

Aside from the excellent music, the deluxe packaging for Where Did The Night Fall is likely the best I've seen since the last UNKLE album War Stories. Record companies take note - this is how you combat piracy: the included lyrics, liner notes, and especially the amazing photography are expertly presented. This is exactly the type of thing I look for when seeking a physical copy of a band's new album.

And speaking of the incredible photography, UNKLE's latest music video (for Follow Me Down) is essentially the album artwork in motion, which makes total sense since it was directed by WDTNF's extremely talented art directors Warren du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones. It's one of the best music videos I've seen this year. Sincerely inspiring work.

Feast your eyes on it here.

So go out and buy this album, or at least listen to it.

p.s.

if it wasn't already clear, I'd like to consistently make "Album of the Week" posts (this being the first), or at least a weekly entry that highlights my current playlist or something. We shall see. Stay tuned!

iamamiwhoami... ...who?

Because I'm lazy, here's a quick summary courtesy of Wikipedia:

iamamiwhoami is an anonymous electronic music project featuring a female lead singer, found in 2009. It was promoted through a viral campaign on YouTube. On 4 December 2009, a surreal clip less than a minute long appeared on YouTube submitted by iamamiwhoami. The clip was forwarded to several known blogger as well as music journalists. A second soon appeared and then a third. By then, Chris Cantalini and MTV writer James Montgomery picked up on the clips fueling speculation that had been building in blogs

That's the gist. There was a period of time when a lot of people were convinced it was Christina Aguilera but that theory's been discarded, and some clever internet detectives have discovered that iamamiwhoami is an obscure singer/songwriter named Jonna Lee. The identity is pretty irrelevant though. The creativity is what counts here.

These clips, aside from featuring some genuinely cool, promising bits of music, are visually outstanding. At this moment, there have been about 4 complete songs released (in addition to all the other clips that preceded them), with accompanying videos. They're all good in their own way, but the standout is easily "O" which I can confidently say is my favorite track of 2010 thus far. Imagine the spacey, dark, synth-happy sound of Fever Ray or The Knife, but with arguably better vocals and exceptional lyrics. I wouldn't say it's a derivative sound. Maybe one that tips its hat to its influences, but absolutely builds on them. This is my kind of music. I'm hoping we get some kind of announcement on a full album before the end of the summer. This is a project that has serious potential. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

iamamiwhoami's YouTube Channel - featuring all their videos to date.

New Stuff 5/5/10

Here's some recent stuff, including a David Bowie portrait completed with charcoal and carbon dust. Also, a portrait of the mysterious iamamiwhoami (who will get her own post devoted to her very soon) as well as some Mage character. If you couldn't tell, those two were done using Sketchbook Pro (with a stylus no less, which makes a bigger difference than you might imagine).

In other news, the self portrait you'll see below with the green background (the one closest to the top of this page) just recently got selected to appear in the Student Show at WPU! Hooray!