The Universal Sighhhhhhhhhhh

Yours truly spent 3 hours waiting in line on Tuesday to get Radiohead's self-published periodical, The Universal Sigh. Unlike those lucky Brits, Thom didn't show up to pass them out himself here in LA...but hey it was 75 degrees and sunny instead grey and rainy like it always is in London.  That's something.  Anyway, it's pretty cool, and so is the King of Limbs (the album that was released on the same day).  Basically the paper is 12 pages of artwork, short stories and poems - true Radiohead form.  Not to worry if you didn't grab a copy but you'd like one, it's in PDF form all over the internet.

In case you haven't seen thom yorke dancing in a hat to a song off the new album, enjoy:

Bullion

I cannot get enough of this song: Magic Was Ruler, by Bullion.  Makes me want to wander around the city street dancing.

BULLION / Magic Was Ruler by Young Turks

Keep Shelly in Athens

Not feeling super great today, oncoming cold or just a case of the Mondays? I don't know, but the downtempo duo Keep Shelly in Athens is definitely helping.

They're from Greece, they're kind of old-school 90's era mellow electro, and they're perfect when you feel like crap and are stuck on public transportation.

The first and last song below, Running Out Of You and Fokionos Negri Street, are from their 6 tack EP In Love With Dusk.  The second song, Hauntin' Me is a newer single.  And they're all amazing.

They're releasing a super limited cassette sometime pretty soon, only 150 copies to be sold.  I almost pre-ordered it...then I realized I don't even own anything to play a cassette on.  Even so, I think these guys are so great that I still want it.

Okay, now I'm turning the lights off, turning Hauntin' Me up, and lamenting the fact that I didn't get a flu shot.

Keep Shelly in Athens - Running Out Of You by Keep Shelly in Athens

Keep Shelly in Athens - Hauntin' Me by Keep Shelly in Athens

Fokionos Negri Street by Keep Shelly in Athens

LA: Then and Now

Alright, here it is: I'm pretty much a huge, unashamed postcard collector.

I have a few vintage Los Angeles postcards, and this plan to find the locations and try to get as close to the same shot as I can, for a sort of now version.  Today I tracked down these two on Hollywood Boulevard:

In the postcards, you can see the electric rail tracks on the road.  LA used to have this pretty expansive electric railway set-up, but there was I guess a big corruption/scandal and by 1963 all the tracks were torn up, and buses/cars replaced the trolleys!  It's all part of the Great American Streetcar Scandal, where car, tire and oil companies teamed up and ran the railroads out business to increased car sales.  Who Framed Roger Rabbit? alluded to the situation, when the big wigs were attempting to sell toontown in order to make room for a freeway.

Anyway, Thanks GM for my 45 minute, 8 mile bus ride...I wish I took a streetcar to work.

Little Dragon, Blood Diamonds and Marissa Nadler

Little Dragon, my third favorite Swedish band (after the Knife and the Sounds), has new music! Specifically, a new album, Ritual Union, coming out this summer.  This song Nightlight is a bit of a sneak peak. How cool is that band picture too?

I've been listening to this one by Canada's Blood Diamonds, called Lasting Love, a bunch too.

Lasting Love by Blood Diamonds by The Pop Manifesto

Alright finally, I'm kind of strangely really into this song, Baby, I Will Leave You in the Morning, by Marissa Nadler, she has this Nancy Sinatra, Leonard Cohen-y feel.

JR Downtown

JR, this really great French street artist, has some new art work up in LA.  Basically he's been wheat-pasting the world like crazy, and LA's his most recent stop.  I hadn't heard until he did a show in Long Beach and postered up half the walls in town, but JR won a TED grant and has been spending it pasting up HUGE pictures of people on buildings/windows/billboards/etc for the past month.  It's really cool.  The "show" is called "Wrinkles of the City" and LA's only the most recent stop.  Before that was Shanghai and Cartagena.  I heard there are going to be 20 of them put up all over the area.

LA Graffiti

Cold and rainy here, but Spring, woohoo!  Anyway, on my commute everyday I pass through this sort of warehousey/factory/train yard area of LA and there's always really crazy, bright, cool graffiti around.