Atlanta producer and lyricist UNDA presents the aqueous album that is Tomorrow Never Comes. From the get-go, the six-track compilation plays proof of its condemned title. As the sole character, UNDA narrates the candid desires of his liquidated mind; under an intoxicated trance in his intro track “Dear Aquarius,” he spills out not-so-sweet nothings to an estranged someone. His words seem to seek this assumed lover’s echo while they tread through the prolonged thrashes of an electric guitar. The tone is set and this drunken tale is assumed to be damned.
London-based artist Word To Mother‘s latest collection of works features his distinctive visual assemblages of figures, patterns and typography painted in mixed media on wooden panels. Drawing from his own experiences in recent years, the state of the economy, and riots on his doorstep Can’t Afford To Be Broke sees Word To Mother showing a sense of desperate yet hopeful pieces, using familiar references of both current and vintage popular culture icons, which evoke a sense of humor amongst more melancholic figures. Delving deeper into his exploration of color, Word to Mother expands into more primary tones alongside his usual favored natural palette. Gestural marks are layered and ‘buffed’ to create textured expanses of muted tones with injections of fluorescent reds and oranges appearing like small explosions of optimism amongst an overcast sky.
I’m sitting in Panera Bread feeling plum crazy. I don’t know if it’s the whirlwind of daily chaos or my excitement of hearing Fiona Apple’s new song, “Every Single Night.” I don’t know what it is, but I do know I feel crazy. As I have learned, feeling something and being something isn’t the same thing. Although, I’ve also learned being and feeling is not that far of a discrepancy.
Good music speaks volumes… rather than impose analysis, step back and expose linguistic artistry… why critique that which has achieved perfection at its own masterful conception… listen, look, and linger in fantastic rhythmic reality: lyrically speaking
After being away, moving into a new flat and studio UK based painter George-Morton Clark has finally got down to some painting. And from the looks of these new oil paintings George sent over to us, he’s up to his same magical tricks. The twist is the shards of an evolved style which now plays off a collage like style he achieves through brushstrokes.
“If you take your clothes off, it’s amazing what will happen,” said pop superstar Lady Gaga on her 2011 David Letterman appearance. Gaga spoke of playing in a club in New York pre-fame, when her name was still Stefani Germanotta, and commented that no one paid attention to her during her set until she stripped down to nothing but bra and panties. Of course, that was just the tip of the iceberg for Lady Gaga’s attention-catching fashion choices and controversial stage performances. But it leaves one to wonder, is a complete one-eighty-degree flip in image and performance necessary in order to follow one’s dreams? And more commonly, with enough shocking and captivating pieces to make headlines for the next five years, is it shock value, or is it art?
Good music speaks volumes… linger in fantastic rhythmic reality: lyrically speaking
Justin Timberlake can bring sexy back, but he couldn’t revive MySpace if he tried. And while I loved discovering new music, having a selective Top 8, and spending hours editing the html coding on my profile layout – there’s no sense in beating a dead horse. In 2008, Facebook slowly crept its way into popularity. It was new, fresh, easy to use, looked nothing close to MySpace, and it took the majority of today’s youth along with it.
Sleep evades artists. At least the ones I know. Because, what are dreams to a dreamer when the grind and the night elope?
Freedom, that glorious word which drives America through each day and each era and is so important to us… it’s been completely revoked from our new milieu, and we’re totally okay with it. Freedom of speech is currently under siege (SOPA and PIPA). We don’t have freedom of choice—and we love it. Creativity, too, is gone; restriction strictly enforced. Individuality, au revoir. It’s the Internet age, babe, better get used to it.
It was the brooding energy of a sweaty dark night in East Atlanta nightclub, The Basement. That particular night was like most other nights, in Atlanta, surely around the globe, in which local people with the spattering out-of-towners gather for one ever connecting force: live music. Of course live music does not guarantee good music or even a good time but it does ensure that the lack of inactivity will provide a backdrop for the rest of the evening. I’m here waiting for singer/songwriter BOSCO.
Philip Sportel created this awesome text based installation recently at Community 54 in Tornoto, Canada. The filmed footage became the visual accompanyment to Colin Munroe’s latest song “Invincible” featuring RZA & Memoryhouse.
