According the AP, from 11:00 to 21:00 GMT this Friday, the earth's magnetic poles will switch locations, resulting in a near-zero gravity environment for several hours. People are encouraged to stay indoors, with as few heavy objects in the room as possible. As this electromagnetic shift is unprecedented in recorded history, it is impossible to project the extent of damage. Areas in direct line of the magnetic migration - on the eastern seaboard of the amercias, and the middle-east pacific (including Siberia, Japan, Indosesia, New Zeland and parts of Australia) - should prepare for the most extreme effects. Organizations in Canada and the Netherlands have built inflatable structures to take advantage of this rare occasion, despite warnings from the international scientific community.



In other news, I got new shoes today.
(If anyone knows where The Horrors buy their pants, drop me a line.)

Helmut Lang, how I miss thee.

Some good news for the narrow and distraught though: According to Wikipedia, Japanese label Theory is acquiring the abeyant brand from Prada. Lang himself is not expected to return to the label that bears his name, but one of our fashion heroes, Cloak Founder Alexandre Plokhov is rumored to take the design helm.

I've always admired Lang's perfect cuts and restraint, but am giddy with the thought of those lines being married to Plokhov's military/fetish detailing.

Co-curated by Burnlab's own Phoenix Perry and recently screened at Dethlab's Machines that Feel event, RELINE2 has just been acquired by the SFMoMA for their Media Arts Collection (where it will be rubbing elbows with the works of Bill Viola and Nam June Paik.) Huge congrats to Nix and all the artists involved! The Microcinema site now has preview clips of all 18 films in the collection.

Speaking of the SFMoMA, former Director of Architecture and Design Aaron Betsky was appointed Director of the Cincinnati Art Museum yesterday. The high-profile appointment follows announcement of a 20-year, $200M renovation and expansion program for the 125-year-old institution.

As a firm believer that the old adage "you can't judge a book by its cover" is complete horseshit, I'm pleased to see Rob Walker's latest The Designed Life series for Murketing.com. Walker explores the relationship between the aesthetics of wine packaging and the quality of the actual wine.

Bethany and I reguarly buy wine based on packaging, and have been batting close to 1,000 with this technique.

Two very basic rules of thumb: Good typography on the label = good wine. Brightly colored monkeys on the label = tastes like monkey piss.

The Quay Brothers' second feature length film, The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes will debut at select art houses in September. Executive produced by Terry Gilliam, the film has been hailed by Time Out London as "imaginative and visually seductive... a weird fairy tale, a Gothic fable of obsessive desire... magical, bizarre... ambitious and luscious." (Well, obvs...)

The Quay's mentor (and pioneer of animated meat) Jan Svankmajer has just released a new film: Lunacy is now playing at NYC's Film Forum and select theaters in California. It will hit the Detroit Film Theater and Brooklyn's BAM Rose Cinema in November.

The Detroit Film Theater opens the fall season with Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9 September 8th-10th.

[Also see the official Drawing Restraint project site.]

One of our favorite DIY labels, Square Root Records presents the third I Made It Myself Festival this Saturday in Bay City Michigan.



The festival features fourteen live acts, including: Born, the Esperantos, Our Space in Time, Perfect Summer, Spectral Mornings, Thirty (Over) Thousand, A Ferret Named Polo, Centre, the Chauceworth Aif, Padreg Jageillon, Marahmar, Bananahands, Carjack, and OS-2 War.

Click here for a history of IMIM.

IMIMIII
Saturday, Aug. 26th
The Middlegrounds, Bay City MI
11am, into the evening | FREE!

Author, curator, and blogger Ellen Lupton will be speaking at The Municipal Art Society's Urban Center Books Wednesday, Sept. 20th.

Topics include crimes against typography, the world's most common typo, the pillow epidemic, what the new FDA food pyramid really means, and other minor disasters.

Ellen is the author of D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself and Thinking With Type, and curated numerous exhibits for the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, including Skin and the National Design Triennial.

Evening programs at Urban Center Books are free and open to the public.
Seating is limited and reservations are encouraged.

457 Madison Avenue at 51st Street, New York City
Wednesday, Sept. 20 | 6:30-8:00 p.m. | FREE

It's no secret that we love us some bacon around here. (We're already down with bacon bandages, bacon luggage tags, bacon air fresheners, the bacon of the month club, and of course the delicious Tripple Threat sandwich at Slows.) Perpetual Kid offers up some tasty variants we haven't seen yet, including the all knowing What Would Bacon Do? deluxe spin folder, and stylish bacon wallet. We're not so sure about gummy bacon... why on earth would they make it strawberry flavored? Seems like a dirty trick.

One of our faves, The Nice Device is playing live at the Whitney Garden Party tonight: Thursday, August 24th. If you haven't yet, do check out their video for Innocent.

The Whitney
4421 Woodward Ave., Detroit MI
5pm-9pm | $10 (includes hors d'oeuvres)


Also, two new Dethlab dates just announced:



Bethany and I are honored to be headlining IPM Radio's end of summer party Labor Day weekend. IPM has been a free-form internet radio institution since 1998, providing exposure to independent labels and artists, on-demand programming, live broadcasts, concert performances and interviews to a worldwide audience. The party starts at Noon on Saturday, Sept. 2nd, and goes well into the following evening. It's free and everyone is invited! Schedule here and details here.

In October, we will be doing a special Friday the 13th show with 800beloved at the Lager House. Details and other acts TBA soon, but mark your calendars in blood now!

+ don't forget Sex & Sedition VIII with very special guest Lowfish at OSLO on Sept. 29th, and Guggenheim First Fridays with Dethlab and Telefon Tel Aviv Dec. 1st in New York City.

The electro-pop of LES MERCREDIS is uber-nerdy joy.

official site [German]
MySpace page [English]

Design Times Square: The Urban Forest Project brings 185 banners created by the world's most celebrated designers, artists, photographers and illustrators to New York's Times Square. Each banner uses the form of the tree, or a metaphor for the tree, to make a powerful visual statement. Following their display, (September 1 - October 31, 2006) the banners will be recycled into tote bags and sold at auction, with proceeds going to scholarship and mentoring programs that benefit students of the visual arts.

See all 185 banners here. 22 students in the AIGA NY's Mentoring Program are included along with quite a substantial amount of Cranbrook Academy of Art alumni.

Sculptor Anish Kapoor, best known for Marsyas at the Tate Modern and Cloud Gate in Chicago, will be installing his first public work in New York next month. Sky Mirror, a three story polished stainless steel dish, is currently being fabricated in Oakland CA, and will be on view in Rockefeller Plaza from Sept. 19 to Oct. 27.

"We're following a Ford GT... with the Ford GT's chief designer in it. That's a lot of a car, that is there."

Sweet.

[View in full-screen mode with the bass all the way up to do this clip justice.]

Today, August 22nd, 2006 is supposed to be Judgment Day. (I forget exactly where I heard that... either Colbert or Nostradamus... matters not.) The morning started out fine: with no sign of the four kittens of the apocalypse storming from the clouds, this whole Rapture thing was looking less and less likely. Then Gawker has to go and wreck the calm by reminding us that Paris Hilton's album was released today. Fuck. Maybe it is the end of the world.

If anyone is watching The Price Is Right this morning, let us know if Rod Roddy says, "Jesus Christ, come on down!" (That's clearly mentioned in Revelations. If you don't believe me, look it up.)

This is truly beutiful: The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal. Read more here.

[thanks Christopher]

IT'S GO TIME MOTHERFUCKERS

My apologies for missing this news item when it broke, but no less awesome: Bob Ross: the video game.

What Right-Wingers See When They Read The New York Times

"Are you SURE you want to remove that?"

Update about tomorrow's Office party at the Magic Stick: due to a shipping error by the manufacturer, the 800beloved cassingles will not be available in time for the show. However, there will be brand new hand screened tee shirts in lovely "fingernail blue" on black.

Doors are at 9pm & 800 goes on at 10pm.
See you there!

"Big-haired, squid-flinging Art School ghouls" The Horrors graced the cover of NME this week. With only two 7" singles under their belts, The Horrors have become nothing short of a sensation via MySpace, a one minute twenty second long Chris Cunningham-directed music video (banned on MTV of course,) and word-of-mouth among UK teens. Posing perhaps a greater national threat than shampoo and lip balm, The London Times says of the group, "at last, a band parents can hate."

According to Loog Records, the ghastly quintet will be recording new material with The Bad Seeds' Jim Sclavunos later this month.

LA's Pins and Needles might be dismissed by some for sounding like the 80s (not the 80s of shoulder pads, bubblegum beats and neon accessories, but the Ballardian themes and apocalyptic reverb that defined the era for so many,) but Pins and Needles are among a small handful of new bands that pull it off with such expertise and talent that one may be whisked back to scribbling dystopian poetry in the back of an advanced placement English notebook while listening to a third generation dub of Killing Joke's Night Time on a black spray-painted Walkman. While one can hear the presence of both Peters (Hook and Murphy of course,) Pins and Needles' songs are original and well crafted enough to stand up as peers among many post-punk/goth staples, and come off endlessly more sincere than supposed new post-punk bands like The Killers. With talent and sincerity established, I trust they will further grow into their own sound over time, like So Does the Fire and Collapsing New People have.

Pins and Needles perform next Friday at Release The Bats in Long Beach, CA (which is not only the best name ever for a club night, but fully endorsed by Gibby Miller!) Their first LP is available on iTunes.

I am very pleased to announce the release of "The Best of Christopher Daniels DVD"

Tris from Singapore had this to say: "As a big Chris Daniels fan, I enjoyed this DVD thoroughly."

Dear U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor,



THANK YOU!

The follow-up to the ad posted on Tuesday:
"Holes, holes, holes in teeth!"

Ground broke this morning at the site of the new Yankee Stadium. Read at Curbed + sexy watercolor renderings from Newsday.

Can you say supergroup? The Good, the Bad and the Queen is the new brainchild of Damon ALbarn (Blur/Gorillaz), Paul Siminon (The Clash), Tony Allen (afro-beat pioneer), and Simon Tong (late-era Verve). And produced by Dangermouse, which means it should be almost as good as my favorite Albarn project, the sorely underrated Mali Music

Our friend Josh Levy recently forwarded Burnlab The Knife's U.S. tour dates, which are:

1ST NOVEMBER - USA, NYC, WEBSTER HALL
3RD NOVEMBER - USA, SF, MEZZANINE
4TH NOVEMBER - USA, LA, EL RAY THEATER



Their rare live shows include layers of projection, set pieces, masks, floating heads, puppets (and reportedly cost $30K to put on.) Bethany and I just purchased tickets for the NYC show on Nov. 1st. See you freaks there!

Tied Up: The Q&A

New York Times Magazine columnist Rob Walker interviews the [very] multi-talented Bethany Shorb for his website Murketing.com.

Guillermo Del Toro's dark fairytale Laberinto del Fauno [Pan's Labyrinth] made a splash at Cannes in May, and is set to be released in North America on December 29th.

View the stunning Spanish trailer here.

[via Suzanne G.]

This Saturday night Office performs at Detroit's Magic Stick with Freer, 800beloved, and The Questions. This will be the last Office show for a while, as they are heading back into the studio to record the follow-up to the critically acclaimed Q&A. Catch them before they blow up (more.)



800beloved will be offering limited edition hand-screened cassingles at the show, featuring newly mastered versions of The Skeleton Collection, Kiss Me Crooked, and an unlisted bonus track. We couldn't imagine a more appropriate format for 800's music, which is best listened to on an early autumn night, driving around aimlessly with good friends, hopped up on coffee and clove cigarettes. If you're not down with magnetic tape, there will also be lovely shirts. Black. Of course.

After le Stick, head down to Corktown Tavern this Saturday night for the August edition of Les Infants Terribles: Dorkwave vs. The Cavity Creeps. Who are the Cavity Creeps? Surely you recall this 1976 TV commercial. Well, perhaps not, but there will be copious merriment and oral hygiene, plus the price is always right: free! Last month was total blast - many thanks again to BMG and Solvent for guest DJ'ing and "keepin' it evil". Photos are here.

War Crimes Act Changes Would Reduce Threat Of Prosecution

The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners, according to U.S. officials and a copy of the amendments.

Officials say the amendments would alter a U.S. law passed in the mid-1990s that criminalized violations of the Geneva Conventions, a set of international treaties governing military conduct in wartime. The conventions generally bar the cruel, humiliating and degrading treatment of wartime prisoners without spelling out what all those terms mean.

Now that's some smart planning ahead.
Still, US laws don't supersede international courts...

[via BFW Local 734]

There is a neat series of conversations between rich media guru Colin Moock and Flash product manager Mike Downey over at adobe. These guys are engineering the future of the interwebs. While you would expect guys who are in charge of the stuff they're in charge of to be like half alien or something, but theyre pretty cool down to earth (and sort of young dudes). Interesting to say the least.

Check it out.

If your into this sort of stuff, its not too late to get your tickets to FITC Hollywood.

One of the speakers at FITC, Saiman Chow, just recently launched his contribution to the Adidas adicolor film series r255g255b255.

black: love will tear us apart

Kazys Varnelis is launching the AUDC Network Architecture Lab, an experimental unit at the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture. Read an interview on BLDGBLOG about the new program, and best of luck to Kazys and his family on their move to NYC.

Not one, not two but three mixes from Alexander Robotnick (complete with track listings) to get you in the mood for his appearances in San Francsico (8/12 RX Gallery), Los Angeles (8/16 Spider Club), NYC (8/17 Tribeca Grand).

iPods aren't just for listening to music or attempting to detonate explosives. They've always been lethal killing devices as evidenced in Eight Ways to Kill Someone using an iPod Nano.

As previously mentined, "We got motherf*ing snakes on the motherf*ing tie!"

Tom Waits performs tonight at the Detroit Opera House.

In the mean time, an immaculate confection:

One of my favorite poems from classic English literature, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, came up in conversation tonight, discussing one of the minute differences between my partner and I: fresh water vs. salt water. (Trivial, perhaps, but we don't have much else to disagree about...)

Speaking of, Cyberoptix - always on the pulse of culture - will soon be unveiling Snakes on Ties! at finer retailers and museum shops near you. (For real.)

This semi-vintage interview between Richie Hawtin and Richard D. James came up in conversation with Chris Bissonnette at the office today. The following part still makes me chuckle:

RH: There are plenty of those [bus tours] going around. I got stuck on one with the Prodigy and Moby once.

RDJ: Moby actually rode the bus?

RH: For a few dates, anyway. He started flying because he couldn't deal with people smoking.

RDJ: When I toured with him, he wouldn't even get on the bus.
[Laughter all around.]

"Modern technology has changed the way we all work and play. It has even changed the way the human art form of music is made... when you mention talent and creativity - that blend equals The Exotic Birds."

Trent Reznor's old band featured on local Cleveland TV in 1986.

+ this is almost too good to be true: Reznor and Peter Murphy performing Warm Leatherette. (A tear of petrol is in my eye...)

was reading up a bit on "The Fountain", seems to be a new trend to not use CGI:
"Instead of using CGI, Aronofsky chose to do the special effects for the film by using micro-photography of chemical reactions on tiny petri dishes. He has said that CGI would take away from the timeliness of the film and that he wants the film to stand the test of time." (IMDB.com). (might also have something to do with it being a hell of a lot cheaper too)

Meanwhile, over the internet meme event horizon

My partner just took the words out of my head about the Democratic party's [former] number one douchebag: here.

If you don't read the news, or listen to the radio, or things like that, incumbent senator Joe Lieberman lost the Connecticut primary to fellow Democrat Ned Lamont, and is now vowing to run as an independent - threatening to split the state's Democratic voters in November. Nice way to put your ego ahead of the team and shove your tongue further up George Bush's ass. With the [reported and debated] highest average IQ in the nation, I doubt CT voters will be paying much attention to Joe from here on out though.

Blu-ray, schmoo-ray. Cassingles are the next big thing. (More on this soon.)

The Fountain

Darren Aronofsky's new film The Fountain is finally complete and coming out. The site for the movie is 67th in popularity in the world, placing it above flickr in daily hits. He spent the last 6 years crafting the film. The very basic story line is a man who tries to save the woman he loves over a 2000 year timeline.

Hear ye SF BL'bbers:

Ryoji Ikeda is playing. If you don't go and report back, you'll break my heart.

And you don't want to do that, do you?

Domino starto!

New Mac Pro: Whuzza!!

Previously posted on Bunrlab, but well worth another look: The SoniColumn [via Gizmodo.]

Bernard Farley a.k.a. Outputmessage recently released his debut LP Nebulae on Melodic.

Ever since being captivated by Bernard's Song on Idol Tryouts Vol. 1, I've been anxious to hear what the now twentytwo-year-old Farley would do over the course of a long player. The result is a dreamscape of delicate melodies and metallic rhythms that blend elements of synth-pop, indie-techno, Aphex Twin-influenced IDM and an enumeration of other sources. Nebulae is complex yet clean machine music full of humanity, perfectly suited for dancing under the moonlight.

Lots of photos from Friday's MOTOR show here.



We've never dealt with a group who was so well organized and professional, while being totally easy-going. Not only was MOTOR a pleasure to work with, they completely blew everyone's heads off. It was a full on jihad against everything expected, boring and one dimensional - and judging from the sea of ear-to-ear smiles and pumping fists at Oslo Friday, a most welcome sonic holy war.







What looks like a shutter cable release in Hugo's hand is an audio trigger - used with the wah pedal to create the lead buzz sound on Black Powder and other tracks.

Extra special thanks to Ryan Elliott and Brendan M. Gillen for laying out teh eeevil (BMG played one track in particular that made us sound like "Dethlab Lite",) to Michael McAdow for being video guru, to Jeff, Dominic and all our friends at Ghostly, and to Brook at Oslo for letting us continually push the production envelope in his nightclub.

Other highlights included Mr. No and Bethany having a wasabi eating competition (read: popping entire balls of green fire paste and throwing triumphant teary-eyed double goats,) and taking the guys to see Detroit electro-tech legends Ultradyne at CAID after the show.

More at Toybreaker Blog.

More Knife buzz:

I'm not much into video games as a rule, but several of our favorite Mute recording artists have put up some very clever Flash-based time-suckers (all curiuosly with a red/black/white colour scheme...)

The Knife's new game features Motomichi Nakamura's characters created for the previously posted We Share Our Mother's Health music video. As a huge incentive to waste company time, top scoring players have a chance to win one of 10 limited edition Nakamura prints.

Play the game here (and when you get tired of lodging scissors in your head, there's always the Motor game and T. Raumschmiere game.)

per my last post about The Knife i may well (most certainly) be preaching to the converted, but...i am in the middle of finally watching the "Redux" version of the classic "Apocalypse Now" and it is a sight to see... i had a choice of watching the new "King Kong" or this and, honestly, this film is more impressive in its scope than anything done since ILM had its way in film making. Add that it was inspired by a book (Heart of Darkness) written by a man (Joseph Conrad) who made English (after Polish and French) his third or fourth language, and still manages to be hailed as one of the best English writers and you have, well...

brilliance...Kurtz, if he were real, would be proud

My dearest Chris, pleae pay attention...

has anyone else recently had the same experience...i mean...god i don't know how to say it but, listen...what the fuck...the knife. jesus..what the hell is this? i havent felt this dizzy since i first heard the sugarcubes "birthday"

Tonight!



One line-up change to note for tonight's MOTOR show:
Unfortunately, Brian Aneurysm could not enter the country due to passport issues beyond our control. However, BMG of Ectomorph has been added to the bill! Brendan will be breaking out some of his super-rare 7"s and other special treats just for you, and Ryan Elliott is looking forward to playing more aggressive records than he usually has the opportunity to. Tonight will be one thundering electrical storm of a party...

Best. Nike. Ad. Ever. Period.

For our friends in Europe who watch television, Romuald Karmakar's film Between the Devil and the Wide Blue Sea will be on ARTE August 5th at 0:15. (I'm pretty sure that's quarter after 12 on Friday night.)

The film features live performances, interviews and commentaries from artists who have had some of the biggest influence on the direction of electronic music in recent years, including T.Raumschmiere, XLover, Terence Fixmer and Douglas McCarthy, Alter Ego and more.

The 2006 Eindhoven Masters Show is now online, featuring some of the wittiest design work you'll see anywhere. Reluct has a photo gallery from the exhibition at Droog last Friday. Thesis work will be on display at the Droog Gallery through August 13th.

[via MoCo Loco]

"It's too damn hot."

[created by our very own Doc, in honor of the heat wave.]

Behold video clip of the Daft Punk Coffee Table.

Our own BitBoy recently spotted one at Habitat.
The sign reads: "Very important product."
Nice.

Our frined Brian from Bowling Green Ohio has a some great shots of 800 Beloved and Spectral Morings from Saturday on Flickr.

Also, MOTOR in this week's Metro Times:

Friday, August 4th at Oslo: Few electronic groups of late have pushed the pedal as hard and fast as Motor, a duo made up of Bryan Black and Olivier Grasset. Since 2003, the London-based pair has released original material, done blue-chip remixes - including tracks by Depeche Mode, Throbbing Gristle, Marilyn Manson and T. Raumschmiere - and launched such side projects as XLover, Drugbeat and the Sick. Their newly released full-length, Klunk, is being hailed as a high-speed industrial techno vs. acid electro-house masterpiece. Some of the world's darkest and loudest club spaces have been playing the single, "Black Powder," for months. (An aside to Prince fans: When back home in Minneapolis, Bryan Black did sound design for the tiny dancer at Paisley Park studios.) Motor roars into the Motor City this Friday. Also appearing: Austrian-cum-Texan Brian Aneurysm.

Detroit gets one of only four North American dates before the guys hit the road with Nitzer Ebb and Kraftwerk. (Actually, they asked to play Detroit!) New Yorkers get MOTOR's very first US show Thursday night at the Hiro Ballroom, which is co-produced with the help of our dear friends at Phono/Enabler and Robots.

Go TRS-80!!
This chicago group has released a new album today on One Cell and it's really well crafted. Me likes!

The summer of diligence here at the Lab has been paying off big the past week or so. We are flattered beyond belief and grinning from ear to ear with this latest announcement:

Bethany and I have been invited to DJ at the Guggenheim NYC on December 1st, as part of the Gugg's First Fridays series curated by Flavorpill. Not only that, but we'll be playing alongside teh uber awesome Telefon Tel Aviv!



[click here for big flyer]

a representative of a band i recommended a while back, my toys like me, let me (thru mike) know that some of their tunes (choons) are now available for download...i wouldnt trouble you about this but, well, they are the shit. as i may have put it before, they're kinda like what Tricky would sound like if his magnificent "Maxinquaye" were to come out in '06 instead of '95. how a band like this is unsigned i have no idea.

I am no big follower of conspiracy theories but the government just released the trial exhibits from the Moussaoui case and they're, well, lame for the most part...Does anyone see any evidence of a plane crash from either of the "crash photos" except for the two shabby "plane parts photos"? They should've hired ILM, shown some savvy, given us something to respect about the US's underhanded dealings...

Check out Motomichi Nakamura's brilliant animation work here, including Saturday's fave Laptops and Martinis for our buddy Otto, and the uber hot We Share Our Mothers' Health for The Knife - which Nix remixed live during our set at the DEMF one Monday night in May.