I can't wait for this one...recently premiered at Cannes and directed by Anton Corbijn, Control is a biopic of Ian Curtis, the troubled lead singer of Joy Division, who died at the young age of 23. View trailer

Sister site to NOTCOT has just recently launched in beta: NOTCOUTURE. For all your luxe and fashion indulgences.

Hopefully everyone's serotonin levels are back to normal in Detroit, because we have a big night of music coming up this Saturday:



The godfathers of dark electronic music Skinny Puppy perform live at Saint Andrew's Hall with Otto Von Schirach at 9PM



+ enjoy Otto's video for Laptops & Martinis by Motomichi Nakamura (who later did The Knife's We Share Our Mothers' Health,) and some classic Puppy moments: Smothered Hope, Assimilate live in '88 and Testure live in Dresden.



...and then Daniel Wang and Detroit's own Relaxer play at CAID from midnight to late.

I'm easily 10X more excited about Saturday than for all of last weekend. Not that I didn't have a great time, but... Puppy should have closed out the DEMF. I hated Booka Shade's performance almost as much as I loved Nitzer Ebb's last year, which is saying a lot.

Not to go back and edit this post like five times, but I still can't get over how utterly crap-tastic Booka Shade was. Aside from the music being the worst elements of dime store minimal and cheesy rave aesthetic rolled into one steaming bag of shit, I doubt even Jon Bon Jovi still says things like "put your hands in the air for me Detroit!" Who says that? Ugh. That and the bad Windows screen-saver of a video, which consisted of disembodied hands "flowing" in front of some hyper-space style animation. I can't make this up. How is this any better than Tiesto or Oakenfold? And why is Pitchfork all over them? The aesthetics of big room rave sucked the first time. It's neither charming or ironic.

On the other hand, there were some really stellar moments of the weekend. Among others, Matt played the most rocking live show as Audion I have seen yet, Carlos Souffront was nothing short of perfection on Sunday night, our very own Grant Aaron played one of the best sets of the whole weekend, and it was wonderful to spend time with so many good friends and hear a lot of great music.

The DEMF is this weekend at Hart Plaza in Detroit. Of the dozens of excellent afterparies, our good friends at Ghostly and Interdimensional Transmissions consistantly put on two of the best, and this year should be no exception.



Ghostly/Spectral presents Detroit Is Nothing To Fear
Audion (Live)
TNT (James T. Cotton and Todd Osborne)
Ryan Elliott
with special guest Claude Von Stroke (Dirtybird)

Saturday, May 26
Masonic Temple
500 Temple Avenue, Detroit

10PM - 4AM | 18+
$10 Pre-sales available at The Ghostly Booth during Movement
Or online at http://buyghostly.com

* Mattew Dear's Asa Breed out now




Interdimensional Transmissions presents Canniball 2

Derek Plaslaiko
BMG of Ectomorph w.s.g. DJ Godfather
Goudron (Live)
Carlos Souffront
Gay Marvine
+ fashion by Infinite Spywear

Sunday, May 27
Magic Stick (genetically modified by Infinite Dimensions)
4120 Woodward, Detroit
10PM - ?? | 18+
$10

* Goudron's Stiletto EP out now

Mr and (soon to be be) Mrs Dethlab have modestly made no reference (i believe?) to the first two hints of future sonic greatness on their Myspace

Hooked on Radiation

Like plants that grow toward the sun, dark fungi, blackened by the skin pigment melanin, gravitate toward radiation in contaminated soil. Scientists have observed the organisms -- somewhere between plants and animals -- blackening the land around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine in the years since its 1986 meltdown.

edit: oopsie - link above corrected (though it was amusingly apt that the hypertext led here.)

"Who doesn't enjoy a night of post-punk and epic electronics?"



One of the greatest undiscovered bands on earth, Spectral Mornings is performing tonight at Club Bart with Padreg Jageillon and The Fascists. Info here.

Tuesday, May 22 | 9:00 PM
Club Bart | 22726 Woodward Ave., Ferndale MI

DETH From Above Volume 1: An Introduction to Violence

DETH From Above Volume 1: An Introduction to Violence
[MP4 format, 87.6 MB]

New mix by DETHLAB: Michael Doyle [Burnlab/Dorkwave] and Bethany Shorb [Toybreaker/Cyberoptix]

01. Water Lilly - Invisible Ink (Arnaud Rebotini mix)
02. Dany Rodriguez - My Computer is Dead
03. I-Robots - Frau (Boys Noize mix)
04. Les Petits Pilous - E Lec Tronic
05. Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip - Thou Shalt Always Kill (Knifehandchop mix)
06. Mr. Oizo - Nazis (Justice mix)
07. Superlux - Alison Kirk (Lowfish mix)
08. MOTOR - Sikk
09. Terence Fixmer - Are You Electric
10. Fixmer/McCarthy - Come Inside (Christopher Kah mix)
11. Les Petits Pilous - Nice Bird
12. John Starlight - Shadowbreaker (Boys Noize mix 2)
13. Johannes Heil - All For One
14. Crash Course in Science - Cardboard Lamb (David Carretta mix)
15. MOTOR - Unhuman
16. Franz & Shape - Acceleration
17. Franz & Shape featuring Perspects - Tightropes
18. Kavinsky - Testarossa

A map of online communities and related points of interest.

It's been too long since we checked in on Form:uLA Dimension Laboratories.



Bryan Cantley and co. are still making architecture and fantastical drawings like the ones above - what I've previously referred to as one of the best representations of cyberpunk architecture.

The AIGA Detroit DESIGN RE:VIEW 2007 closing event is tonight at Lawrence Technological University. There will be an exhibition of winning competition entries, as well as presentations by Sans Nom (check out their awesome lazer etched skateboard deck for Refill Magazine,) Q Ltd. and o2 Creative Solutions.

Click here for the full invite, designed by Chistopher Bissonnette with a bit of art direction from myself at o2.

AIGA Detroit DESIGN RE:VIEW 2007
Wednesday, May 16
Lawrence Technological University
21000 W 10 Mile Rd, Southfield, MI 48075
7:00 PM | free admission + suggested $5 donation

Burnlab loves GOOD Magazine because it takes on important issues in a smart, fun, and engaging way - without all the venom and vinegar of publications like Adbusters. I especially love GOOD's 21st century take on after-school public service announcements.
A few faves that tickle the brain:

Nuclear Weapons
E-Waste
Paying For Your Attention
Bruce Sterling on Climate Change
and everyone's favorite, Internet Porn

This is almost enough to get me inside a church.

[Thanks SV4!]

Bruce Sterling delivers Cranbrook commencement + Dharmesh Patel and Marty McElveen win Daimler Emerging Artists Award

At the moment, I can't think of anything more flattering and awesome for a pair of self-styled cyberpunks than to have their engagement announced on WIRED by Bruce Sterling!

If you're not properly nauseated yet, here is another photo - this one snapped by Scott Klinker. Back on topic of art, design and culture, take the time to watch Sterling and Klinker discussing spimes at Google last week.

Sterling gave a dynamic commencement speech for the Cranbrook Academy of Art masters of art and architecture class of 2007 yesterday. To distill it to few key points: the world is very fast, think and act globally, real art ships, and the "Cranbrook Mafia" has both the ability and the right to shape the course of the future. He told some poignant and funny stories about Charles and Ray Eames and Damien Hirst. The speech was taped, so hopefully it will show up on YouTube soon.




Passage Pavilion by Dharmesh Patel and Marty McElveen




Bench by Dharmesh Patel and Marty McElveen

Big congrats to Dharmesh Patel and Marty McElveen for winning the prestigious DaimlerChrysler Financial Services Emerging Artists Award. This is not only the first time the award has gone to graduates of the architecture program, but the first dual award. They will be living and developing their work in Berlin for a month, and scooting around in matching Smart cars. (Maybe not matching, but we really like the dorkiness of that mental image.) Background on the Emerging Artist Award here and more images of Dharmesh and Marty's Systematic Surfaces here.

The May edition of Sass is tonight at Buzz Bar. There are only a few months left as Nathan and Mike prepare to shuffle off to the coasts, so come on out and dance.

546 East Larned, Detroit
10PM | 18+ | $5

Reed Kroloff Appointed Director of Cranbrook Academy of Art

Following a national search, Reed Kroloff has been appointed director of Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum, effective September 1, 2007. Currently dean of the Tulane University School of Architecture and the former editor-in-chief of Architecture magazine, Kroloff will succeed Gerhardt Knodel, who is retiring from the Academy after more than 30 years of service.

Our good friends at Wound Menswear are launching their new collection with a party this Friday, aptly named Launch.



Launch
Friday, May 11 | 7PM-2AM | $25
FD Lofts in Eastern Market, Detroit
with art by Camilo Pardo and music by Sass, Scott Zacharias, Mike Anthony and Captn 20.

Proceeds go to the Children's Center.

Here are some quick chronological highlights from the past week:

Went to an Ed Banger party in Paris - left early (5:30AM,) it la rocked.
Ms. Toybreaker and I saw the Gilbert and George exhibit and got engaged at the Tate Modern (!!!)
Met little prince Django Louche and had sushi with Jared, Oly, Candy, AJ and Hellen.
Talked to Skinny Puppy on the phone while dr0nk on the bus back from Nag Nag Nag.
Saw freaking Karl Lagerfeld in his Hummer while walking to Colette.
Watched some douches get arrested at Pigalle while sipping Leffe.
Took the laser train down to Dijon with Douglas, Bethany chatted with Vitalic's mom in broken French, Fixmer/McCarthy did the best rendition of Join in the Chant evah, and we raved like fools.
Ate lots of snails, duck fat and raw meat.

Quite an awesome week.

Lots to report from Europe, but we're having far too much fun to write extensive blog posts right now. We did see our new friends Neonbirds perform last night at Nouveau Casino, and they were most awesome.

A propper run-down of highlights soon.

Oh yeah, and Bjork had the coolest synth ever!

Back from the dusty parking lots, bougie rental houses and soju cocktails that are Coachella with a quick report. To answer Mr. Doyle's presumption, Justice was rather trite unfortunately, pressed into live performance that gave nod to all the hits (both theirs and their peers), but failing to achieve lift-off the way their DJ sets do. The fake synth banks that made up the front of their stage was kinda cool though, particularly when the tall one would walk around front to change a patch.

As for Rage, Doyle isn't "wrong" per say, though the Latino heavy experience (plus the sheer magnitude) of this hometown reunion did give the experience a different context, despite the obvious meat head presence that really defined Rage in place such as, oh, Detroit.

Other highlights included Klaxons, who impress me mostly by being such a sturdy band in the traditional sense, despite thier entire buzz being hype based (or maybe their hype is buzzed based). Of course LCD Soundsystem got me dancing the most. Happy Mondays were perfectly shambolic and The Good, the Bad and the Queen make for perfect make-out music when lying in the grass.

I could go on, but URB.com kept a whole Coachella blog that I'm rather proud of, so check it.