avanderzwan

I have been working lately… and have proof. Besides the indentation in my office chair [insert Steelcase shout-out here], I have some ‘artifacts’ worth sharing. Here are a few of the websites I’ve worked on that have recently gone live.

Whats Your Art?

View Site

Sebago

View Site

Bates Footwear

View Site

Do you ever get in the mood, when you are scrolling through your large digital music collection, to listen to something different? …something that stands out? Well I do too. Therefore, I introduce you to… ‘Indie Funk’.

I do not know if the term has been coined yet, but it seems extremely fitting for my latest musical interest, ‘The Astroids Galaxy Tour’. This danish band plays dance-able funky music that will neither make VH1′s Classic Masters or Pitchfork’s Top 100 albums of the year. Mette Lindberg’s vocals (and the respective effects) seem as though they would be a contemporary indie rock band’s. Not entirely emotionless, Mette does not have the soulful, climbing vocals that you would normally associate with true funk music. Instead she drives the music and emotion with a specific harshness that resonates quite cold. Her songs of social heartache and physical conquests echo this sentiment.

Fruit is a perfect example of fun, driving, new music that pushes pop closer to the edge and is, therefore, intriguing. Give it a few listens. I promise Mette’s melodies, the simple bass lines, loose percussion and background brass will bring you out of that slump and back to tapping your foot to something you love in no time.

You can buy it at lala.com.

Don’t do it! (yet)

With getting a new Google Wave account, I wanted to forward my Gmail emails to my Google Wave account. I saw that my Google Wave account was [username]@googlewave.com so I figured I could do it. I went into Gmail. Followed Settings > Forward and set up Gmail to pass all of my emails on to google wave.

I left it on for a day or so, and maybe that was my big mistake. I have been getting emails every 20-30 minutes that have been telling me they cannot send my emails to Google Wave, and that they will retry for the next 2 days. They have a subject line of ‘Delivery Status Notification (Failure)’. Obviously I turned off my forwarding, however now, 3 days later, they are still coming in every 20-30 minutes telling me that the email failed.

So moral of the story. Don’t automatically forward your emails to Google Wave (yet!) and also, don’t leave that forward on any longer than you have to. Google Wave is not ready for it yet and it will get REALLY annoying.

In my profession, web development and design, I have a lot of time to sit at a computer and listen to music. I listen to music in headphones for about 7-8 hours everyday… that is approximately 6 albums worth give or take a few. I go through a lot of music and I consider it one of my passions. However, over the last 5-6 months I have found it difficult to really get into any specific albums. Some of you know the love that I have for Cloud Cult and Frightened Rabbit, these artists have made loving music more difficult for me because the bar is now so high.

However, I have two new prospects and I will mention them here… Note: You can listen to the full albums at the end of the post, just sign up for a free lala.com account.

Number 1: Karen O and the Kids – Where the Wild Things Are OST
I don’t know if I have a thing for albums written for kids, or if it’s that I was the ‘Bull’ in the Grand Rapids Ballety Company’s performance of Where the Wild Things Are, or if it’s that Spike Jonze directed the new film, or even if it all stems to Arcade Fire doing their trailer… either way, this film has been getting me more and more excited. I recently picked up the Original Sound Track and have been unable to put it down. This album is fun, it is interesting, and really, it keeps me on the edge of my seat. I don’t know what ethos this film is going to be, but I believe it is going to be a dark and honest representation of what it is like to be a child, while still being playful and redemptive. This album really transcends this idea of love vs. struggle. I’m really enjoying it so far.

Number 2: The Mountain Goats – The Life Of The World To Come
Every track on this album is titled after a bible verse. I’m not entirely familiar with the intricacies of this album yet, but have given it some serious time and I would recommend it. John Darniel really hits on the serious side of what I am trying to do with my music writing.