AUCOTI

Closing Shop

CR — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:09:08 +0000

So I’m off to bigger better things dear readers. My wife and I have started a blog together – Grizzly Bear Modern. It’s all the awesome of Aucoti + more! Mixtapes, art, style, and more home and cooking ‘ish. So go now! You won’t regret it. Peep that site design. You like? It’s my first try at building a website, and its pretty dope if I do say so myself.

I hereby officially close Aucoti in order to give life to Grizzly Bear Modern

Best of MMIX

CR — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 06:47:45 +0000

So 2009 has come to a close. I’ve been blessed with a prosperous and exciting year, but I know its been tough for a lot of people. At least it looks like 2010 is showing signs of life. One thing that keeps me from falling into the post-Christmas blues is the knowledge that late December and January is the time of year-end music round-ups, which means I get to swoop in on a bunch of sweet tunes that I missed out on. Below is my meager contribution to the din. Please note that these are simply my favorite albums and everyone is entitled to their own list. At the end of the post I’ve also included some links to other great 2009 round-ups. P.S. these genre categories are also pretty subjective and I’m not even sure if they’re right.

Electronic and Dance

1: Hudson Mohawke – Butter

Warp record’s Glasgow wunderkind, Hud Mo, was a European DMC finalist at age 15 so he’s got some serious cred. After about 30 seconds of listening to Butter, I knew this album was something special. The choppy, synth heavy breaks often wander into what seems like chaos only to pull together at the last moment to form a wicked beat.

2: Nosaj Thing – Drift

Nosaj Thing is one of the prominent young guns making Los Angeles a global leader in electronic and the home-grown “Beat Music” sound. Drift is his first full length album and it’s a sonic journey full of devastating baselines and haunting chorals. “Coat of Arms” is a contender for my favorite single of the year.

3: Miike Snow – Miike Snow

Swedish trio Miike Snow, yes that’s two ‘i’s, came bounding into my life in 2009 with their first single “Animal” via Slacker and its indie electronic mix. This song taunted me for over a month as it appeared that Slacker was playing an advanced release, so I was SOL and had to wait for the album to drop in June. Boy was it worth the wait!

4: Major Lazer – Guns Don’t Kill People…Lazers Do

Philly based beat-master Diplo teamed up with UK’s DJ/Producer Switch to produce a wild dancehall classic featuring a fictional black commando with a lazer canon for an arm that fights zombies, vampires, and other bad guys. Major Lazer was recorded in Jamaica in the same studio where Bob Marley did most of his work. This album is a banging classic for sure. Plus they’ve made some crazy videos – just flat crazy. See here, here, and here.

5: Fever Ray – Fever Ray

Gotta say, my first encounter with Fever Ray was the video for “When I Grow Up.” It kinda freaked me out. I was too distracted by the visuals to really soak in how awesome Karin Dreijer Andersson’s vocals and haunting deconstructed beats were.

6: MSTRKRFT – Fist of God

I’ve been a longtime fan of MSTRKRFT and their sophomore full album release Fist of God was an all around great album, but also produced my favorite video and single of 2009 – “Heartbreaker.”

Indie

1: Neon Indian – Psychic Chasms

I love Neon Indian’s hazy low-fi synth rock. These guys opened the door for me to a bunch of other fantastic bands like Washed Out and Real Estate.

2: Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport

The Fuck Buttons, or as they are more commonly called in polite company and radio the F-Buttons, are a British duo from Bristol that have mastered the art of noise rock. The album is a sonic journey and kinda feels like an exploration of space.

3: Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

This has been Animal Collective’s year. Ever since the January release of MPP people were calling this album one of the best of the year – and rightfully so. Although Animal Collective is pretty polarizing, I’m definitely feelin’ em. “My Girls” and “Summertime Clothes” are my favorite tracks from the album.

Eclectic

1: Seasick Steve – Dog House Music

I think this album existed prior to 2009, but it was officially released on a label last year. Seasick Steve, aka Steve Wold, is a traditional blues storyteller. He left his California home at the tender age of 14 to wander the continental US and Europe as a hobo, hopping trains, working odd jobs, and brushing up against the law – all of which is weaved into his wonderfully rich and genuine songs. More than 60 years after his “adventures” Steve tells his stories with the assistance of some of his homemade instruments… it’s pretty legit! You can definitely tell that this dude would be singing these songs regardless of weather there was a mic there or not.

2: Fool’s Gold – Fool’s Gold

Fool’s Gold is an international collection of musicians that all now call LA their home. Their world beats paired with Hebrew vocals combine for a wonderfully accessible yet exotic album that has seen heavy play in my car stereo since the September release.

Pop

1: Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

I love this album. It’s like a cozy blanket on the beach – familiar and comforting, but you’re still doin’ something fun. This is the maturest effort by the French quartet and it takes some cajones to drop an instrumental song smack-dab in the middle of your pop album.

2: Matt & Kim – Grand

This husband and wife duo brings an energy that I don’t come across often. With just a piano and a drum kit this duo brings it – and with a foot stomping classic like “Daylight” how can you ignore them?

3: Company of Thieves – Ordinary Thieves

2009 was the year I finally started collecting a decent amount of female recording artists. It wasn’t like I was avoiding the ladies, but I just never really consistently found female artists I liked. Company of Thieves was one of the bands that opened the door. Genevieve Schatz’s vocals are on-trend, but her illustrative storytelling won me over.

Hip-Hop

1: Mos Def – The Ecstatic

It’s about damn time one of the best underground MCs decided it was time to make another album instead of a movie. The guitar riff in “Supermagic” alone makes this album worth it.

2: Nash Quest – Let’s Take It Outside

Nash Quest is a goofy dude. He’s one part MC, one part poet, and one part hippy, and all flow. His rhymes are smooth and free of the usual gangsta chauvinism.

3: Kid Cudi – Man On The Moon: The End of Day

This Ohio native dropped one of the best mixtapes of 2008 and springboarded that success into 2009 with the much anticipated Man On The Moon. This concept album was a brave move for Cudi and his exploration of personal demons is admirable given today’s typical invincible MC persona.

So there you go. 2009 in a nutshell – not really, there are so many other great albums out there. And have no fear, 2010 is already shaping up to be an awesome year for music: Vampire Weekend, Broken Bells, Yeasayer, Spoon, Jonsi, Beach House – OH MAN!!!

As promised here’s a list of Year End Round Ups:

Refinery29

Kitsune Noir

KCRW – All the DJs picked their top 10 so there’s a boat load here

Pitchfork top 50 of 2009

Greetings from Sin City

CR — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:27:40 +0000

Hey there everyone. I’m in Vegas for the weekend for CES. The world’s largest consumer electronics show. This is where anyone who’s anyone *cough* except for Apple and Google *cough* comes to show off all their new products for 2010 and beyond. Got a couple of pics for ya that I liked not just ‘cuz they are cool products, but nice photos too.

Left: Samsung channels their inner George Nelson with their “booth” setup. Right: Intel had a wall showing “the world live.” It was aggregating live content into cubes for you to pull up and access the data. See more from the show after the jump: Stupid thin Samsung HDTV. See the left image below for a view from the side of this skinny biotch.

Totally loved the design and aesthetics of Griffin Technology’s (they make iPod cases and accessories) booth. I wonder if Chuck Anderson knows they are using his artwork? See more of the rad Griffin display below.

Griffin had a sweet orange VW bus decked-out a la Urban Outfitters hipster sheen.

Nokia was showing off this heartwarming StoryPlay concept targeted at getting grandparents and grandchildren reading together remotely via skype. Elmo assists in prompting conversation and richer storytelling between the two groups since they usually have difficulty communicating for extended periods of time. The researcher told me that this interactive method encouraged their test families to spend about 24min reading a 10min children’s book – meaning, they effectively doubled bonding time between two generations.

Gigantor Windows interactive touch “pool”

From the Intel Keynote – super cool augmented reality storefront window. The holographic glass recognizes men and women and then highlights items in the store behind the glass that it thinks you may like. So in the pic above, the glass “window” next to a interactive Levis ad is actively highlighting items located physically behind it in the store. C’mon that’s cool.

Life Long Work Week Print

CR — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:47:04 +0000

I’ll take one – thank you very much. Oh, the interweb is a cruel temptress. So many nice things to put on my walls, so few frames. Get this collaborative edition by Chad Kouri and Jesse Brown for $50 over at the Post Family Shop on vintage white or gray paper.

Miike Snow -Silvia

CR — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:31:24 +0000

I love these guys. They will be making an appearance on my Faves of 2009, but more on that later. This video is very McCarthy’s The Road. Found on YASLY

Congo Dandies

CR — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 09:43:51 +0000

If you think it’s hard to keep your suit fresh and pressed, imagine if you lived in the Congo! These stylish cats spend all of their non-existent income on their threads. In this Congolese subculture, these guys suit-up and compete against each other for the most dandy. Check out more here.

Kim Keever = Mind Blown

CR — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 02:13:31 +0000

So take a gander at this seemingly goofy little diorama. Not such a big deal right? KABLAM-O!

All those fancy hues, colors, and clouds aren’t a still background wallpaper, but rather simultaneously and strategically released inks and dyes into Kim’s 200 gallon tank of water in which said handmade diorama exists! That is INTENSE!!! Peep the deets over on Man Make Home

Don’t Eat It

CR — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 21:28:57 +0000

CR — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 23:33:03 +0000

I hope Santa brought you everything you wanted and you’re with the ones you love.

I Have a Poster Problem…

CR — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 06:37:19 +0000

I’m like CRAZY addicted to prints/posters/letterpress/photos/things you frame/things that get put on walls. The prints below are just a few I’ve come across in the last few days that I want to possess. Secondly, I came to the conclusion today that if I’m going to keep feeding this addiction (cuz I have no intention of stopping) and not have packed walls, I’ll have to rotate out my posters et al. Most of the art I’m attracted to is conveniently 18×24 so it’d be a pretty seamless seasonal transition – which has me pretty excited. See my wish list after the jump:

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists

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