Not much more to say.

That killer little guitar groove comes from The Isley Brothers’ “Footsteps in the Dark.”

Good stuff.

Everything comes from something.

Those are some serious JBs-style grooves being laid down….just pure, unabashed funky-jazz improv at its best.

If you dig this sound, definitely check out their other teaser track which they released on Soundcloud:

While I am generally into the projects that Skerik gets involved in, this one is striking me as especially impressive. It seems like he’s really found his band.

Bandalabra’s album is due out on March 13th via Royal Potato Family.

If you dig this too, I recommend heading over to TeamCoco for the full stream of the entire record. Be the Void officially drops on Feb 7th (on Anti Records).

Artist Website: DrDogMusic.com

Tycho’s sound hits on this perfect mellow but moody vibe, and I love the way that the core electronic beats and blips are mixed with more traditional analog guitars and bass.

Support Tycho directly–>TychoMusic.com.

~~~

I am super picky about going to the gym when it is too crowded. I hate it. I like to keep my workouts quick and efficient…no waiting. barely any resting. heart-rate up. in and out. done.

But, of course, it’s January and everyone and their mother seems to have joined my local gym in some annual New Year’s resolution ritual. So, the gym has been pretty packed as of late. The other day, I got back from a particularly annoying crowded workout and I turned to Linds and said, “I wish the gym had a webcam up in the workout areas and put a feed on their website so I could check the crowd situation.” That’d be pretty rad, right?

Given some of the sour faces I see when people are waiting for machines, I know I can’t be the only one annoyed by the crowds at the gym. And why stop with the gym…what about grocery stores? Anyone who has spent time at Trader Joe’s in New York could probably relate. So why can’t I just log on to a website to see how crowded it is?

It seems like it wouldn’t be terribly difficult to get this up and running for most gyms and local businesses. Most of them have some kind of website, and most have some kind of cameras already up for security purposes. I think the key questions are 1) how to scale it 2) privacy issues of patrons and 3) whether or not the business actually WANTS potential customers to see how crowded it is. That last one is key, but I could see this being a crowd-pleaser (no pun intended) and, therefore, a business pleaser too.

I think I may be onto something here. Thoughts?

I put this post together a while back when my loop pedal was acting wonky and I had to pull off all the data before bringing it into the shop. In that process I had re-discovered some old loops that actually weren’t too bad. I made a quick attempt at improving the sound quality in an audio editor and then gave each of them a quick name — literally the first words that I thought of when I heard them again. I have no idea why I never posted this, so I figured…why not bust it out in the new year?

Like my previous audio posts, there are definitely some mellow, lullaby-like sounds going on here. But there are also a few other cool themes like a Western/desert thing and other more psychedelic sounds. It certainly ain’t hi-fi but it’s not bad considering the low-budget equipment and that all of these were recorded on-the-fly, completely as improv (the one exception being track #1, the “Drift Away Instrumental,” which was actually my attempt at capturing the groove from the original loop in track #2).

Take a listen…

Desert Flyway by whitperson

Drift Away Instrumental:
Drift Away instrumental 2.5.11 by whitperson

Drift Away – original loop w/ vocals
Drift Away original loop by whitperson

Looping Lullaby:
Looping Lullaby by whitperson

Dripping Icicles:
Dripping Icicles by whitperson

Fade into White:
Fade into White by whitperson

Drunken Cowboy:
Drunken Cowboy by whitperson

Tumbleweed:
Tumbling Weed by whitperson

It’s all pretty amateur and — as my buddy Justin says — I could definitely use some drum and percussion in the mix. That said, I like to think that I’ve hit on some cool sounds and themes. Who knows, maybe someday I can actually pull some of these together as actual songs?

I was lucky to see a lot of great live shows this year, and even luckier to be able to shoot most of them with my Nikon D5000. Although I am decidedly an amateur, I think I ended up with some pretty decent shots, so I decided to create a “best of” style compilation to wrap up a great 2011.

Artists pictured below include (in rough order): Soulive, Surprise Me Mr. Davis, The Dodos, Yellow Ostrich, White Denim, The New Deal, American Babies, Phish, Cut Copy, Fleet Foxes, Animal Collective, Deerhunter, Steve Kimock & Friends (with Marco Benevento, Marc Friedman, and Adam Deitch), The War on Drugs, Deerhunter, Battles, Guided By Voices, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and Steve Kimock & Friends (w/ Bobby Vega, Bernie Worrell, and Wally Ingram).

For more photos and — in most cases — reviews and videos, check out the links below:
Photos: Soulive’s “Bowlive II” @ Brooklyn Bowl, 3/11/11

Review: Steve Kimock & Friends @ Sullivan Hall, NYC, 3/30/11

Review, Photos, Videos: American Babies @ Mercury Lounge, 4/29/11

Photos/Videos: The New Deal @ Terminal 5, 5/7/11

Photos: White Denim @ Bowery Ballroom, NYC, 6.25.11

Phish in Camden, 6/10/11: Review, Photos, Videos, Downloads

Pitchfork Music Festival 2011: Final Photos, Thoughts

Photos, Video: Deerhunter @ Pitchfork Music Festival 2011

Photos: Fleet Foxes @ Pitchfork Music Festival 2011

Photos: Animal Collective @ Pitchfork Music Festival 2011

Photos: Battles @ Pitchfork Music Festival 2011

PHOTOS / VIDEOS / REVIEW: Steve Kimock & Friends @ Brooklyn Bowl, 11/5/11

PHOTOS/VIDEOS: The War on Drugs @ Bowery Ballroom, 12/11/11

I still like their Trust EP the best, but their full release Astro-Caster is also quite solid. It has been steadily growing on me since I grabbed it a few months back.

The Bobcats - Chugging Sriracha

For a bit more on why these cats are wearing ties and chugging Sriracha, read the full comic at The Oatmeal.com.