HAPPY HALLOWEEN

This hilarious video launches La Sera, the solo project from Vivian Girls bassist Katy "Kickball Katy" Goodman. In general, this whole crew of girls with blunt fringes are all interconnected: ex-Vivian Girls drummer Frankie Rose also used to drum for Crystal Stilts, and Dum Dum Girls. Her Vivian Girls replacement, Ali Koehler, now drums for Best Coast. I need some kind of mind-map to make this easier.

All in all though, these bands tend to have a similar 60s pop and doo-wop inspired sound, channelled through a lo-fi haze. It's the sweet stuff of summer. Unless of course, it's cheeky and murderous, like this video.

Song of the Day: "Lap Dance"

CLICK TO GO TO THE OFFICIAL, NSFW VIDEO

With all the beauty of the Child Rebel Soldier teaser track, and Pharrell's adorable interview in ASOS Magazine's September issue, I felt inspired to go back to the N*E*R*D archives and pull out an old gem.

Luckily a charity shop near my house had their 2002 album In Search Of (not to mention Still Corners' debut EP) for sale at £2. Yes. 

This, is my song of the day because it's been the soundtrack for my dash out the door to work almost every day this week. The rest of the album still has its hit and miss moments, but overall this track shines.

"While politicians is soundin' like strippers to me"

EDIT:  How could I forget? Click here to listen to their new album Nothing, for a limited time only.

image courtesy of cupofrahman.

Supakitch & Koralie

SUPAKITCH & KORALIE - VÄRLDSKULTUR MUSEET GÖTEBORG from elr°y on Vimeo.

Found courtesy of the beautiful Tumi Moeti, this video shows two French artists going mental on a blank wall. I first watched this on mute, which somehow makes it better I think. Just a bit of prettiness for a wet Sunday afternoon. 

Also, change your clocks if you haven't already: winter-time starts now.

KORALIE 

SUPAKITCH

What's On My Mind

Some recent street-style greatness. And this light graffiti.

 images courtesy of hanneli and diaghe

Missing Summer

Best Coast, "Boyfriend". One of the best songs on the album. And such a cute video. Happy Tuesday!

Song of the Day: "Don't Stop"

This is the beautiful near-perfection when Lupe Fiasco and Pharrell appear on the same song.  Jazzy synths! Silly word play! Syncopated wild percussion!

Together with Kanye West they intermittently release songs under the 'Child Rebel Soldier' moniker, and I can only say that THIS IS WORKING FOR ME. West's clearly on a mission to push as many crazy cameos as possible on his new album, but these two in particular are my new thing to like.

Download it for free, in return for an email address, HERE. West's been releasing a taster track a week as part of his G.O.O.D. Friday promo stint. He's swiftly becoming the king of self-promotion via every social network he can sign himself up to.

Big Kids' Day Out

High school road trips with friends to the middle of nowhere, sticking our whole torsos out the windows with music blaring and then trawling the supermarket afterwards for cheap snacks and sweet treats: nostalgic things to like.

TAMARA LICHTENSTEIN

images courtesy of tamara lichtenstein

"Yeah, I Like Muscle Cars"

Twin Shadow 'Slow' (NSFW) from Twin Shadow on Vimeo.

This is George Lewis Jr., the main brain behind new band Twin Shadow. Like Gold Panda before him, George first started to cause a stir around remixes he'd created for the likes of Bear In Heaven and Surfer Blood.

Now he's striking out with songs he's penned himself, and coming across all 80s melancholy synth-pop on our asses. It's nice. And catchy. Since he's quite clearly a post-punk fan himself, all those interested in that vein of music will enjoy his quirky take on it.

If you're also a Londoner, he's playing a string of debut shows around the city next week. I'll be at the Rough Trade one, I reckon. See you there.

Song of the Day: "Three Thousand"

These New Puritans are proving to be responsible for one of my favourite LPs released over the last year.  They're playing the Barbican this Saturday, complete with a full brass, woodwind and brass ensemble. Swoon. Album Hidden is essentially some kind of weird blend of hip hop, classical and mumbly Kid A-inspired alternative that just makes me happy inside.

Well, not exactly skip-down-the-road happy, but more a stomp-along-kinda-moodily happy. This is a song for rainy days, sticky dancefloors and boys who wear soft black hoodies under leather jackets. Hood up, of course.

image courtesy of stateoftheart

Red Lookbook Faves

These are my favourite red-heavy looks from Lookbook recently. And this is also a pretty lazy post because both work and my course are killing at the moment. In a fun way.

images courtesy of coury, shan, sideira, kani, trixia,

And the Winner Is...

Oh wow. This is uh, pretty awkward for the Black Keys, huh? They in fact are the band responsible for this year's MTV Breakthrough Video, not Will.i.am and Co. Luckily, they've got a good sense of humour about it and are only asking for apology donuts from MTV. Here's the winning video:

PS: just got my ticket for their Brixton show with the Walkmen in November. BOOM.

found via pitchfork

SAGA SIG

SAGA SIG

images courtesy of sagasig, feat. blogger gala

Song of the Day: "Odessa"

This song by Caribou has literally been on rotation in my head for the last two days. I had to rack my brains to remember it, based only on that squeaky vocal sample at the start. And who brought it into my world? Well, it's only Mr Tony Marks at Juice FM - I first heard this while interning there in February. THANKS JUICE.

Maren Celest

Maren Celest seems to be a pretty incredible woman: some sort of lovely photographer-illustrator-musician hybrid that is exactly a new thing to like on a day like today. I stumbled across her via Cashmere Club (which she's apparently a central element of too) and since then have been drawn to her endearing illustrations and beautifully lit photos.

Her band Photographers have some tracks streaming on Bandcamp HERE. Check them out for a pretty serving of male-female folky vocals over plucked acoustic guitar. It's a bit like an unplugged Stars, and definitely hints at a love of all things Sufjan Stevens-related. Celest (her middle name, in fact) is my new triple threat to like.

MAREN CELEST

All photos courtesy of and owned by maren celest. All right reserved innit

Fall into the Gap

So, about a week ago Gap tried out a new logo that bombed. Hard. My new thing to like is not only the hilarity surrounding their attempted re-branding (including a parody Twitter account for the logo and so much online rage about the changes) but the replacement designs submitted by a community of designers. Here are my personal favourites, for being either aesthetically pleasing or just funny.

Clean. Atakan Seckin

Ha. Pregnant 'G'. Steve Juliano

Probably my fave. But not really a logo. Ernesto Alonso

Brilliant. Nathan Regnier-Lange

These are in no way affiliated with the Gap by the way, although the company did call out for a ‘crowd sourcing’ mission: basically for those unhappy with the logo to submit their own ideas instead. For free. Except they then called that off and just went back to the original logo. HA.

Whether this was just a kinda convoluted way to direct traffic to the site and reignite interest in the brand, it’s still funny. Why just copy American Apparel’s logo style when it doesn’t make sense? Weird. But so great.

This little gem may remind you of Gap's commercial height, in the late nineties. This ad campaign used to get me up and dancing in front of the TV every time, as a kid.

images courtesy of their respective designers

Song of the Day: "Wide Eyes"

This is Local Natives, with "Wide Eyes". The song itself isn't a new thing at all but this shark-tastic video certainly is. To listen to their debut album on Spotify, click HERE. A housemate and I are quite excited about them playing London's Forum at the end of November - if you are too, I'll see you there.

Check out an interview I wrote for them on Brighton's JuiceFM HERE too.

Happy Monday!

Homemade Is Best

Do you love IKEA? Do you love food? Then the IKEA cookbook, Homemade is Best is probably for you. It's been shot by Carl Kleiner and I'm loving the 'styling' in the photos; it's so right for IKEA's simple and clean-cut aesthetic.

CARL KLEINER

Lucky Shiner

This is such a beautifully textured album, and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I have to gush a bit about Gold Panda. Again. He's just making it work.

With a background in remixing and mixtapes he's come out of nowhere with a solo effort that's made an impression at The Guardian, Drowned In Sound, and in the general blogosphere. Enjoy here, then go ahead and buy it if it really makes you happy.

LUCKY SHINER

Song of the Day: "Pixiphony"

Kyu are Sydney duo Freya Berkhout and Alyx Dennison, making the sort of raw and experimental music that brings to mind Tune-Yards and Yeasayer circa 2007. This is greatness pinned on powerful vocals and an unbridled ripped-open-at-the-seams emotion. I LIKE. Here's their spearhead single, Pixiphony.

Kyu - Pixiphony by jenlong

images courtesy of myspace/kyusounds